Session 46 recap
The party:
Hector, a 13th level Archontean fighter
Coco, a 13th level Archontean magic-user
Julia, a 14th level Archontean cleric of Lucreon Thoth
Melnax, a 7th level elf
Bjorn, a 9th level Wiskin assassin
Susarra, a 10th level Archontean fighter (retainer)
Scylla, a 10th level Archontean ranger (retainer)
Kormak the Snake, an 8th level Wiskin fighter (retainer)
Rex, a 6th level Archontean fighter (retainer)
Armenius, a 7th level Archontean thief (retainer)
After spending the night at the villa the party spent part of the morning of Deuterios 30th distributing various magic items they had found over the past few delves, including giving some to Rex and Armenius who had recovered from the effects of being Raised from the Dead by Julia and were ready to join the party. After perusing the maps Hector informed the group that he was pretty sure that there was no way out of the Singing Grotto after having used the one way teleport circle to gain access. Based on the maps they theorized that the caved in passage north of their arrival point led to a room they had explored before that contained a statue of Eustachius the Cantor, so everyone but Coco returned to the villa through the rug, Coco rolled up the rug and picked it up, cast Dimension Door to travel to the statue, and then went back through the rug to the villa to let the rest know to come through.
Making their way back to the teleportation room they took the circle that was labeled “Cats” and found themselves outside the giant cat’s mouth carving that marked the entrance to the temple of Bastet. The party backtracked to the teleportation room one last time to take the last functioning teleport which brought them to the entrance to the Temple of Besa. The party made their way back to the teleportation room area, discussing their best way back to the surface as they went. They used the Bastet circle to gain access to the spur of the chasm, and then everyone but Bjorn and Melnax went back to the villa via the Rug. Melnax cast Invisibility on both Bjorn and himself and they began to ascend the chasm, with Bjorn using his Slippers of Spider Climbing and Melnax Levitating with the pair tied together with Melnax’s Elven Rope.
As they ascended they encountered a pair of naked, snarling varumani also ascending the side of the chasm via the creeping ones, but they remained undetected and let the varumani pass by. Moving further top the chasm they eventually came to a floating island, separated from the wall of the chasm by only about twenty-five feet at it’s narrowest point. Bjorn crawled along the wall to that point and gave Melnax his Useful Pole which Melnax used to push himself over to the island, and then help Bjorn over with the Eleven Rope. Looking over the brightly lit, warm, and humid island they could see that there were three hills on it and it was covered in trees, vines, and other plants. Bjorn went back through the rug and informed the rest of the party about the island, trying to convince them to come help explore but they declined. Not quite ready to give up, Bjorn returned through the rug, tied himself to Melnax’s Elven Rope again, and began to ascend the southernmost hill, as Melnax Levitated up to get a better view of the island as a whole. The southeastern part of the hill appeared to be made of a black shiny material with some vines growing across (but not into) it.
As he ascended the hill Bjorn was accosted by a troupe of the monkey-like creatures they had encountered near Zhorak’s Forge and brought back to the villa but they soon backed off. He found a vine that was producing a plethora of mango-like fruits, so he grabbed four of these. Meanwhile, Melnax could see more of the same on the rest of the island from his vantage point as well as a couple of large spider/scorpion-like creatures patrolling the northern part of the island. The pair decided to return to their ascent of the Chasm.
They next reached the level of the Arena along with it’s Varumani Lift landing. Continuing their ascent they reached the upper terminus of the Varumani Lifts, next to which was a large bridge, the middle portion of which was sundered and spanned by a narrow wooden plank. Continuing upwards they eventually found a landing containing three sarcophagi and a plethora of goblins. Bjorns shouted out “Hello there!” and “Permission to board?”. The goblins, unnerved by a voice from sone invisible being issuing from the Chasm ran out of the room and soon returned pushing a wheeled ballista which they pointed into the Chasm and fired, the bolt sailing below the pair who had wisely ascended a little further in the interim.
After the goblins calmed down and dispersed Melnax drifted further up the chasm and pushed himself off the wall and into the middle of the span. Bjorn then used him to swing over the ledge and land before reeling in Melnax. The remaining goblins heard Melnax’s footsteps and while some ran off to gather reinforcements, the pair revealed themselves to those remaining. Luckily the goblins recognized them as members of Thoth Patrol and the rest of the party soon joined them through the rug. After smoothing over this abrupt appearance in the midst of the goblins, the party moved down into the Goblin Warrens and requested an audience with the king.
The king and his court soon saw the group, and they informed him that they had recovered the Scepter of the Goblins and discovered it to be much more powerful than they had believed at first, and wished to revisit their deal with King Weskenim. After an (at times heated) lengthy negotiation, the terms agreed upon were that the party would still be able to return the petrified statue known as The Pointer to life, and would also be able to hire the King’s new Court Artist Temrin at the discounted rate of 5,000 gold coins with one free painting a month (the king had noticed the party’s frequent hiring of Temrin’s services and upon investigation discovered the young goblin’s remarkable ability). Having agreed to these terms the party handed over the scepter to Weskenim who, upon holding the item, realized the power contained within and exchanged a knowing glance with Hector as he realized what the party could have chose to do.
The part proceeded to the statue and Coco cast Stone to Flesh on it. The man survived the transportation and after a few moments the party was able to calm him down and converse with him. He introduced himself in Mithric as Julianus the Red, Sortian War mage who had been turned to stone is a battle with the Theosophy in 1710 AEP, almost 1,300 years before. After discussing his desires it was decided to take him into Gosterwick to the Arcane Practitioner’s Club.
While at the villa en route to dropping off Julianus Coco ad Scylla were informed that a rather large package had been dropped off earlier in the day. Opening the crate they were at first confused to find a fancy dress and other finery in a very large size before remembering that these were the garments they had commissioned for Sisco, the last remaining awakened giant baboon. After returning to the Goblin Warrens and describing the large key that opened the Tomb of Lisbon the Mad to Temrin, they spent the rest of the afternoon delivering the clothes to Sisco, who was pleased beyond measure to receive them.
After spending the night in their Goblin Home the party rose on the morning of Toternios 1st and went to the Goblin Market to see what they could learn about the strange fruit that Bjorn had gathered on the floating island. One of the merchants was able to identify it as ‘Pink Delight’, saying that it had a pleasing taste and provided a small amount of healing. The party sold them to the merchant for twenty gold coins each. The party mostly killed time for the rest of the day until Temrin’s map would be ready, with Julia finding a willing acolyte of Thoth, a young goblin named Feltnapper.
Returning to Temrin at 5:30PM, he gave them a map that led to the flowstone room outside of the tomb and the glowing green “KB” circled. Coco realized that this meant that the letters were a Wizard’s Cache, which could only be opened by a Dispel Magic from a higher level mage (which she had already tried and failed) or by knowing the password. They poured over their notes and compiled rumors looking for any clue but were stumped. Spending the rest of the evening discussing their next move, they decided it was time to begin their assault on the Settites.
Returing to the Halfling Goblin Level they moved west through the despoiled Temple of Thoth and then southwest to the stairway they knew the Settites guarded. While Bjorn Spider Climbed invisibly across the ceiling Hector, Susarra, Scylla, and Melnax posed as naive new adventurers and conversed with the guards, who told them to move along. Bjorn finished his reconnaissance and reported back the presence of a priest of Set along with six guards, and the presence of a plethora of oil flasks behind the barricade at the top of the stairs.
The party formulate their plan and Bjorn returned to the room and took position above a door in the southern end of the room, prepared to Assassinate any leader or reinforcements who emerged from the room. The cleric and two of the guards had moved to a crude tunnel that had been dug through the northern wall and were watching some sort of ceremony taking place in a large chamber beyond, while four of the guards continued manning the barricade. The assault started with Coco using her Wand of Fireballs, killing five of the guardsmen outright, grievously wounded the sixth, and bloodying the cleric. The oil flasks all exploded and caused a lingering fire which stymied the melee fighters as they ran up the stairs and Hector used his Rod of Lordly Might to batter down the barricade. The Settite cleric ran through the northern exit and told the remaining guardian to hold his ground and not let let anyone through.
When the fire burned out the party entered the room, and Coco cast another Fireball from her wand through the northern passage and into the space beyond, with a large number of death screams issuing from the chamber. As the melee crew plugged the entrance and finished off the last few survivors a previously undetected door in the western wall opened up and two Settite clerics, including the wounded one from before who looked frisky healed, emerged accompanied by a large boar. As the boar charged into the room towards Coco the Settite clerics were attempting to Hold the fighters with their Was sticks, with Rex succumbing to the spell. Coco unleashed a Lightning Bolt, killing the boar and wounding one of the clerics. The clerics then turned to flee west, easily outpacing the chronically over encumbered party. Bjorn, who had been slowly creeping invisibly on the wall to get behind the clerics, gave chase but succumbed to some sort of Fear effect in a small chamber as the clerics ran through a door at the end of the hall. Coco shot another Fireball from the wand into the room and the sounds of at least a score of people burning to death rang out as the clerics escaped to the north.
R.I.P.:
None
Foes defeated:
Thirty-three Settite cultists
Six Settite guards
Three Settite acolytes
One large boar