Session 8 Recap

The party:

Chert, a dwarf

Coco, a Thorcin magic-user

Thalia, a Thorcin thief

Capdoffer, a goblin

Batengis, a Khumus acolyte of Tingri

Porter Brown, a Thorcin hireling

After having spent a few days in Gosterwick taking care of various matters the party awoke on the 16th of Dikaios ready to return to the Halls and continue plumbing its depths. Coco, still studying and researching new spells, said that she would be spending a week in Gosterwick and so the rest of the party made their way back to the Long Falls and ascended the stairs to the plateau.

Their first stop was to visit the dam near their hidey hole to see if Thalia’s increased skills would allow her to open the lock and gain them entrance. As they made their way to the dam they encountered a young Archontean druid with her wolf companion Aja, newly arrived in the ruined the city. Introductions were made all around and the druid, named Callista, agreed to join the party.

Thalia was easily able to open the lock and Porter Brown lit a torch as the party made their way into the interior of the dam. A short passage led to a simple ten foot square room which only contained two large adamantine wheels connected to shafts that protruded from the fused stone walls. Theorizing that the wheels controlled the spillway for the dam, the party spread themselves out so that communication could be maintained with someone watching the spillway while Chert turned the wheels. One wheel was found to be broken, spinning freely on its axis, but the other was indeed found to control the level of the water-flow mechanism. The party decided to lower the mechanism, increasing the flow of the river and waterfall to hopefully decrease the level of the lake to see if that would uncover anything worth exploring. They did not lower the mechanism completely, in the hopes of not incurring the wrath of the dragon.

Leaving the dam the party traveled east back to the road and began to make their way to the Pyramid of Thoth. As they passed the Obelisk of the Sun, the inscribed ankh on it caused Chert to have an epiphany, and he took the magical ankh they had found in the tomb a few days prior and found that it fit into the ankh inscription on the obelisk, but no visible effects happened when they did so. As Coco was not with them and they thus had no one who could read Mythric they spent a few minutes consulting their written notes to recall what the inscription on the obelisk said: “The Beacon shall be revealed to those who bring midday life to the Sun, the Moon and the Stars.” Remembering that they had theorized that they needed to do something with three obelisks (of which they had only found two so far) they stored the ankh and proceeded to the Pyramid of Thoth.

Returning to the tomb of Jaken the Proud they found everything as they had left it, and took the red armor, conical helmet, and heavy boar spear, theorizing that they may be under a glamour similar to the powerful artifacts of Larel One-Eye. After this the party returned to the room where Chert contracted his wasting curse from a fountain and moved south into a large natural cavern that they previously found but had not yet explored fully. Descending the twenty foot ledge into the cavern, the party found it to be quite large, with the only notable contents being a narrow natural passage leading southwest and a large monolith, carved out of the native granite. The monolith was ten feet square and rose past the limits of their sight. The monolith was covered in a series of flowing runes which Thalia was unable to translate but left her with with a profound feeling of unease. The runes were filled with a red substance that appeared liquid but experimentation by Batengis with a ten foot pole showed it to be solid. Deciding not to risk any further interaction, the party followed the narrow tunnel to the southwest.

After about forty feet the tunnel opened into the chasm as Chert had theorized, and the party was able to barely see the opposite side at the very limit of their torch light. Peering out and to each side, the party was barely able to espy a possible opening in the chasm wall to their southeast. As the hour was growing late the party returned back to the entrance chamber and ascended the stairs back to the Pyramid of Thoth to retire to the Inn of the Broken Head for the night.

Arising the next morning the party decided to further investigate the island with the Royal Palace that they had briefly inspected before. Leaving the Inn of the Broken Head they began to follow the eastern bank of the river south, stopping first at a crumbling tower, one of two that flanked the river at the northern extent of the ruined city walls. Climbing to the top of the rubble afforded a good view of the northern half of the city and the party spent some searching for a third obelisk to no avail. Exploring a doorway in one of the two mostly intact walls of the tower led to a small chamber with some simple camping supplies but nothing of more value.

Continuing along the riverbank they passed a broken bridge before encountering an intact bridge, narrow and with a low parapet. This bridge led to the northernmost island in the river which contained the crumbling ruins of the ancient dunjon. Large areas and piles of bones visible even from a distance gave the party pause and they continued south.

As they reached the portion of the riverbank due west of the Pyramid of Thoth they encountered a building that, although its second story had collapsed, was more intact than most of the surrounding area. Taking a few minutes to search the area, Batengis disturbed a wasps’ nest and received a series of painful stings. The rest of the party was luckier, and a hidden staircase leading to a basement was soon found. Momentarily pausing their plan to investigate the palace, a torch was lit and the party descended the steps.

After only a short distance of sixty feet, the party found that the stairs ended in a large, rubble choked room. Large columns held up the ceiling and path had been cleared through the rubble to pair of damaged, slightly ajar double doors in the northern wall. Two bodies could be seen laying in the path. The party entered the room and explored it fully, finding another door and a narrow open passage in the northwest corner of the large room. Additionally a large (approximately fifteen feet long) statue leg was found in the rubble. Realizing that the leg looked similar to (but of a much smaller scale than) the great statue of Arden that flanked the Long Stair, the party theorized that it belonged to the statue that once graced the pediment on the east side of the bridge that led to the Royal Palace. Examination of the bodies lying along the path revealed that aside from their armor (chain and splint) and a potion in a ceramic bottle they had been stripped of valuables. With proximity to the doors the party could now see that they were stuck open, leaving a gap of about eighteen inches; a rubble choked hallway beyond could also be seen to block the doors from opening further. An insectoid skittering sound could be easily heard from the area beyond the doors. Taking the torch from Porter Brown, Chert peered through the gap as he tossed a large rock into the rubble beyond, and was less than surprised to see a handful of giant centipedes emerge and swarm the rock before retreating back into the rubble. At this point the party decided to investigate the other egresses.

Deciding to take the narrow passage north Chert had no sooner stepped into the gap when he felt his foot strike something. Fearing a tripwire he tried to withdraw his leg but found it stuck to a strand of spiderweb, and his movement soon drew forth a swarm of large spiders from the nearby slightly ajar door. Everyone soon found themselves under attack by one of the spiders (excepting Thalia who against all odds was still invisible from the potion she had drunk several days prior).

As Batengis Blessed the party to aid them in their fight, several of the spiders were dispatched with all haste but Porter Brown, finding herself under attack by a spider the size of a border collie, had her resolve fail and she began a mad dash back to the stairs with the party’s only lit torch. Taking advantage of her invisibility Thalia struck one of the spiders with surprise and eviscerated it, and began to give chase to the spider pursuing Porter Brown. Chert and Capdoffer, having no need of a torch to see the spiders in the dark finished off the remaining spiders as the one chasing Porter Brown was dispatched and the party paused to catch their breath.

A member of theWelcoming Committee. Image courtesy of Kim Diaz Holm.

Exploring the room that the spiders had emerged from, the party cautiously cut back the webs to see if any further spiders were present. Finding none, they cleared the chamber and found a small ruby and a scroll titled “the Divine Breath of Thoth” which described the pneuma (breath) of Thoth:

Soft exhalations

Drift from the beak,

As the Lord’s Pneuma

Molds the champion

On the back of this scroll had been scribed the Magic-User spell Rope Trick.

With the spiders vanquished the party proceeded through the narrow passage and found themselves in a room covered in a thick layer of dust, in the eastern part of which a large anvil sat on a raised platform. A somewhat surprisingly untarnished silver chalice sat on top of the anvil.Cautiously exploring through room the party found no danger and, placing the chalice in Larel’s Sack, continued through a passageway in the northwest corner of the room.

The party followed a side passage to the east and stopped to investigate a door in the north wall of the passageway. No sounds were heard from within, and entering the room they found a small shrine, with a stone altar and mosaics of Thoth worship imagery covering the walls and floor. A close inspection of the altar revealed no secrets, and despite placing a number of valuables on it (including a platinum coin and the small ruby) nothing happened. The party left the room and continued to the east, stopping to examine another pair of doors; these had been spiked open, leaving about a two foot gap. Squeezing through the doors the party soon found themselves facing the denizen of the room, a twenty foot long giant constrictor snake. With Batengis’ Blessing the party began to rain blows down upon the snake, who bit and began to constrict Capdoffer, but found its efforts to do so somewhat stymied by a Slow spell on it from a blow from Larel’s Pin. A few more attacks finished the snake and Capdoffer emerged from the coils, injured but alive.

Searching the room the party found two small beryls, a pouch with 88 silver coins, and a heavy iron spear with a Mythric word inscribed in it. Thalia took the spear to see if her knowledge of ancient languages would help her to translate it, and as she said the word aloud (“Nightwind”) she noticed that the spear grew much lighter in her hand, feeling almost perfectly balanced.

Leaving the room and continuing to the east the party was attacked by two stirges which they easily dispatched and soon found themselves at a four way intersection. Turning south, they could see that this passageway soon connected to the double doors from the first room, with the centipede nest close by. Giving the nest a wide berth the party explored a pair of doors on either side of the passageway. The one to the west led to a storeroom filled with useless junk. Opening the eastern door reveled a similar scene, but as Chert stepped through the door to investigate he was startled to find himself face to face with a zombie that had been standing just inside the room, out of sight from the hallway. Preparing himself for a fight, he was confused when the zombie slowly walked to within a few feet of him and then merely stood staring at the dwarf. A simple dog collar chased with silver was noticed on the zombie and the party removed it, thinking this may break the spell that the undead creature appeared to be under but this did nothing to change the zombie’s demeanor. Some experimentation showed that he zombie would follow Chert wherever he went. Deciding that the undead creature was harmless for the time being, the party returned to the hallway and the four-way intersection, this time heading east.

Entering a room they soon found through a door in the north wall of the passageway, Chert immediately noticed some dust and small pebbles falling from the ceiling. Alerting the party to the danger Chert ran from the room, followed quickly by the party, and within a few seconds the small rain of debris turned into a torrent of large rocks and debris, filling the entire chamber. The party continued down the passageway to a narrow door at its eastern terminus.

Opening this door revealed a rather peculiar sight. A small stone pedestal in the middle of the twenty foot square room contained a stone statue of a monkey with an oversized round mouth. Perched on a platform above a door in the opposite wall was another monkey statue, this one with oversized ears. On a hunch, Chert poked his head and looked above the door, spying another platform there. Theorizing that another monkey, this one with oversized eyes, inhabited this platform, Chert entered the room. As he did the monkey statue in the middle of the room began to cough, at which point Chert found himself struck mute. Then the monkey above the door he had entered began to fly through the air as beams of fire flew out of its large eyes at Chert. The monkey above the opposite door began to scream at an ever increasing volume. At this point the rest of the party entered the room and began to attack the various monkey statues, with Callista ordering Aja to stay in the hallway with Porter Brown. The screams from the large mouthed monkey began to grow ear piercingly loud, and Callista soon fell unconscious from the din. The rest of the party was able to eventually reduce the monkey statues to three piles of rubble, and were relieved to find that Callista had merely been knocked unconscious by the preternaturally loud noise. Performing a quick search of the room uncovered a bone scroll case containing a scroll with three magic-user spells, a gold ring set with a silver knot, and a two pound platinum ingot. Gathering the treasure (and feeling quite pleased not having to cede any of it to the halflings) they made their way back to the entry room and, after tying the zombie to the large leg of Arden so that he wouldn’t follow them, made their way back to the Inn of the Broken Head to spend the night and nurse the druid back to health.

R.I.P.:

None

Foes defeated:

Eight large spiders

One giant constrictor snake

Two stirges

Three animated stone monkey statues