This the notes from the continuation session. See the last post for the context of how the Company of the Sword and Scroll got here.
Low Summer 14 [Day 47]Bill and co is leading the way in this time. The passage descends and twists left, and the path forwarded warded by a door with an Antipathy against evil cast on it. The orcish script and rude symbol warns against passage. Bill opens it and we push through. It goes to another door a short distance on, which is is good repair, despite years and years of neglect. The handle was also strange. Like an L, not the latch locks used elsewhere.
Bill signed himself and pushed into the next room, which filled with the artificial glow of Continuous Light. There was dust, but no cobwebs. A dried fountain with seven layers lay in the center of this room. Bill flicked a coin into the dry bed, and then stiffened and signed himself again. Big Tom took a look around with the gaze shield, and reported an illusory door at the opposite end of our entrance, and two off each. We debated a minute, and elected to ignore it for the moment.
The left and right doors led to a collapsed tunnel. Dismas suspects the right tunnel wasn’t collapsed naturally. Someone intentionally filled it in with magic using Rock to Mud and vice versa. I suspect the same happened on the left also. Might be worth returning to, if we can figure out if it’s wise to clear the way.
We returned to the hidden door, and on opening the illusion fell and we past through and into another room, with some buttons on one wall, like a 4 pointed star with a center. The Soren reported the magic flickered. Center: Black | Up: Red | Down: destroyed | Left: destroyed | Right: destroyed.
The destroyed buttons were hacked out, but as Bill began muttering, Dismas and Soren lit up with discussion of a Skull Mountain teleporter. We thought to decide it was better to not touch any of the buttons, but found we were no longer able to leave this part of the complex blocked by a greenish-blue forcefield. Bill tried to take his halberd to the wall, but gave up when he saw how much cutting he’d have to do to escape. His cleric tried Dispelling the magic, which also failed.
We swept for secret doors, nothing found.
We return to the device. We will be pressing BLACK, RED. There was.. A sort of flash, and we now find ourselves on a narrow stone pathway in a massive shaft that exits into the distant sky high above, and drops down almost a thousand feet to a pool… we’re in the Deep.
In front of us is a door with a sign on it, and behind us was a bronze plaque.
One end of this catwalk, behind us, has a door with a bronze plaque indicating the “Academy of Magic. By invitation only. All others, send notes.” The other had a sign saying “Welcome to the Spa!” Next to the ladder down was an advertisement for a different spa and a note that “ladies are half price every Thursday.” We’re a day off. Shame. We saw a man exit the spa, say hi to us and fly UP and enter some secret door.
Considering our options, we will be taking the ladders down. Time to find Redeemer.
-----
From the door of the Academy a man exited and walked across to the spa with a feathered hat, silks clothing, and great sword of stone. He had waved at us, and I had nodded an acknowledgement, as we began to descend one by one, and then was drawn to engage in conversation. He took initial offense at my ignorance of the weather, and my attempts to apologize was taken easily, and an invitation to tea was extended. Too late I realized to whom I was speaking, and did my best to evade and exit further conversation. When I did, he promised at a later meeting we would have tea.
I had a conversation with Rupert. And I didn’t die. I need another ale.
He asked very peculiar questions, and the way he asked inflicted… weight.
From what I remember:
What is the weather like (outside)?
How are you going out (of the Mountain)? A way to get out of the Mountain?
Do you like tea?
Would you like to have your sins forgiven?
Do you like to sing?
I will need to ponder this matter more.
Once we descended down the ladder, we passed another man, bare chested who totally ignored us.
At the bottom, the shaft widened out, the water stretched out like a small lake in the center, with a little dock, and a village, with many buildings dark. Abandoned or asleep, who can say? What does it matter down here in the dark what time it is above? Though many sure did look abandoned.
Above the Deep’s village itself was a cave, where a set of massive cat-eyes looked out, unblinking, but unmoving. We stayed wary of that creature, heading towards the once source of light.
We froze stiff when a pebble dropped from the shaft and into the water, shattering the silence. As the ripples spread out we released our breathes as slowly as able. We saw a flash of pink-blue light from the center of the lake and moved on after our hearts calmed.
A street ran from the dock through the village, and the road was lit with continuous light rods on 30 foot lightpoles 30 feet apart. Some creature was spotted about 3ft high, wrapped in cloth that hissed at us and ran off into the darkness. The street ran to a lit inn and tavern, and pondering a moment, we stepped into the inviting warmth of The Shadowy Inn.
It was a large structure, but fairly empty. What could fit a hundred or more , was instead a dozen or so people, some humans, a few dwarves, a few … other creatures, one a very thin and old man with snake-like features and odd ears. But all looked to be peaceable. For how empty the place was, it was all in great condition.
The staff were of a darker complexion, the bartender (Armoff) and cook (Athlos) were well muscled, bald and of dark eye. The serving girl was a pretty dark-haired woman named Awnica or Annica. All were related and all in a good mood. And much older than they looked, though I couldn’t tell at the time.
We also saw a harpist playing for the other patrons, who the others recognized as a man we had run into near Timberlake once upon a time. He was wearing all black velvet and a gold collar with large black opals. His name is Llewellyn the Black.
We were greeted warmly and we accepted bread and ale. It was all very good. Once sated, Aunica asked what brings us through, and we stated Redeemer. Armor said no one had asked about Redeemer in more than a century. The second most Holy weapon in the mountain, and what Lowellen christened the “unholy holy sword.” We relayed our story of how we got here, and they relayed the story of how another group had found some scroll in a shipwreck and got teleported into this very tavern three months ago. They had a chuff, as they retold how they died in the darkness at the hands of “stalkers.”
They asked Soren, why he seeks Redeemer. He relayed the story of the old woman with the apples, and explained suspicions of believing it was an Angel. That is a new connection to me. He asked a few more very particular questions. And then he pulled down the great two-hander that hung above and behind the bar counter, and called Soren to step forward completely unarmed and to hold the sword barehanded. Soren did so… and nothing happened that I could see.
Armoff nodded to himself, took the sword back, and announced closing time and the other patrons shuffled out with mild complaints. Once the door swung shut Armoff turned back to us and said Soren had passed the test. He then gave us the following instructions.
The road we took into the village continues on for one mile deeper into the rock and will come to the edge of the City of Light and Shadows. We will have two choices, one to fight the Army of Shadow, the other, the Place of Change. Either will end up with us finding Redeemer. And then Redeemer must find you worthy.
If we accomplish this, we can return and get a free beer from the Shadowy Tavern.
We shuffled out and into the square, and as we prepared to set out… my vision shimmered and nausea swept over as a weightlessness ruled for seconds… we returned to the Teleporter room, as sparks flew from the console. We exited the room as the scholars investigated and declared it broken, so it couldn’t complete its magic to send us. I led the march up the steps to check on the horses. We are resting for the moment, and saw a patrol. Checking the sun, we were in the Mountain for six hours thereabouts. It has been a day.
Dismas, Soren, and Bill came out a little later, reporting the other two passages we hadn’t explored were a collapsed passage and a murderhole for a crossbowman. We are left with a mystery to ponder, what else is buried in this place, beyond those filled in passages?
I found a green brass key with “#3” stamped on it, in the center of my bedroll when setting up for the night. How did this get here? I cannot explain how, but I feel Rupert gave it to me. Why? What does this open?
Low Summer 15 [Day 48]
We searched the rest of the city today. The scholars commented the construction is hobgoblin, but we were told the ruins last belonged to the orcs. The construction below makes me think it’s changed hands many times.
We first search the great tombs of the fallen shamans and war chiefs. There were 9 of each, and Bill quickly determined all were trapped. One of the warchiefs was an orcish overking from the dried crushed blood, but the thieves got to work disarming, and then looking inside. Took us a while, but before long we found a nice haul of gold and magic items.
As we tombs’ haul up and out I consulted the Fence, and came to an idea. Spying a set of larger burned ruins, I requested the Fence to inform me of any wealth below… and before long it alerted of a buried hoard where we pulled up a tremendous pile of silver. We set to digging.
Low Summer 17
There were 250,000 pieces buried below and a set of notes pointing to a manual elsewhere in the ruins, which we retrieved. The book was a manual for the creation of a silver golem. We marveled at it for a while, then returned to shoveling silver pieces. This took of two whole days to excavate the entire hoard and to track down the manual.
Low Summer 24 [Day 57]
We’ve returned to Rosewood. While we were trekking I’ve had another idea, but I think we have earned some restful downtime, for at least a little bit. Once Molly and Gnelvin have had some time to relax, I’ve an idea.
[//end Orc City Ruins Adventure]
Rewards:
Magic Items:
- +1 scimitar of wounding (Merrin)
- Eyepatch of Daylight (Bill)
- Enchanted Selkie cloak, double effects for Selkie (Merrin)
- Gaming Cube, d6 +50% of winning games of chance (Dismas)
- Boots of striding and stringing (Bill)
- Eye of Opening the Way (crystal Eye) (Soren)
- Gem of True Seeing (Dismas)
- Manual of Silver Golem (Bill)
- Rug of Welcome (Merrin)
- Wings of Flying (Soren)
[25750 per PC, 12875 per Henchman]
[5200gp per PC, 2600 per Henchman ½ share]
Misc after thoughts. You can find a recording of the session, if you care for raw unfiltered bad recording setups.
I have no idea what complications, if any, I have caused from speaking to Rupert, the most cursed man in Skull Mountain. Now I have a reason to avoid the Mountain, though I do want that Ring... though it's now the case that before we step in we have a great deal of research and rumor mongering to do about what the green brass key might go to, what is known about Rupert, what he now is, and the curses upon him, and how best to deal with him if encountered (aside from not talking, that probably won't work anymore). Merrin is unfortunately not likely to get out of that appointment for tea, without sundering a questionable friendship.
It also gives Merrin some additional ideas for things he should wish for, in the realm of knowledge. Could Merrin wish for knowledge of specific answers that would sway Rupert towards Good, and defuse him from causing general mayhem? Are there answers that are suitably vague, but polite enough, that conversation can be held, but won't result in some unleashed horror? Who knows! I'm out of wishes currently and we need pure dumb luck to find more without dying..
I also have some questions about what exactly the instructions related to Redeemer mean. I wonder if the choice is a false choice, that only differs by degrees. Having the strength to face both is probably something Redeemer is after.
The Fence is the MVI (most valuable item) to Merrin, given it's return on investment. In the next post, Merrin used it, the Rug of Welcome, and a few picked men to return a tenfold value on investment. The ability to thoroughly scour ruins makes it incredibly useful for discovering things Rick might have wished be left undisturbed for another generation or three.
Also, while we've cleared most of the active dangers and easy treasures out of here, there is the question of what the heck else is down there. The dungeon we found is only half explored, and further doesn't appear possible
No comments:
Post a Comment