Session 21.
Lamashan the 10th (Cont).
After reviewing my current journal entry I must add the following. Entry to the city of Saventh-Yhi was not as simple as the above entry may imply. The approach to Saventh-Yhi involved a river crossing. There were two possibilities, one high bridge (with pteradons flying overhead) or a low bridge. The low bridge seemed clear, but in fact, two crocodiles lay in wait for unsuspecting victims. Max dealt with them quickly and we marked the low road as “safe” for the expedition.
We also encountered a few girallons, powerful four armed apes. A tough fight, but my ability to exclude my allies from the effect of my fireballs proved quite handy.
----------
Lamashan the 11th.
Amivor Glaur and the rest of the Pathfinder expedition arrived in camp today and complimented us on our accomplishments. It will be nice to have a relatively safe place to fall back to for resources. We discussed exploration strategies.
----------
Lamashan the 12th.
Our first true exploration of Saventh-Yhi started today. Our camp is along the north-western edge of the city so we worked our way almost due east. We came across a series of ancient aqueducts and locks. According to Max, the area seems to have seen some traffic from lizard like and ape like humanoids as well as other creatures. We soon encountered a group of well equipped Charau-Ka and their pet dire apes, who were probably the source of some of the prints. These creatures were not only better armed than the Charau-Ka we fought in Tazion, but better trained as well.
We continued east toward one of seven tall spires we have noted around the city. I have seen a few references to “The City of Seven Spears”. It seems quite clear that these references are to Saventh-Yhi. I noticed most of the buildings were under some sort of transmutation effect, perhaps part of what is slowing the decay of the buildings, since many look to be in much better shape than expected. Many of the austere buildings in this immediate area seemed to be related to crafting and defense, perhaps it was a military district.
In a plaza coated with excrement we noticed the bodies of a few Serpent-Folk hanging from the stonework. They had been bludgeoned to death (by the Charau-Ka and their darkwood clubs, we assume) and probably hung as a warning. As we moved north toward the spire we were ambushed by more Charau-Ka and Girallons.
The spire was mounted atop a tall ziggurat with no obvious entry. We started up the steep steps. At the top there was a huge statue of a demonic creature, a representation of Angazhan, the demonic embodiment of savage strength and destruction, if I am not mistaken. He is worshipped by Girallons and the Angazhani, members of the Girallon leadership caste. Just as we took in the sights, we were ambushed once more by Charau-Ka and Girallons.
Once they were defeated I noted the petroglyphs on the Spire identified it as the Spear of Righteous Anger. It was marked as one of the seven “Virtues” of the ancient Azlanti. The petroglyphs also included instructions on how to activate it, though we are unsure what “activating” the spear actually achieves. The glyphs seem to imply the spear may help those nearby find their “True Mark” when in combat.
According to the glyphs, there are three ways to activate it.
1. Anoint the spear with the blood of a powerful creature. What constitutes “powerful” is left undefined.
2. Channel divine energy into the spear. It appears this must be done by a Cleric dedicated to a god of battle, Gorum perhaps.
3. Perform a ceremony that is basically one hour of mock combat before the spear. We attempted this, but were unable to achieve the desired result (unsurprisingly). While we are quite fierce in battle, we are all less than impressive when attempting to display our ferocity, especially outside of an actual conflict.
As a side note, seeing as there are seven Spears and seven Virtues, I suspect each of the spears will bear the mark of one of the Virtues, wealth, fertility, honest pride, abundance, eager striving, righteous anger, and well-deserved rest.
We then noted smoke rising from a large building we had passed on the way to the spear, so we retraced our steps. When we arrived at the structure, I noted that it seemed to have been a royal house or governor’s building in its heyday. Upon entering we were set upon by more Charau-Ka and dire apes. As we stormed the place I overheard one mentioning the need to warn others and get help. Warning one called “Olujimi” seemed the highest priority (Learning Polyglot while researching the Mwangi Expanse has proven useful in many instances).
We moved in quickly as our enemies fell before us. We fought our way through two rooms before entering a third where a number of dire apes surrounded what was to become one of our most fearsome foes yet, an Angazhani. The Angazhani was armed with shield and axes. I suspected we had found this “Olujimi” our enemies had mentioned.
We threw everything we had at them and the dire apes fell quickly. The Angazhani was another story. He was resistant to both our weapons and fire and also seemed to see right through the spell of Invisibility I had thrown over Max. Things were looking pretty dire, but it soon became obvious we were slowly wearing him down. As our victory grew closer, the creature teleported away to places unknown. We were unsure as to where he may have gone and a brief search turned up nothing.
As I had expended most of my magical energy, we thought it best to return to camp and rest at this point. In the morning we shall return to hunt for this creature. I shall have to see if I can procure some magic that might remove Olujimi’s escape plan from the equation.
)
