Eaglesford Campaign: "Strange Lights"

[Gina]

Um, did the group find anything NEW?



edg

Not yet, but soon.

Yeah, it took us a while to find our purpose...

Of course, Session 28 is the one we played last night, where a PC died. Second one in as many weeks (game time)......sigh.

Nail smiles so maniacally when he kills on of us too....you can just tell he enjoys it waaaayyy more than is natural!

Gina

 

[Nail]

Do I even _have_ a day job?

Session #24: "A Good Way to Tackle the Problem"

RL evening of Dec 22nd, 2003

From the Journals of Rowan, Druid of Eaglesford
We caught up to the four-armed, one-legged, pale-skinned, strange-looking.....just what was this thing, anyway?.....little bugger. As we did so, Tieran formed a brilliant plan.

I mean brilliant like “it involved a bright flash”, rather than “it was a good idea”. I guess it would have been a great plan if it had worked as intended.

Tieran shot off a fireball, intending for it to burst far enough away so that we would not be inside it, but the one-legged thing would. Sadly, he didn’t realize that there was a wall in front of us, cloaked by steam, perhaps ten feet away. So, the fireball came back at us, burning both Tieran and I pretty badly. To make it worse, the one legged creature avoided the flames completely! He wasn’t even singed! I smacked Teiran as soon as I had put out the flames on my clothing, asking him what he was trying to do. Good thing he wisely kept his mouth shut -- because at the time, I swear on the leaves of Eliwyn, I would’ve turned into a bear and eaten him.

Oh, and to make things all that much better, two steam babes attacked us, while the four-armed creature escaped. We were injured pretty badly, so we ran back to the relative safety of our little hole in the wall, and dove through. Besides, I figured that our watch was probably done, and my friends might as well get up. The steam babes (I mean: Steam Mephits! Sorry, Tieran!) didn’t follow us, so after everyone was up, we gave an account of what had happened.

Then Thaile told us of a dream she had just had.

She was in a long hallway filled with steam. She had spent a long time doing something, her friends (that would be us!) kept trying to help but were not helpful and in fact, made the process more difficult. She heard a familiar female voice say “What are you seeking, child?” then laughed. Then it said, “I’m sure that you can’t get it that way. Perhaps if you asked nicely, the little one would give it to you.”

We spent some time discussing the dream and what it might mean, we all had ideas, but in the end, as so often happens with such things, we came to no real conclusions, only more questions. Thaile seem particularly struck with the fact that the 4-armed thing wasn't "little". Err, then what was the voice talking about, oh wise woman of Eaglesford??

We had a short discussion about what we should do next. We came up with several options:

• Speak with the Snake Lady and ask her what we should do next.
• Capture and question the one-legged creature.
• ”Talk” to the Steam Babes (with Thaile’s comprehend languages spell going)
• Check out the other melted rock piles

First we explored some of the other piles of melted rock. While we were exploring one of them, another steam wench attacked out of the mists, but this time Riva was ready for her, and destroyed her in one blow. If Mor'Elandi has been keeping a proper count, there should be only one more left in the maze, probably.

Thaile used two detect magic spells on the mounds of rock but found nothing of interest. The other mound, in a different part of the maze, also came up empty.

We also tried “asking” for our stuff back. Kinda just stood there and asked, you know? No response to that, though we didn’t think that there really would be.

We continued to wander, through corridors, rooms, and passages that we had traversed before. The one legged creature suddenly appeared and took Thaile’s new gold ring (the one that enlarges her). Tieran saw him take it and tried to stop it, but it bit him as he tried to grab the ring and then disappeared. We gathered into a corridor and discussed what to do next.

Then we had a bit of luck. While exploring and clearing a collapsed side passage, we found an irregular chamber, part original hallway and part "dug out" area. In the center was a pile of stuff -- our stuff!! There was also a few other things!!

The one thing that was not in the pile was the dragon idol. So, we still needed a plan to get that back. We did end up with all of our other stuff back plus 168 gold pieces in unfamiliar coin. These coins were inscribed with a very old form of common and were, we guessed 1,000 or so years old, dating to the old empire. Also in the cache of items was a small book with a gold cover and arcane writings on it. Tieran’s eyes lit up as he saw it, a spell book, most likely magical, with a clasp. He said he would open it later on, when he was alone, just in case it was trapped.

We stayed in this corner room for a while, and saw that the steam is venting out through cracks in the ceiling. After a time, Thaile decided to go into the corridor with something of value for the creature to steal and see if she could catch it. So, we set ourselves up to watch as Thaile made herself the target for the creature, or rather made her stuff the target of the creature. (We had a long discussion as to what and how much stuff she should have on her).

So, there stood Thaile in the corridor, wearing the dragon’s eye brooch. ...And the strange bugger just appeared out of nowhere and took it! As it hopped away, Thaile saw it carried the dragon idol, the object of her desire, in one of its hands.

What else could she do? She began to chase it. Mor’Elandi and Riva followed as well, trying to corner the creature. Of course, it winked out of sight just as they were closing in on it.

So, we set it up again. This time with the giant ring. Same thing happened. The creature grabbed the ring, Thaile shouted for it to wait and began casting, but the creature ran off anyway, with Mor’Elandi, Riva, and Thaile in pursuit, until it eventually disappeared. Riva and Thaile collided when it did, each of them thinking they had it.

After this, we tried a different idea. We wandered about looking for that last steam babe. We found one and cornered it. Thaile had her comprehend languages spell going (that was what she was casting after asking the one legged creature to stop) so she understood that the steam wench was asking for mercy. “Please don’t kill me” the steam woman cried, as it cowered in a corner.

Tieran had another brilliant idea. Actually, this one really is good – not the “Flash –Bang!” variety. He tried to pantomime that we had no plans to harm her....then he tried to explain (through gestures) that we were looking for the one legged creature with four arms. Since Tieran only has two arms, I stood behind him to illustrate the third and fourth arms. Mor’Elandi seemed to wish that he had never met us at that point, but I think it was quite clever...anyway, the Steam Wench understood, after a while. It took longer than it should: these steam babes are real air heads. Tieran says they’re vapid, whatever that means.

While the others were trying to communicate, I went to see if we could get help from the Snake Lady at the entrance. She gave me some answers, but seemed kind of horrified that we were so ill prepared for the trials. I didn’t bother to point out to her that the people who had set up the trials were long, long dead and that we really were unprepared.

The ghostly snake lady (her name is Slythia) was also surprised that the initiate (Kytum-up) had asked no questions. I guess initiates in the “past” (whenever that was) had always asked questions of her. Huh. I thought we were supposed to do this on our own.....

When I asked about the steam, she said that someone had summoned some steam elementals, and that wasn’t allowed. We should “fix it”.. She was unaware of any damage to the maze and said that it should be reported to the “masters” so it could be repaired. As I spoke to her I realized that she was a ghost, probably unaware that this place was long abandoned, the tests forgotten. I also remembered that the great church teaches that ghosts are undead and should be destroyed, but the teachings of temples are not my concern and this creature is here for a purpose, I think.

As I walked back to the others, I remembered a description of a creature called a Naga. I think that is what Slythia is, or rather, was.

When I returned to the others, they were getting through to the steam wench. We began to look for the one legged creature as I gave them my usual concise account of my conversation with Slythia.

The elemental seemed less afraid of us now and came along with us, sticking very close to Thaile. She was, we discovered, surprised that the steam they had breathed at us could kill us.

First we checked the little room we had spent the night in. No stuff there, so sign of the creature. . As we moved along, the creature snatched a gold bracelet from Thaile. The steam babe (Tieran’s calling her “Bambi”, for some reason.) saw it as it faded from view.

Finding that we were having little success in capturing the creature we decided that the initiate should ask some more questions of Slythia and off we went to talk to her.

As we went toward Slythia, we noted that there was hot water flowing from the other corridor, perhaps this was where the steam is coming from. Thaile and Kytum-up also became aware that Slythia was indeed a ghost. This seemed to bother them a bit, but they decided to ask their questions anyway.

We asked about the test of purpose. Slythia said:
“The Mystery of Purpose is a wise choice to start; for without purpose, a journey has no meaning.”

What about the creature that has stolen the totem?
You should get it back.

“What is your purpose?” Slythia asked of us.

Thaile responded that our purpose is to return the totem to its place (and I think it still hurts when she speaks of returning it!).

Further questioning revealed the following:

• The creature cannot pass out of the maze
• The last initiate was long ago
• She is Slythia, guide of initiates
• Other totems were very beautiful, but she cannot remember what they were
• If killed, the creature can be replaced, but there should be no need to kill it.

She also asked “Bambi” why she was in the maze. “Bambi” answered in her strange language (Thaile’s spell having ended, we couldn’t understand her). Slythia responded, “That should not be true!” and sent her off. Slythia seemed angry that the Steam babe was in the maze at all. Our “Bambi” went off down the corridor and disappeared into the steam. We never saw her again.

Slythia told us that the makers did not plan for the steam and we should speak of it to our masters when we are through. She can’t get rid of it, but she is certain that the Makers will take care of it. She seems unaware that these “Makers” are long gone.

We went back into the maze and continued to wander, looking for the creature. We wandered for hours, but did not see it. Finally, we decided to set up in its former lair and the adjoining room for the night. We set our usual watches and waited.

June 24th, in the Bowels of Alderslook

First two watches went without event, on third watch, it took an emerald pendant from Tieran who shot it with the crossbow but it faded into the mist.

We (Tieran and I were on first watch) noticed that it was carrying the stuff it had stolen in its hands. Tieran also spent a bit of time examining the new spellbook. He opened it then used a read magic spell on it.

It was the spellbook of someone named Turkosh, weighing ½ pound with 50 pages in it. 1 page per spell level needed to be used. Currently 25 pages used. Spells inscribed in two sections, the first were Turkosh’s spells, the second section was in Elvish script and bore the name Phalan Magere. After a bit of thought, we realized that she was probably the Elven girl we had found flayed in the goblin’s lair. She said her name was Fala, perhaps it was actually Phalan (Phala).

As we all woke up and prepared for another day in the steam, we began to formulate a plan. First, if the creature goes to the ethereal plane, and it seems that it must keep to the corridors, thus the walls of the maze must exist on its plane as well as here. So, if we used the dug out area in the small corner room, it stands to reason that if we pushed the creature over into the dug out area it could not move to its plane and would be effectively trapped.

So, we set ourselves up for our new plan. We would hide in the areas dug out of the wall, an place a gold treasure in the wall. When the creature appeared, Riva would bull-rush it into the dug-out area.

We set the gold mask at our intended ambush point and waited. The creature showed up and took the mask, then winked out before any of us could act. This happened twice! We tried, but we were just too slow. Finally, we set it up a third time: the creature showed up, Riva got the jump on it, and shoved it into the dug out area. The strange creature tried to blink out but was unable to do so!

I suggested that we knock the creature out, but the consensus was that killing it would be better. So they did that... I am concerned that we are killing creatures often when there could be another answer. In the case of the spiders, rats, Calableed, and the warrior goblins, it was necessary. But this creature, while annoying, was really not a grave danger to us. I am also struck by the idea that the steam elementals may not have been trying to harm us at all, but rather may have been ignorant of the fact that they were causing us harm. It is a difficult line to draw.

In the end, we had all of our things back as well as the totem and we were ready to face the next test: the Mystery of Purity. But first, we decided to find a place to rest and discuss what had happened, as well as Thaile and Kytum-up’s misgivings about following the directions of a ghost.

Here ends the Mystery of Purpose!

End of Session #24!

 

[Nail]

Big one, coming up....

 

[Nail]

I *think* my job has something to do with posting messages......

Session #25: "The Source Strikes"

RL evening of Jan 7th, 2004

The adventurers spent the rest of that day, and all of the next, recouping from their trials. They had completed one of the tests, and they knew there were many more.....9? 18?....Mor ‘Elandi was especially confused at the number of mysteries.

“I don’t understand,” complained Mor’Elandi, “That naga said ‘9’, then she said ‘each a pair of mysteries’. Does that mean there are 18? Two times nine, right?”

Tieran shrugged.

While they rested, they talked about the meaning of the tests, and the quality of their “guide”, the ghostly naga Slythia. Thaile voiced the concern that in following a ghost, a spirit of a restless dead, they were ignoring many of the tenets of their churches and the Gods. Namely, that All Undead Are Evil, and Must Be Destroyed. Rowan pointed out that this ghost had done no evil (at which point Mor’Elandi grumbled it had not done much good either).

To try to settle the debate, Thaile called upon her god, Darmon the Wayfarer. Using a tiny portion of the power He had bestowed upon her, Thaile cast a spell that would detect the presence of Evil in the ghostly serpent woman.....and the spell failed. It simply failed to function....almost as if it had been disrupted as it was being used. (That had never happened before.....) Disgruntled, Thaile returned to the group and settled down in her spot.

After their respite, the adventurers gathered themselves together and approached the naga’s ghost. The naga stood (or is that “floated”?) in the great stair-hall, blocking the way down, the way the adventurers knew they must descend to reach their goal of the kobold city. Her face was placid, clam, soothing.....and yet the adventurers could almost see through her translucent form.

As the party approached, Slythia smiled and nodded to them, “You are ready?”

“We’re ready fer th’ next test,” said Riva, fingering his axe. “I hope this one has a bit more excitement than th’ last. I don’t like mazes.”

“What can you tell us about the Mystery of Purity?” asked Thaile.

“I can say many things. But I will start with this: Before you is the Mystery of Purity. Without Purity, there can be no form. But hear me, the font of all things is purest.”

The ghostly naga stopped. The adventurers looked from one to another. All were silent.

“That’s it??” Mor’Elandi finally asked, incredulously.

The ghostly naga said nothing, a smile on her beatific face.

“Right. Well, in we go then,” said Riva, as he strode into the steam filled passage, the rest falling in behind him. Mor’Elandi, as usual, took up the rear of the line.

The steam here was especially thick and hot. Rowan felt they must be getting closer to its source. The short, smooth passage opened up into a small room, its wall and ceiling partially collapsed and lying strewn about on the floor. The floor was also covered with an inch deep pool of warm water, flowing in from under the rocks of the collapsed ceiling in front of them, flowing out onto the great stair-hall behind them. The adventurers couldn’t see farther than they could reach, all the while bathed in thick steam, so it took them quite a while to pick their way around the room until they found an exit. At the top of the pile of rubble was an opening. It was more like a space between giant ceiling blocks than a passage, but it wound its way deeper into the area, so....the adventurers followed it. (What? Wouldn’t you do the same?)

Beyond was another collapsed room, its partially intact walls showing it was once circular and 20 feet in diameter. The slope of rubble down to the room’s floor was loose and treacherous; Riva, in the lead, slipped and tumbled down a short distance. At the base of the slope the water was deeper, perhaps a foot or so, and lined with loose rocks. Piercing the wall in front of them was a carved narrow archway.

As Rowan helped Riva to his feet, she could see some sort of light beyond the arch. And then both heard a voice, deep and commanding. It spoke to them in draconic:

“Come no closer. Or I will strike you.”

The rest of the party squeezed through the passage Riva and Rowan had, and picked their way down the pile of rubble. Only Thaile missed her footing on the way down.

The deep bass voice spoke again:

”Leave. Now.”

Rowan stepped toward the door, and shouted “No!”

Thaile grabbed her shoulder, then spoke to the fiery light, “Why should we leave? Why are you here?”

”I bear the god’s will, and they will this place cursed. The Sar-thak-con is closed.”

“But we are here for the mystery of Purity,” Thaile pleaded, “We were sent here by Slythia to take the test of Purity.”

”Slythia is dead. I know this to be true. The tests are no more. Such is the god’s will.”

“Well,” continued Thaile, in a hopeful voice, “maybe you could just tell us about the mystery of Purity instead?”

Silence answered.

“Right,” grumbled Riva, “he’s not going t’be helpful. Let’s get this Mystery over with.”

Riva stepped into the steam filled room, just as Tieran magically enlarged him. The steam was lesser here, although the heat was more intense. Riva saw standing in the middle of the circular room a dwarf-sized figure in bronze armor with an old design, its head wreathed in flames. In its hands it whirled a red-hot spiked chain, which lashed out at Riva the moment he stepped into the archway. In a moment, Riva’s magical greatsword lay somewhere under the murky water, and Riva himself lay prone.

Riva rose, drawing a dagger, and this too was instantly snatched from his grasp, and his feet again yanked from under him. In between these strikes the fiery figure lashed Riva with his razor-sharp chain, once, twice, thrice. Riva’s blood flowed freely.

Behind him, Riva’s companions were trying to jockey into position. They could not enter the room themselves, as Riva, enlarged as he was, blocked their path through the arch. They also could not see Riva’s attacker, just the red glow of his flaming head. Mor-Enandi’s bow was useless; Kytum-up’s sword as well. The spell casters tried spell after spell – Magic Missile, Call Lightning, Summon Monster – and all failed to do any damage to the chain-weilding creature.

Riva, hit innumerable times by the spiked chain, lay in the pool, near death. Thaile reached out to him with a cure spell. Riva’s eyes fluttered open. He glanced up, and saw the fiery dwarf standing over him, whirling his chain. Riva’s eyes hardened.

Riva struggled to rise, and Thaile reached out to pull him to safety.

The spiked chain struck. There was a snap of bone and the wet sound of soft flesh tearing.....

....Riva collapsed to the floor.

Hurriedly, Thaile and Rowan pulled him from the room. Riva was no longer enlarged; Tieran had dismissed the spell. Thaile readied a healing spell, and applied it to Riva’s most grievous wounds.

No effect.

Thaile looked up at her friends, crowding around. She paused, then spoke. “He’s dead," a tear fell from her cheek as she spoke. "Riva’s dead.”





More to come......

 

[Gina]

Session #25: "The Source Strikes"

[Thaile looked up at her friends, crowding around. She paused, then spoke. “He’s dead. ...Riva’s dead.” A tear fell from her cheek.

And so the first PC dies.........and we still had to finish the Mystery of Purity!

 

[Nail]

.....okay, now I'm weirded out. This is the *only* thread I can post to (and edit!). I've tried everywhere else over the past hour, and this is the only thread that accepts my posts.

Wow.

I'll bet Kikkiut is angry with me....


<EDIT>I have, at last, discovered the problem: I was using the "cyberstreet" address. I had been having no trouble a week ago, before they updated the boards. Apparently the new version of the message boards *really* doesn't like the old address. ...anyway, it's fixed.

I'll get back to this storyhour soon.....as long as you measure "soon" in terms of weeks. First, I've got some kobold stuff to work on with the players.

What's that, you say? Why do the players need to work on kobold stats and such? Ahhh.....that is interesting isn't it?

 

[Gina]

The Test of Purity Part 2

Nail asked me to continue since he is still busy. I will not pretend that my account will be as interesting as his, but we'll be closer to caught up!

From the journal of Rowan, Druid of Eaglesford:
Riva is dead. We were all stunned. He has come so close to death before and always managed to survive. It is hard to believe that he is gone, that we will never again hear one of his stories about his old pappy or his dwarven cooking tips.

We took his body and withdrew. Tieran stayed behind a moment to cast a fireball into the chamber. It did not affect the warrior, but it cleared the steam for Tieran to get a good look at the creature and the room.

The room was circular with a broken fountain pouring water from the back wall, the warrior stood in the center of the room, water boiling where it touched him, causing the steam. Tieran also thought that he saw something shiny in the water under the warrior’s feet. The walls were defaced by chisel marks as we had seen in other areas of Alder’s Look.

So, with heavy hearts, we carried Riva’s body out of the chamber, through the crack, and through the outer chamber. We went first to Slythia who seemed sad at Riva’s demise, but was unable to help him, being only the guide of initiates as she helpfully informed us.

I told her that she is dead and the makers are long gone. This did not seem to concern her at all, she simply stated again that she is the guide of initiates. She told us that the gods work in mysterious ways. Mor'Elandi muttered something less than polite about the helpfulness of that statement.

She did tell us that he word he called the place “Sar-thak-con” means Font of Purity. Wonder what language that is. We will have to find out.

We set up camp in the maze where we had been before and spent a day in contemplation and planning. We even discussed leaving. Mor’Elandi thought we should leave, Thaile was uncertain, Tieran, Kytum-up, and I were all for seeing it through. After much discussion, we decided to stay.

We realized as we contemplated our situation that if Riva couldn’t survive in there, we needed to figure out a different plan of action. We figured that the goal was probably to get water from the source, which seemed to be the hole in the wall. Once there had been a basin to catch the water, but it was broken long ago and so the water was just squirting out. The water itself was potable and possibly had some magical powers, but we were not sure what they might be. The one thing we were sure of was that they would not restore Riva to life.

We waited and thought and finally came up with a plan. Tieran and Mor’Elandi would go in with as many spells of protection on them as we could muster, which would possibly allow them to get the water out of the room without even taking a hit from the vicious weapon he wielded.

June 28th
On both Mor’Elandi and Tieran we cast: Invisibility, Cat’s Grace, Walk on Water, and Spider Climb

On Mor’Elandi we cast Silence (in a radius effect so they would both be silenced) and Shield of Faith.

On Tieran we cast Sanctuary so that he could not be attacked easily.

Then we moved into the middle chamber. Mor’Elandi and Tieran moved forward, or so we thought, we couldn’t really tell, invisible, you know, and silent.

As they moved into the room, we knew that they were away from us as we were able to hear our own breathing and the beating of our hearts. Our task was to stay there until he noticed or hit one of the two in the room, but Thaile and I realized that we could be more helpful than that and summon creatures to distract him. First, Thaile cast a Clairvoyance spell to see what he was doing, then we moved to a safe summoning location.

He seemed to be aware that someone was in the room and was looking around. Thaile summoned a Dire Wolf while I summoned three water elementals. The two were at the back of the room, we could see the water disappearing a bit away from the wall. The creature struck out wildly and some blood spattered from the direction Tieran had chosen to go.

Thaile’s wolf arrived first and was hit several times by the creature. Soon after, the three elementals were destroyed, but Kytum-up saw his opening and went in to help with the distraction and to aid the others if he could. I began casting to call lighting to smite the creature with.

Tieran made it back first, we know this because he cast a magic missile at the creature, harming it a bit, but negating his invisibility. He was bleeding, though not terribly injured. Kytum-up fought bravely, but was felled by the creature. Mor’Elandi picked him up on his way out of the room.

By this time, I was ready to throw my first lightning bolt, but I never got the opportunity. As Kytum-up and Mor’Elandi left the room, the creature simply melted into the water, saying “Thank you, you may summon me once.” Or something to that effect. The water stopped boiling, the steam cleared.

Apparently, we had completed the Mystery of Purity. I think it was the water being brought out from the font while the initiate was in the room and both leaving safely that ended the test.

We searched the room and found only a large copper disc. It was perhaps two feet across and weighed two pounds or so.

We left the room and went back to our resting spot, surprised that we had gotten through with no one dead. Kytum-up had needed several spells, he had been near death.

The death of Riva still weighing heavily on our minds, we rested and discussed what we should do next. As we set watches, we were undecided as to what our next action should be. Mor’Elandi and Thaile thought that we should leave and go back to town for more help. Kytum-up and I were for staying and working on the tests. Tieran seemed also to want to go back to town. I know that Riva would have been for continuing on our course and completing the tests.

We shall decide after we are rested. We must also burn Riva’s body, though I have cut a lock of his hair for his mother, or to reincarnate him should I find myself able to cast that spell before his soul has gone too far.

We also looked over the copper disc and identified what symbols we could.

Inscriptions around the edge (circular) and the middle (square) are part of the magic spell that binds the azer (Kerchik) to the disc. Moreover, the writing has a secondary effect, which we are unsure of. It has something to do with the ritually defaced symbol at the disc's center

God Symbols:
Howling Wolf: we don’t yet know which god this might be
Fire: Anwyn
Crown/Triad Symbols: The Three Sisters
Owl/Sword: Maal
Skull/Soot: Mormekar
Road/Moon: Darmon (heretical, according to Thaile)
Lyre/Feather: Aymara
Anvil/Hammer: Korak
Wave/Shell: Shalimyr
Flaming Tree w/ 5 fruits: Asmodeus
Divided Orb w/sun rays : Urian
Sheaf of Wheat: Rontra
Axe/Circles: Terak
Eye/9 Circles: Zheenkeef
Tower/Key: Tinel
Teardrop/White Flowers: Morwyn

Some of the symbols are in current use, some are ancient and no longer in use. Others contain elements of current symbols along with elements which are not commonly used.

The god’s symbols form a square, which surrounds a border enclosing four triangles with whatever was inside them ritually defaced. This seems to be what was what was binding the creature there.

Eliwyn is not represented and we have one symbol that we have not associated with any god as yet, the howling wolf.

It is also puzzling that Asmodeus is represented with the others. Of course, this thing is ancient, so who knows what the churches believed at that time.

I also remembered my conversation with Asmathias, it seems so long ago, yet it has only been a week, perhaps two. I consulted my earlier journal entry to be sure that I have it right.

"This is a place of beginnings....beginnings of my people, beginnings of many others....it is a sacred place, abandoned by the gods.....desecrated by the humans...... tended by the children of the old ones......

"The gods hide this place..........only one wants it found again.........

The great serpent's eye? It is a place of dreams at the beginnings....... Dreams now condemned by gods..... It is ancient......of an ancient race that once guarded these places.......it looks to its children........many things look to these children........dangerous things.....bright things........there is hope in the eye's light.”

So, I think that we may be on the way to the Great Serpent’s Eye, which is a place of dreams at the beginnings, which are now condemned by the gods. The place (Alder’s Look, I would assume) has been desecrated by humans (thus all the chisel marks on the walls). So, that would make Slythia and maybe even the Kobolds the children of the old ones.

I wonder which god wants this place found again.

By finishing these tests will we unleash something terrible upon the world? Or should we concentrate on the hope in the eye’s light?

I have thought of this too much, I must sleep and think of it later. Still, the disc has piqued my interest, I must try my best to convince the others that we must continue. I cannot let this puzzle alone, I must know the answers, even if I die trying to find out.

 

[Gina]

Session 26: We meet a new friend...

June 29th
The Trials of Alder’s Look: After the Mystery of Purity

We had discovered the Mystery of Purity, studied the copper disc, and spent the night grieving our lost companion. Riva was our friend and his loss weighs heavy on our minds. We discussed whether it was better to leave or to stay and work our way through the mysteries. In the end, we decided to continue on and leave if we found that we were in over our heads.

We discussed the disc at length, disagreeing about what some symbols might represent before coming to consensus. The wolf was recognized by Tieran after he had slept. He said that he recalled it being an ancient symbol for Canarak, an evil god of destruction. He had also identified the twisted dagger symbol as being of this god. We agreed that the tree symbol probably was of Asmodeus, since the more we looked at it, the tree did appear to be flaming.

So, off we went to Slythia to ask what the next part of the test should be. Once we reached her, Mor’Elandi asked again about all the mysteries. We ended up realizing that each of the nine mysteries would be a pair of principles. So, in all, eighteen tests to pass before we were done. So, not only are there more tests than we had thought, Mor’Elandi was right which is even worse.

We followed Slithia down the stairs to the next intersection. As we passed down the stair, Thaile noticed that there were some strange, pivoting stones near the top of the corridor. Tieran examined them and determined that there had once been a stone door here, long ago disintegrated.

When Slythia stopped, we saw passages to the left and right. Our next set of challenges were to explore the Mystery of Patience to our left, and to the right, the Mystery of Endlessness. We decided that if we were going to go through endlessness, we would need some patience. We chose patience.

And patience it did take, for the passage was blocked with large stones!

Kytum-up said that this was one of the Kobold’s traps, and that it shouldn’t be too large a blockage, perhaps ten feet or so in the corridor should open up, he thought. Inside would be levers and mining equipment.

So, we began to move rocks. I changed into a bear and we used a harness of rope to help me pull some rock out of the way. On a very large rock, I used Stone Shape to make it smaller. We worked for hours and then went back up to the maze to rest for a night.

June 30th
Back at working to clear the passage.

Thaile cast clairvoyance to a point fifteen feet beyond the beginning of the blockage. She saw darkness. We wondered if there was an end to the rubble, but kept moving rock, using my bear-strength and stone shape spells.

We worked for several hours until we were through to a short corridor which turned to the left about ten feet after the rubble ended. So, Thaile’s sensor had been viewing the inside of the stone wall. No wonder it had seen only darkness.

I moved first into the corridor, still in bear form, and turned the corner. I smelled something alive in the room. I also saw the bodies of four dead kobolds, dead a month or so, Mor’Elandi told us later. After a moment of looking, I could hear the others moving into the corridor behind me.

I moved closer, sniffing, and found the area where the creature was. Of course, I was still a bear and unable to speak, so I did what I could, sitting back on my haunches and using a paw to point in the direction of whatever was hiding in the rubble. They didn’t catch on.

I moved forward and saw a small kobold, hiding in the rubble, clutching a rapier. He was wearing armor and I could see a metal band on his head. He looked pretty scared. I sat back and let the others in. Kytum-up moved forward, looking first at the dead, then the one alive.

Kytum-up recognized the small kobold. He called him Kefk and embraced him, exclaiming that they had thought him dead. Maluki-kip will be happy to know that he is alive, it seems. Kefk’s explanation of how he had survived was that he had prayed to Kikuk and his answer seems to have been that he did not die. The others got sick and died, but he did not. He has had no food or water, yet he still lives. Strange.

I changed back to myself and offered the little kobold some food. He seemed to find it all very strange as Kytum-up gave him a quick overview of what had happened to the tribe and his own association with us, the surface dwellers. Kefk had never left the lair before, so he seemed quite interested in all of this. He seems to be very inquisitive. I suspect that he is also very young.

As Kytum-up explained, Thaile and I examined the bodies. Thaile was able to determine that they had died of some magical dust that had caused throat-rot. Not a pleasant way to die, but also strange that Kefk was still alive.

While talking with Kefk and Kytum-up we also gleaned some more information about the kobolds and the white light. Kytum-up’s tribe only numbered a few hundred, a sub-group within the kobold kingdom. The majority of the kobolds worshipped Kurtlemac (Tieran informed us that this would be a racial manifestation of one of the evil gods, probably Kador). When the light came, there was blind panic as it touched and killed many kobolds, though Kytum-up’s tribe did not lose anyone to the light. Interesting.

In the confusion and panic, Kefk was separated from the rest of his tribe and ran into this room with the other four kobolds. The passage collapsed behind them, though he did not know if it had been triggered by one of the others or not. Since then, he has been here, first with the others, then alone with only the dead for company.

Mor’Elandi seems very suspicious of Kefk, and I understand his caution. It seems odd that he survived here for so long.

Mor’Elandi took Kefk to see Slythia, and to ask more about the mystery of patience. She was able to tell us little more though. Mor’Elandi gets so frustrated talking to her. I find it quite amusing indeed.

We began working on clearing the rubble where Kefk had been hiding. We worked for a few hours, then left the rest for the next day.

July 1st
We have been away from Eaglesford for less than a month, yet it seems much longer.

We worked for a while clearing more rubble. This rubble was different, the rocks tabular in shape, definitely worked stone. As we cleared the corridor, we found that it led into a lager room. The rubble seems to have once been shelves that were set into the walls of this room. Here, as with other areas, the walls and high ceiling have been defaced. The shelves have been shattered and broken pieces lay scattered on the floor. As I moved to the far end of the room, to see where the doorway at that end led to, the others looked around in the rubble, coming up with a few shards of old clay tablets, smashed along with the shelves.

The next room was much the same, a little larger, ceiling about 25 feet up, shelves which had once been on the walls, now littering the floor smashed to bits. The ceiling and walls had been defaced here as well. At the opposite end of the room, there was another opening, a doorway. Beyond, I could hear someone speaking in Draconic. Of course, still being a bear, I couldn’t really say much, though I tried to gesture to Tieran, who was with me, that I had heard something, he didn’t seem to catch on. I really must work on a set of gestures that I can use to communicate with the others while I am an animal.

As I moved on to the next opening, the others looked in this room for more of the tiny shards of clay.
The next room was very large, the ceiling higher than I could see as Thaile raised her torch to give some light. At the far end of the room was the base of what had once been a large statue. Only the base remains, the rest utterly destroyed. The shelves from the walls of this room lay scattered in tiny pieces all around the room as well.

The source of the speech we had heard was in the center of the room. A human sized figure in a cloak huddled in the middle of the room, looking at something on the floor.

“Oh, this will not do at all. This is not the way it should be...” the figure said, over and over, seemingly speaking to himself. He sounded upset about something.

Kefk joined Thaile and I in the doorway and I turned back to my own form and moved slowly along the far wall toward the creature in the center of the room. Thaile, Kefk and Ktyum-up followed me into the room, staying at the wall near the door. I moved to where I was even with him and saw that he was indeed man sized, though his face was utterly featureless. No eyes, no mouth, only blank space where his face should be. He was also insubstantial, another ghost of this place, I guess.

His hands pushed at a few of the clay shards, as if he kept trying to put them together, but his hands moved through the pieces, moving them almost imperceptibly. I thought that maybe he needed some help, so I moved toward him, reaching for the pieces, asking if I could help.

This turned out to be the wrong course of action.

The man (or ghost) moved toward me, shooing me away as he told me that the test was not ready for the initiate yet. I must leave, he said. I backed up, but one of his hands hit me, hurting a bit and leaving me feeling as if I had lost some part of myself. I left the room quickly.

Thaile and Kefk moved into the room as the man shooed me out. Kytum-up tried to heal it (to harm it as we had undead before) but his hand and his magic passed through the creature, leaving it unharmed. As I left the room, Tieran moved closer and, using a mage hand spell, moved the piece of crockery tablet toward the ghost. As the piece floated before him, he followed it back to where he had left the others.

The other pieces were gone though. Thaile had pocketed them. She and Kefk were on the way out of the room by this time. The ghost went toward Kefk, touching him and hurting him as well, as he demanded the pieces back, still insisting that the test was not ready.

Tieran decided to try to reason with him, after his first idea, casting “control undead” had no effect. The agitated ghost did not hear him at first, but Thaile was able to put his pieces back in place. He seemed confused at the appearance of an extra piece along with his old ones. Pleased, but confused.

Tieran moved toward him, telling him that he cannot move the pieces, but that we can and would be happy to help him prepare. Tieran, who had collected all of our pieces, put the ones we had found with his and tried to help him.

“The mystery has been ruined, it is not ready.” The ghost said

As Tieran and Thaile spoke with him, we learned that we must put together one of the tablets (he called them the sacred scrolls). This was the library, he was the librarian until someone, he remembers little about who they might have been, broke in and destroyed the place. We noted that symbols which had once been on his robes had been removed, some torn off.

Tieran cast detect magic on the pieces and fell down, stunned. So, we began to meticulously search the rubble for pieces of the clay tablet, each taking an area and working systematically to ensure that we picked up enough pieces.

It took us five days to complete the tablet, searching and sifting through tiny pieces of rubble.

July 6th
We placed the final piece in the clay tablet and it glowed briefly as the whole thing fused together. We all looked at it and all, in unison, fell down, stunned as we read the words engraved upon it in Draconic. Mor’Elandi, who can not read Draconic (or speak it for that matter), was looking as well and fell stunned too.

When we awakened, we realized that in learning the mystery of patience, we were now able to concentrate more intensely, more easily.

As we left, I used a stone shape spell to make a shelf for the librarian to rest the reconstructed scroll upon. As we left, he seemed a little happier, but still was fretting about the state of his library.

We moved back to our camp for the night. We talked of many things. Kytum-up told us more about finding the idol. He and Maluk-i-kip had found it in a part of the lair they had not been to before. The hand of the god had been protruding from a wall, holding it. Maluk-i-kip had taken it from the hand and the voice of the god (Kikuk/Korok) had told them of the faith and they had taken the message back to the kobolds. They had converted several hundred before the light came and chased them out.

In the morning we will go to Slythia to begin the next test....The Mystery of Endlessness.

It sounds like it might take a long time to complete.

 

[Gina]

Session 27: We decide to go up for a breath of fresh air...

July 6th: Afternoon
Alder’s Look: We decide to go up for a breath of fresh air
We completed the Mystery of Patience. The Mystery of Endlessness is next.

We were walking back to our usual camping spot in the maze, when Thaile remembered the two dark figures we had seen on our first night at Alder’s Look. They were due back any time now. After a short discussion, we decided to go back up and see what was going on above us. Kefk was not very excited about seeing the above ground world, but he decided to come along anyway.

We guessed that it was mid-afternoon, so we decided to go right away, so we could spend a night beneath the stars rather than beneath the earth.

We moved to the stairway and began the long task of removing the rubble and replacing it behind us. Kytum-up was adamant that we do it this way. It took hours of work to get ourselves nearly out. During one of our rest breaks, when we were getting close to the end, I heard some voices speaking.

The voices were low and rough and spoke in Orcish. They were in the throne room. They spoke of looking for “them” (us, I think) and having lost the trail. They also spoke of retaking their homeland, saying that the king would sit “there”. They called themselves the Bloody Spear. They then spoke of getting rid of the bodies. I wondered what bodies, I thought we had burned all of the goblin bodies.

Suddenly, I was awfully glad that Kytum-up was so adamant about putting the rubble back behind us as we went down. They were unable to locate the door down.

I thought about sending Asmathias to seek, but then, I remembered that I can also be a snake. So, I changed to a viper and moved through the rubble into the throne room, after the voices were gone.

It was dark in there. I could see very little. I crawled over to one of the biers and cast a light spell on it. The throne room was empty. I crawled in the dark through the orcish baths toward the large room. I ended up at the edge of a new pit. Interesting. Then, after hearing and smelling nothing, I went back to the throne room.

I crawled through the rubble again and tried to tell the others that it was all clear.

Note to self: Really must work on some kind of signals for them to understand when I am in animal form, because they are not catching on.

After they got the message that it was ok to continue to clear the passageway, I slithered back out and took up a position at the doorway of the throne room, to listen for anyone coming.

An hour or so later, the others came out of the hole and soon after it was covered again, as if it had never been there.

I turned back into a human and we began to move toward the outdoors. We moved carefully, listening for sounds that might tell us we were not alone. We heard none. Mor’Elandi was following the trail of the orcs and it went up and out. We noted that the “new” pit I had discovered in the darkness was actually the pit in front of the room with the scary symbol. I must have gotten turned around in the dark.

We moved through the large room to the stairway, then up, always listening for danger. We made it to the intersection of death, then up through the hole in the ceiling (our nice flat rock was gone). Then up to the first level below ground, then through the tower. We saw nothing new, nothing that seemed to have changed radically while we were below.

Mor’Elandi had determined that there were nine orcs in the group we were tracking. One of them was wearing half plate. He seemed very anxious to follow them.
Kefk, our new kobold friend, kept asking why we were going above. He seemed most disconcerted about the whole idea. He is not nearly as brave as Kytum-up, though I suspect that he has different skills. Still, Thaile was the one next to him as we came up and she looked as if she was tired of the questions about why we do not live as Kobolds. Finally, I told him that we are not kobolds and so do not live as they do. He still doesn’t get it, but hopefully, he will soon see that it is better to be in the sun and wind than in the darkness of caverns deep beneath the earth.

When we reached the courtyard in the center of the towers, it was dusk, we had an hour or so until dark.

Mor’Elandi and I went to follow the trail of the orcs, while the others went to get a view of the area from the top of Tower 2. They didn’t see much of anything, except growing darkness over the valley below.

Mor’Elandi and I moved on, his owl ranging ahead looking for the Orcs. We followed the trail to the edge of the keep, seeing that they had left and noting the direction. After she had gone about a mile, Mor’Elandi’s owl had, he thought, found the camp.

As the others came down from the tower, we discussed what we should do next. Tieran and Mor’Elandi thought that we should go and take care of the orcs, since we might be able to catch them off guard. After a bit of discussion, we decided to go after the orcs. I suspect that it was more than an little bit significant that we had spent days picking through rubble and were just looking for something different to do. Well, we found some excitement.

We moved off through the forest, in the direction that Mor’Elandi’s companion led us. They seem to have a signal worked out, she flies back and forth and he follows to find whatever it is she has found. When he is very near his goal, she perches on his shoulder to let him know that they are there. Interesting.

Thaile’s ever burning torch was our only light as we moved through the darkened forest. The others were having quite a time getting through, since the underbrush is quite thick in these woods. I, happily, do not have that problem.

As we walked, Tieran informed us proudly that he has thunder balls today. We all smiled and nodded as we do when he makes such pronouncements.

Kefk and Mor’Elandi scouted ahead, having better vision in the dark than the rest of us. They moved forward, finding the orcs by the loud voices from their camp. Mor’Elandi cast a shield spell, but unfortunately, they heard his casting.

They moved out of their camp and fanned out to find us. They had a dog with them, it would be able to locate us with scent. Mor’Elandi tried to distract them by having his owl fly out as if it had been flushed by their movements. It didn’t work and they found him.

He fled, leading them directly to us.

As they closed, one of them fired an arrow, hitting Kytum-up. Tieran cast one of his thunder balls. It was actually, quite impressive, and felled at least one, maybe two of the orcs.

One of the orcs had a short spear, half plate, and was enlarged. He was near the back of the group though. There was also a spellcaster, though we didn’t determine which of them it might be. The archer and the dog stayed at a distance, shooting arrows at us to devastating effect, until Tieran cast a web, blocking his view of us.

The battle was long and hard. I, once again, almost died, but in the end we prevailed. We had killed nine orcs. The archer had escaped. As they were fighting us, they called out insults and comments about clearing the homeland for the great king. I am not certain what this means, but it cannot be good.


When we searched the area where we had seen the archer and the dog, there were no tracks from an orc, only the tracks of the dog. When we searched the camp, we determined that the dog had come from a different direction and had not been one of those at Alder’s Look.

I wonder if the archer was a Druid. I suppose an orc could be one. It would explain the dog and the lack of tracks.

In the camp we found two bags of goblin bones, maybe five or six bodies, partially complete, with skulls. I wonder what they were taking them for.

In all, between the camp and the bodies, we found some coins, a very nice composite longbow, A chain shirt, not magical, but nice enough anyway, the half plate armor which is of human manufacture, with an image on it of a bloody spear holding some sort of bloody thing. Tieran was sure he saw the spell caster wearing, though it does not look to be magical. A greataxe of Cold Iron (Riva would have been so excited to see it) called “Black Metal Wedge”, a magical short spear with its name in orcish “Blood Stained”, and a magical belt covered with orcish writing and symbols for Strength and Power. Mor’Elandi is going to try it out and see if it can make him strong enough to pull Riva’s bow.

(End of Session 27)

 

[ledded]

Cool campaign and Story Hour, I look forward to what happens next. Great work.