Session 5
As scribed by Roku Gimball
As soon as possible we gather to discuss how best to proceed. We are all in agreement that we must act to prevent FO's plans from succeeding. We enquire around town as to whether anyone has any knowledge of his name but find no clues at all. No-one at the library or at the Church of Pelor has any information of any value.
Allustan has left us a message that he would appreciate our return to Diamond Lake to continue to help him, and based on his interest and valuable input last time we sought his assistance, we decide to return there to counsel with him. We quickly make the return journey, seek him out and tell him all we know.
He tells us the following:
- A group of adventurers from Greyhawk is in the area. They intend to investigate the ‘Stirgenest Cairn’, one of many cairns in the vicinity. Even though most of them have been well searched and looted, this group believes the Stirgenest Cairn still contains some important secrets. This group consists of Auric, the holder of the Champions belt of Greyhawk, a female elf called Tirra and is led by Khellek, a member of the “Seekers”, a group who thirst for ancient knowledge and use it for personal power and gain.
- Allustan is a member of the “Order of Arcane Mystery”, also a group interested in ancient knowledge but who use it for the good of all. So Allustan is particularly keen to see the Seekers fail in their activities.
- Allustan also knows of a second cairn – the “Whispering Cairn”, reported to be haunted, which he believes contains undiscovered secrets pertaining to the ancients originally from this region. He suggests we investigate this cairn first and try to beat the Seekers in their hunt.
- Allustan further tells us that 2 days previously, a fight at a local tavern, the Feral Dog, had left one man dead. This individual was new to the town, and had been found possessing a symbol of Vecna when his body was buried. Allustan suspects a connection between groups holding allegiance to Vecna in both Greyhawk and Diamond Lake – and believes we can find out more about FO by following up this tenuous lead.
He promises to reward us should we find items of value to return to him, so we hastily venture to the Whispering Cairn, only an hour or so from where we currently sit. Its a simple journey – and the entrance easy to find for one of Traeven's skills.
Dog-like tracks surround the entrance area. We enter a wide dark corridor with rough hewn walls, a dusty floor with more paw prints and clumsy unskilled etchings on the walls. There is an eerie soft wind howling all around us.
We find a few mouldy piles of rubbish, scattered clothing – and notice a faint flickering green light in the distance. The corridor opens out on both sides into a large oval alcove. We investigate – and on one side find a small marble platform supporting a strange arcane symbol which appears somewhat broken. It is surrounded by some damaged pieces of a shiny black stone-like material (possibly obsidian) and we collect some for Allustan.
Cirian examines the object and tells us it is covered with runes and glyphs telling of air elementals, written in their language, that of Vaati – an ancient form of Auran. He cannot read its specifics but there is word of "transportation". We take rubbings and copies – and move on.
The opposite alcove is hopelessly blocked by a great fall of rubble – so we proceed further northward down the main corridor. We are suddenly confronted by 3 wolves but have little trouble disposing of them.
We find their den filled with detritus – but discover an old leather bag containing a beautiful ornate lantern with indigo coloured glass panels, and also a marble finger broken from a statue, and a lovely carved leather armband sporting a repeating leaf motif, unmistakenly elven in form. We keep all three and move on.
On the other side of the corridor is a large, faded fresco painted on the walls. It shows a large room with 7 hallways exiting from it like spokes from a wheel. At the end of each hallway a chain hangs from the ceiling ending in a lantern exactly like the one I now have in my backpack.
The 7 lanterns are coloured, clockwise around the circle, in Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo and Violet.
We continue, burning our way past a thick blockage of spiders webs, down a wide stairway and emerge in a huge chamber. The 7 hallways can be clearly seen. We are obviously in the room depicted by the fresco above.
The lanterns can be observed hanging some 5 feet from the floor – the other end of the chain disappears into the lofty heights of the room. The green lantern is emitting a faint flickering light from an everburning torch and the red and indigo lanterns are missing from their chains.
There is a large marble sarcophagus in the middle of this room with the bas relief of a very tall human-like figure on it. He is clothed in flowing cloth, is quite without any hair, of indeterminate gender, and has one of his fingers broken off. He wears a scarab amulet around his neck.
The sarcophagus sits on a raised platform carved like an arrow – pointing West down the Orange hallway.
We search the area carefully, very keen to find the missing red lantern. Nothing. Aramil looks in the sarcophagus, taking minor damage from a trap, but it is otherwise empty. As we search we notice that, under each of the lanterns positions, there is a 5 foot circle etched into the floor – but otherwise find nothing of use.
I am able to successfully reattach the broken finger to the figure on the sarcophagus, but again, this seems to achieve no response.
We return to the fresco on the wall and try to compare it to the room below – and notice that, in the picture, the sarcophagus is aligned differently. In the picture it is pointing to the North – 90 degrees from where it now sits.
We move back to the sarcophagus and try and force it to rotate on its base. As it moves we feel a clicking, a great rumbling underfoot and at the end of the Yellow hallway a 5 foot diameter metal cylinder rises out of the ground some 8 feet above the floor. 2 thin doors open in its surface revealing the cylinder to be hollow inside, but with a stone cap which perfectly matches the floor when it descends.
We decide to put one of the wolf carcasses inside and immediately the doors close and the cylinder descends. We attempt to return the sarcophagus to its former position, intrigued by what may have happened to the wolf’s body, but all our combined strength will not move it again.
So we now push it further in the opposite direction again – towards the Green position.
This time there is an agonising creaking of stone on stone. The floor buckles under the Green lantern and the stone circle cracks. No cylinder rises, but instead we hear the skittering noise of millions of tiny feet.
Then a living geyser of beetles bursts from the hole and we are attacked by the swarm. This is a hard battle indeed – made harder still when a large spider like creature joins them to fight us. Most of our weapons and powers are useless against them, but we prevail in the end.
Looking down the hole we see the damaged cylinder and decide to go down there – still keen to find the missing red lantern and complete the image of the room above. Ezio takes the everburing torch from the Green lantern and we all easily climb down.
Below, we are only able to move further to the north – other directions are blocked. Dozens of bas relief figures line the walls as we move down yet another corridor. We shortly come to a cross path. To the right we see a small low shelf covered with a thick orange coloured paste with many more small beetles appearing to feast on it.
Again they swarm and attack us – helped by their dam, a massive ugly beast which advances aggressively. Another difficult fight but we are again successful, killing the large beetle and burning the nest.
We discover, caught up in the orange paste of the nest, the skeletized remains of 3 humans. They wear the red leather armour and sport the 8 pointed star symbol of the Seekers. A careful search finds 3 potions, a pearl, and a beautiful ring.
We then go to the other arm of the 4 way cross in the pathway. We find ourselves in a room with 8 man-sized stone slabs spaced out in the room. Each is some 4 feet raised off the floor, and one supports the corpse of a warrior clad in the characteristic red leather armour we are now familiar with. He appears to have been terribly crushed and beaten by a massive weapon of some kind.
We are attacked by yet another large beetle but are able to kill it with relative ease, even though some of our party are being affected by this room. They are becoming sorely tired and incapable of much effective action.
We see a large statue in this room, of a great warrior armed with a huge stone club. The state of the corpse on the slab makes us suspect that this statue may indeed be a stone or clay gollum, and coupled with the tiring effects of this room, this knowledge makes us very unwilling to linger here any longer. We leave – and thankfully the fatiguing effects felt by Aramil and Traeven immediately lift.
We continue to the north – 30 feet forward we see more stone steps leading further downward. On we go. May Blerred protect me and my valiant companions.