THE STORY SO FAR
CHAPTER 1: THIEVES IN THE NIGHT
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Following the glow in the cave’s passageway, each of you emerged from the black tunnel into a large and many entranced cavern somewhat lit at the center of its rocky floor by a green fire being replenished with thin blood-red logs by two skinny, raggedy-tunicked, sharp-eyed boys who looked to be the typical street urchin fare of Lankhmar or Ilthmar or any other decadent city. One had a puckered scar under his left eye. On the other side of the fire from the boys on a low wide stone throne sat an obscenely fat figure so well cloaked and hooded that not a speck of his face or hands were visible. He seemed to be sorting through a large pile of parchment scraps and potsherds, pinching hold of them through the dark fabric of his overlong, dangling sleeves, and scanning them close-sightedly, almost putting them inside his hood.
This figure introduced himself as Ningauble of the Seven Eyes, an apt name you soon discovered due to the seven eyes which bobbed about inside his hood on long eyestalks. Tempting each of you with treasure, information, or both, he watched as you proved that you have what it takes to be adventurers in his employ. The acrobatic Sly cartwheeled around the cavern; the bellicose Grym impressed Ningauble with his excellent swordsmanship; the mysterious Nazvaroth ensorcelled the cavern fire; the disguised Emmanuel communicated with Ningauble by forming psionic eyestalks similar to, but a bit more droopy than, those of Ningauble; and the spirited Dark Vanden attempted to impress the wizard with his sneakiness, but the wizard’s many eyestalks easily located Vanden as he snuck around behind the throne. Still, for first level adventurers, you managed to impress the wizard, and he asked you to retrieve the Hand of Ohmphal, a former guildmaster of the Thieves’ Guild, from its display case in the guildhall. Time is of the essence, though, for tomorrow the hand will be moved to an undisclosed location. For your assistance, Ningauble promised a cauldron of gold rilks as well as gifting the party with a full blade eager to enter the fray of battle. |
As you left Ningauble’s caves, you felt the intense longing that brought you to the caves in the first place dissipate. Were you brought there by your own free will, or did the sorcerous Ningauble place a geas upon you? There was no time for contemplating that at the moment; you accepted a quest and off you went…
You rode toward Ilthmar but turned west before reaching the City of the Rat. That brought you to the Sinking Land. The westward-leading isthmus of dark brown rock was salt-filmed and here and there sea-puddled. Southward gleamed the placid blue waters of the Sea of the East, northward the restless gray waters of the Inner Sea and the glinting squat towers of Ilthmar.
At first, the ground wasn’t that bad. It was still rocky and sandy from the coast near Ilthmar. You made relatively good time crossing here. Suddenly, you felt the ground beneath you give a great lurch, and the Great Salt Marsh seemed to rise in front of you. No, that’s not right. The ground you were standing on began to sink. The entire earth was sinking beneath your feet! The rocky and sandy land gave way to land that was much wetter and gravely, making the going much slower. You took great care to keep your footing on the loose stones here. Then, just as you were nearing the opposite coast, the ground gave a great popping sound and began to sink into the sea. The water came rushing across the Sinking Land faster and faster, and you found yourselves up to your waists in brackish seawater.
From behind came a mounting, rumbling, snarling roar that suddenly rose to a crashing climax. Looking back, you saw the foam-fronted raging waters of the Inner Sea to the north and the Sea of the East to the south rushing to sink the great stone shield now that its gaseous support was gone. There was a great starburst of waters—not gray, but ghostly white in the remaining light from the west—where the waves of the Inner Sea had met the rollers of the Sea of the East. You thank whatever gods you hold dear that you made it across the Sinking Land before the deluge consumed you!
After your harrowed trek across the Sinking Land, you reached the opposite coast. In the dimming light, you saw the Great Salt Marsh loom before you. As you crossed the marsh, you noticed the screeching and chirruping sound of thousands of wetland insects. You noticed little animal life, and the plant life there seemed to have adapted to growing in the mucky wetlands. Reeds, cattails, and other marshland fauna dotted the countryside. Despite the dimming light, you did notice a path that, more or less, seemed a bit less overgrown than the rest.
Following the road, you made great time crossing the marsh. Each of you breathed a sigh of relief as the city lights of Lankhmar’s tallest towers and minarets came into view. One last bridge over the murky waters and you’d be home free. But it’s never that easy, is it? Not for adventurers. At that moment, Sly and Nazvaroth noticed a rippling underneath the waters, but there was no time to shout a warning before a huge swamp behemoth reared its ugly head looking for an evening meal.
Though the beast managed to seize poor Grym in its jaws and swallow him whole, Grym never gave up fighting, even in the belly of the beast. Unwilling to release its hard-won meal, even at the powerful suggestion of Emmanuel, the beast was finally felled from the inside by Grym, who just had to get out of there; the inside of that beast stunk worse even than Sly.
Just as you felled the great behemoth, something very large came lumbering through the trees and undergrowth. At first, you thought it might be the behemoth’s larger cousin, or maybe even the behemoth’s larger mother coming to protect her young. Imagine your surprise, when you saw that this lumbering mass was actually a large hut built on a platform supported by three sticklike legs that bent at a round joint, allowing it to walk through the swamp. From this high perch descended another robed figure whose hooded face could not be seen. She introduced herself as Sheelba of the Eyeless Face, and she asked the party to take care of a little matter for her. In exchange for a promised reward of gold, a wire of wizard warping, and armor that resists poison, Sheelba asked the party to dispatch a pesky upstart nethermancer named Hristomilo who is in the employ of the Thieves’ Guild. This shouldn’t inconvenience your quest from Ningauble, however, because Hristomilo’s quarters and summoning chamber are located inside the guildhouse that was already your destination. Parting ways with Sheelba, you traveled the short rest of the way to Lankhmar, the city that made Sly the man he is today…
Coming to the Marsh Gate, the gate leading from the Great Salt Swamp into Lankhmar, you were stopped and questioned by the guards due to the late hour and the infrequent use of the gate. You managed to allay their fears, however, with some well-placed diplomatic dealings, bluffing, bribing, and besting at physical games. Oh, and there was Sly who managed to sneak in through the gate while the guards were distracted by the armwrestling match.
Having entered Lankhmar, City of the Black Toga, you placed an ear on the street to gather what information you might about the Hand of Ohmphal. Coming up empty, you decided to take a more direct approach and reconnoiter the Thieves’ Guildhouse to see what could be learned.
CHAPTER 2: THE SEA KING'S DOMAIN
CHAPTER 3: AH, SWEET MOTHER LANKHMAR AT LAST I'VE FOUND THEE
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10/17/2013Having defeated the undead in Lord Dunstan's burial chamber, the group rested and Nazvaroth performed the Comrade's Succor ritual, that sweet sacrament which allowed our dear comrades to trade their very life essences. Afterward, the adventurers promptly plundered the large, ornate sarcophagus. Inside, the party found: gold rilks, silver smerduks, and bronze agols totaling 2004 gold (or 334 gold per PC when divvied up); a crystal shard that glowed with a brilliant inward radiance (Shard of Radiance); a belt with a glinting diamond in the budkle (Diamond Cincture); and an intricate golden crown fit for a philosopher, a king, or the proverbial philosopher king (Philosopher's Crown).
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The party also found the journal they had been seeking, a tightly bound leather journal with golden filigree on the cover that, itself, looks very valuable notwithstanding the trove of information inside of it. Upon opening the journal, most of the writing inside was found to be encoded. There were still illustrations and maps that were discernable by the party, as well as the mysterious frontispiece and various other loose leaf notes that were written in the common tongue and stuck between the pages of the journal. The frontispiece displayed a nobly clad individual writing in a journal that very much resembled the one in your hands. The inscription "Inixt Kramvs" was revealed to be the ceremonial name of Lord Dunstan in Old Lankhmarese. For some reason that he could not quite place, Sly found the inscription familiar. One of the letters drew the party's attention. Legibly written in Lankhmarese, the letter reads:
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As the party surveyed the burial chamber, they noticed the outline of what appeared to be a secret door, a hidden exit from the tomb, behind the ornately crafted thrones in the room. The party began to hear faint knocking and scraping sounds, as of metal on stone, and surmised that the members of the Thieves' Guild must not be far behind. In an effort to decide their next course of action, Nazvaroth enchanted the thief's finger worn around Sly's neck using the Hand of Fate ritual. The finger indicated that the greatest danger lay in the unexplored tomb but that the greatest loot lay beyond the secret door. Deciding to eschew danger in favor of easily won loot, the party reactivated the magical barrier in the room to thwart the guild thieves still in the tomb and followed the secret exit. The narrow exit passage led slightly upward and curved to the north, beneath what the party would learn is the Noble District of Lankhmar. Ending in a small chamber with a ladder leading up to a trapdoor on the ceiling, Kellogg bravely tried to open the door, but it wouldn't budge. After some help from Grym, the two managed to open the door ever so sligtly. The sound of something heavy sliding off the top of the door as it opened attracted attention, and a female's voice spoke in the near darkness, "What was that?" A male voice spoke reassuringly, "I didn't hear anything. Ignore it."
Deciding to press onward, Kellogg gave a mighty heave, throwing the door completely open, and climbed up into the room. The room was found to be a basement storeroom filled with barrels and crates of mostly foodstuffs, but antique furniture and portraits lined the walls. As he roared up out of the floor, a female clad in the attire of a serving girl rose from behind a pile of crates, gave a startled glance at Kellogg, and shrieked "Robbers!!!!!" before running up the stairs. A moment later, a man clad in a valet's garments rose from behind the same crates and started to speak before thinking better of it and making a break for the stairs himself, pulling up his pants as he went, his act of coitus thusly interrupted. Following them to the top of the stairs, Kellogg cracked the door and realized they were in the basement of a noble's home judging by the ornate tapestries and furniture that adorned the hallway. Locking the door, he came back down the stairs to yells of alarm from above. The party decided it would be better to turn back than to face the whatever guards or authorities were at the door.
As the party retreated back down the secret passage, they noticed that one of the portraits stored in the basement had the familiar mug and unmistakable greasy coiffure of a member of their own party--Sly. They quickly stuffed the portrait down through the trapdoor, cut it from its frame, and stored it in the Bag of Holding along with two casques of fine Quarmallian toadstool wine pilfered from the basement larder. The frame bore a small plaque with the inscription "Inixtvs Kramvs", and the party recalled that since "Inixt Kramvs" was the ceremonial name of Lord Dunstan, the Lankhmart naming conventions would indicate that the figure depicted on the portrait was a descendant of Lord Dunstan.
Leaving the secret passage and heading back into the tomb, the party decided to explore the remaining door from the chamber with the large hole in the center. Kellogg charged forward down the bone-strewn hallway with Grym a few feet behind, only to discover that the walls shot out scorching jets of flame! Sly and Vanden made quick work in disabling the pipes that supplied the flammable liquid to the jets, and the party continued forward to find a large room with seven pillars spaced about the room that rose thirty feet from a spike-filled floor below. A red jewel with swirling red lights inside hung suspended above one of the columns, and the sound of the metal scraping and biting into the stone grew much louder here. Kellogg took a rope and jumped across the room to the farthest pillar, sending his gouge to snap the small rope suspending the jewel from the ceiling. As it hit the pillar below, it began to roll, and Sly, through an amazing feat of acrobatics, used his belt to slide across the rope, luckily catching the jewel at the last possible second in the folds of his trousers which had fallen to his ankles for want of a belt.
Having thus recovered the powerful red jewel (Power Jewel), Nazvaroth used his lightning to crack several key pillars in the room to thwart the thieves' means of ingress deeper into the tomb. The party retreated back to the large chamber with the hole in it, and they proceeded to lower Kellogg down to investigate. Kellogg's light showed a rocky chamber with a small pool of water and several small holes lining the walls. It became apparent what made the holes when hordes of rats began pouring out and attacking. The rats were dispatched quickly, and Vanden investigated the room, poisoning the rats' water source and finding two hardened leather decanters of as-yet unidentified liquid inside.
Deciding not to risk going back up the secret passageway just yet, the party laid an ambuscade for the thieves in the tomb. Kellogg waited for the scoundrels to break through a secret stone door, taunting the captain of the thieves and then promptly running deeper into the tomb in hopes of luring them into the burial chamber where he and Grym lay in wait hidden in sarcophagi and the rest of the party stood hidden behind the magic wall. |
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10/24/2013Having set the trap, the heroes waited in the burial chamber for the thieves to blunder into the ambush. After securing the chamber with the deep chasm just outside the main burial chamber, the thieves took a cautious approach in their attempt to track down Kellogg. They began by throwing some thin burning sticks into the room that created thick smoke to try to mask their approach. Our brave heroes were not fooled by this tactic, however, as they continued to wait even as one of the thieves entered the chamber and set some clockwork bombs to roam around the room. Other thieves entered the room, followed by their courageous leader who instructed them from the rear. Unable to detect the two warriors hidden in the sarcophagi, the petty thieves blundered about the room trying to investigate whilst the leader, grown quite impatient at the ineptitude of his underlings, rushed to Kellogg's coffin and tore open the lid. At first, the brave heroes mostly sniped the unsuspecting bastards from behind the protection of the magical wall, but as the thieves' numbers dwindled, our heroes rushed into melee and quickly dispatched those who tried to flee in hopes of reporting back to the Thieves' Guild. On the bodies of the slain cutpurses, the party found unused alchemical items consisting of 2 flasks of dragonfire tar, 2 clockwork bombs, and 2 smoke snakes.
Kellogg took a few moments to clean off his fine noble clothes and left the mausoleum first, telling the others they would meet back up later this evening. As he started down the path out of the Noble's Necropolis, however, he noticed that the graves on either side of the path oped wide and spat forth their restless dead, rotting zombies who seemed instinctually drawn to Kellogg. The berserker's comrogues bravely charged after him into battle; and lucky for Kellogg it was that his friends had his back, as the two zombies who rushed toward him managed to knock him unconscious. An odd sight it was to see this stout berserk unconscious and bleeding on the ground, but an even stranger sight came as one of the restless dead bent over and started to rifle through Kellogg's belongings as if it were looking for something. Through sheer strength of will, Kellogg regained consciousness and helped the party dispatch the undead as well as the rot grub swarms that burst from the corpses. As the necropolis guards came running to investigate, the party dispersed, not wanting to have to explain the plundered tomb.
As Kellogg ran off alone, eager to check on his beloved animal companion Heill, he couldn't help but notice that more of the graves in the necropolis began to stir... but he did not stay to find out what unnatural monstrosities were vomited forth. Instead, he made his way toward the Marsh Gate, outside of wihch he had left Heill to frolic in the wetlands near the city. As he neared the gate, he stopped at a swineherd's stall to buy a goat for Heill's nourishment. As he completed the transaction, his attention was drawn to the adjacent Mingol butcher's shop where a beheaded chicken began to flop on the butcher's block. Taken aback for a moment at the strange occurrence, the butcher lost no time in cleaving the rest of the chicken to pieces. Kellogg couldn't help but wonder why all the dead things near him were suddenly coming back to life...
As he walked toward the Marsh Gate leading his newly acquired goat, Kellogg noticed the street was unusually busy with people heading out of the city. Despite his short time in Lankhmar, he had discovered that the Marsh Gate was the city's least-used entry point, mostly used by incoming or departing merchants and traders. So, imagine Kellogg's surprise when he found the gates flung wide and a throng of people leaving the city en masse. Kellogg soon found an answer to his many questions; over the past day, a caravan of circusfolk had crossed the Salt Marsh and set up a carnival on the solid ground just outside the city's gates. The wagons were neatly lined up on either side of the narrow path leading into the city, and all manner of entertainments were being offered. Games, food, plays, curiosities, and more were available, and Lankhmar's populace was readily availing themselves of all the carnival had to offer. Kellogg wondered at the multitude of people here; he had never seen so many bodies in such a small space at once, and he thought that truly Lankhmar itself must be fully unpeopled with all its citizens outside the gates!
But he put these concerns to rest for the nonce, and he made his way to the edge of the marshland to call for Heill. As he blew his great horn to call his beast to him, he heard the mournful whimpering song of his longtime companion coming not from deeper into the marsh but from behind him, back in the midst of the carnival! |
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10/31/2013Having heard the cries of Heill, Kellogg turned round and headed back toward the wagons, determined to find his wayward companion. Still leading his newly acquired goat, Kellogg found a throng of onlookers surrounding a wagon filled with a cage holding Heill. Kellogg demanded that the wolf be freed, but the barker overseeing the wagon refused. Deciding not to risk a contest of arms at the moment, Kellogg secured the goat to the wagon's side, climbed atop the wagon's roof, and waited to speak with the Captain. The Captain did not return for many hours, affording Kellogg the chance to catch some rest. He did notice, however, that as the carnival's guests walked by him, a few times during his long wait the roasted turkey legs or mutton sandwiches they were holding began to writhe and wriggle, as if returned to life! Not being the strangest happening to occur to him lately, Kellogg dismissed these events quickly, preferring to wait for Captain Gallius' arrival to sort things out.
Meanwhile, the rest of the party made their way back to the Plaza of Dark Delights to the shop of Hengel whom they had visited the day before. As they moved south through the city, they couldn't help but notice that the streets were much emptier than they should have been in the afternoon. In the Plaza of Dark Delights, many shops and stalls were closed, and only a few merchants were selling their wares. Luckily, Hengel was open for business. He informed the party that most people in town have made their way outside the Marsh Gate to a traveling fair that had rolled in across the Great Swamp yesternight.
While the party rested, Hengel (under the watchful study of Nazvaroth) was able to perform a ritual to create a near-perfect replica of Dunstan's journal, albeit with a few facts, locations, and dates changed to render the book much less useful to Jenks. Hengel informed the party that the magic replica would only stay intact for a matter of days before it began to disintegrate and return to its component materials. With the knowledge that they were intentionally giving a false journal to Jenks and knowing that he would soon discover their treachery, the party decided to meet with the member of the Thieves' Guild anyway. They met in the narrow Rat's Alley and Jenks appeared, ostensibly alone, but the party couldn't help hearing faint noises as if they were surrounded. Jenks seemed genuinely interested in the party's adventures in the tomb, particularly in the way they were able to bypass the many traps, and he left with the fake journal in hand none the wiser to the party's fakery. Still, the party got the distinct impression that Jenks would be a formidable enemy.
The party then made its way outside the Marsh Gate to the makeshift fair that had sprung up on the patch of semisolid land just outside Lankhmar's walls. Every manner of entertainment was available, including games, food, oddities, fortune tellers, tests of strength, illusion magic, and sultry ladies of the night. The party chose not to avail itself of these delights just yet, instead locating their friend Kellogg atop a wagon. After explaining that he was waiting on the Captain, the party realized the group who had set up the carnival to be the People. The party collectively remembered the following information about the People, gathered from past rumors and readings:
As the party waited for the Captain to return to the camp so as to rectify the most aggresious situation regarding the captivity of poor Heill, Nazvaroth noticed another instance where someone's sandwich came to life as the frightened fairgoer tried to take a bite of it. So, Nazvaroth did what came naturally--he picked up the discarded meat from the ground and began to study it. To be sure, whatever was causing the meat to animate was heavily necrotic in nature. . . |
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11/7/2013The party did not have long to wait for Gallius to return. In the distance, coming up the path between two rows of wagons, they saw an imposing figure silhouetted against the torchlight. He emerged into the light from the direction of the city's gates, sat down a heavy sack he was carrying with a loud metallic jingle, and headed over to the party after a wave from the barker who was still overseeing Heill's cage. The Captain, dressed in true gypsy fashion, introduced himself as the leader of this caravan and told you his name was Gallius. Kellogg demanded that Heill be released to him, but the Captain refused, saying that they found the creature wandering the great marsh alone and had captured him, so he was by right theirs. Besides, they had paid for food to fill the beast's stomach, and the fearsome beast was quite a money-making attraction for them. Ever-brash, Kellogg broke open the cage, led Heill out, mounted him, and began to ride away. The stouts of the camp immediately went on alert and began moving after Kellogg, but the Captain waved his hand and offered another solution. He would release the wolf tot he party on the condition that the party help him make up for the revenue he would lose by getting rid of the beast. The party assented and began to entertain the crowed, raking in lots of bronze agols, silver smerduks, and gold rilks in the process. Through feats of daring acrobatics, illusory magic, and a great hypnosis-enduced performance by Kellogg, the Captain and the rest of the People were pleased. They were so pleased, in fact, that the Raunie, Elderia, offered to let the party travel south with them--so long as they continued to perform. South was just the direction the party had planned to go--in search of that fabled treasure house of Urgaan.
Just when the situation seemed resolved, the mystic seer Kleo saw the newly acquired jewel that Kellogg pulled from his backpack; her eyes clouded over and she began spouting dire warnings of a great evil that Kellogg carried with him. The party then surmised that since the jewel was found in Dunstan's tomb, it might be responsible for the reanimation of the undead both inside and outside the tomb and for the reanimation of all foodstuffs in the vicinity of Kellogg. Elderia refused to let the party travel with the caravan as long as it carried such a dangerous item, so the party went in search of one whom they thought might be able to rid the gem of its necromantic properties--Hengel.
The party knocked up the sleeping dwarf, who reluctantly let them inside his shop in the wee hours of the night. After explaining the situation, he said he knew of a ritual that might undo the necrotic magic of the gem, but it required two things--some of Lord Dunstan's blood and an altar inbued with the necessary magic. He knew where to find the altar--a temple on the Street of the Gods possessed the needed altar, but it had recently suffered a fire and was undregoing reconstruction. The point was academic, anyway, because Dunstan had been dead for two centuries--how could his blood be acquired? After much thinking, Hengel indicated that the blood of a close relative might do; but where would they find one of Dunstan's descendents? At that moment, the party remembered the striking resemblence of Sly to the portrait labeled as a descendent of Lord Dunstan, so they placed a few drops of his blood onto the gem. The gem instantly began to glow blood-red, and Hengel knew he had found Dunstan's blood.
The party made its way to the burned-out temple and began the ritual. Hengel had almost completed when the party saw a flash of light and wispy beings descend through the ceiling into the large statues that dominated the temple. The statues jolted to life and began making for Hengel. The party intervened, however, and protected Hengel while Nazvaroth helped him to complete the ritual. When the statues were dispatched, the spirits animating them emerged and attempted to turn the party members into statues themselves! Zara particularly felt his arms and feet becoming very heavy, like stone, but he was able to shrug off the petrification effects before they became permanent. The spirits dispatched, the party quickly dealt with the remaining priest who had wandered in from behind the temple and attacked, apparently trying to protect the altar. The priest was quickly decapitated, and the party finally had time to catch their breath.
During the short rest, Hengel tossed Nazvaroth a gold rilk. He explained that he was able to harness the necrotic powers of the gem and imbue the coin with a fraction of their energy. As such, the coin might be used to reanimate dead creatures, albeit in a much weaker state.
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11/21/2013The party bade farewell to Hengel and returned to the People's camp just as dawn was breaking; they found most of the wagons already packed up and ready to go. The caravan traveled south through the vast grain fields of the Lankhmar continent, stopping occassionally at some of the larger serf settlements to put on a small show with the party's help. As you traveled, you participated in the People's Blooding Ceremony to become "official" members of the tribe (which opens up the Vistani Heritage feat if you want to take it later). The party also decided to get its forune told by Miss Kleo who invited each member into her tent in turn. She peered into her crystal ball, spoke with the spirits, and saw beyond the future's thin veil to see what was in store for our brave heroes. She told each of you the following:
After deciding to leave the caravan where they stopped in the village of Soreev, not wishing any further delay, the party made southeast along a small roadway toward the two hills bent like camels. As you were nearing the hills, a particularly strong thunderstorm blew in, so the party took shelter at the Sirensong Inn, a quaint hostelry where you bedded down for the evening. The elderly inkeeper welcomed you warmly, offering you food and drink. Rebuffing her offer of gruel, Kellogg cooked up a nice stew for the party. After dinner, the party retired for the evening to the guest rooms on the second floor. Nazvaroth bunked alone and stayed up well into the evening reading from Dunstan's journal, Vanden shacked up with a tawny-skinned female he found sitting by the fireplace in the common room, Grym stayed in a room with Zara, and only the fierce Northern warrior Kellogg was courageous enough to bed down with Sly.
All did not go well that evening, though, for as the party dozed and slumbered, an evil crept upon them! The enderly inkeeper who seemed so kind and gentle was, discovered only too late, a hag who was the matron of a group of thieving bandits! The party, save Nazvaroth who was still awake reading, woke up just as the bandits prepared to enter their rooms and throttle them in their sleep! Upon waking, Vanden found himself in an especially precarious position for the sultry lass whom he had just finished tupping was kneeling above him, a spear poised above his heart to do him in! In an especially acrobatic stunt, he rolled out of bed, gathered his wits, and slew the lady before she could do the same to him. It was only later that he wondered where in the world the temptress had been hiding that spear... While Vanden fought for his life in his room, the others took the fight into the hallway, quickly dispatching the bandits and their hag matron. |
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12/12/2013After the brawl, the party caught their breath for a few minutes. They decided to search the rest of the inn to ensure no remaining threats. Upon searching, the party found that a few of the backrooms were rife with loot, probably taken from previous victims. Much of the goods were packed in crates and appeared ready for shipment...to Lankhmar. Papers found along with the crates indicated that the items were being sent to the Thieves' Guild of Lankhmar as the portion of the loot required to do business in the area. It was also discovered that papers were circulated with descriptions of those individuals (that is, YOU) who infiltrated the guildhouse and stole a prized artifact from the guild, so the party knows the guild is actively seeking them, not just in Lankmar but also in the surrounding environs. What isn't known is just how wide the influence of the guild reaches...
While searching the loot, the party found 200 gold per PC. Additionally, each character found a magic item in the crates that seemed to tickle his fancy. <For this item, each PC can choose an uncommon item of his level + 2 or a common item of his level.> Once the party had completed its rest, the bodies of the bandits and the hag were piled into the entryway of the inn and Nazvaroth brought to life a taxidermied statue of a bear to further maul the bodies, hoping to mask the party's influence in their demise.
Traveling onward on horses taken from the inn's stable, the party neared the two hills that slump like sleeping camels. As the party approached, they spied a small ruined tower. It was discovered that the tower was not abandoned, however, when bugbears sprang from the building and surrounding hillside to waylay the party. After a grueling row, the bugbears were all dispatched and the party searched the tower they had been using as a base. Inside, much mundane equipment was found, most of it rusted or otherwise unusable. The party did find 15 gold pieces per PC and two small boxes inside of which were curious-looking white crystals that radiated magic. With the stolen boxes went a purloined letter addressed to "The Mage, Quarmall." The writer of the epistle expressed great sorrow that the previous shipment of the crystals was late and hoped that the addition of a second box would make up for the tardy delivery. The writer assured The Mage that future deliveries should arrive on schedule. The letter was signed "Alistair."
Takeaway:
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12/20/2013Encountering no further resistance, the party cantered along the narrow road that led toward the hills that slump like sleeping camels. It was mid-morning when they came to a small farmer's cottage on one side of the road and vast fields stretching on the other side. The tip of a tower was just visible in the distance behind the farmer's hut in a forested region. The farmer, clearly fearing for his safety, moved to guard the door to his cottage. After calming a bit, he informed the party that the tower is evil and advised them to stay away. Every now and then, adventuring types will come through claiming they will conquer the tower, but the farmer never sees them again.
As the party tied their horses on the outskirts of the copse and made their way in, they heard a rustling in the leaves coming behind them. The rustling came rapidly nearer, and suddenly the young peasant girl, the farmer's daughter, burst into view. She stood breathless and poised, one hand touching a treetrunk, the other pressing some leaves, ready to fly away at the first sudden move."You go there?" she questioned, indicating the direction of the treasure house with a quick, ducking nod. Her dark eyes were serious."Don't." This word was accompanied by a rapid head-shake."Because I watch it from edge of the forest, but never go close. Never, never, never. I say to myself there be a magic circle I must not cross. And I say to myself there be a giant inside. Queer and fearsome giant." Her words came rapidly, like an undammed stream. "All gray he be, like the stone of his house. All gray—eyes and hair and fingernails, too. And he has a stone club as big as a tree. And he be big, bigger than you, twice as big." Here she nodded at you. "And with his club he kills, kills, kills. But only if you go close. Every day, almost, I play a game with him. I pretend to be going to cross the magic circle. And he watches from inside the door, where I can't see him, and he thinks I'm going to cross. And I dance through the forest all around the house, and he follows me, peering from the little windows. And I get closer and closer to the circle, closer and closer. But I never cross. And he be very angry and gnash his teeth, like rocks rubbing rocks, so that the house shakes. And I run, run, run away. But you mustn't go inside. Oh, you mustn't." She paused, as if startled by her own daring. Her eyes were fixed anxiously on you."I've never actually seen him. Oh, no. He be too cunning. But I say to myself he must be there inside. I know he be inside. And that's the same thing, isn't it? Grandfather knows about him. We used to talk about him, when I was little. Grandfather calls him the beast. But the others laugh at me, so I don't tell."The girl uttered one more warning. "Don't go inside, oh, please," and turned and darted away. Somehow the unexpected fairy tale, with its conventional ogre and its charmingly naive narrator added to the delight of the dewy morning.
The party crept forward, but noticed no signs of life near the tower. They crossed the "magic circle" into the tower's clearing only after checking that no eldritch enchantment waited to ensnare them as they stepped across. The party did see large indentations in the ground, as if made by something heavy, approaching the door to the tower. The tower rose above the party, three or four stories high, with narrow windows, and only one entrance. The party went inside, and saw that bones littered the floor. The bones had been there a very long time and were crushed almost in twain.
Moving up the stairway, the party saw another sight. Sprawled a little way up the stair was another skeleton, the major bones hanging together in lifelike fashion. The whole upper half of the skull looked to have been smashed to bony shards paler than those of a gray pot. You noticed several objects among the bones: a rusty dagger, a tarnished gold ring that looped a knucklebone, a handful of horn buttons, and a slim, green-eaten copper cylinder. Inside the cylinder was a tightly rolled sheet of ancient parchment. On the parchment are lines of diminutive red lettering, reading thusly:
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On the second floor of the tower, the party encountered two rooms. Searching the first, they found the sleeping chamber and workshop of a greybeard who had taken up residence in the tower. The man in the room tall and frail and old and very gaunt. Scant locks of intensely black hair straggle down over his high-domed forehead. His sunken cheeks show clearly the outlines of his long jawbone, and waxy skin was pulled tight over his small nose. Fanatical eyes burned in deep, bony sockets. He wore the simple, sleeveless robe of a holy man. A pouch depended from the cord round his waist. He fixed his eyes upon you and, before the party could get out a greeting, the geriatric launched into a longwinded box-text monologue: "I greet you, you men of blood," he said in a hollow voice. And with the bony forefinger of his left hand he traced in the air a curious triple square, the sign sacred to the Great God."Do not speak," his calm, toneless voice continued, "for I know your purposes. You have come to take treasure from this house. Others have sought to do the same. They have failed. You will fail. As for myself, I have no lust for treasure. For forty years I have lived on crusts and water, devoting my spirit to the Great God." Again he traced the curious sign. "The gems and ornaments of this world and the jewels and gauds of the world of demons cannot tempt or corrupt me. My purpose in coming here is to destroy an evil thing."I"—and here he touched his chest—"I am Arvlan of Angarngi, the ninth lineal descendant of Urgaan of Angarngi. This I always knew, and sorrowed for, because Urgaan of Angarngi was a man of evil. But not until fifteen days ago, on the Day of the Spider, did I discover from ancient documents that Urgaan had built this house, and built it to be an eternal trap for the unwise and venturesome. He has left a guardian here, and that guardian has endured."Cunning was my accursed ancestor, Urgaan, cunning and evil. The most skillful architect in all Lankhmar was Urgaan, a man wise in the ways of stone and learned in geometrical lore. But he scorned the Great God. He longed for improper powers. He had commerce with demons, and won from them an unnatural treasure. But he had no use for it. For in seeking wealth and knowledge and power, he lost his ability to enjoy any good feeling or pleasure, even simple lust. So he hid his treasure, but hid it in such a way that it would wreak endless evil on the world, even as he felt men and one proud, contemptuous, cruel woman—as heartless as this fane—had wreaked evil upon him. It is my purpose and my right to destroy Urgaan's evil. Seek not to dissuade me, lest doom fall upon you. As for me, no harm can befall me. The hand of the Great God is poised above me, ready to ward off any danger that may threaten his faithful servant. His will is my will. Do not speak, men of blood! I go to destroy the treasure of Urgaan of Angarngi." With this, the man hurried past the party and up the stairs, but not before telling the party that the name of the heartless former love of his ancestor was Vidalia, because she always made him cry, and that the party really shouldn't check out that second room. Unable to resist, the party peeked into the second room and found a small tub and overflowing chamber pot full of unhealthy offal. The greybeard's voice wafted back down the stairs, cackling, "I told you you didn't want to open that door!!!!!" As the party climbed the stairs, Zara and Kellogg heard an inner voice in their heads repeating: "Don't make a sudden move. Slowly. Slowly. Above all, don't run. The others did. That was why they died so quickly. Slowly. Slowly."
As the party climbed the stairs, they found that the elderly holy man had entered a large chamber underneath the chief onion dome of the tower. Just as he raised his hand to call upon the power of the Great God, a large stone dislodged from the ceiling and crushed the greybeard into nothingness. On the stone was written in antique Lankhmarian hieroglyphs: "Here rests the treasure of Urgaan of Angargni." Once a small door was pried open on the stone slab, the party saw that resting inside was indeed a treasure. The cavity was filled to a level just below the surface of the opening, with a heavy metallic liquid that resembled mercury, except that it was night-black. Resting on this liquid is an astonishing group of gems.In the center was a titan diamond, cut with a myriad of oddly angled facets. Around it were two irregular circles, the inner formed of twelve rubies, each a decahedron, the outer formed of seventeen emeralds, each an irregular octahedron. Lying between these gems, touching some of them, sometimes connecting them with each other, were thin, fragile-looking bars of crystal, amber, greenish tourmaline, and honey-pale orichalchum. All these objects did not seem to be floating in the metallic liquid so much as resting upon it, their weight pressing down the surface into shallow depressions, some cup-shaped, others troughlike. The rods glowed faintly, while each of the gems glittered with a light that seems strangely like refracted starlight. In the mercurous heavy fluid that bulged up between gems and bars you saw distorted reflections of stars and constellations which you recognized would be the stars and constellations visible now in the sky overhead, were it not for the concealing brilliance of the sun. There was something tremendously meaningful about thecomplex arrangement of the gems, something that seemed to speak of overwhelming truths in an alien symbolism. More, there was a compelling impression of inner movement, of sluggish thought, of inorganic consciousness. It was like what the eyes see when they close at night—not utter blackness, but a shifting, fluid pattern of many-colored points of light. You began to feel that you were peeking impiously into the core of a thinking mind.
And that's when the stone began to morph into some alien being--it grew arms and the open cavity became a gaping maw with sharp, stony teeth that tried to rend you to pieces. The walls themselves came to life and tried to hold you in place, dissolving you through digestion so slow that you could feel the dissolution of each atomie of your body in painful slow motion. Through guile and sheet strength of arms and of magic, the party managed to chip away at the stony braincage until it lost cohesion and spilled its rich gemstones across the floor. At this moment, the party had only a few seconds to gather up the treasure before the entire building began to fall apart. Choosing not to take the obvious path and rush back down the stairs, the party did something the DM didn't quite expect: they jumped out the three-storey-high window. Through great feats of endurance, athletics, and acrobatics (and not to mention cushioning a fall through the use of one pissed-off seahorse) the party landed safely at the bottom and clear of the now-razed tower. All in a day's work!
Takeaway:
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1/16/2013lorem ipsem
Takeaway:
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