Author: Antony Nicklin

* IN BEFORE THE LOCK *

I am the last minute king. Seriously though, pretty much the last two hours of the recording is the discussion on what to do with various things. Condensing that was hard…

Session 70 – Summary

I took to the back of the party as he headed up the Raptor’s tunnel to reach the surface, mostly so my ancient Dwarven armour didn’t cause any issues. It wasn’t exaclty subtle stuff, and the gods know I was making quite the racket, but I couldn’t help but feel extremely powerful within it. The odd display on the visor-less helmet would take some getting used to though, as would the ancient language the suit spoke in.

I made a note to learn some ancient dwarven when I get the chance. It’s long been a point of embarrasment for me not to know the language of my ancestors, especially with so many of the non-dwarven members of are group knowing it. Perhaps I’d ask Finklemur to teach me, the old wizard knows more than many would realise.

Speaking of the old man, he’s been worrying me of late. A lot of his usual exuberance has disappeared, and although he still assists the group with the old spell and his new familiar, it’s still disconcerting and I wonder if the man is feeling his age. Feels odd to say, being as the wizard is only a few years my senior, but humans don’t enjoy our longevity. Even Starchie seems to have faded into the back of the party, the loyal canine is probably worried for it’s master.

It was nice to see him break out the old charm spell though. The elf myself and Chuq had caught tailing us was now quite happily leading us up the tunnel, firmly decided on joining us and earning some riches. He leads us into the Raptor’s hideout, warning someone there of our approach.

The Raptor waiting is a human female, Piroska, somewhat unsurprised at our arrival. Chuq asks after Holliever, who is out but should be back soon. It seems the Raptors are in final preparations to leave. As usual, the party is utilising the mind-reading helmet, and Chuq seems to be employing that to test the woman.

We decide to wait to meet him in the dining area, and the party spreads out in preparation. Piroska leaves us to go continue packing, and we decide to send Pons out to scout, letting Socrates out in the process.

Before he leaves, he tells us Tomas is dead, killed in some altercation with Holliever, leaving the second in charge of the Raptors. Once outside, Socrates’ link with Finklemur confirms that the Raptors are packing to leave, a large wagon being loaded in the yard. Belroar, Sturloc and Kottar head upstairs to set up an overwatch in the upstairs windows, whilst Chuq and Thorfus check out a number of the ajoining rooms, including one used by Holliver personally according to Pons, although they don’t find much of note. I personally take position right in the centre of the room and fold my arms, looking as imposing as possible. I imagine it looks quite unnerving. It helps that the armour allows me to stay perfectly still.

We spend some time discussing our options for leaving the city, and what to do with the Raptors and other groups on the mountain. Eventually, Belroar spots Holliver returning. When he enters the building, he seems surprised to see Chuq and Thorfus waiting for him, but heads into the dining room. Chuq shuts the door behind him, seperating him from his entourage, but he pleads accompaniment, fearing magical coercion on our behalf. I let Thorfus and Chuq take the lead in the interrogation, they’re the ones or primarily dealt with the dealings in the upper city.

There is talk of negotiating deals for information, and thankfully he is unaware of the golden helmet still perched upon Chuq’s head, though I’m not sure how much it helps the conversation. It’s easy to see Holliver is wary though, a lot of distrust on both sides. They decide to deal with him though, and allow him to have a partner enter the room, and Belroar calls out to a guy called Roland. In return, Finklemur and Fitz leave the room, heading upstairs to wait with the Belroar. Holliver and Roland take seats at the table, and even compliment my suit. I take the time to activate the threat-detection aspect of the armour, which labels them as ‘potentials’. It also speaks to me, so I try and memorise what she said so I can get a translation later.

The meeting begins, and we promise gold in exchange for information. They start by talking about Vargan. Chuq apparently sees in Holliver’s mind that devilfish are still at large, and large humanoids, possibly giants have been seen also. He also sees Alain Grell. Chuq asks about Grell’s Lambs, exchanging Thorel’s voucher. Holliver notes that he’d recently received a letter of introduction to Thorel from Marchmain coincidentally. We learn that Alaine has begun pirating, captaining a vessel in the bay and capturing several ships in order to build a fleet. He’d been enslaving the sailors aboard, and if any women were found, he shaved thier heads and branded them with a paw print. We receive this with some disbelief, our dealings with the Grell’s predate our groups now-famous name, but it couldn’t just be chance. I try communicating mentally with Araquiel here, but it seems the devilfish spirit no longer has the ability, or otherwise chooses not to reply.

They ask some more about the Raptor’s dealings with Marchmain, particular the changes incurred in the sudden change of leadership. Holliver is convinced we charmed Tomas into gaining the position we did. He points out the dealings that pretty much placed the Starchie Boyz as the only group with access to Xen’Khel. Talk turns more to Marchmain and the silver throne. We learn that some fire giants have reopened an old dwarven mine to the north, led by a genius of thier own kind with a penchant for creating weapons, and a number of slaves are involved and the entire operation is supported by the Silver Throne, which is sending equipment over from the Lonely Isle. They are building something.

We learn that the power-armoured dwarves are a special forces group from Xur’nost Khel. They didn’t really mix much with the other dwarves, but were under Marchmain’s direct command. There’s some worry as to thier location, and they’re overdue for return. The group of soldiers Lupaa killed were down there to look for them. Marchmain is quite upset at thier disappearance apparently, and the armour they wore may be quite new, if a little fancier than the stuff I wear. That is worrying, if the Silver Throne can build this stuff, it’d given them an edge, but it might also mean myself and Thorfus could get a hold of more power supply boxes.

Finally, he tells us more about Newton and the area around the Vargwater. Newton has been apparently cleared, but is still under siege. It’d be nice to head over there if we get chance, do something simple for a change. Death Gulch is having increasing problems with the simian automatons, who are attacking more viciously. The devilfish have moved up to attacking ships in Vargen’s harbour and fishermen in the Khelwater. Holliver also explains how he got Marchmains support and the letter, which was simply information.

Chuq heads up to ‘fetch the money’ from the party members upstairs, but instead drops the message that we’re gonna attack. We’ve got what we need from him, and he sold us out, so we decide to end it here.

When Chuq returns, we strike. Thorfus starts us off, whipping out his sword and going for Roland, whilst Chuq lashes out at Holliver with his fists. I charge into support Chuq, pounding across the room yelling ‘Threat Detected’. The armour responds with something I don’t understand, but with my augmented strength I cut the man deeply with my sword. Holliver yells betrayal, and whips out a dagger, swiping at the more lightly armoured Chuq, who goes back at him with the multi-tool, allowing me to deliver the killing blow. Roland fails to best Thorfus at all, and Derich confused by what is going on, launches himself at Roland fists flying. This is apparently surprising enough that Roland is quickly beheaded by Thorfus. We take the time to loot thier equipment, Derich accepting their clothes.

Outside, it seems Finklemur put most of the Raptors to sleep with his magic. Sturloc, Kottar, Talon and Belroar have taken care of the rest, killing two, one evidently mauled by Belroar’s dogs. The rest surrendered and have been tied up. We start bringing them inside to talk to, and take the time to check the wagon’s contents. We huddle the sixteen survivors in the dining room, disarmed, bound and under wathch, and we head into the other room to discuss our options. We have Holliver’s letter from Marchmain, confirming the latter’s intention to recommend them to Thorel, and also the actual letter of introduction, which even obliquely mentions us as ‘old friends’. We’re unsure whether we can trust Marchmain anymore, and escaping the city seems to be a priority. Doing so would be difficult, we’d likely have to leave much of our loot behind, and we’d also lose access to this tunnel as the dwarves have been systematically collapsing all the hidden entrances.

Thorfus posits it may be worth going to speak to the dwarven military commander from Xurnost’Khel. Other options are to try and hide and train within the lower city, find the Naga, or continue exploring, even try and track down the armoured group. Belroar points out that in worst case we could leave via the Skarnwode portal. Another suggestion is going to Marchmain with Holliver’s head, claiming him as crossing us and continuing to work ‘with’ the Silver Throne.

It seems for a long time we’re simply going to run, I’m not adverse to it, returning to Midmark, regrouping and resupplying, using what we know to gain a better position before returning. I myself am worried, everyone around us seems to be dying after dealing with us, it might look a little suspect. For the Raptors, we decide it might be best to simply let them go, pack them off and let them head to Vargen as intended, but with recommendation letters to the Mercer’s Guild rather than Thorel.

Whatever we do, Derich decides he wants to stay here with the Naga. He reminds of us of the plan to leave via the main entrance and continue playing along with Marchmain, as we discussed with Lupaa. We can foist off Brice’s death as collateral of encountering the Naga, dying alongside the rescue party that Lupaa had killed.

After a very long discussion, we decide to stay, heading back down into the city, meeting with the Naga, then heading back up to meet with Marchmain. After a brief helmet-assisted-interrogation to see what they know of the situation, we pack off the Raptors with thier newly written documents and some tips for Vargan, Socrates watching them leave to ensure they complied. Only Pons remains with it, the others distrusting him and aware of our charming of the elf. Once they’d gone, we packed up and started down into tunnels.

Once we’d, or rather Thorfus’ magic sword, dealt with the giant bloody lizard that had eaten it’s way through a window to get to us, everyone’s thoughts had turned to setting up camp for the night.

We checked out the area. More skin scraps and lizard dung mostly. The odd smell had gone, replaced with one of rot, reptiles,and most tantalisingly of all… nature.

Back within this strange compound we can hear the undead wardens, still muttering and cursing. It sounds like they’d begun to feast on the corpses of thier dead.

What worried me was the whatever power this place ran on seemed to be waning. The lights flickered, and the incessant humming faded in and out intermittenly. It worsened the more we used the lift, the entire contraption would shudder and slow occasionally.

We find the southern entrance does indeed lead to some unknown area of jungle. The reptiles are no longer within sight, which is relieving to say the least. Oddly, insects we can see in the jungle don’t seem to want to enter, even with the bounty of a freshly slain carcass.

I approach with Thorfus, Chuq, Uthruk and Derich, and we take the time to test it, wary of traps. First we send one of our poor chickens. The poor thing damn near had a heart attack when it thought it could escape into the jungle. Eventually, Derich steps through, though we were all sorely tempted, just for the chance to be outside again. He’s able to return easy enough, and I take the oppurtunity to step out myself.

The door is more of a portal. A door way with no frame, literally a hole in the air. Wondrous to be sure. It’s night, and I take the time to look at the stars. They are as I’ve learned them to be, meaning we’re still somewhere in Curabel. Derich looks too, remarking they’re different for him. More evidence of his long slumber if I understand it rightly.

Thorfus joins us with his strange mask, wavering a little as he stepped through the portal. He stands for a short time, muttering commands to it. He gets no signal from our current location, but to the east and west are Xen’Teller and Xen’Khel respectively. We dicuss for some time our potential location, and I strongly suspect our place to be somewhere in Curmidden’s jungles.

It is during this conversation Derich reveals that the Lonely Isle was the location of the Crystal Tower, and that ‘we’ destroyed it. I’m intruiged but we move on.

Derich himself wants to take his leave here, but we convince him to stay. Not only do we need him for his knowledge, but he could barely speak to us, a group fairly educated. The outside world, the modern world, would be difficult for him.

I caught Uthruk giving the jungle some longing looks too, but he joins us.

During dinner, that sinister, rasping breathing sounds throughout the compound again. It says in the language of my ancestors that it is unfortunate that we live, and the portal is not under thier control, so we should escape whilst we can. We may have found a personal access stone, but slaves that don’t serve end up dead.

We set up watch for the night. Bedding within the lower chamber and locking the door. Most of our ranged fighters sleep upstairs, using the cart as a barricade should the larger reptile return.

During the last hour of my watch with Kottar we begin to hear the undeniable sound of drums, distant and rhythmic. I watch the jungle looking for light and wait. As it gets closer, I can hear shouts and chants, and eventually see lights through the brush. I wake up the other fighters.

We watch as a group of tribal islanders enter the complex in a procession. Their leader is a big, imposing man, clad in intricate, dwarven-made armour and wielding a glowing dwarven sword. He has an old man in robes and chains as a prisoner. Following them is a female priestess with a large feathered headdress, accompanied by an honour guard.

The group pauses, shocked at the sight of one of the raptor corpses. We listen to them converse, they use an odd dialect of common. The prisoner is pleading; ‘a god is dead’, ‘the offerings are missing’. Apparently he failed the tribe in someway, and will be a new offering. The prisoner is dragged forward and chained to the reptilian statue in the centre of the room, and more shocked stares are directed at the larger reptile corpse.

The chief prays to the east, the raptor cell, asking the gods for protection from thier gods, to leave them in peace.

Soon after, the procession leaves, the drumming slower, but eventually bursts in to something more jubilant as they disappear into the jungle again. We wait for a while, before heading down to speak to the old man.

He gets scared at the sound of the door opening, but it turns to confusion when he sees the two dwarves and two humans approach.

We exchange stories, though the man is baffled that those who speak like city-folk can kill thier immortal gods. That myself and Thorfus were the same race as this place’s creators didn’t help much.

Apparently the raptors, thier gods, awoke at regular intervals, and it seemed our actions had awoken them out of time. They’d attacked the man’s, Shaman Haranth of Aramark, village killing several people. He’d been disgraced and replaced by his apprentice Shera.

We learn that we’re on Midland, about a week’s travel north of Midmark, deep in the Skarnwode. The Dark King is far to the west, unseen apart from scouts. We learn some more about the area, an intriguing ghost village included.

We test him, utilising Chuq’s mind-reading hat, we’re ascertain how much we can trust him, and his lack of understanding of the dwarven language. Finklemur attempts to charm him, but fails. He passes it off as another test.

We unchain him and return to bed for the final watch, taking him with us.

The next day, we decide to try and enter the admin area using the gold key. Returning to the portal room, we set a guard at the broken lift.

Thorfus successfully gains access, then Uthruk passes through the doors to ensure the code still works, before Thorfus leads a group through.

I wait for a while as they scout the intersection beyond. Chuq seems to disappear into the shadows as they look north. Moments later, Finklemur begins casting, and Thorfus pushes a button, eliciting a loud burst of static even I can hear. He shouts something.

Fitz and Haranth retreat back through to us, and I and some of the other fighters step through to assist, but we are slowed by the door system. Belroar has run north, whilst Thorfus fights one of those floating lightning orbs, getting shocked in the process. I see Finklemur blast at them with magic, and round the corner to see Chuq fighting a dwarf in power armour. It is more intricate than the set I possess… and operational! It is straining against one of ol’ Fink’s magical webs.

I see Belroar down a second orb, then Brice and Derich attempt to turn the dwarf with different methods but to no effect. Chuq hands out spears so we can safely attack it within the web, and I charge, Chuq, Thorfus and Belroar at my side. It doesn’t react to our blows, and breaks free of the confining magics.

I toss down the spear, drawing my glowing longsword, and plunge the blade between seams in it’s armour, feeling steel bite into decaying flesh. This attack causes it to falter. Taking the cue, Belroar utilises his scimitar, scoring another hit, and Thorfus is able to finish it off, bringing the hulking dwarf to it’s knees.

The battle over, my thoughts turn to deactivaring the armour so as not waste whatever power might remain in the power box. It seems Chuq was unable to remove it from the back. I remove the helmet, the armour colder than it probably should be, and the reveal the interior to be frosted over.

We all breath a sigh of shock and relief at that, myself especially. The dwarf within was a Wight. I resist the urge to scratch at the scar on my chest, still oddly cold from my last run in with such a powerful creature.

As I fiddle with the armour, the others loot it’s equipment, a magical multi-purpose axe and most importantly, a copper key.

Now it seems we can leave, most thankfully. But it also means we can more easily get around this place. I suspect, due to the louder humming, we can access whatever powers this place to the south. Perhaps we could find more power boxes there, or at least a recharge point. It would be nice to get that suit moving, and now we had two.

However, there is also the mystery of the voice, and whatever mysterious power has been working against us down here.

Finally having found their way into the empty of halls of the lower city of Xen’Khel, the party stops, finding thier path to the temple blocked by a party of dwarves. Knowing that the archaeologists have been lobbying to prevent adventurers entering, especially non-dwarves, we stop to weigh our options. Socrates did a quick fly-by, confirming that it is a research group with armed guards, currently examining a runic inscription on the wall.

One idea is to use Brice, citing we are her escorts down the temple where she can pay her respects, unfortunately, the group includes clerics from Xenilum’Khel, so she decides to hide within the party. A second fly-by reveals them to be talking about recording more inscriptions, following down into the temple, provided they meet with ‘no interlopers’.

We decide to just wing it and walk past, trusting on the dwarves in the party to be able to get us through. Naturally, they stop us, asking if we are there to loot. Axel starts to try and weave a tale of us merely coming to worship and see the temple as dwarves ourselves. The humans are merely our travelling companions, and we have no need of plunder due to our travels elsewhere.

A pair of older looking clerics step forward, and Thorfus recognises his uncle, Elder Brother Dolman. They hug and greet each other, Dolman asking after Thorfus’ mother, and what brings him to Xen’Khel. Thorfus continues the story, to some skepticism, and asks what his uncle is doing, which seems to be inventorying the remaining contents of Xen’Khel. It turns out that they are there as official representatives of the dwarven people, to which Axel and Chuq almost get themselves in trouble refuting.

The other dwarf, Thorri Carrow, Chief Ambassador to Xen’Khel, offers to accompany us down to the temple, and we begrudgingly accept. They ask for our leader, and we point towards Thorfus, much to Dolman’s pride. It’s at this point however, they notice Brice within our ranks, and they instantly take offence at they presence of someone they deem to be a heretic.

This instantly starts a large debate on Brice’s devoutness, potential heresy and religion in general. We don’t seem to make any headway however, the high-ranking clerics in our presence very sure of themselves. They cannot accept that the first person to ever directly speak to Xen’Tellar was a young acolyte, favoured by a rich man, over other dwarves who had devoted thier entire lives to the god’s service. It doesn’t go well, and the two elders stomp off, leaving Dolman to ‘talk sense into his nephew’ and telling us that they will not permit ‘that’, meaning Brice, to enter the temple.

Dolman tries to convince Thorfus of their views a little more, explaining Brice’s history with her order and their reasons for expelling her. Of how a rich merchant was looking to make some grandiose gesture to a temple, talking only to the younger acolytes in his tour of the temples, eventually favouring Brice and gifting her a holy symbol. His name was Silvas, a Silver Throne merchant from Curasor, and it was after this that Brice started hearing Xen’Tellar’s voice. The conversation ends in another stalemate however.

Brice approaches and requests a private audience with Father Thovo, which we allow with some warnings, even making sure Starchy accompanies her. Apparently she has seen some way for them to work through this spat, granted through a vision, whom she needs to relay a message to. After a brief conversation, they return, and Thovo has somehow been convinced to allow Brice through.

In the meantime, Dolman takes the time to hint heavily that Thorfus should write his mother more, using Axel as an unwitting example. He also discusses a bit of ours and Talon’s legends, and the state of Xen’Khel as a livable city.

Eventually, Brice and Thovo return to the group, and we move on towards the temple. The archeaological group take the lead, and we keep our distance some few dozen feet behind them. They stop at the end of the tunnel to examine another inscription, and we pass them by, entering the temple itself. Reading the inscription, we see that the room beyond is referred to as ‘The Hall of The Seat and the Path’.

The temple is a large open room, that is nonetheless oddly plain. Balconies flank the entrance, and a number of doors a set into the walls on either side, leading up to a dias in the centre. Two more doors are behind this, flanking a large arch. Upon the dias is a large, metallic throne, evidently the Silver Throne of this temple. The floor of the dias has a design set into it, made from the same metal, designed to represent The Path. We spend a long time trying to match this design to known astronomical signs, which it does indeed match the constellation, though we lack anything but astrological information on it. We also try to match it to locations, specifically those seen with the mask, but it takes some doing, without reference, though might work with the missing Crystal Tower. We notice the metal, which some enterprising adventurers have at some point tried to dig up, is made of the same material that comprises some of the automata cubes.

In the meantime, Brice prays for answers, but gets nothing but grandiose visions of the god. The dwarven group behind us continue thier exploration, disappearing into one of the side doors, eventually appearing on one of the balconies.

We also try fitting the key into the design, looking around for any other location it might fit, getting a vibrating reaction the closer we get to the throne, but not finding anything else. Thorfus also tries the mask, but outside it looks stormy, and zooming in shows only grey. Belroar gets the idea that Thorfus should sit on the throne, utilising the key like a ship’s wheel. After some more tests, he tries it, and gets a reaction!

The Path lights up, with glowing blue balls lifting out of the depressions to float in mid-air and linking. They link to the throne, and it spins around 180 degrees, one of the arm rests folding open and out, a flat section levelling out above his lap. In the centre of this is a square peg, marked with the letter ‘A’ and an arrow pointing down. Thorfus mounts the key on this, aligning the ‘A’s, and a humming noise permeates the area as the wall between the arch becomes a dark grey colour, crackling with electricity. It seems somewhat mirrored, with dark reflections of the room and our party in it.

Belroar touches it, and gets shocked naturally. Thorfus then twists the key in place, so the ‘D’ is now at the top, and the wall changes. The static leaves, and now we can see a room beyond the arch, smaller and octagonal with several doors and windows, though still blurry. When Belroar touches it with a gorilla hand, it passes through the wall and returns unharmed. Whilst he repeats the trick with a cloak-wrapped hand, Axel tosses a spike through, which lands on the other side. Belroar then walks through entirely, entering the octagonal room as the dwarven party returns and comes up behind us.

The room has four doors, and four windows on the walls between. The arch he passed through is in the centre, and to the side is a pedestal. There is a skeleton at it’s base. Ancient text adorns panels above the doors, and there are lights beside them, three green, one red.

Thorri asks what we are doing, to which Axel replies ‘exploring’ as the clerics push to the front, very curious as to how we acheived this. Unfortunately, we have no answers, and they are confused as the octagonal room is not the catacombs that should be behind the wall.

Axel also passes through at that point, collects his spike, and returns, asking after Finklemur and Brice to translate the text. The dwarves seem to want to stop us going any further, even when we offer for them to accompany us. We take Brice through regardless, as Belroar pops his head back through to call her. All we can tell them that it was pure luck that we found this place, being adventurers after all, it’s our job.

Slowly, one by one, the entire main party of the Starchy Boyz passes through, taking Sturloc and Kottar, but leaving Talon in charge of the cart and other hirelings, tasking him with keeping the portal clear for us.

Thorfus removes the key and gets off of the throne, and after several moments, the edges of the portal begin to grey out, evidently closing. To be sure it’s safe, we check the pedestal, and discover another square spoke, this one marked ‘D’, and think we can get back through just fine.

Finally on the other side, the portal finishes closing, and we explore the new area. Each door has a small, meshed window in it, and a panel to the left with blinking lights, north, east and west are green, and south is red. The signs read in a clockwork fashion; Humanoid Research, Housing and Recreation, Reptilian Research, Analysis and Administration.

We decide to look through arrow slits, starting at the northeast. Each window shows a trapezoid shaped room, with four lockers set into the opposite wall. There is a square section of material of floor in the middle, made of some unidentifiable material. The south-eastern room has rubble all over the floor emanating from the south, and the square section is instead a hole leading into blackness. There are bones in the rubble.

Thorfus then decides to check the pedestal, lining up the key before turning it to A. After the static filled grey, the wall becomes the image of the temple, a number of people setting up camp beyond. We confirm with Talon that everything is still ok, then switch to G. There is a different room beyond, this one a short hallway with a door at the end.

F shows a triangular room, with the portal at the point, with a door on the opposite wall. Finally, C shows a larger room with vine-covered pillars and another door.

We also check the skeleton by the pedestal. It looks to have been a plain robed dwarf, the robes being once white. Axel rolls it over, and we see that there was a gold threaded design on the front, representing helixes. He has several pouches and a necklace, holding a stone disc.

Before we can inspect further, it opens it’s eyes and reaches out to grab Axel.

Having killed the rampaging bull elephant and negotiated the selling of it’s body parts, the Starchy Boys decide to spend the next day with the Rickus’ caravan so they can rest and resupply at the landing. We buy a large amount of arrows and bolts to ensure our crossbowmen and archers don’t run dry.

Belroar takes the time to investigate the elephant’s carcass to try and determine the cause of it’s rampage, believing it too possibly be a mating season. Chuq inspects the body of his dead compatriot, but doesn’t find anything of note. He enacts a small burial ceremony, returning the body to the ocean and retaining the skull for internment in the catacombs of the tower.

After a breakfast of Surprise Stew, the party mostly mills around the camp, reading, resting up injuries and talking. Chuq initially planned on doing some fishing, but decides to accompany Belroar in following the elephants tracks to see where it came from.

It appears to have made a direct beeline for the campsite, cutting straight through the jungle to get there, trampling things in it path. They manage to find blood splatter part way down the trail, at a point where the elephant’s path changes direction. Belroar tastes it to confirm, and they deduce that it may be the blood of some other creature, as neither of them remember seeing any prior wounds before we fought the elephant.

They continue down the path, looking for more blood. They find several more splashes as they go along. Just over a hundred yards down the path, they find a larger area of destruction, evidently caused by a fracas of some kind. Lots of blood, broken branches and crushed underbrush, likely caused by two large creatures battling. They find the elephant’s entrance to the clearing, much less destroyed from a calmer pace, and it’s easy to deduce that this is where the elephant’s rampage began.

Checking for prints, Belroar notices the signs of a large gorilla, easily a match in size for even the elephant. Perhaps even multiple gorillas. Mystery solved, they decide to return to the camp. On the walk, Chuq fills in Belroar on the story of Virgil’s Golden Jaguar, since jaguar’s seem to be a creature of importance to the ranger in proving himself to his tribe.

On the walk, they hear a crack of a branch to the north, and quickly take cover. Sometime later, another sound is heard to the south, so they head towards it. Unfortunately, they run into a huge, orange-furred, four-armed gorilla. Belroar instantly tries to look non-threatening to keep it calm, and it watches him. He tries to keep it supplicated by offering food from his pack, along with some of his mushrooms and narcotics to hopefully drug it. As it sniffs the food, the gorilla calls out, and receives several answering calls, before dropping out of the tree. Belroar backs away as it approaches aggressively, but it stops at the meat and eventually concentrates on the food.

Belroar begins doing what he can to indenture himself with the gorilla, and potentially befriend it, but it ignores him. So he backs away a little more, and whispers to get Chuq to sneak away and return to the party for help. More gorillas arrive, and they quickly finish off the meat, and watch Belroar very closely. He offers more food, which they eat, watching him.

Chuq quickly runs back to the party and approaches Axel and Thorfus to explain the situation, so we decide to mount a rescue, most of the party and hirelings heading out. Chuq takes the lead, and suggests we merely investigate the situation rather than rush in.

When we get to the area, Axel leads off the hirelings to the south to prepare some long-ranged fire, whilst the others prepare to potentially charge in.

We wait whilst Belroar continues to prostrate himself to the gorillas, but it eventually becomes clear that they aren’t interested in the man, and go to attack. Though huge and clearly dangerous, they prove to be clumsy combatants, and the party dispatches them with only a few scratches and a broken shield, although one manages to escape heavily injured.

As with the elephant, we decide we can make some money from the carcasses, and drag them back to the camp. Once back, Belroar once more barters with the caravan for the corpses, retaining several parts.

After that, we spend the rest of the day skinning the animals, fishing and generally resting, with Brice taking the time to further heal some of our injured. The night is uneventful, but for another merchant caravan passing through from Xen’Khel, and they join the camp. They barter for use of one of our barges to get back to Vargan, but eventually takes Rickus’.

The next day, after further healing, we head up the road towards Xen’Khel. It’s drizzling and misty, be we wind our along the old dwarven road, Rickus’ caravan not far behind us. Nothing much happens but the distant sounds of more elephants in the jungle. By afternoon, we break out above the mists, cross a bridge over the river, and enter the more narrow mountain roads. At the bridge, we can look up and see not only a waterfall, but also huge bridges being held up by dwarven statues, hundreds of feet above between the peaks. Our first sight of Xen’Khel.

By nightfall, we’ve finally made it all the way there and cross the bridge into the ruins around the entrance to Xen’Khel. The ruins have been fixed up over time, and are occupied, evidently a small city is in place around Xen’Khel, homing many adventurer types.

Several tipsy men-at-arms approach us almost immediatly, looking for work. Owen, Lorent, Alec De la Porte, and Xelena, three men and a woman. They sound pretty desperate, having been there several months, and only been down into the ruins once. We decide at best to offer them payment and food in exchange for what information they can provide. It seems there is some segregation between the dwarves and human adventurers in the area, especially those dwarves from a Xenilum’Khel archaeological group. We also learn about the temples down below, and the sisters, three naga that guard the entrance to prevent evil from gaining access. Supposedly there are other routes in though, as their are bandits sometimes prowling the deeps.

Rather than pay the cost for an inn, which are quite over-priced, we decide to hole up in one of the abandoned buildings, risking being prey to clockwork monkeys prowling the area. We set watch for the night.

During Thorfus’ watch, an old dwarf passes by with a cart full of wares he is trying to sell. Unfortunately, most the stuff is merely broken artifacts or components of larger things. He has a limp, an old adventuring wound. Thorfus asks to see his best piece, to which he his handed a mask carved like a dwarf, which he believes is an old battlemask.

The old dwarf tries it on, and falls over suddenly. He suddenly realises it’s magical, and offers Thorfus to try, saying he saw the mountain from above. Thorfus also tries it on, and his vision is thrown up into the clouds, looking down on Xen’Khel from a bird’s eye view. When he focuses, he seems to zoom through the clouds until he is hovering above his own head. Trying to focus on Xen’Tellar’s temple within the mountain however only shows the sister’s temple at the top of the peak. He takes the time to learn the layout of the city.

Thorfus likes the idea of the mask, but the old dwarf is asking at least 4000 gold for it. Thorfus starts bartering, even offering the elephant tusks in exchange, though that only drops the cost to 2800 gold. In the end, I think we decided it was simply out of our reach to pay for, though the old dwarf is obviously feeling richer with the discovery.

Session Summary 8/4/15

With some members of our party injured and weary, we decide to call it a day in the dungeon and head back up to the surface and spend the night at the Broken Oar. Bard decides to do some fishing in the mean time. That night, we keep our customary watch, with Thorfus, Axel, Chuq, Sturloc and Kottar taking a short watch each.  The night is quiet, however during Sturloc’s watch, the crossbowman wakes up Thorfus. Apparently there is something wrong with Brice.

Thorfus heads to the other room where the cleric is sleeping, and can hear her mumbling and moaning dwarvish in her sleep, obviously distressed. It seems she is still having bad dreams, as evidenced by utterings of Xen’Tellar’s name. Thorfus manages to piece together that the female dwarf seems to be begging her god for more time. He wakes her up, and asks if she’s ok, though she brushes him off, Thorfus reassures her that Xen’Khel is our very next stop after we finish clearing out the keep. Xen’Tellar is obviously becoming more  insistent in pushing his chosen towards her goal.

The next day, 7th Anurilden, we continue as usual, with Bard returned to fighting strength and Brice still looking haggard. Axel gets Dagaric to heal up his remaining scratches, and also Starchie’s wounds. Back at the keep, we do our usual checks at the trap door, checking the other rooms and traps for signs of passage. Seeing it all clear, we head down and decide to head south back round to where we fought the scorpions.

Listening at each door in turn, we float down the corridors, through the octagonal room and finally east, then north until we reach the door at the end. Opening the door here, we once more enter the room with all the tables. We leave the boats at the door, as the room is dry. The next corridor leads back west, so Bard and Finklemur send thier respective birds out to scout.

They quickly return, and Socrates speaks to Finklemur, warning of us of warriors around the corner, sitting around a table. By the description, we believe they’re undead, and noticed the birds.

We decide to draw them to us, and create a barricade to funnel thier assault into the room whilst we pepper them at range. After a couple of attempts to draw them to us, including Axel throwing some coins at the wall, and Starchie barking loudly. Eventually, two undead warriors appear and are instantly met with arrows and daggers. One falls to the onslaught, but the other makes it all the way to us, where Thorfus cuts it down after taking a small hit.

Naturally, our next move is to chop them up and bundle the bodies up in some sacks, and we leave them with the boats whilst we continue. We expect more, so Bard scouts the t-junction, once more descending into knee-deep water. The north leads to a room up a slope, though he can’t see anything within. The south ends in a wall. We stop to chicken-fish, finding nothing. Bard checks the south, confirming the outline of a door, which we believe opens into the temple room. We leave it for now, not wishing to fight off undead centipedes just yet.

Instead, we head north into the room, the heavily armoured dwarves taking the lead. We enter into a small square room with a ten foot alcove the northwest. There are tables and chairs within, covered with maps and navigational tools. A figure sits at the table, with noticeable black bile drooling out of his mouth and down his tunic. His eyes are also black, and the man is evidently another of the oddly powerful zombies we cremated back in the spider’s lair.

He notices us, and stands slowly, trying to talk. Recognising a spell being cast, Thorfus charges aggresively to interrupt it. Unfortunately, the spell goes off, freezing both Axel and Chuq in place, but Thorfus still hits powerfully. Finklemur follows up the attack with a magic missile. The rest of the party charges in and attacks, including the hawk, and it is eventually brought low by Uthruk.

We take extra care with this creature, especially to avoid the bile, removing the head, jaw and limbs, as well as utilising holy water to try and keep it down, it gets thrown in a sack. We investigate the room, Axel and Chuq returning to animation after a few minutes. There is a tapestry on the wall, which appears to be a representation of the Empire’s Immortal Dragon Emperor. We take it and roll it up, and also gather up the nautical tools as they are platinum. The alcove is a step down of at least five feet and flooded.

The dwarves check the walls, finding nothing of note. We chicken-fish the alcove, and Bard steps down into the water, finding the outlines of doors on the north and south walls. The main north corridor out of the room leads north a little before turning west. As the corridors are once more flooded, we fetch the boats to continue. Nothing happens but chickens get annoyed and wet. After a hundred feet, the corridor loops back south. At the end of this, there is an opening, which looks to be covered by fabric, and a doorway to the east. We check the door, hearing nothing, and open it.

A small room beyond is filled with a bookcase, though the lower shelves are flooded. There are also some slightly differently coloured robes also, with more red than just highlights. We check the books, though they have no titles, and find one to be about meditation, but they all seem to be on similar subjects. We take them anyway. The loose papers seem to be religious sermons. Finklemur also checks the scrolls, which turn out to be magic. These go in his scroll case. We take the time to check behind the bookcase, but find nothing.

We head back out and go through the fabric door, entering a large room. The fabric is another tapestry, it’s bottom unfortunately in water, and a second faces us from the opposite wall. Doors are on the north and south ends of the western wall, and a corridor leads east. Pillars, some tables and a lectern adorn the room.

Both tapestries depict a mountain castle, one in day, the other at night. Nobody recognises it or the location however. Oddly enough it appears that the moon on the tapestry is moving. We gather them up, and put them in the boats, then check the book on the lectern. It’s partly ruined, but otherwise nice, decorated with a golden dragon. We sack it.

There is no hidden passage behind the second tapestry, so the eastern door is next. We hear nothing beyond, and head through, finding ourselves in the original north passage from the dungeon’s entrance. We decide to head back to the hirelings and drop off the treasure and bodies for burning. We check the room which had the sheets en route.

Reaching the foyer, we realise that the hirelings had been under attack whilst we had been gone. A troop of skeletons had come up from the north, as evidenced by the scattered bones. The hirelings had retreated upstairs, pulling the bridge and closing the doors behind them. We gather up our loot and the boats and head up. They had taken a battering, with broken weapons. Sturloc, Arus and Recusson had been heavily wounded and knocked unconcious but were stable.

Kottar lets us through the door, and we begin to sort out healing them. Brice casts her healing spells, one on each of the wounded, though Recusson fails to rouse. We take the time to reset the traps, gather everything up including Recusson’s comatose form and head back down to town to heal up and burn the corpses.

Dagaric is able to revive Recusson for us, and also finishes up Arus injuries. We stop by the Baudy Bachelor to check out thier weapon stores. We need to replace a shield, and Bard wishes to train Recusson to use a better weapon than his simple club. We also discuss procuring a large shield with arrow slits we can use to better fortify areas our hirelings are defending.

We find someone to build two for us, and also show Finklemur how to assemble and disassemble them for ease of use.

Whilst we wait, Thorfus increases his sack collection, Bard goes fishing and Finklemur causes mischief. Chuq shows Master Dain and the rest of the Midmark party the tapestries at the warehouse. They confirm the identity of the Dragon Emperor, we also learn that the ‘Immortal’ part maybe a lie and the dogma of the empire, as the Emperor’s age seems to change, though they all appear to be quite close physically, likely blood-related.

It’s time for the better-late-than-never session summary! 😀 Sorry guys, enjoy!

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Thorfus, Finklemur and Pelgax have finished burning the Wight’s corpse. As they return through the basement, the see that the workmen from the town are working on some scaffolding, drilling a hole through the ceiling in order to complete thier task.

Clement explains that he wants to take advantage of our oxen, and hook up a capstan in the dining hall so they can lift the statue clean up into the basement. However, he points out that even though they can do that, there is still the problem of getting the statue out of the basement. It would be difficult at best to haul it up the staircase.

After much discussion, we decide that if he could hook the capstan even higher in the dining hall, and repeat Finklemur’s shrink trick, we can lift the statue clean up into the dining room. We leave him to complete the preparation work whilst we finish clearing out the dungeon.

Having discovered the zone of influence for the dungeon’s odd resurrection effect, the party quickly decides it’d be a good idea to remove the corpses of the creatures we had already slain in order to prevent any potential complications.

We take up the remaining sack of eels first, and after rekilling them for a final time, burn them, sacks and all. We then head to the general store to stock up on sacks, iron spikes and yet more oil. We also ask for the store owner to look to purchase a second boat or canoe, which Axel leaves 50 gold in deposit for. Chuq also buys a weighted net, thinking to dredge the water logged rooms more thoroughly.

Heading back up to the castle, we head straight for the dungeon’s brig. In the basement however, we find several skeletons in the eastern barracks. They attack, swinging against Axel, Thorfus and Uthruk. We struggle initially, Thorfus missing and Axel damaging his prized axe, though Uthruk scores a hit, slaying one instantly. With Chuq and Barmyr lending spear support, we quickly dispatch the others after Brice turns them away with her holy symbol.

Naturally, the party quickly fills a sack with thier bones, saving the armour and weapons for later sale. Though this will likely be hard with the armour, as it appears largely Imperial, coloured black and red.

In the dungeon we stop first to trap the other corridors with our salvaged jaw-traps from the ford. Checking the door, Chuq hears nothing, but Starchy definitely senses something. The corridor itself is clear however. We go through the rooms in turn, first dispatching of the animated legs, then arms, heads and finally torsos in turn. They stop moving when brought out across the line, and they pile them up and burn them altogether. Rather than the whole party running up each time, we send Arus and the other hirelings up with the sacks whilst we clear out the rooms. We also task Sturloc and Kottar to watch the hallway from the base of the stairs for added security.

We look to the spider room next. Chuq hooks his net over the door to catch the inevitable charge, then we open the door and let it do the work. Several spiders instantly get caught in the net. We go to work, dispatching those that get caught up with presicion strikes, otherwise fighting off those that aren’t fully caught. Once complete, we once more send up the hirelings to burn the corpses, and turn to the final door.

Ominously enough, the undead man within is knocking once more. For added precaution, we place both jaw-traps and the net outside of his door. After testing to see if he can communicate at all, we open the door, and it jumps out, catching in the net and one of the traps instantly.

We set to killing it once again, and it proves tough, surviving multiple strikes and even managing to grasp hold of Uthruk momentarily even through the net. It grasped his face with a bile covered hand, the force of the blow far less than the pain it inflicted on the half-orc, knocking him down.

Brice quickly responds with a healing prayer,  returning him to groggy wakefulness. The dwarves quickly finish the creature of off before it can hurt anyone else, Thorfus laying the killing blow.

Not wanting to wait around, the party quickly wraps the body up in the net and makes to carry it out, stabbing it repeatedly along the way. Brice further heals Uthruk, allowing him to use his own skills to mend his wounds. After locking the dungeon thoroughly, we return to our corpse burning pit and add the zombie to the merry blaze.

Clemet passes us here, done with the days work, announcing they’re pretty much ready for us to pull the statue head out. Looking at the setting sun and feeling quite disgusting after a day’s undertakings, the party heads down to the Inn for a bath and a good night’s sleep. We fill in the Midmark party on the day’s progress.

Chuq requests a small supply of holy water from the priest, who is more than happy to give over a few vials.

Setting a customary watch the Inn, the party sleeps for the night. Thorfus, Chuq and Axel keep the watches, with Kottar, Arus and Brice assisting. The night is largely quiet, but we make sure to keep line of sight to our burning pit, just in case.

The next morning, after breakfast, we go purchase yet more sacks and a new net. The new boat we purchased has been delivered to the fort already, and Axel makes sure to get his leftover money back. Then, we head back up to the fort.

Again, it appears quiet, so we grab the new boat and head downstairs, carrying out our customary checks on all the rooms. Feeling pranky, Finklemur utilises his inquisitor half-mask to make his face half-Thorfus. We decide to start clearing out the north tunnel, the main Starchy Boyz loading up in the two boats, leaving the hirelings back to watch the staircase. As we row along, we make sure to trail the net behind the boats, so as to catch any swimming creatures before they can become a problem.

At the first door, we stop to investigate, and deeming it safe, attempt to force the door open. It seems to be stuck fast though, so we resort to merely smashing it open with our axes. The room appears to be  a large bedroom, with multiple underwater beds and a number of sheets floating around. To be doubly sure, we toss a chicken through, Axel splashing it around to attract any potential danger. When nothing happens, we finish breaking the door down, and float in.

Chuq decides to gather up all the sheets with the haft of his spear and move them into the corner to clear line of sight, but as he moves the last one, it seems to begin crawling up his spear. He calls our attention, drawing another spear to stab at it. We all lash out, swords and even thrown rocks flying at the living bedsheet, but it seems incredibly agile, though Axel manages to slice off a corner.

Another corner whips out, narrowly missing Chuq, and he spins his spear around to try and dislodge it, and successfully pins it to the ceiling, whereupon it falls into the boat limp, getting slammed by Finklemur’s magic missile. As is our habit, it gets wrapped up in a sack ready for burning. Feeling paranoid, all the other sheets get gathered into the sack too. They get handed off to the hirelings, and Filthas, Arus and Kottar head off to take care of the burning. We also leave behind Barmyr and elect to bring Hart along instead to help check for hidden rooms.

During the search, we hear shouts from the foyer, and row quickly back. Recusson has seen humanoid shapes approaching up the southern corridor. Sturloc and Pelgax begin firing upon them, as they charge Recusson. The creatures tangle in the jaw-traps, delimbing one, but they keep coming, one striking the hireling, bringing him down. The two crossbowmen begin retreating up the staircase as reach the foyer and begin to disembark.

We charge in to rescue the beleaguered hirelings, quickly thinning thier numbers and pushing them back with Brice’s assistance and rescuing Recusson so the dwarven cleric can revive him. We chase them down towards the octagonal room to finish them off, realising that this was their point of entry. Uthruk cuts them off by outspeeding them to the open door and slamming it shut, and we surround and kill off the last few.

More sack filling then ensues, and the returning hirelings are sent right back out again. We then check out the octagonal room again, now seeing a previously hidden door in the north-eastern wall, leading into a hallway.