Graveyard of Empires

Session 59 – June 3, 2015

As we prepared to return to the hidden rooms off the temple in Xen Khel, we were met by a lone explorer, Fitz, the lone survivor of his party. He is a human wizard with a cat. We determined that he was trustworthy and let him go with us to safety.

After resting and healing up, Recusin is back to consciousness and tells us that it was the dwarven bodyguards of the clerics that attacked them, as we supposed.

With most of us healed, we left the wounded with Brice and a couple of the hirelings, the mule and our supplies and go to check on my uncle and the known exit. Understandably, Fitz is concerned about a way out. He was heading out when one of the dwarves advised him to not go this way. He took the hint and was safe from the explosion.

Finkelmur had turned his owl, Sokrates, invisible and sent him ahead. From what he saw all the dwarves and two of the three nagas were dead. I feared this meant that my uncle was dead.

We found 20 adventurers waiting at the bottom of the spiral below the temple entrance. I informed them that my uncle happened to be among the dwarves and that my mother would never forgive me if I did not take card of her big brother. They told us that the entrance was blocked and that the bodies had been looted by the thieves guild. The thieves guild was also charging a steep price to show others the way out that they controlled.

We spiraled up and found the bodies, and I quickly found uncle Dolman, his face half burned away. As I verified it was him, I found a hastily scrawled note from him, that the looters had left. It admonished me to write my mother, now, I must tell her that her brother is dead. I can’t write her, I must go home and tell her myself. I fear that I can’t leave this place with all the things now set in motion.

We account for the 11 dwarves. The only body not looted was that of the ambassador, Thorri Carrow. He only had a bit of gold and silver, and a pack with a week of food, but his magic armor and battleaxe will come in handy.

Our newest member, Fitz heard the faint sound of work above, so we learned that they were digging us out.

The young ranger has an obsession with skinning things and taking trophies. He skinned up those two nagas. I fear what the other sister will do, if she lives. 

I suggested that we move the nagas to one side and cover them out of respect, and move the dwarves to the other side and cover them also. I loaded my uncle’s body onto the cart.

We then go back down, where the half elf, Oliver Wells, who tried to get out attention when we were at Ghermin’s compound, definitely a member of the thieve’s guild. Before he spoke, I offered the week of rations off the ambassador to the leader of one group of ten. He took it, shook my hand, and suggested we meet for a drink when we get out of here. After he left, Oliver offered to show us out for 100 GP each. We declined that offer. 

Oliver offered to lead out the remaining ten adventurers for 25% of future finds, since he knew they had no money. I spoke up and offered the ten men a gold piece each and food until the way was cleared if they stayed. Oliver was miffed and left. I suggested that Finklemur have the still invisible Sokrates follow him. We waited and followed and marking the way in chalk found the room with empty crates blocking a rough hole knocked in a wall that connected it to a smooth 5′ wide passage that we later learned led about 70 feet to a bend where they kept two guards.

Before we moved the crates, I put on the mask and it was clear. I saw over 100 dwarves, men, and others digging out the temple in an effort to open the passage. They were about 1/3 of the way. I then scanned and found two buildings one in the adventurers quarter that was lit by torches with some men out front by a fire. One of the men was one of the ones with the fellow who offered to help us avoid the nagas test for a fee. Another building on the other side of the wall between the adventurer’s quarter and an unused part of the city on the way to the temple was also lit up with guards outside. Both buildings were up against the mountain and on side streets, so not easily visible from the main road. Both seem good candidates for the entrance/exit controlled by the thieves.

We then sent the invisible Sokrates in the tunnel and learned there was firelight after a short distance. Finklemur then made Chuq invisible who then snuck in the tunnel and found that after 70 feet it turned and two guards were stationed in the narrow passage. Since he could not squeeze by or hope to overcome both without one getting reinforcements, Chuq came back and we put the crates back.

We then went back to the temple and took the cart back and found that Brice had healed the remaining wounded and that only Aris was still unconscious. We learned from Recusin that Pelgax bound many of his comrades, but the dressings on there wounds showed much more care than a hasty binding during a fight.

We gathered up the older meat, before it went bad and filled a large sack to take it to the men at the base of the spiral exit. We gave them the meat and told them that we had a way to know that the rescue party was large and nearly a third of the way finished. That encouraged them and I urged them to go up the spiral so that the 20 adventurers could deal with the thieves guild, if they came back for retribution. When we got to the top of the spiral, the sound of working rescuers was clear. I gave a gold piece to the ten at the top, as they left before I offered the gold to the others. I encouraged them to be friendly to me and my friends. I told them my name, but NOT that we are the Starchy Boyz or Baldric’s Boys. I feel that may mean something helpful to us, but perhaps not.

We let them know we found a room we could defend, but that it only had room for us, or we would invite them. When we left, Chuq, who was still invisible stayed behind to make sure no one followed us. Two men started to follow, but Chuq spooked them off.

We returned to the safety of the hidden room behind the thone and will wait until the exit is opened.

The only good thing about this catastrophe, is that no one else knows what we have found with the death of the dwarven archaeologists. Only we know of the phoenix egg device, and as Axel let it slip that we were the ones who found the dwarven tomb under Midmark, the difficulties that we would have otherwise had are removed. 

How do we or anyone else explain the explosion? I don’t think we should tell anyone what we know. 

Once the entrance is opened, will the dwarves be in control, and will we have free access as under the nagas? Is the third sister dead, or only wounded and driven off? With the loss of the ambassador and two important clerics, how long until replacements arrive to further complicate our efforts? 

Now Brice tells us Xen Teler wants us to find a five foot sphere, and she does not think it is in this portion of the secret rooms. I am not so sure I want to go where this leads, even if it means riches. I am glad that I did not tell the others of the dreams I have had of Xen Teler speaking to me. He has not spoken to me since before the idol was destroyed, so it must have just been my imagination. I think this only confirms that I made a good decision not to follow my uncle into the clergy.

My poor mother! I can’t explain this. I can only say that I honored Dolman and cared for his body instead of leaving it trapped in the rubble. 

I knew that my efforts to make my fortune to reclaim my birthright as head of the Ironhand clan would not be easy, this is an event I could never have imagined! It is so unfortunate that my father was denied his place after grandfather died. His one mistake, cost him and me so much. Mother doesn’t understand these things. She pretends that I don’t know about father’s troubles, the debts and the drinking. 

Now that I’ve practically helped kill her brother, I fear that I can never return home! 

Session 58 – May 27, 2015

The body of the ancient dwarf we found turned out to be some undead creature, whose icy touch was like that of the beast that affected Finklemur. Poor Axel felt its touch and is now much weaker than before, but we killed it. I asked it “Who are you?” and it said “Something deserving of death.”

We found another key on this dwarf, which Axel now has, plus a silver disk and a square card or some strange substance with the Silver Throne constellation on it.

We figured out how to open the doors with green lights on the areas next to the walls. Spiking doors open prevented heating us. We believe that if one delays between the two door sections and does not punch in the right code, they will be damaged by heat, as our armor got quit warm in the short time it took to go from one room to another.

We looked through the windows in the doors off the room we were originally in and noted as much as we could see. In typing in numbers on the pad to the outer door to the “East” it beeped and we attracted nearly a dozen skeletons, so we stopped trying to go that way. All of the skeletons seems to be yelling for death for the end of the punishment for their sins.

Next we tried to go to the room to the North and figured out the number pattern that works is 3827. One must move rapidly to punch in that number to avoid the heat. We found four doors, three with windows and on without. There was one window taking up nearly all the north wall. It opened into a room below with lots of dead that were human sized with passages off to the North, East, and West.

The two doors on the NE and NW rooms showed 6 stone slabs, each with two bodies. They had obviously been experimented on.

The other door with a window showed an L shaped room with a door that is ajar. 

We decided to see what was on the other side of the door without a window and found an ice cold room with bodies that had been hanging on hooks and rotted and fell to the floor and some on a metal cart. These bodies rose up and attacked. In all we “killed” and ogre, elf, orc, 3 kobolds, and 3 humans. Both Thorfus and Brice were knocked unconscious. Uthruk bound Brice, bringing her to consciousness. Brice healed Thorfus, returning him to consciousness. 

We decided to return to the temple and check on our men, and found BETRAYAL!

We found Talon in tears and Pelgax dead! Aris, Recusin, Laurent, and Barmir were unconscious.

Brice told the old cleric of Xen Teler about the Phoenix Egg, which is why they let her come to the temple.They used their magic to freeze two of the men and make off with the chest containing it, an hour and a half before our return. Then an hour ago, our hirelings found our injured comrades being looted by another party of adventurers. They would not return their gear, but left them in their armor. Zelina said she did not know these other adventurers, but would know them if she saw them again. About a half hour before our return, there was an earthquake, which I can only guess was the result of the egg.

I am none too happy with Brice. My thirst for vengeance upon the party who stripped our men, and perhaps attacked them, is only slowed by my own injuries. I commanded my companions and our hirelings to go back to the ancient dwarven rooms we found where we know that we cannot be assaulted by unknown forces. We agreed that we should be safe there until we are all rested and can find out from our unconscious men what happened.

I swear that I will take the heads of all who stripped our men. If the dwarves of Xenilum Khel slew Pelgax, I only hope my uncle was not involved. I know I could never raise my hand against him. I know not if we can even return the way we came. I fear those foolish dwarves attempted to take out the nagas. What have we done?

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.