Geekender's Realm

7/14/2013

Citadel. A mysterious land where every creature lives in the shadow of a tower that touches the sky. Even the sun takes refuge in the tower to let night crawl across the land.

Five gods claim this land for their worshippers and closely watch for intrusion by outsiders. They are Deus (humans), Ordana (elves), Thurs (giants, Time), Akessi the protector (Time), and Mon (bandits, outlaws, Entropy).

 

The party, three humans and a pegataur, arrive in Citadel via Gate loaded up with gear and horses in a gemstone desert.

The group’s first encounter is with a giant spider, which they kill in one round. A positive sign! Ferris, a human, collects some poison from the spider’s remains.

Second encounter is a manticore. The party did not deal with it as easily as the spider, but Ghanalon, the pegataur, charges it with his lance and finishes it off.

Further down the trail through the desert, the group finds a bundle of rags shoved under a rock overhang. Ferris unwraps the bundle, discovers a dead body inside. (save vs. poison – no plague!).

The group passes a small cave opening with a sword stabbed into the stone next to it. On a whim, one of the party members tosses a Piton of Light into the cave to light up the darkness and sees a scaly flash of blue. We make some quick guesses and the three humans scurry into the tunnel while the pegataur takes flight, fleeing the scene. A dragon emerges and begins to chase the pegataur. Inside the tunnel, the thief wants a closer look. It’s an “unguarded” dragon cave! They quickly locate the dragon’s treasure whole, and lower down to begin looting. They recover:

Scroll

Potion of Heroism

Chainmail +2

2 necklaces @ 5,000 gold each

3 armbands @ 7,500 gold each

They scurry out of the treasure hole with only moments to spare, and retreat out the side hole. The dragon enters the cave, and Ghanalon has also returned. Ghanalon again flees, this time with Lamat, the mage. The dragon quickly realizes someone has intruded and bolts from the cave once more! Namisha, a human female, and Ferris again clamor into the cave opening. This time the dragon blocks the entrance of the side hole with rocks and magically seals the exit. Namisha and Ferris decide to exit stage right, leave a decoy for the dragon (rather than leave the bulky loot behind), and manage to escape through another tunnel. Eventually the party is reunited and escapes the dragon having stolen its treasure and never having entered combat.

The next day the party travels with a merchant caravan and arrives at a rural market. Namisha buys flowers and a new backpack. We huddle up and make some strategic decisions. We travel to the large city, and pass through the city gates in the company of the merchant caravan.

We made friends with the caravan merchants, and they tell us a dozen names of people that “aren’t trustworthy.” Ferris wrote down these names for future reference for business contacts.

On our way into the city we pass by three “mauraders” strung up by their necks in a tree. They are humanoids with thick elephant like legs.

The first order of business in the new land –we find someone who will teach us the common language of the land: Professor Grithom.

The town, known as the Market of Zennon or Zennon Bazaar, is 1/3 elf, 1/3 dwarf, 1/6 human, and the rest is humanoids. Bazaars tend to be located closer to the center of the continent, which cuts merchant travel time by about 45-55%…but not too close, because proximity to the Tower strongly correlates with danger.

For a hotel, the party is directed to an inn that houses pegasi mounts. Ghanalon has to stay there.

The party invents a story about being from a different town, and that Ghanalon is from the island where the pegasi come from, and that we were cursed by an ancient wizard, and the curse just wore off and we woke up. That’s why we don’t know anything. Ghanalon meets some pegasi, chats them up, and learns their perspective of the land. They can be hired to be ridden, using a rare delicious moss as the payment.

The pegasi tell us about Pegasus Island, and what they know about the big tower. In town there is the main market, and then there is the Adventurers Market. In the latter you can buy maps to the tower and tower keys.

Obviously, we go to the adventurers market. We meet an old ugly elven woman warrior (Mom?!?), and she agrees to sell us a map of the tower with details about 13 of the nearer entrances. She warns us that the tower turns so it might be really hard to match up the doors to the map. And the higher you go, the more dangerous it is. (There are things like Thunderheads that attack you from the air). We take the elven woman out to dinner and pump her for more information. She tells us that lots of adventurers get through the first doors on the outer wall, but inside the tower is full of complex puzzles and traps. She claims to have no idea who built the tower, or maintains it. “Only the fool hearty want to find that fabled chamber where the sun is kept.” The tower is made of some kind of smokey glass (players identify it most likely as Chustra glass). There are 4 giant sized doors, and the rest are human sized. When the giant sized doors open, it releases a plague or an army, or something bad…

Later… during our language class, there is a commotion out in the street. There are fighters and soldiers battling with a squad of marauders. It appears that they are trying to break into the building next door which houses the town’s water supply (somebody poisoned the water hole!). The party springs into action and helps the townfolk kill off the marauders and save the water. It was a daring down-to-the-last-second event. It appears that the marauders were going to soil the water supply with plague ridden rags. At a ceremony later, some town officials tell us that our deeds have been “noted” for future citizenship consideration. Apparently becoming a citizen is no easy feat.

 

7/15/2013

Later… Ferris and Ghenelon are in the market tending their merchant booth when someone yells “marauders!” and all the guards go hustling in the direction of the commotion. It is clear to Ferris’ trained eye that a number of individuals stay behind and immediately begin looting the merchant stands. They pick one thief slinking away, and run him down, trapping him in an alley. Ghenelon beats him up, and they shake him down for some information – and his loot! He hands over his sword (normal sword +2 – sold, actually traded for a lance +1 and 500 gp), and a bracelet (1,500 gp). He gives us the name and location of his fence, a woman named “gnollhead” that works for a group called the “Silk Glove”. Ghenelon and Ferris follow up the lead, and it appears that the thief was lying, but not about the Silk Glove.

Ghenelon and Namisha do some heavy recruitment for their religion (Pflarr). Namisha gains a follower (a fighter) by appealing to his… basic instincts. His name is Sorik, and he comes in handy later. Ghenelon recruits openly in the market place by wowing people with his “summon construct” spell.

Ghenelon gets an invitation to meet with the city managers. The City Managers are: 2 dwarves, 2 elves, and 1 human. First they say that they will send a commendation for Ghenelon to the Citadel for his bravery during the marauder attack. Second, they ask him to stop using religion and openly worshipping a god who is not one of the 5 that own the plane. One of the dwarves shows him a holy symbol (Waylend? Garl?) to emphasize that people do worship other gods, but they just can’t go around singing about it.

About this time, someone in the party meets an adventurer at a shrine to the giant gods. His name is Droka, and he is a cleric. He’s also huge, a foot taller than all the other humans around. He speaks cloud giant. We set up a private meeting with Droka. Droka has a proposition for the group. He and his friends where in the middle of pursuing a key to the Tower, inside the tomb of an ancient evil wizard named Protesh, not far from the Citadel. Inside the tomb are living statues, undead, and traps. He claims to have a way into the tomb from the top that will bypass most of the problems. His mission: 1) recover his dead friends before they turn into undaed (1000 gp for each frind), and 2) finish their mission and find the secret release for the key, retrieve the key.

The party accepts.

We go shopping before the mission. Droka has a contact named “Starry” who sells magic items. We meet him at an inn. He’s a 60ish year old human male, wearing robes. “I got sticks, papers…”

Scrolls available: wizard lock, cure light wounds, knock (bought by Ferris for 1600 gp), explosive cloud, and charm person.

Wands: Wand of Negation, Wand of Enemy Detection, Wand of Lightning Bolts (6 charges, non rechargeable – 5760 gp), wand of cold (ice storm, 4 charges, 11,200 gp), and wand of metal detection.

The party leaves for the trail…

On the caravan trail, the party learns more about the typical hazards faced by travelers. Marauding humanoids and rough terrain seem to be the biggest hurdles (which is why people pay so much to travel by Pegasus!)

As the group passes a caravan, Ghenelon offers to clear the road for the caravan masters and hasten their journey – for a fee of course. Ferris negotiates a great deal. At night while setting up camp, two masked figures approach (Ferris casts Clear Sight to get the details), and the camp guards prepare for an ambush. The figures approach – they are humanoids bringing a ransom demand. After hemming and hawing, the caravan masters pay the 500 gp fee. We depart their company the next day, leaving the trail and moving through rough terrain.

[I have some random notes here… The King of Arselon is actually high level, but the “birthright” of the monarch is taken seriously, even if the individual is weak i.e. low level. In Zennon the monarch has to be strong. The current queen is an elf, and a follower of Ordana. She works hard to ensure fairness among all the races in her realm. ]

When we are almost to the tomb that is our destination, we start to see shrines to Mon. Bones are scattered everywhere and there are tracks from groups of humanoids going in all directions. Eventually we see what we determine to be a large lightning rod coming up from a chasm. The special Pegasus moss is growing nearby. The rod itself emits the lightning. Droka says a loud humming sound will predict the lightning eruption, but it covers such a large area that once you hear the humming, you are usually too close to be able to get away.

We arrive at the tomb of Protesh. There is a statue of the ancient wizard that is 20 feet tall. For its age, it does not appear to be worn or damaged at all. Droka says it is dangerous if approached… Our plan is to get to the third floor (i.e. the roof) where there is a secret door that allows passage through the ceiling into the third floor. The door is trapped with poisonous gas. The floor is also trapped with panels that flip and will drop a person onto spikes below. Ferris the trap detector blows a bunch of checks. Eventually Lamat opens the secret door using the Knock scroll.

In the room below there is a door that leads to a room with 8 undead lying motionless. Laying in beds in sets of two, it’s skeletons, wights, mummies, and a druj. In the final bed, there seems to be a potion sticking out of the eye socket of a skull. The undead will activate if anyone approaches. The party activates the undead systematically, first killing off the skeletons, then the wights. The mummies are a bit more of a challenge. All of the party members are paralyzed with fear immediately except for Ferris, but he quickly finishes off the mummies using a wand of lightning. The final undead are the druj, which could be death for all. Eventually, we settle on an insane plan where we tie a rope around Droka and have him charge into the room (he has the best saves). He grabs the potion (which is needed to release the key we are searching for), and runs back out of the room just as the druj is being activated. Droka and Ghenelon then fly out of the room through the secret trapdoor in the ceiling. Part I of the mission is done. Now we just need to find that key, and more importantly, see if we can rescue the dead friends.

Tomb Raider, Part II

The next day after the party has recovered, we again assault the tomb of Protesh. Ferris climbs the wall to the third floor and drops down a rope. Ghenelon flies up, I guess just to show off. The trapdoor has been reset, and Ferris disarms the trap, and unlocks the trapdoor. In the room below, all of the traps triggered the day before have been reset. Including an awesome stone+claw trap that smashes a person into the door that leads to the undead room… There is another door out of the room, and we head in that direction. A few rooms over, the floor is flooded with a couple of feet of murky water. As we pass through the room, there is a stirring in the water and this horrible… thing! surges out of the water, raising itself up, spreads some flesh flaps and completely engulfs poor Sorik! A Death Leech! The group acts fast and attacks the giant leech, freeing Sorik before he is completely drained of his fluids.

On the stairs on the other side of the room, the party is almost smashed by a giant Indiana Jones style boulder, which turns out to be an illusion. At the bottom of the stairs, we enter a room full of statues. It appears to be set up the same way that the undead room was set up, with a different creature that becomes activated as you approach, with the monsters increasing in difficulty as progress is made. The priests attempt to gain control of the first, a jade statue, but fail (we destroy it). They attempt to control a silver statue of a dwarf, and succeed! Now he works for Pflarr! The silver dwarf has a big mouthful of silver teeth that do 2d6 damage per bite. The next is a stone statue of a monk – destroy it. The next is a rock statue of a ghoul. We activate it with a flaming arrow, lure it to the end of the hall attacking as it walks – destroy it. The last statues are steel – oversized men with manticore heads. They are a bit trickier, but we destroy them. We pass by the “corpse room” where Droka left the bodies of his friends. Ferris finds a trap on the door and disarms it, but we don’t go inside yet. Instead we head toward the key room.

Two rooms over, we find what we are looking for: a large key in the middle of a large room, stuck to the floor underneath an enormous statue of a manticore. A close inspection of the manticore statue reveals subtle cracks in the belly. The party decides that this is most likely a trap designed to kill anyone attempting to retrieve the key. So like true adventurers, we get someone else to take the risks. Ferris ties a rope around the key, and Namisha creates a crystal statue to pour the potion over the key that will release it. This seems to trigger the trap, and the manticore suddenly bursts open, spilling several large black puddings into the room, quickly covering everything. We pull on the key with the rope, and it comes loose, but the black puddings quickly dissolve the rope… The created crystal statue is our only hope. The statue grabs the key, and throws it to the doorway of the room where the party members are huddled. We catch the key, and the black puddings destroy the statue, enveloping it in their slime… We slam the door shut.

From there we go into the “corpse room”. The bodies of the friends are not to be found. In this room, there are sacks suspended from the ceiling. Each one seems to be filled with sand, and a hint of treasure. Droka tells us that each one, if cut open, will drop the treasure and also an undead creature that must be fought. He and his friends did this. The last one created an undead beholder, which killed all of his friends, and from which he fled. He begs us to leave the sacks alone. Since the avatars don’t want to risk death, this seems like advice they should follow. There are also approximately 8 black puddings about 30 feet away behind a thin wooden door that appear to be aggressive, so we retrace our steps and once again exit through the trapdoor in the roof.