Idalium Game 118: The Great Wizard Quiquaequod

Session date: Monday, November 4, 2019
Game date: Monday, November 14, 211 to Sunday, November 27, 211

PCs:
Gulleck Stonefoot, Dwarf 7, hp 41, xp 74051/140000
Simon Sackwell, Halfling 4, hp 15, xp 12678/16000
Adrien, Fighter 4, hp 16, xp 12713/16000

Retainers:
Manley "Meat" Smythe, Fighter 5, hp 17, xp 18334/32000
Father Chase Pike, Cleric 4, hp 18, xp 6032/12000
Orin, Elf 1, hp 4, xp 2701/4000
Boe, Fighter 1, hp 5, xp 926/2000

Unusually, we picked up the game just a couple days later in "game time", so that the adventurers could seek a cure for Caryatid, who had gazed upon the face of Atropos the medusa witch and been turned into a granite statue. But because we employed retainers in our game, Caryatid's player did not have to sit the session out, but instead she played the role of Caryatid's retainer, Father Chase Pike.

Father Chase informed the group that no one in his church hierarchy had the power to restore a statue to living flesh, and none of the adventurers knew of a wizard powerful enough to do so. They decided to contact the highest level wizard they were aware of: Caryatid's former teacher and mentor, a Granny Weatherwax who lived near the town of Lancre, roughly 15 miles to the east of Idalium. (Yes, we have at least one Terry Pratchett fan in the group.) They sent a letter describing Caryatid's plight and asked for any advice or leads she could offer. On Saturday, November 19th, they received a reply from Granny Weatherwax. She wrote that such magic was beyond even her grasp, but she did know of a wizard in Idalium that possessed such power: the Great Quiquaequod. Years ago he had been an adventurer himself, but now, as a Wizard of the Twelfth Circle, he was a recluse secluded in his tower in a wealthy neighborhood of Idalium. She wrote that his tower was protected by strange magics that kept it hidden from view from neighboring streets, and that one would most likely need to be led there by one of the wizard's apprentices.

The adventurers garbed themselves in their nicest clothes and combed their hair for a change, in hopes of receiving a good reception in the well-heeled craftsmen's quarter, and set out in search of the reclusive wizard. They made their way through the rougher quarters of the city, through the grand plaza that bordered the Great Cathedral of Idalium, and into a neighborhood they had very rarely visited before. It was a neighborhood of well-kept shops and businesses catering to the well-to-do with time and money to spare. The neatly swept streets were narrow and crooked, making navigation confusing enough even without an illusion-cloaked wizard's tower as their destination.

They stopped into a few shops and cafes, asking discreetly about the wizard's tower without much success, until they found an antique shop whose proprietor said she occasionally sold various knickknacks to apprentices of the Great Quiquaequod. "Well, I don't think his tower can be that far away, although I've never seen it myself. Some kind of enchantment on it, I believe." Father Chase bought a little statuette of a winged monkey for 10 gold darics, to thank the owner for the information.

Outside the shop, the group decided to take a different approach. Perhaps you could only find the tower if you weren't actively looking for it. They blindfolded Gulleck and she blundered around the streets aimlessly, but after a few collisions with irate passersby they abandoned this tactic. Then they decided to walk around abstractly while pointedly not thinking about the tower, but this proved impossible. They stood in the street debating the nature of the magic. Should they map the neighborhood? Is the tower hidden inside a block they can't get to? There was some metagame analysis about what kind of puzzle this was likely to be. In the end, they resumed asking around at nearby shops. They found a bookshop where the bookseller said, "Oh yes, I've only seen the wizard himself once or twice, but one of his apprentices was just in the other day to buy some very expensive paper and inks. The adventurers left a message with the bookseller for the apprentice, saying they were seeking help that only the most powerful wizard could provide. Then, having done all they could think of to find the tower, they returned to the humbler and grimier streets they were familiar with.

Two days later, a messenger came to the Rusty Lantern tavern with a note instructing them to meet next Saturday at the bookshop where they had left their message. And so, on Saturday, November 26th, they returned to the bookshop to be greeted by two young men wearing green robes with the interrobang sigil embroidered on the front in white thread. The two apprentice wizards heard the party's case, and said that they would escort the group to the tower of the Shining One, Quiquaequod, where one of them would be granted an audience with the Shining One himself. The wizards led them through the streets of the craftsmen's quarter, taking them down back alleys that no one could remember noticing before, and suddenly emerging onto a street containing a tall and narrow tower that rose high above all the adjacent buildings.

They were brought into the tower and into a simple sitting room, where another apprentice greeted them. They noticed that the whites of his eyes were "bloodshot" with bright green veins. He explained to them that the Shining One was deeply immersed in communion with the Essence of the Shining Chrysanthemum, and that one of the group would have to partake of the Essence and join the Shining One in the Communion, to prove his seriousness of purpose. Father Chase bravely stepped forward, his loyalty for his employer Caryatid triumphing over any anxiety he might have felt. The apprentice brought forth a small glass flask of bright green liquid and offered it to Father Chase. He drank it down, flinching at the overwhelming taste of licorice. His stomach twisted and shuddered at the unfamiliar and potent elixir, but Father Chase held it down, even as he felt an unusual light-headedness percolate through him. The apprentice told him that he needed to enter the Shining One's chamber empty-handed, and as Father Chase handed over his few belongings, the other adventurers noticed that the pupils of his eyes were completely dilated to the point where no iris was visible, and the whites were already shot through with veins of vivid green.

Father Chase was escorted deeper into the tower by the apprentice. He grew more and more woozy as he was led through long halls and up and down flights of stairs. He became vaguely aware that none of these hallways seemed like they should fit into the tower as they had seen it from the outside, but then he got distracted by what seemed like great mystical significance of the interrobang sigil on the back of the wizard's robe. Finally, a door was opened and he was ushered into a darkened room. An elderly man with a long white beard reclined in a padded chair on the far side of the room, clad in simple white robes. A single prismatic skylight at the top of the arched ceiling scattered scintillating rainbows across the dark room. A brazier burned incense and herbs in the center of the room, in front of the man, and opposite the brazier was another, less ornate chair. The man gestured to the chair with a nod, and Father Chase took his seat. Things were getting very strange for Father Chase now, and he looked around as colorful flowers seemed to bloom and dissolve in the dark corners of the room.

"We... I... need your help. I... this is... I don't understand what's happening," Father Chase stuttered, but the old man raised a finger. His lips did not move, but a voice filled Father Chase's head. "Don't speak. Let go of your fear. Find the center point in the chaos." Father Chase took a deep breath and managed to master his near-panic. The urgent whorls of coruscating color surrounding the Shining One subsided into a more subtle twinkling as Father Chase gazed into the black pools of his pupils.

"Very good," echoed the voice of the wizard. "What brings you to seek audience with the Great Quiquaequod?" In the smoke rising from the brazier, Father Chase saw small interrobang glyphs form and rise lazily through the air before losing shape and dissolving back into the smoke.

Having to focus to "speak" without speaking, Father Chase was surprised to hear his own voice echoing in the shared mental space between the two men. "My friends and I are adventurers. One of my friends was turned to stone by a monstrous witch deep below the city. Only the most powerful of wizards, such as yourself, can help her." Wisps of smoke drifted together to form the face of Caryatid, eyes staring blindly.

"I was an adventurer once myself," the Shining One replied, his eyes narrowing. "I lost several friends in the course of that career. These things happen. Why should they concern me? The physical world is largely irrelevant to me today. All that is of interest is here, in the Communion. Here I commune with the servitors of the true consciousness that underlies all reality. Why should I distract myself to deal with your trivial setback?" Rainbowed chrysanthemums bloomed in the smoke, and in the darkness behind the wizard's chair.

"Oh, Great Quiquaequod," flattered Father Chase, "Truly you operate on a different level from the rest of us mere mortals. But even you must need material wealth to pursue your research. We are prepared to pay well for your services."

The wizard's mouth curved into a tiny smile. "Indeed, there is a need for coin to fund my researches and to procure my stock of the Shining Chrysanthemum. I will deign to help you, for 2,000 gold darics and your assistence in retrieving a small item for me from the home of a colleague who has left this plane of existence and has no further use for it."

Father Chase agreed to the terms, and the Shining One reached down to a small table next to his chair and picked up a small glass flask of milky white liquid.

"Drink this," his voice echoed.

"What does it do?" asked Father Chase.

"Nothing, so long as you are making progress on your work for me. It is merely insurance on my investment."

Quiquaequod extended the potion and Father Chase reached out his hand to take it, and found himself holding the cold glass vial, even though he was dimly aware that there were at least 10 feet, plus a burning brazier, between them. He drank down the liquid and winced as he felt it squirming down his esophagus as though alive. Again his stomach twisted uncomfortably, as he felt the strange liquid settle in.

The wizard told Father Chase to return to the tower tomorrow morning with the statue of Caryatid. Father Chase rose from the chair and stumbled out of the dark room, blinking in the bright light outside. He was escorted back to the rest of the adventurers. They left the tower and Father Chase had the strangest trip through the city of his life, making their way back to the Rusty Lantern.

The next day, Sunday November 27th, the group reunited. Father Chase felt mostly back to normal now (the sky had stopped undulating, at least) but as they returned to the craftsmen's quarter he somehow knew how to retrace his steps to the tower of the Shining One. They wheeled Caryatid's statue along with them in a wheelbarrow, drawing stares from the passing crowds. In the tower, two apprentices took the wheelbarrow through a door while another apprentice escorted the party through many hallways and staircases. They eventually arrived in a simple dining room. Sunshine streamed through large windows on one wall (they could see the rooftops of the surrounding neighborhood below them) and the Great Quiquaequod sat at a long table, eating from a plate of scrambled eggs and bacon. Father Chase marveled at the change in the wizard, who seemed like a perfectly ordinary man now, elderly yet oddly spritely. Only the green veins in the whites of his eyes belied the mundanity of the scene. That, and the statue of Caryatid, which had already been delivered to the room and was standing next to the now empty wheelbarrow.

"Ah, there you are. And there's the unfortunate young lady!" smiled the wizard. "Let me just finish my breakfast and we'll have her sorted right out. You can just leave the coins on the table there, thank you."

He stood up and placed a hand on the granite arm of Caryatid and murmured words of power. Underneath his hand, the stone gained color, the green of Caryatid's robes. The green spread from his hand across the statue, and then her hands returned to flesh, her backpack changed back to leather, and her head returned to flesh and hair. She gasped and averted her eyes, covering her face with her sleeve. Then, realizing that she was somewhere else, she looked around in wonder and confusion.

Explanations were made, and then Quiquaequod spoke to them about the other part of his payment. "Not too far from here, just a few day's travel, is the tower of an old colleague of mine. A wizard named Castanamir. He has fled this realm of existence. I would like you to go to his tower and retrieve a certain manuscript of Castanamir's. He had been researching certain elemental spirits from another plane of reality, called gingwatzim. I would very much like to acquire this book. Castanamir will not be coming back to this world, so anything you wish to take from his tower for yourself is of no concern to me."

He drew forth a large brass key and a strange wooden rod. "This is the key to Castanamir's tower. It is no ordinary lock, but it amused him to make it appear so. The tower has powerful charms that will prohibit the removal of any of Castanamir's possessions from it, but this rod will nullify those protections on any five items. One of them must be the book, but as to the other four, choose wisely."

Quiquaequod took another bite of scrambled eggs. "Well, if you have no other questions, you'd best be on your way. Time is of the urgency, as I hope you in particular understand, Father Chase."

The sinister undertones of that last comment were left hanging in the air as the party took their leave from the Shining One and left the tower with their empty wheelbarrow. The wizard has told them the tower was near the village of Oakhaven, several days travel to the east of Idalium. He said that Father Chase would know if they were heading in the right direction or not. And so, the adventurers began to make plans for an unexpected excursion away from Idalium, into the nearby wilderness...

Idalium Game 117: I Turn to Stone When You Are Gone

Session date: Monday, October 21, 2019
Game date: Saturday, November 12, 211

PCs:
Gulleck Stonefoot, Dwarf 7, hp 41, xp 73588/140000
Caryatid, Magic-user 5, hp 24, xp 23163/40000
Simon Sackwell, Halfling 4, hp 15, xp 12070/16000
Adrien, Fighter 4, hp 16, xp 12134/16000

Retainers:
Manley "Meat" Smythe, Fighter 5, hp 17, xp 18044/32000
Father Chase Pike, Cleric 3, hp 13, xp 5727/6000
Orin, Elf 1, hp 4, xp 2411/4000
Ms. Vanjie, Thief 1, hp 1, xp 1146/1200

About a month had passed in both real time and within the game world, so the first order of business was to check in on Professor Zinn, and see if he had any information for the adventurers about the strange mushrooms they had brought back from the underground caverns. Professor Zinn was very excited to see them, and showed them three jars of the samples. The first jar was his "control group", just the mushrooms in a glass jar. They were dead and desiccated. The second jar held mushrooms that he had planted in soil and compost to see if they would draw nutrients from the soil and grow. These mushrooms were also dead and withered. He said they lasted a few days longer than the control batch but quickly died away. The third jar contained mushrooms he had planted in soil, but he was replenishing the soil with fresh compost daily. These mushrooms seemed barely alive, pale and sickly, struggling to hold on to life. Clearly, the Professor said, ordinary compost and soil itself was not sufficient to provide them with what they needed to thrive.

Since they were already in The Steps, they went to the vacant house they had purchased, to use the wardrobe which was a magical portal to the second level of the dungeon. Pushing through the old fur coats and cloaks, they emerged into the dungeons below the city. They made their way back to the mushroom caverns at the shore of the underground lake, passing by a group of giant locusts in a hallway, fighting a pair of giant lizards in a cave, and placating another pair of lizards with a block of cheese that Simon had been carrying.

When they arrived at the beach they decided to drink a potion they had been carrying around for ages that promised to indicate the direction of the largest nearby treasure. So sooner was it drunk but it gave the overwhelming impulse to head towards the cottage of Atropos, the potion-making witch on the island in the center of the underground lake. They left their retainers on the shore, and the other four climbed into the rowboat that lay on the beach and began to row towards the sensation of treasure. Their plan was to attack the witch from a distance, hopefully out of range from any spells she might be capable of. When they were about 20' from the shore, Simon loaded his crossbow and took a shot at the cottage door to get the witch's attention. THUD!

"Who goes there?" came a stern voice. Simon shot another bolt at the door, but this went wide and snapped against the wall of the house. Then Gulleck and Caryatid noticed the shutters of the window to the left of the door open a crack. Caryatid began chanting the words of Fireball, and pointed a finger directly at the crack between the shutters. But Atropos the witch had drunk a potion of human control before opening the shutters, and Caryatid suddenly felt her arm jerk upwards. The glowing ember of the fireball shot high overhead, above the cottage, and blossomed into an aerial firework that illuminated the island and the black lake surrounding it.

The shutters then opened all the way. Atropos was not wearing her veil, and the party recoiled at the sight of a woman with writhing snakes for hair and features indescribably hideous. Adrien, Gulleck, and Simon made their saving throws and shivered as the sight chilled their bodies to the bone, but Caryatid failed her save and within an instant was transformed into a granite statue.

Gulleck and Adrien quickly ran to the window and attacked the medusa witch. (Gulleck's player rolled the Big Green d30 for 22 points of damage.) Atropos attempted to charm Adrien, but Adrien saved vs this spell as well. The door of the cottage burst open, and the witch's two strange stone-like dogs ran out barking and snapping at Gulleck and Adrien. Simon used his levitation boots to get out of melee range, and shot at the dogs from above with his crossbow. Atropos again failed to charm Adrien, but her snakes bit her. Adrien retaliated, swinging blindly at the medusa so as not to look at her, and struck a lucky blow that killed the witch! But then a dog bit Adrien as well, bringing her to -1 hit points and potentially dead! Her demonic giant ferret, Norman, went berserk at the apparent death of his mistress and attacked the dog, snarling and snapping. Gulleck managed to put down the two stone dogs.

In this campaign, PCs could regain 1d4-1 hit points after catching their breath after a combat, and Adrien's player rolled a 1, bringing her back to exactly 0 hit points. Adrien was comatose, and Caryatid was a statue. Gulleck barged into the witch's cabin, prying open a large chest and filling three large sacks with hundreds of gold coins. Simon ferried Adrien back to the shore with the gold, where Father Chase laid his hands upon her wounds, restoring some measure of vitality to her. Back on the island, Gulleck also plundered the cottage of four vials of potions, a suit of finely made leather armor, and a polished bronze shield. Finally, Gulleck decapitated the witch (with some difficulty since she was averting her eyes), and put her head in a sack and brought it with her, just in case it retained its potency. She and Simon made the crossing again, having awkwardly maneuvered the statue of Caryatid into the rowboat.

The party made the long and arduous journey carrying Caryatid through the caverns and ruins of Ancient Idalium, stopping for many rests but finally making it safely out via the cellar of the Rusty Lantern tavern.