Session date: Monday, March 5, 2018
Game date: Sunday, May 2, 210
PCs:
Gulleck Stonefoot, Dwarf 7, hp 41, xp 70000/140000
Caryatid, Magic-user 4, hp 19, xp 18684/20000
Simon Sackwell, Halfling 3, hp 11, xp 7594/8000
Adrien, Fighter 3, hp 9, xp 6614/8000
Orehoe Hüfflestüff, Elf 1, hp 3, xp 1173/4000
Retainers:
Father Chase Pike, Cleric 3, hp 13, xp 3469/6000
Orin, Elf 1, hp 4, xp 1255/4000
Jack, Thief 2, hp 8, xp 1910/2400
When we last left our intrepid party, Gulleck's stalwart retainer Meat had been killed by a living statue that sprayed lava from its fingers. Meat had already been revived once in the resurrection pool on the second level, so that was no longer an option. The players and I discussed the various options: Gulleck could hire a new retainer (who would start at first level but quickly advance, assuming their survival); they could pay 1,250 gold darics to have Meat raised from the dead at the Great Cathedral of the All-Pervading Light. (Gulleck had been raised in such a way, and then sent on a quest for the next few months, so Gulleck's player was a bit leery of going back there for help.) Finally, there was the Elixir of Life produced by the Eternal Flame in the caves on the second level. This elixir had reincarnated Gulleck into her current body, and it was decided to try the same with Meat. And if Meat came back as a monster, all the more fun!
And so the group descended into the undercity, and were immediately derailed trying to figure out exactly where the Eternal Flame was and how best to get there. They struggled with their maps, turning pages around and over and trying to fit them together. Fortunately no wandering monsters showed up while they were puzzling over the scraps of paper, in the light of Simon's magical sword, as they stood in the empty, echoing town square.
Eventually they determined their course, and headed down through the Temple of Hedonism to the second level. In the vestibule of the temple, they encountered a dozen knockers on their way out. Gulleck used to hate the tiny, wizened imps with a murderous rage, but her new personality was a bit more easy going and she didn't immediately put her axe into them.
"Trade gold for information?" the lead knocker hissed.
"Why, what kind of information do you need?" asked Caryatid mischievously.
"No," growled the knocker, annoyed. "You pay gold, we give information about this place."
"How much?"
"One gold piece. Each."
Well, everyone expected to be extorted for much more than that, so they were quite jolly about handing over a dozen gold coins. I don't even remember what question the group asked, but what I do remember is that the knocker gave them a real sarcastic smart aleck answer that wasn't helpful in the least. Adrien lost her patience and let go of Norman's leash. The demon ferret, which had been growling and straining at his leash, pounced forward, nipping one of the knockers. It drew its rusty knife and stabbed Norman, while the rest of them fled back into the temple. Norman tackled the knocker and ripped it to pieces, and once that furious activity subsided, the group followed the path of the fleeing knockers and found that they had excavated a crude tunnel into one of the changing rooms off of the hallway that led to the stairs down. It was too small for any of them to fit through (except perhaps Simon) so they abandoned the pursuit and went down to the second level.
They passed quickly through empty rooms and halls, and made their way to the rope bridge across a chasm. Down in the darkness, rushing water echoed and a cool mist floated up. There was discussion among the party regarding how to carefully harness themselves to the ropes of the bridge. Then Caryatid's player got bored.
"I'm just going to run right across."
"You're going to run across?"
"I'm going to hold the two ropes on the side with my hands, and just... scamper right across."
"So you're not tying yourself to the rope, or taking any special precautions, or going slowly and carefully..."
"Nope."
"OK. Roll a d6."
"A five! That's good, right?"
So while Gulleck and Simon were debating the best knot to use to secure a safety line to the bridge posts, Caryatid just scampered across, lost her balance, and plummeted through the inky darkness into the river below. Some forty feet down, she hit the cold water hard, knocking the wind out of her, and struggled to swim back to the surface and keep her head above the water as the current carried her away. A short while later, she came to an abrupt halt, washed up onto a shallow ledge where the river turned into a waterfall, pouring down into some unseen sea. Various bits of flotsam had become wedged on this shelf, and as Caryatid groped in the dark for a more secure position, her hands fell on what could only be the orcs' two sheet metal gongs that they had dumped into this chasm many months ago!
Meanwhile, back at the rope bridge, the party scrambled to find a way down to Caryatid. Adrien tied a rope to one of the bridge posts, and Simon descended with his sword, while Orehoe lit a lantern back at the top. Simon could see that the river passed through a tunnel on either side of the bridge and that the roof of the tunnel was a good ten feet above the surface of the water. He considered dropping down into the river, but the idea of swimming in cold water wearing plate armor seemed like a bad idea, so he remained hanging from the rope fretting about how to go after Caryatid.
Then Adrien called down, "Wait, don't you have flying boots?"
Well, levitation boots! Simon used the power of the boots to suspend himself in the air and then Caryatid's pet flying capuchin monkey, Marcel, was enticed to push Simon downstream into the tunnel. Finally, spending all that money researching a single use spell to give Marcel wings paid off!
Simon found Caryatid clinging to the waterfall ledge as cold water rushed over her. They hollered back up the tunnel as best they could, hoping the rest of the party would be able to hear them over the roar of the water. Gulleck had climbed down the rope to be nearer the mouth of the tunnel, and faintly heard Simon (made a Hear Noises check successfully). She called back that they were going down to the third level to find them, and then climbed back up the rope to rejoin the group. They returned to the worked stone area of the dungeon and took the mossy stairs down to the third level.
They first went to see "the judge", the talking stone pillar in the room near the stairs, though they had not brought any gems for him to eat. When they entered his room, they were surprised to see a man sitting casually in the wooden chair against the side wall, chatting idly with the pillar.
"Oh, my friends from above!" said the judge. "Today is a rare day indeed, so many visitors. Have you met my friend Bor? He comes to visit once in a while. Bor has made this place his home for some time now."
Bor was thin and lanky, with straggly unkempt hair. He had an odd, unfocused look about him. He wore a suit of plate armor, draped with a dirty and tattered tunic bearing the heraldry of the Great Cathedral of Idalium. A tarnished holy symbol hung around his neck, and they recognized the stylized sun of the All-Pervading Light. Father Jibber had worn a similar symbol.
The judge asked the adventurers what they were up to, and Gulleck explained that they needed to explore the underground sea to the east of here, and what they really needed was a raft.
"Hmm. I don't know of anything like that around here..."
"A raft, you say?" mused Bor. "Actually, I think I might have something like that stowed away. It was a long time ago, to be sure... I wonder if I still have it. Would you like to come and take a look? If I do still have it, I'd be happy to loan it to you for, shall we say a hundred gold darics?"
"Well, that's mighty kind of you," said Gulleck.
"Oh, I'm sure if you are friends of my stone friend here, you're trustworthy enough. Come on and let's see if we can find it."
The judge bid them good luck, and Bor led them back out of the room and down a hall to the west. On the way, Gulleck tentatively inquired about Bor's holy symbol and tabard.
"Oh, do you know, I'm not sure, really. I think I might have been a member of some kind of order, once upon a time. It was a long, long time ago, whenever it was." Bor's speech was rambling and distracted, and he seemed to have difficulty following a train of thought. "Yes, I think there were several of us traveling together, much like you all are now. But that was before..." He trailed off into confused silence.
"And now you live down here, by yourself?" Adrien prompted.
"Oh yes! It's not too bad, as long as you know how to stay out of trouble. Most of the trouble leaves me alone anyway. Not worth bothering with, I suppose." Bor gave them a weak grin.
Bor led them to a place where a long corridor stretched north into the darkness. The wall that ran along the west side was ornately decorated like the walls of a palace, and they recognized this as part of the same wall they had seen farther north. Bor opened a plain wooden door above which was written "Servants' Entrance" in Ancient Idalian. They entered a small anteroom and then went through a door to a somewhat larger room. Bor drew forth a large set of keys on a ring and unlocked a sturdy door on the opposite side of the room. Next to the door was a large sandwich board sign, upon which had been written in Common, in bold black paint:
MONSTERS STAY OUT!
(This means you, Queen of Nightmares!
(I have enough nightmares of my own, thank you very much.))
"This guy's all right!" declared Gulleck. Bor pulled the door open and escorted the party into a small room packed full of crates and barrels of various supplies, seemingly scavenged from different parts of the dungeon. Bor gazed distractedly over the clutter and then mused, "Hmm, there's no raft here, maybe it's in the other closet. Come along, come along..."
He led them through a door on the other side of the room into a large L-shaped room set up as a bedroom. A dingy bedroll lay in one corner next to a barrel with a tarnished old lantern on it. In another corner was a strange little shrine of sorts. Gulleck ventured over to get a closer look, and saw that it contained a few stubbly candles and some crudely whittled wooden idols that depicted strange figures with clawed, webbed hands, and grotesque lamprey-like sucker mouths. Gulleck nudged the other party members and nodded at the shrine, trying to be discreet but Bor noticed her interest.
"Paying your respects? That's wise of you. They are the source of all, be it good or ill. They brought us together today," he murmured, seeming to get lost in his thoughts.
"I, uh, thought you were one of those All-Pervading Light people?" asked Gulleck nervously.
"All-Pervading...? Yes, yes, that seems familiar. But that was before my mind was opened." ("Oh no," muttered Gulleck.) "That was before they showed me the truth beyond the veil."
"Who are they?" asked Adrien.
"They are beyond names. They are ancient, older even than these stones. I call them the Great Ones..." ("Oh no," muttered Gulleck.)
"What about that raft?" chirped Orehoe.
"Oh, yes, the raft. Just wait a moment..." Bor opened a door at the north end of the room and rummaged around. A few minutes later he emerged, dragging a dusty old raft of logs and rope. "It must be years since I used this last. It's so hard to keep track of time down here. It must have been back when the others were still..." And he trailed off again. "Well now, bring it back when you're done with it, won't you?"
The adventurers paid Bor 100 gold pieces and then awkwardly dragged the raft back the way they had came, passing the Judge's doorway and heading east to the shore of the Underground Sea (the infamous "Rocco Beach"). They shouted out for Caryatid and Simon, and Orin's sharp Elvish ears picked up faint return cries off to the left. The adventurers debated briefly, and then Orin and Jack were sent out on the raft to rescue Caryatid and Simon. (This required morale checks for the retainers, but they passed and so both nervously did as they were told.) The water was almost unnaturally still and silent, and once Jack and Orin were far enough away from the rest of the party, it was as though they were moving in a bubble of lantern light through a dark void, featureless apart from the rocky cave walls that they kept within sight on their left. Even the paddles slipping into the water seemed oddly muted. At times, water splashed up from the paddles onto Jack and Orin and they found that it seemed to sap their strength, leaving them feeling unnaturally fatigued and listless. But soon enough, they rounded a bend in the cave wall and spotted the light from Simon's sword. The water from the river plunged down some 15 feet in a waterfall, but even that seemed to lose all its energy and potency as it struck the quiet sea. The roar of the waterfall seemed muted at the bottom, and Orin and Jack had surprisingly little trouble bringing the raft quite close to the base of the waterfall without being disturbed by its wake. As they drew near, they saw a live fish wriggling as it went over the waterfall and slip into the dark sea, and they were alarmed to see it float motionless back to the surface a moment later.
"Don't touch the water!" shouted Orin up to Caryatid and Simon. Caryatid was carefully lowered down to the raft by Marcel the flying monkey and Simon's levitating boots. Once they were safely on board, Jack and Orin paddled quickly back along the cavern wall until they returned to the rocky beach where the rest of the party was waiting. They carried the raft back to Bor's room and returned it to him with thanks. Then they called it a day, and headed back to the surface.
And so a day went by, and Meat's body got a little riper where it was lying back in his apartment. We would pick up next time with another attempt the next day to find the Elixir of Life that could revive him.
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