Game 04 - Three Lullabies in an Ancient Tongue
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Starday, 11th day of Desnus, 4711 AR

Ziyana's scar of destiny caused her to step out of reality.

Three months have passed since the heroes arrived in Absalom and in the time after the events at Jorak's mansion they have each begun to find their way in the City at the Centre of the World. Of Fantasimo they have seen little and his patronage has waned somewhat as he returned to his own business. Though their exploits gained them some visibility with officials like Erik Brekbow, they were still far from having any real reputation.

And so the adventurers moved to the Golden Horseshoe Inn located on the fringes of the Ivy District as they remained in loose contact since being thrown together after the fateful events in the docks District 13.

One evening while at the Golden Horseshoe Inn, one of the inn's regular bards was entertaining the patrons, though evidently from his performance his heart was not fully in it. Afterwards he approached the party, introduced himself as Anders and said he had a proposition for them. Telling his tale, Anders explained how his dreams were haunted by a wordless tune that he could not get out of his head; yet there were no words for this melody. He said that he had tried many times to write words, but they were never right. And so through the knowledge he had acquired in his bardic travels, Anders told how he had learned that there was a songbook that might hold the worlds he needed. The book was believed to lie somewhere within a shrine dedicated to the goddess Sarenrae located in the Cairnlands to the west of Absalom.

Anders asked the group if they would be willing to retrieve the book for him, and that he could pay fifty gold to each to undertake the task. Several of the adventurers tried to persuade him to increase his payment, though it was only when Miria tried a more intimidating form of persuasion that Anders raised his offer to one hundred gold each, with fifty gold to be paid in advance.

The heroes agreed to the quest, and with nothing to hold them back set out into the Cairnlands. Several hours down the road that wound west toward the distant town on Diobel on west coast, the party encountered a large area of smooth glass. Lady Helena sent Kordex to explore it, and the eidolon scrabbled and slid across the smooth surface but found nothing. From the knowledge gained during her exploration of Absalom, Miria explained how this was the result of great magic during one of the many attempted sieges of the city over the centuries.

Moving on while the day remained, the adventurers travelled until evening and found a dell that was suitable for their camp. During the night watches, Adyel heard the sound of an animal in pain. She woke Lucciola, but the young druid explained that some of his druidic powers were aligned differently and that he did not possess the innate affinity with wild animals that many druids have. Lucciola was still concerned for the animal and vowed to learn spells in the morning that he hoped would help in establishing contact with the animal.

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Sunday, 12th day of Desnus, 4711 AR

Waking the next morning the heroes - at the behest of Lucciola - set off to find the animal they had heard in the night. As they followed the direction of the sounds they came across an inn not far from the road. The place - called the Turn of a Friendly Card on the sign - looked like it had seen some better times. Rather than just walk in, Lady Helena sent her eidolon Kordex inside to investigate. Quite a commotion ensued from those within seeing the otherworldly creature enter the remote inn. The heroes followed soon after an managed to quieten things after explaining the situation to the innkeeper and his worried customers!

The group asked about the inn, and the innkeeper, who introduced himself as Ian Chobey, explained how it had fallen on harder times and that travellers were fewer in number due to the dangers posed by gnolls raiding in the area. He described how they were based at an old shrine on a knoll, and indeed the very place the heroes were seeking! Yet lately there had been other visitors to the shrine: firstly another group of adventurers led by Carsten, a paladin of the Order of the Vortex. After these came a group of dark robed pilgrims led by a jester in motley. Neither of these groups have yet returned from the shrine.

Putting all this aside for the moment, the party resumed the search for the injured animal. They covered the area around the inn, but the sounds had not been heard since the night and they could find no sign of an animal. As night came, the search was ended, and the heroes could only assume the creature was gone or had died. They returned to the Turn of a Friendly Card Inn to stay for the night.

Moonday, 13th day of Desnus, 4711 AR

After breakfasting, the adventurers set out for the shrine to Sarenrae. Sited atop the knoll, it was not difficult to find. A track led up to the circle of tress and pillars that were a common aspect of the temples to the goddess known as the Dawnflower.

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Deciding it would be wise to scout the area, Garmidius used his stealthy ways to approach the shrine. He found a pair of gnoll guards dozing in the fine weather, and returned to report his findings. Plans were laid to eliminate the guards without alerting any other creatures that might be inside the shrine. So it was that Garmidius went back again in the company of Dio the tiger and Kordex the eidolon. The three attacked and Garmidius and Dio managed to swiftly kill the gnolls without the monsters raising any alarm.

The rest of the party joined those on the knoll and a search was conducted. The
gnolls had little more than their variable quality arms and armour, their shields bearing the insignia of a crowned crow on a field of red. Close inspection of the bodies found that each bore a red and yellow tattoo on its left arm in the form of a jester's cap. Nearby a trapdoor was discovered that hid a steep flight of steps down into the heart of the knoll. There was also a very lifelike statue of a wizard standing in the grove, a wizard bearing great similarity to the one described as part of the group that had recently travelled here.

The adventurers descended the stairs, and soon encountered five more gnolls in a decorated chamber just beyond the foot of the stairs. The gnolls had scented the heroes and battle quickly ensued. One fled only to return moments later with a larger gnoll wielding a fine sword. The fight was tough but the creatures were slain. As the leader of the monsters was slain by Miria it saluted her and barked "Arkal Ark'ululuak'araou!": it was the gnoll's name. The gnolls were searched but it was only their leader who had any decent armour and a fine longsword that was enchanted, as well as a magical spell scroll and a feather token. All the gnolls bore the jester tattoo on their arms.

With the fight over, the heroes could examine the decorated chamber. The walls were decorated with murals: to the northeast a man walked towards snow covered mountains under a leaden sky, bowed down by a load of firewood strapped to his back. To the southeast was the same general landscape with a similar man ploughing a field behind a pair of long horned oxen. To the southwest the field was full of wheat, and a man stood amongst them shooing off a flock of crows. To the northwest, stoops of grain stood in an empty field and a man with a scythe over his shoulder had his back to the viewer. The floor was decorated with a mosaic of a sun surrounded with flames.

Three short corridors led from the chamber: two ending in doors and the third a dead end decorated with carved doves. Facing the wall of the dead end was another lifelike statue: another of the ill-fated earlier adventuring party to venture into the shrine. Miria inspected the statue and then the wall and found a secret door, which was opened by Lucciola after pressing one of the doves that was the secret door's trigger. Beyond was a square chamber dominated by a quadrangle of four large pillars between which strange and powerful bolts of energy flashed and coruscated. Seemingly trapped inside was a figure who appeared to shift and both age and grow younger before the heroes eyes.

They stepped cautiously into the room and it was then that the figure seemed to notice them and spoke, "Gods! You have one of them with you! Do not trust them! You must tell my master of this place. Find the belt – they must be allowed to keep it! Go to the Tavern of No Doors. Tell Sairyel the Hurricane, Lord of the Vortex Drakes that I have found the gate but I do not have the key. Do not cross the beams."

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The adventurers asked his name and he replied, "I am Carsten, a Dragon Knight of the Order of the Vortex." He was the leader of the earlier band of adventurers. They asked many other questions to find out more, but many of the answers were confusing and cryptic; the apparent movement of Carsten within time inside the pillared area was evidently to blame. They did learn the other party had come for the Harvest Belt, but that servants of the Crimson King or the Black Queen had intervened and taken it. Carsten urged them to take a card from his pack and use it at an inn displaying the sign to get word to Sairyel and bring help. Carsten then disappeared before the heroes could learn anything more. They turned to the rest of the room and a burned and ransacked backpack was found toward to the rear of the chamber. Searching the pack yielded a playing card - the Three of Coins - after careful examination revealed it secreted within a hidden pocket.

The exploration continued, and the group next went through the closed door and down some further steps that lead to a circular chamber. This evidently had been used by the gnolls as their main lair. In the centre of the room was an altar and nearby stood the petrified remains of another of the previous adventuring party, this one a barbarian woman. The altar was covered in filth so Miria used her minor magic to clean it, and Garmidius found a hidden compartment under the top. Inside it was empty, but the material inlay indicated that it would have been here a belt - the Harvest Belt presumably - would have been stored. Lucciola cast a light spell in the hope of resanctifying the altar, but if his actions were noticed by the goddess there was no sign. The gnolls treasure stash was found under a loose flagstone, including a greatsword, a flowered breastplate and some five thousand gold pieces.

The last passage from the shrine's entry hall led down some steps to small stinking room; the
gnolls had been using it to discard waste and scraps. In one corner of the room was a well, its stonework evidently older than the remainder of the shrine. Peering down the adventurers could see a series of iron staples in the well wall.

Adyel produced a crystal that she said she could project her senses through in order to explore the well in safety. So the crystal was perched in the well bucket and lowered down. Adyel reported that she had found two hidden switch mechanisms, one near the top and the other closer to the waterline. She used the crystal to trigger the lowest switch and a blade shot out from the wall and severed the bucket rope, but the crystal was undamaged despite its fall into the water. Adyel then caused the crystal to ascend the well wall and trigger the upper switch. This activated a mechanism that projected some steps down into the well to a secret opening. Despite her attempted secretive efforts in these activities, Adyel was unable to hide the fact from the others that her crystal was more then it seemed as it had the ability to sprout limbs and climb and move about under its owner's direction. Miria and Garmidius in particular noted Adyel's attitude and actions.

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The party descended the well steps to a passage that was clean and evidently travelled, and led to a door bearing the emblem of a bull with large horns. Garmidius checked it for traps but did not find anything. However, when they tried to open it a magical trap was sprung that bull-rushed the heroes back along the corridor and inflicting minor damage to them in the process. With the trap spent, the adventurers opened the door, only to be confronted by four skeleton undead wearing breastplates with a black crown insignia and wielding rusty swords.

Rushing into battle the heroes engaged the undead. Despite their rickety appearance, it seemed that they were more resilient against some forms of physical attack than expected and that it was Lucciola and Dio whose strikes were more effective in damaging them. Miria had dispatched one and Kordex two more when from another door in the chamber emerged a larger skeleton wearing a bull-headed helm. Lucciola struck down the fourth of the original skeletons while several of the others fought the new threat. Lady Helena's eidolon Kordex landed the killing blow to the big skeleton. A search of the simple room from which the large skeleton came found nothing of note and that the room had no other exits.

The only route forward was now a set of large double doors from the previous room that was now littered with skeletal remains. Again Garmidius checked for traps and found on one doorpost a jester's hat symbol and the word "jing" beneath it. Their meaning or function was unclear, and the doors were opened revealed a large pillared hall. And once more there were undead awaiting the heroes, this time of a more fleshy kind: three slavering ghouls. Miria immediately attacked them, and her elven blood protected her from the paralysis effect that the ghouls could deliver with their bite or claws. The fight was swift but fierce and in the end Miria had slain one of the creatures, and Kordex the eidolon the other two.

A scout of the hall showed their were five doors located at various points around the large chamber and, given the later hour of the day, the heroes elected to rest, treat their wounds and recover their spells. They agreed the best option was to secure themselves in the empty room across the way from the hall's entrance. Garmidius said he felt a strange dislocation when stepping into and out of the pillared hall, but no one else experienced this. It was another mystery of this place that seemed would have to wait until the morrow.

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