Session 3: Prophesy
General Summary
Before moving on Esterial healed the party with her druidic magic. The heroes entered the trapdoor and found themselves in a series of tunnels beneath the monastery. They followed the cavern and Olafs keen eyes found a secret passageway that diverged from the main tunnel. On further investigation Olaf found a locked chest and Westra opened it with her thieves tools. Inside they found a red band of silk with two eyes stitched into it in black thread. Beneath it they found a piece of parchment written in an archaic form of Hivokia which Westra translated. It read:
Blind warrior walks free
Rising moon leaves home once more
Eyes become truthful.
From this they deduced that it was meant to be worn over the eyes to allow the wearing to see in the dark and experimentation found this to be so. They decided to give the mask to Westra as the only member of the party without some form of darkvision, who donned the mask.
Continuing forwards the party entered a larger cavern where the escaped gnoll lay in wait for them. Olaf charged forward, disturbing some bats who descended from the roof to attack the party. While Olaf fought one on one with the gnoll the rest of the heroes swatted at the bats. Riyo lit a torch and swatted one away. Another Pelonian appeared from where they had been hidden behind a column and fired at the group. Riyo rushed to engage while Westra, Red and Esterial finished off the bats. Olaf killed the gnoll soldier and Red advanced on the soldier, caught her by surprise and decapitated her from behind.
The next room was illuminated by paper lanterns which allowed them to see a statue of a Hivokian maiden rising from a pool in the center of the room. Around it were four smaller pools bearing statues of frogs with open mouths. Between the central pool and the ones surrounding it stood four pots, the northernmost one broken. The party began to search the room and discovered an inscription carved beneath the woman in the central pool which read:
A little frog flows
Thirsty pots swallow the sea
Rage forestalls the rain.
Olaf also noticed some gold in the central pool. After much deliberation and further searching that was fruitless they decided the make a grab for the gold. As Olaf reached inside the door began to grind down across the exits to the room and the frogs began to spit water from their mouths which arched over the pots to land in the central pool, filling it up. Olaf, understanding the riddle suddenly, grabbed one of the pots and submerged it into the water of the pool. As he did the water began to flow into the pot to disappear through some magic.
The others quickly followed suit and the water leveled off before it could become dangerous. The group then began to destroy the frog statues around the room, stopping the flow of water. When the last one was destroyed the doors covering the exits began to rise, freeing them. They took the southern passage into a room with three gyroscopic blades spinning low, close to the floor. It occurred to the group that had the water began to fill the room and any of them been standing by this exit the water would have swept them into the blades path. They jumped the blades. Riyo, Esterial and Red making the leap with graceful ease. Westra and Olaf however mistimed their jump, getting caught in the blades. Esteriel again used her druidic magic to heal Westra while Riyo took the last healing potion they had taken from the goblins and handed it to Olaf.
The heroes followed the distorted sound of voices coming from the south and sneaked into the chamber they originated from. Inside they discovered a centaur woman stood in front of a dais on which was placed a red egg about 3 feet tall. Behind the egg they saw a mural showing what appears to be three eggs with a harras of centaurs with devilish faces on one side and five humanoid figures on the other. Above the eggs were eight circles of equal size in a vertical line and surrounding those were a series of pock marks. On either side of the shrine they could see a shrine, one bearing a piece of parchment with a three eyed tortoise the other a chimera.
Olaf snuck closer to examine the mural, deducing that the creatures on the shrines were two of the eight symbols of the Hivokian zodiac, the tortoise denoting prophesy and legacy while the chimera was a symbol of death and memory. Seeing this it occurred to him that the pock marks were in fact stars and that the eight circles represented a celestial alignment of the eight bodies represented by the zodiac.
The centaur ordered a soldier to go and check on the rest of her forces upstairs and as the soldier turned to the door he saw the party skulking there. Battle was quickly joined. A bugbear rushed from the shadows, swinging his morningstar and was met by the ferocious blade of Riyo. Westra fell beneath the onslaught of the Pelonian centaur and Esterial rushed forward chanting druidic magic, she drew her flute and swung it at the centaur, infusing it with druidic magic. Olaf circled round behind it and attacked from behind. The battle was fierce and quick, the Pelonian forces falling to the heroes. Esterial bound Westras wounds and a search of the area revealed some healing potions left as offerings on the shrines which she administered to Westra.
Olaf relayed what he had deduced to the party and they began to examine the egg. They quickly realised that it was a dragons egg examination of the mural revealed that the stone it was carved from was not native to the area they were in. The group debated what to do about the egg and discussed whether they could hatch it. Westra remembered part of a legend about dragons that said that certain astrological conditions had to be met in order for them to hatch, which matched Olafs theory about the mural depicting a celestial alignment. The group decided to rest in the cavern before exploring further. Red set a trap spell and Riyo took first watch but before long the missing Jenji appeared. He told them that they had cleared out the enemies successfully and the temple was free of Pelonians. The group questioned him about their findings but he was unable to help as only the Abbot and senior monks had access to the catacombs. While Red and Olaf distracted Jenji the others took the egg and put it into Esterials bag of holding.
Now that they knew it was safe the group decided to rest upstairs in more comfortable quarters before making their way back to Daikoku village, arriving in the late evening. Jenji fetched Abbot Kagae and they entered the Village Elders house to meet with Naka and Lady Satochi. Lady Satochi gave them their payment for their services as well as a document entitling the group to the land and the building the goblins had used in High Wind forest.
They questioned the Abbot about the dragon egg and he told them that while the monks primary purpose was the same as other order within Hivokia; to provide a place of worship for the local spirits and to observe the rituals to drive out evil entities, they also had a secret purpose; to guard the egg and mural, a relic of the first civilisation refered to as the Pokkabi, which they believe is part of a prophesy that tells of the return of dragons. The Abbot told them that he believed them to be the five humanoids in the mural and that they were meant to protect the eggs and nurture the dragons when they hatched. The group asked after the location of the remaining two eggs but Abbot Kagae did not know though he did know there was another Pokkabi mural in the city of Makino, jealously guarded by the Sanayama Clan.
Rewards Granted
The Spy's Mask
A stange tankard with a stern face carved on the side
97gp, 1709sp, 2100cp, 10 rubies, 2 potions of healing, 1 blue potion and 1 blood red potion
2 longswords, 1 scimitar, 1 morningstar, 1 shield, 1 shortbow, 10 arrows, 3 hide armour, 1 leather armour
Deed of Ownership
Renown
Satochi Clan +1
Monks of the Falling Leaves +1
Missions/Quests Completed
Blossom on the Wind
Character(s) interacted with
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