Session 9 - A bad run of luck
General Summary
In the crypt there is a human skeleton nailed to one of the walls and it appears to have been crucified. We examine the skeleton and take it off the wall, but do not see anything significant. There is also nothing distinctive about the candles which would indicate an order. Next, we examine the hawk, and it is just a larger-than-life statue of a bird of prey, on a plinth. The floor is dusty and seems undisturbed and the benches are scattered randomly. Tripp searches for a secret opening around the apse, but finds nothing. We all search the rest of the room, and after an hour decide that if there are any openings, they must be very well hidden.
We light the candles in a specific order, and pick them up in the same order. We walk around the room to see if the light from the candles reveals anything, but it doesn’t. The candles seem to burn as normal candles but do not seem to be consumed as normal candles. Tripp tries to blow a candle out, but he cannot. Digby straps it to his battle axe, and tries a few swings, but the candle does not go out. Looking down the grill we can just make out some water, 10 to 12 feet below. Baka reckons that the water is about sea level and we decide to take the candles and go down thru the grill to the water beneath.
Brovar heads down first with a rope to support him, intending to try to douse the candle with the water. We all make it down into a small room, 15 feet square. The water is only 6 or 7 inches deep and a quick taste confirms that it is salty, just like our DM. There are two tunnels from the room, to the west and the south, and we take some time for Sai Kyo to prepare a hooded lantern which he holds in addition to his candle. The room seems man-made but the tunnels seem more natural. There is nothing of note on the walls and in the background, we can just hear a louder sound of water. We are not sure of the direction back to the main island.
Brovar leads us down to the South, followed by Tripp, Sai Kyo, Lilrie, Baka and Digby. The tunnel curves to the east and we squeeze thru, it then splits we head south hearing a splashing sound, when suddenly Brovar is hit with an arrow in the thigh, coming from the tunnel to the South. Brovar gives chase and comes to another small opening on the left. He ignores it and continues South, followed by the rest of us. Another arrow comes out of the darkness from the small opening and hits Lilrie in the right shoulder, severing muscles and tendons. It is her weapon arm and it is useless so she cannot fight until it is healed and rested.
As we move on Digby looks behind him and is rewarded with a glimpse of something, perhaps a man, but maybe a snake. Hefting his battle axe, with the candle strapped to it, Digby charges north and as he turns a corner, he sees a great serpent, 8 to 10 inches thick at least moving away from him at speed. Unable to catch it, he turns back and remains at the opening with Baka, as Brovar and the others continue South. There is no gradient to the tunnels and the water remains just above our ankles. Brovar and Lilrie think that the sound of water is slightly louder. As Digby looks down another one of the tunnels, he sees an arrow flying towards him, but is unable to duck in time, and is hit in the head. Luckily nothing vital was hit and he continues on as if nothing happened. Brovar moves quickly forward, squeezing thru a narrow gap, and comes to another fork, heading South again, away from the sound of the water. Sai Kyo is the next unfortunate, taking 20 damage as another arrow comes out of the darkness from the tunnel to the North. He too glimpses something strange, the torso of a man with the body of a snake.
Brovar and the main party continue onwards and the sound of water grows distinctly louder. Digby and Baka take the tunnel to the North with the aim of catching these creatures between us. The two parties join up in a larger cavern and we see one of the creatures disappear to the North. The noise of the water is now a continuous roar.
We change the party order so that Tripp can go first with his bow, followed by Sai Kyo with the lantern to give him light. As we move off Tripp is hit by an arrow and is now at minus 10. With no other options we continue moving North and find a much larger cavern with an entrance to a man-made stone room, but the entrance is blocked by a tower of water, 10 to 15 feet wide. The water is drawn upwards to the ceiling where it spreads out and flows down the walls. We are entranced by this tower of water and behind it we think we see something moving. Baka uses her Power Perception skill and feels that this is a magically powered being of Essence magic, possibly a water Elemental.
Taking a quick breather Lilrie heals each of us, Tripp (8), Digby (3) and Sai Kyo (10), so he is now on 51. As we are healing we notice that the candles are still burning and no wax has been consumed.
Brovar leads north again and finds another large cavern with two passages leading out of it. A little more exploration reveals that they all connect so we go back to the room with the Elemental. Digby and Baka cast Shield on themselves, just before we rush into the room to attack it. As we enter it fires a bolt of water at Brovar and does him minor damage. We draw level with it and Brovar, Digby and Sai Kyo start their attacks.
Sai Kyo is up first, but misses. Brovar attacks with his long sword, doing 7 damage, and then with his mace missing. Digby wallops it for 19C, doing 6 more hits. The elemental attacks Digby with another water bolt doing 4 damage.
Next round Brovar hits it with his long sword, again for 7 damage, but misses with his mace. Sai Kyo slaps it again, getting his other hand wet. Digby seems to strike it well, but does no damage. It hits Sai Kyo with a water bolt for one damage, so he is on 50.
Brovar attacks again, but fumbles, just losing his grip a little on his sword, and also fails to hit with his mace. Digby again strikes it well and again does no damage. This is weird. Sai Kyo misses for the third time in a row. The Elemental strikes out hitting Digby with a water bolt for an 8B impact critical, 20 more damage and stunning him for 2 rounds.
This is not going well, but we don’t give up and Brovar attacks with his long sword, doing no damage, and has the same result with his mace. Sai Kyo misses again. This is not his day. Brovar is the Elemental’s target this time, but is missed.
Continuing his water dance, Sai Kyo misses again, as did Brovar with his long sword and his mace. Digby’s stun wears off this round as Sai Kyo is attacked but escapes with no damage.
I don’t think I need to say that Sai Kyo misses again, but so does Digby. Thank goodness for Brovar, who rolls a natural 100 with his long sword doing 25E slash, doing 5 more damage. He misses with his mace. The Elemental attacks Sai Kyo again, hitting for a 12B impact, and another 17 damage, taking him down to 11 hits. Tripp sees that we need help and so takes aim at the creature above our heads, doing 27 damage with E and C criticals, for 3 more hits. We can see that the water is losing its cohesion. Thank you Tripp!
Brovar attacks again with his long sword doing 6 damage, missing with his. On his seventh attempt, as everyone thought he was going to hang up his gloves in shame, Sai Kyo lands a decent hit doing 9A damage and 6 more hits. As if it had been waiting for him to do something useful at last, the column of water collapses and out of the room behind an enormous snake with the body of a man charges us.
Unfortunately, Sai Kyo reverts to form, missing badly. Brovar strikes it with his long sword for 5 damage, and his mace for 9A puncture, giving it 3 hits per round. Digby swings at the abomination doing a 30E slash critical, for 6 damage and another 4 hits per round. Digby is the creature’s target as it swings its scimitar. Luckily his shield protects him from the worst of the blow, and he only takes 4 damage. The snake body then attacks Brovar, but misses him.
Lilrie has come up behind us and heals Sai Kyo for 2 hits (up to 13). The creature attacks Digby with its scimitar doing 13C crush and 9 more damage. Its coils target Sai Kyo, but miss. Sai Kyo hits it this time, but just for 2 damage. Brovar does 4 damage with his long sword, and a 12C crush with his mace, for 9 more hits. Baka prepares a spell.
Next round Brovar hits again with his long sword for a 6A slash, doing 8 more hits and it will bleed out this round. His blood up, Brovar finishes it off with his mace. Chests heaving, we stand back and catch our breath, and while we are doing so, Lilrie heals Digby for 7 hits. Someone identifies the creature as a Naga.
Behind the room that the Naga was in, there is a corridor with one large central door, and three smaller doors on either side. We would like to rest and heal up, but looking back, we can see that the water in the room is rising, so we have to keep moving.
There are no markings on the doors, and each of the small doors open into a room with a pillar, rising out of the floor about two and a half feet high, 8 inches in diameter, and a hand imprint on the top. We think we should place the candles in the same order as we took them, 6, 2, 1, 3, 4, 5, but we can’t remember who took which candle. In the end we place them in the order that we took them. Tripp goes first placing his hand into the pillar upon which he feels a warm sensation and the pillar starts descending, an obvious clunk sounding as becomes flush with the floor. Digby does the same, Baka also, Sai Kyo, Lilrie, Brovar and when the last one disappears the central door opens.
Thru the central door there is a stone altar, upon which there is a chest. Entering the room Tripp searches for traps not finding any. The chest has a clasp which can be opened easily, inside there is a tablet, similar to the one Ecaeris had, with engravings on the front and scratches on the back. Unfortunately, there is no translation. There are also the shattered remains of a mace of the same material as the tablet. This metal is extremely hard and we can’t abrade it. We take both items and retrace our steps back to the grate in the crypt, returning to Effa to rest up.
A few days later we set off for Sunom , overland due to the pirates in the Pale Sea. After an uneventful journey of several weeks, we approach Sunom and can see that all is not well. Apart from everything we have heard, we can see palls of smoke hanging over the city, with the flag of King Roland IV , and other flags of Nomar . We pass people fleeing the city who tell us that a series of earthquakes has caused more damage and the library is in danger of burning to the ground. Attempts to rescue the books have been badly hampered by orcs. The King has offered 1000 gold pieces to anyone who can salvage them. Beaten troops pass us, with one man torn apart laying on a cart. We are told of huge orcs, 10 foot tall, picking up masonry and throwing them at people. On one cart is the body of the Ellmar Imra , the current Ellmar of the Great Library of Sunom , who has also has been crushed by falling masonry. We talk with a scholarly-looking man, Deah Ssip who worked at the library, and he describes scenes of orcs nailing people to walls, and burning them alive. He wants to go back and rescue what he can, but knows that he doesn’t have the skills to do so.
As he is likely to know the best route to the Library, we offer to help him. His office is in the Library and he has a key, which he is willing to give us if we promise to recover some of the translations that he was working on. They are Ellosian translations, in Tasyo, perhaps the last surviving examples in Ellios. He also tells us that there is rumored to be a secret vault which only the Ellmar had access to, in which are said to be histories of the time before the Cleanse. There is supposed to be a metal vault containing some of the most ancient documents with a metal lock. Before dying the Elmar said to Ssip, “Look for the key in the encyclopedia of Ellosian flaura”. One of the Ellmar’s confidants might know more. He says that it was Ecaeris ! Showing all the empathy of a hangman, Digby tells him what happened to her in full, gory detail and the poor scholar turns pale and looks away. He is too scared to come with us so we arrange to meet outside the city, but he is willing to draw us a map to his room. He has been in Sunom for 10 to 15 years and has not heard of Sirenna Caryn .
Kitty
- Session start – 160 gold, 187 silver
- Income – none
- Expenses – none
- Session end – 160 gold, 187 silver
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