Session 29 - "Fire and Ash, Ruins of Gauntlight - Part 15"

General Summary

Wealday, 5th of Desnus, 4721 AR

Gauntlight Keep

Level 3 - Library

Belcorra's Reading Room

11.45p

A beam of searing light suddenly strikes Kalitos, exposing the lurker's location. Another sudden flash steals the magus' sight. Tristan waits on his side of the door. Kaliff fires cold iron needles. Ollie points out the creature to Kalitos, but he is unable to land a blow. Zor'ahn attempts to aid Kalitos, but his blindness persists. With a growl, Ehrn ribs through the lurker's side with her glaive, exposing glistening innards and liquid light.
The lurker in light attempts some avenue of magical escape, but it is a useless endeavor. It is moving to fly over Kalitos when it suddenly blinks out from sight again. Tristan waits patiently near the door. Kalitos vainly strikes out. Zor'ahn is likewise unsuccessful, as is Ehrn.
Suddenly, Tristan hears and senses something trying to open the door and calls out the lurker's location. Kaliff counteracts the creature's invisibility and the motes of light rematerialize. Kalitos is still unable to land a blow. However, Zor'ahn unleashes absolute hell. His shadow bisects the lurker's shadow and it falls in twain.

11.55p

The party attends to Tristan wounds, and Kaliff instructs Thud to remove the everlight crystal from the chandelier. As the party gathers at the door, Zor'ahn seeks out magic and detects something. Kaliff harvests the crystal here as well. Oddly, this room compared to all the others is actually quite nice and pleasant, even the smell is fresh and clear. The book is called Pathways of the Worm that the fae was looking at. It seems to be a well-illustrated guide to human sacrifices. Ineffable Hauntings is a slender book tucked into another book about ghosts, occult rituals to raise a poltergeist and maybe the ghostly weapon spell. Several other nicely bound books detail sacrifices, extinguishing bodies and souls to create magical artifacts, tales of famous hauntings, and the undead. Kalitos finds down in the cushions of the chair an iron key bearing the defaced symbol of Aroden.
The small room to the south houses a simple stool and whetstone, and another door to the south which has stairs going down. The northern room is found to be an oddly clean bathroom with tub and chamber pot.

Oathday, 6th of Desnus, 4721 AR

Siege History Library

12.05a

The northern library passage has a locked door, opened by the key the party just found. Within is a mid-sized room with shelves all along the wall. On a table in the middle of the is a sculpture. Shambling towards the party is a tallish woman seemingly made of wood.
Ehrn suddenly charges into the room but is unsteady in her attack. Kalitos moves into the room, but misses with his ignition. Kaliff rounds the corner and fires a phase bolt at the golem, but it appear to have done nothing. Tristan advances but his strike is obscured. With the sound of screeching wood, spikes of bark fire out from the golem's hands, striking Kalitos, Ehrn, and Tristan. Seeing an opening, Tristan lashes out at it. The fire catches hold, but then a wooden spike reflexively impales him. Zor'ahn moves and slams his Wooden Argentis, but it doesn't seem very effective.
Pulling a spike from her body, Ehrn viciously lashes out with her glaive effectively, but is spiked again in return. Kalitos rounds on the golem and his ignited Sparkblade explodes against its body. Kaliff manifests an ineffective void warp and the quickly moves and attends to Ehrn's wounds. Tristan's Smoking Sword becomes wreathed in flame and his ensuing blow causes the creature to explode, sending shards of wood about the room.

12.06a

The sculpture appears to be of Absalom, but ruined and destroyed. Walls are depicted as collapsed and buildings smashed. The room appears to be a reference library on the sieges that have been waged on Absalom. They are all highly academic and annotated with the researcher providing meticulous details on the city's responses and how they affective they were. However, sieges from the last few hundred years are not documented here.
Moving down the hall, the north door opens into a rough, unfinished cave with a few digging tools. Surprisingly, Zor'ahn detects magic here. Taking the time to examine the tools, the party finds a unremarkable pick radiating magic.

Furnace Room

12.26a

At the western door, Tristan asks Zor'ahn smells an odor of burning, but he does not find an obvious source. The fighter polls everyone else, but they do not smell it either. He opens the door, spies a wooden barrel and big metal bin with a lid on it, and then abruptly closes it again before reeling back. "Did you feel that? The blast of hot wind?" Zor'ahn looks about and it seems to be a garbage furnace. Inside it is a small fragment of charred finger bone. The wooden barrel contains several sets of long fire tongs. Detecting magic once again, the ranger begins to sort through the ashes with some tongs, thinking that there might be something left over. He is rewarded with a glint from the ashes, which he pulls out with his shadowy hand. A simple copper ring reveals itself.
A pair of shrieking ghosts manifest right in front of Zor'ahn, and he is blasted with a powerful wave of heat. Kalitos, Tristan, and Ehrn suddenly feel stupefied in the path of the fire. The spirits unleash shocking heat on Zor'ahn. Tristan slices through the mass, but it seems to have no effect. Kaliff misses with his phase bolt and realizes that this might actually be a haunt, which is often tied to a specific object and is usually immune to physical damage, but susceptible to something specific to its origin. Zor'ahn slashes out with an icy Wooden Argentis and he feels resistance as the blade rips through them. Kalitos ponders his next move. Kalitos notices that the ghosts seem to be scholars, skinny and weak and may be cowed into leaving. He tells Kaliff that he needs to threaten them into leaving and tries to use telekinetic projectile against the furnace, but to no effect.

Zor'ahn is blasted again by the heat. Tristan tries to demoralize the ghosts and then aids Ehrn with her attack. Kaliff's voice suddenly rings forth in the hallway, threatening that they have no business being here and should leave before anything else can happen to them. They jump back into the furnace and slam the doors shut. Upon closer examination, the simple copper ring with birds engraved around its circumference.
Deciding that this level has finally been fully explored, the Exterminators queue up to descend further into the depths of Gauntlight Keep.

Report Date

12 Jan 2025

Primary Location

Gauntlight Keep

Related Characters

• Ehrn Ricard
• Kaliff Raiboren
• Kalitos Raiboren
• Tristan Ricard
• Zor'ahn the Dark Ranger

Constellations