MedievalGame2001Jun04

Ref: MedievalGame - 4th Jun 2001

• The group had been camped in the dank cave resting overnight, planning their campaign on the room with the key stones. After a hearty breakfast (although the rations were running low), the group set off.

• After much logic, careful attention to detail and exhaustive sliding and clicking, every single combination of the four key stones (life, black, path, left) was tried. After several hours and the discovery of many trapped passages - each combination set and moved great counter-weights behind the wall to open another trapped corridor - it was found that there were only 4 true passages. The traps ranged from poisoned darts, to whirling blades that could cut you in half in a blink of an eye, to sloped corridors that needed ropes to climb down (with the regulatory scythes to cut ropes of course). Need I go on? Apart from saying that without Jahnna, many of the party would surely have perished in the fiendish traps set by some clever chap or other ... Thanks Jahnna!!

• The four routes were:

1. The skeleton cages leading to the round shaft (with the beastie below)
2. The path of the anointed
3. The five empty rooms
4. The locked room leading to the Goblin City

• The cages had already been investigated previously, where Chl'Lak called the force-wall and crushed the bones of the skally-wags. The shaft had a rune encrusted wall high up, and some kind of entrance into some other place way down below. However, some foul smelling beastie prevented anyone getting there.

• The path of the anointed was the next discovery. The group entered to find a small room at the end of the corridor (the usual stone flagged corridor leading to an iron gate, and then down 3 steps). In the room was a shallow pool with the relics of some ancient fighter resting invitingly. After much caution and detect magics, the group decided that the fear of skeletons was outweighed by the knowledge that there was something magic underneath the skeleton and its metal shield (which was not rusty either!)

• Wading in, Shy-Lone took the shield - a hefty piece of work - and grabbed a chest that Tracebe said was magic. After the usual cautious approach, the hand-sized chest was opened revealing a small, pearl-white, cold-to-the-touch (nay - clammy) statue of a goblin that stood about an inch and a half high. Without any real clue as to what it did, it was slipped in with the rest of party treasure.

• Continuing on, the group discovered a large room 15 metres square, floored with 3 metre square black and white marble "tiles" and with a gold pillar at each corner, buttressed up to the roughly hewn rock face. Cautiously they crossed the room, treading on only one colour. All arrived safely at the other side and continued on.

• After a short distance another room was found with an altar of white marble and two high-backed wooden chairs. Around the altar was an inscription (which read something like) "pass safe with vision anointed". Jahnna discovered a small alcove in the back of the altar and found a golden ornament. It had a flat gold top and base and was about 1 foot square (fitting neatly in the small recess on the top of the altar). The two gold plates were separated by 4 gold pillars (one at each corner) and a blue-green orb of light popped into being in the centre when it was removed from the alcove.

• Placing it on top of the altar everyone felt a voice in their head inviting the enlightened to step forward. The message was a bit cryptic, but most felt like it was something to do with the anointed and were rightfully cautious. Tracebe, in his usual arrogance, and without a single thought to the contrary thought he was obviously worthy - he was a Hemnat damnit! - and stepped up. He was almost instantly drawn into the light and disappeared. Shocked, the rest of the group heard the voice again, confirming that Tracebe hadn't been worthy. Next! They declined and sought a way to get anointed.

• It wasn't long before they discovered that that chess-board floored room was the key to the puzzle, and there were two squares in the centre that induced visions. And pretty interesting they were too (more on those later). Having received a vision each, they returned to the orb and stepped up. The orb granted them passage, and the group asked for Tracebe back. The orb stated that a trade would be necessary and the group offered the small goblin statue. The orb rematerialised Tracebe and stated that he must be VERY important for such a valuable trade!

• A small door opened behind the altar revealing an empty library with a desk and a black scroll case on the top. Inside was a number of scrolls written in ancient Hemnat and some other dialogues. Chl'Lak was the only one who could read them and they talked of a great person "Nomolos" who had once had in his possession some truly magnificent artefacts granted to him by a deity. Coming to the end of his years, he knew that if the items fell into the wrong hands then all would be doomed, so he hid them carefully behind traps and magic so that only the "true one" would be able to find them. There were references that tied in with the shaft and it seemed that there was more to this area than just an entrance to the goblin city.

• Returning from the room with their new find, the group insisted that Tracebe be anointed with a vision before they carried on as they really didn't want to lose him again for something as simple as this. After a lot of persuasion he agreed and was anointed.

• The visions revealed (key points only):

1. That Kalarell was in league with the Dark Conspiracy (Kalarell is Tracebe's master and Alchemist to the home town of Longroost)
2. That Kalarell is much older than he seems (at least 500 years older)
3. That he and Fosguth were both seen conspiring with another at the gates of the Old Citadel (where the group met Chl'Lak)
4. That they had made a deal with the Inquisitors to be left alone when the Dark Conspiracy came
5. What dragons looked like - spirit-like tears in the sky and ridden by Hemnat
6. That there was a darkness in Longroost and people were moving like zombies
7. That there was a place far to the north - the Barren Wastes - that was guarded by some malign entity
8. That this place in some way was connected to the Dark Conspiracy
9. That this place had been visited by Men who had perished
10. That these Men wore the garments of an unknown tribe
11. That the conspirators sought to end the bloodlines of the party's families as they were in some way the key to the mystery, and that the coming hordes of Walashi (the Last Great War as it is now understood to be) were part of the scheme to destroy a handful of people

• That there was a legacy associated with one of the bloodlines that had been completely hidden "just in case" the lines weren't completely destroyed

• After all that, the party discovered the five rooms, which seemed to go nowhere, but have some kind of confusion about them that the group gave up on and moved on.

• The final room lead to an iron gate, locked with an old rusty padlock. There was also a small fissure int he room that lead to a room full of treasure that glowed magically. The Scrolls of Nomolos mentioned such a room and that there was a single piece of treasure that needed to be found, and that no other should be taken or doom would surely follow (although the translation was a bit shaky here). Since nobody knew what they were looking for, the group left it alone.

• Going through the iron gate, the group found the corridor roughly hewn and splitting 3 ways. To the left was a corridor leading to a rough shaft that dropped sharply down, at the bottom of which could be heard the voices of goblins and orcs and the sound of sword practice. To the middle was another corridor that lead to a heavy trap door with a small grate in the middle. The room below was pitch black and foul smelling. There was also the sound of movement and the group left this alone too. To the right, a corridor lead around to a cave with a bowled floor. Along the way was a cave to the side with a small crack in the wall that revealed light outside. Unfortunately it was too small to escape through.

• The large room with the floor shaped like a large bowl was scattered with small moss-like flora and had a slightly sweet scent. The group started the tricky descent to the bottom of the bowl (only about 15 feet down a slippy slope) and started to cross the space. Chl'Lak crossed the room with no problems, being the best climber (seemingly) and fairly swift on his feet. Shy followed next and when he was part way across the small plants began to move and close in on him. Tracebe detected life and found that they were all "alive" in a carnivorous sort of way. Lighting a torch, Shy fended them off and crossed the room to join Chl'Lak. The others crossed, burning a few, and after a while the plants got the idea and stopped closing in, as if they were somehow communicating and understood the danger ;)

• Continuing on, the corridor opened up and got higher, ending in an opening to a huge, high ceilinged room. A big shaft of light shone through a hole in the roof and in a darkened corner of the room hung 5 bat-like creatures. They had talons at least 3 feet long and used these to grip into the stalactites, physically gouging into them. Beneath them was strewn the skeletons and decomposing carcasses of some very large animals - horse, lion, ogre, and some other unidentifiable ones. The beasts (Ragroks as Tracebe identified) were sleeping and the party decided to retreat. To imaging a Ragrok, think of the Devil at the end of The End of Days (but scale it down) - ugly, winged, talons and about 20 feet tall.