Category: Graveyard of Empires: The Islands of Curabel

Session 52 – April 15, 2015

Noon the 7th of Aurilden we concluded our review of the items from our last foray into the depths. We learned all we could about the books and other papers, and the tapestries.

We got a script for 150 GP for each book we sell to the brotherhood. We can cash it in at any temple of Baldric. The tenth book, “The Art of Shadow Stepping”, we will sell to the order once Chuq has learned what he can of stepping between the seams of reality, or so Master Dane says.

The morning of the 8th of Anurilden we made our last foray into the pit of death.

I write this grim reminder of our final success in clearing the sub-basement of the fortress at Kaligan. The newest member of our party, the young and brave, Bard, was slain while so very near our goal of ending the evil plague of the undead continuing to rise.

I myself nearly drowned following that in my quest to fulfill our word of clearing the fortress for Midmark.

I dislike making yet another deal with a devilfish, or “ancestor” of the devilfish. It had the power to generate an illusion, keep the slayer of the merman king’s son alive for torment these past 50 years, and to continually raise those slain in its zone of influence.

Axel convinced this thing that he would return it to its family. I hope he is lying. Something with this much power for evil must be destroyed. I feel that we should let the representatives from Midmark know this.

In our last foray into this place of death, we found some strange mold that Bard burned. Then we found five skeletons that we easily dispatched.

Finally, we encountered the flooded docks in the cave that had one end collapsed.

In this cave we found two sunken sailboats, a giant crocodile that we did not slay fast enough to prevent its tail from breaking Bard’s back and slaying him instantly. We then had the harried job of tying up the crocodile and hauling out Bard’s body. We got Bard’s body past the zone of influence, stripped it of his gear and built a funeral pyre, over which Brice said a few words.

Thankfully, we had the ox and the capstan to haul out the crocodile and drag it away so we could burn it.

We returned to the flooded boat docks and the merman just kept telling us:

Welcome, surface dwellers. Look upon the vengeance of Mascalus, heir to King Nemistus of the Merfolk. Interlopers from across the wide sea murdered my beloved brother and now they suffer here for their crime. Take heed of this lesson and flee this place before you share in the eternal misery of these malefactors.

On the rock was an idol like that foul idol we found in the dwarven tombs/bath houses under Midmark that held Baldric’s gem. Also there was the man who killed the merman king’s son, kept alive to be tormented by this giant white crocodile tearing off his legs. He begged us to kill him.

This idol spoke in our minds and did not trust me, and rightfully so. Axel convinced it that he means to return it to its people. I hope it is not true. I feel that we should not do this. this idol waved off the merman illusion, let the assassin die, and things quit coming back to life. 

Axel put the idol in a sack and carried it with him.

We used the light of the magic lighted Starchy Boyz pin to find the glint of a few gold pieces in the boat room.

We then went to the storeroom for the kitchen and encountered some seaweed. It grabbed my ten foot pole, but I wrenched it away. I used all my oil to try and burn it. Axel used some of his oil. Axel slew a bunch of it, but one of the other patches grabbed me and pulled me in the water, nearly drowning me. Thankfully, Axel and Finklemur took care of it. Axel and Finklemur then took care of the last patch of this strangle weed. Brice and Uthruk patched me up. We found copper, silver, gold, and platinum coins in this room, and a large black pearl.

A small bit a loot to complete our promised task. Hopefully the favor this earns us, plus the right to stay here when we need to makes up for our losses.

Is my dream that seems to match Brice’s just my mind playing tricks on me? Dare I share this with the others? I mentioned it to Brice, and she seems to know about it. However, I am concerned about Brice, with what we received in the letter to Axel.

We finally seem ready to head to Xen Khel. How many more of our number will fall? Will I die or lose my mind first? Will I ever have peaceful dreams again?

Session Summary 8/4/15

With some members of our party injured and weary, we decide to call it a day in the dungeon and head back up to the surface and spend the night at the Broken Oar. Bard decides to do some fishing in the mean time. That night, we keep our customary watch, with Thorfus, Axel, Chuq, Sturloc and Kottar taking a short watch each.  The night is quiet, however during Sturloc’s watch, the crossbowman wakes up Thorfus. Apparently there is something wrong with Brice.

Thorfus heads to the other room where the cleric is sleeping, and can hear her mumbling and moaning dwarvish in her sleep, obviously distressed. It seems she is still having bad dreams, as evidenced by utterings of Xen’Tellar’s name. Thorfus manages to piece together that the female dwarf seems to be begging her god for more time. He wakes her up, and asks if she’s ok, though she brushes him off, Thorfus reassures her that Xen’Khel is our very next stop after we finish clearing out the keep. Xen’Tellar is obviously becoming more  insistent in pushing his chosen towards her goal.

The next day, 7th Anurilden, we continue as usual, with Bard returned to fighting strength and Brice still looking haggard. Axel gets Dagaric to heal up his remaining scratches, and also Starchie’s wounds. Back at the keep, we do our usual checks at the trap door, checking the other rooms and traps for signs of passage. Seeing it all clear, we head down and decide to head south back round to where we fought the scorpions.

Listening at each door in turn, we float down the corridors, through the octagonal room and finally east, then north until we reach the door at the end. Opening the door here, we once more enter the room with all the tables. We leave the boats at the door, as the room is dry. The next corridor leads back west, so Bard and Finklemur send thier respective birds out to scout.

They quickly return, and Socrates speaks to Finklemur, warning of us of warriors around the corner, sitting around a table. By the description, we believe they’re undead, and noticed the birds.

We decide to draw them to us, and create a barricade to funnel thier assault into the room whilst we pepper them at range. After a couple of attempts to draw them to us, including Axel throwing some coins at the wall, and Starchie barking loudly. Eventually, two undead warriors appear and are instantly met with arrows and daggers. One falls to the onslaught, but the other makes it all the way to us, where Thorfus cuts it down after taking a small hit.

Naturally, our next move is to chop them up and bundle the bodies up in some sacks, and we leave them with the boats whilst we continue. We expect more, so Bard scouts the t-junction, once more descending into knee-deep water. The north leads to a room up a slope, though he can’t see anything within. The south ends in a wall. We stop to chicken-fish, finding nothing. Bard checks the south, confirming the outline of a door, which we believe opens into the temple room. We leave it for now, not wishing to fight off undead centipedes just yet.

Instead, we head north into the room, the heavily armoured dwarves taking the lead. We enter into a small square room with a ten foot alcove the northwest. There are tables and chairs within, covered with maps and navigational tools. A figure sits at the table, with noticeable black bile drooling out of his mouth and down his tunic. His eyes are also black, and the man is evidently another of the oddly powerful zombies we cremated back in the spider’s lair.

He notices us, and stands slowly, trying to talk. Recognising a spell being cast, Thorfus charges aggresively to interrupt it. Unfortunately, the spell goes off, freezing both Axel and Chuq in place, but Thorfus still hits powerfully. Finklemur follows up the attack with a magic missile. The rest of the party charges in and attacks, including the hawk, and it is eventually brought low by Uthruk.

We take extra care with this creature, especially to avoid the bile, removing the head, jaw and limbs, as well as utilising holy water to try and keep it down, it gets thrown in a sack. We investigate the room, Axel and Chuq returning to animation after a few minutes. There is a tapestry on the wall, which appears to be a representation of the Empire’s Immortal Dragon Emperor. We take it and roll it up, and also gather up the nautical tools as they are platinum. The alcove is a step down of at least five feet and flooded.

The dwarves check the walls, finding nothing of note. We chicken-fish the alcove, and Bard steps down into the water, finding the outlines of doors on the north and south walls. The main north corridor out of the room leads north a little before turning west. As the corridors are once more flooded, we fetch the boats to continue. Nothing happens but chickens get annoyed and wet. After a hundred feet, the corridor loops back south. At the end of this, there is an opening, which looks to be covered by fabric, and a doorway to the east. We check the door, hearing nothing, and open it.

A small room beyond is filled with a bookcase, though the lower shelves are flooded. There are also some slightly differently coloured robes also, with more red than just highlights. We check the books, though they have no titles, and find one to be about meditation, but they all seem to be on similar subjects. We take them anyway. The loose papers seem to be religious sermons. Finklemur also checks the scrolls, which turn out to be magic. These go in his scroll case. We take the time to check behind the bookcase, but find nothing.

We head back out and go through the fabric door, entering a large room. The fabric is another tapestry, it’s bottom unfortunately in water, and a second faces us from the opposite wall. Doors are on the north and south ends of the western wall, and a corridor leads east. Pillars, some tables and a lectern adorn the room.

Both tapestries depict a mountain castle, one in day, the other at night. Nobody recognises it or the location however. Oddly enough it appears that the moon on the tapestry is moving. We gather them up, and put them in the boats, then check the book on the lectern. It’s partly ruined, but otherwise nice, decorated with a golden dragon. We sack it.

There is no hidden passage behind the second tapestry, so the eastern door is next. We hear nothing beyond, and head through, finding ourselves in the original north passage from the dungeon’s entrance. We decide to head back to the hirelings and drop off the treasure and bodies for burning. We check the room which had the sheets en route.

Reaching the foyer, we realise that the hirelings had been under attack whilst we had been gone. A troop of skeletons had come up from the north, as evidenced by the scattered bones. The hirelings had retreated upstairs, pulling the bridge and closing the doors behind them. We gather up our loot and the boats and head up. They had taken a battering, with broken weapons. Sturloc, Arus and Recusson had been heavily wounded and knocked unconcious but were stable.

Kottar lets us through the door, and we begin to sort out healing them. Brice casts her healing spells, one on each of the wounded, though Recusson fails to rouse. We take the time to reset the traps, gather everything up including Recusson’s comatose form and head back down to town to heal up and burn the corpses.

Dagaric is able to revive Recusson for us, and also finishes up Arus injuries. We stop by the Baudy Bachelor to check out thier weapon stores. We need to replace a shield, and Bard wishes to train Recusson to use a better weapon than his simple club. We also discuss procuring a large shield with arrow slits we can use to better fortify areas our hirelings are defending.

We find someone to build two for us, and also show Finklemur how to assemble and disassemble them for ease of use.

Whilst we wait, Thorfus increases his sack collection, Bard goes fishing and Finklemur causes mischief. Chuq shows Master Dain and the rest of the Midmark party the tapestries at the warehouse. They confirm the identity of the Dragon Emperor, we also learn that the ‘Immortal’ part maybe a lie and the dogma of the empire, as the Emperor’s age seems to change, though they all appear to be quite close physically, likely blood-related.