IN THE SHADOW OF THE SPIRE

SESSION 11B: GARDEN OF THE SICKSTONE ELEMENTALS

November 11th, 2007
The 30th Day of Amseyl in the 790th Year of the Seyrunian Dynasty

SICKSTONE ELEMENTALS

Seeing Tee climb down Elestra eagerly bounded forward and grabbed the rope. With her python viper wrapped around her waist, she swung over the edge of the ledge and tried to imitate the elf – rappelling quickly towards the floor of the cavern. Unfortunately, she set too fast a pace for herself. She lost her grip on the rope while she was still twenty feet off the floor. She landed with a rib-battering crash that was scarcely alleviated by the thin layer of moss-like growth.

With a deep groan, Elestra rolled over and sent her python viper forward to see if he could follow the trail of the spellcasters by scent. She was still staggering to her feet by the time he was halfway across the cavern.

Agnarr was moving a little distance into the cavern, as well. However, this may have been as over-hasty as Elestra’s climb, for as he drew near the first pair of rocky outcroppings the sound of a great rumbling and scraping echoed through the cavern and the outcroppings began to move.

They reared up into vaguely-humanoid forms which, with the creaking groan of an impending avalanche, stretched limbs of sickstone-laced rock. Agnarr immediately drew his greatsword. The goblins, still on the ledge above, briefly chattered to each other and then Itarek and another of the goblins grabbed the rope and began climbing down simultaneously.

Elestra’s snake, loyal to her last command, continued following the scent trail. “Agnarr!” she shouted. “Follow the snake!” (more…)

IN THE SHADOW OF THE SPIRE

SESSION 10D: CLAN OF THE TORN EAR

November 3rd, 2007
The 30th Day of Amseyl in the 790th Year of the Seyrunian Dynasty

THE GOBLIN CAVERNS

Looking down into the fissure, Tee saw that it opened out into a natural – and very narrow – chain of caves. But there was definitely room enough for all of them to pass through and see where those caves might lead.

Tor volunteered to stay behind and stand guard in the chamber with the blood-stained pit. The rest of the group agreed to explore the caves for about ten minutes – if they didn’t find anything interesting, they’d turn back.

After climbing twenty feet down the steeply angled fissure, the caves beyond it proved remarkably easy to navigate. Although they were narrow enough that Agnarr’s shoulders occasionally scraped the walls, the floor was almost entirely free of obstruction. They made good time, and after five minutes they had already covered several hundred feet at a brisk walking pace. The cave floor had begun to descend at a shallow, but noticeable, angle.

About seven minutes after they had left Tor, the rest of the group came to an area where the narrow cave tunnel suddenly opened out onto a large side-cavern choked full of stalagtites and stalagmites.

Tee was in the lead, and as she emerged into this side-cavern a deep, guttural voice spoke loudly in Goblin: “Come no farther!” A large, broad-shouldered goblin stood up from behind some of the stalagmites. “These are the caverns of my people. What is your purpose here?”

Tee was surprised to discover that she understood what he was saying… the words just seemed to fall into place in her mind. But she had never spoken the Goblin tongue before.

The others couldn’t understand a word as Tee said, “We’re explorers.”

“Wanderers? From the surface world?”

“Yes.”

The goblin shook his head. “Go back. We do not want you here.”

Tee quickly translated the situation back to her compansion.

“There are more of you here?” the goblin demanded.

Tee confirmed it.

“Go now!” Tee wasn’t sure if the goblin was angry or if it was just the guttural tones of the language.

“All right,” Tee said. “We’ll go.”

But as she turned, another goblin – this one shorter and runtier – suddenly jumped up from behind another patch of stalagmites and fired a crude arrow at her. It went wide, but Tee’s reaction was immediate: She drew her dragon pistol and fired. (more…)

IN THE SHADOW OF THE SPIRE

SESSION 10C: BACK TO THE LABYRINTHS

November 3rd, 2007
The 30th Day of Amseyl in the 790th Year of the Seyrunian Dynasty

THE BLOODY ORRERY

The next morning, at breakfast, Cardalian came over to their table. She received a rather frosty reception from all of them as she introduced herself to “their new friend”, Tor. She invited them to attend the funeral of Devaral Unissa at the Cathedral of Athor on the 1^st of Kadal and then headed back to her own table.

They shrugged her off and headed back up towards the North Market and Greyson House.

There was still one mystery left in the outer area of the complex: The room with the orrery. Something in that room – or adjacent to that room – was inflicting them with the bloodsheen.

Ranthir had specifically prepared spells to get to the root of this mystery. Working his incantations he carefully circled through the room, trying to ignore the thin sheen of blood springing up across his body. “I am certain,” he said at last, “That one of bloodwights lies within the orrery. I think—“

At that moment, the glistening pink form of a fully regenerated bloodwight smashed its way through the wooden panels around the base of the orrery. Ranthir’s momentary outrage at seeing the ancient orrery damaged was quickly replaced by concern as he realized that the creature had effectively cut him off from the room’s exit… and the blood was pouring ever faster from his pores.

Tor and Agnarr rushed into the room, gladly braving the bloodsheen in order to come to their companion’s aid. Tee kept her distance, but drew her dragon pistol, carefully choosing her shots to blast hunks from the bloodwight’s undead flesh.

It was short and bloody work, but at last it was done. Agnarr grinned. “Well, I think that’s finally the last of them. So…”

Ranthir was lying unconscious in a pool of his own blood.

“Dominic!”

The priest came rushing in from the outer room. Fortunately, Ranthir – although faint from the shocking loss of blood – was not physically harmed. With the strength of Athor flowing into his flesh, the wizard and scholar was soon back on his feet.

His attention turned almost immediately to the orrery, which he had not previously been able to devote proper attention to. After years of neglect it was in very poor condition and utterly inoperable, but after careful study and the taking of many notes, Ranthir was able to reconstruct its basic principles.

He was intrigued to discover that the motions of the heavenly bodies it tracked were not accurate to a modern understanding – there were several minor inconsistencies reflective of a much older cosmological theory. But, even more fascinating, the orrery featured no less than seventeen heavenly bodies which were completely unknown to modern observation. What had the makers of the orrery been thinking? What did those bodies represent? Had they, in fact, existed at some point in the distant past?

Tee, meanwhile, was inspecting the orrery with a more practical eye. She confirmed that the bloodwight had, in fact, been resting within a secret compartment of sorts within the base of the orrery – it had probably once been used for maintenance. But she also discovered that the seventeen spheres representing the unknown heavenly bodies were not made of brass like the other spheres in the orrery, but were instead forged form pure silver and worth a small fortune (at least 425 gp).

Tee began looking for ways to break off these silver spheres, but then Ranthir raised the possibility that they might find a way of transporting the entire orrery to the surface and selling it intact. This seemed a daunting task – the orrery must have weighed at least 14,000 pounds – but Ranthir suspected it could be worth as much as 12,000 gp.

After much debate, it was decided that they would leave the orrery for now. Tee was skeptical that they could move it (even if they followed Ranthir’s suggestion of hiring workers to perform the necessary excavations) – there was, after all, the pit of chaos in the way. But there was also the possibility that Lord Zavere of Castle Shard would be interested in it – perhaps they could sell the mere knowledge of the orrery and allow the buyer to extract it for themselves.

With these thoughts in mind they moved through the deserted corridors that had been expurgated of the bloodwight plague and passed through the doors of bluesteel… (more…)

IN THE SHADOW OF THE SPIRE

SESSION 10B: RETREAT TO THE SURFACE

November 3rd, 2007
The 28th Day of Amseyl in the 790th Year of the Seyrunian Dynasty

With Tee in such a state, they really had no choice: They had to return to the city and seek the healing they had foregone before.

They carefully bound Tee’s arms and legs – partly to stop her from injuring herself; partly to stop her from injuring them – and Agnarr gently lifted her and carried her back down the corridors they had already explored.

It took them the better part of an hour, but they finally emerged – bedraggled and soaked with blood and ichor – into Greyson House.

They headed down Upper God Way to the Street of a Million Gods and the Temple of Asche, attracting many stares. The priests there explained that Father Mand Scheben was not present in the church that day, but he had left instructions that they were to be offered healing at the lowest of possible costs. This was good news for the party, who still had to dip deep into their funds to afford the several hundred gold pieces required for the necessary components and divine casting.

When the clouds of madness cleared from Tee’s eyes, she was left with two sentences burning in her mind: “The lance is being built. The runebearers will not come in time.” She wasn’t sure what to make of it.

The priests allowed them to use their baths to clean up, and then they headed back towards the Ghostly Minstrel. On their way back, a flying ship passed overhead. This startled most of the group, but Tee described it as a common sight in Ptolus – the aeroship of House Shever.

When they reached the Ghostly Minstrel, Tee pulled Ranthir to one side and told him the phrase she had emerged with from her madness. He wasn’t sure what it meant either, but he promised to research it the next time he went to the Delver’s Guild Library.

…which turned out to be immediately after dinner. Ranthir and Elestra both headed to the library. While Ranthir researched the things Tee had asked him to look into, Elestra read up on Ghul the Skull-King. What she found confirmed their suspicion that the complex they were exploring was connected with him: There was, in fact, an expansive construction beneath Ptolus referred to collectively as “Ghul’s Labyrinth”. The Delver’s Guild believed that these were the breeding chambers, barracks, and laboratories of Ghul during his dark reign. Much of the treasure drawn up from the depths came from chambers within the Labyrinth. Many delvers were even reporting the discovery of chambers protected with ancient preservation magicks – their contents untouched through the eons. (When Elestra briefed the rest of the group on what she’d found, Dominc grimaced: “Preserved corpses… No… Well, I hope not…”) To find an unexplored section of the Labyrinth, as they had done, promised many rewards.

Tee, meanwhile, bought a newssheet for a copper piece and browsed through it while she taught Dominic the rules of dragonscales. She discovered that earlier that day an older, well-known, and well-liked City Watch guard named Devaral Unissa had been found killed with the shape of a raven carved into his chest. This was the sign of a gang-killing by Kevris Killraven’s men.

Agnarr, boozing it up, was hearing the same thing from others in the Ghostly Minstrel’s bar. Tee was surprised to hear that the Killravens were now considered to rival the Balacazars as the premiere criminal gang in the town. When she had left Ptolus a little more than a year before, the Killravens had only just arrived in town. It was rumored that many of Kevris’ top lieutenants had come with her from out of town.

After talking it over, Tee and Dominic decided to head over to the Cloud Theater and try to talk to the “Dullin boy”. Tee was convinced that this boy’s life was in danger, and she wanted to warn him.

(more…)