Session 2; July 18, 2006
return to "adventures"
return to home page previous session next
session
Session 2: Back to Jzadirune
Celceor The Wise (Elven mage, male); Dave M.
Nakama (Human ranger, female); Tom S.
Skylar (Human Duskblade, male); Al G.
Angrod Moonstar (Elven Cleric, male); Jon P.
Nick (Human rogue, male); Dave P.
Corniel (Dwarf Bard); Brook
The last session ended with most of the party in the entry room of
Jzadirune with the copper masks. Nick was in the small room with
the gear door propped open. The gray humanoid he had just killed
lay on the floor beside him but another of the strange humanoids was
known to be about so the party was cautious. The room was some
kind of old gnome barracks with tiny beds, footlockers, cob webs and
rubble in it.
Glyn the Halfling suddenly felt his "irritable bowel syndrome" kicking
in and ran up the stairs to find someplace to relieve himself.
The room had two tunnels, 5 feet in diameter, leading out.
Searching the room, they found a crossbow and bolts, a sunrod, the
fragment of an old letter
and a map.
The letter read;
… the
gnome clan had an enclave, almost a small city, beneath Cauldron where
the gnomes manufactured magical items, potions and scrolls for
trade. This enclave was founded by the great gnome wizard
Jzadirune; after his death the place was named ‘Jzadirune’ in his
honor.
The gnomes of Jzadirune were on
friendly terms with the gnomes, humans and dwarves of Cauldron and were
allies of Zenith Splintershield, the Dwarven Captain of the Malachite
Hold. Jzadirune’s workshops, forges, laboratories and libraries
were apparently protected by complicated mechanical doors that looked
like big gears. These doors were all trapped with mechanical and
magical traps --- you know how the gnomes love their magical mechanical
marvels and illusions.
Something went wrong, though. A
strange disease the gnomes called “The Vanishing” began to infect the
inhabitants of Jzadirune; this disease caused the one infected to fade
away until they disappeared completely. It was said that the
magic items manufactured in Jzadirune were tainted with The Vanishing;
the gnomes apparently destroyed the items they thought were infected,
locked up Jzadirune, hid the entrance and moved away…
They began to explore one of the 5' diameter tunnels, using the map
they found to orient themselves. Unfortunately, none of the
smaller tunnels were marked on the map but they could see the staircase
and the room with masks. The tunnel they chose led around and
sloped up, with little finger and toe holds for climbing, emerging into
a dark and empty 10x10 room. As Nick climbed up, another of the
unseen creatures attacked him. Nick dodged back down the hole and
the party managed to work their way into the tiny room and engage the
creature after Celceor tossed a light spell into the room, revealing
the creature's location. Without too much ado, they managed to
kill it. Searching the room, Celceor found a secret door and Nick
found a tiny silver key.
The party opened the secret door and found themselves looking into a
hexagonal room lined with empty weapon racks festooned with
cobwebs. A large sack, bundled with rope, lay in one corner and a
chest sat in the center of the room with a tiny silver cage sitting on
top of it. The cage contained a small rat with a white
star-shaped mark on his forehead. The rat chittered excitely and
ran around inside his cage in an agitated manner when it saw
them. Surmising that this was Starbrow, the players advanced; but
they were cautious since the rat's agitation made them smell a
trap. Celceor thought the chest looked "fake" and experiementally
shot an arrow at it. The arrow hit the chest and the chest surged
forward, a large mouth forming on the front of it and moving swiftly
across the floor on psuedopods that sprouted from the chest's
bottom. This was apparently some sort of creature with a soft
putty-like body that could assume the form of a chest. A color
spray spell had no effect on the chest (but knocked out Starbrow) and
the party's weapons seeemed to have little effect. Two PCs got
damaged pretty badly; Celceor was saved by the timely application of a cure light wounds spell. The
chest creature was roaring at them in an incomprehensible language as
it attacked; finally it formed itself into a narrow ribbon and squeezed
out through a crack in one of the doors.
During the combat, Nakama considered targeting the robe-bundled sack
with her arrows -- thinking it might be another creature.
Thankfully she did not; the sack contined a very angry and half
smothered dwarf bard named Corniel who had been abducted in the city
above, robbed of his goods, bundled into this sack and dragged down
here from the streets above (Secretly I hoped she would shoot at the
sack --- having Brook's character show up mid game and meeting the
party by being shot with one of their arrows seems like the perfect
introduction).
At this point they decided to return to the locksmith's shop.
Keygan Ghelve, the gnome locksmith, was overjoyed to have been reunited
with his familiar and loaned Nick a set of masterwork thieve's tools
and tried to answer whatever questions the group had about
Jzadirune. The mysterious runes that they had found downstairs
spelled out "Jzadirune" and the various runes on the doors were J, Z,
A, R, etc., but Keygan couldn't say what the individual letters on the
doors indicated. He confirmed that the doors were said to be
equipped with traps but didn't know anything about "The Vanishing"
other than to state that he thought the ruins of Jzadirune were haunted
by the spirits of the gnomes who succumbed to the magical
diesease. The party convinced Keygan to come with them to Jenya
Urikas, Priestess of Cuthbert, and confess his part in the plot.
While the rest went to the Temple of Cuthbert, Nick stopped by the
orphanage to see his friend Patch and check on the safety of the people
there. While at the orphanage, he discovered that two half elf
investigators who had claimed to be from the mayor's office had been at
the orphanage asking questions about the abductions. That night
he went back to the lock shop and saw two half elves, one with a
telescope, lurking nearby obviously keeping an eye on the place.
Intrigued, he headed back to meet his friends at their inn.
The rest of the group had brought Keygan to Jenya Urikas at the temple
of Cuthbert. After healing the party's wounds, Jenya questioned
Keygan and thanked the party for having apparently discovered how the
people were being abducted and urged them to investigate further.
Keygan Ghelve was very ashamed of his part in helping the kidnappers
but Priestess Jenya seemed to take the gnome's obvious mental imbalance
into consideration as well as the fact that he was compelled to
cooperation by threat and the kidnapping of his familiar. Keygan
was turned over to Tereson Skellerang, the captain of the town guard
and
leader of the Garrison. Skellerang promised to keep the gnome
safe since the locksmith obviously feared retribution from the
mysterious kidnappers.
That night Corniel attempted to sing for his supper and ale but his
discordant flute playing annoyed the patrons of The Morokoth who pelted
him with rotten tomatoes and fish heads. Embarassed, he ran down
the street to The Madcap Monkey Tavern where his flute playing earned
him a few drinks and some food but the crowd turned ugly when he was
caught trying to pick a guardsman's pocket.
The next morning, the group set off to the locksmith's shop; determined
to find out what the half elves were up to. While some of the
players approached from the north, Nick and Nakama snuck up the
alleyway. Corniel covered himself in stale beer and ordure from
the gutter and stubled towards the half elves, pretending to be a
drunken jackass who wanted to earn some silver for singing in the
street. The half elves looked at him in a puzzled way and when
Corniel attempted an impromptu grapple check on one of them, the half
elf simply stepped out of the way and watched with a smile as the dwarf
landed on his face in the mud. He capped his performance by
making an obvious attempt at picking Angrod's pocket.
The half elves seemed underwhelmed by the dwarf's performance.
They introduced themselves as Fellian Shard and Fario Ellegoth and
claimed to be members of 'The
Striders of Farfalagn.' They said they were investigating
the many dissapearances in Cauldron and were particularly interested in
finding out what happened to Elethor Ashstaff; a friend of
theirs. The players cross referenced this name on the list of abductees
given them by Jenya Urikas, which lent some veracity to the
story. The players and the Striders agreed to share information
in the future and the Striders agreed to drop in on Jenya and tell her
what they knew. The Striders referred to the chameleon creatures
of the dungeon as "skulks."
The players then went to the lock shop, used their key to unlock it and
entered. Most of the valuables and personal effects appeared to
have been stripped from the shop. They entered the secret stair
and went down to the room with the mask where they activated the magic
talking mask while searching:
Welcome
to Jzadirune - behold the wonder!
But beware, ye who seek to plunder.
Traps abound and guardians peer
Beyond every portal, behind every
gear.
Angrod began to enter the barracks room where they had fought the skulk
on the day before and suddenly a rapier whistled past, barely missing
him, as he was squeezing through the door...
We had to end here for the night due to time.
Character /
Player:
|
Race / Class
& Level:
|
XP at start:
|
XP for
session:
|
XP total:
|
Notes:
|
Glyn; Nathan
|
(Halfling / Thief 1)
|
375
|
0
|
375
|
not present
|
| Celceor The Wise; Dave M. |
(Elf / Mage 1) |
450
|
221
|
671
|
|
| Nakama; Tom S. |
(Human / Ranger 1) |
450
|
221
|
671
|
|
| Skylar; Al G. |
(Human / Duskblade 1) |
350
|
221
|
571
|
|
| Angrod Moonstar; Mike M. |
(Elf / Cleric 1) |
400
|
221
|
621
|
|
| Nick; Dave P. |
(Human / Rogue 1) |
450
|
221
|
671
|
|
Corniel; Brook
|
(Dwarf / Bard 1)
|
0
|
221
|
221
|
|