Session 24: We have to save the children… using the power of this evil Lich!
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Cast of Characters:
Celceor The Wise; Elf Mage (Dave M.)
Nick; human Rogue (Dave P.)
Fafnir; Human Barbarian (Jon C.)
Werkle of Dinnsmere; Dwarf Fighter (Al)
Ereyn Bane; Half-Elf Rogue (Mike D.)
Eggo of the Holy Brotherhood; Human Cleric (NPC)
Beck, Human Fighter (NPC)
27th
day of the month of Tarsakh (the fantasy equivalent of April)
We had met Magistrate Norino and his priest, Galman, at the entrance to an ancient tomb in the hills of Vale Kalmer. We had agreed to retrieve an ancient artifact for him; a sphere about the size of a bocce ball or a grapefruit, which the slimeball Norino wanted in exchange for passports and walking papers. Being the fools that we were, we agreed to this little job, thinking it just a side quest to get what we wanted (passports to follow Captain Petroff aka ‘Puffinstuff’ and retrieve the prince). Norino told us we had three days and suggested we not spend the night in the tomb. He agreed to meet us at the tomb entry every three nights. If, on the third night we did not return, he would reseal the tomb and consider us as lost.
The slab-like door appeared to be very tight fitting… as if it sealed the tomb with an air-tight seal. We trooped down a short flight of stairs to a slab-like stone door engraved with words of warning in elven, common and dwarven as well as a hole that resembled a keyhole. Ignoring the impulse to just turn around and walk away (which really would have been the best thing to do; you will understand why later…), Nick when to work on the hole. After nick had poked his ‘tiny tool’ into the hole and the expected jokes had been made, a golden handle set with pearl emerged from the hole. Grasping it, Nick pulled and it came free. The door slid down into the floor, revealing a musty staircase.
The stairs led down into a small room with four doors. Above the doors, written in Elven, it said:
“One will lead you to your goal. Three are trapped. Two bear truth. Two are false. Choose wisely.”
Each door, left to right, had a sign on it. The signs said:
1)
I am not
trapped.
2)
You don’t
want to open me.
3)
I am trapped.
4)
The statement
on door one is false.
Assuming the inscription above the doors was true, after long debate we chose door three. Our logic was that since door 1 and 4 contradicted one another, the choice had to be between door 2 or 3. Of these two remaining doors, one had to be true and the other false. We finally settled on 3 and solved the puzzle. We went through #3 and nothing really horrible happened, thus we knew we had chosen wisely… because if door 2 is false (we do want to enter door 2) then 3 has to be true…and vice versa.
We entered a hall led on to a room with 3 other exits. 5 stone coffins, each wrapped in iron chains and fastened with locks, were in the room. We left those alone and went to the left. The hallway narrowed and led us to a small chamber. A ledge up the wall was adorned with 20 gargoyle sculptures and a capstan wheel stood at either end. Of course, we begin playing with the captan wheels at once, one of which was rigged only to turn clockwise and the other one, counterclockwise. Turning them independently, we discovered that they simply snapped back into place. Nick found a fairly obvious hole in the ceiling with contained what looked like part of a key adorned with gemstones and gold… this ‘key’ appeared to be stuck in a grey putty or clay in the hole, but even standing on Fafnir’s shoulders, Nick could not quite reach it.
To Celceor’s dismay, Eggo suddenly recalled with glee that Celceor had boots of levitation and should be able to just float up there and grab this key. Clearly, sticking his hand into this mysterious and probably deadly hole was not something Celceor wanted to do. Looking daggers at the chatterbox priest of Pelor, the elven wizard floated up and tried to pull the key from the grey putty. The grey putty stuck to his hand, like glue, and pull as he might, Celceor could not get free.
Reasoning that alcohol dissolves sticky honey, Eggo pried a wineskin from Werkle’s hands and handed it up to Celceor, to squirt on the putty. Werkle, the dipsomaniac, protested, “I t’would rather be a leavin the blasted elf hangin from the ceiling than be parted with my bit o’ drink!” Clearly, the dwarf has a problem.
Ignoring the dwarf’s dipsomania for the nonce, we debated turning the capstan wheels. Since it wasn’t our arm in the hole and Celceor the chandelier-elf didn’t get a vote, Fafnir and Werkle each manned (or dwarfed) a capstan. Eggo stood by with a healing spell to cauterize the wound should Celceor’s arm get chopped off by whirling blades or whatever else might pop out and punish him. The wheels were turned 90 degrees and suddenly a stone slab snapped shut over the entryway. The gargoyle statues all began to spout water, slowly filling the room. Eggo began to grow hysterical and Fafnir and Werkle began hammering at the door. Nick slapped the priest and began to search the room for an exit or control lever or ANYTHING.
Werkle did the math and realized that as the shortest dwarf in the room, he would be the first to drown.
Celceor then tried spurting a little water on the putty. Water, rather than wine, dissolved the putty and he pulled his hand (and the key) free. Nick found a hidden drain in the floor and wedged it open; the water now drained out of the room so we were just standing in ankle deep water. While Fafnir and Werkle continued to hammer at the door, Eggo and Nick decided, for no particularly good reason other than “there has to be a reason for these capstans,” to turn the wheels again. With their 90 pound weakling arms, Eggo and Nick heaved at the wheels on opposite ends of the room. Both wheels snapped forwards and the trickles of water from the gargoyles became jets – blasting into the room and knocking us around. The torch fell into the water and went out. Fafnir held up his shield to protect Werkle from the spray as Werkle pounded the door.
Since we couldn’t turn the wheels back to the start position, we turned them again. Suddenly the room grew dark. Eggo cast a light spell but it was immediately snuffed out by some magical force and it was difficult to stand due to the powerful jets of water. At this point, we are getting bitten by small, unseen creatures in the dark, stumbling around, etc. We turned the wheels once more and the door opened and the water shut off, but it was still dark and only Werkle (with his darkvision) could see. Eggo shrieked with a high pitched squeal as something bit his ankle as Nick slammed face first into a wall while trying to run from the room. Werkle could see little vipers crawling around the room and began hacking them up. Finally we got ourselves sorted and made it out of the room and were able to get a light going again.
We returned to the central room and took the left hand branch this time. The tunnel narrowed, weaving back and forth, and ended in an archway which gave access to a small series of corridors, like a maze. One of the stone panels in the wall looked ‘suspicious’ to Nick, so Werkle tried hammering a spike into the floor, thinking it was a trap and the spike would prevent it from going off. Suddenly the wall surged forward, smashing into Werkle, who pushed back, trying to keep from getting crushed. Fafnir battered at the wall as the rest of the group said, “What the heck?!?” We could see that the space the animated wall occupied led to another narrow corridor; Celceor and Werkle slipped down the back and the wall followed, smashing Celceor into Werkle, as the rest of the group ran down the other way.
Now we were split into two smaller groups. Great.
While Celceor and Werkle took the right fork, the rest of us took the left. The smashing wall prevented us from joining together again, but we hoped the maze would allow us to rejoin our friends eventually. Fafnir led us down twists and turns until we encountered a dead end where three suits of armor stood, as if waiting for their owners. The suits animated and began battering at the barbarian with their metal gauntlets. Fafnir’s sword strokes did not seem to hurt the animate armor much until Eggo cast Bull’s Strength and Fafnir entered his barbarian’s rage… at which point Fafnir was suddenly as strong as a busload of fire giants. Eggo shrieked, “Don’t ruin the armor! I want it!” as the barbarian, muscles rippling, smashed it to bits. When he finished with that, he returned and smashed the wall to pieces.
Meanwhile, Celceor and Werkle entered a small chamber with four large shields on the wall. The shields attacked but Werkle seemed up to the task of battering them with his axe. After Celceor summoned a magic bear, they fought a rack full of spears and found their way to a corridor with an animate set of curtains that Werkle shredded with his axe. With all these animated objects around, Fafnir couldn’t help himself and began humming a tune that sounded like “Be our guest, be our guest…”
Beyond the curtains, Celceor and Werkle found an iron door, engraved in Dwarf Runes, that warned that only a dwarf could enter here safely. Inside was a small chamber; a portion of a key hovered in mid air. Werkle entered, grasped the key and immediately the ceiling slammed down to exactly 4 foot of height. Unfortunately, Werkle was tall for a dwarf and this battered his brains in somewahat. Unsteady on his feet, he wandered back out into the hall. The two parts of keys fit togetherm making a full key. By this time, Fafnir had finished battering the wall to bits and we had re-united. Eggo used his healing magic to put Werkle’s brains back in his skull and patch up the rest of the party. We returned to the central room with the chained coffins.
This time we took the central hall which led to a curving set of stairs and right into a large square room. There were tiles on the floor, upon each of which stood a zombie, skeleton, ghoul or other creature – the room was filled with an army of undead. After cacking our trousers, we discovered that the monsters were not real, they appeared to be illusions, but each square appeared occupied. In order to get across the room we will have to pass at least one entire file of these undead images. That can’t be good. We smell a trap.
Nick inspects the nearest ‘ghoul’ and gets zapped by some sort of magical glyph… but we conclude that the traps increase in power according to the undead pictured… so the vampire will be a more powerful trap than the mummy, the mummy will be more powerful than the zombie, the zombie worse than the skeleton, etc. Leaving from square to square, glyphs popping off left and right with Nick’s shrieks of pain, we finally get across the room by stepping on only zombie and skeleton squares. The “undead chess game” complete, we opened a door only to find another hallway (sigh) leading to another room (sigh) and another puzzle (sigh). We find ourselves confronted with an ornate door upon which are small tiles, like scrabble pieces, that spell out a message, but there is no other latch or keyhole. The square tiles themselves appear ‘pressable.’ Clearly we have to press the right ‘tiles’ to open the door. The tiles look like this:
After much debate, an uncharacteristically brave Eggo presses the ‘D’ tile on ‘Danger’ while the rest of the party backs away and covers their ears, eyes and genitals. The door opens! Wooohooo! Score another one for the Priest of Pelor! (fistpump). Behind it is a locked door which the key we had found and assembled earlier manages to open.
We find ourselves looking into a long hall, lined with pillars and stone coffins, all chained shut. At the head of the room is a large dias and upon it stands another coffin bound in chains, but a dark sphere, much like what we are supposed to be looking for, rests upon the lid in a small recess. Trays of coins and gems are sitting around the coffin (we take those! Yoink!). After considerable debate, we decide that Fafnir (who is the fastest) will grab the big ‘gem’ while the rest of us wait in the hall. He will use a fly spell cast on him by Celceor to zoom across the room and we will lock the door behind him and flee the tomb to the surface.
As soon as he grabs the orbs, all of the chains on the offins fall to bits and we hear a great, loud sigh…oooooooooooh. We leave as quickly as possible and are debating what to do, standing around outside like a bunch of pantywaists and wondering if we just set a lich free, when Magistrate Norino, his priest and a bunch of his soldiers ride up. Norino has a big shit-eating grin on his face as he thanks us for releasing his god, Mordan… apparently the orb Celceor carries is the orb of Mordann and will grant Celceor some select powers, but contains forces of good and evil and indifference… but was all that was holding his god in the tomb… Norino: “And thanks for being such kind suckers and setting him free… you can keep the orb, here are your passports, now you better ride before Mordann eats your brains or sodomizes you to death or whatever evil undead gods do to people who insult him… which he will do, eventually, but you may as well make it a challenge… here, have some horses haha ahahahahah ha!” Evil prick. We mount up, give Norino the finger, and ride!
From Dave P.:
---- Nick whispers to the
others while Celceor is busy petting his orb…
"I'm seriously concerned about Celceor. He's being corrupted by that evil
phylactery. I mean a lich's soul and essence is in that thing and he doesn't
want to destroy it? It emanates evil! Plus, the Lich-God is going to follow us
if we don't destroy it! He's obviously not thinking straight."
"Come to think about it, how did we get tricked into freeing the Lich-God
Moradin in the first place? It was all Celceor's idea! He was the one who had
the secret meeting with the Magistrate. And why wasn't Celceor arrested and
jailed when he admitted he killed members of the army? That's very suspicious
in itself! And then he comes to us with his idea of doing a small errand for
the Magistrate! Heck, we wouldn't have even met the Magistrate if Celceor
hadn't arranged it. And when we got to the crypt, there were four doors to open
and logically we could only eliminate two of the doors, it was Celceor who
ripped open the third door impulsively! Remember, even the dwarf who drools and
doesn't wear a helmet and who got the ceiling slammed on his head knew that the
third door wasn't a sure thing. But Celceor did! Maybe he knew ahead of time
which door to open? And then, he impulsively grabbed for the key in the
gargoyle room? When has Celceor ever did anything like that -- he usually makes
me or Bane do all the tricky stuff? Why did he do that? He wanted to make sure
HE had the key, that's why! And then when we were considering whether to grab
the orb from the last room, he casts a Fly spell on Fafnir and essentially
tells him not to worry."
"Then, when we get outside and instead of figuring out a way to hide the
orb and trick the Magistrate, he's off in the corner studying the evil artifact
with a gleam in his eye! It was all just a way to delay things. He knew the
Magistrate was coming but he wanted to get caught, I tell you."
"Celceor the "WISE". Hmmppfh! Since when has he had any interest
in rescuing the kids or the Prince to be? He's always talking about gold and
magic. Now, he's got his evil magic. And maybe he's been conspiring with the
Magistrate to get the orb and free the Lich-God. I think he's been playing us
for fools all along!!!"
d.martin99 * * Thu, Feb 5, 2009 at 2:49 PM *
Celceor tells the
group what he knows about the Orb, or at least what he says he knows:
"This orb appears
to be the phylactery of one Mordan the Lich King. A phylactery as I understand
it, is an container that houses the life force of the evil lich that created
it. If the container were to be destroyed the lich's life force would wane, and
the evil creature could no longer return after being killed. Though Eggo may be
able to add more insight into such things.
Though, unfortunately this is no `
" No, this one, it would seem, needs to
be taking back to
Celceor eggs his horse
on "Lets Fly you fools....Fly!!!"
XP:
Puzzle XP: 2000
Story XP: 3500
RP XP: Case by case
Bonus Awards: Case by case
Celceor The Wise; Elf Mage (Dave M.) XP Start:14,526xp
Puzzle: 330xp
Story: 575xp
RP: 200xp
Research Bonus: 75xp - Researching the Orb
XP for Session: 1,180xp
XP Total: 15,706xp
Nick; Human rogue (Dave P.) XP Start: 10,963xp
Puzzle: 330xp
Story: 575xp
RP: 150xp
Bonus: 50xp Funny commentary
XP for Session: 1,105xp
Total: 12,068xp
Fafnir; Human Barbarian (Jon C) XP Start: 8,899xp
Puzzle: 330xp
Story: 575xp
RP: 200xp
Bonus: 100: Always some funny stuff happening with Fafnir around
For Session: 1,205xp
Total: 10,104xp
Werkle of Dinnsmere; Dwarf Fighter (Al/NPC for part of session) XP
Start: 10,410xp
Puzzle: 330xp
Story: 575xp
RP: 200xp
Bonus: 100xp Scottish accent :)
For Session: 1,205xp
Total: 11,615xp
Eggo of the Holy Brotherhood; Human Cleric (Stephan) XP Start: 8,648xp
Puzzle: 330xp
Story: 575xp
RP: 200
Session Write: 100xp
For Session: 1,205xp
Total: 9,853xp
Ereyn Bane; Human Rogue (Mike D./NPC) XP Start: 9,512xp
Puzzle: 50xp
Story: 575xp
For Session: 625xp
Total: 10,137xp