July 24, Wednesday [day 11, cont.] - Dwarven Kings' Tombs and Grandar's Pool.
After finding that they were in an area of dwarven construction, the party came out into a huge room with a vaulted ceiling far overhead. Ornate dwarven architecture, artwork and statuary in a crumbled state of disrepair filled the room. In the center of the room was a large pool of clear clean water.
 |
| Grandar's Pool |
Thalmyr, the dwarven paladin of Grandar, god of vigilance, vengeance and retribution, threw a stone into the pool (of course). The water began to bubble and steam, and a misty form rose out of the pool. A voice like rocks grinding together addressed Thalmyr, who knew that this was a manifestation of Grandar. As the towering misty form of the two-headed dwarf coalesced in the room, the rubbled room around them began to reform, and the party got a view of the chamber in its former majesty. The ghosts of dwarven kings materialized out of the walls and lined the room...
 |
| Thalmyr throws a stone into the Pool |
Grandar spoke to Thalmyr at length about the desecration of these ancient dwarven royal tombs, and wanted him to seek vengeance against those who had desecrated them. He was told to destroy the Blood Orb to weaken their power, and to seek an item in the Ruby Knight's Tomb that would help in the quest. Grandar asked Thalmyr's companions to join him in the quest, and promised rewards upon successful completion of the quest. In the meantime, he granted Malachy and Duncan, the only two humans, darkvision. All agreed to go on the quest.
They slept the night safely in the Pool chamber.
July 25, Thursday [day 12] - Lower Tombs to Middle Tombs.
Waking in the morning, the party left the dead-end that was the dwarven area, and re-entered the Lower Tombs. They spent some time looting some valuables from various individual tombs, and noticed something odd: old wooden doors into some of the tombs had been either repaired or replaced recently. Metal locks and hinges were in some cases still shiny and new-looking, in stark contrast to the very old rusted fittings on other doors. Someone had been repairing these recently...
On the far side of the flesh golem chamber, the party encountered another such chamber, and another flesh golem. With knowledge of how to fight the last one fresh in their minds, they disabled the lightning-healing ball easily (a spider-climbing druid with a hammer) and took down the monstrosity in short order.
Shortly after the fight ended, the party heard voices approaching. They surprised two guards who were coming to investigate the noise from the golem fight, and were able to subdue them and capture them after a very brief struggle.
The captives were interrogated, using Comprehend Languages magic. It turns out that these two were from the Underdark city they called Traniska, and were serving a several week tour of duty as guards and maintenance men in the tombs of the City of the Dead. They worked for the priests of the Death Temple during this rotation. The population of Traniska had long been in decline, and the commoners were required to do periods of service for the Masters. The Masters were the Alberneth true-bloods.
So it turned out the Alberneths were alive and well (so to speak) after all these years, with their descendants living in an underground city. Demon-worshipping, dark magic and slavery were the order of the day in Traniska.
What they referred to as Traniska was a number of different areas carved into the caverns lining a miles-long underground lake. The City of the Dead was in an isolated area on the north bank of the lake. Farms were to the south, mines to the northwest, and the city proper to the west. The only outsiders to come to Traniska were some duergar (dark dwarf) traders, and less often some drow elves.
After getting what information they could out of the terrified captives, they took the captives and headed toward what they called the Middle Tombs. This was the way toward the Death Temple.
In the long hallway between the Lower Tombs and the Middle Tombs, the party ran into what the captives (Farrin being the more cooperative/talkative) called a Stalker Demon. This huge four legged monstrosity put up a good fight in the cramped quarters, but the blades of Malachy and Thalmyr took it down. During the fight, the second captive tried to run, and was killed as he ran.
 |
| Stalker Demon vs the group |
As the creature fell to the ground in death, there was a loud popping sound and the body disappeared, leaving behind only the smell of sulphur.
 |
| Stalker Demon |
Farrin couldn't believe that the party could kill such a terrifying beast...
Next - Into the Middle Tombs.
GM Commentary - This was a fun session due to the fact that a half dozen sessions leading up to this finally got us to the point of an important reveal: the Tombs of the Alberneth were not just a series of old tombs, but were part of a living city (Traniska), still inhabited by the descendants of the Alberneth, a family of the elder people of Ithilkar. And those people were evil, worshipping and summoning all manner of demons and fiends, and dominating all nearby peoples as slaves (to the degree possible). Different things were in the immediate future. It felt good to be out of the Underdark wilds.
XP for this session was ~900 per character.
