Campaign Journal 34 - To the Ruby Knight's Tomb

We last left our heroes standing in a hallway between the Lower Tombs and Middle Tombs in the City of the Dead in the Underdark city of Traniska.

July 25, Thursday (cont.) - In Search of the Ruby Knight's Tomb.

Part of the interrogation of the captive Farrin was to ask about the location of a place called the Ruby Knight's tomb. He was unable to say with certainty whether he knew of the place or not, but thought it might be at the boat docks in the Noble Tombs area. Across the dock cavern from the Alberneth noble tombs themselves was a passage of dwarven carving that he and the other maintenance crew members were forbidden to enter. There were hints of flaking crimson paint on some of the carved ancient dwarven decorations surrounding the door.

With the guidance of Farrin, the party made their way quickly through the Middle Tombs area, avoiding the temptation to be distracted and loot the tombs. At one point, they heard some sort of creatures howling in the distance. Farrin was concerned that this was the sound of more Stalker Demons. This would be bad, as one Stalker Demon had been a significant challenge.

Passing through a shrine and a series of priests' chambers, Farrin led them the back way to a hidden boat dock that would lead them a few hundred yards down a water passage to the Noble Tombs area. This was a short cut that the priests and their minions used; citizens visiting the Tombs to pay their respects would come to these areas through other ways in.

Arriving at the boat dock, the characters came face to face with a small band of seven lizardmen snooping around the docks and the boat that was moored there.

Lizardmen at a boat landing

The melee characters, with an assist from Melior's creative use of the Wind Wall spell, were able to dispatch the lizardmen with little trouble, although Thalmyr did end up in the water...

Fighting the lizardmen

With Farrin's help, Malachy was able to pilot the magical boat, which was propelled by holding the rudder and guiding the boat with your mind. Think forward, go forward, think stop, stop.

A few hundred yards down the passage, lights were seen ahead, and the passage opened into a larger cavern. Passing into the cavern, the boat passed over a submerged rope strung across the opening, which in turn banged a gong hung near the entrance. After a suspenseful wait...nothing happened. The alarm had been sounded, but apparently there was nobody around to hear it.

Emerging into the cavern, the Noble Tomb entrances were on the left, leading from a well lit dock area. To the right, in the dim unlit corner of the cavern, was a much older dock and a passage opening carved in obviously dwarven style.

The characters docked in the dimness near the dwarven entrance, and started down the short staircase just inside the opening. There was a chamber at the bottom of the stairs, and in the chamber were several heaps of charred remains. Carved in the wall of the chamber, in dwarven runes, was the inscription "only the righteous may pass." Presumably the heaps of charred remains had tried to pass but not been righteous enough...

The Ruby Knight's Tomb

Niam was concerned about the inscriptions (based on some events in his past), and would not continue past the chamber. Mal, Badric and Thalmyr went through the far door, into another chamber, and had a choice of going left or right down a pair of short hallways ending in dwarven doors. They chose to go left, went into a tomb chamber, and had brief but disastrous encounter with a wraith. Courtesy of a critical hit from the wraith, Malachy had a very-near-death experience, but was able to get out alive. Barely. The three fled and were not pursued.

Going into the tomb on the right, they found the burial sarcophagus of the Ruby Knight, an ancient dwarven warrior, and were permitted (by the Knight's spirit) to remove the magical warhammer found in the sarcophagus.

The party then pulled their boat as far out of the way as they could, posted a watch, and settled down for a night's sleep.

Next - The Noble Tombs.

GM Commentary - After the bunch of sessions that revolved around slogging through the Underdark, this session (and the last one) were a nice change of pace. The characters were in a different environment, and their interactions with the captive Farrin were interesting.

Knowing that these encounters were likely to be coming, I had made some custom terrain pieces for them (as well as for some other areas that we never used). I think this helped create a concrete sense of "place" for the players (but I'm not one of the players, so I can never really be sure...). Yes or no, this was an enjoyable diversion in and of itself, and I am sure that I can eventually find a use for the pieces that I made for this that got skipped. [Side note: the most elaborate custom piece of terrain I made for this whole campaign arc never got used...]

Which I guess brings up an important point: the time you spend prepping for sessions as a GM (and also certainly in the crafting arena) needs to be enjoyable in its own right, because you have to do so knowing that some (or much, or even most) of your prep is never going to get used. The trap here is to force the players into doing the things that you prepared for them, which is a bad trap to fall into. Player agency (the ability of players to make meaningful choices for their characters) needs to be real and meaningful. The game loses meaning if the GM forces the events into a predetermined course no matter what the players do. I have many aspects of my GM'ing that I can improve on, but this one point at least is something that I think I have been able to internalize pretty well.

Campaign Journal 33 - In the Tombs

We left our heroes just having found a passage in the Lower Tombs that led into a series of ancient-looking dwarven chambers.

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.

Campaign Journal 32 - Tombs of the Alberneth

We left our heroes slogging through the Underdark, just a few days short of their destination...

July 22, Monday [day 9, cont.] - To Spider Haunt.

The rest of the day's journey passed uneventfully, with the party camped just short of the location known as Spider Haunt.

During the night, Arian was again woken with intense pain in his left arm. The blue scales now extended down to his wrist, and across the back of his hand. It would no longer be easy to hide the, under clothing, short of wearing long sleeves and gloves. It was also apparent that the fingers on his left hand had become longer, thinner, and more claw-like. Arian found that by concentrating, he could extend (or retract) claws from those fingers.

July 23, Tuesday [day 10] - Spider Haunt, Broken Bridge and Waterfall Hole.

The day's hike proceeded mostly without incident, although the party was attacked by a trio of phase spiders at one point.

Phase spiders hunting intruders

The fight was short but bloody.

The intruders fight back

The party arrives at Waterfall Hole and succeeds in finding the secret way that is supposed to lead to the Tombs. Like in the Silver Swords journal, the party sees a ghostly monkey-like figure perched in a ledge, which then darts behind a rocky outcropping and disappears. The small hole leading onward is behind the outcropping.

They decide to camp here and continue on in the morning.

During the night, it was Badric the Cleric's turn to have a strange dream: You have a difficult night with horrible dreams of death and decay. You stand on a battlefield with your kinsmen, fighting hosts of orcs and goblins, and many that you know are wounded and fall around you. You call on the healing power of Maurig, your god, the god of life, but instead of seeing your friends healed and restored to health and vitality, they decay before your eyes, flesh peeling back from their bodies, bones exposed, organs melting away as you watch. Maggots erupt from their corpses and swarm toward you. You watch in horror as the maggots swarm up your legs and burrow into your flesh. You feel the agony as they disappear into your body, and you can feel them burrowing through you, seeking your heart. You call on Maurig's power to heal yourself, but instead your flesh begins to melt off your body, exposing your own innards... You wake, shaking, in a cold sweat...

Badric prays in the morning, as usual, but is unable to find a connection to his god (and in game turns does not regain any spell slots). Melior the Druid has the same issue.

July 24, Wednesday [day 11] - The Tombs of the Alberneth.

After the better part of a day's walking and crawling through small and difficult tunnels, the party finds the passage blocked by a small pile of loosely piled rocks, from which a dagger hilt protrudes. Guessing that this was left as a marker, the party moves the rocks out of the way and finds a small opening that emerges into a small cavern. Parts of the walls and floors have obviously been worked, and there are burial niches carved into the walls. Several other similar caverns are explored. In the last cavern, the tunnel onward is blocked by a locked metal-bar door set into a grid of metal bars. Thirty feet beyond, a similar door can be seen. In between, the floor is covered with what Duncan the wizard identifies as protection glyphs and sigils.

Opening the doors and proceeding on, the party emerged into a large finished chamber. A bronze colored metal ball, approximately two feet in diameter, hung from the center of the ceiling 20 feet above.

Several giant spiders attacked the party, and then a large monstrosity lurched into the room from a side passage.

Giant spiders and a flesh golem

The creature was a flesh golem, and proved to be a formidable foe. It had a low armor class, and thus was easy to hit, but it had a lot of hit points, and could be healed by lightning periodically pulsing out of the metal ball hanging from the ceiling. Before realizing that lightning healed the construct rather than dealing it damage, Arian cast lightning bolt on it (his most powerful spell), rolled very high for the amount of (not!) damage, and was shocked to learn that he had just healed it of most of its damage.

The flesh golem

Once its secret became apparent, the combined might of the melee characters attacking it while the spell casters blew the metal lightning-healing ball apart with magic was enough to win the day.

Investigating the immediate area, a passage was found that broke out of the old tomb passages and entered what were obviously ancient dwarven chambers...

Next - The Tombs of the Alberneth - into the Dwarves Tombs.

GM Commentary - It was probably around the end of this session, having taken a few sessions to get here, and then most of a session to play out a very small part of one small section of the Tombs, that I realized (with certainty) what I had already suspected - that I had prepared way more material for this than we would want to use. It was seeming at this point that we could spend the rest of the campaign down here. Whether the campaign lasted weeks, months or perhaps even years. This wouldn't become obvious to the players, yet.

Not wanting to spend the rest of forever down in this part of the Underdark, some shortcuts and abbreviations would need to be made. Unfortunately, fairly radically truncating this story arc would have its own issues. But that's commentary for a later time...

XP for this session was 1,050 per character. This was a combination of combat, per diems and story goals.

Campaign Journal 31 - Slogging the Deeps 2

The party had fought and escaped from an undead horde at the Boneyard, then camped for the night a mile or so south...

July 20, Saturday [day 7 underground] (cont.) - Boneyard through Worm Bore to Black River.

At one point during the day, while the party is resting, it occurs to Duncan the wizard that one Fireball could hit the whole party.

During the night, Duncan finds that one of his known spells has dropped from his memory and been erased from his spell book, and has been replaced with the 3rd level necromancy spell Animate Dead.

A carrion crawler attacks Arian during the night, but fails to paralyze him, and is easily dispatched when the rest of the party is woken up.

Arian defends the sleeping party

While Arian stood watch, an intense pain throbbed in his left arm. On inspecting it, it was obvious that the small blue scales from his draconic heritage, which had formerly stopped at his elbow, now extended halfway down his forearm. His lower forearm seemed to pulse gently as he watched.

July 21, Sunday [day 8] - Black River through Echo Hall to Scramble.

A roper surprises the group as they pass through a small cavern, and does a lot of damage, but is killed.

A Roper

Malachy's Dream - While he slept that night, Mal had an intense dream.... You are in a stone walled chamber with a starry night outside the opened windows. There are two regal looking elves facing each other. The first elf, a wizened and ancient elf in flowing gray robes speaks first. He is holding out a sword, presenting it to the other elf: "Marlek, my son, take this and use it well against the unholy abominations that plague us. It is the last blade I will ever forge." The other elf, a fierce and majestic looking warrior in ornate elven armor, takes the sword, kneels, bows his head in respect, and speaks: "I pray this is not true, Friliar, father, but I accept your gift, and pray that I prove worthy of it." The warrior elf rises, belts the sword around his waist, and bows deeply. The elder elf bows in response and then moves forward and clasps the younger elf in a brief embrace. He steps back and says "This sword I have named Dralikin. Use it well. It is imbued with the spirit of our ancestors, and its might will match yours. In the darkest of times, call on it, and it will provide that which you require..." The dream fades... You wake with a start, and realize that you have drawn Dralikin partway from its scabbard. The blade glows with a bright blue light, which quickly fades as you watch, and disappears.

Malachy already knew that his sword, Dralikin, was a blade from Elder times, forged by the elf Friliar Stormwarden, of the Onorian city of Fellsar...

July 22, Monday [day 9] - Scramble through Petrified Tail to just short of Spider Haunt.

During a short rest, with the party bickering and sullen, Thalmyr hears a voice in his head that says "Persevere my child. Stay on the path..."

Slogging southward, a mumbling sound is heard ahead. Soon, a group of a dozen or so small figures comes into view, shambling toward the party. The creatures smell horrible, and are covered with sores and festering wounds. They snarl and move to attack.

Screecher demons

As the party's fighters leap to the attack, the little demon creatures begin making a high pitched screeching sound, which intensifies as they are wounded. The group soon realizes that each time one of the creatures is killed with a bladed weapon, it splits into two such creatures, which continue the attack.

Badric on the overpass

After a few close calls, the creatures are dispatched with non-slashing weapons and magic.

Malachy, Thalmyr and the spell casters

The group ends the session about a day's journey short of the location called Waterfall Hole, where they will try to find the concealed entrance leading to the Tombs of the Alberneth.

Niam in the shadows

Next - To the Tombs...

GM Commentary - [Continuing to catch up on writing these a year or so later, so pardon the lack of detail...]. XP for the session was 1,275 per character (including the 100 XP per diem I have begun giving them to prevent needing to play out lots of little insignificant encounters. Plus the very act of surviving in the Underdark.

Campaign Journal 30 - Slogging the Deeps

The party had just killed 5 trolls in a large underground cavern, and stood bloodied and exhausted over the fire-burnt troll remains...

[Notable landmarks and locations are given names in the descriptions below]

July 17, Wednesday [day 4 underground] (cont.) - Following the big battle in the main cavern, the party explores the side passages out of the cavern (in search of treasure, of course). They find a sixth troll further back in the lair, dispatch it, and do find a significant haul of treasure accumulated over many years. The treasure consists of a little over 2,000 GP worth of mixed coinage (different kinds and different minting, some old and unrecognizable), 9 gems of ~100 GP each, 7 arrows that prove to be magical fire arrows (normal damage +1d8 fire damage), and 2 potions (Animal Friendship and Greater Healing).

The group continues south on the difficult passage to Green Cascades, a long narrow cavern with a stream along one side which is fed by a series of waterfalls coming out of the rock wall. The waterfalls are illuminated by phosphorescent green algae disturbed in the stream as the water cascades down into it.

There is some bickering amongst the party as they eat yet another meal of Melior's magically conjured Goodberries.

July 18, Thursday [day 5] - An uneventful day as the party continues south from Green Cascades along an easier passage. They pass through Temple Rock, a smallish cavern with a raised circular area in the center. On this circular area is a 30 foot diameter ring of a dozen or so cracked and fallen stone pillars. They end the day at Monolith, a very high-ceilinged cavern with a single unadorned 50 foot tall carved stone monolith. There are no runes or markings on the monolith, and it doesn't radiate magic, although it is clearly not a natural feature.

The characters are all feeling the stress of their days underground. Melior is continually haunted by nightmares during the night, with visions of the endless rock closing in all around him, and is unable to get a good rest.

July 19, Friday [day 6] - The party leaves Monolith behind and navigates the relatively easy passage to Tight Squeeze. Tight Squeeze lives up to its description in the notes as a brutal crawl, slither, shimmy and squeeze. Fortunately it only lasts a few hundred yards, although the passage beyond continues to be difficult.

During the day, Niam the rogue periodically hears a voice in his head saying "kill them all."

Near the end of the day, they reach the location called Boneyard. This is a long and wide cavern whose great expanse of floor is covered with bones of all shapes and sizes. There is a clear path that winds through the cavern, and as the party makes their way along the path, they can see what they believe to be a altar on an elevated section of the cavern off to their left. As they move, they begin to hear bones rattling, and skeletons of all types and sizes begin rising out of the bones and attacking them. They party hurries forward, hard-pressed, and timely and effective use of Turn Undead by Badric the cleric holds off the growing horde of skeletons long enough for the party to escape the far side of the cavern.

Traversing the Boneyard

A ways down the passage, content that nothing is following them, the group rests for the night. During Arian the sorcerer's watch, excruciating pain runs through his left arm, and sees that the blue scaly skin that is part of his draconic heritage has spread from his upper arm all the way down to his wrist (on that arm only). The fingers of his left hand seem a little longer and more claw-like.

July 20, Saturday [day 7] - Leaving the Boneyard area behind, the party heads along the relatively easy passage toward Worm Bore...

Next - Heading south toward Worm Bore...

GM Commentary - This was a tough recap to reconstruct in January 2017 (as the next couple will be as well). Prep notes, known route of travel, our campaign calendar record and the XP recap for the session gives me confidence that I got it right. More or less. I think... [Player XP for the session was 850 each]

With the characters having been underground for almost a week at this point, I had a lot of fun trying to create a sense of a hint of creeping madness. Voices. Noises. Strange occurrences. The players definitely seemed to be enjoying that aspect of the session, and I got a lot of positive feedback on it. Which is another reason to be vigilant in making sure to not unintentionally turn the game into one big free-form miniatures battle game, and make sure the role-playing part of the game gets proper emphasis.

Laristen's Folly

About 100 years ago, in the early days of resettling the Northlands, a great cleric of Metris (in his aspect of protector of travelers) began building a stronghold in the far southwestern Iron Spire Mountains, overlooking the valley of the River Greve far below.

Laristen's Folly (in Hexographer)

Laristen's aim was to provide a safe haven for others exploring and settling the region. The nearest settlement was the then-tiny village of Wegley.

With the castle only partly complete, an orc horde accompanied by several giants swept down out of the mountains and massacred everyone, with the exception of Laristen himself, and cast down most of what had been built. Laristen, broken in spirit, is said to have disappeared into the far south, never to be heard from again.

Legend has it that his treasure, hidden in, around, or below the castle site, was never recovered. The ruins can easily be found in the foothills northeast of Wegley. The castle ruins are now known as Laristen's Folly...

Tychon's Tower

Located on a craggy hill at the north end of the Trollclaws, just a few miles south of the Road, is the multi-spired tower of the archmage Tychon. Tychon is a venerable half-elven evocation wizard who is rarely seen in public these days, although his retainers frequently visit nearby Nandra to buy food and other supplies.

Tychon's Tower (in Hexographer)

Tychon routinely accepted students (for a high price) in days gone by, but is less likely to welcome intrusions on his semi-retirement in recent years; many would-be students have been turned away.

It is said that his tower is protected by a Sanctuary Mageward (the most powerful kind of mageward in existence following the Weave-Rending). There are also a trio of metal statues flanking the entrance to his tower that are believed to be iron golems.