Far Isles Session # 84 - Goodbye, Land of the Silver Lotus; Coral Cays, Ho!

DRAMATIS PERSONAE:

Wilhelm (Musketeer 2)
Torak (Cleric 6)
Chaff (Vivimancer 6), with familiar Pretty Bird and riding dog Puppy Whuppy
Kwinsea (Aquamancer 6), with familiar Hermes

Whether related to the power of the stone circle or not, Awg felt a sudden urge to begin the annual calmonari molting cycle. He/she begged Chaff for the use of the fly to get back to the sea for a few days to go through the process. The little vivmancer grudgingly let him borrow the magic item, which some time latter returned with Torak in tow. The cleric then joined his comrades in trying to decipher the riddle of the stones. The party pitched a variety of other flora and fauna into the bare patch of dirt; the flora withered and died, while the fauna fled. Chaff then dug around inside the patch, finding a variety of exceedingly old bone fragments. Torak, examining the dark stains on the rock, suddenly whipped out his dagger and sliced open his hand, dripping his blood over the tentacle stone. That provoked a response, as a mist started to rise from the ground, gradually coalescing into the faint image of tentacles. This didn't last, however, and the mirage faded as quickly as it appeared. The cleric tried the same with the circle and dagger stones, with similar tentacled results. Discussing it with his companions, the cleric figured a greater sacrifice was needed to unlock the power of the stones. No one seemed willing the volunteer, so the party decided to camp for the night (some distance away from the stones, of course). 

Next morning, they headed back to the ruined city to explore a few of the other more intact parts of the ruins. They bypassed the main gate with its vine-dangling skeletons, and headed for the curved wall of some decayed arena or amphitheater Chaff had seen in his earlier aerial reconnaissance. The wall looked to be barely standing, liable to fall over at any point. The party kept away from the base, at least until the sharp eyed Kwinsea spied a booted foot sticking out from behind a pile of stones. Approaching cautiously, the party found the remains of a campsite with seven bodies scattered about. They were all horribly mangled, in the advanced stages of decay, and obviously dead for months at least. They were not dressed as natives, and several had the weirdly blue-tinged skin of the abandoned swamp pygmy's prisoner.  Everyone started to root around, finding mainly a variety of rotting and rusted gear. They did luck out with a little treasure, all in unfamiliar coinage. There was also  an oilskin satchel, inside which they found a crude book. It looked to be stitched together from a variety of scraps of paper, pages from other volumes, and so on. By luck Chaff was able to read the writing, it being similar to a language he'd encountered in past days of researching forbidden ancient lore. It was a travel log of sorts, telling of a voyage from some land a week or so to the north. The dead party (presumably) had traveled here in a small sailing boat, but ended up wrecked on the reefs at the eastern edges of the Isles of the Silver Lotus. After a brief time at the village of Barana as guests of King Tiku, they'd heard stories of the lost city and the Forbidden Mountain, and had made their way there to find fame and fortune. At that point the narrative ended. 

Chaff then started flipping through the backs of the pages and found something of greater interest to the party; mention of Empyrius! A half page of text talked of Empyrius (and other 'Adonians') as gods who walked among men, who had taught men the arts and sciences to raise the great realm of the warrior Terocolids. And frustratingly, that was about it. However, the fact that it was written in the same language as the travel journal gave them a hint. Looks like the party was going to be heading north! Kwinsea, referring to her maps,  then noted that that direction and distance would put them to generally the same area as shown on the map taken from Ondry the wereshark. At least they knew one possible danger. 

Before heading out on the high seas again however, the party had a few other stops to make. First, Torak animated a half dozen of the fallen travelers as his new skeletal legion. Then, everyone trudged back to the mausoleum. After a little more fruitless poking about, they tried their nuclear option: summoning the instant fortress to crush the structure. To their surprise, the fortress simply toppled over, causing nary a scratch to the mausoleum. Frustrated with the lack of success, the party rested for the night in the ruin, then headed back to the waterfall and subsequently the "No Man's Sea". The crew of which were not happy to have Torak's new friends on board. It took some convincing, and a promise that the skeletons would take over scrubbing the deck, before the crew grudgingly accepted their new undead mates. Meanwhile, while the crew got the "No Man's Sea' ready to sail, Kwinsea and Torak (as a shark thanks to the shark spear) went searching for more treasure at the base of the waterfall. It was slim pickings, and nearly fatal for Kwinsea. The pair rather easily fought off a ghostly underwater apparition, but Kwinsea ended up disturbing a massive octopus that nearly flayed the skin from her bones. A well timed bite from Torak-shark scared the thing away, and Kwnisea decided she's had enough of diving for trinkets.   

At a council of war, the party decided their best bet going forward in search of Empyrius would be to have a guide. So plans were hatched to return to the swamp pygmy village and rescue Korun the blue-man, under the assumption he hailed from the same place as the ex-adventuring party who were now scrubbing the ship. And their plan was pretty much the same as before; Chaff and the fly would go in while invisible and snatch the captive. Now that they knew the village layout, the vivimancer hoped to avoid attack by dropping straight down on the prison island and getting out before anyone noticed anything. To help, Torak agreed to send his skeletal hoard to attack over land and draw the attention of the swamp pygmies. And the heist went off without a hitch. The skeletons pulled away any potential opposition, Chaff dropped down on the prison island, and Korun was overjoyed to actually be rescued this time as Chaff had promised weeks ago. With all due haste, Chaff, Korun and the fly returned to the "No Man's Sea".

After giving the near-skeletal Korun some time to eat and drink, the party got down to interrogating the agyria-tinged fellow. He confirmed the general story given in the journal. Korun referred to himself (and his companions) as 'Creekmen', which the party interpreted as some sort of buccaneer/maroon. They came from a group of isles known as the Coral Islands or Cays. Once home to the mighty militaristic kingdoms of the Terocolids, the Cays now contained nothing but remnants of empire and scattered warring communities.  The Creekmen were a brotherhood opposed the the Amazon tribes who held most of the power in the Cays. In fact, those Creekmen like Korun who exhibited blue skin  were male offspring of the amphibious Blue Amazons, held as slaves with their gills surgically removed to prevent escape.  There was at least one other Amazon tribe as well, but Korun couldn't provide much information on them. He also noted the Creekmen often served various weresharks as boat crew and hired muscle. He and his fellow travelers had been in the service of one wereshark named Dusek, but had decided to go AWOL on the mercurial creature and take their chances on the rumored new lands that appeared after the mist lifted. When asked about Empyrius and the Adonians, he admitted the names were familiar, but more as legendary figures rather than 'people he knew'. So the party had a better idea of where to search for Empyrius, but weren't yet home free.

With that information in hand, Lynessa raised sail on the "No Man's Sea" and headed to the north-east towards the Coral Cays. Sis days sail brought them within sight of a small island, notable for the huge statue of a man standing on a promontory at the southern end. And further in the distance were signs of more islands to explore ...

TOTAL XP

2700*

GAINS

800gp of exotic coins
100gp worth of various golden grave goods (rings, bangles, chains, etc)
Korun the Creekman

KILLS

1 Sea Wraith

LOSSES
None 

* 2xp/gp house rule in effect

Far Isles Session #83 - Looking for a Way In

DRAMATIS PERSONAE:

Wilhelm (Musketeer 2)
Awg Wahmn (Calmonari 6)
Chaff (Vivimancer 6), with familiar Pretty Bird and riding dog Puppy Whuppy
Kwinsea (Aquamancer 6), with familiar Hermes

First of all, Kwinsea made ues of the stole of the sacred to cast a cure disease on Rodrigo, hoping that would bring the swashbuckler back from the beyond. Although it seemed to clear up the festering rot, it did not bring him back from the dead. So ignoring the dead for the moment, attention now turned to the sealed box recovered from the desk. To decipher the writing on the wax seals, Torak cast a read languages on the box. The strange glyphs referred to "forbidden materials, heretical and blasphemous to the god of the dead". Well, if the god of the dead didn't like, it must be good, right?  Just to be sure, Torak cast augury and learned that opening the box would bring good results. With that, Chaff grabbed the box, sat on the floor resting against Rodrigo's body, and cracked open seals. Inside the vivimancer found a scroll and four small flasks. He unrolled the scroll, but it was full of theological mumbo-jumbo that made no sense to him. He passed it over the Torak, who confirmed that it was a scroll of clerical spells; specifically, restoration, raise dead, and remove curse. The vials, thanks to a casting of kalandrian sight,   proved to be some sort of healing magic. Potions of healing, as Awg learned when he quaffed one to deal with some remaining hurt from the previous day.

Awg's New Friends

After some discussion, the party decided to bring Rodrigo back from the grave, and then shuffle him and the treasures recovered thus far back to the "No Man's Sea" via the ebony fly. The party then used the fly to transship everyone back up to the top of the plateau to investigate the ruined city. This included the musketeer sergeant Wilhelm, who was enticed with a promise of a pay bonus and a crate of mustache wax, to come ashore and provide some muscle in place of the recovering Rodrigo. Meanwhile, the aquatic duo Kwinsea and Awg headed into the sea at the base of the falls, figuring there might be treasure there from a millennia of jewelry decorated dead. After much searching, they did recover some scattered gold; but also attracted the attention of a shiver of mako sharks. Kwinsea immediately headed for the fly, which Chaff had left hovering just overhead. Once there, she started to throw things in the water and shout to distract the sharks from Awg, who figured he/she could make it to a nearby rock and escape. She did draw away three of the creatures, but the other two chased the calmonari. Awg suffered a few massive bites before he was able to scramble up the slippery rock. From there the calmonari used  his/her sword to levitate  up to the plateau, pulled over to land thanks to a tow rope from the fly.  

Flying Guardian

Scouting ahead on the fly, Chaff buzzed along the edge of the ruins the party had spotted on their previous foray to the plateau. The ruins were roughly circular and about a half mile across. And ruined they were; there was little left standing except an occasional wall or pile of stones covered in vines and jungle growth. Except near the centre, where an immaculate dome-topped mausoleum lay. It had stood the test of time without a crack or blemish, and no vegetation covered it's walls. The mausoleum was most easily approached via  a large ruined plaza and pillared processional way. Chaff flew back and reported his findings, and the party hacked and slashed their way through the thick growth, headed for the building. They reached the ruins without incident, made their wall through gaps in the ruined city wall (the main city gate being on the opposite side). They threaded through the tumbled stone of the city to the plaza, and then started up the processional way.  Several pillars had fallen, but most still stood erect. And then they noticed atop one of the 30' high columns was a crouching figure. From this distance it looked like one of the faceless demons on the pillars in the cultist caves. This one, however, seemed alive! As the party got closer to the mausoleum, it lept off the pillar and spread wings, aiming towards the party. While Wilhelm braced his musket to line up a shot, Chaff and Kwinsea cast defensive magics, and Awg made a run for the mausoleum door. That attracted the attention of the flying guardian, which pivoted in mid flight and dropped on the calmonari in a flurry of claws and horns.  Awg suffered more grievous wounds before he and the party managed to defeat the monstrosity thanks to Chaff dropping a web on it (and incidentally, Wilhelm too). 

After cutting Wilhelm free, the party continued on to the mausoleum. It was a relatively plain, square building with a dome and low parapet on the top. The door was a solid stone slab with no apparent handle or keyhole. There were no distinguishing features apart from the eerily excellent condition. And a set of small holes above the door lintel, each about an inch across. Just about the size of a gem to be exact. To get the door open, the party tried inserting a variety of gems they had on hand, in various combinations of color and order. But nothing happened. Awg then tried the simple expedient of pushing on the door; it didn't budge. Wilhelm impatiently walked up to the door and shoved the blade of his pole-arm in between the door and frame to try prying it open. That finally got a response, but not the one they'd hoped. A prismatic wall suddenly appeared as Wilhelm stumbled back from the door. It enclosed the entire structure, and after a bit of experimentation with a thrown stone, seemed to block all access to the mausoleum. It remained for 10-15 minutes and then disappeared as suddenly as it came. 

Stymied by the door, the party decided to look elsewhere for a way into the building. Heading east, they came across a large well in the centre of another ruined plaza. It was overgrown with vines, but when the opening was cleared and the party peered inside, no water could be seen. Dropping a stone down the well indicated if there was water, it was way below. So Chaff hopped on the fly and volunteered to buzz down the wide well to see where it went.  The well opened into a cavern, at the narrow bottom of which was a rushing river. After about 50' it disappeared beneath a solid rock wall. Following it upstream led into a very familiar place; the wide cavern that opened onto the jungle from the death cult caves. Chaff flew back up to the party, and they decided to head back down into the caves. Perhaps they missed a secret door or other way up into the mausoleum from below? It was getting late, so the party bedded down in the high priests study again to rest for the night. Before they did that, Awg wanted to learn more about the things hanging from the large entrance cavern ceiling. As full darkness fell outside, he noted the things start to leave the ceiling and fly out of the entrance. They were some sort of monstrous bat creature. Several of them located the calmonari, and swooped down to attack. Awg received one bite, then fled deeper into the caves and back to the high priests' chamber with the rest of the crew. 

After a good nights sleep, the party awoke to search around some more. They focused their attention on the smooth wall in the adjacent chamber with the hologram-like image. They examined the pictured scene closely, figuring it might give them a clue as to how the bodies came down to the caverns from the city above. It looked like they were carried down the jungle trail that entered the cavern with the bat-creatures.  So much for a secret body-transfer path. They also poked and prodded at the image itself, hoping it was itself a secret or magical passage. But to no avail. Getting frustrated, the next course of action was the explore that jungle trail. The party followed it as it slowly descended the mountainside, passing another much fainter path on the right before coming to a stone archway across the trail. Ever paranoid, Kwinsea approached cautiously to examine it for traps. As she got closer though, the aquamancer noticed the archway was filled with near-invisible webs. And lurking in the shadows at the top she also observed a large spider. Not willing to take any chances, she quaffed a vial of anti-poison and then blasted the eight-legged monster into a smoking ruin with a lightning bolt. 

Standing Stone

Passing through the arch, they soon came to another branch in the trail. One led to the right, and following it for a while seemed to indicate it was headed south towards the village of  Barana. Backtracking, they headed up the other triail, and after a few hours slog found themselves back on the  top of the Forbidden Mountain, this time facing the cities' ruined gatehouse. Well, that left the faint side-trail. Backtracking again, they found this last trail led somewhere different. It opened into a small clearing, in the centre of which stood 3 tall, rust-red standing stones. Each stone had a symbol carved in it at about eye height; one was a dagger, the other a round circle, and the third a tentacle. Oddly enough, given the verdant planet-life everywhere else, nothing grew inside the triangle bounded by the stones. They also noted the complete lack of any jungle sounds; all the skittering, chirping and buzzing had stopped. Chaff plucked a branch off a nearby tree, and tossed it inside the stones. Nothing happened for a minute or two, but the leaves then started to wither and decay until very soon nothing was left by a dry brown husk. Awg cautiously inserted his/her hand over the 'dead zone', getting a weird feeling but otherwise not harmed. The calmonari then boldly stepped inside the stones. Once more there was that weird other worldly feeling, and he/she noted his companions had a slighly out of focus look to them. But otherwise there was no apparent effect. Chaff then stepped inside the circle to examine the inside face of the stones. They proved to be carved with the same symbols as the outside. Curious ... 

TOTAL XP

1380*

GAINS

200gp worth of various golden grave goods (rings, bangles, chains, etc)
Clerical Scroll - Raise Dead, Remove Curse, Restoration 
Potion of Healing x4

KILLS

1 Winged Guardian
1 Black Widow Spider

LOSSES
None 

* 2xp/gp house rule in effect

Far Isles Session #82 - Rot and Ruin

DRAMATIS PERSONAE:

Rodrigo (Swashbuckler 6)
Awg Wahmn (Calmonari 6)
Torak (Cleric 6)
Chaff (Vivimancer 6), with familiar Pretty Bird and riding dog Puppy Whuppy
Kwinsea (Aquamancer 6), with familiar Hermes

After first searching once more (with no avail)  through the room guarded by the skeletal snake-thing, the party turned about and headed north through the only unexplored passage. Rodrigo, walking point, took the ring of invisibility from Torak and scouted ahead. He found the winding passage entered a large cavern. The space had been partly worked, with one smooth wall off to the side and a series of pillars running down the centre. Squatting atop the pillars were some sort of humanoid shapes, but Rodrigo could not see details. On the far side of those pillars, lit by the faint glow of a pair of braziers, was a table surrounded by a dozen hooded figures. They all stood facing the table, generally motionless. Rodrigo could not see what if anything was on the table, so he retreated back to the party and passed the ring to Awg. The calmonari then headed for the cavern, levitated, and hand-walked the ceiling over to the table. The figures on the pillars proved to be faceless, twisted, and demonic looking. But they did not interfere with Awg as he passed. As for the table, there was nothing of note, but there were a couple of baskets full of gold jewelry sitting on the floor behind the table. He/she returned to the party with that information, and was then sent back to act as bait. Everyone was pretty sure these were some sort of undead, so the plan was to lure them into the narrow passage where a combination of magic and tight melee quarters could take them down with a minimum of risk. Awg took off the ring and headed back to the room, making enough noise to attract the attention of the robed figures. They all turned and started towards the calmonari, but  not before several reached into the baskets to scoop up some jewelry.  The jewelry bearers walked forward, holding out the treasure as if in offering or something. Awg didn't stick around to find out what was going on, but retreated to join Rodrigo to block the tunnel in front of the magic-slingers. Kwinsea fired off a lighting bolt which took out about half of the undead, while Torak and Chaff added their defensive spell support. That left Rodrigo and Awg to slash away. Oddly enough, the jewelry bearing creatures didn't make any moves to attack, but instead tried to clasp chains and bangles on the two. Their touch alone, however, was deadly and both the melee fighters found themselves cursed with some sort of scabrous rotting disease before they manged to finished off all the attackers.

Torak took a sniff and declared both Rodrigo and Awg were badly infected but not infectious; but alas there was nothing he could do right now to help.  So the party pushed forward into the now deserted chamber to look and loot. Awg went over to grab the jewelry baskets, while Torak cast detect magic to see if anything in the room was of interest or concern. The cleric found neither,  and joined the rest of the party who were staring at an image seemingly in 3D and behind that smoothly polished wall. It showed  robed priests preparing the dead for funeral rights, decorating the bodies with jewelry, and then carrying them down the stairs and casting them into the river. Well that probably explained what was going on earlier.

Having finished with this room, the party moved on and out a passage in the eastern wall. It lead to a long tunnel with a set of descending stairs, which gradually curved towards the south. Rodrigo once more scouted forward invisibly, and found that the stair ended in a small chamber, out of which a second passage continued east. Facing the east passage was another of the robed figures. Once more the swashbuckler retreated, and once more another party member was sent ahead to deal with the room. This time it was Chaff, who shuffled down the stairs with his wheel-lock at the ready. Alas his shot went wild, and the little vivimancer scuttled back up the stairs as the figure turned to face him. There was no pursuit, so once more the whole party surged forward to deal with the obstacle.  As the party entered the room, the figure raised it's hands and motioned for them to go back. It also started nattering in some weird language, which the party interpreted as 'go back'. In fact, the creature reached out, grabbed Awg by the shoulder, and tried to turn him back into the passage,  causing a second outbreak of the skin rotting disease on the calmonari.  No one was going anywhere though, and Kwinsea, Rodrigo and Torak dog-piled the thing and soon had it chopped to pieces.

The party then pushed on through the eastern passage, emerging into a large cavern, well lit as it opened onto sunlight. There was a small pond; into it flowed one river, while two rivers flowed out. One of those rivers was the one the party had been following since leaving the waterfall. The pool could be crossed by stepping stones, leading beneath an overhung ledge that looked down onto the hills and jungle below. A trail led down into the jungle, and based on their height above the tree-tops, the party estimated they were only a few hundred feet below the top of the Forbidden Mountain.

But they didn't head into the daylight just yet, instead backtracking to check out one exit they'd bypassed in the pillared room. This led to another chamber, this one furnished as an office or study. Seated at the desk was another robed figure, which rose and advanced with seemingly hostile intent right away. Torak tried to turn the foul abomination, but the figure laughed off the power of the Drowned God. It reached out and struck Kwinsea, who immediately felt the grip of the rotting disease. Which made her mad, and the aquamancer surged forward to stab repeatedly at the thing with her trident. She was joined by the rest of the party, and the creature soon fell to their blades. Chaff plucked a snake-skull headed ebony staff from the remains, while the rest of the party fanned out to search the room. There was little of interest except for the desk. And of the desk, it was the locked drawer that stood out. The party went back to riffle  the body on the floor for a key, which they were able to find. It fit the lock, and with two clicks, the drawer popped open.  Inside was an ebony box, sealed shut with crimson wax inscribed with indecipherable writing. Awg picked it up and shook it, noting there was nothing that sounded like gems rattling around inside. It was actually quite light, indicating the box was empty, or at best contained paper or belly button lint. 

No one felt like taking a chance and opening it right away. With three infected (and increasing putrid) party members, they decided to bed down in this chamber for the night so Torak could call on Brall in the morning to cure at least two of his companions. Alas, in the morning there were only two to treat, as Rodrigo had succumbed to the infection in his sleep.

TOTAL XP
3685*

GAINS

1200gp worth of various golden grave goods (rings, bangles, chains, etc)
Skull staff

KILLS

13 Undead Cultists (Huecuva)
1 Undead Cultist High-priest

LOSSES
Rodrigo 

* 2xp/gp house rule in effect