Session017

Session Seventeen - 26th January 2024

SHORT VERSION

The PCs cr

LONG VERSION

- Link to audio file -  (Sadly the battery ran out half way when we were only half-an-hour into the session :-(  )

As the party neared the end of their long rest, a second attempt to pick the locks disturbed them. Quietly gathering themselves to prepare an ambush for whoever managed to unpick the door, Mogadon overheard two voices talking quietly in the corridor outside. The first a deep gravelly voice - bringing to mind the image of the half-ogre, the other a more normal, if somewhat whiney.

1st: "...that damn Shortcloak woman! I ought to kill the bitch with my bare hands! Show her who needs to be the leader of the Black Skulls around here!" 2nd: "What about, you know, the bloody golem?" 1st: "Yeah, need to stop her controlling it! Somehow get that bloody gauntlet off her first." 2nd: "But Bazig, that's way too hard! We need a plan!... Maybe that dwarf and the other three that escaped? We could track them down and persuade them to help?" 1st: "Pah! I can't see them working with us to overthrow Shortcloak. They killed Mcgonna, Shalk and Hamma! Not to mention the other patrol that they probably killed! There's only ... that's left!" 2nd: "Yeah, and that includes Therath Shortcloak and her three cronies!" 1st: "Oh shut up Thorn! Are you going to get that door open or what?" ... 1st: "Oh I'm going back down..."

After the noise of lock picking Deciding they were rested enough, Morthos unlocked the door and the group crept out into the corridor, revealing the faint pre-dawn light seeping down through the hole in the top of the Ziggurat. After a few moments, a figure appeared from the doorway to the room where they had fought the animated armour, holding his hands up in a gesture of surrender. "Er...I think we might have all got off on the wrong foot..." he said quietly. Speaking with the weasely looking fellow for a few minutes, it became clear that this was the second voice they had heard through the door and he confirmed him name as Thorn. - and went on to persuade the party to help him, Bazig and two others overthrow Therath Shortcloak, the current leader of the Black Skulls. Through the conversation, they discover that Therath Shortcloak, despite not speaking dwarven, can control the golem due to a gauntlet she wears. She was put in charge of them by the necromancer Ralekai Gravemore. Bazig, Thorn and their other two companions want to go their own way, and need to overthrow Therath so they can a) get their share of the loot/supplies she controls, and b) start a new life elsewhere. Oh, and there were prisoners downstairs as well that were waiting for taking to the Storm Elf Barrows - where Ralekai was doing his plague cure research.

With a tacit agreement to help, and having drawn a rough map of where Therath's room was, Thorn descended the stairs and quietly gathered Bazig and the other two that they trusted. Creeping past the prisoners - a tatty group of ten people huddled at the back of an alcove with no visible barrier to prevent them from escaping them, Bazig jerked aside the curtain to Therath's room, revealing Therath and the wizard in discussion, with the golem looming in the corner of the room. A combat breaks out. Crossbow bolts fly, Therath uses her gauntlet to command the golem to attack and the wizard casts silence in the corridor. Bazig and the golem clash, both striking each other hard and Bazig pushes into the room. More crossbows are fired, Cormir's causing fiery shackles to appear on the wizard, causing the man to die in flames, the silence spell dropping. The tide of battle is changed, and in short order, Drex casts a cloud of daggers on top of Therath and the woman succumbs to its blades. Mogadon again tries to get the golem to stand down, but even as the heavily wounded Bazig steps back, the golem sends out a blast of force, almost knocking everyone from their feet and killing outright one of Bazig's sidekicks. Mogadon, scrabbling between the golem's feet, manages to prize the gauntlet off Therath's hand, and shoves it on, yelling at the golem to stand down - which it finally does.

As the group recover, Thorn reappeared with two other bandits, having persuaded them that they were too late to stop the coup, and that if they knew what was good for them, they should just accept Bazig as their new leader.

The group loot the room, opening the two large chests at the back of the room with the aid of keys found on Therath's body. Inside one they find 3 potions of healing, 5 magical short bow arrows, a silver dagger, a pearl, a gold wedding ring, a sapphire necklace and a tourmaline ring, along with a 1200cp, 600sp and 206gp. Morthos keeps the arrows, the silver dagger, two of the potions and the pearl, giving one potion to Drex. Each of the party take 20gp, leaving the bandits to divide up the copper and silver pieces between themselves. The bandits also take the jewellery.

Loot gained: Gauntlet 20gp each

The second chest if filled with both rations and a couple of large tents. The bandits take 50 rations between them, and the prisoners are given another 10 since they were obviously hungry. Morthos painfully discovered that the reason the prisoners hadn't already tried to escape was because there was an invisible cage of lightning blocking the end of the alcove. One of the bandits chuckles and confirms that only the wearer of Therath's gauntlet can disable the lighting.

The bandits get ready to leave, Bazig leaving the following instructions on how to find the Storm Elf Barrows - since he has been there a couple of times to deliver prisoners for Ralekai's plague-cure-experiments.

"Start at the base of the ziggurat, facing west. Hike westward for about 3 hours, covering roughly 10 miles. At the rocky outcrops, change direction slightly southwest and hike for another 1.5 hours, about 5 miles. Reach a small stream, cross it, and ascend the slope to the south for about an hour, covering approximately 2 miles. Once atop the slope, descend towards the rocky outcrop for about 30 minutes. Look for the narrow opening to the caves on your left.

That should get you there. If you get lost, well, tough luck! Oh, and when you get there, yell "Gravdah" into the cave, so you don't get attacked by his undead minions."

One of the prisoners, a young woman that the PCs suspect might be Allia Thernius, Bjalien Viadias's missing niece, had unfortunately had her tongue cut out - probably for being too snarky with the bandits. She is one of the few prisoners to still have some backbone, the rest being quite beaten down still.

Given the need to head off to deal with Ralekai Gravemore, the party gave the prisoners a choice - make their own way to Tomar's Crossing, or wait for them to return. Despite picking up some of the spare armour and weapons from the deceased bandits, the prisoners choose to wait for them.

Heading upstairs and now armed with the gauntlet, Mogadon opened the door with the handprint on it, revealing a small square chamber where the walls have been carved intricately by hand to depict a powerful demon atop a tall rock, slaying thousands of dwarf warriors who are attempting to besiege it. The fiend is depicted as having massive curling horns around its three mouthed-six eyed head. the lower half of its body is that of a scorpion and its entire body is covered in sores.

In the centre of the chamber rests a large stone chest bearing the same stubby handprint. Slumped half over the chest is a strange dwarf-sized skeleton adorned in once fine priest's robes. It could have once been a dwarf, but the skeleton is twisted and malformed. Small horns grow from the head, the spine is curved, the jaw nowhere close to being aligned and long claws grow from the skeleton's hands. Recognising it from Faerie the Wise's description - this is the final result of the Demonplague.

Mogadon attempts to open the chest, but is blasted by a trap spell. Morthos looks at it again, and guesses that perhaps a ring needs to be worn. The dead skeletal priest is sure enough wearing a ring on his finger, so Mogadon tries that and this time, the trap is disabled and the chest clicks open revealing more loot.

• a magical longsword (emitting faint aura of evocation magic with traces of conjuration).
• a scroll bound with ribbon (a faint aura of Abjuration magic, with traces of Transmutation).
• a potion flask sitting on a small cushion (emitting a faint aura of Abjuration magic, with traces of Transmutation).
• a small pouch, which when picked up seems to be containing a powder or dust of some kind. (emitting a faint aura of conjuration magic with traces of divination).
• a stout solid wand carved from enchanted granite. It bears intricate etchings depicting scenes of dwarven warriors battling against monstrous foes. When held it feels cool to the touch and pulses with faint, rhythmic energy (emitting faint aura of Evocation magic, with traces of Abjuration).

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