Luther Lightblade |
"Well, we need this for tonight."
Luther looks at the exhausted group. "When Dezco has made sure the area is safe, we will set watches and rest here. Then we can resume our foray into the Spire. Unless you think we should wait here for everyone to return from the raid?"
Our shifts typically keep Dez, Dru and Symon on separate watches for nightvision. Let's do Symon then Dez + Luther then Dru + Conner this time.
GM Zed |
Looking around the camp in the cold morning light, you don’t discover any new items however you do note that there are two distinct trails from the clearing – one to the south (which is in the approximate direction of Fort Inevitable) and one to the west (which, if it continues directly westwards, would lead to the perimeter of the Echo Wood near the Sellen River).
Conner Kordson |
Resting the first two watches, Conner studies his spell book and cleans his gear on the final one that he shares with Dru.
"gotta figure out how to use my abilities better. Ain't been with much these last couple o fights...."
GM Zed |
Leaving the prisoner secured, you find yourselves at the Splinter's hideout in no time... Rather than patrolling through it, and confident that it lies silent and empty, you use the handle in the guardpost to raise the bars that previously prevented you gaining access to the Spire crystal - and the stairs that lead ever downwards...
Moving past another Azlanti symbol etched into the crystal... Similar in it's elegance to the others that you have previously seen marked on the emerald - and the one that you have a scroll of - you take a copy of it and descend...
Down... Down... Down...
After a hundred feet or so of descent, you start to notice an acrid, nauseating reek filling the air - a musky reptilian stench. Whilst it isn't yet overpowering, the party continues into the depths - and rounding the final spiral, arrive in a small chamber of smooth, hewn stone lit by a greenish light emanating from two strange, torchlike devices attached to the wall. A metal door with a simple latch mechanism glows with a dim green light in the middle of the northern wall. The walls and the ceiling are decorated in symbols and pictures painted in bright colours - the images are abstract but somehow, also alien and disturbing...
Standing next to the door, dressed in a red leather waistcoat and leaning on a gnarled wooden walking stick stands a small humanoid creature - it's hide, a dull gray. Its frame resembles that of a cave lizard, with a long tail and crests on its head and back.
The creature bows as you turn the corner and, in a voice rich with sibilants, announces, "We welcome you to Godhome. You wish to make sacrifice now, or visit? Take holy grub maybe?". Dark black eyes blink at you whilst the creature's tongue flicks the air...
GM Zed |
"You wish to visit then...Follow me..."
Running a clawed hand across the surface of the elaborate doors, your erstwhile guide whispers beneath his breath - fractions of a second later, the bars that hold the doors in a closed position retract with a metallic 'thunk' whilst the doors themselves retract into the wall...
...and then the smell, which was already bad, becomes overpowering - a mixture of ammonia, decay and sulphur hangs heavy in the air...
Everyone needs to make a Fortitude DC13 Save or be sickened
The trogolodyte turns and cheerfully beckons you in, "Come... Come... Let me show you the wonder of Thagh"
Drusellia Malacore |
Fortitude save: 1d20 + 0 ⇒ (17) + 0 = 17
Drusellia chokes back tears, feeling the bile rising in her throat. She swallows hard, forcing it back down, and follows the lizard-being inside.
Luther Lightblade |
Luther looks at Symon and Dez and takes two fingers and touches them to his eyes and points to the doors. He then dry heaves and covers his nose.
Sickened
Fort: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (6) + 5 = 11
Symon |
Fort: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (12) + 2 = 14
"Uuugh!! And I thought Dezco's socks smelled bad!", the young Fetchling says, a smile aimed towards the dwarf to show the comment was just friendly banter.
"Luther, are you ok? Here, take a bit of water to clear your mouth!"
Symon offers the Aasimar his waterskin.
Conner Kordson |
fort: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (19) + 5 = 24
"Oh gods! What a stench!"
Promptly taking an oil soaked rag used to care for his swords out of his pack, he ties it around his nose. Eyes watering he follows the group onward.
GM Zed |
Managing to keep the contents of your stomachs from reappearing, you follow the troglodyte into the small vestibule beyond the door... Two light-sticks are mounted on the walls of this chamber, and every surface is adorned with crudely rendered paintings. Passages lead north and east (a green glow from the east suggests that is where the spire pierces this level. A short corridor in the north wall leads to a larger room - this is the way that you are led...
"Follow me... only come this way, yes?"
The room that you are led into contains a large stone vat in the middle of the eastern wall. It seems to be filled with a pasty, pink substance. Just north of the tub, a tall door made of lustrous, coppery metal leads east, and passages exit the chamber to the north and south. Three torchlike devices in the wall glow with a soft green light, as does the metal door.
"Is the holy grub...maybe you would like some now...it will make you strong - mighty warriors yes?"
Your presence is noted, although not reacted to, by two troglodytes touching up the paintings on the northern wall of this room.
GM Zed |
At the suggestion that Luther will take some ‘Holy Grub’ for later, your guide smiles, ”Take it…take enough for all of you…have a care though, it stays fresh for one cycle of the moon and must then be not food”
The troglodyte then, at Luther’s question about who else is here, informs you, ”It is only the Children of Thagh here… Skraa-orm keeps us safe from the ‘Down Below’… We do not need to go to the ‘Down Below’ – it is full of dangers”. It shivers, ”The men of metal are down there…they would kill the tribe and destroy our brood – if it were not for the power of our God…I know not of your men who were not living and then were living again – maybe it is a human God breathing new life into empty bodies?”
GM Zed |
Moving you along
"Come, come...we have fresh water, you would like that, yes?"
Moving through the northern door of the room and turning east, you are guided past a room to the north. Littered with trash, including scraps of armour, ruined clothing and odd lengths of rope - the room is daubed with paintings composed with a particularly irridescent blue. Gathered around the embers of a fire, two troglodytes are sat - both slicing strips of leather armour into long thongs... They barely register you as your guide are hurries you past.
Before you turn to the south, you pass through a room containing a large copper bell - a door, identical in construction to the others that you have seen in the lair, bars access to the north. "The exit is that way... That is the way that good people leave... Once they make their sacrifice to the God in the Box, yes?"
In the room that you are led into, the troglodyte makes a great show of the tub of water...
"We have fresh water here... Fresh water and Holy Grub to make us strong... Skraa-orm is a powerful god, you see?"
Three other troglodytes are in this room - babbling incoherently as their fingers trace the patterns daubed across the walls of the room...
A door stands in the western wall of this room, "It is this way to Skraa-orm, my good people... Do you wish to make sacrifice now or go back to 'Up Above' Yes?"
Drusellia Malacore |
Dru takes 5 gp from her pouch and offers it to the troglodyte. "Will this suffice for all of us?"
GM Zed |
"Not Human, only the God in the Box can decide whether your offering is suffice...but, if you please Skraa-orm thagh, he will let you pass through to the chambers below. That is what you want yes? All good peoples have wanted to see those chambers... Maybe they go to fight the people who were alive then dead then alive?"
Seeing Drusellia's gold coins, the troglodyte shakes his head sadly, "Mighty Skraa-orm wants only the iron metal...your gold will not please him"
Luther Lightblade |
Luther looks through his items, and finds his dagger. He shrugs and throws it in the box, making a note to replace it later.
Edit
Luther nodded: "We would like to see this box."
GM Zed |
”You are ready then, yes?”, the troglodyte runs his hands over the door to the west. There is a low frequency humming noise and then the door retracts into the wall. A greenish-white light, brighter than anywhere else within the dimly lit lair, emanates from the open doorway.
”Behold, the majesty of the God in the Box”, the troglodyte – noticeably speaking in a hushed tone – guides Luther into the room… As everyone else follows, they are presented with a bizarre sight. A hexagonal, metallic structure about ten feet wide and almost twenty-five feet tall looms in the centre of this high-ceilinged room – the green-tinged light coming from across the vertical surfaces. All kinds of adventuring gear and armaments are stuck to it’s silvery sides – including dozens of weapons, shields and pieces of armour as well as lanterns, belt buckles and tools.
To the north and the south of the object stand two large stone statues, each depicting a troglodyte with it’s arms upraised in adulation. Copper coloured doors lead from the north, the south, the west and the east of this room.
The troglodytes who were in the ‘Chamber of Water’ each peer through the door…chattering excitedly.
GM Zed |
"You are not ready to make a sacrifice? Very well...Skraa-orm is endlessly patient and is forever. If you do not wish to make a sacrifice now then you may always come back again one day", with a tinge of regret in his voice, the troglodyte ushers you from the room.
Luther - as you moved slightly closer to the hexagonal tower, you did feel an increased pull...
Drusellia Malacore |
Perception (1st instance): 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (19) + 2 = 21
Perception (2nd instance): 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (3) + 2 = 5
Drusellia notes the magnetic effect with mild interest, but has nothing that she is willing to sacrifice and merely shrugs.
Conner Kordson |
perception: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (19) + 3 = 22
perception: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (15) + 3 = 18
Feeling the strange pull on his numerous ferrous objects, Conner is disinclined to approach further.
Noting interesting pieces about the object he files them away for later.
read the spoilers, Conner will relate what he noticed as soon as he can without upsetting their guide.
" Yeah... No sacrifices today..."
GM Zed |
Reassuring you that you can always come back to make your offerings to Skraa-orm another time, the troglodyte escorts you back to the stairs that lead up to the Splinter's hideout... Closing the door behind him, he takes up his position next to the entrance to the lair - unblinking eyes watching you with mild curiosity.
What are you up to now?
Luther Lightblade |
Luther asks their guide.
"We wish to visit the chambers below and trust you to make an offer on our bahalf. Is there not a way below that leads around the temple? We do not want to make trouble, but we have urgent business below!!"
diplomacy: 1d20 + 9 + 2 ⇒ (12) + 9 + 2 = 23
Luther casts a small orison to increase his persuasion.
GM Zed |
"I am sorry - You must make the offering...I can take you back to the God in the Box but it is you that must pay tribute to the mighty Skraa-orm", looking sad for a moment, "There is only one way to the 'Down Below' daydweller...make your sacrifice and the door shall be opened for you...it is not for us to be concerned with your 'urgent business' - only for us is worship"
Luther Lightblade |
Luther asks the troglodyte:
"How does the way below open? When Skraa-orm is pleased? Does the attraction for metal continue after Skraa-orm is pleased? We would like to learn your ways so we can make all of us and Skraa-orm happy."
Is there no other way below? If this is the 'only way', we may have to shuck armor and hope for the best.
GM Zed |
”Skraa-orm will open the door beyond the bell…that I showed to you, yes? I will take you there after you have made your sacrifice… Skraa-orm shows his acceptance of your gift by opening the door – we will be able to hear it… and I will take you there… like I said, yes? Our god’s power for holding the metal is perpetual… it does not stop… ever… Skraa-orm Thagh is all powerful”
This is the only current route through to the lower levels.
Symon |
I am still willing to make a "sacrifice" of one of my old daggers...do we each need to make a 'donation' or just one of us?"
Symon looks over to their host and asks, "Do we each have to sacrifice an item to the God in the Box, or will one item do?"