Chronicles of Arcania: B/X Homebrew game.

Game Master Peet

Zynazyr nods, disappointed that he doesn't have a spell to trade. "It is good to know I have someone available to teach me new spells. Unfortunately I don't think we have much to give you for payment. What would your fee be?"

"What would your fee be?"

"Oh, a trifling amount. Do your people use gold coins for currency? Then shall we say... 250 gold coins? Or something of equivalent value. I will also need a day's notice, so I can prepare the spell to be taught."

This amount is 5-10 times what you might expect to pay back in "civilization."

Walia says, "Delightful, I think we have an accord. We will see you later and I must add, I wish you luck good sir and May the gods show you favor."

Zynazyr: Do you have anything else to ask? I will move on around midnight tonight if I don't hear otherwise from you.

I'm done

9:30 AM, Day 4

TIER 3 MAP updated.

The party makes their farewells and returns via the corridor they came by.

"If you want to go that way, make sure you get out of the way when the wall re-sets to its original position."

Once the party files out, there is a click! and the wall with the statue slowly advances back to its original spot. It moves slowly and is easy to avoid.

The party advances to the door at the end of the diagonal corridor. Like the other narrow passages you have seen this one has only a 7' vaulted ceiling and the heavy stones give a claustrophobic feeling.

The party does a quick survey for traps and finds none. The door is clearly locked and will not budge.

The button is pressed. As before when you came down here with Orocrinos, there is a heavy grinding sound that vibrates through the floor and walls, and some of you think you can hear the sound of water flowing through pipes.

The noise stops with a "thud," and then all is quiet. Nobody can hear any sound on the other side of the door. The door is now unlocked and slides to the left into a slot in the wall. The party opens it.

Beyond the door is revealed another 10' wide hallway. It is as you remember when you came here with Orocrinos, only it is now pointing in a different direction. It stretches north-east for 40' and then ends in another door much like the one you just went through. Unlike the other passages you have gone through, this one is walled with brick, and the barrel vaulted ceiling is only about 10 feet up at its peak.

Beside the door just inside are a series of buttons on the wall, each marked with a strange glyph. Orocrinos had mentioned that they would transport you to another dimension. A similar set of buttons is at the other end. The glyphs are in no language that anyone recognizes.

PICTURE
Note: the numbers shown in the illustration are for reference so you can tell me which number you wish to press, if any.

So: What now?
* Try the door at the other end?
* Try one of the buttons? (If so, which one?)
* Return to the main hallway to the south?
* Something else?

Walia completely new to these contraptions, shakes his head and says, "Shall we depress a button or move forward?"

I think before we press any further now that we are alone we should have a frank discussion what we want to do with the Magi's stolen goods. Who is for keeping them and who is for returning them?
Ferrous looks around at the group thoughtfully for a second trying to read each one's thoughts. For meself I am for returning SOME of it after all the goblin raiders consumed much of the meals and wine. I believe we even have a goblin captive from the group which stole it and his head should be enough to satisfy the Magi.

Walia scratches his head and says, "The goods were stolen by the goblins, us, or a combination of both. If it was taken off of dead or captured goblins, then we can return some of it if we want or we can keep it. However, if we ganked it then we could give them back it and blame the goblins. What a quandary. I must pray on it."

I am for returning all that remains of the Magi's supplies. I also think we should admit guilt and ask forgiveness.
If they speak the truth about the other groups, they are the ones we would most be able to work with. The Brotherhood is likely to attack us on sight unless Wallia or I can pin the blame on Fineos and Montague. And even then they might insist on some punishment. The Warrior Maidens might accept Ana, but the rest of us? The Church of Zargon, if the Magi speak true, must be defeated.
I see no reason to damage relations with the group that could best help us. If you fear their wrath, I will personally return the supplies and apologize.
As to the goblin, I think we should let him overhear us discussing how Zargon is now demanding goblin meat. Then we let him escape. We can bolster this deception by finding some Priest robes and attacking goblins. I don't think we can wipe out the Priests and the goblins by ourselves, but we could try to pit them against each other.
I would like to speak to either the Brotherhood or the Maidens to confirm what we have heard about Zargon and its priests, rather than just taking the Magi's word.

Sowing seeds of discord MIGHT be a better use for Smelldox but without the added bonus of a dead goblin. Brathas you are for returning the stolen merchandise, what's left of it anyway, and admitting guilt. Not sure how that will play out. Do you have much experience with stealing something and then returning half of it and saying sorry our fault? And this improving your relationship with said party? Ferrous shakes his head in disbelief. Wallia it seems you are slow to piece it together. Those barrels of preserved food that WE all brought back to camp. Turns out they were the Magi's barrels.

They have magic. They will find out the truth sooner or later. I believe they already know and are seeing how we choose to act.

Yer probably right. But we may just be stretching our necks for the axeman. If we decide to return the goods as a group I won't let you face them alone. Ferrous straightens his back as his mind is made up to not protest the return of the goods any longer. Now should we go and get the supplies or explore a bit more before we head up there and take all the food the people back at camp are depending on.

"Would they be willing to share with us if we returned their supplies?" Ana asks aloud. "While I don't relish the thought of giving up our find, it may behoove us to have these magi as allies. No matter which faction we join, we are likely to face retribution from those we spurn."

Rolls his eyes, Yeah, if they were all seeing or knowing, you would have thought they'd known about the "outside" world!

Shrugs, Frankly, bit more concerned with the starving and thirsty people than what a group of so-called magi can or cant do, or think or don't think

But like Ferrous, if the group feels one way or another, then I'll back the play... I'm not the brains of this here operation!

lol... I do find it humorous that the thief is worried about "stolen' goods. :) nice to see a thief not being played as a straight up thief

I don't know how far their power reaches, but they were in my dreams. I would like to return the goods before the next time I go to sleep.
We may be able to explain our needs and make a deal. Or find more supplies elsewhere today, that belong to another faction. One not made up of wizards.
As you may have seen with the trap, I am trying to play Brathas as cautious and prepared, taking as few unnecessary risks as possible and trying to think of every contingency. Stealing from wizards is dangerous business.

Right but I believe the Brotherhood of Gorm will want more than just stolen goods back as we may have killed a few members already.
Ferrous scratches his beard. I think we need some allies down here and Wizards may be the more powerful allies to have. I say we see what food we can find with the rest of the morning and then reconsider our position later today. Shall we go straight across the bridge here to see what lays beyond the door on the other end?

Zynazyr contemplates their options, listening to what the others have to say. He nods in agreement at Brathas' comment about the magi knowing we took the goods and at Ana's regarding having them as allies. But he does his best to hide a chuckle at Brathas' belief about the magi's powers.

"I agree that having them as allies would be beneficial. They were friendly and open to giving us information about this place. Ana and I can also benefit by learning more spells from them. While I also think they suspect that we took their supplies, I believe it is because they could deduce that we came through the storeroom based on our statements. I too had a dream about them, but I don't think it was their doing. Maybe their god's. I think we should try to finish exploring this level, starting with the door ahead of us, and then return to tell them what happened. They seem reasonable and hopefully will understand our situation. I think if they were in our place and came across supplies, they too would take them to help their own. We can offer to replace what we have used."

Walia says, "I am still unclear on how the supplies came into "our""possession. Couldn't we offer a portion of the supplies as found instead from the goblins. Anything we offer them is a charity on our part."

Walia says, "I am still unclear on how the supplies came into "our""possession."

@ Wallia: The party entered the storeroom from the secret door to the south. There were some giant beetles there trying to get into the supplies. The party killed the beetles, then recruited the other NPCs in camp to transport the crates back upstairs while they stood guard. Your character would have been one of those NPCs at that point so you were there.

"We can offer to replace what we have used."

FYI you haven't really gotten into those supplies yet. You currently have 112 half-meals of preserved food and 100 of that was from the storeroom. Also remember that the oil beetles were breaking into the crates when you found them. The only thing that you have really used is that Ferrous has drank some of the ale - the rest of you thought it was disgusting.

You only have 2 half-meals of fresh food remaining, so returning everything would leave you with only 14 total half meals in your possession.

I'm going to wait a little bit in case there is more people want to say, but right now I see three votes for moving ahead to the far door and deciding at the end of the day, so unless I hear some other plan we will move ahead with that.

"If you are right in assuming that they know it is we who took them, they may fight to get them back. I'd rather not face a mob of magic-users with only myself and Zynazyr for magical support. On the other hand, the supplies are ours, by right of salvage. We found them abandoned; we did not steal them."

Ana moves towards the door at the far end of the hall.

Walia says, "I concur with Ms. Anastoria, she has the right way of things in this dispute. The goods were being destroyed and those Magisters weren't properly looking after them."

Walia proceeds down the hall using his quarterstaff to probe for traps.

9:40 AM, Day 4

After examining the far door the party concludes that there are no traps, and no noise is heard beyond the door. The party opens the door; like the previous door this one slides into the wall.

The door opens onto another narrow and low vaulted passage. After about 15' the ceiling opens up and is much higher, though the passage does not widen.

You see two 10' tall staues of women fighters. The fighters wear masks with the face of the female statue on top of the pyramid. The two statues stand with spears outstretched to form an arch. The only way down the corridor appears to be in single file under the crossed spears.

PICTURE

The party examines the statues carefully but as far as they can tell these are just ordinary statues. However, just past the statues on the floor of the hallway, Brathas discovers what appears to be a pressure plate in the floor, which spans most of the width of the corridor. Further down the hallway you can see another pair of statues flanking the hallway.

TIER 3 MAP updated. Pressure plate is marked in yellow.

So what do you want to do?

* Have Brathas try to disarm the pressure plate?
* Try to get across the pressure plate without activating it? If so, how?
* Step on the pressure plate and see what happens?
* Fall back down the corridor and try one of the eight buttons?
* Return through the storeroom to the main hallway?
* Something else?

This is clearly the base of the Warrior Maidens. Do we want to try to have Ana talk to them? Or avoid them? I could try to jam the pressure plate if we want to go through, but I don't see that we have much to gain here.

"They may accept me as a sister, but I think that the rest of you would only be in constant danger. Better to avoid them, I think," Ana replies.

Walia says, "I can poke the pushplate with my quarterstaff to see what it does."

Brathas snaps at Walia.
First you want to walk down the hall poking the ground with your stick to set off traps, then when I do manage to spot one before you trigger it accidentally, you want to intentionally trigger it. How is this a good idea? It could collapse this section of corridor for all we know. A trap can well have an effect more than three feet from its trigger. Let me examine it further.
Brathas will try to examine the ceiling and walls for anything that looks like the effect of the trap (arrow slits, crushing walls, etc).

Walia says, "My quarterstaff is 6 feet long. I am just trying to keep us safe. For all we know the pressure plate could open a secret door. This structure is somewhat macabre if you ask me."

Old school style is the ten foot pole.

Brathas will try to examine the ceiling and walls for anything that looks like the effect of the trap (arrow slits, crushing walls, etc).

Normally you are assumed to have searched the whole area, so you have already looked around and found nothing noteworthy - if it was otherwise I would have mentioned it. However, if you want a "second try" at a search of something, you can spend an extra turn doing so, so I will assume that is what you what you are doing at this point. Note though that you aren't able to look closely at things on the far side of the plate without trying to get past it.

9:50 AM, Day 4

Brathas and the rest of the party look around, trying to find any indication as to what the pressure plate does. But they find no seams, holes, hidden compartments, or anything else that would indicate that something near the pressure plate actually does anything.

What now? (see suggested options above.)

Perhaps one of the learned can leave a note for this Sisterhood that we mean peace and would like to speak to them at some point. We can leave the note on the pressure plate.

Seeing what appears to be the Warrior Maidens base, Zynazyr remembers the trap door in the floor. "It would appear that all three groups are based on this level. I'm not sure we have much to gain right now in approaching the Warrior Maidens and definitely not the Brotherhood."

He listens to Ferrous's suggestion and nods. "I suppose opening a line of dialogue would be beneficial in hopes we can avoid a conflict like we had with the Brotherhood. For purposes of our interactions with them, we can present ourselves with Ana as our leader and we her guards and servants. However, I agree with Brathas' assessment of the trap in that we should leave it alone."

"After we leave the note, I think we should figure out what all of the buttons in the hallway do so we can get to where we want to go. Then we can go back to the Magi to explain what happened with the supplies and hope they are understanding."

Hopefully finding some food along the way. But Zynazyr I thought our run in with the Brotherhood occurred on the level above us currently. Next to the jail with the bees.

Excellent idea about the note.
If we leave the note and move on, we can explore more of this level back by the door with the buttons.

Walia says, "I would be interested to know if these people can read. From my experience most people are sadly Analphabets or illiterate."

Zynazyr nods at Ferrous' statement. "You are correct. That may have been their main base, but remember they fled through a trap door in the floor, which I assume will lead to a room somewhere on this floor."

Hadn't thought of that. The dwarf shook his head and scratched at his beard. I know I can't read but maybe they have a leader who can. I know a few of us can read and write and it doesn't hurt to take the chance and leave a note.

You have parchment from when Ana used the scroll of light to add the spell to her spell book. Doing so causes the writing on the scroll to fade away. I'll assume that you can improvise something for pen and ink. So leaving a note is feasible if you want.

FYI in case it wasn't clear there is a row of buttons beside both doors in the central turntable, on the inside of the turntable. Looking back at the door you just came out of, there is a single button beside the door on this side.

It looks like the plan that is forming is to leave a note for the Madaruans, and then return to the turntable and start pressing buttons. For that I will need to know:

* Who is writing the note?
* What does it say?
* Where are you leaving the note?
* Do you activate the pressure plate?
* What button do you push when you return to the turntable? (choose from number 1 through 8)

What should we write? Perhaps "We are the strangers with burnt skin and uncovered faces. We are from far away and come in peace. We would like to speak with you to learn more about Cynidicea."
Do we say that we respect Madarua? Or that we oppose Zargon?
Brathas will not activate or disable the pressure plate, he will leave it be.

Now that I think about it, Wallia's point is worth considering. Even if they are literate, they may not know our form of writing. These strange symbols we have seen could be their script.
So perhaps we could ask the Magi to write a note for us? Or we draw a picture of Ana and a Warrior Maiden fighting goblins together?

FYI the party has found written works here before (in a couple of rooms on Tier 2), and they were in the common tongue. So if the Madaruans can read they can probably read what you write.

"If you insist upon leaving a note, it should firmly state that we oppose Zargon. I don't think that this is a good idea, personally. We don't know how these warrior-maidens would react to the sight of men, or to me travelling with them. Better to let sleeping dragons lie.

"I am fairly confident that we have goodwill, or at least no open hostility, among the Magi, or they would have fought us. If we return their goods, the odds are better than even that they will ally themselves with us. Even if they dislike warriors, surely they can see where a good sword arm comes in handy at times.

"If we are to ally ourselves with a group, and I feel it advisable that we do so, then let it be the Magi."

I see your point Ana. I suppose if we meet them as we explore, we can explain who we are. I am fine with not leaving a note if you are strongly against it. I do want to move on and explore more of this level.
I would like to speak to either the Brotherhood (they don't know me) or the Warrior Maidens at some point to confirm the broad outlines of what the Magi told us about Zargon. If the Magi are spinning us a tale for their own reasons, we could all be played for fools. If we can confirm their story, I agree that we should ally with them.
Actually, we might be able to trick Smelldox into confirming this story.

Too much talk. grumbles. Goes back into the turntable corridor and "studies" the buttons. Which one leads to the main corridor I wonder and raises his gloved hand and reaches out towards the panel...

...and raises his gloved hand and reaches out towards the panel...

Which button? The only way to find out which one does what is to press one. Choose # 1 through 8.

PICTURE

Brathas moves into the turntable corridor with Fistep. Whichever one you think best he says to the fighter.

that looks like ferrous... after he's missed the broadside of a barn! :D

Walia shakes his head and presses the third one.

10:00 AM, Day 4

Walia shakes his head and presses the third one.

Wallia presses the third button from the top.

Once again, the sound of water flowing through pipes can be heard, and shortly thereafter a vibration fills the whole hallway. Then, the hallway begins to move. The sliding doors at the ends seem to slide closed, though actually they remain in place while the hallway moves, until they fill the door frames again.

The vibration and motion continues for about a minute. Then, the whole structure comes to a stop. It is difficult to tell exacly how far the turntable has turned.

After a quick inspection, the party opens the door in front of them. The hallway beyond appears to be the same as the one they just came through to get to the turntable (i.e. it leads back to the trapped statue of Usamigaras and the storeroom.

Peeking through the other door it is revealed that this is indeed the hallway with the Madaruan statues. So either you have turned 180 degrees or there is an identical arrangement of hallways somewhere else (which seems somewhat unlikely).

So now what?

* Continue trying buttons? If so, which button next? (If you do I will assume you hit a button from the same panel rather than crossing to the other end of the turntable and using that panel, unless I hear otherwise).
* Return to the main hallway via the storeroom?
* Try the Madaruan hallway after all?
* Something else?

"I wonder if everyone on this floor can hear all this noise? I hope not," Zynazyr says as he pushes the first button.

"I wonder if everyone on this floor can hear all this noise? I hope not," Zynazyr says as he pushes the first button.

For the record, you could hear it quite clearly when standing outside the door after hitting the "call" button, and judging by that you could probably hear at least a low level of sound in the storeroom or the Usamigarasi Ritual Chamber.

The familiar rumbling begins and the turntable rotates again. This time it seems to travel for much longer than before. Again, after it stops there seems to be silence on the far side of the door.

This time, after the door is opened, a passage is revealed which turns off to the right at a strange angle.

The door behind you also reveals a passage; this one seems to connect to a corridor which is on an angle.

Ferrous judges that thanks to the structure and dimensions of the stonework, and that so far the structure has been designed with orthogonal axes, that these passages are likely "diagonal" passages within the overall structure, though you can't say for sure whether you are now facing southeast or northwest.

Because you do not know which direction you are facing, I have made a new map: Tier 3: Direction Unknown. Right now you are standing at the end of the turntable that says "You Are Here" so if you say you are going forwards you will go out of the turntable from there. Once you figure out which direction you are facing I will add everything to the main map.

So... Now what?

* Explore the hallway in front of you?
* Explore the hallway behind you?
* Press more buttons?
* Something else?