The Lion Sleeps Inn lies 35 miles northeast of Zimar. The 300 year-old, two-story structure was once a far more elaborate affair, back when mining was a going concern in the rocky foothills of the region. The once-rich veins of copper, iron, and silver played themselves out nearly 30 years ago, causing the hill settlements to shrink so that today they are mere shadows of their former selves, and traffic has been reduced to an anemic trickle.
As you push in the door you are met with a large, open room that has a 25-foot-high ceiling, with a wooden balcony above the west, north, and east walls. A large central fireplace is at the center of the room, and a second hearth is shared with the kitchen. However, only the shared hearth is lit. It crackles merrily as a pair of black iron pots bubble above.
Heavy oaken tables with sturdy benches are arranged about the room, and the walls boast the trophies of successful hunters of years gone by: taxidermied heads of various animals — elk, deer, lions, wolverines, etc. Over the kitchen hearth hangs the stuffed head of a manticore. Wooden stairs lead up to the balcony.
Just to the west of the entry door, firmly affixed to the wall, is a fancy bronze plaque of a sort not uncommon in various Taldan establishments—a marker that commemorates the visit of some historical notable. This one reads:
“Micheaux the Magnificent, Future Grand Prince of Taldor, Father of Stavian, Slept on these Premises on 5 Lamashan in the Year 4497.
May Divine Providence Reward Him as He Deserves.”
The date embossed on the plaque at the bottom is only 2 weeks after the commemoration date—19 Lamashan 4497.
The bar on the right wall is made of sturdy oak, is surrounded by tall stools, and has leaves that fold up at either end so that the barkeep may enter the common room. Below the bar are two washbasins and an array of goblets, mugs and tankards, as well as some tableware and a large cudgel, which the proprietor, Vadim, judiciously applies to the heads of patrons who have forgotten themselves.
Today Vadim is running himself and his help ragged. Dellum's offer of riches and glory has attracted a slew of adventurers with heavy pockets. Vadim is behind the bar while his mentally challenged son, Oleppo, cooks and adolescent nieces, Magand and Corrine, serve. They are all working furiously to keep up with demand. By the looks of things, Dellum himself has yet to arrive.
Orionet does a double take upon seeing the date.
Micheaux was here on the night Stavian was born? Interesting.
Orionet walks further into the bar, avoiding the usual tavern debauchery. He smiles warmly at the girls and Oleppo and sits at a table. He asks for a cup of tea whenever they have a moment.
Orionet smiles. It's good to fight against evil, but there's also good in teaching. His hands move slightly as he speaks.
Micheaux was the adopted son and heir to the Taldan throne in 4499 ar. His son was Stavian I, the monarch who exiled the Cult of the Dawnflower, believing them to be behind the invasion from Qadira. Sainted Mother Euphemi Finara was in Oppara giving birth to Stavian the night Micheaux stayed here, according to the plaque. Through Stavian I, the current monarch, Stavian I claims legitimacy all the way back to Micheaux the Magnificent, basically, this Inn may be more historically important than it's current state lets on. His brows furrow slightly as if concentrating.
Mysterious notes to investigate a tomb at a slightly obscure but historically significant and militarily fortified location? No, it couldn't be that we're to be working on behalf of Stavian himself?
From the shadows "The Mouse" appears...
"When Stavian I was born? Why is that important?"
After hearing Orionet's Answer, he excuses himself.
"I'll go take a look around, if you don't mind."
Garonok looks for a dark lonely corner to make himself hide, and the skulk around the place, around and under, trying to seize the place, the company and the owners, hearing everything, without being seen.
R, also almost unnoticed due to his size, pops his head up between Orionet and Glade.
So, R is confused. You say ALL great adventures start in taverns?
R also looks around and opens his big ears, eager to take in the new sights and sounds.
R noticeably struggles to hoist himself onto one of the tall stools next to Orionet.
「ｂ」Many do, yes. Adventurers, heroes and otherwise, travel a lot. It makes taverns an easy place to find adventurers and everyone in town knows where the taverns are which makes them a good meeting place.[/b]
He smiles slightly as the goblin tries to climb onto his stool.
They also have food which makes for a good pretense - something to pretend to do so the bad guys don't know what you're really up to.
Mouse - Younsearch the inn high and low unobserved, for the most part. Apart from some locked doors there is nothing of consequence about this inn that sets it apart from any other. It is reasonably well run. The mentally challenged boy is a decent cook. His father is a mildly talented barkeep. His two nieces are pleasant and hard working.
R - You notice much the same as Mouse.
About half hour after youall arrive, a shorter man with brown hair, a pronounced chin and fine clothes trimmed in gold strides into the Lion Sleeps Inn. He walks like he owns the place and proceeds to a room in the northwestern corner. All eyes watch him as he walks.
A few minutes later he re-appears and calls each of you by name. He beckons you to join him in the room.
When you enter you are met with a cheery fire in the hearth shared with the next room over to the east. There are two windows in the north wall and a table on the west. In the center is a large conference table of polished walnut.
Please, my friends, come, sit! He offers each of you a chair and a drink of fine wine.
""Thank you very much... You are our employer, I recon?"
Mouse doesn't sit, but starts moving around, seeing and smelling the place... especially out of the windows and behind curtains and doors.
Hanoris Dellum, was it? What can we do for you? Pardon my rudeness, force of habit.
His apology is in reference to the spell he cast. He waves his hand over his wine and mutters something in Celestial.
Mouse - You find nothing of interest except that the food odors here are higher class than the common room. That isn't particularly suspicious, however, as this room seems reserved for special occasions.
Orionet - no poison detected aside from normal alchohol.
I am he, and no apology necessary. I would be suspicious as well.
Still, he waits until all are seated before beginning.
R, never one to turn down good food, drink or company, climbs into a chair across from Hanoris. Rather than sit, he squats, shuffling from side to side with excitement.
So... what kind of heroing will be be doing? Damsels in distress? An invasion of giants? OOOOOHHH! Dragons?!?
Letting his excitement get the best of him, he swallows the entire glass of wine in one gulp.
Ganorok keeps an eye open for intruders, waiting for their host to explain the mission.
Dellum has the grace to blush I apologise, no. However, we can now get started.
Hanoris takes his seat and gets right to the point. I have gone to considerable lengths to find each of you and bring you here. While digging in some of the posessions that one of my dearly departed relatives left me, I came across evidence that I may be the last living scion of a disgraced Taldan noble House, the Adellas. My relation to them is indirect, to say the least, but when curiosity about the disgrace the family suffered years ago drove me to research my ancestry, I found that there really wasn't much to learn—the Adellas have been pronounced damnatio by the government, and as such, all public and even most private records of the family have been destroyed.
But I did find something—mention of the family’s secure and remote boneyard. So secret and well defended is this Necropolis that it has escaped the damnatio purge. It is known today as the Tomb of the Iron Medusa and is a relatively obscure site.
But I could hire anyone to crack an old tomb. Why you? Well, I believe that the Adellas were framed. Proof of this is nearly impossible to come by due to the aforementioned purge. The only proof left is likely inside that old burial ground.
I ask you to travel to this necropolis and explore it—to seek out the secrets hidden within the Tomb of the Iron Medusa, and to find proof that the rumors about the Adellas’ evil and disgrace were lies. In particular, I feel that the once-famous family sword, the intelligent Infensus Mucro, could be key in exonerating the family’s name.
I feel I must also point out that the vast treasures no doubt contained within the Tomb of the Iron Medusa could make brave adventurers rich, and that aside from the family sword and any proof you can find of falsehoods brought against the Adellas, I have no interest in those treasures—you can keep whatever else you find in the ancient necropolis. After all, I've done quite well for myself without such things.
So, what say you?
The Adellas were an old Taldan noble family who disgraced themselves and were stripped of their title many years ago.
The Adella house symbol was the medusa, said to have been derived from the family’s patriarch, Marcus Junius, who according to stories was so feared by his military subordinates that a mere glance from him would turn an unruly recruit to stone. The three branches of the clan each developed their own variation of this emblem: the howling medusa (Sardisi), the mocking medusa (Voxus), and the cross-eyed medusa (Daellum).
The Adellas house eventually split into three distinct branches that all met their end in a matter of a few years. The first to fall was the Sardisi branch when the last male of that line, Drusus Adella, opened his veins in the bath of a seedy Absolom brothel. His five daughters, who were acutely sensitive to public shame, slew their five noble husbands and fled society in discrace in 4222 AR.
The second was the Voxus branch who withered under a literal civil war between twin brothers Vespacio and Vincenzo, who went so far as to field armies against one another. The crimes of their five murderous cousins may or may not have directly led to the fratricidal feud that dealt utter ruin to the Voxus branch in a single generation.
The third and last branch was the Daellum clan. At first, it seemed likely to weather the ignominious end of their cousins. The cunning and ruthless Bartolomae Adella, who led the Daellums, was an exemplary and highly successful commander in the Taldan military, and for some months it seemed that what had come to be known as the Adella curse had passed this final clan by. Yet Bartolomae went on to suffer a crushing military defeat on the fractious Qadiran frontier. Humiliated to the point of blasphemy (although some held that Bartolomae’s blasphemies were nothing new), he fell on his powerful sword Infensus Mucro in contrition, yet even this act was hardly salve enough to atone for the family’s military failure. Indeed, so appalled was Grand Prince Beldam II by the family’s impressive descent into murder, hubris, and blasphemy that he proclaimed the entire family damnatio—their memory was to be wiped from every public record and monument, and all members stripped forever of noble status.
"It's a very generous offer. I hope you can provide us some form of document formalizing those terms. Also, what makes you think they were framed? How did you find out you are a descendant of them? Do you have any information about the sword? What happened to the Adellas family?"
R is intrigued about the tale of purported deception and considers this task a noble enough endeavor for this group of heroes.
We're in! Or, at least R is in. R hopes we are all in...
Despite R's desire to trust those seeking his aid, his goblin instincts make him at least slightly question Dellum's motives. As he said, he could "hire anyone."
They split into three branches... Orionet explains everything under the DC 20 and 10 sections.
I'm curious about why you have any interest in the family at all. It was generations ago, was it not? And if you don't want to live the noble lifestyle, what are you after?
Dellum addresses Mouse first. He pulls a pre-prepared document with your names already filled and awaiting signiture. He hands it over to you and produces a quill and ink for your signature.
As I said before, my connection to them is... Complicated. He explains while you sign. I'm technically a first cousin by a third marriage, but that's hardly the draw, only the instigating coincidence. What drives me is History. She will remember a man who clears a name like the Adellas' for many years and more. Money is easy. Making one's mark on the world is significantly harder, unless you're an adventurer, of course.
As to what happened to the family, Master Whitearmor here has described them well enough. However, the manner of their fall and the Suddenness of it first lead me to believe that it was all an easy to believe lie.
He proceeds to expound upon the DC 30 spoiler at some length. As you can see, that would be a very fortunate series of events for anyone opposed to the Adellas. I hope you understand my perspective.
R- as far as you can tell, He is being as straight forward with youall as anyone else would be when hiring powerful adventurers.
Orionet taps his chin.
I won't ask you to name your suspects, you'd be foolish to implicate someone without proof and if you had proof you wouldn't be asking us to find it for you, but I have to wonder how you expect the sword to be able to help you?
It is intelligent. In a way, you could think of this as a rescue operation. Except, in this case, the person to be rescued has sharp edges and is designed to kill things. Like my second wife...
Ganorok lets a chuckle at Dellum joke.
"Besides the edges... any other information about the sword?"
He signs the document nonchalantly.
Unfortunately no. The Damnatio purge was very effective. We are lucky to know all that we do.
R contemplates how beautiful Dellum's second wife must have been. After all, what little goblin wouldn't fancy a sharp and deadly spouse.
R also admired a man such as Dellum, who could have survived more than 1 encounter with such a woman.
As such, he takes full confidence in the man's plan. He picks up the plume after Ganorok and pens an R that only a child of 3 would be jealous of.
"R, my friend, time to be heroes... there is a sword to save!"
Ganorok wonder how R is not afraid to write... the fellow is full of surprises!
R bare's his teeth in a smile for the ages. He emits a high pitched but quiet squeal as the realization of this adventure sets in.
R pulls out his Hero Book and flips to the last few pages, which are mostly blank and contain a few words from the publishers. He lays the book down and again signs his hideous "R."
Sign here too! Heeero Book needs to know who heeeros are!
Ganorok takes a pen and draws a small mouse on R book.
"There you go!"
To Glade he answers.
"What? No previous research of the place? That would be unwise!"
Orionet looks at the other three. He has other questions, but they can wait. A sword isn't likely to be evil, after all.
All right, then. Here, R, I'll sign.
He signs everything.
We can at least go see the outside of the tomb.
Got to make it official, Glade. Then we can go. That way, even if you die, your name is in the Heeero Book!
He hands the book and plume to Glade in expectation.
I have, fortunately, found more than just the tomb's location. Hanoris retrieves a white marble funerary baton from a pouch and places it on the table. When I first discovered my connection to the family, I put significant effort into researching the Adellas. As you can imagine there is almost nothing left of the family's holdings or even records of their holdings, but I did manage to discover that this very inn was once owned by the family. It was in a hidden panel behind the plaque you saw when you entered that I found this baton.
Hanoris then twists the top of the baton, causing the tip to pop open and reveal a hollow inside containing a rolled parchment. He pulls it out and passes it around for each of you to see.
I believe that in the Adellas’ last days, one of their members wrote the lines on this parchment as a sort of guide or map, in the hope that they could guide future descendants through the wards and defenses of the tomb so that proof of the falsehoods could be found.
I haven’t been able to find more information about the parchment, but I suspected that the “Slumbering Cat” mentioned in the first line refers to the Lion Sleeps Inn. Working from this assumption, I spent several weeks exploring the lands northeast of the inn, and after some time confirmed my hunch, finding the necropolis in the foothills of the World’s Edge Mountains. I have not the courage nor skill to explore the necropolis itself, but I suspect that both the poem and the baton itself are the keys to entering the ruins.
I will be staying here at the Inn. When you are finished, report back here. As I said, I would like the sword, Infensus Mucro, and any proof of my family's innocence, but any other treasures you come across are yours.
Have you any questions for me?
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Got to make it official, Glade. Then we can go. That way, even if you die, your name is in the Heeero Book!
He hands the book and plume to Glade in expectation.
Glade laughs but not loud Me die? I am mathematically intelligent. I have calculated that unless we are fighting high powered creatures way above our skill level and unless the places is rigged with traps our chances of survival is 95% and with the place rigged with traps, 75%. If one goes in alone though, survival is less than 10%.
R meant no offense. Only the bravest and most noble heeeros get to die on a quest. But hopefully Glade is right, and no one dies!
R still holds his book out, hoping that Glade will sign it. He attempts to convince him with "puppy dog eyes," but by trying looks slightly more psychotic than usual.
Ganorok grins...
"And even if you die, against the odds that is it, you will live forever in R's Heroes book!"
Ganorok asks his host.
"How much time will you wait for us? Anyone else knows about this? Do you have any reference material from your investigation we can peruse, besides the poem."
The takes the poem to read.
I will be here until I decide to leave. A few days at least. If you return and I have left, the innkeeper knows how to contact me. You are my only team going in for now. We'll see how you do. As for reference, nothing that speaks to the contents of the tomb, unfortunately.
Ganorok mumbles...
"Sleeping cat... well, it could be worst... Spider, Beast, Breath... I am not much for poetry... But I have seen better ones. Any idea what "Spider Star" means?"
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Glade signs, hoping he didn't make a mathematical mistake as he has misplaced a decimal point in his equations in the past or divided by the wrong amount like by 100 instead of 1000. Glade then explains one of his past mathematical mistakes. Of course if I made a similar mistake, like the one I made before, survival could be 9.5% instead of 95%.
He then shrugs But something like that is a small mistake, to get 9.5% you just slide the decimal over one place. as he smiles while he says that.
If writing and words were considered a dark art by goblins, math was the Devil himself.
Thanks...
He is relieved to see Glade's name inscribed in the book and not a mathematical equation. He tucks it back into his bag and announces,
Welp, R ready when you are!
Orionet taps his chin thoughtfully.
It may be something physically at the tomb. A fresco or a statue or something. I think we ought to go to the necropolis itself, first.
Orionet - those words show up many times in various places, but nothing you can remember ties back to this tomb.
You set out and travel north east about 35 miles. The terrain gets rougher as you go, and the journey takes you the rest of the day plus the morning after. The sun is up and shining when you arrive. It's a beautiful day to rob a tomb.
The necropolis itself sits in a hidden dale in the foothills of the World’s Edge Mountains, surrounded by a 15-foot-high wall made of tightly fitted gray stone blocks. Wider sections resembling castle watchtowers are spaced along the wall. Spaced equally around the wall between these towers are 10-foot- diameter iron discs decorated with the leering medusa face of the Adella family crest. Sturdy vines make for easy climbing
In the back of the mouth of the one nearest you, you find an inch and a half hole that looks very much like the funeral baton's shape.
Ganorok looks around at the wall...
"Nice! I'll ask for one of these on my tomb."
If he sees the hole in the Medusa, he will tell the rest.