Luke's Runelords Thread (Inactive)

Game Master Luke

I nod to Quink. "Aye, we met the quasit and dispatched her...barely. We almost got more than we bargained for with that one and her friends. Nasty beasts, the lot of them. I think we saw signs of your Thassilonean architecture as well. Sari has some drawings." I look at the father. "Thanks for the healing. I'll certainly be by for the restoration." Lastly, I look at the Mayor. "What's happened in our absence?"

Quink grows excited. "You did, did you? Evidence of Thassilonean ruins under the town?"

He looks meaningfully at the mayor and adds, "Anyone who listened to a word I've said about the "Old Light" shouldn't be surprised. The controlling circle for the flume would have been outside the monument. And any careful reader of Bartemus Carnelli's work would know that the Runelords often surrounded their defensive monuments with buildings of secular and religious significance!"

Mayor Deverin runs a hand through her hair and sighs heavily. "Yes, well Brodert, thank you. Perhaps you could just look over the young lady's sketches and see if there's something you recognize that might help."

Brodert begins perusing Sari's sketch of the statue and the rubbings. He stops and goes back to the statue picture. "This is most likely a statue of Alaznist, the Runelord of Wrath. This symbol on the book she holds is a Sihedron rune. Very common symbology for an important late-empire Thassilonean site."

He looks up at Cha. "Is this ruin scoured? I would like to see the ruin, but I never was much help in a fight. What are these friends of the demon you spoke of?"

"Scoured? Oh,no. We've barely scratched the surface. I don't know what you call them...they've got an extra joint below the knee, they're hideous, they heal themselves...they've got mandibles for their lower jaws, claws instead of fingers and toes. Unnatural. Oh, then there was the goblin with the extra set of legs growing out of his head and runes written all over his body...Koruvus, I think he called himself. No, it's definitely not secure. I've got a hunch one of the doors we tried might lead up into the lighthou...uh, Old Light. Just a hunch though." We give the council a brief run down of how far we made it, the rooms we encountered, the altar looking thing Koruvus drank the water from, the orange light and skull pool, etc.

"Sweet Desna!" Zantus exclaims.

"A chapel to Lamashtu right here in Sandpoint?!"

He turns to Kendra. "I realize you don't want to send me down there in case something were to happen, but really Kendra, this cannot be tolerated. The shrine these folks are describing is undoubtedly a catalyst for all the misfortune that's struck our town. It must be taken apart. The walls should be pulled down and the place sealed completely and forever. I really must insist that you let me go with these good people and help put an end to this blasphemy."

"In doing so you may forever shroud the place in mystery. There may be answers down there as to what was the ruin's function. Answers that may take time to divine. Evidently Alaznist was involved in the complex somehow."

"This description of the orange pool sounds ominous and somehow familiar," Brodert continues. "I would advise all of you," this with a pointed look at Zantus, "to stear clear of that pool until something more of its nature and function is known. The Runelords are shrouded in ten thousand years worth of mystery, but no one doubts their power and ultimate maliciousness."

Kendra speaks up. "So what are we to do when the goblin attack comes a couple days after we've buried you, Zantus? Who will heal the wounded and comfort the grieving then? Your role in the defense of this town is fairly important." She leaves her words hanging there without making any actual decision.

"Agreed. Zantus is more needed up here." I look at Father Zanuts. "You'll be a beacon to any followers of Lamatashu down there. We can barely protect ourselves." To Quink. "We need a history lesson here. Who is Alaznist? What was the intent of the Runelords, good or evil? Maybe there's a top ten list of runes to look for that might be of special significance? Sorry if I seem ignorant, but the forest is my speciality, not the history of the Runelords."

Gonna keep rolling with the dialog here. The rest of you just chime in at any time...

Brodert laughs a bit at that. "Son, Thassilon has been gone for ten thousand years. The cities in this land have only been around for a small portion of that. My belief is that much of the existing knowledge of how Thassilon worked lies in the oral traditions of your people, and of the Varisian gypsies. I'll answer any questions to the best of my knowledge, but alot of what we think we know is really conjecture."

"There were several Runelords who in the late stages of that empire divided the land amongst themselves. Most scholars today assume that this division was a violent one, and that perhaps this was a contributing factor to the fall of that empire. Alaznist was one of these Runelords. They were powerful wielders of arcane energy - that seems certain. The scale of some of their monuments is truly unfathomable."

"Their language is really lost to the ages. The written form seems to have been largely composed of pictographs - thus the runes we find so prominent in their architecture. But the question of whether the runes were mostly ornamental, or if they truly tell some wider story is an open one. As I said, there are tomes in the Great Library of Magnimar that make attempts at translating some of these runes."

"It is generally believed that the lands that Alaznist ruled were mostly drowned when the Gulf of Varisia formed. That seems to me to be a largely untestable thesis, but the remains of the Irespan bridge in Magnimar certainly supports that theory to some extent. The placement of the flume may suggest that the immediate environs of Sandpoint might once have been a border area between two Runelord kingdoms. Perhaps one of those does lie under the waves."

Guess I'll keep chewing as long as no one else wants to chime in.

"So what we're looking at is an ancient 'site' underground, that seems vast at the moment, which dates back 10,000 years and which the goblins and some demon friends have decided to make use of. Besides the slaying of the quasit, we're no further along than we were. Tomorrow, we'll head in again and see if we can't find our way to the end of one of those tunnels."

I look directly at Ameiko. "What news haven't we heard yet?" Sense motive is 4+3=7.

Psst. Ameiko's not here. Brodert, Zantus, Hegred and Mayor Kendra Deverin. Did you mean Deverin?

Psst. Ameiko's not here. Brodert, Zantus, Hegred and Mayor Kendra Deverin. Did you mean Deverin?

Ummm...yeah, whoops.

"We haven't heard any news from Belor or from Shalelu, if that's what you mean. Nothing. We had scouts on the road this morning and there were no spottings of goblins, or of the ranger."

The room goes quiet for a moment.

Hegred clears his throat and speaks up. "Mayor, I'd like permission to stand a couple of men deeper in the caves as a fallback point for these folks tomorrow. Maybe at the first intersection or something."

Deverin smiles thinly at the young man.

"Use your discretion Hegred. Belor trusts your judgement and I trust his."

She places palms on her desk and stands up, then offers her hand to each of you. "Desna's good fortune to you tomorrow, friends."

Next steps? Cha seems to have Ameiko on the brain.

I wonder if I should let Ameiko see me with the wound or without? Maybe she would prefer the injured barbarian druid look?

"Father Zantus, I'm for seeing what you can do for this," pointing at the quasit wound. "Then, I think I'm for heading to the inn. Tomorrow's another long day."

Sorry, been busy in VA. I hear the Damels have had some excitement as well! Way to keep it going, Chris.

Well, an interesting history lesson, but not much of immediate use against the goblins. I'm hoping that we have made a large dent in their command structure, and that this might throw some confusion their way. I believe some rest and food are in order, then we'll see about discussing a better strategy than wandering aimlessly in those disgusting tunnels...they were most oppressive.

So, do we have a strategy, or are we just going to continue to pick blind paths and see where they lead? How may more big bad guys do we think are down there, or are there just going to be a lot of goblins? Is there a more efficient way of dealing with those? How about those nasty freaks....do we think they are all gone? I'm all for just continuing to steer right (or left) and kill what we find, too!

So you make your way back to the Rusty Dragon by way of the Chapel. Zantus casts lesser restoration and heals Cha's ability damage. You can still walk with a limp when you meet Ameiko if you want, though.

Ameiko greets you warmly as you enter, though she is a little disappointed that there isn't any news from Shalelu yet, and that it's still too soon to seal off the tunnels under the glassworks. She's appalled to hear what you found down there. She sets her kitchen to preparing a late mid-day feast.

I believe you are carrying around some extra hardware: Ranseur, longsword, hand-axe, dagger, tiara, obsidian charm, tiny returning knife. Did I miss anything?

spoiler for Sari

"None of the found weapons do much for me. The dagger would be better suited to Yod or Sari, I'm thinking Sari. Let's unload anything we can't use and make sure there's nothing else we might want."

Yod, you've got a CLW potion compliments of me. I've still got one left so keep it. I picked up your dagger, but I assume you have back by now.

I'd like to keep the ransuer unless someone wants to give us a whole lotta gold for it. I'm not profecient with it yet but I like it. as for the dagger I could use it with a +3 attack unless it has an enhancement on it or Sari could use it. I could always give it to her if she runs out of missles. I'd like see how much damage I can do with it, the Quasit didn't do much damage with it but if it's like a regular dagger I'd do more damage. And we need to examin the other stuff as well see if any of it might be usefull to equip when we go back in.

By experimenting with the weapons in the alley behind the Dragon you determine the following.

longsword +1
masterwork hand-axe
silver dagger
tiny dagger of returning +1 - This weapon is so small that it's practically unusable. It certainly is an interesting conversation piece though, isn't it? Good luck selling it. :)

To see what you can get for them, you'll need to go shopping. Keeping the ranseur is obviously up to you guys, but I'll want you to let me know when you set out what weapons you're carrying. You're gonna need two guys and a truck if you ever move bases.

Quietly, to my companions..."I think it's better off if we don't reveal too much in the way of details about the creatures we're encountering down there to the people in the inn. Let it leak out slowly else we start a panic."

I'm all for grabbing a bite to eat, then trying to unload some of this stuff. We can't afford a truck, but a wand of light or something to avoid using spell points would be useful.

See, now that's funny. In the Pathfinder Rules, level zero spells are free. Only there's no such thing as Cure Minor Wounds. So that rule forces some minor spell point calculation changes on my house rules. You'll see when we convert Cha.

for DM

"I don't think I need a tiny dagger such as this. I believe it is more suited to Cha's size, is it not? I realize I don't have the fighting skills you all do, but that's why I bring you along, just in case is see any pests. I say sell whatever we can, instead of being walking arsenals. We should stock up on whatever we think sounds good for tunnel crawling. I know I could use some bolts.....and a little more practice!"

"Guess I could use it as a toothpick...at least I wouldn't lose it."

So where are you guys taking the loot pile?

spoiler for Sari

Hey I'll take the dagger too unless someone wants to give us decent gold for it. I'll just "Slight of hand" it some where in case of emergency later.

What does that leave? Silver dagger, hand axe and longsword? Last call...before Yod decides to keep it all, let's head to see Bethana(?), the weapons master. I'm going off memory here...too lazy to look it up.

"Let's go see if we can unload some of these items and then find something useful. Who's with me?"

ps...it's Lori's B-day tonight.

Good try, but... no. Bethana is the halfling woman who does your laundry and cooks breakfast at the Rusty Dragon. The woman who runs the armory is Savah.

Savah is pleased to welcome you back to her shop. "Still one in five discount on anything you want to buy!"

She takes the weapons and lays them on her workbench. She works to clean away some of the tarnish and whatnot from the weapons. She then stands and takes several slow, broad strokes with the sword before nodding her head approvingly.

"Very fine Janderhoff steel. It's somewhat old and in need of refurbishment. But it will clean up very nicely... and you guys are friends..."

"I'll give you 1600 gp for the blade. 1200 in cash and 400 in credit here in my shop. And 200 more for the handaxe. Both are fine weapons that will sell in the city once reconditioned."

"I'm afraid I can't really offer you anything for the little bitty blade. It's cute, but I'd have to sell it to a pixie or something - and they're not notorious for carrying cash."

"Very good. Do you have anything that might help out our soceress here when she starts forgetting her spells, something with some reach?"

Savah walks over to a rack of crossbows along the wall of her shop and takes down one that sits up high.

"Aside from that repeating crossbow I told you about last time you were here, I have this." She extends the weapon to Sari. It is a masterwork light crossbow.

"With the discount, that would run you 285 gold pieces. She fires true."

The repeating crossbow she mentioned is an exotic weapon, meaning you need to take exotic weapon proficiency - repeating crossbow as a feat to use it without incurring a -4 to your attacks. It is also a +1 enchanted weapon, so it would not be cheap.

The masterwork crossbow would get a +1 to attack rolls (not damage).

"Very nice. What do you have in the way of bolts for it? Anything special? Preferably something that kills goblins, but always misses druids."

"I'm afraid I only have the mundane variety of bolts." She gestures to a crate of them.

I'm baaaack. Got in from VA last night with extra kid in tow.

for DM

"My druid friend seems to speak with a forked tongue. I may not have been effective with my cross-bow, but I am effective other places."

I'm interested in anything that would help me when I run out of spells, but I don't want to be a cash hound. Ya'll ring in on whether I can have the shiny crossbow.

"And the way I shoot, I'll need a crate of them!"

Personally, I'm for it. I'm also for looking into some ways to conserve some spell points...Light and Detect Magic spells just run them down.

Okay, time to move this thing along. Melissa, you still out there? I don't think we've heard anything from Eberk in quite awhile.

Savah gives you 20 gp for your current crossbow, meaning you spend 265 gp of credit on the masterwork weapon.

"If there's anything you need, I can always get other items from Magnimar by special order. I might not be able to offer you the same deal on special order weapons, but at least I should be able to get my hands on most types of weapons."

There are a few shops like the Feathered Serpent that can offer magical items as well. I've covered the prices about 1/3 of the way down this page in a spoiler to Yod and Cha (Mar 8).

spoiler for Sari

for DM

So, are we ready to go back down? Have we picked up any red-shirts to go with us? I'd like to get this over with!

spoiler for Sari

Your group returns to the Rusty Dragon and spends the rest of a rainy evening recouping your energy.

Those of you with the experience are now 3rd level characters. Cha, I'll need a new list of prepared spells.

I was once lost but now I'm found....I took a side trip to visit with my dwarvan wench.

Actually I thought we were on pause since luke's buisness trip and then their vacation. I didn't even check on it. Plus, we had lots of excitment while the Potters were away. Now that I am aware, lets eat sleep and head back down. I am all for Sari getting the bow. Any help is good help. I'm beginning to think Yod has a secret weapon collection. Unless we come across a cool Dwarven War Axe or some bracers, I am good to let you guys spend all the cash. Cha thanks for holding us up!

Hey no offer of gold for the Ransuer or tiny dagger so I'll keep them
I wouldn't mind looking for some better protection other than this leather armor I've got on, If we don't spend all our gold on other stuff the whip token could be usefull at some point
Any stats on it? New Character sheet 3.5 on the way
Working on the other one now.
Any special info on the Ransuer or just the stats from the PHB?
Maybe a Masterwork or better Morningstar somewhere in town??

I thought you wanted to keep the ranseur so I didn't consider it for sale. She offers you 350 gp for the ranseur. It is a masterwork weapon. Nothing for the little knife. There is a masterwork morningstar for sale at Savah's for 250 gp. There's also all manner of mundane armor and shields to be had, including stuff that will fit a dwarf. The local smithy can make alterations as necessary.

Shout out to Chris! Haven't heard from you in awhile now. Did you guys go on vacation or something? Saw Sanni (sp?) and Kyle at my mom's house last weekend. Twas my niece's slumber-birthday party and their daughter was there.

Anyhow, I need to know what spells you're preparing. I think you have a whole new list to digest. Let me know if you have any questions on any of the spell descriptions.

We've been so flipping busy, we haven't even leveled up Sari yet - much less contemplated the Pathfinder conversion.

Sorry, we were on vacation and I forgot to write. Mountains of Tenn. Did you realize there were that many Volunteer fans in the world? Unbelievable...more fans than there are teeth in Tenn. by my reckoning. By the way, there are people in this world who are bigger rednecks than me...lots of them!

Spells....
Level 0
D. Magic
D. Poison
Flare
Light
Level 1
Cure Light Wounds
Produce Flame
Faerie Fire
Level 2
Barkskin
Lesser Restoration

The next day dawns misty and wet. Bethana and Ameiko prepare a breakfast. Ameiko comes out and keeps you company while you eat, taking coffee and a biscuit for herself.

"You folks take care of yourselves today. I can't help but feel my family's responsibility for the town's trouble. And the tragedy for the people who worked for my father... it's horrible. I need to find ways to help those families."

Moving on to the Glassworks?

Back down we go. Everyone set?

"I wouldn't worry too much about it Ameiko. I think this is much bigger than your brother. Let's get in there before I change my mind."

"Yes, onward and, well...downward!"

The Glassworks building is largely as you left it. Hegred is there when you arrive to make good on his offer to post men deeper in the complex as a fall-back position.

Where are you guys headed first, and where would you propose to Hegred that he station his men? There are passages you've skipped to get to the catacombs area where all the fighting occured last time. Are you going straight back to where you were (ie. the room with the red statue), or taking a different branch?

I vote go back to where we left off,
Hide d20 14+9=23
Move S d20 14+9=23
Morningstar in hands, daggers sheathed, tiny dagger somewhere on my person, Ranseur left back at my room.

"I think Hegred and his men should set up shop at the first intersection. It's not that far in, but maybe it'll keep anything from sneaking up on us since we haven't explored that way yet. Bring lots of oil for your lanterns."

Same marching order as before.

"Let's get back to that altar room and check out the rest of the doors."

DM, I sent you two new char sheets and a link to a new character sheet generator.

I thought we searched the room with the pool and glowing floor alter thoroughly but I'll check the doors for being locked and listen for sounds Listen check d20 1+0=1
I still have the sound of Eberk singing ringing in my ears
If we get back to that area without running in to any beasties that is.

Map linky.

Back down the stairs you go, past the wall and the stain on the floor where Tsuto died. Into the cave with lanterns aloft, an armored posse of three guardsmen in tow. All is quiet to the first intersection and the men take up an uneasy guard there, a lantern set out in each direction from the intersection. You soon leave their light behind, plunging deeper into the complex until you reach the left hand turn that leads to the ruins.

The ruins are quiet as a tomb. The room with the block on the stairs is filled with the stench of a day-old battlefield. The double doors stand open to the chapel with the pool and the glowing well. The aura coming off the well's surface is about the same intensity as when you left it.

Neither of the doors here are locked, but both require a strong arm to open. Each room is completely empty save some unidentifiable dry-rotted wooden rubble in their corners.

Who's carrying your light source(s).

I cast mage armor upon entering yon smelly dungeon, and I'll carry our lantern since me and the wild man are the only ones who seem to need it. Although, it would occupy his hands....

That leaves me with 24 spell points left. FYI for everyone, my new spell is Color Spray.

Ok then lets go back to the door at 8,20 and check it out
Search d20 9+1=10 Listen d20 7+0=7
So did we buy anything while we were in town?

It's your money. If you did, you need to tell me now, not after you make your first attack roll. :)