Mal nods to Lavinia, "Indeed, I think we have begun to form a unit together I would see what more we can do together. I will accompany you to these vaults".
Garnstn simply nods and follows along.
Malstei clasps Kat on the shoulder, "Your bravery in the face of adversity is commendable. That was a difficult situation to be sure".
You take the coach to the Noble District, where you then take a ferry over to Castle Teraknian. You spend little time in the castle itself, stopping only to speak to a clerk who verifies Lavinia's identity and her signet, and who then escorts you down a spiral staircase in to a large circular chamber under the castle.
Over a dozen five-foot-wide hallways radiate out from the central vault chamber; each of these halls is ten feet long and ends at a single iron door - the entrance to the family vaults. The clerk does not accompany you and Lavinia into the vault; he instead bids you good day and returns to his office in the castle above.
The short passageway ends at a solid looking iron door. The portal is emblazoned with a rune of the Pathfinder Society. Above the door, inscribed in flowing script on a polished silver plaque, is the name "Vanderboren." A single handle protrudes from the door, just below a circular depression bearing the mark of the Vanderboren signet.
Lavinia turn to you and says, "Once I insert this ring into the depression here on the door it will open for us. What is your plan once it is open? I assume you will go in ahead of me and take care of any danger that may await us."
She looks at you: "Shall I open the door?"
Remember the riddle we found on the ship,
Chimera looks to sunrise
Cyclops looks to sunset
Medua looks to sunrise
Umber Hulk looks to sunset
Basilisk looks to sunrise
I assume that means east and west for something. I'll head in first unless we want Garn to check things out for hidden hazards.
"Yes, milady. Once you open the door, we will proceed. It may be best if you wait here at the entrance while we investigate, at least initially. One of us shall return for you once we've found our way through, or once we've made a decent amount of progress. And, of course, whatever obstacles we find and overcome, we shall give you a full report for future forays into your vault should we be unable to escort you for future visits."
Pulling a bit of string and wood from his pouch, Mahath does cast a spell in preparation for going in.
Once the door opens, Mahath will ask "Garnst and Malstei, will you kindly take the lead? Kat, if you would be ready to step up if things turn physical? Dain and I will follow behind, using our spells and blessings as we can to support."
Mal draws his bow as it is the more comfortable weapon for him. He sets and arrow in the bow and proceeds.
Garnstn nods and proceeds slowly, keeping a close eye out for traps or secret passages.
Lavinia puts her signet room into the depression and the door opens revealing the room beyond.
The floor of this domed chamber is of polished green marble. Two fifteen-foot wide alcoves have lower ceilings and feature marble pillars carved to resemble coiling snakes. In the center of the room, five similar pillars are embedded into the walls, rising up thirty feet to a dome overhead. Looking up, the dome bears a huge representation of the same eight-pointed star that was engraved on the door to the south.
Garnstn and Malstei step first into the atrium, not seeing where it leads to the vault. All of a sudden a metallic cobra, similar to all the carvings in this room, strikes without warning.
The cobra bites the ranger in the neck as he moves past it. Nobody noticed it was more than a carving or sculpture.
Mal is injured badly
Knowledge (local)
Knowledge (arcana)
When they first walk in, Mahath comments to the others "I just noticed. The insignia on her ring is that of the Seekers. The guild for explorers. Well, as much treasure hunters as explorers, from what I've heard. Interesting."
When the snake comes to life and attacks, Mahath calls out "Iron cobra! It is metal, not an animal, but it is still poisonous!"
Mal
Garnst
Mahath
Dain
Kat
Cobra
ROUND 1 order
Everyone
cobra
Move back Mal! Or withdraw away! Worried Mal will channel to heal
He will also start moving up witht he others.
Garnstn shifts around trying for a flank with the metal thing, and draws his big axe rather than little blades thinking it will take hard hits to make a difference.
Round 1.
Mahath unleashes a force missile at the cobra.
Damage
"It seems a shame to destroy it. Pity we don't have a password to make it stand down."
The scarred half-orc looks oddly at Mahath with his good eye. "Fraker almost killed Mal... needs to die."
The scarred half-orc looks oddly at Mahath with his good eye. "Fraker almost killed Mal... needs to die."
Mahath flushes with embarrassment, but replies "I know, I know. It just feels like we are destroying Lavinia's property. But I'm sure she expects it."
Mal staggers back at the strike nearly falling over until Dain channels positive energy into him.
He withdraws backwards knowing he cannot sustain another hit similar to that one.
Fortitude save
Garnstn moves away to flank the construct, he avoids a nasty bite by dodging away with a quick tumble and moves around to flanking spot, hammering the creature. The barbarian slams the creature too with a mighty blow while raging. The two blows destroy the creature.
Garnstn recovers two doses of a nasty poison from the reservoir in the construct without damaging, placing them in a waterskin if he has not spare vials or stone flasks.
Lavinia informs you she was surprised about the attack.
The creature quickly defeated, all but the ranger seem none the worse for wear.
Combat OVER
I hope there are no others in here. Let me take your place in front, Mal.
"Dain, he looks like he's barely with us. Can you help with the wound? Or maybe poison? I've read that these things can have reservoirs of poison in them. Can you... check him over?"
Dain sighs and head sover to Mal, giving him a small blessing
Dain then expends on of his few Miracles to help heal him
Garnstn nods once Mal is healed. "Lets move."
You decide to search the room with Lavinia. Garnstn and Malstei soon find that the northern pillar's snake patterns are different than the rest of the room. After calling everyone over Garnstn notices one of the snake heads is actually a switch. A quick search for it being trap reveals nothing so he activates it.
As soon as the switch is triggered, the snake designs begin to animate, writhing aside to reveal an archway to another room. "You found the vault! Excellent!"
This octagonal room is supported by a single large pillar with dozens of deep grooves along its sides. The seven walls of this room each bear fantastically detailed bas-relief carvings of exotic monsters in threatening poses.
Starting at the wall immediately to the west of the entrance to the room and moving clockwise, the carvings depict a tentacled monster with a glaring red eye and a mouth full of teeth, a looming dragon, a fish-like creature with three eyes and four tentacles, a two-headed giant wielding a pair of immense clubs, a spherical creature with four eye stalks and a bulging central eye over a drooling maw, a gorilla-like beast with a fanged maw and six eyes, and finally a towering black spider with seven eyes.
Each monster's eyes consist of a glittering red stone. The ceiling above is only ten feet high, with the now-familiar eight-pointed star pattern radiating out from the grooved pillar. The arms of this star are black, save for the one pointing south toward the entrance, which is red.
This is a roper
This is a Red Dragon
This is an Aboleth
This is an Ettin
This is a Beholder
This is a Grey Render
This is a Monstrous Spider
Dain has no idea. Remember the poem about the directions we got on the ship.
Looming Dragon
"Well, that one is a red dragon."
Two Headed Giant
Spherical Creature
"I don't recall a red dragon in the riddle."
Hmm.. We might be missing something.
|
Kat repeats the riddle:"Chimera looks to sunrise
Cyclops looks to sunset
Medua looks to sunrise
Umber Hulk looks to sunset
Basilisk looks to sunrise" Looking at the monsters she looks for anything special before counting the gemstones in each monsters face representing the eyes. "Well that shows one to seven eyes."
Garnstn ignores the puzzle for now, looking carefully around the room for other threats. He didn't much like that metal snake thing almost killing one of them on his watch.
You find the central pillar rotates allowing the red arm, which is currently pointing to the entrance and not any of the walls, to move as the pillar is rotated in each of eight possible positions, its current position, or seven new ones pointing to a creature.
The dragon has two eyes, the rest the amount described.
Thinking about the paper:
This is a magical beast that has a head of a lion, dragon, and goat
This is a large one eyed giant.
This is a humanoid creature that looks like a woman, but she can turn you to stone.
This is a 4 eyed aberration that burrows underground.
This is a magical beast that has eight legs and can turn you to stone with a gaze from its pair of eyes.
Chimera Knowledge (arcana)
Cyclops Knowledge (arcana)
Medusa Knowledge (arcana)
Basilisk Knowledge (arcana)
Mahath will share what he recalls of the three creatures.
"So, the five lines alternative sunrise and sunset. Maybe if we turn the column here left and right, it will open the vault."
"As Kat said, there are creatures depicted here with between one and seven eyes. Maybe that's the number of times we need to turn it? Chimera would be six, cyclops one, medusa two and basilisk two. I'm not sure about an umber hulk, though."
"I fear I am at a loss as to what to do as well. Perhaps we need to shift the positions of these reliefs, shall we see if we can move them?"
Well be wary of any traps if we guess wrong.
With Mahath's suggestion, the column is turned to the right then to the left five times. Not knowing the fourth number in the combination, various numbers are tried. There appears to be no problem with putting in a wrong combination, just nothing happens.
So, when four is used for the fourth number, the vault opens.
The combination also lands on the correct number of eyes as first, your group turns the pillar to the right until it rests on the six eyed gorilla, then turns it left until it rests on the one eyed roper, then turn it right one click to the dragon, then left to the 4 eyed umber hulk, then finishes turning it right to the dragon once again.
As the last correct number clicks in place, there is a rumbling, and the other pillars in the room rotate revealing 5 alcoves with small chests and coffers inside.
Lavinia begins to go through the chests and as she opens up each one, there is nothing but a few coins scattered on the bottom. She keeps going alcove to alcove getting more desperate each time she opens a chest.
Finally in the last alcove there is a reprieve. Several of the chests here remain untouched. One of the iron coffers contains a number of documents and she pages through them quickly. She also find a ledger, but she flips through it with a frown unable to read it. She counts out the coins and gives each of you 200gp. "I am concerned that there seems to be a lot of my family's money missing. There is a stack of IOUs that I can collect on that will allow me to pay my back taxes and get my estate in order. I will need to think about what is next, especially with my finances not what I thought they would be."
With mixed feelings Lavinia gathers here stuff together and you return in the hired coach to her estate for a cold dinner.
"I am worried it was my brother. He has got to be found!!" Lavinia confesses in exasperation.
Garntstn can't help the expression of amazement that spreads across his face as he holds 200 gold in his hand. The weight is significant, but it seems even more so.
Could feed everyone in the crew for a year with this... But those times are done. Have a new crew now.
As he eats the cold meal, some notice that Garnstn secrets away bits of food - perhaps saving them for later. As the brother is mentioned, Garnstn nods. "We could look to find him. Streets might know somethin. Seems we got a good crew here for that sorta stuff." And with food like this and real gold flowing, there is little I wouldn't do for this lady... Even if it gets bloody.
We might want to pool our gold. My church, and no doubt others offers special healing wands that can allow us to recover between battles easier.
Thinking on the significant wounds he has faced, Garnstn says "I'm in for healing. Gotta help the crew."
400 out of 750 gathered
Mahath nods in agreement. "It is a wise investment, I believe. I'll put my payment for this last job in as well. If we end up with more than we need for just the wand, then I think Dain should just hold it for common expenses, like hiring a boat when we need one."
600 out of 750
As you finish up dinner, a message is delivered to Lavinia.
She explains: "I have been informed Vanthus checked into the family vault before me. I need him found."
Lavinia explains to you: "The two of us were quite close growing up, since our parents were rarely around. We grew to depend on each other, and got into a fair amount of trouble together. After one particularly complex prank involving several elixirs of love being emptied into the nearby water tower, our childhoods came to an end. I was sent to the Thenalar Academy to live out the next five years of mylife, and Vanthus was shipped out to work on a plantation. When we returned to live in the family manor a year ago, we had both changed. I think Vanthus returned bitter. He no longer had time for me, slept all day, and spent the nights with associates of doubtful character. Eventually, he moved out of the house entirely-I believe he took up with a lover in Azure District, but I never learned the details. When our parents died, Vanthus returned for a week to live at the manor, but he had changed even more. Gone was the easy sense of humor I recalled fondly from our childhood, and in its place was a bitter cynicism and a morbid streak that sent chills up my spine. After several arguments, Vanthus struck me with his fist. We were shocked for a few seconds, but an instant later he was back to his new self, all scowls and menace. He gathered his belongings and left-I haven't seen him since. Something profound happened to my brother at some point to change him, but I'm not sure what this was. He's fallen in with a bad crowd, perhaps smugglers or thieves or even killers."
So checking out the Azure District seems to be our first stop.
"Agreed Dain, the faster we go the faster we will locate him and uncover what happened to your family fortune Lavinia. I am not from here are there any taverns that we should look into first which he may frequent?"
750 gathered.
Dain will stop at the emple of Kord and purchase a wand of CLW for the group