G9. WISHING WELL
Tall, alabaster columns-one of which lies toppled and shattered to the west-surround this outdoor monument.
Four short stairways climb to the low, circular wall of decorative archways that wraps around the raised dais, where a triangular pool reflects the sky overhead.
As you draw near to the wishing well as you speaks in your minds. "Hello. Can we talk?"
What are you doing?
Looking around annoyed, Ashlei turns to the Captain.
"You hear that too?"
"Something imprisoned, no doubt."
The voice in your heads speaks again, "You are correct. I am bound in the well and would very much like to leave. The creators of this place trapped and bound me here. Using my magic over the centuries to aid their lives. However those who knew of me and my abilities, and had the power to use me have long since passed on. I have been imprisoned here for centuries now."
There is a pause,"With your aid I could leave, but there is one catch. I would have to give you a powerful spell to free me. One I can only use once a century. If you don't use the spell to free me I would be trapped for another hundred years... Can I trust you to free me?"
What now?
"And what assurance do we have that you would not use your freedom to harm us in some way?" Rhialla asks.
Cass says, "Unh-uh. Back up, team, we don't discuss this in the open." She pulls back to a prior area where the group wasn't in range of the telepathy (or, at least, hadn't been contacted yet).
"We have no current knowledge of what this thing is and no way to know if it's lying. Typically telepathic things are imprisoned because they are extraplanar and dangerous. The safest course of action is to assume that everything it says is geared toward getting us to let it out, and ignoring it until we have a magical means to determine its true nature."
Moving away with the others, Ashlei shakes her head.
”I don’t care what it is. Eternal imprisonment and virtual slavery…are some of the worst things I can imagine. I say set it free and we kill it if it’s a problem.”
"Usually when wizards imprison something like this, it's because they want to force it to give them something, or it's too powerful to kill but they can at least bind it. I don't wanna take chances on #2, so perhaps we do some magical investigation before we make any commitments. At the very least we should try to see where this creature is bound and what it actually is."
"Cass is right, there's no guarantee we can kill it, or that it isn't malicious. Unleashing whatever it is on our crew isn't something I'm willing to do without more information." Rhialla agrees.
In response to Percy's question a shape forms in the water of the well. This being resembles a powerful giant with hairless blue-green skin, deep blue eyes, flamboyant eyebrows, and pearlescent teeth
She smiles at you. "I have little to reassure that I mean no harm but my word." She says with a sigh.
She is sincere. Let her go and she'll be grateful.
What now?
Rhialla's eyes widen at the breathtaking splendor of the stunning elemental creature before them, so much to distract from her response or it's veracity.
Considering the situation, Rhialla takes a step forward, making a graceful bow. "Never would I have believed, that I might one day encounter the splendor and magnificence of one of the marid, the most powerful and wondrous of genie kind." she says, looking up at massive aquamarine form before them.
Vailea smiles back at Rhialla. "It is nice to speak with someone cultured at last."
In the waning days of Ghol-Gan, the cyclopes of Sumitha captured and bound a young genie from the ocean into this near-bottomless well with ancient magics.
This marid, named Vailea, suffered much abuse at the hands of the cyclopes, forced to grant wishes to her evil captors or enable their crossing into other planes.
Eventually, the only elders capable of commanding her services died out or abandoned Sumitha, and Vailea has remained trapped and hidden in the pool ever since.
Vailea wants nothing more than to escape her prison, but someone must voluntarily use one of her wishes to free her. Once she senses the PCs' arrival, Vailea contacts them via telepathy in an effort to draw them
closer, conversing with them in the hope of winning their sympathy and friendship.
The genie can be a great source of information about the original
inhabitants of Ghol-Gan. She knows quite a bit about Ishtoreth's reign
and the troubles the cyclopes have faced in battling famine on the
island.
Her greatest fear is that the cyclopes will completely die out and she'll be trapped forever, truly alone, with no one to wish her free.
So what she wants is to use her 1/year Wish. Give it to one of you and have you use it to wish her free. What are you doing now?
Ashlei nods.
I’ll do it. Not like we can compel her free any other way, and like I said: Prison…forever? Possible slavery? Worse than death in my book. Let’s get the b@!@$ free so she can go make some water elemental’s life a wreck…or whatever she’s into.”
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He frowned. He didnt know a lot of genie kind other than they were really really powerful. There was no assurance she would not destroy them once free but like Ash said. it left a bad taste in his mouth to keep her trapped her forever.
"taking all the risks for us eh Burnout?"
He began cracking his kneck and his knuckles then sighing.
"No.... Ash you dont have too if anyone is going to doom us for something like this it will be me. Its my job as captain and all that. Once we free you are you heading straight home? Or would you stay and parlay a bit with us i have questions...
Giggling, Ashlei smirks.
"Yeah...you wouldn't happen to know my Grandfather's, or Great-grandfather's name, would you? Some sort of powerful genie from the plane of Fire. Something like that. At least that's all my mom would tell me about my dad..."
"We would definitely welcome the opportunity to learn more of the cyclopes and Ghol-Gan, if you would be so kind." Rhialla adds. "Clearly with the loss of their access to your power, their empire went into rapid decline. We are the new owners of the island, and have no love of those that would enslave others."
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Millennia before the formation of the Eye of Abendego, in the heyday of the Age of Serpents, the cyclopes of Ghol-Gan ruled over much of the territory now claimed by the Shackles.
Many of their ruins still stand, including those on the remote island now known as the Island of Empty Eyes.
During the days of Ghol-Gan, the cyclopes built a mountain retreat called Sumitha. This retreat contained an underground vault known as the Eye of Serenity, which held an artifact called the lens of revelation.
The cyclops seers of Sumitha guided their fellows in using the Eye and the lens therein for personal sojourns and divine introspection. But with the waning of their civilization, the lens turned dark and the cyclopes abandoned Sumitha.
Many cyclopes retreated into the Darklands, leaving only a handful behind, who gradually degenerated into brutish savages. Centuries later, sailors saw the eyeless statues on the island's shores and hillsides and gave the island its current name.
Long since prized away by opportunists and treasure seekers, the statues' single eyes-once represented by fist-sized gemstones-are now
just empty sockets.
In 4110 AR, Chelish explorers stumbled across the island and made landfall. The settlers explored the island's interior and discovered the ruins of Sumitha, stirring up conflict with the few remaining cyclopes in the stronghold.
The Chelaxians lost several soldiers in the ensuing battles, so they built a small fort overlooking the island's inner bay to defend themselves. Eventually, however, the giants' attacks grew too numerous and organized, spurring the settlers to abandon their island home and flee to the mainland, joining the larger and newer colony of Sargava.
The degenerate cyclopes left behind on the Island of Empty Eyes fell on hard times themselves. A few years after the Chelaxians abandoned the island, an earthquake shook the region, collapsing the few remaining tunnels to the Darklands.
As the cyclops survivors emerged from the vaults of Sumitha, their huge appetites nearly depleted the island's remaining food sources. The cyclopes were forced to search for new ways to fill their stomachs, plying the seas in giant whaling vessels, traveling to neighboring
islands to capture dinosaurs to herd as livestock, or simply raiding ships and coastal communities to take what they needed to survive.
The tribe, now led by a great cyclops named Ishtoreth has lost much of its cultural identity in the years of seclusion and stagnation. Discarding the sense of honor their ancestors displayed during the Age
of Serpents, Ishtoreth's tribe has descended into utter brutality, posing a significant threat to any seeking to make the island their own.
More recently, a band of pirates settled upon the Island of Empty Eyes. Led by a Mwangi wizard named Bikendi Otongu, they swiftly restored the Chelish fort and began quietly scouting the island's ruins.
Bikendi used powerful illusions to hide his people's presence from the cyclopes for many months, all so he could conduct his research without interruption. Obsessed with dreams and alternate realities, he believed he could extend his life without relying on an undead apotheosis like lichdom-turning instead to the heartstone magic of night hags.
Using such a gem, he hoped to bind his soul in an arcane ritual, preserving it as he separated his consciousness from his physical form. As his body passed away, his mind would remain vibrant and free to seek out the Dimension of Dreams, living on for all eternity in whatever world he could imagine.
To carry out his plan, Bikendi searched for the perfect gem to create a heartstone, carefully consulting the magic of ancient Ghol-Gan and looking for a flawless jewel among the ruins of Sumitha.
He found exactly what he needed in the lens of revelation, and moved invisibly among the cyclopes of Sumitha until he could steal away the
stone used in their ancestral divinations.
But to craft a heartstone from the lens, Bikendi also needed to cultivate a relationship with a night hag willing to help him. Thus
he made contact with a night hag named Lodhotha and offered her a hundred souls from captives taken in his raids in exchange for crafting such a heartstone from the lens that he could use for his ritual.
Lodhotha readily agreed, accepting Bikendi's hapless victims even as she
made plans to keep the new heartstone, called the immortal dreamstone, for herself.
In the meantime, she feasted on the nightmares of those held in the fort's prison, raiding their dreams each night until she could harvest their souls for the dark markets of her nightmarish realm.
To fulfill his part of the bargain, Bikendi increased his raids, using the island as a base from which to assault passing ships. These efforts attracted the attention of the cyclopes, however, who discovered the lens of revelation was missing from the Eye of Serenity and rightly surmised that Bikendi's pirates had stolen it.
Ishtoreth sent warriors to test the fort's defenses, but the pirates held on, adding captured cyclopes to the allotment of souls due Lodhotha. Bikendi realized, however, that the giants would eventually overrun the fort, so he escalated his plans by imprisoning some of his own men-those who had shown fear or doubt in standing against the cyclopes.
This gave him enough souls to meet Lodhotha's quota, sating the hag's appetite and convincing her to craft the immortal dreamstone. Knowing full well that Lodhotha would rather use the stone on him than relinquish it, Bikendi anticipated her treachery, and sprang his own trap before the hag could double-cross him.
Bikendi instructed his apprentice, Ederleigh Baines, to pickpocket the dreamstone when Lodhotha arrived, thus depriving the hag of her most significant weapon and preventing her from escaping into the Ethereal Plane as well.
Bikendi and his followers then slew Lodhotha, even as Ishtoreth's cyclopes began their final siege of the pirates' fort.
Ecstatic with his prize, and realizing that the dreamstone's magic would last only 24 hours following Lodhotha's death, Bikendi retreated to the fort's tower to attune it to himself, intent on completing his ritual before the cyclopes breached the outer wall. Unfortunately, not only did the ritual prove more challenging than Bikendi had anticipated, but without the wizard's arcane assistance against the cyclopes, Bikendi's forces were quickly overwhelmed.
The giants sank Bikendi's ship with thrown rocks, then broke through the main gates and slew the fort's defenders before turning their assault
on the tower itself.
Rushed by this impending doom, Bikendi missed a vital step in the ritual, shearing his soul and mind from his body, but failing to open the right portal to the Dimension of Dreams.
Before he could correct this error, the cyclopes broke into his sanctum, destroying his preparations and reclaiming the gem that he'd stolen
from Sumitha. While the cyclopes then returned the lens of revelation to the Eye of Serenity, Bikendi's spirit lingered on the Material Plane.
His trapped ghost still haunts the fort in a fruitless effort to reclaim the dreamstone so he can finish the ritual. But Lodhotha's sister, the night hag Haetanga, has sent her own minions to track down her sibling and retrieve the gem. These creatures also now lurk within the fort, ready to threaten and interrogate anyone who ventures there.
And then you arrived. :)
Any other questions you wish to ask. She can't tell you much more about the cyclopes as they were very much on the decline due to having exhausted the food on the island. Then you showed up and killed most of them.
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"Cyclops, ghosts, almost dying, then actually dying, and now a genie." Esmarelda pointed out with a small smirk. "You know, we could write a book, a lot of books, about this. Just a thought... there is a market for pirate bodice rippers. Or so I've been told." She chuckled to herself.
Snorting a laugh, Ashlei scratches in an inappropriate place.
”Who cares about books when you can live it!”
G10. DINING HALL
The sharp tang of wood smoke fills this building, where a giant fire pit set with roasting spits takes up the northern half of the room, positioned just below an open hole in the roof.
The Cyclops used this room as a dining hall. It is now vacant.
G11. MONEY CHANGER
Smashed tables and chairs, all sized for giants, lie scattered about this building's single, large room.
In the heyday of ancient Ghol Gan, Sumitha hosted travelers from a variety of cultures, most coming to visit the Eye of Serenity. In exchange, the cyclopes charged a hefty sum, establishing an arbiter here to act as money changer.
Treasure: Long forgotten among the detritus of Sumitha's ruin, several
ancient coins from vanished empires can be found scattered about the room. All told, they're worth a total of 2500gp to various collectors.
G12. MAGISTRATES' HALL
A large brass door provides access to this ruined hall, though an additional hole gapes in the northeast wall. Inside, much of the roof has long since collapsed and a garden of vegetation has taken root.
The cyclopes once maintained order from this ancient courthouse. Now, the building lies empty, overgrown with plant life. One of the trees inside bears a strange olivelike fruit, harvested by Ishtoreth's tribe for sustenance.
G13. LEGATION
The architecture of this building is markedly different from others in the valley-it appears to have been built for human-sized occupants.
A successful DC25 Knowledge (engineering) or Knowledge (history) check reveals the architecture and cultural trappings of this building belong to ancient Azlant rather than Ghol-Gan.
The cyclopes of Sumitha once hosted an Azlanti seer as he consulted the Eye of Serenity. The cyclopes constructed this building to accommodate him and he altered it with stone shape to suit his personal tastes. Eventually, the seer passed on to another plane, courtesy of the genie Vailea in area G9, and his home has lain abandoned ever since.
Looking at the Sumitha map you have only G8, G22 & G23 to search. Where to now?
G8. Terrace
A wide flight of stone stairs leads to a terrace, which offers a commanding view of the ruined streets and buildings below.
Several statues gaze outward from its wall.
To the northeast and southeast, a giant cavern opens into the mountainside
where two tunnels lie choked with rubble.
The statues are Gargoyles waiting to ambush you!
What are you doing now?
”Cool view.”
"I'll need to use magic to cut a lot of the stairs down to size, to make it more approachable to people," says Cassiopeia. "Not a big deal. We should map out the common important routes so that I can get those done first."
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The six statues on the walls of the Aerie all turn and attack, revealing themselves to be Gargoyles!
Blue & Yellow go first. . They fly inot the air and attack again.
Orange & Cassiopeia go next.
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Cassiopeia can now act!
Rhialla staggers back from the arrow, glaring up toward the gargoyles and grabbing the bosun's whistle hanging around her neck, and she chants a spell and blows the call. A powerful ringing blast of sound erupts in the corner to the formation, hammering three stony enemies.
[dice=Cast Sound Burst (sonic damage)]1d8
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Cassiopeia lets out a strangled cry as she suffers the slings and arrows of outrageous... arrows, grips her spellbook and casts communal protection from arrows on the team.
Esmarelda was able to hop out of the way of both arrows shot her way.
Cassiopeia casts on the party.
Red takes to the air and snaps a shot at Percy.
Percy may now act!
Freeze (Ex) A gargoyle can hold itself so still it appears to be a
statue. A gargoyle that uses its freeze ability can take 20 on its Stealth check to hide in plain sight as a stone statue.
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He growled in pain not once but twice as the arrows rained down on them.
"you blasted pigeons hiding in a stone shell.... You cowardly vermin... I'll gut everylast one of you..."
He called out concentraing for just a moment to make his pike reach its full length. He stabbed out in a fury at the closest gargoyle (if there is one) before readying himself to hit everyone that closed on his girls and himself.
Percy wounds Purple.
Purple & Green take their actions, Purple moves away but eats two AOO's from Percy and looks very badly wounded now.
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Ashlei, Esmeralda & Rhialla can now act. As they have moved apart Rhialla can say her spell never happened and take her action now. :)