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We are getting ready to begin our Shattered Star campaign and as such I tend to write campaign journals throughout the adventure. I convinced our group (5 players) to go with the classic Fighter, Rogue, Cleric, Wizard combo with the fifth player picking anything they wanted. I decided on the fighter and decided to put together a Shoanti Thunder and Fang style warrior. I initially looked at the Viking archetype and was going to go that route but decided against it in the end as I had played an Urban Barbarian/Cleric in our last campaign and I wanted to avoid the Rage mechanic, plus I happen to love vanilla fighters.
We are going with a 25 point build and I decided on
Str 18, Dex 16, Con 14, Int 12, Wis 10, Cha 8
Traits Defender of the Society (Combat), Auspicious Tattoo (Racial), Serpent Runner (Campaign)
Drawback Mark of Slavery
Feats Weapon Focus (Earth breaker), Weapon Focus (Klar), Two-Weapon Fighting
Skill Ranks Climb, Linguistics, Survival, Swim
Saves Fort 4, Ref 3, Will 1
AC 20 with Klar, 19 w/o
Gear Earth breaker, Klar, Kukri, Scale armor
Backstory (I apologize for poor writing skills, you have been warned.)
Akrem was born into the Shadde-Quah, or Axe Clan for those not familiar with the shoanti language. Akrem and the quah spent their time gathering fish to smoke for the long winter months, trade with outlanders that offered proper tribute and honorable actions, and fighting to survive. Before his rite of passage, Akrem spent most of his early years fishing with his parents, training in combat, and listening to the tales of the elders and shamans.
On the day of his rite of passage, Akrem’s hands, arms and feet were bound in the heavy hemp rope used on their fishing boats by his father. The sun was still below the eastern horizon and had not yet risen for adequate light. “Remember to remain calm,” was all Akrem’s father said before his mother and father tossed Akrem from the cliff into the fjord waters far below with the quah watching. Even though it was early spring, the waters were still cold from the late winter. Knowing that to begin the struggle of removing the bonds would be futile until he reached the bottom, Akrem remained as still and calm as he could. As he slowly sank, he spotted a tunnel in the cliff wall below the surface of the water. The tunnel was easily large enough to swim through and Akrem decided to investigate its length at a later time.
Akrem was brought back from the prospect of investigating the tunnel when he felt his feet reach the sandy bottom of the sea. Quickly he began looking for a rock that would allow him to begin cutting his bonds when he spied the corpse of an outlander. Jutting from the skeletal corpses chest was a sword and even though it was badly rusted, Akrem knew that it would cut his bonds quicker than any rock he may find. Reaching the corpse was difficult but Akrem again heard his fathers voice in his head as he reminded himself to stay calm. After a few moments of gently sawing his arms across the sharpened edge of the sword the ropes loosened enough for him to break the bonds. Once his arms were free, Akrem pulled the sword from corpses back and cut those bonds that held his feet in check.
Discarding the sword, Akrem quickly began swimming back to the surface. As he passed the tunnel his curiosity took hold and he entered the tunnel. Knowing that what he was doing was foolish Akrem pushed on and was rewarded by surfacing into a small cave. The walls were alight with a strange fungus that gave off a small amount of light. As he pulled himself from the water to look about he found several chests setting on an outcropping of rock. Within the chests were piles of sun colored coins, rings and chains with bright colored stones, and other fanciful things that Akrem didn’t understand. For several minutes Akrem looked about holding the items before setting them back down as if they were fragile.
With a start Akrem suddenly realized that he had been looking about for long period of time. Unsure of how long he had lingered in the cave, Akrem dove into the waters and furiously swam back to the surface. Just as the rising suns light began touching the waters where he had been dropped into, Akrem surfaced to the delight of the quah. It was at this moment that the quah shamans decided that Akrem would now be called Akrem Sun Diver.
On the advice of his father Akrem never spoke of the cave or what he had found hidden within. Over the years Akrem found himself returning to the cave periodically to investigate its treasures. He was fascinated with the multitude of coins and the raised drawings of faces to people he would never meet. The detail and craftsmanship in the rings and neck chains with their oddly cut and shaped stones of every color in the arch of light after a rainstorm.
On one of Akrem’s visits to the cave he encountered the outlanders that had deposited their gold and jewels in the cave for safe keeping. Slaver pirates from Riddleport had arrived and before Akrem could escape he was captured and branded on the side of his neck. Although he struggled the metal bands on his wrists would not break, and neither would his spirit. He fought every day against the pirates and was beaten with a wooden cudgel for his troubles. In time Akrem relented to their demands because with the beatings came the loss of food and weakness of the body eventually wore down the spirit. It was during this time that Akrem learned to speak the common tongue from the other slaves on board the ship.
One day the ship pulled into the Riddleport harbor and Akrem stood in awe of the great stone arch that was built over the bay. Strange symbols that looked like the shoanti language were carved into its sides. The city was like nothing Akrem had ever seen and the air smelled of filth and the sea. There were people everywhere Akrem looked. There were people moving cargo onto and off of the largest ships Akrem had ever seen. There were people moving about on the wooden piers working on moving the cargo or repairing the docks. People were crawling about on the sides of large stone and wood homes repairing damage from some super storm. Once the ship had docked Akrem and several other slaves were re-shackled and pushed onto the shore where they were led to a large wooden platform where other shackled slaves were being sold to captains and peoples who bartered for them like someone bartered for a chicken.
While on the auction block, an older man with lightly olive colored skin and almond shaped eyes purchased Akrem. The older man, although small, stood straight and proud and in the shoanti language introduced himself as Yamoko Iatsudo, a Pathfinder and traveler. Speaking Akrem’s native language, a language that he had not heard spoken for a year surprised Akrem and the old man chuckled at Akrems look of shock. Continually speaking in shoanti, Iatsudo explained that he detested the idea of slaves and that he did what he could to free them. In Riddleport though, his actions were limited to purchasing the slave and then freeing them when they were far enough away from Riddleport. Iatsudo then waved his hand over the shackles and said something in an unknown tongue and the manacles opened and dropped from his wrists.
Iatsudo took Akrem to a tavern where he ordered food and drink. While they waited for their food Akrem was presented an elixir that would heal the damage he had taken at the hands of the pirates. The magical elixir did its trick as Akrem could feel the bruises that covered his body flush with heat and then fade along with any aches. As Akrem devoured several bowls of fish stew and hunks of bread Iatsudo explained that he was going to his homeland of Tian Xia far to the north.
He had hoped to purchase help from a mercenary for his journey but learned of the slave auction and thought his money could go to better use there. Iatsudo then asked if Akrem would like to accompany him as his bodyguard and as payment, Iatsudo would teach Akrem all he could. Iatsudo explained that Akrem was free to leave and return to his quah but he was also welcome to travel with Iatsudo. Since Iatsudo had shown honor in his deeds by freeing Akrem from his bondage and showing proper tribute to his culture by introducing himself in shoanti, Akrem agreed to accompany Iatsudo on his journey.
For three years the two traveled together, all the way to Tian Xia and back, and true to his word Iatsudo taught and showed Akrem all he could. He learned of ancient Thasillon and its rulers. He learned how they had enslaved his people and used them as their armies. His final lesson was of Magnimar, its people, its grandeur, and its underbelly. The city was so much larger and so unlike what he had seen in Riddleport. Iatsudo told Akrem of the Pathfinder lodge in Magnimar and that he was always welcome there. Akrem took his leave from Iatsudo, whom he now regarded as a close friend, and decided to discover what Magnimar had to offer on his own. Akrem wandered the city reflecting on the large statues that dotted the cityscape and thought of his home. It had been almost five years since he was taken and his shame at not heeding his fathers advice prevented Akrem from following up on his wish of going home.
Eventually he came to the Serpent’s Run where its owner Jorston “Axetongue” Droaeb hired Akrem to fight in his grand arena. The fights were fair and fake, but the coin and cheers from the crowd were real enough. Akrem learned a great many things about fighting and met several other shoanti that worked at the Serpent’s Run. In time the desire to travel and adventure blunted the cheers of the crowd, and so Akrem returned to Iatsudo and the Pathfinder Society.
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Akrem Sun Diver
Pathfinder Journal, 30 Erastus through 1 Arodus
Job Offer • Magic Box • Magnimar Sewer
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It would seem that my desire to join my friend and mentor Iatsudo in the Pathfinder Society was passed on to the Decemvirate, or at least those that take the applications. Upon returning to Iatsudo’s home Iatsudo handed me a missive that was delivered earlier. The wax seal showing the mark of a family crest belonging to Heidmarch. Looking down at Iatsudo, being that I was almost a foot taller than the older man, I could see his smile behind the white beard.
“Well open it!” he cried. His hands showing me how in case I didn’t understand how to unfold a letter.
Smirking, I cracked the wax seal and read out loud what was written down. It would seem that the Pathfinder Society had decided to open a lodge here in Magnimar and that the lodge would be located within the Heidmarch manor. The letter also asked for me, by name, to be at the new lodge at noon on the following day. The letter was signed by Sheila Heidmarch.
Looking again at Iatsudo, I asked if she was familiar to him. He nodded saying that he had heard of her. She was a well respected adventurer, as was her husband Canayven, and their familial wealth would provide for a fine lodge.
Grabbing his coat, Iatsudo said, “Lets go shopping. We will need to find some basic gear for you if you are going to be a true Pathfinder. Besides, if you are going to say you know me, you had better look the part.” Several hours later I had purchased as much as I could from the earnings I had saved while at the Serpents Run.
The next day I left with plenty of time to arrive at the Heidmarch Manor at the scheduled time. There was already activity at the manor that spoke to it being more of a lodge than the home of some noble. There were people moving in and out of the manor dressed similarly to myself. No obvious signs of livery marking anyone as members of the Heidmarch house staff.
Once on the grounds proper I was met by her house domo and I presented the letter to him. He asked if I would wait inside until Sheila Heidmarch was finished with her current guest. He then led me into a comfortable waiting room where a few other individuals stood waiting. Wine and fruits were provided and I sat in silence as a total of five people eventually were located in the room. After waiting past our appointed time the domo returned to say that Sheila would unfortunately be a little late to the meeting as her guest was unexpected and their meeting was still ongoing.
When he left, I said to those in the room with me that my name was Akrem Sun Diver, a Shoanti warrior from the Shadde-Quah. Taking my cue, the dwarf nodded a greeting and introduced himself as Dagon Deepstone, a priest of Angradd. When I asked about his god he was described as a warrior and tactician, and son of Torag their main god. Another Shoanti, Ragnar of the Shriikirri-Quah introduced himself as well. He was smaller than most Shoanti but seemed rather fluid in his movements. He also appeared to have been living away from the Quah for a long time as his weapon of choice looked to be a rapier. The last human in the room was also as martially minded as myself and introduced himself as Vander, of the dragon order. His apparent weapon of choice was a large two handed sword that was leaning against the chair he now sat in. The last person in the room was a small elf with dark eyes. He introduced himself as Aeolys, a wizard and historian.
We passed our time with small talk, mostly of our pasts and how we came to receive the same letter from Sheila Heidmarch. Eventually a side door opened and in walked a very stately woman followed by another woman of elvish descent. A quick smile from the stately woman and an apology for her tardiness told me that she was Sheila Heidmarch. She shook each of our hands in turn and learned our names, finishing off the introductions by introducing her friend and fellow Pathfinder Cora Azmerin. Her sudden arrival and their discussions were the reason for her taking the meeting later than expected. She was also apparently known to Aeolys, at least by name, as Sheila told us that Azmerin had returned from a trip to the darklands, where she had discovered another gate into their realm. Other than hearing the name darklands, I had never heard of such a place and so I remained silent learning what I could.
Sheila escorted us into her personal study where my attention was immediately pulled towards the large library of books on her shelves. Aeolys was also intrigued by the books and we each shared a wry smile at what knowledge these books must contain. Setting my gear down I began looking through the titles when Sheila asked for all of us to look at a puzzle box that Azmerin had found and directed us to a table in the middle of the room. It looked to be Thassilonian by make and the fact that Aeolys and I both said as much as well as read the letters on the side seemed to impress her. Sheila then asked for us, as a test, to see if we could open the box while she escorted her guest out. There were notes scribbled on a weighted down scroll next to the puzzle box and I began reading through it explaining to the others what was written down. There were several letters and it would seem that we could swap the letters around by touching two letters at the same time. Finding the right combination would undoubtedly unlock the box. My suggestion of spelling a word backwards netted nothing. A thoughtful smile from Aeolys and he explained his theory to solving the puzzle. His idea worked and the box sprung open releasing some magical spell that summoned three dog like creatures the size of a child. These creatures immediately began stabbing at us with weapons and one of them even looked about the room with malicious intent.
All of my equipment was across the room and so I was left to defend myself with my cold iron kukri, a weapon I had carried with me since I had left for Tian Xia with Iatsudo. I found myself having difficulty wielding the weapon, even though I was quite skilled with it. Even the fluid moving Ragnar tripped on the corner of a rug and stumbled about. The assault lasted only a few seconds before the creatures were dispatched, disappearing before their bodies could hit the floor. The kukri seemed to have no difficulty in harming the creatures, where the others weapons were less effective than they should have been, Ragnar’s rapier having the most difficulty. No sooner had the last creature disappeared than Sheila and her domo burst into the room trying to figure out what was going on. Before we could answer, Sheila’s eyes rested on the open box and a small smile appeared on her face before quickly disappearing.
We explained that Aeolys had figured out the puzzle and by opening the puzzle box we released some sort of conjuration magic that summoned in the dog like creatures. Thankfully, we only did a little minor damage to her study during the altercation. Looking inside the puzzle box we found a magical ring, a silver dagger and three small gems. Sheila said that we could keep the items from the box and her domo handed out four magical potions to treat our wounds. Since Dagon had already tended to our wounds we kept the potions as backups for when Dagon was unavailable. The ring was discovered to be a ring of feather fall, which Vander asked very quickly if he could have as he was rather afraid of heights, to which we laughed and handed him the ring. The silver dagger went to Ragnar and the gems we decided to use to purchase more healing potions.
Overjoyed at our success at discovering how to open the puzzle box and deal with its “contents” while not destroying her study, Sheila asked if we would assist her with another matter. One of her many contacts in Magnimar had disappeared and that this contact had discovered some item that the Pathfinder Society would be greatly interested in. The contact was a woman named Natalia Vankaskerkin and was possibly a member of one of the many Scarni gangs in Magnimar. Sheila asked for us to find out what had happened to Vankaskerkin, what this item was and if possible retrieve the item as well as Vankaskerkin, preferably alive. All she had to go on was that there were rumors of her being familiar with some fortune teller in the Washers Row called Amazing Zograthy. Another suggestion Sheila gave was to talk with the local guards as there were rumors of slavers prowling the streets at night. If this were true, Vankaskerkin may be a slave and would need an immediate rescue. Learning about the slavers from the guards was my choice, especially since I rather despised slavers. The rest of the group agreed, and we left immediately for the large tower in Magnimar where the guards were located.
The tower was bustling with activity when we arrived. The surrounding grounds full of local merchants that catered to the constant flow of guards to and from the tower. Entering inside we discovered that it was just as busy and were asked to wait our turn by one of the guards at a desk near the entrance. After having waited for almost an hour Aeolys approached one of the guards and asked if we could be met sooner with a small donation. The woman he had approached took the coin and curtly told Aeolys to remain seated. Once he left she began working again. After another hour my patience was wearing thin, so I got up and began asking the guards that were entering into the tower if any of them knew of a Vankaskerkin or if they knew someone who might. I was given several shrugs until one guard remembered the name and said that the woman Aeolys had spoken with might know something, and that her name was Kasadei. I thanked the man and asked if there was anything I could do for him, to which he asked if I would buy him an ale at the Boar’s Head tavern as payment. I nodded and left to return to the others with the news. Ragnar approached the woman and with a small fortune in gold asked very politely if we could speak with her. The amount and possibly his looks softened her heart somewhat because she agreed.
We learned that she was seen down in Underbridge. Vankaskerkin was also a member of the Tower Girls scarni gang. Their flophouse was an old building down in Underbridge where Fenster the Blight resided, and Kasadei even drew us a quick map. Thanking her for her time we left to head to the Boar’s Head tavern for a quick meal and to repay the guard that helped us out. As it turns out, buying a pint for a group of tired guards is a great way to make friends, and guards as friends is never a bad thing. We even learned that the Wreckwashed Blades were at odds with the Tower Girls.
Going to Underbridge is never a safe thing to do, but going in a group helps to deter most cut purses. Especially when that group is as heavily armed as we are. Fenster’s home was easy enough to find, especially with the map. Outside of his dilapidated shack, in front of the door was an old rotted sea chest. Inside was an old tin plate and a sign, in badly written Taldane, asking for payment for assistance. I dropped a gold coin in the tray and we heard movement inside. This went on for a minute or so before Vander became impatient and opened the front door. This elicited a response from the individual inside as a sudden ear splitting scream followed by a grunt from Vander showed that whoever was inside had stabbed Vander grievously. Before Vander could retaliate Ragnar and I pulled him out of the shack as Aeolys murmured in some arcane language. The old man that stepped out of the shack looked at Aeolys as if he was his oldest friend and even moved to protect Aeolys from Vander. For several minutes the situation was tense but eventually Aeolys convinced the man, who was in fact Fenster, to help us. Even so, Fenster was reluctant to help his ‘old friend’ and I had to donate my newly purchased compass as a payment for Fenster’s help. We learned two things for the price of my compass. One, that Vankaskerkin was wanted by the Tower Girls and was hiding in a house in Underbridge. Two, blue dwarfs were dragging people off in the night. The house that Vankaskerkin was located in was just down the street and Fenster pointed it out. The blue dwarfs though was unrelated but something it sounded like we should follow up on when finished with Vankaskerkin.
The building that we were directed to was an old burned out home and where the main floor had fallen away, sewer waters had filled the basement areas. Attached to the house was a shed where a human armed with a crossbow was sleeping. Not wanting to murder the man we ignored him and entered into the house slowly. As we began to enter into the house several goblins armed with bottles, knives and bags of sewage attacked us. Sadly the small wooden plank that led over the large pit of sewage would not hold us all and so I dropped into the sewage to keep them from killing Ragnar who did his best impression of a acrobat on a high wire while simultaneously fighting for his life from knife wielding maniacs. Aeolys is very gifted in his application of magic and with one word magical fire washed over the goblins killing half of them and severely wounding the others. After that, it was short work to kill the remaining creatures. The building though was a death trap. No where was a floor in the house still working except for a small platform where a couple more goblins learned not to anger Aeolys, as once again his arcane fire made short work of their threat.
Eventually we made it to the rear of the house when a rather wild eyed woman screamed for her loyal subjects to protect her realm from invaders. A large snake with a goblin head fell from a pipe near me, its breath some sort of noxious cloud that thankfully my Shoanti heritage resisted. The others were attacked from smalled winged creatures that looked like large mosquitoes, and goblins. One swing from my earth breaker ended the snake threat and I began climbing up to where this woman was verbally assaulting the others as well as casting spells. I asked if she was Natalia Vankaskerkin when I reached the landing she stood on and I was told to address her as ‘Queen Vankaskerkin.’ She seemed to be crazy, as if under some magical influence. Even the crazy Fenster was more sane than Vankaskerkin, so it had to be magic that distorted her thinking. Because we were asked to bring her in alive, I could only do one thing and she stabbed me for my trouble. Dropping my earth breaker, I wrapped her up and began choking her, hoping she would pass out. Thankfully she was unable to wriggle free, and about the time she slumped into unconsciousness the others finished off the goblins and giant mosquitoes.
As she slipped into unconsciousness a small metal shard dropped from her hand. Immediately I realized that this was the item that Heidmarch wanted and was probably what had caused Vankaskerkin to act . . . crazy. Just as I was about to put the item into a bag I realized that the item was mine by right and instead I tucked the item into a shirt pocket. From there I picked up the unconscious Vankaskerkin and made my way out of this horrible little house with my men in tow. Dagon had remained outside in case the local guards would show up and as we pulled ourselves out of the house he attended our wounds.
No sooner had we began gathering up our supplies to head back to the manor when Dagon was knocked unconscious by a group of three street toughs and an overbearing woman. She was apparently their leader and she told me to leave Vankaskerkin and the item. In exchange we could leave with our lives. I was incensed that such a lowly woman would try to give me an order. I told her that if she wanted to die here, my men and I would grant her that wish, but the item and Vankaskerkin was mine by right! The fight was bloody and quick, it ended with the woman running off and one of the thugs surrendering. Once we learned that she was one of the Tower Girls it all made sense and so we let the man go, the wounds he took and the loss of his friends being more than enough punishment.
Once we arrived at the Heidmarch Manor with our prize over my shoulder, Heidmarch showed me every courtesy one of equal stature should. Even in my current state with blood and sewage coating my armor and clothes she afforded me every luxury she had available. When I showed her the item we had found in Vankaskerkins possession her eyes grew wide and she asked us to wait while she went to retrieve an item. When she returned she presented me the item, an ioun stone, as a gift for my deeds. I could tell that the ioun stone had a groove in it that matched the edge of the metal item. When I brought them together it seemed to snap into place and I realized that I was sitting in one of Heidmarch’s comfortable chairs and making a fine mess of it. Jumping up, I apologized for having soiled her chair.
She smiled while the rest of the group looked on in confusion. It was then that I realized that I was acting like a Korvosan and was holding the same piece of metal that Vankaskerkin had been holding. Quickly I set it down on the table in front of me and stepped back, apologizing to the others for my actions. Sheila explained that the item I had been holding was called the Shard of Pride, a major artifact from the Thassilonian era. The item was one of seven shards thought lost to the ages. Each shard was a point of the sihedron rune, the same rune that was the symbol of the Thassilonian empire. We talked for several hours about the item, explaining that each shard would point the way to another shard, and if we were able to repair the sihedron rune, then the Pathfinder Society would have a powerful weapon to protect Varisia. The next shard appeared to be here in Magnimar, at one of the pilings of the Irespan, and Sheila thought it would be the perfect job for our group to find.
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Akrem Sun Diver
Pathfinder Journal, 1 Arodes through 2 Arodes
Downtime • Shopping • Irespan Investigation
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After our meeting with Heidmarch we were given lodgings in what was once the Heidmarch stable but was now being converted over to a small barracks. The domo brought in dried meats, breads and fruits for us to eat and fresh water to wash it down with. The cots we had as beds were comfortable enough but privacy was non-existent.
My throat had become a little raw since our return from Underbridge and the domo brought warm tea and honey which helped soothe my throat. I then spent the remainder of my time chronicling our adventure so far as members of the Pathfinder Society in my journal.
The others spent their time on personal pursuits, while Aeolys used his magics to clean our armor and equipment. The stains and smells left from the Magnimar sewage was overwhelming to all that were downwind of our group.
Before I had sat down and began working on the journal I stopped by our posting board and retrieved the flier asking for assistance with the disappearances. All information was to be directed to the Lord Mayor of Magnimar himself, which I found odd. It would seem that some people had been taken and even some had returned with no knowledge of what had happened. The information given to us by Fenske at least pointed to costumed individuals or some unknown creature being involved. After everyone had a chance to read the flier we decided that we would stop by the Lord Mayor’s estate in the morning and see if there was any additional information that we could learn before investigating the issue further.
The next morning though was a waste of time. We were asked to wait outside the estate grounds and an advisor to the Lord Mayor essentially brushed us off saying that all we needed to know was on the flier. Perhaps it was the manner in which we were sent off, even though the flier asked us to report to the Lord Mayor personally, but we forgot about returning to the lodge to meet with Heidmarch and Vankaskerkin.
Instead we journeyed to the bazaar of sails to sell off equipment and loot that we had gathered from the previous day. I was able to procure an ioun torch, something Iatsudo explained was invaluable while exploring ruins. I was also able to find all the materials needed for Dagon to enchant my earth breaker and klar so that I would be able to further enhance them at a later date. The coin we had left over we used to buy us a nice lunch and a few pints, although I found my throat to still be incredibly sore and again opted for warm tea but without honey.
It was as we were finishing our lunches when we realized that we had missed our morning meeting and so began the long trek back to the upper level of Magnimar. Heidmarch though showed no ire to our lapse in memory, and instead was gracious enough to offer drink while we talked. Heidmarch explained that there were no maps of the interiors of the remaining pilings of the Irespan. If we were to map out its interior, as well as find the shard, we would be doing a great service for the Pathfinder Society. With both Aeolys and I having journals the mapping would not be difficult and so we agreed. Vankaskerkin explained that the Tower Girls scarni gang was run by a woman named Ayala Javeski, and that if we encountered her, it would be best if we killed her. The other important bit of information that was gleaned was that Javeski and some of her gang were lycanthropes, were-rats to be more specific. We also learned that somewhere in the piling was an X shaped room and it was there that a secret door could be found that led to a room that contained the Tower Girl’s wealth.
A few of us knew that we would need to gather silver weapons if we were to harm them, lycanthropes are resistant to most forms of damage. It was then that we kicked ourselves for not having gone to the meeting first. Dagon was able to procure a silversheen axe after having spoken with the domo, and Vander was able to gather a wand that could be used for healing in a pinch. Thankfully we did not have to purchase a boat as Heidmarch had a small boat located at the docks that we would be able to use. So we gathered our supplies and returned to the bazaar where Vander found a silversheen great sword that he bought, selling his old sword in the process. Speaking with several alchemists in the area we learned that the process used to coat Dagon and Vanders weapon would not work on my earth breaker and so I decided to just purchase a silvered klar. The blacksmith explained that the weapon was not able to keep as sharp as steel but it would work on were-kin just fine. My strength and earth breaker would just have to overpower their resistance to damage.
Once that was done we continued to the docks where the harbor master pointed us to the small skiff that Heidmarch owned. The vessel was very familiar to what my family used when fishing and I found myself rather at ease returning to something so familiar. Unlike Riddleport, the harbor in Magnimar is open to the sea and not hidden by a bay. The smell of the salty air and steady winds reminded me of home and I smiled as I found a seat and set down my gear. The skiff had two sets of oars, Vander and I were going to be the rowers while Aeolys sat at the rudder and directed our movement. Ragnar sat up in the bow keeping a lookout while Dagon sat between Ragnar and myself. It became rather obvious that Dagon could not swim because he was rather pale and his knuckles were white as he put a death grip on the sides of the skiff. It took us a half hour to row to the piling and during that entire time Dagon muttered in dwarven under his breath. I would imagine that he was praying to Angraad.
Ragnar and Aeolys both noticed movement at the piling as we approached but no one tried to stop us from landing. As we gathered our gear Ragnar handed me back my silvered klar and whetstone. Thankfully my brother shoanti sharpened the blade on the voyage from the harbor to the piling.
The piling had a small wooden dock already built into place just above the water line and there were two boats already tied up here. Moving in cautiously we discovered a small pile of waste and the carcass of what was possibly the largest rat I had ever seen. Following some stairs we entered into a room with a large mural painted on one of the walls showing an army of giants and rune lords wielding great magics. Before I was able to look closely though the sound of movement at the opposite end of the room showed a female in leathers bolt up some stairs. It would seem that the alarm would now be raised and attempting to move silently was useless, so I ran up the stairs to a landing and waited for either the others to catch up to me or the Tower Girls. It was the others that arrived first.
Moving as a group we climbed stair after stair. We only came to three landings and Dagon said we had climbed two-hundred feet. How he knew that I don’t know, but I believed him as my legs were wobbly when I spied an overturned table at the next landing. Continuing up the stairs I was greeted by the twang of several hand crossbows followed by intense pain as the bolts found their mark in my body. I sprinted the remained few stairs and tried to knock the table aside but they had it fastened somehow. Ragnar leapt passed me and immediately engaged the scarni women. Even Vander made the leap over the table, his great sword making short work of the woman in front of him. So I followed suit and was stabbed at as I moved into place to attack a woman that had the facial features of a rat. The earth breaker seemed to work just fine against them, even with their resistances to damage. The klar also found purchase and the creature screamed in pain at its touch. The battle though was quick and ended with only a few wounds having been taken other than the bolts that were embedded in my flesh. As Dagon attended my wounds the others moved ahead and looked about. The immediate area looked to have been looted already and the rooms near us contained only dust and dirt.
An excavated out secret door led to a room with a rope and wood basket, large enough for one person to stand in. Aeolys was able to figure out how to pull onto certain ropes that would carry the basket across to another landing that led into the piling. Stepping onto the wooden plank I could hear the wood creak under my weight, but did not break. It was then that Aeolys began tugging at some ropes and I swung out from the landing. The view was incredible as I could see almost the entire harbor and Dagon was correct, we were almost to the top of the Irespan. Once across I found a rope pulley system that resembled what Aeolys was using and after he showed me which ropes to use I brought him across. His trip seemed smoother than mine and it would appear that the system of pulleys on my side was more effective at moving people across, which was good as Dagon was the last to use the bridge and I could tell that he also had a fear of heights.
Once across we entered into what appeared to be an empty crypt of some kind. The markings on the walls showed Thassilonian clerics burying the dead. Beyond this room the others encountered two Tower Girls asleep in bedrolls. Moving quietly into the room Ragnar and Vander used their weapons to knock the women out rather than kill them. Vanders great sword seemed to do the trick although I doubt that the woman will ever be right again. Ragnar on the other hand had more difficulty, his sap doing nothing more than alerting the woman to our presence. Ragnar and Vander continued fumbling about trying to subdue the woman as she hauled herself from her bedroll. Even Aeolys spoke the same words that seemed to calm Fenster down the previous day but it did not work on the woman. Stepping forward, with a very deep and hushed voice I told the woman to drop her weapon if she wanted to remain alive. Thankfully she was smart enough to realize there were more than enough of us and dropped her weapon. We tied both women up with silk rope that we found and before gagging the conscious woman, Aeolys questioned her but learned very little beyond what we already knew. Making sure the bindings were tight I looked into the woman’s eyes and told her to not make me regret sparing her life, because I would end it without remorse if she made me. She got the idea and quickly nodded her head in agreement.
Moving on we found stairs that began descending into the piling. After descending for a few minutes, Dagon whispered that we had gone down nearly the same distance we had climbed. Trusting to his instincts the group then entered into a room with several passages leading off in different directions. Choosing one the group began moving into a hall that connected to a large room that was occupied and both our group and the Tower Girls saw each other at the same time. I moved in a little slower than the rest, making sure we were not flanked by another group from one of the other passageways. About the same time that I made it into combat a door opened up and another of the were-rat women ran out to attack. The group worked well together and protected Aeolys so that he could use his arcane magics to engulf several women and some large rats they kept as attack rats. Combining our attacks we were able to remove the threats they posed quickly and with little damage taken by our group. Once the fighting had stopped we again fanned out to make sure we would be ready for a counter-attack but none came. While those of us watched out for more enemies Aeolys and Ragnar began looking their belongings for anything of importance or worth taking. The were-rats room was a small area, large enough for a cot and even had a small window looking out onto the harbor. The window was barely larger than the head of my earth breaker and couldn’t be used for entrance or escape unless the person was very small. We waited for Aeolys to finish mapping out what we found before moving on.
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Akrem Sun Diver
Pathfinder Journal, 2 Arodes
Ayala Javaski • Thassilonian Lock • Stone Serpent
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We returned to the somewhat large room with the stairwell and multiple passages leading off from it. Once again I took up a position to cover the last remaining path while the group checked the other passageway. After a few minutes I could hear the sounds of a scuffle but it was short lived and Aeolys informed me that a couple of large rats in a storeroom were killed with no real damage to the others. It would seem there was alcohol found and that Dagon had forgotten that he was in a pillar surrounded by water for a moment. Smirking back at Aeolys because of Dagon I let Vander continue to lead for a while, as I played at rear guard.
It would appear that Vander found a room with some more Tower Girls and rushed in to engage them. It was the scream from Vander that had me abandon my position of rear guard. These girls meant business and could see a rather grievous wound on Vander when I entered into the room. I tried to make sure that none would be able to get past us and go after Aeolys and I was quickly surrounded and stabbed for my troubles. These girls did mean business and compared to who we had fought previously, these girls had obviously trained more.
The earth breaker made short work of one of the tower girls as I collapsed in her skull and broke her neck in one swing. The other dodged back away from the klar but was quickly put down by Dagon and Aeolys. Looking over at Vander I think I may have taken the bigger brunt of the attack but we both looked bad and were loosing blood. Dagon stepped in and began ministering to our wounds while Aeolys and Ragnar looked about and picked up items of interest or value. The room had been turned into a poor feast hall with a long table and some chairs, the dice game that the girls had been playing was now scattered about the floor. There was a statue of a rather wicked looking woman wielding a large pole arm. I believe she may have been a runelord, as they were the only ones that constructed statues in the Thassilonian age of themselves. Being that the Irespan was Thassilonian I would bet it was her domain, but I had no idea as to who she was. Iatsudo would not be pleased that I had forgotten her name.
Once we were patched up we continued on with me taking over at the front for Vander for a while. It will be good to swap our duties at times so that any resentment over hierarchy doesn’t develop. At times in our adventure the others have turned to me for a decision although I do not remember directing our actions. Perhaps my personal drive at goals lends itself well to leading others, I would rather our group of Pathfinders make decisions together. The thought of my actions after retrieving the shard of pride suddenly came to mind.
Continuing onward we found yet another stairwell leading down and eventually we found ourselves entering into another room with multiple passages and a large set of double doors with Thassilonian writing on the door. This door was very similar to the puzzle box we opened and the door itself seemed sealed. My guess would be that the Tower Girls had not yet figured out the puzzle and so I suggested that we leave the door until we searched the remaining rooms and passages.
One of the passages led to a room where the hall was buried in rubble. The Thassilonian magics that kept the Irespan standing could not prevent the collapse of this hall it would seem. Hopefully we will not have to dig our way to the shard we were looking for.
Ragnar determined that the next door was safe to open and as I opened the door and stepped in I had only a moment to cover my face with the klar before an alchemical bag exploded against my chest and was firmly rooted to the floor from the rapidly hardening goop that spilled from the bag. A female were-rat wielding a bladed scarf that many of the native Varisians use leapt forward striking both myself and Aeolys as he had followed me in. The blades on her scarf were poisoned and thankfully I was able to resist whatever toxin coated the blades. Aeolys on the other hand seemed to immediately feel its effects because he fell back against the wall grasping at where he had been cut. By now Vander, Dagon and Ragnar had entered into the room. The two large rats that were also in the room were cut down quickly by the others and through clenched teeth Aeolys used his magics to assist in the fight. Sadly whatever the bag was made of held me fast and it wasn’t until Javaski’s body was laying on the ground and cooling before I was able to free myself from its hold.
The room we were in was vaguely in the shape of an ex as Vankaskerkin had described and so we began searching thoroughly. The Tower Girls had been busy as the chest we found was full of a modest amount of coins and similar treasures. Dagon found the secret panel that Vankaskerkin told us about and inside we found the body of some long dead adventurer. Within his belongings was a journal, and a quick scanning showed that he had found an item of great power and it seemed to pull him here, and his death it would seem. Taking stock of what we found a necklace that he wore was given to Ragnar to wear and once he put it on he stared at the back wall in wonderment. Slowly walking forward he seemed to be gazing out at something amazing that none of us could see, and then he was gone. Ragnar just stepped into the wall, seeming to dissolve as he came in contact with it. A second later he reappeared and said the wall was an illusion and that you could see the whole harbor and Magnimar from the landing on the other side of the illusory wall. Tentatively stepping forward I managed to walk beyond the wall and was greeted to the same vision as Ragnar. Once again my thoughts returned to home and the cliffs near our quah. After a few moments Aeolys stepped out and had the same look of surprise as I imagined I had. I also noticed in the fading light of the day that Aeolys was rather pale looking, the poison that Javaski used looked to have taken its toll on his frail elven frame.
Moving back in Dagon said he could find no other doors and Ragnar confirmed he could find nothing either, so we proceeded to the magically barred Thassilonian doors. Once Aeolys and I explained what each letter was to the others we slowly worked out a possible phrase. As I reached forward to swap two of the letters, assuming it worked like the puzzle box, I was immediately burned as if putting my hand into a fire. The letters switched as we had hoped but the pain was rather intense and everyone else took a step away from the door. Doing my best to shut away the pain I continued moving the letters and was thankful when the last letter unlocked the doors and they slowly opened.
The hallway beyond was covered in a fine dust and cobwebs were everywhere. Our assumption that the Tower Girls had not figured out the lock was correct and it looked as if no one had been in these halls in ages. Small lights winked into existence as I stepped into the hall. The back wall opposite the door again showed another amazing painting, the obvious difference being that it looked as if it had been painted days ago. Again, images of great wizards wielding powerful magics with giants of all sizes and vast armies covering the wall. It was odd to think that five years ago I was just as fascinated with a coin. Of course that didn’t end well, so taking that thought for what it was worth, I readied myself against some invisible attacker and began moving down the hall.
We went down another flight of stairs into a room that looked to have a small pool built into a back wall with stairs to the left and stalls to the right. The room itself was ripe with droppings from bats, their foul excrement coating everything. The pool too was in bad shape as the water was vile looking and smelled even worse. As Ragnar moved forward to check the stairs and I to the stalls, two pudding like globs of foul water attempted to drag Ragnar into the waters. Soon everyone moved forward to hack and pound at the puddings but little seemed to affect them. Aeolys ran forward yelling for everyone to get back and once again a great gout of magical fire sprung from his hands and seemed to do the trick. Moments later, after a few more swings, the creatures broke apart leaving bat bones where they seemed to die.
I again began moving to the stalls and after tearing down a long, rotted cloth found an empty stall. The next stall seemed to come alive and hundreds of small bats poured over and around the cloth that covered their stall. The creatures began biting and clawing at my flesh with their tiny teeth and it was all I could do to dive into the stall as Aeolys unleashed another torrent of magical fire, burning the creatures death. As I stepped out Dagon was already looking at the wounds that Ragnar had received, the bats also having bitten and clawed at him as well. That is when I noticed that the wounds they had caused were still bleeding. My wounds bled like a head wound except it was all up and down my arms and legs as well. I quickly retrieved my last remaining healing potion and drank it down. Thankfully that did the trick and I was feeling much better.
It was then that Dagon mention that we should start thinking about finding a place to stop and rest. We had arrived here in the late afternoon and after seeing how low the sun was on the horizon after killing Javaski the evening was rapidly approaching. Perhaps it was the cure potion I had just drank, but I thought that we should push on and see what we could find, Dagon agreed but grudgingly. Just as we began to move up the stairs Dagon noticed another hidden door in the stone and called Ragnar back. I don’t know if its Dagon or dwarves in general but his nose is adept at finding these doors.
Ragnar looked it over for a minute before saying that it appeared safe to open and moments later the door slid out of the way revealing a long passageway. As Ragnar stepped in with me on his heels the small winking lights appeared here as well. At the end of the passage was a large pool of water with an unknown depth. I think I heard Dagon immediately take a step or two back once we passed back what we found. On the opposite side of the room was a stairway carved into the back wall that climbed up to a landing where there appeared to be some object setting on a pedestal. Coming from the Shadde-Quah and being an adept swimmer I volunteered to swim across and see what was on the pedestal. Removing my armor and leaving my earth breaker and klar in the hall I swam across with only my kukri as a weapon. Before I swam across the others tied a silk rope to me so that in the case of a problem, they could pull me back across.
I slowly climbed the stairs once I reached the far side and sitting on the pedestal was a small stone gem about the size of my thumb from tip to knuckle. Eventually Ragnar came over and couldn’t find any traps, magical or mechanical. Using the rope that was still tied to me and with Vander holding the other end, Aeolys climbed up to where I was standing and looked about. Using some magics he had he was unable move the stone from the pedestal. Aeolys still looked pale and not wanting him here if something went wrong I waited for him to return back to the others when I reached for the stone. No sooner had I touched it then it shot out of my grasp and began burying itself into my chest. The pain was excruciating but it ended quickly and the gem now seemed to pulse in rhythm to my heart, which at the time was beating rather fast. It was then that the water in the pool began to froth as something moved below the surface. It was also when I noticed that the slack in the rope was quickly being taken in and fearing being pulled into the platform from the stairs rather than off the platform I cut the rope.
Just then a large stone snake began to rise out of the water and the room was quickly engulfed in fire from its mouth. Leaping forward I attacked with the kukri and wishing that my earth breaker was in my hands instead. A series of angry red Thassilonian runes flashed along its side as I struck the beast and it appeared to suffer little if no damage. I could then hear it speaking in Thassilonian a repeating phrase of “thief” and “intruder.” Even as Vander and Ragnar jumped into the water to attack the creature it seemed to focus all of its attacks on me. Vanders great sword seemed to be doing damage to the creature and even Aeolys seemed to be doing damage with some sort of cold based magics. Ragnar even seemed to do some damage to it although he was having a hard time after his initial attack. Once again the creature breathed fire and that seemed to seal our fate. I was suddenly presented with tunnel vision, and it looked like Aeolys was grievously burned by the attack. I could hear Dagon screaming at us to run and did what I could to leave the room before the creature killed us all. Ragnar was the last to make it out and as we stood at the end of the hall breathing hard we could hear the creature continue its ravings of “thief” and “intruder.”
Looking to Dagon I could see that he was upset at what had happened. My decision to push on was almost our downfall and I have to trust Dagons word when he says it is time to stop for the day. When we find a spot to sit down and rest I will have to apologize to both Dagon and the others for insisting that we push on. Climbing the stairs back out of the room with the pool we decided to hold up in the hallway just behind the Thassilonian doors.
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Akrem Sun Diver
Pathfinder Journal, 2-3 Arodes
Insects of Unusual Size • Favors and Madness • Mercy
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Before we completely racked out for the night Ragnar and I went up to check on our captives and was surprised to see that they were still there. Looking them over we could see that they had attempted an escape but were unable to loosen their bonds. We fed them some of our provisions and gave them water and allowed them some modesty by allowing them privacy to evacuate their bowels. All the while they continued to ask to be let go and that they were afraid they would die here. I told them that as long as they held up to our agreement they would go free and that I guaranteed it. My words did nothing to help them put aside their fears but they did not resist as we tied them back up.
Returning to the others we rested for the evening after tending our wounds and eating some hard tack ourselves. I spent my shift on watch writing in my journal and making sure to copy the map Aeolys had been sketching into the journal as well. Hopefully these accounts will make them into a Pathfinder Chronicle and then I can elevate my status to other Pathfinders as well as bring some notoriety to the new lodge in Magnimar.
After resting for a good while we returned to the hallway next to where we had discovered the stone serpent and the stone that was still embedded in my chest. I noticed that my throat was still sore and I was somewhat light headed. Having received divine healing from Angradd from Dagon I could tell that whatever was causing my sickness had not gone away. I may have to contact those in the lodge for assistance if I cannot fight off whatever this was.
The stairs at the end of the hallway descended deeper into the piling and I once again let Vander take the lead while I remained at the back protecting Aeolys. Dagon stayed in the middle of our group while Vander and Ragnar would change out positions if Ragnar thought something might be trapped. I did lean my head in the long hallway that led to the pool and the stone serpent but heard nothing that led me to believe the creature was still there.
We descended for a while and at one point Dagon made the comment that we were deep below the waterline. At one of the landings he turned to me while looking at my earth breaker, commented that I should watch what I swing at and that some things might not react well to the pressure of the water outside our walls. I grinned back but the humor was lost on him as I think his fear of water was greater than his desire to return my smile.
Eventually we came into a large room with dirt floors and several large columns of dirt that reached twenty feet up to the ceiling. As we moved in Ragnar commented that he discovered the tracks of a mite. Aeolys was also looking at them when a skittering noise from the room drew everyones attention away from the floor. Ants the size of a small pony had come out of the dirt mounds and moved in to attack. Before most of us could react the creatures were upon us and Ragnar suddenly found himself pinned in the grasp of the great claws that stuck out from the creatures faces. Aeolys quickly retreated a few steps and unleashed a torrent of magical fire from his hands severely injuring several of the creatures. Before the ants could step up to Aeolys I was able to leave the stairs and plug up that hole, quickly attacking with the earth breaker and klar. The creatures were never able to hurt me, although they tried, and I was able to help the others dispatch them in a timely matter. Vander seemed a little upset at his ability to combat the creatures. He was constantly being pinned by their mouths and having to struggle to get free. I told him that a secondary weapon would be good to have in those situations and that he should look into getting one if and when we leave here.
Looking about the room we could see that it was once a catacomb of some sort although all the bodies were missing, if they ever held any bodies to begin with. There was only one obvious exit to the room on the opposite side of the room. Dagon’s excellent eyes in relation to stone work though discovered another secret door. After Ragnar looked it over and opened it up we found a small narrow passage that would be difficult, not impossible, to move through. Since Aeolys was the smallest of our group and not wanting to send him off by himself we decided to wait on investigating the passage and instead look into the other exit from the room.
This passage led on to a long hallway where Dagon discovered another door hiding in the stone. The tunnel that led off from this door looked similar to the other tunnel and Dagon thought that they might intersect. Again we decided to avoid the tunnel and pressed on. At the end of the hall we found a room choked with webs and so I passed up a torch which Dagon lit with a divine word. As soon as Ragnar burned away the webs he dropped the torch in fear and jumped back into a side hall. Knowing that whatever it was that startled Ragnar was going to probably attack I rushed forward before the others could react and came face to face with two of the largest spiders I had ever seen, easily the size of a small wagon. What made it all the more interesting was the fact that several small blue humanoids were riding on their backs. Vander bolstered the line along with Dagon and after an impressive blast of fire from Aeolys torching several of the blue creatures we managed to cut them all down rather quickly.
Looking about we found nothing of value on the creatures save some small daggers and darts. I handed a small dagger to Vander and smiled, but he just shook his head. The side hall that Ragnar had dodged into led to another stairwell that descended even deeper. It was then that we decided to look into these tunnels. Ragnar and I stayed near the one nearest the spiders while the other went to the door where the ants had attacked. Stripping off my scale armor and leaving my earth breaker behind I crawled into the tunnel. The plan being that if Aeolys needed help I would try and get there, but we just expected the tunnels to connect. I suddenly heard a cry of alarm followed again by the sounds of another gout of magical flames and began crawling forward as quickly as I could. I eventually crawled into a small room where Aeolys was looking over a rather large, burnt, and very dead spider. He looked fine, but admitted that the creature startled him. There was another passage leading off from our room and by now all but Vander had arrived to see what the commotion was. I decided to lead on this one in case of another attack and eventually arrived into a large room full of junk and piles of shiny rocks. At the far end was one of these blue creatures that was sitting on a rather large skull and wearing a bracer for a hat. It was babbling on in a language that I couldn’t understand but Aeolys knew the language and began translating for us. It would seem that this creature is the king of the mites, and that he had been looking for someone to find and return his pet spider, Clicky Legs. In return he would give us a diamond the size of my fist. Since he was the first creature in here that wasn’t trying to kill us and that he was being rather nice, if somewhat odd, we agreed. Hopefully he won’t find out anytime soon that we had killed off a bunch of his “subjects” earlier.
We left to gather our gear and proceed farther down into the piling. Once again Dagon said that we were now very deep under the water line and probably under the stone and earth at the bottom of the bay. A rather sobering thought.
We eventually came to small room with a couple of passages leading off in many directions. One seemed to be clogged with spiderwebs again and two halls with several doors. We decided to skip the webbed room and Vander and Ragnar began looking down the first hallway with the doors. It seems that the rooms were at one point dungeon cells the rooms only being five foot square. Two of the rooms though contained a spider roughly the same size as the one Aeolys had killed above. Ragnar and Vander though were having a harder time killing the creatures that Aeolys did and when it was over their flesh was punctured and puffy from several spider bites. The venom looked to really weaken my Shoanti brother greatly and Vander seemed to be weathering that storm rather well, but he still looked weak. Anti-venom would have been a great thing to purchase and have on hand right now. Knowing that we still had several more doors to look through Dagon and I decided to take over the duties of opening the doors. Our cells also contained the spiders but Dagon and I fought more defensively using our shields and managed to kill them rather quickly with no bites.
Our hallway eventually entered into a torture chamber with two large cells bracketing a hallway that led off to another room and stone door. There was a skeleton of a long dead prisoner in one of the cells and after looking over the bones for a period of time Dagon gave a quick divine word over the bones and said that the person had died a very painful death. The bones looked to have been repeatedly broken and healed and it looked like there wasn’t a bone left that had not been broken. Shaking my head at the poor souls fate we moved on.
Leaving the stone door for now we pushed on to the room nearest the cells. Inside we found a font of water that looked clean and clear with a swirled pattern marked in the bowl. I dipped my waterskin in it and trusting my Shoanti constitution drank some of the water. I immediately felt the burning sensation akin to drinking the magical potions we had already used up. The minor aches and pains from the cold that I was fighting seemed to disappear and I handed my skin to Ragnar and told him to drink deep. Everyone took a hefty drink from the font and we were all surprised to see the water slowly rise back up after having drained some of it with our waterskins. Dagon cautioned against drinking to much reminding us of the skeleton in the other room.
Moving on the hallway continued to another room with a stone door. The door looked to open into the room that was full of spider webs so everyone readied themselves for a fight against more of the spiders. Ragnar managed to unlock the door but did not see the magical trap and I was greeted with a discharge of lightning that numbed my right hand, arm and part of my torso. The others moved into the room and Dagon cried out in alarm as sticky substance stuck him and the creature that sprayed it used that as a tether to drag Dagon to it. Moving into the room last I saw what had to be Clicky Legs. This large creature that resembled a spider had a pouch attached to one of its legs but was rather interested in eating Dagon and so the others attacked. Not wanting to kill the creature I moved in and tried to stun it with my earth breaker. I struck the creature a solid blow but it continued on unphased by the attack. The only difference was that it concentrated on me and left Dagon alone. The creature reared back and stabbed at me with two of its claws, both of which not only punctured my armor but went clean through and punctured my back armor as well. My vision began to swim and suddenly I had tunnel vision and even that was rather blurry. I heard Dagon cry out a few words to Angradd and could feel his divine touch but everything from then on was a blur. In the end we killed the creature, the idea of taking it alive was to great a risk. Dagon and I seemed to have suffered the worst of the creature and we spent a large amount of time tending our wounds. Within the pouch we found several shiny and worthless stones, several teeth and a bracer that matched the one on the mite kings head. Aeolys determined that the bracer was magical but would not work unless both bracers were worn.
Looking about we decided to return to this king and inform him of his pets death and return the pouch of stones and teeth. When we arrived back into his chambers he began spouting off some nonsense about our presence and was yelling for his assassins to kill us. All of this was being translated by Aeolys and it would appear that the creature was mad. Not wanting to kill the creature Dagon left the room and I agreed so I tossed the king his pouch of stones and teeth. Before I left I snatched his crown and handed it to Aeolys and suggested that he wear them both.
We then returned to the room where Clicky Legs had attacked us and found that the room contained Thassilonian runes and statue of a snarling woman with a ranseur. We continued on out of this room and found a long hallway that led further on and branched off into a large chamber. Looking in the chamber we were all caught off guard when three giant spiders, with no mites, dropped from the ceiling and attacked. In a short amount of time we fought the creatures off and dispatched them although at the end of the fight Dagon said that we should rest. I wasn’t about to suggest otherwise and so after we searched the room we went to rest in the room near the font of magical waters. The cavern contained another statue of the woman with the ranseur and we found the remains of a body that appeared to die from part of the room collapsing. We found a magical short sword that Ragnar picked up and a ring that would protect its wearer which we handed to Vander.
Since the day was still early we sat down and worked on repairing our gear, tending our wounds as best we could, and deciding what we were going to do with our prisoners. Dagon admitted that he was no longer comfortable holding them prisoner and suggested we let them go. Knowing that Dagon was much wiser that I and already having learned that the hard way, agreed to go free them. Again Ragnar and I went back up to them which was an incredibly long climb and told them that we were letting them go. We kept them tied up as we moved them across the rope bridge and did not cut their ropes until we placed them in one of the boats. We gave them a silver statue that was worth a good amount of gold and told them they were free to go. They thanked us and rowed off back to Magnimar. Ragnar and I waited and watched until they were out of sight before we returned to the others.
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Akrem Sun Diver
Pathfinder Journal, 3 Arodes
Swarm • Bloated Worm • Imp
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The rest of the afternoon and evening went by quietly. In that time I was able to continue my chronicles and once that was finished I even had some time to read through the journal we discovered in the hidden chamber far above us. The poor soul who we found was apparently Nazir Kalmeralm, Prince of the Market. The journal covers many years starting in 4670 through 4685. In the journal he described finding a powerful magical artifact, what turned out to be the Shard of Pride, and how it had directed him here. Being as far down into the piling as we now were I could only hope that we had not missed a secreted door somewhere along the way. Though Dagon seems to see the doors by just passing in front of one. Perhaps when we are finally leaving this place we can make sure we have not missed any.
The next morning we gathered our supplies up and I noticed that Ragnar was coughing as he began moving around. He looked a little slower than normal and it would seem that he now has what I am just getting over. For the first time in a few days my throat did not feel as sore when I awoke. Once we were ready Vander grabbed the door that led into the large chamber where we had fought the downright evil Clicky Legs and was shocked. It would appear that the trap that Ragnar never found was still active and managed to reset after discharging on me the day prior.
This time we moved past the large chamber where we had been attacked by the large spiders and found ourselves entering into what could have been a kitchen of some sort. Two large ovens were set into the wall near us and I moved to investigate one while Aeolys moved to another. Ragnar commented that he heard scratching from the oven Aeolys neared and expecting rats we were surprised as a swarm of centipedes poured out like water from a broken dam. I jumped back to the hallway where we had entered from as Vander did the same but into a hallway that led from the kitchen. The creatures poured over Aeolys and in turn Aeolys release sheets of fire from his hands killing hundreds of thousands of the creatures but they continued to pour out from the oven. Ragnar was trying to light a torch to assist in the fight and I could do nothing but watch as all my torches had been used up. Dagon did what he could to help Aeolys stay on his feet and in the end Aeolys managed to burn the swarm up. His skin though was covered in tiny welts and he was pale and wobbly. The toxins from so many tiny insects filled his blood and it looked to be all he could to stand upright. Helping him, we moved back to the bowl of healing waters and Aeolys drank deeply, the welts seemed to shrink somewhat but he still looked a little wobbly.
From there we finished our search of the kitchen and found nothing so we continued through the hallway that Vander had retreated to. Along the way towards a door at the end of the hallway Dagon’s sharp eyes discovered two more doors hidden along the way. One opened into a small room that looked to have once been a closet of sorts but nothing remained. The other opened into a narrow room with an old chest sitting in it. The chest contained several containers of spices but considering the age, they were useless. A grand fortune in their time I would imagine but worthless today.
Before opening the door I suggested to the others that since we were now underwater it might be best for us to knock on the doors to determine if there was water on the other side. It would end our journey rather quickly to open the door to the bay above and drown. This seemed to make Dagon pale somewhat and the others agreed. The door opened into a room with lots of rock and earth debris, thankfully no water. The door took some shoving but Vander and Ragnar were able to open it far enough to look in. The room had collapsed in long ago and looking about we found the remains of a skeleton under the rubble. The ranseur that was still in his grasp was of fine make and made of cold iron like my kukri. Never knowing when we might need another weapon I gathered it up expecting to leave when again Dagon discovered a secret panel on the opposite wall from the entrance.
The door opened to a short hallway and another door. Ragnar was able to determine that the door was trapped but was unsure how to open the door without activating the trap. All of us moved out of the hallway as he triggered the trap. The magics of the trap threw him rather forcefully to the ground and as he got up he said if felt like being punched by a horse. Old magics but still quite powerful.
The door opened to what Aeolys described as a panic room. A bed, desk and similar items located inside, including the late occupant who ran inside and then starved to death. We decided that the person must have been a guard captain or at least someone of great martial importance as we found a magical great sword and full faced helm. The sword was quickly handed to Vander who tested its weight and gave a quick smile. Aeolys was able to determine that the helmet would increase the wearers health and constitution. The initial decision was for me to keep the helm, but I thought it best for Vander to keep it instead. The stone now embedded in my chest seemed to help in a similar fashion and it didn’t seem fair for me to carry another item that had similar magics. The room though was a dead end, literally for its previous occupant, and so we returned back to the large chamber and followed the hallway that left there.
A passage seemed to head back in the direction of the closed door we had still left closed and the other direction led to more descending stairs. Heading instead away from the stairs we found a room that contained three humanoid creatures that were rather horrifyingly ugly. Obviously not from this plane of existence as they had been in the room for thousands of years they still attacked us on sight. Moving into the room Vander, Dagon, Ragnar and I moved in and out constantly keeping as many of us on the attack as possible while Aeolys continually cast arcane bolts of cold when he could. The damage we took was minimal but it would seem their bite caused some sort of nausea or momentary sickness. Ragnar said the creatures were called sin spawn, and considering what we know of Thasillonian magics this doesn’t surprise me. In the room itself we found the remains of someone that was probably a handler of the creatures and not given the lifespans of extra planar creatures succumbed to death long ago, and probably at the hands of the sin spawn. The remains contained a ring that had the ability to magically discharge electricity with touch and Dagon seemed rather fond of the ring so he kept it. After confirming that the other door in the room led to the torture chamber we had already moved through we went back and descended the stairs.
At this point we were deep underground and I noticed that the stonework changed somewhat. Dagon confirmed that the stonework was different, because it was formed by magic and not by tools. The dwarfs eyes when it came to stone meant I would follow his advice when it came to stonework without hesitation. The stairs eventually came out into a large room that contained another statue of the ranseur wielding woman. The floor of the room was coated in a green slime and we could see something large moving behind the statue. Moving down ahead of the group to make sure that it would not move up the stairs into the others the creature focused on me and lurched forward. It appeared to be a large bloated worm, easily the size of a small horse. But instead of attacking me initially it opened its maw and sprayed me with a vile burning acid and maggots. I can now honestly say that I have just experienced the worst thing in my life. Shaking off the rapidly forming bile in my throat I moved in to attack while the rest of the group attempted to flank the creature. During the entire fight the creature maintained its focus on me only and in retrospect I should have gone into a defensive stance while the others killed the creature. The injuries I sustained in the fight might not have been as severe if I had so, but hindsight they say is always a clear road. In the end the creature died but I was bit, battered and coated in maggots and slime. Dagon’s immediate action was to ask for vast amounts of divine assistance and apparently Angradd agreed because I was doused in water for a long while, and as humiliating an experience as it was the divine shower was needed.
While I attended my rather impromptu bath the other began investigating the statue. The statue was made of an unknown red colored rock that Dagon couldn’t identify. When I looked at him surprised at that statement, I was given another dousing of water. The ranseur though was real enough and worth a fair amount of gold, the problem being that it was clutched in the statues hand. The others continued to figure out how to remove the weapon as I finished drying off and when it was decided that we would have to break it out I swung the earth breaker and after a few strikes broke the hand off. Ragnar collected some of the stone to take back with us for further study. The chamber did have two door opposite each other and picking one at random we moved to open the door. Oddly enough the door had no handle or obvious way to open the door. There was only a Thasillonian rune for open and once touched caused to the door to slide open. Dagon though was puzzled at the door mechanism since he could find no where for the door to slide into. Somewhat worrying for me if secreted doors down here would be unseen even by Dagon’s eyes.
The door opened into a large room with a small torch sized flame burning in mid air. No obvious signs of oil or rag kept the fire going, but it was real and hot. Ragnar said that the floor seemed to have contained a magical trap of some kind and that it was currently activated and it took Aeolys and Dagon to determine that some magical barrier against certain moral attitudes was up but shouldn’t hinder us in any way. If anything, we found a safe room to rest in later on, and thankfully this room did not contain any of the slime like the last room.
Moving on we found a door that led into a small room with a curtained off area. No soon had Vander looked inside after getting the all clear from Ragnar then I heard his battle cry as he rushed into the room. By the time I was able to get inside the confined space the creatures were dead. Two foul smelling and somewhat bulbous looking humanoids were on the ground. Extra planar to be sure but unknown to any of us. It was then that we could barely make out a voice asking for us to assist him in destroying his sworn enemy. Looking about we could find no one and once again it asked for our help. Suddenly Dagon’s eyes narrowed and he snatched something out of thin air cursing at the small devilish looking creature. Knowing that Dagon has been right since we entered here I didn’t hesitate and quickly drew my cold iron kukri. With a couple of well placed strikes the creature died and Dagon dropped the corpse the ground, spitting on it as he did so.
It was then that the others decided that it was best to rest as they were depleted of magic and Aeolys still looked terrible. I ate my last days rations and we took stock of our supplies at this point. Pooling what resources we had left, we could only remain here one or two more days before we to would begin to starve. Hopefully there would be no more stairs. The climb out will be murder.
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Akrem Sun Diver
Pathfinder Journal, 3-4 Arodes
Clockwork Golem • Swimming • Maze
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The constant fights had been taking their toll of the groups health and motivation to continue. Dagon again suggested that after our conflict with the devilish imp that we should rest. The thought of using the room with the suspended flame was brought up as the area was supposedly warded against evil and the trap had been sprung in the past. As we moved back into the room and began looking for areas to drop our gear the fire sputtered and flared and suddenly beings made of fire appeared in the room and began attacking us. A gout of flame caught my armor on fire and for a moment I had to pat out the flames before I became a human torch. Once that was done I was able to attack the creatures and although they appeared to be fire, they were very much solid and could be killed. The fight ended rapidly enough, the prospect of being caught on fire seemed to spur us into action. I even spied Dagon doing what he could to protect his magnificent beard while fighting the creatures. Vander on the other hand seemed to take the brunt of the attacks as he quickly caught fire. Thankfully the magic in the wands we purchased before entering the Crow piling did wonders at repairing the damage taken. Because it would appear that the room, although warded, was still functioning somewhat as a trap we decided to head back to our old resting spot near the magical fountain upstairs. It would also appear that the trap that guarded the door to our room was still active as Ragnar was still unable to disarm it. The next morning I was a again shocked by the trap when we left.
Reentering the area the next morning we discovered that the trap was now gone as was the flame. Moving past the imps room, still expecting trouble, we found what was once some sort of alchemical lab. Many of its contents were destroyed but a few items remained. We discovered a few magical potions that seemed to still work as well as some alchemical fire which Ragnar held onto in case we came across more swarms of creatures. There was one door and it was badly rusted and very much stuck. Pulling out my crowbar I managed to wrench the door open with some assistance from Vander. The door was very thick and I would expect to find in some sort of bank to protect its gold. Once inside we found a storeroom for the alchemical lab, the items within long rotted away. We did find a set of metal tools that looked to be pristine as if made yesterday. Dagon guessed that they were mithral since they were so light but wasn’t positive as he had never actually seen any but having heard of it. Also within was some construct of brass and metals. The golem was roughly the size of a man with multiple arms but was inactive. The key that would wind it up could not be found. I imagine that it would bring a large amount of coin to the right person should we find the key. We did find a pearl covered crank of some kind. To what its actual purpose was for was unknown, but it was worth a fair amount of gold so Aeolys picked it up.
Leaving there we continued on into a large chamber with a huge painted mural on one wall. Obviously of the Thassilonian era by the scene it depicted and still in fairly good shape. The magics employed by these rune lords was impressive to say the least. The only door in the room we decided to leave and proceeded out a corridor on the opposite side of the room.
The hallway eventually came upon another statue of a ranseur wielding woman and as Vander approached there was an audible clicking noise. Ragnar yelled for everyone to run and all of us except Vander ran back in the direction we had come. A few seconds later the statue began spraying fire down the corridor where Vander had continued on. When the fire ended we could see that Vander had moved far enough forward that the flames had not hurt him and the trap appeared to be either triggered on slowly recharging. As the rest of us moved past at a hurried pace Ragnar continued to look it over before catching up and saying that it was just a statue with nothing of value and he was unsure how long before it could trigger again.
At the end of the long hall we came to a door that no amount of prying would open. We found no runes indicating anything and even though the doors here worked differently than any other door we could not gain entry so we decided to return to the door in the room with the mural.
The door opened to a hallway with multiple corridors. Picking the corridor that changed from magically worked stone to something akin to a natural cavern we found a pool of water that would require a rather difficult jump in armor to cross. So knowing that the others were apprehensive if not downright afraid of water, I lowered myself in and crossed the small gap into the cavern. The water was only chest deep and was easy enough to cross. Once on the other side though I was immediately set upon by some sort of grey globular creature made. The opening attack surprised me and it easily pummeled me to unconsciousness before I was really able to attack it in earnest. When I awoke I found Dagon giving me that look I used to receive from my martial tutors in the Serpents Run when I did something wrong. Dagon didn’t need to say anything, I knew already that I made the mistake of moving into the room without being ready for an ambush. Lesson learned. On the plus side to all this we found several edible mushrooms that could sustain us for a few days if needed. We spent a few minutes gathering up what we could before moving on.
The cavern eventually circled back onto the hallway we entered from with only a door separating the two halves of the hallway. The corridor also continued on in other directions and one that we picked came to a large room that could have once been a pool or bath house. The room had several pillars that rose from the water in the room and contained stairs leading down into the water and rising from the water on the opposite side of the room. Again I could tell that the others were nervous about nearing the water, Dagon taking a step back. I stepped into the cool water and began moving across expecting trouble of some sort. About half way across several creatures rose the surface and attacked. They resembled the creatures we fought in the armory but looked more aquatic than the others. Their bite elicited feelings of envy and the desire to hoard all the items of my friends. Able to shake off their toxic bite I laid into them with the earth breaker and klar while treading water. Fighting in this environment was not easy but not difficult for me. Eventually Ragnar and even Vander joined in and I was surprised to see Vander tred water in his armor. When I got to the other side I decided to remove my gear while they investigated the hallway on that side of the room. I could tell that the pool was very deep and wanted to look about down below before moving on. Taking a deep breath I dove down and found the pool to be almost one hundred feet deep. Using the light from my ioun torch I found the bottom to be littered with bones and rubble. One of the bodies though wore pristine looking robes and was wielding an odd looking little scepter. Grabbing the corpse I returned to the surface. I was surprised to see Dagon on the opposite side of the room dripping wet and looking as though he had just been swallowed whole by some terrifying sea creature. The robes on the corpse I found were already dry by the time I returned my gaze to it. Aeolys looked it over and determined to be some sort of wizards outfit and quickly donned the ancient robes. The scepter was actually an impressive looking wand which Aeolys also took possession of.
The corridor on the opposite of the pool room seemed to lead deeper underground and we decided to leave that for later and returned back across to continue looking around before delving deeper into this complex. Dagon made it a second time and I had to stifle a laugh at the look of accomplishment on his face when he pulled himself from the water. History was made that day I would imagine in Dagon’s world.
One of the last corridors led to what looked to be a door marked again with Thassilonian runes. Although I was able to read the runes they made no sense to me and Aeolys explained that they were actually arcane in nature and not just words. They were some sort of magical lock and after a few minutes Aeolys was able to open what was not just a door but a magical portal. The stone seemed to fade into smoke and only re-solidified once we had all gone through. The room on the other side was some sort of maze and covered in metal plates with more magical runes that pulsed with power. The room itself was also extremely hot and I began sweating immediately. Moving about as a group we discovered some sort of dog like beast with wild eyes. It had the ability to breath fire and thankfully I was not in its path when it did so. We managed to kill the beast rather quickly and I was given the sense that we had done something special, as if we had released the creature from some sort of torture. Aeolys explained that the room was some sort of ancient magical device that could open doorways to other planes of existence and that currently this one was opened to hell. It was rather quickly decided at that point to destroy the device and make sure nothing else came through. No amount of prying would remove the metal plates so we just began beating at them with our weapons. The earth breaker seemed to make short work of them, but Vander and I did the most work at destroying the plates. As the pulse would shift at the destruction of plate the colors would also change as well as the temperature. Several different creatures appeared as we destroyed the plates but Aeolys, Ragnar and Dagon were able to kill them quickly enough to leave Vander and I at destroying the plates. In time we had destroyed enough of them that the room suddenly became dark and the pulse stopped. We found an area that led to a portcullis that was currently down and the remains of another guard who wore heavy plate armor. Dagon who was now dragging the corpse of some tree creature they killed piled the armor onto the tree claiming that his magics would repair it. The pearl covered crank we found opened the portcullis easily enough, and Aeolys was able to use his magic to safely remove the crank from the wall once we had gotten on the other side.
The hallway here led on to another room full of animal cages. Most were open or destroyed and a few contained small creatures that seemed all to eager to get out. We decided to leave them alone and continue on. The doorway on the other side contained a Thassilonian sign that talked about leaving the cages closed. Prudent advice since these creatures seemed rather viscous. The door from this room led back into our original corridor which meant we had searched almost everything on this level except the door we couldn’t open and the other door in the room that contained the giant worm like creature.
Backtracking we made it to this room and were immediately set upon by rather odd looking creatures wielding spears. They were tethered to the wall with silk rope and I could not understand why they couldn’t have cut their way free. Regardless the creatures attacked us when we entered and so in turn were killed. Inside this room we found another set of stairs leading down.
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Akrem Sun Diver
Pathfinder Journal, 4-5 Arodes
Underwater • Elven Frailty • Magnimar Mural
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We descended a short distance and eventually found ourselves entering into a room with two columns that were carved to look like the woman we have seen who I believe was a runelord and what appeared to be a group of nobles or merchants. There were Thassilonian runes and Aeolys and I were able to read that we were to reaffirm our allegiance. Knowing that their ancient magics here still worked and knowing that I may need to cheat to get what we need I knelt and touched the column of the runelord offering my obedience. The column glowed somewhat and I did feel more powerful. I could not feel anything else so I believe that I pulled it off. Aeolys also touched the column but only in passing. The column glowed as well and he also believed that he was fine, the others though decided to pass by and leave the carvings alone.
We continued on and found ourselves entering a balcony overlooking a sandy pit. Obvious old blood stains and even some bones protruded from the sand. Fearing a trap no one went down to investigate so I did so with weapons out figuring some ancient monster still lurked about. In the end there was nothing but a doorway out. I did dig around in the sand somewhat and with direction from Aeolys found a scimitar which radiated magic. I tucked the weapon in my belt in case we came across a fiend that could shrug off the earth breaker.
Moving past this room we came to an area with a narrow hallway between two doors and a small fountain set within a side wall. Aeolys discovered a key within the water that he believed might operate the metal man we found in the vault above. Pocketing the key I opened one of the doors while Ragnar was checking the other doorway. When I opened the door I saw a hideous looking creature that looked to be a cross between a baby and a fly wearing clothes. It turned to look at me and in Thassilonian I said hello. To be honest, I couldn’t think what else to do. How many times will I ever see something like that? Its response was to vanish and I was fairly certain that the creature left and wasn’t invisible. It was at that time that Ragnar had opened the other door and cried out in alarm. Leaping past the others as Ragnar retreated I came face to face with the large fleshy looking creatures we found in the room above with the imp. Behind them was the creature that had just vanished from sight, or at least another one that looked exactly the same. Vander and I moved into the room and made short work of the creatures but not before the fly creature vanished again. By the time Vander and I had put down the two fleshy masses we could hear fighting from the other room. Moving in we found Ragnar doing all he could to fend off the attacks of the fly creature and Dagon was doing everything to keep him alive. Aeolys was casting spells of arcane powers into the creature but it was crazed and focused on killing Ragnar. A few quick strikes from Vander and the creature went down. Whatever it was the creature was foul and its attacks were worse. At one point it seemed to bite Ragnar who grew physically pale and looked to be weakened from the attack. Dagon did what he could and so we pushed on.
We came into a room with a single column of stone with a small hole on the back side with a sihedron rune and two tapestries hanging on the walls. According to Aeolys and Dagon one of the tapestries was magical and Dagon noticed that the rod holding up that particular tapestry looked odd. Pulling it down we were able to find that the rod was hollow and contained a wand that Dagon found contained a potent divine spell. Although it was severely drained it was important enough to tuck the wand into his belt. We studied the tapestry for the longest time before Vander realized that the only odd thing was that the sihedron rune on the tapestry was upside down from every other instance of its marking. Looking at the column Vander tried to turn the rune and was rewarded with a bolt of flame, but the rune turned somewhat. He turned the rune upside down and the face of the runelord woman appeared on the wall behind the column. She seemed to stare at Vander but no amount of interaction with the column or the image netted any result. In the end and several more burnt fingers we left unable to figure out the room. Dagon was unable to find any hidden doors and I trust his judgment so we proceeded back to the door past the malfunctioning trapped statue of the woman.
We arrived back at the door we had failed to open and once again failed to pry it open with my crowbar (ironic now that I think about it) and Vanders help. So they stepped back and I put the earth breaker and my back to good use. It took a few hard swings but much like the metal plates we had destroyed the previous day the heavy wooden door fell quickly enough. Once inside we discovered the smell of the ocean and a scene of carnage. The room contained two doors, some sort of magically sealed barrier in the floor that was open to the sea and the remains of four dead creatures. These creatures looked like the ones we had found tethered to the wall above but they had been badly beaten. From behind one of the doors we could hear sobbing and whimpering. When we started to open the door the crying became more panicked and we found the source to be one of the large fleshy creatures we had fought several times. It seemed to cower away from us and wail even louder. The room itself was empty and contained a foul odor, presumably from the creature. Whatever it was it seemed to not be a threat and so we closed the door and checked the magical barrier holding back the sea.
I did notice as we got closer that Dagon seemed to linger back. Even though he had looked to overcome his fear of the water, the lingering doubt of his ability to swim was still strong. Looking in we could see the vague shape of a sea going vessel lying on the bottom of the sea. The ship was much larger than what we used to arrive at the crow piling and much larger than what my family used to fish with. Everyone seemed to look at each other with the “I don’t know what to do look,” and eventually I found all their eyes on me. Grinning I dropped all my gear including the klar and earth breaker. Knowing that the ranseur we had would work effectively underwater if I should need it I picked up the magical one I had been carrying around and lowered myself into the water. Taking a deep breath I completely submerged under the water and began swimming to the sunken ship. The waters were cool at this depth but there wasn’t a lot of movement and swimming was easy enough. About half way to the ship two creatures emerged from a large hole in the side of the vessel and began moving towards me. They looked to be like large gar which would always be a nuisance when fishing, except these looked slightly bigger than me. Readying the ranseur I stabbed at the creatures as they moved in and learned that they had some sort of numbing effect to their bites, thankfully my Shoanti constitution resisted it. After a few seconds of fighting I realized that I was losing to their combined attacks and that if I didn’t begin retreating I would be dead soon. It was as that time that Ragnar and Vander arrived as well as a few magical bolts of arcane energy. With the combined weight of our attacks we finished off the creatures. I noticed that a line of rope was tied to Vander and led back up to a small point of light in the darkness above. Not wanting the trip to be in vain I continued on and found that the vessel was named the Liza Jane. I entered into the main cabin of the vessel and found a chest that was still padlocked. Knowing that I was running out of air I quickly grabbed up the chest and swam back to Vander where we tied the chest to the rope and the three of us followed the rope back to the room. I was beginning to see stars and even though I could still hear my fathers voice telling me not to panic, I was very concerned. I was the first to the portal and emerged drinking deep the air of the room as I surfaced. It wasn’t until I had pulled myself out that I realized that I was no longer wet, the barrier seemed to remove all the salt water from my body as I passed it. Once we had all emerged and Dagon saw to our wounds we pulled the chest up and had to break the lock off the chest as Ragnar was unable to pick the lock. Inside we found a set of fancy captains clothes, a mithril rapier, a magical buckler and a very nice broach with the letters LB etched onto the back. Gathering up our gear we then made our way to the last door.
When we opened the door, Dagon turned white. The room looked to be full of water and yet it wasn’t pouring into the room. There appeared to be a hazy form of stairs leading upward but again, it was under water. So once again I removed my gear and grabbing the ranseur stepped in. Once I passed the barrier of the door frame I was in a room where the very walls were made of water, or some sort of magical force that was holding the water back. The wall separating the water from the room was solid enough but invisible. Motioning to the others to come inside I could see Dagon shaking his head with an emphatic, no. As the others stepped in I climbed the stairs to a small landing that contained a couple of chairs, a small table and the remains of a bottle of wine and two wine glasses. Lying in a pouch under one of the stairs was a couple of scrolls that I handed to Aeolys who was unable to identify what they were.
So we left and again entered into the room with the wailing creature. No amount of talking with it could get it to stop crying and we were at our wits end. Dagon confirming that there were no secret doors and so we turned to leave. Vander on the other hand decided that the creature must die, and I cannot fault his logic for whatever it was, they openly worked with evil creatures and could be a problem if we left it alone. As it would turn out, this creature was quick to anger and no sooner had Vander hit the creature than it sprang up and mauled Vander. Its speed and strength reminded me of a mother bear protecting her cubs when cornered. I found my earth breaker bouncing from its hide and drew the magical scimitar I carried and managed to take its head from its shoulders, the creature had no neck. As it collapsed I looked at Vander who looked like he had fallen from a cliff and hit every rock and boulder on the way down. His armor was battered and bent, blood coating his face and Dagon was furiously conversing with Angraad to heal his wounds. Once that was over we decided to retire back near the magical fountain upstairs and rest for the remainder of the day.
Having seen the creatures grow stronger the deeper we went into the structure I knew it was only a matter of time before they turned their attention to Aeolys. His frail elven constitution would not stand up to a fraction of what Vander experienced. Knowing this I decided to removed the stone that had buried itself into my chest after drinking from the fountain. Once removed I suggested that Aeolys use the stone to help ensure his survival. He thought about it for a little bit but agreed and removed his new robes and took hold of the stone. As he brought his hand near his chest the stone shot into his chest with unimaginable speed. The force of the stone sent Aeolys across the room where he impacted with the wall. The blood stain from that impact and slow slumping of his seemingly dead body as he slid to the floor brought Dagon out of his rest. I could do no more than look on dumb founded at Aeolys’ corpse. “What did you do?” Dagon shouted as he ran over to the body and found that Aeolys was at deaths door, the heartbeat faint but there. With the wand he was able to bring Aeolys conscious and then glared at me. I still stood there frozen in place not having moved since it all began. “I didn’t think it would hurt that much.” was all I could say. Even though Aeolys said he was fine and stumbled over to the fountain to drink from it Dagon would have none of it. He was in my face, chest really, and told me to sleep away from the others and to think about what I had done, and he was right. I damn near killed the elf with the intention of helping him. Thankfully the night went by quietly and I barely slept. In the morning, at least I think it was the morning, Dagon was still upset with me but didn’t say anything. Aeolys on the other hand looked sore, but seemed to have more of a glow about him. Ragnar on the other hand still looked pale even after drinking from the fountain. Dagon looked at him and could only shrug and Ragnar just had to tough it out until we could leave.
Returning to the long path that led deeper underground we moved on and found that the stonework changed to actual stonework again. No longer did the stone look like it had been removed by magic and instead tools worked these walls. It seemed to be some sort of sewer system as stagnant water with troughs in the ground to move it about was in the room we entered. From there three passages led off with the troughs leading into each tunnel. Occasionally there were planks of wood crossing the troughs but they looked old and weak. Hugging one wall we began moving down the eastern passage when we came into a large cistern with the path high above the water. The room had an impressive painting of Magnimar on it as it now stood and was much different than any other mural we had found here. Just as we had almost fully crossed the span of the room a gravelly voice from below asked why we were there. I replied that we were only passing though and I asked if whoever I was talking with had painted the mural. He got somewhat defensive and told me to not mess with it and I reassured him that I wouldn’t. I then asked if he knew about this area and if he knew of a power magical item in the area. He said that he didn’t know of that but he would be willing to tell us about the area if we would do something for him. Since he was willing to be cooperative I agreed for the others. He then surprised us by asking if we would retrieve a broach from a sunken ship nearby. Before I could answer, Dagon pulled it from his pack and asked if he meant this broach. Although none of us could see the man we could tell he had feelings for the broach and more importantly, who it had belonged to. He then asked if we would then give the broach to who it belonged to, a woman named Liza Jane Brast and that she lived in Magnimar. I agreed to do so but the man was insistent that we do that before he would give us any information. It took Dagon swearing on his life as a dwarf that he would do this before the man told us what we wanted to know. The man explained that to the south was a large room that contained several blue looking dwarfs, which immediately peaked our curiosity. He explained of some traps in nearby rooms and what to look for. Once he had finished we then proceeded on.
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Akrem Sun Diver
Pathfinder Journal, 5 Arodes
Derro • Shard • Magnimar
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Continuing past the person or creature in the cistern we moved into another small cistern like room. Below us on all sides was more of the stagnant water and passages leading off in all directions. Dagon pointed to one of the passages that led off into the darkness as heading east. How he knows this for sure I don’t know, but I have come to trust what he says as true. Aeolys then commented that it could lead to the city since Magnimar is east of the Crow piling. Which would make sense since these blue dwarves probably didn’t hike all the way up into the piling to get out.
We were about to investigate the passage opposite of our entrance when two eel like creatures attacked our group. They were hidden behind large metal grates in the wall which at one time probably fed the cistern. The creatures though were able to reach out an incredible distance and strike at us on the platform. Dropping the klar and earth breaker I began using the magical ranseur against the creatures with Vander doing the same with the cold iron ranseur. It would seem that they were rather fond of elven flesh as Aeolys took the brunt of their attacks and Dagon had to ask for assistance from Angraad to keep him standing. Several gouts of arcane fire leapt from Aeolys’ hands and with the combined weight of attacks from Vander and I we were able to kill the creatures. Ragnar did what he could to avoid the attacks since he had no way to reach them and it seemed to pay off as he was only mildly injured when the fight ended. A quick investigation of the cistern told us that the water was only shin deep and contained nothing of value. Thankfully Aeolys can clean my boots off with his magics otherwise I would have to purchase new boots again.
Continuing on we found that the southern passageway led on for awhile before we came to a collapsed hall. Nothing was said from Dagon so I assume there was no hidden doors. The remaining passageway led to a intersection with one passage leading back to the trapped room our ally warned us of. The other led to a room with a small clear pool and a single torch left in the wall near the pool. As I approached the torch I could tell that it wasn’t an actual torch but some sort of magical torch that didn’t actually burn. As I reached for the torch I heard a noise from above and jumped back in time to avoid a green slimy substance that fell from the ceiling of the room. The creature or substance was highly acidic as I could hear the sound of the floor sizzling where it now laid. The torch it would seem was permanently attached to the wall and I didn’t want to risk stepping in the slime so we left it there. The pool was also of no importance other than an area of stagnant water that was chest deep.
To ensure there would be no surprises we continued on past in the direction of where we entered and found another small room that was empty and contained the same trough system that held more of the stagnant water. So we turned around and continued down the last passage at the previous intersection. We entered into a large room with a small raised area and a few doors. The walls had an odd blue colored fungus growing in patches on it. The fungus was toxic with prolonged exposure but otherwise harmless. As soon as we entered into the area I went to investigate the upper landing while the others fanned out as well. Aeolys seemed to rush towards a wall and he became very adamant that we should open the door hidden in the wall. By then Dagon moved over and found the door but before we could open it several wild haired looking blue skinned creatures attack from a small side room we had not looked in. Several of them wielded odd looking spears with some sort of tube on the end and after having been stuck by the spear I could feel a numbing cold tear through my body. It was learned later that the creatures were Derro and did in fact look like a skinny blue dwarf. One of the derro appeared on the landing and began casting spells into our group while some sort of golem made of flesh stepped up and began attacking Dagon and Vander. Dagon’s armor protected him from the worst but it became apparent that if the caster was left unchecked she would do untold damage to our group. I moved up to engage her and with help from Aeolys she was brought down. By the time I made it back to the others the golem like creature had fell and another derro deeper in the side room was tossing exploding flasks into the others.
I ran into the room to engage our last known threat but by the time I had reached the room he had dodged back into a smaller side room. Ragnar bolted ahead and began attacking with his rapier but was not having any luck landing any blows. The derro was nimble on his feet as well because he thwarted every attempt by Ragnar to slip behind him. Eventually Ragnar retreated and I took his place, the earth breaker and klar finishing our adversaries off.
At this point Aeolys returned to the wall and began in earnest to try and open the door. Being unsuccessful at opening the door the rest of us began looking through the belongings of the derro. We found several documents that spoke of alchemical creations that would allow the derro to move in direct sunlight as well as several documents on the poison being made from the blue fungus. Gathering these up we talked about moving into some of the other side rooms but Aeolys was adamant about going through the secret door and would not leave the room. Knowing that the shard he now carried once controlled me somewhat, I wasn’t surprised by his response but was surprised that it seemed to control Aeolys after we placed the ioun stone with the shard.
The door took my crowbar and some help from Vander to open the secret door. This led to a stairway leading down which elicited a groan from Dagon but Aeolys pushed passed us all and proceeded down the stairs. As we approached the bottom of the stairwell a couple of braziers sprang to life illuminating a large golden door. Dagon apprehension of descending the stairs was put aside as he admired the door. Ragnar assured us the door wasn’t trapped but he’s said that before. Pushing the door open I found it to open rather easily and it opened into a large chamber with a sihedron rune depression laid into the floor. One of the points of the star contained a shard but before we could decide what to do with it two large spider like creatures descended from the ceiling and moved to attack. The creatures were obscenely quick and attacked in a flurry. If it wasn’t for Dagon I would have been extremely worried, as it was I was just worried. The fight did not go as well as I hoped, their speed making it hard to land a solid blow. I heard Aeolys fall under the onslaught of one of the creatures but Dagon had him back on his feet quickly enough. When we finally killed the last creature we were all in bad shape and was glad to see that the stone that had almost killed Aeolys the night before had kept him alive during this encounter. We did learn one valuable fact and that was that the creatures were terrified of fire. It turns out this was the reason Aeolys drew so much attention from one of the creatures.
After we patched ourselves up we decided what to do with the shard and discussed that we needed to realize that there would be some personality issues until we recovered the ioun stone. With that decided Dagon picked up the shard. We all stood there waiting for something when Dagon began digging through his pockets for items and then asked in passing if he could have all the jewelry that we had collected. I suggested the broach as he seemed to find it in his pockets at which point he smiled and put it back in his pocket, giving his pocket a love tap. With the compulsion over Aeolys was willing to investigate the remaining rooms and we discovered a lot of areas where bodies had been experimented on and kept. In one of these cells we found Fenster who looked terrible, if that was even possible. He reacted in fear at anyone approaching him and after having seen how that creature upstairs attacked Vander I didn’t want to provoke him, so we left him there and finished looking through the complex finding a few items to take back to the Pathfinder Society to investigate. The long passage actually did lead into Magnimar and I expected Dagon to make a run for the Heidmarch manor but instead he wouldn’t leave because of all the loot still in the piling. So I decided to stay and help Dagon move all the items we had collected to the docks while the rest reported to Heidmarch.
When the others returned with some food they brought an ioun stone with them that Heidmarch had and once inserted into the shard Dagon seemed relieved. At this point we loaded up all our gear and items found into the two boats and returned to Magnimar proper. From here we sold items we no longer wanted and used the money to purchase much needed gear. It was decided that I would carry the shard we found as it seemed to help my combat skills. The Lord Mayor took Fenster in and sent him to his clerics for care, and we did follow up on our promise and returned the broach to Liza Jane Brast after talking with the harbor master for her address.
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Akrem Sun Diver
Pathfinder Journal, 6-12 Arodes
Library • Sailing • Dragon
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We spent the next three days selling equipment and gear that was gained while in the Crow piling and did what we could to clean ourselves up and rest. My armor was a mess and even after Aeolys did what he could it still looked old and well used. Several of my tattoos were marred with new scars and I suppose that in some ways I look more intimidating.
Using all my new funds I decided to upgrade my equipment as best I could. Having had to break several doors as well as several plates of metal I decided to find a adamantine earth breaker and then had it enchanted with magic to increase its performance. I found a very nicely crafted klar and had the blade worked over by some dark skinned fellow with alchemical treatments and electricity. The blade now closely resembled the two-handed sword that Vander had carried into the Crow. I had just enough left to purchase a well made breastplate that fit extremely well and purchased general gear as well as a new journal.
After the three days of rest it had occured to me that the sudden sunshine and the smell of the sea had been so welcoming that I forgot to even use the newly gained shard to focus in on our next piece. That morning I attempted to do so and saw images of a swamp, and finally a large statue of a woman holding forth a light. Unfortunately I didn’t recognize the location. I described what I had seen and was rewarded with blank stares from the others. So I asked if everyone would like to look themselves and it was Vander who recognised the location as the Lady’s Light, a well known fixture south of Magnimar in the Marsh Fens that lead up to the sea. It was believed that the statue of the woman was a Thassilonian runelord.
We met with Sheila Heidmarch that evening for dinner along with another individual who was introduced as Illyanna. She had a heavy accent and I believe that was from Irrisen in the north. Dinner was pleasant enough but when we were done we discussed the images and the location of Lady’s Light. Sheila was pleased to learn this and then offered to begin the plans of sending us to the Lady’s Light to retrieve the next shard. She also suggested that we include Illyanna in our journies as she was a Pathfinder recruited by Sheila to assist us. Her martial skills with a bow and obvious worship of Desna would greatly aid Dagon in keeping us on our feet. Sheila to us to take a few days to rest up as she put together the travel plans. She also gave us another ioun stone so that when we encountered the shard we would be able to nullify its ability to alter our actions.
I asked Sheila’s husband what he knew of the swamps and what could be encountered there since he was a seasoned adventurer. He offered a few suggestions and the next few days Aeolys and I researched what we could on the creatures so that we would be prepared for when we would inevitably encounter them.
We ended up getting passage aboared the ship Wanton Ways and I was pleasantly surprised to note that the captain and much of its crew were Tian. I believe I even managed to shock a few when I introduced our group to the captain in Tian. The captain was a very likable fellow named Koso and gave us a rundown of the rules while on board. Dagon I could tell was not pleased at the prospect of sailing to our destination, but slogging through a swamp would be time consuming and dangerous to some extent. Captain Koso explained that he would have us at our destination early the next day but we ran into a large amount of fog late that evening and had to slow our pace.
Koso told us the place we went to was dangerous and because of the reefs no one sailed near it in the larger sea going vessels. He explained that there were villages of frog people there and that they were not friendly to outsiders. He also explained that there was a legend of a witch living there named Marioux. This seemed to intrest Illyanna somewhat and Koso explained that Marioux, if she was real, may help or hinder our quest.
It was the evening of the second night and I had just gone below after being told by Koso that the fog was so thick he was unsure how far away we were from the Lady’s Light when I heard a commotion from on deck. I could see that Ragnar had also heard the noise and we ran up on deck to see what was happening. All we got from one of the crew was, dragon. Just then something large flew over the deck of the ship, while being hidden in the fog.
I ran back below to get my gear in case the worst happened and suddently the ship lurched to the side as if it had just struck a reef. The shock of the attack from the dragon hitting the ship knocked me off my feet and it took some time for me to regain them as the ship began taking on water and listing to one side. By the time I was able to retrieve my gear I could see that Ragnar had grabbed both his and Illyanna’s as well. Grabbing Vanders I began to make my way back to the deck of the ship. It was at that time that water began pouring into the hold as the ship began breaking apart. Again I was knocked to my feet but I was able to swim to the stairs easily enough.
By the time I had made it on deck I could see that Vander had been clawed or bite and was doing what he could to scrabble away from the black dragon who was perched on the side of the ship. A green, acidic slime seemed to wash over the deck mixed with the sea water and I could see chunks of bone and flesh in with the slime. Dagon was doing what he could to help drag Vander away and I could see that Aeolys and Illyanna were doing what they could from range. My Shoanti brother was dancing in and around the attacks of the dragon and doing what he could to prevent the creature from gaining ground onto the now rapidly sinking and listing Wanton Ways. I moved forward to engage the creature when Illyanna cast a spell on me that increased my size to increadible proportions. Just as I was able to engage the dragon it bounded away and went after Aeolys. His spells were damaging the dragon rather well and it shifted its focus from Ragnar to kill the elf. I moved in and landed a telling blow from the earth breaker. Its first taste of blood coming from a fine foe but it was the only attack that would hit as the dragon pulled away from the deck and dived below the water. Before it left the creature spoke and told us that we had made a enemy of Skyra this day.
At this point the situation was dire. We had no idea how far from shore we were and a small dingy was being pulled under by the Wanton Ways. Quickly using my kukri to cut the ropes to the dingy everyone jumped in except Vander who had fallen into the ocean. Even Dagon made it somehow after having gotten in a barrel. With our combined strength we were able to push ourselves away from the ship with out being pulled under and even managed to get Vander into the dingy. His skills at swimming had improved greatly.
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Akrem Sun Diver
Pathfinder Journal, 12-14 Arodes
Exhaustion • Undead • Witch
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For several hours the we rowed in the direction we hoped would be the shore. The fog, although slightly thinner was still to thick to see anything. The constant rowing was taking its toll though, by the time we finally reached shore most of us were fatigued and exhausted. It would seem that we were a fair distance from the shore and we ended up right in the swamp. After dragging our small boat onto the shore we went about looking for some dry ground to rest on for the evening. All we could find were patches of ground that were slightly higher than the water that we now stood in and even those patches were mostly mud.
No sooner had we found an area where we could rest when several creatures quickly surrounded us and attacked. The creatures looked very similar to the creatures that swam out from the sunken vessel when we investigated the Crow piling at the Irespan. I moved to engage a large portion of them while Vander did the same on the far side of the group. Dagon, Aeolys and Ragnar took on another group and eventually began harassing a much larger creature that arrived to the combat a few seconds later. With Illyana’s help, I was able to finish off the creatures that I had engaged and then move to help the others with the large creature. We quickly finished the large creature off and moved to help Vander but Dagon had already gone to help and they killed their group off. With their death all that was left was the sound of the buzzing insects that permeated the area and our heavy breathing.
We moved a little further inland and found another patch of land that wasn’t so wet and bed down. It wasn’t long before the sun was up and it burned off the fog and mist and I didn’t think it could get any hotter but it did, the heat was intense. I had a hard time breathing with all the humidity, it felt like I was trying to inhale through a wet blanket. But we had to move further inland to get out of the swamp and hopefully figure out where we were. We were fairly sure that we were close to our destination but the distance we rowed made us wary that we could be off.
Moving through the swamp was tough going and slow. The mud was thick and seemed to suck you down in. Several times many of us lost our boots from the mud and it just made sure everyone was in a foul mood. Its hard to remain upbeat when you walk all day and only go a few miles. Not to mention that you are constantly covered in mud. The only advantage the mud provided was that once it dried on your skin the insects had a very hard time being more than a minor nuisance.
Eventually we came to an area of trees that looked to have been roped off, with small animal bones hanging off the fence. The whole affair looked very tribal and primitive so we ignored the rope and moved through. A few minutes of slogging through the area Aeolys stopped to reach below the water to see what he tripped on and pulled up a semi preserved human leg. It was then that the water began to bubble and boil and undead began rising all around us. They moved very slowly and when they got close would spit a vile amount of water that seemed to bury itself into your mouth choking you. Knowing that I could hold my breath for a good amount of time I continued to fight the creatures off which were easy enough to kill. The problem became that they kept coming up and they never stopped. Moving onto dry land did not stop their revival and in between waves we did what we could to spit up the liquid. Eventually we realized that we couldn’t stop their implacable advance and had to run through them. I ran forward with the others and discovered more rope and climbed over it, all the while trying to cough up more of the liquid that hit me while escaping. Once we all arrived on the other side of the rope the undead stopped rising and we learned that the rope must have been a very primitive warning. Lesson learned.
Moving on we eventually came to dry land and found a hill that allowed us to figure out where we were. We were in fact where we wanted to be and we only needed to trek south until we found this giant statue. Moving on we came across a road and for once the travel was rather easy, but it was still hot. Thankfully we were farther from the marshy areas and the breeze coming off the sea was somewhat cooler. At least the humidity was lower so you could breathe. The path eventually led to a rope and wood bridge that led to a small island. The bridge was festooned with animal bones and skulls. A small hut on the island was showing signs of smoke coming from its dilapidated chimney and we figured that this was the witch Maroux’s house. Hoping for her assistance in finding the Lady’s Light we moved across the bridge towards the home.
Halfway across the bridge a half-orc woman stepped from her home as if she knew we were there. The conversation was short and she wanted us to leave her island. No amount of diplomacy or tact would sway her until I offered to assist her with anything in return for her help. It was at this point that her attitude changed and in exchange with retrieving a special kelp from a sunken ship she would help us with our quest. The only kicker was that the ship was supposedly haunted. Dagon wasn’t happy, water will be involved.
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Akrem Sun Diver
Pathfinder Journal, 14-16 Arodes
Undead • Hydra • Bugs
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We journeyed from Maroux’s house back to the beach to rest for the evening as she did not want us on her island, no matter that we were going to retrieve her special kelp. The beach itself was extremely comforting for me as the sounds of the rolling waves reminded me of my youth, just a lot warmer. Dagon wasn’t enjoying our location much, but the rest didn’t seem to mind. At least we were not walking and had the opportunity to relax on dry ground. Once my armor and equipment was taken care of and the days journal was updated I rolled out my bedroll and drifted off to sleep quickly.
The next day we found the island where Maroux told us to go soon after we began our trek. Not knowing where on the island the ship wreck was located we picked a route and walked around the island and picked the longest way to walk. Ragnar and Aeolys spotted the mast of a beached ship not to far off the coast, probably stuck on a sand bar or on the reef we were told was in the area. Leaving my backpack and gear on the shore I began to wade into the water as the others did the same. Illyanna and Dagon both didn’t look comfortable after the water was deeper than they could walk so I had each of them grab onto the back of my armor and began pulling them towards the wreck. As we got closer we could see that the ship was named the Impdrake. Thankfully my constant reminder to Dagon and Illyanna to not panic helped, because as we approached the ship several undead began pulling themselves upright from under the Impdrake and on the deck to attack us. Dagon immediately let go and began a frantic arm paddle to the ship where he climbed on board and began attacking the undead there directly. Illyanna let go earlier and pulled herself onto a small sandbar and began trading shots with what looked like the old captain who was throwing a harpoon that always returned to his hand.
I moved to engage the skeletons that swam up from under the ship and as I moved forward I used the shard to increase my speed which also increased my ability to swim. Aeolys was immediately grabbed by one of the undead and was being crushed. Moving as quickly as I could I manged to kill a few of the creatures before being able to free Aeolys who looked a little battered. The magical healing of Dagon was the only way Aeolys remained standing but the fight was over in less than a minute. Using the remaining time from the shard to good use I managed to fill two empty sacks full of the kelp that Maroux wanted.
From there we returned to the witch and her mood dramatically shifted. While preparing her special stew she explained about another group of woman warriors from Korvosa who also came to investigate the Lady’s Light. Their leader was called Oriana and she was a Knight of the Rightful Queen. It was their belief that the statue was Sorshen the Thassiloniann runelord of lust. On a return visit to Maroux’s their leader claimed to have revived Sorshen and was now working directly for the runelord. If that was true, I would be worried, but somehow I doubt that the runelord was alive, they died out years ago. She also talked about this group befriending the local boggarts and with their aid removed the troglodyte threat. Maroux then drew us a map of the area and with it some interesting landmarks that peeked my curiosity.
One was labeled the cave of many mouths and I wondered if it might be where the dragon that attacked our ship was using as its lair. A village was marked as being one full of troglodytes and we were all surprised when Vander said that we should go there and wipe them out. I think he was more surprised at our reaction to his suggestion as we all looked at each other in shock and then back to Vander. At that point Vander didn’t say anything else and so we just brushed it off as a rather odd joke, but for all I know Vander’s family was tore apart from Trogs and he has a bit of a grudge. Either way we decided to investigate the cave on the way to the southern peninsula and the Lady’s Light.
The soup that Maroux prepared was borderline food. I only managed a couple of spoonfuls before becoming sick to my stomach. Dagon on the other hand ate all of his. I think he was showing off his dwarven constitution, as he wasn’t really all that excited about eating another bowl after eating the first and keeping it down.
We hiked throughout the day and reached the cave late in the afternoon and could tell that a large battle had happened here recently. There was a large pile of trogs near the mouth of the cave and there was odd colored blood soaked into the ground. As a group we moved our way into the cave mouth as quietly as possible. Outside was a sign written in a primitive hand that I learned later said something about the cave of Gegganallag. Once inside as we moved in slowly a large many headed dragon moved forward out of the darkness with a bogart riding on its back. The creature moved in quickly and I was surprised when it breathed a ball of fire from each mouth. Aeolys and I took the worst of it but immediately began to give back as good as we took. Ragnar, Vander and I did what we could and we learned later that the boggart was healing itself throughout the fight, and making it difficult for Illyanna and Aeolys to directly attack the creature from range. Eventually I hit the creature so hard that the boggart fell from its back dead. Unsure what had happened I did not have time to think about it as no sooner had the boggart hit the cave floor than the creature turned on me and all its heads breathed fire onto me causing me to fall unconscious. When I awoke Dagon was giving me a grin and looked a little worse for wear. It would seem that we were all a little toasty and heavily singed and burned. Thankfully Angradd took care of the injuries and we then decided to rest in the cave. It would seem that Aeolys also fell to the creatures breath and although no one will admit it, that stone now embedded in Aeoly’s chest has kept him alive several times. While resting in the cave the others did some digging and found a few items of magic hiding in the mud.
In the morning we moved further into the cave and discovered a tunnel that led deeper in. Following it we eventually came to a room that was crawling with finger sized, white bugs that coated the walls, floor and ceiling. Ragnar said they were called solifugids, and he didn’t elaborate on how he know that. The constant sound of their clicking and crawling across the walls was disturbing, even more so than the sound of the crunch as you stepped into the room. In the center of the room was a large pillar like rock with Thassilonian runes carved on the outside. The pillar looked to have been broken or collapsed upon a cursory glance, but as we got closer we could see that tools were used to break it. The interesting part was that on the inside of the stone was the form of a woman. I highly doubt that the rock was a mold used in making a statue and was more likely some sort of magical prison. Whoever or whatever was inside was now released and I hope that it is someone claiming to be Sorshen and not the actual runelord. Several passageways led off from this room and we spread out to look down them all. Multiple creatures that resembled the bugs in the room, only the size of a man, attacked just as we spread out. Their ambush wasn’t very effective against those of us in armor and Vander and I were able to shrug off most of their attacks but again Aeolys was knocked unconscious and again saved by the stone that tried to kill him. For a brief minute we fought the creatures but managed to kill them before they killed any of us, although Illyanna was tore up. One of the creatures chased her about the room as she fired multiple arrows into it. My Shoanti brother Ragnar looked to have done well for himself, only taking minimal damage during the fight and Dagon is Dagon. That man wrapped in iron is as unmoving as the stone itself.
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Akrem Sun Diver
Pathfinder Journal, 16-17 Arodes
Troglodytes • Disease • Statues
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After clearing the room of the larger bug creatures we took the first passage on the right of the one we entered from. We eventually encountered a set of roots and vegetation blocking our passage and Vander used his great sword to hack his way through. As soon as he did so these giant mushroom looking plants began attacking him. They did so with lashing tentacle like arms that were poisonous as I learned later. It didn’t take to long to clear our way through them but they did a number on Vander, much to Dagon’s displeasure.
Once they were dealt with we noticed another section of vegetation blocking our path. Ragnar moved ahead and looked through noting a larger cave on the other side but otherwise the coast looked clear. Once again Vander cut his way through and we entered into the larger chamber. Most moved to our left and I covered the right side of our group.
As I rounded a small rock I heard Aeolys remark that the cave wall was marked with blood or some other substance naming some demonic god, it was also when I discovered his worshipers. There were several troglodytes and some incredibly large lizard like creature in the room near me and they noticed me as I noticed them. They seemed to look like they were incensed or drugged into some sort of hyper state. The large creature moved forward as the trogs rushed in. It was then that I noticed that Ragnar had moved up to my left and was immediately snapped at by the large elongated snout of the lizard. Once it had done so, it began rolling around on the ground is if spasming. This caused the teeth of the creature to tear at Ragnars flesh and blood went everywhere. Even though one of the trogs had moved forward and was attacking me with a primitive club I had to save Ragnar and so I concentrated my attacks on the lizard. With the constant pressure by me and Ragnar we managed to fell the creature but not before one of the trogs hit me several times leaving me dizzy and blood clouding my vision. The fight was over pretty much after that. I finished off the trog that had been attacking me and the others ran down their leader. By now we had exhausted all of Dagon’s healing magics for the day and we decided to fall back into the room where the giant mushroom like creatures had attacked us to rest. While resting we looked over the room and area and discovered the rock axe their leader was using was magical so we held onto it.
Surprisingly the night was uneventful and we all got some rest. The creatures that used to reside there probably kept most of the trogs away. Moving back into the large cave we found that it opened into a larger chamber with multiple exits and as we moved to take one of these exits the floor suddenly gave away under Vanders feet and he slowly fell into a pit. Because of his magical ring he did not plummet the ten feet into the sharp spikes that coated the floor of the pit. As we all arrived to help Vander out we discovered that the pit was large enough to cover most of the floor in the room and used dirt covered reed mats to hide its presence. Once we retrieved Vander we continued on our way, albeit at a much slower pace.
We rounded into a room where we could hear an argument between several trogs and Aeolys later explained that they were debating whether to continue following the leader we had just killed the night before. As we stepped into the room they began to rush us even though we tried to convince them that we just wanted to talk. Perhaps something was lost in translation but they moved to engage and readied weapons. A blast of magical fire that filled the room killed two of them outright and left the other two in bad shape. This changed their zeal in attacking us and after explaining that their leader was done they could go. We also learned that there was some sort of sickness affecting them and they wanted to leave the area because of it. Once we were done we left to continue to a chamber on the opposite side of the cave and discovered several trogs burning the bodies of their dead. Again they attacked before we could convince them that it would be unwise to do so and in turn killed them. From here we checked the last chamber and discovered their village as it were and it appeared that all of them were sick in some manner and not wanting to contract anything we backed out and left the entire section of these caves.
We continued back through the bug filled room and moved down the next passage on our right. This eventually turned into worked stone and opened into a large room with several statues of a scantily clad woman ringing a large dark pit. We cautiously entered into the room fearing that something might emerge from the pit or some sort of trap that might knock us into it. As I moved in I pulled out my rope and tied myself off and then tied the rope to one of the statues just in case. As I moved closer to investigate the pit after tying myself off four of the statues began moving. I later found out that they were magical constructs of some sort from Aeolys. As they moved forward to attack Vander rushed forward and swung his great sword in a mighty cleave only to hear the metal of his sword give way, and I image he felt a nice jolt up his arms as well. Ragnar also stepped forward and attacked one and his magical rapier broke as well. It looked like panic was about to set in when even Aeolys magical blast of fire only blackened the stone and didn’t harm the construct. It was then that I remembered that the vendor I had bought my earth breaker from in Magnimar said that it was constructed of the hardest metals known to the gods and in fact the metal fell from the heavens long ago. So I dropped my klar to the ground and taking my earth breaker in both hands moved in to attack one of the statues while activating the magic of the shard I carried. As everything seemed to slow down I repeatedly struck at one of the statues breaking off large chunks of stone and leaving my earth breaker untouched from their stone skin. In a short span of time I managed to fell the constructs in the room and Aeolys even found a spell that seemed to bypass their hardness. When I get back to Magnimar I am going to go back to that vendor and buy him an ale!
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Akrem Sun Diver
Pathfinder Journal, 16-17 Arodes
Underground Complex • Transformation and Trust • Glass Construct
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With the last of the column constructs destroyed we began working on our wounds and deciding what to do with this black pit. Dropping stone fragments from the constructs into the hole resulted in no noise when they hit the bottom, assuming that they did hit a bottom. Even casting magical light onto one of the stones and dropping it showed nothing but magical inky blackness. By adding Ragnars length of rope to mine and tying Ragnar off we lowered him into the pit. His magical ring that allowed him to fall like a feather being the main reason he led this part of the exploration. Eventually there was a tug on the rope, a signal we decided to use to pull him back up. After pulling him upwards the rope suddenly became slack and I feared the worse. Telling the others that he was in danger I began climbing down the rope. No sooner had I entered into the darkness than my own weight in armor seemed negligible, it was as if I was floating in the air. It was then that I ran into something on the rope which immediately began flailing about and I could feel metal slamming off my boots. I quickly climbed back up and out and a few moments later Vander emerged on the end of the rope looking a little frightened. It was then that we realized that I had bumped into Vander in this magical darkness and prompted the response of swing wildly with great sword in one hand in the hopes of driving off the attacker. After we all laughed a little he explained that the rope led to a large room with a sarcophagus and two passages leading off and away from it. Otherwise it looked similar to the room we were in, with worked stone and magical lighting everywhere. So as a group we climbed down, leaving our rope as a means of escape if needed.
Looking up after arriving in the room we could see our rope coming out of the stone ceiling above. The ceiling was some sort of illusion and made the whole climb a little weird. True to Vanders word there was a large sarcophagus in the room and even though Vander wanted to open it, we convinced him to leave it alone. The desire to figuring out where we were was more important than looting the dead, or worse, waking the dead. From one of the passages the sound of running water could be heard and so we looked to here first. The hall was lined with more columns of the naked beautiful woman, but thankfully none of these attacked. Eventually we arrived at the end of the hall and it overlooked a underground stream of water flowing in the direction of a small sand bar where two small skiffs were moored, and the water looked to continue on past the sand bar. We decided to check the other hall before moving on into the water and found that the other passage mirrored the hallway we had just walked down and ended up at a red metal door. The door was of an unknown metal that none of us could identify and looked to be some sort of Thassilonian puzzle door. There were several plates making up the door with lewd and suggestive images carved into them. It appeared to be some sort of lock, where depressing the plates into the door might unlock it. As Vander began reaching up to push a random plate, Aeolys convinced him that it would be unwise. Aeolys was at a loss for what the puzzle was and after experiencing magical attacks while interacting with doors and locks it was best to leave it alone. Not to mention that the sandbar looked to have been on the back side of this door and we knew we could get there from swimming down the river. So we again returned to that hall and I jumped in.
I was surprised to find that the water was only up to my waist. It was cold and very refreshing. As I moved down the river towards the sand bar I could feel the aches in my muscles go away and was rather loathe to leave the water when I arrived at the sandbar. As I arrived I saw that both skiffs were tied to a rock post but there were no tracks in the sand. Getting into the skiff, there were no oars, just a pole and it was easy enough to return to the others. Once there, I hopped back into the water and began wading down to the sandbar. Aeolys also followed along and agreed that he felt his aches go away while in the water. Dagon would hear none of it and was still white knuckled as he held onto the skiff and Vander followed behind Aeolys and I. The doorway and sandbar held nothing of interest other than the boats so we continued downstream into a huge chamber.
In the center of this giant chamber was a stone platform with seven sides to it and standing on top of the stone was a huge statue made of glass or crystal that resembled the woman carved into the stone columns. On the opposite side of the room was the sound of rapids or a small waterfall. Just to the right of our entrance was another sandbar that led up to a stone door. Investigation of this sandbar also showed two burial mounds with large metal shields placed on them, showing that whoever was buried here was a warrior of some kind. The door appeared to be safe according to Ragnar but like Dagon, I was dubious as to his skills at finding traps. As it was now, Vander had discovered more traps than my shoanti brother.
The door opened into a room where several artistic representations of people in carnal acts were covering the walls. I have to admit I probably blushed a little standing in this room knowing that Illyana was also looking at them. I am also slightly ashamed to admit we spent a little more time here looking around, hoping to find more than the door that led out on one side of the room.
Eventually we followed this hall and it arrived at a room where a well dressed man stood, unfortunately there was a metal gate standing between him and us. When he asked us for the password and we did not return with the answer he began preparing spells while Ragnar quickly attempted to pick the lock to open the gate. A few moments later he stepped back from behind a pillar and let loose with arcane energies that struck both Aeolys and Ragnar. For the next several seconds he unleashed spell after spell until Aeolys had to retreat, and Dagon was doing what he could to keep everyone standing. I moved forward and began using my earth breaker to batter down the gate and it took a few swings before I was able to open our way into the room. Before that happened he managed to hit me with several arrows and a spell or two. As I moved up to engage him he stabbed me with a rather well made rapier and there was no pain, but it all went white and then dark.
After a few minutes I awoke to find myself in some sort of bed, but the room was very dark. When I tried to rise up my forehead slammed into some stone like surface a few inches above my body. As anyone would do in that situation I let out a muffled exclamation that doesn’t need to be repeated in this chronicle. I was stunned when I did not hear my own voice, but instead heard the voice of a woman. I sat there for several seconds as I tried to understand what I had just heard but then discounted it as I tried to remove the stone above my bed. It was surprisingly easy to move and it slid off whatever I was laying in. As I stood up, I realized that I was in the sarcophagus that we had come to earlier in the day and I could easily see our rope still hanging in the room leading up into the ceiling. It was also when I noticed that my arms and hands were not my own but instead those of a slightly olive skinned woman. Multiple rings adorned my fingers and looked to be of Thassilonian make. When I brought my hands to my face, I did not feel the scarred and scruffy face I was accustomed to but instead found the soft face of a woman. Looking down I discovered I was dressed in rather revealing clothing that resembled Thassilonian style. I will also freely admit that I looked down . . . there and was shocked when it was found that I had no . . . equipment. I believe I sat there for a few minutes as my mind tried to process what had happened. Perhaps the man we were fighting cast some sort of spell and transfered my . . . soul . . . into this body, but for what purpose I couldn’t fathom. Regardless, I had to see if my companions were still alive or if they needed my help. Although in the attire I was dressed, or lack there of, I doubt I would be able to do much.
So again, I moved down the hall so that I could drop into the water and wade down the river. I was surprised to see both of the skiffs we had used were tied back up at the small sandbar near the red door. Panic set in as I wondered how long it had been since the . . . transformation. Getting into one of the skiffs I began moving down the river and breathed a heavy sigh of relief when I saw the others moving about the sandbar near the stone door. Their reaction though was less than cordial as they readied weapons. Again panic began to set in, and once again, I heard my fathers voice giving me the advice I needed. So I stopped the skiff and looking at the others I asked if they had already began splitting up my gear. This seemed to stun them as they apparently expected something else to happen. It was also when I noticed my body lying on the sand. My chest looked to have exploded outwards and I could easily see my ribs pushing through my clothes. I could tell that Dagon had tried in vain to do something, anything but it was obvious that I had died, and rather gruesomely in fact. Tearing my eyes away from my corpse I did the only thing I could think to do and told them that I was going to want my gear back, including my shard. Again they just stared not knowing what to do. Even though I told them that it was me, Akrem they just stared. Aeolys seemed to get it first, followed by Dagon and the rest were confused enough but trusted Aeolys’ and Dagon’s opinion enough to lower their weapons.
I spent the next half hour explaining everything I knew, and trying to calm Vanders fears by telling him everything I knew, that only Akrem would know about him. He still fears that I am, in fact, a runelord that has been following his every move since we started working with the Pathfinders Society. I can and probably will have some fun with that in the future, but its still to early to pull that off without him killing me. The death and subsequent resurrection has been rather taxing and Dagon told me that certain magics can help restore that loss, but with each death a part of the soul is lost without specific help from Pharasma. So for now I will have to take it easy.
I can also attest that the creepiest and saddest thing a person could do is bury their own body, or that of a loved one. Granted my quah would send the person off to the afterlife in a burning boat. That was pretty much impossible here. Not to mention, I wasn’t really dead. So we followed the customs of most others and buried my corpse next to the two on the sand bar. My old gear did not fit so well and even though I could still strap my old light breastplate on, it still didn’t fit with my newly “enhanced” chest. The rest of the gear felt right and still somewhat wrong. This was going to be a long adventure and I have no idea how I was going to convince Sheila Heidmarch that I am in fact Akrem Sun Diver.
Because of the days events we decided to rest on the sandbar that night and continue our investigation in the morning. Even though I still took my normal watch I could see Vander peeking at me through closed eyelids. His trust was going to take a long time I imagine.
In the morning after gathering up our gear Vander suggested that we take a close look at the glass statue before going deeper into the complex itself. As we waded across the waters we were somewhat surprised when it began moving the moment Vander stepped foot on the dais. The construct was fairly quick for something of that size and it would appear the blades on its arms were wicked sharp. Aeolys and Vander both were bleeding profusely from cuts. Its reach was also impressive as it managed to continue striking at Aeolys as he moved away. As I stepped forward to engage the construct it payed me no mind and my movement behind did not cause the construct to attack. In fact the construct never once swung at me and I was able to slowly bring it down with help from the earth breaker. Once again the weapon had no difficulty in breaking the magically created construct. For some reason though, and I think its because Vander does not trust me, he would not stay away from the creature and continued attacking it, much to the consternation of Dagon. Had he stayed back I am fairly certain I could have destroyed it with no chance of it swinging at me. Perhaps there will more benefits here in my new form that we could use to our advantage, if only Vander doesn’t kill me first for trying the ruse. We shall have to see.
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Akrem Sun Diver
Pathfinder Journal, 17 Arodes
Nude Fighting • Halls of Lust • Confusion
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After having to get Dagon to do what he could to patch up our wounds, of which they were mostly to Vander and Aeolys, we decided to push on into the complex. Returning to the room where I had . . . died, I could still see the blood stains on the floor, and sadly the columns and ceiling from where my chest had exploded under the force of the magical attack channeled through the mans sword. After Ragnar confirmed that the doorway was clear we opened it and followed a long winding hall that came to a door. Just as Ragnar confirmed the door was safe and opened it, a pit opened underneath Ragnar and he fell into the pit. Thankfully the trap stayed open and Ragnar was still alive after falling a great distance so that we could pull him out with Aeolys’ rope. Once we had done that Ragnar was able to rig the trap so that it wouldn’t drop away again and we all entered into a room where a giant mural on the opposite was located. Before we could investigate the mural a demonic looking man stepped from behind a pillar near the mural and asked if I would strip out of my armor and clothes. For some reason this sounded like a good idea and I began the long and arduous task of stripping naked.
For one full minute I removed my armor and sheer clothing while I watched the others try and fight this demon who danced about the room with more dexterity than a mere mortal. He even summoned in some other form of demon during the time. Once I had removed my clothes I became keenly aware that I was no longer under the thrall of the demon, I quickly grabbed up my klar and earth breaker and charged into the fight. His lewd stares combined with the looks of shock from the others as they realized that I was standing there naked as the day was long just infuriated me further. I made short work of the creature after that point and managed to only have taken a rather painful kick to the groin. I can now attest that the pain from that kick was similar to when I was a male, but only by a small amount. As the body hit the ground I was already heading back into the hall to gather up my clothing. Modesty aside, I am comfortable in my own body, or at least I was. This being a woman was just . . . odd and I was going to have to learn to live with it. Thankfully the others just had wry grins on their faces and didn’t say anything. Only Dagon was crass enough to full on laugh at the situation, much to my ire.
The mural didn’t contain any new information or help in any other way other than to prove that Thassilonian magics were still strong as the mural looked to have been painted the previous day. A set of double doors leading from this room was looked over by Ragnar and again he admitted that he could find no traps. Even so, he grimaced while opening the doors, expecting something to happen no doubt. These doors opened into a large room with eight walls. In the center of the room was a small flight of stairs leading to a landing that contained a large flame that seemed to float in the room. The room itself was extremely warm and I immediately began to feel beads of sweat form on my brow. One wall seemed to be slightly discolored and there were two large alcoves as well. Fearing some sort of trap, I suggested letting me go in first to poke about hoping that my new body might help here. Nothing seemed to happen as I moved into the room but movement in the upper balcony that ringed the fire caught my attention. What I saw were several ball shaped creatures with huge mouths staring down at me. They were obviously some sort of planar creature but my description of them only brought a shrug from Aeolys. As soon as I addressed one of the creatures to float down, as they were floating in the air on the upper balcony, they would hide behind the small wall there. They would continue to peek out but would quickly hide again once addressed by me. One of the alcoves was empty while the other contained a set of double doors in fine woodwork. The odd colored wall was actually a sort of Illusion, though not magical in nature. Once I moved close enough to the wall I could see a hall leading off with stairs going down. The way the wall was made, gave the illusion of a solid wall until you got close.
Since the creatures didn’t seem threatening, or at least with me around they weren’t, the others came into the room and looked about. Nothing of the grey colored flame could be figured out and even after seeing the creatures with his own eyes, Aeolys didn’t know what they were. Not wanting to continue down without checking out the entire level we instead moved to the double doors. I stayed in the back of the group, hoping that my presence is what prevented the creatures from attacking as the others moved into a hallway. I followed the others once they were through and closed the doors behind me without incident. The hall contained several doors with Thassilonian writing on them talking about meeting with Sorshen by opening the doors. One of the doors was incredibly cold and a small amount of frost covered the door. We carefully opened the doors that were not cold and found them to be small rooms containing a comfortable bed, and . . . toys used by professionals in the profession of the flesh. Slightly embarrassed at what we found we quickly moved through the rest of the rooms and found nothing of note. We finally gathered at the cold door and prepared for battle as I touched the door and set off the trap. Almost the entire hallway filled with frost and dropped in temperature instantly making the skin burn. Once again, the entire group looked at my Shoanti brother and all he did was shrug. Finding traps was something that he needed to improve at and quickly. Once Dagon did what he could to treat our wounds we moved to the end of the hall where a single Thassilonian word was carved into the wall. As I touched it the secret door opened into a lavish looking bedchamber with one door in the room besides the secret door we entered from. We spent several minutes looking about and found nothing but an extremely comfortable bed.
From here we opened the door and proceeded into another room with a seven pointed star carved onto the floor and several benches lining the room. A door on the opposite side of the room being the only way out. Ragnar and I moved to the door while the others moved about in the room with Dagon finally standing on the rune in the center of the room. I quick pulse of energy lit up the room and Dagon said to move carefully and Ragnar and I found ourselves doing our best to sneak into the next hallway, unaware that we were doing exactly what Dagon had said to do. Just as we passed the threshold of the door the compulsion to sneak about went away. We found ourselves in a room with three doors and decided to pursue the left door first.
This opened into some sort of alchemical laboratory with several beakers and pots laying about. Aeolys commented that several of the pots were magical in nature and moved to investigate. I stepped into the room to cover him as he did so and Dagon threw caution to the wind and opened the other doors to the rooms but did not step in. As Aeolys picked up one of the small pots he lost his grip and jostled the bottle somewhat, which caused it to suddenly explode. He stepped back and set down one of the other bottles for fear of it also exploding while Dagon began to work on fixing the burns. I moved into the next chamber where it appeared to be several tables with straps meant to tie someone down. Beneath this slab table was a book that contained Thassilonian writing and with a quick glance of the book talked about dreams. Aeolys pointed out that the magic of the book was very powerful and worth further study. It was then that we heard a cry of alarm coming from the last room. When Aeolys and I turned to look we saw Ragnar standing in the hall, with his shoulders slumped and a glazed look to his eyes. Dagon was looking into the room and pulling out his ax. Vander was no were to be seen. Before I could react Aeolys had run forward into the hall as I activated the shard and moved up to see what was going on.
No sooner had I reached the others than I became confused about what to do. There was some strange looking creature in the other room that looked like some purple slug with pincers for a mouth and wielding a saber and wand in its tail. Vander was on the far side of the room punching himself in the face while Dagon was swinging at the creature. Aeolys began punching himself as well and Ragnar just stood there talking in some unknown language. All I wanted to do was to slap them out of the actions so I hit Aeolys with the klar and earth breaker while I hit Ragnar with the earth breaker as well. Suddenly the fog seemed to clear and I realized the danger we were in and moved into the room attacking this giant slug. The earth breaker seemed to greatly damage the creature and it began attacking me with the saber in return. I managed to hit the creature several more times in my hastened state and it fell dead. With the creatures death the others seemed to snap out of the fog they were in and we stood around dumb founded at what had happened. Aeolys had no idea what the creature was but we quickly began grabbing everything we could find in the room of value.
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Akrem Sun Diver
Pathfinder Journal, 17-18 Arodes
Undead • Mind Stone • Giant
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Once the creature, whatever it was, was finally dead we continued looking about the remainder of the rooms in greater detail in case there was something we had missed. As it turned out we really hadn’t missed anything of major importance. We did return to the alchemical potions and using his magics at range Aeolys was able to find potions that didn’t explode upon contact. The large one in the room though when opened spit out two gray looking slimes that looked eerily similar to the slime that attacked me while searching the Crow piling in Magnimar. We managed to dispatch of them easily enough and with minimal resources. Dagon suggested we continue our search for the day as he still had plenty of prayers available should he need them and so we pressed on.
Returning once again to the room with the gray flame and the floating planar heads we went to the passage leading down. Again I entered into the room first and the creatures remained at bay and did nothing to prevent our movements. When we reached the hall we discovered an invisible barrier preventing us from going down the stairs. The only odd piece in the whole room was the torch in the sconce just to the side of this passage. Grabbing up the torch I took it to the gray flame hovering in the room and managed to light it. Returning the torch into the sconce removed the magical barrier.
Going down the stairs we eventually came to a mural of me standing barefoot looking over a multitude of slaves. In Thassilonian writing we learned that if we wanted to meet the lord of lust we would have to prostrate ourselves before her to gain entrance. Well all manner of kneeling and prostrating did nothing, and embarrassingly enough getting nude did nothing as well. In the time spent doing this, of which I was not the only one, the torch in the sconce above burned out and the invisible barrier returned. It was then that I thought about kneeling down and kissing the feet of Sorshen and Ragnar made the comment as I was approaching the mural. As soon as my lips touched the feet on the mural I suddenly found myself transported to an underground cave. I was standing on a stone platform surrounded on three sides by water near the bottom end of a waterfall. On the wall by the stone platform was a carving of some sort of demon or devil with its arms outstretched. In Thassilonian script was the word “farewell.” The only other objects in the room were four canoes to take somewhere off into the darkness. After a few seconds the rest of the group arrived on the platform I now stood on, each suddenly appearing out of thin air. It took a few seconds before Dagon realized the situation and he didn’t look happy about having to paddle somewhere.
So Aeolys, Ragnar and I took one canoe and began moving deeper into the cave while Vander and Dagon took another and moved near the waterfall. Suddenly undead lizard like men rose from the water and tried to bite each of us all the while rocking the narrow boat. There were four of the creatures on our boat, and as I later learned four attacking Dagon and Vander. Aeolys was bit by one of the creatures and immediately seized up before plummeting into the black waters. I managed to kill two of the creatures with my earth breaker before diving into the water to find Aeolys before he drowned and was glad to see that he hadn’t sank far. Grabbing him up I made my way towards a small bank of sand we had seen from the platform. No sooner had I deposited the unconscious form of Aeolys on the bank than the two remaining creatures surfaced and attacked. As I proceeded to kill them I couldn’t see Ragnar anywhere and feared the worse. When I dispatched the last of the creatures I dove into the water looking for Ragnar and found him in the clutches of Dagon who was walking across the bottom of the cave with some sort of bubble around his head. I also so Vander returning to his canoe so I did the same and we all eventually made it to the sand bar. Thankfully none of us had died and Dagon wasn’t totally angry about the experience as he had prepared for such a problem.
While Dagon saw to the others wounds I decided to strip off my armor and take a look around the cave floor. Hoping to find some lost Thassilonian treasures I managed to only find a small block of stone that seemed out of place in the middle of the cave. Removing the silt that had deposited on it I could see five small indentations in the stone where the tips of someones fingers would fit. I returned to the surface and informed the others and was surprised to hear that Dagon was ready if something should happen. Just in case Vander paddled out to the middle of the cave to lend support if he could while the others waited on shore. Returning to the bottom I placed my hand over the stone and gently pushed my fingers into the depressions. My hand fit perfectly. A second later the stone began surfacing as a pillar began to form. When the pillar broke the plane of the water it revealed a small stone box which when I opened I found another stone. The stone looked similar to the one I once wore that was now firmly embedded in Aeolys’ chest. As I described what I saw I could see that Aeolys was unconsciously rubbing his chest and after some discussion we decided that I should be the one to pick it up. Fearing the worst, I clenched up and grabbed the stone, expecting it to somehow embed itself into my flesh. Instead it hovered just above my flesh and every time I would try and grab at the stone it would move away from my hand, all the while defying gravity and staying where I last “pushed” it to. While in contact with the stone I could feel that it somehow fortified my mind, strengthening my will in some way. Once we returned to shore I thought that maybe this stone acted differently and that in order to remove the stone someone would have to grab it off my body. Dagon made sure that whoever we decided to test this theory with was prepared for the possibility of the stone embedding itself similar to the stone that was now in Aeolys. Ragnar agreed to try and just as his hand closed around the stone, much like the other one, it streaked straight into his forehead. Just like Aeolys Ragnar dropped to the ground with his hand clutching his head. All he could manage was grunting acknowledgment of pain and when he moved his hands had a glassy look to his eyes. Dagon produced a wand and with some spells from Angraad, managed to restore some of his lost intelligence. In time he would be fine, but for a short time he was not as smart as he was. It was at this point that we decided to rest.
When we awoke the next day both Ragnar and I felt under the weather and looked somewhat pale. The creatures that we had fought must have contained some sort of disease and it was currently ravaging our bodies. Weaker wasn’t so much the issue as once again our food stores were running low. The cave didn’t have any fish in it so the possibility of finding food there was out and so we had to do what we could to extend our stores and hopefully find more. Returning to the canoes we began paddling deeper into the cave and we came across a small landing with another of the red doors with the pictographic plate buttons. This time we took more time to look at the plates and we were able to determine that each plate depicted Sorshen interacting with a different race or creature. Looking over them for a while Aeolys suggested we push the plate that included Sorshen talking with what looked like a giant. As soon as we did the door opened into a large chamber with two rows of columns leading to a throne at the far end of the room. The problem was the large female giant sitting in the throne and her two giant lizards.
Our entrance did not go unnoticed and there was no chance of parlay as she immediately proclaimed our intrusion was to be met with death and the two lizards rushed forward to attack. Moving towards one of the lizards I managed to crush its skull after activating the shard for enhanced speed. No sooner had it died than the giant threw a large wooden chest at me which broke open, spilling out all manner of rotted meat and bones. The smell seemed to hit harder than the chest itself. By now Aeolys had unleashed multiple magical balls of fire on her to amazing effect but it didn’t seem to slow her down as she barreled forward almost cutting Vander in two with her giant two handed axe. Vander had just finished off the last lizard when she struck, and he did what he could to back away from her attacks while Ragnar and I moved in to attack. She managed to strike me as I closed the distance faster than I had wanted to but the distraction gave Vander and Dagon time to heal Vander of his wounds. Just as Vander drank a potion to help heal his wounds he let loose with a war cry and charged into her flank. The suddenness of the attack surprised her and he knocked her to the ground. As she tried to stand we managed to cut her down with Vander, Ragnar and I striking her simultaneously.
With her finally dead we saw to our wounds and looked about. Sitting near the throne were several chests and using his magics Aeolys opened each of them at a distance and we found that only two of the chests did not contain more rotted meat. I would assume that they were stores of food for the lizards. I remember hearing tales of a Quah that lived far to the east of my home Quah that fought giant lizards and that they would eat anything. The other two chests contained several items of interest that we gave out to whoever could use them, but the most important item was a small platinum plate that was affixed to the throne. It spoke of this area being a gift to one of Sorshens acquaintances, but more importantly was the fact that it made mention that we were in the Lady’s Light. Whatever teleportation magic was used either when we roped down into the room with the sarcophagus or when we kissed the feet on the mural might have teleported us into the Lady’s Light itself.
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Akrem Sun Diver
Pathfinder Journal, 18-19 Arodes
Weak Minds • Sea Hag • Grey Maidens
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After spending a few minutes using some soap and the waters near the main entrance I cleaned myself off. The rotted flesh was stuck everywhere and I was now learning that this new body had interesting places that somehow managed to get dirty. Once that was done we piled back into the canoes and moved along the underground river. It finally tapered off into a tunnel about twenty or so feet wide, with gibbets and dead people staked to the walls. Fearing an ambush we moved along cautiously when two gigantic bats flew down towards us. Before they could get close Aeolys unleashed another giant ball of fire to great effect but the bats continued undaunted. Just before they reached the boat they stopped their assault about five feet from the canoes. From their they just hovered as best they could but they didn’t attack. It was also noticed that the bats looked to be in bad shape, and not from Aeolys’ fireball. They appeared to be dead or more appropriate, undead. I told everyone to hold their attacks as I began to suspect that they were not attacking us because of my new body. So we continued on down the river with the bats staying close but never coming any closer than five feet. As the tunnel began to expand as we entered into another large cave the bats returned to their perches and left us in peace.
The cave became large enough that we decided to pick the outside wall to paddle along. After a while of doing this we began hearing whispers or voices. These voices rose in cadence and volume until we could hear what was my voice commanding us to throw our possessions into the waters and jump in for a swim. Again, the ability to make us work against our own will took hold and all but Dagon did so. No sooner were we all naked and in the water than two large eel like creatures attacked us. In our current state, we were not much of a threat and were quickly in trouble. Aeolys and I had been grappled by the creatures and were slowly being crushed to death. At one point I did black out but found myself coming to while under the water. The creature had let go and was trying its best to wrap up Vander. I also noticed that Dagon was in the water, again with the weird bubble around his head, trying his best to keep Aeolys alive. I quickly grabbed the stone hammer off his belt and began to beat the eel to death. By this time Vander and Ragnar had retrieved their weapons from the lake and had returned to help. We quickly laid the creature low and then moved on to save Aeolys. It took us a long while before we gathered up all our belongings, thankfully double wrapping this journal in waterproof sacks has paid off. Once that was done, Ragnar spent some time skinning the eels for meat and managed to gather enough for us all to eat for a few days, assuming we can get a fire going somewhere.
After returning to the canoes we continued on until we came to a beach. From there we rowed back to the cave tunnel where the undead bats were and then followed along the inner wall. As we did this the voice persisted and again the volume began to increase, so I quickly pulled out my soap and with my kukri cut off a few chunks that I could wedge into my ears to hopefully drown out the voice. Thankfully it worked and the rest of the party followed my example and we nullified this strange compulsion. The inner wall eventually came to the same beach and we decided not to spend time in what we would assume was the center of the cave with me swimming around looking for items of interest. Instead we moved to the beach and discovered two canoes already beached here and two tunnels leading off. I also noticed that there were fish located in this small cove near the beach and would solve our food problems. Just as we noticed that someone had tried to hide their tracks leading to some hidden door we heard a scream coming from one of the tunnels. The other tunnel smelled of death and would have to be investigated but the immediate threat came from the opposite tunnel.
Moving forward we came upon a rather creepy looking old woman with large bulbous eyes and several odd looking creatures capering around her feet. They had crab like claws for hands and wolf heads but were only as tall as my knees. The scream came from a woman that was tied to a post, garbed in only her undershirt and pants. The old woman turned at our approach and spoke of more guests in her realm and that we would suffer the same fate as those women given to her for punishment. At this point the small little creatures caused some sort of magical wave of water to ensnare Vander and I while the others moved into the room. It didn’t long but I managed to break the bonds and move into the room. As I neared this horrific looking woman I could sense that something wasn’t right about her and laid her low with a quick strike from the earth breaker. Within a matter of seconds the rest of us finished off the capering little evil creatures and moved to rescue the woman. After some healing by Dagon she came round and once she saw me began apologizing for her failings while on guard duty. As it turned out this woman was once a Grey Maiden and was cast out for her questioning her superiors about the disappearance of other Grey Maidens. We learned that Sorshen, or more likely another woman that looked like her, had left with two of the Grey Maidens leaders some time ago. She told us that the current leaders were giving this hag soldiers that failed in tasks or asked to many questions. Her opinion of the Grey Maidens were rather low and was looking forward in just being allowed to leave. She told of us the secret door we already knew of and explained the rooms and what we would find. We equipped her with my old bedroll for some clothing and modesty, and Vander gave her one of his many two-handed swords he carried. From there we parted ways and we watched as she took one of the canoes and paddled away.
We then searched the area around where we killed the hag and found a small side cave that contained a great many items of interest hidden in a net made of sea weed. Once we had gone through this we quickly investigated the only other way out of the room and found that it led into a new cave that was much larger. Because Dagon suggested that we rest for the day we pulled back and barricaded up the two tunnels and rested for the night. In the morning, we found that the larger cave contained a few more of those tiny little creatures that we quickly dispatched and found that the tunnel that smelled of death led to room that contained several corpses of Grey Maidens. The little clawed creatures were playing with their dead bodies as some sort of sport.
When all was checked we then proceeded to the hidden door and found it opened into a small cave with several fishing poles and buckets and a stout wooden door in the far wall, which was worked stone and not natural. Once we opened the door we found it full of Grey Maidens with most of them seated at the large table eating. All were wearing plate armor and carried shields and swords. Several small chambers led off from this room where cots could be seen and undoubtedly more Grey Maidens. I activated the power of the shard and moved into the room to engage one of the women and found that several magical balls of fire followed me in the room. The women at the far end of the room were blasted apart under the onslaught of spells from Aeolys and Dagon, while Vander, Ragnar and I made short work of any of the women that managed to move forward to engage us in hand to hand combat. It was over quickly, so quickly in fact that I had only managed to swing my earth breaker for a few swings. Thankfully for Dagon, he wouldn’t have to ask for much assistance from Angradd in healing our wounds for they were few.
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Akrem Sun Diver
Pathfinder Journal, 19 Arodes
Traps and Magics • Bone Golem • Female Sinspawn
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I suppose one of the nice things about the incident with the Grey Maidens was the fact that they were, maidens. As such, I was able to find a woman that matched my approximate size and “build” and was able to remove the old breastplate that I used to wear with a finely crafted suit of full plate. Granted the armor was much heavier than my old armor, I could tell that I would be able to move about as well as I used to rather quickly.
While I was taking stock of armor pieces and Dagon healed the wounds we had suffered the rest took to searching about the room for items of interest. We managed to find ample supplies of food stored in crates and several cots to rest on if we wanted to rest here in the future. Ragnar also found a large chest that appeared to be trapped and managed to hurt himself while trying to disarm the trap. Even Aeolys attempted his magics to open the chest and failed. So grabbing up my crowbar I moved up to try and pry the lid off from the side away from the trap. Unfortunately the builder of this chest did not want anyone tampering with it as even I set off the trap and took damage from the magics that held it shut. Once again we looked through the bodies and could find no key for the lock and so we were just going to have to leave the chest until that time.
Moving on we found one door that led from the barracks and it opened into a modest sized bath. The room was suspiciously empty, save the bath itself and so we moved on. I fear we may have missed something so we will have to return here and search more thoroughly at a later time. Hopefully after we have the key in hand for the chest we left in the barracks.
On the opposite side of the room was another door that led into a long hallway. Four statues in my likeness lined the walls, two on each side, with one hand outstretched. A carving in Thasillonian described having to touch the hand of Sorshen to reach her side. In the floor along the hallway were three golden plates evenly spaced out with one near the door we entered, one in the middle and the remained at the opposite end of the hall near a wooden door. Ragnar noticed that the first plate was scuffed while the middle and far plate were relatively smooth and shiny. The only other items of note were two tapestries hanging in the middle of the hallway, suspended in front of the facing statues. Aeolys could tell that the plates in the floors and the statues themselves were magical and after spending more time figured that they were either a teleportation device or designed to bring something here.
We decided to investigate the wooden door and could tell that it was coated in some sort of substance that had no smell. The door itself also had no handle or obvious means of opening. Since a lot of the creatures here responded to me and I placed my hand on the door to push it open. I was sad to note this didn’t work and even sadder to note that my hand would not come off the door. Whatever substance coated the door had not only bonded my gauntlet to the door but my hand to the gauntlet. No amount of gentle pulling would dislodge my hand and I feared what I was going to have to do. With Dagon at the ready I pulled with all my might and nearly dislocated my shoulder. Instead I ripped a large portion of flesh off my hand. Thankfully Dagon was there with Angradd’s healing magics. My glove was now a permanent part of that door as nothing we had would remove the gauntlet from the door. So I returned to the barracks room and retrieved another gauntlet to replace my lost one and thankfully the armor all matched.
As I returned we discussed what the next course of action should be and it was decided that I touch the hand of a statue. As soon as I touched the hand the golden plates began to glow with magic. I moved over to one of the plates and stood on it but nothing happened. At this point Ragnar touched the hand of another statue and the plates grew brighter. So we quickly touched the hands of the remaining statues and Vander stepped on the first plate and disappeared. As he vanished the glow faded and so we repeated the process. Eventually everyone stepped on the same plate and we found ourselves in a large room with a set of stairs leading up opposite where we appeared. To our left was a small hallway and the room itself had a could of small alcoves with nothing in them. The only items of interest was a large rug in the middle of the room and a large pile of bones on the far side of the rug near the stairs. We began to fan out, with Ragnar and I checking the alcoves to make sure there was nothing there while Vander moved across the rug towards the pile of bones. As he approached the bones they suddenly sprang into a swirling motion that when ended took on the appearance of a large, bony version of me. I stepped forward and in Thasillonian told the creature to step aside. It appeared to not work as it quickly cast some sort of spell that ended with me in a bone cage that was slowly reducing in size. For the next several seconds I was unable to break free from the cage while the others had to deal with the creature. Using everything they had they managed to subdue it but not before Aeolys and Dagon were both trapped in bone cages. Whatever the disease was that was slowly ravaging my body as well as the sickness from my death and transformation I was unable to effectively help.
When the creature died, the cages disappeared and I told the others that we had to rest. With the disease and my awakening sickness I was of little help if the situation grew more dire than it already had. Ragnar nodded in agreement as he was slowly regaining his strength after having fought off the disease. Even Aeolys suffered from his reduced strength and grew tired quickly. Granted we had just rested not to long ago, it was required. Picking an alcove we set up a quick and hasty camp, and I suddenly realized that my bedroll was no longer around so I had to make due with a hard floor. After spending time on the journal I quickly drifted off to sleep but was awakened when Vander said that someone or something was coming from the hallway opposite our alcove. I grabbed up my klar and earth breaker and moved to wake some of the others while Vander moved into the room and took up a defensive position. As I finished waking the others four creatures that looked like the ones we encountered in the Crow Piling came out of the hall and moved to attack once they realized we were there. The creatures were called Sinspawn and they each carried a guisarme. The combat was quick and ended with no real damage done to us other than waking us from our sleep and the four sinspawn dead. The weapons they carried were of master-craft quality, but otherwise useless to us. So again we returned to sleep, but on my watch another four sinspawn arrived from the same hallway as the other four. Again the fight was over fast and we decided that we would have to see what was beyond the hallway before we were to get any rest.
Gathering our gear back up, we moved down the hallway and eventually came into a large hall with a small stage to our right and a balcony far to our left. Seated in the balcony was Sorshen and the dining hall was full of people, one of which was runelord Karzoug. All we could do was stand there in stupefied silence as Karzoug whipped the crowd into a mob that came for us. Even though I knew this couldn’t be real, nothing could shake the fear of the large crowd of people overwhelming us as they charged forward. Just as the bodies washed over us they disappeared as well as Karzoug and Sorshen and all that was left was a large room, a long red carpet running the length of the room in between the narrow pillars that ran its length and three sinspawn. One of the sinspawn was different and appeared to be a female. As we tried to move to engage the creatures I found that the experience with the mob had left me shaken, my will shattered like broken glass. All I could manage to do was move forward with trepidation and fear. While Ragnar and I killed one of the sinspawn, Vander had killed the other and was moving forward after the female. The female sinspawn seemed to be a caster of some sort and she unleashed bolts of electricity into Aeolys, Vander and Dagon. In the end, she pissed Dagon off to no end and while cursing her very existence, his sore feet and the fact that he just wanted to rest he repeatedly planted his great axe into her skull until she quit moving.
As her corpse hit the floor and stopped twitching I noticed that a portion of the wall under the balcony seemed to waiver and shift as if it were a secret door or just an illusion of wall.
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Akrem Sun Diver
Pathfinder Journal, 19-27 Arodes
Thassilonian Puzzles • Sorshen and Grief • Magnimar
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Leaving the door or illusion until morning we moved back to our original alcove and again attempted to rest. Thankfully we were able to do so this time without any more interruptions. The rest seemed to do the trick as I finally was able to shake whatever the disease was that I had contracted days before. The rest seemed to help everyone as well, Aeolys looked stronger and Ragnar seemed to be over his bout with the disease as well.
Proceeding back into the grand hall we discovered that the doorway was in fact an illusion and there was a door that led into a large seven sided room with a large stone staircase that spiraled upward. Unfortunately the room was occupied and as soon as we entered the grey maidens attacked. Their leader called out a challenge to Vander who accepted with a challenge of his own. The fighting was fierce and in time we managed to kill all the grey maidens with no losses. As Dagon set to tending the wounded we took full stock of the room and found three doors that looked to be cell doors of some kind. Each door having a rather impressive winch-locking mechanism and a slide bar for looking into the room from our side. One of the cells remained an empty prisoner cell, while the others had been converted over into living quarters of the grey maidens. One was a large bunk room for all of them and another was for the commander. We found several interesting documents of the grey maidens as well as maps that may be useful for someone, so we gathered them up to return to the society. The commander as it turned out was the same size as I was and her full plate armor was of a much better quality and make than the armor I currently was wearing so I spent time swapping out armor.
Once we looked over everything we moved upstairs and found ourselves entering into an immense chamber with eight alcoves leading spaced evenly around the large chamber. Seven of the chambers contained statues of various individuals, a few of which we recognized as runelords. After spending more time looking about carefully we were able to determine that they were in fact all the known runelords of ancient Thassilon. The eighth alcove was empty while the floor in the main chamber had a large ring of text wrapped around the room proper. Aeolys disagreed with how Ragnar and I interpreted the wording but it appeared to be some sort of puzzle. In order to activate some sort of portal to advance further into the Lady’s Light we would need to activate the correct statues. We incorrectly guessed after a few minutes and were rewarded with an attack of four elementals, each the size of a man and of each element. Thinking that we had it figured out we were again disappointed when another four elementals attacked us. It was then that Vander made the comment that why would the runelord of greed be offering a flower that made us realize that Aeolys’ interpretation was correct and by hugging Sorshen followed by Karzhoug that a portal opened in the empty chamber.
Stepping into the portal we found ourselves appearing in one of three chambers. The room we had appeared in was a simple affair with an engraved ring in the floor and a magical hum that made my teeth ache. The only obvious exit was a wooden door. Opening the door led to a large chamber with two small landings, each containing some sort of mechanical contraption with an arm. Three other doors led from the chamber and it would appear that the portal we used would randomly move you to one of these rooms. One of the rooms did not appear to be working as there was no magical humming. The interesting thing of the three rooms was that they seemed to cleanse the individuals that moved through them of any magical spells cast on them, any diseases they were carrying and removed any extra dimensional spaces, much to Aeolys’ delight. The cry of alarm from Aeolys when his magical haversack suddenly spit out all its contents brought us running when we thought he was under attack from some unknown assailant. Once it was determined that we would have to shift his gear around among us so that we could continue we began figuring out the devices in the central room.
As we shifted the arms around we found that there were multiple combinations that the arms could be set at. Once the arms were pointing to each other a shimmering field appeared between the two devices. Again, I stepped through first hoping to save the others from some anti-Sorshen attack. Instead I stepped into a large bedchamber where a duplicate image of me, sans armor, was languishing in a bed. Standing in one end of the room was who I assumed was Orianna, the leader of the grey maidens. Tied to a post and stripped of her clothes was another grey maiden who looked to have been whipped to death by Sorshen as bloody footprints led from her corpse to the where she laid in the bed.
Preparing myself for attack from Orianna or at least from Sorshen I was surprised when instead she asked why we couldn’t be friends and I again found myself under the mind controlling influence of another. It wasn’t until the others had stepped through the portal and found themselves being attacked by Orianna and Sorshen that I snapped out of my fugue and attacked Sorshen. Once clear of the spell and with the combined might of the others we were able to bring Orianna out of the same stupor that had affected me and we managed to slay Sorshen. When she died her form changed to that of a winged devil woman that exploded in a blast of fire as her corpse hit the floor. This blast of fire killed Aeolys as well and suddenly the gravity of having lost a companion set on my weary shoulders. Is this what the others felt when I had died?
Stepping back most of us just collapsed where we had stood not knowing what to do. Exhaustion at having been controlled drove me to a quick and rapid fury that was released by slamming the earth breaker into the corpse of the demon. Others dealt with their grief in their own way. It wasn’t until Orianna presented her sword to Vander and asked for him to do the only honorable thing left for her. They talked for a few seconds in hushed tones and her kneeling in front of Vander and revealing her neck was obvious to the rest of us what she wanted. Having to deal with the grief of the loss of Aeolys I didn’t really care what had happened. Even though we told her that one of her maidens had survived the “purges” of the fake Sorshen and was making her way to Magnimar could not sway her decision to die. So with a quick stroke Vander ended her pain.
After a while Dagon said that in the morning he could prepare a spell that would allow us to preserve Aeolys’ body and maybe the renown of our deeds would warrant the society to raising Aeolys from the dead. With that decision seeming to remove the depressed looks on all of us we spent the rest of the day resting and checking out the room and the bodies for items of interest. We discovered two small gemstones in the headboard of the bed that would allow us to activate two portals carved into the floors of the room. Some of the equipment on Sorshens body was gathered up and we decided to leave the corpse of Orianna alone save a key we found on her belt that presumably went to the chest we had found earlier.
The next day we gathered up our gear, and wrapped Aeolys’ body in the cleaner sheets from the bed we could find. With some trial and error we figured out how to make the teleportation rings work and found ourselves in a large room with several magical items and treasures which included another shard. Dagon took hold of the shard which then took hold of him. A rather lecherous smile began to creep across his face as he stared at me and the only way we could convince him to slot the ioun stone into the shard was to promise him that we could “knock boots.” Once the ioun stone snapped in place and the old Dagon returned, that promise was rescinded by me. We spent the next few minutes grabbing up everything in the room and then slowly made our way back to the sarcophagus where our rope still hung from the ceiling. Climbing up and out we made our way back into the sun and heat of the peninsula. Along the trek back towards the beach and the home of Marioux we saw the masts of a anchored ship not far off the coast. Moving towards the coast hoping to book passage on their ship we were happy to find that they were hired by Sheila Heidmarch to discover what had happened to the vessel that brought us here as the ship had not returned to Magnimar.
The voyage back was peaceful and quiet. For six days I felt as though I were at home sailing with the quah. Dagon on the other hand did not enjoy his time on board and was the first off the ship when we arrived back in Magnimar. Hiring a local wagon owner we gathered our gear and treasures onto the cart and rode up to the Pathfinder lodge. The discussion with Sheila was going to be interesting with me in my new form.
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Akrem Sun Diver
Pathfinder Journal, 27 Arodes - 12 Rova
Rest and Shopping • Up the Yondabakari • Ambush
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As it would turn out Sheila Heidmarch was going to take more convincing than my word that I was in fact, Akrem Sun Diver. So I left the lodge and went with her to a tower in Magnimar that housed a few wizards. For the next eighteen or so hours I was asked to stand within a magical circle while spells were repeatedly cast on me. I answered several questions and in time was given a chair to sit in and a steward that would fetch food and anything that I should fancy, so long as I stayed within the circle. After falling asleep in the chair and waking up with a terrible ache in my neck from having slept in the chair, I called it quits and stood to leave. The wizards did not try to stop me with force but were quite agitated that I was leaving. Once I convinced them I would come back they quieted down.
I then spent the next few days moving about Magnimar selling items that we found and no longer needed, purchasing new equipment, talking with Sheila and her husband, and the wizards. I didn’t have the heart to speak with Iatsudo in my new “condition” and hoped that he would find out through Sheila. I hoped that the news would be somewhat blunted before I actually talked with Iatsudo and he saw first hand the work of ancient magics.
In time we decided to finally focus in on the newest shard and determine where the next shard would be found. The description of a giant walled city, set upon a great cliff overlooking a valley far below led Vander to believe that the description was of Kaer Maga. It appears that the city predated even the runelords of Thassilon and that it sat on the Storval Rise in Varisia in the north east. The city had no known government but was separated by areas that were controlled in part by gangs or families of power. The city was actually a great hub of commerce and trade and was where one went to disappear. Sheila decided that we should begin gathering supplies for the journey to Kaer Maga and in turn would begin working on getting us there.
After a few days we were called to the lodge where Sheila explained that she had booked passage on board a ship that was set to sail up river on the Yondabakari to Kaer Maga. The captain of the vessel was a man named Othlo Janke, an ex-Pathfinder who was trying to find a way back into the Societies good graces. She wouldn’t elaborate on the details but told us to meet with him at a particular inn. When we arrived we could tell that the inn catered to the smaller races of Golarion and upon entering we found the room full of dancing, singing halflings. Dagon immediately began to roll his eyes and the fact that we were set for another water based voyage was now in an even fouler mood. We eventually made contact with Othlo and found that he was already mildly drunk and made the decision to leave in a few days. He told us where his ship was docked and with that the others left. I decided to stay and drink with the man hoping to learn why he was an ex-Pathfinder and after a great many more drinks learned that he had over charged those of the Society for use of his ship. It would seem that greed was the mans motivating factor, and considering how much the man drank and ate, I could see why he wanted all the coin he could get.
The next day we were asked my Sheila to go to the church of Abadar, which coincidentally was the church that raised Aeolys and helped to cure my weakness from also having died. She explained that they had a mission of great importance and since she worked closely with them for heals felt it would be best to help them if we could. We arrived and talked with their head priest who explained that a powerful sword they kept in a vault for safe keeping was stolen. It was then that he explained that the sword was known as the Sword of Lust and that there were seven swords, each sword corresponding with the seven runelords. A lot of these swords were kept in private collections and have also been reported as stolen. The implications that not only were there shards for each of the seven runelords, but swords meant our mission seemed destined to cross paths and I understood why Sheila offered the Societies help in recovering them.
The next day we arrived at the docks to find that he was still in town. The ship was an interesting affair and not one with a center keel like I am used to. Instead the boat was of a flat bottom design. A giant wheel of wooden paddles was attached to the aft of the vessel and with magics, I assumed, the wheel would turn driving the vessel up stream. There was a lower hold for cargo and there were four rooms above deck with a small wheel house for steering the vessel. It was also designed for a halfling and I could already tell that the rooms were going to be cramped. I guess one small advantage to my new body meant I took up less space and in turn had more room.
Just before the noon bells, and long after high tide, Othlo wandered down to the docks surprised to see us there so “early.” Once we were on board and he had given us a brief tour and showed us our quarters, of which we each had one room, he began the process of getting underway. To this I could tell he was slow, or just lazy as once he realized that I knew what I was doing had me undoing all the mooring lines. With that done, and with some unseen or heard word the wheel began to rotate and we quickly made our way to the mouth of the Yondabakari river.
For several days we sailed up river, stopping only in the evening to moor the ship along the bank of the river to rest for the evening. It was learned that Othlo was also notoriously lazy. His daily routine of sleeping in late, taking a late morning swim and cooking up a huge breakfast did not sit well with many of us. As aggravatingly slow as this was, it was Othlo’s ship and by extension, his rules. I did what I could to speed things up by having the fire pit already dug and burning, lines already having been taken in and anything else I could do. In time we managed to speed up Othlo’s daily routine and gain some time, not to mention his vessel did move up stream rather quickly on its own.
Our only trouble came when we rested one evening while traveling through the marsh fens. Because the area was known to be dangerous we anchored in the middle of the river for the evening instead of along the bank of the river. While I was on watch, which was the entire night as the new ring I had found did not require more than a few hours of sleep a night, I heard the sound of something softly colliding with the boat. Unsure if it was caused by a drifting log slowly bumping into the boat as it floated downstream I readied my weapons in case it was something else. I was ready when the boggart landed next to me and others climbed on board. One of them looked like a leader and there was even a giant dragonfly, as if more insects were needed here in the swamp. The boggart that landed near me was met with the earth breaker and a sickeningly sounding crunch later was lifeless on the deck of the ship. Unfortunately for me though, I was overwhelmed by boggarts from all sides and the dragonfly grabbed me lifting me off the deck. I would have been carried off if one of the boggarts hadn’t stuck its tongue to me. The leader appeared to be a spell caster of some kind as I felt his magics wash over me but I resisted whatever effect his spell had. I shouted a cry of alarm and dropped my earth breaker as it was of no use now that I was grappled by the dragon fly. Drawing my short sword I began stabbing at the dragon fly and was surprised when it seemed to let go of me. Of course that meant that I fell into the river. Right after that happened the dragon fly again came in and tried to carry me off, this time succeeding at carrying me far off the ground into the swamp. The killing blow from the short sword caused the creature and I to fall over thirty feet to the wet ground below. Between the mud and the fact that I landed on part of the dragon fly was the only reason I didn’t break my back from the fall. By the time I slogged back to the ship the others had managed to kill off the remaining boggarts. Thankfully none of us were killed but I think I took the brunt of the attacks and damage, the fall pretty much sealed that deal. Dagon saw to our wounds and in time we were able to return to our rest.
Along the way we stopped off at two towns, Wartle and Whistledown. Whistledown being a primarily halfling town and Wartle comprising of a fair amount of the small folk as well. All of us took advantage that we were away from the constant biting insects and cramped quarters to have a normal bed and indoors. Most of the halfling children were fascinated with our stories and their constant questions led to having a couple young girls combing my now long hair and braiding in small flowers. Dagon seemed to enjoy this greatly, mostly because of who I am/was. I figured that if their hair combing put Dagon in a good mood, then I would endure being the butt of the joke since Dagon isn’t any fun when hes in a sour mood.
After almost a week we arrived at our destination at the base of a giant cliff. Giving our goodbyes to Othlo, he suggested we head further along the cliff base to a gate where the Duskwardens would escort merchants and visitors up to the city. Duskwardens are some sort of warrior organization that protect visiting merchants and townsfolk from the horrors that occasionally spill up from the warren below the city. As we learned before we left Magnimar, Kaer Maga being as old as it is has a vast underground warren full of mazes, traps and monsters that has barely been investigated.
The gate we came to was a gigantic brass double door with magical writings covering its surface. Staring at them for any length of time gave me a splitting headache as the words seemed to bend and stretch the longer your stared. Aeolys didn’t recognize the language at all and he is more versed than I am and I can speak five languages. Standing in groups near the gate were merchants and Duskwardens. In order to minimize noise while traveling up to Kaer Maga the groups were small and had a couple of Duskwardens as escorts. One of the Duskwardens came over to our group and introduced himself as Abra Lopati. Looking at our gear he asked if we were capable fighters to which we nodded. He added a merchant and his two sons to our group and led us into the tunnels for the two hour trek to the city above. Along the way we came under attack from three of the purple slug like creatures we encountered in the Lady’s Light. Thankfully Dagon and I were at the rear of the group and their aura didn’t reach us, which allowed me to grab one of my potions to prevent their confusion aura. As I moved forward to engage the creatures I could see that everyone but Abra was unable to help, as the auras had taken over the others. While Abra and I began slaying the creatures, Dagon was able to cast a spell that would help to clear the others from the confusion aura. The arrival of a few balls of fire told me that his spell worked at clearing Aeolys from the effect and in time Ragnar joined in but Vander continued trying to hurt himself while the merchants just wailed in agony. In just under one minute, we managed to slay the creatures and free the merchant, his sons and Vander from their confusion. Gathering up what we could from the creatures we finished the trek to the city without interruption.
When we arrived at the city the merchant and his sons were none to pleased by the experience and left to enter the city with foul words in his wake. Abra thanked us for our assistance and offered Dagon a charm for his services at freeing the others from the mind control of the creatures. He then told me that I reminded him of his late wife. Thankfully Dagon didn’t snort at that comment since Abra looked depressed. It seems that his wife was murdered by decapitation and the killer was never found. Acknowledging his loss, I offered to give him any information we may find while we were in the city. He thanked us for this and then led us to the main entrance of the city which was a giant ruined wall that opened into the city proper. As he left he offered one bit of advice and that was to hire a guide.