The Crystal Dominion - Session 16 Summary
The Heroes:
RedEye - A sayune darkwalker with rogue skills and a few spells of sorcery.
Eiran - An elven ranger and archer with a gift for communicating with animals.
N'sahd - A human wizard, born without vocal chords, who casts all his spells silently.
Sir Tristan - A knight in shining armor, man of honor and courage, and a skilled swordsman.
Alan - A human arcanologist... a magic tinkerer with a keen ability to "reprogram" spells and magic items.
Rikhaal – A human priest of Barrinor with an array of spells and powerful healing magic.
NPC Characters:
Koeglur – An ogre warrior, former slave, rescued by the party. Now serves the party.
Osh – A 12 year old human male serving as a squire to Sir Tristan.
The Story:
Last session, as the group climbed Bloodspire Mountain, the group had been attacked by strange floating crystalline creatures. They discovered (the hard way) that the floating crystalline things absorbed magical item – devouring the magical essence of enchanted objects and leaving the item permanently drained.
After weathering that battle, they were attacked by a giant who lived on the mountain. A fierce battle ended with the giant in retreat. However, N'sahd, the group's mage, was determined not to let the giant get away. He wanted the giant's treasure.
So N'sahd had used his magic to fly and pursued the retreating giant.
The party followed, but since they were much slower than either the running giant or the flying wizard, they lost the pursuit. The party continued on in the direction of their quarry.
After an hour of searching the grassy slopes and woods of the mountainside, they finally found the wizard. The giant lay dead on the ground at N'sahd's feet. However, N'sahd was in the midst of battle with two of the magic eating crystalline creatures and a huge wolf. The wolf had a collar decorated with several humanoid skulls. Clearly, this was some sort of pet of the giant's.
It was obvious that the wizard was weak from earlier battles and the two crystal creatures. N'sahd was almost completely out of magic and no longer able to fend off the wolf. The party had arrived just in time to see the huge wolf leap onto N'sahd.
The party charged into battle. Eiran fired several arrows into the wolf and Tristan hacked at it with blade. While the rest battled the huge wolf, Alan pulled out his Drellisite crystal and chased the two crystalline creatures away.
The party pulled the dead wolf off of the wizard, but it was too late. He was beyond all magical healing.
So ended the career of N'sahd, the mute wizard. From the wizard's body, the party took only those magical devices that were too valuable to leave behind. The rest of his possessions, including his prized orichalcum bracers, they buried with N'sahd under a cairn of stones.
The party searched the giant's body. He had several saddle bags which he wore on his belt. One of which was stuffed with treasure. When they opened it, they found thousands of coins of every type and many from distant kingdoms. Most of them were lords and nobles from Drakkel, however the party also found quaryn's from Anquar, several rare dwarven mourin coins and many other coins.
In another bag, they found several shiny items that the giant must have liked. There was a beautiful golden dagger, a brilliant jeweled necklace and a signet ring (still gruesomely worn on a dismembered and skeletal hand).
RedEye and Alan scanned the treasure and found that only the dagger was magical, nothing else. The signet ring bore a heraldric device on it. Tristan recognized it as an old standard of Prad Ironworks... one of the larger guild houses in Drakkel. This particular design had been out of use for at least a decade. How it come to be up here on this mountain as part of a giant's hoard is a mystery. They decided to keep the ring. Perhaps someone back in Drakkel might pay for it's return.
On the giant's body, they also found a bag full of potions, however, all of the potions were lifeless and inert. No doubt, these had once been magical, but had been drained long ago by the crystalline creatures.
The party did not have an explanation as to why the potions would be drained, but not the dagger. Perhaps potions were easier to drain or this dagger had some innate protection. In any case, the dagger was still magical, although so far, it is unidentified.
Having concluded their business with the dead and their treasure, the party continued back up the mountain.
After a couple of hours, they reached the spot on the orcish map which was labeled "The Great Stone Face". The party searched the area and eventually came upon a cluster of tall boulders. One of which, standing apart from the cluster, was vaguely chiseled into the likeness of a face.
Years of rainfall had stained the face with moss and lichens which appeared, froma distance, to be dark streaks of tears on the face. Directly in front of this face was a flat square rock, such as a person might stand upon.
The party decided that this must be the "Weeping Rock".
The party pulled out their magic mirror and called for their support group. Within a few seconds, the face of the Captain Radermak, commander of the other team appeared in the mirror. Captain Radermak reported that all 23 men were camped at the base of the mountain and were standing by, ready for orders.
The party asked if Elof, the pipe player, was ready to do his part. The flute player appeared in the mirror and assured them that he had been practicing the FlowerFall song and was ready.
According to the information they had, the tune had to be played at sunset. So, the party made camp amidst the tall boulders and waited. When sunset was close, they contacted the other camp again.
As the sunset began, Elof began to play while RedEye stood upon the flat rock and held the party's magic mirror up high. The beautiful notes of the pipe song echoed out across the mountain top. As the song played, it seemed that nothing was happening.
Then, as the last note faded, the ground began to shake. The party looked nervously at each other as the shaking grew worse. Pebbles began to dance about. Larger rocks began to sway and then roll away, some of the uphill! Within seconds, hundreds of rocks and boulders were rolling and bouncing, all of them seeming to flee the area. Trees began to pull up their roots and crawl away like spiders. Bushes, shrubs and other plants scurried after the trees. The grass and dirt itself began to move like waves on the ocean. It became clear that everything was moving away from a central point, clearing a broad swath in front of the Weeping Rock. Thousands of tons of rock, dirt and plant life were now on the move. As the dirt flowed away, it began to uncover something... the corner of a stone wall was revealed followed by a section of wall, but this was obscured by dust.
Within a minute, the ground stopped shaking. As the dust cleared, the party could see that a stone fortress (or at least part of a fortress) had been uncovered. Before them was a massive gate tower bearing two huge copper doors. Each door was 40 feet tall and 20 feet wide, fashioned from corroded copper and intricately decorated with bas relief carvings depicting great battles. A wide stone ramp led up to the doors.
The party spent a great deal of time discussing their next move. After a short while, the ground began to shake again and the party watched as the dirt, rocks, grass, trees and boulders all began to move back and cover the gate tower back up. Within seconds, the land looked as it had previously... every pebble and blade of grass was back in the exact same position it had been.
The party called Captain Radermak on their mirror and ordered him to break camp and bring all the soldiers up to the mountain top to join them. They were to march through the night and reach the top as soon as humanly possible.
The next day the party got a distress call through the mirror. The face of one of the soldiers appeared in their mirror, panic stricken and said they were being attacked by flying jewels.. at which point the signal was lost.
The party correctly deduced that their soldiers were being attacked by the floating crystalline creatures. Having no other means of rapid transport, Alan decided to use the Ring of Heart's Desire (limited wish ring). The ring had six remaining charges. He used one charge to teleport the entire party to the location of the soldiers (who coincidentally happened to be near the old orcish outpost half way up the mountain).
The battle was short and the crystalline creatures easily scared off with the Drellisite crystal. Other than the magic mirror, the captain and soldiers had very little magic about them and little of interest to the crystalline creatures.
Despite protests from several party members, Alan used the Ring of Heart's Desire to teleport the entire group (party members, captain, soldiers) up to the Weeping Rock. The Ring of Heart's Desire now has four charges left.
Everyone gathered at their party's camp amidst the tall boulders and waited for sunset. At sunset, Elof took position on the square standing stone in front of the Weeping Rock and began to play his pipe. Once again, the mountain shook and the ground parted, uncovering the buried gate tower.
RedEye walked up the stone ramp to the gate tower and stood before the towering copper doors. He used his magic to peer through the doors and see beyond, but something was blocking his magical vision. He could not see into the mountain.
Alan and RedEye both cast detect magic on the gates and got nothing, no magic at all. Their own magical items glowed, but whatever magic enchanted the dirt and trees and boulders to move out of the way, that magic was also deftly hidden.
The doors had two massive handles and large mechanical lock. They had no key, but they did have a keyhole. RedEye pulled out his tools and began working on the lock. After a few minutes, he managed to unlock the door. However, a thick layer of rust and corrosion held the doors firm. It took the combined strength of Tristan, Eiran and Koeglur to wrench the doors free.
The doors swung open slowly and a stale, musty odor rolled out. Beyond the doors was a stone ramp leading down into darkness.
The party decided to take eight soldiers with them, including Captain Radermak and Elof the pipe player. (Coincidentally, Elof had brought several pipes and taught the tune to other soldiers, so he was not the only one who could play the tune to unveil the gate tower). The remaining soldiers would stay outside with the camp and wait. They had orders that, if the party had not returned within one week, they were to return to the guild.
The party pulled out various light sources (N'sahd's continual light lantern, a flickering torch, etc) and walked into the darkness. The eight soldiers that they had chosen followed after them.
They followed the wide stone ramp down for a short ways before coming across a body in the middle of the ramp. It was a skeleton and looked ancient. It had an arrow in the shoulder and a dagger in the back. Whoever this person had been, they had died in battle.
A quick search of the body revealed various armor and weapons (nothing magical), a torch, some ancient coins, etc. The only thing of interest was a rolled scroll of parchment. The thing was ancient – dry and fragile with great age. Alan gently unfurled the scroll. It was a map. It did not take them long to figure out that this map was a complete layout of the fortress that lay ahead of them. Each chamber was identified with letters written in Traxxian. None of the party could read Traxxian and so they could only guess what it said, but they did get a good idea of the size of the complex that lay before them.
The group continued on. They reached the end of the ramp and it opened up into a large, dark chamber. Up ahead, in the distance, they could see a large structure that was glowing and parts of it were moving.
Moving further into the chamber, they found several bodies scattered around the room. All of them were ancient skeletons just like the one they had found on the map. They all appeared to have died in battle with each other. Tunics and other cloth had faded and rotted. There were no markings or heraldry to ascertain who had fought whom.
Alan ventured further in and approached the glowing structure. It was an odd mechanical contraption that was built almost entirely of different pieces of crystal. Several sections rotated, other sections poured forth fountains of tiny crystal shards. It seemed to be part fountain, part sculpture and part machine. More a work of art than a functioning device.
As he approached it, six glassy orbs rose up and locked into position. Above each glass orb, a ghostly rune appeared floating in mid air. Alan did not recognize any of the symbols. Before anyone in the party could vocalize their protests, Alan touched the first glass orb. The glass orb descended a few inches, a low tone resonated and the glow within the orb faded. Suddenly a large platter of food appeared.
Despite protests from the others, Alan ran through the entire sequence. He pushed on each glass orb which, in turn, produced a magical effect.
The second glass orb summoned a set of boots, gloves, cloak and a satchel filled with basic adventuring supplies. The third orb cast a healing spell on Alan. The fourth, dispelled exhaustion and elevated his spirits. The fifth cleaned him and all of his equipment. The sixth orb seemed to have no effect.
While Alan was doing this, a greenish mist was slowly flowing over the floor and flowing into the skeletal bodies. The eyesockets of the skeletons began to glow green. It was not until Alan reached the sixth orb that the party members noticed this. Too late the party saw it and leapt back as all the corpses rose to their feet and began swinging their weapons.
The skeletons then each roared as greenish fire belched from their bony jaws and this sent a wave of magical fear emanating out from them. All of the soldiers, including the Captain, turned and fled in terror up the ramp. Eiran also dropped his bow and fled.
Rikhaal called upon the power of Barrinor and asked his favor to smite down the unholy abominations. With a roar, blinding holy light blasted forth from Rikhaal's hands and four of the undead skeletons collapsed in a heap of flaming bones.
Alan hoisted his red metal staff and unleashed a great spout of fire, bathing two of them in flame.
During battle, RedEye pulled out the golden dagger (the one that had been retrieved from the giant's treasure sack) and attempted to strike a skeleton. However, the dagger resisted, pulling and pushing, refusing to be used. Unable to wield the dagger, RedEye sheathed it and switched to his other weaponry.
The battle continued for a short while longer until Rikhaal again called upon Barrinor to smite the skeletons and the remaining undead were blown apart.
The party immediately took the weapons and armor away from the bodies, lest they rise again. They searched the bodies, but found no magical trinkets or anything else of value.
Having explored this main entry chamber, the party then went into the next room. They found it to be some sort of berthing area for wagons... but these were no ordinary wagons. Huge things they were, twice as broad and tall as a normal wagon, fully enclosed on all sides with thick wooden walls and a metal roof. These wagons rivaled the sayune wagons in size.
Three of these huge vehicles were parked in berths. A fourth was lying in the middle of the chamber, on its side. This one seemed damaged and partially burned. Lying next to it was another skeleton body. As the party approached, they saw something skitter away into the darkness. It moved like a spider, but they could not see what it was.
Rikhaal walked over to the body to examine it, but as he got to the body, the light from his lantern illuminated something at the edge of the light's range. Large metal feet. He raised his lantern and saw mechanical legs.
At the same time, he heard a metallic sound, as of a mechanical wheel slowly beginning to turn and slowly spinning up to full speed. With a whirring of gears and pistons, a large mechanical automaton stepped into the circle of light.
And this is where we left off. Yes, right in the middle of combat.
[Special Note: The reason why the wizard N'sahd was killed off in this "episode" is that the player, Greg Jensen, has moved back to Ohio. We wish him luck in the midwest and hope he finds a good group to continue gaming with].