The Crystal Dominion - Session 01 Summary

[avisarr]

The Crystal Dominion - Session 1 Summary

The four characters, Ebrin RedEye (sayune rogue), Eiran (elven ranger), Alan (human arcanologist) and N'Sahd (human wizard), were called to the main conference room of the Swordtongue Estate where they were met by Guildmaster Pendarus and Moldower, the captain of the guards.

Modower gave the following speech:

I've assembled you hear today because we have a mission for you. All four of you have proven yourselves skilled and you work well together. I want the four of you to start working directly for me on some upcoming missions... but more on that later... let's discuss the pending mission.

This assignment involves very sensitive information. You'll be given all the details you need to complete the mission, but I won't be letting you in on the bigger picture until after you've proven yourselves with this one.

As most of you know... the Drakkellian Prison is named Guldremor. It's a heavily fortified structure on a small island 17 miles off the coast. Guldremor is where the city sends its most dangerous, most violent criminals.

It has recently come to our attention that a man in Guldremor Prison is in possession of some very valuable, very unique knowledge. His name is Baldorin. He's an art historian and linguist, formerly teaching at the University. Baldorin an innocent man. He was framed with some very convincing evidence that implicated him in a triple murder and a business scandal. We know he's innocent because we're the ones who framed him. It was eight months ago... a typical high price frame job. A client hired us to put him away... a rival who envied his position with the University. In any case, none of that matters. What's important is that something new has developed and it turns out that this humble, unassuming historian is in possession of some unique knowledge which will soon make him the most sought after man in all of southern Ithria.

We want you to sneak into Guldremor and rescue him. When he was convicted, he was given a 20 year sentence. His sentencing was also manipulated with a bribe. He was, for all intents and purposes, forgotten about.

At this point, Moldower uncovered a large framed oil painting... a portrait of an elderly gentlemen with snow white hair sitting in a library.

Here is a picture of Baldorin. This was taken from his estate. We can provide you with a copy of this, if you like. This will hopefully help you make sure you have the right man. Unfortunately, we don't have any other information for you. We don't know where in the prison he is being held and we have no idea what he current condition is.

There's one other thing... time is critical. We have an advantage in that our guild discovered a key piece of information before any of the other guilds. Not even the rest of the Company is aware of this. We have exactly 3 days. In 3 days, the information that we possess will be made publicly available. When that happens, everyone, and I do mean EVERYONE, will be looking for this man. Some of the larger military guilds may not even bother with diplomacy or subtlety and may just simply lay siege to the prison. We have decided that we, the Swordtongue Guild, are going to pursue this matter ourselves. We will not be involving the rest of the Company. This discovery, and all the rewards that follow, will belong to this guild.

Your job is to infiltrate the prison, find Baldorin and get him out. It is absolutely imperative that we retrieve him and keep him alive. We will be sending in healing magic with you so that you can heal him up and get him on his feet if needed. Get him out alive... nothing else matters.

If the opportunity presents itself, we would like you to leave a body behind... a body that could be mistaken for Baldorin. A body that is burned or rotted or otherwise difficult to identify. It is inevitable that his escape will eventually be discovered. But we want to delay that discovery as long as possible. If people think he's dead, even for a little while, it may buy us some valuable time.

One of our operatives, Gavilon, and his small team of men were already sent to the prison yesterday to fetch Baldorin. They were carrying a magic item that allowed communication with us. However, we lost contact with them shortly after they entered. They were the best we had. Now you are. That's why we're forming a new team. That's you.

We don't know what's become of Gavilon's team and time is running out. While you're in there, try to find out what happened to the other team and rescue them as well, if you can. Though, again, I must emphasis, Baldorin is your top priority. If you have to leave Gavilon's team behind in order to get Baldorin out, then do it. Baldorin's safety is the only thing that matters.

The magic item they were carrying was a small enchanted mirror that's linked to a larger mirror here at the estate. Retrieve the item if you can. Assuming its still functioning, we'll be able to communicate with you once you have possession of it.

To help you plan out your mission, we bribed a few people and managed to get the architectural drawings for the prison. We don't have precise room by room descriptions, but we do have a good idea of the structural floor plans of the place. These should help.

At this point, Moldower unfurled some large scrolls, yellowed with age, upon which was a detailed hand drawn sketch of the building's floorplans... no doubt taken from the city engineer's office.

Moldower also gave the group what supplies and magical items they were able to scavenge from the armory and other sources. These items including the following:

•  Four bottles of healing draught and a single vial of the golden elixir known as Wound Purging Potion.
•  A scroll with an Invisibility 10 foot radius  spell. 1d6 turn duration
•  Seven potions of "Sea Shape". Transforms the imbiber into a merman with flippers, gills and reptilian skin, for about an hour. To aid with the journey to the island prison.
•  A Normidian stun stick. (A single shot stun weapon. Very powerful, but unfortunately, also very loud).
•  A glass vial of alchemical acid gel. It will react violently with metal, but little affects wood or flesh and will not affect glass at all.
•  A vial of magical liquid armor. Temporary, but effective protection for one person.
•  A stun wand with three charges. Completely silent.
•  Copies of the architectural floor plans on waxed paper and sealed in watertight scroll cases.
•  And finally a charcoal sketch of Baldorin, their target, in a sealed, waterproof scroll case.

Moldower indicated that a ship was waiting for them at the docks to take them to the prison island. Non military ships were not allowed within a league of the island. That's what the sea shape potions were for. The characters would jump ship as it passed and, with the sea shape potions in effect, swim to the island, staying submerged the entire way.

After the meeting, the four player characters began planning and making preparations. They asked Guildmaster Moldower if he could send out someone to try to track down a former inmate or a former guard discreetly and quickly. Moldower said they would send an agent or two and see what they could find.

Alan began tinkering with the normidian stun stick in hopes of making it a quieter weapon. He also began working on some alchemical explosives. The characters didn't want to spend too much time. They had a 72 hour limit. However, they felt taking a day or so to make some better weapons would be worth it. Alan was able to not only make the normidian stun stick quiet, but also broadened the beam into a cone. He also fashioned a dozen low tech, alchemical "grenades". Crude, but affective. While not quiet, the grenades, the players hoped, could be used in a last ditch effort to evade pursuit and escape if they were discovered.

While Alan worked, the others poured over the maps of the prison and discussed the best way in. The maps gave them an excellent idea of the layout of the prison. The island was very small, not much larger than the building it supported. The prison was a hulking six story structure. It had formerly been a Traxxian sea fort before Drakkel had turned it into a prison. The maps indicated that there was a network of sea caves underneath the island and shafts from the prison connected to the sea caves below. The sea caves were used as both a rudimentary sewer system and a source of water. It seemed an obvious way in and the players were sure that they were most likely barred and trapped or guarded in some fashion.

Moldower was able to tell the players that Gavillon's team (the previous group that had been sent in) had decided to split up. Three had scaled the building walls to attempt infiltration by the roof, while the other three attempted to go in through the sea caves. And that's when they lost contact. The fate of Gavillon's team remained unknown.

By the time Alan was finished with his work, about a day and a half later, the Swordtongue rogues had returned with BOTH a former inmate and a retired guardsman. The players questioned the inmate first. From his contradictory answers and nonsensical babbling, they quickly deduced that he was quite mad and would be of no help at all. The former guard, however, was a wealth of information, after some appropriate motivation from Guildmaster Moldower.

The guardsman was able to tell the players that the sea caves were, in fact, guarded by "monsters and undead" although he could not be more specific. When he had worked there, seven years ago, there had been a wizard, employed by the city, who lived at the prison and took care of all magical defenses and such. The wizard had put something in the sea cave and had also been known to enchant the corpses of dead prisoners and turn them into shambling zombies that did his bidding. Some of these were placed in the sea caves below, the guardsman thought.

The guardsman was also able to tell them the following:

•  The roof is guarded by four magical automatons, enchanted mechanical things that prowl the roof, looking for intruders.
•  Level 1 includes guard rooms, shops, storage, servants quarters and the furnace.
•  Level 2 houses the main barracks, the communal halls, the kitchen, mess hall, food storage, hospital and wine cellar.
•  Levels 3 to 5 are the prison levels with 33 cells each. Each prison level has a "captain of the guard" and a central guard room. There are two copies of a master key which will unlock all the doors on that level. One copy is kept in the guard room and one copy is held by the Captain of that floor. The master key will unlock any cell door on that floor, but only that floor. Each prison level has its own set of master keys.
•  The guards are assigned to specific guard rooms throughout the prison and also make regular rounds. When not on duty, most guards are on the second floor where the barracks and communal areas are.
•  The sixth and highest level houses the warden, officers, captains' quarters, wizard's quarters, spell lab, high security cells and main office.
•  There are three vertical shafts in different locations in the prison that connect to the sea caverns below. The largest shaft serves as a general purpose trash chute, a small one that serves as a midden (toilet) and another small one that serves as a well. Only the midden shaft runs all the way up to level 6.[/li][/list]


The players decide that they will cautiously enter through the sea caves and fight whatever foul beasts the wizard has placed there. The guardsman assures them that the sounds of fighting in the sea caves below would not be heard in the upper levels. They would then climb up one of the shafts to gain entrance into the prison itself.

Moldower decides that both the former inmate and retired guardsman would be kept at the Swordtongue winery, as guests, for the duration of the mission, to prevent either of them from talking to others in the city and possibly alerting the authorities of the imminent jail break.

Having discussed the plan and prepared their equipment, the players felt ready to embark. At the city docks, they found a ship waiting for them... the Wart Hog, captained by a rather fat and smelly sea gypsy named Sancho.

The Wart Hog cast off in the evening. It was a short sail out to Guldremor. Once the Wart Hog got to within about two leagues, the players drank their sea shape potions. The sensation of skin and gills growing was an unpleasant, although not painful, experience. They soon found themselves with eyes covered in thick mucus membranes, green scaled skin, webbed feet and pulsating gills. They gave Sancho orders to swing back around to the same spot in 3 hours and every hour after that. Plunging into the sea, they swam quickly to the island.

The island had two caves which lead into the network of caves within... one on the island's rocky south face and one on the north. The players approached the south side submerged. Since it was near high tide, the cave was almost completely submerged. N'Sahd  spotted something on the rocks just above the mouth of the cave. He and Alan poked their heads out of the water and inspected it.

The thing looked like a round metal disk inset in the rock. It had a series of markings around the edge. The markings were magical symbols of Iskren, one of the classic writing systems used by mages in Ithria to write their spells. In the middle of the metal plate were ten small brackets where one might set a precious stone. In two of these brackets there was set a small gem, but the other eight were empty. Beneath each bracket was another letter of the iskren code.

Alan and N'Sahd discussed this unusual item. They studied it and cast some detection spells on it. They determined that this was one of many such "markers" that must form a perimeter around the island. It seems that it would eventually have 10 functions, but only 2 of those functions where currently active. The first function was a detection area of effect. Any active magic (such as a spell cast or a magic item used) inside the perimeter would be detected (by the prison wizard most likely). The second effect was a "spell jamming" effect such that long distance magic (used in long range communication spells and the like) would be blocked. Undoubtedly, the signal from Gavillon's team had been lost the moment they crossed this threshold.

Alan and N'Sahd managed to pry the iron disk from the rock. Alan worked on the enchanted marker for almost an hour while N'Sahd aided him. With a combination of his own magic and some tools and raw materials and gadgets of his making, Alan modified the functioning of the device. He disconnected it from the perimeter in such a way that the perimeter was still complete. However, the modified iron disk would now function as a nullifier to the perimeter. Within 25 feet of this device, the players would be able to use their magic without being affected or detected by the prison's wizard or his perimeter. But they would have to stay within 25 feet of the device at all times and they would have to carry the device with them.

By this time the effects of the sea shape potions had worn off. The players had resumed their normal forms and they were now clinging to the rocky cliff side, wet and cold and miserable, as waves slammed into them repeatedly. RedEye kept a poisoned dagger on him. He took the time to re-poison his dagger now (the poison had washed off of it during their swim).

Having foiled this perimeter, they proceeded into the sea cave. They came to a set of iron bars. RedEye used the alchemical acid to begin weakening and breaking the bars. It was slow and tedious work, but after some time, he had removed three bars and formed a gap large enough for all of them to get through.

The sea cave was very narrow and dark. The rocky walls of the cave were both sharp to the hands and incredibly slippery at the same time. The player characters proceeded single file with a dim light only. The water was chest height (except for RedEye who was much shorter and forced to swim). RedEye and Alan entered first followed by the wizard N'Sahd. Eiran, the elven ranger, brought up the rear.

After only a short distance the narrow cavern opened up into a small cave. According to their map, this small cave would be at the bottom of the midden shaft. As soon as RedEye entered the cave, he felt something grab him and lift him completely out of the water. The same happened to Alan. Both RedEye and Alan had been pulled up out of the water... one against the left cavern wall and one against the right. They could see each other in the dim light, each struggling against his own foe. Whatever creatures had grabbed them had been fast and strong. N'Sahd and Eiran heard the struggles, but did not see exactly what had happened. N'Sahd and Eiran did see a creature on the far wall though. It had blended almost perfectly with the slick cavern wall, but was now detaching itself from the cavern wall. It was a tall, lean humanoid. It's inhuman skin was green and coated in slime. Its head had no eyes or ears or other discernable organs. It slipped into the water and began advancing toward N'Sahd  and Eiran. N'Sahd shot fiery bolts from his hands with a spell while Eiran fired arrows into the creature.

Meanwhile, RedEye and Alan struggled to be free of the things that held them even as they heard (and felt) the acidic touch of the creatures burning through their armor and clothing. The strange humanoid creatures were somehow anchoring themselves to the sides of the cave, up out of the sea water, and held their captives tightly to their chests. RedEye unsheathed his poisoned dagger and plunged it into the thigh of the creature that held him tight. The creature began to convulse from the poison and dropped him into the water.

Alan struggled helplessly against the creature that held him, but could not break its iron grip. Its acidic touch had burned through the layers of his soaked garments and now began burning his flesh.

Amidst the battle, Eiran, after getting a good look at the creatures, realized what they were. Eiran was well versed in the beasts and plants of the world and these things he had heard tales of. Sewer zombies they were called, although they were not true undead. He remembered hearing that these creatures were harmed by healing magic of any kind. Thinking quickly, he pulled out his healing potion and splashed some on the one confronting N'Sahd. With a horrible stench, the healing potion burned through the creature like acid. It's shoulder came apart and its arm fell into the water. With a gurgling gasp, the creature collapsed into the water.

N'Sahd  and Eiran advanced into the cave to help their friends. RedEye had already dispatched one and, with a push from his magical boots, had leapt up and was now dangling from the lip of a round stone opening in the ceiling of the cave.

Eiran lunghed forward at the sewer zombie holding Alan and tried to splash healing potion on the creature. The valuable liquid fell short.

RedEye, seeing what Eiran was doing, pulled out his own healing potion and, with a flick of his wrist, splashed the precious liquid in the creatures face. It immediately let go of Alan as its head began to melt. Alan fell into the water followed quickly by the dying sewer zombie.

N'Sahd, Eiran and RedEye pulled Alan up and inspected his wounds. He was burned badly on his chest and arms. Though they had used some of their healing potion to dispatch the sewer zombies, they spared a bit more to heal Alan. They took a quick inventory of their remaining healing draughts. They grimly realized that they had used up almost half of their healing draughts. They would have to ration what they had left carefully.

They looked about the cave. They were in a small round cave. There was the entrance that they had come in and another narrow cavern exited on the far wall. In the middle of the ceiling of this cavern was a round shaft. It was tiled on the inner surface. Looking up through the small shaft they could make out dim light above. Judging by the stench, there was no doubt... this was the midden (toilet) shaft.

Eiran noticing a soft glow of blue light coming from further down the tunnel.

And that's where Session 1 ended. The four characters are in the first cavern in the sea caves. They see a glow up ahead. They have a small vertical shaft directly above them.