Difference between revisions of "What Lies Beneath"

Revision as of 20:21, 14 October 2023

This adventure began following the partial success of the group led by Toshiro in leading a caravan past the Gar-bears Orc settlement of Blukh Ukh into Promise Junction. This was followed by the raising of Nyla and the defeat of her former master, Turgan Khan. It involved Shale, High Priestess of Perasin, and Solidus, High Priest of Varice, venturing into the tunnels beneath the village to stop the imminent incursion of forces dedicated to Kiaransalee.

Preparations

After her raising in the city of Nazivonema, Nyla returned with Siege and Stom through the Red Dragon Inn transport system. She was examined by Lennoy, the village medic, and healed by Solidus, but was still not at full strengh. She was subsequently filled in on events during her absence by Klaven.

After lunch that day, Toshiro approached Bramus, captain of the village guard, to ask about accompanying the group going underground. Although he was reticent about letting another priest leave the city, Bramus referred him to Shale. The Dwarf was working at Rackem's forge along the road being built south of town, and she saw the wisdom of his joining. Bramus was still concerned about having to rely on Rin, the priestess of Losyera, and other unknown quantities such as Dax, the new priestess of Sedric; Shmo, the inexperienced priest of Perasin; and Al'Hana, Solidus' acolyte. However, since this was Shale's and Solidus' responsibility, once the Halfling agreed he acquiesced. After he left, Shale and Rakeor invited Isu, who had helped her return from Automata, to join the team as well.

Around the same time, the entertainment contingent -- Gilbert, Pikilily, Makoto and Duper -- came down to the RDI common room. Duper was quite happy to see Stom, and she glomped him, although he was embarrassed, since he was still nursing a crush on Nyla. The Orcish bard offered to get him his favorite dessert, denzelian spice pudding, and he agreed that if she could get him some he would be open to the possibility of becoming a couple. Makoto suggested to Gilbert that the troupe should perform a special version of the tale of Turgan's defeat that night. Meanwhile, Emi, the town's messenger, asked Bardo to take over her duties while she was serving as the group's scout. Bardo agreed, as she was waiting for word from Zammo, her friend from Rogariel, regarding whether he would join her in Promise Junction.

After things settled down, Stom went to Shale to officially ask to join the team. She agreed, but denied a similar request from Pete, much to both half-Orcs' consternation. Shale further conferred with the other temple denizens, asking her chief lieutenant, Sato, to aid the town along with Shmo in her absence.

Just before dinner, Toshiro, Klaven and Solidus went to the temple of Gruumsh to call on High Priest Shazbot. Solidus also returned the pouch containing the Eye of Gruumsh which Pikilily had lifted -- although that was unknown to the Halfling -- reaffirming the cooperation between their temples. They also asked about their knowledge of the tunnels, and Shazbot admitted that there was a sealed entrance beneath his temple. Solidus mentioned the demon roach incident at the prospective site of his own temple, and the Orc mentioned that the small temple of Hruggek behind his might be in league with the insects. He further mentioned the temple of Perasin, and Shazbot said that given that he is a god of war, like Gruumsh, the two would always be rivals, but would work together against the Drow, a greater enemy. They went on to discuss tactics, and Shazbot offered the services of as many Orcish warriors as needed, along with his underling Domjot.

At dinner, Toshiro filled in Shale, and tactics for fighting demons were discussed. Shale accepted the proffered aid from the temple of Gruumsh, but reminded Solidus of his oath. While the party's troupe performed at the RDI, Duper performed at the Blood, Bone and Brew, where Toshiro met with Shazbot and the chief of the Orcs, Dadbod. The chief questioned the need of many Orc warriors to fight the female-led Drow, and offers to send only five warriors along with Domjot. Toshiro met with the latter at the temple, and the Orc seemed pleased to finally be able to use Healing spells.

As she listened to Gilbert tell of Turgan's defeat once more, Nyla conferred with the other warriors about what to do when Tara Goldmoon, the druid of nearby Eskalikor and Turgan's friend, discovers that she's still alive. While Klaven expressed his belief that the Khan would be true to his word, Nyla pointed out that the deception might offer an excuse for him to reassert his claim. Eckhorn suggested that they appeal to Rodney, Klaven's old friend who also lived in the wood, which Nyla agreed to consider. She then turned to thoughts of her trusty flail, lost in the battle against the achaierai, and at Leeva's urging decided to see about getting a job at the RDI. Jambanov accepted her offer, as Leeva and Kringa would then get some time off.

The next morning, Alvin and Isu made plans to study spells at the library, while the priests discussed taking care of the village in the absences of Shale, Solidus and Toshiro. Talk turned to the demon roaches, and Chalcedony, Solidus' partner in building their temple and the town arbiter, mentioned saying a benediction over the site daily without incident. She further suggested that perhaps they were drawn by magic, so the priests went out and Solidus cast flaming sphere, but no roaches appeared. However, when he invoked his deity one called down from a nearby tree. The priests dithered about what to do, and the roach disappeared.

Those who would be going underground met and discussed strategy for spellcasting. Talk turned to convincing the Orcs to listen to anyone in the party, and Stom suggested that a display of power would help. Solidus believed the lightning power granted by his deity would be sufficiently impressive, but it would only work on a creature. To that end, he went with a small group to try and capture a jek, but the only one they saw ran off. Domjot summoned several small animals, and finally Nyla was able to trap a wolverine, which they brought to the temple of Gruumsh. The Orcish warriors who were assigned to accompany the party were gathered, but Solidus' spell failed to kill the wolverine. As he lamented his failure, several demon roaches roasted the animal.

While the others went back to the RDI, Tammra's canine companion Shadow spoke to the demon roaches. He told the witch that they had come through some sort of gate beneath the temple of Perasin, and were drawn to magical energy. At dinner, Chalcedony suggested to Solidus that perhaps the wolverine was stronger because it had been summoned by the priest of a god of war. Tammra arrived and filled the priests in on what she'd learned. The Dwarves had one last ale-drinking session with Eckhorn before following the rest to bed.

Into the tunnels

The next morning, Solidus asked Toshiro to use dark fire to perform his ritual, which was successful. Once everyone gathered in the common room, the group went out to the town annex and into the tunnel below. The group paused at the boarded-up passage near the stairs, and Klaven used his axe to break through. Alvin tested his new spell, ice knife on a rat, freezing it, and the Dwarf killed and collected it.

The passage beyond was smaller than the tunnel and roughly hewn, with wooden torch brackets along the walls and water dripping along its length. Emi and Rin scouted ahead until spotting a faint reddish-orange glow in the distance. As Shale paused to get her bearings, a voice called out, again foretelling doom. Three demon roaches stood in the group's path, and described a room ahead with many Orcish bones. As they let the party pass, Stom mouthed off, and one of them set his hair on fire, and Klaven killed it.

The party reached the chamber, which was indeed filled with the bones of Orcs and a couple inches of water. Domjot declared it was the storied site of Tazhbalakh's Last Stand, where the last remaining Grazhnakh in the province fell to soldiers of the White Army. While the other Orcs set about desecrating the site, Klaven found a magical spear, which he believed to have a rune of the White Army. Shale located a trap door in the floor, but it could not be budged, so Isu reduced it, revealing a shaft with rungs to climb down.

Toshiro, Emi and Quellit, a member of the town guard who knew the tunnels, climbed down the 220-foot deep shaft, finding nothing at the bottom but the water that had flowed in from above. Two tunnels led out, south and west. Klaven handed the spear to Stom so he could climb down, and Stom passed it on to Chazbar, one of the chipmunk Orcs. Solidus asked to be lowered using the rope, but Rakeor lost his grip, causing Solidus to fall partway down. With nobody else to help, Shirella had to command the other Orcs to help lower him the rest of the way. Once all the others were down, Chazbar refused, then ran away after Rakeor threatened him, taking the magic spear with him.

The group proceeded down the south tunnel, but found it blocked about 120 yards down. Toshiro attempted to create a door, but the blockage was too thick. The party retreated and tried the west passage, which continued about 200 yards before ending in another north-south passage. While Emi saw a flickering light to the south, Rin noted a door to the north before the passage began sloping downward. A Dark Elven rune on the door read "stick-in-the-mud", so the group ignored it and went south.

After proceeding perhaps 150 yards, the group came across a chamber, decorated with columns. The light seemed to emanate from the top of one of the columns, matching the continual light from the paint dropped through the crack in the temple above. As Solidus entered the room, two of the columns came to life and began advancing toward the party, cheered on by several demon roaches. The battle was over fairly swiftly, although one of the orcs, Zotkat, was knocked out and several of the party's weapons were destroyed.

Shale questioned one of the roaches, who said his home was beyond a door at the top of a set of stairs on the east wall, but it disappeared when Solidus and Alvin threatened it. Emi sensed a trap, and when Solidus slung a bullet at the door it emitted sparks. Rin attempted to dispel the trap, but it was too powerful. Quellit suggested that the door would need to be destroyed, but nobody in the group had enough magical power to do so at that time. A second archway to the south was the group's next destination, and in the hallway beyond they discovered statues of both Kiaransalee and Lolth. Beyond that, on the walls and ceiling, were images of the undead, a sign that this was Kiaransalee's domain. While no magic was detected, the group decided to hold off on venturing further until they'd recovered, and so made camp in the hallway between the exit to the large room and the two statues.

Magical protections were put in place, healing spells were cast, and Rin set about using war paint to increase the defenses of the remaining orcs. A short time later, Tammra's glyph of warding was triggered by a demon roach...

Cast of characters

This adventure is being run by John Proulx. Below is a list of characters who have been involved at one point or another:

• Alvin - run by Phil Vlasak
• Chazbar - NPC
• Domjot - NPC
• Emi - run by Shelley Proulx
• Hazmat - NPC
• Klaven - run by Syd Howard
• Isu - NPC
• Nazdaq - NPC
• Quellit - NPC
• Rakeor - run by Shelley Proulx
• Rin - NPC
• Rokbot - NPC
• Shale - run by Lou McLeary
• Shirella - NPC
• Solidus - run by Phil Vlasak
• Stom - run by Shelley Proulx
• Tammra - run by Lou McLeary
• Toshiro - run by Syd Howard
• Zotkat - NPC

Adventure timeline