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Bastard Son of the great-grandchild of the sister's gibbon's friend of the nephew of the Campaign that Would Not Die, now in 3.75e
Møøse Trained By: Hugh Foster
Møøse Trained By: Hugh Foster
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Bastard Son of the great-grandchild of the sister's gibbon's friend of the nephew of the Campaign that Would Not Die, now in 3.75e Møøse Trained By: Hugh Foster |
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With the evil genius behind the Citadel's depredations dead and looted, it occurred to the Tanks that it was probably time to check on Terence the Mule and Ruby's war dog. Heading back through the complex - and skirting kobold country without encountering anyone - they climbed back up the rickety stairs and out onto the surface. As they went, Borax picked up some new tracks; four skeletal non-human beings heading the same way they were. It seemed that the four skeleton lizardmen had fled the Citadel altogether.
At the shady dell they had selected for their animals, they were pleasantly surprised to find Terence still alive, if a little peckish, in a grassless circle the size of his tether. The dog had done very well; corpses of rabbits and so on lay around along with a couple of smaller local predators who'd obviously tried to make a meal out of Terence.
Both faithful beasts were given a good feed and fresh water, and the party spent the night out in the fresh air for a change.
The next order of business was to obtain the key to the last unexplored part of the Citadel from the kobold queen Yusdrayl. This raised the question of what Meepo and Calcryx were going to do. Calcryx was adamant he was not going back to enslavement to a tribe of kobolds. Meepo was thoughtful to the limits of his capabilities, but it emerged that he felt capable and appreciated in this company; "I have clothes, and good food, and magic!" and liked the life of an adventurer. He had been flirting with the idea of challenging Yusdrayl for her throne, but seemed more interested in winning it than keeping it.
A good pile of the loot they'd gathered was buried nearby to await their return.
Negotiations for the key were going to require Calcryx to look like a prisoner again. He was not at all keen to go back in the bag, even when assured that any discussion of handing him over would be just a ruse. Finally he was stuffed back in by force, but slightly mollified by a handful of gold coins dropped in with him, and could be heard testing them with his modest fangs as the group set out.
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19. As the party marched through kobold territory towards the throne hall, more and more kobolds fell in behind them, until most of the adult males were bunched up in a group, eager to see what was going to happen. Ahead of them, Yusdrayl sat her throne, her six elite guards around her as the Tanks approached.
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"So," she said as they came to a halt, "you have returned." Meepo spoke up, and the queen blinked in surprise and disdain. "The goblins are gone!" he cried enthusiastically and not entirely accurately, "Their threat is no more." "You owe us a key," added Borax. Thunder gathered on the dwarf's dark face, and Yusdrayl quailed a bit. She ran her eyes across them. "Return my dragon; and its keeper," she added as an afterthought, "and they key is yours."
"We'll return the dragon to its cage," suggested Ruby. The bag shifted a bit but Calcryx remained silent. Though she was keeping a good face on it, the queen was afraid, and she agreed to this. Borax held out his hand again; "Key.". "Take the dragon back to its cage," protested Yusdrayl. "You heard what I said," snapped the dwarf. There was a moment of suspense, and then she reached for the key and gave it to a guard to pass to Borax.
The party led the way, with most of the tribe crowding behind, led by Yusdrayl surrounded by her guard.
15. At the door to the room holding the dragon's pen, Erky, Calvis and Meepo carried on across to the far side, while Ruby and Borax turned in the doorway and stopped. "It's time to say good-bye," said Borax, gripping his flail. Opposite them, kobold weapons came up, while the queen stepped back a pace. And then Calcryx surged up out of his bag onto Ruby's shoulder and began to deliver some of the most creative Yorkshire insults either had ever heard.
"Kill them all!" screamed Yusdrayl, and her warriors surged forward.
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The diminutive creatures charged bravely, but they were no match for Borax and Ruby. The flail and Shatterspike carved a bloody path through the front rank of the Guard as Yusdrayl gathered to cast a spell; it didn't do anything visible, and Ruby guessed it was probably defensive.
Erky put up a Bless and Meepo smacked a Magic Missile into his once-queen, leaving her with an expression of stunned horror at this attack from such a nithing. Calcryx unleashed his infant breath weapon, and three kobold guard simply froze to death on their feet. Borax stepped to within reach of the kobold queen.
Yusdrayl cast another spell; she should really have withdrawn out of melee, but the taunts of the wyrmling and the insolence of Meepo had enraged her beyond tactical sense. Unfortunately, she chose Borax for her target and the natural dwarvish resistance to magic threw off whatever the effects would have been. As she did, Ruby stepped up to her and slashed her head off.
The heart seemed to go out of the kobolds at that, and Meepo blasting another off his feet with another Magic Missile didn't help. Borax, spattered in kobold blood, yelled wordlessly at them and a fair number towards the back suddenly remembered something they should have been doing. Calcryx was bouncing up and down on Ruby's shoulder, yelling hysterically as Borax mowed down some more. The last few were wavering when the dragon's breath weapon rolled out once more and they died in their tracks.
A quick search turned up nothing of any value; as they did so, Calcryx glided down onto Yusdrayl's corpse and bit out her throat, making a satisfied noise. With the key now secured, the party returned to the door they couldn't open.
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7. The key fitted easily into the door, and there was a faint flash as the Wizard Lock was bypassed and it opened. Dust and bits of stone scattered, hinting at how long it had been closed.
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The dust of ages, long undisturbed, covered every surface in this large gallery. Three alcoves were on the north wall, and one in the south wall. Each alcove contained a dust-covered stone pedestal with a fist-sized crystalline globe upon it. Although the globes in the northern alcoves were cracked and dark, the globe in the southern alcove glowed with a soft blue light. Faint tinkling notes sprang forth from it.
"Sounds a bit like ice crystals," commented Calcryx. Cautiously, the party moved into the room, and Borax approached the glowing sphere carefully. As he did, the song intensified, waves of it breaking over him as he listened, entranced. Gradually, however, the feelings it evoked shifted through confusing to horrifying, and both Borax and Calcryx were suddenly gripped by utter, nameless terror. The wyrmling rocketed past the dwarf as both fled out to the hollow tower and huddled there, shaking.
Ruby could feel the fear as well, but managed to hold her purpose as she strode across the room and brought her sword down on the sphere. Cracks spiderwebbed across it, and a second blow smashed it to splinters, freeing Borax and Calcryx from the effects.
Recovered, they opened the west door instead, discovering a short hall. As they approached it, Calvis stopped them and pointed out a pressure plate in the floor. Confidently he bent to disable it, and in some panic he flattened himself as an arrow spat from a concealed hole above the far door and nearly skewered him. Repeated efforts were unsuccessful, so Borax gathered stones from further back and lobbed them onto the plate until the trap stopped triggering. "Who's going first?" asked Ruby. "Well volunteered!" replied Erky cheerfully, and Ruby frowned at him and then stepped through. Nothing happened.
9. Dust filled this hall like a layer of grey snow. In the rounded northern end of the chamber stood a sculpture of a dragon carved from red-veined white marble. As they approached it, a Magic Mouth activated, reciting this riddle in a rather self-satisfied voice:
We come at night without being fetched;
we disappear by day without being stolen
Ruby barely blinked. "Stars," she said, and the secret door in the west wall opened with a click.
10. Dust cloaked the 20-foot-wide hall. Three narrow alcoves lined both the north and south wall, each holdinga humanoid figure carved of red-veined white marble, except for the southwest alcove which was empty. The figures resemble tall lizardlike creatures in plate mail; probably kin, though the little the party knew about the kin indicated that five identical individuals was an unlikely event. The far end of the hall opened via a stone arch into a wide room, from which greenish light trickled. A dark pit was situated before the western archway.
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From Ruby's elevation, it was possible to see the spikes in the pit, and these made the usually suspicious Tanks even more so. Borax selected a more-or-less spherical stone from the rubble further back and bowled it along the hall in a trail of dust. It dropped into the pit with a fairly normal-sounding thud and produced no further reaction. Encouraged, he then hurled another along the hall and through the arch, rewarded with a double thud as it hit something and dropped to the floor.
 DM Note: In the adventure, it notes that Player characters who use this crawl space to access area 12 escape attack by the dretch. Interestingly, there is no dretch in this adventure, even in the very handy alphabetic appendix of all the monsters. And yes, I forgot to portray it as a crawlspace. Sue me. |
Reassured, the party moved in, searching the hallway. Borax paid special attention to the alcove without a statue, while Ruby studied the ones that were present, establishing that they were one carved piece and not articulated. The ranger noticed that there were footprints in the dust leading from the empty alcove to the archway; tiny, non-human prints with claws. They reached the pit and continued on the far side; either a good jumper, or a flying creature. The prints were utterly wrong for the statues; whatever had made them, it wasn't one of the statues walking away.
He also noticed a joint line in the stone behind the absent statue; it outlined a door, and a simple push opened it, revealing a passage leading south and turning west. Thinking that this might provide a bypass to the spiked pit, they followed it.
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12. The passage sloped down and emerged underneath the room beyond the pit, and the group scrambled up into what was clearly a tomb. Violet-hued marble tiles coverd the floor and walls, though all were cracked or broken, revealing roughhewn stone beneath. Wall sconces were attached to the walls at each corner, but only one still bore a torch which burned with a tiny, greenish light. A massive marble sarcophagus, easily 9 feet long, lay in room's centre. The stone possessed heavy carvings with dragon imagery, and the head of the sarcophagus resembled a dragon's head. Rusting metal clasps firmly locked down the lid of the sarcophagus.
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On the front, as they started to get a closer look at it, was inscribed the following in Krultac; "A dragonpriest entombed alive for transgressions of the Law still retains the honour of his position." As they mulled this, a shrill shriek presaged the appearance of a small, winged form which shot up from behind the tomb and threw itself at the nearest intruder, which was Calvis. A wave of magical fear accompanied it, and the Coin of Lynien fled incontinently to huddle in a corner. The flying figure hovered in the air, screeching in wild joy. "You broke the binding; my watch over the dragonpriest is over!" This was a mistake, as Borax, Erky, Meepo and Ruby all attacked it at once. A mixture of blows, missiles and magic reduced it to a greenish splatter on the far wall. Calvis, however, remained huddled in his corner until Erky went and kindly cast a Remove Fear on him.
Turning their attention to the tomb, the group spread out to tackle the metal clasps. These turned out to be immensely strong, and in the end it took Ruby, Borak and Erky working together to break each one. Finally, they were all done, and the party as a whole started to slide the massive lid off.
"Stop there!" shouted Borax, once it had moved a foot or so, and they peered in. Rotting purple robes and a pair of clawed feet were visible, the skin strange and ropy and with strange tendrils winding in and out of it. A pale glow surrounded them. "OK, other way." The slab was slid back, and then around the same amount the other way, revealing the occupant's face.
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It was possible that he had once been of the Kin; but whatever she was now was clearly something else; fibrous tendrils infested her body. A Detect Undead spell registered negative. Shouting produced no reaction, so Borax reached in with a crossbow bolt and prodded her.
This got a reaction, all right. The glow vanished with a flash as the spell of suspension was breached, and the creature reached up, gripped the lid, and sat up like a man in bed lifting a blanket. Ruby goggled at the likely strength needed to achieve this, then dived aside like everyone else as the lid went flying. Calvis - of all people - was too slow, and was catapulted across the room into the wall.
The priest stood, gibbering and frothing, brandishing its claws and completely ignoring the weapons hanging from its decaying belt. Borax noticed that it was breathing; it was alive, after all. The action of thowing back the lid, however, had unbalanced it, and the companions struck while their momentary advantage lasted.
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Borax and Ruby's blows struck deep [two threats, one critical!] and Calcryx breathed on it as Meepo used his last Magic Missile of the day. The thing crumpled as Ruby scythed its head off and dropped to the floor. However, as it lay there, it began to twitch, and the tendrils began to move, reknitting its eerie flesh. The amount of damage it had sustained, however, meant that the Tanks had plenty of time to gather the pieces, soak them in oil, and set fire to them.
Searching the priest's equipment and coffin, they found a few coins that appeared to have been scornfully thrown inside, a magical dagger and the priest's warhammer, which Identify declared to be The Hammer of Vengeance. While the spell indicated the rough combat capability of the weapon, Meepo was fairly sure there was more to it than the spell could read.
There were no exits from the tomb, which made it the last unexplored area in the Citadel; with that, the Two Tanks and their allies turned and headed for the exit. They had a lot of books to study, and the sad duty of returning two signet rings to a bereaved mother.
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Session Date: 16th March 2026 |
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