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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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4. As the party reversed direction to head away from the flooded room, Sir Mazbardil reported a problem from the far end of the passage. The green slime which had fallen on Ruby had spread out to cover the entire floor, leaving the choice of wading through it or a hazardous jump. After some discussion, someone remembered that the stuff was very flammable, and Meepo slipped forward ready to try his new favourite spell - Scorching Ray. Despite some scepticism, his spell worked and his aim was true, and the slime burned away to floating greasy ashes.
Without further issue, the party ascended through the library and returned to camp. After some refreshment, Meepo and Borax gathered in the latter's tent where the tomes, rod and feather token were Identified.
Meanwhile, Ruby and the remaining knights ventured back down to recover the three magical barrels. With ropes and a degree of cursing they were hauled up out of the depths. Sir Cryn managed to fall down one of the smaller flights, to the amusement of his fellows. When Identified, the barrels turned out to be Barrels of Refreshing Liquids. Any fluid stored in the barrels would never go ‘off’, sour, decay, evaporate or generally go manky. Brasshelm uncapped one and issued wine to all, resulting in a very cheerful evening.
The next morning, with Ruby's slime wounds healed by Calvis, the PCs considered the tunnel out of the flooded room (6). It was a bit small for Ruby or a knight to fit down. Meepo would, but he pointed out nervously that kobolds can't breathe water. They turned back to the Eye of Insight, and Borax, who'd not yet used it, gave it a shake and asked "What lies at the end of the tunnel out of the flooded room in the SW of the Vault of Proudstone Library?" The Eye's answer (in Elvish) was "After a quarter of a mile it emerges into a cave." They then handed it to Meepo, leaving him a bit starry-eyed, and told him to ask, "How do we disable the golem?" Again, the answer was accurate, precise and no more than was asked for; "Extinguish the candles."
Over the next few days, they were to build on Brasshelm's initial reaction to form in his mind that the Eye was a busted flush, a used one-shot item, and not worth putting in the pile.
Prepared, the party returned to the Vault to finish off. As they passed through the atrium of the Vault (2), Ruby had Calvis jam the trap for real, as they were getting a bit nervous of something going wrong and it going off again. Soon, they were back at the Shrine to Mithlendel.
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3.Borax suggested Meepo should lift the candles out of their holders, knowing he wasn't tall enough to reach the tops of them. Ruby followed on and stood behnd him, ready to take over, as Meepo reached out and gripped one, pulling on it - perhaps to take it down, perhaps to pull himself up. A strong whiff of ozone was enough to warn Ruby and she grabbed the kobold and dove sideways as a stroke of lightning emerged from the altar, catching both of them on the edge of the stroke. Ruby was scorched and burned - but Meepo was nearly incinerated and lay on the floor, dying. It took one of Calvis' best healing spells to save him, and two more lesser ones to get him fit to carry on.
Going back, Ruby very carefully leaned over and blew at the flame of one of the candles. Without any fuss, it went out, as did the other when she repeated it. The warm, comforting light faded away, leaving just the lanterns the knights were carrying. After a moment, they realized that something was missing ... the eternal footsteps were silent.
5. Opening the N door with the talisman, they headed down the corridor to the next door and through it into a much larger room. This one actually looked like a vault, containing several heavy metal cabinets. In the centre of the room stood the golem, now stilled in the act of taking a step.
After the usual safety checks, Calvis opened the first one to find, though largely empty, this was where the good stuff had been stored. All told they discovered the following:+2 full plate (elf sized)
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Borax had been studying how Meepo worked his magic, and had mastered a few spells. He used one now, casting an Open-Close cantrip to swing the bookcase doors open. Nothing exploded, so they stepped inside. One step was enough; a palpable miasma of unease and malice permeated the room, flowing across from the books; from one book, Calvis declared after casting a Detect Evil. Again, Borax flexed his arcane muscles, and drifted the book out of the case and across to Brasshelm, flicking it open as it came. Brasshelm read the title page and blanched, but reached out and took it from the invisible hand.
As soon as he did, he flinched wildly, and a look of pain and horror appeared on his face. Shaking, he dropped the book to the stone floor and stumbled back a pace, pale and sweating. "That's not for the likes of us," he muttered, struggling to regain his composure. "What is it?" asked Borax, interested. "It is the Book of Vile Darkness - or rather, a third of it or so," said Brasshelm. "It is the sort of thing my commission includes, though not in this state." Nobody wanted to pick it up, so it was manouvred into one of the sacks with the Mage Hand.
The other books were;
The first two were magical, and went into the pool, and Brasshelm reserved the book on Crystallomancy, as well as the BoVD - though he was happy to allow Ruby and Borax to read the former. It was extremely technical, presupposing a level of arcane knowledge that none of them had, but having read it, Borax and Ruby probably knew more about the lost arcane art of gem enchantment than anyone else in a thousand years.
There seemed to be some connection between the book on Sarugost - which contained spells for some sort of specific planar travel - and the book on Jarts, but it was going to take a lot of study to work out the details.
The complex explored, the party was returning to the surface; but Ruby, Meepo, Calcryx and Borax stayed for a last look around. Both rather regretted the golem's apparent demise. Ruby - to Meepo's horror - went to try relighting the candles. Calcryx watched him from the end of the passage, ready to fly out at full speed to warn Borax if something went wrong. However, the candles took a flame with no dramatic effects ... in fact, no effects at all. The sanctified light they had formerly shed was absent, replaced by very ordinary candlelight; and a moment later, a wax dribble formed and ran down one, the first in hundreds of years.
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The golem itself was a beautiful creation, cast in multiple metals; gold, copper, silver and possibly mithril. Most golems of legend were blocky, brutal forms - and much larger - but this was a work of art. Borax experimented with the Electric Jolt cantrip, and both were sure they had seen some flicker of reaction in the construct's eyes - but no more.
After experimentation, the pair found they could move it. They lugged it out and added it to the pile to be loaded onto the rapidly-filling cart. As it had not been considered loot, they advanced a claim for ownership.
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Borax had called a magpie into service as a familiar; he was waiting for a suitable moment to grant it a name. To begin with, he sent it to fly around the crag of Proudstone, looking for caves or entrances that might possibly connect to the underwater tunnel. Though the bird flew diligently, it found nothing.
Plans were laid for the return journey. Brasshelm intended to stop at the site of the battle with the gorgon and collect the unfortunate stone soldiers. Borax suggested sending one rider ahead to the Fist for a bigger cart to save time. Brasshelm, not keen to risk two men alone in such dangerous territory, compromised; if they wouldn't fit on the cart, he'd do it.
The next morning, the expediton set out for home. Despite the snow on the ground, the mood was generally upbeat; the expedition had succeeded in recovering both whatever the Baron wanted and enough treasure for everyone to do quite well. Three men were - well, wounded was one possible way to look at it - and potentially salvageable. It seemed this was a very good survival rate for one of these expeditions.
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Three days later, the expedition was trundling across a grey plain of the barren ground which was the best of the Desolation, when the scout Tazarin came back and reported a strange sighting; a single human-shaped figure, walking steadily along the same track as the expedition, heading in the same direction. Ruby rode up to meet him, finding a fairly nondescript, human-appearing man in tattered clothes of grey and brown. He had no apparent possesions or equipment, and no weapons.
"Afternoon," said Ruby. "Why are you going that way?" The man glanced at her, not breaking stride, and gestured back behind him. "Because I've already been that way," he said. His voice was calm, and level, not that of a vagrant, and spoke the common language with no identifiable accent. Ruby blinked. "Who are you?" she asked. "Myself," he said.
Ruby peered at him through her monocle. When using Detect Magic, enchanted or holy things radiated magic perceptibly, but everything in the world around had a very tiny emanation of magic, where the solid intersected the arcanosphere. Users of the spell learned to ignore it in the same way one ignored moonlight looking for a campfire. This person, however, was a blank space, truly "dark" to the detection; almost a negatively magical form.
The rest of the expedition caught up and was forced to slow, as the man was walking in the middle of the most cart-navigable path. Considering their visitor, Borax unslung his canteen and offered him a drink of water. The walker took the cup, drained it with evident pleasure, and handed it back to Borax with gentle thanks. "Would you like a blessing?" he said to the dwarf. Borax hesitated, and then said "Yes." "It will cost you a million in gold," said the stranger, and Borax blinked. "I haven't got a million," he said. The walker smiled gently. "Then I'll be on my way," he said. Borax lifted the canteen slightly. "This was also a blessing," he said innocently - and correctly; in the desert, there is no greater - "and its cost is also a million in gold." The walker smiled more widely at this. "Then I shall trade you a blessing," he said, and lifted a hand, moving it in benediction towards Borax, who felt nothing happen. He refilled the cup and handed it back. "This one is free," he commented. "You are generous," sald the walker, and drank once more.
"Would you care for a lift, as we travel the same way?" asked Ruby. The walker shook his head. "That would defeat the purpose of the Journey," he said, "Everyone must make their own Journey. My Journey is ... long." "Are you a God?" asked Ruby. He shook his head. "No," he said, and there was just a hint of pity in his voice.
Borax was talking to Calvis. "Is there anything different about me?" he asked a little anxiously. Calvis shook his head; "No more magoical than hitherto," he said. "I've been looking at him though; he's nothing - not Good, Evil, Chaotic or Lawful." Something struck Borax; squinting up at the sun, he looked down at the ground. The walker cast no shadow, nor did he leave prints. He's not really here, or rotated part out of plane, thought Borax, and then but he drank the water...
They asked him to share their camp that evening, but again he declined. "Such kindness is pleasant to find; but I do not pause my Journey." "What's the form of your travel?" asked Ruby. "Everyone has their own Journey," he restated. She scratched her head. To travel afoot, alone, unarmed and unprovisioned, through the Desolation was tantamount to suicide; to do so at night was utterly unbeliveable. Yet the man seemed in no distress, untouched by the conditions.
He was quite willing to walk to the side to let the wagon through, and nodded politely to the curious faces as the expedition passed him. They watched as he dwindled to a dot behind them.
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Later that day they reached the site of their battle with the Gorgon, to find the scene basically unchanged. The humped mass of metal that had been the monster and the various statues of their former comrades were unmoved, though all were covered in a dusting of snow. Baron Brasshelm organized setting camp, and then the loading of his stricken men onto the cart. Sir Kein and Girwon the scout were not a problem, but Sir Eowend was fused with his horse, and the combination would not fit into the cart. Someone suggested trying to chip him off the horse, but Borax, stonewise dwarf, shook his head. He considered the issue, then carefully chiselled off the head, legs and tail of the horse, as well as some of the body well away from the rider. After this, they managed to strap him to the outside of the cart, and Corwyn was able to adjust the loading inside to balance the weight.
After a meal, Borax, Ruby and co wandered off a little way, and Ruby unpacked the Eye of Insight. Only Calvis and Calcryx had not asked it a question so far. It was seven days since Ruby had, and she shook it hopefully, to no avail. Not "once a week" then. Poe the magpie had also not done so. The idea was to get him to roll the jar with his claw, but when it was laid in front of him, he squawked "Eyeball!" and pecked determindly at it. This set the jar bouncing, triggering the magic. "Ask!" He cocked his head at Borax inquiringly, and Borax carefully fed him a question in their mutual Dwarvish language; "Who and what is the creature we just met on the road, and what was the blessing he gave?" Poe repeated it, and the Eye then replied in its usual archaic elvish. "He is The Traveller; he is of this world but is not subject to many of the forces, conditions and laws that bind it. His blessing was an adjustment of probability in time." This suggested that the change was not to Borax, but to everything else, which was a worrying scale of things.
Back at camp, Borax had a thought and harvested some metal teeth from the Gorgon corpse.
That night, the Traveller caught up with them and, with no fuss or comment, walked through their camp and off into the distance.
The cart was heavily laden after that, and it took them six more days to reach Aeglor's Fist. Ruby had read the crystallomancy book fully by then; Borax, not speaking Elvish, was unable to but discussed the content with his friend. Finally the expedition reached the fortress, and the members scattered to their barracks.
The stone soldiers were stood in the courtyard, and Brasshelm sent word to the Priestess of Belisama in Armush, from whom he intended to purchase the magics to restore his men. The loot had been stored in the Order treasury, and their Treasurer - with Calvis assisting, as he knew a fair bit about market values - was compiling a better valuation. Borax and Ruby were going to have to wait, as Brasshelm insisted that the three men - should they survive the process - were eligible for a share. "After all, they risked as much as we - more, maybe!" he said.
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Session Date: 3rd August 2026 |
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