[Exploration of deeper parts of the temple ruins and Kyle nearly gets himself killed.]
[This session took place March 30, 2002. We were playing Champions 4th Edition with the Second Edition Fantasy Hero supplement.]
Player Characters
Tim, a Wizard - male human from the Free City of Freegate, graduate of Outlands University
Dangar Stonekleaver - male dwarf from the Northern Dwarven Kingdom
Kyle Logan – male human thief and stowaway on the Yardbird
Wendell Dorshield III – male gnome, Captain and Architect of the Yardbird
Malwyn – male High elf fighter and military expert
Darkfox – female human thief from Freegate, secret ID of socialite Karlyn Gryphshaw
Session Begins
[This session starts at the end of the previous session, sometime in late July.]
The characters successfully negotiated with the nereid Afrah and gained access to the deeper parts of the temple they are exploring. Afrah created a bridge of water for the adventurers to pass over the deep pool of water that was her home. While the rest of the adventurers were able to make their way across the water bridge, Wendel repeatedly fell off the water-bridge, much to Afrah’s amusement. [She took a liking to the Gnomes in general and planned to try and keep one or two of them when everyone leaves the temple.]
The negotiations for passage only included the adventurers, not any of the gnome runners nor gnome support staff traveling between the adventurers and the Yardbird. Those gnomes negotiated individual deals with Afrah, trading passage across her pool for upgrades to her home by the gnomes. The adventurers do not learn this until later.
In the deeper part of the temple ruins, Kyle discovered the trapped alcoves in the Grand Hallway the hard way by tripping one of them and getting trapped. Dangar used his strength to bend the bars so Kyle could escape. Tim discovered a secret door in the fresco of the temple on the walls and sent Kyle in to investigate.
The area beyond was a corridor with multiple mummies on display at the end of the corridor. Midpoint down the corridor was a giant statue of an eagle’s head with the beak partially open. Inside the open mouth, Kyle could see a large golden ring. Kyle broke an arm off one of the mummies to manipulate a ring and try and retrieve it. When he nudged the large ring, the stone beak snapped shut on the mummy arm, trapping it in place.
This caused enough noise that the rest of the party approached to see what was going on. Captain Geoffrey [head of the gnome security detail for Wendell], Wendell, and Nathan [bodyguard to Wendell] moved on to investigate the mummified bodies (and the rest of the corridor length) while the adventurers discussed how to safely retrieve the ring. Then the dead bodies animated. [Shocking no one really.]
The gnomes, down at the far end ran around a nearby corner, where Wendell used the Wand of Engineering to raise a 4-foot wall of earth. Unfortunately, Tim then fired his Arc Light spell [an extended area, explosive, RKA] into the middle of the zombies. Captain Geoffrey dove on Wendell and shielded him from much of the blast, but the area effect spread down multiple side hallways and filled the main corridor, damaging the zombies and the adventuring party.
Kyle chose this time to duck down a side hallway and explore on his own. He discovered what appeared to be a reflection of his light-stone off someone else’s gear and followed. He came upon and worked out how to bypass a triangular pillar with a pit in front of it. He continued to follow the reflection of light down a corridor when doors in front of and behind him dropped down out of the ceiling, enclosing Kyle in a now isolated section of corridor. Then two rows of 8 slots opened in the ceiling and sand started pouring rapidly through the holes, filling the area Kyle was now trapped in!
Kyle tried several ways to stop the sand or lift the immense [and very heavy] wooden doors. During these frenzied attempts to escape the sandpit he discovered the “reflection” he had been following was a will o’ wisp that now merrily floated over him as the sand continued to fill the area.
Using his sword, Kyle was able to hack a small breach in the foot thick wooden doors and use his contortionist abilities to squeeze through, but not without the wood raking his back. [He just failed his skill check but I allowed him to force himself through anyways, taking a good deal of damage in the process.] Finally outside the death trap, he lay on the verge of death, waiting and hoping the party would find him. [I believe he was down to 0 BODY.]
Back in the main corridor, the adventurers made short work of the weakened zombies and passed around the healing potions to heal up from Tim’s attack. Dangar’s family axe was heavily damaged during the fight when he overestimated an attack on a zombie and buried his axe in the stone wall, slicing the eagle head in half. A golden armband fell out and the party put it away for later examination.
The gnomes were then approached by two human-appearing monks from the room at the end of the hallway. The Arc Light had blown the doors of the room off their hinges and melted them slightly. This made the monks unhappy with the intruders, and they demanded a 100gp penance. The party decided that they had the money and did not want to fight the monks and agreed to pay.
While Nathan went back to the Yardbird to get the gold, the party talked with the monks. As the monks apparently only spoke High Mage Tongue and Gnomish, Malwyn moved back out of hearing range and sharpened his new sword. Dangar went looking for Kyle but did not check any of the side passages and so did not find him at this point.
The monks told the party about the Prophecy of Resurrection [listed below after the NPCS Met section of this blog post] and that their god, Camazotz, would summon the monks when the time was right. Wendell asked if the monks knew where an aetherstone anvil [one of the things they needed for the Orb Commission and had no idea where to find] could be found and provided a map for the monks to use. The monks pointed to two locations in the Great Nef where cities should have been and named those cities.
As the monks reviewed the map, they spoke to each other in another language, one that none of the party recognized. Tim traded stories about the Mansion of Illusions for the information the monks shared, which jogged his memory and he suddenly remembered that the rod Monteflurio took from the Mansion of Illusions appeared here in the murals in the Great Hallway.
When the gold arrived, the party received permission to pass through the room as long as they disturbed nothing in the room. The party then went in search of the missing Kyle. They found him near death, having clawed his way out of the sand trap. They healed him up and Wendell used his Wand of Engineering to clear much of the sand from the trap (moving it into the pit in front of the Triangle Pillar).
At the end of the hallway, past the sand trap, the party found a room with two other exits. In the room was waste, refuse, giant beetles, and the worst smell they had ever smelled. The giant beetles ignored the party until Dangar tried to pull things from their nest. Several beetles then spat an entangling mass on Dangar. The mass immobilized him and started to dissolve organic materials on his person, including his person!
Once again Tim threw his Arc Light spell and caught the party in the area of effect. He then changed back to his single target spell [his attack spell had Variable Advantage] while Captain Geoffrey peppered the beetles with bursts from his repeating crossbow and Darkfox and Malwyn skewered the beetles with armor piercing arrows from their bows.
After the beetle fight (and freeing Dangar from the beetle goo), the party decided to retire back to the Yardbird for the night. They finally learned how the rest of the Gnomes had been passing Afrah’s pool (by bartering improvements to the chamber).
Session Ends.
NPCs Met
Captain Geoffrey – Head of Yardbird Security
Nathan – gnome bodyguard
Oxomoco (Ōks-ō-mō-kō) – male monk met in the Temple of Camazotz
Cipactonal (Sē pak' tōn al) – female monk met in the Temple of Camazotz
Prophecy of Resurrections
This is the story of the Prophecy of Resurrections told by Oxomoco and Cipactonal when trading stories with the Outlanders:
"Hullab, a priestess of Usher, Guardian of Time, delivered the Prophecy of Resurrections. The Prophecy was delivered after the fall of the Annunaki, when the Sorcerer-Kings were reshaping their new lands to their desires. On the day of an eclipse of both the Sun and the Hidden Moon, Hullab was overcome by the Spirit of Usher and gave prophecy.
Hullab spoke of a time after the darkness when things ancient would return anew. This time would be in the future when the darkness returned from its hiding places. She spoke of the return of the White Eyes to the lands and people knew not of what she spoke except that a chill gripped their soul when she spoke of it. She spoke of the return of the Storms to the lands and people knew not of what she spoke except thunder came from the north when she spoke of it. She spoke of the return of the Comet of Fates and people knew not of what she spoke but turned to look at the empty sky. She spoke of the return of Dragons to the lands and people knew not of what she spoke for there were dragons already in the lands. She spoke of the return of Sorcerers to the lands and people knew not of what she spoke for they were Sorcerers and they laughed at her until the eclipse ended and no more of what she said was heard – except by the keen ears of Camazotz.
Hullab’s words were written down but became forgotten as the calendar wheels turned and none of what she prophesied appeared. By the time of the War against the Enemy, Hullab’s words were all but lost, but Camazotz remembered the words and respected the prophecy of an Elderlan God. As the Sorcerer-Kings dwindled in numbers, Camazotz gave us the Potion of Dreadful Sleep and bade us to wait here for his summons when the time of the Prophecy came to be. We have imbibed of the Potion three times so far in the past 12,000 or so years and still await Camazotz’s summons. When He summons us, we will return to the world above with Camazotz to do his bidding."
Happening Off-Stage
[Nothing in my notes, but the Empire was still fighting the various Hordes of goblins, orcs, and lizardfolk invading it. Also, the Crystal Brotherhood was establishing their own places of worship in the northern principalities. I’m sure that was entirely coincidental.]
DM Discussion
[My notes for this session suffer from me writing them 2 years after the actual adventure happened and 23 years ago from now, so they have some gaps and references I would have recognized/remembered then I am only partially catching now. For example, it took me a bit to work out if Nathan was a bodyguard or an assistant to Wendell.]
[Tim was quite the loose cannon, as was Dangar, and they were more or less the party leaders. I think after this Tim's player started paying a little closer attention to his area effect spells or at least started verifying he and the rest of the party would not be in the backblast.]
Flight of the Yardbird
Previous session: Session 2
Next Session: Session 4 [not edited yet]
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