War for Gateway Session Recap #4

[GM Mad]

War for Gateway Session Recap #4

April 13th, 569 CR:

In the aftermath of the enemy attempt to take Eagle's Nest, Daubeny, Saladino and Kendell clean up the area. The bodies of the dead are looted and then tossed over the cliff sides. Eagle's Nest is searched to discover how the half-orc and the hobgoblins got inside during the attack. The outside stable door is found to be open. Looking over the edge of the outside corral a rope is spotted along the cliff side. Pitons were driven into the rock with a rope attached to them. Someone levitated along the cliff side, drove the pitons into the rock and then fished the rope through them. The bashing noise the ogres made covered up this operation.

Laurel has breakthrough and is able to translate the cover of the ancient book she found in the sunken temple. The symbols are not words, but are rather sounds that make up words. The cover says: THE WARTOME OF MARDURA. It is guessed that this Mardura is the woman pictured in the tapestries and that she must be close enough to Ishtar for Erisciana to sense her divine power.

Some of the magic items are are given out. Daubeny gets the plate mail armor the enemy priest was using. The armor seems normal until he puts it on. The normal weight of the armor vanishes and Daubeny is able to move as easily as if he was not wearing armor. Kendell is given the longsword. Eris claims the quarterstaff. Anik and Erisci study the half-orc's spell book and learn some new spells.

Flare has M'Lady scout the area for any more trouble. Movement is noted on the main road that connects Gateway to Fort Graystone. An attack force is moving to the east towards the fort. A unit of archers are noted in the forest at the base of Eagle's Nest. The path down the hillside offers little protection from enemy arrows and it is decided to leave them alone for now. The enemy seems to be content to merely keep Wyvern Squad inside Eagle's Nest instead of trying to conquer it.

The rest of the group searches inside Eagle's Nest for any secret exits as they are seemingly stuck here for now. Using a Thought Capture spell, Laurel sees how the dwarves who built Eagle's Nest could get out. The method to open the secret way needs two people to pull out wall mounted torch holders at the same time. The holders are turned clockwise and then pulled out. This opens up a secret door in the middle area of the tower.

Inside the opening is an empty shaft that goes downwards and into darkness. A copper piece with a Light Cantrip on it is tossed down the shaft and it takes a very long time to fall. Some ancient rigging is noted overhead, suggesting that this shaft functioned something like a dumbwaiter long ago. But the ropes or chains that powered the lift had rotted long ago.

A small hook is noted along the right hand side of the opening inside the shaft. A second hook is found in the kitchen and when both are pulled another secret door opens next to the first. This one has stairs going down in it underneath the stairs going up the tower. The stairwell spirals down counter-clockwise and is filled with cobwebs and dust.

Leaving Flare, Kendell and Wimzy to keep watch in Eagle's Nest, the rest of Wyvern Squad goes down the stairs. Light Cantrips are needed to be refreshed regularly as the group goes down. Half an hour later an area where a partial collapse took place is reached. Rocks and rubble fill most of the stairwell, but not entirely. There is some room at the top of the debris pile for it to be moved aside. Once an opening large enough is made, the group crawls over and continues downward.

The stairs change dramatically on the other side of the blockage. The dust and cobwebs are gone. The stairs are actually clean!

Finally, nearly after another half an hour, the stairs come out into a cavern deep below Eagle's Nest. The shaft for the dumbwaiter is noted in this cavern as well. The copper piece that had Light cast on it sides on the dirt and rock ground. There is only one direction to go from this arrival point.

A short walk leads to a three way intersection. One tunnel continues on forward while the other goes back to the left. In the tunnel up ahead a figure is seen floating in the passageway with other smaller objects hovering around it. A rock is thrown in that direction and strikes something sold as the form of the floating figure distorts like waves in a pond. Erisci recalls encountering such a thing before in a dream. It was called a Jelly Blob. The group takes the other passageway.

After another short walk, the tunnel ends at passages going left and right. Water is noted to the left. The water is not deep initially but seems to get deeper as you move along. Wyvern Squad goes in the opposite direction. This new passage leads into yet another intersection but two beings are standing in it! Both are some kind of serpent men with snake-like heads and human bodies. They are carrying khopesh swords and shields bearing the symbol of Set. They rush to attack.

The battle is brief and the snake men go down. As they fall, they vanish in a puff of sulfur! These creatures were some sort of summoned demon! Saladino is disappointed as he really wanted a khopesh.

Once more the group has the choice to go left or right. A faint light and noise is noted from the area to the left. Saladino sneaks up that way along with Laurel. A short distance along a side tunnel opens up. A crude short wall of rocks was constructed recently across this open. On the other side the small barrier is a group of human cultists wearing little better than loin cloths and wielding scimitars. They speak a language that is similar to Zakarian, the native language of Erisciana's homeland. She can pick out words here and there. The cultists are on guard duty for the god that they serve, presumably Set, and are fanatical in their cause.

Saladino leaps the wall, catching the cultist guards unaware. The rest of Wyvern Squad follows. The Cultists easily fall after a short battle. One tried to run off, but was stopped. These guards have no treasure, just some food and water. It is theorized that the wall was built to keep the jelly blob from coming into this area.

The tunnel splits again just past the guards. The left hand fork goes into a small cave where a pool of freshwater sits. The guards used it to refill their water skins. The other tunnel twists and turns before straightening out as it leads into a larger chamber. More of these Cultists of Set are there

Wyvern Squad rushes this new group and they fall just as easily as the first. Warnings are shouted this time and more cultists rush in from the passageway on the right. In all 18 cultist are defeated by arms and spells. Inevitably, the noise draws what the group guesses to be the master of these cultist onto the scene. The god of these cultists is a horrible snake and man hybrid! He has no legs, but rather a serpent-like tale. His torso is human complete with normal arms. However he has the head of a serpent with just 1 large eye and two horns sticking out of his head!

“Know this, Heretics of Hextor!” the serpent man bellows. “Your incursion into the Valley of Fangs will not go unpunished! For the glory of my father, Set!”

A fierce battle follows with the Son of Set, but he eventually falls. Anen, the name of this Least Son of Set, is momentarily frozen by Erisci by a Daze Cantrip and Saladino stabs the man-monster in his large eye. After he falls from multiple hits a reddish energy emerges from Anen and starts to float off down the passageway from which he had come.

The group rushes after the floating energy and the tunnel opens up into a very large cavern. There is a small beach here with a large amount of water, like an underground lake. Sitting out in the water is an ancient style barge. The craft is 30' long and 10' at its widest. The bow and stern of the barge come to a point that curve upward and back towards the deck. A small tent roof covers the middle of the barge providing an area of shade.

Standing on the barge, a fair distance out in the water, is a what appears to be a beautiful human female dressed in Nithian (Egyptian) garb. She does resemble the figure that Wimzy spotted on top of Eagle's Nest when Wyvern Squad first arrived. The reddish energy flies towards the woman and is absorbed into her. Her form wavers, taking on serpent-like aspects randomly before returning to her normal human appearance.

She waves at the group and then turns away from them. She wields a large staff that looks like it is made of steel with copper wire wrapped around it. There is a large globe at the top and miniature arcs of electricity randomly flash inside the glass. Using the staff, what looks like fire erupts underneath the barge. Instead of burning the barge, the flames lift it up into the air a few feet. The barge surges forward and is quickly lost from sight.

[GM Mad]

GM Notes:

Lots to unpack from this session. The serpent woman is named Herit and like Anen, she is a “Least Daughter of Set”. Basically, they are the mortal offspring of the evil god Set. They are twisted into chaotic and bizarre combinations of human and snake-like beings with various divine powers. Herit can clearly absorb the semi-divine essence of her siblings causing her to 'level up'. Did Herit set Wyvern Squad up so that they could defeat Anen so that she could absorb his power?

The flames that lifted the barge up into the air and propelled it forward are similar to the tapestry where Mardura rode a chariot pulled by a flaming lion. Similar magical technology. The steel rods wrapped in copper with the glass globes at the top are some sort of control rod for this. The group found a broken one in the sunken temple. Yes, that was all foreshadowing!

We wrapped things up quickly, but there are some things I can add. Anen had magical bracers, a two-handed axe and a bag. The inside of the bag is bigger than the inside. There are pouches of more gold coins of the unusual design found in the Sunken Temple of Mardura. Coins dating back to the time of Nithia.

There is also a very unusual object in the bag. It's a five sided stone object about the size of a grapefruit. Four of the sides come to a point, much like a pyramid while the fifth side is the bottom. The bottom is the most interesting as five gem-like pieces of crystal are set into it. The settings are like the number 5 on a d6 dice. One in the middle and the other four in each corner. The crystal in the middle is larger than the other four and is black in color. The outside smaller gems are two red and two green gems. Yes, this object will detect as magical. In another pouch are a few other loose crystals including ones colored tan, rusty red and sandy yellow.

As noted above, Mardura and Ishtar are 'Celestial Cousins' meaning that their faiths come from an older, common Goddess of the ancient Nithians. Their powers are close enough to be recognized by their priests. It's similar to how Priests of Mystra and Isis could sense each others power. Likewise the language the cultists spoke had common origins with Zakarian.

Here are the update maps:

wfg004.jpg (96.97 KiB) Viewed 1469 times

Here is where the secret areas in Eagle's Nest are at.

[GM Mad]

Here's the map for the Caverns of Set. The tunnels that end in yellow continue on and were not explored as of yet.

wfg005.jpg (81.64 KiB) Viewed 1469 times

Number areas:

1 – Arrival area for the stairs and dumbwaiter.

2 – Water filled area. This is where the freshwater supply for Eagle's Nest comes from.

3 – Area where the jelly blob was spotted.

5 – The Minions of Set were fought here.

6 – A small wall was built here to keep the jelly blob out. Cultists of Set were on guard here.

8 – The rest of the cultists and then Anen were battled here.

10 – Beach area for the underground lake. Herit's barge was out here and she escaped on it.

Current Hit Points.
Once again, levels were gained. These are the numbers after the level gains:

Anik: 19 of 20
Daubeny: 23 of 34
Flare: 22 of 25
Kendell: 36 of 41
Saladino: 21 of 31
Wimzy: 16 of 21

Game time its the middle of the afternoon.

Now what?