War for Gateway Session Recap #1

[GM Mad]

War for Gateway Session Recap #001

April 10th, 569 CR:

In a vaguely familiar tale, a group of very different individuals make their way to the City of Crossroads to join up in the Cynalonian Armies spring campaign. The objective is to recapture the fallen City of Gateway that lies far to the east through Graystone Pass. Eight individuals, some from the areas around Cynalon, some from much further away sign up for a variety of reasons.

Once signed up, the individuals are directed to a side room where they meet Sergeant Traken, their unit's commander. These individuals are Anik, a half-elf fighter mage; Daubeny, human fighter and a former private in the Cynalonian Army; Erisciana, a human female from the distant Land of Fate who is a mage and a Priestess of Ishtar; Laurel, a human female Priestess of Felix and a thief; and Saladino, an older human fighter thief hailing from the Minrothrad Guilds. Rounding out the group was Kendell, a big strong fighter from down on the farm, Flare a semi-sober ranger with a hawk as a companion, and Wimzy, a halfling Priestess of Azrella.

The strangers take some time to get to know each other before retiring for the evening or leaving the hall to carry out personal tasks. The group is assigned the code name Wyvern Squad.

April 11th, 569 CR:

Next morning after breakfast, the group is shown to the stables where they are given riding horses to use. Except for Anik who already had his own riding horse. A good-sized portion of the army is departing Crossroads for Fort Graystone which sits at the entrance to Graystone Pass. The majority of the army is foot soldiers who are making the journey on foot. Fort Graystone is reached before nightfall.

Wyvern Squad is assigned barracks for the evening and given an assignment. Chimera Squad was dispatched two days ago to man the Eagle's Nest lookout. It sits up in the mountains on the northern side of the pass and is a day's ride away on horseback. From Eagle's Nest, much of Graystone Pass can be seen. If the pass is clear, a white flag is raised. This flag can be seen from Fort Graystone. A black flag indicates danger in the pass.

Saladino hears rumors of a 'Beast of Graystone Pass' and some blame it for the disappearance of Chimera Squad.

April 12th, 569 CR:

Wyvern Squad sets out on their journey the next morning. They are provided enough food and water for a week for their mounts and them. The mounts carry the majority of the sustenance. Graystone Pass is a hilly/forested area that splits the mountains at this point. It rises up as you ride to the east, towards Gateway. Near lunch time, a side trail leading off from the main road is reached. It is this side road that will lead to Eagle's Nest.

Not long after leaving the main road, the riders are ambushed! Goblins emerge from the trees and scrub along the west side of the road. They throw spears at Wyvern Squad but none hit anyone. The squad dismounts and prepares to engage the enemy. Erisciana casts a Sleep spell and most of the goblins fall asleep. Anik, Kendell and Saladino move to deal with the rest of the goblins. Laurel casts a Divine Strike Cantrip that takes the form of a pair of phantasmal cat's paws with huge claws that strikes one of the goblins. The goblin is so terrified of the apparition that it turns and runs away!

From the east side of the road, two worgs rush out of the underbrush. One latches on to Sergeant Traken's leg and starts to drag him off back into the woods on the west side of the road! The other worg locks its jaws on Daubeny's arm. Erisciana stuns the worg with a Daze Cantrip and it lets go of Daubeny. That worg is quickly killed. Two more worgs emerge from the underbrush and both of them are put down. More goblins appear on the west side of the road, but they do not pose much of a threat. Several are downed before the rest run off. Off in the distance the group can hear the cries of Sergeant Traken as he is dragged along by the worg.

Mounting up, Wyvern Squad follows after Sergeant Traken. A crude path through the forest is found and followed. It enters into a clearing where the group finds the bodies of what they guess to be several members of Chimera Squad. They were killed and put up on posts as a ghoulish warning. Chimera Squad were mostly human with a few demi-humans among them. Noise from Sergeant Traken gets the group moving again.

Wyvern Squad rides through the forest once more and again finds another, empty clearing. As they move through the clearing, the ground beneath them gives way and the front line riders plunge into a pit! They and their mounts arrive in an underground chamber not far below the service. The ceiling of the chamber gave away with one end breaking apart, while the other end stayed intact creating a crude ramp down into this area.

The group finds itself in a roughly 30' x 25' area. On the wall ahead of them are three ancient tapestries. Each depicts a woman with golden hair and blue eyes in a variety of scenes. In the first she rides a chariot pulled by some flaming beast with an army of soldiers behind her. The second has her outside during a thunderstorm holding a bolt of lightning in her right hand. The last has her walking through the forest as the four seasons occur around her. Several Light Cantrips are cast to help see in this underground chamber.

Before the tapestries is an ancient altar. Erisciana senses something vaguely familiar from the altar. It feels similar to the power of Ishtar, but it is not the Goddess herself. Strangely enough, the woman in the tapestries has similar facial features to Erisci as well.

Laurel examines the book on the altar and finds that it is thousands of years old. It sits open and those pages in that area have long since rotted. The contents of the book are not words, at least in the traditional sense. Rather they are a series of pictures. Laurel gently closes the book and stores it for safe keeping.

The goblins and worgs attack once more. The goblins remain above while worgs run down the ramp and into the underground chamber. The worgs are quickly slain and the goblins loose their nerve and run away.

A door is spotted to the left of the tapestries. Further along a portion of that same wall collapsed leading out into a hallway. The door is tried and found to be stuck. It's eventually forced and leads into an old closet. The opening leads out into a hallway. Some of the hallway has seen collapses before and these ones are much older. The earth here is tightly packed with moss growing on it.

Not far into the hallway there is an archway set into the wall, but the wall is solid at this point. There is an indentation above the archway where a four sided object coming to a point could fit into it.

The hallway leads off to the right and after a short distance, turns to the right. Fifteen feet along, it circles back to the left. At that corner, a second archway appears. Much like the first, there is an indentation at the top where a pointed four sided object could fit. The hallway doubles back on itself and at the same time the floor starts to slope away from the group. The slope is about a 20 degree angle and can be navigated if careful.

Up ahead the hallway turns to the right once more and more signs of older collapses can be seen. On the right is a larger hallway, with the left side now buried with earth. A third portal is found along the right hand side of the hallway which ends at closed double doors.

The double doors are forced open. The chamber beyond is at an even steeper slope, 45 degrees. On the right and left side of the room are three statues of the woman from the tapestries. They also resemble Erisci. On the left hand side of the room, the middle statue fell back against the wall and revealed a chamber behind it. A portion of the far wall was gone, having collapsed revealing a dark opening. A coin was tossed through the opening and it was heard landing in water some sixty feet below.

A rope was secured to one of the double doors and Saladino used it to repel down to take a look into the second chamber. There was another altar at the far end of the room. On the left side of room on pegs was some old armor and weapons. Swords mostly along with several bronze plate mail chest pieces. Much of the right hand wall had also collapsed into the same darkness as the first room. A lone chest was teetering between what was left of the wall and the hole. Saladino was able to reach the chest and drag it back up to the safer area.

The lock on the chest had long since rusted shut, but it was easily broken into. There were bags of gold, silver and copper coins in them but ones of a design no one here had ever seen before. The gold pieces had an Egyptian-like symbol of an eye on them. There was a hawk on the silver pieces and a beetle on the copper coins. There was also the remains of an unusual scepter in the chest. It had a steel handle that was wrapped in copper with a glass globe at the top. The glass globe had shattered a long time ago and mixed in with several broken vials in the bottom of the chest.

[GM Mad]

GM Notes:

That's where things were left at. Some of the group was down inside the ancient temple while others were outside guarding the horses. The bags have exactly 400 of each type of coin in them.

Here is the map for the part of the ancient temple you are now in:

wfg001.jpg (82.23 KiB) Viewed 1295 times

The dark brown is earth from the collapse. The one in the temple area ramps up to the outside. Where the floor is blue is where it is slanted. South of the double doors is the 45 degree slanted area. The red dots are the location of the archways. The room next to the slanted room with the statues should be blue as well, as the floor is dangerously pitched to the bottom of the map.

Some wanted to continue exploring down here, while others wanted to continue on to Eagle's Nest. Wimzy wants to find Traken's body so it can be properly laid to rest.

XP's have been posted in the game area. It is right here.

Now what?