5 Arodus, Tuesday
Much discussion ensued about what items to get, and in what order. We have two sources of discounted magic: Sabin, who can do weapons and armor and does it for cost, and Rallo, who will do wondrous items for 10% over cost. The prevailing policy was we didn’t want to take “too much time” and we also wanted to give everyone fair access. That resulted in the following ordered shopping list.
Rallo
Headband of CH +2 => +6 (Trask) 16d, $17.6K Belt of ST +4 => +6 (Sabin) 10d, $5.5K Goggles of night (Kane) 6d, $6.6K Winged boots (Takkad) 8d, $8.8K Cloak of resistance +1 => +3 (Rigel) 4d, $4.4K Belt of CO +2 => +4 (Sedgewick) 6d, $6.6K Winged boots (Avia) 8d, $8.8K
Total: 58d
Here was Sabin’s work list:
Sabin
Sabin's armor 7d, - Kane's buckler +1 => +2 1.5d, $1.5K Kane's mithril shirt +2 => +3 2.5d, $2.5K Avia's sword +1 => +2 11d, $11K Nolin's sword +2 => +3 9d, $9K Rigel's bow (add seeking) 7d, $7K Avia's buckler +3 => +4 3.5d, $3.5K Sabin's axe +2 => +3 9d, $9K
Total: 56d
I myself also went and found magic users who could move my +2 ring of protection to +3 ($10K), my belt of CO from +2 to +4 ($12K), and my cloak of resistance from +3 to +5 ($16K). When you include the work I asked Rallo to do, I spent a total of $55.6K on upgrades.
Rallo grumbled a bit about this being a bit much, but we took him out for dinner a couple of times and reminded him we’ve given him first crack at most of the stuff we’ve found. Over the almost two months he did commissioned work for us, he did earn $5.8K (plus, of course, whatever else he may have sold at his shop during that time.) He smiled, but I think we may need to bring our projects to him in a less concentrated group next time.
A few others in the party also had some work done, or picked up some pieces, on the open market. Overall, there wasn’t a single person who didn’t make themselves a little harder to kill, or a little better at killing, and you gotta be proud of that!
12 Arodus, Wednesday
Well it looks like we’re going to have a couple of months to study, train, and/or just rest or hang out. I offered to take Takkad to Golduria so we could see if everything was okay with the innkeeper. And it turns out that there was a perfectly logical explanation. When Takkad sent his message, as luck would have it, the innkeeper said he happened to be, uh, indisposed, and was unable to reply. Takkad and I looked at each other, and I asked the innkeeper, “how was she?” He smiled a moment, and then looked aghast and stammered, “Uh, what do you mean?”
Takkad and I took a walk around town to assure ourselves that in fact nothing seemed amiss. Takkad told me he’d been to the Pathfinder Society the day before, looking for information about Xin Shalast, but although the place was legendary – or maybe because it was legendary – there was nothing recorded that was usable. He mentioned Sedgewick was going to research it among the books we’d found, and that he himself would like to go talk to Quink in Sandpoint. I was curious so I offered to be the means for that.
Upon returning, we discovered that Sedgewick had indeed found some information, but sadly, very little of it was new to us (or rather, I should say to Takkad. The man has a mind like a sponge!)
Sedgewick told us:
Xin Shalast was at the base of Mhar Massif, which lies at the headwaters of the sacred level Alph. (At this, Kane perked up.) Sedgewick continued that the river Alph supposedly led to the earthly paradise sacred to Desna. (Kane corrected him and said it was *not* “supposedly”. Just because it hadn’t been found yet didn’t mean that it didn’t exist.)
Karzoug called down unknown creatures from the sky, and had innumerable minions, and created gateways to other worlds. Karzoug’s favored school of magic was transmutation, but in excelling there he neglected illusion and enchantment. He built immense statues to guard his realm; Alaznist built Helltowers to defend hers from him. Independently, the Runelords were said to have created a means to place themselves in states of suspended animation, leaving minions behind that would awaken them when the world was in a state to receive them. It is not clear if all the Runelords were successful in this plan.
15 Arodus, Starday
Today, Takkad and I went to see Quink in Sandpoint and see if he knew anything about Xin Shalast. At first he rambled a bit about Karzoug, and the legend, and then suddenly his eyes got big. “I have something right here, that might be useful!” He shuffled through some papers, then scowled and looked to his left. He scratched his chin and quickly moved to another stack of papers on the other side of the room and his scowl deepened. “Right here, I had it – wait, oh, right now, that would be in the cabinet.” Takkad and I looked at each other as Quink moved to a bureau/desk/armoire – it sadly appeared it might fulfill all those functions – and opened a drawer. “aHA!” he exclaimed.
“I imagine you’ve read the books of Cevil Charms, yes?” his eyebrows questioned? “Of course, Takkad, a well-read man such as yourself probably owns a personal copy of Eidolon.”
Takkad gave a small, smiling nod. “Entirely possible; my library is extensive and I recently expanded it. It’s hard to keep track of them all.”
“Well, I too am an admirer of the man,” Quink continued, “and at one time had a significant correspondence with him. Redwing – that’s his nickname, you know – of course you probably already know that. The point is, he sent me a letter, a personally handwritten letter, in which he recounted a tale he’d heard about Xin Shalast. And I just located it. I normally have things a bit more organized, but your visit caught me – ”
“I completely understand,” said Takkad diplomatically. “And I apologize for not setting up an appointment instead of just dropping in.”
“No no, not at all,” said Quink. “You and I have a common interest, a common base. Even after all these years, all these centuries, Thassilonia is what brings us to the same table!”
“Ahem, yes,” said Takkad. “But you mentioned a correspondence?”
“Yes, yes,” said Quink excitedly. “Here. You can look, and you can copy, but you understand, of course, he personally signed it! So it mustn’t leave..”
“Yes, of course,” said Takkad, absently, looking it over. I saw his eyes get big, and he handed it to me. It said
Salutations Mr. Quink!
Thank you again for the kind words and drink. It’s always a pleasure to speak with readers of my work, especially those well-read and civilized enough to know of my writing beyond Eidolon. Alas, I was unable to procure a copy of the early draft from my personal files. It would seem that it has gone the way of so much of my early work, lost forever to the gulfs of time and narrow-minded publishers unable to grasp the import of a young Pathfinder’s work.
Fortunately, my mind is as quick now as it was in those early days of my explorations of your fantastic homeland. I recall the evening I first heard the story of Xin-Shalast, while seated on a log in a Varisian camp, sharing ruby mead with an enchanting young woman. Ah, but that’s a story for other times.
mI was intrigued y the tale, though. All peoples have tales of “cities of gold,” yet with Xin-shalast, the Varisians had no tradition of explorers seeking it. They viewed the place as one of evil, a place to be feared and forsaken. As far as I could tell, none of your indigenous people ever sought out the ruins before the advent of Chelish rule. But there was mention, come to think of it, of two dwarven brothers. Vekker, I think their names were. Claimed to have found the route to Xin-Shalast and convinced several tradesmen in Janderhoff to support and supply their plan to establish a base of operations in the low Kodar Mountains along the Kazaron. Their vanishing into the Kodars bankrupted all but one of their investors, I hear, and even today, the Vekker name is generally accompanied by a litany of rousing dwarven profanity when i tcomes up in ‘Hoffian taverns.
In the stead of enclosing a copy of the early, complete draft of my work, though, please find a signed copy of Eidolon with this missive. I trust it will look quite handsome on your shelf.
In good health,
Redwing
“As you can see,” said Quink excitedly, “we had met for dinner, and discussed some of his drafts. At the time he’d thought he might still have them, but alas, they seem to be lost. But he did mention this story of a dwarven expedition.”
We looked at each other. “Thank you, Quink,” said Takkad. “I agree, this may be valuable information.” Ever the diplomat, Takkad spoke with him another ten minutes before we took leave of him. Returning to the library, we waited until the others were with us and gave this news to them. Nolin’s only reaction was, “I knew I needed a bigger weapon.”
Much of the party is now impatient for their magic work to be done.
5 Rova, Oathday
It has been several weeks since we travelled to Sandpoint, and it seemed as good a time as any to visit my parents. A couple of the group said they’d like to accompany me to Korvosa, which shouldn’t be a problem so long as we don’t surprise my parents. So I have sent word via rather ordinary means (a letter) that I’ll be arriving today with three of my friends. That should give Mother time to clean up the guest rooms so they are up to her standards.
I have retrieved my enhanced headband from Rallo, and also my enhanced cloak of resistance. My belt of constitution and my ring of protection are still being worked on, but I don’t anticipate needing any extra health or any extra protection, unless it’s to prevent my mother from hovering around me or my father from requiring more details of my recent adventures.
Oddly, although I started writing this journal so that my father could one day read of my adventures, I feel now like I don’t want him to read everything I’ve written. I think this journal will remain primarily for me, and I’ll convey summaries to my father in other ways with less editorializing.
So Takkad, Nolin, Avia, and myself arrayed ourselves at noon, and we teleported to a place I know outside Korvosa, so that we could walk in like ordinary people rather than pop in like apparitions and frighten everyone within fifty feet. And all three of my companions agreed with my reasoning.
Although this route took us an extra half hour to walk to my parents place in the city, it also meant they got to get a better taste of the city itself. I realize I am not objective, but I think Korvosa is probably one of the most beautiful and calming places in Varisia. And now when I say that, I can say that having seen a lot more of Varisia.
Prepared for our arrival, we were greeted warmly at the door by both my parents. My hopes for an uneventful visit were dashed almost immediately by my father when he undiplomatically asked, “What, did you already lose that young lady friend of yours? I had come to like her – Rachel was it?”
“Rigel, Father. Her name is Rigel, and she’s fine but she didn’t come along this time.”
“But it wasn’t that long ago you were here! Did you already have a falling out? She seemed so quiet; perhaps if your mother and her had a talk …”
Out of the corner of my eye I saw Nolin obviously hiding a smirk, Takkad studiously inspecting a rather ordinary earthen vase, and Avia smiling broadly. “Father, there’s nothing to .. fall out. We’re just friends.”
“Don’t believe that,” my father said in a stage whisper. “They say that but she either doesn’t really care at all or she’s plotting something. You should -”
“Father, truly, she is simply taking some time off and resting.”
“What does she do?”
My companion’s eyes all turned innocently to me and invited me to respond so that they might bathe in my discomfort.
“She is .. an economic redistribution researcher.” With the distraction that the momentary gape of my father provided, I turned quickly to my mother. “Are we using the rooms upstairs? I’ll go show my friends their rooms, then.” She nodded, still looking a little confused.
Nothing is ever easy with my parents.
6 Rova, Fireday
Dinner was uneventful and actually quite pleasant. If it’s one thing I’ve missed in the last year and a half, it’s been my mother’s cooking. From what I hear, they have a part-time staff to do some of the cooking now, but Mother always likes to pick up the frypan herself when there are guests involved. (Another good reason to bring my friends home!) We had discussed before we left that we intended to leave Sunday morning, so maybe I can get another of these home-cooked meals tomorrow.
However, we (the four of us) will go out for dinner ourselves tonight, so as not to impose too greatly on our hosts. We invited them along, but they declined. So we will all meet at the Leaky Roof for dinner around sunset. (Really, it’s a nice place – it just has an odd name.)
Breakfast was late today, as we slept in a bit. Avia wants to check out the markets, and Takkad also has some errands he wanted to run. Nolin said that while he may spend a little time inspecting the city, he’d be just as happy to spend the day relaxing on the patio. I myself want to go meet again with Councillor Rasok, and Father agreed to accompany me.
Ah, Councillor. It seems I have been underinformed on the machinations of the Korvosan government. I’ll admit, outside of knowing that the king ran the army and has a marvelous palace, I hadn’t really paid much attention to how the city was run. But in talking more with Father on this visit, I came to learn that although Father calls him Councillor, or more precisely, “counselor” (and he does indeed participate in an informal council) his actual title is Arbiter. He is one of the judges for the town (and the region), and the “council” he speaks of is the collective group of Arbiters. While they hold no legislative power, they do represent (aside from royal decrees or proclamations) the judicial arm of the government and it is said that they hold some unofficial sway over the monarchy itself.
In any case, I wanted to know if his peers – if the city – wanted to be involved in this effort against Karzoug. After my last meeting with him I was encouraged both by his knowledge of ancient Thassilonia, and that fact that it sounded like the council might be interested as well.
But the meeting was disappointing to me. While he and Father did chat about their days together again, his conversation with me was less on point and more vacuous, at least to me. When I raised the topic, he looked at me and said, “Honestly, I’Âm still trying to wrap my head around the concept that we’re even seriously talking about this. For most of my life such tales were the sorts of things we heard as children, but it was just a fantasy story about a long-dead kingdom. I’m no scholar but I’ve done my share of reading, and I’m afraid no one I’ve spoken to has any idea where Xin-Shalast was, other than ‘it was said to be in the high mountain peaks long ago’.”
He continued, “But should you find such a place, the stories I’Âve heard of the streets paved of gold … you must bring me word of how to get there if you succeed. I’m sure it would be in the best interests of the scholars of Korvosa to study such a priceless artifact.” And then my heart sank when he added, “But be sure to contact only me, none other, for you must know that there are many unscrupulous men who would take advantage of you to turn this to their gain. So work in secret and bring me news.”
Sigh. While I don’t believe him to be unscrupulous, he is at best, mocking my – our – efforts. On the one hand, he seems to ridicule our efforts but then wishes to be the sole one to hear the news if we do find the fabled city. I wonder if this won’t be a common problem. If we do find the city, it will undoubtedly be both a lucrative and historically significant find. How will we maintain the historical integrity of such a find without creating a garrison there? I fear that we too will need to keep the location secret, and thus only extend its legend. To do otherwise will doom it to looting and desecration.
Father had additional errands to run, so I returned home alone. I was surprised, as I entered, to hear two voices from the kitchen. Nolin and my mother were talking.
“Sure, but why?” asked Nolin.
“He was adventurous. He was … outgoing. He was something of a bad boy.” responded my mother. I moved a little closer, and now could see my mother, although not Nolin. She was smiling.
“You seem different from him though,” said Nolin. “I mean, he’s a sorceror like Trask, right?”
“Yes.”
“But you …?”
My mother smiled again. “Not a magical bone in my body. I handle the mundane stuff. I can sew, I can cook, I can get tough stains out of a cotton tunic. And Elros knows a mend spell, can conjure food and drink, and can use prestidigitation to remove stains.”
“How did you meet?” asked Nolin.
“I was working at my father’s market. I’d seen him there before, and he looked utterly lost every time. He bought things that made no sense, like two pounds of fresh fruit and a pound of salt. Once he bought more than he could possibly carry, and he paid my father to have me haul them to the place they were staying. Because it was a fair distance off, he offered to also buy me dinner. I wasn’t catching on, but I’m pretty sure my father knew.” She smiled. “He wasn’t really interested in produce. Or groceries. The man can plan when he puts his mind to it.”
Nolin laughed. I don’t think I’d ever heard him laugh before. “So he’s the brains and you’re the brawn?”
“Not at all. I also do the books. I keep the inventory lists. I put food in the house. We’d have no food here at all if we left it to him. You’d think a man who can command powerful magical energies could follow a recipe – but I swear the man would starve if he had to cook for himself. And his magic shop would be about two months behind in its bills and billing if it were up to him.” She paused. “He’s impulsive. He follows his gut. Sometimes that’s utterly remarkable and sometimes, it’s … problematic.
“No, he’s very charismatic, and I wouldn’t change anything,” she continued, “but we complement each other. I could not enjoy the life I’ve become accustomed to without his skills, and he wouldn’t be able to earn a living with them without mine. He is the face of the store, and the face of the family, and the head of the household, and he fills those roles admirably. I am the chief of staff, the filter for his visitors, and the agent for his problem solving. Not every issue can be resolved with flame, and those that cannot, fall to me. I am confident that if anything threatened this family he would give his life to defend it. And if anything threatened him, I’d do the same. Even if I don’t have a fireball at my disposal, I do have other weapons.”
“From what you say, I see a lot of him in Trask,” said Nolin solemnly.
I moved away. I found the whole conversation a little disconcerting. I’m pretty sure I can cook.
And neither Father nor Mother had ever told ME how they’d met.
But then, I’m not sure I ever asked, either.
8 Rova, Sunday
Avia, Takkad, Nolin and I had a very impressive brunch prepared by Mother before taking leave shortly before noon. I’d learned what I’d come to learn, and apparently Takkad, Avia, and Nolin had also fulfilled whatever their goals were. Nolin kept looking at me and breaking into a grin, and I began to appreciate never having heard him laugh before a lot more.
1 Lamasha, Tuesday
Things are finally coming to a head. Most people have their enhanced magic items back by now, although Avia’s still waiting on her winged boots. Nevertheless, we are beginning our provisioning. Top on the list is: what, if anything, do we want to get with our group funds? It was agreed that in general, we’d like to get things to get us out of very dire straits. We already have a scroll of stone to flesh, but several times now people have either almost died or been severely handicapped by demon attacks that required multiple lesser restorations. While our priests now have the ability to raise dead and do greater restorations, they are not inconsequential spells and require substantial amounts of diamonds or diamond dust as material components.
So two major purchases were: two diamonds worth 5000 gp each, and 6000 gp worth of diamond dust. A resurrection requires a diamond worth 10,000 gp, but Takkad’s elders assured him that two 5000 gp diamonds would also work, and that provides some flexibility in case we want to use one for “simply” raise dead.
We’ve decided to see if it is possible to contact Mr Redwing himself to see what else he might remember. Takkad said he’d check with the Pathfinder society in Magnimar before we leave.
3 Lamasha, Oathday
Takkad talked to the Pathfinder Society in Magnimar. Mr Redwing, it seems, is on the road quite a bit. Pathfinder, and all that. Right now he’s believed to be in or heading for the Cheliax region. So all we need to do is find a single person whom we’ve never met, who is 800-1000 miles away in a region we’ve never visited.
Or, translated, “we don’t get to meet Mr Redwing.”
4 Lamasha, Fireday
Some serious planning before we leave. We decided to go to Janderhoff and pick up the trail of the Vekkers. Chances are good that we’ll simply follow the river up into the mountains. It will be cold, bitterly cold. If the wind is too great, we will reach a point where we won’t be able to windwalk, so we also purchased a folding boat for 7200gp using group funds.
We can easily teleport to Korvosa, and then windwalk from there to Janderhoff. We can talk to people and decide what to do after that. Everybody has their magic items back, newly enhanced. Rallo has been paid, and is probably happy to again take on freelance projects that pay more than 10% over cost 🙂
4 Lamasha, Fireday
We didn’t really learn all that much in Janderhoff. We went first to the Pathfinder Society and Takkad flashed his badge or membership card or whatever. But the representative there was kind of dour and uninteresting. He finally retrieved an older member who could speak from (I think) memory rather than legend. Or at least he looked like he could. But even he didn’t have much to add to the story.
Yes, it was the Vekkers, Silas and (I forget.)
They got a large backing, but there wasn’t just one. They came back several times, looking for additional backing. Apparently they were mining up in the Kodars and claim to have found a path to, or an entrance to, or a way to access the famed city of gold, Xin Shalast. They brought back enough gold each time to suggest that perhaps they were telling the truth. The mining team consisted of about two dozen dwarves at its max, but not a one of them was ever heard from after the Vekkers disappeared. Story is that they took the investor’s money, presumably paid off or killed their crew, and took off with it.
Kane asked if there were any investors’ families still in town. Our host harrumphed and replied, “not likely”.
What’s up in the mountains? It’s a dangerous area. Weather’s extremely challenging, but the weather’s the least of it. The air itself thins out and you have difficulty breathing. The wind alone threatens to push you off every precarious ledge. There are furry creatures that roar so loud you hear nothing else. And so on.
We’ve decided to stay overnight here, study up on endure elements and windwalks, and wisp ourselves up the river until the winds force us to abandon that mode of travel. If we haven’t found anything interesting yet, then I guess we unfold the boat and head upstream further.
5 Lamasha, Starday
According to our maps, Ulgin is the only notable city between here and our goal, and while it is not directly on the path, the ground below is so barren and featureless that we will head there solely to have the landmark. It’s a town of about 5800, but our research suggests it is a place that tends towards isolationism and strangers that come to town often don’t leave. Frankly, it sounds like a place steeped in evil.
So we reached it in just a few hours, happily flew over it, took about a 30 degree turn to the northeast and continued on. After another hour, hour and a half, we reached the foothills of the Kodars.
The Kodars are some impressive peaks, with many, I’d estimate, in excess of 20,000 feet high and some in excess of 30,000. We flew over the Kazaron River since the info we had was that the Vekkers’ operation was on the Kazaron. I’m not sure what we were looking for .. just something out of the ordinary.
The Kazaron met another river, and at the junction of those two rivers, as luck would have it, there appeared to be a structure. We are probably at about 10,000 feet, so a structure qualifies as “out of the ordinary”. The structure looked like a cabin built up on a cliff, but some long, enclosed wooden appendage led down to a smaller structure some 50 or 60 feet below. We all landed up top and materialized outside the cabin.
We were immediately struck by the fact that, yes, it was cold, and yes, the wind was blowing quite briskly. While we were in no danger of freezing to death, it was equally true that it would be a rough camp if we stayed here. A discussion ensued, and we thought that now that we’d landed here and were familiar with it, we could retreat back to the foothills to create a base camp, and return here by teleport rather than windwalk if we wished. We could return to gaseous form, scout the area around the cabin, and then go back to a more safe area to discuss strategy. If the entrance to Xin Shalast was around her, there would undoubtedly be some powerful creatures guarding it or pouring out of it, so we should consider carefully what we want to do. Plus, the cold would be a significant hinderance were we to get injured or stuck here.
The brief stop and discussion allowed me the luxury of quickly (if painfully, because the cold really does seem to hit the fingers first) updating my journal before we head back to set up camp.
5 Lamasha, Starday
And somehow – I honestly do not know how – we went from that discussion about scouting and then setting up camp, to “hey, let’s go in”. Standing on the porch outside, Kane and Sedgewick found the door unlocked, entered, and made their way cautiously to what appeared to be the kitchen. I don’t really know what else they may have done before getting there, because that’s when it got interesting. We pieced together later most of what happened.
Kane and Sedgewick passed through the entryway, entered the hallway, and followed it to the kitchen. It was apparent the entire place was disheveled and cluttered, as though either there’d been a battle or someone had ransacked the place before us. In the kitchen, in addition to the apparently requisite destruction and clutter, they found on the wall a picture of two slightly drunken dwarves standing in front of an elk — apparently some sort of hunting picture.
And about that time, Kane found himself ravenous. So he conjured up some food and drink – a big ole pile of it on the floor in front of him. He and Sedgewick both dived into it, but quickly discovered it was unsatisfying. Then they eyed each other, and realized what would really go down good.
Meanwhile, Takkad sensed, because of his status spell, that they had been put under some compulsion or spell. Avia was the first to get to the room, and found that Kane had already drawn blood on Sedgewick, but Sedgewick had managed to make a mark on Kane as well.
It seemed to me from the noise that the other door at the front of the cabin might lead directly to the kitchen, so I went and opened it. Sure enough, there was Kane and Sedgewick before me, with Avia coming up from behind Kane. I was about to go in and try a dispel magic when Nolin yelled at me not to go in. That caused me to pause a moment, and I saw Kane struggle against Avia as she bent over and grabbed him. With her arms wrapped around him, he found it easy to bite her hand, which drew blood. The strange thing was that rather than struggle to be free, he seemed content to gnaw on Avia’s hand.
Sort of a paladin pacifier.
Takkad took advantage of Kane’s distraction to tie him up, but it wasn’t easy. He struggled every inch of the way. Meanwhile, Sabin had cast a resilient sphere on Sedgewick, which simultaneously protected him from harm and stopped him from harming anybody else.
With them restrained from hurting anyone (else; Avia had her hand in Kane’s mouth until he was totally tied up!) Takkad cast Heal on Kane … and he looked muchly apologetic. Sabin dismissed the resilient sphere and Avia was freed to cast remove curse on Sedgewick as she healed him … and he too looked a little less wild-eyed.
Kane said he thought he sensed something – no, not a thing. Some force in the room, and did a positive channel into the room. He immediately reported that it definitely changed … something … in the room. That is to say, he didn’t sense anything in the room anymore. “There was a weight in the room,” he said, “and that weight is now gone.”
I’m guessing this is a priest thing, because I didn’t sense anything before, and I didn’t sense anything after either. I think I have reasonable control over some significant magical energies, but I didn’t feel … well, whatever. If he says it’s gone, then I suppose it’s gone.
For their part, Sedgewick and Kane said they entered the room and felt hungry. Kane immediately conjured food and drink but one bite of that and he was sure that wasn’t what he hungered for. That’s when Kane and Sedgewick decided to, well, eat each other.
But not anymore, they assured us.
Anyway we now understood that the disheveled state of the cabin might not be due to a battle .. or at least not due to an invasion. If even one dwarf was so affected, it could easily have become a bloodbath inflicted upon the rest of the unsuspecting crew. And if more than one was affected … I looked around. Yes, that could certainly explain things.
The painting in the kitchen was indeed of two apparently sodden dwarves, standing by an apparently slain elk. I suppose these might have been the Vekkers.
With our entire party in the cabin, the cabin seemed much smaller. The kitchen held our would-be cannibals and the rest of our party, just barely. To the south, the hallway led to what turned out to be a bedroom, and another western door. To the west of the kitchen, another door led to what appeared to be a larder … and a grim discovery.
In the larder, there was a bare floor, hooks hanging from the rafters, and a window with bars on it. That might not be too unexpected for a larder, but there was also a pile of bones. Smallish, but thick. Rather dwarvenish. It would appear we’d found at least part of the missing mining party.
The bedroom to the south held two beds, a chest, an iron coal bin, a crossbow, some shields, a coat, and a hooded lantern. We decided to inspect the whole building before doing much with the stuff in the room, since folks were understandably nervous now that the place seemed to be haunted, or cursed, or something. We quickly moved back into the hallway to a door which we assumed led to a closet.
The door was not locked. Inside there was sturdy shelving and .. by golly it was a closet, right where you’d expect one.
This left just the southwest corner of the house, which we presumed was accessible by the door to the west in the southern hallway. It was unlocked.
Entering the room we found it was a 10’x25′ room next to what appeared to be a shaft. Given what we’d seen on the outside, this was entirely what we expected. But what I didn’t expect was the reaction from Takkad.
Takkad, who always seems to take detailed notes of every building we examined, looked up from his drawings. He went back out to the hallway, looked up and down, mumbled to himself and carefully paced off from the kitchen, down the hallway, to the outside wall of the bedroom. “There’s more,” he said. He again looked up and down the hallway. “Judging from the size of the cabin and the size of these rooms, there’s more either behind the closet or behind one of the walls in the larder or the shaft room.”
We returned to the closet and searched around the heavy shelving, but we could find no signs of an entrance or panel. Returning to the larder (which we noticed now had a really unpleasant odor, and probably always had) we began to search its southern wall. Again we found nothing.
But when we searched the shaft room, we at last found a secret door. It was, unfortunately, locked. Rigel happened to be out of the room at the moment, so Nolin, with a broad smile on his face, announced he would use his “sword of opening” to unlock the door. It took two, maybe three applications of the great adamantine sword of opening before the door bowed to its magical power in an explosion of splinters.
The newly opened door revealed a small room, about 5’x10′. The room may have been small, but it contained some big surprises. First, the doors themselves and the walls around the room seemed to be of double thickness. There was a desk, upon which appeared to be a leather ledger and a pen. There were 7 large, heavy burlap bags, and a small coffer. 5 of the bags contained gold dust … Rigel estimated there was about 1000 gp worth in each. Two of them contained small gold nuggets: those bags are probably worth about 1500 gp each. The coffer was neither trapped nor locked, but it contained 28 uncut gems, each worth about 50gp each.
Our attention turned next to the ledger. While it bore the expected entries for the work being done here and the expenses being incurred, there were also notes about the various mines and locations that had been worked and in most cases, petered out. Notably, some details on the last mine were clearly missing; although we could probably discover the location from the remaining notes, the ledger nonetheless bore evidence of pages having been ripped out.
A quick discussion ensued. Kane mentioned that while we were opening the secret door, he’d been playing with a peg in the nearby bedroom and found that what appeared to be a simple place to hang one’s coat, moved and clicked when you pushed it. Others mentioned that they definitely wanted to go down the stairs – or rather, down the shaft. Nobody trusted the stairs once they heard about Kane’s clicker. Sabin wanted to find the trap, though (convinced it must be a trap).
So Sabin returned to gaseous form (gotta love how long windwalk lasts) and tried to find what the clicking sound did. He couldn’t spot anything. Kane heaved a sigh and said, “YOU work the peg” and went to look for himself. And by golly he really did find a section of stair which appeared to be trapped – under one state it wouldn’t support any weight at all.
Now that everyone was thoroughly suspicious – cannibal curses, traps to drop you dozens of feet, and did I mention that nothing seemed to grow within about five feet of the cabin? – nobody wanted to walk down the stairs, although we were all convinced something really cool must be down there. So we all returned to gaseous form and drifted on down to the base.
At the base of the shaft, there was a 20×20 room with a door to the north and a door to the south. We chose the south first. The door was not locked, but when we entered I was immediately struck by the odor – it smelled, I don’t know, not rotten but I guess chemical. There was a pile of what looked like metal shavings here. I had just cast detect magic (nothing) when a strange feeling ran thru me and some others in the room with me.
I turned around and standing near the pile was a dwarf – might have been one from the picture, I don’t know – and he looked a little .. intense. He had a beard full of gold flakes and specks of black, and his eyes were bright as he said, “You gotta try some of this! It’s awesome!” and he gestured at the pile. I again felt a chill run through me, and said, “I don’t think so.” Takkad saw him too, and also felt something. Remembering upstairs, he immediately channeled positive energy into the room, and with a disappointed look the dwarf faded away.
A couple of us have detect poison, so we now cast it on the pile. The pile of metal shavings contained arsenic, and suddenly we understood what was going on here. While the apparition may have been magical, this pile of metal discard was an ordinary byproduct of mining and processing the ore. It’s probably also why nothing grows around the cabin — the ground here is probably poisoned as well.
To the west and up a slight ramp was an unlocked door. Entering that modest (10×15) room we found rather shabby conditions, but at least there was a plank floor. To the southeast a curtain hung from the ceiling to provide a little privacy for the 5×10 room behind it. That room held a cot, some boots … and, Sabin, announced, some magic.
We quickly began to search the room and something fell out of one of the boots. It was a [1222] +1 punching dagger, that appeared at one time it may have had some sort of a coating on the tip. Nolin says it was probably poisoned at one time, but it had never been used and the poison was probably harmless now. Probably.
We returned to the base of the shaft and tried to open the northern door. It led to a room with pans and picks – mining equipment – with another door to the north. That one was locked, but it was easily unlocked. This time it led outside, where a cold wind greeted us and a crude path curled and led around to the south side of the building. Kane followed that while the rest of us decided if maybe we’d seen enough for now and should return to create that base camp we’d talked about.
But that was decided for us when we heard a startled cry from behind the building. In a flash, we cleared the side of the building and was able to see exactly why the group should ever split up.
In the back here there was a large pile of (probably poisonous again) filings or fragments, but there was also a huge pile of sticks or branches. Or so one might think, had it not stood up to thirty feet high and borne glowing red eyes that were focused on Kane. As we watched, it took a might swipe at Kane – I swear it had a reach of 15 feet if it reached an inch) and Kane staggered, bleeding significantly. Perhaps even more significantly, it looked like some fungus had come off the tree and stuck on Kane. He staggered and stumbled.
Sabin gathered “the usual suspects” around him quickly and dimension-doored the welcome wagon to a spot close to the tree. But the reach on this thing, and the suddenness of our encounter left some of them out of optimal position.
Takkad, who had been out of position to join “the usual suspects” this time, looked heavenward and invoked a spell I’d never seen him use before. Later he told me it was “destruction” and he’d just learned it, and boy, did it do a number on that tree. It must have shed half its branches and it looked like it had been through a tornado. But the eyes still blazed red, so Kane gamely attacked it, and removed a surprising number of branches with his attack.
Still capable of significant damage, the tree attacked both Kane and Avia with some powerful blows. More of the fungus attached itself to both Kane and Avia, and both stumbled as it seemed to affect their balance.
As I mentioned, the dimension door was not perfect, and because of the reach of the tree Avia found herself subject to attack while being unable to attack herself. She gritted her teeth and absorbed another attack and another round of fungus to move right next to the tree. Her attack was successful, and the tree looked more like a huge pile of sticks .. but still with red glowing eyes.
I moved to get a line-of-sight at the creature, and Sedgewick began to sing. However, Nolin, who had already ended up right next to the creature, immediately began swinging at it … and one swing was all it took for the light to go out of those red eyes. The creature collapsed in a silent pile of, well, now firewood.
Takkad healed everyone of their injuries, which were in some cases quite grave. The fungus required more than just healing, but our clerics took care of that too. But everyone felt that now, really, we should go find a safe place and regroup. While we were not in danger of having exhausted our spells, the things we’d run into already had made us use them at a surprising rate.
But then we heard the knocking.
Or to be more precise, Avia, Rigel, Kane, and Sedgewick heard the knocking.
We searched around but it quickly became apparent the knocking was coming from inside. We looked at each other. What else was waiting for us inside? So it was with great caution and some trepidation that we all slowly went back to the base of the shaft, and all of us could now clearly hear the knocking. In fact, the knocking got louder.
Standing at the base, it was apparent the knocking was coming from the room with the arsenic pile. With a deep breath, and ignoring the concerns of my companions, I opened the door .. and was confronted again with the backside of the apparition of Goldbeard. It might have been my imagination, but he seemed a little less scary and a little less intense as he turned to stare at me. Takkad entered and immediately channeled positive energy again. The dwarf grimaced, and may have even faded a bit, but immediately refocused his gaze on us. On me.
“You are still alive?” he asked in a gravelly voice and with some raised eyebrows. “You – you seek the City of Greed. Abandon your quest.”
“We will not,” replied Takkad. “But we will remove obstacles in our path,” he said pointedly.
The dwarf looked at him with a steely gaze. “I can take you to Xin Shalast.”
“But?” I asked sarcastically.
“But I do request a task of you,” said the phantom. “If you bring me the bones of my brother, I will help you. His bones are still at the last mine, and that is not where he should be.”
We agreed that was not unreasonable, and the apparition faded. It seemed that tomorrow would bring us to the old mine.
But first a few loose ends. We returned upstairs to the cabin to examine the trunk from the bedroom. We found within
[1223] large black opal
[1224] cracked leather backpack with broken rock hammer and 43gp
[1225] 12 +2 crossbow bolts of distance
[1226] pocket flask containing potion of ability to scale and move in mountains (+10) plus endure elements – duration 8 hrs
So .. we were THIIIIIIIS close to setting up a base camp in a substantially warmer climate, but somebody made the point that we should use the remainder of the windwalk spell to scout out the last mine, and THEN return to create a base camp. We estimated we had about two hours of windwalk left, so we could probably take some time to (try to) find the last mine.
We found the area described, but the wind was ferocious. We were further upriver, and higher in the mountains. We believed that although the trails were icy and the wind strong, it was navigable with care. We were at the base of a 2000 ft cliff, and the trail led up. But as we went up, the way seemed less and less safe.
There were layers of unnatural fog here, and from the fog we could see the tips of what appeared to be gravestones. In fact, there appeared to be the body of a dwarf in a firepit. Before we could do anything, Sabin reached down and touched the body.
