Session #2 Recap:
Lazy Trip Down the Rabbit Hole
The group decides that they need to go down the
cistern, but not until resting first. Io
and Mell go to the Inn to tell Cenn, the mayor, what has happened while the
rest of the group try to clear the wolf corpses and pieces of the flesh swarm
out of the church. The orphans are
ensconced in the priest’s living quarters next to the church while the cleanup
goes on. While Juliet and Aean are
taking bodies to the Harvest Festival bonfire to burn, Morgrym guards the open
cistern. He thinks he hears voices
whispering up from the depths, and a thick, almost tangible sense of doom seems
to rise from the open well. He creeps
closer to the cistern with weapon drawn, to listen more closely. At that moment, Juliet and Aean bang back
into the church, and the whispers and sense of doom disappear.Io and Mell arrive at the inn to the last revelers of the evening. They take notice that no one in the village seems to have heard the screams and fighting. Io sees Cenn, and says he must speak to him right away. Cenn takes Io and Mell into the kitchen in back, where Io explains the wolves’ attack, the killing of the priest and one of the orphans, and the cistern which opened under the altar. The mayor is incredibly shocked and concerned, and feels that he must tell Delix the tax collector, as he is the lawful representative of Korvosa in the village. Cenn also is concerned as Gerrett, the tanner, who the mayor sent to investigate outlying farms and the ruins by the lake, has yet to return. Io states that the group plans on travelling down into the cistern to discover what it is, but after they rest first to gain strength for the descent. Cenn says that he still must tell Delix, but he will wait until 2 hours after dawn to inform him. Cenn does say it is very likely that Delix will take over the scene and his guards will likely take position in and around the church, preventing investigation, so the party should be “on its way” before Delix is told. Io agrees, and also lets the mayor know that the wolves carried disease with them as warning for the village. Io asks if the herbalist has any anti-plague, and the mayor states he will contact Eldreth to check. Any anti-plague (which ends up being just 1 vial) the mayor will make certain gets to the players before they leave. Io and Mell then leave out the back to return to the church.
The party rests inside the church, with the orphans coming back in now that it has been cleaned. The oldest orphan and the priest, who had been killed, are in a room opposite of the choir area, awaiting burial, and the mayor had told Io that he and his wife would take the children in until a new priest could be sent for and arrives. The mayor is sending word to one of the nearby villages which also have a church to Sarenrae for assistance. In the morning, Juliet sends the orphans to the farm where she had had dinner with her new friends the evening before, although Robinn insists that he must remain with Juliet and is coming with them. The party then begins their descent into the cistern down ladder rungs embedded in the sides of the well.
After about 120-150 feet, the cistern ends at the bottom with a worked passage moving off into the dark. There is some kind of magical effect as the light sources of the party dim significantly. They move forward about 40’, single file, and come into a 10 foot by 10 foot room with two passages from the other side of the room leading off forward, one angled slightly left, one angled slightly right, and both 5 feet wide. Io decides to scout a bit forward and takes the right passage. After a few moments, Io realizes he cannot hear the party behind him anymore, so turns and returns. The room is empty, however, it is as if he came up a straight passage and on the other side of the room are two passages leading out, one angled left and one angled right. But now the left-hand passage is narrower and the right-hand passage is wider. He senses a dread all around him.
The rest of the party quickly notices that Io doesn’t seem to be returning, and they follow after him. They take the right-hand passage and, after 30 feet, come across an exact duplicate of the room they were just in, but now the right-hand passage across from them is slightly wider and the left-hand passage slightly narrower. And no Io. They call out his name, but hear no response. They also feel a dread throughout the area, and Mell hears whispers all around from all passages which she can’t quite understand, but no one else in the group seems to hear. They decide to turn around and go back to the original room, but upon return, they, like Io, find that the passage they are in is as if a straight passage into the room with a slightly wider right-hand passage and slightly narrower left-hand passage. Their way back is no longer there.
Io, on his own, decides to determine if he can pinpoint a magical trigger for what is obviously, to him, a trap. But when casting a cantrip to detect magic, the amount of magic is overwhelming and everywhere, and of multiple types. Conjuration magic seems to be the most powerful, as well as enchantment and evocation. Io is using his ability to see in the dark to get around as he is without a light source (which is in the hands of Mell with the rest of the group).
The rest of the group decides to take the narrower, left-hand passage this time, and scrape a ways down a passage which unsurprisingly opens into another room. The passages leaving on the other side of the room are again there, but now the right-hand passage is even wider and the left-hand passage even narrower. Aean creates a second source of light, a string of floating lanterns he sings into existence. Mell, meanwhile, begins to feel touches of something brushing up against her cheeks or grasping at her ankles, although she cannot see anything. She becomes frightened and bolts off through the wider right-hand passage. Juliet tries to grab Mell to stop her, but Mell neatly evades her grasp and is gone, as is one of the light-sources.
Mell runs into yet another room, and before continuing her run, she casts a spell of herself, covering her body in magical transparent armor of force, and she draws her weapon. As she gets ready to run on, she glances to the side and sees a mirror on the wall of the room next to her. Looking in the mirror, she sees in the reflection her eidolon, Poshmora, standing behind her slashing down at her with a dagger. Mell ducks away, drops her weapon, and dashes for the even wider right-hand passage across the room, running out of the room in a panic.
In the larger group of party members, Aean draws a large ‘4’ on the floor of the room before the party takes the narrower, left-hand passage out, as taking the wider passage seems to be ineffective. They scrape through to yet another room, again with a wider right-hand passage and narrower left-hand passage. A pale Aean swears he sees shadows and movement out of the corner of his eyes, and shaken, suddenly bursts with a nimbus of daylight around him, although muted by the pervasive darkness of the passage. The party presses on, and again takes the even narrower left-hand passage. After squeezing through the passage, they suddenly come out into a passage 20 foot wide, heading forward and beyond what they can see with their lights. Turning around, there are two sets of double doors behind them, locked, and no passage which they would have come out of into this one. Aean also notices he no longer has the sense of movement out of the corner of his eyes.
Mell runs headlong through the next room as she moves blindly forward as her dropped weapon was her light source and is now abandoned somewhere behind her, taking an even wider right-hand passage. Dashing down this passage by feeling along the wall, she suddenly no longer feels a wall and senses a wider open space around her. Although suddenly free of her blind panic, she quickly summons a giant ant to her side in case of any need of protection for herself. She next creates a light source, and finds herself in a large room with two sets of spiral staircases behind her leading to a platform above her head, and in front of her, barely visible, a set of two larger alcoves on either side of the large room and two sets of double doors in the far wall. In addition, there are two very large vipers slithering towards her, one from the platform above and one from across the room, as well as three creatures about 2-feet tall which seemed to be no more than pieces of half-formed body parts standing on two obscene leg-like appendages with pulsating veins all over and a toothy maw of sharp teeth in the center of the mound of flesh which would be their heads. And they were all headed towards her!
The larger party decides to try to get through the doors, and as Morgrym pulls out lockpicks, Juliet kicks at one of the doors and busts it open. Morgrym, shakes his head as he quietly puts his lockpicks away, and Juliet and Aean enter the room, where they see across a huge room to where Mell is being surrounded by enemies. They both run up to try to help her. Robinn stays outside of the room and the battle, watching the passage, while Morgrym enters the room invisibly to assist the others.
Io, having determined as much as he can from the magical demeanors, heads through the narrower left-hand passage, into another room, and into the next narrower left-hand passage, ending up suddenly next to Robinn. He hears battle being engaged, and with Robinn pointing into the room, Io heads directly in to assist.
The group battles the creatures with sword and spell. The large vipers poison Mell, causing her to become slowed and unable to move quickly. However, the battle ends with the party victorious. A strange language is written on the walls, which no one understands, until Io uses magic to comprehend the language. He discovers and relays to the party words along the lines of “The sleeping chamber of our lord,” “The master of those of ease and sloth,” and “May his rest allow the sin spread throughout the lazy slaves and nobles of the land.” He is able to determine that the words seem to indicate that this is where the Runelord of Sloth, Krune, lies buried and asleep since the Starfall eons ago. It also seems to explain the large amount of conjuration magic as the sin of sloth is associated with the conjuration school of magic. The party then decides to move on down the passage outside the room.
The passage funnels from 20-feet wide to 10-feet wide after traveling about 100 feet. It ends in another large chamber, also this one seems to hold a great empty chasm. No bottom or top to the room can be seen, and a bridge leads across the chasm to an exit on the far side, about 100 or so feet away. Floating in the air to either side of the bridge, but still about 10 to 20 feet distant, are platforms, 10 feet by 10 feet, hanging in the air with no support. Also, there are rods positioned in the air from platform to platform as well as from the edge of the entrance and exit. These rods are parallel to the entrance and exit and seem to suggest that someone would swing from one to the next to reach each hanging platform, a more difficult and less obvious way to get to the other side.
The party decides to take the “difficult” way as this is the realm of sloth, and the easy way is likely trapped and deadlier. Juliet, carrying Robinn, makes it to the first platform, with Morgrym on her heels. Next goes Mell, but she slips off the rung, and although she at first grasps the rung with one hand, she cannot get a good grip and falls into the bottomless chasm. The party is frantic, trying to figure out what they can do to save Mell, when she suddenly appears from above them and slams hard into the bridge, falling prone and worse for wear. She crawls a few feet towards the other side when suddenly a construct appears on the bridge, a bronze head with multiple sharp talons coming out of its neck like the legs of a spider. Mell is attacked, and she quickly conjures an air elemental to protect her. The rest of the party begins to attack the creature at range, and quickly find it is immune to certain types of magic, although Io realizes that a metal creature is likely susceptible to electricity and is able to damage it. Mell backs away from the creature, and 2 more creatures appear. They begin attacking the larger party, blocking Mell off from the entrance side of the bridge. Juliet has taken the moment to jump onto the bridge to engage the creatures, while Morgrym tries to attack from the hanging platform with his crossbow and Io and Aean engage the creatures closer to them.
Mell is hit hard by the creature, and with the damage taken from her “fall,” she falls unconscious. The creature begins to drag her the rest of the way across the bridge and through the exit. Robinn suddenly jumps from the chasm, and after a few seconds, lands close to the bridge end with minimal damage due to a cushioning vest he is wearing. Juliet, seeing Robinn appear, runs across the bridge to protect him as well as to ask him to help her wounds from the fighting. As she runs across the bridge, 5 more creatures appear in her wake. She realizing that they are greatly outnumbered, pushes Robinn out through the exit passage after Mell. Io and Aean, sorely hurting and in no position to defend against so many adversaries, exit the chamber, while Morgrym becomes invisible to hide from the creatures. The creatures at this point, sensing no enemies, jump off either side of the bridge and are gone.
Mell wakes to find herself prone on a floor in front of a throne in a large chamber, with a strange creature hovering over her, saying, “Wake up, wake up, wake up! Time to wake up!” The creature is tall and thin, with black leather garments, black wings, and a pale white head which shows a mouth and ears, but a hole straight through where the rest of the face would be. She, in a panic, gets to her feet and tries to defend herself with summoned balls of ice, but these pass harmlessly through the creature’s missing face, and the creature just smiles and laughs.
Mell sees that behind the creature, the wall of the back of the chamber is some type of portal coursing with electricity, although silent as stone. At this point, Juliet and Robinn arrive in the chamber, and move across to stand behind Mell. Mell asks the creature who it is, and it names itself Syren, servant of the great lord who sleeps here. Syren then says that Mell should know who the lord is, and snaps its fingers. In Mell’s place is now her eidolon, Poshmora. Poshmora goes up to the throne on which Syren sits, and tries to drape herself over its shoulders, ingratiating herself with an “ally.” However, Syren finds this display very distasteful and pulls her arms off of its shoulders, telling Poshmora to know her place with the lord and his servants. He then dismisses Poshmora, and Mell returns in her place.
Meanwhile, Morgrym has made his way across the rest of the floating platforms, and after healing themselves magically, Io and Aean also begin to traverse across the platforms, swinging from rod to rod. Once all are across, they exit the chamber and head where Mell, Juliet and Robinn went. Soon, they too enter the chamber, with Morgrym entering stealthily and hiding behind a brazier next to a large staircase going up a few feet to the throne’s level. Io also, through his knowledge of the Runelords, realizes that Syren is a greatly transformed and powerful version of a Sinspawn, creatures who act as servants and guards for each of the Runelords in days past.
Syren states that they have been summoned to this place of the great lord as something is trying to use his power as well as the power of the other lords and ladies from his former time. The party realizes this would be the other Runelords. Syren states that the time for the lords and ladies to awaken is not yet ripe, although one of the lords has made the attempt a few years past. However, the lords and ladies grow restless in their slumber with someone using their pools of power, which would be the essence of their sins/ virtues over which they hold sway as well as their corresponding school of magic. The Runelord of Sloth is greatly disturbed that someone is commandeering his powers of summoning, and he wants it stopped.
Syren says that they have no further information, but as conjuration is being used, they might do research in the city of Korvosa, where the infamous school of magic which specializes in this time in conjuration magic lies. This site for the school is in itself of annoyance to the Runelord of Sloth as it is in the middle of the seat of power of the Runelady of Lust, not an acceptable placement for the pathetic folks of this time to build the school. Syren charges the party with finding out who is using the power of the Runelords and giving effort to stop the abuse. The abuse is happening with all of the Runelords, not just Krune, the Lord of Sloth, and will thus impact the entire land of Varisia, and likely, all of the world. Syren states that frequent communication should be kept up with Syren, and through him, Krune, and this can be accomplished by standing in the Village Green of Clearwater’s Gate and relaying the messages. Instructions of further action would also be sent back in the Village Green to the party members. All nice and neat.
At this point, the party relays in no uncertain terms to Syren that they will need to think about whether or not they will work for someone “evil” against another evil. Syren is taken aback, and says that they have a common enemy. But Juliet and Io are very firm, and say “we will get back to you on our decision.” Concerned, Syren reluctantly agrees, and says he will send them back to the surface. At this point, he raises his hands, and swarms of flesh and bits arise from circles of summoning behind the party, engulfing each member in a tidal wave of flesh and teeth and body parts. As the swarms continue into the room towards the other party members, the ones engulfed seem to have been devoured and no trace is left. After all have been taken, the flesh swarms disperse and the party realizes they are now in daylight, standing in a field next to a farm. Juliet quickly notices that this is the farm of her friends who she met while helping with the bonfire the night before, and also the farm where the party sent the remaining orphans. A scream rings out, and the party sees the farm family being attacked by small floating heads, most of which is made up on gaping maws of teeth.
The session ends.
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