Sundered Lands 37

The Sundered Lands of Palladium

Session 37
December 18, 2016

Hotfoot and Jackpot

Saturday October 28

Fortis considers the potential need to track Rowyn Kellani later and investigates her bed and furniture for hair and skin samples to aid in Seeker spells.

Valinya has slipped under the door at the end of the secret hallway but then reappears explaining that it is too dark to see and she does not want to waste any more magic at this time. She waits patiently for Arn to check the door for traps then look at picking the lock. Seeker says, "All right, then. Arn, let's see what's behind that door.”

I wonder what's in here?

Seeker, Moonscar and Fortis continue their search of the room. The continued search of the room does manage to turn up one more item of interest. Tucked down between the mattress and base of the bed is a small stash of letters tied up with a red ribbon. Fortis quips, "These letters might be interesting for later reading.” Seeker replies, "Okay, then, file them away for later.”

Arn grunts, "I'm gonna need a few more minutes to get this area checked out for traps.”

Seeker responds to Arn then turns to Valinya and speaks, "Okay. Hey, Val, you wanna check on your new and very large friend? It's been a while. It's almost first sand up on the surface, believe it or not.” Without waiting for her to answer, he then wanders out to check on the Grimbor Hrag, past Wulda who is standing idly near the doorway leading out of Rowyn's chambers. He smiles when Seeker goes past. Silver starts gnawing on the dead lizard thing once it's apparent the party doesn't seem to be ready to move

Arn mentions, "Well I don't see no traps here, but then again, I ain't no rogue. Where's that damn Gnarl when you need him. That guy could find a trap! Gonna give this door lock a try with the little lockpick. If that doesn't work, ill use the big lockpick!” The Dwarf then chuckles, takes his pack off and starts rummaging through it, cursing when he can't find the lockpick set he swears he bought. "Dammit. Guess I'm gonna have to use the big lock pick." Without room to charge the door, Arn picks up his mace and begins bashing the knob area. After his second swing, those nearby hear a quiet click and swish sound and see a cloud of tiny darts fly from the north wall and pepper Arn. He bellows,"Ahh, found the trap." He turns and shows several darts stuck in his face and hands. "Ouch!" The dwarf yelps in pain and begins scratching at his face, trying to pull out the tiny needles."Bah, that itches, and hurts! But hey, the door's open." He quickly puts his helm and gauntlets back on, leaving his unpacked pack for later and sighs, "Oooh!"

Meanwhile, back in the room with the wounded Grimbor...
Seeker sees that Hrag is sitting in the same spot he was when they left him. He is cradling his wounded limb, holding a thoroughly blood soaked rag to it. A good amount of blood has dripped onto his lap and the floor around him. The door leading out the other side of the room is still closed, presumably by Moonscar.

Seeker speaks, quietly. "Hrag, how are you? Valinya sent me to check on you.” Hrag the Grimbor looks up at Seeker weakly and makes a slight grunting sound. The large beast does not sound very good.

Seeker arrives back at the bedroom as everyone is checking out what Arn discovered behind the trapped door. "Val, Hrag does not look so good. Maybe you should check on him." He blinks, "Wow, Arn, what happened to your face?"

Moonscar declares,"He kissed a doorcupine"

Behind the trapped door is a plain stone room, empty, save for three large chests made of wood and iron. 2 wooden crates sit against the wall, some smaller boxes on top of them. Numerous bolts of fabric lean up in the corner and a pile of green and blue shards of broken pottery sits near a shattered statue base. The ceilings in here are 10’ high and there are no lights besides what were brought in.

Fortis quips, "Val is tired, why don't I take a look at him instead... You rest Val."

Valinya says "I will go check on him, Fortis. I am fine. You stay here and figure out where this bitch has gotten off to."

Fortis looks at his companion, in a better state than he expected. "Sure thing"

Fortis quips "Val, are you sure you don't need a hand? it can't hurt to have someone else take a look." and joins his friend in her ministration of the wounded grimbor.

The Sea Harpy treasury lies open in front of the gathered group. Arn follows Seeker in. Seeker suggests, "Okay, check the chests for traps. we've established she's a sneaky one.” Arn heads to the chest straight ahead while Moonscar heads to one of the other chests. Seeker watches the door and the room in general while Arn and Brother focus on the chests. Silver moves in and checks about the general area. As Arn and Moonscar are getting to work on checking the chests for traps, suddenly hundreds of short, sharp needle like spikes spring up from the floor of the chamber!

Ouch.

Arn grunts, "Oh by Belimar's ball sack”

Seeker yelps, "Ow!"

Moonscar declares,"Dammit! Who kicked the flooorcupine?”

Arn takes no damage from the trap, his thick soled boots deflect the damage but the others are not so lucky. Silver and Seeker’s tough skin, scales and fur absorb most of the damage, but enough penetrates so that they feel it. Moonscar is considerably unlucky. The Druid yelps as the sharp spikes penetrate his soft flesh. He falls to the ground in pain just as the spikes retract with a clicking noise and immediately realizes that his feet are seriously injured. Everyone injured by the floor spikes feels an intense burning sensation in their feet and legs, like they are submerged in liquid hot magma.

Arn grunts, "oh wonderful it will reset,” while Silver backpedals out of the spiky room. Arn goes to carry his companions out of the room, starting with the most severely injured. He takes Moonscar to a safe corner out of harm's way to wait for one of the healers.

Moonscar shouts,"Quick, throw the fabric on the floor!” while Seeker limps out and also yells out, "Okay, just drag those chests out here and we'll never have to go into that room again.

Arn goes to retrieve the chests and Seeker sits on the bed and tends to his feet. Moonscar teaches everyone some new Danzi words. Wulda comes wandering in. "Whats all that damn racket? You trying to call to some friends up on the island or something?" He looks around and says sarcastically, "Hey, what's that there? Secret door? Interesting."

Seeker growls "It's likely the Harpy's vault. Heavily trapped, so I'd stay out.

Wulda comments, "Hey, my pay should be in there. The Dwarf said I could have it."

Arn grunts, "I didn't say ye could have it, I said ye need to get it from Lady Lotus, but we can consider it”

Wulda pleads, "Yea yea. Ok. Worth a shot. Just bring it out here and I'll get it!"

Silver hobbles back a bit to make room for everyone, then looks around for something to "cover" the floor with and says, “Maybe we could lay out the zombies in there or something”

Arn grunts, "Zombies would work, they will fill up the area where the spikes would go”

Silver sees some boxes against the wall and numerous bolts of fabric and asks, “Is everyone out of the room? maybe we could shift some of that stuff onto the floor.”

Moonscar moans, “it puts the fabric on the floor or it gets the spikes again”

Seeker, Moonscar and Silver all experience horrible, burning pain from their feet! Silver is confused and thrilled by the burning sensation, having never really felt one like this before.

Arn says to Wulda, "hey, if ye can help drag some of those zombies in here with me, so I can safely get to the chests, I'll make sure ye get some pay.

Wulda says "I'll help ya, Dwarf, but do you think it's a good idea to start messing with those zombies?"

Arn grunts, "use the ones or the bodies of harpies we already killed?”

Wulda says "Hmm, them boys got burnt up pretty bad, not sure how much help they'll be, but if that's what ya want, I’ll help."

Back in the other room, Fortis looks over the Grimbor's wounds attempting to assess his stability and ability to travel if the need arises. After looking over the Grimbor for a minute or so, Fortis is sure that he is bleeding out due to the fact that his large hand has been severed from his large wrist.

Fortis feels his heart go up into his throat at the pitiful sight and flys back to where the others are. "Seeker, can I please have Hrag's hand? I'm going to try something and for it to have ANY chance to work I'll need it"

Seeker roots around in his satchel and produces the large paw. Wulda says "Whoa, look at that thing!"

Silver asks, "OK, feet hurting more - any ideas?" and Moonscar cries out,"unguent. need unguent!”

Ignoring the pain of his suffering friends, Fortis takes the hand and flies back to where the wounded Grimbor is and tells Hrag "Please lie down, hold your hand up to your wrist and be VERY still for the next minute. I don't know if I can do this but I'm going to try" He attempts some magic healing, but it fails to reconnect the hand. Crestfallen he flies back to where his companions are writhing in pain after befalling a poisoned floor spike trap.

Fortis quips, "ohh... look at all your poor feet... what have you gotten into?"

Seeker growls as he grits his teeth against the pain. The Wolfen howls out loud, startling most everyone as the poison tears through his veins. Fortis peers at Seeker, trying to determine if he is actually being injured of just in pain.

Wulda looks at Arn, "Yer furry buddy sounds like he's in pain

Arn grunts, "Shit! do we have any kind of anti-venom? Arn pulls out his flask of ale to see if pouring that on Seeker's feet can help neutralize the burning.”

Silver and Moonscar still feel the poison working in their veins. Seeker pounds a fist into the mattress. Silver asks, “Uh - can anyone do something about the poison? Valinya maybe?”

Fortis quips, "Arn, anything you can do to wash out the poison, even with your ale, would be a good idea."

Seeker says, through gritted teeth, "Don't worry, Arn. I'll buy you more."

Arn tries to find water or something he can use to wash out the poison but only has alcohol on him, no water. He sees a vase on the night stand with some day old flowers in it. Arn lays his shield down on the floor to step on it and grab the vase. He fetches the water to see if it will help. After that he is open to ideas.

After some rather awkward contortions, Moonscar manages to piss on his feet.

Fortis places one fragile hand on each of Seeker's enormous feet and tries to relieve his affliction through Major Healing.

Silver considers breathing flame on her feet but decides that's unlikely to help.

Seeker then continues swearing in Wolfen.

Arn grunts, "well, let's try the water first to be sure,” Arn continues to apply water (and then ale if really needed) to his companions' injuries as Fortis's magic heals the damage from the spikes but not the poison damage.. Moonscar feels slight relief as he urinates on himself in an awkward partial headstand down the hallway. The burning continues for everyone else.

Silver feels the pain of the poison coursing through her veins as Valinya returns. She asks "what's going on?"

Silver holds up a foot and explains, “poison spikes in the feet. not fun.”

Arn grunts, "Val, we need help! everyone got impaled in their feet and the spikes have a burning poison on them, much like the ones I took to the face!”

Valinya says "Oh no. I don't know any spells that deal with poison!"

Wulda says "Sounds like you all need a priest or something in your merry little band."

Arn grunts, "how about something that can wash it out, like water or something?”

Silver asks, “Well, could someone heal this at least?” indicating her feet.

Fortis tries to think about what kind of antivenom would work on what he has determined is Fire Scratch poison, and, if he can recall, describes the substance to Arn and Wulda to direct their search for something to relieve this affliction. Fortis explains, "This poison, Fire Scratch, isn't amenable to healing until the toxin has run its course, which will be a few more painful minutes.”

Valinya starts humming then singing a strange new song. The singing goes on and on. Then she stops and says that this song will take some time, half a minute or so. Silver looks confused when Valinya stops and asks Fortis about the poison, so she will know how to better neutralize it.

Fortis replies "Fire Scratch is a preparation of vitriolic oils, distilled peppers and the digestive juices of a certain beetle. It it said to be quite painful and difficult to treat. The only therapeutic preparation I know of is a oil solvent and lye adjunct that is also supposed to be painful, but reduces the damage."

Wulda heads out into the other room to look for an antivenom that Fortis described.

The Elf looks around at the three poisoned companions. "Who do I heal first?" She looks to everyone pleadingly. “I don't know who to cast it on! tell me!”

Arn grunts, "Heal the smallest first....poison will work faster on them!” as Seeker howls again.

Silver states, “I'm doing OK, one of the others first is fine”

Arn grunts, "Moonscar first!” as Seeker howls out loudly again as the venom burns him up inside.

Arn grunts, "than silver, than seeker!”

Valinya rushes down the hall to Moonscar and begins singing while Moonscar warns her ,"watch out for the puddle Sis!” She begins to sing and casts her spell.

Fortis yells out to wherever Wulda is, "The unguent should smell strongly of alum"

Wulda yells back "What the fuck is alum?"

Fortis shouts, his tiny voice carrying strong and clear as always, "Never mind, if you find a bottle with a strong smell please let me know." Fortis tries to conjure a bottle of the unguent, desperate to help his friends.

Moonscar emits a series of high pitched cries as Valinya approaches to sing her healing spell. She begins singing but Moonscar, clearly in a pain induced rage, lunges forward on his hands and knees and tries biting her! The Elf, forgetting she is in her air form, jumps back from the unexpected assault. She stops her singing and has to start over but first rights herself and floats horizontal so he cannot reach her a second time.

Silver watches Moonscar somewhat more closely and asks, “Do we need to hold him down?”

She casts her spell and the Kankoran relaxes and slinks into the corner, still staying off his feet, panting heavily and eyeing everyone with squinted dark eyes. Valinya floats out of the hallway and back into the bedroom. Valinya says "That's all i've got. I won't be able to cast it again until i've spent a day working on the actual song."

Fortis manages to whip together a quick concoction and thrusts it into the hands of his waiting friend....

Silver decides, “I think Seeker needs it more,” as Seeker pants heavily, his eyes glassy.

Fortis thrusts the potion at Seeker. "Rub this on your feet... and hope."

Seeker takes the unguent and immediately feels the fire in his legs subsiding to a more pleasant, warm feeling.

Silver also feels the poison coursing through her veins subside, but then a minute later it comes raging back! Silver roars with pain and lets out a gout of flame that fills the hallway, nearly catching Moonscar in the blast and exclaims,”Sorry. That hurts!”

Wulda comes back in. "Didn't find nothing like you were talkin about. But there's a few blue pears in that bowl that are just this side of ripe. Someone should eat em before they go bad.

Fortis snaps at the mercenary,, "Thanks Wulda, good point. I'm sure someone will get to that shortly.”

Moonscar gnaws his tail as he gathers his wits. He still cannot stand up as his feet have been nearly shredded by the spikes in the treasury room.

Wulda looks around at the battered team, "Man, that looks like she had that treasure vault protected against unwanted intruders, ehh. Can't trust a rogue. Not ever. Shoulda demanded all my coin up front."

Fortis takes a look at Moonscar's wounds and will cast a healing spell as needed. Silver, Seeker and Moonscar are all still minorly wounded. Fortis casts healing spells on them. Moonscar shakes a bit and thanks Fortis as he stands up, his feet working normally again after the magical healing. He says "I'm gonna watch the way in. I've had enough of this place."

After healing his friends, Fortis asks, “so did you lot find out what was in the boxes?” The tiny fairy’s mind already back on loot recovery. He looks at the chests and thinks about Arns climbing rope. "Why don't you tie a loop and I'll drop it over the chest, then you can pull it out here? Arn, do you want to try pulling one of the chests out here?”

Seeker grunts and pulls himself to his feet. "I could help pull if you need it…”

Silver asks, “If the chest gets spiked, it could break stuff in the chest though, right?”

Fortis quips, "Sure, it could... but coins don't care"

Looking into the room, it does not appear that the chests have been damaged or moved in any way. A more careful inspection of the floor shows that the spikes may only be in the middle of the room and near the door, possibly not under the chests at all.

Arn grunts, "Yes.....I can use my shield, wood, door parts to layer the floor, than tie rope around the chest and slide it”

Locked.

Fortis quips, "Huh, I was just going to drop that loop over the chest and let it slide, but your way sounds fun too. Or I could tie it to one of those rings"

Arn grunts, "Whatever, let's just get to that loot!”

Fortis quips, "Does one of you have a rope handy or do I need to spend the energy to make one?” Not realizing that Seeker has had rope draped over his shoulder since they started searching the bedroom. When he notices Seeker holding the rope out, he continues,  "Oh, good. if you would be so good as to throw one end near the chest I'll go attach it.”

Seeker says, "Here - this is pretty good stuff.” He makes a half-hearted attempt and gets the rope near a chest. He adds, "Hope it's okay - the rope may be too heavy for you to lift.”

Arn grunts, "Sure Fortis,fly in, tie it and I can pull it”

Leaving most of the weight of the rope on the ground, Fortis threads to lose end through the ring and starts dragging the free end back to the door. He has to pull as hard as he's ever pulled before to move the long, heavy rope back to the door. The little Ellyl is winded, not being accustomed to such heavy work. Fortis quips, "OK, that's enough for me. I'm going to rest for a bit.” The chest proves to be heavy and the brick floor not quite exactly smooth, but Arn and Seeker manage to get the chest pulled over to the doorway. Arn reaches in, hefts it out and sets it firmly in the hallway. He guesses it weighs between 300-400lbs. It is a solid wood and iron bound chest, a heavy lock plate sits on the front.

Valinya floats up, "Is it locked? You know I can unlock them magically, right?" She winks at Arn.

Seeker looks back at the treasure room, blinking. "There were two more chests in there, right? Should we get them all out before we start messing with the lock on this one?"

Silver reminds everyone, “there were a bunch of boxes and cloth too”

Arn grunts, "yes, let's get it all out of there first” The first chest is moved to the bedroom and the 2nd chest and boxes are brought out, along with the bolts of fabric. It all takes some time. When Fortis loops the 3rd chest (#1) Arn and Seeker find it to either be too heavy or completely stuck upon first pull. Arn takes a swig of ale from his wineskin first, than with some extra effort. Seeker helps, too. The two brutes pull on the rope and then suddenly fall backward into the hallway when a crunching sound comes from the room. The chest was apparently built into the ground and has been pulled completely apart. It was also obviously empty.

Seeker says, "Well, heck”

Everything of value has been removed from the treasury, at least from the perspective of the doorway. Nothing seems to be left in the room and none of the mages detect anything magical in the room. Arn grunts, "let's gather up what we can and move on” The 2nd chest brought out of the room was even heavier than the first. 3 small boxes on top of the wooden crate appear to be thick paper boxes filled with nails or something like that. One of them breaks apart and spills all over the hallway while moving things. The only thing that remains in the room are the broken pieces of ceramic statue Arn grunts, "I can only assume we have forgotton about Lady Lotus now?”

Why keep nails in your treasury?

Seeker says, "Okay, Val, you said you can get these open with magic. Be our guest. And yes, Arn, we can forget about her now.” Laid out in the bedroom are 2 large iron bound chests, 2 good sized wooden crates (70lbs each), 3 small wooden boxes (5lbs each) 5 paper boxes filled with nails (10lbs each and slightly waterlogged. they will be difficult to move) and 10 bolts of fabric (5lbs each)

Val sings 2 short songs, 5 seconds each and the locking mechanisms on each chest click.
Valinya says "No promises on traps though."
Seeker ponders to himself Why keep nails in your treasury? He examines the nails closer
They look like nails. Each box seems to have a slightly different size of nails. Two boxes have the same size. Seeker says, "huh - maybe ask Red when we get back” Seeker opens one of the chests to reveal it filled with what looks like small sacks of coins. many sacks. It looks like maybe as many as 15 sacks in this chest. This chest is probably 3/4 full, not all the way full. Wulda 's eyes bulge out at the sacks of coins. The giant Wolfen says, "Okay, looks like we hit the jackpot!”

Arn grabs a sack and opens it. It looks to be filed exclusively with gold coins. He thinks that at least 1000 coins fits in a small sack.... that is approx 10,000$ in this 20lb package. The Dwarf's eyes nearly pop out of his skull.

Cast of Characters: 

+Arne Jamtgaard plays Seeker, a teenage Wolfen Warlord

+Stephen Kolmetz plays Valinya, an Elven Wildsong Mage

+Mike Biancone plays Arn, a surly Dwarven Warrior

+Amergin O'Kai plays Moonscar, the esoteric Kankoran Druid

+Daniel White plays Silver, a young and curious Dragon
and +Jason GURPS as the GM