After a long night of healing magic by Kallin, the sun finally rose over a group of heroes in the wilderness, all healed up and ready to venture forth once again. Vexeron, who had been injured and on the brink of death was refreshed and in a chipper mood, conveniently forgetting the events of the previous day that had led him to death’s door.
They then buried all the treasure they had been able to find at the mouth of the hydra’s cave (over 2000 silver, over 1000 gold, nearly 100 platinum coins, a gold ring, a siver necklace and the enchanted cutlass that had been recovered from the shipwreck.) Daellin did his best to hide the location of the buried treasure (Camouflage by 8.)
Heading Underground
They then headed back into the Cavern of Many Mouths and followed the small tunnel at its rear that descended quite steeply for some time until leveling out. After nearly a mile long hike underground, Calina and Daellin estimated that they were somewhere under the center of the lagoon near the Lady’s Light. Finally they came to a large underground chamber that was teeming with thousands of tiny little albino bugs that retreated from the light and vibrations of the explorers. In the center of this chamber stood a 7 sided pillar of shiny black stone, broken off about 4 feet up. The remains lay on the ground all around and the center of this black stone monument appeared to be hollow, possibly with the shape of some type of humanoid inside. The area was searched and the only thing of interest that was discovered was some chitinous remains from a bug MUCH bigger than the ones found in the chamber already.
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| The passage under the lagoon. |
There were three other passages leading into this underground chamber and it was determined that the far left passage was probably the one that led to the Lady’s Light, the other two leading to the Lizardfolk and Boggard camps respectively.
The passage was difficult to traverse, calling for occasional crawling, squeezing and climbing. At one point Daellin called for a halt when he heard some faint clicking noises. From the rear of the party, Vosk confirms that he had heard them too. Everyone quickly went on guard and they watched for a possible ambush. They waited and waited in silence, but nothing came. After a few minutes, Calina made some comment about Daellin’s hearing and pointy ears and the group moved on.
Statues and Shaft
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| Killer Columns |
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| Battling with the Statues |
After some time, they arrived at the end of the natural tunnel and entered a large chamber of worked stone. The ceiling was arched at least 30 feet up. Seven ornate columns spaced evenly around the room supported the domed ceiling. Each of these columns had a very voluptuous woman scantily dressed and wielding a guisarme as its base. In the center of the room was a dark, seven sided shaft at least 10 feet across.
Daellin moved into the room to examine it more closely but before he could reach the shaft, the statues magically animated and attacked. They moved and attacked seemingly in unison and proved to be quite formidable opponents. The statues possessed great speed and skill with their heavy stone pole arms and their hard marble surface made every strike against them nearly shatter the party’s weapons. It was a difficult battle but Vexeron’s strategic use of his magic (Glue and Shape Stone) finally helped lead the party to victory. After they had been defeated, the statues polearms turned into real wood and metal weapons that were gathered up.
The shaft, which seemed to be filled with a deep, magical darkness, appeared to be the only way out of this room and a quick search confirmed this. After much deliberation, Daellin used his magic to fly down into the shaft, which extended some 50 feet straight down. The Elf found that, in the shaft, he could not see or hear anything at all, but at the bottom, he emerged in an immense, u-shaped hall filled with more pillars, complete with polearm wielding Sorshen carvings, and an ornate, painted sarcophagus. Resisting his curiosity, he flew back up and told the others what he had seen.
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| Ornate pole arms |
Calina suggested using their ropes and climbing gear to climb down but there was nothing to tie the rope off to. Vexeron used his stone shaping magic to make a sturdy protrusion and the ropes were tied off. Daellin recommended bringing the gathered polearms in hopes they would stop the statues below from attacking. Samad volunteered to go first. Daellin, foregoing his magic, followed down the rope. Kallin and Vosk went next and Ehlyna was trying to avoid climbing down. Finally, Calina convinced Ehlyna to take the plunge. The stocky Dwarf climbed down, but just after entering the magical darkness, she lost her grip and fell. No one could even hear her screams as she plummeted through the darkness.
Down below, the others were in for a surprise when the Dwarf came out of the darkness. She was not holding on to the rope and appeared as if she were falling, but she was floating down slowly to the ground. The fact that she was not falling to her death was not enough to stop the stream of curses coming from her mouth. Shortly after, Calina followed, successfully climbing down to the bottom. Daellin wondered how the magical effect worked and stood directly under the shaft and jumped a few times, hoping that it would propel him back to the top, but it did not.
Runelord Sorshen, RIP?
Now that they were all safely at the bottom, it was time to examine the sarcophagus. The ornate stone coffin was painted to resemble Runelord Sorshen. There appeared to be no traps, mundane or magical, on the coffin, so with much effort, the stone lid was pushed off, revealing what appeared to be a very alive but sleeping Runelord of Lust. She was breathing and felt warm to the touch and dressed in expensive clothing and jewelry. Intrigued by her transcendent beauty, Daellin reached in to examine her jewelry.
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| Sorshen, the Runelord of Lust |
Immediately upon touching her, the others saw Daellin stiffen then pass out onto the floor. Daellin, on the other hand saw what appeared to be the Runelord rising up out of her coffin then somehow growing and growing until she was bigger than even the room would hold. She smashed him several times with her giant sized fist, trying to crush the life out of him. She hit him one time but he managed to stay out of the way of the giant fists after that.
Kallin was able to revive Daellin from what appeared to be some serious mental trauma. Daellin was seriously wounded from the strange encounter, but after a moment, Kallin had him right back to normal. Intrigued by the experience and not fully convinced it had been a bad thing, Daellin used his knife to once again manipulate the Runelord’s necklace. Again, the Elf fell unconscious and Daellin experienced the same vision though this time he was able to avoid being hurt. He was revived again and told in no uncertain terms to leave the body, her jewelry and her coffin alone. The sarcophagus was then closed back up and the group headed on.
Following the wide hall around to the west, they found it ended after some time in a short balcony overlooking an underground river flowing to the east. The passage the river moved through appears to have been a natural cavern that has been somewhat finished and smoothed out. Not wanting to delve into the water just yet, the group turned around to explore the other end of the large U-shaped hall.
An Odd Door
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| Bound Succubus |
The other end of the hall ended in a large red metal wall, 20 feet high and 10 feet wide, with numerous 1-foot square panels painted with images of the Runelord of Lust with various winged creatures thought to be demons of some type (succubi.) There were 5 columns and 9 rows of these panels and all were different, though each depicted the Runelord apparently binding a succubus to a place or object. Each panel could be depressed, as if it were a button though nothing happened until the center panel was pressed, which required someone standing on someone else’s shoulders just to reach it. When the center panel was pressed, the entire panel glowed a bit and some golden words flashed across the bottom of the panel, though even on shoulders it was hard to get close enough to see. As the glow faded, the entire 10x20 metal panel swung open like a huge door revealing a sandy beach area beyond. The group vowed to come back and study the images more closely later after they had secured the Shard and cleared the area.
They passed through the newly opened doorway and walked down the beach to the shores of the (same, presumably) underground river. There were two stone pilings at the waters edge and a flat bottomed skiff moored to each. The punters looked as if they could carry 3-4 people each.
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| Another angle from the battle against the statues. |
Session Notes
This was another great session, despite the absence of several players. Everyone got into character and pitched in to navigate and solve the problems presented. Two different encounters did not go as I had planned. One ended up way more challenging than I had anticipated and the other ended up being WAY too easy to navigate. I was able to adjust a little on the "too hard" encounter, but the other one I was just way off. Granted I am making general conversions from Pathfinder game material to GURPS and adjusting for a different power level, but still. The effect that ended up being "too easy" was, in Pathfinder, basically a "save or die" effect. I didn't want to go "that hard" on them so I set it up as a series of Will and HT checks with some abstract "damage" thrown in. The idea was that if the character ended at -HP they would have to roll vs HT or die. The character in question ended up only taking 7 HP of the abstract "damage" anyway and even triggered the trap a second time ON PURPOSE because he was curious about it. The second time through saw NO damage at all!
Live and learn, I suppose. And save up to buy the new GURPS Magic: Death Spells as well. That could have helped!
Characters Present:
Kallin Hawkril, Half-Orc shaman and budding Priest of Pharasma - played by +Daniel Ernst
Calina - Varisian Human archer and scout - played by +Carol Coburn
Daellin Silvanthalas, Elven Farstrider Ranger - played by +Ben Lipe
Vexeron, Human wizard - played by +Greg Grady
Ehlyna Fuzziface - Dwarven Warrior - played by +Jodi H
Samad Aldhul, Human ex-mercenary - played by +JeCorey Holder
Vosk, Half-Orc Pathfinder who gets the job done, no matter what - played by +james schaffner
