Friday, June 8, 2012

Darves Hill March 2012 (50-51) Recap


March (50-51)

On the last day of the group's vacation they did some shopping, and one of the Clerics made scrolls during the 3 weeks off. They decided to head off towards Darves Hill once all the preparations were made.

When they arrived in the evening at Darves Hill, they saw a gigantic boil on the green dragon's back. They headed down into the depths to the dungeon. Cyr failed to disable a trap but luckily it failed to work. In the next room some etherial eyes were looking down at them from the ceiling. The group found 2,000 silver pieces in a small chest buried in the back corner of the room once the Cleric turned the Shadows. They also found a ring that said, “To my celia.” It made the wearer much more lucky (Saves were all two better).

In the next room the door opens, and there was a Shadow there, and it bowed to the group. “Are we free to leave? We were bound to serve, but you have a thing that has semi-released us. That was our wedding ring.” They were released by the power of AeBalt. “Is there a final question before we leave?” They asked what the meaning of life was, and the Shadows said, “Lekorh (the Lich) rules us all, here and later.” As a GM I was shocked that they didn't ask anymore questions, and that they so quickly released them to the afterlife. Hehe.

While they were thinking on what questions they could have asked, they heard some Gnolls speaking, and they were talking to another person or thing. “Where's the Minotaur lately, his brother has been making a presence lately in his absence...” They heard a knock on the door. “In the name of the Horns, who are you?” They gave a flippant answer. “Slego cast.” The mages thought clairvoyance was cast, and they were looking through one of the character's eyes. Then they heard them walking away from them.

The group then heard the sounds of what they assumed was marching skeletons. They could hear their bones hitting the hard stone floors coming in their direction. They heard, “Company halt! Slego cast!” They thought he cast the Massmorph spell which is an illusionary spell. The walls, doors, basically everything in a 240' radius turned into what looked like a forest. Those that cast the spell were nowhere to be seen.

They found 4 Gnolls stabbed to death in a nearby room. Each body was stabbed 20 or 30 times. The ceiling was cracked, water was flowing through it, and it seemed pretty dangerous. They found a natural spring. The ceiling collapses and half a ton of rocks fell down on top of everyone's head. Those that avoided the falling ceiling were able to dig out the rest of the party members. The hallway back was completely buried so they had to go forward.

They found a teleporting circle but they didn't know where it would end up. One of the new guys Francis (the Frail) decided to volunteer to test it out. He teleported... somewhere. He found himself in a room with tapestries on the walls that had arcane symbols on them. He was completely alone, and he was standing on top of another teleport circle. There was a strange cinnamon-like smell in the air. They were various colors and each one had a different symbol on it. Francis heard more of that Slego chanting again. Francis grabbed one and then teleported back up.

They think that Stinky was telling them that the Slego's sometimes use sacrifice victims to help cast their spells, or perhaps for worship of their strange gods.

They overheard two Gnolls talking about what side they were going to support. They heard some names mentioned, and talk about a brother. They were guessing that some sort of power struggle is going on with the power vaccum. Mardus they think was the name of the Minotaur that they killed. Kornas & Borgius are two other names that seem like they have some power in the dungeon. They grabbed the tapestries and teleported back up to the surface.

They started to hear a strange humming noise coming from the tapestries. They think that the tapestries each have a different note. Cyr thought about the strange giants that used sounds during their magic chants to summon the dragon. When they separated them their notes reduced in sound, and then when they put them together they were louder. They unrolled them and then stacked them on top of each other. They seemed to interact with each other in some strange way. The tapestries seemed to have a calming affect on everyone.

They noticed the 3 moons in the sky (the red, the green, and the white) were all close to one another. They guessed that in a couple of days all three moons would be on top of one another for a rare lunar eclipse. They slept on Darves Hill for the night.

The whole group teleported down to the room with the tapestries and six slimy pink humanoids with sagging skin and tusks coming out of their faces were waiting for them. These were said to be the Sleegos. Two of the characters were frozen in place by the Sleegos' spell. They cast Sleep and many of the Sleegos fell over. The creatures smelled like very strong cinnamon. They tied two of them up and killed the rest of them.

When they woke up the two Sleegos they turned towards each other and seemed to be communicating. Sleegos have unsettling red eyes. They then heard bone feet marching in this direction. They had robes that were the same color with the same symbol as the tapestries.

The group was talking about what to do, when a skeleton opened up the door, and two other skeletons rolled a barrel with a lit wick into the room. The skeletons were armored, they had a shield, crossbows, short swords, and helmets. They seemed really intelligent, and there were 20 of them standing in formation. The barrel erupted into flames, and the group was thankful for the healing amulet. They put themselves out after they teleported upstairs.

DH51

They noted that many of the skeletons had amulets on (black spere). Then after a few moments the skeletons started teleporting after them. The skeleton's short sword had a Minotaur's face on the pommel. Inside the shield it said, The Withered Legion.

They sent the fiery magical bird to send word to the Mage in the city of Larm about the weird humming tapestries. They put on the magical Minotaur crown and learned that the arcane symbols on them stood for: Blue Peace, Green Patience, Red Release, Yellow Harmony. The colored robes that the Sleegos were wearing had the same symbols meaning the same thing.

The group then headed off to the town of Nahm. They put the tapestries on the walls of the groups dwellings. They wanted to have the mages scribe some more scrolls. At 9AM the next day the 3 moons eclipsed each other and then the sun itself, and the skies went black with slight tri-color coloration to everything from the light of the moons. The militia bells started ringing and then men started to man the walls.

Hundreds of soldiers could be seen far off in the distance, and then the group started to hear the drums of battle begin. The leader of the militia hadn't sent out any runners, so Cyr used his Dust of Disappearance and his Elven Boots to sneak up on the army to see what was going on. He saw rank upon rank of intelligent looking skeleton troops wearing chainmail and platemail. There were skeletons riding Hell Hounds. He guessed the ones wearing platemail were the leaders. Cyr heard them saying many times, “It's great that someone finally broke the seal!” Cyr guessed / realized that the tapestries must have been a seal to keep these undead in Darves Hill.

Grunka's Company recruited the one-eyed ogre named Gronn (who moves the “god rocks” every day to make the pantheon symbol by the side of the Temple) to help defend the walls. They told him to hurl the god rocks at the Skeletons. Then they decked him out in the Minotaur armor and gave him “Black Death” the Minotaur's sword. Overhead they saw the Dragon flying over, seemingly checking out what was going on below.

The mage from Larm showed up in the Temple in town, and the group went off to see what he could tell them.

This wizard (who has not given them his name yet) sighed when he saw what tapestries. He told them that all of the buildings on Darves Hill were meant to keep the things inside the hill. He said they could not be replaced. A ritual was performed and those tapestries were originally set up. The wizard told them that the Minotaur's impressive armor and sword must have belonged to someone of very high rank to have such powerful items. One of the retainer's souls was offered to the wizard and he shook his head. He told them that they should go get the Elves to help... with a smirk on his face. He knew that the Elven genocide started here in Nahm. He told them that they made their bed and now they have to sleep in it. He told them to contact him again if they survived and found more artifacts.

The skeleton army marched and came just out of reach of arrows. Gronn started hurling his god rocks out at them. Joshua drank his Fly potion and then when he got within 60 feet of the Green Dragon he drank the Control Dragon potion. They had 12 rounds of Drgon Vloxaxis (they asked him his name) fury. He told Vloxaxis to destroy the Withered Legion. Joshua blessed and protected the Dragon from Evil.

The Chlorine gas breath weapon killed the Hell Hounds, and then it made many sweeps at the army. It then landed in the midst of them and destroyed them. Maybe 40-50 skeletons survived. They fled to the North back to Darves Hill. Joshua flew after them and made sure the Dragon was also heading back to the Hill.

They inspected the field of battle, and they noticed that Gronn the one-eyed ogre could also cast low level healing spells. They found 120 amulets, 160 short swords, 100 shields, and 110 suits of chainmail, and 30 suits of Platemail. Gronn was collecting his god rocks. They let Gronn keep the armor and sword. Gronn asked for forgiveness for hurling a rock near Thimple in the past. He asked if Militia would tell him if town needed help. Uldritch was the leader of the militia now. He told them that the Dragon “ate the town” when he was young.

Even though they defended the town from the Withered Legion, they reminded themselves that the seal was broken, and that things in the dungeon could now exit through the surface. Thus ended the session.

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