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Old 01-18-2020, 06:07 AM   #116
coronatiger
 
Join Date: Apr 2018
Location: Trondheim, Norway
Default Session 29 (2020-01-11)

Thoughts on April 11th

With everyone’s wounds and aches taken care of, we returned to the temple. I asked Va’lyndra to cast her eyes over the statues to look for more magic, but it had all disappeared when the guardian shattered. We peeked inside the temple. There were more statues, and faded paintings covered the walls of the large chamber. Openings in the wall led to smaller rooms along the perimeter.

Va’lyndra searched for magic, but found none. When she sat down to regain some energy, Leopold began studying the paintings and the statues eagerly, scribbling furiously in that notebook of his. Ilzo and I searched for treasures, in my case while walking on my hands, but we turned up only scrap metal. We all noticed that a three-headed goat featured prominently in several artworks, and according to Leopold’s translations of the inscriptions, it was a war god named Farnotep. He asked if any of us had heard of this god. The name was new to me, and neither Ilzo nor Va’lyndra was familiar with it either. Va’lyndra nearly made a joke, deriding the concept of a farmyard animal as a god of war. There’s hope for her, yet.

Leopold launched a litany of questions at the elf, regarding the classes and hierarchy of the ancient elven nation, but Va’lyndra knew next to nothing about the topic. Bored almost to tears, I suggested they continue their discussion in camp, as there was obviously nothing for us here. I wished them a good night and went to make some noise with Olivia.


Thoughts on April 12th

At breakfast, Leopold asked if we were done at the temple. I told him that those of us who hadn’t been staring at statues and paintings the whole time had searched the place instead, so yes, we could move on.

We went over to the hole in the ground. A set of stairs led down into the darkness. I prompted Va’lyndra to go first to look for magic and traps, and the rest of us followed in the usual order. Ilzo went second, because he’s a man of action. If something happened to Va’lyndra, he’d help her. Leopold came after him so he wouldn’t stand in Ilzo’s way while copying down some fascinating fact revealed by a trap sprung by Va’lyndra. I brought up the rear, as it was wise to have someone combat capable there, in case an enemy snuck up on us from behind. I could launch arrows just as easily forward as backward, and if necessary, I could vault past the gnome and the orc effortlessly, through any space large enough for them to pass.

At the bottom of the stairs, a short corridor led to a larger chamber. In the middle of the chamber, reflecting light from Surkalpi, stood a tall metal pillar. Va’lyndra detected magic, and called us to a halt. She started her spell dance to analyze the magic, and Ilzo took the opportunity to return to camp and change into his heavier metal armor.

After several hours of spell casting and resting – I even had time for a tumble with Olivia – Va’lyndra had fully analyzed the enchantment. In front of us was an area spell that detected when someone alive, like a human or an animal, entered. If that happened, a signal would be sent to the metal pillar. The pillar was too far away for analysis without entering the field, but whatever occurred there couldn’t be good, for Va’lyndra discovered a password that hopefully would let us in without anything bad happening. We decided to take lunch before entering, and I snuck another snuggle with Olivia after helping her tidy up after the meal.

Va’lyndra uttered the password, and we could briefly hear a faint buzzing sound. She stepped forward a few paces. “Come and fetch me if this goes badly,” she instructed. Ilzo made as if to follow, but I held out a hand and told him not to, unless he first said the password. He did so, and entered the magic field. Va’lyndra, alarmed, tried to get out, but a bolt of lightning flashed out from the pillar and struck her in the back, and she crashed to the floor. I yelled for Ilzo to drag her out. We heard a buzz when he grabbed her, and Leopold shouted the password. A thought brushed past me that I could have dodged the lightning bolt, if I’d had focused intensely on it, but Va’lyndra, with her back turned, stood no chance. I wasn’t stupid enough to test it, though. Ilzo came out with the unconscious elf, and Leopold started to explain his theory about how the lightning trap worked. “Not now,” I interrupted, “we need to get her to Olivia!”

Olivia set to work with bandages and healing salves, and Va’lyndra blinked awake after a few minutes. Ilzo brought her healing potions, and she would have got up, if she hadn’t been so exhausted. Some more rest was in order. I glanced longingly at Olivia. “Again?” she sighed. I had to do most of the work, but she was far from unwilling.

Back at the magic field, Va’lyndra repeated the password, and again we heard the buzzing. I noticed that the short buzz increased slightly in pitch. Va’lyndra repeated the password yet again, and now the pitch decreased. “I think it’s off, now,” she told us and entered. I guessed she’d had a talk with Leopold about the password while I was … doing other things. She went as far as to the entrance to the chamber, and said we could follow, as long as we didn’t repeat the password. As it was several syllables of ancient elvish, I didn’t think there would be much chance for me to utter it by chance. I went inside with the others.

Near the pillar, something was painted with blood on the floor, an intricate and ominous image. The center of the painting was a ring with lots of triangles inside. Circling it was eight more rings; all nine rings were about the same size. Three arrows pointed out of the circle of rings, in different directions. Text unintelligible to me covered most of the painting. At six meters across, it must have taken forever to write it all. Some of the text was in a small area just outside the circle of rings, and while still unreadable, if seemed different, somehow. A rusted metal bottle lay on the floor, and someone had stepped in the blood while it was still liquid, but there wasn’t anything of interest here. Va’lyndra reported that there was no more magic in the painting than elsewhere in the chamber, so she took Ilzo and me exploring the other passages out of here, leaving Leopold to study the painting. He said he needed a whole day to copy everything down, so he’d better get started.

We found some rooms we determined must have been habitation areas, and Va’lyndra discovered a hidden room with a magical ring in it. The ring was made of gold and was inscribed with ancient elvish letters. Va’lyndra analyzed it and revealed that the wearer becomes blurry, thus harder to strike in combat. She demonstrated. I don’t want that ring. Although it would be useful to me in combat, I want to be seen!

Leopold kept at the copying while the rest of us returned to camp. Food and sleep weren’t as intriguing as the bloody painting. He came for his turn of the night watch, though.


Thoughts on April 13th

Leopold went to finish the copying after breakfast. Va’lyndra got out the magic book and started reading. At that point, I realized that we wouldn’t be doing party things for a while, and sought out Olivia’s company instead. We came out of our tent for lunch and dinner, and then Leopold came back and told us he had completed his task, so after the meal, we moved to the last quest site. It was getting quite late when we had pitched our tents, so we chose not to begin exploring until tomorrow. I had been with Olivia most of the day, but didn’t object to some more private time.
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You don't need to spend 100 CP on Status 5 [25] and Multimillionaire [75] to feel like a princess, when Delusion [-10] will do.

Character sheet: Google Drive link (See this thread for details.)

Campaign logs: Chaotic Pioneering / Confessions of a Forked Tongue
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