Session 46: I didn't need those anyway... Report

General Summary

Cigfran has lost most of his feet and legs to a flood of chemicals out of a long forgotten storeroom., the party must decide whether to explore this ancient hidden redoubt, or ignore it and continue their journey.

The group gathered around in what appeared to be a "spare" alchemy lab, while Cigfran rested on one of the large stone tables after having his feet destroyed by an ancient mix of chemicals. Roy conjured a fabulous floating disk and helped Cigfran onto that so he would not have to walk. Jeeves tried to think how to take all the many items filling the storeroom nearby, and several options were considered, but it seemed that there just wasn't proper packaging available for items this delicate; even the magic available could only affect one item. Jeeves , nonetheless, examined the entire contents of this storage room very carefully and thoroughly, as well as the few intact flasks in the opposite storage room. Jeeves found some interesting functional alchemy, and a dizzying array of equipment typically used for Alchemy. Cigfran and Roy discussed the age of this place, Cigfran estimated that the place had lain abandoned for a couple millennia. Roy spent some time attempting to determine if there was any magical influence to this, and determined that indeed a powerful chronomantic and conjuration ritual was performed, improperly, long ago, that the entire population became "untethered" and lost in time and place. Roy had earlier met a couple such individuals, and now understood almost perfectly what had happened and how. He became convinced that, with preparation and better understanding of The Weave, he might be able to restore them to their proper place and time. Jeeves was reminded of a story, from another place and time, he read long before; a story of a person lost in a vast ocean who ended up moving through entire ages of the history of that world. The party again discussed who they were seeking, and their future plans. Jeeves , meanwhile, continued to explore the alchemy supply closet, and found all manner of amazing and truly impressive equipment, some unknown to alchemists of his time. Jeeves , accidentally, knocked one item off the shelf where it shattered upon the floor, alerting the others, but Jeeves insisted he was fine and would come out to the party after checking one more item. For the next several minutes, Jeeves made no further sound, and the party waited for a bit.

Roisin Marshfield decided to check on Jeeves , and found nothing but a statue that closely resembled their friend. The rest of the party came up quickly, and expressed dismay at seeing the statue, assuming that this was their friend transmuted to stone. Some consideration was given to how they might reverse this terrible turn of events, but in the end it was clear they could do nothing for now. Attempting to dispel any magic possibly affecting their friend, Boris did reveal the door hidden by illusion, and the poisoned needles which were embedded in his hand and had, apparently, transformed him to stone. Cigfran examined the door revealed, and found a magical trap of some sort, it appeared to conjure these needles to fly across the door opening. Roy also investigated, and probed the magic, and then tried to dispel it, but was unable to do so. Boris also attempted to dispel, but was unable to do so. Roy then used a divine boon, and tried again, succeeding this time. Roisin Marshfield also used a vial of Orwinia's Oil to reduce the Jeeves statue to a mere 6 inches in height, then placed it on her backpack. Roy then went to open the door, but found it locked. Cigfran examined the lock, which was in the door frame, not the door, and found three places where a key should be placed; he was able to quickly release the first, and only slightly less quickly the second, the third took a few tries, but when it was released the door fell into the floor with a whoosh and a loud bang and crash as the stone, free from it's counterweight due to the damage of ages, shattered somewhere a good distance below the floor.

Beyond stretched an ancient corridor, the floor thick with dust. After a bit of confusion, the party pushed Cigfran ahead of them on the magical floating disk so he could watch for traps or weak structure as they moved. Making their way down the long corridor and around a corner, they noted that breathing this dust could not be good. Just after that Roy and Cigfran , in front, managed to disturb the extremely thick dust filling a widened section of the corridor, fighting to avoid breathing in this sudden cloud of ultra fine dust. Roisin Marshfield carefully gathered a bag full of this dust, reasoning it might be useful. Roy and Cigfran continued forward as the others followed behind, all of them kicking up enough dust to require that they hold their breath moving through. Entering the room beyond, the group noticed that there was much less dust in this room compared to the halls behind them. Keeping watch as the rest of the party caught up, Cigfran noticed the disturbance in the air just before something invisible struck.

Cigfran , always alert to danger, managed to shoot one before these assailants moved, then the, apparently three, enemies struck at Cigfran and missed, then Roy , hitting once, then Boris, missing again. Cigfran fired again, but missed. Roy summoned a gravity sinkhole and tried to draw their enemies off, but could not see them to target the spell accurately, and only affected one. Roisin Marshfield ordered Cigfran to attack, and that worthy fired accurately, but the enemy was not where he thought it was. Boris called upon The Source to show him these invisible enemies, and immediately saw all three, then pointed them out to his allies. These assailants moved to flank Roy , and took turns slamming him into the ground, nearly killing him. The one behind Boris tried to slam him, but only hit once because Boris could deftly dodge them. Roisin Marshfield ordered Boris to attack this time, and Boris used the Might of Borelius to throw his hammer and slam one of the enemies to the ground. On his turn Boris also used the Might of Borelius to strike the other enemy next to Cigfran , and then, thanks to the might of the Rainbow Lash, struck the enemy next to him with the hammer on its return. The enemies next to Cigfran slammed him, Roy not being available, and between the two of them managed to hit twice. The one next to Boris chose to move over and strike Roisin Marshfield twice. Boris again pointed them out, and Cigfran fired his crossbow again, but missed thanks to not being able to see it. Roy reappeared next to Boris, who pointed out the enemy next to Roy , and Roy fired two blasts of magic force, battering the creature, then used an herb to slightly heal himself. Roisin Marshfield again ordered Boris to attack, so Boris used Might of Borelius to strike the creature next to him. Repeating, Boris again struck the weakest one next to Cigfran with the magical attack, then struck the creature next to him in melee. The creatures moved to attack Roy , hitting twice, then stymied by Roy 's magical shield. Roy again fired two blasts of eldritch energy, severely injuring one of the assailants next to him. Roisin Marshfield again ordered Boris to attack, and that worthy attacked the same creature as before. Boris then gave Roy a sweetvine, helping him to stay awake, then moved between the creatures. One creature moved up and attacked Roisin Marshfield, hitting once, although a bit feebly. Another attacked Boris, striking lightly. The last attacked Roisin Marshfield, and struck her viciously, knocking the wind out of her. Cigfran tried to shoot one of them, but missed and nearly shot Roisin Marshfield in the head. Roy again fired two blasts of magical energy, and destroyed the creature between himself and Roisin Marshfield. Roisin Marshfield again ordered Boris to attack, and he threw the hammer at the creature next to Roisin Marshfield, but missed. Boris then again threw his hammer at the creature next to Roisin Marshfield, destroying it, then used the returning hammer to strike the creature next to him. Boris then moved aside, and the creature struck him as he retreated. The creature then moved to attack Roisin Marshfield, but missed, and continued up near the ceiling and around the corner. Cigfran tried firing where the creature might be, but failed to hit. Roy moved up, and tried to shoot the creature, but somehow mismanaged the magic and ended up falling deeply and madly in love with the creature they were fighting. Roisin Marshfield ordered Cigfran to attack, but he failed to connect. Boris moved forward, and pointed out the creature's location to the group, then threw his hammer with The Might of Borelius, striking strongly, as Roy called out to him not to hurt this creature, but Boris ignored him and threw the hammer again. The creature flew over the group and struck Roisin Marshfield, but missed, then moved off. Cigfran tried again to hit the thing, but missed again. Roy , convinced this creature was his only true love, encased Boris in a field of magical energy to place him in stasis, buying time for the creature to escape, then moved close and used a misty step to jump to it's presence. Roisin Marshfield ordered Cigfran to attack, and despite Roy 's magic to protect this creature, managed to strike a vital point. The creature then struck Roy , with incredible ferocity, almost killing him if not for Roisin Marshfield's cry for life, then beat him again, nearly killing him. Cigfran then fired another bolt and struck the creature. Roy , finally coming to his senses, struck the creature with a chromatic orb of acid, then stepped back, falling into the chocking dust and beginning to choke, sneeze, and suffocate. Roisin Marshfield ordered Boris to attack as the stasis field fell away, and Boris again threw his hammer mightily, blasting the creature into random swirls of air. Boris and the rest, unwilling to cross the deadly dust, then watched Roy nearly suffocate to death before recovering.

Roy , recovered but still weakened, tried to cross the dust, but failed and began to choke on the dust again. Boris, frustrated, dragged Roy out of the dust then used his final, and most powerful, spell to clear Roy 's lungs and save his life. Roisin Marshfield gathered more of this dangerous dust for future use against enemies, but eventually caused another cloud to nearly choke her to death. though she resisted. Roy began preparing to conjure a magical dome in order to rest, although the party discussed and decided to just take a short rest instead as Boris kept watch, because it was only just past midday at this point. Looking around Boris saw a trio of ethereal skeletons chained to the stone columns in the room, but left that mystery for some other time as his vision of invisible and ethereal things faded. Roy and Cigfran investigated one of the doors, which crumbled to dust at a touch, allowing entry to a room full of large amphora apparently used as some sort of junk storage. Roy blasted a few of them open from a distance, finding an array of fairly random items including coins, birth certificates, shattered weapons, contracts, etc... A contract for Corvein Lessoth to purchase a potion of Medusa's Antidote from the Freehold of Alchemists, Artificers, and Aquamancers. Looking around Roy found a shattered flask that might have contained this antidote, unfortunately lost, and a different flask, intact this time. Near the back they found a bag of runestones. Using magic to identify the flask, it contained a potion of the most powerful healing type. Boris quickly opened each of the remaining amphora with a light tap from his warhammer to each one. After opening the jars, the party carefully sifted through the contents, and aside from a lot of decayed junk, they found a number of interesting items.

They found a pouch of emerald colored powder. Cigfran mentioned that he recognized this powder, it was a poison, a very nasty one, called powdered water. Thrown at a crowd, it would cause all of them to immediately begin drowning, as their lungs filled with water. The party found a number of other items, including coins, some magical items, some paperwork and records, a few journals, and a lot of random personal effects.

Rewards Granted

In the Amphora Attic:

• a page torn from a spellbook, with a portion of the spell shield written on it
• A substantial pile of coal
• Three gloves stained with blue blood
• A map of a tower that appears very strange
• A shopping list with barrels of butter, bushels of apples, hogsheads of oil, tuns of beer, etc... enough for a large community of perhaps 25,000 for a week.
• A diamond worth 1086 gold
• An entire journal in which somebody wrote their thoughts on the nature of The Source. The journal began with slightly questionable theology, half way through was fully heretical, and by the end was amature worship of The Corruption. The final entries described the author's plan to devote themselves to betrayal and murder their own family.
• A stone jar that clinked, and within were the dust remains of perhaps cotton? that must have surrounded the 173 gold therein.
• A 5 pound ingot of a strange silvery metal. Roy compared it against starmetal and Mithril, but it was not the same.
• Two pairs of spectacles
• A journal of travels describing the region
• A pouch of rare spiced rotted to dust
• A small brass bell
• A keyring of large iron keys
• A small container of small carefully packed gems (all gems detailed elsewhere)
• A contract for the construction of an Iron Golem by the Freehold of Alchemists, Artificers, and Aquamancers for an individual listed as "private transaction" with a price well over five hundred thousand gold to be paid in rare gems.
• A rolled up document for someone's ravings warning of events that did indeed occur in the time since this place became abandoned, culminating in a detailed and accurate description of the conflict between the Korth Horde and a construct army that destroyed the land where the conflict was fought; the months-long war that created the Sudarnen Badlands.
• A shopping list for smithery supplies describing an hundred thousand or more gold worth of materials and tools
• A blood spattered map of something called the sanctum of Gellygaigaa(gily giga) the Elemental.
• A contract from a private purchaser in the Kingdoms of the Sands who paid just under one million gold for a staff endowed with powerful magic that could conjure blasts of thunder, bolts of lightning, freezing cold, and balls of fire, could deflect powerful magic away from the wielder, hold enemies in place, or create a powerful invisible wall to block passage. Even the simplest apprentice with this staff could hold off a small army single handedly.
• An irridescent scale, the size of a dinner plate, made of amethyst
• A small steel mirror, rusted to almost nothing
• A tiny figuring, of a mermaid, with terrifyingly accurate anatomy, clothed only in lacy undergarments, approximately 1/12 normal size.
• A journal that seemed to describe an individual's descent from mild theological error into terrible heresy until their betrayal culminated in sabotaging the powerful ritual intended to save the community a fortnight after the ending of the journal, a ritual intended to escape terrible persecution from an army marching on the freehold because their better and less costly products threatened the state monopolies in kingdoms around them. The journal writer planned to replace a critical component of the spell with a fake as a devotion to Corruption and Betrayal.
• A small bag of multicolored feathers, all carefully tied. (Thunder Feathers, 4 total)
• A furled pennant on a thin silver rod with a staff socket on the bottom (Windborne Pennant)
• A variety of other coins worth a total of 29874 silver, and weighing roughly one ton.
• A small metal box containing four maple seeds, bright red, pale green, pitch black, deathly white. Identify could not determine the nature, but these would create a structure, a building, of some sort. Planted in the order red, black, green, white at the corners of a 120 foot square, something will happen.
• Several intact flasks
  • oil to be poured over a statue to reverse petrification, which Roy immediately poured over Jeeves , and over the next minute the statue returned to flesh and Jeeves was restored.
  • Elixir of the Electric Eel
  • Potion of Arcane Recovery
    • recover 9 levels of spell slots, but no single slot above 5th level
  • Potion of Gaseous Form
  • Oil of Regeneration
  • Elixir of Skill
    • 1 hour, when you drink this elixir, you have proficiency in all skills for the duration)
  • Witchwere Oil
    • 8 hours, when you apply this oil to a large or smaller object, which takes one minute, that object gains a fly speed of 60, and can carry 100, 200, 400, or 800 pounds (tiny/small/medium/large) for the duration. The object responds to verbal commands of the rider.
  • Oil of Rowe Jain
    • When a full 4 hours is spent rubbing this oil into skin before a long rest, that skin will grow full and luxurious tresses between 12 and 120 inches long over the next 8 hours. Thereafter that skin will continue to grow healthy hair for not less than 20 years, unless damaged or magically prevented. Unwilling subjects cannot be affected by this oil.
  • Ointment of Truth
    • When this ointment is rubbed into the eyes, the recipient gains truesight to 240 feet, can see shape changer's true forms, cannot be blinded, sees an aura around creatures which fades when they lie or decieve, and cannot be surprised for the duration of 1 hour.
  • A bag of 5 dull-green pills
    • Each pill, when swallowed, grants AC 15+constitution, and does not combine with armor (but does add dexterity bonus) for 24 hours.