2023-10-18 The Ruins of Atla
Player Characters
- Green
- Auri
- Balasar
- Wiznt
- Tarhun
Summary
The party began in Umberton. Green summoned a pegasus as a mount. The party stopped by the newly-opened Zenith Gladepost to purchase some trinket items, including the entire stock of Badges of Resistance. The shopkeeper, a gnome named Willoughby, gave them a business card and recommended speaking to a Zenith Industries representative in Snavopolis regarding bulk orders.
The party traveled south into the swamp, truding through gnat and mire for about 4 days before finding toppled old stone buildings.
While exploring, a bronze scout zapped them. More clockworks crawled out of the earth to attack. Low on health, Green cut down the last few automatons in an adrenaline-fueled rage.
Returning to their investigation, they drained a diagonal tower filled with murky algae-covered water by smashing a hole in the bottom.
Tarhun found a strongbox in the tower's soaked wreckage. Inside was a ruby and an ancient journal.
Bits of stone structures and fallen walls seemed to be dragged southward. The party followed the trail of scattered ruins.
They approached an artificer and some guards who were investigating a pile of ruins. The artificer introduced himself as Lord Kyoro Tunaro, vassal of House Vlommengar.
- Kyoro had read the paper Tarhun published recently, and became curious about the ancient ruins. He was hoping to learn engineering techniques from the stoutfolk, as well as find inspiration for new inventions.
- When Tarhun introduced himself, Kyoro was pleased to meet him, and invited him to give a lecture at Kelani Hall in Morningshade City. He emphasized that House Vlommengar constructed the famous assembly hall.
- Wiznt suggested creating a device that could carve rivers and an item equivalent to the Badge of Resistance. Kyoro loved the ideas, but mentioned that the badge is patented by Zenith Industries, who they have a partnership with. He also mentioned that Zenith are experimenting with primal crystals.
- Green described the divine power of the Garuda, including its ability to bestow knowledge. He convinced the engineer to visit the temple in Salmund sometime.
- Wiznt invited Kyoro to visit his stronghold in Scorch Alley. He also asked Kyoro for a tour of the oil mines in Solaki.
- Kyoro also wanted to visit Snavopolis to see its factories. He told the party that House Vlommengar had two teleportation circles; one for allies and one for private use. He provided a mailing address for the party to meet and discuss usage of the public circle.
After the conversation, Kyoro told the party he was returning to Solaki for now. The party resumed their journey south as the Vlommengar retainers traveled north.
While the party camped out in a tiny hut, someone began to shout at them, waking the party. They discovered a lone lizardfolk, shouting threats in draconic. The lizardman demanded that they leave and never return.
The party fought the spear-toting lizard, quickly and easily defeating him. Tarhun calmed him down and got him to talk. They noticed that he wore a topaz ring very similar to Balasar's.
The lizardman, named Glidzan, told that the ring was a gift from someone he met when he crossed the east edge of the shadowglade. He received it about 20 suns ago. Glidzan asked about Balasar's ring, and Balasar told the story of how it was given to him by a strange wizard long ago. Both rings were cursed and could not be removed.
Glidzan told how his tribe had exiled him for speaking out of turn too often. Since acquiring the ring, he found that he had an endless well of courage. It had gotten him into trouble with his own people, and now he wandered around on his own, doing what he could to protect the clan who had ostracized him. He was trying to protect their home from the "intruders".
Balasar had a momentarily flash of deja vu, realizing he had seen another ring like this in a past adventure in Scorch Alley. It was worn by someone he hadn't spoken to, however, so he couldn't place a face or name.
The party told Glidzan they would leave. The lizardman accepted the promise and left them in peace.
The next day, the party found warning signs of an orc camp. Approaching, they saw that the mud huts of an orc tribe stood among bodies. Dismembered and battered orc corpses were strewn about, but there were much fewer than the expected population for a camp of that size. It appeared that a large group of humanoids with inconsistent footprints had come through, but there was no clear direction after the battle. Corpses were bruised and battered, and some had huge claw-like stab wounds.
Wiznt found an orc foot and scried with it. He saw a place in the Shadowglade among ruins, with piles of orc bodies strewn about. A stone gazebo stood in the center, with a morningstar on display. He memorized the clouds overhead.
An hour of travel later, the party saw the same gazebo ahead. Two piles of orc corpses were left nearby, decaying in pits of soft earth. They detected an alarm spell around the morningstar. They dispelled it and carefully collected the morningstar.
They realized the setup was a necromancer's trap. They flew high into the air and doused the body piles thoroughly with oil.
The corpse piles rose to life as blobs of viscera. An elf woman teleported into the arena, taunting about how they had fallen into her trap- before realizing the party were high above and hadn't actually fallen in.
Flameskulls rose from the muck, and a tall boneclaw stood beside the necromancer as the corpse mounds lurched forward. The party fought against the undead squad.
The necromancer used vortex warp to pull Auri into the middle of the undead. She managed to teleport out, but not unharmed.
Green smited the undead around him, but was removed from his pegasus when the necromancer cast maze, imprisoning him in another dimension from which he could not escape.
The PCs ignited the corpse mounds. Burning zombies would fall off of them, then collapse in a pile of char. Wiznt was enveloped by one of the mounds, however. He used tenser's transformation to grow strong, then burst his way out of the flaming corpse pile. He hopped onto the pegasus to get some distance from the burning, decaying masses.
Auri froze the necromancer with hold person. When Green reappeared from the maze, he smited the nearby undead in vengeance.
The party slew the necromancer and her minions. They looted a morningstar +2, staff of relocation, and some spell component gems.
The trail of ruins led to the ocean. It appeared that Atla had been swept all the way into the sea.
Wiznt cast divination and asked: how should we look for the Orb of Communication? The answer was vague: "Someone has it who is using it a lot. They are in a place protected from divination, however, so I cannot say more."
Upon returning to Umberton, Zenith Gladepost had stocked more items, which the party purchased. They tested to verify that the badge of resistance actually worked, which it did.
Documents found
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