Session 67: The Wizard's Cellar

Miscellaneous

  The Wild Cards explore the basement of the floating keep

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Redfall 16, 2023 KC, afternoon-ish

  Elder's Keep of Skola Vale   Recap   The party sees the room with the corpse.   Bastion asks Barlo to check for traps as he wants to check out the runes under the table. Sas casts Find Traps, and the glyph is trapped... Obvious sign of a glyph in the entry way, no Harm just a signal of some sort. An Alarm trap in the corner with the desk.   Bastion pulls out Princess. Sends her in to see through her eyes. Perception (7). Sees vials, large thing in corner with some liquid. Round metallic thing. Desk and alchemy stuff.   dust.   Sas says she is sure it won't make a sound, but may send a signal somewhere.   Barlo carefully enters... carefully. goes to table, being careful of runes.     Shadow is keeping her peepers alert. perception, advantage (29) She sees on the floor after he enters, it looks like a slight hard to spot shimmer. Notices more dust here, seems avoided. Some casters do have Invisible "cleaners" but it seems they have not been allowed down here.   Bastion enters, goes to Wizard stuff. investigation (23) Not too much of note. Various chemicals and alchemy stuff as well as autopsy and stuff.   goes to another table. Shadow sees a slight shimmer on the floor. investigation (20)   The Notebook of Tharros found in Floating Keep on Spellweaver Cadavar is about the creature. It doesn't bring up the name of it, just calls it "cadaver". Notes on how a powerful entity has erased knowledge of this creature from all known records. There are a few Deities...   NTO: MISSING AUDIO   Notes go on how to keep the knowledge safe. The top of the desk has some off color Wood. He pushes it and above the desk a shimmering blue Light appears. about foot wide   arcana (12) he is aware of wizards using pocket dimensions and hiding things in them. The button seems to summon the portal.     Barlo circles the cadaver.   Bastion tells everyone that the circle is to hide the cadavaer. then takes off a pole from his robe and sticks it into the portal. as it enters, the pole disappears. no damage to pole.   He puts his arm in and finds a hard object. He pulls it out.   Large wooden box. 1' wide. 2' tall. about 1' deep. plain. simple. arcana (15) doesn't notice anything magic as there is no hinge, no mark, nothing. the lid can be pulled off.   He pulls it off. well, shakes it first.   Calliope says she has the glove still, Barlo says he wants her to use it on the alien.   Bastion pulls off the top. In it is Metal box this one has symbols. It looks solid. has a gemstone in it. The symbols are traditional markings for the 8 Schools of Magic.     the gemstone flashes 5 colors. he is going to ritually cast Identify. about a minute into it the Gem flashes 5 different colors. The Metal box has a slight electric discharge and it hurts bastion. interrupts the casting.   party discussion: magic and colors vary. some traditional colors are associated with the schools, and that seems to change over time.   but currently it is generally accepted as:   Abjuration blue Conjuration yellow Divination white Enchantment pink Evocation red Illusion purple Necromancy green Transmutation orange   order on box: Necrom, Illusion, Evocation, Enchantment, Divination, Conjuration, Transmutation, and Abjuration   another minute. another spark. a new pattern.   He casts Dispel Magic which seems to do nothing as the box continues to do as it was.   Casts Identify.     it is still doing it's ritual every minute. as they discuss if he should cast it...   so he casts it right after a change. He does a concentration check... as the spark hits him it disrupts him.   Discusses using it again.     Shadow looks to use Mage Hand on the box. to see if it will do anything when touching the Conjuration Symbol, pokes Crystal, pokes symbols...
The symbols do glow a bit as they are touched... nvm.   Bastion touches it and casts Shield as he touches Abjuration -- but before casts the spell he notices it lights up.. so he touches the order.   He hears a slight hiss and it opens.   as he opens it up there is a book, it is ripped and only the first half with the cover titled: "Lord of the End of Everything",a spell book "Tharros Book 616AO66", a strange object made of some Silver like Metal (The Silver Hexameric Folio), and notes.   He examines things. The Metal pieces has fine symbols, but the runes from the note found earlier. Note of Strange Runes found in Tharros Flying Keep   With Bastion's Sage bg feature he is sure this language is not found on this planet.     Bastion casts Identify on this, as he casts it - he gets a Weird feeling and a drop of blood from his nose. He learns this is not of this world, Silver Hexameric Folio is how the Spellweavers create spells. It once had a sentient life, but that seems to be gone. He sees a spectral image of a Lich... history 30, it is Vecna. And he seemed to have imprinted a bit of himself on this object... He had destroyed the sentience on it and tried to block Identify on it. only due to bastion's level and power did it not kill him. Seems Vecna is the one erasing the knowledge of the Spellweavers...   Bastion says he can do Identify on the rest later, what else is important?

Barlo wants to investigate the corpse.   Bastion looks through the notes... Info on gods and the obelisks. Netherese has used them, eveen to lock up great powers..   Notes of Tharros found in Floating Keep on Obelisks on desk:   Information - Gods refuse to return, but do have sources of power here. Bast has a pocket dimension in the desert for her people, a guy came out long ago _ same story they heard before… She and some others know ways to manipulate the black obelisks… objects built long ago by an unknown race (paper shred with runes)… some Netherese had learned how to use such objects for a variety of reasons. Some to lock up ancient powers, others to funnel energy from the leylines… Gods can pierce the material realm near them without upsetting the Dragon prophecy.. Research on the DP shows how magic and gods can wake the Dragon… seems there are some safeguards thought, including the obelisk to stave this off.   They went through the shreds of a book. Seems that there were notes throughout it in Tharros' hand. the redacted parts seem to be smears of the ink but it is odd.   It goes into something called The Code of Reversion, which is imprinted on many gems.   The last book is a large elegant Leather bound book, a spellbook. it is written in the hand of Tharros. Bastion needs to decipher what spells are in it.     they also spot a mortar and pestle with a finely-crushed red crystalline powder. the shades seem to match some of the crystals.   The party takes some of this and puts in jars.   greenish liquid with red/purple/orange swirls in the mucky water. It seems some blackish dreg mold is on the bottom and is moving a bit.   Sas goes to investigate it. (1) Calliope sees her struggle so she gives a bardic inspiration (19)   Sas is looking at it and is more of a slime or ooze. some seems to crawl around.   Barlo knows he has no clue what the DR stands for in the times, so he asks Bastion who might know. He has studied the history of magic and so he knows how much of it originated from another place... Toril. DR is the dating method for them, Dalereckoning. This isn't common knowledge, but it is known in academia circles. no context on how their timeline works with Dierde timeline, except it is in the long past.     The party starts asking Calliope to touch the Skeleton... Lore role... then a Constitution Check.   She starts to see skeletal face, a Lich. Her nose bleeds a bit. As the wave of Fear comes over her, she is able to continue past this super powerful block from Vecna. This is a Spellweaver. They had plans on how to rewrite reality and become gods. As they tried to rewrite history, something went wrong. Everything blew up. There is a way to reverse this, but it will destroy all known history and life outside of their species -- including the gods. This Spellweaver lived many lives, it lived on Dierde in the early days of its existence it seems. The Arcane Forges, the strange metals on this floating island, and the crystals though are remnants of their Node they once had here.   Calliope is tested by the block placed by Vecna... This corpse was found by THarros. The Symbol below is to help hide the Skeleton from Vecna, Jergal, and others who might be interested in it. Tharros sought to steal its powers. He then locks himself in the Metal contraption, while in it he slowly got younger. Then an explosion. He comes out and he speaks of how something went wrong. He was trying to steal a power from the Spellweaver and something went wrong.   They investigate the dome thing. There is charring and such.   Barlo goes to check the sludge, taps teh tank. it didnt' react.   Shadow wants to take the Skeleton, Bastion thinks that might not be good due to the safety circle. He draws a copy of it. They then go check the other door there. Barlo does not see any traps.   He picks the lock. (22 on pick) He then rolls a dexterity check and hears a click-click-click, as a cutting blade comes out of ceiling and he takes a bit of damage. It seems to be a one off trap though.   this is a torture room. barren. Even more abandoned. Barlo takes a look around, especially the center device. He starts taking some parts off of it, a pair of manacles or not...   In between scraps he finds a piece of paper. The note is some chickenscratch trying to mark their time...   Barlo goes to check out the other door near the stairwell... bad investigation, so he picks the lock. As he is picking the locks he is not doing well.   bastion throws him the crowbar, "Stop fooling around"   Barlo breaks the door off the hinges which triggers a trap blowing it and Barlo into the long tunnel in the room. He is blown over the edge, Bastion and Shadow hear Wood on stone as the door hits something in the tunnel room. Barlo tries to grab something. anything. This vortex tries to pull Bastion and Shadow, but they are fine.   Barlo is falling, failing to grab anything. IN the center is avery tall Black Obelisk. He rages and tries to grab again. It is all black.15x20 tunnel goes down hundreds of feet. has Black Obelisk in center Dex check... fails.   Shadow goes to the doorway, ... Bastion polymorphs into a Giant Eagle, and attempts to grab him. He gets him. Takes him back up. The obelisk has very fine carvings... the symbols match the note and The Silver Hexameric Folio   Barlo pulls off a wall sconce and hands to the Giant Eagle so he can quickly investigate the hole   they lost the crowbar...   Bastion goes to explore. He flies down, hundreds of feet. at the bottom is a cave network, an excavation. He has been mining the metals and there is a tunnel going up.   Barlo yells to grab the crowbar.   bastion investigates the runes on the obelisk as he flies back up.   calliope casts Comprehend Languages and touches the obelisk...   another con save as she touches it she sees Vecna again and takes psychic damage. She was unable to break through his spell... but she does pick up it as arcane jibberish, it is symbols used to perform magic and not make sentences.   Bastion turns back to Human form. He hands the note to Calliope.   It has the same stanzas as they saw in common.  

as per the prophecies from the dragons Vecna will be killed and his apprentice will try to raise him before the spellweavers Remind Jergal of his purpose and ancestry The Gems of Tharizdun can unlock the dark god Or can be used to reverse the Disjunction Both will bring Destruction to all  

— note in alien runes

  discussion on Viggie might have followed Jergal. Jergal gave powers over. Ursa killed Viggie...   So they start back up...       everything has been cleaned up and straightened up... this was retconned a bit in next session as they died on the way up the stairs.              

 
t Milestone Experience | 2000 ea Total: 96000 (Next Goal: 100,000 ) t