The Dungeon of Graves: Session 26
General Summary
“Goodberries Save Lives”
Report Date
04 Apr 2021
As the Shrike’s aethrin resources continued to dig their way out of the stone shaped mess they placed themselves in, the Dungeon of Graves forgot about them, or at least it seemed. They had to chisel and blast away at rock for three weeks before they could extract themselves from Arienanathela’s tomb. Meanwhile, two new recruits were being brought to the dungeon. They were gathered in New Czira and teleported to the wasp cave and continued north across eastern Gylidd island to their prison. Just like the rest, they were tasked with finding the Architect for the Shrike before their servitude would end. The Wights followed steps they had done so many times before and probably would do so in the future. They collected the key from the Dwarven statue, recited an appeasement to the Master, from a note they had, to keep the skeleton in its coffin and delved down into the dungeon taking the secret door. Nysdrith, a warforged Artificer with their defender, Mr Collins, and Thevius, a magic user tiefling followed their guides past a rather smelly area, past the stream, and down through the area once mastered by the Madman to the pantry which would lead down to purple worms cave. At this point the Wights were very adamant about them sticking to the walls and they followed their advice and found themselves outside the rather heavy door where the others were trapped behind.
They could hear the heavy door move and as they rushed over to make sure it wasn’t shut, they could only hope that this was the help Inako, the Prime Thrall, had sent. Mr. Collins held the door for the others to slip into the hallway. At this point they introduced themselves rather civilly and without any external judgement. Maybe the three weeks stuck in the tight tomb softened their attitudes. A small discussion resulted in them heading to the ogre room to explore some of the side tunnels. They did not want to explore the door behind the Master’s statue that had caused them all to flee and thus trapped for three weeks until they had more gear; however, they also did not want to leave the dungeon as they had lost three weeks of time and Inako earlier had shared how the Shrike’s patience wouldn’t last forever. Knowing that the rat tunnels above them would take them to the floor below, they made their way to the large cavern.
Nearing the opening, Vai’len stopped the group. With Halxion’s enhanced darkvision, she could see the very large purple worm sleeping. Having the group fall back, they discussed what to do. They could move around the sleeping creature, head down through the heavy door and possibly find more clerics of the Master or they could check on something that had been bugging some of them. Last time they had been away, the room they teleported into had been repopulated by ghouls and ghasts and what if the oracle moved?
Moving through the unfinished arcane vault, they tried to move quietly. Unfortunately they were louder than they wanted. As they reached the campfire room, they all noticed the new bedrolls that were still warm and a fresh fire. Lothar could hear aethrin behind the door ahead of them and just simply opened the door. A priestess of the Master with her acolytes, were about to present their offering to the floating skull when the cleric of Vrokíva brought his party into view. The priest turned and tried to cast a guardian but the wizard countered. She ordered her acolytes to kill them before she shut the door to the oracle, blocking herself off from the others. Two of her own were left to deal with the Shrike’s resources. Kaertas froze one of the minions but the other freed them and fell back to the oracle room. After their tactical retreat, Sinestra calls out to Nysdrith for help in ‘opening’ the door and they start blasting a hole through it. The opening was wide enough for Vai’len to move up and aim a critical shot into one of the acolytes.
The priestess opens the door and drops a guardian in the Master’s image into the room. Ignoring the pain, Mr. Collins moves in and attacks while Sinestra moves closer so she could get a better angle. The fighting continues with Lothar landing a finishing hit on one of the Master’s minions and Nysdrith entering into melee with the priestess. Turning to the group they let out a “I hurt” before continuing their assault. With her acolytes down, the priestess summons darkness around her and steps to the group. Kaertas makes Lothar big while some of the squishier folk stay in the campsite room. Unfortunately for the group, what seemed to be a battle about to end in their favor turned sour when the acolytes, rose to continue their onslaught, while the priestess strides into the squishie’s room, shuts and holds the door, enveloping them in the painful darkness.
Kaertas managed to shove a Goodberry into the warforged’s mouth, reviving their new companion. Two battles were now happening, one with the minions in the oracle room and one with the priest and the squishy members of the group. As team oracle room fought and downed the clerics, their bodies hit the ground touching the magic circle and their souls get sucked up into the skull’s teeth. As each soul was consumed the oracle said “your offering is sufficient.” After feeding the skull some souls they turned their attention to the room with the priestess. They damage the door enough for Halxion to get a Moonbeam in and finish off the Master’s minion. After the battle they talk about what happened with the souls while Vai’len casually checked the bodies for Nam.
The group was torn about what to do with the priestess’s body, do they feed her to the oracle and ask a question? Morality is heavily discussed but ultimately Mr. Collins dragged the corpse and Nysdrith fed her to the oracle. The warforged then had them reconvene to the campsite room to discuss what to actually ask. Between Kaertas and Dr. Carric they are pretty sure that the oracle is a demi-lich, the most powerful undead they have ever encountered and for it to be trapped there, the magic behind that is far beyond to even think about. With their question decided on, Kaertas moves back to the oracle. Nysdrith and Mr. Collins accompanies him with Vai’len hovering in the nearby room. The wizard asks “Where is the architect located?” but their current offering isn’t enough for this difficult question, they add the ruby necklace that the priestess was going to offer and throw in the silver ring after it was once again ‘not enough.’ With their offering sufficient the souls are destroyed, the gold and silver melted and oracle’s eyes burn “The Architect of Rappan Athuk resides within the Anima Engine. This location is known to us; between the 14th and 15th level of the Dungeon of Graves.” The demi-lich’s eyes go inert. The oracle will not answer another question for a week.
They rejoin the others. Judgement, disappointment, anger and other feelings can be felt across the party as they reconvene. Kaertas shares what they have learned and that this “Anima Engine” had been a rumor. It was what actually prompted the Army of Light to leave Gylidd Syn Aethri to sack Tsar. The engine harnessed the souls of Inaethri and aethrin alike, slowly torturing them and siphoning them for fuel. Energy collected by the engine could transmute the world however they liked as it emulates Inaethri powers granted to them through faith. And they were all tasked with collecting the Architect, the creator of the engine, for the Shrike of Czira.
