Session 02
General Summary
After a productive time in the library at Mount Macarack spent researching the Valley of the Shrines,
the Albioners were eager to put their newfound information to use. The best clue was an old map
showing Casden located due north of Thistledelve, so the plan was to return to Thistledelve and
then head out in search of the ruins of Casden. Bidding goodbye to their hosts, they set off south.
This time the Albioners had to traverse the mountains themselves with no cunning dwarven
shortcuts. In fact, as they reached the area where they'd helped the dwarfs fend off a bugbear
ambush, they spotted yet more bugbears lurking menacingly high above the path. Luckily they
hadn't seen the Albioners so Ermenred tried a new spell he'd learned which turned everyone
invisible. Unfortunately bugbears are blessed with sensitive hearing and soon realised somebody
was travelling the path below them, even if they couldn't see anybody. They rained boulders down
but luckily these only inflicted a couple of minor wounds. With the bugbears virtually unreachable
up the cliff face there was no point doing anything other than quickly leave the area. The bugbears
seemed more intent on waiting to ambush dwarfs so didn't move from their spot. That night saw
two separate attacks by Limbrender orcs, both easily repulsed with heavy losses on the orc side.
After that first eventful day out of Mount Macarack, the rest of the journey to Thistledelve went
quickly and quietly.
The group left Thistledelve heading due north. Within a day they had located Casden. Contrary to
expectations, Casden was still a normal functioning village, though the large numbers of ruined
buildings showed it was currently much less populated than it had been in the past. It later
emerged that all the damage had been inflicted by orc raiders during the Chaos Wars. There was
no inn but the group bought accomodation from the blacksmith, though he was suspicious of their
intentions. He did ask his son to direct the Albioners towards the ruined temples of Muir and Thyr.
The twin temples had evidently seen better days, both lacking their rooves and had been left
derelict for years. While poking around inside the Temple of Muir, Ermenred sensed a magical
emanation from beneath a plinth - all that remained of a statue of Muir. In ancient writing, which
required arcane translation, read "Speak oh warrior stout hearted and true, three virtues of our
valorious lady". The time in the library had not been wasted and Ethulwulf confidently proclaimed
"truth, honour, courage". Amazingly, the plinth slid aside revealing stairs down. The stairs led to a
square room with 3 doors. Each was inscribed in the same ancient language as the plinth had been.
The eastern door read "invoke Muir's divine favour and name her virtue which is her shield". The
northern door read "call upon the power of the goddess to make your weapons as hers and name
her virtue which is her sword". The western door read "pray to the goddess that self sacrifice
might protect others and name her virtue which is her armour". There was much thought, debate
and experimentation as to how to answer these riddles and open the doors but nothing worked.
Perhaps a priest of Pelor might be of use in answering them. There was also suggestion that
specific divine blessings might be the keys. In any case, the Albioners left the secret chamber, the
plinth sliding back and sealing it shut after they were all out.
They then briefly visited the Temple of Thyr, determined a similar magical emanation existed
beneath a statue plinth, but were unable to translate the writing or get it to open by experimenting.
They vowed to return the next day, once Ermenred had chance to perform some research and
prepare certain arcane spells. They returned to the blacksmiths for the night.
Before returning to the ruined temples, Heremod made enquiries about priests of Pelor. He was
pleased to learn that a Father Po lived in Casden itself. He was asked to accompany the group to
the temples and was intrigued when told of all they had discovered. Once as the Temple of Muir,
Po was amazed to see the plinth slide aside and carefully studied the 3 sealed doors. It emerged
that the ancient writing was Celestial, which Po was versed in. It was discovered that Muir's shield
was truth, her sword was courage and her armour was honour. Father Po paused before each door,
offering prayers and requesting divine blessings. Lo and behold each door opened in turn.
Disappointingly all rooms beyond were utterly bare. As before the plinth slid back once all had
left, resealing the hidden chambers. The group, still accompanied by Po, moved on to investigate
the Temple of Thyr. Po translated the words on the plinth "as you obey the commands of Thyr, so
this figure obeys your command". After much debate, experimentation and prayer it was
discovered that the words "open in the name of Thyr" caused the plinth to slide aside, though it
only worked for Father Po, presumably as he was more holy than the rest of the group. The stairs
led down to a square room containg miscellaneous furniture - chairs, tables, bookstands - though
all empty. As in the neighbouring temple, there were 3 sealed doors with Celestial inscriptions
upon them. The eastern door read "intone praises to Thyr, brother, and you may enter". The
northern door read "passage comes with the blessing of Thyr". The western door read "devout
prayer is the pathway to knowledge". As before, Po spent some time in prayer before each door
and they opened in turn. Unlike in the Temple of Muir, these rooms were not empty, all held beds,
tables and chairs. The western one contained chests of religious vestments and religious symbols.
The eastern one also had a desk which contained a small book. This turned out to be a most
valuable find, a journal written by Abysthor, the last high priest of Thyr, who the group had
learned about at Mount Macarack.
The last journal entry was dated some 20 years previously. It described Abysthor's plans, in his
extreme old age, for a final journey to the Valley of the Shrines to seek out the entombed Power in the
burial chambers. Entries prior to that described Abysthor's distress at the waning of worship of his
god. In a 50 year old entry, he described the death of the last high priest of Muir and the lapse of
that particular faith. The various holy items recovered were given to Po to have shipped to the
Cathedral at Littlebrook. The group then spent the rest of the day and worked long into the night
cleaning and restoring the derelict temples as best they could. Obscene graffiti left by the orc
pillagers was removed.
The group headed out towards the Valley of the Shrines. It turned out to be easy to find. They
mentioned the white marble pillars mentioned in books at Mount Macarack and Father Po could
give them directions straight to them. Beyond the pillars, a carefully constructed path, in places
including stairs carved directly into the mountainside, headed upwards. Ethulwulf was at the front
and his ranger skills detected many booted footprints both coming and going along the path -
possible evidence of Sir Mangarack's forces? After some six hours on the path, virtually all of it
steeply uphill, the group found a second pair of white pillars, which marked the entrance into the
Valley of the Shrines. Ahead they saw a lake and two temples. Beyond was a forest. As the ground
was relatively open and wary that Sir Mangarack and his troops might be around, the group did
not enter the valley and instead retreated until they could hide their campsite in the mountainous
terrain. Zandrill was then sent to scout. He returned with various news.
The lake, described in the library as "crystalline" was now murky and fouled. He'd also seen
unnaturally giant frogs lurking in the reeds. The temples, though both structurally more sound than
those in Casden, were blackened and desecrated. Statues in each temple had been beheaded and
smashed into bits, with evil runes carved all about the place. The valley as a whole was very quiet,
there was no sound, no movement, no campfires, etc. Disturbingly there was little or no animal
life.
Zandrill was again sent to scout. Being so close to nature he had a knack of blending in with the
scenery very well. He returned with news of two white obelisks marking an entrance in the forest.
Deep in the forest, two more obelisks marked an opening cut into the mountainside - the burial
halls. He'd also seen many, many webs along with huge spiders covering much of the forest,
though the flanks of the valley seemed clearer of these. A one-eyed troll was also spotted roaming
the valley and drinking from the stream. Zandrill thought he'd spotted its cave. It was supposed
that it was a native of the area, nothing to do with Sir Mangarack, so it was decided to try and
avoid it.
As the valley had been so quiet, particularly the temples, the group decided to pay them a visit. It
seemed Sir Mangarack and his forces were elsewhere - perhaps in the Burial Halls? Moving
cautiously but quickly, the Albioners ventured from their camp in the mountains down into the
valley. They headed firstly for the Temple of Muir. It was very similar in layout and construction
to that in Casden. Rather than simple orc graffiti however, this temple was covered everywhere in
evil runes. Some of the runes unleashed an evil effect on the unwary, as Ethulwulf found out. He
unleashed flash of black light and a wave of desolation while searching for an inscription on the
statue plinth. Ermenred used his arcane sight to spot 4 similar runes located around the room and
warned everyone to stay clear of them. By happy coincidence, the same method as worked in
Casden worked in this temple. When Ethulwulf declared "truth, honour, courage", the statue slid
backwards revealing a staircase down. The room downstairs appeared undisturbed and
undesecrated. It contained 3 doors marked with the same inscriptions as in Casden. Ermenred
recalled what Father Po had done and knelt in prayer before each door, then announcing the
appropriate virtue e.g. shield = truth. Amazingly he glowed as he prayed, then the doors glowed
and then swung open! Clearly he was touched by Muir herself. Unlike in Casden, the three
chambers were not empty. Instead they appeared suitable for a garrison, each containing cots
along with many pieces of weaponry and armour. A trunk contained scrolls contained various
divine magics.
Colby touched a particularly fine suit of plate mail. He was surprised to see a ghost appear. The
ghost declared itself as Sir Karith, last of the Justicars of Muir, a legendary order even higher ranked
than The Knights of the Sun. He commanded Colby to don the armour, though he'd never worn full
plate before. As Colby put the armour on it magically altered before his eyes into something more
closely resembling his own leather armour. Sir Karith then instructed Colby to pick up a nearby
paladin's longsword and wield it in the name of Muir. Once again, as Colby picked it up, the
sword magically altered shape into the more familiar shape of a shortsword. Colby was then
charged with a sacred duty - to recover a holy chalice and stone from the 2nd level of the Burial
Halls and return them to The Cathedral in Littlebrook. The ghost of Karith then disappeared though
Colby was left with the impression that he was being watched over.
The group then experimented with opening and closing the plinth-door and figured out how to use
it. Perhaps this could be a safer base to use while scouting the valley than camping in the
mountains? Next they visited the Temple of Thyr. This had suffered as much damage and
desecration as its twin. Again evil runes including some blasphemous magical effects were daubed
everywhere. After trying to repeat what Po had done to open the plinth-door in Casden, it was
discovered that only Ermenred possessed the necessary attributes to successfully command "open
in the name of Thyr". As in the Temple of Muir, the room down the stairs was unstained by
corruption. This place was packed with shelves, bookstands and chairs. Rare ancient books were
everywhere and Ermenred looked like he died and gone to heaven. The books seemed mainly to
be historical texts, journals and holy tracts. As in Casden there were 3 sealed doors. Ermenred
tried to repeat what Father Po had done but to no avail. It was then suggested that perhaps the
divine scrolls recovered from Muir's temple might boost the power of his prayers. Indeed this
turned out to be the solution and soon all 3 doors stood open. Like in Muir's temple, these rooms
appeared suitable for a garrison, filled with cots, tables, chairs and many chests. The chests
contained huge stocks of scrolls, holy water and potions. The means of opening and closing the
plinth-door was experimented with. The Temple of Muir one could be controlled by anyone while
the Temple of Thyr one only responded to Ermenred. It seemed like this would be a better base for
exploring the valley from. So the group returned to the campsite to recover many heavy supplies
they'd left there. Most of the group made their home in the Temple of Muir, while Ermenred and
Zandrill used the Temple of Thyr so they might study the holy texts there.
Having formed a new base in the twin temples, today the group ventured out to explore the Forest
of the Faithful and beyond. Their route up the valley was along the western flank, avoiding the
troll cave. They headed for a corner of the forest, hoping to avoid the giant spiders. As they
reached the trees, although there were no webs in the immediate vicinty, they were still set upon
by 3 spiders, thankfully soon killing the foul creatures. They passed through the rest of the forest
unhindered and soon found 2 marble monoliths standing either side of an opening into the
mountainside, as discovered originally by Zandrill while scouting. The monoliths had originally
been bright white and marked with holy scripture. Now they were desecrated and blackened, with
the tops removed and the symbols chipped out. The group lit torches and peered inside the burial
vaults. Strange animated skeletons sprang to life and attacked. This in itself was scary and
unusual. But it was worse when Zandrill realised they were not whole skeletons, instead they
appeared to be a mish-mash combinations of bones from many people, e.g. arms were different
lengths to one another. Swords and axes were not too effective against these creatures, Ethulwulf
for once forgoing his trademark and instead using a mace he'd found in the Temple of Thyr. Soon
the skeletons were smashed to pieces.
The short entranceway led to an antechamber. An empty side room full of detritus and filth was
located to one side. Colby found a hidden door on the opposite wall, though meddling with it
seemed to summon a fresh horde of skeletons to be defeated. After that Colby turned his attention
once more to the hidden door and managed to open it. Beyond, there was a lever set in the wall
and a tunnel curved away into the darkness. Despite his best efforts Colby couldn't determine the
function of the lever, though didn't think it connected to the hidden door. This side tunnel was
ignored for the time being. Beyond the antechamber was a great hall. 20 open stone sarcophagi lay
on the floor surrounding a fountain. This was the single most horrific and evil sight any of the
group had ever seen. The research in the library had mentioned a fountain of holy water named the
Font of Ancients. It was now filled with blood and bone fragments. A glowing red rune radiating
pure evil had been carved into the side of the fountain base. As Ethulwulf stepped in, a swarm of
skeletons formed from the contents of the fountain and leapt to attack. Even as the Albioners
destroyed the hideous apparitions, yet more formed in the fountain and joined the fray. The
Albioners beat a fighting retreat back to the outside world and managed to destroy all the
skeletons. It appeared that their creation had ceased once the group had left the main hall.
Sickened, confused and scared, the group returned to the relatively pleasant surroundings of the
twin temples to rest and ruminate on all they had seen and discovered.H
Report Date
10 Apr 2024
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