Session 19 - Death and Mystery
General Summary
From Kleeck's journal, Mart. XVII
It was late in the night when we finally decided to set up camp.
We were exhausted from scouting Lugdunum, from our battle with the strange toad creatures, and from our flight from the city. Hassan groaned as he pulled off his boots and shook the rocks out. I stared despondent at my dinner of crumbling hard tack, dreaming of fresh squirrel entrails and wondering if my sister Zeed was hunting them now as we did together this time last year.
Tired as we were, we felt it was important to send out some messages before we went to sleep. I contacted Uncle Heehk to ask that he meet us in Nemasus, and learned from him that Denuntia was the city that had fallen.
I also contacted the Prefecta. In our eagerness to be succinct in our message the meaning may have been somewhat garbled, though she may also have been half asleep when I reached her. At least she knew we were alive, and continuing with our mission.
I took last watch, slept soundly and dreamlessly, and was awake when the sun rose clear and bright in the morning. Right at dawn I saw a flock of crows take flight, winging their way northwest. I had seen crows in the morning that day we travelled together to the cemetery. It already felt like a lifetime ago.
During breakfast Laura and Bandua told us that they had seen signs of a battle taking place at Lugdunum last night. There had been flashes of light, and booming noises that carried for miles like thunder. We pondered what this could mean, and whether we should change course and return to investigate. Hassan was for going back to explore Lugdunum further, whereas Laura wanted to return to Nemasus with the information we already had.
Before we could go anywhere though I had to see what I could do about Laura’s injury. Even though she showed no outside signs of illness, we were wary from what we had read in the Chirurgeon's journal, and from what Hassan had seen in the mind of that twisted red creature we interrogated. I cast my detection spell, and saw twitching in her chest a red tadpole-like parasite that must have been implanted when she was struck by the creature’s long claw.
I called upon Apollo to heal Laura of this warped affliction. The divine light of the sun beamed down on her, and then she suddenly and violently heaved the foul thing up and spit it out. It lay on the ground writhing in its death throes, and I must admit the sight of it made me gag and retch. Hassan yelled and hurled flaming cards at it until nothing was left but ash. Bandua, unflappable as always, continued to eat his breakfast.
It was that moment that Ficus chose to rejoin us, coming down from whatever tree he had been hiding in to investigate the commotion. Probably just as well that my stomach was too upset to think about food, for he looked plump and sleek, like he might have fattened up slightly in our absence.
Before we struck camp I made one more prayer to Apollo, asking for direction as to whether we should return to the ruined city to investigate further. The answer was clear; the soothing sound of a lyre followed by a single word “weal”, that told me our destiny lay back in Lugdunum. I told the others of this augury, which finally seemed to bring everyone into agreement as to our course of action.
We trudged back the way we came, opting this time to follow the line of the aqueduct above ground rather than travel the dank sewer below. Laura once again cloaked us all with her stealth magics as we neared our destination. Signs of last evening's battle were immediately apparent as we approached the city. There was a haze of lingering smoke in the air, and we could see new holes in the walls from whatever occurred the night before.
We skirted the wall and made our way around to the village on the side of the city. There we found the first of what would be many bodies; lizardfolk and their mounts, along with the corpses of other blue four legged lizard creatures. Most were burned, but some appear to have been bludgeoned to death by something huge and strong. There were no signs of life anywhere; even the wyvern that had been patrolling the air the day before was gone.
With the skies clear, we decided on bolder action. Hassan used his magic to make me invisible (note to self: being invisible is great fun, but I am sure Hassan made up the parts about needing to snap my fingers and spin in a circle before the spell would work). I took flight for some aerial reconnaissance.
There were many signs of battle, with lizardfolk corpses strewn throughout the city. There seemed to have been some action around the temple of Apollo and Diana and the adjacent domices. There were also bodies of other beings when I passed over the amphitheater - Aarakocra, Humans, and Elves - who might have been kept prisoner there. But whatever attacked last night appeared to have left no survivors.
I returned to my companions and reported what I had seen. Abandoning stealth in favour of speed, we walked boldly into the ruined city to try and determine what had happened.
A search of the workshops turned up evidence that the lizard invaders had made themselves at home here. There were signs of activity in the smithy, the carpentry shop, even the tannery. We found a rather nice suit of studded leather armor, as well as some hides that (grotesquely) seem to have been made from humans and elves, but little else of interest.
We proceeded to the barracks where we found more bodies, scorch marks, and other signs of battle. We were interrupted in our investigation by a sudden attack from strange shadow spirits, lingering here no doubt after the violence of their deaths the night before. They were disturbing to behold, but we were able to dispatch them quickly. For people who were strangers mere months ago, we seemed to have forged ourselves into a surprisingly effective fighting unit.
Afterward we found another of those strange altars set up in the barracks, along with chests that yielded more treasure; votive offerings to these alien idols that the lizardfolk worshiped as gods. A quick look in the stables revealed lizard mounts, still alive and grazing placidly in their stalls. We moved on.
In the domuses next to the temple we found more bodies. These were different creatures, a strange assortment of ‘snakefolk’ - one with the head of snake and scaly skin, one with snakes for hands, yet another with the lower body of a snake. I remembered a story Uncle Heehk told me long ago, of tribes of ‘yuan-ti’ that lived in the jungles of Africa and matched the description of what we were seeing. Why such creatures would be here now was a mystery.
Again we had to fend off an attack from angry spirits, this time the ghosts of the dead snake creatures. Again we prevailed, with Hassan blasting them en masse with a giant ball of fire and Laura and Bandua striking them down with their enchanted blades.
As we took a moment to collect ourselves after the battle my mind started sifting through the things we had seen. The map with all the marked cities. The circular chamber we had found beneath Lugdunum. What was the connection? I cast my thoughts back further, to the necromancer’s note, and to the alcove in the Temple of Apollo in Nemasus. What was the connection?
Suddenly my mind jolted and my stomach clenched. I knew what Apollo wanted me to find here. Completely forgetting the danger, and heedless of whether my companions were even following me, I raced towards the temple of Apollo and Diana.
I plunged through the opening at the front of the temple, the doors having been blasted off their hinges long ago. Like most of the buildings in Lugdunum, the temple lay in partial ruin, with a breach in one wall and rubble everywhere. The statues of Apollo and Diana had been torn down, and another statue put up to another of these false idols. There were a pair of snake men bodies on the floor as well.
But I noted all of that in passing, for my attention was immediately drawn to the thing I knew would be here: a chamber where no chamber should be, this one accessed through a pit in the ground that had been roughly boarded up. Scattered on the floor next to the pit were pieces of a statue, a woman in leather armor with her eyes covered and a finger held over her mouth as if to indicate silence. I rushed to tear up the boards covering the hole. In the background I thought I hear the shouts of my companions racing to catch up with me, but I barely noticed in my haste as I plunged into the chamber below.
Wood and stone lay scattered on the floor. There was a carving of the woman with covered eyes near the top of one of the chamber walls, one finger held over her mouth again. The other hand pointed down to an inscription covered in Latin writing that was carved into the wall, and looked like it had once been hidden by a slab formed from the pieces of marble on the floor.
I read the inscription in a rush, only half comprehending what I was reading. It told the conclusion of a story I did not recognize, of gods battling "titans" and of a powerful creature named Maagog trapped beneath Lugdunum centuries ago. My mind reeled as I tried to make sense of what the tablet said. I had been raised to believe in the power of the gods. I had never thought to wonder where they came from, or if something came before them.
I am not sure when my friends caught up to me, but their shouting snapped me out of my daze. I relayed to them what I had found. With their help we also reconstructed the marble slab that at one point must have covered up the inscription. The slab had a single letter carved into it, the letter "R."
I needed answers. Steadying my mind I reached out with my sending spell and found the Pontifex of Nemasus. “What are the titans? Who is Maagog?” I asked him. His reply was unhelpful and evasive; he did not know those names, but cautioned me against unearthing secrets that should not be unearthed.
But how could I turn a blind eye to what I had learned, when Apollo guides me to shine his light into the dark shadows of this mystery? I slumped to the ground, overwhelmed by confusion and dread.
Rewards Granted
2,200 Experience Points
Missions/Quests Completed
- Campaign Milestone: Reassemble Stela XVI
- Campaign Milestone: Discover Secret Passage XVI
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