Session 37 - Of Secret Cults and Secret History
General Summary
After dispatching the strange fungal zombies, we took a moment to catch our breath.
I could see that Tertia and Laura had been hurt in the battle, and called on Apollo to grant them succor in this foul place we found ourselves in. In the meanwhile, Hassan and Bandua explored, opening the many doors that led out of this room and finding crypts and sarcophagi that indicated that this was some kind of ancient tomb. But a tomb for Orcus worshippers? Beneath the mausoleum of a good Roman family? My mind reeled at the implications, though if I am honest, it was a wonder that I could hold a coherent thought at all given the deep sense of unease this place gave me.
Our investigation uncovered a library, which we briefly searched. The scrolls were all vile texts describing the evil practice that the cultists we had encountered must follow. Once I realized what they were I was loathed to touch them, but in the end chose one to bring back as evidence of what we had found here. Tertia, doing a better job than me of keeping her wits about her, took the time to cast a ritual to detect magic and enchantment, and was able to find an arcane scroll that Hassan pocketed for later use.
The last door we checked was locked, which we all took as a sign that danger may lie beyond it. Bandua tried unsuccessfully to pick the lock, and in the end, Hassan had to resort to magic, calling on his strange and unpredictable powers to bend the fates (and the lock) to his will.
Beyond the door was some kind of twisted altar room, a place where these cultists could perform whatever dark rituals their worship entailed. The far side of the room was dominated by a raised dais on which stood a gigantic Orcus skull statue. Next to the statue was a woman, dressed as the other cultists were, who turned to stare balefully at us through the now open doorway. In the far corners of the room two undead warriors stood at the ready with bows drawn and swords at their sides, clearly more adept and dangerous than the zombies we had faced earlier.
The woman let out a curse as we charged into the room.
Tertia was the first to act. Quickly identifying the biggest threat, she uttered a swift incantation and, in a flash, disappeared from her space outside the room to appear right next to the cultist on the dais. Her blade struck a mighty blow which, infused with the arcane energy she wielded in battle, unleashed a wave of thunder that I imagine they heard all the way back in Ostia. The cultist reeled under the force of her attack, wounded and furious.
But the cultist was not without her own tricks, and in the blink of an eye she too vanished from the spot where she was standing, apporting herself to the far corner of the room while one of the ghastly warriors engaged Tertia with its blade. The other wight traded a volley of arrows with Laura through the open doorway, coming out the worse for the exchange.
Seeing the cultist and her undead minions in that foul place stirred something angry and primal in me. Heedless of the danger I plunged into the room, holding my holy symbol aloft and flooding the space with radiant energy that burned the wights and their mistress. Calling on my god to smite down his enemies, I summoned forth Apollo's radiant blade, which floated in the air beside the cultist and, as if wielded by Apollo himself, struck another blow to almost rival the one Tertia had delivered moments earlier.
My triumph was short-lived.
The cultist began to utter some kind of dark incantation and pointed a finger at me. A beam of white light streaked out from her finger and lanced me straight in the chest. I screamed...at least I think I screamed, for from the moment it hit me my whole being was filled with white hot burning pain. Burning is not even the right word...it was as if every inch of me, inside and out, was being seared all at once by whatever dark necrotic energy she struck me with. It was only a split second, but felt like a lifetime, and then I fell into darkness as my body crumpled to the ground.
I awoke suddenly to two strange and different sensations. The first was the warmth in my throat and belly from the healing potion that someone (Bandua, I later found out) had to pour down my beak. The second was the feeling, simultaneously soothing and rough, of a small feline tongue methodically lapping at the spot where the cultist's beam had struck me. My body was still wrung out and wracked with pain, but between the potion and the ministrations of the spectral cat (summoned by Laura to aid us) I was restored enough to be able to lift my head and take in the scene.
Bandua and Tertia had closed in on the cultist to try and pin her in the corner, but the dwarf let out a string of curses as she used her arcane tricks to teleport out of their reach. To my other side Mikali came barreling into the room, pouncing on one of the wights and dragging it to the ground, where he proceeded to tear its undead throat out with his fangs. The other wight was attempting to close with Tertia, but by its sluggish movements I could tell it was under a slowness enchantment that I vividly remember Hassan testing out on me back on the road to Lugdunum.
But when the cultist reappeared at the far side of the room, I was ready for her. I held my talon out and felt the fire of Apollo's wrath flow through me, as beams of pure blazing sunlight shot forth to strike down the cultist where she stood. Hassan quickly followed up with a pair of flaming cards to torch the remaining wight, and the battle was won.
We searched the room, finding a chest full of votive offerings in front of the shrine but little else of interest. The shrine itself seemed to be under some kind of curse, which both Hassan and I were unable to break. Depleted and tired, we decided that we had enough evidence to provide to the family of the tomb above and made our way out of that awful place. I was grateful to feel the warm noon sunlight on my feathers as we emerged from the mausoleum and started to make our way back to Ostia.
We made straight for the Antiquities Exchange, eager to drop off the evidence of what we had seen in the crypts below. While there, I noticed Hassan glancing again and again at the curtain at the back of the booth, hoping no doubt to catch a glimpse of his mother Zialle, but she did not make an appearance. Our business at the exchange concluded, we headed back to the Tertia's family villa for some much-needed rest.
That night Hassan went to Zialle’s apartment to see her for the last time before she disappeared again, ever on the run from the faceless assassin that dodged her steps.
In the morning we headed out of Ostia, and by noon we found ourselves entering Rome for the first time. To say that I was awed and humbled would be an understatement. I will always love the Eyrie, but to see Rome in all its grandeur for the first time is something I will never forget. Streets that sprawled out in all directions, so many people hustling and bustling about. The city was vast, and filled with the life and energy of the empire in all its glory. It was both a shining beacon of civilization, and a gigantic sprawl of smells and noises and life. We took a whole hour just making our way from the outskirts to the library, and were awestruck the whole time.
We finally arrived at the library, most of us still gawking and looking around at everything. Hassan already had a look on his face like he was sizing the city up for what kind of mischief he could get into, but Laura seemed distinctly uncomfortable with noise and the crowds. Bandua wandered off almost immediately to sample the foods on offer from the nearby stall, as he had already done a few times on the walk here. Tertia was all business though, having no doubt travelled to Rome many times in her long and storied life.
As we discussed who should go into the library to meet with Mettia I felt an involuntary shiver run through me. Even after a night's rest I was still shaken and raw from my near-death experience in the battle yesterday. On any other day I would have been eager to see what marvels the library held, but instead I quickly excused myself, and made my way to the nearby temple of Apollo, where I spent some time in quiet prayer.
When we reconvened a few hours later, I got an update on their conversation with Mettia. It seems she was able to identify the initials on the strange inscriptions as belonging to Titus Livius Patavinus, an historian from Caesar's time who had been commissioned to write about the founding of Rome. Apparently, Livy was executed for what he wrote, and his words purged from all records. She also mentioned having heard the term Titans in some few fleeting references over the years and had even seen some of the names we had come across in the scrolls of the Kuo-Toa and elsewhere. It was surprisingly validating to have found someone who could corroborate what we had learned, though we were still in the dark about how the inscriptions ended up under the temples where we were finding them, or why the enemy army seemed to be targeting cities where such inscriptions were hidden.
Two questions remained. Was there another hidden inscription in this city? And where would we stay for our first night in Rome.
To answer the first, I called upon Apollo's aid to light the way. Using the powers granted to me by him, I was able to cast a locating spell, its energy filling my head with a sense of divine light that I felt must almost be glowing forth from my eyes. Taking flight over the city, I let my vision fall across the rooftops of buildings and along the streets below, waiting for a sign. As I passed above the Pantheon, I saw what I was looking for; a faint glow that seemed to somehow reach my eyes through the very roof of the building itself. The statue of the blindfolded woman, and the hidden chamber and inscription that would surely be with it, was there.
The answer to the later question was (at my insistence) the Rover's Roost; an Aarakocra establishment that my uncle Heehk and others had told me about many times. It was a thrill to finally see it with my own eyes, a tall building with second floor entrances accessible only by air; a place built by and for Aaracokcra. There was fresh worm meal and delectable squirrels to be had from their kitchen, and their wine list even included an excellent selection from the Accipter vineyards. I ordered a fine bottle for myself but, having now learned that non-aaracokcra lacked the palate to appreciate the beauty of a good grub wine, made sure to obtain something more mundane for my friends.
As we retreated to one of the rooms that we had rented to plan our next move we were interrupted by a young man, who turned out to be a nephew of Tertia, bearing a message. We made small talk with him as she read the letter, but it was apparent right from the start that the contents of the letter were exciting her in a way I had not seen since we met. She was so shocked by what she read that even after she had finished, she just stood there in stunned silence, and we all but had to shake her by the shoulders to get her attention and ask her what was the matter.
Her explanation came out in fits and starts, so overwhelmed she was by the strange turn of events that her normally sharp and disciplined mind was all a-jumble. The letter was from a fellow legionnaire, a man named Albinus who she and everyone else thought had died in the service of the empire. Apparently, he had been taken captive during an orc ambush, and was a slave for many years until he eventually escaped when the orcs themselves were ambushed by lizard-folk. He made his way back to civilization, only to immediately re-enlist when he heard about the fallen cities and the ongoing attack on the empire (bravo, brave Albinus).
Having been promoted to Tribune and given command of a cohort in the 8th Legion due to his experience, Albinus and his men were already deployed on the front lines not far from Amneda. He was now writing Tertia to invite her to re-enlist with him and be his optio, wanting the aid of her sharp mind and strong arm to help him manage the cohort. From the look on her face I felt she wanted to jump on a horse this very second and make hell for leather to his side. When she mumbled something about his wife having remarried in his absence, I suspected it was more than duty to the empire or loyalty to a fellow soldier that made her feel this way...
Rewards Granted
1,400 Experience Points
Missions/Quests Completed
Major Milestone - Purge the Cult of Orcus from the Bebia Tomb
Character(s) interacted with
- Mettia Vettonius Glaucia - Archivist at the Ulpian Library, friend of Tertia
- Kahk Flavia Falco - Proprietor of the Rover's Roost Inn
- Statius Verecundius Minor - Nephew of Tertia
Remove these ads. Join the Worldbuilders Guild
Comments