New Friends and New Threats

General Summary

Though the Party had defeated the captain's unit and read his thoughts from millenia ago, there was little time to relax. They heard the loud clanking of metal armor outside the barracks and rushed into the hall. Rather than more undead, they found a paladin of Ilmater. She introduced herself as Lyza Rein, citizen and protector of Grimport. She said she'd heard of their good deeds and wanted to help however she could. The Party welcomed a new member to help clear the dungeon.
Traveling onward, they encountered skeletons of varying types and abilities, including one so fossilized that it cracked Hobart's shortsword when he attacked it. What was of greater concern was everything else they found in the dungeon: more evidence of torture and abuse, including the use of magic as a binding agent for something more powerful. The Party feared what kind of terror Winderia was trying to hold here.
The heroes made their way to a large holding room with a door locked by a small logic puzzle. Together, they found the correct pattern for the keystones and opened the door. They found more debris, as well as a skeleton impaled to the floor by a rapier that somehow looked immaculate despite the ages spent in this hell. Hobart happily took the weapon, hoping this one would turn out better than the last.
They eventually came to a room with a destroyed wall and a tunnel that appeared dug out by force. In front of the hole stood a spectral guardian. He began to speak, at first to no one in particular but eventually directly to the Party. "I failed my task once. I must not fail again." As shadows emerged from the walls, the guardian rushed them, trying to strike them down before they could explore further. Bartimus erupted the earth around the undead, crushing one shadow, but not before it could sap some of Axelrod's strength. Axelrod and Lyza valiantly stood in against the guardian as the other's circled into advantageous positions. Axelrod briefly fell due to the guardian's withering miasma, but as he regained consciousness, he instinctively swung his sword from a prone position and dispersed the specter for good. After some brief exploring, they returned to this room and entered the tunnel.
Once they finally reached the bottom, the Party saw the tunnel transition from rough stone to finished marble. This new place clearly was not natural, and there was no obvious explanation for why it was here at all. On the wall of the first hallway, they saw a strange symbol of seemingly random lines and shapes. Coming around the first corner, they found a room with a large pool of blue liquid. Upon further examination, they determined it was some sort of magical mana pool, though its purpose or how to use it remained a mystery.
Branching from this room were two hallways. The first led to a large chamber with an elevated platform and a reflecting pool. As the doors slammed shut behind them, they encountered a puzzle chest and three gems. They deduced the solution tied to city-states of Winderia, which rewarded them with three gems and a strange stone composed of hexagonal segments. That was weird.
The second hallway led to a room with two water pools. Hobart noticed a strange symbol on the ground between the two pools. As he approached, water weirds erupted from the pools and attacked the Party. Bartimus was almost dragged to a watery death, but his allies saved him before it was too late. Afterwards, Hobart examined the symbol and found what they believed was the first part of a alphabetical cipher. That will probably become relevant soon.
The Party soon found a third hallway branching from the mana pool room, this one hidden behind a secret door. This led them to a trapped chest, but Hobart expertly disabled it right before mucking up the lock. Axelrod's pure strength took care of that, and they were rewarded with a magical gem. Backtracking, they came to a room with a giant statue and a malfunctioning clockwork servant. Try as they might, they couldn't get any useful information from the automaton. The statue was impeccable, but the person memorialized was yet another mystery.
Moving on, the Party entered a rectangular room decorated with multiple stone reliefs on the walls. They showed carnage. People were slaying others, stabbing hearts and slitting throats to spill blood on the ground. The largest relief on the northern wall depicted massive arms erupting from the earth as supplicants rejoiced on either side. The Party examined a pewter chalice atop the ceremonial dais, but they were attacked by an invisible enemy. The Party struggled to pin it down, and Bartimus once again bore the brunt of an enemy's attacks. However, he and Axelrod worked together to flank the stalker, striking him dead.
What has the Party discovered deep below ground? What is the explanation for such a massive marble lair beneath the gruesome dungeon above them? Find out next time...

Report Date

26 Dec 2020

Primary Location

Ancient Morten Prison