Real Date:
October 9, 2005
Campaign Session: 33
Adventure Session: 17
Campaign: Legacy of the Burning Star
Adventure: The Banewarrens
Theeurth Date:
Daarlem 12-15, 2806 (Early Summer)
Location: The Banewarrens (Inner Vaults)
Players/Characters Present:
Bruce Barnett - Bonzimir Amantes (Rog6/Hlf3)
Barbara Muth - Nereida Amantes (Clr9) and Elida (
KSK7)
Tim Chan - Demetrios Amantes (Wiz 6/Hum3)
(Michael Burgio) - Marcus Asinus (Ftr1/
KSK8)
(Nora Dunn) - Laelia Parvula (Mnk9)
Marcus and Elida hit the town, speaking to
the many wizards and cognoscenti (most of whom were pleasantly
surprised to be visited by a Knight of the Sacred Keys), looking
for information on the possible whereabouts of an adamantium
weapon. After nearly a day, they uncovered a merchant who
recalled that an adamantium sword had been offered for sale in the
city some years ago by Isaac Ducastis, a son of the noble House
Ducastis. Isaac died some time the following year and the
sale was never consummated.
Returning to the Amantes house, Marcus informed the team of his
discovery, and Nereida suggested that the merchant Appius Macrinus
might be able to get them an introduction to the Ducastis family.
Appius certainly still owed them for their part in the rescue of
his daughter Hestia the previous year (
http://www.theeurth.com/adv_eldestson3.html). As the
Company diplomat, Demetrios was sent to speak with Appius, with
Marcus along for protection. Appius, it turned out, was out
of the city, away at Adamos dealing with some important matter.
So, Demetrios decided it was time visit Vera, Appius's wife.
After a brief delay, Demetrios and Marcus were admitted to Vera's
(now Lady Macrinus's) presence. She was in her garden in a
dressing gown, having her hair coiffed. With a wave, she
dismissed the hairdresser and rose to meet her guests, giving
Demetrios a kiss on the cheek and offering Marcus her hand.
Vera, too, owed much to the Company of the Starborn, for they had
rid her of the blackmail of the odious Pertinax. Demetrios
explained that the Company was engaged on an important mission,
and needed a weapon made of adamantium, and for that they needed
an introduction to House Ducastis.
Vera listened soberly and then smiled, saying she knew just the
thing. John Ducastis, the aging head of House Ducastis,
rarely left his manor. But he made an annual habit of
attending the ball thrown by his daughter, Drusilla.
Drusilla Ducastis is an important priestess of Valendria (
http://www.theeurth.com/rel_valendria.html), the goddess of
Love, Beauty and Music. This ball is attended by many of the
most important and wealthy persons in town, each of whom pays for
the privilege. Drusilla then channels the money to the
city's poor through the Glades (temples) of Valendria. Vera
was invited but had not decided to attend. But if she could
help the Company -and- be escorted by Demetrios, the resulting
gossip would be more than worth it. Demetrios agreed to
escort Vera to the ball (in two days' time), and Vera insisted
that he go to her tailor to be outfitted.
The next day, the Company returned to the Manor House, and learned
from the paladins on watch that Kalerecent's team had still not
returned from below. Concerned, they traveled to the Great
Cathedral and convinced the Order of the Dawn paladin to allow
them to use one of the Cathedral's holy fonts for a scrying
ritual. There, they observed Kalerecent barricaded in a
small room, surrounded by the bodies of his companions and the
frozen, icy form of the paladin Severa. A large battleaxe
dripping blood hung from the ceiling by a chain. Nereida
used a sending spell to speak with Kalerecent and ask where
he was and what had happened. Kalerecent replied that he was
in a vault beyond the Broken Altar, besieged by a "terrible
spirit of winter".
The Company then hastened back to the Inner Vaults, using dimension
door to get past the forbiddance zone. Just
before entering the Inner Vaults, they prepared themselves with
many protective and "buff" spells. They passed the
Broken Altar and found a passageway with many doors and doorways.
The nearest contained a stairway going up to the north. They
were just beginning to inspect this when the temperature dropped
dramatically and from a hallway to the south emerged an immense
whirling storm of snow and ice, a living blizzard with bitter,
hate-filled eyes. "So!" it rumbled.
"More meatlings come to warm me with their souls! Come,
feel my embrace, and let your deaths at last give meaning to your
brief and pointless lives!" With that, it let out a
blast of supercooled air and flying shards of ice that washed
painfully over the entire Company.
Realizing that they were at a disadvantage in the corridor, the
Company executed a surprisingly effective fighting retreat into
the room of the Broken Altar, and stood their ground against the
wintry spirit at the doorway. They were surprised and
gratified when a door beyond their adversary burst open and
Kalerecent charged the thing from behind, yelling a challenge in
the name of the Lords of the Chalice. The spirit ("The
Winter Harridan") was a very tough combatant, and the weapons
of the Company did little damage. However, Demetrios and
Nereida were both able to hurt it badly with fireball and minor
meteor. The thing responded by staring at Demetrios with
unclean eyes and turning him into a block of solid ice.
Nereida was able to resist this power a few moments later, and the
combined weight of opposition (spells, fire and Power Attack)
finally brought it low.
Kalerecent thanked the Company for rescue and showed them that
Severa had suffered the same fate as Demetrios, only it had been
three days since the Winter Harridan had turned her into ice, and
she had melted half away! Deciding that Severa (who, despite
being rigid and condescending, was still a holy warrior) was in
more immediate danger than her brother Demetrios, Nereida cast dispel
magic on her. This failed to accomplish anything.
After some consideration, she cast break enchantment, but
this also failed. Unable to anything further, the Company
recovered the bodies and returned to the surface.
Back at the Great Cathedral, they summoned Sister Donna Mara, who
also did not know what to do. She summoned the Mirror
Master, Terestir Malacon, who also listened to their tale and then
summoned a weathered scroll from within the mirror on his staff.
When he cast this spell (break enchantment) on Severa,
everyone around could feel the moisture being drawn from the air.
Severa's icy body first filled out and then returned to flesh.
The injured but living paladin fell into a swoon and Kalerecent,
thanking both Terestir and the Company, carried her to the
infirmary.
Terestir was unable to do anything for Demetrios that day, and the
party kept his icy form from melting in the hot sun of early
summer by placing him in the cool wine cellars below the
Cathedral's living quarters. In the morning, Terestir broke
the enchantment on the young wizard. With one day to go
before the Valendrian Ball, the Company decided to quickly return
to the Banewarrens.
Once there, they debated which of several possible routes to
explore, and decided to explore more of the area where they had
rescued Kalerecent. At the top of the stairs, they found a
room with many statues. They decided that these might be
golems, and that they could investigate the rest of the area
before proceeding into this room. To the south, they found
another Warding Generator. Demetrios determined that this
one, like the one in the Outer Vaults, was working fine.
Beyond that was a corridor filled with tiny mirrors that led to
doors of gold and silver. Impulsively, Bonzimir entered this
corridor and was dazzled by the hypnotic reflections of his torch.
Pulled out by Demetrios, he quickly recovered. The Company
decided to leave this area alone and investigate a corridor
heading north. Finding little of interest there, they
decided not to return to either the mirrored hall or the hall of
statues, but instead to return to the secret door in Vallacor's
chamber.
They traveled up the hidden stairs to a large room with several
exits. The central part of the floor of the room was made of
smoky glass. Within the glass, they could dimly make out the
snake-like form of what Marcus jokingly identified as "a big
damned lizard". Demetrios was able to put a finer point
on it - it was an adult silver dragon, one of the most ardently
good (not to mention legendarily rare) creatures in the known
world, apparently held in some form of stasis. The Company
wondered why such a powerful good creature would be trapped like a
bane in the Banewarrens. Clearly this was the Sleeping King
referred to by the evil warlord Tirranth (
http://www.theeurth.com/adv_banewarrens12.html).
Bonzimir dimly remembered hearing something about Danar and a
silver dragon. Feeling this to be important, Nereida reached
out to the power of the liber exaltus (
http://www.theeurth.com/rel_borlamnos.html) for information.
She learned that one of Danar's most powerful supporters and close
friends was Saggrinitys the Silver King. No story records
his fate, and he was not among the companions to face Eslathagos
Malkith at the end. Most people who have ever heard of him
assume he fell victim to the Dread One's onslaught.
Surmising that there might be a way to release Saggrinitys, and
that this might be very dangerous (if he felt he was in battle
with the Dread One's agents), the Company decided to call again on
the power of their god. Casting divination, Nereida
prayed for guidance about whether they would be injured if they
released Saggrinitys. The answer came back: "The
wrath and knowledge of the Silver King; one is inevitable, the
other indispensable." Feeling that they must awaken
Saggrinitys, the Company decided that they didn't have to do it
unprepared. They would look around, but not do anything that
might release the dragon...yet. They found a set of huge
bronze double doors, but did not open them, as they all felt that
the Sword of Truth must be in that direction, and they had not yet
found a weapon that could deal with its guardian. A nearby room
was empty except for a series of four-inch disks set into the wall
in five rows of six columns. Each row contained six
different disks, made of gold, bronze, silver, iron, marble and
wood, each row in a different arrangement. Sure that this
was the key to releasing Saggrinitys, they decided not to touch
anything and left the room.
From there, they examined their map and found a blank space near
the middle towards which several unopened doors led. They
traveled there and found a room that turned out to have a powerful
machine designed to crush things placed within it. Demetrios
dubbed it "My Favorite Room". Bonzimir's mapping
skills revealed that a secret door from the Betrayed's inner
sanctum probably led to this area, and this was confirmed a short
while later. Using this short cut, they followed the other
secret door from the sanctum and wound up near the Warding
Generator.
Deciding that this must be fate, they tried the mirrored hallway
again. Dousing all their lights, they allowed Laelia (using
her goggles of the night) to lead them through the darkened
corridor to the side passageway. They found a sealed vault
there and decided not to open it. Returning to the mirrored
hallway (still darkened), Laelia decided to listen at the
gold-and-silver doors. She pressed her ear to it...and
screamed. He scream was quickly cut off. Nereida
returned light to the room (incidentally causing Demetrios and
Marcus to be dazzled), and found that Laelia was dead,
burned by fire that appeared to have burst out from inside her.
The Company quickly retreated from the hallway, dragging Laelia
with them.
[GM's Note: Laelia survived the harm spell that hit
her, but not the subsequent Fortitude roll resulting from massive
damage.]
And here the story paused.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1) Will the disks revive Saggrinitys?
2) What is beyond the gold-and-silver doors that killed Laelia?
3) What are the statues in the Hall of Statues?
4) What lies beyond the bronze doors in the Hall of the Sleeping
King?
5) What lies beyond the corridor of green dust?
6) Does John Ducastis have an adamantium weapon? If so, will
he give it to the Company?
7) Is Vallacor coming back?
8) Are the Pactlords?
Tune in next time!
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