Real Date: October 23, 2005
Campaign Session: 34
Adventure Session: 18
Campaign: Legacy of the Burning Star
Adventure: The Banewarrens
Theeurth Date: Daarlem 16-17, 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)
NPC - Basil Amantes (Ftr8)
NPC - Aulus Hirtius Neverius (Ftr5/Eldritch Warrior4)
GM's Note: Michael Burgio and Nora
Dunn have departed the game. So long, guys! You will
be missed.
The Photographs may be seen here: http://www.theeurth.com/cam_banewarrens3.html
The Company returned to the surface, carrying the body of Laelia.
Divinations cast at the Great Church proved that Laelia had
achieved peace; she did not wish to be returned to the mortal
world. Saddened, Marcus felt that his calling to aid the
Company of the Starborn had ended. He offered to return
Laelia's body to the monastery of the Leones Alae.
Bonzimir insisted that Laelia's goggles of the night would
be indispensible in the Banewarrens, and so he borrowed them,
promising Marcus that when the Banewarrens were shut, he would see
to it that the goggles were returned to Laelia's order.
That evening, Bonzimir went to the University and found Basil.
He informed his brother that the Company had no warriors and
convinced him that whatever he was doing was not as important as
finishing the quest. Basil reluctantly agreed to return to
the Banewarrens, though he did so with a quiet foreboding.
Demetrios, meanwhile, attended the Valendrian Ball with Vera
Macrinus. The Glades of Valendria (the temple of the goddess
of beauty, love and art) were gorgeously decorated with paper
lanterns, colorful fountains and trained songbirds. The
affair was attended by hundreds of the Empire's most influential
and important people, nearly all of whom seemed to know each
other. Despite his fine clothes, Demetrios felt as though
they all knew he did not belong. Nonetheless, Vera taught
him the steps to the pavane and similar courtly dances, and the
two spent a pleasant evening in each other's company, fueling
gossip, just as Vera had hoped.
Demetrios, meanwhile, spied a man in dark robes wearing a collar
device that was the sigil of House Vitellius. By
description, he assumed this to be Aliaster Vitellius, Navanna's
brother. Aliaster stared balefully at Demetrios, who
blithely ignored him. Later in the evening, Demetrios and
Vera met with the priestess Drusilla Ducastis, who listened to
Demetrios's request to meet with her father. She smiled
kindly when Demetrios (a plebeian) represented himself as a member
of "House Amantes". A meeting was arranged in a
nearby greenhouse that evening.
John Ducastis was an old man, frail and seated in a wheelchair.
His eyes spoke of a sharp intelligence, however, and Demetrios
could feel the man taking in all the details about him.
Ducastis quickly demonstrated that he was well-informed about the
activities of the Company of the Starborn. He knew their
names, their stories, their goals and some of the details about
their activities in the Banewarrens. His sharp questioning
revealed that he was primarily interested in the safety of the
city. Demetrios sensed that it was time to trust somebody
and told him honestly about the Sword of Truth. Asked what
he intended to do with the Sword once he had acquired it and freed
it of the suspected curse, Demetrios answered that the Company had
not yet decided that. Impressed by Demetrios's honesty and
determination, the old nobleman told Demetrios to come by his
estate the next day.
The next day, Demetrios visited the great hall of House Ducastis,
where he was given the Sword of House Ducastis, a polished
gleaming black longsword, unadorned save for blue silk cords
wrapping the hilt. Humbled to be so entrusted, Demetrios
promised to return the sword as soon as the guardian was defeated.
Basil told the team that he had learned that the City Senate had
hidden the Mace of Marius (another adamantine weapon) in a secret
vault. The Company decided not to pursue it, since they had
learned that Iristul Vitellius had a seat on the Senate.
Later that day, the Company (now consisting of Demetrios, Bonzimir,
Basil, Nereida, Aulus and Nereida's cohort Elida) returned to the
Inner Vaults, and the gold-and-silver doors that had killed Laelia.
Bonzimir examined these using Laelia's goggles of the night,
and discovered the glyphs of warding upon them.
Demetrios examined these (again using the goggles) and
ascertained that they held an ancient variant of the harm
spell (i.e., the 3.0 Edition version.) The Company debated opening
a door that was so heavily guarded. Finally, Nereida used a divination
spell to determine that nothing lay beyond the doors that was
necessary to their quest ("nothing but nightmares" was
the reply.)
Next, they visited the hall of statues. When they entered, a
prismatic wall sprang into being at the north end of the
room, blocking the far doors. Searching revealed that all
the statues could be moved. They tried moving these in
various patterns without success. Noticing that one of the
statues was of a four-winged angel, Bonzimir recalled that they'd
heard of this before. Then he remembered the little passage
they'd found in a book in the Chamber of Swords:
- "And thus Danar said to the
knight, Gerant, “Go forth and find the guardian seraph who
holds the sword of flame.” To do so, Gerant had to travel
through strange lands where he met the Lillend. She sang a
beautiful song and introduced her companion, Thrune, the
peaceful one. But the song delayed him, and Regarax the
half-dragon attacked Parnaith as she collected her lovely
jewels. It was Bastion, the four-winged angel of the morning,
who saved them all in the end."
Near the words "four-winged angel of the
morning" had been scrawled the word "Tarteros".
Realizing that each of the statues represented someone in the
passage, they tried more patterns, eventually hitting on the right
one: moving each statue from left to right in the order mentioned
in the passage. Doing this caused dwarven statues to emerge
from the far doors and strike the prismatic wall with
hammers until it was gone.
Beyond the doors lay a chamber haunted by ancient spirits trapped
within the Banewarrens and maddened by the long millennia.
Their fierce hunger for life was nearly the death of Nereida.
They drained her of eight of her nine levels (also draining Basil
and Aulus) before they were destroyed. In this, Aulus's
ability to place a rune of ghost touch on his sword proved
decisive. Realizing that Nereida needed to be restored
quickly, and that she had been the only party member capable of
casting the spell, and that she would not survive a trip back
across the forbiddance zone in her condition, Demetrios and
Basil raced to the surface to acquire restoration magic. In
the meantime, Bonzimir discovered the hidden door in the room
which led towards the Dragon Room.
Later, when all were restored and healed, the Company considered
its next move. They had put off dealing with the dragon as
long as they could, but the only unexplored places left in
the Inner Vaults were the rooms beyond the "Green Dust
Corridor" and Bonzimir felt strongly about not going that
way. Thus, they returned to the Dragon Room.
Fearing that the dragon might well be very dangerous, they
formulated a plan ("hike up our skirts and run like
girls" was how Nereida put it.) Most of the Company hid down
the long hall near the secret door to the Statue Room, hoping that
if things went poorly they could flee, set off the prismatic
wall and buy time to get out. Demetrios, the Company
orator, was their sacrificial lamb - he stayed behind to attempt
to release the dragon. Unfortunately, opening the Dragonlock
proved more difficult than they thought (and a lot more painful -
Demetrios had to be repeatedly healed) before they stumbled upon
the right code. This caused the glassy material that
imprisoned the dragon to disintegrate.
Saggrinitys the Silver King emerged into the world for the first
time in three millennia. Unfortunately for Demetrios, the
dragon had been in combat with Danar when he was imprisoned and
the mage now stood precisely where the corrupted priest had been.
Before Demetrios could utter his plea, the dragon blasted him with
his freezing cold breath, dropping Demetrios instantly.
[GM's Note: Demetrios, luckily was merely dying, not dead,
and managed to stabilize a round later. Some days you're
just lucky. If you call that lucky.]
The dragon then charged down the hallway far faster than anyone
expected, his frightful presence causing most of the
Company to become shaken. Realizing that they had no
chance in a fight, they all babbled their peaceful intentions.
However, a rash of "1's" on Diplomacy rolls quickly
began to make the dragon angrier! Nereida, however, saved
the day. Holding up the symbol of her god, she spoke clearly
and brilliantly, and the dragon stopped his rampage to listen,
quickly realizing that these were not the agents of Danar.
He then permitted them to go rescue Demetrios.
After the Company had outlined the corruption of Danar and his
defeat by his companions, they tried to sketch out their current
situation, hoping Saggrinitys would accompany them. He,
however, was far more concerned by the state of the banes and the
Banewarrens. He praised the Company for not opening many
vault doors and asked about the state of certain banes the Company
had not heard of: The Doom Fog, The Vault of Nightmares and the
Flask of Curses. Assured that none of these seemed to have
been released, he told the Company that he would study the current
state of the sealing mechanisms (for he had been one of the chief
architects of their design). If they could find the Sealing
Rod, he would be ready to help them seal the Warrens forever.
And here the story paused...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1) Does Aliaster Vitellius have plans for Demetrios?
2) Will the Sword of House Ducastis be enough to destroy the
golem?
3) Are the Sword of Lies and the Sword of Truth the same sword?
4) If so, can the curse be lifted? By whom?
5) What to do with the Sword of Truth if acquired?
Tune in next time!
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