Present: Tracy Buaron, Liju John, Douglas Johnston, Jasrine Liju, Ally Moy, Emily Proulx, Zachary Reinhart, Sarjil Mansuri

In this session we met each other, established ground rules, and learned the basics of Dungeons and Dragons.  All players present chose what they would like to play and began character creation.  The Dungeon Master (DM) would complete the sheets later.

Present: Liju John, Jasrine Liju, Paul Manjourides, Sarjil Mansuri, Ally Moy, Zachary Reinhart

Our story began during an average day in Professor Scantlebain’s Puzzles and Occlusions class at Ringlerun Academy.  Ringlerun believes in providing a well-rounded education and so we all have our specialties, we are required to take classes in all fields and dabble in a bit of everything.  Professor Scantlebain started the class with some ridiculous brain teasers.  Professor Throckmorton interrupted the class and pulled Professor Scantlebain out to have a chat.  Obviously most of the class took advantage of this lack of supervision and left.  Besides, there was a Hammerball game going on just outside the windows of the classroom, not to mention the ever-present secret bar beneath the library.  Ashrynn, goody two shoes that she is, stayed behind and watched all of her classmates scamper away for some fun.

While in the bar Professor Harka tried to get Minerva to drink a strange concoction of his making in a coconut shell.  Minerva considered saving it for Professor Scantlebain (because she wasn’t stupid enough to drink it herself), and then decided to use some of it to spike the beer they were planning to bring to the Hammerball game.  Cerul’s friend Grayfo drinks some of the concoction-laced beer and promptly vanishes to be replaced with a tortoise.  Overcome with guilt that she caused Grayfo’s transformation, Minerva accompanies Grayfo in search of help to turn him back.

Back in the classroom, Ashrynn overhears the conversation that Professors Throckmorton and Scantlebain are having.  Apparently there is a celestial event occurring called the opening of the Eye of the Dragon?  Seeing that Ashrynn is listening in to their chat, they instruct her to meet them at moonrise to experience this portentous omen.  She must bring three students with her and keep all of this on the “down low.”

At the Hammerball game, things are tied between The Orcs and The Dwarves when Grimm decides to join the game.  Kellix jumps in as well.  Then Minerva and Grayfo appear and it is decided Grayfo should become the new ball.  Xander intercedes on Grayfo’s behalf asking for a more respectful game while Minerva animal handles Grayfo to safety.  Despite the loss of their new “ball,” the game continues and The Orcs win.  Winner to get to drink the rest of Harka’s coconut-cradled concoction.  Kellix loses 2 gold to a bet on who would have won the game and Minerva rides Grayfo the tortoise back to the bar.  Krog, winner of the Hammerball game, reaches for Harka’s concoction but Ulrica downs it first and promptly falls in love with Krog.  He runs away and the classmate take bets on how long this Grayrica ship will last.

Back at the bar we learn that Grayfo is actually a druid with shapeshifting abilities.  He regularly turns into a tortoise once a week, and so it wasn’t Harka’s concoction that changed him and therefore not Minerva’s fault.  Minerva really wishes Grayfo could have mentioned this earlier.  Grayfo shifts back into his normal form, rocketing Minerva into the ceiling of the bar.  She is not pleased and Grayfo is naked in the quad once again.

We all went back to class where Professor Scantlebain asked us what we learned during our 10 minute unexcused excursion around campus.  Idri responds with a brain teaser of her own that so captivates Professor Scantlebain he, once again, forgets that we are there.  Ashrynn takes this opportunity to ask her classmates who would be interested in joining them for the celestial event at moonrise.  Grimm, Cerul, Kellix, and Idri decide to join while Minerva and Xander call it a night.

When night falls we gather around Professor Scantlebain and his impressive self-named scantlescope.  We take turns viewing the cosmos.  Ashrynn gets to see the Shimmeron Cluster.  While Cerul is taking his turn at the scantlescope, the stars vanish as the unmistakable form of an enormous dragon blacks out the sky.  This shimmering metallic bronze dragon lands on the highest tower of Ringlerun Academy and bellows in a voice that shakes the campus “Ringlerun, show yourself!”  Students awaken to screaming as many try to flee from the tower. 

On the hill, Aloysius Rumblegear suddenly appears asking to speak to Spindlegear, meaning Idri.  He hands her a box which he calls the Seal of Mercion.  We learn that the Eye of the Dragon is a star in the Styphonthrax constellation and when it changes colors it portends the return of the Beyonder Gods.  But this wasn’t supposed to happen yet for a hundred years!  Mercion, a half-elven cleric, had overseen the accords that ended the Thousand Mothers War and that treaty was probably in the box now in Idri’s possession.  

The dragon spews silver flame and demands that Ringlerun present himself within the week to parlay, otherwise he will receive the fury of Acrocanth.  He then flies away leaving the campus cowering in terror.  

After some discussion as to what all this could mean, we make our way back to Professor Scantlebain’s classroom to start figuring out how to open the Seal of Mercion, find out what’s inside, and what dragons have to do with the Beyonder Gods.

Present: Blake, Paul Manjourides, Tracy Buaron, Mike Tsimaras, Ian Frazier, Ally Moy

We begin with Leo Kadre.  He had a dream of a hairless alabaster lady.  Meanwhile Reginald Dwight was up all night partying at his Paladin fraternity downing River Beer when Leo lands on him.  Dwight shoves Leo off and seeks something to cure his hangover.  Raethryn Sildi was at this party as well and starts waking up.  He hears a loud clattering and goes to see what it is.

Back in the classroom, we eventually pass out from exhaustion.  Being teacher’s pet, Ashrynn of course lasts the longest.  Rowen finds a feathered dart in her neck after she wakes up and we learn we’ve all been thusly shot with these poorly made sleeping blow darts.  The security guards are there and two of the windows broken.  And Professor Scantlebain and the Seal of Mercion are gone.  All we know is a small group attacked Professor Scantlebain.  He was hurt but is all right.  We go to the chapel to visit Professor Scantlebain and Reverend Johann Braxhand tells us he has a job for us.  Whoever stole the Seal of Mercion hasn’t left the campus, so they must be in the catacombs.  For a full letter grade we can retrieve the Seal and we get to keep anything we find down there.  Including the boilers.  After a brief stop at the bar to get some vittles, we venture forth into the catacombs.

There is a blast of hot steam as we open the door.  Professor Nimblenine reminds us we are on our own and we see a wrought iron spiral staircase leading down.  It’s hotter down here.  Eventually we get to a landing which leads to even more stairs down, these made of stone, obviously of dwarven make.  Leo finds a kobold footprint.  At least now we know what we are hunting.  We also hear rhythmic scraping coming from below.  Eventually the stairs lead to a door.  After Leo checks for traps we creak the door open.  Inside we find a huge hallway with a very large humanoid walking towards us.  Probably 8 ft tall.  Reginald cast sleep, but nothing stops him.  It’s a janitorial stone golem wielding a broom.  We slide right past.  Leo thanks it for its good work.

The hallway ends at a basic looking wooden door on the right.  And it’s hot to the touch.  Ashrynn uses mage hand to open the door and hot steam whooshes out.  We proceed into a very big room with two huge containers inside – apparently the boilers.  They look like brass bottles and there are seven doors total.  The walls and ceiling are covered in pipes radiating heat.  And there are nests with rats inside.  The rats attack!  Reginald gets bitten rather badly.  But Kellix heals him right up.  Rowen lets us know that these nests aren’t the main area.  There will be a lot more rats as we go along.  7 intact quills, an eraser in the shape of a sword, 3 notebooks – one of which is a spellbook – 15 sp and 33 c, small piece of malachite, and a particularly shiny magical short dagger +1.  We divy the gold up evenly.  The spells in the book are Animal Friendship and Featherfall.  We each got 2sp, 5c, dagger went to Raethryn.  We each get 100 xp.

Present: D Alexander, Tracy Buaron, Alejandro Castro, Ian Frazier, Paul Manjourides, Zachary Reinhart, Jonas Reinhart, Anthony Tsimaras, Michael Tsimaras, Lenice Williams, Emily Proulx

Idri starts transcribing the notebooks that we found in a corner. The room we are in is fairly large and there are two huge brass boilers connected to thousands of pipes and leading up to the school above, heating it. To the north there are three doors. Two to the west, one to the South, and one to the East. According to Leo, with his divine sense, the kobold of evil is towards the South and Leo heads towards that door. Ashrynn notices a magical sigil on the door, but can’t figure out what it means. Rowen notices it’s actually an alarm sigil that we learned in Strategic Wealth Distribution. Meanwhile we hear a clattering to the north and Raethryn went to check it out. And Ulrike went back where we came from with a bunch of students. Sir Vesa tries to deactivate the alarm on the southern door and it seems to be disabled.

The door swings open and we see another sweeper golem in a long hallway. About 40 ft down there is a similar door to the north and the south. And 10ft past the northern door there is yet another door. At the end of the hallway there is an old coat hanging on a hook that looks like it could fit the golem. All of the other doors also have sigils except the one to the east. Leo continues to evil geiger counter and it’s real bad below us. Bula senses for good and it’s all upstairs. Reginald checks the door without the sigil and opens it. Bada readies their rapier. Steam filters out and it’s just another boiler room with almost the same amount of doors. Rats infest this area as well. Reginald firmly closes that door. Leo asks Sir Vesa to try and disarm the most evil of doors, the middle southern one, and he does. We swing the door open and are immediately hit with a musty, earthy, nasty stink, big stenchy not great. Strong old socks vibe. It’s a stonework room, no boilers, with a huge raised disc on the floor made of stone about 6 inches high. Takes up almost the entire room. And on top of the floor there is this brownish crust. Above there is a series of concentric rings in the ceiling and a hole. Like a laundry chute but 20 ft up. There is one door to the north (we came in) and one door to the south. Zeah investigates the brown crust and notices shapes like a quadriped – dog or large cat – and then part of a sword also drawn in. Then the disc starts glowing blue and starts to spin and the hole in the ceiling is starting to close. It’s a garbage compactor! Sir Vesa tries to fault through the closing hole but just misses it. Leo gestures to go get the golem to fix this. Reginald tries to lure him with dirt but he’s just so slow. Rowen goes through the door to see if there’s a way to turn this damned push-pop of death off. We notice a small button near the chute, hear a soft click, feel a rush of air, and the forcefield opens and starts lowering again.

Then we hear a loud clunking from above and wet sloshing. Time to get out of here! Too late and a bunch of us start puking as refuse starts pouring in. We stumble into yet another hallway and yet another golem. This hallway is shorter though and goes east/west. If you go east, the hallway eventually turns south. If you go west, there is another door to the north about 10 ft away. Sir Vesa deactivates yet another door and there’s another compactor. Nope. After the eastern hallway turns south, there are two more doors. One is alarmed, one has two sigils – an alarm and a flame trap. Cerul opens the east door. Another stonework room with pillars around the outside. No other doors in here and there is a single metal pillar in the center of the room about 4 feet tall with some sort of etching on it. Bula reads that it says reset. And then the door starts closing behind us. Huge glyphs appear burning and changing and blinking above the pillar. It’s an ancient derivative language, an early Carcosan, and it’s counting down from 20. And then this stone blobness starts reaching for Raethryn from the east wall. Sir Vesa attacks with his bow. The blobness turns into a gray ooze. Keep your weapons away from it, it’ll eat through metal.

Then Leo gets shot by a kobold, yells “DICK” and charges. Roll for initiative! Some of us are fighting the kobold, some the grey ooze. We take care of the ooze quickly. We find kobolds casting some kind of ritual in honor of the Unmourned Gods, specifically Sebulia? Bada puts two to sleep.

Players: D. Alexander, Lenice Williams, Ally Moy, Emily Proulx, Michael Tsimaras, [new player]

*A small retcon was applied at the beginning of the session. A plot was devised by the party who wasn’t stuck in the ooze room to use the booby-trapped door with a fire glyph inscribed on it. It was conveniently on the opposite side of the hall of the sealed metal blob door to potentially blow it open. Initially, the explosion did not work as intended, but the “rule of cool” was implemented by the DM to state that the ensuing blast was big enough to damage the door thoroughly, but not enough to blow it down entirely. The big boom was large enough, however, to (conveniently) knock out any of the players who were present the prior session, but could not make this session. The infirmary is a comfy place, we promise!

Leo’s charge distracted a few of the kobolds, but a goblin shaman was unphased by the initial charge and instead was focused on her ritual, which seemed to be opening the coveted Seal of Mercyeon! Fast action would be required from the players to stop the seal from being broken, which is exactly what they did. Zeah kicked open the damaged metal door for the rest of the party to join the fray, thus allowing Raethryn to use his fast feet to dive right for the seal in the back of the room! He then tossed it to Bada at the entrance to catch it with their Mage Hand cantrip, above the heads of the tiny kobolds reaching for it pathetically. 

The hasty and quick reaction from the monk came at a cost, however. Since the shaman had no more seal to work on, she had full intention of getting it back without mercy…eon. She cast some kind of vicious bloody poison spell that not only downed Raethryn instantly, but also poisoned him for if he were to get back up. It was a tense situation, with a player character in their downed state while a whole room of kobolds was in the way of most of the party, and the goblin eyeing them all for death.

Meanwhile… At the entrance to the maze we affectionately call the Catacombs, Idri met up with [new player character], aiming to catch up to the group with her newfound knowledge of the Speak with Animals spell in use… Recruiting a whopping eleven giant rats, among them their chiseled leader with an eyepatch named [giant rat who makes all of the rules]. As Bada nabbed the seal and left the danger of the room… They passed Idri and [new player character] with their new rat company in tow, immediately turning the tide of the battle by occupying nearly all of the kobolds with dog sized rodents charging at them. 

In the chaos, Bula was able to sneak a healing spell to the dying Raethryn, but he still had poison to deal with… But Leo had other plans. Whether it was a ploy to distract the goblin or to learn something dark about himself (or a mix of both), he approached the shaman and asked about [redacted], which captured her attention. She turned a kobold corpse and rat corpse undead in the meantime, but Leo also cured Raethryn’s poison with a sneaky Lay On Hands. With a combination of Zeah’s earlier strike of Eldritch Blast and Raethryn surprise attack from rising up (with Leo’s permission), they subdued and tied up the goblin shaman. The remaining kobolds either ran away or were captured. Victory!

Idri was able to negotiate with [giant rat who makes all of the rules] with a supply of fresh bread bowls and old soup to be allowed unharmed passage into future ventures into the catacombs. Crystals were found with a bit of searching, the same that appeared in Leo’s dream, which brought up even more questions. The bodies of the fallen were taken out of the catacombs as per request of [giant rat who makes all of the rules], and a bunch of loot was found, which we may one day distribute evenly. Maybe. 

Present: D. Alexander, Tracy Buaron, Katelyn Serpe, Emily Proulx, Michael Tsimaras, Ally Moy, Suany Pascale, Joseph Pascale

Ashrynn and Kellix awake in the infirmary having missed the fight beneath the school.  They race off to find Professor Scantlebain to find out what’s going on.

We bump into Bulash and Arkhuan who are also looking for the professor.  We go past the magic door at the top of the tower and we can hear them speaking above us.  Professor Tallybranch is in her tiger form and Scantlebain is in a bad-ass pose floating in a scrying circle.  There’s also apparently a zeppelin, a tree, and other weird stuff in here as well.  But DO NOT ask about the zeppelin!  Scantlebain kicks us out so he can continue scrying about an evil that Tallybranch had seen in the woods.  She fears it may be a return of the Morrigu, raven assassins that were usually elves, half-orcs, or humans. 

Meanwhile, we learn that Jenny’s staff has runes on it saying she’s from the royal gobelynd tribe of Drex.  Her mission was to destroy the Seal of Mercion.  Jenny is sure she is going to die because Kelek doesn’t like loose ends.  Kelek is the bringer of prophecy.  He is the opener of the Eye of the Dragon.  And he sent more than Jenny.  

Ashrynn and Arkhuan join the rest of the classmates at the chapel.  It was decided to try and get Jenny drunk so she can spill some information.  She tells us they need to perform a ritual to summon a demon called the herald which will destroy everything.  This is for revenge because the Drex have been treated poorly by the other tribes.

We start working on the kobolds instead for they are truly idiots.  Bula convinces them she’s some sort of deity.  This combined with beer in dixie cups, gives us more information.

Suddenly an arrow comes through a high window and pins Jenny’s ear to the wall.  

Present: Emily Proulx, Zachary Reinhart, Blake Larsen, Paul Majourides, Ally Moy, Carina Gonzalez

We are going to the Singing Sands to get Professor Throckmorton from an archeological dig so he can translate things for us.  We head to the Sarkhen Sovereignty which is an elven kingdom in the desert.  Specifically the Ruins of Kulkadar, a major city in the time of the Unmourned Gods, which has now been flooded by the sands of the Sarkhen desert.  

Our group has been given pack mules, Lavender and Sassafras, and a cart for our stuff.   We had horses in the beginning, but after a week the forests gave way to plains, then savannah, low scrub, and now we are clearly on the edge of a very wide desert.  Now we’re on foot and following signs to the city of Sulkand.  

We’ve each been given a stipend for our trip of 150 gold.  As we get closer to Sulkand we see plumes of colored smoke with compelling smells of spice and incense.  The town appears to be mostly tents with flags and kites coming off them.  Elvish, common, and other unrecognizable languages are on the kites which act as signs.  Other signage appears to be in Thri-kreen, giant telepathic mantises of the desert.  

This place is basically ancient Egypt.

It’s a diverse city without many of the prejudices found in other cities.  Gnomes, beholders, dragons – all are considered citizens of this kingdom.  There are laws, but watch your back.  A sign of highly polished and carefully crafted bronze bids welcome in almost every known language.  The entrance to the town is lined with columns that may used to have been statues of old pharaohs, now worn down by the sands.  

A huge man with a wide reptilian snake head and broad shoulders with deep almost glowing green eyes with a sword the size of a surf board steps forward and in very well constructed common, “no mounts without paying the toll.”  He demands 325 gold for us to come in with our cart and mules.  Or 5 gold for him to just watch our stuff while we run in and get what we need.

Idri tries to convince the guard that these mules are actually esteemed guests, and not pack animals at all, and that she is their translator.  He doesn’t fall for it.  Bula gives him 5 gold and Kellix gives him an extra 5 just in case.

The best place to find things are at the Markets of Kalkeer just beyond Pick Pockets Row.  They are a series of low brightly colored draped cloth over what looks to be a full quarter mile of various roofs and stalls.  As we get closer the small of roasting meat and boiling tea is in the air.  

We notice a massive dragon shadow pass over us and drops down into the market and shape shifts into a humanoid shape.  No one seems to notice this is happening.  Something green and wet drops onto Osterra’s shoulder.  A voice from above apologizes – a brachiosaurus walks by with a howdah.  Just one of many types of animals here that we’ve never seen before.  

Ashrynn notices someone trying to pickpocket Reginald, yells, and someone tries to deal with the pickpocket and tries to get a reward.  When he doesn’t get it, they try a few more times to steal from us and fail.  We pickpocket them in turn and keep the satyr as a pet.  In exchange for feeding him, he’ll give us information.

Over a rack of dire pig ribs we feast and get information.  Tarkus Felton, formerly Vladimir Penelope, is the name of the satyr.  We call him Penny for short.  He doesn’t like that, but tells us that Throckmorton must be dead because he went to the Ruins Kulkadar, due east.  He also went to the mages tower and spoke to the preceptor, and bought supplies from a three-eyed merchant.  

We start discussing what we would need to safely cross the desert.  Xjahd’s Menagerie and Emporium is our first stop.  He tells us he did indeed meet with Throckmorton and has been to Kulkadar.  He seems to be immortal.  It seems to be a two day trip to Kulkadar and he recommends dune striders to get us there.  Xjahd agrees to outfit us with dune riders and everything else we need in exchange for retrieving an object for him.  Some of his creepy eyes will be accompanying us as well.  He throws in extra dune striders,  a security runner, and tunnel scarabs for Bula’s staff.  

Present: D Alexander, Blake Larsen, Katelyn Serpe, Lenice Williams, Carina Gonzalez

So all we have to do is ride the dune striders to avoid the sand sharks and find Professor Throckmorton so he can translate the Seal of Mercion. No problem, right? We press due east making sure to only camp on clusters of large rocks. They’re safer since the sand sharks can’t get us through the rock. In the distance we see a metal pole sticking out of the sand with tattered rags hanging it from it. Turns out it was an abandoned camp. A dead dunestrider lies amongst the wreckage. Doesn’t look like sandsharks did this. Ashrynn finds a dwarf-sized tabard that bears the mark of the academy of Ringlerunn. Another body is found – this time a halfling woman – with multiple arrow wounds. The arrows look pretty generic. She was one of the recent graduates who accompanied Professor Throckmorton. We activate the security runner and the dune striders start slowly pacing around us. They don’t like staying still, especially with the sun this high. We continue clearing the camp and find that the professor’s notes are gone.

Then the sandsharks come and the dune striders start leaving without us. Ostera is dragged beneath the sands and her axe goes flying. The sandshark is injured by Bada, spits out Tera, and “swims” away. The sands shift and we briefly see something glowing red and giving off lots of magic.

We find another corpse leaning against the marble plinth, completely burned. Ashrynn casts comprehend languages and the hieroglyphics on it say two sisters and then underneath, one gives birth to the other, she gives birth to the first. Cerul quickly figures out that it’s the sun and moon. Says so and a massive sphynx comes out of the ground overlooking a 30ft pyramid. More bodies are revealed. The dune striders flee but Idri calls them back and chases them down.

Out of one of the destroyed tents comes a woman’s hand and she grabs Reginald. She had been pinned to the ground with a sword through her sternum and was obviously undead. She slowly starts to heal and it appears that she is not organic. Some sort of metal mesh. She gets up and walks straight to Idri and touches her. Zeah gives her parchment and a pen and she starts drawing pictures. It looks like she had been hired as a guide by the Professor. They are attacked by cleric raiders, burning the camp and destroying the information. Pearl is her name and we figure out that this is a temple to the beyonder god, The Nameless Guide of Life and Death and the symbol is the opalescent orb. Life and death was the other half of the riddle.

Cerul asks if Pearl is a carcosan and she kind of freaks out for a second and almost kills him, before she forgets herself. Pearl runs into the temple and we follow.

Present: Katelyn Serpe, Sayuni Dias, Zachary Reinhart, Carina Gonzalez, Paul Manjourides, Blake Larsen

As they enter the temple the area is lined by nine columns representing the nine gods of the ennead. Zeah recognizes two of the ennead: Arcoras the Sphynx, god of civilization and law, and Washa-tan the desiccated corpse covered in chains and bound, biting through his own chains, god of the underworld.

We realize that, having entered the pyramid from the top, we are descending towards the god of death. It’s beautiful. Crystal clear water. Obviously lots of magic around. The gods used to have gems in their eyes which have been stolen. Marked in graphite at the base of the different statues is something scribbled in pencil in dwarvish. It says “Statue of Absobeck: do not remove, do not destroy.” So the nine are Arcoras, Washa-tan, Absobeck, Aknefethis (female, wings wrapped around herself like an angel and a fish tail, larger than other gods), kulkantikotli (carrying small tomahawk axe and short staff and aztec headpiece), Kulsawet (harpy, deep set marking around the eyes), Ursokaris (heavier and stouter, he is carrying a jar in one hand that seems to be overflowing with coins or riches, three eyes), the unnamed god (facing off against the dragon-headed) Styphenthol (dragon headed).

Beyond are doors, large, carved and marked in dwarvish. It looks like the archaeologist had a hard time getting them open. They open towards us. About 10 feet high, very high ceilings, and the doors are ajar. Cerul opens them further and inside we find Aron Balefeld, a half-elf fighter hired by the archaeologists to guard the place. We asked Aron if they had seen Pearl running through. They hadn’t seen her, but remembered a gust of wind.

It’s a small circular room with benches cut into the walls and what looks like burial niches. The place is painstakingly bare, picked clean. Zeah notices a small intricate pattern around the walls and the reason there’s nothing in the burial chambers is because tomb raiders came through hundreds of years ago. There is one open door to the west and we proceed. Leads to a short hallway and branches to the south and the north with footprints everywhere. We go south.

The hallway to the south leads to a stone door and then it goes to that door or off to the right. We go straight which leads to a small stone square room. Two sconces immediately alight when we enter. There are more insets here and in each one there is a sarcophagus. Some opened, some closed. And a sarcophagus in the middle of the floor with a skeleton inside holding a long thin sword for a total of 13. There is relatively fresh blood splatter – within two days – by the door on the opposite side. Ashrynn suggests we immediately leave. Throckmorton clearly isn’t in here and it’s getting creepy.

One of the corpses is a mummified gnoll; pretty big. Kellix moves forward and hears gnoll laughter. Cerul recognizes it as a royal welcome and confidently proceeds. Kellix opens the door and the hallway goes another 20 ft. and he can see a black boot on its side, as well as more blood. The boot probably belonged to one of the brigands. The hallway goes to another T-intersection. We go left again and see the rest of the brigand. He has multiple stab wounds in his middle but what clearly killed him was a cleaving wound from the side of his neck to his kidneys. He’s wearing black and brown leather banded armor which provides excellent camouflage. And something is moving under the breastplate of his armor. Ashrynn pokes the armor and eight fist-sized scorpions come skittering out. We can now see that the left hallway ends in a locked portcullis covering stairs leading downward.

Kellix goes back to loot the human brigand and gets some silver. Under the armor he also finds a band covering a burned star into his flesh. It’s a symbol from the unmourned gods declaring his allegiance.

Zeah tosses a pebble down the stairs to see if we can learn anything else. A light turns on when the pebble hits the floor, but we can’t open the portcullis anyway. Back we go to the right. As we get closer we hear running water and find a door on our left and the hallway then turns to the left. Ostera opens the door on the left and it’s another remarkably beautiful location. Filled with light and the smell of cool crisp air. It’s a round room with nine pillars, each of which seems to be etched with the names of the gods. In the center is a small fountain and water is pouring from the ceiling into a bowl inlaid with gold and to an inlet in the floor. This forms an intricate pattern in the floor inlaid with blue tiles. There’s a palm tree in each corner and a central band around the room with hieroglyphics and a few other languages including orcish, elven, primordial, and draconic. They all say the same thing – the story of the fall of Kulkadar.

Kellix does a rubbing to use the languages as a rosetta stone to decipher the hieroglyphics. Turns out it’s actually gnollish! We’ve discovered the written language of the gnolls. All of these great works that we have seen are the great creation of the laughing gnoll pharoah, Thalasitus. The laughing pharaoh ruled over a kingdom of scientists and physicists and astronomers, scholars that worshiped the ennead and then the beyonder gods came and caused an upheaval that allowed an elven child to steal the amaranth and when the pharaoh dies, the kingdom dies. So the new pharaoh is probably whoever thi elven pharoah. This was during the carcosan occupation; a place where the locals could come and be safe. It’s an incredibly noble history of the gnolls that have been erased.

We look up and see there’s a beautiful mosaic in the ceiling of the night sky that are actually lapis lazuli and onyx. It has a wheel around the outside with an arrow pointing due north and that inset amongst all of these gemstones are smaller gemstones in green and red – emeralds and rubies. Why hasn’t this room been plundered yet?

We take a closer look at the sky. Cerul can tell it’s the sky from 4,000 years ago and almost like a map. Reginald confirms it. But the carcosan occupation was 30,000 years ago. Curious. Ashrynn thinks this room may have been used for communication – to speak across the stars or other planes of existence across space and time.

It’s becoming more and more clear that this reduction in their society was done to the gnolls, it wasn’t natural.

And suddenly a sword appears at my side. Intricate chainmail handle, unknown alloy, pommel with a blueish gem – maybe sapphire. It feels unnaturally warm but comfortable in my hand. Ashrynn normally would be uncomfortable but the sword feels natural. The water in the fountain starts to swirl clockwise and Ashrynn can hear distant gnollish laughter as if to say hello. Ashrynn greets back and the water swirls into a gnollish woman water elemental. Cerul knows that water elementals tend to take the form of whatever has summoned them. It asks “what do you request” and absorbs Ashrynn. She is gone and the sword clatters to the ground.

Players Present: D Alexander, Sayuni Dias, Ally Moy, Suany Pascale, Joseph Pascale, Zachary Reinhart, Katelyn Serpe, ShayMarie Silvestri, Lenice Williams

Zidri shortshanks is in sulkan and gets flanked by royal guards she ducks between their legs and runs away royal guard reveals the royal family wants to higher her
Duchess quenifere of house aldan- Zidri is brought before her in a makeshift tent castle- also elven princess there
Xanthe- elven princess’s half sister is also in the throne room
The duchess reveals a picture of a dwarf that Zidri dated once, Professor from the academy of wrinklerun who was here just about a month ago looking for pack animals preparing for a dig
Gives the two another scroll with two briggins standing side by side- maybe human they are extremely scarred- man and women with right and left halves tattooed respectively dangerous murderers who operate in the desert
Tera blaskis and Jed Nakobus- wanted briggens and cultists raiding party on edge of community stole livestock food and drinking water but low amount of gold- duchess believes they are following professor throckmorton
Duchess says there is nothing before or after Pharoah and if professor discovers historical facts that contradicts this then it can cause problems
IF the professor is successful and the briggens find what he’s looking for then it can find its way back into the hands of the drax, and other enemies
Duchess wants Xanthe and Zidri to tack down professor and bring him back to her and find out whatever he might find stays hidden they have one months time
This was all two weeks ago
They’ve spent two days in the temple avoiding trap and have been following the sound of running water and we found a door marked in hieroglyphs and some water is pooling under the doorway
After investigating Xanthe hears voices on the other side and begins to open the door to reveal the rest of the party
The waterfall after grabbing Ashrynn is pulsing with life- Astera notices the waterfall is laughing at us
The Gnolls recognize the waterfall is laughing in a gnoll language and its an almost a sacred way
The waterfall turns into the shape of a sharptooth and begins speaking to Arquen it says Ashrynn is in the bottom of the pool- the waterfall reveals himself to be the pharaoh which Arquen relays to the party
It takes the shape of the Pharaoh and egyptian guard carved from ice
We hear whatever he says in our native language
The group wishes for their friend back and Idri is delivered to them. He calls her Quasari and says they are old friends
“Look to the west into the eyes of death. Kelek is coming. He seeks to reopen the wheel” He says for more information he requires myrth
Bada tries to play him a song but gets stage fright
arkhuan tells him a joke and he begins laughing- the gems in the room begin shifting and create different constellations and the water begins to swirl and a pedestal pushes up out of the water and on top of it is a golden crown with blue and gold cloth headdress and a cobra head with two green jewelsd- Bada detects that it is very powerful
arkhuan reaches out towards it and powerful energy grow and she realizes the Valesis has given her the crown of the former pharoah. She puts it on and she becomes full of power
Arkhuan reads the hieroglyphics and reads something about the cosmic wheel
We heard a loud screech- Astera identifies it as an elven scream coming from the west
The party exits through the north door into a hallway and there is a hieroglyph on a door in front of us that looks like a large apostrophe followed by a series of c shaped marks – it’s a scorpion tale
Ceru opens the door and we are hit with the smell of rotting vegetation and humidity- large room with a drop off that has a latter placed across to the other side of the room and the center is covered with black scales that seem like they are moving- its a scorpion farm
Aaron throws a torch into the pit and it pisses off the scorpions then he steps on the ladder to test it and it holds his weight!
Aaron walks towards the west latter and gets to the corner and the ladder cracks but holds the ladder splinters just as he makes it to the edge of the door and he jumps and grabs onto the ledge and stands on the ledge.
Aaron opens the door and sees a room with tattered ancient robes but there is also three briggins in the room that turn to Aaron
Ceru summons a vulture familiar to carry him in wild shape form as a giant weasel carries him across the room to join the battle.