Session Seventy-Three (Graveyard of Empires Summary)

Session 73 – September 9, 2015

The night before returning to the depths of the city, Chuq found that he could shadowstep with the mask, and further that he could shadowstep with the mask and carry Belroar in a fireman’s carry.

The next day was overcast and rainy, so Chuq could not use the mask to shadowstep, so Finklemur made him invisible and he walked in our midst. As we passed each gate, Thorfus left 2 g.p. so that the dwarves he had not yet bought drinks could get some when they were of duty.

Once in sight of the now mostly cleared temple of the Nagas, Chuq shadowstepped into the entrance, avoiding Marchmain and others he had gathered around to great us.

Marchmain made a big production out of encouraging us, emphatically calling us the Starchy Boyz, to get the Naga ASAP, for the greater good and in service to Xen Tellar. However, after he sent all the witnesses to his fancy speech away, he said that he would understand if we sought out magic items first.

Marchmain then mentioned that two young dwarves of the Ironhand Clan, here with the Militia, the most recent rotation from Xenilum Khel, asked to be my honor guard.

Dorea Burstow, the commander of the Xenilum Khel militia introduced me to Hisham & Reinold Ironhand. They were proud of the things that had happened with my elevation to leader of Clan Ironhand. My mother was proud and even though I had not written her personally, my change of fortune has greatly softened the blow of learning of her brother’s death from strangers. Elders of the clan are being consulted by members of the council. In general the fortunes of the clan have greatly improved.

They ask to stand post at the manor house we are using, and Thorfus grants it. Thorfus advised them to keep their mouths shut and eyes and ears open in matters of Clan Ironhand business. Thorfus inquires if they need anything, or if they have heard anything he needs to know. They inform hims that probably because he has not formally been elevated that he is not expected to provide something for the militia muster.

After getting all the information he can from them, he obtains paper and pen and writes a just in case letter to his mother. Thorfus cautions them not to give up too soon, and send the letter until his companions give the word of his demise. [Letter in separate posting.]

Thorfus then hustles to catch up with Marchmain and Dorea, and offers some payment for the Ironhand Clan’s share of the obligation, and they echo what the young lads said. Of course, the Silverthrone Company name came up as helping out and covering things for now. Dorea will think about what Thorfus can do while away in the dpths of the city. Thorfus did confirm that his usurping predecessor did nothing for the muster, and did not help the honor of Clan Ironhand.

Thorfus then runs to catch up, and as he enters the entrance he says loud enough for the workmen to hear, “I don’t know why he waited until after the crowd dispersed to tell us that it was OK with him if we went looking for magic items and artifacts first. I will never understand merchants.”

We go down and make sure we are not followed. At the four-way, Fang detects mechanical monkeys to the south towards the residences, but we do not pursue. When we reach the courtyard near the Naga, we find the large automaton, the fountain, and some monkey automata smashed. We learn that the Naga ambushed them.

Chuq opened his mind to the Naga and let her know what he knows. The Naga communicates it to Derek. Derek responds, “Oh, My!” in modern common. He is learning, but not fluent.

Belroar discusses his plan with the Naga to get Marchmain down here so she can ambush him. The naga tells us that she is afraid to confront him, based on what she learned from Chuq.

We give Derek the clothes, armor and weapons we bought for him. We then convince him to join us on the other side of the portal to attempt rescue of more prisoners, etc. He agrees.

We head back to the portal. We view the area we know all too well first, and it looks to be as we left it.

We then cycle through each of the other three rooms. The first is a botanical research area. there is a voice mentioned the need to wear biohazard suits or get decontaminated to enter the research area. The door to the west had signs that something had pushed or beaten against it.We identify the doors and loot a cabinet of two yellow dwarf six bio hazard suits, and some other items. We use the copper key to lock the pedestal to prevent anyone from coming from that direction who doesn’t have the right security key.

Second, we find a room with an hourglass shape and a door to the north and south. There is a female dwarven voice talking about 30 seconds to lethal countermeasure, but the copper key stops it. We find dead elves, gnomes, and ancient humans. We loot them of a variety of magic weapons, armor and other gear, and several mundane items. We loot all, and apportion it among our party. Derek says that the ancient leather armor was worn by the rebels under the dragon emperor. He did not know about the dark skinned elves and had no idea what a gnome is. We then used the copper key to lock that pedestal. NOTE: Either side of the pedestal had globes that sent out threat detection pulses like Axel’s armor. We suspect it will also blast anyone standing there.

The last room was a cross-shaped room with a door at the end of each hallway with a window in each door. Through the doors we can see another pedestal with a different configuration, and large chrome like globes that remind us of the previous room. We can also see that in a short distance past each door, is another door at the end of a short hallway. Chuq does a scan with the helmet and detects something, perhaps not intelligent, or at least not understandable in every direction except East and West. We then use the copper key to lock the pedestal and a voice tells us that until the issue is fixed that the pedestal has been locked. In other words, had we come through and closed the portal, we would have been trapped.

Secure in the idea that no one can come from the other direction without the right key, or solving a problem and having the right key, we control access to the throne room.We then prepare to enter the area with all the undead with the intent to rescue ancient prisoners and recruit them to our cause, and perhaps find a way to recharge our dwindling batteries.

Belroar gave Thorfus his last will and testament, in case anything happens to him.

This was a very interesting session. I am interested to see how much XP we get for all the loot we found!