Chapter 1: The mystery of Odlo Hillhouse

[OGRE MAGE]

Bottom left please.

Palmero introduces the remaining group, watching the former prisoners carefully for the first little while.

“It seems we have bolstered our fading group for now. What is it that you folks do?”

[Marullus]

Hailey smiles warmly to them. "We appreciate your wisdom... our most qualified experts on great wizards already were slaughtered. It has been a very difficult last hour."

Bottom right, then!

[Stirling]

our most qualified experts on great wizards already were slaughtered.

Zygmund coughs, shuts his grimoire and carries on up the blue, etheral stairs.

Xerxes, "Well let's be having you. We lost good fellows and comrades to free you. So bear their sacrifice in mind and say a prayer for their souls."

He gives each a votive candle stub, no more than a tea light size.

[CAI4]

Bilberta speaks to the prisoner. ”Would you be able to provide a visual description of Moldark? May be helpful to know what he looks like in case we’ve seen anything along our journey that may relate to him”

Radahn closely examines the Elven Prisoner. He remains silently skeptical about the stories told by the prisoners

[AleBelly]

The four prisoners are freed...remarkably with some of their possessions located in the corner of each cell...well, mostly. The radish farmer (Rex's new PC)remembers having a hen, but all that remains is a bone-white skeleton.

Here are your new PCs...please add them to your post in the character sheets thread:

Rex:

topleft.jpg (28.57 KiB) Viewed 139 times

OGRE MAGE:

bottomleft.jpg (29.36 KiB) Viewed 139 times

Marullus:

bottomright.png (65.66 KiB) Viewed 138 times

NPC, woodcutter:

topright.jpg (29.56 KiB) Viewed 139 times

I will keep the woodcutter in the background for now, other than to answer questions. But feel free to roleplay your new PCs meeting the group...especially Xerxes' mention of their sacrifice.

Palermo approaches the new group. “It seems we have bolstered our fading group for now. What is it that you folks do?”

The woodcutter, still groggy, replies "I cut wood near Pantano. Hard, honest work."

Bilberta speaks to the prisoner. ”Would you be able to provide a visual description of Moldark? May be helpful to know what he looks like in case we’ve seen anything along our journey that may relate to him”

The woodcutter describes a middle-aged man, fearsome in appearance, and describes his high-quality robe in some detail. The description seems to match that of the robe found on the figure at the bottom of the chasm.

I am assuming the party is continuing up the stairs? Please let me know of any other actions. Go ahead and roleplay the addition of the new party members and I will update this thread Saturday. Edit: just noticed the individual sheets have poor resolution, so the pdf of all four characters is attached below.

prisoners.pdf

(55.59 KiB) Downloaded 7 times

[OGRE MAGE]

Who wears the robe now?

Do we still have the talking stick?

I know Legless had them before he died, but I lost track after that.

[AleBelly]

The robes were left behind with Legless. Which is hard to believe...who wouldn't want to wear bat pee and crap-covered robes?

[gurusql]

Cotgric & Duala

Cotgric & Duala will continue with the group up the stairs. Duala will check for traps at the end of the stairs.

[_1d20]=(17)=17

[AleBelly]

After joining with the prisoners under the sickly green light, the party continues upwards.

The stairs continue to climb upward until they reach an opening in a large stone wall. As the party draws near, it becomes clear the doorway at the top of the stairs has been carved to mimic the gaping maw of some large grotesque beast! The only way to pass is through the enormous stone teeth. A flickering warm light from inside the chamber illuminates the hewn-out eyes and upper jaw of the contorted demon face, giving it the fey illusion of life. It seems to call you forward…

GM rolls dice

Duala again checks for traps at the top of the stairs, but finds none. A layer of dust covers everything, suggesting there have been no disturbances here for many years...

[Marullus]

"Well... that's just uncomfortable, " says Hailey, poking one or two of the teeth to see if it moves.

[Stirling]

Xerxes

"Well either we step forward to be chomped up and spat out or regurgitated elsewhere." He hesitates to consider a exiting through a 'back passage'.

He goes in, spade first.

Zygmund

"Mind the tongue ... is that a Roper on the ceiling or one of those little gurgley thingies at the back of your throat."

[OGRE MAGE]

Lugging the heavy iron bar along for now, Palmero is still having trouble piecing all of this together.

“If you were held prisoner here, and that dead body we found was your adversary, why does it seem like nobody has been up here in ages?”

He urges his new Urchin friend to follow the others inside, waiting for a moment to see what happens to them.

[AleBelly]

The prisoners don't have a good answer to this question...all they know was they were put into a magical sleep and woke up moments ago.

[Rex]

Wenyld

"I am just glad that it looks like the evil wizard is dead. And, probably for some time from the looks of it."

[gurusql]

Cotgric & Duala

Cotgric being a Stonemason will examine the stone contorted demon face. Looking for moving pieces.

Duala will hang back with Cotgric.

[CAI4]

Radahn inspects the warm light emanating from inside the “beast” and tries to remember whether or not he had seen it before elsewhere in his travels

Bilberta, As a dwarf, will inspect the stone teeth alongside the stone mason to see what type of stone the teeth are comprised of. She will also look for dust particles and possible wear on the teeth to get an estimate of how old the teeth are, or perhaps rather how long the teeth have remained unmoved in this position

I realize both of these may require rolls of some type, so let me know if I need to do those real quick

[AleBelly]

GM rolls dice.

Several in the party inspect the teeth and mouth of the stone carving around the entry to the next room. They poke, prod, and examine. No moving parts are evident. Cotgric and Bilberta are certain this too was the work of dwarves, perhaps the very ones that became the skeletons they fought just minutes ago. The teeth seem to be as old as anything else along the walls. That is, they were carved from stone when the passages and other walls were. Radahn, nor anyone else, has any recollection of seeing exactly the same warm light from within.

Palermo uses his strength to haul the 70 pound iron rod up the stairs.

Xerxes the faithful enters the maw - and next room - first.

As he and others enter beneath the jagged archway please let me know who else is joining him, they find themselves in a cavernous room. This room larger even than the great hall of the dwarves, roughly square and 50 to 60 feet wide and long with 30’ ceilings. The rock walls are tinted putrescent purple, etched everywhere with strange symbols and hieroglyphs in bright yellow chalk. The markings reach from wall to wall and floor to ceiling.

A torch is affixed to each of the four walls. In the center of the room a 6’x6’ square block of ice sits inside a runic circle inscribed upon the floor, reflecting light from the torches. There appears to be a dark mass within it. Empty torch holders flank each of the four sides of the block.

Actions?

[Stirling]

Xerxes

Has the feeling he has stepped inside a huge mouth, the walls being cheeks and the yellowed runes threatening to become gnashing teeth.

A block of ice rather than glass. Suggests it should be thawed out and what is cryogenically frozen within may be released.

Is this room very chilly and freezing that the ice doesn't melt? Are the torches seemingly ever lit? He things one might contradict the other.

"There must be other exits surely?" he speculates loudly and goes to check out the torches in the wall sconces.

Zgymund goes to cross reference the runes to scribbles in his grimoire to see if they offer insight into their purpose.

Zygmund: 14 Intelligence: using Black Grimoire [1d20]=12

[Marullus]

Increasingly curious and unafraid, Hailey follows through shortly behind Xerxes. She stares silently a long moment at the block, trying to discern the shape.
"...best we put torches in those sconces and it melts. Seems like a horrible idea. Don't know how we really avoid doing it, though. Leaving it here to melt slowly now that time has... resumed?... seems worse. Unleashed on the complacent above without warning."

The shapes of creatures seems within the experience of an Animal Trainer...
[1d20]=7

Llandrin, the elf prisoner, quietly observes as the group wanders upwards. He identifies Zygmund as a fellow man of learning and sidles over to walk near him.
" I am assuming that your 'Clearwater' is not a detestable, murky swamp? Knowing where we might find such may help us know how far we are from Pantano, and help at least with location. Time, on the other hand... how long we lost in that cell, as I'm more and more certain we did... what year is it and by what reckoning?"

Elf sage studying... recognition of heiroglyphs, or relationship of the ice block thing to the wizards in the duel?
[1d20]=15

[gurusql]

Cotgric & Duala

Cotgric & Duala also enter the room when they finish the examination of the door. The duo will check out the strange symbols and hieroglyphs in bright yellow chalk.