Intrigued by the wealth that has been recovered from the Tel al Safina in recent months by a number of barbarian-adventurers--and undoubtedly intrigued too by the fame that goes along with it!--a group of newcomers to the city gathered at Fahra's Hole-in-the-Wall, one of the lesser taverns in the harbor district that has proven popular for such meet-ups.
Well, mostly newcomers--amongst the crew was Persephone, a fighting-woman well known to various regular adventurer types, whose renyu companion has proved a useful scout in a variety of such adventurers. It is said that she has talked about really wanting to find some treasure again, after several other encounters with the strange Zok-Fot-Pik, among other less-lucrative outings.
Considering their options, the group agreed that the Necropolis in the Temenos of the Colossian Oracle seemed to offer the best bet for sure lucre; Lars Fangripper assured the company that as he had last seen on his first and only other expedition, the place was filled with burial niches just asking to be reverently ignored, averting pious eyes from the riches contained within.
So the company set out from the Gate of Mourners to seek the Temenos:
- Dehuhada (fighting-man 1)
- Persephone (fighting-woman 4)
accompanied by Finbar (renyu) - Lars Fangripper (magic-user 1)
accompanied by Stark the Wandsman (fighting-man 1) - Arngeir (fighting-man 1)
The same company returned up the Pallbearers' Way disheveled and with a wounded Persephone and Fangripper, the former battered, the latter badly burned. They brought into town an assortment of minor jewels and trinkets to be fenced, as well as several partial-ingots of copper and of steel of rather exceptional quality. Fangripper carried an especially curious prize, to be described below.
But first--as the company declare, they entered the Temenos, and eschewing to turn left or right (to the Cenotaph on the one hand, or the Crypt of Dalan on the other, respectively), they headed straight up to the head of the valley to peer into the great gate into the Colossian Oracle itself--a stair, hotspring-fed mudpots on either side, leading up into a darkness flanked by a pair of gilded colossi, like alien and gargantuan caryatids. Dehuhada wished boldly to enter up the stair, but he was prevailed on by Arngeir to turn instead with the party to some natural caves to the side.
Inside the caves, the group encountered a number of strange giants, matching the guardian-colossi-caryatids: ten feet tall, faces with great beaks over-set by three eyes, feet triple-toed, and all of them wielding great chlen-headed maces and other such clubs. A desperate fight ensued, marked by much cleverness of the adventurers in escaping certain death. Fangripper's shield spell proved necessary for him to escape death by sorcerous fire, for one! And Persephone's use of waterskins helped as well.
Ultimately, the party was driven off, though not without inflicting some damage and claiming some material recompense for their trouble. But the colossi were clearly no pushovers ...
As to Fangripper's odd claim, despite attempts to conceal it, nevertheless a view is won now and then by attentive fellow-patrons of the taverns: a glassy-cylinder, filled with a strange almost golden solution, suspended inside of which is what seems to be an alien cephalopod with great black eyes.
The Lucre
- an antique leaf-bladed sword in surprisingly good condition (300 gp)
- and its scabbard wrapped in black sro-leather, buckled with silver (400 gp)
- Kzin-fashioned silver armrings (500 gp)
- an Alkari-styled helm with enameled feather crests (600 gp)
- small pouch of petty gemstones (400 gp)
- several steel and copper ingots (1200 gp)
- Fangripper's strange cephalopod-cylinder
- 3400 xp from treasure
- 430 xp from defeated creatures (HD + hp)
- 200 xp to each player-character for entering previously unexplored areas in the Colossian Temenos
- 755 gp, 5 sp, 5 cp per player-character
378 gp to Stark - 1157 xp per player-character
579 xp to Stark - the odd cylinder
Anybody with a specific interest in any of the items sold may "buy them out" of the pool; and, as always, anyone who provides an in-character write-up, or artwork representing what happened, etc., and provide them to me, I will post them here and said character will earn 100 xp per level
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