From Bartholomew's Journals: An Aegis for the Ages

 [written by Phil, player of Bartholomew, concerning a recent expedition into the Necropolis and earning Bart 100 xp per level]

From the Journals of Bartholomew Pettibone, of the House Pettibone

A Purveyor of Enchanting Sorcery

19 June 2022

An Aegis for the Ages

It was a pleasant, sunny morning. After a quick meet-up, and stocking up on a few necessary adventuring items, a group of us began a jaunty trek toward the Necropolis. Rumors within the dual cities are rife these days, with the two most upon peoples' minds being potential war with Red Cloud and his K'Zin/human war mongrels, and a rash of otherworldly “beings” issuing out of the Tsur al Qadim (off to the south and east of the cities). As we passed through the Gate of Mourners, we made a stop and chatted amicably with the Poor Brothers, offering them several silvered daggers in hopes that they might help in the struggle against those weird creatures coming out of the haunted ruins.

From the gate, we made our way to the Necropolis, via the Pallbearers Way. Our walk was unhindered, and we made good time. Joining myself and Gan (Bearer of All Things, and Manager of All Necromancers - BATMAN), was Heijo (of the ink stained hands), our good friends Durham (an exceptional metallurgist) and Pako (a renyu of exceptional character), Lord Althis of Crag Keep and his hireling, Slith Sly (a fine sakkra if ever there was one!), Barlow (a fellow barbarian), and Arngier of the Green Gleam.

Along our course Durham and I made small talk concerning the new armor his assistant, Najm (not the fisherman), helped me research, design, and fabricate. It is of a unique and peculiar make – consisting of a tightly woven mesh-fabric of fine zortrium threads sandwiched between two thin layers of strengthened, yet supple, worked leather. The result is a light armor, flexible, strong and quite protective. It should provide me with increased protection, while allowing me to move quietly, easily, and unhindered – a bonus when attempting to weave into and draw from the fabric of the arcane.

My personal suit covers my chest, abdomen, thighs, and shoulders – with matching greaves for my lower legs, and vambraces for my lower arms. The pieces are all a dull, flat greyish-black in color, with a slightly raised, embossed crow (wings spread) on the chest. The leather where the crow design has been imprinted has also been kneaded and rubbed thoroughly with thin silver foil – impregnating the leather deeply with silver, giving the image a shadowy, watery appearance. I am pleased with the results, and thanked Durham very much for his assistance in manufacturing this splendid suit of protection.

Upon arriving at the Necropolis, we entered into the western catacombs, and made our way into the darkness. As we walked through the somber passages, we lit torches and placed them in the sconces found along the walls. Our hope was that if in desperate need, the torches would light our escape! Also, it just helps to keep things lighter. Pun intended. As always, the catacombs were quiet, and our noses were assaulted with the scent of old and recent decay.

We passed the crypt of Goroborg (likely a repugnant old Barcidae), and peripherally investigated a nest of sekeker, but in general managed to keep our heading south and west. As we neared Hamdi's crypt, I explained to Lord Althis that it had already been thoroughly ransacked and looted (unfortunately), and so would provide nothing of value (foreshadowing here!). So we passed Hamdi by, and found ourselves in uncharted territory. Here we began to move more cautiously, down a long, straight, narrow passage, while taking time to study and map our meanderings.

The hallway turned twice (once south, then again to the west), and we found ourselves in a large – very large – two-level chamber. And when I say “very large”, I mean gargantuan. The light from our lanterns were unable to illuminate the entire chamber. We found the upper level to be like a gallery that surrounded and somewhat overhung a lower, flat-floored area. Numerous long-unused fire-circles were noted all along the upper gallery, and on the walls were old, ragged K'Zin war banners. A large case of stairs was hewn into the eastern wall, allowing a wide and easily traversed connection between the upper gallery and the lower floor.

In essence this appeared to be a step-pool fit for giants – or a crude, underground amphitheater. The lower floor also had remnants of old fire circles, and numerous banners along the walls. As we circled the perimeter of this amphitheater we spied no other egress on the upper floor, but did locate a single corridor on the far western wall of the lower level. This egress appeared to lead farther west, and of course, piqued our interest. On either side of the corridor's opening were pillars, tall spikes solidly affixed to the ground, stacked with skulls. Many skulls. All K'Zin skulls. At the entrance to the corridor, the ground appeared to be stained with ages of spilled blood. And I have to say, the entire chamber smelled strongly of the musk associated with the K'Zin – stale piss, old grass, mixed with the armpit stench of a chnelh in heat – you understand.

On the walls in many places were writings and pictographs. Close inspection revealed most of the writing to be orderly K'Zin, with various graffiti scattered here and there, sometimes obscuring the text beneath. The pictographs indicated that most of the writings were about great K'Zin warriors and their deeds, the glorious liberation that Red Cloud was bringing – so on and so forth. ((Hmmm. More Red Cloud. This is getting serious.))

I pulled a scroll from my pack, unrolled it, and began scanning what appeared to be barely glowing characters or words, seemingly writhing and twisting, burrowing in and out of the vellum. I focused my eyes on the moving glyphs, while simultaneously meditating on the vast arcane. The vellum crumbled into dust and fell out of my hands. My mind snapped and my eyes went in and out of focus, rapidly, my vision crossed then uncrossed, and then everything cleared. I felt slightly dizzy, but it passed almost immediately. Now when I passed my eyes across the pictographs and writings circumscribing the corridor entrance, I could clearly understand their meaning. My spell would not last long, so I began dictating what I was reading.

Indeed, the stories were about K'Zin being victorious over the other races. But the stories did not seem to match known histories very well. They spoke of particular historical figures, known battles and events, but always claimed victory for the K'Zin. We know this is false – else we would not be here.

We shone our lanterns down the hallway, but it extended beyond our vision. Torches were lit and pitched far down the corridor, hoping to provide enough light to see where it might lead. With the added, extended reach of the torchlight, we discerned that the hallway abruptly ended, about 100 feet away, in a closed double door of very similar make to our own familiar “Green Doors” of Bob Hall. Althis, on a hunch, also examined the far eastern wall of the lower chamber, opposite the entrance to this western corridor. He returned and related that the wall had been variously and randomly scarred, melted, and pitted – as if some massive sword of intense heat had cleft long cuts, a thumb's-thickness deep, into the rock. I began to suspect ru'un.

I dipped my fingers into the arcane and began weaving a small orb of power. My finished product was a virtually invisible floating eye, and what this eye peered at, I saw clearly in my mind. I was also able to move and direct it, down the corridor, with but small mental effort. My morale dropped as I learned through this far-sight that just before the double doors were two alcoves, one on either side of the hall, flanking the portal. And standing in those alcoves were two large, very familiar types of statues – ru'uns! However, they did not seem to be active, be aware of my arcane eye, or did not perceive it as a threat. Hopefully they would remain inanimate.

I moved the eye to the door itself and noted similar pictographs and writings all along its outside edge. I have no knowledge of what the actual language was, but I understood what I was seeing. The writings and pictographs found here wholly contradicted the K'Zin victories found outside the hallway, and conformed to what I knew of as our historical past. These tales were of other races (human/sakkra/bulrathis/etc.) banding together and being victorious over a K'Zin incursion. And there was much in the way to suggest that the K'Zin got wiped hard!

The stories, in brief, related how Dalan IV, in an ancient time, used the “Aegis of the Demon Queen” to lay low a mighty force of the K'Zin. The words told that afterward, during victorious revels and much heated debate, it had been reluctantly decided that the Aegis should be laid to rest, protected and forgotten, hopefully forever. The coalition of allied races had deemed that the Aegis was too destructive for any one creature, nation, or culture to wield. Finally, the words spoke of very bad tidings to anyone who misused (or over-used?) the Aegis. A curse of some kind was intimated – either natural or supernatural, I could not discern.

We entreated Slith Sly to stealthily investigate in person – I was not altogether certain that the two statues were ru'un, even though they had that appearance. Slith agreed, and proceeded toward the doors waiting beyond, craftily blending into the walls as he moved. Indeed, they were ru'un, lurking in an inactive state. The ru'un became agitated with Slith's approach, stepped into the corridor, and began loosing intense beams of concentrated light toward us. Slith darted and ducked out of the way, quickly exiting the corridor, diving to the side, and escaping harm. The rest of us had sequestered ourselves at the edges of the entrance, and the fire from the ru'un simply passed us by, posing no immediate threat, while carving new gouges and pits into the far wall that Lord Althis had earlier examined. We felt that we might be safe, unless the ru'un moved and advanced on our position. To our wonder, when targets were no longer presented, the ru'un stopped firing, but remained in place, in an “on-guard” state, facing our direction.

These ru'un seemed to be much more dangerous than many we have encountered before. Each of their arms ended in a pod that emitted intense bursts of focused fire. Seeing how the power of their energy blasts had no difficulty carving shallow troughs in solid stone, we saw little hope of overcoming them. And then Lord Althis came up with a plan.

Five of us returned back the way we had originally come, and entered Hamdi's crypt. We removed the lid that acted as the cover-stone to his sarcophagus, and formed a crude method of carrying it – as a shield, and aegis. Three individuals would be able to carry this massive shield, clumsily, but hopefully to effect. Our stone aegis was at least four times thicker than the deepest gouges the ru'un blasts were making in the stone wall. Hamdi, even in death, was still present in our adventures!

As we returned with our own prized aegis – again, thanks to Hamdi – we encountered the two female K'Zinti shapeshifters, S'rra, and Darya, who maintain a rather, shall we say, exotic abode here in the catacombs. They made inquiries into what we were doing in their domain, ransacking crypts. We explained what we believed to have found, and our plans, and we asked them to join in our endeavor. They … accepted. Well, they made it known they would not hinder us … yet. They have no love for Red Cloud and the war-crazed minds of male K'Zin.

Upon our return to the corridor in question, Hamdi's aegis was hefted into position, held, and maneuvered by Gan, Arngier, and Slith. The rest of us formed up behind, and our wall moved slowly, but steadily forward. The ru'un opened fire.

The battle was intense, and not without serious injury, and almost permanent loss. At various moments, Arngier and Slith were both laid low unto death, barely surviving with the aid of blood potions quickly administered. Gan and I also took significant damage. Case in point: I was caught full in the face with a most “illuminating” blast of fire-light – I fear my hair may never be the same. In the end, it took many strong and studied blade strokes by Arngier, Gan, and myself – spear-thrusts by Lord Althis and Slith – as well as a handful of well-placed flaming oil flasks provided by Heijo to attain victory. The ru'un finally lay in a heap of smoking, sputtering, reeking ruin. The K'Zinti females were impressed.

Gan was the first to plod down the hallway, since his armor provided unique protections, and removed the poisonous power-packs of each ru'un, stuffing them into Heijo's bag of holding. Then Durham, Heijo, Arngier, and Barlow joined him and began removing the arms of those constructs – they may prove useful in the future. When this was all accomplished everyone returned back to the entrance of the corridor, while Althis and I remained at the doors. When all were safely out of the way, I pulled out a tiny silver hammer and a small block of fine-grained wood – focused my mind into the arcane – and then struck the wood with the hammer. A barely audible “bong” occurred, and the doors began to slowly, creakily, slide apart, rescinding into slots in the walls.

The doors opened to reveal another massive chamber, with a raised dais on the far western side. Behind the dais was a large metallic-looking screen – what lay behind it, at this distance and lighting, we could not tell. But between the door and the dais, blocking our path, were perhaps 50 or more golden-hued, man-like ru'un, all standing inert and at attention.

More occurred here, my friends, but I will lay off the telling of my story at this point. Nothing more was gained, other than knowledge, and we eventually returned safely, but sadly to Cothon-Gadeed. We had intended to crack a few crypts open and make away with several bags of valuable antiques and baubles, but alas, that was not the end result. Yet, we adventured, we learned much, we tested new powers, and we returned alive and with tales of ingenuity and valor to spread.

For my part, I sent word to Lord General Dalinar of the House Khalid, requesting a private meeting with me and Sesel. It appears that the Aegis of the Demon Queen is within our grasp, but may exceed our ability to possess and wield (successfully). However, given the right people, patronages, and finances – which perhaps the General can provide – I believe it may be possible to retrieve the Aegis, and use it to thwart the Red Cloud, and the wild, rebellious K'Zin he leads. We shall see.