[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.
