Rappan Athuk #117: Slumbering Tsar

The party, having defeated the Grand Cornu of Orcus, and now races against time to stop a demon lord’s return.

(-GM)

11th day of Sarenith, 4722 AR

Before we started our journey back down into Rappan Athuk, we took a trip to the capital’s library to research the person we kill called the Grand Cornu. He had been the head of the cult of Orcus. The gods had imprisoned Orcus because he killed a deity, and Orcus sought a way out. The Grand Cornu’s notes said that Rappan Athuk was a “distraction” from Orcus’ ritual, which was almost complete and was being done somewhere in the ancient, evil ruin of Tsar.

We then proceeded to Tsar.

In the back of the city against a cliff face was a gigantic Orcus statue with a set of large doors at the base. As we approached the giant gates of the cathedral, we noticed a huge dead stone golem. The inside was a great room with many statues. A large well dominated the middle with an uncountable amount of skeletal troops. There were two spots shielded by pitch-black. Once dispelled, the party noticed a large amount of footprints, presumably from another party.

The party went to a large statue at the back of the room. Susurrus sensed magic behind the eyes. When removed, black smoke spewed from the two gems, creating two ghostly hostiles. With a couple of shots from DFSIFA and a punch from Doomfist, they slew the two beasts.

There was a set of small steps in the well, and as the party descended the steps, we noticed some writing reading “Saint Harul’s Well.” Suddenly we heard large banging noises. The door flew open and a huge troll with fangs cast dispel magic to no avail. Grom Gil Gorm rushed the troll and smashed its head to a pulp.

At the bottom of the steps of the well, there was a large room with a single tunnel leading away. Susurrus stated he must birth the Poop Monster and opened a door to the Golden Toilet and closed the door saying he will catch up.

Ahead there was a room with four ropers ready to attack, but DFSIFA was already ready and launched six arrows killing two of them. Doomfist moved forward and threw Grom Gil Gorm into combat range. One of the ropers smacked three tentacles against Doomfist, but he resisted most of the damage but took two strength damage, Grom Gil Gorm killed one, and Doomfist killed the last, concluding the battle.

There were ten plinths in the room, and eight had either stone figurines or iron wands. The last two plinths had nothing, and one stone figurine and an iron wand were on the floor. They resisted all attempts to move them. There was also a secret door with no way to open it. We figured that the room was a puzzle involving the plinths and the stone and iron objects. After almost an hour of puzzle-solving we got the right color coordination and a secret door opened.

Doomfist (Cayden)

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Death from Somewhere Irrelevantly Far Away, tiefling slayer 20 / fighter 1
Doomfist, oread monk 20
Grom-gil-Gorm, half-orc viking fighter 20 / brawler 2
Shia Labeouf, human bard 19
Susurrus, sylph wind-listener wizard 21

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Rappan Athuk #106: Down the Well

The party has taken upon itself to deal with “the Ravager,” a legendary force of destruction imprisoned within the dungeon.

(-GM)

5th day of Sarenith, 4722 AR

The world is coming to an end. Even the Deck of Many Things confirmed it. If we don’t slay the Ravager then it will escape his prison and have its revenge on humanity. The party decided to examine the bottom of the well at the entrance to Rappan Athuk. We have a dagger key that was given to us by an anonymous party. We didn’t know exactly where to put it, but we had always been warned not to go down the well.

At the bottom of the well there was a room with a muddy dirt floor. We dug down through a couple of feet of dirt until eventually we stumbled upon a metal trap door inlaid into the stone floor beneath the mud. In the center of the trap door was a keyhole. Bright Yilling took the dagger and pushed it into the lock. It fit perfectly. He turned the key in the lock and the trap door opened. A hurricane of wind pulled everybody but Susurrus and myself down into a void of darkness. After a few seconds, our fellow wizard and I jumped in willingly to aid our party in fighting whatever lay at the bottom of this hole.

 

Rappan Athuk #41: Well, Well, Well, What Do We Have Here?

The party’s exploration of Rappan Athuk comes full circle in today’s installment, as they explore the doom-laden natural passageways that surround Zelkor’s tomb. The stoney paladin Nioveskirian tells their tale. (-GM)

3rd day of Arodus, 4718 AR

Stirges are so annoying.

By now we’ve figured out that we’re going to have to fight something whenever we turn a corner, so we were prepared for the black skeletons that rushed at us from the newest little chamber we discovered. We clashed for a while, but our victory was inevitable, and it ended with a crunch as a skeleton which had been slowed to a crawl by Val was put out of its misery.

There was some rubble blocking the entrance to the next cavern, so we set to work clearing it. Non summoned earth elementals to help with the big rock transfer. While that was happening, Arv burrowed through to scout the room we were unearthing. He came back in a hurry, due to the huge stirge nest he encountered. Stirges are so annoying. Luckily, we had a plan.

 

Rappan Athuk #40: An Important Find

The paladin Valestar Ekhart rejoined the party via teleportation magic, and found them sorting through the loot they had gotten from some trolls. He tells their story… (-GM)

2nd day of Arodus, 4718 AR

If the body of Death from Somewhere Really Far Away died with someone else’s mind in it, the wizard would survive but DSRFA would die.

Those vexing golems were suddenly not so vexing, as The Hero of No Name’s teleportation scroll activated, and we were whisked back to our comfortable home. We had a few other problems, however, the biggest of which was lying unconscious in front of us. DSRFA’s soulless body was still being occupied by whoever had taken control of him, and we needed to find a way to remove the trespasser and restore DSRFA’s soul.

Shia’s sharp memory came to our aid, however, and he identified the spell as Magic Jar, and said that if the body with DSRFA died with someone else’s mind in it, the wizard would survive but DSRFA would die.

We also found out that the spell would expire in about 10 hours, and so we teleported to Egorian to buy adamantine weapons and other items to help us when we returned to finish what we had started with our mystery caster and the golems. After some quick planning, we figured that we could teleport back before the spell expired, and then attack while the caster was down a spell.

It sounded good, and with a few arcane muttering and a couple waves of his hands, The Hero of No Name teleported us back to the cliff where we had discovered the secret door leading to the golems.

We waited out the spell, and everything was going according to plan. But nothing ever goes according to plan in the Dungeon of Graves. BlungyBooce suddenly pulled out his trusty revolver and took aim at Shia. Before any of us could react, BlungyBooce shot Shia twice, and turned to take a shot at Perseus, but his gun seemed to jam.

 

Rappan Athuk #39: A Wet Level, or, a Set of Tough Adversaries

The paladin Valestar Ekhart rejoined the party via teleportation magic, and found them sorting through the loot they had gotten from some trolls. He tells their story… (-GM)

2nd day of Arodus, 4718 AR

After shopping, I rejoined the party, and I found myself in a large cavern, with the rest of my weary party waiting. They filled me in on what I had missed, and we explored the rest of the cavern.

A river cut through the middle of the room, and we decided to follow it to see if it led to the lair of the intellect devourer. DSRFA donned our magical helm of underwater action, and he and Shia swam ahead, while The Hero of No Name cast a fly spell of the rest of us and we flew above the water. The cave ceiling lowered as the river continued, cutting off all air, and so the swimmers went a little farther without us. They came back, explaining that they were swimming upstream and didn’t want to split the party.

We went back the way we came, and went down the river the other way. After about ten minutes of swimming/flying, the river tunnel opened into a familiar-looking cavern. A large mound lay to our left, and a passageway with a pile of purple worm excrement lay to our right. The Hero of No Name, our mapper, exclaimed that this was a room we had already explored, and we should keep going so as to not attract the purple worms. And, as if roused by his words, a fat purple worm burst out of the ground next to us.

We immediately attacked it, and myself and Arthritic Slaver charged it, and Orion’s powerful hoofs and my sword strikes wounded it grievously. It roared and grabbed brave Orion with its terrible maw. Suddenly, three flashes of fire pierced its tough hide, and the great beast released Orion, fell to the ground with great holes in it, and died a fiery death.

DSRFA laughed, and I shook my head at his cockiness. We decided to make a quick trip to Nerosyan to sell the what loot we had.

The purple worm roared and grabbed brave Orion with its terrible maw.

When we teleported in, we were greeted by a band of crusaders off to go defend Kenabres. They asked me to join their ranks, and even though I refused, Orion was tired of being eaten by worms. He looked at me, looked at them, and pawed the ground. I nodded and said farewell. The crusades needed his might, and I now have a roc named Perseus.

While Shia crafted magic wings of flying for Arthritic Slaver, I spent a month in nature trying to find a new companion. I stumbled upon a bear, clearly rabid, and it attacked me. I fought back, and a huge bird flew out of the sky to aid me. We fought together and were able to knock out the bear. I used my healing magic to cure its rabies, and we flew away before it woke up.

After meeting Perseus, we waited about 4 months for Shia to finish crafting Arthritic Slaver’s wings of flying, and then we went back to the dungeon.

We wanted to continue exploring the river tunnels, so we ventured back down the river route. This time, however, no flight magic was needed, because Arthritic Slaver had his new wings of flying, and I had Perseus, and because of this we were able to travel much faster.

We arrived at the end and found a pair of rotten corpses, who breathed out black mist that formed into two wraiths that attacked us. Not that I didn’t expect it, but it was refreshing to slay minions of evil after four months of waiting. I called upon the powers of good and activated my aura of justice, and myself and Perseus charged one of the ghosts. A magical claw combined with a few swipes from my blessed sword killed it (again). DSRFA called upon the holy power of my aura of justice and used his powerful flaming shots to burn it away.

We searched the small cavern, and I sensed an aura of evil stronger than anything we had dealt with before emanating from this cursed place. We saw another passageway, and continued down it to find a cliff, that at the bottom was what looked like a fortune in gold. It seemed all too good though, and I checked for any magical auras. Sure enough, the whole vein of gold was giving off a strong aura of illusion. Shia identified it as a illusionary hoax, and we descended.

Perseus was grievously wounded, and our best strikes seemed to have little effect on these rugged statues.

DSRFA searched the rock wall and found a well-hidden secret door. We sent 9rot, The Hero of No Name’s eidolon, down the passageway to check it out, and it came back telling us it was all clear. We went down to discover a door, and above it, written in magical runes, were instructions. They were instructions about opening the door, which had three holes in it. The instructions said that if an arm was inserted into one of the holes, it would be severed, but it would also open the door.

The Hero of No Name summoned up some earth elementals to scout the room, and when they burrowed through the walls, we waited. DSRFA, being as perceptive as he was, heard a hissing noise, a couple of thumps, and then silence. None of the poor elementals returned. The Hero of No Name then convinced one to stick his arms into the holes, and he immediately pulled them out. Or what was left of them. Both had been severed at the elbow, but there was no time to dwell on this, because the door slid open, and two large statues stood up and drew their swords.

I flew in atop Perseus and we both got good hits into the one in front of us, but even our heavy strikes seemed to have little effect. Shia roused us with his rallying cries, and DSRFA fired a salvo of deadly flaming arrows into another, but it seemed to have no effect. The Hero of No Name tried to grab them with black tentacles coming from the floor; they seemed to just ignore it.

Perseus was grievously wounded, and our best strikes seemed to have little effect on these rugged statues. They started breathing poison on myself and Perseus, and we just barely resisted its effects.

We needed to get out of there and quick. The ending will be recorded by whoever updates our story next. I will leave it up to them to finish the story of these vexing iron warriors.

-Valestar Ekhart (Marco)

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Arthritic Slaver, half-orc fighter 8
BlungyBooce, vanaran pistolero gunslinger 9
Death from Somewhere Really Far Away, tiefling stalker 9
The Hero of No Name, aasimar summoner 10
Nioveskirian, dwarven stonelord paladin 9
Shia Labeouf, merfolk bard 9
Valestar Ekhart, aasimar paladin 11

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