Tl;dr: Adventurers from Ruined Oak clear out undead from a dwarven arcane repository near Rehope.
Future Adventure Notes:
•Bounty hunters were looking for a chicken thief near the bridge south of Ruined Oak.
•A fire raged west of the Whisper Guard Outpost, no one has been and returned to say where or what.
•Southeast of Whisper Guard Outpost was a mighty display of magic power.
•An unnamed gnome left behind some dice in possession of an elderly man named “Gophofilee” at some point.
•Within the arcane repository was a disc needing a key of some kind to unlock it, allowing access to whatever it is warding.
•Found written on the inside cover of a book with the title “Invaders and Spies”, in dwarvish. “The Ghost is the key, yet it is nothing. 2, 13, 129, 19, 20,11, 122. 211, 1, 176, 150, 155. 20, 28, 186, 187, 190, 69,5, 240.”
Session Title: Hexcrawl: Break Those Bones Whose Sinews Gave It Motion
Session DM: Geokhan
Session Date: 08 Jun 22 @ 23:00 UTC
Session RIsk: 6+
Characters:
•Aodh (Barbarian 7) (played by RCB)
•Barley (Druid 6) (played by Tootired78)
•Glanfath (Barbarian 9) (played by Mal)
•Nunde (Cleric 1/Rogue 6) (played by Trulhammaren)
•Sapphire (Monk 7) (played by Arden)
•Vivi (Sorcerer 6) (played by Konopa)
We gathered in Ruined Oak with intent to continue the investigation of an arcane repository of some kind, started by a previous adventure group at the behest of the Rehope dwarves. On a glorious spring day, skies clear as can be with a gentle cool breeze we set out along the road, south.
At the bridge we saw a group of four, three human and one tiefling. Two wore light armour, while the other two were more heavily armoured, with crossbows as well. Two were looking over a map, one of which warily noticed our approach. Through discussion we learned they were not lost, but bounty hunters on the trail of a chicken thief, who had been liberating chickens from captivity at the Temple of Lothander to the south.
They were extremely reluctant to share any further detail, giving a scant description of this chicken hero. Six foot tall humanoid, lanky build, in commoner clothes. We left them to their bounty hunt, continuing ourselves along the road to the outpost, moving faster than usual do to Glanfath’s barbarian training somehow.
At the outpost, who had not seen the chicken hero, but many of the guards are six foot humanoids who are lanky, so who knows. The guard we spoke with informed us of recent events around the outpost. There had been a fire off to the west, which an unknown group had come passed the outpost to investigate, with no one returning back this way. Not survivors of the fire or investigators.
Elsewise, to the southeast had been an unnatural flashing and booming. Described by the guard as a good light show, but powerful spell casters must have been there. We thanked them for their report, then continued on our way, reaching the crossroads.
At the crossroads was a newly refurbished sign, with arrows pointing which direction Rehope and Ruined Oak would be respectively. There was also an unmarked but evident trail to the southwest into the mountains, which we took, moving along until night fall.
We camped for the night, with sparse foraging, easily managed with some goodberries. During the first watch, Aodh woke me then the others, saying some small homes had suddenly appeared, one of which contained an elderly man moaning and writhing in pain, asking for help.
Aodh showed me to this man, an elderly human with shock white hair, bedridden. The room had an unused extra bed, and medical apparatuses appropriate for salve making. The man was unresponsive, repeating about being in pain and how he should have died with the rest of them. When I healed him magically, he seemed relieved from the pain but not all mentally current.
He said he thought he was gone. He spoke of invaders from the mountains that came at dawn, loud the heavy hoofbeats. The sounds of arrows and bolts loosed through the air, people screaming and running. He then said “but the gnome just… just burst into flames. death. oh I forgot to return the item to the gnome.” He pointed to a small stool being used as a table, upon which a pair of dice lay.
Using detect magic the entire area was saturated with conjuration. I asked the man his name, he said “Gophofilee.” then I asked Aodh to grab the dice. When I asked the man what year it was, before he could respond, the man, and the houses shimmered out of existence. Aodh still had the dice, but nothing else remained. The rest of the night was uneventful.
The entrance we were looking for was near where we camped, found with little effort. It lead to a worked stone hallway, with various rooms. Shortly after moving in we heard moaning then were attacked by undead. This variety seems to favour lashing their victims with sinewy whips.
We moved through the hallways, fighting continuously. A booming voice in dwarvish said what I was told later to be “I will Break Those Bones Whose Sinews Gave It” as a fireball erupted from a statue’s sword, while its eye glowed. More creatures came out, shades, other undead, giant ants, a man stitched together from pieces of other humanoids. Eventually the fight ended in a storage room. We had bypassed a windy tunnel entrance during the fight.
The storage room held nothing of interest. We used some magic to heal then continued exploring. Something afflicted Sapphire in this time with a disease, but the speed of events prevented us from learning what. Another fight started in a room with a sturdy bridge over running water. More dwarvish shouted, “Defend the Sanctum!” These spectres and zombies were mostly incinerated by Vivi.
Continuing our exploration we were again attacked, by a force for a skeletons, beyond which was a massive bone dragon and wizard standing on in a magic circle, a sigil inscribed on the ground. The skeletons were real but the dragon proved to be an image. The wizard was protected from all things, as Sapphire discovered attempting to get near, being blasted back by an unseen force.
From his protective bubble, the wizard was shouting various things in dwarvish.
“You are fools, I can wait for an eternity and my force will regrow.”
“Finish them off my minions, feed on their souls”
“You thought I was not prepared?”
Throughout the chamber there were four sigils inscribed on the floor, smaller versions of the beneath the wizard. Nunde thought they powered that circle and standing in them would remove that power. We planned an ambush on this hostile wizard, timed for the protective bubble’s disappearance, but was for naught.
The moment the bubble disappeared, the wizard said “Thank you for freeing me, I can now reveal my secret to yo….” rapidly aging then dissolving into dust, I am told, I could not see. In the room we found only a note inside a barrel, writ in dwarvish :
“We tried to save Jolmiton, his attempt to preform the curative ritual has failed and now he is trapped on the platform. His disposition has turn to the worst. We have taken his things to the secret room. let us all pray that we can save the doctor.“
Glanfath announced he was looking for secret doors, which is when I noticed his eyes were dark with an eldritch glow. We found one near the bridge room and one further north than that. The second contained many coins, books and scrolls. The first had a disc on the wall, with strange markings, with the space in the center recessed, about the size of a coin. Writ in dwarvish was “Wayfarer Alliance Faith Fidelity.” The wall was heavily warded and needs a specific key.
On our way out we took some time to scout and then explore the windy tunnel we had bypassed. A long winding tunnel, it eventually lead to a small source of fresh water and bottles that might have once been used to bottle such. A lone wicker chest stood, containing what I would learn later to be a Helm of Telepathy.
We spent some of our travel to the Rehope trading post looking over the various books found:
The Owl in the marsh
Tower and the Behemoth
Woman Without Courage
Owl Of Dreams
Humans Of The Banished
Giants Of The Frontline
Foreigners And Bandits
Invaders And Spies
End Without Duty
Destiny Without Fear
Leading Myself
Travel To Nature
Written on the inside cover of “Invaders and Spies” was the following in dwarvish. “The Ghost is the key, yet it is nothing. 2, 13, 129, 19, 20,11, 122. 211, 1, 176, 150, 155. 20, 28, 186, 187, 190, 69,5, 240.”
We informed the Rehope dwarves of our efforts and they had interest in the books, offering coin for them. We ended our adventure at the trading post, separately making our ways back to AFK towns.