13th of Flamerule of the year 1492
While the rest of the party headed down for breakfast, Vladimir stayed behind to do some divinization using his broken sword.
“Where is the entrance to the underground ruins beneath Bargewright Inn where cultists have been working”
And the following vision appeared to him:
Beneath eaves where shadows whisper and conspire,
In realms of ceaseless labor and concealed endeavor,
Lies a passage, wrapped in the shroud of desire,
Hidden deep within murmurs that ripple like a secret river.
Through labyrinthine depths where unseen hands toil,
Where chaos and order perform their silent ballet,
Seek the place where the ancient barrels recoil,
In their slumber, where whispered secrets lay.
Amidst the cacophony of rhythmic clatter,
Where iron clashes on well-worn timbers old,
A sentry resides in the light that does not scatter,
Guarding tales of yore, waiting to be retold.
In the heart of the forge’s subterranean embrace,
Where whispering stone tells of epochs past,
Trace the steps of ancients in their grace,
Through halls of toil where shadows are cast.
Where iron and stone in eternal dance,
Have whispered secrets to the wise and bold,
Descend into depths of happenstance,
To the vault where stories of old unfold.
Past echoes of might, now but silent hum,
In corridors carved by hands of ancient light,
Find the path where eternal whispers come,
Through tunnels that lead beyond mortal sight.
Pass through the embrace of stone vast,
A barrier of granite, eternal and deep,
Beyond lies the echo of the past,
In chambers where ancient spirits sleep.
Break through the rock, a sentinel’s guard,
To realms where shadows are eternal,
Enter where light has never marred,
Where secrets of the dark are infernal.
Descend further into gloom’s embrace,
Through the carved passage of hurried haste,
Reach the altar in the hidden space,
In the heart where shadows interlace.
Feel the heat where shadows creep,
Where embers of old continue to breathe,
In the deep where the fire spirits sleep,
Amidst the whispers that seethe.
Seek the heat’s forbidden lair,
Where flickers of flame paint the stone,
And a temple lies in the underworld’s glare,
Its dark heart, a place unknown.
In the innermost sanctum where fire holds sway,
Find the altar, black as night,
Where light itself seems to stray,
Consumed by darkness, out of sight.
Downstairs the rest were already eating breakfast who were surprised that Yllanys had gotten down earlier and was losing at cards against his Arcane Epidermis aka Skinny. It did not take long for Vladimir to join the rest and relaying his vision added to the confusion and what it might mean. At some point, Ace ran out to collect his lute from Shondrin. It had a few small stains, was out of tune, but otherwise was in excellent condition. With the group together they were trying to finalize their plans for the day and get ready for their trip to the Old Mill and perhaps an adventure with the Man-Bat. They did want to approach Nalaskur before heading out, and this is where it went south pretty fast.
Coming up to the half-elf, Fwoosh leaned over and flashed his ring, but Nalaskur only gave it a cursory view when Vladimir and some of the others began telling him about his boss and the rumors they had heard. Getting a little defensive, since this was his boss, and these were seven heavily armed and rough looking strangers, he pushed back politely. This is when Dancer sprang into action bringing his special form of polite persuasion. The discussion did not improve, but was left somewhat neutral, and the party departed for their errands and the Old Mill and if they were luck an encounter with the man-bat.
Nalaskur Thaelond
At the Old Mill Dancer did a quick trail check to see if anyone had been following them. The number of ambushes had made him and the rest of the party a little paranoid at this point. Too many villains had been able to get the drop on them, and it needed to stop. The Old Mill was in complete ruins. It had been abandoned for several decades if not more. The roof was missing, Most of the walls were damaged, all of which were falling down. Either an earthquake or the tremors they had felt previous seemed to have caused the ruin to crumble more than it had. The two wheels of the mill were barely holding on to the walls hanging over a drive river on each side.
Moving inside the ruined mill, the group began searching for anything that might be man-bat related. All they found was that the larger mill stone had shifted somewhat, and it seems that there was a gap under it. With a fairly amount of muscle work, they party was able to shift the millstone sufficiently to allow them to get down if needed. Looking at the underside of the stone, it was evident that there used to be some sort of mechanism to allow easier movement of the stone, but it was rusted and bent out of shape.
Below was a small room with stairs leading down. Within were a pair of thick iron doors that had been bashed inward with what appeared to be human sized fists. The two doors had been warped sufficiently for a human sized body to get through the doors. Looking through the opening of the door, there was a thick braided steel cable, heavily rusted, and treacherous looking. Below the cable, a shaft ran down over a hundred feet.
“Should we check out the creepy mill hole?”
The group moved to the small room below the mill stone and stood in front of the bashed in metal doors. The bottom was out of sight even with ISAC’s ability to see fair in the dark. The walls of the shaft looked like they were originally well-crafted well-fitting stone, but now had moss and many cracks through the wall, as if they had shifted at some point, much like the walls of the mill up above. A dropped torch showed that at least 100 feet of the shaft was the same as far as they could see. At about 100 feet the torch fluttered out. With Kieren flying down about 90 feet, he was close enough to see that the shaft went a full 150 feet down with some sort of wreckage on the bottom.
With the group discussing on how to get down, Yllanys jumped down since he had cast levitate upon himself. Once on the bottom he could see a pile of wreckage of wood and metal sitting on a stone floor. The iron doors leaving the shaft were also bashed pushing them into the room that the shaft led into. The cracks seen above were worse on the walls and ceiling all leaking thick liquids. Moving to the entrance and looking into the room. There were several sets of irons doors and on the opposite side were two additional sets of iron doors one of which that had been bashed into the next area. The area was stinky, dank and very humid. The floors were slippery but not so much to cause an issue unless they attempted to move faster than a work. The temperature while a little chilly had settled to something easily survivable. He went back up and reported what he had seen which spurred the group to gather together their ropes and with tied knots they climbed and slid down the shaft.
While waiting for everyone to get down, Yllanys walked around the room inspecting each of the doors, he peered through the broken doors to the south he could see a short hallway and another set of crushed doors at the end of it. Once everyone was down and wandering around, both Fwoosh and ISAC were hit by some green slime that had dripped from the ceiling. It seemed all the dark viscous liquid was actually green slime in some of the cases making wandering around somewhat dangerous.
Fwoosh inspected the doors to the west and found that the doors were not locked but were heavily rusted and seemed to be wedged in place. Vladimir worked on the eastern set of doors, with Angelica and Dancer assisting, he was able to pull one of the doors open. Inside there were broken pieces of metal and metallic limbs scattered across the floor. The walls were lined old, rusted weapons. There were several metal statues standing on pedestals in the room. Dancer and Vladimir stepped into the room, moving slowly so as to not trip on the wreckage on the floor. Once they were about ten feet inside the room the eight statues started moving slowly towards them in an attack position.
The battle lasted less than a minute giving the party some experience in fighting the metal automatons. Sometime during the battle, ISAC failed spectacularly and managed to be teleported into the small hall leading south between the two sets of bashed doors. He rejoined the party and when investigating the room, they found a couple of swords that were not corroded, and Yllanys was able to confirm that they were magical and given a little bit of time was able to identify them.
Metal Statue
Peering through the broken doors to the chamber to the south ISAC could see three large tables with the remains of some combination of humanoid and metal limbs. All of them somehow grafted together. There were the tops of torso with the skulls exposed and strange arcane things attached on the outside and within each skull. The rest of the party joined ISAC within the room to start searching for clues but were really interested in any loot. It was clear that no one had been in this room in nearly a hundred years. A small amount of platinum coin as well as a Masterworked set of lockpicks were found. The set of doors to the north led to the room where the automatons were and one to the west led to a staircase going down.
Heading downward, the conditions worsened. The humidity continued to rise and the stench of something rotting only got stronger. Everyone except ISAC was feeling ill. The floor had greater amounts of moss, and presumably more hidden green slime above and below. The stairs led to a narrow passageway which after a turn opened up into a huge room containing several more what appeared to be automatons, but these were larger and much more robust. Concerned that they might activate when someone enters the room, ISAC sent in Kieren to explore first, and then had him remove his invisibility. This caused an immediate reaction with the larger metal men leaping 40 feet to his location and crushed his semi-noncorporeal body into nothingness.
Robust Metal Men
Wanting to try and bottleneck the new foes, they crowded into the corridor to limit how many could approach. This proved to work well, until one of the unleashed a lightning bolt that struck the majority of them. The battle was much more difficult than the previous one with some of the party attempting to take shelter on the stairs, but eventually they prevailed and as the others, upon their death, each one exploded into an electrical sphere of destruction. Licking their wounds, the group moved into the room.
This is where the session ended.
