Shadowdark Thracia 18
Players:
Zema Zafat - Laumry
Orkhon - Kut
Wine - Also Kut
Dina - Al
Xaayr - Iniquitous
Recap:
Leaving from Minos, the party travelled via the jungle to reach the observatory. There was a slight drizzle in the morning. Crossing the jungle, Wine and Dina foraged some herbs. Wine collected some healing herb, which could come in handy should a party member be downed. Dina gathered some goblin weed, which would raise her alertness if smoked.
Reaching the observatory, Dina lit up her weed. They climbed up the adobe house attached to the observatory's side and stood on the roof, where they had a good view of the slit in the domed roof and the telescope poking out of it. They used rope and grapple to ascend, disturbing the pigeons roosting atop the lens.
In the observatory's top floor they saw that the telescope was operated via many cogs and pipes connecting to the floor below. Descending down a ladder to the floor below they looked into the rooms, which hadn't been disturbed in centuries.
One of the rooms contained a magnetic bronze table with a star map engraved on it. Wine wasn't carrying anything metallic and so was able to inspect it. Dina searched another room and saw de-powered machinery with an empty canister that supposedly charged the building. Inside the canister were residual flakes of unknown metal which seemed to emit a glowing haze.
The final room on this floor contained the stethoscope controls. Laying dead (and dessicated) is the body of a dwarf, whose eye socket rested under a viewfinder. ZZ used a mirror to check the viewfinder and saw that the telescope was pointed at a stationary nimbus cloud a dozen miles to the southeast, over the desert.
Dina descended down the ladder to the ground floor, where she saw an impressive cosmic orrery. She also awoke the animated armor guarding the room. The weed gave her the edge though and she was unsurprised. She managed to escape before they could attack. The armors crowded the ladder as she climbed back up. Up top, ZZ cast a fireball at the three and it wiped them all out, melting the armor down into molten bronze.
On the ground floor, they saw the trapdoor leading underground and descended the spiral staircase.
Hundreds of feet below, they reached a circular room with 2 exits. The architecture in this complex was extremely spare, making it feel brutalist. At the north exit they saw the kennels, where 6 mutant subterranian dogs were eating slop. They were suspicious of the party, but were fed rations to stay calm. Past the door at the other end they saw a stairwell leading back up to the main entrance and a door barred from this side at the other end.
Back up the staircase they found a room full of equipment racks holding 6 war-picks, 4 crossbows, and about 60 bolts. Xaayr took a crossbow and some bolts.
The party listened at the door and heard the sounds of a boiling broth and some chatter from gruff voices. The language was vaguely Dwarven, but no one in the party understood it. Dina tried to open the door to greet but found it was locked.
Someone on the other side approached. They asked the party some questions in a firm tone, but the party didn't understand anything. Eventually the door opened, revealing 3 squat men with gray skin standing behind it. One of them immediately grabbed the crossbow from Xaayr and re-racked it. The party decided to leave the strange dwarves be and ascended the stairs again.
Up on the ground floor they explored past the drapes and saw 4 long-dead dwarves in their rotted beds. The door to the outside in this room was unlocked. On the wall was a tally etched on that counted to 400. There was also an etched sentence in ancient dwarven that no one could read.
They found a locked door in the hallway. Orkhon viewed through the keyhole and saw that there was a bookshelf beyond. Using a crowbar he forced the door open but triggered the alarm spell, which caused a building wide siren to go off. The party quickly looted the four books which were all in dwarven and the scroll left on the shelves.
In the opposite room, Dina opened the door to find an alchemy lab. The only potion remaining had spilled on the floor. It's vapors caused Dina to scream uncontrollably for 3 rounds. The rest of the party collected the spilt potion of inconsolable screaming.
Drawn to the alarm, a halfling trader rode in on a camel. He was concerned, but did not enter. Instead the party went out to see him. He mentioned he was riding to deliver a cockatrice egg to Orpheus. He heard tell that the mysterious mogul was hiding out somewhere in the northeastern part of the desert. The party bid him farewell and asked him to come by with the egg in Minos should he not find Orpheus' whereabouts.
The party then investigated the well. They saw that the rope on the swivel had been cut and that the well descends very far down indeed.
On the way back to Minos, the party ran into a Lizardman patrol in the jungle, but had not attracted their attention. Hiding from the lizardmen, the party let them be and returned to town just after nightfall.
Thoughts:
It was cool to see the party investigate an adventure site I stocked up myself. The maps were Dyson's and I thought they presented some unique exploration opportunities. I like how there is a tower to explore combined with a subterranean complex.
The session was mostly spent investigating the tower. There was a bit of the sub-terranean complex uncovered, but the session felt a bit timid. I liked the pace of last session and wonder if I might be better off just having a caller, even for smaller groups. Then again, sometimes a slower session isn't so bad.
I also think I could have included more in the tower. It has a good amount of stuff in it but exists more to present a mystery. Underneath the tower is where the action is.
Surprised no one in the party spoke Dwarven, but so it goes. If the game is gonna have languages it'll have language barriers too.
We'll see what downtime yields when it comes to translating the old Dwarven books.
I liked the effect screaming gas had. Imma keep using that one.