Session 68-69 Recap and the Take

Session 68-69 Recap and the Take

The last two sessions saw the party return to tackle the King’s Tower. In the first session, the party explored four rooms on the first floor, but found the way forward blocked by a series of mysterious doors. In the second session, things got crazy.

The King’s Tower was the one major unexplored site in the intact South Wing of the Summer Palace. Both the King and Queen’s tower open into the legendary palace library, scene of many of the party’s previously (mis)adventures. The entryway to the King’s Tower from the library os sealed by a tessellated gate, a field of arcane force that pulls apart objects flying into its field into ever so many triangles, spread across space. Dozar called upon the Slumbering God to dispel the gate, and although the magic was potent, the cosmic dream of MANA YOOD SUSHAI was greater.

Beyond the gate was a chamber with a warm yellow marble floor, shot through with deeper oranges. On a raised dais, three bronze braziers hung before a valve of polished grey metal. Without touching them, the party carefully poured oil into the braziers and lit them at one point, but this had no effect. They were otherwise unable to open the valve, which had no obvious lock. So the party moved on to explore several other rooms on this level. One was a bar with numerous bottles, some still containing antique liquors, and elegant floating brass chairs. Another room had a floor that appeared to be lush green grass, illuminated by the summer light of late afternoon. Three hanging hammocks swayed in a slight breeze, before a striking tapestry on the north wall. The tapestry had three segments.

In the first, nobles don strange armor and mount fantastical and absurd beasts in preparation for a hunt. In the second, the prey flees before the hunting party, many segmented legs beneath a shaggy white pelt, multi-faceted jeweled eyes, and a long twisted horn, an insectoid unicorn. The beast is wounded by arrow, but has broken through the ringed hunters and flees into a white wilderness. In the third, the wounded beast lays its head to rest on the lap of a beautiful maiden who plays a long stringed instrument, as the courtiers watch in disbelief.

The last room they explored had a stained glass window, lit from behind. The window had four panes, the largest at the top depicting a conclave between blue fairy like figures, and Zyanese men and women. Both parties appear to gesture at an immense scroll. Below that are three panels. The central panel is occupied by a representation of the metaphysical crown, effulgent and majestic. To the left, there is a representation of cliffside caverns, carved with rich craftsmanship, an underground shrine or temple. Figures perform a ritual sacrifice before an eerie statue. On the other side, the panel depicts blue skinned fairy-like servants, who with a clap of their hands have made appear a glorious picnic feast at the feet of reclining Zyanese men and women. The light from the stained glass window drenched a wooden throne sitting before it in fields of color.


Salinger approached the throne in his dirty but opulent King’s robe, hanging open over his scarred leather armor and weapons of war. The one-eyed former circus performer and thief, become Knight Errant of the mole rats, legendary dancer of two worlds, opener of the first two Seals of the Abyssal Dungeon, now sat as pretender monarch on a throne of Zyan. Immediately a great plant grew up behind him, it’s huge white orchid flowers opening around him as an immense central flower grew above his head, its long stamen dripping with ichor. Snapping his regal fingers, the party passed to Salinger a ceremonial goblet they had found in the room, in which he collected the opaque yellow substance as it dripped down.

The Petal Blade recoiled in horror, viewing this as an act of terrible sacrilege, trying to order Dozar to draw her from her ornate scabbard. Dozar’s mind was the stronger of the two, and his hand moved only an inch towards her curving hilt. But he knew that in the Petal Blade’s view only the true King of Zyan was fit to deliver the sacrament of the Orchid Ambrosia. Undeterred by the Petal Blade’s disapproval, Salinger stood from the throne, throwing back his royal cape, and drank deeply of the goblet. He felt a sense of calm, renewed purpose, and a quickening of his senses and strengthening of his frame. Swiftly he proceeded to bottle the remaining substance in a stoppered crystal vessel from the bar.

In addition to the sealed metal valve in the entryway, the party discovered two pairs of doors that barred their future progress. One set of doors were heavy wood, inscribed with deep-etched, concentric diamond patterns. When Salinger examined them, he got a bad feeling about the etched recesses, which seemed to go back an infinite distance even when the brilliant light of a continual light lantern was shown into them. Tossing something at the door, they found that it was cut into ribbons by planes of invisible force that suddenly flashed from the door in the concentric diamond patterns.

The other set of doors were azure ovals. As the party approached, a woman flowed out of the door, with blue skin, long dusky lashes, and thick violet lips. She wore garments made of clouds that blew across her body, like the sky before a storm, revealing now this and now that of her striking figure. She identified herself as Sazikar, third vassal and niece of the Prince of the North Wind. Conversations revealed that she was bound by the Treaty of the Farthest Shore to serve in protection of this door. This was the first the party had heard of this antique treaty between the spirits of the air and the ancient Zyanese. The party insinuated that it was likely that the Zyanese were no longer upholding their treaty obligations, given the general state of disrepair, and she said she would pass this intelligence to her uncle. They also spoke about their nemesis Bazikop, Prince of the South Wind, whom she described with distaste as always meddling with things beyond his ken, and “obsessed with harnessing the power of the great boreal wind that blows beyond space and time”. She described for them the contents of the room she guarded: a staircase leading up, and “some tiresome furniture of the sort you mortal humans employ to cater to your weakness”.

Defeated by these obstacles for the moment, the party retreated to explore the rich collection of the library and retreat with reading material to the hidden cavern of Aphrodisius Nymph of the Seven Worlds, at the bottom of the shielded Book Well.

The next morning, climbing out of the Book Well into the beautiful dawn light streaming in through the eastern windows of the library, the party approached the King’s Tower a second time. The field was back up in the entryway, but this time the menacing gate would not yield to Dozar’s power. So the party searched for an alternate approach. After poking around for a time unsuccessfully, they took interest in a basalt statue at the western edge of the library. The unsettling statue had four crows wings, with tears streaming down her youthful face as she pointed one crooked, wizened finger across the book well towards the western side of the King’s Tower. Cletus recognized it as a statue of Hellaroth, the Book Maiden, one of the lost aspects of the unrelenting archon Foravian the Devourer. (The Sibilant Maiden, worshipped by the Guild of Guides is another aspect of Foravian.) Closer inspection revealed that the limbs of the statue were made of separate pieces, fit into sockets in the torso. The party tried to move the limbs, and low and behold, the pointing figure could be lowered. They now tried again to search the western side of the tower, and Salinger discovered that the book case and wall parted along a seam, and could be pulled aside like a curtain.

Within was the room that had been barred by the diamond inscribed doors. Opposite a bust of smirking man labelled “Urbis” was a stuffed elephant, bearing the inscription, “To Lathanon, that he may see that even Pale Echo has its share of absurd beasts, C.” The magician Pasquale cut open the elephant, pulling out the stuffing and climbing into the cavity. Within he found a scrying device inscribed with runes, allowing someone to spy through the elephant’s eyes. The party also found a magically trapped bookshelf with Lathanon’s private collection, and two animated wall displays, one picturing a distant aerial view of the countryside and the other the currents of winds around Zyan.

The party was now barred exit to the rest of the tower by the same diamond inscribed doors that had formerly barred their way into this room. However, Ernis the sorcerer performed an incantation to shrink one of the doors. I had heard their plan to do this last time, and so had already ruled that this would force the screws from the hinges, causing the door to fall outwards. However, I had not thought about the effect these trapped doors would have on the floor—so when my players asked me, “Wait, what’s going on with the door and the floor?” I paused. I ruled there was a 50% chance that the enchantment would destroy the reinforced floor beneath it—which it did with a horrible grinding and crashing sound, and the floor beneath that as well, leaving a series of door shaped holes leading down.

Hastily consulting my dusty maps for the lower levels, I realized that this unanticipated event had opened a hole into a sealed and well-guarded level that the party had been repulsed from in previous sections. Matching the maps up, I saw that it led directly into the bedroom of Skomantus “The Steward”, leader of the faction in that level. This is a group that split off from the degenerate groundskeepers who had remained behind for almost a century, tending the Summer Palace, and awaiting the return of the nobles from Zyan above. When the defenses of the Summer Palace were triggered two decades ago, with the collapse of the North Wing, the groundskeepers were driven into the darkness of the tunnels below, where they have lived in (justified) terror ever since. Skomantus, a teacher of the youth among the groundskeepers, had discovered that a certain set of robes granted safety from the palace’s defenses, and absconded with all the young from the tunnels to live in opulent luxury and safety in the sealed upper levels of the South Wing. He had self-servingly elaborated the eschatological theology of the groundskeepers, according to which “the masters” who abandoned “the keepers” for their unworthiness, would one day return from the heavenly city above. Skomantus claimed that he had been found worthy to assume the august title of “Steward” and lead the children to a paradise in the South Wing. One day, he claimed, he would be found worthy to ascend still higher, to the sealed library of the Summer Palace, where he would receive the ancient wisdom of the masters and restore the Summer Palace to its glory, setting things right and thereby hastening the return of the masters. Skomantus cultivated a god like authority with the youth, and slept with many of the young girls. The party knew all this since they had captured, charmed, and liberated one of these youth.

And then suddenly a hole opened from above into the library of the palace revealing Skomantus naked but for an open robe in bed with a young girl! looking down was a group of strange figures, tossing a rope, and, without missing a beat, calling Skomantus by name, asking him to ascend to the hidden secrets of the masters, and telling him that he was worthy. So I rolled 4d6 to see whether, in light of this unbelievable event, he might actually buy his own bullshit (I ruled that his wisdom was 13). He failed, so up he went, eyes wide, believing he was ascending to receive ancient wisdom. Once he was up, the children form below crowded into the room, staring up in wonder. “Up, you are all worthy to ascend! Climb the rope!” the party said, silencing Skomantus’s protests with the harsh injunction, “You are all equal now”. Not able to oppose these heavenly saviors, Skomantus had to bite his tongue as his authority slipped away before his eyes. The sorcerer Ernis, filled with visceral disgust at this self-appointed pedophiliac prophet, her beefy muscles coiling, moved to shove him to his death below once the children were all up, but Dozer laid a hand on her shoulder, whispering, “This is not our way. Even the evil may be redeemed from their crooked path.”

The party told the children they would open the way to the great library now. “But first children, you must go down and grab anything of value from the level below, since we will not be returning there.” In other words, the party got a faction to loot an entire dungeon level for them, without lifting a finger! The children eagerly complied, ferrying a potpourri of wonders and valuables up the rope: a porcelain lamp in the shape of a swan, a sinuous lute, enchanted billiard balls, the mounted head of a Martian nightmare, rolls of sheet music, a carpet of a scene of the white jungle that changes with each step, and a cornucopia of self-replenishing foodstuffs.

Having completed this labor, Cletus parted the wall like a curtain, and led them out into the library. The filed into the majestic space in stunned silence, the grandeur of the place overwhelming at first, and then suddenly the laughter came, and the cries of joy and amazement, and the children danced in the bright beams of sunlight. Cletus, heretic of Nepthlys, called them around him, gathering up books from the children’s section. They hung from the jovial priest with his wild hair, clustered in rings at his feet or perched on bookshelves above, as he turned the pages of the books with his palsied hands, reading to them tales of wonder and amazement from the trembling pages. Between stories, he answered their eager questions about the library and the masters above in terms they could understand, preparing them for reality in small doses, and softening their apocalyptic ideas with his tolerant pantheological touch.

Meanwhile, Dozar took Skomantus by the arm and led him down into the book well, telling him that in a secret chamber within he would be tested by Aphrodosius the Nymph of the Seven Worlds, who would either find him wanting and render judgment on him or deem him worthy and deliver to him the ancient wisdom he seeks. Although clearly panicked, he had no choice but to allow himself to be led into the hidden mossy stone chamber where the Nymph’s egg lay. The gentlest tapping on the great vessel cracked the luminous egg and awoke her from her slumber, wiping sleep from her eyes. Standing offered her heart—the greatest book in the library of the Summer palace to the degenerate cult leader—should he be worthy. And amazingly he was. (18 on his save vs. magic!) As the wisdom of the secret connections of all things flowed through him, his eyes welled with tears. Afterwards he was unable to speak, the tears flowing unceasingly down his mute face for a full 24 hours. He will never be the same.

Entities Slain

Two Greater Origami Soldiers 550 XP

Loot

Porcelain Swan Lamp 75 GP
20 Crystal bottles 200 GP
Lunar Brandy, Martian Port,
Zyanese Wine 200 GP
Sinuous Painted Lute 250 GP
Rolls of Sheet Music 300 GP
Taxidermied Head of a Vothek 400 GP
(Martian Nightmare)
Valuable China Sets (x2) 400 GP
Enchanted Billiard Balls 500 GP
Four Floating Brass Chairs 800 GP
Enchanted Jungle Rug 1000 GP
Insectoid Unicorn Tapestry 3000 GP
Endless White Swine Gyro
Endless Pastry Roll
Endless Cornucopia (Fruits and Vegetables)

XP and GP by Character

Pasquale 890 XP 680 GP
Satareh 890 XP 680 GP
Ernis 1783 XP 1360 GP
Dozar 1783 XP 1360 GP
Salinger 1783 XP 1360 GP
Cletus 1783 XP 1360 GP
Unasi 890 XP (11,050 to date)
Lori 445 XP (813 to date) 340 GP

Aleksandr Revzin Chris P. Eric Boyd Evlyn M Nick Kuntz Anthony Huso