Dicing with Death: Episode 207

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==Recap==
=== Springtime, (Divan Age 20) ===
Divan has arranged for a family of dwarves to come with him to Nekkraut. Divan tell the dwarves to prepare to make a crude path across the Brackish Fen. He waits for a week while the dwarves prepare for the departure. He uses Sorona to cast on Sayson, and learns Sayson is a good husband, but no extraordinary smith. Divan casts and looks for a great dwarven forge. There is an island 70 miles away with a lone dwarf in a forge of great renown. 
On one of Divan's walks, he comes across a group of dwarves. He approaches, and they draw weapons. Divan puts his spear up and approaches empty handed. They agree to talk from a distance, Divan tells them about Nekkraut, shows his copper coins, and invites them. The dwarfs seem to be transporting something shady, Divan uses ESP and finds out they are transporting something of great personal value. The dwarves avoid prolonging the conversation and they part ways.
Tomorrow, he meets some other dwarves and repeats the same process. These dwarves are more friendly.
The dwarves have packed up, and they start their travel. The journey goes smoothly and they reach the Brackish Fen. Divan tells them he will protect them from trolls. Sayson asks him how he will fight a troll with those arms and Divan casts on himself, which makes the dwarves very uneasy.
===The Fen Crossing===
The group arrives at the edge of the Brackish Fen. It'll take several days to get through the fen, creating a crude path with logs & stepping stones. During the first 2 days into the Brackish Fen they come across a group of crocodiles. Divan fireballs the crocodiles to death, impressing the dwarves.
The fourth day into the Fen, Divan gets the group lost and side-tracked, but they get back on the path the next day. 
On the sevenths day, their path arrives at an impassable path. Morale is low, but the dwarves keep progressing.
On the eighth day, most of the dwarves stay put on an island in the fen while Divan and a few others go scout around for a path and find none that day.
===The Mesa===
Near sunset, on the eighth day the group finds a large rocky mesa in the fen. Divan is suspicious of the mesa, so he investigates ahead of the rest of the party. Divan uses Sorona to cast ESP and finds living beings in the area but his finds this was once an area where magic was cast. Divan casts and moves in.
:This used to be a place where people have worked magic in the past. As you approach the island and walk upon it, you can see there are grooves carved into it in the shape of a perfect circle 20 foot across. You find 5 points of inflection on the circle where you find pairs of lines that lead off at acute angles, making the corners of a pentagram. There is signs of natural animal movement across the circle. The magical residue is old, hard to tell whether it is months, years, or decades old.
Divan's knowledge of spellcraft reveals this is a summoning circle used for summoning creatures. Anything summoned into the circle, with the proper spells, would prevent the summoned creature inside from escaping. However, this is very large for a . Divan's Light Spell is able to freely pass over the inert magic circle.
Divan reports his findings to the dwarves. The dwarves decide to camp on top of the mesa.
Overnight while sleeping, Divan wearing the Sorona circlet, obtains knowledge through as he sleeps. 
:A face stands out to you in your dreams; it is Atropos. Here she kneels in the middle of the circle, looking about. On the outside of the circle is a group of 12 robed humans who kneel at the edge of the circle. 5 on each of the points, 5 in-between each of those points, one standing a little further back. Those are the parts of the dream you remember. There are also feeling of a great epic deed having been done, or great fest being fulfilled, the climax of tremendous effort that people have toiled to get to. The circle was created for a singular purpose.
Divan concludes that Atropos was summoned here and the circle was made for the purpose of bringing her here. 
===The Secret Shrine===
In the morning Divan searches around for ruins and finds some very deep claw marks in the stone coming out of the circle, but not inside the magic circle. Divan concludes the creature would have to be huge in size. Divan then discovers a pile of wet earth he finds several large wooden boards. Under the boards is a stone staircase down into the mesa. The boards seem to have been used to protect the staircase from the elements. The dwarves help remove the boards.
The stairs appear unnaturally even and flat and straight. Sayson says the stairs were crafted by magic. Divan casts and descends the stairs alone. The stairs end at a hallway, with the walls covered with Brown Mold, draining all the heat around them, making the passageway unnaturally cold. The corridor goes into a 4-way intersection with a still-existing door across the intersection from Divan. Divan covers his face to protect himself from mold spores and continues. Divan then feels the heat being drained from his body and takes damage as the Brown Mold grows in size. 
Divan backs up from the Brown Mold and casts at it. The mold, unable to dodge, takes the full force of the spray. The mold is unable to follow Divan, who has backed away. Divan then casts at the mold, ripping all the nearby Mold apart. Divan approaches the intersection again. There is mold growing on the side corridors. Divan casts again, at the middle of the intersection, to kill the rest of the mold.
The passage ahead leads to a door. The left passage leads to a chamber with a firepit, the right passage leads to a rotten door. Divan heads to the unrotten door. The Door is wooden, is intact, and bound by metal. Divan pushes open the door.
Inside is a room with shrines to 3 different gods. The centre shrine is to Sayor (god of crafting), the side shrine are Terrasa (god of fear) & Ponos (god of suffering). Divan knows that the Medusa was created by Terrasa and the Giant he met in the previous episode (206) was cursed by Ponos. The room looks very much intact. Divan activates his ability of the Sorona circlet to learn more.
:You are imbued with the knowledge that this unholy shrine is the workshop of Drexl, creator of monsters, destroyer of civilizations, Lich of Malkis. It awaits his return.
Divan closes the door to the shrine and retreats back to the crossroads. Atropos taught Divan Arcanology and yet she never told him of Drexl or this place.
Divan investigates the left passage. The room with the firepit has rotten cooking & food supplies. Divan doesn't explore the room with the rotten door, takes a sample of brown mold and returns to the surface. Sayson back comes downstairs with Divan. Sayson isn't impressed with the even, magical construction used, and feels uneasy. Sayson then salvages some of the ruined cooking supplies. The right passage turns out to be an old barracks of some kind where people slept. Divan loots 2 potions off a ruined bookshelf with possibly ruined corks.
===Back to Fen Crossing===
The party meets up on the surface. After regrouping and preparing, they start building the path out of the fen. That night they return to the mesa to make camp. At camp Divan suggests not sharing the location of this mesa with anyone else. The dwarves agree. They plan when they make the actual path through the Brackish Fen, they'll bypass the mesa.
Three days later they exit the Fen. Divan suggests marching on into the night to each Grekos, but the Dwarves say their 3 children cannot handle that. There are strange rashes growing on their legs. Divan agrees and they make camp in the woods next to the fen.
===Back to the Red Hills===
The party arrives in Grekos and rest overnight. Divan treats the dwarfs to a good meal and some new socks. The locals have never met a dwarf before and are curious about them. The villagers of Grekos give Divan some tribute to give to Platos.
The next day, the party leaves Grekos and make their way towards Nekkraut. A few days later they arrive at the growing town. Divan returns home to find Cassandra studying Seltzer's Endless Scroll. Divan and Cassandra help the Dwarves settle in. The Dwarves take temporary residence, but if they decide to stay they will build their own underground home.
Nekkraut looks like an overgrown village with a shanty town of tents on the south side of town, and the dwarves are disappointed by that. They are, however, pleased with the wealth and ore Nekkrut has to offer. The miners live near the mine on the east side of town. 
==Experience==
1500 exp (750 for each class)
* Wizard Class: 310 exp for spells cast (53,073.9 exp total)
* Fighter Class: 0 exp for hit die defeated (39,049 exp total)
Category:Divan Episodes
Category:Dicing with Death Episodes