Session 3x1

Session 3x1 occurred on 6 March 2021. The players were Ghost (Harlac Wayfinder), Nordin (Otzi the Grey), Primarch (Marr), Veron (Osric) and wizefool (Devran Sly). Their goal was to work the quarry and deconstruct the statue south-west of Dryvault to gather stone, and then explore the woods northeast.

## Summary

The party re-opened the quarry in Dryvault, which had been exhausted in Block Two. The next day, they journeyed to the ruined statue in hex 011.024. They encountered the Northmore refugees, who settled in Dryvault. Learning that the statue was a grave marker, they found an elven soul ruby there. The party took the remainder of the statue back to Dryvault. On the way back, they encountered the zombified remains of the party from session 2x9, and after dispatching them they bury the dead.

The next day, the party decided to follow the old dwarven road discovered in session 2x7 (hex 012.025). The road leads to an abandoned dwarfhold called Abiggaboi, built by moon-worshipping dwarves. However, the hold is filled with demonically corrupted reptilians, and a demon called Tamol the Spellbound. The room where the demon is held is full of flowers that are part of the body of the demon - Devran picks one to take with him. After fending off a ghost, the party returns to Dryvault.

## In-character tales

### Marr's tale

"There is a large fortress named Abiggaboi in the mountains shortly to the south of Dryvault. It is filled with demons, ghosts, and ancient dwarves. They seem to worship the moon. There are many riches and dangers there. Don't pick the flowers..."

### Harlac's tale

Springrise 30

A day of shopping and quarrying. Tiring, but productive.

Osric is creepy. I will keep my distance.

Springrise 31

We see what appears to be another group of refugees coming from the north, fleeing from the Rust Brothers. Marr and Devran speak to their somewhat foppish leader, Issodair, and learn that they fled from Northmore, just outside of Alderstone. They are seeking refuge with Myrkul. They give them directions to Flow's Crossing.

Issodair told a story of witnessing what appeared to be an elven ranger fighting with Teramalda. There seemed to be no apparent winner.

We approach the ruined statue and while I go hunting the rest of the group study the statue remnants as they gather it for the wall. It appears to have both orcish and elven writing on it, but no one is quite sure what it says. It seems to be an orcish statue commemorating some elf. It's all dwarven to me. Marr makes a rubbing of the writing.

Coming back from the hunt it turns out that this statue was a grave marker. Underneath it is a skeleton, a handful of ancient orcish silver, and an elven soulgem. We rebury the bones and start hauling the statue back. Or rather, Osric picks it up and carries it while we hike.

Crossing Flow's crossing on the way back is a bit of a problem. Well, not for me, but most of the others fell in. Did some damage to the crossing, too. Devran spots what appear to be some shambling zombies behind us. A dwarf, an eviscerated orc, a half-elf and another human-ish. I drop one from across the river, then cross over to give them all rest. It's Alwyn and the group that never returned. I drop a couple more, but lose my nerve on the last. Osric passes by me and takes care of it. We dig them graves before returning to Dryvault. I don't trust Myrkul not to mess with the bodies, bonewood be damned.

Springrise 32

We head south across the river [12.25] into the mountains in search of wherever that dwarven road leads. We find a part of the mountain held up by five columns of dwarven make. There seem to have been other paths around this place, but they have been lost to rockfalls and overgrowth. Devran identifies that the columns are inscribed with a pattern that was once magical, that would glow in the dark of the new moon to provide light. It appears that the dwarves of this hold venerated the moon, not Huge. Also, this appears to have all been carved by hand, not with stone shaping.

We proceed toward the dwarven hold proper. There are a trio of doors, but the two on the sides seem little used. The path we are following leads to the middle. Osric opens it and some rocks fall on him, but bounce off of his strange coral armor. Armor? Skin? I'm not sure. Creepy, either way.

This place is one hell of a fortress. On our way to the battlements we see the rusted and broken remains of many arms. This place did not fall to an assault. We hear drums and laughter form below. Something is living here.

We proceed deeper into what seems to be the hold's main foyer. It looks like it had once been set up as an old trading post, but now it is ruined and the room smells of old blood. Osric opens a side door, holding his shield above his head... and a blade trap triggers swinging out at him... but the old rusted blade is stuck in the wall.

I move to the door on the other to look for additional traps, but instead hear the chittering rush of many feet! I expect spiders to burst through the door, but instead its a trio of weird sort of reptilian-insectoid creatures. I dodge out of the way of an initial spear strike and back off, launching an arrow that bounces off their chitinous hide.

Devran recognizes them as saurians that have been corrupted by demonic magic of some sort. After a short but intense battle - my bow splintered, I will need to get it repaired - we tie up the last of the creatures to bring it back to Dryvault for... *shudder* further research.

Down the hall the creatures came from is some sort of garden like place... strange, as there is no sunlight. After our last experience with strange magical plants, Marr and I kept far distance but Devran, Otzi, and Osric examine it. Otzi recognizes it as a demon. The whole room. Is. A. Demon. "Tamol the Spellbound". Devran decides to take a flower.

We head back upstairs to set up camp in the barracks. I want to camp outside, but everyone else is insistent that being in walls is safer. Otzi goes out to hunt, but doesn't return, so instead of sleeping in the evening I go out to look for them. They had stepped in another hunter's trap. We return and bed down... just to get woken up by an ancient dwarven ghost that seemed to be upset that we had made camp in this place. Walls, I tell ya. Give me trees any day.

We try to communicate with the ghost, but no one can understand it. The demon saurian thing we captured can, and Otzi and Devran try to get it to act as a translator. It is... not helpful, and rather insulting. Between the ghost and the demon, I leave the room. No thank you, I'll take some fresh air thank you very much.

I'm not sure what went on in the room after that... but everyone leaves the room, without the demon creature.

Springrise 33

We return to Dryvault lacking sleep. Otzi and Marr talk to the innkeeper about Devran's demon flower and all the ghosty and demony stuff we found, but he didn't seem to care. I went to sleep. Forget that garbage.

### Otzi's Demonic Encounter

Through some hard labor and convinving we have acquired a labor force that will gather more than half the stone for the wall. Returning the statue base back to town from across Flow's Crossing, Harlac or Osric, one or the other, destroyed the bridge.

To the south we found an ancient haunted dwarven hold. There we fought off some demonic kobolds, capturing one of them. They functioned as gardeners for the Sanctuary of Tamol, The Spellbound, a killed demon that somehow stayed alive by tying itself to the room. The fortress must be on some kind of leyline for that to happen. Devran the Greedy decided it was a good idea to stab Tamol, stab a demon, just to steal one of the flowers that grew on the vines that encompassed the room. The flowers seem to open when Tamol is awake, thank god they were asleep or Devran would not have survived that encounter, I guarantee you.

During our nights rest a spirit came onto the room, talking in ancient dwarvish. It wanted us to leave, but also talked to the demonic kobold, who I found out worships Chax, another demon. The leylines are messing with this place. We left the rude kobold with the spirit, who bears the title Farwalker, or so it sounded like. We managed to take back a large carpet with us, which we sold to Voarni the innkeep, who is paying 1 gold per month into the labor fund to pay for it.

We notified Myrkul of Devran's demon flower, but he told us to fuck off. Devran is growing it in the window of the inn. Someone ought to get rid of it before it causes chaos.

### Devran's travel log

My time in Dryvault started uneventfully. Shortly after arriving in town I was recruited to help quarry stone, seems folk are committed to building a wall. I'll begin drafting plans so it can be built without crumbling under its own weight.

Marr, the orc that Camembert had mentioned in his reports, led us out to a broken statue, under which we found a grave. We collected an elven soul gem and left the body for its rest. On the way back home Osric and Harloc returned a few walkers to rest as well.

After resting the night in town we headed to find an old dwarven road rumored to be just south of Dryvault. Sure enough we found it and were lead to an ancient dwarven stronghold. The place is cavernous, built into the mountain by hand to honor the moon, a strange choice for the ancient dwarves to my knowledge.

We decided to explore the place, and sure enough it seems to be full of magic, ghosts and demons. Our first encounter was merely sound, the sounds of raucous festivities below us and to the south west of the entrance. We headed forward and continued to explore alerting 3 demonic kobolds, the gardeners of Tomol. Osric and Harloc did most of the killing, along with Marr. I killed one with a sling and thank the gods no one seemed to notice I hit it by accident. After Otzi blinded the last one with his magics we captured it and came to find out they had been living in a demonic garden. The room proved to be a slumbering demonic entity that had come to posses the area in lieu of a proper vessel. Otzi recognized it as Tomol, the Spellbound. A demon manifested in this way is a rare and wondrous thing, so I took a flower for my own collection.

We made camp that night and encountered a restless spirit, the remains of one of the ancient dwarves. We struggled to communicate with it, and after trying to get the kobold's aid unsuccessfully we left them both and decided to leave while we could. Luckily we were able to get home without further event. There is clearly much more of interest in that Hold though....

*Devran finishes writing and looks up fondly at the demonic flower he has planted in a small pot by the inn window. He stands and picks up a small cup to give it water, hoping that it will take root, for surely if it does it will grow into something truly unique.*