GM: PetraMission Report
The journey to address the giant threat was a long one, several days, and I am thankful we had the support of the city behind us. Had we not been at full strength going into this I fear we would have had many casualties. The combat I am about to describe was intense and exhausting, I spent most of the travel back to the city and the follow days recovering. For the sake of all of us I do hope after this the threat moves away from our city.
Also, I would like to extend my thanks to the parties responsible for creating the taglock, which allowed us to seal the threat and eventually destroy it.
When we arrived at the destination the giant was supposed to be burrowing into we were met by a horrifying sight. The giants arm has penetrated through the surface layer and several underground layers, though fortunately it was only the giants arm, seemingly detached from the rest of the body. The group I was travelling with arrived at the uppermost layer, closest to the surface, where we observed the upper portion of the arm extending down into the lower layers.
The giant undead limb was large enough that it spanned through several layers at least. While we didn’t have to content with the hand of the giant or much movement, there were some defences that made dealing with the arm extremely difficult. This included a massive hand that seemed to be formed out of the mist, several frayed rabbits, some burrowing creatures, and three normal sized giants.
When we initially engaged the arm several giants peeled off it, it seemed like they had been sewn into the undead flesh. However these giants were swiftly dealt with by Iggy and the others, a barrage of arrows and a few spells from myself offing most of the the beasts. One did throw a large lump of flesh which briefly trapped one of our party members, but they managed to break out quickly enough.
The rabbits and other creatures were nimble and managed to spread out amongst the group, attacking us from various angles. They didn’t inflict any serious damage but they were a pest which distracted us from the main threat and prevented us from immediately dealing with the hand and arm. In fact throughout the whole fight the arm was causing problems for the entire group, causing the ground to shake, pulling us towards it, causing it to rain boiling blood and even firing missiles of bone at us. I was nearly knocked unconscious a few times were it not for the abundance of healing potions I had brought with me.
Once we had dealt with the smaller threats we all rushed towards the arm and attempted to weaken it enough to apply the aforementioned tag lock. As we damaged the limb it did produce several abominations, creatures made of flesh with many mouths, but they were manageable with the giants and rabbits off the table. Eventually the arm seemed to weaken enough to apply the taglock, which allowed our artificer C to fly in and apply it. The mist hand made an attempt to pull him away and stop the taglock from being applied but we managed to pull through and emerged victorious.
I intend to put together a more comprehensive report at a later date, when we have information from the other layers whom I know also had to deal with pieces of the the giants arm. Though this does feel like a shallow victory... where is the rest of the giant? And what was it even after?.
-Orion Malanis
GM: PetraIn attendance: Orion Malanis, Aima, Lyx, Scum, Willow.
Scout patrols on the surface recovered the frayed finger of an undead giant. The finger itself seems to have severed just below the knuckle and is remarkably well preserved, with the bone being exposed. A closer inspection revealed several ancient Sylvan inscriptions carved into the bone and fingernail.
Maeve was able to decipher the ancient sylvan inscriptions as follows. We assumed that these inscriptions were riddles of some kind and began to search for answers to them.
"Not every door is made of stone. Not every wall wishes to be seen. Offer the world an eye not born of flesh, And hidden paths shall welcome thee."
After much discussion and several different attempts Willow observed the carving through the neck of a bottle, which revealed the hidden text AZSRVS. When the text was revealed another riddle was presented to us, spoken into our minds by a female voice.
"Not dead, not living, not absent, only abandoned, speak of me and I begin to return."
We came to the conclusion that the text AZSRVS was encoded in some form and that the second riddle would provide us with the key to decipher it. While there was a great amount of guessing involved, we eventually figured out the answer to the riddle was YOE.
By using AZSRVS and YOE together we decoded the name CLOTHO, marking the end of the first riddle.
"I wear no cloak, yet none can see me. I cast no shadow, yet I stand before thee. Dust, rain, or smoke become my name. Reveal my shape without a flame."
Compared to the previous riddle this one was solved much quicker. By blowing dust and sand across the inscription we revealed several markings. These markings were translated to reveal the name LACHESIS, marking the end of the second riddle
"The blind may find me. The seeing pass me by. Close the one thing you trust most, And open what cannot lie."
This riddle was the beginning of many. When we closed our eyes a voice filled our minds, a female voice that asked if we would like to begin something known as “The Gauntlet”, where we would only get 2 incorrect answers before being punished. We came together as a group and agreed to participate in order to find more information.
When we agreed to participate we were brought into the gauntlet. While we remained physically in Underhaven, next to the finger, we did notice that time began to flow differently. The world moved much faster around us, with Maeve and the others observing us to move very slowly. There was definitely fey magic in play.
"Four carried her, one remains. Choose not the greatest gift but the one that survives oblivion."
This riddle was accompanied by the appearance of four stone pillars labelled Strength, Wisdom, Faith, and Memory.
Three of our research group stood by the pillar of memory, believing it to be the right answer, and were then given the next trial. Those that stood by other pillars were marked with one failure but still allowed to proceed.
"The one most lost does not show her face."
After being given the riddle we saw six slots appear across the back of the giant's finger, each containing different symbols: Feather, Sun, Moon, Mushroom, a blank slot, and Star.
Each of these symbols could be linked in some way to the True Gods, two sisters of the living trinity, the goddesses of day and night, and lux mara. The only missing representation was of the lost goddess Yoenna.
Therefore we were able to solve this riddle by putting a branch into the blank slot.
The third trial came with no riddle, but instead a scale appeared before us. One side of the scale was labelled “Power” and the other side was labelled “Remembrance”. At the beginning of this trial the Power side of the scale was heavier and weighed down.
Around the scale sat four crystals; Glory, Gold, Blood and Family.
We placed the family crystal onto the Remembrance side of the scale, which tipped the scale out of balance. This caused us to fail this trial and counted as one failure before we began the next. Those of us who had already failed the earlier trial were ejected from the gauntlet and time began to affect them normally again.
“The dead may keep me, the living may lose me, books may hold me, time may steal me”
Unlike the previous trials there was no physical component of this trial. We answered simply by speaking the answer aloud, which in this case was “Names”. However there was a wrong answer from one of the three remaining researches, bringing the group in the gauntlet down to two.
The female voice answered that this was not the answer the expected or wanted, but it was still acceptable and gave us the letters A,T, R,O
"The fair folk covet me, hags twist me, mortals squander me."
This riddle was presented in the same way as the previous one, with the answer being spoken aloud. The correct answer was “Words”. We were only able to succeed here thanks to the aid of Willow, as I gave an incorrect answer and was ejected from the gauntlet myself.
The last letters we were given were P,O,S, which when combined with the previous trial gave us the final name ATROPOS
Once we identified the three names; CLOTHO, LACHESIS and ATROPOS, the magic that was preserving the giant's finger seemed to end. The finger completely disintegrated, leaving nothing behind.
GM: PetraOrion Malanis - Delivery Report
Hazel reached out for assistance in delivering some goods to a group stationed out in the tunnels. She provided a cart and two Rothes to pull it. Aside from myself and my two undead servants there were five others who were contracted for this work, including a drow and some kind of sailor with bad wrists. The others in the group struggled to lift up the largest of the boxes into the cart, with the aforementioned sailor hurting himself in the process. In the end I had to step forward and lift the boxes, despite being the smallest in the group.
Once the cart was loaded we quickly made our way through the tunnels. Nothing of note happened until we reached the darker parts of the caves nearer our destination, though the sailor seemed to blabber incessantly about ships and tall tales. Things did quieten down however when we came across a trail of lanterns, signalling we were drawing closer to our destination, and the Rothe halted in their tracks, seemingly spooked by something. I will admit that the drow woman did a good job managing and comforting the beasts, which helped keep the cart under our control.
After the Rothe got spooked three of the group disappeared into the darkness ahead to scout out the route; the sailor, the rogue and the sorcerer. They weren’t gone for long before they came back reporting there was some kind of activity or danger in the route ahead, giving us an opportunity to prepare ourselves and form a defensive formation around the cart before pushing forward.
The threat in this case was a group of beasts dwelling in the darkness. Three large feline like beasts with sleek black fur, large eyes and what I can only describe as tusks coming from their jaws. Unlike my previous encounter with foes out in the caves, these beasts were easy enough to dispatch. They were thick skinned and had a nasty set of claws but with my undead servants and the frontlines of the group drawing most of the danger to themselves, the other casters and myself were able to stand back and assist with various spells. I was able to get through the encounter with not even a scratch, though I did end up expending all my third level spells.
With the threat gone we pushed on to the destination of our journey, a small camp home to many interesting and unusual races. As we approached one of their scouts, a woman named "Mags", sneaked up behind us and confronted us at gunpoint. Fortunately we were able to talk in a civil and control manner, clearing up any misconceptions. She had a larger fellow come by and unload the cart as the sailor injured himself again trying to pick up any boxes. Goods were exchanged, the cart was loaded with some materials to be brought back to Hazel and we headed home. The trip back was quick and less eventful.
Overall a relatively smooth and easy job, the other members of the group seemed capable enough in a pinch.
GM: PetraOrion Malanis - Report
This was one of my first ventures into the caverns which surround the city. When I saw the original notice I was unsure if my own abilities would be up to the task, however after meeting the rest of the group it became clear they were all well equipped and capable of making up for where I lacked.
Our journey through the sand layer was uneventful. We ran into no major issues and we're able to get a rest in for a few hours before we pushed into the deeper areas. I was able to find some time to summon a bat familiar and cast mage armour, in preparation for whatever we might run into.
As we pushed onwards we picked up a trail of blood. I myself was unable to gleam much from it but from what I heard it seemed to be a few days old and from a humanoid creature. Tracking it led us almost straight to a camp where we found gore, bones and several dangerous masked creatures.
Never before have I seen such unnatural and strange beings. Their limbs were long and narrow, like they had been stretched. They often moved on all fours, like some kind of beast, but in a way that just looked wrong. Each beast wore a mask, all with differences, though I didn't get close enough to examine any of these masks in detail.
The fight with the beasts was intense. Several of our group took the front lines while myself, another mage and some kind of ratfolk in a armoured vehicle attacked from behind. It was a long and tedious fight but we did eventually succeed, thought a bulette did intrude during the conflict and caused some serious harm to both our frontline and the strange creatures.
Worth noting is that these creatures seemed to be unaffected by many of my necrotic and poisonous spells. Also, they had a tendency to scream and wail, which seemed to have some kind of negative affect on those with weaker mental defenses. Nothing a simple warding wind could not deal with but it did cause some problems in our front line.
After dealing with the creatures and escaping the bulette we found a straggler, similar to the other masked beasts, that was showing some interest in a small cavern. We swiftly dealt with this beast and then found one survivor of the attack, hidden in the back of the space.
This final beast left its mask behind, which one of our group attempted to cast remove curse on. Unfortunately the spell seemed to fail and the mask seemed to fuse itself with her hand and caused her flesh to turn to what appears to be porcelain, starting from the point of contact. The spread was stopped by wrapping her upper arm with chain, which lasted until we made it back to town with the survivor.
For the most part we handled the work well, dealt with the creatures and retrieved the survivors. However I believe this could be a cautionary tale about using remove curse without being aware of the strength and properties of the curse itself.
