Barrowmaze: Repatriating the Red Lion of Aerik

[kwll]

Genaromes examines the mongrelmen corpses, then the diorama and ponders for a while the answers to Bhelnus' questions.

Check vs WIS 10 [4d6]=9

Check vs INT 14 [4d6]=13

[Cwreando]

Durgo

Durgo tries to understand what the stuff means like the others.

vs 9 int

vs 9 wis

[Spearmint]

Exploring beyond the Harpy Halls.

Some random rolls ...

Barrow Maze random vs 1: passages [1d6]=2 crypts [1d6]=4
Barrow Maze random vs 1: passages [1d6]=4 crypts [1d6]=1Barrow Maze: random encounter option: [1d12]=8

The group take a respite, investigating internal crypts whilst Rickford & Duvall maintain a guard watch, one at each door that leads to the exterior Barrowmaze passages.

Genaromes & Yngvar can take the time to study an hours worth of spell replenishment (15 mins per spell level so any combination that a 60 min period). Likewise Brother Symeon can meditate upon the divine and portions of scripture to reset his Turn Ability from any penalised state. Others set to examining the surrounds.

The Mongrelmen have 'died from wounds' and been hastily laid to rest in the coffers. How recent is determined, "A few days." Locked away in their seclusion, you can only guess they would have become a fine larder for any roving bands of ghouls or ghasts who stumbled upon them. Genaromes can see that each bears marks of cuff restraints or ankle shackles, indicating they suffered some captivity or use as forced labour. There are no other identifying features. The bodies can be covered with sheets and blessed by your cleric, the tomb door locked to seal them in undisturbed any further.

None of the player characters take Genaromes counsel, ignoring any benefits the Obelisk might imbue upon them. Yngvarsen goes to take a rubbing of the scripts, dusting the Obelisk sides in chalk dust and pressing a tracing sheet to copy the surface. Brutus his mastiff chews on a bone in the corner, kept away from Genaromes new Familiar weasel Wincy.

The baubles are decorative but simple. More hung for effect, the chains linked to length and placed to represent a constellation. As described, certain baubles are missing and in the cosmos vista no sun is present. Using a slingstone or spike head, you can concoct the missing stars to complete the representation and then for sun maybe dangle a lantern or even for greater effect, cast a Light spell.

You have some 'augmented' light sources among you, Durgo's lantern, Fydmar's glass skull, Wrathbone's waxwork figure. So I am not saying any of those might produce 'an effect' beyond cast whatever light they normally might, but if you want to 'light up' the diorama, then I need know how you do that.

From your study, you conclude the constellation pattern represents ... +100xp if you can identify ...

actions have a guess, bonus to the winner. I will update on any further actions and then move in to next explorations.

Clue: The four brightest stars, Gamma, Delta, Epsilon, and Beta Corvi, form a distinctive quadrilateral or cross-shape in the night sky.

[Straither]

Wrathbone

looks at the dangling baubles. He doesn't know much, guessing the set up must have a crypt(ic) meaning.

Is that pincers grabbing something? Horns? Taurus comes to mind or in the context of the Barrowmaze some constellation with bull or minotaur connections. Or something to do with death? Maybe the abscence of light is deliberate and igniting a light source will trigger an effect or ... cast shadows on the wall which reveal a secret?

Speculating I can do? Stargazing probably not.

[scottjen]

Fydmar
Naught comes to my mind. Maybe something will present itself if we put a light where the sun should be. I'll try using the skull...

[kwll]

Genaromes looks at the baubles as well, perplexed, and tries to remember his nights at see looking at the sky and matching it with what he sees. "Doesn't it look like some kind of... cup, on the right? As if it were pouring something on... on... a bird of some kind? All of this sitting on a kind of big serpent?" Or is he simply imagining things, more probably?

One coin on the Corvus, Crater and Hydra constellations.

[BaltoBruiser]

Bhelnus

Is this not the Southern Cross?

[Spearmint]

Yngvarsen returns from his rune collecting. He surveys the constellation scene and to aid Fydmar, he crushes and powders his pearl so that some previous crystal grains could be sacrificed to help charge the skull-lantern into shedding illumination.

Various zodiac signs and astronomic names are given, some very close to recognising it as Corvus, a cosmic array that is often depicted as representative of a portal to the Underworld.

some info on the real Corvus:

In the Babylonian star catalogues dating from at least 1100 BC, what later became known as Corvus was called the Raven (MUL.UGA.MUSHEN). As with more familiar Classical astronomy, it was placed sitting on the tail of the Serpent (Greek Hydra). The Babylonian constellation was sacred to Adad, the god of rain and storm; in the second Millennium BC it would have risen just before the autumnal rainy season.

John H. Rogers observed that Hydra signified Ningishzida, the god of the underworld in the Babylonian compendium MUL.APIN. He proposed that Corvus and Crater (along with Hydra) were death symbols and marked the gate to the underworld.[1] These two constellations, along with the eagle Aquila and the fish Piscis Austrinus, were introduced to the Greeks around 500 BCE; they marked the winter and summer solstices respectively. Furthermore, Hydra had been a landmark as it had straddled the celestial equator in antiquity.[2] Corvus and Crater also featured in the iconography of Mithraism, which is thought to have been of middle-eastern origin before spreading into Ancient Greece and Rome.[3]

Corvus is associated with the myth of Apollo and his lover Coronis the Lapith. Coronis had been unfaithful to Apollo; when he learned this information from a pure white crow (or raven in some versions), he turned its feathers black in a fit of rage.[4] Another legend associated with Corvus is that a crow stopped on his way to fetch water for Apollo, to eat figs. Instead of telling the truth to Apollo, he lied and said that a snake, Hydra, kept him from the water, while holding a snake in his talons as proof. Apollo, realizing this was a lie, flung the crow (Corvus), cup (Crater), and snake (Hydra) into the sky. He further punished the wayward bird by ensuring it would forever be thirsty, both in real life and in the heavens, where the Cup is just out of reach.

Genaromes can thank his mentors at wizard school for teaching him well. +100xp. When the array is illuminated with a false sun, shadows play upon the rear wall forming strange infernal runes.

Strangely, the light is coming from Fydmar's geode powered crystal skull and skulls have an obvious 'death' connotation. Whereas a Light spell invoke by a St Ygg priest might have a blessed radiant appeal, the skull illumination (though not in itself anything other than normal lantern light), the fact it is generated from the skull
means the shadow runes on the wall take on another altogether insidious empowerment.

Yngvarsen: resist temptation vs 25% [1d100]=51

Whilst taking a rubbing of the Obelisk, Yngvar failed to resist planting his palm upon the surface of the hand imprint. In doing so, he received a affliction at the cost of gaining 'greater knowledge'. The mage actually titled by the player as Yngvarsen the Mad has been struck with a Feeblemindedness and so babbles incoherently and has childish behavioural patterns fluctuating with more lucid, comprehensible moments.

He wil delight in the constellation crypt, gawping at the wonders in silence as he dribbles open mouthed. He claps when the light shines and casts the shadows of the baubles on the wall which from a certain angle form runes. With gnostic revelation, Yngvar can interpret the runes, "The Keeper Cometh." is all he says.

With that a darker shadow looms, cast from the skull light and baubles, but a tall, etheral figure. One of shadow so dense that it is impenetrable. It looks like a hooded figure, grim as a reaper but it carries no great scythe.

"You have summoned me. Ask what you will quick that I may return forthwith." the daemon says, a voice deep and sulphurous.



actions please

[kwll]

Genaromes is too frightened by the sudden apparition to emit any sound. He steps behind the men in arms, and makes sure Wincy is with him.

XP added. Note that this small increase pushes Genaromes to 2nd level.

[scottjen]

Fydmar
How about we ask it where the remains of the Red Lion of Aerik are?

[BaltoBruiser]

Bhelnus

Not wanting to speak out loud but on the same page as Fydmar.

[Straither]

Wrathbone

There is a lot in the last update that seems to have happened very quickly. Yngvar becoming a gibbering wreck and a demon spirit, The Keeper arriving.

My concern is how he was summoned and dismissing it. We have already been played by the Mummy we killed actually being a Knight held in stasis. Can we trust any abyssal entity with truth?

I would be tempted to lash out, maybe not at the daemon but if the skull light is its source, I would hate to say it as the trinket is Fydmar's, but my first reaction is to try and smash it, in order to break any influence the shining skull lantern might have.

Wrathbone: Halberd [1d20]=14 damage [1d10]=10

[Cwreando]

Durgo

Durgo jumps in if he's able to hold Wrathbones attack, "Please hold Wrathbone. I will shine the light of my st. Ygg trinket in place of the skull once we are done questioning the shadow. Let's hear the answer to the question please."

Once the shadow fades Durgo uses his trinket to provide light and has Fydmar move the skull away.

"Let's try this. "

Durgo activates the trinket of St. Ygg.

[Spearmint]

Exploring beyond the Harpy Halls.

okay so I am going ahead with Wrathbone's amended private message action which is to direct his rage and attack upon the daemon not the lantern skull.

So the lantern light radiating from a skull has caused the rune-shapes cast by the shadows of the bauble stars to summon a daemon. This figure is belligerent at being coerced into some servitude. He demands release as quickly as some demand answers.

How about we ask it where the remains of the Red Lion of Aerik are?

Daemon: reactions [1d100]=86

"The Red Lion was slain, betrayed and murdered by Dhekon the Despised. Their spirits linger in these tombs, I am unable to ferry them to the Abyss. Dhekon's bones are in the barrows above, O'Veargne's bones are walled up in an alcove of the Crypts of Librarians."

He speaks solemnly and directly, his voice echoing as if it comes from every corner of the room and not from just within his hooded shroud.

"I have answered truly. Now I will return and take my payment." The daemon reaches out to grab the nearest figure, grabbing a hold of the babbling Yngvar. The mage gasps at his touch, struggling in the daemon's strong grasp and unable to free himself despite invoking a Magic Missile.

Brother Symeon responds by trying to Turn Undead, his holy symbol enhanced and his authority to rebuke 'creatures of shadow, spectres, ghosts' benefitting from his downtime investment and piety.

Brother Symeon: C2 Turns Undead (+3 vs Shadows & Spectre types) +4 Easter Egg [1d20+7]=2+7=9

Even using every bonus, his wrathful rebuke is weak. Wrathbone smites his own rebuke, a heavy bladed halberd, but his strike seems to go straight through the creature.

Yngvar, who imprinted his hand upon the Obelisk 'gained knowledge' (a single secret or sought after discovery, which in context was 'the location of Sir Guy O'Veargne, but also suffered a mishap bane, which meant he became 'feebleminded' along with the knowledge. In a last lucid moment, the mage cries, "Beyond the bleeding bricks!" and then before any other action, the Daemon ports back to his Abyssal plane, taking the mage he has grasped along with him.

Yngvar's journey ends abruptly, the only testimonial he leaves behind being his barking mastiff Brutus and his dropped satchel and staff.

Actions everyone please

[Straither]

okay so I am going ahead with Wrathbone's amended private message action which is to direct his rage and attack upon the daemon not the lantern skull.

yes, I asked as I didn't want my action to make scottjen feel as though I was engaging in player vs player action. My thought was just to go for the root of the evil and attacking the Daemon directly makes more sense than trying to shatter the lantern.

Wrathbone. I think it will be a forlorn task, but in hope, I will search the walls for sliding and concealed construction or masonry.

[kwll]

Gasping in horror Genaromes sees his fellow magician disappear in the Abyss. Hearing his last words ring in his mind for some time, he asks, after a few silent seconds: "Where are the bleeding bricks?"

His question still in the air, the wizard reaches out to Brutus to pet him, as a way to comfort him for the loss of his master.