Aeshma Finnris Vorstag & Zerda flee Meng with 12 rescued slaves.
10 days later Princess Jania Sedarnel asks for help finding her missing niece Metira...
PCs
1.(Matt) Finnris, lvl 5 Dhari Outcast of the Narthan Highlanders (h-m), Slayer Barbarian-5
2.(Judith) Aeshma, lvl 6 Kalayan Sacred Slayer of Mithra (h-f), Swashbuckler Rogue-3/Fighter-1/Warlock-1>2
3.(Bill) Vorstag Iceslider, the Frost Giant's Son, lvl 4 Goliath Ice Reaver of the Tjokren Glacier (g-m), Assassin Rogue-4
4.(Jack) Zérda “The Defier” of House Saväschu, lvl 4 Atlantean Noble of Katagia (h-m), EK Fighter-4
5. (player absent) Cassandra, The Bearer of the Black Book, lvl 3 Quodethi (h-f) Sorceress-3
The Curse of Meng - by Aeshma (Judith)
After a much needed rest we feel slightly better, but are still worn down from our travails within the ziggurat. We cautiously head to the last door and open it to reveal a room full of standing corpses – 25 in total. A moment of panic eases as we realise they are supported by posts set into the floor. On one corpses Aeshma finds a scimitar of extraordinary quality, but despite searching, no other treasure is discovered.Finnris’ barbarian instincts detect the slightest movement of air that suggests that there must be a secret passage or hatch in here somewhere but it takes a hour of searching to locate it. The tunnel it reveals looks like it ought to link up with the fire-painted corridor. We debate using Zerda’s cube to safely explore it, but not yet certain about how it would interact with floor-based traps we decide against risking it.
However, even as the rest of us are still being cautious, Zerda once again decides that reckless is his preferred tactic and walks to the bend in the corridor. No sooner has he confirmed that it does indeed link up with the fire corridor than the fire trap detonates. The standing corpses are blasted apart as the fire washes around us. Only Aeshma is able to find some cover and is spared the worst of the blast. Finnris and Zerda are both very severely injured and Vorstag is unconscious.
Oola, who had been at the back of the group, escapes damage and decides to go back and “convince” one of her surviving guards to descend on a rope to grab the gem as there appears to be no other way down into the ziggurat.
Aeshma calls on Mithra to heal Vorstag and we stagger back to the main room to hear Oola browbeat one of her guards into being lowered on a rope. Reflecting that in all the campfire stories she has ever heard that great treasures usually have equally great guardians, Aeshma urges her injured and staggering colleagues to take shelter in the sarcophagus room with the surviving slaves and be ready to slam the door.
Moments later a bloodcurdling scream quickly silenced by the unforgettable sound of tearing flesh is heard from below and a large snake-like creature erupts from the shaft in the centre of the room. We close the door and put our full weight against it so can only hear the melee that follows. A crackling blast against the door would suggest that the creature uses lightning as a weapon and the subsequent crunch of teeth on failing armour tells us that Oola and her guards are badly outmatched.
Only a few seconds later we hear the creature scuttle out of the ziggurat and hear distant cries of terror as the Degenerates discover just how far down the jungle food chain they really are. Taking advantage of the lull, Aeshma is lowered into the shaft and she is able to collect the giant emerald, the Eye of Meng, from where it fell before being swiftly pulled back upstairs. In the distance we can hear the creature’s roar of delight as it happens across the Degenerates’ village, so with the coast clear we decide to head in the opposite direction across the terrace where Finnris had been so badly mauled by the Phase Spiders.
As we pass beyond the circle of giant heads we discover that they are in truth the heads of immense buried statues that rise up out of the ground. They focus on Aeshma who is carrying the Eye but we are able to put some distance between us in the jungle. Unfortunately between the twilight of the approaching Long Night and our own weariness we get lost. Struggling to catch our breath, we hide the Eye in a bag up a tree and take refuge about 200 yards away in a dense thicket.
Only a few hours later we are woken by the sound of the stone behemoths crashing through the jungle, getting ever closer. A panicked boar-man bursts into our thicket – apparently his hiding place of choice – and is about to attack when Aeshma is able to distract him with several days’ of trail rations.
Not far away we hear the statues tearing apart a tree, presumably to retrieve the Eye, before returning to the ziggurat. The rest of the night passes without incident. The following day we try unsuccessfully to find the tree where we had hidden the escaped slave but end up getting even more lost. Several days later we stumble out of the jungle and get back to Ansumo.
With neither a captive Oola nor the Eye of Meng to show for our pains, we return to Quodeth. Zerda frees the rest of the slaves, and after selecting three to join his entourage – a musician, and two porters – helps the other to find employment. Vorstag reports to the Seven Knives on Oola’s death – they are unhappy but reflect that of the people they had sent after Oola, our group has been the only one to survive.
The following week we take a much needed rest to recover our strength. Zerda continues networking amongst the nobility while Vorstag presumably does the same on a more pedestrian level. Aeshma makes a contribution to the Temple of Mithra, and we do some shopping with the treasure taken from the ziggurat. Finnris purchases a fine dwarf-made greatsword (but lacks the brand to mark it as legitimately his); Aeshma buys an Orb of Regret while Zerda trades in his Katagian steel scimitar for a rapier/sabre of Atlantean make.
And as we relax, word gets around that we have returned to Quodeth…
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| Prince Dredan Taroth |
Jasmine in the Night
Following the perils of the Ziggurat of Meng it takes a week for us to recover our strength. While the rest of us have been either networking or shopping, Finnris has been getting bored so arranges a bout in the fighting pits between he and a couple of his allies – Aeshma and Vorstag – and a short-nosed bear. The odds are in our favour so Zerda places several bets on our behalf. Aeshma is badly mauled but the bear is killed seconds later by Finnris.
While in the crowd, Zerda is approached by a messenger from House Sedarnel, Leyaro, a cousin of Princess Jania, inviting us to call on her as soon as possible. Once Aeshma’s wounds have been bandaged, we oblige and are led to an impressively opulent palace only a few yards from the Palace of Golden Minotaurs where a couple of days earlier Zerda had met with the influential Prince Dredan Taroth, one of Queen Deyane’s councillors, in his quest to gain an audience with the young queen.
The Sedarnel palace is built on a similar scale to the Palace of Golden Minotaurs, decorated with numerous images of the Five-headed Dragon Tiamat, but shows the signs of a lack of investment in maintenance over recent years. When this disrepair is pointed out to Leyaro, he shrugs and notes that it’s not worth the expense “while the Sapphire Palace may soon be available”. Moments later he winces as if he has misspoken. As we go through the Palace we take note of our surroundings and discover that the House Guards’ equipment also looks dated and in need of replacement.
In a vaulted great hall we are welcomed by Princess Jania who explains that we have been invited so she can ask for our help in recovering her missing niece, the Lady Metira (who Zerda had been dancing with at a ball a couple of weeks earlier) who was kidnapped from her tower room the previous evening.
Zerda and Vorstag charm Princess Jania with their fine manners while Aeshma and especially Finnris are largely ignored. With the initial pleasantries out of the way, we are escorted to Metira’s room and have the chance to speak with her guard, Odero, and servant, Drannel. They tell us that Metira retired as usual last night, Drannel had taken down her ornate hair style and left the usual glass of brandy next to the bed. Metira had then barred the door from the inside as was her habit. The next morning, when there was no reply, the guards had to break down to door and found the window had been broken and Metira was missing.
We confirm that Metira’s room was at the top of a tower, about 50’ off the ground and that to climb up the outside of the tower to reach it would be extraordinarily difficult – Vorstag demonstrates the difficulty by falling from the tower to the garden below. Aeshma climbs to the pitched roof above, notes that it is very solidly constructed by spots that several roof tiles have been knocked out of place and into the gutter. Once he has climbed the rope that Aeshma let down, Vorstag examines them and determines that they have only very recently been moved.
Inside the room, the air is heavy with the scent of Jasmine – apparently Metira’s favourite fragrance – both from jasmine flowers around the room and a vial of perfume on her table. The large window has been broken, almost certainly from the outside if the glass on the floor is any guide, but going by the amount of damage whatever broke it was larger even than Vorstag.
Zerda speaks with Drennel and Odero to get an idea of what Metira had been doing over the previous few days. The maid servant notes that as she had helped Metira to change for bed, she had observed several bruises on Metira’s arms that she could not account for. Odero tells us of her movements: two days earlier she had visited the Quosa Bourse where she purchases her Jasmine perfume. Then yesterday she went to the Sark, Quodeth’s slum district, to the House of the Broken Gate where she would go to distribute alms to the city’s poor.
Once the house staff have been dismissed we discuss our findings – Vorstag going back to see Princess Jania to discuss them with her – and conclude that whatever kidnapped Metira was most likely a large flying creature. Finnris recalls hearing stories of Flying Apes and with a certain degree of concern we note how well that would seem to fit the facts. Princess Jania gives Vorstag 200gp and promises another 1000gp to rescue her niece.
It looks like our avenues of enquiry will mean that we will soon be visiting the Quosa Bourse and the House of the Broken Gate to see what they can tell us about the missing noblewoman...
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