Fort Gunnlaeif Dungeon
As they are lowered down from the fort, the party arrives in a small room and steps out of the wooden cage, the elevator is then winched back up. A hewn corridor leads to first room, it has a flagstone floor and is filled with ancient barrels that are close to falling apart. Beyond the room are crossroads, Harpin uses the wand and it tells him to turn left.
The next room has black and white floor tiles and disabled dart traps. Continuing on they come to a huge underground cavern crossed by a brook. At the far end is another hewn stone corridor that leads to what must have been a classroom with a wooden floor. Something is written on the blackboard in Ancient. Fortunately Cassandra speaks this language and Harpin casts a spell so he can read it as well. The same text repeats over and over: “orange hair does not make you immune”. In the corner there’s a skeleton sitting on a stool, wearing a dunce cap.
Continuing on they arrive at stairs going both up and down, the wand says to go down. Soon they come to an interesting sight; a 100’ wide exercise yard. There's sand on the floor, debris of target dummies that have long since turned to dust. A number of ancient breastplates hang on far the wall, rusting away. At both ends of the yard stands a copper goat, statues of some kind? Reb has an interest in the breastplates but as they have a look, fire starts to burn inside the copper goats, leaking from the eyes holes and their hooves.
The automatons charge and hit hard! Harpin is hit severely but Reb uses an ability none of the others knew he had to take all the damage from the first attack. The battle is on and even hitting one of the goats with a melee attack does fire damage back to Reb. As if she knew this was coming, Cassandra had prepared a Create or Destroy Water spell and makes it rain, temporarily dousing the flames on the outside of the enemies. This helps a lot and though they still pack a mean punch, the goats are soon turned into scrap.
Our friends take a short break where Regius casts a Prayer of Healing to cure their worst wounds. Reb sits down and starts to go through the pages of the small brown book that he carries, that saved his life in the fight with the wolves in Hollenvik. Harpin sneaks up and touches the book so he can read the orange title on it with his Comprehend Languages spell. It says: Vigilant's Primer. Reb allows the gnome to also have a look at the text on the inside but strangely enough the tiny script just seems to be gibberish, not even the spell can make sense of it.
This does remind Reb and Regius that they took the small cards that accompanied the items they took from the Kasarian Embassy in Korint. They could not read the text on those cards but Harpin might be able to with this spell. And indeed, he can! The card that came with the book reads as: "Empty book, given to Uyots priests’ bodyguards." Regius took a vial containing a thick, red-orange substance that moves slowly inside of it. The text on the card says: "Fire elemental with knowledge of Balturan times."
The party continues on an comes to a large robing room with a stone tile floor and a disabled pendulum trap. Most cabinets in the room, and their contents have rotted away but one cabinet has just about survived. Reb goes to check it out, hoping to find maybe some interesting clothes in there, he is quite surprised and disappointed when it turns out to be a mimic! Luckily the creature misses its attacks and the party kills it without taking any damage.
The wand continues to point the way and they first come to a cistern, still filled with water, the room has a flag stone floor. Next they come to what looks to be an observatory but the ceiling is all stone, looking like most of the other rooms. However, the floor is transparent like glass but has the consistency of steel, showing what looks like a laboratory below. A large telescope points at the stone ceiling, Reb has a look through it, it shows nothing but the ceiling. However, as he steps away, he now has a black ring around his eye. The others laugh and he tries to convince them to have a look themselves, but without success.
Swimming in the Dark
There are no stairs down to the laboratory so they continue on, coming to a bathing room with tiny mosaic tiles on all surfaces, depicting naked people frolicking in the water. The baths are empty and scummy. Onward, and now they arrive at a room that sloping quite a bit, almost at 40 degrees, and most of the room is filled with water. The wand shows that a doorway under the water level is where they need to go. There is some discussion if they could send Harpin's cat to have a look first.
But then Reb uses his tent to make his equipment as water proof as possible and dives in. A light spell that Regius cast on his armor lights the way and the fighter goes in the direction of what looks to be an exit. He manages to hold his breath long enough to surface in a small room and sits down, through the doorway beyond he sees what looks to be a chapel, maybe, there are many wooden pews.
Regius then decides to go into the water next, keeping his armor on though. He casts a new light spell, plunging Reb in utter darkness. The fighter feels around his backpack and takes out his lantern, eventually also finding flint and tinder. It takes a while but he manages to light the wick. Regius meanwhile has a harder time holding his breath, and the same is true for Cassandra who follows right behind, even grabbing the half-orc's foot at one point.
It's close but they surface in the same room as Reb, who, when he sees Regius, throws his empty oil flask at the priest, but misses. The two clerics get onto the dry part of the room and the fighter takes his lantern and explores the chapel a little. The pews are rotted through and through, even a gust of wind would destroy them. There is a mural on the wall that is covered in grime, what is still visible shows a woman carrying a lyre.
The others wait for Harpin but the gnome doesn't arrive. Regius decides to go back to see what happened, did the gnome drown? Well, Regius almost does, he almost immediately loses his breath. Luckily this is still just within sight of Cassandra who dives in and pulls the gasping half-orc back to the surface.
The one other exit in the chapel doesn't lead anywhere so the three decide to go back to Harpin, seeing as he isn't coming. This time they cooperate a little more; Regius casts a light spell on Reb who takes two ropes tied together with him, making it easier for the others to follow him once he gives three tugs on the rope. Eventually everyone returns to Harpin who professes a dislike for swimming.
They convince the gnome there is nowhere else to go, and he is the only one who can tell the right direction to go with the wand. So into the water he goes, followed by Reb with the rope. They lose their breath almost immediately and so return. The second attempt goes much better and they surface at a new location. Cassandra and Regius follow the rope, it's still a very tough journey for the half-orc, still suffering from nearly drowning earlier, but he makes it.
The new room seems to be a large pantry, no food stuffs have survived the ravages of time. Through the door there's a large refectory, a room used for communal meals, with stone tile floor. The wooden trestle tables and benches are rotted through completely. They continue their trek, the wand showing where to go at every intersection.
Vaulting
They come to an ante chamber that's dominated by a very large, metal door set into the wall. Reb pulls down on the handle and manages to slowly swing open the door, it's hard work. Beyond lies a huge vault, the floor made of copper tiles, on it lay some scattered coins, mostly copper ones, a few silver pieces as well. Reb suggests the ante chamber might be a good place for a short rest but the others want to continue on for now.
They enter the vault very carefully, tapping the plates in front of them with a shovel and staff, to see if there are any traps. The place is huge, every sound echos and they can't see any of the sides of the room. The wand is pointing them straight ahead though. When they are a good way inside the vault something happens; lightning starts jumping between the copper plates, it doesn't do much damage but it will certainly add up if they stay here.
Unfortunately that is not all; they are not alone. Unseen above them is a bulbous floating brain with a wide, sharp beak and ten long tentacles that are made of hundreds of ring-shaped muscles sheathed in tough fibrous hide, sharp barbs line the tip of each tentacle. It floats down to the smallest of them, poor Harpin, and grabs the warlock with its tentacles, pulling it in for a bite and then floating up higher with its prize, out of reach of any melee attacks.
It does a lot of damage but fortunately the gnome resists it's poison. A Misty Step spell then puts him safely back between his comrades. The creature isn't done yet though, it floats back down and now grabs Cassandra and lifts her up. She too takes a good deal of damage but resists the poison. Now that the others have time to react ranged spells and arrows come at the creature hard and fast.
Cassandra tries a Command spell to get the creature to drop her but it doesn't seem to understand her. The continued attacks from the others kill the creature before it gets a chance to retreat into the gloom. As the priestess falls from its clutches Regius runs towards her to try and catch her. He mistimes his approach and the half-elf lands with one foot on his thigh and then graceful steps onto the floor.
Our friends now run as quick as they can in the direction of where the exit should be. Reb sees a pattern in when the lightning appears on the floor and jumps at the right time so he is in the air when the lightning materializes, taking no damage. The others copy his example except for Regius whose Penrose Amulet has been absorbing all the lighting so far. His luck runs out right at the end, taking two points of damage.
Harpin is the first to reach the far wall, the lighting stops a number of feet from it. Exhausted, he slumps against the wall, right where a secret door is, it swings open slowly, dropping the little gnome to the floor. They all make it into the corridor beyond and now decide that a short rest might just be what the healer ordered. "That was a shocking experience," the warlock comments.
During the rest, Reb gets a glance at the tome that the gnome is reading and on the pages he sees all kinds of military stratagems, but they are all overlapping and not making any sense. When he comments on this, the gnome shows the book to Cassandra, she sees the Oblivion tarot card on every single page. When Regius has a look all he sees are blank pages. Harpin tells Reb: "The tome thinks you are a military mastermind," turns to Cassandra, "you must not be very nice", then to Regius: "it thinks nothing of you at all."
When they continue on they come to a kitchen with a flagstone floor, it's large enough to prepare food for dozens of people. Most of what's there is in a sorry state but Reb finds something for his mess kit.
Purified Vindictiveness
The next room is a laboratory, workbenches line the walls. At one end there is a hulking desk – the wood is clawed and gouged, as if it has endured the tantrum of a giant bird. Everything is covered in a thick layer of greasy dust.The workbenches have been cleared, save one. Here, a thimble of metallic looking liquid hangs, suspended in the air, between two metal prongs. The prongs vibrate softly.
Reb touches one of the prongs, the liquid bristles – his teeth buzz and gnash reflexively. For a moment he feels the soft flesh of a throat tearing like silk between his jaws. Beside it lies a sheaf of faded notes, written in Ancient. Cassandra translates them: "Purified vindictiveness. Exquisite! Success mitigated: imbuing of materials results in muted effect. Need stronger sample? Or new process? Consult Hesadeh?"
Harpin is really interested in the stuff and considers drinking it. But he first tries to remember if he knows anything about something like this. In the recesses of his memory he remembers something about people from before the Collapse that managed to take qualities from creatures and then imbued it into themselves. He now decides to use a silver coin to close thimble as best he can and takes it with him.
Our friends continue on and come to a large study with wooden floors. Someone thoroughly destroyed everything inside it; all the contents of the room is now a heap of debris to one side of the room. More remarkable is that one wall of the room is a blueish force-field, on the other side there seems to be a crypt with a hewn stone floor. At the far end of the crypt stand numerous sarcophagi and urns.
The party takes a breather and speculates on the very strange layout of the dungeon, nothing seems to fit, though some of the rooms do have a theme. Cassandra mentions the Portal Hub which also connects many disparate places together. Harpin is wondering if the Collapse could be responsible for the haphazard way everything is put together. The gnome decides to go through the pile of rubble to see if anything of interest might be in there. He unearths a translucent blue sapphire with white star-shaped center (later sold for 1,000 gp). “Here, hold this,” he says to Reb as he continues to search.
Tizoc and the Altar
Our friends enter a room carved out of some kind of blue stone. A midnight altar, wrought from some superterrestrial metal, stands at its center. Faint lines of golden energy radiate from the altar into the floor and walls. A spectral apparition hovers over the altar, free of it from his knees up. He wears a feathered headdress, a loincloth, and a linen cloak intertwined with multi-colored threads. He mutters in a language unknown to everyone but still they understand his words. “I curse your name, Uyots! I rue the day I became yours!”
Regius' mind immediately goes back to the Fallen Star, there was a very similar altar in there, and there's more, but he can't quite put his finger on it. Also in the room is an open alcove that contains an ancient flint dagger of amazing workmanship.
"My little girl, Yaretzi, how I long to finally be reunited with her," the man laments as he looks at the party. "Please, help me, I know why you are here," he looks at the wand Harpin is holding, "do not bind me to the altar." In conversation the party learns that the man's name is Tizoc and that he has been bound to the altar by his god Uyots, he was his head priest many, many, many centuries ago.
The altar and the former building around it was a bulwark against something called The Desolation but according to him he is now just used to power the defenses of the fort, which hasn't been attacked in centuries. Tizoc requests to be freed from the altar; he can slowly struggle free over a period of many years but the wand is always used to bind him back in. He thinks that once free he'll finally die and will then be reunited with his little girl, Yaretzi, in the afterlife.
He tells our friends that if someone touches him, he can share his final memories so they can see he wasn't lying about what happened to him. Harpin does so and experiences them.
At the far end, dim in the shadows, a light disappears round a corner as if someone is preceding you. You do not want to follow, but your dream has filled with foreboding. Follow, or else the sacrifice that has to come might be your own.
You are walking up spiral stairs, past guttering crimson candles. Something like a moon is visible through tiny, leaded windows. There are tracks in the dust, as if a serpent had slithered up the steps ahead of you just a moment ago.
Now you are climbing rough stone steps in the blazing sun, to the next sacrifice. Below you, a crowd waits. Your feathered headdress sways and bobs with your steps.
The stone knife is hot in your hand. The red bird waits high in the sky. You are a priest. Its priest. You are doing what must be done.
You start to walk up the steps. The stone is worn by uncountable footsteps.
You take a turn, and then another, and then the sun comes out and blazes down on you, and the jungle flowers around you, and you are holding the stone knife.
The red bird drops from the sky to meet you at the top of the steps. Feathered snakes twine around your neck. They whisper in your ear.
The sun's heat is uncomfortable, as if it's being focused on you through a vast lens. It has a sense of presence, purpose; the heat you feel is not just light, but attention.
You look up into the face of a snake. Its swaying ruff of feathers filling the sky. Venom drips from its fangs and seeps into your eyes. Your vision swims, precariously.
When you blink, you see the world around you crumbled into ruin. This pyramid reduced to a pile of cracked stone, a place of living ghosts. The people, decaying underground, wandering like a shadow among the ruins, trailing rags, dry as the dust they will crumble into.
"Beautiful Nochqui, high between the mountain tops, the lake still as a mirror," Tizoc sighs. Our friends have a talk amongst themselves and though each of them has a different take on the situation, as a group they are tending to doing their job and binding the priest, some also arguing it's just a short extension to his incredibly long ordeal.
Harpin asks Tizoc if he knows anything about Purified Vindictiveness and the priest tells him that there was a certain group among his people who distilled certain qualities from creatures to then use those either to improve items or imbue it into people. Purified Vindictiveness was to be a last resort; it would create the ultimate warriors but at the cost of their lives.
The gnome has heard enough and uses the wand within seconds Tizoc is pulled back into altar and his cry is cut short. The party tries to see if they can still communicate with the priest but that doesn't seem to be the case. All that rests is a difficult trek back to the elevator. They make it there without too many problems and after using code word 'Miller' they are lifted back into the fort.