The Search for the Shield

1/9/1029
Transport to the site of the former mercenary camp on Krikk’s lands after setting up an appointment via Sending. Krikk was there, and Maxiumus turned up a little later as well. He was probably checking the area to make sure that Thora came alone.

The meeting went as well as can be expected. Neither party could find a good way to ensure future peace, although Thora did stress that Raja Kvana would almost certainly assist any of his fellow Rajas if they were to be attacked and that he would assume that other Rajas would do the same.

Head for a chat with Turia and relate the details of the meeting.

Head back home and start looking around for an animal suitable to be an Companion. Eventually find Etan, a fine young eagle.

15/9/1029
Do a Sending to Severus Tullus, the clerk that gave information on the Shield of the Winds to the Ylary library. He agrees to meet. A quick scrying shows his location and some nearby trees.

Severus is quite an old man (around 60). He is sitting on the porch of a nice house that is located on a hillside near a sprinkling of farms. As Thora approaches a younger woman who turns out to be his daughter-in-law comes out with a crossbow. She seems to be worried about Thora’s intentions – is it the antlers? – but Severus reassures her.

The talk is brief but rewarding. He relates the tale again. It appears to be a commonly told tale around the areas of Raven’s Scarp and Lindinius. He sketches a rough map of the area.

Thora checks the rather more accurate maps on the Falcon, which is currently docked with the Star Seeker since Zim is doing a stint there as navigator.

16/9/1029
Transport via Plants to the rough area of the two towns mentioned. End up in a jungle near a huge lake. A Commune with Nature shows a gathering of five nasties to the south and some people to the north.

The people turn out to be a small village. They are very friendly, and one of them even speaks Thyacian. The local druid, wearing his cloak of animal bones, doesn’t, but the Cap of Communication helps to compare notes, at least for a short while. They have heard the story and say it comes from a village south of a place called Kastellios, far to the west. They also know about the nasties, apparently creatures called Sloths: 8’ tall mounds of muscle and bad temper with a taste for children. Thora agrees to try to remove that problem for them.

The creatures are found surrounding a tiny lake in whose centre a nymph is cowering. A quick assault later leaves four of the five Sloths dead and the last badly wounded. The Nymph assures Thora that she can deal with the wounded survivor – just the group of five of them at once was too much.

As a reward the Nymph gave a small stone statuette. It’s pretty crude but seems to be some sort of quadroped. It turns out to be a smaller version of the normal stone horse. Remus will practice riding on that since a magical horse probably won’t mind how he smells. The soldiers back home need horses anyway so the whole lot can practice being mounted.

Thora and Remus return to the village and are feasted as the slayers of the sloths. The druid follows Dulanna, the Patroness of Will. Afterwards they head home for the night.

17/9/1029
Thora and Remus use Transport via Plants in an attempt to locate somewhere from where they can find Kastellios. After some bouncing around they find Raven’s Scarp. This is a fairly large place, having perhaps 30,000 inhabitants. It is quite clearly Thyacian. Very orderly, with legionaries drilling in an open square. The escarpment by the town is banded in various colors and is quite attractive.

The place includes a temple to Athena. After some religious discussion Thora is shown a map that includes the location of Kastellios. That city is far away on the west coast of Davania.

A Transport vis Plants takes Thora and Remus to a coastline dominated by Mangroves. It’s quite a nice place so Thora Shapechanges into a Pegasus and they fly along the coast, looking for the city. Since the place isn’t located by nightfall they Transport back home to sleep.

18/9/1029
A bit more flying locates Kastellios. It is a rather large port. Ships of many nationalities lie in port. In fact there are so many ships that even the large harbour can’t accommodate them all and the result is a seemingly disorganised jumble of hurrying merchants. On the streets traders from the Known World and beyond barter for goods, both exotic and humble. Even magical wares are somewhat available here.

The chaos is totally unlike Raven’s Scarp. Another marked difference is that most of the natives here are wearing their traditional costumes and speaking their own languages. Caravans of settlers are assembling and leaving as fast as they can be put together. A truly vibrant place! In Thora’s opinion possibly the most enjoyable city she’s come across.

Asking about tellers of tales ends with the pair being directed to on Marcus Cassius Aurestius, a famed explorer. He is holding court to various bands of explorers asking for advice on how to approach various areas of Davinia. While waiting to speak with him Thora buys a copy of his book, “Ancient Civilisations of Northern Davinia: A Discovery in the Hinterlands”.

The start of the book tells a fearsome tale of the unearthing of an ancient tomb. The reptilian inhabitants seem to have cursed it since it caused Marcus to experience various dreams, including a dream of their ancient civilisation. Fascinating if it’s true.

Marcus has heard the tale of the Shield of the Winds. He informs Thora that he heard of another mention of the Shield. He suggests that the tales originated in the area around Polakatsikes, a town relatively near the centre of the continent.

Several bars are visited in the hopes of finding a sailor who has been at this tongue-twisting place. An experienced sailor called Jack is eventually located. He gives enough information to make Thora realise that travel to this town won’t be easy – there are no trees of any size at the place. Instead the Transport has to be to an arm of jungle reaching south from the Hinterlands, around 900 miles away. From there the journey is a mere 450 miles.

21/9/1029
After a few days spent at home Thora Transports herself and Remus to the edge of the jungle. Thora uses her necklace of prayer beads to activate a Wind Walk to allow them to reach Polakatsikes later that day.

The town itself is larger than expected, having around 8,000 inhabitants. Those inhabitants don’t seem overly keen to see Thora and Remus, to the point of a few of them pretending not to understand Thyacian when they obviously do. Eventually a clothing seller gives direction to the local library.

The library is a house filled with hundreds of scrolls and a few books. It is fairly impressive, especially for such a place. The librarian is as protective of the scrolls as a dragon is of its hoard, although she only pats Thora and Remus down instead of resorting to more intrusive search techniques when they leave. She proudly states that the histories in the scrolls date back to the town’s founding in 100BC. Unfortunately most of the scrolls are in languages that Thora doesn’t know.

Since the place has no inn Thora and Remus sleep in the savanna, in wolf form. Luckily it doesn’t rain. The next day they head back to the jungle and Transport home.

23/9/1029
Thora asks Zim to make a pair of glasses of Comprehend Languages.

25/9/1029
Thora heads back to Polakatsikes. Remus stays behind to practice his riding and to avoid practicing his reading.

4/10/1029
Much reading (and many uncomfortable nights) follow. The research is, however, amazingly successful. There are many tales of a hero called Perias and his battles against all manner of critters. His shield is mentioned on several occasions, and in particular when he battled a medusa leader with a magical mask that made her petrifying gaze impossible to resist. Apparently he “didn’t fear” it’s gaze (did the shield make him immune?) and then raised the shield, turning the medusa to stone. The last would imply some sort of reflective properties.

Perias was a rather unique hero. He actually died peacefully in his bed of old age. His successor took the shield but lost a fight (and the shield) against a Minotaur warleader.

Those tales were of times long ago, but the scrolls also recount a tale only around 100 years old. Apparently a survivor of a band that stumbled on yet another tomb saw a shield flying over a treasure horde just before the guardians of the tomb attacked. The survivor seems to have been a sneaky sort, and fled as soon as the undead reptilians attacked. The rest of his group was slaughtered behind him and he apparently rode his horse almost to death getting back to town.

This tale was recorded by the current librarian’s predecessor. The town the survivor returned to was in fact Polakatsikes. That means that the shield could very well be waiting in a tomb just to the north. The tomb described sounded a little like that described in Marcus’ book though, so care is called for.

Thora Travels back home to deal with a few things.

6/10/1029
Thora discusses the records with Hork, a Nagpa historian living in Serraine. No great insights are forthcoming. She also visits a temple of Hades to learn about dealing with tombs and the uneasy dead. Rather than going in with positive energy blazing she hopes to go in quietly, take only the shield (which wouldn’t be part of the burial goods) and depart. To that end she buys two copies of a scroll that contains a ritual to appease those buried in a tomb. Unfortunately it’s a clerical spell, but Thora hopes to be able to figure out the casting of it given enough time.

Thora then goes to talk to Roland and Safranna. They would be useful both in the search for the tomb and to deal with any problems encountered therein. They were quite bored anyway so they readily agree.

7/10/1029
What follows is a long period of searching. Given that the tomb described in the scroll sounded similar to the tomb described in Marcus’ account, Thora looked for similar signs. In particular a clearing where plants do not grow well. Unfortunately there were many hundreds of square miles to cover. Thora searched for three days per week, using the other days to deal with domain-related issues, spend time with Remus, attend court, visit friends, and sometimes even to relax.

5/2/1030
First anniversary of Freyja’s descent. Thora returns to the stone circle to pray for the day.

26/3/1030
Remus’ Sword is fully redeemed. He switches to the new sword but keeps the old one. It’s just too stylish to part with easily. He’s getting quite good at riding by now.

1/4/1030
Picked up 6,000gp worth of wine from the monastery. This was sold at a 60% markup within two weeks. That’s a profit of 3,600gp. Useful. Even better is that she could probably sell slightly more.

8/4/1030
A clearing fitting the description is finally found, although it is really too far north to have been a likely source for the scroll’s tale. There is evidence of recent digging and Thora wonders if she hasn’t stumbled across the tomb that Marcus described instead of the one she was looking for.

Remus, Roland and Safranna help with the digging up of the tomb entrance. This takes several days and we are plagued with occasional strange weather. Cold gusts blow in randomly, momentarily turning the sweltering humidity of the jungle into an arctic place, which would be quite pleasant if it was not so unnatural. Once there is even a storm of hail. Marcus described the same symptoms on his dig.

Even worse, Thora begins to experience the same dreams that Marcus experienced. Dreams of floating over an alien city. They are disturbing, but after some discussion the digging continues.

The final dream happens just as described in the book, the night after the obsidian slab is fully cleared. Thora sees a reptilian figure on a golden throne set with rubies. The figure seems to see Thora and speaks some words that she cannot understand. Nevertheless the words strike with the force of a blow. Worryingly Thora can remember the words perfectly on waking, including the pronunciation. Luckily, this means she can speak them to someone under the effect of a Tongues spell. The words are a threat and a promise to enslave, which makes Thora rather angry.

The foursome prised open the black obsidian slab and descended into the tomb. The entry corridor was lined with murals of a truly repellent nature – mainly torture of humans and other creatures by the strange reptilians that Thora saw in her dreams. These guys are truly sick. I mean, the cow? And the dogs! Tombs like this need to be cleansed!

A chamber lies at the end of the corrider, its walls covered in murals of death and destruction and its ceiling showing a map of stars, although not the stars seen today. Some of the stars have runes beside them, which the glasses translate as proper names. Withered reptilians wait in niches around the room, presumably ready to lurch into unlife if the tomb is disturbed too greatly.

Even fully buffed we don’t feel comfortable as we reach the main chamber of the tomb. As described by Marcus a withered reptilian wearing robes and a red jewelled amulet sits atop a throne of gold. Unlike Marcus Thora carefully avoids touching the amulet. The group also ignores the stone chests that stand around the room.

The ceiling and walls of this room show murals of the ‘great victories’ of the sauriel that Thora saw in her dreams. It seems to be the corpse rotting on the throne. Fortunately some fragments of maps are included, probably to show off the extent of his conquests. Various points seem to indicate settlements, and we can search these for tombs. One of those points is actually located on the site of a current settlement to the south-west. Another is located not too far to the north of Polakatsikes. This seems to be a hopeful place to continue the search for the shield.

Having the information sought for, the group decides that they may not be up to dealing with the evil that they can all feel and they leave, sealing the tomb up behind them.

The group takes some time off to recover from the mental exhaustion we are feeling. Unlike Marcus Thora does not seem to carry with her any ill effects.

16/4/1030
Fourteenth anniversary of Thora and Remus’ marriage.

18/4/1030
Hire a group of adventurers to explore the tunnels underneath Ylaruam. They will get paid 100gp per month each (there is four of them) in exchange for giving Thora information about their finds and providing maps.

22/4/1030
Start searching for the other tomb. Given that the first search didn’t find it Thora decides to be more thorough. This is possible due to the more focused nature of this search. The others all help.

8/5/1030
Another section of black obsidian is found.

The obsidian found is an obelisk. There are many more in this area, as well as other obsidian fragments. On one of these grows a Hanging Tree. Some search reveals a square of obsidian that appears to be somewhat hollow.

After some cleaning and clearing we find a slab that can be opened. It looks like bands of iron once sealed it but these have been broken open at some previous time. Levering the slab upward releases fetid air. Stairs lead downwards.

Thora magically buffs the party and Roland and Safranna turn humanoid. The stairs become slimy very quickly, as a small leak seems to have been letting water seep in. Thora transmutes some of her wooden spikes with Ironwood and a rope is used to secure the descent. About 50’ down Roland triggers a trap, releasing a huge boulder. The party escapes by simply sliding down the slick stairs.

At the bottom is a room that is almost waist deep in slimy water. The group gets separated while scrambling to avoid the boulder but quickly reform. There are already two other boulders here, again showing that this place has been previously visited. The room turns out to be around 40’ to a side with one tunnel leading out of it.

Remus drinks a flying potion but the ceiling is too low to stay easily above the water. Thora Shapechanges into a pixie and buzzes around.

As the party passes down the tunnel they find an old blade trap that appears to have been jammed in place. A mental spell attempts to affect each party member in turn. The tunnel leads into a second room. This one is just as slimily water-filled but has the addition of a mound near one corner that glows green. It is around 60’ to a side. Almost immediately a dispelling washes over the party.

Everyone spreads out in an attempt to locate the enemy. Thora spots a bony, reptilian head poking out of the scum just before a second dispelling hits. Whatever the creature is, it seems to be staying beneath the water. Thora turns into a Nymph to search under the water and finds two glowing points – which explode into delayed blast fireballs just as the party converges on them. Luckily the party was properly buffed and suffers minor damage.

Remus is sent to guard the entrance to the room (there are no other obvious exits) and the others try to find the creature. Thora summons some Shamblers to assist, and soon a wave in the water shows the creature approaching Remus. He takes a huge swing and does some damage. An absence of blood suggests what had already been excepted – it’s Undead.

The party follows the creature back into the first room and begins to move across the room in a line. It pops a head up to throw some sort of spell at Remus and then abandons subtlety and leaps up at Thora. She casually fries it with a readied Flame Strike. The charred remains are of some sort of skeletal snake a full 16’ in length. These creatures are called Bone Nagas and are apparently known for being powerful mages.

A search of the two rooms reveals a small glowing stone that turns out to have continual light cast on it and a potion of Reduce. The glowing green thing is actually a stone orb with light cast on it. The light is white once the greenish slime is cleaned off. Deciding the place has been cleared Thora decides to bless her newly acquired Fehu rune and finds that there is indeed a large amount of treasure still around. Right underneath them in fact.

Much disgusting search doesn’t turn up a secret door. A casual push at the pedestal immediately causes bubbles to froth around its edges as water runs down into a shaft. The pedestal is quickly pushed back into place and measures are taken to seal the room.

9/5/1030
The second room is sealed using a wood-shaped barricade that is then stone shaped across the doorway. We can step over it with difficulty but it will hold back the water. Safranna then casts Control Water and the room dries out. The shaft is opened again and descent proves a little tricky. Eventually a rope is secured and the party descends.

At the base of a shaft is a room with another tunnel leading away from it. In the center of the room is a pile of magical arms and armor. As we approach it, a whirling column of air springs up and animates the items.

Remus charges forwards and strikes a deep blow into the apparition, which begins to attack him with all of its weapons. It seems quite pathetic though since it hardly hits at all. Maybe even evil apparitions have off days. Roland charges forwards to join in the fun and Safranna looses arrows into it. A pair of flamestrike spells from Thora finish it off. The air stops whirling and the armor and weapons drop to the ground.

Apparently these creatures are called Blade Furies and they form spontaneously, but normally only at the site of great battles on other planes. Finding one here is extremely unusual. Perhaps that’s why the poor thing was so sick. It is a type of Undead so it’s better destroyed than not at any rate.

Beyond a short section of corridor the party finds a huge room, piled with a dragon’s hoard of treasure. Sounds warn the party that something big is coming so Thora calls up some Shamblers as a first line of defence. Shortly thereafter a huge worm comes into view. It is around 10’ across and 40’ long, with tentacles twitching around its fang-filled maw and mottled purple scales.

Thora activates her cloak and summons her celestial pack. The four wolves immediately leap at the worm but they seem to be having an off day as well. Remus rushes forwards, shortly followed by Roland and the Shamblers. Safranna keeps up a steady stream of arrows, although they aren’t having as much affect as could be hoped for. Thora finds that the creature is incredibly resistant to magic. The creature in turn grabs one of the celestial wolves in its tentacles.

Remus hacks into the creature some more, hurting the worm but almost destroying his sword. The creature’s hide seems extremely acidic. The wolves start having more luck and some Shamblers are even managing to get a hit in. Roland’s adamantine sword doesn’t seem particularly affected by the acid, and his blows are having visible effect. Thora moves forwards to protect Remus – and his sword – from acid. The worm swallows the unlucky wolf whole and looks for something else to munch on, grabbing a second. It also spits out a rather annoyed looking Vrock demon. Before it can swallow the second wolf though, Remus cuts it down… and it transforms.

The worm seems to fold in on itself, sucking in those nearby. The wolves and Shamblers are pulled to their doom as the worm disappears in a knot of planar matter. Remus and Roland manage to keep themselves from joining them. The Vrock gets pulled to its doom, probably wondering about its state of cosmic karma.

There is much rejoicing, and even more treasure. There is also a glowing shield, hanging in winds of its own making above one pile. Thora claims it and has now completed one of the requirements for ascension. Roland collects a Ring of Survival, which is a charged item that can teleport its wearer from danger, apart from having other useful powers. Remus gets a heavy mace that, amongst other things, causes Disruption in Undead it hits. Thora picks up a scimitar + 5. Everyone but Remus gets heaps of cash.

Two months pass while Thora looks after things back home and plays with the shield. It likes storms.