As with the other recent findings, this information has been added to the one comprehensive post concerning the party's actions in the Master's Tower: see 30 Minutes.
After staunching his wounds, Johan decides to delve into one of the tomes found by Arimas and Bruno: The 12 Towers. This book describes twelve stone towers that were constructed by the Sidhe 2000 years ago. The text focuses on the locations, overall construction, and the present condition of the towers. Information regarding their purpose (if any) is not given. One of the last pages of this tome contains a diagram. A summary of the contents of this tome can be found here (MS Word) or here (pdf).
Earlier, when Arimas was pouring over the book that was left open on one of the benches in the alchemy lab. "I wonder if there's any information in here regarding the cloning bodies or turning a different body into a Lich and then transferring one's essence into it?" thinks Arimas. After reading a bit, he finds that, no, there is no discussion as to the in's and out's of becoming a lich. Rather, the tome is a “how-to” book on brewing a Lich elixir (yummy). i.e., it is a formulary. That is the basic gist of what Arimas gets from the tome, anyhow. Actually trying to follow the "recipe" is difficult at best for him. It's not quite as bad as trying to get your cat to understand Schroedinger's Wave Equation, but you get the idea. In the end, it does not discuss the in’s and out’s of becoming a Lich.
Moving into the library to help Bruno look through the stacks of books found there, Arimas gravitates to the shelves in the southeastern corner of the library that deal with necromancy, looking for any information that might shed some light on becoming a Lich. The dominant subjects of the books revolve about reanimating of corpses and prolonging life. This set of books would be the best bet for finding something regarding transference of one’s essence (i.e., a Soul Jar). However, Arimas soon discovers that it will take some time (hours, not minutes) to go through the books in order to find what he might on that one subject.
Turning his attention to the books concerning the history of the Sidhe contained on the southern set of shelves, Arimas begins reading a book entitled "The Lost Nation of Beower". Within it, he finds the following information:
1) The seat of power of the Sidhe nation was a city-state called Beower
2) The exact location of the city is not known for sure, but the best guess is that it is on an island that has sunk into the sea.
3) Various historians have agreed that the most likely location is somewhere between the Island of Hronn, Ascoma Isle, and Arnur Soghal (the mainland). (for reference, click here)
4) In a couple places within the text of this book, reference is made to a place called “Dragon’s Point”.
In the end, Arimas takes one of the books that appears to be a grimoire downstairs to Siglan to see if he can identify in which language it is written. After studying the book for a few minutes, Siglan says that the language is similar to Frasspe (which he can read, and so can Alexis and Johan). As such, he identifies the language as being that of Ergant.
Thursday, August 30, 2007
Sunday, August 26, 2007
The 9 Items of Power
Bruno's attention gravitates to one of the books written on Sidhe artifacts; a tome entitled "The Nine Items of Power". Sitting for a few minutes, he leafs through the book. A summary of the contents can be found here.
As with the other recent findings, this information has been added to the one comprehensive post concerning the party's actions in the Master's Tower: see 30 Minutes.
(Let me know if you cannot open Word documents. If you cannot, I'll send you a pdf.)
As with the other recent findings, this information has been added to the one comprehensive post concerning the party's actions in the Master's Tower: see 30 Minutes.
(Let me know if you cannot open Word documents. If you cannot, I'll send you a pdf.)
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Timeline in the Tower
Everyone has now informed me how they will be occupying their time over the 30 minutes of game time that will elapse between now and our next gaming session on 31 August. I've updated the graphical timeline of everyone's actions. You can find it here.
Vyn's, Siglan's, and Y'lora's actions will take up the entire 30 minutes.
Unless something changes, Alexis is sitting and resting (in the servants' quarters???).
Arimas and Bruno are interrogating the subject matter of the books in the library (let me know if you wish to scan through the contents of any of the books as you are looking about).
Johan, after having the corpse identified by Verinda and Frederick, decides to sit and rest (in the Library???).
Thain is on corpse cleanup detail.
Vyn's, Siglan's, and Y'lora's actions will take up the entire 30 minutes.
Unless something changes, Alexis is sitting and resting (in the servants' quarters???).
Arimas and Bruno are interrogating the subject matter of the books in the library (let me know if you wish to scan through the contents of any of the books as you are looking about).
Johan, after having the corpse identified by Verinda and Frederick, decides to sit and rest (in the Library???).
Thain is on corpse cleanup detail.
Y'lora's Questions
This posting contains the most recent findings of the party. This information, along with all of the other findings, have been assembled into one comprehensive post: see 30 Minutes.
Y’lora spends the better part of her time perusing through the various rooms within the Tower. Her findings mimic those of Vyn: the Tower (other than the library) is very utilitarian. One thing is for sure: the armory is not within the Tower.
Y’lora then arrives back up on the third floor in the room with the corpse just as Johan has finished questioning Verinda and Frederick as to the identity of the corpse. Y’lora then spends a few minutes asking the servants questions concerning the details of the garrison located here within the complex… the order of command, the loyalty level of The Master’s minion, etc. Frederick responds, stating that the loyalty of the men stationed here runs anywhere from being held in service by fear to being almost blindly loyal, the latter being held mostly by the higher ranking individuals.
With that said, Frederick could not say for sure how each of the men would react, seeing their tattoos of “ownership” fade from their arms (at this point in time, everyone has pretty much guessed or assumed that the magical tattoos have all faded). Frederick corroborates the information that was gleaned by the party from the captured minions back on the ship with regards to the estimate of how many men are stationed here… his guess is around 50 men and dwarves, total.
In the end, Y'lora asks Verinda and Frederick if there is a lower level, below ground, to the Tower. Neither of them are aware of any rooms below ground. Deciding to check for herself, Y'lora heads back down to the first floor and begins to search the floors of the rooms, looking for any concealed doors that may lead to a basement/dungeon.
Y’lora spends the better part of her time perusing through the various rooms within the Tower. Her findings mimic those of Vyn: the Tower (other than the library) is very utilitarian. One thing is for sure: the armory is not within the Tower.
Y’lora then arrives back up on the third floor in the room with the corpse just as Johan has finished questioning Verinda and Frederick as to the identity of the corpse. Y’lora then spends a few minutes asking the servants questions concerning the details of the garrison located here within the complex… the order of command, the loyalty level of The Master’s minion, etc. Frederick responds, stating that the loyalty of the men stationed here runs anywhere from being held in service by fear to being almost blindly loyal, the latter being held mostly by the higher ranking individuals.
With that said, Frederick could not say for sure how each of the men would react, seeing their tattoos of “ownership” fade from their arms (at this point in time, everyone has pretty much guessed or assumed that the magical tattoos have all faded). Frederick corroborates the information that was gleaned by the party from the captured minions back on the ship with regards to the estimate of how many men are stationed here… his guess is around 50 men and dwarves, total.
In the end, Y'lora asks Verinda and Frederick if there is a lower level, below ground, to the Tower. Neither of them are aware of any rooms below ground. Deciding to check for herself, Y'lora heads back down to the first floor and begins to search the floors of the rooms, looking for any concealed doors that may lead to a basement/dungeon.
Library and a Corpse
This posting contains the most recent findings of the party. This information, along with all of the other findings, have been assembled into one comprehensive post: see 30 Minutes.
After having pocketed the iron key found on the corpse, Bruno makes his way into the library and begins to study the tomes upon the shelves in earnest. Given the volume of books on the shelves, Bruno asks for Arimas' help in scanning the spines of the books in order to get a quick snapshot of their content. The information that follows is the culmination of Bruno's and Arimas' combined effort in this investigation.
The books on the shelves along the central portion of the north wall contain The Master’s grimoire (some of the book titles are written in Sidhe; others are written in a language unknown to Arimas and Bruno).
The books on the shelves in the northwest corner of the room are written in a language unknown to Arimas and Bruno.
The books on the shelves in the southeastern corner of the room are all written in Common and contain descriptions of various facets of the necromantic art. Dominant subjects are reanimating of corpses and prolonging life.
Concerning the books on the shelves along the southern wall of this room, some are written in Common; others in a language unknown to Arimas and Bruno. Of the tomes written in Common, what can be determined is that they contain a dissertation on the Sidhe, as encountered by The Master. In general, they contain his perspective on the Sidhe based on his dealings with them years ago. Three of the books, however (written in Common), describe particular items/entities created by the Sidhe:
Book 1: The Nine Items of Power
Book 2: The Twelve Towers
Book 3: The Lost Sidhe Nation of Beower
Johan walks Verinda and Frederick back up to the third floor. As they reach the top of the steps in the library, they look around in subdued amazement. This room (as all of you had already noticed) is more nicely decorated than the rest of the rooms in the tower and the two servants pause for a moment, studying the surroundings of the library.
Johan leads them into the windowless room where the corpse (now cut in half, along with a Vyn-sized crack in the rough table/bed on which it is lying) is located. Verinda and Frederick stop a few feet short of the bed, their mouths agape as they stare at the corpse's face. The look on their faces is that of shock and disbelief, but there is not a hint of remorse in their eyes.
Verinda turns to face Johan. Staring at him wide-eyed, in a halting voice she says, "That's definitely him, but he looks... old."
They are certain that the corpse before them is that of The Master.
They are also certain that they saw him leave that morning... dressed in robes, not the tunic and breeches that adorn the corpse lying before you now.
Johan looks back at the corpse and notices that now that a few more minutes have passed that the rapid decomposition of the corpse isn't so much rapid decomposition as it is accelerated aging. The face of the dead man appears to have gone from that of someone in their late 40's to someone in their late 60's.
After having pocketed the iron key found on the corpse, Bruno makes his way into the library and begins to study the tomes upon the shelves in earnest. Given the volume of books on the shelves, Bruno asks for Arimas' help in scanning the spines of the books in order to get a quick snapshot of their content. The information that follows is the culmination of Bruno's and Arimas' combined effort in this investigation.
The books on the shelves along the central portion of the north wall contain The Master’s grimoire (some of the book titles are written in Sidhe; others are written in a language unknown to Arimas and Bruno).
The books on the shelves in the northwest corner of the room are written in a language unknown to Arimas and Bruno.
The books on the shelves in the southeastern corner of the room are all written in Common and contain descriptions of various facets of the necromantic art. Dominant subjects are reanimating of corpses and prolonging life.
Concerning the books on the shelves along the southern wall of this room, some are written in Common; others in a language unknown to Arimas and Bruno. Of the tomes written in Common, what can be determined is that they contain a dissertation on the Sidhe, as encountered by The Master. In general, they contain his perspective on the Sidhe based on his dealings with them years ago. Three of the books, however (written in Common), describe particular items/entities created by the Sidhe:
Book 1: The Nine Items of Power
Book 2: The Twelve Towers
Book 3: The Lost Sidhe Nation of Beower
Johan walks Verinda and Frederick back up to the third floor. As they reach the top of the steps in the library, they look around in subdued amazement. This room (as all of you had already noticed) is more nicely decorated than the rest of the rooms in the tower and the two servants pause for a moment, studying the surroundings of the library.
Johan leads them into the windowless room where the corpse (now cut in half, along with a Vyn-sized crack in the rough table/bed on which it is lying) is located. Verinda and Frederick stop a few feet short of the bed, their mouths agape as they stare at the corpse's face. The look on their faces is that of shock and disbelief, but there is not a hint of remorse in their eyes.
Verinda turns to face Johan. Staring at him wide-eyed, in a halting voice she says, "That's definitely him, but he looks... old."
They are certain that the corpse before them is that of The Master.
They are also certain that they saw him leave that morning... dressed in robes, not the tunic and breeches that adorn the corpse lying before you now.
Johan looks back at the corpse and notices that now that a few more minutes have passed that the rapid decomposition of the corpse isn't so much rapid decomposition as it is accelerated aging. The face of the dead man appears to have gone from that of someone in their late 40's to someone in their late 60's.
30 Minutes
The information given in this posting plays out the party's actions for the half hour following the end of the fight with the two skull spirits.
After the skull spirits had been disposed of, Vyn, Y’lora, and Arimas entered the dark room with the corpse (the temperature in the room was below freezing). Arimas noticed that when he walked into the room, it did not feel cold to him. In fact, his feet could feel the cold, as could his head, but the mid-section of his body felt warm. In particular, the center of the warmer temperature seemed to be located at his belt pouch. After a quick deduction, Arimas recalled the mana-canceling stone shards from Moorlun’s Tower that he had been carrying. After he placed the shards around the corpse, the temperature of the entire room began to warm back up to normal, and the corpse began to decay at a rapid rate.
Arimas then entered the alchemy lab and read through a tome that was sitting open on one of the benches. The tome contains a formulary (or at least a possible formulary) for a Lich elixir. Arimas’ concentration while reading the tome was almost broken as Bruno hollered from the adjacent room, “HEY, ARIMAS! CAN YOU TELL ME WHAT MY NEW RING DOES?” But, the even-keeled Arimas was able to keep his composure and continue studying the tome.
Meanwhile, Johan sauntered into the lab, being as careful as a bull in a china closet, and began rummaging through the glassware while looking for a healing potion. Having no initial luck with that, he asked Arimas to take a quick look at the books stored on the bookshelf within the lab. A quick scanning by Arimas of the tomes on the bookshelf (all of which are written in Sidhe) indicate that they are various compilations regarding elixirs to extend one's lifespan.
“Hmmm… No Red Bull” thinks Johan as he leaves the lab and heads down to the second floor. He enters the servants’ quarters (Verinda and Frederick) just as Alexis sends Thain to go collect the ashes of the corpse. Johan hears Alexis offering Verinda and Frederick employment within Alexis’ service as her retainers. She then tells them that if they are not interested in the proposition that they are free to go, and she will give them some walking-around money to help them on their way. Verinda and Frederick appear to be interested in this proposition. But before they accept her proposal, they request to come along with the party in order to get back to the mainland. They promise to give Alexis an answer one way or the other once they reach the shores of Arnur Soghal.
As Alexis is winding up her discussion with the two servants, Johan addresses them, asking for a few more details concerning The Master: when was the last time, specifically, that they saw him. They recount the events of the morning: they arose in the morning to fix his breakfast, which they did a bit earlier than usual, as the day prior he had told them that he was going to make his weekly trip to the western part of the island which means that he would be up early in order to get a good start on the trip. He came down to the dining room, dressed in the robes that he always wears on his trip, ate breakfast, and headed out of the complex in his horse-and-cart with a slave riding, shackled, in the cart with him... just like he does every week.
At this time, Thain arrives back up on the third floor and prepares to make a doggy bag out of the corpse’s ashes. Since the corpse is still intact (the face is still recognizable yet), Thain waits for it to decay (as mentioned earlier, the decay rate of the corpse is higher than normal, but it has not yet fully decomposed).
Vyn, seeing that Thain has arrived at the room with the corpse, figures that there’s no need in having two people watch to make sure that it stays dead, heads into the alchemy lab and then to the library, checking for any activity on the ground outside the tower. Noticing that that there are no balconies outside the windows on this floor and determining that there is little chance that anybody would be foolish enough to attempt to scale a cut-stone wall during a tropical storm, he determines that the third floor of the tower is secure, and heads down to the second floor. He continues his routine of inspecting all windows, as well as checking the flues of the fireplaces, and continues down to the first floor. The contents of the rooms in the tower appear to be fairly sparse. “Hrmph,” snorts Vyn. “No pointy bits.” The exterior doors (three sets of double doors in the main entry hall and one door in the dining room) are all still barred from the inside. “Good”, he thinks. Then, he notices that the windows in the back three rooms (clerk’s office, planning room, and dining room) have not had their interior iron shutters closed and locked. So, he begins making his rounds to secure the windows from outside entry.
Meanwhile, Bruno finds an iron key attached to the corpse’s belt loop. After querying Arimas again to see if he has the time to analyze his ring, he takes a moment to ponder the purpose of this key. As he is about to put it into his backpack, he stops to take notice of the ornate design that is embossed onto the hilt of the key. The pattern is the same as the iron sigil that is attached to the hallway-side of the door that led you folks to the stairs leading up to the third floor. Earlier, Arimas and Siglan had determined that the symbol on that door meant “freedom” in the Sidhe language.
After having pocketed the iron key found on the corpse, Bruno makes his way into the library and begins to study the tomes upon the shelves in earnest. Given the volume of books on the shelves, Bruno asks for Arimas' help in scanning the spines of the books in order to get a quick snapshot of their content. The information that follows is the culmination of Bruno's and Arimas' combined effort in this investigation.
The books on the shelves along the central portion of the north wall contain The Master’s grimoire (some of the book titles are written in Sidhe; others are written in a language unknown to Arimas and Bruno).
The books on the shelves in the northwest corner of the room are written in a language unknown to Arimas and Bruno.
The books on the shelves in the southeastern corner of the room are all written in Common and contain descriptions of various facets of the necromantic art. Dominant subjects are reanimating of corpses and prolonging life.
Concerning the books on the shelves along the southern wall of this room, some are written in Common; others in a language unknown to Arimas and Bruno. Of the tomes written in Common, what can be determined is that they contain a dissertation on the Sidhe, as encountered by The Master. In general, they contain his perspective on the Sidhe based on his dealings with them years ago. Three of the books, however (written in Common), describe particular items/entities created by the Sidhe:
Book 1: The Nine Items of Power
Book 2: The Twelve Towers
Book 3: The Lost Sidhe Nation of Beower
Bruno's attention gravitates to the tome entitled "The Nine Items of Power". Sitting for a few minutes, he leafs through the book. A summary of the contents can be found here.
Johan walks Verinda and Frederick back up to the third floor. As they reach the top of the steps in the library, they look around in subdued amazement. This room (as all of you had already noticed) is more nicely decorated than the rest of the rooms in the tower and the two servants pause for a moment, studying the surroundings of the library.
Johan leads them into the windowless room where the corpse (now cut in half, along with a Vyn-sized crack in the rough table/bed on which it is lying) is located. Verinda and Frederick stop a few feet short of the bed, their mouths agape as they stare at the corpse's face. The look on their faces is that of shock and disbelief, but there is not a hint of remorse in their eyes.
Verinda turns to face Johan. Staring at him wide-eyed, in a halting voice she says, "That's definitely him, but he looks... old."
They are certain that the corpse before them is that of The Master.
They are also certain that they saw him leave that morning... dressed in robes, not the tunic and breeches that adorn the corpse lying before you now.
Johan looks back at the corpse (and since he made his Physician roll last game session) notices that now that a few more minutes have passed that the rapid decomposition of the corpse isn't so much rapid decomposition as it is accelerated aging. The face of the dead man appears to have gone from that of someone in their late 40's to someone in their late 60's.
Y’lora spends the better part of her time perusing through the various rooms within the Tower. Her findings mimic those of Vyn: the Tower (other than the library) is very utilitarian. One thing is for sure: the armory is not within the Tower. Y’lora then arrives back up on the third floor in the room with the corpse just as Johan has finished questioning Verinda and Frederick as to the identity of the corpse. Y’lora then spends a few minutes asking the servants questions concerning the details of the garrison located here within the complex… the order of command, the loyalty level of The Master’s minion, etc. Frederick responds, stating that the loyalty of the men stationed here runs anywhere from being held in service by fear to being almost blindly loyal, the latter being held mostly by the higher ranking individuals.
With that said, Frederick could not say for sure how each of the men would react, seeing their tattoos of “ownership” fade from their arms (at this point in time, everyone has pretty much guessed or assumed that the magical tattoos have all faded). Frederick corroborates the information that was gleaned by the party from the captured minions back on the ship with regards to the estimate of how many men are stationed here… his guess is around 50 men and dwarves, total.
In the end, Y'lora asks Verinda and Frederick if there is a lower level, below ground, to the Tower. Neither of them are aware of any rooms below ground. Deciding to check for herself, Y'lora heads back down to the first floor and begins to search the floors of the rooms, looking for any concealed doors that may lead to a basement/dungeon.
After staunching his wounds, Johan decides to delve into one of the tomes found by Arimas and Bruno: The 12 Towers. This book describes twelve stone towers that were constructed by the Sidhe 2000 years ago. The text focuses on the locations, overall construction, and the present condition of the towers. Information regarding their purpose (if any) is not given. One of the last pages of this tome contains a diagram. A summary of the contents of this tome can be found here (MS Word) or here (pdf).
Earlier, when Arimas was pouring over the book that was left open on one of the benches in the alchemy lab. "I wonder if there's any information in here regarding the cloning bodies or turning a different body into a Lich and then transferring one's essence into it?" thinks Arimas. After reading a bit, he finds that, no, there is no discussion as to the in's and out's of becoming a lich. Rather, the tome is a “how-to” book on brewing a Lich elixir (yummy). i.e., it is a formulary. That is the basic gist of what Arimas gets from the tome, anyhow. Actually trying to follow the "recipe" is difficult at best for him. It's not quite as bad as trying to get your cat to understand Schroedinger's Wave Equation, but you get the idea. In the end, it does not discuss the in’s and out’s of becoming a Lich.
Moving into the library to help Bruno look through the stacks of books found there, Arimas gravitates to the shelves in the southeastern corner of the library that deal with necromancy, looking for any information that might shed some light on becoming a Lich. The dominant subjects of the books revolve about reanimating of corpses and prolonging life. This set of books would be the best bet for finding something regarding transference of one’s essence (i.e., a Soul Jar). However, Arimas soon discovers that it will take some time (hours, not minutes) to go through the books in order to find what he might on that one subject.
Turning his attention to the books concerning the history of the Sidhe contained on the southern set of shelves, Arimas begins reading a book entitled "The Lost Nation of Beower". Within it, he finds the following information:
1) The seat of power of the Sidhe nation was a city-state called Beower
2) The exact location of the city is not known for sure, but the best guess is that it is on an island that has sunk into the sea.
3) Various historians have agreed that the most likely location is somewhere between the Island of Hronn, Ascoma Isle, and Arnur Soghal (the mainland). (for reference, click here)
4) In a couple places within the text of this book, reference is made to a place called “Dragon’s Point”.
In the end, Arimas takes one of the books that appears to be a grimoire downstairs to Siglan to see if he can identify in which language it is written. After studying the book for a few minutes, Siglan says that the language is similar to Frasspe (which he can read, and so can Alexis and Johan). As such, he identifies the language as being that of Ergant.
After 20 minutes have gone by, Siglan calls up for Y’lora to come to him. After another 10 minutes, Y’lora is practically bouncing back up the stairs. When asked for why she was so happy, she relayed what Siglan had found in the slave trade ledger: The ledger spans the timeframe from 30 years ago to present day. The entries in the ledger are concerning sales of slaves. The entries usually give the name of the unfortunate soul being sold, but not always. After searching for nearly half an hour, Siglan found two names that pique his interest: Ernwith and Calembel Eladiel. The reason that these names grab Siglan's attention is because that is Y'lora's surname as well. These two individuals were apparently appropriated in or near the town of Ramluine, an elven coastal town northwest of Fehutros, near the northern reaches of the Derzaunen Mountains. The shipment of slaves of which Ernwith and Calembel were a part appears to have been sold to a clothing merchant named Thalantius who resides in (or, at least, the point of sale was made in) Cloie. (Cloie is a town about 100 miles east-southeast of Espydur. See the attached bitmap. ) The ledger lists them as being 32 years of age and bringing a price of 300 copper, each. The date of this entry is 344 F.S. (26 years prior).
After the skull spirits had been disposed of, Vyn, Y’lora, and Arimas entered the dark room with the corpse (the temperature in the room was below freezing). Arimas noticed that when he walked into the room, it did not feel cold to him. In fact, his feet could feel the cold, as could his head, but the mid-section of his body felt warm. In particular, the center of the warmer temperature seemed to be located at his belt pouch. After a quick deduction, Arimas recalled the mana-canceling stone shards from Moorlun’s Tower that he had been carrying. After he placed the shards around the corpse, the temperature of the entire room began to warm back up to normal, and the corpse began to decay at a rapid rate.
Arimas then entered the alchemy lab and read through a tome that was sitting open on one of the benches. The tome contains a formulary (or at least a possible formulary) for a Lich elixir. Arimas’ concentration while reading the tome was almost broken as Bruno hollered from the adjacent room, “HEY, ARIMAS! CAN YOU TELL ME WHAT MY NEW RING DOES?” But, the even-keeled Arimas was able to keep his composure and continue studying the tome.
Meanwhile, Johan sauntered into the lab, being as careful as a bull in a china closet, and began rummaging through the glassware while looking for a healing potion. Having no initial luck with that, he asked Arimas to take a quick look at the books stored on the bookshelf within the lab. A quick scanning by Arimas of the tomes on the bookshelf (all of which are written in Sidhe) indicate that they are various compilations regarding elixirs to extend one's lifespan.
“Hmmm… No Red Bull” thinks Johan as he leaves the lab and heads down to the second floor. He enters the servants’ quarters (Verinda and Frederick) just as Alexis sends Thain to go collect the ashes of the corpse. Johan hears Alexis offering Verinda and Frederick employment within Alexis’ service as her retainers. She then tells them that if they are not interested in the proposition that they are free to go, and she will give them some walking-around money to help them on their way. Verinda and Frederick appear to be interested in this proposition. But before they accept her proposal, they request to come along with the party in order to get back to the mainland. They promise to give Alexis an answer one way or the other once they reach the shores of Arnur Soghal.
As Alexis is winding up her discussion with the two servants, Johan addresses them, asking for a few more details concerning The Master: when was the last time, specifically, that they saw him. They recount the events of the morning: they arose in the morning to fix his breakfast, which they did a bit earlier than usual, as the day prior he had told them that he was going to make his weekly trip to the western part of the island which means that he would be up early in order to get a good start on the trip. He came down to the dining room, dressed in the robes that he always wears on his trip, ate breakfast, and headed out of the complex in his horse-and-cart with a slave riding, shackled, in the cart with him... just like he does every week.
At this time, Thain arrives back up on the third floor and prepares to make a doggy bag out of the corpse’s ashes. Since the corpse is still intact (the face is still recognizable yet), Thain waits for it to decay (as mentioned earlier, the decay rate of the corpse is higher than normal, but it has not yet fully decomposed).
Vyn, seeing that Thain has arrived at the room with the corpse, figures that there’s no need in having two people watch to make sure that it stays dead, heads into the alchemy lab and then to the library, checking for any activity on the ground outside the tower. Noticing that that there are no balconies outside the windows on this floor and determining that there is little chance that anybody would be foolish enough to attempt to scale a cut-stone wall during a tropical storm, he determines that the third floor of the tower is secure, and heads down to the second floor. He continues his routine of inspecting all windows, as well as checking the flues of the fireplaces, and continues down to the first floor. The contents of the rooms in the tower appear to be fairly sparse. “Hrmph,” snorts Vyn. “No pointy bits.” The exterior doors (three sets of double doors in the main entry hall and one door in the dining room) are all still barred from the inside. “Good”, he thinks. Then, he notices that the windows in the back three rooms (clerk’s office, planning room, and dining room) have not had their interior iron shutters closed and locked. So, he begins making his rounds to secure the windows from outside entry.
Meanwhile, Bruno finds an iron key attached to the corpse’s belt loop. After querying Arimas again to see if he has the time to analyze his ring, he takes a moment to ponder the purpose of this key. As he is about to put it into his backpack, he stops to take notice of the ornate design that is embossed onto the hilt of the key. The pattern is the same as the iron sigil that is attached to the hallway-side of the door that led you folks to the stairs leading up to the third floor. Earlier, Arimas and Siglan had determined that the symbol on that door meant “freedom” in the Sidhe language.
After having pocketed the iron key found on the corpse, Bruno makes his way into the library and begins to study the tomes upon the shelves in earnest. Given the volume of books on the shelves, Bruno asks for Arimas' help in scanning the spines of the books in order to get a quick snapshot of their content. The information that follows is the culmination of Bruno's and Arimas' combined effort in this investigation.
The books on the shelves along the central portion of the north wall contain The Master’s grimoire (some of the book titles are written in Sidhe; others are written in a language unknown to Arimas and Bruno).
The books on the shelves in the northwest corner of the room are written in a language unknown to Arimas and Bruno.
The books on the shelves in the southeastern corner of the room are all written in Common and contain descriptions of various facets of the necromantic art. Dominant subjects are reanimating of corpses and prolonging life.
Concerning the books on the shelves along the southern wall of this room, some are written in Common; others in a language unknown to Arimas and Bruno. Of the tomes written in Common, what can be determined is that they contain a dissertation on the Sidhe, as encountered by The Master. In general, they contain his perspective on the Sidhe based on his dealings with them years ago. Three of the books, however (written in Common), describe particular items/entities created by the Sidhe:
Book 1: The Nine Items of Power
Book 2: The Twelve Towers
Book 3: The Lost Sidhe Nation of Beower
Bruno's attention gravitates to the tome entitled "The Nine Items of Power". Sitting for a few minutes, he leafs through the book. A summary of the contents can be found here.
Johan walks Verinda and Frederick back up to the third floor. As they reach the top of the steps in the library, they look around in subdued amazement. This room (as all of you had already noticed) is more nicely decorated than the rest of the rooms in the tower and the two servants pause for a moment, studying the surroundings of the library.
Johan leads them into the windowless room where the corpse (now cut in half, along with a Vyn-sized crack in the rough table/bed on which it is lying) is located. Verinda and Frederick stop a few feet short of the bed, their mouths agape as they stare at the corpse's face. The look on their faces is that of shock and disbelief, but there is not a hint of remorse in their eyes.
Verinda turns to face Johan. Staring at him wide-eyed, in a halting voice she says, "That's definitely him, but he looks... old."
They are certain that the corpse before them is that of The Master.
They are also certain that they saw him leave that morning... dressed in robes, not the tunic and breeches that adorn the corpse lying before you now.
Johan looks back at the corpse (and since he made his Physician roll last game session) notices that now that a few more minutes have passed that the rapid decomposition of the corpse isn't so much rapid decomposition as it is accelerated aging. The face of the dead man appears to have gone from that of someone in their late 40's to someone in their late 60's.
Y’lora spends the better part of her time perusing through the various rooms within the Tower. Her findings mimic those of Vyn: the Tower (other than the library) is very utilitarian. One thing is for sure: the armory is not within the Tower. Y’lora then arrives back up on the third floor in the room with the corpse just as Johan has finished questioning Verinda and Frederick as to the identity of the corpse. Y’lora then spends a few minutes asking the servants questions concerning the details of the garrison located here within the complex… the order of command, the loyalty level of The Master’s minion, etc. Frederick responds, stating that the loyalty of the men stationed here runs anywhere from being held in service by fear to being almost blindly loyal, the latter being held mostly by the higher ranking individuals.
With that said, Frederick could not say for sure how each of the men would react, seeing their tattoos of “ownership” fade from their arms (at this point in time, everyone has pretty much guessed or assumed that the magical tattoos have all faded). Frederick corroborates the information that was gleaned by the party from the captured minions back on the ship with regards to the estimate of how many men are stationed here… his guess is around 50 men and dwarves, total.
In the end, Y'lora asks Verinda and Frederick if there is a lower level, below ground, to the Tower. Neither of them are aware of any rooms below ground. Deciding to check for herself, Y'lora heads back down to the first floor and begins to search the floors of the rooms, looking for any concealed doors that may lead to a basement/dungeon.
After staunching his wounds, Johan decides to delve into one of the tomes found by Arimas and Bruno: The 12 Towers. This book describes twelve stone towers that were constructed by the Sidhe 2000 years ago. The text focuses on the locations, overall construction, and the present condition of the towers. Information regarding their purpose (if any) is not given. One of the last pages of this tome contains a diagram. A summary of the contents of this tome can be found here (MS Word) or here (pdf).
Earlier, when Arimas was pouring over the book that was left open on one of the benches in the alchemy lab. "I wonder if there's any information in here regarding the cloning bodies or turning a different body into a Lich and then transferring one's essence into it?" thinks Arimas. After reading a bit, he finds that, no, there is no discussion as to the in's and out's of becoming a lich. Rather, the tome is a “how-to” book on brewing a Lich elixir (yummy). i.e., it is a formulary. That is the basic gist of what Arimas gets from the tome, anyhow. Actually trying to follow the "recipe" is difficult at best for him. It's not quite as bad as trying to get your cat to understand Schroedinger's Wave Equation, but you get the idea. In the end, it does not discuss the in’s and out’s of becoming a Lich.
Moving into the library to help Bruno look through the stacks of books found there, Arimas gravitates to the shelves in the southeastern corner of the library that deal with necromancy, looking for any information that might shed some light on becoming a Lich. The dominant subjects of the books revolve about reanimating of corpses and prolonging life. This set of books would be the best bet for finding something regarding transference of one’s essence (i.e., a Soul Jar). However, Arimas soon discovers that it will take some time (hours, not minutes) to go through the books in order to find what he might on that one subject.
Turning his attention to the books concerning the history of the Sidhe contained on the southern set of shelves, Arimas begins reading a book entitled "The Lost Nation of Beower". Within it, he finds the following information:
1) The seat of power of the Sidhe nation was a city-state called Beower
2) The exact location of the city is not known for sure, but the best guess is that it is on an island that has sunk into the sea.
3) Various historians have agreed that the most likely location is somewhere between the Island of Hronn, Ascoma Isle, and Arnur Soghal (the mainland). (for reference, click here)
4) In a couple places within the text of this book, reference is made to a place called “Dragon’s Point”.
In the end, Arimas takes one of the books that appears to be a grimoire downstairs to Siglan to see if he can identify in which language it is written. After studying the book for a few minutes, Siglan says that the language is similar to Frasspe (which he can read, and so can Alexis and Johan). As such, he identifies the language as being that of Ergant.
After 20 minutes have gone by, Siglan calls up for Y’lora to come to him. After another 10 minutes, Y’lora is practically bouncing back up the stairs. When asked for why she was so happy, she relayed what Siglan had found in the slave trade ledger: The ledger spans the timeframe from 30 years ago to present day. The entries in the ledger are concerning sales of slaves. The entries usually give the name of the unfortunate soul being sold, but not always. After searching for nearly half an hour, Siglan found two names that pique his interest: Ernwith and Calembel Eladiel. The reason that these names grab Siglan's attention is because that is Y'lora's surname as well. These two individuals were apparently appropriated in or near the town of Ramluine, an elven coastal town northwest of Fehutros, near the northern reaches of the Derzaunen Mountains. The shipment of slaves of which Ernwith and Calembel were a part appears to have been sold to a clothing merchant named Thalantius who resides in (or, at least, the point of sale was made in) Cloie. (Cloie is a town about 100 miles east-southeast of Espydur. See the attached bitmap. ) The ledger lists them as being 32 years of age and bringing a price of 300 copper, each. The date of this entry is 344 F.S. (26 years prior).
Initial Findings
Given here are the findings of the party as they made their way through the Master's Tower. The point in time where this content stops is approximately 3 minutes after the fight with the skull spirits was over. i.e., when Arimas places the stone shards from Moorlun's table around the corpse that was found on the third floor of the Tower.
Room 1 – Assembly Hall: 40’x60’ room dominated by a dias along the northern wall. On the dias is a podium. 10’ ceilings. The Master’s heraldry hangs from all four walls. Two fireplaces in the room, one on the east wall and another on the west. Three sets of double doors, one each on the east, west, and south walls, lead to the outside. One set of double doors is on the north wall (they lead to Room 2). Two single doors are on the north wall (the western one leads to Room 4; the eastern one leads to Room 3). There are large braziers, unlit, in the four corners of the room. (Johan and Vyn have barred the three sets of exterior double doors and have closed the wrought iron interior window shutters.)
Room 2 – Planning Room: 25’x30’ room with a large oak table in the center. Ten chairs are located around the table. A fireplace on the east wall is shared with Room 3. Stairs leading up to Room 5 on the second floor are in the southwest corner of the room. There are four braziers, unlit, about the corners of the room.
Room 3 – Dining Room: 20’x30’ room with a central table surrounded by high-backed chairs. Two nice brass candleabras adorn the table. The door in the north wall is an exterior door. The door in the western wall leads to Room 2. (Y'lora has barred the exterior door.)
Room 4 – Clerk’s Office: 20’x30’ room with a desk and two bookshelves. Records of transactions, written in Common, (mostly materials to build the facility) are maintained here. There are four braziers, unlit, about the room. The bulk of the merchants from whom materials have been bought are out of Fehutros and Nestbaggann. (Alexis has taken the written transaction.) There are ten ledgers concerning slave trade which contain information on slave transactions by The Master. They are written in Ergantile and have entries going back 300 years. (The ten ledgers here each have about 30 years of information. They each weigh 8 lbs. Siglan is currently going through the most recent ledger, which would span from a couple years before Y'lora was born through present day.) In one corner of the room is a locked iron chest (correction: WAS locked) which contains 10,000 copper pieces (Y'lora has taken 300 copper pieces, filling her belt pouch with 3 pounds of coins; Bruno has filled his backpack with 40 pounds of coins which would be 4000 copper pieces, leaving 5700 copper pieces in the chest.). It is (correction: WAS) trapped with a gas poison trap.
Second Floor
Room 5 – Hallway: the stairs down to Room 2 of the first floor are in the middle of this north-south passage. (This is the hallway where the party talked with the two servants, Verinda and Frederick. Three doors are on the east side of this hallway, leading to Rooms 8, 9, and 10. Two doors are on the west side of this hallway, leading to Rooms 6 and 7. There is a window at the north end and south end of this hallway. Verinda and Frederick have lit the braziers in this hallway.)
Room 6 – Master’s Bedroom (yes, it is the "Master Bedroom" as several of you pointed out.): sparsely furnished. Very “bare bones”. Simple bed and wardrobe.
Room 7 – Servant’s Quarters: ‘nuff said. Personal effects. Modest accoutrements. There are two humans here; one male and one female (Frederick and Verinda, respectively). They are the maintainers of this building.
Room 8 – Broom Closet: cleaning supplies. Spare linens. 10-pound chunk of condensed pure evil lying in the corner. (Okay, I made up that last part.)
Room 9 – Bath Room (and, yes, as you also pointed out, this would be the "Master Bath"): tub, wash basin, chamber pot.
Room 10 – Stair Access to 3rd Floor: The wooden door to this room is locked. Upon the door is an iron symbol which is the Sidhe sigil for “freedom” (interpreted by Siglan and concurred by Arimas as being "free from the fetters of mortal life"... "ascension", if you will). It is trapped (correction: WAS trapped) with a gas poison trap. The stairs lead up to Room 12.
Third Floor
Room 11 – Alchemy Lab: Three work benches. The first two have a collection of beakers, mortar and pestle, a press (for pressing herbs), and small firepots. There is a bookshelf containing several tomes on alchemy. The third bench has a single beaker over a firepot. The firepot is extinguished, but the beaker on top of it is still warm and possesses a residue of a bright green liquid (the liquid is the same color as the remaining liquid drops that were found within the goblet that is sitting on the small stand next to the corpse that was discovered in Room 13). This is covered in a glass dome with a distillation tube running over to a second beaker. On the bench, next to this apparatus, is a tome that is open to a page describing the formula for creating a Lich elixir (the basic jist of the formula [i.e., the purpose of the elixir] was determined by Arimas). All tomes are written in the Sidhe language.
Room 12 – Library: The room possesses braziers located at the four corners of the room. Two bronze braziers on stands hang over two of the corners of the desk. There is a large polished oak desk and stuffed chair. Sheaves of parchment, two quills, and an inkwell are neatly placed on the desk. Bookshelves (with a good number of books) are located along the central portion of the north wall, in the northwest corner of the room, in the southeast corner of the room, and along the southern wall of the room. (Some of the books on the shelves in the southeast corner of the room are now damaged due to Bruno "The Whirlwind". But, hey, what's a few books given that the party remained intact?)
Some written documents are sitting on the desk. The various documents fall into one of three categories (so far, only Alexis has looked at these letters, so the descriptions that follow are from her perspective): some letters, some more letters , and several letters from Thorinin (written in Frasspe. Alexis briefly scanned over these letters, saw references to Thorinin, and then tucked the letters into her pack. Recall that Thorinin is the spy that the party killed in the inn in Falduin just prior to getting on the Sea Tiger and heading to Moorlun's Tower.).
There are stairs leading down to Room 10.
Room 13 – Dark Room: There are no windows in this room. There is a single flat table in the center of the room. There is a smaller table next to it with two goblets (a green liquid residue was found in one of the goblets). Tapestries on the walls depict a human ascending to the heavens, being unburdened. Lying on the table is a dead human male, arms folded over his chest. The corpse is fresh. (This is the room that was the temperature of a meat locker until Arimas entered and discovered that the shards of Moorlun's stone experimentation table [the shards appeared to be localized no-mana zones] repressed the cold as he walked into the room. He placed the shards around the corpse. After a couple minutes, the temperature of the entire room was back to normal, and the corpse began decaying at a rapid rate.) He is dressed in plain clothes (a simple tunic and breeches). (Bruno had asked if there was anything of value on The Master's person. Other than his tunic and breeches, there is a single iron key attached to a belt loop on his breeches.)
First Floor
Room 1 – Assembly Hall: 40’x60’ room dominated by a dias along the northern wall. On the dias is a podium. 10’ ceilings. The Master’s heraldry hangs from all four walls. Two fireplaces in the room, one on the east wall and another on the west. Three sets of double doors, one each on the east, west, and south walls, lead to the outside. One set of double doors is on the north wall (they lead to Room 2). Two single doors are on the north wall (the western one leads to Room 4; the eastern one leads to Room 3). There are large braziers, unlit, in the four corners of the room. (Johan and Vyn have barred the three sets of exterior double doors and have closed the wrought iron interior window shutters.)
Room 2 – Planning Room: 25’x30’ room with a large oak table in the center. Ten chairs are located around the table. A fireplace on the east wall is shared with Room 3. Stairs leading up to Room 5 on the second floor are in the southwest corner of the room. There are four braziers, unlit, about the corners of the room.
Room 3 – Dining Room: 20’x30’ room with a central table surrounded by high-backed chairs. Two nice brass candleabras adorn the table. The door in the north wall is an exterior door. The door in the western wall leads to Room 2. (Y'lora has barred the exterior door.)
Room 4 – Clerk’s Office: 20’x30’ room with a desk and two bookshelves. Records of transactions, written in Common, (mostly materials to build the facility) are maintained here. There are four braziers, unlit, about the room. The bulk of the merchants from whom materials have been bought are out of Fehutros and Nestbaggann. (Alexis has taken the written transaction.) There are ten ledgers concerning slave trade which contain information on slave transactions by The Master. They are written in Ergantile and have entries going back 300 years. (The ten ledgers here each have about 30 years of information. They each weigh 8 lbs. Siglan is currently going through the most recent ledger, which would span from a couple years before Y'lora was born through present day.) In one corner of the room is a locked iron chest (correction: WAS locked) which contains 10,000 copper pieces (Y'lora has taken 300 copper pieces, filling her belt pouch with 3 pounds of coins; Bruno has filled his backpack with 40 pounds of coins which would be 4000 copper pieces, leaving 5700 copper pieces in the chest.). It is (correction: WAS) trapped with a gas poison trap.
Second Floor
Room 5 – Hallway: the stairs down to Room 2 of the first floor are in the middle of this north-south passage. (This is the hallway where the party talked with the two servants, Verinda and Frederick. Three doors are on the east side of this hallway, leading to Rooms 8, 9, and 10. Two doors are on the west side of this hallway, leading to Rooms 6 and 7. There is a window at the north end and south end of this hallway. Verinda and Frederick have lit the braziers in this hallway.)
Room 6 – Master’s Bedroom (yes, it is the "Master Bedroom" as several of you pointed out.): sparsely furnished. Very “bare bones”. Simple bed and wardrobe.
Room 7 – Servant’s Quarters: ‘nuff said. Personal effects. Modest accoutrements. There are two humans here; one male and one female (Frederick and Verinda, respectively). They are the maintainers of this building.
Room 8 – Broom Closet: cleaning supplies. Spare linens. 10-pound chunk of condensed pure evil lying in the corner. (Okay, I made up that last part.)
Room 9 – Bath Room (and, yes, as you also pointed out, this would be the "Master Bath"): tub, wash basin, chamber pot.
Room 10 – Stair Access to 3rd Floor: The wooden door to this room is locked. Upon the door is an iron symbol which is the Sidhe sigil for “freedom” (interpreted by Siglan and concurred by Arimas as being "free from the fetters of mortal life"... "ascension", if you will). It is trapped (correction: WAS trapped) with a gas poison trap. The stairs lead up to Room 12.
Third Floor
Room 11 – Alchemy Lab: Three work benches. The first two have a collection of beakers, mortar and pestle, a press (for pressing herbs), and small firepots. There is a bookshelf containing several tomes on alchemy. The third bench has a single beaker over a firepot. The firepot is extinguished, but the beaker on top of it is still warm and possesses a residue of a bright green liquid (the liquid is the same color as the remaining liquid drops that were found within the goblet that is sitting on the small stand next to the corpse that was discovered in Room 13). This is covered in a glass dome with a distillation tube running over to a second beaker. On the bench, next to this apparatus, is a tome that is open to a page describing the formula for creating a Lich elixir (the basic jist of the formula [i.e., the purpose of the elixir] was determined by Arimas). All tomes are written in the Sidhe language.
Room 12 – Library: The room possesses braziers located at the four corners of the room. Two bronze braziers on stands hang over two of the corners of the desk. There is a large polished oak desk and stuffed chair. Sheaves of parchment, two quills, and an inkwell are neatly placed on the desk. Bookshelves (with a good number of books) are located along the central portion of the north wall, in the northwest corner of the room, in the southeast corner of the room, and along the southern wall of the room. (Some of the books on the shelves in the southeast corner of the room are now damaged due to Bruno "The Whirlwind". But, hey, what's a few books given that the party remained intact?)
Some written documents are sitting on the desk. The various documents fall into one of three categories (so far, only Alexis has looked at these letters, so the descriptions that follow are from her perspective): some letters
There are stairs leading down to Room 10.
Room 13 – Dark Room: There are no windows in this room. There is a single flat table in the center of the room. There is a smaller table next to it with two goblets (a green liquid residue was found in one of the goblets). Tapestries on the walls depict a human ascending to the heavens, being unburdened. Lying on the table is a dead human male, arms folded over his chest. The corpse is fresh. (This is the room that was the temperature of a meat locker until Arimas entered and discovered that the shards of Moorlun's stone experimentation table [the shards appeared to be localized no-mana zones] repressed the cold as he walked into the room. He placed the shards around the corpse. After a couple minutes, the temperature of the entire room was back to normal, and the corpse began decaying at a rapid rate.) He is dressed in plain clothes (a simple tunic and breeches). (Bruno had asked if there was anything of value on The Master's person. Other than his tunic and breeches, there is a single iron key attached to a belt loop on his breeches.)
Monday, August 20, 2007
Welcome
Arnur Soghal is a the name of the main continent of a fictitious fantasy world created by Jim and Tim Antonicic. This is the setting of a fantasy role-playing game campaign in which I act as the game master. The game system being utilized is GURPS 4th Edition, published by Steve Jackson Games.
The main purpose of this blog is to act as a central location whereby I can post in-game information (primarily targeted to the players) and allow for others to submit comments to individual posts. In this sense, this blog serves as a running documentary of the happenings upon Arnur Soghal as viewed through the eyes of the player characters.My plan is to first post the history of all events that have taken place to-date involving the adventuring party, starting with the conception of this campaign.
This is the first time I have ever created a blog. So, please feel free to submit comments on any of the content of this blog, including page layout, color scheme, organizational flow, average airspeed of an unladen swallow, font size, or under/over-usage of images. (And, yes, I realize that the extra white area around the jpg's of the coats of arms stands out. These jpgs were originally created for a specific page layout purpose where a rectangular area was required. For the purposes of my blog, I will be removing the extra white space in the future.)
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