Xorian Wars: Alliance and Rebellion

[Anxe]

Alliance Session #4/Total Session #5
This session was attended by Ozymandias, thewamp, and Salzar. It was held at Ozymandias's house.

Prior to this session the Throgg and Salzar had decided to change their characters' builds. Torin was previously a fighter with a cleric of Athena cohort. He was remade into a cleric of Athena with no leadership and no cohort. His previous cohort, Erick, was made into just a friend. Erick went back to Phoenix without much explanation to how he got there. Amalius was previously a diplomacy bard. He was remade into a telepath psion. Additionally, the Binding spell on Thug ran out at the beginning of this ession.

There weren't many people present for this session, so instead of continuing the tomb raiding we decided that the characters would go explore the various sites around the Great Valley that they missed previously. Throgg had told me prior to the session that Amalius would stay by the tomb with Aldarian and read the Manual of Military Prowess all day and night. Amalius was able to do this because of the many lesser restoration spells cast by Torin (2/day).

The first location the party went to in the Great Valley was the ancient city at the north end of the lake. They teleported in and set to exploring. They found that the city was actually a bunch of outbuildings around a long ruined castle. They went inside the castle and started searching the buildings. A lot of them were empty except for ancient pots, pans, and other sundries. There was also a well that the group looked into and found nothing. However, one of the houses was wrapped in a permanent magic spell of darkness. The adventurers decided to save that building for last.

Of the other significant buildings there was the keep of the castle. Inside was a hobgoblin ghost that attacked the party. The ghost was "killed" easily by Logan. There was also another building that used to be servants' quarters. Inside was a locked steel box. Preta opened the box with a knock spell. Logan did that actual opening of the box and was greeted with a magical trap. Fortunately, he made his save and was unaffected by whatever necromantic magic it was. Inside the box were papers that had long since gone to dust. The fragment that remained said in Xorian, "...in the frozen waters, Selene's glory shows the way..." (Selene is the Greek goddess who literally is the moon). The party was unsure if frozen waters referred to the glacier or the lake of the Great Valley. They decided to investigate the glacier tomorrow.

Spoiler: Large Image

Show

But first the magical darkness! The darkness was easily dispelled by Shez. Inside was a small building. The building housed a large stone tablet. The Infernal words on the tablet eroded long ago. Preta was able to read Infernal, so he translated the remaining messages, "The long path holds greater peril, but also greater reward," and, "Many roads laid for those who were to come, as they who come after must be proved worthy for-," and finally, "The final marker shows the way, but points to noth-"

Not much was made of these clues.

The party then realized that Terroc was still carrying some decomposing hobgoblin bodies in his Bag of Holding. They decided they should return the corpses to the hobgoblin village by the lake. They teleported over there and approached the cautious hobgoblins. Upon bringing out the bodies a the hobgoblins started shouting and pointing. Only Amalius spoke Goblin, but he was back at the tomb entrance. Shez had fortunately prepared tongues. He cast it and learned the hobgoblins were very upset that their chief and shaman were killed. They were demanding that the outsiders leave immediately before they were sent to Hades with Krumukh and Duvagh. The party turned and began to walk out of the village as requested. Some of the hobgoblins threw stones at the characters as they left (None of the stones connected). It was hard for Torin and Logan to quell Preta's urge to blast the entire village with his battle magic, but they managed.

The party teleported back to the tomb and rested for the night. Amalius continued to read the Manual of Military Prowess like a mad man.

As they'd planned the party teleported to the glacier the next day. Finding nothing at the bottom of it they teleported to the top. On top was a large hole in the ice. They flew down to the bottom of the hole and found a large cave like place. In the cave was a small trickle of water coming from an icicle by the far wall. The far wall had a hobgoblin frozen in its ice. Goblin words were written to both sides and below the hobgoblin. Logan used his comprehend languages ability to read the writing. He found that the left writing listed the titles of the hobgoblin, Gek-rogakh, and identified him as an engineer. The left side also had hobgoblins battle songs written below the titles.
The right side describe the achievements of the whole hobgoblin race as well as those of Kruk-Ma-Kali. Logan also noticed a symbol for Selene in the right side with a circle around it. Logan suspected something was up due to the clue they'd found in the ancient castle, so he detected magic. He found none in the symbol or the cavern.
The writing below the hobgoblin said, "Only the valiant shall follow Kruk-Ma-Kali, but they must learn to start anew, like the moons."

The party decided that something important must happen on the full moon while in this room. It was a new moon that night, so a return was scheduled for 15 days later.

The party teleported back to the tomb entrance and the session was ended. Amalius was close to finishing the Manual of Military Prowess (And also going a bit insane from reading for days without sleep).