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Session 32, Barbarians at the Gate to Sahn

Paldegora 

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Session 32 – 2024-02-03

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==== Summary ====



==== Detail ====

They awoke in the morning to a frosty fog. They set off north again after Cal double checked the surrounding area. He felt sure they were still on the right path. The freezing fog hung over the land so they couldn't see far even until the midday. Around noon, the fog finally began to lift as the air warmed a little and visibility grew. The terrain was still similar but the mounds had grown less frequent. Cal pulled out a map and he decided where he thought they were on that map. They still couldn't see the valley or the mountains beyond. He thought they were about 5 to 10 miles from the rim overlooking the valley. A little later on, they started getting the sense they were there. The land rose a little in front of them and they made their way through and up low ridges.   

Xor and Cal split and went in opposite directions to explore the immediate area. They found nothing dangerous about the terrain. Cal did find a path forward so they came back together and moved forward. They finally crested the ridge to see the valley spread before them. They moved up to the edge. They could see a fog covered valley below. In the distance, they could see the faint outline of the mountains. The cliff extended in both directions out of site. Xor guessed it was more than a thousand feet down to the valley floor. They began looking for the stairs mentioned o the map. Cal began looking for secret doors or cave openings. He didn't find anything. Xor began looking at the ledge and found some spots where you could possibly move down 100 feet or so but then it just dropped off. It wasn't stairs.

Call moved to look at the cliff face again and found a spot where a lot of rock had fallen, crumbled away. The rock was piled up at the base of the cliff. Xor looked at it and told everyone that there had been a landslide here. He tried to determine if there might have been steps here at one point and maybe had fallen. He determined that whatever had happened, probably happened recently and appeared to be deliberate. They could find no way down it. Xor spotted, to the east a little ways, steps carved out of the side of the cliff. He said, "Found it!". He determined that it went down about 15 or 20 feet where it had collapsed and was gone. Xor tied off a rope and went down a ways to see if there was a way around this. He saw that the stairs looped back and forth, zig zagging down the face of the cliff. He could tell that though some of the stairs exist, they are mostly destroyed. He eyeballed the rest of the cliff face that he could see from there and could see no place where this party could make it down this cliff. He figured on a good clear day, he might could do it, but not with the others. 

Evening was upon them and they decided to backup and find a covered place to camp. That's when Eryn spotted a fire pit. It was covered in snow, but there none the less. They cleared it out and set up camp using it. The pit kept the fire from producing much smoke and kept the light from being too bright. They set up a watch and turned in. Cal looked out toward the Grimbog Vale and couldn't really make anything out. It was probably a three day trip to there. It's was probably a three day trip across the valley to the mountains also. He was also able to determine that the conditions in the valley were not quite as bad as they are up here. Cal took the first watch. A couple of hours into it, Cal noticed that the winds picked up and it was warmer. He got nervous when the wind got up to a steady gust. Then it picked up considerably, waking everyone. It continued blowing hard for about 15 or 20 minutes and then it died down and stopped. It came from the west, from the valley. It kicked up a lot of snow off of the ground and blew it around some. What it really did was melt a thin coating of the snow and then refroze it making all of the surfaces even slipperier. As things calmed down, Angelique restarted the fire they all returned to rest. 

Cal's watch came to an end and Eryn took over. In the middle of her watch, she started hearing noises from the valley below. They didn't sound natural. She moved to the edged of the cliff to look down and heard something under the mist. She couldn't tell what it was. She watched a little longer and saw some orange light from below and a little to the west. It was moving toward the cliff from the north. She assumed it was torchlight coming toward the wall. After she watched it some more, she saw that there was more than one. The light moved up to the cliff and then disappeared. She determined that all this happened a couple of miles to the west. It was too dark to pick out a marker but she'd hoped in looking for it during the day, that something would present itself. The rest of her watch passed without incident. She woke Xor and told him what she had seen and heard. Then she turned in. Xor took over and watched for anymore possible activity. He paced over the whole area and stopped and watched the area that Eryn had pointed out. At one point in the evening, he thought he caught a glimpse of a bit of light from where Eryn had pointed to below. He stopped and watched that area for a while and saw nothing else. 

The next day dawned and Xor and Eryn explained what they saw and heard to everyone else. They both went to the edge and tried to pinpoint where they'd seen the light. They got a pretty good feel for where the light was and disappeared. They began heading west. The ground was still icy and snowy but as they got closer to where they thought they'd seen the activity below, the snow seemed to dissipate some. Cal checked for tracks but didn't find any. There wasn't as much snow and the snow that was there had been blown around a lot the night before so there was nothing to hold tracks. They saw a rock formation coming up that looked like about exactly where they'd seen the light below. It looked interesting. They moved up cautiously. Scouting the area before them, they spotted some stones that seemed symmetrically placed but weren't. It was natural. Between them was a path to follow and there was a path around the south end of them. Xor stopped and looked over the edge hoping to find another way up or down, but it was even worse than the other spots they'd checked out. 

Xor went through the middle path between the formations while Cal went around the southern end. They spotted a circle of stones around a larger boulder. To the southwest was another formation of stacked stone. It appeared natural though. Eryn began circling the center stone looking for anything but decided that it was natural. At the same time, she was struck by an arrow. She turned to see a bunch of people popping out from around the natural formation to the south west. They appeared to be tribesmen and women. She called out, look out to the southwest. She moved to put the big stone between the tribesmen and herself. Xor moved up to the north end of this group and jumped up on their ledge and hit one of them. Cassandra seeing no way up over there shifted her attention to the southern end. She managed to make it up to their level and hit one. A Shaman in the back cast something at Cassandra but it had no effect. Angelique and Eryn fired from behind a little cover. Eryn hit one. Cal ran up to the middle of the stack where a couple were firing from. He jumped up on the stones to their level and attacked one hitting it. Cal took a lot of hits this round. He sort of resembled a pincushion. 

Symon cast a Web spell blocking the area at the top of the stones where a couple of the shooters stood. One was stuck while another one jumped to avoid it. At the same time, Angelique cast a continual light on the Shaman's eyes in order to blind him. After she cast her spell, the Web blocked her view of him. She couldn't see if it had succeeded or not. The other guy stuck in the Web pulled himself out and fell off the ledge. Several of the tribesmen fell this round. Xor took a serious hit from an arrow. Eryn realized that the two tribesmen on the ground had a straight shot at Symon so she dropped her bow and drew her sword and shield and charged them. From beyond the Web spell, they heard a Wilhelm-like scream from the Shaman that apparently fell off the cliff behind him. Several of the tribesmen fell this round as well. A couple of the party got hit as well.  During the next round, they finished off the tribesmen. They checked around the stones to make sure there was nothing behind it. Cal spotted a cave on the back side. All around the rock on the outside were pictograms painted and animal heads hanging above it. The Shaman was not anywhere to be found. It appeared that he fell from the cliff. 

Cal peered in the cave. A little ways into it, it sloped downward. They searched the bodies to find the equivalent of 15 copper pieces. Angelique looked at the cave entrance and though she didn't recognize anything specific, she was able to determine that the pictograms and totems were meant to protect against, or stop, or even hold in evil. They were wards against evil but whether to keep evil out or top trap and hold it inside, they couldn't tell. The steps they could see sloping down inside the cave were carved but not by these people. That's just too sophisticated. Cal checked for tracks and where he'd seen a lot of footprints made with the soft furry footwear of the tribesmen outside the cave, the tracks going in and out of the cave were more like heavy modern boots. It appeared the tribesmen were mostly afraid of what might come out of the cave. Cal pointed out the tracks so everyone knew what was going on. As Eryn started checking for traps going in, Cal tapped her on the shoulder and mouthed the word guardian. She understood what he meant, that this could be where the guardian that they had read about might be. Symon didn't think the guardian would be here but it's possible. He thought the guardian would be closer to the mountains and the entrance to Dragon Vale.

They made their way inside toward the steps. She looked for traps but it seemed by the tracks she was seeing that there weren't any traps. The tracks she saw there never seemed to veer or go around anything. They started down the stairs. It was dark down here and where Eryn could use her infra-vision, Cal was the only other one to be able to see his way forward down here. Angelique broke out her lantern that allowed her to focus light forward and Cassandra broke out a torch. It was a rather plain tunnel but they quickly found a wall that appeared to be man made, lined with human skulls, stacked on one another. That wasn't ominous at all. Eryn shifted her attention away from the wall. There was no path to follow that way so she just ignored it and continued down the available path in front of her. Everyone else followed. They reached a point where the flooring ahead was made of stone tiles that had been placed. They were dirty and there was moss growing between the stones. 

Eryn wondered if the booted tracks were also seen down here and if so, where did they go. She asked Cal to look around and he did find some traffic down here but with the fine dust, it was less obvious. He couldn't really tell how long they had been here. Eryn moved forward. They tunnel became more dank and damp. Around another wall, just south of "skull wall" was another manmade wall. It must lead to the same place as "skull wall" and appeared built to close off a section of the tunnel. She assumed the skulls were a warning, like at the entrance, Maybe they were a sign of some evil beyond the wall. She wasn't sure. She continued on, ignoring that path. Further ahead, She found the tunnel ended in a metal door. Xor tried to get a peek behind the man made wall south of "skull wall". He took his axe and drove it into the wall a little ways and tried to pry a little of the stone away. He realized that whoever sealed this up did a really good job of it. He was able to loosen one stone and found another layer of stone behind it. He worked to carefully pry away the next layer trying to create hole to look through. He was able do that but eventually, he pulled away a stone and water began coming out of it and pouring down the wall. It was very cold water. He quickly started putting the rocks back up attempting to block the water again. He managed to stop the main flow but water still seeped into the tunnel and from this point on, it will be more damp in here.

Eryn moved up to the metal door and checked it for traps. She didn't find anything but did determine it was locked. She attempted to pick the lock but failed. She broke out some oil and worked it into the lock tried again. She started to feel some movement in the tumblers but the lock wouldn't let go. She worked more oil in, making sure it had a few moments to work itself into the lock and the tried it again. This time it gave way. She wondered out loud, "Who has claimed ownership of this tunnel, put up a door, and locked it?". She guessed that they may find out soon enough. The door moved away from her so she pushed it open. Behind it was a manmade tunnel, about 50 feet long. She looked very carefully at the walls and floor, looking for holes in the walls where darts or arrows might be fired on people in the tunnel. She didn't see anything like that. At the end of the hallway was a lit lantern hanging on the wall. There was also a door to the right at the end of the hallway. She carefully moved down the hall to the lantern and the stone door. The door didn't have a handle, it was designed to be pushed in. She pushed it in. It was surprisingly easy to move. They determined that the lantern wasn't using a continual flame so someone down here had kept it lit. 

There wee stairs beyond the door that led down to a lit landing and turning right. She checked the stairs for traps and finding none, continued down the stairs to the first turn. The stairs continued on down to an intersection. Across from the tunnel was a door. There was about a 10 foot hallway to either side of the intersection that ended in walls. It was lit from the lantern up the stairs. There was no direct light down there. The landing at the bottom was made from a darker stone but the two sections north and south of it were of a lighter stone. There was a circle of runes on the dark sections of the flooring. The doors ahead were very ornate and had runes and images on them. Upon seeing the door, Angelique recoiled a little. There were images and runes on it, markings of the god Sahn. Now she knew why the tribesmen had marked the cave entrance as containing something evil. The emblem on the door was eye shaped with a half moon and thorny vines growing around it. The eye symbol meant something about seeing into the mind. The crescent moon meant the night time and dreams. The vines were a symbol of corruption spreading into everything. She thought back to the lore and remembered that Sahn used dreams to corrupt. 

Eryn moved forward to check the door for traps. She didn't find any so she reached to open them. Angelique drew out her holy symbol and began trying to bless the place. Her dislike of this place was obvious to all that saw her. The handles of the doors were very cold, much more than just the ambient temperature. Eryn was not pleased with this as well. She told everyone else about the coldness of the metal. Angelique suggested, it was because of the evil. The handles didn't want to give. They didn't seem to be locked, just hard to open. Xor came up and twisted them and got them to turn and was able to open the door. The door opened to a large room. There was a wide dark stone path leading east toward a statue, an alter were two skulls and a black crystal, a stone stand for a book, and eventually a set of three large stone chairs. There were lanterns hanging above each of them. There was a lighted pentagram on the floor in front of the large statue. There were two more darkened stone paths leading north and south to doors. There were 12 large stone sarcophagi lining the north and south walls of the room. They were lit by the blue lights as well. On either side of the stone chairs were doors as well.

Eryn checked for traps. Not finding anything, she stepped in. Suddenly, everyone in the hallway was enveloped in darkness and they could no longer hear anything. Cassandra and Cal slowly began making their way forward to the doorway. Cal felt something brush by him. Cassandra walked forward expecting to find Angelique, but felt a rustle of some sort. She doesn't find Angelique. She continued forward stumbling into the room. Symon was startled at being shoved a little. It was then that the light and sound returned. Everyone quickly noticed that Angelique was missing. Cassandra charged up the stairs running as if chasing something. Her assumption was that someone had grabbed her and was taking her out of here. She never found anyone or any sign of anyone. Cal carefully searched for her in the hallway. He found no secret doors. Symon said, "Well it looks like Morgan and Marlena couldn't take care of her after all.". Eryn suggested that maybe they were the ones that got her. Xor and Eryn searched the floor with the runes. They found nothing. Cal remembered something brushing by him but couldn't tell which way they were going. 

Eryn searched the whole hallway, the floor and all of the walls very carefully, but found nothing. Debbie had broken out the stress ball at this point. They looked at the ceiling as well. Still nothing revealed itself. Cal went to the metal door in the south wall of the big room. Eryn began moving forward in the room and got a good look at the statue. She guessed it was of Sahn. Cassandra, not finding anything up top, began making her way back. Eryn suddenly had to make a saving throw but nothing happened. Cal listened at one of the doors but didn't hear anything. Eryn moved closer to the alter and had to make another saving throw. On the alter were two very pristine human skulls. Also onj the alter, on a silver stand, was a crystal ball, solid black. She took out a cloth and draped it over the crystal ball. She had to make another saving throw. She was creeped out by the crystal ball but now that it was covered, she felt better. She avoided the lit symbol on the floor. She returned to the others as they were checking the doors on the north and south wall. Eryn suggested that maybe Angelique was teleported away. Symon thought that was not an instantaneous sort of spell. 

They all made saving throws again. Eryn succeeded again. Everyone else but Cal made it as well. Cal was up at the door and got a very strange feeling. He stepped back from the door closed his eyes with his head tilted up a little and just stopped there. Eryn reached over and touched him but he didn't react. Eryn pointed this out to the others as Cassandra entered the room. She failed a saving throw as well. She got out the question, "What happened?". At that time, she froze and closed her eyes and tilted her head back a little, just like Cal had done. Eryn grabbed Cal and got Xor to help by grabbing Cassandra saying, "Let's get them out of this room!". 

This is where they ended the session.

Chris, start the recorder!

It was decided that the next session would start with just Debbie while the rest of us stayed out of discord and owlbear rodeo. 

Exp = 202 + 20 = 222