An Exploration of Ziggurat

 

Ziggurat Player Handout A Pg 12 1.1

Page 12 Player Handout B 1-5

Page 13 Player Handout C 2-3

Page 15 Player Handout D 2-7

Dust Brother Hogan Pg 30

3-15 E

Hollow Spawn

Tablet Golem

Chamber of Tears

04/20/2023 Virtuous Age Session 41: Cippus, the Hollow, and The Seven Dragons of Sin

We begin this week’s session with Prince Aevum still feeling some after effects from Eabrossi’s poison touch the day before. Our characters begin to set up a space for a Rope Trick when binki arrives with a banana- foreshadowing the encounter to come. 

Tena and Eabrossi pray to Agamotto outside the rope trick while Kron who sings silently to Stronmaus and watches over the pair. Several will saves are involked. Then from the trees, from a specific direction- an intrepid feeling- Kron interposes himself between the source and Tena and Eabrossi. Tension is high, but an hour goes by and Tena completes her evening preparations. Our characters eventually retire to the rope trick.

During the rest Tena gives Eabrossi a pair of gloves to ease his poison touch inconvenience. 

Aevum is woken by a dream where he feels a powerful gaze upon him and something to do with the race Aevum has created. It was such a troubling event Aevem is cast somewhat dumbfounded. He is also sure this divine gaze also fell upon the other characters.

Kron also wakes with a cold sweat and something very aware of him. For Zaigan, his armor seems to awaken him. Confused at first Zaigan believes his armor reacted in a way it had before- like when his uncle wore the armor. 

Eabrossi awakens from his nightmare with the knowledge of every flaw in his musical talent. Eabrossi mentally reaches out to his sword in draconic and is struck with dragon fear- confirming the draconic origin of the dreams.

All in all, our characters rest for twelve hours and awaken on September 24^th- 10 AM. 

Kron and Aevum exit the rope tick to find an individual waiting for us who introduces himself as Cippus. He appears to be human and not of the continent, and seems to be an elementalist of some kind and offers to escort our characters to the borders of his territory.

We eventually come to a pagoda structure and an expanse of farmland to a tended grove and abandoned structures to one side and undeveloped land on the opposite side. Ahead in the distant skyline are large flying creatures, a lot compared to yesterday.

Conversation is cordial and leads to dangers ahead and Cippus mentions there is said to be dark elves in the area. Kron makes it clear that we are no friends of dragons  

We make a request of magic to aid our quest and Eabrossi asks for a pair of sturdy gloves. Cippus flies off and during the five minutes he is gone- our character realize the area ahead is uneasily quiet. Cippis eventually comes back with a bag of items to trade.

Kron buys potions of Remove blind def, curse, disease and resist acid 20, a potion of restoration lesser for 1,500 gp. Trinkets include a ring of spell storing minor, pearls of power, feather tokens but he would only trade for metamagic. He also offers a Wand of flying 30 charges and in exchange an agreement that we try to come to peaceful terms if our paths should cross hostile paths. Aevum is offered several magic and cleric scrolls.

While this transpires Tena observes Cippus is dressed well with no accents, but the bag he brought has several symbols and draconic images to Tiamat / The Great Mother. Interestingly devoid of sin symbology. Aevum purchases a secure shelter scroll.

Tena makes a trade for his bag of holding and his pearls of power.

We ask about nearby civilization. About an hour away is a great tree split in half. When you come to that tree about ten minutes further we will come to ‘the Hollow.’ It is the closest civilization.

With our business concluded we make our goodbyes and head out about ten minutes from Cippus border and Eabrossi casts heroism on all of us before we mount up on phantom steeds- Carlile and Zaigain are mounted on Campus.

After about an hour we come to the Hollow. A community that seems to be set into a dry lake bed akin to a bowl in the earth. When we get in sight we see a pair of guard towers who spot our approach. The populace appears to be human but upon closer observation they are in fact half elves.

We first hear sounds of dogs below the guard towers and archers have bows at the ready as our characters approach. In the common tongue, they ask our business.

Eabrossi says our characters seek refuge for a marooned youngling.

A few moments pass and we are approached by a man and a woman. They ask if we too flee the way everything else has reacted.

We don’t know about that but we do know that our path is too dangerous for a youngling. Suddenly we feel a palpable dragon fear wash over us and a few seconds later an immense dragon passes over us. We are unsure if it noticed us.

Now that they can see we are not the source of the fear in the area the two half elves invites into the Hollow. Our characters see short stone buildings, camouflaged by the lush canopy. The bowl is a town gathering place, business, craft areas, and most of the 200-300 live outside the bowl.

We are brought to the center of the village and a serviceable hunting lodge building they invite us into. They are Enton and Lory who seem welcoming. We talk about the unsettled activity in the area. Aevum asks about dreams? Everything seems fine but there was something that unsettled most of us last night. The dragon flyovers are definitely not a regular thing.

Tena and Aevum give the boy each 100 gold, Kron gives Enton a short bow to give the boy once he is properly trained.

We thank the half elves but must be on our way. The rest of our travel to the mythic planar veil to the ziggurat is uneventful and we hold up about an hour from Shadow Hill.

We take a short rest and while we do Tena casts some protective spells and Aevum communicates with his creation who just warns him of a coming… she is coming.

Our characters arrive at a lake and a gathering of slavers. We avoid confronting the slavers, this adds a couple of hours to our travel time.

About 3 or 4 in the morning September 25^th our characters sense creatures just outside our range of darkvision. We each feel several creatures flying above us. All we hear chittering sounds around us heightening the tension  

Our characters begin to debate plans and the possibilities of magical messages to King Saxo: 

“Flight of dragons heading to citadel. Will try to scry on you for more communication. May not work. Her eye upon us! With Love.” The message through the crystal ball did not work, but a sending spell works. Next Tena attemps to scry. As each tick of the hour we are assaulted by corruptions.

In the crystal ball Tena sees seven dragons of gargantuan size destroying the grand dome- the seven dragons of sin. They are accompanied by some kind of low devils. Tena recognizes several individuals, including the half dragon inquisitor, a risen hydra, and draconians are also involved in the attack. 

Tiamat’s eye was once upon her children at play but Tena’s scrying attracted her eye. Tiamat’s attention causes the crystal ball to explode.

It is our moment to act and cross over to the ziggurat realm. When we cross we are not immediately attacked and in fact it seems quiet. There is no rain or harsh wind but an occasional purple flash of lighting illuminates the landscape.

For the first time our characters see the ziggurat without all the slaves and worshipers of Tiamat. The restoration it seems was a return to function of what the ziggurat was originally built for. The Tiamat symbols on the structure were already there- this is something else’s domain. We intend to skirt around the ziggurat. Eabrossi, while we move, casts freedom of movement on each of us.

Our character reach the opposite side of the ziggurat and sees a huge purple dragon between us and the embassy. About 100 feet from us is the planar dragon Lyedenka.

Lyedenka flies in, it is the only thing standing between us and the embassy. It was over in 2 rounds, Kron was able to slay the dragon- his 4th. 

There is some debate but ultimately our characters decide to turn to the ziggurat and the promise of treasure within before venturing to the Embassy. 

We achieve our Ninth character Level!

04/06/2023 Virtuous Age Session 40:

Some information we received in Zyper. We are warned of orc encampment about 30 miles to the SE- raiders and slavers. For the past few years they struggle because the no longer have a beneficiary. 50 miles south is an area that have several tales that lend to its mysteriousness. There are also a great many birds that migrate on strange cycles, the locals know to pay attention to them. Some feed them as well.

We begin this week’s session computing our travel time to take a couple of days to the Ziggurat. Eight ours of phantom steed, eight hours of personal travel. The steeds do not make a sound. We eventually come across a bend and into a band of eight dwarves- some of us dismounted.

The dwarves were crouched low, they carry crossbows and armor of various types. Tena speaks to the dwarves to tell them we are passing through the area.

They mention something about seeking a dragon whos scales are semitransparent and gives us a detailed description of the beast. Kron mentions having killed an Opal dragon. At this we exchange battle stories.

They warn us of a wizard-elementalism who lairs near banana trees. They also caution us about the abundance of caves for the next 30-40 miles.

Our groups wish each other safe travels. We continue on.

After some more travel over rocky terrain intermixed with muddy flats. Again the value of traveling on phantom steeds proves itself. After a time some of us believe we see trees traveling slowly towards us and together.

Eventually a large root creature comes out of the ground and begins to speak, Terrain is a close proximity. It appears to challenge us and our passage through his domain. A second voice in Aquan comes from buzzing insects that has now appeared.

Their wish for us is to go around, but we all feel a mental tick. We ask how we are to know the boundaries of their domain? It is at this point when the bees lead the way out of their domain.

This takes about 20 minutes when we arrive at a deep creek. The bees stop where we can see several easy areas to cross over.

We cross the creek and soon encounter a trio of trolls and some manticores. ☹ we decide to avoid the encounter.

We travel on a used road containg wagon ruts and an area of ogres but do not engage us. Also, on our flank are birds keeping up with us. Not long after this Zaigan sees a mounted flyer about a half hour away.

In a crude giant is “Last Chance Casino” pained on a rock. Nearby are bulls teathered to low trees. We continue on another hour towards the SW and a lake. We try to find a way around.

As we discuss what to do next a wagon approaches, pulled by a donkey and a cow. Orcs are also traveling with the wagon. Holding the rains is a probably human kid- likely a slave. Behind the wagon a giant appears. The kid speaks in celestial, I’m not with them.

We parley for position on the ferry and give the giant and the wagon space. Tena says she can water walk us across. We see the ferry coming being pulled by a female giant.

We kill the giant and the two orcs and the boy is free. The boy says he is far north of here, he is Carlile Jr. His father used to be someone important- Carlile wants to get back to his father. He says dad is from ‘Stormtown’ be they lived on the coast. He speaks common, elvan and celestial. He is 12 years old.

We recover 4 potions of bark skin and 4 potions of CMW. 2 master work manicals worth 200gp and 2 falchions (Kron takes one). Giant has 2 large, strange rubies in a bag full of finger bones.

We take the boy Carlile upon Campus and with water walking on the phantom steed our characters cross the lake.

All the while our characters have an uneasy feeling from below the surface of the lake. We get to about half way we begin to see signs of a community at the bottom of the long hill the top of which looks to be cleared of trees. On the edge are giant sized steps and a lift for mining and foresting. There seems to be a factory and other structures. The structures at the top of the hill are built for giants.

We decide to avoid the area and head west and eventually a path off the lake between a couple of hills. There are lot of hills ahead for our 8 hours of overland travel.

We find a couple of places to make camp when Binki comes back to Tena with a banana.