Cippus to Alcippus

Alcippus

Lady Tiamat

Brother I hope my message finds you well.  I must share an astonishing experience of chance that has happened to me during the fascinating and frightening arrival of the scaled queen’s children. 

On or around the 24^th of September five individuals of extraordinary power arrived at our farm, it seems that one of the fives pet or familiar is a monkey and found our bananas irresistible.  The travelers’ first impression is dominated by the largest, most imposing troll I’ve ever seen. The Troll is strangely intelligent carrying an artifact weapon of such power that I can only assume the troll and artifact have some connection to the arrival of the great mother’s children.  I next noticed a white Minotaur, white isn’t correct, no an Albino Minotaur of such regal stature that I am sure he comes from the kingdom south of mylocation that we have previously discussed.  I’m always curious if the races of that kingdom know they are cursed? I was much too intimidated to inquire. 

Looking over the pale prince, I realized he, along with two others in their group wore the symbols of an ancient god, something Agamotto, magic, knowledge you know the type.  The troll wore symbols to a giant deity but I was never close enough to inspect.  The pale prince traveled with an angelic guardian, an Aasimar samurai in a chain shirt of roiling clouds.  The samurai’s symbols weren’t obvious and I feared if his opinion turned against me the Minotaur would order an attack. I would have been overwhelmed. A small inconspicuous woman Tena was among them, a priest of the magic deity I mentioned.  The woman easily hid among them, wise beyond her years, she gave off a powerful aura and piercing gaze that left you feeling exposed in her presence.  You can understand with such unique individuals I would initially miss that I was in the presence of a Janni. The creature introduced himself as Eabrossi, and besides claiming to be a bard was quite interested in acquiring a few pairs of sturdy leather gloves. I took his queue and left to get his gloves, my weasel staying behind so I could listen to the strange group’s conversations about me.  

They are formidable and I don’t believe any of them belong to our organization.  I will of course be abandoning the farm, and moving the Pagoda.  Attached is an inventory of the items I sold them. I believe most of it is inventory from Stormhaven that you were having me launder.  Consider that a job well done.  I will follow your advice not to investigate or question the motives of earth’s new queen, only to mobilize and leave the area. Do not fear, our research continues. 

   With fond affection, your brother:

Cippus

05/18/2023 Virtuous Age Session 45: The 'Engraver' and Son, The first Solar Year, and The Tablet Golem's New Master

We begin this week’s session investigating room 3-15, the room that had glyphs and symbols on all the walls, ceiling and surfaces; and the room with the tablet golem. During our battle with the golem a voice continually speaks to Aevum- some outside thoughts enticing him to specific action. Don’t kill it, find the controller. Let me redeem myself.

Meanwhile each of our attacks on the golem releases a spell effect from arcs of fire to thunder clouds of electricity. 

During the encounter Aevum realizes the magical effects are glyphs off the golem, furthermore every tablet comprising the construct has a mark of Agamotto. The construct seems to be operating from a simple command.

In the next room is a living quarters where everything is very organized and, like the past chamber, every surface is covered in writing. Aveum sends in his construct revealing a hidden spell caster and fighter ('the engraver’ and treacherous son). The engraver curses us for challenging his rulership of the ziggurat. They venerate Tiamat in both their speech and tainted gear.

There are clay drinking vessels around, some are tipped and empty. A cursory look from our knowledgeable party members reveals these are ancient potions of longevity. 

In combat the wizard proved tenacious and the fighter-son wanted none of what our characters were prepared to give him. Though this proved to be a ruse to get us to drop our guard. Eabrossi was successfully able to blind the Engraver.

Aevum followed up and was able to enervate the Engraver killing the aged man. The son broke down into sobs and prayers. Kron ended his suffering. They were both traitors to Agamotto and followers of Tiamat. Upon inspection we find their weapons and armor have become tainted over the centuries.

Looking for information our characters discover that the engraver was the chief scribe of the temple and has lived here all this time. He was also the controller of the golem. Both the engraver and his son were corrupted by Tiamat. 

Here they kept records of moon and sun cycles and have notations lunar cycles of a time before the Dawning. Indeed the first solar-year cycles of this world. These notations are what's engraved on all surfaces, walls and ceilings. Eabrosi gets the first decade of sun and moon cycle for Earth and someone uses memorize page. 

Under the bed is found two potions and an ivory full moon token - the engravers original holy symbol. Tena takes this. 

Our characters decide to take a long rest.

In addition to our long rest Eabrossi get the first decade of sun and moon cycles and Tema examines recovered treasure for possible tainted items. The two potions are not tainted but they are of questionable ingredients. They also had two clear ioun stones, one of the stones is tainted but both of them have the quality to remove the need to eat or sleep.

In the chamber many of these tablets hold spells that have been made with metamagic components. Some of the spells are from a different age of magic. None of the scrolls are tainted. Aevum can add 2 wizard spells from 5th to 1st level.

Aevum spends time to become the tablet golem’s new master.

Our characters spend time on items gathered thus far.

The fire clerics: +2 light crossbow (Kron), masterwork light crossbow, neckless of fireballs type 3 (Eabrossi), potion of delay poison (Tena), wand of shield of faith 17 charges (Eabrossi), 2 sets of +1 breastplate, 2 +1 heavy steel shield, masterwork heavy mace and +1 heavy mace (Kron). Amulet of natural armor +1 (Aevum), amulet of natural armor +2 (Kron), cloak of resistance +1, cloak of resistance +3 (Eabrossi). Headband of inspired wisdom +4 (Tena). 2,906 gp 

Raw Crafting materials worth 25 k gp. Eabrossi and Tena also find useable scrolls.

The fighter: +2 longsword (Kron), +1 half plate, +1 heavy steel shield, plus one 10k gp item of choice.

There are also wands of every monster summoning, nature’s ally and a couple of unique rods. One a conduit rod. The second rod is a piece of something greater possible a key to an artifact. Tena is ultimately unsure of what it is.

While Zaigan is on watch he sees what looks like a dire boar, several goblins, some of them riding centipedes. He also senses a number of plague, spirit and madness spirits go by.  

About hour 18 two giants walk by but fade away into time. The tablet golem is now able to stand on its own to be on guard. The golem does not speak but can read all languages, it can repair itself 40 points 3x day. and has many spell-like glyphs.

Eventually Aevum’s dreams are invaded where his dark spirit stays here in the form of the tablet golem to serve him and devote himself to Agamotto.

We end the session with the intention of exploring the next lower level.

Unclaimed non magical: masterwork light crossbow, masterwork heavy mace

Unclaimed magic: two sets of +1 breastplate, three +1 heavy steel shields, cloak of resistance +1, +1 half plate.  

05/11/2023 Virtuous Age Session 44: Hallow Spawn are A Nasty Bit of Business, Finding the Source of the Music, and A Trove of Wands

We start this week’s session with combat.

The Girtablilu wielded a spear and had leather armor. It was another guardian creature encountered along the way. In a room off the intersection was a couple of old-time spell casters who brought forth unusually large hell hounds. It occurs to Aevum we are reliving some kind of past of our opponents, an event that went wrong.

When we turn our attention to the conjuration room our characters see the chamber is under a time flux because the various items throughout the room phase in and out as they fluctuate between slips in time. The spell casters are hard to focus on. Aevum enters the room to investigate further. 

Lost in the flow of Time

Aevum reaching through time

Aevum is able to pull them into our time and they appear as Hallow Spawn. Once they are killed the time flux ends for this chamber.  

Kron stays in the hall while the rest of the characters enter the conjuration room to investigate. There is a wand of every monster summoning, nature’s ally and a couple of unique rods. Obviously, these individuals were crafting wands when something occurred and hell hounds attacked. The time effect is still an unknown factor, but much like the Ways, when things are lost in time, they can be changed. Our characters scoop up the magical valuables- mostly wands and raw crafting materials.

 After about 10 minutes we follow the cacophony to the north and into a chamber where three robed individuals mime instruments to create the magical noise assault. Their robes were red, green and black. As we kill them, more hallow spawn appear. Kron avoids them like death. 

When we finish them off the music stops and where they were once standing are three instruments. A violin, a lute and a harp. Each are magical and bear a curse.  

A couple minutes later we continue north to the next long narrow chamber where are characters find several humanoids chanting focused on a single black robed figure leads the gathering. This group, it seems, has also been at this for centuries. The former priests of Agamotto were corrupted by Tiamat. 

                                                                                  

The Corrupted of Tiamat

One of them immediately reacts to us and directs the gathering at us. Aevum realizes this group is from before the age of dragons. These humans were allied with or under the protection of giants in the ancient past. Kron hangs back, and again when we defeat the robed spell casters and again more groups hallow spawn appear. Problematic as they were, they eventually fell to electrical attacks.

Our characters back track to the room where all the glyphs were upon the walls and surfaces. 

05/04/2023 Virtuous Age Session 43: Deeper into the Ziggurat, Evil Fire Clerics and The Thing At the End of the Hall

We begin this week’s session resting in a magical rope trick in the alcove where Tena and Aevum restored the altar of Agamotto. Despite this whenever anyone of us leaves the rope trick, for whatever reason, they continue to hear haunting melody deeper in the ziggurat.

Upon waking everyone remarks on the awesome rest they just experienced and for the first time in a who knows how long, no entity was looking upon us. 

For Aevum, his mind was able to calibrate and regain focus allowing him to realize that the giants  from this era measured time by the moon. This iconography seemed to be a focus for these giants. Upon waking Aevum also believes we are slipping back in time.

Tena awakes with a feeling of great accomplishment in not only restoring the alar but mentoring a fellow party member into the worship of Agamotto. Her piousness even had an affect on Kron Even before he was smiled upon by his god, Kron had started to pray regularly. In addition one of her pearls of power is increased by +1 level, and she has a free save before her next long rest- which she uses later. 

Eabrossi wakes having unlocked another song after dreaming about the Adele songbooks. Furthermore, he can now extend his bardic lingering performance by one more round.

Before our characters set out from the Rope Trick, Tena combines an ability from Eabrossi and casts healing token on various holy symbols in the group- this is the first time she has cast this spell. 

Our characters find a hidden passage behind the altar and decide to investigate. We head down the very narrow passage to a room with an archway to the north and an antechamber to the east. The haunting music also seems to originate from the eastern hall. Eabrossi successfully counters the persistent haunting melody.

In the corner Aveum finds a table with crude carvings in it, elsewhere is a wall featuring a half moon wall carving, under this are humanoid statues. On the north side within the archway is a stone double door.

In the adjacent antechamber is a table with a bronze platter that contains silver coins and small ivory tokens in the shape of a crescent moon of a gearworks design. There is also an engraved tablet and two bronze coat racks. The coins and the tablet are magical. Upon examination the tablet reveals a cursed scroll- which Tena avoids.

The ivory moon tokens seem to be some kind of keys, the silver coins our characters leave behind.

All of a sudden, we are attacked with strength damaging touch attacks from multiple greater unhallow shadows. Once we dispatched most of the shadows we were attacked by a flame strike.

Past the antechamber is a larger room lit by unseen flames where two clerics stand ready- their shapes wavering in the dancing flame light.

An area of silence is dropped on the spell casters while Zaigan and Kron reign death to the two clerics and their leader.

Tena detects magic on the fallen opponents and Eabrossi and Aevum help clean up. Each had one valuable diamond on them. We spend a minute and a half taking anything of value or radiates magic.

The fire clerics: +2 light crossbow, masterwork light crossbow, neckless of fireballs type 3, potion of delay poison, wand of shield of faith 17 charges, 2 sets of +1 breastplate, 2 +1 heavy steel shield, masterwork heavy mace and +1 heavy mace. Amulet of natural armor +1, amulet of natural armor +2 (Kron), cloak of resistance +1, cloak of resistance +3. Headband of inspired wisdom +4. 2,906 gp 

The fighter: +2 longsword, +1 halfplate, +1 heavy steel shield, plus one 10k gp item of choice.  

There are six clay statues about that are unbroken among the debris elsewhere in the room. Closer examination reveals one of the statues seems not as old as the others and all the statues look like primitive humanoid figures with facial animal features.

Eabrossi investigates of a small chamber that contains other doors leading to other areas. Zaigan laments splitting the group so our characters back-track to the archway at the end of the narrow stairs. When we get within 5’ a magic mouth appears and tries to warns us away. Eabrossi is able to figure out how to open the door to reveal the passage continues down to a new level.

After a short debate we decide to clear this level before we head down.

Next, our characters choose a locked door Kron easily opens to reveal a room that has writing on the walls and every surface. Stone tablets litter the room. 

Our characters avoid this intriguing room in favor of finding the source of the haunting song. We head down a passage to a door where those close enough can hear spell casting. Behind the adventurers, coming down the hall is this thing. 

04/27/2023 Virtuous Age Session 42: Ascending the Ziggurat, Kron is the Key, and Restoring the Altar of Agamotto

We begin this week’s session approaching the ziggurat rising out of the mists. Overhead the storm intensified. We cross through an emerald light- our characters discover it is a mythic dimensional lock (8^th level spell).  While we approach the top of the structure Aevum feels a sense of anxiety. He can sense there is a flux in the flow of time here. This place exists in a time flux. 

While here Kron enjoys his extreme Storm Giant form.

Aevum is reminded how his mother referred to Kron as the 'key'. Aevum is pretty sure the dragons had discovered 'the key’. Furthermore it stands to reason that Tiamat cannot perceive of this place, as it is also not on Earth nor does it enjoy the normal flow of time. The time storm also further complicates things. 

It was this convergence of three mythic factors that has broken the Ways.

Continuing up the ziggurat Tena and Eabrossi discover that the giants at one time venerated Agamotto. As we approach, it is highly windy and we begin to hear faint chanting. There is an odorous quality to the air. 

We get to an area where we discover several fallen figures. Everyone stays within 30’ of Kron. The humanoid bodies bear war paint and primitive weapons and appear to be wracked by disease or burned by fire.

Eabrossi scans the area for magic and finds a minor aura. At the summit the mists clear and smoky figures, seemingly bonded to the structure, escapes his bonds and floats into the time storm. As soon as this happens another smoky figure emerges from the cracks in the stone to replace the first. Aevum assumes this structure to be apart of the Old World.

The winds intensify, flying becomes difficult. Several of us attempt to get a reaction from the vaporous form. At the top our characters see a shrine in great disrepair. The mudbrick structure has been reduced. Strange light emanates from the area and strange sounds begins to echo about. These appear to be some kind of air elementals.

Tena boldly proclaims herself to these entities and announces she is here to unlock the secrets of the ziggurat. They attack us with various magical and supernatural abilities. New opponents appear each round. Tena continues up the stairs to find the storm has revealed a stair way passage down to a great door. 

When our characters get to the summit, we find a grimy chamber partially protected from the storm. When Tena enters the stairwell down, a huge guardian spider-form appears to complicate matters.

Kron eventually descends down the stairs and pushes open the door thereby vanquishing the guardian spider and elementals storm, plague and madness.

The stairs continue down to a dark room covered in a thick layer of dust that swirls when new air wafts as we enter.

At the end of a long chamber is a raised stair dais upon which is a giant altar to Agamotto. Here are names of binding elementals as well.

Eabrossi tarries a bit he believes the altar can be made hole again. There are pieces on the alter than can be used to make the whole the altar. Aevum spends ten minutes to cast a make whole spell.

To the left is an archway filled with chaotic colors. Some of us begin to hear strange conversation and at other times- music.

Kron unknowingly activates three golem temple guards and after a few tense moments Tena casts a bless and repeats the words on the door that brought us here. This deactivates the guards. 

Aevum is able to finish restoring the alter making it holy. 1- we can rope trick rest in this chamber 2- on the stone will be mended including all icons and suppress the glyph portal. He finds a pearl 120 gp and will be control the of portal.

We decide to rest in a rope trick and are able to level up to 9^th character level. WOOT!