Session 25

MOURNING & RIDDLES

4-12 Sunstrong, 4433

Characters:

Robert the Swift, fighter 4
Gorr, ranger 5
Daqqa-Jin, barbarian 2

The group left Room IV: Restful Seas with Suba-Jin's body [see last session], bringing it back to Viridistan for a funeral. The Inn staff were sympathetic and stories were shared about his life and exploits. The group heard strange tales about some of the Inn's other rooms.

Meanwhile, Gorr entered Room I: The Forest of Dreams, to speak with the ancient talking tree. Over a year had passed in that twilight realm since they had first met and it had grown a branch that the ranger could use for a bow. He was warned against climbing too high because dangerous flying creatures sometimes roosted in the tree's upper boughs. He climbed about halfway up the great tree and harvested the branch without much trouble. 

Returning to Viridistan, the group sold off the gold jewelry they took from the mummies at such a great cost. Suba-Jin was cremated with much of his treasure and the party met with his cousin Daqqa-Jin at the funeral. This slave-catcher saw an opportunity to join the group since they were now a man short.

Robert spoke to the priests of Hextor about curing the mummy's curse [see last session]. It was going to be very expensive (6000 silver!), but the priests were willing to knock down the price to 4000 in exchange for an unspecified favour at a future time. Robert wasn't sure about that.

Puzzling at the Inn

The group returned to the Night Wolf Inn to explore the basements. They passed through a kitchen cellar with many passageways, explored the wine-cellar and were followed by some strange twinkling amber & rose-coloured lights like little will-o-wisps. They passed by a crude statue or golem of some kind and into an odd burial chamber called "The Hall of Slaves."

The twinkling lights followed them, and the group began to feel kinda drunk. Gorr looked around a bit and saw a heavy black iron door with a pentacle on it, while the others tried to interact with the wisps to no avail. After a short time they were getting very intoxicated! They returned to the tavern to sober up. The twinkling lights followed them to the cellar stairs, but not back up to the first floor.

After eating and trying to sober up a bit, they wandered over to the Inn's library to poke around. 

Gorr found an ancient book called "Kings of the Long-Fallen" which expounded the crackpot theory that the elves - primitive forest-dwellers that they are - had once ruled the world and possessed miraculous powers: buildings that could fly, great highways that crossed the world and sorcery beyond the ken of men. It included many macabre tales of the cruel and powerful elven sorceror-kings with names like Asulam Omdrekh or Shodredh Dachod.

Robert investigated the grandfather clock by the fireplace which had a bizarre 18-hour face, four hands, and some other odd symbology:

close-up on the hands and numbers

Puzzling out the riddle of the clock occupied much of their afternoon. They were able to get the hands to a zero or 'reset' position, but they couldn't produce any other effect beyond that. Wandering around the Inn's first floor provided many clues that seemed relevant to this puzzle: statues with odd names & numbers in the dining hall, carvings along the ceiling in the cloakroom and pillars with symbols and numbers out on the east tavern portico.

[DM - many notes were taken here, some are written up on the Discord page!]

While looking around the inn for clues, the group noticed a door in the cloakroom that wasn't there before. Opening it, Gorr was magically drawn through into a misty void! The group followed him and ended up in a cramped passageway beside a creepy funhouse mirror. Many portholes or 'spy windows' allowed them to look from here out into the Inn's many strange rooms [see map]. Trapdoors leading up and down allowed them to move through these back ways.

Robert tried smashing a pane of glass with his axe, and it not only proved to be impenetrable, but at that very moment he tripped on a loose board and managed to jab himself on a sharp piece of wood. Coincidence?

When Robert touched the funhouse mirror (it had to happen) the distorted reflections of the party stepped out to attack! It was touch and go, but Daqqa-Jin's net turned the tide and the party destroyed their evil opposites who dissolved into mist.

The gang walked through these spy passages, observing many of the rooms they'd never been to:

- A room tastefully decorated in mahogany and brass. A reception desk with a 'wait here' sign and small bell [XVII - The Stygian Library]

- An impossibly huge underground cavern [XVI - The Caverns of Repose]

- A black void strung with enormous glittering spiderwebs [II - Web of Drowsiness] 

- A large boat lazily drifting down a river between two high cliffs [IX - Stream of Consciousness]

- An icy mountain landscape of clouds & snow [VIII - Cerebral Cliffs]

- The inside of a large bell-shaped temple carved with exotic imagery [not sure what room this might be]

- A glassy landscape in a starry void, lit up by a blue shooting star [III - The Comet's Tail]

After some investigation, Gorr found a concealed one-way passage [EDIT - this passage actually allows travel in both directions. Oops. -DM] into Room I - The Forest of Dreams. From inside the room it was totally imperceptible, and the peephole they had been looking through seemed to be just a knot in a nearby tree.

Back on familiar territory, the group pondered their next move. Was there more to that clock? Should they venture into another room or brave the basements again after sobering up?

Monsters Defeated:

mirror-versions of Gorr, Robert & Daqqa-Jin (607 xp)

Treasure Sold: 

mummies' loot: gold goblet, circlet, bracelet & ruby earring

Xénos has reached level 2! Good work!

Happy Birthday to Eric Withakay, who is now 24!