Daring Dozen Summary #2: City of the Gods
The Daring Dozen return in Episode Two!
Party Roster:
Tobull, 8th level fighter, 103 hp, played by Kyle MacLea
Jessica, 8th level fighter, 79 hp, played by Alex Hubbard
Laire, 8th level fighter, 73 hp, played by Kyle MacLea
Nara, 8th level cleric, 64 hp, played by Joel Green
Gram, scholar, 56 hp, played by Kyle MacLea
Rangorn, 6th level woodsman, 56 hp, played by Joel Green
Hildebrandt, 8th level mage, 39 hp, played by Sean Guarino/ Alan Turnquist
Nief, 10th level thief, 36 hp, played by Sean Guarino
Feagle, 7th level druid, 33 hp, played by Alex Hubbard
After the first panoramic view of the alien city of the Ancients, the Dozen decided to explore further. We headed down the causeway, and descended into the thick mists, reducing visibility to about 30 feet. The walkways (and for consistency, virtually everything else in the city) was built about of black stone, volcanic rock. It was noted that the water was warm and bubbly, and we could see weird shapes flying somewhere above us.
We reached the tower in the center of the lake. Thanks to Jessica’s engineering knowledge, it was decided that it was impossible to build a structure like this tower, since it was ridiculously thin for its height. About 50 feet across, it rose entirely out of the mist and high into the air.
There was some sort of window, or arrow slit, about 40 feet above us. We also noted a small hole, 1/8” thick, by 1” deep. We moved on.
Around the tower, we could travel toward the city, or toward the hillside. We decided to check out the area away from the city first. We reached an archway similar to the one that said Tan-El where we came out. Near it was a neatly stacked totem of skulls, which we believed to be dwarven (dark or not). As we approached, a huge column of black flame came out of the causeway and passed over Jessica and Tobull. Fortunately they were able to remain unlit, and merely took moderate damage and wounds. They reported that they had felt negative material energy pass over them.
It was noted that below us on the shores of the lake was a perfectly intact dock, with a perfectly intact single square sail ship.
Discouraged by the powerful trap, we turned back and headed toward the city. Suddenly, the walls loomed before us. They were 30 feet high, out of the same volcanic material. The door itself was a pair of huge single slabs of rock. On them were all sorts of scratch marks and weird runes, which were definitely not in any known language, as Nief determined.
The runes had been carved at some point, and then polished over at some later point.
Hildebrandt cast a Comprehend Languages, picking up that the big runes were “City of the Gods” with a slight connotation toward “City of Your Gods.” A small section of the smaller runes read something like “Umble servants, bow down before your masters.” It actually said “umble,” not humble.
The walls as far as we could see were magical.
We stopped being impressed at some point, and Jessica threw a grappling hook up for Nief to climb. He actually blew his first try (despite a nearly 200% chance of success) but made it up on the second try. Rangorn and Tobull climbed up, bows drawn. Nief went down other side, and discovered little drawer handles in the huge doors. They swung open easily, and for a moment everyone felt a flash of being in a weird tunnel, and then the feeling was gone. We clambered inside and shut the doors.
As the doors opened, a bell of some sort rang loudly two times, alerting the entire valley we were there. When it shut, the bell rang three times.
We moved through the bizarre city toward the nearest “building.” The city was twisted and bizarre—it was almost as if it was made out of melting wax. There were no right angles and everything was bent and snakelike.
We checked out one of the buildings, a huge six story structure with numerous rooms, each with a single solitary window. There was no furniture of any kind, or anything at all in the weird rooms. Tracking revealed nothing.
A second building revealed the same sort of thing. At the top of both buildings was another one of those 1/8” by 1” holes, indicating a door that presumably led to the roof. Curious, Nief climbed out onto the roof of the building. He discovered weird blue-green plants growing there, neatly potted in twisted planters.
He walked between the planters toward the door on the roof, leading into some sort of sub-building two stories tall, but couldn’t make anything out through the window.
We headed back down, and made a quick survey of another building, which was slightly shorter. In addition, it should be noted that in these buildings there was a central column glowing red that gave off heat, which we referred to as “central heating.”
The next building had a stairs down, and we discovered a basement, behind another door.
Suddenly, we heard booted footsteps.
The party walked back up the stairs and tensed. A group of skeletal dwarves walked by, wearing tattered armor, leading a HUGE spider, also dead looking, along the road. When they reached the building, they stopped and stared at us. Slowly they all pointed at us.
We decided to exit by a back entrance.
The fog was so heavy that we couldn’t see more than 15’ in either direction. We heard a strange noise coming from above, and we went the other way. Navigating a maze of buildings and thin alleys, we eventually came out on the road again.
Weird yellow spotlights were searching for us. We headed toward the searchlights in an attempt to reach the gate, and spotted another slow moving dwarven squad. The spider’s eyes were glowing yellow, and the beams were perhaps being controlled by the dwarves.
Realizing that we needed to get past them, Hildebrandt thew a fireball at them, and THEY SCATTERED. In a way completely unlike automatons or mindless undead.
We shrugged and charged toward the gate. It didn’t open at our push, so we intended to climb over. The noise was getting louder, and Jessica tossed the grappling hook up the door. Suddenly, the door opened, and we ran out. The noise was close, and we shut the door behind us.
We walked back to the tunnel entrance, and spotted three seagulls there. Feagle spoke with them, and they revealed that there were weird bat things that smelled bad near the dwarf area, and attacking blue plants in the city. They told us not to go to either place.
We headed back through the Tunnel to set up a relay system, and will continue the quest next time!
Joel/Rangorn