Wilderlands: Session 32

 

This session was run on February 13, 2023.

Determined to find Uggmar, the party, now accompanied by Rasaz, headed back into the dungeon beneath the barrow mounds using the northeast entrance.

They decided that they were unlikely to find him on the first level and, rather than risk getting swarmed by skeletons again,they headed directly down the stairs they found on their last expedition.

After a hundred foot descent, they found themselves in a large cavern that contained what appeared to be an underground city. The architecture of the buildings they could see seemed to be from an earlier era, perhaps before man learned to work iron.

As they began searching the streets, they noticed a woman standing very still in a doorway. They approched her to find that she seemed to be frozen in time, surrounded by a strange red glow. Nothing they did seemed to affect her. She could not be moved, nor could her clothes or body be disturbed.

As they were examining the woman, Stranger thought he heard what sounded like a man leading a horse to the south. He peered into the darkness, but whatever was making the sound was beyond the glow from their torches.

The druid informed the others and they began to make their way south, checking the doors they encountered as they went. Inside the houses, they found men and women, often clad in togas, in a similar state as the woman frozen in the street.

As they reached a broad east-west road, they saw a man in a heavy cloak leading what appeared to be a six legged camel. They hailed him and he replied with a heavy accent asking if they wished to buy knives or plates. As they approached him, Gwythian explained that they were not interested in his flatware but were looking for their friend. He told them that he was just passing through and had not seen their friend but he knew of another way out through a well to the south.

Before they could ask for more clarification, Stranger, who had snuck up behind the man, lifted the tail of his camel-like creature and saw a small, demon-like face looking out at him from beneath the tail. The strange creature cried out and the skin of the camel peeled back to reveal two more of the creatures inside. The man threw back his cloak and the party could see that he was in fact three of the little demons standing on each others shoulders. The demons attacked.

With the help of Duycken's sleep spell, they were able to make quick work of the strange creatures and left one alive to question. Unfortunately, they learned that the one the took prisoner was not able to speak their language. The searched the bodies and discovered a scroll written in strange characters and a small ball with a ruby pressed into one side and a button on top.

They decided to take the funny little demon upstairs to see if the human-appearing demon in the summoning circle would react to it. When they entered the room with the summoning circle, the two demons began chattering back and forth in a rapid-fire language. The man-shaped demon seemed greatly updet at what the small one said and glared at the party. Vargr pointed the strange ball at the small demon and depressed the button. A ruby red beam of light hit it and it froze, surrounded by the same red glow they had seen below. They left the chamber and headed back to the underground city.

They continued to search the dark city, finding more people frozen in the houses they entered. In one house, they found a woman hiding. She initially tried to flee, but stopped when they called out to her in common.

She explained that her name was Tanya Win and that she worked for Armengart Torval and had come to the barrows with several companions to conduct a magical experiment. A few months ago, Armengart and some of his companions had summoned a demon named Torquatl in hopes of bargaining with him for power. They made a mistake and summoned six small demons which escaped their circle and disappeared into the dungeon. Armengart tasked Tanya and her friends to return to the dungeon and try again with the aid of a new book he found.

Once in the summoning chamber, her companion Rutger conducted the ritual but misjudged where he was supposed to stand. He was immolated by the circle and Tanya and her friends had to flee the skeletons and flying skates drawn by his screams.

They fled down the stairs and began looking for another way out through the city. Since then, they had been hunted by the strange little demons. Tanya said that she thought she was the last of her companions left alive. They decided to let her go and explained the route they had used to get in. They continued their exploration of the city.