Session Report 2016-01-02. By Roland Red Oak

Session – January 2, 2105

The group of Quasi, Borg, Roland, and newcomer Fayne decided to head to the Mount of the Red Door.

As we came down the stairs we were approached by the innkeeper and he told us that a man named Sephius was looking for us. He told the man we may or may not be in the inn. Roland paid the man for his discretion. We traveled to the tavern where he was located and found a skinny, well-dressed man at the back of the inn.

Sephius informed the group that he worked for the new mayor of Orlane and they wanted to reward the group for saving the town. We decided that we would wait until Milo and Draven could accompany the group.

Before we left town, Roland hired a shield bearer named Seamus. Quasi hired a shield bearer as well named Garbo. Garbo also was hired to carry all of Borg’s gear. Garbo seemed less than thrilled about it.

We entered the mount of the red door and proceeded to the second level unmolested. We dropped down to the 2nd level through the stairs we had previously used. We entered into a room that was once a library of some sort, it had been destroyed with the majority of the books destroyed. The group set up and Roland found a secret door that led to a small intact library that contained several books and scrolls written in ancient sullian. Roland decided to keep the books to read at a later time.

This route being an exciting find it ultimately is a dead end, we decided to continue down the hall in the opposite direction. We traveled down the empty hallway. Midway down the hall a door is located on the left of the hall and the hall appears to turn to the north.

We checked the door and hearing nothing, we decided to examine the room. We opened the door and found a medium sized room with an exit on the opposite wall. Inside were 4 of the humanoids we ran into on a previous excursion to the teams. Quasi started parlay with the group and they offered to take us to the Ruck-Ruck the king of hobgoblins. We decided to accompany two of the guards to meet Ruck-Ruck, the hobgoblin king. The guards asked if we had run into the zombie lord’s forces, stating that the two groups are “allied”.

We finally arrived at throne room where 3 hobgoblins and one very large mutated hobgoblin. A guard gets the king and when he returns with 7 hobgoblins, 1 very large hobgoblin, and 2 mutants. Quasi asked for permission to continue exploring the area, Ruck-Ruck offered to make an arrangement with the group. We were allowed to pass to the level below, claim anything we find, in return for a map of the lower level.

He states that an unknown amount of time ago he and his fellow guardians were created by the Sullian empire to protect the Mount of the Red Door from Tarbaxians (invaders). Stated that recently they came out of the stasis tubes and want to expand their reach into the lower levels. No other groups have made it this far. Since Ruck-Ruck and his fellow hobgoblins appeared to be peaceful we decided as a group to advance to the next level of the mount. Our guide took us the long way around the level, basically retracing our steps, to a staircase leading down. We passed several rooms full of damaged tubes, dials, etc. on our path to the stairs. Our guide gave us the hobgoblin word for friend as a password when we return from the lower levels. We explained to the guards we would continue to explore the level before going lower.

We returned to the hallway that we met the guards at and decided to continue exploring. Went down a side tunnel to the east and found an unlocked door, we entered the room and found a small room with an exit to the southeast. There is various furniture in the room in decent conditions for as old as it is. Inside the room are six armed black metallic skeletons. Quasi quickly and violently dispatched the lead two skeletons, metallic bones bouncing all across the floor. Borg took several heavy blows from the skeletons causing several severe wounds, while Fayne missed several times before finally blasting one to pieces. Roland lit one of the skeletons on fire and it melted into a puddle of goo. Quasi cleaned up the remaining skeletons with viscous cuts and slices.

After our victory we searched the room and found a small vial of liquid hidden under the broken plates, glass wear, and ceramic debris.

We entered the room that connected to the room we were in and found several chests and a tapestry. One of the chests was trapped. There was a secret door behind a large curtain. Fayne removed the trap from the chest and was able to unlock one of the two chests. We found 100 sp and 2 gp. The henchman took the second locked chest. We entered the small chamber and found the corpse of a male humanoid in clerical garb. Fayne took the corpse’s silver dagger. Lining the wall of the room are 10 large resin sealed barrels. Inside the barrels is 20 days worth of food, we split the food amongst the group.

Continued down the hall and found a door in a hallway with an overpowering stench. Borg and Quasi opened the door and we found a latrine, that is covered in a brownish/black mold. We decided that nothing could be valuable enough for us to search that room.

We continued down the hall and found a room with 24 wooden statues; 22 of them were carved into various forms of demons while the remaining two were dwarven in nature. As soon as we entered the room the two wooden dwarves came to life and charged the group. Borg started chuckling as he rushed in to do battle with the wooden statues. Borg chopped the wooden statue in front of him like he is chopping firewood and his target returned the favor with brutal chop to the ribs. After many successful attacks by Borg and Fayne, they finally dropped the creature ending its threat. The remaining statue was just about to land a viscous blow on Quasi when at the last second he parried the blow. Garbo seeing an opening charged into the room, swung widely at the statue, and missed so bad that he spun around in a circle. Borg finally dropped the remaining statue. After the battle we found nothing of value in the room except for toothpicks.

We continued up the hall and entered a small room with nothing but broken barrels.

After exiting the room full of broken barrels we continued north up the hall coming to another room with a door. Inside the room we found nothing but dust and rough cloth.

We continued up the hall and found a circlular room with a 10 foot tall human statue in plate male and armed with a mace, the statue was made of bronze but was missing his head. We decided there is nothing we could do about the statue so we continued to the north after a short distance we approached a door that led west and decided to try it.

We entered a room with a massive crevis that was about 6 feet wide filled with a roiling pinkish/purple mist. On the other side were two marble statues of robed humans carrying staves with snake heads with a door in the middle. Quasi tossed a small rock into the mist and we heard it the bottom in what sounds to be water/liquid. We used Quasi’s ladder to cross the chasm, we examined the statues and found they are both covered in a thick layer of dust and on one of them is the words “MC was here” written in common. Quasi decided to leave his mark as well and wrote “QC was here” on the other statue.

After finding nothing of interest we tried the door and headed down the hall, which emptied into a large oval room. The room is some form of a temple with mosaics of battle scenes of humans battling demons. At the southern end is two statues (one male and female, armored with shields) made of bronze. There is an altar made of alabaster with gems and gold embedded in it. Quasi and Borg immediately feel ashamed and like they shouldn’t be in the room. So Roland and Fayne decided to search the room while being as polite and respectful as possible. We found nothing and decided to leave the room.

We crossed the chasm again and headed up to a room further north on the east wall. We entered a large room filled with broken furniture and human bones. On the east wall was an ancient tapestry in good repair depicting the gods of the sullian great church. Of note is the fact that none of the god’s heads have been defaced as the previous statues we encountered had been. We decided to come back for the tapestry when we leave the mount of the red door.

We left the room and found the hallway ran east/west with two doors on the north wall. We entered the first door and found a large room with a pile of treasure (coins) near frescos that had been severely burned/damaged. There was a hall to west that was completely dark/pitch black. The black appears to be magical as our light sources did not penetrate the dark. We decided to examine the room just down the hall hoping that there was connection to the treasure room.

We entered into the room next door and found broken bed frames and other various debris. We found nothing of value. There was a door to the north.

We tried the door and found a medium sized room that had an archway also filled with darkness. We expected it connected to the treasure room. Inside the room we saw a flaming creature of some sort. The group charged into the room and attacked. During the battle the beast blasted Borg and Roland with flame, dropping Roland in a heap of smoking blisters. Brog responded with a viscous chop with his axe, gutting the flaming dog and killing it. With the creature dead, Seamus ran into the room and gave Roland the remaining good berry. Slowly bringing him back to his feet.

The group decided to rest in the room to allow Roland to recover from his horrible burns. About two hours into the rest, when three zombies opened the door and attacked the group. Borg successfully blocked a viscous attack on Seamus, preventing damage. After pummeling the first zombie mercilessly, Seamus dropped him with a stab through the head (he yanks the blade out of the skull, twirls it in a circle, and squares off against the last zombie). Quasi dropped the second zombie with an arrow to the eye. The group ganged up on the remaining zombie, with Quasi delivering the killing blow.

After the battle we were still exhausted and decided to finish our rest. Once we rested up, the group returned to the room with the loot and took our shares of 1,000 sp, 10 gp, potion (?), and 5 gems of various value. The group decided to return to Karlsburg and recover from the travel.

When we returned to Karlsburg, we decided to hold onto the tapestry for now. Roland went to work on deciphering the books we found.