Dorvogel's Dungeon

Summary

Adventure: Dorvogel's Dungeon
GM: Daryl

GM’s note: The action took place on the Dragon Isles of Alusia.
Dorvogel’s Dugeon was never reached, but the party did rescue a Prince!!, after the King was brutally murdered

Season: Spring 795 WK

Party

Ed. Best guesses - no party list in scribe notes.

Tate (?)
Kazak
Brigetta McLeod
Shirel (?)
Sir Wojer
Christopher (?)
Britomas (Scribe)

Time on adventure: 1/1/95 to 13/1/95 AP
Employer: Duke of Carzala
Mission: Are commissioned to go to a newly discovered land and investigate prospects.
Original Scribe Notes: Media:Snsp9501.zip

Scribe Notes

Day 1 31/12

Meet with representative of the Duke and guild security.

Are commissioned to go to a newly discovered land, to investigate prospects, and to try out a new form of recreation (dungeon bashing). Offered 200 sp (price of admission) + 500 sp for our trouble and any salvage we can obtain.

New Years Eve everyone parties.

Day 2 1/1

Only Tate does not show on time (find him in a well and recover him only a little worse for wear). As we prepare to leave a guy in a funny hat comes over and informs us that we've been the lucky recipients of this months random astrology reading. We are informed that his masters devining arts have been cast to apprehend the course of our destinies etc etc and that some time we may come across a couple of Dwarfs behaving strangely we look at him, but he appears to be human, so we heave a collective shrug and head off.

The Portal room is, well a room, a room with a single door a lot of masonry an unnecessary amount of cold Iron quiet a few locks and almost as many well dress people waiting to greet anyone who just happens to step through it (with glaives in all likely hood although they may decide to practice their rapier skills a bit). They don't seem too concerned about people entering so we hop it through before we manage to get ourselves into any trouble. Its one of those New fangled portal systems where you have to change portals half way there (that is if you can consider halfway there, to be a place somewhere a hang of a lot further from the destination than the start and probably in the wrong planar direction). But it works and after a bit of push and shove we end up in a very similar room to the one we left but slightly different (not that there is all that much different you can do with plain featureless mass of cold iron and a big well secured iron door.)

Outside things are also similar the greeting committee greets us points to the enormous 16 story edifice (hmm ok they're were a few cosmetic differences in the landscape). Since this pointing was done with a glaive we take the hint and head for the towering structure.

Well we’re here and the guards seem to be human and are dressed in a reasonably standard way they even speak common and look like us. Must check with my philosopher friends about the chance of mutual development of corresponding languages customs and racial stock in two important places. Given my brief traversal through the duchies on the way to Seagate and having seen Destiny (once) I'd say from a totally unqualified view point that they where not good. That probably means magic and to get away with it on this scale I'd say a lot of it.

I manage to finally DA a blade of grass and its bright pink aura is a clear indication of its Alusian origins.

The Towers are run headed by the fire Mage Thirlighten (he’s the one who stepped through the portal in the Dukes palace, thus discovering this place for us), and we are generally made welcome by him and his Castilian. We have dinner that night in the castle main dinning room which looks like your typical dinning room at meal time (that is if you happen to be a higher noble and have been doing well recently). Extremely well provided for we notice that most of the inhabitants are of human stock with the occasional Hobbit, Dwarf, or Elf clustering together in little groups. The Dwarves inform Kazak that a new Dwarven settlement has been started on one of the other Islands lead by a Dwarf of seeming resemblance to the one in our prediction. The Dwarf is called Gammy and the settlement is called Gammton.

Day 3 2/1

We decide to spend the day at the castle acclimatising ourselves to summer and generally scope out where its all at round here. I spend most of the day idly browsing the library looking out for any topical information on the area. Manage to find quite a bit on magic but cant follow most of it, it seems fairly similar to the stuff back home if the titles are anything to go by. Also find a book on the history of the tower it seems to be about 700 years old and of Elven construction, lots of stories about it but nothing of any real worth.

Day 4 3/1

The next day we travel into Nilreb the capital city which is situated about a mile from the towers of Thirlighten. It is a city of about the size of Seagate with a typical fortified construction with the town being built up around a central castle/palace building which covers the summit of a small hill. The city itself is surrounded by what appears to be a well constructed wall and the gate we enter through is well guarded with checks being made on all those that enter the city. We encounter little hindrance on our way in as the guards seem impressed by the crest on the carriage (which is of a fireburst). When we get there we find a quiet inn called Yeslith’s Inn in which to lodge ourselves while we circulate through the city looking for information on Dravogan’s Dungeon. That night we visit a moderately boisterous inn called the broken Glaive that seems to be the local adventures hangout in the hope of gathering some more information. Although we hear lots of stories very little real information is to be had.

Day 5 4/1

Having found that the dungeon is down by the cost near the town of R'tweir we decide that the easiest way to get there is via barge along the cannel. The cannel is a man made construction stretching across the island and linking the two largest cities together. We spend the day gathering stuff for the trip and generally sauntering around town soaking up the local atmosphere and the heat. Decide to spend the evening in slightly more boisterous tavern in the hope of hearing a bit more but most of the inhabitants seem to be otherwise occupied and we retire after the festivities calm down a little worse for wear but no more enlightened.

Day 6 5/1

The next morning we crawl out early to catch the barge to R'tweir. The barge is captained by a master Killim and run with the help of one other crew a small boy who runs about stowing cargo and looking after the horse. It is drawn along the cannel by horse rather than using a sail, this means seems a bit slower but much more reliable and given the confines of the waterway much more sensible.

The countryside through which we are passing seems mainly agricultural with the occasional patch of woodland or forest lands. The agriculture seems to be of a variety of types both livestock and grain seem to be in abundance and both look to be of a good quality.

I seem to develop a hearing deficiency while Brigatta is trying to play some pipes again we've been with her a week and she has yet to get a tune from them so we decide to let her practice later (when we're not around).

Day 7 6/1

Travel on by Barge, Brigatta begins teaching me the Silent tongue, I'm still suffering from the hearing loss, until about mid morning when the barge is hailed from the bank by some men with crossbows and we are asked to come with them back to Nilreb to help with some inquiries.

At Nilreb we find the City in some confusion and a militia has been raised. Are taken to the palace where we meet with an exceptional tall humanoid dressed in some high quality blue robes and wearing a dragon mask (we latter find out that this was, in fact the chancellor), beside him is a Scribe and a well dressed casual man (the Castilian :- Belvar).

We (well at least the rest of the party) are informed that the King has been assassinated and the city poisoned, and that all this happened just before we departed. In order to allay any suspicion we all agree to do whatever we can to try and expedite the apprehension of the true culprits.

As part of this we are taken to the room where the assassination took place and try to find out how using spells ritual etc We do manage to deduce that the King has been ritually killed in pentagram with circle and candles, and that the entire affair had some thing to do with a dragon God (that is a God dragons worship rather than a dragon that is worshipped).

We finally manage to convince the chancellor that there is not much chance that we where capable of doing this, or that we were likely to have been much use to whoever did. We are then allowed to continue on our way and are even provided with a personal escort. A captain and two privates (one of the Privates Jim DA's as a Namer). Spend the night at an inn.

Day 8 7/1

Travel by horse provide for us to Setven we are travelling free.

Day 9 8/1

Travel on by horse to Aveneg (finally get healed and can hear again). Also fix the Dwarf.

Day 10 9/1

Travel on to Sendor arriving late evening are accosted by frantic villagers (a hoard of skeletons is on the march).

Brigatta decides we should help. So we are led out to a farm house where they have installed themselves only to find that we have been surrounded by them. Lots of them but they are puny and are soon dealt to. We are informed by the villages (after Brigatta suggest we may be able to help eliminate the problem permanently if we could eliminate the source) that its a constant problem around here due to a necromantic Liche Severen and a major battle several centuries ago in the area provides for a fertile recruitment ground. Advise them to burn the battlefield. Or get it consecrated. We do not want to help hunt down a necromantic Liche (no ones heard of one before but its apparently undead and sorcerous and therefore bad news ).

Day 11 10/1

Travel on to R'tweir, The guards seem nervous scouting ahead, apparently this stretch is notorious for bandits (a bit suppressing so close to a major city and on the major route between the capital and the sea.

After lunch we come across signs of an ambush site there are lots of bodies of two main types the bad guys and the good guys the bad guys are all dressed in black cloaks with single coloured robes underneath and carry a card of a black square and a coloured triangle (they colour co-ordinate with there robes) we are informed that this marks them as members of the local assassins guild "Spectrum". The second type are the princes (now the Kings) personal guard. There appears to be no sign of the prince, and the battle seems to have been over for quite some time. We wait an hour while Brigatta tries to determine what happened using a ritual (Assassins brave deed will be well paid to kill ineffectual prince of senile king by ambush. White leader plans waits 2 days. Red leader is killed takes out second in command. Prince escapes but heads for a second trap).:- Well that helped a lot but by all accounts there is more trouble on the way for the prince.

DAs turn up one rank 1 assassin black on black on rank 6 assassin red on black, a dark mage and one high rank on throwing daggers. Private Jim confesses to being in fact Quartermain Jim and takes charge. Send Sherral up path to left where prince seems to have gone and rush towards R'tweir. When we arrive we notice that the Princes colours are not on the battlements and there are no guards in sight. When Sherral finally joins us having failed to locate the prince on the side path we get her fly around the castle and find out what is going on. The castle turns out is manned and no general alarm in effect (so the prince/king has probably not managed to return there and report the ambush). Jim goes to the castle, we go to the docks where the inns are and after much discussion decide to stay at the Broken Lance. Securing our doors well.

Day 12 11/1

In the morning we decide to spend the day waiting for reports on what is happening. Sir Wodger has suggested we lay a false trail by going to look for the Prince at the dungeon, (finally common sense prevails). Me and Christopher go to chat with the horses, well the others prepare for the dungeon, but are interrupted by the arrival of 4 guards asking us to the palace. We take a couple of horses and follow. Notice the mages tower is now smouldering, (oh no). No one in the city seems worried though. We are taken to the castle where we meet the chancellor once more he’s not pleased to see us. Story goes the Prince got here went to the mages tower for safety. The tower was then attacked last night by black clad men. It was retaken this morning by the guards (or at least mostly so). The Prince had not been found but a permanent locate on him still showed him in the tower. As they were busy going to war would we mind going and getting him.

The mages towers consist of 2 small towers and one large tower interconnected by closed walkways and surrounded by a large wall.

We go to the tower, entering though a side door and head for the mages quarters. Passing through the main tower, then kitchen. In the mages area found black cloaked figure in a dinning/serving room (after a short resistance overpower him (he was not dressed property for the spectrum guild). After a brief discussion we decide to take him out for proper questioning by the authorities.

After depositing him with the local constabulary (currently posted around the towers we explored the ground floor of the mages quarters (found one other survivor claimed to be a cleaner in yellow robes who we also escort out. After a quick rest for lunch we go downstairs, visit the head mages quarters (Thum Assil) and the Castellan’s (Thirnen). Finding nothing there or in the rest of the tower we take a second story walkway over to the second small tower. There we are suddenly attacked by several arrows from an unknown source.

I manage to cast "walking unseen" on Sherral and Brigatta then call for help. Kazak arrives and charges off down toward the foe just as the rest of the party arrives we hear a thud and a piercing scream.

It turns out Brigatta and Sherral ran into each other (sigh). As we make our way down the corridor, the party finds it deserted and having come to a dead end in which we find no secrete doors or the like we decide to create a hole in the floor that leads into the third tower. The party then went ahead to explore the tower. Kazak and Brigatta got caught up exploring a treasure room full of traps and talking doors. While the rest of the party descended further to find several of the foe. After discerning that they were invisible, and that at least 1 was a fire mage a short scuffle broke out, which resulted in singed hair and 2 dead foe. Hearing some general unrest below I headed down to investigate, only to be stopped half way down the rope by a cross bow and informed that I had better accompany it upstairs.

Up stairs we found more unfriendliness beating a Dwarf up, and Sherral being held captive I opted to join her and not the Dwarf.

The tiger headed fellow who seems to be in charge proceeds to rustle up 6 armed Dwarfs and 6 unarmed humans in black robes out of thin air (eep he's dangerous), and heads off out of the room with them leaving us and the half dead Dwarf with just one guard.

The guard promptly collapses?, leaving us unguarded but still tied up. We struggle around for a bit until Sherral finally manages to get lose. In the mean while the Dwarf seems to recover enough from her beating to struggle towards a table in the middle of the room where she promptly grabs a weird blue statue from the table, where upon the statue promptly becomes a small dragon (eep she's dangerous too). It noses around a bit, while Sherral unties me. When I'm finally free I manage to DA the dragon as a long lived sentient true name Drazid, so its not a dragon but one of those military type things we heard of earlier. With the Drazid carrying the Dwarf we leave by a secret door and head through half a dozen more to reach the entrance to the towers.

The Dwarf is off loaded and we take the Drazid back to help the rest of the party. Meanwhile back in the tower Christopher starts shooting lightening bolts at the Dwarfs who have run into the rest of the party the Elf and him then start hacking the poor Dwarfs up, they don't last long.

Meanwhile the humans in black and the Tiger headed guy (we are informed by Thum Assil [the Dwarf who was getting beat up] that it is something called a Raklionide) head off to the treasure room run afoul of the traps find that what they were looking for wasn't there, curse a bit and retreat.

We come up the tower join the party, then proceed to the room we were held in where the Drazid smashes a stick (?). No sooner has it done this than the tower starts to collapse (ugg the self destruct switch). We decide to beat a hasty retreat to the nearest exit and escape amid a shower of flaming stones (eek). Upon retreating to the princes castle we are questioned about the prince whom we failed to find. We tell all and are informed that once the meteors stop we should probably go back and look for him again as Thum Assil assures them that he is probably still alive. I hope we get to keep the Drazid I think its rather nice and definatly useful.

Day 13 12/1

We are told that we are required to undergo a mind wipe after we locate the prince (apparently he’s stored somewhere sensitive, and oh could we please recover a friend of Thum Assil by the name of Kaynom while we're there. We eventually agree to this so the morning was a write off in terms of the scribe notes got a DA off on the prince after the mind wipe collage of illusions (no wonder we couldn't find him). The Drazid took the prince off to the castle and we decided to go back in and find this Kaynom character, and salvage what we could from the ruins, after a lot of mucking about we found him badly injured and his dog (very large) along with one cache of wine and 2 of books we sent him back to the castle with Sherral and then removed the valuables back to the safety of the Inn.

We are invited to dine at the Castle where they are celebrating the return of the king. All the important people are there and look healthy. We don't get much credit then again we didn't do much. We sleep at the Castle that night.

Day 14 13/1

Meet with the chancellor are paid off and told we're surplus to requirements. We are also Informed that the real culprits for the saga have been identified as the Dwarf Gammy (who we are given to understand was a friend of Thum Assil's), and that Gammton has been effectively destroyed in retribution. We leave back to the portal post haste. Loot seems to have been reapropriated by the authorities (sigh).

Days 15-18 13/1- 17

Travel to Nilreb by horse were stopped briefly by a guy claiming to be from the "seven" and are each given an amulet with a seven on it. So nothing much happens except we get better at riding.

When we arrive back at Therlighten's tower we're told we can stay there and do all relevant training at guild rates until the next guild meeting.