GM Notes - Morgansfort Session 3
Here continues the adventure of the Old Island Fortress where our party has just escaped a chamber of gray ooze.
Adventure Recap/Synopsis:
The party finds itself on the other side of a hidden door
safely cut off from the ooze in the previous dungeon chamber. The passage runs
north ahead of them at least 60 feet trailing off into darkness, but also
splits off into a side passage to the east, ten feet ahead of them. Pater
scouts the corridor straight ahead. Just beyond the reach of the torch light of
the group he sees a small child shaking up ahead speaking in a language he
can’t understand. The child is motioning for Pater to stay away and to not come
near him. Pater reports back to the group. Mel attempt to talk to the strange
child next, but after getting closer the child begins convulsing and blood
begins to stream out of its orifices dissolving into a pulpy mess that
evaporates into the air. No trace is left of the apparition.
Another child’s voice is heard asking for help from the
side passage to the east, this time the language is in the common tongue. After some
discussion the group heads down the side passage to the east. This corridor
opens up after 30 feet into a dark 20’ x 20’ room with a corridor open to the
south. A small figure is curled up in the fetal position weeping on a
wedge-shaped platform next to a large chest in the northeast corner. Several nooses
hang from the high ceilings above. The party engage the “child” who suddenly
stops weeping and rises to reveal itself to be a 7’ tall, slender being. Its
head is like an elongated sheep’s skull with a spiky mane of hair on top. Its
flesh is a translucent syrup color with its black bones and liquid organs seen
underneath. It speaks a wry welcome.
The party attacks, but blows that should cause damage
seem to have no effect. The creature says, “Let’s play a game, shall we?” It
proposes a deal. It explains that the way ahead as well as the way back all end
in dead ends. “There are nothing but dead ends down here.” It proposes a game. It will ask the party
three riddles. If they get one right, it will show them the way out. If they
fail to guess one answer correctly, it will eat them. With little recourse, they submit.
Riddle 1:
I have a bad reputation,
Yet I have freed slaves,
Helped battered wives escape,
Sometimes I admit
I’ll get a killer out of jail,
But I have been known
To help the mad and sick.
Kings too,
More than a few, I have released from jams.
I will never discriminate
And the darker things seem
The closer I will be.
(Taken from
Fire On The Velvet Horizon, by Patrick Stuart and Scrap Princess.)
The party guesses death. It’s a near miss. The creature
informs them the answer is “suicide” and counts one for his column.
Riddle 2:
I will wait
For those who left me here
Where the path divides
Between heaven and earth.
I went up, but
I won’t come down again.
The crow knows me.
(Taken from
Fire On The Velvet Horizon, by Patrick Stuart and Scrap Princess.)
The party guesses a hanged man, the correct answer. The
creature seems delighted and promises to show them the way out, but asks if
they will indulge him in one more riddle since he rarely gets to talk to
people.
Riddle 3:
My makers hate me
Though
I am a neat small size
And take less work to make.
They give me what they loved,
I keep it safe.
They visit all the time,
But hate coming.
I make them cry.
(Taken from
Fire On The Velvet Horizon, by Patrick Stuart and Scrap Princess.)
Again, the party guesses correctly, “a child’s grave.”
The creature signals for the party to follow it down the south passage. After
60’ the passage ends in an old stone wall. The beast entreats them to walk
through the wall which when pushed reveals itself a cloth tapestry painted
convincingly as a wall. The party walk through and the beast leaves them to
return to its lair.
They find themselves in a 30’ x 30’ room with doors to
the east, south, and west. The eastern door has a rune etched into it that looks like a bass clef. With
some effort the door opens into a brief antechamber with a second door that is
open and unlocked. The room inside is 20’ x 20’, its walls covered in raving
gibberish and nonsensical graffiti written in coal. The room is a wreck with
the contents of empty bookshelves scattered around the room. Various glass
vials are smashed and a slight smell of sulfur hangs in the air. Two tables
covered in rot, papers, and debris stand in the middle of the room, a brazier
is in the southeast corner, a desk in the southwest. A journal sits on the
desk. It is filled with more crazed ramblings with the exception of the last
passage:
“To those who may
read this in the days to come… I, Mordoch the Mage, am leaving this as a
warning to those who may find themselves within these walls of madness. I came
here six moon cycles ago to conduct my research in isolation. I could sense
great power here which was ripe for the tapping. Unfortunately, it has driven
me half-mad. In this momentary lucidity I implore all those who value their reason to leave this place before it corrupts your sanity. What I can tell you
is this: this island fortress is doubly haunted.
This may be one of
the earliest places of worship in all the Western Lands. Reading the scrolls in
the outer crypt I learned much that has been lost for centuries. Millennia ago,
an ancient culture worshiped the evil reptilian god of Shah Gzerohn. They sacrificed
many innocents here, a cult of child eaters raising them like crops attempting
to lure their evil god to this plane.
Something wiped
this culture out and this site lie dormant for many years. Then a couple of
hundred years later a barbarian clan settled here on the island to escape the
great plague that ravaged these lands at that time. Holed-up inside, the
spirits drove them mad. The stain of evil infected them and they began to
cannibalize their own children one winter when their stores ran out. In their
moments of sanity (like mine now), their guilt destroyed them and they burned
themselves alive as penance.
The barbarian
chieftain sleeps down the hall beyond the bronze doors. He is guarded by the
dead. Ghazold will need to wait until later for me. I will come back for him
once I am well again. If he gets free before then he will inevitably come after
me. I fear I made him too powerful. But I am rambling. It is time to go before
I regress into madness again.
Oh… and I think a
Cursling* has crept in here.”
The party spends the night in the room, spiking the door
shut, resting and healing. In the morning they venture through the western door
which leads to a short hallway ending in another door. This small passage reeks
of animal. The second door opens to a long chamber filled will dining tables
and refuse. The pungent smell of animal waste fills the air. Two huge
carnivorous apes attack from the shadows. The party dispatches them. Renic
finds shackles against the northern wall imprinted with the same rune that
marked Mordoch’s door. He makes the intuitive connection between the apes and
the creation of Ghazold. The room is littered with the bones of small
humanoids, but nothing of value.
The chamber exits west into a passage which turns
northward. Pater scouts ahead and is attacked by an enormous centipedal
creature coming out from an adjacent passage to the west. The party dispatches
this creature as well and heads in the direction the long, worm-like beast came
from. The passage leads to a stairway leading up northwards.
Back on the first floor of the dungeon the party head
north again and reach a room. Pater listens at the door and can only hear
voices. The door is locked and Pater fails to open it. Others try to break it
down. The door suddenly swings open and two ugly goblins answer. They
appear scared and on edge. After a brief testy exchange they attack. One falls
and the other nearly dies before begging for its life. It says it will show
them the way out of the dungeon if they spare him. He explains that his party
of Goblins were attacked, overcome, and split up from a tribe of kobolds. The goblin, named Karznov, seems terrified mentioning the kobolds.
He takes them south, then east, around the trap door
outside the Stirges’ room and into Ghazold’s chamber where his chains hang by
themselves. As they leave exiting up the long stone corridor leading out into
the ancient temple, they hear a croaking laugh follow them.
The party lets the goblin go telling him not to return.
They return to Morgansfort, empty-handed in terms of treasure.
*(The riddle creature is the Curseling which was taken from
Fire On The Velvet Horizon, by Patrick Stuart and Scrap Princess. Buy it
here. It's pretty awesome.
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