Lost Galmagia Write Up Session 1.2

 Aethra Chatoyant [Magic-User 1 – apprentice of a famous master / elf-sister]; Ayleton the Cat [Familiar 1 – animal familiar / ship cat of unknown port]; Oland [Rogue 1 – Spy / personal keyword not yet defined]; Dungar [Dwarf 1 – Dwarf-raised / Treasure Hunter]; Brömm [Dwarf 1 – Dwarf-raised / Bonded Clockwork Guilds-dwarf]; Azric [Rogue 1 – Assassin / leatherworker]; Richard Stockworth [Hairfoot Halfling 1 – Satyr / Tavernkeeper & Cook]

Over the next week the nascent adventuring party collects the last of what they think they will need beyond their personal kits. Mechanically I told the players they all had 50 SP in spending money and 100 GP of gear, and anything not converted to gear was lost. This made sure they actually were properly outfitted. Since we are using the D&D Expert Set equipment list pretty much unchanged aside from some tweaks for armor and weapons the players got to revel in a crowbar being 10 GP more than a 2 handed sword and other such lovely bits. In the end though they are outfitted with a mule (named “Donk”) and saddlebags, sufficient standard rations for everyone for a week and a week of iron rations to buy the group and extra day should things go wrong, 150 feet of hemp rope and 15’ of silk rope, a grappling hook, some spikes and a hammer, bunches of garlic, hawthorn, and wolfsbane, and a last minute donation to the local matriarch for a vial of holy water, just in case.

Richard informs his co-owner of the Axe and Thistle that he’s leaving the day before, making him the only person to know of their destination. Starting at dawn as the snakes said the party exited through the Gate Ward, taking a second to reflect on how small this town is and how pathetic for it to claim three-wards when the eight-ward city it overlooks was so grand in comparison. To avoid anyone knowing their plans they follow the west road first before cutting back overland to connect with the eastward switchbacks that lead down into the North Vale. The road is strong macadam, with the undergrowth only breaking through where thrown stones shattered it. Aethra comments on their wisdom in not purchasing the wagon for this trip; now once she locates a Reductions spell this road can be cleared of stones. Always looking to the future, our Ms. Aethra.

From one of the higher switchbacks the party is able to see a group of something sweep around the city. “Will we intersect it?” Azric asks. “No,” Aethra informs her, “But had we left an hour later it would have caught us in the open.” With some blessings from the humans for the wisdom of their gods (the dwarves, apostates all, refrain from comment in the common tongue) they continue. With 3 hours of daylight remaining they approach the city and decide to circle the ruins and enter through the main gate, as that places them closest to the Mages Ward, where they set up camp in one of the ruined towers, where the 15’-30’ rune-strengthened slabs of stone lay across one another to create lean-tos used by pilgrims and other nomads. (Richard recounts the story of the 4 score of pilgrims who left for the most distant Lost Umbriel; 7 returned and 2 of those were insane, but they did comment on using these for shelter.)

A quick survey of the area reveals no obvious dangers (Ayleton does detect a musky smell of things passing through here) but the Amber makes seeing tracks difficult. Rope is hung around the perimeter is set, watches are planned, and Azric uses her (ludicrously expensive) grappling hook to reach the top of the lean to. From there she can see that the garden to the ancestors ward has full recovered, but larger Cathedral Garden is non-existent. She also ascertains the lights moving at twilight in the Trade Ward, dozens of clusters of 3 lights a piece. None appear to be approaching and the night, while nervous, is quiet.

Early the next morning the group splits into 3 teams to learn a few things: Brömm and Azric confirm no rooms remain in the collapsed towers, but there are spaces where birds roost and evidence that anything of value has already been taken from the wreckage; Aethra plies her magical training on the Amber to confirm it can be breached by magic using spells that are too complex for her(and she is now determined to find); Richard and Oland made their way into the Sword Ward to reconnoiter, and by luck find the remnants of the watch tower containing an open stairwell that leads to a gated entrance. The pair wisely decide to retreat and share the information.

The party decides to skirt down to the Ancestors Garden to use its cover to view the Trade Ward (and collect firewood). Upon seeing nothing threatening they head into the trade ward to find the Customs House Ward. In so doing they locate no foorprints, acrid as well as musky scents, and the grand stairs down into the Customs House, inviting them below….

Lost Galmagia, Week 9: Dead Ends and The Custom’s House Vaults

This section holds two generic dead ends for the various crossroads of the custom’s house road (one type of which is home to the crab spiders that infest the wandering monster charts) and the main attraction: the vault under the customs house, the difficulty of entry, and the treasures held therein.

2.27: the Crab Spider Lairs: There are three such monstrosities on the level (so far) and if the PCs enter here one of the rocks overhead will be a concealed crab spider, assuming all three have not already been killed. Each of these also holds one egg sack squirming with potential, and if the PCs don’t find each by end of spring the sacks will burst and we will need to revisit the layout of the 1^st level. (There’s a 2 in 6 chance for each sack that some other denizens of the level will have burned these out before they hatch.

2.28: Just a dead end: Yup, that’s a dead end all right.

3.1: Waiting Lounge: This tastefully appointed lounge is entered via the 1.8 elevator, which is currently on this level so the elevator is really a pit. The room does hold 20 bottles of 5 GP wine as treasure, but more importantly has 1d6+3 of the 12 Disquiet Zombies on this level, who will move to attack, but will attack lone opponents to subdue so they can use them to get through the vault doors to level 3. They know it’s possible, they don’t know how.

3.2: Client Identification: This room has a magical circle in it which clients needed to read off the identification plaque (“hello, my name is/I am an agent of ______ and I am accessing vault ________”) to light up the “Pass” light, the center of the three concealed green lights on above the door, for the steward to enter first with his amulet and unlock the second door once the first closes. If the left one lights, the person if lying or does not identify a proper the steward will invite them to enter first and lock them in.  If the person requests the lower vaults the steward invites them in and locks the door behind them, the secret door will open and allow them passage. The Vault doors will only open via Knock spells otherwise. There are half of the remaining 12 zombies in this room.

3.3: Stamp Removal: Since the items in this vault are still duty free, they are stamped with invisible runes on entry; the items will not pass beyond the boundaries of the customs house into the city (but can go into the canal) unless the runes are removed here There’s a wand here that will allow any magic user to place or remove the runes.

3.4: the Mirror Vaults: the half ovals on the map indicate mirrors (or mirrored doors) that confused interlopers. If you enter without someone wearing the Steward’s Sash one of the mirrors will release a Living Crystal Statue that looks exactly like one of the PCs and will try to kill that person first. There are 6 of these total but only one comes out per visit. The mirrors can only be broken with magic (though magic weapons will work).

3.5: Dual Locks: each vault door requires the steward and client keys been turned at the same time or each person has to save vs. Traps or take electrical damage of 1d6 points and the locks won’t turn. This makes opening 1 stage more complex if you’re trying to pick it, or two stages if you’re trying to pick both (need two people for that…)

Vault Contents

#	Treasure	#	Treasure
1-3	Empty	11-13	Empty
4	Papers and Documents	14	Papers and Documents
5	Five old masterpiece paintings held by Harald of the Usamigaras Clan, each worth 150 GP	15	Six large wool tapestries, two for each of the Galmagian lines, held by Wedna Wednasdottor. Each worth 100 GP
6	Elfcraft silk and velvet mantle with numerous moonstones made for the Last King. Held by Customs Master Jacob Erinkin val ued at 1,250	16	A black velvet mask with numerous citrines in it, precious to the city’s old masters (see lvl 4) inside a wizard locked ebony box. 100 GP
7	Papers and Documents	17	Four barrels of Storm Giant’s brandy, each worth 250 gp.
9-10	Empty	18-20	Empty

 

Lost Galmagia: Wandering Monsters

 For our wandering monsters we’re going with my newly developed Fibonacci Die:  a d20 where a 20 gives you one result, a 19 gives you another, then 17-18, then 14-16, then 9-13, then 1-8, so you have 1,1,2,3,5,8 in the classic Fibonacci sequence. This happens to work out on a d20 so that the first three results are a 1-in-6 chance, as is the next result, so you have a clear 1-in-6 or 2-in-6 chance of encounter roll that also tells you what monster you’re facing. Going through the monster charts I came up with this list of monsters for use in the dungeon (obviously subject to change).

Level 0	Level 1	Level 2	Level 3	Level 4	Level 5	Level 6
Goblins, gen.	Goblins, skill	Goblin, Bdygrd	Goblin, King	Ogre		Giant, Hill
Rats, Horde	Beetle, Fire	Ferret, giant	Hobgoblin	H-goblin, Bgd	H-Goblin King	Minotaur
Rats, Giant	Acolytes	Neanderthal L	Nean. High	White Ape	Nean. Witch	Nean. Lead
Sprites	Pixies	Spider, Crab	Unicorn	Rust Monsters	Nean. Faceless	Chimera
Stirges*	Spitting Cobra	Pit Viper	Living Statues	Giant Rattler	Cockatrice	Naga
Soul Echoes	Skeletons	Zombies	Ghouls/Pledged	Wight	Mummy	Specter

Wandering Monsters Level 1

Wandering Monsters are rolled for once every 2 turns, with rolls of 17-20 indicating the monster listed.

If the party spends longer than 3 turns in one place (room, patch of corridor, etc.) rolls of 14-16 also indicate a monster.

D20	Trade and Park	Acolyte	Ancestor & Noble	Sword	Moon
01-08	Nothing	Nothing	Nothing	Nothing	Nothing
09-13	Smell of goblin musk	Desiccated giant rat husks	Patches of white fur on ground	Smell of goblin musk	Evidence of human habitation
14	Goblins, generic	N/A	N/A	Goblins, generic	Soul Echo
15	Sprites or Pixies	N/A	N/A	Goblins, trained	Skeleton
16	Spider, Crab	Unicorn	N/A	Ferret, Giant	Unicorn
17	Rats, Horde	Rats, Horde	Rats, Horde	Goblins, generic	Acolytes
18	Goblins, Trained	Rats, Giant	Rats, Giant	Beetles, Fire	Spitting Cobra
19	Beetles, Fire	Spider, Crab	Neanderthal	Goblins, trained	Berserkers
20	Neanderthal	Neanderthal	White Ape	Ferret, Giant	Ogre

On the Origin of Monsters

There are 2 crab spiders on the level, one nested in a dead end in the Trade ward and one in a dead end of the Acolyte ward (both 2.28). Once these are killed, they won’t be seen again.

There’s but one Ogre – the cursed one from room 1.9 – so it is at half strength and once defeated won’t turn up again.

The sprites and pixies live in the Mage’s Ward, and can ‘blink’ 10, which lets them bypass the Amber Ward. They will generally only appear in the Trade and Park wards because they love joking with the goblins and fucking with the Neanderthals. The goblins tolerate this with bemused head shakes. The Neanderthals like collecting pixies and sprites as curse components.

The snakes in the Moon Ward don’t leave it. They’re touched with divinity from being in the cathedral vaults and know where they’re needed.

Lost Galmagia Game Write Up session 1.1

Aethra Chatoyant [Magic-User 1 – apprentice of a famous master / elf-sister]; Ayleton the Cat [Familiar 1 – animal familiar / ship cat of unknown port]; Oland [Rogue 1 – Spy / personal keyword not yet defined]; Dungar [Dwarf 1 – Dwarf-raised / Treasure Hunter]; Brömm [Dwarf 1 – Dwarf-raised / Bonded Clockwork Guilds-dwarf]; Azric [Rogue 1 – Assassin / leatherworker]; Richard Stockworth [Hairfoot Halfling 1 – Satyr / Tavernkeeper & Cook]

It’s the week before the first day of spring in Amethyst Spire – once the first of the human refugee camps in the flight from the Giant’s Shadow, now a three-ward town above the snowline that looks much like a wild west boomtown in wood and tarp construction. The PCs are making their final plans for an insane venture – crossing back into the Giants Shadow to recover treasures lost under Galmagia – that they are the first people to contemplate in the 25 years since the giants flattened it. The bulk of our party are people gathered by Aethra to aid her personal goal of recovering the magic of her master's master, Sregor Viridian. To this end she has employed the services of Oland and Dungar, who is looking to recover knowledge from the lost cities ostensibly to repay the dwarves for their charity to the humans.

Brömm is a bonded Guildsdwarf who had argued long and hard to the remaining members of his guild to mount an expedition to the lost cities to recover the clockwork secrets under there. Ultimately the guild financed just his going, and he latched onto Aethra’s group for strength in numbers. Azric just joined the group, her motivation and background are undisclosed. Richard has been hanging out with the adventurers as they made their plans after hours at the Axe & Thistle, feeding them with whatever scraps are left from the kitchen. At the 11^th hour he invited himself along.

The group shared what rumors they had managed to acquire: everyone knows that the city was built into 8 wards (Acolyte, Ancestors, Mages, Moon, Nobles, Park , Swords, and Trade) radiating out from the canal, and it has undercity trade roads. There is apparently some life there as on clear nights the denizens of the Axe & Thistle can see lights moving around the southernmost canal-side of the ruins. Aethra had consulted an Ophidomancer to learn that dawn of the first day of Spring was the most auspicious day to begin. Richard added helpfully that groups – some nomads who live under the Giants Dictate, but mostly clans of Orcs & Ogres or tribes of Centaurs – sweep across the North Vale in summer and fall; sometimes you can see them camp in the city. Spring seems safest to avoid such encounters.

Oland rolled out the maps of Galmagia’s surface level and the overlay of the Custom’s House roads. Many thanks are given to the resourceful rogue as the group contemplates pathways, assuming they can get to the road network and it is still intact. Brömm and Dungar relate that cities of Lost Tarmalania hold many mechanism and clockworks that were either never known to the dwarvish guilds (to their chagrin) or were lost when the Giant’s Shadow fell. Treasures of design and ingenuity abound under there. Aethra expands on that: as a magic-user she knows the cities of Lost Tarmalania used bound spirits of air and water to drive their great machines. Unlike standard runes, these can be corrupted over time, becoming angry and violent. Be wary of clockworks unless you know exactly what powers it.

Azric and Oland both know that those condemned of crimes in Amethyst Spire are exiled and marked with runes that prevent their leaving the Giant’s Shadow. It is assumed their lives are short, but these are rogues, and the survivors’ memories may be long. Neither chooses to disclose this to the group. Likewise, Azric does not share her own search for cures to curses, and how that has brought her knowledge of the nobles ward: The noble houses were in the far west of the city, and they had extensive under-levels full of family heirlooms, and The Galmagian noble family was… unstable from inbreeding and constantly laid curses laid on one another; neither they, nor their treasures, ever left the city.

The bulk of their rumor-gathering has been on the northwest corner’s Mage’s Ward. Its ground was turned to indestructible glass - the Amber - by Sregor Viridian and is covered with eroded debris that is not yet soil. The mage’s tall towers collapsed and leaned into each other, making helpful shelters for pilgrims and travelers.

Much to Aethra’s displeasure Richard is able to relate how he overheard another wizard, Annetha O’TheLastDays (aka ‘Apocalypse Ann’) discuss how she had heard that the Amber stretches down into the undercity and can only be breached by arcane magic. Maybe Ann was wrong. Or maybe the answer will present itself. But Aethra knows that Sregor’s workshop was there and holds spells and magic items likely unknown to any other wizard. And if no one else has breached the Amber then it should all be waiting for them….

Lost Galmagia Week 8: Under the Moon Ward

The surviving piece of architecture directly under the Moon Ward is the vault of the great cathedral. That has been taken over by Brother Blade and his cult, and they have already liberated some of the treasures of the cathedral – before they riled up a lot of disquiet dead that they now don’t dare go into the crypts to deal with. When it stood the cathedral appeared as a caduceus, and the lower passages that made up the serpents still exist, and have special properties. If the PCs ever excavate all of the entrances they can do an approximation of the Naeddre (the walk through the snakes) and earn a +1 to their Divine Favor stat (offer only open on the first days trips through). 

2.20 The final, or first, challenge:
This is the entry from M26, but once the block is cleared and the PCs can enter, they find circular stairs leading down to a round room with a 6” high lip at partially blocking the passage out. That well holds 5 Spitting Cobras which will only bite if attacked, but will spit at people entering. The pilgrims should be wearing blindfolds (or casting Snake Charm). These snakes reappear on each new moon, but you only get XP for outwitting them once. 

2.21 a & b: The Wet Wings
Both of these spaces were library/recordkeeping/artifact keeping for the cathedral. The artifacts have been stolen by the Brotherhood, and water damage from leaks above left the books as sludge. Other than the stairs down to the tombs these rooms hold but bitter disappointment.

2.22: The Abbess Sitting Room
This tastefully appointed space did not have its water wards fail and avoided the damage in the wings: the furniture, carpets, tapestries and inset hardwood paneling and floor are intact. Brother Blade lives here now, but he’s not present, the first time the PCs enter, as he is disposing of the inert naga he stripped from the true caduceus. The Abbess’ secret study can be found under the carpet under the hardwood, doubly concealed and secret. 

2.23: The Great Vault
This long hall is now home to unruly members of Brother Blade’s cult; there are always 12 present (1d12 acolytes, the remainder berserkers), while the rest are out Under the Giant’s Shadow or lower in the dungeon. The room is crossed repeatedly by raised mosaic trails that are part of the Naeddre – those walking them are invisible to the room, and cannot see the room – that the brotherhood ignores… but can never bring themselves to defile. Amongst their stuff is a sack with 1000 sp (the cash the acolytes have collected to purchase things from Turnip Hill, the settlement to the north and of Amethyst Spire where they have cultivated a reputation as harmless eccentrics), and a fist sized dodecahedron with runes on each surface which is the stone of controlling earth elementals Lily HazelsDottor from 1.15 is looking for. 

2.24: Entry to the Crypts:
This space once held the public entry to the crypts, but the Giant’s attack shattered the pillars holding up this section of the vaults, so there’s a 5’ lip around the outside of the room and an open space to below. The entire room reeks of ordure, because the cultists have been reliving themselves over the lip. Down below are 20 skeletons of the disquiet dead type who dead type who desperately want to get up here and kill the intruders; they can be seen scrambling through the rubble, and there’s a 1 in 10 chance each time the players are here that this is the time they figure out how to make a bridge of themselves from the highest shattered pillar to get up to this level. 

2.25: Snakes at the Midway:
This is halfway through the Naeddre, and therefore there are two snakes here identical to the ones in 2.20; there should be 5, but the Brotherhood killed 3, and has hidden another bag of 2000 sp. here. 

2.26: The Door of the Moon:
A concealed door in 2.23 leads to this maintenance room (full of cleaning supplies), but at its end is a secret door identifiable by a hemisphere of colored stone near the ceiling; if it is rotated to the current moon phase and depressed the door will open to the secret passage leading to 1.17b. The lock is repeated on the other side. The door closes and rock spins after 1 turn unless SERIOUSLY blocked.