(G596 21/06/2025 via Roll20 - JF(GM), KT, AP) YI45
[Fenrir and Reinward are searching for treasure in the Frumenti Forum, part of the sunken kingdom of Ammathar, under the area of the Shining Sea known as the Snare.]
DAY 695(27th Hammer)(January) cont ...
S'ruurr Moonlightule, their Tren Ranger guide could not tell them much about the place they had arrived at, only that the stories told about it suggested it was full of treasure. This was because of the terrifying beasts and magical horrors that dwelled within.
It appeared to be the catacombs and cellars of a temple complex. They pushed their way through flooded chambers and walls of kelp until they came to an entrance chamber that contained a large glowing orb.
It was no more than a light source though so they listened at the doors either side of it. Behind the door on the left they heard a magical hum.
Behind the door, on the floor, was a glowing rune. Fenrir threw a stone at it, then floated over it. He felt a rather unpleasant itchy sensation in his nether regions. He went to a corner and privately checked himself out. His bits had gone all red and spotty.
While Fenrir was doing that, Reinward decided to blink through the wall to avoid the trap. Unluckily though he did not and he was cursed with the same affliction.
With nothing else for it, they carried on, and down the corridor they came to a vast, quiet chamber. The water on the floor here was unusually clear — unnaturally so.
At the center stood a large stone altar, glowing faintly with white light that seems to repel the water around it, leaving a dry circle in a 10-ft radius. The light pulsed with a slow heartbeat rhythm.
In three corners, tall bronze lampstands rose from the floor. Each had a candle with an unlit wick — untouched by time. In the fourth corner was a collapsed cave-in, where rubble and fallen coral blocked what might have once been a door or tunnel.
There was an inscription on the altar that Fenrir could only read with magic:
Three lights for the lost. Blood kindles flame.
False flame invites the silent watcher.
Only the worthy may light without death.
They talked about what it all meant for a while, then Reinward cut his hand and dried blood on the altar, then on the first candle. He felt magically weakened in some way, but the candle sprang into life.
They talked some more and Reinward tried to convince Fenrir to donate some of his blood, but he wasn't having it. They discussed bring in Veddic, but it was a long way back when you were in an anti-teleport zone.
In the end they abandoned the whole enterprise and moved on down the corridors to the next room.
The next chamber they came to was a kitchen, most of it in ruins but some magic items remained:
A Knife of Unerring Slice
A Salt Shaker of Banishment
Crate of Summoning Labels
Here also, some of the ancient defences of this temple were activated by their presence, angry flailing banners, known as 'Thin Ribbons' attacked them. These ones were easily fended off, but they were yet to meet more powerful versions.
In the next room they were beset by more banners - three Attack Ribbons and three more Thin Ribbons. They lashed with razor sharp edges, but were once more easily defeated.
This was a dormitory room and they spend a good hour looting it, going from chest to chest and cupboard to cupboard. Among other things they found:
A Blanket of Restful Slumber
A Chest of Daily Vestments
A Mat of the Penitent Soul
On they went and the next room the came to contained a large well. Something that had once been the temples main water supply. Here they found:
A Bucket of Elemental Sampling
So keen they were in finding treasure that Fenrir turned back into a Saughan and dove into the well. He found:
A broken sliver of moon-glass, glowing with cold white light
The next room they came to was 'the Orb Chamber.' It can be described thus:
''
A circular stone chamber, 60 feet across. The walls are etched with faded celestial and infernal script, none of it complete.
The ceiling is domed and high — easily 40 feet up — and entirely smooth, like obsidian
glass.
In the center of the chamber floats a massive purple orb, roughly man-sized, suspended five feet off the ground. The orb pulses faintly, a heartbeat rhythm of light and shadow within it, as if something inside were dreaming — or watching.
Around the orb, spaced evenly in a ring, are eight glowing runes inscribed into the stone floor. Each one is unique, written in twisting magical glyphs that shift when not directly observed. Just beyond each rune is a black candle, burning with a violet flame and producing no smoke or heat — yet giving off a faint humming sound that presses into the skull.
''
A distinctly sinister looking object! Fenrir - being a big fan of sinister objects took a closer look, but he had no idea what he was looking at.
He could make out some runes on the plinth below the Orb, which when translated read:
''
To wake the Sealed One.
Silence the mouths.
Snuff the breath.
Then gaze into the Eye.
''
Other runes repeated the instructions:
''
Each rune is a mouth.
Each candle is a breath.
Silence the mouths,
then the breath,
then you may touch the eye.
''
Neither of them had any idea what any of it meant, what the orb was or - most importantly - whether there any loot to be had?
Using Fenrir's Speaking Stones the spent a good hour or so talking to Veddic and Sparkledingle. Their advice was - if they wanted to safely access the Orb they would need to snuff the magic candles and nullify the runes using one of the following methods:
Arcane Disruption
Physical Defilement
Overload With Magic
Ritual Unbinding
If I had been asked, I would have told them to leave it well alone. This was some sort of device that was binding a powerful demon or a minor deity.
Fenrir cut his hand and let some of his blood drop onto the first candle. He shuddered as the evil magic shot up through his body and weakened him. I tend to be more cautious than Fenrir, but he was a Warlock after all - and messing with powers that he didn't understand was very much his 'Raison d'être'.
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