Loose threads
More research into the past of this land is needed
What went wrong during the ritual?
Participants Luz Cielo, Nasdac, Toma, Zinthu Jadegazer
Locations Tomb of the Oracles, Desert of Rydess
Short summary:
Visited Khafre to learn the Saqqaran language. Fought some hieracosphinxes and participated in a ritual. The ritual went wrong leading to strange hallucinations. Saw a bizarre vision, presumably, of this region's past. Successfully learned the language and received some gifts from Khafre.
Full Report
Our journey begins, as most on this side of the Portal, at the Pug. After a brief of round of introductions, the party set to the task at hand: to visit the Sphinx, Khafre and learn the secrets of the ancient language, Saqqaran. The journey to the Pyramid, undertaken partly by foot and partly aboard on of the Guild's trusty vessels, was fairly uneventful. Eventually, we arrived at our destination where we were immediately stumped by a sealed gate, guarded by a sequence puzzle of sorts. I'll enclose a rendition of the puzzle here, but I'll leave the solution unanswered out of respect for our host.
While I was completely stumped by the series of symbols, only being able to offer my rudimentary translation skills, Luz Cielo, our wise monk ally and newest member of the Assembly of Black Lotus, quickly recognized the pattern from one of his master's tomes. With the puzzle solved, the four of us walked in to the ancient structure and were face to face with Khafre. I, and I believe my colleagues too, were overcome by his sheer majesty, with praise and reverence naturally flowing out of us the moment we laid eyes on his form. The Sphinx, pleased with our introduction, agreed to grant us our request in exchange for a good riddle. Master Zinthu, learned beyond several of my lifetimes, fashioned an intricate riddle that gave even the wise Khafre a bit of a hard time.
Thoroughly impressed, the Sphinx declared us sufficient to receive his gifts, but before we could receive them we had to do take care of a different matter. The Sphinx's distant cousins, the Hieracosphinxes, were quite jealous of him and would often attack him in droves, hoping to drive him away. With the task set up and a whole minute to prepare, Zinthu and I, with our trusted familiars, Urnu and Spook, recalled and researched all that there is to know about our adversaries.
When the flock finally arrived, eight strong, four of them went for their target directly, while the other half decided to set their sights on our party. Due to an error in positioning, I found myself caught up in between several sets of beaks and talons. Even as our sharpshooter, Nas Dac, fell one of the beasts, their repeated assault was too much for my fragile constitution. I remember being in serious pain before the world blacked out, only being brought back to consciousness by our Strix companion's healing hands.
Thanking my saviour, I stood up, healed myself and braced myself for another round of pain. While I was not the most suited for the task, it was more important to keep our strongest attacker safe and, fortunately, I had the blessing of another of my close friends to rely upon.
On the other side of the battlefield, Luz drew the beasts' ire and answered them with steel and fist. His fighting style was quite unique from what I had seen before, combining physical strength, weapon mastery as well as a type of spell casting that seemed to invoke the body as well as the mind. This gave Zinthu ample opportunity to conjure a field of spiked coral and a burst of all-enveloping flame, that seemed to consume Luz and our foes alike. The inferno swirls around reducing one of the lesser sphinxes to ash. Meanwhile, Luz exhibits effortless skill and co-ordination, emerging unscathed even when the flames seemed to have surely engulfed him.
The party soon made quick work of the remaining Hieracosphinxes, with no further difficulty. While the party works to set-up an emergency infirmary, the great Sphinx Khafre returns his battle nearly unscathed. The next hour is spent healing and re-focusing our energies, as our host quizzes us with a series of riddles. As a reward, for each riddle solved we learn of a new word in the Saqqaran tongue as well as a snippet into their culture. With our wounds healed and the Sphinx satisfied with our answers, Khafre offers each of us an imbibition called 'Scribing Serum', which would be the final step in our acquisition of knowledge.
The party drinks the potion as instructed and soon finds themselves in a vision of a distorted world. We find ourselves standing on a giant sheet of parchment with three symbols close to the edge, floating in a void. The pyramid's walls were gone and several symbols, known and unknown, floated around us. Three creatures of ink emerged from the parchment, each carrying one of the symbols on the parchment. I surmised these creatures to be the similar to the mummies often employed by various cultures to guard their tombs, however, these ones in particular were not animated by void energies and were more akin to constructs than undead. Still, their vulnerability to fire and Nas and Luz's sheer capacity to inflict damage made it too easy to take them down. However, we soon discovered that simply defeating them caused them to regenerate and that we had to destroy them on their respective symbols to truly succeed. A trivial matter, thanks to Luz and Zinthu's athletic prowess. Perhaps I should stop neglecting my own physical strength. Either way, victory was achieved, but the results weren't as predicted.
With the mummies defeated, we find ourselves back in the pyramid. Khafre stands motionless, staring blankly into space. He opens his mouth to speak only for it to unhinge completely. A voice, seemingly originating from him, spoke to us in all languages simultaneously. It wanted to see if we were worthy of receiving its lesson. Once more, the walls gave way to a dark void filled with swirling mists and undecipherable visions. Yet more mist flows out from Khafre's mouth, which soon coalesces into vague forms that harass the party. The party is immediately taken aback in a panic, but we steady ourselves for the task at hand. We soon figured out that we were still under the effects of the potion, although whether this effect was intended or some accident or foul play was involved could not be ascertained.
Luz drove off the figures harassing us, buying the rest of us time to find a way ahead. My knowledge of Astronomy and Nas Dac's practical skills helped us navigate the mists, while Zinthu was able to decipher the visions to a great extent. The visions stabilized and we found ourselves in a world in chaos. We walked through a forest with several creatures running about, dying, and living again. Eventually, we found ourselves before a pit of ooze with a myriad of insects swarming out of it and throing other creatures into the pit. Almost immediately after, a shower of lightning and hail stones besets the land. The pool of ooze is frozen over and the forest is burnt down, leaving nothing but a desert. As the world around us dies, the party finds itself trapped with no escape...
Only to be woken up by a splash of water from Khafre. All our wounds were gone, but each of us experienced headaches while we regained ourselves. The pain seemed to be in proportion to the wounds we sustained in our shared vision. I confirmed that this desert was indeed once a lush forest, indicating that the visions may have been a story of this land in the distant past. The knowledge of Saqqaran was now taking root in our minds, and I seemed to have imparted that mystical sensation in my Red Spellbook, too. Armed with our newfound knowledge, we had a look at the murals presumably depicting this land's history. Soon after, Khafre rewarded us with a few more gifts, and we recalled back to First Landing.
The Gate Puzzle:
π
ππ
βοΈ π
π βοΈ π π
πππβοΈβοΈπ
β π βοΈ βοΈ π π
πβπ π βοΈ βοΈ βοΈ π
πππββοΈπββοΈππ
Toma's notes on the murals:
1) The fleeing gods were named as followed:
Rain: Deuna, Thunder: Isyn, Light: Miraxis, Earth: Thorues
2) The people were refered to as dwarves.
3) Each of the spheres were named. It seems they each represent a certain application of magic. Perhaps an ancient system of classifying magic.
Opened Door: Ethershaping; Glowing Shield: Aegismancy; Opened Eye: Sightcraft; Star-covered Brain: Bewitchment; Various Elements: Elemental Channeling; Desert, Jungle and Mirror Images: Glamoursmithing; Line of Evolution: Alchemy of Forms; The larger split Orb: Soulweaving.
There were also a set of names at the bottom, that aren't necessarily attached to the robed figures: Risen Husk, Ivory Warden, Eclipsian, Phantasmal Echo, Corpse-Eater, Mummy, and Deathweaver.
4) The smaller creatures were called Deneg. The winged being is Upast (a with a dot on it) and the horned being is Kauket. The skeletons seems to represent all varieties of undead. It seems the names at the bottom of the third panel each refer a particular type of undead.
Possible interpretations:
Risen Husk: Zombie; Ivory Warden: ???; Eclipsian: ???; Phantasmal Echo: Ghost; Corpse-Eater: Ghoul; Mummy: Mummy; and Deathweaver: ???.
5) The creatures on the fifth panel were confirmed to be dragons.