1. Journals

AC25 - Climbing a mountain of flesh

April 21, 2023

During last Auburn Crown session, the party set out to find a hag which placed a curse on Ratyn's mother's memory of the horrors she saw in the old city. They queried a peasant for information, and after following dead crops, they found a wooden house in a foggy forest where the hag lived. The hag agreed to cancel the spell on the mother, as long as the party would bring her Ratyn's father's nose, which he had to sacrifice as payment. She gave Ratyn a big jar to collect the nose.

To formalise the contract, Aggma prepared a document declaring that Harris' balls were now known as "his nose." The party then visited the father, and Ratyn confronted him, but he begged not to bring back the mother's memories. The party left without the father's nose, and decided to head out to the abandoned city.

They travelled to a waterfall and found a cave hidden by it. Inside the cave, they found a few dead people, who looked like refugees from the civil war and which had their life force sucked out. The cave seemed small, only because part of its walls was an illusion, which hid a great door. Trying to enter the door activated some larysine that summoned some monsters to protect the entrance. Once defeated, Aggma collected three larysine.

NPCs


Locations

Te¬Tara
On the way to the abandonned city
  • Entrance by a small waterfall, behind it
  • Corridor with closed door, dead people at the entrance. Looks like refugees who hide here, life force sucked out.
  • Some of the stone is just an illusion with if they walk through it, a massive corridor with high columns of amber and a door at the end. 4 creatures summoned to protect the door.
  • Door isn't fully closed, Sett can wedge it open so that everyone can pass through.
  • Behind it, a large staircase with long dead plants and a path for water on the sides. Some of the path is caved in.
  • A more recent camp was set up here at the top of the stairs, less than a year ago. 4 or 5 people.

Te¬Tara

  • A whole city in a neat grid system, with smaller houses on the outside, all in the same utilitarian and simple finish.
  • Towards the center, taller 3 story buildings, all of the same design. In the middle, a large pyramid.
  • Roof is a dome like structure, several tens of meters high in its center. Nothing seems to be supporting it.
    • The whole dome is painted black with flying candles simulating stars, and three balls of light circling in the middle representing the two known moons, and a third one that none of the players recognise.

Bathhouse

  • Like a public bath turned ceremony, with place for the sacrificed to be cleaned and prepared for the transfer.
  • Various drawings on the walls showing the children as heroes as they are taken to the altar to get their life sucked out, so that the elite can live longer.

Blacksmith

  • Rather than a place to forge weapons, this blacksmith seemed to melt various stones into a liquid.
  • Some transformed into balls for the mage's hall
  • Some have large containers to create larysine the size of vekkel
  • Some to become parts of a dagger

Mage's hall

  • A simple building where mages would imbue larysine with its magical properties.
  • Depictions of wizards giving life to the larysine.
  • All of them have two phases:
  • Some were imbued with a creature inside like they've collected several of. This way a creature becomes a servant and protects them.
  • Depictions of powerful dragons and other creatures being cast inside the larysin itself in a different process.
  • The daggers being the ones depicted for sacrifice and transfer of life force



Closer to the portal, stone turns more to flesh. The whole pyramid is fleshy and difficult to crawl up to. At its base, there is a lump. Under the flesh is a half-elf mage, that died from piercing damage in the abdomen. He is wearing clothes of Isott Caine's organisation. in his hand, Isott's necklace.

To get to the top of the pyramid where a portal is located, multiple skill checks are needed to avoid being swallowed by it.

Challenges

The portal consumes 4 Kankolion Pyramid to activate.

Aggma

Come upon a rift with some soft vegetation on both sides but no clear way to get to the other side.

She can use plant growth to build herself a bridge and collect a kankolion.

Ratyn

Find a staircase going down, and below find a large upside down plaza in complete darkness with reversed gravity. In the center, a rotating lighthouse device, casting light as it rotates on itself. Being in the light disabled the reverse gravity and re-enables it a short while after. On the "floor", razer sharp stalagmites. Powering the rotating light is a kankolion placed on top.

Oris

Find a well that is full. At the bottom of it, a good 60 ft, a kankolion, and some small airtight box that isn't heavy. Inside, pristine 3 decade old cheese and some sort of raspberry wine.

Sett

At a building, find an elven inscription in old elvish. "Pascal of the Blue tribe was here, 56th moon of the seven". A graffiti of sorts. The marking was drawn with a kankolion that has been encrusted into the cracked wall. Removing the kankolion caves in the walls around him, forcing him to run or be crushed.