Session Twenty-Five Summary (Graveyard of Empires: After the Fall)

Session 25, December 30 2020

Introduction

We continue at 5PM on the 17th of Tenrilden with the party about to enter the Temple of the Winter King in the catacombs beneath Vilgrim ...

Session Summary

Rallion's Recollection:

We enter the Temple of the Winter King.

We find two wooden coffins on stone plinths. We don't recognize the wood. The underside of the lid has a painted scene of a dead warrior in repose.

When we opened the firmly sealed lid, the skeleton inside rose up, and Lambertus turned it. Skeletons from as yet unseen niches come to attack us, and Lambertus and Felix turn them all.

As we continue to explore we find many empty niches and the ceilings of each have paint that is similar to the scene in the coffin.

We gathered up the electrum coins we found.

There are three statues and an altar with a sacrificed surface elf.

Statue of Winter King:
They think that his doom was sealed for aye (ever), /
by no prayers to be diminished: /
To hunt until the last Judgment Day /
Till World and Time were finished

Statue of mounted hunter with Bow East of stairs:
The hunters’ shouts, the thunders’ crash /
Roared high in the lust of slaughter, /
Through horses’ whinnies, the snap of the lash, /
Above the livid water.

Statue of mounted hunter with Bow West of stairs:
Just before them, roe and hart /
Flew as if on hidden pinions /
From the Winter-king and his minions, /
Cleaving the slow mists apart.

Altar with inscription There is a body on top of it. NOT old, but much fresher.
Human, maybe an elf. It is split down the center, ribcage cracked.
A lot of blood. Not killed here since not enough blood. Fairly fresh, it is sticky.

Inscription on Altar:
Sacrifice is made, the forest sated. /
Elf, animal, and all share /
The pledge of blood, belief /
That through this guilt incorporated /
The elements return to balance /
And power renews in every creature.

Back wall behind Altar:
From oblivion resurrected /
Champions in their rest ejected /
From the dim necropolis

Velkin shares the tale of the Ware of Winter and Summer:

The War of Winter and Summer:
Even older legends, of which only partial accounts remain in the crumbling tomes,
obliquely reference the war that split the elven peoples and led the Drow to abandon the surface.
This conflict was a battle between the forces of the Summer King and Winter Lord.
These otherworldly beings granted their followers extraordinary powers that could alter reality
in ways that sound like they surpass anything available to practitioners of dwarven magic.

Inscription above the Door going out (opposite side of door we entered temple): At their head there flitted, leading, /
Tall and white, a wounded hind /
Stuck with many arrows, bleeding, /
Shaking, in the midnight wind.

We go West and find a passage leading South. We investigate and soon find a niche with a single coffin. Someone banged on the coffin and we heard howls of wolves to the North.

Next we find a passage to the West with a door, and the passage we are in continues South.

The read of the Party, Bortham and Aubry are assailed by wolves who breathe cold. They each injure a wolf, but Aubry is brought down.

Rallion rushed back and took Aubry's place and pulled Aubrey out of combat and Forcas, the Pech slave of Velkin, bound Aubry's wounds and Lambertus healed him.

Kauri cast Web and blocked the wolves from getting close.

Rallion used his sceptre to charm the wolves and to speak to them.

Lungmold confused one of the wolves, but they breathed and injured Lambertus and dropped Lunmold. Lambertus dragged Lungmold to safety.

Rallion asked the charmed wolves to tell their friends to stop attacking. They did so with howls.

The wolves attacking the other end of the hall were ready to stop, but Gath the Troglodyte charged and killed one that Lungmold confused, and Oskar attacked another.

Another breathe of cold and Gath went down and Oskar was hurt.

The last two wolves decided to leave. Oskar's parting shot only dealt a severe blow, not quite killing one.

Lambertus used his two heal potions to try and get Lungmold and Gath on their feet. Rallion used a potion on each as well, and they were finally able to walk. Rallion has one potion left.

Rallion now has 4 new pets and they join the party in the Temple of the Winter King since it is a dead end with a door, so we can rest up and hopefully learn spells. Lambertus hopes to level and may be able to speak to the head of the sacrifice.

Rallion skins the 3 wolves we killed. He offers the meat to his new friends and fashions packs from two large sacks and some rope to carry the meat and take turns having each wolf carry it. (If they agree to carry such a load.)

We found 638 Electrum pieces with a motif of the Winter King.