Festival Moon 16

Watches were set once we got camp established.

During Marya’s watch, she observes a man approaching the camp. He says his name is Joe and he’s wanting to stake a claim to this area – he is some kind of prospector, a sand miner.

As we move out, he has pulled out some twigs that he has carved and tied flags to, staking out his claim…

One the move again, Cynthia notices the cats paying attention to another man. She alerts the rest of us, and he notices us, and starts coming towards us, waving at us. He is armed, weapon to hand (military pick), shield and helmet, wearing some sort of green-checked toga with ducks on it. Marya and David advance to meet him and asks about the trail ahead. He says he doesn’t know of a trail, but is apparently lost, and doesn’t know where he is from – he was in a town several days ago, there was a fire and lots of people running about and he felt he should leave. He woke up about three days ago with everything but the tablecloth. He is a big man, 6’4″, huge, bulky, bald…he has a tattoo on the base of his skull.

Brenna notices the resemblance to her tattoo marking her as Mammon’s Own, and says she’s never seen one quite like his, and never in that location, but it would appear to be of similar purpose.

He doesn’t know what his name is, but has been thinking of himself as Max, and calls his pick “Lucille”. He asks if anyone knows what “this” is – a silver salt cellar…

Getting back on the move, we notice some brightly colored sticks poking up out of the ground…

Brenna makes a comment during dinner that Max doesn’t “feel” quite like one of Mammon’s Own…Bri pursues that line of thought a while with her.

Festival Moon 19

We travel several days without incident. As we approach Riva’s Walk it is early afternoon. It appears to be a set of low ruins with a paved walk by the cliff’s edge. We approach from the east, the walk runs north-south-ish.

Bri finds a staircase with a lot of debris in it, Ali looks over the cliff – it is several hundred feet down, and you can’t see where the waves actually impact the shore. It takes several hours to clear the stairs, Brenna says she had no idea they were here from her previous visits.

Ali, Marya and Cynthia go down the stairs while the others deal with Max. Marya trips over something, and there is a crash. There is a skeleton or something that Marya attacks and there is a bit more light – a curtain or something falls on top of her, Ali gets shoved back by Cynthia, and there is a skeleton that can be seen. Marya is feeling very claustrophobic at the moment. Ali makes a torch out of some cloth and a bone which Marya pours some oil onto. We can now see a bas-relief of a woman crying. Max comes down. There is a floor to ceiling window which the ocean and the sky “out there” but not directly overhead as the opening is too narrow. While Max examines the carving, the floor opens up and Ali falls into a pit. It is at least 30 feet deep, and the bottom is littered with skeletons and armor along with some jewelry and coins which she brings up some. The others come down to help rescue her. Bri finds a needle trap in one of the tears and points it out so no one triggers it. They eventually discover that the needle opens the pit, and David blocks it with his staff. Ali climbs up/is pulled up, and they go back up to spend the night. She tells the others about the gems and coins.

Festival Moon 20

Next morning, we re-investigate the room below. David remains above ground to watch camp. We see there are more windows and remove the coverings to bring in more light.

Max suggests a more detailed and thorough examination of the room. Max trips something opening a door (to a closet?) and a skeleton like “thing” starts walking out…and falls down. Marya examines it, and finds a coin of some type.

The haul – 13 swords, 11 leather breastplates, 15 boots, 8 leather leggings, 90 coins similar to the one Marya found, and 12 gems of various sorts, a pearl, some garnets, but nothing that actually matches what we are looking for.

Max resumes his examination of the walls. At one portion, something shifts and a sound starts that resembles a woman shrieking, which lasts about 15-20 seconds. Then there is a sound of something grating above us, and then the room is filled with dust and soot and then the noise stops as the flue empties. Max goes back over the retrieve David’s staff, and we go back topside. It’s approaching noon. Marya locates the well, cleans up and draws water for the group and we all clean up a bit.

We spend part of the morning examining the room, Brenna is fascinated by the bas relief, and at one point in the afternoon presses on it and Max and Marya assist her in pressing a switch which opens another chamber which abuts the one we are in and has a stained glass window depicting a woman with four children, one of whom is an infant. Brenna passes out. There is another chamber below, which Marya and Max enter. Bri makes mention of the poem talking about Riva losing her brood, but there are no myths of her having them, she died alone and a widow.

In a box, Marya finds a leather bound book with a winged dragon on the cover, she opens it carefully, it is fragile. It is written in a language that she doesn’t understand, but resembles the writing in the other materials that Bri has and has not told the party of.

In the middle room, neither Ali nor Bri found any indication of traps. We then go to the lower room and check it, Bri finds an area that is the sleeping area that appears to have bookcases of some sort. One of them has a back panel that slides slightly, and there is a small package in it. It is an packet of loose pages written in Avanian.

At sundown, in the chambers: Brenna, Bri and David in the first, Cynthia, cats and Ali in the middle, and Marya and Max in the lower.

As the sun descends, the stained glass brightens into a bright glow, full of colors. As it continues, the floor is bathed in a riot of colors; the very last bit of window illuminated at the bottom is a slash of red leading down the stairs where it eventually peters out. Cynthia calls out about the light. Ali checks the stairs for traps and is adamant there are no traps, Bri double checks and finds nothing as well. Reexamining the stained glass, Bri observes that there is a tear-drop section that was the source of the blood red. Bri manages to pry it loose and retrieve it.

Bri examines the documents, they appear to be signed “Korei Korrilian”, which seems to be one of the Wardens of Killian’s Reach (there are three by this name in descent.) Most of this seems to be correspondence between Korei and Fallon or Rivan.

Next morning, Brenna is asked about the stones, she had never heard a description of them until Bri told us of them. Brenna had been in Landing for 2-1/2 years after leaving Korrelian Reach. Brenna holds the stone and says it tingles, Ali asks to hold it and doesn’t feel anything from it. Brenna reads a passage from the book, which she says in an ancient form of Chaldrean, and which Bri recognizes as a language he speaks but doesn’t read. The passage is about Riva and her children. A boy, Drake, is the heir of the Wyvern. There is a girl 15, named Brenna who is going to be fostered as someone is threatening her, a 6 year old girl named Mitzara, and an infant, Arianna. Bri gets some other things out of the wagon to show her as well. One of the pages of correspondence has a sigil similar to the ones that Cynthia has. (There was additional lore and materials discussed, but Ali was not privy to most of it.)

Festival Moon 22

After much discussion, we decide to go towards the Bog, retracing our route back towards the farmhouse.

Festival Moon 25 (last day of the month)

Cynthia is scouting out and sees a couple of tents and some people around a camp area. 4-5 guys, all standing around normally dressed but scruffy. One in leather armor similar to Cynthia’s. Leather guy notices Bri and yells out “Choir boy, you got a lot of nerve showing your face around here again!” Bri has no idea….as a couple more guys come out (total of seven).

The guys attack, we respond. Max goes riding into battle, Marya and Cynthia and David enter the fray, and Ali shots her bow. Bri momentarily loses control of the horses but recovers as Ali tries to help. One of them tries to run away, but is pursued by David and Max, who in a valiant attempt to body slam him misses and landed in a glorious heap on the ground. Two give up, a few of the others are dead and a total of 4 injured along with Damn Cat who is unconscious. Ali goes off a bit and pukes her guts out as she has never been in a battle where people were actually killed. Cynthia does first aid on the cat, and then checks the others. They still insist that Bri helped them orchestrate a con during Festival and then ran off with their share of the loot. Bri gives them some money and we let them go, he refuses Ali’s offer to pay them the remainder of what they claim is owed.

End of session. 3 points.