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Dunmari Frontier - Session 3

Fort Investigation: in which an old fort reveals its secrets

Featuring: Kenzo, Wellby, Seeker, Delwath
In Taelgar: Mar 25, 1748 DR
On Earth: Thursday Jul 02, 2020
Dunmari Fort (Gomat)

The Dunmar Fellowship explores a ruined fort, battles creatures, and uncovers magical items while putting an end to a curse.

Session Info

Summary

  • The Dunmar Fellowship finds an old, disturbed campsite outside a ruined fort.
  • Inside the fort, they encounter and defeat a giant insect-like creature, an ankheg.
  • They discover a temple dedicated to the Dunmari Religion and a magical silver spearpoint inside.
  • Exploration of the fort’s towers uncovers a magical horn and the remains of an ancient scout.
  • In the cave below, they find a petrified explorer and a magical Floating Disc Coin, confront a cockatrice nursery, and battle an undead creature.
  • A cursed obsidian stone is destroyed, ending the beastly rampage.

Timeline

  • Mar 25, 1748 DR, afternoon: Explore the ruined fort and the caves below. Find a petrified explorer (later revealed to be Arcus). Find and defeat an undead creature carrying a symbol of Cha’mutte. Destroy cursed obsidian stone on its staff that seems to be causing beasts to rampage.
  • Mar 25, 1748 DR, evening: Make camp and rest in the Dunmari temple at the fort.

Narrative

The party decided to explore a little more before entering the ruined fort, and discovered a campsite in the foundations of the outbuildings outside the fort. The camp itself was several days to several weeks old, and had clearly been disturbed by animals (signs of scattered food – salt pork and dried fish and the like that had been partially eaten by animals). Whoever made the camp had left most of their stuff, except weapons and water, and went somewhere. 

After investigating the camp, the party decided to follow the tracks up the causeway into the fort. Inside, only three buildings still had walls: a central headquarters building, a five-sided temple (which retained a metal roof), and two towers guarding the entryway. In addition, there was an empty cistern, cracked at the bottom. 

Sounds of a large clacking / chittering creature from the central building drew them in. Wellby began sneaking quietly towards the walls to investigate, as the sounds when quiet momentarily. Delwath suddenly remembered tales of a large desert monstrosity that hunted by tunneling underground and ambushing prey, but before he could say anything, a giant insect, a cross between a centipede and a preying mantis, burst from underground and grabbed Wellby in its mandibles. Despite a few tense moments as Wellby was in danger of being eaten, Kenzo’s quick action to whack the creature across the mandibles freed Wellby, and the ankheg was dispatched by Delwath’s longsword blow after being knocked prone by Seeker excavating the loose earth under its back legs. 

Searching after the battle, the party found a pit in the ground going down into a cave complex, but first decided they needed to rest and recover. Exploring the intact building, they discovered it was a temple to Dunmari Religion: Jeevali, the goddess of life, rebirth, home, and family; Laka, the god of knowledge, agriculture and the seasons, and time; Aagir, the god of war, fire, and death; Sonkar, the goddess of beauty, truth, artisans, and justice; and Chidya, the goddess of nature, the land, animals, and weather. In this temple, the altar to Aagir seemed the most important, and a small silver spearpoint statue, engraved with a flame motif and burning with a fire that seemed to have no source of fuel, still stood on the altar. This item radiated evocation magic, and magic was also threaded through the walls of the temple, perhaps giving them more stability and structure. While resting and recovering, a search of the wreckage inside the temple also turned up some heavier religious items (bronze chalices, silver candlesticks, some amulets and small statues). 

After the rest, the party decided to first explore the towers, and then head down into the tunnel. While one tower was full of rubble, the other was more intact, and the party found the remains of a Dunmari solider, possibly a scout, from several hundred years ago. While most of the scout’s items were rotted away, a magical horn with an etched running horse design was still in good order. 

Taking the horn and the continual flame spearpoint, the party descended down into the tunnel. It was a low, narrow crawl, until a small cavern containing two exits, and a very lifelike statue of a human man, wearing a cloak and leather armor, with a dagger in one hand and a torch in an arm that was broken and lying on the ground. Also on the ground was a golden coin, looking like a Chardonian coin from several hundred years ago, that was unusually heavy and radiated transformation magic. Seeker flipped the coin, and it turned into a floating disk that hovered 3 feet off the ground, and seemed to follow Seeker.

Continuing to explore, the party found what seemed to be a cockatrice nursery, where they found a lion that was continually turning into stone and then back into flesh, while several cockatrice babies pecked at it, or each other, or some large mottled eggs nestled against a muddy pit. Sneaking back unnoticed, they decided to explore the other passageway. After leading under the cracked cistern, the passage opened into a larger cavern, where three skeletons attacked, soon followed by an undead hobgoblin, carried a Black Iron Staff with a smooth obsidian stone mounted to the top. After defeating the undead, the party realized the obsidian staff must be the source of the abnormal beasts, and managed to destroy it, using both the enchanted spearpoint and a shadowy blade Delwath summoned into his hand, aided by Seeker’s insight into a hidden flaw and weak point in the crystal. While the obsidian seemed to resist non-magical damage, a few blows were enough for it to shatter, and calm to prevail, although at the cost of some damaging psychic backlash.

As peace and calm permeated the area after the destruction of the obsidian, the party spent a quiet, restful night in the temple.