Having entered a Mist shrouded tower and found danger at every turn, sharp edged demons, enthralling books (as in enslaving), a vicious tree and its root-slaves, and a pile of used loincloths. Our heroes ponder whether to go on, or retreat.
This was planned as a one off Halloween adventure, it did not finish, partly because of other things needed sorted, partly through bits of life, but there will be some commentary on it throughout.
This is me converting and adapting the D&D 5e adventure “Don’t say Vecna“, if you are going to be run through that, do not read on.
Our cast
- Utana – Noble of the Rule of Haraxa, Agent and Acting-Databdara (Magistrate) of the nation
- José Juan – Foreigner from the far west, warrior, healer and Agent of the Rule
- Smersh – Larcenous Priest from long time ago, and a nation long gone, Databdara (Magistrate) and agent of the Rule
- Fetnah – Shaman from a long time ago, and a forgotten and lost land, and agent of the Rule
- Smersh – Larcenous Priest from long time ago, and a nation long gone, Databdara (Magistrate) and agent of the Rule
Absent
- Jalabu – Noble of Dilmun, Merchant-Adventurer and agent of the Rule.
- Farshad – Merchant of the Rule of Ishtir, musician and Agent of the Rule of Haraxa
- Arpaesis – From the far western land of Ta-Khemet, student of Arcane Lore, and agent of the Rule, currently studying books of Lore
- Dhran the White – of humble origin in Ishtir, warrior, agent of the Rule, currently studying in the capital and trying to unionise
Battered from the tree demon, Fetnah still rattled by her connection with something overpowering and her familiar, Ilbakia psychically cowering, the group rest and recover their strength.
The group never noticed that this flow was bigger than any other floor in the tower.
Any thoughts of retreating were fleeting, even with the disquiet Fetnah had that her access to the spirits she commanded and thus her magic was limited due to the overwhelming spirit of this place, taking care to avoid the reach of the tree-demon, Fetnah led the way up some dark stairs, mere slabs of stone sunk into the wall, the only illumination the sliver of the pale light ahead that escaped through a curtain at the top of the stairs, making the spaces under the stairs dark and, by the group, unexplored.
Moving up, peeking through the curtain, Fetnah saw the space was a single room, with another set of stairs on the opposite side, between the stairs is a large statue of the same imposing figure they saw in the room downstairs, bearded, bare chested, long hair held back by a thin fillet, the right arm held out, the hand painted black, the mouth open in speech but the tongue is painted black and, in the head, the right eye painted black.
And between the statues and Fetnah are three biers Jon which bodies lying in state. As the group pass through the curtain, the bodies rise up, get off the platform, turn and stare at the group, two mortal male bodies, without heads but with eyes, nose and mouth in their chests.
The other is a woman with the head of a lioness, the left eye is amber with a black slotted pupil, the right is blind, covered by a milky blue-white film. Tendrils of flesh reach out as the bodies melt into each other, forming a multi-limbed creature, the only head remaining being the lioness, the other faces merging into the shoulders giving al around vision, the hands and feet extending into paws with sharp claws of bone.
Without waiting for speech, José Juan opens hostilities, sinking a silver arrow into the creature, Utana following up with a spear.
Despite this unprovoked hostility, the creature somehow without a tongue, sings to the group, perhaps directly into their minds.
Come to me, to us, to me, to me, join me and the embrace of the god, become us, become me, join us in praise, worship him. Sing the name of the god.
This does not entice the group, and they continue their bullying ways, but it does not go all their own way, Utana is injured, picked up and almost hurled at Smersh, a clawed arm extends out to spear at José Juan, Fetnah hurls the force of her spirit at the creature, with some limited effect, the creature seems to being chipped away through the application of pointy silver, but remarkably enduring. Fetnah then tries something else, trying to free the creatures from whatever curse had imprisoned them in this aberrant form.
To the relief of all, she succeeds, blasting the bonds enslaving the spirits, the bodies separate as they fall and sublimate away, the lioness’s head is gone, leaving an ivory carving of the head of the same figure as is everywhere else. Fetnah reaches for it, only to find it like the plants upstairs, not quite there, it too melts away, leaving a carved tongue.
After using medicine and magic to heal Utana, the group try unsuccessfully to somehow replace the black painted limbs of the statue, the group pack up the ivory body parts they collected, and head upstairs.
The stairs the same slabs of stone, but are better lit, with the same pale light of nothing as everywhere else in the tower, with the floor at the top being open, seemingly to a facsimile of the sky, though the sky is a pale grey, and the stars are black, with some seemingly slightly out of position in their constellations.
Fetnah’s vision
“You see as if from a single eye, to the right. In front of you are your two hands, one, the right, is made of ivory, engraved with script, though it flexes and moves almost like the left. You look up, there is a door through which a pale woman walks, the door closes. Then there is a vision of a gate, tall, the surface black, there is an inscription around the gate, you look at it, then the vision becomes a searing pain of light”
At the far end is a great gate, reminiscent of the one from Fetnah’s vision, the surface black and shimmering like water, but in this case, instead of an inscription around the gate, the ideas were instead contained in a carved ivory frieze that occupies the rest of the room, detailing more f the deeds of the figure until, in the last pane, they are overthrown, tortured, their hand cut off, tongue ripped our and eye put out.
After some exploring of the walls, to see if they could climb over, and finding that the walls stretched out to maintain the distance between the edge and the climber, and probing the surface of the gate with various objects (feeling the absence of Farshad, whose it sounds like they would cheerfully have through at the unknown void, as is their wont) they eventually decided to try replacing the eye, hand and tongue on the last panel in the frieze.
The gate cleared, the black giving way to grey as a form of the habitual figure stepped out, then to daylight as the figure melted away, flowing towards the last panel of the frieze, where the now restored figure steps out and forms itself into a giant version of the figure that has been repeated throughout the tower, the wall extending up at accommodate it as it speaks.
“My thanks wanderers. I am Enmesharra. There is more you can do for me, do this and you will be rewarded.
“Carry me through the gate, I can only be carried through by another;s will, but once there I will be renewed. Take me there. Worship me. Sacrifice in my name and I will set each of you upon a throne, there paramount save for me, your new patron and god.”
More offers are made, of the riches and power each would receive, the group worried that Utana might succumb to the offer of bejewelled sandals and the entire range of Max Factor products, but no.
When they seemed sceptical and inclined to resist, Enmesharra bridled and, sneeringly asked
“Are you a god?!”
As he attempted to lash their spirits. The effect of this was not much, as the attempt failed, with only a tingle instead of the brutal pain. Instead of positions as the chief slaves of a returned god, the group decided that running through an unknown gate was a better option, and managed to do so, outrunning the outstretched hand.
On the other side, they found themselves back on the deck of the “Farshad’s Bounty” by the quay in the Kurrim village.
Utana replaced he head of the River-dragon onto his spear, and they marched to meet Yayhil, Chief of these Kurrim. She greeted them in an outside space, and coldly greeted them, before making a signal. A guard escorted four other Kurrim, dressed in Yuezhi fashion. One spoke.
“That is them chief. The ones who took the ship and took Uktannu prisoner. I have no idea who this imposter is”
And there we left it
Notes
The set-up may be taken from the Vecna module, and some of the features, but motivations and details have been changed. One simultaneous advantage and disadvantage was not having a character who could read the texts. Information was lost, but temptations maybe avoided?