Adventure #6 - Delving into Darkness (Whitefall)

[reefwood]

Adventure #6
Delving into Darkness:
Exploring Whitefall
(Belkzen: Tusk Mountains)

Mission Background
Pathfinder lodges often represent the region in which they are found - in form and style - but tend to share many of the same features. In addition to sleeping quarters and offices, it is common to find a courtyard, gallery, library, dining hall, lounge, training room, workspace, vault, and mausoleum. Also, enchantments are often woven into the structure to enhance flavor or function.

Whitefall, however, is no ordinary lodge. Other than general location and original purpose, it has been shrouded in secrecy since the start. This was to keep it hidden from the dangers of Belkzen but also due to the heightened caution of those who designed it. Venture-Captain Zaerith Dyrr and Chronicler Ghrelle Arkstone hailed from the Darklands. A vast underground world of cruelty and peril far beyond the scope of what most would fear on the surface.

Zaerith was rumored to be a noble but without the inherent gifts common to drow of his status. A rare defect that often led to a short life in the merciless society of his people. Perhaps this was why he pursued a martial path far from home. The only apparent remnant of his upbringing was a reverence for Abraxas - demon lord of forbidden lore and magic. Ghrelle, on the other hand, was a master of the arcane arts. She focused on manipulating earth and stone but did not ignore the other elements, and like other powerful duergar, rode upon a giant spider. Details of their final mission, from which they never returned, are still unknown.


Mission Objectives
1) Assess the condition of Whitefall.
2) Determine the fate of Grimfet All-Eye and field agents Ha'resh, Jazren, Vedra, and Graago.
3) Recover relics and research.


Mission Details
Last word from Whitefall came just over a century ago. Only months before Aroden died and cataclysms rocked the world. The recent approval by the orc council diminishes the need for a covert lodge in Belkzen, but it could be put to another use if still structurally sound, and studying the lodge may provide new insight into the Darklands. The final fate of the remaining team members is also of great concern. Of utmost importance, however, is the recovery of any relics and all research, especially that of former team leaders Zaerith and Ghrelle.


[OOC: There were three incarnations of the Whitefall team. The Pathfinder council already knows what happened to Rac'cona Uldeth and hopes to determine the fate of the rest of the third team. Any information about the final mission of Venture-Captain Zaerith and Chronicler Ghrelle (from which they never returned) would also be valuable.

Third Whitefall Team:
Venture-Captain Rac'cona Uldeth (Orc Female)
Chronicler Grimfet All-Eye (Svirfneblin Male)
Ha'resh of the Midnight Scale (Half-orc Male)
Seer Jazren Gargol (Human Male)
Caller Vedra (Female Gnoll)
Graago (Male Orc)

Second Whitefall Team:
Venture-Captain Zaerith Dyrr (Drow Male)
Chronicler Ghrelle Arkstone (Duergar Female)
Arcanist Grimfet All-Eye (Svirfneblin Male)
First Blood Rac'cona Uldeth (Orc Female)
Ha'resh of the Midnight Scale (Half-orc Male)
Seer Jazren Gargol (Human Male)

First Whitefall Team:
Venture-Captain Zaerith Dyrr (Drow Male)
Chronicler Ghrelle Arkstone (Duergar Female)
Arcanist Grimfet All-Eye (Svirfneblin Male)
Jalki Sweetsong (Darkfolk Female)
Shaman Ka'ssath (Serpentfolk Male)
Trapsmith Acthsi (Fetchling)]

[reefwood]

RECAP #1

Starday, Pharast 21

7:30pm - After Elana and Vras pull Torvak out of the hypnotizing acid pool, the trio continues to explore this area reached through the second [earth] portal. It is a maze of rooms filled with natural hazards, traps, summon creatures, and seemingly no exit. Torvak begins to hurry ahead of the group. They lose sight of him rounding a corner. Coming around, Elana and Vras see an empty hallway. They continue forward in search of Torvak and an exit but to no avail. The only option left is to return to the portal. Elana uses her last summoning spell to activate it, and they walk through. Meanwhile...

Ly'lue, Taj, and Pratt have also been exploring the Tusk Mountains in search of Whitefall. They discover a mostly shattered mirror in a partially collapsed cavern. Magic emanates from it, but the damage makes it difficult to study. They day has been harrowing, so they decide to rest and try in the morning with their spells renewed. Pratt takes first watch, and the dark silence soon leads to a boredom that must be alleviated. The mirror. He puzzles the shards back in place and casts his remaining spells into it. Nothing. Defeated, he lowers his head and slinks forward against the mirror. The replaced shards give way, but as they fall back to the ground, he continues forward through the mirror. Beyond the rubble on its other side. He finds himself still in a partially collapsed cavern but not the same one. This one is smaller with no apparent exit and no sign of his companions.

8:00pm - Elana and Vras emerge through the [earth] portal. Not in the chiseled hallway between the first and second [earth] portals where they learned to keep near each other. They are in a partially collapsed cavern with rock rich in ore and minerals. On the far side, a metal door is mostly buried behind the rubble, and in between them in the door is Pratt.

The new trio are surprised but happy to see each other, and their attention turns to the metal door. Elana and Pratt determine that clearing a straight path to the door may result in a cave-in. However, they are able to direct Vras to move the rubble in a way that creates a path while reinforcing the unstable cavern. It is a slow process, and they decide to only clear half the door before resting. Also, Vras estimates that the cave-in happened at least several decades ago.

10:00pm – Pratt takes first watch and hears the hint of a noise coming from the other side of the metal door, but when he listens most closely, there is only silence. This happens a few times.



Sunday, Pharast 22

2:00am - Vras takes second watch. It passes uneventfully, and after a couple hours, he begins playing his squeezebox to pass the time.

6:00am – Elana wakes up gasping from a terrible dream but uses prayer to settle her mind. She hears hints of noise and catches glimpses of movement at the corners of her eye. Both coming from the direction of the metal door, but whenever she focuses her attention that way, there is nothing.

10:00am – Pratt and Vras awake from dreams of disappointment and betrayal. Elana and Pratt continue to direct Vras to clear the door.

12:00pm – When the door is clear, Vras consults his ancestral spirits on how to proceed, but they tell him nothing. Elana and Pratt search the door and discover a trap. Pratt attempts to disable the trap from a distance. He triggers the trap - a poison stinger – that resets immediately but is eventually able to disable it. Pratt and Elana work together to unlock the door. Vras opens the door, and it leads to a metal corridor in which only he can see. The darkness consumes the glowing rock and dancing lights of the halfling and gnome.

The short corridor leads to a small center area with 7 more corridors leading out from it. 3 corridors lead to metal doors. 3 corridors lead to dead ends, one of which is inspected closely and has scores of tiny, barely visible shapes etched into it - circles with 8 lines shooting out. Vras uses mage hand to move a shirt up and down the corridors in an attempt to set off traps. No traps are set off, but the entry doors slams shut. Almost completely closing but still six inches open thanks to a rock that Elana placed in the doorway.

The remaining corridor appears to have been sheared short by wall of natural rock, and at its base is the lower half of skeletal remains of a humanoid creature. The pelvic bone is crushed, the legs are draped in decayed pants, but the boots look to be in good shape. Vras removes the boots, which allow him to levitate. He also finds a broken keyring with one blue key and one bent red key.

The blue key is tuned to the element of water, and the first metal door he investigates has an elemental lock tuned to water. Also, the door has several batches of small lines at waist level that seem to have corroded the metal. Vras opens the door. A glowing blue portal is on the other side. He slides his sword into the portal. It is immediately sucked through the portal, and he chases after it. Pratt and Elana follow him.

The trio finds itself in a room made of porous rock and filled with water. Sitting in each corner is a pillar topped with a glass case. A different item is in each case – a large ring, intertwined antlers attached to a bowl, a statuette with a canine head and female humanoid torso, and a hand made of pearl. There are also painting on the wall, but the water has all but destroyed them. Vras recovers his sword from the next room ahead, which has several suits of corroded armor on display, but reaching into the room reveals that it is filled with acid instead of water. The trio smashes the glass cases to collect the items. Vras and Pratt swim through the acid to continue forward. Elana does the same after briefly retreating back through the portal to breathe again. The hallway beyond the armor room has two doors and two open passages. Vras goes through the open passage to the left and finds a library that is dry. The trio regroups here. A cursory glance at the bookshelves reveals many volumes of Pathfinder Chronicles but all over a century old. There are some Dwarven books on underground construction and tracing genealogy as well as a few Orcish titles about ancient underground battles. However, most of the tomes are written in unfamiliar tongues.

On the other side of the library is a corridor filled with liquid and made of porous rock but rougher and more natural in appearance than the other hallways and rooms in this watery area. It leads to several more corridors...

[reefwood]

RECAP #2

Sunday, Pharast 22

1:00pm – Pratt casts water breathing on Elana and Vras and resist energy [acid] on everyone before the party makes its way from the library into a maze of flooded tunnels. Iris Vras are sickened by the liquid. Their first of several discoveries is a dining hall. The tables and chairs are floating but remain in place. Each plate holds a pile of bones. The small folk become fixated on the bones for a moment but regain their senses. Pratt collects them from a distance, and Iris places them in her bag of holding. Next is a vast cavern that Iris recognizes as an illusion, and in its place, she sees a white portal in a small room. More exploration leads to a number of dead ends, a red portal behind another illusion, and a sloping floor filled with a dark, translucent liquid. Something magic glows from within the pool. When Vras moves toward it, tentacles spring from the dark liquid to entangle, crush, and burn him with acid. Blessings and tricks help free Vras and keep him alive just long enough to pummel the ooze into a lifeless pool. The magic comes from something within a metallic box chained to the floor. Pratt shatters a link in the chain, and Vras dives through the acidic corpse to retrieve it. The metal is a swirl of dark blues with small splashes of orange. A magic trap is found that Pratt fails to disable. The box explodes with a sonic boom. The contents shatter into a cloud of pale shards and dust that hang in the water. A moment later, however, the water level in the tunnels begins to recede, and smoke rises from Iris' bag. She dumps her bag onto the floor. The bones from the dining hall are smoking. Pratt tosses his metal cup over them and enlarges it. It begins to glow red. He shrinks the cup. Much of the bones have been smashed but the pieces catch flame. Through the thick smoke Vras sees the image of an orc with leathery wings. Its eyes glow for an instant, and the smoke dissipates.

2:00pm – The party decides to go through the white portal. Vras puts the magic boots on his feet, ties a rope around his waist, and walks into the portal. Iris and Pratt try to hold the rope, but it is pulled through the portal, so they follow. Vras steps into the middle of a shaft, and a strong wind pushes him down. The boots prevent him from falling too fast. At the bottom, he inspects the walls. They look to be made of fog. Misty and soft on the surface but solid underneath. Iris and Pratt are shoved down by the strong wind but hang onto the ledge. Pratt casts fly on everyone, and they soar to the top. It leads to a hallway with a door on each wall and another shaft at the end. Sections of the fog wall slam into each other, and the party wonders how to proceed...

[reefwood]

RECAP #3

Sunday, Pharast 22, 4713

2:10pm – Vras studies the shifting walls. Pratt opens the nearest door from a distance. The angle obscures the view, but Iris hears flapping and thumping coming from the other side. The sounds fluctuate slightly between softer and louder. Vras attempts to investigate. He is pummeled by a shifting wall and nearly crushed but narrowly squeezes back into the safety of the shaft. They wait for the path to clear and hurry through the doorway when it does. The twisting corridor leads to a large room filled with a tornado of paper, books, and broken furniture. Iris also spots a pair of severed pale, withered hands in the mess. At the center is a small spinning box made of the same blue-orange metal as the one found in the ooze pool. Vras takes a beating in his effort to reach the box and retreats after failing to dislodge it. Iris manages to avoid the debris but is pulled off her feet and is only able to escape with help from Vras.

They decide to let Pratt attempt to open the box and move into the corridor. Hoping to stay clear of any more sonic booms. Pratt peers around the corner and works his magic. The spinning of the box makes his work extremely difficult, but with a little luck, he disarms the magic trap. The lid of the box flips open, and the box spins away. In its place is a small skull. Eye sockets glow as it slows to a stop and stares at Pratt. The tornado of litter shoots down the corridor - slashing and pummeling the party. Vras re-enters the room to address the skull but is restrained by the severed hands. He hears a voice speak orc in his mind. It recognizes Vras with angry tone, but after some discussion, the skull seems to be confusing him for someone else who wronged it. The party convinces the skull to tell its story. They are each struck with head-splitting pain. Pratt and Vras bleed from the nose and ears as they crumple to the floor.

Iris finds herself standing in the corner of the room. The ringing in her ears drowns out any sound, but she can see this a different version of the room. Maps line the walls. A large, curved is in the center. Around it sit several Pathfinders – a regal orc venture-captain, a red-tinged orc with leathery wings, a pale human with slight fangs, a robed gnoll, and a fearsome orc with a greataxe on his back. They watch a tall, pale, bug-eyed gnome give a presentation at the front of the room. The papers on the wall behind him are filled with sketches and equations. As the gnome steps away from the wall and closer to the table, Iris can finally hear again. He exclaims excitedly, “This skymetal could revolutionize everything!” The venture-captain stands and replies, “Indeed. But you will not be around to see this.” She draws her sword as the other Pathfinders rise.

The scene fades and is replaced by the room in its current shamble. The skull floats nearby. Debris hangs motionless in the air. Iris wakes Pratt and Vras. The skull demands to be reassembled, and the party agrees to this task. They study the mess of floating papers as best they can while leaving the room. There are maps and mentions of Sarkoris - the nation devoured by the Worldwound. Also, Pratt spots a key ring with four keys (red, white, blue, brown) and tucks it into his pocket.

The party return to the hallway. Its walls no longer shift. They walk through the other door. It leads to a corridor with six more doors. Each has two or three names written on it in arcane marks and leads to an office.

Door #1:
Trapsmith Acthsi
Seer Jazren Gargol

Door #2:
Shaman Ka'ssath
Ha'resh of the Midnight Scale

Door #3:
Jalki Sweetsong
First Blood Rac'cona Uldeth
Graago

Door #4:
Arcanist Grimfet All-Eye
Caller Vedra

Door #5:
Chronicler Ghrelle Arkstone
Chronicler Grimfet All-Eye

Door #6:
Venture-Captain Zaerith Dyrr
Venture-Captain Rac'cona Uldeth

A quick study of the files -with the aid of comprehend languages- reveals research on Belkzen and the many underground tunnels below it as well as some details of nearby lands. Each rooms seems to focus on different subjects. Room #1 delves into Darklands that appear far deeper than the origins of orcs or dwarves. Room #2 focuses on the red dragons of the Tusk Mountains. Room #3 devotes some attention to various orc tribes. Room #4 looks at the occult and other dimensions. Room #5 has many references to skymetal.

Room #6 is larger than the rest and has the journal of Rac'cona Uldeth. The orc whose final bones were recovered in Cheliax. The orc whose soul was questioned with the spirit jar retrieved in the Trident Vault. The orc whose remains were presented as an offering to the orc council of Belkzen. The orc who provided veiled clues about the location and dangers of Whitefall. The final entries in late autumn of 4605 speak to a deep reverence for Aroden, the increasing madness of Grimfet All-Eye, an expedition to Sarkoris in the spring, and a struggle between duty and faith. The last entry alludes to the house finally being put in order as it is temporarily placed under the charge of a dragon while she departs on a vital quest.

A more thorough inspection of this room uncovers a hidden compartment filled with more files. These are written in another hand and language. They detail an expedition into the Realm of the Mammoth Lords. Extending to its northern edge at the icy Crown of the World and then plunging deep below the surface in search of something called sipapu (earth navel). There are references to an underground sun and theories on how to snuff it out.

The party collects the files from all the offices and decides it is time to leave. Exploring the rest of this area and whatever is beyond the red portal can be done at a later time. Perhaps by field agents more skilled in handling the elements and restless spirits. The party retraces its steps to the 8-pronged metal corridor. The door leading out continues to press against the rock placed in its way by Iris. Vras now notices that the inside of this door has an elemental lock. It is keyed to the element of earth. He pushes the rock free, and the door slams shut. He inserts the brown key into the lock, and the door swings open inward to reveal a brown portal. They step through to a room with another door. This one has 4 elemental locks. Elana, Pratt, and Vras decide to insert all four keys at once using mage hand for the fourth key. Acid, fire, electricity, and sharp rocks each shoot out of one of the locks, but the door opens to reveal a portal of swirling colors. It leads to a 3-pronged corridor with a door at each end. The corridor to the right is composed of cool but glowing lava rock and leads to a room with a mass of darkness on a center pedestal. Light sources immediately fade, and it appears that light cannot touch the mass. It is magic. The corridor ahead is composed of coral and leads to a room where a featureless statue stands adorned with a circlet, amulet, bracers, and falchion. All are magic. The corridor to the left is composed of solid fog and leads to a room with a pedestal in each corner. Three of the four pedestals hold an object. The first is a large, rough, blue and orange rock. The second is a small metal box with three glowing circles on top. The third is a vial of thick, gray liquid. None are magic.

All the items are collected, and the party returns once again to the 8-pronged metal corridor. This time they manually force open the entry door outward, and it leads to the collapsed cavern. An earth spell is cast on the far wall, and a portal appears.

Elana and Vras step through to find themselves on the icy perch they carved near the mountaintop the day before. Torvak is laying on the ground. Unconscious but alive.

Pratt steps through to find himself still underground but not alone. The broken mirror he toyed with to reach Elana and Vras is is now shattered behind him. Fidget and Ly'lue are lying disheveled on the ground and picking shards of glass out of their skin. They greet Pratt with a look of annoyance and relief.

The two groups of field agents, respectively reunited, rest for the night and return south in the morning to report their findings to Venture-Captain Haav'ork Blackmoon.