Lark's Landing, Episode 43

Colonial Caerdia: Lark's Landing is a story being told through a 5th edition Dungeons & Dragons campaign I'm running at a local hobby shop called the Devil's Bench. If you aren't familiar with this ongoing story, you can follow this link to Once Upon a Tabletop on YouTube to hear the start of it or read the brief summary I wrote when I switched from video to blog.

You can find the previous episode here.


28th-35th of Waxing Spring, 1AL

The 3rd Watch, having returned to an ancient ruin, continue on their way to a room they had previously fled from. They head into a secret passage, briefly consider examining the mirror Kordak placed face down on the floor, then enter the room through the heavy door.

They find the room much as they left it - an iron cage where T'Zaric had taken his jade mask from the wall, the dais with four sets of stairs leading up to it with treasure-filled shelves between them. Upon the dais is a crystal cylinder and, at the top of one flight of stairs, a statue that they saw come alive before.

Not wanting to take any chances, they wedge a crowbar in the door and hold back Fiaeorri, who really wants the treasure from the alcoves between the stairs. Then, from a distance, they begin sending attacks at the statue. Surprisingly, it doesn't come to life to attack them - nor do any of their attacks hit, seeming to be deflected by some mysterious force.

T'Zaric flies up onto the dais, closely followed by Stor blowing on his whistle and Extang jumping up with his magical boots. There's still no reaction from the statue as they look around, examining the crystal pillar. They can see some sort of pedestal inside with something on it. Logan and Hammer escort Fiaeorri up the stairs, and some attempts are made to break the crystal - with no success. They decide that the only way forwards is to trigger the trap.

Stor returns to the base of the statue's stairs, T'Zaric takes to the air, and Fiaeorri is set loose upon the treasure. As soon as Fiaeorri begins greedily scooping up the treasures, the door slams shut and a voice rings through the room, condemning them for stealing sacred offerings and informing them that a toxic poison is filling the air - the only chance at redemption being the cure in the center of the pillar. They all begin to feel weak and ill - even Hammer, who had never felt the effects of poisons before.

With three of the party up on the dais, the statue comes alive and attacks, but it is soon dispatched - in spite of Fiaeorri ignoring the battle to pick scoop up all of the treasure. Once the statue falls, with the group up on the dais, the voice rings out again, congratulating them, and informing them that to pass through the crustal they will need the best tool of their most clever person. After a brief discussion, T'Zaric pulls out his thieves' tools to see if he can use them to find a way through. As soon as he touches them to the crystal, an opening appears before him, allowing him to see access to the stone pedestal with a vial on top - only there is some invisible force in the way.

Once again, they hear the voice - it tells them that they have reached the alter, but the cure is beyond their reach and the time is running else. "Put your faith in your gods, foolish mortals."

They all immediately begin praying to their gods, but nothing happens. Stor and T'Zaric begin looking around and spot glowing glyphs at the base of the pedestal. Stor takes out his holy symbol to Epesta and presses it to the glyphs - and the invisible barrier vanishes.

As the vial is retrieved from the stone pedestal, a rainbow-hued winged serpent appears and flies out into the room. Several members of the group prepare themselves in case it attacks, but instead it speaks - thanking them for freeing it from its prison. They converse with it for a time, learning a bit about it, where it came from, and how it came to be trapped in this temple. When asked for a reward for them freeing it, it presents them with three items - one a charm to help one stay alive while fatally wounded, one a set of magical scales for detecting forces of good and evil, and one a mirror that offers a glimpse into the past.

With a final thanks, the creature vanishes, returning to its home plane. The 3rd Watch decide it is now time to return home with their haul of treasure. First they double check that they've been everywhere on this level, following the hall that leads to the top of the stairs to the lower levels - where rests the great stone statue of a dragon which T'Zaric, Stor, and Extang recall breathef steam on them while they were ascending the stairs. As they turn to leave, T'Zaric gets a strange feeling that there is some knowledge of great interest to him deeper down in the ruins. However, no one else seems inclined to stick around longer, so he doesn't press the point - they were already considering coming back later, at any rate.

They head back the way they came, into the room with the dioramas, up the rope, and towards the exit. However, they pause in the room with the metal trapdoor on the ceiling and broken rusty ladders leading up to it, intending to find out what the purpose is. However, looking around, Fiaeorri notices something far more interesting - secret doors on either side of the room.

Fiaeorri leads the way through one of the doors, through a small alcove, and into a large room with black walls and a mosaic on the floor depicting strange gods dancing around the sun. At the back of the room is an area sectioned off by a curtain of beads and shells. Fiaeorri makes straight for it while the others are still looking at the rest of the rooms, and finds behind it a statue sitting in a throne, holding a golden scepter - and the statue has her face.

Taking this as a sign that the scepter was meant for her, Fiaeorri takes it from the statue. She is found a moment later by Hammer, with the others close behind, standing stock still and sweating. Then, suddenly, she turns to stone as the statue of her becomes flesh and blood, standing up to tell them that she's just merged with the spirits of her ancestors.

This causes the group a fair amount of distress, especially since three of them experienced a creature pretending to be Kordak in this very dungeon. How can they be certain this is actually Fiaeorri? They question her and find she has her own memories, as well as those of her ancestors - allowing her to lead them to treasures of ancient times. However, she seems reluctant to perform the magic she's asked to, and she seems far too willing to leave the treasure that now accompanies her stone-self. They don't have solid proof one way or the other, but they're suspect this isn't the real Fiaeorri - and they attack her. Some have trouble with attacking their friend, while others are convinced that killing this thing is the only way to get the real Fiaeorri back.

Fiaeorri falls to the floor, dead. The statue remains a statue. They attempt a number of things, trying to get the stone Fiaeorri to return to normal, but nothing seems to work. They even spend an hour with Hammer trying to attune to the gold scepter, Extang seeking clues in the magical mirror of the past, and others searching the room, all to no avail - and to make matters worse, all the items they dipped in the liquid gold return to their normal materials. T'Zaric notices, and mentions to the others, that when the creature pretending to be Kordak died, it had reverted to another form. This one still looks like Fiaeorri.

They decide it's time to head home, and are debating how to carry the Fiaeorri statue when Stor touches the scepter to the corpse - turning it to stone and reverting the statue of Fiaeorri to flesh. There is a great deal of relief and rejoicing. They leave the ruins without further investigation of the room with the trapdoor on the ceiling.

They regroup with Lykos and Saifon above ground and spend the rest of the day preparing for their journey home. In the morning, Fiaeorri impresses and shocks everyone else by eating the heart that will allow her to understand the language of snakes. Then they head home. On the 34th of Waxing Spring, Extang finds a magical birthday coin lodged in with his false eye that will allow him to cast a very powerful invisibility spell.

After two more days of journeying, they make camp for the night with the certainty that they'll arrive home tomorrow. In the middle of the night, while Stor is on the third watch, a particular bat catches his attention. It circles the camp, then lands by the fire - turning into a humanoid shape. Stor immediately calls for his friends to wake up.

The figure smiles at Stor, his long teeth glinting in the faint firelight, and thanks him for waking everyone so they can be duly punished for ransacking his temple. Stor asks if there's any way they can convince him to let them be, but the figure laughs - saying that they defiled his temple - and, besides that, it has been so long since he was last out for a snack.

Fiaeorri and Stor attack, believing that this is a vampire of some sort, but the figure just laughs as his wounds begin to close. With a glance at Hammer, he exerts his influence over the sentient construct. T'Zaric flies in above the vampire, casting a fear spell that fails to take hold, while Logan attacks. Extang casts a spell to hasten Fiaeorri and Logan's actions and backs away from the battle.

Seeing his new best friend being attacked, Hammer climbs to his feet and lumbers over to the battle, landing two strikes on Logan who he'd seen attacking his friend.


And that's where this game session came to an end. What will happen next week? Even the dice don't know. You'll have to come back to find out in Episode 44.