The World of Weirth is a setting much like a Hyborian Age, with danger at every turn, Swords & Sorcery magic, demons and mad prophets.
Tribes Of Gnolls And Nomads roam the savanna, while peasants and hedge wizards hide behind the walls of even the meanest thorp. A powerful Ley Line crosses the land, creating transient Gateways to the Faerie Realm.
Meanwhile the influence of Demons And the Belowdark waxes, threatening to cover the world in darkness, a suffocating nightmare that wells up from horror-filled dungeons underground.
Check the World of Weirth tab above for more info, including a draft of the Player’s Guide.
Episode 15: The Mask of Zenopus – part VII
Today’s Date: 11 Zazel (overnight into 12 Zazel)
The Core group is in the tunnels below the Cemetery/Tower of Zenopus.
The 0-level Apprentices have just returned from their adventure. Some (Shadorivan, Kosas & Phalderanos) have gone to the Grove of the Nurdiyan as they had been instructed. The others have gone home/to a friend/mentor. Pagos is in the room at the Green Dragon, guarding their loot!
Lieres lies upon the coffin in the small crypt. Adora has just finished tying the tourniquet and giving him some wine. The crewe discusses their options for a bit, when there is a snuffling and scritching noise at the door.
Everyone freezes.
They can hear the squeaks of small creatures, possibly Grave Rats, and a shuffling noise as they slither over one another. Suddenly there is a larger, deeper growl and shrieks of challenge and pain. Something thumps against the door, and they hear a crunching, gobbling noise.
Aziagos takes charge, organizing an attack formation and the crewe ready their weapons as Aziagos jerks the door open.
Just outside the door, with bloody scraps of Grave Rat hanging from its jaw, is a pony-sized monstrosity with pebbly skin and an array of eyes that blink in surprise! Aziagos bashes it on the head with his mace, then Oxardozius rams his spear into its breast. Aziagos pulls back and a flurry of missiles are fired from the back of the room.
The beast gurgles and falls, dead.
The crewe quickly gather up Lieres on his litter and hasten down the passage, and through the Hall of Echoes. On the landing at the other end they cautiously make their way up the stairs to find a very now-looking door carved with a clawed hand decoration.
Listening reveals no sounds, so they open the door to reveal a crypt-room, similar in size to that of the Gravewatcher’s, but this one is incomplete. It smells of paint and new wood. A chalk-line drawing of a large circle 8’ diameter, with a stylized rat-head inside, two smaller circles beneath has been drawn on the far wall, beyond an old wooden stand for a coffin and some brand-new panels for a coffin not-yet-assembled. The sections are carved and decorated with stylized rat imagery and runes in an unknown tongue.
Maisara copies down what she has ascertained to be Stygian runes. Adora voices her opinion that the people working on this crypt may worship the Grave Rats, or some kind of rat-god…
Moving back out of the crypt they take the downhill passage to the East (?) where a couple of party members slip and fall down, luckily nothing is broken, though Lieres is spilled out of his litter. (poor bastard!)
Moving along the passage they come to another hallway-crypt, where older bodies lie. They seem to have been properly entombed, as the wrappings are rotted away, but intact. One of the crypts looks to have been looted, or at least dug out, as a passage of new digging and raw wooden beams heads off in an easterly direction.
This tunnel dead-ends in a stone cavern with an opening in the wall about 10-12 above their heads. The crewe stops to take stock of the situation and what resources they may have to overcome this obstacle. Kalder discovers a cache of torches in Lieres’ pack!
Aziagos decides now is a good time to use the Aspect of Smoke potion, to be able to explore the upper passage. He is able to move about 40-50 feet up the passage, where it changes to worked, grey stone, and a few feet further on, ends in a door. A new door.
Aziagos goes back, re-materializes and begins to create a rope anchor with three of the hexed (“Hold Fast”) spikes. Meanwhile, Kalder and Oxardozius are rigging up pieces of rope into a sling to be able to raise Lieres up to the ledge.
Oxardozius is very tired and has trouble climbing the rope ladder they made, though Kalder, even with his hypothermia, is able to do so.
Knowing they are running out of darkness, the crewe moves quickly, barging thru the door and into a hallway constructed of grey stone blocks. They move past a cross-passage, noticing that both ends of the hall crossing theirs end in walls of muscle and pulsing organs, dripping with slime. The ammonia smell is nauseating.
At the end of this hall is another small chamber, about 30 feet on a side, with a stairway going up to the east (?). Aziagos leads up this stairway at the double, and they emerge in a familiar hall of worked stone!
They have somehow come back around and into the mausoleum/crypt structure of Chodonakis!!
The crewe makes their way to the exit, past the enigmatic sphere, then up and out into the night.
The party makes their way to the town gate, pays the guards the entry fee, and almost run to the Barber/Surgeon’s home. They have to beat on the door a bit, as it is quite late (or early, depending on your point of view).
The surgeon sees the state of Lieres and invites them inside. He quickly does something to “stabilize” Lieres, but he has lost a lot of blood and is badly wounded. He urges the crewe to leave, returning tomorrow afternoon if they wish to see Lieres, who will likely be laid up for some days.
The party returns to Master Ploon’s residence (the last night they have as invited guests) and Butler brings them sustenance. There is a discussion about what to do next, especially regarding rooming and what to do with Lieres.
They decide to go to bed, waking for breakfast an hour past sun-up, and discuss it then.
Experience
Kalder 127 XP
Oxardozius XP
Lieres 127 XP
Adora 127 XP
Kulazan XP
Asiagos 127 XP
Experience – Running Total (after Session 15)
Kalder 1427 XP
Oxardozius 550 XP
Lieres 1502 XP (1,250 needed for L II. 1,875 will be max until Level Training)
Adora 1052 XP
Kulazan 775 XP
Aziagos 1052 XP
We are not done yet…stay tuned!
LFG Playtest Campaign 1 – The Shadow of Evil Chaos is an experiment with a new (to me) game system, Low Fantasy Gaming, and a new magic hack designed to bring the atmosphere of danger from the pulp novels of Swords & Sorcery. We are playing fully online over a Discord Voice server, using some home-brew maps, art and characters designed on the HeroForge 3D printing site.
Follow all of the posts here: LFG Playtest Campaign 1.
