Curse of the Crimson Throne Recap # 32 [RPG]

[Starday, 30 Desnus, 4708 A.R.]

After spending hours barricaded inside a small room to recover from injuries sustained in battle, the Harrowed Heroes awaken feeling fully refreshed.  But as they’re gathering their things in preparation to renew their search for Vencarlo Orisini and Neolandus Kalepopolis (and while Yraelzin is pacing with worry about the possibility a Razmiran inquisitor has come to Korvosa), the sound of shouting can be heard outside the room, just over the sloshing waters of the sea cave.  “Avidexu!” the voice calls.  “Where are you?  We’ve got another one for the labyrinth!”  Goldcape shouts back pretending to be whoever Avidexu is, hoping to lure potential foes into an ambush.  But her voice doesn’t match at all, and, when the Reckoner peeks out, he sees two figures armed with crossbows standing on the pier.  Next to it is a small rowboat containing the bound figure of a dwarf who is just starting to wake up.

Willing to attack first and ask questions later, The Reckoner shoots an arrow from a ledge high above the newcomers, and Goldcape joins in with her crossbow.  Yraelzin strikes a dramatic pose and shouts warnings of his vast arcane might, but (apart from conjuring a shimmering suit of magical armor) also relies on a crossbow to attack.  The short-lived archery duel is inconclusive, and is brought to end when the dwarf rouses himself enough to push the boat away from the pier, burst his bounds, and conjure magical attacks of light and fire at his kidnappers!  The spells go awry, but The Reckoner leaps dramatically from the ledge to the pier and shatters one of the crossbowmen’s skull with his war-maul!  The other quickly surrenders, but The Reckoner won’t allow him to leave until he explains what’s going on.  The kidnapper, who gives his name as Hal Fivecoins, says he’s a member of the Cerulean Society (Korvosa’s only—and semi-legitimate—thieves’ guild) and he was bringing another prisoner to Avidexu for the labyrinth.  After being forced to reveal the location of the secret door to the labyrinth, the kidnapper is allowed to take the rowboat and paddle away.

For his part, the dwarf introduces himself as Anorak and explains he was attacked on the streets above.  The Reckoner and Goldcape are focussed on opening the secret door and searching for traps, leaving the dwarf to Yraelzin’s not-so-subtle proselytization.  With nowhere else to go and sensing safety in numbers, Anorak joins the others as they walk down a long, winding tunnel that’s lit only by the glow Yraelzin enchants his mask with.  The tunnel curves sharply and then ends at a set of large bronze doors, each carved with images of tigers chasing other tigers in four adjacent circles.  The doors open silently with the merest touch, revealing a small chamber containing a pair of statues of tiger-headed men, their arms wide as if to usher visitors in.  Curiously, a small seam—barely an inch wide—is noticeable in the floor, walls, and ceiling between where the statues stand and the smaller chamber beyond from which a long lever with an ebony handle protrudes from the wall.

After carefully ushering everyone in past the seam, The Reckoner pulls the lever.  A loud rumbling begins from somewhere below, and then the room starts to slowly spin!  Goldcape tells the others to remember the plan: get Vencarlo and Neolandus, and then get out quick.  But The Reckoner says there may be some interesting things to find in the labyrinth, and they shouldn’t necessarily be in a hurry to leave.  In a matter of seconds, the spinning stops: the previous entrance has disappeared completely behind a solid wall, but a new exit is visible. The passageway leads in one direction to a new lever, and in the other direction, a mystical symbol on the floor that flashes suddenly before disappearing—a magical trap!  Anorak grunts as his body is wreaked with constant pain.  The Reckoner realises the group is being scried upon by an almost-invisible magical sensor and alerts Anorak, who is able to dispel it.

Through an oddly-shaped hallway decorated with complex murals of a hot, steaming jungle full of predators, the group open a door into a room that is clearly a test or trap of some sort.   Three large wooden chests, their lid decorated with carvings of cavorting tigers, sit against one wall, each with a message in Vudrani carved on the lid.  The group hasn’t come prepared for an exercise in translation, but still proceeds cautiously at first.  Anorak uses a minor spell to open one of the chests from a distance, revealing a mass of slithering, venomous snakes!  The snakes quickly swarm over the explorers, and this is one danger The Reckoner’s hammer can’t solve!  But Goldcape saves the day by conjuring spears of ice that impale and freeze the snakes, leaving only a few left to destroy with careful application of alchemist’s fire.  The opened chest does yield some minor magical potions, showing that whoever put the trap together had a sense of humor.  Goldcape impetuously opens the last two chests despite frantic attempts by the others to dissuade her.  One of the chests releases a poisonous gas, while the other is covered in a sticky poison!  Both are otherwise completely empty, and only luck (and a strong constitution) keep Goldcape from getting sick.

But luck can’t last forever.  As the group explore a side passage, another magical symbol on the floor flashes.  Goldcape drops to the ground in a heap, snoring deeply—and this is a slumber she can’t be awakened from!

Tricks and traps pervade the Vivified Labyrinth, and some are obviously quite dangerous.  Will the Harrowed Heroes find what they’re looking for before it’s too late?

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GM Commentary

This session is most notable for the first appearance of Anorak, a new PC by a player experiencing Pathfinder and RPGs for the very first time.  And unlike some of the early players, this one stuck around!  Anorak was a dwarven magus and adventured with the group for quite sometime before meeting an unfortunate end in Scarwall--but more on that later.  It took me a bit to come up with explanation for his appearance here, and ended up having to go with the admittedly cliched "prisoner of the bad guys in need of rescue, whose gear just happens to be stashed nearby."  But at least I was able to add a bit about the Cerulean Society and the secret door.  This session revealed that no one in the party is particularly good at ranged combat, and Anorak learned the hard way that fireball spells don't work so well against rogues that have evasion.

The Vivified Labyrinth (the dungeon) has a really interesting set-up because every time a lever is pulled, four parts of it rotate on their axis, meaning that there are multiple configurations and times where exits are blocked or suddenly open up.  I represented it by drawing those areas on then cardboard, cutting them out, and then using blu-tak to hold them in place after each spin.  It seemed to work pretty well, though I think I was more impressed with the concept than the players were.