Rise of the Runelords Recap # 91 [RPG]

[28 Calistril 4708]

Having returned to the cavern deep within Rimeskull that served as the lair of the white dragon Arkhryst, the adventurers decide to secure the area.  They explore various tunnels branching off of the main cavern, but find all of them empty—doubtless due to the fact that no other creatures would wish to live so close to a dragon!  Back in the cavern, Erik carefully examines the ice-encrusted pillars.  He notices that seven of the pillars surround an eighth pillar twice the size of the others, and that these surrounding pillars are marked with hundreds of Thassilonian runes describing the different arcane schools of magic as conceptualised by that ancient empire.  In addition, he spies a small keyhole hidden on the side of each pillar that faces the central one.  Yuzo tries using a key taken from Mokmurian’s body, but it doesn’t fit.  The adventurers speculate about where the keys are, and Erik reminds them of the verses they discovered in the Scribbler’s domain:

On eastern shores of steaming mirror, 
At end of day when dusk is nearer
Where seven faces silent wait
Encircled guards at Runeforge’s gate.

Each stone the grace of seven lords,
One part of key each ruler hoards;
If offered spells and proper prayer,
Take seven keys and climb the stair.

The adventurers pass the next few hours until dusk by chipping away at the frozen dragon hoard (finding a huge pile of silver coins in the process) before making a magically-aided journey up the ice-covered ramps to the surface.  They return to the nearby hilltop where the seven stone heads can be found.  With some experimentation, they realize that casting a spell that matches the school of magic exemplified by the Runelord symbolized by the statue causes the statue to glow, emanate a piercing shrill, and manifest a golden key in its mouth!  The adventurers are able to collect two such keys before exhausting their prepared spells of the needed schools.  They decide to teleport back to Sandpoint and the Rusty Dragon in order to spend the night in comfortable beds.  There, they find Kang increasingly frustrated by his inability to duplicate that “hack” Nisk Tander’s elixir of the peaks.  The master alchemist’s best guess is that the formulae involves an unknown herb whose essence can’t be artificially synthesized.

[1 Pharast 4708]

The Heroes of Varisia pass the day at leisure, having decided they need to wait until dusk in order to get the rest of the keys from the statues.  When dusk arrives, they teleport directly to the hill (with Kang staying behind, obsessed with his latest research).  They’re mildly frustrated to realize that the two keys they obtained yesterday have vanished from their packs, but they’ve come prepared with the right array of spells and methodically determine how to get a full set.  They return to the dragon’s cavern inside Rimeskull (with Yuzo carelessly plunging down the icy tunnel for a hard fall at the bottom!) and begin using the keys on the rune-marked pillars.  When a key is turned, the corresponding pillar begins to hum and glow softly and the key vanishes!  Once all seven pillars are glowing, the central pillar begins glowing as well and then ripples with a vortex of light.  A vertically aligned whirlpool opens into a seven-foot-wide circular portal through which can faintly be seen a long tunnel.  With Yuzo taking the lead, the explorers bravely venture forward.

The central hub of Runeforge leads to many dangers . . . 

but, also, perhaps, weapons capable of hurting even a Runelord!

The tunnel continues for about fifty feet before reaching a domed chamber nearly a hundred feet across.  A large pool of bubbling prismatic liquid occupies a raised dais in the middle of the chamber, while around the edges of the chamber are finely detailed statues of seven imperious figures, each twenty-five feet tall and wielding a polearm of some sort.  Behind each statue is an archway leading into another tunnel, while on the marble floor the characteristic spiky flanges of the Sihedron is visible.

Yuzo dips his sword into the bubbling pool and finds it alternatively freezing cold and burning hot to the touch!  Jinkatsyu and Ava examine the statues, comprised of:

·         A towering man with gems set in his forehead and hands, dressed in robes and wielding a burning glaive.

·         A short smiling man with a hooked nose and beady eyes, wearing robes and wielding a spear.

·         A heavyset woman with a sneering visage and an imperious stance, dressed in a flowing dress and wielding a halberd.

·         A voluptuous woman with a seductive look, large eyes, and long flowing hair; this statue is nude and wields a double-headed guisarme.

·         A strikingly handsome man adorned with a close-cropped beard and a charming expression; his form is dressed in extravagant clothes and wields a Lucerne hammer.

·         A gothic beauty of wild hair and a somewhat insane expression, this woman wears a long flowing dress and wields a thorny ranseur.

·         An obese man, his flesh rotten in places so that the bones show through, wearing a ragged robe and wielding a scythe.

Jinkatsyu finds himself feeling strangely drawn to the first statue, and even tries to pry the gems out of its forehead (only to find that they vanish and the statue looks completely undamaged!).  Ava feels uncomfortable around all of the statues, with the beautiful, insane woman causing particular distress. Just to make sure the adventurers have an escape route, Ava tests teleporting back to the dragon’s cave.  The spell fails, but the portal remains visible in the distance.

The terrible magicks of this rod are perhaps

 worse than death for many adventurers.

With seven tunnels to choose from, the choice is made to explore the only one whose terminus can be clearly seen from the central hub.  The tunnel corresponds to the statue of the sneering, heavyset woman.  Once the adventurers get several feet into the tunnel, a disembodied human mouth suddenly appears across the ceiling, its voice booming “Stop! These are the Abjurant Halls of Eager Striving.  Know that your powers will be crushed and you shall die!  You are not worthy!”  Yuzo and Jinkatsyu have encountered far worse than a mere magic mouth, and levy a barrage of humorous insults at it in return.  A wide stone staircase descends into a large, partially caved-in chamber.  It’s clear that terrible violence was done here, as sooty humanoid bones are scattered throughout, and the decorative murals on the walls have been blasted and fractured from powerful magicks.  Strangely, a silver rod protrudes from the floor in the center of the room, sparking with electrical discharges.  Keeping his distance, Erik tries to discern what it is, but he’s never seen the like.  Yuzo moves closer to investigate, and just a few seconds later the rod pulses with energy that coruscates through the room.  Yuzo’s enchanted falchion suddenly crumbles into dust!  Angered, he swings at the rod with his warhammer.  The rod cracks but doesn’t break, and another disjunctive pulse sweeps the room, destroying several of the gillman’s potions and an enchanted hatchet!  With a final rage-fueled swing, Yuzo breaks the rod.  It’s a pyrrhic victory, alas, since even those items not destroyed by the pulses have had their magic suppressed—whether temporarily or permanently, no one can say.

 Mustard jellies are a danger, but 

this one seems powered by fiendish energies!

Continuing on, the four adventurers find a room lit by decorative lanterns.  Although otherwise bare, it features a tiled path of granite flagstones leading down to a small pool filled with a silvery liquid; quicksilver?  The liquid doesn’t detect as magical, and the foursome decide to leave it for now until they can return with Kang to investigate it.  The final chamber in this wing also contains a pool, but of a much more disgusting nature.  Thick sheets of ooze lie in pools along the floor, and the air carries the overwhelming stench of eye-watering mustard and vinegar.  Yuzo realizes with just a moment’s warning that the surface of the pool is rippling.  The gillman takes a defensive stance and calls out to his companions as a yellowish-brown amoeba nearly ten feet in diameter creeps along the floor towards the group.  Suddenly a pseudopod covered in viscous slime lashes out and grabs Yuzo around the waist.  A poisonous gas seems to emanate from the slime, slowing his reactions.  Jinkatsyu steps in to attack, but his rapier seems to have little effect.  Ava darts in and casts a spell to get Yuzo free, but now the creature can strike at her too!

Their first foray into the mysterious Runeforge complex has resulted in Yuzo being almost completely stripped of his magical armory, and now the party faces a creature they’re ill-equipped to fight.  Will things go from bad to worse?
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Director's Commentary

The PCs reach Runeforge in this session, a multi-wing dungeon that takes up the rest of Chapter Five.  In the reviews and forums of Rise of the Runelords, this chapter of the adventure path comes under pretty heavy criticism as a relentless slog of encounters, and a lot of GMs insert alternatives.  I played it straight, however, and my group and I found it really enjoyable.  A key thing to remember is that the PCs definitely don't have to visit every wing in order to succeed at their goals.  As a group, we were also cooking with gas when it came to players understanding their characters' abilities and our ability to handle high-level encounters with speed and clarity.  In fact, Runeforge presented the second of only two times in the campaign where I had to scramble to stay ahead of the PCs (the other was when they by-passed the Graul farm back in Chapter 3).

The mage's disjunction trap took a lot of advance work on my part.  Essentially, I had to have every player send me a list of their character's magic items in advance, calculate the saving throw mod for each, and then roll to see if there were any natural 1s (which resulted in the item being destroyed) or failures (which resulted in the item being negated).  Actually calculating everything at the table would have been a nightmare considering the "Christmas tree" of magic items that the PCs have by that point.  Most of my PCs actually emerged relatively unscathed, but there were a few magical items destroyed.  Pathfinder players are notorious for being more worried about their equipment being destroyed or lost then their characters being slain, and I think mine were probably no different.

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