Rise of the Runelords Recap # 118 [RPG]

 

[10 Gozran 4708]

Having achieved their goal of defeating a rune giant in order to secure the final Sihedron ring needed to survive the occluding field that surrounds the Spires of Avarice, the adventurers find themselves faced with a difficult decision.  They could leave now, or investigate the surprising arrival of three residents of Sandpoint above a strange flying device piloted by a dwarf from Magnimar!  The adventurers’ curiosity, plus an opportunity to confront longstanding enemies like Titus Scarnetti and Nisk Tander, are enough to drive them toward the second option.  Moving from the rooftop of Shahlaria into its interior is like descending into chaos: freed from the rune giant’s magical domination, giant battles giant for control of the fortress—or simply escape!

Titus Scarnetti

The building-shaking riots provide an excellent distraction for the adventurers’ search, and soon they discover their quarry: the new arrivals have hidden themselves in large barrels in a mess hall.  An angry verbal confrontation ensues.  Nisk Tander pompously challenges Kang to a special duel involving who can create the most toxic poison, but the master alchemist refuses.  Ignoring Nisk for the moment, the group focuses on Titus Scarnetti and how he has made Ava’s life in Sandpoint a living hell while apparently conspiring to some degree with Karzoug’s army for a leadership position in the new order to come.  In a shocking turn, the adventurers “sentence” Scarnetti to death, and Jinkatsyu stabs the older man in the heart, killing him instantly!

The impromptu trial continues.  The adventurers decide that Bartol, the dwarf inventor from Magnimar, should be set free—he wasn’t part of any evil plot, but merely providing transportation.  Gorvi, cowering the whole time, says he was only acting as Titus’ bodyguard, and isn’t fussed that the man is dead.  Returning to Nisk, the adventurers demand to know why he was coming to Xin-Shalast.  The alchemist boasts that he entered into an arrangement with Karzoug’s apprentice, Khalib: in exchange for the formula (and rare ingredients) on how to make a so-called “elixir of the peaks”, Nisk would spread around the cursed gold coins that wreaked so much havoc in Magnimar recently.  After Nisk offers Kang a 7% stake in a new joint enterprise, the adventurers are outraged by how much blood their captive has on his hands.  Morgiana breaks Nisk’s arm, and the alchemist passes out from the pain!  The adventurers discuss what to do with the unconscious man.  Erik says it’s not right to kill someone in cold blood, but Ava and Kang say the man has untold innocent lives to answer for.  They decide to make Gorvi carry Nisk for the time being as they figure out what to do with him.  For now, they need to get out of Shahlaria before any of the giants notice their presence!

Fortunately, the giants are too busy fighting each other to spare any attention for the adventurers.  The Heroes of Varisia escape Shahlaria and, with Gorvi and Nisk in tow, make their way back to their temporary campsite in the rubble of an ancient coliseum.  After manacling Nisk to a pillar, the adventurers decide to let Gorvi leave.  The half-orc is happy to avoid the adventurers’ wrath, and heads out into the city, hoping to find Bartok and perhaps a way home.  When Nisk is brought to consciousness with some smelling salts, the alchemist demands to be set free, stating that he’s being falsely imprisoned and that any alleged crimes he’s committed need to be dealt with by the authorities in the appropriate jurisdiction: Magnimar!  Nisk says that anything he’s done has just been in pursuit of business and that he was promised a meeting with Karzoug once the arch-wizard (who will soon rule the continent anyway) gets freed from imprisonment.  After threats from Jinkatsyu and Morgiana, Nisk tells Kang that he needs to “get his minions under control.”

The adventurers move away from the bound prisoner to discuss what to do with him.  Knowing that Nisk can only survive at this extreme altitude until his magical elixir wears off, Kang and Ava suggest just letting the man die.  Erik, however, says that Nisk is their prisoner, and that they have a responsibility to deal with him as such.  Jinkatsyu says they should get a written confession and then set the “businessman” free to walk back to Magnimar on his own!  But Ava worries he might find allies somewhere in Xin-Shalast he could manipulate into helping him.  A temporary consensus is reached that perhaps some of the giants allied to Gyukak, the leader of the rebellion, could take Nisk Tander off their hands.  But when the adventurers return to Shahlaria, they see open warfare in the streets as rune giants loyal to Karzoug launch a counterattack.  Clearly, now is not the time to get involved in such a mess.  The adventurers return to the campsite, Jinkatsyu knocks Nisk out cold to keep him quiet, Ava casts a life bubble spell on him to keep him alive, and everyone beds down for the night.

Nisk Tander

[11 Gozran 4708]

Snow starts to fall before dawn.  The adventurers decide that the time has come to make the ascent up Mhar Massif and bring the battle to Karzoug once and for all.  Through Ava’s powerful magic, the adventurers (with Nisk in tow) assume a windlike form and begin following the golden highway that runs through the city.  The road becomes extremely steep as it continues up the mountain’s slope, and eventually becomes completely vertical with steps carved into its surface almost like a tower.  The adventurers glide past towers built directly into the side of the mountain, protruding from the rock face.  Clearly of a higher quality than even that elsewhere in the city, the buildings become more opulent and impressive as the group moves higher and higher.

A journey that would normally take at least a half-day’s arduous climb is accomplished in minutes.  But as they near the end of the journey, three immense purple spiders, larger than woolly mammoths even, suddenly appear out of thin air about fifty feet up the slope!  They have hideously bloated bodies but still move with an odd grace despite having an uneven number of legs—7, 9, and 11, respectively!  Everyone hears voices in their heads, but this is no normal telepathy.  The spiders somehow communicate by drawing upon memories of people the adventurers knew before coming to Xin-Shalast, such as Sister Giulia, Brodert Quink, Sister Celia, Vorvashali Voon, and even the Skinsaw Man!    But although the voices are recognisable, the strange diction of the creatures is confounding:  “Our enemies, those from Leng who play at aping your vexingly symmetrical appearances, have returned to this world to honor an alliance with the recrudescent lord.  Those who appear as your unpleasing forms but are not must be destroyed.  They reside in the edifice above. There they endeavour the manufacture of a device the recrudescent lord has sought completion of since before his inter-statial hibernation.  It must be destroyed.  You are wanted/ordered to submit/comply with instructions/demands.”  Ava realises these creatures must also be from the nightmarish realm of Leng she has briefly passed through on multiple occasions.  The adventurers discern that the Leng Spiders want a machine, now under construction by the so-called Denizens of Leng, to be destroyed.  The heroes agree to a truce to conserve their strength, despite knowing that the Leng Spiders are likely not trustworthy.

The remainder of the ascent requires the group to pass through a field of invisible force that seems to almost push against them.  Realising this must be the occlusion field, and that the Sihedron rings will protect them, the adventurers push on.  But no one notes that Nisk Tander, still being dragged along, doesn’t have such protection!  He manages to survive the first pulse of wracking, blinding pain, but just barely.  After hearing him beg for help, the group relents and takes him just below the occlusion field, where they manacle him to one of the many empty structures in the area. 

Ahead lies the massive tower that must be the Pinnacle of Avarice.  As the group begin the final stretch of their journey, they discuss what they’ll do should they succeed in vanquishing the Runelord of Greed.  Erik says he’d join the Pathfinder Society with the goal of helping those in need.  Kang announces his imminent retirement from adventuring, and his plans to open an Acadamae of Alchemy.  Jinkatsyu says he would return to Kaer Maga and revisit those who looked after him—after a brief detour to Hook Mountain to stab the hag-witch in the heart!  Morgiana ruminates about going to Absalom and becoming a merchant.  Ava says she would keep up the good fight, as there’s more evil in the world than just Karzoug.

After an epic quest spanning months of time, thousands of miles of distance, untold bloodshed, and victory and tragedy in equal measure, the Heroes of Varisia have arrived at their last obstacle before their final showdown with Karzoug.  Whether they succeed or fail, they’ve already achieved what most would have thought impossible.

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Director's Commentary

Some heavy role-playing in this scenario!  It's really fun (and challenging) to run this sort of session as a GM, because I had no idea how it was going to play out.  The "trials" of the new arrivals revealed a lot about the PCs in some surprising ways.  Although Erik stuck up for a more traditional notion of due process, the others were happy playing judge, jury, and executioner.  

I didn't have interior maps of Shahlaria, so most of the running around was handled purely cinematically and hand-waved that there was so much inter-giant conflict going on that a handful of human-sized figures wouldn't be noticed.  I probably should have had an encounter or two nonetheless.

We really are getting to the beginning of the end in this session, as the PCs climb to the Pinnacles of Avarice.  I was particularly proud of the idea of having the Leng spiders' telepathy take the form of voices of people the PCs interacted with back in Sandpoint.  It was a last hurrah for me to use use accents and vocal mannerisms I had spent a lot of time constructing.