09/05/2025 – Geeks & Games – The Shipwreckers

Summary

Last session, the Shipwreckers slipped back underground by a narrow gully marked in rough duergar script as succor for true dwarves. A five-foot-tall crawl spat them into darkness, a bat‑cloud clawed them bloody, and then they stood again in the fog‑scarred halls where dwarven dead had once demanded justice. In a side chamber sank a dwarf‑height obsidian monolith—the 33rd Duergar True Stone—its square faces carved, its center drilled by a perfect hole. Wulf looked through. He saw a gray‑skinned smith pour molten existence into a world‑mold and quench it in his eye; when he staggered back, his skin had gone stone‑gray, his hair bone‑white, and the sun would now blind him.

They circled a 20-foot shaft whose walls were covered with green, Reptilian runes. Two passages beckoned: a fungi cavern thrumming with neon‑violet tubes that screamed like kettles if touched, and a bronze door scarred by deep, non‑parallel gashes. Patick muscled the door, bending the inner brass bar like a ribbon. Inside, benches held tiny tongs, green‑stained scalpels, and an urn sealed with lead and labeled in duergar as glue. Peepholes punctured the wall at dwarf head height. A six-pillared hall beyond showed snake-headed sorcerers raising skeletons from a glowing pool, and stairs led down into a deeper darkness.

The crypt to the south opened with a wet whisper. Three sarcophagi gaped; jade slime lacquered everything; black‑mailed corpses and bone piles lurched to life. The light failed. In the crush at the doorway, blows fell wild. Kadabra’s hands pulled comrades from the brink while Gremdar’s faith sent half the room crumbling, Drowslayer’s copper light flaring whenever it struck. But the slime fought back in a clever cruelty—every undead that fell pulsed power into the rest, until a lone, stubborn skeleton soaked punishment like an old veteran before finally collapsing under combined steel and spell.

At a marble door engraved with snake folklore, an intricate three-dial wheel lock barred their way. Jeffrey, impatient and brilliant, tried to force it. A razor‑fine dart hissed from a hidden port, and he dropped without a word. Swallowing their grief, the crew studied the mural back in the pillar hall, matched the three glyphs to the dials, and opened a vault that seemed empty—until a hollow‑sounding stone slab pulled free to reveal a rust‑eaten iron coffer. Coins spilled, including strange orichalcum stamped with Reptilian sigils, and in the coffer’s heart lay a two‑foot metal gear: the last of the cogs they have hunted for so long.

They withdrew. A sympathetic priest eased Wulf’s sunblindness, though the duergar pallor remained, and on the road, a lost duergar noble fell in with them, eager for cause and company. With their set of cogs complete and rumors of a ritual to open the Stygian Library now in hand, the Shipwreckers stood at a turning of keys and fate, ready to choose which locked door to open next.

OUTLINE:

Gully Entrance and Return to the Fog Caverns

• Entered via a five‑foot crawl marked by a duergar runestone promising succor for true dwarves
• Endured a swarm of bats before reaching familiar fog‑scarred tunnels
• Recollected the dwarven ghost, drow conflict, and a known ledge and ladder shaft

The 33rd True Stone and Wulf’s Transformation

• Found a dwarf‑height obsidian obelisk inscribed as the 33rd Duergar True Stone
• Wulf looked through its bored hole, suffered a world‑forge vision, turned gray‑skinned and sunblind
• Chose to continue despite the curse

Screaming Fungi, Bronze Door, and Embalmer’s Chamber

• Surveyed a rune‑lined shaft with reptilian script and two branching passages
• Tested a cavern of neon‑violet tubular fungi; they shrieked and deflated when disturbed
• Reached a bronze door gouged by deep slashes; Pardick bent the inner bar to open it
• Explored an embalmer’s room with tools, a lead‑sealed urn labeled glue, and dwarven‑height peepholes

Snake-Priest Pillars and the Jade Slime Crypt

• Cleaned six pillars depicting snake‑headed sorcerers raising skeletons from a glowing pool
• Entered a slime‑slick crypt where open sarcophagi disgorged skeletons and black‑mailed drow
• Fought in the dark when light failed; Orson healed, Gremdar’s faith routed many, Drowslayer flared
• Discovered that each slain undead strengthened the rest; ground down the last ‘veteran’ skeleton

Marble Serpent Vault, Jeffrey’s Death, and the Final Cog

• Faced a marble door with a three‑dial wheel lock; Jeffrey tried to force it and was killed by a hidden dart
• Matched mural glyphs to the dials to safely open the vault
• Found a hollow stone concealing a rusted coffer with coins and a strange two‑foot metal gear
• With all four cogs secured, withdrew to town; a priest eased Wulf’s sunblindness and a duergar noble joined the party
• Learned the key to opening the Stygian Library during downtime

NPCs:

• Glib Temple Priest: A persuasive cleric in town who eased Wulf’s sunblindness and won generous donations from the party. Now a friendly ally with a ready blessing.
• Hook‑armed Demons: Rift‑born ambushers the party accidentally unleashed in an earlier foray, a reminder of what careless portal work can cost.
• Usog, the Dracolisk: A feared denizen of the surface barrens whose lair lies north of the gully entrance. Its shadow looms over the region though the party has yet to face it.

ITEMS:

• Black Mithril Chain: Soot‑dark chain mail worn by the embalmed dead—and, now, by one of their slayers.
• Drowslayer (reforged as a javelin): A once‑bigoted blade reborn as a javelin. In Orantha’s hands it flares copper‑bright against drow and the unquiet dead.
• Lead-Sealed Urn of Glue: A verdigris‑spotted urn sealed with lead and lettered in duergar as glue. Best left closed in such a place.
• Obsidian Duergar True Stone: A rune‑scored obelisk with a perfectly bored hole; its visions can change those who dare look through.
• Orichalcum Coins: Ancient yellow‑metal coins stamped with reptilian sigils, each worth five gold in the upworld.
• Robe of Yaloss: A shadow‑dark robe that aids stealth, later claimed after tragedy in the vault hall.
• Spider Venom Vial: A potent paralytic harvested from the deep, ready to tip a blade past simple steel.
• Staff of Frost: A wizard’s rod that looses spears of cold, carried by Jeffrey until his last step.
• Strange Metal Gear (Final Cog): A two‑foot‑wide metal gear recovered from a hidden coffer. The last piece of a four‑part mechanism the party has hunted.

LOCATIONS:

• Dwarven-Marked Gully Entrance: A narrow crawl south of Usag’s lair, marked by a worn duergar runestone promising succor to true dwarves. It serves as a discreet back door into the dungeon.
• Embalmer’s Workshop: Benches of rotted brushes, green‑tanged scalpels, tongs, pigments, and a lead‑sealed urn labeled glue. Peepholes pierce the walls at dwarf height.
• Jade Slime Crypt: Open sarcophagi and black‑mailed corpses lacquered in pudding‑thick, jade‑colored slime—where the dead did not rest.
• Marble Serpent Vault: A marble door engraved with snake‑folk and sealed by a three‑dial wheel lock. Within, an empty‑seeming chamber hid a hollow stone and a rusted coffer.
• Pillared Snake-Priest Hall: Six grime‑covered pillars showing snake‑headed sorcerers raising skeletons from a glowing pool. The carvings hint at the serpent builders’ rites.
• Rune-Lined Shaft: A 20‑foot round shaft whose walls sizzle with green reptilian glyphs, flanked by ledges and a brass‑rung ladder plunging deep.
• Shrieking Fungi Grotto: A cave carpeted with neon‑violet tubular mushrooms that whistle and deflate when disturbed, broadcasting any intrusion.
• The 33rd Duergar True Stone: An obsidian, dwarf‑height obelisk with a perfect bore through its center and runes praising duergar gods. A glance through it reshaped Wulf.

FACTIONS:

• Drow: Shadow‑elves of the deep, enemies in dwarven memory and restless even in death here.
• Duergar (Gray Dwarves): Hard, underground dwarves of grim order and rigid craft, their marks and True Stones lace these halls.
• Pestilence’s Brood: Rot and plague given shape—demonic influence suspected in the deeper levels below.
• Snake-Folk: Ancient serpent sorcerers whose rites, locks, and vaults still haunt the underways.

QUESTS:

• Assemble the Four Cogs: Gather the ancient gears to complete a mechanism tied to the serpent vaults. The party secured the final cog in the rusted coffer.
• Ease Wulf’s Sunblindness: Seek a way to counter the True Stone’s curse without undoing its other changes. A friendly priest provided relief.
• Find the Singing Spear: Track down a storied weapon rumored in old tales—Kadabra continues to chase whispers and leads.
• Open the Stygian Library: Uncover and perform the ritual to breach the Library’s door; hints and the key were learned during downtime.

PLAYER CHARACTERS

• Grimdar: A grim dwarf of iron will who keeps his shield to the front and his eyes on the stone. He reads the old marks, spots the hollow places, and holds the line when others would falter.
• Jeffrey: A clever wizard whose curiosity ran ahead of caution. He wielded frost and force with precision, but a hidden dart in a serpent lock ended his tale in an instant, a stark lesson etched into the stone behind him.
• Kadabra: A quick‑handed skirmisher who fights with thrown blades and a steady nerve. When the undead pressed, Kadabra’s daggers found the gaps, and her instincts pulled her out of catastrophe when poison claimed a comrade.
• Orantha: A steadfast devotee whose faith bites as sharply as her spear. She reforged the hateful blade Drowslayer into a javelin and wields it against the dark, driving back the undead with holy authority when the light fails.
• Patick: A brawny fighter whose raw strength bends bars and opens ways no key can. When bronze doors groaned and inner braces resisted, he made a path for the others and stood in it.
• Wulf: A reckless adventurer whose curiosity cost him dearly at the Duergar True Stone. One look through the obelisk’s bore left him gray‑skinned, bone‑haired, and cursed with sunblindness—now tempered by a priest’s aid. He presses on, half‑human, half‑underworld in aspect, hungry to prove the change won’t define him.