13 Arodus 4719, evening
Seven Card Consortium Citadel
It has been an unusual week in that nothing has tried to kill us, and even more extraordinary we have not sought out those who are trying to kill us. Instead we have settled into proper ownership of the citadel. All of us have been busy cleaning and rearranging the interior spaces while two teams of professional stone masons from Breachill repair the outer walls.
We moved in right away and made do with the comforts the old structure provided which quickly improved as we toiled on.
Today we took a break from the citadel work and spent the day sorting through Voz’s papers, books, and other paraphernalia at the Reliant Book Company. This was done at the request of the town council because… well, the best person in-city to do the work was Voz herself.
Dinner in town tonight. To be truthful with Breachill only a mile away from our new home we can easily walk to a hot meal whenever we feel like it.
17 Arodus 4719, evening
Seven Card Consortium Citadel
With the bulk of the cleaning work completed and the wall repairs still underway we each had time to do our own thing. For me this was crafting arrows, which I find relaxing and almost therapeutic. Tarsius and I have situated ourselves in the old weapon and armor workshops where we spend our days contentedly toiling away.
Today in our spare time we addressed the undead in the basement. We needed to get rid of these creatures before the hired masons began to clear the stairwell leading from the courtyard down to this level.
Tarsius spent some time in the crypt studying what had been done to create the undead and determined it was a trap left by the Hell-knights and triggered by Voz.
Okay, can we stop and consider for a moment just how evil and fucked up you have to be to make a trap the creates undead? The more we find out about Hell-knights the more repugnant I find them.
Liberte and I were able to disable the trap, which destroyed the skeletons and the wights.
This still left the flying skulls in Hell-knight helmets.
Consider this as well: the Hell-knights created these undead monstrosities. So why don’t people consider them to be evil?
There was nothing to disable here, although a plan was put forward to capture them in bags rather than destroy them. I’m sure it would have been useful and maybe even valuable to have bags o’skull, but netting a flying hostile skull isn’t the same as catching a butterfly. The first attempt went about as well as you’d expect. We quickly settled on a new plan: beat the little flying, nail shooting shits to death. This plan worked much better.
I think we need to remove every last taint of the Hell-knights from our new home and so was encouraged that others thought we should “relocate” the bones in the crypt. I’d be content just to lump them in a pile outside and invite the Bumblebrashers to piss on them before soaking the bones in oil and torching them.
We did claim the weapons and other items from the sarcophagi, some of which are magical. Alek had made some noise about it being okay for us to use some of the equipment from down here if our cause was worthy. It’s pretty obvious what I think Alek can do with his feeble sense of what is worthy and what is not.
24 Arodus 4719, evening
Seven Card Consortium Citadel
More crafting! I have made a thousand regular arrows and 500 cold iron arrows. I have made them available for everyone in our group: just take a bundle of 20 and put a mark on the tally sheet so I know to make more.
30 Arodus 4719, evening
Seven Card Consortium Citadel
I worked with Aemi over the past several days to hire craftsmen to construct a gate in the tunnel that runs to the basement of the Pickled Ear and another in the secret tunnel that leads from the back of the citadel to the basement. We’re talking solid metal doors with superior locks that require a key on both sides.
This week the stone masons cleared the stairway from the courtyard to the basement and repaired the steps, which means we don’t need to use the “secret” tunnel any longer to get down there.
8 Rova 4719, evening
Seven Card Consortium Citadel
More crafting (a thousand blunt arrows) but more importantly the masons have cleared and repaired the long flight of stairs leading down to Alseta’s Ring. We had covered the entryway into the actual Ring itself with blankets and one of us was always on duty while the workers toiled to protect the Ring from prying eyes.
Qantrip then used castings of Anthropomorphic Animal to move the rock and spoil from the excavation to block the entrance from the Guardian’s Way caverns and so now we have exclusive and controlled access to the Ring.
9 Rova 4719, evening
Seven Card Consortium Citadel
Earlier in the day we spent time studying the Ring and discovered a few additional details about some of the gates. Most importantly we found that the Huntergate, through which the Cinderclaws arrived, is damaged and that we needed to repair it. Special spells from our magically inclined folk will make this task possible and so we’ll attempt it tomorrow.
With Alseta’s Ring now secured and studied we decided it was time to tell the authorities about it. Specifically we told Greta, the head of the council, because Qantrip had discovered some unsettling information about one of the council members.
It turns out that Voz had already told her about the Ring, but with a good bit of misinformation and exaggeration all intended to make the situation seem more dangerous and out of control than it really was.
10 Rova 4719, evening
Seven Card Consortium Citadel
Well yes, we did manage to repair the gate and we were able to activate it and pass through to an intermediate dimension. It was in the shape of a long lava tube, but it was very warm — actually hot and getting hotter. Renali and the two Charau-ka were with us (they were all anxious to return home) and told us that this was not how things were when they originally passed through.
Aemi called out to return back through the gate to the citadel but before all of us could make it through a large smoky, ethereal image of an angry red dragon materialized and breathed fire on us. Alas, but the Charau-ka both perished while Tarsius, Marcus, Liberte and I were severely burned.
We regrouped back in the Ring and discussed what we had seen. The consensus was that it was some sort of magical trap, which meant we could disable it and safely cross the tunnel to the gate we had glimpsed at the far end.
It was generally agreed that some sort of fire protection was in order, and that spells that could buff my ability to both detect and disable the trap were essential. This meant putting off the second attempt until tomorrow.
This means Aemi and Qantrip will accompany me through the gate tomorrow morning for the attempt.
I am totally on board with this.
