Enlil-Zi-Shagal's Sky Tomb: Episodes 102

Cast

• Elfi (level 2 kobold cleric)
• Hburdshur (level 2 dwarf fighter)
• Raynor (level 2 god eater-class thing)

Session Highlights

Using the feathered cloak taken from the former human-bird-skeleton hybrid, Elfi transformed into a bird, and flew through the crack in the wall to explore the exterior. The overall structure was roughly bird-shaped, and she could see a glass dome at the top, but couldn't find a way inside.

Hanging from the bottom was a cylindrical cage mostly covered in slime. It was attached to a stone sphere: from a distance Elfi couldn't see an obvious entrance, but figured the slime was a bad sign and so didn't go anywhere near it.

She returned to Hburdshur and Raynor, and described what she saw. They decided to stay inside for now: they'd only explored a few rooms so far, and there were at least a few other doors to try. Plus it was probably safer: if they got stuck they could always try their luck outside.

They backtracked a bit, and took the first door they saw. It opened into a small, square room with a hole in the floor. Hburdshur tried dropping rocks into it: rather than fall as he expected, they slowly descended into the hole. Figuring it would work on everything he just jumped in, and as expected slowly floated down to the level below. Elfi and Raynor stopped only to tie off a rope before following.

They arrived in a small room, with several alcoves that contained obelisks covered in runes, and with metal rods fastening them to nearby walls. Unsure what to make of them they took the only passage out. It led to an intersection, and after a bit of exploration found three other rooms:

One contained an incomplete arcane circle, and each of the walls featured a single, long tunnel that lead to the exterior of the structure. Elfi flew down each, and as expected they all brought her back outside.

Another contained a few tables, a stone alter, a stack of stone plates inscribed with probably magical symbols and diagrams, and a metallic box that looked like it could accommodate one of the many cylinder seals packed onto nearby shelves, but when Elfi tried a few nothing happened.

The last had three short passages, with a huge metal cylinder horizontally jutting forth from the far wall. In front of each rod was a circular indentation that looked like it could perfectly fit one of the disks in the previous room. With a bit of investigation Elfi found a hidden door: it opened into a spacious room mostly occupied by five obelisks. They were similar in shape and appearance as the others, just much larger.

After a bit of experimentation they realized that when one of the discs from the second room was used to complete the diagram in the first room, it summoned what they assumed was a denizen of this world through the tunnels: the first attempt captured an amorphous cloud, while the second pulled in a jellyfish-like creature that crackled with electricity.

When they brought the discs to the third room, the metal rod absorbed whatever was contained inside, and one of the larger obelisks in the adjacent room began to light up. They brought in several more of the jellyfish, and once each obelisk was illuminated the tomb began to slightly tremble; runes carved into the walls, ceiling, and floor began to glow, and there was even a faint breeze, as if air was being pumped throughout the tomb.

But they'd only tried two of the discs, and Raynor wanted to see what else would appear. The third summoned what looked like a floating mass of crystals that shimmered with a dazzling array of colors. Unfortunately when he brought it to the cylinders nothing happened: maybe the obelisks had drawn all the energy they could contain? He didn't have long to ponder the reason, as the disc cracked and dissipated into a fine mist, freeing the creature.

Design & Development

It's been about a month since we last played, so for this session we all thought that Melissa had been playing a kobold cleric named Elfi. It wasn't until I checked the Episode 101 play report that I realized, no, she'd originally been playing a human bard named Lydia; Elfi was her character from Adam's A-Sundered-World-Using-Dungeons-And-Delvers campaign.

We're doing this over Google Hangouts, which has presented some difficulty describing things to the other players and making sure we're all on the same page. So I whipped up a bunch of illustrations and really nice maps, which I can always use in the adventure anyway. But, through actual play I've realized that there are some alterations that will hopefully make things more obvious to other players (namely clues for puzzle solutions).

Announcements

You can now get a physical copy of Dungeons & Delvers: Black Book in whatever format you want!

It look a lot longer than expected, but we finally released The Jinni. As with our other monstrous classes, this one is more faithful to the mythology (so don't go in expecting elemental-themed jinn).

After putting it to a vote, the next couple of classes on the docket are the warden (think 4E D&D warden) and apothecary (gotta go see what they're all about).

Dwarven Vault is our sixth 10+ Treasures volume. If you're interested in thirty dwarven magic items (including an eye that lets you shoot lasers) and nearly a dozen new bits of dungeon gear, check it out!

Just released our second adventure for A Sundered World, The Golden Spiral. If a snail-themed dungeon crawl is your oddly-specific thing, check it out!

By fan demand, we've mashed all of our 10+ Treasure volumes into one big magic item book, making it cheaper and more convenient to buy in print (which you can now do).