Tuesday, June 12, 2018

The Throne Room

It is a six-hour journey for the party to retrace the steps that Embla and Lothar took to find the throne room ... and arriving there, the party leaves behind the cavern they've been next to for days now.  This cavern climbs and narrows, until the party moves through an excavated hole in the cavern's end (at least, the natural end in this corner of the unknown overall space.

I have given something of a description before.  The walls are covered, Egyptian-like, with an ongoing story of driving humans through tunnels and down vertical shafts, until reaching a cliff, where apparently they are thrown off.  The images are disturbing, with many carvings of humans falling along the journey, being whipped by froglings, or beaten, or dragged like animals, or put in cages which themselves are dragged along.  There are images of humans who have apparently died or been killed, being feasted on by froglings.  The images are mostly three to four feet high, in panels that circle the throne room, in four circles that are stacked progressively up the walls.  Apparently, the driving of victims to the bottom of the dungeon was a large part of the frogling's lives, and apparently they received a great deal of satisfaction in doing it and in depicting it to their own glory.  The walls are most unpleasant to view.

Mikael will probably ready his comprehend languages spell; normally, I should get a cue from him, but with the blog-format we can just go there.  There is not as much to learn from the panels as might be desired.  Repeatedly, however, he gets two pieces of knowledge.

The first is that there are many references to "the great mother."  Depictions next to the words on many places suggest that the great mother was more of a toad than a frog, at least three times taller than a frogling (which may mean importance rather than physical size, or even both).  The mother apparently gave birth to the frogling race.  The words and inflections speak very respectfully, even lovingly, of the mother.

The second is a reference to "the mother's sin" and the "repayment for the sin."  This seems to have something to do with the ritual killing.  There are words associated with this that describe an underworld, and "the ponds of heroes," and finally, "the tribute takers."  This is not as clear as one might like.

50 comments:

Unknown said...

I have no problem with you assuming I would use it.

Practically speaking, I would like to unload and prepare a camp.

However, we should have a discussion about this alongside Lothar's vision. But I would like to send off the porters before going further

Rob Munro said...

We cannot send off the potters without a proper escort.

Maybe Fjall, Valda and Willa?

Alexis Smolensk said...

[Please don't hold back an emotional impression of what you're seeing. I've been reading backlogs of the old campaign and I think there's a tendency to withhold feedback in the interest of "getting to the point." Sharing with other party members what you're feeling helps others construct their own actions]

I had meant to add, for Lothar ...

He will feel a dread certainty that the cliff in the image is the same as the one in his vision. He will feel compelled to look at the palm of his hand, the one he used to gather the small wisp, and will see a slight blue movement that quickly evaporates.

Unknown said...

So for me...while we knew ritual sacrifices were going on, and that they reveled in it (see monument for the frogling who always got the sacrifices where they needed to go), it is very different realizibg it seems to have been a core tenet in their culture and religion. And that lake keeps coming up.

Rob Munro said...

Well, i can't wait for Hamish workers to put their hammer to all this dreadful carving. I might even be tempted to borrow engelhart's maul to give it a go myself if I have the time and energy ; starting with this disgusting "great mother".

I am not sure I want to dwell to long on the sort of "sin" it commuted to have to pay such a gruesome price. A price they armed to enjoy paying anyway...

Alexis Smolensk said...

Quiet.

Engelhart Askjellson said...

I am in awe. That a whole race of creatures might have had as foundational belief the unremitting slaughter of our kind.

I exchange a glance with Munro, who I have not known for long, and I wordlessly pass him my hammer.

I then get about task. Aim me true for the most abhorrent piece, DM, we are _not_ resting in a place that glorifies the wanton slaughter of kith and kin without striking back a blow for their memory.

Alexis Smolensk said...

You can knock some chips out of the wall, but the images are not carved all that deep and you could spend 60 years defacing this.

Rob Munro said...

I thank Engelhart and strike at the head of the most hideous carvings. We'll all sleep better with less of these pair of eyes on us.

Lothar Svensson said...

Oh man. I am worried now about the psychological effects of setting up a camp here.

How far is it from here to the cliff? What exits are available from this room? I'd like to keep moving to put this disquiet to rest, and see what might be done for the souls trapped in the lake.

Alexis Smolensk said...

I had said it before but I left it out of the description above. There are two tall thrones, and between the thrones there is a passageway that Embla and Lothar never did explore.

Unknown said...

While this room is disturbing, to say the least, I am loathe to go further in, loaded up as we are and with three non-combatants to boot. Seeing to their safety comes first. We should drop our stuff here, eat, send the porters with two of Valda, Willa and Fjall, and explore a bit. The two that go with the porters can come back with additional supplies.

Alexis Smolensk said...

Lothar, you feel intuitively that the cliff is three days from here.

I have two votes for camping here and two votes for sending the porters back with the three hirelings. Could you please, if this is the plan, stipulate their orders and what you want them to do once they return to the surface.

I have one vote against camping here. Engelhart seems on the fence.

Rob Munro said...

During the day, I would have asked Engelhart for further healing as my injury is still active ( only 2hp left to heal ) and I am also wounded beyond that

Unknown said...

If Lothar thinks the lake is 3 days away, we may need more food and we probably need more water, as we will be here a week at least.

I would have the hirelings grab food, water and any other supplies we may need on their way back.

Alexis Smolensk said...

For game purposes, do not count "wounds" unless you're actually bleeding from them. Engelhart cleared up Rob's injury; a former wound that is not bleeding should be counted as a laceration (in the process of sealing) or scar (has healed). It just reduces confusion.

Alexis Smolensk said...

Depending on how many of you remain to continue the march, the food you have should be sufficient for a long journey. You have 400 lbs. of food, yes? Or thereabouts. As the five of you eat 20 lbs. a day when you march, and up to 30 lbs. if you get into a fight, 300 lbs. is enough to sustain you from 10 to 15 days.

Valda will express a thought. "If you wish to set up another cache of food further into the tunnel, you will need someone to go with you that can turn back to communicate with the cache you set up here. As well, what's to stop vermin from eating whatever cache you leave in this room?"

Alexis Smolensk said...

[you could just let the vermin at it; chances are you would lose a percentage of the food left behind, but not all of it. Even a group of rats could not eat their way through three hundred pounds of food]

Engelhart Askjellson said...

Nay, Rob, I casted Aid before we turned in at our last stop on the cliff edge. It grants back a *minimum* of 12 hp. You're shiny as new.

Let us at least drop our load here and explore the passageway. It might lead to a less unsavoury place where we can camp more at ease.

I grab the light and descend the passageway. Gather up behind me, friends.

Unknown said...

Let's handle the porters and hirelings before we head off, no? I say send two with the porters, bring one with us to help carry food.

When the two come back from helping the porters, they can set up this camp so we have a safe place to return to. We will lose some food to vermin, but that is okay.

And we have been traveling a fair bit already, so lets get a hot meal in before going.

Engelhart Askjellson said...

I still take a glance down the passageway, just as a perimeter-defining precaution. Does anything jump out, Alexis, or are we safe to sate our hunger?

Alexis Smolensk said...

Porters, hirelings and party will need to eat 4 lbs. of food today; that's 44 lbs. altogether.

Alexis Smolensk said...

Embla can give a better proximity warning; she senses nothing by sound or smell to suggest that there is anything out there.

The floor of the cave is clean and very, very slightly damp. The roof is about 40 to 60 feet above you; Lothar, the caver, suggests that the ceiling probably sweats a small amount of water, so that the room has too high a humidity to be dusty. The feeling the party has is that it is cool, very slightly but not unpleasantly dank, a typical "dry" cave.

Rob Munro said...

[food decrease noted.]

If we send the 3 porters and 2 followers to accompany them, they'll need enough food to get to the surface (3 day march). That would constitute 60lbs. of food.

That leaves us with 261 lbs. of food for 6 people. So enough for 10 days of march. A fight would reduce that number.

If we presume that we'll spend some time at the lake that is 3 days from here, the porters will need 9 days to come back with new supplies (that means we spend 6 days at the lake).

Could each of you send me how much each of you is able / willing to burden himself with during our march to ? [keep in mind you shouldn't get under 3AP ]

I can carry up to 30lbs. of supplies.

Unknown said...

I can only carry 10 lbs. (I want to maintain 4 AP). If this is not possible, increase to 26 lbs.

So yes, the hirelings should bring back food. Just in case.

Engelhart Askjellson said...

I wouldn't sweat the calculator until we can be sure of how long a detour we will take with the passage in this throne room.

Alexis Smolensk said...

Don't count that as a 3-day march. Empty, without equipment, the distance to the surface is only 10 miles. That means it can be managed in a day. They can resupply on the surface, so they only need one day's worth of food.

At 3 AP, it took 16 hours to get to this room from the surface.

Lothar Svensson said...

In addition to my normal kit I can carry about 20 lbs, which leaves 10 lbs for food after I figure in my two waterskins (when full).

Engelhart Askjellson said...

I do say we send back the porters plus escort with 3 pounds apiece, but, again, stress that whoever we detach to escort them might come in handy should any confrontation arise while exploring the above-mentioned passage. They are not my retainers, however.

Lothar Svensson said...

I would feel safer leaving Fjall and Valda to oversee/escort the resupply crew than dragging them with us into the unknown. While potentially useful in a fight, they would be better served keeping us fighting folk supplied with food.

Leaving a cache of food here and having the porters/hirelings restocking us to fuel deeper forays sounds like a good idea to me. As we establish safe zones further in we can haul additional food forward as necessary.

Alexis, is there a way we could get a donkey down here to haul food too?

Alexis Smolensk said...

Now that the planks have been put across the gap, yes, a donkey could manage the journey, as it has been wide ledges throughout, with no other serious obstructions. The porters have no experience with animals, however. I do not remember if any of the hirelings do.

Unknown said...

I second Lothar's plan.

Engelhart Askjellson said...

Okay, I third it. Let us eat and send the men on their way.

Alexis Smolensk said...

Stipulated [which I'll start using to indicate a decision that has been made, so we can move on]: Valda and Fjall, plus the porters, will head back to the surface with 15 lb. of food total. IF no one has experience with a donkey, they'll carry back as much food as they are able.

Is there any other equipment/tools/resources you'd like them to bring?

Rob Munro said...

I second Lothar's plan, as long as one of the hireling has eperience with animals.

With the revised timetable for the group going back to the surface, we have 286lbs. of food left. That's enough for almost 12 days of walking.

We, however, aren't able to carry all this food (let's not even mention the blankets and charcoal and the rest ... ). Without an idea of how much Engelhart and Embla can carry when they have their armor and weapons on, I can't say how much we can take with us and how much we have to put in a cache.

I'd suggest we want them to bring food, water, fuel for the lanterns and maybe a couple ropes (in cade the cliff is bigger than expected).



Alexis Smolensk said...

Willa can attend the party, with her bow, taking 67 lbs. with her. If you eat her food, when she is unburdened, she can head back alone to the first cache, meet up with the porters and her other companions, then start building a second cache at the place where Willa and the party separate.

Engelhart Askjellson said...

Definitely extra rope. But other than that, we're still very much groping about.

I reassert that we should delay their departure until we map the adjoining passage. It might even have treasure or something else for the porters to carry back out.

Unknown said...

It is a 3 day trip, so you want to keep the porters here and feed them for 6 days? Seems a huge ask to me. If we need porters again, someone will run and bring some back. There is other work going on.

Rob Munro said...

[Its a 17 mile trip to the cliff, It'll only take 1.5 days to get there if we are at 4AP. (presuming similar altitude change as what we experience until now) ; if we are all at 5AP (which will be very hard for me), we'll make it in a day.

In any case, we can still explore for a a day before we send them (sending Willa to give them the OK to go.
]

Engelhart Askjellson said...

No, definitely not as long! Just a half hour until we determine the presence or absence of additional rooms in the immediate vicinity. There was talk of a "bone room", where I presume we will find the walls decked floor to ceiling with remains.

Engelhart Askjellson said...

I mean, pondering the logistics, would it not be a little odd to have a *throne* room hours away from everything else and not a single support chamber?

Rob Munro said...

Sure. A couple hours of exploration in the morning before we send off the porters and their escort then?

Unknown said...

Sure, we can make them stick around for a little bit while we get the lay of the land. But I'd like to get moving towards the lake, as that seems the most pressing issue.

Lothar Svensson said...

[Trying to look back through old posts, I can't find anything that says Fjall or Valda had experience with animals, but I don't know what their backgrounds said. I feel like one of the hirelings had some skill with animals, but I can't remember who.]

They've got to rest before heading out anyway, might as well let them hang around for a bit while we scout the immediate environs.

Rob Munro said...

Ok, so everyone [but Embla, who is not responding at the moment?] agrees that after we sleep we go explore the passage between the thrones for a couple hours.

Alexis Smolensk said...

I can see the players are really struggling with the perameters here. Let me explain.

FIRST, it will take the porters 2 and a half days to get to the surface and back, plus half a day to organize supplies. That's three days just to get back to the throne room.

Willa may not actually travel all three days to the cliff. After two days at 3AP, the six of you will eat 48 pounds of food, assuming you don't fight anything. That will leave her with 19 lbs of food; some which she can set down, as the start of a cache, and 8 lbs. she will need to get back to the throne room. Since, then, she will be less encumbered, it will take her a day and a bit to get back. That means the porters and her, under ideal conditions, with both arrive in the throne room within hours of each other.

I suggest you stop assuming that One Day = a Set Distance. Each day that you travel anywhere will always lighten your load, making you go faster and faster. You should plan for that.

At 3AP, it would be a 17 to 21 mile trip to the cliff. The exact distance is uncertain.

If you want to try to make it to the cliff in a day, at 5 AP, that's fine, but no one can really carry any food to help you get there; Willa could travel light, get to a place in the tunnel without carrying your food, then set that as the second cache point.

Alexis Smolensk said...

Engelhart, the Bone Room was the first room you saw before meeting the ticks. Remember that room?

Unknown said...

I don't think that is what is holding us up. I believe this is our course of action:

1. We (players, hirelings, porters) sleep in the throne room.
2. The players scout around, seeing what the immediate area of the throne room is like.
3. Once the players and Willa decide to head to the lake, the porters leave with Fjall and Valda.
4. Fjall and Valda grab supplies and come back to the throne room, awaiting our return.

Rob Munro said...

[Thank you for the clarification Alexis. And yes, I realised that stripping down to 5 AP to get there fast would mean going without supply. Anyway, I agree with Mikael that this is indeed our planned course of action.]

Alexis Smolensk said...

[Mikael, it may not be holding you up, but I find I am having to correct wild assertions about time and food use more often than I'd like]

The next post is up. Stipulated that the return party has left; and that the exploring party is moving at 5 AP while they have a quick look around. No harm befalls the party at this time.