Legacy of the Patriarchs: Shadows in the glass and the Hidden Library
This is the third map for my Legacy of the Patriarchs campaign. See The City of Jimos, and The Hidden Library for more information. The map for this section was inspired by a Dyson Logos map the Howling Orc Bridge. With some bits from other Dyson maps I made my own version on a smaller scale.
Party:
Aliedar: Elf (demon blooded) Rogue
Edain: Human Bard
Siberius: Human Monk
Terramor: Human Cleric
Vall: Elf Ranger
Zodian: Elf (demon blooded) Warlock
With Odrum gone, the group decided to find some additional muscle before dealing with the rumors. Aliedar suggested a man named Siberius, a former bounty of his who had apparently reformed after being a criminal enforcer. After some persuasion, threats, and insults, Siberius agreed to join the group as they went beneath the plateau once again to track down where the troglodytes had come from.
According to the Kobold tribe, there were no troglodyte tribes living in the caverns beneath the plateau. There were a few other kobold tribes, some friendly and some not. The troglodytes had come up from somewhere below. The kobolds avoided the worked areas of the caves due to common encounters with No Ones.
With Vall following the troglodyte tracks, the group went deep beneath the plateau, eventually coming upon a tunnel that appeared to have been dug recently by some giant burrowing creature. This tunnel was the path in for the troglodytes. Following the tunnel, the group went out of the plateau and south, beneath the river.
The tunnel eventually reached daylight as the party came upon a section where one side of the tunnel appeared to be primal glass. Peering through, the party could see the Valley of Glass beyond the wall. Terramor took his hammer to the wall, busting out a hole large enough for the group to exit. Outside the group found a very surprised group of miners, including Denny, an elf, and a minotaur foreman named Kort.
Vall scouted ahead a bit more and found another cavern that the burrowed tunnel had passed through. This cavern also opened up to the valley of glass, far on the southern end.
While the group and the miners conversed about the shadows in the valley walls, the sound of cracking glass caught their attention. The miners fled the area just as two large forms emerged from a shattering wall across the valley. A huge dragon skeleton coated and pierced with primal glass pulled itself from the wall and attacked the group, the skeletal dragon was joined by a large draconic humanoid skeleton that was also coated in primal glass.
After dispatching the glass shadows the party debated taking some of the bones as trophies. Being knowledgeable about dragons, Vall warned the group that dragons are very protective of dragon remains. All dragons are taken to the dragon graveyard by another dragon tasked with escorting them there. Rather than risk being attacked by a dragon, the party left the bones in the valley. The miners allowed each of them to take a piece of primal glass roughly short sword size.
Following the tunnel to the south end of the valley, the party found a deep pit in the cavern at the end. Unwilling to risk going deeper, the party followed the troglodyte tracks that led out of the cavern and south from the valley. While they traveled they witnessed several odd events. Dragons and wyverns seemed to be flying around the mountains in great numbers, and a disturbing rumbling like a small earthquake passed beneath them while they walked.
As they were taking in the sign of something large burrowing beneath them, a voice caught their attention. A half-orc dropped from a nearby tree and asked the party about the rumbling. She introduced herself as Cayla, a half-orc scout from the orc tribes that patrol the valleys surrounding Jimos. She informed the party that similar rumblings have been heard for the past month or so, and they have been increasing in regularity. Dragon sightings had increased as well.
Cayla introduced the group to her scouting party. Hurt, a very muscular Elf, seemed to be the leader. The other members were Grut, an orc cleric, and Tom Icebeard who’s brother Delvin was a miner and stone mason back in the city. The party spent the night at the scout’s camp. In the interest of learning, Zodian and Vall collected supplies for Grut to make healing salve.
In the middle of the night Terramor found his armor more uncomfortable than usual, as ants had climbed out of the tree he was leaning against and found their way down toward his skin. While Terramor dealt with his predicament, laughter from above alerted the group to another presence. A small pseudodragon climbed down from the tree and introduced himself as Rigel.
Plied with food and entertainment, Rigel decided to stay with the party for a while.
Vall and Aliedar scouted the surrounding area and came across a trail of broken trees and large tracks. Rigel identified the tracks as belonging to a hydra. Judging by the trail, the hydra was heading toward Jimos. The party broke camp and headed back to warn the city. Along the way they grabbed the miners in the Valley of Glass, and used the troglodyte tunnel to return to the plateau.
The group stopped by the kobold den to warn the kobolds and the mithril miners what was coming. The kobolds and miners planned to stay in the den. While making their way from the den back to the surface the group noticed a light down one of the other tunnels they hadn’t explored yet. They decided to investigate.
The light was moving away, and led the group to a staircase heading down into several finished chambers. Aliedar and Vall tried to follow quietly, but Vall skipped a step and made enough noise that the group figured they had been heard. The rest of the group caught up and headed down. A rumbling noise from behind was the first ominous sign. The party backtracked to find the tunnel behind them blocked by a cave in.
With nowhere to go but forward, the group followed the staircase down. They followed the light through several galleries containing carvings over the walls. The carvings depicted scenes of battle between dragons and other great beasts.
The lowest gallery contained 16 statues as well as the carvings. Now the light was obvious as a small glowing ball floating about and passing through the statues. The party followed the wisp at a distance and Aliedar went ahead where he saw through the illusion of a wide cavern, and discovered a bridge crossing a deep chasm. On the bridge was a tiny dragon skeleton.
Before he could return to the party, the skeleton attacked. The skeleton and the wisp fought the party on the bridge and Terramor was knocked off into the ravine, only to be saved by a spider web below. Dealing with the undead and the spiders, the group assessed the problem of Terramor at the bottom of the chasm. The cleric could see a tunnel leading somewhere back up. There was a chamber with a blue glow. Aliedar scouted ahead to try and find a way down.
He passed through a small crypt and into a hallway with three other exits. At the end of the hall, the group found a library with a dragon skull suspended by large chains. When they neared the room the skull burst into flame and yelled INTRUDERS! (draconic). Once they defeated the skull, the party went back to retrieving Terramor.
Siberius found an obscured tunnel leading out of the library. Zodian turned Rigel invisible and had him scout. He reported a small tunnel leading to a chamber and another small tunnel before hitting a wall. The party decided to save that tunnel for later. Rigel retrieved the bones of the dragon skeleton and stored them in an extra sack he borrowed from the party.
The party decided to rest in the library. Zodian found a tablet with an ioun stone embedded in it. The rest was cut short when the party discovered that the flaming skull kept returning. After defeating the skull a second time, the group headed down another staircase from the connecting hall. They discovered an old alchemy lab with a large pit. In the pit they found a secret door leading to another hallway.
Rather than press forward, the group decided that they should rest. They returned to the art gallery where they figured any attack would come from deeper in since the cave in protected them from behind. In the middle of the night the group was attacked by a flood of disembodied skeletal hands. After dealing with the waking nightmare the group returned to an uneasy sleep.
After sleeping they went back to examine the artwork. There were scenes of some great Draconic battle but none of them knew any specifics about the battle pictured. It was too far in the past. When the party asked Rigel he was at a loss as well, but he did make a comment that one of the pictures looked like his father.
The statues in the lowest gallery all had a medallion carved on their chest, a member of the party recognized the medallion, but kept the information to himself for the time being. Names carved at the foot of each statue matched names carved in the crypt. Aliedar examined the crypt and discovered that the seal stones had been moved before. The party opened two of them and found prepared draconic humanoid bodies with the funeral wrappings disturbed around the neck.
Beneath the alchemy lab the party found a secret shrine with Draconic writing on the walls and altar. A Dragonborn, or other reptilian humanoid, skeleton was in the room. Rigel didn't like it. The skeleton and room felt wrong. He mentioned abomination, blasphemy, not quite Draconic. The left arm of the skeleton had been disturbed. Sections of the writing on the walls appeared melted and chipped away as if the writing had exploded. Terramor, Vall, & Rigel pieced together the word father repeating around the room. The writing appeared to be poems, prayers, etc. Vall found a medallion hidden in the shrine that matched those on the statues. Aliedar tested it. The medallion gave passage to the library. The Draconic skull referred to him as librarian.
Beneath the shrine the group found caverns and tunnels that connected back to where Terramor had fallen. The group fought a water weird guarding a pool filled with coins, and found the blue glowing chamber Terramor had seen. Zodian put some of the moss in a vial.
Finding no other rooms or exits, the party returned to the library. Now that the flaming skull allowed passage, the party examined the contents more carefully. The shelves contained stone and clay tablets, and ancient scrolls that would need to be unrolled with care. Having no good means to examine the scrolls, the party stuck to the tablets.
The library contained sections on history, medicine, religion, a few random pieces, and a large section on magic. Digging into the history, the party discovered more information about a great war that covered much of the world while the gods were distracted fighting among themselves. The people who built this city were fighting an overwhelming foe, and had built this place to study a solution. They found the name for the original city, Shochraos. Vall and Rigel were able to identify the place as the city of Letreachas, The Dragon of Thunder, one of the Dragon Patriarchs.
Rigel listed the patriarchs as:
Dotain- The Great Flame
Letreachas- The Dragon of Thunder
Seneis- The Great Song
Aiged- The Devourer
Fuar- The Frozen One
Pierken- The Greatest of the Small
He made a point of mentioning that Pierken is usually forgotten when people list the patriarchs since Pierken was the first pseudodragon. Also since Pierken is now one of the three dragon gods his role as one of the original patriarchs is often forgotten.
Vall followed the tunnel out of the library and encountered a gibbering mouther. Stealth and invisibility allowed him to go without being noticed. Zodian used an illusion to draw the thing into the library where it was easier to fight.
At the end of the tunnel was a wall that Aliedar deduced was a secret door. On the other side the group found four shocker lizards that attacked immediately. The room contained food, water, and a few toys. Apparently these lizards were kept as pets or guards.
In the chambers beyond, the party found more than they wanted. Several members of the party recognized the chambers beyond, or at least their meaning. The party had stumbled into the hideout of a secret cult beneath the city. Siberius, Aliedar, and Zodian seemed the most interested in what was going on, but with differing ideas about what to do. In the end the party made their way to the exit rather than exploring the hideout. Siberius kept a robe and mask from the cult while Aliedar kept a strange medallion that went with the outfit.
The exit led to the basement of the Beacon Tavern, owned by Tully Winferd. With a combination of magic, stealth, and distractions, the party made their way out apparently unnoticed.
With their narrow escape from the tavern, the party decided that it was time to relax after all their recent exploits. Vall and Zodian suggested a trip to the Relaxing Embrace Bathhouse and Inn run by Twyla Diamondice. Twyla’s daughter Anna met them at the front desk and gave them a friend discount because of Vall. The party enjoyed a warm meal, complete with Edain debuting a song in honor of Odrum. After the meal they went to the hot spring where they ran into Hurt and Cayla.
The party shared their experience after the cave in, and the scouts reported on what was happening above. The scouts had kept an eye out for the past few days, but no hydra had shown up. Since they were in the city they decided to take some time and relax. After a long bath the party retired. Some went home, others decided to get rooms for the night and continue relaxing.
About the Author:
Stephen Mayo lives in Montana with his wife, daughter, corgi, and three cats.
You can keep in touch with him on Facebook and Twitter. Find more on his podcast A Side of Mayo. If you enjoyed reading this consider buying him a coffee or supporting him on Patreon.
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