Dragon Encounter
The last encounter before finding the Caverns is a set skirmish between orcs and hobgoblins.
As you travel west towards the point marked on the map you crest a rise. Before you is a valley. In the far distance a line of trees mark the edges of a vast forest. In the foreground below, a series of stone formations jut into the sky. One clearly stands far higher than its neighbours.
Yes! It's true!" Pippi cries. "It's the tallest tower, the one in the scroll! We just have to find the blackest stone!"
"Read the translation again, little one" asks Balor.
Pippi recites: "To enter the I, seek the blackest stone under the tallest tower and tap thrice with cold steel magic enabled."
Balor says "I still have this ring," he holds up a plain looking ring with a single black stone. "My cousin thinks it gives any weapon held by the hand wearing it the powers of silvered weapons. I'll try tapping the stone with my mace."
[Group discussion]
A path of sorts leads down into the valley. About two thirds of the way down, however, you hear sounds of combat. A clump of boulders offers a hidden vantage point, giving you a view of a battle: about 15 orcs and 10 hobgoblins are fighting on the valley floor two bowshots west. A number of dead and injured litter the ground.
[Roll perception]
Before any action can be taken the party senses something moving in one of the mesas. Emerging as if from the rock itself, about ten bowshots away is a huge black dragon. It launches itself into the sky and swoops down towards the battle below. Few of the combatants see it coming, and fewer still manage to run before vast flames cover the scene.
The creature flies past the battle, then turns and slowly lands it huge bulk amongst the carnage. It has a long, thin tapering body, a pointed tail, leathery wings, large fangs a long jet black neck and spiked ridges along its back.
It starts to eat.
What do you do?
After eating its fill, it scoops up a number of the remaining bodies and returns to its lair, seemingly flying at speed straight into the hard rock formation.*
The Caverns
When you tap the stone three times with your weapon, there is a loud 'click' and the stone is able to be pushed upwards. Doing so reveals a door in the nearby rock which can soundlessly be pushed open.
Cavern Entrance
The caverns are natural cave formations that have been connected by sentient hands. The individual chambers are tied by broad tunnels 6' wide and 12' high. In places the tunnels are natural but with well fashioned floors, level and smooth. The tunnels are predominantly hewn through the mountain however.
Inside is a large (80' long and 15' narrow) natural chamber. A small amount of natural light enters from some very small openings high in the middle of the roof (40'). Directly below the openings in the middle of the roof a concave circular pit appears. A natural opening lies two thirds of the way down the south wall.
While the walls of the Cavern Entrance are are roughly hewn rock, the floors are smooth, flat and even. The detritus of many years covers the ground, and in the pit under the openings in the roof a few sparse plants have taken root. Layers of bat droppings cover the floor.
Six old and heavily damages statues are set equidistant around the chamber wall.
While once obviously a place of ritual, the chamber has the look of a space given over to nature.
On closer inspection the pit has tiers around the edges - two even steps around the pit edge.
The statues are 6 feet high and in varying states of destruction. Broken limbs and heads are scattered around each of the statues, lying where they fell. They appear to be images of famous Namers, but no names or means of identifying them are apparent. It is not apparent what caused the damage to the statues.
There are two exits from the Cavern entrance. The first is the tunnel opening easily seen on the south wall.
After the party has met Orobas, the party will be aware of a secret passage eight feet to the left of the single statue on the east wall, the door to which is triggered by replicating the unlocking mechanism at the main entrance: taping a white knob on the uneven wall six times with the weapon.
The cave roof is home to 250 bats. Unless they are provoked, the bats will not attack the party, but if provoked will avoid fire and light at all costs.
Chamber 1
This chamber is large, 40'x50'. There are the rotten remains of tables and chairs, tapestries and paintings on the wall.
There is a rack with a number of rusty weapons, all beyond repair.
If the amulet is being worn, the wearer will have a vision of at least sixty humans, elves and halflings having a feast at the table.
Trap 1
Triggered by footsteps, halfway, along the 60' tunnel, a rumbling sound happens. characters who a quick enough (perception + 60 or less) will be able to avoid rocks tumbling from the roof. Those who don't avoid take D-2 damage.
Chamber 3
The door is unlocked, and opens into a huge room, 80'x50' which appears to be the scene of an ancient battle. Skeletons in rusted armour and rusted and broken weapons litter the floor.
*As the amulet wearer sees a vision of a severly injured human in the room, now with the fresh bodies of twenty soldiers and a golem crumbling to dust, casting a spell into a small (1' high) statue, the skeletons begin to raise themselves.
Chamber 4
Door is locked.
The door can be opened by a thief as the wood is crumbling and can be forced open. If the party dithers, Balor will smash through the door with his mace.
This room is just 15'x20' and contains a number of chests:
- Small chest filled with mixed gems (value 200 gp)
- Small chest with 600 gp
- Medium sized chest with 5000 sp
Trap 2
This trap is triggered by the doors to Chamber 5 if they are tried to be opened by anyone who does not hold the Namers Ring.
Chamber 5
Tall double doors, wrought of steel with images of a horse inlaid in silver stand at the end of the tunnel. It is locked and impervious to any force or spell of opening.
If a character or NPC is wearing the amulet with two inset rubies, they will experience the following vision:
An old woman, with a sword at her belt and a staff in her hand, stands before the open doors. A great black stallion with bright red mane and tail nuzzles the woman's neck.
"Thank you Prince Orobas," the woman says. "No one will enter the chamber without this ring. Farewell."
The stallion rears up on its hind legs, and retreats into the chamber. The doors close silently and silver-blue light pulses around the door's outline for a few seconds before fading. The woman holds takes the ring from her finger and places her hand to the door, head bowed.
The image fades.
[Group discussion]
As soon as the ring touches the doors, there is a flash of blueish silver and they swing silently open.
Torches flare around the walls, clearly lighting a square chamber, 30' x 30'. The room is empty with no furnishings.
When the ring enters the room:
Cold blue flames burst from the floor in the shape of a large pentacle. Within seconds a mighty black stallion appears in the centre of the pentacle. It has a firey red mane and tail.
"We should be alright as long as the pentacle stands," Balor says.
The flames gradually die down to nothing, and are gone.
The Stallion looks directly at Pippy (the ring-bearer) "You are a long time coming, Namer. Magdella expected it be no more than a generation at least, and here we are, twelve generations gone."
"What you seek, you will find in the chamber at the end of the north tunnel. The entrance you will find only when the amulet shows the way in the entry hall. When the gargoyles appear, close your eyes and they shall retreat."
"Two questions, I will give you, Namer."
Prince Orobas, The Equine Prince, will answer two questions only from the ring bearer, then will disappear.
Pippy says: "Prince Orobas, why did Magdella go to all this trouble? Why hide the secrets of the Naming Incantations College?"
Prince Orobas replies: "There is trouble in the Namers College, have you not witnessed this? There are some in the College, grown very powerful now, who have aligned themselves with the Entities magics."
Pippy's second question: "Will you aid me, for as you see, I am not yet even an adventurer in the eyes of the guild?"
And Orobas replies: "Send your friends away and I shall share with you."
Orobas will share:
- The Individual True Names of the five leaders of the Namers who are in league with the Entities.
- The Individual True Name of the Black Dragon Araxis, who lives in the rock formations of the valley. But only on condition that Pippy fulfill the current quest for the keep of the source, and be an adventurer before sharing her secret with her fellows.
Chamber 2
There is no door to this 20'x20' chamber. On a clear table in the centre of the chamber are some appealingly placed items. There is a weathered tapestry depicting a mountain-top in a storm on the far wall opposite the entrance:
On the table are:
- a scroll
- a silvered estoc (+ 10%, plus 20% against dragons)
- a gold ring (absorbs half damage done to fatigue every 24-hour period to a maximum of 10)
Beneath a tapestry on the wall is a (non magical) silvered broadsword. The tapestry turns to dust if touched.
Trap 3
Twenty-six gargoyles descend screeching from hidden caves in the roof when any item in the chamber is touched.
Dragon and landscape pictures courtesy of pixabay.com