June 1st, 2024
Terra, Artis 2nd, 1194 (Continued)
We head back to town to rest the night and Ralzer buys a fly spell.
Forte, Artis 3rd, 1194
We head back to the portal in the ruins and find the mechanism to open the dais is jammed closed. Ty unjams it and finds some new writing within. There are three magic auras on the writing, the most powerful is of moderate strength (level 4-6). We determine that they could be explosive runes, glyph of warding (and greater), and symbol of ____. Sigmund dispels the strongest effect and we settle on using a scroll to summon a pony to trigger the other runes; the pony takes some massive sonic or force damage. There is now one magic aura left (moderate), but this one covers a much larger area.
The existence of these wards indicates that there is someone who does not want us to use this portal, so we will try to track the last person from the original meeting several days ago to find out where they came from.
Sigmund is able to track this individual to the ruins of a thorpe, which is similar in age and style to the other ruins. Atop a hill is a circle of six stones and a large pentagram; a lingering aura of overwhelming magic and evil is present, indicating either a powerful magic spell was cast or an artifact was here within the last several days.
As Graynor approaches, six babau emerge from the stones and attack. Judging from their extra power, we believe that they were mythic. One gets away via teleport, and the rest dissolve upon death.
After the combat, we have a chance to take a closer look and find evidence on the stone slab in the middle and on each pillar indicating that a sacrifice was performed here within the last two days. The pillars also have some Architect-like runes. Perhaps another Rite of Six Shadows was performed here, based on the presence of the babau.
We then head to revisit the barrow chamber that we explored on Artis first. We find the sarcophagus room resealed, the attendant is gone, the incorporeal hosts are gone and new, fresher bodies are stacked in the center of the pillar room.
We return to town to gather some information. We don’t find anything definite about more ruins in the swamp, but they may be deeper in. We find out that there used to be a fairly local druid, but they haven’t been seen for a few years. Their last down residence was about 50 miles southwest.
Bellum, Artis 4th, 1194
We sell and buy stuff with a traveling merchant. Graynor asks him to keep an eye out for the Warlord’s Valor set.