Arrival at the King's Tree

Date: 15/09/3022
Time of Day: Sundrake 6pm
 
We headed out from the village at 3pm, the group purchased a few items they needed before we left:
- Hadozee Tyrrion bought some daggers for throwing.
- Human Atom bought some herbal remedies, he reminded me that they were healthy because they were natural, I then reminded him that arsenic was also natural.
 
It did not take long to make it to the Kings Tree, it turns out it is not a tree but an old building, abandoned seemingly for a long time, the was a small enclosed area near it fill with what looked and sounded like sheep, and a small ruin near the King's Tree which seemed to be filled with pools of mist.
 
As we traversed our way to the ruins the Hadozee Tyrrion took to the trees, aided by the Human Atom, The trees looked weak but he managed to move around with ease, we did lose sight of him for a moment but we were quickly reunited. Looking over the land, this is Distel's territory, his lands are known for the livelyness and healthiness, the ability to produce fine crops and grazing for animals, this area however it seems like it's between life and death, the grass amber in colour crunching under foot, the skies darker even when normally it is bright at this time usually. There is an unpleasent feel here, a necromantic energy permeates the area.
 
The Owlin announces to the group that he does not believe we are alone, something is moving in the mists but it looks too smooth to be someone walking. I suggested we make light but the group insisted it might not be the best idea.
 
Atom went to the door for the King's Tree, made of a n od combination of wood and stone, he stood there for a moment before taking out the old tech he had shown before and turning to me, I asked him at the time what was wrong, he mentioned that he had felt some sort of wind or presence that felt unnatural but it had passed. He then went to unlock the door when the sound of a bell rang out twice, a figure appeared from the trees to our right:
- Height: Around 5' tall
- Holding: In one hand a bell, the other hand a curved blade that was used to ring the bell
- Clothing: Tattered rags of a cloak
- Face: Some protuding spikes, their eyes glowed green, their skin grey with strikes of white
- Build: Humanoid in nature, but the body was completely limp/in a relaxed state
- Movement: As they moved they seems to be pulled along with as if by some force, their feet dragging through the air
 
They reacted to sound as I and Atom made ourselves known, it approached Atom then myself, to Atom it handed them a torch and flint stone, and the same to myself, the torch was unlike ones I've seen before, atop the torch wraped in a cloth like material was 3 stones, spherical in design. The figure made a lighting action with the flint to both of us before handing it to us. It then nodded, seemingly pleased with it self before it took out the bell and blade once more, struck it twice, turning invsible before leaving. I traced its movement through the mists for a bit until it left line of sight.
 
Atom lit the torch, but instead of flame the rocks lit up instead, I inturn lit mine placing it on my pack, although not a bright light it was a solid light, wam to the touch, and if only slightly a feeling of safety.
 
We then proceeded to the door, Atom unlocked it with ease. We were greeted to the sight of a mostly collapsed interior, the only path was that heading down to the lower levels.
 
We discussed our marching order for a moment, Tyrrion mentioned he was used to scouting ahead but felt he was having a bit of an off day, he moved forward first, followed by Atom and Elaxidor, I held up the rear. Heading down we descended 60ft, halfway down the materials changed from wood to stone and the stairs became steeper in construction. when we made it to the bottom we were greated by a small room:
- The remains of a small fire.
- An old backpack, excavating tools, a small crystal bottle with red fluid, Tyrrion revealed to me that is was most certainly not just alcohol, and upon closer inspection I found it to be a minor healing potion flavoured with brandy, which I hand back.
- A portcullis, however beyond the bars it had collapsed.
- A stone door and a lever next to it.
- A thick layer of dust over everything.
- Torches light the room, they are of the same design as the ones we were provided by the entity outside the King's Tree.
- 10ft from floor to ceiling
 
Atom revels his small companion to the rest of the group, it is an Automaton, he calls it Axel, it does not seem capable of speach but it seems sturdy in construction:
- Name: Axel
- Height: Approximately X'X"
- Appearance: A small humanoid.
 
We move into the room once it is secured by Tyrrion. Tyrrion then goes to pull the lever, with the horrendous sound of grinding and scraping the stone door lifted to reveal an unlit corridor which appeared to lead off in 3 other directions:
- Forward: A stone door like the one just opened.
- Left: A portcullis and a corridor leading to somewhere.
- Right: Opens up to a small room, 3 sarcophagus at the end 1 which is open, in the middle a brazier with stone logs a body lying by it, 1 door on the left and 1 door on the right. By the entrance a statue of a kingly man ordaned with a crown but the face left purposely featureless.
 
Tyrrion becons to us to move into the corridor slowly, warning us of the presence of humanoids further in, I stay outside with the automaton to insure they are not heard. But moments later Tyrrion strikes one with a dagger. A fight ensures.
 
Report of the Fight with undead creatures:
- 0:06 - Tyrrion runs in, the sound of hits can be heard and then moments later he returns, rotten gore covering his hands.
- 0:12 - Atom then heads in, old tech in hand, followed by his automaton companion, moments later a loud explosion echos throughout the rooms.
- 0:18 - Elaxidor takes out the long weapon tech he had shown before and makes an attack, another loud explosion echos out again, with Tyrrion exclaiming about the noise ruining his ability to assassinate people?
- 0:24 - I then make my way into the room and assume a defensive stance.
- 0:30 - As the walking corpses appraoch the light from the torches seem to burn them, blue flames begin to errupt from them but they seemingly pay not attention to it, they strike at myself, Atom and Axel but none of the attacks hit their mark.
- 0:36- Tyrrion runs past and makes it behind the walking corpses, and with a flurry of punches takes down one of the walking corpses, which when it collapses turns to dust. Collecting his blade from the pile.
- 0:42 - The fire covers one of the walking corpses and it collapses to the ground turning to dust, Atom then takes another shot hitting and wounding another walking corpse before wafting the torch in its face, the flames become more present.
- 0:48 - The flames burn a walking corpse to the left of myself, and with this advantage I manage to strike it down and another infront of Atom.
- 0:54 - Elaxidor goes in to strike with a blade but fataly misses.
- 1:00 - The remaining walking corpses attack the Elaxidor and Axel, missing the automaton but making a hit against the Owlin.
- 1:06 - Another fierce flurry of attacks from Tyrrion takes out a walking corpse.
- 1:12 - And with the last shot, Atom finishes off the last walking corpse.
 
We investigate the room for a moment and rest for a moment, Atom then moves to the door right of where we came in from:
- A corpse impaled by a spear originating from the wall, an old trap it seems, Atom goes to disarm it but it appears it has been fully set off and is now safe.
- An ornate sarcophagi, upon inspection and removal of lid, it appears to be empty.
 
Atom then inspects the body next to the brazier before lighting the brazier with the torch, The body is mostly bones with scraps of flesh, it seems to be holding a flint similar to the ones we received as if he were trying to light the brazier and in the other hand a scroll, which Atom hands to be, it seems to have a prayer written on it, both me and Atom identify it as a healing miracle but niether of us can use it.
 
Tyrrion then heads into the door on the left of where we entered, finding another ornate sarcophagi, ordaned with what Atom posits are wards of protection and those that criple or impede the undead, around the room is inscriptions of old and forgotten languages, which upon closer inspection I am able to understand as talking/discussing the one who ruled before the dragonlords, the Unnamed King/Nameless King, suggesting that these ruins are at best 2,000 years old, for such time to have passed and them to be in such good condition is extraordinary.
 
Atom attempts to pry the gems off the sarcophagi which seeminly wakes/sets of the wards as the symbols around the room begin to glow a shade of red. A wight in ornate knightly armour jumps from the sarcophagi the lid in turn hiting and kicking both Tyrrion and Atom to the ground.
 
Report of the Fight: with undead creature:
- 0:00 - The wight strikes at Atom hitting with its two attacks.
- 0:06 - Elaxidor makes an attack with his old tech taking out a big chunk.
- 0:12 - The wight strikes Atom again hitting with both.
- 0:18 - I went in for the attack hitting with both my strikes.
- 0:24 - With a flourish of kicks Tyrrion takes out crushes the head of the wight.
 
After healing himself with the herbs he had bought as well as using a bit of his arcane energies, Atom picks himself up and investigates the sarcophagi finding:
- A small wallet - Handed to Tyrrion containing 15 or so gold peices
- A shortsword inlaid with silver - Handed to me, Hakesh. It is ornate but not magical properties
- A shortsword scabbard - Handed to me, Hakesh, It is ornate but not magical properties
- The 4 gems (50gp) which Atom goes to take out, but Tyrrion manages to get this done before Atom has time to react.
 
We then headed out back to the portcullis, Atom was able to open it up, judging by the protest of the mechanism this has not been maintained or used in quite a while, but it still works so that is something of note. behind which were a lot of cobwebs, who knows what the spiders eat but they certainly seem active, Atom sent his companion though to check the way ahead and to remove some of the cobwebs.
 
As we enter we find more sarcophagi, as opposed to the other rooms we have entered the spiders have deffinately made a nest here but we have yet to deal with anything of an arachnid nature, did they die and leave them behind or have they moved elsewhere?
 
upon entering the room to the right it appears to be like that of a small chapel, and along with that another statue of similar design another faceless king. Looking over the sarcophagi Atom suggests openeing them up and while this may be greed talking, and he is quite open with his penchant for shiney gems, I believe this might be a good idea to ensure we don't encounter more undead by surprise. moving further into the room there are alcoves which store more sarcophagi. a brazier, of similar design to ones we have seen before, it is unlit.
 
we also found another statue that along with a sarcophagi have similar symbols as before, I'm unsure if Tyrrion can read them or is just aware of the last time we saw them but he warned the rest of us to be careful and Atom used his companion to scout further ahead.
 
further in the room we found a large stone sarcophagi with the husk of a body, seeminly only skin and bones, which upon touch it crumbled to dust, the statue next to it seems of similar design to the ones before baring one major difference, this one instead of holding a sword has it hands cupped into the shape of a bowl as if something were meant to be placed there but had been removed. At the end of the room there is another brazier, this one however is lit with the same light as the torch and is what is providing the light for the room along with mine and Atom's torches.
 
Tyrrion runs up to investigate and manages to discover the remains of an old preasure plate trap, in an atempt to disarm it he does not succeed but deftly manages to avoid most of the resultant spikes. Atom then attempts to disarm it, failing to do so but the trap seems less dangerous now that it has allready gone off, I do wonder the point of disarming a trap like this but is suppose everyones safety should be my priority even more dubious ones. They eventually decided to team up and managed to disarm the trap but it took more time than was needed.
 
Tyrrion seemed intrested by the logs in the brazzier but upon picking them up nothing happened so he returned to looking over the sarcophagi with Atom, the sarcophagi in the left and right seem to match, these ones, although ornate are far less bejeweled than previous ones, and with work from myself and Axel we are able to take the lids off although it does take a good amount of time to do so, opening the left one we find nothing but upon opening the right one we found an item glimering with a green hue, picking it up it looks like a small child craved from whatever this green gem like material is covered in a cloth, upon removing the cloth and inspecting further I was able to deduce that it could rather easily fit within the bowled hands of the statue we discovered.
 
Upon placing the child carving the statue moved into a new position that which looked like a mother cradling a small child, this resulted in an audable click and a rumbling from back we came from in the crypt. It is of note that the masculine features that were once on the statue seem to have morphed into that of feminine features, for what purpose I do not know.
 
Tyrrion was quite excited to see what had changed, moving out of the room before anyone else, there he discovered a lever, which upon pulling it opened a hidden door on the left side of the room, or from out perspective on exiting the room to our right, as this happened however there were the sounds of combat so I and the rest of the group rushed to the Hadozee's aid.
 
Report of the Fight with spiders:
- 0:00 - Two go for Tyrrion and one after Axel, both end up being hit once but the resulting hit to Tyrrion takes him out.
- 0:06 - Elaxidor lets out a screach in horror for the falling of Tyrrion (I presume, or maybe he has a dislike for spiders?) and lets off a resounding shot executing one of the spiders.
- 0:12 - Brief examination of Tyrrion shows he is still breathing but it looks laboured.
- 0:18 - Atom lets of his contraption hitting one and Axel his companion gets a good hit in as well.
- 0:24 - I go in with a well timed attack and managed to take one of the arachnids down.
- 0:30 - Incuring the wrath of the other arachnid it goes for me but I nimbly get out of its way.
- 0:36 - Elaxidor takes the time to treat Tyrrions wounds and gets him on his feet again.
- 0:42 - Atom takes another shot and gets a good whack in with what looks to be a forging hammer and takes down the third spider.
 
Looking over the corpse the spiders are quite large, I do not know what they were eating but perhaps the corpse we found earlier was a sign that they drain their victims but I assumed they would wrap them in thread first but maybe this is a misconception on my part.
 
Walking into the room we were greated to more sarcophagi, these ones are however broken and in far worse sahpe than the ones we had been seeing so far moving in a little way we do however see movement in the back of the room, we back off and Atom sends in Axel, mere seconds later a horrendous noise can be heard and Axel is charged by some humanoid creature.
 
Report of the Fight with the shadow:
- 0:00 - The charge although aggressive seems to do little to harm Axel
- 0:06 - Tyrrion manages to get a good hit in with a throwing dagger but no sound can be heard from the creature it does however flinch upon being hit. He then moves back for some cover
- 0:12 - Elaxidor moves in and gets a good hit in with his loud contraption which seems to really shake it up.
- 0:18 - Atom takes a shot with his contraption, getting a good hit in and creating an opening for which Axel exploits to do some real damage to it.
- 0:24 - I move in and make two well times swings getting it quite hurt, the creature was seemingly made of shadow and had a weird wight to it when attacking, that along with the indorect use of the torch which seemed to burn away some of the shadows I made out someone within the shadows itself.
- 0:30 - The shadow taks a strike at Axel and makes quite the dent.
- 0:36 - Tyrrion with a flurry of blows is able to take it down.
 
With a sickening squelch the shadows disapate and the body fell to the ground, from a brief examination I could only find a few details about it
- Race and Gender: Human Male.
- Age: Hard to discern but most likely middle aged by human standards.
- Occupation: farmmers attire, I can assume he was a farmer from the nearby village.
- Time of Death: Judging by decomposition it has easily been at least a month or 2 since his untimely demise.
 
I decided to light the brazier in the middle of the room, using the torch it seemed to light like any other brazier would but as the torch it also glows with the same strange light. Tyrrion decided to look over a nearby sarcophagus, unlike the other ones we had looked over this one was far less ornate, likely used to house someone of a lower class, which unfortunately looked like it had been robbed already, looking inside we found a corpse, the only weird thing was that it was wearing clothes of this era.
 
With a bit of investigation Tyrrion discovered a small silver necklace ordaned with a stange symbol, from the looks of it and the little I haved studied on it, it appears to be that of the nameless king. If i were to estimate its worth I would say it's in the ballpark of 30-50gp.
 
Inside the room was another statue the same design as ones before. After collecting his dagger Tyrrion asked if I could bless the body of the farmer, and although I do not have that capacity within me I lay the body to rest in one of the sarcophagi.
 
Elaxidor, who had been outside the room since the fight came in and pointed out to the rest of us another door had opened, likely opened when the game was put on the statue. beyond the door lay a lever to open a door leading to stairs going downwards.
 
With the use of a rock blessed with the light of the Venerable Dragonlord Cyprius we traveresed down the stairs. at the bottom of the stairs there was another lever and portcullis, upon pulling the lever we entered a new room, inside which are a few columns, one column seems to have a few bolts stuck into it the room seems to be covered in dust the bolts seem newer however, there does appear to be a trail but that also seems to have almost been lost to time as well, judging by the rate at which things acumulate dust I discerned it had most likely been a few months or so when it had last been disturbed.
 
Thinking about it now, it'd 3 months ago when the disappearances had started which was likely no coincidence. When walking through we discussed the nameless king and what we knew of him as a group, seems very little but Tyrrion did mention wanting to ask his "lady back home"? I'm unsore of who this might be but it might be a good source of information if I am ever needed to look into this further.
 
The tracks we could find lead to an exit, the only one we found to that room, but they seemed to stop there. looking over the bolts it looked like they had been shot into the column and with a bit of deduction and observation on my part I discovered some preasure plates in the corridor, going down the corridor we ended up at a split, to the right collapsed rubble to the left a portcullis and lever. Upon Tyrrion opening the portcullis we found another set of stairs leading down.
 
I'm unsure how deep we are but these stairs seemed longer than the previous sets we had found. when we entered the room at the bottom everything seemed a lot bigger. progressing through a large corridor Atom complained about al the dust and then after a short pause asked if we could hear anything, myself personally at the time could hear the noise of people arguing and crying but Tyrrion replied with the witty response of "yes, you" Atom seemed less pleased and pointed out the noise of arguing and crying.
 
We head forward to the arguing and discover a larg room with a huge spike trap which seems to had already been set off, not leaving much room to get accross bar a small lip around the edge. the ceiling was around 30ft above us and further inside the room one main thing we could see was a steel sarcophagi.
 
The second most agile of our group Tyrrion attempts to sneak past the trap to where the voices are coming from, unluckily he slipped which alerted the group to our presence. A dragonborn wonders up to the endge of the pit, and after some work Tyrrion manages to get out and they begin talking. I then decide to get closer, followed by Atom, the earth around the trap is weaker than I had supected by I managed to get over with no issues. Atom has some trouble with making it accross but his companion Axel makes it accross without issue.
 
The dragonborn addresses himself as Sir Kesh, he does not seem to appreciate my presence when I introduce myself as a loyal knight of the Venerable and Wise Dragonlord Cyprius.
 
Sir Kesh
- Goes by the name of Kesh
- Age: Mid 30's
- Gender: Male
- Eye: Unknown
- Scales: Black
- Height: Apoximately 6'5" - 6'7"
- Weight: Apoximately 250lbs - 260lbs
 
He then intoduced us to his two companions, Callissa and Grumhilda, two human females.
 
Lady Callissa
- Goes by the name of Callissa
- Age: Mid 20's
- Gender: Female
- Eye: Blue
- Hair: Blonde
- Height: Apoximately 5'5" - 5'8"
- Weight: Apoximately 165lbs - 175lbs
 
Lady Grumhilda
- Goes by the name of Grumhilda
- Age: Mid 20's
- Gender: Female
- Eye: Blue
- Hair: Blonde
- Height: Apoximately 5'4" - 5'6"
- Weight: Apoximately 155lbs - 165lbs
- Wields: Great Axe
 
We head further in, there is a large brazier similar design as the ones before but larger. as we get to Sir Kesh's companions there is a lever and a portcullis, looking over the two one seems badly injured the other hovering over them providing simple first aid. Both humans look similar, possibly related to each other but it might be a coincidence. I looked over the wound, it doesn't seem to be too bad, it mostly likely came from a straight bladed weapon, but the injury does not seem the biggest concern, there seems to be an underlying issue plaguing her.
 
We spoke for a while and found a few bits of information:
 
Group:
- The group consisted of 5 people, 2 of which had died recently.
- The group was attacked as they went deeper down into the King's Tree.
- The group has been here for almost 3 weeks but scouted the area for 2-3 months prior, this was their last week here. (This coincides with the missing people).
- They have been robbing abandoned places in the area before coming to the King's Tree.
- Their group also met with the figure at the entrance we saw, they were provided the same torches but Sir Kesh decided to sell them and thus they had no luck with lighting the braziers within the King's Tree.
- One of their members was good with ancient history but they had lost him to the entity, what seems concerning however is that they are stuggling to remember their companions face. he apparently died a while back maybe 3 weeks.
- The group sold the black gem/shard, Sir Kesh seemed reluctant to reveal any names though, but did mention it sold for a lot of money.
 
Entity
- The two lost members seemed to have been killed by an entity that had recently started following them.
- According to the group the entity spits poison, has a relatively phallic nature to it, and the lady Callissa took two doeses of the substance.
- The entity can change shape and it's voice but there is always something off with it. It seems to enjoy taunting this group and likely its prey in general.
- Seemed to begin hunting the group after a job at a local manor house, they stole an item a black gem/shard?
 
Tyrrion takes some time to make a small concoction for Callissa which seems to help a little but does not fully alleviate her symptoms.
 
Near the place the group was resting was a tomb, locked and chained with an inscryption above the door that read "let the traitors remains serve for eternity", upon stating this Sir Kesh seemed surprised that I knew how to read the old tongue, but I simply am blessed with the ability to comprehend all languages known to the Venerable and Wise Dragonlord Cyprius.
 
Sir kesh wants to go deeper, his companions as well as some of our group do not want to do this and want out as soon as possible. Tyrrion annoyed at Sir Kesh for his action and wanting to go deeper punched him, he tried to go further but myself and Atom stopped him, Sir Kesh did not take well to this line of thinknig and bid us farewell and left saying he would be headed to Manchester, and although he fell into the trap he managed to get out on the other side.
 
According to Grumhilda, Callissa said she thought there might be a way out through the door behind them, with a bit more time we looked over Callissa again, I applied some healing with the Blessing of Generosity and Benevolence of the Dragonlord Cyprius, Atom attempted to study and identfy the underlying issue from an arcane perspective but was unable to figure out what it was.
 
Atom walks up to the big brazier and lights it with the torch, the door next to us flashed once and then dimmed but didn't do much more than that. Before heading through the group suggests taking a rest to allow Callissa to heal.
 
Report of the Night Watch in King's Tree Crypt:
Watch 1 - Axel and Hakesh - Quiet.
Watch 2 - Axel and Tyrrion - Quiet at the start, but at the end there is shouting as Tyrrion wakes everyone up.
There's a chuckle as a humanoid figure appears at the edge of the spike trap, it sounds wrong, it calls for Callissa who blindly follows the noise, luckily Tyrrion knocks her out and it laughs before collapsing to the ground. Tyrrion returns to the group with Callissa and on the wind I swaer I could hear "Well met, I'll be back". Grumhilda mentions that she thinks she recognises the voice but is unsure.
Watch 3 - Axel and Atom - Quiet.
 
New Day: 16/09/3022
 
We looked over the door, myself and Atom, it seems there were seals on the door but they now seem inactive, possibly due to Atom lighting the brazier from what I will assume was yesterday. I took the time to look over Callissa again, she does not seem any better.
 
We entered the new room, it had a much lower ceiling, another familiar statue, this time no sward but it had its hands over its eyes apparently in the act of weeping. to the left was a rather ornate sarcophagi with a stand and a dusty tome next to it. on the other side of the room there was a well sized chest.
 
Atom and Tyrrion seem interested in the book and walk over to it, niether seem to be able to read it but thanks to my blessing I am able to read it like I had with the inscryption, it seems to be the same language. It seems to be an old poem I'm unsure of its meaning at current time but it seems to relate to the nameless king and perhaps his offspring ?
 
*Attached with the report is a hand written copy of the poem*
 
Atom then walked over to the chest, then moved back and get axel to look, although a bit rusty it opened seemingly not locked or trapped. Inside was:
- Well preserved set of clothing, small, human child.
- Small tokens and toys carved from precious metals, woods, gems.
 
Tyrrion seemed very adamant to leave the stuff there and we all did, I then discovered the origins of the slight breeze we had been feeling and discovered the way out Callissa had mentioned before. beyond the door were a set of steps and from that we've found ourselves outside, I believe our next action is to head to the mayor of Middle Black, discuss with him, then head to Manchester and have either the dragonlord or his personel judge the two ladies of the group as is proper due to this land being Chesh Shiryu's/Distel's Territory.
 
Signing off,
Knight Hakesh Arkalan of the Venerable and Wise Dragonlord Cyprius.