Garak's End

Garak's End is an adventure by Matthew Carlson that we downloaded many years ago. It's not especially long or complicated and has a different sort of feel to a lot of adventures. Some people might like it, others not.

This continues the tale of half of the Pre-Fosweld group.

Chapter 1 (03.04.2024) - It Was Only a Small Earthquake...

26.04.1259 All of the characters in The Sleepy Sloth in Iusiautt met up at breakfast. Now nine members strong, everyone continued on together towards Nirsrenib, their next stop on their journey to Fosweld.

Garak's End by Matthew Carlson

26.04.1259 Once the party had journeyed a few miles northwards, there was a small but palpable earthquake. Not long after that, a wounded man came runnig out of the woods asking the party for help. He collapsed, and Zharzhar healed him with a Cure Light Wounds. He said that the earthquake had opened a new entrance at the back of his cave and light was shining up from it!

Everyone agreed that sounded a bit weird and they would try to help the old man secure his cave and belongings. Spoglifromp said he would guard the horses and the wagon and make a nice fire to cook the lunch. Everyone else went off.

At once they discovered there was a ghoul rummaging through the old hermit's belongings in the cave. Sure enough, there was clearly a new exit that led deeper underground. Zharzhar Magic Missiled the ghoul, then finished it with her sword. The old hermit grabbed his travelling things, bid the party farewell, and departed the scene.

Next the party decided to investigate the mysterious light source coming from below ground and ventured deeper. As they did so, Zharzhar went back to the wagon to put her armor on, which she had left up on the wagon. The party were not hanging around though, and carried on without her.

The carved stone dwarvish faces spoke their warnings and blew out their smoke. The party tried to avoid the smoke and Animataa managed to find and disarm the darts trap on the door to the corridor of ghosts. The party quickly hurried inside to escape the smoke, closing the door behind them.

When Zharzhar returned to the party, there was nobody to be seen! Fortuntely she soon found them in the corridor with all the ghosts, behind the door they had opened. Nobody seemed to be too bothered by the ghosts, who were busy fighting each other and unaware of the party.

Chapter 2 (21.05.2024) - Strange Visions

26.04.1259 The party were watching the dwarven battle going on in the Hall of Phantoms. As nothing seemed to be affecting the characters, and the other way around, the party found it a curious spectacle to simply watch.

Eventually Zharzhar grew bored of the view and managed to push past everyone as they flattened themselves against the side of the corridor. She and Nuxi attempted to find traps and then unlock the door.

They found themselves looking into a dining room. There were still 16 mugs and 16 plates on the table, which was rather large and surrounded by chairs. Nuxi noticed a stain at the far end of the table. It seemed to be growing and dripping onto the floor! It looked like blood!

The two thieves went to the nearest corners of the room and the others all filed in. Aixy, who had been guarding the rear of the party, stood with his back to the room and his nose to the closed door until Zimbi told him to do something useful, such as light a lantern. Suddenly, a strange sight met their eyes - dwarves were sat all around the table, feasting and singing. There were two factions, wearing differently designed tabards and sigils.

Suddenly the dwarf at the head of the table slumped forward with his head in his dinner. Behind him stood an assassin, withdrawing a bloody dagger from the back of the slumped dwarf. All hell broke loose in the room as the dwarves began fighting each other, and just as suddenly as they had appeared in the first place, they were gone. The dripping blood at the end of the table had somehow dried again and was just a dark stain, as before.

Zimbi found this fascinating, and rolling her Ancient History check, remembered something of the dwarven leader Garak and what had happened. She told the party that Garak had been assassinated just after negotiating a treaty with another clan of dwarves.

Opening the door to the Chamber of Phantoms again, the party could see that the two clans of dwarves on the battlefield were the same ones that they had seen in the dining room.

The party decided to have a look around the dining room and Nuxi found a little compartment under the table by where presumably Garak had sat when he was murdered. Eventually she managed to open it and pulled out three throwing daggers, each beautifully made and marked at the hilt end of the handle by dwarven fire runes. They were added to the party's stash without much examination and them everybody moved to the kitchen door, which Animataa locked, thinking it was already locked, when it wasn't. He unlocked it again.

When the party managed to open the door, five oversized beetles rushed out to attack. They were soon dealt with and then the party entered the room, in which there was very little of note other than the fireplace and the empty cauldron and a few rotten splinters of old furniture.

Upon noticing tthe trapdoor in the ceiling above the fireplace, they tried to figure out how to open it.

Chapter 3 (22.05.2024) - Into the Hall of Crypts

26.04.1259 It took a fair amount of trial and error to find a way to look for traps and locks as the ceiling was too high for anybody to do it alone. Eventually they found that with Zharzhar standing on the upside down cauldron and holding Animataa at arms' length above her head, he was just able to push the door open enough to be showered with grit and dust.

Eventually, using a ten foot pole, the trapdoor was forced upwards by Aixy, who was showered with rubble for his trouble, and amongst the debris there also fell a leather pouch, which was buried by more rocks and earth and grit. After a search, Zharzhar discovered it and they counted up the treasure within.

Animataa wanted to climb up into the hole above and just about managed it in the end, with help from Aixy and Zharzhar. Looking around, he concluded that the ceiling of the new hole above the kitchen had an unsafe ceiling and unsafe walls, and if the whole lot came tumbling down, would probably cause the floor to collapse crushing everything below. Animataa thought the better of further investigations and climbed back down.

The party crossed the dining room to the door opposite the kitchen door. It would only open a crack and seemed rather stuck, so a few people tried to open it and eventually Crimsy forced the foor open.

Beyond the door lay the Hall of Crypts. Eight stone doors stood left and right, four on each side of the hall, and there was a wall at the far end. Two of the doors stood open already, one on each side.

Carefully, the party entered the hall in single file, stopping to check the first stone door on the left. All the doors seemed to be marked with the symbol of a warhammer wrapped around by a dwarvish G rune.

When the door had been forced open, the party found a stone sarcophagus, again with the dwarven G rune wrapped around a warhammer engraved into the lid. Zharzhar and Nuxi pushed the lid a little way open and noted the dwarven skeleton within.

When the skeleton's toes began to wiggle, they were spooked and hastily pushed the lid shut again! When it was secure, Zimbi suggested that they may have disturbed the dead dwarf from its rest. Nuxi thought it might be Garak himself, but Zimbi said that she thought it was unlikely. Animataa made a chalk mark on the door to note what was inside and the party moved on to the next pair of doors. One of them was already open.

Nuxi looked through the door and saw that the lid of the stone coffin had already been pushed off and was smahed on the floor. There was nothing else to see other than a shoddy warhammer laying on the floor. This gave Nuxi a bad feeling, and in panic she heaved the big stone door shut

Animataa was curious why she had done that, so when she explained, Animataa said that now he had a bad feeling as well. Animataa, who had been writing on each door what was behind it, such as 'tome' or 'kitchen', and on this door, that the room had given him a bad feeling. Every door in the hall had been engraved with Garak's warhammer wrapped with a dwarven G rune.

On the other side of the hall, the party used the same proceedure, opening the lid of the coffin and closing it again when the toes began to wiggle. So far, the party had not found anything interesting. One of the next pair of doors was already open and as Nuxi peeped inside she saw that there was already a dwarven skeleton standing in its open coffin!

It leapt right at her, but Nuxi and her friends were quicker. Nuxi and Animataa leapt into the room to attack, with Zharzhar, then Zimbi, then Aixy close behind. However, there was not much space, and when Animataa rolled a critical miss and fell, dropping both of his warglaives, Zharzhar was able to use the opportunity to enter the room as well, and she swiped at the skeleton with the flat of her blade, rearranging a few ribs.

On the next round, there were further critical misses, which would have been even worse were it not for a few Luck Points that were used. Nuxi almost hit Zharzhar, and Zharzhar hit Animataa, reducing him to just 1 hit point, just as he managed to get back to his feet and pick up his weapons.

Zimbi and Aixy both attempted to turn the skeleton, but to no avail. Animataa let off a Colour Spray, which stunned the skeleton briefly, and Aixy healed the wounded Animataa. Zimbi threw a phial of holy water but missed completely. The skeleton, still stunned, was unable to attack until the end of the round.

This gave Zharzhar time to hit again, and so did Nuxi. Animataa's warglaives flashed and finished off the skeleton, which shattered into a shower of disconnected bones scattered around the room. The battleaxe the skeleton used and the necklace it wore were gathered up and added to the treasure without any further investigation. The party moved on to the opposite door.

Chapter 4 (02.09.2024) - Finding the Way

Back in Garak's End, the party needed to open the door opposite the room where the improved skeleton was defeated. A few people tried and eventually Zimbi succeeded. She entered the small room with Nuxi and the two of them started to investigate.

Meanwhile, Animataa discovered that the stonework at the end of the passage was different to the stone of the rest of the hall. He and Zharzhar investigated further and in the end came to the conclusion that it was hiding something behind it.

They wanted Zimbi to find sliding or shifting walls, but she looked for the same thing in the sarchophagus room where she was with Nuxi and found a hidden niche. Inside was an ancient dwarven helmet. Nuxi tried it on but it didn't quite fit so Zimbi put it on, replacing her own great helmet.

The last pair of doors were also opened, one by Crimsy and the other by Nuxi. One room was much the same as the others, but when Zimbi again investigated the other she found there was something odd about the back wall. Nuxi managed to open the secret door and they were both blinded by the Continual Light which came suddenly pouring out.

Calling to the others to come and look, everyone's eyes slowly adjusted to the bright light. The party moved carefully along the corridor in single file and then, suddenly, the floor gave way, tipping Animataa, Zharzhar, Zimbi and Aixy into a pit with a pair of skeletons! Zimbi made the biggest clonk when she landed and the skeletons began to animate.

Everybody who had fallen into the pit got up and the skeletons won reaction. One of them would have scored a critical hit on Zharzhar had she not used her remaining Luck Points to affect the critical roll. The other one missed Animataa. When the two multiclassed fighters returned the blows, the skeletons were utterly destroyed.

Aixy gave the rather wounded Zharzhar a healing proficiency, doubling her hit points from one to two. She wasn't super happy about it but Aixy pointed out that she now had double what she had before.

It was around this time that Crimsy noticed that the floor that had covered the pit was starting to close and would trap her companions within! She started trying to stamp on the closing floor and managed not to fall in and quickly realised that wouldn't work.

With Lilly straining to keep one side of the pit open amd Nuxi the other, and with Crimsy helping them both, they managed to keep the jaws of the pit open. Starzio threw down a rope for the lightest member of the party to climb up. It was Animataa, but Starzio was just not quite strong enough.

Animataa then used his Climb Walls skill, and aided by the rope, managed to climb up and out. Aixy and Zimbi found some gold, a strong iron pickaxe and a silver dagger among the debris at the bottom of the pit while first the little gnome and then Zharzhar climbed up. The three at the top holding the floor open all made their STR checks and soon everyone was out of the pit, which closed with a click.

With the new handy pickaxe in her hands, Zharzhar set to work at bringing the false wall at the end of the hallway down. Once she could see through the hole she reported to the others that there was a room or something beyond. After a while the wall was no more than a pile of rubble and everyone climbed over and into the space beyond.

It was a larger room than the others they had found and it lay empty, apart from another stone sarcophagus that had been carved out of the rock and was still attached to the floor. Crimsy, Nuxi and Starzio pushed the lid open a crack. They could see there was something shiny therein, but could not really see what.

Pushing the lid further open, they found another dwarf skeleton in plate mail holding a fine shiny warhammer. Crimsy was going to take the hammer, but in the end Zharzhar did because she had the proficiency to use it. As she attempted to slide it out of the dwarven skeleton's hands, its bony grip tightened, it leapt to its feet and there was a battle!

The party reacted quicker and Zharzhar and Crimsy both scored decent hits. When Aixy successfully turned the undead dwarf, it settled back into its resting place once again with its apparantly shoddy plate mail looking dented and hanging off. The party closed the lid and Aixy offered the fallen dwarf a prayer of restfulness.

Nobody quite knew what to do after that, and then the feyfolk started to look for secret doors, with Zharzhar finding the one that led to the Hall of Tears. They set off in single file. Aixy was curious and stuck a finger into the water sliding down the walls as the party moved slowly along, admiring the craftsmanship of the hall.

Just before they reached the door at the far end, the water spirit Iluunue emerged from a watery wall. She told the party they may look upon her beloved, but that his rest must not be disturbed. The party wondered what they should do or say next...

Chapter 5 (03.09.2024) - Don't Damage the King's Rock!

26.04.1259 Aixy told the water spirit that she was very beautiful and that when he becomes higher level he shall return to Resurrect the deceased Garak. Zharzhar told the water spirit the party were there out of grief for Garak and when Iluunue asked the party if they knew him, Zimbi said that she knew some of the legends.

The water spirit told them how she had first met Garak, saving him from a river and then allowed everyone to pass and look upon Garak as he lay, perfectly preserved, in the water spirit's pool. They gathered before him with the smallest members of the party at the front and the tallest at the back.

Nobody disturbed Garak in any way and after paying their respects and the clerics offering prayers, they left. Back in the room beyond the Hall of Tears, a chest had appeared. Inside were eight bags of coins, and the one marked with Aixy's name in Dwarfrunes (which he couldn't read but Animataa could) also held three blocks of Incense of Meditation.

Before the party left, they investigated the false door in the first room of Garak's End and Animataa found it to be an illusion. Outside once again, they found it was late afternoon. Spoglifromp had made a pot of stew from tree roots, leaves, spiders, beetles, worms, slugs and such, but nobody fancied any.

Aixy wanted to draw his family symbol on a rock and Animataa agreed to help. A huge stone was near the path and then there was a big argument with Zimbi, who insisted that carving grafitti on a rock was against the law and they must not do it. She even consulted her book of rules and quoted from it.

Everyone argued against her and in the end she flounced grumpily away and refused to look at them, threatening to tell the magistrate in Nirsrenib who had done the deed and who was complicit in damaging one of the King's rocks.

Just when Animataa, who had artistic ability as a non-weapon proficiency, was nearly finished, he failed his skill check and a big piece of the stone crumbled and fell, leaving something that looked like a bum. Animataa scratched 'Ooops!' into the rock and had another go at the symbol, this time successfully.

Climbing back onto their wagons, the group set off for Nirsrenib, arriving there after dark and feeling rather tired. They found an inn and rested, with Aixy, Nuxi and Lilly all leveling up to level three. New spells were learned to try to find out more about the treasure they had found and everyone slept soundly.

To continue this part of the story, see The Inn of the Whispering Elm.