Citadel of the Sun-Kings Campaign Diary
Session 4: The Realm Below Night
The Party
Also present:
What Happened
In Najad
The session began with the party back in Najad. Idrusa visited the Iron Pact Mercenary Guild and noted a modest shrine tucked in an alcove of the guild hall. It honors Urashti, the Lioness of Zidikos, an ancient demi-god and monster-slayer. A small bronze statue depicts her standing victorious with spear and shield. A battered placard beneath the statue read:
"In an age of turmoil, a warrior worthy of the Lioness’s legacy shall seek her tomb amid the dunes and prove their right to wield the relics of her divinity."
The group then visited Tirah the Flame Speaker at the Temple of the Flame Enduring to learn more about the wrecked golden tablet found on the body of the thief in the Windswept Ruins. She confirmed that the tablet bore writing in Endyric, the sacred language of the elemental orders, but after being crushed (twice) in the dungeon, it was hard to discern its purpose. The only thing she could say for certain was that it was once the focus of a binding ritual crafted by a powerful adherent of Law. She could not discern what the ritual was intended to bind due to the damage.
At that point, the party decided to finally check out the secret room beneath the shrine in the Terraced Garden. They assumed it might be a dungeon and gathered their retainers for a delve. However, they quickly discovered that the stairs led only into a single, modest chamber filled with unlit lamps, candles, and barrels of lamp oil. On the far end of the room stood a huge, 10-foot-tall silver mirror framed in eerie orichalcum filigree. As they approached, the background inside the mirror seemed to shift subtly, although their reflections did not change.
Unnerved, the party had Idrusa cast detect magic. The mirror radiated strong magic, and the blue glow of the spell revealed several palm prints on the mirror’s surface, each with small flecks of dried blood around the edges.
Idrusa decided to cut his palm and place his hand upon the mirror. The polished silver surface rippled and became a translucent, shimmering liquid. Through it, they could glimpse another space. Stepping through the liquid mirror, they felt an immediate chill, colder than Najad’s midday heat.
A Realm of Stars
Beyond lay a vast expanse of cracked, pale stone beneath a sky of eternal stars. Familiar constellations were absent, replaced by alien patterns. The landscape was flat and silent, filled with colossal architecture: titanic vaults, alien pillars, shattered bridges crossing empty space, and stairs descending into bottomless pits. No wind stirred, only a faint, eerie keening seemed to rain down from the sky itself. They confirmed that a mirror still stood behind them on this side, but after ten minutes, it returned to a normal mirror surface.
After debating their next move, the group set out toward a distant cluster of ruins. Though they saw strange creatures moving on the horizon, nothing interfered. After an hour’s walk, they reached the ruins, which were vast and alien, covered in symbols and architecture built on a scale far beyond human reckoning. Bridges spanned nothing, and stairs dropped into endless darkness.
Within these ruins, they discovered another silver mirror framed in orichalcum. This time, Ramu offered to cut his hand, since he had the most hit points.
The Black Spire
Kheperkare stepped through first and found himself in a titanic chamber of black glass. Towering arched windows looked out over a sea of dunes, revealing that this portal opened high atop a massive black glass tower. The chamber floor was covered in nine enormous rugs, each ten feet across. Unending scrolls and massive stone tablets filled alcoves along the walls, covered in writing in Numiric, the language of giants.
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| Ibdaya, the giant of Law |
Then Kheperkare saw her: a towering figure eighteen feet tall, skin the color of pale clay, eyes as black as night. She wore bronze plate mail and carried a two-handed maul nine feet in length. The giantess turned to regard him and, to his astonishment, simply asked why he had come. Kheperkare, half poised to retreat back into the mirror, replied in broken Numiric (which he happened to speak). The giantess questioned his purpose for coming to the Black Spire and asked if he sought the great forge.
After a brief exchange, Kheperkare signaled that it was safe, and the rest of the party filed through. They found themselves at the top of a black glass spire towering 1,200 feet above the surrounding desert, in the middle of the Sea of Stone. The giantess introduced herself as Ibdaya and explained that they were now many days’ journey from the nearest human settlement, despite having walked only an hour through the alien space that she referred to as the "Realm Below Night".
Ibdaya revealed that she was the last sentinel of the Black Spire, bound by oath and Law to record events and oaths across the Red Wastes. She recognized the mirror portals as passages through the Realm Below Night, a place filled with the ruins of lost civilizations and haunted by eldritch demons. This revelation caused the party to instantly lose enthusiasm for further trips through the mirror realm.
Ibdaya led the party down a massive staircase for several hundred feet until they reached a huge forge built of obsidian and brass. She explained that the forge had been dormant for centuries because its fires had gone out, and she lacked the means to relight it. It could only be rekindled by a jar of sunfire, a flamelet of the Flame Enduring, or a gout of dragonfire.
Hasoom cursed the fact that the dragon they’d seen was blue (lightning breath), lamenting, "why are dragons always so inconvenient!?"
Ibdaya went on to explain that if the forge were relit and a source of Nashra-Mar (the mythical essences of the elder beasts) were found, she could craft relics meant to uphold Law. When the party asked where such materials might be found, she told them only two creatures remained in the Wastes with such essence: Jhanradaz the blue dragon, and the Beast of Kul-Mazaak, an ancient guardian dwelling beneath the salt flats of the Pale Mirror.
Ramu immediately asked who was ready to "play some Monster Hunter"?
Moved by the moment, Kheperkare swore an oath before Ibdaya that he would reignite the forge and slay one of the beasts. As he did, glowing Numiric runes carved themselves into the obsidian walls of the forge, causing mild horror among his companions. Ibdaya solemnly declared, “so it has been written, and thus it shall be.” Kheperkare was now under the effects of a Quest (as the cleric spell).
With the interaction complete, the group decided to return to Najad via the mirrors. Once again, they were lucky enough to avoid any encounters on the journey back.
Najad Once More
Back in Najad, Kheperkare visited Tirah to ask about obtaining a flamelet of the Flame Enduring. Tirah explained that such a thing could only be gathered from Mount Enduring, far to the southeast, and that a magical container would be required to hold the flame. A simple torch could not contain the magic fire, and would most likely consume the torchbearer as well. She suggested that the party might find unusual items in the black market at the bandit camp north of town.
Kheperkare then visited Jahair, inquiring about sunfire. The alchemist admitted he didn’t know how to produce it, as the secrets had been lost with the fall of the ancient Kingdom of Darhan. He mentioned two Darhan ruins that might hold clues: the lost ruins of the Oracle of Ahar-Tan, and a domed ruin to the northeast. He recommended speaking with Andaz, head of the Keepers, about the latter.
When Kheperkare visited Andaz, he learned that the "Dome of the Iron Behemoth" was indeed a Darhan ruin in the northeast. Andaz also reminded the group that he would pay well for any bronze schematic tablets they might retrieve from there.
Black Dagger Camp
Done with questioning the scholars of Najad, the party headed north to the Black Dagger Camp, hoping to see what the black market offered. There they met Madala, the camp’s leader, a former pirate captain turned bandit warlord. Hasoom, as a former whaler, noticed that Madala smelled faintly of seaweed and salt water, and her chainmail armor seemed perpetually damp. She wore a distinctive sword at her hip with a lion-shaped pommel.
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| Madala, pirate captain turned bandit warlord |
The party visited the market and, after much haggling and humor, purchased the following items:
- Poison: Enough bloodstream poison to coat 6 of Ramu's arrows.
- Jadi’s bottle: A glass bottle capable of containing nearly anything placed within, but whose contents cannot be poured out, only released in total.
- Snake-bone charm: Grants +2 to saves vs. poison. Possibly cursed… definitely cursed.
- Stele fragment: A chunk of basalt carved with chthonic markings, suspected to be the missing piece of the stele in the Terraced Gardens.
With shopping complete, the session ended as the party began the journey back to Najad.
Campaign Notes
- Notable NPCs: Ibdaya the Sentinel, Tirah, Jahair, Andaz, Madala of the Black Dagger
- Loot & Purchases: Jadi’s bottle, Snake-bone charm, Stele fragment, poison for arrows
- Major Developments:
- Kheperkare under a Quest to reignite the forge and slay a great beast.
- Discovery of the Realm Below Night via the silver mirrors.
- Potential new leads on acquiring a jar of sunfire, or a flamelet of the Flame Enduring from Mount Enduring
Referee's Notes
This session was a lot of roleplaying and character development, compared to previous sessions which were a lot of exploration and devling. The party's reaction to accessing the Realm Below Night, and then their eventual understanding of how dangerous it is to use was really fun. I'm interested to see if they decide to use it more, or avoid it due to Ibdaya's warnings. The things that dwell within the realm are truly nasty. It's a high level of risk/reward.
Several of the players were enthralled with the Black Spire and it's Law-bound sentinel. If/when we do a full adventure retrospective, I won't be surprised if it goes high on the list of place they loved. In that same vein, the decision to turn Kheperkare's oath into a Quest was an on the spot GMing decision. The idea that he would swear an oath within the halls, and that it would bind him due to the nature of the place itself was off the cuff, but I'm really happy with the results.
It's hilarious that Hasoom’s first comment about reigniting a cosmic forge was about the inconvenience of the color of the dragon they had seen.
The PCs have now connected several distant rumors and begun setting long-term goals, and the world is opening up in fascinating ways. I have absolutely no idea what they are going to get up to next session. They have a ton of leads to follow up on now, so it's really anyone's guess.
Wow! This was some amazing world building. Where did you get all the inspiration?
ReplyDeleteThanks! It's mostly a case of picking some key sources of influences and then letting those meld into cohesive form. When I start a project, I tend to write a series immutable rules for myself. That restriction forces me to solve problems creatively and dig into what makes "vibe" tick. I also think it helps that this isn't generic "European Fantasy Land", so there's naturally more leeway to get weird.
DeleteIn this case, my major inspirations were the myths of ancient western Asia (Babylon, Ur, Sumeria, Assyria), One Thousand and One Nights, and the Moorcock cosmic understanding of Law & Chaos.