Ironsworn Session 18: The Depths of the Ruin

Valryc's status: Momentum: 5; Health: 5; Spirit: 5; Supply:3

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Reach a Milestone- By finding the first of the three elven temples, Valryc has made progress in his vow to recover the pieces of the blade. +1 progress on the Extreme vow so ½ a progress box

Valryc takes a breath before stepping across the threshold into the ruin. He pulls the door closed behind him. “Right. Well, first thing I’d best bar this door from the inside. Might as well do my best to stop the Shadiri from sneaking in behind me.” Looking around the entryway, he sees a pair of sturdy iron standing candelabras. He hefts one in his hand, feeling the weight of the iron. These pieces are not decorative. They look utilitarian. Sturdy and plain looking, but strong. “Yes I think these will do.”  He takes the two candelabras and wedges them in place behind the door, barring the way into the ruin. “Well at least I’ll have the place to myself while I search. Leaving might be another story…” A flash of concern crosses his face, thinking about that possibility, but he quickly pushes it out of his mind. “No. No reason thinking about that. Just press on, I’ve got a job to finish,” he thinks to himself, turning away from the door to begin his search. The interior of the ruin looks similar to the previous ruin, though this one looks in pristine condition. It was obvious no one had been here for a very long time. Dust and cobwebs covered most of the furnishings. Things sat undisturbed, as if whoever had lived here was planning on being back soon. Though they obviously hadn’t returned. The empty halls leave an eerie feeling in the back of Valryc’s mind.

The structure is much larger than the small outpost in the mountains, but the organization was very similar. Several rooms of barracks likely used to house soldiers that may have defended the place, a larger yet similarly organized kitchens, several more meeting rooms with long tables surrounded by chairs. Throughout his wanderings, Valryc recognized sigils carved into the stone of the walls. These were the telltale signs of the structure being elven. Similar sigils were carved into the stone at Wrennsfall, and Valryc assumed the same symbols would be found in Timbermount and Windsrest. “No doubt about it, this must be the place. Now lets see if I can’t find where this blade piece might have been hidden…”

Gather Information- Valryc thoroughly searches the elven outpost to find where the blade piece might be hidden.
Roll+wits: Wits 2+ Action die 3
Weak hit: Action score 5; Challenge die 2/7
+1 Momentum, Find a complication or danger

Valryc searches the outpost as carefully as he can. “I expect the doorway will be hidden, just like in the previous outpost. I suppose that I should search the place for a similar room as the one the other doorway was located in. It seemed like some sort of sanctuary. I’ll head into the heart of the building, I’ll likely find it there.” Valryc makes his way deeper into the heart of the structure, finally making his way into the center. Here he does find a similar room to where the previous secret entrance was located. He heads directly to the podium located near the rear of the room. A tapestry covers the wall and Valryc quickly pulls it down to reveal the stone wall. There are no seams or latches that indicate there is a doorway. Taking a moment, he turns and eyes the room. Something catches his eye at the base of the podium. A small rock that is almost fully underneath the base appears to be poorly fitted into the ground. Finding this odd, Valryc pushes the podium aside. There in the ground he finds an oddly loose stone. It wiggles in place as Valryc tries to pry it up. But it doesn’t budge. Finally after several minutes of fidgeting around with the rock, Valryc stands up and places a foot on the stone. As he presses his weight onto it, he hears a small click from behind him. He turns to discover a section of the stone wall that he was just examining has popped open. He quickly pulls the door open to find a stairway going down, deep underneath the ruin. “Well, that… That looks to go a bit deeper than the previous antechamber.”  The stairwell goes straight down into the earth. Even as Valryc holds his torch in the doorway, the light fades before the end of the stairwell is revealed. “Guess it’ll be a touch harder than finding a small secret room this time.”  He draws his sword and holds his torch high as he descends into the depths, deep into the underbelly of the ancient outpost.  

GM Note: 

The weak hit on the Gather information needs to introduce a danger or complication. Here I think the best thing we could introduce is the danger of a much deeper delve than last ruin we explored. The piece of the sword is not simply stored in a secret antechamber as Valryc suspected. There is a large twisting underkeep dug deep into the ground beneath the outpost. Valryc is going to have to delve deep to find what he is looking for.

Delve: Discover a site- Valryc will have to delve deep into the underkeep of the outpost to find the piece of blade that must be here
Rank-Formidable
Theme- Ancient
Domain- Underkeep

Valryc finally makes his way out of the stairwell. He does not know how deep he went, but he suspects it must be quite deep under the outpost. The stairs seemed to go down and down, never ending into the darkness below. “I’ll not like going back up those later I suspect.”  Looking around he finds himself in a large circular room with five openings leading out like spokes on a wagon wheel. “Well it doesn’t look like a maze, but who knows how large this complex is. I suppose I’ll start with one way and make my way around.” He shrugs, holding his torch over head, and makes his way through the left most archway into a long hallway

Delve the Depths- Valryc begins his search of the underkeep
Roll+wits: Wits 2+ Action die 5
Weak hit: Action score 7; Challenge die 1/10
Weak hit table: 64- Mark progress

As Valryc moves down the hallway he finds several doors on either side. Each of the doors open into small rooms, each looking to serve different yet practical purposes. Several rooms contain desks, bookshelves line the walls, obviously used for studying. The books are too far decayed to be of use, but its obvious that none of the rooms would be used to store an important artifact. The hallway ends in a large room, weapon racks line the walls with old and rusted swords and shields. “Hmm, training room. Looks like whoever might have lived here wanted to be prepared for the worst. Though if they’re hiding such an important artifact as part of this sacred blade then makes sense…” He finds nothing useful down this first hallway, though the insight into the peoples that guarded the outpost would surely be useful to someone smarter than he was. He quickly returns back to the central room, glad to have at least ruled out one of the spokes. He continues to the archway next in line, carefully continuing his search

Delve the Depths- With one doorway down, Valryc continues his search
Roll+wits: Wits 2+ Action die 1
Weak hit: Action score 3; Challenge die 1/9
Weak hit table: 42- Mark progress

The next hallway moves outward from the central room just as the previous one did. Doorways on either side line the hall just as previously, only this time instead of rooms of study and training, Valryc finds store rooms. Each of the doors down this hallway lead to large square rooms filled with shelves, large crates, sacks and the like. He finds everything to what must have been food, paper, bedding. Anything that might have been used in provisioning a defending force. And all of it has rotted or deteriorated well past its usefulness. “So strange… It seems as though whoever was stationed here was prepared to defends this outpost for months. A year even, with all these store rooms. Almost as if they could have barricaded themselves down here and defended this underkeep from any invading force. Or  perhaps hide below if their enemies never found this place. And still it looks as if they left this place with plans of returning on the morrow. I wonder what it was that might have pulled them away from their charge here.”  The mystery of the ancient citizens of the Ironlands has been the subject of many and more a scholar. No one has been able to find an answer to who they were as a people, or where they may have gone. Only their ancient fortresses scattered about the land remain. Valryc shakes his head, suspecting he wont find any more answers here than any other scholar might have. And likely if he did find anything, he wouldn’t be able to make heads or tails of it. The hallway ended in a final large storeroom. Valryc shakes his head and turns around after searching the final room. “Well, thats two spokes down. Doubtful they would have stored this artifact down with the cheese and wine.”  He makes his way down the hall and returns to the central room. Onto the next hallway in line.

Delve the Depths- Valryc continues his search down the third hallway
Roll+wits: Wits 2+ Action die 3
Weak hit: Action score 5; Challenge die 4/7
Weak hit table: 62- Mark progress

The third hallway is positioned directly across from the stairwell that led Valryc down into the depths. After he steps through, the hallway widens and the ceiling is markedly higher than the other passageways. “Well this seems promising. A grand entrance leading to the most important storage room.”  Valryc smiles to himself as he carefully makes his way down the more grandiose hall. No doorways line the halls, there are no twists and turns. Simply a straight passageway dug deep into the ground. After several minutes of walking, Valryc comes to a large door. Intricate symbols are carved into the wood, reminiscent of the hieroglyphs Valryc found previously. Excitement builds in his chest as his confidence that soon he will have a piece of this blade in his possession.
 

Delve the Depths- Valryc continues his search down the third hallway
Roll+wits: Wits 2+ Action die 5
Miss: Action score 7; Challenge die 7/9

Reveal a Danger- 76; You confront a harrowing situation or sensation

As Valryc approaches the door, the runes carved into the wood begin to glow a bright eerie red. Its faint at first but steadily grows. Before he has a chance to even react he feels a sensation as if a dozens of hands are grabbing him, holding him in place. A deep fear strikes at his heart, terror bolts through his mind as if a shock of electricity arcing through his body. He cannot move, though he desperately wants to flee in terror. 

GM note: Valryc has had a pretty easy time going through this underkeep so far. I think we have come to a place where the traps are going to ramp up and he is going to start facing some more serious dangers. This trap, introduced by the miss, is going to be the start of that.

Endure Stress- Valryc’s mind is filled with terror as he is frozen in place in front of the doorway.
-1 spirit and Roll+spirit: Spirit 4+ Action die 5
Weak hit: Action score 9; Challenge die 7/9
Press on

Just as suddenly as the runes began to glow and fill Valryc with a deep sense of dread, the runes fade. The feeling of the hands grabbing him and holding him in place vanishes, but the fear lingers just a moment longer. He turns away from the door, making as if to run back down the hallway. He takes a few quick steps beginning to run, when the fear subsides. Valryc stops. Sweat beads on his brow and his eyes remain wide in shock and terror. But he collects himself. A few quick breathes, the last bits of fear fade from his mind. He turns back to the doorway, sure that he must have missed something. “It must be trapped. I guess it had been a bit too  easy so far. I’d better take a closer look around the room and see if I can disable this door before that fear drives me away.” With one final shiver at the thought of that moment, Valryc sets about carefully inspecting the room in hopes of finding a way to pass inside. 

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Valryc's status: Momentum: 6; Health: 5; Spirit: 4; Supply:3

Delve the Elven Ruins to find the piece of the blade: Progress 3
 
Ironsworn Campaign 1: Session List