Bridewealth #18: Drowned Sanctum - Realms of Adventure

Our previous session rewarded the adventurers with a level increase and a step up into the next tier of their challenges. Now 5th level, the characters are ready to leave behind the simple challenges of local import and move on to greater challenges in the region. It’s time for the gloves to come off and the problems to become real. It is time to deal with the threats to city and kingdom. Time to don the mantle of fame and deal with the petty jealousies that come with that well earned notoriety.

So what transpired in session #18 of the Bridewealth Horde campaign and who was present?

Attendees

The Drowned Sanctum of the Bear-King

Descending the mountain without the guidance of Rory Calhoun, the travelers came down a different path than they had climbed on the ascent. Drawn by a cabin glimpse far below on the shore of a cyan-blue mountain lake, they hiked down to the lake and what would turn out to be an old, abandoned scro cottage.

Away from the cottage on the far side of the lake was discovered a circle of standing stones standing around a freshly collapsed sinkhole near the lakes edge. Forty feet below the rim could be seen a submerged vault that hadn’t seen light in 300 years. A strange, low frequency hum vibrated through the stones and damp soil. Soft, pale blue light glinted from inside the flooded fissure and the darkest cracks of the standing stones.

This place was a monolith to some primal totem, probably a bear. Perhaps a bear with iron teeth. Whether it was activated by the collapse or the collapse was caused by its activation, could not be determined.

The Entrance. After some investigation of the standing stones the team descended into the sinkhole via an exposed staircase along the exposed edge. When they reached the floor of the flooded chamber and stepped into the icy, knee-deep water the guardians of the place were triggered. A pair of water weirds rose up and attempted to drown the intruders while a pair of spectral mountain dire wolves hunted along the dry ledge above. Our protagonists dealt with these threats and continued deeper into the drowned sanctum.

The Puzzle. Beyond the flooded entry chamber they found a circular chamber dominated by a massive stone carving of a cave bear on a central pedestal. Three stone basins sat around it, fed by slow-dripping trickle-pipes from the lake outside. Etched above the bear’s maw in Druidic were the words, “Only when the Great Bear drinks of the Three Tides shall the deep path open.” The three basins contained brackish water, clean cold water, and murky reddish water. The trick being to fill the bears bowl in the correct order. That order matching the natural cycle of the mountain. Glacial. Silt. Brackish. It took them three tries. Which means they set off the freezing cone trap twice before the Shrine of the Three Tides unveiled a split passage behind the shrine. From one came a cold, fresh draft of air and from the other a stale dry draft.

The Boss. They choose to follow the theme and ignored the tomb, which is how they found the awakened primal guardian. The short passage led to a grand, high-domed cavern where the floor had partially given way to a deep, dark pool connected directly to the bottom of Grizzly Lake. Resting in the center of the room is a colossal, fossilized bear skeleton fused with jagged, glowing leyline crystals. As the adventurers entered the massive skeleton stirred and there was a subterranean surge which caused the water in the central pool to erupt thunderously, rushing across the ceiling and washing down the walls, pushing the characters along with it toward and into the central pool. Even as the water drained back to the pool it left a sheet of ice on the cold stone and from that slick surface a trio of Ice Mephits rose up to confront the intruders. The fight was short and intense. The mephits went down first and the great skeleton of the crystal-laced bear was blasted to bits.

The Reward & Revelations. Inside the primary altar behind the guardian they found a cache of goodies:

600 gp in ancient, pre-cataclysmic coinage.
A pair of Goggles of Night shaped like a bear mask.
A diamond worth 250 gp.

Among the ancient carvings at the back of the altar, the party noticed something unsettling. The ancient carvings showing the pristine lake and mountain were over-carved at a much later date. Examining the older carvings reveal that in the deep water beneath the lake on the carving, someone carved a rough, terrifying image of a tentacled, three-eyed creature lurking under the floor of the valley. A little knowledge of history and a little of arcana showed this sanctum to not be a simple shrine built to worship nature and the bear totem spirit. It was built as part of a sort of early warning system by ancient druids to monitor strange, deep-earth vibrations coming from the lower subterranean lakes further down the mountain in the valleys below. Probably irrelevant.

And that’s where we left it. Are they done in the sanctum? What happened with that white dragon encounter? Maybe we’ll get some answers next Saturday.