The Return of Sheemish

In which we help a godling take one more baby step on the road to full divinity.

The following account was written by GM Steve, and amendations and notes from others are marked in brown

Summoned Back to Teth

Sheemish had summoned the characters to his abode to "do him a favor." He explained that he was still gaining power from New Orc City (note 1), and that upon his arrival on Teth he had managed to convince someone to sacrifice a very potent magic item to him (Hercules' cloak). However, he also tried to keep the party confined to one small area of his abode, and (when examined by Abrac) this abode was very small and spartan, consisting of only five or six rooms (note 2).

The "favor" Sheemish wanted was for the characters to bring back some Ambrosia from the cave in which it was hidden, the location of which had recently been discovered (note 3). The cave was located at the base of cliffs on the bank of a river on Teth, the planet of our ancient origination. Although the location of the cave was known, no god dared go there for fear of concerted action by the others. (And because their power did not function there.) What Sheemish first offered in return for this favor was the restoration of lost levels to those characters who had lost them. He did not mention that this restoration would last only so long as the characters were on the prime material plane and not in Lothar's time bubble.

Marvin, Tim, and Jean accepted the higher levels and paid Sheemish some lip service. The remaining characters either had not lost levels to be restored, or refused to worship Sheemish (note 4). Sheemish also told the party that the warrior Dialoges had been into the cave and returned, and had since formed an army that won battles with gods. Killed gods, even, although when questioned about who was gone Sheemish mentioned that the only god who had died so far since the Eternals left Teth was Hercules, and Sheemish had witnessed that. Eventually the party was faced with the decision about whether to attempt to learn the secrets of the cave from Dialoges (note 5), or to brave it on their own. The players decided to pass up the information gathering based on Dialoges description as being able to go toe to toe with the gods, and knowing they could not outfight an army if something went wrong.

The Larder of the Gods

The cave was protected by skeletons and constructed monsters, except for one treasure which was protected by (modified) lurkers above. It was also in another dimension, where magic items did not function "properly" and Sheemish could not aid the party members. During explorations, several characters died: Marvin, Jean, and Abrac, plus one NPC. Each of the characters was later raised (note 6) by Sheemish. Those of you who took notes can describe the encounters.

Sheemish blipped us into the general vicinity, although his accuracy was never what one might have wished for -- still, horizontal error is better than vertical error! To get to the cave mouth, we first waded across a shallow river to an island in the river opposite the cave mouth. Then we waded from the island to the other side of the river. Once we set foot on the riverbank, many many skeletons animated around the beach and attacked. Every day that we returned, they animated, and every day we destroyed them. The beach was littered with corpses, and rot grubs were a danger.

Inside the cave, the first chamber had a strange large glyph of fear on the floor, which caused several of us to be uneasy. In one part of the cave system we encountered a chamber trapped with needles, a hoard of treasure that was also trapped, a room of bodies that we avoided, animating statues, and giant skeletons guarding fake ambrosia. In another part of the caves, reachable only via an underground stream, we found those lurkers above (body baggers), another hoard (from which we were too scared to take anything -- fools that we were!), a new kind of golem (scary!), bottomless pits, and the true ambrosia! On the run from golems, we dashed across one of thos pits, but Abrac fell, was lost, and died.

Here's a map of the sacred caves (warning: large graphic ahead).

Sheemish Cuts Some Deals

After the ambrosia was found and delivered to Sheemish, he set about fulfilling his bargains with the individual party members.

Eternal Dungeon Crawl

Once back on Lothar, the party members who returned decided they needed gems for the Top, and went off on a "dungeon crawl." Unfortunately, the big presence in that portion of the old mines was now poisonous spiders. John was nearly fatally poisoned. During efforts to save John, the party met the mountain dwarf paladin Gal, and his bard follower Galstaff. These two interceded on the party's behalf with the mountain dwarves, and obtained a scroll of neutralize poison in return for the party's help in obtaining information on the giants who had taken up residence in a portion of the abandoned underground road between the hill dwarf and mountain dwarf cities.

The road was a 50' wide x 30' high passage carved through the mountains. Every 6 hours of travel, the party found two "way-stations." These consisted of doorways on each side of the passage, each opening onto a 30' x 30' room with three other doors in it. The party did not investigate beyond these first rooms. The party set about trying to negotiate a deal with the community of stone giants they found in a broken portion of the roadway. The giants thought this was some sort of dwarfish joke, and, although they were not particularly hostile, did not appreciate it. The party ended up by sneaking a note onto the "throne" of the chief giant (note 10). After the party returned to the dwarven tree city, Jean was sequestered by the hill dwarves and grilled on every detail he could remember about the giant community. Galstaff wandered off, probably to make his own report to the mountain dwarves.

The remaining Eternals went back to dungeon crawling -- and fighting spiders. Gal went with them, but did not go into the spider lair, preferring to guard the entrance. Fortunately for the party, they had already killed most of the spiders in the nest (ok, about half of the adults). As they entered the spider lair, they discovered that it broke into one of the rooms of an old dwarven temple.

Clearing the temple of spiders, they found a few items of value were left behind: 400 GP, a large silver hammer holy symbol, a magical crossbow, and a magical ring. The magical ring was on a corpse that had been laid out for viewing several centuries ago. As John went to remove the ring from the corpse, the shade of the dead dwarf rose, shouting, "Desecrators!" However, after Abrac, John, and Kazz explained what they had done for the dwarves, the shade said they could take the ring, if they "sought vengeance upon. . ."

(Play ended before the characters learned vengeance upon what or whom, why vengeance was necessary, what the shade thought it could do to keep them from just taking the ring, and so on.)

Notes from GM Steve

  1. And, in my opinion, should expect for at least the lifetime of all orcs who saw him manifest and defeat their old god.
  2. Ask Abrac what he saw.
  3. The effects of eating ambrosia were never learned by the party, so anything written here may be changed by the next GM. I had expected the effects to be the granting of immortality – that is, Sheemish cannot be killed on Teth anymore, only on his home plane. However, this in itself does not mean he will become powerful, although it might tend to help.
  4. Although John prayed to Sheemish at one point when the party was in peril.
  5. This was the option I expected. Oh, well.
  6. Marvin was raised while Sheemish was weak, and Sheemish had to use the energy from some magic items to raise Marvin. If you recall, Sheemish had been willing to raise Marvin for the sacrifice of Marvin's armor and magical shield, plus one of John's magic items, but Marvin asked the party to wait when his spirit was consulted on what to do. When he was returned to the party, Marvin was missing his armor, shield, and sword.
  7. Kazz should probably wonder how permanent this is, considering the temporary nature of Abrac's affliction.
  8. Unless he has a change of heart, Sheemish would accept arguments from these three that he promised to both return them to Lothar and restore their levels. During the bargaining on what the party would get in return for obtaining the ambrosia, Sheemish promised to return the party to Lothar, but told the party members they could keep their levels if they so chose.
  9. The GM spelled it out, out-of-character, before the players decided. Return to Lothar and lose levels, or stay with Sheemish and keep them.
  10. The party's actions have at least warned the giants that the dwarves intend to return. The giants may therefore prepare for war, to the annoyance of the mountain dwarves. Because the party made some pretty big promises of potential rewards for cooperation, the giants may also contact the mountain dwarves to learn if the offers were serious. I imagine it would also annoy the mountain dwarves to learn the giants expect a percentage of their trade goods.

Site Map | 27 August 01

copyright © 2001 by Michael Moran Alterio, Michael Babriecki, Harry Ching, Stephen Martin, and Donald R. Parrish III (all rights reserved)