Vault of Larissa’s Laments

@Chris: I have some bands of iron might for trade.

You do? I’d be interested in these if you’ve not found an arrangement already.

You guys are using “AV” and confusing AR with Avoidance.

opps guess i did, thats what i get for not carefully reading the posters breakdown of what did what.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but according to the documentation trading items between characters isn’t possible.

“Items that are listed in the Items Found section of a
Chronicle Page may not be traded. Heroes may trade or
exchange currency with other heroes at any time during an
adventure.”
p.8 of the Campaign Guide

With a sweep of his hat,

Paul

That’s getting changed in the next iteration of the Campaign Guide actually, Paul.

First off, my apologies if this story has been already told but I wanted to make sure to post something about the Vault and I don’t have the energy right now to read through this thread.

Ahem.

I had the pleasure of running the fine ss’ressen of BEAST through the Vault of Larissa’s Lament and it was a great experience. Upon entering the Vault they began to work their way through the various shrines to the Pantheon of Man. After getting their claws singed by a few of the holy relics they decided it was obvious that worshippers of the Fire Dragon needed to look else where for their pretties. However, they did manage to secure a good number of the keys from the shrines especially after some of the other explorers clued them in to the secrets of the shrine of Cadic. Amazingly engouh, BEAST was one of the few teams with any skills at music so they were able to solve the puzzle of this shrine. They also ventured into the shrine of Anshar and while they didn’t find the key they did discover something of greater interest; a raving 9′ tall elorii elder, chained in a prison cell or deific proportions. The team deliberated for quite some time and pooled what knowledge they had on what this could possibly mean but eventually their greatness of spirit and unwillingness to further prolong the elorii’s agony for no good reason led them to release the creature. So that was nice.

Moving deeper into the vault they encountered the mysterious orb weavers and began to look for the shields and weapons these creatures craved. They also fought off some of the angry spirits loosed upon the vault by other teams. However, their biggest challenge came when they entered the section of the vault overtaken by tribes of gar. As they passed through room after room showing signs of obvious habitation by primitive creatures they began to get anxious and wonder what calamity had fallen. Eventually, they came upon a massive chamber with a an enormous crystal pillar housing a gem that appeared to be the Tear of Larissa. What was more amazing, however, was the sight of a massive dragon coiled around the pillar and the vast tribe of gar engaged in some ritual worship of it. One of the members of BEAST is a shaman of Jeggel-Sag and knew that the chance to peacefully engage a true dragon was the opportunity of a life time. Calling upon all their diplomatic skills, the group was able to convince the gar tribe to parley.

Apparently, the dragon was deep in hibernation but its spirit was active and spoke often to the gar tribe in dreams in visions. When the Tear of Larissa fell to the earth, the dragon knew that such a powerful artifact needed protection and so had built a lair around the Tear. However, over time the power of the Tear caused the dragon to fall into a deep trance-like slumber. Once the dragon learned how to walk the world as a spirit it continued its mission of protecting the tear. All this was learned when the shaman from BEAST journeyed on a spirit-quest and communed with the dragon on the spiritual plane. The dragon spoke of the vast power of the Tear and the potential for both great good and great evil should it be uncovered. It warned of chaos, death and destruction but also advised that the Tear is ultimately a tool and its power is directed by those who wield it. Seeing the shaman prove his wisdom, cunning and humility, the dragon divulged how the Tear might be acquired by seeking access from a lower level. Strangely, as the shaman was returning to the waking world, he felt strange tendrils slip from his mind at the last moment.

(It’s at this point that I should point out that almost everything about the dragon is unfortunately an illusion. The true Tear of Larissa wanted to make sure that only worthy people found it so it created the image of the dragon and the false Tear as a test. However, upon seeing the reaction of the group to the ‘dragon’ and their obvious attempts to be peaceful with the gar I decided to run with it as best I could. I don’t mean to belittle what was clearly a defining moment for this character but I wanted to make sure the truth was known.)

Once the encounter with the dragon had passed, BEAST continued to explore the Vault. Moving further down, they discovered a vast barracks for the Legion that had been quartered here. After long hours searching, they were able to find one of the shields they required to satisfy the orb weavers. As they continued to explore, they were suddenly attacked by the time-hopping Tle’Rhan. These massive, 4-armed, ape-rhino hybrids had been hopping forward in time running from some unknown danger and dragging unfortunate innocents with them on every hop. BEAST put a stop to them and rescued two attendees of the Vault from the First Imperium. With some guidance from these people, the group was able to narrow their search for the remaining items they needed. Eventually they discovered the Forbidden Vault and found that they had been able to acquire the right set of keys to gain entry. Their victory was somewhat thwarted by the group of Singarthan trolls that had broken in the Vault from the Lavender Way (I think, possibly a portal of some kind was involved) but after a difficult fight BEAST was able to lay claim to some true treasures. Since the event was run in a quasi-cooperative fashion, other teams that had already gotten to the Vault affected what items were there and unfortunately the other shield that BEAST needed was gone. But they were able to get to the Holothurian and get a piece of it for the other orb weaver they encountered but when they made it back to its lair they found that it had been attacked and destroyed. But other teams had discovered the true Tear of Larissa and were able to retrieve it from the Vault so all was not in vain.

I hope that the players of BEAST had fun and enjoyed the experience. I will admit that I spent far too much time prepping the monsters for this event instead of the actual story and I hope that didn’t diminish the experience. As a judge, I found the structure of the event to be a little confusing. It would have been good to have a summary of the basic plan for the Vault; an idea of what experiences were essential to the event and what the assumed order of events for a group would be. That would have helped me to make sure that the group hit all the interesting spots in the Vault instead of map after map of empty rooms. I understand in some ways that was an intended mechanic but I didn’t particularly enjoy it. And it would have been nice to have a write-up of the overall history and lore of the Vault and the Tear so I could use it to fill in the players when they had the opportunity to find bits and pieces of information. When the Tle’Rhan dropped of the people from the past they practically peppered them with questions that I struggled to answer. But overall it was a really fun event and a very unique way to do a cooperative dungeon crawl. I would definitely want to run something like this again.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed my ramble.

We passed through a room on level 3 that had a map of the first city as it was during the first emperium built into the meeting table – I believe in map 7. I used “Master they self” to memorize as much of it as I could. Is it possible to get documented in any way? I imagine that might be useful as we explore the first city…

boy that was a niffy little trick there…
im thinking the elorii abiltiy spell matter shift would have allowed you to take the whole dang table…which would have been kinda cool

*bump for cert question*
And item certs…