Ur - Drowned Kingdom - notes

Sort of a prequel to Ur.

The party rode 3 more days along the coast before coming into a mud and straw hut village in the boggy marshes where they met an ancient shaman who claimed through a young translator that he could heal Sol if supplied with the eye of a serpent. The party also met an old fisherman named Kale, who showed them a serpent skull, and who had apparently taken up living with the natives as the shaman had helped him at some point in the past.

The party rode east the next day with the shaman and his young translator in search of the sunken kingdom of Aquilonius. The shaman took the party out to sea to find a strange quarantined storm. They slept on the boats that night and in the morning had the shaman grant them the ability to traverse to the sea floor with no need to breath. Beneath the storm the party found a strange bubble housing a strange golden pyramid. Upon further inspection the party gained access into the pyramid through what seemed to be a window or skylight. Once inside, Academis was able to decipher some of the ancient hyroglyphs and tell the party some of the history of Aquilonius and the arrogant king Thaparthal who took his conquering kingdom out to sea to conquer far away lands and was sunken by the gods for his arrogance. After further inspection, Academis summoned the spirit of a corpse found in the temple and was to ask it three questions. The first being why is the door barred from the inside, the second being how do we raise the army of Aquilonius, the third being how do we raise Aquilonius back to the surface.0 He also asked a fourth request from the spirit. He asked the spirit to guide his friends to the priests. Upon asking asking the fourth question Academis fell unconscious. The spirit beckoned to a barred door, which Kojax and Sol opened and upon the spirits signal, Kojax carried the skull of the corpse with him to allow the spirit to travel with them into the darkness below…

10/14/-6 The party followed the spirit down deeper into the undersea temple until they came to an ornate double door. Upon passing through the ornate door, Sol and Kojax entered what they found to be a strange pipe-lined room containing eight sarcophagi, a large jeweled statue, an alter and a strange urn. After some investigating and much praying and chanting, Sol discovered that the urn contained eight shimmering red clouded stones, which when put into the bowled hands of the statue would summon a mind-bending cacophony and eventually stand the sarcophagi upright and release the resting priests of Aquilonia.

Ears still ringing after the awakening, Sol addressed the recovering priests with a bardic tale of the helm of Akhad and Branok the half-blood warlord.

The deformed priests after conferring amongst themselves and regaining control of their physical facilities while Kojax gathered Academis, agreed to assist the party in raising the remaining Baseka soldiers from their tomb far to the east in the Muhtnkhamen desert. The party then journeyed many days with the priests. Some of the days were hastened by some strange enchantment from the ring of priests. While looking for a ferry across the river Ur the party was attacked by strange hawk-headed serpents, which unfortunately took the life of one of the eight priests. The ‘voice’ of the priests however said that even seeing a hawk-headed serpent was a sign of good fortune. A few days further on the brink of running out of supplies and having crossed the River Geb a day past, the priests ring and sit, including both Academis and Sol to move giant sand dunes from above the tomb of the Baseka soldiers with a couple of the priests lost to fatigue. Once unearthed, the party faced off two Anubian jackal-headed soldiers guarding the entrance and then entered the trap-clad tomb to find the eight sarcophagi and hieroglyphs warning not to open the sarcophagi prior to the eve of battle lest the wrath of the warrior be unleashed unfettered. Out of supplies and nearing wits end, Kojax pushing to open a sarcophagi and either face the wrath or bend the ancient warriors to the parties will, Sol prayed and Kojax discussed with the ‘voice’ of the priests on how to get the sarcophagi back to Talathese. Whether by the self-sacrifice of the priests or by Sol’s praying to Luna, the sarcophagi began floating and the party quickly uprooted their camp and followed or rode the coffins southward along the river Geb toward the coast. Nearing Geb, Academis created an illusion to make the coffins appear as a wagon to hopefully trick passers-by. Early one sunny morning as the party is but 500 yards from the Coastal trade city of Geb the coffins set down to rest upon the green grass of the fertile river basin.