This session was attended by Trajan, Will, and Avery and held over Google Hangouts using Roll20 as a virtual tabletop. However, prior to the session there was an important email I sent out to all the players. We’d talked about having puzzles outside of actual game time. This was the first of many.
Puzzle Tablet
As Torin slept one night he walked through a plain grass field filled with fog. He came to a stone tablet with writing on it. Athena stepped out of the fog and spoke to Torin. When he awoke he remembered none of what Athena said, but the tablet stayed fixed in his mind. He wrote down what he saw on the tablet immediately and shared it with the group soon after.
Tablet
Hint to Solving the Puzzle
The puzzle is a transliteration of an English rhyming prophecy into Ancient Greek letters.
Half-solved Puzzle
The puzzle is a little easier to solve once it’s in text as you can then put it into a transliteration translator online. That’s why I went with the handwritten version to begin with. Anyways, here’s the stuff in Greek.
βυεν θη βλακ βλαιδ μαρχεσ
παυ ιτ νο χιδ
φορ αι κοντρολ ιτ
οφ εντηρβεντιον θερε βελλ βι νο νιδ
ενστηδ τυρν υορ χεδσ
του οθερσ οφ καινδ
φορ βεθ θεμ θη χωρσ μαρχεσ
ανδ χι πλαυσ χεσ ων σαιδ
ανδ βεθ θη χωρσ κομσ
θη λων λοστ ριτυρν
του θη υον μαδ οφ βονσ
ανδ θη φαμελι χι σπυρνεδ
Player’s Solution
When the black blade marches,
pay it no heed,
for I control it.
Of intervention, there will be no need.
Instead, turn your heads
to others of kind,
for with them the horse marches
and he plows his own seed.
And with the horse comes
the lone lost, return
to the own maid of bones
and the family he spurned.
My Solution
When the black blade marches
Pay it no heed
For I control it
Of intervention there will be no need
Instead turn your heads
To others of kind
For with them the horse marches
And he plays his own side
And with the horse comes
The long lost return
To the one made of bones
And the family he spurned
The puzzle was more or less solved by one of the players (Jamie), but the meaning of the puzzle remains a mystery. They suspect that it refers to the army of Hades or Hephaestus currently.
Fear and Loathing in the Lich Shade
We left our adventurers deep within the Lich Shade tomb, searching for a way up the center of the Lich Shade. They’d just slain a hideous arm-eye monster. They carefully searched for non-existent traps before coming to the next door in their current section of the tomb. Eathirilu put his ear to the door and heard large bat wings on the other side. The group armed for combat and Tagenadi kicked in the door.
On the other side was a large stone room with an altar to the moon goddess, Artemis, on the left and an altar to the sun god, Apollo, on the right. In the center of the room flapped a big nasty monster. Large bat wings protruded from ten conjoined necks. At the ends of the necks were horrifying ghoulish faces with pointed teeth and long slobbering tongues. The beast opened up the combat by shrieking in a terrifying resonating tone that paralyzed Eathirilu and Torin with unimaginable fear.
Tagenadi moved forward to chop off a few heads with his divine power. Amalius disintegrated another head. The beast moved straight past Tagenadi, losing a few more heads in the process. It converged on Torin and Eathirilu beginning to kiss them with its long tongues and bite them with its pointed teeth. The two were left covered in poison with no sure way of knowing if it affected them or not due to their frozen state. Tagenadi and Amalius continued to blast the heads, but found they regrew faster than they could be removed.
The beast continued its assault on Torin and Eathirilu. Amalius tried to undo the paralysis with his psionic magic, but failed. The fear soon wore off on its own and the pair rejoined the fight. Amalius discovered that energy spells would singe a head off that just regrew, but the wings were not regenerating. The party began to retarget the wings with their attacks instead of fruitlessly chopping off heads. The beast valiantly fought back, but soon fell with its weakness revealed.
The group explored the room, finding nothing save the altars and a door at the other end. The moon altar contained a magical transmutation aura and the sun altar contained an evocation aura. To purify the altars, Torin prayed at the altar of Apollo while Eathirilu prayed at the altar of Artemis. At the end of the prayer they both touched their altars. At first a darkness extended from the Artemis altar, surrounding Eathirilu. That darkness soon receded as a great light poured from the Apollo altar filling the room with blinding light. Eathirilu and Amalius both went blind and ultraviolet burns covered the party. Torin reversed the damage and blindness with a mass heal.
After recovering from the traps the party investigated the next door. Finding no traps, they opened the door to reveal a corridor ending in another door. Deciding they’d had enough for the day, the party left the tomb and teleported home to Dalleer.
GoCorral 
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