Fireday, 1 Arodus (still)

Kazaven had teleported or dimension doored out, which left our fighters behind a wall of force, and the rest of us to face two devourers.

Takkad, aware he was still protected from evil, took a moment to stone shape a passage around the wall of force, allowing Nolin and Avia to attack one of the devourers and kill it. I pulled Sedgewick out of harm’s way on the theory that I could take a bigger hit than he right now, plus I had spell resistance up, and naturally he started to sing.

Sabin used locate creature to try to find Kazaven, but it strangely told him he was all around him. Was he invisible? Had he become ethereal?

Nolin and Avia continued to battle the remaining devourer, with Nolin taking most of the beating at its … hands. To help them out, I actually approached it from the rear, flanking it and drawing its attention. As expected, it paid much more attention to the armored party members in front of it than the unarmored human at its rear, but the distraction nevertheless helped seal its fate. Takkad channeled healing to all (most importantly Nolin) before Avia finally put it down.

But where was Kazaven?

With that, Sabin found a trapdoor in the floor, and Rigel rushed over to check it for traps. Of course. He was all around us .. he was underneath us, and judging from the locate spell, he was probably directly under us. No sooner had Rigel pronounced it safe than Takkad warped it with stone shape to open it and Avia, Nolin, Sabin and Takkad all jumped down.

For her trouble, the big K sent her an ominous black ray, which she kind of dodged but that still left her looking a bit wan.

I immediately jumped down too, using my acrobatics to land on my feet.

Sabin got a wicked grin on his face, looked left and right at Nolin and Takkad, and dimension doored them all next to their lich buddy. Nolin immediately took several swings at him, and if he could have still bled, there would have been blood everywhere. Takkad tried a greater dispel (which apparently did nothing) while Avia and Sabin did their usual damage.

Then the room was briefly aglow, and we all felt weaker while Kazaven cackled about how he felt invigorated. The room – the sarcophagi – was a trap, it seemed, and our life forces would be used to replenish his.

But Sabin threw a touch of idiocy on the lich, greatly diminishing his options. And with nearly all of us down there now, we hammered him – even Rigel, with an invisible sneak attack. I tried lightning … and found that it has no effect on a lich. Shrug. It was technically Avia who landed the killing blow, but it was truly a team effort.

Takkad talked about needing to find the phylactery, and I remembered what we learned at the Foxglove estate – a lich had to put part of himself away to become a lich in the first place. As luck would have it, the sarcophagus closest to where he died was that object, so our fighters quickly destroyed it to remove any chance of Kazaven returning.

Searching his remains, we found some impressive goodies.

[1194] a Staff of Hungry Shadows [39] The charges in this staff could be used to invoke the following spells: 1 charge – enfeeblement, darkness, or vampiric touch; 2 charges – enervation or summon shadows, and 3 charges – call devourers.
[1195] bracers of armor +5 (mine!)
[1196] headband of intellect +4
[1197] ring of protection +2
[1198] statue of himself, which we believe to be an artifact of a contingency spell

and a robe, non-magical.

And as we marvelled over this, the room lit again and we all felt weaker. The trap was still draining us. We tried dispel even as our cleric healed us. Didn’t think we’d changed anything. Finally, Rigel treated it as the trap it was and discovered how to disarm it.

The other two sarchophagi held valuable stuff. One held

[1199] various spellbooks

and the other … oh how Rigel’s eyes lit up! The other held

~14,000 gp worth of coins, gems, jewels, and other small items, plus
[1200] smoking bottle (creates clouds of smoke when unstoppered)
[1201] scarab of golem bane – detect a golem within 60′, and remove DR should one attack it
[1202] spellbook of very nice black leather — Kazaven’s
[1203] collection of instruments, originally valuable jewelry, probably worth about 1500 sp

Sedgewick inspected the spellbooks and reported there was a spell and rune listed for each of the seven sins, which Takkad, I noticed, was summarizing in his notebook. All I remember is the runes needed to be engraved in the skin, which made them somewhat unattractive to me.

At last, we felt safe enough to rest.

Starday, Arodus 2

Today we would take on Wrath.

We entered the corridor, and as expected it was easier for some than others. It took me, for example, a while longer to reach the door at the end of the corridor. It was untrapped and unlocked and led to a huge hall. While we’d been in a Great Hall before, this put it to shame. It had to be 150 feet long and over 100 feet wide, with a huge 60′ ceiling. On a far wall there was a mural of a red-haired lady riding a dragon. At the far end of the room was a tall pedestal (probably 30′ tall) upon which stood an iron archer probably 12 feet tall.

It didn’t take a genius to predict that either the mural or the archer would come to life. It was best, I guess, that it was the archer that decided to attack us.

We had all entered the room, spread out a bit to reduce the effectiveness of area effect spells, and the statue decided to attack Nolin, Avia, and Takkad, the last two of which easily determined her decision by being struck by bolts of fire.

Sabin, with a quick sign to the others, paused to let them gather near him before dimension dooring directly to the statue. Since he got over there before I could do anything, he effectively took fireball off the menu. Besides, heat might not do anything interesting to the metal figure. So instead, I created a major image of the white dragon we’d defeated. Perhaps it would fear cold. Thinking similarly, Sedgewick created a silent image of a troll.

The statue moved, however, and then shot lightning at our party standing around her. Sabin and Avia both took damage before the statue moved sharply OFF the pedestal, and left behind a cloud of noxious gas.

It was flying now.

Sabin gave fly to Nolin, and Takkad gave airwalk to Avia. I tried to dispel magic on the iron maiden but near as I can tell it had no effect. The statue, however, again attacked, this time with bolts of ice. Sabin and I both gained flight and moved toward the statue.

In melee, the statue proved formidable, getting some heavy blows on both Nolin and Avia. But with our fighters able to match its movement, it did eventually take enough blows that it crashed to the marble floor below and lay motionless.

Beyond the pedestal, a hallway led to another room which contained only two circles – one formed of a red line, and the other of blue. The rune of Wrath was in each circle.

I cast mirror image on myself as we started to experiment. We learned that blue exits a room, and red is the arrival area, and that about four humans could transport at once. In short order, we were all in another room … and facing many many (maybe a couple dozen) figures that did not view us with favor.

I got off a fireball — but this was clearly going to be a multiple fireball day…

Fireday, 1 Arodus

As I predicted, after a brief respite, we decided to look for goodies. The mummies themselves had some magical (+1) chainmail [1185], which is useless to me. They also apparently had on their person (!) 8 gem-encrusted torques [1186] worth about 600 gp each, but otherwise unmagical.

The walls here are covered with skulls, which themselves still have bits of flesh hanging from them. Upon inspection, Rigel announced there was a secret level associated with each and every one of them.

Everyone stepped to the back of the room (well, in a circular room I suppose “towards the door” is more accurate) as Rigel opened one. There were no explosions, no sharp spikes, no lightning bolts .. no visible effect at all. There was an area behind the skull that held funeral linens, and a sickly sweet smell, but nothing else of value. As we pondered this, Rigel happily announced “Another!” She and Takkad opened all that we could find, certain that the mummies had been guarding something of value, but apparently they’d only been guarding “the room”.

The only exit from this room (other than the door through which we’d entered) was a staircase off to the northeast. It eventually wound up at an iron door, which was unlocked. We entered.

This circular room had six statues in front of six alcoves (a seventh alcove held the door through which we’d entered).

One statue held some grapes.

One held some bread.

One held some cheese.

One held some meat.

One held some candies.

And one simply stood there with his arms crossed. But he looked to have really sharp teeth.

Sedgwick said these represented the key families in the realm of Gluttony. I asked about the last one, and he just grimly said, “Cannibalism.”

Well gosh, cannibalism seems like a problem and a solution all in itself. Eventually, you run out of food, right? Gives finger food a whole new meaning. Still, I’d rather not meet the rep from the cannibal family.

We went to the first, with the grapes: Inibs. We opened the door and entered the corridor, which shortly led to another room. Rigel’s eyes got very big, as here there was a golden sarcophagus. But first, there was a loud noise from the west, and a reddish looking womanish looking armored looking figure approached menacingly. She appeared to have a clay body with iron plating and some runes all over.

Well crap. Fire won’t help here. So I hasted everyone. Sedgwick inspired us and Takkad prayed for us. Sabin and Nolin got some blows in, but swords probably weren’t our best choice against a foe made of clay. Next I tried magic missile, but they just bounced off. Magic resistance. Great.

But then Avia cranked up the religion and suddenly she was laying some heavy smiting on Ms Golem. In an incredible burst of speed, the golem smacked Nolin, Avia, and Rigel (who’d crept in for a possible sneak attack) but Nolin responded by taking three swings and connecting three times — the last one making it drop. Takkad healed the wounded and all was right with the world. Rigel rushed to the golden sarcophagus.

The lid came off with Avia, Nolin, and Sabin carefully lifting it. Avia had detected no evil inside, and in fact, there was nothing at all inside. Rigel disappointedly remarked that the gold was gold plating. However, there were 2 star sapphire eyes and 12 amethyst grapes adorning the lid, which offered some consolation, at least.

There was plenty of storage for wine (finally!) in this room, but it was ancient, and thus not wine anymore.

Nearby another small room held valueless and disappointing empty bottles.

Another room held bodies and putricity.

Another room was simply empty.

Yet another room was – you know, I suppose I should be in awe of these relics of an ancient civilization but even though I’ve made a point of picking up the language, and even though we are seeing things that have gone unseen for hundreds and thousands of years, I’m bored. I’d rather be using my magic. I have learned SO much and gotten SO much better at this!

I wonder if I’ve yet surpassed my father. How does one measure such things? Is it by money earned? Creatures killed? Spells known? Friends made? Influence gained?

Certainly nobody my age is this adept, right? I mean, I don’t remember seeing anybody down at the market flicking lightning bolts off their fingers.

With a start, I realized I’d stopped to think in the great hall, but the rest of the group had moved on. I got a hurried look at some murals – I suppose that’s what turns a hall from ordinary into great — before rushing to catch up.

At the other end of the hall, we found a necromantic lab. Nothing showed with detect magic, but clearly there were components here for necromantic spells. Maybe those corpses in the other room were also “components.” There was a book about creating undead [1190] there.

While in the lab, Avia sensed some evil, and before we could do much else, two shadows became apparent and immediately attacked Takkad, who looked shakened and weaker. Then I think I heard him mutter under his breath “so that’s how it’s going to be, huh?” and conjured up a flame strike which illuminated both of the shadows as if the sun had reached out and caressed them. Kane channeled a whole lot of positive energy at the shadows and Avia stopped in midstep. The shadows were gone. Between them, Kane and Takkad took out the two shadows before anybody else could do anything – a somber reminder that religion kills! 🙂

Another lab next door seemed far less sinister and more alchemical in nature ([1189] alchemical supplies).

We returned to the great hall to inspect more room connected there. One reeked of decaying flesh and prepared to fight zombies or ghasts … but no, it really was just dead bodies. Maybe a few weeks old, which was a little alarming because it meant there were still people alive here AND there was still something killing them.

Another room proved largely empty and thoroughly disinteresting.

A door to the north was locked, but Kane broke the lock .. and inside we found another sarcophagus.

Oh, and another eight mummies. Now we know from recent experience that this simply screams for a fireball, so with nothing more than a gesture and a nod from the group, I obliged. Six of the eight took serious damage; one was killed outright and one was outside the blast range. Takkad channeled energy, and Kane channeled energy, and more dropped, leaving only the one who’d been largely unaffected by most of the spells. Avia willingly stepped forward and finished that one off. I got to use my cantrip “disrupt dead” to some small effect.

This left us free to inspect the sarcophagus they’d been guarding. This, now, must be something valuable to have these creatures guarding it.

Nope. Oh I’m sure it has value as an artifact, but it’s not solid gold or anything. Sigh.

We went to another room near the pile-of-bodies room and discovered a long narrow room with what appeared to be a spectre hovering in it. Well that’s a no brainer! Fireball!

And apparently it took affront at that, because it immediately teleported next to me and …struck me or something. The pain was brief but intense, and I felt weaker. Nolin stepped up and finished it off on my behalf. Thanks, big N. Takkad did some special healing – he called it a restoration – and I immediately felt better. I don’t think I’ve ever been on the receiving end of that kind of magic before.

There was a room to the south, and from the debris and damage it appeared to be the scene of a battle. But there were no creatures there, and nothing of value left.

Wandering through these connected rooms, I began to wonder at the design. It was almost as if they were built at random, simply because there was room yet. Some were connected to others in weird ways. They clearly interconnected the doors that represented each family; no family area was separate from another. Perhaps this is the result you get from a gluttonous architect.

We returned to the statue room, and checked out the “meat” door. It led to some places we’d already been, and proved uninteresting. We returned, and this time chose the “candy” door. Before we could go through, though, we heard the sound of a door closing behind us (the “grapes” door) and a creature stood before us. “Master, I found them!” he claimed, to nobody we could detect. But it made us very nervous.

Takkad tried talking to him in a brusque manner, but he seemed more interested in eating us. He was a zombie, it seems, and he kept up his running commentary to “Master”. Avia grew tired of his talk and was the first to smack him. I hit him with not one, not two, but three scorching rays, which judging from his sounds he did not like. Nolin and Takkad each got some blows in before he succumbed, and he only succeeded in injuring Avia.

He’d been carrying a +2 humanbane dagger [1191], 8 masterwork daggers [1192], and a +3 chain shirt [1193]. The distraction having been dealt with, we returned to the candy door, but perhaps a bit more alert and aware, looking for “Master”. We found a few more rooms, but none of them held anything interesting.

We returned to the statue room and considered. We knew from our travels that this area had a lot of secret doors; we’d found some of them from the non-secret side so we knew we’d missed some. We felt we should go back and search the rooms more carefully, because we believed there was still more here.

We did indeed find a few more secret doors, but none of them led anywhere interesting … until we finally found one off of one of the sarcophagus rooms. This led to another necromantic lab, complete with disembodied organs and a human body, partly dissected.

Avia announced there were three evil presences in the next room, one more powerful than the other two. We looked at each other and buffed up. I added Mage Armor and also gave it to Nolin, Avia, and Sabin (it adds protection against incorporeal creatures.) I gave myself Spell Resistance and mirror image. I cast Greater Invisibility upon Rigel, and hasted everyone. I believe other magic was employed by our other magic users, but I didn’t take note of it. Then before the magic such as haste could wear off …

We went in.

I led with a fireball, and Sabin then dimension doored the usual suspects next to what appeared to be the most dangerous being in the room — and that’s saying something when one considers the other two beings were demons. It too was prepared, it would seem, as Avia quickly took out three of it’s mirror images. One demon moved to attack Takkad, but found himself pushed back. Another came after me … but nothing happened that I could tell. A finger of death was pointed at Sabin, but it damaged him without killing him. Sedgwick started singing. Takkad tried to dismiss one of the demons, but was not successful. Nolin took out two more images – the haste was proving useful – before actually connecting and doing some damage. Kane tried a dismissal, with equal results. I gave my chain lightning a try, but discovered that, no surprise, these creatures had spell resistance and I’d failed to crack it. Sabin finally connected and dealt some heavy blows, while Avia took out the last of its images. One demon struck Sedgwick, and he cried out in pain. The other shot a ray of enfeeblement at Takkad, but Takkad dodged.

Then K dimension doored out, leaving us the demons to deal with.

== Fireday, Arodus 1, 4708; Runeforge; mid day ==

Kane was first to arrive at the gates of greed, which were disappointingly a rather mundane set of double doors. Past them was a large circular domed room, and set into the walls were grinning skulls with flesh gripped between the teeth.

But of more immediate concern were the eight mummies positioned around the room. They were clad in chain mail, and their skin was black and shiny. Each was coated in a small swarm of climbing beetles.

The mummies struck first, lashing out at Nolin and Sabin, but they quickly countered along with Avia, killing one. Trask let loose a fireball in the center of the room, which burned all of the mummies and killed most. I followed this up with an energy channel, and this finished of the remainder.

The mummies were surprisingly well equipped:

[1185] 8 +1 chain mail
[1186] 8 gem encrusted amulets

With the mummies defeated, we entered the room and looked closely at the skull- lined encircling wall. Each skull was set in a panel, and Rigel discovered that they were all secret doors, and used an Open spell to unseal one. The panel dropped down and revealed a space large enough to intern a body. We spent some time going through each and every one of these crypts, but found they really were just as they appeared.

A set of stairs lead up from the northeast to a corridor that zig-zagged its way to an iron door set with an intricate rope motif. Beyond the unlocked door was another circular chamber.

Seven shallow alcoves lined the circular wall of this room, each with its own door (including the one through which we entered). In the center stood six life sized human statues facing the other doors. We wandered in and cautiously approached the statues, which had names engraved at their feet.

The first, facing the door on our left, was Inibs holding a sprig of grapes.

The next was Chvivic holding five loaves of bread.

Then came Gorian holding a great wedge of cheese.

And Hawfrey with a large haunch of meat.

Hanstrin presented a tray of candies.

And finally Zarioch, who was baring his teeth, which had been filed to sharp points.

Sedgewick volunteered that these were the names of six noble houses in Zutha’s kingdom of gluttony. They represented the five major consumable industries, except for Zarioch, who represented cannibalism.

Sabin and I opened the door Inibs was facing and warily entered a large, irregular shaped hall. Following Kane and Rigel, we moved through a narrow passage to the southwest to an even larger hall with a golden sarcophagus at the far end.

As Rigel scampered toward the large shiny gold thing, the sound of heavy foot falls echoed from a chamber to the west. A large, stern looking woman thudded towards us. She was made of red clay and wore heavy iron armor, and ancient runes, which read “Blessed Lasala, great goddess of Thassilon,” covered her body. The golem attacked.

Kane tumbled past her, but although she turned her head to follow his motion, she did nothing. Sabin, Nolin, and Avia took this opportunity to hack at her; and Rigel attempted to repeat Kane’s trick, but was clobbered as she rolled by.

The golem then began to move faster, pummeling the fighters, who pummeled right back at her. Nolin struck the final blows as the construct stopped moving and crumbled to the floor.

We were now able to turn our attention to the gold coffin before us. Carved on the lid was the figure of a noble dressed in fine garments, holding a bunch of grapes. His eyes were emeralds, and each of the grapes was an amethyst, all of which we harvested.

2 star sapphires
12 amethyst grapes

Writing on the sarcophagus revealed it belonged to Lord Ankarios Inib, who had been killed by an assassin. But it was empty. And it was only burnished in gold leaf, and not solid gold, as we had hoped.

The walls of this room were filled with hundreds of slots containing bottles of wine. All of the bottles we tried had turned to vinegar, which is was not a surprise considered the thousands of years they had been here, but we were hoping some sort of magical effect was put in place to preserve them.

Through a door to the northwest was a small room filled with empty bottles, and steps in the corridor to the southeast lead down and right. We decided to save the stairs for another time.

Back in the irregular room the northwest door entered onto a lab reeking with the rotting remains of people.

A corridor to the northeast ran to a large empty room, through which to the east a door opened onto an immense hall. Nearby the north end of the hall ended in double doors, while the far end narrowed to a single door that opened into the circular door chamber.

The walls of the great hall were painted with large murals depicting people partaking in lavish, sumptuous feasts in idyllic settings. There was one disturbing mural of people feasting on other people. Gluttony is one thing, but I cannot abide cannibalism.

Through the double doors were a pair of labs: the one on the left dedicated to necromatic arts (which was disused, although some glass containers still held body parts preserved in acrid smelling liquids) and the one on the right for general alchemy.

While in the labs we felt the presence of some other creature. Avia paused for a moment and said there were two evil beings in the room just as a pair of shadows drifted over and assailed me. I retaliated with a Flame Strike, and Kane finished them off with a burst of channeled energy. Kane then restored my lost strength using a wand.

Having secured the labs, we catalogued the useful items, leaving the lab equipment in place for later retrieval.

[1189] alchemical lab equipment (left in lab)
[1190] a book on creating undead

Back in the great hall we found the two southern most doors on the east wall to be for meeting rooms. The northern door, however, lead to a large nose-some room. The source of the aromatic unpleasantness was a pile of bodies: six humans wearing blue robes (now soaked with blood), with a seemingly random choice of limbs and organs removed. We estimated that the bodies were only a week old.

A locked door to the north proved difficult for Kane to manage, and his pick broke off. No matter, Sabin quickly fixed the problem with a wand of Knock.

A large sarcophagus was in the center of a pentagonal room, surrounded by eight more mummies. Trask greeted them with a cheery fire(ball) while Kane and I channeled energy, Rigel fired arrows, and our big hitters began to hit big. Soon Avia had slain the last of them, and we entered the room. The sarcophagus rim was carved with running bulls, although bits of the ornamentation had been broken off. Runes on the lid identified it as belonging to Lord Hawfrey.

I realized Sedgewick was back in the other room, and returned to find him staring intently at the pile of bodies. “This means something. It was done as part of some necromatic ritual.” But he could not say for what purpose.

A door to the east of the pile of flesh opened onto a long, bizarre shaped room, in the middle of which hovered a spectre. Trask swiftly Fire-balled it, while I feebly tried to hit it with a Searing Light (missing it entirely). The specter winked out and appeared next to Trask, touching him and causing our young fire wielding friend to cry out in pain. Fortunately Nolin was on hand to kill it. I restored Trask’s precious lost life-force.

Despite the unusual shape of the room, it had little to offer. It looked as if it had served as a temple some time in the past.

To the south of the bodies was a large, empty coffin shaped room.

A hallway southeast of the bodies went back to the chamber of doors. We found we had already been through the interconnected areas behind the first three doors, and quickly entered the forth. A short corridor passed to another round room (mostly empty), with a passageway leading back to the dead body room (we had missed a secret door).

We returned to the door chamber and were making for the fifth door when we heard the first door (grapes) open and slam shut.

A humanoid creature with a hunched back shuffled towards us, calling out with delight, “Master, I have found them!”

Uh oh, something powerful was down here looking for us.

I tried to intimidate the figure, but he really just wanted to eat our brains, having too few of his own to engage in any meaningful conversation.

“Oh master, they have humanses! Nice big juicy fighters, oh and that one has a bow, and another one is pointing at me.”

The “another one” was Trask, who hit it with several scorching rays while our nice big juicy fighters sliced into it. It eventually fell, but it took more effort than expected because its wounds kept healing themselves. We relieved it of its burdens:

[1191] +2 human bane dagger
[1192] 8 masterwork daggers
[1193] +3 chain mail shirt

The fifth door was next, which lead down a long hall to a large disused communal dining room. Beyond the dining area was an empty hall, and searching revealed secret doors on either side. To the right a corridor rounded a bend and dead ended, while on the left the corridor took us to an alchemical lab, but it had been ransacked long ago.

From the dining room a door opened to a natural cavern that ended in a large square room — empty. We discovered north and south passages behind secret doors just outside this room, but they too took us to empty rooms.

The northwest door took us from the dining area to the coffin shaped room. Damn, another secret door we had missed!

Passing through the door on the right in the dining hallway we found a rubble choked room, but it did provide access through another door to (you can see it coming) another oddly shaped, but empty room. A doorway from this room took us back to the chamber of doors.

We returned to the stairs from the golden sarcophagus and followed them down and around to… an empty room.

We were frustrated by the lack of any relevant discoveries, but knew we had missed other secret doors and passageways, as we discovered by finding the “back way” to two such missed doors already.

Starting over we searched areas where we could not remember searching before.

In the back of the bottle room was a hidden door to a small round room, which took us to another large room. “Aha,” I though, “Now we’re getting somewhere.” Indeed we were: two more empty rooms, and then a tunnel that forked to two plundered alchemical labs.

These halls for gluttony just appear to go on forever without real design or purpose, almost as if the creators were obsessed with over-indulging in their… oh, right. Never mind.

We finally found what we were looking for in the room with Lord Hawfrey’s sarcophagus. There, a secret passageway with rough hewn walls looped around to a recently used lab.

The walls were lined with book shelves filled with books and other less pleasant things. Jars with human organs suspended in a clear fluid took up much of the space.

Three stone tables were stained with blood, and on one was stretched a man in the same blue robes as those in the pile of bodies to the south. His chest was split open and it looked as if we had interrupted his dissection. But by whom?

Rigel found a secret door in the north east corner, and Avia cautioned that she detected three strong evil beings beyond: one more powerful than the other two.

We have prepared for combat and are about to open the door.

== Oathday, Erastus 31, 4708; Runeforge; morning ==

While deciding where to go in the rubble strewn halls of envy, a bright flash of light sprang forth from the glittering metal rod set in the floor, and it emitted a pulse of magic so powerful I could practically feel it wash over me.

Some of our ever-burning torches winked out and someone yelled, “What the hell was that?!”

I noticed that the Status spells I had cast earlier were no longer working, which led me to cast Detect Magic and scan various magical items I was wearing. My enchanted mail shirt, ring of protection, and newly acquired cloak no longer gleamed with their usual magical luster.

Crap!

The metal rod from which this effect had emanated was now only softly glittering, but as we watched the electrical sparks that arced across it began to intensify.

I grumbled, “Fuck this,” and created a dome of stone three feet thick over the accursed object.

We were still nervous about being around it, and quickly explored the adjacent chambers.

To the right a hallway branched east and west, with the east end choked by rubble, and the west ending in an empty room.

To the left a short hall led to a large square room lit by lanterns. A floor tiled with mosaics stepped down to a pool of quick-silver infused with abjuration. I dipped a piece of paper into the pool, but it emerged unchanged, and so I put some of the mercury into a vial. After prodding about the entrances to two other caved-in passages, we returned to the relative safety of the central chamber of Runeforge.

We have taken inventory of what we lost from the (anti?) magical blast, and replaced what items we could from our inventory. Next on our list is Krune, rune lord of sloth and specialist in conjuration.

== Oathday, Erastus 31, 4708; Runeforge; mid-day ==

We all took about the same amount of time to travel down the hall toward sloth. Perhaps that was because the stench from the area reached us long before we reached it, and we were reluctant to push forward.

We stepped into a large irregular shaped chamber, and it was as if we were physically assaulted by the gut-wrenching smell of the place.

It was difficult to make out details as the acrid vapors from fetid pools stung our eyes, making them weep and thus blurring our vision. The air was so foul that we were sickened from breathing it, and nothing we did seemed to lessen the effect.

Nolin, Kane, Sabin and I bravely pushed forward into the fetid murk, past the slimed walls and cesspools oozing with the foul refuse from centuries of habitation, which over the millennia of neglect had spawned its own hideous forms of life. Reeking pulsating pustules and amorphous blobs of quivering gunk peeped up from the pools and slumped down the walls.

We moved northward, and then to the right (leaving a left passage for later), but we found nothing of use, and the air became more toxic the further in we went. Eventually we could take no more, and Sabin used Dimension Door to transport us all back to the others waiting at the entrance.

It seemed obvious that the devotees of sloth were true to their calling, and had done nothing toward the upkeep of their wing. They no doubt succumbed to the results of their idleness long ago.

We quickly returned to the Runeforge pool, where we gratefully breathed in the delightfully fresh air, which earlier this morning had seemed so stale.

We have decided to only return to sloth if we find we need something from the area for the Runeforge ritual.

I have no map for this area. It was not practical to pause and sketch our surroundings while gasping for air, and the acrid fumes would have probably turned my paper to pulp.

Karzoug’s hall of greed is next.

== Oathday, Erastus 31, 4708; Runeforge; evening ==

Rigel skipped down the passageway toward greed, arriving well ahead of the rest of us. When we caught up she stood looking at an iron door to the right, encrusted with a dazzling variety of gems. But Rigel looked unhappy, and the reasons for her discontent were twofold: first, the gemstones were all fake, and second, the door looked like a trap.

There was a keyhole in the center of the door, at which Rigel worked for a few minutes before stepping back and announcing that while the trap was disabled, the door really wasn’t a door: it was just part of the trap, and would smash anyone standing before the door into the opposite wall.

The passage dead ended, but knowing the obvious door was a fake led us to focus on searching for a secret door in the dead end wall, which Rigel quickly found.

The hallway beyond was beautifully panelled with polished hardwoods set with silver and gold Thassilonian runes, which extolled the greatness of Karzoug and all of his accomplishments.

The hall stretched on for a hundred feet, and the runes ran the full length of it, and so Sabin and I paused to read in detail what they had to say.

Karzoug raised vast armies of stone giants, and with them he sacked and plundered cities of neighboring realms, gaining more and more wealth. But this wealth only fueled his greed, and he forever strove to gain more, enviously coveting anything that was not in his possession.

He attacked other Runelord realms, but none more ferociously or repeatedly as Alasnist’s realm of Bakrakan. A ridge, called the Rasp, acted as a natural barrier between her and Karzoug’s realms, and on top of this he erected huge statues which spied upon her realm. In response she created the hellfire plumes, great defensive towers to keep the giants at bay.

One subtle fact was clear from these detailed accounts of Karzoug’s deeds: he lacked skill at enchantment and illusion, just as Vraxeris had surmised in his journal.

The rest of my companions were gathered before a wall of green mist, which glowed with a putrid light, and had an aura of transmutation (as expected for Karzoug).

Kane put a coin in the mist, but nothing changed, and so Trask pulled out a staff and blew the mist away with a Gust of Wind. We quickly ran through into a large room as the mist began to re-gather in the hall.

The floor, walls and ceiling here were paved with ivory tiles inset with the rune of greed (a claw clutching a coin). In the center of the room was a pool, with an icy sculpture of a whale. Water squirted out of the whale’s blow hole and splashed noisily into the pool.

In the pool itself swam a group of small humanoid creatures with leather wings and toothy grins, staring at us. Water mephits!

In common they quipped, “These don’t look as strong as the last group we saw. The mean silver man will kill them.”

We asked about the mean silver man, and they said he was very strong, made of metal, and very mean. “He uses powerful magic, and sometimes freezes our water. Because he is mean. And strong. And made of metal. He is mean, too.”

We also found out that there were six pools where the (mean) silver man goes, and that one of the six is extremely magical. There was another pool elsewhere that was even more magical, but he did not go there (I assumed this was the main Runeforge pool). The Mephits could travel from pool to pool, even though the pools were not physically connected to one another.

They then all chirped in agreement that “the mean silver man was a big problem for them.”

Nolin replied that he had not yet met a problem he could not behead, which seemed to amuse them, and they huddled together and quietly spoke amongst themselves.

Of course they were speaking aquan, and so I interrupted their conversation and said, in their own tongue, that if they helped us we could kill the silver man.

For a moment they were more impressed by my ability to speak their language than our proposal, and it definitely made them think more highly of us. Aquan can be a difficult language: it is not at all fluid or smooth like water. Rather it is made up of various clicks and screeching sounds that carry well in liquids.

They told us that the silver man was deeper in, and that the magic pool was also deeper in. We saw doorways to the left and right, and asked which would take us to the silver man, to which they replied that it really didn’t matter.

We went left and found another large room with a pool in the center, and a statue serving as a fountain. This pool had goldfish swimming in it (a favorite food of the mephits in the other pool), and the statue was of a wizard holding a staff in one hand, and the other held up out from which the water sprang.

To the right was a wide exit to a long corridor, with silver doors on either side: three on the left and one on the right. Each door opened onto an identical room: large and rectangular and mostly empty. The rooms had an aura of transmutation and held an odd assortment of… parts. Blocks of iron, wood or stone, ivory tusks, bits of fur or glass.

Kane suddenly entered one of the rooms, and while we expected the worse, nothing happened. The same held for the rest of the rooms. Huh.

We followed the corridor around a bend to another pool room, with the same wizard fountain as the last, and a locked silver door to the right. Rigel unlocked the door and Sabin opened it.

This room was obviously a study, with bookshelves lining the walls and work tables scattered bout. And there was a silver metal man standing at a table who looked up at us and vanished.

On the tables were an odd assortment of dead animals, with living animals in cages (cats, rats, rabbits, etc.), and crates filled with mundane lab equipment.

The dead animals had been killed as part of some bizarre experiment, where parts of them had been transmuted to metal. What kind of sick bastard tortures animals?

Once in the room Sedjewick and Sabin scanned the library shelves, finding various tomes on magical theory, history, and a collection of spell books.

There was a silver door directly opposite the one we entered, and another to our left, which is where Rigel picked the lock and Avia opened the door. The hall beyond had jade walls and a ceiling of polished white stone. Three decorated lamps flooded the room with a warm light, illuminating ten life sized gold statues, each posed for combat.

Our first thought was that we had encountered ten golden golems, but a closer inspection revealed that while posed for combat, the figures did not really look like fighters. It was as if someone had made statues of random people asked to pose for the artist. But the faces all held the same expressions of surprise, shock and horror.

Thinking back on the dead, half transformed animals in the lab we realized that these were all victims of the silver man’s experimentation with making metal beings like himself. We guessed he had asked his unsuspecting assistants to pose as he transformed them all to gold.

A corridor led out opposite from where we entered, then bent to the right and ended in another locked silver locked door. Once again Rigel unlocked the door and Avia opened it.

A vast, cathedral-like room waited beyond. The walls were paneled richly with highly polished dark hardwoods, and silver beams supported the ceiling. Gold and platinum symbols were inlaid in the wood paneling. A large pool occupied the near side of the room.

There was no fountain in this pool, but gouts of fire, arcs of electricity and strange sounds emanated from its surface.

At the far end of the chamber was the silver man, who calmly lifted a hand a pointed at me. A sickly green ray struck me full in the chest, and I felt a moment of shocking cold and weakness, but the feeling quickly passed. Trask and Sabin had let out a gasp as the ray struck me, by which I knew I had survived a Disintegrate ray.

The silver man became blurred, the result of a Mirror Image spell, but the next moment Sabin had taken Avia and Nolin with him via his usual Dimension Door trick, and the fighters began to hack away at the man and his images.

I swiftly made my way to the back of the room so I could provide healing support for our front line fighters, and noticed an odd and unpleasant sense of disorientation as I passed the pool,

Trask ignited a strategically placed fireball engulfing the man as Sabin, Nolin and Avia continued to remove his mirrored images and bash the hell out of him.

“You lesser creatures will never understand what it means to have metal skin!”

I used a Dimensional Anchor to keep the silver man in place, as the damage the fighters inflicted began to take their toll. The man used another Disintegrate spell on Nolin, and then set off a fireball centered on himself, causing Nolin to fall.

But it was too little too late, and he fell back against the wall and gasped, “You cannot win this!” before collapsing.

Sabin quickly removed the silver man’s head as Kane and I healed Nolin.

We then turned our attention to the body and found the following items:

[1180] +2 quarter-staff. Silver with a shimmering sphere at each end, and a snake entwined around the end with the larger sphere. This staff gives a +2 enhancement to intelligence, and with 40 charges offered the following set of spells:

Bull’s Strength (1 charge)
Enlarge Person (1)
Telekenisis (3)
Flesh to Stone (4)

[1181] +1 cloak of resistance
[1182] rod of metal and mineral detection
[1183] +2 belt of mighty constitution

500 gp of diamond dust

As others passed by the pool they too noticed the disorientation effect, and Sedjewick staggered back and left the room. He felt as if all of his abilities had been lessened.

The rest of us quickly ran past the pool and back to the entry room, where we showed the mephits the head of the silver man, which made them quite happy. We also described the large, magical pool, and they said they had seen the silver man dip a weapon into it.

We made our way back to the magic pool and (from a safe distance) Sabin carefully observed the pool using Detect Magic, and discovered that the pool could be used to recharge magical items.

I took a discharged staff and cautiously approached the pool and briefly dipped it in. The staff now glowed and had 5 charges! I put the staff in for longer and the the staff glowed even brighter and had 50 charges.

Using an unseen servant Sabin tried to restore the enchantment on a pair of bracers, but other than making them glow the pool did not affect them.

The glow on the items dipped in the pool faded over time, and we intend to use it to recharge all of our wands and staves.

We returned to the study, and while my companions searched the books, I took inventory of the caged animals still living:

house cat
snake
5 rats
monkey

The animals were not well cared for, and so I fed and watered them, and intend to take them out of the Runeforge when we leave.

Meanwhile my friends had found a number of useful history and lab books, which if studied would increase one’s skills with transmutation and constructs (+5).

The historical books also provided an account on how Karzoug survived the fall of the empire. He had created a huge rune-well, and stored his body halfway between this world and a dimension referred to as “Leng.”

Sabin discovered a pair interesting spells from the silver man’s spell books:

Bloodmoney: level 2 (transmutation)
Rune of Contingency: level 3 (transmutation)

We then turned our attention to the gold “statues” and found that they were not solid gold — the transmutation must have only been skin deep. They were hollow, and one of them rattled. Nolin carved a hole in that one’s heel and a large diamond rolled out.

diamond (3000 gp)

All told the statues are composed of about 1,500 pounds of gold, which we will pound flat and take with us.

The silver man himself was made of mithral and weighed 300 pounds — we will melt down his corpse and take it with us too.

We have decided to use the study as our base of operation. It is relatively secure, comfortable, and close to the large bulky items we plan to take with us when we leave.

Sabin, Trask and I went back to the halls of lust to retrieve the feeble man we had rescued from the succubi and left there. I case Heal upon him, and the powerful spell removed all of his mental afflictions.

He looked around, and then at us, and said (in Thassilonian), “For 10,000 years I have been trapped here!”

His name was Nevelektu, and he was assigned to the Cathedral of Lust, where he served Sorshen as a soldier. He fell out of favor with Sorshen’s acolyte and had spent all of the time since then imprisoned in the cage where we found him.

He told us that the daemon and her succubi arrived later, and killed the actual acolyte, using the survivors as their play things.

We told him that Karzoug was trying to return, which alarmed him greatly, but above all, he wanted to get the hell out of this place. We told him where we had set up camp, and he agreed to accompany us.

Unfortunately none of us thought what effect might have kept a mortal man alive for 10,000 years. As soon as we left the cathedral, Nevelektu dropped to the floor and turned to dust.

We returned to the study in a sombre mood.

While we were gone Sedjewick and Trask had studied the journals left by the silver man, where he described how he had transformed himself to metal. Over time he appears to have lost all memory of the time before he was metal, and his thought process became as rigid as the metals he had fixated upon. Once becoming metal he fell into a fixed pattern of repeating the same experiments over and over again. He would make occasional visits to Sloth to collect vermin, which he than transformed to other animals.

The nearby magic pool was another failed experiment, where he had tried to replicate the main Runeforge pool. It takes intellectual abilities from the “less worthy” and uses them for recharging items, but it is unpredictable.

He also confirmed our guess that Sloth was the first group to fall (thousands of years ago), and the area was now used as a dumping ground by the remaining inhabitants.

The evening was still young, and I decided spend some time researching the highly enchanted peacock quill we had taken from the Scribbler. Who would know about such an artifact? Pharasma would, of course, and so I decided to prepare for a Divination. I used the pen to form the question I would ask Pharasma, and as soon as I wrote the question, then pen came to life and wrote:

Sometimes we answer our own questions in the process of asking them.

The others heard my startled exclamation and looked to see what had happened, and while we suspected who had replied, I wanted to be sure. I continued with the Divination, and Pharasma granted me the following knowledge.

Many people in the past have asked for help from the Peacock Spirit.
Use your wisdom to interpret it.

Should you probe the quill deeper, take care with your questions.

“The Peacock Spirit? I read about him while in Magnimar trying to locate you.”

It was Sedjewick, and he had read that the Peacock Spirit was a powerful deity in the early part of the Thassilonian Empire. His emblem was on the thrones of the empire, and he was said to have focused on rune magic.

It was known he had major temples at Xin Shalast and at the Black Tower, where the monastic monks who built and maintained the library were indeed devoted to him.

It is fascinating to discover that the Peacock Spirit was still alive and active after all of these years, and I have many questions for him. But heading Pharasma’s advice I will resist contacting him except in dire need.

I suspect he could offer interesting facts about Karzoug, but more pertinent, I bet he could describe the procedure for enchanting weapons in the Runeforge! If we find no other clues, and are at a loss, I will ask the Peacock Spirit for help.

 

== Fireday, Arodus 1, 4708; Runeforge; morning ==

This morning we will make our way to the halls of Zutha, the Runelord of Gluttony. Zutha specialized in necromancy, and so we have prepared for encountering undead.

 

Oathday, Erastus 31

As we entered the lair of Envy, there was a little hesitancy on the part of the party. While the warning of having our powers crushed was doubtless just hyperbole, it did put everybody on edge. Takkad, as seems customary of late, was in the lead.

There was a metal rod – or did it used to be a sword? – melded into the ground near the center of the room, and this seemed to conduct the occasional electrical discharge that still flitted from place to place. I was eerily reminded of the aftermath of a lightning strike that had been charged with a little too much electricity. And as we started to file into the room the danger we’d been warned of became far more real. The rod embedded in the ground flashed blindingly, and things felt … odd.

Takkad was the first to announce: “I’ve lost status.” And Kane: “Me too.” I realized I did not have my mage armor – ha, joke’s on me. I’d forgotten to cast it! But now I turned on my detect magic and was dismayed to find that I had not been immune to the effect. My ring of protection was no longer magic; nor were my bracers of defense. I suddenly felt very vulnerable, and quickly cast mage armor.

Around me arose cries of dismay. “Not my sword!” screamed Avia. “My bracers!” agonized Rigel. Fully half of our magic items seemed to have had the magic sucked out of them.

Now in my case, we had a spare +2 ring of protection and +3 bracers of defense that had been safe within a bag of holding, but not everyone was so lucky. Many of the items our party had considered important were now useless pieces of metal, paper, or wood.

So this is what the warning had meant. Fantastic.

And then as electricity continued to arc randomly in the room, it occurred to us that it could happen again at any time, and the whole place became much less fascinating.

Still, we were here because there might be something valuable here, so Takkad, Nolin, Kane, and Sabin started entering a passageway nearby. But there were putrid pools of filth, garbage, or sewage (we never did determine which) and it clearly made at least Nolin stagger noticeably. They disappeared from view as the moved down the corridor, and I did not feel motivated to follow them. Takkad told me later they encountered acid-laden air and finally returned abruptly when the air just became too foul. Kane’s wand of lesser restoration was necessary to restore them all to full health, and in some cases more than one charge was needed. Takkad channelled positive energy to help remedy the damage from acid air.

And they found nothing useful.

Perhaps there was something valuable here, but the pools of foul liquid and the random cancellation of magic from time to time was enough to make us leave. On to Kharzoug, and the hall of Greed.

Shortly after leaving the area of Envy, we discovered that for most of the magic items, their neutralization was temporary. Avia, in particular, was most pleased to see her sword regain its powers. My bracers, alas, were permanently damaged but as I mentioned, we had spares.

As we entered the corridor of Greed, Rigel found the passage to be quite easy. The rest of us struggled to varying degrees to reach the impatient Rigel. Rigel took the lead, looking for traps. The corridor led to a single door, which, after an inspection, Rigel pronounced to be a trap. It appeared to have jewels embedded in it, but Rigel also prounounced these to be fakes (with traces of disappointment in her voice).

After some additional searching, Rigel was able to find a secret door, and defeat the lock/trap that guarded it. We found a beautiful tunnel, with polished wood and inlaid silver and gold Thassilonian runes. A cursory look at these seemed to indicate they extolled the life and victories of Kharzoug (big surprise).

Further ahead there was a green, sparkly silver mist. Nobody thought that traipsing through that would be a pleasing experience. Meanwhile, Takkad and Sabin kept reading the runes and talking out loud: although Kharzoug bragged greatly about his prowess with magic, it seems he paid far less attention to (and possessed far less skill in) the schools of illusion and enchantment. He considered himself the enemy of Alaznist. He created the Hellfilre Plumes (of which the old lighthouse in Sandpoint was reputedly one) to help protect his empire.

I studied the mist and was able to detect some transmutation magic, so we created a gust of wind to dispel it. We quickly hurried to the chamber beyond.

Here we found an ivory floor, and a beautiful fountain in the middle of the room with water spouting from the (obviously NOT full size) figure of a whale. Curiously, the fountain never overflowed, so presumably somewhere there was a drain that perfectly matched the rate at which water flowed from the whale.

Perhaps most surprisingly, there were six small, vaguely humanoid figures swimming in the pool, along with what appeared to be the occasional goldfish. Takkad struck up a conversation with them and learned of a mean silver man who seemed to enjoy hurting them. The silver man was big like us. Sometimes he freezes water. He was by just yesterday but didn’t do anything harmful.

Takkad had an inspiration and used his ‘create water’ spell to create a brief waterfall from nowhere. The little creatures were ecstatic and labeled him Water Friend, guaranteeing him friends for life. But they could tell him little additional information.

In the next room we found another fountain, this time with a statue of a wizard and an outstretched hand. Water shot from the hand about 30′ before falling harmlessly into the pool. There seemed to be some magic in the pool of some sort, but nothing on the goldfish that were here.

Exiting to the north, there was a corridor full of doors with knobs. They were metal doors that looked silver, or silver inlaid. But opening one and looking inside didn’t yield anything of interest. The room was empty but for little odds and ends. The rooms had slightly different inventories but all were uninteresting. The strange thing? They all radiated strong magic.

So I stepped up and tried to dispel magic in the room. That seemed to do nothing.

Sedgewick snagged a goldfish and tried tossing it in the room. It flopped a bit, and eventually died; a fish out of water. Kane actually entered one; nothing. He entered and inspected all of the rooms; still nothing.

We went on to the next fountain room, which looked much like the previous right down to the wizard with the outstretched hand and goldfish. There was a door to the south which Rigel checked – it was locked, but not trapped. In a flash, Rigel insured it was no longer locked.

Sabin and Takkad entered first, and found what appeared to be a study. There was a worktable, and bookcases that appeared to hold hundreds of books and scrolls. More ominously there were some animals in metal cases – and a silver mannequin.

Literally, a silver man. Well those darn little sprites were right. He turned to us and .. disappeared. Sabin grunted and said that sure looked like a dimension door to him.

We started to do our “usual thing”. Sedgewick and I started to look over the library. Nolin began to search. Sabin inspected the animals – they were dead and the dog’s hind quarters were solid silver. Avia started trying to detect evil, hoping to determine where the silver man had gone.

Sedgewick found some spellbooks, and was gathering them up while Rigel checked another door for traps. There were none, and she unlocked the door for Avia, who opened it.

This room had statues in what we assumed at first were battle poses. We were alert to the possibility of them suddenly coming to life, until someone pointed out these were not battle positions so much as defensive positions. We had apparently found the rest of the staff in this section. It seemed they’d all involuntaily been turned to statues, and their stance was not attacking, but rather an attempt to stave off whatever magic had done this to them.

Rigel moved to, inspected, and unlocked another door in the room. Avia opened the door – and the silver man was revealed. He was ready, as well, and a greenish ray shot out at Takkad, taking him to the ground grieveously wounded, even as several mirror images sprung up around the silver man.

How did he get two spells off at once?

Sabin didn’t wait to ask questions. He, Nolin and Avia dimension doored to Mr Silver. I sensed I might want extra protection so I cast Spell Resistance on myself. Nolin had time to take out two images, while Sedgewick started singing a song of courage. Meanwhile Takkad started to heal his broken body.

In the middle of the room was a large (40′ across) pool, and Mr Silver was on the opposite side of the pool. Avia took out an image, Sabin took out an image, and I managed to carefully place a fireball out there that hit Mr Silver but nobody else. Unfortunately, he seemed unfazed by it. He DID seem a little more concerned when Nolin actually connected with his sword, though.

Images gone now, Avia started hitting him with sword, fire, and holy power. Mr Silver again managed to get two spells off – a disintegration ray on Nolin and, much to our surprise, he cast fireball on himself, knowing while he would hurt himself, he had an opportunity to perhaps outright kill the fighters surrounding him. Too bad for him I still had a magic missile in me, and that’s all it took to push him over the edge.

Damaged heavily, but not horribly diminished in magic, our group took inventory. Mr Silver left behind

[1180] silver staff of spell holding [40 charges ] also usable as a quarterstaff, +2 damage, +2 INT.
[1181] cloak of resistance +1
[1182] rod of metal and mineral detection
[1183] a belt of mighty constitution +2

As we moved closer to the pool, some of us found it disorienting. Sedgewick, in particular, warned others to stay back as he felt the pool was draining him in some fashion, and he stepped back. Takkad theorized this pool might be a means of charging or recharging magical items. He tried dipping a dead staff [730] into the pool, and identifying it we found it had 5 charges now. Dipped again, it went to 50.

Rigel, her eyes shining, estimated that 300 lbs of mithril silver might be worth 40,000 sp. The group considered whether to sell Mr Silver’s Corpse for metal, as a curiosity, or just leave it, lest someone try to revive it. The possibility of great money, though, has the group leaning towards some form of sale.

In any case, we decided to rest here overnight, and recover spells before proceeding.

Fireday, 1 Arodus

We arose eager to go traverse the corridor dedicated to gluttony. This time Kane was the one who found the path easy for him while the rest of the group tripped, stumbled and slowly made their way down the path. It didn’t take long for us to finally find a door, which Rigel said had no traps and no locks. Opening it, we saw why it needed no guard. Inside were eight mummies, which quickly (well, for a mummy) moved towards us. But the room was just so perfectly shaped for a fireball, that I had to blast them. So I did. Avia was able to take some chunks out, as well as Nolin and Sabin. A second fireball and Takkad’s negative channel knocked out every last one of ’em.

Eight mummies is nothing to sneeze at, but we also dispatched them seemingly easily. Maybe too easily. We’re taking a pause right now to consider what to do next and catch our breaths. At the very least, we’ll likely inspect the smoldering bodies for goodies.

This has been a long, busy and interesting day — make no mistake!

We had opened the iron doors to Sorshen’s section of the runeforge to find another huge chamber — this one decorated in various hues of red and white. A pavilion of flowing vividly colored silk was in the center of the hall. Tall columns carved in the shape of sensuously posed curvy nude women reached up to the ceiling, and gilded cages were scattered around the perimeter.

My immediate attention was drawn to the cages, most of which held the rotting remains of former captives. But in one cage a man yet lived, and I quickly moved toward him. Sabin followed me in.

I heard voices from above laughingly calling out to us, “Very intriguing specimens of manhood! Let us see what you look like under all of that padding!”

And down from above flew four women… and yet not women. Each flitted about on leathery bat-like wings and had horns protruding our from her forehead. Instead of feet they had sharp talons.

Succubi. Definitely not my type.

I continued on toward the cage, but Sabin paused as a succubus landed near him, cooing invitingly.

The rest of the party had entered the room by now, and the succubi swooped by them urging each to join them inside the pavilion.

Nolin said something derisive, but upon hearing Avia gasp I turned to see Rigel standing with her pants down around her ankles, desperately trying to remove her armor, and following one of the succubi with a longing gaze.

Trask reacted in his usual way by heating things up. A fireball detonated on one of the creatures, and she shrieked, “No, not that!” before flying up to the ceiling.

Nolin flew up to pair clinging to the top of a cage and began to hack at them, as the one who tried to charm Sabin found an ax firmly planted in her skull.

“This is just not the type of playing we had in mind,” scolded one of the temptresses as Nolin sword cut deep into her soft and yielding flesh.

It seemed that my team mates had the battle well in hand, and so I turned back to the cage. The man there was barely alive, and even after I healed him he whimpered and cowered in a pitiful way. He was naked, except for a metal collar, and empty wooden bowls along with fouled straw for bedding suggested that in addition to whatever torture had been inflicted upon him, neglect was also an issue.

I used Pharasma’s grace to remove his fear and provide some lesser amount of restoration, but while these seemed to have some positive affects on him, his reaction to me remained more animal than human.

Trask, who had been standing next to the entrance, called out “Someone is heading this way down the corridor!”

Thinking perhaps that this was Delvahine, Sorshen’s runeforge acolyte, we feared the worse, and I moved back toward the party. But a human voice called out, in Common, “Trask, it’s Sedgewick!”

Sedgewick?

I glanced over at Rigel, who was now standing next to Avia and pulling up her pants, looking somewhat embarrassed, and doing a poor job of trying to pull off her brief display of public nudity as “no big deal.”

Of course I had heard of Sedgewick, the bard with whom the party had originally formed, but who had run off with a ranger, leaving a jilted Rigel behind (if the comments made whenever his name was brought up were accurate).

Of course we were skeptical, and Trask called out, “Stay where you are,” as he waved his hand and a magical display of lights played a few feet before him.

Meanwhile the battle had not gone well for the Succubi. In fact all now lay dead on the ground, except for one that had blinked away.

With that threat removed we turned our attention on this man claiming to be Sedgewick, who had now been escorted into the chamber by Trask and Nolin.

I had little to contribute to the ensuing discussion, and listened in as my friends questioned the self proclaimed Sedgewick standing before us, asking him about things only the real Sedgewick should know. He answered all as if he were who he claimed to be, and finally said something that was apparently so Sedgewickian that all of my companions’ doubts were allayed.

Of course now their primary question was, “Why are you here?”

And to the amazement of all, including myself, he pointed at me and said, “Because of him.”

Sedgewick had left his ranger friend some time earlier, and had actually been looking around, unsuccessfully, for his old comrades ever since. About three weeks ago he was in Magnimar at the Pathfinder Society’s office when I came in asking about the region around Mt Xin. He listened in with mild interest, and only later realized that the party I had mentioned must have been his old companions.

He then set out on his own to find the location of this Mt Xin, and had in fact arrived on the day we killed the dragon. He had found the invisible ramp leading down and made it to the bottom just in time to watch us enter the portal we opened using the runeforge keys.

He followed a few moments later, but we had already left the runeforge pool chamber for Zanderghul’s area, and so Sedgewick started down one of the passageways to find us. He picked Krune (though he did not know it) the Runelord of sloth, and reported that it was a most unpleasant place. He retraced his steps back to the pool room just as we made our way towards lust.

Upon hearing his story there was a little teasing about how we had to have passed him traveling to and from Mt Xin several times on his journey north, and didn’t he know enough to just wait in Sandpoint for us?

I had never worked with a bard before, and am interested to see how well he will supplement our party’s abilities.

We looted the succubi bodies and found each was using the same set of items:

[1146] +3 Bracers of Armor (Trask)
[1147] +3 Bracers of Armor
[1148] +3 Bracers of Armor
[1149] Amulet with a woman’s face (non magical)
[1150] Amulet with a woman’s face (non magical)
[1151] Amulet with a woman’s face (non magical)
[1152] +2 Ring of Protection (Kane)
[1153] +2 Ring of Protection (Takkad)
[1154] +2 Ring of Protection (Sedgewick)

We walked about the hall, looking at the cages, but we had already found the only one with a survivor. We returned to him and then discovered that although the cages looked like flimsy ornamental constructs, a force cage of some sort was active in each, making it impossible to free the captive.

We decided that for now he was safest in the cage, and I managed to squeeze some food and water through the “bars” for him.

Presently we came to the pavilion’s entrance. The walls appeared to be silk dyed in hues of crimson, lavender, purple, and cobalt; and although there was not the slightest wind in the chamber, the curtains rippled, as if dancing in a steady breeze.

Nolin tried to pull down a silk panel, but it would not budge. He also tried to cut it with his sword, but it proved impervious to damage.

Just then a loud booming voice called out, “Mistress, uninvited visitors at the door!” A stone giant was standing at the pavilion doorway, with perhaps half a dozen others behind him.

It swung its massive club at Avia, but missed. Avia stuck back with her sword, and dropped it to the floor. Its nearly unconscious form was dragged away inside and another giant stepped up.

“Mistress says, these ones kills her daughters. Not free to pass!”

Sedgewick replied by singing, and suddenly our fighters seemed more confident and began slicing into the giants as they stepped up, stupidly, one by one to the slaughter.

Trask lent support by launching a fireball into their midsts — he had feared this would set the silk ablaze, but all it showed of the explosion was a smudge of smoke.

A giant within cried out, “Ah, fire! Mistress!”

The rest of us were using ranged weapons or spells to inflict small amounts of damage (Rigel perfectly timing a shot to finish a giant off).

Nolin tried to reason with them, “We are here to see the mistress. Look, you can see that you are no match for us, and so why don’t you stand aside and let us pass?”

But it was no good: “Giants were created to protect the Mistress. You no pass!”

Well, he tried. And moments later the last giant fell dead.

We passed through the opening into a large space filled with pillows and cushions. Columns of gold reach upward, holding the silk walls in place and the canopied ceiling above us.

From somewhere to the east we heard a female voice speaking (in Abysmal, and translated courtesy of Sedgewick), “Unbelievable! First I don’t hear anything for years from Vraxeris, and now this!”

We moved to a room to the south, which was much the same as the entry way, and a second door to the north led to a much larger chamber.

The air here was filled with a misty smoke, rising up from a brazier resting on a small table.

In three of the four corners was an iron framed bed with soft comfortable looking pillows, sheets and blankets, but somewhat uncomfortable looking straps, restraints, and other devices the purpose of which I could only guess.

Sitting in a throne against the far wall was an attractive woman, more or less. But the horns, wings and tail indicated Delvahine was some sort of daemon or devil.

Between us and her, flying near the silk ceiling, was the succubus that had escaped us earlier. She hissed menacingly at us (from a safe distance) and bared her fangs.

Not so pretty now, eh missy?

Delvahine began to sing, but no sooner had she started that I found myself next to her along with Sabin and Nolin, courtesy of Sabin’s usual combat tactic.

The succubus at the ceiling also began to sing, and Delvahine asked Nolin if he wouldn’t rather fight on her side. For a moment I thought we were going to lose Nolin, but he regained control his emotions and struck at her.

Avia came running in from across the room as Sabin smacked Delvahine with a cold iron ax he kept just for such an occasion.

I attempted to extinguish the burning incense in the brazier with a Create Water spell, for clearly it was having some unwholesome effect on the party, but after smoldering for a while it rekindled itself.

Delvahine began to sing words of power, but from across the room I could her Sedgewick sing a descant over her melody. She stood, glaring at the rest of us, preparing to unleash something particularly nasty, but all that came from her lips was, “Sedgewick is great!” She looked confused and flustered over what had just happened, but not for long. Sabin, Nolin and then Avia were savagely attacking her, and she was wilting beneath their onslaught.

I have heard tales of bards who could sing a tune so simple and catchy that it stuck in your mind for days upon end. It was rumored that one such fellow was stoned to death for having created a a particularly annoying, but insidiously infectious tune about what a “small land it was, after all.”

I can only imagine whatever Sedgewick had sung must have had a similar effect on Delvahine, and counted my blessings that his song was not directed at us.

The creature at the ceiling screamed out, “Mistress, mother!” as she flew down and landed on Nolin , sinking her talons into his back.

Delvahine soon fell, and her last surviving daughter joined her not long after.

We searched the bodies.

The succubus had the same possessions as her sisters:

[1155] +3 Bracers of Armor
[1156] Amulet with a woman’s face (non magical)
[1157] +2 Ring of Protection

Delvahine was effectively wearing nothing, but she was carrying a few items of interest:

[1158] +1 wounding whip
[1159] +2 mithral shirt glammered to look like a flimsy top
[1160] +4 gloves of dexterity

We searched the room and found that the space beneath bed to the south had been used as safe:

[1161] handy haversack
[1162] a magic book that explained how to improve yourself by better
understanding your own mind and feelings (+1 to wisdom when read)
[1163] 6 potions of cure moderate wounds
[1164] potion of cure disease
[1165] potion of remove paralysis
[1166] A metal box set with gem stones and silver trim. Within were
a dozen masterwork sex toys
[1167] brazier of mind fog — turns on and off by a command word

We wondered what to do with the metal box and its contents, and thought perhaps a high end brothel would pay good money for it.

But then I remembered that we needed agents of illusion and enchantment to activate the runeforge and imbue a set of weapons with special powers against Karzoug. We already had the mirror fragments from the hall of illusion, and Vraxeris had explicitly mentioned Delvahine’s “equipment” as being appropriate for enchantment.

It looks like the lustful worthies of Magnimar will miss out on some ancient secrets of the trade after all.

We returned to the main hall and searched for hidden doors or other secrets, but found no more than what we had earlier discovered.

I returned my attention to the poor man locked in the force cage. He seemed to associate me with the food and water that I had given him earlier, and was willing to come close to the cage wall where Sabin touched him, using dimension door to bring the poor fellow out.

We have set up camp in the southern pavilion room, and while this poor wretch still has a haunted look about him, he at least appears comfortable. He gets very nervous whenever Rigel or Avia come near, and so we have set him up with some food and water in his own little corner.

We will leave him here tomorrow when we continue our exploration of the runeforge, and will chain him to one of the columns to keep him from tottering off and getting himself killed. I plan to return tomorrow evening with a Heal spell to see if that will restore his sanity.

For now we have hauled away the corpses and piled them in the main hall, where the stench of their rotting bodies will mingle with that of their victims in the cages. A fitting end.

== Oathday, Erastus 31, 4708; Runeforge; morning ==

With two runelords down and five to go we opted for envy, the Balamarius wing. Vraxeris had written that halls of abjuration had been utterly destroyed in a conflict that occurred (two hundred years earlier) when Karzoug became active.

Like the previous two passageways, a magic effect here hindered the approach of some of our party, while helping others. I had not experienced any great problems with pride and lust, but for envy it felt as if a giant hand had scooted me swiftly along down toward the hall, and I arrived at the top of a short flight of stairs before the others.

We gathered together, but before we could descend a giant mouth appeared from above and commanded, “Stop!”

“These are the abjurant halls of eager striving. Know that your powers will be crushed within and you shall die.”

Hmm, yes, well when has anything like this ever stopped us before? To be honest I was surprised that this effect was still working from what Vraxeris had said. Maybe the attackers had left it as a joke.

The wide staircase led down to a chamber that bore the scars of some major devastation. The walls and ceiling had been blasted by flame and other forces, leaving most passageways out choked with rubble and slag. Magical energy still flickered across their surfaces, as if the power used in their destruction was only now beginning to dissipate after two centuries.

A metal rod had been thrust into the floor of the chamber, glittering and sparking with energy.

Passageways lead off from the left and right.

We have taken a few minutes to discuss our options. Do we need to dig out all of the debris? From what Vraxeris had left it sounded like we already had the key items required to use the runeforge. But we still lack the instructions for imbuing our weapons.

We have decided to explore the areas still open, and only come back to dig out the collapsed areas if we do not find what we need elsewhere.

Sunday, Erastus 27 (still)

When we killed Longtooth, we marvelled at what a dragon’s hoard looked like. We had no idea.

Longtooth had decades to accumulate his wealth. This dragon – whose name we never did learn – had centuries. A small number of centuries, maybe, but still.

Here’s what we found:

[1100] scroll of globe of invulnerability
[1108] scroll of remove blindness/deafness
[1111] scroll of heal
[1118] scroll of bear’s endurance

[1101] belt of giant strength +4
[1105] wand of cure light wounds [46]
[1106] pearl of power
[1115] chime of opening [5]
[1120] ivory set of bracers of archery +1
[1121,1124,1129,1130,1131,1134] Everburning torch

[1109] 6 vials of holy water
[1103,1104,1105] cure serious wounds
[1110] 17 potions of cure light wounds
[1116,1117,1126,1127,1128] potions of cure moderate wounds
[1122,1123] potion of resist energy (cold)

[1112] quiver + 20 masterwork arrows
[1113] 2 arrows greater dragon slaying
[1114] teak box with 6 thundereggs
[1125] flaming tongue longsword
[1137] 1 adamantine war hammer

[1107] cloak of resistance +3
[1119] half plate +3 w/wolf
[1133] darkwood buckler
[1134] masterwork suit of full plate w/ravens
[1135,1136] 1 mithril shirt +1 (small)

There was also about 500 copper pieces, 19410 silver pieces, 7000 gold pieces, and 950 platinum pieces. That alone represents the equivalent of over 18,000 gold pieces! Now of course, once we divide that among our party it is a much more modest amount (for certain values of “modest” :)) but .. woo hoo or what??

There are also tapestries that, while not magical, are valued at over 26,000 gold pieces. More woot.

Father, I’m not exactly positioned yet to buy my own house in the merchant district, but I very much see the attraction of this profession. The only thing better would be if we were also being paid to do this, but that would be too much to ask. Any employer would probably want a share, or maybe all, of the riches we uncover. To retain any of it would require … dishonesty, I’m all for bending the rules, but I’m not prepared to break any. So this arrangement works fine.

Wealday, Erastus 30

We catalogued the dragon’s treasures and moved those pieces we didn’t immediate ly put to use into the library. Then, with a deep breath, it was off to what we thought was probably the entrance to Runeforge, where we hoped to learn how to thwart Karzoug’s attempt to reenter our world.

Now that we knew where we were going, we could teleport there directly. We jokingly divided up the keys by the wraths we supposedly represented (I was lust – how silly!) and began to ascend the stairs to the cave.

But we’d never taken this way before, and we were surprised when what appeared to be three earth elementals rose from the ground and blocked our way: two in front of us and one in back. Sabin and I looked at each other and each cast mirror image. Takkad asked, in common, what they wanted, but they replied “none but the appointed may enter!”. Avia turned to the one behind her and said, in Thassilonian “Let me pass!” … and it did!

So Nolin did the same in front and got attacked for his trouble. What’s up with Avia? And then we realized she was wearing a sihedron. Kane, who was also wearing one, stepped up and demanded passage … and was also permitted to pass!

Well, it took a little bit of shuttling and sihedron passing, but eventually all of us were able to get past the sentries. The dragon may have been dead but we were still far up on a mountain, and the cave itself was still cold and ice-covered.

Using our spiked shoes, we navigated the formerly secret, narrow path down to the bottom of the chamber, checked to make sure we still had our keys, and lined ourselves up at the appropriate pillar. Simultaneously we inserted our keys into the slots in the pillars.

Each pillar produced a different light, and they sprang to the central pillar where they formed a pure white light. A vortex then appeared, and looking into it it appeared to be a passage somewhere. We’d definitely found the entry into Runeforge.

We entered.

The passage led to a chamber with seven statues and a sihedron engraved on the floor. There was a bubbling pool in the middle, that radiated strong magic, and behind each statue was a corridor.

The chamber was large, probably 80′ across. Takkad captured some of the water from the pool in a vial, but after having done so, it was no longer magical. We concluded it was something about the pool.

So choosing a corridor somewhat at random, we started down the corridor behind Zandergul, who represented pride. Sabin went down .. and disappeared. Through their status spells, though, both Takkad and Kane said he was close by. Takkad stepped forward … and didn’t disappear. He took another step .. and did.

Each of us stepped into the corridor and arrived, according to Sabin, at different intervals. Some sort of filtering was going on, but eventually we were all there. The corridor looked to proceed before us, opening into a room. Sabin and Takkad stepped through first .. and immediately paused.

They called out briefly that there were mirrors, and gestured for everyone to halt. Apparently another Takkad and Sabin had emerged from each of two mirrors, one down a corridor to the left and another down a corridor to the right. The four new combatants immediately assumed an attack stance. Had the rest of us entered, we would have faced multiple instances of ourselves.

Any hope that we might negotiate with them disappeared when a flame strike hit Takkad, courtesy of one of the other Takkads. And Sabin was hit by a feeblemind from one of his doppelgangers.

It seemed that the doppelgangers were intent only on attacking the corresponding originals, but that didn’t stop us from being injured by their battle. I threw up a wall of fire to help separate them. When a blade barrier appeared, everybody needed to jump back. Fortunately for Takkad, he had memorized few offensive spells that day, so he knew that his battle would quickly devolve into pushing and shoving. Sabin, on the other hand, had a wealth of offensive spells as well as weapon prowess. Although Avia had pulled the original back from danger after the feeblemind, the other two dimension door’ed next to him, putting them squarely in our midst.

I hasted those of our party within range, and that granted Nolin and Avia the advantage they needed to take care of the extra Sabins with less danger to themselves. Kane read a scroll of heal and then Sabin was back in the game too. It didn’t take long after that, but I hope we never have to see Sabin argue with himself again. It wasn’t pretty.

Takkad, meanwhile, was being pummelled by a copy of his backpack. I carefully fired magic missiles at the copies without stepping into the mirrored corridor; the last thing we needed was an opponent loaded up with fireballs. However, when Sabin, now immune to the effect, stepped up to the magical mirrors and started smashing them, the doppelgangers fell in shards as well.

Proceeding onward, we entered a large chamber which seemed to have a giant peacock sitting on a dais. Upon addressing the peacock, however, we not only felt immensely silly, but were rewarded with six austentatious heralds who shot fireballs at the whole group. Fortunately, we were a little spread out so they couldn’t actually hit all of us with 6 fireballs. But several of us took notable damage, and the clerics got to work healing. Meanwhile, the ol’ dimension door trick brought the fighters to the firethrowers, and they quickly put an end to that. I found that they themselves were surprisingly susceptible to fire as I killed two and nearly killed a third.

The peacock, it turns out, was an illusion. But in the wall behind it, we found a secret door that led to a nicely appointed chamber. Nice, that is, except for the corpse rotting there.

Being of a practical nature, we took the following now-unused items from the corpse:

[1140] magical robe
+2 on class checks if evil alignment
-3 levels if good alignment
-2 levels if neutral alignment
spell resistance 18
+5 AC
+4 resistance (as cloak of resistance)
[1141] headband of vast intelligence +6, +3 skills,
skill ranks = to your hit dice
[1142] ring of protection +2
[1143] cape of Montebanc (dimension door 1/day)
[1144] journal (not magical)
[1145] spellbook (2 volumes) every illusion spell thru level 9

In one chamber adjoining this one, we found a couple hundred skeletons. We found the other rooms empty of any useful items, but the journal suggested this had been the workshop of Viraxis. He had been working on a way to live forever and had decided that was best done with clones. At some point, it seems, the current clone aged before he could create another, and, well, here he was.

However, one of his journal entries mentioned an alliance with Delvahine. It seems she was a follower of Sorshen, who represents lust, whom he was working with. The journal also mentioned an alliance which apparently thoroughly destroyed the area of Envy.

As a result, the group decided to go visit Delvahine’s area next.

As before, entering the corridor had mixed results for different people. I myself had no trouble traversing it, but others made it in in fits and starts.

We opened a pair of iron doors and entered a room. It was filled with gilded cages, although many were empty. One clearly was not, although the human looking creature in it seemed gaunt. Concerned, Takkad headed over to that cage while the rest of us were welcomed by the designated greeters.

Four succubi flew in front of us, trying to entice us to join them. The ceiling here was very high, probably 90′, giving them plenty of room to maneuver. Judging I would probably be attacked soon, I cast spell resistance on myself. As the succubi continued to try to lure us closer, I cast fly on Nolin so he could accommodate them and he obliged by beating on Vorvod.

One called Eryalla successfully convinced Rigel it would be fun, and Rigel started removing her armor. For her trouble, I fireballed Eryalla. Sabin cast fly on himself and also entered the fray. Only Rigel seems to have been affected, but Nolin now got a swing in on Zevashala. Sabin was bloodying up Lelyrin.

When only Zevashala was left, she threw us an evil look and disappeared.

I had never left the doorway, and it was about this time that I heard a noise behind me. Turning, I saw a figure walking towards us from the end of the corridor. I yelled to the group and cast mirror image on myself. As the figure advanced I cast a color spray at it – forgetting in the excitement that the spray only travels 15 ft, not dozens. So used to those fireballs!

“Trask, it’s me, Sedgwick!” the figure yelled.

Sedgwick? No – what would he be doing here?

Kane tried detect evil, and found none. Sedgwick held up his hands, and Kane tried detect good. I began to question him – was this really Sedgwick?

As others arrived, the conversation continued. It really was. Apparently he’d been at the Pathfinder Society when Takkad had been researching this mountain, and he concluded (correctly) that this was his old group. He followed us here and, unknown to us, apparently jumped in the vortex before it closed. He went looking for us in the area of Krune (sloth) and while he didn’t find us he did report it was highly unpleasant.

Meanwhile, we inspected the bodies of the succubi, and they seemed to be identically attired:

[1146,1147,1148] Bracers of armor +3
[1149,1150,1151] amulet (non magical) with woman’s face
[1152,1153,1154] ring of protection +2

The +3 bracers were better than my +2, so I switched.

Takkad had been working on his survivor, and although his health was better, his mind was still not … shall we say, all there.

And before us was still a big unknown. There appeared to be a room or pavilion or tent, really, marked by silk walls that were 20′ high and a very apparent entryway. None of these had been Delvahine … was there another corpse waiting for us inside? Where did the other succubi go? Sounded like we had more to check out, and now an extra person to do it with.

So we went to enter the pavilion, but immediately our path was blocked by what appeared to be numerous stone giants. They insisted we could not see The Lady, but Nolin persistently told them “We have an appointment”. They did not seem swayed by his statement. However, when he, Sabin, and Avia started hacking through them, and I managed to squeeze a fireball in between them, the giants started falling. They did not seem to respond to reason, but they all died fairly quickly.

Inside, there was lots of plush. Pillows, those same silk walls, cushions, comfy chairs 🙂 But no more giants (and their bodies held nothing of value to us.) We moved to the next chamber and saw a woman on a throne or dais through the entryway. Just as we reached it, she said in what Sedgwick said was Abyssal: “First I don’t hear from Viraxis and then the giants and now THIS!”

That seemed to Sabin to be the signal to dimension door in. The room held a smoking brazier in addition to the now familiar cushions and pillows. In he went, with Takkad and Nolin. Zevashala did one more attempt at googlyeyes at Nolin, and Nolin responded by beating up the figure in the thrown. I cast spell resistance again as Avia dimension doored herself in to the throne. Delvahine tried to attack Nolin, but Avia’s protection from evil prevented her.

There was an attempt at singing, but Sedgwick had a countersong. In fact, as Delvahine tried to unleash something really impressive, all that came out of her mouth was “Sedgwick is great!” much to her surprise and annoyance. I managed a magic missile on Delvahine before Sabin finished her off. Zelvahine managed to take some life force from Nolin before she finally succumbed to Avia’s sword.

And then the searching began. We got another triplet of (bracer[1155] / amulet[1156] / ring[1157]) from Zevashala and from Delvahine we got

[1158] +1 wounding whip
[1159] +2 mithril shirt, glamered to look like a flimsy top
[1160] +4 gloves of dexterity

Under the southern bed, we also found

[1161] handy haversack
[1162] book, written in Thasslonian, +1 WI
[1163] 6 potions of cure moderate wounds
[1164] potion of cure disease
[1165] potion of remove paralysis
[1166] box of sex toys [12]

We also picked up the brazier of mind fog [1167].

This seemed as safe a place as any (now) to rest, so we decided to sleep here and proceeed to Envy tomorrow. Takkad will leave his rescued human here because we really can’t drag him along with us and this place is now safe. He’ll come back tomorrow evening with a Heal spell and see if he can restore him to some semblance of a normal life.

Oathday, Erastus 31

After a good night’s sleep (those cushions really were comfortable) we headed off to the lair of Envy. Before entering, we have been warned by a voice:

STOP! Your powers shall be crushed and you shall die.

Pretty full of themselves. We shall trudge on, regardless.

This was, indeed, the site of some magical battle. Faint magical energy still flited from metal slag to metal slag. We decided that even though this area may be partially destroyed, we will inspect it as best we can.

== Wealday, Erastus 30, 4708; Runeforge; mid day ==

One by one we entered the large circular domed chamber and stepped up onto the dais. Bubbling in the oval pool at our feet was a prismatic liquid that glowed in a maelstrom of different magics.

Curious, I carefully filled a crystal vial with the mysterious fluid only to find it quite clear and mundane — probably just water. It was the pool itself that was so oddly magical.

But we could think of nothing to do here, and so we chose the first hallway to the left of the entryway and gathered about it, clustering behind the statue of Xanderghul, Runelord of pride.

Sabin boldly stepped forward and vanished. And yet the Status spells Kane and I had in effect indicated he was but a few steps away. I followed and found myself standing next to Sabin, and looking back it seemed like the tunnel stretched for a mere sixty feet or so to whence we came. Sabin called back to the others, “It is like a dimensional door, just walk this way.”

One by one the rest of our group came through, some taking a bit longer for unknown reasons to reach us, but in the end we all stood before an opening to a brightly lit room.

As before, Sabin and I stepped through the entryway into the middle of a broad passageway leading to the right and left. The floor was stone, but all of the walls were seamlessly covered in mirrors. Looking to the right we could see our reflections staring back at us, and these were reflected back from the opposite wall behind us, and so on such that it appeared to be a hallway that lead off infinitely into the distance.

And then our reflections stepped out from the mirror! To our left was a pair and to our right another pair. One of my reflections cast a Flame Strike upon me, and the other three figures were likewise chanting words of power.

The real Sabin was caught by a Feeblemind spell, but Avia pulled him back out from the hallway, while I was caught in a wall of blades cast by my other doppelganger.

My companions prepared for combat, but it quickly became apparent that the creatures that crawled out from the mirrors were only interested in attacking their originals, and so for a while it was only Sabin and I that were in danger of direct attacks.

But that did not mean they were immune to area effects, as we found when yet another blade barrier came down into the corridor where they were clustered, and a fireball detonated in their midst.

And yet I did not feel particularly threatened by my mirrored twins. True, they were intent on my destruction, however I knew from personal experience that they lacked the ability to do me any more serious harm than what they had already inflicted. And so I moved into the hallway as the blade barriers came down rather than retreating back to my friends.

I am not a fighter, and I do not possess many offensive spells — on this particular day I had only memorized two spells that could inflict damage, giving my foes a total of four: three of which they had already used. I no longer wield any weapons, and so what more could they do but try and heal me to death?

Those grappling with the duplicate Sabins were not so fortunate. Equipped with both potent offensive spells as well as skillfully wielding a great ax, even one Sabin is a formidable opponent.

The two Sabins used the a Dimension Door to get past the blade barriers and appeared behind my team mates — except for Rigel who had snuck further back down the corridor. Trask had read a scroll of Heal to remove the feebleminded effect plaguing our Sabin.

Nolin and Avia moved in to engage the Sabins and prevent them from casting more spells, while Kane channeled energy to heal everyone in the area and Sabin slashed out at his twins from behind the two fighters.

Meanwhile I approached the mirrored wall to our right, brushing aside the pesky attacks from a reflected self (batting at me with his pack), when the other showed up and cast a Flame Strike that also caught part of the mirrored wall, which shattered. The copy of me that had stepped from that wall shattered as well.

Back in the corridor Trask peppered foes with magic missiles while Nolin and Avia had hacked away at one of the Sabins, which shattered with Avia’s killing blow. Their attention then turned to the remaining Sabin as Rigel crept up from behind and dispatched it.

Trask turned his magic missiles on my remaining twin, who had pulled a dagger out from his pack was stabbing away at me. But this was short lived because Sabin dimension doored to the mirrored wall to the left and shattered it, reducing our remaining opponent to shards.

Sabin and I then proceeded to smash all of the mirrors lining the hallway to prevent duplicates of the others from being created. With that threat removed we followed hallway, the left and right hand ends of which met at the entrance of a truly grand and huge cathedral like space.

Like the hallway before it, the walls were covered with mirrors, but these towered above us some hundred feet, and stretched far away on either side. A large raised dais was in the center of the space, and a giant peacock perched upon it. The bird blinked, and ruffled its feathers from time to time, but ignored us. The floor was made of smooth ivory flagstones.

Four giant gold chandeliers hung from the ceiling, the light from which was thrown back by the massive mirrored walls, providing a bright, almost harsh illumination.

We had inadvertently split into two groups as we walked in: Sabin, Nolin, Rigel and I to the left, and Avia, Kane and Trask to the right.

Rigel cheerfully called out, “Hello Mister Peacock!,” but it did not answer, and only stared at us impassively with its black beady eyes, which seemed to reflect a great wisdom and intelligence.

And then, from around us, a chorus of voices speaking in ancient Thassilonian mingled in an almost harmonious chant:

The master is in his study, so please contain your screaming while you are punished for entering his sanctuary.

Kane stepped forward and yelled out, “I am tired of waiting!”

A man appeared then, immaculately dressed and groomed with neat shoulder length blond hair, speaking softly. Three fireballs detonated, one in the midst of those of us to the left, one amidst the group on the right, and one centered just on Kane.

Five more men appeared, scattered about us, whispering magical invocations.

Both Kane and Sabin acted as if something was racing towards them, but while Kane appeared to have shrugged it off, Sabin’s private horror wounded him.

Sabin promptly used the dimension door trick to put himself, Nolin, Rigel and I next to a figure standing by the dais. Nolin brutally hacked at it with his greats-word. The man let out a girlish squeal and then burst into a flurry of snow that slumped into a slushy pile on the ground.

Avia ran over to another of the men — they all looked alike — and swiftly reduced it to a pile of snow and slush.

The surviving men took various actions, most defensive, but one sent a bolt of lightening at Nolin.

Sabin and Nolin took out a third, while Rigel killed another.

Trask set off a fireball on top of one figure that had cast Mirror Image on himself, and was rewarded with two puddles of melted snow, having also caught the remaining snow man who had turned invisible.

We turned our attention to the giant peacock and found that it was an illusion, and so we searched the vast complex for secrets. Rigel found a hidden door in the middle of the back wall, which was neither locked nor trapped.

Beyond the door was a comfortable looking room — a library or study — but it smelled as if something had crawled in and died. And so it had. Sitting in a chair next to a table was the remains of a man, slumped over parchment on which he had been writing when he died. Avia said the corpse was evil, but it was just a corpse, and did not animate as we cautiously approached it.

It had been a man — in fact he looked like the creatures we had fought in the cathedral, and so we assumed he had created guardians in his own image. We guessed he had been dead for only a couple of years.

The writing on the parchment was in Thassilonian, and shpowed the man had been working on some form of a very advanced illusion spell.

We stripped the corpse of all items of value, and scanned through his bookshelves for more:

[1140] evil aligned robe: provides +5 AC, 18 SR, and +2 on all class level checks, -3 levels if worn by a good aligned person, -2 levels if worn by a neutral aligned person

[1141] +6 headband of vast intelligence: has 3 specific skill bonuses we have yet to research

[1142] +2 ring of protection

[1143] Cape of the Mountebank [Sabin]

[1144] journal written in draconic

[1145] two volumes of spell books containing every illusion spell listed in the player’s handbook

Sabin scanned through the journal, which identified the dead man as Vraxeris, the runeforge agent of Xanderghul. I scribed the last two entries as Sabin read them out loud.

Vraxeris journal entry:

The runeforge pool awoke! I first took this as a sign that Runelord Xanderghul had risen. When I arrived at the pool to investigate, it seemed that the others had come to the same conclusion. The foolish Wardens of Envy thought to disrupt the recrudescence, and with the aid of Kazaven, Ordikan, Athroxis, and that lovely creature Delvahine, we were able to defeat them utterly. Their Abjurant Halls lie in ruins. Our treaty was short-lived, though. Kazaven absconded with the bodies and that treacherous wench Athroxis nearly burned me to death before I made it back here.

I was mistaken. Runelord Xanderghul still slumbers. It is that monster Karzoug who quickens and nears rebirth. Damnation! He must not be allowed to precede Xanderghul into the world, for he would rebuild Thassilon in his own inferior image, a testament to his own greed rather than one of pride in the work. He must be delayed or defeated!

I have managed to escape this place, to a certain extent. By astral projection I can explore what the world outside has become. It is a brutish place, yet it pleases me to see Thassilon’s mark endures in the shape of our monuments. Still, the wilderness of the world vexes me. Gone is the empire I knew. Karzoug’s city of Xin-Shalast is now hidden high in the mountains, and when I finally discovered it, I found the spires where his body is hidden to be inaccessible, warded against astral travelers by the occlusion field around the peak of Mhar-Massif. As long as his rune-well is active, I fear even a physical approach would be impossibly deadly. I must determine a way to pierce these wardings, and to send an agent in my place. No need to risk my own life before my clone is ready.

Vraxeris journal entry:

I have taken steps toward an alliance with Delvahine. She may be able to escape this place, for she was not of the original blood. At the least, she can call up on agents from outside, and perhaps through them we can secure servants in the outer world. She seems uninterested in Sorshen’s return; all the better for Xanderghul, that.

The runeforge pool is the key. As I suspected, the occlusion field around Karzoug’s fortress in Xin-Shalast has a flaw. His lack of knowledge of the intricacies of Sorshen’s and my own lord Xanderghul’s powers have left an opening. My agents must use components infused with our lords’ virtues, extract the latent magic within these components, and then anoint their chosen weapons with this raw power. The runeforged pool seems to have enough reserves to enhance no more than half a dozen or so runeforged weapons, but those enhanced with enchantment and illusion magic will be most potent against Karzoug’s defenses. They may even be pivotal in his defeat. For my own part, fragments of any of the mirrors in the Peacock’s Hall should suffice for a component. Delvahine’s… equipment… should suffice for enchantment, although one might be wise to cleanse them before they are handled.

The search for an agent goes poorly. Delvahine seems more interested in her own lusts than aiding me. Worse, the lapses and fevers are increasing. I fear that I will be forced to see to Karzoug myself, in which event I will need to use the master circle I built into the Halls of Wrath to escape this place. Yet first, I must set aside my work on delaying Karzoug’s return and turn back to the final development of my 205th clone. I only hope I have time to finish before the dementia takes hold…

There is much here that directly applies to our quest!

We know that the Runelord agents had somehow managed to remain alive in this place for many thousands of years. For Vraxeris this was accomplished by him duplicating himself periodically into a replicant, or as he called it, a “clone.” It would seem sort sort of defect was introduced into the process or his last body was damaged or corrupted corrupted such that he did not have sufficient time to prepare its replacement.

But more important for us was the information concerning Karzoug and the runeforge.

Karzoug began to rise a little more than two years ago.

Karzoug’s fortress is near a peak once called Mhar-Massif.

There are protective wards about his fortress that are still active and deadly as long as his rune well is active. Could it have been the one we deactivated in Sandpoint about a year ago?

Karzoug’s defensive wards hold a flaw where enchantment and illusion magic (Sorshen’s and Xanderghul’s) can be used to get past them.

Weapons can be imbued with special enchantments if the correct ritual is performed and right components used. Such weapons, especially those enhanced with illusion magics, will be most effective against Karzoug and his defenses.

The comments about the different warring factions here within the runeforge reminded me of the corridor on the way in here, where chunks had been blasted out of the wall. Vraxeris journal indicated some of the other runelord agents had been possibly slain, but we could expect to face at least some powerful adversaries while exploring the complex.

A pair of double doors led into another hallway, but other than a room full of skeletons (about 200 of them we guessed) there was nothing of interest.

We returned to the main runeforge chamber, where the quietly bubbling pool now holds special significance for us. We picked up some of the mirror shards from Xanderghul’s chamber, because Vraxeris has mentioned that they were one of the key components for the ritual.

Noting that Vraxeris had formed an alliance with Delvahine, we decided to explore Sorshen’s lair next.

As before, the passageway had a dimensional door style effect that eventually led us to a pair of mighty iron doors, beyond which was another immense interior space.

The area was well lit, and the layout and decoration left little doubt it had been designed for carnal purposes. The floor was alternating red and white polished flagstones, and red and white scrims lined the walls. Columns carved skillfully in the shapes of sensuously posed naked woman held aloft the tall ceiling. In the center was a raised platform, which was curtained off with flowing sheets of red silk.

Most disturbingly iron cages were positioned around the complex: some were, empty, and some held the rotting remains of people.

Someone held captive in one of the cages yet lives! I must go to his aid at once.

One way portal to hell

As I suspected the trip to runeforge was meant to be a one way trip, at least the journal of this dead guy seems to indicate that he has been trying to get out of here for a number of years. Oh but I get ahead of myself. The ingenious mirror trap caught Takkad and I while moving down the hallway of pride. The mirrors created duplicates of both of us near each of the two mirrors. My first thought was to break the mirrors but before I could act or communicate this to Takkad one of my doubles hit me with a feeblemind spell. Everything at that point became somewhat dull “derp” as life suddenly became very black and while. I wasn’t sure who these derping people were at first. It seemed like I should be doing something important but instead I am not sure what I did during this time “derp”. Kane provided the valuable heal spell to break the feeblemind and I was able to function again. After Rigal, Avia, and Nolan dispatch my evil twins I asked Takkad which mirror he had broken and then popped over next to the remaining mirror made sure the one was taken care of as well. I was slightly upset taking out my frustration on the mirrors, besides Takkad and I had to wait 10 to 15 minutes for the blade barriers to expire. After that the rest of the party join as we move into the big room.

An illusionary peacock took center stage in this room until the voices began telling us that we had intruded. They ask that we keep the noise down as they punish us. These magic whatever there are, appeared and began casting fireballs at us.  I was able to use my remaining Dimension door my little group over to the first opponent, Nolan quickly turned him into snow but from somewhere else the lights went dim once again as I was hit with another feeblemind spell. Luckily Takkad was able to correct it this time. I think the one that hit me with feeblemind tried to go invisible but that did not help as Trask hit the last two with fireball turning them into warm water. I was really happy to see these derping creatures turned into snow? Not exactly sure why they turned into snow! I feel cheated out of making sure they were dead and seeing there blood on the floor.

We found the door to the library with the body Vraxeris sitting in the chair with his journal open.  The journal discusses that fact that these people down here were not that long ago trying to figure out which of the 7 runelords nears rebirth. Surprise surprise it is Karzoug that is near rebirth. The journal discussed using runeforge pool to enchant weapons that would be most potent against Karzoug’s defenses.  This is very interesting. Most importantly he was trying to work on an alliance with Delvahine as he thought that she could get out of here because “she was not of the original blood”. Not sure what that means but at least it is a start. We also learned that Vraxeris was using clones to keep himself alive, looks like the last batch of clones did not complete before he died.

The reading of some of the passage was painful, not that it was hard to read but that I had to stop and re-read it slowly a couple of time while Takkad transcribe some of the passages word for word.  For a moment I consider scribbling these passages on the walls in Orc but why bother. This took some time and in the mean time the other search through stuff.

Vraxeris had a few items on him that were interesting. Cape of the Mountebank is a pretty cool cape but I am now used to taking my special friends with me on jumps though space. +6 headband of vast intelligence is the ideal item for a wizard and provides some benefits over the robe. The headband could actually be useful for a number of party members while the robe is only basically useful for me or Takkad, Kane isn’t big enough to wear this robe. The spellbooks provide all of the illusion spells that are known to me.

Given what we learned from the journal we decided to explore Sorshen’s lair next. This should be interesting.

Toilday, Erastus 8

Since we still were concerned about the magic in what we’d come to call the Quill Room, I tried a dispel magic. It was a little odd, casting it on the whole room, but as near as I can tell, it did nothing anyway. I didn’t feel like I’d done my best, so I tried again and we discovered the evil aura of the room had disappeared. Did I dispel something, or did some spell just end of its own accord? You never know for sure with dispel, but having the evil gone made everyone feel better, and we felt like we could safely pick up the magical quill. To be on the safe side, Takkad did that but with an unseen servant rather than an actual hand.

Takkad noted that the image on the floor in the cathedral was both offensive and magical. He tried a dispel on it, but it was ineffective. He muttered something about Lamashtu and Father Xanthus and “not on my watch”. I suspect there is more he intends to do here.

But for now, we are down on spells, and we have a body of a Sandpoint guardsman to repatriate. We picked up some things Scribbler would no longer have a use for:

a cloak of +2 charisma [1012]
a +1 breastplate [1013]
a +1 returning dagger of cold iron [1014]
a peacock quill, radiating very strong divination magic [1016]
17 vials of ink (8 black, 2 blue, 2 red, 1 violet, 1 yellow, 1 green,
1 brown, 1 pink) [1015]
falchion (broken by Nolin)
bag of diamond dust (750gp)

Returning to the surface, we consulted with Father Xanthus and he agreed to help with the cleansing of the cathedrala We decided to make camp next to the pit to make certain nothing crawled out overnight (and that nobody tried to sneak in.).

Wealday, Erastus 9

Returning to the rooms below, we discovered that today, all the foggy rooms were gone. Apparently that was the result of a spell with a duration of 24 hours or less, probably maintained by Scribbler. Sabin used an erase spell to erase one writing of Scribbler, leaving only about five thousand more.

Nolin and Avia started smashing statues. Meanwhile others of us went back into the pool room. The pool is incredibly clean (and Xanthus comments upon this.) How clean? I decided to find out, ignoring the horrified looks of my companions. How bad could it be? Well, it did make me feel sick, despite its cleanliness, but I threw up back into the pool as that seemed most appropriate.

NOW someone tried a detect evil and found the water was evil. It was probably unholy water.

Kane tried consecrating the water; nothing.
Kane tried dispel evil on the water; nothing.
Takkad tried a greater dispel magic; nothing.

Takkad decided to vent his frustration on the jackal on the floor by using 4 stone shapes to significantly deface the image.

Kane deformed the pool, thinking it might disrupt whatever magic was there. And it seems it did. We concluded that it was the pool that was magical, not what was in it, and now the pool was ‘broken’.

Sabin kept erasing scribblings. Dogged, he was. But don’t say “dogged” around him; he might take it as an insult. Or worse, a compliment. In short order, all of the “important” (that is, ones that made a modicum of sense) were erased so that nobody else could read them in the future.

Takkad, meanwhile, was inspecting the hole that led to the surface and the cave-in beneath it. He concluded that with some skillful stone shaping, and judicious walls of stone, the structure underneath could again support the street above – possibly even better than the old street. He began the work here, but it would take another day’s worth of spells before he and Kane would finish. When they were done, the street above was solidly replaced and supported.

There aren’t a lot of clerical architects out there.

Starday, Erastus 12

When all of the scouring, erasing, shaping, and conjuring was done, the Square of the Four Watchers was christened. Four statues were placed above; one each for Desna, Sarenrae, Pharasma, and one guardsman from the garrison (fashioned after the one remaining corpse with recognizable features).

Meanwhile, below, our clerics and Father Xanthus’ army of sacred sandblasters turned what used to be a sacred area for Lamashtu into a harmless empty room that only held bad memories, and that only for us and the souls lost here. In time, it may be consecrated to some other deity, but for now, all are happy that it is NOT welcoming to Lamashtu.

A wall with a stoutly built and locked door was added to make the whole area nearly inaccessible except by force. (The locked door is only accessible from the garrison!)

And this too was the day when we helped bring to fruition an utterance of Rallo – a random statement we’d thought had been made in jest, or perhaps in frustration or even fear, but no. Rallo had seen Death close up and decided he was not willing to stare it down again. He will eventually, of course – we all do – but not in the wild, not in the battlefield.

Rallo has retired (if you can call running a magic shop a form of retirement.) As a group, we decided to help fund his setup, and in return he has said he will make items for us for only 10% over cost. We also will give him first option on any of the magic items we eventually decide to sell. It is not an avocation without risk, but the risk lies in a business failing rather than his life being lost. Rallo was often the most impetuous among us, which makes this comparatively conservative move all the more surprising, but it’s a decision each must make for themselves.

It made me think of you, Father – why did you decide to settle down and stop living from the road and reaping the rewards of such a life? When should I? I’ve lived a much shorter life than you did before you stopped, but I feel the last year has been .. comparatively rich in experiences. I’m but 18, but am I already living on borrowed time? Perhaps sometime when there is more time, I will teleport home and have that talk with you.

But not now. Tomorrow we will head to the ancient library to research more about the Runeforge: its legend, its power, and its use. Karzoug seems to be intent on bending it to his use in this modern day and we must find out how to stop him.

Moonday, Erastus 14

Information of the Runeforge was sparse, even from the mechanized servant available to us. Runeforge was not an object, but a place, and it was created to be a neutral place where acolytes of all the Rune Lords could study and research magic. Because of the danger of any one Rune Lord gaining access to this kind of research, the exact location was intentionally vague and secretive, and although students of all the Lords would attend there, while there they were, in theory, without allegiance.

To insure this, they were enrolled in this magical university for life. Once you checked in, only death was your way out. Mistrusting each other, the Rune Lords themselves created wards and barriers to prevent them from entering, or having agents or minions enter. Presumably all that flowed from the studies was somehow made available to all simultaneously, or never. It is not clear to me how the establishment of this hall of knowledge would benefit them without some clear way of getting output from it, but perhaps we will learn more as we study.

We found vague references to one of the last projects being undertaken at Runeforge before the empire apparently fell. The Rune Lords were seeking some method of transcending and eluding Death itself. Even limited successes in this area of study might explain the apparent vitality of some portion of Karzoug (or perhaps we’ll find, other Rune Lords).

After days of research – and we’re talking everyone who could read ancient Thasselonian, which is most of the group – we were able to discern only that Runeforge was up in the mountains, perhaps the Kodar to the north. But there were tens of peaks there and we needed more information.

Takkad was able to uncover information about a commander named Xaliasa, who, it appears, commanded the ‘Hellfire Plume’ that seems to have been located just outside Sandpoint. Xaliasa may have been double dipping and trying to serve two Rune Lords, but ultimately proved loyal to Alasnist.

Upon saying this out loud, Takkad got a strange look on his face and immediately sought out the pieces of the broken falchion, and Scribbler’s dagger that I had claimed. There was inscribed ‘Xaliasa’. Scribbler and Xaliasa were one and the same. It appears at least one principal from the past had been able to either cheat or prolong death.

It also suggested his cryptic scribblings were credible (if we could but understand them properly.)

Giving those notes a bit more weight and with some help from our mechanical librarian, we were able to identfy a likely peak in the Kodar range as the ancient Mt Xin: Rimeskull. Armed with a modern name, Takkad thought we might find more information from travellers societies and churches than from ancient manuscripts, so we are planning a little trip to Magnimar tomorrow.

I saw Takkad playing with the magical quill, trying to figure out why it was magical. I don’t believe I’ve seen Takkad look frustrated very often, but clearly that quill vexes him.

Toilday, Erastus 15

So Sabin and I took Nolin and Takkad to Magnimar via teleport. We quickly went in four different directions, as Takkad wanted to find out more about that mountain peak, Nolin was off to visit his parents, and Sabin went to buy more spell components. I decided I wanted a good cloak of resistance, fearing that we would run into more magic users who would attempt more charm or other magic upon me.

I found a shop that had a rather poor looking one, and the shopkeep tried to overcharge me for a lesser powered cloak. I went looking elsewhere, but even in a city the size of Magnimar, the number of shops selling something like that are limited.

During this search, however, a man approached me quietly and suggested he might have access to the cloak I was looking for. I was naturally suspicious, since at the time I was near the Underbridge and many transactions there have … strings attached. The man told me some story about his uncle dying or somesuch and I was worried that a) I might be buying stolen goods, or b) I might be set up to just have my money stolen.

I told him I would like to see it but if it was all he said it was I’d be interested. We haggled about a price and ultimately settled on something between 6000 and 7000gp, the exact amount to be determined after inspecting it. We agreed to meet again in an hour.

I’m no Rigel, but I followed him after our meeting and he seemed to head to a brothel and disappear within. How would I know if I was being cheated? I could tell magically if the cloak was not what I expected but would I be able to tell if he were lying about any part of his story? It occurred to me that Rigel might be able to help, and come to think of it so might Kane. I teleported back to the library and brought not just Rigel and Kane, but Avia back with me.

And that turned out to be of very little help at all. Avia and Kane found it humorous that we went and staked out a brothel, while Rigel didn’t understand at all my concern about whether the man had legitimate ownership of the cloak. In fact, she suggested we could improve the price considerably, given that we were now four versus one. I was against that, and I did see Avia knit her eyebrows a bit, but Kane was all for it.

Anyway, the man came out, we met at the agreed upon place, and Rigel, Kane, and Avia surreptitiously came along to make sure he did not bring friends. He did not, but when I started questioning more about the origins, the price started coming down. Sigh. My guess was the cloak was not his, but I had no actual proof of that, nor could I possibly discern who it had come from. We eventually settled on 5300gp, and I had a smart looking cloak with a little silver (thread) trim. And I had Rigel, Kane, and even Avia who found my negotiating tactics and priorities to be odd. And all they could talk about was how did I find a man in a brothel with a cloak, completely ignoring the earlier part of my story where I mentioned how I’d actually met him.

We met up with Takkad and the others, and it turns out everybody had a good trip to Magnimar. I got my cloak, Sabin got his components, and perhaps most importantly, Takkad got his information from the Pathfinder Society. Apparently Rimeskull had not been visited in dozens of years, but there were rumors of a white dragon, and although people (including soldiers) had gone to check it out, nobody had ever returned. Yup, that sounds like where we need to go. We won’t be able to teleport (initially) but once Sabin and I have visited it once, we won’t need to trek. The first time, however …

Seems like we will be starting a trip soon..

Fireday, Erastus 25

It seems there was more research to do before leaving, so my prediction of a trip was not inaccurate but definitely in the wrong timeframe. It looks like we’ll be leaving tomorrow, and Takkad has a spell called Wind Walk which means the journey need not be arduous and lengthy at all.

One of the things we were waiting for was for Kane to finish creating his set of wands: a wand of erase, a wand of lesser restoration, a wand of knock, and a wand of protection from evil.

Starday, Erastus 26

Wind Walk meant we could travel at the speed of the wind, which was much much faster than even horses. It only took about 4 hours. I may look into this spell but I fear it might be clerical only.

When we got there, we knew we were at the right place. There was a huge head carved into the side of the mountain, and even more telling, there was a plateau below that had seven other huge heads. Seven Rune Lords? There was no sign of a white dragon.

We did detect magic on the heads, and they were indeed magical .. but interestingly each emanated magic from a different school. As an experiment, I used Mage Hand to put a rock in the mouth of the figure representing Karzoug. There was a loud thrum and a key appeared in the mouth .. even before I could put the rock in it. I claimed the key.

Takkad suggested maybe a spell from each school cast at or near the appropriate statue might yield similar results. The mages and clerics stepped up and did that, and as we pulled the last key from the last mouth, Rigel yelled, “Dragon!”.

And indeed there was. White dragon. Likes cold. Should hate fire! I fireballed it … but it seemed to have little effect. Then it returned the favor with an icy cold blast which brought several of us far closer to death than we cared.

Kane set about healing us, while I tried another fireball. Surprise (or maybe not) – the dragon appeared to have magic resistance too, and the fireball had zero effect on it. Rigel fired an arrow at it which, by rights, sure should have hit it but it seemed to pass through it. Instead of flying by again, the dragon dropped down and grabbed Rigel in its mouth! Avia, Nolin and Sabin did the dimension door trick to get right next to it, but were having an uncanny problem just laying a weapon to it.

Suspicious, Takkad cast greater dispel at it and suddenly it seemed mildly startled and it seemed to snap into place. Displacement! And I’ll bet fire protection too. Takkad did another dispel and suddenly the fireballs started to hurt it, and the swords started to draw blood. The dragon had long ago spit out Rigel to deal with the fighters and it roared angrily now. Abruptly it pulled back, seemed to say something, and it disappeared. Perhaps it too knew dimension door.

We decided that although we could fully heal ourselves, we would probably want to have more of our spells available before confronting the dragon. So we teleported back to Sandpoint, but then we reconsidered. We needed more information about the cavern into which we expected we’d need to enter.

Quickly Sabin and I returned (I was protection, just in case something went amiss) and Sabin deployed an arcane eye. Using the eye and Sabin’s night vision, he was able to scout the way into the cavern. There were some statues about 40 or 50 feet in, and of course there was a protective barrier of what looked like freezing fog in the outer part of the cavern. About a hundred feet past the statues, a great hole gaped. Apparently at that point, we needed to go down — maybe feather fall or fly or something. The cavern was huge here; easily a hundred feet wide.

As the arcane eye went 300 ft down, Sabin found that there was a floor and the floor had (surprise) seven statues. More interesting was the dragon had its lair down there, and was resting upon it, searching for potions among its treasures and gulping them. No doubt healing itself.

We returned to Sandpoint and Sabin relayed what he had seen. Yes, we definitely wanted to rest and buff up, but we could also now lay in a bit of a strategy. But we realized there was a tremendous advantage if we could simply teleport to the point of battle. One problem: I hadn’t seen any of what Sabin had seen, so I had no point of reference.

So we returned once more, and Takkad cast True Seeing on me so I could see through the dark. We all became wisps of wind again (wind walk had not worn off) andin this semi-invisible state, Sabin and I went off to explore.

The nice thing was that with True Seeing I not only got darkness, I got to see through illusions too. And so I was able to discern that the statues were just that — nothing to be concerned about. I was also able to discern a hidden but tiny path leading around the edge of the great pit, so that dropping in wasn’t the only option.

The dragon wasn’t there now. so we spent some time trying to look over the hoard. It was tempting to take some things now but the dragon would undoubtedly note that things were missing, and we might even get caught, and we felt the element of surprise would still be very handy.

We returned to Takkad and all teleported back to Sandpoint. We came up with a plan knowing, this time, that the dragon would likely have enchantments we’d need to dispel before our fighters (or spells, for that matter) could be effective. We also split the group into two groups, each with a person capable of teleport, as our escape plan if things did not go well. We agreed to collect some cold weather gear, and rested. This would not be Longtooth. This dragon was bigger.

Sunday, Erastus 27

We awoke, had a good breakfast, and went off to kill the dragon. Funny how there was no talk of discussing anything with it this time. I think people grew tired of Longtooth’s conversations pretty fast last time. We cast our protections and enhancements that were not of short duration and teleported directly to the hoard.

The dragon was not there.

Sabin used a Locate Creature scroll to monitor for the approach of the dragon. The rest of us started to pull magic things out of the treasure, possibly for immediate use.

We got to do a good minute or two of ransacking before Sabin announced, “Dragon coming, that way.” And he pointed at a corridor.

I decided it would be amusing to see the dragon get frustrated very quickly. So I threw a wall of force over the entrance to that corridor. And only moments later, a small blizzard occurred in that corridor that was, yet, contained within that corridor. As our party gaped, I said, “wall of force. He’ll have to dimension do–“.

And he dimension doored.

Takkad had to take a dragon bite before casting his greater dispel, but just like before, the dragon snapped into position a few feet from where he’d appeared just moments ago. No more displacement! And he seemed really annoyed by the fire. And the fighters really beat him up. And he was really bleeding. And he was really dying. Amazing what you can kill if you have time to prepare.

So he left us again, but this time Sabin (through locate creature) was able to tell us immediately, “He’s down that corridor,” meaning the one he’d appeared from. I dropped the wall of force and we all ran after him.

And although he was able to give Avia a good bite, and to get one more good icy breath on us, by having gotten to him when he was badly wounded, it took only a few well-aimed swings from our fighters to take him out. Wiping the dragon spit off her body, Avia seemed quite pleased to slice off its head (which seems to be our calling card these days.)

And that was that. One dead, ancient white dragon. What do you think about THAT, Father? WOW.

There was, of course, a LOT of treasure he had collected over the years, but I will detail that some more tomorrow. We spent a lot of time poring over and collecting it. I’m feeling a little giddy; there’s not just money but some pretty interesting magic stuff too.