== Toilday, Lamashan 21, 4708; Xin Shalast; evening ==

Sabin and I made good use of the remaining daylight with a Dimension Door to pop out down the road past the giant sentries. We huddled behind the boulders at the base of the cliff and peeped out at the city below, embraced in the arms of the surrounding mountains. These arms had not been as protective as the founders of Xin Shalast had no doubt intended, and a landslide from the collapsing eastern valley wall had covered nearly a quarter of the city. Glaciers had entered the breach and further buried this sector in a jumble of ice and rock.

We could see the causeway that Sabin had spotted the previous evening with an Arcane Eye, but now more details were visible. Even though the main road of the city was built upon a rampart, the surrounding buildings towered high above it, making it appear as a river of stone carving a deep chanel through high cliffs of immeasurably tall towers.

The architecture seemed odd, although at this distance we could not pinpoint just what seemed off about it. Another Arcane Eye provided the missing detail: each structure was built upon the remains of another. Some of these earlier remains were simple ruinous jumbles of massive stone work, but others were solidly built foundations that still held themselves up proudly beneath the weight of a new tower or hall, which itself was holding up yet another, and so on. As a result the city had grown ever upward through the ages in a reckless race toward the sky.

The causeway ran through the city, and following a dog leg to the west it reached the base of Mhar Massif, where it began to climb in a series of large steps.

The likeness of Karzoug had been carved into the side of the upper reaches of the mountain. His face was set with a perpetual frown as he glared out upon his city with a greedy expression that neither time nor the elements had managed to soften.

The scale of the city’s buildings increased towards the mountain, a trend that continued as the causeway became a stairway and climbed up to Karzoug’s face. Here the structures became more sparse as the dense clutter of urban life was left below, but they became more ornate and grand, clustered around large estates or temples.

The stairs ended at a plateau beneath Karzoug’s stony chin, where spires reached upward to staggering heights, dwarfing even the massive towers in the city below.

From where we hid we saw signs of habitation: tendrils of smoke rising from chimneys, laden wagons crawling along the roads, and giants walking to and fro. Through his Arcane Eye Sabin also spotted many forms of lamia and other creatures of types not familiar to us. Whether these were survivors from the original downfall of the city, or servants returning in answer to the call of their long lost lord, it was apparent that the city was rising from the ashes in preparation for Karzoug’s return.

Making our way through the city undetected would be challenging should we opt for that route. However, we did notice that the stairway leading up the mountain was unused, and the building complexes on either side of the stair seemed deserted.

Sabin and I returned to camp where we quietly discussed our options for the next day, provided Trask returned from Korvosa with most of his spells intact.

== Wealday, Lamashan 22, 4708; Xin Shalast; evening ==

Trask returned with Rigel and Nolin soon after breakfast, and although there were a few comments about how much more difficult fathers could make things by second guessing and offering unwelcome advice, his Teleport worked after only a few tries.

There was no need to wait around, and so after judicious use of the wand of Endure Elements, I cast a couple of Windwalk spells and we were flying over the causeway at a healthy height. We swooped over the city and then flitted up over the ancient steps, and veered off to land (and solidify) near Karzoug’s cheek.

I estimated that we were at around thirty thousand feet in elevation, and thanked Pharasma for the foresight she had given us to obtain artificial means of breathing. Even so the thin air was bitterly cold and had an unpleasant, almost sulphuric, tang.

We saw three building complexes upon the plateau: two perched on lower ledges, and one — the primary one — above. I say primary because there was no doubt that this was the apex of all of Xin Shalast: a huge circular building coated with a thick rind of ice, out from the center of which rose a spire of mind numbing height.

The crazy thing was nearly half a mile high!

Karzoug had to be in there, and so Sedjewick cast Detect Secret Doors, and we resumed gaseous form and swept down toward the spire. But we flew into some form of energy field that provided resistance to our progress. The field yielded as we pushed into it, but the resistance did not fade, and it induced a feeling of vertigo that worsened as we progressed.

Suddenly we were engulfed by a pulse of sound, which inflicted an intense wracking pain. In a flash I glimpsed scenes from an alien world of blasphemous creatures and towers with walls that intersected at impossible angles, but the experience was mercifully brief.

Sedjewick had not fared so well. He had been stricken blind with shock, and had dropped to the ground as he transformed into solid form in a panic.

Kane was already moving down to his aid, and so I turned my attention to the others.

Sabin, as it turned out, had stopped as soon as we encountered the energy field and reached the ground to resume physical form. He became an anchor for the rest of us to focus upon, and so I sped towards him, as did Avia.

Once there and solid, I called out to the others to get the out of the energy field as soon as possible.

Nolin and Rigel had left their gaseous forms next to Kane, who had cast a powerful Heal spell on Sedjewick. They sprinted full tilt towards us, with Kane pulling out a wand of Lesser Restoration as he ran.

Finally we all gathered together, crouched behind a snow covered boulder, when Avia turned to us and said,

Now, how do you like my toys? You come to my home to play, now it’s time to pay the piper!

We were all surprised, but no more so than Avia. I could tell from Status that she was not possessed, nor was she acting against her will (at least not after the fact).

For her part, Avia said she did not say those words, although she acknowledged she did speak them. An odd distinction, but I understood her meaning: someone (Karzoug) was using her to speak.

We found this disturbing, and wondered if this was caused by the energy field. Detect Magic showed a massive dome of abjuration energy surrounding the spires, and I then remembered Vraxeris’ journal where he described an “occlusion field” protecting Karzoug at Xin Shalast. He had also stated that as long as Karzoug’s runewell was active, no one would be able to get past the field.

Could this have been a reference to the magical pool at Runeforge we used to recharge our wands? If so we may have been feeding energy to Karzoug without realizing it.

But the others remembered another runewell — this one for Alasnist — located beneath Sandpoint, and so they theorized that Karzoug’s runewell could be in the city proper below.

We needed a safe place to retreat and decide what to do next, and so we once again took to gaseous form and followed the stairs down to a set of buildings beneath the plateau and above the city, where we could keep an eye on both.

We appeared to have chosen an abandoned manor of some city noble from ages past. The main chambers and furnishings indicated that the inhabitants had been human sized, but the tall ceilings and massive doorways indicated that they had used giants as servants.

We searched the house for anything useful that might tell us about Xin Shalast, or possibly even mention a runewell. The walls were decorated with murals depicting life of the city when at its zenith, but all followed the same motif: Karzoug’s craggy face staring down from the mountain as armor clad warriors and giant servants carried loot up to the spires.

I did find a map of the city in a desk, which I have taken and updated with what we see of the city now. It is marked with the names of the various districts, and it turns out we are using the “Rising District,” where the city elites once lived, as our hideout.

Going from room to room we passed by an archway through which I felt the heat from my body being sapped. We cautiously looked into a large pillared hall, and saw curled around a far column a giant worm. Awakened by our warmth it opened its maw and sprayed a cone of snow and ice, catching all of us in an arctic blast.

Sedjewick fell to the floor, his life quickly ebbing away as Sabin used the Dimension Door trick to place himself, Nolin and I next to the worm. Rigel vanished and Trask set off a sizeable fireball on the far side of the worm — the explosion sent a momentary wave of hot air our way, which felt good, but the worm screamed and writhed in agony.

Kane ran to Sedjewick and used Breath of Life to revive him, while Avia raced by to get within striking distance. She was rewarded with a nasty bite, but in turn she carved a large chunk of flesh from its side.

The worm then slumped beneath an onslaught of Nolin’s mighty slashes, but rather than die peacefully the thing exploded, splashing us with a frigid goop that bit into flesh like icy acid.

Everyone needed healing — especially Sedjewick — and after we had recovered from this unexpected encounter we looked through the remains of the worm. It had eaten someone and the remains of a humanoid corpse was mixed in with the beast’s entrails. Using Create Water helped clean away the worst of the gore, but the water quickly froze, although the worm guts did not.

The partially digested figure was wearing a skull shaped mask (made from bone), plus a ring.

[1601] skull mask: once per day (if worn for an hour) the skull can be sent to fly and touch a foe, bestowing a Finger of Death effect upon its target

[1602] sihedron ring: a gold ring set with seven black sapphires in the shape of a sihedron rune +3 deflection bonus +3 resist bonus for all saving throws Endure Elements is always in effect As a standard action the wearer can change the appearance of their armor to be that of any other (Sedjewick)

We drew lots to see who of the interested among us would get the ring, and Sedjewick won. The skull mask sounded useful, and I was tempted to wear it, but it has too much the look of undead for me to feel comfortable with it.

We found nothing else of interest in the manor, and so we set up camp in a chamber with two windows overlooking the city.

Looking down we could see an alarming number of giants and lamia walking about. We also saw armored figures (of all kinds) patrolling the city. But worse were the giants riding enormous crab like spiders. Sedjewick said they were crag-spiders: fell beasts the runelords had bred for servitude.

From here, and using the map as a guide, Sabin sent out an Arcane Eye in an attempt to find Karzoug’s runewell.

His first stop was a temple with onion shaped domes and slender fluted towers. Thassilonian runes proclaimed this place to be “The Temple of Divine Consumption,” and sihedron symbols were carved on the walls, plus a massive statue of Karzoug stood (possessively) in the center. Like most of the other structures in Xin Shalast, the temple was constructed upon the remains of an older building. Within a lamia priestess was busy with clerical work.

Temples surrounded this first one, but virtually all were in a ruinous state, including a temple to Lamashtu.

Next Sabin moved the Eye over to a huge building across the causeway from the temples. While smaller than the gigantic building atop the mountain, its size was still mind boggling. It was a huge coliseum built in the shape of a sihedron rune. Within was a large arena beneath domed ceiling with crystal skylights. Seven towers surrounded the dome, each representing one of the seven sins, with Greed facing the likeness of its counterpart carved upon the mountain.

Surrounding the arena within were seats for 150,000 spectators that rose up from the floor (walled and designed for combat). Box seats were provided to keep the city elite isolated from the rabble, and in one of these boxed sections was a tall cricket like creature.

The thing stood erect on two large legs and paced about as if it were restless or impatient. It then kicked open a door leading below and walked out, and soon returned holding a magical spear glistening with frost.

We wondered about this creature: was it held captive and forced to do combat for its masters’ entertainment? Could it be a potential ally?

But there was no sign of the runewell, and so Sabin took the Eye to a large race track nearby. Unlike the coliseum, this was mostly a ruin and the south end overgrown with brush. Near the entrance was a giant statue of a giant being gored to death by a mastodon. Lovely. Some sort of huge creature peered out from the shrubbery.

The Arcane Eye expired, and we decided to take advantage of the remaining time on the Windwalk spells to tour the city personally.

We wafted south over the Temple Row where we saw many temples devoted to many deities (including Desna), but as we had seen earlier, most were unused ruins.

The Jotenburg District had the most buildings with huge features, which were obviously intended for giants. A military base perched on a ridge above and was accessible by a ramp. Giants walked around the fort and crag spiders moved about restlessly in their corrals.

We passed over the Artisan District and approached the southern end of the city, which was guarded by a black fortress. Winged lamia guarded this area, and so we gave it a wide berth, cruising instead over the landslide and ice flow which covered what once was the Slave District.

We returned to our camp to keep watch and wait for the next day.

Our plan was for Kane to pray for the Find the Path spell in the morning, and then use it to find Karzoug’s runewell. Casting the spell he would then lead us about in gaseous form, zeroing in on the well’s location.

If this fails, then we will need to descend into the city and explore on foot.

In this quiet time my mind wandered over what had happened to us up on Mhar Massif, and how this pointed out the awesome amount of power Karzoug must wield. And why had he selected Avia as his voice? We have managed to convince ourselves that this we a message set as part of a trap, and that Karzoug is not actually aware that we are here.

It is a comforting thought, and I can almost believe it… almost. I fear we have alerted him to our presence, and we need to keep a low profile for a while and not draw more attention to ourselves until the last possible moment.

As darkness descended lights sprang up from around the city. Suddenly a bright arc of lightening flashed out from the fort, and a dragon took wing and flew into the night. Great. We can handle a dragon, having battled two already just to get this far, but add that to a city full of armed giants, plus spell casting lamia, crag spiders and who knows what else is lurking in this place and you get what amounts to impossible odds.

Stealth is not just our best option, it is our only option.

For now we are relaxing over a hot meal magically prepared so there is no risk of a fire giving us away to prying eyes.

== Oathday, Lamashan 23, 4708; Xin Shalast; morning ==

We were almost all awake at dawn when Kane alerted us to the noise of something scuttling over the rocks near our windows. A careful look showed two curious crag spiders who had been out looking for something to eat, and then came upon the scent from our camp.

They slowly crept up to us and peered in, but we were ready for them. I used Destruction to, uh, well, destroy one, and Avia and Sabin killed the other with a flurry of blows.

This intrusion into our rest period means a delay of four hours before setting out, but we can make good use of this time, and both Kane and I still need to pray for the day’s spells.

== Oathday, Lamashan 23, 4708; Xin Shalast; mid day ==

Finally we were all rested and awake and ready to go, and so Kane cast Find the Path and concentrated on the whereabouts of Karzoug’s runewell. It was apparent to onlookers that the casting was not going well, and after making a grimace that for some odd reason reduced Rigel to a near hysterical fit of laughing (couples!), Kane said the spell had failed.

So we had to do things the hard way, and our first stop, via Windwalk, was the coliseum. We flew in and made for the corner where Sabin’s Eye had seen the cricket creature earlier. He was still there, but he was not alone. Four dread wraiths were keeping him company, and we soon discovered that he was not their prisoner.

Cricket looked rather bored and after a while he called out in a commanding voice, “Come forth from the pit, I summon you.” Only he was speaking Abyssal, and what he summoned were two bone devils! “I am bored,” he called down to the two devils that had appeared in the arena, “fight for my entertainment.”

So much for being an ally! Kane and I deduced that Cricket was in fact an ice devil — a powerful and particular nasty foe.

While we are not ones to shy away from ridding the world of beings like this, there is a time and place for everything, and it was still time to be stealthy. We drifted over to a box far away on the adjacent side of the arena and materialized so we could (quietly) discuss our next steps.

I wondered out loud if we should start at the entrance of the city, by the fortress, and work our way toward the mountain like any other arrival would.

Others worried (and rightly so) that this would increase the chance of being discovered, and perhaps we should concentrate our search around the Entertainment District, where we currently were.

And then, much to our surprise, we heard a soft voice from just outside the door of the box, meekly saying in Thassilonian, “My lords, I would speak with you.”

The door to the box was open, but we had a hard time finding the owner of the voice, even though he was standing right at the doorway. He was humanoid in shape and size, although a bit lumpy, but his skin was perfectly tinted to mimic the wall behind him — even the shadows matched.

He repeated, more urgently this time, “I must speak with you.” He then gestured for us to follow him.

Either we had been discovered and this was of trap, or he was a potential ally (to make up for Cricket being evil and all). Either way our best bet was to follow him quietly and see what might come.

Out in the hall he whispered excitedly, “My people have been awaiting your arrival for centuries, and now you have come!”

I asked if there was a safer place than this to talk, and he nodded and walked to a nearby stairwell.

We moved as quietly as possible through the coliseum and worked our way into the dimly lit rooms beneath the arena. Our “friend” moved in a furtive way that was dead silent, and as the environment around us changed, so his skin changed to match it, making him altogether difficult to follow.

Through a grate, which he carefully opened and then closed behind us, we found ourselves in a crudely carved tunnel in the rock. Down we went, and I believe southward, as the tunnel zig-zagged and intersected other tunnels leading off into the darkness.

My new goggles allowed me to see well enough in the pitch darkness, but eventually our guide claimed it was safe enough for light, and so we brought out ever burning torches to light the way.

He was more at ease down here, and more willing to answer my questions.

His people called themselves the “Spared,” and they had been the slaves of Xin Shalast. When disaster struck, and the city met its doom, their diety, Mesmina, saved them by leading them to the tunnels beneath the city. Since then his people have carved more and more tunnels, creating a network of access holes into the city, from which they could watch their old enemies return as the city began to come back to life.

His name was Margive, and he was out on just such a scouting mission when he saw us.

Mesmina had said that some would come to save the Spared and lead them out of Xin Shalast to safety. This prophesy was recorded in a mural in their dwelling space, “And,” he said with unconcealed joy, “here you are: the ones foretold in the prophesy!”

The Spared had done well to survive for millenia, carving their network of tunnels, and visiting the city to obtain what they needed to live. But their source of salvation was also the cause of their downfall.

Several decades past, an excavation of a new tunnel broke into a large chamber filled with crypts. They closed up that tunnel, but something came through, and that something had been taking the Spared to do its bidding. Now the tunnel was open again, and more and more of the Spared were being taken. Once they were captured they ceased to be of the Spared, and became servants of the unseen beast (“Oh, yes, it is quite invisible.”).

“They hunt for it. They kill for it. Soon there will be no more Spared. But now you are here to save us.”

He stopped, as he said this, and gestured at the wall of a chamber we had just entered. There was a mural painted on the wall with adventuring types — it is amazing how little the gear changes over time — and the figure he pointed to as being Mesima was dressed in the robes of a cleric of some now lost goddess of runes.

“You will kill the unseen one and save the Spared just as Mesima promised.”

While the Spared seemed like unusual allies, they were the only ones we were likely to find. Their knowledge of the tunnels and the city would provide invaluable. And even if they could be of no service to us at all, we could not let this unseen, undead (clearly) horror run free among them.

We asked Margive to lead us to the chamber of the crypts, and soon we were standing near the entrance to a large room. “In there, in there!” he whispered, and skulked away back down the corridor.

We cast a few protective spells and entered the chamber. It was large with steps leading up to a balcony at the far end, and pillars held up a lofty ceiling. In the center was a dias upon which was a throne, and seated there was a skeleton.

Four ex-Spared (unspared?) were standing about the room.

Sabin shouted out, “Oh shit, it’s big!”

“Beware me sitting on my throne, I will destroy thee!” boomed a voice in Thassilonian.

The skeleton was not big, and so I assumed Sabin was able to see an invisible foe, and so I cast True Seeing and described to my companions what I saw and where it was, uh, hovering.

It was big. In fact it was a huge spherical beast with a multitude of tentacles waving menacingly about. Its eyes were blood red and its beak like mouth was filled with razor sharp teeth. And it was between us and the throne.

Trask hasted us, and Sabin applied the usual Dimension Door tactic to move Avia, Nolin, he and myself next to it. Avia and Nolin whacked it hard… when they could hit it.

It then hit us. All of us within reach of those deadly tentacles suffered horrible energy draining damage as it struck out. Worse, the unspared entered the fray, and they too wielded a negative energy attack with deadly purpose.

Kane and I both channeled energy, but not to heal, and three of the unspared turned to mist and flitted through cracks beneath the stairs.

Meanwhile we pressed our attack against the invisible beast, and soon it too turned to mist, which fled to beneath the throne.

Avia toppled the throne and Sabin hacked away at the dias with his adamantine ax, revealing a stone floor with slits leading deep below.

Trask killed the remaining unspared while Avia stared down at the cracks and said, “It’s down there!” Sabin pulled out a wand of Passwall and created a vertical tunnel most of the way down, into which I jumped and used Stoneshape to pull the rest of the rock up and away.

There, huddled down in a chamber below, staring back at me, was the tentacled, vampire-like creature. A moment later and Sabin, Avia and Nolin had reduced it to (invisible) sticky goo.

Some of us turned our attention to hacking through the stairs and dealing with the unspared.

Down in the creature’s bolt hole I removed a number of useful items:

[1603] +5 bracers of armor
[1604] ring of invisibility
[1605] sihedron ring: same as above (Takkad)

Another drawing of lots and I found myself wearing the new sihedron ring.

The negative energy drain was among the worst experiences I have ever faced, and I have used Restoration on myself, but others are in need as well. Tomorrow I will pray for both Restoration and Death Ward spells.

Now that the threat of the undead horror has been removed we need to seek out Margive.