Wealday, 22 Lamashan

Morning could not come quick enough, yet courtesy required that we at least have breakfast with my parents. I think my mother was beginning to understand that Rigel was not my betrothed, but Father seemed to remain convinced that with some subtle prodding and gentle directing he’d have grandchildren in no time. For her part, Rigel took it all politely, but Nolin, I think, showed far too much interest in the proceedings.

I swear to you, these are not the parents that raised me!

We left my childhood home and went back outside the city to a sufficiently distant location so as to guarantee a little privacy. Nolin did nothing to help by smilingly reminding me that if we used up all my spells for today, we could always go back and spend another day with my parents. Even Rigel threw him a look at that.

Besides, it has nothing to do with skill, at this point. It’s just a matter of luck as to whether I can overcome the magic resisting our return. with a run of back luck, such as I had yesterday, I could exhaust my spells. I hoped fate would smile upon me, for the sake of the rest of the party and in no small part for the sake of my sanity.
After all, it would take 12 failures in a row to have to – get to – spend another night in my parent’s house.

It’s not that it was a bad house, per se, of course. I grew up there and it holds fond memories. Who doesn’t have fond memories of their childhood? It’s just that recently, it had become more difficult to –

Shoot. First teleport failed. Thank goodness this spell doesn’t take any serious components. With my natural ability to eschew components, small and trivial items are not really needed for me to –

Crap. Failed again. Ok, I’m going to really focus and put down my quill. It’s just a matter of luck anyway. Can’t miss 12 in a row!

[Hastily written in the margin: ONLY TOOK TWO MORE! HAH!]

Wealday, 22 Lamashan (later)

We arrived from Korvosa with others waiting expectantly for us. Nolin immediately sized up how people were dressed and announced he was fully suiting up too. While he prepared, Takkad filled me in.

Last night he and Sabin apparently did a litle scouting with arcane eyes. Some interesting things they found:

• ground level on the main street does not appear to be actual ground
  level. The road is actually elevated above what appears to be the
  first floor of many of the buildings. There are basements here that
  were never intended to be basements. Are there also sidewalks beneath
  the streets?

• the buildings are immense. This is not a small city, even in its
  partially damaged state. Were it not for the danger presented by
  the apparently awakening Rune Lord and the hundreds (thousands?)
  of creatures living here, this would be a fountain of knowledge
  about a time long since gone.

• entry to the city is blocked by a fortress of smooth black stone.
  Passing it in a normal fashion and remaining unchallenged is unlikely.

• About 1/4 of the eastern city has been destroyed … or at least
  heavily damaged .. by a landslide from the surrounding peaks,
  followed (presumably over many years) by glacial snow and avalanches.
  It makes the area look forbidding, yet at one time there were
  buildings there so may some structure remains under the rough
  rock and ice.

• As one proceeds through the city, one grows ever closer to the
  gleaming spires on the mountain, and the stern face of Karzoug
  looking down upon the spires and the city itself. The visage
  must lie several thousand feet above this already air-thin
  and exhausting altitude.

• As the eyes proceeded, the buildings seemed to get larger and
  more ostentatious as one neared the citadel and the face.
  Karzoug was not a subtle man.

Based on this information, it was clear that a stroll down Main Street was not going to be our best choice. However, windwalk could again be our friend and there appeared to be several choices of places we could land and solidify near the citadel. Because if there was one thing we could be sure of, it was that Karzoug was not going to be found at the end of the city with the small and crushed housing.

Before leaving, I cast resist cold on myself. Not because I was chilled, but it seemed more likely that damaging spells would be cold-based here than fire-based, and my own natural fire resistance would assist me if I guessed wrong.

We landed safely, and a quick inspection showed nothing – no footprints, bodies, or anything to indicate anyone had been here recently. But we quickly learned if we got too close to the citadel, there was some sort of force resisting us. We could push through it, and we did, until … there was some sort of THRUM, or pulse, which had a very deleterious affect on those under its effect.

I myself had not, apparently, gotten close enough but Rigel, Nolin, Sedgewick, and Kane all had … and the THRUM seemed to affect them badly. They appeared disoriented and staggered as if drunk or confused, while some found wounds appeared to varying degrees upon their body. Sedgewick quietly and calmly (considering the nature of his news) announced he was blind.

Kane healed him, and I mean Healed him, and his stuttering left him, wounds healed, and the blindness disappeared. But he still appeared shaken by the event. A combination of lesser restorations and minor healings helped the rest, but all moved out of the zone. Takkad pondered a bit, and recalled a passage he’d read that had not meant anything at the time. Braxis’ journal had said we needed to find and deactivate the Runewell that was running this rather massive burglar alarm.

We returned to gaseous form but learned two important things. The area of THRUM seemed to cover all the interesting features of this upper slope. Nothing would be found here until the trap was disabled. And the second thing was that being in gaseous form did not, in any way, shape or form, relieve you from the punishment from that trap.

We finally returned to the place we’d originally (safely) left gaseous form and was very surprised when Avia turned to us and said, in a voice not her own, “Now how do you like my toys? You come to my home to play, now it’s time to pay the piper.”

And while we were surprised to hear this short monologue coming from Avia’s mouth, she was nothing short of apoplectic. If we had any substances with a sedative effect, this would have been a good time for her to ingest them.

It was decided that, at the least, it would be a good time to rest and rethink our plan. The houses in the upper part of the city appeared to have been, at one time, very nice houses so we stood a good chance of finding some reasonable accommodations there. No linens or bathwater, mind you, but a solid roof and perhaps doors and windows that still worked.

We gave the house an inspection, and it seemed reasonable. Passageways were huge, yet individual items seemed right-sized. Giants for servants? Perhaps. Legend does speak of such things.

One room seemed to radiate cold. My resist cold had expired, so I renewed it. By one of the far pillars there appeared to be a large worm. I don’t mean like thick-as-your-thumb juicy worm. I mean bigger-than-your-body purple worm. And when it detected us (by our heat, no doubt) it left no ambiguity about its intention.

My resist cold served me well, but Sedgewick, having taken yet another heavy blow, lay near death. Kane moved to him quickly as I shot a carefully aimed fireball at the backside of the creature. I figured it it liked cold, heat would probably damage it greatly. I was not disappointed.

I found out later that Kane used Breath of Life on Sedgewick and literally pulled him back from Death’s chilly shores. It took but seconds, but Avia and Nolin hit the worm mightily, killing it – but the toll was almost too great. A single breath and Sedgewick had lain dying. And then the worm did a strange and horrifying thing.

In its death, it exploded. And again many took significant damage as the freezing cold worm guts hit us with great force (although my resist cold served me well again.)

Included in the worm detritus was a partially digested being. Once one got over the shock of dealing with a partially digested being, it occurred to us to see if the body contained anything magic.

It did.

We found a mask, that looked like death or a skeleton, if you prefer [1601]. After studying it and casting identify, we were able to tell the mask had the capability of, once per day, so long as it had been worn for at least an hour, of flying off the face of the wearer and attacking the face of a victim, bestowing upon it the equivalent of a finger of death spell. There was also a sihedron ring [1602] that looked very handsome – golden, with some valuable stones set in it. It offered a +3 deflection bonus, a +3 resist added for all saving throws, bestowed upon the wearer the effects of Endure Elements at all times, and allowed the wearer to change the appearance of their armor as a standard action. You couldn’t change it to full plate, for instance, but it sure could look like that’s what you were wearing. Sedgewick ended up taking this, mostly because he had no additional resistance to any of the magic we were facing.

Sabin tried using an arcane eye to find this Runewell, but was unsuccessful. Got to see a lot of different buildings, though, I guess. Apparently there’s a pretty significant sporting building, or coliseum nearby, and he saw an interesting creature in there. It was like nothing we’d ever seen before. He tried to follow him but an arcane eye has no opposable thumbs and gets easily thwarted by closing a door in front of it.

Based on these reports, we used windwalk to tour parts of the city in person, which carried with it the minor thrill of danger. We’re not, strictly speaking, invisible. Just hard to see. We checked out Temple Row, the Jotenburg District, the Artisan District, and flew over the Slave District. Intrigued, I asked Takkad how he knew all these names because as near as I can tell, they were not enscribed on the ground below us. Turns out he’d kiped a map from one of the rooms we’d been in earlier, and it had all these sections highlighted and named. I was expecting something a little more spectacular.

Disappointed yet intrigued, we set up the “usual guard duty” so we could rest and recover spells. We noticed, at one point, what looked like a dragon silouhette across the face of the moon. Of course. It wouldn’t be complete without a dragon. I drifted off to sleep.

… but then just before dawn Kane hastily awakened us. There was a clicking noise outside the window. Those near the windows were able to catch a quick glimpse of two crag spiders. Nasty things. Takkad used a spell called “Destruction” – utterly fascinatingly thorough! – to take out one, and Sabin and my lightning bolt took out the other.

Now we need even more rest.

Oathsday, 23 Lamashan

We went to the coliseum, to see if we could learn more about the creature we’d observed with the arcane eye. And we did locate him again without too much trouble. He seemed to own (or at least claim possession of) one of the nicer “boxes” in the arena. But today he was not alone. With little effort, apparently, he summoned two bone devils (according to Kane) and ordered, “I’m bored. Fight for me.”

Kane said the creature itself was an ice devil. Devils. I’m not sure if devils or dragons are worse, and now we have both.

We were quietly discussing this unsettling turn of events when a voice reached my ears. “M’lord, m’lord!” a small shadowy figure called to me. “We have waited for you.”

Me?

Us, it turns out. This was a small creature with a most amazing skill. He was humanoid .. ish .. but he could change his skin to match his background almost perfectly. It allowed him to go almost anywhere undetected, so long as he was quiet.

We decided to let this harmless looking creature lead us deeper into the tunnels beneath the streets. He had this annoying habit of repeating, “you’ve come!”. Were we part of some prophecy? If so, I’d like to know what it says of our surviving.

Eventually we were deep enough into the tunnels that he felt he could speak. His people called themselves “the Spared”. Many many years ago, they had been slaves when Xin Shalast started to crumble around them. They were able to survive when others could not because a) they were small and thus elusive, and b) they were well camouflaged. Innately.

His people have excavated more tunnels over the years, but some of his kind had broken into a bad place of crypts and terrible things. In fact, a Terrible Thing was known for taking his friends and people and enslaving them in some way. Not like the Runelord, but in a way that seemed to leave no person inside. They were never the same again, and yet they seemed to never die.

This sounded like undead to me, and to several others as well.

His name was Margaiv, and he showed us the murals that foretold our arrival. Apparently his goddess Mesmina had said to patiently wait and she would send us. And his faith in us made us the unquestioning choice to save his people from the invisible (yes it was invisible) beast that was enslaving his people.

I put my hand across my brow and looked down. Really? Why did it always have to be us?

But us it would be, and we resolutely set out to save these peoples. They were ecstatic, but not so ecstatic that a great many of them wanted to travel with us. In fact, only Margaiv was willing to take us sort of close to the entity responsible for these heinous acts. He took us as close as he dared, pointed down the hall and faded into the wall to await our heroic actions that would save his people.

It really was not a nice beast. And it was invisible. It seemed like it might be a vampire of some sort? Never really did get a square look at it. But that’s okay; all I needed was targeting orders. I cast Spell Resistance, Mirror Image, and Resist Cold on myself before we went in.

Both Sabin and Takkad had cast spells to allow themselves to see invisible beings, and they helped tell us what was really there. I hasted everyone, and Sabin teleported the Usual Suspects next to the beast.

But as luck would have it, this was a fairly powerful evil. It lashed out with tentacles (or so they said) and four “converted” Spared also converged on the party. When it lashed out, those close to it, in a single round, were left moderately hurt, but considerably weaker. And they found themselves without spells they’d had just moments before.

For my part, I had not gotten within range of its tentacles. I used chain lightning to light up as many baddies as possible. Then a fireball .. and that’s all we had time for. Others had slammed it with a flamestrike, and channeling against undead, and some very sharp, hasted swords.

It had turned into a mist and disappeared through a crack in the ground, but a little passwall from Sabin and an accurate sword from Avia, made it dead for good.

Now that it was dead, we carefully ascertained it had possessed

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p style=”padding-left: 30px;”>[1603] Bracers of armor +3
[1604] Ring of invisibility
[1605] another sihedron ring

We caught our breath for a moment, but there were a couple of loose, undead Spared still about, and we’d need to clean that up. But this bad was gone, and that would likely make the others seem like child’s play.

Hmm. How long ago was it when knee-high goblins was decidedly NOT child’s play?