I'm probably not as descriptive or graceful at this as Steven is, but here goes: In attendance: Ondraedon/Fred (Cleric), Ramkus/Rich (Cleric), Gorg/Kevin (Fighter), Violet/Amanda (Fighter), Curtis/John (Mage), Aurum/Blaze (Mage), Rolaf/hotkey25 (Fighter), Finnegan/Blake (Cleric), Lorielle/James (Mage) and Lilium/Dean (Mage) Freshly returned from their monthly week serving at the Temple of Krotus, High Priest Ramkus and Bishop Ondraedon joined up with the party in Stilt Town and welcomed some new faces. Kyle unsheathed El Lobo Loco and wished that Curtis be transformed back from stone to human and be brought to Stilt Town. Curtis was able to survive the transition, but some of his previous quest gains were lost. Kyle proceeded to take Curtis to the tavern to share a drink and catch Curtis up on events. Curtis agreed to aid us on our quest, and we set out shortly thereafter. The group proceeded to the palace (after a quick stop at the dwarven market to rid ourselves of some gold). We made haste for the second floor: Our first encounter was 4 3HD Thouls **. Gorg was paralyzed during the battle, but we were able to dispatch the creatures and Gorg was fixed with a healing spell from one of the clerics. As we made our way to the transporter room, we then encountered a group of 6 1HD skeletons, 2 2HD zombies, and a frail looking man wearing striped robes and we could just make out a helmet amongst them. Some in the party were worried that it may be Nekros, who we had encountered several times before (and some of our previous characters had fallen to). Quickly one of the magic-users cast "slow" on the frail figure, and a cleric quickly cast "silence". Both spells were successful. Many magic missiles were cast on the frail figure, and eventually a fireball was released which turned the skeletons and zombies into piles of ash, however having rushed ahead, Gorg was injured by the fireball. The frail figure turned and ran, but our party quickly followed. The frail figure was beyond the reach of our light sources so magic-users could not see to cast additional spells. Ondraedon, being in mitrhil plate, raced ahead to cast his torchlight on the figure. Catching up, Ondraedon was able to strike the figure in the helmet with his hammer. It was a deathblow (only 4 points dmg, but deathblow sounds better). Nekros (level 6 magic user) fell to the ground, dead at last. Praise be to Krotus! After searching Nekros, many mystical items were found, including 3 potions. Violet, opted to taste a red potion. She narrowly escaped death from a very heinous poison. The group then proceeded on to see the teleporter that we have heard about. Curtis, having read the book, experimented with the switches using a ration as his subject. Unfortunately in his experimentation, he brought forth a harpy/siren that quickly charmed much of the group. Violet, not party to the charm, quickly acted by reversing the switches and was able to send the siren away from the group. This act saved much of our party from being permanently enthralled by the siren. The group secured themselves in a room to heal party members and slept to recover spells. After the rest, the group decided to proceed to locating Nekros chambers. We encountered 1 2HD Green Slime, it was quickly destroyed. We then found a lab with strange jellies in bottles. It was quickly determined that we had discovered a lab where the slimes and gelatinous cubes were being made. We proceeded to a vault area where we could see magic arrows mystically hovering in the air. Curtis warned us that the arrows aren't floating in the air, but are encased in a gelatinous cube. The party agreed to leave this challenge for now and proceed on. Next we proceeded further down the hallway. We came to another door, which Ramkus kicked in. He and Gorg quickly dashed inside (never go full Ka'gron guys!). Both were attacked by 4 3HD ticks. 2 latched on to Ramkus, 1 latched on to Gorg. The 4th fell to the floor. Ramkus lost a lot of blood to the creatures, but was given some satisfaction in dealing the final blow to the last tick. Ramkus immediately felt the effect of illness upon him, spells were cast and he was saved. Gorg felt no illness, but one of the clerics cast Cure Disease on him anyway, and it saved his life. The group opted to sleep in the room with the gelatinous cube in the vault to reset spells and regain health. We spiked the door and slept. After our rest, we opened the door to continue and were greeted by 2 4HD Ghouls. Ondraedon declared he would turn them, but the beasts merely laughed at his efforts. They were not subject to turning, so they had to be destroyed. We returned to the room with the ticks and continued on through a secret door in the room, the group followed a hallway around and spied a large chest. Unfortunately the room the chest was in contained a large amount of spider webs and there were a few bodies hanging within the webs. Violet decided to attempt to lasso the chest and bring it to us. She was able to lasso the chest and with the help of 3 other party members, they tugged on the chest and it quickly fell to the floor and burst open with a very large amount of noise. The noise drew the attention of 3 3HD Black Widow Spiders **. The group was able to kill the spiders easily, with no permanent harm being done. Violet opted to search one of the dead bodies hanging in the webs. She began cutting one down and the zombie bit her. It was quickly killed. While checking the chest, a secret compartment was found. It contained an extravagant ring, it was jewelry only, but worth much in gold. Feeling confident, the group proceeded further south... and there we nearly met our doom. As we approached the corner, a group of 3 large purple trolls and a humanoid/tentacled figure turned the corner. Before any of our spells could be cast, the humanoid figure cast an Ice Beam causing massive damage to each person it hit. One person was completely turned from human to ice, 3 others were rendered unconscious. As the three purple trolls raced towards us to send the rest of us to see our gods in person, Dean, a level 1 magic user was able to land Charm Person on the humanoid. He was able to ask this figure to stop the attacks and let us live. We have encountered Xylarthan, and it would have been a party wipe if not for the brave acts of Dean (hail Dean!). We quickly gathered our injured party and parted with a quick stop to ask Anubis to reincarnate our fallen companions was successful. Licking our wounds, we returned to Stilt Town. ************************************************************ Experience earned - 4484xp Gold earned - 1609gp
