Session
116 (01/26/2021) Day 142 (Moonday the 10th of Calistril, Monday
02/10/2048) Weather
(Applied to all outside events) ·
Temperature: -27 o
an unprotected character must make a Fortitude
save once every 10 minutes (DC 15, +1 per previous check), taking 1d6 points of
nonlethal damage on each failed save. Characters wearing a cold weather outfit
only need check once per hour for cold and exposure damage. o
A character who takes any nonlethal damage from
cold or exposure is beset by frostbite or hypothermia (treat her as fatigued).
These penalties end when the character recovers the nonlethal damage she took
from the cold and exposure. ·
Wind (Strong/30-50): -4 perception and Ranged
attacks ·
Altitude of 31,000 feet o
Dead Zone: each 10-minute period a character spends
in the death zone, he must succeed at a fortitude save (dc 15, +1 per previous
check) or take 1 point of damage to all ability scores. If fail 3 consecutive
saves, starts to suffocate until removed from Dead zone effects. The
Spires of Xin-Shalast Round 1 (continued) Looking
at the wall of blades behind him, Renon casted Dispel magic and ended its
effect. Then trying to decide if he go
in or stay out, he asked Alaina, “What now?”
She answered loudly, “Step back, I got this.” So Renon did just that and stepped behind
Alaina. Making sure his wings were out, because
he was now very close to a very long fall.
Hearing what Alaina said, Sais invisibly and quietly flew out of the
room on his carpet and got directly behind Alaina. Sais being one of the few people that figure
out perfect stealth with the help of Alaina’s magic (Invisibility and Mind
Blank), Alaina had no idea he was there so to be safe she asked, “Sais you clear?” Sais could not resist, he leaned up and
whispered into Alaina’s ear, “Right here.”
This made the sorceress jump a little, but the she smiled as she cased
mage’s disjunction, filling the room with abjuration energy. As Alaina had guess, the magic binding these
good Angels here to do the bidding of evil men, was destroyed by her
disjunction, which caused the angels to disappear. The Demon had not been summoned so was
unaffected by the magic. A Devil along for the ride Avaxial’s
response was to turn to Alaina with an impressed look on his face as he said in
Infernal, “Impressive, you have my respect and my time. Where to next?” Sais then asked Avaxial, “If you are offering
your help, do you know anything about this place?” As Sais finished the question, Avaxial was
about to answer, when he and he alone was hit by a wave of magical energy that
almost put him down, but the devil stayed on his feet and rose back up saying,
“Curse you Karzoug!” He then looked at Sais,
“I know less about this place than you do, I did not even know that Karzoug had
this effect against creatures in his realm.”
Figuring it was not a good idea to question a pit fiend, Sais move to
the only door. The door itself was made
of the same dull grey stone as the rest of the room, but Sais noticed that
there was gold around the outside edges and that the door had no handle, plus
it was not latched anyway either. With
an accidently slight touch of his hand, the door open with no noise to reveal
the room beyond. The
Pinnacle of Avarice Weather
(Applied to all outside events) ·
Dim Light: All creatures have concealment (20%)
except w/darkvision, low light, or the ability to see in darkness. A creature
within an area of dim light can make a Stealth check to conceal itself. ·
Temperature: 4 F o
Unprotected character: Fortitude(DC 15, +1/check)
each hour, 1d6 nonlethal damage. The hallway and the Rune The
passage here was 50 feet tall, 20 foot wide, and 80 foot long hallway that
turned right at the end and have a left turn right next to the now open
door. The walls of this room was carved
in all manner of detailed murals depicting life in ancient Xin-Shalast and were
vibrant and bright. The floor was of
highly polished gold and onyx in a checkerboard pattern. The outside of the closet door had been,
plated in gold and silver as well as studded with gemstones. Ancient everburning torches still lite the
halls and rooms at irregular intervals, providing some illumination throughout
the area. These torches were themselves
made of ivory and inlaid with rubies that glowed with a vibrant red light. Even the sconces in which the torches sit in
were made of silver with jade inlay.
However, the cold permeated the place, keeping it at a chilly but not
deadly temperature (4 F). As the group looked out over enough wealth to
purchase all of Sandpoint, the Avaxial spoke, “Beware the Sihedron rune on the
floor.” So taking the Devil’s advice,
Sais started by going invisible as he headed out the door to the left. The
tunnel immediately turn left again and then right again, making a zig-zag to
reach a longer hallway. As Sais was
leading the way, the group started to follow.
The devil, with an evil smile on his face, touched each person on the
head as they passed him, turning everyone invisible. The group then, invisibly followed Sais, with
Alaina and Xavian with their See the invisible, preventing accidents for those
that could not see. As Renon headed
left, he moved farther north than anyone else, to hug the wall there. However, as he did something odd happened, he
felt a strong sense of antipathy toward the rune on the floor and the urge to plunge
his Runeforge Starknife into the Rune’s magic. So Renon stopped and spoke to
the group, “I don’t know how or why, but I feel it is right to attack that
rune’s magic with my Starknife.” Hearing
this Alaina looked at the magic of the rune.
The power of it radiated up from the floor, all the way to the ceiling. It had a very strong conjuration aura, plus
some other magic Alaina did not know.
Alaina then said, “The magic of it has something to do with
summoning. Not sure it if summons
something or destroying it will summon something.” As this discussion was going on, both Sais
and Cereliona (Aliana, Xavian, and Zheda did not have Runeforged Weapons); felt
the same urge as Renon now. It was a
driving force, or even a push, just a feeling that it was a very good idea to
do this. Feeling the same as Renon, Sais
and Cereliona agreed with him and shared their feelings with the group. After a quick talk, everyone agreed to try
it. So Sais turned around, and made some
noise so everyone could hear him go by as he headed to look at the Rune again,
saying out loud, “I am sure this is a trap but it still feels right.” Cereliona then spoke up and said, “Wait, I
could throw my chakrum from here and hit it.”
Everyone liked the idea of the staying back so they let her try it. The ranger took aim and with one throw, hit
the magic field of the rune tile, for a split second the magic turned into a
semi-transparent image of the man they all came to face, Karzoug. The group did not see much, but his face
looked to be in pain. Impressed at how
well that work, the group hurried to the end of the north hall, where Alaina
confirmed that it’s magic was now gone.
So since they were there now, the group looked to see what was to the
right at the end of the hall. It was
another 20 foot wide hallway that ended in a human sized door. Continuing to explore here now, Sais went up
to the door. As he did Avaxial walked
back up to Cereliona, and turned the Ranger invisible once more. At the door, Sais found another one of the no
hand, no touch, and silent opening doors so with the groups’ permission, he
opened it. The Adlo Doors Inside
was a 30 by 30 foot room that was identical to the hallway except for the vast
double doors along the south wall, each door stood ten feet in width. The face of each black stone door was covered
with tens of thousands of tiny runes carved in the eerie, spidery script, they
had seen so many times in Ruin before. However, these runes seem to writhe and
slither about when not under direct observation. Once Sais witness this, he quickly told
everyone, “Don’t read it. It is a
trap. It has the power to send you into
a magical maze where you have to fight an endless supply of phantom
killers.” The group looked away or at
least did not read it while Sais did his work.
However the devil, stared at it; he was not reading it but he was taking
it in. Once the door was unlock, Sais
stopped before opening them and asked, “Everyone ready. This is a big door, something important
should be behind it.” With that Xavian,
moved back into the hallway and said he would cast Silence just before the
group entered that way so he could act as a sound barrier, like he did under
Jorgunafist. The group agreed and the
made ready. However at this point, the
demon was hit by another magical wave.
It damaged the demon and he did not seem to be healing from it. Seeing this Renon asked, “I don’t like to see
anything suffer. Is there anything we
can do for the devil?” Alaina then
pulled out the groups’ spare medallion and handed it to the devil and said,
“This may help with that.” The devil
accepted it, put it one, and said, “I will have to wait and see.” Now all ready and weapons drawn the group
turned back to the door as Sais opened it and let the group looked in. Anti-chamber The
first area of this room was small 30 x 20 cone shaped anti-chamber. South toward the larger room, it narrowed
down to a 5 foot wide opening. Staying
together, the group slowly, invisibly, and silently the group moved around in
the anti-chamber in order to allow them the see all of the next room. The Leng Device The
plain stone walls of this long room were lined by a variety of tables, boxes,
crates, and cylinders. Some were made of
stone, but others appeared to be composed of metal. Strange winding cables protruded from some to
connect to others. All of this clutter
seemed to focus upon a large metal framework constructed at the southern end of
the room, where strange currents of energy danced and shimmer within a strange
ring of stone. Now and then, these
currents coalesced into shapes; images startling for their familiarity and yet
totally alien. The images revealed a
massive city of towers and gigantic monuments set in a mountain valley at the
foot of a huge peak; Xin-Shalast, as it would appear from this high mountain
vista. The city beyond the energy
curtain was very different, however, in that its towers and buildings were
ablaze with light both magical and mundane while the great central road and
surrounding streets teemed with tens of thousands of giants and humanoids of
all descriptions. The sounds and even the
smells of this strange metropolis wafted through the image; an image that was,
perhaps, trying to be an open window.
Manning this strange collection of metal and magic were 12 figures shrouded
in tattered leather robes. Underneath
the clothing, these strange humanoid looked more alien and horrific the more they
studied their twitching visages. After
getting a lay of the room, the group back up to make sure they were not seen
and quickly talked. Renon pointed out
that the 12 Iin there were definitely Denizen of Leng that had heard about from
the spiders. That is all it took and the
group decided to attack. A plan was made
in about 6 secs: Alaina would go first, Cereliona would bounce hit all she
could and everyone else would use range or run in the do clean up. Avaxial decided to stay back and watch; and
the group decided not to argue that was not much help. The group then lined up and waited for Alaina
to start the party with her fire ball, because she knew Denizens of Leng were
resistant to electricity. Special
combat Rules ·
Group initiative used for this battle o
Renon rolled initiative. Surprise Round Alaina
made a big deal of caster her powerful fire ball (Maximized), even though she
was invisible and no one could see her.
It made her happy, but not as happy as when the fire ball hit, in a
perfect explosion that killed 9 of the 12 creatures. Also the device on the flashed with light
while the image in the portal would shift from Xin-Shlast of the power and
people to a view of it as it looks today.
Then it emitted several strange high-pitched whine, over and over. The noise was loud which made the group
thankful, that Xavian had turned on the silence magic. Cereliona then took aim and threw, causing her
chakrum to bounce around hitting the remaining 3 Denizens. Her first hit was so perfectly aimed (natural
20) that it crushed in the monster’s skull killing as it bounced to hit and
harm the other two. As the first monster
died, the machine again flicked this time more violently as it released another
loud whine. Sais then casted an Acid
Splash, and beating the creature’s magic resistance, Sais managed to burn down
to whatever the creature used for a heart, killing it instantly (Sneak
Attack). For the third time, the machine
put on its lightning show as it let loose an even louder whine. Zheda then tried to jump dimensions, but as
she did it was like running into a brick wall a full speed and it hurt which
dazed the monk so she instead just dropped back into dragon style for now. Then Renon charged into the room and through
his Starknife with all the power of Desna behind it. As the blade hit rolled up
the creature’s body, stabbing it four time.
But this monster, survived the first attack. Monsters ·
11 Denizens of Leng [Dead] Round 1 Cereliona
then moved up and through to hit the last monster. But again it survived the blow. However, Renon would not be swayed and jumped
up to throw his flaming starknife at it.
As this weapon, landed the blade burned and finally ended the
monster. Causing it as well as the 11
others to disappear as outsiders do when they die. With the last denizen slain, the image in the
metal device vanished altogether, transforming into a gut-churning vortex of
spinning lights and sheets of energy.
The group quickly discussed looking over the area, but after the noise
this thing had made they were worried it would blow which would at the very
least attract attention; it was decided that they should leave for now because
if they needed to they could come back when it was safer. Back to the Hallway The
group all turned and left, running back into Xavian’s silence spell and joining
up with him, just as its duration ended.
Xavian asked what happened and the group told him they destroyed some
magical machine. This cause Zheda to ask
out loud, “I wonder if I can teleport now.”
And then she tried. Hitting the
same fall of force, and feeling the pain she winched as she said, “Nope, still
in effect. Wonder what that magic device
did?” The group then all looked around
for a moment to see anyone knew, even looking at the demon, who did not have
answers for them either. So in the
interest of not staying out in the open, the group decided to move
forward. Heading down the hallway, the
group headed toward the store room they used as an entrance and followed the
small zig zag of the clockwise hallway.
As they moved the Devil went around and place invisibility on the few
group members that had become visible in the last fight. [Start of Private session Notes] Zheda’s
double check As Avaxial
used his magic, Zheda watch him to see if she could read anything about him and
why, a devil would allow himself to do such low work? Zheda could not read his mind, but she could
clearly tell that he really did feel like he owed the group a debt for freeing
him and he wanted to clear up that in balance in his life; but also there was
something else. Avaxial had his own plan
and goals but it did not seem like the devil would allow that to interfere with
his debt payment. This at least made
sense to the monk as to what the devil was doing so she put into the back of her
mind, not forgetting about it but not focusing on it either. [End of Private session Notes] The
group followed the hallway for about 30 feet were it has a side alcove that was
about 30 feet wide, 20 feet deep, with a set of small double doors in the
middle. But Sais also saw another Rune
on the floor so Sais called up Cereliona.
The ranger took aim and became visible the moment she through her
weapon. But just like last time, the
weapon passed through the magic and through the power of the sin they
collected, destroyed it. For a few split
second flashes, the group saw Karzoug’s face in pain, before the magic fully
faded. However as soon as it did, a
magical alarm went off. It seemed to be
coming from everywhere at once. Seeing no
better options, the group all ran through the double doors and into the room
beyond easily and quietly opening (free action) opening the doors. Then once everyone, even the devil was
inside; Sais quietly closed them. Lamia-Kin Quarters Inside
the group found an exquisitely decorated chamber that contained thick carpeting
on the floor, a flickering fireplace along the northern wall, and several large
nests of fine furs and cushions about the room.
Each of the rooms 4 nearly equal sized walls had a single door. Looking at the rugs, Cereliona commented that
in addition the precious metals and jewels of walls, the pets were all exotic animals,
ranging from snow leopard to yeti.
Alaina saw a short hair pin in one of the furs that was magic and she
easily identified its aura as a periapt of proof against poison so she moved up
and grabbed the magic item just in case they needed it. At this point, everyone heard noise coming
from all 4 doors. So Cereliona had
Barkenstien watch the East door to him to attack the first think that came out
as she readied to attack the first thing that opens the door. The devil then made Cereliona invisible as he
moved to side wall so he would be out of the way and could have a good
view. Sais got into his cloak and
dagger stance, as he moved to the north east corner and watched the north door,
ready to attack the first thing that came through that door. Zheda dropped into Dragon Style and then she
moved the south door, and listed from the direction of the hallway, ready to
attack the first thing to come through the door. At this point the east door was opened by a creature
Cereliona could see as a beautiful human woman with four arms from the waist
up, but below was the body and tail of an immense snake. And she could see 5 more right behind
her. Knowing what all these were, she
yelled, “Lamia Matriach Priestess” as she through her weapon (triggered). Cereliona became visible a moment before her
weapon smashed into the face of her favorite enemy (Monster humanoids +4). The monster, then continued into the room,
were Barkenstien it attacked from invisibility and raked with his claws. The wounded monster, then slashed back at
Cereliona but missed. After that, one of
its fellow lamia’s came up from behind and used a spell, to cure her of most of
the damage she had just taken. The
remaining three, casted unholy blight, luckily (or unluckily depending on your
point of view) effected all of the group except for the devil. Every member of the group took some damage
from the evil of these curses as well as Sickening Xavian and Alaina. Plus this evil was familiar to every one of
the group members, they all knew that these monster channel the unholy powers
of Lamashtu. Alaina then quickly dropped
a (maximized) fireball down on the lamias in the room. This made her visible and killed 3 of the
5. Alaina followed that up with a
quickened fire ball and while it was weaker it was enough to take out the last
two of the snake tailed monsters. Renon
then casted Blessing of Fervor on the group, which for the moment even included
the devil before Renon moved to the South west corner, so he could help out
with those doors as needed. At this
point, Zheda heard something, big go running through the hallway on at least 4
legs. But that is all it did, go running
by. At this point the west door open and
out of it came a monstrous lump of flesh and mouths. This creature’s appearance was accompanied
by the sound of retching and wet, flapping flesh. A thing of corpulent terror,
it drug its swollen bulk spastically; a body composed of a sack-like mass of
stitched flesh swollen and almost at bursting. The iron staples that held it together
strained as if ready to burst asunder. The giant creature’s maw was vast, with
a huge, lolling tongue writhing between rows of broken teeth. Its head and
torso were a travesty of a humanoid atop a twisted leonine body that was little
more than a pulpy mass of shattered limbs and sinew under its monstrously obese
upper body. It drug itself along the ground with two clawing forepaws; straining
limbs that seemingly struggle to free themselves from beneath the thing’s
horrid girth. As the creature moved into
the room, Sais’s action was triggered allowing him to stab out from
invisibility with his short sword and a bomb.
First a bomb landed in the monster’s eyes, blinded it, a split second
latter Sais’s sword struck true.
However, as he pulled out his weapon, the creature sprayed its acidy
blood in Sais’s direction but he was able to dodge it. The creature then continued to move toward
the middle of the room undisturbed by the attacks. This allowed Sais to slash out again, as well
as Cereliona (AOP), both landed hits but both were also force to dodge acid
blood not only from their own hits but from the others hit as well, as sacks of
the monster flesh burst on impact. The
monster, then stopped, turned and attempted to eat Sais. The monster got a good slash with one of
teeth as it tried to swallow Sais. [Start of Combat notes] The
Hungerer room Inside
the Hungerer room, the monsters both used their magical abilities of Mirror
image before they both started to head to the door. [End of Combat notes] Then
the north door open. Behind it, Sais saw
a Vaguely humanoid shape, a gaunt fiend with the face of a hideous fish and a
body of lanky limbs and writhing tendrils.
It then slashed out with all it had on the now visible Sais. Thankfully it only landed one blow but it was
enough. While it did not kill Sais, he
felt it drain his life force (2 negative levels). Xavian used his gifts from Irori to remove his
sickness as he moved to get closer to Alaina.
Monsters ·
6 Lamia Priestess [Female Lamia Cleric of
Lamashtu 8](Dead) ·
Hungerer [Dead] Round 2 Still
invisible, Zheda then moved to the monster, summoning her sin as she did
(Wrath: Greater Vital Strike) and using that she hit and stunned the lumps of
flesh that were a monster. As she did,
Sais and Cereliona, as well as herself, all had to dodge the splash of acidy
blood. Sais then jumped in
(opportunist), and landed a powerful blow to the monster’s vital organs. This both skilled the creature and caused
that organ to burst, once again causing everyone avoid the acid. Cereliona saw that she could not help at the
north door so she had Barkenstien sight up and ready to attack anything that
got too close. However seeing her chance Cereliona yelled out what she knew
about these monsters, before she took aim and readied to attack the first thing
that entered the room. Alaina then
turned her attention to the Hungerers’ room.
She first dropped one of her most powerful fireballs on the two monsters
and easily overcame their magic resistance so severely burned them. Alaina followed that up with another fireball
(quicken) which again beat their magic resistance and burned them, but not
quite as bad this time. Renon looked north at the vaguely humanoid shape in the
door way and instantly knew what it was, an Astradaemon so he called the power
from Desna to smite the monster. As that
built, he walked across the room, letting his armor stop a blow from the Hungerer
as he moved. Once he reached the daemon,
Renon swung down his start knife and landed a powerful divine blow and even
managed to hit through the illusionary displacement. The Devil leaned against the wall and watched
as the others fought. Sais saw this and
said, “Thanks for the help.” Avaxial
said, “You seem to have it under control” in response. Sais then tried to acrobatically roll through
the Daemon’s reach but failed, however, he still dodge the swipe the monster
tried on him. After that, Sais used his
ring to go invisible again. Next one of
the hungerers in the next room, entered.
This allowed Cereliona to throw but as she let go of her weapon, she saw
that the monster had casted mirror image on itself so she was only able to hit
one of the illusionary doubles. Sais
then jumped in, attacking as the creature went by (AOP) with an attempt to
blind; but all he did was take out 2 mirror images. Barkenstien also got a chance but he also hit
a copy. Zheda who did not have issues
with mirror images, managed to land a good blow but as a result everyone was
sprayed with its acidic blood. This did
some damage to Alaina and Renon. Now at
the center of the group and totally unfazed by the attack that just struck; the
monster tried to eat Cereliona, the whole reason it came into the room. And
with a powerful bite, it managed to slash up Cereliona with its teeth but like
with Sais it was not able to swallow her.
Then if fellow from in the room, casted grease on the floor of the room
everyone was in. No one fell, but it
would hamper their movements. The Astradeamon then attempted to shred Renon,
but his armor and Desna’s protection were more than enough. Xavian did his best to stayed back and out of
the way so he could watch the fight, memorizing it all. Hungerer ·
CE Huge monstrous humanoid ·
Resist Electricity and Fire ·
Immune: Acid and Poison ·
SR ·
Devastating Bite Astradaemon ·
Large outsider (daemon, evil, extraplanar) ·
Constant: True seeing, displacement, and
Deathwatch ·
DR Good and Silver ·
Immune: Acid ·
Resistance: Cold and Electricity ·
Soul Siphon Round 3 Zheda
now tapped two sins at once (Wrath and Sloth) to hit with a power stunning fist
to the monster head (Vital Strike). This
crushed in the fast sack this monster used as a skull, crushing its brain, and
killing it. Again everyone was sprayed
with acid blood which all but Alaina and Renon fully avoided (All saved, R
& A 1/2 damage). Zheda then moved to
the West door, ready for when the last monster came in. Then seeing the last ‘Blobly’ through the
doorway she took aim and through her chakrum 4 time to hit and bounce back to her
hand. She only truly hit once, the other
3 hit mirror images. Alaina then used a
polar ray on the Astra Demon, which damaged and slowed the monster (3 dex
Drain). After that she turned and
dropped a quicken fireball on the last hungerer, in its room. This fire consumed its flesh and ended its
life. This attack got a Golf clap from
the Devil. Renon saw this and with
anger, he turned and allowed all the power of Desna to flow through him into
one powerful hit, which cut the daemon in two.
Then as the two halves fell, the daemon’s body disappear, to return to
its own plane. This got a simple but
true clap from the Devil as well. Monsters ·
Astra Demon [Dead] ·
2 Hungerer [Dead] Healing and Treasure The
group quickly checked over the remaining bodies while Xavian channeled to heal
everyone and casted a Greater Restoration to restore Sais to full health
(Removed negative levels). Overall the
group found 9 rings, one on each creature and not much else. Plus the furs on the floor had been ruined by
the monsters’ acidic blood and the grossness of its body. At first this upset Sais and Alaina as they
discussed ways to repair them. But then
Zheda interrupted and said, “With the time you are wasting on those, you could
just collected the gold and onyx floor tiles.
They are probably worth more anyway.”
Realizing the big picture, the group moved back to the task at
hand. Sais quickly looked into the west
door. Hungerers’ Den It
was a foul-smelling abattoir of a room that was empty of furniture; it appeared
that the hungerers that lived there prefers to use the half-gnawed bodies of
previous meals as bedding. Seeing
nothing he wanted to investigate, Sais moved on to the East door. Priestess’s Cells The
decor of this large room looked quite comfortable; thick carpeting covered the
floor, while delicate chandeliers hung from the ceiling. Plus several large nests of furs and cushions
lied about the room as well. After a
quick once over, Sais determined that there was nothing of value here so they
headed north. Silence Then
just a sudden as when it started, the alarm spell stopped. Not sure what this meant but hoping it was
good, the group pressed on. Sais made it
to the north door and looked around. It led
to a small 10 foot by 80 foot hallway.
With a small door the right and a set of double doors off to the
left. With the group’s permission Sais
went invisible and moved over to check out the small east door. As Sais did this, the devil once again went
around and casted invisible on each and every one of the visible group
members. Prison This
room was a drastic change from the wealth of the rooms before. Much like the store room it had stone walls that
were stark and undecorated; even the floor was merely functional in appearance.
Two iron doors faced each other across
the room at the far west end. Sais moved
up to investigate and as he did he noticed three things. First his arcane sight seem to stop working
inside the cells because he could not see the magic of the walls. Second, the room itself was completely empty
with only a hole in the floor and stone bed to sleep on. Third, the lock was of masterwork quality
plus it had several magical enchantments on it as well. Sais then called Alaina up, telling her about
the no magic in the rooms. Sais then
turned around and looked north at the other cell. It was the same, only it was only about ½ as
big and clearly size for humans, not giants.
Alaina easily determined that both ‘cells’ were set with a permanent
anti-magic field. After hearing that, no
one wanted to investigate those rooms anymore so they returned to the hall and
the set of western double doors. Ceoptra’s Chambers After
opening the silent doors, everyone saw the thickly carpeted floor of this grand
chamber. It was further strewn with
expensive-looking throw-rugs and exotic furs.
A nest of the same lied heaped in the center of the room, under a
rotunda-like construction atop which a canopy of silks and gauzy veils added to
the chamber’s mystique. Along the far
back wall was a single door north as well as a single door to the east. The group quickly looked through the room but
all they found was what they saw.
However, whatever sort of creature that dwelled here was the size of an
elephant, yet was also exceptionally fastidious; the silks and furs in here
were impeccably clean. Sais went to the
east door first. On the other side, he
found a small side chamber that had two small bedrooms connected to it, but
everything was empty. Finally the group
moved to the last door. Through this
door, was some sort of personal shrine dedicated to the esoterica and
philosophies of greed. The northern wall
was decorated with an enormous golden Sihedron Rune, before which sat a
rune-carved altar. The group quickly
went through this small room and Sais found a hidden panel on the alter that
opened up. It contained 4 scrolls as
well as a large key made purely of Platinum.
Alaina easily identified the scrolls as 3 of resurrection and one of
commune. Sais realized that the big key
was what open the cells, plus it was made of pure platinum so with the group’s
permission he pocketed it. With that all
done, the group returned the 4 way room.
Scouting Sais,
and by popular vote, Cereliona both listen to the door. Neither heard anything on the other side.
After a minute, they felt it was safe so Sais asked and everyone agreed to let
him scout and come back. Sais invisibly
and silently opened the door, headed out, and closed the door behind him. Sais went the only way left, clock wise.
After about 10 feet he could see the dim lights in the next room. Karzoug’s Throne room The
interior of this dazzling chamber was awash in golden light; it shined from
every gem, every strip of gold, and every silver-inlaid wall carving, which created
a kaleidoscope of color and riches. The checkerboard
pattern on the floor was interrupted in a twenty-foot-wide path from the
northeastern doors to a throne on a dais of onyx to the southwest by a path of
what appeared to be countless rubies, forming a “red carpet” of sorts to the
throne itself. This throne, if possible,
made the rest of the chamber’s extravagance seem pale and poor, for it was made
of shining gold, diamonds, rubies, and sapphires, and draped with shimmering,
glowing furs from unrecognizable creatures.
Seeing the wealth and riches in this room, almost gave Sais a seizure
but he stopped himself just short of foaming at the mouth. Then he moved closer and got a better look into
the room. Inside he saw the left side of a circle of giants, only two he could
see but there were clearly more and all of them had magical weapons as well as
spells active on them. Then out of the
middle of the circle walked a woman that Sais recognized. Wearing golden armor, glowing with magic, and
holding a very powerful magical golden Scimitar, Sais saw Althaea, the friend
Tila was looking for. As the woman walked,
the giants quickened to get out of her way.
Just to be safe, Sais took cover and watch for a while. He managed to notice all 6 of the cloud
giants in the room. Then when Althaea
made it to the throne, she sat down upon and looked forward, as though she was
waiting for something. After that Sais
quietly returned to the group. Once he
was back inside the room and the door was closed, Sais ended his invisiblity
before he spoke, “Good news and bad news.
Good news, I think we found Althaea, Tila’s missing friend. Bad news, I think she just killed something
in the next room and I think she is in charge because the 6 cloud giants in
there , seem to be scared of her.” What to do With
this new information, the group worried about what was the right move now. Cereliona as well as others, had promised to
help Tila find her friend once this was all over. Zheda spoke up first, “I don’t know this
Tila, but we cannot let this stop us.
Too much is at stake.” Cereliona
spoke up, “But I won’t kill her.” Zheda
answered, “Then don’t, but we are going to have to fight.” Cereliona agreed. However, no one knew a way for sure to stop
her without killing her. Zheda offer to
focus on her, keeping her stunned up and using as much non-lethal force as
possible. Everyone like this, Sais added
that the whole group should sneak in, and take out the giants while he and
Zheda work on Althaea. Overall this was
like, Cereliona even asked if, since they cannot teleport, could they stone
shape an opening in the wall? Aliana
shot that idea down when she pointed out that all the walls here are protected
by Thassilonian protection magic, so she doubted it would work. The group then talked about any other way
they could add to their advantage here. The
Last thing that happened The
group was just outside the Throne room, planning their attack on the 6 cloud
giants, as well as the capture of Althaea.
GM
Favorite moment How
everyone reacted to the 4 way attack in the small room. I like how everyone split up to deal with task
at hand without having to discuss or argue over it. Experience Each
Player received 127,500 experience points (Total: 1,999,430 [19th level) for
Monsters and Role-playing.
