== Sunday, Erastus 6, 4708; Magnimar; late night ==

We searched the Black Tower (in the valley of the same name) for secret rooms or passages, but found none.

We lowered Derreldon’s body down into the cold crypt below, still wearing a Sihedron Amulet, and closed the secret trap door. It seemed appropriate that he, being a monk, should be laid to rest in a room purposefully built as a monk’s tomb. We will return as time allows to Hallow the place and add extra protections.

We then teleported to Magnimar and began the slow task of selling off our surplus inventory. Being Sunday, many of the larger main stream businesses were closed (as were all of the banks), and so selling off our more exotic items and exchanging the large amounts of copper and silver for something more portable must wait until tomorrow.

We set up a meeting with the Mayor for the following morning, and then each of us set out about our own private business. For most it was time to unwind and rest, and a suitable inn was found and rooms rented.

Nolin left to meet up with his old comrades in the City Guard, and Kane left to visit the Temple of Desna.

I had two things on my mind that gave me no peace: how to track down citizens with sihedron tattoos so they could be removed, and the where abouts of Xanesha — we had expected to find her lurking in Mokmurian’s lair, but I feared she must be still in Magnimar, working her ill-will against the city and its people.

My first stop was Pharasma’s Temple, which was not difficult to find, being easily the most Gothic structure in the city and situated next to a prominent cemetery (both as usual).

I was able to speak with the head priest, and explained my concerns. She had not seen or heard of any unusual tattoos on anyone, but an acolyte who was working nearby overheard our conversation and volunteered the following story.

“It was maybe a month ago when a woman, who was with child, came in. She was close to giving birth, but was in an unusual amount of pain, which is why she came to us. She had a tattoo where you’d normally never see it. And her child was stillborn, which was a blessing as it was deformed, like it was half animal, half child.”

She had never seen the woman before, but said her manner of dress indicated she was from one of the less affluent districts — probably Shadow.

Xanesha once haunted the Shadow district, and the story reminded me too much of Lamashtu for comfort. I strongly suspected our old nemesis was still operating in town, and that immediate action was called for.

I returned to the inn and rounded up everybody except Kane and Nolin. After hearing what I had found we were all eager to head out and find Xanesha, but first we returned to the temple where I could cast Scrying using their mirror dedicated for this purpose. Unfortunately the attempt failed, and so we’d have to locate Xanesha the hard way.

We set out as the sun was setting: our first stop was the Shadow Clock, that derelict edifice where the party had last faced Xanesha. That conflict had ended with a dead party member and Xanesha flying away.

It was as they had left it several months earlier. Signs of the battle scarred the tower, but it was obvious no one had been there since. Looking out from the top I could see the lights of the inns and public houses glowing beneath the colossal span of the Ironspire. The sounds of people drinking, wenching, and gambling drifted up from below. Gambling. That was where we would find Xanesha or her cohorts.

The nearest such business was seedy, but thronged with people lining the bar and seated at tables, heads close together as they conducted private business. A larger, boisterous crowd was gathered at the far end, crowding around the gambling tables. We made their way over to the action and surreptitiously looked over the players for sihedron tattoos peeping out from clothing.

Fortunately the night was warm and the patrons were dressed accordingly. After a minute or two Rigel discretely pointed to one of the players shooting dice, who’s tattoo occasionally peeked out from beneath his shirt as he leaned over to toss the dice onto the table.

Trask squeezed his way next to the man and looked on in wonder. It took little time for the tattooed man to notice what he took for a young man fresh from the farm on his first trip to the city. He talked Trask into putting up some gold in order to join the game, and began to explain the rules, which appeared to change as rapidly as the sides of the dice.

Meanwhile I sidled up to the bar and, after ordering a drink for which I put down too many coins, asked the barkeep about my friend’s new found playing companion. The barkeep said he was known as the Snake, and if I cared about my friend I would do good to keep on eye on him and his companions. He also mentioned that the Snake had a particularly cruel girlfriend, whom he described as a real piece of work.

This immediately got my attention, and I began to describe the woman for whom we were looking, to which the bartender replied in a low voice, “Do you mean Xanesha?” I confirmed that that was indeed the woman, and I explained how she was fooling innocent people into getting tattoos, which she claimed allowed them special access to certain events and locations, but which really harvested their souls for her dark master, a powerful mage.

At this the man became somewhat nervous, and wondered out loud how someone thus marked could escape this fate. Sabin had joined me by now and offered to use an Erase spell, which was a harmless way to remove the tattoo and break the binding. The barkeep cautiously lifted up his shirt and his tattoo vanished.

I pushed a small pile of coins across the bar and asked him to spread word around the Shadow District about the tattoo, its true deceitful purpose, and how desirable it was to have the thing removed. He grateful took the money and wholeheartedly agreed to spread the word.

While Sabin and I were having our conversation, Trask had bravely managed to lose all of his stake to the Snake and his friends. Rigel, who is an expert at all games of chance, had been watching and seen how the Snake and Friends had cheated, and so she put a sizeable stake of coins on the table and proceeded to clean up, in a friendly sort of way.

Upon seeing that Rigel was a serious “player” he invited her to go to a nicer house, with higher stakes. Rigel agreed as long as her friends, Avia and Trask, could come along, and so the four of them got up to leave.

I cast Status on the foursome as they left, while Sabin grabbed a boy cleaning tables and sent him off to fetch Nolin and Kane. We discretely watched as the Snake led our friends to another building some distance away, where after knocking on the door and speaking a password, they were all let in.

Sabin, Rarallo and I returned to the Clock Tower to await reinforcements.

In the gambling house, Rigel played several games with modest success, while Avia and Trask looked on. A young woman came over to Trask and introduced herself as Isabelle, then asked if he was playing. Trask replied no, and she invited him upstairs to a private party, where everyone wore masks. He said he’d come up and join her once Rigel had finished playing. She winked at him, ran a long fingered hand down his side, and told him not to be too long about it.

Eventually Rigel tired of the game, and the three made their way upstairs to the party. There was a hallway, and a handful of rooms, but no obvious signs of merriment, so they opened a door to a room where a handful of masked figures were standing around.

“What are you doing here?” barked one.

“Isabelle invited me, um, us,” stammered Trask.

Hearing her name, Isabelle appeared, wearing a medusa mask, and led our friends to a storage area where masks and other party essentials were stored. She indicated that they should select something appropriate to wear.

No sooner had the door closed than the eyes of Isabelle’s mask glowed green and rays of putrid green light shot out, striking Avia. But Avia shook off the intended effect, and said, “Your time has come, Xanesha!”

“Bring it on paladin!” spat Xanesha.

And the paladin did.

Xanesha, spitting out blood, cried “Curse this!” and vanished.

Trask, thinking quickly hastened himself, Rigel and Avia, and after briefly searching for a secret exit, they ran out from the room and down to the exit.

But the rest of us had not been idle during this time. Nolin and Kane arrived just as Xanesha had revealed herself to our friends, the shock of which registered with the Status spell, and I called out, “They are in need, we need to run!”

We raced through the streets toward the gambling house, and Rarallo sent a bolt of lightening before us, blasting the door to flinders so it would not impose any delays.

As we approached the doorway, Avia came running out shouting, “It was Xanesha, but she teleported away.”

Trask and Rigel joined her, and Trask, looking at the door (or where the door used to be) shook his head and created the illusion of a red dragon, “To provide a cover story for what blasted the door.”

At that moment a set of bright red rays engulfed Avia and Trask, and from down the street came a wicked laugh as Xanesha appeared, in her true Lamia Matriarch form.

Less than a moment later Sabin and Nolin were at her side — something she clearly did not expect — and Nolin savagely hacked at her. Avia, who was still hasted, charged in and beat the shit out of her. Xanesha was swaying unsteadily on her feet, and I could see she planned to flee combat once again, and so I sent an icicle in her direction, which sank into her chest as she dropped, joining the rest of the filth on the street.

Rigel then came up and casually cut off her head. “Nothing to see here!”

I looked down at the hideous, broken body of Xanesha at my feet and thought of all of the carnage she had caused. Vengance for my cousin Menkat’s death now seemed a small thing compared to all the other sufferings, but it still tasted sweet all the same.

We took the opportunity to explain to the gamblers and operators of the house who Xanesha was, and what she was doing in Magnimar. The thought of their tattoos being used against them unsettled most, and I have little doubt that by morning not one of those present would be left sporting a sihedron rune. Word of Xanesha’s treachery and betrayal should rapidly spread throughout the district, if not the entire city.

We took Xanesha’s mask and spear, the latter of which Sabin recognized.

[1010] Mask of the Medusa: a gold mask with eyes of green crystal. Grants +4 bonus to all saving throws for visual effects. Once per day the wearer can seen a pale green ray from the eyes to a target, which must make a Fortitude save (DC15) or be turned to stone (like Flesh to Stone) for 1 minute.

[1011] Impaler of Thorns: an Ancient Thassilonian weapon used for crowd control. A +1 spear of dark wood, once per day it can be used to create a burst of despair in a 30′ radius with a DC16 Willpower save (see Crushing Despair for a description of the effects). Those who fail must make an additional save (DC15) to avoid being nauseated.

== Moonday, Erastus 7, 4708; Magnimar; mid morning ==

We met with the Lord Mayor, and explained what we found about the Runelord Karzoug, and his accomplice Xanesha. I explained the tattoos, and emphasized how important it was to set up some sort of city wide program to ensure that afflicted citizens could have their tattoos erased.

At first his Lordship was not particularly moved by our arguments, but after I explained how the tattoos would enable the return of an ancient power, who would most certainly look to conquering all of the major cities for himself, he began to warm up to the idea of having the city somehow assist.

I then offered up a plan whereby those who could afford it could pay for the removal of the tattoos for others, and that if each person who donated brought in others to donate, they would receive a share of that donation, and so on down the line. Quite naturally, I explained, the city would need to administer the program, taking an appropriate share required to manage it.

By then the Mayor was quite ecstatic about the program, and called in his financial administrators even as we were leaving.

We then finished selling off our excess items, got the coins exchanged, and purchased a few additional equipment and supplies.

We are about to teleport onto the Lost Coast Road, just south of Sandpoint, and walk to the city from there.

== Moonday, Erastus 7, 4708; Sandpoint; noon ==

We entered Sandpoint, and were heartened to see reconstruction from the giant invasion and dragon’s fire well underway.

We have spoken with Mayor Devlin and Sheriff Hemlock, but they could only repeat what they had already said. Sandpoint was rocked by an earthquake, and soon thereafter the sinkhole appeared in the northwest corner of the town. At night an unholy howling can be heard from the sinkhole, and the guards who were sent down to investigate never returned. Later, cries of pain and agony had echoed up from the pit.

We peered down into the thirty foot wide crater and could see a passage leading off to the northwest. The southern end of the sinkhole exposed the cells of the city garrison, which provided easy access to the bottom of the pit, some fifteen feet below street level.

Hauling out Olithar’s journal and map entries I judged that the sinkhole was approximately where the underground temple had been, with its (now) inactive (or so we hoped) rune well.

I have taken Olithar’s old map of Sandpoint and sketched in the location of the sinkhole, and have copied his map of the underground complex into my journal so I can update it as needed.

== Moonday, Erastus 7, 4708; Sandpoint; after noon ==

The narrow passage from the sinkhole had a smooth, worked wall on the right, and a rough jumble of stone and earth on the left. Following it we soon reached a short set of steps leading down before sharply turning to the left. A door was on the right hand side of the junction, and a set of collapsed double doors further down the left passage, set in the right wall.

Comparing this arrangement with Olithar’s map it became apparent that part of the ceiling of the ancient underground temple had given way, and the passage was in fact the southeastern edge of this main chamber. Although littered with rubble, the area beyond the double doors matched Olithar’s map, and on the ground we could see fresh boot marks leading further into the complex.

We followed the prints, which led deeper into the Thassilonian ruins, through rooms, passageways and chambers where my companions had explored more than a year before. The rubble and damage caused by the sinkhole petered out as we went further in, and soon there was but a fine layer of dust on the floor, in which it was easy to see the prints of the ill-fated Sandpoint guardsmen.

In and down and around we walked until once again we encountered rubble strewn about the floor. This time it was at the top of a spiral staircase leading down.

Nolin volunteered that, “This was blocked the last time we were here, but it looks as if someone has removed the rubble.”

Olithar’s map confirmed this.

The boot marks led down, and so we followed until we ran into large spider webs blocking the stairs. Trask used a flaming sphere to burn these away, but found the stairway simply dead ended at what we assumed to be the bottom. Rigel squeezed forward and found a latch to a secret door, which she skillfully opened.

Wispy tendrils of cold, clammy fog wafted in from the darkness to the west.

We paused here to organize ourselves, and I have taken the opportunity to update our progress.

== Moonday, Erastus 7, 4708; Sandpoint; after noon ==

I know not what function this chamber served, but entering it sent a chill through my soul. The well worked stone walls, floors and archways were covered in Thassilonian writings… but the size, style and means by which the words were written varied.

Some passages are written in bold, blocky letters three feet tall, while others are in the smallest, most graceful script imaginable. Some words are written in a greasy black ink, and no small amount appear to be in a dark brown substance that can only be dried blood, and no few have been engraved into the stone itself.

Peculiar patches of magic fog cling to the eastern doorway, through which we came, and to the north, where a rough corridor dead ended. A door in the eastern wall to the corridor was locked, but Rigel’s nimble fingers quickly unlocked and opened it to reveal a very short hall with another locked door.

This locked proved no more difficult to Rigel than the last, and soon we opened the door and looked in to see a round room with a round pool in the center rimmed by a lip of stone. A domed ceiling arched overhead and runes covered every surface, praising Lamashtu, goddess of deformed creatures. The water itself was perhaps three to four feet deep and lightly radiated an aura of evocation.

Back in the main chamber a set of closed double doors, bearing the engraved likeness of a three eyed jackle (the symbol of Lamashtu) were set in the south wall, while westward a wide hallway appeared to open up to a much larger room.

But now a voice speaks out from the darkness: a grating, screechy sound speaking in ancient Thassilonian, and I shall attempt to record here all that is said as the conversation unfolds.

Voice: Greetings good people, what news of the world? What can you tell me of the Runelords who govern the lands?

Takkad: The Runelords are long dead, and only a few scholars remember them or their deeds.

Voice: What great power replaced these mighty rulers?

Takkad: While there are many empires, there is no single great empire: ancient Thassilon has crumbled to dust, and only a handful of ruins remain.

Avia: I sense a very evil presence over to the west.

Voice: Who in these lands wields the greatest power?

Takkad: There are many who wield mighty powers, but do not feel the need to subjugate others to prove their greatness.

Trask: I wield great power.

Voice: So there are no true wielders of great power left in the world, just impotent little war lords gnawing over their insignificant territories, or rag tag wanderers like yourselves.

Trask: No, really. I do wield great power.

Avia: If you are so powerful, then why do you hide in the shadow? Reveal yourself!

A fiendish humanoid appeared to the west, wearing a breast plate, and wielding a wicked looking falchion in one hand, and a dagger in the other. One of his eyes was glazed over — completely milky white — and he smiled at us with what I can only describe as an insane grin.

Takkad: The free peoples of the world represent far more power than your ancient, cruel overlords.

Voice: From what you say, nothing in the world today can compare to the great Runelords, and their Runeforge…

Trask: I said, I WIELD GREAT POWER!

A fireball has engulfed the figure — Trask!

The black tower becomes the final resting place for Derreldon. I still say this would make a great meat locker; the cold should keep meat for a long time. But at least for now this will be used as Derreldon final resting place. The thought occurred to me that we would place longtooth’s carcass down hear in case there are body parts that could be sold off for profit, This though did not occur to me until we already in Magnimar. Luckily for me I spent the time in columned hall studying an area so that in the near future I will be able to teleport back. With the use of teleport so effectively used in the longtooth situation I briefly had thoughts that with the combination of teleport and fireball I could get even with my old clan.

Back to Magnimar via teleport we went, such as great spell. On the way to the in I dropped off a vial of longtooth’s blood to my old master; I may be a little greedy keeping two bottles of dragon’s blood while only giving him a small vial. I just remember him talking about always nearly being out of dragon’s blood, this should keep him going for awhile. Walking through the streets the smell of cinnamon in the air provided instant memories of the cinnamon bread baked fresh daily by the bakery just ahead. The bakery was still open and I purchased the last loaf, combined with beer this truly a wonderful meal. I was taking a shortcut through an alley on my way back to the inn when three combatants from my early days as a wizard blocked the alleyway ahead. My plan was to head over to the agreed upon inn for a meal but three young wizards stood between me and my meal.

Teddy: “So you have the nerve to show your face in Magnimar again. Obviously we need to teach you another lesson. This time your feeble shield spell is not going to help you. ”

John: “Come on lets get started I want to see if catches on fire when we hit him with scorching ray.”

Teddy: “Tell you what you give us all your money and equipment and we will let you crawl out of this alley. You don’t want to mess with us. That ax of yours isn’t going to help you, we will burn you before you can get close.”

Sabin: “Go bother someone else before you get hurt. Besides by the time you get close enough to use scorching ray you will close enough for me to hit you with this ax. “

Teddy” Your just trying..AH”

Dimension Door to right in front of the three of them.

Sabin in an intimidating voice: “Leave me alone or I will rip off your arms and feed them to the dogs!”

Teddy: “AH AH”

All three looked to be shaken as I walked past them down through the streets to the inn. The rest of the trip back to the inn was uneventful and I have just completed my wonderful meal.

Takkad has just returned and has a determined look upon his brow. Looks like it is time to get back to work. At least he did not interrupt my meal.

Sunday, Erastus 6

So we were not fooled by the only opening in the tower appearing to be going down. We knew there was more structure upstairs, and that there must be a way to get there, if we were to but look more carefully. And so, after searching intently and thoroughly, we found …

… that, uh, apparently there was nothing upstairs. Or at least, no way to get there from here. We found not a trace of secret doors, passages, ropes, teleport traps, signs, arrows, or even disclaimers or warning notes.

However after some discussion, we decided it was entirely appropriate to make this Derrel’s final resting place. I mean, a tomb built for monks? We’ll probably want to embellish it a bit, later, when we have a bit more time on our hands.

Next up: we needed to convert some of our property into cash. We sat down and sized up what we had, what we wanted to keep, and things that perhaps folks in the group wanted to personally take. Takkad seems to have a knack for the numbers, so with everyone chiming in on what they knew (fighters knew weapons, magic users knew not only magical components but not uncommonly, magical items too, and Rigel, well, she just seemed to have a knack at quickly appraising darn near everything else) he provided an estimate of what we should be able to garner for our stuff.

It was impressive. But the market for a lot of this stuff did not lie in an ancient Thassalonian library. We needed to be in a big city again, which really bothered me not one whit.

So after taking days to get here before, it was more than a little satisifying when Rallo and I were able to teleport the group directly to Magnimar. Poof. Well, ok, actually there wasn’t a poofing sound. Not even a faint pop. But just, after all the travelling we’ve had to do, it was nice to want to be there, and just be there. It’s like the difference between being dirt poor and working as a bouncer just to get a barebones meal, and walking into a nice place and saying, bring me a whole chicken. The whole bird. I’m hungry and I’m going to fix that.

Or maybe it’s just good to be back in the city. It’s hard to explain. But we’re here, and I think it’s great that it took as much effort as it takes to walk over to the next room, and half the time.

Being Sunday, a lot of the places we wanted to visit were lightly staffed or, more often, closed entirely. We’d not be able to finish selling off all of our stuff until Monday. Still, we cashed out a fair amount of it. I traded my ring of protection for a ring of better protection we’d procured, and handed the old one over to be sold with the rest of the stuff. We were able to set up a meeting with the mayor to further clarify our previous, brief messages, and then, well, freedom.

Considering the money I had now, and not even taking into account the share of the money I would get for the things we’d sell tomorrow, my options in Magnimar were much wider than they were the last time I was here. Oh, I’m not ready to retire and buy a villa yet by any means … but sheesh it sure seems like it by comparison.

I needed to swing by the clock tower where Olithar had died. I still feel that if we’d been a little more prepared, or a little more skilled, or a little more cautious that he’d still be with us. I don’t know why but I felt a visit was in order. It was getting late, so I thought I’d wait until Moonday.

But it seems that we were destined to return sooner. Takkad returned and told us he’d gotten information which suggested Xaneesha was still in town. He gathered up those of us who hadn’t already struck out on their own — myself, Rigel, Sabin, Rallo, and Avia — and we went to his temple to try a scrying. When that couldn’t find her, he suggested we go back to the Shadow Clock. I was kind of surprised we were doing this now.

So we did go back, although by now it was dark. I briefly noted on the way in that you could no longer discern where the pieces of Olithar had landed; the blood had faded in the intervening rains and sunshine and blended with the dark gray of the twilight. I didn’t have a chance to stay and talk with him, but perhaps I’d return later. Now able to Fly and Airwalk without scrolls, we easily ascended and searched the clock tower, but not surprisingly, there was no sign of Xaneesha. From high in the tower, Takkad looked out at the city, and we could hear the sounds of varied entertainment, below. Voices rising and falling. A female voice, now and then, standing out among the lower tones of the men at the pubs, carousing and gambling.

Gambling, he said out loud. They were targeting people with money. With scarcely a look at the rest of the group, he pointed beneath the Ironspire and headed back down the tower.

Sigh. Seemed Takkad was on a quest. He wasn’t even there for Olithar’s death, but he really seemed to have it in for Xaneesha. I vaguely remember he’d talked about having had some sort of run-in too, with the lizard priests. Or was it priestesses? Did that explain his fascination with a creature I thought we alone had a personal stake in? Try as I might I couldn’t remember the details of his story, but now I was thinking maybe he really did have as much skin in this game as we did.

The first pub we found wasn’t very interesting. We were looking for tattoos, and we knew from experience they were not always out there in the open. Still, after ten or fifteen minutes, we communicated by hand signal that we wanted to move on.

The second pub – ah, now that was more productive. It was certainly well-populated, and there were some active games going on in one corner which a good crowd observing. It was Rigel who noticed one tattoo discreetly sliding in and out of view on one person as they moved. That was enough to make us hang out a bit longer.

Most of the time it bothers me that I wear my age on my face, because it means people treat me as a child. I may not be a wizened shaman, but I think at this point I’ve had a rich share of life’s experiences in my recent years. But in this case, it was exactly what we wanted. I put on my best “wow this city is big” look as I gazed upon the game, and it wasn’t long before one of the players noticed me.

When I saw him look at me, I asked him how you played. He asked if I had any gold, and I looked a little shy. “Well, a little, but not much. Does it take a lot to play?”

“How much do you have?” he pressed.

“About 15 gold.”

His face broke into a smile. “That’s plenty to get started!” he said.

And he introduced me to a game which, even if they weren’t cheating, would challenge anyone who’d had even a sniff of ale. One gold piece to play, and double sixes meant everybody paid you a gold piece. But double threes had different results, and double twos were … well, and heaven help you if you didn’t get doubles at all.

It was Rigel who silently acknowledged there was some dishonest play going on. Once my stake was gone, and I’d placed the appropriately wowed look on my face, Rigel stepped in and offered to play some. The group took on a look of a school of sharks circling blood, but Rigel had a few tricks of her own that allowed her to not only keep pace, but do better than they would have liked.

The leader (who I learned later from Takkad was called “Snake”) looked at Rigel shrewdly, and suggested maybe she would be interested in some games with higher stakes. She agreed that might be fun, but it turns out they were only being held in a different place. On the condition that her friends, meaning me and Avia, could come too, she agreed. “Maybe I could play too,” I suggested. The group looked at me in a sharp toothy way and agreed the friends were welcome too.

Sabin and Takkad observed this agreement, and sent the word out to Kane and Nolin — it looked like the whole group was going to be needed. They and Rallo followed us discreetly and then waited for the others to arrive.

Meanwhile, we reached a nondescript house and Snake provided a password to the person who answered the door. We were all admitted and, as promised, there was a serious game going on off to one side. But there was also obviously a party atmosphere here, and there were several non-players who were circulating around the room.

Rigel sat down and did well. I honestly don’t know if she was cheating or lucky, but the distress of the other players seemed genuine enough. She was by no means winning every game, but she was apparently winning much more often than they were used to. After a half hour or so, she withdrew from the game.

While that was happening, an attractive young lady named Isabella came up to me and asked if I was playing. I replied no, just watching at this point. She suggested I should go upstairs to the party, then, and said she was actually going up right now, if I wanted to go right now.

She was really very attractive, but at that point Rigel was still playing, so I held firm and said perhaps I or we would come up later. She looked disappointed, and suggested with a wink and a smile that sooner would be better, before coyly heading up the stairs.

So when Rigel finished, Avia and her and I decided perhaps we should check out this party. We had a hunch Xaneesha was somewhere near this house, given the presence of tattoos and the gambling atmosphere. When we went upstairs, the door was not locked and we simply walked in, although we were quickly challenged. But when I mentioned Isabella’s name, he quickly turned and located her. She slinked over and welcomed us to the party. She directed us to a smallish room off in the corner where we could get masks to better blend in.

Once we were in there, though, Isabella turned quickly towards Avia and Isabella’s mask’s eyes glowed green as a ray of light shot out and struck Avia. But she shook it off and announced, “Your time has come, Xaneesha!”

“I recognized you the minute you came in,” she responded. “Bring it on!”

And Avia did, laying open Xaneesha with a furious attack with her sword. Rigel nicked her with her rapier and I quickly hasted all.

(Meanwhile, unknown to me at the time, Takkad had sensed the battle beginning through a status spell he’d cast on us before we left, and hurriedly brought the other half of the party to us.)

Avia had damaged Xaneesha/Isabella so badly that she angrily disappeared. It appeared to be a teleport or dimension door and not invisibility, but it took a few moments to discern that. When we exited the dressing room a few people in the party room looked a bit panicked — they’d heard both the battle and the yells. I looked them over and said as convincingly as I could, “There’s been a problem. Isabella told us to go downstairs and help with it.” And we rushed out the door. And downstairs. And, after a quick glance showed us no Isabella, headed to the front door.

.. Only to have it blown in upon us. Our friends had arrived, and apparently Rallo’s form of a knock spell ALSO manifests as lightning, like so many of his other variants. The door was blown to splinters, and as we rushed outside I turned and looked at the ragged exit, and sighed.

As Avia shouted, “it was Xaneesha, and she teleported away” I created a major image of a red dragon that looked oddly like Longtooth. A couple of my friends looked startled but I quickly said, “if you want confusion, you want the dragon” and sure enough, as the players and revelers arrived, they skidded to a stop at the opening and gawked at the red dragon that was there. Never mind that a red dragon would burn a door down. Never mind that it really would have had trouble taking off and landing on this particular street. No, it just made them stop and consider what their eyes were telling them.

And it was as this was happening that Xaneesha reappeared and sent a couple of scorching rays at Sabin and Avia. Kane cast prayer, but Sabin got the most horrible, wonderful grin on his face as he turned towards her grabbed Nolin, and dimension doored right next to her. Her eyes got real big – really really big – before Nolin practiced his butchering skills on her. Avia, still hasted, rushed in and laid into her again. And in a subtle move, Takkad sent a little sliver of cold into her heart, and killed her. Rigel sliced off her head almost with glee.

And it was about then we remembered we still had an audience. Probably more any time now. Takkad herded the gawkers back inside the house while I made the dragon disappear. He explained to them the tattoo/soul/death linkage, and several looked very concerned.

We took two important items from Xaneesha’s corpse:

[1010] Mask of the Medusa: Grants +4 bonus to saving throws for visual effects, and once per day the user can send a pale green ray from the eyes to a victim, who must make a DC15 fortitude save or be turned to stone for one minute.

[1011] Impaler of Thorns: A +1 spear, which once per day can be used to create a burst of despair in a 30′ radius with a DC16 Willpower save. Those who fail must make and additional DC15 save or be nauseated.

Finally, after a much busier night than I’d anticipated, we all retired to our rooms.

Moonday, Erastus 7

We met with the mayor, and although we explained the tattoo/soul/death concept, he seemed fairly unconcerned. Then Takkad suggested some complicated way where wealthier people would end up subsidizing the removal of both their own and some others’ removal, with the city managing the program and, as near as I could follow, also making a profit on it. His Lordship suddenly gained interest in Takkad’s words.

We finished selling off our unneeded stuff, and teleported onto the road just south of Sandpoint. We had a rendevous with a hole in the ground, but figured teleporting in in sight of anybody would likely cause a distraction to our task at hand.

We spoke with the Mayor and the Sheriff, but they had nothing much to add to the short messages we’d already exchanged with them. Looking down into the pit didn’t yield anything interesting, but we pulled out Olithar’s old journal entries, as he’d helped map the underground passages last year and we had a hunch they’d now changed.

Descending into the opening we quickly found where we were on Olithar’s maps and determined that some passages that had been rubble-filled before seem to have been cleared. We saw boot marks that we presume were from the missing soldiers and followed them deeper into the Thassalonian ruins.

We encountered some spider webs, but no spiders, so I just burned them away. At the bottom of a staircase (that had been previously blocked) we had to search to find a secret door.

The door led to a room with artistically decorated walls. Both pictures and words (Thassalonian words) appeared here, in various sizes (which might have meant multiple authors or even multiple updates). After passing through several locked doors (courtesy of Rigel) we reached a round room with a round pool in the middle. The runes here seemed to speak favorably of Lamashtu, much to the chagrin of several in our group.

We returned to the main chamber and went to a wide western hallway, but from there eminated a strange hollow voice in ancient Thassilonian. It wanted to know of the world up top, and clearly was trying to discern if there was a power vacuum it could occupy. Who wields the greatest power? it asked.

I do, I replied. But it ignored me while Takkad said something about everybody has great powers now.

So there are no true wielders of great power left, yada yada yada?

Hey. I wield great power!

Avia challenged it to show itself and a humanoid figure appeared wearing a breastplate, with sword in one hand and a dagger in another. One eye was completely milky white, reminding me both of an old man I’d met once, and a rather smart dog. Except this thing was ignoring me and probably was not going to hug us and in a few seconds would be too close to –

I SAID, I WIELD GREAT POWER! I practically yelled as I sent a fireball to it. I mean, really, not only was it evil (profoundly evil according to Avia) but it was being really rude, and any closer and a fireball would singe my friends too. And it was pretty clear a fireball was necessary to get his attention and cleanse its surface of small cooties.