Toilday, Lamashan 28

There was a pointed but quick discussion among the party. I expressed my concern about being able to return from another plane, but Takkad or Kane said they had Plane Shift. That took me to the side of entering – this is what we’d been working towards and now it was time to meet the real Karzoug.

Takkad cast True Seeing on himself to see if there were any unseen issues on the other side of the portal. Nothing could be seen from this side, but we weren’t sure if True Seeing would work across a gate. He did report he could see misty, ghostly walls that seemed to be moving, or swarming. There were 16 evenly spaced columns of fire which lit the “room” up and, for all we knew, also kept it warm. There was a giant – no, huge – purple gem in the center of the room surrounded by bands of gold. (Rigel’s mouth dropped as she gaped at it.) Kane cast Spell Turning on himself while Avia brought forth a magic circle. Nolin quaffed a potion of Fly while Sedgewick buffed up his charisma with Eagle’s Splendor. Sabin cast haste.

Takkad suggested we not all bunch together as if waiting for a fireball. I bristled a bit, but he was right.

We were nearly ready. I cast telepathic bond among myself and most of the group (everyone but Sabin, Sedgewick, and Kane) so that they could communicate silently with each other on the other side. Takkad cast Holy Aura which would grant us some amazing enhancements for a short time. Rigel, of course, went invisible and Kane finally stepped through. “Status lost,” reported Takkad – so that’s one thing that wouldn’t work across planes (no big surprise, really.) Avia activated her boots, and Nolin also stepped through. Sabin and Sedgewick quickly followed. Then I entered.

There was an immediate, distracting sensation as I entered, but it faded quickly. And if I’ve learned anything in my adventures, it’s to think in three dimensions. Since nothing appeared to be threatening us on the ground, I immediately looked up upon entering and saw an ugly bipedal creature floating there with – was it gems? – embedded in his skin, that I figured must be Karzoug. Telepathically, one of my companions confirmed it, so I shrugged and did what was expected of me. I threw a fireball at him while my friends were not near him. He shrugged it off, but I think both he and my friends would have been disappointed had I not. It’s not like I wasted it, because I communicated through the link that it failed because of his spell resistance. Besides, if needed, I had 32 more fireballs I could cast (although, sadly, not all at once.)

Takkad entered after me, glanced at Karzoug, and communicated that “what we see is what we get”. He was not an image, he was not an illusion – he was the real deal. Then Karzoug announced, “Let’s finish this” or something like that and … four fireballs flew from his hand and exploded in a mostly overlapping fashion. My natural fire resistance helped some, and I was able to dodge a bit, leaving me only modestly injured, but he seemed to suddenly change position in an awkward and almost impossible fashion, like he teleported to the same spot but not precisely the same spot. But an instant after seeing this, I was able to guess he’d used a spell I was aware of but had never seen: Time Stop. He’d just given himself the opportunity to do more in an instant than we could do in half a minute. This would likely not be good. I knew, though, that the spell could not be used to specifically attack a person, but he’d have a chance to heal himself, buff himself, and perhaps toss out some area effect spells.

And sure enough, a yellow fog immediately dropped to the ground and began to spread out. It was cloudkill – we were strong enough it wouldn’t likely kill us but it would force us to move because, well, it was still a fog and blocked the sight for everyone on the ground (except maybe for Takkad, but he was already in the air). Avia entered and moved up to engage Karzoug, while Nolin straight off did a charge, doing some real damage to Karzoug and, I think, catching him by surprise.

For my next trick, I stepped a distance out of the cloudkill and cast Greater Dispel at Karzoug, and discovered that he’d also set up a Spell Turning. It came back to me, and fortunately, I was unable to dispel any of the spells on myself (primarily Holy Aura and Haste). I grinned, because Greater Dispel was high enough level that it would have used up a lot of the spell turning, and the next spell anybody cast at him would likely have at least some partial effect. I wasn’t doing any damage, but I was slowly stripping down his magical protections and that’s just as useful.

Sabin quietly moved up behind Karzoug. Karzoug was now flanked.

Takkad channeled energy to help most of the people affected by the cloud and the fireballs. But Karzoug’s glaive threw yet another fireball – you read that right; his glaive was an intelligent artifact and capable of aiding in his defense, and it damaged not only Takkad but also Avia and Nolin. Karzoug also clawed feebily at Nolin, whose protective rune of Greed ironically sent at least as much if not more cold damage back to Karzoug. Karzoug, incensed, sent a quickened lightning spell at Nolin, dinging him up noticeably.

A greater air elemental appeared alongside Karzoug and smacked him, and I saw Kane grin.

And then our trio of fighters laid low the mighty Rune Lord of Greed. First Avia, and then Nolin got 4 hasted attacks on him and cut him up badly. A contingency spell sprung into effect, making him gaseous, but Nolin simply smiled and his magical axe inflicted even more damage upon the gaseous form.

He regained solid form and fell to the floor below with a surprisingly-pleasing thud.

With his death, there was a tremendous flood of blindingly (literally; Sedgewick was blinded by it) white light as the mass of souls which had been trapped in (or formed the basis of?) the walls surrounding this small alternate plane were all released at once. The massive release of positive energy immediately healed everyone (although Sedgewick remained blinded) and we found ourselves at the base of the tower we had ascended the previous day. The remnants of the runewell were freezing in the harsh cold. And the corporeal remains of a Rune Lord.

Because it’s a habit we’ve developed, we removed his head.

Kane healed Sedgewick, and we began to look at things remaining on Karzoug’s body.

There were about 20 ioun gems that had been embedded in his body, but every last one of them was now shattered.

[1693] Glaive, intelligent, neutral evil and transmutational. It possessed a keen intellect, and was able to flame and dance. It possessed dark vision and could speak via telepathy. Once a day it could cast major image. Three times a day it could cure moderate wounds on its wielder. It could cast fairy fire, and it had fireball as a dedicated power. Its “life purpose” was to defeat spellcasters. And it. Would. Not. Shut. Up.
[1694] Rod of greater quicken. 3/day up to level 9.
[1695] wand of blood money [33]
[1696] wand of dispel magic [24]
[1697] wand of stoneskin [17]
[1698] belt of great strength +6
[1699] boots of dexterity +6
[1700] sihedron tome. Can hold an infinite number of spells, and a spellcaster could prepare spells as +6 intelligence.
[1701] Robes of Xin Shalast – +6 AC, SR 24, aids casting by casting as +1 caster level. 2 pockets are handy haversacks and wearer is comfortable at all elevations.
[1702] ring of protection +5
[1703] ring of freedom of movement
[1704] amulet of Greed. Just pretty now – it was attuned to the runewell in Karzoug’s special plane, and granted the wearer +5 AC, removed the need for food or water, fly ability, and the ability to heal rapidly from wounds.
[1705] ruby inscribed with rune of wrath ~1100gp
[1706] 1500 gp of ruby dust
[1707] 10000gp of powdered gemstones
[1708] Talons of Lun. Ornately worked gloves with fine gold filigree. +3 attack bonus (1d4 x2), crit does x3, will save at DC20 or victim goes permanently insane. (save for 1 rd of confusion instead). Wearer is immune to insanity and confusion, but WI -2 due to constant voices in head.

We decided to permanently destroy the runewell to permanently disable the amulet. Nolin, Sabin, and Avia used it for target practice and soon it was rubble (and ice). We decided the glaive must be destroyed (somehow) and Karzoug must be destroyed (somehow) so that he cannot be resurrected by a misguided soul. Various ideas were tossed about on how to do that; the most sane seemed to involve a bag of holding and portable hole.

The cracked runewell gem is still likely to be very valuable, even with a huge fracture. So we will take it with us:

[1709] large cracked purple gem

Given what is here, that we haven’t even picked up, we will be as wealthy as we want. But we also have some larger issues to consider.

1) This is also an archaelogical treasure. How much should be preserved, and left for scholars?
2) This city already has residents. While we need to figure out a suitable way to let them know Karzoug is dead, we also have to consider what group (or person) might try to seize control of the city, especially in consideration of possible visitors seeking 1)?
3) Thinking of 1) and 2) intersecting … what level of responsibility do we want to take on regarding visitors’ safety, given that few people can find the city without us telling them?

For a group that started by battling goblins in Sandpoint, we’ve come a long way. There is a lot of talk about people’s plans – many border on “retiring”. On the one hand, you could say I’ve been lucky to make it this far. On the other hand, I’m still a young adult. I feel I’ve got more in me yet.

I think I’ll check with Father and see how the store is doing. Maybe we can feed some of our artifacts through both Derell in Sandpoint and my father in Korvosa. But I also want to hear what the rest are doing. If there’s another interesting journey to be had, I might be up for that.

Moonday, 27 Lamashan (still)

We were still facing, potentially, six more cloud giants. This room was highly defensible and the walls of force and fire helped break the opposing group into nice digestible chunks. (Odd turn of phrase considering the blade barrier we had going next door.)

Avia, as we’ve come to expect, headed up to find a cloud giant largely by touch. One swung at her, revealing itself, and she responded in kind. She took some damage, but not as much as she gave.

Kane dispelled the fog cloud and put an end to that sort of adventure. The giants might still be flying but they were no longer invisible. (Rigel silently went invisible and we were all pretty sure we knew what she was trying to do.) For my part, I picked out a cloud giant and threw three scorching rays at him.

Now with visible targets, Avia went to town on the giant nearest her. Giant blood dribbled down to the floor below. Nolin technically got the killing blow on Avia’s target, but was staggering a bit himself. Takkad set him up with a powerful heal spell and he looked MUCH re-energized. I took advantage of all this to get a mage sword started on one of the giants. While I am unlikely to draw as much blood as the fighters, every little bit helps! Sedgewick tried a bit of tomfoolery by mimicking a giant’s voice and calling out, “It’s all clear in here now”. But since we weren’t exactly invisible and some others could see clearly into our room, it evoked derision more than anything.

As Avia continued her bloody attack, I tried another scorching ray. Only one of the three got through this time. But Sedgewick started an image of another blade barrier around a small group of them, and that did cause them to pause. There was ample evidence around them that one did not mess with a blade barrier, and it gave them pause.

Sabin told them to drop their weapons and surrender to their betters. They seemed inclined to do the first, but then the second seemed to reinforce their backbones. Then we invoked the desires of the Champion of Greed and gestured towards Nolin, who revealed his rune. This cowed the giants, and they left weaponless to go to the city.

We retrieved two more sihedron rings from the corpses, but left the huge morningstars and armor we’d never be able to adequately lift or wear. We inspected the arch and markings in this room and determined that Karzoug was pretty full of himself, and that the archway led to Karzoug’s personal lab and harem. Certainly something to check out in the end – the ladies would no doubt be thankful – but we need to seal the deal first and put down Karzoug.

About this time we heard a voice say in Thassilonian, “The champion ordered WHAT?” There was a mumbled reply and then an order to go get Khalib.

We looked at each other. It seems we were not yet done making this place safe for us. A door was pushed open and a glyph of warding that Kane had established blew up in a giant’s face. Takkad looked at the giant, which was one we’d sent off earlier, and dressed him down for not obeying the Champion of Greed. This caused a few things to transpire.

Rigel went invisible.
I cast greater invisibility on myself to better attack anonymously, because it was pretty obvious this was not going to be a diplomatic mission.
Sabin cast heroism on himself.
Avia and Nolin positioned themselves optimally.

The look on the giant’s face told us all we wanted to know. He was not here of his own volition. Another giant shoved past him and a voice from behind compelled them: “Go on, go kill them!”

Takkad bluffed once more — “You dare defy the champion of Greed? What will Karzoug do to you?” They paused but then came in followed by a rune giant right behind them. Behind them, through the doorway a human came as well.

Avia provided a flurry of blows on one of the cloud giants. Sabin cast haste on all. Nolin ganged up on Avia’s giant and made it bleed worse. But one of the giants attacked Takkad, who is not normally front-line material. Another attacked Avia, Nolin, and Sabin, while Sedgewick began a song of courage even as he attempted to dominate a cloud giant.

Rigel saw her opportunity and got a sneak attack in on Avia’s giant, killing it. Avia simply aimed her sword at another giant and began systematically dismantling it. I got a mage sword going against the rune giant, and got some satisfying cuts into it. Sabin tried a feeblemind on Khalid, but it failed. It did, however, invoke a response of magic missile back at him – contingency spell, I suspect, that fired whenever he was attacked – and then tried to disintegrate him. But his weapon absorbed the spell harmlessly, frustrating Khalib greatly. The rune giant was a powerful foe, hammering hard on Nolin, Avia, and poor Takkad.

But then Rigel got a sneak attack on the rune giant, and Avia inflicted some serious wounds as well. I hit him and Khalib with chain lightning (Khalib looked like he might have ducked) and Sabin and Nolin also attacked him. All of us at once was a lot for the rune giant to take, but both he and Khalib still had some fight left in them.

Strangely, though, Khalib didn’t have much. He had the disadvantage of being a magic user, and perhaps more importantly NOT being giant. He threw some more magic missiles at Sabin, but attacks by first Avia and then Sabin sent his soul to Karzoug.

It was Avia who finally dealt the killing blow to the rune giant, and my mage sword continued to beat on other giants. The clerics kept a steady stream of channels and cure critical, mass going and although we did at times get close to death, never did we knock at death’s door.

Khalib’s corpse granted us

[1684] Staff of size alteration (10 charges)
[1685] Amulet of natural armor +2
[1686] sihedron ring
[1687] robes (like arch magi, but +4 IN rather than resist)
[1688] gold ivory statue of himself
[1689] spellbook of all known spells but for enchantment and illusion
[1690] container of gem dust (~5000gp)

We held a quick strategic discussion. Although it seemed we were wearing down Karzoug and that he might be low on magic, the same was true of us. Our healers were nearing the end of what they could do to help us, and as tempting as it might be to strike at Karzoug while he was weakened, the same penalty would apply to us and we rely too much on the constant healing available to us. The decision was made to stop for the night and rest, to recover spells.

We set up the usual rope trick, with the usual guard duty, and began to rest.

Toilday, Lamashan 28

We awoke rested, refreshed, and restocked on our spells.

No doubt, so did Karzoug.

We began exploring. We quickly found a room with a 20 ft gold statue of Karzoug, with a smokeless fire. There was a green lens about 2.5′ across over the brazier, in an iron frame. It was decidedly magic with a transmutation aura.

This all looked interesting but we thought we probably ought to be able to inspect this without interruption .. which meant a bit more exploration yet to ensure we were alone. We found a series of small cells, less prisoner cells than simply meager accommodations, perhaps something similar to what a monk may use. We found what we think may have been Khalib’s “room” and noted there were books in there that might be of interest. But about this time, another rune giant challenged us.

“What are you doing here?”
“I am the champion of Greed.” replied Nolin.

And apparently that’s all it takes to start a fight with a rune giant. No pleasantries about one’s mother or heritage, hygiene or appearance. Just, boom.

With a bit of a sigh, I cast haste on all. Another rune giant appeared, and seemed to smirk as he announced, “I got this.” I’ve heard that before. Looking around, I didn’t see Rigel – no doubt invisible by now. Sabin made many images of himself and Nolin challenged the first rune giant. Kane shrewdly cast create water and thus created an ice patch right where the 2nd rune giant was about to step, and he slid gracefully into the blade barrier Takkad had just created. Such teamwork.

I magic missiled the first even as the second hit the ice and went into a skid. The bigger they are … Takkad cast prayer on us all, and Sabin moved to hit the second rune giant. Meanwhile, Nolin and Avia were beating hard on the first one.

My trusty mage sword came out against the second rune giant, but missed. Sabin and, of all people, Kane and Rigel became the objects of his wrath. Rigel tried hard to sneak attack the rune giant but just couldn’t quite make it work., The fighters kept beating on the rune giants, though, and finally my mage sword took down the last one with a final triumphant swing.

We collected [1691, 1692] sihedron rings, but left the rest of the giant-sized paraphenalia where it had landed. We studied Khalib’s diaries and discovered an important fact. Karzoug was trapped on another plane he’d created to survive the fall of his kingdom. To return, though, needed power – power he was collecting through souls sent his way by Mokmurian and his agents. But if he didn’t get enough power that way, he’d be trapped there.

He was nearly there, but not quite yet.

Takkad suddenly got that look in his eye which proclaims, “I’m about to be impulsive and illogical” and strode down to the room with the green lens and shot at it with is crossbow. The bolt bounced off. But when he asked for Sabin’s help, Sabin obliged by striking with his adamantine axe and a strange thing happened.

There was a wavering in the air, and beyond appeared a chamber that looked easily 200′ in depth, across white walls, looking like a shaft. At the bottom there appeared to be water.

I am apprehensive about this. Some in the group want to enter, but how do we get back? If Karzoug can’t get out, how will we? If we enter to destroy Karzoug, are we also consigning ourselves to the same eternal fate?

Moonday, 27 Lamashan (still)

Catching my breath. We’ve a quick break between things attempting to kill us. Perhaps the fact that we’re still alive will annoy Karzoug.

He certainly annoys me.

Fearing that there might be an explosion soon, we left the “projection room” while it still seemed to be producing some sort of weak image but seemed mostly disabled. We went a ways down the hall and paused in what seemed like a defensible spot.

Sabin wanted to memorize a spell so we were going to wait 20 min while he did that. But it was less than a minute before we heard a loud and other-worldly type howl.

Sedgewick looked startled, and said it reminded him of an obscure legend about a very large hound .. a beast from beyond time.

Since that didn’t sound friendly at all, we quickly went into a room to our south, on the theory that whatever it was would have to either break down the door or fight through the doorway, which would limit exposure to our fighters while the healers and magic users did their thing. We had arranged ourselves when …

From behind the door there were shouts from the left. A howl from the right, continuing up to and then past the door. There were sounds of battle from the left now, perhaps in the throne room. We carefully exited our hidey hole, and much to my surprise the party chose to explore the rooms we’d just passed instead of checking out the fight in the room practically next door. Really? Seemed a little risky to me.

We found what appeared to be the guard’s living area, or at least staging area. Opening another door we found .. Karzoug! Again! But at least this time he was less smug.

“What did you release into my realm?”

Now, witty banter is my strong suit and had it not been for the fact that we were discussing something that apparently could worry Karzoug, I’d have been all over this. But we’d also discussed earlier that these apparitions seemed designed to make us burn spells more than anything, and we’d decided to largely ignore them. But I couldn’t resist just one reply.

“We’re not worried. We have the champion of Greed to defend us,” and I pointed at Nolin, who whipped off his bandana to display the Rune of Greed. I thought the Karzoug image was going to explode into little Greedy parts. “This is an outrage!” said Karzoug, visibly upset.

“I’m collecting all seven,” said Nolin.

And then we went to leave, except that Angry Karzoug tried to polymorph Nolin. Which failed, because of his Runeforge-enhanced weapon. Nolin raised his eyebrows and I thought he was going to say something droll, but he just let the spell failure speak for itself.

Takkad kept looking in rooms that did not contain a hideous hound, and most people joined him. Sedgewick said he was going to see if Karzoug would give him any interesting information, and went back to chat with him. And they call me headstrong.

We were slowly searching the (fortunately) empty rooms but I was getting impatient. The Horrible Hound could be stalking us for all we know. There were no sounds anymore from the Throne Room and finally I announced I was going to go check it out because, well, SOMEBODY should.

So using my stealth, I approached the room and looked in. There were 10 harridan bodies there (I think; they were not whole so it was a bit difficult to tell in a glance) and nothing else in the room. Unless it was invisible, it had moved on. And defeated 10 harridans in short order, I thought as I returned to the group.

Sedgewick returned about the same time, looking satisfied so I guess he must have learned stuff from Karzoug. The group as a whole went to view the carnage in the Throne Room. Or perhaps I should call it the Thrown Room, because it looked more like a puppy had tossed ten dolls around like toys, after chewing each of them to a frayed mess.

And, uh, then it came back. It entered the room thru the door to the northeast, and saw us at the same time we saw it. It bounded towards us like a happy puppy, if a happy puppy were slavering, ugly, and insane.

It looked shadowy so I threw a fireball at it before it got too close. Looked unhappy, so probably a good choice. (Although to be honest, I’m not sure it brought a happy face with it to this plane.) Kane attempted to banish it and Takkad started praying even as Sedgewick urged us on with a song of courage. I managed to haste everyone before we resumed the usual fight positions, and the battle was on.

But the battle was not long. The harridans had apparently taken their toll, and it took Nolin, Avia, and Sabin only seconds to dispatch it. Nolin took its head into the room with Karzoug, pausing only long enough to say, “I’ll send you a bill for this later.”

We left before Karzoug could muster up a retort.

We returned to the Thrown Room and decided to examine the room to the north. This has proven to be a questionable decision. Inside the room were some very large giants with some large piles of rocks and very large bows, paired with very large arrows. Eight of them.

I divided the enemy with a wall of force, per usual, leaving two on the side nearest us and six on the other. Then I hasted folks, another pretty standard action. I managed to fireball the two close ones, before the fighters closed. They hammered hard on our fighters, but our healers kept them healthy. One of the distant giants banged on a door and yelled for help, so I put up a wall of flame against that wall, facing the door. And another wall of flame that burned the butts of a couple of those other ones. Then Sedgewick changed from a song of courage to a song of dischord, which caused some of the giants on the other side of the wall to disagree with each other. Physically. Violently.

This proved surprisingly effective. Avia, and then Sabin killed the two close giants and then we watched in amazement as the others just beat each other up. Even those not affected by the song were forced to defend themselves against the ones who were, because they didn’t simply fight each other. They hit anything near them that they disagreed with.

While this was going on, Kane announced storm giants were coming from the Thrown Room. Apparently they’d figured out the fire thing and decided to circle around back. Takkad created a wall of stone to block them temporarily, but we expected that storm giants would likely be able to hack at the stone and eventually remove it.

As they came close to doing this, he put in a circular blade barrier, positioned such that to reach the door leading to our room, they’d need to cross the barrier twice. For good measure, I added another wall of fire too. The results were remarkably effective.

The first who tried came through as a chopped, burnt, corpse-like shape. Dead. Two more entered the blade barrier circle, but after experiencing it once were reluctant to complete the journey and close with us. One was challenged to go through and also emerged dead.

The remaining cloud giants abandoned their effort to attack us through the blade barrier, and circled back around to the door on the north end of the storm giant room. There was only one weakened, injured “champion” storm giant left to rendezvous with the fresh cloud giants. I responded with a mage sword to add to the battle. It turns out there was at least one mage among them, so we traded minor spells: they made fog, and I cast fly on myself and used a staff to create a wind to blow it away.

This battle is sorely depleting our magic. While we have depleted Karzoug’s as well, we may both yet get a chance to recharge.

Moonday, 27 Lamashan (still)

I wonder if we will have a chance to sleep before we truly meet Karzoug. I would love to recover some spells, but if we do, then he does too.

After “defeating” the taunting image of Karzoug, we turned our attention to one of the doors “behind” him. The stone door opened at a mere touch into what appeared to be a fantastic throne room. Opulent. Opulent to the point of practically blinding Rigel. Brilliantly lit, and every inlaid gem, every strip of silver or gold decoration on the wall made the room simply glow. There was, of course, a person in this room — a large but still human female fighter, flanked by two large giant (and that is not redundant.) The fighter was upon the throne and appeared to have the rune of greed engraved upon her cheek.

Ah. The champion of greed. This should go well when she realizes the champion of wrath is here now too.

She challenged us to come face (heh) her but it was the giants who made the first move towards us. This allowed me to subtly place an invisible wall of force between her and the giants and us. The ceiling here was also awe inspiring – certainly more than the 10 feet tall I’d made the wall of force, but I didn’t want her to run around it.

As the fighters began to whack on the giants, I hasted everyone. Takkad threw a destruction ray on one of the giants who seemed very displeased with that. Meanwhile, I got the satisfaction of seeing our Amazon friend run smack into the wall of force and scream “but I am the champion of Greed!” With that, Nolin pulled off his headband and screamed “and I am the champion of Wrath!”

Whoa. Hee hee. Awesome. Perfect timing.

The female warrior seemed to go almost berserk, and tried to scale the wall of force to get at Nolin. Successfully, I might add; she was probably about 7 or 8 feet tall so she could easily scale the wall. I briefly considered it cancelling it just to make her fall on the ground, but although the buffoonery would have been fun, i decided chain lightning might actually be more helpful to the task at hand.

So I lit up the giants … and they seemed unaffected. Shoot. That’s what I get for strategizing. Shoulda gone with my gut.

So this weird dance began, with most of the party engaging the weakening giants while Nolin drew the rapt attention of Greed’s champion. (She had a name, I’m sure, but she’s dead now so who cares [foreshadow much?]). Nolin was able to get some good whacks on a giant before having to turn his attention to the woman. Ultimately, Sabin and Avia laid the killing blows on the giants, but Nolin got three good hits on Greed in one flurry and two more in another before she fell. And as with Alasnist’s champion, the rune on her face disappeared and reappeared on Nolin. A headband was going to be sufficient anymore, with marks on both his forehead and his cheek.

This rune, Sedgwick later told us, made him immune to mind-affecting magic and gave him fantastic spell resistance to transmutation spells. It also, however, made him vulnerable to domineering weapons such as those we wielded.

His eyes also lit up at the sight of her golden scimitar.

[1666] Chelan – one of the the 7 swords of sin. Had the ability to turn victims to gems upon striking. Although made of gold, it had the hardness of adamantine. Collector once owned this, but … odd, it must have been stolen.

Or perhaps her body lay here before us.

We could learn nothing more.

Other tribute that the champion of Greed and her giant minions left for us:

[1667] 5 potions of cure serious (Nolin used 1, so 4)
[1668] 2 potions of fly (Nolin)
[1669] 1 potion of haste (Takkad)
[1670] +5 large full golden plate
[1671] +5 great shield
[1672] periapt of health (immunity to disease)
[1673] belt of strength +4 (Kane, who gave his +2 to Rigel)
[1674] minor cloak of displacement
[1675] ring – freedom of movement
[1676] sihedron ring
[1677] scarab of protection (+20 spell resistance, absorbs energy
or death) 10 charges
[1678] 2 great swords (giant)
[1679] full plate mail (giant)

We did not take the giant equipment since it was both unusable by us and non-magic.

Done opening our presents, the party moved south to an open corridor. I stuck with Rigel, who was searching for traps and secret doors. We passed several non-secret doors, which I objected to to no avail. I argued we could potentially be leaving enemies to attack us from behind, but I guess nobody considered that a viable threat. I understand the urgency in getting to Karzoug, but that’s not a reason to throw caution to the wind.

Finally we opened one at the end of the corridor and hey, whaddya know. There stood a Karzoug .. or another image of him. Karzoug engaged in what I’m sure seemed, to him, to be witty banter before shooting magic missiles at Takkad. Sabin attacked .. but of course passed right through him. I tried a dispel, but failed.

I’ve done some thought on this. The only illusory spell I know of (although do not master) that can allow you to cast spells from it is Project Image. There are a couple of things that are disturbing, if I am right.

First, that is a 7th level spell. That would indicate that Karzoug is at least the equivalent of, say, myself. But I feel like he’s probably more skilled than I, which would suggest he has (at least) 8th level spells that perhaps we have not seen yet.

The other thing is that to use that spell requires sight of the site. That is, either he’s in the room with us invisibly (unlikely) or he’s scrying (more likely). Either option, though, is a little disconcerting.

However every image he projects is one less 7th level spell for him. I suggest that if we come across another and Avia doesn’t detect evil, we just leave the room. The spell only lasts for a minute or two, and then we can re-enter. Instead of him making us burn our spells, we can make him burn his.

Anyway, Takkad, Sabin, and Sedgwick inspected the double doors in this room, discerned nothing dangerous about them, and opened them.

Inside we found an odd sight. At the far end of the room, appearing as though in a fog or perhaps a portal, were actual moving scenes of what appeared to be Xin Shalast in glory days past. Was Karzoug planning to bring forward his armies and minions?

Scurrying about making adjustments on instruments near the walls were some strange humanoid (but not human) beings. Kane muttered “extra planars”. There was maybe 20 or so of them. Several now looked up and took notice of us. Sabin asked the nearest one, in Thassilonian,

“Why are you here?”

We mind the machine.

“What does it do?”

It does its purpose. You are not giant or rune lord or flung. Stand back.

When we did not, some appeared to take an aggressive stance. That was all the excuse Takkad needed to create a blade barrier. Meanwhile the fighters starting moving toward the machinery on their side of the barrier, cutting and hacking at it. The “flung” hastily repaired, or adjusted for the damage. It became apparent that the damage we might do would be undone by the “flung”s efforts, so we directed more effort at destroying them directly.

There was more damage done by the occasional explosion than by the creatures themselves. Eventually Sedgwick sang a song of dischord which caused them to fight among themselves. Takkad brought in a water elemental to attack the machinery close to the image. The image continued to weaken and flicker, and finally at one point, the remaining “flung” decided to become suicidal, and ran through the blade barrier to try to get to us.

Eventually all were slain, and we continued to hack on the cables and machinery. We found that the image eventually faded to a hazy area in the room, with increasing explosions from the machinery. Nolin expressed concern that the whole room might blow up. I’ve no idea if that is possible or not, but he seems greatly concerned. In any case, the machine is not, I believe, usable for its original purpose any longer.

Sunday, 26 Lamashan

If our goal was to introduce chaos, confusion, and distraction to the city, why that’s practically our (very long) middle name.

Scrying our favorite giant, we found that there is close to chaos up north around the Lamia temple. He reported the body, and discovered they were already quite aware. They seem like anything but cool and in control. They did not kill the messenger, but they did not exactly welcome him either. They expected him to tell them what happened and how. “You were in charge of security!” they said accusingly, and when he had no explanation forthcoming, instructed him to wait in a small room whose door was secured from the outside while the investigation was completed. “At sunset,” they promised, “you will be taken up to the mountain.” From the expression on his face, he clearly did not interpret this to mean he was going to be treated to a relaxing vacation and stimulating massage.

Although we may have, in a sense, tormented him with whispered messages and strange happenings, we’d taken a liking to him. We couldn’t let him be taken to the mountain, where he’d likely be killed, or worse, transformed. From a practical standpoint, we probably also did not want him telling people on the mountain that voices were speaking to him. So Takkad and Sabin windwalked to his cell and checked it out. The door was unlocked, so I suppose technically that was not a cell, but two harridans stood guard outside to prevent anyone from disturbing him in his contemplation.

In other words, a very stealthy teleportation was entirely possible.

Since I could do both major image and teleport, I went along to provide the means for the rescue operation. Takkad and Sabin came along in case anything went wrong. I borrowed a ring of invisibility so that all three of us, Takkad, Sabin, and myself could be invisible. We became invisible, turned to gaseous form, and then travelled to and entered the cell. By previous agreement, I went to (invisible) solid form first, and created the illusion of a giant. The illusion offered these solemn but quietly spoken words: “There are those who would see you live.” The giant startled, and I said, “The choice is yours, but take my hand if you wish to leave now.” I put my hand in the right position within the image, and after a bit of uncertainty, he grabbed it. I quietly uttered the spell, and teleported us to the arena without any harridans being harmed at all.

Once there, I said (while still invisible), “This place is safe, but you will probably need to leave Xin Shalast.”

“Thanks,” he responded, still a little uncertainly.

The rest of the group was there in gas form and observed him quickly assess his surroundings before heading for an exit from the arena. As he cautiously made his way to one side of the arena, Takkad and Sabin returned and we returned to our hideout.

Takkad sniggered that he’d added Alasnist graffiti to the cell. When I pointed out that poor decisions and practical jokes was supposed to be my forte, he got defensive and said it wasn’t impractical – it would help foment rebellion and divert attention away from us, which was very practical.

Whatever.

We could only imagine the anger and frustration the Lamia would feel upon discovering their guest had left! Hee hee. However, in my more somber moments I also realized we’d pretty much relegated our favorite giant to a life on the run, since they would believe he was complicit not only in his escape, but in the murder of the priestesses too. Perhaps we’d done nothing more than delay his death, but I suppose that’s not such a small gift.

We decided to talk to Margive about the rebellion plan he’d overheard. Where do they meet? (Always different.) Can you show us? (yes).

With this, Takkad announced our favorite giant had left the arena and starting rooting around in these passages. He was actually heading rather directly for Margive’s abode, which was not part of the plan.

We quickly explained to Margive that a giant was only a few hundred feet away right now, and he needed to hide. While we did not think the giant would harm him, we deemed it prudent to be cautious. He blended into the shadows as he does so well, while the rest of us hid in the shadows or went invisible.

I was completely surprised by what happened next, though. The giant cautiously entered Margive’s home and whispered, “Margive? Are you here?” And Margive replied! “I am here, friend,” as he made himself visible.

“I have found a much better place for the meeting tonight. Tell them the alliance will meet at the arena tonight.”

Margive has more connections than we gave him credit for! “Our” giant was actually a leader (the leader?) in the giant rebellion that we’d been so anxious to assist. I broke the silence by saying, “There are those who would see you live” as I made myself apparent. As others also became visible, he clearly recognized my voice and clearly had the same thought about Margive that I’d just had. “We seem to be working towards a common cause.”

Takkad suggested to him that the recent deaths of the lamia and apparently missing dragon might make tonight a very good night to lead his brethren out of the city. He agreed. And we offered the same advice to Margive. “We are going to the highest buildings in an attempt to stop Karzoug from gaining more power. If the coming night and day find us successful, tonight will be an excellent time to leave. If we fail, it may be your last opportunity to leave.”

We did not add, out loud, that their leaving will also provide distraction to those above as we attempt to assault those positions. We will truly be helping each other by dividing the rulers’ attentions.

We decided to windwalk to the higher echelons now to use the last of our windwalk ability today and allow Takkad to utilize those spell slots differently for tomorrow. We took this time to inspect Karzoug’s mountainous face, but we noted no particular magic or secret openings in the face. Takkad and Sabin decided it was appropriate to install a little granite graffiti.

Whatever. Seems immature and unnecessary to me.

I did the now-traditional rope trick, and we retired for the evening.

Moonday, 27 Lamashan

Takkad asked the Quill about what to expect. It told him “many guards, many wards, insane creatures not of this world.” If that was a surprise to anyone, they didn’t let on.

Kane and Avia needed to use amulets, upon which we cast obscure object to deter the scrying, and we advanced towards the biggest spire. This spire seemed to mostly be a ramp up into the heights of the building. It certainly was ornate enough, but the ramp was nice and wide (maybe forty feet or so wide). We ascended alertly and while we didn’t find anything during our cautious ascent, we must have gone up 2000 feet or more.

But near the top, we did hear a voice that we did not recognize: “Ready lads! Here they come!” Apparently we were expected. I had thought I might confuse them a bit with ridiculous replies, so I called out, “Yes! Have you any bananas?”. I was not within range to see their faces, but I have to believe that the several seconds of pause after that was spent with them looking at each other in utter confusion. Without waiting for any particular response, I cast Haste on our group since it sounded very much like we would not avoid battle, and at this particular moment everyone was close enough to be included in the spell.

There were five of them, with one clearly being the leader (both by demeanor and appearance.) He was a storm giant; the other four appeared to be cloud giants.

“They like to appear right next to you; be ready!” called out their leader. Hmm. Clearly Karzoug has passed on his observations of us to his guard. How annoying.

Kane tried to intimidate them. It was about as effective as asking for bananas. But Sabin had a much more effective action. He cast mass suggestion on them, and suggested they’d rather drop their weapons and go down to the front gates of the city. Three of the giants blinked, and appeared to do so.

These were some of the largest giants we’ve encountered, and the reach on them was unbelievable. Without the ability to teleport in, our fighters had to wade in offering their bodies up for free just to get close enough to hit. Once there they did significant damage, but the price of the approach almost was too much for Nolin. I called up a wall of force to protect him as he got hammered at one point, but our clerics managed to quickly heal him (and others). I employed my Mages Sword at one point, but it was late in the battle and it only got a couple of swings. I don’t think it ever connected before its target died and it raced back to hover pointlessly in front of me.

When the leader realized a sizeable portion of his force really was going to walk to the edge of the city, he smartly said to them, “Well, would you mind smacking these guys as you go?” And although they’d dropped their weapons, an unarmed smack from a cloud giant still carries a wallop. I took one of those and it almost knocked me off my feet.

Truly, we killed the leader and remaining cloud giant in something like only a half minute, but the fighting as fierce and the damage great. If they’d had healers like we did, the battle might have gone differently. We may want to identify and target healers early in any future battles; Karzoug will probably do the same favor for us.

And Kane put a normal mundane spell to deadly use when he cast Create Water in front of the giants heading down the ramp to the city’s edge. In this climate, of course, the water froze almost instantly, and resulting lack of traction caused two of the giants to slip over the edge of the ramp and fall to their presumed deaths.

From the two corpses we created up top, we did retrieve

[1660] Full plate (giant sized) +2
[1661] sihedron ring
[1662] Full plate (giant sized) +4
[1663] sihedron ring
[1664] Masterwork Great Sword [giant sized]
[1665] Morningstar [giant sized]

We now turned to the upper hallways that we’d laid claim to. The walls here were decorated; no expense was spared. Doors ranged from appearing to be solid gold, to, at the very least, masterfully built. The first door we opened seemed to yield … Karzoug!

He verbally taunted us, and Avia detected no evil. Still, we advanced upon him. I tried a fireball, but it had no effect. We began to think it might just be a really talkative illusion when he said, “Well, Sabin, let’s get it started.” And a black ray shot from the figure to Sabin.

A death ray.

Sabin moved as quickly as I’ve ever seen him, but the ray still grazed him and wounded him significantly. And with that, Karzoug disappeared. Yes, an illusion, but one with some spellcasting abilities. Some sort of projection, or automaton? I’ll have to search our spellbooks to try to identify what it was. But clearly we will be running into some more powerful magic, and we will need to be cautious of that.

More doors await us.

Starday, 25 Lamashan

After having a little fun with our chosen giant commander, we somberly realized we still didn’t have enough rings + amulets to safely enter the field up on the mountain. Well technically we might have, but nobody really wanted to be subject to the scrying that the amulets left one vulnerable to.

So Takkad and Sabin when invisible and had magic detection on when they windwalked over to the Lamashtu temple to see if there were any likely looking treasure chests or living bearers of said amulets and rings. It was, of course, still semi-collapsed, and completely dark inside. Sabin had the advantage there, but couldn’t communicate to Takkad in windwalk form so I gather there was some wispy hand signals or something employed. (I wasn’t along; I just got a summary of their trip when they returned.)

The main chamber had 3 passages, but two had collapsed. There were idols of things vaguely dragonic and lion-like. In windwalk form, the collapsed passages were less of an issue than might otherwise be the case, but still they proved uninteresting. The passage going straight ahead had little rubble, and led to an antechamber with stairs down. The antechamber held the tattered clothing of three bodies – less cautious adventurers, I suppose – and nothing there radiated magic. The stairway led to a room that looked like a torture room, but that also appeared to be a deadend.

Returning to the entrance they tried the right passage. They were able to pass through the rubble, but it ended in a square room after 30′ of piled rubble. This room also had three exits from it.

• The right one held a stagnant pool.
• The middle one led to a large cathedral-like space which seemec to be a shrine to Lamashtu. Takkad sensed a presence there, but then these clerics are sometimes just on edge.
• The left one held benches and cabinets, but little else of interest.

Returning to the entrance, they tried to go left but it was impassable even in windwalk state.

That seemed to be it in the temple, so they returned and reported. To prepare, I case see invisible, mirror image, and spell resistance. I figured anything we found in a temple would be likely to try to cast a spell or two.

We windwalked, and entered the temple. By previous agreement, we made our way to the cathedral room, It didn’t take long at all to detect a shadowy figure .. or was it figures? .. at the far end of the room. I waited until the Usual Suspects were close enough together and then cast haste on our group.

There wasn’t just a couple. There were eight. Sabin used his sign of wrath and one shadow was seriously injured. 4 shadows turned on Sabin, but most of them hit the images from his mirror image spell. Takkad channelled positive energy, and one shadow fell. Avia channeled too, and three more were killed. Kane likewise channelled, and two more disappeared. And then by golly, it turns out they didn’t care much for fire, so I “channelled” a fireball that took out the remainder.

The altar was magic. There was a magic black painted metal chalice. There was a wand. There was a black dagger. And all these things were magic. We quickly determined we had

[1643] decanter of endless water
[1644] adamantine dagger, +3, decorated with genuine iconic Lamashtu figures
[1645] a wand of soul binding [4 charges]

Kane wanted to destroy the altar, so our team’s adamantine weapons were put to good use. He followed with a consecrate spell, which he apologetically explained would last a lot less time than he’d like but that too made him feel better.

For a little guy, Kane sure is fanatical at times.

Takkad was still dissatisfied with our efforts. Not at us, but he was thinking we were running out of time and worried that we needed to hurry and do certain things or Karzoug would be too powerful for us to kill. He decided to do a powerful Communing with his god, which unfortunately must be a series of yes/no questions. This was conducted with great pomp and circumstance, which I guess is de rigeur for this sort of spell. And we asked

1) Are there more rings in Xin Shalast? YES
2) Is the field on the mountain powered by a Runewell? YES
3) Is the Runewell in the city? NO
4) Do any remaining dragons have a sihedron ring? NO
5) Is Karzoug fully revived? NO
6) Is Karzoug able to leave the spires now? NO
7) Is Karzoug going to leave the spires within a week? YES
8) Should we confront him ASAP? YES
9) Does Karzoug have more than 12 allies with him in the spires? UNCERTAIN
10) Are we missing a needed artifact? UNCERTAIN
11) Does Karzoug get stronger the longer we wait? YES
12) Will it benefit us to create discord in the city? YES
13) Do we need rings or amulets within the occlusion field? YES
14) Does the field extend everywhere, including within the buildings? YES
15) Do any giants possess rings? NO

So it was clear that there was, unfortunately, some basis to Takkad’s fear that we needed to hurry. The discord thing, though, sounded both fun and easy. We talked to Margive about why the giant rebellions always seemed shortlived. He explained the Lamia held much greater sway over the city than we’d given them credit for. They were fairly quick to put down rebellions.

Lamia, hmm? We could reduce those numbers, although we really wanted to take out the matriarch if she ever came back down to the city. Margive surprised us by saying she had indeed returned to deal with the death of her priestess. Seems she thought that might have been another outgrowth of the rebellion and she felt a need to attend to it personally.

At last. A suitable target.

We returned to the coliseum, and carefully planned our next excursion. Takkad and Sabin decided to scout using the usual windwalk technique. They quickly and easily detected raised voice from Karzoug’s chapel. They spotted three harridans and one other dressed much better than the rest. They were loudly discussing what to do about the giants who’d killed their priestess (heh!)

That was pretty much all we needed. I again prepared mirror image, spell resistance, see invisible, and, in this particular case, haste before we even left.

We’d hoped to surprise them, but their hearing must be excellent. They heard us in the chamber next to them and startled. So I led with chain lightning, which hit all four of them, killing one as a nice start. Sedgewick threw a Mislead (his new favorite spell, I think!) and Kane prayed. Takkad did a greater dispel at her royal highness, and then the three remaining came after us. One attacked the false Sedgewick, which cringed and bent over in mock pain. Another brought a flame strike down in our midst, hitting all but me. Then Avia stepped up. She attacked the leader viciously, doing prodigious amounts of damage. Nolin stepped up and did the same.

I also did a Mislead while Sedgewick tried to deafen our opponents. Kane called in a flamestrike of his own, and Takkad simply cast Destruction (which unfortunately failed). A blade barrier appeared, followed by a firestorm at many of us and a searing light at Takkad. Sabin tried a disintegrate, with disappointing results. Avia took some more hardy swings, and Nolin actually charged to good effect.

Rigel went invisible, and I knew she was angling for a backstab at some point. Our fighters were now in the thick of the battle, but our healers were not close enough to help them heal. “Get together” I whispered hoarsely, “and i’ll teleport us”. I waited a few seconds for everyone to get in place and then teleported us closer.

Takkad did a powerful Mass Cure spell. Avia and Nolin found themselves under attack, and surprisingly one of the harridan found Takkad to be the most threatening and took some gouges out of him. Then the unholy blight hit, and suddenly people were a lot weaker. Sabin unleashed a flurry of blows and Avia finally took out another harridan. Nolin lent his blade to the effort.

Rigel tried to shoot some arrows, but only nicked one once. Worse, she became visible at that point. Sedgewick pulled out his wand of lightning, but the harridan’s spell resistance thwarted him. Kane healed Takkad and I initiated a mage sword. Takkad channelled, helping both himself and our fighters while a harridan tried unsuccessfully to take out Sabin. The other damaged Takkad a little, but mostly took out Sabin’s images. Sabin responded by taking it out, and Avia turned to the last one and took her out too.

We quickly assessed the magical items we’d won.

[1646] dagger, +1, unholy
[1647] headband of inspired wisdom +6
[1648] ring of force shield
[1649] 4 pearl anklets
[1650] golden crown
[1651] sihedron ring
[1652] dagger, +1, unholy
[1653,1655,1657] MW Breast plate
[1654,1656,1658] MW Great Sword

And to continue and extend the discord, we dumped the body of the matriarch into the giant section of town, in an alley. She was big enough and heavy enough I just teleported her.

Takkad sent another disquieting message to our favorite giant. “Your problem is solved – again.”

And when the body was discovered, we learned that we’d killed the chief assistant of Ceoptera, not Ceoptera. Or at least, that’s the body we’d dropped off; we probably killed her too (that would explain some of the difficulties we had) but she was disguised as a lesser. Oh well. She’s dead, anyway. I think. These folks should wear (accurate) nametags.

Fireday, 24 Lamashan

It was a dark and wormy night.

We had finished killing the blue dragon(s) and were ready to retire for the evening. Takkad had put down a glyph of warding and we were arranging sleeping order when it was suggested that we check on how the giant rebellion was going. Sabin took about a half hour to memorize an arcane eye spell and then he and Takkad went outside to send it off to scout around. He saw an increase in the giants+cragspider units – at least 6 different patrols of two each. Checked out the Lamias on temple row seemed to be searching much like some giants still were — presumably for us I suppose. And GiantTown itself was very active, with visible discord and fighting.

Keeping in mind that confusion and surprises works in our favor, Takkad eyed the already dilapidated temple of Lamashtu. The smile on his face was almost maniacal, later, as he told us how he used stoneshape to remove (ahem, reshape) structural support from one of the walls, and OOPSY! it fell over. There were still creatures in and around it, and a cloud of dust arose, but it was too dark to tell if anything actually took damage besides the structure. We can only hope, he said solemnly.

One thing I’ve noticed about clerics. They’re rarely ambivalent about a topic. And on the topic of Lamashtu, the clerics in our party are unanimous in their, shall we say politely, disapproval.

Their task of destruction and divination complete, the two returned and the party rested. Takkad and Sedgewick took the first two hour watch, then Sabin and Kane took the next 8 hours, as the rings of sustenance they wear reduce substantially the amount of sleep they actually need each night now.

Starday, 25 Lamashan

And I awoke, refreshed, to a discussion of what kind of confusion we could do to the temple with the Lamia. The greater goal, of course, is to obtain more sihedron rings. Since these are supposedly given to close cohorts of Karzoug, nobody in the party questions that killing them is an appropriate way to obtain possession. Little bloodthirsty; seems we’ve enough sneakiness in the party there might be other ways. Shrug.

It was suggested, though, that attacking the temple may have too little reward for the risk. After all, we had no specific targets, and just appearing and causing mayhem in an area full of magic users (no matter how unpracticed) was unlikely to do us much good.

Takkad was curious (to put it lightly) about how the “structural issue” at the Lamashtu temple was being handled, and we agreed that we should at least look in and see what was happening around the city. There may be a sihedron ring to be had yet. We also wanted to see what the progress was on the giant rebellion. While it may not be wise to be overt agents in that struggle, if there are ways to prolong it or even surreptitiously aid the “lesser” giants in defeating their “overseers”, it’s worth considering.

Windwalk being our friend, we were soon in wispy form and off to the Lamashtu temple. We noted when we got there that there were indeed several Lamia .. I think .. “odd creatures” anyway .. walking around the outside of the temple, seemingly inspecting it. There was a creature that appeared to be a giantess from the waist up and a lioness from the waist down. There were a couple of creatures that resembled vultures too, although imprecisely.

No speaking in wispy form, so we followed Takkad next to GiantTown, where we observed the fighting had stopped but there were a significant number of giant-on-spider patrols that no doubt contributed to the tranquility. It appeared that “the rebellion,” at least for now, was over.

Next on to Margaiv; we wanted to clarify a few things with him. We found him in his home, and he was most happy to see us again. We became solid and began to quiz him a bit. Yes, he was sure that he had seen 3 different dragons at one time in the air. That means that there are one, or maybe two, more dragons out there. (We killed two, it’s true, but one was younger and it’s not at all clear how often he/she/it was out flying.) It would be very like Karzoug to have three different breath weapons in his arsenal.

Margaiv also confirmed that the giants were fighting last night, longer than usual, but the soldiers came and although it took most of the night, things were quieted by morning. A little disappointing that it was quieted so easily – the distraction provided by a rebellion would only aid us.

We asked Margaiv if there was a way to reach the temples unnoticed and he said, not safely, not for many years. But there is a way? Well, yes, there’s a tunnel that leads there but nobody uses it anymore because nobody returns. Why? Hello, nobody returns. But it does come out near the temples? Yes, supposedly.

Sounds like a good way to get close undetected, except for that “nobody returns” part. But hey, that’s our specialty, right? Clearing out the dangers? So Margaiv helped us get to the beginning of the tunnel, which was in a basement at the northern end of the city. It appeared to be giant-sized, so we could stand three abreast.

Margaiv hastily returned, uncomfortable with being so close to the tunnel. We asked him to find out more about the ‘rebellion’ if he could. We entered. It was gently sloped, but a bit winding. This was not a natural tunnel, but clearly a result of (older) construction. Being giant-sized, we had about 15′ to the ceiling.

We proceeded cautiously, but found nothing but dust. The tunnel’s reputation had acted as an excellent doorman, and there was no evidence of recent passage. Over time, it felt like we’d climbed half the mountain but we saw some daylight ahead.

Blinking in the light, we emerged under what looked to be about a 10′ stone overhang. That was it? Nothing had attacked us; nothing prevented us from returning. If there was danger, it must be outside here somewhere. Sabin and Kane cautiously led the way out of the tunnel. Nothing. Sabin and Kane stepped out from under the overhang and the only noteworthy thing was that they saw two stone pillars on top of the overhang.

However, Sabin was still invisible, and Kane was not. One of the “pillars” lashed a tentacle out at Kane and the game was afoot. Heh. A foot.

I quickly hasted everyone I could (Kane was out of range), and those that could fly either started that ability, accepted a spell to enable that ability, or both, and moved to rise and close in. But it turns out these things had a remarkable reach on them.

Our fighters started doing some damage, and from what I hoped was a safe distance, I tried a lightning bolt. I figured fire on rock wouldn’t be smart but lightning might do some damage. However, the one I could aim at seemed to shrug it off. Sedgewick was singing, per usual, and everybody was feeling pretty good about killing something. Ultimately it was Avia and Sabin who smacked the killing blows, although these arms/feet/tentacles sapped a great deal of strength when they hit. Sedgewick looked over the “bodies” and thought a bit. These were “ropers,” he explained, and although they were typically long lived, they were considered “aberrations”.

In any case, it certainly explained how the tunnel got a bad rep. These things had probably been in for any years – apparently they are very long lived. Another tick on the checklist: “tunnel safe”.

Sabin had been itching for some time now to use analyze dweomer on the field around the spires, so before we had any fun in Temple Row, we went up to the mountain. After examining the aura, he said it was solid throughout the structure, completely prevented teleporting within, and guarded against scrying (from without, not within).

With the spell still operating, he turned his attention a sihedron ring. We already knew much about them but this spell revealed something we’d already suspected – they could act as a means of safe passage through the field.

Lastly he examined a medallion. It too could permit safe passage, but as we’d thought, it also acted as a conduit for scrying upon a person wearing it.

We windwalked to the top of the coliseum and solidified. From there, Sabin sent out an arcane eye to see if we could learn more about the Lamia area. He discovered it had several levels, including living areas for some of the clerics. We also noticed that lioness we’d seen earlier, and that she carried a sihedron ring!

Golly, a target!

Sabin cast see invisible and Takkad and Sabin went wispy and went to scout this out a little more carefully in person. They came back and reported that she seemed to always have some attendants around her, but there was a room off to one side that we could probably solidify in and stage an attack.

With this news, we all enthusiastically left to create mayhem and death.

It went almost exactly according to plan. Just to be safe I did a mirror image before we went. We solidified undetected, and Avia said there were three in the room and one outside it (probably in the hallway.) After opening the door, the fighters teleported right next to her, per usual and got several quick blows in. Takkad cast silence. The acolytes quickly jumped to defend their matriarch but I threw a chain lightning at them that significantly slowed them, and Nolin killed both the matriarch and one of the acolytes in a single flurry of swings. The other acolyte fell to Sabin, whereupon I opened the door to the hallway, and said in Giant to the astonished Lamia outside, “The lady will see you now.” She attacked one of my images, and then Kane called down a flamestrike — overkill, really now — and Avia performed cleanup on the severely scorched Lamia.

Someone commented that it was strange I did not use a single fire spell. “Well,” I replied, “there were two things. One is too many friends too close too fast, and two is there were just too many flammables in this room to safely use fire without setting the room on fire.” And Nolin perked up and said, yes, that’s a great idea!

??

Nolin suggested we set the place on fire. I was confused … why draw attention to ourselves? Our battle had taken less than 20 seconds, without time for anyone to even yell for help. We would have the ring plus whatever else we found in this room and be gone. But he made the point that smoke, fire, and murder would just add to the mayhem and confusion.

At this point it became more a matter of pride and workmanship. He was suggesting that we intentionally light it in a manner that made it look less like a battle and more like a coverup. I found it VERY ironic that I was being asked to not use a fire spell but that we instead would start it with a torch in an ordinary and mundane way. It almost seemed wrong.

We hastily searched both the office and the bedroom, as well as the bodies. (We dragged the body in the hall into the bedroom.) We found

[1635-1637] 3 daggers, magic (+2)
[1638] great sword, masterwork
[1639] sihedron ring
[1640] thin bone knife, magic (ceremonial; if used to apply a coup de gras, can create a skeleton)
[1641] necklace, magic (leather with beads, but really a gold necklace of fireballs: 2 3d6, 2 5d6, 2 7d6, 1 9d6.
[1642] glasses with circular prism help reveal incredible details, +5 perception, +5 tracking

Collecting our goodies, we left. We did stop and put the Lamia’s great sword in relatively plain sight in the giant section of town, hoping to incite a little distrust. Having returned, Takkad thought to scry the same giant we’d scryed before, and reported he seemed frustrated and angry, particular about having to follow the orders of the Lamia. I jokingly told Takkad he should send him a message saying his problem had been taken care of … and to my surprise Takkad thought that a clever move. He sent a message to the effect that she was dead and his problem was solved, and he observed the giant became alarmed and distraught.

Ah, a good day for confusion. I think we need to reduce the spider patrols, and the way to do that may be to visit the barracks and introduce them to the concept of confusion. And ideally, we still want a couple more rings. Takkad is concerned that Karzoug will rise before we go to assault him and he’ll be undefeatable, but I’m not concerned. We keep getting more powerful too.

24 Lamashan, Fireday

So Takkad was scrying upon this likely looking giant we’d found, to see if we could determine his habits and such so we could figure out the best time to attack him. His spell allowed him to scry for HOURS, and for everyone around, it’s kind of like going to a play with a blindfold on but somebody whispering in your ear. Once in a while, Takkad would say something like, “he seems to spend a lot of time in what appears to be his study.” Really. Boring.

So when some tattooed giants came to visit him briefly, mounted on crag spiders, I perked up. They mentioned to him that there were unconfirmed reports of humans in the area, and we could see when they left (we were, after all, in an abandoned house near the giant’s) that the runes actually glowed. Now THESE might be servants of Karzoug! Maybe with more rings.

I immediately volunteered to follow them, in gaseous form (thanks Wind Walk!) The group looked at each other and seemed to collectively shrug. Avia said she’d go along, but I’m not sure why. We can’t communicate when in gaseous form, but maybe she’ll see something I’d miss.

So as they saddled up, I went to follow them. I stayed behind them and tried to stay out of their gaze. After a while, they took on the appearance of being on patrol, but same old same old. Like they’d done this a thousand times before, but they really weren’t looking. Their head would turn but you could tell they were thinking of something else. Sometimes, they even said something unintelligible to each other while looking away. Pretty rote.

Which got me thinking. I know in wind walk we can go something like 60mph max, which is pretty fast. But then I started thinking of that classic problem: which is faster, a man or a horse? Well a horse of course, unless the race is short enough because it takes a small amount of time to go from standing still to full speed. For a small amount of time, the man can actually accelerate faster because he’s smaller.

So I figured out the math (they were still going through the motions of a patrol) and I figured that 60mph was a mile a minute, or 1/60th mile per second. That’s like 90 ft per second, but I can cast a spell every five seconds. So if they did see me, I’d probably have at least five seconds to get away. Could I go a maximum of 450 feet? Or because I have to accelerate, would it be less?

So I tried it a couple of times. I said to myself, “Ready, set, go!” and I’d zoom off in a straight line as fast as I could, counting to myself “One Korsova, Two Korsova …” and see how far I could get before reaching “Five Korsova”. The first time I went pretty far, but then realized I had no way of knowing really how far I went. So I estimated how tall each floor was — here in the giant district each floor was something like three times my height, so, maybe about 18 feet? But that meant even a three story building was only a little over 50 feet. What would make a good yardstick for 450 feet? Nothing really presented itself. Maybe I should just do one second and try to measure 90 feet. Or less, if I’m not that fast. I still don’t know for sure if I can go zero to ninety in one second. One second is a little hard to measure too.

About this time, I noticed one of the giants had turned around and seemed to be looking right at me. Now I know I’m not cmmpletely invisible, but I’m also a little indistinct and hard to make out. He nudges his companion, who turns around as well, and he says in Common, “Human, come to me and yield.” I felt a little shiver, and realized he’d just tried to charm me or something. Heh, not this well ordered, resilient mind, thank you!!

And I realized just how prescient I’d been to see how fast I could move, because now I needed to. I immediately went about 450 feet straight up. (In the excitement of the moment, straight up was my unthinking choice). Looking down, I could see he and his companion still staring at the spot I’d been — they had no clue which direction I’d gone.

Well, I did go pretty fast! Apparently the acceleration is almost instantaneous! Other than something like a magical ray, I could probably elude almost anything.

Then I thought, “what’s Avia doing?” I looked around, but couldn’t see her anywhere. Of course she was as hard to see as I was, but I’d thought she was right nearby. Little irresponsible of her to just take off like that. I thought we were supposed to stay together.

Suddenly the giants around me scattered. It was not in panic, but it was almost as if in response to some sort of silent command. The way that they and the two runed giants themselves reacted I think the two giants raised an alarm somehow.

Clearly, it was time to end the surveillance. I thought for a moment. If the alarm had been raised back where Takkad was scrying, they’d know about it too, and would probably be preparing to leave or hide. Where was Avia?

Perhaps she’d already thought this through and headed back. Increasingly, I’ve noticed, the party individually comes to the same conclusion in about the same time whenever we discuss an issue. Is it so far fetched to think we might independently arrive at the same correct solution? So, back to Takkad it is.

In windwalk form, it took but seconds. I wasn’t all that far away; the giants hadn’t exactly been galloping on their steeds. But when I got there, people started yelling at me. Weird, how I can hear them but I can’t speak to them. Seems unfair. They clearly thought I’d done something wrong, when in fact, it was fortunate I was so adept at speedy movement. Avia wasn’t there yet. I started to solidify, but that takes like half a minute.

During that time, Sabin teleported to Avia, who was apparently still on a rooftop somewhere near where the giants had been, She’d solidified, thinking there was going to be a battle. I swear, she doesn’t know when to just run away! Anyway, he took her a ring of invisibility (borrowed from Rigel?) so that she could return undetected.

Meanwhile, search parties were being organized, and our spot on the third floor of a building would eventually be discovered. Judging from the shaking of his head and increasingly coherent mumbles, Nolin did not find their effort praiseworthy. At one point, I think I heard him say something about finding a lass with both hands. Or maybe he said “last boat in these lands” but that makes even less sense.

Anyway, Avia showed up soon enough and got all in my face about it, and tried to blame the whole thing on me. Takkad also seemed to take her side, and he wasn’t even there. I didn’t think it prudent to point it out to them, but hey – who got back on his own and who needed to be rescued? Hmm? I think she’s just a little embarrassed and reacting poorly because of that. Sometimes I think she still sees me as a little kid or something.

Meanwhile, the group decided to go back to gaseous state and go somewhere that wouldn’t be searched (or at least searched soon). Some in the party were paranoid that the search would find us, and that the search would be exhaustive and that nobody would sleep until the humans were found. Personally, I think it’s more likely that when no humans are found after an hour or two, life will return to normal.

I mean, Karzoug has been aware of us for a few days now, and HE hasn’t apparently raised the alarm.

Anyway, at first we thought we’d go to the coliseum, and then somebody had the idea that if we went up by the citadel where the air was deadly thin, then even if somebody was tracking us they wouldn’t be able to follow us. This would be a very uncomfortable permanent camp, but it did meet that odd criteria. Then Nolin surprised everyone by remarking, “You know, with the entire city in an uproar looking for the humans, this would be a good time to go after a dragon.”

Isn’t that a little like, “hey, as long as I’m bleeding so much and my blood pressure is down anyway, wouldn’t this be a good time to see how sharp this knife is on my skin?” Wouldn’t fighting a dragon with everybody in a heightened state make us even more likely to be discovered?

Nolin thinks no. And many agree with him! I raise an argument but nobody’s listening to me now. So we waft over to the place in the temple district where we know one had made his home. We went in prepared for electricity – I used five resist electricity spells on Takkad, Kane, myself, Sabin, and Sedgewick. Just out of paranoia, I also cast resist cold on myself. I get 8 2nd level spells per day, so this is a good use of them. Don’t use many other 2nd level spells these days.

Rigel and Nolin received protection from electricity.

And off we went to kill a dragon while the city hunted for us.
We entered the dragon’s lair (an abandoned government building) and wisped into a large chamber, well past the entrance. Apparently this building used to house tax collectors, and had fortifications that (now) were not in use. The chamber was 20′ tall and 40′ wide. Using detect magic, we discovered we’d narrowly missed tripping an alarm spell that was cast over the center portion of the floor in the main entry way. We hadn’t become solid until we were past the alarmed area. Unless … does wisping over an area trip an alarm, or does it require physical contact and corporeal form?

We’ll never know for sure, but odds are that it detected us, because we were there less than a minute before a dragon appeared from a corridor at the other end of the chamber and shot a lightning bolt at us and disappeared around the corner. It hit everyone but Kane and Sedgewick. Myself .. happy for my resist electricity spell!

Reviewing my options, it appeared the best way to help at this point was to haste everybody (or at least six of us that were in range) so the fighters could get multiple attacks. The dragon did not immediately reappear, so I also cast spell resistance on myself.

By this time we had moved cautiously in the direction of the dragon, but it had still not appeared. Rigel peeked around the corner and announced it was empty. Was it invisible? Or did it run farther away? Shrug. Easy answer to that one. I walked up alongside Rigel and cast fireball about 80 feet away. Nothing screamed. No dragon.

A couple of people were surprised at this method, but Avia just snorted and rolled her eyes, while Nolin looked a bit thoughtful.

I walked forward another 40 or 50 feet and cast ahead of me again. Foof went the fireball. No dragon. People followed behind me. Takkad had cast True Seeing on himself and the timing was such that he could generally confirm my findings a few seconds after I lit up the room.

Sedgewick had cast Mislead earlier and so had a copy of himself to move as well. He moved him into the room after my 2nd fireball and discovered he made an excellent target. A lightning bolt shot from the far corner of this large room, where a blue dragon crouched. More importantly, Takkad shouted that there was a larger dragon invisible just 50 or 60 feet away. It too shot lightning at Sedgewick’s illusion, which wasn’t exactly harmed, but the bolt also was aimed at myself and Nolin. I dodged and with my resist, took fairly minor damage. Now with a visible target, though, I dropped a fireball in behind it. Nolin was hurt not at all, but the Usual Suspects (Avia, Sabin, Nolin, and Takkad) dimension doored their hasted selves right next to the larger dragon. Takkad cast Greater Dispel at it – that had only a slight visual effect but Takkad felt it had been pretty successful.

Unbeknownst to most of us, Rigel had invisibly lined herself up to do some serious damage. She pulled out her last arrow of Dragon Slaying, invoked True Strike, and let loose. While her arrow did not, as the name implies, slay it outright, the dragon was very very very upset with her and howled in great distress. Meanwhile, Avia was smiting and slaying and cutting and I think she also got a dozen steaks and a nice roast judging from the way she carved up the dragon. It was dead before anyone could utter “steak sauce”.

Rigel was now visible, of course, and within range of the smaller dragon. I put up an opaque wall of flame between her and the dragon and put myself between her and the dragon until she could become invisible again, but … no worry. Takkad called Destruction upon the smaller dragon, and it obliged him by not dodging destruction.

The battle was over. The big dragon was dead. The little dragon was dead. And outside, still the city hunted for us.

Inside, we were inspecting the bodies to see if they actually carried any magic items. The large dragon did:

[1616] a sihedron ring (yay, this was the goal after all) {Nolin}
[1617] a ring of greater cold resistance which, if nobody objects, I’d like to take. {Trask}

Sabin suggested we identify “the other rings” too. Other rings? Apparently while Takkad had been scrying the giant, Rigel and Kane and Sabin teleported over to raid his personal treasure chest. Really? And I was accused of living dangerously? Sheesh! Anyway, those two rings were

[1614] ring to engage a magical shield, but it was part of a pair and they needed to operate together .. or reciprocally, if I understood correctly.
[1615] ring of invisibility (maybe this is the one they lent to Avia?)

Now there was a pool in this room, and we thought that there might be loot there, or that it might be the RunePool running the alarm around the citadel on the mountain … but no, it wasn’t even magical. There was a dais, or at least raised portion of the room off to one side (I could imagine an art display there had this former government building still been in use). Sedgewick used his secret door detection and found a secret door on the back wall of this dais. It led through an irregularly cut corridor to an apparent dead end, but magic revealed another secret door at that end. There was sounds of commotion on the other side, so we chose not to open it and expose ourselves, but Sedgewick reported later that he heard, through the door and the hubbub, a voice say, “Karn – while everyone is looking for the humans, we should start the rebellion.”

Rebellion. Interesting times we are living in.

Meanwhile, there were some obvious doors on the east side, and Rigel checked them for traps. None. Opened them carefully …

… and found that the dragon we’d killed had been just a wee bit over-neat. Over-organized, perhaps. This was the most meticulously organized dragon hoard I’d ever seen. Well, okay, that’s not much since I’ve only seen three. Let’s just say, the most meticulously organized treasure room I’d ever seen. Coins were stacked. Like items were placed together, rings over here, wands over there. Detect magic told us it was similarly organized along those lines too – non-magic here, magic there.

It made it easy to determine there was about 128,000 silver coins here. (A lot to carry even with bags of holding.) There were about 42,000 gold pieces, and 1040 platinum. We snatched up those last two. But we also found

[1618] gold coffer w/70 gemstones (~20k gp)
[1619] silver bracelet
[1620] jade comb
[1621] red silk gloves with gold thread in a glass display box
[1622] masterwork mithril 1/2 plate
[1623] masterwork breast plate
[1624] banded mail (magic: +2)
[1625] wand of lightning (caster level 6) [23 charges] {Trask}
leather bag with six vials, the first five frozen solid:
[1626] cure light wounds
[1627] cure light wounds
[1628] cure light wounds
[1629] cure light wounds
[1630] owl’s wisdom
[1631] oil of magic vestment +4
[1632] bejewelled ivory scroll tube {Trask}
scroll of keen edge
scroll of unseen servant
[1633] ring of evasion
[1634] rod of extend metamagic (3x per day) {Sabin}

Having located (for some of us) the main reason for killing a dragon, the party continued on with less enthusiasm and alacrity. I’ve noticed that after finding a bunch of valuable things, the group takes on an attitude not unlike that of a person who has just eaten a good, full meal. Yes there are things I should be doing, yes of course I’m with you, but just tell me where to stand and I will support you from there.

That in mind, we continued on. There was another door to inspect yet. It had locks, yet was not locked. We entered and it revealed a ramp up, and more smallish rooms .. really, it looked like we’d entered some office space. Well, except for the area that seemed to have arrow slits; clearly we’d entered the tower.

We found a likely looking room, and I again created a Rope Trick to allow everyone to rest in semi-seclusion. Paranoid because of the ongoing search, Takkad also placed a glyph of warding in the hallway before reaching this room.

It has been a good day. And to think we might not have killed a dragon today had I not been quick enough to escape the grasp and sight of those two runed giants.

Oathsday, 23 Lamashan

Well, the Spared who’d been made undead still needed to be made unundead, so Avia turned on the evil radar and detected them hiding under the stairs. A little while later, the adamantine swords had created an “access panel” and destroyed them. They had been outfitted identically, so we picked up

[1606] 4 sets of +1 padded armor
[1607] 4 +1 bucklers
[1608] 4 +1 rings of protection

However, Avia and Nolin still needed clerical attention to restore them to normal. Nolin was fully restored, but Avia was going to need a bit more before she returned fully to normal. They said they’d finish tomorrow.

We went to Margive at his house and he was most pleased (ecstatic, really, for him) when he found we’d destroyed the evil invisible monster.

(I have this mental image of him trying to convince his friends: no, really, it was a huge but invisible monster and it stole my friends. Now they don’t even talk to me; they just try to harm me. Don’t go in that apparently empty room, or it will get you too.)

Anyway, Takkad was talking to him more about the ice devil from the arena when I caught part of the conversation that startled me.

There are three dragons living here.

I’m thinking maybe I should cast “protection from everything” each morning. Although, perhaps I should learn that spell first …

I do wish my resist energy spell lasted longer than 130 minutes. Maybe I’ll research a means to extend the duration of my spells.

Anyway, we then asked Sedgewick about ice devils. He was able to tell us that yes, they like cold, and they can summon other things but not very often. Beating one often brings accolades and renown. Losing to one simply brings death, however.

Interesting. I suppose it’s a devil so it needs to be dead — it’s become our lot in life. We are a small cleansing cloth, doing our part to remove the grime in the world.

As my spells have become more powerful, I’ve definitely become more of that stand-in-the-back type of sorceror. I can shoot fireballs from quite some distance, and even my lightning bolts have some distance to them. I guess it make sense. I’m never going to be the destructive force that Nolin or Avia, or even Sabin are. At least they get up in the face of the evil we defeat.

Anyway, Avia. That’s right; Karzoug had spoken through her again, much to her distress. We still didn’t know why that was happening, so Takkad decided with some reluctance to bring forth the Peacock quill. “Why,” he penned, “did Avia get chosen to represent Karzoug’s voice rather than Sedgewick?”

“The question,” it wrote back, “is not why he chose her; the question is why she allowed him to.”

Cryptic, per usual. Nolin insisted it meant Avia was weak-willed; this drew the intense focus of Avia. Since the quill was out anyway, both Sedgewick and Avia tried penning questions about the force field surrounding the citadel, but the pen responded not.

This caused Sedgewick to sit and ponder a bit. After casting a spell of legend and lore, he said he suddenly remembered a few things about the quill.

1) no one who has a quill ever runs out of ink.
2) It can be asked a question to be answered in the near term as a guide to actions
3) On a much less frequent basis, it can be called upon to communicate with the nether worlds.

There was some undetermined limit to how often it could be asked to do something. But that told us that it probably was ignoring Sedgewick and Avia simply because it had already very recently answered a question.

So instead, we discussed how to prepare for battle against the ice devil Cricket. We’d want resist cold, certainly, and I think mirror image on myself would be a smart move. It’s certainly saved Sabin’s bacon more than once.

We again hused the Rope Trick to provide a more hidden rest area.

Fireday, 24 Lamashan

It was very early in the morning Fireday when during his watch, Sabin roused us. Cricket was scouting the room below us. He’d apparently decided not to wait for us to come to him. But how did he find us? Or at least find the room we were in? This underground was vast.

That didn’t bode well.

We quietly prepared ourselves. If we went down the rope, it would have to be one at a time and that would mean the devil could pick us off one by one. Our strength was in numbers. Dispelling the spell would cause all of us to drop to the ground at once. Not optimal, but it did put us all into battle at the same time.

This meant we had some time to prepare, and it gave me an opportunity to haste everyone before we dropped. Kane threw protection from cold on Sabin, and Sedgewick started to sing. Rigel went invisible – a little ring action there I suspect – and Sabin cast fly on Nolin. I was able to cast resist cold on myself, and Sabin threw a displacement on himself.

Then the rope disappeared, the heavens opened, and we rained down into the room. Things began in earnest.

Cricket was already floating above the ground (hence the fly spell) when we appeared. We prepared to use our usual strategy of teleporting the fighters directly to the fight, when to everyone’s surprise (including Avia’s) Avia again spoke:

“These people teleport to their foes during battle. Slay them all now!”

Despite the warning, Sabin was able to dimensin door per usual, but it was nevertheless distressing to have our strategy revealed in such a way. Nolin immediately marked him up pretty good.

Cricket moved away (and Nolin, Sabin, and Avia all made him pay for that maneuver) and then teleported.

Crap. Where would he go? Only place we knew of was his “box” in the coliseum. Quickly we divided into our usual teleport teams (I had Kane, Sedgewick, and Rigel) and we tried to teleport into his box.

We were largely successful. Of course, the dread wraiths we’d seen earlier were still there, and immediately turned on us. I was able to get a fireball on them before they got so close that a fireball would have too much impact on friends.

The wraiths were awful. They took health and sometimes stamina everytime they struck. Rigel and Sedgewick both found their stamina diminishing, while nearly everyone else at least got wounded. I’d just put up a wall of fire to make them back off when Nolin announced from his aerial position that the ice devil was in the middle of the stadium and approaching (a couple of dozen feet off the ground).

I put the wraiths between two walls of fire, making them very unhappy. The ice devil shot a cone of cold at us, clipping part of a wall of fire and making me very glad that I’d cast resist cold on myself. My damage was minimal. Others weren’t as lucky.

Kane accomplished a way cool thing. He banished the devil, and it returned most unwillingly to his plane. Remind me never to really piss him off. Takkad channeled a great deal of vengeful, painful (to the wraiths) positive energy and they were most upset. And stuck.

Wraiths finally began to drop. Sabin nailed the last one, just after Avia again provided us with color commentary from Karzoug: “The devil wasn’t important. You will all be mine in the end.”

Yeah. Those grapes were sour anyway. Snicker.

I was not terribly injured, but I was definitely the minority. The clerics went about healing (and restoring, as needed) the injured. Since we’d been awakened, most of us had not regained any spells or a full amount of rest, so we definitely needed to recharge. Another attack now would be … unfortunate.

Still, we needed to nail a couple of things down. Avia was not the only one annoyed by the interruptive commentary from Karzoug, and we began to puzzle it out. Could the sihedron she wore be permitting or enabling scrying? Several of us have the medallions, but Avia was alone in wearing hers. Sabin cast detect scrying .. and found that yes, Avia was being scryed. She reluctantly took off the medallion .. and she was no longer being scryed.

Given that our rope trick was probably not a secret anymore, we decided to set it up in an out-of-the-way place here, while I used teleport to go to our previous camp (the vampire room) and set up a fake camp, complete with its own rope trick. I’ll never know if anybody was frustrated by that (I expect the spell will harmlessly expire) but I’d like to think they were.

I did leave a note in the ethereal space: “Sorry we missed you. Please set up an appointment next time.”

When the ice devil was banished, his weapon was not, and it clattered to the ground. We now retrieved it and identified it.

[1609] +4 returning spear, icy burst +1d6 cold, crit 19-20 plus addl 2d10 cold upon crit

Pretty nifty.

There was also some chests in the ice devil’s box.

[1610] Darkwood chest with 8-10k of gold
[1611] Darkwood chest with 400-500 platinum
[1612] Darkwood chest with ~1500gp of gems and jewelry
[1613] Sihedron ring (Kane)

(later)

Finally, we got a full rest.

Margive told us that “masters of the bad men” wore the sihedron rings. Takkad did a divination that said to pass through the forcefield we need to appear like Karzoug’s servants. Combine those two, and we decided we needed to find more powerful allies to kill, and snatch their jewelry.

We all windwalked through the city, looking for powerful beings to anger. We checked Karzoug’s temple – nope, nobody there seemed powerful enough to annoy.

We found where a dragon probably lives in the city, and decided that perhaps we weren’t quite ready to annoy a dragon yet.

Then, moving higher into the city, we found a giant with tattoos similar to those Mokmurian had had .. but much larger. He was a frost giant. He seemed to be giving orders to others, who seemed to be giving him much deference.

Target selected! Mischief managed!

We took a quick side trip to the mountain again to see if the rings offered safe passage through the forcefield. It did.

Time to go plan our injuries. Er, I mean battle.

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

<

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?

5 Lamashan, Sunday

So at long last, we decided to forego further testing of our thermal fortitude and leave the higher latitudes behind. We teleported back to the library to “prepare”.

Really, all we needed to “prepare” was to get a good night’s sleep and remember some spells. Well, I think Takkad did want to go to Magnimar to buy some goggles of darkness, and Sedgewick picked up some special crossbow bolts. Myself, I felt pretty prepared. But then Avia decided she wanted to get one of the whirly stones, and Takkad also wanted to talk to the mayor. Nolin said he was interested in going too, so I agreed to teleport everybody there tomorrow.

6 Lamashan, Moonday

What a delightful day at Magnimar. We soooo yanked Takkad’s chain. I think to properly record this, I will need to write it as though it were written as a prophecy. Ahem …

And it shall come to pass in those days, that the Wandering Man, the Master of Fire, Her Lady of Holy Pain, He Who Shatters Doors, and the Illustrator shall come together in the City of Lesser Glamor. And while they shall arrive as one, they shall depart as many. For it is said that Her Lady and the Illustrator shall seek out the Stones of Whirliness, and though they be scarce, they shall find them with but a wee bit of searching. And yea, the Man of Wandering shall see through the Darkness, and both he and the Illustrator shall find cold iron to thwart their enemies.

And as a group they shall seek audience with the Leader of the City of Lesser Glamor, but lo, they shall desire two different Paths.

One Path, the path of Light, shall require camaraderie, bonding, and demonstrations among peers before finally consummating in arriving at a time with which to confer with the Leader. And much merriment shall be had before the Meeting.

But the other Path, the path of Dark and Haste and Avoidance of Camaraderie, shall also be proposed. And there will be those who strongly desire one Path over the other, and those who Could Care Less. Yet both Paths cannot be taken; one must must be taken while the other is discarded.

And only one among them can return all of them to their origins, and he shall favor one Path over another.

And it shall come to pass that after the moon has risen, a Message shall arrive on the wind to the Wandering Man, seeking his whereabouts. And he shall reiterate again, out loud this time to the Shunned Mage, that the Path they are taking is not one of his choosing, and shall wonder Out Loud if others have Lost Their Minds.

Upon receiving this communication, the Shunned Mage shall make himself present, thus choosing one Path but avoiding the Desirable One, and shall directly and summarily return himself, Her Ladyship, and the Aimless One to whence they’d come, leaving the rest to their Path. Using Foul Magic, the Leader shall be informed despite the possibility of Great Camaraderie.

And so a Meeting Time for the following day shall not be made, and the remainder of the group shall return very late in the Evening but full of mirth and song.

Thus endeth the prophecy.

7 Lamashan, Toilday

It turns out that while we were in Magnimar the previous day, Kane had asked some questions of Desna and one of them was to learn whether fasting was really necessary to discern the path to Xin Shalast. And the answer was, no, it wasn’t. Takkad was curious, though, as to whether it made a difference and decided to fast beforehand anyway as an experiment.

Having acquired, we thought, all we needed we teleported to the cabin in the morning, and then used windwalk to make our way upstream. The wind did increase, but although it slowed us we still made progress much faster than walking would be. We found what we believed to be the tributary Ava, and in short order we did indeed see a tall and beautiful waterfall. If we were walking or boating, it would present a formidable obstacle, but in gaseous form we traversed it easily.

Finally we came to what seemed to be a frozen lake which seemed to be the source of what seemed to be the river. If you’re detecting some skepticism, you’re very perceptive. Increasingly, it seems, things are not what they seem.

As we solidified at the short of the lake, two things quickly became apparent to us. It was indeed very cold, and the air was indeed very thin. Endure elements had been cast on all of us, so the cold was noticeable but not dangerous, but few of us had any means to breathe when air was scarce. I noticed that one got tired more easily, and seemed to have less endurance or stamina at this altitude, and I realized that it might be prudent to obtain some magical means to improve upon this.

The lake, it turns out, was actually a marsh (but still frozen). If one walked carefully out on the fairly clear ice, one could see that sometimes the bottom was mere inches away while other times it was measured in feet. At this altitude, there wasn’t the usual collection of marsh grass and plants, and certainly there didn’t seem to be any animals or life. Instead, I observed that there seemed to be some fungi and lichen growing here.

Takkad cast True Seeing and went looking around the lake in windwalk form to cover as much ground as possible, but found nothing out of the ordinary.

It occurred to me that one way around the thin air problem might be a rope trick. And it turned out that worked very well – we waited for Nolin and Takkad inside the rope trick, a bit cozy but at least comfortable.

I thought it was just myself, but in talking with the others I found that when outside, there was also this growing unease, like something was wrong or out of place. It wasn’t so strong as to be distracting, but was apparently real, nonetheless.

Takkad tried a number of other things, including using a rock to simulate a moon, and asking the peacock quill for clues (it basically said, “you’re in the right place; wait for the moon”). Having learned pretty much everything we could (or so we thought), we decided to teleport back to the library and come back the night of the full moon.

But, um, it failed. Something was resisting me, and a couple of attempts to teleport back to the library failed. We decided to make our way back to the place below the falls and try again from there. And when we’d made it below that big falls, we found the feeling of unease was no longer present.

Unfortunately, neither was Rigel nor Nolin. We weren’t quite sure when we’d lost them, but looking around, we realized they were not with us.

Since windwalk had expired, I cast Fly on myself and flew back to look for them. I was worried that something bad and evil had happened to them, and since Fly doesn’t last nearly as long as windwalk, I needed to recast it a few times. But it still took about 45 minutes, and when I found them they were right back at the lake, sitting around a fire they’d built. They insisted that they’d followed us faithfully, except for some reason they’d ended up right back where they’d started.

This feeling of unease appeared to be more than a feeling. Whatever blocked teleport also appeared to confuse direction. Another thing to make finding Xin Shalast a challenge!

The rest of the group arrived within an hour.

We decided to spend the night in a rope trick while recovering our various spells, then start anew in the morning. Just for grins, I kept trying to teleport out, and finally succeeded! That proved it was possible, if difficult. From the library, I then tried to teleport back in … and that used up all my fifth AND sixth level slots before succeeding. So again – it was possible to teleport in, but by no means a sure thing. Sabin determined that dimension door, which covers a lot less ground, seemed to work okay. Maybe because it stayed within the “field” we seemed to be in.

8 Lamashan, Wealday

Takkad windwalked us all again, and led us down the mountain. Or seemed to. He actually led us to another mountain nearby – quite certain the whole time that we were heading in the right direction. He tried again only to lead us north of the lake. The third time I tried to lead us, and it seemed to work. And once the unease was behind us, teleport worked reliably, and we all made it back to the library.

Kane and Takkad talked about intersecting planes being a reason for the disorientation, but I quickly lost track of the points they were making. It apparently was enlightening to the two of them and the rest of us just found other stuff to do. We have until 21 Lamashan before the full moon, so there’s plenty of time for discussion, or research or whatever. Or acquisition — I think a Necklace of Adapation might help considerably with the breathing issues.

Takkad seems less eager to teleport with me to Magnimar, but does also want to obtain some sort of breathing aid. Rigel and Nolin feel they’ll be okay.

20 Lamashan, Moonday

Since my last entry, Kane and Takkad obtained whirlistones that let them breath. Expensive buggers, but they were already wearing amulets or necklaces so they couldn’t use the cheaper alternatives. We also bought three rods of extension, which can make spells last longer.

Armed with portable air, we are ready to return. So we teleported to the five mile point, assumed windwalk form, and made our way back to the lake. I created another Rope Trick for us to wait in, and we wait. Every now and then a couple of us would go down and look around, but, well, nothing.

Finally the moon rose above the mountain peaks around us and shone on our area. And still nothing had changed … but wait. Takkad claimed he could see a trail – path, really. It looked like the river Ava had an old bed that was now clearly visible … to him and him alone. Maybe fasting wasn’t necessary, but clearly some sort of distress somehow aided this vision.

With Takkad as our guide, we proceeded ever higher and ever more north up the mountain.

We were only a mile or so north of the lake when we came upon a fallen tree, and a young lady, naked, sitting on the fallen tree. Sedgewick tried to address her in Thassalonian, but she looked at him strangely. Her ears suggested she might be elven, but Avia thought they were the wrong shape. I stepped up and asked her, “Do you live here?” (yes) and “Do you like visitors?” (ok).

Turns out she understands common fine, but not Thassilonian. She is an ice nymph, and a druid. She knows of us from our experiences with her cousin in Turtleback Ferry. She’s willing to help us but only in a guiding sense. Her name is Svenka. She led us a ways further until we reached a 100-ft wide paved road. The bricks were golden, but a close inspection showed them only gilded, not solid gold bricks. Still, pretty ostentatious.

She pointed out the sentries, at the top of some high cliffs, and said she could go no further. Sabin used arcane eye to spy upon them and found that the sentries were cloud giants. Sending it further into the city, we discovered the ancient city had a population of hundreds, maybe thousands. So far as we knew, this could represent a substantial defending force. This was not going to be as simple as Runeforge; a little more subtlety was going to be needed.

But first, Rigel and Nolin were admitting that with 20/20 hindsight, perhaps some sort of breathing apparatus would be helpful. Since we’d pretty much exhausted the market in Magnimar, I offered to take them to Korvosa. Assuming, of course, that I could get teleport to work.

We decided to Rope Trick overnight, and with a fresh batch of spells, attempt to teleport Rigel, Nolin, and myself to Korvosa.

21 Lamashan, Toilday

It took many attempts, but I did finally get us to Korvosa. Fortunately, we could find two more Necklaces of Adaptation. Unfortunately, my spells ran out before successfully teleporting back. With a disproportionate amount of glee, Nolin suggested we stay at my parents’ overnight and try again in the morning.

It wasn’t all that long since I’d last visited, and I didn’t want to surprise them. Yet, here we were and I had to admit it made more sense to stay with them than to use money for rooms in town.

So with a heavy heart, we arrived at my parent’s door. It was easy to see that Mother was surprised at our arrival but she smiled at Nolin’s visage. How much DID they talk about last time?

My father wasn’t home at the time, but Mother hastily prepared the rooms we’d used a month or two earlier. Rigel made me nervous by repeatedly eyeing the furnishings and utensils as if she was doing some sort of mental audit. Nolin found himself a comfortable place on the patio.

It wasn’t too long before Father returned, and he was pleased to see us again so soon. For someone who essentially shoved me politely towards the door just a couple of years ago, he certainly seemed happy to see me and my friends.

“Trask!” he exclaimed. “Back again so soon? I see you brought Nolin again, and Rachel!”

“Rigel,” I said, hanging my head. “It’s Rigel.”

“Right!” he said. “So ..” and his voice dropped to a stage whisper, “you two have resolved your issues?”

“Father, there were, and are, no issues. She just couldn’t come last time. No, we’re here because I need to rest and regain some spells. The rest of our group is ..” I hesitated, “… in an area partially shielded from magic, and teleport is not always successful.”

He frowned. “Perhaps if a more experienced sorceror were to try. Where is this place? Perhaps I’m familiar with it.”

“No, Father. It’s no place you’ve ever been. It’s in the mountains in the far north.”

“Is this still chasing that Runelord thing?”

“Yes, Father, it’s related to that. But the air is very thin in the mountains, and we returned to get some necklaces of adaptation to improve our breathing.”

“So, there’s nothing I can do to help? Say, what if I came along?”

“What if you just worry about the shop?” my mother called from the next room. “You’re done adventuring; quit trying to come up with a reason to pick it up again.”

“Yes, dear,” lamented my father. “Although, I -”

“No ‘although’ about it. We have a deal, remember?”

Father gave me a look and a shrug. “Let me know how this all works out. I’ll drop you a sending from time to time.” He retired to his den, and I was left looking at my friends.

Nolin grinned and said, “I love your family!”

Rigel said carefully, “It’s never boring here.”

I rolled my eyes at them both and went to get ready for lunch. Tomorrow morning I can try teleporting us back again.

(Later)

Received a sending from Sabin. Told him I’d have to sleep and we’d try again tomorrow. Maybe they can arrange to kill the guards before we get back.

5 Lamasha, Starday

As Sabin touched the body, several of us started to (uselessly) yell No. No is a simple word, and understood by even simple people, but it is wholly ineffective at stopping something that has already happened. I’m not at all convinced that Sabin doesn’t interpret “No” to mean “please hurry and finish before I reach you”. But in this case it made no matter – the body had been disturbed even though prudence might have had us take a few more notes or observations first.

Despite the unnatural fog, this was clearly a small graveyard. Digging in the ground here must be possible only during certain small times of the year, so it didn’t surprise me that some gravestones seemed to mark very shallow cairns, as though they were a combination of digging and rock piling.

The dwarf, which we presumed to be Karvek Vekkers, seemed to have burned off his feet (or had his feet burned off after his death). He was, at this point, a solid frozen chunk. But as he was touched, a ghostly figure rose from the body. The figure seemed to have burned-off feet, significant fangs (not simply an incidental dental issue), and glowing red eyes. He seemed unhappy that we touched the body. He randomly (I assume) attacked Avia.

Now, it seems blatantly unfair. Ghosts are translucent and you can’t easily touch them; why is it they can so easily affect us on the material plane? Shouldn’t we be as hard to discomfort as they are difficult to affect to us? I mean, simply being frightening is one thing, but shouldn’t there be a little symmetry here?? Why don’t we frighten ghosts? They shouldn’t be able to do physical damage.

Ah well, coulda shoulda woulda. Avia was indeed harmed by the ghost, taking some deep scratches as the ghost emitted an unearthly moan. But Takkad channelled positive energy into the ghost, I did some scorching rays, Sabin shot some magic missiles, and Avia gave as good as she got and the ghost quickly dissipated.

Sabin picked up the remains – enchanted armor and all – and we headed back to the cabin. While the ghost had given out a, well, ghostly, moan, now we were hearing really disturbing howling off in the distance. It was distracting, and made me nervous. Rigel, Sedgewick, and eventually Kane felt that way too … but Kane pulled out a wand of Remove Fear and the feeling left me. Weird that just a howl could do that – I’ve faced down giants and bigger and never felt terribly scared.

And – was it my imagination or was the wind picking up? I couldn’t tell if it had started snowing or it was just blowing around. The wind did seem stronger, and when I mentioned it to the group, a couple of people nodded.

By the time we reached the cabin, there was no question that the weather had changed. It was definitely snowing, the wind was much stronger, and you could hear it making noises, almost like voices in the wind. Sedgewick mentioned he thought it was possible that druids could control the weather, which really was not a comforting thought.

The wind and ice made it a challenge just to enter the cabin safely, but with care we did. We took the body downstairs to where we’d seen Silas’s ghost.

As we brought the body into the room, Silas’s ghost re-manifested. There was a look of profound sadness and .. was it forgiveness? … on his face. Then surprisingly, the body disintegrated into dust and Karvik’s ghost reappeared – fangs and stumps and red eyes and all. But this time the eyes were focused on his brother. The two seemed to be having some sort of monumental staring contest …

… as the wind increased further and made the cabin shake. There was another howl right upstairs! Rigel panicked, but Kane again zapped her with his Remove Fear wand and she settled down. Nevertheless, she became invisible, which guaranteed if she bolted again we’d never know. Sabin grimly went to mirror image and Avia cast a protection from evil. While there was nothing to fight yet, everyone was on edge.

And still the staring contest went on.

This time the howling was right outside the outside door for this room and something beat on the door. Nolin and Kane totally panicked and crouched cowering on the other side of the room. Thinking that perhaps the door was going to be busted down, I put up a wall of force across that entire wall, including the door. Anything that busted it down would find an invisible barrier.

Avia grabbed the wand of Remove Fear from Kane (he was in no condition to object) and zapped him and Nolin. Upstairs was the sound of shattering glass. Either the wind had gotten very strong, or something had broken in. I was not the only one to hear this – Sabin dimension doored himself, Avia, Kane, and Sedgewick up to the hallway. I was going to go, but decided I should stay here in case something tried to break in. Nolin and Rigel (we found later) went up the stairs. Takkad flew up the center of the shaft.

Suddenly, I found myself alone down there. And still the staring contest went on.

Meanwhile, upstairs, the team had dimension doored pretty close to the object of their hunt. A creature was there in the south room with stumps for legs, like Karvek, and glowing red eyes, like Karvek, but with an elk’s head and a humanoid body. It had fangs and claws and looked decidedly out of place in the natural order of things. And when Avia moved to close with it, as she naturally tends to do, it actually tried to grapple her. She held it off but still took some damage from its claws and teeth. These were close quarters and it took some maneuvering for Avia and Sabin to fight effectively.

And still the staring contest went on. Nervously, I cast mirror image. There was no longer any beating on the door.

This time, the creature successfully grappled Avia. It was incredibly strong. Sabin beat upon it, drawing blood. Kane withdrew slightly, leaving room for the fighters but remaining close enough to be an effective healer. That’s when the second creature – yes, a second one of these monstrosities – broke the window in the kitchen and climbed through, much to Kane’s distress. Mindful of the grappling ability, he cast Freedom of Movement on himself and prepared to do what he could to defend what had been the rear of the group. Takkad, his attention diverted to the new threat, threw a Flame Strike at it, which it did not appreciate – but it also did not do us the favor of dying from it.

And still the staring contest went on. I could hear noises upstairs. “Uh, what’s going on up there?” I yelled up. Other than the whistling wind, it was now quiet down here. It sounded like my friends needed help, so I teleported up to the kitchen.

Despite Sabin and Avia beating on the first beast, it managed to grab Avia in its mouth and turned to leave. That was it? Collecting food? or victims? Not wanting it to escape, Takkad used Wall of Stone to block off its exit. It howled in anger (but howling with your mouth full of Avia obviously mutes the full effect.)

About this time I arrived in the kitchen; popping in right next to the second beast. While it may have been startled, it adapted quickly. I tossed some lightning its way, but it was a fairly weak bolt. For its part, it bit me and tried to hold me in its mouth much like the other had with Avia. Nolin smacked it hard, but it held on. I cast enlarge person on myself, to make myself harder to hold on to. And I was, but not so large it still couldn’t wrap its maw around me.

Meanwhile, the beast holding Avia was encouraged by sword and crossbow to release Avia. Then Rigel appeared from nowhere (literally) and shot a flaming arrow in its face. Boom. Dead critter. Rigel knows how to make a good entrance. Everyone hurried into the room with the other creature.

But in the meantime, it had stepped outside through the opening it had made in the cabin and was preparing to fly off. I may have been pinned, but I still had one more trick up my sleeve. Once a day I can breathe fire due to my heritage, and this was time. I turned my head to face the beast and unleashed an upchuck o’ fire upon this creature that seemed to so embrace cold. Take that. It was MOST unhappy with me. But it was not yet dead.

It was Nolin who struck it down in the nick of time — although I have been studying magic skills which might have allowed me to cast other spells to free myself even while pinned.

Takkad spread healing all around, and life was good again. I could tell my friends were impressed with my bravery at taking on such a creature just to save Kane.

I and the others hurried back downstairs. And still the staring contest went on.

It took, literally, minutes. Karvek’s face looked less angry and more tired. His fangs and claws disappeared, and he slowly faded away. Silas turned to us and thanked us. Then he said, “If you insist on going to that place, you may find the way by looking at the pages in my journal.” He started to fade and I yelled, “Hey! But somebody ripped them out!” He smiled and as he disappeared, some pages materialized and floated out of the air to the ground before us.

Takkad and I both scanned through them.

A path described as a grueling physical trail, even if it weren’t for the strange, otherworldly influences. There is a disorienting effect. It’s easy to get lost. No wonder it’s been hidden for 10,000 years.

Continue up the Kazeron to the 2nd tributary. The River Avah is a winding route not for the faint of heart. There are no banks; only walls up to 300 feet tall. The waters of Avah are freezing cold, yet never freeze, themselves. The air grows thin, and the sky is the deepest blue. When you arrive at the ice mists, you will be very near the world’s roof itself, at the River Avah’s source. Wait and fast here until a night with a full moon. Then the remaining way will be revealed to you.

Sigh. I hope there’s a fire inside. Sounds like we’re going to get pretty cold getting there.