Author Archives: Darren

Sabin’s Journal for June

The permanent teleport circles in the halls of wrath are kind of cool. The amount of resources put into magic devices and traps in Runeforge are pretty mind blowing.

Ten thousand years ago this must have been an amazing place for magic, although half-ocs would likely not be allowed into RuneForge. The Runelord’s were each trying to gain control of the entire empire so they would have only worked together if there was no other choice. The only options that I see are that they either had to work together to create this powerful RuneForge or that first king Xin actually created the RuneForge and this is beyond even the Runelord’s abilities. We know that the RuneLords would not corporate on something like this unless there was no other option. I really like the idea that maybe the RuneLords created there little realms attached to the RuneForge because it was magic that they did not even fully understand. It is also interesting that the RuneLords themselves put wards and protections to prevent Runelord’s or agents of the RuneLord’s from entering RuneForge. The fact that they place wards and protections to prevent each other from entering into RuneForge means that they must have had a way to get out.

We still don’t really understand what the RuneForge is capable of doing. We know from the journal that we can enchant weapons to help with Karzoug but what about armor?  Thus far we have not found any written instructions on how to use the RuneForge. The mysteries of how it works are also beyond our current understanding. It’s hard to believe that this information was not written down. We have almost been to all of the RuneLords private areas and we soon need to see if we can get out and what RuneForge actually does. Tomorrow we are going back into the halls of Wrath to finish the exploration and meet the head mistress. Everyone else here just wants to kill us so I expect that will be the same.

I had been wondered about using blur or displacement with mirror image and today I found out first hand that this is a very effective protection from targeted attacks. It does not provide protection from magic missile or spells like fireball but it is still a good combination. For fireball fire shield is a great secondary protection plus maybe shield for magic missile. The way Avia and Nolan normally take out people the battle could be over before I was finish casting all of these spells. The battle with the Eldritch knights, or what ever they called in the empire, really uncovered that I am missing area affect spells that could bypass these type of protections. I technically learned fireball but I just don’t like fire magic. For the dragon it just seemed like what was needed/expected from a wizard but it just feels wrong. Luckily my two fire spells burning hands and fireball are not in the blessed spellbook, fire shield is technically a fire and cold spell but I plan to normally use the cold shield, so I am calling the spell cold shield. I have decided to not copy the spells fireball and burning hands into the blessed spellbook. Once I get the other spells copied out I am going to leave my backup spellbook someplace; maybe the library, under Sabin’s first spellbook. Thousands of years from now some adventuring party will find the library and wonder why somebody named Sabin would leave a spellbook in the library.

As I started to write before we have cleared a portion of the hall of wrath, If this one is similar to the size of the other halls we may have cleared most of the hall of Wrath. The Eldritch knights prepared for us effectively used displacement or blur with mirror image plus they kept throwing fireballs at us, Very annoying. The blade barrier and the holy flame brought down on the Eldritch knights by Takkad was impressive. One of the stupid Eldritch knights actually thought that he could run throw the blade barrier. Too bad for them that conjuration spells such as dimension door are not allow to them, likewise the abjuration elemental protections spells are on there prohibited school list. That should make Trask happy. With the prohibited school of conjuration it is very clear that someone else helped them create the teleport circles given that Alaznist’s followers don’t use spells form the abjuration and conjuration schools. It seems very odd that her section of RuneForge utilizes something her followers shouldn’t be able to use.

Off to the teleport circle to the left was the fireball ambush. Although it did not seem to work as well as they would have preferred. The funny part was that today Avia showed that she can be a big time healer and Takkad showed off his combat skill. As we entered the room we found that Trask had walled 2 of the fighters behind a wall of force and Takkad had trapped one behind a wall of stone. The enforcer Kane had the fighters behind the wall of force cowering against the wall so I went over to frighten the a little more since it was obvious that Avia and Nolan would likely kill the main guard in front of the shadow curtain before I would be able to get there. With all three guards killed we waited a little while to open up the stone cage Takkad create to trap one of the fighters.

The main guard said that we were not worthy to meet or challenge the mistress, we never really figured out what that meant although I can’t help but think that we missed something in the fog of battle.

Off to the right circles of teleport we found a group of them planned how to save there bloodlines. Without there protection spells they were no match for us and they were quickly dispatched. Rigal stepped into the portal without waiting for the agreed upon amount of time, Taking Rigal’s lead I also stepped into the circle and almost landed on Nolan. In the craziness of going through the portal the dimension door missed Avia, I really hoped that she would be within reach of Nolan but alas she was not. I was able to test out the swipe spell the final fighter. I gave him the option to surrender but he chose death. I guess he would rather die following what he believes in rather than betray his belief, we respected his choice. In here we found a bunch of paper work that mainly related to the fact that they were trying to revive there elders that they converted to sinspawn. Turns out they needed there elders to increase there breeding pool. I would have though that focusing on capturing us would have been a good way to solve that problem.

We decided to leave Wrath for the day to regain spells. It is early in the day so I have an opportunity to learn some spells today. Karzoug’s special spell Blood Money is a very power spell for any of my spells that require materials components greater than 1GB. If I didn’t have Eschew materials it would be useful for other spells, but I really like Eschew materials. If  I could get Kane or Takkad to provide a lesser restoration this would is a good way to cheaply cast true seeing, that is in the future when I am actually capable of casting the spell. This also opens up the option to learning and using stoneskin. Maybe when we get out of here I can see if Rarallo can create a special command word magic item that would allow me to use lesser restoration a couple times a day. While doing research on the different ways to create magic items I discovered that putting restrictions on such items reduces the material costs required to create such an item. Looking back through my notes I see that I can reduce the cost of a command work magic item by reducing the number of times that it can be used per day and aligning the item to a specific trait. I would just have to figure out which trait feels right, maybe fighter. I have always seen this used as a touch spell so the ideal items to place this on would be bracers or gloves.

For all of the wonder and power of the runelords and Rune magic you would think that they would have created a spell to help make life more comfortable. Something like create beer would be a wonderful spell for a wizard trapped in RuneForge for the rest of his or her life. I suspect during the height of the empire there must have been a way to get supplies into RuneForge without trapping more people inside. There also has to be a way for the RuneForge wizards to get objects out to the main world.

I have been watching and admiring the maps that Takkad puts in his journal. Every time he brings them out so that we can review where we have been it is impressive.   I have decided that today I would start recording maps into my journal as well. Takkad seems to really enjoy his time spent creating these maps and I have learned that a lot of parents try to teach there children to respect there elders. That is a little strange to me as I was taught to fear my elders. Someday I may need to rid the world of the clan that I was born into. I am sure the Shoanti people would benefit greatly from the extinction of the clan. The Shoanti have long been victimized by the clan and it is very likely that my father was of Shoanti blood.  Shoanti are wanders so maybe map making is a natural thing for them and maybe I can find it as fulfilling as Takkad. Ok here we go.

…

After many attempts to draw this map I have come to the conclusion to give up drawing maps. My maps suck, I suppose that with effort I would get better at drawing the maps but this is clearly not something I enjoy doing. I actually have decided that I really hate drawing maps. It is right up there with listening to Trask and Sedjwick talk on and on about some uninteresting detail. I was able to use erase to get rid of one of the attempted drawing and luckily I was smart enough use the back of the journal for most of the very bad attempts to draw a straight line. I will regain those other 15 pages at the back of the journal over time as I have available spell slots. What a waste of ink.

In frustration I made a few laps around the greed hall to work off the frustration of the failed map making attempts, luckily here in the hall of greed one can walk in a circle. On the third time around I stopped to talk with our watery friends. They told me an ancient story about one of there great hero’s. There were a lot of culture references to people, places and events that were unfamiliar to me. I could understand all of the word spoken in there language but with out the cultural references I couldn’t really understand the whole story. I am pretty sure the story relates to the discovery of the tasty food gold fish. GOLD FISH! All this time I was aware that the trap here at the entrance was a baleful phymorph that was transmuting the people into gold fish. We have been passing by these fountains for days and it never even occurred to me that we could break the phymorph enchantment to bring back people and question them. They might be grateful to us for freeing them and provide critical RuneForge details. Worse case is that we have to kill them and take all of there magic equipment. Although we either need to move the gold fish out of the fountains or break the enchantment soon before they are eaten.

Sabin’s journal entry for May

Once again we used dimension door to get cozy with the toughest looking opponent. Kazaven was a pretty nasty lich hiding behind a wall of force. Luckily for us he left enough room for at least 3 of us. Do to the wall of force Takkad was left on the other side of the wall with the summoned Devourer’s. In this case Takkad’s will in preventing this summoned created from touching him was stronger then there desire to hurt him. Takkad’s protection from evil was a perfect match for these creatures. I wonder if he even remembered to bring a weapon with him today.

All seemed to be going our way when the lich Kazaven vanished out of combat choosing to hide next to his phylactery. I burned one of the two locate creature scrolls only to get a confusing reading. As it turns out that Kazaven was directly below. Even with the magic of a mass vampric touch draining away our health we were able to dispatch his current physical body. We then turned our attention to destroying his phylactery. It was about that time that Rigal proclaimed that the trap had been disabled. She was still invisible at the time but we all recognized her voice.  We found his spellbooks in one of the sarcophagus, along with some other spellbooks that he obviously collected from the others. In the third sarcophagus were coins, gems and such. We collected all of the values and every book to take back to our RuneForge base.

Back at Karzoug’s little corner of this world Takkad begins learning to inscribe runes. There are some very cool effects but also very expense. Sedgewick was reading something. Wait until we show him the library. I myself spent the evening learning Deathwine and Swipe spells plus looking over Karzoug’s favorite transformation spells.  I have been trying to figure out how enchantment and illusion magically enchanted weapons could be used to tear down a transformation guarded fortress. Looking through the transformation magic in our spellbooks some of the things we have already faced jump out: reduce person, reverse gravity, slow, baleful polymorph, disintegrate, and flesh to stone. There is also time stop, Ethereal Jaunt, iron body, and various shape changing spells (elemental, dragon, etc) that could come into play. This list of transformation spell concentrated at Karzoug’s fortress in Xin-Shalast by them selves could create traps that would keep people out even after all of this time. You cannot get very far if you get turned into a gold fish or a statue!

After a longer than expected conversation with Sedgewick I was able to get Vraxeris’s journal back into my hands. He was still going on about something as I turned and walked away. In the future we really need to get Trask and Sedgewick to ride along side each other; I am not entirely certain if either of them would realize that the other is talking.

Going back through Vraxeris’s journal I was looking for some answers; is there other transformation magic a work here that requires special enchanted weapons? Baleful polymorph, flesh to stone, etc have to be an issue for Vraxeris’s followers  he was planning to go to Karzoug’s fortress. I am beginning to wonder if the combination of illusion and enchantment magic is to provide protection against the transformation magic instead of providing a greater ability to inflict damage. Maybe the magic fools the defenses into not activating or absorbing the magic in some way, like mirror image prevents me from taking damage. Protection against Baleful polymorph and flesh to stone just has to be something that Vraxeris was trying to overcome. Without an answer for these two spells affects I just don’t see how they expect to be successful. I am only guessing at the defenses of the keep but given 10,000+ years have passed it seems like the biggest challenge is surviving the transformation defenses.

Re-reading Vraxeris’s journal he states that   “the occlusion field around Karzoug’s fortress in Xin-Shalast has a flaw”. I really wish that he would have been more descriptive to explain details on what is the occlusion field around Karzoug’s fortress. I originally thought that this is something that we would have to break through to get inside but if this is based on transformation magic then maybe you just have to survive the journey through the field. Surviving a field based on Baleful polymorph or flesh to stone would be enough to defeat most attempts to breach the inter fortress. So maybe just maybe the enchantments are to provide protection and not to provide the ability to damage. The information at hand indicates that there are a limited number of enchantments available at the runewell. If this is indeed a protection from transformation magic that we can only provide to a few in the party then we need to protect those that can revive the party after being affected by transformation magic.

Before we move against Karzoug’s fortress we need to make sure that we have spells and scrolls to counter transformation magic. Scrolls of break enchantment and some additional stone to flesh scrolls could be the difference between defeating Karzoug and becoming a gold fish.

In Vraxeris’s journal he stated “I have taken steps toward an alliance with Delvahine. She may be able to escape this place, for she was not of the original blood”. It is not clear at least to me if original blood is related to a period of time or simply someone entering RuneForge through the main portal. I am also not clear if the Vraxeris’s master circle  built in the halls of wrath will be the way out of the Runeforge or not. I have been wondering if our friendly water mephit’s might be the key to us getting out of this place. Maybe the master circle in the hall of wrath’s will provide our escape, tomorrow we start investigating the halls of wrath. Thus far it appears that each hall has a spell unknown to the world. Hopefully I will get to read about the wrath spell soon and not suffer the effects cause by a focused wrath spell.

sabin’s journal 1/25/2014

One way portal to hell

As I suspected the trip to runeforge was meant to be a one way trip, at least the journal of this dead guy seems to indicate that he has been trying to get out of here for a number of years. Oh but I get ahead of myself. The ingenious mirror trap caught Takkad and I while moving down the hallway of pride. The mirrors created duplicates of both of us near each of the two mirrors. My first thought was to break the mirrors but before I could act or communicate this to Takkad one of my doubles hit me with a feeblemind spell. Everything at that point became somewhat dull “derp” as life suddenly became very black and while. I wasn’t sure who these derping people were at first. It seemed like I should be doing something important but instead I am not sure what I did during this time “derp”. Kane provided the valuable heal spell to break the feeblemind and I was able to function again. After Rigal, Avia, and Nolan dispatch my evil twins I asked Takkad which mirror he had broken and then popped over next to the remaining mirror made sure the one was taken care of as well. I was slightly upset taking out my frustration on the mirrors, besides Takkad and I had to wait 10 to 15 minutes for the blade barriers to expire. After that the rest of the party join as we move into the big room.

An illusionary peacock took center stage in this room until the voices began telling us that we had intruded. They ask that we keep the noise down as they punish us. These magic whatever there are, appeared and began casting fireballs at us.  I was able to use my remaining Dimension door my little group over to the first opponent, Nolan quickly turned him into snow but from somewhere else the lights went dim once again as I was hit with another feeblemind spell. Luckily Takkad was able to correct it this time. I think the one that hit me with feeblemind tried to go invisible but that did not help as Trask hit the last two with fireball turning them into warm water. I was really happy to see these derping creatures turned into snow? Not exactly sure why they turned into snow! I feel cheated out of making sure they were dead and seeing there blood on the floor.

We found the door to the library with the body Vraxeris sitting in the chair with his journal open.  The journal discusses that fact that these people down here were not that long ago trying to figure out which of the 7 runelords nears rebirth. Surprise surprise it is Karzoug that is near rebirth. The journal discussed using runeforge pool to enchant weapons that would be most potent against Karzoug’s defenses.  This is very interesting. Most importantly he was trying to work on an alliance with Delvahine as he thought that she could get out of here because “she was not of the original blood”. Not sure what that means but at least it is a start. We also learned that Vraxeris was using clones to keep himself alive, looks like the last batch of clones did not complete before he died.

The reading of some of the passage was painful, not that it was hard to read but that I had to stop and re-read it slowly a couple of time while Takkad transcribe some of the passages word for word.  For a moment I consider scribbling these passages on the walls in Orc but why bother. This took some time and in the mean time the other search through stuff.

Vraxeris had a few items on him that were interesting. Cape of the Mountebank is a pretty cool cape but I am now used to taking my special friends with me on jumps though space. +6 headband of vast intelligence is the ideal item for a wizard and provides some benefits over the robe. The headband could actually be useful for a number of party members while the robe is only basically useful for me or Takkad, Kane isn’t big enough to wear this robe. The spellbooks provide all of the illusion spells that are known to me.

Given what we learned from the journal we decided to explore Sorshen’s lair next. This should be interesting.

Sabin journal Jan 1 2014

Days with a dragon part 2

Back in sandpoint I decided to let the party known that I have access to arcane eye but we would have to teleport back to the site to activate the eye. Trask and I teleported back to the site, I started the arcane eye, and teleported back to sandpoint. The arcane eye worked must better then I had expected. I was able to follow the path that we needed to travel and found the dragon drinking healing potions while sitting on his horde of treasure. Looking around the room I also found columns that looked to have key holes for the keys that apparently disappeared when we teleported out. The arcane eye expired but we also decided that if we can get Trask down to this area then we could be able to directly teleport to the dragon horde to take on the dragon. Takkad, Sabin, Trask teleported back to the site, Takkad placed true seeing on Trask so that he could see in the dark and also be able find anything hidden. We went back into wind walk form and I lead Trask to the dragon horde. It was very tempting to materialize and deplete the dragons stash but it was not right to choose this for Trask and Takkad. Wind walk is such as cool spell I only wish that this was available to wizards. Anyway with the dragon away his/her horde we was able to scout out a little bit before heading back. The trip back to sandpoint was uneventful.

Being back a sandpoint the only thing left to do was spend the time to learn fireball for the next day. But first I had to get the full experience from wind walk. With a little experimentation I have figured out how much altitude is required to transition back to physical form without going splat. On my first attempted I am pretty sure that I had enough altitude to transition back to wind walk form before hitting the ground but no reason to tempt fate, All of the feather fall experimentation helped make this fairly easy to figure out. Play time is over and now it time to get back to the books and ale. After re-reading the fireball spell I have come to accept that in the future this could become a very useful spell. As I set the pen down upon completely the task of learning fireball the realization hit me that fireball is the perfect spell for attacking the despicable village of my youth . My people have been attacking caravans passing near for generations and I bet Takkad’s people would be happy to see them gone. Anyway a decent hot meal, a few drinks, and good nights sleep is all that I need to get ready to take on this dragon.

The next morning we gather ourselves together to teleport to the dragon’s horde. Just before we left Nolin handed me a scroll of locate creature to be used if the dragon is not there. As we appeared in front of the dragon’s horde it was clear to everyone that the dragon is not here, must be out finding food or loking for us. I cast the locate creature to find the dragon but nothing shows up, at the same time Avia is scanning for evil. The rest of the party begins to pick up the magic items off the pile focusing on potions and scrolls as the dragon could use these to heal again. Avia and I continued to scan and scan the area looking for the dragon while there other continued to pick up magical items. Just as I was beginning to wonder if the dragon was not going to show up he/she suddenly became within range of the locate creature. The dragon appeared down one of the side caves and I pointed out to the party the location of the dragon. Trask put up a wall of force over the entrance to that cave just before the dragon cast some type of icy storm, it looks like one of those glass globes that you shake up to make it snow. Good thing the wall was in place. If not for the danger this would have been a cool effect to just sit back with a couple of mugs of Ale watching the ice bounce off the clear wall.

We started to position ourselves and cast the remaining buffs when I noticed that my teleport buddies were on the other side of the middle pillar. I was getting ready to move other to them when the dragon appeared on top of them, so I used dimension door to move both me and Nolin over to the dragon. By the time I was able to move back and send out a fireball Takkad and Kane were able effectively cast dispel magic on the dragon and reduce its defenses. Fireballs by me and Trask plus some excellent hit by Avia and Nolin quickly started piling up the damage on the dragon. The dragon retreated back to where I had located her before so Trask dropped the wall of force as I watch Takkad sprint down towards the dragon, Takkad helled out that he found the dragon so I used my remaining dimension door to move Nolin, Avia, Trask, and my self over to the dragon.  Takkad’s dimensional anchor ensured that the dragon would not be able to repeat that trick again. As Avia moved into range to attack the dragon grabbed her in its mouth but Avia was able to quickly get out of its grasp. From behind me Trask spit out a breath of fire towards the dragon. Not really any affect so I it looked as if resist/protection from fire buff is back on the dragon. I stepped back next to Takkad and let lose a lightning bolt that appeared to be very effective as the dragon cried out in pain. The next moment Avia finished off the dragon.

Standing there after the death of the dragon I felt odd about not being in the middle of melee combat. My armor and my axe were both clean after the battle; it feels a little weird standing outside the threat zone. I went over and assisted in the removal of the head which made me feel a little bit better and at least now my axe and armor are no longer clean. I filled a couple of bottles with white dragon’s blood, labeled them so that I would not mix them up with the red dragon’s blood. On the head I pulled off a few small dragon scales, teeth, and dragon claws. These will go nicely with the ones I already have from the red dragon, at this rate I should have a full set by the time I put my adventuring days behind me.

Nolin has asked me to further enchant his sword into a +2 sword. I will have to trust that I will get my share of the dragon loot, with Nolin and Avia around it shouldn’t be an issue. There is a lot of satisfaction working with fine weapons and making them even better. The great sword is a nice weapon with good balance but I still prefer the feel of the greataxe. I completed the first day of work on enchanting Nolin’s sword. Walked over to the dock area after dinner and just kept walking until I found a comfortable looking rock that would give me a good view of the fish swimming past. They were never close enough to touch but I putted out the Ransuer and quickly had a stack of fish. . I considered using mud to rock to create a well formed chair but decided in the end that that was too domesticated. I took my time and enjoyed the walk back to the shoreline. In the moon light I spotted a ship heading out of Sandpoint and I considered popping over to the ship to see if they would like some fresh fish. But in the end I did not want to put them in a situation where they thought that they would have to defend there ship, I really didn’t want any of them to get hurt. Instead I went over to the city guards and handed out the fresh fish to those poor unfortunate guards. Then back to the tavern for a tankard of Ale.

Another day of working with Nolin’s sword, I wonder if he feels a little lost without his trusty black sword, at least I have a couple of backup weapons including my spare cold-iron greataxe. A simple flip of the coin decided this evening activities will consist of spending time learning a new spell. With so many options I let fate decide what my new spell. On one of the tables in the tavern a group was betting on a simple dice game. I totaled up the dice on one of the rolls which added up to 5. Back in my room with a couple of mugs of ale I used the 5th book pulled from the bag, opened to the 5th page of the book and proceeded to find the 5th spell that I was capable of learn and that I did not already have. Fate must have had a hand in all of this because it was also a 5th level spell.

I sat back for a minute on the third day after completing the work to enchant Nolins weapon and started wondering what it would take to make a magic weapon have some other minor affect other then shed light. I had to get up and hit something with Nolin’s sword just to check. I am not sure if Nolin would forgive me if butterflies appeared on critical hits. Oh well I can always claim that it was Gorum’s will to influence his favored weapon. If it was up to Gorum I suspect the weapon would more then likely spray blood on anyone near by. Well if I was a god that seems like a good affect for my followers weapons. Maybe some brain bits thrown in for affect.

Now that Nolin has his black sword in possession we are ready to find the way to the runeforge. It has been a few days since I have been back here up here but know the secret to getting the keys we made sure that we only used cantrips this time to get the keys. As we began to climb the stairs three giant earth elementals blocked our way. Luckily for us Avia was wearing of the sihedron star’s and she quickly discovered that they would obey anyone holding showing this sihedron luckily we still had two of them so we were able to get everyone past the earth elementals without expecting any effort.

With the keys each of us took a key to put into the columns in the same room that dragon had been calling home. Some in the party wanted to make sure that they received the right key, I did not really care so I received sloth. In the end turning each key more then once opened a portal. We stepped through the portal. Hopefully there is a way back or lots of food and beer on the other side.

Sabin’s Nov Journal

Stepping through the door and into the hallway a voice told me that the others had turned against me and are now serving Lamashtu. I rushed past Rallo to get away from the others and at that monument Rallo fired scorching rays at me barely missing. In my mind I was deciding if there was a way to take out Rallo before the others could get organized. Lamashtu may command them to kill me so I had to be prepared to take them out one at a time if possible. Before I could react Takkad put up a wall of stone trapping him on my side of the wall. The Takkad I know would never trap himself alone with the enemy. Something was not right and I decided to dimension door near the exit. If the others were indeed after me they would reveal themselves in there attempt to follow me.

While I was trying to clear my head Scribbler showed up and attempted to further take away my free will by promising to teach me powerful thassilonian magic. Even in my current state of mind Scribbler was not to be trusted. Why can’t he just leave me alone and stop talking to me.

Time to leave! Enough time has past that they will come after me as a group so I proceeded to leave the complex and get away from Sandpoint. I expected that Lamashtu would compel them to hunt me down, maybe I would get some extra time if they were compelled to destroy Sandpoint. At that point Scribbler modified the plan by attacking with his dagger. I didn’t really like him anyway and this pushed me over the edge. My attacks were hitting but he still looked strong. I wasn’t worried because the dagger that he was using was not very effective. All of a sudden the little shit just vanished and Avia showed up. I had time to escape but suddenly everything seemed a lot clearer. The circle of protection from evil provided just enough help to resist this magical influence. That little shit Scribbler needs to die.

Back in town we were able to get the clerics to use dispel magic to get rid of this magical effect. We waiting until morning and then returned to search the complex and to find Scribbler. He looked to have a stoneskin spell active so Avia and Nolin provided most of the damage. Nolin’s destruction of Scribblers falchion was a fantastic display of skill that marked the end of Scribbler. It was awesome seeing the hope drain out of Scribbler as the severed end of the falchion fell to the floor.  I really wanted to provide the killing blow but I had to settled for removing his head from his body and then spreading his brains around.

Sabin’s journal for October

We find ourselves in a room. To the north is a passageway obscured by fog, to the south are two double doors, to the east is the stair up and to the west is an opening into another room. Dog like creatures appear in the room, one being in front of me; “hit dog with Axe; move northwest”. I felt this strange feeling wash over me and suddenly everything seemed a little clearer. I feel like I have been kind of walking around somewhat in a daze. It was like I wasn’t completely here! Almost like someone else was playing me in some game.

I was getting ready to move in and engage the barghest when it suddenly used something like dimension door or teleport to move to back of the room and engage Trask and Rallo. At this point gravity in the room reversed and we were all heading towards the new floor, the ceiling. I cast fly on myself and was able to right myself with the true floor. I grabbed Rigal and helped her to the column near by. A quick glance over to Nolan confirmed that he would not be able to defend himself. The Barghest had drifted back down to the real floor by this time so I move and engaged the Barghest with a wild swing. I was able to dispatch this outsider just in time to see one of the hug demons teleport into the room to engage the party. It was nice of this create to move into the room near where Avia could hit it. I cast protection from evil and moved engage this beast. I noticed that my weapon was not doing as much damage as I expect, Avia on the other hand was making it hurt. I may have to figure out what divine affect she is using on these creatures.

I followed Avia into the next room with Takkad holding on so that we can keep him close and to get him out of the reverse gravity field. We engaged this daemon which backed up and offered Avia a wish in exchange for it life. Avia’s snort was the last thing this daemon would hear in this world.  A search of the room seems to indicate that scribbler had escaped this room. The room was covered with thassilonian writings, looks as though the scribbler has been busy. It is amazing how useful thassilonian has been over the years.

Off to the southeast Rallo cleared the way with elemental body. We moved into the caves with Avia and Nolan in front and I watching to make sure no one attacked from behind. Suddenly bone chilling howl broke the silence making use all feel uneasy. All of a sudden a crazy eyed Trask ran towards me. For a moment I considered grabbing him and as he ran past me I also considered following him to make sure he was safe. I thought that Nolan ran past me with the same crazed look so I figure that they would be safe together. To my surprise a few moments later Nolan rushed past me to engage these fowl hounds. When I caught up to Nolan it seemed as if Nolan and Rallo were having a hard time spotting the hounds even though there were directly in front of them. It didn’t really that it was that dark in the room, I have to admit that I only really notice that they are having trouble seeing when they take out the lamps.

Sabin journal for september

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

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

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

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

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

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

Teddy” Your just trying..AH”

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

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

Teddy: “AH AH”

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

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

Sabin’s journal June 2013

The reduce person was not wearing off so I asked Trask to cast enlarge person on me to break the spell. Takkad and Regal remain small even hours later. We are beginning to think that the reduce person will last until countered. Takkad insists that be reduced is not an issue for him.

Proceeding deeper into the complex we found the caldron room. We didn’t determine what they were creating or cooking in the big magic caldron and it might be better that way. Once we had dispatched the caldron thing and the golem Takkad use gallons and gallons of water to put out the fire and fill the caldron; hopefully this ruins the contents of the caldron. Dispatching the golem was a pretty standard even for us. Not sure fighting became standard but any day that we are all still alive is good. The caldron thing was a challenge because it could freely walk out of combat into the walls and floor. Spiting hot iron and casting spells this caldron thing was difficult because we could not get close enough to hit it. We decided to leave the caldron boy alone in the caldron room so we proceed to move on. Statues filled the next room with the one in the center obviously glowing magic.  This had all of the signs of being a trap. Keeping to the tactics of limiting how many we fight at a time with a chock point once again worked in our favor. For the second time today I dropped my axe to use a weapon different weapon this time it was the Ranseur. It was a little strange being able to attack from that far away without throwing my axe. We should keep one of these for situations just like this, Nolan will likely want one anyway as he can probably use this to attack from his horse.

We soon found out that the caldron thingy would have to be dealt with. Kane was search down a hallway when the caldron thing walked out of the wall and turned Kane into stone. Later found out that this was flesh to stone. Here I am trying to find 4 level spells and this thing it spitting 6th level spells at us. After our battle with this caldron thing Trask used teleport to take Kane, Rigal, and himself to Korvosa in an attempt to get Kane turned back into flesh (stone to flesh). He also returned with an additional stone to flesh scroll just in case. It can be a little tricky to cast scrolls that are above your capability but with Trask being a pure sorcerer this should not be too much of an issue, as long as he is not the one turned to stone.

Anyway the caldron thing walked out of the wall and turned Kane to stone and then walked back into the wall leaving just a wall of fire behind. The thing reappeared when it heard Trask talk about teleporting out. It looked as if this thing was going to just play with us. That all seemed to change when rolo cast a spell causing tentacles to seemingly sprout out of the floor, either that or we were lucky.  Avia was able to get just close enough get in a good hit to finish it off.

We waited around for a few hours for them to return and then we started to explore the area. Soon after we started to explore the all re-appeared form Korvosa; Kane back to normal self. Down at the end of the hallway we found a room with Thassilonian writing covering the walls, detected that they were magic and realized that I need to stop Takkad from reading any more of the writing. There is some type of strange magic that appears to calm those that read it.  We do not need Takkad under some strange spell!

Off to the left there was a break in the wall, oddly we could see that there had been some resent repairs but they did not cover the hole in the wall. We heard growling coming from deep within the hole so Takkad create a stone wall to cover the broken wall. We were about to move to one of the doors when a dog like thing seemed to walk through the walls. We attempted to engage but it ended up walking back through the wall. At the door near by Kane overheard something in a strange language; they said that the strangers had created a way for them to get out. That was enough of that and Takkad rounded the top and bottom of the walls to match what we have been seeing. Moving from door to door we found a door within a door that contained a wall. The dog like creature appeared again we moved back and closed the outer door. This must be designed to be used with the trapped creatures.

Sabin’s May journal

Time seemed to past slowly as we waited for Conna to return with the map. With nothing to do I once again worked on skills the mages in Magnimar used to write words on paper by just using the prestidigitation clean and soil trick. I feel like a child as my letter is about 6 inches high and takes me a minute or two per letter; except for ‘X’, ‘O’ and lines for tic-tac-toe. While waiting for Conna I played a few gains of prestidigitation tic-tac-toe. Maybe when we have some free time I can switch out the ‘X’ and ‘O’ and better learn other letters.

Conna has finally arrived with the map so I put the grungy dirt back on the wall. Conna revealed that MM spends his time in the library; no one is allowed in the library. Conna has not been to the library so she could only point us in the direction form this level. The map also revealed a room that seemed to strike fear in Conna. This giant was in charge of handling new recruits; including putting the tattoo on the new recruits.

Our plan was simple; Make Nolan and Avia invisible so they could get the jump on the giant. I had planned to go in right behind them but some who it did not work out that way; I had to wait for Rigal, trask, and Rolo to get into the room and out of the way before I was able to make my way into the room. By that time he had his eyes fixed on the three of them for what appeared to be lunch. Wow he was big so I stopped outside his range and through my axe at him while insulting him in giant. Luckily the insults were effective as he moved towards me swinging. All seemed to be going our way when he seem to melt into the dirt. Trask’s fireball on the dirt did not seem to do anything and it appeared that all of the dirt was magical. We figured out that the dirt was only a few feet down and that this was likely filled with dirt for him. We had some unexpected giant guests but we finished them off quickly.

In corner Takkad placed a stone wall on the floor and Rolo put a rope trick above it so that we could rest but watch for him to return. Awhile into the resting the giant reformed out of the dirt looking quite healed. We all jumped down from the rope trick and proceeded to attack him once again. This time we were ready for his trick so as soon as he began to melt back into the dirt we hit him hard with the killing blows. We have removed the head; this might be very useful later for convincing the giant youngsters that there leadership is dead. We covered the new stone floor in the corner with dirt to hide it and hung all of the bodies on the walls.

We are now back in the rope trick. An interesting fact is that other dimensional objects such as bag of holding and a haversack do not work while in a rope trick. We found this out just today. I have to remember that if/when I get a bag of holding or haversack that I will need to get anything needed out before entering the rope trick. Once 8 hours of the rope trick had been completed we moved back to the alter and setup another rope trick for morning. After a reasonable nights sleeps I noticed that I was now finally able to cast 4th level spells. Too bad that I don’t know any yet and the found spellbooks only have fear; with the animate dead spell long since being erased from the spellbook on Takkad’s request. I have the materials with me to write a single 4th level spell into my spellbook,. The cost of just inscribing these higher level spells is getting very expensive so I will need to be very careful selecting 4th level spells as I also want to upgrade the GreatAxe.

The first rope trick has expired and we moved back to the alter room for a second rope trick that will get us to morning when everyone can get there spells back. It’s nice the Rolo has rope trick, I guess once he goes back home after this adventure it might be time to pick up this spell.

Note to self: Look into an eavesdropping spells that will work across a valley like this one.

The night passed without any issues.

The map shows the way to the library and we quietly made our way towards the spot on the map. TROLLS from behind leather covered walls tried to prevent us from proceeding to the library. It was hard to understand why trolls would be working with MM until we found that they were carrying rock painted to look like gems. The 2 lances the trolls were carrying might just turn out very useful. We moved the troll bodies out of sight and then continued toward the spot marked library on the map. At about the spot on the map label library there was a spiral walkway/stairs going around and around down deep into the ground. At the bottom the spiral opened up into a hallway that looks like very old Thassilonian construction with traces strange ancient magic. We kept it dark as to not give away our presents so I had to guide the others through the darkness. After some uneventful exploration of a blocked off passage way we proceeded down to a room. This was a very odd room and everything almost seemed to be moving. I suddenly became sick upon entering the room along with being affected by something like reduce person. Avia pulled me out of the room and she took case of the sickness.  There was a giant in the room that seemed to be affected by some strange magic. Avia and Nolan were able to make quick work of the giant while a regained my senses. Blinded yesterday and now shrunk down to Kane since today. Rigal and Takkad where affected by the reduce person effect as they entered the room as well. At least it was not just me this time.

The affect of being smaller is kind of cool, at least for a short period of time. Maybe I dismissed those shape-shifting/gaseous form spells too quickly.

Note to self: Look into other transmutation spells that I could use to change shape.

I really hope this wears off soon as my reduced GreatAxe damage could be an issue it we happen to find MM before it wears off. I have an open 1st level spell slot so I could memorize enlarge person or have Trask cast it.

Sabin’s Journal entry for April

It has been a long day. We have done more this morning that most adventures get done all day and yet we have just begun. After our discussion with the dragon and the discovery that Mokmurian was actually under the tower we proceeded to the bug door. Given the unholy things guarding the door Takkad should be happy that these abominations have been destroyed.

 Orges and Giants defended the forge. Through careful tactics from Avia and Nolan we were able limit how many were able to attack us at once. Every time I looked it seemed that Trask was tossing a new spell at the Orges and Giants, very impressive but later we discovered that he was running out of spells.

 Once we had dispatched the remaining Giants in the forge Rigal discovered Dwarfs and begun to hyperventilate. The Dwarfs were responding so I soon figured out that she was not hyperventilating but actually speaking there language, or trying too. At that point I lost interest as these are just dwarfs that were being forced to work in the forge. Kane provided them with magic food and we were on our way as Takkad had seen something down the hall.

 Once Trasks wall of fire had expired we proceed down the hallway. We follow in the direction that we believed Takkad spotted the creatures. The sounds of music and scents confirmed that we were likely heading in the correct direction. We proceeded slowly forward until these creatures started talking to us in Thassilonian, something about converting us to Lamashtu. In response I told them that we were here to convert them to Desna.

 Battle had just begun when I felt like something had ripped into my head. Everything went dark, I could not see. Damn creatures had cursed me with blindness so I did the only thing that I could and started swinging my Axe. I felt a good solid hit and then I could hear that the creature had taken a step backwards. I stepping forward and continued to swing my Greataxe at it, once again really good solid contact with the Axe. I soon heard her hit the floor.  There was some commotion somewhere ahead of me before Avia grabbed my arm telling me to follow her. To the next creature we went. I heard solid hits from Nolan and/or Avia and I heard the second creature hit the floor. Once again Avia guided me to the last creature, she was soon dispatched like her sisters.

 Takkad and Kane will have to wait until morning to remove this blindness. It was going to be a long day until Rolo stepped up with prayer beads with the ability to cure the blindness. It is really good to be able to see again.

 We were looking around after the battle when Kane catch our attention. Kane was hearing talking from down the hall. When I went over there I clearly heard two voices talking in draconic. They were talking about their scales and a tattoo, dragons. These had to be very young dragons to fit down here. A plan was formed; we could go down the hallway and talk with these dragons. I was to start out the conversation in draconic and then let Takkad more diplomatically convince them that MM is not worthy of their loyalty. All went to hell at the point where we discovered that they young dragons only knew draconic. I tried to stay calm just like I have seen Takkad do countless times during negations but clearly that does not work for me. In retrospect tossing the head and talking loudly at the young dragons was likely the first clue that I do not have the charm of Takkad. I quickly lost my patience with these obnoxious young dragons and began to bark orders at these younglings. Looks like young dragons are as easily intimidated as young half-orcs. I was able to convince the young dragons that MM was not worth their devotion and that they should leave this place. They seemed more interested in eating the dead we left behind. At that point we had to back track, telling the dragons to leave the dwarfs alone. Since we were already down that way we also told the dwarfs to get out of the complex.

 We made our way back up past location where we found the dragons. Unexpectedly we found Conna; A female giant that was friendly towards our cause. It turns out the Conna and her husband were elders of the MM tribe before he seized power. Conna’s husband had try to talk since into MM and he was killed for it; on this very alter. According to Conna MM had pick up odd ideas and had obtained magic in non-traditional ways. It seems that Giants believe that the elders pick up magic as they become wise. Good thing for Trask, Rarallo, and myself  that this does not ring true for other races. Conna has agreed to help us by making a map of what she knows of the complex. We are going to wait here for her to bring the map and then we will figure out what to do next.