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.

== Toilday, Lamashan 28, 4708; Spires of Xin Shalast; afternoon ==

With True Seeing cast I looked through the portal and saw a vast cylindrical chamber more than a hundred yards in diameter. The walls were fog-like, but I could see faces moving about the surface, pushing up against it to reveal their gaunt features, as if the fog were an elastic membrane holding in a horde of souls, each trying to escape.

Sixteen columns of eerie fire were evenly spaced about the chamber, fully illuminating the space with their sickly glow.

An intricate pattern of channels was carved into the floor, which led to disturbing speculations to its purpose.

In the dead center of the room was a giant diamond shaped pool. Suspended above that by a large metal ring was an enormous bluish purple gem, girdled by a gold band with the rune of greed engraved upon it.

We had no plan, but it was obvious we were going enter. I called out a few recommended tactics:

“Wait until I cast a protective spell on us all before moving in. And do not gather on the other side: spread out as much as possible. If you can fly or move through the air, get off the ground and increase the distance between each of us.”

Karzoug. We knew he was in there, waiting for us, and I wanted to provide as much protection as possible for us all, and so I cast Holy Aura. My other suggestion was just common sense: there was no need in making ourselves easy targets for every area effect spell he might know.

Others cast their own spells and Nolin quaffed a potion. Sabin hasted many of us, and Trask linked some via a telepathic bond.

Kane stepped through first.

Immediately I lost track of him via the Status spell, but we already guessed that the portal led to another plane, and so this came as no surprise. We watched through the shimmering field as he stepped to the left and out of view.

Nolin then stepped through and flew upward.

Sabin followed, with Sedjewick close behind, and they moved straight in.

Trask passed through and over to the left, and we could see him look up as he began to move his hands.

I activated my boots and flew in and straight up. I was greeted immediately by a warning from Nolin, “Karzoug is directly above you — see if it is just an image.”

“Oh, it’s definitely him,” I replied.

He was about twenty feet above me, glaring down at us. Gems were embedded in his skin, and he wore a magnificent cloak. In his right hand was a flaming glave. He had long and deadly looking finger nails that looked like claws.

I could tell from the smell of baked dust that Trask must have launched a fireball at Karzoug, but the runelord appeared unfazed.

Karzoug barked, “Enough of this!” and pointed a finger in our direction. Four sparks flew out and around the room before each exploded as a fireball.

Karzoug then did… something. It was confusing to watch. He was floating there in one pose after casting his Meteor Storm spell, and then instantly he was standing slightly off to one side with a totally different posture.

But on the floor something more obvious had changed: a thick cloud of heavy yellow vapor spread out along the floor, engulfing my companions. I could tell some of them were poisoned, and realized that somehow Karzoug had managed to cast Cloud Kill without us noticing him do it.

Rigel entered at that moment — I could not see her, but she popped back into presence of my Status spell. She seemed totally unaffected by the cloud.

Avia came through and I sent her a quick update via the telepathic channel. She looked up and flew straight toward Karzoug. Nolin charged and cut into the runelord, claiming the first real blood of the battle. I flew over to provide healing support, and planned to maybe give Karzoug a few surprises of my own.

And then Sabin moved up behind Karzoug.

Down on the floor Sedjewick ran out from the poisonous cloud and over to the fountain. He still managed to sing a song of courage, despite the occasional cough or sputter.

Trask tried to use Greater Dispel Magic (one of my personal favorite tactics), but it rebounded back onto himself. Mercifully it did not cancel his magical protections.

Karzoug’s flaming glave then lept from his hand and launched a fireball at Avia, Nolin and I.

Karzoug clawed at Nolin, but the latter’s Rune of Wrath inflicted cold damage in return.

“Eat quickened lightening bolts!” Karzoug quipped as he zapped Nolin with arcs of electricity.

A giant air elemental appeared beside us and bashed Karzoug. I could hear Kane snicker below.

Avia closed the distance and landed a series of incredibly heavy blows, followed immediately by savage attack from Nolin.

A momentary look of pain and confusion crossed Karzoug’s face before he transformed into a cloud of gas.

Sabin wasted no time in slicing through the cloud with his ax, and Karzoug transformed back into his normal form. But now he was just a corpse.

There was a blindingly bright flash of white light, and the souls I had seen in the walls whipped around into a massive whirlwind which encompassed the entire chamber.

When the light faded we found ourselves at the base of the center of the spire. The pool, Karzoug’s runewell, had also been transported here, although it was quickly freezing over, and Karzoug’s body was there too.

His glave tried lamely to continue the fight, even after we told it to stand down or face destruction. It blustered on in the way the insane and egotistical usually do before dropping to the ground.

Wait, what? That was it?

We quickly gathered around Karzoug’s body, and Sabin removed his head — detached head and body were then placed in separate bags of holding.

Oddly enough all of the injuries we had suffered within the cylindrical chamber had been healed. But Sedjewick had been struck blind by the great flash of light. Kane quickly sured him of that malady, and we looked over what we had stripped from Karzoug’s body.

[1693] Runelord’s flaming glave. +2 keen flaming glave with dancing and a neutral evil intellect; it possessed dark vision; could hear, read and speak languages; was telepathic; once a day could create a major image; three times a day it could cast Cure Moderate Wounds upon its wielder; it could cast Faery Fire; and it had Fireball as a dedicated power
[1694] rod of greater quicken: 3 times a day up to level 9 spells
[1695] wand of Blood Money (33 charges)
[1696] wand of Dispel Magic (24 charges)
[1698] +6 belt of giant strength
[1699] +6 boots of dexterity
[1700] Sihedron Tome: a leather bound volume with a sihedron star on the cover. Rumored to have been crafted by a mage dragon during the reign of emperor Xin, this book could hold an infinite number of spells, and could prepare spells as if the caster’s intelligence was +6. It contains all of the spell’s Karzoug knew
[1701] Robes of Xin Shalast. +6 AC; SR 24; spells cast as if caster were at +2 levels; 2 pockets that acted as handy haversacks; immunity to the occlusion field and the effects of high altitudes, including the death zone
[1702] +5 ring of protection
[1703] ring of Freedom of Movement
[1704] Amulet of Greed. Attuned to the runewell such that while in the runewell (where Karzoug was confined) it granted: +5 AC, no need for food or water; fly at will; heal rapidly from wounds
[1705] ruby inscribed with the rune of wrath (for use with Sign of Wrath)
[1706] 1,500gp of ruby dust
[1707] 10,000gp of gem stone dust
[1708] Talons of Leung: fine gloves with embroidered gold filigree: grants +3 on attack and damage for natural claw attacks (1D4 damage); 3X critical; DC 20 will save on critical or target is insane, otherwise target is only confused; wearer is immune to confusion and insanity; -2 to wisdom as alien voices run through the wearer’s mind

It took Sedjewick’s Legend and Lore ability to identify the glave and the the gloves, but even he was unable to understand the amulet. For that I pulled out the Quill and asked the Peacock spirit.

It was clear that the glave, along the Karzoug’s ex-champion’s sword, would be destroyed. None of us had any desire to allow the continued existence of intelligent evil weapons that took control of those who handled them.

The amulet caused more debate. Some wanted it destroyed and others thought it was now a harmless relic. I was among the latter, and argued that it could do no good (or harm) unless the wearer were inside the runewell. Specifically, “that runewell,” as I pointed to the pool of frozen water before us.

Why not just destroy the runewell itself? It no longer radiated power, and so Nolin, Sabin and Avia hewed it to rubble with their adamantine weapons.

The huge blue-purple gem had been teleported here along with the runewell, but now it was cracked. No matter: it was still valuable, and so we dismounted it from its elaborate set up and took it.

[1709] cracked, huge, blue-purple runewell gem

We spared the metal ring in which it was mounted, thinking we may be able to sell it and the gem stone for a better price than either one alone.

And speaking of prices… we were going to be ridiculously rich. The items we had with us alone were enough to ensure that, but we had left large amounts of incredibly valuable treasure in the spire.

Nolin, Sabin and Kane returned to the spire to ensure all was secure, and when they returned we began to make plans.

It will take quite some time and effort to remove all of the valuables from the spire. We will use our library as a staging area, where we can classify the treasure, divide magical items among ourselves, and then sell the rest… or keep it until we need more cash.

We have come up with a plan for totally destroying the two weapons, plus Karzoug’s remains (no sense risking resurrection) that involves a bag of holding and a portable hole.

We need to alert the remaining inhabitants of Xin Shalast that their leader — in fact all of their leaders — are slain, and they that there is no point in remaining.

Little doubt only lamia and rune giants are all that is left, and it will take physical proof that Karzoug and his aides are all dead. We have all of the bodies, and so this should not present a problem, although we will not allow direct contact with Karzoug’s body (not even a single hair). Perhaps a wall of force can be used to keep them from it.

Nolin wants to topple part of the spire to act as proof. This is not a bad idea, but I fear attempting to do so may cause the entire structure to fall, and we should make sure anything we want has already been removed before trying.

I think we should remove Karzoug’s face from Mhar Massif, which should be straight forward, given enough Earthquake and Stone Shape spells.

Personally I do not care if the lamia and rune giants remain in Xin Shalast, so long as they remain off the plateau and leave us in peace.

While we discussed these short term goals, we also began thinking toward the future.

We will inform our allies in Magnimar and Sandpoint of what has occurred, but will refrain from providing the location of Xin Shalast itself.

For scholars (and the Pathfinder Society) we will reveal the location of Runeforge, and how they can access it, and will provide my maps and notes for their usage. We can sell them some of the Runelord relics we have collected as well.

Most of us want to pay a visit to Sandpoint, where this entire adventure began more than a year before, and relax for a short while before moving on.

But what does “moving on” imply?

Kane and Rigel speak of returning to Fort Rannick (oh yes, another of our acquisitions) to beef up its security and bring commerce and stability to the region.

I cannot see myself settling down, and already I am looking over the maps Sabin and I found in Fort Rannick, showing other the location of other places that may need our aid, or pique our interests. But for those quests I will need to start a new journal, for this one has but a few blank pages remaining.

“So Sabin, let’s talk about Viperwall.”

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, Lamashan 27, 4708; Spires of Xin Shalast; afternoon ==

The nearby giants were hiding up in the clouds near the ceiling, and so Avia flew up and bumped into one. It punched her in surprise, and she sliced it open.

Kane then dispelled the fog cloud and we could see the three storm giants hovering on their side of the room (one now bleeding messily onto the floor below).

We knew additional cloud giants were nearby, but fear of the blade barrier room appeared to be enough (for now) to hold them at bay.

Sabin and Nolin both flew up to join Avia and began the systematic battle of attrition with the giants, which is a good strategy for us because typically we have healing support and our foes do not.

And indeed I was quite busy keeping our three fighters well enough to stand toe to toe with three very large giants wielding ludicrously huge morningstars.

Sedjewick thought to trick the cloud giants into remaining where they were by calling out “All clear!” imitating one of the storm giants.

“All clear where? I see one standing right there.”

Unfortunately several of us were quite visible from the other room.

“It’ll be clear in a minute — I am just swatting some flies,” one of the storm giants called in answer.

As usual with giants, they cannot for the life of them imagine that they could ever be defeated by anyone smaller than themselves. This worked to our advantage, because they never fled even when it was clear they were having their asses handed to them.

In short order the three storm giants were dead.

Sedjewick then placed an image of a blade barrier surrounding the four cloud giants. All three blanched at this, and one soiled himself.

Sabin yelled out, “Drop your weapons and surrender to your betters and we will let you live!” They dropped their weapons.

I glared at them and said, “Now leave this place and go to the city.”

They seemed reluctant to do so until I gestured toward Nolin and said, “The Champion of Greed wills it!”

Nolin stepped forward and said, “Indeed I do, but first, where is Karzoug?”

“Oh, you are now the champion of greed. We didn’t know the old one had been replaced. I’m sorry, sir, but we do not know where Karzoug is, but his apprentice is in the giant cells.”

And with that the foursome left, with many a bowing and fumbling about.

Two of the dead were wearing sihedron rings (which we took) plus magical armor and various weapons (which we did not).

[1682] sihedron ring
[1683] sihedron ring

We stripped the giant corpses and piled the armor before the doors, and then turned our attention to the room.

Furs were piled about on the floor (some scorched by various fire effects, and most sodden from all of the fog and mist), a pair of double doors was in the far wall, and to our right was an arch.

It was a golden arch marked with thousands of runes, and beyond that a large alcove. Mostly the runes made boasts about Karzoug, but some were about transmutation magic, and one set said, “All who pass this arch are his.”

Well that certainly put a damper on any thoughts on passing through to the alcove.

Sedjewick stared at the archway with that look he sometimes gets, and said that it was a portal to Karzoug’s private chambers.

Interesting, and something to think about…

== Moonday, Lamashan 27, 4708; Spires of Xin Shalast; evening ==

The sound of heavy foot steps pulled us away from the arch, and someone was yelling (and clearly annoyed), “What do you mean the champion ordered you to the city? Why did she…”

We heard a giant mumbling something, followed by…

“He? What do you mean, ‘he’? Never mind — you go get Khalib. We need the Ceoptra, but she is unavailable.”

This was followed by more shouting and a great deal of thumping about and slamming of doors.

“Where was this imposter?”

“He wasn’t an imposter: he had the rune!”

And with that the door was pushed open and a giant was met with a blast from a Glyph of Warding, courtesy of Kane.

Oh dear, it was one of the giants we had sent on his way earlier. I stared at him angrily and said, “How dare you disobey the champion of Greed?”

He looked sheepishly about and clearly did not want to enter, but was shoved aside by another giant.

Behind them someone ordered, “Go on, kill them!”

I replied, “You dare attack the champion of Greed? Think of what Karzoug will do to you!”

They paused, clearly conflicted, but the fear of whoever was behind them now overcame their fear of whatever Karzoug might or might not do to them later.

In came the giants, and a rune giant close behind. Behind them, through the doorway Sabin could see a human stalking toward us, most likely Khalib, and Sabin attempted Feeblemind on him.

Meanwhile the giants engaged our fighters, and we fell into our usual hack, slash and heal routine, but with an eye out for the human. The rune giant made the fighting more difficult, but it also afforded Trask a chance to use Chain Lightening to zap it (to no affect) and Khalib behind (to good affect, if his cry of pain was any indication).

One of the giants fell by the time Khalib entered to face us, but if he thought to stay safely away from melee and hit us with ranged spells, Avia cleared up that misconception, as she ran over and cut into him deeply with her sword.

Trask fireballed two giants, and Sabin lunged at Khalib, slaying him.

We continued to hack away at the giants, with spells and weapons, until at last they were all killed.

Khalib, while seemingly a pushover, had quite a few interesting possessions.

[1684] staff of size alteration and magic weapon (10 charges)
[1685] amulet of +2 natural armor
[1686] sihedron ring
[1687] robes (like arch magi, but +4 INT rather than resists)
[1688] gold ivory statue of himself
[1689] speel book of all known spells (except enchantment and illusion)
[1690] container full of gem dust

By now we were tired and low on spells, and so we returned to the small room where we hid from the hound, and then using Rope Trick we set up camp.

== Toilday, Lamashan 28, 4708; Spires of Xin Shalast; morning ==

Nothing had changed when we left our Rope Trick refuge in the morning and made our way through the throne room into the main entry hall (a new area for us, but devoid of anything interesting). We then passed through another set of double doors into the arch room, which had been the scene of our yesterday’s battles.

We once again looked at the portal beneath the archway and then passed through the double doors to our left.

These led to a vast chamber which occupied nearly half of this level of the spire. The outer wall and several interior hallways with many doors arced around to the southeast.

Right before us was a huge golden pagoda-style structure. A gigantic twenty foot tall gold statue of Karzoug stood to the south, facing away from the entrance towards a brazier burning with a smokeless fire.

The statue held a large iron frame, and set in the frame was a large green crystal, sparling and glittering in the light of the brazier.

The crystal was blindingly magical.

Within the pagoda, against the far wall, a pair of statues stood guard over a ten foot long sarcophagus.

We decided to save this promising bit of architecture until after we explored the more mundane area to the south.

The arching hallways with many doors were cells for the inhabitants and servants who lived in the spire. Each was relatively small (for giants) and spartan. A handful showed signs of recent occupation, but most were empty, for which we were thankful. Had the spire been fully occupied we might not have survived this long.

Halfway along the center row of cells we found something more interesting: a large triangular room with more elaborate furnishings than the others, plus a bookshelf filled with interesting tomes.

Sedjewick and I scanned the book titles and found a long series that made up the diary of Khalib. We leafed through the more recent entries and discovered that he had been Karzoug’s right hand man, but there had been a falling out of sorts.

It was Khalib who was to have awakened Karzoug from his stasis after the fall of the ancient kingdoms, but Khalib’s own apprentices had turned on him, trapping him in a long sleep of his own.

Mokmurian had recently discovered Xin Shalast, and was fumbling around the spire looking for loot knowledge when he encountered the same projections of Karzoug that had menaced us. Karzoug quickly took control of Mokmurian, and so it was he, and not Khalib, who set the in motion the revival of Karzoug.

Karzoug does not tolerate failure, and so he left Khalib in his prison of sleep until we began to cause problems for him and he needed all the allies at his disposal.

Khalib was none to happy to discover all of this after he awoke, and his resentment and bitterness had been boiling over ever since.

We were interrupted from our research by a loud, “Whoa, who is this?”

A pair of giants had stumbled upon us.

The other said, “I got this” and moved around the cells to try and flank us, and so I put up a Blade Barrier behind to make his approach a little more interesting.

Meanwhile Nolin stepped forward and demanded to know why the giants were disturbing the champion of greed. The giant insisted that, “You and your lot belong back in your own area!”

Trask blasted the giant with a set of Magic Missiles and yelled, “He said back off!”

The other giant was now running towards us from behind, and so Kane created a patch of ice before the blade barrier, causing the giant to slip directly into the wall of whirling blades.

Sedjewick goaded, “So you really got this?”

“Yes, I do,” the giant retorted angrily, as Rigel deftly stabbed it with her rapier.

I cast Prayer and Kane gave the rear giant a bit of bad luck, which was further embellished by Sabin hacking into it viciously.

Nolin and Avia set themselves against the other giant, who was dealing as much damage as he took.

As usual this became an extremely uneven exchange because Kane and I kept our fighters healthy while the giants eventually succumbed to their ever deepening wounds.

Each giant wore a ring.

[1691] sihedron ring
[1692] sihedron ring

We returned to the pagoda and prepared for the worse while Nolin and Sabin lifted the lid from the sarcophagus. It was empty. In fact the whole pagoda was empty.

Puzzled, we returned to perusing Khalib’s diary to see if it contained anything helpful. It did indeed!

Karzoug had created a plain on which he could hide during the fall of his kingdomm, and he had taken his runewell with him. The green gem served as a nexus between other plains and Karzoug’s plain of refuge, and it focused the souls of those who died while bearing the mark of greed into the runewell. This in turn increased Karzoug’s power. It seems that Karzoug’s refuge also served as his prison while he lacked sufficient power to escape.

Mokmurian had been used to find and mark as many victims as he could to feed the runewell, and now Karzoug was nearly powerful enough to escape.

I now know what needs to be done.

== Toilday, Lamashan 28, 4708; Spires of Xin Shalast; morning ==

I took aim at the green crystal with my domineering crossbow and hit it, but the bolt bounced harmlessly off.

I turned to Sabin and said, “We need to destroy the gem.”

Sabin strode forward and smote it with his domineering adamantine ax, and something unexpected happened.

Rather than shatter, or deflect the blow, the space before the green gem puckered and warped as a portal opened up. Beyond was a vast space, easily a couple hundred feet across, with smoky white walls and a well of water.

Clearly this portal leads to Karzoug. I am sure of it: the gem acts as a nexus to his plain, and we must enter it to face Karzoug and finish what we started so long ago.

We have taken a few moments to prepare and form a basic plan, and I have finished casting True Seeing and am about to peer through the void to see what lies in wait.

We made good progress today. As expected everything is trying to kill us and there are a lot of them. Luckily we have slaughtered a lot of Karzougs guards, at least we hope we have. After getting my normal 2 hours of sleep I feel refreshed and I am able to do more. Today while the other slept I was able to learn the new spell “spell turning”. I had my GreatAxe ready to grab just in case. We have to wait until morning for Kane and Takkad to get spells again so I have some time.

This is likely the day we actually meet Karzoug. This is going to be very tough and a little bad luck could spell the end of all of us. I have prepared myself for the toughest battle of my life. He knows that we are coming and I have a feeling that he has been watching us to determine a strategy to get the upper hand, at least that is what I would do. With the knowledge that he may have been spying on us since we defeated “Carl Breakbones” it doesn’t seem like we have many secrets from Karzoug. Since runeforge I have been studying all of the high level spells that he might possess searching for ways to minimize the effectiveness of his spells. For the most part I simply can’t guard against them and he likely knows other spells that I have never heard of before. This all comes down to how do you defeat a historically powerful wizard? Physically get in his face and hit him with weapons. Stop him from casting spells.

I am betting that he is prepared for spells that attack him so I will instead focus on spells for personal buffs, a couple of hastes for the party and different spells to breakdown possible barrier or create them. I have a couple of just in case combat spells that I don’t expect to use. If it we me I would try to debuff the party, buff myself, and place barriers to control the situation.

We have found a lot of interesting places, the legendary xin-shalast, runeforge, and the library. I find it funny that the place with all of the books is somewhere that Sedjwick can’t get into without help. Ok if he knew the location of the complex and which direction to dig he could get back into the area with the library but it is going to take awhile. I had orignally just planned to add another 10 ft of thickness to the stone wall Takkad put up but then I thought it should be a little bit thicker. But then a passwall still made the wall useless and that was just not right. It turned into being something interesting to do after spending the day enchanting weapons and armor. Everybody wanted either a weapon or armor enchant so I continued to build on my wall, which took over a month to complete. We weren’t adventuring and I wasn’t getting into trouble, that should have been a clue that something was up. No one goes down past the reduce person field so I don’t think anyone knows about it, besides I made the library more secure so they should be happy. Trask and I routinely teleport people in and out of that place all the time so this does not effect our ability to use the library.

If I die and the rest of you are reading this you should know that it was indeed me that did it.

== Moonday, Lamashan 27, 4708; Spires of Xin Shalast; late morning ==

We left the gateway device to crackle and sputter on its own, and passed by the image of Karzough, which was still in the antechamber glaring at us. He made some snarky comment about how we had done him a favor by killing off the workers from within, but obviously his goon force of followers could have easily done the same long before now if that was his desire.

I guess Karzough likes his grapes sour.

In the hallway we paused to discuss our next move: the small door directly ahead looked appealing, as did the the larger doors we passed on the way from the throne room.

A moment later our course was decided for us as an unearthly howl echoed out from Karzough’s direction. Sedjewick said, “That’s a large extra-planar hound of some sort, and it sounds really pissed off!”

We ran to the door ahead and quickly stepped inside the oddly shaped room beyond. We were obviously on the outer rim of the spire, as was evident by the curving wall and window looking out to Mhar Massif. Other than a handful of discarded items the room was empty.

More howls came from the hallway, along with the shouts and clatter of alarm and combat.

Wait, combat? Why would Karzough’s forces want to fight something he summoned to chase after us? Unless…

The sounds and yelling moved off to the left and so we peeked out the door to see a sticky black vapor clinging near the floor and a lot of blood.

We could hear a group of harridans fighting something in the throne room, and so we took the opportunity to pass through the nearby set of double doors.

Karzough was there in another square antechamber, and he looked seriously unhappy.

“What did you fools release into my realm?”

Ah, so he did not summon whatever it was… but then where did it come from? Was the gateway device now randomly pulling in creatures from other planes?

We had intended to ignore these images of Karzough, but Trask couldn’t resist and quipped, “Have you met your new champion?” as he pointed at Nolin.

It took Karzough less than a second to realize that the Rune of Greed was on the cheek of the same person who also boasted the Rune of Wrath, and his face turned a very bright red as he ranted, “Why… what? This is an outrage! You, you are not worthy to bear the symbol of Greed!”

To which Nolin calmly replied, “I’m collecting all seven.”

That was too much for Karzough, who cast Baleful Polymorph on Nolin, but he simply shrugged it off. It was encouraging to see him waste a spell for which we had Rune-forged weapons to counter.

Large rooms on either side looked like barracks for the harridans, who had clearly left in a hurry. A door at the opposite side led to a hallway and an empty lab, plus a lot of interconnected and unused storage rooms.

While Sabin and I searched these rooms, Sedjewick had occupied Karzough by asking about how the runelords managed to overthrow the emperor, and Trask had crept over to the throne room and saw the scattered remains of ten harridans. The double doors from this room, which were closed when we left, were open.

We left Karzough to reminisce over old times on his own while we moved through the throne room.

We saw the hound at the same moment it saw us, and it came bounding in toward us. I cast Prayer, Sedjewick sang, and Kane exclaimed something not polite as his attempt to Banish the creature failed.

Trask used his own form of banishment by hitting it with a fireball, and we all attacked it using whatever means we could. It had already been wounded by its encounter with Karzough’s minions, and so we were able to slay it quickly.

Sabin cut its head off, which Nolin then took and tossed into the room where Karzough was waiting, and said, “I am going to send you the bill for this.”

== Moonday, Lamashan 27, 4708; Spires of Xin Shalast; mid day ==

Presently we opened the small door on the north side of the throne room and entered a small room with a set of double doors at the far end. Beyond these doors was a huge chamber with massive furs (from mammoths) organized in mounds upon the floor. A golden arch was on an adjacent wall at the far side of the room, but of more immediate interest were the eight storm giants that stood at attention, with either piles of large rocks at their sides or large bows in their hands.

Trask put up a Wall of Force, dividing the room in two and isolating the two nearest giants from their allies.

A giant shot me with an oversized arrow, which hurt a lot, but the wall of force protected us from the giants shooting at us from the far side.

Sabin created Black Tentacles on the far side to try and ensnare some giants, but they were simply too large and strong for this tactic to work.

One of the nearby giants bellowed, “I have had enough of this nonsense, die!” as he charged Nolin. Once again we all took a hand at combat (even me) while Kane kept an eye and ear open to the throne room to prevent us from being flanked.

Nolin, Avia and Sabin traded mighty blows with our two giants, while Kane and I made sure all of us were in good health. The giants had no such support.

A giant on the far side banged heavily on a pair of double doors and yelled, “Assist, assist!”

Trask set a wall of flame against that wall, making it unpleasantly hot for anyone to come through that way.

Sedjewick sang a song of discord, and some of the giants on the far side began to fight one another with good results.

Avia killed the first giant and Sabin quickly followed suit with the second when Kane announced that cloud giants were in the throne room. I sealed off that doorway with a Wall of Stone.

We found each of our giants wore a ring with a star on it, which were similar in nature to our sihedron rings.

[1680] +3 deflection bonus, +3 resistance, endure elements, change the appearance of armor
[1681] another star ring

They also wore magic plate mail, but it was large and heavy, and we left them for later.

By now the cloud giants had broken through the wall of stone, and so I placed a circular Blade Barrier in the adjacent room in such a way that anyone trying to get at us had to pass through it twice. Trask added to the challenge with another wall of flame.

One giant tried to pass the gauntlet, but emerged as a fine spray of charred giant flesh.

Another two bravely entered the blade barrier room, but seemed reluctant to push through to the other side until a loud voice shouted, “You are the Wardens of Wind, go forward!”

One of them “went forward” and was turned into warm liquid goo, after which the other giant wet himself and then whimpered with fright and indecision. It eventually worked up enough courage to charge at us, and might have made it too had Nolin not been there to great it with his great sword.

A third managed to get into the side room, and prepared itself to charge past the second set of barriers.

Meanwhile, the storm giants on the far side of the room had managed to kill one another off in a nonsensical frenzy of violence that transcended the original effect of Sedjewick’s song. One storm giant remained, and he flashed us a large (mostly) toothless grin.

Having been denied easy access to us via the throne room, the remaining cloud giants burst through the wall of flame into the main room, but the wall of force stood between them and us.

I lobbed a couple of fireballs (via a necklace we had collected some time before) at the giants, and Trask created a Mage’s Sword and began to hack at them as well.

I created a cloud of mist around the giants (not a great choice, given that these were cloud giants), who returned the favor by floating up and casting a fog bank around us around us.

Trask used a staff to blow the mists away and then killed the remaining storm giant with his magical sword.

The remaining cloud giant behind us finally charged through the blade barrier and wall of flame, but Sabin had braced a spear in its path, and it impaled itself and perished.

We still have a handful of cloud giants on the other side of the wall of force, floating above and in the mists, but I am taking a quick moment to update my journal with these events.

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, Lamashan 27, 4708; Spires of Xin Shalast; late morning ==

Having faced down the image of Karzoug and survived to write about it, we moved to the stone door in the far side of the chamber. Kane touched it and it slid open.

Beyond was a large hall with two rows of columns stretching to a massive throne at the far side.

While the hall was huge, it was the decor that took my breath away. Glittering in a brilliant gold light were gems and silver inlay lining the wall. Set in a checkerboard pattern of stone was a path of bright red rubies leading to the throne.

The throne itself was giant sized and made of onyx and set with gems and precious metals. Exotic furs were draped about it.

Standing on the dais of the throne was a very large female human (not a giant). She was dressed in full plate and carried a large gold scimitar. And, quite naturally, the rune of greed was tattooed upon her left cheek.

“You dare to desecrate this chamber? I am the wielder of Chellon, come and face me!”

We then noticed a pair of tattooed fire giants that were rushing towards us, and so we backed further into the ante chamber to make them come to us one at a time.

Rigel shot an arrow at one, and I cast Destruction on the other. Sabin hit the nearest one, who in reprisal hit Avia.

The woman ran towards us, but suddenly bounced off an invisible Force Wall, which Trask had strategically placed between her and us.

“No!”, She screamed, “I am the Champion of Greed!”

Standing framed by the doorway Nolin pulled up his head band, revealing the rune of rath emblazoned there, and replied, “And I am the Champion of Wrath!”

Usually when one says someone turns red with rage there is a good bit of metaphor in the phrase. Not so here. The woman hissed like a huge snake, “Alasnist!”, and throwing herself at the wall found it was only ten feet high. She began to climb over it.

Meanwhile the rest of us continued our attacks on the two giants, and between the physical and magical onslaught, both perished just as the woman charged Nolin.

She was blinded by rage, and failed to consider that we were many while she was one, and we were obviously healing our wounds during combat, while she was not.

“You of all people,” she sputtered at Nolin, “dare to be here!”

She died rather quickly, and while it was a group effort, it was Nolin who landed the killing blow, and the Rune of Greed transferred from the woman’s face to Nolin’s left cheek. Mercifully it and the Rune of Wrath appeared to coexist on the same person without ill effect.

Later Sedjewick determined that the Rune of Greed granted its bearer complete immunity to mind effecting magic, plus a considerable (+32) resistance to transmutation spells. Unfortunately it also made Nolin vulnerable to domineering weapons, such as those we wielded.

We then turned our attention to her material possessions. Sedjewick was already staring at her golden scimitar, and looking up at us said, “Do you know what this is?”

[1666] Chellan. One of the legendary artifacts of the time of the Runelords, and one of the seven weapons of the Runelord champions — the Sword of Greed. Although made of gold, it had the hardness of adamantine. Legend says it can turn its victims into gem (rather than stone).

It defied all of our attempts to discern any details about itself.

Her other possessions included:

[1667] 5 potions of Cure Serious Wounds (Nolin used 1, so now 4)
[1668] 2 potions of Fly (Nolin)
[1669] potion of haste (Takkad)
[1670] +5 large full golden plate
[1671] +5 large steel shield
[1672] periapt of health
[1673] +4 belt of giant strength (Kane)
[1674] minor cloak of displacement
[1675] ring of Freedom of Movement
[1676] sihedron ring
[1677] scarab of protection — +20 spell resistance, absorbs negative energy or death [10 charges] (Avia)

The giants carried rather mundane gear, which we left for later.

[1678] 2 giant great swords
[1679] 2 plate mail

The throne room had a large set of double doors along the same wall from which we entered and a small door to the north. A hallway led south along a circular wall, which we assumed was the outside circular wall of the spire.

We pulled Rigel away from the throne, where she had been sitting in sort of a daze and chanting “Mine, mine, mine!” over and over to herself, and followed the corridor south.

We passed another set of double doors to our left (the east) and leaving them for latered followed the curve and arrived in a straight hallway heading north. A small door was to the south, and another door at the end of a dog leg to the east.

Sabin opened the door and there was Karzoug.

“Oh, Sabin, nice of you to drop in, have you not died yet? You are wasting my time as well as my minions.”

Sabin passed an ax through the image and Trask attempted to dispel it, but failed, and so after returning his taunts, we simply closed the door and waited a few minutes.

The door was opened, and there was Karzoug’s image, as annoying as ever.

We saw a pair of double doors to the south of his room, and so we hurriedly passed through (mostly) ignoring his parting comment of, “Have a nice death.”

We closed the double doors behind us and saw… something strange. A long hall was lined with boxes of blinking lights and thick wires connecting them all and leading to the back of the room. There an alcove held moving image of Xin Shalast, but not the ruinous city of today, but the fully populated and glorious city of ten thousand years ago.

The air smelled like thunderstorms.

Vaguely humanoid creatures in dirty leather robes walked from machine to machine, tending the mysterious equipment.

Kane said in a low voice, tinged with malice, “These are extra planars, they do not belong here.”

I thought this must be a temporal portal that Karzoug intended to use to bring his armies and followers forward to when he would arise, and shared my suspicions with my companions.

As we moved further in, one of the creatures came forward and, in Thassilonian said, “You must not interfere.” It held out its hand, and we noticed that the dozen or so creatures were all armed with knives.

Sabin asked, “Why are you here?”

“We mind the machine. The machine servers its purpose. You are not giant. You are not Runelord. You should not be here.”

We tried to find out the purpose of the machine, but all it said was, “We serve a higher purpose, and you shall not interfere.”

And with that a number of other creatures looked up at us with ill intent clearly on their minds.

I created a blade barrier between the bulk of the creatures and us, and we set about destroying the equipment and severing the cables.

Our work was rewarded by various minor explosions, and what appeared to be a lessening in clarity of the image at the far end of the room.

The creatures called out in alarm, and worked frantically at the equipment on their side of the barrier. The image cleared.

We continued our sabotage, but now some of the creatures launched themselves at us, crying out, “Leave that alone, it is beyond you!”

We killed them and continued to hack away at the machinery, either enduring the explosive damage or using ranged weapons and avoiding it.

Popping and crackling sounds came from the image as once again it became less distinct.

More of the creatures ceased their work and attacked us, but having to pass through the blade barrier seriously injured them, making them easy to fend off and kill.

Fewer workers resulted in further degradation of the image, and despite the explosions and attack of the creatures, we relentlessly attacked the machinery.

I summoned a water elemental near the device projecting the image and ordered it to destroy the equipment. The creatures attacked it, but it took a few of them with it before returning to its home plane.

More creatures passed through the barrier, and Kane channeled against evil outsiders, causing many of them to drop dead.

More damage, more explosions, more cries of dismay from the few surviving creatures, and then a persistent mechanical whine from the machinery.

One of the handful of remaining humanoids called out, “Remember the reward on the other side. Go! To the death!” They charged through the barrier.

And die they did.

Now there was no image of Xin Shalast — just a gray swirl of static.

We tried a few attacks against the device that had projected the image, but it seemed immune to our efforts.

Nolin and Sabin are worried that the thing might destroy itself in an enormous explosion, killing us all, and perhaps they are right.

We should leave.

At any rate, Karzoug will not be able to use the device as it is now even if it does not explode.

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, Lamashan 26, 4708; Xin Shalast; evening ==

We had set the wheels in motion to further implicate giants in the slaying of high ranking lamia, and now we sat back and watched the results of our handiwork unfold (courtesy of the Greater Scrying spell I had cast on the chief giant in the area).

A pair of harridan came to claim the body of the Most High Ceoptra’s lieutenant, and the giant, innocently and ignorantly enough, asked how her ladyship was doing.

The two looked meaningfully at one another before glaring at the giant and coldly stating, “Her Most High has been slain, along with several of her closest advisors and assistants.”

The giant stammered, “What, but… but how could that be?”

“We were hoping the giant in charge of security in this area could tell us.”

The giant plaintively replied, “A voice guided me to the body — and um, uh, we are investigating it even now.”

A look of incredilutiy passed between the harridan, and they motioned for the giant to follow.

He seemed taken aback and turned very pale, but followed them to the lamia temple complex. There he was led down a hallway to a large room with another pair of harridan standing guard on either side of the door.

“At sunset you will be taken up the mountain and questioned,” said a harridan, with evident glee at look of shock and horror on the giant’s face.

The door was closed, and for a moment the giant stood still, but then he beat upon the wall with his fists and slumped to the floor, where he sat motionless.

Well clearly this would not do at all. If the giant were questioned on the mountain then Karzoug would realize he was telling the truth, and quickly associate the mysterious “voice” with us. He may well suspect that we have been behind the bulk of the chaos occurring in Xin Shalast, but he can not be sure, and we needed to maintain this uncertainty.

I had been describing the events as they occurred to my companions, and now I turned to them and announced, “It seems we must rescue our giant.”

Some thought I must be joking, and my proposal was met with a good bit of doubt and skepticism, even after I explained my concern. In the end we all agreed to help, and we quickly drew up a cunningly simple plan.

Trask, Sabin and I became invisible and Wind Walked into the giant’s room, while the rest of our team wisped over to the coliseum. Trask then created a Major Image of a giant standing next to the real thing, and softly whispered, “There are those who would see you live today.”

Startled, the giant quietly hissed, “Who are you?”

Trask-giant proclaimed, “Call us allies by chance. You must decide now if you will come with me or remain here. Take my hand if you wish to live.”

The giant grasped the Trask-giant’s hand, where Trask had placed his own hand, and the two Teleported to the coliseum. There Trask said, “I am still here, but invisible. This place is deserted, but you must leave Xin Shalast. Now save yourself!”

“Many thanks, whoever you are, I am in your debt.”

Trask and the rest of the crew then returned to our base.

Meanwhile Sabin and I fastened a note in giantish to the wall where the giant had been held captive:

Alasnist will arise!
Alasnist is coming!
Alasnist is here!

Viva the revolution indeed!

We then returned to the others, but as soon as we solidified I suggested we visit Margive to find out when and where tonight’s meeting of the giant rebel alliance would be held. The more confusion we could spur in the city before heading up to the mountain, the better for us.

Margive was doing well and was, as usual, delighted to see us. We began to ask him about the location of the meeting when I realized that the giant we had freed from the lamia had made his way into the tunnels — as we expected he would — and was coming directly to Margive’s abode, which we did not expect at all: the passages are like a maze and it seemed impossible that he could get here by chance.

I told the others, and we quickly explained to Margive that a giant was coming this way and he needed to hide. Margive did what his people do so well and blended into his surroundings while the rest of his became invisible or hid in shadows.

Soon our giant ran into the chamber, calling out, “Margive? Margive, are you here?”

“I am here my friend,” Margive joyously exclaimed as he disabled his camouflage skills.

What the hell?

Had Margive been working for Karzoug all along and playing us for fools?

Had we walked into an elaborate trap?

“Send word to the others that I have found a much better place for our meeting. Tell them that the rebel alliance will meet at the coliseum tonight.”

You could have knocked me over with a feather.

Here was the leader of the giant rebellion, and Margive was far more involved than he had let on.

Tentatively we began to show ourselves. The giant recognized Trask’s and my voices, and accepted us as friends or at least not as foes.

We urged him to lead his people out of the city tonight, and he readily agreed.

Kane turned to Margive and said, “You should take your people and flee with the giants. This is the best chance you will have, especially if we do not succeed above.”

And with that we had managed to effectively kick the giant rebellion into high gear as well as provide a means of escape for Margive’s people.

The ensuing chaos in the city tomorrow morning will be the perfect time for us to begin our assault on Karzoug’s fortress of spires.

And thinking of the next day we decided to Wind Walk up to the mountain today and set our camp just outside the occlusion field. This would free up two fairly high level spells for me to use tomorrow on something else.

We also thought that with the remaining light of the day we should search the giant stone face of Karzoug carved into the summit.

We said farewell to Margive and the giant and flew out and up.

Karzoug’s face was unsettling — like it actually noticed us and was watching as we flit about. Kane searched for magic and for any secret (or otherwise) entrances, but found nothing. Sabin and I solidified and used Stone Shape to carve Wrath runes into Karzoug’s cheek and forehead large enough to be seen from the city below.

Lower down, near the occlusion field, Trask cast Rope Trick and we clambered inside for the evening.

I pulled out the peacock quill and asked, “What awaits us under the Spires of Zin Shalast?” A general question, to be sure, but I was not looking for specifics.

“Many guards, many wards, insane creatures not from this world, and a foe long sleeping.”

Just the sort of answer to ensure pleasant dreams.

== Moonday, Lamashan 27, 4708; Spires of Xin Shalast; morning ==

We arose early, ate a hasty comfortless breakfast, and entered the occlusion field.

We had enough sihedron rings for everyone except for Kane and Avia, who wore sihedron amulets with Obscure Object cast upon them. Thus protected we were able to advance toward the central spire without ill effect.

Sabin, Rigel, and I took advantage of our rings of Invisibility.

The spire was a massive open structure towering impossibly high above us, and built as rings of archways and flying buttresses stacked one atop the other. In the center was a forty foot wide ramp that curved up and around a central walled circle. The stone was polished (all of it!), and around the ramp it was set with precious metals and gems. Bejeweled ever-burning torches lit the way.

There was no wall along the outer edge, and so we kept clear of the precarious drop as we slowly climbed up the enormous cork-screw path. And we climbed and climbed around and around, every higher, and ever colder. For two hours we trudged, rising some two thousand feet from the plateau below, but having walked many miles for that gain.

And then from above a loud voice boomed out in giant, “Attention lads, here they come!”

And then in common, “Alright you lot, come up and meet your fate. You won’t be going any further.”

Trask made some light hearted responses, but it was clear the voice above was not in the mood for banalities, and so he cast Haste on us and up we went.

Five giants stood on the ramp above, where a circular wall dropped down from above and met with the outer edge of the ramp. Each giant bore a sihedron rune branded into its forehead. One of the giants was clearly the leader, a storm giant clad in full plate and wielding a great sword. The others were cloud giants wielding morning stars.

Kane was first in view.

“Ah, now there’s the cleric, and the paladin must be close behind. Keep alert because they like to jump in close!”

Sabin used Mass Suggestion and asked, “Wouldn’t you rather drop your weapons and go down to the front gates of Xin Shalast below?”

The leader laughed at Sabin, but three of the giants dropped their morning stars and began to head down.

Avia and Nolin charged in and were whacked hard by the leader, but returned the sentiment. Sedjewick was singing and Trask used a Mage Sword against the leader.

An arc of lightening shot from the other giant’s hand and struck several of us, so Sabin moved in to interrupt its spell casting by throwing his ax at its face.

Avia and Nolin were carving large chunks out of the leader when it realized some of his guards were leaving, and yelled out, “Hey, wait, what are you doing? Get back in formation!” When he realized they were continuing on he called out, “Well at least hit some of these lot on your way down!” To which they replied, “Okay.”

Although unarmed they were giants and inflicted a lot of damage by punching Avia, Sabin and Nolin as they walked stupidly by.

Nolin was close to death, and so Trask erected a force wall to isolate him from the passing giants, and with that Nolin provided the killing blow on the leader. Kane provided much needed healing with a channel.

The spell-casting giant was in a punching fight with Sabin, and so I cast Flamestrike on it.

Nolin asked Trask to drop the wall of force so he and Avia could get to the spell caster, and he complied, but was pummeled by a parting giant for his effort.

Nolin, Avia and Sabin made short work of the magic user, and Kane cast Create Water, dumping a pool of water before the fleeing giants. The water instantly froze, and the two of the giants slipped off to their deaths.

We searched the remains of the two dead giants and found:

[1660] +2 full plate — giant size
[1661] sihedron ring (Kane)
[1662] +4 full plate — giant size
[1663] sihedron ring (Avia)
[1664] master work great sword — giant size
[1665] morning star

It was a relief to get the two additional sihedron rings. We no longer needed to worry about Karzoug using the amulets to scry on us, and the rings provided the permanent effect of Endure Elements.

The ramp leveled off here and transitioned into a checkerboard pattern of gold and black. The walls were decorated with engraved murals depicting Xin Shalast in its heyday. Directly ahead to the north was a massive pair of golden double doors, and west of those was a single more modest size (in comparison) door.

There were no handles, knobs or keyholes in the doors.

We elected to try the smaller door first, which Sabin opened with a Knock spell. Kane then peeped in and saw… Karzoug!

Wow, was this it, just like that?

“And so you fools have found me… I will be your death!”

Karzoug actually said a lot more (he is a wordy chap), but I was taken aback and not paying close attention to his ranting. We moved to advance upon him.

“Oh you pathetic little people. Well, Sabin, let’s play the game.”

He pointed a finger at Sabin and a black ray lept from it, striking Sabin squarely in the chest. Sabin’s face spasmed in pain, and for a moment I thought I had lost my best friend, but with great effort he overcame the full effect of the spell, but was seriously hurt, none the less.

Kane and I quickly healed Sabin, and Karzoug flickered and faded from view — some advanced form of an illusion, no doubt.

The room itself, although oddly shaped to accommodate the curving wall, was uninteresting, but there was another modest sized door in the southwest wall.

We are taking a moment to fully heal and recover before moving forward.

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.

== Starday, Lamashan 25, 4708; Xin Shalast; evening ==

With still too few sihedron rings or too few sihedron amulets (or two few team members willing or able to wear the latter) we decided to search for additional rings in the more prominent ruins of the city. The now even more ruinous (thanks to yours truly) remains of the Temple of Lamashtu seemed as likely a place to try as any.

Sabin and I used invisibility plus Detect Magic and then Wind Walked into the building and scouted about.

Time had been a harsh mistress to the building, and rubble choked much of the entry chamber. We saw a pair of large stone idols fallen over on their sides: a dragon and a lion, both twisted and perverted. A mosaic tile in the floor boasted a great symbol of Lamashtu, but it was broken and bereft of any power or influence here.

Three exits led out from the chamber and deeper into the temple.

We went straight ahead to an antechamber, where the tattered gear and clothing lay strewn about. Upon closer examination we found the three corpses of our would be explorers, long ago ripped to pieces.

A stairway led down to a torture chamber with the usual arrangement of miserable cells, cruel devices, and a table designed to catch the blood of the room’s victims.

We returned to the entry chamber and went through the right exit, which was choked with collapsed stone. Wafting through the crevices like a breeze we came followed the ruined corridor thirty feet before it ended in a square room some twenty feet on a side.

To the right was a rectangular room with a stagnant pool in the center.

To the left was what looked like a locker room, with benches and cabinets lining the walls.

Directly ahead was a cathedral dedicated to Lamashtu. It looked as if it had been well maintained, while the rest of the temple had fallen down around it. We got an uneasy feeling that something was watching us… something only glimpsed, like a fleeting movement out of the corner of our eyes.

Back in the entry room we tried the left passageway, but it was completely blocked.

We returned to the others at our hideout, and it was decided that whatever was lurking in the temple needed to be removed.

We prepared for combat, and then Wind Walked back to the locker room, where we solidified quietly in the dark. Sabin moved quickly into the cathedral, and said that he saw shadowy incorporeal creatures moving about.

Avia and I moved into the cathedral, and Kane used a wand of Detect Evil, which promptly did so.

Nolin also moved in, while Sedjewick created Dancing Lights and began to sing.

Trask Hasted us as Sabin cast Sign of Wrath. All of a sudden the room was filled with a lot of shadows, which all closed in on Sabin (those that survived his spell).

I, Avia and Kane all chanelled energy against the Shadows, and all but two fell, which Trask promptly destroyed via a fireball.

There were various items of interest upon the altar:

[1643] chalice: a decanter of endless water
[1644] +3 black adamantine dagger decorated with disfigured animals
[1645] wand of soul bind (4 charges)

The entire room emanated evil, and Kane was not content to just leave it as it was, and so the fighters destroyed the altar, which made Kane feel somewhat better.

We then returned to our base, where I cast the powerful Commune spell and asked for Pharasma’s guidance.

Are any sihedron rings in Xin Shalast that are not in our possessions?

Yes

Is the occlusion field around the spires powered by a rune well?

No

Do any dragons in the region of Xin Shalast posses a sihedron ring?

No

Has Karzoug fully revived?

No

Is Karzoug able to leave the spires now?

No

Will Karzoug be able to leave the spires within the next week?

Yes

Should we move to directly confront Karzoug as soon as possible?

Yes

Does Karzoug have more than a dozen allies with him in the spires?

Yes

Are we missing an object or task from the city we need in order to defeat Karzoug?

Uncertain

Does Karzoug get stronger the longer we wait?

Yes

Will it benefit us to sow discord and chaos in the city itself?

Yes

Will we need to wear the sihedron rings and medallions to freely move about everywhere within the occlusion field?

Yes

Does the occlusion field extend to within the buildings?

Yes

Do any giants in the city have sihedron rings?

No

This gave us much food for thought, and we decided to check with Margive to see if he could explain why the giant rebellions always fizzle so quickly, and why the most recent one lasted longer.

He seemed surprised by our questions. “The Lamia have all of the power. They are the law,” he explained. “However a great deal of yelling was heard from their temple complex just a short while ago, and rumor says that her Most High Ceoptra has come down from the mountain to set her house in order.”

Score! Margive seemed terrified by her presence in the city, but this was what we had been waiting (and working) for!

We asked about the most recent giant rebellion, and he replied, “They meet at night in the slave area. They are easy to find.”

The first order of business was to take out Her Most Highestness and her entourage, if she was not alone.

Sabin and I did the usual prep with invisibility and using Wind Walk scouted out the temple. We heard an angry voice shouting from Karzoug’s chapel. There we found three harridans, dressed as warriors, gathered around a fourth, who was much better dressed and equipped than the others, and was wearing a robe of runes and a crown.

They were speaking in giant, and the fancy dressed one was shocked that the giants would kill her second in command.

Across from this side of the temple was another space where we could all gather and prepare for the attack, if we were lucky.

We returned to the others and prepared for what looked to be a fierce battle. Using a combination of invisibility spells and Wind Walk we managed to arrive at our designated gathering spot undetected, but our luck soon gave way to reality.

“My lady, I hear something in the other chamber!”

Oh drat, there went the element of surprise.

Trask sent a wicked arc of chain lightening down to zap several of the lamia, and Sedjewick created a mirror image and began to sing. Kane cast Prayer, and I used Greater Dispel Magic on the one we thought must be the Ceoptra.

Two harridans advanced upon us, while another cast Flame Strike on me — one of them was a cleric! The Ceoptra was muttering words of power.

Sabin used our Dimension Door strategy to put himself, Nolin, Avia and I next to the Ceoptra, where upon Avia and Nolin promptly killed her.

What the hell? It was only then that a trickle of doubt began to pool in my mind.

Rigel shot a warrior harridan, and Sedjewick Shouted ferociously at two.

The cleric harridan cast Blade Barrier, isolating the advance party from the rest of our team, and the other two then charged us.

The entire area filled with a Fire Storm, and I was targeted by Searing Light.

I tried Destruction on the cleric, but to no avail, and Sabin tried Disintegrate, but that too was disappointing.

Nolin and Avia realized they needed to take down the cleric, and charged her.

I managed to use a Mass cure spell to restore some health to my friends and myself.

Meanwhile the cleric cast Unholy Blight, and attacked Sabin with a dagger, which was odd, because she was wielding a greats word.

Sabin was seriously injured, but I was closer to death than I have ever been, and for the first time in years wondered if I would survive to see another day.

But then things began to turn our way. Sabin was able to get three solid hits on the cleric, while Avia killed a warrior and Nolin kept the other occupied.

At that point in time I discovered that Trask had used Teleport to bring the rest of our party to the party, and Kane revived me with a mighty Heal.

Trask used Mage Sword on the cleric, who began to hack at us, but Sabin put a stop to that by removing her head.

Avia very quickly killed the remaining and seriously out classed harridan.

We were bloodied, near exhaustion, and not quite sure what had just happened.

No small amount of channeling and cure spells brought us back to health, and we quickly searched the bodies for useful things.

[1646] +1 unholy dagger
[1647] +6 headband of inspired wisdom (Kane)
[1648] ring of force shield
[1649] 4 pearl anklets
[1650] gold crown
[1651] sihedron ring (from the cleric!)
[1652] +1 unholy dagger
[1653, 1655, 1657] masterwork breastplate
[1654, 1656, 1658] masterwork great sword

Then using the blood of the dead lamia, I scrawled as high upon the wall as I could reach, in a crude giantish hand, “Death to the tyrantz!”

We then shoved the body of the harridan we had thought was the Ceoptra into a bag of holding and returned to our hideout — but on the way Sabin and I dropped the body off into an alley.

I then used Greater Scrying on “our giant,” and using Sending sent him to the corpse.

He was at a loss. “A harridan!? But who would kill a harridan?” He then sent one of his minions over to the temple, “Unless I am mistaken, someone has killed the chief assistant of the Most High Ceoptra!”

Blast! We had been duped by one of the oldest tricks in the book, and very nearly paid dearly for it.

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.

== Fireday, Lamashan 24, 4708; Xin Shalast; late evening ==

In the end Sabin and I used rings of invisibility to creep out into the street, where he sent forth an Arcane Eye to spy out the lay of the land. Giants were still out and about in large numbers and agitated, the crag-spider patrols were looking intently into every corner and shadow, and even the lamia from Temple Row had joined in the effort to find us.

Even more giants were moving about Jottenburge, including half a dozen crag-spider patrols.

Past this, in the field where the intenerate giants had set up camp were the beginnings of a skirmish, but it had not yet developed into anything more.

It seemed a shame to let things go on in such a mundane way, and when I spied the tottering temple of the hate Lamashtu nearby, I could not resist. Using Stone Shape I caused a supporting column for the main entryway to crumble, taking down that corner of the building with it.

We then scurried back inside and set up our usual watch for the night.

== Starday, Lamashan 25, 4708; Xin Shalast; afternoon ==

In the morning we were unsure of what to do. Using Wind Walk we drifted over to the temple of Lamashtu and saw others were admiring my handiwork. A trio of lamia (two of the vulture form and one a more powerful harridan, with her regal lioness body) were poking about the ruin of the ruin, and one of the lesser lamia flew about the temple.

In the lower section of the city we were disappointed to see that the rebellion was over, and the ubiquitous crag-spider patrol giants out in force.

We then swooped down into the tunnels and found Margive, who was delighted to see us (once we resumed solid form).

“Oh, you are back my friends: it is good to see you.”

He was quite impressed by our news that we had slain two of the dragons, and confirmed that he had in fact seen three or more different dragons (at least one more to go, then).

He was aware of the giant rebellion.

“Yes, every now and then the lesser giants — those from elsewhere — become unhappy enough with their lot that they rebel against their overlords. But such things quickly come to naught. Although I must say I was surprised that last unrest night’s lasted as long as it did. Usually the patrols squash such things more quickly.”

He agreed to keep use his natural skulking talents to try and find out what was behind this particular uprising, and why it had gone on for longer than usual.

He was also pleased that we had collapsed an entrance to the temple of Lamashtu.

“Some unspeakable horror lives within… but my friends, with increase in patrols you will surely consider taking the hidden path to the mountain to avoid detection.”

Hidden path?

“Yes, once my people used the path, but after several scouts failed to return, we stopped going that way.”

Obviously we asked him to show us the way, which started in the basement of a tower at the northern end of the city, just before the Rising District.

A long and well crafted tunnel led us gradually up, until it ended in blazing sunlight. A ledge served as roof for a shelf on the side of a hill where the tunnel ended. Sabin, who was once again invisible, flew out and saw a pair of stone pillars on either side of the ledge above the entrance.

Kane also crept out, but as soon as he came out from beneath the ledge a tentacle lashed out from one of the pillars and struck him.

Avia swiftly flew out, and I cast Air Walk on Nolin so he could quickly get up to our foes.

Our counter attack was going well when one of the things dropped down from our fighters and began to raise havoc among the rest of us who were holding back in the shadows below.

And when the stony things hit, they caused a weakness in their victims that sapped strength, making it harder to damage them. But there were many of us, and only two of them. Soon the battle was over and the creatures dead.

We had to use a number of charges from our wands of Lesser Restoration to restore strength to Nolin and Sabin.

We then continued on, via Wind Walk, to the field of energy protecting the spires near the top of the mountain.

Sabin determined that the field was not just a shell and emanated from within the center (the tallest) spire, and it barred Scrying within from without, and barred any form of teleportation within the field (so much for our special attack strategy).

Both the sihedron rings and medallions allowed safe passage through the field, but the medallions were conduits for scrying.

We then flew down via WW to the top of the coliseum, from which Sabin sent an Arcane Eye to the Lamia complex. He discovered that it descended several levels beneath the surface, where he found living areas and an armory.

The harridan we had seen earlier was down there, and she was wearing a gold Sihedron Ring!

Sabin and I turned invisible, and using WW went to find her (so I could see her in detail personally, thus be better able to Scry upon her). We found her coming up from below, and talking to another lamia walking beside her.

“Mark my words, the Most High Chiptra will not be pleased if the city falls apart on my watch, and I have no intention of letting it. Go down into the city and make sure order has been restored among the giants.”

One of her attendants left to carry out her bidding while she and two others went into a building near their temple. She went upstairs into an office space, where she sat on an elegant cushion and began to read. We scanned the adjacent room and found her sleeping quarters (with a larger cushion), where we thought our team could quietly assemble, and then attack from there.

And once again our planning paid off. We all Wind Walked into her boudoir, from which Sabin used Dimension Door to set Avia, Nolin, himself, and I next to the harridan. One of her attendants was in the room with her, and we assumed the other was in the hallway.

I cast a Silence spell about the harridan to prevent the noise of combat from bringing more lamia into the fray and to block her from casting spells, but there was really no need. In a few seconds Nolin, Avia and Sabin and slain her and her attendant.

Trask, who was still in the bedroom, opened the door to the hall and upon seeing the other lamia, called out, “The lady will see you know.”

As expected she ran up and burst into the room, slapping Trask for his insolence, but quickly falling under the onslaught of Kane’s Flame Strike and Sabin’s and Avia’s blows.

We quickly looted the bodies, searched the rooms and took everything of value.

[1642] prism of magnification: +5 to perception for survival checks
while tracking
[1635] +2 dagger
[1636] +2 dagger
[1637] +2 dagger
[1638] master-work great sword
[1639] sihedron ring
[1640] thin bone knife — ceremonial, it creates a skeleton when used for a coup-de-gras (destroyed by Sabin, with Takkad’s approval)
[1641] gold necklace of beads of Fireball: 2 3d6, 2 5d6, 2 7d6, 1 9d6

37 platinum pieces
562 gold pieces

Nolin seemed really keen to set these two rooms in flames, and so while the others used WW to return to the room across the road from “our giant,” Sabin and I remained and torched the rooms.

Using our rings of invisibility plus WW, we hovered above the building as smoke belched forth and lamia ran around like ants about a kicked nest.

Their time to burn will come soon enough.

On the way back to our friends we stopped off and set the harridan’s great sword in plain sight in the middle of the road. The hope was that some giant would pick up the treasure and show it off, thus implicating the giants in a conspiracy against the lamia.

Back in our room I used Greater Crying on our giant, who was back home, and seemed far from happy.

“I swear the sooner we get rid of her the better. She thinks she can just order US around?!”

Using Sending, I said, “Your problem is solved, and she is now dead.”

He jumped up and shouted out in alarm, “Who is there?”

I think we may be able to create a serious conflict in Xin Shalast between the lamia and giants that could bring some of Karzoug’s allies hiding up in the spires down to restore order.

But first we need to take out those that appear to be maintaining order among the giants who might otherwise rebel. The crag-spider patrols must be taken out, or at least seriously impaired.

But do we have time for this strategy?