Sunday, Erastus 6

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“How much do you have?” he pressed.

“About 15 gold.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

We took two important items from Xaneesha’s corpse:

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

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

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

Moonday, Erastus 7

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Hey. I wield great power!

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

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

Oathday, Erastus 3

Sometimes, ethics and morals are inconvenient.

Red dragons are not known for their generosity, or even their friendliness. In fact, they are generally recognized as evil and untrustworthy. I know this now, and I know this is why Father has always been reluctant to reveal our family’s lineage. It is said that the apple does not fall from the tree. What would people think? I’m fortunate to have fallen into a group that judges more by actions than simply by reputation. Or presumed reputation.

But I digress. We’d made a deal with Longtooth which, in hindsight, had people wishing they had not. In return for doing nothing (and we were very explicit on that — had he shown up we’d have been very upset) we would give him a share (1/9 or 1/10) of anything we found, earned, recovered — what have you. It grated on us that we took all the risk, and simply based on the fear that he might harm us, we were willing to pay ‘protection money’. Do nothing, and there’s something in it for you.

Some have openly advocated not paying him, now that we’ve defeated Mokmurian. That doesn’t seem right either. It grates on me to give away what seems so much like it is ours, and yet to not keep the bargain seems to make me – us – as bad as any of the evil beings we’ve been defeating. Our reputation and our actions are what define us. If we are not true to our principles, we risk losing the reputation we’ve created. Even if only among ourselves.

To that end, I offered to teleport to him and let him know we did indeed defeat MM, and that we were tallying the treasure we’d found, and would contact him again within 24 hours. Without that notification, I thought, he might think we were doublecrossing him.

But others argued that if he feared that he was more than welcome to come and check it out. Or use magic to contact us. Even though I felt I could teleport away if he threatened me, others thought he might try to doublecross us and grab more treasure through capturing or injuring me. I feel, unfortunately, like I understand him and that that is not likely, but the group urges strongly against that and instead advocates we regain all our spells and visit him at full strength, just in case battle does happen.

I’m a little worried that planning for a possible battle increases the likelihood of a battle, but I do not fear we’d lose the battle. I fear we’d lose the moral high ground, and I for one would be disappointed if I found any one of our party could create circumstances where it was reasonable (or even convenient) to ignore the deal we’d made.

Some have asked if I’d feel the same if Longtooth himself broke the deal first. It is a good question. If one party breaks a deal, there is no deal, I think. Certainly if he attacks us for any reason, we would need to defend ourselves, and it would be unwise in the extreme to wound but not kill an angry dragon.

Meanwhile, Takkad and some others are spending a great deal of time in the library, trying to discern what information is actually held there. He found much information about the Rune Lords, and in particular Karzoug and Alaznist, whose minions we seem to be running into with increasing frequency. And he also discovered the answer to a question that we’d asked ourselves when MM’s corpse spoke to us: what role did the runic tattoos play in all this, and if it really did pass, grant, or amplify a dead Rune Lord’s power or essence, how could we undo that? The answer, it turns out, is that if the tattoo is actually removed, then the Rune Lord gets nothing from a death, but if it does not then the manner in which it was originally enscribed means that the Rune Lord does indeed get some small measure of power, or essence, or something from the soul that has been extinguished.

It borders on religious doctrine to me – all this talk of souls and such – but everyone else takes it very seriously. Any power that a Rune Lord can exert in today’s world is bad news, so I guess I don’t need to know the details of how it works if I simply know it does. I’m not sure how we will erase these tattoos berfore killing our opponents, but we will undoubtedly look for opportunities in the future.

The Black Tower, it turns out, was not so much a Rune Lord construct as a religious one. It was once the bell tower of an order of Therassic monks (whom we suspect were not exactly law abiding and virtuous souls.) The Peacock Spirit, I think he said.

Fireday, Erastus 4

Clever.

I didn’t really ruminate out loud, but perhaps my expression or my demeanor has conveyed to the group my mixed feelings about our deal with Longtooth. It seems we may be intending to adhere to the letter of the deal while being somewhat more free with the spirit of it. As we are separating Longtooth’s share, his pile is becoming full of things that have no use to us, but do have value. We calculated his share would be in the neighborhood of 8500 gp, and the pile did include gold (red dragon after all!). It contained a couple of giant-sized magic weapons which were of no use to us, and great piles of giant armor that, again, had value but no use to us or even Longtooth except, perhaps, as trophy pieces.

I think they are hoping he expresses dissatisfaction in a manner which requires we kill him.

Fireday, Erastus 4 (later)

We emptied our sacks, and haversacks, and bags of holding so that we carried nothing but Longtooth’s share. He couldn’t gain additional treasure by force. Even if he attacked and we all died, he’d not know where the rest of it was.

And when Rallo and I teleported the group there, he appeared in short order and inspected the loot. He seemed satisfied, but then said he also wanted the scrolls and the location of the library. Takkad threw a verbal barb at him – “you should be happy you got what you did when we did all the work while you crouched cravenly in your cave” – and that was all it took. He bared his teeth, waved his wings and took a snap at us.

And quick as you could blink, he had three fighters dimension door right next to him, and Takkad Smote him, and I hasted everyone and that was all it took. While I knew a fireball would be pointless against a red dragon, I was ready to create an illusion of the entrance sealing off as if with a giant shape stone spell. But it wasn’t necessary. Before I could do anything else, our three fighters had created dragon hash. And we had our share back, our honor intact .. and additional treasure to inventory.

There were a great number of coins .. a stunning amount of copper coins (copper? what a slacker for a red dragon!): over 360,000. There were over 23,000 silver pieces, and over 34,000 gold pieces. But it wasn’t just the coinage. We had some in our party who are skilled at appraisals, and they informed us there was a water opal worth a thousand gp, a diamond worth 1600 gp, 2 black opals worth 8000 gp each, 53 gems of assorted size and quality worth a total of 3500gp, a tapestry of monks sparring worth 600gp, a set of 4 silver idols worth 2400gp, and a pure platinum statue of (ugh) Karzoug worth about 5000gp. All told, it had over 70,000 gp in value.

This, Father. This is why you went adventuring, right? 🙂 And yet, as stunning as these figures sound, when one looks at the price of even “inexpensive” magic items, there’s only a fraction of them that we would be able to buy with this hoard.

With the empty bags of holding that Takkad and Sabin had brought (gosh, almost as if they’d planned for Longtooth to die 🙂 ) we were able to get the loot (but not Longtooth’s corpse) back to the library with just one teleport by Rallo and I. And rest.

But what about the Black Tower itself?

Starday, Erastus 5

We started the day by sending messages to Conna (any ‘friendly’ giants should be gone in 3 days), Sandpoint (ther’es been a giant earthquake and a sinkhole has appeared), Magnimar (what Rune Lord cult?), and our ferryman (thanks, won’t need you but tell the stables we’ll pick up our horses in a couple of weeks).

The news from Sandpoint was disturbing and yet, sigh, it seems almost normal. I get the sense that Sandpoint will never be normal again, or perhaps disaster is the new normal. It started with goblins, and then giants and dragons, and now even the earth is trying to destroy the town. We have no more message capability today but we will have a longer conversation tomorrow. And the mayor of Magnimar remains relatively clueless, and I’m not sure short messages of 25 words or less will convey to him what we’ve learned.

Sunday, Erastus 6

Well, in talking with Sandpoint, it seems things are more dire than we thought. Yes, there’s a sinkhole, but part of Sandpoint had apparently fallen into it, and the guards that went to investigate it never returned. Apparently there is also a loud howling that does not sound like a normal dog, or pack of dogs. We told the mayor we’d be there as soon as possible. With teleport, now, we can be there almost instantly but we need to wrap some stuff up here yet. We’ve decided to take on the Black Tower.

So we teleported out to the area in front of it and were immediately beset upon by harpies. It turns out these were not your ordinary, run-of-the-mill harpies (if such exist). These seemed much stronger or more powerful somehow. Still, Takkad encased one in stone (silly harpy sat oh a stone wall, and, well, “wall of stone”), and we eventually defeated the other three. I managed to fireball one, but then I’m afraid I became rather useless because the harpy’s song got to me.

But when we finished, there were no more harpies. We cautiously inspected and then entered the door and found ourselves in a round room that was noticeably cold. Not just a chilly draft. Cold. As in, walls glistening with frost. Sabin opened a trap door that Kane was able to find on the floor. It revealed a five foot shaft which seemed to be about 70′ deep, judging from the lit stone we dropped. Might be a chamber down there.

And then the eyes. The eyes looked up at us. And Sabin and Takkad felt a chill from that gaze, but shook it off. And because of that, if for no other reason, Takkad sent a flame strike down the shaft. Kane cast bless. Rallo sent a lightning ball down. And we waited. For a very short time.

Because in response to all this, a figure shot out of the shaft carrying some sort of metal rod or cylinder and clung to the ceiling. This was a major clue that we needed to take action. Cold room. Evil figure. Fireball, right? But both Nolin and Kane had the ability to get to the figure (by airwalk and spider climb, respectively) and by the time I could try a fireball, there would have been too many friendlies nearby. I really need to research a haped fireball. So instead I made Avia able to fly, and effectively threw another fighter at the problem. I was later able to try an old favorite (burning hands) which does less damage but can be better aimed. Eventually, the mummy was dead, but not before Nolin reported feeling .. off. Or ill. Mummies are renown for passing on disease so we hit Nolin with both a heal and a remove curse, unsure of which would be needed.

The cylinder, it turns out, was locked, but using several knock spells from the wand, I was able to make the six spinning ring align to the correct places and open it. Inside we found

9 scrolls describing various curses that could be issued. I suppose we should study these sometime, if only to know and recognize them.

8 magic scrolls:

Greater Restoration
Hero’s Feast
Order’s Wrath
Scrying
Slay living
Unholy blight
Regenerate
Symbol of Stunning

1 scroll describing the entrance to the library (which we’ve already found), and how to get past the shining one (which may be useful).

We’d hoped to go up and clear the Tower. But the only opening appears to be down? What next?

Sunday, Erastus 6

We slew Longtooth in a brief but fierce battle. Our intent was to meet the terms of our agreement, but to do so absolutely to the letter. No one was entirely satisfied with having to forge a deal with the beast that was responsible for so much death and destruction in Sandpoint, but at that time we knew so little about Mokmurian, and the priority was to neutralize his allies by any means possible. Bribing him to stay out of the fight was a reasonable solution, distasteful as it was.

Once we emerged victorious, however, more and more of us were beginning to have second thoughts about the deal that had been struck. We were of course obligated to follow through, and there was little debate about this, but there were those, myself included, that were itching for a fight because we knew we could take him. And because it felt wrong to leave him where he sat, free to come for us at some point when the advantages were his. All we needed was an excuse to do it, one that did not require us to break our word.

In a sense, we gambled on his nature. All of us were certain that, given the chance, he would try to weasel more from us and failing that would turn to intimidation. This is where I drew the line: any attempt to balk on his part would make it fair game.

And balk he did. I of course was not expecting members of our party to bait him further, but I doubt the taunts did more than speed the advance towards the inevitable. Once he saw that we were victorious, and had brought him what was clearly a sizable share of the loot (and, I might add, a painstakingly accurate share: as I said, to the letter), he realized that he could have and should have asked for more. And that is when he began to argue, and that is when I knew argument would turn to threats. Some of us just ensured that happened quickly.

After we were unimpressed by his display, Sabin moved quickly and tapped Avia and I on the shoulders. With only a short warning to prepare us, we found ourselves teleported right in front of the dragon, quite literally in his face. And we swung away, and he went down in a blur of steel, barely registering what had happened.

It was quite possibly the most brilliant tactical move I have seen. It’s one we should remember for the future.

Soon, we head to the tower for a quick exploration. We wanted to spend more time here, but we learned via sending that there is trouble in Sandpoint—which came as no surprise, for there is always trouble in Sandpoint—and we must return quickly. The tower, however, is here and we have an opportunity to deal with it now, and that is what we are going to do.

== Oathday, Erastus 3, 4708; Therassic Monastic Library; late night ==

Sabin and I worked at a frantic pace, eagerly scanning through the library’s ancient texts for information about Karzoug, Alaznist, and any magic or ritual involving rune tattoos.

I did pause briefly to wonder at Sabin’s comprehension of Thassilonian: what was it that first compelled him to learn an ancient, dead and nearly forgotten language? Was he inspired by the monumental ruins left behind by this lost civilization, or was there some other, perhaps personal reason?

For me, well I am Shoanti, and my people were once the warrior class of the Thassilonian empire, and our tribes still cling tenaciously to certain aspects of our heritage, including the old language.

It was a long and tiresome task, interrupted many times by discussions about how to notify Longtooth and how to parcel out his agreed upon share of the reward, and also whether we should investigate the Black Tower for which this high desert valley was named.

The mechanical librarian was helpful, but only to the extent that it held the complete list of titles and subjects for all tomes in the library in its shiny mechanical head. Left to us was the task of sifting through each of the many volumes the metal man brought forth from our enquiries.

We had seen images of Karzoug before — my companions at Thistlestop, and all of us at the Storval Stairs — and the descriptions of him from the texts matched what we expected. One illustration depicted him with gems embedded in his forehead and hands. He was apprenticed to Runelord Haphrama, and rose through the ranks until, at the age of 77, he replaced his mentor and took up the burning glave, symbol of the Runelord of Greed. We were left to ponder whether Karzoug hastened the need for Haphrama to be replaced.

Karzoug’s realm was Shalast, and under his leadership it prospered as it never had before, with its capital, Xin-Shalast, considered to be one of Thassilon’s most prestigious and powerful cities.

Interestingly we found a letter in one of the books on Karzoug addressed to one of his minor officials about an accounting error. Apparently a report filed by the official included a discrepancy of seven gold pieces. Karzoug took this personally, and as punishment he had each of the official’s seven sons ritually gilded and placed in the town square as a reminder that what was Karzoug’s belonged to Karzoug, and everything in Shalast was belonged to Karzoug.

Like Karzoug, my companions had seen images of Alaznist before, and had in fact sold a marble statue bearing her likeness which they found in the ancient ruins beneath Sandpoint. She was as stunningly beautiful as she was cruel and bloodthirsty. As the Runelord of Wrath she commanded legions of soldiers who were altered by magic, drugs or hideous mutations (Olithar had mentioned the results of her handiwork that were skulking beneath Sandpoint) to be enraged against whomever their mistress labeled foe.

And her chief foe was primarily Karzoug. The two neighboring Runelords hated one another beyond reason, and their two kingdoms, Bakrakhan and Shalast, were ever at war with one another.

Bakrakhan was located where the present Varisian Gulf is located, having been sunk in the cataclysm which ruined the Thassilonian empire. Sandpoint and much of the Lost Coast Road were on the eastern border of Alaznist’s realm, as were all of the X’s found on the map in Mokmurian’s possession.

The Runelords often scoffed that even death could not defeat them, and as such no text mentions their final resting places, although the capital of each realm seemed a likely place.

What we uncovered about the rune tattoos was most disturbing. There is a ceremony of binding whereby the subject is marked with the tattoo of a particular Runelord. When the subject dies, or is killed, then that part of his soul that is closest to the Runelord with whose rune the subject has been marked will by siphoned to the Runelord.

It was clear that if the deaths were arranged in such a way to bring out the specific vice represented by the Runelord, then a larger portion of each subject’s soul would go to the Runelord. What fate awaited the rest of the victim’s soul was not stated, but some texts darkly hinted at blasphemous ends.

This immediately brought to mind the work of Lucretia at Turtleback Ferry and the sinking of her gambling ship with all of its specially marked patrons drowning. Lucretia was obviously working for Karzoug, the Runelord of greed.

And having looked through Olithar’s journal entries I wondered about the violent deaths Nualia had planned for the city of Sandpoint, and the (seemingly) senseless murder spree Xanesha inflicted upon Magnimar. Were these forces at work on behalf of Alaznist, the Runelord of wrath? Olithar did not mention any tattoos borne by the victims, but did the party know then to check? I think not.

The locations of these events align with the former realms of those two Runelords, and I fear we may be facing the attempted resurgence of more than just the one.

The good news is that if the tattoo is removed, such as by an Erase spell (or I would imagine more painful methods), before a person died, then their soul would not be harvested for the Runelord.

Avia, who could also read Thassilonian, found that the huge cauldron we encountered on the way in was a Rune Slave Cauldron. These were made in Xen Shalast, and used throughout the empire to convert unwilling or unruly giants into obedient servants. In this way a large and able workforce was maintained, and many of the great Thassilonian works of splendor thus created.

What little information we could find about the Black Tower was that it was once the bell tower of the Therassic monks, who were devoted to worship of the Peacock Spirit. Oddly enough we could find nothing about this entity, although the brotherhood itself was said to be evil.

We also spent more than a little time reading up on red dragons. Just in case.

These creatures make formidable foes, but it was apparent that Longtooth was a juvenile male, which explained his in your face, everything is about me, sullen attitude.

Red dragons automatically detect magic and can breath fire at will. They are arcane spell casters, with exceptional strength constitution and a natural ability for melee. They have keen senses, can see in complete darkness, and can still fight even when blinded. They are immune to sleep and paralysis, but very vulnerable to cold. They have a frightful presence that can cause even the bravest warrior to run away in terror (although, as pointed out to Rigel, those less brave are more likely to run away no matter what).

And so just what are we to do with our dragon?

Well, for one we will uphold our end of the agreement and deliver to Longtooth his fare share of the loot we found in Mokmurian’s underground lair.

There was talk of teleporting to Longtooth so we could inform him of our victory over Mokmurian, or even waiting until the morning when we could use a Sending spell to let him know our status.

But in the end, we decided to do none of those things.

Instead we carefully went through our inventory and found the total, and then we chose Longtooth’s share, which we would deliver to him in the morning. All of us would go, and we would leave our share of the treasure behind. We would go completely ready for combat, in case the dragon decided to be hostile.

As part of this process we identified a handful of items that we had previously missed (mostly from the cute little kobold berserker):

[1000] necklace of fireballs
[1001] +1 breast plate (small)
[1002] +1 buckler (small) [Kane]
[1003] +3 short spear [Kane]

All told we had 78,000* gp of inventory to which Longtooth had a share. But we had an additional 7,000 gp of items we had discovered in the wyvern cave before our agreement was made with the dragon.

There was a contingent of us that was hoping the dragon would cause a fuss and attack us. Sabin and I were in that group, but we intended to go further and actually antagonize Longtooth, and we worked out our own private plan.

It is late and we are tired — especially those of us who have spent the day reading ancient texts written in cramped or spidery hands.

The party accidentally omitted the 5,000 gp worth of laboratory equipment and supplies found in Mokmurian’s work shop in its initial tally.

== Fireday, Erastus 4, 4708; Therassic Monastic Library; evening ==

Trask and Rarallo working together could teleport the entire party to Longtooth’s cave, and so we emptied our bags of holding and haversacks, cast defensive and protective spells, and found ourselves on the ledge just outside the cavern.

Kane looked down below to see that the giant camps were indeed dispersing as the rest of us cast a few last moment defensive spells, pulled out our ever-burning torches and entered the dragon’s lair.

Longtooth wasn’t there, but he soon swept in and stood between us and the opening. I told him that we had defeated Mokmurian and his primary minions, had carefully kept a tally of all we found, and had brought his share with us to fulfill our agreement.

Sabin opened a bag of holding and unceremoniously dumped out what we had decided to give to the dragon. It was an accurate amount value wise, and even included two highly magical axes (for which we had no use). But we had also included a lot of mundane giant armor (beyond the value of Longtooth’s share) which was not tied together and spilled out in a cluttered mess, making the pile of loot look less appealing than it otherwise would.

Longtooth liked the magical items, and accepted that the amount of gold we had included as a good amount. But he wanted more — he wanted scroll books and a map to the location of the library.

I told him he was lucky to get what we offered, considering he had cravenly hid in his cave while we did all the dangerous work of defeating Mokmurian and his followers.

It was just a little nudge, sharply delivered to be sure, but it was all it took to push Longtooth’s greed to anger, and he puffed himself up and charged at us, baring his fangs.

I think none of us were impressed.

I cast Holy Smite on him, while Sabin used a Dimensional Door to move himself plus Avia and Nolin right next to the dragon. And they proceeded to beat the living shit out of Longtooth. He batted at them feebly, but when the rest of the party launched magical attacks against him, and then the fighters had another go at him, with Sabin dealing the killing blow it was all over.

We now had an ex dragon lying dead before us. Rigel took the opportunity to leap into the pile of coins that made up Longtooth’s horde and wallow about in it while I used a pair of Wall of Stone spells to seal the cavern from unwanted visitors.

We managed to collect the entire pile of coins and handful of interesting items into our bags and packs and teleport back to the library. We would return later to skin the dragon and remove his head (as a gift to be presented to the citizens of Sandpoint).

[1004] Amulet of Mighty Fists

360,055 cp (3,600.55 gp)
23,145 sp (2,314.5 gp)
34,030 gp
50 pp (500 gp)

water opal: 1,000 gp
rich blue diamond: 1,600 gp
2 black opals: 8,000 gp each
53 gems of various types and quality: 3,500 gp each
Tapestry of monks sparring: 600 gp
Set of 4 silver idols: 600 gp each
wyvern with human rider
human warrior trampling a daemon
centaur dressed in full plate
leaping fish with a wide mouth full of sharp teeth
A platinum statue of Karzoug: 5,000 gp

We went through the new items and found Longtooth’s horde had a value of

coins: 40,445 gp
items: 32,600 gp

This, combined with our previous findings gave us a total new found wealth worth 115,100 gp.

A number of these items will no doubt be kept by the party (quite a few items are already in active use), but when divided nine ways (one share for the party fund), we each stand to have a tidy number of coins.

Later, Kane stealthily made his way back up to the main giant compound (being shrunk to a tiny size via the trapped room in the process) and observed that there were still a lot of giants wandering about, looting the place.

We spent the rest of the day resting, or discussing what we each might do with our share of the loot.
== Starday, Erastus 5, 4708; Therassic Monastic Library; evening ==

I used a Sending spell to contact Conna and ask her how long we should consider the giants in the fortress under her protection, and she replied that all those loyal to her should be gone in a couple of days.

Kane used Sending to Sandpoint to let them know the giant threat had been eliminated and the dragon slain. Mayor Devlin replied that their had just been an earthquake and a giant sinkhole had opened at the northwest corner of town (the location of the Old Light). She didn’t sound panicked, but she did say they could use help.

Kane also contacted the ferry men at Wolf’s Ear to let them know we would not need their services to return, and to tell the stable in Galduria that we would pick up our horses and settle the bill in a couple of weeks time.

I then sent a message to the mayor of Magnimar, informing him of the giants’ overthrow, and warning them about the potential threat of a Runelord cult, and to keep an eye on anyone with an ancient rune tattoo. Quite naturally the mayor was alarmed by this news (and probably more than a little confused), but he must wait until tomorrow for clarification.

Rarallo teleported Sabin, Nolin and I back to Longtooth’s cavern, where Sabin cut off the dragon’s head while Nolin skinned it. I then cast Gentle Repose on the head and skin to keep it fresh. We promptly returned to the library level once our grisly work was done.

We spent the rest of the day pondering over how to handle such a large quantity of copper coins, with suggestions ranging from spending it to improve Fort Rannick, which technically we owned, to giving it to the folks of Sandpoint.

We also considered where to go next. Sandpoint was in need of some sort of aid, but it was not desperate, and we did need to pick up our horses. We also needed to sell some of our treasure, and convert some of it to gold coins or gems, and possibly purchase equipment and supplies. Both Magnimar and Korvosa were likely candidates for where we could best do these things.

I am beginning to tire of this underground complex and long to feel fresh air on my face, and to see the open sky. We have another day before we plan to head up to the Black Tower, slaying any giants or harpies we meet along the way.
== Sunday, Erastus 6, 4708; Therassic Monastic Library; morning ==

There has been a change of plans.

I used Sending to clarrify the threat of the Runelords to the mayor of Magnimar, who seemd less unsure, but still not convinced of any real danger.

Kane performed another sending with Mayor Devlin, and she reported back that part of Sandpoint had collapsed (in the sinkhole?), and that the guards sent to investigate never returned. And there is a terrifying unholy howling unlike any dog they have ever heard. They need help and they need it soon.

Unfortunately we are not prepared to return to Sandpoint, but rather than waste time sitting idle, we have decided to teleport to the base of the Black Tower and deal with it now so we would not have to return later. Tomorrow morning we will gather up our possessions and teleport to Sandpoint to offer whatever assistance we can.

But now I need to cast a Magic Circle to help protect us from the harpies at the tower.
== Sunday, Erastus 6, 4708; The Black Tower; noon ==

We appeared at the foot of the Black Tower, which rose up twice as high as any of the (more recently built) towers of the fortress. It was ancient, and made from black stone, which was carved into elaborate shapes, and stone gargoyles clung to its upper reaches. Moss and lichens clung to the stone, giving it a sickly yellow-green hue. The entrance was before us, but four harpies saw us and swiftly flew over.

One of them shrieked in ancient Thassilonian, “Protect the tower of the great monk from these intruders! Kill, my sisters.” She dove down, attacking Rarallo, and received an arrow from Rigel for her efforts.

Another attacked Sabin, while Trask fireballed a third. But this harpy began to sing, and Trask stood, as if transfixed, and watched as she swooped down and attacked Kane.

A fourth harpy was perched on the wall, and she too began to sing, but rather than have her enter the fray or enchant anyone else, I encased her in a box of stone. I assume she will die for want of air eventually.

We pressed our attack on the remaining three, who proved to be much tougher than one might expect from bird women. But one by one they dropped, and after some healing we approached the tower door.

It was unlocked and untrapped, so Nolin opened it and we all stepped inside a large circular room.

It was cold, and all the surfaces were coated with a heavy layer of frost. The ceiling was fifteen feet above, but other than where we entered there was no obvious exit. I cast Airwalk on Nolin, figuring at least one of our fighters should be up off the slippery surface, and Trask cast Spiderclimb on Kane. Kane detected a trapdoor in the floor, which Sabin opened.

It was dark below, and even with dark vision Sabin could not see the bottom. I cast light on a pebble and dropped it in, while we both watched as it fell perhaps seventy feet to the floor of a chamber below. A pair of green glowing eyes looked up at us.

Instantly I cast Flame Strike on the eyes. It took little deductive reasoning to figure that a pair of glowing eyes in a black tower created by an evil order of monks and guarded by harpies belonged to something nasty and evil itself. Kane cast Bless and Rarallo sent down a ball of lightening.

A figure, tightly wrapped in strips of linen, and carrying a metal cylinder in its naked hands shot up from the shaft to the ceiling. It glared at us with vile glowing green eyes.

We heard it, or what it was carrying chant in Thassilonian, “The green light, the green light, the green light, the green light!” The mummy itself then cackled, “You’ll pay the price for violating the tomb of the Peacock Spirit! Flee now or die!”

Nolin climbed up to it and slashed at it, as Kane and I channeled positive energy towards it. It in turn shot a green ray at Avia and Trask, burning them. It touched Nolin, who appeared to be shaken, but he continued to hack at it. Trask granted Avia the ability to fly and Kane and I continue to channel. Eventually we prevailed, and the mummy turned to dust, which dropped back down the shaft, along with the metal cylinder it had been carrying.

While Nolin looked fine and unharmed, he said he was feeling ill, and was worried he had a disease known as mummy rot. Rarallo had a ring with Remove Curse stored, which he cast, and Avia added to that a Remove Disease. These combined effects appeared to have cured Nolin.

We lowered Kane down into the chamber below, which was circular like the room in which we stood, but much, much colder. He quickly grabbed the cylinder and brought it up.

It was a magic scroll case, with six spinning circles on the outside along with a series of runes. We played around with the runes and circles, but eventually grew impatient, and Trask used three knock spells to open it.

There was a collection of 18 scrolls within, claiming to be The Emerald Codex of the Therassic. The first nine scrolls contained curses, and we passed over them for the time being. The next eight were magic scrolls:

Greater Restoration
Heroes’ Feast
Order’s Wrath
Scrying
Slay Living
Unholy Blight
Regenerate
Symbol of Stunning

The last scroll described how to get to the entrance of the library and the password used to get past the shining child guardian.

Or you could just find and use a key, as we did.

Kane did not have time to explore or search the chamber below, and reported that it was barren. I might slip down on a rope and search — cold has minimal affect on me and I should be able to endure the room long enough to perform a thorough search.

And what about the upper reaches of the tower? Is it just ornamentation, or are there other chambers accessible via secret ways or methods?

Oathday, Erastus 3

We decided that the ‘doggies’ would be at our back if we didn’t take care of them now, so we set out to either free them or kill them (which, if one is at all religious, really is another way to free them, but I digress.)

We arranged ourselves, and opened the door we presumed led to the doggies. But no puppy appeared. We shut both sets of doors, and went to the door at the far east. Kane had thought he’d heard voices in this room. Rigel checked for traps, found none, and Sabin led, using his dark vision.

Somebody called for everyone to come in and shut the door. When you think about it, that instruction isn’t very clear. Really, you should say, “Everybody come in and the last person shut the door behind them.” I was thinking, much like in an aviary, we wanted to close the door behind us so nothing could scoot out. The next person coming in would But no puppy appeared. We shut both sets of doors, and went to the door at the far east. Kane had thought he’d heard voices in this room. Rigel checked for traps, found none, and Sabin led, using his dark vision.

Somebody called for everyone to come in and shut the door. When you think about it, that instruction isn’t very clear. Really, you should say, “Everybody come in and the last person shut the door behind them” if that’s what in fact you meant. I was thinking, much like in an aviary, we wanted to close the door behind us so nothing could scoot out. The next person coming in would then be cautious about making sure nothing got past them. Anyway, it wasn’t very clear and several people got upset when I closed the door behind like I was told. Apparently they wanted it held open until everyone was in, and then shut. But they weren’t very clear on that.

Knowing they hated fire, I wanted to fireball them but with so many of the party already in the room and starting to engage them, I couldn’t very well do that without seriously annoying some of my party. So I confined my ‘fireballs’ to flaming spheres, which indeed did cause the critters to dance about. One of them somehow caused Avia to bleed profusely although I swear it didn’t even contact her there. The dogs tended to blink about — I don’t think it was teleport but I could be wrong — but we managed to kill two of them. The third blinked out of site, and never came back.

We looked at the western door, and nodded. Odds were good that Mokmurian was in that room. We aligned ourselves and approached the door.

“Magic!” said Rallo, and after a short bit of study we realized we’d lost the element of surprise. There seemed to be an alarm spell here on the floor, and now it was triggered. Shrug. Might as well head on in then.

Upon entering, we caught a glimpse of a celing that had to be 100′ high if it was an inch. Then fog enveloped us. Fortunately we had experience at this too. I whipped out the special wand of spell holding, and called up a gust of wind.

Mokmurian proved surprisingly easy to beat up. Now we didn’t defeat him (this time) because (in hindsight) we were too passive. But after pounding on Nolin pretty good, MM got seriously cut up by Nolin and Avia, and he winked out. Probably a teleport; maybe a dimension door.

On the other hand, this gave us an excellent opportunity to look around the room we’d found him in. Indeed, it was messy, and journals were strewn about. Spell components and what appeared to be spell books lay open. Various pieces of equipment lay askew.

I went to the alarm trap and (presumably) tripped it several times to simulate our leaving. Maybe he’d teleport back in if he though we were gone. Takkad inspected to the west but found nothing; some rubble again.

But there was a chest! Traditionally such things hold great wealth and I do believe Rigel was actually quivering 🙂 It was not trapped, but was locked. That is, momentarily. The chest appeared to have thousands of gold pieces, hundreds of platinum pieces, and a few items:

[913] an amber/sapphire necklace
[914] ivory runestones
[915] a magic scroll

We decided to leave a detailed accounting for later, and returned to the corridor. There was one room we had not yet inspected and we though MM might have gone there. Rigel really wanted to inspect the chest better, and so stayed behind (Sabin and Kane stayed with her.) That left me as one of the more observant ones, so I checked the door for traps and, finding none, proceeded to cast a knock spell upon the door to unlock it.

This elicited the strangest reaction. The door changed color to orange, then yellow, then bright yellow. It was blinding. Literally. By this time, Rigel, Sabin, and Kane had returned. Some sort of being appeared that was just too bright to look at — and it screamed, too. Loudly. Persistently. And then the bastard hit me. I was blinded and apparently on fire which, if I was going to be attacked, was one of the better things to attack me with, at least. The damage was minimal, but I was blind. I’m told Avia and Rallo both got a good hit in before Kane managed to banish it.

A few minutes later, everone’s sight came back. Phew.

We entered what appeared to be an auditorium or at least large echo-ey room. There was a shaft in the middle of the room that looked like it would require feather fall or fly to avoid being seriously hurt. And a mechanical creature of some sort approached and announced “Welcome to the Therassic Monastic Library. There are over 24,000 volumes, scrolls, and manuscripts.”

This could prove useful. Not now, perhaps — MM didn’t appear to be here — but later. When we need information.

So we returned to the room we’d last seen him in, and discussed the situation. We agreed that he’d probably come back with help, and discussed how best to deal with that. If he arrived with mundane help (that is, on foot) we’d make them come through the doorway one at a time and we could surround and pick them off, one at a time. If they all just appeared, however, we might have to just make do in a much more adhoc fashion.

Suddenly we heard voices. It sounded like he may be returning. We arranged ourselves as we’d discussed and waited for the first to cross the threshold. Some protective spells were cast, like protection from fire.when

Imagine our surprise when the first was Conna, who subtly gestured to us to back up. She clearly had some sort of plan, but .. what was it? Nolin jumped forward and appeared to do battle with her, but losing ground in the process. We all backed up with him. Conna seemed exasperated. She whispered for us to get up on the stage and look scared. Well, this wasn’t what we’d had planned at all, but we did trust her. We gave up our advantage and did as she said. In the meantime, though, the giants entering were being attacked by party members that she could not talk to without being noticed. As we all moved to the stage (“TO ESCAPE THE FEARFUL GIANTS I HOPE THEY DON’T HURT US”) Conna nodded and waited. Among the last to enter was Mokmurian himself, still looking somewhat injured but looking very pleased with himself. “Now!” he cried. “Attack the little ones and we’ll –”

“No!” cried Conna. We have lived under his tyranny long enough, have we not? We must throw off this oppressor and take control of our own destiny again!” And with those words, a little better than half of the giants hesitated, and started attacking the giants alongside them.

We? We went for MM. I personally threw a fireball at him, and despite the fact that one of his few surviving supporters was three steps behind me, threw a fireball at me in return. I was protected against fire, so I took minimal damage. “I’d always wondered what that looked like from the inside,” I mused. Turning my attention back to MM, I saw Rigel shoot one last arrow into him before his eyes went vacant. Man, she always gets the killing blow. Not fair!

But although life left him, his body nevertheless housed a force or spirit of an old Runelord. I don’t remember it all, but something to do with we were worms, Karzul would soon have an army, every death brings me closer to my gola, yada yada yada :)_

And then his eyes closd for good. Takkad was going to collect another head, but realized Conna might need it to convince the others that Mokmurian was indeed dead. Sounds of fighting were still coming from the next room over, but by the time we got there to help, Conna and her troops had things in hand. We stayed somewhat out of sight so that she would not seem to be associating with mere humans. After the others had left, though, she came over to talk and mentioned that we shuld probably stay low for a few days while, she hoped, the various camps broke camp and left.

An inventory of what we found:

[916] wand of Bear’s Endurance [15]
[917] +1 great club, defending + spell storing
[918] bracers of armor +4
[919] Robe of Runes. Crimson silk, +4 to INT and wearer recalls up to 4 spell levels of spells cast that day, once per day.
[920] bag of holding, holding spellbooks for virtually every spell less than 7th level.
[921] curious key (to library:)
[922] 500 gp of diomond dust
[923] goggles – careful polished goggles wearer can see through fog and mist.
[924] ~25,000 gp
~2420 up

additionally, while idly perusing the maps the robot had brought us, we found a map that had 4 x’s on it.

One of them was the old lighthouse at Sandpoint, while three were out in the ocean. What did they mean?

Must ponder.

== Oathday, Erastus 3, 4708; Mokmurian’s Underground Lair; evening ==

We decided to take out the threat of the dimensional dogs before attempting to find and confront Mokmurian. We leafed through the books we have on creatures, but could not find anything even closely resembling our canine friends.

Looking at the oddly curved corners of the hall, Rarallo recalled a tale told around arcane circles of a Savina Eldrich, a sorceress who insisted on living in a house made of circular rooms. One day an experiment went awry and damaged one of the circular walls, and Savina was found ripped to shreds in a room on the opposite side of her manor.

Not particularly useful, but it made for an interesting tale.

Kane had listened to the doggy voices speaking behind the narrow door at the eastern end of the north wall of the hall, and so we gathered around, ready for action.

Rigel checked for traps and locks, and finding none she moved aside so Nolin could open it. A large cavern stretched beyond into the darkness. Nolin, Sabin and I entered the room, and I cast Light upon a rock and tossed it to the center of the cavern. We closed the door behind us to prevent anything from escaping.

The walls were a combination of natural rock face and worked stone, but all of the corners and jutting edges had been rounded over. In the center of the cavern was a large column of rough (but rounded) stone, and to the west was a stone double door. Sabin picked out the gleam of our lights reflected back from a pair of eyes glaring at him.

In short order three of the canines appeared in front of us, biting with sharp pointy teeth and slashing with razor claws. Rarallo came in and immediately blasted one of the pups with Magic Missiles, while Avia ran in and engaged another of the hounds, shouting out, “They’re evil.” I had imagined they would be.

I called out, “Everyone come in and close the door behind you!”

Trask took this opportunity to be incredibly dense when he entered and closed the door behind him, leaving the rest of the party out in the hall.

The creature nearest Avia stared at her, causing terrible slashes to open up over her body, and she replied in kind using her sword.

One of the doggies levitated up some distance, but remained in range of both our fighters and spell casters. The dogs had an annoying habit of blinking away when they looked to be taking a severe beating, and after Nolin cut one into little pieces and Trask reduced another to a charred pile of (unpleasantly dog smelling) ash, the third, who looked ready to drop, popped out of sight and did not return.

With the dogs out of the way we were able to look at the western doors more carefully. Rarallo saw that there was a zone of magic before the doors (where he, Sabin and Trask had been standing), and that the enchantment was from an Alarm spell.

If he wasn’t aware of our presence before, Mokmurian knew we were there now.

Rigel did the usual with the doors, and surprisingly found neither trap nor lock. We opened them and walked through the doorway into a huge room.

Gigantic columns lined either side of the chamber, supporting the ceiling some hundred feet above us. Broad stairs at the far end of the room led up to a sort of stage area and a small door. Thassilonian runes wound their way around the columns.

The floor was cluttered with piles of scrolls, books, and lab equipment. A large metal bound chest sat against the far wall, which elicited a squeal of delight from Rigel.

Sabin walked a short distance further and turned to say something to the rest of us.

At that moment a bank of solid fog engulfed us — and when I say solid I mean just that. It was sticky and thick and moving through it was like trying to move through water.

Trask reacted swiftly and used a staff we had collected earlier to send a violent Gust of Wind through the fog. I cast Airwalk on Nolin, who was standing beside me. The wind cleared enough of the fog away for us to see Sabin get struck by fiery red beams of light before ducking behind a column and casting Fly upon himself.

The fog cleared and we could see a giant — a rather short giant — standing along the south wall looking at us with contempt in his eyes. He was wearing a bright crimson robe and wearing goggles of some kind. He shot up fifty feet into the air from where he gesticulated towards us menacingly.

Trask cast Haste on us as Nolin scampered up near Mokmurian and cut into him with a mighty swing of his great sword. Mokmurian struck back with a crushing blow from his club. Disturbingly this appeared to heal the giant some amount, and he burped out an ecstatic sigh.

I placed an Airwalk on Avia, who waded into battle as Rigel taunted, “Go home, Mokmurian, you’re drunk!”, to which he replied, “I am home. You are dead!”

Rarallo zapped the giant with bolts of lightening and Trask used the staff to place Airwalk on me. I quickly ran up to the fighters and began to heal Nolin, who had been taking the brunt of Mokmurian’s attacks.

The giant flew up to the ceiling while Avia slashed at him, and then pointed a finger at Nolin. A sickly green ray shot forth and struck Nolin in the chest. Kane was near at hand (using Spiderclimb) and channeled healing energy, and at the same time Sabin hit Mokmurian with a Ray of Enfeeblement.

I healed Nolin who joined Avia at the ceiling for a tea party with our host, who actually had the audacity to say, “If you leave now I will only set my minions against you.” We pointed out that we had already met and slain his cohorts and that he was on his own. “Inconceivable,” he shouted, “Hounds of Tindalos, to me!”

“Yeah, about your doggy things. We kind of killed those too.”

It soon became obvious to Mokmurian that assistance (canine or otherwise) was not as close at hand as he had first thought, and so he cast Dimension Door and vanished. Argh! We were so close.

After checking the west door (which was blocked by rubble), we quickly gathered and sped back out to the long hallway in hot pursuit. Well, most of us did. Rigel was more concerned about the contents of the chest and stopped to see what was inside. Sabin and, naturally, Kane remained with her for safety.

A quick jog back to the cauldron room showed he was nowhere on the current level… at least nowhere we had already been. Our thoughts turned to the bronze double doors in the hallway, and there we found ourselves a short while later joined by Sabin, Rigel and Kane.

There was a sihedron shaped key hole, but we had no key. Abjuration and conjuration energy wafted off of the door and Trask used a Knock spell to unlock it. Clunk. The door began to glow, like metal heating from a bright yellow to an intense white hot blaze. And it began to scream — continuously.

Something moved out from the door, and the light came with it. It struck Trask, who burst into flames, and blinded him, as well as Kane, Rigel and myself.

I used a Remove Blindness spell to cure myself in time to see Avia slice into the painfully brightly shiny creature. Kane used Dismissal to banish it to another plane — I found myself hoping it was an exceptionally dark place with very large, angry and powerful denizens who hated the light.

A few minutes later and sight returned to my friends.

Nolin led the way through the doors into a vast circular chamber, with what looked like a deep, dark well in the center. A mechanical construct lurched to life and clanking loudly approached us, and speaking in Thassilonian said, “Welcome to the Therassic Monastic Library. Please state the author, title or subject for your search.”

Tables and chairs were positioned around the central well, and double doors were at each of the cardinal points, but all except those we entered from were blocked by rubble.

Mokmurian was not in here, and so we asked the mechanical librarian for a map of the area. It walked over to the well, and stepped out into the nothingness, levitating down. The massive, seemingly bottomless hole in the center was where the library volumes were kept! He returned, but had unfortunately taken us literally and showed us a map of the region. We asked again, being a little more specific about wanting to know the layout of the library. This time he returned with a map, which closely matched the one I had been making, that indicated there was no place for Mokmurian to be lurking nearby.

We made our way back to the columned hall, where Rigel proudly displayed what she had found in the chest, but moments later we heard the sound of heavy footfalls marching towards us. Mokmurian shouted, “They are probably still in the assembly chamber!”

He just really could not fathom that we posed much of a threat, despite having obviously done away with all of his guards and defenses, and having pretty much kicked his ass moments earlier.

We quickly set up our defense at the entrance to the room as a troop of giants stomped into the adjacent cavern. If nothing else we were fairly confident we could whittle our way through the foot soldiers to get at Mokmurian.

Imagine our surprise to see Conna marching at the head of the giants. She stormed up to Nolin, and by use of facial ticks and furtive gesturing indicated she wanted us to give way. Nolin winked back and did some sort of attack that wasn’t a real attack, but she seemed exasperated by this act, and so we pulled back and let her through.

As she passed in I cast Prayer on our team (including her) and the rest of the team quickly killed the next giant before us. I had just used Hold Person to freeze the next giant when Conna hissed for us to go up the stairs and stay out of the way, and “try to act fearful.”

Tactically this was not a good plan, but Conna had already aided us in the past, and we knew that after we killed Mokmurian she would be faced with the unenviable task of disbanding the giant armies on the surface and sending the sullen youth back to their homes. We owed her at least this amount of cooperation, and so we fled up the stairs, screaming like little girls.

The entire force of giants swept into the room, with Mokmurian flying in and up to a corner — the furthest corner from us, I could not help but notice.

Conna then held up her arms and shouted, “We have suffered from his Tyranny long enough, down with Mokmurian!” The giants were at first confused, but it became clear that Conna had been quietly recruiting the more sensible giants in this place to revolt against their overlord should the time seem right. The time was right. Giant fought giant.

Nolin and Avia raced through the air to get at Mokmurian, and I followed, but first took the hill giant’s head out from my pack, shouting, “Here is another of your oppressors, and so shall they all fall!” as I tossed it down among them. I then took Barl’s head out — and even the mighty M seemed a bit taken back by this — and likewise hurled it to the floor with a curse.

Conna and her forces managed to push most of the giants and their fighting into the cavern, leaving only Mokmurian and a single follower, who was even now climbing the stairs to get at our spell casters that were standing there launching attacks against the wizard giant.

Mokmurian sent a fireball at our team, who had all been protected against fire beforehand, which engulfed not only them, but his only surviving loyal follower. Trask looked somewhat amused by the effect and said, “Wow, I always wondered what those looked like from the inside.”

And of course the stupid giant whom Mokmurian blasted took it as a badge of honor, and swore never to abandon his noble leader. Never in this case lasting perhaps two seconds before he was dropped by Sabin and the sorcerers.

Mokmurian himself was looking more than a little ragged when Rigel shot him with an adamantine arrow. Mokmurian grabbed at the feathered shaft sticking out from his chest before his eyes became vacant and his head lolled to one side. But he did not fall — not yet.

Suddenly his body stiffened and his head snapped up and alert as it glared malevolently at each of us. Then he opened his mouth and from it a voice spoke, but it was not Mokmurian’s.

“So, these are the heroes of the age? Gasping worms. You will know true greatness when I, Karzul, greatest of the rune lords, raise my army, slaying all who dare oppose me. Know this, the death of each creature who bears my rune tattoo brings me closer to my triumphant return!”

There was more scoffing, and bragging, and I believe he mentioned a specific rune lord as his nemesis (and how he and his followers would get what was coming to them). My but these megalomaniacs do love to talk about themselves, but I suppose that goes with the territory.

And then Karzul released Mokmurian, who fell to the floor with a loud, squishy thud.

We severed his head, and as much as I wanted to keep it, Conna’s need was greater. She and her allies were victorious, and we presented her with Mokmurian’s head, explaining how he had been in league with the rune lord Karzul. There was much muttering and many dark looks at the head, because the rune lords were infamous as the enslavers of giant kind.

Conna said she would present the news of Mokmurian’s treachery and death to his followers on the surface, and ensure they all went back tribes. She strongly recommended that we keep out of sight until the giants had disbanded.

And this is fine with us, for we have to tally up all we have found in this place, and return to the dragon Longtooth with his share. This was little work for much gain, because he risked nothing by his inaction, but we will honor our bargain.

But we will go fully prepared in case he proves less than honorable, and the extra day or two spent down here will provide us with a much needed rest before any such encounter.

We have thoroughly searched the Mokmurian’s body and the “assembly chamber” and taken inventory of what was here.

From the chest:

[913] amber and sapphire necklace
[914] set of rune stones
[915] scroll (magic)
25,000 gold pieces
2,480 platinum pieces

On Mokmurian:

[916] wand of Bear’s Endurance (13 charges)
[917] +1 great club of defending and spell storing
[918] +4 bracers of armor
[919] Robe of the Runes (+4 INT) Scarlet silk robes covered with Thassilonian runes of power. Once per day it can recall up to 4 spell levels prepared and previously cast during the day
[920] bag of holding. Filled with a set of spell books containing virtually all arcane spells from level 1 through 7
[921] key to the library (we assume)
[922] 500gp of diamond dust
[923] brass goggles of fog and mist penetration. These allow the wearer to see through all magical fogs and mists, but give -4 to perception if used in regular conditions

The room itself held all sorts of arcane texts, components and equipment: Mokmurian was obviously using this room as a research laboratory to teach himself spellcraft. The total value is around 5,000 gp.

There were regional maps and detailed plans for attacking various cities and settlements.

We also found an interesting map of the area along the Lost Coast Road with four X marks drawn upon it. Three of the marks are off shore, but one is crossed over the Old Light at Sandpoint, next to which is the notation,

“Hellfire flume location. Foundry stones may perhaps tell where the traitor Xaliasa his his key to the rune forge.”

It would seem that we are destined to return to Sandpoint yet again.

We also plan to spend additional time in the library. I have found that with any levitation spell, such as Fly or Airwalk, one may peruse the stacks on your own. But the organization is beyond me, and for now I suspect we will rely upon the mechanical man to find the volumes we are seeking.

Sabin and I may be the only ones in the party who can read the ancient tongue, and already I have been busy transcribing a short history of the Thassilonian empire, which I have attached here.

But our short term goal is to deal with the dragon. I recommend we keep his share of the loot and anything we will allow him to see (and perhaps select as his own in exchange for the equal value of gold) in one bag of holding, and keep everything else in the other.

And on a personal note, Trask has kindly restored me to my full size. It was interesting to see the world through Kane’s eyes, but the enchantment was odd, and anything I set down or dropped that had been reduced in size with me immediately sprang back to its normal size, making it unusable (by me), which was most inconvenient.

Toilday, Erastus 1 … still

We searched the body of the dead giant. He had a great club and hide armor, and we noticed that the most prominent tattoo on his body was the rune for “wrath”. The floor is a polished gray and black marble. After some discussion, we decided that while Takkad and Rigel found no particular discomfort or disadvantage in being smaller, this was not true for Sabin, who has become a front-line hitter. So I cast Enlarge Person on him, and it seemed to cancel the effects of the Reduce Person spell he was suffering under. The lack of residual magic (as viewed by a detect magic) suggested strongly that he was not permanently back to regular size.

Rigel inspected the double door and determined they were neither locked nor trapped. We entered the room and began our misadventures.

There were runes on the walls.
The room was glowing.
There was a slowly burning circle of flame beneath a huge (12′ tall) black cauldron.
And there was what appeared to be a massive stone golem at one side of the room.

It’s always something, ain’t it?

But adamantine weapons are made for this sort of thing, and Avia and Nolin were able to land some good blows. That’s not to say we won easily; it had spell-like powers to slow us down. Nevertheless, it fell, we retrieved what arros we could, and trudged on. Or at least, were going to.

That’s when a 10′ tall lumbering humanoid came Out Of The Wall to attack, wounding Rallo with an upchuck of lava, or so it appeared. Before we could do anything else, we lost it as it reentered the wall.

Takkad was convinced that the cauldron was creating, allowing, or somehow influencing this tall creature, so he wanted to call in water to put out the fire beneath the cauldron. We convinced him we should wait to do that on the return trip, to avoid clogging up the traffic through here.

As we entered the next chamber, we were struck by the flow of cold air. The room seems to have contained 2 dozen suits or armor that are mounted on frozn ogre bodies.. One set of armor is radiating magic. We suspected it to be the “leader”.

This was just begging for a fireball, so I launched one to hit maximal soldiers. That took some out, but also worked others up. Fortunately, there were so many soldiers in the room, that between them and us, they weren’t too hard to pick off because there wasn’t a lot of room to move. Lightning and fire became the order of the day, and our fighters cleaned up the stragglers. Since they were undead, Takkad washed them in happy sauce .. oh, okay, positive energy .. and that too caused them to be unhappy.

Our reward for this was a lot of heavy metal. There was some decent armor to be had here, as well as some magic battle axes which had runes enscribed on them. We left all this for retrieval upon return.

As Takkad was putting the fire out on the cauldron, the molten slag monster returned. It seemed to have an attitude, complaining about how Sabin tasted, and then turning Kane to stone at a glance. And then disappeared into the wall again.

We discussed our options. We didn’t want to see Kane all busted up ala Olithar. We decided this might be time for me to use my teleport spell to take Kane to a big city and get him fixed before anything worse happened. Bad news was the slag monster was listening to us from the wall! He cast Dimensional Anchor on me to hold me in place, and then toyed with a bit more of the group. Avia, being annoyed by the constant chatter (and damage) smacked it but good and it died. Satisfyingly.

We returned to the original plan. I was to take Kane (and Rigel) to, we decided, Korvosa, where the thought was my father might be able to revert Kane to fleshy Kane from stony Kane. I honestly didn’t know if he could, but if he couldn’t I was pretty sure he could help.

So I focused on the area I knew best — that is to say, my old room — and one blink later, it worked, like it was supposed to. I was home.

I must admit, when I teleported to my room, I did not consider two things. One, Father, is that you’d repurposed the room and filled it with your old stuff. Thank goodness the magic doesn’t let me materialize inside of other stuff or you might still be hearing muffled shouts and beating from inside your old foot locker.

And the other was that you might have put a lock on that door — that locks from the outside. It makes me want to ask — what all is in that room now that it needs a lock? I realize I can hardly call it “my” room anymore but in one brief glance I took in what looked like an amazing potpourri of mere household stuff.

Fortunately, the one named Rigel — the one you mistakenly called “your girl” later during conversation — is very adept with small mechanical devices, and she was able to assist in exiting the room. (I do hope the lock is reparable; sorry.)

There was something about being home again — the smell of distant baked goods that I never before realized exists throughout the whole house, the sight of a familiar portrait here, that threadbare rug in front of the wash basin that has been there for as long as I can remember and which I know Mother has more than once threatened to replace, the fact that our dog Alaric obviously still remembers me — it was like I’d never left. Except for the small humanoid well-chiseled boat anchor to my left, and the dimunitive young lady to my right.

There is a part of me that is mildly pleased to know that even as the changes at home surprised me, I too managed to present myself in a way you had not considered. I had no way of knowing if you’d installed new wards against burglars, and while I was cautiously optimistic that they might still not trigger on me, and that my statuary friend would be even less likely to trigger them, I had far less certainty about my living, breathing companion that you’d had no knowledge of when the wards might have been placed. No matter how small she was now.

So when I cautiously entered the living area, broadcasting an aura of detect magic before me, and found you sitting at the desk in the alcove by the window that looks out over the port, it was entertaining to see how big your eyes could get. When you uttered the words, “I can’t believe I caught you sneaking into the house with your girl, and what is this other thing, some kind of oversized achievement award?” I had to break into uncontrollable laughter and I know it seemed puzzling to you and you didn’t get the joke, but I’m sorry Father, it was just the release of tension and frankly, from my point of view, it really was funny. Despite Rigel’s edginess at the misplaced label.

Dad. Wow. I’ve gotten a year older and I think you’ve gotten shorter.

I wish I’d had more time with you. I have this marvelous journal – well, THIS marvelous journal – that I’d like to have shared with you. I’ve not written you personally as often as I’d wanted, because too often we’re not near an area with enough … civilization … to provide reliable message service.

But of course, you knew that. I mean, you know that. I’m living a life you’ve already led. Maybe not exactly the way you lived it, but you know the constraints, and you know the limitations. You’ve been there.

I wish I could have had more time with you to tell you of my adventures, to have you read my journal, or even to read my journal to you in the hopes of creating the stir in your heart that I felt in mine whenever you would tell me of your tales. But time was not on our side, and I really needed one specific thing: to change my “oversized achievement award” back into the halfling he really is.

I had hoped you might know the spell by heart that would do this. I never really thought to ask you to tell me the true range of your powers before I left, and I don’t know if you’d have told me had I thought to ask. I know now that details like that are not revealed lightly, since the spells a sorceror knows not only defines him but can restrict him. If your opponent knows all your capabilities, then he knows how to put his own spells to best use, and since you can’t always easily discern friend from opponent …

I should not have been surprised that even though I felt great urgency, you felt great curiosity. My rather abridged recitation of how I came into the possession of a stoned halfling no doubt left some confusion in your mind, but it did at least convey the urgency. My companions were still in danger, lacking, now, over a third of their number while on this mission.

When you sent messengers to those whom you knew so that we might quickly find a mage that had either direct knowledge of or a scroll for stone to flesh, I had no idea the machinery it would put in motion. A city the size of Korvosa has many nooks and crannies, and while such a thing is almost certain to be found eventually, it is substantial effort to find it quickly.

And I must admit, I did not realize your contacts extended so deeply into the Council. Every son believes his father to be important and powerful, but when your messenger returned saying Councillor Rasok believed he could help, it was a surprise even to me. I did not know Councillor Rasok to be .. to be as you and I are. In hindsight, though, I suppose if someone has the magical prowess that Rasok does, we should be surprised if he does NOT bear a seat on the Council.

I was a bit wide-eyed, I admit, as we entered the Hall and proceeded to Councillor Rasok’s chambers. As we entered, I remember Rasok’s unusual greeting. “Elros,” he chuckled, “so it seems what is old is new again.”

“Indeed, Wilkas,” you responded. “The tables are turned this time.”

Councillor Rasok took the appearance of someone remembering across many years. “Had you not appeared when you did, leading with that signature fireball of yours, I would not be here today, helping lead this city. I’m still amazed at how many ogres fell at your hand while the others in our party hesitated. And even more amazed at how the rest of the ogres turned and ran after seeing 14 of their companions turned into blackened corpses. Some credit must be given to the healers, of course, for saving me, but a moment longer and only priests would have been able to help me.” His gaze fell upon me. “And so this is your son. Already finding trouble, and already gifting it to his friends. His father’s son, indeed.” But he was smiling. “So you seek a stone to flesh for this, what, a halfling? You are out saving the world with halflings?” He was still amused, but somehow, less smiling. “Is that all you could find willing to join you in this cause?” He glanced at Rigel. “I’m sensing a pattern here. You seem to have an issue with size.”

“No sir,” I had replied. “I’m with a party of eight. Rigel here, and Takkad too, were shrunk by magic means. We have fighters and wizards, humans and half-orcs, lawful and ” – I had caught a warning glance from my father – “and those who claim allegiance only to the principle that justice is blind and owed to all. And we fight the resurgence of the Rune Lords.”

The silence which fell over the room was almost palpable. Father looked stunned and seemed, for the first time in my life, speechless. Rasok paused, then gestured slightly and an aide shut the door and left the room. “He knows better than to repeat what he hears. Tell me more, Trask, son of Elros. Your plight may be of importance to more than your rigid friend here.”

So it was that I found myself in the inner sanctum of Korsova, talking to a man whom, it was said, could change fortunes, about what we had done and what we were doing. When I was finished, Rasok gave a great sigh. “It never ends. Magnimar to Sandpoint, and beyond.” Now my father and I both were looking at him agape, and he gave a half-smile, saying, “There have been signs, and sadly, your tale does not surprise me. Things are moving more quickly than I expected, though. The Council needs to hear this, but I also fully understand that time stops for no man, and while we unfold this fascinating tale, some hundreds of miles away your companions may be falling. I would quiz you more, Trask, but time grows short. On behalf of the Council, I thank you. If even half of what you told me is true and accurate, the Council has much to consider.” He gestured in some manner at the cabinet next to him and a drawer appeared. Reaching into it, he withdrew two scrolls.

“Do you have money?”

“I do,” I replied. “But I don’t know if I have enough.”

“You do,” Rasok assured me. “Because your information is valuable, and because I owe something of a debt here to your father, I will offer you a discount below cost. These two may be had for 1750 gold each.”

“But … on the open market these would be worth over 2000!” I stammered. “Each!”

Rasok smiled. “Does that mean you don’t want them?”

“No, no,” I stammered. “I do. And here is 3500 gold pieces. But I ask you a favor.”

“Yes?”

“Cast the spell yourself. If you’re powerful enough to create these scrolls, then you are more skilled than I and your invocation of the spell would produce better results.”

Rasok laughed again. “Good show, Trask. You are showing signs of an education, be careful! I am impressed. 3400, then, and not a penny more. I cannot cast the spell myself right now as I no longer have that one in mind, so we must use a scroll to help your friend. But you are still right that I can help with this scroll.” And with that, he picked one up, read it out loud, and .. Kane was standing there.

I glanced at Father and he looked like someone who desperately wanted to ask more questions, but it already been on the order of two hours since I left. In the end, Rasok and my father nodded, and as Kane and Rigel and I touched, I uttered the words that would return me (I hoped) from whence I had come.

I have since pondered on the irony: I had left home seeking knowledge, and today, just a little over a year later, I was the one imparting knowledge to the Korsova Council itself.

With a start, I found myself back with the party. There was much happiness and backslapping, but only for a moment. They brought me up to date — they had heard some growling or barking from behind a particular wall .. a wall that appeared damaged or collapsing. Takkad tried to shore it up with a wall of stone, and that made the noise stop. At first. Then a “puppy” leapt out from the wall. Yes it growled and snarled but it looked like no puppy I’d seen before. We thoroughly beat upon it, and it elected to return from whence it came before causing any of us any damage.

We pondered over how it had managed to appear when we’d just patched the wall. It was Takkad himself who realized something — his repair had not smoothly followed the contour of the rounded corners. It had simply put a “slab” into place. Kane cast comprehend languages and listened at the door. He heard snippets like

“Intruders in hallway”
“…but brought fire!”
“gave us a way out!”
“free to roam the universe”
“came back by the angle”
“leave this cursed plane”

It was unclear from this exchange if they were prisoners or hired guards. But clearly they knew about us, and viewed us as undesirable. Good news (for me) is that they seem to dislike fire. Hopefully it’s because they are vulnerable, and not because they’re trying to trick me into hitting them with a life-force-adding random amount of energy.

We continued looking at doors. We found a set of double doors that had behind it, another set. Upon opening that set, a puppy appeared. We quickly shut the doors, but found that the ‘puppy’ (or a ‘puppy’) had squeezed through.

Hates fire, hates fire, must conjure up fire …

== Oathday, Erastus 3, 4708; Mokmurian’s Underground Lair; noon ==

The past day and a half passed in a blur of stealthily crawling about the tunnels and chambers of Mokmurian’s underground lair. Using a map provided by the old giantess and sworn enemy of MM, we were able to make good progress. We have battled trolls, a formidable hill giant, and a smaller and yet more challenging magic wielding stone giant. We were victorious in all of these encounters, and yet Rigel and I find ourselves seeing the world through Kane’s eyes: we have been reduced in size. Sabin too suffered this fate, but being a front line fighter he has been restored to his usual stature by Trask.

Thus far neither Rigel and I have found any significant disadvantages to our current diminutive state, although I find it a little more wearisome to haul around my pack than before.

After killing the spell caster we continued on down a wide corridor and out from the area covered by Cona’s map.

We had followed a large spiral passage down hundreds of feet to get the the spell casting giant, and the stone work down here was quite different from that above. For one thing it is of a much higher quality, without a mark or flake of chisel or hammer in the smooth grey and black marble. And the shape of the corners is uniformly round: there is not a sharp or abrupt edge anywhere.

This southeast corridor split into east and southern branches. The east ended in a cave in, with a small room off the north, while the south led to a large room with wide archway to the east (also choked by rubble) and a wide pair of wooden double doors to the south.

And some sort of magic was working here: you could look directly at a section of wall, or rounded corner, or ceiling, and see what you were looking directly at as expected, but spreading out from your direct line of sight was an area of increasing blurriness — peripheral vision simply did not exist in this place.

Rigel found that the double doors were neither trapped nor locked, and so we opened them and followed a hallway that opened onto a large, high chamber leading off to the east. It was hot and hazy here, with a dull orange-red glow flickering over the walls, which were lined with bands of carved Thassilonian runes. The runes conveyed no specific meaning to those of us who understood that ancient tongue, but the general theme was clear: enslavement, obedience and servitude all for the glory of the Rune Lords.

Near the center of this chamber was an enormous cauldron, some dozen feet tall and nearly twenty feet in diameter, sitting squat on three thick and stubby legs. A pit of fire burned hot beneath it, and tendrils of smoke and vapor rose from its top.

Rarallo cast a Detect Magic spell and was temporarily blinded by the blazing aura of the cauldron. And beyond this massive pot stood the tall and imposing figure of a giant statue, which turned its head towards us as we entered.

Avia and Nolin charged it as I stepped in and cast Prayer, and Sabin threw a club he had take from one of the giants we had felled earlier.

The golem looked at the fighters as a syrupy brown ray oozed from it and touched Nolin, who was slowed, but at that moment Trask cast Haste on the party, offsetting the effect on Nolin.

Rarallo zapped a Ray of Lightening at the golem, which simply bounced off its rocky hide; however Nolin and Avia were using adamantine weapons and quickly reduced the construct to rubble.

And then an odd… thing stepped out from the well where Rarallo was standing. It was ten feet tall and bulbous shaped, like a furnace, and in its bulging belly was a large gaping mouth with yellow flames inside. Rarallo shocked it with Lightening, but it spewed forth a spray of molten hot metal, badly scorching the sorcerer. And before we could react it then stepped back into the wall, leaving behind a cooling pile of slag.

Rarallo thought recalled legends from the dwarves that told of such creatures, but there was nothing we could do to give chase, or stop it from returning, and so we moved on.

The temperature dropped radically in the room to the east, lining the walls of which were two dozen armor clad, weapon wielding stone giant corpses, each posed in a combat stance. In the center of room was headless ogre corpse wearing a highly magical set of plate mail and wielding a pair of magical axes engraved with Thassilonian runes.

We were suspicious (to say the least) and so I shot the central ogre figure with a crossbow bolt, which simply bounced off the armor. Trask stepped over and upped the ante with a fireball.

That got the headless ogres attention, and with a grunt — for being headless it was unexpectedly vocal — it raised an axe, which was now glowing blue, and pointed it at Trask. About half of the giant corpses lurched into action and moved towards him.

Naturally we were expecting this sort of response, and Nolin and Avia positioned themselves to block the encroaching undead horde, creating the perfect choke point and frustrating the giant zombies in the process.

I began to channel positive energy towards the advancing foes as Rarallo zapped a number of them with a lightening bolt. This had the unexpected, but welcome outcome of vaporizing any corpses that had not yet been animated by the headless head of the army of undead.

The fighters began to slug it out with the front line undead giants while Trask attacked them with fire and Rarallo with electricity. At one point Rarallo charged into the cold room, only to be pummelled and chased back, which created the perfect opportunity for me to step in and channel waves of energy over all the occupants in the room a couple of times.

In the mean while Kane was providing healing support for the fighters (and sundry), while Rigel and Sabin watched our back sides in case the “forge monster” made a reappearance.

Headless seemed to be getting angry by now and raised another axe and pointed it at Nolin, draining energy from him, but before the ogre could deal any other attacks Trask finished it off with a volley of magic missiles.

Oddly enough the ogre corpse remained evil even after it had dropped. It wasn’t its possessions, which we had promptly removed, and so Avia hacked the body into many (many) little pieces, and dispersed them throughout the room.

[760][761] +1 rune encrusted battle axes — once a day the wielder can call upon the runes to inflict 1D6 negative energy for 5 rounds A DC12 Fortitude save must be made or the target will suffer -1 Strength. There was also some effect for undead, but I was unclear on this.

[761] +1 full plate (large)

There were also seven sets of master work heavy steel shields, plate, and half plate, which we left for later retrieval.

Meanwhile I used a Create Water spell to try and put out the fire under the cauldron, reasoning anything boiling within was brewing for some nefarious acts of evil.

At this point in time our “forge fiend” (as Rarallo called it) returned next to Sabin and Kane, and it bit Sabin, chewing on his mithral shirt.

“Why are you giving me so much trouble? You don’t even taste good.”

It then glanced at Kane, who turned to stone(!), and a wall of flame appeared around it before it passed back through the wall.

We quickly discussed our options, and because Trask knew Teleportation he could take the stoned Kane with him to a large city and have him restored via Flesh to Stone. He could also in theory return with additional magic items that could help us battle this creature.

But before we could take action it was back again. It had been listening to us from the rock and cast a Dimensional Anchor spell on Trask.

“You are actually kind of fun.”

Rarallo created a mound of black tentacles at its feet, but it strode through them unencumbered and belched forth another font of liquid hot metal at Rarallo and Sabin.

I was summoning an earth elemental to block its escape back into the wall when Avia stepped forward and beat the living coals out of it — literally. It fell into a cooling pile of ash and metal fragments.

When the elemental appeared I sent it further down the passageway to explore, and it reported back that there was a large hall with many doors, all closed.

I then used multiple Create Water spells to extinguish the fire beneath the cauldron, and cooled the cauldron down. With Sabin’s assistance I was able to look over the lip of the enormous pot to find some disgusting thick and lumpy fluid within. I used additional Create Water spells to fill the cauldron and dilute its contents to what we hoped was a less potent stew.

But we needed to restore Kane as quickly as possible, and so Trask took him and Rigel (naturally) back home with him to Korvosa, where he hoped his father (a more advanced magic user by Trask’s account) could assist in returning Kane to life.

The rest of us explored the room next to us, which was twenty feet square, and had a ceiling that rose up, like an silo, some hundred feet above. We could fathom no purpose for the room. Beyond this room was a hallway leading to the northeast, and we were about to head down it when a soft pop sounded back in the cold room.

Trask had returned, and with him was a very much alive and well Kane, and of course a very relieved looking Rigel. I suspect she had held onto his cold stony hand all the way to Korvosa. Trask’s father wasn’t at home, or wasn’t too helpful, and so Trask had to enter the city itself to find the appropriate scroll while Rigel stood vigil over Kane. But all worked out and in the end they all returned with an extra scroll of Stone to Flesh, just in case.

Reunited we followed the passageway to a large hall with many doors, just as the elemental had described. The far eastern side of the hall was choked with debris from a cave in, although someone had been digging through the rubble and a large crack was open to the north.

The walls of the hall were engraved with Thassilonian writings, and reading them I felt a wonderful sense of calmness and serenity. The runes possessed an enchantment, and seemed dedicated to something known as the peacock spirit. But other than a joyous sense of peace, I gained nothing from reading them.

We snooped around the crack when we heard the sound of several things growling, like very large and angry dogs. I sealed the crack with a wall of stone, but one moment later a vicious looking dog-like thing had passed through my wall and stood snarling before us.

Avia and Sabin hacked at it as I hit it with an icicle and Trask singed it with fire. It passed back through the door.

Kane had been standing next to a door near the crack, and from beyond he heard more growling, as if he were overhearing a doggy debate. Using Comprehend Languages Kane learned that these dog things were being held against their will, and that somehow the stone wall I had created provided a way for them to escape… but they noted that we “brought fire” with some concern.

Only then did I realize that unlike the rounded corners in the hall, my wall simply abutted the floor and ceiling, and so using Stone Shape I remedied that.

At the far western end of the hall was a large set of bronze double doors. There were no hinges or locks, but its surface was silvered, and there was a sihedron shaped depression, just large enough to accept one of the sihedron medallions we carried. It was magical and gave off the aura of conjuration.

We strongly suspected that beyond this was Mokmurian’s library, and no doubt the evil giant himself.

We decided to first explore the other doors first.

The southern double doors on opened onto another cave-in.

The northern double doors door held an arcane lock, which Rigel disabled, and led to another set of double doors, which were also locked. Once that was taken care of we opened the inner doors only to find a wall of stone. And moments later another canine creature was snarling before us. Some of us held it at bay with various magic attacks while others slammed the doors closed upon it. Apparently the oddly curved doors and walls prevented them from escaping.

We are now looking over to the large bronze double doors at the western end of the hall and discussing strategy for how to face what we suspect lies beyond.

 

Our plan to release the dragons into the fortress in hopes that they would cover up our presence here was wildly successful, far more so than we had imagined. Cona informed us this morning that the two young wyrms were blamed for the escape of the dwarves, the deaths of the ogres and giants in the forge, and even the lammia. They were captured and killed with further served the purpose of leaving no witnesses to our presence in the caverns. Not only does no one know we are here, but there is no reason to even suspect it. We have bought ourselves more time and considerable freedom of movement.

But there is still Mokmurian. Alert to our presence or not, he is a dangerous foe and even more so surrounded by the beings with whom he has entered into service and they must be dealt with.

The first of these was an ancient hill giant which occupied a room on this very level. The battle with him was brutal and unexpectedly lengthy, for he could meld into the dirt to heal himself and we had no means (magic or otherwise) for affecting him in this state. The first time he did this we could do nothing but wait for him to return and we were interrupted by a pair of stone giants who had come wandering in for reasons unknown. We killed them and tied them up on posts that were in the room for this purpose to make it look like the hill giant had lost his temper and patience– something we were told was not unheard of– and thus set him up as responsible for their deaths. When he emerged from the dirt we were ready for him and took him down quickly, and we buried his remains save for his head which we took with us. In this manner we have used his reputation to our advantage, and once again we seem to have covered our tracks and bought ourselves more time.

The passage to the lower levels that house Mokmurian’s chambers and study are private, and no one dares enter there except at his order. With the hill giant dead there is not likely to be someone who will follow us there. As for the lower levels themselves, what we have seen so far is a single path through a series of chambers, some with traps, some occupied by allies. This does suggest that we will have to fight our way to Mokmurian, which I am sure is intentional, but it also means we will not have to watch our backs. Or so I hope.