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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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