== 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.