Sunday, Erastus 27 (still)

When we killed Longtooth, we marvelled at what a dragon’s hoard looked like. We had no idea.

Longtooth had decades to accumulate his wealth. This dragon – whose name we never did learn – had centuries. A small number of centuries, maybe, but still.

Here’s what we found:

[1100] scroll of globe of invulnerability
[1108] scroll of remove blindness/deafness
[1111] scroll of heal
[1118] scroll of bear’s endurance

[1101] belt of giant strength +4
[1105] wand of cure light wounds [46]
[1106] pearl of power
[1115] chime of opening [5]
[1120] ivory set of bracers of archery +1
[1121,1124,1129,1130,1131,1134] Everburning torch

[1109] 6 vials of holy water
[1103,1104,1105] cure serious wounds
[1110] 17 potions of cure light wounds
[1116,1117,1126,1127,1128] potions of cure moderate wounds
[1122,1123] potion of resist energy (cold)

[1112] quiver + 20 masterwork arrows
[1113] 2 arrows greater dragon slaying
[1114] teak box with 6 thundereggs
[1125] flaming tongue longsword
[1137] 1 adamantine war hammer

[1107] cloak of resistance +3
[1119] half plate +3 w/wolf
[1133] darkwood buckler
[1134] masterwork suit of full plate w/ravens
[1135,1136] 1 mithril shirt +1 (small)

There was also about 500 copper pieces, 19410 silver pieces, 7000 gold pieces, and 950 platinum pieces. That alone represents the equivalent of over 18,000 gold pieces! Now of course, once we divide that among our party it is a much more modest amount (for certain values of “modest” :)) but .. woo hoo or what??

There are also tapestries that, while not magical, are valued at over 26,000 gold pieces. More woot.

Father, I’m not exactly positioned yet to buy my own house in the merchant district, but I very much see the attraction of this profession. The only thing better would be if we were also being paid to do this, but that would be too much to ask. Any employer would probably want a share, or maybe all, of the riches we uncover. To retain any of it would require … dishonesty, I’m all for bending the rules, but I’m not prepared to break any. So this arrangement works fine.

Wealday, Erastus 30

We catalogued the dragon’s treasures and moved those pieces we didn’t immediate ly put to use into the library. Then, with a deep breath, it was off to what we thought was probably the entrance to Runeforge, where we hoped to learn how to thwart Karzoug’s attempt to reenter our world.

Now that we knew where we were going, we could teleport there directly. We jokingly divided up the keys by the wraths we supposedly represented (I was lust – how silly!) and began to ascend the stairs to the cave.

But we’d never taken this way before, and we were surprised when what appeared to be three earth elementals rose from the ground and blocked our way: two in front of us and one in back. Sabin and I looked at each other and each cast mirror image. Takkad asked, in common, what they wanted, but they replied “none but the appointed may enter!”. Avia turned to the one behind her and said, in Thassilonian “Let me pass!” … and it did!

So Nolin did the same in front and got attacked for his trouble. What’s up with Avia? And then we realized she was wearing a sihedron. Kane, who was also wearing one, stepped up and demanded passage … and was also permitted to pass!

Well, it took a little bit of shuttling and sihedron passing, but eventually all of us were able to get past the sentries. The dragon may have been dead but we were still far up on a mountain, and the cave itself was still cold and ice-covered.

Using our spiked shoes, we navigated the formerly secret, narrow path down to the bottom of the chamber, checked to make sure we still had our keys, and lined ourselves up at the appropriate pillar. Simultaneously we inserted our keys into the slots in the pillars.

Each pillar produced a different light, and they sprang to the central pillar where they formed a pure white light. A vortex then appeared, and looking into it it appeared to be a passage somewhere. We’d definitely found the entry into Runeforge.

We entered.

The passage led to a chamber with seven statues and a sihedron engraved on the floor. There was a bubbling pool in the middle, that radiated strong magic, and behind each statue was a corridor.

The chamber was large, probably 80′ across. Takkad captured some of the water from the pool in a vial, but after having done so, it was no longer magical. We concluded it was something about the pool.

So choosing a corridor somewhat at random, we started down the corridor behind Zandergul, who represented pride. Sabin went down .. and disappeared. Through their status spells, though, both Takkad and Kane said he was close by. Takkad stepped forward … and didn’t disappear. He took another step .. and did.

Each of us stepped into the corridor and arrived, according to Sabin, at different intervals. Some sort of filtering was going on, but eventually we were all there. The corridor looked to proceed before us, opening into a room. Sabin and Takkad stepped through first .. and immediately paused.

They called out briefly that there were mirrors, and gestured for everyone to halt. Apparently another Takkad and Sabin had emerged from each of two mirrors, one down a corridor to the left and another down a corridor to the right. The four new combatants immediately assumed an attack stance. Had the rest of us entered, we would have faced multiple instances of ourselves.

Any hope that we might negotiate with them disappeared when a flame strike hit Takkad, courtesy of one of the other Takkads. And Sabin was hit by a feeblemind from one of his doppelgangers.

It seemed that the doppelgangers were intent only on attacking the corresponding originals, but that didn’t stop us from being injured by their battle. I threw up a wall of fire to help separate them. When a blade barrier appeared, everybody needed to jump back. Fortunately for Takkad, he had memorized few offensive spells that day, so he knew that his battle would quickly devolve into pushing and shoving. Sabin, on the other hand, had a wealth of offensive spells as well as weapon prowess. Although Avia had pulled the original back from danger after the feeblemind, the other two dimension door’ed next to him, putting them squarely in our midst.

I hasted those of our party within range, and that granted Nolin and Avia the advantage they needed to take care of the extra Sabins with less danger to themselves. Kane read a scroll of heal and then Sabin was back in the game too. It didn’t take long after that, but I hope we never have to see Sabin argue with himself again. It wasn’t pretty.

Takkad, meanwhile, was being pummelled by a copy of his backpack. I carefully fired magic missiles at the copies without stepping into the mirrored corridor; the last thing we needed was an opponent loaded up with fireballs. However, when Sabin, now immune to the effect, stepped up to the magical mirrors and started smashing them, the doppelgangers fell in shards as well.

Proceeding onward, we entered a large chamber which seemed to have a giant peacock sitting on a dais. Upon addressing the peacock, however, we not only felt immensely silly, but were rewarded with six austentatious heralds who shot fireballs at the whole group. Fortunately, we were a little spread out so they couldn’t actually hit all of us with 6 fireballs. But several of us took notable damage, and the clerics got to work healing. Meanwhile, the ol’ dimension door trick brought the fighters to the firethrowers, and they quickly put an end to that. I found that they themselves were surprisingly susceptible to fire as I killed two and nearly killed a third.

The peacock, it turns out, was an illusion. But in the wall behind it, we found a secret door that led to a nicely appointed chamber. Nice, that is, except for the corpse rotting there.

Being of a practical nature, we took the following now-unused items from the corpse:

[1140] magical robe
+2 on class checks if evil alignment
-3 levels if good alignment
-2 levels if neutral alignment
spell resistance 18
+5 AC
+4 resistance (as cloak of resistance)
[1141] headband of vast intelligence +6, +3 skills,
skill ranks = to your hit dice
[1142] ring of protection +2
[1143] cape of Montebanc (dimension door 1/day)
[1144] journal (not magical)
[1145] spellbook (2 volumes) every illusion spell thru level 9

In one chamber adjoining this one, we found a couple hundred skeletons. We found the other rooms empty of any useful items, but the journal suggested this had been the workshop of Viraxis. He had been working on a way to live forever and had decided that was best done with clones. At some point, it seems, the current clone aged before he could create another, and, well, here he was.

However, one of his journal entries mentioned an alliance with Delvahine. It seems she was a follower of Sorshen, who represents lust, whom he was working with. The journal also mentioned an alliance which apparently thoroughly destroyed the area of Envy.

As a result, the group decided to go visit Delvahine’s area next.

As before, entering the corridor had mixed results for different people. I myself had no trouble traversing it, but others made it in in fits and starts.

We opened a pair of iron doors and entered a room. It was filled with gilded cages, although many were empty. One clearly was not, although the human looking creature in it seemed gaunt. Concerned, Takkad headed over to that cage while the rest of us were welcomed by the designated greeters.

Four succubi flew in front of us, trying to entice us to join them. The ceiling here was very high, probably 90′, giving them plenty of room to maneuver. Judging I would probably be attacked soon, I cast spell resistance on myself. As the succubi continued to try to lure us closer, I cast fly on Nolin so he could accommodate them and he obliged by beating on Vorvod.

One called Eryalla successfully convinced Rigel it would be fun, and Rigel started removing her armor. For her trouble, I fireballed Eryalla. Sabin cast fly on himself and also entered the fray. Only Rigel seems to have been affected, but Nolin now got a swing in on Zevashala. Sabin was bloodying up Lelyrin.

When only Zevashala was left, she threw us an evil look and disappeared.

I had never left the doorway, and it was about this time that I heard a noise behind me. Turning, I saw a figure walking towards us from the end of the corridor. I yelled to the group and cast mirror image on myself. As the figure advanced I cast a color spray at it – forgetting in the excitement that the spray only travels 15 ft, not dozens. So used to those fireballs!

“Trask, it’s me, Sedgwick!” the figure yelled.

Sedgwick? No – what would he be doing here?

Kane tried detect evil, and found none. Sedgwick held up his hands, and Kane tried detect good. I began to question him – was this really Sedgwick?

As others arrived, the conversation continued. It really was. Apparently he’d been at the Pathfinder Society when Takkad had been researching this mountain, and he concluded (correctly) that this was his old group. He followed us here and, unknown to us, apparently jumped in the vortex before it closed. He went looking for us in the area of Krune (sloth) and while he didn’t find us he did report it was highly unpleasant.

Meanwhile, we inspected the bodies of the succubi, and they seemed to be identically attired:

[1146,1147,1148] Bracers of armor +3
[1149,1150,1151] amulet (non magical) with woman’s face
[1152,1153,1154] ring of protection +2

The +3 bracers were better than my +2, so I switched.

Takkad had been working on his survivor, and although his health was better, his mind was still not … shall we say, all there.

And before us was still a big unknown. There appeared to be a room or pavilion or tent, really, marked by silk walls that were 20′ high and a very apparent entryway. None of these had been Delvahine … was there another corpse waiting for us inside? Where did the other succubi go? Sounded like we had more to check out, and now an extra person to do it with.

So we went to enter the pavilion, but immediately our path was blocked by what appeared to be numerous stone giants. They insisted we could not see The Lady, but Nolin persistently told them “We have an appointment”. They did not seem swayed by his statement. However, when he, Sabin, and Avia started hacking through them, and I managed to squeeze a fireball in between them, the giants started falling. They did not seem to respond to reason, but they all died fairly quickly.

Inside, there was lots of plush. Pillows, those same silk walls, cushions, comfy chairs 🙂 But no more giants (and their bodies held nothing of value to us.) We moved to the next chamber and saw a woman on a throne or dais through the entryway. Just as we reached it, she said in what Sedgwick said was Abyssal: “First I don’t hear from Viraxis and then the giants and now THIS!”

That seemed to Sabin to be the signal to dimension door in. The room held a smoking brazier in addition to the now familiar cushions and pillows. In he went, with Takkad and Nolin. Zevashala did one more attempt at googlyeyes at Nolin, and Nolin responded by beating up the figure in the thrown. I cast spell resistance again as Avia dimension doored herself in to the throne. Delvahine tried to attack Nolin, but Avia’s protection from evil prevented her.

There was an attempt at singing, but Sedgwick had a countersong. In fact, as Delvahine tried to unleash something really impressive, all that came out of her mouth was “Sedgwick is great!” much to her surprise and annoyance. I managed a magic missile on Delvahine before Sabin finished her off. Zelvahine managed to take some life force from Nolin before she finally succumbed to Avia’s sword.

And then the searching began. We got another triplet of (bracer[1155] / amulet[1156] / ring[1157]) from Zevashala and from Delvahine we got

[1158] +1 wounding whip
[1159] +2 mithril shirt, glamered to look like a flimsy top
[1160] +4 gloves of dexterity

Under the southern bed, we also found

[1161] handy haversack
[1162] book, written in Thasslonian, +1 WI
[1163] 6 potions of cure moderate wounds
[1164] potion of cure disease
[1165] potion of remove paralysis
[1166] box of sex toys [12]

We also picked up the brazier of mind fog [1167].

This seemed as safe a place as any (now) to rest, so we decided to sleep here and proceeed to Envy tomorrow. Takkad will leave his rescued human here because we really can’t drag him along with us and this place is now safe. He’ll come back tomorrow evening with a Heal spell and see if he can restore him to some semblance of a normal life.

Oathday, Erastus 31

After a good night’s sleep (those cushions really were comfortable) we headed off to the lair of Envy. Before entering, we have been warned by a voice:

STOP! Your powers shall be crushed and you shall die.

Pretty full of themselves. We shall trudge on, regardless.

This was, indeed, the site of some magical battle. Faint magical energy still flited from metal slag to metal slag. We decided that even though this area may be partially destroyed, we will inspect it as best we can.