Starday, 25 Lamashan

After having a little fun with our chosen giant commander, we somberly realized we still didn’t have enough rings + amulets to safely enter the field up on the mountain. Well technically we might have, but nobody really wanted to be subject to the scrying that the amulets left one vulnerable to.

So Takkad and Sabin when invisible and had magic detection on when they windwalked over to the Lamashtu temple to see if there were any likely looking treasure chests or living bearers of said amulets and rings. It was, of course, still semi-collapsed, and completely dark inside. Sabin had the advantage there, but couldn’t communicate to Takkad in windwalk form so I gather there was some wispy hand signals or something employed. (I wasn’t along; I just got a summary of their trip when they returned.)

The main chamber had 3 passages, but two had collapsed. There were idols of things vaguely dragonic and lion-like. In windwalk form, the collapsed passages were less of an issue than might otherwise be the case, but still they proved uninteresting. The passage going straight ahead had little rubble, and led to an antechamber with stairs down. The antechamber held the tattered clothing of three bodies – less cautious adventurers, I suppose – and nothing there radiated magic. The stairway led to a room that looked like a torture room, but that also appeared to be a deadend.

Returning to the entrance they tried the right passage. They were able to pass through the rubble, but it ended in a square room after 30′ of piled rubble. This room also had three exits from it.

• The right one held a stagnant pool.
• The middle one led to a large cathedral-like space which seemec to be a shrine to Lamashtu. Takkad sensed a presence there, but then these clerics are sometimes just on edge.
• The left one held benches and cabinets, but little else of interest.

Returning to the entrance, they tried to go left but it was impassable even in windwalk state.

That seemed to be it in the temple, so they returned and reported. To prepare, I case see invisible, mirror image, and spell resistance. I figured anything we found in a temple would be likely to try to cast a spell or two.

We windwalked, and entered the temple. By previous agreement, we made our way to the cathedral room, It didn’t take long at all to detect a shadowy figure .. or was it figures? .. at the far end of the room. I waited until the Usual Suspects were close enough together and then cast haste on our group.

There wasn’t just a couple. There were eight. Sabin used his sign of wrath and one shadow was seriously injured. 4 shadows turned on Sabin, but most of them hit the images from his mirror image spell. Takkad channelled positive energy, and one shadow fell. Avia channeled too, and three more were killed. Kane likewise channelled, and two more disappeared. And then by golly, it turns out they didn’t care much for fire, so I “channelled” a fireball that took out the remainder.

The altar was magic. There was a magic black painted metal chalice. There was a wand. There was a black dagger. And all these things were magic. We quickly determined we had

[1643] decanter of endless water
[1644] adamantine dagger, +3, decorated with genuine iconic Lamashtu figures
[1645] a wand of soul binding [4 charges]

Kane wanted to destroy the altar, so our team’s adamantine weapons were put to good use. He followed with a consecrate spell, which he apologetically explained would last a lot less time than he’d like but that too made him feel better.

For a little guy, Kane sure is fanatical at times.

Takkad was still dissatisfied with our efforts. Not at us, but he was thinking we were running out of time and worried that we needed to hurry and do certain things or Karzoug would be too powerful for us to kill. He decided to do a powerful Communing with his god, which unfortunately must be a series of yes/no questions. This was conducted with great pomp and circumstance, which I guess is de rigeur for this sort of spell. And we asked

1) Are there more rings in Xin Shalast? YES
2) Is the field on the mountain powered by a Runewell? YES
3) Is the Runewell in the city? NO
4) Do any remaining dragons have a sihedron ring? NO
5) Is Karzoug fully revived? NO
6) Is Karzoug able to leave the spires now? NO
7) Is Karzoug going to leave the spires within a week? YES
8) Should we confront him ASAP? YES
9) Does Karzoug have more than 12 allies with him in the spires? UNCERTAIN
10) Are we missing a needed artifact? UNCERTAIN
11) Does Karzoug get stronger the longer we wait? YES
12) Will it benefit us to create discord in the city? YES
13) Do we need rings or amulets within the occlusion field? YES
14) Does the field extend everywhere, including within the buildings? YES
15) Do any giants possess rings? NO

So it was clear that there was, unfortunately, some basis to Takkad’s fear that we needed to hurry. The discord thing, though, sounded both fun and easy. We talked to Margive about why the giant rebellions always seemed shortlived. He explained the Lamia held much greater sway over the city than we’d given them credit for. They were fairly quick to put down rebellions.

Lamia, hmm? We could reduce those numbers, although we really wanted to take out the matriarch if she ever came back down to the city. Margive surprised us by saying she had indeed returned to deal with the death of her priestess. Seems she thought that might have been another outgrowth of the rebellion and she felt a need to attend to it personally.

At last. A suitable target.

We returned to the coliseum, and carefully planned our next excursion. Takkad and Sabin decided to scout using the usual windwalk technique. They quickly and easily detected raised voice from Karzoug’s chapel. They spotted three harridans and one other dressed much better than the rest. They were loudly discussing what to do about the giants who’d killed their priestess (heh!)

That was pretty much all we needed. I again prepared mirror image, spell resistance, see invisible, and, in this particular case, haste before we even left.

We’d hoped to surprise them, but their hearing must be excellent. They heard us in the chamber next to them and startled. So I led with chain lightning, which hit all four of them, killing one as a nice start. Sedgewick threw a Mislead (his new favorite spell, I think!) and Kane prayed. Takkad did a greater dispel at her royal highness, and then the three remaining came after us. One attacked the false Sedgewick, which cringed and bent over in mock pain. Another brought a flame strike down in our midst, hitting all but me. Then Avia stepped up. She attacked the leader viciously, doing prodigious amounts of damage. Nolin stepped up and did the same.

I also did a Mislead while Sedgewick tried to deafen our opponents. Kane called in a flamestrike of his own, and Takkad simply cast Destruction (which unfortunately failed). A blade barrier appeared, followed by a firestorm at many of us and a searing light at Takkad. Sabin tried a disintegrate, with disappointing results. Avia took some more hardy swings, and Nolin actually charged to good effect.

Rigel went invisible, and I knew she was angling for a backstab at some point. Our fighters were now in the thick of the battle, but our healers were not close enough to help them heal. “Get together” I whispered hoarsely, “and i’ll teleport us”. I waited a few seconds for everyone to get in place and then teleported us closer.

Takkad did a powerful Mass Cure spell. Avia and Nolin found themselves under attack, and surprisingly one of the harridan found Takkad to be the most threatening and took some gouges out of him. Then the unholy blight hit, and suddenly people were a lot weaker. Sabin unleashed a flurry of blows and Avia finally took out another harridan. Nolin lent his blade to the effort.

Rigel tried to shoot some arrows, but only nicked one once. Worse, she became visible at that point. Sedgewick pulled out his wand of lightning, but the harridan’s spell resistance thwarted him. Kane healed Takkad and I initiated a mage sword. Takkad channelled, helping both himself and our fighters while a harridan tried unsuccessfully to take out Sabin. The other damaged Takkad a little, but mostly took out Sabin’s images. Sabin responded by taking it out, and Avia turned to the last one and took her out too.

We quickly assessed the magical items we’d won.

[1646] dagger, +1, unholy
[1647] headband of inspired wisdom +6
[1648] ring of force shield
[1649] 4 pearl anklets
[1650] golden crown
[1651] sihedron ring
[1652] dagger, +1, unholy
[1653,1655,1657] MW Breast plate
[1654,1656,1658] MW Great Sword

And to continue and extend the discord, we dumped the body of the matriarch into the giant section of town, in an alley. She was big enough and heavy enough I just teleported her.

Takkad sent another disquieting message to our favorite giant. “Your problem is solved – again.”

And when the body was discovered, we learned that we’d killed the chief assistant of Ceoptera, not Ceoptera. Or at least, that’s the body we’d dropped off; we probably killed her too (that would explain some of the difficulties we had) but she was disguised as a lesser. Oh well. She’s dead, anyway. I think. These folks should wear (accurate) nametags.