Wherein two dreams are fulfilled, and an elite criminal is outclassed
Players (Characters)
Scott (Rain)
Jeremy (Grokk)
Tom (Garlen, Amber)
Tony (Roland)
Rachel (Horkina)
DM: Catherine
Now that the Tree of Shackled Souls had released all of its energy, it was decided that the tree must be destroyed. Horkina, wielding her famous Maul, smashed pieces of adamantine and mithral from the core of the tree, collapsing its main structure in under a minute. The party headed back to the surface with large amounts of treasure and thirteen dead shackleborn in tow. Returning to the surface, they found that Cauldron's southeast corner had collapsed and turned into drainage for the lake, probably due to the final quake as the Tree released the last of its energy. Amber buried the shackleborn at her temple and the party set out to re-equip and to rebuild the town. Roland laid claim to a bit of land that stood as an island in the southeast, and he and Amber spent several days using Stoneshape to help rebuild the town and to create a wizards tower. Garlen trained Rain to be a ranger, especially focusing on anti-dragon tactics and techniques.
One day, Amber and Roland were watching as various city workers cleared away rubble. Suddenly a ghostly red dragon hand reached out from inside the stone and touched a worker, who shriveled and died from what Roland surmised was an energy drain. Amber used Sending to call the party to the area. Percy led the way with a Chain of Eyes spell allowing Roland to use him like a mobile camera. The party followed into a wide, dusty hallway. Rain heard a faint moaning in Draconic: "My Gold." Amber cast a silence spell on Horkina, who bashed open a wide stone door with her maul.
Inside was a must unusual sight: the skeleton of a red dragon named Taraxartax was laid across the stone floor. Next to it was a sword buried to the hilt in a mound of stone, surrounded by an antimagic field. Rain and Garlen searched the rest of the room and Grokk stepped up next to the sword. Rain heard the Draconic words "kill the gnome", and then a ghostly red dragon materialized. Grokk stepped into the antimagic field and pulled with all of his might, tearing the sword from the block of stone. Garlen fired his bow while Rain and Horkina attacked the dragon from flanking positions. Amber tried to use a Heal spell on the ghostly dragon, but it resisted. Roland's ball lightning did a large amount of damage to the dragon-ghost, but it responded with a breath that drained Amber's strength, dexterity, and constitution, and called out "Sventerant" while circling around the room. Grokk leaped up and swung the sword at the dragon, forgetting that it's a bit shorter than the axe he normally wields. A pair of arrows from Garlen and a charging power attack from Horkina finally took the creature down.
Roland identified the rune-covered sword as Sventerant (a corrupted form of the draconic "gnome slayer"), a vorpal rune-keyed sword designed for the specific task of killing a particular gnome. Its first successful hit against the gnome would automatically result in its vorpal power being activated, after which time its runes would dischare their magic. Rain fell to the ground weeping for joy -- he finally had his vorpal sword, and Garlen had even taught him how to use longswords just days ago! An inscription on the sword read "But one task defines your mold: all my gold for all my gold."
Rain went around town showing his shiny sword to all the ladies, and asking questions about its origin. Eventually he was pointed to an old elven bard named Aaron who would sing the tale of the sword and Taraxartax. When the party arrived to hear the tale, Aaron exclaimed "you have the sword!" Rain responded with glee, "I have the sword!" Grokk said "yes, yes, he has the sword, and we've all heard it." Rain handed Aaron a few gold pieces and he burst into extremely bad poetry telling the tale of the sword. In short, the red dragon Taraxartax, rival to Hookface, had been robbed by a gnome named Bertilook and left with a single gold piece. The dragon spent the next fifty years gathering gold, and paid it all for a special sword and a highly-trained assassin. Bertles and a spellcasting friend named Muckles showed up and killed the dragon, and were able to embed the sword in a block of stone before the assassin could retrieve it and kill them. There the sword remained for seventy years, until the party recovered it.
Roland recalled reading of Bertles, who also operated under the name Kroonk. Artus Shemwick heard the gnome disappeared 70 years ago, and agreed to search for information on him over the next few days. In the mean time, Roland attempted to scry, and saw an image of the gnome sitting at a table with a bunch of kids celebrating a birthday. The gnome stood up, beheaded a child, and held his head up to the scrying sensor with a smile. The image froze at that moment -- an obvious False Vision. The party attempted to use the scrying lattices in Kurran-Kural to see if the false vision would run out, but every few hours it would just change to another equally disturbing image. The party headed back to Cauldron, where Roland tried a spell of Locate Creature without success.
That night, Rain and Grokk headed for the bar. Garlen followed to keep an eye on Rain and his fancy new sword, but Horkina got sick of Rain's not-so-smooth flirting with all the ladies and went home. About midnight, a voice called out in Draconic "My gold!" A ghostly red dragon hand reached through the wall and narrowly missed Rain. Garlen, Rain, Grokk, and all of the bar patrons headed outside, and the ghostly dragon followed Rain. Garlen ran at full speed to wake Roland and Horkina, while the others hurried quickly behind, easily outpacing the dragon. The party gathered on the street and began raining arrows and magic missiles at the dragon, who continued moving directly toward Rain and his sword. A delayed blast iceball from Roland passed right through the dragon, but eventually enough arrows hit the beast in enough places to make it dissipate.
In the morning, Artus returned and let the party know what he'd discovered: the gnome was now based near Sasserine, under the name Heppenfod, and there was a fifty thousand gold piece reward for his head due to his consistant and brutal crimes. His fortress location was well-known, but none had successfully assaulted it. The party teleported to Sasserine and began walking toward his fortress, just a few feet off the road, with Garlen stealthily leading the way. Garlen noticed a group of six gnomes hiding near the road, no doubt preparing to rob a group of commoners. He used the telepathic bond Roland had given the party to warn everyone, and then used a lion's charge to attack and kill two of the six. Rain jabbed a third with his rapier, and Amber used Greater Command to make the remaining three fall on the ground. Garlen walked across the road and greeted the travelers: "don't mind me, I'm just here to kill the guys who were about to rob you." He and Rain finished off the criminals and handed their gold to the travelers, as a sort of reverse-robbery.
Another mile through the forest, and the party found the path leading to their destination. Soon glowing illusory signs began to point the way to "Heppenfod's Playground". The path led directly to a door -- or, what looked like a door, but Roland could tell was clearly an illusion. He used a wand to make most of the party invisible, and then they scouted around the building. There were three other doors and no windows of note. The party decided to create a door where the illusion was, so Horkina got out her Maul and punched a nice opening in the wall. This led to a basically empty room with no doors, so Horkina created another door to the south. This led to a room where a nymph had been held captive for a number of years, a slave to the evil gnome's every whim, so the party set her free.
Rain peeked out through another door and noticed a guard behind a slightly-open door watching a set of double doors to the outside. Garlen snuck around through a long hallway and yanked that door open just as Rain pulled the opposite door open, and the guard went down in a hail of arrows. On the wall right next to him was a large red button, no doubt keyed to some sort of alarm spell. The party kept moving sneakily to the south, stealing various treasures from a large dining room and a living room. One room led to a large arena with a deep pit, where an animated suit of armor stood over a dead dwarf whose beaten corpse bore the marks of the blackrock clan. A set of rooms to the west held treasures and trophies, including several illusion scrolls. When the party located Heppenfod's shower, Garlen decided to pee on his embroidered towels.
The party came to a spiral staircase leading up and down a tower. Garlen was leading the way up the stairs, but Rain bluffed him into looking behind and then pushed past. At the top of the stairs, a huge stone golem stood guard. Horkina and Grokk pounded on it while Garlen and Rain provided flanking, and it went down fairly quickly. Amber healed Horkina from the wounds she took. The party checked the bottom of the stairs, but decided not to work on the bottom floor of the complex until the main area was secured.
Three gnomes stood in a kitchen area working on preparing a large meal. Garlen and Rain tumbled to block two exits while Percy blocked the third, and the cooks quickly surrendered. Garlen and Grokk escorted them out and told them to "work for someone less creepy", sending them on their way toward Sasserine. The party moved into a very large dining room and positioned themselves around the eastern doorways while Garlen looked in two small rooms to the west. A gnome in one of the rooms hit a big red button to set off an alarm before Garlen was able to drop him. A group of enemies nearby quickly took cover and hid. Grokk, Rain, and Garlen combined to take one down with their arrows and then Roland flew into his room and fired a magic missile at the next enemy he saw. Several gnomes fired sneak attacks at Roland, but his magical protections meant his wounds were only minimal. Grokk's axe and an empowered fireball dropped the remaining mooks in the area.
Saturday, May 19, 2007
The Shackled City, Day 31 (2007-05-04, 6:30 PM), Chapter 10: Thirteen Cages
Players (Characters)
Scott (Rain)
Jeremy (Grokk)
Catherine (Amber -- and her hippogriff Redtail)
Tony (Roland -- and his familiar Sam and shield guardian Percy)
Rachel (Horkina)
DM: Tom (Garlen)
The party headed to the south, into a massive cavern with a huge lava pool and islands in the middle. A huge and ornate tapestry hung on the northeast wall. Roland's wand provided Grokk and Horkina with the ability to fly, while Rain and Garlen used their armor's magical flight ability. As the party headed for a large segment of land near the tapestry, a huge pyroclastic dragon emerged from underneath the lava. His voice boomed out "who are you, and why are you in my lair?" Roland explained that we were here looking for the Cagewrights. Rain peeked behind the tapestry and saw the dragon's hoard, but the dragon was perceptive enough to notice Rain's actions, and responded by breathing a disintegration ray. (Jeremy's response: "I must compliment you on having found the most efficient way to start the fight.")
Rain and Garlen tumbled up to the dragon and began stabbing it in all its sensitive places, and Horkina flew in and smashed it with her axe. The dragon was very displeased with Rain, biting and clawing him until he fell. It finished him off with a swing of the tail. Amber used a pair of Moon Bolts to weaken the dragon to make it less dangerous in melee, and Roland used a spell to make it dizzy. After Grokk hit it with a powerful blow, it breathed a blast of disintegration that destroyed both Amber and Redtail. A few more stabs from Garlen and a round of hailstones from Roland finally dropped the foe, but this was a costly victory.
Roland decided to use his wish to resurrect Amber so that she could resurrect Rain. Amber swept up the remaining ashes from Redtail and mourned his passing, and also mourned the likely demise of Cauldron now that Roland's wish had been used up. Rain was fairly upset and started moving recklessly in combat. The party approached a group of Haraknin to the south and Rain charged right into the fray, leaping up onto a stone table in the middle of the group. Horkina and Grokk's axes did most of the slaying, but Rain's stabs provided him with much needed outlet.
The party found one room with a lava pool and several stepping stones at the entrance. A shady-looking human wielding a rapier was training with a tiefling woman covered in tattoos. Amber used Hold Person to freeze the man, and Rain stabbed him multiple times. Grokk and Horkina surrounded the woman and attacked her, but she stepped away and became invisible. Amber tried to dispel her invisibility, but the woman attacked and interrupted her spell. Grokk bashed the woman with his axe and Roland fired a magic missile, but it was Horkina's bow that dealt the death blow.
Moving onward and eastward, the party found several demodands. Garlen and Grokk killed a farastu while Amber used her Light of Venya to wound another. Roland's magic missile and Percy and Rain's flanking made a big Shator demodand cry out in pain, but it was Garlen's string of critical hits that brought the vile creature to its end. Rain and Horkina searched out another farastu that had gone invisible, dropping it with a pair of well-placed blows.
To the east was the Tree of Shackled Souls. A big Shator demodand named Dyr'ryd stood alongside it as it continued to supply energy to form the portal. Its main face asked the party "what are you doing here" while its smaller, cancerous face cackled. Rain didn't want to give this Cagewright any more time, so he charged in with rapier ready. Dyr'ryd stepped back and cut into Rain with his heavily enchanted guisarme. Grokk moved to flank and Amber gave the party a powerful magical protection, but Roland's maximized disintegrate spell provided the party with all the protection they needed by destroying the enemy. Percy placed the dispersal collar around the tree and it began to release its energy, and the party stood guard (looking away to avoid going blind) until the Tree of Shackled Souls finally released the last of its energy.
The party moved north to try to find the remaining Cagewrights, to be sure the ritual would not be restarted. A cleric of Adimarchus and another Shator demodand stood near a small altar and attempted to put up a fight, but a Holy Word from Amber banished the outsider, and a critical blow from Grokk ended the cleric's miserable existance. Further to the north, the party encountered a Vecna-worshipping cleric hiding in a strange garden of rock-and-lava statues, but she didn't live long enough to inflict any serious injuries on any of the party members. To the north and east, the party found a quasit and a man wearing robes. Rain attacked the man while Garlen engaged in one of his favorite activities, attacking the evil outsider. The quasit responded with a Cone of Cold, which was trumped by Amber's Lucent Lance. The man flew upward through the ceiling, so Horkina, still able to fly from before, followed. She found the man laying in a small chamber beyond an illusory ceiling, and a blow from her axe ended the man's existance.
Further to the west, the party found the area where the Haraknin and their leader, Ti'irok Coalfire, were staged. The party lined up and yelled out insults, hoping to draw the enemies into the open. As nearly a dozen Haraknin came into view, Amber dropped a Sunburst in their midst, blinding several of them. Grokk, Horkina, Rain, and Garlen fired off a string of arrows, thinning the Haraknin ranks. A fire giant stepped into the middle of the Haraknin pack and stood ready to fight any who approached. Roland used chain frost to further weaken the giant and his guardians, and Garlen's bow and Amber's sunbeam took out the front line. Rain and Horkina moved to flank and attack the giant, wounding him severely, while Grokk continued cutting through the Haraknin. Ti'irok managed to land a decent blow with his greatsword, but an iceball from Roland, a Holy Smite from Amber, and kidney surgery from Rain finished off the big giant.
Amber and Rain reached level 16 again. The rest of the party reached level 17.
Scott (Rain)
Jeremy (Grokk)
Catherine (Amber -- and her hippogriff Redtail)
Tony (Roland -- and his familiar Sam and shield guardian Percy)
Rachel (Horkina)
DM: Tom (Garlen)
The party headed to the south, into a massive cavern with a huge lava pool and islands in the middle. A huge and ornate tapestry hung on the northeast wall. Roland's wand provided Grokk and Horkina with the ability to fly, while Rain and Garlen used their armor's magical flight ability. As the party headed for a large segment of land near the tapestry, a huge pyroclastic dragon emerged from underneath the lava. His voice boomed out "who are you, and why are you in my lair?" Roland explained that we were here looking for the Cagewrights. Rain peeked behind the tapestry and saw the dragon's hoard, but the dragon was perceptive enough to notice Rain's actions, and responded by breathing a disintegration ray. (Jeremy's response: "I must compliment you on having found the most efficient way to start the fight.")
Rain and Garlen tumbled up to the dragon and began stabbing it in all its sensitive places, and Horkina flew in and smashed it with her axe. The dragon was very displeased with Rain, biting and clawing him until he fell. It finished him off with a swing of the tail. Amber used a pair of Moon Bolts to weaken the dragon to make it less dangerous in melee, and Roland used a spell to make it dizzy. After Grokk hit it with a powerful blow, it breathed a blast of disintegration that destroyed both Amber and Redtail. A few more stabs from Garlen and a round of hailstones from Roland finally dropped the foe, but this was a costly victory.
Roland decided to use his wish to resurrect Amber so that she could resurrect Rain. Amber swept up the remaining ashes from Redtail and mourned his passing, and also mourned the likely demise of Cauldron now that Roland's wish had been used up. Rain was fairly upset and started moving recklessly in combat. The party approached a group of Haraknin to the south and Rain charged right into the fray, leaping up onto a stone table in the middle of the group. Horkina and Grokk's axes did most of the slaying, but Rain's stabs provided him with much needed outlet.
The party found one room with a lava pool and several stepping stones at the entrance. A shady-looking human wielding a rapier was training with a tiefling woman covered in tattoos. Amber used Hold Person to freeze the man, and Rain stabbed him multiple times. Grokk and Horkina surrounded the woman and attacked her, but she stepped away and became invisible. Amber tried to dispel her invisibility, but the woman attacked and interrupted her spell. Grokk bashed the woman with his axe and Roland fired a magic missile, but it was Horkina's bow that dealt the death blow.
Moving onward and eastward, the party found several demodands. Garlen and Grokk killed a farastu while Amber used her Light of Venya to wound another. Roland's magic missile and Percy and Rain's flanking made a big Shator demodand cry out in pain, but it was Garlen's string of critical hits that brought the vile creature to its end. Rain and Horkina searched out another farastu that had gone invisible, dropping it with a pair of well-placed blows.
To the east was the Tree of Shackled Souls. A big Shator demodand named Dyr'ryd stood alongside it as it continued to supply energy to form the portal. Its main face asked the party "what are you doing here" while its smaller, cancerous face cackled. Rain didn't want to give this Cagewright any more time, so he charged in with rapier ready. Dyr'ryd stepped back and cut into Rain with his heavily enchanted guisarme. Grokk moved to flank and Amber gave the party a powerful magical protection, but Roland's maximized disintegrate spell provided the party with all the protection they needed by destroying the enemy. Percy placed the dispersal collar around the tree and it began to release its energy, and the party stood guard (looking away to avoid going blind) until the Tree of Shackled Souls finally released the last of its energy.
The party moved north to try to find the remaining Cagewrights, to be sure the ritual would not be restarted. A cleric of Adimarchus and another Shator demodand stood near a small altar and attempted to put up a fight, but a Holy Word from Amber banished the outsider, and a critical blow from Grokk ended the cleric's miserable existance. Further to the north, the party encountered a Vecna-worshipping cleric hiding in a strange garden of rock-and-lava statues, but she didn't live long enough to inflict any serious injuries on any of the party members. To the north and east, the party found a quasit and a man wearing robes. Rain attacked the man while Garlen engaged in one of his favorite activities, attacking the evil outsider. The quasit responded with a Cone of Cold, which was trumped by Amber's Lucent Lance. The man flew upward through the ceiling, so Horkina, still able to fly from before, followed. She found the man laying in a small chamber beyond an illusory ceiling, and a blow from her axe ended the man's existance.
Further to the west, the party found the area where the Haraknin and their leader, Ti'irok Coalfire, were staged. The party lined up and yelled out insults, hoping to draw the enemies into the open. As nearly a dozen Haraknin came into view, Amber dropped a Sunburst in their midst, blinding several of them. Grokk, Horkina, Rain, and Garlen fired off a string of arrows, thinning the Haraknin ranks. A fire giant stepped into the middle of the Haraknin pack and stood ready to fight any who approached. Roland used chain frost to further weaken the giant and his guardians, and Garlen's bow and Amber's sunbeam took out the front line. Rain and Horkina moved to flank and attack the giant, wounding him severely, while Grokk continued cutting through the Haraknin. Ti'irok managed to land a decent blow with his greatsword, but an iceball from Roland, a Holy Smite from Amber, and kidney surgery from Rain finished off the big giant.
Amber and Rain reached level 16 again. The rest of the party reached level 17.
The Shackled City, Day 30 (2007-04-27, 6:30 PM), Chapter 10: Thirteen Cages
Players (Characters)
Scott (Rain)
Jeremy (Grokk)
Catherine (Amber)
Tony (Roland)
Rachel (Horkina)
DM: Tom (Garlen)
The party rested alongside the huge group of refugees to the west of Cauldron. In the morning, James set out with Amber's followers to make sure the refugees were all cared for. Amber cast a spell of Find the Path to guide the party through the tunnels to the Fiery Sanctum. As the party moved deep through the tunnels, they came upon a boiling lake. A pair of creatures that looked to be made of green and violet smoke moved to engulf Garlen and Rain, who both resisted their powerful energy drains. "Team Rogue" smacked the beasts, and a magic missile from Roland and a leap attack from Grokk finished them off. Further down, the passage was filled with foul-smelling, poisonous air. Roland wondered if he could use water breathing with a decanter of endless water, while Amber suggested the party should use the 10 minutes of fresh air available in a bag of holding. Eventually the party just ran through the noxious air, resulting in some coughing but not much else. A bit further on, the ground began to lurch. Roland suspected this wasn't due to a quake, but due to the presence of an earth elemental. Horkina moved forward and smashed the ground with her maul, drawing the attention of a pair of the earth creatures. Horkina and Grokk clobbered them while Rain and Garlen provided flanking, and a blade barrier from Amber and a pair of magic missiles from Roland provided enough to finish them off.
When the party reached the main gate, Roland noticed a pair of auras from an Alarm and a Disintegrate trap. He dispelled the alarm, and then Rain very carefully disarmed the disintegrate mechanism with some magical assistance from Amber. Just inside the main hallway, Rain discovered a secret door carved into the stone. He opened the door quietly, and Rain and Garlen snuck up on a minotaur woman who had been polishing her falchion. A few quick stabs to her vital organs, along with a magic missile, dropped her before she could react. Roland surmised this woman was Gau Kleeoch, one of the Cagewrights, partly from the small cage she was wearing as a necklace.
Rain discovered several more secret doors, including a thin stone wall concealing another hallway. Horkina crushed the wall and the party moved through to the south. A pair of kelubar demodands waited in the room beyond. Amber's Holy Smite blinded one of them while Rain and Garlen did the sneaky-poke thing and Horkina and Grokk did the smashy-axe thing. Roland also fired off a lightning bolt.
After the demodands dropped, Roland sent an arcane eye flying through some narrow tunnels in the wall. He discovered two more rooms with a total of six farastu demodands. The party moved to those rooms, and Rain and Garlen flew quietly over the slimy floors and dropped a farastu. Two others responded by enfeebling the pair, but they kept moving and dropped another with the same flanking tactic. Some lighting from Roland helped finish them off, while Amber's sling bullets bounced harmlessly off of the slimy ground. The other three farastus approached from the next room. Amber blinded one with her magical shield, but another responded by draining her strength to the point where she was no longer able to stand. Horkina, the shield guardian, and Grokk smashed the foul farastus, and the party waited a few minutes to recover lost strength.
Rain discovered yet another hidden passage, and a hidden alcove where a vrock stood sentry. The alcove was hidden by a dark curtain, which Rain pushed aside. Garlen fired off several shots from his bow and Grokk let loose with one swing from his axe, severely wounding the vrock. Another vrock moved into position beside the party and stunned Rain with his screech, but a crushing blow from Horkina and a trio of sonic rays from Roland took it down and left the other vrock severely wounded. Amber finished it off with a sound burst, and the party moved on.
As Roland carefully mapped the party's progress, Garlen and Grokk began to sing: "mapmaker, mapmaker, make me a map! Find me a secret, avoid me a trap!" Rain discovered one such secret leading into a conference room. The massive stone table was built in the shape of the Carcerian Eye. A spell of silence allowed Horkina to smash the table into rubble without risk of alarming the rest of the Cagewrights.
The party continued eastward, where Rain discovered yet another curtain hiding a small room. A small pack of demodands had obviously used the room to torture captured humanoids. Grokk and Garlen each seriously abused a demodand's body with their weapons, and Rain followed it up by dealing out nearly as much punishment as the other two combined, leaving only one enemy standing. Not willing to be showed up, Horkina stepped forward and landed a perfect strike on the big kelubar's head, leaving it within an inch of its life. It resisted Roland's magic missile, but Grokk's axe was not so easy to resist.
Further to the south, the party encountered a woman in fancy robes with a strange hairpiece, wearing a small cage as a necklace. Garlen rolled behind her and Grokk's axe smashed into her, leaving her bloody and battered. She stepped back and tried to harm the party with Horrid Wilting, but it did only minimal damage. Rain finished her off with a quick sneak attack and then searched her room for treasure. Items of interest included her spellbook and a note saying she'd created a failsafe device to shut down the planar junction ritual.
The party doubled back to make sure they'd covered all of the areas to the west before continuing to the east. One room was occupied by a short, almost dwarf-shaped human wearing heavy armor. In the corner of the room was a large pipe organ made mostly out of bones. Rain charged forward and stabbed the man in his throat. Garlen ducked behind him and gave him a little poke, and when he jerked his head in response, he gave Rain another clear shot. The man fell dead on the floor. Rain discovered a complex set of musical notes written on the organ, and he and Garlen tried to play the sequence. After a few tries, Rain succeeded, and the organ opened to reveal a small chamber. The chamber held a shrine to Adimarchus, and Roland felt he could use the room to call upon the power of Adimarchus' former realm of Occipitus to fulfill a single wish.
Scott (Rain)
Jeremy (Grokk)
Catherine (Amber)
Tony (Roland)
Rachel (Horkina)
DM: Tom (Garlen)
The party rested alongside the huge group of refugees to the west of Cauldron. In the morning, James set out with Amber's followers to make sure the refugees were all cared for. Amber cast a spell of Find the Path to guide the party through the tunnels to the Fiery Sanctum. As the party moved deep through the tunnels, they came upon a boiling lake. A pair of creatures that looked to be made of green and violet smoke moved to engulf Garlen and Rain, who both resisted their powerful energy drains. "Team Rogue" smacked the beasts, and a magic missile from Roland and a leap attack from Grokk finished them off. Further down, the passage was filled with foul-smelling, poisonous air. Roland wondered if he could use water breathing with a decanter of endless water, while Amber suggested the party should use the 10 minutes of fresh air available in a bag of holding. Eventually the party just ran through the noxious air, resulting in some coughing but not much else. A bit further on, the ground began to lurch. Roland suspected this wasn't due to a quake, but due to the presence of an earth elemental. Horkina moved forward and smashed the ground with her maul, drawing the attention of a pair of the earth creatures. Horkina and Grokk clobbered them while Rain and Garlen provided flanking, and a blade barrier from Amber and a pair of magic missiles from Roland provided enough to finish them off.
When the party reached the main gate, Roland noticed a pair of auras from an Alarm and a Disintegrate trap. He dispelled the alarm, and then Rain very carefully disarmed the disintegrate mechanism with some magical assistance from Amber. Just inside the main hallway, Rain discovered a secret door carved into the stone. He opened the door quietly, and Rain and Garlen snuck up on a minotaur woman who had been polishing her falchion. A few quick stabs to her vital organs, along with a magic missile, dropped her before she could react. Roland surmised this woman was Gau Kleeoch, one of the Cagewrights, partly from the small cage she was wearing as a necklace.
Rain discovered several more secret doors, including a thin stone wall concealing another hallway. Horkina crushed the wall and the party moved through to the south. A pair of kelubar demodands waited in the room beyond. Amber's Holy Smite blinded one of them while Rain and Garlen did the sneaky-poke thing and Horkina and Grokk did the smashy-axe thing. Roland also fired off a lightning bolt.
After the demodands dropped, Roland sent an arcane eye flying through some narrow tunnels in the wall. He discovered two more rooms with a total of six farastu demodands. The party moved to those rooms, and Rain and Garlen flew quietly over the slimy floors and dropped a farastu. Two others responded by enfeebling the pair, but they kept moving and dropped another with the same flanking tactic. Some lighting from Roland helped finish them off, while Amber's sling bullets bounced harmlessly off of the slimy ground. The other three farastus approached from the next room. Amber blinded one with her magical shield, but another responded by draining her strength to the point where she was no longer able to stand. Horkina, the shield guardian, and Grokk smashed the foul farastus, and the party waited a few minutes to recover lost strength.
Rain discovered yet another hidden passage, and a hidden alcove where a vrock stood sentry. The alcove was hidden by a dark curtain, which Rain pushed aside. Garlen fired off several shots from his bow and Grokk let loose with one swing from his axe, severely wounding the vrock. Another vrock moved into position beside the party and stunned Rain with his screech, but a crushing blow from Horkina and a trio of sonic rays from Roland took it down and left the other vrock severely wounded. Amber finished it off with a sound burst, and the party moved on.
As Roland carefully mapped the party's progress, Garlen and Grokk began to sing: "mapmaker, mapmaker, make me a map! Find me a secret, avoid me a trap!" Rain discovered one such secret leading into a conference room. The massive stone table was built in the shape of the Carcerian Eye. A spell of silence allowed Horkina to smash the table into rubble without risk of alarming the rest of the Cagewrights.
The party continued eastward, where Rain discovered yet another curtain hiding a small room. A small pack of demodands had obviously used the room to torture captured humanoids. Grokk and Garlen each seriously abused a demodand's body with their weapons, and Rain followed it up by dealing out nearly as much punishment as the other two combined, leaving only one enemy standing. Not willing to be showed up, Horkina stepped forward and landed a perfect strike on the big kelubar's head, leaving it within an inch of its life. It resisted Roland's magic missile, but Grokk's axe was not so easy to resist.
Further to the south, the party encountered a woman in fancy robes with a strange hairpiece, wearing a small cage as a necklace. Garlen rolled behind her and Grokk's axe smashed into her, leaving her bloody and battered. She stepped back and tried to harm the party with Horrid Wilting, but it did only minimal damage. Rain finished her off with a quick sneak attack and then searched her room for treasure. Items of interest included her spellbook and a note saying she'd created a failsafe device to shut down the planar junction ritual.
The party doubled back to make sure they'd covered all of the areas to the west before continuing to the east. One room was occupied by a short, almost dwarf-shaped human wearing heavy armor. In the corner of the room was a large pipe organ made mostly out of bones. Rain charged forward and stabbed the man in his throat. Garlen ducked behind him and gave him a little poke, and when he jerked his head in response, he gave Rain another clear shot. The man fell dead on the floor. Rain discovered a complex set of musical notes written on the organ, and he and Garlen tried to play the sequence. After a few tries, Rain succeeded, and the organ opened to reveal a small chamber. The chamber held a shrine to Adimarchus, and Roland felt he could use the room to call upon the power of Adimarchus' former realm of Occipitus to fulfill a single wish.
The Shackled City, Day 29 (2007-04-20, 6:30 PM), Chapter 9: Foundation of Flame
Players (Characters)
Scott (Rain)
Jeremy (Grokk)
Catherine (Amber)
Tony (Roland)
Rachel (Horkina)
DM: Tom (Garlen)
The party took the crazed derro back to headquarters and began to interrogate him. A small tremor hit on the way. The derro resisted the strength of a zone of truth spell, but did not seem to be holding back. He claimed to be allied with the Cagewrights, but indicated he served "chaos" and that he wanted there to be no mayor so that chaos would reign. He tried to draw a map that ended up looking like a dragon, and then added bunny ears and flaming breath and started rambling about burning things. Another tremor shook the town as he named off a few Cagewrights during his insane ramblings. Roland signalled Rain to finish off the derro with a blow to the head.
Amber and Jenya each cast a divination spell to try to understand the tremors, while Roland surmised the volcano was preparing to erupt. Amber asked for the source, and heard this:
"Cages below shake foundations above
drawing the power of flame
the shackled tree and shackled souls
prepare the gate to open"
Jenya asked what should be done about the tremors, and heard:
"Cages below lead to bones above
when the foundation of flame awakens
a bowl of souls becomes first prize
unless the Cauldron is emptied"
It seemed clear the city would need to be evacuated. Since many of the nobles and clergy were gathered along with the leader of the town guard, a plan was quickly hatched. The town would be evacuated in quadrants with the guards getting word out and sending people toward the nearest gate, informing everyone to stay away from the east due to that being the natural direction for lava flow.
The party headed outdoors, where they were quickly met by a large mob. The mob leaders were yelling out "there they are! Those rubble rousers have roused enough trouble!" Roland's spell to calm their emotions failed, but Amber surrounded the group with a stone wall. James spoke to them, reminding them of the evils the party had overcome and the great things they'd done for the city. His words were moving, and the mob quickly calmed. Horkina smashed the stone wall into pieces and sent the citizens on their way with a warning to hurry up and evacuate.
Roland and Garlen suggested that the area closest to the lake should be evacuated first, so the party headed for the lake and split up to circle it more quickly. Because Rary's Telepathic Bond was still active, the two subgroups could coordinate easily. Amber, Rain, and Grokk heard a man yelling at his brother to leave the house. His brother, holding a baby on a high-up balcony, refused to leave -- "we've lived here for so long, we can't give this place up!" Grokk spider-climbed the wall and grabbed the baby, handing her to Amber to take safely to the ground. Grokk lifted the man up and carried him to the ground, admonishing him to get out of town quickly. He said his son was still inside, but by this time, Rain had already located the boy and told him Grokk had some girl scout cookies outside.
Meanwhile, Roland, Horkina, Garlen, and James found a pack of horses (and a few other animals) clogging the street near the Surefoot Livery. The animal handlers had abandoned the place, and the animals were running wild. Garlen got one of the horses to move over to him, but a few dozen others continued to rampage. Roland noticed most of the animals were following one particularly large horse, so Garlen focused his attention on that beast, catching its attention and leading it up the road. The rest of the pack followed. One of the local guards took over, leading the pack out of town.
As the group reassembled at the north end of the lake, a huge beast flew out of the boiling water. This beast was unusual, even for a Morkoth -- it obviously had some fiendish blood. Rain stepped to the shoreline and fired several arrows at the beast, and Garlen rained arrows on the evil outsider, bringing it to a nearly-dead state. Amber dropped a holy smite to finish it off. A group of citizens who had been standing nearby decided this was a sign they really should evacuate, and they began to head out.
The party split up into the same groups and began to evacuate the north quarter of town. Grokk's Group noticed a massive fissure where several civilians had fallen, but none of this group was carrying rope. The fissure walls began to cave in, signalling it would not stay open for long. Amber flew into the fissure and cast a healing spell on most of the civilians, bringing the unconscious ones back to their feet. Rain and Grokk spider-climbed down, with Rain grabbing two small children and Grokk grabbing four children and two adults. They both climbed out of the fissure while Roland hurried to meet the group with some rope. It soon became clear rope wasn't needed. Grokk grabbed on to all but two of the remaining civilians and Roland cast a fly spell on him. He flew upward with the last two clinging to his legs.
Garlen spotted a strange bulge in the ground near a crowded intersection, and realized it was a pocket of explosive gas building up. Roland placed a wall of force to one side of the bulge while Horkina cleared the intersection. A few seconds later, the gas exploded, blowing holes in several nearby buildings but not harming anyone due to the well-placed wall of force.
Rain's group noticed a group of people standing stationary, some stopped in mid-stride, with a look of utter fear on their faces. Amber, from above, could see what had happened -- some lava had filled an intersection and its crust had cooled, but two people had fallen through the shaky crust. Amber cast a large healing spell on everyone in the area. Grokk called out "Grokk help" as he flew in and grabbed hold of a very frightened man. The other civilians waited cautiously as Super Grokk flew each one to safety. Rain pulled out some chalk and marked the ground with warning messages to keep others from falling into the same trap.
When the group came back together, Roland cast another fly spell on Grokk and gave the entire party fire resistance. Heading east, Roland's group came upon a collapsed house. Garlen spotted a man stumbling out of the wreckage and hurried over to hear him say "my family..." just before collapsing. James stepped out into the pile of rubble and cast a healing spell to help anyone who was still buried. Roland, with his knowledge of architecture, guided Horkina and his Shield Guardian as they dug through the rubble and recovered the entire family.
Another tremor sent a huge pile of rubble rolling down the city toward the lake. Six civilians, as well as Grokk, Amber, and Rain, were directly in its path. Grokk flew up and grabbed hold of three people while Amber placed a wall of stone in order to deflect the rubble away from the remaining few. Rain called out for them to run toward him. One of them put his head down and ran a little bit too fast, beyond the edge of the deflecting wall. A beam struck him in the head, but Amber used a Close Wounds spell to keep him alive. Grokk glared at him and said "watch out for crapalanche, dillholes." Horkina, Grokk, and the Shield Guardian used some of the loose debris to build a small walkway over this new rubble pile so that people would still have an escape route.
A large wooden house had just caught fire. Roland flew in to the second floor and found two people who'd fallen unconscious due to the smoke. James cast another mass cure spell to bring everyone inside back to consciousness while Horkina and Garlen searched the bottom floor. Roland sent his people out through a window, where the Shield Guardian lifted them to safely. Horkina dragged two others out while Roland flew to Orak's Bathhouse and retrieved his Decanter of Endless Water, using it to extinguish the flames.
A fire elemental emerged from a nearby fissure. Rain tumbled behind it, and Grokk made a flying leap, smashing into it with his axe. Amber fired a Lucent Lance, but ended up shooting the ground. The fire elemental tried to smash Grokk but inflicted only minor wounds. Grokk continued to pound the fiery figure with his axe, doing so much damage Rain exclaimed "hibbety jibbety!"
As the clouds overhead swirled more and more, Roland realized a portal to Carceri was forming. Already the boundary between the planes was weakening, and a few Farastu demodands had broken through and fallen to the ground. A pack of four stood wounded as half of the party approached. Garlen fired an arrow but did very little damage. One used his ray of enfeeblement on the Shield Guardian, and the pack went invisible and began attacking. Roland used a delayed blast fireball to kill two and seriously damage the others. James made one of the enemies visible again. Garlen used Lion's Charge to slash one into bits. The remaining demodand's Fear spell was wasted on the fear-immune party, and the Shield Guardian finished it off with a smack from its stone hands.
As the last few civilians streamed out of the city, the party gathered back together and followed the group. Rain spotted a huge red dragon which had, at the same moment, spotted the magical equipment the party was carrying. The legendary dragon Hookface began flying straight at the party. Rain, Grokk, Horkina and Garlen fired arrows at the approaching beast. When it got within range, Roland hit it with a Ray of Dizziness and Grokk, still flying, charged it and landed a powerful critical hit directly on its skull. Amber dispelled Hookface's protective spells, and the dragon realized it was time to flee. As it flew away, Grokk smashed its underbelly with his axe. Roland then summoned a storm of hailstones that pummelled the dragon to death.
The party reached level 16.
Scott (Rain)
Jeremy (Grokk)
Catherine (Amber)
Tony (Roland)
Rachel (Horkina)
DM: Tom (Garlen)
The party took the crazed derro back to headquarters and began to interrogate him. A small tremor hit on the way. The derro resisted the strength of a zone of truth spell, but did not seem to be holding back. He claimed to be allied with the Cagewrights, but indicated he served "chaos" and that he wanted there to be no mayor so that chaos would reign. He tried to draw a map that ended up looking like a dragon, and then added bunny ears and flaming breath and started rambling about burning things. Another tremor shook the town as he named off a few Cagewrights during his insane ramblings. Roland signalled Rain to finish off the derro with a blow to the head.
Amber and Jenya each cast a divination spell to try to understand the tremors, while Roland surmised the volcano was preparing to erupt. Amber asked for the source, and heard this:
"Cages below shake foundations above
drawing the power of flame
the shackled tree and shackled souls
prepare the gate to open"
Jenya asked what should be done about the tremors, and heard:
"Cages below lead to bones above
when the foundation of flame awakens
a bowl of souls becomes first prize
unless the Cauldron is emptied"
It seemed clear the city would need to be evacuated. Since many of the nobles and clergy were gathered along with the leader of the town guard, a plan was quickly hatched. The town would be evacuated in quadrants with the guards getting word out and sending people toward the nearest gate, informing everyone to stay away from the east due to that being the natural direction for lava flow.
The party headed outdoors, where they were quickly met by a large mob. The mob leaders were yelling out "there they are! Those rubble rousers have roused enough trouble!" Roland's spell to calm their emotions failed, but Amber surrounded the group with a stone wall. James spoke to them, reminding them of the evils the party had overcome and the great things they'd done for the city. His words were moving, and the mob quickly calmed. Horkina smashed the stone wall into pieces and sent the citizens on their way with a warning to hurry up and evacuate.
Roland and Garlen suggested that the area closest to the lake should be evacuated first, so the party headed for the lake and split up to circle it more quickly. Because Rary's Telepathic Bond was still active, the two subgroups could coordinate easily. Amber, Rain, and Grokk heard a man yelling at his brother to leave the house. His brother, holding a baby on a high-up balcony, refused to leave -- "we've lived here for so long, we can't give this place up!" Grokk spider-climbed the wall and grabbed the baby, handing her to Amber to take safely to the ground. Grokk lifted the man up and carried him to the ground, admonishing him to get out of town quickly. He said his son was still inside, but by this time, Rain had already located the boy and told him Grokk had some girl scout cookies outside.
Meanwhile, Roland, Horkina, Garlen, and James found a pack of horses (and a few other animals) clogging the street near the Surefoot Livery. The animal handlers had abandoned the place, and the animals were running wild. Garlen got one of the horses to move over to him, but a few dozen others continued to rampage. Roland noticed most of the animals were following one particularly large horse, so Garlen focused his attention on that beast, catching its attention and leading it up the road. The rest of the pack followed. One of the local guards took over, leading the pack out of town.
As the group reassembled at the north end of the lake, a huge beast flew out of the boiling water. This beast was unusual, even for a Morkoth -- it obviously had some fiendish blood. Rain stepped to the shoreline and fired several arrows at the beast, and Garlen rained arrows on the evil outsider, bringing it to a nearly-dead state. Amber dropped a holy smite to finish it off. A group of citizens who had been standing nearby decided this was a sign they really should evacuate, and they began to head out.
The party split up into the same groups and began to evacuate the north quarter of town. Grokk's Group noticed a massive fissure where several civilians had fallen, but none of this group was carrying rope. The fissure walls began to cave in, signalling it would not stay open for long. Amber flew into the fissure and cast a healing spell on most of the civilians, bringing the unconscious ones back to their feet. Rain and Grokk spider-climbed down, with Rain grabbing two small children and Grokk grabbing four children and two adults. They both climbed out of the fissure while Roland hurried to meet the group with some rope. It soon became clear rope wasn't needed. Grokk grabbed on to all but two of the remaining civilians and Roland cast a fly spell on him. He flew upward with the last two clinging to his legs.
Garlen spotted a strange bulge in the ground near a crowded intersection, and realized it was a pocket of explosive gas building up. Roland placed a wall of force to one side of the bulge while Horkina cleared the intersection. A few seconds later, the gas exploded, blowing holes in several nearby buildings but not harming anyone due to the well-placed wall of force.
Rain's group noticed a group of people standing stationary, some stopped in mid-stride, with a look of utter fear on their faces. Amber, from above, could see what had happened -- some lava had filled an intersection and its crust had cooled, but two people had fallen through the shaky crust. Amber cast a large healing spell on everyone in the area. Grokk called out "Grokk help" as he flew in and grabbed hold of a very frightened man. The other civilians waited cautiously as Super Grokk flew each one to safety. Rain pulled out some chalk and marked the ground with warning messages to keep others from falling into the same trap.
When the group came back together, Roland cast another fly spell on Grokk and gave the entire party fire resistance. Heading east, Roland's group came upon a collapsed house. Garlen spotted a man stumbling out of the wreckage and hurried over to hear him say "my family..." just before collapsing. James stepped out into the pile of rubble and cast a healing spell to help anyone who was still buried. Roland, with his knowledge of architecture, guided Horkina and his Shield Guardian as they dug through the rubble and recovered the entire family.
Another tremor sent a huge pile of rubble rolling down the city toward the lake. Six civilians, as well as Grokk, Amber, and Rain, were directly in its path. Grokk flew up and grabbed hold of three people while Amber placed a wall of stone in order to deflect the rubble away from the remaining few. Rain called out for them to run toward him. One of them put his head down and ran a little bit too fast, beyond the edge of the deflecting wall. A beam struck him in the head, but Amber used a Close Wounds spell to keep him alive. Grokk glared at him and said "watch out for crapalanche, dillholes." Horkina, Grokk, and the Shield Guardian used some of the loose debris to build a small walkway over this new rubble pile so that people would still have an escape route.
A large wooden house had just caught fire. Roland flew in to the second floor and found two people who'd fallen unconscious due to the smoke. James cast another mass cure spell to bring everyone inside back to consciousness while Horkina and Garlen searched the bottom floor. Roland sent his people out through a window, where the Shield Guardian lifted them to safely. Horkina dragged two others out while Roland flew to Orak's Bathhouse and retrieved his Decanter of Endless Water, using it to extinguish the flames.
A fire elemental emerged from a nearby fissure. Rain tumbled behind it, and Grokk made a flying leap, smashing into it with his axe. Amber fired a Lucent Lance, but ended up shooting the ground. The fire elemental tried to smash Grokk but inflicted only minor wounds. Grokk continued to pound the fiery figure with his axe, doing so much damage Rain exclaimed "hibbety jibbety!"
As the clouds overhead swirled more and more, Roland realized a portal to Carceri was forming. Already the boundary between the planes was weakening, and a few Farastu demodands had broken through and fallen to the ground. A pack of four stood wounded as half of the party approached. Garlen fired an arrow but did very little damage. One used his ray of enfeeblement on the Shield Guardian, and the pack went invisible and began attacking. Roland used a delayed blast fireball to kill two and seriously damage the others. James made one of the enemies visible again. Garlen used Lion's Charge to slash one into bits. The remaining demodand's Fear spell was wasted on the fear-immune party, and the Shield Guardian finished it off with a smack from its stone hands.
As the last few civilians streamed out of the city, the party gathered back together and followed the group. Rain spotted a huge red dragon which had, at the same moment, spotted the magical equipment the party was carrying. The legendary dragon Hookface began flying straight at the party. Rain, Grokk, Horkina and Garlen fired arrows at the approaching beast. When it got within range, Roland hit it with a Ray of Dizziness and Grokk, still flying, charged it and landed a powerful critical hit directly on its skull. Amber dispelled Hookface's protective spells, and the dragon realized it was time to flee. As it flew away, Grokk smashed its underbelly with his axe. Roland then summoned a storm of hailstones that pummelled the dragon to death.
The party reached level 16.
Roland's backstory
From the journals of Loremaster Roland Brighteye, Archmage of Cauldron...
Today's attack during the council meeting has me disturbed. We thought we had rooted out most of the Chainwright's lackeys, and were down to dealing directly with them. Where these Derro came from, I haven't a clue. And that is what has me so upset. It reminds me why I am so obsessed with knowledge, and why I'm in Cauldron to begin with...
Lack of knowledge is what started my journey. Not my lack of knowledge, but my father's. Being a bookbinder and scribe in one of the largest cities in the kingdom, you would think he knew just about anything worth knowing. He copied and bound tomes for nobles, merchants, the city government, even the Church of Boccob and several semi-famous wizards. He taught me to read and write, and books quickly became my closest friends. My father began teaching me how to bind books when everything changed.
My father's major competitor was a politician and a follower of the Church of Boccob. He had been researching ancient laws for the Church and the city when he found some obscure law and had my mother arrested. Over the next six months, he went on a campaign to harass my family and ended up having my mother executed for violating a law that no one had observed in almost 300 years. After that, he used his knowledge of magic to drive my father insane and had him thrown in an asylum.
By this time I was old enough to be on my own, so I took what little of my family's fortune was left and enrolled in the Academy. I worked my way through the Academy doing minor "magic" tricks (really just mundane slight of hand tricks) for entertainment. I managed to learn the rudiments of magic at the academy before my father's nemesis turned his attention on me. Within the month, I had to leave town and began my search for knowledge in earnest. I had heard of another Academy in Cauldron and began my journey there.
So after all this, I despise those who use knowledge to destroy others, or for evil ends. Knowledge, and through that magic, is the most powerful force I know of. I refuse to rest while there is knowledge left to absorb. And now, my lack of knowledge may be endangering not only myself and my friends, but Cauldron in general. So now, it's time to see what we can learn from our Derro friend so we can face this new challenge with some knowledge of what we're facing....
Today's attack during the council meeting has me disturbed. We thought we had rooted out most of the Chainwright's lackeys, and were down to dealing directly with them. Where these Derro came from, I haven't a clue. And that is what has me so upset. It reminds me why I am so obsessed with knowledge, and why I'm in Cauldron to begin with...
Lack of knowledge is what started my journey. Not my lack of knowledge, but my father's. Being a bookbinder and scribe in one of the largest cities in the kingdom, you would think he knew just about anything worth knowing. He copied and bound tomes for nobles, merchants, the city government, even the Church of Boccob and several semi-famous wizards. He taught me to read and write, and books quickly became my closest friends. My father began teaching me how to bind books when everything changed.
My father's major competitor was a politician and a follower of the Church of Boccob. He had been researching ancient laws for the Church and the city when he found some obscure law and had my mother arrested. Over the next six months, he went on a campaign to harass my family and ended up having my mother executed for violating a law that no one had observed in almost 300 years. After that, he used his knowledge of magic to drive my father insane and had him thrown in an asylum.
By this time I was old enough to be on my own, so I took what little of my family's fortune was left and enrolled in the Academy. I worked my way through the Academy doing minor "magic" tricks (really just mundane slight of hand tricks) for entertainment. I managed to learn the rudiments of magic at the academy before my father's nemesis turned his attention on me. Within the month, I had to leave town and began my search for knowledge in earnest. I had heard of another Academy in Cauldron and began my journey there.
So after all this, I despise those who use knowledge to destroy others, or for evil ends. Knowledge, and through that magic, is the most powerful force I know of. I refuse to rest while there is knowledge left to absorb. And now, my lack of knowledge may be endangering not only myself and my friends, but Cauldron in general. So now, it's time to see what we can learn from our Derro friend so we can face this new challenge with some knowledge of what we're facing....
Amber's backstory
Q1) Where did I grow up?
I grew up on the move. My ma, and my pa, and my three brothers and a sister and our beloved wagon and, well, my whole clan, were always wandering to where the woods were greenest and the soil softest underfoot. I'd been from Farbottle to Isorah and seen all the country in between, before I'd even fully learned to ride.
Q2) What was my family like?
Well, I had a ma and a pa and and four older brothers and sisters, and four aunts and uncles and seventeen cousins, and two great aunts, and thirty-seven sec'nmore cousins, and if you really me to go into detail, the rest were related somehow. Clans are like that.
We were a merry bunch. Just about once a week it was someone's birthday, and even apart from that, there was always a pretty grove or a nice fishing spot or some reason for a party.
Q3) What did I do as a child, and how was I trained/educated?
As a child, I played with the other girls, of course. When I was a teener, Ellie and Greta and I would ride out into the woods and camp there for days.
I began following the holy path very young. It started as an accident. When the clan is moving from place to place, anyone can ride with anyone--I could be in my grandparent's wagon or on my aunt's pony or even with Mr. Blinley in his floating, shining carriage. Everyone liked having company, after all.
Well, the morning of the move, I had been out collecting pretty rocks from the streambed, and lost track of time. By midday, I had seventeen 'specially shiny pink and yellow stones and no clan. They went on a full day, too, and only missed me at bedtime.
I got on the road and ambled along--distracted often enough by pretty flowers, mind you, and at one point I found a pretty pool and stopped to swim.
As twilight fell, the world transformed. I was unprepared for the change darkness brought. I heard otherworldy shrieks and growls. Yellow eyes that had always twinkled from a distance in the firelight now looked on me green and close and hungry. I heard the click and rattle of dead bones on the prowl, and felt malice from every quarter. It was my first meeting with the menacing darkness, and I was justly terrified. I shrank into the roadside grass and sneakywalked quieter than when I was spying on my brother Nell.
Ahead, I saw light on the side of the road--a floating symbol of sun above a glowing grove. I was filled with hope, and sneaked faster. I saw a small clearing lit as with daylight. There were stone arches and a figure of a dancing unicorn, a pretty pool, and the grass was soft. I curled up and watched the world. Eyes in the darkness turned to me, and the light revealed a maliciously distorted wolven face, but it turned away from the light. A cloud of tattered rags and darkness blew overhead, but barely paused. I felt safe in my little globe of light, and slept like a little kitten.
At dawn, I was awoken by a gentle nuzzling, and looked up to see a unicorn and his pretty elven maiden! "Little girl," she said, "where is your family?" "Um . . . that way!" I answered, pointing up the road.
"I judge her a member of the Brickless clan, by her face and dress. They moved yestermorn and are twenty miles uproad by now."
"A long way for such a little one."
"And this is a dangerous stretch in the evening. By Ehlonna's grace alone has she lasted the night."
"Indeed."
I listened with rapt attention and memorized every word. These two were so beautiful, and a real live unicorn! Boy, I was safe now! And if I thought that was a treat, I wasn't prepared for what happened next. With a reverent bow, the lady summoned the best breakfast I'd ever had (and my grandma could charm dragons with her scrambled eggs), and then swept me up in front of her, on the back of the unicorn!
In a blink, the shrine was gone, and we were miles uproad in the woods. And then we began to ride! The wind made my eyes water, and the flying mane tickled my nose, but not a twig snapped underfoot.
They met my clan coming the other way, calling my name. And then with a stern warning to be more careful, they vanished into the trees. They left me only with the memory of the evil night, and the glory of the morning's ride. When I grew up, I was going to be just like them.
As it happened, I had a great aunt who served Ehlonna. She was our little clan's fix-n'-bless-it lady. I wasn't old enough to apprentice to her yet, but I followed her around anyway. Before too long, I was grinding silver and organizing baskets of potions and fetching herbs and repeating reverent phrases.
Training was natural and easy. Karen was merry and loved her work. She had a thousand and one pets, and could set a panicked pony at ease with barely a whisper. But the best part was the healing. The Haymores brought their babbling and sick son to us in the middle of the night, and she was swift and alert to bring peace and ease. One time my own brother was trampled by a panicked pony, and I was able to keep him alive until Karen could come and set everything
right. And when Jen fell in the river and drowned, and there was nothing we could do, we healed the clan as best we could: buried her with honor and blessed her grave. I fell in love with doing good; the gratitude, the relief on everyone's faces, just easing the pain of life. Training was never hard for me. When Karen asked for ground silver, I made it extra fine. When she needed something from her chest, I ran to get it.
Q4) What do I consider important or motivational?
I live to displace evil by doing good, to drive back darkness by shining light. Darkness lurks in many places - wherever there is deception, malice, or selfishness, there is darkness.
I believe all things are good, and left to themselves, they'll unbend and untwist. The best way to change anyone is to show them what's right and then let them make their own choices. At least, I believed that when I left home. I think I've seen some things since then that . . . that would never mend.
I believe goodness is creative, not destructive--the way to defeat evil is to do good, not to smite evil. Smiting just leaves a void.
I live in light, and that means I keep by eyes open and my senses sharp. The Brickless clan taught me to embrace the merriness of life, but I abhor debauchery. A few kisses and a little wine slow the eyes and heart; dancing on the lawn with noble friends is my kind of party, and a solitary dawn with honeysuckle nectar is my kind of treat.
Q5) What do I look like, dress like, and act like?
Well, I'm small, even for one my my race. Lastborn little runt. I don't mind; I make up for it by a show of spirit.
My dress is simple enough, utilitary leather and cotton. I guess these days you'll see me in armor more often than not--that's just the nature of my work. When I go to cities, I like to be in a long, elegant gown--but I'm happier in my tunic in the woods.
I act, well, pretty quiet and shy. Unless someone needs defending. Then I'll speak up. Usually. But there's a lot of good I could have done if I'd been a little louder, and I have a hard time talking to people even though I really do care about them.
Q6) How'd I get to Cauldron?
Wandering. When I completed my apprenticeship, I decided to leave my clan and my home, and wander the land, doing whatever good was at hand. I picked a road and rode along it, going south many miles.
Maybe I'll return home some day--but those are peaceful lands. Like a moth to flame, I'm drawn to wherever darkness and evil are worst, and they've seemed plentiful in Cauldron.
------------
[Metagame: Amber is about naive goodness. She's got a good heart
and high wisdom, but perpetually sheltered, she's inexperienced.
She tries hard, but doesn't always know what's best. Trying to
become wisely good without becoming annoying or evil has been a
bit of a bumpy road so far . . .]
I grew up on the move. My ma, and my pa, and my three brothers and a sister and our beloved wagon and, well, my whole clan, were always wandering to where the woods were greenest and the soil softest underfoot. I'd been from Farbottle to Isorah and seen all the country in between, before I'd even fully learned to ride.
Q2) What was my family like?
Well, I had a ma and a pa and and four older brothers and sisters, and four aunts and uncles and seventeen cousins, and two great aunts, and thirty-seven sec'nmore cousins, and if you really me to go into detail, the rest were related somehow. Clans are like that.
We were a merry bunch. Just about once a week it was someone's birthday, and even apart from that, there was always a pretty grove or a nice fishing spot or some reason for a party.
Q3) What did I do as a child, and how was I trained/educated?
As a child, I played with the other girls, of course. When I was a teener, Ellie and Greta and I would ride out into the woods and camp there for days.
I began following the holy path very young. It started as an accident. When the clan is moving from place to place, anyone can ride with anyone--I could be in my grandparent's wagon or on my aunt's pony or even with Mr. Blinley in his floating, shining carriage. Everyone liked having company, after all.
Well, the morning of the move, I had been out collecting pretty rocks from the streambed, and lost track of time. By midday, I had seventeen 'specially shiny pink and yellow stones and no clan. They went on a full day, too, and only missed me at bedtime.
I got on the road and ambled along--distracted often enough by pretty flowers, mind you, and at one point I found a pretty pool and stopped to swim.
As twilight fell, the world transformed. I was unprepared for the change darkness brought. I heard otherworldy shrieks and growls. Yellow eyes that had always twinkled from a distance in the firelight now looked on me green and close and hungry. I heard the click and rattle of dead bones on the prowl, and felt malice from every quarter. It was my first meeting with the menacing darkness, and I was justly terrified. I shrank into the roadside grass and sneakywalked quieter than when I was spying on my brother Nell.
Ahead, I saw light on the side of the road--a floating symbol of sun above a glowing grove. I was filled with hope, and sneaked faster. I saw a small clearing lit as with daylight. There were stone arches and a figure of a dancing unicorn, a pretty pool, and the grass was soft. I curled up and watched the world. Eyes in the darkness turned to me, and the light revealed a maliciously distorted wolven face, but it turned away from the light. A cloud of tattered rags and darkness blew overhead, but barely paused. I felt safe in my little globe of light, and slept like a little kitten.
At dawn, I was awoken by a gentle nuzzling, and looked up to see a unicorn and his pretty elven maiden! "Little girl," she said, "where is your family?" "Um . . . that way!" I answered, pointing up the road.
"I judge her a member of the Brickless clan, by her face and dress. They moved yestermorn and are twenty miles uproad by now."
"A long way for such a little one."
"And this is a dangerous stretch in the evening. By Ehlonna's grace alone has she lasted the night."
"Indeed."
I listened with rapt attention and memorized every word. These two were so beautiful, and a real live unicorn! Boy, I was safe now! And if I thought that was a treat, I wasn't prepared for what happened next. With a reverent bow, the lady summoned the best breakfast I'd ever had (and my grandma could charm dragons with her scrambled eggs), and then swept me up in front of her, on the back of the unicorn!
In a blink, the shrine was gone, and we were miles uproad in the woods. And then we began to ride! The wind made my eyes water, and the flying mane tickled my nose, but not a twig snapped underfoot.
They met my clan coming the other way, calling my name. And then with a stern warning to be more careful, they vanished into the trees. They left me only with the memory of the evil night, and the glory of the morning's ride. When I grew up, I was going to be just like them.
As it happened, I had a great aunt who served Ehlonna. She was our little clan's fix-n'-bless-it lady. I wasn't old enough to apprentice to her yet, but I followed her around anyway. Before too long, I was grinding silver and organizing baskets of potions and fetching herbs and repeating reverent phrases.
Training was natural and easy. Karen was merry and loved her work. She had a thousand and one pets, and could set a panicked pony at ease with barely a whisper. But the best part was the healing. The Haymores brought their babbling and sick son to us in the middle of the night, and she was swift and alert to bring peace and ease. One time my own brother was trampled by a panicked pony, and I was able to keep him alive until Karen could come and set everything
right. And when Jen fell in the river and drowned, and there was nothing we could do, we healed the clan as best we could: buried her with honor and blessed her grave. I fell in love with doing good; the gratitude, the relief on everyone's faces, just easing the pain of life. Training was never hard for me. When Karen asked for ground silver, I made it extra fine. When she needed something from her chest, I ran to get it.
Q4) What do I consider important or motivational?
I live to displace evil by doing good, to drive back darkness by shining light. Darkness lurks in many places - wherever there is deception, malice, or selfishness, there is darkness.
I believe all things are good, and left to themselves, they'll unbend and untwist. The best way to change anyone is to show them what's right and then let them make their own choices. At least, I believed that when I left home. I think I've seen some things since then that . . . that would never mend.
I believe goodness is creative, not destructive--the way to defeat evil is to do good, not to smite evil. Smiting just leaves a void.
I live in light, and that means I keep by eyes open and my senses sharp. The Brickless clan taught me to embrace the merriness of life, but I abhor debauchery. A few kisses and a little wine slow the eyes and heart; dancing on the lawn with noble friends is my kind of party, and a solitary dawn with honeysuckle nectar is my kind of treat.
Q5) What do I look like, dress like, and act like?
Well, I'm small, even for one my my race. Lastborn little runt. I don't mind; I make up for it by a show of spirit.
My dress is simple enough, utilitary leather and cotton. I guess these days you'll see me in armor more often than not--that's just the nature of my work. When I go to cities, I like to be in a long, elegant gown--but I'm happier in my tunic in the woods.
I act, well, pretty quiet and shy. Unless someone needs defending. Then I'll speak up. Usually. But there's a lot of good I could have done if I'd been a little louder, and I have a hard time talking to people even though I really do care about them.
Q6) How'd I get to Cauldron?
Wandering. When I completed my apprenticeship, I decided to leave my clan and my home, and wander the land, doing whatever good was at hand. I picked a road and rode along it, going south many miles.
Maybe I'll return home some day--but those are peaceful lands. Like a moth to flame, I'm drawn to wherever darkness and evil are worst, and they've seemed plentiful in Cauldron.
------------
[Metagame: Amber is about naive goodness. She's got a good heart
and high wisdom, but perpetually sheltered, she's inexperienced.
She tries hard, but doesn't always know what's best. Trying to
become wisely good without becoming annoying or evil has been a
bit of a bumpy road so far . . .]
Garlen's backstory
Q1) Where did I grow up?
A1) In the forest outside the village of Hesith. We were part of a small
druidic tribe.
Q2) What was my family like?
A2) Grela, my mom, was an accomplished Druid who focused on healing. Bekal,
my dad, hunted game and tended the groves. My big sister Niki got all the
attention because she was a talented spellcaster, and my baby sister Joslan
sucked up the remaining attention because she was just so darn cute. There
were assorted relatives in the area. Most everyone was nice. I was quiet
and mostly stayed out of the way.
Q3) What did I do as a child, and how was I trained/educated?
A3) I spent most of my time exploring and avoiding people. I sometimes came
along with dad and the other guys when the goblins and orcs and especially
the smelly ugly goblins in the area started making trouble. My twitchy
fingers made it hard for me to shoot cleanly with a bow, so I decided to
just rush into battle with a sword and hit them before they hit me. I also
learned a lot about plants and animals, and a little bit about other stuff,
in school.
Q4) What do I consider important or motivational?
A4) I revere the woodlands (and the goddess Ehlonna, who protects them) and
I hate those who threaten them. I'm really loyal, and I'll never turn my
back on my friends even if it means putting myself in danger.
Q5) What do I look like, dress like, and act like?
A5) I have deep green eyes and curly brown hair. For a halfling, I'm tall
and skinny. I like green and gray clothes, and I replaced my green cloak
with a magical black cloak we found in the kopru ruins. I'm jumpy and I
fidget a lot, and I tend to get real quiet sometimes, but when I get mad (at
goblins or people who were mean to my friends) I can be pretty loud.
Q6) How'd I get to Cauldron?
A6) Before my grandpa died, he wanted to see his homeland, so I came with
him to the area. After he died, I wandered a bit, until I ran into Rain and
Amber. They helped me fight some goblins.
A1) In the forest outside the village of Hesith. We were part of a small
druidic tribe.
Q2) What was my family like?
A2) Grela, my mom, was an accomplished Druid who focused on healing. Bekal,
my dad, hunted game and tended the groves. My big sister Niki got all the
attention because she was a talented spellcaster, and my baby sister Joslan
sucked up the remaining attention because she was just so darn cute. There
were assorted relatives in the area. Most everyone was nice. I was quiet
and mostly stayed out of the way.
Q3) What did I do as a child, and how was I trained/educated?
A3) I spent most of my time exploring and avoiding people. I sometimes came
along with dad and the other guys when the goblins and orcs and especially
the smelly ugly goblins in the area started making trouble. My twitchy
fingers made it hard for me to shoot cleanly with a bow, so I decided to
just rush into battle with a sword and hit them before they hit me. I also
learned a lot about plants and animals, and a little bit about other stuff,
in school.
Q4) What do I consider important or motivational?
A4) I revere the woodlands (and the goddess Ehlonna, who protects them) and
I hate those who threaten them. I'm really loyal, and I'll never turn my
back on my friends even if it means putting myself in danger.
Q5) What do I look like, dress like, and act like?
A5) I have deep green eyes and curly brown hair. For a halfling, I'm tall
and skinny. I like green and gray clothes, and I replaced my green cloak
with a magical black cloak we found in the kopru ruins. I'm jumpy and I
fidget a lot, and I tend to get real quiet sometimes, but when I get mad (at
goblins or people who were mean to my friends) I can be pretty loud.
Q6) How'd I get to Cauldron?
A6) Before my grandpa died, he wanted to see his homeland, so I came with
him to the area. After he died, I wandered a bit, until I ran into Rain and
Amber. They helped me fight some goblins.
Grokk's backstory
Q1) Where did I grow up? Grokk born on steppe, live with nomad family.
Family outcast from tribe.
Q2) What was my family like? Grokk mother Orc, father human. Grokk only
child that live.
A2) Grema, Grokk mother, fierce warrior and hunter. Grokk father, Prandar,
craftsman and tracker.
Q3) What did I do as a child, and how was I trained/educated?
A3) When child, Grokk help with yurt and herd of goats. After Grokk reach puberty,
he must learn to be warrior. Learn fighting from Grema, tracking from
Prandar. Grokk never good at crafting with wood or bone, Prandar sad.
Q4) What do I consider important or motivational? (Goals in life,
principles you're unwilling to break, etc.)
A4) Grokk on walkabout as part of founding own household. With family
cast out of tribe because father marry Orc, Grokk must set out on own.
Q5) What do I look like, dress like, and act like?
A5) Grokk tall and plain, scarred from warrior training. Grokk quiet and
ready to fight.
Q6) How'd I get to Cauldron?
A6) Grokk wander many moons, have vision after eat purple mushroom. In vision,
Grokk see Rubble Rousers in battle, need Grokks' help. They fight earth creature,
nearly kill group. Grokk set out to find Rubble Rousers, join party. Grokk
think this the way he restore honor, become welcome with tribe.
Family outcast from tribe.
Q2) What was my family like? Grokk mother Orc, father human. Grokk only
child that live.
A2) Grema, Grokk mother, fierce warrior and hunter. Grokk father, Prandar,
craftsman and tracker.
Q3) What did I do as a child, and how was I trained/educated?
A3) When child, Grokk help with yurt and herd of goats. After Grokk reach puberty,
he must learn to be warrior. Learn fighting from Grema, tracking from
Prandar. Grokk never good at crafting with wood or bone, Prandar sad.
Q4) What do I consider important or motivational? (Goals in life,
principles you're unwilling to break, etc.)
A4) Grokk on walkabout as part of founding own household. With family
cast out of tribe because father marry Orc, Grokk must set out on own.
Q5) What do I look like, dress like, and act like?
A5) Grokk tall and plain, scarred from warrior training. Grokk quiet and
ready to fight.
Q6) How'd I get to Cauldron?
A6) Grokk wander many moons, have vision after eat purple mushroom. In vision,
Grokk see Rubble Rousers in battle, need Grokks' help. They fight earth creature,
nearly kill group. Grokk set out to find Rubble Rousers, join party. Grokk
think this the way he restore honor, become welcome with tribe.
Rain's Backstory
Editor’s note: the following unedited transcript takes place just after Chapter six ends of Shackled City and is being submitted for publication. The only editing done was to insert text to indicate physical actions taken and will be noted in italics.
Interviewer - Ray Falhn, reporter for the Cauldron Examiner (hereto referred to as RF)
Interviewing – Rain of the infamous Rubblerousers.
RF: Hi Rain, Thanks for coming and answering some questions for your fans.
Rain: Yeah whatever.
RF: Well then, let’s get right to it shall we? The first thing your public would like to know is where did you grow up?
Rain: Where did I grow up? Heh, anywhere but home. Home sucked.
RF: I’m so sorr-
Rain: Yeah whatever. (waves hand)
RF: Ok. (Silence while RF rearranges notecards) Let me ask you then, what was your family like?
Rain: Family? Heh, guess where my name comes from? The month before I was born it rained 24/7. For a whole stinking month. Like it’s my fault or something. Sheesh. This is my family. Named me after some lousy growing season. (shakes head)
RF: Alright than, let’s talk about your rogue abilities, how did you learn your craft?
Rain: Heh, same lousy parents. Just because I picked on my kid sister they tended to lock me up in my room. “Said it was for my own good (said in a falsetto sneering voice)” they said. Well after getting locked up too many times, I started messing around with the lock. First it was the prongs – you know, those little things on those hard plastic combs? Yea, I’d break ‘em off and jam in in the lock. Eventually I stole the bobbypins in my sis’ hair and found those worked pretty good.
RF: What about a Rogue trainer or apprenticeship?
Rain: Bah, once I got the hang of picking locks, I would break into the wizard’s library at night and read about all I’d need to know. You wouldn’t believe the amount of material you can find if you are persistent. Those wizards are packrats when it comes to books. I bet they never get around to reading a quarter of what they hoard.
RF: You would break into the wizard’s library? Weren’t you afraid of being caught?
Rain: Those wizzies are pretty smart, I bet they knew I was sneaking in and reading their stuff. Besides, I never took anything that I wasn’t gonna bring back anyway.
RF: Let’s talk now about your motivation. What makes Rain tick?
Rain: (leans forward) Now we’re getting to it. I found a book one night that read of an ancient sword that would lop the heads off of enemies if you swung it in just the right way. There was a passage that I can remember to this day. “…Treasure abounds to those that fought. Dangers and pitfalls to those that naught. Locked in stone dark and grey, await’s the light of beholder’s may”. (Pauses)
RF: Um…
Rain: Yea I thought the same thing when I first read it, because it’s obvious to me that whomever wrote it was a lousy poet. About all I could get out of it was that there was a sword and it’s locked up somewhere, but anyway, the whole point was (in an excited voice) What a cool sword! I mean it’s not likely that I’d try and lop somebody’s head off with it, but wouldn’t it be a cool thing to have? Imagine the pickup opportunities at the bar? (in a mock voice) Hey baby, wanna go back to my place and check out my cool sword? Heh.
RF: Um…
Rain: Really Ray, imagine it. Sitting up on my mantle all shiny and stuff. Wouldn’t that just rock?
RF: Well, no not really.
Rain: Yeah, well sorry you don’t see it, but for me? That’s my motivation. (Points for emphasis) Yeah.
RF: For those that have never met you, please describe yourself.
Rain: What? You can’t sit here and see that I’m an elf? Need to borrow my Goggles of minute seeing? (gets up and starts to hand them to RF)
RF: No no, what I meant was for those that read this article to know what you look like.
Rain: Oh so now you want to pick on my unibrow now? I know I have a lousy charisma score, but that doesn’t mean you need to point it out to everyone else (crosses arms). Oh and you better not be putting this part into you article.
RF: Well-
Rain: I mean really. Pick on the ugly little elf. Not like I had any choice in the matter, it was the ol’ roll of the dice if you know what I mean.
RF: Actually I do (Turns to the DM and smiles)
Rain: Alright then, is there anything else?
RF: A few more questions.
Rain: Ask away.
RF: Right. So what brings you to Cauldron then?
Rain: Rumors that I might find the sword I’m looking for is here. Or around here. Or buried here. Who knows? After all it’s only rumors, but I (jabs finger in air for emphasis) will find that sword if it’s the last thing I do. Then I’m gonna get drunk.
RF: Ah, so you like to drink?
Rain: You betchyer ass I do! Plus I heard that Cauldron had this water festival every year and the whole town parties for like a week or two straight! Can you believe how unbelievably awesome that is!
RF: And how did you like it?
Rain: Oh boy, you should have seen it! I got this buddy Grokk that drank the table under everybody in the friggin town! It was a sweet sight! Except for that last dude though. I swear he was cheating or something but I couldn’t quite put my finger on it.
RF: I wouldn’t worry about it. The point was, that you had fun and-
Rain: Look, whatever, but this is getting pretty tedious. You have any more questions?
RF: Just one. The Rubblerousers?
Rain: What? You have something against rubble? Hell I just came from a whole frigging PLANE of rubble. (gets up off seat) Do you have any ale around here? I’m thirsty, and besides I gotta get over to Skie’s to upgrade my stuff. See you around Ray (walks off).
Interviewer - Ray Falhn, reporter for the Cauldron Examiner (hereto referred to as RF)
Interviewing – Rain of the infamous Rubblerousers.
RF: Hi Rain, Thanks for coming and answering some questions for your fans.
Rain: Yeah whatever.
RF: Well then, let’s get right to it shall we? The first thing your public would like to know is where did you grow up?
Rain: Where did I grow up? Heh, anywhere but home. Home sucked.
RF: I’m so sorr-
Rain: Yeah whatever. (waves hand)
RF: Ok. (Silence while RF rearranges notecards) Let me ask you then, what was your family like?
Rain: Family? Heh, guess where my name comes from? The month before I was born it rained 24/7. For a whole stinking month. Like it’s my fault or something. Sheesh. This is my family. Named me after some lousy growing season. (shakes head)
RF: Alright than, let’s talk about your rogue abilities, how did you learn your craft?
Rain: Heh, same lousy parents. Just because I picked on my kid sister they tended to lock me up in my room. “Said it was for my own good (said in a falsetto sneering voice)” they said. Well after getting locked up too many times, I started messing around with the lock. First it was the prongs – you know, those little things on those hard plastic combs? Yea, I’d break ‘em off and jam in in the lock. Eventually I stole the bobbypins in my sis’ hair and found those worked pretty good.
RF: What about a Rogue trainer or apprenticeship?
Rain: Bah, once I got the hang of picking locks, I would break into the wizard’s library at night and read about all I’d need to know. You wouldn’t believe the amount of material you can find if you are persistent. Those wizards are packrats when it comes to books. I bet they never get around to reading a quarter of what they hoard.
RF: You would break into the wizard’s library? Weren’t you afraid of being caught?
Rain: Those wizzies are pretty smart, I bet they knew I was sneaking in and reading their stuff. Besides, I never took anything that I wasn’t gonna bring back anyway.
RF: Let’s talk now about your motivation. What makes Rain tick?
Rain: (leans forward) Now we’re getting to it. I found a book one night that read of an ancient sword that would lop the heads off of enemies if you swung it in just the right way. There was a passage that I can remember to this day. “…Treasure abounds to those that fought. Dangers and pitfalls to those that naught. Locked in stone dark and grey, await’s the light of beholder’s may”. (Pauses)
RF: Um…
Rain: Yea I thought the same thing when I first read it, because it’s obvious to me that whomever wrote it was a lousy poet. About all I could get out of it was that there was a sword and it’s locked up somewhere, but anyway, the whole point was (in an excited voice) What a cool sword! I mean it’s not likely that I’d try and lop somebody’s head off with it, but wouldn’t it be a cool thing to have? Imagine the pickup opportunities at the bar? (in a mock voice) Hey baby, wanna go back to my place and check out my cool sword? Heh.
RF: Um…
Rain: Really Ray, imagine it. Sitting up on my mantle all shiny and stuff. Wouldn’t that just rock?
RF: Well, no not really.
Rain: Yeah, well sorry you don’t see it, but for me? That’s my motivation. (Points for emphasis) Yeah.
RF: For those that have never met you, please describe yourself.
Rain: What? You can’t sit here and see that I’m an elf? Need to borrow my Goggles of minute seeing? (gets up and starts to hand them to RF)
RF: No no, what I meant was for those that read this article to know what you look like.
Rain: Oh so now you want to pick on my unibrow now? I know I have a lousy charisma score, but that doesn’t mean you need to point it out to everyone else (crosses arms). Oh and you better not be putting this part into you article.
RF: Well-
Rain: I mean really. Pick on the ugly little elf. Not like I had any choice in the matter, it was the ol’ roll of the dice if you know what I mean.
RF: Actually I do (Turns to the DM and smiles)
Rain: Alright then, is there anything else?
RF: A few more questions.
Rain: Ask away.
RF: Right. So what brings you to Cauldron then?
Rain: Rumors that I might find the sword I’m looking for is here. Or around here. Or buried here. Who knows? After all it’s only rumors, but I (jabs finger in air for emphasis) will find that sword if it’s the last thing I do. Then I’m gonna get drunk.
RF: Ah, so you like to drink?
Rain: You betchyer ass I do! Plus I heard that Cauldron had this water festival every year and the whole town parties for like a week or two straight! Can you believe how unbelievably awesome that is!
RF: And how did you like it?
Rain: Oh boy, you should have seen it! I got this buddy Grokk that drank the table under everybody in the friggin town! It was a sweet sight! Except for that last dude though. I swear he was cheating or something but I couldn’t quite put my finger on it.
RF: I wouldn’t worry about it. The point was, that you had fun and-
Rain: Look, whatever, but this is getting pretty tedious. You have any more questions?
RF: Just one. The Rubblerousers?
Rain: What? You have something against rubble? Hell I just came from a whole frigging PLANE of rubble. (gets up off seat) Do you have any ale around here? I’m thirsty, and besides I gotta get over to Skie’s to upgrade my stuff. See you around Ray (walks off).
The Shackled City, Day 28 (2007-04-13, 6:30 PM), Chapter 8: Lords of Oblivion
Players (Characters)
Scott (Rain)
Jeremy (Grokk)
Catherine (Amber)
Tony (Roland)
Rachel (Horkina)
DM: Tom (Garlen)
Rain fooled the locking mechanisms on two more doors. One led to an empty spherical room. Another led to a second vertical passage and a larger spherical room with a pool of water in the bottom. Roland splashed through the water to make sure it was clear, and the party moved on. Rain struggled with the next door, so Horkina used her "master key" to create another entrance. The room beyond was cubical, with semispherical depressions in each of the six walls. The door blocked off one of the depressions, and the other five had levitation fields that held a single book aloft in the center of the room. Roland flew to grab the book and stopped to read it. Garlen noticed it was in Abyssal, so he quickly scanned it and explained its contents: the book described the Zar'ilkoth Tarteros, a ritual for binding a demodand soul to a material creature. Roland suspected this ritual had been performed on the Gauths upstairs.
The party spider-climbed up the second shaft, which had a door at the same height as in the first shaft. It was assumed that a beholder lurked behind the pair of doors. Amber used a prayer to increase the party's effectiveness, and then Rain attempted to pick the lock. It took a couple of attempts before the door opened, revealing a room occupied only by statues and paintings. Rain and Garlen rushed quickly to a door on the north end of the room, and easily sprung the lock.
The floor of the fifty foot semispherical room had a golden triangle inscribed in a golden circle on the floor. In the back of the room was a desk, with what looked like Lord Vhalantru's deflated skin draped over a chair. A beholder, missing one of its eyestalks, floated in the middle of the room. Three figures -- an orc, a human, and a gnome -- were wearing straightjackets and chained to the floor. Just as the door opened, black lightning arced between the three of them and the beholder, burning each of them to ash and making the visage of a demodand flash in the beholder's central eye.
As the beholder floated forward and stared at the party, Garlen slipped into the room and fired an arrow into its central eye. Rain stepped forward and did the same, causing a significant wound. Amber let loose a Lucent Lance, which blinded the beholder and ripped his flesh. He responded by spitting a paralyzing slime at Rain and firing his eye rays. He missed Garlen and Horkina, but landed a clean shot on Amber and turned her to stone. Grokk, aided by the prayer, fired off three arrows that struck true and knocked the beholder unconscious. Roland attempted to force it into a magical sleep while Garlen healed it slightly, with the hope that its thoughts could be probed. The healing magic brought the beholder back to consciousness, so Horkina clobbered it with the side of her axe. Roland tried to read its thoughts, but it was able to resist, so he lit it on fire.
Garlen kept kicking and punching the charred beholder remains while Grokk picked up Amber's statue. Rain and Roland searched a desk in the back of the room. Atop the desk was a diary detailing all of Cauldron's adventuring groups over the last ten years. The final two pages read thusly:
The Stormblades
8/17 Adventuring for money and reputation, no higher goals in mind. Not worried about dying since their daddies can afford to raise any one of them. Have spent most of their time exploring the catacombs below Cauldron. Petty bickering and infighting will probably do them in.
10/9 Wiped out a large tribe of kobolds. Didn’t think they had it in them.
1/3 Their last 3 “adventures” have involved nothing more dangerous than rats. They’re getting restless. Annah tried to direct their rage at the Rubble Rousers. That would’ve been a fight to see.
3/10 Managed to cave in several dozen of my favorite tunnels. I’ll wait a few days before carving a new path to the underdark.
4/13 Newfound rage over taxes has them delving deeper. They’ve mostly been bragging about the drow they’ve faced, but they bear the scars of a fight with a minotaur.
6/21 Recent excursions have me concerned. The deeper they delve, the more likely they’ll uncover some of our plans. Fetor should prove capable of dealing with this threat.
6/22 Fetor took out the Vanderboren kid. They’ve taken him to Ike to be raised, and seem ready to give up adventuring altogether. I’ll have him delay for a while, until I’m sure they’ve given up.
The Rubble Rousers
9/2 Hired by miss Urikas to find the missing orphans. Nearly got killed in their first dive into the stronghold. This ought to be a short entry.
9/5 Took down Kazmojen’s entire operation. Developed teamwork quickly. Scared them pretty bad when I showed up to claim Terrem.
10/12 That fool Drakthar decided to grab at power, and they discovered the smuggling operation. Zarn is already working to find an alternate way to bring in mercenaries.
1/14 Arrived in town with Triel and Skaven bound and gagged. The cultists assured me they didn’t reveal anything. A public execution will ensure they won’t reveal more in the future. Still, these Rubble Rousers are a cause for concern.
3/12 handled my Umber Hulk with skill. If Gortio can play a convincing dwarf, I may be able to use them to recover Splintershield. Or they might fail. Either way works.
4/19 Thrifane is not happy. She was sure Maavu would be dead by now, but these chumps keep interfering.
4/28 Haven’t seen them since they headed for the Demonskar. Hope Nabthatoron got them.
5/2 Tercival just showed up wearing Skellerang’s sash. Says the Rubble Rousers saved him, and he won the duel according to the Law of Peers. I’ll have to step carefully around the paladin.
6/24 They’ve returned from the abyss, and Roland looks like he’s picked up significant power. Ike will send his best assassins in the morning.
6/25 that didn’t go well. I must complete the Zar’ilkoth Tarteros before I face them.
It was clear -- Vhalantru was a beholder, disguised with his simulacrum suit, and he had been using and discarding local adventurers for years. Roland noticed a painting in the previous room had a strong magical aura, and it pictured a woman the party had met before -- Celeste, who helped send the party after Zenith Splintershield. He identified the painting as a form of planar binding, so Grokk smashed it to pieces, releasing the woman. Garlen healed her to get her back on her feat, and Rain immediately asked her for a reward, which she promised to bring soon. She warned the party that Vhalantru was a beholder and that he shouldn't be underestimated, so they pointed out his charred corpse in the next room. She left to return to her master, and the party headed for the Quiet Grove to see if Amber could be turned back from stone. James' spells fizzled twice, and Roland made two attempts the next morning before Amber was finally restored, at which point she began to cast a spell of Holy Word before she realized where she was.
James, Roland, and Amber headed back to Vhalantru's to rescue all of the others who'd been turned to stone, and after several days were able to recover everyone, including Deakon Stormshield's parents. The party sold Vhalantru's house to Lord Vanderboren, who was tremendously interested in the beholder's lair. Over the next few days, the group rested and upgraded equipment.
Jenya called together a meeting with several of the most prominent people in the town. This included the nobles Lord Taskerhill, Lord and Lady Vanderboren, Lord Aslaxin, Lady Knowlern, and Alek Tercival. Jenya and James were joined by Omar Tiskinsen from the church of Kord and Kristof Jurgenson from the tiny shrine of Pelor. Keygan, Skie, Tygot, and Maavu represented the local merchants. The Striders (Meerthan, Fario, Fellian, and Shensen) observed. The Rubble Rousers started off the meeting by explaining the situation with Vhalantru, and Jenya followed up by pointing out this left Cauldron without a leader, since Vhalantru had eaten the previous Lord Mayor before he appointed a successor. Roland suggested the town should have a ruling council with a representative from each of the major groups. As discussion continued, Roland forged a telepathic bond with the rest of the party so they could share their insights. Rain was able to read the nobled like a book, and noted that Lord Taskerhill was obviously grasping at power while Lord Aslaxin seemed interested in interfering with Taskerhill. Eventually those gathered settled on Lord Vanderboren as the obvious choice.
A few moments later, a strange dwarf-like creature with pale blue skin teleported into the room just behind Lord Taskerhill. The insane derro cried out "neither you, nor you, nor you will be mayor! Chaos will reign! HAHAHAHAH!" He followed up his insane laugh by pointing at Horkina and yelling "everyone get her!" Rain jumped up and smacked the creature in the back of the head with his sap, and telepathically communicated that he'd spotted footprints in the carpet. Roland's familiar used silver dragon breath to paralyze most of the invisible creatures, as well as Rain, the derro, and three nobles. James dispelled the invisibility to reveal four derro wielding axes. Only one of them was still moving, but he couldn't penetrate Horkina's armor. Amber commanded the group to fall on the floor and Horkina killed the one that had attacked her. Roland's shield guardian pushed the paralyzed nobles over the table, and Meerthan grabbed the nobles and merchants and teleported to safety. The shield guardian grabbed hold of the derro sorcerer, James unparalyzed Rain, and Roland used chain lightning to fry the remaining enemies. Amber's Sending informed Meerthan the area was safe again.
The party reached level 15.
Scott (Rain)
Jeremy (Grokk)
Catherine (Amber)
Tony (Roland)
Rachel (Horkina)
DM: Tom (Garlen)
Rain fooled the locking mechanisms on two more doors. One led to an empty spherical room. Another led to a second vertical passage and a larger spherical room with a pool of water in the bottom. Roland splashed through the water to make sure it was clear, and the party moved on. Rain struggled with the next door, so Horkina used her "master key" to create another entrance. The room beyond was cubical, with semispherical depressions in each of the six walls. The door blocked off one of the depressions, and the other five had levitation fields that held a single book aloft in the center of the room. Roland flew to grab the book and stopped to read it. Garlen noticed it was in Abyssal, so he quickly scanned it and explained its contents: the book described the Zar'ilkoth Tarteros, a ritual for binding a demodand soul to a material creature. Roland suspected this ritual had been performed on the Gauths upstairs.
The party spider-climbed up the second shaft, which had a door at the same height as in the first shaft. It was assumed that a beholder lurked behind the pair of doors. Amber used a prayer to increase the party's effectiveness, and then Rain attempted to pick the lock. It took a couple of attempts before the door opened, revealing a room occupied only by statues and paintings. Rain and Garlen rushed quickly to a door on the north end of the room, and easily sprung the lock.
The floor of the fifty foot semispherical room had a golden triangle inscribed in a golden circle on the floor. In the back of the room was a desk, with what looked like Lord Vhalantru's deflated skin draped over a chair. A beholder, missing one of its eyestalks, floated in the middle of the room. Three figures -- an orc, a human, and a gnome -- were wearing straightjackets and chained to the floor. Just as the door opened, black lightning arced between the three of them and the beholder, burning each of them to ash and making the visage of a demodand flash in the beholder's central eye.
As the beholder floated forward and stared at the party, Garlen slipped into the room and fired an arrow into its central eye. Rain stepped forward and did the same, causing a significant wound. Amber let loose a Lucent Lance, which blinded the beholder and ripped his flesh. He responded by spitting a paralyzing slime at Rain and firing his eye rays. He missed Garlen and Horkina, but landed a clean shot on Amber and turned her to stone. Grokk, aided by the prayer, fired off three arrows that struck true and knocked the beholder unconscious. Roland attempted to force it into a magical sleep while Garlen healed it slightly, with the hope that its thoughts could be probed. The healing magic brought the beholder back to consciousness, so Horkina clobbered it with the side of her axe. Roland tried to read its thoughts, but it was able to resist, so he lit it on fire.
Garlen kept kicking and punching the charred beholder remains while Grokk picked up Amber's statue. Rain and Roland searched a desk in the back of the room. Atop the desk was a diary detailing all of Cauldron's adventuring groups over the last ten years. The final two pages read thusly:
The Stormblades
8/17 Adventuring for money and reputation, no higher goals in mind. Not worried about dying since their daddies can afford to raise any one of them. Have spent most of their time exploring the catacombs below Cauldron. Petty bickering and infighting will probably do them in.
10/9 Wiped out a large tribe of kobolds. Didn’t think they had it in them.
1/3 Their last 3 “adventures” have involved nothing more dangerous than rats. They’re getting restless. Annah tried to direct their rage at the Rubble Rousers. That would’ve been a fight to see.
3/10 Managed to cave in several dozen of my favorite tunnels. I’ll wait a few days before carving a new path to the underdark.
4/13 Newfound rage over taxes has them delving deeper. They’ve mostly been bragging about the drow they’ve faced, but they bear the scars of a fight with a minotaur.
6/21 Recent excursions have me concerned. The deeper they delve, the more likely they’ll uncover some of our plans. Fetor should prove capable of dealing with this threat.
6/22 Fetor took out the Vanderboren kid. They’ve taken him to Ike to be raised, and seem ready to give up adventuring altogether. I’ll have him delay for a while, until I’m sure they’ve given up.
The Rubble Rousers
9/2 Hired by miss Urikas to find the missing orphans. Nearly got killed in their first dive into the stronghold. This ought to be a short entry.
9/5 Took down Kazmojen’s entire operation. Developed teamwork quickly. Scared them pretty bad when I showed up to claim Terrem.
10/12 That fool Drakthar decided to grab at power, and they discovered the smuggling operation. Zarn is already working to find an alternate way to bring in mercenaries.
1/14 Arrived in town with Triel and Skaven bound and gagged. The cultists assured me they didn’t reveal anything. A public execution will ensure they won’t reveal more in the future. Still, these Rubble Rousers are a cause for concern.
3/12 handled my Umber Hulk with skill. If Gortio can play a convincing dwarf, I may be able to use them to recover Splintershield. Or they might fail. Either way works.
4/19 Thrifane is not happy. She was sure Maavu would be dead by now, but these chumps keep interfering.
4/28 Haven’t seen them since they headed for the Demonskar. Hope Nabthatoron got them.
5/2 Tercival just showed up wearing Skellerang’s sash. Says the Rubble Rousers saved him, and he won the duel according to the Law of Peers. I’ll have to step carefully around the paladin.
6/24 They’ve returned from the abyss, and Roland looks like he’s picked up significant power. Ike will send his best assassins in the morning.
6/25 that didn’t go well. I must complete the Zar’ilkoth Tarteros before I face them.
It was clear -- Vhalantru was a beholder, disguised with his simulacrum suit, and he had been using and discarding local adventurers for years. Roland noticed a painting in the previous room had a strong magical aura, and it pictured a woman the party had met before -- Celeste, who helped send the party after Zenith Splintershield. He identified the painting as a form of planar binding, so Grokk smashed it to pieces, releasing the woman. Garlen healed her to get her back on her feat, and Rain immediately asked her for a reward, which she promised to bring soon. She warned the party that Vhalantru was a beholder and that he shouldn't be underestimated, so they pointed out his charred corpse in the next room. She left to return to her master, and the party headed for the Quiet Grove to see if Amber could be turned back from stone. James' spells fizzled twice, and Roland made two attempts the next morning before Amber was finally restored, at which point she began to cast a spell of Holy Word before she realized where she was.
James, Roland, and Amber headed back to Vhalantru's to rescue all of the others who'd been turned to stone, and after several days were able to recover everyone, including Deakon Stormshield's parents. The party sold Vhalantru's house to Lord Vanderboren, who was tremendously interested in the beholder's lair. Over the next few days, the group rested and upgraded equipment.
Jenya called together a meeting with several of the most prominent people in the town. This included the nobles Lord Taskerhill, Lord and Lady Vanderboren, Lord Aslaxin, Lady Knowlern, and Alek Tercival. Jenya and James were joined by Omar Tiskinsen from the church of Kord and Kristof Jurgenson from the tiny shrine of Pelor. Keygan, Skie, Tygot, and Maavu represented the local merchants. The Striders (Meerthan, Fario, Fellian, and Shensen) observed. The Rubble Rousers started off the meeting by explaining the situation with Vhalantru, and Jenya followed up by pointing out this left Cauldron without a leader, since Vhalantru had eaten the previous Lord Mayor before he appointed a successor. Roland suggested the town should have a ruling council with a representative from each of the major groups. As discussion continued, Roland forged a telepathic bond with the rest of the party so they could share their insights. Rain was able to read the nobled like a book, and noted that Lord Taskerhill was obviously grasping at power while Lord Aslaxin seemed interested in interfering with Taskerhill. Eventually those gathered settled on Lord Vanderboren as the obvious choice.
A few moments later, a strange dwarf-like creature with pale blue skin teleported into the room just behind Lord Taskerhill. The insane derro cried out "neither you, nor you, nor you will be mayor! Chaos will reign! HAHAHAHAH!" He followed up his insane laugh by pointing at Horkina and yelling "everyone get her!" Rain jumped up and smacked the creature in the back of the head with his sap, and telepathically communicated that he'd spotted footprints in the carpet. Roland's familiar used silver dragon breath to paralyze most of the invisible creatures, as well as Rain, the derro, and three nobles. James dispelled the invisibility to reveal four derro wielding axes. Only one of them was still moving, but he couldn't penetrate Horkina's armor. Amber commanded the group to fall on the floor and Horkina killed the one that had attacked her. Roland's shield guardian pushed the paralyzed nobles over the table, and Meerthan grabbed the nobles and merchants and teleported to safety. The shield guardian grabbed hold of the derro sorcerer, James unparalyzed Rain, and Roland used chain lightning to fry the remaining enemies. Amber's Sending informed Meerthan the area was safe again.
The party reached level 15.
The Shackled City, Day 27 (2007-04-06, 6:30 PM), Chapter 8: Lords of Oblivion
Players (Characters)
Scott (Rain)
Jeremy (Grokk)
Catherine (Amber)
Tony (Roland)
Rachel (Horkina)
DM: Tom (Garlen)
The party took the Blue Duke and the pair of dwarves over to the town guard barracks. Alek Tercival sent for Jenya to help in the interrogation. He also agreed to deputize the party -- so long as there were evil forces at work in the town, the party was authorized to act according to their judgement. With that, it was decided that it was time to get information from Vhalantru.
Rain quietly unlocked and opened the front door at House Vhalantru. A pair of half-orcs wielding orc double axes stood at the bottom of a grand staircase. Garlen and Rain injured the pair, and then Grokk took a flying leap and finished one off with a powerful blow from his greataxe. Horkina took down the other just as the door behind her opened to reveal three more mercenaries. A secret door in the entryway opened up, and even more orcs prepared to attack. Amber commanded all of the orcs to hold their position, and then headed upstairs and screamed. Horkina, Rain, Garlen, and Grokk pounded on the nearest group of orcs, and took out another small group that came charging in from the dining room. Roland used ball lightning and his shield guardian to finish off the other three.
Rain ran upstairs to see what Amber was yelling about, and saw two creatures he judged to be shrunken beholders. He jumped right between the pair and Amber set off the fire seeds he'd been carrying, destroying the strange beasts. Four more Gauths moved into the area and fired their eye rays, weakening Amber and wounding Rain. Amber fired off a sunbeam, blinding the enemies, and the rest of the party easily eliminated them. Rain, Garlen, and Roland each looked behind a couple of doors, trying to locate Vhalantru before Roland's ball of lightning and Amber's remaining sunbeams ran out. Rain found a wine cellar and quickly gathered up several bottles, while Garlen found a library filled with elven books. Roland found a staircase and headed up, with Amber, Horkina, and Garlen hurrying behind. Several nearby doors led to bedrooms and bathrooms.
When Garlen opened a door near the end of the hall, he was surprised to find a man who looked just like Rain inside the bedroom. He glanced back to see Rain just coming up the stairs, and surmised the extremely smelly creature was a lookalike of some sort. Roland's ball of electricity wrapped around the creature, and a few swings from Grokk and Garlen and a magic missile from Roland dropped it to the floor. Roland identified it as a doppelganger.
The party split up again to investigate the last few areas in the house. Garlen found a hidden room with a fountain in the middle, and Rain found an illusory wall leading to a room with six lifelike statues. It was suspected that the statues may have been adventurers turned to stone, so Amber stepped forward to cast Break Enchantment, and nearly fell into a pit. Roland flew through the illusory floor and noted that the shaft was at least 50 feet deep and led to a large cylindrical room. Amber returned one of the statues to living form, and after asking her a few questions, directed her to the Quiet Grove and promised to rescue the rest of her party as soon as possible.
Amber climbed on Grokk's back and the party spiderclimbed down the pit. Three half-orc zombies stood guarding another vertical shaft. When Horkina killed one, a farastu demodand erupted from its corpse. Roland's bolt of lightning killed the other two zombies, releasing two more demodands. Rain, Grokk, Horkina, and Garlen flanked and slaughtered the fiends, and the party spiderclimbed further down.
Halfway down the shaft, a passage branched off horizontally. The passage was blocked by a 9-foot diameter circular door made of iron, adamantine, bone, and darkwood. The door had a stylized beholder etched into it, with colored crystals in place of each smaller eye and a large transparent crystal in place of its center eye. The bottom of the shaft opened into a pair of rooms, with a similar door leading west and one leading north. Horkina kicked the door and was hit by a ray of force from one of the beholder eye crystals. Rain deftly twisted the crystals so they'd fire their rays off to the side, and then carefully tapped the center crystal, skillfully making the door open.
Three large dogs with burning eyes, chain barding, and jeweled collars wrestled around in the next room. Roland shot the trio with lightning. Garlen and Grokk tag-teamed one and brought it down, while Rain and Horkina surrounded and smashed another. Amber used the Light of Venya to brighten up the room. Garlen tumbled behind the final hound and stabbed it in a very sensitive spot, causing it to howl in pain. A few more swings brought the hounds down, and Rain quickly grabbed their gem-studded collars.
Three more of the beholder doors led out from this room, along with a plain iron door. Rain opened the plain iron door to reveal a throne room. The throne was carved in the shape of a fire giant. A furry, orange-haired woman wielding a flaming and icy greatsword hissed out "Flameless Ones, have you come to pay tribute to Ti'irok Coalfire?" Rain said "yes, of course" as a large, orange wolf-like creature stepped out from behind the throne and morphed into its furry humanoid form. Roland protected the party from fire while the male haraknin spoke: "the tribute is ten thousand gold... and... what have you done to our hounds? It will be another five thousand gold per hound, to pay for your foolishness!" Rain pointed to Grokk and called out "you can kiss my orc's butt", provoking the haraknin into drawing their weapons. The woman stepped forward and slashed into the half-elf provocateur. Garlen jumped behind her to provide flanking while Grokk smashed her companion with his axe. A Moon Bolt from Amber weakened the woman significantly, and Horkina and Rain landed a few more blows. She hit Rain once more before tumbling through the group, attempting to retreat. Garlen tumbled in front of her, and a magic missile from Roland dropped her.
Amber provided Rain with some healing while he moved around the throne. He noticed a large stone doorway that looked like it was meant for giants. Grokk pushed the door open to reveal a room with two large iron chests. Rain opened them up and the party came away with over 40,000 gold pieces, as well as several geodes, miscellaneous small treasures, and an adamantine battleaxe.
After Rain made a few futile attempts to unlock another of the beholder doors, Horkina smashed away the stone frame with her maul, providing a passageway into the room. This room was obviously set up for a human woman -- the bottom portion of the spherical room had a wooden floor built in to flatten it out, chests filled with dresses and hairpieces lined the walls, and a small bed and chair occupied the center of the room. Horkina provided the same door-opening service a few more times, eventually leading to a large square brick room. Several bricks had been removed from the north wall, providing little cubbyholes for several treasures. Rain noticed a pair of stone golems embedded in the floor, so the party prepared to attack them as Rain grabbed an emerald-studded platinum crown from the wall. The golems stood up and were quickly brought back down by a series of powerful blows.
Roland reached level 14.
Scott (Rain)
Jeremy (Grokk)
Catherine (Amber)
Tony (Roland)
Rachel (Horkina)
DM: Tom (Garlen)
The party took the Blue Duke and the pair of dwarves over to the town guard barracks. Alek Tercival sent for Jenya to help in the interrogation. He also agreed to deputize the party -- so long as there were evil forces at work in the town, the party was authorized to act according to their judgement. With that, it was decided that it was time to get information from Vhalantru.
Rain quietly unlocked and opened the front door at House Vhalantru. A pair of half-orcs wielding orc double axes stood at the bottom of a grand staircase. Garlen and Rain injured the pair, and then Grokk took a flying leap and finished one off with a powerful blow from his greataxe. Horkina took down the other just as the door behind her opened to reveal three more mercenaries. A secret door in the entryway opened up, and even more orcs prepared to attack. Amber commanded all of the orcs to hold their position, and then headed upstairs and screamed. Horkina, Rain, Garlen, and Grokk pounded on the nearest group of orcs, and took out another small group that came charging in from the dining room. Roland used ball lightning and his shield guardian to finish off the other three.
Rain ran upstairs to see what Amber was yelling about, and saw two creatures he judged to be shrunken beholders. He jumped right between the pair and Amber set off the fire seeds he'd been carrying, destroying the strange beasts. Four more Gauths moved into the area and fired their eye rays, weakening Amber and wounding Rain. Amber fired off a sunbeam, blinding the enemies, and the rest of the party easily eliminated them. Rain, Garlen, and Roland each looked behind a couple of doors, trying to locate Vhalantru before Roland's ball of lightning and Amber's remaining sunbeams ran out. Rain found a wine cellar and quickly gathered up several bottles, while Garlen found a library filled with elven books. Roland found a staircase and headed up, with Amber, Horkina, and Garlen hurrying behind. Several nearby doors led to bedrooms and bathrooms.
When Garlen opened a door near the end of the hall, he was surprised to find a man who looked just like Rain inside the bedroom. He glanced back to see Rain just coming up the stairs, and surmised the extremely smelly creature was a lookalike of some sort. Roland's ball of electricity wrapped around the creature, and a few swings from Grokk and Garlen and a magic missile from Roland dropped it to the floor. Roland identified it as a doppelganger.
The party split up again to investigate the last few areas in the house. Garlen found a hidden room with a fountain in the middle, and Rain found an illusory wall leading to a room with six lifelike statues. It was suspected that the statues may have been adventurers turned to stone, so Amber stepped forward to cast Break Enchantment, and nearly fell into a pit. Roland flew through the illusory floor and noted that the shaft was at least 50 feet deep and led to a large cylindrical room. Amber returned one of the statues to living form, and after asking her a few questions, directed her to the Quiet Grove and promised to rescue the rest of her party as soon as possible.
Amber climbed on Grokk's back and the party spiderclimbed down the pit. Three half-orc zombies stood guarding another vertical shaft. When Horkina killed one, a farastu demodand erupted from its corpse. Roland's bolt of lightning killed the other two zombies, releasing two more demodands. Rain, Grokk, Horkina, and Garlen flanked and slaughtered the fiends, and the party spiderclimbed further down.
Halfway down the shaft, a passage branched off horizontally. The passage was blocked by a 9-foot diameter circular door made of iron, adamantine, bone, and darkwood. The door had a stylized beholder etched into it, with colored crystals in place of each smaller eye and a large transparent crystal in place of its center eye. The bottom of the shaft opened into a pair of rooms, with a similar door leading west and one leading north. Horkina kicked the door and was hit by a ray of force from one of the beholder eye crystals. Rain deftly twisted the crystals so they'd fire their rays off to the side, and then carefully tapped the center crystal, skillfully making the door open.
Three large dogs with burning eyes, chain barding, and jeweled collars wrestled around in the next room. Roland shot the trio with lightning. Garlen and Grokk tag-teamed one and brought it down, while Rain and Horkina surrounded and smashed another. Amber used the Light of Venya to brighten up the room. Garlen tumbled behind the final hound and stabbed it in a very sensitive spot, causing it to howl in pain. A few more swings brought the hounds down, and Rain quickly grabbed their gem-studded collars.
Three more of the beholder doors led out from this room, along with a plain iron door. Rain opened the plain iron door to reveal a throne room. The throne was carved in the shape of a fire giant. A furry, orange-haired woman wielding a flaming and icy greatsword hissed out "Flameless Ones, have you come to pay tribute to Ti'irok Coalfire?" Rain said "yes, of course" as a large, orange wolf-like creature stepped out from behind the throne and morphed into its furry humanoid form. Roland protected the party from fire while the male haraknin spoke: "the tribute is ten thousand gold... and... what have you done to our hounds? It will be another five thousand gold per hound, to pay for your foolishness!" Rain pointed to Grokk and called out "you can kiss my orc's butt", provoking the haraknin into drawing their weapons. The woman stepped forward and slashed into the half-elf provocateur. Garlen jumped behind her to provide flanking while Grokk smashed her companion with his axe. A Moon Bolt from Amber weakened the woman significantly, and Horkina and Rain landed a few more blows. She hit Rain once more before tumbling through the group, attempting to retreat. Garlen tumbled in front of her, and a magic missile from Roland dropped her.
Amber provided Rain with some healing while he moved around the throne. He noticed a large stone doorway that looked like it was meant for giants. Grokk pushed the door open to reveal a room with two large iron chests. Rain opened them up and the party came away with over 40,000 gold pieces, as well as several geodes, miscellaneous small treasures, and an adamantine battleaxe.
After Rain made a few futile attempts to unlock another of the beholder doors, Horkina smashed away the stone frame with her maul, providing a passageway into the room. This room was obviously set up for a human woman -- the bottom portion of the spherical room had a wooden floor built in to flatten it out, chests filled with dresses and hairpieces lined the walls, and a small bed and chair occupied the center of the room. Horkina provided the same door-opening service a few more times, eventually leading to a large square brick room. Several bricks had been removed from the north wall, providing little cubbyholes for several treasures. Rain noticed a pair of stone golems embedded in the floor, so the party prepared to attack them as Rain grabbed an emerald-studded platinum crown from the wall. The golems stood up and were quickly brought back down by a series of powerful blows.
Roland reached level 14.
The Shackled City, Day 26 (2007-03-30, 6:30 PM), Chapter 8: Lords of Oblivion
Players (Characters)
Scott (Rain)
Jeremy (Grokk)
Catherine (Amber)
Tony (Roland)
Rachel (Horkina)
DM: Tom (Garlen)
Roland awakened the captured Mr. Abradius and spoke to him: "I think you should share the knowledge of the Soul Pillars with your fellow loremaster." Fetor was magically compelled to agree, so he shared everything he knew, and even helped Roland copy down large sections of his notes. The soul pillars contained trapped souls that could dispense knowledge in a manner similar to a Contact Other Plane spell. Fetor also confirmed many of the party's suspicions about the Cagewrights, and described the Planar Junction ritual in more detail. Once Roland had all of the information he required, Rain performed kidney surgery with the tip of his rapier. Amber used her ability to turn undead to free the soul of an elf from one of the upstairs rooms, but realized she was not yet powerful enough to free them all. The party returned to Cauldron to purchase a large amount of equipment.
One morning, Shensen arrived with an urgent request for the party to meet with Meerthan. Fario, one of Meerthan's agents, had been kidnapped by the Last Laugh and was being interrogated and tortured. There was no time to lose; the party had to move quickly to save his life and keep him from revealing the identities of the rest of the Striders. Meerthan was in telepathic contact with Fario, and was able to tell the party where he'd been taken: the Brass Trumpet, an abandoned inn.
Horkina used her Maul of the Titans to knock on the front door, or rather, knock down the front door. Recent construction had been done in this room -- stone walls with arrow slits had been installed on the east and west, and some thugs were waiting behind each. Garlen fired an arrow through one of the slits and hit one of the Last Laugh thugs behind. Horkina used her Maul to completely crush the other wall, and followed through to kill two of the thugs that had been using it for cover. The third wet himself just before Rain finished him off. Roland's electric loop spell dropped one of the thugs behind the remaining wall, and a pair of arrows from Grokk ended the combat.
Rain pulled the next door open and was hit with several poisoned crossbow bolts from the trapped door. He chugged a potion and the party kept moving, anxious to reach Fario and wanting to get the maximum benefit from Amber's prayer. Roland noticed a room full of spikes with an obviously weakened ceiling, and surmised the room above must be trapped. Rain and Garlen took out a pair of thugs in the inn's old common room while Roland flew up to the weakened ceiling and pulled it down. Two more thugs started down the stairs, and the one that survived the volley of arrows ran back up the stairs and tried to hide. The whole party headed upstairs and quickly dispatched the assembled thugs via melee. Amber struck one with her mace, and Roland came in through the now-floorless room to strike another with his quarterstaff. His familiar made a quick bite to finish the thug off.
Since there were no obvious exits to the room other than those leading to areas the party knew to be trapped, Roland used his knowledge of architecture to find a soft spot in the wall and Horkina inserted a new doorway with a single swing. Fario was attached to a torture rack, and a woman was standing over him with a bloody sword. Amber used a Lucent Lance on her, and Roland and his familiar used magical dragon breath to stun her. Rain knocked her unconscious with a sap. Amber healed Fario while Rain and Garlen released him. The party took down another thug and a spellcaster hiding in a curtain-filled room, and then quickly took Fario and the captured woman back to Meerthan.
Fario explained that he'd been captured while spying on House Rhivaldi. The noblewoman had not been seen for weeks, but several shady figures had visited her. Half-orc mercenaries from Lord Vhalantru had come and gone every day. A pale half-elf with a strange shadowy cloak, who Roland guessed to be a Vampire, had arrived just last night. Well-armed humans, including one with a shield with the symbol of Nerull, came just a few days before. Several well-armed dwarves, including a well-known local merchant named Adrick Garthun, were also visiting. The party woke up the woman from the Last Laugh and Horkina threatened to do to her what she'd done to the wall. This woman, Jil, said that Velior Thazo, leader of the Last Laugh, had ordered the kidnapping and that he was presently meeting with Lady Rhivaldi. The party got some rest and recovered spells while Rain and Garlen watched over House Rhivaldi.
House Rhivaldi had only one obvious entrance -- the main doorway. The party decided to approach from a less obvious entrance: the geodesic dome on the observatory. Rain spider-climbed up and gently pried one sheet of glass out of its frame, and Grokk (carrying Amber), Horkina, and Garlen all spider-climbed through, with Roland flying behind. Most of the doors in this section of the house magically opened whenever anyone approached, due to an Unseen Servant at each one. Some doors, however, were locked.
Amber dispelled the magical locks on Lady Rhivaldi's bedroom and the party entered. Roland picked up a stack of crumpled notes, while Rain stepped in to a secret closet. A series of cages held six small animals: a bat, a lizard, a monkey, a rat, a raven, and a toad. The monkey gestured wildly at Rain and then pointed at the Raven's cage. There, Rain found a secret compartment containing a spellbook. The monkey kept pointing at the spellbook. Amber's True Seeing revealed that all six animals were actually halflings, and Roland suspected they'd been Baleful Polymorphed, as the spell was in the book. The party decided to leave the creatures behind, planning to come back to rescue them later. The monkey clearly understood, and sat brooding in the corner, distressed that his rescue was being delayed.
The party approached a large double door, which opened to reveal a grand ballroom. At the front of the room stood a woman (Thrifane Rhivaldi) with a strange third eye grafted onto her forehead. In a semicircle around her were seven others: a white-haired dwarf with a leather half-mask (Adrick Garthun), a man with spiked plate mail and a shield with Nerull's symbol (Khyron Bonesworn), a gaunt half-elf man in black robes (Melagorn), a woman with crimson eyes and a cloak of shadow (a Vampire named Mhad), a fat tiefling with bloodshot eyes and purple robes (Vervil Ashmantle), a bat-winged half-fiend (Velizor Thazo, leader of the Last Laugh), and a green-skinned ogre mage wearing the robes of the Blue Duke (Zarn Kyass). A pair of dwarves flanked one set of doors, a pair of babau flanked another, and a large metal-and-stone construct of humanoid shape stood in front of the doorway the party had approached.
Immediately, Garlen stepped into the room and fired a series of arrows at a babau, screaming "DIE" as the demon fell. Thrifane activated a pair of defensive spells -- Stoneskin and Minor Globe of Invulnerability -- and waited to see what the party was capable of. Amber reacted quickly and used a Holy Word to great effect. The remaining babau was banished, two dwarves and the ogre mage were paralyzed, and virtually all of the other inhabitants of the room were blinded and deafened. Only two creatures were unaffected: the metal-and-stone Shield Guardian, and a Dread Wraith that had been draped over Mhad as a cloak. The now-angered Dread Wraith flew forward to attack Amber, draining her constitution with a touch. Horkina used her Maul to create another entrance to the room, and Grokk moved in through the opening, attacking the cleric of Nerull. Rain followed up by attacking the tiefling, who cast an invisibility spell and tried to move away. The vampire Mhad, blind and deaf, went gaseous and tried to retreat. Velizor hit the party with an Unholy Blight, sickening Garlen and dealing a small amount of damage.
Roland, having long desired a Shield Guardian of his own, decided to take control of this one by grabbing the controlling amulet from around Thrifane's neck. He ordered the guardian to attack the dwarf wearing a leather mask and standing next to it. Khyron attempted to command Grokk to stop fighting, but his ears were still ringing so he couldn't chant out his spell properly. The half-elf attempted to fatigue the party, but couldn't concentrate well enough to cast the spell with Grokk's axe whizzing around his head. The dwarf dropped his weapon and called out "I surrender", but the Shield Guardian began clubbing him anyway.
With no demons left to kill, Garlen tumbled and attacked the half-fiend, providing Rain with an opportunity to strike as well. Thrifane attempted to teleport away, but she mispronounced the spell and it fizzled. Amber, too, lost a spell while trying to avoid the Dread Wraith's touch, and it drained more of her constitution. Horkina smashed through Thrifane's magically hardened skin and felled her with two strong blows, while Grokk attacked the Dread Wraith and Rain stabbed Velizor through his throat. Roland rained fire down on the few enemies still standing, and managed to catch the invisible tiefling in one of the blasts. This left only a fleeing vampire, a Dread Wraith, and three paralyzed foes. Garlen moved to finish off the Dread Wraith, but completely missed with a charge from a healing wand. Amber tried to finish it with a spell but again got distracted, and it drained her nearly dead with its next touch. The strain of making the final attack pushed the undead creature over the line to fully dead. After restoring herself, Amber moved to the door the gaseous vampire had seeped through and fired a Sunray, vaporizing the gaseous enemy. Amber finished the fight just like she started it -- calling on the powers of good and light to smite the forces of evil.
The party tied up the dwarves and the Blue Duke and then secured the rest of the house, taking down a few half-orc mercenaries and gathering up a large amount of treasure. Roland looked over the crumpled notes he'd found -- a speech Lady Rhivaldi had probably just given to the assembled crowd. The speech detailed the lineage of the Shackleborn from demodands several generations ago, and how their souls would power a ritual to link Carceri to Cauldron. It also mentioned the ritual had begun, and that the criminals gathered here would be expected to topple surrounding kingdoms from within while the demodands attacked from outside. Her speech ended with a plea for the elimination of "a particular group", probably the Rubble Rousers themselves. Roland was entertained by the possibility that the very group she'd called to be destroyed may have interrupted just as she was speaking that line.
Roland reached level 13. The rest of the party reached level 14.
Scott (Rain)
Jeremy (Grokk)
Catherine (Amber)
Tony (Roland)
Rachel (Horkina)
DM: Tom (Garlen)
Roland awakened the captured Mr. Abradius and spoke to him: "I think you should share the knowledge of the Soul Pillars with your fellow loremaster." Fetor was magically compelled to agree, so he shared everything he knew, and even helped Roland copy down large sections of his notes. The soul pillars contained trapped souls that could dispense knowledge in a manner similar to a Contact Other Plane spell. Fetor also confirmed many of the party's suspicions about the Cagewrights, and described the Planar Junction ritual in more detail. Once Roland had all of the information he required, Rain performed kidney surgery with the tip of his rapier. Amber used her ability to turn undead to free the soul of an elf from one of the upstairs rooms, but realized she was not yet powerful enough to free them all. The party returned to Cauldron to purchase a large amount of equipment.
One morning, Shensen arrived with an urgent request for the party to meet with Meerthan. Fario, one of Meerthan's agents, had been kidnapped by the Last Laugh and was being interrogated and tortured. There was no time to lose; the party had to move quickly to save his life and keep him from revealing the identities of the rest of the Striders. Meerthan was in telepathic contact with Fario, and was able to tell the party where he'd been taken: the Brass Trumpet, an abandoned inn.
Horkina used her Maul of the Titans to knock on the front door, or rather, knock down the front door. Recent construction had been done in this room -- stone walls with arrow slits had been installed on the east and west, and some thugs were waiting behind each. Garlen fired an arrow through one of the slits and hit one of the Last Laugh thugs behind. Horkina used her Maul to completely crush the other wall, and followed through to kill two of the thugs that had been using it for cover. The third wet himself just before Rain finished him off. Roland's electric loop spell dropped one of the thugs behind the remaining wall, and a pair of arrows from Grokk ended the combat.
Rain pulled the next door open and was hit with several poisoned crossbow bolts from the trapped door. He chugged a potion and the party kept moving, anxious to reach Fario and wanting to get the maximum benefit from Amber's prayer. Roland noticed a room full of spikes with an obviously weakened ceiling, and surmised the room above must be trapped. Rain and Garlen took out a pair of thugs in the inn's old common room while Roland flew up to the weakened ceiling and pulled it down. Two more thugs started down the stairs, and the one that survived the volley of arrows ran back up the stairs and tried to hide. The whole party headed upstairs and quickly dispatched the assembled thugs via melee. Amber struck one with her mace, and Roland came in through the now-floorless room to strike another with his quarterstaff. His familiar made a quick bite to finish the thug off.
Since there were no obvious exits to the room other than those leading to areas the party knew to be trapped, Roland used his knowledge of architecture to find a soft spot in the wall and Horkina inserted a new doorway with a single swing. Fario was attached to a torture rack, and a woman was standing over him with a bloody sword. Amber used a Lucent Lance on her, and Roland and his familiar used magical dragon breath to stun her. Rain knocked her unconscious with a sap. Amber healed Fario while Rain and Garlen released him. The party took down another thug and a spellcaster hiding in a curtain-filled room, and then quickly took Fario and the captured woman back to Meerthan.
Fario explained that he'd been captured while spying on House Rhivaldi. The noblewoman had not been seen for weeks, but several shady figures had visited her. Half-orc mercenaries from Lord Vhalantru had come and gone every day. A pale half-elf with a strange shadowy cloak, who Roland guessed to be a Vampire, had arrived just last night. Well-armed humans, including one with a shield with the symbol of Nerull, came just a few days before. Several well-armed dwarves, including a well-known local merchant named Adrick Garthun, were also visiting. The party woke up the woman from the Last Laugh and Horkina threatened to do to her what she'd done to the wall. This woman, Jil, said that Velior Thazo, leader of the Last Laugh, had ordered the kidnapping and that he was presently meeting with Lady Rhivaldi. The party got some rest and recovered spells while Rain and Garlen watched over House Rhivaldi.
House Rhivaldi had only one obvious entrance -- the main doorway. The party decided to approach from a less obvious entrance: the geodesic dome on the observatory. Rain spider-climbed up and gently pried one sheet of glass out of its frame, and Grokk (carrying Amber), Horkina, and Garlen all spider-climbed through, with Roland flying behind. Most of the doors in this section of the house magically opened whenever anyone approached, due to an Unseen Servant at each one. Some doors, however, were locked.
Amber dispelled the magical locks on Lady Rhivaldi's bedroom and the party entered. Roland picked up a stack of crumpled notes, while Rain stepped in to a secret closet. A series of cages held six small animals: a bat, a lizard, a monkey, a rat, a raven, and a toad. The monkey gestured wildly at Rain and then pointed at the Raven's cage. There, Rain found a secret compartment containing a spellbook. The monkey kept pointing at the spellbook. Amber's True Seeing revealed that all six animals were actually halflings, and Roland suspected they'd been Baleful Polymorphed, as the spell was in the book. The party decided to leave the creatures behind, planning to come back to rescue them later. The monkey clearly understood, and sat brooding in the corner, distressed that his rescue was being delayed.
The party approached a large double door, which opened to reveal a grand ballroom. At the front of the room stood a woman (Thrifane Rhivaldi) with a strange third eye grafted onto her forehead. In a semicircle around her were seven others: a white-haired dwarf with a leather half-mask (Adrick Garthun), a man with spiked plate mail and a shield with Nerull's symbol (Khyron Bonesworn), a gaunt half-elf man in black robes (Melagorn), a woman with crimson eyes and a cloak of shadow (a Vampire named Mhad), a fat tiefling with bloodshot eyes and purple robes (Vervil Ashmantle), a bat-winged half-fiend (Velizor Thazo, leader of the Last Laugh), and a green-skinned ogre mage wearing the robes of the Blue Duke (Zarn Kyass). A pair of dwarves flanked one set of doors, a pair of babau flanked another, and a large metal-and-stone construct of humanoid shape stood in front of the doorway the party had approached.
Immediately, Garlen stepped into the room and fired a series of arrows at a babau, screaming "DIE" as the demon fell. Thrifane activated a pair of defensive spells -- Stoneskin and Minor Globe of Invulnerability -- and waited to see what the party was capable of. Amber reacted quickly and used a Holy Word to great effect. The remaining babau was banished, two dwarves and the ogre mage were paralyzed, and virtually all of the other inhabitants of the room were blinded and deafened. Only two creatures were unaffected: the metal-and-stone Shield Guardian, and a Dread Wraith that had been draped over Mhad as a cloak. The now-angered Dread Wraith flew forward to attack Amber, draining her constitution with a touch. Horkina used her Maul to create another entrance to the room, and Grokk moved in through the opening, attacking the cleric of Nerull. Rain followed up by attacking the tiefling, who cast an invisibility spell and tried to move away. The vampire Mhad, blind and deaf, went gaseous and tried to retreat. Velizor hit the party with an Unholy Blight, sickening Garlen and dealing a small amount of damage.
Roland, having long desired a Shield Guardian of his own, decided to take control of this one by grabbing the controlling amulet from around Thrifane's neck. He ordered the guardian to attack the dwarf wearing a leather mask and standing next to it. Khyron attempted to command Grokk to stop fighting, but his ears were still ringing so he couldn't chant out his spell properly. The half-elf attempted to fatigue the party, but couldn't concentrate well enough to cast the spell with Grokk's axe whizzing around his head. The dwarf dropped his weapon and called out "I surrender", but the Shield Guardian began clubbing him anyway.
With no demons left to kill, Garlen tumbled and attacked the half-fiend, providing Rain with an opportunity to strike as well. Thrifane attempted to teleport away, but she mispronounced the spell and it fizzled. Amber, too, lost a spell while trying to avoid the Dread Wraith's touch, and it drained more of her constitution. Horkina smashed through Thrifane's magically hardened skin and felled her with two strong blows, while Grokk attacked the Dread Wraith and Rain stabbed Velizor through his throat. Roland rained fire down on the few enemies still standing, and managed to catch the invisible tiefling in one of the blasts. This left only a fleeing vampire, a Dread Wraith, and three paralyzed foes. Garlen moved to finish off the Dread Wraith, but completely missed with a charge from a healing wand. Amber tried to finish it with a spell but again got distracted, and it drained her nearly dead with its next touch. The strain of making the final attack pushed the undead creature over the line to fully dead. After restoring herself, Amber moved to the door the gaseous vampire had seeped through and fired a Sunray, vaporizing the gaseous enemy. Amber finished the fight just like she started it -- calling on the powers of good and light to smite the forces of evil.
The party tied up the dwarves and the Blue Duke and then secured the rest of the house, taking down a few half-orc mercenaries and gathering up a large amount of treasure. Roland looked over the crumpled notes he'd found -- a speech Lady Rhivaldi had probably just given to the assembled crowd. The speech detailed the lineage of the Shackleborn from demodands several generations ago, and how their souls would power a ritual to link Carceri to Cauldron. It also mentioned the ritual had begun, and that the criminals gathered here would be expected to topple surrounding kingdoms from within while the demodands attacked from outside. Her speech ended with a plea for the elimination of "a particular group", probably the Rubble Rousers themselves. Roland was entertained by the possibility that the very group she'd called to be destroyed may have interrupted just as she was speaking that line.
Roland reached level 13. The rest of the party reached level 14.
The Shackled City, Day 25 (2007-03-23, 6:30 PM), Chapter 7: Secrets of the Soul Pillars
Players (Characters)
Scott (Rain)
Jeremy (Grokk)
Catherine (Amber)
Tony (Roland)
Rachel (Horkina)
DM: Tom (Garlen)
Our heroes decided they needed more information before traveling to Karran-Kural. Rain, Garlen, and an invisible Roland snuck in to Fetor Abradius' house and procured a comb with several strands of hair. Roland used the hair to increase the effectiveness of a scrying spell, which revealed the evil loremaster using a strange icy lattice to scry on the temple of Wee Jas and looking somewhat distraught. After a few minutes, he stopped scrying and used a spell to move instantly into his office, where he studied and added to an extensive pile of notes.
The party set off toward the Demonskar on horseback, courtesy of Roland. The trip was mostly uneventful -- a few animals and a demon thought the party would be easy prey, but they found their estimates to be in error. When the group reached the rim of the Demonskar, Amber flew up in the air and cast a spell of Find the Path, which guided her (and the rest of the party) into an ancient lava tube a few miles to the northeast. Slogging through a series of sometimes-flooded tunnels, the party finally arrived at the edge of the frozen tomb known as Karran-Kural.
A wall of ice mostly blocked the entrance to the ruins, but a small tunnel had been carved through the thick wall. A pair of iron doors led to a cold hallway with strange icy cylinders embedded in the floor. Each cylinder was a sort of tomb with a spell weaver inside. As the party examined the cylinders, one of the spell weavers ran its fingers along the top surface and then fell back into a lifeless state. The creatures were somehow caught between life and death. Rain wanted to take the time to examine the cylinders more thoroughly and possibly break one of the corpses free, but Roland persuaded him there were more important tasks to accomplish.
The next room was inhabited by an icy bug-shaped creature wielding a spear. The ice devil was not happy to see the party, and immediately formed a wall of ice separating Garlen, Horkina, and Amber from the rest. Grokk and Rain moved to flank and attack while Horkina used her Maul to smash the ice wall to pieces. Amber aligned the party's weapons, Roland gave the party cold resistance, and Horkina and Garlen moved into the melee. The ice devil's cone of cold had little effect. It exchanged blows with the party, slowing Garlen with its icy spear, but he dropped it with a furious raging stab. Roland used his sword to cut through a strange lattice of unholy ice strands and Horkina smashed through another wall of ice.
Several more of the strange ice-coffins lined the next hallway, and a series of rooms held similar coffins occupied by dwarves and elves. Roland noticed an icy lattice that looked similar to the scrying lattice he'd seen earlier, so he again used it to scry on Fetor Abradius. This attempt was less successful, as the loremaster noticed the sensor immediately.
The party soon encountered an iron golem. Grokk and Horkina pounded on it while the rest of the party tried to provide distractions. The golem managed a critical hit on each of the axe-wielders, but the whole group shrugged off its poison gas -- a Heroes Feast had warded them against such toxins. Those with spider-climbing abilities climbed down an smooth, sloping pit in the floor, which led to another level. The rest of the party followed behind.
Roland, using the ability of arcane sight, noticed a magical aura in the middle of a hallway leading east. It appeared to be an alarm spell. Amber dispelled it, and Rain quietly opened the door at the end of the hallway. Inside was Fetor Abradius, looking over his scrying lattice. Grokk immediately attacked, and the loremaster responded by firing off a pair of lightning bolts at the party members he could see. Rain dodged them completely, while Grokk took minor injuries. Horkina tackled Fetor, and Rain smacked him in the back of the head with a sap, trying to knock him unconscious. Roland's attempt to petrify him failed, but Amber's spell of silence was effective. Grokk stepped forward and powerfully smashed the villain with the side of his axe, knocking him unconscious. Rain secured him with rope, Grokk stuffed a smelly sock in his mouth, and Horkina tore the steel door off its hinges and laid it on top of him. It was extremely unlikely this opponent would be able to get free to cast spells.
The Rubble Rousers left him behind and moved to the south, where they encountered a Kelubar Demodand (the fat guy on the right side of this image: http://www.wizards.com/dnd/images/ff_gallery/50076.jpg ) in a room criss-crossed with another unholy icy lattice. Garlen tumbled behind the foul creature, taking a slight wound from the lattice, and stabbed the beast in its back. Roland used the rod of empower he'd taken from Fetor to increase the effectiveness of his maximized sound lance, and killed the foe with a single strike. Garlen cried out "that was my kill!" Roland stepped forward and cut a path through the lattice to the far door.
Ran and Garlen snuck into the next hallway and into a large room with a raised walkway around the edge and a pair of strange, fleshy pillars in the middle. A fiendish half-orc wearing platemail stood in the corner of the walkway, and a strange undead snake -- a water bone naga -- slithered around on the floor 20 feet below. The stealthy pair jabbed the orc, and the battle was on. The naga placed a wall of force in the middle of the room, but between flight, spider climb, and transposition, most of the party bypassed the wall while Garlen and Rain finished off the orc. The naga summoned some black tentacles to pin the group down, but Grokk leaped off the walkway and smashed the undead foe. Roland transposed Horkina to within reach of the naga, and she used her axe to finish it off.
Rain complained about the lack of treasure -- the naga hadn't carried anything of value. Roland commented that undead don't normally have treasure. Amber mentioned one type of undead that normally would have a lot of treasure: a Dracolich would be expected to have a hoard just like any other dragon. The party continued searching the area, discovering Abradius' office. Roland grabbed the pile of notes and stuffed it in his haversack. The party also found a magic circle against evil, focused inward -- probably used for summoning and trapping demons and the like. The party moved down a hallway, dispelling another alarm spell and cutting through more unholy icy strands.
Rain quietly opened the door at the end of the hallway. The huge domed room held five of the fleshy pillars, and was mostly circled by a wide walkway that was broken in two places. Across the room was a huge, and undead, green dragon. Vittrius Bale was a dracolich. Rain pulled the door closed while the party prepared for the coming battle, quickly discussing strategy and casting spells. Amber handed a pack of fire seeds to Garlen and protected him from fire, while Roland cast Assay Spell Resistance to increase his chances of successfully overcoming Vittrius Bale's defenses. Rain reopened the door and stepped to the side. Grokk and Horkina ran to the right, preparing to jump to the rearmost platform, while Garlen ran to the left and started climbing the wall. Roland's dizzying ray had no effect, and Amber's light of Venya only slightly wounded the dragon. It flew up to the ceiling and hung upside down, surveying its options. Garlen climbed up next to it, deftly dodging until he got within range, and Amber called out a command to make the fireseeds detonate. Amber then dispelled all of the dragon's protections, including its spider-climb ability. Grokk approached, but the dragon tore into him with a flurry of attacks, leaving him paralyzed and nearly dead. Roland empowered a scorching ray, burning the dragon to a crisp and sending its soul back to its phylactery. Amber spent a few minutes healing Grokk, while Rain discovered this was one undead with plenty of treasure -- gold, diamonds, emeralds, and a few magical items were stashed in the rubble at the base of the room. The party added a smashed phylactery to the rubble pile.
Roland reached level 12. The rest of the party reached level 13.
Scott (Rain)
Jeremy (Grokk)
Catherine (Amber)
Tony (Roland)
Rachel (Horkina)
DM: Tom (Garlen)
Our heroes decided they needed more information before traveling to Karran-Kural. Rain, Garlen, and an invisible Roland snuck in to Fetor Abradius' house and procured a comb with several strands of hair. Roland used the hair to increase the effectiveness of a scrying spell, which revealed the evil loremaster using a strange icy lattice to scry on the temple of Wee Jas and looking somewhat distraught. After a few minutes, he stopped scrying and used a spell to move instantly into his office, where he studied and added to an extensive pile of notes.
The party set off toward the Demonskar on horseback, courtesy of Roland. The trip was mostly uneventful -- a few animals and a demon thought the party would be easy prey, but they found their estimates to be in error. When the group reached the rim of the Demonskar, Amber flew up in the air and cast a spell of Find the Path, which guided her (and the rest of the party) into an ancient lava tube a few miles to the northeast. Slogging through a series of sometimes-flooded tunnels, the party finally arrived at the edge of the frozen tomb known as Karran-Kural.
A wall of ice mostly blocked the entrance to the ruins, but a small tunnel had been carved through the thick wall. A pair of iron doors led to a cold hallway with strange icy cylinders embedded in the floor. Each cylinder was a sort of tomb with a spell weaver inside. As the party examined the cylinders, one of the spell weavers ran its fingers along the top surface and then fell back into a lifeless state. The creatures were somehow caught between life and death. Rain wanted to take the time to examine the cylinders more thoroughly and possibly break one of the corpses free, but Roland persuaded him there were more important tasks to accomplish.
The next room was inhabited by an icy bug-shaped creature wielding a spear. The ice devil was not happy to see the party, and immediately formed a wall of ice separating Garlen, Horkina, and Amber from the rest. Grokk and Rain moved to flank and attack while Horkina used her Maul to smash the ice wall to pieces. Amber aligned the party's weapons, Roland gave the party cold resistance, and Horkina and Garlen moved into the melee. The ice devil's cone of cold had little effect. It exchanged blows with the party, slowing Garlen with its icy spear, but he dropped it with a furious raging stab. Roland used his sword to cut through a strange lattice of unholy ice strands and Horkina smashed through another wall of ice.
Several more of the strange ice-coffins lined the next hallway, and a series of rooms held similar coffins occupied by dwarves and elves. Roland noticed an icy lattice that looked similar to the scrying lattice he'd seen earlier, so he again used it to scry on Fetor Abradius. This attempt was less successful, as the loremaster noticed the sensor immediately.
The party soon encountered an iron golem. Grokk and Horkina pounded on it while the rest of the party tried to provide distractions. The golem managed a critical hit on each of the axe-wielders, but the whole group shrugged off its poison gas -- a Heroes Feast had warded them against such toxins. Those with spider-climbing abilities climbed down an smooth, sloping pit in the floor, which led to another level. The rest of the party followed behind.
Roland, using the ability of arcane sight, noticed a magical aura in the middle of a hallway leading east. It appeared to be an alarm spell. Amber dispelled it, and Rain quietly opened the door at the end of the hallway. Inside was Fetor Abradius, looking over his scrying lattice. Grokk immediately attacked, and the loremaster responded by firing off a pair of lightning bolts at the party members he could see. Rain dodged them completely, while Grokk took minor injuries. Horkina tackled Fetor, and Rain smacked him in the back of the head with a sap, trying to knock him unconscious. Roland's attempt to petrify him failed, but Amber's spell of silence was effective. Grokk stepped forward and powerfully smashed the villain with the side of his axe, knocking him unconscious. Rain secured him with rope, Grokk stuffed a smelly sock in his mouth, and Horkina tore the steel door off its hinges and laid it on top of him. It was extremely unlikely this opponent would be able to get free to cast spells.
The Rubble Rousers left him behind and moved to the south, where they encountered a Kelubar Demodand (the fat guy on the right side of this image: http://www.wizards.com/dnd/images/ff_gallery/50076.jpg ) in a room criss-crossed with another unholy icy lattice. Garlen tumbled behind the foul creature, taking a slight wound from the lattice, and stabbed the beast in its back. Roland used the rod of empower he'd taken from Fetor to increase the effectiveness of his maximized sound lance, and killed the foe with a single strike. Garlen cried out "that was my kill!" Roland stepped forward and cut a path through the lattice to the far door.
Ran and Garlen snuck into the next hallway and into a large room with a raised walkway around the edge and a pair of strange, fleshy pillars in the middle. A fiendish half-orc wearing platemail stood in the corner of the walkway, and a strange undead snake -- a water bone naga -- slithered around on the floor 20 feet below. The stealthy pair jabbed the orc, and the battle was on. The naga placed a wall of force in the middle of the room, but between flight, spider climb, and transposition, most of the party bypassed the wall while Garlen and Rain finished off the orc. The naga summoned some black tentacles to pin the group down, but Grokk leaped off the walkway and smashed the undead foe. Roland transposed Horkina to within reach of the naga, and she used her axe to finish it off.
Rain complained about the lack of treasure -- the naga hadn't carried anything of value. Roland commented that undead don't normally have treasure. Amber mentioned one type of undead that normally would have a lot of treasure: a Dracolich would be expected to have a hoard just like any other dragon. The party continued searching the area, discovering Abradius' office. Roland grabbed the pile of notes and stuffed it in his haversack. The party also found a magic circle against evil, focused inward -- probably used for summoning and trapping demons and the like. The party moved down a hallway, dispelling another alarm spell and cutting through more unholy icy strands.
Rain quietly opened the door at the end of the hallway. The huge domed room held five of the fleshy pillars, and was mostly circled by a wide walkway that was broken in two places. Across the room was a huge, and undead, green dragon. Vittrius Bale was a dracolich. Rain pulled the door closed while the party prepared for the coming battle, quickly discussing strategy and casting spells. Amber handed a pack of fire seeds to Garlen and protected him from fire, while Roland cast Assay Spell Resistance to increase his chances of successfully overcoming Vittrius Bale's defenses. Rain reopened the door and stepped to the side. Grokk and Horkina ran to the right, preparing to jump to the rearmost platform, while Garlen ran to the left and started climbing the wall. Roland's dizzying ray had no effect, and Amber's light of Venya only slightly wounded the dragon. It flew up to the ceiling and hung upside down, surveying its options. Garlen climbed up next to it, deftly dodging until he got within range, and Amber called out a command to make the fireseeds detonate. Amber then dispelled all of the dragon's protections, including its spider-climb ability. Grokk approached, but the dragon tore into him with a flurry of attacks, leaving him paralyzed and nearly dead. Roland empowered a scorching ray, burning the dragon to a crisp and sending its soul back to its phylactery. Amber spent a few minutes healing Grokk, while Rain discovered this was one undead with plenty of treasure -- gold, diamonds, emeralds, and a few magical items were stashed in the rubble at the base of the room. The party added a smashed phylactery to the rubble pile.
Roland reached level 12. The rest of the party reached level 13.
The Shackled City, Day 24 (2007-03-16, 6:30 PM), Chapter 7: Secrets of the Soul Pillars
Players (Characters)
Scott (Rain)
Jeremy (Grokk)
Catherine (Amber)
Tony (Roland)
Rachel (Horkina)
DM: Tom (Garlen)
The party continued to investigate the assassination attempt. For 2000 gold pieces, Artus Shemwick informed the party that the temple of Wee Jas was heavily intwined with the city government, mostly through "donations" to nobles. In turn, Wee Jas seemed to get a lot of donations from people hoping to sway the government -- especially those accused of crimes. He could not explicitly confirm that the assassination order came from Wee Jas, at least not without more money and time. Rain wanted to head straight for the temple and attack, but the rest of the party wanted to be sure the order was generated locally first.
The group split up to investigate other leads. Rain and Garlen hid outside the temple. They noticed the temple was extremely quiet -- nobody went in or out over the course of a couple hours. Rain waited until the shadows were right for sneaking, and then used his boots to spider-climb up to a window. He noticed a pair of stone giants and a handful of orcs standing in the main sanctuary, looking like they were ready for a fight. There was also an armored human in the room, likely a cleric of Wee Jas. Roland and Horkina spoke to Meerthan, who shared information he'd gathered from Fario and Fellian: the temple of Wee Jas closed its doors for "renovation work" about the same time as the assassination attempt and brought in some stone giant "construction workers", and agents of Wee Jas recently met with Lord Vhalantru and Lady Rhiavadi. The high priestess, Embril Aloustinai, had not been seen in several weeks. Roland stopped by the Bluecrater library to look up the recent history of the town's nobility, and noted that both Vhalantru and the Blue Duke were portrayed as less than upstanding in the historical accounts. Amber and Grokk paid Jenya to cast a divination asking for the motivation behind the assassination attempt, and recieved the cryptic riddle:
Cages above and bones below
Death the door and magic the key
Knives but dust and souls the prize
The mention of death and magic again shed suspicion on the temple of Wee Jas, but this still didn't give a definite answer. Finally, the party asked Alek Tercival, guard captain, for permission to investigate the stone giants, as stone giants aren't generally allowed in town. Tercival wrote up a short warrant, and the party headed home to rest and prepare for an early morning encounter.
Roland sent an arcane eye into the temple through an open window, and was able to confirm the positioning of the guards: two stone giants, three half-orcs, and a human in the main sanctuary, with no other guards in the immediate area. The magical sensor found no sign of priests or lay worshippers in the main parts of the temple. Roland placed the sensor in the elaborate sanctuary, where the guards waited, to provide a clear view for teleportation. Rain and Grokk knocked on the front door, and Rain called out in his best little-girl voice "girl scouts!" The orc mercenaries moved to the main door and opened it just as Roland teleported in with Horkina, Garlen, and Amber in position to surround the human. Garlen called out "we're here to arrest you for illegal possession of stone giants".
The two giants ran at Horkina, and one swung his greatclub... right into the ground. Horkina and Garlen, surmising the cleric was the biggest threat, dropped him immediately. Amber moved to stabilize him. Rain tumbled behind one of the orcs and Grokk smashed it repeatedly with his greataxe. Roland fired a lightning bolt at the pair of giants and began flying toward the orcs at the main door. The orcs surrounded Grokk and scratched him slightly with their dwarven waraxes. The giants kept swinging at Horkina, but she deftly dodged their blows and struck back with both of her axes. Garlen did a somersault between one giant's legs and then stabbed it in the back of the knee. Rain's stabs bounced off the plate mail of the orc in front of him, but Grokk dropped that one and turned to swing at another, nailing it with a critical blow that sent it fleeing. Roland hit the fleeing orc with a ray of fire, and Amber held the other orc with a spell so Rain could finish him off with a carefully aimed jab. Horkina continued to avoid the giants' swings and dropped one with her waraxe, and then turned and hit the other with a critical strike. (Amber collected 10 gold pieces from Rain, as she'd bet on Horkina making just such a hit.) Rain put manacles on the stable, but unconscious, cleric, and the party gathered the armor, weapons, and gold from the fallen.
The party searched two small rooms off to the side. One was filled with mundane supplies, while the other looked like living quarters for a priest. Several papers detailing day-to-day temple operations, such as number of visitors and cost of janitorial support, covered the desk. Roland stuffed the papers in his bag and the party headed upstairs. On the next level was an even more finely decorated room, probably the living quarters for the high priest. A similar stack of papers, dated before Embril's recent leave of absence, covered the desktop. Rain noticed one desk drawer had a false bottom, beneath which were a few healing potions and a stack of letters describing a search for an unnamed thing. Roland gathered up these letters, and then the party continued onward.
Rain opened the next door, and the party stepped onto a small staircase leading up into a large octagonal room with a cage hanging from the ceiling. A divine fire rained down on the party. The spell was cast by Ike Iverson, who was floating at the top of the room near the cage. A dread wraith rushed through the floor and drained a few points of constitution from Rain, while a bone devil took up position near the top of the stairs and several large gray render zombies slowly shuffled across the room. Garlen tumbled past the devil and flew into a rage, jabbing it with a shortsword, while Rain attacked with his rapier and Grokk landed a solid blow with his axe. Amber used a heal spell to seriously damage the wraith, and Horkina finished it off with several swings of each axe. Roland floated upward and fired a powerful bolt of energy, stunning Ike and injuring him somewhat. The bone devil clawed and bit at Garlen, who responded with a flurry of attacks that destroyed it. Garlen then swung at one of the zombies, while Grokk and Rain attacked another. Amber fired a Lucent Lance at Ike, who was still stunned, and Roland touched Ike with a flame that caused him to combust. The party mopped up the zombies without much difficulty, and grabbed a few surviving treasures from Ike's charred corpse.
In a room downstairs, the party found Todd Vanderboren's body lying in state. Roland met with Lord Vanderboren, who said the temple of Wee Jas had been paid to resurrect his son but had thus far delayed. Because the temple of Wee Jas was no longer in a position to provide resurrection services, James performed the resurrection for a nominal fee. The young Stormblade explained that his group had been adventuring in some tunnels beneath Cauldron when they were ambushed by a powerful wizard, and he was hit with some sort of death spell. He thanked the party and James, and left to find his friends.
The party woke the captured cleric, Calmus Vel, who knew only that Ike expected the party to attack the temple and that he was to hold them off. One of the letters proved to be more enlightening. It read:
High Priestess,
As many have heard me say, the cages alone will not afford the completion of the ritual. The Cagewrights
have built a matrix on which to support them, but due to the shortsightedness of the others, I have been
left out of these discussions. You are my only ally amongst the Thirteen now. You must warn them that
there is more hidden in thee Soul Pillars that could prove of great import to their plans. What more is
needed I cannot say, and so I continue to explore the mysteries of the Soul Pillars at great peril.
Vittriss Bale grows ever more restless, and the insanity that lies frozen in Karran-Kural begins to stir.
Yet I shall remain here until the end, in hope of unveiling the last of the weavers' hidden lore. Still,
the risk is great. My price has doubled.
F. Abradius
Roland spent some time at the Bluecrater library researching, and came to these conclusions:
- the "high priestess" is Embril Aloustinai, and Fetor Abradius is a local loremaster.
- Karran-Kural is a spell weaver ruin located near the Demonskar. The spell weavers had experimented with ice and death, and apparently trapped souls in some sort of pillars.
- Vittrius Bale was a green dragon who agreed to protect Karran-Kural in exchange for immortality.
- The Cagewrights, also called the Thirteen, were a group searching for a way to connect the prison plane of Carceri (home to demodands and other evil creatures) with the material plane. They believed people called "shackleborn", descended from half-demodands, somehow held the key to forming a planar junction.
Scott (Rain)
Jeremy (Grokk)
Catherine (Amber)
Tony (Roland)
Rachel (Horkina)
DM: Tom (Garlen)
The party continued to investigate the assassination attempt. For 2000 gold pieces, Artus Shemwick informed the party that the temple of Wee Jas was heavily intwined with the city government, mostly through "donations" to nobles. In turn, Wee Jas seemed to get a lot of donations from people hoping to sway the government -- especially those accused of crimes. He could not explicitly confirm that the assassination order came from Wee Jas, at least not without more money and time. Rain wanted to head straight for the temple and attack, but the rest of the party wanted to be sure the order was generated locally first.
The group split up to investigate other leads. Rain and Garlen hid outside the temple. They noticed the temple was extremely quiet -- nobody went in or out over the course of a couple hours. Rain waited until the shadows were right for sneaking, and then used his boots to spider-climb up to a window. He noticed a pair of stone giants and a handful of orcs standing in the main sanctuary, looking like they were ready for a fight. There was also an armored human in the room, likely a cleric of Wee Jas. Roland and Horkina spoke to Meerthan, who shared information he'd gathered from Fario and Fellian: the temple of Wee Jas closed its doors for "renovation work" about the same time as the assassination attempt and brought in some stone giant "construction workers", and agents of Wee Jas recently met with Lord Vhalantru and Lady Rhiavadi. The high priestess, Embril Aloustinai, had not been seen in several weeks. Roland stopped by the Bluecrater library to look up the recent history of the town's nobility, and noted that both Vhalantru and the Blue Duke were portrayed as less than upstanding in the historical accounts. Amber and Grokk paid Jenya to cast a divination asking for the motivation behind the assassination attempt, and recieved the cryptic riddle:
Cages above and bones below
Death the door and magic the key
Knives but dust and souls the prize
The mention of death and magic again shed suspicion on the temple of Wee Jas, but this still didn't give a definite answer. Finally, the party asked Alek Tercival, guard captain, for permission to investigate the stone giants, as stone giants aren't generally allowed in town. Tercival wrote up a short warrant, and the party headed home to rest and prepare for an early morning encounter.
Roland sent an arcane eye into the temple through an open window, and was able to confirm the positioning of the guards: two stone giants, three half-orcs, and a human in the main sanctuary, with no other guards in the immediate area. The magical sensor found no sign of priests or lay worshippers in the main parts of the temple. Roland placed the sensor in the elaborate sanctuary, where the guards waited, to provide a clear view for teleportation. Rain and Grokk knocked on the front door, and Rain called out in his best little-girl voice "girl scouts!" The orc mercenaries moved to the main door and opened it just as Roland teleported in with Horkina, Garlen, and Amber in position to surround the human. Garlen called out "we're here to arrest you for illegal possession of stone giants".
The two giants ran at Horkina, and one swung his greatclub... right into the ground. Horkina and Garlen, surmising the cleric was the biggest threat, dropped him immediately. Amber moved to stabilize him. Rain tumbled behind one of the orcs and Grokk smashed it repeatedly with his greataxe. Roland fired a lightning bolt at the pair of giants and began flying toward the orcs at the main door. The orcs surrounded Grokk and scratched him slightly with their dwarven waraxes. The giants kept swinging at Horkina, but she deftly dodged their blows and struck back with both of her axes. Garlen did a somersault between one giant's legs and then stabbed it in the back of the knee. Rain's stabs bounced off the plate mail of the orc in front of him, but Grokk dropped that one and turned to swing at another, nailing it with a critical blow that sent it fleeing. Roland hit the fleeing orc with a ray of fire, and Amber held the other orc with a spell so Rain could finish him off with a carefully aimed jab. Horkina continued to avoid the giants' swings and dropped one with her waraxe, and then turned and hit the other with a critical strike. (Amber collected 10 gold pieces from Rain, as she'd bet on Horkina making just such a hit.) Rain put manacles on the stable, but unconscious, cleric, and the party gathered the armor, weapons, and gold from the fallen.
The party searched two small rooms off to the side. One was filled with mundane supplies, while the other looked like living quarters for a priest. Several papers detailing day-to-day temple operations, such as number of visitors and cost of janitorial support, covered the desk. Roland stuffed the papers in his bag and the party headed upstairs. On the next level was an even more finely decorated room, probably the living quarters for the high priest. A similar stack of papers, dated before Embril's recent leave of absence, covered the desktop. Rain noticed one desk drawer had a false bottom, beneath which were a few healing potions and a stack of letters describing a search for an unnamed thing. Roland gathered up these letters, and then the party continued onward.
Rain opened the next door, and the party stepped onto a small staircase leading up into a large octagonal room with a cage hanging from the ceiling. A divine fire rained down on the party. The spell was cast by Ike Iverson, who was floating at the top of the room near the cage. A dread wraith rushed through the floor and drained a few points of constitution from Rain, while a bone devil took up position near the top of the stairs and several large gray render zombies slowly shuffled across the room. Garlen tumbled past the devil and flew into a rage, jabbing it with a shortsword, while Rain attacked with his rapier and Grokk landed a solid blow with his axe. Amber used a heal spell to seriously damage the wraith, and Horkina finished it off with several swings of each axe. Roland floated upward and fired a powerful bolt of energy, stunning Ike and injuring him somewhat. The bone devil clawed and bit at Garlen, who responded with a flurry of attacks that destroyed it. Garlen then swung at one of the zombies, while Grokk and Rain attacked another. Amber fired a Lucent Lance at Ike, who was still stunned, and Roland touched Ike with a flame that caused him to combust. The party mopped up the zombies without much difficulty, and grabbed a few surviving treasures from Ike's charred corpse.
In a room downstairs, the party found Todd Vanderboren's body lying in state. Roland met with Lord Vanderboren, who said the temple of Wee Jas had been paid to resurrect his son but had thus far delayed. Because the temple of Wee Jas was no longer in a position to provide resurrection services, James performed the resurrection for a nominal fee. The young Stormblade explained that his group had been adventuring in some tunnels beneath Cauldron when they were ambushed by a powerful wizard, and he was hit with some sort of death spell. He thanked the party and James, and left to find his friends.
The party woke the captured cleric, Calmus Vel, who knew only that Ike expected the party to attack the temple and that he was to hold them off. One of the letters proved to be more enlightening. It read:
High Priestess,
As many have heard me say, the cages alone will not afford the completion of the ritual. The Cagewrights
have built a matrix on which to support them, but due to the shortsightedness of the others, I have been
left out of these discussions. You are my only ally amongst the Thirteen now. You must warn them that
there is more hidden in thee Soul Pillars that could prove of great import to their plans. What more is
needed I cannot say, and so I continue to explore the mysteries of the Soul Pillars at great peril.
Vittriss Bale grows ever more restless, and the insanity that lies frozen in Karran-Kural begins to stir.
Yet I shall remain here until the end, in hope of unveiling the last of the weavers' hidden lore. Still,
the risk is great. My price has doubled.
F. Abradius
Roland spent some time at the Bluecrater library researching, and came to these conclusions:
- the "high priestess" is Embril Aloustinai, and Fetor Abradius is a local loremaster.
- Karran-Kural is a spell weaver ruin located near the Demonskar. The spell weavers had experimented with ice and death, and apparently trapped souls in some sort of pillars.
- Vittrius Bale was a green dragon who agreed to protect Karran-Kural in exchange for immortality.
- The Cagewrights, also called the Thirteen, were a group searching for a way to connect the prison plane of Carceri (home to demodands and other evil creatures) with the material plane. They believed people called "shackleborn", descended from half-demodands, somehow held the key to forming a planar junction.
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