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.
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