The Collected Journals of Artemis Heuw Cannith

Azlin's tale, part 10

Before we step through the portal, I call upon the Host to place a blanket of silence on my armor, since we don't know if anyone will be waiting on the other side. I lay my hand on Sten and extend the power to him, too.

I'm still smarting that I didn't even think to use the Host's power to turn aside that living whirlwind that attacked us. But I guess in a way that's a good thing. If I'd destroyed it we wouldn't have been able to open the portal.

We step through into darkness, the whole crowd of us. Now we've got four extra goblins with us, plus that little dragon Gwaenna just acquired. I hope it's not going to be a repeat of the flying critter Conshru had.

We're in a small room, full of the dust and litter of ages. No one's been here for a very long time. There are several doors out; I stand next to each for a moment to sense if there's anyone on the other side. Good thing this place has stone floors.

It's a little hard to sense with so many people standing around, now that we've got not only Dresden with us but also Gwaenna's "honor guard".

Conshru keeps asking me, 'Want to see what I can do?" I'm not sure I want to know.

There's nobody here. The other doors all lead to storerooms, empty except for a nasty-smelling pool in one of them. The doors are all swollen with age and Sten has to cut the hinges to get them open.

We must be in an outside room. There are arrow slits in the walls. Sten knocks the debris out of one and looks out. We're in some kind of tower.

The last door we try opens onto a landing. Stairs go down. There's a rotunda in the next area, overlooked by a balcony, with a fancy mosaic on the floor below. Above we can see a glass dome. It must be some kind of enchanted glass, because it's still intact though covered in ages of filth.

I'm checking more doors. It's really quiet in here. Gwaenna flies out over the rotunda. She thinks she saw something. It's infuriating her goblin guards that they can't fly with her. It's almost funny.
[sblock]
Jubilee: "I'm thinking of getting a ring of evasion. They seem to be a dime a dozen. All my goblin ninjas have one."
sniffles: "You get one when you graduate from ninja school."
[/sblock]
Gwaenna yells, "They're cockatrices!" That could be trouble. I pull on the goggles the illithid gave us. Conshru shouts his favorite word, "Fire!" and a huge blast of flames shoots down to the level below us.
[sblock]
Patv: "These are googles of what?"
Jubilee: "Goggles of gaze protection."
Zora: "No, they're googles of searching."

DH: "They (the cockatrices) are about the size of turkeys."
Jubilee: "Turkeys can't fly."
Patv: "Maybe we should tell them that so they'll fall."
[/sblock]
When Gwaenna flies down to investigate all she finds is a bunch of charred bones.
[sblock]
Jubilee: "I'm searching for their nest and squishing any eggs."
Devo: "Those are worth a lot of money!"
Jubilee: "Yeah, but I don't want them to hatch while I have them. I don't want to be stoned."
Devo: "Baby cockatrices just give you a little high."
[/sblock]
We may have made too much noise, though - someone's blowing a horn off in the distance. Or maybe it's just meal time or shift change.

Gwaenna found a way to see out. She says the tower overlooks the city and the streets are full of statues. Then she stops herself - "No, they're not statues. They're petrified people!"

Slag it, that means this place is probably swarming with medusas.

From the tower we can see two areas of interest. There's a bunch of people off toward the mountains, and to the east we can see something being built, something tall with a wooden scaffold around it. We have no idea what that could be.

We decide to go out and investigate. We creep out of the tower and start making our way carefully through the twisty streets, heading for the crowd of people we saw.

We don't get far before there's trouble. Gwaenna was right - the figures in the streets are all petrified people, and there are medusas here. Medusas riding on gorgons, for Arawai's sake!

Conshru is riding ahead and runs into it first. Oh, and while we worry about that, let's have some gargoyles show up, too! I'm standing right next to one. I thought it was a statue until it moves.

The first thing I can think to do is turn the Host's power against it. "Get back!" I shout. To my relief, it backs off.
[sblock]
Zora: "I'm going to spell and run."
Jubilee: "What are you going to spell?"
Zora: "Fireball."
[/sblock]
Curse it to Khyber - the medusa has turned Dresden to stone! And Gwaenna's not happy about having one of her guards petrified, either.

Everyone's talking excitedly. Conshru - or was it Artemis? I'm not quite sure - just roasted the medusa and her steed with a ball of fire. Glory!

I can feel the connection with the gargoyle - I can command it and it has to obey me! Praise the Host. I think to it, "Keep a watch and warn us if you see medusas coming toward us. Don't tell the others you've seen us.". I like this.
[sblock]
sniffles: "What should I tell it to do?"
Zora: "You could ask it if it has any good ideas of what you should tell it to do."
DH: "Here's the user manual."
[/sblock]
But Conshru says the gorgons can smell us. And one gargoyle won't keep us safe from all the others flying overhead. There's nothing for it but to leave Dresden and the goblin guard behind. We'll have to try to come back for them later.

Artemis says, "Get closer. I'll make us invisible, but if you get too far apart you'll be visible again." We can all still see each other. We must look ridiculous, the whole crowd of us creeping along on one another's heels - or we would if anyone could see us.

We pause, and Artemis calls up another spell to cloak us even further, so the gorgons won't be able to smell us and we leave no tracks. He's clever, that human.

There's an open square up ahead. That's where the crowd we saw is located. It's a bunch of gnolls, apparently standing guard over some excavation. Xil's been a gnoll the whole time, so he creeps off and pretends he belongs there to check out the area.

When he returns he says they've got a signal gong. "We need to take that out first," says Artemis. "I'll silence it." Ready for a fight, we get closer so he can center his spell on the gong.

Most of the gnolls don't even notice when it gets unnaturally quiet around them. We're going to try to draw the rest to us so Conshru can roast them.

It worked! They're coming this way. I don't even need to fight. Gwaenna and Conshru are taking care of most of them. The last gnoll breaks and runs, but Conshru burns him to a crisp.
[sblock]
sniffles: "He was slightly browned before but now he's toast."
Jubilee: "He's a blackened chicken gnoll."
[/sblock]
But all the fire has drawn the gargoyles. We don't have time to move the bodies. There's a rope hanging down in the pit. Artemis climbs down. Sten follows. So do I.

It's some kind of tomb. The open chamber has writings all over the walls. Gwaenna is fascinated. But there's a spell on the door. A mouth opens and addresses Artemis by name! "If you're here, I can only assume you've avoided my patrols. Welcome, Artemis. I hope you find what you're looking for, but alas, you're going to be too late. I've left you a nice surprise. Hopefully we will never meet again.'

Blast him to Khyber, it's that damned Cannith artificer who's working with the Karrnathi. Artemis mutters, "Damn, I hate him."

I have a funny feeling. "There's something else in here," I tell my friends. "Where?" they ask. But I can't tell where - only that there are four creatures in here that aren't with us.

There are four crates in the tomb. They're breaking apart! Some kind of creatures inside. One of them hits Artemis with a limb.

Artemis stumbles back out of the chamber, his belt falling around his feet. The buckle has disintegrated. His boots are flopping around his ankles, their buckles also gone.

I jump to the doorway and pray to Onatar, "Let me shape this stone!" The stone flows under my hands, covering the doorway. I can hear the creatures scrabbling against the other side. I hope they're not strong - that wall I made isn't very thick.

Sten cuts a narrow hole in my wall with his arm blade and starts shooting the creatures. Gwaenna and Conshru take turns firing through the opening too. It doesn't take them long to kill the monsters.

But now there are things at the edge of the pit above us - probably gargoyles. My new gargoyle friend can't do anything against so many. Someone's yelling down at us - the voice sounds familiar. It's that artificer again. I'd like to give him a taste of my hammer.

Artemis tries to make a deal with him, to swap him the stone for our freedom. The other artificer just laughs when Artemis says the stone is in a Kundarak vault in Sharn.. "You've probably got it in your pocket. I'll come back in a few days when you've all suffocated and go through your pockets myself," he sneers.

He still thinks he's got us trapped. He's got the gargoyles lowering a heavy cover over the pit. He's expecting us to suffocate down here - ha!
[sblock]
sniffles: "I so want to be here in a few days when he comes back to check and we're not here! Sten doesn't breathe - he could stay behind and use autohypnosis to memorize the expression on that guy's face."
[/sblock]
But the last laugh is ours. Artemis just created a door in the wall of the pit! We'll wait until the cover is set in place, and then calmly walk through the door and back into Artemis's subterranean lair beneath Sharn.

Blast it, I don't have any way to bring that gargoyle with me! Almost everyone else has some kind of creature to help them. It would have been fun, having a gargoyle at my beck and call. I wonder if I can tell it to come to me and it will fly to Sharn?

Azlin's tale, part 11

I updated the previous entry slightly. I was mistaken that we'd already returned to Sharn at the end of last session.
--sniffles
------------------
[sblock]
Devo: “I should leave a magic mouth behind for the other artificer.”
Zora: “How many words is ‘phppptttt!’?”
[/sblock]
We look around the crypt a little before we leave. Looks like our adversaries opened all the other tombs but one. Conshru’s on watch – he says he heard something. And he found a recent bloodstain on the floor. There’s something down here with us.

“Something humanoid!” he yells. I head toward him. Artemis and Sten go that way, too. Something doesn’t like the light. I can see them silhouetted against the torchlight. They’re coming up a narrow passage toward us!

Some kind of eyeless creatures in crude leather armor rushes Grix and bowls him over. Conshru sticks to the saddle like a spider on a wall.

A second blind creature runs up behind the first and takes a swing at the halfling. Grix leaps back on his feet and Conshru rolls out of the way of the axe blow, then bursts into flames! The blind thing is scorched. Conshru’s grinning like a madman.

The first creature that attacked Conshru is right in front of me now. It swings a huge two-handed axe at me. Ow! It cut right through my armor. They’re all swarming down the passage to get to us. I can’t tell how many there are – the passage is just too narrow. It’s starting to smell of burnt flesh where they’re running into Conshru’s flames.

I give the nearest one a couple of whacks with my waraxe, chopping through the ill-fitting chain shirt it wears. Just for good measure I use my enchanted bracers so I can hit him one more time.

Suddenly Conshru emits a tremendous roar, like a herd of stampeding dinosaurs. I’m glad I’m not in front of him. I see at least a dozen of the blind creatures flinch from the noise and crumple to the floor. “Ha!” I yell, shaking my axe at the few still standing.

But there are still more of them. Artemis and Sten are shooting at them. Gwaenna appears and slashes one with her sword. The passage is full of smoke now.
[sblock]
Devo: “Why would grimlocks find smoke a problem?”
sniffles: “Somebody told them about it.”
[/sblock]
One of the creatures surges out of the smoke and knocks me off my feet. I fall next to Gwaenna. I start to get back up when I hear her say something arcane and feel a tingle of magic that lifts me to my feet. Conshru blasts two creatures with flames. Both of them fall, cooked like a roast for dinner.
[sblock]
Zora: “If you’re going to stand next to me you’re going to catch on fire.”
Devo: “At the end of your turn.”
[/sblock]
They’re all dead now. All wearing some kind of ancient hobgoblin armor according to Gwaenna, though they’re not hobgoblins. There’s still some noise from the other end of the passageway. Guess we’ll have to check it out.

It opens out into a cavern. My friends precede me into the space. Something’s attacking Sten! I can hear the struggle, but the passage is full of corpses and I can’t get through them quickly.

There’s a weird warbling cry from the cave. “Chokers!” Gwaenna yells. I hurry, but it seems like the blind things’ arms and legs are trying to trip me. When I finally make it to the cave entrance, I pause to pray to the Host and extend some of their aid to those of my companions that are close enough to me.

My friends are still struggling with something in the cave. Now there’s a disturbing moaning sound coming from somewhere beyond us. Gwaenna yells that there are more of the blind creatures there. We certainly stirred up a hornets’ nest down here.

By the time I get all the way into the cave the chokers are dead, but Conshru thinks there are more of the blind creatures coming – and he’s right. Gwaenna moves up to attack them. Two of them grab hold of her but she shrugs them off.

Another one grabs Conshru and tries to pluck him off Grix. The halfling and his dinosaur struggle with a big one. I move in, swinging my axe. “Azlin, don’t get too close to Conshru,” Artemis warns as I move past him. Then he brandishes a wand and fills a corner of the cave with flames.
[sblock]
DH: “Something emerges out of the shadows.”
Devo: “I hate those guys.”
sniffles: “What the hell is that?”
Devo: “One of those guys I hate.”
[/sblock]
There’s a big, barbaric-looking creature in front of me so I give it a good chop. But now something else emerges into the cavern. It lashes at me and Gwaenna with tentacles. I feel a faint weakness from the tentacle’s touch.
[sblock]
sniffles: “Stop touching me! Bad touch.”
[/sblock]
Gwaenna slashes the tentacled thing with her sword, sending a bolt of lightning and a jet of flame through the blade at the same time! The thing’s flesh twitches and burns as it crumples. Then she follows through with a swing at the big creature but can’t quite hit it.

I shake off a bit of tentacle still clinging to my arm. The blind creature grabs at Gwaenna again and she slices at him, then shrugs off his grip. She’s awfully strong for a goblin.

The creature in front of me slumps at the touch of a spell from Artemis’s wand. I step back toward him and use my healing belt, though I don’t feel like it does much for me. Conshru steps up beside me and wields a wand, which makes me feel a bit better.

Sten calls out “There’s something in the shadows down there,” and fires one of his energy bolts at it. Artemis moves over by the warforged. Gwaenna looks kind of odd, like she’s fallen asleep standing up. “I believe the creature is doing something to them,” says Sten. I realize one of the eyeless things is threatening Gwaenna while she’s helpless. I utter a quick prayer to the Host and summon their vengeance to harm the creature.

Something swoops over the warforged. Sten slashes it with his purple blade. It’s like a big black cloak wound around his head. I can hear claws or teeth scraping on his metallic hide. He saws at it with his blade and its tattered remains fall away.

Grix leaps toward Gwaenna and Conshru strikes out with a blinding blast of flame at the big creature still looming over her. I realize more creatures have entered the area – something like a cat on two legs and two things that look like brains with tentacles. I smell burning hair and flesh.

I feel the stones of the cavern tremble as Artemis sends a shockwave of magical energy at the cat-thing and the two tentacled brains. One of the brains sways and then falls. “Gwaenna’s in trouble!” Artemis shouts over his shoulder at her guards. The big eyeless creature hits her, but it doesn’t wake her from the trance.

Someone shouts in a sinister voice. The floating brain that wasn’t dropped by Artemis’s spell surges toward Conshru. Another voice, one of the goblin guards I think, calls out that more blind creatures are coming. I call on the Host to send a moon bolt at the brain-creature, draining a little of its strength.

Conshru jumps off Grix, hands moving in a complex gesture. A jet of flame shoots at the tiger creature but washes over it like water over stone. At the same time Artemis points a wand at the brain-thing and surrounds it with lightning, but that doesn’t have any effect either. And someone’s shooting a crossbow from somewhere – I can’t see where it’s coming from. This is looking bad.

A goblin appears out of nowhere and slays the blind creature that was menacing Gwaenna. She’s snapped out of the trance, praise the Host. And one of her other guards just made sure the fallen brain-thing stays fallen.

Onatar’s hammer! There are tentacles everywhere. The remaining brain-thing is trying to grab everyone at once. A tentacle slaps me. It wraps around me and hangs on. I can see little barbs trying to sink into my flesh but the Host protects me. I wrestle with the tentacle but can’t get free of its grasp.

Fire shoots across the cave. The tentacle holding me goes limp and the cat-creature roars with rage. Conshru bounds back astride Grix. Gwaenna produces a wand and sends a small orb flying at the cat-man. It sizzles where it hits his striped fur.

Now I realize what the cat-thing is: a rakshasa from Khyber. “Dol Arrah preserve us!” I hiss. I wish I could remember more about them.
[sblock]
patv: “They all eat Frosted Flakes.”
Zora: “And they’re grrreat.”
[/sblock]
We all start backing toward the passageway to the burial chamber. Sten grabs Xil, who’s still entranced. “I think if we go away and don’t come back he’ll stop chasing us,” Gwaenna calls out. “He was trying to cast a spell on me to encourage me to leave.”

I have no problem with following that advice. I’ve used up almost all of the magic the Host have granted me this day. And I’m getting tired of killing those blind creatures. I wish I could destroy this demon from Khyber, but I know I don’t have the power.

Praise Dol Arrah, Artemis’s invisible servants cleared most of the corpses out of the passage so we can get through faster this time. I get back into the tomb chamber pretty quickly. Artemis hangs back, and Sten hangs back to look after him. They’ve paused to look at something carved around the end of the passage, some kind of warding. It’s meant to hold the rakshasa there – he can’t pass through into the tomb.

Artemis says to the demon, “We did not mean to disturb you.” Gwaenna says, “I don’t think he’s worried about that. I think he wants us to free him.” Then Conshru asks, “Would a spell to dismiss the magic work?”

“We don’t want to do that!” I exclaim. “He’s an evil creature.”

“I know your dreams and desires,” the rakshasa says. “I know a shortcut to the tomb of Khas.” “So do I,” Artemis answers.

I find myself putting my hand in my belt pouch to feel the hammersphere there, just in case one of my friends is tempted. The demon is talking to Gwaenna, trying to tempt her with tales of the goblin empire she seeks. But she’s convinced that she’s fated to find what she seeks. I don’t have to resort to the sphere to stop her from helping him.

“Leave this place and do not enter my realm again,” the demon demands. “Leave so that I can recover the bodies of my children.” I think Gwaenna and Artemis are a little disappointed that we can’t loot the bodies of their mithral armor. “There isn’t any gold in the world you need badly enough to deal with a rakshasa,” I tell them.

Artemis takes us back to his tower. It’s too quiet. Where are the servants?

Azlin's tale, parts 12 - 14

I'm three sessions behind and we have another session scheduled for tomorrow, so this post is going to be rather compressed to get the story current.
--sniffles
---------------------------------------------
"There's something wrong. No one's here," says Artemis. He's checking all the rooms. What's that overstuffed armchair doing on the landing? There's a halfing sitting in it like he owns the place. Artemis seems to know him.

"What are you doing here?" he demands. The halfling just smiles. "You have something of mine and I've come to reclaim it."

The halfling claims the Key belongs to him!! That's a likely story. Gwaenna comes up the stairs to see what's going on and I explain this to her. Meanwhile Artemis keeps demanding more information and the halfling keeps smirking and ignoring his questions.

Artemis whips out one of his wands and blasts the halfling, but it doesn't seem to hurt him.

I say, "What proof do you have that the Key belongs to you?" The halfling acts like he doesn't hear me. He's going on about how the Key has powers "beyond the knowledge of mere mortals", which implies he's not mortal. Gwaenna wants to know what he is, then. He ignores her too.

I grab the halfling He doesn't resist. But when I try to pin him, he slips out of my grasp like a greased throwing axe.

Now Gwaenna wants to know what proof he has. He says, "Give me the Key and I'll show you." What fools does he take us for? Anyone can use the Key from what I've seen.

Poof! The halfling's across the room, by the fountain. How did he do that so fast? And now there's a red dragon in the middle of the room!

Gwaenna starts babbling at him in some tongue I don't speak. She sounds angry. She stops jabbering long enough to say the dragon is real, but I don't believe it. I call on Dol Arrah to show me his true form.

Well, that's a revelation! He is really a dragon, unless this is some incredibly powerful spell. What's a dragon doing in the middle of Sharn? I thought they never left Argonnessen.

This dragon, Razelthorn, claims he made the Key and gave it to someone to see what would happen. Sounds like a troublemaker.

Artemis tells the dragon that we want recompense for giving up the Key. Gold equivalent to its actual value. I cringe. That seems so mercenary.

But we've made a deal. In a week’s time we'll meet the dragon - in Xen'drik! - and hand over the Key for gold. Now we've got to finish our business with the Sword of Khas in a week.

Back to Graywall we go, to talk to the mind-flayer. At least we've still got the Key for a bit longer.

But the mind-flayer says he can't offer an airship any more. Funny, on the way out we notice one moored up above! It's a snap decision, but we're going for it. I don't care for piracy, but if it will get us to the Sword first...

I can't believe I'm fighting to get on an airship. I have to run across a gangplank over the gap between the airship and the building it’s moored to. Boldrei’s braids I hate being up high! It's not an easy fight, but we've forced our way on board, praise the Host.

The captain agrees to take us to our destination, the goblin city in the mountains. It's an uneventful journey - until we arrive. Our enemies have set up camp all over the ruins.

Dol Arrah preserve us! This place is cursed by living spells. Clouds of knives fly through the air at random. And worse yet, part of the ruins are in a field that blocks magic!

Why is it that every airship I board ends up falling?

The Host's blessed us again - the ship stays aloft til we get out of the anti-magic zone. The anti-magic effect reveals something else: our captain is a changeling! Does Artemis know everyone we meet? Seems this is who the Key was taken from!

And we've given our renegade Cannith "friend" a poke in the eye. Turns out his wyvern mount is being held under duress. Sten manages to set it free. Hah!

We can't hide that we're here, but at least we've got the Stone of Khas, and we know more than the Cannith and his Karrnathi friends. There's something about the weather vane on top of an old temple - it will tell us where to find Khas's tomb. We just have to wait til the moons are in the right position.

By moonslight we find the entrance. But there's something funny about the two columns by the door - they're not supporting anything. And they look sort of like women... Ah! They are women! Women of white stone. Nothing seems to hurt them. They're not earth creatures; I can't command them.

Oh-ho, but they're weak against magic! My blast of sound shatters one. We heal our hurts and head into the tomb.

Which way to go? There are many doors. And each has a sculpture of a hobgoblin head that speaks. Ugh. They speak in riddles. Gwaenna manages to puzzle out the right way to go.

At least we're alone. Well, maybe not. We see two more of those statue-women marching around, but they don’t pay any attention to us.

We're descending. There's a river down here. Odd inside a volcano. It's fast water. We have to cross by sliding down a rope. I never thought I'd say this, but I might actually prefer being flown across by Grix!

Gah! Some sort of nasty creature on the cave roof grabs Gwaenna. I throw my hammer at it. Boldrei's braids, it's big. Lucky it doesn't fall on us when it dies.

What's that pile of stuff? And more importantly, what's that creature on top of it? It's bright in here - the thing has three heads, each a different color. Whatever it is, it doesn't want us touching its' shiny stuff.
[sblock]
DH: "Oh no, bitter player face!"
Jubilee: "I'm not bitter. I'm just resigned."
[/sblock]
Nasty green breath! It burns. And the blue head is shooting lightning! It's hard to see now. Dol Arrah protects us. That thing's bitten off more than it can chew, so to speak. It may have three heads, but we outnumber it.
[sblock]
Devo: "Is Sten going zap-zap or zap-zap-zap?"
Patv: "Zappity doo dah...."
[/sblock]
Look at all this coin! I wonder where it came from? It's old. There's an enchanted horn, too. How did that creature get in here, anyway? It couldn’t have got past the statues at the gate.

Looks like there must be a passage beyond the rubble in this cavern. We still have to find the tomb and try to get out with the Sword before anyone else shows up. We’re all tired and it’s very late at night. We’ll have to hole up here til morning.

Edits to last post

I made a couple of additions to the last post to include some scenes I'd inadvertently omitted. We had to solve a puzzle involving some talking sculptured heads in order to find the right way to head for the tomb, and we crossed a raging underground river by making a zip-line with Artemis's spool of endless rope.

Azlin's tale, part 15

Artemis's invisible servants gathered up all the coin. They unblocked our path, too. Handy things to have, those servants.

We're going deeper and deeper. It's getting hotter and we can see orange light sometimes.

Oh, the Host preserve me! Now we have to cross a Mockery-cursed rope bridge. Over a chasm of lava, no less. And my companions want to save all the flying in case we need it later.

Thank the Host that's over. We made it across safely. This cavern is vast! And it's so hot now. I'm baking in my armor. Onatar protect us all from the heat of his furnace.

What's that glittering up ahead? I can't look - I've got to make sure I don't fall off this narrow causeway.

Agh! What in Boldrei's name is that?! A big floating head with no limbs and too many eyes. It wants to know what we're doing here. It's disgusting - its biggest eye is all rheumy and it drools when it speaks.

Gwaenna steps up and tells it her name and that she's here to fulfill a prophecy. It seems to know what she's talking about. It says she has to pass four tests. We can't help her on the first one.

Who's that on the other side of the causeway? It looks like Xil. But he's right there!

Gwaenna draws her sword. But she's not trying to kill the other Xil, just knock him out. He's gone, and so is the eye-monster.

Wow! It's a whole chamber of dragonshards. That was a bright idea: Conshru turns the stone around them to mud so Artemis and Gwaenna can pull some of them out.

There's only one other way out of this chamber - down a lava tube. That still has lava flowing down it. But there's room for us to drop a rope down the tube. I can't climb that in my armor.

It's a long drop, but we've made it to the bottom. There's a pool of lava here, and a horn on a sort of stand. What should we do with that? Gwaenna gives it a blast.

Is that a boat gliding over the lava?

The hooded figure wants something to ferry us across. It doesn't speak. It just points at Gwaenna's sword. She hands it over. We each have to pay. It only wants magical things. I give it a potion.

There's a building on an island. It has a colonnade like a temple. I suddenly feel slow - my boots aren't working!

What's that coming out of the building? Two fiery demons. Gwaenna starts fighting them. I hit one with my axe - it's not a demon! It's a sort of centaur with horns. I yell to the others, "They're no demons!" They act like they don't believe me.

The centaur-things are dead, but they've nearly killed Gwaenna. Artemis says they had enchanted horseshoes. That's how their magic kept working. He hangs one around Conshru's neck. The halfling heals Gwaenna.

Beyond the colonnade a skeleton sits on a throne. Next to the throne is a three-headed dog-like creature. Guess we've found Khas's tomb. But the dog-thing is still alive.

Gwaenna creeps across the room and grabs the black sword from Khas's bony hand. Uh-oh, this is bad. That sword is dangerous. I wish she'd just throw it in the lava.

The dog's woken up. It lets out a howl that sends Artemis and Xil cowering. Gwaenna's yelling at someone, but I don't think she's talking to us, or to the dog. And lava's starting to cover the floor! Oops, there went my throwing axe.

Gwaenna's trying to kill the dog. She keeps talking to someone - I think it's the sword. That's not good. By the sound of it the sword wants her to kill us. She's fighting it off for now, but how long will that last?

We have to get out. This whole place is sinking into the lava. The dog jumps in the lava and swims away. Gwaenna blows the horn again and the boatman returns. At least we don't have to pay this time.

The dog made a new passage, so we don't have to climb back up the rope. We're back on the bridge. The dog's fighting the eye-monster. Gwaenna starts attacking the monster instead of the dog?

Good show! Conshru shapes the bridge into a ramp to dump the dog into the lava. Too bad it didn't work.

What's that giant eagle doing here? Oh, Artemis called it. Hurrah! It knocked the dog over.

Blast, that dog is tenacious. The eye-thing is dead, but I've nearly used all of my spells fighting this dog.

I could throw Gwaenna into the lava, sword and all. But I don't think it would do any good. With all the magic that artificer and his allies have at their command, they could probably recover it. We have to find some way to destroy it. And I can't kill my friend.

Azlin's tale, part 16

This entry chronicles what will be our last session for a while. We're taking a break to return to another campaign. In order to get the story up to date I've compressed this entry a bit.

I've tried to make the narrative very stream-of-consciousness to give a sense of immediacy, but I realize that may make it difficult to figure out what's going on. Readers, feel free to ask questions.
--sniffles
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Now we're back at that cursed rope bridge. Ugh, it makes my stomach churn.

By Dol Arrah's halberd! What is that? Something's shooting flaming bolts at us!! Oh ho, someone left some animated ballistae behind. Conshru's just reduced them to ash.

That's not all. It's that damned black-skinned sorceress again, with some dratted Karrnathi. And one of the undead has another black sword!

I can't get off the rope. One of the undead is fighting Sten ahead of me. But I let the one with the black sword feel some of the Host's searing light.

Uh-oh, they've got reinforcements. Looks like they've captured our airship. Blast that Karrnathi! He just killed one of Gwaenna's bodyguards the way I'd kill a spider. He needs to be expunged from existence along with that sword.

There, that should slow them down some. Let them try getting around all those stone spikes! If things weren't so dire I'd laugh.

That renegade Cannith is so full of himself. He thinks he's got the upper hand. We're not giving in so easily. He'll be sorry he tangled with us. We won't let him get his hands on that sword.

Glory to the Host! Gwaenna's found the strength to cast aside the sword. But... no!! Damnit, it's not falling into the lava. It's just hovering there. Curse it to Khyber!

Artemis is so clever - he's talked the Deneith man into turning on the Cannith! The Deneith just clubbed the artificer over the head. The undead with the black sword has stopped fighting. I'd like to knock him off into the lava, but that will have to wait.

Gwaenna's so brave for such a little thing. She's facing the undead without her sword. She's not looking too good. I've got to get over there!

Praise the Host, I'm on solid ground, even if I do have to dodge my own spikes.

Who is this fellow, now? I haven't seen him before. I think I've heard Artemis mention Kaiber, though- and Kaiber seems to be after the black sword. That's not going to happen.

Ouch! I didn't know Artemis could be so vindictive.

Boldrei's shield! That undead thing's back in the fight. Ha ha!! Artemis took care of him. It was funny to see him slip and fall.

No! Sten! He rushed the undead. They're falling over the edge... No, wait, it's only Sten whose fallen!

Aaaahh!! Oh, Host preserve us, he's lopped off Gwaenna's head. No no no!

Stop, Conshru! Not you too. They're both going over the cliff, plunging into the lava. And the undead's damnable black sword is floating just like the other one.

Our enemies have fled. We've got the Morgrave scholars, and the two swords. But what does it matter when so many of my friends are dead?
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Just to clarify what was going on, the Karrnathi contingent had a Death Knight with them who had another one of the sentient black swords in his possession. Artemis cast grease under his feet and Sten knocked him down, but he got back up again and either stabbed Sten or threw him into the lava (or both).

He then beheaded Gwaenna. Then Conshru and his flying mount bull-rushed the Death Knight and they all went plunging into the lava.