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Shilsen's Eberron SH (Finished - The Last Word : 9/20/15)
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<blockquote data-quote="shilsen" data-source="post: 2821044" data-attributes="member: 198"><p>I went to India over the summer, so there's a long gap between the last session and this one.</p><p></p><p><strong>Session 7 (9/18/05) - Encounter(s) with Desro(s)</strong></p><p><strong></strong></p><p><strong>Corven ir’Lanya Deneith - Human Art5</strong></p><p><strong>Gareth Byron Deneith - Human Pal3/Clr2 (Silver Flame)</strong></p><p><strong>Luna - Shifter Drd5</strong></p><p><strong>Mithral 6 of 6 - Warforged Ftr2/Scout3</strong></p><p><strong>Nameless - Human Wiz5</strong></p><p></p><p>While some of the group heal themselves, others check to see that the archer is dead but the cleric is alive, though unconscious. The former is a slim half-elf, wearing a magical chain shirt and using a well-made longbow, while the latter is a burly human, with a handlebar moustache and wearing a breastplate. He also wears a holy symbol of the Mockery, member of the Dark Six and deity of betrayal and treachery. Raog, once he recovers, identifies him as Desro and suggests that the group dispatch him immediately. Nameless is about to oblige but Gareth (who detects a strong evil aura on Desro) intervenes and suggests they keep him manacled and gagged, which should make it impossible for him to cast a spell, and question him later. Corven backs him up and Nameless and Raog reluctantly agree.</p><p></p><p>The two enemies, both corpse and live, are dragged back to the hut. There, the group goes through and divides their equipment, heals themselves, and triggers (from a distance) the magical traps on the two doors, which turn out to be explosive glyphs. There is also a magical trap on the chest, which they leave alone for now. All of them take a rest, other than Six, who has no choice but to stay awake and on watch. </p><p></p><p>Early in the morning, he awakes the others to say that the prisoner seems to be conscious. The adventurers quickly arise and, after pointing out to Desro what will happen if he makes any false moves, removes his gag. The man claims that his name is Rand, asks why they had laid an ambush for him and his friend Thalin in their hut and points out that they were defending themselves. This line of argument has no effect, especially with Gareth saying that he should die because he is evil and Raog saying that he is lying and should be killed immediately. When Nameless says they are only interested in Desro and are happy to kill anyone else who isn't important, the man changes tack and promises to tell them the truth. He then reveals himself to be a female changeling, turning into her natural form and then into that of a human female.</p><p></p><p>She reveals that her name is really Cail and she is a mercenary. She’d met Desro years ago when he was a fugitive at Black Pit, in northern Breland. He recently contacted her while passing through Sharn, where she was, and asked her to hire a tracker (Thalin) and meet him here. They were hired by Desro to accompany him and help him locate a strange mound with a cave nearby by tracking down and ambushing an orc that used to visit it. Once they’d done so (the previous afternoon), they’d been told to return here and that she should wear his form when in the forest. The pair had gone to town for supplies and returned to find the tracks of the PCs, who were waiting for them. She has no idea what Desro wanted with the cave but says she will lead the group to him if they let her go afterwards.</p><p></p><p>The group tentatively agrees to accept her aid and not kill her, and Gareth heals her enough so that she will not collapse. Though she argues that if Desro finds her with them he will kill her, they keep her manacled and only give her some clothes. When they ask about the chest, she says that Desro used to keep some personal materials in it. After triggering the trap on it, they open it to find many mundane items, a large ledger with some numbers in it, and a large locked lead box. Bashing it open, they find and take some 300 galifars, as well as some costly incense and other components used in casting spells such as augury and divination. It also contains a small folding altar to the Traveler, another member of the Dark Six, god of cunning and deception.</p><p></p><p>***</p><p>Once they are all ready, the group heads off into the forest, following Cail's directions. On the way, Raog asks them about their aims and plans in Sharn, as well as whether they are interested in accepting more such jobs. The adventurers make no promises but say that the possibility is always there. Cail leads them to a rough, overgrown trail about five hundred feet from the cabin, which leads north. It eventually disappears but Cail leads them onwards for about three miles or two hours travel for the group. Eventually they encounter an unnaturally tangled mass of vegetation, literally forming a wall about ten feet high. Luna opines that it is the result of a plant growth spell. Near the spot where they reach the wall, there is a five foot wide path that someone has hacked and burned through it. Cail says that was the work of Thalin, Desro and her.</p><p></p><p>Proceeding though the 'wall, the group finds it to be about fifty feet thick. Emerging within, they find it forms a huge circle, probably over six hundred feet in diameter. Some fifty feet away from them is a low mound of earth and rock, strangely devoid of vegetation. As they head towards it, some of them notice that there are literally no bird or animal noises in this area, though they had encountered enough on the way there. Cail says the entrance is around the edge of the mound to their right and Six scouts ahead, returning to say that there is a rectangular cave opening (6 x 8 feet) there, which is too regular to be natural and with what seems to be a raised threshold. There is also dried blood on the threshold.</p><p></p><p>Cail says that Desro, Thalin and she ambushed and killed a young orc who came out of the cave, stripped the body and dragged it into the rocks above. Though she says where it is, nobody cares to check it, and they all head for the entrance. Reaching it, they find that there are rough runes carved into it, in very ancient orcish, partly missing over time. Gareth deciphers these as reading, “… lies … for … for evil … here … you … are”. Nameless has more success, reading, “Here lies … for change, for good … evil. Know ... well before …. The Green will … you here. The Old Ones were, are and ever …”.</p><p></p><p>As the group is about to head into the tunnel, which has steps leading down into the darkness, Six hears the sound of metallic footsteps coming closer from within. The source turns out to be an old orc with stringy hair, wearing banded mail and with a greataxe strapped to back, who emerges slowly and look around cautiously. He asks the group what they want and introduces himself as a guardian of the mound, placed in magical slumber and woken recently by an intruder. When they describe Desro and say they seek him, he confirms that was what the intruder and says he slew him. When they ask to see the body, he asks them to enter the mound with him. Gareth detects no evil on him.</p><p></p><p>When they enter the tunnel, everyone except Luna and Raog feels a cold chill travel up his arms and disappear into his spine. Nameless also has a very strong sense of déjà vu, as if he has been here or somewhere similar before. The air within is musty but surprisingly breathable. The steps lead down about twenty feet to a straight tunnel, which heads in a straight line for sixty feet, before turning right. About fifty feet away is an archway, silhouetted by a glimmer of green light from beyond it. Just as the group is turning the corner, the orc attacks, neatly slicing off Cail's head and revealing himself as Desro. Battle erupts, with Desro causing some damage and taking some more, but it is over quickly. With an "I'll see you soon," Desro uses a spell and dimension doors away. Rushing outside the mound, the group does not see him, and they return to the tunnel. </p><p></p><p>The green light emanates from a circular room, about sixty feet across and thirty feet high. The body of a snakelike creature with a deep purple body covered in fine scales, a tail with a barbed stinger and an eel-like head with a human visage, lies against one wall (Nameless identifies it as a naga, a species of aberration). The creature is dead, slain by a slashing weapon, with a pool of dried blood beneath it. Checking it, Corven determines that some of the wounds are older than others, that it has been dead for a day and somebody cut its tongue out. </p><p></p><p>The room has an open doorway (which the adventurers came through) set into an arch and another seventeen such arches spaced equally around the room. Unlike the open doorway, the other arches have a curtain of dim green light blocking them. Large runes in orcish are carved into the floor, which read “Here lie the minions of the daelkyr. Show your worthiness. Free, destroy and pass.” Corven also finds a much more recent chalk inscription behind the naga, reading “P.S. It’s a trap!”</p><p></p><p>Nameless opines that this area is a test of some kind, where one must free an aberration and slay it. When throwing a piece of the naga at an archway has no effect, he touches one. Immediately, the green light disappears from the alcove directly across from it, revealing the alcove to be about five feet deep and holding two strange creatures, consisting of a floating, spherical body with a large eye and multiple stalks that bear smaller eyes at the end, which all of the group have heard of but never encountered. The two beholders* seem to be wounded and in a state of mindless rage, as they fly shrieking into the chamber, beams lancing from the various eyes.</p><p></p><p>As battle begins, the group quickly discovers that the gaze of the central eye can stun them. By the end of the fight, Gareth is exhausted by an eye-beam, Raog is stunned and rendered asleep, Corven is stunned, Nameless is rendered asleep, and Six is paralyzed. Luna and some of the others are also badly burned and wounded by other eyebeams. Luckily for the group, the creatures are too enraged to use particularly good tactics and leave themselves open enough to attacks to also be taken down soon enough, more quickly than would otherwise be due to their already wounded state.</p><p></p><p>Nameless, before being affected by a sleep effect, summons a celestial bison - or tries to. To his surprise, he feels something in the area warp his spell, and when the bison appears it bears a crest of small tentacles along its back. He realizes that it is a pseudonatural creature, the kind that Lillia back in Sharn had mentioned, and he tries to remember the way he felt the magic change upon casting, hoping to replicate it later.</p><p></p><p>As soon as the two creatures are dispatched, one of the green lights flickers out, revealing a tunnel beyond. The tunnel beyond leads forward for about forty feet before ending at a door, which has a pair of carved hand-prints in it.. Carvings on the tunnel walls depict aberrations of various kinds emerging from portals and fighting various creatures (especially orcs and hobgoblins), with the latter forcing the aberrations back towards the portals. Midway up the tunnel is a folded piece of parchment placed on the floor. Opening it, Gareth reads, “Question – What is scarier than being in a room with an invisible enemy?” </p><p></p><p>Presuming it has been placed there as a taunt by Desro, Nameless suggests that the group rest before continuing onwards. Returning to the top of the mound (though not before Luna removes and takes the beholder stalks as trophies), the group makes camp. The evening and early night pass peaceably, but well before dawn, somebody fires a searing light into the camp, barely missing Raog, who is on watch with the unsleeping Six. They quickly wake the others, but there is no other sign of an intruder, other than a discarded scroll. With no target to follow, the adventurers return to their bedrolls.</p><p></p><p>***</p><p>In the morning, they head back into the mound. Nameless, presumably feeling a little impatient, walks straight up to the door and sticks his palms into the carved hand-prints. Immediately, a column of flame engulfs him. When it disappears, he collapses instantly**, with only a barrage of hurried healing keeping him from dying. Soon enough he is back on his feet, though missing most of his hair and all of his eyebrows. </p><p></p><p>Even as Nameless collapses, an orcish voice from the door says, “Only those true in blood and faith may pass.” Surmising that this means an orc druid needs to open the door, the adventurers discuss what to do. Having seen what happened to Nameless, Raog refuses to risk it, despite his orcish blood. Finally Luna says she will risk it, counting on her druidic training and makes the attempt. When she places her hands in the slots, she feels a chill begin to spread across the palm, until it grows exceedingly cold. Then the slots slide out till her hands are flush with the door and it opens by sliding sideways. Investigation reveals that it rolls shut after thirty seconds and has similar palm-prints on the other side.</p><p></p><p>The room beyond is another circular one, forty feet across, with a door in the far wall and doors to the two sides. All three have similar hand slots, with the one in the far wall having some small writing on it. The room is also full of (mostly) life-size statues of two kinds – various aberrations, each of them with plants writhing up and around them, and orcs and hobgoblins, all in martial or spellcasting postures. It is lit by four continual flame stones embedded in the wall, though each gives only a feeble glow. Once the adventurers enter, they see another folded piece of parchment against the far door. While Gareth approaches the door to read the one word on it (“Seal”), Nameless opens the note to read, “Answer: Being in a room with an invisible enemy with a sword”. While they are doing so, they hear spellcasting from one side of the room, revealing Desro's presence.</p><p></p><p>Desro appears as he strikes the approaching Gareth with a powerful strike and the adventurers swarm him. Gareth, Six and Raog surround him, quickly joined by a pair of bison (pseudonatural again) summoned by Nameless, while Luna and Corven launch blasts of flame (him from a wand, her from a spell) at him. They quickly discover that he has some resistance to magic, since it sometimes fails to effect him, as well as to fire and non-magical weapons. The multiple attacks on him do begin to overpower him gradually. Not before he badly wounds one of the bison and Gareth, however, and more irritatingly, smashes his greatsword through Six's spiked chain and Gareth's magical sword, breaking both into pieces. Still, Desro is badly wounded by this point and dimension doors away again, drawing cries of frustration from the adventurers.</p><p></p><p>All of them rush back out of the mound again. As Luna, in the lead, emerges, a vertical blast of lightning slams down right in front of her and a thick voice from further up the mound says, "Hold!" Luna ignores the warning and rushes out, followed by her allies, some of whom stop to see that the voice comes from an elderly orc wielding a staff and wearing ancient-looking hide armor. He calls, "Hold, intruders, or I will slay you!", and some quick talking from Nameless and Gareth persuades him not to attack.</p><p></p><p>This orc also claims to be the guardian of mound (and a Gatekeeper) and says he is called Gurr'khan, and it emerges that the orc Desro, Cail and Thalin killed was his apprentice. The fact that he just saw someone fitting Desro's description appear a hundred feet outside the mound and disappear again makes him a little more amenable to the group's assertion, though he remains a little suspicious. Unsurprisingly, so do they, and Nameless asks Gurr'khan to let him cast a detect magic to ascertain that he is not Desro in disguise. He agrees, though he tells a very large bear that has ambled around the mound to join him to "Eat him if he does something silly." When the spell reveals no illusions, he asks the group to accompany him back into the mound, to see if it has been desecrated.</p><p></p><p>Following him, they return through the room of alcoves (he seems a little impressed at the sight of the dead beholders and says, "You must be more competent than you look") into the one where they fought Desro. There, while he opens the door marked "Seal", Gareth sadly picks up the shards of his weapon, to feel a strong sensation that he should join them together. When he does, there is a flash of light and a curiously draining feeling, and the broken pieces begin to meld together, till the sword is whole again. </p><p></p><p>Meanwhile, Gurr'khan opens the door to reveal a strange room. Following him in, the adventurers see that it contains a circular chasm some eighty feet across, with a 10 ft wide stone walkway around it. On the far side is a humanoid-shaped cavity about the size of an ogre carved into the stone, with a border full of large dragonshards embedded into it, glowing in the light from the pool below. Forty feet below is what seems to be a strange pool, covered in matter which constantly changes its nature in parts. Sometimes fire, earth, air, water and other elements, it shifts unendingly. Ten feet above the lake in mid-air floats a circular stone slab some two feet in thickness and with a radius of fifteen feet. It is covered with runes and diagrams of various kinds. Some of the runes resemble those used for notations in planar study. As the group looks around the room they all feel a roiling and queasy feeling in their stomachs (including Six, who actually has no stomach).</p><p></p><p>Gurr'khan examines the alcove and returns, to have Nameless ask him, "Is this a dimensional seal?" He nods and says with an appreciative tone, "Ah, you are a scholar! We shall talk." He then checks the other two rooms. One is an unused bedroom/study, with a stone bed, shelves carved in the wall, and a stone desk. The other has no furniture and is full of shelves holding crudely made stone urns, totaling well over a hundred. Each has a name carved on it, usually orcish in nature, and the words “Guardian” before it. A few say “Initiate” instead and a couple say “Hierophant”.</p><p></p><p>Closing the doors, Gurr'khan scratches his head and says, "It seems that no serious damage has occurred, though I will need to investigate further. Your presence here may have helped. I am curious to know more, so will you join me for the night?" The adventurers agree and follow the old druid out of the mound.</p><p></p><p>* Gauth, to be precise </p><p>** Flame Strike, which (combined with a failed save) took him straight from 26 to -33 hit pts. Yay for action pts!</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="shilsen, post: 2821044, member: 198"] I went to India over the summer, so there's a long gap between the last session and this one. [B]Session 7 (9/18/05) - Encounter(s) with Desro(s) Corven ir’Lanya Deneith - Human Art5 Gareth Byron Deneith - Human Pal3/Clr2 (Silver Flame) Luna - Shifter Drd5 Mithral 6 of 6 - Warforged Ftr2/Scout3 Nameless - Human Wiz5[/B] While some of the group heal themselves, others check to see that the archer is dead but the cleric is alive, though unconscious. The former is a slim half-elf, wearing a magical chain shirt and using a well-made longbow, while the latter is a burly human, with a handlebar moustache and wearing a breastplate. He also wears a holy symbol of the Mockery, member of the Dark Six and deity of betrayal and treachery. Raog, once he recovers, identifies him as Desro and suggests that the group dispatch him immediately. Nameless is about to oblige but Gareth (who detects a strong evil aura on Desro) intervenes and suggests they keep him manacled and gagged, which should make it impossible for him to cast a spell, and question him later. Corven backs him up and Nameless and Raog reluctantly agree. The two enemies, both corpse and live, are dragged back to the hut. There, the group goes through and divides their equipment, heals themselves, and triggers (from a distance) the magical traps on the two doors, which turn out to be explosive glyphs. There is also a magical trap on the chest, which they leave alone for now. All of them take a rest, other than Six, who has no choice but to stay awake and on watch. Early in the morning, he awakes the others to say that the prisoner seems to be conscious. The adventurers quickly arise and, after pointing out to Desro what will happen if he makes any false moves, removes his gag. The man claims that his name is Rand, asks why they had laid an ambush for him and his friend Thalin in their hut and points out that they were defending themselves. This line of argument has no effect, especially with Gareth saying that he should die because he is evil and Raog saying that he is lying and should be killed immediately. When Nameless says they are only interested in Desro and are happy to kill anyone else who isn't important, the man changes tack and promises to tell them the truth. He then reveals himself to be a female changeling, turning into her natural form and then into that of a human female. She reveals that her name is really Cail and she is a mercenary. She’d met Desro years ago when he was a fugitive at Black Pit, in northern Breland. He recently contacted her while passing through Sharn, where she was, and asked her to hire a tracker (Thalin) and meet him here. They were hired by Desro to accompany him and help him locate a strange mound with a cave nearby by tracking down and ambushing an orc that used to visit it. Once they’d done so (the previous afternoon), they’d been told to return here and that she should wear his form when in the forest. The pair had gone to town for supplies and returned to find the tracks of the PCs, who were waiting for them. She has no idea what Desro wanted with the cave but says she will lead the group to him if they let her go afterwards. The group tentatively agrees to accept her aid and not kill her, and Gareth heals her enough so that she will not collapse. Though she argues that if Desro finds her with them he will kill her, they keep her manacled and only give her some clothes. When they ask about the chest, she says that Desro used to keep some personal materials in it. After triggering the trap on it, they open it to find many mundane items, a large ledger with some numbers in it, and a large locked lead box. Bashing it open, they find and take some 300 galifars, as well as some costly incense and other components used in casting spells such as augury and divination. It also contains a small folding altar to the Traveler, another member of the Dark Six, god of cunning and deception. *** Once they are all ready, the group heads off into the forest, following Cail's directions. On the way, Raog asks them about their aims and plans in Sharn, as well as whether they are interested in accepting more such jobs. The adventurers make no promises but say that the possibility is always there. Cail leads them to a rough, overgrown trail about five hundred feet from the cabin, which leads north. It eventually disappears but Cail leads them onwards for about three miles or two hours travel for the group. Eventually they encounter an unnaturally tangled mass of vegetation, literally forming a wall about ten feet high. Luna opines that it is the result of a plant growth spell. Near the spot where they reach the wall, there is a five foot wide path that someone has hacked and burned through it. Cail says that was the work of Thalin, Desro and her. Proceeding though the 'wall, the group finds it to be about fifty feet thick. Emerging within, they find it forms a huge circle, probably over six hundred feet in diameter. Some fifty feet away from them is a low mound of earth and rock, strangely devoid of vegetation. As they head towards it, some of them notice that there are literally no bird or animal noises in this area, though they had encountered enough on the way there. Cail says the entrance is around the edge of the mound to their right and Six scouts ahead, returning to say that there is a rectangular cave opening (6 x 8 feet) there, which is too regular to be natural and with what seems to be a raised threshold. There is also dried blood on the threshold. Cail says that Desro, Thalin and she ambushed and killed a young orc who came out of the cave, stripped the body and dragged it into the rocks above. Though she says where it is, nobody cares to check it, and they all head for the entrance. Reaching it, they find that there are rough runes carved into it, in very ancient orcish, partly missing over time. Gareth deciphers these as reading, “… lies … for … for evil … here … you … are”. Nameless has more success, reading, “Here lies … for change, for good … evil. Know ... well before …. The Green will … you here. The Old Ones were, are and ever …”. As the group is about to head into the tunnel, which has steps leading down into the darkness, Six hears the sound of metallic footsteps coming closer from within. The source turns out to be an old orc with stringy hair, wearing banded mail and with a greataxe strapped to back, who emerges slowly and look around cautiously. He asks the group what they want and introduces himself as a guardian of the mound, placed in magical slumber and woken recently by an intruder. When they describe Desro and say they seek him, he confirms that was what the intruder and says he slew him. When they ask to see the body, he asks them to enter the mound with him. Gareth detects no evil on him. When they enter the tunnel, everyone except Luna and Raog feels a cold chill travel up his arms and disappear into his spine. Nameless also has a very strong sense of déjà vu, as if he has been here or somewhere similar before. The air within is musty but surprisingly breathable. The steps lead down about twenty feet to a straight tunnel, which heads in a straight line for sixty feet, before turning right. About fifty feet away is an archway, silhouetted by a glimmer of green light from beyond it. Just as the group is turning the corner, the orc attacks, neatly slicing off Cail's head and revealing himself as Desro. Battle erupts, with Desro causing some damage and taking some more, but it is over quickly. With an "I'll see you soon," Desro uses a spell and dimension doors away. Rushing outside the mound, the group does not see him, and they return to the tunnel. The green light emanates from a circular room, about sixty feet across and thirty feet high. The body of a snakelike creature with a deep purple body covered in fine scales, a tail with a barbed stinger and an eel-like head with a human visage, lies against one wall (Nameless identifies it as a naga, a species of aberration). The creature is dead, slain by a slashing weapon, with a pool of dried blood beneath it. Checking it, Corven determines that some of the wounds are older than others, that it has been dead for a day and somebody cut its tongue out. The room has an open doorway (which the adventurers came through) set into an arch and another seventeen such arches spaced equally around the room. Unlike the open doorway, the other arches have a curtain of dim green light blocking them. Large runes in orcish are carved into the floor, which read “Here lie the minions of the daelkyr. Show your worthiness. Free, destroy and pass.” Corven also finds a much more recent chalk inscription behind the naga, reading “P.S. It’s a trap!” Nameless opines that this area is a test of some kind, where one must free an aberration and slay it. When throwing a piece of the naga at an archway has no effect, he touches one. Immediately, the green light disappears from the alcove directly across from it, revealing the alcove to be about five feet deep and holding two strange creatures, consisting of a floating, spherical body with a large eye and multiple stalks that bear smaller eyes at the end, which all of the group have heard of but never encountered. The two beholders* seem to be wounded and in a state of mindless rage, as they fly shrieking into the chamber, beams lancing from the various eyes. As battle begins, the group quickly discovers that the gaze of the central eye can stun them. By the end of the fight, Gareth is exhausted by an eye-beam, Raog is stunned and rendered asleep, Corven is stunned, Nameless is rendered asleep, and Six is paralyzed. Luna and some of the others are also badly burned and wounded by other eyebeams. Luckily for the group, the creatures are too enraged to use particularly good tactics and leave themselves open enough to attacks to also be taken down soon enough, more quickly than would otherwise be due to their already wounded state. Nameless, before being affected by a sleep effect, summons a celestial bison - or tries to. To his surprise, he feels something in the area warp his spell, and when the bison appears it bears a crest of small tentacles along its back. He realizes that it is a pseudonatural creature, the kind that Lillia back in Sharn had mentioned, and he tries to remember the way he felt the magic change upon casting, hoping to replicate it later. As soon as the two creatures are dispatched, one of the green lights flickers out, revealing a tunnel beyond. The tunnel beyond leads forward for about forty feet before ending at a door, which has a pair of carved hand-prints in it.. Carvings on the tunnel walls depict aberrations of various kinds emerging from portals and fighting various creatures (especially orcs and hobgoblins), with the latter forcing the aberrations back towards the portals. Midway up the tunnel is a folded piece of parchment placed on the floor. Opening it, Gareth reads, “Question – What is scarier than being in a room with an invisible enemy?” Presuming it has been placed there as a taunt by Desro, Nameless suggests that the group rest before continuing onwards. Returning to the top of the mound (though not before Luna removes and takes the beholder stalks as trophies), the group makes camp. The evening and early night pass peaceably, but well before dawn, somebody fires a searing light into the camp, barely missing Raog, who is on watch with the unsleeping Six. They quickly wake the others, but there is no other sign of an intruder, other than a discarded scroll. With no target to follow, the adventurers return to their bedrolls. *** In the morning, they head back into the mound. Nameless, presumably feeling a little impatient, walks straight up to the door and sticks his palms into the carved hand-prints. Immediately, a column of flame engulfs him. When it disappears, he collapses instantly**, with only a barrage of hurried healing keeping him from dying. Soon enough he is back on his feet, though missing most of his hair and all of his eyebrows. Even as Nameless collapses, an orcish voice from the door says, “Only those true in blood and faith may pass.” Surmising that this means an orc druid needs to open the door, the adventurers discuss what to do. Having seen what happened to Nameless, Raog refuses to risk it, despite his orcish blood. Finally Luna says she will risk it, counting on her druidic training and makes the attempt. When she places her hands in the slots, she feels a chill begin to spread across the palm, until it grows exceedingly cold. Then the slots slide out till her hands are flush with the door and it opens by sliding sideways. Investigation reveals that it rolls shut after thirty seconds and has similar palm-prints on the other side. The room beyond is another circular one, forty feet across, with a door in the far wall and doors to the two sides. All three have similar hand slots, with the one in the far wall having some small writing on it. The room is also full of (mostly) life-size statues of two kinds – various aberrations, each of them with plants writhing up and around them, and orcs and hobgoblins, all in martial or spellcasting postures. It is lit by four continual flame stones embedded in the wall, though each gives only a feeble glow. Once the adventurers enter, they see another folded piece of parchment against the far door. While Gareth approaches the door to read the one word on it (“Seal”), Nameless opens the note to read, “Answer: Being in a room with an invisible enemy with a sword”. While they are doing so, they hear spellcasting from one side of the room, revealing Desro's presence. Desro appears as he strikes the approaching Gareth with a powerful strike and the adventurers swarm him. Gareth, Six and Raog surround him, quickly joined by a pair of bison (pseudonatural again) summoned by Nameless, while Luna and Corven launch blasts of flame (him from a wand, her from a spell) at him. They quickly discover that he has some resistance to magic, since it sometimes fails to effect him, as well as to fire and non-magical weapons. The multiple attacks on him do begin to overpower him gradually. Not before he badly wounds one of the bison and Gareth, however, and more irritatingly, smashes his greatsword through Six's spiked chain and Gareth's magical sword, breaking both into pieces. Still, Desro is badly wounded by this point and dimension doors away again, drawing cries of frustration from the adventurers. All of them rush back out of the mound again. As Luna, in the lead, emerges, a vertical blast of lightning slams down right in front of her and a thick voice from further up the mound says, "Hold!" Luna ignores the warning and rushes out, followed by her allies, some of whom stop to see that the voice comes from an elderly orc wielding a staff and wearing ancient-looking hide armor. He calls, "Hold, intruders, or I will slay you!", and some quick talking from Nameless and Gareth persuades him not to attack. This orc also claims to be the guardian of mound (and a Gatekeeper) and says he is called Gurr'khan, and it emerges that the orc Desro, Cail and Thalin killed was his apprentice. The fact that he just saw someone fitting Desro's description appear a hundred feet outside the mound and disappear again makes him a little more amenable to the group's assertion, though he remains a little suspicious. Unsurprisingly, so do they, and Nameless asks Gurr'khan to let him cast a detect magic to ascertain that he is not Desro in disguise. He agrees, though he tells a very large bear that has ambled around the mound to join him to "Eat him if he does something silly." When the spell reveals no illusions, he asks the group to accompany him back into the mound, to see if it has been desecrated. Following him, they return through the room of alcoves (he seems a little impressed at the sight of the dead beholders and says, "You must be more competent than you look") into the one where they fought Desro. There, while he opens the door marked "Seal", Gareth sadly picks up the shards of his weapon, to feel a strong sensation that he should join them together. When he does, there is a flash of light and a curiously draining feeling, and the broken pieces begin to meld together, till the sword is whole again. Meanwhile, Gurr'khan opens the door to reveal a strange room. Following him in, the adventurers see that it contains a circular chasm some eighty feet across, with a 10 ft wide stone walkway around it. On the far side is a humanoid-shaped cavity about the size of an ogre carved into the stone, with a border full of large dragonshards embedded into it, glowing in the light from the pool below. Forty feet below is what seems to be a strange pool, covered in matter which constantly changes its nature in parts. Sometimes fire, earth, air, water and other elements, it shifts unendingly. Ten feet above the lake in mid-air floats a circular stone slab some two feet in thickness and with a radius of fifteen feet. It is covered with runes and diagrams of various kinds. Some of the runes resemble those used for notations in planar study. As the group looks around the room they all feel a roiling and queasy feeling in their stomachs (including Six, who actually has no stomach). Gurr'khan examines the alcove and returns, to have Nameless ask him, "Is this a dimensional seal?" He nods and says with an appreciative tone, "Ah, you are a scholar! We shall talk." He then checks the other two rooms. One is an unused bedroom/study, with a stone bed, shelves carved in the wall, and a stone desk. The other has no furniture and is full of shelves holding crudely made stone urns, totaling well over a hundred. Each has a name carved on it, usually orcish in nature, and the words “Guardian” before it. A few say “Initiate” instead and a couple say “Hierophant”. Closing the doors, Gurr'khan scratches his head and says, "It seems that no serious damage has occurred, though I will need to investigate further. Your presence here may have helped. I am curious to know more, so will you join me for the night?" The adventurers agree and follow the old druid out of the mound. * Gauth, to be precise ** Flame Strike, which (combined with a failed save) took him straight from 26 to -33 hit pts. Yay for action pts! [/QUOTE]
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Shilsen's Eberron SH (Finished - The Last Word : 9/20/15)
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