The Order of Initiative In: "The City of the Spider Queen"

[tariff]

Session 10:
Wherein the party formulates a plan. Brownstone the Elf Assassin will use his disguise skills to disguise himself as a Drow. He will then scout out the Drow village they discovered earlier. The party decides to rest first and pitch up camp in the Drider lair in the Dordrien Crypts. Around the campfire they discuss events.

“This apparent disruption in the weave. It bothers me” states Thein. His tattoos looking like strange shadows in the firelight.

“You probably scared that other wizard off” quips Brownstone as he tosses another stick on the campfire

“Either that or hes played a trick on you” Chandos glances over to Judas. The cleric is deep in prayer. “Anyway, lets Sleep. Tomorrow we raise a Village”

The morning soon comes. They make their way once again to the huge spider web. They descend to the village level. Out of sight Mr Brownstone disguises himself as one of the Drow. Judas casts Chain of Eyes on Brownstone enabling him to see through his eyes.

“I wont be able to hear you. But I can see if you get in trouble” states Judas

“Here goes” says Brownstone to himself as he enters the large cavern that contains this drow outpost.

A feint green phosphorescence dances along the ceiling, which is easily 30 feet overhead at the entrance and rises sharply from that point. The cavern stretches for hundreds of feet to the east, its floor broken into a myriad of ledges and tilted slabs. Many of these are covered with weird fungal growths that appear to have been carefully cultivated; others sport bulbous houses or cottages that seem to have been grown from giant toadstools. Eerie green witchlight dances in the small, round windows of these dwellings. A few dark figures move about between the fungus patches and the houses.

Brownstone stealthily moves into the cavern toward the houses and a path. He notices some of the drow seem to be carrying baskets of mushrooms. Figuring this to be a good ploy to enable him to look around the village Mr Brownstone decides to acquire a Basket and some mushrooms. He scans about the area. Ahead of him, outside a small mushroom house, on its doorstep, Brownstone spies a basket containing aforementioned mushrooms.

Taking a deep breath Mr Brownstone moves forward toward the house. Ducking under the front windows of the house he manages to grab the basket without being seen. He makes for a nearby pathway and follows at a distance several drow with similar baskets. Whilst walking Mr Brownstone tries to take as much information in as possible.

“Good” whispers Judas to Chandos and Thein, who are out of sight in the entrance to the cavern “Take a good look around Brownstone, let me see what you see”

Clutching his basket of strange mushrooms Brownstone continues down the path. He traverses a small bridge that spans a stream. The Drow ahead of him seem to be heading for a gate. Guarded by two armored Drow.

Striding forward, with all the confidence of a professional basket carrier Brownstone approaches the guards at the gate. A 8 ft high wall separates the area beyond from this cavern. They look up and eye Brownstone

“Abbil….. Bwael” one addresses Brownstone

“Um” he replies. Although he was a Elf, Brownstone didn’t understand the Drow dialect

The guards look at one another. “Golhyrr” shouts one of the guards to the other before they draw their weapons and begin to slowly move toward Brownstone.

Brownstone reacts quick casting Obscuring mist right where he stood. The fog envelops him. He then drinks his potion of invisibility. He runs invisibly back toward the cavern entrance. “do’ bauthin” “do’ bauthin” he hears the guards shouting as he races toward the bridge. Out of the mushroom houses Drow appear, curious to the noise. Many seem to be drow common folk. Women, children. Some however are clearly trained as guards. However, they do not see the invisible assassin.

Brownstone makes it back to the others at the cavern entrance and relays events to them. “Yes I saw” says Judas.

“Charge” says Chandos as he runs into the cavern. Brownstone follows, still invisible. Chandos runs up to one of the nearest huts and attacks a Drow. Brownstone appears out of nowhere and slits the throat of another. Judas and Thein look on from the cavern entrance.

With the alarm raised more drow rush to the frey. Apart from the common drow, our hero’s are accosted by a drow cleric of ghaunadar called Tooman Thendrik and a Bugbear named Thulk.
Tooman’s hands weaves strange patterns, Chandos and Brownstone look down at the ground, out or which rubbery black tentacles grasp at their feet. Chandos manages to avoid their clutches, but Brownstone is less successful and is held fast by the tentacles. Thein responds from the entrance in the cavern in the only way he knows how. A fireball explodes on the advancing drow, killing six instantly. Judas also responds with a show of power, a pillar of flame hits Tooman where he stands. The bugbear Thulk throws a javelin at Brownstone who is still grappled by the tentacles, it whistles past his ear. Several arrows fired by the drow also miss the trapped rogue. He drinks a potion of antitoxin. Chandos is hit by a poisoned arrow but does not succumb to the poison. Tooman heals himself of the damage done from Judas’s flame strike. Judas then casts Doom on the drow cleric. Thulk runs forward and engages Chandos. Brownstone, still entangled, manages to shoot his wand of lightning bolt at Tooman, but the lightning fizzles on impact. “damn magic resistance” thinks the rogue. A pillar of flame crashes down on Judas causing the cleric of the red knight a great deal of damage. Thein conjures up magical acid arrows and fires them off toward Tooman. They strike successfully. Chandos and Thulk swipe away at each other, Chandos clearly having the upper hand. Tooman points his finger at Chandos and the warrior freezes in place. Thulk lets out a squeal of delight as he hits the prone warrior. Judas moves forward into the cavern and is accosted by two drow fighters. Thein fires off a lightning bolt at Tooman but it fizzles on contact . Judas manages to dispatch the two drow and casts spell resistance on himself. Thulk continues to beat on a held Chandos for a few rounds longer before the fighter is free of his magical bonds “right” says Chandos to the Bugbear boss. “now you die”. Tooman attempts to Bestow curse on Judas, but Judas’s spell resistance nullifies the spell. Theins Magic Missiles also fails to penetrate Toomans magic resistance. However, the repeating damage from the acid arrow spell continues to hurt Tooman. Tooman and two other drow run and engages Judas. Judas responds with a slay living spell on Tooman, but it fails to penetrate the spell resistance. Chandos finally slays the bugbear Thulk and rushes over to help Judas fight Tooman and the two other drow. Tooman attempts a slay living spell on Judas, but it fails to penetrate Judas’s spell resistance. Thein summons a celestial bear who runs over to assist Judas and Chandos. It strikes Tooman. Brownstone, still entangled by the black tentacles watches on. Thein fires another magic missile at Tooman but it fizzles, eventually, one of Thein’s quickened magic missiles strikes successfully on Tooman. But it is Judas that finally slays tooman. Brownstone dances. Chandos takes time to kill all residence including women, children and baby drow. They decide to advance to the gate beyond the bridge.

They walk on following the path that Brownstone had followed earlier. They observe the mushroom fields and the Rothe pastures, and pass many toadstool houses. They cross the bridge that spans a small stream. Up ahead, they see a gate. It is manned by four drow guards. A 8ft high wall separates the cavern they are in and the one beyond. Chandos and Brownstone decide to sneak up to the guards as close as they can and engage.

With a cry Chandos launches himself at one of the drow guards, Brownstone is second into the fray. Thein fires off a flame arrow. From behind the 8ft wall, two stone giants peer over and begin throwing huge boulders at the party. Judas utilizes his domain spell and Inspires Allies. The drow are dispatched fairly easily with Chandos’s cleave attacks. One of the stone giants steps through the gates and beats on Chandos, the other throwing rocks from behind wall. Brownstone casts obscuring mist, the mist making combat difficult for all involved. Judas continues to heal Chandos as he gets hit by the stone giant. Thein summons a celestial giant owl and sends it in to attack a giant, he then begins smmoning another owl. One giant in slain, but Chandos is taking a mighty beating, the other giant steps forward and attacks Chandos. Judas casts his last heal on Chandos and states “that’s it, I’m out of heals”. “its gonna be close” says Chandos hitting the giant with a almighty blow. The two celestial owls claw at the giant, Brownstone stabs away, and soon the last giant falls.

 

[tariff]

Session 11: A Assasination and a Artifact

Session 11: A Assasination and a Artifact
Wherein Chandos says to the party, “I wish to go back to Daggerfalls, I feel the need to train. And we are depleted of spells”. “We can’t keep going back to town all the time” protests Brownstone, wiping his brow. I do feel a little queasy thinks Brownstone. The party decides to vote. The outcome is, they find themselves ascending the web and trudging back to Daggerfalls.
The party enter the familiar Teshford Arms inn that evening, weary from battle and travel. They settle down and enjoy few drinks. As they are at the bar a few of the party engage tho locals in conversation. They hear the following rumors:

· A Monk of Tyr had been found dead in the streets last night, apparently assassinated, he had a strange mask in his pocket
· A Army of Drow had emerged from under Haptooth Hill and had ravaged Battledale

The party return to their table a discuss events “ I think I should travel to Battledale, assist in their efforts there” “Im not going to Battledale” states Chandos “Who cares” “I will pray for guidance tonight” says Judas
“Brownstone, why are you not touching your ale” inquires Thein “im not feeling to well to be honest” “ill take a look at you in the morning friend, once I pray to my lady says Judas, we have plenty of time, Chandos needs to train” “ok” says Brownstone. “Think ill go get some water from the bar” he says getting up from the table. As he moves to the bar he is bumped into by a man dressed in a leather jerkin. “high friend, care to talk?, may have something you may be interested in”. Brownstone eyes the man up and down, “ill come over and join you in a minute”. The man nods and walks over to a table in the corner of the Inn. Brownstone glances back at his companions. Judas is bidding them goodnight before he retires to his room. Thein is falling asleep in his chair, and Chandos is staring into his ale looking bored.

“Ok, what is your proposal” says Brownstone as he seats himself opposite the stranger. “In essence, I will pay you a 1000gp to assassinate that man there” he says, pointing to a man dressed in a leather jerkin and breeches who stands alone at the bar. “when he leaves to go home, you will strike. I don’t care how you do it”. “ok”says Brownstone “I will accept the mark”

Brownstone remains in the bar, watching as one by one his comrades retire to their beds. Mopping his brow he gets up and follows as the man he is deigned to kill leaves the Inn and steps into the cold night air.

The assassin Brownstone hides in the shadows of the night as is quarry proceeds down a alley. Studying carefully, Brownstone decides where he will strike, if lucky, it will take only one strike to kill the man.
Brownstone leaps from the shadows, but his quarry is fast, very fast, and blocks Brownstones blow.
The man strikes back damaging one of Brownstones two magical shortswords. They stare at each other for a instant before resuming the fight.

“ lets have a look at you” says Judas as he begins to cast a spell on Mr Brownstone, who is throwing up in a bucket. After a while Judas says “you had contracted Blinding Sickness, you are now cured my friend” “Thanks” says Brownstone. “Now lets go join the others, they’re waiting downstairs”

Brownstone and Judas join Thein and Chandos who are waiting outside the Inn. “what a beautiful morning, I take it you all slept well” says Chandos “apparently there was another murder the other night” says Thein “Doesn’t concern us” says Chandos. “we have drow to kill” “if we keep coming back to town every five minutes its gonna take a long time” snaps Brownstone. “I received no command to go to Battledale” states Judas “Therefore I will continue with our current objective”.

The party once again trudge their way back to the Dordrien Crypts, down the web, to the village.

“Well, nothing seems to have changed” states Brownstone as he peers into the cavern. The party proceeds in, weapons drawn. They make their way back to the gate with no sightings of drow or other inhabitants. Beyond the gate the party spy goblins and bugbears who run away from them into small caves. More mushrooms grow here. The party proceeds into the cavern. As they walk Judas sees a goblin spying on them from a cave entrance. “Where are the drow” shouts Judas looking directly at the frightened goblin. It replies in broken common “they have been destroyed, we thank you” “what is this place” shouts judas back “Szith Morcane” shouts the goblin. Other goblins and bugbears have now come and stood at their cave entrances, watching the party. “What is in the cave entrance at the bottom of the web” shouts Chandos. “Most of us have only seen this cavern since being enslaved here, some of us were born here” replies the goblin. “then take this” says Judas, throwing a wineskin upto the goblin. “this seems to be a dead end” whispers Brownstone. “yes, lets get out of this area and search around the rest of this complex, we haven’t looked north” says Chandos

The party exit from the gate. They continue back up the path and over the small bridge. They then follow the path north and then follow a path east. They see a lake but don’t investigate further. They see a tunnel in the north wall “ahh” says Chandos striding forward.

About 30 feet into the tunnel, a heavy, swinging iron gate bars the passage. A padlock holds the barrier closed. Beyond it, the tunnel continues to the northeast, stretching into the darkness.

“I believe we have the key” says Thein, holding up a iron key. “Found it on one of the previous drow”
Brownstone moves forward and checks the gate for traps. When he is convinced there is none, he uses the key on the padlock, and the gate swings open.

Chandos steps forward looking into the gloom beyond “what now?” “Lets check that last cavern at bottom of web first, before we go here” suggests Judas “Ya” says Thein.

They go back to the web and descend to the lower cavern.

A yawning hole in the chasm wall opens into a well-crafted room with smooth walls and floor. The far portion of this chamber curves in an octagonal shape. Two passages lead out of the room through crafted archways, and a narrow tunnel seems to form an exit through the ceiling. A ladder that strongly resembles a spiderweb leads up to the tunnel mouth.

Brownstone steps forward into the entrance, but then stops looking puzzled. “whats wrong” says Judas “dunno” says Brownstone. Judas begins to cast Detect magic. A wall is suddenly visible, spanning the entrance to the cavern. Brownstone is the other side. “I think its Forbiddance” says Judas. Thein moves his hands in a strange pattern and chants a few words. The wall disappears. From out of the passages step familiar adversaries. Four Quth Maron. Chandos averts his eyes, counting on his blind fighting feat. Brownstone cowers on the floor at the presence of these undead. Thein lets loose a quickend magic missile befor he to is rendered impotent by the horrific abherations. Judas raises the Holy Symbol of Ravenkind and turns two of the Quth Maron who cower before him. Chandos kills another. Through the passage ways come two Drow. Judas notices that these drow have unusually pointy teeth! “Drow Vampires” he shouts. “oh ” says Chandos downing the last of the quth’s. Judas raises his Holy Symol of Ravenkind once more.. It flares with the light of the sun. The vampires cower in front of the cleric, before turning to dust. “wow” says Thein as he stops cowering.
If only that had been Strahd, thinks Judas.

 

[tariff]

The Stand of Chandos

The Stand of Chandos Session 12:
Wherein the party hear “Go back to Daggerfalls fools, or face the might of Solom Ned’razak and Dorina T’sarran” All but Chandos move toward the cavern entrance and begin ascending the web, as if under the command of some spell. There, floating in mid air, is a Drow wizard. It smiles at Chandos. Suddenly out of mid air, next to the other drow a lightning bolt shoots forth and hits Chandos, his magic sword which eminates spell resistance, fends off the strike. Geez, how many are there invisible. thinks Chandos. He runs for the left hand corridor. Standing at the end of the corridor is a female drow cleric. Flanked by two Quth Maron, she looks strangly familiar; Chandos gets a sense of deja vu.

“I am Velasta T’sarran, you killed my sister Velina T’sarran. I always knew I was more powerful than her, but enough of my worthless sister, now I shall destroy you. Attack my prettys!”

Chandos charges at the cleric. She casts a dominate person at him but he shrugs off the effects, and breathes a sigh of relief. Avering his eyes Chandos swings at one of the Quth Maron and hurts it bad. Suddenly from behind him a lightning bolt arcs toward him, yet again his trusty weapon saves him from the spells effects. But still he see’s noone there. “I HATE INVIS” screams Chandos. Velasta steps forward, Chandos can see she is engulfed in tiny flickering flames, she attempts to cast Slay Living on Chandos, but yet again his spell resistance is good. Again from behind Chandos is hit by acid arrows. This time a drow wizard has appeared, by the arch, down the corridor behind him. Chandos growls and spins back to face the quth maron who he hurt last time, taking another huge swing he fells the undead beast. He then does another almighty swipe against the other quth. Velastra touches the quth, healing it of its wounds. As chandos swings at the quth again he feels his mind being tampered with, he withstands the Suggestion. Looking behind him he sees at the end of the corridor the wizard has cast a ball of fire, and it hovers infront of him. He turns back strikes at Velastra and hits her, but the flames covering her hurt the warrior. Chandos senses foes behind him and swings into mid air. He hears a cry of pain as the invisible drow wizard falls to the floor. Again from behind him he see’s magic missiles hurtle toward him from out of thin air. They are absorbed by his magical broach of shielding “ok, I got 1 wizard invisible behind me, another, visible at corridor entrance guarded by a ball of flame, and Velastra, who, if I hit much more will kill me.. thinks Chandos as he turns from Valastra and swings into the space from where the magic missiles had eminated. Again he hears a scream as another invisible wizard is felled. The wizard at the end of the corridor points a finger at Chandos, but Chandos manages to shrug off the effects of the hold person. Chandos takes another swing at Valastra and hurts her, but he too is hurt by the flames. “I can’t take much more of this” thinks Chandos

At the end of the corridor Chandos spies the Drow wizard run off. The ball of flame winks out. Seeing his chance Chandos runs up the corridor and into a room.

Judas, Brownstone and Thein continue to climb up the massive web “just gotta get back to Dagger Falls” they all think. “Its of upmost importance” They pay no attention to the Drow wizard who flys past them.

Two sets of manacles hang from the wall in this bare room. One set is empty, the other holds a female drow. She sits slumped on the ground, her arms twisted awkwardly above her head. Chandos doesn’t know and dosent care if she is dead or alive. His eyes dart around the room. Two exits and a door. He runs to the right exit.

Three wooden coffins lie in state on the floor of this room. Behind them stands a row of counters and cupboards that has obviously been well ransacked. Chandos runs in and croutches behind one of the coffins. As he opens his backpack and retrieves a healing potion he can hear movement outside the room.

Judas, Brownstone and Thein continue their advance up the web, Brownstone leading the pack “Dagger Falls, Dagger Falls, Dagger Falls!!”. They pay no attention to the two drow wizards who fly down past them.

Chandos peers from behind the coffin. He can see Velastra at the rooms entrance, shes looking about and talking in drow to someone else. Suddenly she turns around and catches sight of Chandos

“nin dos ph'usst” Spits Velastra as a blast of light eminates from her hands toward Chandos. Chandos ducks as the coffin he is hiding behind is destroyed. He gets up in time to see the remaing Quth Maron rush toward him, talons beared. It misses the warrior. Velastra also runs in to attack Chandos. Chandos swings his trusty sword and slays the last Quth. Velastra attempts a harm touch on Chandos, but once again he resists. And notices, she is not covered in flames anymore. Chandos smiles.

“uk zhah wun ghil ussta senger” hears Chandos, he turns to the entrance of the room and sees the drow wizard who had run off before. He seems to be beckoning someone

Chandos makes a silent prayer to Orcus before he swings his weapon again at Velastra. It strikes true and she falls to the floor. Chandos, badly wounded, runs for the wizard at the door. Out of know where Twin Lightning Bolts smash into Chandos. His prayer must have worked, he was undamaged (hero point used). Chandos smiles once more before he is hit by a thin green ray. Chandos is turned to a fine dust instantly.

“byrren orn doer” says Solom “udos z'klaen tlu kr’athin”

Judas, Brownstone and Thein arrive back in Dagger Falls in time for supper. They seat themselves in the Inn and order food. Suddenly Judas looks up “what are we doing here” Brownstone and Thein look at each other and then at Judas. “Chandos!”

 

[tariff]

Enter the Necromancer

Session 13:
Wherein the Necromancer Mortise approaches the party in the Teshford Arms Inn. His cowl obscuring his features he addresses the party “I have not heard from Chandos, do you know what has become of him.?” The party relay events. “Then I will accompany you back into these crypts Chandos spoke of, and this city.. Sith Morcane I believe it’s called”

“I believe we are being scryed” says Judas as they set out in the morning air. He dons a Amulet. “This will make me invisible to scrying” he states. “Unfortunately it doesn’t help the rest of you”

The party trek once more up the dirt track. Five hours later they arrive at the familiar stone doors. They descend through the Dordrien Crypts. They arrive at the top of the web.

“Ok, this time we’ll be ready. No-one will be walking back to Dagger Falls. Lets buff up!” says Judas

“Lets move closer, down to the village level. Then we have only a little way to travel to the area where Chandos was last seen” says Brownstone

They proceed down the web to the drow village area. They then spend some time casting beneficial magics on themselves, and preparing for the inevitable battle ahead. Judas burns a block of his incense of meditation and casts many spells on the party and Mortise uses a wand of Stoneskin librally

“I have a feeling they will be ready for us, they have probably put the Forbiddance spell up again.” States Brownstone. The rest of the party nod “would make sense” replies Mortise. A small head emerges from Mortis’s pocket. It belongs to a small winged creature “a quasit” notes Thein.

Mortise casts a spell and turns into a Bat and flys out into the cavern and descends to the entrance below. The rest of the party follow down.

They arrive back onto the ledge where they had last seen Chandos.

A yawning hole in the chasm wall opens into a well-crafted room with smooth walls and floor. The far portion of this chamber curves in an octagonal shape. Two passages lead out of the room through crafted archways, and a narrow tunnel seems to form an exit through the ceiling. A ladder that strongly resembles a spiderweb leads up to the tunnel mouth.

Brownstone gets out his wand of Detect Magic and scans the area. He picks up two magical emanations coming from the room ahead. One is a invisible wall spanning the entrance “Forbiddance” states Judas “So, they have another Cleric”. The other emanation seems to cover the room. Mortise raises his hands and breaths a incantation.. The Forbiddance is dispelled. Thein detects that the other magical emanation is a feint evocation type spell, but he does not know the actual spell. Mortise once again raises his hands and the spell is dispelled.

They step into the room and begin to advance. Suddenly Brownstone spots something out of the corner of his eye, a feint fog like wisp. Judas also see’s the vapor like wisp. But he has had much experience of this before “Gaseous form” he thinks as two driders and a Drow solidify before their very eyes.

The Drow attacks a flat footed Thein, As he swings at the mage Thein notices his pointy fangs “Vampire!” stutters Thein. One of the driders also advances on Thein and attacks but fails to strike the buffed up wizard. Thein also notices that the Drider appears to have fangs and a deathly palor “the Driders are undead too!” shouts Thein.

Brownstone steps forward and strikes a blow at one of the spider-drow (drider). As he hits he can see figures advancing down both Corridors that enter the room. From the left hand corridor comes a drow Blackguard who seems to be accompanied by a large cat with two tentacles (displacer beast). Down the right corridor comes running a female drow cleric, her features look familiar to Brownstone.

Zedarr the Blackguard and his displacer beast pet Ripper run into the room and attack the invaders, Velastra holds back at the archway.

High Priest of The Red Knight Judas raises up the artifact known as The Holy Symbol of Ravenkind. The platinum symbol, crafted in the shape of the sun has a large crystal embedded in its center, surrounded by celestial symbols of light and truth. This crystal, as Judas holds the symbol aloft, flares with the light of the sun. The Drow vampire, and the Drider/vampires scream in agony as their flesh begins to burn.

Thein makes a gesture and launches off magic missiles at Zedarr, who has closed on Brownstone and is attacking the assassin. He watches as the missiles shriek toward the Blackguard and are absorbed harmlessly in a broach the Blackguard is wearing. I recognize that item thinks Thein. “Its Chandos’s broach of shielding” says Mortise

Valestra fires a Flame Strike at Judas, it engulfs the cleric in flame. Judas eyes the drow cleric, ready to strike back at her, when he is attacked by Ripper. The creatures tentacles only just missing.

Brownstone launches himself at Zedarr, his blade coated with poison. The assassin had one dose left of the Black Lotus extract, he hoped it worked. His strike is true, hitting Zedarr just below his ribs. The blackguard staggers back, visibly weakened by the poison coursing through his veins. Zedarr could hardly lift his weapon when Brownstone makes the killing blow.

Vander the Quasit perches himself on his masters shoulder. Mortise mumbles a few words and touches the creature. “vampiric touch my little one”, “now go deliver it on the cleric”. Vander flys off toward Velasta.

Thein moves forward toward the Drow cleric Velasta, he fires off magic missiles which impact on her, causing her visible harm. Velasta howls with rage and strikes back at Thein with a slay living spell, luckily Thein resists the spell. Vander flys down on Velasta and strikes at her, causing her damage. At the other end of the room Mortise breathes in, enjoying his new stolen health.

Judas attacks Ripper. The creatures displacement properties causing the cleric to miss several times before landing a solid blow. Ripper also finds it difficult to hit Judas back.

Mortise. From the edge of the room, fires off magic missiles at Velasta. They impact on the cleric.

Thein launches melphs acid arrow at Velasta, she is seared by the acid. She responds by attempting a bestow curse on the wizard. But she misses with her attack.

Judas and Ripper miss each other a lot, but Judas does land a couple of solid blows.

Vander flys back to his master. He flys round the back of him and begins to unbuckle his backpack. His master wants him to retrieve his Wand of Magic Missiles.. Vander liked wands!

Velasta squints in pain as the acid burns her again.. She makes a gesture and casts a healing spell on herself. Seconds later she is hit by a lightning bolt from the necromancer at the end of the room.

Brownstone moves in on Ripper. Flanked, the beast has no chance against Brownstones deadly strikes.

Vander squeals with glee as he fires the wand at Velasta. The missiles screaming toward her and hitting. Another lightning bolt hits her, but she resists its effects. The acid burns the drow one more time. And she goes down.

The party loot the remains of their fallen foes. Zedarr had been wearing a cloak, it had a image of Orcus on. “This too is Chandos’s” states Mortise.
“We still have nothing by which to resurrect him tho” states Judas.

 

[tariff]

Session 14: Solom & Dorina

Wherein the party continue down the left hand corridor. It opens out into a hexagonal room with another spiderlike ladder leading up into the roof. Morise uses his boots of levitation and a ring of invisibility and ascends up the hole. It comes into a cramped crawlspace that stretches off. He returns to the party and informs them. They decide to keep searching the ground area. The come into another corridor that has double doors set in the south wall. Mortise steps forward and detects for magic on the doors, he detects none. Mr Brownstone steps forward and checks if the door is trapped. It appears not. They open the doors.
Enormous, lurid tapestries featuring grisly deaths and walking corpses line most of the walls of this large room. Near one wall stands a massive stone block draped with black silk and adorned with silver candelabras, silver bowls, and a silver handed dagger.
They enter the room. Mortise strides forward his huge black skull tipped wand (Wand of Orcus) is pointed at the alter, the desecrate spell hits. Brownstone and Judas meanwhile pull down the tapestries and burn them. Thein silently looks on.
They exit this room and continue down another corridor, they find 3 bedrooms, two sparsly furnished, one lavish. They search these areas. They come to another set of double doors. Brownstone steps forward and begins to study the doors, suddenly he is hit by a column of flame. Luckily his resistace spell is still in affect and absorbs most of the damage from the glyph. Brownstone swings open the doors.
The ceiling of this octagonal room rises 30 feet off the ground, and a pillar in the center stands fully half that height. On the pillar rests a throne made of bones, with a gaunt drow woman draped casually across it. The walls of the room are covered with majestic dark tapestries, and several long tables of gleaming black wood stand along the walls. The drow woman looks up and howls at the party. Standing just inside the door is a Dretch wich moves to attack the party.
Suddenly out of the ground rubbery tentacles spring and entangle the party. Mortise and Brownstone, who are at the front of the party, in the doorway, stuck fast by the tentacles, both react instantly. Mortise casts spell turning on himself and Brownstone reaches into his backpack and retrieves a potion of gaseous form.
Thein manages to break free from the tentacles and moves into a room 40ft away, opposite the chamber with the drow woman. Judas also reaches into his backpack and dons his ring of freedom of movement, he also follows thein into the other room, out of the area of the tentacles. The Quasit Vander the Wicked hisses as he fails to break free from the grasp of the tentacles.
Evards black tentacles, thinks Mortise, nice wizard spell, so wheres the wizard… ahh there he is….he spies Solom hovering invisible next to the pillar on top of wich is perched the vampire/drow/cleric Dorina. I can see youu…
Suddenly out of the ground, spanning the corridor at the entrance to the room springs a blade barrier. Separating Mortise and Brownstone from Thein and Judas.
The strange creature (dretch) lets off a stinking cloud at Mortise and Brownstone. Though smelly, they are not unduly hurt
Brownstone feels himself begin to dissolve, into a gaseous mist.. he wafts into the room. Free of the tentacles.
The conjurer Thein brings his hands together and begins to summon aid to the party, in the form of a celestial polar bear. Judas, standing next to the wizard, also summons a creature to the parties aid. A chain devil appears.
Vander the Wicked squeals in delight as he eventually frees himself from the grasp of the tentacles, he flys into the room where Judas and Thein stand.
Solom snarles and releases a twin lightning bolt towards Mortise, a lot of the damage is absorbed by resistance spells already cast on the necromancer, the rest reflects back toward Solom, however the spell fizzles out causing no damage to the Arch mage of sith morcane. “Spell turning?” says Solom, “haha, fool, you wont be able to reflect ALL of my spells, and your spells will prove useless on me” Mortise smiles as he dons his Ring of spell turning. Dorina snarls from atop the piller and cast bestow curse on Mortise, but the necromancer resists the effects. “why do you attack us” says Solom to the Necromancer “all I wish to do is set up a mageocracy, surely you can understand that?, I have no time either for these gods and cults” “You treacherous scum Solom, I will have your head once these surface dwellers are destroyed” screams Dorina. “where is the body of Chandos” states Mortise “let us recover his body and we will leave” “He was utterly destroyed” barks back Solom. “Then so to will you be” whispers Mortise
The creature called a Dretch manages to hit Mortise, but causes little damage.
Brownstone, wafting through the air studies Dorina perched atop the pillar.. Somethings not quite right thinks the assassin. Suddenly, he notices, at the base of the pillar, no, IN the pillar, is another drow.. Hang on a minute..the pillar, bone throne, and dorina pertched atop is a illusion.. The real Dorina stands in the middle of the illusion, firing out her spells at Mortise. The problem with gaseous form is.. You cant speak!
Thein looks on as his celestial polar bear rises up on its hind legs and claws at the Dretch, both claws strike, and the viscous bite from the bear finishes the Dretch off.
Judas instructs his summoned chain devil to attack Dorina, it attempts to climb up the 15ft high pillar to hit her, but fails. Brownstone looks on gaseous and sees the Chain devil standing right infront of Dorina, attempting to hit a illusion of her 15ft above. That’s the problem with gaseous form, you cant be heard giggling!.
Mortise, still restrained by the tentacles stands vulnerable in the doorway to the room, he recognizes the thin green ray as it hits him.. Disintegrate.. he opens his eyes, still here.. Solom’s eyes widen. Mortise casts grease on himself, which enables him to move. He moves out of the room and shuts the doors. Behind him is a spinning wall of blades. Down the hall, approximately 40 feet away he can see Judas, Thein and Vander in the other room. Suddenly next to him wisps of smoke begin to solidify into the shape of Mr Brownstone. “The pillar and Dorina…it’s a illusion..its not there!, shes inside it!!” states Brownstone..
Inside the room the Polar bear still cannot climb up the pillar to attack the foe his master had instructed him too. The chain devil manages to climb up and strike at the Drow. Inside the piller Dorina permits herself a small smile.. Good, the stupid pets have fallen for the illusion.. at least your good for something Solom.
Suddenly the door swings open and Mortise is hit by a chain lightening spell, it hits him then Brownstone. The bolt that hits the necromancer is reflected back onto Solom, striking the wizard hard.. Solom, hurt, looks back in amazement.. Brownstone ducks his bolt effectively. Brownstone casts true strike upon himself and rushes forward into the room. And into the pillar he knows not to be there. He strikes true at Dorina, but she does not die.
Thein mutters under his breathe and a celestial owl appears. “Attack the female” instructs the conjurer.
Vander the wicked let loose with his masters wand.. out shoots magic missiles. They scream through the barrier of whirling blades and hit Solom. But they seem to do no damage. Solom spits out a curse and fires magic missiles back at Mortise “you can have no more spell turning left”… Mortise smiles as the missiles are reflected back and slam into the rival wizard. He hits the floor dead. Mortise brings his hands together and casts another spell turning spell upon himself. Now aware of the illusionary pillar Mortise can see the real Dorina, the drow vampire cleric is attacking Brownstone.
Brownstone is hit by Dorina, but manages to shrug off the slay living spell, and he avoids the negative energy of the vampire. Breathing a sigh of relief the assassin quick draws his other weapon.
From the other room Thein looks on happily as his pet owl and bear tear up the drow atop the pillar. He mumbles a few words and fires off a magic missile at the drow. This may finnish her he thinks. The missiles seem to impact, but something is not right.. infact, he can see now that this is a illusion!
Brownstone avoids another slayliving spell and manages to strike back at Dorina, the drow is covered in flickering flames, but Brownstones buffs afford him protection. Thein and Judas begin to shout from the end of the corridor. “we can’t get to you, the blade barrier, and the tentacles prevents us”. Mortise casts transmute rock to mud in the ceiling above the blade barrier, a large chunk of rock falls down, revealing a gap above the blade barrier.
Dorina casts harm on Brownstone, but the lucky rogue manages to avoid its effects.
Vander the wicked flys over the blade barrier into the room. Judas also flys, carrying Thein over the barrier. Mortise attacks Dorina with his dagger, but he misses. Thein fires magic missiles at Dorina and they hit. Dorina casts dipelmagic at Mortise but he resists. Brownstone and Mortise both miss Dorina in melee, and she herself fails to hurt either of her foes. Thein launches a lightning bolt at her, but it appears not to affect her. Suddenly she is knocked to the ground by several missiles. Vander, hovering nearby cackles with glee.

 

[tariff]

Session 15: Recovery of Chandos & Final looting of Szith Morcane

Wherein the party loot the corpses of Dorina and Solom. Although they find a few magical items on their corpses. They find nothing belonging to Chandos. They search the room. Brownstone locates a secret door which is opened by 4 pressure sensitive pads. They open it and it reveals a small chamber.
This room is unusual for this area in that its walls are plastered white and the floor is tiled with flagstones. A stone sepulcher covered in gorgeous, shining copper leaf stands in the middle of the chamber, and copper bands securely fasten the lid to the rest of the coffin. The lid is carved to resemble a beautiful drow woman.
Mortise does a detect magic spell on the room. Something indicates as magic on the coffin. Probally a glyph thinks Mortise as he tries to dispel.. He fails. Judas strides forward to smash the casket, as he does spinning, whirling blades spring up around the coffin, cutting the cleric and forcing him back. Blade barrier.
They discuss what to do and decide to wait for the blade barrier spells to subside. They wait a while and eventually the blades dissapear. They open the coffin. It is empty, but they do find a secret compartment in the bottom. Mortise immediately recognizes Chandos’s boots. He grabs them and tips the contents onto the floor, among the dirt/hair/crap there is some dust. Mortise opens his backpack and withdraws a rod. “this is a rod of ressurection, it has three charges, would you use it on this dust Judas, it may restore Chandos” Judas agrees and uses the rod on the dust from the boots.. From the dust begins to form a body, the body of Chandos, his eyes open and he breathes once more. “thank you master”
“My swords are missing, there not here” states a angry Chandos “we will locate them” replies Mortise. Chandos takes a few practise swings with a warhammer but looks unsatisfied. “Theres other areas we should check” says Brownstone” “Yes, those wizards came from somewhere” replies Chandos “Now you mention it, I did see a couple of wizards fly down past us when we fell to the suggestion before.. they just didn’t seem ….important.” says Judas. “And also, the area up those spiderweb like ladders, there was a crawlspace, we don’t know where that leads too” says Mortise. The party agree to try there first.

The party proceeds to one of the spiderweb ladders and attempt to ascend. Chandos goes first, cluching the web ladder he attempts to climb, but hes stuck. “Im stuck to the web” he cries. Brownstone moves forward and pulls off his comrade (!!!!). Chandos decides to utalize his boots of levitation. He gets up the hole and into the crawlspace, he throes his boots down to the rest and they ascend using the same means. The party begin to crawl. They come into a strange area.
The pungent smell of decaying flesh fills the stale air, giving this great hall the aura of a battlefield-but without the croaking of ravens. Indeed, most of the corpses strewn about the floor and slumped against the twin rows of columns look as though they fell in battle, since their weapons are close at hand. The flesh of the corpses has begun melting to slime, allowing the bones to show through-a fact that suggests this battle was fought long ago.
The walls of the chamber are carved to resemble an enormous spider, as if this room were the inside of its front portion. At one end, an opening leads to some kind of platform where the spider’s mouth would be. At the other end of the room, a heavy iron gate hangs loose on its hinges, battered and bent. Eight tunnels leading down converge, four on a side, near the wall separating the two parts of the spider’s body.
Mortise sends Vander the wicked into the room, the smell clearly affecting the Quasit as he begins puking on the spot. Mortise enters the room and resists the nausea. He casts animate dead on the corpses which rise and wait to serve their new master, there are 17 in total. Mortise looks at the alter in the north section of the room. The platform at the front of the spider is clearly a sacrificial alter. It is surrounded by walls carved to look like the sharp, venomous fangs of a spider. A female drow corpse lies on the alter, string vacantly toward the ceiling, a hand crossbow bolt still protruding upright from its neck.
Mortise commands the skeletons to approach the alter, they do, but nothing happens. Mortise casts a desecrate spell on the alter, still, nothing happens. “I see no reason to interfier with this” he states to the party.
Mortise commands his small army of skeletons toward the broken gate to the right of the chamber. It has clearly been bashed in. It hangs crookedly on its hinges, open in the middle. About 8 feet behind it is a curving wall adorned with a tattered tapestry. Drow figures are visible in the foreground of the tapestry, but the figure before which they are prostrating themselves has been almost completely defaced.
As the skeletons move through the gate a glyph flares and a creature the party know to be a Bebilith appears. Mortise reacts quickly, casing finger of death on the beast… It dies instantly. Chandos follows the undead through the gate.
Two short, curving walls loosely define this area as a distinct section of the temple. Inside the curve of the far wall is a long platform that looks like it might be a sacrificial altar. A plush carpet covers the floor, and a number of cushions and pillows are strewn haphazardly around the area.
A lingering stench of death remains here. Bloodstains and weapons are scattered about the floor, but there are no corpses. The air feels thick and unusually cold.
As the skeletons slowly shuffle into this area a spirit manifests itself. “I am Alisannara Morcane, high priestess of Szith Morcane, Lolth give me power to repel these infidels” she shouts at Chandos. Chandos runs back to the party shouting “Undead!”.
The conjurer Thein readies for battle by casing fire shield on himself, Chandos stands readied. The ghost floats through the gate toward the party. The cleric judas raises the Holy Symbol of Ravenkind and mutters a few words.. The spirit howls in anger as it cowers before the cleric. “Do not harm her” states Chandos. But he does not interviene when Brownstone and Thein put the spirit to rest.
Chandos commands the 17 skeletons to remain in this chamber. “let us search the last area we haven’t been to” he says. “The area up the web, the inverted tower” states Thein.
They procced back to the main web and ascend to the tower level. When they had been here before, Brownstone had ascended the tower but had found no other entrances, so they had left. Mortise casts detect magic, the whole tower radiates of magic. He then casts dispel magic and three doors appear in the walls high above them. “ahh” says Brownstone. Using various magic devices they ascend and open the first door. It leads to four bedrooms. They appear to be the quarters of the wizards they defeated earlier. To Thein and Mortise’s delight they recover the spellbooks of Solom and his cohorts. Through the next door up they discover two chambers. One appears to be a classroom of sorts, a blackboard has strange arcane writings on. Thein manages to read enough to decipher that the drow had been using scrying. They open the door to the other chamber and immediately Mortise see a Vrock demon who is invisible in the middle of a circle of runes. It speaks to him “free me”. “who imprisoned you here?” asks the necromancer “the drow Solom” replies the demon. “he is dead” states Mortise. “if I free you, will you do us any harm?” asks the necromancer “I have no quarrel with you” replies the Vrock. Despite the rest of the parties protests, Mortise steps forward and breaks the circle. The demon lets out a howl, and then disappears.
The party stand in silence a moment. “lets head back to Dagger falls and train” says Brownstone. They all agree. They arrive back in dagger falls and train and divide loot. Thein and Mortise spend quite a while scribing their new found spells in their spell books.