The Tol Vehara Story Hour

[Pacio49]

The Lillends' Quest 2

The next morning dawned bright and clear and the party set out down the banks of the River of Stars and made the Tower by shortly after nightfall. They spent the night there, and in the gray overcast April skies of the next morning, they started off downriver again, heading to where the Lillends indicated the Shocker Lizards lived.

It was around noon by the time that the group found a place where the river diverted off to a smaller side branch that flowed down several granite outcroppings before collecting in a pool that slowly swirled outward to rejoin the main body of the River of Stars again. They began to poke around the rocks and shallow rapids and managed to find several small underhangs about two feet in diameter which seemed to lead back into the earth. At the bottom of the water's descent at the level of the swirling pool they found a human-sized entry cave and were about to enter when they were met by the smell of ozone, the sound of clicking, and a circle of about twelve or thirteen shocker lizards armed with tiny spears and racing arcs of electricity jumping up and down their spines and between their upraised ears.

"Stop where you are," called out a raspy Shocker Lizard voice from behind where the party was grouped. They all turned to see two of the shocker lizards standing there, one wearing a necklace of bones and a skirt made of dried grasses woven together in a parody of human clothing, and the other wearing what looked to be a crudely-sewn completely soaked tunic with a belt.

"We mean you no harm," replied Arien. "We seek the druidess Martha and were told that she lived here."

"I am she, or what she has become," answered the skirted lizard. "Who are you, to be seeking me in the Blasted Lands? And more importantly," she asked, drawing herself up to her full two feet in height, "Who told you to seek us out? Be warned, with my children behind you we can kill a human with a single blow, and if you begin to harm us more of the Lizards will come out from hiding to deal with you all. Wet as you are in the shallows here you won't make it out of a conflict with us alive. That, I promise you."

"We were sent by the Lillends," Yovaire said.

"Those three? What do they want with me?" Martha asked.

"Why have you been Awakening the native wildlife?" Skalar asked. "I expected more from a druid, no matter what form she takes now."

Martha snorted. "You can't mean to tell me that the Lillends object to my use of the Awakening spell to bring my children to full sentience. The spirits of nature do not refuse them, why should the Lillends? Tell them to go back to composing music and leave the tending of nature to those better equipped to do so."

"But you're using it indiscriminately. They don't object to your community you've created here. Just to the fact that the wand has been used to awaken other creatures who are then left on their own," Arien said. "You have to admit that's pretty bad judgment, no matter how bitter your new shape leaves you."

"Bitter? Enh, I'm not bitter. Why should I be, when I'm closer to nature now?" Martha asked.

"Yeah, about that," Valar said, "How exactly did you come to be a shocker lizard anyway?"

Martha shrugged. "Long story. Pulverized and mingled remains thanks to Teeb and his group of giants, an inept rogue trying to use a reincarnate scroll. George and I were both brought back, but like this. Long and short of it, we're married and here we are." She chuckled. "As to the Awakened creatures, that was none of my doing. You can thank George here for that, indirectly." She poked the tunic-wearing lizard, who gave a start and let loose a small series of sparks.

"Not my fault," the other lizard said. "I was on guard --"

"Sleeping," Martha interjected.

"On guard," George glared, "when one of those pesky Petals grabbed the wand from me. I gave chase, but --"

"But that just made it worse." Martha cuffed George on the top of his head, and continued, "George should have known better than to chase the fae. He *should* have made the proper exchange-gift offering of bread and blood and been done with it. As it was, he chased them, and it became for them a jolly game, and they learned of the value of the wand they had stolen. I can only guess that they figured out how to use it and thought it a jolly good sport to cavort through the woods and Awaken however many of the animals they could find. Well, George, looks like you've gone and upset the Sisters now."

Martha gave a sigh. "I tell you what. You retrieve the wand from the fairies, and I'll return to the Caldera Gardens and help the Lillends counsel the Awakened ones. But without that wand back, my efforts will just be a waste of time, since the fairies won't understand what they're doing and continue to use it until the charges are all expended. And that was a fairly new wand, so there could be dozens more charges left."

"That sounds fair to us," Yovaire said. And with that, they received directions to where the fae had a glen near the woods an hour or so to the south of the pool, and off they went to retrieve the wand from the fairies who had stolen it...

 

[Pacio49]

Lillends' Quest III

Valar questioned George for a bit and found out that the most likely candidate to have stolen the wand would have been Bluebonnet, a sylvan faerie with a penchant for mischief who had been 'jockeying for position among the country squires' lately. George shrugged off the explanation of what that meant for the fae, but described a little dell where the rapscallion was known to cavort. And off the party went.

It wasn't long before they found the area, and at the party's general challenge Bluebonnet appeared. Apparently he had, indeed, stolen the Wand of Awakening from Martha, but he wasn't going to give it back. "Fairy taken, fairly mine." Arien restrained Marcus from smiting the whole little gang of fae with fireballs, and instead asked Bluebonnet if there were something they could *do* to get the wand from him. Purchase it, perhaps?

Bluebonnet and his gang sergeants gathered together and whispered a bit, but came back and told the group that yes, there was indeed something they could do for them, something which would even up the score. As the diminutive fae spoke, the party sighed and groaned a bit, as it seemed the wee fellow and his gang had a quest for the group. (Of course.)

"You wish for the Wand, you will need to undertake our fairy quest. Before the sun rises for a new day, you must bring to me three things. Bread baked from the hands of a virgin female, a fair-fallen thread, and a whisker plucked from the jowl of a cat. Bring me these things before the sun rises and I will happily return your wand to you. Agreed?"

The party mulled it over, and amid general scoffing at the simplicity of the quest, they finally agreed, only asking for clarification as to what a 'fair-fallen' thread was. The thread had to have worn free of a garment naturally and fallen of its own accord. By far the most problematic of the requirements, since Arien professed her virginity and was more than willing to bake bread for the quest, and Marcus was fairly certain he could use his Monster Summoning spell to bring forth a dire cat of some kind. Valar was more concerned with the thread. Bluebonnet told the group that if they agreed to the quest, the fairies would aid them as much as they could, knowing of a cottage where an old weaver and his virgin daughter happened to be living, along with their three cats. The group decided that this was cakewalk, and heartily agreed to the quest.

Bluebonnet and his gang were overjoyed and told the party that they needed to join in their dance in order to seal the solemnity of the mighty quest which they were going to undertake. The group rolled their eyes, but acquiesced and joined a simple little ring-dance with the fae gang. . . and shrank to the size of a tulip bud, each and every one of them. All of their iron and steel had been magically transformed, so that their armor of metal was now some kind of hardened wood, and their blades had been transformed into folded blades of grass that held sharp edges, or thorns for piercing.

[The party was, actually, ready to kill me at this point. The groans were quite rewarding, though I have to admit this little one-shot adventure is a favorite of mine to break up the pace a bit for any adventure]

When Skalar complained, he was told that the group had accepted a fairy quest, and there were *rules* for this sort of thing, and being small was one of them. Not Bluebonnet's fault that the group hadn't asked if they could be large during the quest. Not something he was allowed to offer up freely, either. Rules were rules. They promised to put the group back to big size when they were done, once the quest was fulfilled.

Marcus cast Fly on a large leaf and the group got on board for a rather bizarre ride through the countryside. It was hard to tell from their new perspective, but it felt like they had somehow left the Tainted lands and gone to someplace else. When they asked, Bluebonnet shrugged and said that they were still in the Woods, though he had no frame of reference when it came to the lands 'around' the Woods. Woods were Woods, rules were rules, and a quest was a quest.

The group was brought to a cottage yard in time to see an older man get on a horse and kiss his pretty daughter good-bye on his way in to market. She waved him off then went back into the house, and came out while the group was approaching to set some pies on the top of the half-split door with the small counter piece. It was next to the cooling pies that the party decided to land and make their attempt.

The group decided to split up, something easy enough to do at their size yet still remaining in the same room. After some hunting, the group was able to find the fair-fallen thread, and Laeka decided that she would carry it. However, the thread was rather long, so to make it easier on herself, she wrapped it around her waist like a belt, taking three turns to make it so. [Meta: The thread acted as a magic item for her in fae form, and the effect it had on Laeka was to effectively give her spells as though she were 3 levels higher, including caster level based effects, saving throws, and spells known per day. The extras were chosen by me, and the character simply felt oddly more powerful magically with the thread on.]

Arien was easily able to get the bread, since that was the next thing out of the oven and put on the cooling counter. She tucked it away in her sack, and climbed down to join the rest of the group with the foray with the cats. By this time, one of the three housecats had spotted the tiny moving things and reacted the way that cats will... first watching, then pouncing. A second cat, drawn into the fray by the antics of the many mice-sized creatures who had the audacity to fight back soon complicated matters, but it was the third cat who sat upon the bed and waited for the best moment in which to pounce that *really* made the fight interesting.

The technicality which wrenched the 'simple' task was that the whisker had to be plucked out of the cat's jowls, not merely cut out of the cat. So it came down to the fact that in order to get the whisker, the party member in question would have to make a grapple attack (provoking normal attacks of opportunity) to get a hold of the whisker, and then a strength check DC 25 to pluck it out. The party had no trouble getting hold of the whiskers, but as fate seemed to be chuckling that day, no one could muster the 25 strength check in order to pluck them out.

The result of which was that there were three mousers batting about the party members who continued to run at their mouths, hop up to grab whiskers, and after a moment of futile tugging got batted off by the cat or shaken free and slammed against walls and furniture posts by the irate moggies... and then pounced upon by the odd cat out who had dislodged their attackers the round previous.

Finally, with the help of super-Laeka's divine might spell, the party managed to get a whisker. Marcus cast teeny-sized fireballs into the cats's tails and effectively scattered the kitties, allowing the group to make a run for the door, narrowly missing getting trampled by the weaver's daughter who had come to investigate what the ruckus was and then tripped on a running kitty and dropped the second loaf of bread on the ground, narrowly missing crushing Yovaire (heat damage AND crushing damage... not fun).

The party managed to clear the house and Marcus used up the last of his spells to make another leaf-flier, and the party rejoined Bluebonnet just as the evening was darkening... well ahead of schedule for the quest.

Back at the dell, Bluebonnet's gang gathered to light faerie bonfires and held a feast with nectar flowing in tiny blossom-cups all around. The group declined to join the feast or drink the nectar (smart move on both parts), but instead fulfilled their quest by handing over the bread, the thread, and the whisker. They watched as Bluebonnet took hold of the base of the whisker in one hand and drew it through his other hand, as though unsheathing a weapon. As the whisker passed through his second hand's grip, it became silvery and gleaming, and hardened until it appeared to be a shining sword, glowing with magical energy.

Bluebonnet took the thread and wrapped it thrice around his own waist, appearing to grow more powerful magically, and then finally ate the chunk of bread... and the whole faerie gang appeared to grow in size and stature, until they were 3 apples tall (Smurf sized, if you must know, but no blue). Bluebonnet himself stood head and shoulders above the rest of his gang, and the sword seemed to have grown as well. They thanked the party, gave them the Wand, and then blew some kind of dust over them that made everyone sneeze several times.

When the sneezing fit had passed, the group was back to normal size, standing in an empty field with no sign of the fae at all, holding the Wand of Awakening.

They hurried back to Martha and presented the wand back to her, at which point Martha agreed to accompany them back to the Lillends' home in the Caldera Gardens. With the ease that sometimes blesses the end of quests, the party encountered no trouble escorting the tiny shocker-lizard Martha to the Caldera Gardens, arriving tired but unharmed in the middle of the next day.

When Martha was present and explained what had happened and how the party had helped relieve the situation, and the party had given its tale of events, the Lillends announced that they would be happy to vouch for the essential goodness of the group. The party rested, and the next day Cordellia accompanied them on their long trek back to Karal's Tower.

Once there, Cordellia went to the upper levels and into the chamber where Laeka had uttered the fateful words 'Umi Sum', and summoned forth the visage of Karal by speaking his name and an arcane incantation. Once the image had appeared, she announced her vouch of Laeka's group as worthy and good, and the image proclaimed in a voice that rang throughout the Tower proper that (each of the party's names in order from Umi Sum to the last one in the group) were now officially Residents of the Tower.

At this time, Laeka and the group were told that if they wished to become Wardens of the Tower, owning it in full, they would need to retrieve a gem worth no less than 100,000gp in value, which Zartha the Queen of the Dryads would then show the party how to use in order to restore full power to the Tower. If the group decided to stay as Residents of the Tower, none would gainsay them, but if another group came within the Tower walls and fulfilled the requirements (vouch for Residency, then 100K gp gemstone for Wardenship) the Tower would become *theirs* instead.

But for now, at least, the party was safe, well rested, and finally had a place they could call Home.

 

[skullsmurfer]

I have just finished reading your background and introduction. I am very impressed and I look forward to reading more.

 

[Pacio49]

Appreciated

Thanks, I'm glad you like it so far. Hope it remains enjoyable for you and the other readers. Tomorrow is a new game session, and I'm only about six months of games behind so I guess I need to write more and catch up.

-Pacio49

 

[Eridanis]

My heavens! Gotta bring this up for some air. Ready for our game tomorrow?

- Yovaire

 

[Pacio49]

To Smash A Giant

At this stage, the party has rested quite well in the Tower, and during this break from all of the excitement, several of the active members (those who were able to make the pickup game at Christmastime) of the party were investigating the upper reaches of Karal's Tower when they were alerted to the fact that strangers were approaching within visual range of the ruined shadow of the Tower back in Tol Vehara. The party received their first real view of the namesake for the Rangers of the Blasted Lands, the Dust Riders, as they watched a large plume of dust being kicked up as a ragtag group of adventurers raced toward the ruins of the Tower with several giants and ogres on their tails, following at a distance and enjoying the sport of lofting boulders at the fleeing group as they went along. Before anyone could react, a giant scored a direct hit on one of the already-lagging party members and knocked him clear off of his horse where he lay still, his head at an odd angle to the rest of his body.

As the group began to move to go assist, Marcus laid his hand on Arien's arm. "What if they're evil?"

"Even if they are evil, they're no match for those giants, and all are welcomed in a Haven. I'm going to help them."

Moments later, Arien appeared in the view from the scrying glass as she used the upper tower's Teleport pads to Bamf herself all the way to the back door, followed momentarily by Laeka and a grumbling Marcus. Queen Zartha also appeared with several of the taller fae in tow, ready to receive any wounded which gained entry to the Tower.

As the party members arrived down at the Vale outside the ruined manifestation of Karal's Tower, they watched as another lucky shot from a giant careened into the side of the lead horse and rider, the man who was dressed as a Dust Rider, and caught him full on in a leg which was already bound with bandages and bloodied. He gave a cry, his horse gave a scream, and down the two went.

Marcus waded into the fray, spewing fireballs to the left and right, confusing the Giant and allowing the remainder of the straggling group to gain the relative safety and shade of the Tower. A few lightning bolts and a deflected boulder or two later and the giants gave up their sport, just as the party grabbed the group and brought them inside.

(more to come)

 

[Pacio49]

Catching Up to Date, pt 1

META -- It happens to the best of us, but the game has now lapped my Story Hour by almost a full year. I can remember the sessions if I strain, but I just don't have the kind of time to sit around scratching my head. So, instead of letting Tol Vehara's Story Hour die out, I'm going to bring the Story up to date in broader strokes. Thank you for your patience. Once we're all caught up, all new sessions will be fully detailed and written out once again. -- pacio49

The party rescued the group that was being hounded by giants. A few of that party died, but among their number was Hank, a Dust Rider whose legs had been absolutely shattered, Marshaya, an elven cleric of Iola in an advanced stage of disease from the Elven Bane (the Blasted Lands' effects on elves), Jonas, an expert cobbler who had taken a rank in Druid and wanted to see the world with his brother who was killed outright by the giants, and Inge Truelute, a dwarf bard. They got the surviving group members into the Tower, and Queen Zartha of the Fey hit off a nice friendship with Marshaya the dying Cleric. Inside Karral's Tower proper, they were in another plane, so the progression of the Bane halted, alleviating Marshaya's death sentence. Hank couldn't bear to move with the crushed bones in his legs, and with Marshaya's help was settling in for some serious long-term care. Jonas was upset at the loss of his brother, decided that druidry was for the birds, and asked to stay at the Tower. Being a cobbler, he offered his skills in boot and shoe repair and upkeep as it was needed, but he wasn't able to make the trek back to Tol Vehara a week away through hostile country on his own. Inge offered to join the party and provide services to them as a Bard, which they accepted.

So Hank is holed up in the Tower with Marshaya, Jonas is settling in there, and Inge's with the party.

The group pumps Inge for information, and she tells them of two legendary gems she knows of in the region which would power up the Tower of Karral. One is an emerald of such surpassing beauty that it's called the Heart of the Forest, and it's being guarded by a Mature Adult Green Dragoness named Elzarmeksla, who recently attained notoriety in the draconic world because she killed her lifemate during their last mating flight. She has several of her brood in the region, Green Dragons of different ages and abilities, and the forest she lives in has been 'hers' for longer than the Taint overlay the area. The party decided that a dragon of that caliber was beyond them, and they were nuts for trying.

The second gem they heard of was supposedly up in the middle of a lost Dwarven Hold, from an exiled set of Dwarves, called the Heart of the Mountain. After some adventuring, they realized that it was in a place called Pain Mountain, so called because a kingdom of Minotaur had taken up residence there with orcs and other darkling races as their servants and slaves which worked the mines for gold, silver, iron, and adamantium. Pain Mountain seemed the safer course for the party, and off they went.

They didn't get too far because the giants who had accosted the refugee group were part of a band of giants commanded by one named Teeb, who had gained power in the region by earning the attention of not just one, but two giantesses, and used that renown to loosely organize the other local giants into his band. During their trek toward Pain Mountain (or where they thought it might be), they were ambushed by the giants, ogres, and orcs. It would have been a pretty easy fight except for the fact that they ran into an intelligent human arcanist (wizard) named Maurice Kingalo. Maurice first appeared for the party by Counterspelling Marcus' fireball. (If you want to upset your party, throw an invisible mage with readied counterspell actions into a group of kobolds and ogres in a nice, tight formation.)

Although the ambush was well set up, Arien used the Staff of the Woodlands to best ability with Wall of Thorns ( keep on burning those charges, sweetie!). Maurice, unfortunately, managed to get away, to Marcus' chagrin. They had a couple of captured kobolds who offered to take Valar back to their warrens, claiming that Valar was some kind of anticipated hero who would liberate them from slavery (he mentioned his stint in Dorecan Manor helping the other kobolds there to see if they were related). The kobolds led the party faithfully into the woods, into a trap, and then scampered off as their fellow kobolds ambushed them. Egg on Valar's face.

The party finally got the idea that they needed to take out Teeb before they went much farther. They organized a scouting mission that quickly turned into a raid where they made it as far inside as the caverns where the two Giantesses lived. One was slain immediately, but the other escaped before the denizens of the encampment mobilized a good defense and forced the party to flee. The party returned to their Tower, dispatched the followers, licked their wounds and then began plotting again.

Yovaire had been killed, but Marshaya the elven Cleric had a scroll with True Resurrection on it, so Yovaire came back from the dead. HOWEVER... one slight glitch. There was a weird resonance with such high level divine magic in the Blasted Lands, and Yovaire came back in the body of a female. (1 in 20 chance, he rolled a 1... sorry Eridanis).

Marshaya further offered to help the party out by arranging for quick transportation back to Teeb's place. The group guessed rightly that Teeb would have buffed up his defenses in the wake of the attack and since he had a lot of kobolds working for him, there would be many traps. Marshaya summoned Phase Spiders and called in some bizarre favor from her past (Laeka began to think that Marshaya was much more than she seemed), so enough Phase Spiders came and provided transport on the Ethereal Plane for the group, popping them in to the room they had left.

As they began to explore Teeb's place, they ran afoul of not mechanical traps, but Glyphs of Warding which alerted the denizens again. This time the party had an element of preplanned surprise, since they were much deeper into the complex than Teeb's armies assumed, and they were able to use the Wall of Thorns to create a single 5' alleyway by which their foes had to approach them, and utilized tactics to essentially pick them off. The only major wrench in the works was the fact that Maurice Kingalo got in the room from behind them, cast Improved Invisibility on them, and began to make their lives extremely difficult before he was finally taken down (to 0, amid magical darkness... he used his one action to drink his last Cure Critical potion, but he was still caught by the party when the battle was won and the darkness dispelled.

Tybok wanted to kill Maurice because Maurice had succeeded in besting the little Wizard, and Tybok carries a grudge. Marcus and Maurice had a semi-civil conversation, and Maurice informed the group that he was in the service of the Temple of Shardal, the Lord of Darkness and Evil, a LE God that formed one of the five major gods of the pantheon of Brace. Shardal wasn't known to actually have temples, preferring on secret rites in temporary places of power so as to prevent extermination by the forces of Ferenthal, his LG twin brother and arch nemesis in the heavens.

Maurice mentioned that the Temple of Shardal in the region was interested in brokering a deal with Teeb and as a token of good faith, Maurice was assigned to assist Teeb magically. Really what he was doing was spying on Teeb and taking note of Teeb's defenses, so that should Teeb prove 'inconvenient', the Temple of Shardal would have inside information on their opponent. He was extremely forthcoming with that information, which made everyone suspicious and Tybok nearly frothing at the mouth. Marcus decided that Maurice, being in the service of a Lawful Evil God would have some sense of honor, and they brokered a truce, that Maurice wouldn't attack the party again and the party would let Maurice go free. Maurice agreed.

One of the giants in the large cavern group had decided on a particularly wise course of action and surrendered to the party once the rest of the army of kobolds, orcs, ogres, and a couple other giants had been decimated and Maurice neutralized. An ogre also surrendered. The party found several humanoid prisoners in a pit near the edge of the large living cavern where the massive battle had just taken place. They rescued a few children close to succumbing to the Taint and a halfling fighter who claimed to be a Squire in some religious order of Yondalla's paladins, though not a paladin herself. Once the rescued folks were out of the pit, the giant negotiated with the party. He would lead them to where Teeb was, and help them in the fight, or just stay out of it, if they would leave him alone to live. The ogre that was with them protested, but the giant silenced the ogre's protests by duping him into looking into the pit and then pushing him to his death below.

The party followed the giant deeper into the complex, and as they passed through an entry hall full of Teeb's gruesome trophies of war, they noticed a Minotaur chained to the wall and obviously starving to death. The giant led the group into what Teeb had made into a Throne Room, and saw Teeb wearing a large crown, with an Orc cleric of Gruumsh in attendance and several acolytes and adepts. In the corner of the room was a pavillion tent with an opulent bed set up, and a half-giant woman was chained to the bed by her ankle. The party had invisibility up and running so they could check to see that the prisoner giant would lure Teeb away from his stronghold like they planned, but when the giant stood before Teeb on his throne, he betrayed the party (just like a Chaotic Evil would do).

Old One-Eye, the cleric of Gruumsh, cast 'Invisibility Purge' because the giant said they were invisible. Unfortunately, that also revealed that Maurice had been flying invisibly behind the party as well. Nearly spelled out from their major encounter, suddenly betrayed by their prisoner and thrust into a combat situation where the party was spread out and they were facing unknown spellcasters, the appearance of Maurice made everyone groan.

As it turned out, however, Maurice kept true to his word of non-interference, and turned his few remaining spells and items onto the Cleric and Adepts. Valar managed to make an amazing critical hit with his sneak attack and dropped One Eye in a single blow (after a couple of damaging spells from Maurice to One Eye). The group took heart from Valar's valiant blow, and they rallied well. Hack and Slash (Laeka and Yovaire) made short work of Teeb, while Arien freed the half-giant woman near the bed. The woman immediately shifted into a gaseous form and began to drift up and out through crannies in the cavern walls, abandoning the battle.

The party was victorious, and Valar's greed afterwards set off several trapped chests that exploded (the chest itself was the trap), damaging the fair rogue. Laeka took Teeb's crown off and, amazed that it shrank in her hands (and not being notably Lawful), Laeka put it on. The crown fused with her skull, and rendered her unable to communicate a lie. However, whenever anyone within earshot spoke an obvious falsehood, their voice sounded high pitched and squeaky to her, and when she read something that was intentionally false, the writing seemed to shiver on the page.

The party grabbed some stuff, decided that killing Teeb was more than enough. They parted ways with Maurice again, and made their way back to the Tower. Maurice, being no fool, immediately summoned allies from the Temple of Shardal and essentially cleared out the rest of Teebs place for themselves, setting up a relatively hidden stronghold.

The group freed the Minotaur, named Ak-Rashkinna, and asked him to drink from the cup of Lawful Neutral. Unbeknownst to them, Ak succeeded on a Sleight of Hand check and mimed drinking from the cup, while not actually doing so. The party brought him back to the tower, and they also rescued a Dire Lion with a Collar of Animal Mastery on it. Since they had killed his master, the collar 'reset' itself to the first person to touch it, which happened to be Arien. So now the druid set off with her new Dire Lion in tow, vowing to work with it and make him her animal companion when she got to the right level of experience. Arien quickly named the lion Fluffy, and issued orders to it that it was not to harm the party or the party's animals.

The group made it back to the tower, took some time off, and counted up their stuff.

[We're still not all the way caught up, but in the next post we will be.--pacio49]

 

[Pacio49]

Finally! Up to date!

The party spent some much-earned R&R in the Tower, allowing their Minotaur Ak-Rashkinna to heal up from his near starvation. Marshaya suggested a picnic in the Vale 'like we used to do with Karral', so the party consented and was out picnicking when Hank, the injured Dust Rider, was surprised by a Dust Rider jumping out of a bush and shouting 'Boo!' at him (which caused him to trip and roll down a hillside). The new person was a half-elven Bard/Dust Rider female named Seirithé Flarnil, and she had been sent into the Blasted Lands by Mad Madge, Hank's Dust Rider agent. She also carried a set of scrolls summoning Inge Truelute back to her clanhalls. Seirithé didn't know why, but she did know that all dwarves everywhere had been summoned back to their halls in recent times.

Hank was teleported back to Madge's to make good on back credit debts with his Agent, and Inge accepted the summons which teleported her back to her clan hall. First she severed her connection to the group via the rings with Laeka's consent, and also she asked Seirithé as a fellow Bard to fulfill her duty to the party and accompany them to Pain Mountain. Seirithé agreed.

That night, Marcus was studying and found a hidden set of documents with magical script that moved and swirled under his eyes, even with a Read Magic up and running. The little he did recognize led him to make contact with the mind of Mystra, Goddess of Magic. He decided then to become a Cleric, and found more writings of hers on how to be a Mystic Theurge, joining a special order of Mystra's which was set for her own agenda, which would become clear in time. As he studies the documents new prayers and spells come with the appropriate experience levels (allowing him to multiclass to Mystra's cleric and eventually become a Mystic Theurge of Mystra's).

In prayer, he asked for guidance from her and rolled extremely well. Mystra showed herself to him in a vision (he had made a godcall and succeeded with a 00 on the percentile roll, made in plain sight. Gotta love players sometimes, since it sped up some background plotting they had missed when they didn't explore Teeb's place fully). She explained that the Blasted Lands was being caused by the collision of two material planes, and that the Taint was the result of the fabric of reality trying to resolve the colossal impact that was still ripping through the world at the point of contact. She revealed little more on that, but she did reveal that the Gods were tied to the structure of the planes, and so it was within the realm of the divine that a cure could be found for the Taint. It required treating each individual being as though they were a temple, and casting HALLOW on them. One casting of Hallow allowed for the removal of any Taint or Bane in a given individual. Each casting of Hallow requires 2,000gp in materials, so it's a cure that comes at a price.

Mystra also revealed that this cure was, in fact, already known. The Elvish Queen had come down with the Bane years before, and had been cured with the Hallow spell. The Clergy of the Temple of Iöla themselves knew the cure, at least at some level, but in some weird bid for power withheld that information from the public at large. Mystra told Marcus to make certain that whenever he revealed the source of the cure of the Taint, that Mystra be the one whose name was praised for revealing the information.

Marcus and the party discussed this, and realized they had two scrolls with Hallow on them. There were several rescued folks from Teeb's who could use it, including two children, but the party used one on one of the children and the other on Marshaya, the Elven Cleric of Iöla (after some discussion, they reasoned that she wouldn't be part of the conspiracy since she had the Bane in an advanced stage). When the spell was cast, her holy symbol flickered for a moment, and revealed to the party that she wasn't actually a cleric of Iöla, but instead a cleric of Jastour, God of Secrets and Knowledge.

Marshaya was sufficiently advanced in level to be able to cast Hallow herself, as was Arien, so over the course of time and several thousands of gp later, the group had managed to cleanse the Taint on the humans, the halfling squire, and all the rest of the refugees. They were set free of the Blasted Lands when the party teleported to Tol Vehara, coming into Brindella's agency (Marcus finally got the spell). They told the healed ones to go free and keep quiet for now, thanking Mystra for helping them. The halfling squire ran off to find her people and help spread the word among the halflings, thanking Marcus and Mystra for their help, and promising to keep it hush-hush and only among halflings for now until Mystra sent a further signal.

The group did some trading, saw some folks, checked up on Ymanoura and the Sapphire family but heard nothing. They found out that there had been more rioting in the streets because a full regiment of the Knights of the New Order were reported at the hostels crossing the White Mountains to the west, all the dwarves were gone or leaving to respond to a Kingdom-wide Clan Summons, and life continued more or less as usual. They returned to the Tower then, and made ready their assault on Pain Mountain to secure the gem, feeling even more urgency now that they thought the Knights were coming in, and wanting to establish themselves securely before that happened and Tol Vehara was subject to a crackdown.

The party made their preparations, loaded up and took off, follow Ak-Rashkinna toward Gatetown.

Along the way they were ambushed by a Young Adult green dragon who nearly got wiped out, met Dexter, a kobold sorcerer (14th level!) refugee from Pain Mountain who was guarded because of Ak-Rashkinna and lived in a haven, and they got attacked by a Wyvern along the way. Finally they made it to Gatetown, where before crossing the Lake of Tears to get to the actual town at the foot of Pain Mountain, the minotaur they had rescued (the Chaotic Evil minotaur who had successfully used sleight of hand to NOT drink from the cup of Lawful Goodness) turned to the party in front of the guards and demanded 1,000 gp apiece from them to not claim they were his slaves for sale in the Gatetown market. The party grumbled, but facing the option of being taken as slaves or a massive fight on the ferry docks, they paid up and learned their lesson about trusting Minotaur.

The party helped buy a human out of slavery and met some lizardfolk and psionicists. They found their welcome at Gatetown to be extremely unpleasant, and were a bit unnerved by the number of openly evil folks there were present. Even Tybok realized they were outgunned and outmatched.

The one major problem they encountered was during some shenanigans at the slave auction, which were broken up by a contingent of Black Shield orcs and their Lieutenant, a humanoid in full plate with visor down who had curiously been able to organize the orc hierarchy in town to support Gruntguts, the Mayor, and who seemed to be able to hold on to a vestige of order despite the chaotic surroundings. Marcus (again with the nasty roll of natural 20 on a Listen check) recognized the voice of the lieutenant as belonging to none other than Tanin, the ex-party member who had drunk from the Lawful Evil cup. Upon realizing that and realizing why the orcs were suddenly obedient to their Mayor (the cup), the party decided wisdom was the better part of valor and high-tailed it out of dodge, half fearing an ambush on the way back. (No ambush.)

Tybok had gone invisible, however, and managed to successfully spy on Tanin for a moment, overhearing him talking to Gruntguts the Mayor.

MAYOR: Did you dispatch them?
TANIN: Am I still here to serve you? Then they remain. I will return to my own time and my own Master once I finally thwart them. Their plans must not be allowed to continue or else all is lost.

The group discussed what this meant as they travelled, and they pushed on that night (with Londrigan, the slave they rescued) until they made it to the Haven where Dexter waited. Dexter, seeing them without Ak-Rashkinna, was much more open and friendly, and told the party more about Pain Mountain, that there were many ways into and out of it. The party asked him if he knew of the gem called the Heart of the Mountain. He had heard of it, but didn't know where it lay. Dexter mentioned that his scrying abilities would be much stronger if the group could bring him to a place of power in the nearby mountains. They agreed and the next day set out to gain the Place of Power for Dexter and scry to find out where the Heart of the Mountain lay.

The Place was up high along a narrow and steep track, and when they made it up to the ledge they found a cave entrance and, unfortunately, the green dragon they had chased off earlier. They fought the dragon, and Dexter succeeded in a lucky spell (Baleful Polymorph) to turn it into a toad. A very tough toad, but soon a very dead dragon/toad. Inside the cavern was a small pool welling up from below, which was the place of power that Dexter had spoken of. He said he needed a night to prepare, and they waited.

The next day, Dexter cast the scrying on the pool, and the party saw a strange scene. A paladin and a Crystal Dragon in the darkness amid the dragon's hoard. The dragon was an ancient wyrm, and he was dying. The paladin assisted him in his Rites of Ascension, and the Wyrm (Excelsior) completed the rites the place was flooded in light, light that turned into crystal and affected the mountain itself as the Ascension Wyrm magic flooded through all of the caverns, crevices, etc. Marcus thought that might have been the source of the adamantium which the Minotaurs were known to be mining.

They watched and saw that the paladin had died in the rite, as had the Wyrm, but the bedrocks in the center of the mountain had been converted to crystal.... rose quartz, the 'heartstone', which warded away the Taint but slowly degraded to Blue quartz. (Each 10gp worth of rose quartz carried on a person 'prevents' the Taint from affecting the carrier for one day/night.) The dragon's actual body had turned into a series of crystal caverns, on an island amid the sunless sea, and where the dragon's heart had been was now a giant crystal aglow with power, the fabled Heart of the Mountain. The party saw the shade of the paladin, suffused with light, guarding the gem, and then the vision went dark.

The party decided, with Dexter's counsel, to seek entry to the mountain's depths through the abandoned dwarven city, beneath the shadow of the Broken Tower and the Bone Lord, a Death Knight who ruled from his complex of the Broken Tower atop the mountain. Dexter bound himself as guardian of the node of power on which he sat, accepting the fact that he would no longer be able to leave that mountain but also that he could use his sorcery to aid in the freeing of his friends and clans of kobolds in Pain Mountain. While the party wasn't too keen on running into the Bone Lord, Dexter thought there had to be a way into the caverns below without climbing up to the heights where the Broken Tower lay.

The party rests now at the haven, awaiting the next stage of their adventure, as they assault the Dwarven City to gain entrance to the Sunless Sea, and there to find the Crystal Caverns, overcome the Guardian Shade, and claim the Heart of the Mountain for their own.

 

[Pacio49]

Party changes

Well, the plot is finally caught up. We game this weekend, so look for a new installment then. Also, Valar and Skalar's players have had to leave for a life in Arizona, so we are down two players, but I think I've found a couple of players who will do well in the group.


Also, I've finally ported over to 3.5 rules.
Lots of changes, but it's good to be up to date on here.

 

[Eridanis]

Just played on Saturday. What an amazing session! Can't wait to see the write-up on it.