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Wing Three
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<blockquote data-quote="Richards" data-source="post: 6462243" data-attributes="member: 508"><p><strong>ADVENTURE 88: EYE OF VECNA</strong></p><p></p><p>PC Roster: <p style="margin-left: 20px">Feron Dru, half-elf druid</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Galrich Slayer, half-orc barbarian</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Rale Bodkin, human rogue</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Telgrane, half-fire elemental human conjurer/archmage</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Thunderwolf, human fighter</p><p></p><p>NPC Roster: <p style="margin-left: 20px">Aerik Battershield, dwarven fighter/dwarven defender</p><p></p><p>"Thank you for meeting with me," said Brother Altamaic the Calm, as the group took their places around the table in one of the side rooms of the Church Library of Boccob.</p><p></p><p>"One of our brethren, <strong>Brother Kasperius</strong>, has discovered a carving in the side of a cliff face, in a desert canyon, facing inwards so it cannot be seen by anyone outside of the narrow confines of the canyon. The carving is about 60 feet tall, of a hooded skull with a faint light coming from only one of the eye sockets. We believe this to be a representation of Vecna, the God of Secrets.</p><p></p><p>"History suggests there is likely a treasure trove of information hidden inside that carved skull," Brother Altamaic continued. "Given Vecna's evil nature, some of that information is best kept away from those who would use it against the world at large. We feel it would be safer locked away in one of our own storage vaults, should it prove to be of a dangerous nature.</p><p></p><p>"However, history has also shown that Vecna's hidden troves of knowledge are often protected by deadly traps and guarded by fearsome beasts. As such, our representative feared to enter the cliffside himself, opting instead to get word of it to us, that we might hire those more readily equipped to handle such dangers. And that, naturally, is where you come in."</p><p></p><p>Brother Altamaic proposed the following: the Wing Three adventurers would be paid a 5,000 gp retainer up front, to be spent upon any material goods they felt they needed before exploring whatever chambers might be hidden behind the carved skull. In return, they would turn over all books, scrolls, tomes, and other recorded documents to the Church of Boccob without question. Any other goods, whether it be the treasure of monsters slain or any mundane goods from the interior of the Vecna Complex, would be the group's to keep. As a final incentive, the Church of Boccob agreed to finance the cost of any <em>true resurrection</em> spells to return to life those heroes who might be slain during the course of this mission.</p><p></p><p>Brother Altamaic offered to repeat his offer under the effects of a <em>zone of truth</em> spell and to sign any documents the heroes wished stating the terms of this agreement, but the heroes didn't take him up on his offer. They had dealt with him specifically, and the Church Library of Boccob on many previous occasions - he was on the short list of people the group trusted implicitly. The Wing Three adventurers agreed to Brother Altamaic's terms, accepted the retainer, and went off to purchase supplies.</p><p></p><p>After deciding who would be going on the mission and realizing Feron would be their only source of divine healing, the first place they hit was Dundernoggin's Magic Shoppe, to purchase a large quantity of <em>potions of cure critical wounds</em>. Rale, seeing that Galrich and Aerik would be on the mission and fearing the half-orc barbarian would once again have his will dominated and used against the party, insisted that Galrich invest in a <em>periapt of Wisdom</em>, to increase his mental willpower against such intrusions. Telgrane bought a <em>major circlet of blasting</em> for his familiar, always eager to find ways to allow Infernia to contribute in combat. Thunderwolf picked up a <em>Heward's handy haversack</em>, after having seen the advantages to be had from extradimensional storage. (He'd been saving up the money he'd earned on his various missions, and thus picked up a second one while he was at it, giving it to Delphyne. The witch thanked him with a smile, and he blushed and turned away.)</p><p></p><p>Eventually, the group was ready to go. Rale put on his pair of <em>scout goggles</em>, putting them in transmission mode, while Cal donned the other in the set, putting his pair in receive mode. They confirmed the pair was still fully functional, then Cal slipped his up to the top of his head so he could see through his own eyes long enough to see the group off.</p><p></p><p>"Are we all ready?" asked Brother Kasperius, unrolling a large scroll. It contained two castings of the <em>teleport without error</em> spell. After Telgrane and Feron had finished their standard preparatory spells, to include a <em>Rary's telepathic bond</em> spell to link the heroes together, the group gathered around Brother Kasperius, Cal stepped back, the Boccobian read the words of the top spell on his scroll, and the group vanished from sight.</p><p></p><p>They arrived into a barren world – or at least, that was the immediate impression. They heroes stood among desert sands, with a rock cliff rising up above them on both sides. They faced a wide crevice between two canyon walls, with a great sandy desert at their backs.</p><p></p><p>"It's down this gap," said Brother Kasperius. "It goes a couple hundred feet in, then veers off to the left. The skull carving faces the back wall of the canyon. Good luck to you, my friends." And with that, he began reading the words to the second casting on the scroll.</p><p></p><p>However, just as he disappeared from view, the area he had just occupied became covered in shadow, engulfing Rale who had naturally drifted into the back of the group as they had started traversing the confines of the cliff-face crevice. Rounding the corner from the cliff behind the rogue stood a humanoid figure made entirely of cacti, thick thorns sprouting from its every surface. Opening its maw, it issued forth a deep, booming voice that expressed its anger even to those who could not understand its words.</p><p></p><p>Fortunately, Feron understood the thing's booming, guttural words as being spoken in the Sylvan language. "Who are you, and why do you trespass upon the Burning Lands?" the cactus-man demanded. She turned to face the massive being, holding her hand up to the others to hold off their attacks. They lowered their weapons, although none was foolish enough to sheathe them entirely.</p><p></p><p>"We are adventurers, come to rid the world of the evil contained in the carving beyond," Feron responded in Sylvan, pointing down the crevice they'd been traversing.</p><p></p><p>"Lies!" roared the saguaro sentinel - basically, the desert equivalent to the forest's treant. "I have been warned of your arrival, of your intent to despoil the fragile desert environment in your search for buried treasure!"</p><p></p><p>"Who gave you such a warning?" asked Feron.</p><p></p><p>"The wizard <strong>Pondari</strong>," replied the towering cactus-man.</p><p></p><p>"Our intentions are pure," responded Feron in her most reasonable tone of voice. "I am a druid; my last desire would be to harm any aspect of the natural world. We will not be passing onto the desert reaches behind you, merely confining our explorations into the side of the cliff wall, where we believe there is evil to be fought."</p><p></p><p>The cactus-man took on a defiant pose, his bulk blocking the entrance to the gap between the cliffs. "Then go your way," he said. "I will ensure you stay within the boundaries you have stated."</p><p></p><p>"Fair enough," Feron replied with a sweet smile, turning her back on the mighty saguaro sentinel and heading back down the way she'd been going. "C'mon, guys." The others followed the druid, although not without a few nervous glances at the towering form behind them. The saguaro just snarled at irritation at their nervousness.</p><p></p><p>Several hundred feet back, the crevice turned to the left, just as had been described. Looking up at the cliff wall looming above them, they saw the carving that had been described by Brother Altamaic. The enormous skull appeared to have been sculpted directly into the face of the vertical stone cliff; protected as it was from the desert winds, it was difficult to say how long ago it had been carved. But the likeness was unmistakable: not only was the skull encompassed within the folds of a carved hood, but its right eye – and only its right – seemed to hold an eyeball that looked directly at the heroes, no matter which way they moved.</p><p></p><p>"Creepy," commented Thunderwolf.</p><p></p><p>Suddenly, the sand before them exploded upwards. Like the sand in an hourglass in an upside-down world, the particles rose up from the ground and stopped about ten feet up, filling in the shape of a humanoid form from the top down. The end result was a massive, featureless figure, which approached menacingly. Telgrane thought it was likely a sand golem, and passed that information to the group over their shared link. He couldn't recall any specific details about its powers, but if it was a golem then it was likely immune to most spells. "Let's fly above it," he suggested, backing up, unrolling his <em>carpet of flying</em> from his back with a snap and leaping upon it in a one fluid movement. Infernia stepped on as well, and he levitated them both straight up.</p><p></p><p>Thunderwolf, Rale, and Feron quickly followed suit, stepping upon their <em>drow floatdisks</em>. Aerik did likewise, but as usual waited until Galrich had done the same before he would allow himself to flee to safety. The half-orc was a bit slower than the others, and as a result both he and his bodyguard were still landbound when the sand golem struck.</p><p></p><p>Aerik, being the closest (for he had naturally positioned himself between the sand golem and his liege), took the brunt of the golem's attack. A massive fist struck the dwarf, but worse yet, the sand particles flying in a cloud all about the construct immediately started filling his nose and mouth. Feron quickly cast a <em>wind wall</em> between them to prevent any further sand particles from getting to the dwarf. Aerik staggered and coughed, trying to dislodge the lump of sand stuck in his throat, to no avail. He tipped forward, dropping his weapon, and would have collapsed face-first upon the desert floor if Galrich hadn't grabbed him by one of the leather weapon straps crossing his broad back and sent his own <em>floatdisk</em> rocketing straight up, out of reach.</p><p></p><p>From the air, Telgrane summoned a Huge earth elemental to deal with the sand golem, and the two creatures traded a series of powerful blows. Up in the air, the heroes regrouped. Aerik still convulsed in Galrich's grasp, struggling to no avail to gather a breath. Feron hesitated; her natural instinct was to cast a healing spell upon the dwarf, but that wouldn't help him, for there were no gashes to close, no wounds to clear.</p><p></p><p>"Hold him still," commanded Rale, steering his <em>floatdisk</em> over by Galrich's and unstoppering a potion. He grabbed Aerik by his beard, yanked open his mouth, and poured the contents down his sand-clogged throat. The sand likely absorbed a good chunk of it, but enough made it into Aerik's system to have the intended effect. The dwarf's body converted to a gaseous cloud, taking with it the fighter's armor, weapons, and gear - but not the sand that had forced its way into his air passages. That fell to the desert floor below in a wet clump. Aerik allowed his gaseous form to drift to the sands below, where he reformed into his normal self and gathered up his dropped weapon and his <em>floatdisk</em> before joining the others in the sky.</p><p></p><p>"That was a close one!" gasped Feron, casting two consecutive <em>cure critical wounds</em> spells from her wand upon the dwarf, for she could see the ordeal had just about sapped him of all of his vigor.</p><p></p><p>"I'm better now," was all the dwarf had to say on the subject, embarrassed at having been brought so close to death that quickly.</p><p></p><p>Below them, the two humanoid figures battled on. Telgrane maneuvered over to the skull sculpture, examining the two eye sockets.</p><p></p><p>The skull's left eye - that is, the one on the right as viewed head-on - was a dark hole some 20 feet in diameter that led into darkness, although Telgrane could see the stone floor dropped down to a steep angle shortly inside the confines of the eye socket. Moving over to the carved skull's right eye socket - the one on the left as viewed by the archmage - Telgrane saw it contained an enormous, bloodshot, age-yellowed eyeball floating at its center. It moved about, following the archmage's progress as he maneuvered his <em>carpet of flying</em> to different viewpoints. It was an unnerving effect, but Telgrane's <em>arcane sight</em> told him the "eye" was bathed in an aura of illusion magic, and he was willing to bet it was harmless.</p><p></p><p>"Here's my best guess," he told the others over the <em>telepathic bond</em>. "The open socket is the most obvious means of entry, so I'm guessing that one's heavily trapped. I'd say the one with the eyeball's the safe way in."</p><p></p><p>"Let me see," replied Rale as he maneuvered his <em>floatdisk</em> over. After all, while they were expecting to find some undead creatures inside the Vecna Complex - at which point Cal's ability to turn undead would prove be invaluable - there were also likely to be all manners of traps, which were Rale's area of expertise. Wanting to display his usefulness, he gave the exterior of the eye socket a thorough examination before flying straight through the eyeball with no ill effect. "It's safe," he called back to the others.</p><p></p><p>The area beyond was a wide hallway, 20 feet wide with an equal height. After about thirty feet, the stone floor turned into a set of stairs leading down into darkness. By the light of Infernia's flaming body, the group could see the passageway made a right turn just past the bottom of the stairs.</p><p></p><p>Telgrane and Infernia opted to remain on the <em>carpet of flying</em>, to avoid any pressure plates that might be lying in wait to be stepped upon. The rest of the group followed suit, traveling forward on their <em>floatdisks</em>.</p><p></p><p>A short distance past the turn, the passageway opened up into a wider area, with an even wider area just beyond that. Two looming shapes stood in the shadows at the edge of Infernia's illumination; moving cautiously forward, the shapes took on the forms of massive scorpions, poised to strike with their tails. But even in the poor lighting, the group could see the scorpions were carved of iron and stood completely motionless.</p><p></p><p>"Statues," observed Thunderwolf. "Or sculptures."</p><p></p><p>"Or constructs, ready to activate and try to kill us all," added Rale.</p><p></p><p>"Look on the floor, Master," said Infernia, pointing down at the first section of the room, where the distance between the side walls was about 45 feet wide. There was a grid of stone tiles, arranged in four rows of nine each, each with a letter carved in its center. Together, they read as follows:The tiles upon which the words "WATER," "DEATH," "DEAD," and "WEED" appeared were of a smoky-gray slate, while those containing the words "FIRE," "LIFE," ALIVE," and "GRASS" were of white marble.</p><p></p><p>The group gathered up to examine the words on the floor, each careful not to cross directly above them. Rale gave the floor a close scrutiny and discovered narrow grooves between each tile. "There's a good chance these are pressure plates," he told the group at large. Everyone prided themselves on having remained afloat thus far.</p><p></p><p>Telgrane peered into the room beyond the letters on the floor. The twin scorpions had an aura of transmutation magic - not very powerful, but that was probably because it was waiting to become active; right now it was likely in a dormant state, before one of the heroes did something that would trigger their movement. Of more interest to the archmage was the aura on the ceiling in the room beyond, which was likewise currently dormant but looked to hold a significant amount of potential evocation magic.</p><p></p><p>"Thoughts?" asked Rale, looking over the letters again.</p><p></p><p>"In a complex devoted to Vecna, maybe the darker words are the safe ones? That would include 'DEATH' and 'DEAD.'"</p><p></p><p>"Yeah, but 'WATER' and 'WEED,' too," replied Rale. "Those two words don't really have a 'Vecna' feel to them."</p><p></p><p>"Anybody have a rock?" suggested Thunderwolf. "We could toss one onto the letters and see what happens." It was a valid approach, but Rale wanted to try something first. "Everybody scoot back," he ordered. "If these are pressure plates, it should be safe to just fly right over them." Telgrane and Infernia remained in place where they were, the archmage eager to see the effects, if any, Rale's gambit would produce; the others retreated back against the far wall, where the stairway ended and turned the corner.</p><p></p><p>"Here goes," Rale said, slowly moving his <em>floatdisk</em> forward.</p><p></p><p>As soon as it crossed over the first row of letters, a bolt of electricity came flashing down from the cavern's ceiling, striking Rale squarely in the chest and sending arcs out to likewise hit Telgrane, Infernia, and Galrich, who was the only one of the group in the back to still be within range of the <em>chain lightning</em> effect. Rale howled in pain and hurriedly backed his <em>floatdisk</em> up to hover before the first row of letters; Telgrane tensed to see if the magical effect would repeat, but apparently the conditions of the trap had been set to strike those who had passed too far into the room in the improper manner, but to hold off once they had retreated and the conditions were no longer in effect.</p><p></p><p>"Well," reasoned Rale as smoke curled up from the armor on his chest, "We learned some valuable information."</p><p></p><p>"Wait a minute," said Thunderwolf suddenly, jumping down from his <em>floatdisk</em> in his excitement and grabbing it up. He ran over to the right-hand side of the letter grid and pointed at the first "S" in "GRASS." "This column here," he said matter-of-factly. "It spells out 'SAFE.'"</p><p></p><p>"It sure does!" agreed Feron. "Nicely done!"</p><p></p><p>"It would have been nice if you'd have figured it out a half a minute earlier," grumbled Rale to himself, but he too dismounted from his <em>floatdisk</em> and walked over to the "SAFE" column. Carefully stepping only onto those squares, he made it into the room - and once there, was undisturbed by <em>chain lightning</em> effects. "It's safe to follow," he called back, "but nobody touch anything! I want to check out these statues."</p><p></p><p>The others all dismounted, stowed their <em>floatdisks</em> back into shield mode, and walked safely into the back half of the room. Rale, meanwhile, was carefully examining the two scorpion statues, one at a time.</p><p></p><p>"What's the point of this room?" asked Feron. There doesn't seem to be any other way out." Aerik was traversing the outer walls as she said this, using his innate stonecunning to search for possible secret doors, but thus far finding none.</p><p></p><p>"Maybe we should go back outside and try the other eye socket?" suggested Thunderwolf.</p><p></p><p>"No, there are two exits from this room," corrected Rale. "Directly in front of each statue, on the floor between its claws, is a trap door. I just want to make sure these things aren't going to activate if we open them up."</p><p></p><p>The others verified his findings, and sure enough, there was a five-foot-square raised tile before each scorpion, with evident hinges in the back.</p><p></p><p>"Maybe they animate if you open the wrong door?" guessed Telgrane.</p><p></p><p>Rale gave the trap doors a very close scrutiny, and his keen eyes detected a few scratches along the front side of the one on the right that were not present on the other trap door. Reasoning it was because the Vecna cultists who likely used this place used the untrapped door exclusively, he carefully stepped between the claws of the rightmost guardian scorpion and pulled that trap door open with a strong tug.</p><p></p><p>The scorpions - despite the fact that Rale's hands-off examinations had revealed their joints would easily allow the sculptures to move about - remained motionless. "Careful now," he told the others. "Don't touch the scorpions, and we should be fine." Beneath the trap door was a narrow set of stairs; he descended, the others following suit.</p><p></p><p>The stairs descended a good twenty or thirty feet before the passageway leveled out again and made a turn to the left, expanding in width to 10 feet as it did so. Thirty feet ahead there was a closed door centered on a stone wall.</p><p></p><p>"Hang back," ordered Rale. "I'll check it out." He approached carefully, examining the floor in detail before taking his next step forward. And sure enough, about ten feet from the door, there was a narrow line in the stone along the floor, a possible seam that could be the edge of a trap door or something similar. Stepping back upon his <em>floatdisk</em>, Rale followed the seam onto the walls. They continued along each wall in a circular arc leading up to the top of the wall in which the door was centered.</p><p></p><p>The rogue grunted to himself, convinced now that this was a mechanical trap - likely, if the door were to be opened, the entire section would flip forward. He closely examined the doorknob and the wall along each side of the door, discovering a loose chunk of stone. Rale tried pushing it, to no effect, then pulled it away from the rest of the wall. It was, in effect, a large, hollow brick, covering a metal lever.</p><p></p><p>"Here we go!" he cried out in excitement. "You guys stay there!" And with that, he pulled the lever.</p><p></p><p>As he expected, the floor behind him immediately began rising, as the wall containing the door started tipping forward at the same rate. Behind him, the others saw the floor slowly rise up to form a new wall where the original wall had been, revealing a chute of some sort dropping down into darkness where the original floor had been. Galrich approached cautiously and listened intently; he could just make out a dry, skittering noise far below that gave the half-orc the chills. It sounded like a massive swarm of some type of horrible insect, crawling all over themselves in an effort to find prey.</p><p></p><p>The trap had by this time reached the end of its course and assumed its new configuration. Rale waited patiently on his <em>floatdisk</em> and sure enough, after half a minute or so, the section of floor and wall reversed its course, returning to their original positions.</p><p></p><p>"That was interesting," said Rale. "I'd bet anything that if you just try to open the door regularly, the floor section would move much faster and dump you into a pit or something below us."</p><p></p><p>"Spiders," replied Galrich. "Or maybe beetles."</p><p></p><p>"Anyway, saddle up," commanded Rale, getting everyone back up onto their <em>floatdisks</em> (or <em>carpet of flying</em>, in Telgrane's case). They moved forward, Rale activated the lever, and they waited as the whole section flipped forward and let them past once the door was on the floor before them.</p><p></p><p>The corridor beyond extended straight ahead for a bit before opening up into a small room with a podium in its center and a closed door on the far wall. An unseen voice whispered to the heroes, its words echoing throughout the chamber: "You must pay (<span style="font-size: 12px">pay</span> <span style="font-size: 10px">pay</span> <span style="font-size: 9px">pay</span>) in Vecna's coin (<span style="font-size: 12px">coin</span> <span style="font-size: 10px">coin</span> <span style="font-size: 9px">coin</span>) to pass further (<span style="font-size: 12px">further</span> <span style="font-size: 10px">further</span> <span style="font-size: 9px">further</span>). Speak a secret (<span style="font-size: 12px">secret</span> <span style="font-size: 10px">secret</span> <span style="font-size: 9px">secret</span>) known to no other than you (<span style="font-size: 12px">you</span> <span style="font-size: 10px">you</span> <span style="font-size: 9px">you</span>). Let the first approach (<span style="font-size: 12px">roach</span> <span style="font-size: 10px">roach</span> <span style="font-size: 9px">roach</span>)." As the echoes fell away, a feather quill pen rose up off the podium, and a large book flipped open to an empty page. Apparently, to pass further into the Vecna Complex, each hero would have to voice a secret which would then be copied into the book.</p><p></p><p>Once again, Telgrane's enhanced vision caught several magical auras in the room. He detected a faint aura of enchantment magic, but his experience told him that was likely the effects of a <em>zone of truth</em> spell, or something very similar to detect spoken falsehoods. He also recognized a faint conjuration aura in the vicinity of the podium, but took that to be an <em>unseen servant</em> recording the spoken words. Much more unnerving was the strong aura of evocation magic on the ceiling, which could be another <em>chain lightning</em> spell or any of a score of other possible effects.</p><p></p><p>Thunderwolf stepped forward. "I'll go first," he said to the others, then directed the podium. "I am creeped out by the thought of zombie clowns." He had never actually encountered such beings, of course, but others in Wing Three had done so and the young fighter had heard their tales. While he had put on a brave face during the telling of such tales, not wanting his compatriots to think any less of him, deep inside the very thought gave him the heebie-jeebies.</p><p></p><p>Much to Thunderwolf's concern, the pen - despite there being no ink well - wrote the following onto the blank page of the open book: "Thunderwolf of Greyhawk City is creeped out by the thought of zombie clowns." As soon as the written sentence was completed the ink seemed to absorb into the page, leaving it a clean slate once more. "How did it know my name?" Thunderwolf asked the others silently over the <em>telepathic bond</em>, clearly disturbed. But at the same time, there was a click from the back of the room and the door swung partially open with a rusty squeak.</p><p></p><p>"Go on," Rale said to the fighter. "We'll be right behind you."</p><p></p><p>"Couldn't we all just--" began Galrich, but Telgrane cut him off. "There's a magical sensor on the ceiling. I don't think it's safe for anyone but Thunderwolf to go through the door." Thunderwolf nodded at the group, swallowed nervously, and turned to go through the open door. It closed behind him.</p><p></p><p>"You still there?" asked Feron over the link.</p><p></p><p>"I'm here," Thunderwolf replied.</p><p></p><p>"Don't go any further without us."</p><p></p><p>"I won't."</p><p></p><p>The remaining heroes looked at each other. Aerik, not liking the idea of leaving his liege behind in a trapped room, but equally not liking the idea of letting him brave unknown dangers ahead, stepped forward. At least if he went now, Galrich would still have a pair of powerful spellcasters keeping him safe. He looked straight at the floating feather and stated, for the record, "I like to steal men's socks." The dwarf didn't look down at the page, but the words "Aerik Battershield of Kordovia likes to steal men's socks" sunk into the page immediately after the words had been written.</p><p></p><p>The dwarf ignored the gasps of surprise from behind him and stepped through the doorway without looking back.</p><p></p><p>"I <em>thought</em> I was missing some socks!" said Rale aloud, not wanting to send his accusations over the <em>telepathic bond</em>, where Aerik might hear. After all, even if Rale was correct and Aerik had stolen his socks, he wasn't eager to challenge the burly dwarven fighter.</p><p></p><p>"Who's next?" Telgrane asked.</p><p></p><p>"I will go, Master," replied his familiar in a quiet voice. She approached the podium, and in an even smaller voice, and careful not to simultaneously broadcast over the <em>telepathic bond</em>, spoke a few words. The door opened once again and Infernia crossed the room, the door closing behind her. She too paid no attention to the book on the podium, which completely absorbed the words, "Telgrane of Greyhawk City is not the first master the fire elemental Infernia has served as a familiar."</p><p></p><p>"I'll go next," said Feron. She followed Infernia's lead, speaking aloud a secret in such a way as to keep it from her companions. "I have always felt responsible for my father's death," she said quietly, before crossing the room and walking through the door.</p><p></p><p>Telgrane approached the podium next. He didn't bother trying to keep his secret from Rale and Galrich, but said aloud, "I had a crush on one of the teachers at my arcane college. The only reason I specialized in conjuration magic was because she was a conjurer and it meant spending more time with her." A broad grin spread across Rale's face as Telgrane confessed his secret crush; it was the first valid reason he's ever heard for spending all of the time and effort needed to master arcane spellcraft. The archmage crossed the room and vanished through the door.</p><p></p><p>"You ready yet? Rale asked Galrich. The half-orc shook his head; he was having difficulty deciding what to confess.</p><p></p><p>"Then I'm up," replied Rale, confidently approaching the podium. But when it was his turn to speak, he too did so in a quiet voice and outside the confines of the <em>telepathic bond</em>. After all, he had a reputation to protect.</p><p></p><p>"I do not covet gold," the rogue whispered almost inaudibly. It seemed to fly in the face of years of his past behavior, but Rale knew it was technically the truth, because he secretly really only coveted power, and gold was but one of several paths to obtain that which he truly sought. The magical sensors in the room apparently believed him, for the door swung open with a rusty squeak and he exited the room with a confident swagger.</p><p></p><p>That left only Galrich. He cleared his throat, and then said, "I killed my father."</p><p></p><p>Immediately, a beam of red light fired down from the ceiling, striking the barbarian in the chest. He howled in pain and snarled, "What was that for? It's the truth!" And it was, indeed, the truth, for years ago Galrich had slain the orc chieftain Jorrak of the Bloody Hand tribe in the Vesve Forest, shortly after having found out he would be the next king of Kordovia. But fighting down his rage for once, Galrich thought his way through the problem. Oh, right: the condition was that it had to be a secret known to nobody else but him, and others in his party had not only seen Galrich slay Jorrak, but had heard the chieftain's lament that he should have killed Galrich when we was born and saved himself the trouble of letting a halfbreed live. Apparently Galrich's patricide wasn't a secret known only to him.</p><p></p><p>"Okay, then, I've always blamed my mother for not being there when I was a kid! Happy?" Galrich snarled up at the ceiling, half expecting another bolt of energy to strike him down. But this secret was apparently found to be suitable, for the door opened with a squeak and the entire adventuring party was reunited. "Let's go," said Galrich, eager to get on with it and leave all of the "talking about your feelings" business behind him.</p><p></p><p>The narrow stone corridor beyond the door descended even further downwards, only instead of the smooth, carved steps the group had encountered in the Vecna complex thus far, these were entirely natural steps, coming at irregular intervals. Looking up, there were stalactites hanging down from the ceiling as well. The passageway opened up into a vast, open cavern, lit only by Infernia's flames in the front and a group of six glowing weapons on a ledge in the very back of the cavern. The ledge was about 30 feet tall, and the weapons circled slowly in place, basking the cavern in ever-shifting shadows. At the bottom of the vertical cliff leading up to the ledge stood an iron door in a recess in the stone.</p><p></p><p>Close to the front of the group, Telgrane's <em>arcane vision</em> spotted an irregularity on the stone floor in the center of the open cavern: a broad patch of illusion magic, fairly obviously an <em>illusory wall</em> spell cast horizontally. Then, popping up through the false floor erupted a Gargantuan blue dragon, its forelimbs raised as if about to attack, its lower half not visible, as if it were standing in a deep pit.</p><p></p><p>"Rowr!" roared the dragon, somewhat ineffectually, before freezing in place in a menacing pose.</p><p></p><p>Telgrane took a close look at the reptilian form and saw an aura of illusion magic emanating from it. "It's an illusion," he confirmed over the <em>telepathic link</em>, piloting his <em>carpet of flying</em> past the phony dragon and heading for the six floating weapons above the ledge in the back of the cavern. Thunderwolf squinched his eyes up and could see part of the dragon's outline seem to blur, but he couldn't get it to disappear entirely - the illusion must have been a fairly high-level one, he supposed.</p><p></p><p>As Telgrane and Infernia approached the floating weapons, he could see they orbited over a large pile of coins, gems, and art objects - mostly carvings and ornate carpets. There were no auras of illusion covering any of the goods. "That's odd," he muttered. "A dragon's hoard, but no real dragon."</p><p></p><p>At the front of the cavern, the ancient blue dragon <strong>Alaerthrax</strong> suppressed a draconic chuckle and leapt out of the pit, sending wildly dancing arcs of electricity leaping from his mouth to the heroes in the tunnel before him. Aerik, still weakened from his ordeal with the sand golem, was slain in an instant. Feron, Galrich, and Thunderwolf were all massively singed but not slain outright, while only Rale managed to twist his body in an instinctive response to the dragon's breath weapon and avoid all damage entirely. He activated one of the effects of his <em>rod of thievery</em> and became invisible, maneuvering his <em>floatdisk</em> past the dragon and zooming towards the relative safety of the back of the cavern. (The fact that that was where the dragon's treasure hoard was kept was no doubt entirely coincidental.)</p><p></p><p>Feron hated to do it, but she had been severely hurt by the dragon's sudden attack and burns covered the majority of her body. Whispering the words to a <em>meld into stone</em> spell, she backed into the side of the tunnel wall and spent the next half minute or so casting healing spells upon herself.</p><p></p><p>Galrich, seeing the dead body of his loyal bodyguard crumple to the ground, smoking from multiple burns, raged. He flew forward on his <em>floatdisk</em>, an inarticulate cry of fury exploding from his lips as he cut a bloody swath of pain and damage with his greataxe. Alaerthrax, having had a grand old time of it thus far, was suddenly taken aback as he recognized the energy crackling along the axe's blade: vorpal! Ancient dragon or no, one wrong swing of that weapon could find him beheaded in an instant! The dragon snarled in a rage of his own and attacked Galrich with teeth and claws. Behind the half-orc, Thunderwolf peppered the dragon with nearly a dozen arrows - enhanced with not only fire from his <em>flaming longbow</em> but also sonic and cold energy, courtesy of a pair of spells Telgrane had cast earlier upon his ammunition - but was disappointed to see the majority of them bounce harmlessly off the dragon's thick scales.</p><p></p><p>Switching to Xanthros, the fighter followed Galrich's lead and charged the dragon on his <em>floatdisk</em>. "Now we're talking, son!" boomed the intelligent blade, eager to see combat once again.</p><p></p><p>From the back of the cavern, Telgrane cast a <em>sunburst</em> spell, carefully shaping it to avoid blinding his allies. Unfortunately, the dragon was able to shake off most of the spell's effects, including the blinding effect, and the archmage sighed in frustration as one of his most powerful spells had almost no effect at all upon the massive reptile. Infernia let fly with the daily blast of energy afforded by her new magical circlet, and it had a slightly more powerful effect upon Alaerthrax.</p><p></p><p>But neither spell proved to be as effective as the invisible Rale, who had diverted course and snuck up behind the dragon, flying in for an invisible sneak attack. Racing his <em>floatdisk</em> to its fastest speed, he positioned his twin blades in such a fashion as to hopefully slide them beneath the dragon's scales by its spine. The success of the rogue's sneak attack was evidenced by the roar of pain bellowed out by Alaerthrax, which echoed back and forth throughout the underground cavern. The dragon snapped its head back to bite at its unseen attacker...</p><p></p><p>...but suddenly the attacker wasn't the only thing unseen in the vicinity, for Telgrane had just had much more success with the second casting of his <em>sunburst</em> spell than he had with the first. Alaerthrax, ancient blue dragon and willing ally to the followers of Vecna, was blind, and his own impressive knowledge of arcane spellcraft offered him no immediate way to correct the deficiency. Attacked simultaneously from the front by Galrich and Thunderwolf and from the back by Rale, the dragon was soon slain.</p><p></p><p>Feron eventually exited the stone wall, having been healed of almost all damage. She cast healing spells upon those who needed it, and unpacked the <em>Daern's dollhouse</em> long enough to lay Aerik's body to rest in one of the rooms therein. In the meantime, Rale and Telgrane had been gathering up the contents of the dragon's treasure and stuffing it inside the extradimensional space of Thunderwolf's new <em>Heward's handy haversack</em>. Rale took one of the hovering weapons, a <em>rapier of puncturing</em>, for his own personal use, and Feron did likewise with a <em>sylvan scimitar</em>. Then the group moved on.</p><p></p><p>A side cavern to the south led to a patch of sand, which Telgrane surmised was the dragon's means of secret exit and entrance to his lair: blue dragons were capable burrowers and could leave behind no passage behind them as they dug through the ground. In the meantime, Rale had been examining the iron door at the foot of the treasure ledge above; after having detected no traps and discovered no lock to pick, he used a <em>knock</em> spell from his <em>rod of thievery</em> and the door swung open. Beyond, another set of stairs led down into darkness.</p><p></p><p>These eventually led to a large set of double doors, upon which were carved a common holy symbol of Vecna: a skeletal hand holding a severed eye. After giving it his thorough examination, Rale declared the doors safe and pulled them open.</p><p></p><p>At long last, the treasures they had been sent to retrieve for the Church of Boccob stood readily apparent, for the rectangular room held bookcases on all four walls. A wide set of stairs descended through a large, circular opening in the center of the floor to a lower level; a quick examination revealed that there were in fact four levels to this Hidden Library, each accessible by the same set of wide stairs leading down from the top level to the bottom through a series of ever-decreasing circular openings in each floor.</p><p></p><p>"I think we might want some backup," commented Feron, casting a <em>shambler</em> spell. Instantly, a quartet of shambling mounds materialized in the back of the room. Rale, in the meantime, had moved to the eastern wall, upon which, between the bookcases at either end, was a mosaic of interlocking gears. Some had hemispheres jutting out from their centers; as the rogue examined them, there was the sudden snap of retracting bolts, and the four spheres hovered into the room, leaving behind semicircular indentations in the centers of the gears they had occupied.</p><p></p><p>Being simple constructs with simple commands, each of these four deathspheres reacted to their programming and headed for the nearest living being. One flew at Infernia, another at the nearest of the shambling mounds, and the two in the middle flanked Rale from either end. As they flew, each projected a sharp spike from its equator. The southernmost deathsphere impaled the shambler's head with a wet squelching sound, then began emitting an ever-rising tone that shot waves of sonic energy into the humanoid vegetable.</p><p></p><p>Rale ducked and weaved, then decided the best way not to be impaled in the head by a deathsphere was not to have a head available to be punctured. Grabbing up another <em>potion of gaseous form</em> from the slot on his belt, he guzzled its contents and fell backwards over the hole in the floor behind him. At the same time, Galrich raced over to attack the deathsphere buzzing at Infernia's head, slicing it handily in twain with his greataxe.</p><p></p><p>But combat was not limited to the upper level. On the floor below, a lich stepped into view and cast a <em>lightning bolt</em> spell up the stairway to catch Telgrane, Infernia, and Thunderwolf in the area of effect. In return, Telgrane stepped forward and caught the lich in the middle of a <em>wall of fire</em> spell he sprung up into being around it, careful not to let the ends of the wall of flames reach either side of the room, where the bookcases stood. Engulfed in flames, the undead being pointed a skeletal finger at the archmage and called out, "The curse of <strong>Aberoth</strong> upon you, human!" - while falling through the opening in the floor before it to its fiery destruction.</p><p></p><p>Two more undead forms sprang into view from the second floor of the Hidden Library. One was another lich; unbeknownst to the heroes, this was the very same Pondari who had not only warned the saguaro sentinel of their imminent arrival (having earlier detected Brother Kasperius's discovery of the carving of Vecna's skull on the side of the cliff) but also had its own sand golem wait in hiding to attack strangers who might approach the carving. Pondari, stepping into view from the west, cast a <em>slay living</em> spell up at Galrich, who was close enough to the hole in the floor to be within the dry lich's line of sight. Fortunately, the spell fizzled ineffectually against the <em>ioun stone</em> silently whirling around the half-orc's head.</p><p></p><p>The second undead was of a form previously unknown to the heroes: a grisgol, constructed from the remains of a slain lich and covered with scraps from torn scrolls and damaged spellbooks, it looked very much like a mummy covered in arcane writings. This odd creature raced up the stairs and struck out at an astonished Feron, who hadn't even seen it coming. Her body responded poorly to its leathery touch, freezing up in paralysis. Had she not been able to communicate to her friends through the <em>telepathic link</em>, they'd probably have assumed she had been slain, for her body crashed unmoving to the floor after she had been punched by the mummy-thing.</p><p></p><p>"I'm paralyzed!" cried out Feron telepathically over the link. "Does anybody have any means to restore me?" Naturally, of the assembled group, this pretty much meant Telgrane, the only other spellcaster present. The young archmage mentally went through his spell repertoire. He knew the workings of the <em>break enchantment</em> spell, but unfortunately did not have such a spell currently prepared. "Ah," he said, smiling, the solution coming to him. He had Infernia grab Feron's paralyzed form and slide it out of the way of the grisgol's reach, then stand between them, fending off the parchment-covered creature with her own burning body. Telgrane cast a <em>limited wish</em> spell, transforming vitality from his own body to reshape the world in a small way to his liking. Feron stood back up, the paralytic effects completely neutralized.</p><p></p><p>Two of Feron's four shambling mounds had moved over to directly above Pondari and struck out at him from the floor above, reaching down through the hole surrounding the four-story staircase. The lich spat a curse at them and moved north, out of range of the shambling vegetation and out of view of the other heroes. Feron sent them to follow the undead spellcaster, and they immediate stepped into the hole in the floor to land on the level below with a pair of wet plops. The other two remained in place on the top floor, trying to remove the deathsphere lodged into one of their heads. Pulses of sonic energy ripped apart the vegetable mass making up the impaled shambler's body, and it collapsed in a heap, no longer even vaguely humanoid. The deathsphere then turned to the other shambler, but was brought down by a well-placed bolt of energy from a <em>call lightning storm</em> spell, Feron's targeting not only destroying the deathsphere but increasing the vigor of the shambler battling it.</p><p></p><p>Rale, in the meantime, had flown to the southern section of the library's top floor and rematerialized. The two deathspheres he had left behind sought out a new target: Galrich. Galrich carved one of them in two while avoiding the other one buzzing around his head. Feron dropped the other with another bolt from her <em>lightning storm</em>.</p><p></p><p>The grisgol activated one of the spells inscribed on its body, encompassing all but Rale and the surviving shambler up on the top floor in a <em>mass hold monster</em> spell. Fortunately, all but Thunderwolf and Galrich were able to shake off the effects. The grisgol then dodged around Infernia and made a rush to attack Telgrane, but the fire elemental was having none of that. She grappled the rune-covered creature from behind, dragging it away from her master. Mold spores puffed out of the grisgol's body, but they had no effect on Infernia and nobody else was within range. The grisgol, much smaller than its nine-foot-tall captor and not nearly as strong, activated another spell to get free of her grasp. The <em>feeblemind</em> spell took Infernia by complete surprise, and once her intellect dropped to that of a lizard she instinctively let go of her prisoner, not recalling the importance of keeping it away from her master.</p><p></p><p>The grisgol soon learned the folly of attacking Telgrane's beloved familiar, for the archmage retaliated with full fury, sending a blast of sonic energy (a <em>delayed blast fireball</em> spell without the delay and with its energy converted to sonic damage, the entire effect shaped to avoid Telgrane's allies) directly into its body, destroying it instantly. Feron then healed Infernia with a charge from her <em>staff of healing</em>, restoring the elemental to her full intellect once again. She then wildshaped into the form of a Large air elemental, that she could continue her spellcasting while also being able to fly great distances at a respectable speed. As the rest of her equipment melded into her new form, she specifically exempted her bow and quiver of arrows, feeling she could bring them to good use.</p><p></p><p>One level below, the dry lich Pondari cast a <em>harm</em> spell on the nearest of the shamblers harassing him, destroying it at once, then scuttled down the stairs to the third level of the library. He was followed by the other shambler, who reached out at him with a massive limb. "We are under attack!" called out Pondari, activating the guardians of the third level.</p><p></p><p>Instantly, a pair of erinyes devils appeared. They watched as Pondari dispatched the remaining shambler with another <em>harm</em> spell, assessed that the third level was secure, and flew up through the central hole connecting all four library levels. The second level was not inhabited; apparently the problem was up on the first. Sure enough, flying up to the top level revealed a group of invaders, including a fire elemental, a pair of spellcasters, a lone shambling mound, and a pair of warrior-types frozen in place. (The devils didn't spot Rale behind them, who was doing his very best not to be noticed.) Going for the easy targets first, they peppered Thunderwolf and Galrich with arrows from their flaming composite longbows.</p><p></p><p>The pain gave Thunderwolf the final push he needed to break free from the grisgol's <em>mass hold monster</em> effect; Galrich, unfortunately, was not so lucky. Although he was currently raging at his immobility, the increased adrenaline was not having any effect on his ability to break free. But Thunderwolf returned the erinyes devil's favor, shooting her with a flurry of rapidly-shot arrows, each magically enhanced to contain not only fire but also electricity and sonic energy. The female devil, slain, dropped through the holes in the library's multiple floors and crashed to the floor of the lowest level, directly below. Rale silently cursed, for he'd been sizing her up for a sneak attack with his own bow.</p><p></p><p>From two levels below, Pondari circled the hole between the floors and cast a bolt of desiccating energy up at Thunderwolf, attempting to turn the fighter into a pillar of salt. Thunderwolf gritted his teeth in pain at the attack, but while he felt an incredible thirst and a slight weakness he had not fully succumbed to the dry lich's attack and remained in the fight. However, Pondari immediately regretted having brought attention back to himself, for he was dropped by an almost casual bolt of energy from Feron's still-active <em>call lightning storm</em> spell. About the same time, Galrich finally mustered sufficient resolve to break his mind free from the grasp of the <em>mass hold monster</em> spell, and he roared in triumph.</p><p></p><p>The remaining erinyes flew over to the north wall by the double-door entrance to the library's first level, the better to target her shots against Telgrane. Then, in a surprise move, she switched both targets and weapons, flicking the end of a coil of rope towards Thunderwolf, who had just slain her partner. The rope tangled around his lower legs and she flew back to the top of the hole, dragging him with her. Once the fighter was dangling above the opening to the lower levels, the erinyes released him from her enchanted rope, causing him to plummet 50 feet to the bottom floor. He landed with a painful crash upon the arrow-riddled body of the erinyes devil he'd previously slain.</p><p></p><p>Suddenly, there was a rumble and one of the enormous gears on the side of the eastern wall moved inward, then rolled off to the side, revealing a wide corridor just beyond. Standing in the corridor was a massive cyclopean being, some 25 feet tall, wearing a blacksmith's apron. One gnarled hand gripped an enormous hammer; in the other was a book. "Return to shelf," said the one-eyed titan, <strong>Mechanothestes</strong>, and the book was taken from his hand by an invisible force, flown across the room, and returned to its place on one of the shelves. "<em>Golemaic Arcanabulum</em>," he then demanded, and another tome came flying from a shelf across the room and into his empty hand. Then, as if absentmindedly just now noticing the battle raging on around him, the titan looked around at the intruders and casually commanded, "Rise up against your masters!" He then turned and went back the way he had come, the massive gear sliding back into place behind him.</p><p></p><p>The results of his command were instantaneous. Galrich felt motion in one of the pouches at his belt, and an ivory figurine leapt out of its confinement and manifested as the Goat of Terror. It immediately snapped its teeth and kicked at Galrich with its front hooves. At the same time, on the bottom floor, just as Thunderwolf was rising to his feet he found his <em>ebony fly</em> extricating itself from his backpack and expanding to full form. While it was an ineffectual combatant, it guarded the stairway as if to prevent the fighter from getting past it and returning to his compatriots. Feron, flying high above, gave a sudden thought to the fact that she carried a <em>serpent of constriction</em> as part of her combat gear, and worried that while it was currently subsumed into her air elemental form it might likewise manifest and attack her as soon as she returned to her normal half-elven body.</p><p></p><p>Neither the Goat of Terror nor the <em>ebony fly</em> posed too much of a threat to the seasoned adventurers. While Galrich and Thunderwolf took care of their rebelling figurines, Rale noted that the remaining erinyes devil had unerringly lined herself up for a sneak attack, just as he had been planning for her counterpart. He got her in the neck, his arrow dropping her with a single shot. Unfortunately, she had been positioned directly above Thunderwolf, and her dead body came crashing down upon him, knocking him to the floor and close to senseless. He shook his head in an effort to regain his senses, and then systematically gathered up the weapons of both erinyes devils. He also stripped Pondari's corpse of a magical-looking periapt on his way back up the stairs to meet up with the others.</p><p></p><p>By the time he arrived the combat was over with and the group was discussing whether to go after the cyclopean titan or start grabbing up the books from the shelves, which was the reason they had been sent here in the first place. Feron took the initiative and decided they could accomplish both tasks at the same time. She cast an <em>elemental storm</em> spell - one she'd often longed to cast before but its lengthy casting time made it a poor choice for combat - summoning forth a group of air elementals. She returned to her own half-elven form long enough to unpack the <em>Daern's dollhouse</em> from her pack - noticing as she did so that her <em>serpent of constriction</em> remained in its statuette form - and provided the air elementals with the command words. They were instructed to start grabbing all of the books, tomes, and scrolls from the shelves of the library, starting at the top floor and working their way down, and storing them inside several rooms of the <em>Daern's dollhouse</em>. Then she went about seeing to the needs of the others, casting healing spells to get them back up to full strength.</p><p></p><p>In the meantime, Rale had been examining the gear motif of the eastern door, and found what he thought was a means of activating it. "Everybody ready?" he asked. Galrich was off to one side, ready to swing his <em>vorpal greataxe</em> at anyone rushing them when Rale opened the door. Thunderwolf and Feron, the latter back in her air elemental form, had their bows ready to shoot down the corridor once the gear-door rolled out of the way. Telgrane and Infernia were on the archmage's <em>carpet of flying</em>, ready to do battle. Seeing everyone was in readiness, Rale hit the activation button and leapt to the side.</p><p></p><p>The gear-door opened, revealing the corridor they'd seen before. Mechanothestes was in the far back of the massive room just beyond, hammering contentedly at an enormous anvil with flames rising up all around it from a magic circle immediately below it. However, standing in an imposing stance at the end of the corridor, blocking the way into the construct lab, was an iron juggernaut, a greater iron golem with a sword raised and ready to do battle.</p><p></p><p>Telgrane cast a summoning spell, bringing a greater earth elemental rising up from the stone floor of the corridor. The earth-being stomped forward and the two giant forms started trading blows. Thunderwolf ran forward and entered the corridor, using the earth elemental's body as a shield as he tried to line up a shot against the cyclopean titan still working away at his forge without even a care.</p><p></p><p>Rale decided to become invisible, using one of the powers of his <em>rod of thievery</em>, then used his <em>boots of flying</em> to travel across the corridor at almost ceiling level. He ducked past the two giant combatants, seeing two smaller constructs in the corners of the room, on either side of the corridor. He called out a warning to the rest of the group over the telepathic bond, then continued easing his way behind Mechanothestes.</p><p></p><p>Feron and Thunderwolf were having a tough time lining up a shot with the earth elemental and the iron juggernaut in the way, and Galrich couldn't get past the two. After quickly warning the others of his intentions, Telgrane cast a <em>disintegrate</em> spell along the northern side of the corridor, expanding its width by a full five feet. Galrich took the opportunity to race into the room, where he was attacked by the first of the two maugs waiting for such an opponent to make it into the room. By this time Telgrane's summoned earth elemental had destroyed the iron juggernaut, and it fell backwards into the construct lab. The elemental strode forward, and another one rose up from the floor to join it, this one summoned by Feron.</p><p></p><p>Thunderwolf got off a shot at the cyclopean titan, distracting it from its work with a look of intense annoyance. It blasted a quickened <em>chain lightning</em> spell at the heroes, catching all but Rale - who was well within the limits of the spell's reach, but apparently undetected by the titan. Mechanothestes then spoke a few arcane syllables, and a massive fire elemental - larger in size than any even Infernia had ever seen - entered the plane through the <em>gate</em> to the Elemental Plane of Fire underneath the titan's anvil and manifested into a roughly humanoid form. It struck out at the nearest of the greater earth elementals, while the other maug raced forward to catch Galrich between the two blocky constructs.</p><p></p><p>Galrich didn't seem to mind. His <em>vorpal greataxe</em> had reduced the first maug to rubble with a mere two strokes, and he confidently turned to face the other. But at the same time Mechanothestes sent another quickened <em>chain lightning</em> at the group, this one almost slaying Infernia outright. Telgrane backed his <em>carpet of flying</em> up and dropped it down to the second level of the library, out of sight of the cyclopean titan. "Quickly, in here," commanded Telgrane to his familiar, opening up his tinder box. Infernia looked at first as if she would argue, but apparently saw the logic behind her master's command; she was in no shape to help him survive, and would only be a distraction. She meekly took cinder form as she arced into her tinder box, then her master rose the carpet back up to the top level to see how the battle was faring.</p><p></p><p>As it turned out, not too badly. The twin earth elementals were pounding their boulder-sized fists into the sides of the fire elemental that towered over them, and despite the size discrepancy they were better suited to hurt it than the other way around. Feron was helping the process along with additional strikes from her <em>call lightning storm</em> spell. Galrich had made short work of the second maug and was racing straight for the titan, eager to see if his <em>vorpal</em> weapon could sever the head of a creature that large. None of the others could see it, but Telgrane's enhanced vision - now fully capable of seeing what would normally be invisible - spotted an invisible Rale lining himself up for a sneak attack against the titan's unprotected back. Not wanting to miss out on any of the action himself, Telgrane sent a shaped <em>meteor swarm</em> directly into Mechanothestes's face, hitting him three times with the four missiles, which exploded with sonic energy instead of flames due to a tweaking of the spell made possible by the archmage's training. The titan roared in pain, then roared again as Rale struck home with a weapon in each hand, one of them the new <em>rapier of puncturing</em> he'd taken from the blue dragon's hoard earlier that same day.</p><p></p><p>The Gargantuan fire elemental was finally taken out, its flames flickering away to nothingness as it died. Mechanothestes soon followed suit, helped along in no small part by another of Telgrane's modified <em>meteor swarms</em>. The overconfident cyclops, the self-described "Titan of Constructs," fell over backwards with a crash, his adamantine warhammer clattering to the stone floor of his construct lab. Standing unfinished along the south wall was what would no doubt have been a greater stone golem of some type; its warrior's body had been sculpted already, and Mechanothestes had been in the process of constructing some metallic enhancements when the heroes had barged in.</p><p></p><p>Weary and wounded, the adventurers gathered up the items of value they could find in the construct lab, then oversaw the air elementals' progress as far as gutting the hidden library of Vecna and packing its contents into the <em>Daern's dollhouse</em>. They discovered the bottom floor of the library had been protected by the books themselves; each one held a magical symbol or glyph on its front cover which exploded or had some other ill effect when even glanced at. Feron directed her elementals to pack all of those books into a separate room of the dollhouse so they'd be isolated from the rest.</p><p></p><p>But even then, once all of the books had been packed away, Telgrane realized they weren't finished with their mission. After all, he and Rale had suggested the group enter through the carved eye-hole containing an illusory eye; they had no idea what the other eye-hole might reveal.</p><p></p><p>They decided to send Feron's one remaining shambler in first, then followed immediately behind. The floor just behind the open eye-hole sloped drastically shortly past the plane of the cliff's face, ending up in a small cavern whose floor was covered in gems and coins. "Excellent!" cried Rale, seeing the riches, before noticing that the pile of treasure also contained a gem-encrusted skull, which rose up, unsupported, into the air upon their arrival.</p><p></p><p>The demilich struck at once, before anyone could react. Telgrane gave a cry of pain, then his body dissolved into a fine dust, all of his possessions dropping to the stone floor below him. He found himself imprisoned in a green, crystal world, much like an insect in amber. Little did he know it, but the demilich had imprisoned his soul in a gem embedded into one of its teeth. Fortunately, Galrich's immediate reaction was to charge it with his <em>vorpal greataxe</em>, and the weapon seemed inordinately well-suited to destroy the floating skull, for although Feron bounced spells off of it with little effect, the barbarian's weapon soon had the skull split halfway through its length, to the point where Rale had to help him extract it from his weapon's blade.</p><p></p><p>The group gathered up the demilich's treasure and fortunately noticed Telgrane's tiny shape imprisoned inside a green-hued gem on a tooth of the split skull. Galrich crushed the gem with his axe, and a half-seen mist was released - presumably, Telgrane's disembodied spirit seeking his destroyed body. The group ensured there were no other exits from the cavern before using their Guild rings to bink back to their Headquarters, after which they'd meet up with Brother Altamaic, turn over the Vecna writings, and take them up on their offer of <em>true resurrections</em> for both Aerik and Telgrane.</p><p></p><p> - - - </p><p></p><p>This adventure took up two sessions, on two Saturdays only two weeks apart, this time at our house instead of at Dan and Vicki's. My wife Mary had made these dinner party affairs, so after the game sessions were over we enjoyed a two-family dinner, followed by conversations among the adults while Joey and my nephew Harry went upstairs to play Skylanders together. (Harry, not yet interested in being a player in our group, had entertained himself with Skylanders while we played.) The sessions went pretty well, but they'll be the last ones this year, as we have other things to deal with in December (Christmas parties, Harry's Christmas pageant, Harry's birthday, etc.) that will eat up our gaming time. But we've reserved New Year's Day as our next session, once more at our house for a game-and-dinner session. I'm already looking forward to it, since we're going to try to play more often in 2015 so we can finish up this campaign (with adventure #100!) in time to start up the next one before Jacob goes away to college in the fall.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Richards, post: 6462243, member: 508"] [b]ADVENTURE 88: EYE OF VECNA[/b] PC Roster: [INDENT]Feron Dru, half-elf druid Galrich Slayer, half-orc barbarian Rale Bodkin, human rogue Telgrane, half-fire elemental human conjurer/archmage Thunderwolf, human fighter[/INDENT] NPC Roster: [INDENT]Aerik Battershield, dwarven fighter/dwarven defender[/INDENT] "Thank you for meeting with me," said Brother Altamaic the Calm, as the group took their places around the table in one of the side rooms of the Church Library of Boccob. "One of our brethren, [b]Brother Kasperius[/b], has discovered a carving in the side of a cliff face, in a desert canyon, facing inwards so it cannot be seen by anyone outside of the narrow confines of the canyon. The carving is about 60 feet tall, of a hooded skull with a faint light coming from only one of the eye sockets. We believe this to be a representation of Vecna, the God of Secrets. "History suggests there is likely a treasure trove of information hidden inside that carved skull," Brother Altamaic continued. "Given Vecna's evil nature, some of that information is best kept away from those who would use it against the world at large. We feel it would be safer locked away in one of our own storage vaults, should it prove to be of a dangerous nature. "However, history has also shown that Vecna's hidden troves of knowledge are often protected by deadly traps and guarded by fearsome beasts. As such, our representative feared to enter the cliffside himself, opting instead to get word of it to us, that we might hire those more readily equipped to handle such dangers. And that, naturally, is where you come in." Brother Altamaic proposed the following: the Wing Three adventurers would be paid a 5,000 gp retainer up front, to be spent upon any material goods they felt they needed before exploring whatever chambers might be hidden behind the carved skull. In return, they would turn over all books, scrolls, tomes, and other recorded documents to the Church of Boccob without question. Any other goods, whether it be the treasure of monsters slain or any mundane goods from the interior of the Vecna Complex, would be the group's to keep. As a final incentive, the Church of Boccob agreed to finance the cost of any [i]true resurrection[/i] spells to return to life those heroes who might be slain during the course of this mission. Brother Altamaic offered to repeat his offer under the effects of a [i]zone of truth[/i] spell and to sign any documents the heroes wished stating the terms of this agreement, but the heroes didn't take him up on his offer. They had dealt with him specifically, and the Church Library of Boccob on many previous occasions - he was on the short list of people the group trusted implicitly. The Wing Three adventurers agreed to Brother Altamaic's terms, accepted the retainer, and went off to purchase supplies. After deciding who would be going on the mission and realizing Feron would be their only source of divine healing, the first place they hit was Dundernoggin's Magic Shoppe, to purchase a large quantity of [i]potions of cure critical wounds[/i]. Rale, seeing that Galrich and Aerik would be on the mission and fearing the half-orc barbarian would once again have his will dominated and used against the party, insisted that Galrich invest in a [i]periapt of Wisdom[/i], to increase his mental willpower against such intrusions. Telgrane bought a [i]major circlet of blasting[/i] for his familiar, always eager to find ways to allow Infernia to contribute in combat. Thunderwolf picked up a [i]Heward's handy haversack[/i], after having seen the advantages to be had from extradimensional storage. (He'd been saving up the money he'd earned on his various missions, and thus picked up a second one while he was at it, giving it to Delphyne. The witch thanked him with a smile, and he blushed and turned away.) Eventually, the group was ready to go. Rale put on his pair of [i]scout goggles[/i], putting them in transmission mode, while Cal donned the other in the set, putting his pair in receive mode. They confirmed the pair was still fully functional, then Cal slipped his up to the top of his head so he could see through his own eyes long enough to see the group off. "Are we all ready?" asked Brother Kasperius, unrolling a large scroll. It contained two castings of the [i]teleport without error[/i] spell. After Telgrane and Feron had finished their standard preparatory spells, to include a [i]Rary's telepathic bond[/i] spell to link the heroes together, the group gathered around Brother Kasperius, Cal stepped back, the Boccobian read the words of the top spell on his scroll, and the group vanished from sight. They arrived into a barren world – or at least, that was the immediate impression. They heroes stood among desert sands, with a rock cliff rising up above them on both sides. They faced a wide crevice between two canyon walls, with a great sandy desert at their backs. "It's down this gap," said Brother Kasperius. "It goes a couple hundred feet in, then veers off to the left. The skull carving faces the back wall of the canyon. Good luck to you, my friends." And with that, he began reading the words to the second casting on the scroll. However, just as he disappeared from view, the area he had just occupied became covered in shadow, engulfing Rale who had naturally drifted into the back of the group as they had started traversing the confines of the cliff-face crevice. Rounding the corner from the cliff behind the rogue stood a humanoid figure made entirely of cacti, thick thorns sprouting from its every surface. Opening its maw, it issued forth a deep, booming voice that expressed its anger even to those who could not understand its words. Fortunately, Feron understood the thing's booming, guttural words as being spoken in the Sylvan language. "Who are you, and why do you trespass upon the Burning Lands?" the cactus-man demanded. She turned to face the massive being, holding her hand up to the others to hold off their attacks. They lowered their weapons, although none was foolish enough to sheathe them entirely. "We are adventurers, come to rid the world of the evil contained in the carving beyond," Feron responded in Sylvan, pointing down the crevice they'd been traversing. "Lies!" roared the saguaro sentinel - basically, the desert equivalent to the forest's treant. "I have been warned of your arrival, of your intent to despoil the fragile desert environment in your search for buried treasure!" "Who gave you such a warning?" asked Feron. "The wizard [b]Pondari[/b]," replied the towering cactus-man. "Our intentions are pure," responded Feron in her most reasonable tone of voice. "I am a druid; my last desire would be to harm any aspect of the natural world. We will not be passing onto the desert reaches behind you, merely confining our explorations into the side of the cliff wall, where we believe there is evil to be fought." The cactus-man took on a defiant pose, his bulk blocking the entrance to the gap between the cliffs. "Then go your way," he said. "I will ensure you stay within the boundaries you have stated." "Fair enough," Feron replied with a sweet smile, turning her back on the mighty saguaro sentinel and heading back down the way she'd been going. "C'mon, guys." The others followed the druid, although not without a few nervous glances at the towering form behind them. The saguaro just snarled at irritation at their nervousness. Several hundred feet back, the crevice turned to the left, just as had been described. Looking up at the cliff wall looming above them, they saw the carving that had been described by Brother Altamaic. The enormous skull appeared to have been sculpted directly into the face of the vertical stone cliff; protected as it was from the desert winds, it was difficult to say how long ago it had been carved. But the likeness was unmistakable: not only was the skull encompassed within the folds of a carved hood, but its right eye – and only its right – seemed to hold an eyeball that looked directly at the heroes, no matter which way they moved. "Creepy," commented Thunderwolf. Suddenly, the sand before them exploded upwards. Like the sand in an hourglass in an upside-down world, the particles rose up from the ground and stopped about ten feet up, filling in the shape of a humanoid form from the top down. The end result was a massive, featureless figure, which approached menacingly. Telgrane thought it was likely a sand golem, and passed that information to the group over their shared link. He couldn't recall any specific details about its powers, but if it was a golem then it was likely immune to most spells. "Let's fly above it," he suggested, backing up, unrolling his [i]carpet of flying[/i] from his back with a snap and leaping upon it in a one fluid movement. Infernia stepped on as well, and he levitated them both straight up. Thunderwolf, Rale, and Feron quickly followed suit, stepping upon their [i]drow floatdisks[/i]. Aerik did likewise, but as usual waited until Galrich had done the same before he would allow himself to flee to safety. The half-orc was a bit slower than the others, and as a result both he and his bodyguard were still landbound when the sand golem struck. Aerik, being the closest (for he had naturally positioned himself between the sand golem and his liege), took the brunt of the golem's attack. A massive fist struck the dwarf, but worse yet, the sand particles flying in a cloud all about the construct immediately started filling his nose and mouth. Feron quickly cast a [i]wind wall[/i] between them to prevent any further sand particles from getting to the dwarf. Aerik staggered and coughed, trying to dislodge the lump of sand stuck in his throat, to no avail. He tipped forward, dropping his weapon, and would have collapsed face-first upon the desert floor if Galrich hadn't grabbed him by one of the leather weapon straps crossing his broad back and sent his own [i]floatdisk[/i] rocketing straight up, out of reach. From the air, Telgrane summoned a Huge earth elemental to deal with the sand golem, and the two creatures traded a series of powerful blows. Up in the air, the heroes regrouped. Aerik still convulsed in Galrich's grasp, struggling to no avail to gather a breath. Feron hesitated; her natural instinct was to cast a healing spell upon the dwarf, but that wouldn't help him, for there were no gashes to close, no wounds to clear. "Hold him still," commanded Rale, steering his [i]floatdisk[/i] over by Galrich's and unstoppering a potion. He grabbed Aerik by his beard, yanked open his mouth, and poured the contents down his sand-clogged throat. The sand likely absorbed a good chunk of it, but enough made it into Aerik's system to have the intended effect. The dwarf's body converted to a gaseous cloud, taking with it the fighter's armor, weapons, and gear - but not the sand that had forced its way into his air passages. That fell to the desert floor below in a wet clump. Aerik allowed his gaseous form to drift to the sands below, where he reformed into his normal self and gathered up his dropped weapon and his [i]floatdisk[/i] before joining the others in the sky. "That was a close one!" gasped Feron, casting two consecutive [i]cure critical wounds[/i] spells from her wand upon the dwarf, for she could see the ordeal had just about sapped him of all of his vigor. "I'm better now," was all the dwarf had to say on the subject, embarrassed at having been brought so close to death that quickly. Below them, the two humanoid figures battled on. Telgrane maneuvered over to the skull sculpture, examining the two eye sockets. The skull's left eye - that is, the one on the right as viewed head-on - was a dark hole some 20 feet in diameter that led into darkness, although Telgrane could see the stone floor dropped down to a steep angle shortly inside the confines of the eye socket. Moving over to the carved skull's right eye socket - the one on the left as viewed by the archmage - Telgrane saw it contained an enormous, bloodshot, age-yellowed eyeball floating at its center. It moved about, following the archmage's progress as he maneuvered his [i]carpet of flying[/i] to different viewpoints. It was an unnerving effect, but Telgrane's [i]arcane sight[/i] told him the "eye" was bathed in an aura of illusion magic, and he was willing to bet it was harmless. "Here's my best guess," he told the others over the [i]telepathic bond[/i]. "The open socket is the most obvious means of entry, so I'm guessing that one's heavily trapped. I'd say the one with the eyeball's the safe way in." "Let me see," replied Rale as he maneuvered his [i]floatdisk[/i] over. After all, while they were expecting to find some undead creatures inside the Vecna Complex - at which point Cal's ability to turn undead would prove be invaluable - there were also likely to be all manners of traps, which were Rale's area of expertise. Wanting to display his usefulness, he gave the exterior of the eye socket a thorough examination before flying straight through the eyeball with no ill effect. "It's safe," he called back to the others. The area beyond was a wide hallway, 20 feet wide with an equal height. After about thirty feet, the stone floor turned into a set of stairs leading down into darkness. By the light of Infernia's flaming body, the group could see the passageway made a right turn just past the bottom of the stairs. Telgrane and Infernia opted to remain on the [i]carpet of flying[/i], to avoid any pressure plates that might be lying in wait to be stepped upon. The rest of the group followed suit, traveling forward on their [i]floatdisks[/i]. A short distance past the turn, the passageway opened up into a wider area, with an even wider area just beyond that. Two looming shapes stood in the shadows at the edge of Infernia's illumination; moving cautiously forward, the shapes took on the forms of massive scorpions, poised to strike with their tails. But even in the poor lighting, the group could see the scorpions were carved of iron and stood completely motionless. "Statues," observed Thunderwolf. "Or sculptures." "Or constructs, ready to activate and try to kill us all," added Rale. "Look on the floor, Master," said Infernia, pointing down at the first section of the room, where the distance between the side walls was about 45 feet wide. There was a grid of stone tiles, arranged in four rows of nine each, each with a letter carved in its center. Together, they read as follows:The tiles upon which the words "WATER," "DEATH," "DEAD," and "WEED" appeared were of a smoky-gray slate, while those containing the words "FIRE," "LIFE," ALIVE," and "GRASS" were of white marble. The group gathered up to examine the words on the floor, each careful not to cross directly above them. Rale gave the floor a close scrutiny and discovered narrow grooves between each tile. "There's a good chance these are pressure plates," he told the group at large. Everyone prided themselves on having remained afloat thus far. Telgrane peered into the room beyond the letters on the floor. The twin scorpions had an aura of transmutation magic - not very powerful, but that was probably because it was waiting to become active; right now it was likely in a dormant state, before one of the heroes did something that would trigger their movement. Of more interest to the archmage was the aura on the ceiling in the room beyond, which was likewise currently dormant but looked to hold a significant amount of potential evocation magic. "Thoughts?" asked Rale, looking over the letters again. "In a complex devoted to Vecna, maybe the darker words are the safe ones? That would include 'DEATH' and 'DEAD.'" "Yeah, but 'WATER' and 'WEED,' too," replied Rale. "Those two words don't really have a 'Vecna' feel to them." "Anybody have a rock?" suggested Thunderwolf. "We could toss one onto the letters and see what happens." It was a valid approach, but Rale wanted to try something first. "Everybody scoot back," he ordered. "If these are pressure plates, it should be safe to just fly right over them." Telgrane and Infernia remained in place where they were, the archmage eager to see the effects, if any, Rale's gambit would produce; the others retreated back against the far wall, where the stairway ended and turned the corner. "Here goes," Rale said, slowly moving his [i]floatdisk[/i] forward. As soon as it crossed over the first row of letters, a bolt of electricity came flashing down from the cavern's ceiling, striking Rale squarely in the chest and sending arcs out to likewise hit Telgrane, Infernia, and Galrich, who was the only one of the group in the back to still be within range of the [i]chain lightning[/i] effect. Rale howled in pain and hurriedly backed his [i]floatdisk[/i] up to hover before the first row of letters; Telgrane tensed to see if the magical effect would repeat, but apparently the conditions of the trap had been set to strike those who had passed too far into the room in the improper manner, but to hold off once they had retreated and the conditions were no longer in effect. "Well," reasoned Rale as smoke curled up from the armor on his chest, "We learned some valuable information." "Wait a minute," said Thunderwolf suddenly, jumping down from his [i]floatdisk[/i] in his excitement and grabbing it up. He ran over to the right-hand side of the letter grid and pointed at the first "S" in "GRASS." "This column here," he said matter-of-factly. "It spells out 'SAFE.'" "It sure does!" agreed Feron. "Nicely done!" "It would have been nice if you'd have figured it out a half a minute earlier," grumbled Rale to himself, but he too dismounted from his [i]floatdisk[/i] and walked over to the "SAFE" column. Carefully stepping only onto those squares, he made it into the room - and once there, was undisturbed by [i]chain lightning[/i] effects. "It's safe to follow," he called back, "but nobody touch anything! I want to check out these statues." The others all dismounted, stowed their [i]floatdisks[/i] back into shield mode, and walked safely into the back half of the room. Rale, meanwhile, was carefully examining the two scorpion statues, one at a time. "What's the point of this room?" asked Feron. There doesn't seem to be any other way out." Aerik was traversing the outer walls as she said this, using his innate stonecunning to search for possible secret doors, but thus far finding none. "Maybe we should go back outside and try the other eye socket?" suggested Thunderwolf. "No, there are two exits from this room," corrected Rale. "Directly in front of each statue, on the floor between its claws, is a trap door. I just want to make sure these things aren't going to activate if we open them up." The others verified his findings, and sure enough, there was a five-foot-square raised tile before each scorpion, with evident hinges in the back. "Maybe they animate if you open the wrong door?" guessed Telgrane. Rale gave the trap doors a very close scrutiny, and his keen eyes detected a few scratches along the front side of the one on the right that were not present on the other trap door. Reasoning it was because the Vecna cultists who likely used this place used the untrapped door exclusively, he carefully stepped between the claws of the rightmost guardian scorpion and pulled that trap door open with a strong tug. The scorpions - despite the fact that Rale's hands-off examinations had revealed their joints would easily allow the sculptures to move about - remained motionless. "Careful now," he told the others. "Don't touch the scorpions, and we should be fine." Beneath the trap door was a narrow set of stairs; he descended, the others following suit. The stairs descended a good twenty or thirty feet before the passageway leveled out again and made a turn to the left, expanding in width to 10 feet as it did so. Thirty feet ahead there was a closed door centered on a stone wall. "Hang back," ordered Rale. "I'll check it out." He approached carefully, examining the floor in detail before taking his next step forward. And sure enough, about ten feet from the door, there was a narrow line in the stone along the floor, a possible seam that could be the edge of a trap door or something similar. Stepping back upon his [i]floatdisk[/i], Rale followed the seam onto the walls. They continued along each wall in a circular arc leading up to the top of the wall in which the door was centered. The rogue grunted to himself, convinced now that this was a mechanical trap - likely, if the door were to be opened, the entire section would flip forward. He closely examined the doorknob and the wall along each side of the door, discovering a loose chunk of stone. Rale tried pushing it, to no effect, then pulled it away from the rest of the wall. It was, in effect, a large, hollow brick, covering a metal lever. "Here we go!" he cried out in excitement. "You guys stay there!" And with that, he pulled the lever. As he expected, the floor behind him immediately began rising, as the wall containing the door started tipping forward at the same rate. Behind him, the others saw the floor slowly rise up to form a new wall where the original wall had been, revealing a chute of some sort dropping down into darkness where the original floor had been. Galrich approached cautiously and listened intently; he could just make out a dry, skittering noise far below that gave the half-orc the chills. It sounded like a massive swarm of some type of horrible insect, crawling all over themselves in an effort to find prey. The trap had by this time reached the end of its course and assumed its new configuration. Rale waited patiently on his [i]floatdisk[/i] and sure enough, after half a minute or so, the section of floor and wall reversed its course, returning to their original positions. "That was interesting," said Rale. "I'd bet anything that if you just try to open the door regularly, the floor section would move much faster and dump you into a pit or something below us." "Spiders," replied Galrich. "Or maybe beetles." "Anyway, saddle up," commanded Rale, getting everyone back up onto their [i]floatdisks[/i] (or [i]carpet of flying[/i], in Telgrane's case). They moved forward, Rale activated the lever, and they waited as the whole section flipped forward and let them past once the door was on the floor before them. The corridor beyond extended straight ahead for a bit before opening up into a small room with a podium in its center and a closed door on the far wall. An unseen voice whispered to the heroes, its words echoing throughout the chamber: "You must pay ([SIZE=3]pay[/SIZE] [SIZE=2]pay[/SIZE] [SIZE=1]pay[/SIZE]) in Vecna's coin ([SIZE=3]coin[/SIZE] [SIZE=2]coin[/SIZE] [SIZE=1]coin[/SIZE]) to pass further ([SIZE=3]further[/SIZE] [SIZE=2]further[/SIZE] [SIZE=1]further[/SIZE]). Speak a secret ([SIZE=3]secret[/SIZE] [SIZE=2]secret[/SIZE] [SIZE=1]secret[/SIZE]) known to no other than you ([SIZE=3]you[/SIZE] [SIZE=2]you[/SIZE] [SIZE=1]you[/SIZE]). Let the first approach ([SIZE=3]roach[/SIZE] [SIZE=2]roach[/SIZE] [SIZE=1]roach[/SIZE])." As the echoes fell away, a feather quill pen rose up off the podium, and a large book flipped open to an empty page. Apparently, to pass further into the Vecna Complex, each hero would have to voice a secret which would then be copied into the book. Once again, Telgrane's enhanced vision caught several magical auras in the room. He detected a faint aura of enchantment magic, but his experience told him that was likely the effects of a [i]zone of truth[/i] spell, or something very similar to detect spoken falsehoods. He also recognized a faint conjuration aura in the vicinity of the podium, but took that to be an [i]unseen servant[/i] recording the spoken words. Much more unnerving was the strong aura of evocation magic on the ceiling, which could be another [i]chain lightning[/i] spell or any of a score of other possible effects. Thunderwolf stepped forward. "I'll go first," he said to the others, then directed the podium. "I am creeped out by the thought of zombie clowns." He had never actually encountered such beings, of course, but others in Wing Three had done so and the young fighter had heard their tales. While he had put on a brave face during the telling of such tales, not wanting his compatriots to think any less of him, deep inside the very thought gave him the heebie-jeebies. Much to Thunderwolf's concern, the pen - despite there being no ink well - wrote the following onto the blank page of the open book: "Thunderwolf of Greyhawk City is creeped out by the thought of zombie clowns." As soon as the written sentence was completed the ink seemed to absorb into the page, leaving it a clean slate once more. "How did it know my name?" Thunderwolf asked the others silently over the [i]telepathic bond[/i], clearly disturbed. But at the same time, there was a click from the back of the room and the door swung partially open with a rusty squeak. "Go on," Rale said to the fighter. "We'll be right behind you." "Couldn't we all just--" began Galrich, but Telgrane cut him off. "There's a magical sensor on the ceiling. I don't think it's safe for anyone but Thunderwolf to go through the door." Thunderwolf nodded at the group, swallowed nervously, and turned to go through the open door. It closed behind him. "You still there?" asked Feron over the link. "I'm here," Thunderwolf replied. "Don't go any further without us." "I won't." The remaining heroes looked at each other. Aerik, not liking the idea of leaving his liege behind in a trapped room, but equally not liking the idea of letting him brave unknown dangers ahead, stepped forward. At least if he went now, Galrich would still have a pair of powerful spellcasters keeping him safe. He looked straight at the floating feather and stated, for the record, "I like to steal men's socks." The dwarf didn't look down at the page, but the words "Aerik Battershield of Kordovia likes to steal men's socks" sunk into the page immediately after the words had been written. The dwarf ignored the gasps of surprise from behind him and stepped through the doorway without looking back. "I [i]thought[/i] I was missing some socks!" said Rale aloud, not wanting to send his accusations over the [i]telepathic bond[/i], where Aerik might hear. After all, even if Rale was correct and Aerik had stolen his socks, he wasn't eager to challenge the burly dwarven fighter. "Who's next?" Telgrane asked. "I will go, Master," replied his familiar in a quiet voice. She approached the podium, and in an even smaller voice, and careful not to simultaneously broadcast over the [i]telepathic bond[/i], spoke a few words. The door opened once again and Infernia crossed the room, the door closing behind her. She too paid no attention to the book on the podium, which completely absorbed the words, "Telgrane of Greyhawk City is not the first master the fire elemental Infernia has served as a familiar." "I'll go next," said Feron. She followed Infernia's lead, speaking aloud a secret in such a way as to keep it from her companions. "I have always felt responsible for my father's death," she said quietly, before crossing the room and walking through the door. Telgrane approached the podium next. He didn't bother trying to keep his secret from Rale and Galrich, but said aloud, "I had a crush on one of the teachers at my arcane college. The only reason I specialized in conjuration magic was because she was a conjurer and it meant spending more time with her." A broad grin spread across Rale's face as Telgrane confessed his secret crush; it was the first valid reason he's ever heard for spending all of the time and effort needed to master arcane spellcraft. The archmage crossed the room and vanished through the door. "You ready yet? Rale asked Galrich. The half-orc shook his head; he was having difficulty deciding what to confess. "Then I'm up," replied Rale, confidently approaching the podium. But when it was his turn to speak, he too did so in a quiet voice and outside the confines of the [i]telepathic bond[/i]. After all, he had a reputation to protect. "I do not covet gold," the rogue whispered almost inaudibly. It seemed to fly in the face of years of his past behavior, but Rale knew it was technically the truth, because he secretly really only coveted power, and gold was but one of several paths to obtain that which he truly sought. The magical sensors in the room apparently believed him, for the door swung open with a rusty squeak and he exited the room with a confident swagger. That left only Galrich. He cleared his throat, and then said, "I killed my father." Immediately, a beam of red light fired down from the ceiling, striking the barbarian in the chest. He howled in pain and snarled, "What was that for? It's the truth!" And it was, indeed, the truth, for years ago Galrich had slain the orc chieftain Jorrak of the Bloody Hand tribe in the Vesve Forest, shortly after having found out he would be the next king of Kordovia. But fighting down his rage for once, Galrich thought his way through the problem. Oh, right: the condition was that it had to be a secret known to nobody else but him, and others in his party had not only seen Galrich slay Jorrak, but had heard the chieftain's lament that he should have killed Galrich when we was born and saved himself the trouble of letting a halfbreed live. Apparently Galrich's patricide wasn't a secret known only to him. "Okay, then, I've always blamed my mother for not being there when I was a kid! Happy?" Galrich snarled up at the ceiling, half expecting another bolt of energy to strike him down. But this secret was apparently found to be suitable, for the door opened with a squeak and the entire adventuring party was reunited. "Let's go," said Galrich, eager to get on with it and leave all of the "talking about your feelings" business behind him. The narrow stone corridor beyond the door descended even further downwards, only instead of the smooth, carved steps the group had encountered in the Vecna complex thus far, these were entirely natural steps, coming at irregular intervals. Looking up, there were stalactites hanging down from the ceiling as well. The passageway opened up into a vast, open cavern, lit only by Infernia's flames in the front and a group of six glowing weapons on a ledge in the very back of the cavern. The ledge was about 30 feet tall, and the weapons circled slowly in place, basking the cavern in ever-shifting shadows. At the bottom of the vertical cliff leading up to the ledge stood an iron door in a recess in the stone. Close to the front of the group, Telgrane's [i]arcane vision[/i] spotted an irregularity on the stone floor in the center of the open cavern: a broad patch of illusion magic, fairly obviously an [i]illusory wall[/i] spell cast horizontally. Then, popping up through the false floor erupted a Gargantuan blue dragon, its forelimbs raised as if about to attack, its lower half not visible, as if it were standing in a deep pit. "Rowr!" roared the dragon, somewhat ineffectually, before freezing in place in a menacing pose. Telgrane took a close look at the reptilian form and saw an aura of illusion magic emanating from it. "It's an illusion," he confirmed over the [i]telepathic link[/i], piloting his [i]carpet of flying[/i] past the phony dragon and heading for the six floating weapons above the ledge in the back of the cavern. Thunderwolf squinched his eyes up and could see part of the dragon's outline seem to blur, but he couldn't get it to disappear entirely - the illusion must have been a fairly high-level one, he supposed. As Telgrane and Infernia approached the floating weapons, he could see they orbited over a large pile of coins, gems, and art objects - mostly carvings and ornate carpets. There were no auras of illusion covering any of the goods. "That's odd," he muttered. "A dragon's hoard, but no real dragon." At the front of the cavern, the ancient blue dragon [b]Alaerthrax[/b] suppressed a draconic chuckle and leapt out of the pit, sending wildly dancing arcs of electricity leaping from his mouth to the heroes in the tunnel before him. Aerik, still weakened from his ordeal with the sand golem, was slain in an instant. Feron, Galrich, and Thunderwolf were all massively singed but not slain outright, while only Rale managed to twist his body in an instinctive response to the dragon's breath weapon and avoid all damage entirely. He activated one of the effects of his [i]rod of thievery[/i] and became invisible, maneuvering his [i]floatdisk[/i] past the dragon and zooming towards the relative safety of the back of the cavern. (The fact that that was where the dragon's treasure hoard was kept was no doubt entirely coincidental.) Feron hated to do it, but she had been severely hurt by the dragon's sudden attack and burns covered the majority of her body. Whispering the words to a [i]meld into stone[/i] spell, she backed into the side of the tunnel wall and spent the next half minute or so casting healing spells upon herself. Galrich, seeing the dead body of his loyal bodyguard crumple to the ground, smoking from multiple burns, raged. He flew forward on his [i]floatdisk[/i], an inarticulate cry of fury exploding from his lips as he cut a bloody swath of pain and damage with his greataxe. Alaerthrax, having had a grand old time of it thus far, was suddenly taken aback as he recognized the energy crackling along the axe's blade: vorpal! Ancient dragon or no, one wrong swing of that weapon could find him beheaded in an instant! The dragon snarled in a rage of his own and attacked Galrich with teeth and claws. Behind the half-orc, Thunderwolf peppered the dragon with nearly a dozen arrows - enhanced with not only fire from his [i]flaming longbow[/i] but also sonic and cold energy, courtesy of a pair of spells Telgrane had cast earlier upon his ammunition - but was disappointed to see the majority of them bounce harmlessly off the dragon's thick scales. Switching to Xanthros, the fighter followed Galrich's lead and charged the dragon on his [i]floatdisk[/i]. "Now we're talking, son!" boomed the intelligent blade, eager to see combat once again. From the back of the cavern, Telgrane cast a [i]sunburst[/i] spell, carefully shaping it to avoid blinding his allies. Unfortunately, the dragon was able to shake off most of the spell's effects, including the blinding effect, and the archmage sighed in frustration as one of his most powerful spells had almost no effect at all upon the massive reptile. Infernia let fly with the daily blast of energy afforded by her new magical circlet, and it had a slightly more powerful effect upon Alaerthrax. But neither spell proved to be as effective as the invisible Rale, who had diverted course and snuck up behind the dragon, flying in for an invisible sneak attack. Racing his [i]floatdisk[/i] to its fastest speed, he positioned his twin blades in such a fashion as to hopefully slide them beneath the dragon's scales by its spine. The success of the rogue's sneak attack was evidenced by the roar of pain bellowed out by Alaerthrax, which echoed back and forth throughout the underground cavern. The dragon snapped its head back to bite at its unseen attacker... ...but suddenly the attacker wasn't the only thing unseen in the vicinity, for Telgrane had just had much more success with the second casting of his [i]sunburst[/i] spell than he had with the first. Alaerthrax, ancient blue dragon and willing ally to the followers of Vecna, was blind, and his own impressive knowledge of arcane spellcraft offered him no immediate way to correct the deficiency. Attacked simultaneously from the front by Galrich and Thunderwolf and from the back by Rale, the dragon was soon slain. Feron eventually exited the stone wall, having been healed of almost all damage. She cast healing spells upon those who needed it, and unpacked the [i]Daern's dollhouse[/i] long enough to lay Aerik's body to rest in one of the rooms therein. In the meantime, Rale and Telgrane had been gathering up the contents of the dragon's treasure and stuffing it inside the extradimensional space of Thunderwolf's new [i]Heward's handy haversack[/i]. Rale took one of the hovering weapons, a [i]rapier of puncturing[/i], for his own personal use, and Feron did likewise with a [i]sylvan scimitar[/i]. Then the group moved on. A side cavern to the south led to a patch of sand, which Telgrane surmised was the dragon's means of secret exit and entrance to his lair: blue dragons were capable burrowers and could leave behind no passage behind them as they dug through the ground. In the meantime, Rale had been examining the iron door at the foot of the treasure ledge above; after having detected no traps and discovered no lock to pick, he used a [i]knock[/i] spell from his [i]rod of thievery[/i] and the door swung open. Beyond, another set of stairs led down into darkness. These eventually led to a large set of double doors, upon which were carved a common holy symbol of Vecna: a skeletal hand holding a severed eye. After giving it his thorough examination, Rale declared the doors safe and pulled them open. At long last, the treasures they had been sent to retrieve for the Church of Boccob stood readily apparent, for the rectangular room held bookcases on all four walls. A wide set of stairs descended through a large, circular opening in the center of the floor to a lower level; a quick examination revealed that there were in fact four levels to this Hidden Library, each accessible by the same set of wide stairs leading down from the top level to the bottom through a series of ever-decreasing circular openings in each floor. "I think we might want some backup," commented Feron, casting a [i]shambler[/i] spell. Instantly, a quartet of shambling mounds materialized in the back of the room. Rale, in the meantime, had moved to the eastern wall, upon which, between the bookcases at either end, was a mosaic of interlocking gears. Some had hemispheres jutting out from their centers; as the rogue examined them, there was the sudden snap of retracting bolts, and the four spheres hovered into the room, leaving behind semicircular indentations in the centers of the gears they had occupied. Being simple constructs with simple commands, each of these four deathspheres reacted to their programming and headed for the nearest living being. One flew at Infernia, another at the nearest of the shambling mounds, and the two in the middle flanked Rale from either end. As they flew, each projected a sharp spike from its equator. The southernmost deathsphere impaled the shambler's head with a wet squelching sound, then began emitting an ever-rising tone that shot waves of sonic energy into the humanoid vegetable. Rale ducked and weaved, then decided the best way not to be impaled in the head by a deathsphere was not to have a head available to be punctured. Grabbing up another [i]potion of gaseous form[/i] from the slot on his belt, he guzzled its contents and fell backwards over the hole in the floor behind him. At the same time, Galrich raced over to attack the deathsphere buzzing at Infernia's head, slicing it handily in twain with his greataxe. But combat was not limited to the upper level. On the floor below, a lich stepped into view and cast a [i]lightning bolt[/i] spell up the stairway to catch Telgrane, Infernia, and Thunderwolf in the area of effect. In return, Telgrane stepped forward and caught the lich in the middle of a [i]wall of fire[/i] spell he sprung up into being around it, careful not to let the ends of the wall of flames reach either side of the room, where the bookcases stood. Engulfed in flames, the undead being pointed a skeletal finger at the archmage and called out, "The curse of [b]Aberoth[/b] upon you, human!" - while falling through the opening in the floor before it to its fiery destruction. Two more undead forms sprang into view from the second floor of the Hidden Library. One was another lich; unbeknownst to the heroes, this was the very same Pondari who had not only warned the saguaro sentinel of their imminent arrival (having earlier detected Brother Kasperius's discovery of the carving of Vecna's skull on the side of the cliff) but also had its own sand golem wait in hiding to attack strangers who might approach the carving. Pondari, stepping into view from the west, cast a [i]slay living[/i] spell up at Galrich, who was close enough to the hole in the floor to be within the dry lich's line of sight. Fortunately, the spell fizzled ineffectually against the [i]ioun stone[/i] silently whirling around the half-orc's head. The second undead was of a form previously unknown to the heroes: a grisgol, constructed from the remains of a slain lich and covered with scraps from torn scrolls and damaged spellbooks, it looked very much like a mummy covered in arcane writings. This odd creature raced up the stairs and struck out at an astonished Feron, who hadn't even seen it coming. Her body responded poorly to its leathery touch, freezing up in paralysis. Had she not been able to communicate to her friends through the [i]telepathic link[/i], they'd probably have assumed she had been slain, for her body crashed unmoving to the floor after she had been punched by the mummy-thing. "I'm paralyzed!" cried out Feron telepathically over the link. "Does anybody have any means to restore me?" Naturally, of the assembled group, this pretty much meant Telgrane, the only other spellcaster present. The young archmage mentally went through his spell repertoire. He knew the workings of the [i]break enchantment[/i] spell, but unfortunately did not have such a spell currently prepared. "Ah," he said, smiling, the solution coming to him. He had Infernia grab Feron's paralyzed form and slide it out of the way of the grisgol's reach, then stand between them, fending off the parchment-covered creature with her own burning body. Telgrane cast a [i]limited wish[/i] spell, transforming vitality from his own body to reshape the world in a small way to his liking. Feron stood back up, the paralytic effects completely neutralized. Two of Feron's four shambling mounds had moved over to directly above Pondari and struck out at him from the floor above, reaching down through the hole surrounding the four-story staircase. The lich spat a curse at them and moved north, out of range of the shambling vegetation and out of view of the other heroes. Feron sent them to follow the undead spellcaster, and they immediate stepped into the hole in the floor to land on the level below with a pair of wet plops. The other two remained in place on the top floor, trying to remove the deathsphere lodged into one of their heads. Pulses of sonic energy ripped apart the vegetable mass making up the impaled shambler's body, and it collapsed in a heap, no longer even vaguely humanoid. The deathsphere then turned to the other shambler, but was brought down by a well-placed bolt of energy from a [i]call lightning storm[/i] spell, Feron's targeting not only destroying the deathsphere but increasing the vigor of the shambler battling it. Rale, in the meantime, had flown to the southern section of the library's top floor and rematerialized. The two deathspheres he had left behind sought out a new target: Galrich. Galrich carved one of them in two while avoiding the other one buzzing around his head. Feron dropped the other with another bolt from her [i]lightning storm[/i]. The grisgol activated one of the spells inscribed on its body, encompassing all but Rale and the surviving shambler up on the top floor in a [i]mass hold monster[/i] spell. Fortunately, all but Thunderwolf and Galrich were able to shake off the effects. The grisgol then dodged around Infernia and made a rush to attack Telgrane, but the fire elemental was having none of that. She grappled the rune-covered creature from behind, dragging it away from her master. Mold spores puffed out of the grisgol's body, but they had no effect on Infernia and nobody else was within range. The grisgol, much smaller than its nine-foot-tall captor and not nearly as strong, activated another spell to get free of her grasp. The [i]feeblemind[/i] spell took Infernia by complete surprise, and once her intellect dropped to that of a lizard she instinctively let go of her prisoner, not recalling the importance of keeping it away from her master. The grisgol soon learned the folly of attacking Telgrane's beloved familiar, for the archmage retaliated with full fury, sending a blast of sonic energy (a [i]delayed blast fireball[/i] spell without the delay and with its energy converted to sonic damage, the entire effect shaped to avoid Telgrane's allies) directly into its body, destroying it instantly. Feron then healed Infernia with a charge from her [i]staff of healing[/i], restoring the elemental to her full intellect once again. She then wildshaped into the form of a Large air elemental, that she could continue her spellcasting while also being able to fly great distances at a respectable speed. As the rest of her equipment melded into her new form, she specifically exempted her bow and quiver of arrows, feeling she could bring them to good use. One level below, the dry lich Pondari cast a [i]harm[/i] spell on the nearest of the shamblers harassing him, destroying it at once, then scuttled down the stairs to the third level of the library. He was followed by the other shambler, who reached out at him with a massive limb. "We are under attack!" called out Pondari, activating the guardians of the third level. Instantly, a pair of erinyes devils appeared. They watched as Pondari dispatched the remaining shambler with another [i]harm[/i] spell, assessed that the third level was secure, and flew up through the central hole connecting all four library levels. The second level was not inhabited; apparently the problem was up on the first. Sure enough, flying up to the top level revealed a group of invaders, including a fire elemental, a pair of spellcasters, a lone shambling mound, and a pair of warrior-types frozen in place. (The devils didn't spot Rale behind them, who was doing his very best not to be noticed.) Going for the easy targets first, they peppered Thunderwolf and Galrich with arrows from their flaming composite longbows. The pain gave Thunderwolf the final push he needed to break free from the grisgol's [i]mass hold monster[/i] effect; Galrich, unfortunately, was not so lucky. Although he was currently raging at his immobility, the increased adrenaline was not having any effect on his ability to break free. But Thunderwolf returned the erinyes devil's favor, shooting her with a flurry of rapidly-shot arrows, each magically enhanced to contain not only fire but also electricity and sonic energy. The female devil, slain, dropped through the holes in the library's multiple floors and crashed to the floor of the lowest level, directly below. Rale silently cursed, for he'd been sizing her up for a sneak attack with his own bow. From two levels below, Pondari circled the hole between the floors and cast a bolt of desiccating energy up at Thunderwolf, attempting to turn the fighter into a pillar of salt. Thunderwolf gritted his teeth in pain at the attack, but while he felt an incredible thirst and a slight weakness he had not fully succumbed to the dry lich's attack and remained in the fight. However, Pondari immediately regretted having brought attention back to himself, for he was dropped by an almost casual bolt of energy from Feron's still-active [i]call lightning storm[/i] spell. About the same time, Galrich finally mustered sufficient resolve to break his mind free from the grasp of the [i]mass hold monster[/i] spell, and he roared in triumph. The remaining erinyes flew over to the north wall by the double-door entrance to the library's first level, the better to target her shots against Telgrane. Then, in a surprise move, she switched both targets and weapons, flicking the end of a coil of rope towards Thunderwolf, who had just slain her partner. The rope tangled around his lower legs and she flew back to the top of the hole, dragging him with her. Once the fighter was dangling above the opening to the lower levels, the erinyes released him from her enchanted rope, causing him to plummet 50 feet to the bottom floor. He landed with a painful crash upon the arrow-riddled body of the erinyes devil he'd previously slain. Suddenly, there was a rumble and one of the enormous gears on the side of the eastern wall moved inward, then rolled off to the side, revealing a wide corridor just beyond. Standing in the corridor was a massive cyclopean being, some 25 feet tall, wearing a blacksmith's apron. One gnarled hand gripped an enormous hammer; in the other was a book. "Return to shelf," said the one-eyed titan, [b]Mechanothestes[/b], and the book was taken from his hand by an invisible force, flown across the room, and returned to its place on one of the shelves. "[i]Golemaic Arcanabulum[/i]," he then demanded, and another tome came flying from a shelf across the room and into his empty hand. Then, as if absentmindedly just now noticing the battle raging on around him, the titan looked around at the intruders and casually commanded, "Rise up against your masters!" He then turned and went back the way he had come, the massive gear sliding back into place behind him. The results of his command were instantaneous. Galrich felt motion in one of the pouches at his belt, and an ivory figurine leapt out of its confinement and manifested as the Goat of Terror. It immediately snapped its teeth and kicked at Galrich with its front hooves. At the same time, on the bottom floor, just as Thunderwolf was rising to his feet he found his [i]ebony fly[/i] extricating itself from his backpack and expanding to full form. While it was an ineffectual combatant, it guarded the stairway as if to prevent the fighter from getting past it and returning to his compatriots. Feron, flying high above, gave a sudden thought to the fact that she carried a [i]serpent of constriction[/i] as part of her combat gear, and worried that while it was currently subsumed into her air elemental form it might likewise manifest and attack her as soon as she returned to her normal half-elven body. Neither the Goat of Terror nor the [I]ebony fly[/I] posed too much of a threat to the seasoned adventurers. While Galrich and Thunderwolf took care of their rebelling figurines, Rale noted that the remaining erinyes devil had unerringly lined herself up for a sneak attack, just as he had been planning for her counterpart. He got her in the neck, his arrow dropping her with a single shot. Unfortunately, she had been positioned directly above Thunderwolf, and her dead body came crashing down upon him, knocking him to the floor and close to senseless. He shook his head in an effort to regain his senses, and then systematically gathered up the weapons of both erinyes devils. He also stripped Pondari's corpse of a magical-looking periapt on his way back up the stairs to meet up with the others. By the time he arrived the combat was over with and the group was discussing whether to go after the cyclopean titan or start grabbing up the books from the shelves, which was the reason they had been sent here in the first place. Feron took the initiative and decided they could accomplish both tasks at the same time. She cast an [i]elemental storm[/i] spell - one she'd often longed to cast before but its lengthy casting time made it a poor choice for combat - summoning forth a group of air elementals. She returned to her own half-elven form long enough to unpack the [i]Daern's dollhouse[/i] from her pack - noticing as she did so that her [i]serpent of constriction[/i] remained in its statuette form - and provided the air elementals with the command words. They were instructed to start grabbing all of the books, tomes, and scrolls from the shelves of the library, starting at the top floor and working their way down, and storing them inside several rooms of the [i]Daern's dollhouse[/i]. Then she went about seeing to the needs of the others, casting healing spells to get them back up to full strength. In the meantime, Rale had been examining the gear motif of the eastern door, and found what he thought was a means of activating it. "Everybody ready?" he asked. Galrich was off to one side, ready to swing his [i]vorpal greataxe[/i] at anyone rushing them when Rale opened the door. Thunderwolf and Feron, the latter back in her air elemental form, had their bows ready to shoot down the corridor once the gear-door rolled out of the way. Telgrane and Infernia were on the archmage's [i]carpet of flying[/i], ready to do battle. Seeing everyone was in readiness, Rale hit the activation button and leapt to the side. The gear-door opened, revealing the corridor they'd seen before. Mechanothestes was in the far back of the massive room just beyond, hammering contentedly at an enormous anvil with flames rising up all around it from a magic circle immediately below it. However, standing in an imposing stance at the end of the corridor, blocking the way into the construct lab, was an iron juggernaut, a greater iron golem with a sword raised and ready to do battle. Telgrane cast a summoning spell, bringing a greater earth elemental rising up from the stone floor of the corridor. The earth-being stomped forward and the two giant forms started trading blows. Thunderwolf ran forward and entered the corridor, using the earth elemental's body as a shield as he tried to line up a shot against the cyclopean titan still working away at his forge without even a care. Rale decided to become invisible, using one of the powers of his [i]rod of thievery[/i], then used his [i]boots of flying[/i] to travel across the corridor at almost ceiling level. He ducked past the two giant combatants, seeing two smaller constructs in the corners of the room, on either side of the corridor. He called out a warning to the rest of the group over the telepathic bond, then continued easing his way behind Mechanothestes. Feron and Thunderwolf were having a tough time lining up a shot with the earth elemental and the iron juggernaut in the way, and Galrich couldn't get past the two. After quickly warning the others of his intentions, Telgrane cast a [i]disintegrate[/i] spell along the northern side of the corridor, expanding its width by a full five feet. Galrich took the opportunity to race into the room, where he was attacked by the first of the two maugs waiting for such an opponent to make it into the room. By this time Telgrane's summoned earth elemental had destroyed the iron juggernaut, and it fell backwards into the construct lab. The elemental strode forward, and another one rose up from the floor to join it, this one summoned by Feron. Thunderwolf got off a shot at the cyclopean titan, distracting it from its work with a look of intense annoyance. It blasted a quickened [i]chain lightning[/i] spell at the heroes, catching all but Rale - who was well within the limits of the spell's reach, but apparently undetected by the titan. Mechanothestes then spoke a few arcane syllables, and a massive fire elemental - larger in size than any even Infernia had ever seen - entered the plane through the [i]gate[/i] to the Elemental Plane of Fire underneath the titan's anvil and manifested into a roughly humanoid form. It struck out at the nearest of the greater earth elementals, while the other maug raced forward to catch Galrich between the two blocky constructs. Galrich didn't seem to mind. His [i]vorpal greataxe[/i] had reduced the first maug to rubble with a mere two strokes, and he confidently turned to face the other. But at the same time Mechanothestes sent another quickened [i]chain lightning[/i] at the group, this one almost slaying Infernia outright. Telgrane backed his [i]carpet of flying[/i] up and dropped it down to the second level of the library, out of sight of the cyclopean titan. "Quickly, in here," commanded Telgrane to his familiar, opening up his tinder box. Infernia looked at first as if she would argue, but apparently saw the logic behind her master's command; she was in no shape to help him survive, and would only be a distraction. She meekly took cinder form as she arced into her tinder box, then her master rose the carpet back up to the top level to see how the battle was faring. As it turned out, not too badly. The twin earth elementals were pounding their boulder-sized fists into the sides of the fire elemental that towered over them, and despite the size discrepancy they were better suited to hurt it than the other way around. Feron was helping the process along with additional strikes from her [i]call lightning storm[/i] spell. Galrich had made short work of the second maug and was racing straight for the titan, eager to see if his [i]vorpal[/i] weapon could sever the head of a creature that large. None of the others could see it, but Telgrane's enhanced vision - now fully capable of seeing what would normally be invisible - spotted an invisible Rale lining himself up for a sneak attack against the titan's unprotected back. Not wanting to miss out on any of the action himself, Telgrane sent a shaped [i]meteor swarm[/i] directly into Mechanothestes's face, hitting him three times with the four missiles, which exploded with sonic energy instead of flames due to a tweaking of the spell made possible by the archmage's training. The titan roared in pain, then roared again as Rale struck home with a weapon in each hand, one of them the new [i]rapier of puncturing[/i] he'd taken from the blue dragon's hoard earlier that same day. The Gargantuan fire elemental was finally taken out, its flames flickering away to nothingness as it died. Mechanothestes soon followed suit, helped along in no small part by another of Telgrane's modified [i]meteor swarms[/i]. The overconfident cyclops, the self-described "Titan of Constructs," fell over backwards with a crash, his adamantine warhammer clattering to the stone floor of his construct lab. Standing unfinished along the south wall was what would no doubt have been a greater stone golem of some type; its warrior's body had been sculpted already, and Mechanothestes had been in the process of constructing some metallic enhancements when the heroes had barged in. Weary and wounded, the adventurers gathered up the items of value they could find in the construct lab, then oversaw the air elementals' progress as far as gutting the hidden library of Vecna and packing its contents into the [i]Daern's dollhouse[/i]. They discovered the bottom floor of the library had been protected by the books themselves; each one held a magical symbol or glyph on its front cover which exploded or had some other ill effect when even glanced at. Feron directed her elementals to pack all of those books into a separate room of the dollhouse so they'd be isolated from the rest. But even then, once all of the books had been packed away, Telgrane realized they weren't finished with their mission. After all, he and Rale had suggested the group enter through the carved eye-hole containing an illusory eye; they had no idea what the other eye-hole might reveal. They decided to send Feron's one remaining shambler in first, then followed immediately behind. The floor just behind the open eye-hole sloped drastically shortly past the plane of the cliff's face, ending up in a small cavern whose floor was covered in gems and coins. "Excellent!" cried Rale, seeing the riches, before noticing that the pile of treasure also contained a gem-encrusted skull, which rose up, unsupported, into the air upon their arrival. The demilich struck at once, before anyone could react. Telgrane gave a cry of pain, then his body dissolved into a fine dust, all of his possessions dropping to the stone floor below him. He found himself imprisoned in a green, crystal world, much like an insect in amber. Little did he know it, but the demilich had imprisoned his soul in a gem embedded into one of its teeth. Fortunately, Galrich's immediate reaction was to charge it with his [i]vorpal greataxe[/i], and the weapon seemed inordinately well-suited to destroy the floating skull, for although Feron bounced spells off of it with little effect, the barbarian's weapon soon had the skull split halfway through its length, to the point where Rale had to help him extract it from his weapon's blade. The group gathered up the demilich's treasure and fortunately noticed Telgrane's tiny shape imprisoned inside a green-hued gem on a tooth of the split skull. Galrich crushed the gem with his axe, and a half-seen mist was released - presumably, Telgrane's disembodied spirit seeking his destroyed body. The group ensured there were no other exits from the cavern before using their Guild rings to bink back to their Headquarters, after which they'd meet up with Brother Altamaic, turn over the Vecna writings, and take them up on their offer of [i]true resurrections[/i] for both Aerik and Telgrane. - - - This adventure took up two sessions, on two Saturdays only two weeks apart, this time at our house instead of at Dan and Vicki's. My wife Mary had made these dinner party affairs, so after the game sessions were over we enjoyed a two-family dinner, followed by conversations among the adults while Joey and my nephew Harry went upstairs to play Skylanders together. (Harry, not yet interested in being a player in our group, had entertained himself with Skylanders while we played.) The sessions went pretty well, but they'll be the last ones this year, as we have other things to deal with in December (Christmas parties, Harry's Christmas pageant, Harry's birthday, etc.) that will eat up our gaming time. But we've reserved New Year's Day as our next session, once more at our house for a game-and-dinner session. I'm already looking forward to it, since we're going to try to play more often in 2015 so we can finish up this campaign (with adventure #100!) in time to start up the next one before Jacob goes away to college in the fall. [/QUOTE]
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