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Message: <blockquote data-quote="gfunk" data-source="post: 1363827" data-attributes="member: 1813">Session 58"The Test" Thoughts in chaos. Queen Vlaakith CLVII’s mind wandered as her corporeal body continued the slow process of revival. With her phylactery intact, she was effectivley immortal but even she could not guess how long she would be in this helpless state – the magic of the phylactery was fickle indeed. Nevertheless, she felt her power and memories returning swiftly mere hours after her physical form had been ground to dust by Cronus’ adamantine maul. Her re-ascension to lichdom was progressing even quicker than she hoped – all the better to annihilate those who had defeated her. As of now, she could not clearly remember their names or identities as her mind remained in entropy. However Vlaakith was ancient and she seldom forgot, and never forgave . . . ------------------------------------------------- Paelinn tumbled through the silver gate first, appearing directly in front of his mistress and her current crop of allies. Immediately, the Divine Seeker of Kiaransalee dropped to one knee, “I am yours to command mistress. How can I help?” Amal waved him away, “Move aside drow. Entropy needs to concentrate to keep the gate open.” One minute later, just as the gate contracted into nothing, Noir leaped through. In her hands she held a staff made of twisted black metal as well as an undead, desiccated arm. She handed both to her mistress, “As you requested, here is the Rod of the Twisted Weave and the Claw of the Revenancer.” The morning following Vlaakith’s destruction, Entropy had ordered the Blackguard to return to the Undying Temple to obtain these items. The Rod worked by absorbing spell energy, but instead of allowing the wielder to channel the energy to power his own magic, it instead directed a negative backlash at the offending caster. The Claw, on the other hand, was well known by all present. This artifact was constructed by Kiaransalee herself, allowing the wielder to animate slain foes as revenants, in addition to providing a myriad of minor offensive and defensive abilities. Donning both items, Entropy bade Paelinn to rise and made a sweeping gesture at a line of exotic looking chests (many built out of the flesh of unknown creatures), “These we have plundered from Vlaakith’s Palace. Undoubtedly, the decrepit old Lich has warded them against common thieves therefore obviating the need for me to open them personally. Which is precisely where you come in.” Nodding, Paelinn made a beeline for the first chest. When Irae T’ssaren was running things, the albino drow had used Paelinn as a spy and assassin. Unfortunately, he was slain by Noir, when she was still a Paladin, and subsequently raised by Eclavdra. Now he had a new master. With precision and mastery that would make even the most professional thieves of Calimport blush, the Divine Seeker methodically gave each chest a one-over, quickly picked the lock and moved on to the next. This proceeded like clockwork until the seventh chest when, despite his best efforts, the drow was sprayed with some type of noxious gas. He fell backwards, grabbing his throat for air as his eyes slowly rolled back as he fell over, unmoving. Shapechanging into a wight, so that she would not be affected by the poison, Entropy moved up next to the prone Rogue. Seeing that he would obviously not get up any time soon, she gave him a quick kick, “Come on! Get up, this is no time for napping!" Failing to elicit a response, Entropy dragged him back to her fellows for inspection. “Well, he doesn’t appear to be dead, at least,” Hor’ahun noted, seeing Paelinn’s chest still moving. “Bah, though it’s a waste, I want to see what’s in these chests just as much as any of you,” Amal muscled his way forward, casting a restoration spell as he did so. His hand glowing with divine power, he punched Paelinn in the face with his gloved mail. Instantly, the Divine Seeker stood, the spell having negated the effects of the poison. However, he grimaced in pain at his broken nose before quaffing a potion to heal the wound. “Continue.” The remainder of the chests were inspected and opened without hassle.  “Well, that’s done, but what do we do now? These items may have command words and some of them may even be lethal. I don’t fancy that any of us wants to try them out so . . .,” Noir let her words hang as her companions pondered the issue as well. “I could, of course, identify the contents but it would take too long and, as Noir stated, is potentially hazardous. I have a better idea,” casting, Entropy opened another gate (this one filled with swirling, multicolored hues) and out stepped a two-legged frog like creature with dappled grey skin. “Slaad, you have two minutes to identify the contents of these chests before we kill you.” ------------------------------------------------- Moving as if his life depended on it, the Death Slaad rapidly threw out the contents of each chest, screaming out the relevant powers and command words of each item. At one point, a scarab the Slaad held began boring through its skin, but with its superior dexterity it tore it out before it could reach a vital organ. After a breathless two minutes, the last item was identified and the Slaad breathed a sigh of relief before returning to the Everchanging Chaos of Limbo. Among the most powerful items were various tomes that permanently raised the physical or mental attributes of the reader. However, these often took days to complete so they were stored for later use. The most interesting finding by far was a greenish ooze in one chest. If the Slaad was to be believed, then enough of the material remained to provide four items with sentience, alignment, and various powers. Amal was the first to stick his adamantine mace in the goo and luckily withdrew the weapon having granted it empathy, some minor powers, and, most importantly, a worldview compatible with the Dreadlord. Unfortunately, the minor trinkets converted by the other party members resulted in items too full of righteousness to be useful. ------------------------------------------------- Zetan’r’r carefully rotated the object in his fingers, “You say you found this in the Palace of Whispers, eh? Well, it does appear to be part of a Githyanki rune. As to the object itself, it is constructed of a metal we commonly mine here in Tu’narath. It imparts a ghost touch quality to either weapons or armor.” Retrieving the token, Hor’ahun turned to his companions, “Well it seems we have several options here. Entropy’s commune has informed us that Vlaakith’s phylactery does not lie in the Palace itself, but somewhere else on Tu’narath. We could begin searching these mines, I suppose . . .” “No, that would take far too long. I will return to my quarters and make a final appeal for the Dreadlord to intercede on our behalf,” the Banite turned on his heels and left the room. ------------------------------------------------- Kneeling quietly, Amal cast his most powerful spell, a miracle, “Lord Bane, we seek the destruction of the Lich Queen Vlaakith. She has become too powerful, trying to use the very substance of Tu’narath to fuel her quest for godhood. Show me the location of her phylactery so that I may crush her for good, ‘ere she attempts to usurp your portfolio of Tyranny.” Amal did not have to wait long for the reply, “FOOLISH HUMAN! DO YOU REALLY THINK THIS PUNY UNDEAD THING OFFERS ANY THREAT TO ME? I HAVE MAINTAINED MY PORTFOLIO THROUGH THE TIME OF TROUBLES, DEFYING LORD AO HIMSELF!! I HAVE EVEN SURVIVED MY OWN APPARENT DEATH! DO NOT BOTHER ME WITH SUCH A PATHETIC REQUEST!!” The Dreadmaster winced in anguish at the divine rebuke. It was not everyday that you were dragged over the coals by your god. Nevertheless, Amal knew that Bane was a vengeful god and recovered quickly. Choosing to cast a commune instead (to one of Bane’s intermediaries) was a better idea. ------------------------------------------------- Amal emerged from his quarters with a look of triumph. It would not do to tell the others that Bane had given him information rather than interceding direclty on his behalf. “The runes are the key. Bane has informed me that if we find all of them and combine them, then they will form a symbol of some sort in addition to providing us the location of Vlaakith’s phylactery. All of the runes are in the Palace of Whispers.” ------------------------------------------------- The companions returned to the Palace and this time, proceeded south. During this pass through Vlaakith’s stronghold, they were much more aggressive in their searching. Though the compound seemed to be empty for the most part, they did find one room containing a Githyanki warrior in breastplate. Hor’ahun approached him cautiously, “What are you doing here? Where has everyone gone?” As if he was meditating, the warrior slowly stood, “I will be tested by Queen Vlaakith. If she deems me worthy, then I will join the ranks of the T’lak’ith.” Entropy laughed, “I’m afraid that your precious Queen is indisposed at the moment. Perhaps we could test you instead.” “If that is my fate I accept it, though Queen Vlaakith has not ordered me to engage any intruders.” Tired of this conversation, Noir raised Helltongue to strike the warrior, but he dimension doored away before the blow could land. The alarm had been raised. ------------------------------------------------- To Entropy (in Pit Fiend form), Noir, and Hor’ahun the next chamber looked completely non-descript and exactly like every other one they had visited. To Amal, with the power of true seeing he saw a large chamber with a throne composed of stretched Illithid flesh. Behind three ebon pillars hid a pair of T’lak’ith knights, Kr’y’izoth wizards, and fiendish Red Dragons. Taking up a significant part of the center portion of the room stood a symbol of death, ready to slay the unwary.  The Githyanki undead acted first as the knights launched weirds at the party (once again only affecting Noir) and the wizards warded themselves with spell turning and fired greater dispel magics at the party. Entropy reverted to her normal, vulnerable form as other powerful spells were removed from the others. Amal strode forward and projected two heightened destructions at the nearest dragon though the wyrm resisted outright immolation. Shaking off the effect of the seeming in the room, possible due to his enemies’ pre-emptive attacks, psionic power began to coalesce around the Psychic Warrior as a cone of fire emerged from his mouth, once then twice. Though the Dragons were unaffected, the undead felt it. Shapechanging into a Balor, Entropy surveyed her opponents with the power of true sight. Opening four rifts in the Astral Plane, one dragon and both T’lak’iths were sucked into the Concordant Domains of the Outlands. One Kr’y’izoths, however, was able to dimension door out of the reality maelstroms while his fellow was consumed. As the final dragon moved to engage Hor’ahun, Noir made a tactical retreat to re-cast some of her buffing spells. The Blackguard could still not fathom what her companions were fighting for the room still looked completely empty to her. ------------------------------------------------- Y’roon had done the best he could marshalling the remaining forces of Vlaakith. Surrounding him were more than two dozen Githyanki, including the most powerful Duth’kgiths and Holocaust Warriors. “Together we must strike with overwhelming force! Concentrate all your attacks on one foe until they go down! We must buy the Queen as much time as possible! Now, GO!!” Simultaneously, they dimension doored out of the barracks. ------------------------------------------------- With his third destruction, Amal turned the remaining dragon to dust. Entropy shapechanged into a spectre as her incorporeal form flew through the walls to flank the remaining Kr’y’izoths. As soon as the Alienist exited, the entire chamber was blanketed in blue pinpoints of light as 27 Githyanki came out of nowhere. Many of them appeared in the corridor, surrounding Amal, Hor’ahun, and Noir. Many others dimension doored into the main throne room fully cognizant of the symbol of death that was present. Maneuvering to avoid the trap, five warriors accidentally appeared in the midst of Entropy’s reality maelstrom and were whisked away. The entire room was again filled with flame via Hor’ahun’s breath of the dragon. He then began to tear into nearby opponents with his greataxe. Amal began to follow suite after manifesting a divine power. Noir was in the best position of all, draining opponents all around her, turning them into smoking, desiccated corpses with Helltongue. Re-emerging into the room as a spectre, Entropy was flabbergasted at the scene before her. When she left, there were but two foes. However, the room was now covered with Githyanki. The Alienist silently floated past her foes until she reached Hor’ahun. Twisting the Weave to her bidding, she protected him with a death ward, the only one in the party without such an abjuration. Then, she hovered over the symbol of death, and assumed the form of a Bodak as she hit the ground and activated it. Between her death gaze and the ability of the symbol to slay living creatures outright, many of the warriors fell. In the end, the outcome was never in doubt. While Entropy mopped up the Githyanki in the throne room, assuming various forms as needed, her companions tore the warriors in the hallway a new one. Both groups were separated by a wall of fire erected by a Kr’y’izoth early in the battle so they could not see each other. As her final foe fell, Entropy stared at Vlaakith’s throne. Something was most unusual about it, most unusual indeed . . . ------------------------------------------------- Using the breastplate of a Duth’kgith whose head he had caved in, Amal wiped the blood off his mace. The now sentient weapon silently gave the Dreadmaster its tacit approval. Gesturing to his companions to follow, Amal confidently strode through the wall of fire. Expecting to see a similar scene of carnage on the other side, the Banite priest was not disappointed. However, as his eyes slowly surveyed the room he also noted that the throne was occupied . . . by Vlaakith!!! Without thinking, he dove back through the wall before she could intervene. Smiling, Vlaakith let him go. Besides, where could he possibly hide?</blockquote>

Verification