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Message: <blockquote data-quote="gfunk" data-source="post: 581708" data-attributes="member: 1813">Session 15 “The last push to Tilverton” When Entropy returned to the Underdark via teleportation, she saw her companions eagerly waiting for her return. After her departure, the Desmodu had told Entropy's companions that she had left to do "house cleaning." However, they all knew that the situation must be dire indeed if the sorcerer left so abruptly and without warning."We have a very serious problem. It seems that Lolth herself is attempting to kill us through her mortal agents. I have confirmed this by communing Eilistraee herself," Entropy declared somberly. She then proceeded to document precisely what had occurred with Eclavdra and the agents she had sent into Myth Drannor."I knew it! I knew it! Associating with you guys was the worst decision of my life! All I wanted to do was kill an Illithid or two and now the Demon bitch herself is trying to kill me!" cried Hor'ahun in exasperation.Both Noir and Joachim threw the Githzerai dirty looks, but they too realized the crushing weight of their current plight."Unfortunately, there is nothing we can really do at this point. We are powerful but we cannot challenge the will of a deity. We must remain vigilant and pray to Tyr that we will be able to defeat the agents Lolth sends to defeat us." stated the High Inquisitor rather matter-of-factly.Nodding in agreement, Noir added, "If it's any consolation, Lolth is well known for her capricious nature. Perhaps if we crush enough of her forces, she will turn on the drow for their ineptness and leave us alone.""Then there is nothing more to say. Come, let us continue to Tilverton." Joachim mounted his flying carpet, again entering the pitch black recesses of the Underdark.--------------------------------------------------------------------------------The next day of travel was relatively uneventful. Each party member was deep in thought, considering the ramifications of a deity's wrath. Only the Desmodu remained alert for dangers.The party eventually reached a bifurcation in the large tunnel that they were following."The way to the south leads directly into Tilverton. I do not know where this southeast tunnel goes, but it could conceivably lead to a shorter route. Which should we take?" the lead Desmodu inquired.Looking up from her thoughts, Entropy responded, "We probably need to kill something to ease our tension. The well-traveled path probably is less likely to yield significant opposition."The others laughed, breaking the otherwise tense day of travel. The all agreed that destroying another of one of the Underdark's many evil denizens could be . . . "therapeutic."--------------------------------------------------------------------------------"Too bad that passage led absolutely nowhere!" Hor'ahun sarcastically remarked to the sorcerer."Hey, I know you enjoyed blasting those jaundiced pterodactyls, so don't get all high and mighty on me," laughed Entropy.The creatures Entropy referred to were Yrthaks. Blind from their long exposure to the lightless underground they nevertheless developed a sophisticated method of "sight" using sonar. This also granted them several powerful abilities, such as directing highly destructive beams of sonic energy.Laired in a massive underground canyon miles in diameter, the Yrthaks were accustomed to being the dominant predator in the area. However, the party had dispatched them rather easily, using significantly more force than was probably necessary.As the companions returned to the tunnel's bifurcation once again, Entropy conjured a Rope Trick. This day's travel had ended, but the party would sleep a little better tonight.--------------------------------------------------------------------------------"This is an interesting area. I believe we approaching Vournoth's Mire, correct?" the paladin asked the Desmodu scouts."Yes," confirmed the scout nodding its massive bat-like head, "centuries ago it was rumored to be the abode of a Lich. But it was long since destroyed, so the area should be safe now. To be sure though, please wait here. We will scout ahead."A few minutes later the Desmodu returned, "There are two humanoids picking mushrooms. Both are armed and armored, though I could not tell for sure if they were drow.""Look you guys, I'm getting sick and tired of this crap. Why don't I just toss a Reality Maelstrom in there and let it suck out the garbage for a minute or two. Then we can go through, no problems!" exclaimed Entropy.Joachim was not amused, "I told you already, Noir and I will not be party to senseless barbarism. We will scout ahead ourselves and determine the level of the threat. If they are indeed drow, then we will deal with them."Hor'ahun, Entropy and the two Desmodu waited near the entrance to the Mire, while Joachim strode forward on his carpet with Noir following closely behind. Just as the scouts had described, the Inquisitor saw two humanoids looking at something in the middle of a patch of mushrooms. Hidden by his Cloak of Elvenkind, Joachim inched his way forward and tried to get a closer look. He peered closer and began to see the faces underneath their cowls . . . drow!Taking no chances in dealing with these treacherous elves, Joachim began casting a spell. Hearing her friend drawing on divine energies, Noir charged behind him with her longsword. The two drow sprang to their feet and drew their rapiers, whirling to face Joachim.However, their fate had already been sealed as Joachim completed his incantation. Between the drow appeared a massive creature composed entirely of lava. Conjured from the Paraelemental Plane of Magma, the 36 foot behemoth wasted no time in dealing with its foes. Its massive fist crashed down on the first drow, squashing it like a cockroach. Without even pausing it whirled around and pounded the second into the ground.As Noir reached the room, she saw that the elemental had already dealt with whatever foes were in the room. Striving to remain undetected, she remained close to the wall looking out for the inevitable reinforcements.Unknown to Joachim and Noir, the drow were actually servants to creatures who were conducting "research." One was an artist of sorts, who specialized in sculpture by the name of Sekrr. Shunned by the rest of his kind, Sekrr decided to move his gallery to Vournoth's Mire where he was sure he could find an appreciative audience. Sekrr's neighbor, an individual by the name of Quthnorok was interested in more academic pursuits. Researching magical channeling, he similarly found the Well an ideal location for his studies.Sekrr heard the commotion first, an extremely loud crash of rock against rock. "Those damned deep gnomes are causing trouble with their Earth Elementals again," he thought as he quickly floated down to take care of the problem.Rather than examine the disturbance directly, Quthnorok chose instead to send his retainer first. "Gok'llak, kindly greet our guests, I will be along shortly," the researcher telepathically commanded his servant. Bored to tears by the endless hours of his master's research, Gok'llak hefted his battleaxe and charged -- he was only too happy to comply.The magma elemental, with its extremely sensitive hearing, heard something coming down an adjacent pathway and lumbered over to meet the new threat. Joachim followed him closely. Seconds later, the magma elemental abruptly disappeared and Joachim was blinded as his magically enhanced vision ceased functioning -- Sekrr had arrived.The only thing that surprised Noir more than the Beholder floating through the ceiling was the ravening beast charging to meet her in battle. Though humanoid, the grey, scaled creature clad in hide armor had no eyes. But it had a big axe and judging from the foam coming out of its mouth, Noir quickly concluded that it was none to happy. Noir barely brought her shield up to bear as Gok'llak's axe crashed into it, a blow that would have otherwise split her skull. "Give us a hand please! We've got serious problems!" cried the paladin, hoping to enlist the aid of the Githzerai and sorcerer.Although Sekkr's massive central eye projected its antimagic at Joachim, it had many other eyestalks to spare. Three of them were directed towards Noir. Harried by her axe-wielding foe, Noir could not dodge them. Although she was not killed outright by the beams - her divine grace prevented that - they inflicted significant damage.Both Entropy and Hor'ahun entered the room. They saw the paladin in a death dance with a Grimlock and Joachim blindly groping around, trying to exit the Beholder's antimagic cone. Having met numerous Beholders in the past, Entropy was well-aware of their deadly nature. If they caught you with antimagic, their brutish retainers could quickly make short work of an arcane spellcaster. In this case however, the central eye was focused on Joachim. Pulling out a leather glove with brass knuckles from her spell component pouch, Entropy quickly cast a spell which brought into being a giant, disembodied fist behind the Beholder. Smashing it with terrific force, the fist sent the creature reeling. To make things worse for the stunned Sekkr, Hor'ahun unleashed a psi blast at him, further scrambling his senses.In the meantime, Noir retaliated against her foe. The Grimlock was not well-armored and it was so pissed off that it made no extraordinary attempt to dodge the paladin's blows. Though she inflicted grievous wounds on her foe, Noir was more than a little surprised that Gok'llak didn't even flinch.Joachim finally stumbled out of the Beholder's cone and his magic was restored. Seeing that his foe was clearly stunned, the Inquisitor quickly took advantage of the situation. Calling to Tyr, he brought down a vertical column of divine fire, empowered for good measure, that completely immolated the Beholder. With the antimagic gone, the Magma Elemental returned and continued its march down the tunnel to engage yet another foe.In a whirlwind of fury and pure rage, the Grimlock continued to attack Noir, bringing the paladin near death's door. However, support from Hor'ahun's bow and Entropy's giant fist finished off the already injured Gok'llak. Before proceeding further to aid the elemental, Noir called forth divine energy that healed the majority of her wounds.Quthnorok was casually walking towards the mushroom patch when he abruptly stopped. From around the corner he saw 54,000 lbs of hot magma death heading his way. Deciding not to look a gift horse in the mouth, Quthnorok concentrated as he crushed the will of the lumbering giant. "I know you want to smash things. But don't smash me, my friend. It would be easier to crush the next thing that runs by you," the researcher telepathically imparted to his new-found friend.As Noir rounded the corner, she saw the Magma Elemental approaching a figure in the distance. As she rushed closer, she began to see details, rubbery skin, glistening slime, octopus head -- a mind flayer! The paladin considered her next move as the Elemental turned around, took a few steps forward and tried to smash her into oblivion. Fortunately for Noir, her magical armor and shield withstood the assault though the force of the blow shook her very bones. She knew that melee with the Elemental would be suicidal.Seeing that his Elemental had turned on the party, Joachim dispelled it back to its home plane before it could inflict any more damage. Deprived of his latest retainer, Quthnorok decided it was time for a light snack. He hit the paladin full force with a mind blast. Dropping her sword and grabbing her head in pain, Noir was overwhelmed by the attack. The illithid strode forward, its tentacles twitching, perhaps today would not be a total loss after all . . .Much to Quthnorok's chagrin, another human came flying around the corner followed by a large glowing fist which promptly slammed into him. The Mind Flayer was knocked senseless and barely noticed as a very angry Githzerai approached him as well. "Anybody who touches this illithid scum will personally answer to me! I will finish him off myself!" shouted Hor'ahun as he drew his rapier and approached the mind flayer.Both Noir and Entropy left the Githzerai to kill the most hated foe of his race. They could hear gurgling screams as they turned the corner, "It's probably unhealthy to have all that pent up hostility," Entropy commented.--------------------------------------------------------------------------------The party searched the Mire after dispatching their foes and found a few surprises. In Sekkr's room they found his various works of "art." Apparently the Beholder had petrified numerous creatures, placed them in his quarters as statues and proceeded to beautify them by punching holes in various places. Joachim considered breaking the enchantment on these poor souls, but realized that the damage on their statue forms was more than enough to kill them.In Quthnorok's lair they found an interesting magical device. Brief analysis by Entropy showed that it was a channeler of some sort. Throwing it into her portable hole, the sorcerer said that she would look into it when she had time.--------------------------------------------------------------------------------The party's final day of travel through the Underdark was without incident. They could feel the passage gradually begin to slope upwards as they slowly reached the surface. Finally the Desmodu proclaimed, "Up ahead is a gate leading to Tilverton. I am afraid we must leave you here my friends, our job is complete. We wish you luck in your quest."As the Desmodu departed, the party pondered how they would approach the current situation. All agreed that subterfuge was the solution, though how best to go about it was discussed."The drow we dispatched in the Mire bore symbols of a minor house. I recognized it as one of the noble houses in Tilverton. We should go as drow wearing these symbols. Since we are dark elves no one will bother us and, as low-ranking nobles, we won't attract too much attention." suggested Noir."Mmmmm . . . sounds good. But don't you think that they will be a little suspicious of a Lolth worshipping house when the city is apparently ruled by followers of Kiaransalee?" queried Entropy.The paladin had heard enough lip out of the sorcerer to last several lifetimes, "I know drow! I know what I'm doing and I know what's best! This group doesn't need your uneducated opinion!""Okay, okay, take it easy," Entropy said, backing off.Using various magical devices, the party disguised themselves as a group of noble drow, two males and two females, and approached the gate. As their eyes adjusted to the light, they saw four large figures standing guard."Halt! State your business here," one of them bellowed in Undercommon."We are noble drow, surely you can see that from our heralds you fools! Let us pass or we'll have your hides!" Noir responded, confident in her knowledge of drow cultural practices.The figure squinted as he observed the insignia. Clearly recognizing what he saw, he gestured to his companions. They all picked up massive rocks. "Welcome home," the leader proclaimed as they all hurled the boulders at the party.</blockquote>

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