Menexenus's Age of Worms Campaign Journal

[Menexenus]

Session 44: The Elemental Guardians

18th of Harvester. After some discussion, the party decided to ascend back up the waterfall rather than follow Moreto into the Underdark. The last of Moreto's belongings to be moved or disturbed was the Seal, which the party now saw was a rectangular chunk of polished quartz with a handle on top. A mirror image of Icosiol's personal crest was carved into the bottom of the Seal. One side was carved with the same symbols the party had seen on the fresco in the room above (which Allustan had informed them were the activation words - "Icosiol", "Aaqa", and "Pesh"). Another side was carved with a depiction of a man-like figure holding the Seal while standing on a small circle in front of a massive pair of doors. At long last, Killick volunteered to pick up the Seal. He spoke the words and held it aloft. He felt magical power coursing through it. He tried activating it by pointing it at things and reiterating the activation words, but there was no effect. Alexander spoke the words and tried the same, with identical results. Alees drank a potion of Protection from Law, spoke the words, and reached for the Seal with the intention of using her roguish ability to blindly activate magic items. However, she found that she was unable to touch the Seal - it seemed to repel her. Killick tried to put the Seal in his Heward's Handy Haversack, but it would not enter. So Killick put the Seal back down and asked for other volunteers to carry it (as he wished to be able to hold his quarterstaff).

Katawan decided to pick up the Seal without saying the words (just to find out what would happen). Suddenly three 10-foot-tall beings appeared around Katawan. These beings had the dark skin of people who spend a great deal of time out in the sun, and they wore the silk and satin clothing of (wealthy) desert nomads. After identifying Katawan as the offender, they all transformed themselves into mini-tornadoes, that struggled against the ceiling of the natural cavern. All three passed over Katawan, but only the third was successful in picking him up and spinning him aloft. The rest of the party rushed to Katawan's aid, attacking the wind-beings. Tarric swang his sword to great effect. Thorash and Killick let loose their Flame Strikes. Alexander havatu-ed. Alees shot the creatures with force bolts. And even Katawan was able to land a blow as he was being flung around in the air. Within seconds, all three wind-beings had been damaged enough to cause them to disappear.

When the danger was past, Alexander spoke the words again and picked up the Seal. He would carry it. Knowing that two of the Wind Warriors awaited them somewhere above, Alexander and Killick took the lead in physical form, while their companions returned to mist form and slowly ascended behind them. After a few moments, Alexander and Killick found the Wind Warriors hovering, waiting for intruders. However, when they saw the Seal in Alexander's hand, they stopped and bowed before him, seeming to await his command. In addition, Alexander noticed something that he had not seen before - the outline of a secret door carved into the rock. He spoke the words again, and the secret door opened to reveal a small landing leading to a 5-foot-wide staircase ascending. The party assembled on the landing and reverted to physical form. Then they ascended the staircase carved from natural rock. Eventually, the apparently haphazardly-hewn staircase gave way to a large room made of carefully carved stone. The only thing in this room was a 50-foot-tall set of closed metal doors. Alexander said the words again, and the giant doors rumbled open. Beyond the doors was a ledge. Thorash walked up to the edge and looked down. He saw no bottom. What he did see was a rolling mist about 80 feet down. He also noticed arcs of electricity that played randomly in the mist and along the walls. However, the yawning chasm was not empty. There were seven columns ascending out of the mist, leading to the far wall which was blocked by yet another massive set of metal doors.

Alexander attempted to fly to the other side of the room, but he noticed 2 giant creatures that were made of living wind emerging from the mist below, so he returned to the floor with the rest of the party. One of these creatures retained a vaguely humanoid shape with two gigantic fists which it swang at Alexander. The other of these creatures took the form of a giant funnel cloud and flew over Thorash, picking him up and spinning him around near the ceiling. Alees retreated to the doorway and shot at the creatures with the Rainbow Crossbow. Tarric charged the one that had attacked Alexander, taking a pounding as he approached. Killick, who had magically shrunk his companion wardog for the ascent up the waterfall, returned him to his usual size and ordered him to defend Alexander. Alexander tumbled out of the Elemental's reach (taking another pounding in the process), drew a wand, and tapped himself with it, causing himself to appear visibly healthier.

The funnel cloud elemental moved back out over the chasm and ejected Thorash from the funnel, causing him to fall down into the mist. While the party expected to hear a loud 'thud', instead they heard Thorash's continued screams as he continued falling. Realizing that this must be a very deep pit indeed, Killick decided to use his wings to dive down after his dwarven comrade in arms. However, just as he felt he was nearing Thorash's falling body, he heard Thorash desperately cast a spell and then Killick could hear him no longer. Killick assumed that he must have saved himself somehow, so he started making his way back up to the rest of the group. However, when he cleared the mist, he witnessed the funnel cloud dropping his wardog companion into the mist about 10 feet away from him. So he descended once again. This time he caught up with his companion and struggled to carry him back up.

Up above, the fight against the giant Wind Elementals was going poorly for the party - so poorly in fact that Alexander was forced to call for retreat. Most of the party members quickly fell back into the staircase, where they were surprised to see Thorash who was now in mist form. Alexander readied to cast Wall of Iron at the top of the stairs once Killick and Grimlock appeared - but they did not. After a few excruciating seconds, the party heard Killick call out for help in a panic. Tarric who was closest to the top of the stairs, reached into his pack and threw his bronze griffin figurine into the room. As it hit the floor, the figurine turned into a large metal griffin. Tarric commanded it to help Killick, but (unsurprisingly) it flew back to the doorway and attacked Tarric instead. Katawan virtually flew up the stairs, moved past the griffin (which ignored him), and moved to the ledge to see what was going on. He looked down and saw that Killick was about 70 feet down holding on to Grimlock and trying to fly up to the ledge, but he was flanked by both Wind Elementals and was taking a pounding whenever he moved. Without hesitation, Katawan jumped off the ledge and grabbed onto Killick as he fell. Suddenly, Katawan, Killick, and Grimlock appeared at the landing at the base of the stairs, collapsing into a pile of falling bodies. Alexander breathed a sigh of relief and cast his Wall of Iron spell at the top of the stairs. The party heard the sounds of the Wind Elementals attacking the bronze griffin, but then all was silent again.

The party decided to return to Diamond Lake, confer with Allustan, rest, heal up, recover spells, and identify Moreto's magic items.

19th of Harvester. After accomplishing their tasks, the party returned to Icosiol's Cairn much better prepared for combat against the Wind Elementals. Once they had returned to the staircase leading up from the secret door in the waterfall shaft, Killick used his Gauntlet of Rust to open up a hole in the Wall of Iron left behind by Alexander. Alexander ordered the two remaining wounded Wind Warriors into the room to attack the Elementals. The Elementals quickly pounded them to dust, but this gave the party time to deploy into the room. The party then commenced efficiently destroying the two Wind Elemental guardians. Although Flame Strikes were effective as always, perhaps most effective were Alexander's Maximized Empowered Magic Missiles.

With the battle quickly won, Katawan pointed out something he had noticed before - that Icosiol's symbol was inscribed on the top of one of the columns that ascended from the mist. Alexander flew over to it with the Seal and spoke the command words once again. This caused a great column of wind to erupt from the top of the column, propelling Alexander through an illusion-concealed hole in the ceiling.

 

[Menexenus]

Session 45 & 46: The Rod of Seven Parts (or, "Easy Come Easy Go")

19th of Harvester. Alexander was propelled along a column of wind up through an illusion in the ceiling of the cavern into another, smaller room which had magical lanterns in each corner, a floating stone sarcophagus in the middle and a raised alcove on the far side. One by one, Alexander's comrades joined him in the chamber which one could only guess was Icosiol's final resting place. Katawan was the third one to bob into view riding on the column of air and join his comrades in the room. He told the others that he thought he heard whispers on the far side of the room. As others arrived, he lost track of the sounds. When Alees arrived, she heard them too and said they sounded like spell-casting. However, since nothing was happening, the party took no offensive action. The party members had all remained near the column of air when they had arrived in the room, as it appeared to be the only means of entry and exit. However, Alees now began moving forward into the room slowly, heading toward the sarcophagus, looking for traps as she went. Just in case, Alexander cast Web into the far side of the room, where the whispers had been heard.

Suddenly, a previously invisible creature cast a unholy destructive area effect spell that caught the entire party in its blast. After suffering from the wave of evil energy, the party looked up and saw a flying demon hovering just above the web covered with independently moving eyeballs on all the surfaces of its body. Its body was surrounded by a yellow glow that was most likely the result of some kind of spell. Since all of the members of the party were able to fly due to prior spell-casting (except Thorash), many of them flew up and took flanking positions around the demon. Their attacks caused it some damage, but it was clear that the demon benefitted from some kind of mystical resistance to physical attacks. Since Thorash could not rise up to combat the creature, he called out to it in a horrific language, asking it a question. It responded to him in the same language. Thorash shrugged his shoulders, and cast a protective spell on himself. It was at this point that the last of the party-members - Killick, holding a reduced version of Grimlock - bobbed into view riding the column of air.

Now that all of the party members were in view, all of the demon's many eyes glowed with energy simultaneously and continued glowing for the rest of the combat. Additionally, three sickly gray rays shot out from random eyes striking party members every few seconds. Alexander seemed to be affected by the glowing eyes. He was held in place, unable to move. Alees was quickly overcome by the sickly gray beams. After being struck twice, she screamed in terror and ran away. The demon hid among the webs (the effects of which it seemed able to ignore), so Killick set the webs alight with Produce Flame while Thorash accelerated the process with a Flame Strike. Eventually, Tarric also succumbed to the gray beams of energy. He dropped his sword screaming and tried to flee. Thorash tried to block his egress until he too was affected by the beams and was also compelled to flee. Fleeing the combat posed no danger to most of the party, as they were able to fly. However, Thorash was the only member of the party unable to fly. So when he made it down to the bottom of the column of air, he had a horrific choice to make: stop fleeing (which seemed impossible) or leap from his column to another with a nearly bottomless pit threatening almost certain death if he should fail. Luckily for him, Alees had shaken off the effects of her fear and was returning just as Thorash made his way down. She cast a spell on him that removed his fear. He thanked her and then began ascending back up the column of air to face the demon again.

Meanwhile, Alexander had also become unfrozen and cast Magic Missiles at the demon, some of which the demon was able to ignore while others seemed to deal significant damage. Alexander did this for as long as he could until he succumbed once again to the demon's petrifying gaze.

Virtually all of the members of the party took turns being held motionless or running in fear. There were rarely more than two party members fighting the demon at any one time. Although the demon had taken significant damage from various spells cast by Alexander, Killick, and Thorash (as well as minor damage from physical attacks made by Katawan and Tarric), it became apparent that the party was fighting a losing battle. It was just a matter of time before the party would be unlucky enough to have all of its members motionless or running away, during which time the demon could simply coup de grace those who were motionless. The party reluctantly decided to call the retreat. Some did not wish to leave their favorite weapons behind (which they had dropped when they had panicked). Two party members - Thorash and Tarric - attempted a brief but unsuccessful foray back into the demon's chamber to collect their dropped weapons. They picked up the weapons for a brief time, but then dropped them again when they were affected once more by the gray beams.

The party withdrew to Diamond Lake, camped, healed, and recovered spells.

20th of Harvester. The party returned to Icosiol's tomb, fully prepared for all of the demon's modes of attack. In this more prepared and protected state, they made short work of the foul guardian, putting it out of its misery. When they examined the sarcophagus closely, they saw that Icosiol's hands were outstretched on top. They placed the Seal in the hands of the figure that was reaching out from the top of the sarcophagus. This caused the lid to disappear, revealing dust along with a short sword, a longsword, a ring, and a foot-long fragment of a long thin object. The outside of the object was polished smooth, but the inside seemed to resemble a geode, whose small gem-like protuberances exhibited unnatural order and symmetry. A sense of otherworldly calm and well-being came over the party. All at once, Alexander felt sure that he could fully utilize his Talisman of the Sphere (whose command word he had never successfully researched), Killick - who wore the diadem recovered from Zosiel's tomb in the Whispering Cairn - felt much wiser and charismatic and he realized that he could now speak Auran and Vaati, and the entire party knew that the fragment was a piece of the Rod of Seven Parts, knew the command word for the Rod, and knew that it could be used to miraculously Heal someone of all the damage they had sustained. The party emerged from Icosiol's Cairn victorious and in good spirits! They spend time identifying the magical properties of the swords and the ring.

21st of Harvester. The party teleported back to Eligos's house in Greyhawk. Eligos gave them the Wand of Cure Serious Wounds which he had repaired for them. He informed them that, since his position and mission had been compromised by the doppelganger minions of Kyuss that had killed him and briefly taken his identity, he had been instructed to sell the house in the Garden District and be reassigned to some unknown part of the Flanaess. However, Eligos's patron had taken notice of the party's work against the Cult of Kyuss and wished to meet with them. Eligos revealed that his patron and master was Tenser, archmage, former member of the Circle of Eight, and one of the most powerful mortals on Oerth. Tenser had asked to meet with the entire party at his castle. It was no secret that Tenser's castle was in a small but growing town called Mage Point, nominally in the Domain of Greyhawk, on the southern shore of the Nyr Dyv. However, Tenser was currently away dealing with pressing business on the Astral Plane, so there was no telling how soon the meeting might take place. Eligos had taken the liberty of informing his contact that the party had reason to fear attack by the Rainbow Mage in the interim and requested safe haven for the duration of the wait. The contact had responded that the party would be given sanctuary in Tenser's near-impregnable castle while they awaited his return. While their access to the castle would be limited (and guards would accompany them at all times), they would be given access to the library and the laboratory. They would also be allowed to venture out to the town of Magepoint, if they wished. The party was grateful for this news.

Thorash left and returned later the same day wearing a much finer cloak.

When the party chose to depart for Magepoint, they would be able to teleport to a small town called Hardride about 2 days east of Diamond Lake along the Urnst Road (which they had passed through before on the long journey to Rosewater). However, it would still be another day and a half journey to Magepoint from there, following a small river north through very hilly terrain to Magepoint. The party decided to travel together to increase their collective safety on the road. That meant that the group had to wait in Greyhawk for another week and a half so that Tarric could be knighted by the Order of Holy Shielding on Godsday of Brewfest at Greyhawk's High Church of Heironeous.

22nd of Harvester - 3rd of Brewfest (10 days). Tarric spent most of his time studying and training with the Order of Holy Shielding in preparation for his knighting ceremony. Alees slept most days and stayed out all night most nights. Some nights she did not return at all and was gone for 2 or 3 days at a time. Thorash made regular trips into the city, returning the same day. Killick made a trip back to Diamond Lake near the time of the full moon and returned a few days afterward. Alexander spent time studying in Eligos's library, since most of it was soon to be sold along with the house (and he might not ever have access to it again). Katawan meditated and remained vigilant in case the party were to be ambushed by enemies.

4th of Brewfest (Godsday). Tarric was knighted by his mentor in the Order of Holy Shielding, Lady Lemanda. His partymates were all in attendance - all of them except Alees, that is. At the ceremony, Tarric gave the Order a magical bastard sword from his own scabbard as a donation to aid in their continuing fight to liberate the Shield Lands. This gift was meant to help the cause until such time as Tarric himself could embark on his own crusade to lift the yoke of Iuz's slavery in formerly free lands. The device on Tarric's shield was completed to indicate his transition from squire to full-fledged knight. With his knighting, Tarric had ascended to the lowest rung of aristocracy. Henceforth, all strangers would naturally look to Tarric as the leader of the party simply because he occupied the highest social station. Tarric realized that he would also be able now to avail himself of certain legal rights and courtesies extended to nobility which he and the party otherwise would not have had access to in the past. Having lived his entire life among peasants, servants, and laborers, Tarric knew it would take some time getting used to the idea of living and behaving as an aristocrat.

The party engaged in modest celebration that evening, but they did not over-indulge themselves, as they knew they were to set out for Magepoint the following day.

5th of Brewfest. The party waited as long as they could for Alees, who did not return to Eligos's house at the appointed departure time. The party spent much of the day trying to locate her with no success. Eventually, Thorash cast a spell asking his deity if Alees was in trouble. When he was told that she was not in need of help, the party decided to leave without her. She would have to find her own way to Magepoint. The party teleported to Hardride and then began making their way north through the Cairn Hills towards Magepoint.

Along the way, they were ambushed by a group of six evil outsiders. Two were medium-sized and covered with spikes upon spikes - as many spikes as there were stars in the night sky. These two seemed to be in command of the small force. The other four were much larger bony creatures with long curving tails ending in stingers that dripped with venom. All were flying and all had been invisible until they commenced the attack. The smaller barbed creatures created explosions of evil energy (much like the explosion the party had experienced at the hands of the many-eyed demon guarding Icosiol's sarcophagus). These explosions killed most of the party's horses. While the bony creatures shot rays of green energy at individual party members, bathing them in a green glow. (Alexander realized that the purpose of the green glow was to help prevent the party's escape.) As they flew down towards the party, they yelled out repeatedly in broken Common that seemed to have been memorized phonetically, "Give us the Rod and you live." Tarric, who had developed a sense for such things, determined that these were not demons (denizens of the Abyss). Consequently, he concluded that these beings probably had no connection to Kyuss (or to Iuz, for that matter).

Alexander tried to magic missile one of the creatures, but the energy of his magic seemed to wash over his target harmlessly. Killick and Thorash cast protective spells. Katawan drew his crossbow and Tarric drew his sword and waited for a target to come near him. Next the bone devils cast walls of ice that formed a square around the party, trapping them inside, while the barbed devils cast spells whose effects their targets seemed to resist. Thorash cast Searing Light at one of the Bone Devils overhead. Killick cast Flame Strike on a corner of the ice wall, causing it to melt and turn into steam which obscured sight. He then rode his wounded horse through the mist, dismounted, and smacked its behind encouraging it to run to safety. Grimlock followed his master, guarding him from potential attackers.

Seeing that Killick had broken their perimeter, the barbed devils descended and attacked him with their claws. One of them struck Killick, and because of the creature's spikey hide, it was able to get a firm hold on Killick, keeping him from escaping. Killick was bleeding from where the creature's many spikes had impaled him. The bone devil that had been hit by Thorash's searing light, flew down to attack him. All the others converged on the corner of the ice wall from which party members were emerging, one by one. One of the bone devils struck Alexander, causing him to panic and flee in terror. Tarric was also overcome by terror when one of the barbed devils approached him, and he too fled in terror. This left only Katawan, Thorash, Killick, and Grimlock in the fight. Thorash was occupied by one of the bone devils who eventually stung him, injecting him with a poison that weakened him. Meanwhile the barbed devils focused on Killick and Grimlock. Katawan tried to help free Killick from the devil's grapple, with minimal success. One time Killick did break out of the devil's grasp only to be grabbed again immediately afterward. The creature's barbs were causing Killick so much blood loss that eventually Katawan was forced to draw the Rod and use its healing ability on Killick, restoring him to full health.

However, this act drew the attention of all the devils who surrounded him. Now that they were ignoring Killick, he cast a spell on Katawan which magically protected him from the grasping spikes of the barbed devils. Although they were able to hit him, they could not now get a hold of him as they had done to Killick. So they were not able to damage Katawan as quickly as they had damaged Killick. Although the bone devils had difficulty striking him, one of them did successfully disarm him of the Rod fragment. Just as it ran away with the Rod announcing to its brethren that their mission had been accomplished, Thorash emerged from the steamy corner of the Ice Wall. He saw Katawan surrounded by devils, so he began casting. Katawan saw what Thorash was doing and yelled out for him to stop, but Thorash was determined. He cast a Flame Strike centered on Katawan that wounded 3 of the 4 devils that still surrounded him. Unfortunately for Katawan, though, the spell's damage gravely wounded him, knocking him unconscious and leaving him bleeding profusely on the ground.

With their mission accomplished, the devils did not remain to finish the killing. They simply teleported away. The party regrouped and stabilized its wounded. Then they continued on foot towards Magepoint, despondent and dejected at having lost such an important artifact.

6th of Brewfest. Late in the day, near dinner time, the party arrived in Magepoint and made their way to the only bar in town, called the Blue Beacon. They informed the barkeep that they were guests of Tenser. They were given refreshments and accorded great respect. They were asked to await one of Tenser's servants. About an hour later, after a fine dinner, the party was surprised and happy to see Celeste stride through the door! The last time the party had seen Celeste, she was shooting bolts of energy at the Apostle of Kyuss in the Greyhawk Arena during the Worm's Rampage. They had not been certain whether she had survived. After catching up a bit, Celeste led the party across the long causeway leading out to Tenser's castle which had been built on a promontory of rock jutting above the surface of the Lake of Unknown Depths. The castle was really just a tall narrow tower, painted blue, with a gigantic ball of crackling blue energy at the top (which must have served a function akin to that of a lighthouse). As the party traversed the narrow causeway, Celeste proudly pointed out many of the security features which would protect them once they were inside, such as the hundreds of nesting bloodhawks which were trained to attack any flying creatures that approached the tower, and the sea monster that lived near the tower who immediately attacked anyone attempting to swim to the tower, and the wards against teleportation, and the illusions along the causeway that would lead the unwary to fall into the lake. Upon arriving at the tower, the party was shown to their luxurious accommodations, and she informed them that she would be in charge of escorting them wherever they might need to go within the tower (with the understanding that certain areas were to be off-limits).

Celeste took them to a basement and showed them a magical fountain, believed to have been created by Zagig Yragerne, the mad archmage who had built Castle Greyhawk and who had presided over Greyhawk as its mayor for a short time. Celeste informed them that those who drank from the fountain would gain a permanent boon but would also suffer a permanent impairment. The drinker could either choose the impairment or the boon, but the other would be inflicted on the drinker randomly. Alexander chose a specific impairment which he did not share with the group, and when he drank, a pair of magical gloves suddenly appeared in his hand. He seemed pleased by this outcome, so Killick chose to drink as well. He, too, chose an impairment, and was randomly granted a boon of increased vigor. Katawan drank, choosing an impairment, and was granted a protective boon which would be of great value some time in the future. Thorash drank, choosing an impairment, and was granted the boon of becoming slightly more perceptive. Tarric drank, choosing an impairment, and was granted the boon of becoming more knowledgeable. (Tarric and Thorash were somewhat disappointed with their boons in comparison to Alexander and Katawan.)

7th of Brewfest - 28th of Sunsebb (85 days). Alees showed up in Magepoint about a week after the rest of the party. She found that Celeste watched her a bit more closely than the others. Knowing that Alees was safe, Killick took his leave of the party, explaining that there were important tasks he needed to perform. He told the party to contact him magically if his presence was required. He returned 8 weeks later, seeming different somehow in some imperceptible way. But there was still no sign of Tenser. After a few more weeks, the party became understandably restless and impatient. They had crafted everything they could possibly afford to make in the laboratory. They were eager to continue the fight to save the world from the Age of Worms, and it seemed that waiting for Tenser was only holding them back. Plus, they were just plain bored. Their only consolations were that they were safe from attack, the food and lodging were of excellent quality, they had a large library to help them pass the time, and it was winter anyway - a time of year that was not conducive to adventuring (unless one is planning to explore the tropics). Still, despite these consolations, the party was restless...

 

[Menexenus]

Sessions 47 and 48: To Arn's Mountain

Needfest, Common Year 596. The party celebrated the beginning of the new year along with the citizens of Magepoint. They had been waiting for Tenser to return for 3 months, and they were getting tired of waiting. Alexander reported to the party that while he was in town, he felt that he was being scryed upon. Many members of the party had already thought about leaving Magepoint. Alexander's news seemed to remind the party how imperative it was that the party continue its efforts to prevent the Age of Worms. The party resolved to head out in search of the White Eye at the beginning of Fireseek. They purchased the necessary cold weather adventuring supplies in preparation for the trip.

1st of Fireseek. Thorash cast a spell protecting each of the party members from the effects of cold weather. Then he cast a much more powerful spell allowing him and his partymates to turn into vapor and ride the wind. This allowed them to travel at tremendous speeds and cover a lot of territory quickly. After many hours, the party saw that the terrain below them was changing and becoming more mountainous. They had reached the eastern spur of the Abbor-Alz Mountains. Since they were nearing their destination, they descended from cloud level down to about 100 feet above the ground. The weather in the mountains was very cold with blowing snow. The party flew over a few orc villages and were spotted by a lone orc ranger on their way, but they did not allow these things to distract them. At one point, the party saw an enormous bird flying in the distance. It came closer to them, but when it saw that they were not edible (because they were in vapor-form) it flew away.

After a total of about 7 hours of flight, Alexander indicated to his comrades that the party was near Arn's Mountain, the alleged location of the White Eye. (Because Alexander had unknowingly handed over the Rainbow Mage's journal, the Decaying Book, the Pyramid of Tyranny, and the Heart of Darkness [a large ruby with a dark flaw at its center] to a doppelganger posing as Eligos, he felt a special obligation to recover the White Eye, which could reportedly be used in concert with the Pyramid and the Ruby to break the enchantment that prevented Kyuss's return to Oerth.) Although Alexander had only read the Rainbow Mage's journal once before, he had remembered enough about the description of Arn's Mountain to research its location in Tenser's Library. After another hour or two of circling around, Alexander indicated that he thought he had found the right mountain. The party descended to ground level and returned to physical form.

Killick cast a spell that gave him the lay of the land. He reported to the party that there were 4 cave-like entrances into the mountain on opposing sides about mid-way up the mountain's face. He also reported that he sensed the presence of undead creatures in the mountain. Since Thorash had expended some high level spells getting the party to the mountain, he did not feel prepared for combat, so he lobbied the party to make camp. They did so. Alexander cast a spell that created a temporary comfortable shelter large enough for everyone.

2nd of Fireseek. When the party emerged from their shelter, they noticed a fresh blanket of snow covering everything. The party moved up the face of the mountain and found the nearest entrance. They noticed that the air coming out of the cave-like entrance seemed warmer than the air outside. They entered the narrow passage. But after a short time, the narrow passage opened up to a landing looking down on a vast, lust forest in the heart of the mountain. The "ceiling" of this gargantuan cavern was illuminated with magical light as bright as the sun. A few hundred yards away, near the center of this cavern, the party saw the apex of a stone pyramid poking out from the top of the trees. The party climbed down to ground level, and began hiking through the dense forest towards the pyramid.

On the way there, the party was ambushed by a hungry-looking dire lion. They put the animal out of its misery quickly. When they finally reached the pyramid itself, they walked once around the structure. It was a very old structure and each of its four faces was identical - a set of double doors in the middle and two single doors evenly spaced along each side of each base. Before the party could decide which door to approach, a mystical large flying snake approached the party. Its wings shimmered with light. In the Common tongue, it commanded the party to halt its approach. It introduced itself as Souref and explained that it had been given the task of protecting the contents of pyramid centuries ago. The party would not be allowed to pass. The party explained that they knew that the pyramid contained the White Eye and that they had come to retrieve it in order to keep it out of the hands of those who wished to use it for evil. At first the mystical being was skeptical. It asked if the party would consent to allowing it to cast a spell that would determine their souls' orientation. All but Thorash permitted this, but Thorash resisted the effect of the spell. This increased the creature's suspicion. Thorash explained that he was not comfortable having his soul evaluated by a strange creature. However, he said he would consent to allow the creature to cast a spell that would detect if he was lying. The snake-being cast that spell instead and asked only a few quick questions to ascertain the party's intentions. After it determined that the party was not lying about its intentions or about the fact that it was only a matter of time before the forces of Kyuss found and assaulted the pyramid to steal its treasures, it reluctantly agreed to allow the party to enter the pyramid.

Before it could leave, the party asked it some questions about the ancient history of the location. Souref explained that about 1000 years ago, worshippers of Pelor discovered a temple of some unknown foul evil hidden inside Arn's Mountain. Later it was revealed that this hidden pyramid was the main temple of an apostate group of worshippers known as the Ebon Triad who believed that they could bring about the union of Hextor, Erythnul, and Vecna, creating an Overgod that would dominate all others. The forces of Pelor assaulted this temple many times in an attempt to root out its worshippers and cleanse the area, but the evil within the temple was powerful, and Pelor's mighty legions were repelled time after time. After many months of siege, the leaders of the Pelorian force realized that, while the living creatures inside the temple might starve, the undead creatures residing within could resist them indefinitely. So they focused their energies on trapping the evil within the temple rather than defeating it outright. Eventually they were successful. None of the evil creatures within the temple wouild ever escape. However, there was still a threat that someone from outside could enter, take the artifact that rested within, and start a new temple elsewhere. So Souref had been summoned to prevent anyone from entering. Souref expressed some relief that, once the party members recovered the White Eye and hid it elsewhere, his guardianship would be at an end and he would be able to return to his plane of origin. Souref wished the party well and flew away.

The party circled the pyramid again, this time noticing that one of the single doors had a lion's head carved into it. The doorknob was obscured within the lion's mouth. This door intrigued the party. But first they tried opening the double doors on the same face. This opened into a room housing row upon row of armored skeletons standing motionless in formation. Killick was the first to enter the room because he had donned Katawan's Amulet of the Dark Sun which he had reason to believe would protect him from the denizens of the pyramid. The skeletons did indeed allow him to pass unmolested. But then Thorash and Alees entered as well, and the skeletons still did not move. Killick tried to push a skeleton over with his quarterstaff, but found that it resisted his push. At this point, Killick suggested that the party leave. Thorash and Alees did quick searches of the walls to see if there might be some secret passages leading from this chamber, but they found none. Almost as an after thought, as she was leaving, Alees checked out the crumbling fountain in the center of the room. In the poisonous sludge at the bottom of the fountain, Alees discovered a pearl and a ring. Although she did not expect much from these dirty items, she cast Detect Magic just in case, and to her surprise, both items did radiate magic.

Next the party returned to the intriguing lion's head door. Alexander opened it from a distance with his newly purchased Chime of Opening. Beyond the door was a narrow dark passage that opened up into a long room. There were six statues of adventuring heroes in haughty, confident poses adorning the walls. Alees used her flickering Detect Magic spell to determine that the statues did indeed radiate transmutation magic. The party moved into the room carefully. They noticed that the statues seemed remarkably clean for such an ancient building. There were three hallways exiting from the room. When nothing seemed to cause the statues to animate, the party explored the hallway leading left. This led to a room filled with mirrors. As Alees checked the room for traps and secret passages with Thorash and Killick nearby, they were all suddenly attacked by quick-moving invisible creatures. Killick and Thorash, suspecting that the creatures were somehow tied to the mirrors, began attacking the mirrors with blunt weapons. However, their strikes seemed to less damage than expected. They cracked the mirrors, but did not shatter them. Apparently, the mirrors were magically protected somehow. Tarric and Katawan rushed into the room to aid their partymates. Alexander remained outside. After a few seconds of confusing combat where the party was struck by creatures who didn't seem to be there, the party members began to realize that the creatures were able to attack them from inside the mirrors. Tarric rained powerful blows down on the mirrors causing them to shatter one after another. The party noticed that there were doors behind 2 of the shattered mirrors. Alexander called for the party to withdraw from the room so that he could cast a Fireball within. However, unbeknownst to Alexander, one of the invisible creatures was blocking the party's exit from the room. However, after giving his party-mates fair warning, Alexander tossed a Fireball in anyway. The explosion did not shatter any mirrors (surprisingly), but it did cause the invisible creature that had been blocking the exit to collapse into a pile of liquid metal. Seeing his success, Alexander fired again. A second invisible creature collapsed, but so did Tarric and Killick's faithful wardog Grimlock. At long last, Killick destroyed the final mirror in the room, and the sound of shattering glass comingled with the deathcry of the last invisible creature.

Thorash cast curative magic on those in need of healing. Then the party continued exploring. They opened one of the doors that had been concealed behind the mirrors and discovered a narrow passage that led to another external door of the pyramid. They opened the second previously concealed door and found a small room draped in red velvet. On a dais in the middle of the room rested a transparent coffin containing the figure of a naked female winged elven creature in a state of repose. Killick observed that she was not breathing. Alexander observed that this being was descended from other-planar beings of angelic goodness. Alees observed that there was writing on the coffin. On the front, the letters read, "Huvarial, Pelor's failed champion." On the opposite side, it read, "Even the brightest lights learn the power of the night." The party chose not to attempt to open the coffin.

They left the room and returned to the statue room. From there they took the opposite hallway leading to a door. After Alees certified it clear of traps, the door was opened. The party discovered an old barracks room filled with rotting overturned bunks and chests of clothing. There was a stone door on the far wall. As the party members entered the room, they were attacked by four small spider-like creatures with undead humanoid heads. One of them cast a Web spell that ensnared Killick. Another jumped on Killick, found some open skin, and began sucking his blood, causing him to turn pale. Thorash immediately got out his flint and tinder and began trying to set the web alight. Unbeknownst to Thorash, Killick cast a spell in the web that caused orbs of fire to appear in his hands. These also caused the web to catch fire. Eventually the web was cleared out of the room, allowing all of the party members to bring their martial skills to bear on the spider-like creatures, at which point they were quickly overwhelmed and destroyed. Alees sifted through the broken chests using a Detect Magic spell and found two items of interest - a cloak and a stone.

After Alees certified the stone door as untrapped, the party entered the door on the far wall. This opened to a luxurious bath house. A scantily clad woman with dark wings rested on a couch on the far side. She implored the party to help her. When she saw that Alexander and Thorash both recognized her as an extraplanar being of evil, she reminded them that not all evil creatures work together. She insisted that she despised the Ebon Triad as much as they did. She attempted to cast an enchantment on Thorash to force him to assist her, but when that failed, she drew a rope and threw it at Thorash, entangling him in it. The party rushed to Thorash's defense, attacking the lightly armored creature. They combat was over almost as soon as it had started and the winged creature's blood ran into the bathwater, darkening it gruesomely. Thorash cast a Detect Magic and found that the creature's sword was magical.

Finding no exits from the bath house, the party returned to the statue room and took the last hallway leading out. The party stopped at the first 4-way intersection about 20 feet from the statue room. The went left and found a small throne room containing a large black stone throne polished smooth. Thorash retrieved a dead spider creature and placed it on the throne. Black energy swirled around the throne in response, but the energy quickly died away and the dead creature still lay there dead, apparently unchanged.

Thorash found this intriguing, but there was no time to investigate, as Alees called the party over to the far passage which apparently ended in a dead end. Alees had found some dull green writing etched into the dead-end which read, "Put faith in darkest night and pass through solid rock." Alees suggested that someone cast Darkness so that she could try to get through. None of the spell casters had the spell available, but Alees reminded the party that the Amulet of the Dark Sun allowed its wearer to cast Darkness. Katawan put the Amulet on and used its power to create darkness. Alees found that she was able to continue down the hallway. The rest of the party followed. As they emerged from the darkness, Alees found a copper door with some strange symbols etched into it as well as the phrase, "In the end, only the darkness is real." Strangely, there was no doorknob or locking mechanism on this door. Alexander handed his Chime of Opening forward to Alees. She tried to use it once on the door, but there was no effect. She tried to use it a second time, and she heard an audible click and the door swung slightly ajar. Alees opened the door just far enough to peek inside. Inside, she saw a large copper mechanical creature with a spider-like form sitting hunched atop a large chest sitting in the middle of the room. It immediately moved to attack. As it extended its razor-sharp claws to stand up, those viewing the creature realized that it might have unusually long reach.

Alees flew into the room to attack, but she quickly realized that the construct's metal hide made it impossible for her to do significant damage. She simply tried to aid Tarric in landing successful blows against it. Katawan tumbled into the room, but it seemed to ignore him altogether. The creature emitted an electrical charge that arced off the polished copper walls, floor, and ceiling of the chamber. However, because of their excellent reflexes, Katawan and Alees were unaffected by this attack. So it resorted to attacking with its claws and had much better success. When Thorash tried to move up into the room, it skewered him and sent him falling back into the dark hallway bleeding profusely. For a while, Killick was stuck in the dark hallway unable to move forward. So he attempted to summon an ally. A dire wolf appeared and began attacking the clockwork creature. But after it suffered a few slashing attacks it disappeared, returning to whence it came. Alexander called for the party to lure it back into the hallway. The party left the room one by one. Alees was the last to leave. She shut the copper door behind her and heard a click.

The party regrouped, healed up, and came up with a strategy for defeating the creature. Alexander used the Chime of Opening again to get the unlock the door again. The party entered the room in pre-determined order and assaulted the copper construct. It retreated to the back corner of the room to avoid flanking attacks. The party members rained blows down upon it, jockeying for positions from which to attack. Eventually, the creature fell apart into a heap of gears and broken bits of metal. Alees quickly noticed that the chest in the middle of the room had an impression that seemed to match the symbols on Katawan's Amulet of the Dark Sun. Katawan placed the amulet in the depression and the lid of the chest opened magically. Inside the chest was a pile of copper pieces on top of which rested a copper key in the shape of a lion. Alees began moving the copper pieces aside and found some copper bracers, a copper ring, a copper wand, a copper-tipped darkwood wand, 5 yellow topazes, and 4 amber gems.

The party decided to exit the pyramid and make camp. Alexander created a new magical shelter for the party to rest in while they recuperated and identified items.

 

[Menexenus]

Sessions 49-50: Against the Vampires

3rd of Fireseek. After resting, rememorizing, and identifying swag, the party re-entered the lion door. They were careful to verify that the statues were all in the same positions that the party had last seen them in and that the naked half-celestial being was still lying in her transparent coffin. All was just the way they had left things. Thorash made for the room with the black throne. He picked up one of the slain spider creatures from the barracks room and placed it on the throne. A small vortex of black energy appeared above the throne but then quickly dissipated, having no effect on the spider-thing's corpse. Although Thorash was clearly still intrigued, he and the rest of the party decided that it would be unwise to continue experimenting with the throne's negative energies.

The party began moving single-file down the last unexplored hallway. After about 30 feet, it turned abruptly to the left, leading to an oak door. On the wall leading up to the door was a worn tapestry depicting a man riding a black dragon. Alees dutifully checked the new door for traps. She found an alarm trap that she was able to easily disable. She moved away from the door to allow others to open it. She began looking more closely at the tapestry to see if it was of any value. Tarric opened the door to reveal an armory stacked with rows and rows of carefully stacked spears, greatswords, and various exotic pikes and pole arms. While Tarric walked in to examine the weapons more closely, Alees noticed a row of small holes behind the aged, frayed, and virtually worthless tapestry. Just then, Tarric turned a corner and found himself face to face with a hairless creature with leathery greenish black skin. Upon seeing Tarric, the creature opened its mouth and let out a deafening scream. It wielded a shortspear quite expertly and traded blows with Tarric. Thorash stepped forward, cast a spell, and touched the black-skinned undead. It looked at the dwarf in sudden horror as it collpsed into a pile of dust.

However, just then, Alees shouted, "Uh, guys, there's some kind of mist seeping out of the wall." The mist was rising from the holes in the wall that Alees had found. The mist coalesced on the ceiling into the form of a female vampire. She looked at Alees (who was closest to her) and said in a very pleasant tone, "Hello child. I am Narise. Serve me." Alees's eyes suddenly went glassy and she replied, "Yes, mistress." Hearing Alees's cry, the party's main combatants came running out of the armory to her aid. Tarric threw himself into melee combat with the vampire. However, the vampire commanded Alees to follow her and then turned to Tarric and commanded him to defend her and not let anyone past. Tarric's eyes also went glassy and he replied, "Yes, mistress." The vampire and Alees retired to the recently evacuated armory and Tarric stood in the hallway protecting them both. Tarric's partymates shouted at him to snap out of it, but to no avail. When they tried to move past him to help Alees, he struck them with the flat of his blade and prevented them from tumbling past.

Alees was drawn into the vampire's embrace and dragged behind a corner, out of the party's sight. The party was desperate to get past Tarric to help Alees, but they couldn't see how. Then Thorash cast a spell on Tarric which broke the vampire's hold on him. He immediately ran back into the armory, with the rest of the party in tow. They were in time; the vampire had not yet fed on their comrade. At first their attempts to help Alees did as much harm as good. Both Killick and Tarric struck Alees instead of the vampire who held her. Thorash cast a spell that made his hand crackle with positive energy. He thrust his hand forward, reaching for the vampire, but made contact with Alees instead. This healed her of all her wounds, but that had not been the intended result. After sustaining a volley of magic missiles from Alexander, the vampire who had lost its grip on Alees, now retreated back out into the hallway. However, the party's pursuit, like Alexander's magic missiles, was relentless, and in a matter of moments she was forced to retreat in mist form back through the wall.

The party brainstormed about how to get to the wounded vampire before she had a chance to fully regenerate. Killick cast a spell that tunneled through the stone of the wall toward the vampire's lair, but he was not able to go deep enough and the tunnel came up short. Killick then summoned a Xorn and asked it to go through the wall and come back to report. It did so and reported that the wall was only about 2 more feet thick before becoming a small room with a stone coffin inside and a wooden chest at the foot of the coffin. Killick commanded the creature to go back in and destroy the coffin. It reluctantly did so and was quickly dispatched by the vampire's blows. Then Killick summoned a Thoqqua and instructed it to bore a hole in the wall and attack the vampire's coffin. Again, the creature was quickly dispatched. Realizing that the vampire would soon be back to full strength unless action was taken, Alexander decided to fire a maximized fireball through the small hole in the wall left by the Thoqqua. As soon as Alexander began casting, Narise could be heard casting on the far side of the wall. Alexander shot the bead of energy through the still molten hole left by the Thoqqua which was followed by a tremendous explosion. For a moment afterwards there was silence, and the party dared hope that it had destroyed the vampire. But then the party could hear Narise cackling. Killick shook his head and informed Alexander that she had cast Minor Globe of Invulnerability at the last moment.

The party took stock of its situation and decided that they would be better off withdrawing and rememorizing before coming back to destroy the vampire.

4th of Fireseek. The party re-entered the lion door once again, intent on destroying the vampire that had nearly drained Alees. However, as they were approaching the vampire's lair, it suddenly appeared on the ceiling where it had been waiting invisible and shot a lightning bolt down the hallway at them. They had seen this tactic before, so they were mostly prepared for it and took little damage. Then she cast Shout which the party had not seen. This did a bit more damage, but not much. If this was the best that the vampire had at her disposal, then it would be a short fight indeed. The vampire retired back to the armory and tried unsuccessfully to enthrall some of the party members. Seeing that the vampire was surrounded and on the ropes, Killick focused on getting to the vampire's coffin and preventing the vampire from doing the same. He cast another Stoneshape spell, allowing him to complete the tunnel that he had started the previous day. Then he cast Wind Wall at the entrance of the tunnel to prevent mist forms from following him. Finally, he climbed into the vampire's lair and attempted unsuccessfully to shape the lid of the stone coffin to prevent it from opening. However, the stone seemed to resist his efforts somehow and he was unsuccessful. Killick ordered his dog Grimlock to wait in the tunnel and prevent anyone from entering.

When Killick emerged to rejoin the party, he found a completely different situation than the one he had left. Narise had indeed been reduced to a mist which was unsuccessfully trying to return to its coffin. However, there was now a line-up of living enemies attacking the party from behind. Killick recognized these new enemies as the flesh-and-blood versions of the statues that they had seen when they entered the lion-head door. Above these living enemies, clinging to the ceiling, was a second vampire. It was the half-celestial, Huvariel, who had lain naked in the transparent coffin. She was no longer naked. She now wore a thin mithral chain shirt which hugged her otherwise naked form and wielded a bastard sword. Since most of the party was unable to get to the vampire past the line of new opponents standing in the hallway, she was able to attempt to dominate members of the party at her leisure. Killick used his previously-cast spider climb spell to move over the enemies and threaten the vampire. Huvariel commanded Alees to assist her in defending the temple, and Alees's eyes finally glazed over once again. She moved into flanking position behind Killick.

Meanwhile the rest of the party was shooting and hacking its way through the enemy party of living beings. After a few of Alexander and Katawan's fireballs in addition to Tarric's relentless hacking, the enemy party was quickly dispatched. When the enemy party's last member fell, Huvariel cast a Web spell trapping Thorash and Grimlock on the far side and trapping Katawan in a side passage. Tarric did all he could to avoid the vampire's gaze while also trying to avoid Alees's deadly blades. Killick kept disarming Alees to prevent her from using her abilities to sneak attack him. Meanwhile the vampire withdrew to the room with the black throne and waited to deal with the party members one at a time, continuing to regenerate for each moment they delayed. Alexander, who had nearly run out of offensive spells, cast what little he had left at the vampire. But she did not die. Instead, she dominated his mind and instructed him to kill Killick. Alexander drew his dagger and began haplessly pursuing the druid. Since Katawan had been cut off from the combat by the Web spell, he jumped into the web and tried unsuccessfully to wade through its sticky strands. He was met there by Alees who gladly eviscerated him with a demonic smile on her face. Meanwhile, Huvariel caught Tarric in a moment of weakness. He opened his eyes to locate his opponent and the vampire used the opportunity to dominate the fearsome warrior.

Since Alees, Alexander, and Tarric had all been dominated, Katawan was apparently dead, and Thorash and Grimlock were trapped on the far side of the web waiting for it to slowly burn down, Killick found himself alone. Realizing that the vampire was the key, he drew his Wand of Healing and attempted to touch the vampire with it. But the vampire's thralls were able to successfully protect their mistress. After some desperate fighting, Killick finally succumbed to the vampire's bastard sword. Since the fight was over as far as she knew, she ordered her thralls to sleep. They collapsed immediately to the floor. At just that moment, the final strands of the Web burned away. Thorash and Grimlock stepped through. Seeing his master's body lying bleeding on the ground, Grimlock gave a deep growl and prepared to launch itself futilely against the vampire. But just then, Thorash held his holy symbol aloft and commanded the vampire with an otherworldly voice to flee the power of Wee Jas. Huvariel screamed in fear, returned to mist form, and fled from the dwarf's holy symbol at top speed.

Thorash stabilized Killick and ordered Grimlock to pull him out of the pyramid. Somehow the dog understood the dwarf's command and complied. Thorash knew that he had a limited amount of time to pull the rest of his party out before the vampire returned. He did so as quickly as he could and slammed the lion-headed door shut just as Huvariel returned to her senses. Thorash, breathing heavily, tied up all of the vampire's thralls and waited for dusk so that he could rememorize spells. He had pulled Katawan's body out to prevent the vampire from raising him as a subordinate vampire. However, Thorash was now astounded to see that Katawan was miraculously still alive! Despite the grievous wounds that he had suffered at Alees's hands and despite the fact that he had received no magical healing, he was stable in a state of unconsciousness. Thorash used some of his last spells to heal the monk and the druid (who had never been dominated by the vampire).

 

[Menexenus]

Sessions 51: Thorash's Bad Day

5th of Fireseek. Thorash dispelled the domination effects that were still lingering on Alees, Alexander, and Tarric. With the party back to full strength, they debated whether to face the vampires again. Alees had lost many of her magical weapons and wanted very much to retrieve them. Tarric and Killick wanted to destroy the vampires out of general principle. Alexander was convinced however that continuing to face the vampires was distracting them from their true purpose - finding and safeguarding the White Eye. However, in the end, Alexander was outvoted, and the party prepared to return. They reasoned that the first vampire, Narise, had not had enough time to completely reform, and Huvariel would no longer have living servants to protect her. After recuperating and rememorizing as much as possible, the party entered the lion-head door once more. They found Huvariel protecting her transparent coffin. She attempted to dominate Alees and Tarric again, but this time she was unsuccessful. And with the entire party directing its efforts against her alone, she succumbed to the party's might in a matter of seconds. After the vampire misted and returned to its coffin, they staked it in the heart, destroying it forever. They then went through the tunnel to Narise's coffin. They opened it and staked her in the heart as well. Both vampires were dead. The party retrieved its items and also picked clean their opponent's bodies. Alees found a secret compartment beneath Narise's coffin that contained a small cache of items and valuables.

The party moved to the next set of doors on the outside of the pyramid. These were double doors made of black metal. When the doors were opened, thick smoke poured out that obscured vision. The party entered the large room carefully. The found a large marble statue of a snake-like creature with three heads in the center of the room. This statue was flanked by two brass braziers that were spewing the room's smoke. Killick sent Grimlock to use his scent ability to investigate the rest of the room. Moments later, the party heard the dog whine. The party moved in the direction of the dog's noise and found itself face-to-face with a spell-casting mummy. However, despite its fearsome nature, it was no match for the combined might of the party and was quickly dispatched. As Killick cared for his ailing and wounded dog, Tarric pulled the braziers out of the room and attempted to cap them to prevent them from releasing smoke. When the smoke cleared, Alees searched for secret doors and found one right behind the mummy's sarcophagus. Tarric came in and opened the door. Inside the secret door were 5 silver statues of gargoyle-like creatures. These creatures immediately animated and began flying in circles near the ceiling of the room. When no one came into the room, the silver creatures flew down to the doorway and each belched a gout of flame out into the sarcophagus room. Then they flew past Tarric and Killick, who each took a number of attacks of opportunity, and then they each entered melee against different members of the party. Although the creatures were resistant to damage, the party was still able to overcome them quickly. When they were destroyed, Alees investigated them closely to estimate their value. It was then that she noticed the same impression resembling a reverse-image of Katawan's Amulet of the Dark Sun. Fitting his amulet into its reverse image caused a small piece of worked silver to be released from each of the creatures' chests. Alees collected all the pieces and examined them closely. After a short time, she realized that the pieces could be fitted together to form a silver key.

Finding no other secret doors or passages, the party moved to the next exterior door of the pyramid, which was a single iron door. When it was opened, the party saw a room full of collapsed stone rubble which had apparently fallen from the ceiling. Alees determined that this had been some kind of trap. It was apparent that someone had moved enough of the rubble out of the way far enough to allow the door at each end of the room to open. After a great deal of searching through the rubble, the party found the remains of 5 adventurers who had been stripped of all their valuables. The party opened the door at the far side of the room and entered a completely different room. While the previous room had been gray and dusty and destroyed, the new room was colorfully decorated and well-maintained. Velvet covered sofas and chairs surrounded low mahogany tables. Ancient but delicately preserved tapestries depicting bloody battles covered the walls. Alees pulled back the tapestries and found more of the same small holes she had observed before. The party tensed up, anticipating more vampires. However, Thorash, with his stone-cunning, realized that these holes were merely on the far side of Narise's burial chamber (the vampire that they had already killed). The party relaxed. Alees appraised the items in the room and determined that the furniture was not worth the trouble of moving and that the tapestry was too old and delicate to survive being taken down and transported. The party opened the door leading out of the well-decorated lounge and found another more dingy room covered in a layer of dust. Near the middle of the room was a throughly decayed body that looked like it had been shot with arrows. Alees investigated the room from the doorway and noticed holes in the wall as well as spent arrows lying on the floor across the room from the holes. The poor soul in the middle of the room had certainly fallen prey to a trap. Killick cleared away some of the dust on the floor and discovered a red path in the mosaic tile that constituted the surface of the floor. As he continued to clear away more and more dust, he found that the red path continued all the way across the room in a non-linear fashion. Killick was careful to follow the path until it took him past the corpse. Killick used his quarterstaff to carefully pull the corpse onto the path where he could more easily deprive it of its valuables. He was able to recover a dagger, a ring, an amulet, and a change purse. The coins inside were ancient, having been minted at least a thousand years ago by the Suel Imperium.

After recovering the goodies, Killick was startled by some tapping at the iron door on the far side of the room. Since the tapping did not seem particularly ominous, Killick opened the door to investigate. He found Tarric standing on the opposite side of the door outside the pyramid. With a smile, he said, "I *thought* this room would lead to another exterior door!" Killick left the room via the iron door, but the rest of the party went back they way they had come and assembled at the next exterior door of the pyramid. This was a set of lead double doors. Alees checked it for traps. Finding none, she set to work unlocking them, as she had done to many of the other doors in the complex. However, after a few minutes, she threw her "locksmithing" tools down in frustration. She did not like admitting it, but she did not have the skill necessary to pick the lock. Knowing Alees to be an extremely accomplished thief, the party marveled at the level of craftsmanship that must have been involved in making such a complex lock. Having already recovered a copper key and a silver key, many in the group surmised that they would probably eventually run across a lead key that would open these doors. But Alexander did not wish to wait. He pulled out his Chime of Opening and commanded the doors to open. To his surprise, he saw the energy of his spell wash over the doors without affecting them. The very metal of the doors seemed to be resisting his spell. Alexander did not like being denied, so he continued trying again and again. Finally, on the fifth attempt, the enchanted metal could resist Alexander's arcane prowess no longer - the doors opened.

Dark smoke began pooring out of the room at a constant rate without seeming to dissipate at all. The smoke reduced visibility to almost nothing. Killick and Katawan entered first, because they were immune to poison, but they found that the gas was not poisonous. Eventually, the party located the source of the smoke - a fountain in the middle of the room. The carving on the fountain was that of a tall thin spell-caster with extended arms who seemed to be lifted up by a mass of giant writhing worms. The dark smoke was pouring out of the carving's eyes, mouth, and ears, and there seemed to be no limit to the supply of smoke. Eventually the party determined that smashing the fountain would probably be the only way to end the magical effect. After a few bashes with mace and quarterstaff, the head of the statue crumbled and the smoke stopped. The party left the doors open and waited for the smoke in the room to slowly dissipate.

After the smoke was gone, the party saw a set of large copper double doors at the far side of the room. Alees produced the copper key that the party had found in the copper room earlier. She fitted the key into the lock and felt the door begin to swing open. Beyond the doors was a long room magically lit by runes carved along the walls near the ceiling. On the far side of the room was another set of double doors - this time made of silver. In front of each set of double doors (near and far) was a narrow ledge before a short set of stairs led about 3 feet down to a depression which took up the majority of the room. On the slightly lower level, there were 2 perpendicular passageways on each side of the room. Killick noticed that there was some kind of strange powder on the floor of the depression but not on the ledge. He examined it briefly and determined that it was not a natural substance, but rather an alchemical concoction of some sort. Killick took some back to where Alexander was waiting and showed it to him, but he did not recognize it.

Thorash cast a spell on himself and warned the party that they should not bring anything magical close to him because, for a short time, he would have a zone of anti-magic around him. Then he went down the stairs and looked down the first two passageways. Tarric followed a safe-distance behind. Down the passageway on the right, Thorash saw a small room that seemed to be an armory full of weapons of all varieties. Down the opposite passageway, he saw a similar room filled with all varieties of armor. All of the weapons and armor seemed to be of excellent quality. Thorash began heading for the room with the armor. However, when he got 10 feet away from the room's entrance, the image of a room full of armor suddenly disappeared and a wall of liquid was crashing down all around him instead. This wall of liquid was not quite as tall by the time it struck Tarric as well. Alees, who had decided to follow Tarric at the last minute, quickly jumped back up onto the ledge and avoided contact with the liquid altogether. However, a choking mist was rising from the floor wherever the liquid touched it. The liquid burned Thorash and Tarric's skin and they could hear the sizzle as many of their exposed belongings began dissolving away. Scabbards, boots, belts, clothing, and bags were all gone in just a few moments. The contents of Thorash's bag of holding suddenly spilled out onto the floor all around him. As Thorash and Tarric began coughing from the smoke, they realized that they had to get out of the acid and out of the room as quickly as possible. They each grabbed two items that had fallen into the acid and then rushed out of the room along with the rest of the party.

Once the party was out in the fresh air, they evaluated the damage. Thorash had lost almost everything he owned to the acid. Tarric had lost his boots and his back-up sword. He also seemed to have inhaled more of the gas than anyone else. After his coughing subsided, he seemed a bit disoriented. Luckily, Alees and Killick had been carrying the party's newly found loot. The party decided to camp, identify items, re-equip Thorash, and wait for the poison gas to dissipate. Out of curiosity, Katawan had Alexander cast Fly on him so that he could fly over the shallow pool of acid to the opposite side of the room and test the silver key out in the far side of double doors. The key seemed to fit. But rather than opening the doors and venturing to face whatever lay on the far side by himself, he flew back to the party's campsite.

 

[Menexenus]

Session 52: Thorash's Even Worse Day

6th of Fireseek. After a bit of discussion, the party decided to clean out all of the pyramid's unopened exterior doors before opening the silver double doors on the far side of the acid pool. They moved past the lead doors to the a single, plain stone door. Upon opening it, they found a narrow hallway filled with stone rubble from another collapsing ceiling trap, like the one they had found the previous day. Above the level of the collapsed stone, the party could just barely see the top of an oak door at the far end of the corridor. The party spent two hours hauling stone out of the room in order to clear a path to the door on the far side. In the process, they discovered the decayed body of an adventurer in full plate armor carrying a bastard sword and wearing two rings plus a gold amulet with a spider motif. Killick examined the adventurer's bones and determined that they were not elven. When the corridor was finally cleared of its rubble, the party sent Alees forward to check the oak door for traps. She quickly returned dejected and informed the party that it was merely a false door leading to nowhere.

The party turned the corner of the pyramid and started on the next side. First up was an ornate stone door covered in carvings of animals. Alees easily detected and bypassed a poison needle trap and then found the hidden button that unlocked the door. Beyond the door was a short corridor filled with stone rubble exactly like the one they had just excavated. The party thought about simply bypassing this corridor, but the lure of possible treasure caused them to spend another two hours excavating this hallway. This time no corpse was found beneath the stone. However, the door at the far end of the corridor was not false this time. Alees opened it and found what seemed to be a sculptor's room full of statues in various stages of completion. Alees spent a while in the room looking for secret doors and compartments. As she looked at the statues carefully, she determined that each of these statues had an imperfection of some kind. She concluded that these broken statues were cast-offs from some sculptor with exacting standards. Eventually, under a piece of broken stone, she found something of value - a flute made of black metal. When she brought it out to show the rest of the party, Thorash said that he thought the metal was the same as that used to make Katawan's Amulet of the Dark Sun. Alees tried to play the flute. Although she had no particular experience playing flutes, her notes had a beautiful tone that was pleasing to the ear. Suddenly she found that she felt warmer - more comfortable - than she had before.

The party left the dead-end room, exited the pyramid, and prepared to open the next set of double doors crafted from steel. Alees detected that the door was trapped with a poison gas trap of some kind. She attempted to disarm it, but she dropped her implements and exactly the wrong time and set the trap off by accident instead. A puff of blue smoke caused her to start coughing and turning red. After the coughing was over, Alees found herself seeing strange lights and hearing strange sounds that she quickly confirmed from the rest of her party mates were not really there. However, after a couple minutes, this effect passed and Alees seemed none the worse for wear. Alees picked the lock on the door which opened into a magical laboratory. The ceiling was about 3 times higher in this room than in all the previous rooms they had seen. A large ornate circle was set into the floor just beyond the entrance. Past the circle was a long workbench with a single bottle on it. Past the bench was a wall of shelving containing many bottles and lots of glassware. As the party entered the room, everyone was careful not to break the circle set into the floor. Alexander walked across the floor to the workbench. He saw that the bottle on the workbench had an ancient note stuck to it which read, "Only one wish left. Don't push him." Alexander determined that this room could be used as magical laboratory suitable for the creation of magical items. He cast Detect Magic and found that the bottle on the workbench as well as 15 other opaque stoppered bottles on the shelves radiated magic. The magical bottles were all collected in one place on the workbench.

Alees called out that she had found a couple secret doors, one at each end of the far wall containing shelves. The party entered the secret door on the left first. After following a short crooked passage, they discovered an ornate gold door glowing with a strange magical light. Alees found no traps on the door and then unlocked it. Beyond the door was a small room with small chairs and dust-covered cushions lining the walls. In the center of the room was an amazingly life-like statue of a woman in full plate armor swinging a large sword in both hands. Alexander determined that this woman had been the victim of a Flesh to Stone spell. Tarric and Thorash looked closely at her armor to see if they could find any symbol which would reveal her allegiance. They found none. The party decided to leave the statue for now, but Alexander pledged to return when he had the correct spell memorized necessary to free the woman. The party entered the other secret door, and after another short crooked passage, they found a room full of shields. Seven shields were mounted on the walls and one more rested on a pedastal in the middle of the room. All of the shields were identically decorated - red enamel paint with a black circle in the middle. In the black circle was painted a stylized image of the face of a snarling carnivore with mouth open, about to bite. It was impossible to tell whether the beast depicted in the shield was supposed to be feline or canine. Sensing that the new-found room might be dangerous, Alees went back to the workbench and put all of the magical bottles into a sack. She moved the bottle with the note on it to the room with the life-like statue.

Thorash tied grappling hook to a length of rope and threw it into the room in an attempt to pull the shield down from the pedastal. After a few attempts he was successful. However, as soon as the shield fell to the ground, the snarling beasts seemed to jump out of the shields and into the room. All of these beasts had 6 limbs, tentacles, and seemed blurry somehow. While all of the beasts crowded into the room were large and ferocious looking, the one in the middle of the room was significantly larger than the others. The one in the middle as well as the two that were nearest to the doorway attacked Thorash, causing him damage. Katawan called out to Thorash telling him to get out of the way so he could cast a Fireball from his Ring of Spell Storing into the room. Instead, Thorash cast a spell protecting himself from fire. Katawan stepped in and cast the spell. A loud explostion caused 3 of the smaller creatures to fall dead, but Thorash was significantly wounded from the blast as well. Then the huge beast in the center of the room struck Thorash multiple times with tentacles and claws and finally ripped the dwarf's head off with his teeth. Thorash's lifeless body slumped to the floor. Katawan pulled Thorash's body back. Seeing that the party seemed to be trying to withdraw, the huge beast closed its eyes and it disappeared - only to reappear in the large circle set in the floor of the main room. Suddenly the party found itself flanked, down one member, and unable to run. Tarric ran forward towards the huge beast, taking swats from its claws and tentacles all the way. Killick moved back to deal with the remaining smaller beasts. He cast a Flame Strike which killed all the rest of them but one. And he defeated the last, twice-singed beast with his quarterstaff. Meanwhile, Tarric sliced large chunks out of the huge creature blocking the exit while Alexander cast volley after volley of Magic Missiles into it and Alees moved around into flanking position and stabbed it in its vitals. Although the creature delivered a great deal of damage and had a lot of staying power, it eventually succumbed to the party's might without taking any more lives.

After surveying the party's resources, they found that they had no scroll of Raise Dead to return Thorash to life. Killick proposed Reincarnating the dwarf in a new body. Alexander raided what was left of the magical laboratory and produced the necessary oils and unguents. Killick cast the spell and 10 minutes later an entirely new human body had grown from the remnants of Thorash's corpse. Suddenly it breathed, and Thorash had returned. He inspected his new body and did not seem to like what he saw. He seemed most humiliated by his paltry new human beard. But he suffered in silence, having no room for complaint. Alees announced that while Thorash was being reincarnated, she had found another secret door in the hallway near the mouth of the shield room. Given Thorash's recent experience with death and reincarnation, the party decided to not forge ahead immediately. The party decided to rest, rememorize spells, and deal with the living statue in the other room. Alees grabbed the bottle with the note on it before the party left for the night.

7th of Fireseek. After the party was refreshed and Thorash became more accustomed to his new body, the party entered the room with the statue. Alexander cast Stone to Flesh and the stone became a disoriented woman who was in the heat of desperate combat. After calming her down a bit, they asked her why she had been fighting. She described a battle between the denizens of the temple and the hosts of Pelor. They asked her which side she had been on. She replied that she had been among the Pelorian host, fighting to destroy the temple. She asked if her army had been successful. Alexander replied that it had been a draw. The army of Pelor had not succeeded in destroying the temple, but they had succeeded in trapping all of its minions inside. Alexander asked her name. She said her name was Dourala. Alexander offered her food and drink which she accepted gratefully, saying that she felt a hunger like none she had ever known.

Suddenly, Dourala raised her sword and pointed it aggressively at Alees. She asked frantically, "This one just tried to cast a spell on me. Is this your hospitality?" Before she could choose whether to swing her greatsword or not, Katawan punched her three times in the face. Having been attacked twice, Dourala swung her sword at her alleged attacker, Alees. The attack cut Alees slightly. Alexander was confused by what had happened so suddenly. He cast Slow on both Dourala and Alees and commanded them both to stand down so that the dispute could be resolved without violence. Alees seemed unaffected by Alexander's spell, but Dourala was noticeably affected. She held her sword at the ready and called out a challenge to Alees to face her in ritual combat. Without reply, Alees stuck her sword into Dourala's neck and sliced off her head.

As the woman's head fell to the ground with a wet thump, there was silence amongst the group. All eyes were on Alexander to see how he would respond to Alees's disregard of his instructions. Finally, Alees broke the silence by moving forward to begin looting Dourala's body for valuables. Alexander warned her in a furious tone to leave the woman's body alone or face his wrath. Alees backed off, but scanned the rest of the party for supporters. She announced that Dourala had been lying, and she added that the whole party saw the fighter attack her. Katawan and Thorash seemed to have no problem with what Alees had done. Killick and Tarric were not quite so sure that what Alees had done was honorable. Alexander asked Thorash if he would raise the woman from the dead. When he refused, Alexander pledged to keep watch over the body until such time as the party could teleport back to Greyhawk and have it raised.

After some time passed and tempers cooled, the party agreed to explore the final secret door before resting and teleporting back to Greyhawk. Alexander reluctantly consented to aid the party. They filed into the secret door beyond the shield room and found a crossing corridor going in two directions. The party tried the right first and found only an empty store room. To the left the party discovered a heavy lead door. Alees was able to determine that something magical would happen when the door was opened, but she couldn't disarm it and she didn't know exactly what would happen. She stepped back and let others try to open the door. When Killick opened the door, he saw a room with lead walls and ceiling. At the far side of the small room was a crystaline being standing sentry in front of a large chest. It made no move against the party, which was fortunate. Because at that moment, a large bug-like devil appeared behind them in the hallway. It was clearly cramped for space, but it still seemed able to wield its spear effectively. However, rather than stab at the nearest opponent, it instead summoned a Wall of Ice to close off the secret door and cut the party in half. Upon seeing the creature, Alees ran screaming into the empty store room. Alexander grabbed Thorash and Katawan and transported them magically into the store room where Alees was cowering. Katawan reached in his bag and produced a potion for Alees. Tarric, who was undaunted by the sight of this bug-like fiend stepped up to the creature, taking an attack of opportunity as he approached.

[To be continued...]

 

[Menexenus]

Session 53: Finishing the Lower Level of the Pyramid

7th of Fireseek: [in medias res] Katawan, Thorash, and Alexander had just teleported into the storage room behind the Ice Devil. There, they found Alees cowering. Katawan drew his potion of Remove Fear and gave it to her. She drank it, and then drew her sword, rising slightly off the ground. Killick cast Bull's Strength on himself and Grimlock. Tarric swung at the creature, cutting into the creature. Based on the way the creature recoiled, it was clear that his weapon was doing full damage to it. The creature cast Ice Storm in the corridor, catching Tarric, Killick, and Grimlock in a zone of falling chunks of ice. Katawan moved in behind the creature, moving into flanking position. Alees flew up above Katawan, aiming for a vital spot. Alexander tried to cast Magic Missiles at the creature but was unable to overcome its spell resistance. Killick cast Resist Cold on himself and Grimlock. The creature's wounds began closing as it performed a full attack on Tarric. Despite its size, it was surprisingly swift with its spear. It also bit at Tarric and whipped its tail at him. But because of the narrowness of the corridor, it did little damage. However, Tarric struck it again with his sword. Katawan struck it with his fists, but little damage seemed to get through. Alees struck it and seemed to find a vital spot.

The devil was in a difficult spot - surrounded by enemies, fighting in a tight space, and taking more damage than it was dealing. It decided to fight on ground of its own choosing. It teleported into the lead room, behind Killick and Grimlock. As the heroes moved forward to fight the creature, they saw that they now had a new ally. The crystaline creature that had been standing motionless over an ancient oaken chest was now attacking the devil! Its appendages had enlongated and sharpened into the shape of swords. Katawan stood in the doorway of the lead room and cast a Fireball into the room from his Ring of Spell Storing. This had no effect on the devil, but it did damage the crystal guardian. Tarric charged past Katawan to engage the creature in melee. Alees followed up as well, but more cautiously. Killick cast Enlarge on Grimlock and then mounted his horse-sized wardog. The devil hit Tarric with its spear and the cold that spread through his body caused his muscles to react much more slowly. Killick leaned over and cast Freedom of Movement on Tarric to get him back into the fight. After a few more seconds, the bug-like devil realized that it could not continue for much longer. So it teleported to the safety of the corridor beyond the Ice Wall that it had created earlier in the battle. Alexander and Thorash could vaguely see its blue color and shape distorted heavily through the Ice Wall. It seemed to be resting and casting spells. Alexander and Thorash, who were separated from the rest of the party, ducked behind a corner and waited for the rest of the party to come back to them.

However, the crystaline guardian had transferred its attacks to the party, and the party had decided to take the opportunity to finish it in the devil's absence. To allow everyone to get in on the fight, Killick cast Spider Climb on Tarric. But they found that attacking the crystal creature was easier said than done. Everytime Tarric, Grimlock, Katawan, or Alees tried to attack it in melee, it would simply cause itself to shatter in anticipation of the blow and then reform itself once the blow had passed through it. Each time the creature shattered itself in this way, little cracks appeared in its reformed surface. As the creature shattered more and more, these cracks became larger and larger. Finally, Killick resorted to Produce Flame, which seemed more effective. At long last, the crystal creature collapsed in a heap.

At about that moment, the Ice Devil teleported back into the room. Most of its wounds had closed and it now had a black aura surrounding it. Tarric swung his sword at it, but when he hit it, black energy leapt towards him from the devil's aura and caused him to become noticeably weaker. Grimlock bit at the devil's legs, causing it to trip. Alees swooped in, looking for a vital area to stab. Katawan sprang at it from the back of the room. Because the creature had to stand up, it was unable to deploy its full attack sequence. So instead, it simply cast another Ice Storm, damaging all of its opponents in the room. At that moment, back in the storage room, Alexander decided to take the opportunity secure the party's escape route. He cast a Fireball, destroying the Ice Wall and then made for the exit, with Thorash right behind him. Thorash called out that anyone needing healing would find him outside.

Meanwhile, in the lead room, the same pattern repeated itself again and again. Tarric damaged the devil at the expense of his own strength. Alees drew her Wand of Restoration and used it on Tarric to restore his strength. However, immediately afterwards, she and Katawan had to leave. Neither of them could sustain the damage from another Ice Storm. They exited the pyramid complex and sought out Thorash's healing. Tarric, Killick, and Grimlock remained and continued battling the creature. Just when the situation seemed dire, Tarric finally felled the foul beast, cleaving it in two.

The chest in the lead room had been nearly destroyed by all the crushing chunks of ice from the multiple Ice Storms. In the chest, Alees found a lead key shaped like an eagle with a forked tail, a dagger with worm-like symbols engraved at the base of the blade, a tube of diamond dust, and an adamantine ring shaped like a hell hound biting its own tail. There were about a dozen assorted gems as well. The party withdrew from the temple to heal and identify.

Thorash did not have time to identify everything, but he did inform the party that the bottles that he had thought were potions, were actually containment devices of some kind. He thought that there might be creatures trapped/contained inside them. Killick scanned the bottles for undead, and found one bottle that seemed to contain an undead creature. He smashed the bottle and a Spawn of Kyuss suddenly appeared. The party moved to destroy the creature, but Killick insisted that he would destroy it alone. The undead creature was no match for someone as skilled as Killick and was soon destroyed. Once the creature was dispatched, Killick kneeled down and grabbed one of the still wriggling worms from the undead creature's eyesocket. To the horror of his partymates, he took of his glove and placed the worm directly on his palm. It immediately started burrowing into Killick's skin. Killick grunted and grimaced as he explained to the party that he and his mentor Nogwier had uncovered some scrolls written by the Order of the Storm, an ancient Druidic society whose task had been to fight the minions of Kyuss and keep them from threatening civilization. He explained that some of the most successful of these Druids - known as Wormhunters - had taken in Kyuss's own negative energy into their bodies with the goal of using it against their enemies. Killick sat in tortured meditation as he tried to maintain the upper hand against the energies of the worm as it tried to take control away from Killick and turn him into a minion of Kyuss. Tarric stood over him, sword at the ready, in case anything should go wrong. At long last, Killick emerged from his ordeal, scarred but in control. He seemed different... but stronger.

The party divvied up the remaining swag. Thorash asked for the dagger, as a replacement for many of the magic items he had lost in the acid. Killick asked for the diamond dust. Tarric asked for the ring. Alexander announced that he would teleport Dourala's body back to civilization to have it raised. The party asked him to take some swag back with him to sell while he was there. He consented to do so. Killick asked Alexander if he would recharge his Brooch of Shielding. Seeing as Alexander had been the one who depleted it when he had been under the control of the vampire Huvariel, he consented to do so. After receiving a magical bag full of items to be sold, as well as a long list of items to be purchased for various party members, he grasped Dourala's dead body and departed with it, teleporting back to Magepoint.

8th of Fireseek. There were only 2 exterior doors on the pyramid left to explore. The party decided to check them out while Alexander was gone. They opened the first plain stone door and found an empty corridor lying ahead of them. Alees checked the corridor for traps and found a pressure plate in the middle that would cause the ceiling to collapse if it were set off. She was able to disable the trap and make it safe for crossing. She got to the door on the far side and found that it was a false door. Disappointed, the party withdrew and made for the last exterior door left to be investigated.

This door was more ornate; it had carvings of animals on it. Alees checked it and found that it contained a trap. Since she knew the trap would spray liquid when tripped, she invited Killick over to purposefully set off the trap and absorb the effect. Killick turned the door knob and was sprayed with a fine mist of liquid, but was unaffected. After the door was open, they saw another corridor identical to the one they had just explored. Once again, Alees found a trap in the middle. Once again, she disabled it. This time, though, the door at the far end was not false. It opened into an empty but immaculately clean white room covered in hexagonal white tiles. Alees quickly noticed some small smears of blood in the grout surrounding some of the tiles on one wall. She announced to the party that there was a secret door there. She found the release mechanism and opened the door. Beyond the door was a crooked hallway filled with much more dried blood. When they turned the corner, they saw a door covered in what looked like blue dragon scales. After looking more closely, Alees determined that this door was magically trapped. She set to disabling the trap. After a number of minutes, with sweat on her brow, Alees finally declared victory. She told the party that it had been a very close thing, but she had successfully disabled the trap. The door could be opened safely.

Upon opening the door, a dust-covered living room was revealed, with sofas and end tables. Alees cast Detect Magic and noticed the glow of some magical auras coming from underneath one of the couches as well as from a statue on one of the end tables. As the party entered the room to investigate, the statue animated. It was a small statue of a red dragon, about the size of a house cat. However, the statue seemed to be covered in real red dragon scales. The statue screamed at the party causing Tarric and Alees to become deafened. The party members entered the room and backed the statue into a corner. It was a much tougher opponent than anyone expected. When it bit and slashed at opponents with its claws, it did almost as much damage as the Ice Devil had done with its much larger spear. However, despite the impressiveness of the construct, it eventually succumbed to the combined prowess of the party. Alees checked the room thoroughly and found lots of heavy furniture as well as a magical wand made from the bone of a blue dragon and a set of magical bracers made from the scales of a gold dragon. The party debated the ethics of keeping such an item, made from the body of a good creature.

While the party had been fighting, Thorash had remained outside the pyramid, trying to discern what kinds of creatures were trapped inside the bottles the party had found. So far he had met with no luck. The party asked Thorash if he could take a break to identify the two items they had found. He agreed to do so. As he was working on the identifications, Katawan was carefully setting off the remaining acid traps in the room with the acid pool. When he was done, the acid pool had quadrupled in depth - it was now a bit less than a foot and a half deep. The flying members of the party set about constructing a causeway through the acid pool using chunks of rock from the corridors they had excavated whose ceilings had collapsed. After a full day of work, the causeway was complete. Now, even non-flying party members would be able to traverse the distance from the outside of the pyramid to the silver doors safely. (However, where there was still acid, the acid was now about 2 feet deep.) The party rested after a long day's work and waited for Alexander to return with the party's newly purchased items.

 

[Menexenus]

Session 54: Ascending to the 3rd Level

9th of Fireseek: Alexander returned the following day with a newly recharged Brooch of Shielding for Killick, two Heward's Handy Haversacks for Tarric and Katawan, a darkwood shield for Alees (to replace her dragonscale shield while it was being enchanted), a wand of healing for the party, and lots of gold pieces for everyone. He reported that he had paid for Dourala to be reincarnated and that afterward he had let her go with his apologies for her rough treatment at the party's hands. Out of curiosity, the party asked what form she had returned to life in. Alexander reluctantly admitted that she had returned in the form of a goblin. In spite of the seriousness of the previous showdown between party members (or perhaps because of it) most of the party laughed out loud when they heard this news. Alees couldn't help pointing out that the gods were demonstrating her true nature by bringing her back in that form. All were relieved that this issue was now resolved and the party could get back to work without the previous tension hanging over their heads.

The party prepared to re-enter the pyramid and open the silver door. However, Thorash informed the party that he would remain outside the pyramid. The party shot each other worried glances. Thorash had been acting strangely since his reincarnation as a human. Alees asked why he would not be going in with them. Thorash explained that he felt that he was close to a breakthrough on finding a way to divine the contents of the magical container bottles that the party had recovered. The party tried to convince him that securing the White Eye was far more important, but Thorash had retained his dwarven stubbornness. He insisted that if the party needed him, they could return to him. When it was apparent that Thorash's mind could not be changed, Killick volunteered to remain with Thorash while the rest of the party went in to explore the pyramid. Thorash protested that he didn't need a baby-sitter, but Killick said that he had wanted to spend a bit more time with Grimlock to ensure that there were no lingering effects of the mummy rot the dog had contracted a few days earlier. Besides, Killick argued, if any of the monsters in the bottles were accidentally released, Thorash might need a hand.

So Tarric, Alexander, Katawan, and Alees marched out onto the newly-built rock causeway spanning the pool of acid, put the silver key into the lock, and opened the doors. Beyond the doors, was a medium sized room at the far side of which were two parallel sets of stairs leading up about 20 feet before ending in an unseen large room above. Along the walls of both staircases were intricately carved bas-relief figures of powerful looking individuals. Alees scanned these figures with Detect Magic and found only a lingering residue of ancient magic that had long since dissipated. However, as she examined the room, she heard movement at the top of the stairs - something that sounded like footsteps. She communicated this silently to the party. The party spent some time casting preparatory spells. Then Tarric and Katawan both ran up the stairs together, one on each stair case. At the top, they were greeted by 4 of the greenish-black skinned undead that they had encountered before in an armory near the vampire's lair. Their muscular bodies were covered in nothing but a loin-cloth and they all charged forward with shortspears. Their actions were unnaturally swift and their skin was covered by a protective layer of stone that glittered faintly in the light.

Although most of the party had a hard time overcoming these creatures' numerous defenses, Alexander found that they were vulnerable to his magic missiles. After casting the Maximized and Quickened versions that he had memorized, he pulled out his trusty wand of magic missiles. The opponents fought with unusually sound tactics for undead. They sprang past Tarric and Katawan and tried to flank Alexander. One at a time, each of them cast an area effect spell of evil black energy that seemed to harm Alexander and Tarric more than Katawan and Alees. (Katawan was largely resistant to their magic anyway.) One by one, the opponents fell, despite their attempts to fight intelligently and cooperatively. Although none of the party members had fallen, they had taken a significant amount of damage. They left the pyramid to get healing from Thorash, who complied half-heartedly and disinterestedly.

With their cuts and bruises healed, the four party members re-entered the pyramid and ascended the staircase. There was a pair of oak doors on the far side of the room at the top. Alees checked it for traps, found that it was not trapped, and opened the doors, seeing a 10 foot wide corridor leading in both directions. She carefully studied the ground for traps and after about a half an hour, declared that the corridor was secure. Around a corner at the left end of the corridor was a set of steel double doors covered in frost. Around a corner at the right end of the corridor was a set of steel doors that were glowing red with heat. Alexander suggested that he could open either set of doors without touching them using his Chime of Opening. The party chose the hot doors, so Alexander moved into position and activated the magic item. As the glowing doors opened, a wave of heat traveled down the hallway and the party observed a room filled with fire whose floor was covered in slow-moving viscous molten lava. Some of the flames in the room suddenly resolved themselves into a hulking figure with enormous fists that strode out of the room quickly and pounded Alexander, catching his robes alight. Horrified, Alexander retreated to the far end of the hallway, taking another pounding as he left. Alees and Tarric stepped forward to block the progress of the huge, hunched over fire-being. Katawan guarded Alexander farther down the hall. Tarric and Alees found that their swords did little damage to the being of living flame, but once again, Alexander's magic missiles were quite effective. Katawan sprang back and forth at the creature, flying over Alees's head with his winged boots to strike at it. The creature, frustrated at not being able to get past Alees and Tarric, punched at them furiously, causing tremendous damage and catching Alees's clothes on fire. However, after many magic missiles, the creature was eventually brought low by the jolt of electricity from Alees's short sword. The flames that had composed its body simply rose to the ceiling, and, finding no fuel, simply winked out of existence.

This time the party was even more damaged than it was after the first fight. They retreated once more to seek Thorash's healing abilities. Thorash treated all of their burns successfully, but he informed the party that he had no more healing power available for the rest of the day, so he hoped they would leave him alone now, at long last. He returned to examining the bottles in a huff. By this time, Killick had become bored watching Thorash look at bottles. He had been unsuccessful at engaging Thorash in conversation that might illuminate his recent strange behavior. So he and Grimlock accompanied the other four as they returned to the pyramid.

The party had hoped that the room full of lava might have cooled a bit while they were gone, now that the fire elemental inhabiting the room had been destroyed. However, the room seemed just as impossibly hot as it had been before. They could still make out a pair of double doors on the far side of the room, so Alexander used his Chime of Opening again. Those doors swung open to reveal an oppulent sitting room. Surprisingly, the furniture in that room did not immediately combust. The party surmised that something must be protecting the objects in that room from the heat. Katawan flew quickly through the lava room into the sitting room. He confirmed that the sitting room was somehow at a comfortable temperature despite the proximity of the lava. He reported that there were two skeletons standing at attention against the left hand wall, flanking a fountain that no longer functioned. The skeletons did not seem to register Katawan's presence in any way. There was another set of double doors on the far side of this room as well. Alexander activiated his Chime once more to open those doors. The next room contained 8 beds of very fine craftsmanship. Katawan stepped inside. He saw two wooden chests up against opposite walls, as well as 4 more skeletons standing at attention, one in each corner. Again, the skeletons did not seem to register Katawan's presence. Again, there was another set of double doors across from the set that had just been opened. However, this time the doors were far more imposing, being made of some dark black metal alloy with an eye-catching opalescent sheen. Alexander tried using his Chime repeatedly to open this new set of doors. After almost 10 attempts he gave up, deciding that his best simply would not be good enough. He gathered the party together and offered to teleport them to the far side of the lava room. He informed Killick that Grimlock would have to wait. Not wanting to leave his trusty wardog behind, Killick insisted that the rest should go on without him, and he would use his own spell power to get across, if need be.

Alexander, Tarric, and Alees teleported next to Katawan. Alees immediately looted the two chests in the room, finding magical implements in one and tattered vestments in the other. With the looting done, she moved forward to check the door for traps. Before she did so, she heard a strange sound coming from the doors. They almost sounded as if they were breathing! She reported this to Alexander who guessed that some living creature might be magically trapped within them as a guardian. The party prepared itself for battle. Alees touched the doors and suddenly a hulking fiend appeared in the room with them. Tarric recognized it as a denizen of the Abyss, one of the many vile creatures that the Order of Holy Shielding had trained him to fight. He relished the opportunity to dispatch such an embodiment of evil. The stench of brimstone that accompanied the vile creature caused Alexander to wretch uncontrollably. He wanted to get away from the stench but could not do so without entering the lava. Between heaves, he called to Killick across the lava for a spell that would neutralize poisons. Finding itself surrounded, the otherworldly opponent cast a spell identical to the one cast by the black-skinned undead in the earlier fight. However, it was of limited effectiveness. Meanwhile, Tarric hacked into the creature expertly with his holy bastard sword and Alees flanked it, stabbing it repeatedly in the guts. In less than 10 seconds, the battle was over and the creature lay dead on the ground. Killick had cast a spell to protect himself from the flames and another to allow himself to walk on the walls to avoid contact with the lava. He had not even made it across the lava room before the enemy creature had been killed.

Alees got to work trying to use her lockpicking skills to open the door that Alexander's magic could not. After a number of minutes, her efforts finally met with success. She could not help but marvel at the skill of the locksmiths who had helped construct the doors in this temple. Now that the doors were open, the party saw another long narrow hallway, one end of which was to the party's immediate left. Alees turned right and proceeded down the hallway, taking care to ensure that the floor was safe. Minutes later she gave the all-clear and the rest of the party moved forward. They saw that in the middle of the hallway was a single staircase going up and at the other end of the hallway was a bricked up opening about the same size as the double door they had just come through. The party listened at the base of the stairs, heard nothing, and ascended them carefully, Alees leading the way looking for traps. At the top of the stairs was a narrow landing with two opposing doors, one painted with the form of a man in robes on a mountaintop speaking to a throng of worshippers far below him. The other door was unpainted. Killick decided to bash open the unpainted door. The door did not give way. He ordered his dog to attempt the same. This time the door did give way. (As it did so, Alees could not help but notice that the door had not been locked in the first place.)

The room beyond the door seemed to be a room for priests to prepare themselves prior to leading a worship service. This room was guarded by two more of the black-skinned undead encountered before. A fight broke out immediately. These undead did not carry spears like the previous ones had. Instead they fought with their bodies, in a style similar to Katawan's. The party concentrated its attacks on the nearest enemy and destroyed it quickly. The second one unhinged its jaw and let out a horrific scream. The party braced itself, but the scream seemed to have no ill-effects. Katawan moved up to the creature, preparing to strike it. However, he heard a strange repetitive thud noise coming from the next room. So he opened the door that was next to him and saw a sparse worship hall with a giant black-framed mirror on the far wall. However, more importantly, he saw a bandaged undead creature on the far side of the room along with 2 massive gem-studded skeletons that appeared to be made of metal rather than bone. They had seen him and were moving towards the door. Katawan quickly closed the door again and informed his friends that they were about to have company.

 

[Menexenus]

Session 55: The Apex of the Temple of the Dark Sun

9th of Fireseek. Upon opening the first door of the third floor of the temple, the party had discovered two black-skinned undead of the same type that they had now fought on several occasions. The party had engaged them and dispatched one quickly. However, the second one had emitted an ear-splitting scream that had seemed uneffective to the party, until Katawan opened a door and saw a mummy and two metallic skeletons marching in his direction. Katawan tried to shut the door to keep the new enemies out, but they simply opened it up again. Katawan now found himself surrounded by enemies - the black-skinned undead was with him in the preparation room, and the skeletons and mummy were on the opposite side of the doorway. The mummy started casting spells. Then it moved directly behind the skeletons and urged them forward. The skeletons raked at Katawan with their elongated, gem-encrusted claws. When he jumped sideways to dodge their blows, he was struck unexpectedly in the adam's apple by the black-skinned undead. This attack left him stunned and helpless. The skeletons seized their opportunity and grabbed hold of him, sinking their claws into his flesh. Tarric and Alees worked together to dispatch the black-skinned undead while Killick attempted to help Katawan by touching him with a wand of healing. Unfortunately, though, he made contact with one of the constructs first, using up the spell with no effect. The mummy moved forward and tried to touch Katawan with black energy crackling on its desiccated hand. However, Katawan wiggled at just the right moment, causing it to miss.

Tarric stepped up next to Katawan to take the mummy's attention away from his near-helpless comrade. Tarric's heroic act was successful. The mummy turned its attention to him instead. It laid its hand on Tarric's chest and in a croaking voice, it said, "Die!" Tarric's eyes fluttered, he dropped his sword, and fell to the ground lifeless. And, at about that moment, the party saw two more metal skeletons moving forward from the worship hall on the far side of the door. It was at this moment, that things looked the darkest. Tarric was dead, Katawan was held, and so far they had done little damage to their enemies, who were about to receive reinforcements. Alexander, who had tried to remain outside the room to avoid the gaze of the mummy, finally poked his head in to survey the situation. While the mummy's visage was indeed horrifying, Alexander held his ground. He shot a Magic Missile at it, which was absorbed by the mummy's brooch. He ducked back onto the landing at the top of the staircase and suggested to his partymates that they should consider withdrawal.

Katawan finally threw the skeletons off of him. Even though he had only been restrained for a small portion of a minute, those seconds had seemed to last much longer to everyone involved. He asked for healing and made no movement to leave. Alees obliged, tapping him with her healing wand. Killick replied to Alexander, saying that they couldn't leave without Tarric. Now that the skeletons were no longer grasping Katawan, they found other quarry to pursue. One skeleton chased Alees into a closet, while the other moved towards Alexander. Braving the skeleton's attacks, Alexander stepped into the room and cast a spell at the doorway on the opposite side of the room. Suddenly the doorway was filled with a thick sheet of iron. The mummy and the two new skeletons were trapped on the opposite side. Alexander said, "There. That should keep them out for a while. Let's finish these two and get out!" The party concentrated its attacks on the two remaining skeletons. Just then, Alexander heard hurried feet coming up the stairs. As he prepared for the possibility of facing a new threat, he wondered how the party could have missed something down below. Alexander was relieved to see Thorash's gangly new human form running clumsily up the stairs. As he tried to catch his breath, Thorash explained that he had been monitoring the party's progress from outside and had come running when he sensed Tarric's death. He drew his mace and stepped into combat against the nearest metal skeleton

Meanwhile, the two other skeletons pounded on the iron wall that blocked their entry into the room. With each thump, the party could see indentations in the iron sheet becoming more and more pronounced. Just when it seemed the iron wall couldn't possibly hold for much longer, the last of the first two skeletons was destroyed. Alees quickly tied Tarric's body to Grimlock's military saddle. The party began beating a hasty retreat. Thorash started casting a spell and was quickly left behind with Killick who stayed behind to guard him. At long last, the iron wall crashed open and the mummy immediately fired a beam of energy at Killick, wounding him slightly. Finally, Thorash's spell was complete and a monstrous earth elemental appeared in the room. As Killick and Thorash joined the retreat, Thorash instructed the elemental to attack. It did so successfully, knocking a large chunk off of one of the skeletons. However, the mummy stepped back with an aggravated look on its decaying visage, and cast a spell which caused the elemental to return to its home plane. As Thorash was running back down the stairs, he saw his summoned ally wink out of existence. He warned the rest of the party not to get too comfortable.

They cast a couple healing spells and formed up in front of the opalescent black metal double doors where they had previously defeated a demon. Soon afterward, the party members standing in the doorway saw the two metal skeletons descend the staircase from the upper level and enter the narrow hallway followed by their mummy leader. When the skeletons moved to engage the party, Alexander let loose with a volley of magic missiles. (This was his standard operating procedure. Alexander found that sometimes his magic missiles harmed the creatures and sometimes they didn't.) Thorash was frozen in fear when he finally saw the mummy for the first time. Seeing that Thorash was inactive, it cast a spell that would have held Katawan immobile, but Katawan was able to resist the spell's effect. Grimlock waited with Tarric's body in the sitting room antechamber while the rest of the party fought on. If the party had to retreat, it might be difficult to get everyone back across the lava room without suffering further injury. However, the battle seemed to be going the party's way. In a matter of moments, the party had felled one of the last two skeleton constructs. The mummy stepped up and took the fighting position vacated by its collapsed minion. It formed a foul arcane symbol in the air above it for all to see. When Alees caught a glipse of it, she was wracked by a powerful continuous pain, making it difficult for her to concentrate on anything else. The party focused on the last remaining skeleton, so the mummy cast another spell which made the mummy seem even more powerful than it had been before. It then commenced attacking the party with its bare fists. The party was shocked by the potency of the creature's sudden combat prowess. Seeing his partymates in danger caused Thorash to recover his wits. He cast a spell on the mummy that would (hopefully) negate some of the magical effects that the mummy had cast on itself. After Thorash had cast it, the mummy returned to its normal appearance. Thorash's spell seemed to have met with some success. To test the waters, Alexander cast a fireball on it (that also engulfed a number of his partymates). After the explosion, the party could see that the mummy was on fire. Its resistance to fire had been nullified along with its extra combat prowess! The party knew that it had the upper hand now. Every party member pressed the attack with as many fire-based effects as they could muster, and within a matter of moments, the mummy was dispatched.

Alees immediately began prying the most expensive looking gems out of the skeleton constructs. The party collectively rolled its eyes at this behavior, and gave her a time limit of no more than 10 minutes. She spent as much time as the party would allow collecting loot. Then the party decided to go back up and investigate the third level. They reasoned that whatever had been up there must have been alerted to their presence, and if it hadn't already come running to repel them, it was probably not much of a threat. The party found that the remainder of the third level was now deserted. They found two small mausoleums and two small libraries. Alees wanted to spend time robbing the more important looking crypts. However, after unsealing three of them, she was disappointed to discover that they were not buried with any of their valuables. She gave up the search. Alees did quick searches for secret doors and passageways but found none. At the end of a long hallway, the party found a steel door with glowing pink runes surrounding a cloaked figure beneath which was written the words "Death is the entrance to new life." Alees found herself unable to open the door with her lockpicks, so Alexander tried his Chime of Opening. The door seemed to resist the chime's magic, but it finally gave way. Beyond the door was a rising staircase. A large room containing the apex of the pyramid was visible at the top of the stairs, lit by an eerie glow coming from somewhere near the floor. The party members looked at each other and took stock. What they were here for - the White Eye - was most likely at the top of these stairs. But who knew what horrors might be guarding it. Alexander and Thorash were nearly depleted of spells and Tarric lay dead downstairs. Under those circumstances, the party chose to retire, make camp, revive Tarric, and return the next day replenished and ready for battle.

Later on that evening, just after dusk, Thorash used up most of the diamonds that Alees had pried from the skeleton constructs in order to raise Tarric from the dead. He was grateful that the party had seen fit to revive him before facing the temple's final challenge. The rest of the party's spellcasters would regain spells at dawn, so the party made camp.

10th of Fireseek. The party awoke refreshed and ready for the final struggle. Thorash cast a number of preparatory spells to aid his partymates in combat, as did Alexander and Killick. The party was as ready as it would ever be. They ascended to where they had turned back the previous day and quickly established the marching order. Alees led the way, looking for traps on the stairs. As she crested the staircase, she saw an undead figure seated in a chair against the far wall and an ornate stone pedastal with a small glowing orb resting on a pillow under glass. She reported this to her comrades and then fell back. Tarric was the first to enter the room. As he did so, the party saw him sheathe his bastard sword and draw the ornate longsword that he had been using as a backup strapped across his back. The figure at the far side of the room remained seated and said, "Welcome! Welcome to my humble prison! I am Horgrim, last remaining disciple of the Ebon Triad here in the once thriving Temple of the Dark Sun. Since you have defeated all of the temple's guardians on the lower levels, you must truly be the ones referred to in the prophecies - praise be to the Overgod! Please come in." By this time all of the party members save Thorash had ascended the staircase and entered the pyramid-shaped room. They now noticed that the creature speaking was stroke a small blue dragon construct as if it were a pet. The construct looked almost identical to the one the party had fought in the last room the party had explored on the temple's first level. Horgrim motioned toward the glowing White Eye lying between him and the party and said, "This is indeed what you are seeking. Please take it and fulfill your destiny... but only if you are pure of heart." With this last phrase, Horgrim's decrepit face curled into the undead version of a smile.

Alexander displayed the holy symbol that he carried as a devout worshipper of St. Cuthbert and said, "We are not here to fulfill your vile prophecy, Evil One. We serve forces committed to *preventing* your Age of Worms." The lich shrugged its shoulders and replied, "You are here to remove the Eye from its prison. Doing so will set in motion the events that will finally lead to the creation of the Overgod - may his oppressive reign on Oerth be eternal. Regardless of what you *claim* your purpose is, you are in truth merely pawns doing the Overgod's bidding."

Incredulous, Alexander asked, "And once we leave here with the Eye, what will you do?" Horgrim replied, "I will finally have earned my rest and my place at the Overgod's side." With a flash of righteous anger, Alexander said, "Then you won't mind if we hasten your end!" With that he began casting a spell. However, at the moment Alexander began casting, a coccoon of blue flame ignited all around Horgrim's body, protecting him. As Alexander finished one spell and then cast another quickened spell, Horgrim impassively said, "If this is how it must be, then so be it." Both of Alexander's powerful fireball blasts washed over the lich with no apparent effect. Neither did they have any effect on his blue dragon minion. The rest of the party charged forward to engage the enemies.

Tarric flew forward directly in front of the lich. As his longsword sliced into the undead creature, wounding it, Horgrim betrayed a look of surprise. However, when he noticed Tarric's sword, the look of surprise turned to one of recognition. He stood up and said to Tarric, "I see you wield Branwhite. I suppose there would be some justice if he were the one to slay me." He then stood and cast a spell that caused a foul yellowish choking fog to appear throughout the room. However, unbeknownst to the lich, none of the party members were affected by his spell because of the magical Heroes' Feast that Thorash had fed the party just before they had entered the temple.

Alexander continued to blast away at Horgrim and his minion with the same degree of ineffectiveness. Jockeying for position around the enemies, Killick accidentally stepped up against the pedastal in the middle of the room, and a green bolt of energy shot out of the White Eye towards him. Killick dove out of the way at the last second, avoiding the beam which was accompanied by a loud thunderclap.

[...to be continued...]

 

[Menexenus]

Session 56: Betrayal!

10th of Fireseek (continued): The party had finally ascended the stairs to the top level of the pyramid. This room was mostly bare. Arcane writings were etched into the stone walls reaching all the way up to the apex of the ceiling. On the far side of the room from the stairs was an undead humanoid seated on a throne, stroking a small blue-dragon-shaped construct. Directly between the throne and the staircase was a pedastal on top of which rested the White Eye that they had been seeking for so long. The undead creature, who introduced himself as Horgrim, had invited them to simply take the Eye and leave, since doing so would free him and set his god's plans in motion anyway. However, Alexander had commenced an attack on the creature just on principle. The melee fighters of the party moved forward to engage Horgrim and his clockwork pet. As Killick jockeyed for position, he had inadvertently approached the pedastal containing the Eye. And with the sound of a tremendous thunderclap, a sickly-green energy beam shot out of the Eye towards Killick. Because of his excellent reflexes, Killick was able to dive to the floor just in time to avoid being struck. He was prone but unharmed.

Grimlock, Killick's trusty wardog, tried coming to his master's aid. But he also found himself the target of a green beam from the Eye. He, too, jumped aside at the last moment with a yelp and avoided contact with the beam. Alexander and Thorash were both still caught in the choking yellow fog that Horgrim had cast at the start of the battle. However, that fog seemed to be rolling down the stairway at a relatively quick pace. Already, those near the lich were able to see farther than they could before. The lich cast another spell that produced a blast of icy cold energy right at his feet. Tarric braced himself to take damage, but surprised even himself when he was able to evade the blast's energy entirely. The blue dragon construct attacked Killick on the ground and did additional damage to him. At this point, after suffering damage from Alexander's fireballs, the lich's ice blast, and the construct's claws, Killick realized that he was seriously wounded and in need of medical attention. He retreated into the yellow fog, searching for Thorash. When the two located each other, Killick requested a high level healing spell, but he insisted that he didn't want Thorash to cast "Heal" on him. Thorash obliged his comrade.

Hearing the sounds of battle continue, Alexander strode forward out of the fog and cast 2 powerful Magic Missile spells at the lich in rapid succession. Both spells were absorbed by the brooch that the lich wore on his cloak. However, the brooch was glowing hot with the absorbed energy. Alexander was sure that, given enough time, he could wear down the lich's protection. Alees stepped forward and stabbed at the lich. But rather than trying to do maximum damage, she struck him in a way that caused him to lose his balance. This made it easier for Katawan and Tarric to strike him successfully. Alees grinned. She had finally found a way to help her comrades fight undead!

However, her pleasure did not last long. The lich stepped away from its throne and began invoking arcane energies. As he cast the spell, he pushed his open palm in Alees's direction. An image of his desiccated hand rushed towards Alees, and as it moved, it grew to enormous proportions. The giant hand pushed her back toward the pedastal, which once again shot out its sickly-green beam. This time the beam struck true. Alees was gone, and there was nothing more than a pile of dust on the floor where she had once stood. The lich's face contorted into a grotesque mockery of a smile. Tarric stood in wide-eyed horror at what he had just witnessed, and threw himself at the lich in righteous fury. However, Horgrim deftly redirected the giant hand to block Tarric's advance. Killick, feeling refreshed, stepped back out of the fog and into the combat. He surveyed the situation. Tarric shouted to him that Alees was gone. Killick decided to try to negate the threat posed by the Eye. He cast a spell and called upon the rock of the floor beneath the pedastal to rise up and enclose the Eye. But strangely, nothing happened. Killick and Alexander shot each other puzzled glances. In a state of confusion and disappointment, Killick muttered, "That should have worked..."

The blue dragon construct maneuvered to protect Horgrim's back. So Katawan was forced to fight it instead of the lich. Alexander cast two more enhanced Magic Missile spells in quickened succession. This time the lich's brooch overloaded with energy, cracked, and fell useless to the ground. The lich had seen an opportunity to press his attack. Alees was gone. Katawan was occupied by the construct. Tarric was struggling unsuccessfully to get away from the enormous blocking hand. However, because of Alexander's determined casting of magic missiles, Horgrim now had to waste an action casting Shield in order to protect himself from further magic missile attacks.

Suddenly, Killick realized why his spell had failed. He shouted to the party, "The pedastal in the middle of the room is an illusion. There's nothing there but an open pit." And, as if to prove Killick's statement, Alees suddenly rose up out of the pedastal with her Lightning Sword pointed straight up. Upon seeing Alees's return, the lich's expression noticeably changed from annoyance to disappointment. Alees taunted Horgrim saying, "I guess you didn't realize I could fly, did ya?" With Katawan and Tarric occupied, Killick was preparing to move up into melee with the lich. However, Alexander held up a hand, instructing him to hold. Alexander ran right up behind the lich and gave an ear-splitting shout directed at its fire-shrouded form. The force of this magical noise blew what remained of the lich to pieces. Its disconnected bones fell to the floor. The party was shocked that the lich had been so close to death. But the battle wasn't over. The blue dragon construct fought on. But without its master, it stood little chance against the combined might of the party. The battle was quickly concluded, and the party could all see now that Killick had been right. There was no pedastal in the middle of the room. There was nothing but an open pit falling hundreds of feet straight down.

The party was in a celebratory mood until two things dawned on them. First, the lich would be back unless they were able to find and destroy its phylactery. Second, they still didn't have the White Eye. Alees informed the party that she had seen a passage way extending from the bottom of the pit that she had just fallen into. She suggested that the Eye might be down there. As the party prepared to descend into the pit, Thorash cast healing spells on those who needed it. Reluctantly, Alexander asked for some healing as well. As Thorash cast his spell, he noticed Alexander watching Thorash's motions carefully, making sure that he was indeed casting a healing spell on him. When the spell was complete, Thorash remarked in an exasperated tone, "After all we've been through, after all the times I've healed the party and raised you from the dead, I still get no trust, no respect, no faith, no comradery. Just because I used to experiment with the creation of undead, I will always be despised and distrusted. Even though I have sworn off creating undead and sworn off using some of my most powerful abilities and spells. Even though I have changed my entire moral outlook to better suit your prejudices, you're still not satisfied. Even though you have returned me to life in the form of a weak and puny human, I still don't fit in among you. For god's sake, what will it take to get you to bury the hatchet?" Alexander was shocked by Thorash's sudden outburst. In the past, Thorash had always responded to Alexander's snipes, jabs, and suspicions with stoic silence. After a few moments passed without any response from Alexander, Thorash waved his hand in disgust, turned around, and walked away.

As the party decided how best to descend to the bottom of the well, Thorash, who was still sulking, announced that he would remain up at the top of the well to ensure that nothing they might have missed would be able to attack the party from behind. Besides, he was almost out of spells and would not be of much help if he were to join them. The party consented to Thorash's plan, mostly to give him an opportunity to cool down a bit. Soon afterwards, the party's flyers carried its non-flyers down to the bottom of the pit. The rough-hewn passage at the bottom led in only one direction, and it wasn't long before the party's torchlight illuminated a 12-foot tall 6-armed statue. All 3 of its left hands were missing, as was its left eye. (The party recalled seeing a similarly shaped being emerge from the black pool at the bottom of Dourstone's mine.) Before the party had a chance to look around the room, the statue animated and attacked.

Alees flew forward and tried to knock the statue off-balance, as she had done to Horgrim. However, the stone creature was much more sturdy and her attempt failed. Then the creature reached down with its 3 right hands and grabbed her. It began squeezing her, causing her tremendous pain. She begged her comrades to free her and to do it quickly. Killick, standing on the ceiling, ordered Grimlock forward and began casting a spell. Because the creature was occupied with Alees, Tarric was free to run forward and strike the creature. Katawan did the same. Alexander tried casting a Magic Missile at it from his wand, but quickly realized that the statue was completely immune to the harmful effects of magical spells. He could do nothing but watch while it squeezed the life out of Alees.

Killick finally completed his complicated spell, and a large creature made entirely of rock emerged from the wall of the cavern behind the statue and pounded on it with minimal effect. Then Killick moved forward along the ceiling and reached down to touch Alees, casting a spell on her. At first the spell seemed to have no effect, but then when the statue tried to squeeze the life out of her, she slipped right out of its arms and fell to the floor without suffering any further harm. Alees knew she needed healing. She tried to withdraw from the statue, but it pounded her with a fist as she tried to leave, knocking her unconscious. Killick ordered Grimlock to pull Alees's body out of harm's way, and Alexander did what he could to tend to her wounds. Meanwhile, Tarric, Katawan, and the earth elemental had been beating on the statue. Although their attacks were not fully effective against its stoney form, they were knocking chunks off of it with almost each below. Their combined assault seemed to be having an effect.

Now that Alees was out of its range, the statue turned its attentions to Tarric, Katawan, and the summoned earth elemental. First, it pounded the earth elemental to dust, and then struck Katawan. Killick ordered Grimlock back into the fight. He chipped a tooth on the stone-hard statue, but was able to successfully knock it to the ground. Killick walked down the wall, back onto the floor, and began beating the downed creature with his quarterstaff. Tarric continued slashing at it with his longsword and Katawan continued bashing it with his bloodied fists. Finally, the statue cracked into several pieces and was nothing more than inert stone once again.

Killick cast a healing spell on Alees that brought her back to consciousness. And the sight that she awakened to caused her to wonder temporarily if she had died and gone to heaven. Now that the combat was over and she had an opportunity to look around, she saw that the back wall of the room was stacked almost to the ceiling with sacks and chests. Alexander, who still had his eyes on the prize cast Detect Magic, looking for any sign of the White Eye. At first he surveyed the statue, thinking that the Eye might be among its remains, but it was not. All the magical power had left the statue. But out of the corner of his eye, he noticed that two of the sacks were glowing with magical auras. He pointed them out to the party and they quickly investigated. One of the sacks was clearly a magical Bag of Holding, because it contained far more items and weapons that might ordinarily fit in a sack of the same size. However, the second magical bag contained nothing but a round, featureless, oblong white stone small enough to fit in the palm of one's hand. Alexander asked for it to be brought forward, and when he looked at it, he had to shield his eyes from it. It's magical aura was nearly blinding. Alexander was relieved because he was now sure that he had the White Eye in his possession - the key component of an artifact designed to break down the barriers that prevented Kyuss's return to Oerth.

The rest of the party began opening the remaining non-magical sacks and chests. Each one was full of ancient gold pieces. They grabbed as much of it as they could, stuffing the new bags of holding as well as the old handy haversacks full of the stuff. Even when they had all that they could carry, they thought there was still about more than half of the original amount left behind. The party flew back up to Horgrim's chamber at the apex of the pyramid and rejoined Thorash. He was pleased to hear that the White Eye had been recovered and was curious to take a look at it. However, Alexander insisted that they wait until it was safely in a vault in Tenser's castle before doing anything with it. Thorash nodded and said nothing more. Alexander drew a scroll of teleportation from its scroll tube. The party joined hands in preparation for the casting of the spell. Alexander intoned the words and... nothing happened. The spell had fizzled for some reason. They looked at each other for a moment in puzzlement. But almost simultaneously, they all realized that teleportation in or out of the temple must be blocked, otherwise Horgrim would have left a long time ago. The entire party, but Alexander in particular, felt foolish for wasting the emergency scroll of Teleport.

So now the party had to decide what to do while Alexander rested. They decided that they might as well wait until morning so that all the spell casters would have a full-complement of spells. They decided to set up camp within the pyramid in a room on the first floor that had access to two exits. Before they left, though, Alees took the opportunity to check Horgrim's room carefully for secret doors and compartments. Her concentration paid off, as she discovered that one of the marble strips in the wall was hollow. She showed the spot to Tarric who. borrowing Thorash's mace, smashed through the rock, revealing a man-sized chamber filled with a cloak, a brooch, and a ring that were all identical to the ones that Horgrim had worn. In addition, there was a spell book and a small box attached to thin leather straps. All of the items had magical auras when Alees cast Detect Magic. Thorash told the party that the small box was most likely the lich's phylactery. When Tarric saw the box, his longsword almost leapt from his hand in an effort to smash it. However, Killick got their first with his quarterstaff. The box smashed easily, spilling dust onto the floor. Alees looked at the box again using her Detect Magic and saw that the magical aura around it was rapidly diminishing. In seconds, it was gone entirely. Tarric felt an emotional rush of satisfaction, contentment, and happiness course through his body. It seemed to come from his longsword. He looked at it, knowing for sure now that it could not be a regular longsword.

As they were preparing the camp, Thorash sat down to identify a group of magic items that the party had selected as most interesting. While some of these were disappointments, the party was pleased to discover the eldritch power of the lich's rings of protection. Alexander was also happy to learn that the pile of magic items contained a Monk's Belt. Thorash rememorized his spells at dusk, while the rest of the party was preparing to bed down for the night. Having the White Eye in their possession and knowing that they had been scryed on before, most likely by the Rainbow Mage, made the party very paranoid. Usually they were satisfied with a one-man watch, but tonight they decided to sleep in only 2 shifts, with half of the party awake at any one time. Thorash volunteered to identify a new batch of items, remaining awake for another 8 hours while Alexander slept. Alees used her lockpicks to re-lock one of the two exterior doors. Killick placed shields on the ground behind both doors to help alert the party if intruders should open them. A party-member was stationed at each door to guard it.

11th of Fireseek. Hours passed. Suddenly, everyone heard a loud series of crashes along with Thorash's frightened voice yelling, "Oh no! No!" Suddenly the two rooms nearest to where Thorash had been sitting were filled to bursting with monsters - several orcs, bugbears, and kuo-toa, an otyugh, a griffon, a genie, a gorgon, and two trolls. The room was packed - it would literally be impossible to swing one's arms without hitting a monster. (It was almost impossible to swing one's arms at all!) There was a single moment of quiet while all the disoriented beings took stock of their new situation. Then, all at once, the combat began. It was everyone against everyone. The trolls attacked the gorgon. The otyugh attacked a bugbear, grabbing it in a tentacle and squeezing. Alees saw Thorash cast Invisibility on himself. One orc attacked a nearby kuo-toa. Another orc attacked a nearby bugbear. Killick cast a Flame Strike into the room to a spot that was away from where his comrades had been sleeping. Seeing this, a third orc charged out of the packed room at Killick who had been guarding the locked door. Grimlock, who was standing next to his master Killick, attacked the orc, knocking it to the ground. The genie turned itself into a whirlwind, picking up and battering another kuo-toa. Katawan, who had been guarding the other door, just stared at the swirling melee in disbelief. Alees stood up and tried to stay out of everyone's way. Tarric stood up (in his chain shirt pajamas) and drew his bastard sword from its scabbard. The gorgon snorted and exhaled a green vapor in the direction of the trolls. One of them breathed it in and immediately turned to stone. Unfortunately, so did Alexander, and he turned to stone as well. Killick and Grimlock were able to hold their breath until the gas passed them by, but the orc lying on the ground in front of them did not - he became stone. Seeing what the gorgon had done, the griffin attacked it fearfully, raking it with its claws.

The melee was quickly resolving itself. Tarric attacked the remaining troll, as did Alees its far side, using her shortsword with amazing efficiency, carving it into pieces. The otyugh killed the bugbear. The orc and the genie each killed their kuo-toa opponents. The bugbear saw the exit that Katawan was guarding and charged Katawan. The genie turned to the orc. Killick and Grimlock attacked the gorgon. It attacked them back, using its horns to attempt to gore them. The griffin continued clawing at the gorgon in wild-eyed fear. The genie in whirlwind form picked up the orc and started battering him against the walls. The orc slashed its scimitar at the whirlwind in futility. Katawan launched a blinding flurry of attacks against the bugbear, killing it. The otyugh grabbed Alees in one of its tentacles and drew her towards its toothy maw. The gorgon turned around and exhaled its magical green gas once again. This time Grimlock and the Otyugh succumbed and became statues. Now Alees was stuck in the grasp of a statue, but at least it couldn't continue squeezing her. After finishing off the orc, the genie returned to physical form. The griffin continued attacking the gorgon. Tarric and Killick joined the griffin in focusing on the gorgon, and it dropped to the floor dead. The genie began moving towards Katawan, but turned into mist before reaching him. It tried to exit through the cracks in the door, but Katawan took several swipes at it as it flew past, damaging it but not killing it. Now that the gorgon was gone the griffin started attacking Killick, but he recognized that it was merely afraid. He yelled to Katawan and told him to open his door and stand aside. When the griffin saw the open air, it crawled carefully but still fearfully towards freedom. Once it was through the narrow hallway and outside, it stretched its wings and leapt into the air without looking back.

With the confusing but brief melee over, Alees started calling out for Thorash, but he did not respond. Tarric stepped over towards Alexander to see what had happened to him. Just then, Alees and Tarric heard a sinister voice say, "Well, that didn't go quite as I expected." Then they heard the crash of glass in the middle of the floor and suddenly a 9-headed hydra was standing in the room with them. Tarric wheeled around to see the new threat. From somewhere nearby he heard casting and felt a hand on his chest. Suddenly Thorash was standing right in front of him with an evil smile on his face. "Die!" he commanded.