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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Menexenus" data-source="post: 3439550" data-attributes="member: 8951">Session 29: Death to the Mind-Flayer!18th of Reaping.  The party had just encountered a levitating mindflayer in a large silo-shaped cathedral floating 40 feet above a shallow pool swimming with large tadpoles.  The mind-flayer had stunned Alexander and Killick's dog, then it had cast a powerful lightning bolt, doing serious damage to Thorash.  When a Magic Missile and a Searing Light spell seemed to wash over the creature to no effect, the party was perplexed as to how they could defeat this foe.    Alees loaded a crossbow and ran into the cathedral area through the front entrance.  As she ran in, one of the two octopins clinging to the walls attacked her and missed.  Alees fired a bolt at the mind-flayer.  The bolt went right through the place where the mind-flayer seemed to be.  The mind-flayer decided not to waste a lightning bolt on just one target.  Instead, he fired 2 scorching rays at her, striking her with one of them.  Katawan also drew and loaded his crossbow.  He entered the cathedral and shot at one of the octopins.  Moments later, Tarric followed suit, firing a longbow twice at the mind-flayer, missing both times.  One of the octopins struck Killick's summoned giant owl with both of his claws and then ripped the unfortunate avian in half, causing it to disappear and return to wherever it had come from.  The other octopin struck at Alexander's stunned body, creating a gash in his side.    Meanwhile, Killick had withdrawn back to the scrying pool, where Grimlock had been dragged and where Thorash was standing.  Killick requested that Thorash cast Protection from Evil on him.  Thorash consented.  He dropped his shield, drew a pearl from his belt pouch, and recalled Protection from Evil, casting it on his teammate.  After doing so, Thorash headed the long way around towards the cathedral entrance, leaving his shield on the ground where he had dropped it.  At this point, Killick drew and drank a potion of Haste.  As he moved toward the balcony railing, wings suddenly sprouted from his back, growing to full-size almost instantaneously.  When he got to the railing, he leapt off and began flying!  He flew right up in front of the levitating mind-flayer and attacked him, using his quarterstaff to disarm it of its glowing rod.  The seemingly red hot rod fell into the pool below, but the water around it did not boil.  Needless to say, the rest of the party was impressed by Killick's new flight ability and drew courage from this symbolic victory.  Alees immediately moved up and grabbed the rod.  She tried to activate it, and she seemed to be successful.  But the only visible effect was that the rod glowed hotter for a few moments.    The mind-flayer used its mind blast ability again, causing Katawan and Tarric and one of the octopins to become stunned.  It tried using this ability on Killick as well, but Killick shook off the effect.  It tried striking Killick with its tentacles.  This also failed.  Meanwhile, Killick literally flew circles around it, infrequently striking it for damage.  One of Killick's blows was so forceful that the creature was momentarily stunned.  The second octopin moved onto the black obelisk right behind its master in an effort to help protect him.  However, the octopins attacks of opportunity were no match for Killick's skill at avoiding blows.  Killick seemed unhittable.  At about this time, Thorash finally made it around to the cathedral entrance.  He tried using his Magic Missile wand, but quickly realized that the mind-flayer was shielded.  So he cast Magic Missiles on the octopin behind it instead.  The octopin dropped into the pool dead.  At about this time, Tarric recovered from being stunned.  He moved over to the octopin near the front entrance and sliced into it with his bastard sword.  However, since the creature was stunned, Alees was able to stab it in its most vulnerable spot, killing it.  Now that the last octopin was gone, Alexander, who had just recovered from stun, moved to Tarric and told him that he would lift him into fighting position with the mind-flayer.  But at exactly that moment, the mind-flayer mind blasted them both again.  Tarric resisted the effect this time, but Alexander was stunned again.       By this time, the mind-flayer had taken enough damage that it drew a potion of healing, but Killick knocked the bottle out of the creature's hand.  The mind-flayer began slowly descending in order to retrieve the potion.  Katawan moved up and grabbed the fallen potion before the mind-flayer could recover it.  The mind-flayer mind blasted him for his effort, stunning him and Tarric (who had unfortunately just drunk a potion of Haste).  Then he mind-blasted the other side of the room.  After these two mind blasts, the only character who was not stunned was Killick.  The mind-flayer moved up to Katawan's frozen form, grabbed the potion he was holding, and drank it.  Meanwhile, Killick continued raining occasional blows on the evil sorcerer with his feet and his quarterstaff.  The mind-flayer ripped a bead off of his necklace, throwing it against the far wall, causing a loud, fiery explosion that caught frozen Alees and Thorash with full force.  Alees dropped to the floor unconscious.  Katawan had recovered by this time and used his monkish reflexes to avoid all damage from the blast.  The party couldn't help but notice that the mind-flayer had not placed the fireball as effectively as he could have.      Seeing that some characters had started recovering from stun, the sorcerer cast a lighting bolt that caught stunned Thorash and recently recovered Alexander with full force.  But again, the mind-flayer mysteriously seemed to aim the bolt too high in a way that avoided hitting Alees who was lying vulnerable on the ground.  Thorash fell to the ground unconscious.  Again, Katawan used his monkish dexterity to avoid all damage from the lightning bolt.  Katawan moved to his fallen comrades.  He used a charge from his Ring of Spell Storing to awaken Thorash.  Moments later, he did the same for Alees.  (Both Thorash and Alees then administered additional healing to themselves.)  After healing his companions, Katawan moved back to help Killick flank the mind-flayer.  Throughout the combat, Killick continued landing blows infrequently.  Katawan landed a very lucky critical hit against the sorcerer with his fist.  The mind-flayer was almost stunned by the blow, and his tentacles gyrated wildly in pain.    Realizing that he had few ways of harming the mind-flayer, Alexander decided instead to target his Magic Missiles at the tadpoles in the pool, killing several of them.  This seemed to enrage the mind-flayer even more than Katawan's blow had.  First he tried stunning the mage.  When that failed, he cast a lightning bolt at him instead.  This distracted the mind-flayer's attention long enough for Killick and Katawan to land another blow each.  But it was Katawan's blow that finally felled the vile aberration.  As members of the party awakened from stun one by one, they began cheering their victory, which had never been certain.    Thorash cast Detect Magic and the party looted the magical items off the mind-flayer's corpse.  Alees searched for secret doors in the cathedral area and found none.  Killick informed the rest of the party that he thought that the tadpoles in the pool might be baby mind-flayers.  So Alexander and Tarric spent time tracking down the helpless creatures and squashing them all.     After the party had healed up a bit, they ventured back into the room with the statue and the glass cases.  Alees moved up to one of the cases to check it for traps.  This caused the statue in the middle of the room to animate.  Alexander called out that the creature was a Vrock - a demon from the Abyss.  First, the demon made a horrific screech that stunned Tarric and Alexander (once again).  Then it cast Mirror Image on itself.  However, Thorash quickly Dispelled that magical effect.  Then it tried to open a portal to the Abyss to call for reinforcements, but this attempt failed.  The party quickly surrounded the demon.  It released some demonic spores on all who stood next to it.  These spores lodged painfully into the characters' skin and began growing with unnatural speed.  Although the creature seemed resistant to much of the damage that it received, Tarric got a critical hit against it, Katawan stunned it, and Alees got in a sneak attack that finally dispatched the demonic bird creature.    However, even after the Vrock died, the spores lodged in the party's skin continued to grow for a minute, causing significant pain and disfigurement.  Grimlock collapsed from the damage.  Alexander, who was the only party member unaffected by the spores, used his extensive knowledge of the planes to inform the party that the disfigurement was permanent unless the infected creature drank holy water or was the subject of a Cure Disease or Neutralize Poison spell.  Although the party was out of the necessary spells, Killick drank some holy water and cast a healing spell on his unconscious animal companion.    The effect of the demonic spores reminded Killick to check himself for infection by Kyuss worms.  To his consternation, he discovered that he was once again infected with them.  He checked the rest of the party and discovered that Tarric was also infected.  Killick was puzzled as to what might have caused them both to become infected again.    The party decided to take all of the items in the glass cases and return to Eligos's house.  However, before leaving, they all took turns looking at the scrying pool trying to look in on various people.  Killick attempted to look in on Eligos, but found that Eligos's house was impenetrable to the scrying pool's gaze.  Tarric chose to look in on some of his former colleagues at the Greyhawk Militia post in Diamond Lake.  He found them in the briefing room where Captain Trask seemed to be presenting a topic of great importance.  Alees tried to find Loris Raknian and found him traveling along an unknown road with a companion.  Next, she tried looking in on her adoptive family, and she saw her step-father playing a game of 3-card-monte with some foolish mark.  Alees smiled.  Killick tried to spy on the Rainbow Mage, but there was no change in the scenery.  Then Killick tried to spy on Telakin, but again there was no change.  He concluded that the scrying pool only worked on those who were sufficiently familiar to the scryer.  Then he tried looking in on Celeste, but again the scrying pool did not change its scenery.  Last, he decided to look in on his druidic mentor Nogwier.  Killick found him in the middle of brewing a potion.  While the others played with the scrying pool, Alexander investigated the mind-flayer's laboratory.  He found numerous texts and laboratory notes related to the creation of the tentacular creatures the party had fought, known as "octopins."  He also discovered that the mind-flayer's name had been Zyrxog.  In addition, he also found some laboratory notes related to the creation of a "mind worm" - a Kyuss worm that would travel to the subject's brain, rendering it more amenable to suggestions.  Although Zyrxog's notes indicated that he had been making progress, his experiments had not been completely successful.  Zyrxog's extensive experimentation with Kyuss worms made it clear that Zyrxog had been either a worshipper of Kyuss or working very closely with the cult.As the party left Zyrxog's lair, the stone brain again tried attacking the mind of the first one to enter its circular room.  But its attack failed, as it had before, and the rest of the party exited the room quickly.  Finally, the party exited the sewers and headed for Eligos's house.  However, given their obviously diseased state, the guards at the Garden District's gate denied them entry.  The party holed up at a dockside bar and waited for dusk to arrive.  When it did, Thorash memorized as many Cure Disease and Neutralize Poison spells as he could, curing all the party members of their disfigurement (and simultaneously curing Killick and Tarric of their Kyuss worm infections).  Then the party wearily made its way back to Eligos's house (having no trouble with the guards this time).  Eligos gave them all a hearty congratulations on ridding the City of such a vile predator as Pollard ushered them up to their rooms.  In his room, Thorash began identifying some of the magic items that the party had recovered.  One of these items was a magic book that, once opened, tried to drain him of his mental faculties, but he was able to resist the effect.  Thorash recognized the item immediately by reputation as a cursed item known as a Vacuous Grimoire.     19th of Reaping.  After rememorizing spells, Alexander took his turn identifying the  magic items.  Once Alexander had confirmed all of Thorash's identifications, the party began divvying them up.  Alexander chose the Rod of Lesser Empower Metamagic, Katawan chose the Necklace of Fireballs, Alees chose a Cloak of Resistance +2 and the Boots of Elvenkind, Tarric got a Ring of Counterspells, Killick got a Periapt of Health, and Thorash got an unholy dagger as well as a book wrapped in chains.  Thorash cast a divination spell and then unwrapped the chains from around the book.  The book immediately started flapping its covers like wings and it attacked Thorash, causing him some minor damage.  Thorash was eventually able to destroy the book.  Alees took the remainder of the unclaimed swag to sell elsewhere in the City.  Thorash left to run an errand in the city, as did Tarric.  When Tarric returned, his shield was emblazoned with a new device: a black tower on a red background.  Some in the party recognized the symbol as that belonging to the Knights of Holy Shielding.  When asked about it, Tarric admitted that he had been accepted as a Squire in the Order and that he would be working his way towards full membership as a Knight.    When Thorash returned home, Alexander brought himself to ask the dwarf for a favor.  He asked Thorash to cast Break Enchantment on the petrified pseudodragon in order to free it.  Despite all the open hostility with which Alexander had treated Thorash over the previous few weeks, Thorash consented to Alexander's request.  At dusk, Thorash rememorized spells and cast the spell.  The pseudodragon immediately came back to life and thanked them both.  It asked if there was a favor that it could do in return for its freedom, but Alexander said no and simply released it.     20th of Reaping.  Although the party had been considering leaving Greyhawk bound for the Rainbow Mage's hometown of Rosewater, Killick awoke in the morning with a terrible fever and nasty weeping sores all over his skin.  Killick found that he was tired, wobbly on his feet, and having trouble forming coherent sentences.  At dusk, after rememorizing spells, Thorash tried casting Cure Disease on Killick, but that spell had no effect.  He cast Neutralize Poison, but that spell also had no effect.  He cast Restoration, and that seemed to eliminate some of Killick's symptoms.  But the visible signs of the affliction were still present.  Eligos seemed very concerned about Killick's illness and vowed to find out what it was.     21st of Reaping.  After studying and divining all night long as well as most of the previous day, Eligos finally determined that Killick was the unlucky victim of a cursed item known as a Periapt of Foul Rotting (which the Identify spell had incorrectly categorized as a Periapt of Health).  He explained that removing Killick's affliction would require a number of high level spells cast in sequence.  Although Thorash could cast the first few, they would also need the services of a higher level spellcaster to complete the sequence.  (Or they would need to purchase a scroll of the necessary spell and hope that Thorash did not have a mishap trying to cast it.)  Although Eligos was happy to help the party hire a spellcaster/purchase a scroll, he regretfully informed the party that they would need to use their own funds.  He explained that if the party could/would not to pay to have Killick's curse removed, his symptoms could be dealt with by periodic Restoration spells.  Three spells per week would be necessary to keep Killick at his maximum fighting form.  The party began assembling its cash.    Soon afterwards, Pollard ushered in an irate shopkeeper to speak with Alees.  The shopkeeper angrily threw the scabbarded greatsword at Alees's feet and insisted that she return the money he had given her.  He charged that the greatsword she had sold him was cursed.  He said that, as soon as a customer tried out the sword, he went berserk and attacked everyone around him!  He said that Alees was lucky that no one had been killed, otherwise she would have been responsible for the deaths.  He demanded his money back from the group as well as fair compensation for the loss of his shop's reputation.  Otherwise, he insisted that he would take his complaint to the City Watch as well as to the head of the Union of Shopkeepers who could bar the group from buying or selling anything within City limits.  Eligos did what he could to help calm the man, assuring him that the party would give him his due.  Alees reluctantly gave him back the money she had received for the greatsword as well as 500 additional gp, which basically wiped out all the profit that the party had made from selling all the curiosity pieces from Zyrxog's glass cases.  Once he had received this payment, the shopkeeper instructed Alees never to come to his store again.  Then he stormed off.</blockquote>

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