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Message: <blockquote data-quote="el-remmen" data-source="post: 2819772" data-attributes="member: 11"> Session #78 (part ii)“By the gods!  One of the heads is like a dragon!” Kazrack called out.  “Careful! It may breathe fire like a dragon.”  And he cast a spell to protect himself from fire.“Spread out!” Ratchis cried.  “If it can breathe fire we don’t want to be clumped up!”  He cast the spell upon himself as well. (1)“Bast!  I call your holy prayer down upon us so that we might vanquish this fiendish foe!” Roland cried aloud, and the Keepers of the Gate felt the cat goddess’ power bolster their limbs and hearts.The chimera came down almost lazily.“Bast! Thou who art as graceful as though art righteous in your anger, smite this fiend and let it taste your power!” Roland cried out to his goddess, but this time the spell seemed to fizzle as it reached out for thing. “Drat!”The priest of Bast, began to load his crossbow, as bolts and arrows from the others flew up at the beast. It snarled and roared and bleated, and them banked wide again, forcing the party to turn in order to be ready for its attack. Martin cast Bull’s Strength on Logan.  Roland fired his crossbow and missed.The thing swooped by and its red dragon head spat a gout of flame at Ratchis.  The half-orc ducked and rolled just in time, his spell protecting him from what little flame did reach him.Kazrack let an axe fly, but it bounced off the thing’s hide.“Lentus!” Martin chanted, but the spell had no effect.Logan and Ratchis leapt at the thing, but Ratchis fell short not getting enough lift.  Logan grunted as the dragon head slammed against his hip, but he brought his sword down drawing steaming blood as he tumbled back to the ground.  The chimera let loose its bellows and cries and landed behind a barren tree near Dorn, turning to face the party.Dorn dropped his crossbow and pulled his sword, but swung with trepidation, his fear was evident in his body language, and his blow fell short.  Ratchis, Kazrack, and Logan came rushing over, with Roland taking up the rear.   The dwarf was closest and he sidestepped a butt from the goat head and slammed his halberd blade into the lion face.Martin cast a spell and a small globe of light appeared beside him and bobbled along with him as he approached. (2)Logan arrived, but his blows were knocked away by the dragon head, and Ratchis got there just in time to get butted in the face.  Kazrack’s roar echoed the lion’s, as his armor turned away the heavy blows of the thing’s two claws and he beat away the lion bite with his halberd.The dragon head spat fire once again, but Kazrack and Ratchis resisted it with their gods’ help, and Logan was able to evade the blast.“I offer your pain to Krauchaar!” Kazrack cried, plunging his halberd into the thing’s chest as it reared up to attack again.  He twisted and jerked it free, slamming the goat head in the side of the face as he drew back.Roland came flying over the dwarf’s head in panther-form, snarling as he took a bite from the dragon head, but he managed to land atop it grasping deep in the lion’s mane with his jaws as he ripped up its back.Ratchis stepped in and brought his sword down on the goat head as the beast was distracted by pain.  Logan moved in from the other side, accompanied by Dorn, as Martin has his radiant spark hover in the dragon’s eyes.The dragon head reached back and bit into Roland’s flank, as Ratchis felt a claw rip down his front.  The lion jerked forward to bite Kazrack, but met halberd blade instead.  The pole-arm sliced open the side of its mouth and then slid down to its throat, prying it open.“Raargh! For Krauchaaaaaar!” Kazrack bellowed, chopping down with his pole-axe once again as the chimera collapsed and seemed to shrink as it let loose a cloud of acrid dust, collapsing into a shriveled reminder of its previous horror.“Hmph! The manticore did not shrivel up like that,” Kazrack complained.  “I was hoping for one of its heads.”“That’s the kind of thing that killed half my party,” Dorn said, collapsing to the ground.  “It might be the same one.”“Then we have avenged them to the best of our ability,” said Kazrack.“Yes, good work everyone,” Ratchis said encouragingly.“Where did that thing come from?” Logan asked.“Mozek, most likely,” Ratchis replied. Martin nodded.“So not Richard the Red?” Logan asked.“No, I do not think even Richard would employ such creatures, plus for whatever his faults I do not think he wants us dead,” Martin said.Tholem, the 18th of KeentRa’s Glory was warm and bright the next morning, and it burned off the cold bite of the previous few days as the party made their way along the final leg of the journey to the temple of Bast.  They followed a narrow rocky climb lined with firs that kept them from being seen from the ridge.  It proved to have been a good idea, when an hour later they heard riders hurrying along the top of the ridge and come down it heading southeast.  The riders crossed over the party’s trail behind them.  From the glimpse they got there were at least a dozen with some pack horses as well.“That could be bad news,” Martin said.  Ratchis nodded.By mid-afternoon, they reached a place where the ridge wall and the black flinty hills of the northern border of Gothanius created an acute canyon of sharp rocks flayed out in two directions.  Above, atop the ridge, the former temple of Bast was nearby.  Martin the Green cast levitate on Ratchis and then climbed on his back, and mentally raised and lowered the two of them as the half-orc took each member of the party in his meaty arms one at a time.Logan nearly climbed instead, but finally decided against it and took the awkward ride.The temple was set back about eighty feet from the ridge edge, an abandoned stone garden stood in that space with a cracked fountain.  The place looked much like the last time some of the party members had been here. (3)The trees and vines of the surrounding wood had grown out under the paving stones of the courtyard, and now it was a haphazard mess of root and stone. There were weeds poking up through the flagstones and a nasty dirty mulch of autumn leaves left to rot beneath mounds of melted snow for years and years.The building itself was squat and square, and had a large iron-reinforced wooden door inset against two wooden statues of cats. The iron was rusted, but the door still bore the carvings of hundreds of cat shapes that all fit into each other elegantly. Its base was made of large brown bricks, while the top portion and roof was made of lacquered logs, now chewed by insects and the weather.Kazrack began walking to the door, but Ratchis called him back, “Stay within ten feet of me.”“Why is that?” Logan asked.”My goddess grants me an aura of defense against magics meant to control or trick the mind,” the Friar of Nephthys explained. Logan nodded.  He looked around, taking in the scene as the party approached slowly as a group.Martin walked right up to the door and knocked.There was no answer; no sound of any kind.  Ratchis smashed the side of his fist against the iron-reinforced door three times.  This time there was a rattling within and a few minutes later the great door jerked open.It was Norena of Bast.She did not look like she was staying in a run-down temple as much as she did someone about to go out for a party.  She wore a long red dress, and her red curly lock hung about her bare shoulders, and her blue eyes twinkled in the sunlight.  A few freckles had appeared on her perfect little nose since the last time they had seen her.  She held an orange tabby in one arm, and had a short sword haphazardly belted about her waist, looking very out of place.“Ah, you have finally arrived,” she said, smiling broadly and looking at each of the Keepers of the Gate in the eye.  She moved to let them enter.  “Come in!”“Before we enter, I would like to cast a spell in order to put us more at ease,” Ratchis said.  “Just to see your intentions.”Norena frowned and clucked her tongue.  “You are impugning me?  I am a high priestess of Bast, ally of your own patron goddess, though friars are not known for their manners.  It is not necessary.”“We feel it is, my lady,” Roland said.“You too, Roland? Don’t you trust me?” Norena looked hurt.“Oh, I trust you implicitly, Norena,” Roland replied.  “I do not trust Richard the Red.”She turned back to Ratchis.  “Swear on Nephthys that this is no trick.”The half-orc friar obliged her and she nodded.  He could detect no charming magic upon her.The party entered.  The chamber beyond a small ante-room was the main temple audience chamber.  Here the stone floor was cracked and warped as well, as was an old marble bath fifteen feet to a side set into the floor. There were the remains of many pews, and some other wooden chairs, but most were rotted away and covered in leaves.  The stained glass of the skylight above was long gone.  The opposite end of the temple chamber was an enclosed area that formed a rear wall with two flanking hallways that led to darkness beyond.  The wall itself marked the back of the altar, which right now was a cracked stone dais, and an empty spot where a statue of Bast had once been.There were over a dozen cats wandering about.A red-robed figure stood from the dais steps as the party approached.  It was Richard the Red.“Come in! Come on in! I am glad you came,” Richard flashed his usual smile, but he looked thinner and his auburn beard more scraggily.  “Pull up a chair, but be careful most of them are rotten.”A tall man in a breast plate with a nasty-looking mace at his side came stepping out from the right hand rear hall.  He wore a tunic with a golden ankh emblazoned on an open tome.  A similar sigil was a golden holy symbol about his neck.  His brown hair was cut so short as to be nearly unnoticeable. “You’ve met Cordell of Thoth?” Richard asked, gesturing to the man.  Cordell nodded in acknowledgement.  He pulled tome out from under his arm and flipped it open deftly with one hand, taking a quill from within to jot down something.“Where are the rest of your companions?” Martin asked.“Martin? Oh, no!” Richard went towards his fellow watch-mage, his face mask of pity as he took note of Martin’s deformity. (4)Martin turned away, “ I do not see any Greyish brothers about.”“Oh, Razzle? He’s down in the catacombs playing pretend,” Richard laughed, and then took on an exaggerated expression of offense.  “And you double-crossed me Martin.  I had to learn the hard way things that you knew and weren’t telling me.”“I was just follow your teachings, Richard,” Martin said.  “But let’s leave that in the past, everything changes fast and we have to adapt to that.”“Oh, you will find me very much in agreement with that,’ Richard said, sitting back down on the dais.  “It seems like you are finally learning.”Martin nodded.“And you must be Roland,” Richard said, calling to Roland who stood to the rear with Norena.“Yes, I am, and I need wine,” the Bastite said. “I pray you do have some about?”“Of course,” Richard smiled.  “Cordell will you do the honors of showing our guest down to the catacombs to find us a bottle or two to share?”The silent Thothian nodded and gestured for Roland to follow.“We can start any time you are ready,” Kazrack finally spoke gruffly, his jaw clenched tightly.“Talking it thirsty work, Kazrack,” Richard replied. “And you have yet to gather some chairs so I might say my piece.”Roland went for the wine as the others dropped their gear and carried over benches and chairs. He returned with three bottles and Cordell had two more.  Soon the wine was flowing and everyone was gathered about, but Kazrack would not sit.  Roland sat with a fat calico on his lap, stroking her between the ears as he sipped the wine from one of the two silver cups he carried in his pack and smiled.Logan sat beside him. “If this place wasn’t so run down I could imagine warming up to it.”“Oh, it isn’t so bad,” Roland replied. “I have half a mind to fix up myself.  The people of Gothanius need to start developing a little culture if they are going to survive in the annals of men. And Bast is all about culture.”Roland stood to get more wine, still holding the cat and stroking it.  He called a prayer to Bast to allow him to see into the hearts of men and scanned the chamber. (5)“You’re Logan, right?” Richard the Red asked the young man as he sat again. He took no wine.“Yeah. What? Is that supposed to impress me? You know my name? With all you been spying on us?” Logan replied.“But we’ve met before,” Richard said, smiling.  “You were eight, or maybe nine, I visited your father and he helped me with a mission I was doing for the Academy then.”Logan nodded stiffly.“So tell me what has transpired since we last met,” Richard said, addressing everyone again.“We came here because you said you had something to tell us,” Martin replied. “Sufficed to say we have had a hard journey.  We may choose to tell you more when we hear what you have to say.” Roland made his way back to his seat, speaking the word of another prayer to help him discern lies.“We want to know what you have to give us is worth any kind of exchange,” Ratchis said.  “Your guile is running thin.”“Very well,” Richard sighed. “I wanted to tell you that we have parallel goals and that we should be working cooperatively to solve the problem that now troubles Gothanius and soon all of Derome-Delem.”“Say what you propose plainly,” Kazrack barked.“Beneath this temple, deep in the catacombs is a black door,” Richard said.  “Your friends, the Shepherds, stopped a priest of the Deceitful One (6) from opening it so that what is on the other side can come through, but what they did not know that they did not stop him before he opened it so what is on this side can go where it leads.”“A trapped door?” Kazrack asked.”A black portal to a planar realm,” Richard explained. “The Academy masters would call it a demi-plane, or a pocket plane.  In there is the Key Room to Hurgun’s Maze.”“We’ve already been to a key room,” Kazrack said.  Richard the Red smiled.“That was more of a map room, Kazrack,” Martin said.“I was able to gather from my, uh…reconnaissance…” Richard began.“You mean spying, Richard,” Roland interjected.“Uh, let’s call it scrying… anyway, I was able to gather that you have a way of figuring out where the entrance to Hurgun’s Maze is, or will be, or something, but my question is, how do you know this entrance will be unlocked when you get there?”Martin looked at Kazrack who looked to Ratchis.“Nephthys will open the way for us,” the half-orc said.“I do not doubt your resourcefulness, Ratchis, but… well, no offense, but have you ever considered that you and your Fearless Manticore Killers…“We are the Keepers of the Gate now,” Martin said.“Yes, whatever… have you ever considered that you are not up to handling what you will find in Hurgun’s Maze?” “Everyday,” Ratchis replied.“So why do it?” Richard asked. “Go to the Key Room, unlock the Maze and let Norena and I and our companions handle Hurgun’s Maze.”“You must take us for fools,” Kazrack retorted.“No, I take you for folk who do not want innocents to suffer because of your own shortcomings,” Richard said.“What makes you think you can do it, if we cannot?” Roland asked.“Come now, honey,” Norena said, answering for Richard. “We have more experience than any of you.  This is not some ball you plan to go to.”“And, to be totally forthright with you, like I said we have parallel desires,” Richard continued. “I have my own reasons for wanting to fix whatever is going wrong with Hurgun’s Maze, and thus with Greenreed Valley.  I ask you for this, because I need your help.”“I am tired your lies and manipulations!” Kazrack shouted, and stepped forward.“Kazrack?” Richard said, softly.  “I need your help.”  And with that he stood and reached his hand towards the dwarf who raised his own hand defensively.  The crimson watch-mage’s hand passed right through Kazrack’s forearm, wavering for a second like liquid hanging in the air.  Kazrack felt something cold had pass through his limb.“Natan-ahb’s Beard!”  The dwarf stepped back, startled.“Is that due to the planar bleed?” Martin asked, non-plussed.Richard nodded. “Frequent use of my cloak in the vicinity of Greenreed Valley, as far down south as Aze Nuquerna, as far as my research can tell, has left me so afflicted. There are times that I fade away completely and just float about seeing the world but being unable to affect it.  Other times I can manifest myself by extreme concentration.  Other times I am as I am now, able to interact with the world in a limited form, but these times are growing less frequent.  It seems what many of our colleagues call the ethereal plane is really what others would call the Plane of Shadow.  I am wasting away, and if Hurgun’s Maze is not found and fixed soon, there will be none of me left to bring before the Academy of Wizardry.”“Say again?” Martin nearly spilled his wine.“Do this for me.  Go to the Key Room and unlock Hurgun’s Maze.  Allow Norena and I and our companions to enter the Maze  and do what needs to be done, and if we survive I will return with you to the Academy to face judgment for my actions.  I give you my word.”“And how do we know that you will keep your word, but accomplish some other nefarious task in Hurgun’ Maze?” Roland asked. “It seems to me you are the kind of man that would give his word and keep it when he can get away with something in-between.”Richard stood.  “I have given my offer.”“It seems to me that wasting away to a shadow is a just punishment for someone like you,” Kazrack said.Richard frowned.  “You may stay here as long as you like and consider what I have told you.  We mean you no harm and you may leave freely whenever you like. I grow tired and my form grows less solid.” Richard’s body seemed to wink out for a moment, and then blink back, but ghostly and translucent.  “Cordell can answer whatever questions you may have about the demi-plane to help you make your choice.  It was his research that made me realize that this place was important.”And with that Richard the Red disappeared.“How long will he be gone?” Martin the Green asked Norena.“It could be an hour.  It could be not until nightfall,” Norena replied.  “It changes all the time, but the range seems to be getting towards the longer end.”“It doesn’t matter,” Ratchis said. “We have no time to go to this key room, there is a very limited window of opportunity to learn where the entrance to Hurgun’s Maze is.”“That might not be a problem,” Martin replied, and then turned to the priest of Thoth.  “Do you know if there is a time deferential in this pocket plane?” (7)“A whatsa whoozit?” Kazrack asked.“We believe there is,” Cordell said. “Though we cannot be sure exactly the nature of it, all indications seem that a day spent there is the equivalent to less time here on the Prime.” “What is this place the Key Room is in? Can you describe it?” Kazrack asked.“I found old records referring to the Mystic city of Topaline (8) in the journals of one of my order who lived with Hurgun as a guest in his maze and for several years, traveling abroad and through the planes with him.  It seems that Hurgun took the ruins of this old city as a place to keep a means to summon, lock and open his stronghold from anywhere, merely by reaching this pocket plane,” Cordell explained. “The reason why not many Mystic ruins are found in Aquerra is because the ancients built their cities in areas of space they themselves carved out.  Topaline is one of those places.”“I have a hard time grasping this,” Kazrack said.“It doesn’t matter, we cannot allow Richard to enter the Maze,” Ratchis said.  “At least, not without us, whether we enter this Key Room or not, we are still going to go in there and do what we have set out to do, and if we have to make an alliance with Richard to do it, then so be it, but we won’t be leaving our responsibilities to others, least of all him.”“But will we have time to do both?” Roland asked.“And if the Key Room is so important why doesn’t Richard go and we’ll take care of the Maze?” Kazrack asked.“Richard the Red’s current state would make it dangerous for him to pass into a demi-plane,” Cordell of Thoth replied.“From the little I know of Hurgun’s Maze it would not be much safer as it essentially a mobile nexus of the planes,” Martin said.“Yes, but there is another issue,” Cordell said.  “Aquerra is a prime material plane.  It was created by the gods, and while it can be undone and corrupted it takes a lot of time and effort.  This demi-plane on the other hand was created by mortals, and it has been degrading for centuries, being sucked into the plane of Shadow and eventually the plane of Void itself.  It would be Richard’s undoing.” (7)“So you are saying this city of Topaline and getting to the Key Room itself will be dangerous?” Roland asked.“As if that couldn’t be assumed,” Logan said, rolling his eyes. “My question is, how much do the monks know?  They must not know about this Key Room and portal or else they would be here and not on the other side of the valley, but if we waste time in the Key Room and return with limited time to get into the Maze the camp of monks might overly delay us.  We should take them out before we go, and we should take them out even if we don’t go.”“That is a good point,” Ratchis nodded. “The monks may have an idea where the entrance is already and are waiting for a chance to pinpoint it, and us unlocking the Maze might be it.  They do seem to be camped and waiting for something.”“What exactly does ‘unlocking’ Hurgun’s Maze mean?” Kazrack asked Cordell.“The accounts and records of Hurgun’s Maze say that while the Maze itself was a nexus not wholly in any realm, there were outer buildings and other fortifications that manifested in this world when he brought it here.  This structure is the key to gaining access.  We believe that the Key Room can be used to make it manifest, thus together with the knowledge you have about where the entrance is,  the task can be accomplished.”“What do the buildings look like?” Kazrack asked.  “Is there a wall?  Are there towers?”“Accounts differ, but it is safe to assume it is a fortress of some sort,” the Thothian replied.“Richard! Richard!” someone came bursting into the temple from outside.  It was a young man with black hair and a permanent sailor’s tan. He wore studded leather armor, and held a spear.  There was a long sword at his side.  Behind him came two more young men. One was even darker skinned, with tight black curls and a chain shirt.  He carried a quarterstaff.  The other was short and pale with dark brown hair and a thin patches of facial hair on his sallow face.  It was Finn Fisher, Carlos and Josef.  The Shepherds.  They were out of breath.Finn stopped short.  “Kazrack! Ratchis! What are you doing here?  Well, no matter, just in time!”“Why? What is happening?” Kazrack asked.  “Though I am curious what you are doing here as well.”“A lot of bad things have been happening since you guys went away,” Finn said.  “Richard the Red came and offered us his help.  He said he was a friend of yours.””And you believed him?” Kazrack asked.“Why wouldn’t we?  He is an Academy mage, and wouldn’t you have warned us if someone was lurking about Summit who was dangerous?”“He has been very helpful,” Carlos added in his halting Common tongue.Martin the Green looked to Ratchis and the half-orc’s shoulders drooped.“Anyway, outriders have returned from scouting, you know the militia has been mobilized and the women and children of Summit have been drawn back to camps in the main valley,” Finn explained. “Those fire lizard things came out of the steam area a couple of weeks ago when it erupted, belching all that smoke into the air.  They attacked the town and other outlying settlements like Archet, and if it wasn’t that it seems like a new group of them arrive every few days to feud with the ones that are already here we probably would have been overrun by now.  But that isn’t the problem right now…”“Things have gotten really complicated without that,” Finn continued. “The interim General, the royal Huntsman, the brother of the Queen (9) was killed by evil demon gnomes. We fought one of them and that thing was nasty.  We were barely able to kill it.  The militia and mercenaries hired by the king were about to make an attack on the evil gnome village north of Greenreed Valley when the valley itself erupted.”“The gnomes of that village are not evil,” Ratchis said.  “They are good people who have helped us and we are sworn to help them.  The demon gnomes are a faction, one family of gnomes bent on sowing chaos and causing unrest in the region.”“You know about the gnomes?  You never mentioned them to us before, that might have been helpful,” Finn said, a little annoyance entering his voice. “That makes sense now, we heard rumors that the Royal Huntsman was negotiating a peace with the gnomes when the attack happened, but everyone assumed that it was those gnomes that did the attacking.”“We should have facilitated the negotiations before we left,” Martin said.  “We were in too much of a hurry to get to the Pit of Bones and left our job undone.”“It is too late for regrets,” Ratchis said.Martin noticed Finn and Josef were staring at the state of his face and he brought a hand over his eye reflexively. “Pritchett must have been killed before he ever got to send word to the King about where we were going and why,” Martin added.  “But Finn,  you mentioned outriders returning?”Finn nodded.  “Yes, they reported orcs, scores and scores of them on the march and on their way to Greenreed Valley.”“An army,” Carlos shuddered.”Perhaps the dragon is looking for the Maze?” Ratchis speculated out loud, remembering the great camp and the draconic silhouette they had seen as they made their way back from Nikar. (10)“Maze?” Finn asked.“It is a long story,” Martin.“There seem to be several factions looking for the Maze, but none but Richard seem to be concerned about the so-called ‘Key Room’,” Kazrack said.  “I take that as a sign that he trying to trick or delay us.”“Or that the others have not figured it out,” Roland said.  “For whatever faults Richard the Red may have, he is very intelligent and seems to surround himself with capable and informed people.”  The priest gestured to Cordell and his fellow Bastite.Norena smiled, but Cordell was impassive as ever, taking notes of everything.“There’s more,” Finn said. “More bad news… The king has hired a group of Neergaardian mercenaries not only to help organize the defense effort, but also to find and capture Martin.”“What?” Everyone asked at once.“Martin stands accused of abandoning his post,” Finn replied, sadly.  “He was not seen or heard from for months.  Supposedly, this group specializes in  capturing mages.”End of Session #78----------------------------------------Notes:(1)    DM’s Note: Resist Energy(2)     DM’s Note: Radiant Spark (see <a href="http://aquerra.wikispaces.com/Spell+-+Radiant+Spark" target="_blank">http://aquerra.wikispaces.com/Spell+-+Radiant+Spark</a>)(3)    See Session #38(4)    See Last Session (#77)(5)    DM’s Note: Detect Evil(6)    Most people of Aquerra refrain from saying the names of evil gods aloud, but this is especially true of Seker.(7)    DM’s Note: Martin’s player was making a lot of Knowledge (planar) and Knowledge (arcana) rolls during these conversations.(8)    The Plane of Void is another name for the Negative Material Plane.(9)    The party met Gerard Pritchett, the Royal Huntsman in Session #51(10)    See Session #74</blockquote>

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