ADVENTURE 51: BEHIND THE JADE DOOR
PC Roster:
Game Session Date: 26 January 2022
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<AS A REWARD FOR ENSURING OUR SAFETY, YOU MAY EACH ASK OF US ONE QUESTION. WE WILL RESPOND AS BEST WE CAN.>
The five heroes talked among themselves. It wasn't every day they could ask freely any questions they wanted of five gods, even if said gods were in the form of eggs waiting to be reborn. "They might know about the locations of the other Writhing Gates and how to get there," mused Cramer. He pulled out the notes he had written down about the ten Writhing Gates, studying them to see where they were still lacking information. Marlo and the two dwarves looked over his shoulder - rather easily, as the gnome was the shortest member of the team.
But Jhasspok - who couldn't read in any case - didn't need to study any notes to know what he wanted to ask. He was worried about two of his friends, especially about the reception they had received by the god-eggs, who didn't even want to be touched by Marlo or Utred, whom they termed "Unclean Things." Before any of the others could stop him, Jhasspok blurted out his question: "How can my friends Marlo and Utred stop being Unclean Things?" The lizardfolk didn't quite understand what all being an Unclean Thing was but it didn't sound good.
<ATONE, AND CAST AWAY THE GIFTS OF THE DYING ONE,> responded the voice of the god-eggs in the minds of the five heroes. Marlo and Utred each frowned, knowing that to cast away the gifts of the Dying One meant a significant decrease in spellcasting ability in the case of the sorceress and a major lessening of the barbarian's ability to ignore wounds in battle.
Khari was the next to ask his question. "How do we get to the Gate of Rylethek?" he asked, knowing from their notes that this Writhing Gate was supposed to be underwater somewhere. The problem was, there was a lot of "underwater" covering the planet and there was no real easy method of searching below the water in any case.
But the god-eggs had the answer to that one as well. <SEEK THE MERFOLK OF YONDALL'S BAY, FOR THEY CAN LEAD YOU TO WHERE YOU NEED TO GO.> "Yondall's Bay - we know where that is!" remarked Cramer, jotting notes in the margins of his sheet of parchment to update the information they had about the various gates.
Utred's question was of a more personal nature, based on the information he had just received as a result of Jhasspok's question. "Can I atone without losing the increased toughness I rely upon in battle to allow me to keep fighting for the benefit of the whole world and everyone on it?" the dwarven barbarian asked. He hoped by phrasing it in that fashion it might make it more palatable for him to be allowed to maintain his heightened constitution. But the answer he got was the shortest one of the bunch.
<NO.>
Marlo was on the same wavelength as Utred, hoping to find a way to keep the enhancements they had each received from the Dying One - by secretly agreeing to serve the illithid Elder God, even though the five of them had been prophesied to fight against Him and prevent Him from destroying the world with His return. "Just out of curiosity, what would happen if the two of us decided to remain 'Unclean Things,' as you put it?" she asked. If the only downside to maintaining her additional spellcasting power was being called names by a bunch of reincarnating gods from the other side of the world, she personally could live with that.
<YOU WILL BE MORE VULNERABLE TO CORRUPTION FROM THE OUTSIDE.> Marlo's frown only intensified, realizing "the outside" was the god-eggs' term for the Far Realm. And the numerous tentacles sprouting out of the body of her toad familiar Truffles was enough of an indicator of one potential fate of Far Realm corruption to make it less than appealing.
Finally, Cramer voiced his question. "How do we get to the Gate of Svulbiss?" he asked, zeroing in on the Writhing Gate they had determined was likely on the top of a cloud island somewhere. Similar to the problems of locating the underwater gate, finding it among all of the clouds in the skies would be problematic at best.
<WHEN THE TIME IS RIGHT, RETURN TO OVERREACH AND THE PATH WILL BE REVEALED. NOW GO.>
The heroes left the chamber in which the god-eggs had been deposited. "You are welcome to spend the night in the temple," offered Kitsu, one of the fox hengeyokai serving in the shrine. The heroes took her up on the offer, knowing they'd need to find the Gate of Sardegon in the morning, the Writhing Gate under the palace of the Emperor.
"Any ideas on how to go about getting to the Writhing Gate underneath the Emperor's throne?" asked Cramer. "I don't know if just asking nicely will be enough incentive."
"You basically have three approaches," suggested the hengeyokai Tsune. "The first is to start a revolt against the Emperor and sneak into the palace while the main force protecting it is occupied."
"I think we'll probably pass on that one," the gnome replied.
"The second option is a full-frontal assault" - and here Utred perked his head up and gave the young woman his full attention, for "full-frontal assault" were two of his favorite words strung together - "against the troops guarding the Emperor's palace. You are probably capable of overcoming his forces, but to do so would retroactively prove the Emperor's fears against outside countries and reunify Jakura against the outside world. This was the reason they joined with the forces attacking Greenvale in your part of the world."
"Not a real big plan of that option, either," Khari commented. Utred just glared at his fellow dwarf, surprised that anyone would be against a full-frontal assault - the best kind of fun!
"Your third option is to fill the role of Greenvale's envoy once more and broker a formal end to the war, with access to the Jade Door as part of the peace terms." Tsune looked at the group expectantly.
"I think I like that one best," Cramer admitted. He looked over at Marlo. "You up to being our spokeswoman again?"
"Of course," replied the sorceress, tapping her circlet of persuasion. Even without the Dying One's blessing, she had already seen to increasing her persuasiveness through magical means. "I'll need a tongues spell so I can speak to the Emperor in his own language."
"You got it," promised the gnome.
And thus it was the following morning the five heroes from halfway across the world came knocking at the door of the Jade Palace. Upon being granted entry and an audience with the Emperor, the Jakuran leader was convinced to sign a treaty ending hostilities with Greenvale. It was an easy enough decision, especially since they had been beaten back so readily upon their attack and these envoys indicated Greenvale had no desire for retribution. Granting the five strangers access to the Jade Door was also an easy concession to make, especially after the Emperor's own spellcasters confirmed the truth that the five could easily destroy the evil locked away behind the Jade Door, which was the whole reason this palace had been built where it was. Cramer was presented with the Jade Key, which felt fine in his hands; for Marlo and Utred, it seemed uncomfortably warm - perhaps another indicator that there were heretofore unseen disadvantages to the Dying One's enhancements.
With a clap of his hands, the Emperor summoned a pair of attendants who escorted the five strangers to the Jade Door, then fled for their own safety before it was opened to the evil lurking behind it. "Let's buff up," advised Cramer and Marlo cast the standard Rary's telepathic bond spell that linked the five together telepathically. She then cast three stoneskin spells on the men (other than Utred, who claimed he didn't need it), already protected herself by a similar effect from the brooch of petrified flesh she wore pinned to her robe of eyes.
<Ready?> asked Cramer over the link.
<Ready!> confirmed Marlo as Jhasspok gave a startled cry of alarm at the sudden voice in his head - he'd never get used to that spell! Then Cramer used the Jade Key and opened the door.
To his surprise, there were three people standing on the other side of the door, having been trying to pick the lock from the other side. They were all drow dressed in black leather armor, with House insignias indicating they were from a Lesser House of Overreach allied with House Bel'vior, whose most recent Matron Mother had been none other than the Mortal Queen herself. Before anyone else could react, the gnome cleric cast a quickened searing light spell at one of the drow, who dodged the ray at the last moment, followed by a flame strike spell that caused a column of holy fire to drop down from above. But of the three drow rogues standing immediately before him, two of them managed to maneuver themselves out of the way of the cascading flames and the third was entirely unaffected thanks to the inherent resistance to spells enjoyed by members of the dark elf race. Having had all of his impressive spellcasting negated entirely, Cramer dodged to the side, hiding behind the impressive bulk of Utred Butterflinger.
Utred charged forward and cut the first drow down with a solid overhand blow of his Elderwood flaming greataxe. Without missing a beat, he yanked the weapon out of the slain dark elf and sent it backhanding into his neighbor, not managing to kill the second drow but coming fairly close to finishing that particular job. Staggering back, the drow managed to fill his hands with a rapier and a short sword and went stabbing forward with both weapons against Utred. The third drow, a bit further back than the others, shot at Utred with a poisoned hand crossbow and then turned and raced down the stairs behind him, calling out in the Drow tongue to others further down the stairs. But both Marlo and Cramer understood Drow fully and translated over the telepathic link for the others: <He's saying, "The Jalamir slaves are here!">
<Nice to be recognized,> smirked Utred.
Marlo cast an empowered maximized scorching ray spell, sending two gouts of flame at the drow fighting Utred (which killed him outright) and the third chasing after the drow rogue fleeing down the stairs. Khari rushed in, saw the slope of the spiraling steps leading down, and used his earthglide warhammer to take a shortcut through the stone floor. Jhasspok had no means of taking a shortcut in that fashion and so dedicated himself to racing down the winding stairs as fast as he could go, his battleaxe held at the ready in his shield hand and his flaming spear - his go-to ranged weapon - held in his right. As soon as he saw the fleeing rogue he threw the spear with all his might, catching the drow in the shoulder and toppling him forward. The lizardfolk could hear the sounds of booted feet clambering up the stairs, some distance below him.
At the bottom of the winding stairs stood a much larger chamber, in which was the now-familiar sight of a Writhing Gate. But none of the heroes had made it far enough down to see it yet and there were no light sources down there in any case by which to see it. But sitting in one of the seats before a collapsed tentacle was a drow cleric who began the casting of a forbiddance spell. The spell took some time to cast, but she had full faith in the five drow fighters rushing up the steps to head off any threat to their leader. Her main bodyguard, an anti-paladin from her same House, cast a magic circle against good spell, unaware that the only one of the five intruders it would affect was Khari Hammerslammer.
Cramer dashed forward, his speed enhanced by the longstrider spell he had cast before entering the Jade Door, and positioned himself such that his holy aura spell could encompass all five of the heroes. Utred raced past the gnome, focused on slaying the drow rogue Jhasspok's flaming spear had sent tumbling, but by the time he reached his target the drow had regained his feet. The dwarf tried grappling with the drow but the rogue danced nimbly away, stabbing at Utred with his blades. But with the holy aura spell now in full effect, the few scant drops of blood his blade drew from Utred's skin was paid for by a permanent blindness covering the attacking drow's eyes. He cried out in alarm, but already he was too blind to see Utred's wide grin at the predicament of his current combat foe. The hapless roguee stabbed ineffectually at the barbarian, unaware he had just been targeted by Marlo with an empowered magic missile spell which had failed to penetrate his own spell resistance. But then Khari knocked him senseless with a solid blow from his dwarven warhammer and he fell to the ground, bleeding out.
Jhasspok snatched up his flaming spear on his way down the stairs and was the first to meet up with the five drow fighters running up the stairs to meet the intruders in battle. He swung at the nearest with his battleaxe as the ironsilk-clad fighter raced past the lizardfolk, catching him a good one but without enough power behind it to slay the drow outright. Then he was past the lizardfolk and it was all Jhasspok could do to keep the longswords swinging at him from all directions from penetrating his own scaly hide. Once again he was grateful for Marlo's stoneskin spell, for without it there was no way he could fight off all five of these foes by himself, even just for long enough to allow the others to catch up with him and add their own attacks to the reptile's own. On the plus side, two of the five fighters were struck blind after having attacked a foe under the protection of a holy aura spell.
The drow cleric could see the light from Jhasspok's slave-light cloak through the open doorway connecting the stairs to the Writhing Gate chamber and frantically continued her spellcasting. The drow anti-paladin cast a bull's strength spell upon himself, not in the least bit concerned for the fighters battling the enraged lizardfolk within view; that, after all, was the purpose of lesser combatants. Cramer got within sight of the drow fighters piling on Jhasspok and cast a mass inflict moderate wounds that had some effect on most of them. Utred, having activated his winged boots in order to speed even faster down the stairs, slammed into the closest of the drow fighters and let loose with his greataxe. And then Marlo appeared from the curve of the stairs, casting another maximized empowered scorching ray spell, only to curse in unladylike fury as the drow spell resistance completely negated each and every ray.
Khari took another through-the-wall shortcut and found himself directly behind one of the drow fighters attacking Jhasspok. But while that particular drow seemed to be blind, the one standing next to him wasn't - and was bringing his weapons to bear against the Hammerslammer dwarf! Activating his innate psionic abilities to boost his own attacks, Khari sent his warhammer's head crashing into the drow's side, crushing a rib or two in the swing. The five drow were now up against Jhasspok, Utred, and Khari and between the three of them they finished the dark elves rather handily, considering most of them were blind by the end of the battle.
There was now nothing keeping the intruders at bay any longer. The drow cleric continued her spellcasting, hoping to get the forbiddance spell into effect before being interrupted by the Jalamir slaves. The drow anti-paladin cast a divine favor spell upon himself and started to step forward to place himself as a living barrier against anyone trying to get to the cleric behind him.
Jhasspok was the first to enter the lightless chamber. Since he couldn't see anything inside, he did what he normally did in such circumstances: used his great speed to run straight forward, altering course when he found someone to attack. The anti-paladin was well outside the illumination from the lizardfolk's slave-light cloak, so Jhasspok soon found himself face to face against the female drow, who snarled in fury at the possibility of having to abandon her forbiddance spell due to the interruption; hopefully it wouldn't come to that! She took a step back as the lizardfolk got his bearings, facing her in the light from his magic cloak.
Cramer moved forward, still outside the Writhing Gate chamber, activating his ring of invisibility as he did so. Behind him, Utred literally flew into the room, the wings on his boots granting him extra speed. He saw the anti-paladin at once with his darkvision and angled his way, but the drow was amazingly quick and got in a couple of one-two swings with his longsword. Utred had fully expected to ignore the blows - he very rarely even noticed his battle-wounds until the fight was over - but these had a familiar life-draining aspect to them that the barbarian recognized all too well. <Guy's got a bloody sword of life stealing!> Utred warned the others over the link. But then the anti-paladin cried out as well, not because the dwarf had managed to hit him - he hadn't, not yet - but because his own attacks against the dwarf had rendered him blind. Cramer's holy aura spell was turning out to have been the best possible avenue of protection the cleric of Fharlanghn could possibly have prepared.
Marlo, standing beside Cramer, targeted the blind anti-paladin with another empowered maximized scorching ray and once again failed to penetrate the dark elf's inherent spell resistance. "I hate drow!" she cried out in frustration, not bothering to use the telepathic link to get her message across. Her verbal outburst echoed across the cavern for all to hear.
Khari, in the meantime, started running toward the anti-paladin but sank into the stone cavern floor as he did so, only to pop up behind him and send his warhammer crashing into the back of the drow's head. Further back in the cavern, Jhasspok advanced to attack the cleric and was surprised when she stopped whatever spellcasting she had been trying to do and whipped out some sort of short staff with five wiggling tentacles at one end of it. The tentacle rod missed him - which caused her to swear in the Drow language, only some of the words recognizable to the lizardfolk - and then he attacked her with fury, his blade catching her in the side, on the elbow, and on the thigh in rapid succession. Jhasspok gave it his all, especially now that he knew beyond any doubt that this was an evil drow he was fighting, for he recognized a few of those words she was cursing and no good person would ever use words like that!
The drow cleric faked a sprint in one direction and then doubled back in the other; Jhasspok managed to get in one good hit against her but then she was out of his range, fleeing to the potential safety of being at the anti-paladin's side. She had been hoping to get close enough to him to cast a mass heal spell on them both, but he was too far away; a heal spell on herself would have to suffice for now, then. She smiled as the wounds inflicted by Jhasspok's axe sealed themselves back up, restoring her to her full power. And she was now far enough away from the lizardfolk to be outside of the radius of his cloak's illumination, so he couldn't see exactly where she had gotten to.
But that didn't last long, for Cramer cast a daylight spell on a copper piece from his belt pouch and flipped it onto the stone floor, the spellcasting not actually an attack and thus preserving his current invisibility. But the entire cavern was now visible to all, not just the drow and dwarves gifted with darkvision (and Marlo, who saw quite well through the eyes of her magic robe). The sorceress dropped a hand to the gnome's shoulder and tried to dimension door the two of them into the chamber, only to find the entire room had been protected with a dimensional lock spell prohibiting such spells from working. This was definitely not Marlo's day for successful spellcasting!
Utred attacked the anti-paladin again, with the drow reaching out blindly at the dwarven barbarian and casting a corrupting hands spell at him. Khari swung his warhammer into the drow, eliciting a grunt of pain from the anti-paladin. But now that Jhasspok could see the foul-mouthed drow cleric perfectly well, he raced in a bee-line at her and used his new tail-band of the raptor to engage in a frenzy of attacks upon reaching her, his blade slicing into her flesh as he brought his mouthful of sharp teeth snapping at her neck, drawing blood.
The blind anti-paladin didn't have a whole lot of fight left in him at this point. He swung his evil blade at Utred again but the barbarian easily dodged the blow and then struck him with the full might of his own greataxe. Marlo finished him off with an empowered lightning bolt spell, crying out in surprised joy when the spell made its way through the drow's spell resistance. "Did you see that? I got him!" she cried exuberantly, once again forgoing the use of the telepathic link to hear her own words aloud.
Khari moved up to flank the drow cleric with Jhasspok, who held a chunk of her flesh in his mouth, her blood spilling out from between his teeth. She stumbled past the dwarven fighter, taking a solid whack in the side from his hammer, just so she could cast a time stop spell that she hoped would give her the advantage, now that she was facing five-against-one odds. In the scant few seconds where she was the only one capable of movement, she cast the mass heal spell she'd hoped to use earlier (overkill, but you played the hand that was dealt to you), as well as an invisibility spell on herself that she hoped would keep her safe from being targeted as she raced to the open doorway, knowing full well from past experience the dimensional lock spell wouldn't allow her to teleport out of the chamber.
But she hadn't counted on Marlo's robe of eyes. The sorceress wasn't sure how the drow spellcaster had somehow made it all the way across the chamber seemingly in a split second (for that was how things appeared to her after the drow's time stop spell had run its course), but she called out to Cramer over the telepathic link. <Cramer! She's invisible, about ten feet to your left!>
Cramer responded by casting an antimagic field spell, draining all magic in a radius around the drow cleric. Her invisibility spell was instantly suppressed, revealing her to everyone in the light of the daylight spell cast upon the gnome's copper piece. Jhasspok and the dwarves were on her in an instant, their weapons no longer magical but the sharpness of their blades and the solidity of Khari's hammer unaffected by the gnome's spell. Armed only with her tentacle rod, the cleric didn't last long against the onslaught.
"That it?" Utred called, looking around the room for more enemies to fight - there could be some hiding behind the collapsed tentacles, perhaps. But no, there was nobody else alive within the chamber but the five former slaves, so Utred unwrapped his Null Axe and got to work. Before too long all ten tentacles had been severed, their stubs withdrawing back into the Far Realm and the extraplanar holes sealing up behind them.
"Another one down!" Cramer smiled, updating his parchment of notes. "That only leaves three more to go!"
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We gained enough XP for us each to level up to 18th level at the end of this adventure. And now Vicki and Joe are giving serious thought about having Cramer cast atonement spells on their PCs, it finally having been driven home that accepting gifts from the Elder God you're trying to kill is probably not a good thing. That means Marlo losing 6 points of Charisma and Utred losing 6 points of Constitution, but that probably beats sprouting tentacles all over your body, which at this point is still a distinct possibility.
PC Roster:
Cramer Appleknocker, gnome cleric 17
Jhasspok, lizardman 3/barbarian 3/fighter 11
Khari Hammerslammer, dwarf fighter 16/psychic warrior 1
Marlo Pendragon, human sorcerer 17
Utred "Buckets" Butterflinger, dwarf barbarian 17
Game Session Date: 26 January 2022
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<AS A REWARD FOR ENSURING OUR SAFETY, YOU MAY EACH ASK OF US ONE QUESTION. WE WILL RESPOND AS BEST WE CAN.>
The five heroes talked among themselves. It wasn't every day they could ask freely any questions they wanted of five gods, even if said gods were in the form of eggs waiting to be reborn. "They might know about the locations of the other Writhing Gates and how to get there," mused Cramer. He pulled out the notes he had written down about the ten Writhing Gates, studying them to see where they were still lacking information. Marlo and the two dwarves looked over his shoulder - rather easily, as the gnome was the shortest member of the team.
But Jhasspok - who couldn't read in any case - didn't need to study any notes to know what he wanted to ask. He was worried about two of his friends, especially about the reception they had received by the god-eggs, who didn't even want to be touched by Marlo or Utred, whom they termed "Unclean Things." Before any of the others could stop him, Jhasspok blurted out his question: "How can my friends Marlo and Utred stop being Unclean Things?" The lizardfolk didn't quite understand what all being an Unclean Thing was but it didn't sound good.
<ATONE, AND CAST AWAY THE GIFTS OF THE DYING ONE,> responded the voice of the god-eggs in the minds of the five heroes. Marlo and Utred each frowned, knowing that to cast away the gifts of the Dying One meant a significant decrease in spellcasting ability in the case of the sorceress and a major lessening of the barbarian's ability to ignore wounds in battle.
Khari was the next to ask his question. "How do we get to the Gate of Rylethek?" he asked, knowing from their notes that this Writhing Gate was supposed to be underwater somewhere. The problem was, there was a lot of "underwater" covering the planet and there was no real easy method of searching below the water in any case.
But the god-eggs had the answer to that one as well. <SEEK THE MERFOLK OF YONDALL'S BAY, FOR THEY CAN LEAD YOU TO WHERE YOU NEED TO GO.> "Yondall's Bay - we know where that is!" remarked Cramer, jotting notes in the margins of his sheet of parchment to update the information they had about the various gates.
Utred's question was of a more personal nature, based on the information he had just received as a result of Jhasspok's question. "Can I atone without losing the increased toughness I rely upon in battle to allow me to keep fighting for the benefit of the whole world and everyone on it?" the dwarven barbarian asked. He hoped by phrasing it in that fashion it might make it more palatable for him to be allowed to maintain his heightened constitution. But the answer he got was the shortest one of the bunch.
<NO.>
Marlo was on the same wavelength as Utred, hoping to find a way to keep the enhancements they had each received from the Dying One - by secretly agreeing to serve the illithid Elder God, even though the five of them had been prophesied to fight against Him and prevent Him from destroying the world with His return. "Just out of curiosity, what would happen if the two of us decided to remain 'Unclean Things,' as you put it?" she asked. If the only downside to maintaining her additional spellcasting power was being called names by a bunch of reincarnating gods from the other side of the world, she personally could live with that.
<YOU WILL BE MORE VULNERABLE TO CORRUPTION FROM THE OUTSIDE.> Marlo's frown only intensified, realizing "the outside" was the god-eggs' term for the Far Realm. And the numerous tentacles sprouting out of the body of her toad familiar Truffles was enough of an indicator of one potential fate of Far Realm corruption to make it less than appealing.
Finally, Cramer voiced his question. "How do we get to the Gate of Svulbiss?" he asked, zeroing in on the Writhing Gate they had determined was likely on the top of a cloud island somewhere. Similar to the problems of locating the underwater gate, finding it among all of the clouds in the skies would be problematic at best.
<WHEN THE TIME IS RIGHT, RETURN TO OVERREACH AND THE PATH WILL BE REVEALED. NOW GO.>
The heroes left the chamber in which the god-eggs had been deposited. "You are welcome to spend the night in the temple," offered Kitsu, one of the fox hengeyokai serving in the shrine. The heroes took her up on the offer, knowing they'd need to find the Gate of Sardegon in the morning, the Writhing Gate under the palace of the Emperor.
"Any ideas on how to go about getting to the Writhing Gate underneath the Emperor's throne?" asked Cramer. "I don't know if just asking nicely will be enough incentive."
"You basically have three approaches," suggested the hengeyokai Tsune. "The first is to start a revolt against the Emperor and sneak into the palace while the main force protecting it is occupied."
"I think we'll probably pass on that one," the gnome replied.
"The second option is a full-frontal assault" - and here Utred perked his head up and gave the young woman his full attention, for "full-frontal assault" were two of his favorite words strung together - "against the troops guarding the Emperor's palace. You are probably capable of overcoming his forces, but to do so would retroactively prove the Emperor's fears against outside countries and reunify Jakura against the outside world. This was the reason they joined with the forces attacking Greenvale in your part of the world."
"Not a real big plan of that option, either," Khari commented. Utred just glared at his fellow dwarf, surprised that anyone would be against a full-frontal assault - the best kind of fun!
"Your third option is to fill the role of Greenvale's envoy once more and broker a formal end to the war, with access to the Jade Door as part of the peace terms." Tsune looked at the group expectantly.
"I think I like that one best," Cramer admitted. He looked over at Marlo. "You up to being our spokeswoman again?"
"Of course," replied the sorceress, tapping her circlet of persuasion. Even without the Dying One's blessing, she had already seen to increasing her persuasiveness through magical means. "I'll need a tongues spell so I can speak to the Emperor in his own language."
"You got it," promised the gnome.
And thus it was the following morning the five heroes from halfway across the world came knocking at the door of the Jade Palace. Upon being granted entry and an audience with the Emperor, the Jakuran leader was convinced to sign a treaty ending hostilities with Greenvale. It was an easy enough decision, especially since they had been beaten back so readily upon their attack and these envoys indicated Greenvale had no desire for retribution. Granting the five strangers access to the Jade Door was also an easy concession to make, especially after the Emperor's own spellcasters confirmed the truth that the five could easily destroy the evil locked away behind the Jade Door, which was the whole reason this palace had been built where it was. Cramer was presented with the Jade Key, which felt fine in his hands; for Marlo and Utred, it seemed uncomfortably warm - perhaps another indicator that there were heretofore unseen disadvantages to the Dying One's enhancements.
With a clap of his hands, the Emperor summoned a pair of attendants who escorted the five strangers to the Jade Door, then fled for their own safety before it was opened to the evil lurking behind it. "Let's buff up," advised Cramer and Marlo cast the standard Rary's telepathic bond spell that linked the five together telepathically. She then cast three stoneskin spells on the men (other than Utred, who claimed he didn't need it), already protected herself by a similar effect from the brooch of petrified flesh she wore pinned to her robe of eyes.
<Ready?> asked Cramer over the link.
<Ready!> confirmed Marlo as Jhasspok gave a startled cry of alarm at the sudden voice in his head - he'd never get used to that spell! Then Cramer used the Jade Key and opened the door.
To his surprise, there were three people standing on the other side of the door, having been trying to pick the lock from the other side. They were all drow dressed in black leather armor, with House insignias indicating they were from a Lesser House of Overreach allied with House Bel'vior, whose most recent Matron Mother had been none other than the Mortal Queen herself. Before anyone else could react, the gnome cleric cast a quickened searing light spell at one of the drow, who dodged the ray at the last moment, followed by a flame strike spell that caused a column of holy fire to drop down from above. But of the three drow rogues standing immediately before him, two of them managed to maneuver themselves out of the way of the cascading flames and the third was entirely unaffected thanks to the inherent resistance to spells enjoyed by members of the dark elf race. Having had all of his impressive spellcasting negated entirely, Cramer dodged to the side, hiding behind the impressive bulk of Utred Butterflinger.
Utred charged forward and cut the first drow down with a solid overhand blow of his Elderwood flaming greataxe. Without missing a beat, he yanked the weapon out of the slain dark elf and sent it backhanding into his neighbor, not managing to kill the second drow but coming fairly close to finishing that particular job. Staggering back, the drow managed to fill his hands with a rapier and a short sword and went stabbing forward with both weapons against Utred. The third drow, a bit further back than the others, shot at Utred with a poisoned hand crossbow and then turned and raced down the stairs behind him, calling out in the Drow tongue to others further down the stairs. But both Marlo and Cramer understood Drow fully and translated over the telepathic link for the others: <He's saying, "The Jalamir slaves are here!">
<Nice to be recognized,> smirked Utred.
Marlo cast an empowered maximized scorching ray spell, sending two gouts of flame at the drow fighting Utred (which killed him outright) and the third chasing after the drow rogue fleeing down the stairs. Khari rushed in, saw the slope of the spiraling steps leading down, and used his earthglide warhammer to take a shortcut through the stone floor. Jhasspok had no means of taking a shortcut in that fashion and so dedicated himself to racing down the winding stairs as fast as he could go, his battleaxe held at the ready in his shield hand and his flaming spear - his go-to ranged weapon - held in his right. As soon as he saw the fleeing rogue he threw the spear with all his might, catching the drow in the shoulder and toppling him forward. The lizardfolk could hear the sounds of booted feet clambering up the stairs, some distance below him.
At the bottom of the winding stairs stood a much larger chamber, in which was the now-familiar sight of a Writhing Gate. But none of the heroes had made it far enough down to see it yet and there were no light sources down there in any case by which to see it. But sitting in one of the seats before a collapsed tentacle was a drow cleric who began the casting of a forbiddance spell. The spell took some time to cast, but she had full faith in the five drow fighters rushing up the steps to head off any threat to their leader. Her main bodyguard, an anti-paladin from her same House, cast a magic circle against good spell, unaware that the only one of the five intruders it would affect was Khari Hammerslammer.
Cramer dashed forward, his speed enhanced by the longstrider spell he had cast before entering the Jade Door, and positioned himself such that his holy aura spell could encompass all five of the heroes. Utred raced past the gnome, focused on slaying the drow rogue Jhasspok's flaming spear had sent tumbling, but by the time he reached his target the drow had regained his feet. The dwarf tried grappling with the drow but the rogue danced nimbly away, stabbing at Utred with his blades. But with the holy aura spell now in full effect, the few scant drops of blood his blade drew from Utred's skin was paid for by a permanent blindness covering the attacking drow's eyes. He cried out in alarm, but already he was too blind to see Utred's wide grin at the predicament of his current combat foe. The hapless roguee stabbed ineffectually at the barbarian, unaware he had just been targeted by Marlo with an empowered magic missile spell which had failed to penetrate his own spell resistance. But then Khari knocked him senseless with a solid blow from his dwarven warhammer and he fell to the ground, bleeding out.
Jhasspok snatched up his flaming spear on his way down the stairs and was the first to meet up with the five drow fighters running up the stairs to meet the intruders in battle. He swung at the nearest with his battleaxe as the ironsilk-clad fighter raced past the lizardfolk, catching him a good one but without enough power behind it to slay the drow outright. Then he was past the lizardfolk and it was all Jhasspok could do to keep the longswords swinging at him from all directions from penetrating his own scaly hide. Once again he was grateful for Marlo's stoneskin spell, for without it there was no way he could fight off all five of these foes by himself, even just for long enough to allow the others to catch up with him and add their own attacks to the reptile's own. On the plus side, two of the five fighters were struck blind after having attacked a foe under the protection of a holy aura spell.
The drow cleric could see the light from Jhasspok's slave-light cloak through the open doorway connecting the stairs to the Writhing Gate chamber and frantically continued her spellcasting. The drow anti-paladin cast a bull's strength spell upon himself, not in the least bit concerned for the fighters battling the enraged lizardfolk within view; that, after all, was the purpose of lesser combatants. Cramer got within sight of the drow fighters piling on Jhasspok and cast a mass inflict moderate wounds that had some effect on most of them. Utred, having activated his winged boots in order to speed even faster down the stairs, slammed into the closest of the drow fighters and let loose with his greataxe. And then Marlo appeared from the curve of the stairs, casting another maximized empowered scorching ray spell, only to curse in unladylike fury as the drow spell resistance completely negated each and every ray.
Khari took another through-the-wall shortcut and found himself directly behind one of the drow fighters attacking Jhasspok. But while that particular drow seemed to be blind, the one standing next to him wasn't - and was bringing his weapons to bear against the Hammerslammer dwarf! Activating his innate psionic abilities to boost his own attacks, Khari sent his warhammer's head crashing into the drow's side, crushing a rib or two in the swing. The five drow were now up against Jhasspok, Utred, and Khari and between the three of them they finished the dark elves rather handily, considering most of them were blind by the end of the battle.
There was now nothing keeping the intruders at bay any longer. The drow cleric continued her spellcasting, hoping to get the forbiddance spell into effect before being interrupted by the Jalamir slaves. The drow anti-paladin cast a divine favor spell upon himself and started to step forward to place himself as a living barrier against anyone trying to get to the cleric behind him.
Jhasspok was the first to enter the lightless chamber. Since he couldn't see anything inside, he did what he normally did in such circumstances: used his great speed to run straight forward, altering course when he found someone to attack. The anti-paladin was well outside the illumination from the lizardfolk's slave-light cloak, so Jhasspok soon found himself face to face against the female drow, who snarled in fury at the possibility of having to abandon her forbiddance spell due to the interruption; hopefully it wouldn't come to that! She took a step back as the lizardfolk got his bearings, facing her in the light from his magic cloak.
Cramer moved forward, still outside the Writhing Gate chamber, activating his ring of invisibility as he did so. Behind him, Utred literally flew into the room, the wings on his boots granting him extra speed. He saw the anti-paladin at once with his darkvision and angled his way, but the drow was amazingly quick and got in a couple of one-two swings with his longsword. Utred had fully expected to ignore the blows - he very rarely even noticed his battle-wounds until the fight was over - but these had a familiar life-draining aspect to them that the barbarian recognized all too well. <Guy's got a bloody sword of life stealing!> Utred warned the others over the link. But then the anti-paladin cried out as well, not because the dwarf had managed to hit him - he hadn't, not yet - but because his own attacks against the dwarf had rendered him blind. Cramer's holy aura spell was turning out to have been the best possible avenue of protection the cleric of Fharlanghn could possibly have prepared.
Marlo, standing beside Cramer, targeted the blind anti-paladin with another empowered maximized scorching ray and once again failed to penetrate the dark elf's inherent spell resistance. "I hate drow!" she cried out in frustration, not bothering to use the telepathic link to get her message across. Her verbal outburst echoed across the cavern for all to hear.
Khari, in the meantime, started running toward the anti-paladin but sank into the stone cavern floor as he did so, only to pop up behind him and send his warhammer crashing into the back of the drow's head. Further back in the cavern, Jhasspok advanced to attack the cleric and was surprised when she stopped whatever spellcasting she had been trying to do and whipped out some sort of short staff with five wiggling tentacles at one end of it. The tentacle rod missed him - which caused her to swear in the Drow language, only some of the words recognizable to the lizardfolk - and then he attacked her with fury, his blade catching her in the side, on the elbow, and on the thigh in rapid succession. Jhasspok gave it his all, especially now that he knew beyond any doubt that this was an evil drow he was fighting, for he recognized a few of those words she was cursing and no good person would ever use words like that!
The drow cleric faked a sprint in one direction and then doubled back in the other; Jhasspok managed to get in one good hit against her but then she was out of his range, fleeing to the potential safety of being at the anti-paladin's side. She had been hoping to get close enough to him to cast a mass heal spell on them both, but he was too far away; a heal spell on herself would have to suffice for now, then. She smiled as the wounds inflicted by Jhasspok's axe sealed themselves back up, restoring her to her full power. And she was now far enough away from the lizardfolk to be outside of the radius of his cloak's illumination, so he couldn't see exactly where she had gotten to.
But that didn't last long, for Cramer cast a daylight spell on a copper piece from his belt pouch and flipped it onto the stone floor, the spellcasting not actually an attack and thus preserving his current invisibility. But the entire cavern was now visible to all, not just the drow and dwarves gifted with darkvision (and Marlo, who saw quite well through the eyes of her magic robe). The sorceress dropped a hand to the gnome's shoulder and tried to dimension door the two of them into the chamber, only to find the entire room had been protected with a dimensional lock spell prohibiting such spells from working. This was definitely not Marlo's day for successful spellcasting!
Utred attacked the anti-paladin again, with the drow reaching out blindly at the dwarven barbarian and casting a corrupting hands spell at him. Khari swung his warhammer into the drow, eliciting a grunt of pain from the anti-paladin. But now that Jhasspok could see the foul-mouthed drow cleric perfectly well, he raced in a bee-line at her and used his new tail-band of the raptor to engage in a frenzy of attacks upon reaching her, his blade slicing into her flesh as he brought his mouthful of sharp teeth snapping at her neck, drawing blood.
The blind anti-paladin didn't have a whole lot of fight left in him at this point. He swung his evil blade at Utred again but the barbarian easily dodged the blow and then struck him with the full might of his own greataxe. Marlo finished him off with an empowered lightning bolt spell, crying out in surprised joy when the spell made its way through the drow's spell resistance. "Did you see that? I got him!" she cried exuberantly, once again forgoing the use of the telepathic link to hear her own words aloud.
Khari moved up to flank the drow cleric with Jhasspok, who held a chunk of her flesh in his mouth, her blood spilling out from between his teeth. She stumbled past the dwarven fighter, taking a solid whack in the side from his hammer, just so she could cast a time stop spell that she hoped would give her the advantage, now that she was facing five-against-one odds. In the scant few seconds where she was the only one capable of movement, she cast the mass heal spell she'd hoped to use earlier (overkill, but you played the hand that was dealt to you), as well as an invisibility spell on herself that she hoped would keep her safe from being targeted as she raced to the open doorway, knowing full well from past experience the dimensional lock spell wouldn't allow her to teleport out of the chamber.
But she hadn't counted on Marlo's robe of eyes. The sorceress wasn't sure how the drow spellcaster had somehow made it all the way across the chamber seemingly in a split second (for that was how things appeared to her after the drow's time stop spell had run its course), but she called out to Cramer over the telepathic link. <Cramer! She's invisible, about ten feet to your left!>
Cramer responded by casting an antimagic field spell, draining all magic in a radius around the drow cleric. Her invisibility spell was instantly suppressed, revealing her to everyone in the light of the daylight spell cast upon the gnome's copper piece. Jhasspok and the dwarves were on her in an instant, their weapons no longer magical but the sharpness of their blades and the solidity of Khari's hammer unaffected by the gnome's spell. Armed only with her tentacle rod, the cleric didn't last long against the onslaught.
"That it?" Utred called, looking around the room for more enemies to fight - there could be some hiding behind the collapsed tentacles, perhaps. But no, there was nobody else alive within the chamber but the five former slaves, so Utred unwrapped his Null Axe and got to work. Before too long all ten tentacles had been severed, their stubs withdrawing back into the Far Realm and the extraplanar holes sealing up behind them.
"Another one down!" Cramer smiled, updating his parchment of notes. "That only leaves three more to go!"
- - -
We gained enough XP for us each to level up to 18th level at the end of this adventure. And now Vicki and Joe are giving serious thought about having Cramer cast atonement spells on their PCs, it finally having been driven home that accepting gifts from the Elder God you're trying to kill is probably not a good thing. That means Marlo losing 6 points of Charisma and Utred losing 6 points of Constitution, but that probably beats sprouting tentacles all over your body, which at this point is still a distinct possibility.
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