Voadam
Legend
Rhun said:
The group consisted of Mason (vow of poverty druid/warshaper/master of many forms/partial water elemental template), Malachi (fighter/paladin/templar of St. Cuthbert), Jonas (rogue/wizard/arcane trickster/archmage); Gumar (elven fighter with an archer build); and Ragnar (dwarven fighter/cleric) all 16th level.
Here is my email summary that I sent for our yahoo group so we could remember the highlights:
Having killed the monstrous spider mount and seen the drau priestess
flee the party moved to investigate the tower. It was filled with
webs and venomous spiders that Jonas quickly burned away revealing a
blood altar before the carved image of a great spider with an elven
woman's head. They were smashed using Malachi's adamantine hammer
and the party withdrew.
Jonas used the cube hop spell to teleport to Kolyarol but Ragnar's
hand slipped at the last moment and he was left behind, though the
party was not sure if he was teleported elsewhere. There was much
consternation about where Ragnar was lost to, their inability to
find each other immediately, and what they would do without their
cleric in facing the fortress.
The party arrived on a great ancient battlefield and camped for the
night. Spectral dead hobgoblin soldiers appeared multiple times in
the night, energy draining Jonas before being banished by Malachi.
Traveling overland the party came to the edge of the cube then
headed back to the center to survey how large it was. They came
across a battle raging between what looked like paladins and clerics
and ant things that were identified as expansionist creatures of
outer planar law. Upon teleporting in to aid the humans Truth
pierced the illusion of the humans revealing them as toad men with
flickering chaotic auras. Malachi declared them monsters and led the
party to attack the chaos marauders.
After defeating the beings of Chaos in a huge fight the ant man
formian myrmarch telepathically offers to bring the party to its
Hive Queen to reward them for saving him. The party goes and is able
to shelter in the hive with promises not to be enslaved. Gumar
accepts the Queen's offered jelly and her telepathic communications
become easier for him to receive, he worries about being susceptible
to her domination now though. The party asks for information on the
Iron Fortress and the Queen provides the myrmarch to take them there
as well as some information on activities that have occurred there,
including the fortress lord's pact with native steel predators,
détente with the formian hive and the fortress, rust dragons on
another side of the cube, devil and archons seen flying around, and
the lord's fire giant hound master scouts who use telepathic hell
hound packs to flush out their prey.
The next day the myrmarch took them to a shelter outside of the
fortress and the party made plans, sending in Jonas to scout
ethereally. He made it inside noticing golem and predator guardians
and quickly descended underground as a ghost. He knew the whole
fortress was enchanted and suppressed invisibility and underground
had other unknown magics as well. He found a few empty rooms and a
great forge room where massive flames were used by huge and
monstrous four armed devil smiths who were assisted by ghostly
mortal smiths attached to their being through soul gems. They were
working on a great scimitar. Pieces were scattered about on a half
dozen anvils, some with arcane effects ongoing, the blade itself was
on the anvil in front of the massive furnace. Two azer were there as
well, though they did not participate as smiths. Guardian dragonnes
(half lion dragons) observed the foundry from pillars in the
corners, and a sword golem bigger than any golem Jonas had seen
stood atop a dais, apparently guarding the stairway down from above.
Jonas observed as a thin but tall winged dragon man entered
accompanied by a harsh looking dwerg woman. The dragon man talked
with one of the azer for a bit and then left. Jonas fled at that
point, concluding he had seen Imperagon and the Sword of Fiery Might
being reforged.
The party planned and prepared using disguise magic to impersonate
the lord, the drau and others, fire protections all around, and
preparing to directly teleport in and creating a plan B if they
could not. Jonas' teleport was blocked and so plan B went into
operation, cramming everyone into a magical secret chest of Jonas'
which he pocketed, then he entered the fortress ethereally again.
Upon arriving Jonas found the previously empty room was occupied,
with a praying azer. Jonas considered then positioned himself behind
the azer. He materialized and disintegrated the diabolic priest,
zapping him in the back and leaving only dust and the priest's gear.
Jonas then opened the chest and freed the party.
The party strode into the foundry, their disguises buying them
enough time to close with the devil smiths and attack with surprise.
One Azer fled upstairs to sound the alarm at the telepathic command
of the devil smiths while the dragonnes leapt to the attack, only to
be cut down by Gumar's arrowstorms before they could pounce or do
their roar attacks. A huge elder fire elemental emerged from the
furnace at the smiths command and started to beat on the party,
while it appeared more still resided in the furnace. Malachi was
engaged with one smith who disarmed him at one point, while Jonas
and Mason engaged the other. Thankfully the golem did not move from
guarding the stairway against intruders coming down. The smiths were
defeated, Malachi managed to smash some soul gems, Jonas
disintegrated an adamantine banding on the blade anvil and Mason was
able to free the blade despite setting off a symbol of death in
doing so. The fire elemental beat on the party but the loads of fire
protections helped a lot. Mason grabbed a devil smith with attached
soul gems and dragged it along. Jonas grabbed a pair of arcane sword
pieces and stuffed them into his bag of holding but left the others
and shadow walked the party out before the reinforcements they heard
came down the stairway.
Upon arriving a hundred or so miles away on Kolyarol Jonas then
teleported the party back to the shattered altar tower near the
lion's gate to the Outlands. The soul gems were smashed and the
devil body left behind.
At the lion's gate the party observed the appearance of a nasty
looking horned devil with a spiked chain who took up position atop
the Lion's gate and searched around waiting. Jonas used his last
teleport to take the party directly to in front of the gate where
the rest of the party rushed through dragging the archmage with
them. The devil lashed out with his chain at GiantMason, who was
immune to the potent supernatural stunning of the devil's attack and
merely took massive damage from the devil's blows.
Upon emerging back on the Legion's Stairs Jonas shadow walked the
party onto the shadow plane and traversed back to the mortal world,
arriving in a semi-tropical island city state called Freeport, a
center of maritime trade and home to a fleet of "privateers" former
pirates now raiding under a thin veneer of legitimacy for whatever
governments hire them to plunder their enemies' ships.
The sword blade tears Jonas' bag of holding spilling out all its
contents and they make an improvised wrapping to secure the blade
safely in Gumar's magical bag of holding. Jonas investigates their
loot and discovers the ring of the azer he disintegrated is a ring
of fire elemental control that can take a quest to unlock its
powers. They go to a tavern, find out where they are and discuss
what to do next.
The party decides to teleport to Ostohar, tell the dwarves what
happened, and sell the ring to them as they are some of the few
people interested in such a thing, see if Ragnar's temple can secure
part of the Sword fragment, and figure out two other areas to split
the fragments away in. Malachi sends off his silver raven messenger
item asking Voadam to meet them at a tavern in Freeport at the next
full moon.
Everyone gains a level and becomes 17th level.
