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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Brakkart" data-source="post: 2389476" data-attributes="member: 19617">DM's Log of Session Thirty FiveKeeping the last gold horror between them, Zamtap and Gyllipus rained blows down upon it, even as it continued its attacks on Ki, failing to strike him. Striding into close combat with the platinum horror, Ash heavily damaged it with two slices of his sword, its razor saw failing to jab past his shield, and it suffered further as Aeron moved to where he could see it through the whirling blades in the doorway, blasting it with more magic missiles. Back in the auditorium, Ki stabbed his dagger into the gold horror twice, but accidentally raked himself with the claw bracer on his other hand, opening fresh cuts to add to the many he already bore.Realizing the danger of the priest and wizard arund it, the gold horror scuttled about more, thwarting both Zamtap and Gyllipus's attempts to finish it off, and it succeeded in getting in past the clerics defense, cutting him. Elsewhere, the platinum came close to dropping Ash, its saw punching into the paladin, but failing to put him down, the Sunite's returned blows shattering the platinums carapace and then ripping the construct apart as outside the portal room Aeron drew a wand and began summoning a creature to aid, he ceasing his casting though on seeing that help was not needed after all, hearing also a victory cry from the auditorium as Ki's dagger finished off the last gold horror.Striding towards the portal, Ash tore into the stationary clockwork construction, and then in a final act of defiance to the watching Adamantine Horror, he gathered his remaining strength and hurled the head of the defeated platinum horror through the closing gateway. With the portal shut and the connection to their emperor and hivemind severed, the remaining horrors which had just come into view at the far end of the temple to where Aeron was stood abruptly ceased all functions. Taking no chances, the party patched up the worst of their wounds and then swept through the level of Dowinn's Lode, smashing every inert horror they encountered until they were certain that the layer was secure.In the process of sweeping the level, they found the vast smithy where dwarves had once smelted ore from the mines below, and where they found many more horrors under construction, dismantling them also. Here too they found treasure, piles of silver, gold and platinum coins as well as gemstones and other items. Taken from dwarven vaults that the horrors had smashed open, and intended to be used in the construction of more of the vile automatons.Amongst the loot was a pile of items that all identified as magical, including scrolls, potions, armour, weapons and a bag. Reading the scrolls, Aeron and Zamtap found a rare and needed prize, a scroll bearing four castings of the spell Raise Dead, the cleric immediately setting about bringing Jebodiah back to life... or trying to at any rate, the casting taking half a day in all, and exhausting the priest as he struggled to cast so difficult a spell, it taxing his mind to its limit. But after twelve hours of chanting and gesturing, the Party With No Name, was once again six strong, as their berserker companion returned from the Fugue Plane (where his spirit had been having an interesting conversation  with other deceased dwarves about the tactics of dragon slaying).With no threat remaining on this level of the old dwarfhold, the party decided to rest for a couple days before proceeding onwards, Aeron citing that they had much to identify and wishing to study (and thoroughly dismantle) the clockwork portal also, while Zamtap wanted to spend time with the forges to finish building his Gondsman. Between them, Gyllipus and Aeron identified the various magical items, and again the group rolled dice to determine who got what from the pile.Getting to pick first this time, Zamtap grabbed the Dragonbane Warhammer for himself, citing that it was his gods symbol to defend his choice, even though no-one else had really been all that interested in taking it. Aeron chose a scroll with a couple new spells for his book, it containing both Weapon of Impact and Aganazzar's Scorcher on the parchment. Jebodiah took up both potions of Cure Moderate Wounds, everyone in the party agreeing that he was the most likely to need them, and snagging the Cat's Grace potion also, the three vials going someway to replenishing his empty potion belt.Ash picked next, taking the suit of elven chainmail and then after explaining to a disbelieving Jebodiah how it was superior to what the dwarf was wearing, he sold it for three thousand gold pieces to his barbarian comrade. Picking over what was left, Ki took the Bag of Holding, while Gyllipus selected the Heavy Crossbow. It was agreed by everyone that the Raise Dead scroll would count as being owned by the party, and would be held by Zamtap to be used if neccessary, everyone glancing briefly at Jebodiah that that point, he grinning meekly back at them.With the loot divided up, everyone rested or wnet back to their projects for the next day. Zamtap finished assembling the various component parts of his Gondsman, incorporating an electrum horrors pressurised dart launcher into the construct which was named Tik-Tok on activation. He had also incorporated a suit of magical breastplate into its form, and armed it with a magic shortsword he had acquired some time back and been carrying in his own Bag of Holding ever since in readiness.Arguably the most pious member of the group after the priest and paladin, Jebodiah took time apart from the others to pray before the statue of Clangeddin in the temple, he leaving an offering of 250 gold coins in the bowl at the statues feet. He was then asked to help Aeron in his research, the genasi wizard dismantling every key component from the clockwork portal, and getting the dwarf to pound them into unusable scrap metal, ensuring that no-one could ever again use it to open a conduit to the world where the Horrors hailed from.On Nightal 12th the group gathered itself together, now seven in number as Zamtap's whirring, clanking cohort joined them and they headed south out of the level, down a long wide tunnel that connected the hive level to the southern gatehouse. After two days of marching onwards, they emerged into a tunnel lit by flickering torches on Nightal 14th, the smoke carrying the pungent smell of jungle hardwoods, and they readied themselves for another onslaught...DM's Notes:This was a shorter session than usual, we ended an hour earlier than we normally would, owing in part to my lack of prep time the previous week, and so I wasn't nearly ready to run the oncoming battle against the tribe of lizardmen and troglodytes that the party know to lair in the south gatehouse. I added in the Raise Dead scroll as the party are a long way from civilisation at the moment and it would be hard to replace a dead party member, so this way they can keep the group together should any of them fall in battle either here or once they get to the yuan-ti city. The dragonbane warhammer was also placed deliberately in the loot to appeal to Zamtap, and as will be seen, it will prove most useful in the campaign to come, as the party will begin to find out once they leave the Lode *grins evilly*As for letting Gareth build a dart launcher from the horrors into his construct, I felt that was a fair trade as he didn't get to name it. Several of my group (myself included) had decided that it would be known as Tik-Tok almost from the beginning of the campaign when we knew what prestige class he was aiming for. It also isn't a very powerful device (it can fire once a round only), is a pain to reload, and has a 40 shot ammunition drum which takes Zamtap well over an hour to replace, as he has to practically detach Tik-Tok's arm to take it out and bolt another in its place (which he has several of, having looted them from the inert horrors, keeping the spares in his now mostly empty Bag of Holding).</blockquote>

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