ADVENTURE 57: THE SKY DRAGON'S HOARD
PC Roster:
Game Session Date: 4 September 2019
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Kaspar stepped up to the temple gate where he had trained in the ways of the monk for years before entering into the service of the kingdom of Durnhill. He had only to raise his right hand, upon which he wore the tenryutsume, for the guards to swing the gates open and allow him - and the other four conscripts - entrance. Kaspar bowed as he passed the guards and they in turn lowered their heads in reverence at his passage, closing the gates after all five heroes had entered. If they seemed disturbed that one of the heroes sat mounted in the saddle of the ghost of a riding dog, it didn't show on their stoic faces.
"Do you remember the way to Tenryu's lair?" Galen asked.
"I remember," Kaspar replied, leading the group unerringly through the corridors of one the temple's larger buildings. He stepped to a familiar wooden door and opened it. Mist immediately spilled from the open portal. Then, without a moment's hesitation, the monk stepped forward, the others following in his wake.
"Looks the same as last time," Syngaard observed as the conscripts entered a small corridor of five doors, one of which they had just stepped through. That, he recalled, was the Fire Door; the other four ahead of him bore symbols of Air, Water, Wood, and Stone. And ahead was a large, open chamber, where the group had first encountered Tenryu, sitting alone in her throne against the back wall. Above them, the sun shone down from beyond the 20-foot-tall walls ringing the chamber; as before, the chamber had no ceiling and was open to the air. There were closed wooden doors to both the east and west.
Kaspar walked straight to the western door. "Hey," Syngaard called to him, "the treasure room's this way!" Tenryu, he recalled, hadn't let them explore beyond the eastern door, claiming it as her own lair. Surely that was where the sky-dragon's hoard was to be found!
But Kaspar remembered the pile of coins and gems on the floor behind the western door, part of the Test of Wealth. Touching the tenryutsume to the trial chamber door, it glowed briefly as the heat metal trap deactivated. Without a word, he entered the room beyond, dropped to his knees, and started scooping the wealth into his bag of holding. "Oh, yeah!" Syngaard called, only now remembering the treasure just sitting there for the taking the first time they came this way - treasure they had at the time been forbidden from touching! The others entered the chamber behind Kaspar and helped him scoop up the coins and gems, Daleth concentrating instead on removing the metal-bound books from the shelves at the far end of the chamber. The contents of this library were written entirely in Draconic, he recalled, as he thought of the pleasure he'd have when he had the chance to read through all of this amassed knowledge. But for now, each book was carefully removed from the shelves and placed in a bag of holding. Only once the chamber had been entirely looted did Kaspar lead the others back to the one door in the complex through which they'd never before entered.
Orion gave it a quick perusal and deemed it untrapped. She nodded to the monk, who touched the doorknob with his right hand. There was a quiet "click" as the door unlocked at the touch of the tenryutsume and then Kaspar opened it to reveal the room beyond. It was a hallway, with a slight slope leading down to the north. Directly across the hallway was a line of six sets of Jakuran samurai armor mounted on stands, the half-dozen figures armed with alternating weapons: either a naginata or a katana and wakizashi. The closer wall - the one containing the door - held four armored forms, of the type with which the Durnhillians were more familiar: full plate, shields, and longswords.
"I believe now would be a good time to cast our preparatory spells, before we enter the chamber," pointed out Daleth, beginning a flurry of spellcasting himself: stoneskin, false life, and fly upon both Todd and himself, followed by a stoneskin spell on Orion from a scroll the halfling provided. Upon receiving the protective spell, Orion bent forward in the saddle and activated the collar around Carl's neck, infusing the ghost-dog with the benefits of a false life spell of his own. Syngaard activated his bronze griffon, Dick, and leaped upon his broad back. Galen cast a death ward spell upon himself and a bless spell upon the entire assembled group.
They then looked over to Kaspar, indicating their readiness. But the monk merely frowned, looking over at his fellow elf. "Did you wish to cast a Rary's telepathic bond spell on the group?" he asked Daleth.
"I didn't prepare it," Daleth admitted. "We'll be in a confined area; we shouldn't need it."
"You sure about that, Wizard-Pants?" asked Syngaard. "The spell's come in mighty handy before."
"Why don't we let me decide which spells are of the most benefit, seeing as I'm the only one in the group capable of arcane spellcraft?" sneered the wizard testily. "If you're so eager for a Rary's telepathic bond spell, you're more than welcome to cast one yourself - if you have the requisite knowledge to do so. No? Well, then." Daleth crossed his arms, resting his case. Syngaard just raised his eyebrows and shook his head with a "what are you going to do with testy wizards?" look.
"I'll check the place out," offered Orion, eagerly changing the subject. Carl went ethereal and the pair slipped into the room. They made a point to pass through each of the sets of armor, mainly to ensure they weren't being worn by skeletons or anything. "Nothing evil in the room," Galen pointed out after concentrating on the auras around each of the armored figures. But Orion and Carl discovered they couldn't pass through the walls or floor of the hallway; the halfling had thought to examine whether or not there was a room on the other side of the far wall and found instead a solid surface like a wall of force embedded about an inch within the stone of the wall. Simple experimentation showed the same held true for the floor - it looked like she and Carl would be confined to the rooms' interiors like the rest of the group!
Still, that left the normal exit from the hallway: the chamber at the northern end, where the sloping floor led. There was an elaborate rune carved into the floor's stone surface, while a set of steep steps - each about five feet tall - led down to a lower level off to the left of the rune-chamber. Carl - hovering slightly above the floor to ensure he didn't accidentally step onto the rune - turned the corner and he and his halfling rider looked down the steps to see another rune on the floor at the bottom, opening to a larger chamber likely to be directly beneath Tenryu's throne room. Deciding it couldn't hurt to check it out to be sure, Orion prodded Carl forward, down the stairs, and he hovered in place above this second set of runes without touching them. But sure enough, the room beyond was the same size and shape as Tenryu's throne room directly overhead - but that was weird, because this lower room, like the one above it, also had no ceiling, with a view of an open sky above! A frown crossed the halfling's face as she puzzled it out: the sky seemingly directly overhead had to be an illusion of some sort.
But then, in the brightness of the false sun's light, she looked back to the far end of the room and saw another pile of treasure - coins and gems, mostly - lying in a pile on the stone floor. This pile, however, was flanked by two enormous guards, a pair of statues: one stone, carved in the uncanny likeness of Tenryu' human form, the other a male form molded in iron that the halfling was pretty sure was a representation of Zehkar the paladin. She looked down at the rune, above which Carl was hovering, and was glad he hadn't touched it; surely that was some sort of trigger to animate the stone and iron golems into attacking any who would take the dragon's treasure for themselves.
It was tempting to try to have a go at sweeping up the treasure without activating the golems - in fact, that was starting to become somewhat of a specialty for the little halfling - but with a sad shake of her head Orion wheeled Carl around and they headed back up the steep steps to return to the others and explain all that she'd seen. The group decided it was likely safe enough to advance up to the first rune, where Daleth and Orion stood closest to it, examining it intensely, the wizard trying to decipher its purpose and the halfling attempting to find a simple way to deactivate it. Syngaard, for his part, had Dick facing back towards the rows of armor, just in case they got any wild ideas about animating and attacking. He held his morningstar at the ready to bring it crashing down on the head of the nearest samurai armor. Farther back in the room stood Galen and Kaspar, neither of them as paranoid as the scarred fighter...although Galen held the sword of Zehkar at the ready, just in case.
"These runes here signify transmutation magic," Daleth observed.
"I'm going to try to deactivate it," Orion said, stepping down from Carl's saddle. She knelt down, pulled a small coil of metal wire from the kit at her belt, and carefully placed the ends to touch two different parts of the magic glyph, which in her experience had a pretty good chance of messing up the intended energy of the defensive rune. "Here's hoping," she said quietly to herself; with transmutation magic, there was a chance she could end up polymorphed into a chicken or something if she messed this up.
But no, Syngaard had been right: this was an activation rune that animated all of the suits of armor in the hallway behind her. Her attempts at disarming it had the opposite effect than what she had intended. "I knew it!" she heard Syngaard call from behind her, but she was already leaping back onto Carl's ghost touch saddle and sending the undead mount racing down the stairs, sliding effortlessly into the Ethereal Plane as they descended the stairs.
At the first sight of motion from the armor, Syngaard brought his morningstar crashing down on the nearest of the samurai armor, while two katanas and two naginatas came stabbing at Dick, piercing his all-too-mortal flesh. The griffon squawked in pain and slashed out with his claws at the animated armor, to little effect. But Syngaard was a whirlwind of energy perched on the griffon's back, sending three of the Jakuran sets of armor flying into their component pieces, one after the other.
From the left wall, the western suits of plate mail were activating as well. Kaspar sent a series of well-placed blows into the joints of two of these animated foes, causing them to crash to the stone floor in a clatter of individual armor pieces as well. Galen attacked and destroyed the last remaining Jakuran armor that had been stabbing at Dick, cutting it down with his longsword. The other two sets of full plate swung their longswords at the paladin in retaliation, but Galen caught one blade on his shield and stepped aside from the swing of the other. From further down the hall, the two remaining sets of samurai armor advanced.
Daleth saw the combat types behind him had the remaining sets of animated armor well in hand and flew down the stairwell, casting a detect magic spell as he did so. As expected, the lower rune flashed in his arcane sight; a closer examination of the rune allowed the wizard to determine it was divinatory in function, with an added flourish along the outer edges of the rune that indicated a proximity alert...uh oh! Sure enough, when Daleth looked toward the two golems at the back of the chamber they were stirring to life, his mere presence this close to the rune being enough to trigger it, even though he'd been careful not to touch it.
Side by side, the golems advanced toward the elven wizard and his pseudodragon familiar (and Orion and Carl as well, but they were hidden from view while on the Ethereal Plane). <I'm not going to be able to do too much against them!> Todd telepathically advised his master; pseudodragon stingers injected a sleep venom into their victims but golems would be completely immune to anything the little familiar might try to dish their way.
"You stay back," Daleth concurred. "I've got this."
Unseen by any in the chamber, Carl raced to the back of the room (passing straight through the iron golem in doing so) and returned back to the Material Plane once in place by the amassed treasure. But the golems spun about as one, facing Orion - apparently they could sense her living presence. That wasn't good!
Back in the upper hallway, there were still two sets each of Jakuran armor and Durnhillian full plate still in play. The samurai armor stabbed their respective weapons into the griffon, the naginata piercing his heart. With a final cry, Dick reverted to his statuette form, dropping to the stone floor and leaving Syngaard to hover in place through the power of his boots of levitation. But then the fighter dropped to the floor and sent his morningstar crashing through the Jakuran armor with the naginata and then through an advancing suit of Durnhill full plate as well.
That left one suit of each type of armor. Kaspar, confident that Galen and Syngaard could handle them, raced down the widely-spaced steps (they had obviously been built for the scale of Tenryu's full dragon form) at full speed, landing squarely on the magic rune at the bottom (for the sounds of combat beyond informed the elf that the rune had already been triggered). He then ran straight at the nearest golem, hoping to strike it down. But the stone golem, still in the process of turning to advance upon Orion, caught the monk's motion and sent a massive fist crashing down upon him. Kaspar staggered under the powerful blow, all of his forward momentum dissipated; rather than being able to attack the stone golem, it was all he could do to remain on his feet.
Daleth cast a chain lightning spell upon the iron golem, his readings on the subject of such creatures allowing him to recall it would be pointless to try to arc the spell out to the stone golem as well, for there were but a small handful of spells which could affect golems and this was not a spell capable of affecting one crafted of stone. But it was one of the weaknesses of an iron golem, causing it to slow its movements considerably. In fact, the iron construct had been poised to send one of its fists crashing down upon Kaspar, but the nimble monk was able to dodge out of the way of the slow-moving attack after Daleth's spell took effect.
The stone golem, in the meantime, returned its attention to Orion, back there by the treasure it had been created to guard. The halfling idly wondered if it was just a coincidence that the golem crafted in the image of Zehkar was continuing to fight off the intruders while the one wearing the dragon's human form was more interested in keeping the treasure from being stolen. But it really didn't matter which one was on to her; the fact that one of them was would prevent her from getting a head start on the accumulation of the dragon's hoard. With a pressure from her legs, she urged Carl back onto the Ethereal Plane, from where they would be undetectable from the golems. They almost made it unscathed, too, although the stone golem's fist gave the halfling a glancing blow during the transition between the planes. But Carl took an involuntary step away from the golem and Orion slipped the ring of invisibility onto her finger. The next time she reappeared onto the Material Plane, she'd see whether it was the presence of a living creature in the room that triggered the golems' awareness or if they relied upon sight like most other creatures.
Galen finished off the remaining Durnhillian armor, causing it to fall to pieces to the floor among the other scattered chunks of armor from two different parts of the world. Syngaard reached down to retrieve his bronze griffon, then, knowing he could activate it but one more time in the next week, proceeded to do just that. Dick reappeared at full size and restored to complete health and the bald fighter leaped upon his back and sent him flying down to battle the golems. As they flew, Syngaard repositioned his shield on his left arm,making sure he had full mobility in his left hand - upon which he wore his never-before-used gauntlet of rust. He was eager to see just how much damage the pitted gauntlet could to to an iron golem.
The sole remaining Jakuran armor swung its katana at Galen, who deflected the blade with his shield. It was the matter of but a moment for the paladin to strike it down before racing down the stairs to join the others in combat with the twin golems.
Kaspar struck his fists at the iron golem twice in rapid succession, the tenryutsume powering his attacks. Daleth followed up with another chain lightning spell, unfortunately his last - and while it dealt the construct considerable damage and extended the duration of the slow effect, it didn't slow it down any more than the first spell had done. The golem struck at Kaspar again, and at this close quarter the monk was unable to dodge the blow, despite its slower speed. Behind them, the stone golem scanned the treasure hoard in puzzlement, unable to find the halfling intruder who had just been there a moment ago. Then it spun about and rejoined the iron golem in battle.
Orion and Carl returned to the Material Plane, the halfling grinning broadly when she saw the stone golem's back turned. She dropped out of the saddle and started scooping whole armfuls of coins into her open bag of holding.
With a shriek, Dick came rounding the stairwell and dove straight for the iron golem, Syngaard's rusty gauntlet held before him like a readied weapon. Upon reaching their target, Dick scrabbled furiously with his claws to little effect, while Syngaard brought the gauntlet of rust down upon the iron golem's head. A wide section of the construct's head rusted over at the touch and the fighter swung his morningstar into the side of the rusted head for good measure. Down at the iron golem's feet, Kaspar sent punch after punch aimed at its knee joint, wearing it away. Behind him, the monk could hear the clunking sounds of Galen's heavy armor as he leaped down from step to step.
Daleth pulled out his metamagic rod of empower and channeled a lightning bolt spell through it at the iron golem. The magic rod increased the effectiveness of the spell to the point it dealt as much damage as the more powerful chain lightning spells had done. The construct staggered under the magical attack, before striking back at the nearest opponent. Fortunately for the others, this was Dick, flying in the iron statue's face and clawing ineffectually at its eyes. Syngaard didn't mind that the golem's iron fist went crashing into the griffon's ribs - that was, in his mind, the griffon's main reason for existence, to act as a "damage sponge" when fighting more powerful creatures. (Syngaard certainly wouldn't have wanted to have taken that punch himself!)
The stone golem stepped up suddenly and hit Kaspar twice with its own powerful fists, causing the monk to almost crumple right then and there. Syngaard, looking down from his aerial view, called down, "Wizard-Pants! Throw a stoneskin spell on the monk, you idiot! We need to keep him in the fight - he's got the most powerful weapon we have against these guys!" He continued to smash the iron golem over its rust-weakened head with his morningstar as he chided the wizard, eventually causing it to fall forward in an unmoving heap as it toppled to the ground, destroyed. That was one golem down, only one more to go!
"I don't have any more readied!" the wizard called back - for indeed, he'd cast his only such spell upon himself and Todd, choosing to protect them over those more likely to be taking direct hits against their opponents. His face burned with anger at having had to acknowledge his own selfishness, but more importantly at being talked down to about spellcasting by a scar-faced oaf who thought naming his griffon "Dick" was the height of wit.
But Orion, scooping up treasure in the back, heard the exchange and took a moment from loot acquisition to pull two scrolls of stoneskin from her scroll tube. "Here," she said, holding them out to Carl and tucking them beneath the ghost touch saddle so the incorporeal riding dog could actually move them about. "Go take these to Daleth! Good dog!"
Kaspar staggered backward, away from the stone golem's reach, over towards Daleth. As he did so he focused his chi energy and repaired some of the worst of his internal wounds. Galen stepped over and applied his own healing touch upon the elven monk, restoring him even further. And then Carl bounded up to the wizard, who, with a frown of irritation on his face, pulled out the scrolls and cast a stoneskin spell upon Kaspar. "Thank you," the monk said, his words being applied to all who had helped him. His job done, Carl bounded back the way he had come to watch his mistress scoop more and more of the dragon's hoard into her extradimensional bag. He even tried to help by crouching low and scraping the lower ends of his ghost touch saddle against the loose coins, herding them over to Orion. The little halfling couldn't help but laugh at the spectacle, scooting about like that on his haunches it looked like he had worms!
But the stone golem hadn't been idle this whole time. Stepped up to the group, it pounded its fists down at the paladin, whose raised shield wasn't enough to stop the force of the blow from reverberating down his arm. Syngaard had Dick swoop over to the back of the stone golem, allowing him to redirect his morningstar attacks to the stone golem's head now that the iron golem had been taken care of. But the stone golem hadn't been weakened by electrical spells or a gauntlet of rust (nor could it be), so this was going to be a tougher fight.
Kaspar, realizing the role his tenryutsume need to play in this battle, stepped forward and punched hard at the golem's knee. Slight cracks formed along the construct's stone joint from the force of the blow. Galen took the opportunity of the golem focusing upon a different foe to cast a divine favor spell upon himself, which he knew would booster his attack abilities - hopefully enough to make a difference.
Daleth rose back up into the air, his fly spell still in effect, and did a quick inventory of his readied spells. He had nothing on hand that could directly affect the golem, nor anything that would boost the abilities of any of his fellow conscripts. Cursing silently to himself, he wished he had better prepared his spell selection, especially after Tenryu had warned them ahead of time they'd be facing golems in her lair. <There's always your crossbow,> suggested Todd, and with a grimace the wizard pulled the unfamiliar weapon from his back. He doubted shooting bolts at the stone construct would do any good, but that was okay - by aiming the weapon at the golem and firing it without a bolt being loaded, the magic crossbow sent just a blast of electrical energy at the target, and this not being a spell it would affect the creature normally. The damage done was minimal but at least it was something and at this stage every little bit would surely help.
The stone golem swung its fists at the creatures buzzing its head, one crashing into Dick's side and the other nearly spilling Syngaard from his perch upon the griffon's back. But the scarred fighter just grinned down at his foe, confident that in a contest of whittling down the enemy and seeing who would fall first he had the upper hand, for he had allies on his side while the golem fought alone.
Orion continued loading up the hoard - by this time fully half of it had disappeared into her bag of holding - while the men fought valiantly on against the giant, animated Tenryu statue. Syngaard sent his morningstar crashing down upon the golem's head and shoulders; Kaspar continued his attacks upon its legs; Galen switched weapons to his elemental bane frost greatsword and started dealing considerably more damage to the stone colossus; and Daleth contributed all he could with his magic crossbow. The stone golem pressed on its attacks, but Syngaard kept maneuvering his flying griffon into position to make Dick and himself the logical targets, preventing the others from taking much damage. Poor Dick was having difficulty remaining airborne and had all but given up on any attempts to attack the golem himself, merely providing an aerial platform from which Syngaard could bring his morningstar to bear. Eventually, that was all it took, for the golem was taking much more damage than it was dealing out and eventually it, too, went crashing to the stone floor, its body cracking into several thick chunks upon impact. Dick dropped gratefully to the floor, unable to maintain his flight any longer.
"Good job, everyone!" Galen called, sheathing his greatsword while the others likewise put away their weapons now that combat had been brought to a successful completion. Daleth was glad to sling the crossbow across his back once again; it had been a hated reminder of the poor choices he had made in his spell selection - something he vowed wouldn't happen again! To have that lunk Syngaard heckle him on his unpreparedness was something he didn't even want to experience again!
"How we doin' over there, halfling?" called Syngaard, for while Orion was still completely invisible he could see bits and chunks of the dragon's hoard disappearing and he knew what that meant; plus, Carl was standing right there with his tongue lolling out and he knew the ghost-dog never strayed too far from his mistress. "You gettin' every last copper piece?"
"No sense it letting any of it go to waste!" came the halfling's cheery voice; she was always at her cheeriest when gathering up vast quantities of loot and hadn't even let Syngaard's use of her race instead of her name diminish her good spirits. "We've got quite a haul here, probably thirty thousand or more--each!"
Hell, thought Syngaard, that much money would make anyone cheery! He was already deciding how he'd be spending the bulk of his share: upgrading his favorite morningstar to deal additional damage to fiends from the lower planes. After all, it wouldn't be too long now before they'd be bringing the fight to the Hope Ender on the Nine Hells and Syngaard wanted to be ready for the pit fiend who wanted above all else to slay his little two-year-old daughter, Hope.
That, Syngaard decided, was not ever going to happen.
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This was a good session, although Joey got some (good-natured) razzing about his spell selection for Daleth. And Syngaard's share of the treasure is enough to upgrade his +5 morningstar to add the holy weapon property (and still have a few thousand gold pieces left over).
Daleth and Orion both advanced to 18th level as a result of this adventure, so we'll once again all be at the same level. And Logan informs us there are only three more adventures to go for this campaign!
PC Roster:
Daleth Stormsea, elf wizard 17
Galen Thorne, human paladin 18
Kaspar Hardstrike, elf monk 18
Orion Nightsky, halfling rogue 17
Syngaard, human fighter 18
Game Session Date: 4 September 2019
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Kaspar stepped up to the temple gate where he had trained in the ways of the monk for years before entering into the service of the kingdom of Durnhill. He had only to raise his right hand, upon which he wore the tenryutsume, for the guards to swing the gates open and allow him - and the other four conscripts - entrance. Kaspar bowed as he passed the guards and they in turn lowered their heads in reverence at his passage, closing the gates after all five heroes had entered. If they seemed disturbed that one of the heroes sat mounted in the saddle of the ghost of a riding dog, it didn't show on their stoic faces.
"Do you remember the way to Tenryu's lair?" Galen asked.
"I remember," Kaspar replied, leading the group unerringly through the corridors of one the temple's larger buildings. He stepped to a familiar wooden door and opened it. Mist immediately spilled from the open portal. Then, without a moment's hesitation, the monk stepped forward, the others following in his wake.
"Looks the same as last time," Syngaard observed as the conscripts entered a small corridor of five doors, one of which they had just stepped through. That, he recalled, was the Fire Door; the other four ahead of him bore symbols of Air, Water, Wood, and Stone. And ahead was a large, open chamber, where the group had first encountered Tenryu, sitting alone in her throne against the back wall. Above them, the sun shone down from beyond the 20-foot-tall walls ringing the chamber; as before, the chamber had no ceiling and was open to the air. There were closed wooden doors to both the east and west.
Kaspar walked straight to the western door. "Hey," Syngaard called to him, "the treasure room's this way!" Tenryu, he recalled, hadn't let them explore beyond the eastern door, claiming it as her own lair. Surely that was where the sky-dragon's hoard was to be found!
But Kaspar remembered the pile of coins and gems on the floor behind the western door, part of the Test of Wealth. Touching the tenryutsume to the trial chamber door, it glowed briefly as the heat metal trap deactivated. Without a word, he entered the room beyond, dropped to his knees, and started scooping the wealth into his bag of holding. "Oh, yeah!" Syngaard called, only now remembering the treasure just sitting there for the taking the first time they came this way - treasure they had at the time been forbidden from touching! The others entered the chamber behind Kaspar and helped him scoop up the coins and gems, Daleth concentrating instead on removing the metal-bound books from the shelves at the far end of the chamber. The contents of this library were written entirely in Draconic, he recalled, as he thought of the pleasure he'd have when he had the chance to read through all of this amassed knowledge. But for now, each book was carefully removed from the shelves and placed in a bag of holding. Only once the chamber had been entirely looted did Kaspar lead the others back to the one door in the complex through which they'd never before entered.
Orion gave it a quick perusal and deemed it untrapped. She nodded to the monk, who touched the doorknob with his right hand. There was a quiet "click" as the door unlocked at the touch of the tenryutsume and then Kaspar opened it to reveal the room beyond. It was a hallway, with a slight slope leading down to the north. Directly across the hallway was a line of six sets of Jakuran samurai armor mounted on stands, the half-dozen figures armed with alternating weapons: either a naginata or a katana and wakizashi. The closer wall - the one containing the door - held four armored forms, of the type with which the Durnhillians were more familiar: full plate, shields, and longswords.
"I believe now would be a good time to cast our preparatory spells, before we enter the chamber," pointed out Daleth, beginning a flurry of spellcasting himself: stoneskin, false life, and fly upon both Todd and himself, followed by a stoneskin spell on Orion from a scroll the halfling provided. Upon receiving the protective spell, Orion bent forward in the saddle and activated the collar around Carl's neck, infusing the ghost-dog with the benefits of a false life spell of his own. Syngaard activated his bronze griffon, Dick, and leaped upon his broad back. Galen cast a death ward spell upon himself and a bless spell upon the entire assembled group.
They then looked over to Kaspar, indicating their readiness. But the monk merely frowned, looking over at his fellow elf. "Did you wish to cast a Rary's telepathic bond spell on the group?" he asked Daleth.
"I didn't prepare it," Daleth admitted. "We'll be in a confined area; we shouldn't need it."
"You sure about that, Wizard-Pants?" asked Syngaard. "The spell's come in mighty handy before."
"Why don't we let me decide which spells are of the most benefit, seeing as I'm the only one in the group capable of arcane spellcraft?" sneered the wizard testily. "If you're so eager for a Rary's telepathic bond spell, you're more than welcome to cast one yourself - if you have the requisite knowledge to do so. No? Well, then." Daleth crossed his arms, resting his case. Syngaard just raised his eyebrows and shook his head with a "what are you going to do with testy wizards?" look.
"I'll check the place out," offered Orion, eagerly changing the subject. Carl went ethereal and the pair slipped into the room. They made a point to pass through each of the sets of armor, mainly to ensure they weren't being worn by skeletons or anything. "Nothing evil in the room," Galen pointed out after concentrating on the auras around each of the armored figures. But Orion and Carl discovered they couldn't pass through the walls or floor of the hallway; the halfling had thought to examine whether or not there was a room on the other side of the far wall and found instead a solid surface like a wall of force embedded about an inch within the stone of the wall. Simple experimentation showed the same held true for the floor - it looked like she and Carl would be confined to the rooms' interiors like the rest of the group!
Still, that left the normal exit from the hallway: the chamber at the northern end, where the sloping floor led. There was an elaborate rune carved into the floor's stone surface, while a set of steep steps - each about five feet tall - led down to a lower level off to the left of the rune-chamber. Carl - hovering slightly above the floor to ensure he didn't accidentally step onto the rune - turned the corner and he and his halfling rider looked down the steps to see another rune on the floor at the bottom, opening to a larger chamber likely to be directly beneath Tenryu's throne room. Deciding it couldn't hurt to check it out to be sure, Orion prodded Carl forward, down the stairs, and he hovered in place above this second set of runes without touching them. But sure enough, the room beyond was the same size and shape as Tenryu's throne room directly overhead - but that was weird, because this lower room, like the one above it, also had no ceiling, with a view of an open sky above! A frown crossed the halfling's face as she puzzled it out: the sky seemingly directly overhead had to be an illusion of some sort.
But then, in the brightness of the false sun's light, she looked back to the far end of the room and saw another pile of treasure - coins and gems, mostly - lying in a pile on the stone floor. This pile, however, was flanked by two enormous guards, a pair of statues: one stone, carved in the uncanny likeness of Tenryu' human form, the other a male form molded in iron that the halfling was pretty sure was a representation of Zehkar the paladin. She looked down at the rune, above which Carl was hovering, and was glad he hadn't touched it; surely that was some sort of trigger to animate the stone and iron golems into attacking any who would take the dragon's treasure for themselves.
It was tempting to try to have a go at sweeping up the treasure without activating the golems - in fact, that was starting to become somewhat of a specialty for the little halfling - but with a sad shake of her head Orion wheeled Carl around and they headed back up the steep steps to return to the others and explain all that she'd seen. The group decided it was likely safe enough to advance up to the first rune, where Daleth and Orion stood closest to it, examining it intensely, the wizard trying to decipher its purpose and the halfling attempting to find a simple way to deactivate it. Syngaard, for his part, had Dick facing back towards the rows of armor, just in case they got any wild ideas about animating and attacking. He held his morningstar at the ready to bring it crashing down on the head of the nearest samurai armor. Farther back in the room stood Galen and Kaspar, neither of them as paranoid as the scarred fighter...although Galen held the sword of Zehkar at the ready, just in case.
"These runes here signify transmutation magic," Daleth observed.
"I'm going to try to deactivate it," Orion said, stepping down from Carl's saddle. She knelt down, pulled a small coil of metal wire from the kit at her belt, and carefully placed the ends to touch two different parts of the magic glyph, which in her experience had a pretty good chance of messing up the intended energy of the defensive rune. "Here's hoping," she said quietly to herself; with transmutation magic, there was a chance she could end up polymorphed into a chicken or something if she messed this up.
But no, Syngaard had been right: this was an activation rune that animated all of the suits of armor in the hallway behind her. Her attempts at disarming it had the opposite effect than what she had intended. "I knew it!" she heard Syngaard call from behind her, but she was already leaping back onto Carl's ghost touch saddle and sending the undead mount racing down the stairs, sliding effortlessly into the Ethereal Plane as they descended the stairs.
At the first sight of motion from the armor, Syngaard brought his morningstar crashing down on the nearest of the samurai armor, while two katanas and two naginatas came stabbing at Dick, piercing his all-too-mortal flesh. The griffon squawked in pain and slashed out with his claws at the animated armor, to little effect. But Syngaard was a whirlwind of energy perched on the griffon's back, sending three of the Jakuran sets of armor flying into their component pieces, one after the other.
From the left wall, the western suits of plate mail were activating as well. Kaspar sent a series of well-placed blows into the joints of two of these animated foes, causing them to crash to the stone floor in a clatter of individual armor pieces as well. Galen attacked and destroyed the last remaining Jakuran armor that had been stabbing at Dick, cutting it down with his longsword. The other two sets of full plate swung their longswords at the paladin in retaliation, but Galen caught one blade on his shield and stepped aside from the swing of the other. From further down the hall, the two remaining sets of samurai armor advanced.
Daleth saw the combat types behind him had the remaining sets of animated armor well in hand and flew down the stairwell, casting a detect magic spell as he did so. As expected, the lower rune flashed in his arcane sight; a closer examination of the rune allowed the wizard to determine it was divinatory in function, with an added flourish along the outer edges of the rune that indicated a proximity alert...uh oh! Sure enough, when Daleth looked toward the two golems at the back of the chamber they were stirring to life, his mere presence this close to the rune being enough to trigger it, even though he'd been careful not to touch it.
Side by side, the golems advanced toward the elven wizard and his pseudodragon familiar (and Orion and Carl as well, but they were hidden from view while on the Ethereal Plane). <I'm not going to be able to do too much against them!> Todd telepathically advised his master; pseudodragon stingers injected a sleep venom into their victims but golems would be completely immune to anything the little familiar might try to dish their way.
"You stay back," Daleth concurred. "I've got this."
Unseen by any in the chamber, Carl raced to the back of the room (passing straight through the iron golem in doing so) and returned back to the Material Plane once in place by the amassed treasure. But the golems spun about as one, facing Orion - apparently they could sense her living presence. That wasn't good!
Back in the upper hallway, there were still two sets each of Jakuran armor and Durnhillian full plate still in play. The samurai armor stabbed their respective weapons into the griffon, the naginata piercing his heart. With a final cry, Dick reverted to his statuette form, dropping to the stone floor and leaving Syngaard to hover in place through the power of his boots of levitation. But then the fighter dropped to the floor and sent his morningstar crashing through the Jakuran armor with the naginata and then through an advancing suit of Durnhill full plate as well.
That left one suit of each type of armor. Kaspar, confident that Galen and Syngaard could handle them, raced down the widely-spaced steps (they had obviously been built for the scale of Tenryu's full dragon form) at full speed, landing squarely on the magic rune at the bottom (for the sounds of combat beyond informed the elf that the rune had already been triggered). He then ran straight at the nearest golem, hoping to strike it down. But the stone golem, still in the process of turning to advance upon Orion, caught the monk's motion and sent a massive fist crashing down upon him. Kaspar staggered under the powerful blow, all of his forward momentum dissipated; rather than being able to attack the stone golem, it was all he could do to remain on his feet.
Daleth cast a chain lightning spell upon the iron golem, his readings on the subject of such creatures allowing him to recall it would be pointless to try to arc the spell out to the stone golem as well, for there were but a small handful of spells which could affect golems and this was not a spell capable of affecting one crafted of stone. But it was one of the weaknesses of an iron golem, causing it to slow its movements considerably. In fact, the iron construct had been poised to send one of its fists crashing down upon Kaspar, but the nimble monk was able to dodge out of the way of the slow-moving attack after Daleth's spell took effect.
The stone golem, in the meantime, returned its attention to Orion, back there by the treasure it had been created to guard. The halfling idly wondered if it was just a coincidence that the golem crafted in the image of Zehkar was continuing to fight off the intruders while the one wearing the dragon's human form was more interested in keeping the treasure from being stolen. But it really didn't matter which one was on to her; the fact that one of them was would prevent her from getting a head start on the accumulation of the dragon's hoard. With a pressure from her legs, she urged Carl back onto the Ethereal Plane, from where they would be undetectable from the golems. They almost made it unscathed, too, although the stone golem's fist gave the halfling a glancing blow during the transition between the planes. But Carl took an involuntary step away from the golem and Orion slipped the ring of invisibility onto her finger. The next time she reappeared onto the Material Plane, she'd see whether it was the presence of a living creature in the room that triggered the golems' awareness or if they relied upon sight like most other creatures.
Galen finished off the remaining Durnhillian armor, causing it to fall to pieces to the floor among the other scattered chunks of armor from two different parts of the world. Syngaard reached down to retrieve his bronze griffon, then, knowing he could activate it but one more time in the next week, proceeded to do just that. Dick reappeared at full size and restored to complete health and the bald fighter leaped upon his back and sent him flying down to battle the golems. As they flew, Syngaard repositioned his shield on his left arm,making sure he had full mobility in his left hand - upon which he wore his never-before-used gauntlet of rust. He was eager to see just how much damage the pitted gauntlet could to to an iron golem.
The sole remaining Jakuran armor swung its katana at Galen, who deflected the blade with his shield. It was the matter of but a moment for the paladin to strike it down before racing down the stairs to join the others in combat with the twin golems.
Kaspar struck his fists at the iron golem twice in rapid succession, the tenryutsume powering his attacks. Daleth followed up with another chain lightning spell, unfortunately his last - and while it dealt the construct considerable damage and extended the duration of the slow effect, it didn't slow it down any more than the first spell had done. The golem struck at Kaspar again, and at this close quarter the monk was unable to dodge the blow, despite its slower speed. Behind them, the stone golem scanned the treasure hoard in puzzlement, unable to find the halfling intruder who had just been there a moment ago. Then it spun about and rejoined the iron golem in battle.
Orion and Carl returned to the Material Plane, the halfling grinning broadly when she saw the stone golem's back turned. She dropped out of the saddle and started scooping whole armfuls of coins into her open bag of holding.
With a shriek, Dick came rounding the stairwell and dove straight for the iron golem, Syngaard's rusty gauntlet held before him like a readied weapon. Upon reaching their target, Dick scrabbled furiously with his claws to little effect, while Syngaard brought the gauntlet of rust down upon the iron golem's head. A wide section of the construct's head rusted over at the touch and the fighter swung his morningstar into the side of the rusted head for good measure. Down at the iron golem's feet, Kaspar sent punch after punch aimed at its knee joint, wearing it away. Behind him, the monk could hear the clunking sounds of Galen's heavy armor as he leaped down from step to step.
Daleth pulled out his metamagic rod of empower and channeled a lightning bolt spell through it at the iron golem. The magic rod increased the effectiveness of the spell to the point it dealt as much damage as the more powerful chain lightning spells had done. The construct staggered under the magical attack, before striking back at the nearest opponent. Fortunately for the others, this was Dick, flying in the iron statue's face and clawing ineffectually at its eyes. Syngaard didn't mind that the golem's iron fist went crashing into the griffon's ribs - that was, in his mind, the griffon's main reason for existence, to act as a "damage sponge" when fighting more powerful creatures. (Syngaard certainly wouldn't have wanted to have taken that punch himself!)
The stone golem stepped up suddenly and hit Kaspar twice with its own powerful fists, causing the monk to almost crumple right then and there. Syngaard, looking down from his aerial view, called down, "Wizard-Pants! Throw a stoneskin spell on the monk, you idiot! We need to keep him in the fight - he's got the most powerful weapon we have against these guys!" He continued to smash the iron golem over its rust-weakened head with his morningstar as he chided the wizard, eventually causing it to fall forward in an unmoving heap as it toppled to the ground, destroyed. That was one golem down, only one more to go!
"I don't have any more readied!" the wizard called back - for indeed, he'd cast his only such spell upon himself and Todd, choosing to protect them over those more likely to be taking direct hits against their opponents. His face burned with anger at having had to acknowledge his own selfishness, but more importantly at being talked down to about spellcasting by a scar-faced oaf who thought naming his griffon "Dick" was the height of wit.
But Orion, scooping up treasure in the back, heard the exchange and took a moment from loot acquisition to pull two scrolls of stoneskin from her scroll tube. "Here," she said, holding them out to Carl and tucking them beneath the ghost touch saddle so the incorporeal riding dog could actually move them about. "Go take these to Daleth! Good dog!"
Kaspar staggered backward, away from the stone golem's reach, over towards Daleth. As he did so he focused his chi energy and repaired some of the worst of his internal wounds. Galen stepped over and applied his own healing touch upon the elven monk, restoring him even further. And then Carl bounded up to the wizard, who, with a frown of irritation on his face, pulled out the scrolls and cast a stoneskin spell upon Kaspar. "Thank you," the monk said, his words being applied to all who had helped him. His job done, Carl bounded back the way he had come to watch his mistress scoop more and more of the dragon's hoard into her extradimensional bag. He even tried to help by crouching low and scraping the lower ends of his ghost touch saddle against the loose coins, herding them over to Orion. The little halfling couldn't help but laugh at the spectacle, scooting about like that on his haunches it looked like he had worms!
But the stone golem hadn't been idle this whole time. Stepped up to the group, it pounded its fists down at the paladin, whose raised shield wasn't enough to stop the force of the blow from reverberating down his arm. Syngaard had Dick swoop over to the back of the stone golem, allowing him to redirect his morningstar attacks to the stone golem's head now that the iron golem had been taken care of. But the stone golem hadn't been weakened by electrical spells or a gauntlet of rust (nor could it be), so this was going to be a tougher fight.
Kaspar, realizing the role his tenryutsume need to play in this battle, stepped forward and punched hard at the golem's knee. Slight cracks formed along the construct's stone joint from the force of the blow. Galen took the opportunity of the golem focusing upon a different foe to cast a divine favor spell upon himself, which he knew would booster his attack abilities - hopefully enough to make a difference.
Daleth rose back up into the air, his fly spell still in effect, and did a quick inventory of his readied spells. He had nothing on hand that could directly affect the golem, nor anything that would boost the abilities of any of his fellow conscripts. Cursing silently to himself, he wished he had better prepared his spell selection, especially after Tenryu had warned them ahead of time they'd be facing golems in her lair. <There's always your crossbow,> suggested Todd, and with a grimace the wizard pulled the unfamiliar weapon from his back. He doubted shooting bolts at the stone construct would do any good, but that was okay - by aiming the weapon at the golem and firing it without a bolt being loaded, the magic crossbow sent just a blast of electrical energy at the target, and this not being a spell it would affect the creature normally. The damage done was minimal but at least it was something and at this stage every little bit would surely help.
The stone golem swung its fists at the creatures buzzing its head, one crashing into Dick's side and the other nearly spilling Syngaard from his perch upon the griffon's back. But the scarred fighter just grinned down at his foe, confident that in a contest of whittling down the enemy and seeing who would fall first he had the upper hand, for he had allies on his side while the golem fought alone.
Orion continued loading up the hoard - by this time fully half of it had disappeared into her bag of holding - while the men fought valiantly on against the giant, animated Tenryu statue. Syngaard sent his morningstar crashing down upon the golem's head and shoulders; Kaspar continued his attacks upon its legs; Galen switched weapons to his elemental bane frost greatsword and started dealing considerably more damage to the stone colossus; and Daleth contributed all he could with his magic crossbow. The stone golem pressed on its attacks, but Syngaard kept maneuvering his flying griffon into position to make Dick and himself the logical targets, preventing the others from taking much damage. Poor Dick was having difficulty remaining airborne and had all but given up on any attempts to attack the golem himself, merely providing an aerial platform from which Syngaard could bring his morningstar to bear. Eventually, that was all it took, for the golem was taking much more damage than it was dealing out and eventually it, too, went crashing to the stone floor, its body cracking into several thick chunks upon impact. Dick dropped gratefully to the floor, unable to maintain his flight any longer.
"Good job, everyone!" Galen called, sheathing his greatsword while the others likewise put away their weapons now that combat had been brought to a successful completion. Daleth was glad to sling the crossbow across his back once again; it had been a hated reminder of the poor choices he had made in his spell selection - something he vowed wouldn't happen again! To have that lunk Syngaard heckle him on his unpreparedness was something he didn't even want to experience again!
"How we doin' over there, halfling?" called Syngaard, for while Orion was still completely invisible he could see bits and chunks of the dragon's hoard disappearing and he knew what that meant; plus, Carl was standing right there with his tongue lolling out and he knew the ghost-dog never strayed too far from his mistress. "You gettin' every last copper piece?"
"No sense it letting any of it go to waste!" came the halfling's cheery voice; she was always at her cheeriest when gathering up vast quantities of loot and hadn't even let Syngaard's use of her race instead of her name diminish her good spirits. "We've got quite a haul here, probably thirty thousand or more--each!"
Hell, thought Syngaard, that much money would make anyone cheery! He was already deciding how he'd be spending the bulk of his share: upgrading his favorite morningstar to deal additional damage to fiends from the lower planes. After all, it wouldn't be too long now before they'd be bringing the fight to the Hope Ender on the Nine Hells and Syngaard wanted to be ready for the pit fiend who wanted above all else to slay his little two-year-old daughter, Hope.
That, Syngaard decided, was not ever going to happen.
- - -
This was a good session, although Joey got some (good-natured) razzing about his spell selection for Daleth. And Syngaard's share of the treasure is enough to upgrade his +5 morningstar to add the holy weapon property (and still have a few thousand gold pieces left over).
Daleth and Orion both advanced to 18th level as a result of this adventure, so we'll once again all be at the same level. And Logan informs us there are only three more adventures to go for this campaign!
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