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Message: <blockquote data-quote="DM-Rocco" data-source="post: 1681329" data-attributes="member: 14451">Session 12 module Assult on the Aerie of the Slave Lords and the begining of A4 SOme of what the part did in the meat of the dumgeon is missing, but here is the final battle: “Speak with me then master buccaneer, for I have in the past represented our intentions and I think for all involved I am their voice,” came a bold reply from Gren, his posture imposing, with an authoritive stance.StoneCracker Boulderwhacker tried to get a word in at that moment but soon found himself smacking his meaty hand to his forehead when Gren continued before the mighty dwarf could speak.“I have several questions for you master,” Gren paused for a dramatic effect.“Feetla,” came the reply.“Yes, well, Feetla, and you are,”“How rude of me, please I should have given consideration to the possibility that you have not heard of us, of course introductions are in order,” came the confidant reply from Feetla, his ego shining through in the tones of his voice. Stonecracker took this time to stand to the left and forward of Gren and as he did so he fashioned his braided beard behind his head and tied it into a knot. Five years service in the dwarven army had shown him the value of not getting blood on ones beard before or during a good fight. While the introductions went on he loosened his stiff limbs with some rousing stretches, one hand over the head to the oppisite shoulder, twisting the waist and deep knee bends cause hot blood to flow to his vitail areas and prepare for diplomacy dwarven style.“So you see Gren, it is a simple matter of profit versus risk, the risk is low and the profit margin high, surely you can see the sense in the making of money. In fact, if you take into account the current - “ At that moment a loud screeching noise filled the large chamber and all looked to the source as it was now Gren‘s turn to smack his hand to his forehead. Front and center stood StoneCracker Boulderwhacker, blunt end of his multi headed halberd screeching across the ground, grating like finger nails on a black board. It was a slow and distinguished screech, prolonged by that fact that he made a complete circle around his body just to make sure he had everyone’s attention.“Allow me to introduce myself, I am StoneCracker Boulderwhacker, slayer of demons,” said Stonecracker as he patted his Maralith head hanging from his belt, “defender of truth and drinker of hardy provisions. Now, so my five years in the dwarven diplomacy squad was not in vain, would it be fair to say that you are creatures of evil, so I know that I am not killing those of the good persuasion, I would hate behead an innocent.” The features on Feetla grew grave, but Gren could not decide if it was from the daring speech the dwarf had just made or from the dwarf holding up his index finger, representing one, then pointing towards Ajaktsu, two fingers and pointing to Nerelas, so on and so forth, down the line until he had pointed to each and everyone of them, then hand clenched, his fist went straight into the air and he raised his index finger again and this time made a motion as if slitting his own throat. Feetla immediately stood but a motion from the dwarf held him in check.“Hold,” boomed the dwarf and Feetla and the other slaver lords stopped dead in their tracks. “Come to me and kneel before me and I will give you a quick death, one swipe, clean cut to the neck, but no matter what happens master Feetla, I will kill you last.”This enraged Feetla and at that second hell was unleashed. Feetla raised his crossbow and let loose a bolt from his bow, striking true to the chest of the mighty dwarf.Ajakstu lost himself in his magic and let loose a spell of slowness on StoneCracker Boulderwhacker, slowing him where he stood, Brother Milerjoi also attack StoneCracker Boulderwhacker, gracefully throwing two daggers into the arms of StoneCracker, who only grunted at the pain. StoneCracker made a motion to engage the monk and found his reflexes not to be slowed as Ajakstu had intended, but he motioned himself in slow action to fool the rest of the slavers.Mordrammo called to the heavens and released a jet of flame fro the sky, a pillar of flame that enveloped Devin, who only found joy in being wrapped in the life blood of his home plain. Devin retaliated with a deadly fireball which sent the slave lords scattering.Nerelas and Gren both had the same idea in that they both turned invisible, and Khael rushed to the dwarfs side to heal his already accumulating wounds.Feetla lifted another cross bow and let loose another bolt that found it’s mark in the dwarves hide.“Fer that you just moved up in the list bub, LAWBRINGER” cried the dwarf, but the threat was made mute by the stunning blow from Brother Milerjoi, two pounding first of fury found their mark on the dwarves jaw, stunning the might dwarf for a moment. It was then that the dwarf decided that he had had enough of the falsehood of his slowness and with all his might cut the monk a mighty blow from hip to hip and then followed through with a hefty swing that found its mark straight and true to the monks neck.“That’s one, who next?”Ajakstu stood his ground as he locked his gaze at Devin, while Devin went through the motions of casting a spell; Ajakstu anticipated the spell and attempted to counter it with his own magic. Although Ajakstu was the mightier of the two, Devin proved more powerful in this one instance, he years of training and mastery of a single school allowing him to succeed where other would fail. A wall of fire soon erupted from the floor, covering the ground where the slavers stood, but Ajakstu held his ground, the flames not seeming to touch him, so it was Khael that cast the next spell and this spell too Ajakstu tried to counter but with his attention focused on Devin he did not see it coming until the spell was released and blades, shooting from the ground in a 45 degree angle, making short work of the arch mage, for what did not finish him of in the initial pass, did tear him to bits and pieces a moment later.It was then that Khael, rejoicing in his kill, felt the bitter pain of a knife stab his back, paralyzing him as strange venom filled his body. His body slumped to the floor in a heaping mass as the nox visible Nerelas sipped a potion and then vanished yet again.Gren had similar plans for Feetla, but the wall of fire and barrier of blades made getting to him impossible, so he attacked Mordrammo with his soul stealer blade. It struck home and drank deep and the cowardly cleric seemed to gain strength from a yet untapped source and raised his hand to the ceiling and called on his dark god for aid.“May the power of the hand and the eye smith at thee and Vecna take thy soul,” cried the cleric as he traced a symbol of death in the air and Gren slowly felt his very soul being ripped from his body.“Feel my steel insolent dwarf,” came the battle cry as Feetla balanced his rapier in his hand, expertly moving his sword back and forth, drawing the dwarf’s defenses down and then strike with his sword. StoneCracker got in a few mighty blows, but the sheer volume of attacks from the skilled buccaneer made short work of the dwarf and he too fell, but not before Feetla, battered and bruised from the dwarf’s powerful attacks, spat on the beard of the dying dwarf.Devin advanced on the evil cleric of Vecna, his flaming sword brandished and ready from attack. Mordrammo backed into the corner, his wounds still to grave to attempt a counter attack, let alone a defense. Up went the sword, smoke and flame excited for the kill, down came the blade, landing on the ground at Mordrammo’s feet. Devin’s body fell to the floor, a gapping wound from his back told all.“Gather your wits about you Mordrammo, there are council members that need to be brought back from the dead,” came the stone cold voice of the master assassin Nerelas. * * *The Heroes were captured and in some cases, brought back to life, and then interrogated. Each was placed with a collar; who’s lock vanished when placed around their throats. These collars prevented innate abilities from causing any mayhem and disrupted most spells and clouded the minds of spells casters.The heroes have been kept in separate cells in a dungeon for an unknown period of time. The only clue as to the duration of their imprisonment is the fact that all of their wounds have healed, but that is of little consequence since the Slave Lords kept them drugged and tortured them to keep them weak. Spell-casters' spells are all long gone from their memories, cast in desperate and clever attempts to escape from the dungeon. Unfortunately, all attempts were failures, though they succeeded in giving the jailers a very hard time.Clerics have received special treatment: the jailers, knowing that clerics can regain their spells by prayer after sufficient rest, have not allowed the clerics to sleep more than three hours in succession, and have given them even smaller rations of food and water than the other characters have received. Despite this treatment, the clerics' faith has enabled them to persevere, and the jailers have occasionally slipped up in their routine abuse. This has allowed the clerics to quickly pray for (and receive) spells useful to their current condition: cure light wounds, purify food and drink (which doesn‘t seem to work on the drugs they give them), resist cold, create water.Something finally occurs to break the monotony of imprisonment: the stone shudders and the earth growls as a large tremor rocks the island. Dust filters down from the ceilings of the cells, and the adventurers can hear much shouting and commotion among their captors. After a short period, the doors to the dungeon clang open, and in walks the stronghold's evil High Priest, surrounded by guardsmen. "The Earth Dragon has spoken!" he announces. "He is hungry, and the time has come to feed you to him, as is our sacred custom. 0h miscreants, now you shall pay for the havoc you have wrought. Guards, subdue them with the Smoke of the Little Death."He turns and leaves, and the guards go with him. Shortly, however, there is a click as a small aperture is opened in the dungeon door. Through it comes the end of a tube, which spews out the green sleep smoke the characters remember so well....Standard Dungeon FeaturesThe ceilings of all dungeon tunnels and chambers are approximately 10 feet high, except where otherwise noted. The tunnels vary from 6 to 12 feet in width, averaging about 9 feet wide. All tunnels and chambers are of fine sandstone, except in wet and drippy areas, where the walls are limestone. (This is strange geology for a volcanic island. Perhaps it can be explained by the legend that the Earth Dragon wanted a pleasant isle for his crater lake, so he carried away an entire tropical island and dropped it here.)The floors of the tunnels and chambers are covered with fine sand to a depth of one foot. The floors in the limestone areas are generally smooth. Stalactites and stalagmites are too thick to break off.The party awakens in a place where there is no light and no sounds but their own. Characters with infravision can ascertain that all party members are presented. The place they are in looks and feels like a natural cave, about 30 feet in diameter. There are four 10' high exit tunnels somewhat evenly spaced around the perimeter. Characters with infravision cannot see a ceiling; apparently it is too high. The floor is covered withsand.None of the party have any possessions save a dirty cotton loincloth. They have no weapons, no food, nothing: only their wits, and a small closed cloth tube which rests on the floor in the center of the room. It is a foot-and-a-half long, about the size of a wand or scroll tube.If the players look down the exit tunnels, they will see nothing down three of them, but they will see a distant, dim light down the fourth (northernmost) tunnel.This light occasionally flickers and moves slightly. It is 110 feet to the ceiling of this room, where a heavy stone block plugs the hole the characters were lowered through. The walls are crumbly and will not support a climber's weight above a height of 15' even if the climber is using a spider climb spell to adhere to the walls.The scroll tube is made of cloth, with a light wooden ring at each end to give it its shape The tubecontains three scrolls.The tube also includes a note, it is to dark to read, even with infravision, but that matters not, the words glow with an eerie illumination and spring forth fro the page, dancing in the air, and for characters that are unable to read, a voice booms throughout the cavern reading the note: "This is not the best I could do to help, but what fun would it be if I gave you your equipment back. May your gods be with you. If you escape, your equipment is being held on the Slave Lords' private boat, the Water Dragon, at the Suderham docks. Signed Malik</blockquote>

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