Wizardru's Story Hour (updated 11/21)

[WizarDru]

Oh, the carnage. The coot's forces felt the wrath of our heroes, and it was a mighty wrath, indeed. Some disturbing discoveries certainly brought out the desire to lay the smack most assuredly down upon the vile fiend and his otherworldly servants.

But the final battle has yet to be fought, and the Cuckoo has yet to sing.

And the darkest secret of all (at least, to some group members) has yet to be revealed.

 

[Zad]

Divine Wrath - Chapter 4

Chapter 4 – The Tangled Web

OOC Notes:

Experience is 3600

This Week’s Adventure:

The next few days brought a blizzard and time for study. Scorch and the Owl spent most of their time in what he referred to as “The Lab”. It bore a striking resemblance to “a cave” but then so did the dining hall and the kitchen and the sleeping area. Since there was little else to do, I tried to help them where I could. I have no talent for alchemy but my magical knowledge meant I had at least some edge.

The Isometril apparently dampens or refracts energy fields, including magical ones. If you bind it with a natural magical generator in the right way, it amplifies the ability of that generator. Hence the alloy with the vitaesis. When we had decided to steal some of the isometril, I had no idea what it would lead to.

Our first problem showed up the next day – some of the isometril was missing. It was only a pound or two, but Scorch is, among other things, exacting, and was sure there was some ore missing. We ordered the Roost sealed and began searching. Valanthe began exploring some lesser-used caves in the network while Scorch and I pondered another solution – isometril gave off something. It made people sick among other things. So we wondered if we could create a detector that would reveal the presence of the ore. Scorch and the Owl set to it and had one working in short order and we swept through the caves with it looking for the rogue ore.

While they were building, Valanthe came across a part of the golem that she had exploded at the battlefield – I assume the Owl’s forces salvaged it and brought it here. She looked it over carefully and could see that it seemed to be drawing material towards it – loose rocks, pebbles, anything nearby. Still imbedded in it from the explosion was fragments of her vitaesis crystal. The crystal was glowing slightly, and Valanthe had the distinct impression that the golem was trying to slowly reconstitute itself, powered by the new crystal.

She removed the remaining fragments of the crystal, and the golem seemed to revert to total inactivity. She also believed the ore had somehow been drawn here by the golem, although I can’t imagine it reaching through all those caves and taking just that much ore. There was the possibility that someone was helping it for reasons unknown.

So with that in mind, the detector was completed and we began sweeping the caves. This lead us to two very disturbing discoveries.

The first was that there was isometril in Venn’s room, seemingly on or inside of Venn. Venn had recovered some of his wits but was still far from himself. In order to determine if he was under some kind of control, we drugged his food and he fell to sleep. Then Dravot examined him carefully and found a crude scar at the base of his spine, where something had been forcefully inserted. Dravot was able to remove it – it was a piece of fashioned isometril. Scorch examined it and the answers soon fell into place. Much like the marionettes interfaced with the children, some other creation uses this to interface with a grown person. Our belief was that the creatures that Aethramyr saw in his dream – the bodaks in the metal skeletons – were part of it, and that this was the link between the bodak and the skeleton.

Scorch learned a great deal from the device, and said that the interference devices we had would not affect them, however he could create a device that would disrupt these. He fashioned over a dozen of them the next day, and we attached some of the small devices to arrows for easy delivery.

Once Venn awoke, he was feeling much better with the object gone. He was not fully his old self, but he was much closer, and grateful for what we did. He was also able to provide more information about the isometril and its properties to help Scorch further.

They had examined the interactions of isometril and three different types of vitaesis – jade, diamond, and onyxAll the gems seemed to have a moral or ethical alignment to them, according to his colleagues in Greyhawk. He found the onyx very difficult to handle and work with, compared to the diamond or jade. Onyx seems to stop energy from pathing, while the jade seems to have some kind of enhancement or protective ability. The paladin blades might be an opal alloy.

It only takes a very small amount of vitaesis to alloy with a large amount of isometril. Using mithril you can stretch the mix even further.

I mentioned that we made two disturbing discoveries, and Venn was only the first. The other is one that I still cannot yet comprehend. When searching with the detector, we found a chunk of isometril in the wall. It was about five feet back by our guess and about the size of two fists. Down the hall was another one. And another. And another. In fact, we found them at regular intervals around the entire outside edge of the Roost. They were uniform in placement and always about the same height off the ground, and had no business being there. It wasn’t enough to make anyone sick, but it clearly had some purpose, and there was no sign of how it got there. In fact the caves had been expanded at various times, and even the newer caves had these devices planted in the walls.

My mind is still reeling trying to understand the implications of this. Who put those here? How? And why? What did they do? Dravot went ethereal for a brief time, and was able to see not only the modules, but a fine mithril wire connecting each one to the next.

In order to see how they were being planted and to perhaps examine one, we set the ruse of needing to expand the cave system and had the dwarves in the group start digging right into one of the objects. They tunneled through with no difficulty. The module fell out in the rubble and was scarcely noticed by the miners. We quietly removed it and took it to the lab.

It was some kind of communication device – magical in nature, made of isometril with brass and copper. We asked Venn about it, and he said it looked like something that he and the Coot had worked on many years ago, but had abandoned the concept fairly early and gone on to other things. It was sending some kind of energy or signal that was hard to notice unless you knew it was there, and then you could see it easily. So it was a spying device.

If the Egg of Coot knew the Roost was here, why go through these elaborate pains to spy on it? He could simply wipe it out and be done with the whole thing. That seemed impossible to believe. Unfortunately that left one other possibility – that someone else was spying on the Roost, and with access to similar devices. This too was rather difficult to believe but perhaps less so than the first option.

That night, Valanthe sat in the new cave, hidden and watching. And deep in the night, she heard a noise behind the wall – some kind of scraping. After a time, she saw a small clockwork ant, about the size of a cat, come out of a small tunnel in the wall. Over the next hour, the ant dug and placed new modules, and dug tunnels stringing mithril wire between them. When each wire was strung, it would spray out some kind of fluid, which solidified and turned to rock, leaving no trace of the tunnel.

When she described the ant to Venn the next morning, he said it too sounded like an old idea that was never developed.

Not knowing what to do about these modules, we decided to proceed with finding our next target. After debating various choices, we settled on a strike on the creche. We were not planning to take out the Egg of Coot in one blow, but more of a reconnaissance trip and to take out whatever targets of opportunity we found then withdraw.

Out loud, we said we would go attack the mines and free the slaves. Had the modules been the work of the Egg, then he’d at least think we were going for the wrong target, assuming he wasn’t aware we had found the network.

So we set out for the creche. It only takes a short bit of travel across the frozen waste to remind me why I don’t live in the frozen wastes. On the way, we could see some egg shaped objects hovering above the refinery – surely golems on guard from our last assault. They seemed somewhat precarious in their flight but were staying aloft nonetheless.

After a few more miles, we saw some kind of silvery shape running across the ice at amazing speeds. We were unsure what they were, but suspected they were the scavengers that Haldrin spoke of. We debated avoiding them, but decided we would rather face them now than on our way out, and see what they were made of. Scorch hid us in an illusion so we could strike from surprise.

Or so we thought. As they got closer, we could see there were two and they turned some and started running right at us – they somehow knew we were there. Scorch let loose a fireball but only one was even vaguely singed. They were also highly resistant to magical weapons – my arrows were bouncing off but Rackhir’s, enchanted by Scorch, were finding hold.

[OOC: +3 arrows that Dravot made for me didn’t work, which bothered me greatly. Scorch can make +4’s with greater magic weapon, and those did work.]

We engaged the monsters, trying various types of weapons and spells to see what affected them. Magic missles worked fine, but lightning had no effect. One of them bit hard on Aethramyr but he hardly seemed fazed. Valanthe then struck it from behind and one of them crashed down in a heap. We then killed the second one. The battle cost us some in spells, but we learned a great deal. They were outsiders, here in their physical form, but not evil ones. We took care to guard our magical weapons after hearing what happened to Haldrin – I feared that they could drain the magic from them but they fortunately showed no such ability.

Scorch, of course, felt the need to “examine” them after they were dead. “Examine” is his euphemism for “cut open and see what’s inside.” However besides the expected bits, he found two things that rather surprised me. First was a hand, a magical ring of the chameleon still on it. The other was a warhammer. Magical. And somewhat small to be wielded by a man.

Just right for a halfling though. I started grinning madly at the thought of returning Haldrin’s warhammer and rubbing it in what with the grumbling attitude he always has, and I took the hammer personally to make sure it returned to the rightful owner.

We continued north towards the creche. After a couple hours we could start to see some structures clustered together. They sat in some kind of small depression in the land. There was a dome with four large pylons sticking out from four sides, and it was connected by a cylindrical passage to a large square two-story structure, like a large warehourse. In the snow, I could make out three white egg-shaped objects hidden in the terrain. They were big – twice the size of the others we’d seen. Hovering above were three more golems.

[OOC: There’s something to be said for having 20 ranks in spot.]

We circled to the far side of the depression and saw three other … things. Large metal skeletons with something sitting inside them – the beasts of Aethramyr’s vision. One had a pair of greatswords, one had a crystal on its neck, and the third had no weapons and seemed thinner than the others. The occupant of one seemed vaguely dressed like the ranger that my companions had seen in their vision from Pelor.

We were getting ready to attack and discussing options. Our thinking was just to hit them a bit, take out a few targets and then withdraw quickly. But Valanthe had a sinking feeling and was hesitating. We watched and waited, to see what we could before making any decisions. And finally made out ice golems, sitting in the snow. These were the ones we saw at the mines, but they were lurking in the snow waiting, and there were a good number of them.

It seemed the Egg of Coot had decided to defend the creche rather heavily. Whether this was normal or not, we couldn’t say. But given Valanthe’s unease, and the obvious strength before us, we decided to pull back.

On our way back, we decided to take a look at the mines and see what had changed there since our last attack. The results were encouraging. There were three hovering golems above the mines. The patrol groups of sharp elves were still there, however they were just the standard swordsmen – no sorcerers, and none of the larger ones. And no golems.

This was a promising sign. It meant that the Egg of Coot did indeed have limited troops and resources, and he had pulled some of the forces from the mines to guard other sites. That meant that he was worried, and that our attacks were having an effect.

Since he had so heavily defended the creche (logical) it seemed like a good idea to hit the mines again. We had no idea who the Egg thought was in his lands attacking him, but so far it looked like we were more interested in isometril than in the slaves or liberation or any such thing. This was a deception we could extend by attacking the mines again. The truth was that while we could liberate the slaves, we could not transport, house, or feed them, and so for the time being they were better off where they were, and the Egg would have to expend forces guarding them while he still had them.

One thing at the mines had changed however. There were three sets of metal girders, joined in an X. On each was fastened a dead slave. No doubt this was left as a warning to us. However this really only served as a reinforcement of our purpose – the Egg of Coot had to be stopped. The death of the slaves was saddening, but we could not let those threats stop us.

And so we attacked the mines again, with the intent to cause general mayhem and misdirection. Scorch set an air elemental up to harass the floating eggs, and we moved in and struck at the sharp elves. Scorch’s initial fireball destroyed an entire patrol group, and things only got worse from there.

The added mobility from my new flight spell was invaluable, especially when added to Scorch’s mass haste. We moved in somewhat separately, each going after patrol groups while the golems descended. I took out half a group with one volley, and Aethramyr and Dravot teleported in close and killed the others. And so it went. By the time the golems had hit the ground, most of the sharp elves were dead, but the rest were still closing.

Aethramyr tried something on an impulse and cast Dispel Magic at a golem. And it stopped dead in its tracks for half a minute. This was a valuable new thing for us, and gave us some breathing room as we attacked the golems.

It was a short, brutal, bloody battle. Fortunately most of the blood was of our enemies, so this was a good thing. The golems were destroyed, and the entire patrolling force of 42 sharp elves were also dead. And the mines were ours.

Of course we have no intention of holding it.

[OOC: This may seem like an odd stopping point. And it is. Truth is it was really really late, and we all wanted to go to bed so we just left things here.]

 

[Zad]

miscellaneous additions

What a funky night. We walked in talking about ambushing marionettes or maybe going to the creche, and the revelation of the communications net just totally hit us upside the head.

I still can't believe that the golem pulled a chunk of isometril all that way to the far off cave it was in without help. The most likely suspect is that little clockwork ant actually.

So the big questions are

Who put the comm network there?
Why? and what's their purpose in all this?
What will happen if we jam it or shut it down?

How will we get past the defenses at the creche?

And what do we do next?

And what's this "dark secret" that the DM is teasing us all with?

 

[dravot]

Dravot's Journal - Land of Black Ice I

Dravot’s Journal – The Lands of Black Ice

Things have calmed down enough for me to jot some stuff down before going to sleep. Tomorrow we head north to the Creche, to see what kind of defenses the Coot has there, and test our mettle against them.

Several people have responded to my appeal for someone to learn the mysteries of Pelor’s priesthood. I am pleased that so many have stepped forward, for the journey toward clerical service is a long and arduous one, and I’m sure that most will fall by the wayside. Still, their time won’t be lost, as their appreciation for the Church will grow with their understanding, and will help root the faith amongst their families and neighbors. I have started them learning the healing arts, teaching them to care for those still in the infirmary. Only a couple are still under the throes of isometril sickness, and I should cure them when we get back from the Creche.

Venn is recovering from his rather unorthodox surgery. Everytime I turn around, that damned isometril is someplace else, fouling things up. I wish that it had never been discovered. If it’s at all possible, I’ll even help the druid to bury the mines under the lavaflow. All of the discussions of the vitaesis gems and isometril cause my eyes to glaze over. It’s increasingly difficult for me to even pretend to care. I just want it gone.

I am puzzled by this ring of isometril and mithril that surrounds the cave complex. My first ever jaunt into the ethereal showed that the ring eminated some kind of signal outward, and I thought I caught something out of the corner of my eye. I plan on calling upon the true sight of Pelor next time to see if I can catch whatever it was…maybe it was a clockwork ant like Valanthe described.

I will write more when I return from the Creche.

 

[WizarDru]

Look for some character perspectives tomorrow, I expect. Quite a session last night. Things are coming to a head as the Coot begins to get desperate, and other parties decide it's time to act. The true face(s) of the Cuckoo is revealed, and some major butt kicking, too!

Join us for the Penultimate chapter of "The Egg, the Owl and the Engine", won't you?

Zad paid me the highest compliment I can think of, when he turned to me last night and said: "You know, in 2 years of gaming in this campaign, that had the most whacked combat we've ever had."

My work here is done.

 

[dravot]

Dravot's Journal - Land of Black Ice II & III

(Editor's note: sometimes my journal entries are a bit later than Kayleigh's regular ones. I tend to only write them up when we get some downtime...if the game breaks in the middle of combat it's rather hard for Dravot to be writing up what's going on

Dravot’s Journal – The Lands of Black Ice II

We made pretty good time moving up toward the crèche. Along the way, we encountered some rather nasty Outsiders, all silver and moving with incredible speed. We believe that these are the creatures referred to by Haldrin; he encountered something like it in the tunnels leading from the slave pens to the mines. It was a tough fight, most of our weapons were ineffective against them, but Valanthe brought them down.

As a matter of fact, we think that they were the same ones, as Scorch recovered a warhammer from the guts of one of them, and I am currently carrying a ring that lets me alter my shape at will, and helps me to hide in the shadows, much like Valanthe does (albeit not as well as she).

We reached the crèche by midday, finding it heavily fortified. Valanthe warned us away from fighting there; I’m not sure what prompted that warning though, but after the fact it seemed like the prudent thing to do. I confess that I wanted to move in and fight anyway, there were undead amongst the guards, probably bodaks like Haldrin described and I was anxious to take them out. They’ll get theirs just yet.

We returned to the mines instead, finding it patrolled by the sharp elves and golems flying in midair. The sharp elves weren’t much of threat, fireballs and flame strikes took down most of them, with arrows and swords killing the rest. There was no sign of the caster elves we spotted before though…I’m sure that they’ll be tougher. The golems were a tougher threat, but we stopped them as well. I invoked the strength of Pelor and claimed vengeance in his name and finished off the last one.

Upon returning, I have discovered that my students have been working on an altar to Pelor, rather good, given the limited resources at this time. I plan on consecrating it tomorrow during services.

--------------
Dravot's Journal LoBI III

Much has occurred in the past few hours. I don’t have time to detail all of it, but I have a few minutes to set something down in my journal, so that there will be some record of it.

There was an earthquake a little while ago. Rackhir and his animal took to the air and discovered that the earth had formed a huge gear, probably some 80-100 miles in diameter, most likely centered on the Creche. The edge of the gear is but a couple of scant miles south of us. Scorch believes that these foul lands are being hoisted into the plane of Mechanus. Rackhir has gone to the druid for information and help. He will help the Owl to get those in the caves out of here and through the barrier. With them safe, we can concentrate on the problem at hand.

I have just emerged from a prayer trance with a vision from Pelor, although it doesn’t make a lot of sense.
I saw what I believe to be the Coot in his lair, in front of the gear gate. A giant antlike monstrosity came through the gate and there was a heated discussion. It sounds like the antman was breaking some deal with the Coot, but I’m not sure what that would be. The Coot was clearly agitated.

Whatever is going on, it’s enough for us to act. Kayleigh and Valanthe were just summoned to the lower caves for some reason. As soon as that’s cleared up, we’ll head out.

 

[Zad]

Divine Wrath - Chapter 5

Divine Wrath - Chapter 5

OOC Notes:

Exp this session is 4000. 16 point DM pity bonus to Dravot. Probably one more session to end this adventure.

This Week’s Adventure:

As we looked at the smashed remains of the golems and bodies of the elves, we then had to figure out what the next move was. I kept an eye out for reinforcements while the others spread out to see what was in the area. Valanthe and Scorch headed for the refinery building while the others searched the elves for anything useful [OOC: 84 plat and that’s about it.] The weapons of the elves seemed to be decaying and disintegrating even while they watched, so the sharpness is probably an attribute of the elves rather than the weapons.

Valanthe found some new precautions in place at the refinery. Some kind of magical symbol trap was waiting. She didn’t know how to disarm it so she had Scorch back up and she was just going to run through and take whatever came. It turned out to be something rather unlike anything I think she was expecting, as a wall of force sprang up, blocking her exit from the refinery from that door. Knowing she could shadow jump out, she didn’t worry too much about it and proceeded to look around. The refinery was quite different – all the refined isometril was gone, but the raw ore was still plentiful. Also many of the heavier machines had been removed, and there were large holes in the floor, leading down to a lava flow. Presumably the machines were powered by the heat from the lava. However the lava was slowly rising, and perhaps it was the Egg’s intention that we would be trapped inside and burned by the lava.

Scorch also made the observation that the golems all acted in perfect concert and were most likely linked in some way. Any golem made to a similar design would probably be aware of what happened here and might be teleporting in at any moment, since we had seen the other ones teleport. This led us to hasten our inspection and withdraw immediately. We wanted to take one of the slaves with us so he could tell us what had happened here in recent days, but they were all so cowed as none would leave. Likely they feared retribution on their families or some such. However when asked they did tell us that the Cuckoo had arrived after our last attack, and they were all chased out while a lot of work went on. When asked about the Cuckoo and what it looked like, the man couldn’t say, as if he was prevented from doing so somehow. With that we decided it was best to leave, and we did.

We were moving out at a good clip and were several hundred feet from the refinery when there were a few flashes of light, indicating that more golems had arrived. Of course we were far enough that they had no idea where we’d gone, and we were able to safely withdraw to the Roost.

When we returned, I asked Scorch to start work on a device that would jam the spying devices in the caves. He said it would be simple to do, and would start in the morning. (Understandable since we were all exhausted.) The network bothered me greatly – if it was the Coot spying, why not just destroy us here? If it wasn’t, then who else was playing in this little game? By jamming the network, I hoped to draw them out somehow and see who we were dealing with.

Meanwhile I went to find Haldrin. I was going to gain some amusement at returning his precious hammer, and had other questions for him as well. I found him supervising the dwarves in working on the new cave areas that had been opened up.

I asked him about the “steel beasts” that his group had encountered and it did seem to match the ones we had fought. Of course, as soon as we were near the subject he went on again about his lost hammer. I asked a few idle questions about it – how big it was, the markings, and so on, before I pulled it out and said “Like this one?”

He was speechless initially but alas, it didn’t last. He looked at me and said “You’re all right, elf.” And then, with some hesitation in such an unnatural act, said “Thanks.” I could only smile and told him where we found it, and it was then he noticed the smell. He went off to give it a bath or anoint it or something and I told him to find me when he was done, as I had more questions.

I was a bit puzzled about Haldrin’s group, and exactly who they were and what happened to them. The Coot’s army was formidable but we had been reasonably successful so far, and I wanted to avoid any pitfalls that they had encountered.

Haldrin found me and told me the full tale. It was him, the ranger, a cleric and a mage. Tritherion had wanted Haldrin to come, and he assumed the cleric was under a similar motivation. He and the ranger had been long friends so the ranger came too. The mage was hired on for the job. The druid came later, on his own, and apparently his goddess had sent him. Like us, they found the Owl fairly quickly. This all happened about three years ago and the barrier was not in place then. The Coot’s army was also weaker – there were fewer golems but a fair number more sharp elves. They had little problem with the sharp elves or the ice golems, which seem to shoot blades of ice and are melted by fireballs. First they did a sortie to get the lay of things then attacking the slave pens to free slaves and lead an uprising. At the time it seemed like a plausible thing, not like it is now. After freeing some people and several sorties they decided it would be better to take out the Coot directly, and headed down the tunnel to the creche and puppet theatre. (The square building is the puppet theatre, the dome is the creche, he told me. He believed the gear gate was in the creche, along with the Cuckoo.)

Then the Coot started playing rough. He sent a retaliation raid and attacked the former hideout. Back then, the blocks on divination magic were not in place either, and the interference was more localized. Large quantities of isometril seem to interfere with magic also.

To attack the Coot they went through the mines and destroyed two golems on the way. They were doing well until they got to an ambush, set by the Cuckoo and the retriever-like golems. The mage was turned to stone by one of the golems. The cleric was panicked by the Cuckoo. Haldrin couldn’t describe the Cuckoo either but he did make an effort to force through it. The ranger got Haldrin out, and the druid also escaped somehow. Haldrin implied the druid ran from the fight early on, but didn’t say so directly.

Since then the Coot has built up his forces. There are more golems and fewer elves.

I told him what we’d found on our little sortie and generally relaxed for the evening. In the morning, it wasn’t long before Scorch built the jamming device. He said he would place it in the network and it would disrupt the signal it was sending out.

We spent the day recovering and debating what to do. Dravot was instructing some followers on the mysteries of the church I believe as well, and he and the paladins were still tending to the injured. That night, I hid myself in the new cave keeping watch on Scorch’s latest creation. I was fairly sure something would come, and I wasn’t disappointed. Past midnight, another clockwork ant arrived, this one more sophisticated than the one Valanthe saw – it looked much more like an actual ant. It began slowly checking each device looking for the problem. I debated something subtle, but instead went for something direct, and put an arrow into the little ant, pinning it to the wall. It was still functional but only barely so, and I tied it up carefully and left it for Scorch to look at in the morning.

Scorch and Venn and the Owl spent some time looking at it. It was fairly straightforward clockwork tinkering, and standard gnomish craftsmanship. The Owl said she could even build such a device. We tried to come up with a way to track it back to the source, but couldn’t think of anything practical.

A while later, the ground started shaking. It seemed like an earthquake but that kind of thing doesn’t happen here. Rackhir took to the air to see if anything was happening and indeed there was. Some three miles to the south of us, cracks were forming in the earth. The crack would go in a direction for a while, then turn suddenly at a right angle, then go then turn back and forth. The crack was only a foot or two wide but was very deep near as he could tell. From a low level, it made no sense at all. But when he pulled up the picture became clear.

The crack was outlining the teeth of an enormous gear.

Scorch’s jaw nearly hit the floor. “Mechanus” he said. “He’s trying to take the whole area to Mechanus.” Apparently the plane of law is composed entirely of gears, some as small as a room, some as large as a continent. And now the Egg was trying to take the whole area to another plane. Scorch asked Rackhir for some quick measurements, and it seemed pretty clear to them that the center of the gear was at the creche. Then of course there was the question of “how long before it’s finished?” To that he could only answer “It depends.”

On his way back, Rackhir stopped in to see the druid at the volcano. The animals in the area were clearly agitated as was Agner. He said that his connection to the land and his goddess was fading away, which confirmed what we already thought.

While Scorch and Venn were furiously scribbling on a cave wall in chalk, someone else came in and told us there was a clockwork ant in the cave. It was just sitting there, not hiding. And it had something tied to it.

Some of us went down to the cave, and there was another ant. It had a small scrap of paper tied to it and it was just waiting. It seems the unknown party has come forward with a message. I honestly didn’t think that jamming the network would work quite this well, but it seems it did.

I untied the note – it was a small scrap torn off the corner of some larger paper. Hastily scrawled on it was

Can’t hold him off much longer. More coming form Acheron. War coming. Help soon.

This was not very clear or helpful but did reinforce the urgency of the new problems. And what did “Help soon” mean. That he would help? Or that we needed to help him?

The best of it all however was what was on the other side of the paper. It seems that this was torn from some plan or blueprint. From the fragment we had, it seemed it was the plan of something being built over the existing town. And part of the construction was an escape tunnel, leading to the nearby hills. The tunnel lead back into the puppet theatre.

Here it was. Our way in. The way past the guards outside.

None of us were thrilled with the new gear forming. I suggested that Dravot might wish to pray to Pelor for any guidance. He seemed to think little of this idea and resisted it. I think he didn’t expect Pelor to bother himself with all this. However I think Dravot underestimated his growing power as a priest of Pelor, and the fact that we are on a mission directed by Pelor himself.

But pray he did. And he was rewarded. He saw a vision.

There was a large egg hanging in the air. Around the center were several metal tumblers spinning around and stopping at various times. Runes were carved on these bands and blue energy crackled around. The Egg floated around a bit, then shimmered and was replaced with the image of an old gnome floating in the air. It floated before a large portal made of gears and clanging hammers – surely the gear gate.

The center of the gate swirled and a vortex of energy formed and then cleared. Through the gate came the shape of a giant ant-like creature. The Egg of Coot was clearly distressed at the new developments, and it seemed from the conversation that the ant was altering the deal that they had, and stealing the entire area to Mechanus against the Egg’s wishes. The Egg mentioned other interested parties, but the ant didn’t care. The ant withdrew, and the Egg muttered about arrangements being made, and always honoring our deals. The vision faded but left some very clear things in its wake. Whoever was trying to tear off this section of the prime material plane, it wasn’t the Egg of Coot, and he didn’t want it to happen.

Not needing much more, we quickly gathered what we would need and headed out to the creche.

It was hardly a mile from the Roost that we saw them. More giant steel cats – a group of three, moving fast. The Egg of Coot was expecting a response from us, and he knew we were in this general area. These beasts were here to intercept us and stop us. One of them was much larger than the other two, and looked particularly nasty. We discussed trying to just get past them without drawing attention, but most of the group felt that it would be better if Rackhir flew up and tried to draw them off. So Rackhir flew in low over them and they predictably gave chase. He was able to loose the two smaller ones ducking in and out of ravines, but the large one leapt up a sixty foot wall in two bounds and stayed with him. After a bit more dodging in and out, Rackhir finally lost him and rejoined the group. It worked out beautifully and we headed to the creche.

As we approached the creche, there was a beam of light projecting up into the sky. The closer we got, the more uneasy some of us became – of course it was the free-spirits in the group, which made up the majority of us. We moved into the hills and started looking for the tunnel, Valanthe coordinating the search. It took some time but we finally found the well concealed entrance.

As Valanthe looked for the opening mechanism, there was a flash as a magical trap went off. A bizarre red creature appeared (Scorch called it a Rast) with many insect-like legs. It slashed at Valanthe, who responded in kind, cutting the fairly fragile creature deeply. It was badly wounded and a single arrow finished it off, and it disappeared back into the planar ether a few moments later.

[OOC: There was a rast. For a brief, tiny, fleeting moment. It does mean things, sure. But it only has a tiny handful of hit points. On the surprise round it attacked. On the first regular round, Valanthe nearly killed it, and Wizardru just said “Ah…ok. Well… Kayleigh finishes it with an arrow. It’s dead. Moving on.” We spent a good few minutes making fun of the rast and how a powerful spell like summon monster VI could turn up this thing. Dravot’s player caused Wizardru to actually sperf water when, as Wizardru was holding up the picture in the Monster Manual, he said “Warning: Image is actual size.”]

The tunnel curved gently underneath the depression that the creche and puppet theatre sat in. As we progressed the air got warmer. It stopped being cold and got to the point that it was very warm. After a long stretch, the passage came to a dead end. Beyond, we could hear the sounds of ringing hammers and various clanging about. Valanthe found the trigger to open the panel and peeked inside. In the room were a pair of battle dolls but instead of hammer-like arms, they had long sharp tubes as claws. The walls were welded plates of metal sometimes forced to fit and the ceiling was about 35 feet high. The floor oddly was bare earth. To the north in the room was a large stone house in bad repair, almost as if it had been moved into this large room. There were a few humans moving about the chamber with odd awkward movements. Dravot said they were undead, and their pale skin supported this. Indeed the entire building was under the effects of an Unhallow spell. On the backs of their heads was some kind of copper apparatus.

This brought out something that had been nagging at the back of my mind – who was making the undead? The Egg of Coot was a wizard, and seemed to deal in gadgets. But it didn’t seem to fit that he was also raising the dead. So if not him, then who?

We moved in to quickly take out the golems. Dravot turned the light of Pelor on the poor unfortunate souls that shuffled around, and despite the unhallow, their shells fell to ash and their grateful spirits floated free. The golems claws were brutally sharp and left bleeding wounds behind, but we were able to destroy them fairly quickly. Given all the clanging and banging, it was unlikely anyone had heard the fight.

There were three doors leading out of the room. Valanthe checked each in turn, and the middle was trapped with some type of magical trap. Fortunately she was able to disarm it without loosing any limbs and we moved down that passage. It lead to a door that was some kind of iris. It was locked but Valanthe found a way past it.

Beyond the portal was a room. In the room was another disheveled stone house, and a raised steel platform.

On the platform, floating off the ground, slowly spinning, was the Cuckoo.

[OOC: Eeeep.]

It’s difficult to describe the Cuckoo. It was made entirely of mithril. In the middle was a large pod, (larger than a man) which had several bands rotating around the center, like the Egg did. At the top was a head of sorts, but it had a face on the front and back, and protrusions at various points. On all four sides were smaller pods. And the room was filled with the hollow fluting music.

I had a sinking feeling about the pods, but was unsure.

I have to hand it to Dravot and Scorch – they were well prepared for this encounter. Quickly, various defensive spells were cast, including a silence on Aethramyr’s shield, and a ward against sonic attacks. And we moved in.

I fired at the Cuckoo but his spinning form meant my arrow missed. Aethramyr took a moment to detect evil, and while he sensed six different presences, he detected no evil. He then moved up and struck with Shatterspike, and found purchase. But with the blow came blood.

And that was what I feared. In the pods must be people. Like the marionettes, he would use these innocents as a shield.

Rackhir said over the scale there was a voice in his head that told him there were children inside the Cuckoo, not just the pods but in the central element as well. [OOC: What Rackhir did not tell us was that the voice said that they were HIS children.] I had a reasonable guess where the voice was coming from and so assumed the information was valid. Valanthe was quickly checking the stone house and had found some rough plans for what looked like the Cuckoo. Inside it was space for two children, and there were vents that we could see that must be for them to breathe. There was no way to remove the children – the Cuckoo was built with them inside.

What followed was the strangest battle I have yet seen. Aethramyr tried to leap on the Cuckoo and pry off a pod, but they were well attached. Scorch opened one pod with a knock spell and Aethramyr ripped out the occupant and then healed him to keep him from dying. During all this, the Cuckoo attacked mercilessly with claws on the ends of mithril cables, lashing out. His attacks were taking their toll on Aethramyr and Rackhir. We had no ideas and no options, and we even discussed attacking the Cuckoo in force, and simply accepting the loss of the people contained inside. Surely we couldn’t just stand here and let it kill us, and running was not an option either.

Since this beast was in some ways similar to a marionette, we tried using the disruption devices, spiking them directly into the Cuckoo. It had a minor effect but not all we’d hoped. Valanthe noticed that the Cuckoo was constantly spinning, and pulled out one of the immovable rods, and use it on one side. The Cuckoo clanged into it and spiraled across the room out of control for a moment.

Scorch then tried a dispel magic on the head of the Cuckoo. His first try wasn’t sufficient but he tried again, and something happened. By that time Aethramyr had moved away and we could hear a shrill keening sound and light was coming from the head an eyes. The Cuckoo himself had stopped attacking or moving. We kept trying to hound it further with disruption devices, which had some effect but we weren’t sure what.

Then we put it together – it was going to explode. Scorch must have some how set off the self destruct. Valanthe was able to pry off the head and remove the huge chunk of vitaesis that powered the thing – the power was so intense it burned her hands. But once the vitaesis was removed, the sound died, and even the droning pipe music withered away, and the Cuckoo was inert.

We had to get the people out next, and we set to that. The pods were simple enough but we had to figure out how to remove the children. I suggested that we teleport them out if we could reach down the air holes far enough. Scorch solved that by polymorphing into a small animal and crawling down the vent whereupon he could touch them and teleport them from inside the Cuckoo.

The vast metal hulk sat on the floor, unmoving, unseeing. Scorch said it can probably regenerate but without the people inside, it would not be likely. Even so if someone wanted to revive it, it would take months to do.

Rackhir, for all the time I’ve know him, did something I’d never seen. He showed emotion. He held the children, who were pale and thin, and not used to the light. He called them by name, and I realized that somehow they had to be his children.

 

[Zad]

Divine Wrath - Chapter 6

Divine Wrath - Chapter 6

OOC Notes:

Experience this session is 5087

Loot summarized at the end.

Notable Quotes:

Wizardru: “Getting to the prime material is relatively easy”. Something I wanted to note for the record.

Wizardru, describing a room: “There’s plenty of light. It’s exceedingly dark.” That clears things up.


This Week’s Adventure:

We quickly discussed what to do with the rescued children and the other captives of the Cuckoo. Getting them to safety would be ideal, but there was no real place of safety anywhere within miles, and so we settled for hiding them in the stone building, Rackhir leaving Gwahir to guard them. We also discussed the rather gigantic pile of mithril before us that used to be the Cuckoo. We debated trying to salvage some of it or store some in Scorch’s magic chest, but it would take too long, and time was of the essence. (A decision we would later come to regret.)

One corridor from the Cuckoo’s lair led to a dead end hall with some strange prongs coming from the wall. Leaving that we went through another door, down a short hall and came to a large mechanical door. Valanthe managed to open it, and inside were yet more mysteries.

There was a single human inside this dank room. [Here in lies the quote: “There’s plenty of light. It’s exceedingly dark.”] The torchlight threw shadows around and the smell of decay was in the air. A small altar was at one end of the room surrounded by human bones. This seemed to fill in a missing piece of the puzzle – someone was creating the undead we saw and we didn’t think it was the Egg, so who was it? Probably this man. Aethramyr confirmed he was evil so I moved in. Before I could even fire, he cast a command spell, ordering us all to stay our hand. Some of my companions were able to resist his will, but I was frozen unable to fire.

Valanthe moved in and attacked the man but was unable to land her blade on him. In return, he cast Harm on her, and Valanthe screamed at the sickly energy’s touch. He then said something about not seeking to harm us and perhaps we could negotiate.

[OOC Note: Aethramyr’s player was working late, and was not yet at the game. I point this out because we tread on some fine moral lines next, and if it seems that Aethramyr is strangely silent, there is a reason for it. We waited as long as we could but ultimately had to move on.]

Having no problem with the moral dilemma, Rackhir spoke up, and asked the man what he wanted. The situation calmed from there very slowly, but it soon became clear that while this man had definite goals in this scheme, we were not necessarily opposed to them. Assuming of course he was telling the truth.

He was a cleric of Wee Jas, a representative and negotiator. The isometril apparently belonged to Wee Jas originally and came from her plane. Somehow, Mechanus stole it, then lost it, and it ended up here. The forces of Wee Jas want it back very badly, and are prepared to go to war to get it. He has been negotiating with the Egg of Coot but it has been slow and complicated, and the advent of the action of Mechanus to steal back the isometril is most disturbing. He surmises that we wish to destroy the Egg, and he has no trouble with that idea at all – the isometril is his concern here.

Dravot and Rackhir continued to discuss the situation with this priest of evil. I was stunned into silence. The man is definitely powerful, and to fight him would have been a difficult thing indeed. However he is also respectful of our power and seems to wish to avoid an unnecessary battle. What stunned me however is how Dravot, who has sworn to root out and destroy the undead and those who create them, and a priest of Pelor, was so willing to tolerate this man. Were he simply a cleric of Wee Jas, that would be one thing, but this man obviously has created undead, in this very room even, and yet Dravot seems indifferent to it. During the discussions he mentions that the temple of Wee Jas helped his family in Brindonford, and that he owes them a debt, but I couldn’t help but wonder if he was committing some kind of moral lapse that he would regret later.

In any case, he told us where to find the Egg, and also of the Gear Gate. The Gear Gate effectively cannot be destroyed without removing the power source – a woman in some kind of cylinder. She is in the tall building adjacent to this one. If we can remove her, we can then destroy the gate and potentially stop the actions of the Formians. (Hopefully before war erupts between Acheron and Mechanus, with this as the battleground.) He also said that the golems are the product of Acheron, and he has some sway over them. He can render them indifferent to us, and they will not attack unless we attack them first. Rackhir and Dravot agree to leave the man be and proceed on against the Egg in exchange for this. However if forces begin to arrive from Acheron, all deals were off. I was still unable to believe that Dravot would be willing to allow this, but since this is Pelor’s wish that we be here, I simply shook my head and we moved on.

The other door from his chamber led to a hallway and then a door to the outside, facing the tower where Ravenna was held. This is the building where the three bodaks in mechanical skeletons stand guard. We formulated a quick plan to get past them without attacking them directly: Dravot would render us invisible to undead, however one bodak still guards the door, and would notice it opening. Rackhir fired an explosive arrow to land out of sight to distract the bodaks, but they did not investigate. Presumably their orders did not permit such thinking. So I threw an illusion at the end of the building of the party, and had them move around the building. Two of the bodaks see this, including the one guarding the door, and moved off to pursue.

We moved up and worked on opening the door. With time running out before the bodaks return, Valanthe was working quickly but having a great deal of trouble with the door. Finally she managed to open it and we moved inside, sealing the door behind us.

This large room had a glass ceiling. Hovering in the air twenty feet up was a cylinder matching Aethramyr’s vision. All around it were large arms, each ending in a different color vitaesis crystal. At random moments, energy streams would arc from the cylinder to one of the various crystals.

I flew up to the cylinder and could see Ravenna inside through a small window. I tried to break it but it was not glass. In fact then it seemed clear that the entire cylinder was made from diamond vitaesis, with the window being the only untreated, clear portion. Valanthe joined me and uses the large jade crystal from the Cuckoo, hoping to cause a reaction in the diamond vitaesis. While we were there, energy is shooting around us, burning us both in various places.

The jade worked. Fortunately it was not a large explosion like opposing vitaesis, but it did cause the diamond to crack deeply. After a couple tries, a piece shattered inward, cutting Ravenna slightly. It left a hole just large enough for me to get a finger in and touch her face, which was all I needed. I activated the helm of teleportation and brought us down to the floor.

When she was released from the cylinder, she released a wave of energy. It was like being overcome by a stunning wave of . . . neutrality. It’s really impossible to describe other than that. It was so overwhelming that I was simply stunned, as was Valanthe and Scorch. The priests managed to avoid being overcome, though they still felt it. They were unable to snap the rest of us out of it at first, until Dravot tried channeling some positive energy which seemed to cause a reaction in us and snap us out of it.

[OOC: The energy was neutral, and affected us all save Rackhir, who is chaotic neutral, and the only one of us with any “neutral” in him. Just so happened the Lawful’s made the saves. When Dravot tried channeling positive energy at Scorch, it was contrary to his chaotic nature and helped snap him out of it. Wizardru said “You feel the oppressive touch of The Man trying to exert his control over you!”]

Ravenna was still unconscious, even though free from the cylinder. She was naked and her hair has grown very very long. Rackhir wrapped his cloak around her and holds her as Dravot scans her for injury. Rackhir seemed on the verge of weeping, but the urgency of the situation would not permit anything like that. Surely the Egg knew what had happened, and we had to get out of there fast. Scorch had noticed all the energy interplay in the remaining mechanism and the cylinder was slowly floating to the floor as the energy drained out of it. He was sure that this building would be a very bad place to be soon, and we’d best leave it.

Of course by now the bodak had returned. Rather than anything tricky, we just opened the door. We had several of the scarabs scorch had made specifically to short out the bodaks, and I fired one as the door opened. The bodak jerked and stumbled and we made a run back to the Puppet Theatre. We had just made it to the door when the tower exploded loudly, knocking us all off our feet, and completely destroying the bodaks still guarding it.

The cat was out of the bag now. The Egg knew we were here, and we were inside his defenses. Rackhir would be needed to defeat whatever lied ahead, but now having both his wife and his children, he would not leave their side. Nor would I in his shoes. We would have removed them all to a safer spot, but with the helm out of uses for the day, there was no way of doing that. As Ravenna got closer to the children, her eyes opened finally, but then a blue-white light started shining from her eyes. She floated up into the air as did the children and lightning started arcing between them. Beneath her, the ground opened up, and vines and underbrush started growing before our eyes. Dravot said she must be acting as an avatar of Beory, anchoring the area to the prime material plane. However it’s uncertain how long she can hold the area in place, and we decide to take out the Gear Gate quickly to help her.

So we moved down the proper passage towards the creche, supplied by the cleric of Wee Jas. The door opened to a large clear tube that ran between the buildings. Valanthe triggered a trap that caused the appearance of several golems, but they simply stood there ignoring her. Seemed the cleric was keeping up his end of things.

In the middle of the tube was a mystical symbol. Valanthe attempted to disarm the trap, but failed and it went off. Messily. A symbol of pain washed over us all, even though we were all well back from Valanthe. Aethramyr and I shook off the effect, but the rest were all in pain from the magic.

Dravot was able to remove the effect with remove curse from some scrolls he had, and restored most of the group. Thorkeld was willing to suffer through it however and we went on.

We were not sure what would be waiting on the other side of this door, but we prepared for the worst. Rather than risk some type of trap, we stayed a way down the corridor and triggered the door to open from a distance. Hovering a foot from the ground was a large brass and copper clockwork egg. The Egg. The Egg of Coot.

Not sparing a moment, the Egg crackled with energy, and a prismatic spray tore down the corridor.

[OOC: Ouch. For those curious who got what: Aethramyr was purple, he saved. Thorkeld was orange and he took some damage. Dravot was indigo, he saved. Kayleigh got blue, she saved. Valanthe got orange. I should also point out that it was a good time of year for this battle, as Wizardru has many plastic easter eggs in the house, and a purple one was easily recruited to serve as the appropriate villain.]

We moved in and attacked in full force. I flew into the room and urged my fellows to do the same, as the corridor would be a death trap for us with area spells. The Egg had erected a wall of force in the chamber beyond, cutting us (and him) off from the rest of the creche. Beyond the wall we could see the Gear Gate.

The Egg was not unprepared for us, and I was quickly met with a Bigby’s hand that did its best to stay between me and my target the entire time. I had only fired one arrow at the Egg before he cast the hand at me and after that I was unable to get a single shot around the large hand. But Thorkeld and Aethramyr surrounded the Egg and began hacking into it, and Dravot soon followed. Valanthe leapt on top and was trying to find a way inside. (Valanthe seems to be developing a rather odd tendency to leap on top of things.)

Scorch turned immediately to the Gate, dropping the Egg’s force wall with a disintegrate.

The Egg cast several spells in the course of the battle but most of them were foiled by our counterattack, and he had difficulty casting most of them. Within a short time, the tyrant that had cursed this land crashed to the floor in a brass-and-copper lump, shredded by Shatterspike and Dravot’s Sunhammer.

Scorch was able to begin to understand the Gate. He was sure he could destroy it with a bit of vitaesis, and placed it appropriately. Twice he nearly got his hand blown off but managed to get clear. After the first, the Gate cracked and groaned, the gears beginning to grind and the hammers no longer in their perfect rhythm. After the second, the thing flew apart in all directions. As it did, the pull on the area seemed to lessen ever so slowly.

[OOC: There was a feeling of “lawfulness” in the area since before we had arrived, and we were able to gauge progress in the tug-of-war on the land by how much we could feel this lawful aspect taking over or receding.]

Valanthe was able to open the hulk and remove the withered gnome inside. He was frail, and burned in places. Dravot and Aethramyr were examining him, Aethramyr felt there was still an evil spirit around. One of the gems set into the top of the egg seemed to be the source of this, and it seemed to be the focus binding some evil spirit. Scorch was prepared for that too with a dismissal, and sent the demon back to its native plane.

The gnome was barely holding on and what ailed him went far deeper than Dravot could address here. The gnome managed to croak out “He’s….still here…” Dravot asked “He who?”

The gnome croaked “Fraaazzzz…” And then he was dead.

We immediately started running back to the Cuckoo’s chamber.

Meanwhile….

[OOC: For the sake of the readers, I’ll present what happened, even though Kayleigh didn’t see it, it’s easily learned later.]

As Rackhir sat watch over his wife and children he could see a change suddenly. There was no longer as much of a struggle, and the power coming from his wife spread out more evenly and calmly. But at the far end of the room, a man walked in. He towered tall, with black hair, black skin, and black within black eyes. Across his back was a large black sword, and he wore black silks.

Tolerating no threat to his wife and children, Rackhir told the man “Leave. Now.” But the man just ignored him and walked towards Ravenna with a look of curiosity in his face. Rackhir fired a few arrows but the man simply caught one and snapped it in half. Rackhir drew out the enchanted battle axe and moved towards the man, realizing he was facing a far superior power. He said “This probably isn’t going to do any good is it? But …”

The Demon Prince of Deception looked at him and shrugged “Do what you must.”

Rackhir swung but the beast easily dodged him. Then with an absent wave of his hand, Rackhir was thrown against the wall. His skull was split, his bones shattered, and his blood spilling out.

As his vision blurred, Rackhir could see a small white form hovering nearby. A small man the size of his hand with a whirlwind instead of legs, the thing spoke to him.

“Hi. Um…look, we haven’t been formally introduced but I’m the Adjuticator. I was asked to keep an eye on you, and I’ve been the one talking to you. Look, you’re going to die. Now if you hold still a bit I think I can prevent that but it’s going to take me some time.”

Fraz-Urb Luu stood before Ravenna, studying her, not entirely sure what to make of what he saw.

Rackhir had little choice and the spirit set to work. It said “You can just call me Jono for now. You see I was tied to your bow to kind of keep an eye on you. That guy there is Fraz – you know – the Demon Prince of Deception.” Slowly Rackhir’s bones started to pull back together and the organs spilled back into his body. He thought more than said “Is there a way you can help me act against him?”

Jono just stopped. Then he said “Well, maybe… um… just stay still.” Clearly he knew something but didn’t want to say it. Rackhir thought “What is it? How can I stop him?”

Jono stalled, then said “You could stab him… with the bow…” Clearly doing this would represent quite a painful price for the spirit, and possibly for Rackhir.

Rackhir was never one to shy from a price however. His body was now repaired enough to let him move, and quietly he got up behind Fraz.

[OOC: What you, the reader, have not known, is that when Scorch agreed to make Rackhir’s bow, he attached a price. The price was that Scorch could add a power of his choosing to the bow. Rackhir agreed. What Scorch did, with Dravot’s help, was bind a djinn spirit into the bow. With Rackhir in possession of the mark, and questions about his loyalties, this was done to have something that would keep an eye on him and add some moral guidance. All the characters were aware of this, with the exception of Rackhir of course. However it had not yet come up often in the game – twice so far I believe. But I did not document it here for fear of revealing Scorch’s handiwork. Kayleigh was not at all comfortable with Rackhir having the Mark, and this was one of the things that eased her (and others) concerns. Jono is a djinn prince who has been bound (with his consent) in Rackhir’s bow since it was created.]

We were all rushing madly back to Rackhir. I was flying down the hall at a dangerous speed and opened the door in time to see Rackhir standing behind an ebon-skinned man. Rackhir’s leg was splayed at an impossible angle, and he was grasping his bow with both hands like a spear ready to drive it into the man’s back.

As we arrived the man turned to us, but Rackhir struck. The bow glowed an intense green light, with a small white sprite of light circling it at amazing speeds. Scorch managed to blurt out “Fraz! That’s Fraz!” The bow began crackling and burning with lightning, striking into the demon.

Then there was a growing light, as Rackhir and Fraz were swallowed up in a ball of white light. At its peak there was a flash that blinded us all. When we could see, both Fraz and Rackhir were gone. The bow had fallen to the floor, still engulfed in a greenish fire.

As we all stood there, stunned, Ravenna’s eyes started glowing brighter. A sudden green aura burst around us, seemingly protecting us from what was happening. The floor burst into grass and plant life, and a huge wave of energy rushed outward. The building was totally blown apart with sheets of metal flying in every direction. As the wave reached the metal, it started rusting and dissolving. Apparently since Beory no longer had to struggle to keep this land on this plane, she could turn her attention to un-doing what had been done.

The ground began cracking and shaking, and the black ice was melting away as the energy wave changed the very land around us. The temperature began changing too – the heat of the theatre was cooled, while out on the glacier it began to warm. Everywhere the black ice melted away, and the ground swelled with new plant and even animal life. This continued on for some time and all we could do is watch in amazement as nature erased the Egg and all his monstrosities from the lands, and brought life where there was only cold and ice. After several minutes, it was as if we were in another land, with growing trees and rich plains.

After half an hour, the change was complete, and the green aura fell away. Ravenna and the children returned to what I can only describe as a more mortal state, and woke, as if from a long sleep.

And she asked “Where’s my husband?”

We could only look at each other silently. Finally I said “That’s what we had hoped you could tell us.” She remembered no more than what we had seen with our own eyes.

Scorch, with a grump, picked up the bow he had spent so much time on. It was still intact, but no longer contained the spirit that he and Dravot had placed within. “All that work gone,” he said in disgust.

Then, still a practical man, he turned to me and handed me the bow and said “You should be able to get some use out of this thing.”

I held it but the feel was entirely wrong. Rackhir and I were like two sides of a coin – the same, yet totally different. This bow was entirely his, and while a fine weapon, was not at all suited to me. Before I could say a word though, the bow began fading away, drawn to some other place. In a moment it was gone.

Scorch could only say “Feh.”

We took a quick look around. Everything of the Egg’s was blasted away, the metal rusting and crumbling. Scorch shouted “The mithril!” and ran over to where the Cuckoo’s hulk had been. All that was left was pieces of brass and copper – the mithril was gone, taken back into the earth by nature herself.

We asked Ravenna to please explain some of what had happened to us, from the beginning. She explained that there is a chosen of Beory born each generation. She did not know she was Beory’s chosen when she married Rackhir however. Then she was captured and imprisoned by Iuz. The Egg of Coot somehow attacked and killed one of the lesser boneheart, and captured her. She had been shuttled back and forth between somewhere (Mechanus perhaps) and was a connection to Beory. She was used to spread the black ice further south than it would have come. For a time the Egg hid her on Mechanus when Chavram attacked, but that did not work as the Egg had intended – on Mechanus she was a mortal woman, and conditions rapidly worsened here.

Over time the Egg grew more erratic and splintered. It started acting as two distinct personalities, depending on when you talked to it. It made deals and had discussions with various beings. At one point, strangers came in brown robes with masks and talked to it, but it was always in one particular personality for this. Apparently they were very angry at Chavram. Ravenna had the feeling that the robed men did not speak for their entire group though. They mentioned something about Chavram having an ulterior motive to facing down Iuz, and whatever it was, it scared them.

Adding in what we knew, it seemed clear that at some point in time, Fraz took an interest in the Egg of Coot. He was taken to some other plane and horrible things were done to him, evidenced by scars we found on his back and spine. A demon was bound with the egg, and the personalities seemed to be either the demon, or the gnome, who was trying to prevent all this from happening. Fraz seemed intent on starting a war between Acheron and Mechanus, and was using the isometril as the prize and the Egg of Coot as his pawn. The interactions with the robed men, surely the Horned Society, confirm the level of Fraz’s involvement.

Why Fraz would want such a war, we had no way of knowing. But it must be a large effort given the lengths he’s gone to. We’re forced to question a great deal of what’s happened in the past to see if it was what it seemed.

After a time, Agner and the Owl arrived. With them were the Owl’s forces, Haldrin, and the freed slaves. They also brought with them the marionettes – the devices were dead, but the children were still trapped inside. We freed them with the keys we had and they were returned to their families. The Owl, Ravenna and Agner immediately became involved in deep discussions of the future. They would deal with the isometril somehow – they were not sure just yet what they would do. If it did come from Wee Jas, then returning it would be the best place for it. Meanwhile they would seal it off with lava. Surely they had a great deal ahead of them.

Ravenna also indicated something else that was left behind – things of the Egg’s that were not destroyed in the wave. They had little need for that kind of currency and told us to take it if we wished. In a small box was 350 platinum pieces, gems and an inlaid crown. There was also a green ioun stone and a wand of cure moderate wounds. At first I thought “Well, that’s hardly anything. That will barely cover the expenses of the trip or those boots I bought.” Then I could only laugh at myself. Scant years ago I would have called that a veritable fortune, and now it just looks like pocket change. How much we’ve changed.

[OOC: 350pp, 1800gp in gems, 5000gp crown, pale green prism ioun stone, wand of cure moderate, 50 charges. Also 14 pounds of mithril extracted from the marionettes.]

Well, there may have been little profit in this trip, but that was hardly the point. The true reward is that hundreds of people no longer live in slavery, the isometril is protected, and a tyrant is defeated. I can only hope that Pelor is pleased with Dravot, Aethramyr and Thorkeld, having done his will, and prevented inter-planar war in the process.

I had assumed after the Egg was defeated that the people here would require a fair bit of help to begin to recover. But with the change in climate, food was available, and shelter was not critical. Indeed, attention now focuses on Ravenna, the Owl and Agner. We seem to be little more than curiosities to these people. In the morning, we’ll make our return to our homes, and I doubt very much if they’ll notice.

As I’m writing all this, I realize that Ravenna has not even bothered to say “thank you”. I suppose I shouldn’t expect much else from a human though. This was a case where the reward was in doing the right thing, and not from any gain or praise. I did joke with Dravot that at least his people had thrown a party for a week after they were freed from evil. From his laugh, I could see he saw the irony also. But from his smile I can see he feels rewarded that he carried out his god’s will, and needs little more. Scorch I’m sure is pleased with that spellbook he’s done nothing but pour over since it came to his hand. Valanthe is harder to gauge – she is hardly religious but hold Tritherion close to her in her own way. As for me, well perhaps it’s only fitting – Pelor saw fit to offer me another chance at life, so perhaps I have paid that debt.

So now I sit in a stream taking a pleasant bath and trying to take heart in a job well done. But Ravenna’s question still echoes in my mind: Where is Rackhir?

[OOC Note: Rather than leave you in suspense, I’ll give you the answer. This was his last night with the game, and he is moving on to other things. So Rackhir won’t be returning, except for possible future cameos ]


Loot Report:

From this adventure we have

12,210gp
19 pounds of mithril
green prism ioun stone
wand of cure moderate, 50 charges
Rod of Blessed Rest
Ring of alarm
Ring of Chameleon
Ring of Minor Fire Resistance

“a few gems and a crown” of unspecified value from the giants

 

[dravot]

Dravot’s Journal – The Lands of Black Ice IV

I have awakened far earlier than I normally do. I estimate that I have an hour or more before dawn, when I begin my prayers. I will ask for a commune with Pelor in an attempt to discover where Rackhir has gone to, and make sure that he is alive. All I know for sure is that he is not on this plane. Considering that his bow disappeared into the aether, I am guessing that he is still alive. I’m glad that he has the Adjutant with him to give him guidance and keep him company. It may help him stay alive until we rescue him. It might even help him get back himself before we can locate him.

I can hardly believe the changes in the land. I spent the night out under the stars, sleeping under the protection of Ravenna and Beory; but yesterday we were struggling against the cold, fearing for our lives.

Kayleigh expressed surprise that I acquiesced to a discussion with the priest of Wee Jas. I guess that even though we’ve spent so much time in each other’s company, there is a lot we don’t know about each other. In some ways we are all loners, banded together to perform certain important tasks. We can cooperate, yet we are not a team. I am reminded of this when it came to the battle with the Egg, and Kayleigh was trapped behind the phantasmic hand, and we left it up to her to resolve the problem. When the sigil trap went off, we all looked for ways to help ourselves, instead of trying to figure out who needed help and who would best benefit from our meager resources. Again it brings to mind the time when I was drained by the shadow and I panicked and used the only lesser restoration scroll I had. Certainly I could have waited until the next day. The scroll would have been of better use for another member of the group, someone without the ability to shake off the shadow’s effects. I have been selfish in other ways, too, but they are painful enough and don’t need to be dredged up for further review.

I hereby resolve to work toward the greater good of the party. Pelor grant me strength to do so, for I will sorely need it.

In any case, what Kayleigh doesn’t know is as we parlayed with the priest, I was contacted by Alwyn, the planetar that was my host during my stay at Elysium. He warned me of what was at stake. If the forces of Acheron came through onto the prime material, Pelor himself would intervene. There wouldn’t be a battle between the forces of Acheron and Mechanus; Pelor’s forces would manifest as well. I would become the host for the Avatar of Pelor should this occur. I realized while we spoke with this man that I was also paying off a debt to Wee Jas, for the help of Her temple in Brindinford, during my family’s hour of need. Karma had been restored.

I didn’t care about the isometril, all along I’d been grousing about it, wishing that it’d be gone. It’s presence on this plane caused no end of misery and sickness and death. If the priest of Wee Jas could accomplish it’s removal and prevent this holocaust, I would support him, and I said as much. I also warned that should the forces of Acheron manifest upon this plane, all bets were off. He understood and accepted as such.

Speaking of Brindinford, yesterday I invoked the powers of the Sunhammer for the first time since I recovered it from the crypts. What a mighty weapon it is. It ignored the armor of the Egg and allowed me to strike directly at it’s inhabitant and end it’s assault upon our group.

I fell asleep last night considering my near future plans.

I may spend a few days here, continuing the education of my ecclesiastical volunteers. Tomorrow I will contact Prestwick back in Greyhawk and request that he send someone to continue this work, so I may return to Greyhawk and start constructing the Chalice. I may try the new spells granted me and recall myself back to Greyhawk and bring that person up here directly.

I am also anxious to speak with Edvard Ghoulsbane, my Shadowed mentor back in Greyhawk. Our last discussions were of methods to draw forth weaknesses in the Undead, making them more vulnerable to mortal blows. For a long time this concept has eluded me, but I think I finally understand what he meant.

In my prayers, I will see if Pelor is pleased with how things turned out here. If he is, I hope that he will see fit to reward my companions appropriately, as they were not called here as Aethramyr, Thorkeld and myself were.

The Owl and her brother have reminded me vaguely of Zira and her brother and the strange curse that befell them. If I find some time I’ll head to Brindinford and see if I can’t get more information about it and how they came to be afflicted.

I am upset to discover that Fraz set most of this in motion, and that he was behind the tampering with the mark and the brand, and the death of Brontal the smith. I wonder how his enemies will take it when they discover that he was behind all this. I will keep some sending spells in my back pocket and let some people know, including the priest of Wee Jas and probably Chavram. It might do him some good to be distracted by other players in this game.

Off to prayers, and then breakfast.

 

[dravot]

Sendings

In an effort to keep all lines of communication open between interested parties, Dravot has sent out the following pieces of information via Sending spell:

First one is to Prestwick (leader of the Temple of Pelor in Greyhawk)

Our task here is complete. People here need a cleric.
Please find a volunteer. I will transport when ready.
More info when I return.

--------------
Second one is to Sebastian (yes, Sebastian)

Just met Fraz. He's completely involved in this.
He's messing with your forces more than you can
imagine. With his help, I'll stop you yet.

-------------
Third one is to the Priest of Wee Jas we met in the Puppet Theatre

Fraz Urb Luu brought isometril here then promised it to Mechanus in an attempt to start interplanar war.


-----------
Fourth one is to Rackhir (who may or may not receive it if he's on another plane):

I hope you receive this. Ravenna and kids are ok, Coot is dead, grip on land is broken. We are looking for you.

-----------
And the last one isn't a sending, since Dravot doesn't know anyone on Mechanus. Instead, he summoned a formian warrior and handed him the following note:

Demon Fraz Urb Luu was behind the isometril theft. He wanted you to try to fight a war with Acheron.