There is a room in Catalon’s castle which has become the unofficial launching point for party expeditions. The room is ideal for several reasons.
First for its close proximity to Nameless Ones study, second for the fact that there are a few well kept house plants sitting in the window (ripe for fanaere transportation) and third for its size. But most of it is the paintings that hang on the wall.
Whoever once occupied it was apparently a collector of large, framed paintings in the classical Thyatian style: large numbers of weapon-bearing people and creatures all packed into a relatively small space. Each one of them depicts forgotten people overcoming adversity in unknown places.
In one there are six people (clerics, mages and warriors?) all backed into the corner of a room by a large group of ogres. In another there is a group ascending a snowdrift on the steep slope of some high mountain.
In another there seems to be a human army engaged in pitched battle with hobgoblins. It is this last, wall-sized painting which Al is studying when Lackshmi enters the room to prepare for their joint departure to the End of the World Mountains. Al steps up close to look at one of the hobgoblins screaming in pain as a horses hoof crushes his rib cage. Next to him a near-naked man writhes on the ground with a trident protruding from his face.
Al asks Lackshmi what this battle is about, where it takes place. Lackshmi shrugs her shoulders and professes her ignorance, but does display some expertise in pointing to unique feature of all classical Thyatian paintings: you can always tell who’s winning.
The winners will always have their spears and other upturned weapons in neat order–every one of them pointing at the same angle (roughly 40 degrees) toward the enemy. The spears and other weapons of the loser, however, will always be pointing this way and that, forming a kind of symbolic representation of the chaos and disorder of their army.In this painting, apparently, the hobgoblins are winning the battle.
Soon Carrock arrives with one fanaere recruit: Forrestonar.
Mad Jack is the next to arrive. Nameless One walks over from his study to answer any final questions before wishing them good fortune.
When Efrim finally arrives at the room of wall-sized paintings, weapons and artifacts in tow, Nameless One and Lackshmi have a map rolled out and are talking animatedly with one another. Mad Jack is studying the painting of the snowfarers. Carrock and Forrestonar are in a corner sharpening their weapons. And Al is still standing before the scene of battle, entranced.
After working out some last minute logistics, Carrock and Forrestonar call everyone over to the plants sitting in an open window, both fed by ample summer sunlight. Everyone gathers around and grabs on to one feathered arm apiece. And then together, as one large group, they step from the summer sun into a dark and misty valley.
Water trickles down the slope just east of them. And above them, through the mist, they see the grey, bearded statue-head of one of the watcher-collosii, basking in the moonlight.It is nighttime in the End of the World Mountains.
The God of the Owl, as you may recall, has provided the party with some purportedly safe series of landing places at which the fanaere-rainbows may be connected. Over the next several hours they learn that the god’s recommendations are sound, and as each party member lands softly in some tuft of grass or on some boulder field the air around them is quiet — no insects, no birds, nothing stirring at all. One of the fanaere casts another rainbow spell and then the party is off again — sliding through the air at thousands of feet per minute, too far ahead or behind the rest of the party to make any conversation.
Every member of this party spends the night brooding on his or her own thoughts. Carrock is the first to see dawn from high up on his seventh rainbow. The sun peeks over a ridge and fills the valley below (still covered in fog) with reddish light. In seconds everyone is gasping at the sight of the red valley below.
Everyone except Mad Jack, who looks off to the distant south: he sees something swirling there. Some kind of funnel or something. Just before it goes out of view he decides it might be a huge piece of earth turning like a top on the surface of the ground. Then again he can’t be sure.
Shortly after this the party finds itself gathered together on what appears to be a kind of high-level wetlands. The land around them is flat for roughly a mile and it is criss-crossed with rivulets. The mountains still cast a shadow over the place.
The fog around them is orangish-yellow from the rising sun. Soon it turns to yellow. Then at last it turns to the greyish-white which one would expect of fog. But one portion–out across this small piece of flatland– remains yellow. At first it looks like a tower, but as the seconds pass it slowly forms a kind of spiral, until at last it looks like a spiral staircase made of some kind of solid, translucent glass. The staircase is barely finished forming by the time the party arrives at its foot. From there it appears to rise two hundred feet or more into the sky.
The Yellow Flight appears to be perfectly suited for a human being about 5 & 1/2 feet tall. A giant would have to crawl. A halfling would have to mantle one step at a time.
There is a short discussion about how the party will conduct its assent. Some propose just ignoring the staircase and flying to the top from the outside. Lackshmi worries that you might have to literally climb the staircase in order to open the portal. In the end the party settles on a kind of compromise: flying up the staircase, just remaining with in inches of the stairs all of the way, thus requiring them to move up in a corkscrew-like pattern.
Everyone agrees to this plan, and Efrim leads the way. When Efrim reaches the top he tells everyone below him to stop. Above him, horizontal and with its face to the ground, sits a perfect circle of black.
Efrim asks Al to peer in with his infravision. Al moves out of his place in the line and flies forward. He looks up into the black disc above him and sees nothing. Al proposes that Carrock now cast Find the Path and name Bisspith as its object, but Carrock reminds him that he cannot: one must be on the same plane as the object one is finding.
After some hesitation Efrim announces that the clock is ticking, and there is not time for discussion. The group then spends several minutes casting preparatory spells.
Efrim, then, flies in.
This is what he sees:
He is in a small room. Light slants in from a window behind him. A dark disc is nestled into the floor beneath him. To his right is an open doorway and a large room of bunks. You might say it is a virtual forest of bunkbeds, all of them made of stone and supported by pillars which run up to a 15 foot high ceiling.
The place looks abandoned, but from somewhere deep in the room you can hear birdcalls. In front of him is a straight, stone staircase with red carpeting down the center. Next to that staircase (which spills out about six feet into the room) is a zombie. The zombie detects magic. It holds an eye, about storm-giant-sized, in its left palm and holds his palm above his head. Truesight reveals that the zombie has 2 HD.
When Efrim flies through the gate and then finds himself hovering before the zombie, the eyeball does not seem to pay him any particular attention. Its iris and pupil darts about the room (from the right to the left in particular) as though it is scanning the area for something.
One by one Efrim’s party joins him in this entryway. Each one of them is taken aback by the zombie at first but each eventually becomes comfortable conversing in its presence.
Carrock listens to the birds in the bunk-forest to his right and reports that they seem authentic. Some more preparatory spells are cast (Carrock casting Find the Path for Vesso and Al casting Alestria’s Mapping Lore, for example).
Efrim covers the black disc in the floor with wall of iron. Those who cast spells lose their invisibility, but for some reason this does not affect the behavior of the zombie or its eye, the latter of which continues to scan the room as though it were searching for something.
Now it is time to move out and Carrock seems to be edging toward the stairs. Efrim stops him and asks a question: “What are we going to do about this zombie here?” A brief discussion ensues. Lackshmi thinks the zombie should be left completely alone so as not to set off any alarms or make it seem as if anything has been disturbed. Al seconds the idea of leaving the zombie alone (although he advocates taking the eye if it is possible to do so without setting off any alarms).
Efrim points out that there’s a big iron case sprawled across the floor already, and he insists that the poor soul trapped inside the zombie’s body should be put out of its misery. Carrock and Forrestonar emphatically agree with this last point: the zombie’s soul must be liberated.
With the majority endorsing him, Efrim withdraws Blitzblade a takes a swing. Blitzblade hits for double damage (19), pushing through the zombie’s abdomen and up into his ribcage. The zombie takes 28 hp damage and crumbles around Efrims arm.
The eyeball in his left hand goes plummeting toward the ground and bounces into a corner a few feet away. Efrim shakes a few sinewy pieces of muscle and dried skin from his forearm.
Now everyone gathers around the corner of the room to look at the eyeball, which still darts about as if it were scanning. The eyeball detects magic but not immortal magic.
Everyone agrees to step aside while Mad Jack concentrates on the eyeball with his detect danger spell. After one round Mad Jack determines that the eyeball is “potentially dangerous.” The spell will tell him no more.
In a flash Efrim and Lackshmi are engaged in a whispered debate, with Lackshmi advocating that they leave the eyeball where it lies and Efrim wanting to analyze it (an action which would require that he touch it). At times the whispering grows almost into full-volume words, but just as this is about to happen other party members shush the debaters.
Efrim points out that the party needs to know what the eyeball does so that they can know how much any potential enemies may already know about them. Lackshmi counters that the eyeball seems to remain oblivious, just as it was when the party first arrived. It is better to keep it that way as long as possible.
A brief vote is held. Efrim and Al vote in favor of letting Efrim cast the analysis spell. Lackshmi, Carrock and Forrestonar vote against (Jack abstains).
With the feeling that there is little time to spare, the party then arranges itself into a line and begins to fly up the staircase in the following order:
The party flies out into a long hallway running to their right and left (if we assume, for the convention of mapping, that the party was originally pointed north, then the hallway runs east and west).
The hallway is lined with doors. All of the nearby doors are closed. Far down at the eastern end a few doors have been left open, and one lies off of its hinges on the floor, almost obscured by the thick dust that has covered over it. Shutters are closed over a solitary window on the western wall, where the hallway ends.
Carrock immediately flies just ten feet to the east toward a closed ironwood door on (conventionally speaking) the north side of the hallway. It is clear that this is where the party must go, but those at the middle and end of the line cannot help but be at least a little curious about a door to the west of them.
Unlike all of the others, this one is painted with a silver and copper likeness of six spiders. Two dusty chairs with armrests, both made of solid wood and cushions, sit in the hallway just outside the door, as if for waiting visitors or something of the sort. More curious still, there a sound of rushing water from behind the door, so loud as to suggest perhaps a waterfall. Birds call from the other side as if they were diving, perhaps playing.
Forrestonar identifies the birds as virithinai, an extra-planar ancestor of the swan (although he is not certain). But Carrock ignores this curious room and instead flies just ten feet to the east. He then asks Mad Jack to scan the door for danger. Mad Jack reports that he door detects as potentially dangerous.
Efrim suggests casting the Passwall spell to make a tunnel around the door. Al volunteers, picking a spot just to the right of door and casting his spell. A tunnel about five feet in diameter appears. The appearance of this tunnel is both welcomed and despised by the party, for as soon as it opens great wafts of putrid air come pouring out.
Everyone is forced to make a savings throw vs. poison (although Jack is allotted a bonus of +1).
The results are as follows:
Everyone successfully holds onto his or her breakfast.
The room beyond is darkened but Al is able to look in with infravision. It appears that this room is made up of two large, circular baths. Each is either fed or perhaps drained through a miniature aquaduct coming out of the west wall and running along the floor. Both aqueducts are plugged. Brackish water sits in both tubs and in each aqueduct, each with some kind of skin of micro-organisms life sitting along the top.
From his floating position Al can see into one of the tubs, and what he sees are the severed, rotting limbs of some giant-sized creature. Two skeletons are lined up along each of the walls (=8 skeletons total), although none of them carry weapons. Two carry some kind of large pitchfork, and one seems to be encrusted in coagulated blood, as though it just took a bath with the rotting material.
None of them react to the new hole into their room. Aside from the now-circumnavigated door leading back into the hallway, the room appears to have no exits. The party withdraws into the staircase (where the air is clearer) to discuss its next move.
Eventually everyone agrees that the skeletons should be taken out before Carrock enters the room and does whatever it is that his Pathfinding spell commands him to do. Lackshmi volunteers to remove the skeletons swiftly and efficiently, and so she takes a deep breath of air (internally cursing herself for not memorizing the create air spell) before walking to the circular hole and beginning to cast a spell.
Shortly thereafter she releases fifteen Magic Missiles, each neatly striking its target without any more noise than a slight whistle through the air. When she is finished all eight of the skeletons have collapsed into piles of bones. One of the pitchforks falls onto the stone tile with a clamor which echoes throughout the room. Then it is silent. With her mouth and nose buried in her collar, Lackshmi flies back to Carrock and asks him to take the lead again.
Carrock takes a deep breath of air, flies up and out of the staircase, and flies into the room, holding a lit coin before him. Everyone else follows him, each taking a deep breath before going. Once the room is lit by the various lighting devices of the party they quickly infer that this room is more than it seems:
Beneath the dust and muck this room appears to be quite elegant, covered from floor to ceiling with marble tiles, each of which is decorated with some small but unique etching. The far end of the room has built-in cabinets with crystalline doors protecting the contents inside. There are a great number of footprints that have apparently disturbed the dust in this room, most of them centering on the tub of rotten limbs. But one cannot linger and admire the scenery for long when one is holding one’s breath, and as some party members begin to swallow wistfully they desperately look to see how Carrock is proceeding to get them out.
He appears to be fidgeting with a well-worn tile on the ceiling, trying to get it to drop but not yet succeeding. At last Efrim and Forrestonar need to retreat to the staircase to breathe again. They are followed shortly thereafter by Al, Jack and Lackshmi. But Carrock does not allow himself this luxury, and as he continues to pull at the tile more and more frantically he finally gasps and then sucks in a deep breath of air, determined not to breathe again until he has left the room. But the air festers in his lungs, and he feels some sort of nausea descend from there into his stomach, and then even into his bowels.
He makes another save vs. poison, this time at -2.
And he succeeds (13), feeling the acid rise up from his stomach and into his mouth but refusing to let it out.
More calmly this time he continues to pull at the tile, and after just a few seconds it descends just six inches, with a bar attached to its underside, connecting it to something in the ceiling. Then he grabs onto the tile and turns it (using it, in effect, as a kind of doorknob). Just as his party returns into the room they see Carrock open a small, 4 foot wide hatch into the world above. Carrock sees the underbelly of some oversized table and flies in, his comrades closely behind him. Forrestonar shuts the hatch behind, and thus shuts the fetid smell out.
There is room beneath this table for five, but not for six. So as the rear guard pushes its way in Carrock is forced to step out and look around.
The room is large–maybe 100 by 70 feet–and centers around an enormous oval table in the center of the room. The table which the party used for shelter, however, was just one of 5 circular ones which (you might say) orbit the oval at the center. Interestingly, the only tables which seem to be ready for use are two of the smaller circular ones.
Each of these two is well-dusted and prepared with seven dinner sets, complete with goblets and silverware. Each also has an assortment of so-called chairs arranged around them, although it would be better to describe the chairs as an odd assortment of stools, chests and smallish furniture than as “chairs” proper.
The dishes too are mismatched and look a bit like a poor man’s collection. But the fact is that this dinning room looks recently used. Or worse yet, it looks as though it is prepared for use in the near future, as though some dinner party could at any minute come parading through a door, chattering away.
Possibilities flit across Carrock’s mind: Bisspith is a litch and Vesso is a nosferatu, so they could not care much for ordinary meals. Perhaps they have living friends staying here as guests. Perhaps they have powerful friends. Fethuus? A school of necromancers? The feeling that they are sitting in on a dinner party which is about to commence (rightly or wrongly), creates a sense of urgency among the party, and they accordingly survey their options.
There appear to be four exits from the room:
One to the south, through a shut door;
one to the west, up a small stepladder;
and two to the east, through either of two swinging-type doors just a few feet apart from one another.
Lackshmi turns to Carrock to “hurry up and proceed.” Carrock nods his head and flies to the South door. Jack uses detect danger to survey it for a round and then declares it “safe.”
Carrock steps forward.
While everyone waits anxiously by the south door, Efrim hangs back, fearlessly going through the chests and dinner sets looking for things that detect magic (so far nothing does). Carrock opens the door outward and peers to the west (the door blocks his view to the east). He sees that he is again looking out upon a hallway, only this time a wider one (about 20 feet wide) and one which is lit by artificial light.
At the far Western end of the hallway he sees a beautiful set of ironwood double doors with some kind of unknown symbol painted in gold across the two of them. The symbol is 10 feet across and thus probably too large to be a product of a magic-user’s standard symbol spell.
But that is not all.
There is a creature the likes of which Carrock has never seen before standing sentry at the door, his bottom half consisting of a scorpion’s exoskeleton and tail, his upper half consisting of a skeletal human torso. This upper half, however, is also protected by plate mail. By his right side he holds a large pole-axe. On the floor to his left is some kind of backpack, looking as though it were recently dug through but then left in some disarray in a corner of the hallway. To his right is a glorified cow bell hanging from a large hook, just at the same height as the head of the pole-axe (suggesting that he merely needs to tip his pole-axe to sound it).
Carrock’s truesight reveals that the creature has 14 HD. As soon as Carrock opens the door this skeletal creature turns his grinning skull and looks directly toward the open door. It lowers its weapon into a charging position (and thus away from the bell). At the same time it moves forward–on its many tapping, pointed legs–slowly, as though it were either trying to creep up on something or perhaps to get a closer look.
In the quiet, Carrock also detects a similar sound of many pegged legs approaching from the east, behind the door. And at the same time, Carrock smells noncorporeal undeath (a scent not unlike burning ether).
Round One:
-Carrock shuts the door, holds onto the doorknob, and explains what he saw. The party forms a quick huddle to determine what to do next.
-Al asks Efrim to wizard lock the door.
Round Two:
-Segment 6:
The doorknob turns and the door begins to open. Sapphire Eyes reveals no breathing and very little sound. See Etherial reveals nothing. Through the growing crack in the door, Al thinks he sees a tentacle holding the doorknob on the opposite side.
-Segment 5:
Efrim finishes his Wizard Lock spell. The door is ripped from whatever hand (tentacle?) previously held it and slams shut.
-Segment 4:
Suddenly there is sound all around the door, as though there were several people knocking on it, trying to feel their way around it, etc.
Other actions this round:
-Carrock covers the party in a cone of emerald light, making them hasted.
-Lackshmi gets out her book of runes and flips rapidly through the pages (whose words and runes are now covered in emerald light).
-Mad Jack casts Protection From Poison on himself
-Forrestonar casts Protection From Poison on himself
Round Three:
-From the other side of the door, the sound–the one resembling many people pounding and pulling (without uttering a word)–continues.
-Carrock bathes everyone in amethyst light, increasing their hitpoints by 2 per HD.
-Lackshmi attempts to place the rune for PWKUd on inside half of the doorframe. With a 66% chance of success she fails (99), thereby using her only opportunity to use a rune of magic for this week.
-Al casts Protection From Poison on himself.
-Efrim withdraws his Blitzblade and waits to open the door (as the caster of the wizard lock, he can open the door without trouble). He motions to the rest of the party: “Get ready!”
-Mad Jack casts Protection From Poison on Carrock.
-Forrestonar casts the Animate Objects spell. He orders three tables to walk over and wedge themselves into the other three doors in the room. All three dutifully hop up and scuttle over to their given destinations.
-At the end of the round, two people huddle around the door: Efrim (to open it) and Al (to cast Silence 15′ Radius). Three other party members wait behind them with slings and sling stones at the ready: Jack, Carrock and Forrestonar.
Round Four:
On this round, Efrim agrees to wait for Al to finish his spell before opening the door. The party agrees that this manuever is top priority. If the guard[s] detect anything suspicious it would seem likely that they would sound the sentry-bell, thereby depriving the party of the element of surprise on Vesso or Bisspith sometime later.
This is a moment of truth for Al. Despite what manner of creatures might be on the other side of this door, he is going to have to stick his head out just far enough to see the bell at the west end of the hallway.
-Segment 10:
Al begins to cast his spell. Sounds from the other side of the door continue.
-Segment 4:
Two things happen at once.
First, Carrock finishes casting Protection From Poison on himself.
Second, Efrim (watching closely) sees that Al is finally approaching the end of his spell. He turns the knob and opens the door. The door flies open as if something were pulling from the other side, and the whole party now looks upon something very strange: a creature made up of bunched tentacles and numerous wormlike eyestalks, all centered around one cluster.
Those with undead lore in the group immediately recognize this as the true form of the poltergeist–the form usually confined to the etherial plane.
Those who are familiar with undead immediately recall that poltergeists are immune to all spells except those which affect evil, and that they can be hurt only by weapons of +2 or better.
-Segment 3:
As Al utters the last words of his spell, he peers around the corner and looks for his target. As he does so, he finds himself leaning headfirst into a nest of tentacles. The poltergeist unexpectedly backs up and away from the doorway as if frightened by Al’s head. Al creates an area of silence centered upon the sentry-bell.
-Segment 2:
All three slingers release their slingstones upon the poltergeist. All three slingstones hit, doing a total of 22 points of damage.
With the door now open, Al has a view of the full hallway.
Let me pause briefly to describe the layout:
The poltergeist seems to have backed slightly away from the door. Just about nine feet to the poltergeist’s right stands an undead manscorpion, although by the chipped paint on this manscorpion’s armor you can tell that he is a second sentry of some kind (not the one that Carrock first caught sight of when he peeped).
This second sentry has set his pole-axe down for some reason and now stands completely unarmed. As for the first sentry: he seems to have wandered off somewhere. One of the hallside doors near him is open (while it wasn’t before) and he is nowhere to be seen, not even with detect invisibility or truesight.
One might almost get the impression that the undead in this hallway didn’t expect to engage in combat so soon, as though they were caught off guard. The double doors at the west end remain closed.
Round Five, Part I (for everyone but Carrock and Forrestonar):
-Segment 10:
Efrim dashes through the doorway and swings at the poltergeist with Blitzblade. He hits (13) and allows Blitzblade to send a charge of electricity to its victim. If the poltergeist is hurt by this latter effect then he takes 28 h.p. damage.
Other members of the party rush to join Efrim, but Efrim waves them away, shouting “leave him to me.”
The poltergeists tentacles grope around the floor for objects and then manages to lift two of them: a medium-sized rock and a pole-axe.
-Segment 9:
Carrock and Forrestonar quickly agree to dash through the open door and see where the first sentry has gone off to.
Al, Lackshmi and Mad Jack all close in upon the second sentry.
-Segment 6:
Lackshmi charges into the second sentry with her staff, hitting with a role of 5. The undead manscorpion takes 20 points of damage. A portion of his hindquarters are crushed, along with two pointed legs.
-Segment 5:
With his tentacles the poltergeist sends a stone and a twirling pole-axe flying at Efrim. Both items are aglow, as though filled with some energy.
Of the two items, only the twirling pole-axe strikes home, doing 13 points of damage. But something else happens as the axe cuts into Efrim’s side, and Efrim is suddenly presented with a choice:
Does he or does he not want to Head of Shanara to protect him? Efrim accepts the Head’s protection, and suddenly something in his backpack begins writhing and moving (visible even to those standing nearby). Efrim feels a surge of power and that is all.
-Segment 3:
Al strikes the second sentry with his sword and just barely hits (11) for 18 h.p. damage.
-Segment 2:
Mad Jack successfully (19) strikes sentry #2 for 15 h.p. damage. The sentry recoils his tail as though preparing to lash out at Jack.
Round Six, Part I (for everyone but Carrock and Forrestonar):
-Segment 10:
Efrim strikes the poltergeist (4) for 17 h.p. damage.
Lackshmi strikes (13) sentry #2 for 17 h.p. damage. Al strikes (12) sentry #2 for 23 h.p. damage. Mad Jack strikes sentry #2 for 17 h.p. damage.
By the time that this split-second has run its short course, the second sentry is destroyed, its skeletal armor and the bones scattered across the floor.
-Segment 5:
The poltergeist again throws a stone and pole-axe at Efrim. Both objects miss.
-Segment 4:
Efrim successfully strikes (17) the poltergeist with his dagger for 12 h.p. damage.
The poltergeist collapses into a heap of tentacles and eyes on the ground.
At this point all members of the party take just a moment to breathe and be happy. Mad Jack slaps Al across the back. Lackshmi says laconically that the ambush was “well done.”
Efrim then turns to the party and asks whether someone should go check up on Carrock and Forrestonar.
Round Five, Part II (for Carrock and Forrestonar):
Carrock and Forrestonar immediately leave the site of the hallway battle to see where sentry #1 had wandered off to. They have what they believe to be a good lead: a door that was closed the first time Carrock looked out, but open now.
Carrock and Forrestonar fly through this doorway and immediately find themselves in a large kitchen-like place. Several cauldron-sized pots are stacked on top of one another in the northeast corner. All tables but one have been pushed into the opposite corner. The room seemed to have two firepits and two holes in the ceiling just above them.
The room would look almost completely unused if it weren’t for a small pail of apparently clean water set off to the side. Aside from the hallway door to the south there is also a door to the east and one to the north.
The north door is open and so they continued their chase in that direction. It turns out that they are wise to do so, for they find there a darkened and narrow passageway running from several other steamy rooms to a small wooden door to the east. And at that door stands sentry #1, struggling with the handle and trying to push the door open.
Someone on the other side has thus far prevented him from doing so. Using his fairly reliable sense of direction, it occurs to Carrock that the door with which this sentry is struggling is one that leads directly into the huge dining room where the party originally started, and that it is not a person who’s preventing the door from opening but rather a live table.
Carrock then looks at Forrestonar and Forrestonar beams back at Carrock. Despite the presence of the fanaere, sentry #1 continues to work at the door undistracted.
Round Six, Part II (for Carrock and Forrestonar)
And this brings us toRound Six, which is the round during which the fanaere sneak up on sentry #1 and smash their swords down upon him.
They succeed at surprising the sentry and therefore get a combined total of four free attacks (two on segment 10, and two during their regular initiative). They strike out four times and hit four times (10, 14, 15 and 9). They do a total of 71 h.p. of damage.
The undead manscorpion is destroyed before he even has a chance to react. Carrock and Forrestonar race back through the kitchen to check in with the rest of the party just as the rest of the party races into the kitchen to check in with Carrock and Forrestonar.
Once the party is reunited in the kitchen they huddle and discuss further contingency plans while Carrock steps aside to clear his mind a bit. With his mind suitable cleared he then turns up his head and addresses the party:
“I’m ready to make the next move. Let’s proceed.”
Carrock then leads the party back into the narrow, steamy tunnel and then along a short jaunt in that tunnel to the west. As they fly through they pass by openings leading into two rooms which, for a lack of a better term, we shall call “boiler rooms.” These are places where large quantities of hot water in vats are churning out steam.
As the party passes the second of these rooms they see the shadowy outlines of two human-sized figures gathered around one of the vats, one of those figures leaning over the vat as if to examine something or look for something. Both of the figures are conversing in a language unknown to anyone in the party.
As the party whisks quietly by this room, Efrim pauses momentarily as if to suggest that he should go in and slay these creatures. But Carrock and the others continue down the tunnel without hesitation and without looking back. Efrim moves on, leaving the two shadowy figures alone.
The tunnel winds around to the North, which the party follows for awhile before stopping at a small door. The door is arched, constructed of wood, and overgrown with fungus.
Carrock casts the Detect Danger spell. He then examines the door and sees that it does not detect as dangerous. Then he puts his hand on the knob and opens it. The party finds itself in a latrine.
There are two squatting holes on the north side of the room and recently torn piles of paper next to each hole. The room smells strongly of feces. Some of this feces was apparently deposited by people with poor aim, as evidenced by the crap around the rim of the holes.
Mad Jack and Efrim both engage in a little investigation. Mad Jack scoops up a handful of the feces and puts it close to his nose.
Then he reports that the feces is “fairly fresh … and smells human.”
Efrim begins poking through the torn bits of wiping paper and reports something interesting as well:
“These have some writing on them. They might be worth looking at.”
Efrim produces a sack and begins scooping the wiping paper into it. The rest look around hopefully for another exit, but none is to be seen. And when Mad Jack and Efrim are done with their investigations Carrock then does the one thing which they are most dreading: he heads for the toilets. Or rather, he heads into the toilets.
The holes, unfortunately, are not large enough to fit through with ease, and Carrock is forced to squeeze his hips and shoulders through before finally dropping in. There is a brief moment of silence before Carrock calls up to them:
“What are you guys waiting for?”
Then the rest of the party goes through — all of them in marching order.
Efrim turns into a pixie before flying in.
The latrine pit is much larger than the holes which provide access to it: roughly 20 feet across 15 feet wide. And the pit itself is surprisingly odorless. It is also strangely empty. As Forrestonar pushes his way through the squatting hole he accidentally knocks down a large piece of feces. The feces plummets past the party and into the darkness below, never making a splashing sound at any point.
Al peers down into the darkness with his infravision but sees nothing … literally nothing. Nothing detects as either cold or hot below him. No walls. There is nothing within sight.
The other peculiar thing about the latrine pit is that is actually designed to cover several latrines. Looking up, the party sees a total of eight squatting holes — two on each of the far sides of the pit. A light of the familiar magical variety pours in from the two holes against the western wall. Those are the holes towards which Carrock flies.
He stops just beneath the closer of the two and sticks his head up to look around. Then he looks back at the party and motions for them to come along behind him. He then forces himself up through the hole and into the light beyond. When the party has finished climbing into the room they find themselves in an opulent latrine: paintings of bathing nymphs decorating the walls, marble tiles on the floor, a pleasant scent floating up from between the tiles and furry, parchment-textured material for wiping.
The one doorway from this room is to the west, and the door is closed. But just beyond it the party can hear something that sounds like the din of conversation. Nine, maybe ten people are outside speaking with one another in an unknown language. The conversation sounds quite animated.
At this point Lackshmi demands that the door be magically locked. After a quick discussion they learn that the only locking spell that still remains among them is Al’s Hold Portal spell, which he promptly casts.
Then Mad Jack begins to look for ways to see into the next room. He tries the keyhole but it is too narrow. He tries peering through a gap along the ceiling but from there he can only see the ceiling of the next room, he cannot see the floor.
Lackshmi now pulls her glasses close to her eyes and activates its x-ray vision effect, a power that has been lying dormant in them for some time. After a short time (and a surge of power) she can see directly through the door and into the lit room beyond.
She sees the the room is something akin to a throne room, with a large stone and gold chair sitting atop a dais on the north side and elaborate carpeting throughout the rest of the room. Several paintings decorate the room’s walls, although for some reason most of them are no longer hanging from those walls (and instead sit on the floor leaning against the walls).
In the middle of the room are twelve people–several of them talking with each other in small circles and a few standing quietly aside. Many of them appear to be living human beings, although some are clearly deadites of some form.
Lackshmi again pushes up her glasses and activates truesight, one of their more oft-used powers. After a short time (and a surge of power) she sees all twelve of these people for the things they truly are. And a description of them follows:
- lich C25
- nosferatu C17
- nosferatu C10
- human MU30
- nosferatu MU24
- human MU15
- human MU14
- human MU14
- human MU12
- nosferatu Mystic16
- nosferatu Mystic9
- nosferatu Mystic9
The Big Room
Round One:
Pre-strike Preparations
-Carrock orders X4 to begin charging up. X4 does his first charge (making him an X2 sword for the time being). Carrock then activates the immunity power in his helm.
-Al casts Mirror Image.
-Efrim casts Mirror Image.
-Mad Jack recasts Truesight (remember that these Truesight spells/charges only last 10-16 minutes).
-Forrestonar casts Striking.
-Carrock suggests that Lackshmi forego the preparatory stage and concentrate on watching events outside the latrine door.
It turns out that this suggestion was very wise. As soon as the party begins to cast its preparatory spells the master mystic looks to the latrine door briefly and then–without interrupting any of the various conversations in process–taps one of his mystic lackies to go check it out. Lackshmi reports this to the party and the party then quickly agrees to abandon prep mode and move into ambush mode.
Round Two:
Timestopping
-Segment 10:
-Lackshmi begins to cast Timestop. Because she is now in the middle of casting a spell, she cannot update other members of the party as to what activity she sees on the other side of the door.
-Al pushes past other party members to stand by the door, ready to open it just far enough to let a human-sized creature through.
-The 9th level mystic tapped to examine the latrine moves toward the door, gliding briskly yet silently across the floor.
-Segment 9:
-The master mystic disappears completely.
-Efrim begins to cast Timestop.
-Amid the deadite crowd on the other side of the door, four people observe the sudden movement (and disappearance) of the mystics and begin to react.
Those four people are:
Character #2 (the C17 nosferatu with anklet — Vesso?) backs away from the rest of the group and shouts to them in a foreign tongue, forcefully interrupting their conversation. The discussion comes to an abrupt halt.
Character #1 (the lich-priest) taps his immortal staff on the ground once then also moves away from the rest of the group.
Character #5 (the nosferatu mage) steps away from the rest of the group and reaches underneath his cloak for something.
Character #12 (the mystic) attempts to shush the nosferatu with the anklet. Then he encourages the others to go on conversing as normal, as though they do not suspect anything wrong.
From here forward the conversation works only in artificial fits and starts while everyone spreads out across the throne room and looks around nervously.
-Segment 7:
-Carrock activates the Harmonic Song power in his sling, creating three more images.
-Seeing that Lackshmi is about to finish her spell, Al ever-so-slightly turns the knob and opens the door.
-Segment 6:
-Carrock’s sword becomes X3.
-Mad Jack casts Striking on his staff.
-Lackshmi finishes her timestop spell. She obtains two rounds of stopped time.
-Carrock is presented with the option of entering timestop with Lackshmi and he accepts. He feels a surge of power.
Lackshmi’s 1st Round of Timestop:
-Lackshmi leads the way out into den of the enemy, kicking the door open as she begins to cast her first DB Fireball spell. In order to perform both actions simultaneously she is required to make an agility training proficiency check, with a bonus of +2. She makes her check (5).
-Once out in the room, Lackshmi has a brief moment to survey her newfound enemies in their own den. Most of the group seems rather calm. Some look toward the latrine door, others toward the ceiling, but few have been caught in action poses. Even fewer have withdrawn any weapons or items with which they might protect themselves.
Only the frozen images of the two remaining mystics betray any sense of panic, with one waving his arms as if to instruct the group and the other leaping nimbly toward the latrine door. This latter mystic was frozen just 20 from the door at the time that Lackshmi finished her timestop.
-Carrock follows Lackshmi through the open door already casting a spell of his own: Silence 15′.
He centers it in the middle of one of the two remaining circles of conversants. Vesso(?) is not in the midst of this group, but the highest level mage (human MU30) is.
-Lackshmi casts DB Fireball and centers it on those that remain in a second rough circle of conversants. The glistening ruby shoots out from her right arm and lands quietly at the feet of one of the human mages (MU 14).
-Carrock’s sword reaches full damage power at X4.
-In the few seconds remaining in this round, Carrock and Lackshmi exchange essential information: which places would be unsafe to stand at when the timestop is over, where the master mystic has gone (Lackshmi can only quickly shrug her shoulders to that one).
-Finally Carrock asks Lackshmi how much time the two of them have to finish their actions. Lackshmi’s answer reveals her anxiety:
“Ten seconds. We only have ten seconds left, Carrock. Ten seconds! Go!”
Lackshmi’s Second Round of Timestop:
-Carrock sings, and it is the Song of Life.
-Lackshmi places a DB Fireball so that it will reach both Vesso(?) and the two northernmost members in the ring of silenced conversants (MU12 and MU15).
-Carrock situates himself so that he is within 40 feet of most of the high-powered enemies: Vesso(?), the lich (C25) and the high-level nosferatu mage (MU24).
-Lackshmi situates herself so that she is more than 40 feet from Carrock but within 120 of most of the undead in the room.
-After taking their actions for this round, there is nothing to do but wait. No power words can be cast until the next round. Accordingly, Carrock draws his sword and Lackshmi draws her staff. The last few seconds tick away in silence. ….
The Rest of Round Two:
-Segment 5:
For the rest of the world, it is as if several things suddenly happen at once. The door to the latrine is suddenly wide open, revealing a huddled group of the PCs inside. At the same time there are two explosions of fire, each engulfing a good portion of the enemy.
Here is the fallout:
*Lackshmi’s first fireball registers 76 h.p. damage.
The following characters are knocked out and/or killed:
3. Nosferatu C10
7. Human MU14
The following are injured:
#1-Lich C25
#8-. Human MU14
*Lackshmi’s second fireball registers 74 h.p. damage.
The following character is knocked unconscious and/or killed:
#9- Human MU12
The following characters are injured:
#6- Human MU15
#2-Vesso(?) C17
The slain nosferatu (C10) turns into a cloud of gas which begins rolling toward the double doors to the south.
-Forrestonar flies from the door and into the room, singing a spell he had begun before the timestop.
-Segment 4:
The nosferatu-mage draws a pocket-watch from beneath his cloak. Forrestonar finishes his spell. It immediately becomes recognizable as a Song of the Storm. A great blizzard of ice and snow covers an area of the throneroom and has the following effect:
*the following character is unconcious/dead:
#8- MU14
*the following are injured:
#2- Vesso(?)
#11- Mystic9
-Segment 3:
The mystic who was approaching the latrine door leaps into the air to take a swipe (or two, or three) at his assailant (Forrestonar). He uses a short sword. He hits three times for a total of 60 h.p. damage.
Some of the enemies who are now engulfed in silence begin to move away from one another.
-Efrim finishes his Timestop spell. He is given four rounds. Carrock feels as though he has a choice to join someone in a timestop but he declines. For Efrim, the world around him freezes.
Efrim’s First Round of Timestop:
-Efrim attempts to create a Rune of PWKUd, setting it halfway between the first circle of conversants and the latrine door. He fails (91).
Efrim’s Second Round of Timestop:
-Efrim uses the Create Any Monster spell to produce 3 lesser phoenixes.
Efrim’s Third Round of Timestop:
-Efrim sets a DB Fireball in the exact same place where Lackshmi set her second DB Fireball, making sure to keep Vesso(?) well within range of the blast.
Efrim’s Forth Round of Timestop:
-Efrim centers a DB Fireball on the lich.
-Efrim enjoys a few moments of peace before the battle resumes.
…The Rest of Round Two (continued):
-Segment 2:
Forrestonar is forced to make three savings throws vs. poison and succeeds on all three.
Two blasts of fire occur simultaneously.
The fallout is as follows:
-Vesso(?) is killed and turns into a cloud of gas. The cloud retreats toward the throne on the North side of the room.
-Mystic9 is killed and turns into a cloud of gas. This cloud retreats toward the double doors to the South.
-The lich is greatly injured.
Also: Three phoenixes pop into existence.
Efrim orders one to attack Vesso(?), one to attack the lich, and one to attack the uninjured mystic9.
-Segment 1:
Al and Mad Jack move out of the latrine door and into the room.
Forrestonar’s eyes turn wide and he shouts, “Stop him!” pointing at the mage with the pocket watch.
ROUND THREE:
-Segment 10:
Forrestonar hurls his magical short sword at the mage with the pocket watch and hits (10) for 18 points of damage. The sword begins to boomarang back toward its thrower.
Mad Jack swings at the remaining Mystic9, hitting with his staff for max damage (27) and invoking the cure critical wounds power as he strikes, thereby doing an additional 14 hp damage to his undead opponent.
The Mystic9 swings around to face his opponent.
-Segment 8:
On this segment I was forced to roll minute initiative between three people: Lackshmi, a human mage (MU15) and the nosferatu mage (MU24).
The results are as follows:
Nosferatu mage wins (minute init=6),
Lackshmi comes in second (minute init=4),
and the human mage comes in third (minut init=3).
The results: Lackshmi is just beginning to open her mouth and utter a single word when the nosferatu mage (MU24) finishes opening his watch.
Once again, Carrock is given the option to join someone in timestop. This time he accepts.
Nosferatu’s Timestop Round One:
-Segment 10:
All around the air is still. The movement of bodies, the screeching of phoenixes and the shouting on all sides turns into complete silence. The place is still except for two people: the Nosferatu mage and Carrock.
The mages back is turned slightly toward Carrock and Carrock is thus able to swing around and fly toward him without yet alerting him to his own presence.
-Segment 9:
The nosferatu mage takes his first breath in safe air to shout loudly toward the ground, his fists curled and his tongue white. It is a single word, perhaps an ordinary curse in his own vernacular. After regaining his composure he turns to face Lackshmi and begins to cast a spell.
-Segment 8:
The nosferatu suddenly sees that a blur of mirror-imaged Carrocks is flying toward him. He drops his spell and now turns away from Lackshmi and toward his assailant.
A look of shock and horror is visible even in his deadite eyes.
-Segment 7:
Carrock holds X4 aloft, the blade still humming with the Song of Life. The nosferatu mouths a word over and over like some nervous mantra.
He withdraws from his cloak a small corked vial of blue liquid, perhaps a potion. He holds the vial aloft, as if he might throw it.
As Carrock hurtles through the air at his enemy, he allows himself to savour the rare feeling that his undead opponent is expressing genuine terror. It is not often that he has seen such a creature behave so cowardly, and even rarer that a nosferatu has allowed his fear to show itself on his face or in his lips.
-Segment 5:
Carrock lashes out at the nosferatus neck. He hits (4) for 105 h.p. damage. The nosferatu’s head goes flying for more than twenty feet before it knocks against the time-frozen form of Efrim and then hits the floor tiles, bursting into mist as it does so.
The vial of blue liquid crushes in his hand as the torso falls (backwards) to the floor. The glass is crushed and the liquid begins to run into the floor, but not for long. By the next round it too is frozen in time, looking somewhat like dark blue glass.
The the cloud of the timestopping nosferatu continues to exploit the right of timestop and now flees toward the southern double doors. Some part of Carrock makes a quick calculation and decides to let the cloud go; there are more pressing matters.
Nosferatu’s Timestop Round Two:
-Carrock sings boldly, and the song he sings is Song of the Whirlwind. Now, according to the definition of Timestop, spells with non-instantaneous durations may be cast but they cannot take effect until the timestop is over. Carrock marks the spot where the whirlwind will appear — right where the cloud of Vesso now floats.
Even as Carrock now turns his attention to his next action, a part of him considers carefully how he will word his instructions to the air elemental when it arrives.
-Carrock flies now flies to the human MU30.
Nosferatu’s Timestop Round Three:
-Carrock casts Creeping Doom, and he moves within inches of the human mage as he pronounces the last words. Then he moves to the double doors to the South to enact his next move.
-At the end of the round time resumes as normal.
Round Three (Continued)…
-Segment 8 (continued):
Lackshmi says a single word, and it is Power Word Kill Undead. The following clouds of gas disappear from sight: Vesso(?), the nosferatu C17, the nosferatu C10 and the Mystic9. Cloth, belt-buckles, jewelry and other strange objects ring out as they hit the ground where these clouds once where. Two other deadites are struck: The human MU15 and the lich C25. The MU15 is killed (just milliseconds from finishing his own spell).
The lich is not killed. (A little-known fact about liches: they are immune to all death spells.)
At one end of the room the air is filled with the sound of a small whirlwind. At the other the air is filled with the sound of buzzing and clicking.
And something else rather puzzling happens, the blue liquid still pooling where the nosferatu mage once died and then fled (all in the blink of an eye) … it rises like steam to the ceiling and continues to evaporate from the floor. The steam is blue and so dark that it becomes a quasi-pillar, so opaque that party members have to lean to the right or left when they need to see past it.
-Segment 7:
Mad Jack misses his mystic opponent (1) but does not fumble (7).
Forrestonar catches his boomaranging short sword and looks for a new target.
An orc created by Efrim fires an arrow at the human MU30 and misses (11).
The human MU30 begins to cry out in pain, sores open up in seconds, worms and beetles begin to burrow into him. Nevertheless, he continues to hold up his immortal staff.
-Segment 6:
A phoenix does 12 h.p. damage to the MU30, who still stands in pain holding his staff.
The MU30’s staff flashes once. Suddenly he is changed. Those of you with detect magic activated see his whole body light up with immortal magic. The beetles and worms fall off of him and he is no longer in pain.
He turns to look at the pillar of smoke and his eyes open wide, as if in horror.
Carrock finishes instructing his whirlwind, which now flies out the south passage to retreive the gasseous form of the nosferatu mage.
In order to keep his distance from the phoenix which Efrim has stuck on the lich, Forrestonar throws his boomerang sword at the lich. The sword hits (9) for 19 hp of damage.
The lich still stands.
The mystic9 attacks Mad Jack and hits once (10, 2) for 29 hp damage.
The phoenix which would have now attacked the nosferatu mage (Splick) now flies toward the lich.
An orc fires an arrow at the MU30 and misses (3).
The Master Monk reappears!
A couple things happen as a result.
First, he reappears, floating, with his hand on Forrestonars shoulder (to hit roll of 11).
Forrestonar closes his eyes, folds his wings, and goes crashing into the ground. Forrestonar skids across the floor tile and then hits a section of the wall near the latrine door. After that he lies motionless.
Second, the Master Monk turns to Carrock and does something that has not yet happened at any time in this entire journey. That is, he speaks to the the PCs in a tongue they understand. In this case he speaks to Carrock:
“What?”
-Segment 5:
To recap, there are four enemies still standing:
lich C25
human MU30
nosferatu Mystic16
nosferatu Mystic9
All four now look panicked and somewhat distracted by the pillar in the center of the room. Small sparkles of blue flame now burst in the area of the pillar of steam. Although they look harmless, the enemies are all careful to back away. They briefly shout some communications in their own tongue and there is much pointing at Carrock in the process.
Carrock now switches his original action and steers toward the Master Monk with X4 drawn.
The lich disappears without casting a spell, without saying a word, without even using any visible item. Somehow he just disappears.
There are two people with truesight up at present: Mad Jack and Lackshmi. Both look around to see if the lich is fleeing invisibly or something or the sort. Their eyes scan the room and see nothing.
Lackshmi, however, notices that one of the two double doors to the South is beginning to creep open.
-Segment 4:
With wand in hand, Al shoots four large meteors toward the three standing enemies.
The results are as follows:
*One meteor strikes the MU30 but harmlessly fizzles as soon as it comes within his immortal aura.
*One meteor strikes the Master Monk, doing 33 hp impact damage and 19 hp in explosion damage (assuming he has no resistance or successful saves to reduce the damage).
*One meteor strikes Mystic9 for 37 hp impact damage and 27 hp explosion damage (assuming no successful saves or resistance). He is left a crushed corpse on the floor and he begins to turn into gas.
Mad Jack shares the explosion damage but makes his save (9), reducing it to a total of 13 hp damage.
*A final meteor goes whirling off toward a wall and explodes there, with no targets in range.
A phoenix attempts to strike at the MU30 with the immortal staff. It misses with one claw (1) and one bite (8) but hits with one claw (20) for double damage (26), doing a total of 2 hp damage.
Three orcs fire arrows at the MU30 and one hits (19) for 6 hp damage.
With missles and meteors flying at him from this way and that, and with bugs falling from his skin, the MU30 looks to be under tremendous stress. He shouts to the others as he turns, dodges and blocks.
-Segment 3:
Efrim PWKUds the Master Monk, who is then automatically stunned for the next half hour (3 turns). Since the Master Monk had more than 20 hp, Efrim didn’t have the option to affect other targets with the power word.
An orc fires an arrow at the MU30 and hits (18) for 5 hp damage. The MU30 curses as he pulls the arrow from a flap of skin on his leg.
-Segment 2:
An orc fires an arrow at the MU30 and misses (13).
Round Four:
Everyone appraises the situation: There are two enemies left standing in the room.
One is the Master Monk, who is stunned.
The other is the human MU30, who is being pummelled from all sides.
This MU30 fellow seems to have suffered much more from ordinary melee or missle attacks than he has from even the best of the party’s spells and magic items, so the party collectively and almost unspokenly makes the same decision at once: drop the spells, the wands and the artifacts and close in on him, weapons in hand.
Mad Jack moves in with his staff.
Efrim orders the phoenix away so that party members will not receive heat damage and then closes in with Blitzblade.
Carrock moves in with X4. The MU30 backs up against a wall and looks in horror upon Carrock.
He holds his immortal staff in front of him. But a couple of other things happen at the same time.
Lackshmi shouts that something is coming in from the south and begins to fly in that direction. Unfortunately she is too far across the room to reach it before Al, who is much closer.
Al too flies toward the opening door.
-Segment 10:
The phoenix backs off the MU30. Mad Jack, Efrim and Carrock bound toward him.
The MU30 begins to cast a spell.
-Segment 7:
On this round, both Efrim and the MU30 get to complete their actions. I rolled minute initiative and received the following results:
Efrim: 8
MU30: 7
By only the tiniest of milliseconds, Efrim interrupts MU30’s spell for the round.
He hits with Blitzblade on a 20 doing double damage for a grand total of 36 hp. Efrim activates the electric shock of his Blitzblade but it has no effect. Now bleeding from too many wounds at once, the human MU30 collapses to the ground unconscious.
-Segment 6:
Although Al has not yet reached the double doors, he is now capable of seeing, with infravision, what manner of creature has pushed one of those doors open.
The creature appears as warm to Al, and it seems as though (to human eyes, at least, it is hidden in the darkness just beyond the door). It is a human being crouching and preparing to fire a blowgun of some sort.
Carrock strikes at the hapless mage at his feet and hits (17) for 88 hp damage. The mage’s chest and spine are crushed, and there is no longer any doubt that he is dead.
Efrim immediately grabs the staff and begins to rifle through his other belongings.
-Segment 5:
In this segment, something very strange happens.
Al is the first to see it: There is a tremendous bird-like screech coming from the other room (just behind the double doors to the South). The man who was originally crouching and preparing to fire his blowgun is startled. He leaps to his feet and runs into the room — exposed to the view of others — and heads for the latrine doors. With the man out of the way, a very peculiar sort of creature comes into Al’s view:
It is tall, perhaps nine feet tall and standing on stork-like legs. It has a human torso and powerful human arms with talons at the end of them. Most peculiar of all, however, is its storklike head and neck, both of which move about on top of its shoulders quite nimbly. Just over the creatures shoulder’s Al can also see the dark outlines of feathered wings.
Al sees this creature approaching the slightly-ajar door and he is filled with fear. He backs up and shouts to the rest of his party, but he is not able to form words. As Al begins to scream, the creature says something humanish.
Al feels his organs seize and makes a savings throw vs. spells -6. Al succeeds with a roll of 13 (-6 = 7). Al does not die.
-Segment 4:
Everyone else first watches the blowgun artist flee to the latrine and then looks to Al.
Lackshmi flies to stand between Al and whatever now approaches. Both of the double doors fling open and the creature described above takes two steps into the room, twisting its neck and muttering humanish sounds as it enters.
Efrim looks up from his rummaging and nearly stops breathing. He recognizes this very creature as one similar to a powerful beast from which he hid long ago, on another plane. Back then he was told that the beast was a screaming demon.
Mad Jack and Lackshmi look at the stork-man with truesight and see that his hit dice (or level) is “undetectable.”
-Segment 3:
Lackshmi gives one swift “retreat” hand gesture to the party and then begins to cast a spell, backing away from the demon as she begins to cast a wall of force.
Al flies over to the Master Monk, still standing wobbly in midair. As Al approaches, the Monk’s eyes follow him for a second but then uncontrollably roll back into his head as he momentarily loses his balance. Al takes some caution as he creeps closer.
-Segment 2:
Al instinctively shouts something in ogre as he lunges upon his opponent, striking successfully (19) for 25 hp damage.
The Master Monk lets out an inarticulate scream of pain (the scream of someone who has no control of his muscles).
The screaming demon takes an interest in this sound and turns its head almost sideways to look at Al, just briefly, before returning its attention to the magess before it.
-Segment 1:
As Efrim, Mad Jack, Al and Carrock hold a brief shouting match to determine what they will do next, Lackshmi continues to hurry through the arcane words and gestures of her spell, her mouth trying not to tremble as the demon flies closer.
Carrock decides to intercept the demon and begins to fly toward the action, X4 in hand.
There is a sickening smell in the air. Every sentient, living creature in the room is half tempted to wretch, in part from the smell but equally from the fear. No one but no one has any idea of what this creature is capable, how it thinks, what it will do next…
ROUND FIVE:
-Segment 10:
Lackshmi succeeds at her attempt to quickcast her force field (with a skill roll of 10).
The screaming demon also gets to act this round, thereby requiring a roll of minute initiative.
The results are as follows:
Lackshmi: 7
Demon: 5
Lackshmi finishes her force field just milliseconds before the demon spreads its arms.
The demon suddenly halts its advance on Lackshmi, as though it can see the wall with its naked eyes.
Al strikes at the Master Monk, hitting (15) for 23 hp damage.
-Segment 9:
The Screaming Demon leaps into the air and turns his back to the party, as though to fly into the south passage and away.
-Segment 7:
The Screaming Demon turns around and then flies toward the force field, with a new vigor and speed. His dark, feathered wings span just over 30 feet.
-Segment 6:
Efrim finishes a disintigrate spell, and thereby permanently elimintes the MU30 from the game. He wastes not a moment to resume rifling through the MU30’s belongings. But this time he is committed, almost involuntarily, to keeping one eye up and on the action at all times.
Mad Jack casts Raise Dead Fully on Forrestonar. Forrestonar looks up to the ceiling, puts his hand on his forehead and says:
“Where are we? Is it over yet?”
Mad Jack replies, “Not quite.”
-Segment 5:
The Screaming Demon slams himself into the wall of force, feet-first. The field shatters, spreading pieces of “force” (quite literally) across the floor and leaving some shards of the original field still hanging where they were put by Lackshmi just seconds before.
This gets Forrestonar’s attention, who jumps to his feet and takes to the air.
-Segment 4:
Although hasted, Carrock could not take a swipe at the demon until now. And swipe he does. Flying just up underneath the underbelly (a manuever that makes all onlookers extremely nervous), he stabs X4 upwards into his belly. He hits (8) for automatic minimum damage = 56 hp.
The demon screeches and its head stretches, with its stork-neck, across his chest to investigate the wound. Carrock sheaths X4 and readies the lanthorne.
-Phoenixes claw at the demon but not no avail. The demon unthinkingly “shoos” them away, as though they were flies.
-Segment 2:
Al takes another swipe at the Master Monk and hits (7) for 18 hp damage. The Master Monk looks severely injured.
-Segment 1:
The demon turns to face Carrock in midair. All other nearby party members back away to make room for the prismatic sphere. Again there is that stench, and that churning feeling in the stomach.
Efrim continues to rummage as he tells Forrestonar to go sift through the pile-of-treasure-that-once-was-Vesso (sitting near the throne a possible North exit).
ROUND SIX
–Segment 10:
At this point the demon has landed just about 70 feet into the room.
At once, Lackshmi, Al and Mad Jack all try to close in on him for the attack.
Forrestonar begins a spell and flies just behind the rest of the attackers.
Efrim concentrates.
Flying in circles around his torso, however, is Carrock. Carrock, it is safe to say, is presently full of adrenaline. He hollars at the top of his lungs with each swing of his sword. He makes gestures at the demon as its storklike head follows him in the course of his circling. Carrock lets loose another scream and dives headlong into the demon’s open wound, X4 before him. His blow hits home (5), only this time something strange happens: Instead of the 56 hp of damage X4 inflicted last time, the blow only inflicts 14 hp.
The demon recoils from the blow nonetheless. Carrock withdraws his arm from what now appears to be a gaping wound in the creature’s abdomen, his feathered arm stained with the demons guts.
Onlookers would judge that the demon is severely injured, but then again it is hard to say with a creature of this sort. His open wound is not gushing with blood, as you might think it would.
-Segment 9:
Carrock holds his bloody arm aloft, wild-eyed, and everyone around now notices that there is a strand of demon intestine clutched between Carrock’s fingers.
Al, Lackshmi and Mad Jack race closer to the sight of battle.
-Segment 8:
All four the attackers suddenly find themselves engulfed in a storm of snow and ice, a storm which appears from the outside to be centered on Carrock, but encompasses all of the following people and creatures: Lackshmi, Al, Mad Jack, an orc rummaging through MU15’s belongings and (interestingly) the demon. After barely over a second of storming, it subsides, leaving the following results in its wake:
Al: makes save vs. spells, takes 39 hp damage
Carrock: failed save vs. spells, but takes only 39 hp damage due to immunity
Lackshmi: fails save vs. spells and takes 78 hp damage
Jack: makes save and takes 39 hp damage.
Rummaging orc: makes his save but dies nonetheless.
All four player characters are still standing (thanks in part to the lanthrone’s bonus hit points).
Situated outside of the action, Efrim notices something strange about the storm. It takes him a moment to figure it out, but in a matter of seconds he is able to put his finger on it: the storm does not detect as immortal magic. It does not have that immortal glow.
-Segment 7:
Al attacks with his sword and hits (18) for 12 hp damage.
-Segment 6:
The orc assigned to rummaging through Vesso’s belongings (upon on the northern dais, where the throne sits) stands up and shouts:
“Hey! I think I found the guy’s artifact!”
and then stuffs something down his trouser pockets.
-Segment 5:
Carrock shouts and strikes the demon again, hitting (6) once again for 14 hp damage.
Forrestonar begins to fly into the fray as he continues to work on a spell.
A phoenix flies to the Master Monk and begins pushing him toward the ground.
The Master Monk flails about in meek resistance.
-Segment 4:
Forrestonar finishes his spell, Cureall, and flies into the fray to touch Lackshmi. Lackshmi is healed of all but 5 hit points.
-Segment 3:
After having exhausted himself in concentration (thinking of all of the different ways he would like to hurt the demon), Efrim gives up.
Newly restored, Lackshmi flies at the demon and takes a swing at his neck. She hits (2) for 8 hp damage.
-Segment 2:
With some awkwardness from lack of proficiency, Mad Jack takes a swing at the demon’s scrotum with his hammer. And he hits (20) but not for double damage (4). He does 9 hp damage and attempts to disintigrate the demon. Mad Jack feels a surge of power but it seems to have no effect on the demon, except to make him twist his head downward to look at his assailant.
Efrim sees the throne on the northern dais move slightly, revealing just a sliver of darkness beyond. Engrossed in battle with the demon, no other party members notice this movement.
-Segment 1:
The phoenix finishes pushing the Master Monk to the ground and flies away.
An orc, waiting about thirty feet away, now rushes to examine the monk. The orc rummaging through Vesso’s belongings (up on the dais) glances up to look behind the moving throne and freezes in place.
ROUND SEVEN
-Segment 10:
In order to resolve this segment, three characters are forced to roll minute initiative: Al, Forrestonar, and the demon.
The results are as follows, dex bonuses included:
Al: 4
Forrestonar: 3
Demon: 6
As a result, the demon’s wounds virtually disappear just moments before Al and Forrestonar strike out. Al swings his sword and hits (16) for 14 hp damage. A horizontal cut opens up to reveal one of the demon’s ribs.
Forrestonar’s short sword flies, spinning, just past the demons thigh (miss) (3). Meanwhile, all other characters back away from the sight of combat.
Efrim flies out toward the throne, pointing and barking out orders to his phoenixes as he does so.
Mad Jack and Lackshmi zoom out across the room toward the throne and the hidey hole behind it. Carrock prepares his lanthorne.
-Segment 9:
Al and Forrestonar begin to back up and make room for Carrock.
The phoenixes begin to fly toward the throne.
-Segment 8:
In order to resolve the action for this round I was forced to roll minute initiative for Efrim and Lackshmi.
Both rolled 8’s.
Thus I was forced to roll “minute minute” initiative.
Efrim rolled a 3 and Lackshmi rolled an 8.
Lackshmi took the first action by 5 hundredths of the second.
She finishes a Delayed Blast Fireball spell (delay set for 0). A red gem shoots out from her sleave and into the crevice behind the throne. There is an explosion and the north wall shakes. Strangely, none of the north wall’s structure collapses in any way: no collapsing sections, no falling bricks.
The throne, however, is pushed over to reveal a 7 foot wide passageway beyond. Dust and smoke fills the passageway making it impossible to see (for the moment anyway) what lies therein. Assuming that no special protections are up and all saves are failed, Lackshmi’s fireball would do 65 hp damage.
In a flash, Efrim says a single word. The sound of that word travels out across the empty space between him and the throne, and there it lies. Whatever effect it has on some resident of the dust and smoke is not immediately known.
-Segment 6:
The first phoenix arrives at the throne, swoops down, and lifts the paralyzed orc into the air.
The vague outlines of some dark, robed figure begins to emerge from the settling dust and smoke.
At the same time, Carrock readies his lanthrone.
-Segment 5:
In order to resolve the action for this segment, I was forced to roll minute initiative for both Carrock and the creature in the dust and smoke.
The results were as follows:
Carrock: 6
Creature: 3
Carrock finishes his action first, and the sequence goes something like this:
Carrock flies within three feet of the demon’s waist. Four meteors come flying out of the smokey passageway, one of them headed for Carrock. Carrock spins his lanthrone and creates a sphere of colors in midair, the red layer showing outward (and the violet one inward). Then the meteor strikes the sphere of red and dissapates (the red layer automatically “blocks all magical missles”).
Inside the sphere, the demon adroitly brings his flight to a sudden halt and hovers.
Outside the sphere, three other meteors find their own targets: Efrim, Lackshmi and Mad Jack.
The results are as follows:
Given that Efrim has a powerful desire not to be affected by this spell, the following several things happen:
1. He feels a surge a power.
2. He shrinks one foot and loses one strength.
3. He now becomes vulnerable to certain forms of missile attacks. All missiles which are not generated by spells, magic items or artifacts get a +4 to hit.
4. He feels as though he were coated in several inches of some kind of malleable protective material, material which shifts and reforms with each movement on Efrim’s person–always staying roughly the same shape as Efrim himself but always at a slight delay, as though it took the material a couple seconds to catch up.
The meteor slams into Efrim and then is absorbed by the strange protective material, breaking it apart and immediately dissolving it.
Lackshmi is struck by a meteor for 27 hp of impact damage. She then finds herself immersed in fire. But Lackshmi makes her saving throw vs. wands (12) and thus only takes half damage, for an additional 12.
Mad Jack (already moderately injured) is struck by a meteor for 26 hp damage. He then finds himself immersed in fire. But Mad Jack makes his saving throw vs. wands (13) and thus only takes half damage, for an additional 12.
Mad Jack appears to be seriously injured, and possibly worse than that. His spell is interrupted.
-Segment 4:
Carrock begins to retreat from the screaming demon. A phoenix arrives at the throne and perches there.
-Segment 3:
Forrestonar flies toward the throne. A phoenix arrives at the throne and begins to fly into the passageway but seems unable to come within about three feet of the entrance. He veers away and takes another dive.
-Segment 2:
Again the phoenix finds herself veering uncontrollably at approximately the three foot mark.
ROUND EIGHT
-Segment 10:
Most of the party closes in on the lich to engage in melee. The lich, however, steps backward and into the rather narrow tunnel behind the throne.
This creates a problem: In this state, only one person can safely engage the lich in melee. Two could enage with him with some penalty due to bumping elbows and lack of manuverability.
The party quickly reshuffles so that Efrim and Mad Jack close in for melee while Lackshmi, Carrock and Forrestonar hanging back to cast spells.
Meanwhile, Al remains in the vicinity of the demon, digging through his backpack. Al briefly pleads with Mad Jack to hang back and heal himself, but Jack shrugs it off and flies forward.
-Segment 9:
Mad Jack takes a good look at the lich and sees that he is a 25th level cleric. One of Efrim’s phoenixes swoops and drops the frozen corpse of an orc in his arms. Not wanting to be slowed, however, Efrim lets the orc fall to the ground. Then he shouts to those casting spells behind him:
“See if you can get the goods off this guy when you’re done!”
If anyone behind Efrim has heard him they do not acknowledge it, busy as they are gesturing and reciting arcane words.
Lackshmi seems to have picked a spell that requires only one-handed gestures. The other hand is buried in her robe.
The orc who was ordered to search through the Master’s Monk’s hidden pockets and other places of personal storage falls back, signaling Efrim.
Efrim orders the phoenixes back across the room to finish off the Master Mystic.
-Segment 8:
In the midst of Carrock’s spellcasting he suddenly feels as though he is presented with a choice: will he or will he not enter timestop with some unnamed partner? Carrock refuses to let his concentration waver and he proceeds with his spell, but in some idle part of his brain he curses that timestop should be cast at just this moment. Then he accepts, trying to see if his staff will allow him one last timestop protection. His staff does not. And the moment passes.
The smoke is now cleared and Efrim lands at the entryway to the tunnel. He sees that the first ten feet of the tunnel is littered with bones, some of them still smoldering. He also sees that the tunnel is long, perhaps thirty feet. Just twenty feet before him Efrim can see the grinning skull and neckbones of a robed figure, his boney feet inching backward as his left arm holds some twisted stick in the air, pointed toward Efrim. If detect magic reads correctly, this fellow no longer carries an artifact.
Efrim hoists his dagger and dashes forward, hasted.
-Segment 7:
Carrock is the first to take an official action, now having finished his second Song of the Whirlwind. Another air elemental appears and the room again fills with sound. Carrock orders the elemental to travel around the room and pick up all of the sacks which the various orcs have filled.
The elemental obeys, heading for the paralyzed orc first.
Efrim continues to dash forward. But something strange happens. As soon as he comes within 10 feet of the lich he finds that he can move no further. He leans and pushes but finds that his body is always pushed back. Still working on a spell,
Lackshmi lands at the tunnels entrance and stays just outside to finish her work, keeping an eye on her target lich as she does so.
-Segment 6:
Efrim quickly infers that the lich is protected by some area effect magic. It is almost as though Efrim were a summoned or enchanted creature and the lich were guarded by a Protection from Evil/Good 10′ Radius spell.
That’s when it strikes Efrim (wisdom check =7): he still has his shapechange spell up.
With this spell still on his person (whether it is in use or not), he can’t touch anyone with antimagic shell or pro. from evil.
At this point, everyone in the room (including party members) finds out that Lackshmi was faking her one-handed spell. She produces a small stick that looks somewhat like a tree-branch and points it up in the air. Two meteors go whirling off and strike opposite walls. One flies into the prismatic sphere and vanishes. The last one fires down the tunnel, passes underneath Efrim’s right arm, and crashes into the lich before him.
The lich takes 30 hp impact damage. A ball of fire explodes for 24 hp damage (assuming no immunities or successful saves). Although within range of the blast, Efrim suffers no harmful effects.
-Segment 5:
Mad Jack lands at the tunnel’s entrance, leaves his flying carpet where it lays, and dashes in.
Efrim concentrates and drops his shapechange spell.
Al holds a large egg aloft and then cracks it over his knee. There is a great burst of light and heat and a large orange and red bird uncurls itself. Within seconds it screeches and takes to the air. Al feels a surge of power. Al delivers his first commands to the creature by telepathy and the phoenix, now 25 feet across with its wings unfolded, begins to circle the sphere floating above.
A phoenix reaches the Master Monk and attempts to dig his claws into him, missing (3, 8). He then attempts to bite and misses (2).
-Segment 4:
Efrim charges forward, Blitzblade in hand. His blade lands home (4) and does 17 hp of damage. Efrim releases a charge of electricity but it has no effect on the lich.
The lich stretches his left arm as though trying to reach behind Efrim, as he does so four meteors appear to fly out from his sleeve. In a flash each of them has landed on a separate target, with the following results:
Mad Jack: 33 hp impact damage, 12 hp fire damage (save made [19]). At -19 hp Mad Jack is forced to make a save vs. death -10, and he fails (1).
Mad Jack is dead.
Lackshmi: 32 hp impact damage, 17 hp fire damage (save made [16]). Severely injured.
Carrock: 29 hp impact damage, 17 hp fire damage (save made [20]). Severely injured (although not so frighteningly close to the line as Lackshmi).
Forresontar: 32 hp impact damage, 18 hp fire damage (save made [7]). Greatly injured.
Forrestonar’s spell is interrupted.
Mad Jack’s melee attack is halted by death.
A second phoenix reaches the Master Monk and attempts to dig his claws into him, hitting once (7, 15) for 5 hp damage. He also successfully bites (19) for 9 hp damage.
The Master Monk turns gaseous.
-Segment 3:
To the South there is a crash and the double doors suddenly fly open, knocking two orcs out of the way in the process. The best way to describe what happens in this segment and the next two is simply to say the following: undead come pouring into the room.
Over twenty skeleton archers move along the South wall, drop one knee apiece, assume the familiar “archer’s kneel,” and begin to pull arrows from quivers on their backs.
Five nosferatu/vampires (they are out of range of truesight) fly in and immediately fan out, mixed in with seven non-transparent specters.
Strangest of all, six pale elven-looking men run (almost glide) into the room–their hands all aglow with sphere-shaped balls of light.
With the doors wide open the party can now partially make out what lies in the room beyond, and although dark (it is presently out of Al’s infravision range) they can glimpse gilt walls and a couple of cushioned chairs. Whether more creatures are waiting their turn to rush in is not yet clear.
The undead fill the South side of the room quietly, almost silently but for the footfalls and kneefalls of the skeletal archers. No orders are shouted. No calls are made. Three vampires/nosferatu who seem to be in charge of some of the others point at the nearest target (Al) and say nothing.
ROUND NINE
-Segment 10:
*Deadites: A few lagging skeletons continue to fan out behind the force field, kneeling and then drawing an arrow. All seven spectres fly through the largest hole in the force field. Four of them then fly directly toward Al and three veer to the West to avoid the scene of combat. The deadite elves fan out about ten feet in front of the skeletons, fearless of what may come behind them. All five of the vampires/nosferatu also begin to make their way out of the shield. The three which pointed at Al now begin to fan out but stay back from the scene of combat. Two fly toward Al: one wearing the garb of a noble lady, the other (a man) wearing plate armor.
*The Living:
Forrestonar flies over to Lackshmi while casting a spell.
The Great Phoenix flies away from what we’re now calling the “demon egg” (the demon trapped inside a prismatic sphere, gradually working its way outward through the sequence of colors) to take up a new location circling before his master.
Lackshmi turns to look down the great hall to the south in an attempt to discern what is going on there.
Al reaches into his robe for something.
Carrock hesitates for a fleeting moment then draws X4 (now X2) and flies into the tunnel.
But Efrim…he’s ready to swing. He strikes at the lich with his Blitzblade and misses (1) without fumbling (6).
-Segment 9:
*The Living:
Carrock arrives, sidles his way up next to Efrim and the lich, and begins to look for an opportunity to strike.
*Deadites: The lich begins to back further down into the tunnel, and closer to the room that lies at the far end.
Carrock detects some movement behind the lich (roll for surprise = 6). Efrim does not (roll for surprise = 2). Carrock alerts Efrim to the movement.
-Segment 8:
Deadites(?): An unattached head comes within visible distance of the Efrim’s light source. It is the head of a young man, with locks of brown hair reaching out from beneath a leather cap. At so close a vantage point, Efrim’s sapphire eyes reveal none of the signs which would normally suggest that the head has any mass (no air is being displaced).
-Segment 7:
*The Living: Two things happen at once.
First, Carrock is presented with the possibility of joining some unknown person in stopped time. He is presented with this possibility, but he cannot take advantage of it.
Second, the head opens its mouth and in the bare light Efrim and Carrock can see it pronounce a single word. Both living people hear the word, but Carrock seems overwhelmed with it. He drops his sword, clasps his face, and then falls to the floor, stunned.
Peering across the great hall, Lackshmi suddenly realizes that her view of the demon is no longer so obscured. She can now see his outline shifting and moving about just underneath the outermost layer of color (the red).
-segment 6:
*The Living: After a brief mental battle with himself, lasting but a fraction of a second, Al commands his phoenix,
“Come pick me up”.
He puts the wand away and draws his sword.
Efrim, with his eyes still locked on the grinning face of his enemy, hears Lackshmi’s voice from around the corner, shouting (in elven) that the gig is up and everyone has to split.
Lackshmi gives some brief instructions and concludes:
“I’m not coming back for you, Efrim!”
Efrim does an about-face, briefly exposing his back to his opponent, and starts his way out of the tunnel, preparing to leap over Mad Jack’s corpse if necessary.
Carrock, already stumbling along, stops briefly to heave and lift Mad Jack up and over his shoulder.
Mad Jack’s Hammer of Life falls from Jack’s dead hand and goes clanging to the ground.
*Deadites: Six arrows are released by a group of kneeling skeleton archers. In a split second the arrows are abruptly stopped by the remnants of the force field. Some of the arrows split before falling to the ground in pieces. It seems the skeletons are either unaware of the force field or incapable of calculating what sort of redirection the force field might require.
One of the deadite elves hurls two spheres of red light at Al. One flies well beneath Al but the other lands squarely on Al’s exposed neck (20). Al takes 5 hp damage, bringing him down to 37 hp
-segment 5:
*The Living: Al glances at the orc bag spinning in the whirlwind, looks back at the group under fire.
“I GOT THIS ONE!”
, he shouts in Elven.
“Everybody out in 3-2-“
His phoenix grabs him from behind by the shoulders. His next command,
“Let’s go get that bag,”
mentally motioning at the whirlwind,
“and don’t let any specters touch me!”
With that, they turn their flight toward the bag held by the whirlwind. Al is now flying toward some of the very nosferatu/vampires and spectres he had originally attempted to avoid.
Carrock slowly lowers himself into a crouching position, taking care not to let the body of Mad Jack fall off his back. He gets extremely dizzy and is forced to make a dex check to maintain his balance, and succeeds (2). He then grabs the Hammer of Life from the floor and stands upright again. Then he continues his slow, stunned walk out of the tunnel.
Efrim gets out of the tunnel and begins barking orders to his orcs, instructing the two nearest to him to move northward. He leaps over the flying carpet and gives one knowing look back at his compatriots: Lackshmi, Carrock and Forrestonar.
Lackshmi only looks back as she prepares to leave this room for good. Forrestonar cuts off his spell to shout,
“I’ve got the carpet!”
He leaps onto the carpet, still sitting in clear eyeshot of the lich in the tunnel, and begins to concentrate on his next Dimension Door-based destination.
*Deadites: The lich in the tunnel now begins to dash toward the entrance to the tunnel as well.
Another wyrd (elven deadite) hurls two spheres of red light only this time the target seems to be Lackshmi. Both spheres miss.
As they pass by the nearest vampires and spectres, the vampire dressed somewhat like an aristrocratic lady reaches out to touch Al’s phoenix and misses.
Shortly behind her, the other vampire/nosferatu–the one dressed in armor and carrying a sword–winds up to take his own shot.
A spectre attempts to touch the passing phoenix and misses.
Also at this point something very peculiar happens. For Al (and for others who are watching the action at the south end) it is suddenly as if large parts of the room have been doused in dispel magic. The remnants of the force field disappear. The two nearest (southern) orcs disappear. Two of the three approaching phoenixes disappear. And so, alas, does the whirlwind.
The paralyzed orc is suddenly freed from his spin and hurled: twenty feet outward and twenty feet downward. There is a noticable sound of cracking bones as he hits the ground and blood begins to run out of his mouth and ears. The bag of loot lies just a few feet away from his landing spot.
So far Al’s spells seem unaffected.
-segment 4:
*The Living: Lackshmi disappears, with projected image.
Carrock disappears, with corpse.
Forrestonar disappears, with carpet.
For information about what happens to this group next, see the section entitled “Back in the Quiet. “
Efrim and Al are now alone in the throne room, grubbing around for treasure. Seeing the sudden change in events, Al now orders his phoenix to veer toward the bag of loot. As he runs, Efrim readies a large bag with some unnamed contents inside.
*Deadites: One spectre takes a swipe at the phoenix and misses.
The sword-wielding nosferatu takes a swipe and hits for 36 hp damage. The phoenix appears to be slightly injured.
Skeletons send five more arrows into the air, this time unobstructed by any invisible walls of force. Two arrows swish harmlessly by Efrim. One arrow lands somewhere near the most northwestern orc and misses. Another other arrow hits the second loot-carrying orc and hits for 4 hp damage. The orc appears to be greatly injured, if not worse. One arrow seems to fly either at Al or at his phoenix but misses both.
Four more red spheres of light are hurled at Al, all of them missing. Three vampires now fan out and move north, toward the demon egg and toward Efrim. The lich now nears the tunnel entrance and suddenly four meteors emerge from his sleeve.
- The first whirls toward Efrim and slams into him (despite his artifact power), for 35 hp of impact damage. All other damage is absorbed by Protection from Fire.
- The second whirls toward Al and slams into him for 35 hp of impact damage. All other damage is absorbed by Protection from Fire. At 2 hit points, Al is now “severely injured.”
- The third whirls toward Efrim’s remaining phoenix and hits it for 28 hp damage, severely injuring it. All fire damage is ignored.
- The fourth whirls toward the northwestern orc and utterly obliterates him. His bag, like the rest of his equipment, turns to ash and the treasure he has looted pours out onto the floor, some of it scattered across the floor.
-segment 3:
*The Living: Al swoops down and picks up the bag of belongings looted from Vesso, pouring with sweat. He and his phoenix then up away and fly away from the spectres and vampires (to the north). Al then warns his phoenix to prepare for instantaneous departure. He is just closing his eyes to concentrate when a sudden thought flits across his mind (wisdom check=6): The artifact. Vesso’s artifact was stuck down the orc’s pants. Al orders his phoenix to drop him next to the paralyzed (and probably dead) orc and then land next to him. The phoenix obediently turns around and flies back toward most of the deadites, Al praying to every god whose name he has bothered to remember.
Efrim continues running toward the nearest pile of loot, doing his best to pull an empty sack from his backpack as he runs.
*Deadites: Six more arrows take to the air. Two flit harmless by Efrim. Two fly at the remaining loot-carrying orc (running obediently to his master) and both miss (5 and 4).
One flies at Al and misses (14) and the other flies at his phoenix and misses (4). Four more spheres of red light are hurled at Al, all of them missing him (you saw those dismal rolls).
Al starts thanking the aforementioned gods.
-segment 2:
*The Living: Efrim finishes pulling out the empty sack and resumes his full running speed. Al is dropped next to the paralyzed corpse of the orc. Without hesitating Al, sticks his hand down the front side of the orc’s pants. He withdraws an anklet and then runs to his phoenix (who has now landed just four feet away) and grabs on.
*Deadites: Two vampires and three spectres now fly down to converge on Al. The rest fly north.
The wyrds now move away from the skeleton archers and toward Al.
-segment 1:
*The Living: Efrim arrives at the site of the pile of treasure and begins shovelling it into his sack indiscriminately.
Without pausing, without saying goodbye to his comrade, Al blinks away (with phoenix).
BACK IN THE QUIET
The news for those who dimension doored out of the throne room is good, but not entirely good. The first three out of the room (Lackshmi, Carrock and Forrestonar) find themselves in rather large blacksmithy.
The good part is that there appear to be no enemies in the immediate vicinity. The place is quiet and appears to have been unused for some time. Dust has accumulated on the large wooden tables and on the stone floors. Some kind of basic mould for a lance-sized pole arm sits in its two pieces on the floor. Stone-based cooling racks line the south wall, both of them empty. A large patch of mold grows in one corner (a corner the party would estimate as being to their East). To the North is an open archway which leads up just a few steps. Also to the east is a closed door. It is next to this closed door (and up just about three feet) that the party appears.
The bad news is, as is already apparent, that for some damnable reason the party did not successfully dimension door all of the way back to the node. Worse still, they have no idea where they did end up. Immediately the room fills with the sound of harsh whispers and Forrestonar and Lackshmi argue about what to do next. But they argue for only a few seconds before Al appears, laughing, crying and screaming from pain all at once.
Al’s large phoenix appears beside him, its wings at its side and looking more like an orange, oversized pheasant than a bird of the air. The sudden presence of this large and extremely hot bird startles the group, who drop their discussion to quickly shuffle across the room away from the bird. And in that short period of silence Al’s ears pick up something distinct: the sound of rushing water. He puts his ear to the closed door and hears it even better. Somewhere to the east, then, is running water. And where there is running water there is a landmark on Al’s map.
At the beginning of the round it suddenly appears to Efrim as though there is a new state of affairs: Almost every deadite creature in the room is now moving toward him, preparing to converge on him.
The clerical lich now moves out of the tunnel entrance and, for the first time, into the light of the throneroom. The spectres, vampires, nosferatu and wyrds that were once bent on destroying Al now begin to move Northward.
Efrim sees this and immediately cinches his bag. Then he begins to back toward the western wall, trying (as best as he can) to make sure that these new assailants approach from the front. This goes, especially, for the known spell casters. Each of the skeletons now nocks an arrow and prepares to let loose a rain of arrows.
-Segment 10:
*Deadites: There is a horrifying scream from above as the demon now emerges from its demon-egg, and it emerges on the side nearest to Efrim. Its skin is split around the shoulders but otherwise looks healthy. Its scream comes either from pain or from some kind of anger (its hard to tell which).
Three creatures are noticably startled by the sound: the nosferatu dressed in armor, the clerical lich, and Efrim.
After it emerges, the demon races toward Efrim.
*The Living: Efrim takes another step back to the west and turns now so that he fully faces the demon. Then he does something strange: he shouts insults. Randomly picking from among all of the languages he knows, Efrim curses the name of Old Nyx and shouts that the demon is a sissy.
Off in some distant chamber, the highly sensitive ears of Carrock, Al and Forrestonar pick up the demon’s first scream. Carrock says:
“Sounds like bird-man has found his freedom.”
For those among the party who know and love Efrim, the sad thought that he may not make it back flits across their minds.
-Segment 9:
*Deadites: The clerical lich levels his wand at Efrim and shouts something back in an unknown language. The demon continues to race toward Efrim.
*The Living: Efrim makes one last gesture at the demon and then suddenly disappears. In an instant he finds himself about three feet from from the floor in the blacksmithy.
I assume that after a moment of surprise everyone in the party will show some visible sign of relief (and then continue to work at healing).
-Segment 8:
Somewhere in the distance, the demon lets loose a new variation of its screeching sound, and this time everyone in the party can hear it.
ROUND TEN
-Carrock drinks one of Al’s potions of healing (the equivalent of cure light wounds) and is unstunned. His first reaction is anger. He speaks for just a few seconds as though the party were cowardly and foolish to retreat when it did. He paces the floor muttering, and kicks one of the pails set next to the polearm moulds, making a loud clang.
-Lackshmi drinks a potion of mega-healing and heals 38 hp.
-Al drinks a potion of mega-healing and heals 31 hp.
-Efrim shows up. Everyone looks up, surpised, Efrim wipes his brow and opens his mouth to utter the following words:
“Lady and gentlemen. Let’s go home. Sooner Rather than Later.”
ROUND ELEVEN
-Carrock has an abrupt change of attitude and suddenly becomes interested in leaving the plane, and leaving it fast. He rushes over to Mad Jack and casts raise dead fully.
-Mad Jack opens his eyes and asks where the hell he is. Carrock simply answers:
“It’s not over yet.”
-Efrim drinks one of Al’s potions of super healing (3d6+3) and heals 13 hp.
-Forrestonar casts cure critical wounds on himself and heals 12 hp.
-Lackshmi examines the doorway–leaning into it and flying all around it, trying to see what lies beyond (or within). After a round of examining it she pronounces it
“safe enough, I think.”
And that will have to do.
ROUND TWELVE
– As he passes down the hallway, Al opens the door into the water room. At first it won’t budge. The edges of the door seem to be virtually sealed with some kind of rot and the door itself is warped. But after a successful strength check (11), Al pulls the door open and a cloud of something (gas? spores?) fills the air.
Upon seeing it, some party members try to take refuge in the stairwell, but unfortunately the cloud sinks. Everyone in the party is forced to make a savings throw vs. poison or choke.
The results are as follows:
Al: made (20), although Al is protected from poison anyway
Carrock: made (6)
Lackshmi: made (9)
Efrim: made (17)
Forrestonar: made (9)
Mad Jack: made (3)
Phoenix: made (16) (normally Al’s protection from poison would extend to his objects, but only when those objects are being carried on his person)
Most of the party spends the round coughing and spiting out saliva and blood. Some party members lean their heads against the wall from wooziness. This excludes Al and anyone else who might have protection from poison up.
Lackshmi, however, did not have protection from poison up, and so her spell is interrupted and her gate lost. She begins to panic and shout at Al until Efrim makes it known that he has a single gate spell memorized.
With the door now open, however, Al is able to see into the room beyond. The room is wide and the floor descends rapidly into an area that looks more like a natural phenomenon than some man-made structure. A waterfall tumbles over a cliff that runs about 22′ from ceiling to floor. And at the bottom is a cloud of mist and a pool full of mossy rocks. A couple hawk-like birds with peculiarly large legs and talons are just in the process of diving toward the pool. Al runs back to join his party in the stairwell.
ROUND THIRTEEN
– Efrim begins to cast a gate spell, letting Al’s phoenix lead the way down the stairs as he does so.
As the party approaches they notice the sounds of windbursts and also the clocklike, rhythmic clanging of some distant, large, metallic structure.
Efrim finishes his gate spell on segment 5.
In order to leave enough room to peek into the room and see what lies beyond he places his gate two feet from the end of the stairwell. The first in the marching order is the phoenix, however, and he does not peer around the gate. Al instead orders him straight through, and once on the other side the phoenix unfolds his wings and takes to the blue skies.
Efrim is next in the marching order and since the stairwell does not leave much room for manuvering the party is forced to stop while he peers around his gate to see what lies in the room beyond. Efrim looks in particular for the source of the wind and rhythm.
As he peers the party goes silent, and in that silence three party members (Carrock, Al, Forrestonar) hear something worrisome: somewhere nearby–very nearby–is some sort of large creature breathing in deep, hollow tones.
Carrock judges from the sound of the breathing that it might come from a creature with giant-sized lungs.
What Efrim sees is a paper-thin slice of dark color (the size of a gate) facing primarily toward the east (Efrim stands to the North of it). It is turned just enough toward Efrim that he can make out something of what lies beyond. Through the sliver of open gate through which he can see, Efrim can discern that it is night in the world beyond.
He makes out the backbone of some kind of tall, craggy structure. Then he too hears the breathing. He looks about the room: the zombie the party killed earlier is gone, although pieces of its skin still sit on the floor where it collapsed earlier. The giant-sized eyeball is gone.
Other than that the room is empty. No breathing creature can be seen in this room, and this suggests one of two things:
1) The creature is in the room but somehow invisible and undetectable.
2) The creature is sitting just beyond the other gate.
ROUND FOURTEEN
The party returns safely back on the prime, on a spot of damp land not far from the place where they first began to climb the yellow flight of stairs earlier that morning.
Perhaps more healing will be in order.
Carrock has a cureall and Mad Jack has an artifact with the same sort of power, which he can use once.
Iustal and a fanaere will meet the party with serene, perhaps even bored looks on their faces. They have spent the morning just watching the fog lift and then admiring the scenery and idly wondering when everyone would return (they were thinking they might even have to wait until the next morning, when the natural gate would form again).
So Iustal hops up from the rock he was leaning against and walks casually over to the party:
“It looks like everyone’s here. How’d it go? Did you take care of them for good?”