Campaign Journal

[Hangfire]

Okay, another great session guys. From the look of some of the other post on the forum everyone had a good time - which is kinda the point I think. Anyway, for all of you who had something else to do that day/night (and I'm still trying to think of something that would have been better - yes Aaron, other than sex!!).

So, as we left off last time the party had narrowly beaten Zyrxog the mindflayer and had come back up to the city to rest and to try and figure out why Loris Raknian, the managare of the city arena, had tryed to have them killed by Zyrxog. The first order of business was to go and see Eligos and let him know what has been happening, especially now that the party knows that Raknian has bought the Apostolic Scrolls from Zyrxog. What does this mean? Well, Eligos has a meal served as he informs the party of his progress in researching Kyuss and the goings on. He tells the party that he believes that all the clues the party has gathered so far point to the involvement of a minor diety - Kyuss. The worm-infested undead encountered so far are a clear sign of Kyuss' involvement, and that a cult of Kyuss is certainly becoming more active in the area around the Free City. This is all the more disturbing because usually cults dedicated to Kyuss involve very small numbers of individuals, sometimes just one person. The working of the cult of Kyuss with the Ebon Triad is also a very bad sign that something major is in the works. Eligos also informed the party that tales of the Age of Worms are very common and that almost every culture has some kind of mythos devoted to the subject. The prophecies that speak of a transformation of the world are recored in certain rare texts like the Book of Vile Darknes, Libris Mortis, the Necronomicon, and the Apostolic Scrolls. Eligos is very distrubed to learn that such an unstanding citizen of the city of Greyhawk like Raknian has actually purchased one of these extremely rare texts. Nothing good can come from this.

The party talks with Eligos about getting to the bottom of the matter with Raknian, but are informed that Raknian is well connected and that snooping may get them into more trouble with the city guard and certain other prominant individuals. However, with the Champion's Games about to get started it may be possible to get close and find out what's going on. In fact, Eligos has a friend who just happens to be looking for some gladiators for the games. Eligos says he will get in touch with her and let her know that the characters are looking to be gladiators.

Part 2 coming soon. . . .

[Hangfire]

. . . The next day while the party sits around the Slanty Inn they are approached by a rather attractive woman and a short, blond man. She introduces herself as Celeste and her companion is Ekaym Smallcask. She explains that she is a friend of Eligos' and that Ekaym, and friend of hers, has bought a gladiator manager's licence, but cannot find any suitable gladiators. After the introductions Celeste leaves the party with Ekaym to talk over the details. After some conversation a deal is struck, and with some good negotiating the party agrees to equal shares of the winnings (so split equally between the party members and Ekaym). Ekaym informs the party that they must arrive at the arena no later than 6:00 PM todays hence - to attend the celebratory dinner that starts the games.

At the dinner the party eats, drinks, and makes many, many wagers on the outcome of the games. It is also noted that Raknian seems more than a little interested in the party, and that Ekyam seems more interested in Raknian than he does in promoting the party. Through some shrewed acting the party manages to lower their standings in the games, thereby making any bets on them more profitable with a win. After the dinner the gladiators are taken to the underground housing area called the Coenoby (pronounced see-no-bie) - a very large cavern converted for the purpose of housing the gladiators during the games.

The games will proceed as follows: the first day will be six games, each pitting four teams against each other in a free-for-all match. The second day will be a day of rest. The third day will be three matches between two comepting teams. This leaves three teams after day three. On day four one team fights some kind of monster and the other two teams fight each other - usually the team with the best record fights the monster, or the team that has won the most matches over it's career (the monster is considered the easier match as it takes less resources to fight one monster than a bunch of people on a team, at least that the scuttle-butt). On the last day there is a match between the two remaining teams - assuming the monster wasn't the winner.

Day One: The party (known as Bane of Kyuss - lucky this isn't Hackmaster, where a god might actually be offened by such a name and do something about it!!!) learns that they are fighting Arcane Auriga (a group of female elven archers - pretty bitchy group), Badlands Revenge (a druid/barbarian with gnolls and a dire badger companion - all have attitude), and Sapphire Squad (a janni horseman and his mercenary gang). The party approaches the Arcane Aruiga group to talk strategy, but are rebuffed immediately. Nym approaches Badlands, but after the badger appears ready to eat off his leg, he leaves with nothing accomplished. Finally a plan is struck with Korush the janni leading Sapphire Squad. Each groups will take out one of the other groups and then go at it themselves. The battle turns out to not be much a challenge and before long the Badlands group is wiped out, with the elves not far behind. Korush goes down to the elves and the mercs are hurt, so there's a lot of surrendering at the end with out much fighting. Not bad for thier first foray into arena combat. Of course their ranking goes up and so the possible winnings go down.

Day Two: a day of rest. Also a day to explore the area around the Coenoby. Also, Ekaym comes to visit the party and he confesses to them that he is not actually in Greyhawk to manage a gladiator team. He has come here looking for his sister Lahaka. He has learned that his sister was seeing Raknian, but hasn't been seen in many months. Ekaym is hoping that the party can snoop around and find out what has happened to her. He is willing to give his share of the winnings to the party if they will do this for him. With more money on the table the party quickly agrees to snoop around - not like they weren't going to anyway.

Part three will cover what happens with the snooping. . . .

[Hangfire]

So, the party decides to snoop around. The numerous guards present the first day and night that the gladiators spent in the Coenoby is all but gone the next day. With only six teams remaining there is very little chance that any fighting will take place anyplace other than the floor of the arena. The party sneaks out and begins exploring. The soon discover a secret door in a wine pantry. The door opens on a small landing - stair decend into darkness. An awful smell wafes from the open door. Tynian checks for traps and finds one!! Now he just has to disarm it. :twisted: FAILURE!! :twisted: The Symbol of Death goes off, but a good save roll wards off death. The party decends into the darkness.

The stairway opens into a small room with three coffins resting in it. It also houses three Spawn of Kyuss. They are pretty easily defeated and the party moves on. The next large room holds six Spawn and a Morhg. Again, the party has very little trouble, but the ones that are turned flee into a room to the north of the one they are in. Unknown to them Bozal Zahol, a tiefling cleric, is waiting in this room - and he now knows that someone has defiled his 'temple'. The ensuing battle with Bozal is not that bad for the party. However, they do note after dispatching him that a strange scroll is open on a pedestal and a sinister green light is shooting from the scrolls to a room thirty feet away. They later learn that an ulgurstasta is housed in the room (Tynian climbed into a small pipe that lead to the room - oh yeah, the green light that is shooting from the scrolls has created an invisible glove around the creature, and the globe does damage when touched!!). With no way to get to the scrolls (they're protected by magic) and no way to get rid of the sphere of protection the party moves on. To the north is another room, this one obviously a bed chamber. Sitting in one corner is Lahaka - now a zombie. Also in this room is a strange chest with an intricate carving. The flavor text for this item scared the crap out of Tynian and he would have nothing to do with it - but as they say, 'there's one born every minute' and this party has two!! Both Alistair and 'INSERT AARON'S CHARACTER'S NAME HERE' are facinated by the chest, or more correctly, by all the shiny baubles that must be in the chest. Despite this, and with strong urging from Tynian, the party leaves the chest undisturbed. Following the only passage out of this room to the west they come to another smallish chanmber. A curtain obscurs half the room from view. Tynian throws a torch on the curtain from out of the room hoping to reveal whatever is behind the curtain. However, the curtain only burns for a short time and then goes out. The party enters the chamber and are immediately attacked by the Alikilith Demon. That's right game fans, a Demon :twisted: !! And it proceeds to kick the stuffin out of the party. Now it's not totally one sided, and they do some pretty good damage back - enough that the Alikilith decides to call in some reinforcements in the form of a Hezrou Demon. Now the party is in deep trouble. The original demon was hitting with four tentacles (at +19 to hit), and it had some pretty nasty spell-like abilities, namely enervation (get hit and lose 1d4 levels). The party runs, except for Nym the warlock, who gets trapped by the greater teleporting demons. Aaron's cleric goes down and is carried away by Alistair. Tynian, who runs the best - at least he got the furthest away before hearing the sounds of battle behind him - the Alikilith demon had teleported and cut off the rest of the party. Eventually the demons are dispatched, the party is beaten and bruised, but alive.

The party retreats to the Coenoby to rest for the fight in the arena the next day. Upon waking they find that they are fighting Pitch Blade, and pair of dwarven barbarians. These guys are mean and tough. First thing they do is sunder Madox's weapon with their admantine bastard swords. Then they fly off to do battle with the rest of the party. It's not really much of a fight however as two against six are not the best odds.

So, this is where we stand at the moment. In the morning the party will face another battle in the arena, who with is not known just yet. There is a terrible monster in the basement under the arena and the party is not sure how to get at it, or what it's doing there. Raknian is still running around and not much has been learned, other than some bad stuff is going on under his arena. Who will the party battle tomorrow? What will happen with the monster? Will they have to fight Raknian? Who will win the 10,000 gp grand prize and the title Champions of Greyhawk? Only time will tell. . . . . .

[Hangfire]

Okay, so where did we leave our heroes? Ahww yes, in the arena. . . .

It turns out that Leather Works is the team that will be fought in the final battle. However, Tynian is still nervous about the Apostle of Kyuss that he saw through the narrow tube in the dungeon. His gut tells him something bad is going to happen, and it's probably going to happen just after the final battle, when the winning team is low on magic, and hit points. To the end Tynain sujests talking to the members of Leather Works - the would be Auric and Khellek (the flesh golems don't do too much talking). Tynian explains the situation to Auric with the hope that if the monster appears during the fight that he and his team will not keep fighting The Bane of Kyuss. Auric agrees that if some monster appears during or just after the fight he and his team will assist in destroying it. It's interesting to note and this point that there was a suggestion to throw the fight, but neither Tynian or Auric would agree to that. A poor decsion to say the least.

And then the battle begins. The flesh golems are arrayed in front of the flying Khellek and Auric. Madox charges down on them on his horse, with Tynian flying down also. A few well placed dispel spells strip the Leather Works team of much of their protective magic. Tynian learns the hard way that Auric is a mage slayer, and the rest of the team learns that Khellek is good with his wands, and has some really nasty spells. However, it's not enough. After a mere three rounds the Leather Works are on the ropes - how appropriate that the Apostle of Kyuss would burst forth from its underground room into the middle of the arena at that point. The ground shakes violently when it emerges and some of the gladiators are thrown to the ground. Millions of long thin tentacles start whipping around the body of the Apostle, inflicting damage and making attacking difficult.

Both sides converge on the monstrocity and begin attacking. Raknian has cheered the arrival of his pet, and sent it after Auric, who is badly wounded and stripped of all protective magic. The beast lumbers to him and withing two or three rounds has swallowed the man whole. Although badly wounded and near death, the Apostle manages to hang on and kill Auric, thereby completing the ritual.

Lightning flashes in the sky and dark clouds begin to form over the arena. The crowed grows quiet, but Raknian is on his feet, a smile on his lips. Ghostly figures begin to rise out of the sand of the arena floor. They appear to be combatants from the ages, men and women who died on the sands. A evil coldness grips the arena, sucking the life out of all in attendance. The smallfolk in the stands fall first, lifeless husks. The party feels the cold reach into them and suck some of the great lifeforce the posess. Not enough to kill, but enough to leave them weak and klinging to life with but a thread. Meanwhile, the clouds grow darker and start to swirl around forming a funnel cloud that reaches down into the arena and touching the royal box where Raknian stands. A flash of light burst from the box, the crowd screams, and a roar of triumph comes from the royal box. Standing where Raknian was is a Death Knight. He geers at the party and makes a call. A nightmare appears next to him, which he mounts and gallops down the exit tunnel.

As the party wearily looks around they can see that all the wounds they have inflicted upon the Apostle are knitting themselves closed. The beast roars with fury and dives at the party. They also notice that thousands and thousands of the people in the stands are starting to get back to their feet. Their skin is deathly white, claws sprout where once were hands. Their eyes hold the light of the unliving. Thousands of them pour out of the arena and into the streets where screams can be heard. Many more jump from the stands into the arena where all the fun is beginning.........

And that's where the game will pick up on Friday the 13th. Oh man, I really hope you guys are ready for this. It's gonna be great, if any of you live that is.

[Hangfire]

We pick up the action (after a long break) with the party left in the arena, the Apostle of Kyuss healed and back to full strength, the stands filled with wights, and Raknian escaping as a Death Knight.

Tynian and Khellek had already fled to the arena gate, hoping to escape into the chaos of the streets. Vazhool, Alistair, Conri (the newest member of the group - a lupine ranger) and Lelain surrounding the Apostle. Initiative is rerolled as the original order is lost. Tynian manages to escape outside, with Khellek on his heels. The Apostle gets to go next - bad news for the members of the party surrounding it - and it steps back enough to get it's breath weapon in range of the whole group. The it lets go with a 60' cone of necromatic stomach acid (causing 3d6 Con damage!!). Everyone fails, and everyone dies.

Tynian flies to the nearest church to alert the members of the crisis. Church after church is alerted, each rushing to arm its members and go forth to defend the city. Finally, nearly a half hour after escaping the arena Tynian's fly spell wears off. It's about this time that something strange happens. Tynian becomes light-headed and dizzy. He grabs at his head and when his vision clears he's back under the arena, rising up on the lift - before the battle had even started!! All the members of the party are present and alive. All memories are intact. In fact, Tynian quickly learns that Auric and Khellek also have their memories intact - and this time the two teams are willing to work together to defeat the Apostle of Kyuss.

The two teams approach each other slowly, buying time. A few feeble sword thrusts are made, but no real combat begins. And then, just three rounds into combat, the Apostle breaks free into the middle of the arena. Both teams pounce - many of the party members had readied actions and took them now. The battle is joined by all, and without too much trouble - there is the one moment when Auric is grabbed by the Apostle that the party is worried, but he manages to break free a round later - the Apostle is defeated. The crowd goes crazy, screaming and yelling for their heroes. Auric and company put down their weapons and yeild the field to the Bane of Kyuss. The party wins the Champion's Belt.

Raknian is quick to slip away. He manages to get out of the city, who knows where he's gone, or if he'll want revenge.

The party basks in the glory of the win. Much gold is spent on magic items in preparation for the battles yet to come. Alistair and Vazhool travel to Eligos' mansion, only to find the sage murdered. In an act of almost totaly selflessness Vazhool pays to the have Eligos and Pollard brought back from the dead. Eligos describes the man the murdered them as someone the party recognizes as the right hand man of Raknian. Another possible future enemy. Eligos has notes and work that must be taken back to Allustan in Diamond Lake. After buying items the party travels back to Diamond Lake.

Upon arriving they find the town in a shambles. Building are crushed and melted, people are dead - chaos has visited. The party quickly learns that a large black dragon came to town a few days ago looking for Allustan. After killing a few towns folk they revealed that Allustan was a way in the Whispering Cairn. The dragon left, presumably for the carin. The party strikes out for the cairn right away.

As they reach the entrance to the cairn the dragon strikes, diving out of the sky behind them and laying a line of acid down on half the party. Saves are failed, and made, and damage is done. The dragon ends its attack by landing on the rock above the entrance to the cairn. Tynian strikes off to get a bead on the dragon, and the dragon pounces on him, biting him as she flys by. The rest of the party scatters to avoid the acid of the dragon. She swoops in on Alistair and Conri, breathing acid again and getting Conri. The caustic fumes causes Conri to weaken dangerously. Alistair and Conri, in what some might call a move of utter insanity, charge the dragon. Some damage is done, but not nearly enough to take out the dragon. She lands in front of them and bruttaly savages them both, dropping them to dangerous levels of hit points. Vazhool is there to do some healing, and Lelain shoots a few arrow - but soon realizes that the hide of the beast is just too thick to penetrate with simple arrows. Alistair and Conri attack the dragon, doing some serious damage, Tynian is able to loose a lightning bolt at the dragon, doing more damage. However, the fighters are savaged once again by the dragon, with Alistair going down. Tynian reaches deep and fires a lesser orb of lightning, and with this final blow the dragon drops.

This is where we leave off (thanks again Aaron). One member of the party is down, others are mere points away from dropping. What will happen next? Will the party push on to find their friend and mentor Allustan? Where is Allustan? Only time will tell........

[Hangfire]

As we join our heroes they have just killed a large black dragon. There is some talk about using the hide for armor, and Conri is capable of skinning the beast and curing the hide (it wasn't really clear just where we left this issue - is the hide staked out in front of the cairn curing??). After some healing and resting the party is ready to set out once again in search of Allustan.

The cairn appears much as the party last left it, until they get to the one alcove tunnel that was collapsed. It is now clear, all the rock having been carefully moved into neat piles along the main tunnel. At the far end of the tunnel is a strange laquered door. Tynian moves down to check it for traps. Two claws spring out of the door and rake him, dropping him instantly. The rushes down to find out what's happened. Thanks to Conri's extensive knowledge of undead they learn that an abyssal ghoul is guarding the 'door' - actually a portal. Tynian is dragged out of the way and healed while Conri and Alistair - with Nym providing arial cover - converge on the door and start bashing away. Once Tynian is up and has a good look at the door - now realizing that it's a portal, he warns the party that smashing at the monster while not touching the portal only hurts the portal. The warriors touch the portal and soon have the ghoul taken care of. Now, someone has to step through the portal. . . . .

Alistair volunteers to step through. He returns moments later, appearently alright. The rest of the party step through and end up in a downward sloping tunnel with a screaming wind. Spot checks are failed all around and the Belkers that guard this area surround the party in smoke form and then try and slip their hands down the throats of the party members. Some make the save, and few don't, and the battle is joined. This is a much easier battle, though still not a cake walk. Once the blekers are taken care of Tynian realises that the thin rods protruding from the wall are the souce of the noice and he breaks them all off.

An angry red glow is seen coming from the room at the end of the hallway. Tynian sneaks down and peeks around the corner. Standing in a rather large space is a huge metal creature. Fire can be seen buring in it's gut - that's visible through a barred gate. It stands motionless. Spells are cast, checks are made, and then the party rushes into combat. The creature (a Furnace Golem) is a fearsome opponent to say the least. Conri rushes in and scores some pretty good rolls - but fails to hit. Some worry is seen on the faces around the table. What the hell is this things AC?!?! Alistair has a little luck. Nym's bolts do not damage, and Tynian and Vozool are loath to enter combat with the thing. And then it strikes. Two massive slam attacks against Conri, and then it grabs him, appearently with the intent of stuffing him inside the furnace part!! Tynian uses his ledgermain ability to jam the locking device on the gut, preventing the creature from stuffing Conri into the fire. It does, however, slam Conri into it's gut anyway, and then drops him 10' to the floor. The scarab of golem fighting is passed around. Conri goes down, Alistair is just about wiped out with an attack of opportunity, while the rest of the party watches in horror. Finally the creature goes down, crashing into the floor, it's fire exstinguished at last. That was one tough monster (CR 14, +31 to hit slam attack, +41 grapple!!)

There are four exits from this room. The one the party entered from, the archway to the south, and two sets of double doors, one to the north and one to the east. The northern doors are checked for traps (none are found) and then the door is opened - that's when the trap is found!! Blocks of stone fall from the ceiling, only hurting Vozool. Beyond the door is a blank wall - a false door with trap. An indication of things to come.

The eastern door is checked, and agian no trap is found. This door leads to a short hallway with one set of double doors to the north. This set of doors is also checked, no trap. When opened they reveal a large hall set with massive columns, and the northern end another set of double doors. Tynian steps in to check for traps and the first column falls on him. The trap is set off by chaos - although the party doesn't know it. All the columns end up falling, but little damage is done. The doors at the end of the room are also false, although this set is not trapped.

That only leaves the archway to the south - and tracking shows that Allustan passed this way. More trap checking is done, but nothing is found. Tynian again steps through the archway to check from more traps, but sets off the trap on the wall - again the trigger is chaos. Not a good day to be chaotic!! This trap stuns and deafens the rogue, no save allowed. Detect magic from Nym reveals a few of these traps in the hallway beyond, one of them being on the large statue in the middle of the four-way intersection just ahead. Tynian goes back in to find and disble the trap. One of the other party members hears a door being opened up down one of the hallways branching off from the four-way intersection. They warn Tynian just as a Noble Salamander comes around the corner. There is some talking with him, but Conri eventually angers the Salamander to the point where he fires off his 15d6 fireball. Some saves are made, some are not. Tynian goes down, again, and some others are in pretty bad shape after that one. This battle takes much longer, as the Salamander's Huge fire elemental body guard enters the combat. Eventually though the elemental is destroyed and the Salamander is trapped in his chamber, where he surrenders.

This is where we are right now. The Salamander has given up, but the party is still pretty beat up, and there's no telling what other horrible monsters may have heard the traps in the hallway, not to mention the battle, and may be on their way towards the party right now. Should be interesting.

[Hangfire]

Okay, it's been a while since the last journal entry, so this one will catch us up.

So, we pick up the action with the group in the tomb after having captured the salamander. He is cooperative and gives an accounting of what's to be found in the areas of the tomb nearest to his "post". Tynian maps this and the party is on it's way. They manage to disarm the rest of the law traps in the hallway. At the middle of the four way intersection they decide to check out the room to the west. This one has an upper area that rings the middle of the room. A large black ball hangs from the ceiling - there is some talk that maybe this is a sphere of annailation but some coins throw at the sphere bounce off. On the upper walkway are some doors. One leads the party into an obvious resting place. A large urn dominates the room, with some smaller chest lining the back wall. The chest are all locked, but picked by Tynian and searched. Some valuables are found, but most of the stuff is left along - a real breakthrough for our heroes. Another one of the doors is false, which just leaves the one door leading south. First, the party decides to seach the hallway leading south that they didn't search before entering this room.

The hallway is long and ends in another door. It is also covered in web. Unknown to the party the web is actually a living thing, waiting for someone to enter it's clutches. That someone would be Alistair, and Conri - the furry member of the party. Alistair becomes stuck in the web and it begins to drain his blood. Conri shoots arrows at the web - yeah, I didn't get it either. Vozool worked out that fire might work well, and with a couple of well placed blast of sorching ray the web is dead. Oh, and the door at the end of the hallway - fake!

So, onwards, and down. The hallway leading out of the room with the walkway leads south, but slants down and then turns to the east. It leads to a large open room with doors to the north and south, and a door to the east at the top of a stairwell. The party enters the room to the south. A small and cramped room with a suit of armor on the south wall and a niche to the east. Small items are arranged in the niche, but there is a spot of cleaness where an item once sat not too long ago. There is also a dread wraith in the room, which reaches out and touches the party. This battle is tough as only two people fit in the room, and the others block the door way for each other. During the combat, unseen by the party, Tweety, Tynian's familiar, is stolen. The party does manage to destroy the wraith, and then they discover Tweety's absense. This is when the party meets Fly Catcher - a huge Shadow Spider.

Fly Catcher admits to absconding with Tweety, but is willing to give him back if the party will take care of Morain, a pale individual that broke into the tomb and stole an item from the room the party had just left. There is much threatening between the party and Fly Catcher, but eventually Tweety is returned for 20,000 gp, the money to be held until the party returns with Morain's head. Fly Catcher lets the party know which way Morain went, and then he disappears back to the plane of Shadows.

The party moves through the door to the east, into anothe large room with two statues in it. They also see the Allustun had travelled this way, and Fly Catcher told them that the room beyond was trapped. They cautiously open the door to the south and find another large room. This one has a large ball of blue energy floating in the middle of it, and inside the ball is Allustun. In the ceiling above the ball is a metal cone. When the party enters the room a bolt of lightning strikes at each of them. Various plans are thought up and tried, until they finally destroy the metal cone, breaking the trap and releasing Allustan. He is injured, but healed by the party. They tell him of the dragon that attacked Diamond Lake and the destruction of his home. Allustan tells the party what he knows, and then returns to Diamond Lake to rebuild his house and study more on Kyuss and the Age of Worms.

From the Lightning Room there is an opening to the south. Beyond the opening is a short hallway and then stairs leading down. The party moves in, all but Tynian and Vozool - Tynian found a trap at the bottom of the stairs. When Alistair and Conri get to the bottom of the stairs the trap is set off. Two doors open up and let the river into the hallway - water rushed down at them from the northern hallway in order to push them down the eastern hallway and out over the waterfall. The opening from the Lightning Room to this trap is closed by an iron door that shoots up from the floor, sealing Tynian and Vozool on the other side. Nym is with the fighters, as is LeLain. Both Nym and LeLain sprint down the hallway leading to the waterfall. Nym graps LeLain and dimension doors to the other side of the waterfall and out of danger. Alistair and Conri are not so lucky, they are washed over the edge of the fall and drop into darkness - the fall is around 150 feet or so, where they drop into a lake. Meanwhile, Tynian and Vozool pry the door open and Tynian resets the trap, which empties the hallway of water, but seals the doors at the end of the hallway. They move to the exit door in the eastern hallway and pry the door open, which resprings the trap. Tynian can fly, so he graps Vozool and moves him to where LeLain is standing, on the other side of the falls. Nym has already flown down to see what happened to Alistair and Conri.

Alistair and Conri surface, floating on the lake. They quickly swim for the shore, where they see two Wind Warriors making for them out of the darkness. As Nym flies into the cavern with the lake two more Wind Warriors make for him - not a good situation for Nym!! Meanwhile, Tynian has decided to grap LeLain and head down, leaving Vozool behind. This would prove to be a bad move, at least for Alistair. As Tynain and LeLain enter the cavern two more Wind Warriors attack, making six total. This is a tough battle - more so when Conri blinks out of existence after only three rounds of combat!! The battle goes badly for our heroes - Conri is gone, Vozool can't find his climbing gear (even though he doesn't know that combat is going on) and is not with the party, and Tynain and Nym have been grounded. Alistair battles two by himself, then two more join the fray. But it goes badly, and finally Alistair falls, killed A few rounds later the Wind Warriors are defeated.

To be continued . . . .

[Hangfire]

So, Alistair is dead, long live Alistair .

The party manages to get itself together, heal, help Vozool finish his climb down, and then they set up camp. The night passes without any trouble, but the morning brings something strange. LeLain notices something happen above the lake not too far from the shore. Seconds later a gate opens up and two figures fall through, landing in the lake a few feet from shore. One of the figures is an ugly elf (and half bugbear named Merrik) and the other is an elf, possibly a ranger from the looks of him (this would Berry's guest spot). As the party gets up another figure comes throught the gate - a demon. This battle is pretty quick, with the demon falling just a few rounds after arriving.

After some introductions the party continues its decent into the earth. They follow the falling river for hundreds of feet. They search as they climb down and Tynian finds a secret door at one of the pool/landings of the waterfall. The secret door leads to a long narrow staircase cut into the rock. At the top of the stairs is a room with two huge doors. They are fifteen feet wide and twenty feet tall. Each appears to be made out of admantine. Both are inscribed with many runes and sigils. There is no handle, but a depression is set in each door where they meet, forming a circle. The chaotic members of the party find that they do not want to enter the room, and so stay out of the room and away from the doors. The others investigate the room but find nothing. Always being more curious than bright, Nym decides this would be a great time to try out his dimension door ability. So, he grabs Conri and flashed into the room beyond the doors. The room is a long rectangle, with the doors in the south end. Pillars of various height march across the room at floor level - although there is no floor in this room, just clouds and swirling wind. It's just moments later that two eldar air elementals attack. Nym quickly jumps back beyond the doors! With no way to open the door the party heads back to the falls and continues its climb.

Eventually the party reaches the bottom of the falls, 750 feet lower than when they started. The cavern is long and narrowish, with a large deep pool where the falls enter the room, and the exit to the south along the long axis of the room. A strange green glow comes from the south end of the cavern. Conri sneaks ahead to check it out. He spots three creatures, two obviously undead of some kind, but the third one looks like a very pale man. He holds the green glowing lantern up and spots Conri. After coming forward, but not too close to the party (with Conri not really retreating, but moving off to the west) conversation ensues. It is quickly appearent that this is the person the party is after, the one whos head Fly Catcher wants them to return to him. Morain offers to give the party the Seal of Law that he stole if they will escort him to the surface. He claims to be looking for Dragotha. This strikes the party as not a good thing, and combat begins. The undead rush at Conri and the party, with Morain casting spells. It's not enough though, and the party takes care of the undead, retrieving the Seal of Law.

So, the climb back up goes well. The party makes for the secret door, moving back up the stairs and into the room - at least those that can enter. The Seal of Law fits into the hollow in the doors, and when placed there both doors silently swing open. Lelain and Tynian are the ones that try and make it across the pillars that are spaced out before the party. Lelain has no trouble jumping, and Tynian is pretty good too. They both make it out about half way, with Lelain getting to the one large pillar that is offset from the pillar-path the leads to the other two huge doors on the other side of the room. It is about this time that Nym decides to fly out and check things out - and that's when the two air elementals return. This battle is tough! The party is seperated and the elementals have a great reach and damage reduction. Again we lose some party members to sleep (not naming any names) but eventually the party deals with the air elementals.

After poking around on the large pillar Lelain and Tynian discover that by placing the Seal of Law in a depression the pillar rises up to the ceiling where there's a trap door that leads to the final resting place of Isociol.

The rest of the party makes its way over to the large pillar and then up to the tomb - where they find an occular demon waiting for them. Another fast and bloody battle ensues, with our heroes coming out on top yet again. Again the Seal of Law fits into a spot on the sarcophagus of Isociol, opening it and revealing the treasure - a pair of swords, one long and one short, that are meant to be used together; a ring; and a strange piece of a rod.

Having gained the treasure the party leaves the tomb and returns to Diamond Lake to see Allustan. He informs them that it might be time for them to go and talk to someone wiser than him, his once master Tenser. The party travels to Mage Point in the north. Along the way they are attacked by three odd wolf-man spider demons. They take care of them and continue to Mage Point. When they get there they quickly learn that Tenser is away on important business, but that he should be back in a week. The party hangs around town, buys some magic items, and are eventually approached by an elf. He explains that his band of elven brothers are having trouble with a green dragon, and having heard of the party's reputation for taking on dangerous beasts he was hoping they would kill the dragon. Of course the party agrees, and set off for the forest to search for the dragon. Using Wind Walk they cover miles and miles of terrain, and then they spot some elves being attacked by two trolls and a fire giant. They swoop down and enter combat. The giant is taken care of pretty quickly, but the trolls are tough (and the DM was rolling quite a few 19s and 20s - both of which critical). After the battle the elves tell the party that the dragon has been seen near the cliffs to the east, near the waterfall.

The waterfall tumbles from a 300 foot high cliff, ending in a lake surrounded by the local forest. As the party stands around wondering what to do, one of them spots a dragon shoot down from the sky and enter the waterfall. Noting where the dragon entered the falls, the party climbs up to that point and then gets Nym to dimension door them through the falling water. Beyond the fall is a ledge, thirty feet across and twenty feet deep. In the center of the ledge in the cliff face is a cave opening, twenty feet wide and twenty feet tall. Beyond the opening is a bizzare garden. Standing in the middle of the garden is a red sundew, a carnivorous plant. At the back of the cave is another ledge fifty feet off the floor, with another twenty by twenty opening. The party enters the cave, and right away they notice that some kind of magic supression is at work in the cave. No fourth level or lower spell will work in the cave. Hmmm, this could be bad!!

The sundew is mostly fought at range to avoid the magic supression, and it's 15 foot reach. It's killed quickly, but the party notices two medium sized dragons emerge from the opening at the back of the cave. They roar at the party and then take wing, swooping down and breathing their acid breath. Their path leaves them outside the cave, and the party pounds them for all they got - now it should be pointed out here that I didn't know the fighters in the party didn't have any ranged weapons!!. The small dragons sweep back into the cave and back up to the opening in the back of the cave. They keep roaring all the time. The party moves into the cave, and it's now that mom returns to the cave, a huge green dragon. She swoops in, banking hard and catching all of the party members in her maximized, lingering breath!! This one hurts - Vozool goes down and most everyone takes some big damage - except for Merrik who has Acid immunity thanks to Vozool. Then she lands and enters combat. She can really deal some damage, and does, smacking Merrik around good, and then going after Conri pretty good. She is, however, no match for the whole party, and finally falls. The young ones bolt from the cave, flying away to nurse their wounds and plot revenge.....

Now, to the treasure. I didn't have anything prepared, so we randomly rolled for the loot. About 8,000 gp in pp, some gems, and a magic item. We decided to roll on the wonderous item chart, and wouldn't you know it, we roll an Amulet of Mighty Fist +4 - just great for a monk!! However, since there is not monk that can use magic items in the party we rolled again and got a string of prayer beads.

To be continued.......

[Hangfire]

Damn thing wouldn't let me post the whole message, too big!! Anyway, here's the last little bit of what happened last game session.

Anyway, Tenser finally arrives back in Mage Point and has his meeting with the party. They discover more about the Age of Worms, and that Bucknard, an appretise of Tensers, has been furiously researching Kyuss, the Ebon Triad, and the Age of Worms. Unfortunatley Bucknard has disappeared, not having been seen in the last 10 years. He did, however, leave some notes. It seems that the party should travel to Kalash-Mur, far to the south in the jungles, to discover what it was that sent Bucknard off on his wild explorations. It is also during this meeting that Tenser asks if the party would be willing to give up the rod they found. It being a piece of the Rod of Seven Parts means that others will be harrasing the party for it, and Tenser admits that part of he really wants the item - he also mentions that it was he who cast the wish spell that allowed the party to triumph in their battle against the Apostle of Kyuss. In exchange for the piece of the rod he offers a single magic item from his collection not to exceed 40,000 gp in value. Seems like a good deal, and the party gives up the artifact.

They then head off for Kalash-Mur, using Wind Walk. They find that the city is in total ruin, with only the ziggurat in the centre of the city intact. It is, however, surrounded by a 30 foot high wall of solid obsidian. On the other side the party can see that the ground is alive with green worms. Merrik volunteers to go over the wall and onto the ground to see what happens. Nothing, the worms don't appear to be able to attack through his boots. The party enters the ziggurat from the top, finding four concealed hatches leading to stairs going down into the ziggurat. They find themselves in a large room tiles in green. Pillars ring the room, and there is a large hole in the centre of the room, appearing to have been blasted from below. The hole is deep. There are four doors in the room, one in the north, south, east, and west. The party enters the north room. They find two evil angels and another man. The battle is ferocious. The angels go down pretty quickly, but the other man is tough, especially with his great invisibility power - Nym got panicked and ran away, no one is sure what happened to him after that, hopefully he's still alive!! This battle started at around 12:00 am, and we got finished at almost 3:00 am!!

That's pretty much were we are. The battle has just ended, Nym is still off running somewhere, and the party is just starting to tend to it's wounds. Now would be a bad time for something to come and see about all the noise!! The battle last longer than one minute of game time, so who knows what kind of evil critter might be attracted to all that commotion .

[Hangfire]

So, as we rejoin the party they have just beaten the two angels and the spell caster. Nym rejoins the party, and they rest.

The night passes without any trouble and the party begins to explore the ziggurat once again. Upon leaving the room they rested in the party encounters an undead warrior acompanied by two large appearently undead beetles. The beetles are chirpping and clicking, and the sound drives some of the party memebers to distraction. Merrik charges into combat and is met by the warrior. As the warrior fights, Merrik notices that it's eyes are actually two worms, with lots of teeth. They lash out at him and suck away his intellect. One beetle attacks Merrik and the other one moves up and attacks Lelain. All during this time some party members are under the influence of the beetles chirping and clicking, and are therefore not doing anything else but trying to block the sound from their minds. The warriors proves to be pretty tough, but eventually falls, as do the beetles.

The party retreats back into the room they had just left and rest again, another 24 hours pass and nothing bad enters the room. The party begins searching again, exploring the east and west rooms, and finding nothing but murials depicting and man and a strange worm creature. The party finally gets to the room in the south - the room of death!!

They check the door and listen, but don't find any traps or hear anything (this became a point of contention later). They enter the room, well, open the door really, and are attacked by the three swords of Kyuss (more undead warriors) and some kind of spell casting undead wizard. The warriors each use their smiting blow of death (I can't remember what it's actually called) on the party - it's a burts effect that deals 14d6 damage, with a reflex save for half. Vozool fails all three saves and goes down - dead (I think total damage for the three effects was in the range of 80+ points, which is low - average for all three would be in the range of 120). Merrik is feeling the love, and Nym is hurting, only Tynian and Lelain came through without any damage. Merrik charges into combat, Nym starts blasting, and Tynian and Lelain enter the fray. Things don't look too bad until the warriors use their power again, and it heals them while damaging the party!! Now things are serious. I think at this point Nym was down also - dead, Merrik is pretty hurt, and it's time to get the hell out of there. The party retreats all the way back to Magepoint.

There they reincarnate Nym, who comes back as an elf, and they raise Vozool, who loses a level. They also research new spells (ie they go through all the books looking for good undead killing spells!!). Now their are ready to fight again.

Back down to the ziggurat they go. This time they have a plan. They will use a silence spell cast on a rock to sneak up on the undead and gain surprise. The use the stone to get into the ziggurat, and then leave in next to the door while they move off and cast buff spells. Now at this point I roll listen checks for the undead. People talking is DC 0, +15 for the stone wall, +1 for every 10 of distance, so that's +5 for the distance and +15 for the stone wall for a DC of 20. Well, they all have +21 to listen, so they hear the party. They are not surprised when the party burst through the door. Now, I also ruled that by having the stone with silence on it that all the party members would be effectively deafened, and applied the -4 penalty to initiative. This ruling was hotly debated (and I'm being understated in that statement!!). We decided to post on the boards and see what everyone else thought (turns out everyone agreed with me), so the penalty didn't count for this combat. However the undead in this place are lightning quick. I think that Tynian got to go just after the spell caster guy. Tynian decided to use is ledgermain ability to slip the stone into the robes of the spell caster (which was a damn good idea by the way) but failed to slip it by the caster. It still ended up at his feet though, effectivley killing his spells with verbal components. The buffs the party cast really helped this time, but it's still tough to kill off creatures that can heal themselves for 14d6 points of damage three times a day - and it's even worse then that healing is killing party members. The spell casting undead managed to get outside the range of the stone and cast greater dispel - eliminating one buff from everyone. The warriors continued to cut away with their swords. When the battle was finally ended Vozool lay dead once again, and so too Nym. Both players are making up new characters - and I still haven't heard anything from either of them about what those characters might be. It was also pointed out by the DM that these encounters were the "easy" encounters, that the tough ones were still to come. This is truely a death trap, you have been warned!!