Averlorn Campaign: Viking Zombie Warriors from the Great Beyond

Recap from 6/2/2011

After a brief period of rest we commenced with some trading to prepare for our return journey to the shrine of Zingalis to retrieve the last of our hard won loot that was stashed in the catacombs below the temple.  Rather than braving the Dormant Lady Lake and Lady’s Finger River via raft, we opted for the safer tried and true method of transporting our loot via baggage train overland.  We set about purchasing riding horses for each character, a spare horse to carry feed and four mules to carry the treasure back.  After purchasing horse feed and provisioning for the journey, we set out through the forest to the northeast of the city of Medea’s Gate towards the Tower and Shrine of Zingalis once again.  The trip through the woods to the tower was relatively uneventful, but that soon changed when we arrived.

As we approached the clearing of the shrine and tower, our ranger Taleth, held up his hand and motioned for us to halt and take cover.  He sensed something was amiss and crept up to the edge of the woods to have a look.  It was dusk and rapidly approaching evening, but in the clearing he saw a disturbing site.  There were eighteen Thugee warriors (basically Vikings) camped out in front of the shrine and the doors of the temple had been bashed in and were lying on either side of the temple entrance.  He also saw, far above in the sky, two Thugee airships (dirigibles) moored above the site as well.  He crept back to the group to report the surprising discovery and we debated our next course of action.

We unanimously agreed that we wouldn’t allow them to make off with our hard won loot and planned to attack them to make sure that they didn’t.  We weren’t sure how many more warriors there might be within the temple or in the two airships above, but didn’t think we would have a problem taking out the warriors in the camp.  By the time we decided on a course of action, it was fully dark and they had no idea what was about to hit them.  First off, Gradwin cast both invisibility and silence on our assassin hireling Evelyn (he was a multi-classed cleric/wizard) and then we sent her into their camp to do what she does best.  Our plan was to wait until the assassin had done her work and the alarm was raised, then she was supposed to flee and the two elves would then light ‘em up with fireballs.

So things went fairly smoothly, at least initially.  She slipped into their camp undetected and managed to assassinate their shaman (actually a wizard) without being detected, despite now being visible because of her attack.  She also managed to grab his backpack and then made her way to the one that appeared to be the leader as he slept.  She attempted the next assassination roll on him while he dozed but failed, and he awoke screaming in pain and alerted the camp.  She wounded him badly but also managed to poison him so he wasn’t going to live long anyway.  The leader and one of his sergeants attacked his would be killer, and managed to wound her, but she wisely disengaged from the melee and withdrew from the fray once she realized the jig was up.  The two elves who were waiting at the tree line, took the alarm as their signal and lit the camp up with a pair of fireballs.  The leader was dead anyway before this from the poison, though he didn’t know it at the time, but the fireballs finished him off along with all of the rest of the Thugee war band.

Amazingly, and luckily for the group, the two airships tethered above didn’t take notice of the brief conflagration below.  Gradwin, thinking on his feet, cast animate dead on a half dozen of the Thugee warriors and the newly created Viking zombies from the great beyond resumed their sentry duty without delay to allay suspicion from the Thugee in the ships above, in case they peered down into the camp below.  While our undead sentries paced back and forth through the camp visible in the dim firelight, the rest of the group stuck to the shadows of the campfire and loaded up the gold and silver stashed below the temple.  Not only was all of our loot still stashed in the catacombs below the giant statue of Hecate, but there was also additional loot piled up there as well that had been added by the Thugee warriors.  Gradwin cast speak with dead on one of the warriors to speak with his departed soul, and found out that they had defeated a large Orc war band previously which is where the additional loot came from.  We were fortunate to have arrived when we did, otherwise, they would have left the next day with all of the loot, including ours.

So we loaded up the horses and mules with the remaining silver and gold and made a forced march in the darkness to avoid any possible pursuit from the Thugee in the ships above.  Evelyn had found a spell book and a pair of scrolls in the backpack that she took from the camp’s wizard and we considered ourselves lucky to have retrieved it before the camp went up in flames.  We also found a magical broadsword and some magical Elven arrows on the leader’s body which survived the fireballs, so we ended up with quite a haul of loot from the encounter.  We then set off through the woods with our baggage train and Gradwin brought the six zombies along controlling them with his control undead ability as extra protection, even though this was a bit disturbing for the rest of the group.

So once we made it a good distance away, we stopped at a suitable campsite and rested up for the early part of the day before resuming our march.  In the afternoon, once we were fully rested and had re-learned spells, we set off through the woods again.  We encountered a large group of about twenty gnomes who looked at us and our undead companions with disdain.  We said hello to them but they didn’t reply as they eyed us suspiciously, and we heard one of them mutter under his breath to another in Gnomish “I wonder what evil necromancer these guys work for?”  It was only then that we realized how bad having undead human zombies amongst our number made us look to others.

At first, the Elves were quite happy to have not only toasted their Thugee rivals (Elves hold a deep racial animosity towards Thugee and view them as murderous slavers in the World of Averlorn), but also to have seen Gradwin animate them as zombies and perhaps condemn their souls to purgatory rather than allowing them to ascend to Valhalla.  But once they realized how we looked to the gnomes, and even perhaps to the rest of the outside world, they were deeply embarrassed and felt ashamed for being a part of that whole affair.  Lucias and the rest of the group also felt embarrassed and deeply ashamed to be seen as working for or with a necromancer as well, and Lucias resolved to have a talk with Gradwin about the use of that spell later once we returned to town.  Despite, Gradwin’s assertions that he was not using zombies and skeletons to commit chaotic or evil acts which was generally true, he was in fact committing a chaotic act by animating them in the first place.  For a neutral character committing a chaotic act now and again is no big deal, but for the lawful characters in the group, and especially the two other lawful clerics, this particular chaotic act was deeply troubling and extremely problematic.

So we resumed our journey and eventually made camp for the night.  The following day, we resumed our march, and our toasted zombie friends were starting to smell really bad and attract flies, and we were really starting to wonder if using corpses like this was really necessary since they were so unpleasant to be around.  That’s when the two Chimera attacked, obviously drawn to the group by the stench of rotting cooked zombie flesh.  They surprised the group and attacked the two characters in the back of the line – both Lucias and Cyrcla.  They both breathed fire on the two characters from their dragon heads and killed the two horses that they were riding.  Cyrcla was also burned badly but Lucias wasn’t hurt so much in part because of his Ring of Fire Resistance.  They attacked again and pounced on the two characters before they could act.  With five attacks each (three bites and two claws) the first one only managed to land a few blows on Lucias due to his heavy field plate armor and wounded him lightly, but the other one seriously mauled Cyrcla due to her lighter armor.  To make matters worse, the dragon head also breathed fire on her again.  She was nearly dead and withdrew from the combat into the woods to get out of the trajectory of any future fiery breath attacks.

Lucias landed several strong blows on the Chimera that he was fighting but the other one breathed fire again on the rest of the group, and the zombies in the middle of the baggage train and two more of the horses were killed instantly.  The Ranger and Dwarven fighter in the front of the baggage train came to the rescue of the beleaguered characters in the back, and the rest of the group also attacked with weapons and magic missiles and managed to finally kill the two monsters.  We healed up the injured elf and resumed our journey to Medea’s Gate down four horses and the zombies, but no worse for the wear.  We finally made it back to the great city with our loot as dusk was approaching which was cause for celebration.

So the next day, we sold all of the remaining horses and pack animals and divvied up the loot and prepared for a much needed rest.  Lucias also had several heated discussions with Gradwin about his use of the spell Animate dead and Gradwin reluctantly agreed that it was probably not such a great idea to use that spell with regularity lest he be branded as an evil necromancer and give the group a bad reputation.  Having such a reputation could not only have ended badly for him (he could have been thrown in prison or even executed for practicing necromancy), but it could have had bad consequences for the reputation and well being of the group as well.  This was an image and trouble that we didn’t need especially with several characters approaching named level.

He was also creating chaotic monsters with negative energy that had a desire to kill all living things which didn’t help us rest easy at night, since the only one keeping them from attempting to kill us or others, such as innocent villagers, was Gradwin and the powers granted to him by his god Hecate.  Hecate is known to be a dark god who has a certain amount of power and control over the dead, but she is also widely feared by the local populace and is only really worshipped in secret, and for good reason.  Gradwin wisely chose to not continue to be tempted by such dark and chaotic powers that she offered lest he become one with the dark side.  He was tempted by such dark power once before in the shrine of Zingalis and it nearly drove him mad, but in that case it was the evil sorcery of the Elder gods rather than that of his own deity.

TO BE CONTINUED…

d20 List of Lairs and Owlbear Iillustration at the Savage Sword of Scadgrad

Tony, a.k.a. Scadgrad and the GM for our current Averlorn Campaign, has posted a most excellent d20 list of typical lair descriptions for use in any sandbox or wilderness adventure campaign on his blog The Savage Sword of Scadgrad here:
Random d20 List of Lairs for the Wilderness Sandbox

His most excellent blog includes other illustrations recently completed for Pete Spahn's  The Chronicles of Amherth projects by Small Niche Games, some of his other illustrations, and the current house rules for our ongoing Averlorn campaign which includes the original table top game and even an online game group using Map Tools now as well and can be found here:
The Savage Sword of Scadgrad

He also drew up an illustration of our campaign adventure which shows the group's encounter with the Owl Bears as described in the recap that I wrote up for that session some time ago.  The original recap for that session can be found here:
Averlorn Campaign: Run Aground and Trouble in Medea's Gate

Scadgrad's Owl Bear Illustration from d20 List of Lairs post

At the end of the session we also made our first use of Jeff's Carousing table from Jeff's Gameblog with hysterical results:
Jeff's Game Blog Carousing Table

I have to say that that table has not only enhanced the experience points of all of the characters in the game, but has also been a hoot to use in our campaign and I strongly recommend its use in any swords and sorcery type of game.  It is not only a lot of fun to use but adds a serious Swords and Sorcery vibe to the game - after all, why would Conan or Fahfrd and the Gray Mouser have a reason to adventure at all if they hadn't blown on of their loot on wine, women and the gaming table in the first place?  They were usually penniless after having caroused the night away in the local tavern which gave them a strong incentive to go on further adventures in search of more loot!

Averlorn Campaign: Thar Be Dragons...

Recap from 5/27/2011

After we finalized our trading from the previous session, some members of the group decided to attempt to hire some additional muscle to aid us during our further adventures and to retrieve the remaining loot from the shrine of Zingalis.  So we paid to hire a crier and put up flyers announcing that we were looking for hirelings and spread some money around in the local taverns to further spread the word.  We were surprised at the response that we got – we had ten adventurers of various stripes respond to the ads!  This was probably a result of a few things.  Word of our success could have gotten out as witnesses saw us return to town from our last adventure with full bags of clinking coins and saw us head straight to the money changer’s shop.  The following day we returned to the woods to retrieve what we had stashed in the Stone Giant’s lair, and then returned once again to the city with even more money.

The other reason we got such a good response is that we have consistently treated our henchmen well and the group has a good reputation in this town for doing so.  We not only give them all a fair share of the loot, we also give them magic items from time to time to keep them happy and the healers take care of their wounds when they are injured.  We even went as far as to bring one of them, our female Elven warrior Cyrcla, back to life after she was frozen to death in the pass at Herrari by the frosty breath of a giant Ice Toad during the previous fall.  So Beorn ended up hiring a female cleric of Zeus by the name of Tienette Pagonas, Taleth hired a Sun Elf Swordsman (fighter) named Bellinorn and Gradwin hired a female “handler” (assassin) by the name of Evelyn.  So after equipping them further and purchasing provisions for the return trip to the tower, the group began to discuss how best to retrieve the remaining loot.

This was no small task – there were close to 31,000 coins stashed in the temple (7,400 G.P. and 23,250 S.P.) with a total combined weight of 3,100 pounds!  This was far more than could fit in the bag of holding even fully loaded so we had to devise another way of transporting it back to Medea’s Gate.  We decided that with a couple of successful trips, we would be able to transport it back to town on two 10’ x 20’ rafts navigated downstream along the shallow banks of the lake and Lady’s Finger branch and poled along the banks upstream on the way back.  So we purchased the rafts and set off.

The way to the headwaters of the Lady’s Finger was an easy and uneventful trip along the placid waters of the Lake and was made easier by the fact that we merely had to use the poles to navigate, and really didn’t have to fight the current.  We poled our way up the branch to a suitable landing spot in an area we recognized as having traversed before, and pulled the rafts up onto a sandy beach.  As we were doing so however, figures began to appear on the riverbank above us.  They were Crognar warriors (Neanderthals) who weren’t sure what to make of us or our rafts.  We had encountered their kind before during our frequent forays to the Hill at Limus Town (B5 Horror on the Hill) and knew that if we gave them simple gifts and showed no open hostility towards them, that they would probably leave us alone.

So Lucias walked toward them, held out his hand in a greeting and pulled out his sword and laid it on the ground to indicate that we meant them no harm.  They approached and gestured eagerly towards the sword Hope Blighter, indicating that they thought he was offering it to them.  Taleth the Ranger offered them a dagger and the dwarf Beorn gave them his spear instead (these weren’t magical) and they were happy with these offerings and excitedly left us to our tasks.  So we camouflaged the rafts with branches and leaves from the surrounding forest and set out towards the shrine.  We arrived uneventfully and began loading up the loot from the temple which we found exactly as we had left it, behind two wizard locked doors and hidden in the area of continual darkness in the catacombs below the temple.

So we were loaded down pretty heavily and made it back to the rafts with as much of the gold as we could carry.  There was still a considerable sum of gold but mostly silver that remained stashed in the temple which we would have to come back for later.  So we made it back to the rafts with no problem and loaded them up and set off upstream towards Medea’s Gate.  We poled along the banks for the rest of the day and eventually landed the rafts at a suitable camping spot along the bank of the lake where the branch emptied into the larger body of water.  We pulled the rafts up onto the shore and made a cold camp to spend the evening.  Gradwin took the added precaution of casting Invisibility 10’ Radius on the area where we were sleeping while we set up the watches.

About two hours into the first watch, we were awakened by a loud crashing sound.  We looked up and saw a huge green dragon sitting on the fractured remains of one of the rafts!  This was not just a normal adult green dragon – this was an ancient one and was absolutely enormous.  We stood dumbfounded and weren’t sure what to do because it appeared that it hadn’t seen us yet.  It was sniffing the air, however, and looking around towards the copse of trees where the group was camped out in and was obviously looking for the owners of the rafts that it thought were still nearby.  While we watched and waited and prayed that it would go away, it took to wing again and flew up into the night sky.  As it did so we hurriedly prepared ourselves as best as we could for battle and grabbed swords and shields and put on what armor we could (the odd breast plate really) for the fight we knew was probably coming.

Then suddenly there was another tremendous crash as the dragon swooped in again and landed squarely on the second raft shattering it into a thousand splintered wood fragments!  We decided that today was as good a day as any to die and the ranger and the three fighters let out a war cry and charged the giant beast waving their swords wildly.  As they did so, there were two sounds that sounded like the crack of thunder and the report of lightning hitting home as Gradwin and Teth-en-Aire let loose with two thunderous lightning bolts which hit the giant beast squarely only slightly singing a few of the fighters on the way in and making their hair smoke and stand on end as the acrid smell of burnt ozone filled the air.  Their sword strokes did little damage but the beast had had enough after having been attacked by foes that seemed to spring out of thin air.  It had been burned badly by two powerful lightning bolts and a magic missile and was facing four strong and fearless warriors that had both the courage and audacity to charge a huge and powerful ancient green dragon, so the giant reptilian beast took to wing and flew away.  Apparently, the gods were smiling on us that day and the dragon decided to flee the bold attack rather than risk being killed or captured by the courageous adventurers.  We were tremendously fortunate to have had the wherewithal to attack before it could unleash its chlorine gas breath weapon upon us, which would have probably killed half of the party (in other words, luckily we won the initiative roll).

So with that crisis averted, we now had a quandary.  We had a huge pile of gold and no way to get it back to civilization now that our mode of transportation had been destroyed.  We were also wary of the return of the giant green dragon but we were fortunate enough to have injured it to the point where it left us alone for the rest of the trip.  So the next day, we decided that we needed to find a ship to rescue us and help us return to town with our load of treasure.  It was really the only way we were going to make it back with our hard won loot.  So first, Gradwin cast fly and flew out over the lake looking for a river boat to flag down and pick us up but found none.  Our next plan was to send the ranger alone back to the city to find a rescue boat to hire to return with and pick us up.  We gave him two potions of invisibility so that he could make the trip back without being detected by adversaries.

Taleth was traveling light and was alone so he made the trip in two days and after a third day, finally a ship showed up along the shore to rescue us and we returned to Medea’s Gate with our shiny cargo.  We learned a few things from that trip.  The first thing we realized was that the dragon would have most likely never spotted our camp had we camouflaged the rafts during the second night like we did when we first arrived.  We also realized the perils associated with traveling the lake on rafts – dragons weren’t the only danger but were a tangible one.  We hadn’t even considered that there were pirates on the rivers and lakes in this region until the sailors mentioned it.  We would have made easy and tempting targets for them with two simple rafts loaded with silver and gold.  We also learned from the sailors that the boats generally stayed towards the center of the lake far away from the shore lines to avoid ambushes and to leave them room for maneuver when they encountered marauding pirates or flying attackers.  So with our recently returned loot we went to see the money changer and prepared to return to the shrine for the rest as soon as we were ready.  This time, however, we vowed to take a simple baggage train of horses and mules overland and leave the perils of waterborne travel to those who knew how to navigate Poseidon’s waters better than a group of simple and foolish adventurers.

TO BE CONTINUED…

Averlorn Campaign: The Forests of the Anvil Come Alive and a Surprise Revelation…

Recap from 5/20/2011

We began the session with a quandary – we now had far more coinage than we could carry once we gathered up all of the loot from the Bone Devils, the Ice Devil, the animated amber statue and the hidden compartment in the fountain.  So we formulated a plan and set about transporting it to the temple some distance away from the labyrinth where we began the session.  One potential problem was that there was a magically trapped area of the hallway with the black and white floor tiles.  We didn’t know exactly what the trap was or where it was since both characters that set it off during the previous session made there saves and we didn’t’ see the affect actually go off.  So Kaira cast her Detect Traps spell on the area and we could clearly see a 3’ wide portion of the hallway extending from the wall on the left to the wall on the right that glowed with a blue light indicating it was trapped.  So once we found out where the trapped floor was and only had to step over it as we began hauling the coinage out of the room with the wishing well, into the bone devil's lair and then out the gate and into the temple beyond.

Things went fairly smoothly for the first three loads but as we were bringing the third load to the temple, Taleth the ranger noticed a few very large creatures nearby that had not yet seen us.  They were huge bull like monsters with red scales that stood over six feet tall at the shoulder and appeared to measure more than eight feet from snout to tail – they were Gorgons!  We quickly made our way to the temple without attracting their attention and closed the doors.  We debated what to do – we were safe in the temple for the time being but the creatures were keeping us from hauling our last load of loot from the labyrinth to the temple and if we tried to wait for them to leave, we risked our loot being stolen by something else within the labyrinth.

So after some debate and the formulation of a plan, we decided to go out and try to take them out.  Our plan was to cast slow on them and try and keep our distance so we could pelt them with arrows and ranged spells.  This had worked for us in the past outside, but the last time we tried it against the three Chimera in this very temple, it turned into a disaster since all three of those creatures made their saves and Teth-en-Aire had been killed afterwards though he was later raised.  So of course, our plan went awry when both Gorgons made their saves and they came charging at us full steam ahead!  We tried to spread out as best we could so they couldn’t unleash their petrifying breath weapon on a large group of us and let loose with our first barrage.  Teth-en-Aire hit two with a fireball (but one made its save) and Gradwin hit one with a lightning bolt but failed to kill it.  Asclepius cast mirror image as well and the other characters fired missiles but failed to bring either of the huge charging beasts down before they could reach the adventurers.

Taleth broke off in the direction of Beorn the Dwarven fighter and Lucias and Cyrcla were spread out to the right.  This left Kalaneikos, Asclepius and Kaira in the center closest to the temple and Teth-en-Aire spread out a bit to their left.  Of course the one on the left unleashed its stony breath weapon on both Beorn and Taleth, but both characters managed to make their saving throws to avoid being turned into stone.  The second Gorgon charged straight ahead at the lightly armored Asclepius as it charged past Kalaneikos and attempted to gore the elf with its horns.  Luckily for him, his mirror image spell saved him from a potentially deadly wound and the image disappeared as the beast tore through it and was clearly surprised that its savage attack met with no resistance and the elf still stood there off to one side - it was like he used his red cape in an expertly timed bull fighting maneuver or something.

The dwarf and the ranger quickly jumped on the heavily wounded Gorgon on the left and dispatched it with their swords and Kalaneikos attacked the other one with his spear while Asclepius hit it with a triple magic missile blast wounding it further.  The rest of the group then came to their aid with more spells and arrows and Taleth and Beorn charged the beast bringing it down with their swords.  The ranger then managed to track the bullish beasts back to their lair where we found a considerable sum of silver, more gold coins and several magic items including two rings, a battle axe, a potion, and a scroll.

With that crisis averted, we stashed the new loot in the temple and headed back to the labyrinth to attempt to retrieve the last load of loot which consisted of silver and copper coins at this point since we had removed the gold first.  By the time we returned to the chamber where the wishing well was located, the remaining coinage was gone – obviously, some creature in the complex had made off with our loot!  We resolved to get it back later when we could and headed back to the temple.  On the way back we ran into a giant grisly bear which we quickly slew.  Gradwin eyed it as a potential zombie to be created using his animate dead spell while we joked about how “evil” our dwarven "necromancer" friend had turned out to be.  He countered by arguing that creating an “evil” creature and using it for “good” purposes was not necessarily an evil act.  Kaira and the others shrugged it off with comments like “yeah, right…”

We debated how best to transport the loot to Medea’s Gate since we had about 3-4 times more treasure than we could carry without seriously slowing us down.  We decided to put as much as we could in the bag of holding and load up the newly animated grisly bear with a litter that was rigged up for the purpose and to make our way back to town through the woods as best as we could.  The rest of the treasure was stored in the lower catacombs below the temple in the permanently darkened room and the secret door above was newly wizard locked as an added precaution.  The main doors to the temple were already wizard locked from a previous foray so our treasure was theoretically safe behind two wizard locked doors and hidden in a permanently darkened chamber.

So, with our loot safe for the time being or loaded up and ready to carry, we set off once again through the wild and wooly forests between the tower of Zingalis and the city of Medea’s Gate.  On a few similar trips in the past this had been a harrowing journey fraught with peril as we had to fight for our lives against the many vicious creatures of the forest.  On other trips, it had been a breeze and largely uneventful aside from the occasional random encounter.  This trip turned out to be both perilous and eventful for the group of bold adventurers.

The first night as we were looking for a suitable camp site, we started hearing loud noises off in the distance like the sound of trees falling and a slow “boom..... boom..... boom.....” at a slow but steady measured pace.  We assumed it was a very large giant of some sort (or maybe King Kong) and our assumption turned out to be correct.  Off in the distance we could see a huge giant knocking down trees and stomping through the woods accompanied by several very large dire wolves.  It was even larger than the Cyclops we had encountered previously and the ranger identified it as a cloud giant – the largest of their kind.  The giant paused for a few moments and appeared to notice the group and then said something in its own tongue as if speaking to his wolves.  A few members of the group could speak giant and told us that he said “these little ones are not worth our time” and it resumed its steady and destructive march through the forest.

With yet another crisis averted, we resumed our march through the woods the next day with our burden and undead beast of burden.  During the first watch of the second night spent in the forest, the group was accosted by a very large dragon like creature that had a whitish appearance, a lizard like body and tail and six legs - a frost salamander was attacking the group!  Taleth, Asclepius and Gradwin sounded the alarm and the two spellcasters hit it with a salvo of magic missiles while Taleth engaged it in melee.  It answered the attack with an attack on the ranger and managed to rend him and tear at him with a few of its four claws as it emanated the hoarfrost of the north around itself.  The rest of the group scrambled to arm themselves with what armor and weapons they could as they awoke while those on guard duty attacked the creature again.  This time, it turned its attention to Lucias and tore and rent him with all four claws and bit him as well ripping him savagely with tooth and claw!  He was badly hurt and withdrew from combat as the others closed in and finally slew the icy creature with their swords.

We healed up as best we could and continued our sleep after our rude awakening.  The following day, we resumed our march towards Medea’s Gate and once again ran into more members of the giant race.  This time it was a pair of stone giants and the arcane spellcasters and archers managed to finish them off before we could even close with them to engage in melee combat.  The group burned them badly and brought the giants down using a fireball, a lightning bolt and a barrage of magic missiles and arrows.  Fortunately, the fireball didn’t melt the gold that they were carrying and we added it to our loot haul.  Taleth tracked them to their lair and we actually stumbled across a ruined tower that we had never seen before.  Amongst the ruins, we found signs of their lair and an additional haul of loot including a copper ring with garnets that detected as magical!

So we searched the ruined tower for secret doors and actually found a hidden trap door on the floor that led down a set of steps into an apparent dungeon below!  This was an unexpected find since we had traversed these woods several times in the past and had missed this place on every previous trip.  We briefly scouted ahead down to the bottom of the stairs.  The ancient complex appeared to have not been disturbed in quite some time due to the large amount of dust present.  At the bottom of the steps was a large room with three statues in it that was otherwise empty.  So we went back up and stashed the new loot at the top of the stairs behind the secret trap door to be retrieved on our return trip.  We were within a day of Medea’s Gate at this point and made it back to town uneventfully.  Once we arrived, we took our loot to a money changer to have it converted to gems and then went back to the giant’s lair to retrieve the other loot that was still stashed there.

At this point we had managed to retrieve a good portion of our earnings but there was still a considerable sum of gold and silver stashed away in the temple at the tower of Zingalis.  Teth-en-Aire wanted to take a break and go on a carousing binge for a week or so in Medea’s Gate to celebrate our earnings.  Fortunately, Lucias talked him out of it because we had pressing business ahead of us – to retrieve the loot stashed in the temple before some other wizard could come along to open the doors and make off with our hard earned treasure.  The funny thing is, he is the young elf who is always so concerned about pinching a copper piece and garnering wealth whenever possible, but his foolish youth had him convinced that it was safely hidden in the dark behind two wizard locked doors – Lucias knew better and the group prepared to depart as soon as we were ready…

TO BE CONTINUED…

Averlorn Campaign: Be careful what you wish for...

Recap from 5/13/2011

The session began as the group awoke in the Temple of Hecate after resting, healing and recovering from the wounds suffered from the cruel and malicious Bone Devils the session before.  As we awoke and prepared spells, we heard someone or something banging on the magically wizard locked double doors to the temple as if trying to open them through brute force.  We also heard a voice on the other side cursing in Dwarvish as he tried in vain to force his way through the magical ward, so we opened the doors from the inside to see who or what awaited us on the portico of the temple beyond.  It was a lone Bahkshani Dwarven adventurer seeking shelter within the safety of the Temple from the wild and dangerous creatures dwelling in the hilly forests nearby.

We greeted him and he told us that his name was Beorn and that he had recently been dropped off by a boat on the Lady’s Finger River off of the Dormant Lady Lake with a group of Adventurers that were seeking the famed wizard’s tower of Zingalis.  He went on to tell us how his adventuring group had been ambushed by a group of monsters as they slept in their camp and had all been killed a few days before.  He was the lone survivor and being a determined and capable Bahkshani warrior, he decided to press on to try and find the tower.  He wandered for a few days in the general direction of the supposed location of the structure and eventually stumbled upon the tower and the temple which was a very lucky coincidence since the place was not easy to find.  He was even luckier to find a group of adventurers camped out within the shrine to join up with - a single dwarf in these woods probably stood little chance of surviving the trip back to Medea’s Gate through the monster infested woods surrounding the place.

So once spells were prepared and we broke our fast, we returned to the southern gate to see if we could find more treasure in the Labyrinth of Zingalis.  Once again, we passed through the illusory gate to the hallway beyond and were confronted by the large double doors at the end.  We had opened the doors with the Chime of Opening the session before and they had slid up into the ceiling above.  Previously, Gradwin had set off the magic missile trap after pulling on one of the levers on either side of the door.  So Lucias tried to push the doors up since they slid into the ceiling above through brute force.  The wizard eye device in the corner above the doors that had been following our movements, suddenly turned towards the fighter and fired a salvo of five magic missiles which hurt him badly.  He turned to Kaira the cleric and said “medic”!  Kaira then cast a few healing spells on him so that he could recover somewhat but he was still hurt so he let the ranger and the Bahkshani dwarf take the lead.  Since attempting to open the doors this way and with the levers was clearly not working, Taleth used the chime of opening to open up the doors once again as we had done before.

During the previous session, we had found a large sum of gold coins behind an invisible wall on the left end of the room beyond the doors after the fight with the Bone Devils but that was all we found.  We surmised that they may have had more loot hidden away somewhere beyond the room in the complex.  There was a door on the opposite side of the 10’x10’ niche behind the false wall so we opened it up and walked down a short hallway to another door.  We opened this door and went into a 30’x30’ room with a statue in the left corner that appeared to be completely made of amber.  There was also a door on the opposite wall and a pile of rubble in the far right corner of the room.

As we approached the amber statue to investigate it, we started discussing the value of amber.  As we were discussing this, as is often the case with statues hidden in dungeons underground, it magically sprang to life and attacked the group.  A brief melee commenced during which the animated statue was dispatched into a pile of broken amber pieces including severed limbs and appendages from its body.  It was now clearly quite worthless so we searched the room and found that there was a hidden compartment below the base where the statue once stood.  Within we found several magical elvish arrows and a small sum of valuable gems. 

The group opened the door on the opposite side of this room and proceeded through another short hallway with a door on the opposite end.  We opened this door and were confronted by an unexpected creature – it appeared to be a dog of some type, like a lab or something, sitting at the opposite end of a narrow but long room.  It sat there wagging its tail with its tongue hanging out as if it was happy to see us and wanted our attention.  The group was immediately suspicious since we had fought so many devious devils in this labyrinth before, some of which had used their polymorph spell like abilities to change their form.  We prepared ourselves for combat in anticipation of the expected fight – weapons were drawn and arrows were knocked.  As the “dog” saw that we were girding for combat, it slowly transformed into a giant 12’ tall devilish creature with an insectoid body, multifaceted eyes, and powerful mandibles on a mantis-like head.  In its devilish talons it held a huge evil looking spear.  The eeriest thing that happened as it polymorphed itself back from a dog to a devil, was that the whole time, its barbed thorny tail continued to wag and its wicked forked tongue still hung out as if it was anticipating some sort of twisted play session.

The group of adventurers were not in a playful mood however, after having suffered from the talons and devilish special abilities of numerous other devils in Zingalis’ lair – we said “here Fido” and let him have it.  The elves and Gradwin bombarded the giant ice devil with a powerful barrage of magic missiles while the two fighters and the ranger charged the giant insect looking devil creature to send it back to the icy demi plane within the plane of Hades, Tarteras or Hell from whence it came.  Despite its size and power, it could not withstand this fierce onslaught and disappeared in a chilling puff of freezing mist as it was bombarded and hacked to pieces thus returning it to its place of origin.  Had the creature been able to act first, the outcome could have been much worse for the group based on past experiences.  So we searched the room for loot and found a small sum of gold and copper coins and some gems hidden under a loose stone in a small niche at the far right end of the narrow chamber.  It wasn’t much loot for a greater devil of such power, so we continued to search for its main treasure hoard.

We opened the door at the end of the room and proceeded down a hallway that kept going straight but also turned sharply to the right shortly past the door.  We went down the right hand branch and after a little ways the hall ended in a door.  We opened the door and were greeted by three more of Zingalis’ crazy creations – these chaos spawned creatures were things of madness and horror.  They had segmented limbs, some of which had crab like claws in odd places, an oddly shaped head with rows of sharp nasty teeth, eyes appearing on its grotesque contorted body in seemingly random places and all manner of tails, extra limbs and appendages protruding from their nightmarish bodies giving them a very chaotic appearance.  The group set aside its initial shock of seeing these abominations of nature and quickly dispatched them in a brief but fierce combat.  Such things were never meant to live and we made sure that they didn’t in short order.

The room was otherwise empty after a brief search so we went back out into the previous hallway in search of the Ice Devil’s treasure.  We turned right and went down the other hallway that hadn't been explored yet and found that it ended in a dead end.  The group made the assumption that there was more than likely a secret door at the end of the hallway somewhere and searched for one.  Unfortunately, no secret door was found so Taleth expended a charge from the Chime of Opening which made a singing metallic chiming sound as it rang out.  Low and behold, a secret door opened up at the end of the hallway that we had missed in our search.  Within the small chamber beyond were several empty sacks and an apparently empty treasure chest – it appeared that our loot had already been taken by others!  This would not do at all so we searched the room thoroughly for other secret doors or secret compartments and found that the “empty” chest had a hidden compartment in the bottom which contained a large amount of silver and gold coins!  So we set forth with the task of removing the contents of the chest to the room where we had encountered the Bone Devils and continued our search of the place.

There were two more doors in another niche in that room that were opposite the invisible wall where we had just come from.  We went into the niche and opened the door on the left.  Beyond was a short hallway with another door at the end.  The hallway had rubble on the floor and rat tunnels carved into the walls.  At the end of the hallway was a smallish room where we encountered a very large Otyugh.  After a fierce but brief combat with the filthy and vicious creature, we searched the room and, after finding nothing of interest, went through a portal on the right hand wall into a hallway with a checkerboard pattern on the floor.  The odd thing is that when the characters in front stepped on the floor, the tiles started lighting up in a seemingly random pattern.  We assumed there was some sort of trap there so the Bahkshani dwarf and ranger strode forward only stepping on the black tiles.

As they got towards the end, they felt some sort of magical affect go off but they both made their saves and were not affected by whatever it was.  They warned the others to jump over the trapped portion of the floor there and we did so without being affected by the unknown magical affect on the floor.  In the room beyond was another fountain with the water coming out of a carven statuesque face on the left hand wall of the small room.  Asclepius stuck his pinky in the water and in his head he heard the voice of Zingalis say “chose the language that you wish to learn”.  He chose a language (giant) and instantly, he knew how to speak, read and write giant!  He told the others what had happened and Gradwin, Taleth and Beorn also put their fingers in the fountain and similarly, learned new languages instantaneously.

After hearing about this, the rest of the group put their fingers in the fountain but this time they had a different message in their heads.  The voice of Zingalis boomed in their thoughts and said “What is it that you wish?”  We started contemplating what this meant – could it be that Zingalis had just granted four party members wishes after having given them new languages as well?  The message in the shrine said “The true path to enlightenment lay beyond the southern gate” which was consistent with learning new languages for the “supplicants” enduring his mad and deadly “wizard’s challenge”.  But would such rewards actually include granting wishes?  We contemplated this and then Teth-en-Aire said “I don’t trust this – he has killed two of our number in the past with his deception and cruelty.  Surely, this can’t be what it appears”.  He pulled his finger out of the fountain and wished for nothing and slowly but reluctantly, the others did likewise sharing the Elf’s fears about treachery and deviltry at the hands of the mad wizard.

Then we turned our attention to the fountain as we searched it and the rest of the room.  We found a hidden compartment behind the fountain containing an absurd amount of silver and gold coins – far more than we could carry.  Jackpot!  Now we had the task of figuring out how to transport our recent finds of wealth from the Bone Devils, the Ice Devil and the Amber Statue out of the labyrinth of Zingalis and back to the safety of Medea’s Gate.  All in all though, it was not a bad problem to have.

TO BE CONTINUED…

Averlorn Campaign: Of Devils, Dragons and the Keys to Zingalis’ Castle

Recap from 5/6/2011

We started off the session facing the secret door in the fountain room of the Labyrinth of Zingalis.  Taleth used the Chime of Opening to open the door and we proceeded down the long narrow hallway to the chamber beyond.  There we found the remains of the animated statues that were destroyed the session before lying on the ground and the room was pretty much the way we left it.  We once again cast the spell detect magic on the wall and it once again revealed the arrows and the pulsating magical force.  We debated whether or not we wanted to use our one Dimension Door scroll to cast on the wall here to see if it opened up a door or a gate of some sort.

Lucias had made a realization about the shrine which was relevant to the discussion.  He made the observation that there were four inscriptions on the frieze above the walls inside of the Temple to Hecate.  There were also four spells inscribed above the green demon mouth sculptures in the four rooms below the shrine.  There were also four gates that appeared to have some sort of magical key required to open them, perhaps by casting one of the spells written on the wall of the shrine below the temple.  He deduced that maybe if we were to determine which cardinal compass points the litanies in the temple and the spells in the shrine were facing, that either reciting those litanies in the appropriate language (Promethean, Brimbahri or Ellise – a.k.a. Angelic, Demonic or Elven) or casting those spells on the gates or secret doors found at the same compass points in the labyrinth would open them up.

So we decided to hold off on using our only copy of Dimension Door on the wall here for now at least until we knew if it was the appropriate spell to cast there for this part of the labyrinth based on the clues found in the Temple and Shrine.  So we back tracked out of the labyrinth and made our way to the shrine.  As we were traversing the clearing between the two, two distant flying figures starting getting closer as they flew towards the group – they were young blue dragons!  One of the two swooped down upon the group and the other veered off and headed back towards the tower.  As it passed over the group, the characters spread out as best they could and braced for the impending breath weapon attack.  The arc of lightning came down with a boom and hit both Cyrcla and Lucias.  Since they were now wounded, they figured that this was as good a place as any to fight and pulled out healing potions and quaffed them down.

The others continued to run and tried to make it to the cover of the temple when the giant beast swooped down and attempted to land on Taleth the Ranger with all of its weight and claws to crush and rend him into with the full force of the landing.  Taleth was faster though and deftly stepped out of the way.  One or two of the elves then cast their triple magic missiles on the dragon hurting it badly and Taleth pulled out his longsword and with one savage blow slew the fell creature where it stood before it could attack him.

With that crisis averted, the group continued making its way to the shrine and entered through the wizard locked door.  Once inside, Naas climbed up the wall over the front door and attempted to learn the secret inscription carved into the stone there.  Despite the fact that it was invisible, he was able to slowly feel the carving with his fingers and discern the letters there.  Using his thieves’ ability to read languages, he was able to discern that it was written in Promethean and said:

“The wise supplicant will shun the jade demon in the catacombs below.  Only those who master the southern key will achieve true enlightenment”.

This was a revelation indeed if it was to be believed.  The jade demon mouths had previously been responsible for the deaths of two of our number (both thieves) and we decided to avoid messing with them from this point on.  We then turned our attention to locating the cardinal points in the catacombs below.  We kept a few characters above in the temple that could read the litany to Hecate in Promethean, so that they could open the secret door on the foot of the statue to let us out later.  Then the spell casters descended into the shrine below to try and figure out which way was which and unravel the secret to the keys to Zingalis’ labyrinth.

The stair hall was on an angle and the central room between the four individual shrines had continual darkness cast on it which made it exceedingly difficult for Gradwin the dwarf to determine the cardinal direction of each shrine underground.  So we determined that in order to figure this out we would need to somehow turn off the continual darkness affect in the central room.  None of the living group members had explored the central sphere and disk that one of our dead comrades had told us about before walking to his death through one of the green demon mouths.  So Gradwin decided to explore it for himself.  He went to the center of the room in the dark and felt around with his hands looking for the device that was described to him.

He found that there was a 3’ tall central stone pillar, almost like a table, with a smaller round sphere set into the center of the table top area.  When he spun the sphere with his fingers, it spun freely but didn’t really do anything else.  Our previous associate had told us that if you pushed it down it closed the secret door above.  Rather than doing that, he continued feeling around the cylinder to see if there were any other hidden devices or compartments to be found.  He found under the “table top” like upper surface, that there were two hand holds below the top.  He gripped them firmly and rotated the table top in the direction that it yielded and managed to spin it one quarter of a turn or ninety degrees.  Once he did this, the continual light spell went off and the magical torches came on – he had found the light switch!

The other thing that happened was that a magical inscription appeared on the floor in glowing runic letters and the voice of Zingalis suddenly boomed into the chamber “Congratulations – now you may have your reward”.  Gradwin cast read magic to try and read the magical writing but couldn’t make it out.  Since that was the only ritual that anyone had for that day for a first level spell, we had to rest overnight to re-learn spells to try again the following day.  The next day, two of the arcane casters cast read magic and tried again but failed to read the inscription.  Cyrcla finally cast her read magic and was able to make out enough of it to determine that it contained a spell of the deep magics (a 9^th level spell of some sort) but couldn’t discern any more than that aside from the partial phrase:

“For the worthy supplicant…”

but the rest was unintelligible.

Gradwin was however, able to now determine the cardinal points of the shrines to help us unlock the magically locked gates and doors in the labyrinth of Zingalis.  He determined that the gate that we had previously explored faced West and the appropriate spell in that direction was in fact Dimension Door (we only guessed this spell by a lucky coincidence).  He also determined that the Hold Portal/Brimbahri shrine faced north, the Arcane Lock/Elder God/Creepy room shrine faced east, and the Knock/Elisse/Elven shrine faced South.  We also had the clue about south being the “path to true enlightenment” so we decided to test our newfound knowledge on that gate.

We left the temple and locked the door behind us with the Wizard Lock and headed to the southern gate.  One of the arcane casters cast Knock at the gate and the bars suddenly vaporized and disappeared.  The spell casters determined that the bars weren’t real all along and were merely illusions – we could have stepped through them at any time!  So we went into the 20’ wide hallway beyond that was very similar to the one in the western entrance.  At the end was another one of the wizard eye devices and a large double door with two levers on the left hand wall and one on the right.  Gradwin pulled one of the levers down to see if he could open the door with it and was hit with a powerful series of five magic missiles that came from the wizard eye device!  He was hurt badly and required some healing magic.

Taleth decided to use the Chime of opening to avoid the traps and the door opened right up but it went up into the wall above, instead of opening in or out like a normal door.  There beyond the door was a 20’ wide by 30’ deep room with a hallway branching off to the right at the end and another lever on the left of the recently opened door.  As we were observing the room, five Bone Devils that were previously invisible decided to spring their ambush.  Unfortunately, we were surprised and to top it off a few of us were still slightly wounded and had learned spells for exploring the shrine rather than for combat.  So a savage melee commenced in which the group of adventurers was very hard pressed.

The Bone Devils started off with two of their number managing to use their hooks to catch both Taleth and Teth-en-Aire so that they could then drain their strength with their scorpion like tails.  We managed to hurt one of their number badly but another one managed to gate in a sixth bone devil and things were not looking good for the group.  Despite our best efforts, two of our number were trapped and our opponents were barely hurt.  Lucias managed to hurt the injured one further and Cyrcla managed to cast her web spell on the one holding Teth-en-Aire with its cruel hook.  Naas then managed to cast continual light on one of the devil’s eyes which blinded the other devil that was attacking Teth-en-Aire.  The group was still sorely pressed however, and the ranger was close to death after having been stung by the scorpion tail which drained some of his strength as he was held with the hook.  So after a gut wrenching few rounds of combat, Gradwin finally pulled out his scroll of Dispel Evil given to him by Brummbar the session before, and read the fifth level spell intoning the evil devil creatures in the room to return to hell. 

Four of the six devils exploded in a blinding flash of bright white light and the only two that remained were the webbed one and the blinded one which the rest of the group quickly finished off.  So with our foes dispatched and a crisis averted, we turned our attention to searching for loot.  We found a large amount of gold coins hidden behind an illusory wall in the left rear corner of the room and then fell back to the safety of the shrine.  We considered ourselves lucky to have made it out of that scrape against yet more Devils in the labyrinth of Zingalis with our lives.  Fortunately though, we now perhaps had the keys to the Castle so to speak.

TO BE CONTINUED…

Averlorn Campaign: The Hounds of Hell

Recap from 4/30/2011

The group returned to Medea’s Gate through the forest from their last foray to the wizard’s tower of Zingalis without meeting any resistance.  Once back, Naas and Gradwin took some time to get their heads together and gather their marbles and Lucias took it easy so his hand could heal back up from putting it in the cursed fountain in the labyrinth of Zingalis.  We sold and distributed loot and went to the Dominion’s local guild house to see what magic items we might be able to acquire.  Asclepius bought a magical sword for his faithful fighter henchman Kalaneikos, and Teth-en-Aire managed to acquire a Girdle of Giant Strength for a very reasonable sum of money.  This had the ability to turn him into an engine of destruction when he engaged in melee (it grants the wearer double damage with a melee weapon and the THAC0 of a 9 hit die monster).  Once we were rested and healed up we purchased provisions and once again set out for Tower of Zingalis through the forests near the Lady’s Finger River northeast of the city of Medea’s Gate.

On the way there, we encountered a pair of hill giants that were quickly dispatched and we gathered up there traveling loot sacks although we were unable to locate their lair to find the rest of their loot.  After that encounter we made it to the tower without any further issues.  Once there, we returned to the southern gate that we had explored before and started making our way back to the pool room with the secret doors and cursed fountain to try and unravel the mystery of the pulsating wall beyond the second secret door.  Before we could make it to the pool room, we were surprised in the steamy room by a large group of Hell Hounds!  The seven devil dogs breathed their fiery breath upon the group and many were singed by the very fires of hell.  We fought back though and slowly managed to whittle them down.  Teth-en-Aire and Cyrcla threw caution to the wind and engaged the hounds without casting mirror image and a pitched battle commenced.  Teth-en-Aire was particularly impressive against them and slew many of their number because his sword cold cleaver (a +3 frost brand) was glowing more than usual (+6 vs. fire using/dwelling creatures) and he was doing double damage because of the girdle of giant strength as well.

We once again, entered the secret door where the pool was located and heard the voice of Zingalis coming from one of the wizard eye devices say “Only the bold may pass through this portal”.   We once again tried to open the secret door without the chime of opening and it wouldn’t yield.  We looked briefly for other clues in the room that might help us to open it but found nothing that hadn’t already been revealed in the previous session.  We took another look at the fountain and Gradwin managed to pull out some coins from it with his ring of telekinesis.  Lucias tried to discern where the water was coming from to look for an opening or hidden compartment but it was just coming out of a low hole in the wall and nothing new was revealed that we hadn't seen the session before.

Then we focused our attention to the second secret door and Asclepius cast knock to see if that would open it and it didn’t do anything.  He then tried just walking through it believing it to be an illusion and bumped his face on the door.  We discussed other options for opening it (other spells revealed in the shrine and so forth) but finally determined that our best option was to just use the Chime of Opening since we couldn’t figure out its secret.  And that’s where we ended the session, discussing our options for opening the second secret door in the fountain room.

TO BE CONTINUED…

Averlorn Campaign: Mind Bending Cosmic Truths Best Left Alone

Recap from 4/15/2011

The group of adventurers decided to explore the one area of the Labyrinth of Zingalis that we hadn’t previously checked out.  There was a hallway leading out of the room where we fought the giant dragon headed snake that was as yet unexplored.  So we set out to explore that area in the hopes of finding more treasure or perhaps a way into the tower.  After about twenty feet, the tunnel ended in a caved in area straight ahead and a door on the left.  We opened the door that lead into another longer hallway which then turned to the left.  At the corner stood two formless statues that appeared to be made out of clay or some other earthy material.  As the group tried to walk past them, they started moving and attacked!

After a brief combat, the creatures melted into a pile of muck on the floor after they were destroyed.  They didn’t really put up much of a fight and the GM told us afterwards that they were Muck Golems.  We turned left and went down a long hallway with a checkerboard tile pattern on the floor that ended at a doorway.  We opened that door and entered a room which was full of steam.  As we walked into the room we were attacked and charged by a Nightmare which attempted to push Lucias into a pool of boiling water (a hot tub) on the other side of the room.  Lucias managed to move deftly out of the way and avoid being pushed in and the melee commenced.  It breathed its devilish fiery choking breath towards the group and some of the characters were covered with and inhaled the noxious vapors and were temporarily blinded but were otherwise able to fight on.  After a fierce combat, the group managed to slay the Devil Horse.  We found no treasure in the room and only briefly looked at the tub and decided to leave it alone.  Since the Nightmare was trying to push us into it we assumed it was trapped or something.

One wall of the room was angled and next to it was a door that led into a short hallway that ended in another door.  On the floor of the hallway were a bunch of small river rocks.  We opened the second door and it led into another room with an angled wall and semi circular niche on the left side and three Caryatids depicting Eryines in the other corners.  There was another door on the same wall as the one we entered the room on, so we opened it and went into what looked to be a looted treasure room.  There were empty sacks on the floor and an empty chest as well inside of the small room.  We searched it for secret doors and found one in the left rear corner.  As we opened it up we heard a mysterious voice say “You have come far.  Are you sure you don’t want to leave?  Only the bold may pass through this portal”.

So being a group of bold adventurers, we opened the secret door and entered the room of course.  In this large room was a round fountain with a small stream course feeding it from the far wall and several semi circular niches on three of the walls.  The room was otherwise empty so we searched it and found a secret door in one of the niches.  We were curious about the fountain as it appeared to be clear and sparkling clean water so Lucias put a few of his fingers in it to see if it was indeed fresh water.  He recoiled in pain as some sort of poison, curse or spell afflicted his hand with a palsy – he couldn’t open the fingers of his right hand!  Fortunately, he made his saving throw so apparently it could have been much worse.  Brummbar bound the hand with a poultice of herbs to reduce the inflammation and he was forced to use his sword in his left hand and sling his shield on his back for a while.  We heard the same eerie voice as before say “You chose poorly and are not worthy of the wizard’s challenge”.  We also noticed another one of the wizard eye camera things in one corner following our movements around in the room.

So we turned our attention to the secret door but it would not open using normal means.  So Taleth used his chime of opening on it and we heard the sounds of tumblers and locks moving and it opened right up.  We heard the voice that we presumed was that of Zingalis say “Curses”.  Beyond the door was a long narrow 5’ wide corridor that went for as long as we could see.  We entered the tunnel single file and followed it for about sixty feet until it entered into a small room with three more of the Eryines caryatids in it – one on each wall.  As we entered the room they started moving and attacked.  They appeared to be some sort of animated statues because as we hit them with our weapons, chunks of stone flew off of them and what appeared to be molten steaming rock started pouring out of the wounds.  After a brief but savage melee, the group managed to destroy all three statues.

We searched the room and found three arrows pointing to a spot on the wall of the room.  There was no secret door there or anything that we could find but when Naas cast detect magic on it, he could see some sort of pulsating area on the wall.  The GM described it as pulsating as if it was a heart but he was the only one who could see it and it was some sort of magical effect.  We debated this for a little bit and decided that since it was a magical affect, maybe casting one of the spells indicated above the green demon mouths in the Shrine would open this portal and perhaps grant access to the tower.  We guessed that the spell might be Dimension Door since it was conceivable that that spell could be powerful enough to open the magical portal if it was indeed a dimensional gate of some sort.  Gradwin cast Augury using a ritual and asked his god the question “Will it be good or bad if we cast Dimension Door on this spot of the wall” and the answer that Hecate gave him was “Weal”.  We debated this for a bit but decided that since we only one copy of Dimension Door on a scroll and it was above our ability to cast normally (it’s a fourth level spell) and Augury is unreliable, that we would go back to the Shrine to try and determine more info about the secrets contained therein that might give us clues to solving this puzzle.

So we went back to the shrine to investigate some of the spells written on the walls in the catacombs below it.  Both Gradwin and Naas went to the room below the temple to Hecate that contained the Magic of the Elder Gods written on the murals and the walls.  This was the same room that gave Asclepius nightmares when he copied the creepy familiar spell off of one of the murals in the room.  The other mural contained scenes of non-Euclidean geometry and architecture and the grinning green portal opposite the entrance had Arcane Lock written above it in the alien and cruel tongue of the Elder Gods.  Naas attempted to learn the Bind Familiar spell (from RoCC) off of the other mural but failed and got a little crazy – he was all twitchy and babbling incoherently about ancient secrets and truths that mortals were never meant to know. 

Gradwin attempted to learn the spell on the other mural which he discerned was Spatial Travel a fifth level spell from Realms of Crawling Chaos.  He successfully read it and then cast his scribe spell on it to copy it into his spell book but failed and took a certain amount of damage.  Then he just sat there as if contemplating something.  We waited because we assumed he was working – and we waited, and waited and still he stood there.  We decided that something was wrong and removed him from the room.  That’s when he started talking to his animated skeleton as if it was talking back to him and carrying on a conversation.  He kept saying “I was so close” and things like “only one more phrase”.  So with our two mentally disturbed spellcasters in tow, we decided to return to Medea’s Gate since we had been at the tower for almost a week and were starting to run low on food.  That’s where we ended the session.

TO BE CONTINUED…