| Grizzlydude |
A Magus in Magnimar: Shattered Star
Cale, CN M Human 1st level Two Weapon Fighter
Skoodge, NG M Goblin 1st level Cleric of Immonhiel
Ghash , NG M Half-Orc 1st level Alchemist
Khorin Horn (Flappy), CG M Aasimar 1s level Bard
Feng Dao (Fred), CN M Human (Tian) 1st level Magus
Cale is a character, he isn’t super strong like many warriors, but he is fast and accurate with his blades. His swords are a blur when he swings them. He is gregarious and fun to be around. He spends his off time in the seedier side of town gambling, whoring and boozing. He does have an odd tendency to try and intimidate his way through life; sometimes it’s funny, sometimes not. He is always the first one to jump into a fight and usually the last out.
Skoodge is an interesting Goblin; he has unusually large ears, even for a Goblin. In addition he can read and write, which I understand to be taboo among Goblin culture; they think writing steals the words from their heads. He has been in the employ of Miss Sheila as he calls her, most of his life and has spent some time assisting Pathfinders in Sargava. This is where he picked up his affinity for the blowgun which is his primary weapon. He is eager to help in any way and a wise soul.
Ghash our Half-Orc Alchemist is something of an enigma. He doesn’t talk often, preferring to work on his concoctions. We don’t know much about his background or what brought him to Magnimar, but he has never failed to be there when needed and is a stoic companion.
Khorin (aka Flappy) grew up on the streets of Magnimar taking what he needed to survive and often talking his way out of trouble when he was caught, he learned early that he was gifted in his oratory skills. After picking the pocket of a priest he saw a painting of someone who looked exactly himself. He went to priest later to learn more of painting. He was intrigued and began working at the temple for room and board. During his time there he saw the corruption that often comes with power and how the rich and powerful can buy their way out of trouble. Khorin became disillusioned with the temple and decided to help the powerless. Khorin is quick with a joke or a comment that usually deescalates situations. He carries a long spear with a banner on it, I think so we don’t lose him.
Feng Dao (aka Fred) I grew up traveling the world with my family of archeologists and I have a gift for languages. As a child I had a knack for magic like my mother and brother. While my family explored the islands of Minata, I befriended a Wayang child and learned some of the secrets of their magic. My parents believing in a strong education sent me home in my teen years to school. I was not used to the regimented life of my school and had a difficult adjustment period. It was during this time that became more interested by the Thassilonian Empire and my studies of it allowed me isolate myself. As time went on and became more outgoing and began making friends I came to like school life. While in school I honed my skills to blend sword and magic to powerful effect. After my schooling I joined the Pathfinder Society and was sent to the City of Monuments, Magnimar to be part of a new lodge opening up. As a Thassilionian-phile I was ecstatic.
| Grizzlydude |
The first day-
We were gathered together and introduced to one another. Ms. Heidmarch asked if we could work on a small project for her. In her library was a box, I immediately saw the word “Cruel” written in Thassilonian on the side. Ms. Heidmarch asked us to review notes on the box and attempt to open without breaking it. After reading the notes and discussing them. Khorin thought maybe an anagram would solve it. So set about thinking of words that fit, after trying 2 or 3 words we came up with “Lucre” and then all hell broke loose. Two gremlin like creatures popped out and began tearing at the book shelves. We all sprang into action and Cale dispatched one before it could do any damage. Ghash and Skoodge killed the other one quickly. Fortunately no real damage was done, some books were thrown but it was quickly made right.
Ms. Heidmarch came back just as the 2nd Gremlin was put down and was impressed that we opened the box quickly and dealt with the gremlins with minimal damage.
| Grizzlydude |
Expedition to the Lady’s Light
Umber, G M Aasimar 5th level Paladin of Serenrae
Skoodge, NG M Goblin 5th level Cleric of Immonhiel
Ghash , NG M Half-Orc 5th level Alchemist
Khorin Horn (Flappy), CG M Aasimar 5th level Bard
Feng Dao (Fred), CN M Human (Tian) 5th level Magus
With the death of Cale at my hands still on my mind we head off to Lady’s Light with heavy hearts and new member of our intrepid band.
Ms. Heidmarch arranged transportation for us aboard and a small merchant ship. As we left the harbor Khorin looked back at the city woefully, this was his first trip out of Magnimar. The trip went well and quickly. We arrived about 2 to 3 miles north of the Lady’s Light and were off loaded at the beach.
Making friends wherever we go
We loaded up our gear and headed south down the beach. As we approached a small bay to the east we could see a small island and chimney smoke rising from behind the trees. We continued to walk on the sand around the bay and eventually we came to a wooden bridge with skulls of Troglodytes and Boggards on it as well as writing in Draconic and I assume Boggard to stay away or else, but being that we are adventurers and we do stupid for a living. We crossed the bridge feigning ignorance. We were greeted with taunts of tossing us in her stew from an old lady. Umber doesn’t sense evil intent and Khorin turns on the charm. After he speaks for bit she comes out and begins to talk to us. Her name is Maroux and she has lived here for decades and isn’t the friendliest sort. Speaking to her in Orc breaks some ice. We do learn a great deal about the Boggard/Trog war, a group of armored women who came through, and that the woman’s leader has since come out and says Sorshen is still alive. She invites us to eat dinner with her if we retrieve special kelp she likes. After we agree, she mentions the area is haunted and to be careful. It was nice to find out before we agreed.
Fun with Skeletons
Maroux’s directions are good and we find the kelp bed just fine, we decide that because of the haunting we should all go. We use a scroll of water breathing and head in. Up ahead we see a sunken ship and as we start gathering the kelp, 8 skeletons walk out of the ship and walk toward us. Skoodge springs into action and channels divine power destroying most of the skeletons. Khorin tried out a new spell he learned and he cast wordstrike, which destroys another. Umber then moves to intercept the remaining skeleton, which based on his dress appears to be the captain. This should be interesting; although he comes highly recommended none of us have seen him fight yet. Quickly Umber strikes the skeleton hard and it is struck down. At least now we know he can fight.
After gathering the kelp we did a quick look see in to the ship, it is the Impdrake out of Cheliax. The sailors’ swords were rusty and unremarkable, but the Captains Rapier appears magical, we’ll hold on to this one.
Old ladies snore
We return to Maroux’s island and she is delighted to hear the skeletons have been dispatched; now she can collect kelp herself. As we sit to eat Maroux continues to tell strange stories of the Lady’s Light. We spend a pretty peaceful evening sleeping on her island. In the morning Maroux draws us a map of the cap with the locations of cave entrances, the Boggard village and where the Trogs live.
Diplomacy, not always our strong suit
We decide to try and be diplomatic with the Trogs and secure the spice gathering deal in the process. As we enter the cave it smells of oil and suddenly fire starts surrounding us, we beat a hasty retreat out of the cave suffering minimal damage. Khorin tries to open up diplomatic relations with the Trogs by yelling into the cave, but they want nothing to do with us. It is decided that if they don’t want help against the Boggards so be it. We’ll try another way in.
Attack of the Hydra
As we approach the cave Maroux said had a monster in it we prepare for battle against an unknown foe. As we enter the cave we don’t see anything but bones and debris in a shallow bog. We start passing through the bog and we begin to notice coins and jewelry. We begin to look around and find more and more. After several minutes we have found a wand, and amulet, a magic ring, jewelry, and a lot of coins. Just we are about to move deeper in to the cave we get hit by fire shooting at us and are immediately set upon by a huge multi-headed snake. We are all bitten by the beasts’ heads. Khorin shouts out that is a Hydra and he stabs it with his spear. Umber strikes it with No-Dachi. Not knowing how damaged it is I cast shocking grasp defensively and strike it with by Scimitar and it shakes, spasms and drops to the floor. Knowing that these things have regeneration capability, but not really knowing what or how it regenerates Ghash begins pouring acid on the corpse. After several minutes of tending our wounds and Skoodge healing us all up we press further into the cave.
| Grizzlydude |
Umber, G M Aasimar 6th level Paladin of Serenrae
Skoodge, NG M Goblin 6th level Cleric of Immonhiel
Ghash , NG M Half-Orc 6th level Alchemist
Khorin Horn (Flappy), CG M Aasimar 6th level Bard
Feng Dao (Fred), CN M Human (Tian) 6th level Magus
Endless tunnels
It begins to narrow until we are in a single file moving through the tunnel. Umber uses his darkvision as he takes lead and I hang back and try not to destroy everyone else’s darkvision with light needed by my human eyes. Using my hands to cup my magically lit pebble I shine a minimal amount of light on the floor so I don’t trip. After what seems like days.
Broken statues and big white bugs
We enter a large cave some 50ft across and over 20ft high, in the center of this cave is a large 7 sided plinth with a large black stone statute of a woman on it. The statute has been broken off just below the shoulders. The walls and floors if this cavern are covered with small albino bugs, they seem to largely ignore us. Khorin being the best climber among us volunteers to climb the statute to investigate. As he climbs he tells us the inside of the statute is hollow and is shaped like a winged woman.
Suddenly a big albino insect drops into the statue and begin attacking Khorin. Two more drop to the plinth and begin attacking us. Khorin begin his perform and we all feel inspired to great things, he is relying on his dexterity and armor to keep him from harm. I fire and arrow in the one in front of Ghash, Umber swipes at his with hi No-Dachi and hits. Skoodge fires his blow gun at the one fighting Khorin and Ghash steps back a bit and lobs one of his exploding vials. Khorin starts using a new ability he recently learned and begins speaking weird words which damaged all the bugs, as I fire an arrow at the same one, followed by Skoodge and his blow gun. Umber strikes again with his No-Dachi and critically wound the bug just as Ghash lobs another vial at the one near him. While this is going the bug on the statute hits Khorin with both claws and cuts him deeply. The bug near Umber tries to wound him, but his armor is too thick and the claws just ounce off. Ghash’s bug hits him with one claw and does damage. Just as I am about to fire another arrow at the Khorin bug his words kill it and it falls to the ground and is immediately set upon by the tiny albino bug as they eat it. I decide to drop my bow and help Ghash, drawing my Scimitar as I move forward. I swing and connect with a critical wound nearly severing its thorax. Skoodge fires his blowgun again at the one engaging Umber and hitting it. Umber then swings at the bug and with a mighty swing of his No-Dachi he finishes it off. Ghash not wanting to hit me with one of his concoctions’ pulls up his crossbow and fires a bolt into the body. The last remaining bug swings at me and misses; I swing back connecting with my scimitar ending its life. Khorin does a spinning leap off the statute and landed throwing his hands up like a gymnast. Sometimes he’s a showoff.
Endless tunnels part 2
After spending some time cleaning up our weapons, healing our wounds and searching the cavern we look at the map Maroux gave us and determine that the 3 caves she marked off seem to converge here and that the tunnel going west is our best bet for avoiding the Trogs and Boggs. It might even lead us in to the Lady’s Light.
Columns Attack!!!
After some time the walls change from rough stone to worked stone and finally to marble block. We enter a room with columns made of statues that look like Sorshen and a pit in the center. Khorin cautiously moves in first to look in the pit, as he reaches the railing around the pit four of the columns move and attack him. As a Surprised Khorin is struck by three statues in rapid succession we all move to deal with the threat. Khorin begins his performance to help us fight more effectively. Umber move to the closet statue and hits it so hard that he breaks his No-Dachi, I move forward and as I swing my scimitar and cast shocking grasp, I hit and a large chunk of the statue comes off as electricity flows from my sword to through the statue, as it hits the statue it electricity makes a loud cracking noise and dissipates with no effect. Fortunately my scimitar being Adamantine it appears undamaged. Ghash lobs a bomb near a statue and hits it. Skoodge seeing how beat up Khorin is channels positive energy and some his wounds start closing and healing. The statues continue to attack Khorin, but he is able deftly dodge and avoid most of the swings, one still manages to injure him. Khorin thrusts adamantine tipped spear at the statue I am fighting and it loses more stone. Umber continues to hit the statue he is near with his No-Dachi despite its damage condition, he is clearly making progress and chucks of the statue fly off. I hit my statue again and it must have been in a weak spot in the stone as a massive piece of it falls off, Ghash seeing that mine has been nearly cut in half lobs his bomb at the ground behind it, so as not to hit me, in doing so he hurt two of the statues and the one I was fighting falls to rubble. Skoodge bravely runs past the statues to apply divine healing magic to Khorin probably saving his life. The three remaining statues continue to swing at Khorin with one hitting and undoing much of the healing that Skoodge just applied. Khorin thrusts his long spear as hard as he can at the statue near Umber and it collapses in pile of rubble. Umber seizing on the moment charges the statue nearest to Khorin and hacks off a huge chuck of stone. I hold off my attack until Ghash can lob a vial directly at the statue for greater effect. Ghash has hit this statue before and he hits square in the back and rocks it with alchemical fury. I move to the south most statue and swing with all my might, I must have hit a weak spot again as my scimitar knocks off a monstrous piece of stone. This statue too falls apart and is a pile of rubble. This new scimitar is incredibly sharp and has a knack for finding weakness in foes. Skoodge continues to pray over and pass divine power into Khorin staunching his wounds. We are down to one statue and despite all the damage done to it by Umber it continues to swing at Khorin with its guisarme, this time it hits and I watch my good friend fall to ground and start to bleed out. We are stunned for a millisecond and we all converge on the last statue with a rage that dooms the last the statue. Umber, Ghash, and I all hit the statue with all our might and it falls over and shatters into a thousand pieces.
While we were beating on the statue, Skoodge was able to revive Khorin and save his life. We decide to rest here for a bit before we explore further. Khorin needs time to heal; Umber needs to work on his sword. We rest for the day, this give Skoodge time to help Khorin heal up and use his crafting and magic to mend Umber’s sword. I use this time to rest and memorize new spells for the next day’s adventures, Ghash uses the time to make more alchemical mixes and rest a little, his aim goes off if he’s tired.
Into the deep dark hole
We all take our time at watch during the night and it goes without incident, which is weird by itself. We can’t sleep at an inn without incident.
In the morning we prep ourselves. We look down the pit and all we see is darkness, we lower a lantern and about 20ft down it disappears only to re-appear as we pull it back up. Umber volunteers to be lowered down on a rope. He has twine with him that he will pull twice if he needs to come back up. He sounding off so we can hear him, as he enters the inky blackness he is enveloped in it and we cannot hear him. The rope is till taut as is the twine, so we’re pretty sure he’s ok. After about 80 feet of so we feel two tugs on the twine and we start reeling him up. When he come out of the darkness he says it was completely silent in the darkness, but past that thing return to normal. We tie off our ropes, lower the tiger and we jump in one by one counting on our boots of the cat to keep us alive. When we reach the bottom we are in a large room with columns, we’re on guard, and a sarcophagus. Now we are nervous, nothing good is ever in a sarcophagus in a large hall. We search around first and make sure none of the columns are going to come to life and try to kill us. We work our way up to the sarcophagus, Khorin and Umber start pushing away the lid and as they do we see Sorshen asleep, immediately put my sword to her neck and everything goes black. My body drops to the floor and my friends try to revive me to no avail.
I AM DEAD!
Several minutes pass and suddenly I am awake again, looking at the ceiling. I sit up and see my friends tending to me, am I floating above myself ethereal? They all turn and pull their weapons and move to attack, I yell wait and hear a woman’s voice. I look at myself and I am a woman! I start yell that it me Fred, but I can see they need proof, I start telling them stories that no one else would know and one by one my friends lower their weapons and stare at me. We are all stunned; I am in the Sorshen body that was in the sarcophagus. After several minutes of trying figure out what happened, I begin to strip off the flimsy Thassilonian clothes I’m wearing and begin to take the clothes and armor from me. All my friends are staring again as I realize, I may need to be a bit more modest around men. My clothes are a little tight in the breastial region, but fortunately my magical boots fit perfectly and magical chain shirt adjusts and a portion of it splits to reveal my ruin of lust tattoo on my stomach. I hope this doesn’t come back to bite me in the butt. As I get dressed I feel an urge to put back on the jewelry I was wearing when I awoke. I’m going to have to go shopping for new clothes when we get back to Magnimar. Skoodge cast preservative magic on my male body, and as a joke we dress it in the clothing I had on when I woke up and placed it in the Sarcophagus, someone is in for shock someday.
It’s going to take a while to use to be a woman; my balance and coordination are a little off. Skoodge looks me over and thinks if he uses a scroll he has, he can help. He spends several minutes using the scroll and do feel better, not 100%, but 85%.
Balconies and Panels
From where we are we can to the left or the right, we go left and travel down a beautiful marble hallway to a balcony, it overlooks a river. To the right we can see a sandy beach and gondolas; to the left we can hear a waterfall. Not knowing how deep the water is and not wanting to risk going over the falls we decide to go back and take the right.
As we backtrack we pass the sarcophagus again. We finally reach the end of the hall and it is a large metal wall with scenes of Sorshen and another creature casting magic. Myself and Khorin begun studying the scenes and determine that Sorshen is binding a succubus to the Ladys Light. I sit down and begin drawing the wall and all its scenes for further study. Everyone else continues to see if the wall can be moved, it is made of a very rare metal. We should figure out to remove it. We find that the panels can be depressed if pushed and we begin to press them until finally the wall swings open and “Ayandamhla is bound to the Light for all ages” appears on the panel I Thassilonian. I quickly add that to my notes.
Going for a boat ride
Before us is a sandy beach sloping down to a river. Two gondolas are tied to posts and the boats and the posts radiate strongly with magic. I, Ghash, and Skoodge get on one boat, Khorin, Umber and his tiger get on the other. We can go left towards the waterfall or right towards the unknown, we go right. After several minutes we can hear another waterfall up ahead and we see a crystal statue on a low platform.
Fun with glass
We decide to investigate the statue. We arrive after some difficulty and I step off the boat, Khorin steps off his boat and the statue moves to attack him. Oh great not again, I yell halt in Thassilonian and it stops. I thought it might be keyed to commands from Sorshen and since I sound and look like her I had to try to command it, but I didn’t really think it would work. After confirming that it would do everything I asked of it. Khorin and I determine that it is a glass golem.
We began looking around the cavern. Across the river from us was another beach with two obvious graves and the shields of their owners as headstones. I asked the golem to tow us to the beach and it can walk on water, that’s fantastic.
Graves and Murals
We step out of the boats and investigate the graves. The shields bear the rune of lust on them. To the right is a door in the cave wall, we enter a room that detail murals of Sorshen participating in sexual acts with all manner of man and monster. She has issues! I sit down again and begin drawing the murals. As I am doing so we notice a name painted in the murals Amivadeus Yasrin, I’m fairly certain that is the artist name. The murals continue for a bit into the hallway and them just stop in mid brush stroke.
A pale stranger
As we continue down the hall we come to an iron gate. Khorin tries picking the lock on the gate when suddenly a pale white haired man appears at the gate. I yell at him to open up the gate, he looks at me curiously and say’s you are not my mistress. He then ask is we be friend or foe, we try to bluff him and he asked for the passphrase, we don’t know one Umber makes one up. He then says you must be foe and he duck behind the wall and we can hear him casting spells. At that point we better get in their quick or we are sitting ducks to fireballs, lightning bolts and all kinds of nastiness. Umber and I begin beating on the gate and after 30 seconds or so it gives way. I send in the golem to look around. Khorin goes in and off to the right. Umber, riding his tiger begins searching for the man. The tiger signals that he smells someone in an empty area, Khorin casts Glitter dust and we can clearly see the outline of the man, he steps forward and stabs Khorin with a rapier and I see electricity flow in to Khorin and he convulses, he is a magus like me. Skoodge fires his blow gun and Ghash his crossbow, both hit but magus is still up, the golem slams into him and he smashed between the wall and very heavy movable object and dies. Khorin is down again, he’s isn’t dead yet but he is close. Skoodge again comes to the rescue and revives Khorin. For a bard he sure does get hit a lot.
Looking over the magus we conclude that he is a Dhampir. We collect his gear and his spellbook and head out the door on the other side of the room.
| Grizzlydude |
Umber, G M Aasimar 7th level Paladin of Serenrae
Skoodge, NG M Goblin 7th level Cleric of Immonhiel
Ghash , NG M Half-Orc 7th level Alchemist
Khorin Horn (Flappy), CG M Aasimar 7th level Bard
Feng Dao (Fred), CN F Azlanti (Sorshen clone) 7th level Magus
More columns and constructs
We send the golem about 30 feet ahead of us to deal with any encounters. He heads down a room with columns running down the center and all is well until we get to the second column and suddenly the head of the statute on the column pops off and starts attacking us. It shoots some green beam at me and misses as I fire an arrow at it and hit.
Skoodge and Ghash fire their weapons and hit as well. It fires its green beam at Umber and misses again. Thank the gods that it does, we have no idea what it can do with the beam. It finally comes close enough for Umber to hit it with his No-Dachi and he nearly cuts it in twain. As we look down the hall we see every column has something like these. I order the golem to smash every head on the columns after several minutes they are all smashed to bits and lying on the ground.
It’s a trap!
The golem is again on point, as it rounds a corner it falls through the floor and into a pit trap. Khorin tries to disable to while we try to figure out a way to get the golem out and healed. I suggest Skoodge create water and fill the trap since the golem can walk on water. Skoodge suggests that I have the golem push against the side of the trap until it can crawl out. We go with Skoodge’s plan. Khorin can’t figure out how to disable the trap. We decide to use the golem as an anchor on one side and tie a rope to a column on our side and go across on a rope. It takes several minutes but we safely make it across.
Demons! I hate Demons!
We move on to the next room down the hallway. As we approach it Khorin confirms that no traps are present. Umber opens the door and moves in, I follow and move a little farther in the room. Umbers’ tiger smells something, but can’t locate it. The room is splattered with blood and has a mural of Sorshen behind two pillars. Suddenly I am set upon by two goat headed humanoids. The both swing at me with their Halberds and try to gore me. One halberd hits and I am hurt, but not too badly. I am worried about the gunk on their halberds, but I’ll have to deal with that later. Khorin moves into the room, begins his inspiring performance and identifies the creatures as Schir’s and he begins telling us that they can resist most magic, elements and even weapons. This should be fun.
Soon Skoodge, Ghash and my Golem enter the room as well. Skoodge fires blowgun dart at one of the Schirs and hits. As they are moving in to help me another Demon appears right in front of Umber and it strikes at him with a Scimitar, and misses. Umber calls upon his god to smite the Demon and swings his No-Dachi and gravely wounds the Demon. His tiger lashes out and rips into the Demon and Khorin stabs him with his longs pear, finally bringing him down.
I attack one of the Schirs with my blade using Frigid Touch to increase my power, I hit cutting deeply in to the Schir as he feels the cold overwhelming him and he appears staggered by my attacks. As I swing again I finished what I started and he falls to the floor and disappears
We are down to one. The Golem continues moving around everyone to attack the Schir and it slams the Schir with one arm. Skoodge fires his blowgun again and Ghash lobs a bomb further rocking the outnumbered and overwhelmed Schir. Khorin and Umber move to attack with both hitting nearly simultaneously bring the Schir down and then he disappears as well.
Khorin exams the other Demon and determines that it is an Incubus and that the Schir’s were likely summoned minions.
As we draw the mural, we discover that the mural is of the Grand Mastaba of Korvosa and the current location of Castle Korvosa.
Gray fire
After spending a little time to exam the room and heal up a bit we approach a set of large double doors. Khorin again looks for traps and doesn’t find any.
As we open the door we are struck with how hot and humid it is in here. Inside is a large room with high ceiling, a step pyramid rises in the center about 6ft. at the top of the pyramid is a gray flame. Two alcoves are on the opposite wall and to the right.
Skoodge, Ghash, and Umber begin climbing up the pyramid to investigate the fire, as Khorin and I scout out the two smaller alcoves we see.
As Skoodge, Ghash and Umber reach the top step they are set upon by four small fish like flying creatures and they fly in strike Umber and disappear. He is mildly wounded. Khorin and I begin moving towards our friends never knowing when the flying fish will reappear. Khorin begins his performance. Ghash, Umber, and Skoodge stand ready to strike when they can.
They attack Umber again and disappear, this is getting annoying. Skoodge cast Invisibility Purge and there the little buggers are. We all move to engage them, and without their invisibility they close and attack Skoodge. Umber hits one with his No-Dachi and it goes down, Khorin strikes another with his spear and it goes down. They’re not so tough when they can be seen. I hit one with my Scimitar and it dies. Finally Ghash and Skoodge hit the last one and kill it.
We spend a couple minutes cleaning ourselves up and healing and then begin looking around in earnest. Umber notices that a torch in the only sconce in the room has been lit in the past. We figure that if we light it something will be triggered. He lights it from the gray flame and places it back in the sconce. The stone panel that the sconce was in moves and it reveals a staircase leading down. After a couple of minutes of deliberation we enter.
Apparently we’re supposed to kiss her ass, or feet, or something
The stairs lead down about 40-50ft to a room. Directly opposite the stairs is another painting of Sorshen. Written in Thassilonian over her “Prostrate thyself and demonstrate proper devotion, my sweet slave, if you wish to enter my domain” I note that I no longer have a prostrate. We begin examing the painting and Skoodge notices that the painting is worn near the feet. We figure we need to kneel down and kiss her painting. Khorin volunteers and goes first, followed by Skoodge, and Ghash. The Golem goes next and we are very uncertain that it will work, but it does, Umber and I go last.
Sorshen really likes lakes and waterfalls.
We arrive on a stone platform overlooking a lake and another waterfall. Two row boats are tied to posts. Khorin tries to see if the boats or posts are magical as the rest of us look around the area. We see a platform like this one across the lake. We tie a couple of ropes to the boats, we board and I order the golem to tow us to the other platform.
Stop rocking the boat
The golem heads off and about halfway across our boats start rocking as something below the water tries to knock us into the water. I order the golem to run. Unfortunately I didn’t tell it to stop in time and the boats smash into the platform doing significant damage to them. We’ll have to repair them before we go anywhere else in them. Before us is a large red steel panel with reliefs of Sorshen having sex with giants. Khorin starts searching for traps and doesn’t find one. He begins looking for the correct panel to push to open the door and he chooses poorly. A bolt a lightning bolt shots forth and zaps Khorin and Skoodge. I take off my gloves and push the center panel just like we did at the last door and the doors open. We shuffle into the room.
Stinking Giants
We enter a large hall with a high ceiling and columns running down the center. At the far end of the hall is a large throne with a Cave Giant sitting on it, she is flanked by two swamp monitors. The giant booms “You dare to enter my throne room, little mortals! If you kneel to me now, I, Sorshen, shall call off my pets and only eat one of you” I begin walking forward while telling her that the real Sorshen has returned and that she should surrender. She responds by throwing a chest full of rotten meat at me and the monitors run forward. Skoodge runs up ahead of me. Umber races forward on his tiger, and Ghash moves up next to Khorin. Khorin moves forward and cast Haste on myself, Umber, and Skoodge. I order the Golem to run down the hall and fight the left monitor. Umber using his No-Dachi quickly dispatches the right monitor as I run by charging the giant. As I arrive at the throne the giant swings its huge axe at me and missed, I plunge my scimitar critically into its body and the electricity from my shocking grasp spell surges though its body and it drops to the ground before I can withdraw my weapon and swing again. Skoodge tries to charm the other monitor and make it a pet, but unfortunately he fails and the golem then slams into the other monitor crushing it.
We begin looking around for loot. Ghash spend several disgusting minutes looking through the chests before he finds 20 or so very valuable gems. Umber and I find a platinum plaque on the back of the throne with very interesting clues to the identity of the Sorshen deeper in the dungeon. She is likely one of the succubus’ tied to the Lady’s Light. We remove the plaque and plan on having it studied
| Grizzlydude |
Umber, G M Aasimar 8th level Paladin of Serenrae
Skoodge, NG M Goblin 8th level Cleric of Immonhiel
Ghash , NG M Half-Orc 8th level Alchemist
Khorin Horn (Flappy), CG M Aasimar 8th level Bard
Feng Dao (Fred), CN F Azlanti (Sorshen clone) 8th level Magus
Boats, Bats, and Eels oh my
We needed to clean ourselves up, especially me; I got covered in rotten meat. Skoodge repaired the boats using Make Whole and we set off across the lake. The creatures that were rocking the boat earlier must be resting or off somewhere else as they didn’t bother us this time. We saw numerous bodies hanging from the walls of the cavern in various states of decay. Two large bat like creatures flew over us and then left us in peace. The ceilings here glow with lichen and it causes the wall to shimmer pearlescent, it’s really beautiful. As we proceed we see a tunnel off to the left and begin heading that direction.
We hear slight whispers as we reach the tunnel, they seem to be coming from every direction. After a couple of minutes of investigation we realize that the tunnel is mostly underwater and we can’t go very far into it. We start heading to a large opening to the right. For some reason I have undone my top twice, then suddenly Khorin removes all his gear and clothing and jumps in to the lake and begins swimming as fast as possible towards the opening. I order the golem to speed up and get ahead of Khorin in case he is swimming into a trap. Then Skoodge suggests we have the golem pick Khorin out of the water and carry him. Just as the golem picks Khorin up two large eels just miss chomping on him.
The golem maintains his grip and we continue to the opening and we see a beach, Khorin is desperately trying to break free. We reach the sand and I have the golem pin Khorin while we try to snap him out of it, he just keeps yelling he must go to her. After trying everything we can think of to break him out of his trance we have the golem carry him to where he points, this calms him a little and we reach a sandy wall and he claws at it. A secret door opens and Khorin is back to normal. Then we hear cries of anguish and we try to follow the sounds.
Sea Hag and minions
We run down a tunnel at the end is a watery drop off. About 30ft out is a small island and a women is tied to a post unconscious while a Sea Hag pokes at her with a spear. Dancing around her feet is 4 gremlin like creatures with dog faces and crab claws, creepy.
The Hag turns to look at us and says :Oh, oh! New playmates fo Daefu. Sorshen is so good to Daefu, Sorshen loves Daefu. More sweet flesh for Daefu to poke and prod”
Khorin leaps into action and runs forward while casting weird words, his actions stop Daefu’s diatribe mid-sentence. Khorin is now in the water. Daefu jumps in the water as well. The golem caring me runs across the water and punts one of the gremlins into the wall; I jump down and skewer one with my blade. While this is going on Khorin is on the receiving end of a long spear and pierces critically, blood is in the water. Skoodge moves to the water’s edge and just reach the top of Khorin head, he calls upon his god for help healing his friend and Khorin’s wound close and the bleeding stops. Khorin then thrusts his spear into the hag critically wounding her; she immediately swims away with Khorin in pursuit. The golem and I finish off the last two gremlins and Skoodge stabilizes her. I order the golem to follow and protect Khorin, it leaps in the water.
I untie the woman and pull out my wand of Cure Light Wounds, it takes over a minute and fouled up its use a couple of times, but she is conscious and shaking in fear. I explain to here that I am not the Sorshen that has hurt her and that we are here to destroy her and we would like her to join us in that destruction.
Just then Khorin returns shape changed into a lizard man with the golem and says she got away, but that he found her treasures. The woman starts shaking again when she sees the golem that killed two of her friends.
The womans name is Helanda and she was a Gray Maiden. I give her a morning star to gain her confidence and to empower her, as part of her recovery. She holds it like a warrior and is ready to defend herself. We move over to the tunnel where Skoodge is and get her dressed in my spare clothes. Somehow all my clothing and gear become sized and fitted for my new body. magic!
We learn all about her, the Gray Maidens and how they got here. She tells how they trained the Boggards, saw the sarcophagus, but wisely avoided it, they fought the golem and it chased them into the tunnels, where they fell into a trap and fought a dozen incubus, they were nearly wiped out when Sorshen arrived and teleported them to their new quarters. They thought they had made it, that Sorshen was sure to help them retake the Korvosan throne, but over time more and more of the Maidens were called to Sorshen and never seen again. Helanda became suspicious and talked to the other Maidens about it. One day Sorshen arrived nearly beat her to death and dumped her with the Sea Hag. She had been betrayed by the other Maidens. She does not believe that Sorshen is the real Sorshen, I share with her that I believe she is a Succubus pretending to be Sorshen. Helanda wants to leave, but after outlining the dangers she would face leaving she decides to help us destroy the faux Sorshen. She gives us detailed maps of the areas she knows and how many Maiden were there before and what their standard operating procedures are. I am incensed at the way the Maidens are treating their subordinates and their going feel some pain.
Killing them softly
She takes us to the secret door we saw earlier and we enter the kitchen, it’s empty. We see to large doors. I want to rush the next two rooms that we are confident that the maidens are using. We prep for a fight.
I throw open the doors and yell, “Welcome to hell!” and I unleash an empowered fireball spell immediately killing them. Everyone was shocked and so was I.
Skoodge and Helanda start getting her geared up and the rest of us move to the next set of doors.
We throw open the doors and 4 crossbow bolts hit us. Khorin uses weird words and hurts them, I unleash a flurry of snowballs and two of them die. The other try to attack but Khorin stabs one as it tries to get to him. The other gets just about to me and the golem grapples her, she takes her sword and cut’s her own throat.
We quickly move to the next room, but we aren’t expecting a fight there, it is clear. After a couple of minutes Helanda and Skoodge re-join us and she shows us the trap room. Skoodge and Khorin enter the room carefully and disarm the trap; we have found a treasure trove of perfume and three vials of poison.
We decide to settle in for the night. I have the most vivid erotic dreams I’ve ever had, according to Skoodge I was gyrating and moaning all night. It was very disconcerting.
The following is from Helanda’s journal. Re-printed with her permission.
I was nervous the whole way even though I told the group it is a trap that was supposed to be used to destroy unwanted guests.
I beg Sorshen not to go in. I’m Relieved when I see it is the male shapechanger. The shapechanger and the mighty cleric immediately start throwing spells around like confetti, with the all-powerful adorable one warning the shapechanger of the presence of poison in the air.
The others spells having either failed to work or not detect anything. I have no clue figuring out this magic stuff.
The shapechanger who everyone keeps calling flappy then calls out that he can make out what is definitely a mechanical trap associated with the orb hanging off a beautiful gold chain.
The flappy one then tells Sorshen to send in her golem to get him if he fails to remove the trap and it goes off. The nerve of him to give my lady orders.
He apparently was successful.
The room was filled with my ladies collection of incredibly exotic perfumes. There were twenty bottles of it. I have no doubt they are worth a fortune.
He also called out that he not only disarmed the trap but was able to recover three vials of the poison from it. Something he calls Burnt Othur Fumes. While I do not care for him giving my lady orders he does appear to be highly skilled. Also, as it does not upset her I will follow her lead.
-Helanda, former Gray Maiden
A secret shrine
As we left the perfume trap room we noticed a secret door, Helenda knew nothing if the door and said the Gray Maidens didn’t know of it.
Khorin searched the door for traps and didn’t find any. He opens the door; it appears to be a shrine to Nocticula and it smells of cinnamon. Umber aside his tiger enters the room, within moments of entering the room three shadowy dog creatures appear at the far end of the room near the altar. Umber spurs his tiger to charge the nearest creature and he strikes hard with his No-Dachi, his tigers attack miss. Khorin enters and begins his performance and inspires us to greatness. Skoodge enters and fire his blowgun, his aim appeared true, but he still missed. Ghash enters and throws a bomb and one of the creatures dissipates. The golem and I enter we both miss with our attacks. The creatures hit Umber twice and inflict some pain. Khorin uses invective words and hurts both creatures. Umber flanks the one in front of me and he and his tiger miss with all the strikes. Skoodge moves and applies healing magic to Umber. Ghash and Helenda swing and miss with their swords. I use a magic missile to damage one, followed by the golem hitting the same one twice. Khorin uses weird words and another dissipates. Skoodge then tries and unusual tactic, he casts brambles on himself and tries to grapple the creature, the creature strikes at Skoodge and hurt himself in the process, Skoodge’s grapple fails. I fire another series of magic missiles, Ghash, Helenda, and Khorin all try using their weapons and they all miss. Umber finally hits and kills the last creature. Khorin begin to tell us about the creatures, they are Shadow Mastiffs. Apparently due to their shadowy nature half of all strikes against them miss, we beat the odds and it was more like 90% miss.
We begin to examine the room, a large painting of Nocticula is on the far wall with an altar in front of it, and the painting has two black globes over her out stretched hands. I begin to draw the painting for our records while Khorin begins looking it over. We notice that the globes appear to be hiding some writing.
The messages stat the following “In deference to our lady of shadows, the following are hereby consigned to servitude within the lady’s light” below the inscription is an area for several names, only one remains, Ashamintallu. We think that a succubus is pretending to be Sorshen and now we know her name. Above the other hand it stats “Those who would seek my inner sanctum need only speak my artist name.” I look in my notebook and tell everyone the name is Amivadeus Yasrin. Instantly I am teleported to a beautiful chamber.
Chamber of Lust(spawn)
Soon I am joined by my friends minus my golem. As I leave the alcove my intent to find a way back so I can get my golem, I’m pissed. In the chamber four lust sinspawn prostrate themselves before, I order them back to their posts while we search for a way back. I think the gods are screwing with me.
We can’t find a way back, in the middle of the search one of the sinspawn asks me what Khorin is doing and I shout at it to mind its business and return to their post. We decide we better move on before the sinspawn grow too suspicious.
I used to need ballroom, not anymore
We move up the stairs to the next room, it is a huge ballroom and there is a large masquerade ball going on with loud music and dancing crowd. Up on a ruby throne is Sorshen herself; oh s*%@ we are in trouble. She stands claps her hand twice and the band stops playing a hush falls over the partiers. She speaks in a seductive voice “oh my sweet subjects, now is the time to enjoy the fruits of our labors, you can indulge your most hedonistic impulses, for all indulgences honor me. Those who would interfere are foolish. But, we have some in our midst who work against us. Behold the prides that stand before us!” All eyes fall upon us with the rage of a mob. Karzoug the runelord of greed steps forward and yells “The only place for them is the grace! Lets drag them there!” and the crowd advances toward us.
Khorin begin his oratory and move forward to engage the crowd, Umber rides forward and attacks the crowd and for most of us it disappears and we see another lustspawn at the far end of the hall casting a spell and she disappears, now we’re looking for an invisible opponent. Fortunately we have been ready for this. Most of us move up by Khorin and prepare for battle as Skoodge cast invisibility purge and gets on Umbers tiger, they run forward to try and to find the big red menace. As they reach the end we still don’t see her, she must be flying and is in an area not affected by the purge. We realize Ghash still believes the illusion and we try to shake him out of it. Skoodge drinks a potion of fly and begin the move across the room, as he reaches the halfway point he is struck by lightning and the lustspawn is visible. She is near the ceiling, I web her, Ghash lobs a bomb at her and hits, she gets free of the web and moves toward a door. Umber runs forward drawing his bow and using his smite evil power he fire three arrows into her. Skoodge tries to grapple her, her counter attack against him fails and he has her in his grips, but like a dog chasing a bull what does he do with her. I cast force hook charge and hit her critically with my scimitar and she falls to the ground as do I, but thanks to my boots of the cat I land gracefully on my feet. This lustspawn was tough and well equipped, I’m glad we were able to drop her.
| Grizzlydude |
Iron and Gray Maidens abound
After the lust spawn we begin looking around for a way out of here. The only exits we find are a tunnel that leads back to the four lust spawn we left earlier and the door we came from. Khorin breaks out his wand of detect secret doors and begins looking for another way out. After a short while he has a hit, a little bit longer he knows the location of the secret door and he begins looking for traps. After some time he says it has a magical trap and he doesn’t know how to disable it. Crud. He and Skoodge are little wary of traps since they both got singed badly by a lightning bolt. After a couple of minute of dithering I get frustrated and just go over to the door and throw it open. Nothing happens.
This room has a mosaic of hundreds of snakes intertwined and little else, but there is a large ironbound door on the side. We spent a couple of minutes looking around the room and drawing the mosaic.
We approach the door and Khorin looks it over says it’s locked but not trapped, good news. He picks the lock and we open the door. Inside are many torture implements and a large column with a stairway circling around it.
We enter the room and we hear a Gray Maiden scream out “in the name of Sorshen and Eurythnia reborn” and she charges at us. We didn’t even have a chance to react when she hits Khorin with her charge. Another maiden tries to charge Khorin too, doesn’t make it before Khorin steps back and starts his performance and cast Haste on us. I step forward and swing at her while casting my Shocking Grasp spell, sword hits and electricity surges through my body into hers and she crumples to the ground. Skoodge move over to Khorin and lays hands on him infusing him with divine healing. Helenda steps forward and swings her long sword at the other maiden and connects. Khorin hits the other maiden with his long spear and she is hurt, just as two more maidens show up behind us. Skoodge move and hit a new maiden with his axe. I finish off one of the original maidens, Helenda moves towards the new arrivals as Khorin shouts a Scorching Invective and the maiden Skoodge hit falls to the ground and the other one catches fire. The last maiden move to swing at Khorin and he plunges his spear deeply into her chest and she perishes. Helenda tells us that one of the maidens we killed was the company second, Quenelle. Helenda then takes Quenelle’s sword and says she won’t need it anymore. Fairly certain given the maidens pattern so far, there is likely a barracks nearby with more maidens off duty.
As we circle the central pillar we spot a set of double doors, Khorin and I go over to the doors. They are barred from the inside, we bash into them and the doors open. As the doors fly open we are hit by five crossbow bolts. We see five more maidens in their underwear with large shields and drawing their long swords. I cast a fireball as Khorin cast scorching invective, all but one falls to the ground dead. If they were smart they would just surrender we have no quarrel with them. Helenda charges the last one and misses, Skoodge fire his blowgun and hits, she is still up and tries to hit Helenda, she fails and charge forward and slice her, she falls dead.
We begin to look around the two rooms for anything useful, we find intricate plans for the attack on Korvosa, and something tells me these might be valuable in the right hands. All the Maidens have two potions of cure light wounds and some gold. We gather the weapons and armor. We’ve been stowing the armor and swords in our bags of hold and handy haversacks. As we were searching the torture chamber we find three cells and Khorin finds a secret door.
| Grizzlydude |
Bloody murals
We approach the secret door and Khorin searches for traps, he doesn't find any. He opens the door, we see columns that look like entwined limbs, and mural depicting horrible acts of bloodletting, along one wall is a collapsed scaffold. The blood in the mural looks real and fresh.
As we were taking in the scenes we are attacked by bloody mists. Four of them attack Khorin and myself and we feel our constitutions weakening and feel ill. Khorin retaliates with a sound burst that hurts them. I fire off an empowered fireball killing all but 2, but unfortunately to get as many as possible my fireball hurts Khorin as well, I hope he forgives me. One of the mists moves and hits Khorin again. Helenda moves forward and hits one; she’s proving to be very helpful. Skoodge heals some of Khorin’s wounds. Khorin uses sound strike to finish one off and I move forward and shocking grasp the last one it dissipates as it dies.
The blood on the walls is real and the mists were vampiric bloated on blood. We examine the murals in more detail and I draw copies of them. Ghash finds a pot of paint that remains good after thousands of years, we'll find out what it is later. At the end of the room is a tunnel.
The secret
The tunnel leads to a roughhewn room that appears unfinished. The room contains a large pyramid carving, as we move to investigate further we are set upon by three demons that just walked out of the walls. I don’t think and empty room exists in this place. Two of them hit me with long spears and one of them bites Skoodge. I attack one with my sword and spell, as the acid elemental shocking grasp surges through me and into the demon it drops to the floor dead. Helenda steps up and attacks the other one near me.
The one near Helenda and I attacks me with its long spear and bites Helenda. Khorin uses sound strikes and critically wounds one. I use another acid elemental shocking grasp on the one near me and I critically wound it. Helenda connects with her long sword, but the damn demon is still standing. I get hit again with a long spear, Skoodge heals some of my wounds, I now have two of them attacking me and I am hit three times. Khorin hit the demon he fought earlier hard, it still stands. I hit one three times and it finally goes down. Helenda hits the remaining one twice and Skoodge heals me some more, I get hit again, Khorin hits the last one with his long spear and follow up his blow with a hit from my scimitar and it falls dead.
As we clean up and heal a little we examine the carving, it is very detailed and I begin drawing a copy. It shows several levels below the ground under the pyramid and it appears to be the final resting place of Sorshen. We then realize that the pyramid is the one that serves as a base for castle Korvosa, it’s the Grand Masaba. This is very interesting.
We decide to settle in to the day in the barracks used by the Gray Maidens. Helenda and I take the mid watch and I decide to have a heart to heart with her. She continues to call me my lady, springing to my defense, and is being deferential. I explain again what happened to me and give her the complete history of myself and our group. I explain that she can continue to call me my lady if that makes her happy, but we are friends and companions. I ask her to join our band and she happily agrees, we agree that she should mentor under Skoodge to prevent problems. It’s clear to both of us that we are attracted to one another. By the end of our talk we are holding each other; we stop short of any more physicality and silently maintain our watch.
A long climb
The next morning we prep ourselves for the day ahead. Once we are ready we begin climbing the stairs up. It takes quite a while as we climb about 20 stories of stairs; we take a brief break before entering the room at the top of the stairs. We don’t want to enter combat winded.
Chamber of statues
When we reach the end of the stairs we enter a beautiful room with a pearl like domed ceiling. In the room there are eight alcoves and seven of the alcoves have basalt statues of rune lords. On the floor is a sun and around the sun is written in Thassilonian “She who desires to ascend the Lady’s Light must first deign to embrace the Lady and the Lie". As we examine the statues they paint and interesting picture of how Sorshen viewed her peers. The Lady is obvious the statue of Sorshen, the lie is probably Karzoug the Rune lord of greed and he is offering a golden rose, that’s out of character for him. I hug the statue of me and then Karzoug, in the eighth alcove a golden light begins to flicker, we all jump into the light together.
Oriana’s last fight?
I arrive in a heptagonal room with one door and I’m alone. Great did we just get separated? I open the door and across a room is another door and red haired Gray Maiden stands there, she charges me and I am hit as she screams “let me great you in the way you deserve”, sometimes looking like Sorshen isn’t so good. I don’t want to kill her; she is likely Oriana the leader of this Gray Maidens faction, or what’s left of it. I swing scimitar while casting frigid touch hoping to stagger her, I can see she is staggered; she tries to knock my scimitar out of my hand and fails. I then see my friends come up behind her and attack her as well. I decide to use the back of my blade and cast Frigid Touch again, I hit her critically, she feels the icy touch and she falls unconscious. Once she is down I grab a set of manacles out of my Handy Haversack and secure her. Helenda confirms that she is Oriana.
Skoodge begins healing me and then Oriana. She wakes and begin shouting that we are the latest plaything of Sorshen and that we should just kill her. After a minute or two she just slumps down, she is defeated. That’s when we begin talking her and telling her we think Fauxshen is a succubus named Ashamintallu and she has been impersonating Sorshen for a long time. As Oriana listens to us we can see she is putting the pieces together. She says she isn't a succubus, she is some sort of demon and that we need to prepare ourselves for a hell of a battle when we enter the boudoir. She insists that Helenda not join us, she is worried that she will be charmed and we will be forced to kill her, we explain that Skoodge is going to cast protection from evil on all of us to prevent exactly that.
As we start planning this out Skoodge, Khorin and I begin applying our spells to everyone. I end up going into battle under the effects of Protection from Evil, Cat’s Grace, Shield, Haste, Fly, Barkskin, and Crusaders’ Edge.
Holy crap that’s a lot of spells.
Into Sorshen’s boudoir
Oriana activates the teleporter and we all arrive in a large room with a large bed and Sorshen floating above it. She immediately begins talking to us seductively and arrogantly and says to us, “This is a delicious surprise! Your just in time my last supplicant has lost her allure” We look over and see a desiccated corpse. She looks at Oriana and says “Oriana, my love, this is unexpected. Am I to take your return as an indication of a change of heart” Oriana is visibly disturbed by this. She them begins sizing us up and disparages everyone, but myself and Khorin, whom she deems worthy to join her. It was very weird. Khorin begins to talk to her and calls her by name and explains who we think she is, I continue as does Helenda and Ghash. She is getting rattled and suddenly she changes into a demon. Khorin moves towards her, as does Ghash, Ghash throws his bombs in rapid succession hitting her directly, he doesn’t miss once. This has clearly injured her grievously. I fly straight at her and hit her with an empowered acid elemental shocking grasp through my sword and my strike plunges deeply into her body. Miraculously she falls 20 feet to floor below and dies. It was a shock to us that she died that quickly.
As we settle down and start looking around we find the room surprisingly devoid of valuable things. But for some reason I really like the décor. Oriana explains that the two gems we found can be placed in the serpent’s eyes and active a teleporter, fauxshen used to go there every morning. We all hop to the next room.
The Shard of Lust.
It is a very odd room it is a wet pink clay infused with glittering crystal. I think its been vajazzled. We see the Shard of Lust as soon as we enter the room. Khorin goes over to it and plucks the Ioun stone from its orbit around his head and places it in the shard. As he picks it up he can feel the power surge through him and he sees the location of the next shard. It looks like we’re going to Kaer Maga. We start to go through all the stuff scattered about and we find some very interesting things.
To be continued.......
| Grizzlydude |
Leaving the Lady’s Light
We spend an evening resting and celebrating our victory over the demon as we plan our departure from the Lady’s Light. We know we bypassed areas and we need to check them out before we leave, we need to find Khorin’s scorpion and I need my Golem, we also have to speak to the Trogs and Bogs and hash out the spice deal for Ms. Kalmeralm.
We used the teleporters to get down to the level where we fought Oriana. She packs up her belongings and asks what we plan to do with her? We explain that it is up to her, she can join us on our quest to find all seven shards, she can come back to Magnimar and we can probably find her a job, or she can depart at any time to do what she likes. We hold her to no bounds. We use the teleporters again to get down to the statues and find the stairs.
As we descend the stairs we discuss our plan of action regarding the four lustspawn. Umber is convinced that we need to destroy evil and they are evil. Paladins are so black and white, but I’m not going to argue with him.
We quickly leave the torture chamber and enter the Grand Ballroom, we find the same ball going on, it looks like it triggers anew every time someone enters the room.
We enter the chamber with the lustspawn, they quickly gather and bow to me on bended knee. As they are kneeing Ghash, Oriana, Helenda, and Khorin attack them. Umber waits until they stand and are ready to fight, it’s an honor thing. I don’t fight, I’m not needed and I don’t think we needed to kill them.
Oriana shows us the hidden teleporter going back to barracks Helenda lived in. We arrive in a gallery. We head out of the room and find my golem and Khorin’s scorpion. As we move through the bath house and barracks Oriana asks if we will help her bury the fallen Maidens. We agree and begin gathering the bodies. We leave the galley and begin digging graves in the sand on the beach. Skoodge begins a memorial service and we lower the dead into their graves. It’s a solemn time and I feel a little guilty for killing them, we should have tried harder to be diplomatic, but I was so mad at what they had done to Helenda and other Maidens that I lost my temper. I need to try harder in the future.
We leave behind this area of the Light and the golem tows us to the dock at the other end of the grotto. When we arrive we use the teleporter to take us back to the shrine where we kissed Sorshen’s feet. We cross through the room with the gray flame and make our way down a hallway lined with doors. Each of the ten doors led to bedchambers, each room is an ideal temperature, they smell nice, and the beds themselves look and feel recently made.
Khorin finds a secret door at the end of the hall, after he looks it over he determines that it is magically trapped. We mull it over and I will try to open it while everyone else stays in one of the bedchamber. We hope that if a Sorshen clone opens the door it won’t trigger the trap, we were wrong. I touch the door and I am enveloped in freezing water. Fortunately some of the water misses me. The secret door opens and shortly thereafter so does the door to the bedchamber. I am greeted with, we can see how cold you are and you would win that contest the college had last month. I enter a wonderful marble bedchamber. The bed is on a platform and the walls have frescos of Satyrs and Nymphs running. The ceiling is inlaid mother of pearl. This was likely one of Sorshen’s bedchambers. I decide to change into dry clothes.
On the north side of the room are a set of double doors. Khorin does not believe they are trapped. We open them and we see a room that has starburst fresco on the floor and four benches lining the walls, it looks like a classroom I had in school, we sat on the benches and the teacher was in the center lecturing to us. The paintings on the wall show people engaged in alchemy, conjuration, and enchantment all area of interest to Sorshen. The next room we enter has a pool of water in the center and appears to be a bath. Not needing one right now we avoid it.
We open the door to a room with six platforms that are draped with white sheets, the walls are a lovely shade of blue and bookstands are at the end of each platform. On one of the bookstand is a large tome, as we examine it we find three scrolls in it. The book is called Dreams and Desire, I’ll read it later. Each platform has manacles at each corner to tie down humanoids.
As we enter the next room Khorin starts casting Weird Words before I even see the interior and Umber charges in and attacks a creature, by the time I enter the room they have killed a Seugathi, I didn’t get to draw my sword. In this room we find a book titled From the Minds of Monsters, penned by Sorshen herself in beautiful handwriting. I will definitely study this book closer. The last room here was unremarkable and contained old useless alchemical concoctions.
After a long day we decide that Sorshen’s bedchamber is the perfect place to bed down for the night. We organize our watches and I decide to sleep in Sorshen’s bed. During the night I have another series of incredibly erotic dreams involving places, people, and creatures I have never been to or seen. I get woken up for my watch and I am drenched in sweat and naked. I'm beginning to get worried, we need to leave this place soon while my sanity remains.
The next morning we head out of the room and make our way back to the beach where two more Maidens are buried, as we travel through the rooms and battlesites we discuss everything that has happened to us and the Maiden as we entered. When we reach the beach we all pay our respects to the fallen Maidens buried on the beach, get in the boats and head to the last obstacles to our departure.
We reach the room with the sarcophagus and we go over to it. I open it to look at my old body one last time. It has already started to decay. It’s weird seeing your face on a corpse and a different face in polished silver.
Using fly and levitate we enter the room where columns attacked us and head down the tunnels.
| Grizzlydude |
Umber, G M Aasimar 9th level Paladin of Serenrae
Skoodge, NG M Goblin 9th level Cleric of Immonhiel
Ghash , NG M Half-Orc 9th level Alchemist
Khorin Horn (Flappy), CG M Aasimar 9th level Bard
Feng Dao (Fred), CN F Azlanti (Sorshen clone) 9th level Magus
Helenda, CN F Human 4th level Fighter – Former Gray Maiden
Visiting the Isle of (Witch) Dr. Maroux
As we leave the tunnels we stop by Maroux’s island, she is surprised to see Oriana. She is a little shocked to see me as well. We spend the evening telling our tale and asking her about a spice deal for Ms. Kalmeralm. Maroux thinks she can work a deal with the trogs for a piece of the action. We’re glad to hear that, we just want to get back to Magnimar.
We are out of the Lady’s Light a few days early, so we decide to head north along the beach to Magnimar. The next few days go fairly uneventfully, one day Khorin sights our ride and uses his Dimension Door wand to board the ship and direct them to us. The boat arrives and sends out small boats to us. The return to Magnimar goes without event and we make our way to Heidmarch manor.
A Magus back in Magnimar
The next few days are spent telling our tale to Heidmarch’s as they read our journals. Sheila is worried about the implications of the Sorshen clones and the paintings showing her under Castle Korvosa. We use our connections with the city watch to get Oriana a job with them, they are delighted to have someone with her experience and they place her in a prominent position.
Khorin takes charge of selling the artwork and magic items we don’t need and does a good job. I spend the next month studying From the Minds of Monsters. In my off time I spend time with Helenda and Sheila going on shopping trips getting needed items and being taught how to take care of my new body, it’s complicated being a woman. I learn how to braid my hair to keep it out of my face in combat. Also, how to act and dress in different situations, and things like keeping my knees together when wearing dresses, have I mentioned that being a woman is complicated. By the end of the month I feel much more enlightened both in knowledge and the ways of a woman.
While this was going on Skoodge was busy starting a business and crafting armor for most of us. Khorin was making magic rings and Ghash was creating potions. At the end of the month I join the rest of friends and begin creating magic items for us. After a couple of months Khorin begins to get really agitated and wants to leave now to find the Shard of Gluttony. He seems to be under the influence of the Shard of Lust. We were going to stay another month, but at Khorin’s insistence we get ready to leave Magnimar. The Heidmarch’s have found the next Ioun stone needed for the shard and arranged travel for us aboard a magical paddlewheel powered boat. This will greatly speed our travel to Kaer Maga.
| Grizzlydude |
The Lucky Jenny
As we arrive at the dock we see our ride, the Lucky Jenny. Everything is tiny. The crew is all Halflings, the captain is named Othlo Janke and seems a nice enough fellow. The crew accommodations are properly sized for Halflings. Skoodge and Umber are fine, but the rest of us are going to be uncomfortable. It could be worse; a normal donkey drawn trip would take weeks instead of days. Part of our passage is paid for by our defense of the ship. That shouldn't be a problem, right?
The first couple of days go uneventful, even though I find a hole in the shower stall and some of the crew were peeping. The little cretins!
During 3rd or 4th night Khorin is on watch and he comes under attack by a giant dragonfly, it hits and hurts Khorin, but uses weird words on the dragonfly and it crashes into the river. Suddenly a tribe of Boggards rise up along the shore and their chief starts casting spells against Khorin. By this time we are starting to wake up. I cast fireball on a group of Boggards to the right of the chief, despite being shaken by his experiences Khorin uses weird words on the chief, and Skoodge uses Flame Strike. When the dust settles the Boggards are dead. We start searching the shore for more of them and it appears a couple ran away. We find a magical belt in the chief with the Elando Kline etched in the back. Umber uses his tiger to track the Boggards by scent. We arrive hot on the heels of the retreating Boggards and arrive at an abandoned village. We search the village and it was hastily abandoned, food was half eaten, fires were untended. We found a pit with bars covering it, but it was empty. We decide to burn the village to force the Boggards to relocate. Othlo was ecstatic that the Boggards had been defeated; apparently they have become more brazen in recent weeks and were a real nuisance.
After a couple more uneventful days we round a bend in the river and we see Kaer Maga in the distance. It’s high on a bluff overlooking the river valley we are in. It is an amazing sight.
The Half-Light Path
The Lucky Jenny approaches a thousand foot tall cliff, Kaer Maga sits at the top. The boats moors near the bottom of the cliff face and we can see a long trail going up the side of the cliff, with an equally long line of travelers walking up it in a long slow line. Othlo informs us that is we are seeking a faster way to Kaer Maga we should take the Half-Light Path. We all agree and head down the road to a small clearing at the cliff face. A large set of bronze doors cover the entrance into the cliff. We see and small group of authorities wearing brown and gray uniforms with an emblem on their chest of a golden arch on a midnight blue field, I have the sudden craving for deep fried potato slices, these men and women are the Duskwardens. They ask everyone to queue up in a line, never ones to tout authority, we line up.
After several minutes of waiting a Duskwarden approaches us and starts chatting, he introduces himself as Abra Lorati, and says we look like we handle ourselves pretty well and has us step out of the line. He also has a merchant and his two sons join us. Because we can help provide firepower if needed he can take us up by himself and only charges us 2gp each, which is significantly less than normal. As he answers questions and give instructions he hands out Halflight Charms, it shines like a torch and if we tap it help will come. We are instructed to be silent as we walk through the tunnel.
An hour into the trip Abra says “That looks wrong?” and suddenly the wall explodes out and we see two Seugathi’s. Suddenly Abra just stand there, Khorin turns and kills Umber’s Tiger. Umber, Skoodge, Ghash and I feel confused and disoriented and do nothing, Helenda moves forward to fight and tries to get around us. Khorin then turns and attacks Ghash viscously nearly leaving him dead. I realize we under the spell confusion and use a moment of clarity to back out of spell range. While this is going on two Seugathi beat on Umber who seems incapable of defending himself. Suddenly Umber’s head clears and he strikes back wounding one of the Seugathi critically, as I cast an empowered fireball that engulfs the two Seugathi while missing my friends. The wounded Seugathi falls dead. Skoodge falls back as his head clears and heals some of Umbers damage from a distance. Khorin strikes at Ghash again, killing our good friend. Umber appears confused again as does Helenda and Abra. The Seugathi continue to hurt Umber and then Khorin turns his attention to Umber and hits him with his long spear and Umber joins his tiger on the ground. I cast an intensified snowball at the Seugathi, Helenda hits it with a sword attack and Abra strikes it as well and it drops. Just as I think it’s over another Seugathi that I couldn’t see hits Helenda, but with two down Khorin appears to come out of his confusion and he joins Helenda, and Abra in striking the killing blows to the last Seugathi. Skoodge immediately cast Breath of Life on Umber and he stabilizes. Ghash is too far gone to bring back with Breath of Life. We start passing around potions of healing and Skoodge uses his shape stone magic to seal the wall. After a few minutes the merchant and his sons come back, it appears that they pissed themselves. We bundle Ghash up, Skoodge casts Gentle Repose on him and I place him in our portable hole.
The next couple of hours go very quietly as we all are on guard for more trouble, everyone except Khorin who is taking Ghash’s death very hard. We don’t blame him and we all know neither would Ghash, he couldn't stop himself any more than I could when I killed Cale.
When we reach the Duskwardens block house Abra explains what happened to his superiors and they give Skoodge a Greater Halflight Charm, nice, we can summon Abra when we need him. While examining Ghash's journal we discover his will. It states in the event of his death he wishes not to be raised, he wants his gear and his body sent to his family. We will have to hold on to his body for a bit while we work out how to get his body to his family in Magnimar.
| Grizzlydude |
Umber, LG M Aasimar 1st Level Oracle\9th level Paladin of Serenrae rides a Monitor Lizard
Skoodge, NG M Goblin 10th level Cleric of Immonhiel
Capuchin, NG M Aasimar 10th level Zen Archer
Khorin Horn (Flappy), CG M Aasimar 10th level Bard
Feng Dao (Fred), CN F Azlanti (Sorshen clone) 10th level Magus
Helenda, CN F Human 5th level Fighter – Former Gray Maiden
New friends?
As we prepare to leave the Duskwardens and enter the Warrens district of Kaer Maga a man approaches us and says he has a letter from Sheila Heidmarch. It has Ms. Heidmarches wax seal on it. We open and read it. In the letter Sheila gives us another mission to undertake while Kaer Maga, we need to acquire several pounds of construct parts form at least 3 different constructs, he will pay handsomely for the parts. The second part of the letter introduces us to a possible new member of our group, a Zen archer named Capuchin. The timing was impeccable, did she have some for knowledge of Ghash’s death or was this just a coincidence. I’ll ask when I see her next.
We spend some time on introductions and getting to know Capuchin better. We then start entering the Warren; Abra told us that we should hire a guide to use while in the city and that we will have many to choose from in the Warren.
We are being followed and talked to by many children; we catch a couple of them attempting to pick out pockets. We are approached by a young human 15-16 years old and he introduces himself as Gav and says he is the best guide in the city, Khorin asks what he charges, Gav says 5gp a day, I scoff, but Khorin tosses him a pouch with 20gps in it and says you’re hired for the next 4 days. What just happened, we didn’t vet this kid or negotiate or anything. Oh well, it his money.
Khorin and Umber explain to the kid that we are trying to locate an ancient artifact that we believe is in the area. Gav explains that we should talk to the Augers or the great library in the Therassic Spire. The problem is the Spire is closed down for unknown reason and the Augers aren’t taking customers due to a feud with the Ardoc family in Bis. He says he knows an Auger that might talk to us and he takes us to the “Sorry Excuse” to meet an Auger. On the way we get the run down on the city, its districts, factions, and how all the players relate.
The “Sorry Excuse” is a tavern that caters to travelers, why it’s almost as far from the gates as possible is beyond me.
At the tavern Gav introduces us to Vargun a female troll Auger. She seems very civilized and polite. We sit down and break bread with her and explain why we’re in Kaer Maga. She thinks the Auger’s can help, but they are not working right now until a dispute with the Ardoc family is resolved. She explains that an Ardoc brother Berkanin has kidnapped her brother Augustille and is holding him in his manse. The Auger cannot do anything without starting a war with the Ardoc family and the Ardoc’s are ignoring their pleas for help. We agree to help.
After some discussion amongst ourselves we decide to go and see the head of the Ardoc family Merriman at the Kiln. We arrive at the Kiln and request and audience with Merriman Ardoc and explain why we are here. Then we wait. A couple of hours pass and we are brought before Merriman. We explain that Berkanin has kidnapped an Auger named Augustille and that we would like his permission to retrieve Augustille from Berkanin’s custody. Merriman says he knows of this, but has been forced to do nothing due to internal family politics. He further says that if we could bring Berkanin back to him for a “Fair” trial from his faction that he could reward us and then we would have Augustille to return to the Augers. We agree to arrest Berkanin and return him for justice to be served.
| Grizzlydude |
Umber, LG M Aasimar 1st Level Oracle\9th level Paladin of Serenrae rides a Monitor Lizard
Skoodge, NG M Goblin 10th level Cleric of Immonhiel
Capuchin, NG M Aasimar 10th level Zen Archer
Khorin Horn (Flappy), CG M Aasimar 10th level Bard
Feng Dao (Fred), CN F Azlanti (Sorshen clone) 10th level Magus
Helenda, CN F Human 5th level Fighter – Former Gray Maiden
The Hanging Manse
Gav is really turning out to be a good guide; he is able to take us directly to the Hanging Manse where Berkanin lives. The house is perched about 50ft up jutting off the side of an immense wall. Looking around once we arrive and it appears that there are 2 ways in, and elevator and a set of stairs in the wall. I suggest that we fly up and begin looking for Berkanin, after being outvoted it is decide that we will take the stairs. As we approach the stairs and number of eyes open on the wall and a several voices say “No Solicitors, petitioners, inquisitors, or social calls! This is your only warning” Then all the eyes focus on Khorin and say “And this means you” creepy! Again I suggest flying.
After some discussion we take the stairs, Gav volunteers to guard Skoodge’s Giant Toad near the Manse.
As we get to the top of the stairs we announce ourselves, but we neither see nor hear anyone. After following the landscaped trails though the garden, we pass a couple of rooms. We see entry hall and a shed, but we decide to enter the abode through the dining room.
Flanking the two large patio doors entering the dining room are two Terracotta warriors with swords, or what someone thinks Terracotta warriors look like, being Tian I know they are poor imitations. Umber grabs the door handle and immediately set upon by both the statues, they hit him twice with their swords. Khorin immediately used Weird Words on one of them, I swing my Scimitar while casting Shocking Grasp on another, they are fast and they hit Umber again twice, this time critically wounding him. Capuchin fires an arrow at the one of the Terracotta soldiers and it crumbles to dust and then fires three arrows into the second and it breaks apart in a pile of broken pottery. I collect some of the parts for Pug back in Magnimar.
Skoodge, who was looking at some of the plant life, looks over and says where did the statues go? He quickly gives Umber some divine healing. We look around the room and I go to collect some incense and painting and I am stopped by Khorin. He says we are here on a lawful mission to apprehend Berkanin and we will not steal. So suddenly we don’t take things, we’re going to be awfully poor if we have to count on the non-existent pay we get from the Pathfinders. Reason number 8,582,302 why I miss Cale.
There are two doors out of the dining room we take the left and enter a largish hallway with a library on our left and an automated kitchen on our right. Umber and Skoodge go into the kitchen, Khorin and I go into the library, Capuchin, Helenda, and my Glass Golem remain in the hallway. As Khorin I examine the library we hear and feel a large explosion. We run into the hallway and see a blackened Skoodge, Umber, and Lizard. Skoodge says “I just asked for an apple pie!” I start laughing and return to the library. I find an odd pornographic flip book and a Clay Golem Manual, yes! Just as I start to put it in my handy haversack Khorin and Helenda give me a dirty look, crap. I put it back on the shelf.
We hear Skoodge yell and we run down the hall. Umber and Skoodge saw a statue disappear. As we start looking around the statue re-appears and rips in Helenda. Umber is nearby and his lizard bites the statue and he hits it with his No-Dachi, Helenda swings her Long Sword and misses, Skoodge heals Helenda. The statue hits Helenda again, Umber and his lizard both connect with the construct and it dies. Myself, Khorin, Capuchin, and the Golem couldn’t get into combat because the hallways was too small, we were plugged up. I grab more parts for Pug.
Across the room are stairs going up. We get up stairs and find a large nest in one room and an office in another. The nest room smells awful. In the office we find a locked box and a large mirror. When we touch the mirror we can see Gav sitting on the giant toad bored. I wish I could take this.
Ahead we see a catwalk that goes to another area of the house, we must be getting close we’re running out of rooms.
Umber steps out onto the catwalk and get about halfway when it starts to shake, fortunately his lizard is very surefooted and he maintains his balance. We see a wing briefly and then a Harpy, it fires arrows at Umber and misses, it then flies away. Khorin heads out on the walkway while Umber continues across. They come under attack from behind, a Catfolk woman on the roof is firing a bow at Umber and Khorin. Khorin uses Weird Words again and she is very injured. The Harpy returns and begins attacking Khorin and he takes some hits, Umber hits the Harpy using his Smite evil ability and kills it in one blow. Capuchin moves out on the catwalk and fires on the cat women and she dies too. Again the narrow hallways limit our ability to fight.
In the room Umber is in he finds a lever and stops the catwalk shaking. The main room for this floor is a large master bedroom and it appears that the cat women and Berkanin were involved with one another. I make the mistake of entering the bathroom, hey a girls gotta go sometimes, I set upon by a swarm of tiny disgusting constructs. I back out of the room and fireball the bathroom, that takes care of the little bastards and I’ve got my third pile of construct parts for Pug. If Berkanin doesn’t know we’re here he is deaf and numb.
Umber and Khorin advance up the stairs to Berkanin’s lab. As they reach the top we hear “Ah, more toys! Let’s take you apart and see how you work.” As we move up the stairs we see Augustille attached to a machine and he is obviously in pain. Berkanin is flying on the far side of the room using some sort of mechanical wings. The room has no roof; if we don’t act fast Berkanin will be able to fly away.
Umber moves up and hits one of the constructs three times and it falls apart into pieces. Khorin hits Berkanin with Weird Words. Skoodge cast Wall of Thorns across the top of the building, sticking Berkanin to it and preventing his escape. I use the fly spell from my armor and prepare to attack Berkanin. The golem and Helenda reach the room and engage the other construct damaging it. Umber moves and attacks the last construct, destroying it. Khorin casts Weird Words again, Skoodge prepares Breath of Life, I cast an Empowered Acidic Shocking Grasp and move to hit him with my Scimitar, I swing with the flat of the blade to try and knock him out. I hit and the power of the spell flows out of my hands and into the scimitar terminating with Berkanin, he falls to the ground, Skoodge cast Breath of Life and he is alive. We quickly manacle and gag him.
Skoodge heals him to conscious. We go over to Augustille, he is babbling in Aklo, fortunately I speak it. Skoodge think he has been driven insane by the machine and heals his insanity, we get him off the machine and heal his wounds, he is very grateful and we tell him we were sent by Vargun to rescue him. Skoodge then heals us and finally Berkanin.
Into the Kiln
We leave the Manse mostly intact and return to the Kiln. When we arrive we are brought into a large room with a huge table around which sits members of the Ardoc family. We tell Merriman what happens, a member of the family leaves while we tell our tale. Merriman apologizes to Augustille for Berkanin’s actions and promises justice. The family member that left comes back a little later and talks to Merriman. Merriman then says that we were true to our word and Berkanin’s house is in great condition. He gives us a handsome reward and offers to buy magic items from us in the future for a good price and offers a deal on Constructs. I’m thinking my Glass Golem could use an upgrade or two.
| Grizzlydude |
Umber, LG M Aasimar 1st Level Oracle\9th level Paladin of Serenrae rides a Monitor Lizard
Skoodge, NG M Goblin 10th level Cleric of Immonhiel
Capuchin, NG M Aasimar 10th level Zen Archer
Khorin Horn (Flappy), CG M Aasimar 10th level Bard
Feng Dao (Fred), CN F Azlanti (Sorshen clone) 10th level Magus
Helenda, CN F Human 5th level Fighter – Former Gray Maiden
The Auger Temple
We leave the Kiln and make out way back to the Auger Temple. As we arrive it appears our return has preceded us as many Auger’s are outside of the temple waiting for us. As we return to cheers Augustille collapses on the ground and begins thrashing about, his back arching and his mouth frothing. He starts bellowing a prophecy in Aklo. I quickly start writing down what he says.
The owl will seek but will not find,
But spire of knowledge pays in kind
In secrets kept in secrets keep
In a forest dark and a cavern deep.
The abbey of the glutton moon
Will flow with blood, the wind in tune
To finish that began before
And open the Doomsday door.
The shattered star with seven shards
For seven lords with seven swords
The queen of blue distant skies
will kindle anew the ancient wars.
The seas will rise and men will drown
And what was lost shall claim the crown.
As he finishes his prophecy he relaxes and the Auger’s help him to his feet. Vargun tells us we just witnessed a true vision and she thinks this one was for us. Vargun tells us she has a lead on the shard and explains that the Council of Truth vanished a couple of years, but that their sigil has been showing up in unusual places, also the Therassic Spire has closed its doors for unknown reason, which never happens. She has learned that the two organizations have sent a team of explorers to search for the “shard” in the undercity. We discuss the implications with her and decide to go to the Spire in the morning. We spend the rest of the day and evening with our new Auger friends.
The Therassic Spire of Doom
The next morning we leave for the spire and when we arrive Vargun knocks on door. As small panel opens and a woman yells at us “If you can’t read the sign then there is nothing for you here!” Vargun tries to talk the woman into letting us in, and then I say we know where the Runelord Sorshen is buried. The panel closes and we here bolts sliding on the door. The door opens and a hunched woman in red robes ushers us in quickly and slams the door shut again. The woman is a librarian named Koifa, after spending several minutes talking to her about Sorshens location and explaining what we are doing, she sighs and explains the library’s situation. She tells us a race called the Caulborn live under the city and a few weeks ago they contacted the spire and offered direct assistance in recovering an artifact of great power. The librarians of the spire are not trained in combat and exploration so they hired a group of explorers. A Human female Monk named Hasari, a Halfling male Rogue named Perotus, a Gnome male Bloat Mage named Luonim the Vast, and a Dark Naga female named Silasni. They are currently overdue for check in and whereabouts are unknown, she offers us a reward for their return. She goes on to tell us where to meet the Caulborn. She takes us to a wall and opens a very well hidden door and escorts us down a long tunnel to another secret door. She opens it and says this is where I must leave; she wishes good luck and hopes to see us soon.
| Grizzlydude |
Into Karzoug’s Dungeon
Directly in front of us is a secret door that is slightly ajar. As we open it we see a head sized blob of purple goo floating in the center room. We enter the room and a female voice says to us “please state your inquiry” I ask how do we shut you off. A rune forms from the blob and then a flash of light. Suddenly I feel very weak and can barely stand, I look around and Helenda is in the same boat as I. The blob returns to its former state. I don’t want to wait around see if it resets so I head for the door on the other side of the room. I, Skoodge, Helenda, and Umber make it out of the room. The blob then says “please state your inquiry” Khorin asks it a question another rune forms and Khorin and Capuchin run out the door we came in and down the tunnel.
Skoodge breaks out his wand of lessor restoration and proceeds to fix Helenda and I. After several minutes we see Khorin and Capuchin on the other side of the door, Khorin uses his wand of Dimension Door to move over to us. Why didn't he think of that sooner?
Ahead of us is a 30 foot hallway that turns to left and a door midway on each side. We flip a coin and go to the right door, my compass says south.
Khorin opens the door and the room has spiked chains hanging from ceiling and three creatures that immediately attack Khorin and Capuchin with chains. Capuchin fires his bow and pin cushions one of the creatures, Khorin yells out that they Kytons and I cast an intensified snowball for no affect. Khorin skewers one, Helenda swings and misses, as the chains lash out and hit Khorin and Capuchin again. Capuchin them fires his bow and kills on the wounded one and them shifts targets and puts three arrows into the last Kyton, I followed up with a scorching ray ending the combat. In the room we find two Cloaks and a Monk’s Robe. Skoodge and Helenda take the robes and Capuchin takes the robe. Skoodge spends some time healing Khorin and Capuchin.
We walk to the other door. Khorin opens it and before he can enter it we hear, “Please do not enter for I will be forced to attack you” I look into the room and see a beautiful Couatl, the Couatl says “Runelord Sorshen! It is good to see you again how are, please enter?” I explain that I am fine and ask how it is? As I enter the room. I then ask how we can free it from this chamber. It explains that I need to use an artifact pressed against the summoning circle and say “By the power of Thassilon, I release you.” I get one of the shards from Khorin and enter the room, I press the shard against the summoning circle and say the phrase, immediately the Couatl is freed and is very happy, it gives me 4 of its feathers as a token of its gratitude, I am very honored and proud to free this noble creature. He introduces himself as Tsikinal and thanks everyone before he uses plane shift to return home.
After bid our farewells to Tsikinal, we proceed down the hallway and around to the left. We see a door to the right and up ahead a little one on the left. Khorin uses his gloves to look into the room on the right and he sees a huge Orrery. I want to play with the Orrery, but there is another door and we decide to investigate it instead, I come back and play with it later.
Khorin again uses his gloves of reconnaissance and sees a human female crying. We open the door and see the woman crying over the body of a Halfling. She barely registers our presence. Khorin moves forward to try and soothe her and check on the Halfling. Skoodge moves into the room to try and heal the Halfling, as he lays his hands on the Halfling and swarm of Hellwasp’s erupt out of the corpse and engulf Skoodge, Khorin, and Helenda. Skoodge heals the human women and regains some of her faculties. Helenda having no way of harming a swarm runs out of the room. Khorin casts sound wave and injures the swarm, but also Skoodge and the human female. I prepare to cast ice wall to trap the swarm if Skoodge and the woman can get clear. I yell my plans to Skoodge, who is now feeling the effects of poison. Khorin and the woman make it out of the room, but Skoodge is trapped, after a great deal of effort he makes it out of the room, but not before the swarm. I yell that I’m going to cast an empowered fireball and put this swarm down. Helenda, the woman, and Capuchin move out of the blast radius. Khorin and Skoodge are caught in the fireball and badly hurt, but the swarm is dead. Umber move to help Skoodge and Khorin and brings them back to consciousness. This stupid swarm has been our toughest battle in some time.
Skoodge and Helenda fall prey to the poison of the Hellwasp’s and it will take a week to heal them. After some discussion we decide to hunker down in this room rather than risk the purple goo. We gather the body of the Halfling and learn that he is the Rogue we are looking for and the human woman is the Monk. Well we have two of the other party members.
After a week Helenda and Skoodge are back to normal and we're all really bored. The Hellwasp room has a door on the far side of it and we exit through it. We are back in a hallway with a door to the right. Khorin uses his gloves again and he sees a Brain Ooze and two Gibbering Mouths. The Brain Ooze motions for Khorin to enter. Khorin opens the door and enters, Skoodge, myself, and Umber follows him in. The Brain Ooze immediately attacks Khorin, but misses. Khorin retaliates with Weird Words. The gibbering mouths hit Khorin and he is blinded, Skoodge hits one with his wooden fist, I move to attack and suddenly forget what I’m doing. Helenda charges the Brain Ooze and kills it. Skoodge is hit and now blind as well. Umber hits a Gibbering Mouth as soon so does Helenda. Skoodge and Khorin swing blindly while Helenda and Umber put the two Gibbering Mouths down for good. Well that was fun.
We don't want to go too far down this hallway without finishing up the original hallway we were in. We go back through the Hellwasp room and the Orrery. We see a door on the left side of the hall and Khorin checks it and sees plants in it. We enter the room and we start looking around, we see an incredibly accurate painting that looks more like window than a painting. Suddenly Khorin comes under attack from a giant flower. Khorin is nearly swallowed whole as Umber and I attack the plant, I use Shocking Grasp through my Scimitar and Umber uses his No-Dachi and we soon have a dead flower. Khorin has only minor injuries.
As we work our way down the corridor we see a door on the right, Khorin uses his Gloves of Reconnaissance and sees a fat Gnome, We think we have found Luonim the Vast. He opens the door we send in the golem to grapple Luonim. From the way he is acting he is clearly insane. The golem get about 10 feet into the room and Luonim pulls a lever and the room begins to spin. Khorin and I Dimension door behind him, he tries to knock us off his pedestal without luck. We strike him back, we both hit, knocking him unconscious. Khorin pulls the lever and room slows to a stop. I quickly manacle the Gnome. Skoodge makes his way over to us and cures Luonim of his insanity, I take the manacles off. As we talk to him, he isn't able to add much to what we already know of this place. He wants to leave, but we convince to stay with us until we find the Naga and we will all leave and get him past the Glyphs of Warding using Dimension Door.
In the next room we see a Grodair trapped in a cage with metal cap attached to his head. From what we know of Grodairs it would not be here willingly. We surmise that the cap is holding it here. After some discussion of how to free the Grodair, we decide to send the golem in the room with instructions to remove the metal cap and don’t hurt the Grodair. With all of us standing outside of the room the golem enters, suddenly a metal door slams shut, cutting us off from the golem. Khorin can see the water level rising using his gloves and after a few seconds all he can see is churning water. I fear that we have just destroyed my golem. About 30 seconds pass and the door just as suddenly leaps open and we see a free Grodair swimming about happily and my golem standing there holding a metal cap. I know the golem can’t love me, but I love it.
The Grodair introduces itself to us as Hummelgau and thanks us over and over, he has been locked in here devoid of his free will for 100 centuries. He agrees to stay with us for the time being, but says as soon as he can he wants to return home. So, we head to other side of the room with our ever growing entourage following us. When we get the door, Khorin looks in and sees a Naga standing there looking at a door.
We open the door and the Naga looks little surprised, but then says “Good my reinforcements have finally arrived”. We explain to him why we are here and offer to escort him back to the Therassic Spire. The Naga, called Silashi refuses to accompany us. We leave him and take the rest of our entourage back to the Spire. Now that the workshop has been cleared it will be a piece of cake to get them out. We get to room were we found Tsikinal and Khorin and I dimension door our whole group to the tunnel. When we arrive at the secret door we find it barricaded from other side and we have to waste another use of our dimension door wand to get out. We explain everything to scholars and return the Halflings body, Luonim, and Hasari to their care. They pay us our bounty and we head back in. The trip back to where left Silashi goes smoothly, which is unusual for us.
When we get back the Naga is gone.