An' how do we get to where we need to be goin'? Argust asks, wanting to seem like he's paying attention.
"It was a cruel bit of research, if you can call it that, by Mesmalatu. She would bind outsiders here to interrogate and torture. Mesmalatu has since gone on to even darker magics and abandoned us. Too far she probed into Madness and the powers of Nyarlathotep have granted her near-immortality. Her tomb now lies to the west."
"The words 'tomb' and 'near-immortality' seem like a terrible combination. How shall we call you friend? I am Brelar."
"So who, or what, is Mesmalatu? I don't think I'm familiar with the name."
"You may call me Aevaenthial. Mesmalatu was once a priestess of Lissala back and ambassador to Leng in Thassilon's day but after the fall of the empire her faith shifted to the mad god Nyarlathotep, perhaps due to her extensive contact with the denizens of Leng, and she has awakened as something far more dreadful I am sure, for no mortal could have survived such a long exile down in these chambers."
"Well met Aevaenthial. Do you know any more about this place, what lies beyond, or Mesmalatu that can help us before we move forward and discover these things the hard way?
Brelar tries to recall anything he might know about this Mesmalatu.
The name Mesmalatu does not sound familiar to anyone in the party and Aevaenthial responds, "I am afraid any knowledge I gleaned of this place while I was imprisoned is long outdated. I have not even seen Mesmalatu in centuries so I do not fully understand what she has done to herself but I fear the worst. By that I of course mean that I suspect lichdom."
Bert shudders. "Ooh, nasty. Say, there's supposed to be a really tough blue dragon searching through here--I don't know how much you could sense of us when we were in the room, but if you could tell we were there did you also notice a dragon?"
Who's Lickdum? Argust looks to Brelar and the others innocently. We'll take care of 'im if we need ta.
"Ah, you must mean Cadrilkasta. If my information is accurate, Cadrilkasta now dwells beyond the portal, in Leng. It is a dangerous journey if you seek that dragon. I do not wish to go through that portal for it leads to the Temple of the Crawling Chaos and that is one place I dare not go, especially in my condition. But let us be rid of Mesmalatu at least."
The demon-angel directs you to the west. A wide flight of stairs leads up to a large hall. Four black stone pillars support the thirty-foot-high arched ceiling above, while a pale green curtain hangs to the west. Two large faces are carved into the walls to the north and south—the north face grins and the south face scowls. Each face’s mouth is agape, allowing access to a small alcove beyond.
Upon close inspection, a shimmering but mostly transparent field of energy ripples in each of the mouths and Brelar's magical training allows him to recognize them as portals.
The long green curtain that separates the throne and western portion of this chamber from view seems to be made of a flexible but strangely damp cloth. You recognize it as a disguised green slime.
In the room you see nothing more than a gem-studded skull siting atop a pile of dust on the seat of the throne beyond the emerald curtain. Aevaenthial gasps and whispers, "It is worse than I feared; she is not a lich but an awakened demilich! Argust my friend, you will need to hit very hard for any weapon to damage her . Brelar, I fear she will resist much of your magic too . We have but one advantage; a demilich maintains a state of torpor from which she will not emerge until we attack her or disturb her treasure. We must destroy this abomination though."
(+2 underground)
for plus
Brelar will throw up 3 communal resist energy (cold), (fire), (lightning) on everyone (20 points each, for 140 points absorbed). Form of the dragon II into a gold dragon, then greater invibility. Then dimention door everyone past the green slime to get this party started. On his turn, Brelar will hold his action so he can try and counterspell using greater dispel magic on the demilich in Round 2.
After the party has prepared, Brelar transports everyone behind the slime to get near the demilich! Argust swings at the slime before it can react but somehow misses the entire wall of goo.
Bert calls on his luck, then casts a breaking spell at the demilich!
Bert shatters some bone from the skull of the detestable lich and Karn smites the undead! An unsettling cackle echoes through the chamber. "So you finally made it out, Aevaethial? You should have stayed in your prison and told your friends to save themselves."
The lich tries to devour the soul of the angel-possessed demon but Aevaenthiel resists, although he drops to his knees in pain. "You must defeat her!" he calls in support.
The slime globs together and falls into a five-foot patch of goo on Argust!
[ooc]Initiative:
2. Mesmalatu (28 dmg)
"Brelar, you're the fire wizard! I'll keep chipping away at the skull!"
Bert casts his breaking spell against the demilich again.
Argust ignores the slime and attacks his target!
for
for
for
for
for plus and DC 24 Staggering Crit
At 156/156 HP due to Con damage, AC 36
Invisible, (large) dragon Brelar unleashes a cone of flame that encompases Argust and Mesmalatu! He then moves behind them.
DC 25 Ref for half, should take care of Argust's slime problem, as well as a good chunk of the slime curtian. Arugst has resist fire 20 as well.
Bert shatters away a few more fragments of bone! Brelar burns away the slime on Argust while the dwarven warrior hacks at the demilich. Despite its natural protections against physical damage, Mesmalatu is not able to withstand the fury of Argust's blade and shards of bone go flying about the room!
Bert relaxes as the demilich falls. "Wow! I really don't want to get on your bad side, Argust! Nice job!" He looks around the room for anything of interest.
"Very well done indeed!" comes the booming, invisible voice of Draglar. Assuming no more immediate threats present themselves, Brelar burns off the rest of the green slime curtain with a few fire jets and searches the room with detect magic.
Bah, it was nothin'.
Mesmalatu’s throne contains more than her remains. A black horned mask sits on the left armrest—this is a nightgaunt mask. A deep purple nightmare rod leans against the chair back. Last but not least, sitting under Mesmalatu’s skull when she’s at rest is a large glittering sapphire. This gem is worth 15,000 gp, but Brelar can also tell that it serves as some sort of magical key.
So is this stuff worth anythin', Brelar? I know that gem is but what about all this other junk?
Brelar spends some time researching these nightmare items using detect magic.
"The gem may yet yield value beyond the gold it is worth my friend."
You mean it could be worth platinum?!? A fine treasure indeed!
"Well, if everyone's all right, let's go on to the next room. Brelar, were you able to figure out what those two items do?"
Brelar discerns the abilities of the Nightgaunt Mask and the Nightmare Rod.
Afterwards, you move to the southwestern door: The walls of this room arch up like massive ribs to form a corrugated ceiling. Between each rib stands an upright sarcophagus—all of them have been pried open to allow the contents to spill out onto the dusty floor. The bones appear to have been gnawed and cracked open.
A strange, otherworldly ghoul crouches in the chamber. He adopts a submissive pose and in a simpering voice begs you to stay your hands. "Please! Mercy! I have no wish to fight you. My presence here is torment, I only wish to return to the Temple of the Crawling Chaos. You can do the ritual, take me there. Take Morcruft home, yes!"
Bert lowers his pistol warily. "How does this ritual work? Things around here aren't always what they seem to be, so we just want to be careful."
Yeah, we're the careful types ya know!
"It is that power and force that pervades all of Leng," the creature whines back at Karn. To Bert it explains, "I watched Cadrilkasta come this way and perform the ritual to open the portal and travel to Leng. She used some sort of dust from the southeastern room and then as part of that ritual after she spent about an hour in the easternmost room. I also know that a short time after the dragon used the ritual to activate the portal to return to Leng, a sparkly skull floating on a dust ghost moved through the central room and went into the eastern room. It returned with a large crystal clutched in its jaws before going into the room to the west."
After telling you this, Morcruft goes on, "If you accompany me back to the Temple of the Crawling Chaos in Leng I will make sure my brothers and sisters who patrol the temple halls treat us well."
"Huh...large crystal. Sounds like that sapphire we found, right? And if you can keep the other ghouls off of us, that'd be great!"