OK, you're hit for 70.
PCs are up.
Withdraw
I'll replace myself soon
Obi moves to the corner and fires once with a dragon bane round from his pistol.
(steel, deadly aim, challenge, BoF, PBS)
Dragon dies.
You can find the ring you seek on the corpse.
Ow. Boom, drinks a few extracts
Then he downs a false life greater
OK lets move on!
Jan works the lever, replacing the adamantine rounds with steel.
That looks like it smarts.
Boom looks up from where he is scrubbing the blood off of his newly healed gash
Well that will teach me to get close to something that big. A shame it didn't want to talk about our differences.
Dragons are notoriously untalkative.
"Medic...." Obi croaks.
Bo eventually comes out of his stunness and moves over..
"Good job guys, let's get the ring and move on."
Yap heals Obi up with a wand..
"Does the ring do anything besides denote membership in the evil overlords club?"
Yes, between rings and amulets, you have enough geegaws to get you up to the summit.
The lets head up.
Jan racks the levers on his rifle like he's in an action play.
And one of your rounds clanks to the floor.
"Let's do it"
He does the spinning chamber thing before Doc Holiday pistol spin into it's holster..
Jan coughs and picks up the spare round, feeding it back into the rifle.
Yep, nobody saw that. Smooth.
Boom checks his fuses and follows along, swapping out his invi ring for the necessary one.
Something wrong with your rifle there Jan? Seems like a round popped out
I don't know what you're talking about.
Jan whistles innocently.
You all head up the golden road towards the Pinnacle of Avarice.
You're level 17 now.
As you proceed up, the road is a bit rough at times along the way due to age, but with some climbing effort you are able to make it up (a couple DC 15 climb checks).
Eventually as you approach the summit, you see four massive creatures, which look somewhat like spiders, but distorted approach the path. They stop and one begins to speak.
"You beings are required to perform us a service other than nutrition. We have enemies above. "
They are about 60' away and speaking loudly.
"What sort of enemies are you talking about? Odds are we can come to some sort of mutually beneficial arrangement."
Magical beasts, so arcana. You have that as well so:
Leng Spiders CE Magical Beasts. They are rare so it's CR+15, and you get no questions.
"We know the foul Denizens of Leng are working with the user of magic who awakens from the long past. That makes him our enemy as they are our eternal foes. We would have you remove the infestation. If you can remove the denizens, perhaps the caster will not wake. They are in league with him, and aided him in creating his shelter for the ages. "
"Wait, aren't you from Leng as well? If so does that mean you just called yourself foul? Additionally, aren't you evil? Why would you care if the Runelord was awakened?"
"No, we are not foul it is the Denizens who are foul. What is this evil you speak of? You are confused mortal. As to the caster of magics, he is mighty and with him on their side, the struggle for Leng against the Denizens would be much harder. "
Yes, they are huge spider like magical beasts. They have odd numbers of legs, and are generally asymmetrical so look quite funky. Note sure what confuses you. Evil things rarely think they are evil. Foul things rarely think they are foul. Leng is a dimension with many species vying for power. The spiders hate the Denizens which are the best known critters from Leng, and hence get named Denizens by people from the PMP even though they are not the only denizens of he plane. The spider is using tongues which translates their word for the Denizens into the local usage in Taldan which is 'Denizens of Leng'. They no doubt have a different word, but I don't speak Leng Spider.
"Well then.. I apologize for being ignorant to your home plane and it's inhabitants. We are here to vanquish the Rune Lord, or stop him from being released if possible. Im sure we can work together.."
"It is acceptable and expected for mortals to be ignorant. It is of no import. We are barred from entering the citadel above by powerful magics and can only serve to provide information for now. This is empowered by a device of the Denizens which you must destroy if we are to enter and wreak our terrible vengeance. "
"So these Denizens are working for Karzoug and trying to bring him back?"
"Doesn't sound like you needed to bother us, we're already on our way."
"Unless you have some information or assistance to offer."
"We cannot assist without the destruction of the Leng Device. Once that is wrecked, we will be free to enter the citadel and feed to our content. What do you wish to know?"
"Any advice on killing the Leng Denizens would be helpful. Also any info on destroying the Leng device could prove useful."
"They are very resistant to cold and electricity. They also heal rapidly. We are unaware of what the device is to do. We only know it is important to the Denizens and as such must be dealt with. "
"Alright well let's head on up then.."
"Fare well mortals. Take many heads. "
You head on up to the citadel. There's a ramp.
The seemingly infinite stone ramp finally comes to an end here. A massive pair of golden double doors stands to the north, while a smaller golden door to the west allows an alternative route onward. Intricate carvings on the walls evoke images of Xin- Shalast in its heyday, accented with vibrant paint and inlaid gems here and there. The highly polished floor consists of a checkerboard pattern of gold and black tiles, while the entire place is brilliantly lit by what appear to be dozens of bejeweled everburning torches in equally decadent sconces.
"Dibs on this place as my house for afterwards.."
All yours. You'd have to hire guards to watch the guards. And the heating bill! I don't want to run a coal mine to keep my house warm thank you very much.
You've been climbing to the top of a very steep mountain. Call it 8 hours.
Oh, call it 4 then.
Ok once we reach the top Bo does some rebuffing.. Casting extended heroism and see invis, as well as heightened awareness.
Yap recasts Extended Communal Air Walk on the group again. Lasts 70 mins each.
Boom will down a heroism and shield
"Move up and check out the side door?"
Given a nod Bo heads that way.
As you move towards the doors, four cloud giants emerge from that room, see you and move to attack.
Map is up. Squares are 10' and I have no realistic not really annoying way to occlude sections so don't metagame.