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Introduction:
Our group has been playing through the Kingmaker AP since December of 2012. Unfortunately the GM has some serious health conditions, and the campaign has been frequently interrupted while he deals with medical issues.
Our PCs are currently 12th level. Because we've played nearly 60 sessions, and my notes of the earliest sessions are pretty sparse, I'm not going to try to post every session we've played during the past 4 years. Instead I'm going to start with our first session of 2016.
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The story so far:
Six unrelated individuals accepted charters from Brevoy to explore and 'civilize' the Stolen Lands:
Garrick - human male (monk/inquisitor)
Landon - dwarf male (ranger/alchemist)
San'Kari - elf male (fighter)
Silverleaf - elf male (cleric)
Tahjah - aasimar female (oracle)
Thim - halfling male (ranger) - Thim's player recently left the group
The PCs met at Oleg's Trading Post and joined forces to continue the mission granted by their charters. They helped to prevent a small army of necromancers from destroying the trading post and its associated stockade. Later they defeated a local bandit/warlord known as the Stag Lord, and discovered that he was under the control of a necromancer named Nyrissa. They claimed the Stag Lord's fort as their own, renaming it New Hope and gradually building it into the capitol of the new barony of Galisat, led by Baron Garrick.
During their explorations of the surrounding territory, they discovered that an ancient cyclops vampire lich called Vordakai had been freed from his thousand-year imprisonment. Nyrissa was helping him attempt to take over the Stolen Lands, with plans to expand beyond that territory into Brevoy. The representatives of the new barony found Vordakai's current stronghold and defeated his present physical form there, even managing to acquire what they think is one of his phylacteries.
They also managed to claim the territory around the town of Varnhold, which had originally been claimed by another charter-holder but he was slain by Vordakai's minions. They rescued most of the residents of Varnhold, who had been imprisoned in magic jars by Vordakai; and they rescued a young silver dragon who had been taken captive by Vordakai. This makes two dragons they've befriended, as they had earlier found a talking worg who turned out to be a polymorphed ancient brass dragon. This brass dragon has recruited some hill giants to provide protection to Oleg's Fort (the town that has grown up around the trading post) and Varnhold.
Currently the barony has grown large enough to be considered a dukedom and Garrick is now Duke of Galisat. The party are still fighting Nyrissa, who has allied with the Black Sisterhood to take over the neighboring dukedom of Pitax and the Tiger barbarians for a planned invasion of Brevoy. To prevent Galisat from aiding Brevoy, Nyrissa and her associates have been trying to undermine Galisat's resources. Nyrissa's minions are also attempting to gain more control of the barbarians by convincing them their great hero Armag the Twice-Born has been reborn. To thwart this plan, the PCs are on their way to Armag's tomb to claim his sword before the Black Sisters can get their hands on it.
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Recurring NPCS:
Amaya - human female (bard) - Garrick's wife
Kara - dwarf female (fighter) - Amaya's bodyguard
Cyst - imp - Landon's familiar
Session 56: January 10, 2016
The heroes of Galisat planned to go to the northwest of Lake Hooktongue to seek the tomb of Armag the Twice-Born, which their ally Narthropple and his group of gnome explorers believed they might have located. The leaders of the duchy wanted to find the tomb before Nyrissa's supporters did, as they believed that their enemies were trying to use the sword Armag was buried with to convince the Tiger Lord barbarians that he had returned to life and gain legitimacy for the man they were trying to make the barbarians believe was Armag.
They went first to Oleg's Fort to check in with him and see how things were. There they found that Donak the priest was leading a celebration to welcome new arrivals to town and new members to the community of Erastil's worshippers. Many of the newcomers had fled the troubles in Pitax. The refugees told tales of how the new rulers of Pitax were recruiting huge rats as soldiers, as well as an aura of evil that seemed to permeate everything, and how the forces from Pitax were attempting to dig tunnels into territories claimed by Galisat. The refugees also reported that the cult of Gyronna had become strong in Pitax and the Black Sisters were powerful.
Other tales told by people attending the celebration spoke of a Lady in Velvet who appeared at times of great need to bring succor. She appeared to be human and was usually seen in forests, thus she was sometimes known as the Lady of the Forest.
Among the new arrivals were several veteran soldiers. Garrick and San'Kari decided to recruit them for the territory's army. After interviewing the men they determined that a unit should be set up at Oleg's Fort, similar to what had already been established in New Hope. They recruited two experienced men, Valen and Vord, to act as drill sergeants. The two men also warned them of a dangerous creature they had heard of or encountered, known as a Speartooth, an eight-legged monster that was not any kind of spider.
Garrick took time to check in on the hill giants that Grizz (the polymorphed brass dragon) had sent to help protect the fort. Garrick used the enchanted shovel to dig a cave for them to live in, as they found the forested area around the fort less than comfortable. Oleg told Garrick that two hill giants named Dregg and Zarn had been sent to protect Varnhold.
The heroes also heard from Bokken the alchemist that he was looking for azure lily pollen.
At the Fort, Oleg’s partner Svetlana took Silverleaf aside and warned him to watch over the sleep of his companions. She feared that the Black Sisters had the ability to taint dreams. Meanwhile San'Kari went to the stable to visit Klutz the stableboy, whom he had befriended not long after arriving at the fort for the first time. Klutz reported having bad dreams and being unable to sleep. Concerned, San'Kari took him to see Svetlana. After Garrick heard of this, he and San'Kari went to examine the stable, and Garrick discovered a taint of evil there. Garrick’s wife Amaya was especially troubled by the sensation.
While they were examining the stable, they spotted a black cat which fled when Garrick used his ability to detect evil. Landon sent an invisible Cyst after the cat, which fled to the old tree outside of town where the heroes had previously battled followers of Gyronna. When it reached the tree the cat transformed into a woman with tentacles for legs - the sign of the Black Sisters. Once Landon reported what Cyst had seen, Garrick teleported himself, Silverleaf, Tahjah and Thim to the tree. San'Kari used a ring of teleportation he had borrowed from Garrick to travel to the tree. Everyone but San'Kari activated their rings of fly on arrival, and immediately attacked the Black Sister.
Thim's arrow struck her with a vital strike, while Garrick blinded her with a holy smite. The woman then shouted, deafening Garrick and somehow causing San'Kari to become fatigued. He nevertheless hurled an axe at her and wounded her. Garrick then cast a flame strike on the tree, unaware that the invisible Cyst was nearby. Silverleaf also cast flame strike, while Garrick threw a dagger at the woman. The woman summoned a giant crocodile to attack San'Kari, who was on foot at the base of the tree. Silverleaf released a charge of fireball from his staff of fire to burn her. Following a difficult struggle with the crocodile, San'Kari slew it with a might blow. Silverleaf scorched the woman with burning hands, and Tahjah grabbed her with a telekinesis spell.
Just after San'Kari used his ring to teleport onto the tree limb beside the woman, Garrick struck her with a flurry of blows and she fell. On her person was found a ruby ring worth 300 gold pieces, a dagger of wounding, a wand of charm person, an elixir of love, and a potion of aid. She also carried a missive containing some information about Lady Quintessa and Baroness Pavetta of Pitax.`
Loot:
ruby ring 300 gp
+3 dagger of wounding
wand of charm person CL 9, 17 charges
potion of aid
elixir of love
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Session 57: January 17, 2016
After slaying the Black Sister outside Oleg's Fort, the group decided to check the residents of Oleg's Fort to determine if she had used her wand to charm anyone. Tahjah and Silverleaf cast detect magic and roamed the town, scanning everyone for signs of being enchanted. Landon drank a potion that gave him the scent ability of a bloodhound and searched for the woman's tracks. San'Kari and Garrick returned to the stable to check on Klutz again.
At the stable San'Kari and Garrick found that Klutz seemed confused. He thought San'Kari had died, and that he hadn't seen Garrick for several weeks. It also seemed that when he tried to say anything truthful, he lost some of his wits. As he was already rather slow-witted, they grew concerned that he would soon become completely mindless if they continued questioning him. Garrick went to talk to Svetlana, while San'Kari stood guard at the stable to prevent anyone from talking to Klutz.
Amaya assisted Tahjah and Silverleaf by drawing a crowd so they could scan many people at once. They found at least nine people who had been enchanted. They observed that the enchanted ones tended to be overly friendly to one another but ignored everyone else and sometimes gave nonsensical responses to conversation. These people also showed evidence that like Klutz, they suffered a loss of intelligence each time they attempted to respond truthfully to an inquiry.
Suddenly a woman approached Tahjah, saying something about "blackadder", and collapsed, dying at her feet. Tahjah and Silverleaf quickly took the woman inside, where Tahjah used a breath of life spell to revive her and neutralize poison to remove the blackadder poison from her body.
Kara and Amaya had also been on the lookout for people behaving strangely, and Kara had observed a woman with something black moving atop her head. This woman was accompanied by two other women, both armed.
At the stable, San'Kari had a strange feeling of being watched.
Garrick spoke to Svetlana, who was aware that perhaps a dozen people had fallen under the influence of the Black Sisters. She also told him of an area of about twelve miles near the Wyvernstone Bridge that had been tainted, where trollish creatures and approximately thirty armed people could be found. She believed that their enemies were guarding the area to prevent anyone from Galisat from entering. She reported that sometimes Black Sisters had been seen near the bridge as well. She was also aware of the woman Kara had seen, who was another of the Black Sisters. She told Garrick that the people of Oleg's Fort would support whatever he chose to do, but she feared that if the heroes tried to take on the Black Sisters in town, many innocent people would die.
When the group met to share what they had learned, Landon wanted to take on the Black Sisters immediately. They questioned Melania, the young woman who had been poisoned, and she told them a local man had stabbed her with a poisoned knife, possibly under the influence of the Sisters. The person she described was not one of the people Silverleaf and Tahjah had observed.
The party discussed how to deal with the Sisters. They initially planned to attack the Sisters before they left town, as Svetlana had indicated the Sisters were not staying at the fort. They thought they would leave Amaya and Kara to make sure none of the enchanted people left town as well. But then they received a message from Svetlana that the Sisters were planning to leave town at midnight and would be taking the people they had charmed along with them. The heroes prepared to follow them out of town and attack them once they were far enough away to avoid endangering the rest of the townsfolk. Landon dispatched Cyst to keep an eye on them.
When Cyst reported that the Black Sisters and their entourage were leaving, the heroes packed up and followed them, staying far enough behind to avoid notice while Cyst invisibly followed them from closer range. Cyst reported that the Sisters had eight charmed townsfolk with them. When they stopped to rest, the heroes also rested, permitted by Garrick's keep watch spell to gain full rest without sleeping.
The next morning the group prepared to attack. They flew to the location where the Black Sisters were preparing to break camp. Amaya cast blessing of fervor on their group, and Tahjah cast death ward on herself, Slverleaf, and San'Kari. Silverleaf then cast greater dispel magic on the whole group of townsfolk, dispelling the effect that had made them follow the Sisters. His spell also affected the senior Sister, Leah Anna, but not her two companions Mari and Genah. Tahjah cast holy smite, blinding Genah. San'Kari charged out with the speed granted by Amaya's spell and killed Genah. An instant after she fell, her body vanished and she was replaced by a huge troll.
Silverleaf then cast holy smite on the remaining two Sisters, followed by Tahjah casting forbid action on Mari, which prevented her from casting any spells. Garrick stunned the troll. Silverleaf then summoned a huge fire elemental to attack the troll. His earlier spell had freed the townsfolk from the Sisters' control, and Amaya and Kara beckoned them to move away from the combat.
Mari, who was a druid, attempted to affect those around her with an aura of madness, as San'Kari, Landon, and Garrick were all within reach of her spell, but she failed to affect them. Leah Anna then cast greater shout, stunning Landon and deafening everyone else. Silverleaf summoned a spiritual ally to attack her. Landon and Garrick were joined by a battlemind spell, and once Landon recovered from being stunned, the two of them killed the troll. Mari then ran to Leah Anna's side despite being wounded by both San'Kari and Landon, and Leah Anna cast dimension door to escape.
The heroes all took to the air in different directions to search for the fleeing women. It was Landon who discovered their location. As he flew in to attack, Mari transformed into a roc and flew up at him, but he was able to dodge her. He stabbed Leah Anna several times with his dagger of wounding and avoided her attempt to affect him with a confusion spell. Leah Anna tried to run away, but Landon drank a potion of enlarge person he had prepared to give himself greater reach, after which the roc scooped her up and flew away too swiftly for him to pursue.
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Session 58: January 31, 2016
After the heroes returned the people who had been under the Black Sisters' control to Oleg's Fort, the following day they set off for Wyvernstone Bridge with a company of militia. They pushed their horses to get as close as possible to the bridge by the end of the day, then camped in the lee of a rock outcrop. During the night, Landon left his body and had his consciousness occupy one the simulacra he had left behind in Oleg's Fort.
The next morning the group rode cautiously toward the bridge, sending Cyst ahead to scout. The imp saw a small number of people and at least one structure, but no sign of the trolls the refugees from Pitax had warned of, and he detected no magic or evil in the area. Garrick felt oddly drawn to go to the bridge. When the group approached the people around the bridge, they were greeted by a man named Otis Barker, who told them that he and the others were settlers from distant Brevoy. They were unaware of the existence of Galisat or New Hope, for they had written to Restov for help when they saw trolls, though Otis claimed that they had been able to drive the trolls off themselves. When Garrick and Landon told them about the threat of the Tiger barbarians, the troubles in Pitax, and the dangers in the nearby marshlands, they were persuaded to pack up their camp and head for Oleg's Fort. Garrick gave them a letter of introduction to give to Oleg when they arrived. He wondered if these settlers had been drawn to the locale as he had felt.
The group stayed with the settlers for the day, sharing their food, and saw them off the next morning. They also saw off most of their small troop of armsmen, who they sent off to explore some of the territory on the Galisat side of the river. Only two men remained to help with the horses.
After leaving the bridge, the party decided to head for a region where Cyst had detected an unpleasant aura of evil during his reconnaissance the previous day. As they rode along a bend in the river, they heard voices. Thim moved out ahead to find out where the voices came from, and returned to report that he had seen four trolls and a giant. Everyone dismounted and most of the party members activated their rings of flying to approach their foes. Silverleaf began the attack with a fireball from his staff of fire, and Tahjah quickly followed with a holy smite that left two of the trolls temporarily blind. San'Kari then swallowed a potion of enlarge person that Landon had given him and charged the giant. Garrick put on a burst of speed and rushed one of the trolls to stun it with blows of his fists. His wife Amaya laid down a path of glory to provide healing.
Three of the trolls and the giant had remained in a tight group, so Silverleaf surrounded them with a wall of fire in a ring shape, trapping them inside it. Tahjah then forbid them to move, leaving them unable to escape the encircling flames. But the spell did not prevent them from attacking, and they continued to battle with San'Kari until he was sorely injured. At that point a creature suddenly emerged from the river and emitted a blight wave that affected not only the heroes but also the trolls and giant. Landon identified the creature as a type of evil aquatic fey called a nuckelavee.
Silverleaf saw that San'Kari was in dire straits and moved forward to channel energy to heal him. San'Kari stepped back and drew his cold iron axe. Tahjah forbid the trolls and giant to attack, leaving them unable to do anything. Landon moved, leaving behind one of the trolls to attack the nuckelavee. The fey creature at that point retreated into the river, swimming away far too swiftly for anyone to catch it. The combination of fire, attacks by Garrick, Landon, and San'Kari, and the nuckalevee's blight wave ability, had dropped the giant. Soon the trolls joined him in death.
When searched, the giant proved to be carrying potions of aid and delay poison, and one of the trolls had a potion of cure moderate wounds and a tattered scroll of bestow curse in its possession. The trolls and the giant had a total of 212 gold pieces between them.
When everyone had recuperated from the fight, the group moved on, heading toward the possible location of Armag's tomb. Cyst had located a group of cloudberries which they harvested on behalf of Bokken the alchemist. Later they found an encampment of boggards that showed clear indications of having been overrun by the trolls and their giant compatriot. The boggards had been slain and some of them had been eaten.
Loot:
potion of aid
potion of delay poison
scroll of bestow curse
212 gold pieces
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Session 59: September 25, 2016
Following their defeat of the trolls and giant near Wyvernstone Bridge, and a brief berry-picking excursion, the heroes from New Hope continued toward the suspected location of Armag the Twice-Born’s tomb. Thim did not continue with them. He had chosen to go to Varnhold to train archers there. As dusk approached, the remaining group camped for the night and enjoyed an uninterrupted rest, protected by Garrick’s keep watch spell.
The next morning the group members saw several bright flashes like lightning in the sky some distance away. Later in the day after they had left their campsite, they spotted several large flying creatures near two promontories. The sharper-eyed among the group recognized the creatures as chimeras, but the chimeras either had less acute vision or were simply not interested in the travelers. As the party made their way past the boggy edge of the Hooktongue Slough, they could hear the sound of a waterfall. Narthropple’s map indicated that the river disappeared into a cave near the falls, which was the surmised location of Armag’s burial place. They came upon an area of stone rubble that indicated the presence of a long-disused quarry, likely of dwarven make. Once the waterfall came into view they could also see that at one time someone had constructed piers for a bridge over the river, but if there had ever been a bridge it was long gone.
Landon sent Cyst ahead to get a closer look at the area surrounding the cave they thought to be Armag’s resting place. The imp, invisibly spying in the form of a raven, observed a cluster of round hide huts of the kind used by the Tiger barbarians. The collection of huts was not large, and almost half of them appeared to be decayed and unoccupied. The huts were divided into two groups, one on each side of a clearing occupied by a rectangular structure and a fire pit. Cyst saw several burly warriors among the people present, but there were also women and children. When Landon had relayed this information to the rest of the party, Tahjah and Silverleaf expressed opposition to simply killing all the barbarians. They both hoped that the barbarians could be reasoned with and perhaps even made allies. Garrick agreed, and the group left their horses with the two militiamen who had accompanied them and went down to the village to talk.
They were met by a barbarian who did not appear friendly, though he made no move to attack the new arrivals. When questioned by Garrick, who knew the barbarians’ language, and by Tahjah with Garrick interpreting, the barbarian revealed that some type of ritual of rebirth was taking place inside the cave and he insisted the visitors should leave at once. Tahjah elicited from him that the barbarians would not willingly have been as bloodthirsty as they had been recently; they were under some form of compulsion. Tahjah offered to free them of it, but the speaker declined, fearing retribution from the Black Sisters.
In the meantime, Cyst had approached a fenced enclosure that held some horses and mules, and had opened the gate. When Garrick began trying to convince the speaker that the group should be allowed to go into the cave and observe the ritual, one of the horses whinnied loudly. Cyst, still invisible, flew over to Tahjah’s should and attempted to persuade her that the horses had something to communicate. When she showed no interest in investigating, Cyst tried to persuade Silverleaf. But Silverleaf didn’t believe the horses could be intelligent enough to tell them anything of use.
Despite the speaker’s warning, Garrick and the rest of the group approached the cave entrance. They had already seen that two large beings were standing guard. On getting closer they could see that these two creatures were not Tiger barbarians. Tahjah was able to identify one of the creatures as a type of aberration, a gug. The other creature was some sort of extraplanar entity that resembled a fetchling but was much larger. The party members decided that since they knew there were probably Black Sisters and other creatures inside the cave, they didn’t want to expend too much of their magic on the sentries. Garrick attempted to parley with the two creatures, but they were not at all willing to make conversation. They also appeared to be stalling for time, though to what purpose Garrick couldn’t tell.
With negotiations going nowhere, Amaya opened with a battle cry and the fight began. Tahjah tried to affect the gug with a murderous command, but found that something resisted her spell, though she knew that gugs weren’t ordinarily resistant to magic. Silverleaf hurled a fireball from his staff of fire at both creatures and it overcame whatever was causing the resistance. Garrick, Landon, and San’Kari moved up to attack the two guards with their weapons, while Tahjah and Silverleaf remained behind them with Amaya and Kara. Tahjah had cast life link on every member of the group to help to reduce the damage they were subject to. Amaya cast haste on the group as well.
Suddenly Tahjah saw the gug begin to appear blurry, and at the same time she felt the ground trembling beneath her feet. At that moment two ankhegs emerged from the earth beside her and Silverleaf. While San’Kari, Landon, and Garrick were busy battling the gug and its comrade, she and Silverleaf employed their seldom-used weapons against the ankhegs, reserving their magic for more powerful foes.
One of the Black Sisters abruptly appeared behind the two sentries, where she had evidently been hiding invisibly. She attempted to affect Garrick, San’Kari, and Landon with an aura of madness, but all three of them resisted her effect. Silverleaf disregarded the ankheg beside him to trigger another fireball from his staff, which he aimed behind the Black Sister so the flames would affect her as well as the two summoned creatures.
The second creature moved forward beside the gug, and San’Kari dealt it a fierce blow. Landon was knocked off his feet, but thanks to Tahjah’s channeled energy was able to get back up and continue fighting. Garrick was busily attacking the gug with an axe in each hand. Amaya cast good hope to further bolster the fighters, and Tahjah’s holy smite left the Black Sister blind for a short time. Unfortunately the Sister did not need to be able to see to channel her own negative energy to harm her opponents, though she was unable to prevent the energy from also harming the two sentries. Silverleaf conjured a spiritual weapon and set it to attack the Black Sister, but it found her a difficult target to hit.
Tahjah began to sense something else happening. There was something emerging from the nearby river. As she called out a warning to her companions, Landon dealt the fetchling-like being a grievous blow, and an instant later Garrick slew the gug. Silverleaf summoned a flame to his hand and pitched it at the Black Sister, but the magic failed to affect her. Amaya then summoned a swarm of mad monkeys, which scrambled over the Sister, snatching away her holy symbol of Gyronna and gnawing it while they distracted her from casting further spells. This allowed San’Kari to move up beside her and strike a heavy blow with this axe. The Sister fell to the ground, dead. When she died the ankhegs vanished and whatever had been about to emerge from the water disappeared as well.
The group members quickly searched the Black Sister’s body in preparation for entering the cavern. They found that she had two scrolls, two potions, an enchanted dagger, and a magic staff in her possession. They decided to take a few extra moments to determine what these things would do, as they might be useful in the coming fight.
Loot:
Scroll of ice storm
Scroll of sending
Potion of cure moderate wounds
Potion of levitate
+2 keendagger
Staff of healing
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Session 60 - October 2, 2016
As the team prepared to forge ahead in search of Armag's Tomb, Landon drank a potion to allow him to see anything invisible, and Tahjah cast to protect herself from negative energy effects. Amaya's spell of good hope was still in effect.
The group found themselves entering a narrow passage in which the floor was covered in loose stone, making it more challenging to move quietly. At the end of the passage was a chamber occupied by three statues on plinths standing in a row. Directly ahead of the party stood a pair of iron doors. A second pair of doors lay to their left. Tahjah scanned the statues for magical auras and found that all three carried some strong magic. While she did this, Landon went to investigate the nearest set of doors. He found them locked, as were the second set when he examined them. He also noticed something about the plinth of the center statue that caught his eye. His dwarven engineering skill told him that the plinth could be moved to reveal a compartment or opening. He enlisted San'Kari's help to shift it.
When Landon and San'Kari began lifting the statue, all three statues came to life and leaped down, the central one almost landing on top of San'Kari. Two of the statues faced San'Kari while the third turned on Landon. Garrick raced across the room to take on one of the statues nearest to San'Kari, while Landon focused his attention on the center statue so that he and San'Kari could enjoy the benefit of flanking it. The rest of the group waited, ready to step in with healing or aid if the three warriors had difficulty with their opponents.
Two figures clad in the robes of Black Sisters abruptly appeared in front of the far doors. One of them attempted to attack the nearest person, who happened to be Kara, but she failed to connect. Garrick rushed across the room to protect his wife and her bodyguard, raining blows on the Black Sister who had tried to attack Kara. His attack left the Black Sister shaken. Tahjah attempted to forbid the two Black Sisters from casting any spells but her magic had no effect on them. Kara then struck a powerful blow against the Sister who had tried to hit her, and Silverleaf flung two handfuls of flames at the same Sister. Meanwhile the center statue had hit San'Kari several times.
Cyst flew invisibly over to the center statue's plinth and tried to move it while the fighting was going on, but the imp wasn't strong enough to push the plinth aside.
The second Black Sister cast a spell, but no one observed any effect. The first Sister then issued a magical shout that deafened Garrick, Landon, and San'Kari. Garrick responded by pummeling her again. In the meantime San'Kari and Landon disposed of one of the statues, leaving only two to contend with. Tahjah again tried to prevent the Black Sisters from spellcasting but her second try was no more successful than the first.
Amaya chose to issue another battle cry to bolster her comrades. Silverleaf lobbed two more handfuls of flames at the Black Sister who had been shaken by Garrick's attacks. Then one of the Black Sisters summoned a swarming mass of black tentacles to fill the center of the chamber. Though the tentacles lashed out at everyone in the space they didn't manage to snare anyone in their grasp. Kara quickly reacted to herd Amaya out of the room and away from the tentacles. Untroubled by the presence of the tentacles, Silverleaf hurled more flames at the Sister he had been targeting. One of the Sister tried to cast another spell, but Tahjah had readied her own magic to dispel it and was able to counter it.
The tentacles lashed out again, this time grasping hold of Silverleaf, Kara, and the two remaining statues. Unable to break free and unwilling to risk losing a spell to the tentacles that gripped him, Silverleaf channeled positive energy to heal his companions of the wounds dealt by the statues and the Sisters' magic. Landon had abandoned fighting the statues to move close to one of the Black Sisters and stabbed her with his wounding dagger. Immediately after he did so her holy symbol began to glow brightly, searing into her flesh - and then her body exploded, showering the room with her remains. The other Sister had already fallen.
In addition to being splattered by remnants of the Black Sister, Silverleaf was paralyzed. San'Kari pulled him free of the tentacle's grasp, and Tahjah searched his scroll case for a scroll to free him of immobilization.
Once Silverleaf was free, Landon searched the body of the Black Sister who hadn't exploded, and he and Silverleaf determined the magical properties of the dagger, cloak, and two potions they found in her possession.
After the items were retrieved, Landon returned to examining the central statue's plinth while Garrick used his ability to see through doors to look at what lay beyond both sets of doors leading out of the chamber. The doors on the far side of the room let into an area with two narrow passageways leading away. The doors nearest the statues showed Garrick a long passage leading to a flight of steps and another door. He saw four boulders of varying sizes sitting near the doors through which he looked, and on the floor of the passage were four indentations that appeared to be about the same size as the boulders.
Beneath the plinth, Landon found a compartment containing a large box. Inside the box were seven large pearls, each worth up to a thousand gold pieces. All of the pearls radiated a magical aura to Tahjah's sight, the same aura for all but each pearl had a stronger aura than the last. Further examination revealed these to be items known as 'pathway pearls', which could transport a single individual and a certain amount of items to a specific location the bearer was familiar with. The party members each took one of the pearls.
When they had distributed the pearls, the group proceeded through the doors closest to where the statues had stood. Landon moved forward to check the passage for traps. He recognized that the floor panels were mounted on pivots designed to drop an unwary person into a pit or chasm. But placing the boulders in the indentations might lock the floor panels so they would remain stable. After attempting to move the smallest boulder unsuccessfully himself, Landon left the task to San'Kari. But despite San'Kari's exceptional strength, he found moving the round, smooth boulders a challenge. More than once he lost his grip and the boulder rolled backward, crashing into him. As he moved toward the larger boulders the danger increased. A boulder rolling back toward the doors threatened to hit everyone in the party. Finally, as he prepared to maneuver the biggest boulder into its indentation, San'Kari took a bottle of universal solvent from his pack and handed it to Silverleaf, then drew out a pot of sovereign glue and covered his hands with the sticky stuff so he could maintain his grip on the boulder and push it into place. Once he had succeeded, Silverleaf used the solvent to release San'Kari's hands from the stone.
With the floor now stable, the party moved toward the stairs at the opposite end of the passageway. Garrick viewed through the next door, seeing an empty chamber lined with columns made of fused iron weapons. In the center of the chamber stood a large horizontal wheel. The chamber floor was also covered with iron. But he saw no creatures or obvious dangers. Landon opened the door, and he and Garrick entered the iron room. As soon as they stepped inside, a sheet of ice a foot thick covered the entire room, cutting them off from their companions. Garrick immediately began to suffer the effect of extreme cold, but Landon was immune to such discomfort.
Garrick created a campfire, though it did little to protect him from the cold. Landon began to examine the wheel, while outside San'Kari started to chop his way through the thick ice with his greataxe. Landon found that when he turned the wheel he could feel a spring tightening under the floor. Garrick left his campfire to examine a small door in the wall near the door through which they had entered the iron room. His sight showed him little beyond it, as the passageway or room on the other side was hidden by fog, though he could tell that the door had been unused for a very long time. The door wasn't locked, and Garrick opened it and went into the room.
As soon as he stepped into the foggy room, Garrick found himself face to face with a very large, spiny, spider-like creature. He had no idea what it was, other than some variety of daemon. Garrick immediately tumbled out of the room to get away from the daemon, and it followed him out into the iron chamber. As it emerged from the side room, Landon was struck by an aura that rendered him almost mindless.
San'Kari at that moment smashed through the last of the ice and stepped into the iron room. As he did so Amaya granted him the ability to better withstand some threats, and the daemon's aura had no effect on him. San'Kari approached the daemon and inflicted a very deep gash on it with his axe. The daemon moved to attack Landon, who was able to fight back despite his feebleminded state. Kara also moved into the iron room, but suffered the same fate as Landon. Silverleaf said a prayer to Sarenrae to grant his comrades greater fighting prowess and determination, but he was unable to discover what manner of creature the daemon was and declined to enter the room it stood in himself. Tahjah also decided to get no closer to it. They waited outside the door and watched as San'Kari's axe chopped the daemon to pieces.
After the daemon fell, Tahjah and Silverleaf determined that a powerful healing spell would restore Landon's and Kara's wits. The daemon's ability had also affected Cyst, and once his own intelligence had been restored Landon realized that the effect of the daemon's ability would have faded after a time. When he knew that Cyst would eventually recover, he told his companions not to expend any more of their magic on the imp. He busied himself by cutting open the daemon, finding in its abdomen an enchanted chain shirt, which the party members decided would best suit Amaya once it had been cleaned of the daemon's digestive juices.
Loot:
+2 keen dagger
cloak of resistance +1
2 potions of barkskin
7 pathway pearls
+1 glamered chain shirt
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Session 61 - October 23, 2016
San’Kari gave the wheel in the center of the icy chamber four turns, until it stopped and he thought he heard something click into place. An opening was revealed across the room, leading to a descending staircase, which took them to a long hallway that curved off to their left. In the center of the passage at the point where it turned stood a chunk of amber as large as a man. Landon checked the passageway for traps. As Silverleaf scanned the walls, he noticed faint sigils that he interpreted as the signs of those warriors who had fought alongside Armag at his most famed battle. Landon noticed that the amber stone had begun to vibrate slightly. He went closer to examine it. Within the amber he could make out various inclusions. He realized that there was some type of interplanar trap in the hallway. Then webs began to form beyond the amber. From the darkness appeared an enormous spider, which Landon realized was a demonic creature from another plane of existence.
San’kari immediately went forward to attack the spider; though its webbing filled the corridor and the strands were as thick as ropes, San’kari’s magic ring allowed him to move freely. Silverleaf moved up behind Landon and gave him the strength of a bull but could move no further when the webbing surrounded him, though it didn’t complete fill the space in which he stood. San’kari and Landon both struck at the spider, which extruded further web and entangled Landon. Silverleaf then summoned an ally and a warrior made of force appeared behind the spider, flanking with San'kari. The spider bit Landon, but he was fortunately immune to its poison. Silverleaf expended a charge from his staff and filled the passage with flames, burning away the webs but also burning Landon and San’kari. Then San’kari chopped the spider with his axe, and it died. With the webbing cleared, Landon eagerly examined the creature before its corpse vanished back to the plane from which it had come.
Silverleaf channeled the healing power of the gods to make amends for setting his comrades on fire before they moved on to the end of the passage. It led them into a circular room occupied by four large pillars supporting a domed ceiling reaching some fifty feet above them. In the center of the pillars stood a very large figure covered in spiky armor. Landon identified this figure as a golem. On three sides of the chamber were massive double doors, including the entrance through which the party had arrived. The fourth side had no doors, but oddly it appeared that someone had attempted to chip away at the stone there. The wall was scarred where it had been attacked with axes or swords.
Avoiding the center area where the golem stood, Landon skirted around the room checking for traps, while, Silverleaf examined the area for magic. He detected that some of the sigils on the pillars were magical, and there was an aura of magic on the damaged wall but he couldn’t make out what it was. Landon found that the other two doors were locked. He approached the door-less wall and consumed an elixir to allow him to see secret doors, hoping to find one hidden behind the stone.
Behind the rock Landon saw a mirror, and caught a brief glimpse of a Black Sister. He also felt a chill. After Landon described this to the others, San’kari used one of his magic rings to shape the stone away from the hidden door. The doorway that was revealed proved possible to open only from the opposite side. Silverleaf attempted to identify what manner of magical door it was, but was unable to acquire any more information. Landon then spent a short time creating another elixir to enable him to learn more. The door seemed to lead to a portal, which might have been placed there by the Black Sisters or was being utilized by them. San’kari wondered if freeing the doorway from its stone surroundings entirely would allow the group to remove the door or open it, but Landon’s examination indicated this wouldn’t be successful.
After spending some time trying to understand the portal, the group members decided to continue looking for Armag’s sword. When Landon approached the double doors to the right of the portal, the golem suddenly awoke and warned them that it did not want to have to attack them. The party then began to question the golem, as it seemed willing enough to respond to their inquiries and made no move to threaten them.
In response to their questions, the golem told them that it had been placed there by Armag himself to protect the tomb, and that it couldn’t move beyond the area encircled by the four pillars. It believed that the doors Landon had been trying to unlock might lead to the tomb, but it didn’t know that with certainty. The portal had been placed there by the Black Sisters and had been there for a year or more, though it admitted that it lacked a good sense of the passage of time. It claimed that the others doors led to a cavern occupied by an imprisoned dragon. The golem also told the group that to get through the door that led toward the tomb could only be opened with the ‘amber key’, which was held by one of Armag’s descendents who was the baron of Fort Drelev.
This particular piece of information really aroused the interest of the party from New Hope, as they understood Fort Drelev to have fallen under the influence of the Black Sisters. If the Sisters had control of the current baron, why had they not already acquired the key and entered the tomb to claim the sword? The party members speculated that perhaps the current baron was keeping the location of the key hidden, or possibly wasn’t aware that the key existed and didn’t know where it was stored.
The golem also warned the group that if they tried to open the doors without the key, the mirror portal would attack them. They concluded that any further examination of the golem’s chamber was not useful at this time, and they decided to go on through the door to the south. This actually led to a passageway that split. The direction they chose didn’t lead them to the dragon, but instead to a thirty-foot precipice with another passage on the opposite side of the cavern it led to. At the bottom of the cliff was a lot of rubbish, and Silverleaf and Tahjah sensed magic items in the trash. Landon descended to the floor of the cave to examine the rubbish. He found the bones of many humanoid creatures, and determined that the leg bones had been cut by something jagged like the teeth of a bear trap. Among the remains Landon found a set of hide armor, a spear, and three oblong obsidian stones that were all magical. He gathered these things up and took them back up to the top of the cliff.
When examined further, the three stones proved especially interesting. They were capable of opening a door between dimensions that would allow a person to travel a short distance without covering the intervening space, and if left in place the person could use this doorway to return to the starting point as long as the magic wasn’t deactivated and the stone wasn’t moved. But both Landon and Silverleaf sensed that there was more to the stones than just this capability. Landon, Silverleaf, and Tahjah each took possession of a stone.
After they had examined the items Landon found, the whole group descended to the floor of the cavern and went through the opening there, which took them back to the area they had already explored. They returned to the golem chamber and talked to it further, asking why the dragon had been imprisoned there if it didn’t appear to guard anything. During this conversation, Landon recalled that Armag had reputedly had a dragon mount. The golem confirmed this, and added that the dragon had been transformed into a worg and sent out into the world. This remark excited the heroes, as their friend Grizz the worg had proved to be a very old brass dragon who had somehow been transformed into a worg against his will.
Once the discussion had got past the dragon, the golem also revealed that it knew the Black Sisters had made an attack on New Hope three days earlier, though the four Sisters leading the attack had failed to penetrate the fort’s defenses. It also revealed that the leader of the Black Sisterhood was known as Lady Fornus, a priestess of Gyrona whose preferred domain was darkness.
After learning all of this information, the heroes decided it was time to leave the tomb and consider whether to go to Fort Drelev for the key next or return to New Hope to check on the citizens there. They departed from the caverns by the same route through which they had entered. Once they were outside, the barbarians encamped there gave them no trouble. In fact, when asked if they would like to be freed of the Black Sisterhood, they confessed that they were all cowards. The group members encouraged the barbarians to leave this area and go to Oleg’s Fort, even going so far as to give them a letter of introduction to present to Oleg. The barbarians were very disappointed that the heroes would not send their two militiamen along with them as protection.
To protect themselves from any Black Sisters still in the caves, the party moved to a point about an hour’s ride away from the tomb to set up camp. After they had made camp, Landon sent his consciousness to one of his simulacra in New Hope to find out what had happened there. He learned that Munguk the giant had taken the lead in combating the attacking Black Sisters, and had also slain one of the chimeras the Sisters had brought with them. Because he knew that Landon liked such things, he had kept the chimera’s carcass, and a priestess who had been at the fort had preserved it so Landon could dissect it. Munguk described that the archers had used fire arrows against the Sisters and had found them to be vulnerable to fire, as most of their robes burnt up instantly when set ablaze. Three of the four Sisters had also been slain, but their bodies had dissolved into a slimy substance upon their deaths.
After learning about what had occurred during the attack, Landon acquired a number of magic items that had been found among the Black Sisters remains, including a belt, a rod, a cloak, and several potions.
While Landon was away the others rested and stood watch over his unconscious body. Silverleaf expended a spell to replace a charge in his staff, then spent time examining his obsidian stone, trying to learn more about its properties. He experienced a vision of a scene of battle in which the sky was dark with arrows and Black Sister pursued giants using an animated trap like the one that had severed the legs of the remains in the cavern. He also saw a mask-wearing skull with glowing green eyes, which he somehow knew was some type of guardian. Though there was nothing in the vision to tell him when it had taken place, he felt that it was a vision of the past.
Landon returned the next morning and told them what had happened at New Hope. He had also learned that there had been centaurs there, though he didn’t know why they had traveled all the way from the other side of the mountains. Fey in the forest had seen the Black Sisters and their forces coming from the northwest, which the heroes knew to be the direction in which an old cemetery lay. They knew they would eventually have to visit the cemetery and perhaps consecrate it to prevent the forces of evil from utilizing it.
After Landon told his story, Silverleaf advised him that he should examine his stone. When Landon did this, he witnessed a vision of giants being consumed by fire. When they died and were burned, a black figure knelt by the remains and put something into their mouths, after which they arose as zombies and followed the figure obediently. The figure was some type of astral projection of evil, though Landon knew it was female and was probably a Black Sister. Like Silverleaf, Landon knew that this was a vision of a past event.
Tahjah then decided that she, too, should look into her stone. Her vision was quite different: she saw a magical quill inscribing spells in a spellbook without aid of a living creature, while a small cloud of fog seemed to rain acid on the pages. Beyond the spell-scribing quill she saw many scrolls, which were slowly being rolled on dowels by a lint-coated imp. Her impression was that this had taken place recently.
Landon began to wonder if the three stones could somehow be combined to do something more. He experimented with assembling them like a menhir and discovered that two of the stones would stand on end by themselves. Once he placed the third stone on top, the stones suddenly enlarged to eight feet in height and through the space between the uprights could be seen an expanse of blue sky. The witnesses felt a strong wind blowing from this place. As they tried to determine if this might be a portal to another plane, four riders in red and silver bearing the flag of Brevoy went past, followed by several nightmares and two nuckelavee. A short time later they saw the same riders and pursuers race past again, and again.
Silverleaf recalled tales of traps made to teleport the victims back to their starting point over and over. It seemed that this strange portal was allowing them to witness such a trap. Tahjah wondered if she could use telekinetic magic to pull the riders through the portal. On her first attempt she was able to thrust one rider off her horse from the opposite direction, so that the elven woman flew out of the portal into the camp. Heartened by her success, Tahjah was able to push the other three riders out as well, though her spell was not strong enough to free their horses. San’kari caught the three additional riders so that they had a less painful landing than the first.
The party members gave the four rescued people food and water and Tahjah channeled divine injury to heal their hurts. When questioned about what had happened to them, the four people told a strange and disturbing tale, though they told it in fits and starts and seemed bewildered by many of the questions they were asked. It seemed that they had been offered 50 gold pieces by Lord Terrion Numeste of Brevoy to go to Armag’s tomb and explore it. They had not been equipped with any weapons or armor, and all of them were tradespeople or merchants, not experienced adventurers. One was a merchant, one a scribe, one a cartographer, and one a trapper. Eventually Silverleaf began to suspect that they were too foolish and naïve for it to be natural and he examined them to see if perhaps they had been subjected to an effect similar to what the daemon had done to Landon and Kara. But he discovered instead that all of them had scars on their temples. The four people explained that after they had volunteered for this mission they had been sent to Lord Terrion’s mage to be ‘mentally prepared’ for the task. The party members realized that this ‘preparation’ must have involved removing a portion of their brains. They began to suspect that the Black Sisters were spreading their influence in Brevoy, though they didn’t know if Lord Terrion was a willing participant or had been duped.
Further discussion with the four poor victims led them to learn that Lord Terrion apparently knew quite a lot about the traps in Armags tomb, and had sent numerous groups of similar people there to explore over the past year or two. These people had first gone to the wrong place, accidentally entering a bear’s lair, and had then been paralyzed by a Black Sister and pushed into the teleportation trap. They hadn’t had horses with them at the time and hadn’t even been aware that they were riding, or being chased. Somehow Lord Terrion, or the Black Sisters advising him, had realized that some of the traps within the tomb would not endanger someone of little intellectual capacity, so they had sent in explorers who didn’t have enough intellect to trigger these traps or draw the attention of the creatures within. The four people had met the black dragon trapped there, but it had declined to bother them. They described the dragon, the ice-covered chain holding it, and even knew its name: Ilthuliak. The heroes realized that his name sounded very much like the name of the black dragon they had met near Lake Silverstep, and in fact Ilthuliak had told the four explorers from Brevoy that he had a twin.
San’kari suggested they use one of their teleportation devices to visit Ilthuliak’s twin at Lake Silverstep and tell him where to find his brother, but nothing they had in their possession could transport a person so far. Only Garrick’s magic boots could do it, and Garrick had left the party temporarily. Then Silverleaf suggested that he send a magical message to the dragon. With the agreement of the others, he carefully composed the short missive and transmitted it to Ilthuliak’s twin: ‘From Garrick of Galisat: Ilthuliak imprisoned in Armag’s tomb near Hooktongue Slough by waterfall, we’re nearby will help if you wish.’
Loot:
+3 hide armor
+3 anarchic spear
3 dimension stones
Cloak of resistance +2
Belt of physical might +4 str, +4 con
+2 defending longsword
Ring of keys
Rod of splendor
+3 breastplate
Potion of cure light wounds
Potion of haste
Potion of levitation
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Session 62 - November 6, 2016
Once Garrick had rejoined the group at their campsite beyond the environs of Armag’s tomb, the heroes from Galisat reluctantly agreed to take their four charges with them. They returned to the tomb to try to recover the member of the second group who had fallen through the pivoting floor trap.
In the hallway with the pivoting floor, San’Kari used his magic item to meld the pivoting panels and then shape an opening in the stone floor, and Landon climbed down into the space below the floor to search for the body of the three adventurers’ fallen comrade. Because the four people had been trapped in the Plane of Air for several weeks, their companion was long dead. As Landon moved to touch the body, Silverleaf peered down through the opening and spotted a magical sigil beneath the corpse that would cause excruciating pain to any who came in contact with it or even looked at it. He quickly warned Landon. Landon experienced a terrible vision of war and horror that included an image of a warrior brandishing a huge sword, but this wasn’t enough to deter him from recovering the body.
To the dwarf’s shock, when he removed the man’s body another body appeared beneath it! As Landon impatiently removed that corpse as well, yet another appeared, and another, until a dozen corpses in total had been revealed. Three of the bodies were dwarves still clutching their warhammers; four were humans, one of them a woman wearing a vest full of alchemical potions; two were half-elves; and two were some type of lizardmen. Landon was pleased to be able to recover a few still viable alchemical mixtures from the woman’s garment. One of the dwarves also proved to have a magic ring that could grant certain types of wishes, though at that moment it was empty of any power. The dwarven warhammers were all of fine quality, though it was odd that the dwarves still held them when they had no armor or other equipment.
After Landon climbed back up into the hallway, he and Garrick felt air movement coming from behind them that hadn’t been present previously. Landon sent Cyst to investigate and watched through the imp’s eyes. Cyst discovered that a double door the group had previously passed by was now open. Beyond the door the imp could see a slimy swirling thing in the center of a chamber. The room in which this slimy thing resided was located at the same orientation as the chamber that required the amber key, but it was at a higher level of the tomb, perhaps above the amber key room. Some force from within the chamber began to pull the imp toward it and Cyst had difficulty resisting. Landon ran to his familiar’s aid.
When he looked into the room, Landon observed that everything within it was covered in slime. He wondered if the chamber might be connected to a Plane of Slime. The thing in the center of the room he recognized as a green slime. He also observed that there were bones and various remains of bodies floating in the slime. Landon immediately threw an alchemical elixir into the slime that froze part of it, and it stopped moving.
Tahjah and Garrick had followed Landon when he ran toward the room to help Cyst. The pull on Cyst was still happening even though Landon had frozen the slime. Landon realized that the slime was also susceptible to fire, and shouted for Silverleaf to join them at the slime room. This left San’Kari standing watch with Amaya, Kara, and the four hapless victims of Lord Numeste's machinations.
As Silverleaf approached the room, Landon stepped inside it and was instantly engulfed by slime. He swallowed an elixir that made him resistant to the slime’s acidic nature. Within the slime the dwarf glimpsed a glowing peridot. Encouraged by Landon, Silverleaf had his staff send a ball of fire into the slime. Landon continued to push forward through the slime, realizing that there was a pocket of slime-less air around the collection of bones where the glowing gemstone was located. The bones, too, were magical, and resembled the cyclops femur the party had found which their friend Bokken had told them was part of a powerful artifact called Quiema’s Branch. As Landon entered this air pocket, he could feel a compulsion coming from the peridot. He grasped the stone and quickly put it in his alchemical component case, which held an extradimensional space. Once the stone was cut off from the slime chamber, the air pocket vanished, the bones fell to the floor, and slime engulfed Landon again. The compulsion also stopped pulling at Cyst. Landon gathered up the bones and went toward the staircase on the opposite side of the chamber, where he observed a pile of rags and many symbols of the evil goddess Gyrona.
Meanwhile in the hallway where San’Kari waited with the rest of the group, a swarm of giant army ants suddenly appeared. San’Kari pushed everyone down the corridor to the chamber where Garrick and Landon had been trapped by ice on the previous day, shutting the door to block the ant swarm. The ants began to attack the wooden door. Garrick, Tahjah, and Silverleaf rejoined their companions, and Silverleaf placed two runes in front of the door so the ants would be blasted by electricity once they broke through. Once the door burst and the ants were struck by lightning, Garrick followed by throwing an alchemical elixir that set them on fire.
During this time Landon had continued investigating the door at the bottom of the stairs. The slime creature had retreated to the bottom of the steps and was pressed up against the door, but could go no further. The slime seemed to be trying to push Landon away now. When Landon heard the commotion upstairs, he abandoned his investigation and went up to aid his friends.
On arriving in the room with the rest of the group, Landon surrounded himself with an aura of flames and walked toward the ants, allowing them to crawl on him so they would be burned. Silverleaf sent a cone of flames from his hands, then called on Sarenrae’s divine flames to shield him and he too walked into the ant swarm. San’Kari pushed the other members of the group toward the slimy room. The ants crawling over Landon and Silverleaf bit them but did little harm, and soon the flames had consumed them all.
Once the ants were dealt with, Landon showed his comrades the giant bones he had found. He also revealed that among the items in the slime he had found a key that was surrounded by amber. Could this be the amber key the iron golem had told them of, that was supposed to be in the possession of the current Baron Drelev? The party members went to the slime chamber. From the top of the stairs, Garrick hurled a dagger of ice at the slime, and Tahjah seared it with holy light. Then both Tahjah and Silverleaf summoned holy weapons to strike it, and after that the slime slumped to the floor and spread out like a pool of liquid, its acidic form burning their feet as it flowed beneath them. Its demise deposited gems, gold and silver coins, and a magical onyx gem on the floor.
With the slime out of the way, Landon set to work studying the heavy door of fused iron that stood at the bottom of the staircase. There was no visible keyhole, and Landon determined that the door was heavily warded with protections to ward off good creatures, runes that would explode, and darts that would shoot out to wound intruders. Garrick joined him and used his ability to see through stone to peer into the room beyond the door. On the other side he saw a circular room with a brazier of fire in the center. He could make out several shadowy figures that seemed to be dancing around the fire, but he couldn’t determine how many or what they were.
Landon took out the amber key while Garrick was still viewing through the stone. As he did so, Garrick observed that the figures stopped moving and seemed to look toward the iron door. Landon told his companions to move back. When they had done so he touched the key to the door. Five keyholes immediately appeared on the door’s surface. Tahjah reached out to examine the magic of the door and sensed that the fourth keyhole had a very strong aura of magic. All of the keyholes exuded an aura of necromancy. The first keyhole at the top of the door seemed to be connected to some type of sending spell, perhaps an alarm. The fifth keyhole’s aura made Tahjah feel ill. Silverleaf stepped up beside her and conducted his own examination, feeling something very unpleasant from the second keyhole that threatened to drive one mad, a destructive aura from the third keyhole, and an unholy aura from the fifth.
Armed with this information, Landon put the key in the top keyhole. Immediately four darts shot out and struck him. He sensed that they were poisoned, but through his alchemical experiments he had become immune to all poisons. He then inserted the key in the third hole. This time he felt a force pushing him back and blast of sound energy. Tahjah activated her ring to fly down to him and cast a spell on him. Next Landon put the key in the fifth hole, and was rewarded with a mass of decayed flesh suddenly burying him. But this did not trouble the dwarf in the slightest, even when Tahjah realized that all of the lumps of stinking flesh were undead.
Undaunted, Landon inserted the amber key into the fourth hole, and withstood the vision of madness that attempted to twist his mind. With the final lock released, the doors swung open to reveal the circular chamber that Garrick had seen, populated by four or five fire elementals and four Black Sisters. As soon as the Black Sisters saw Landon, they released a wave of negative energy.
Landon surged forward, drawing his dagger, and stabbed the Black Sister who stood nearest the entrance. Silverleaf and San’Kari descended the stairs to the doorway, and Silverleaf called on Sarenrae and Nethys to protect his companions. Then one of the Black Sisters sent a blast of magic toward the door, but it had no effect on the two elves. Another of the Sisters activated an aura of madness, which Landon, Silverleaf, and Garrick all resisted, but San’Kari was affected by it and became confused. A fire elemental standing before him tried to attack him and he attacked it in return. Another fire elemental moved up to attack Silverleaf but missed its aim. From the top of the stairs, Amaya gave a battle cry that heartened her comrades.
Tahjah, still flying, poked her head through the doorway above Silverleaf and smote the far side of the chamber with divine power, harming several of the elementals. Silverleaf followed her example and used the same divine energy to smite the same area. His spell overcame the resistance of the Black Sisters, temporarily blinding two of them. One of the elementals was absorbed into the fire brazier in the center of the room, which then transformed into a larger fire elemental. A Sister tried to harm Landon with negative energy but it failed to affect him. Amaya extended a blessing to everyone, and San’Kari recovered from the confusion that had fogged his mind at the same moment that Landon slew one of the Black Sisters.
Free of mental disturbance, San’Kari moved to attack one of the remaining Black Sisters, while Garrick hurled two throwing axes and a frosty mug at another Sister. Silverleaf summoned an ally of force to attack a Sister, but was unable to overcome her resistance to magic and his ally vanished. One of the Sisters who had remained at the far side of the room moved forward, her aura of madness enveloping everyone, but this time all of the heroes resisted its effect. Then the Sister emitted a terrifying banshee wail that shook everyone to their bones. Silverleaf and Tahjah both collapsed on the floor, lifeless. Amaya raced down the stairs and tried to heal Silverleaf with a wand, but it had no effect on him.
Enraged by the Sister’s action, San’Kari killed one Sister with his axe, and then slaughtered the remaining fire elementals as well. Garrick slew the last of the Black Sisters. While the surviving members of the group stood looking down in grief on their fallen comrades, they realized that Silverleaf had possession of a magic pearl that would restore him to life in time. Once the elven priest had recovered, he would be able to use a spell scroll Garrick had acquired to restore Tahjah to life as well. The others quickly searched the bodies of the fallen Black Sisters before carrying their companions out of the tomb, for they feared that if the Black Sisters had been able to access this chamber there might be more of them elsewhere within the tomb complex. They did not want to face more Black Sisters without the aid of Silverleaf and Tahjah.
Loot:
4 masterwork breastplates
4 +2 keen daggers
4 unholy symbols of Gyrona
540 gold pieces
200 silver pieces
Assorted gems worth 750 gold
8 pearls worth 100 gold each
2 potions of 'haste'
Potion of 'cure serious wounds'
Onyx with a red hourglass symbol – 'gem of poison immunity'
Ring of 'limited wish' – empty
3 masterwork warhammers