# Menexenus's Age of Worms Campaign Journal



## Menexenus

Let me be clear: I am not a novelist.  Most of the posts in this thread will not read like a narrative story.  Instead, most of them will be mere summaries of my group's gaming sessions.  I am hopeful that some of my players will get interested in writing some short fiction based on their character's perspective in the campaign.  But such posts will most likely be few and far between.

For a while, I will be uploading recaps of old game sessions.  After I get caught up with all of those uploads, I expect updates to the thread to come biweekly.

*If you are not in my game, please do not post to this thread!*  If for some strange reason, you are reading this thread and wish to ask a question or make a comment, please email me directly.  My address is menexenus at ATT dot net.  If you *are* a player in my game, please feel free to post to the thread!  However, I ask you to begin each entry with a Greyhawk date (or, if that is not possible, a description of when the events you are describing took place in relation to the timeline of the campaign).  Also, please write your entry in the first person from your character's point of view.  (Obviously, anything written by a player represents his/her perspective only and could be contradicted by later events in the campaign.)


This story hour is about the exploits of a small band of adventurers, most of whom grew up as childhood friends in a corrupt, backwater mining town known as Diamond Lake.  Here's a quick Cast of Characters (in alphabetical order):

*Alees*, female human rogue (played by Kim).  As a newborn, Alees was adopted by traveling Rhennee performers (despite the fact that she herself is, by all appearances, of Oeridian extraction).  Her adoptive parents told her she was born in Greyhawk, but throughout Alees's childhood, they were either unable or unwilling to reveal more about her true origins.  Growing up with the gypsy-like Rhennee afforded her the opportunity to learn many of the skills she would later use as a rogue in adulthood.  After leaving the troupe to forge her own path in the world, she traveled a great deal in order to stay one step ahead of the law.  Eventually, she arrived in Diamond Lake and was pressured into joining the service of Balabar Smenk, a local mining boss.

*Alexander*, male human wizard (played by Jason).  Alexander grew up in Diamond Lake and was apprenticed to the wizard Allustan.  Although Alexander was never Allustan's favorite pupil, by choosing to face the rigors of life as an adventurer, he is quickly surpassing his old master in magical power.

*Katawan*, male human monk (played by Dave).  Katawan grew up in Diamond Lake.  As a teen, he traveled north of the town and studied at the Twilight Monastery.  After learning the basics of unarmed combat, Katawan was expelled from the monastery in order to adventure, grow in strength and prowess, and ultimately fulfill a very important destiny.

*Killian*, male human cleric of St. Cuthbert (played by Jim).  Killian grew up in Diamond Lake and was tutored in religion by Father Jierian, the charismatic spiritual leader of the town's downtrodden.  Although Father Jierian claimed to have seen a vision about Killian's destiny, Killian was killed fighting the Ebon Triad in an abandoned mine shaft beneath Diamond Lake.

*Killick*, male human druid/monk/ranger (played by JJ).  Killick grew up in Diamond Lake and developed a love for nature and a hatred for the mines that polluted the lake and defiled the countryside.  After wandering a bit in his early career, he was eventually invited to become a member of the Bronzewood Lodge.  He accepted the invitation and devoted himself to a life of harmony with nature.

*Tarric*, male human fighter (played by Scott).  Tarric grew up in Diamond Lake.  He joined the Greyhawk Militia to help protect his home town and to develop his own martial prowess.  When he was unfairly discharged from the militia due to the influence of a corrupt local boss known as Balabar Smenk, he turned to a life of adventure.

*Thorash*, male dwarf cleric of Wee Jas (played by Jim).  Thorash grew up in the dwarven town of Dumadan located in the Abbor Alz mountains.  He felt a strong calling to the Church of the Ruby Sorceress and left his home to seek other members of his faith.  He found like-minded believers protecting a cemetery in Diamond Lake.  After serving as an acolyte in the small congregation for a short time, the congregation's leader, Amariss, dispatched Thorash to aid the party in its struggle against the cult of the Ebon Triad.  For a time, he overcome philosophical differences with other members of the party in order to remain with them and continue the fight against the advent of the Age of Worms.  However, at long last, temptation got the better of him and he tried to kill the party in order to take an artifact known as the White Eye for himself.  He died by Tarric's blade in the Temple of the Dark Sun.

Let the tale begin!


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## Menexenus

*Calendar and Timeline*

For reference, here is a basic calendar for Greyhawk.  The seven days of each week are ordered and named as follows.

Starday (work)
Sunday (work)
Moonday (work)
Godsday (worship)
Waterday (work)
Earthday (work)
Freeday (rest)  

Each month consists of four weeks (28 days), and every three months there is a 7-day festival that is not considered to be part of any month.  This calendar has a total of 364 days in each year.  In the following table, words in _italics_ represent festivals and words in *bold* represent months.

_Needfest_ (like New Years)
*Fireseek* (winter)
*Readying* (spring)
*Coldeven* (spring)
_Growfest_ (like Easter)
*Planting* (low summer)
*Flocktime* (low summer)
*Wealsun* (low summer)
_Richfest_ (like the 4th of July)
*Reaping* (high summer)
*Goodmonth* (high summer)
*Harvester* (high summer)
_Brewfest_ (like Octoberfest or Thanksgiving)
*Patchwall* (autumn)
*Ready'reat* (autumn)
*Sunsebb* (winter)

The weather in Greyhawk (as in Europe) is more temperate than here in Ohio.  (Europe's temperatures are moderated by the Gulf Stream which draws warm tropical water up to the higher latitutdes of Europe.  Greyhawk's temperatures are moderated by a similar oceanic flow that circulates warm water up the Wooly Bay towards Greyhawk.)  That's why there are more summer months than winter months in the Greyhawk calendar. 

The world of Greyhawk has two moons that are of approximately the same size in the night sky.  One glows white and is called Luna.  It has a cycle of 28 days.  The other glows blue and is called Celene.  It has a cycle of 91 days.

*Campaign Timeline*
For the players' reference, here are the dates of some important events in our campaign.

Year - 595 CY

_Planting_

10th - The party enters the Whispering Cairn for the first time.

12th - Alexander gets severe frostbite while exploring the Whispering Cairn.  He loses his left ear and the two smallest toes on his right foot.  Henceforth, Alexander walks with a slight limp and is slightly hard of hearing.

17th - The party fights Kullen's Gang in the town square of Diamond Lake.

19th - The party agrees to work with Luzane Parrin against Balabar Smenk.  The party attacks and defeats Filge at the Observatory.

26th - In order to recover Katawan (who has been taken prisoner), the party agrees to assault the mysterious cult beneath Dourstone's mine.

27th - The party finally opens Zosiel's tomb at the end of the Whispering Cairn and finds only a magical circlet, a pewter box containing demon horns, and a strange loop of adamantine inside.

28th - Killian dies in the first assault on the temple of Hextor.  The party encounters Thorash.

_Flocktime_

4th - On the 4th sortie in 3 days, the party finally eradicates the temple of Hextor.

10th - The party defeats the temple of Erythnul.

13th - The party defeats the Faceless One at the end of the temple of Vecna.  Upon his death, the ground begins to shake.  An hour later, the Ebon Aspect arises from the black pool and the party defeats it as well.

24th - The party leaves Diamond Lake with Allustan heading for Blackwall Keep in search of his colleague Marzena.

27th - The party relieves the exhausted remnants of the garrison at Blackwall Keep.

_Wealsun_

2nd - The party kills the King of the Twisted Branch tribe of lizardmen, saves Marzena, and learns about an egg chamber that is frequented by a black dragon allied with the tribe known as Ilthane.

7th -  The party returns to Blackwall Keep and dispatches the Spawn of Kyuss that had infested the basement.

_Richfest_

4th - After spending almost a month crafting magic items, the party arrives in Greyhawk and saves the town from a marauding chimera.  The party learns that the Champions Games are already underway.

5th - The party is attacked by a doppelganger at breakfast.  They follow clues leading them to the doppelganger hideout.  They are unable to kill or capture Telakin, the leader of the doppelgangers.

6th - The party meets Celeste, who regenerates Alexander's lost ear and toes.  They learn of a Kyuss cult beneath the Greyhawk Arena planning to unleash a horrific creature at the end of the Champions Games (tomorrow).

7th - The party infiltrates the sub-basement of the Greyhawk Arena.  Because of their efforts, the Apostle of Kyuss is released prematurely, causing horrific death and destruction to the city, but thwarting whatever plans the cult of Kyuss might have had for it.  Alexander and Tarric are killed by the Apostle.  Celeste is missing in action.

_Reaping_

2nd - The party follows a clue they found in the doppelganger hideout and find a series of caverns in the sewers inhabited by drow.  Tarric is killed (again) by a stray fireball.

18th -  After spending a week in jail and a week crafting items, the party kills Zyrxog, the mind-flayer sorcerer, in his lair.

_Goodmonth_

1st - The party intercedes in a conflict between the churches of St. Cuthbert and Wee Jas in Diamond Lake.  After hearing both sides of the story, Alexander (with the official backing of Matriarch Eritai) instructs Father Jierian to cease preaching against the church of Wee Jas.

4th - Because of continued tensions, the worshippers of Wee Jas suddenly leave Diamond Lake in the middle of the night.  They leave a sign in the cemetery which reads, "Because of your foolish actions, Diamond Lake no longer enjoys the protection of Wee Jas.  May She have mercy upon your souls!"

23rd - After a long trip along the Urnst trail, the party finally arrives in Rosewater, home of the Rainbow Mage.  The party accepts a commission from the Rainbow Mage's daughter, Learah, to investigate his house in hopes of finding his corpse (or some other evidence about where he might be).

26th - The party finds the Rainbow Mage's body in the dungeon.  With Learah's permission, the party begins crafting magic items using the Rainbow Mage's laboratory.

_Harvester_

4th - Alexander suddenly teleports away, taking with him some of the artifact level items that he had been researching with Learah's blessing.  The rest of the party is left to wonder about Alexander's possible motivations.

5th - Alexander returns to the party.  He explains that once he cracked the code of the Rainbow Mage's journal, he discovered that the items they had recovered were two pieces of a three-piece set that could be used to free Kyuss from his imprisonment, allowing him to return to Oerth.  Alexander decided that these items needed to be given to Eligos for safe-keeping, so he took them away to keep them out of Thorash's hands.  The rest of the party was angry with Alexander's unilateral decision.  To make matters worse, Alexander relates his doubts that the man he gave the items to was truly Eligos.  This upset the party even more.  However, arguments could get too heated, Alexander received a Sending from Allustan informing him that Diamond Lake was under attack by a black dragon and seeking the party's help.

6th - The party returns to Diamond Lake, witnesses the devastation that Ilthane has caused, and destroys her.  During the combat, she admits serving Kyuss and mentions the name of her draconic superior: Dragotha.

9th - The party follows Allustan into a portal leading to the cairn of Wind Duke Icosiel.  Thorash is killed by an elder black pudding.

10th - The party travels to Greyhawk.  Mother Iridni, Prelate of Wee Jas, consents to raise Thorash so that he may continue the fight.

11th - While in Greyhawk, the party confronts Eligos.  After some attempts at subterfuge, the doppelganger posing as Eligos attacks the party.  He is joined by Loris Raknian and his assassin cohort.  The party is victorious.  Eligos's dead body is discovered in an upstairs closet.  Alexander teleports his corpse directly to the Church of St. Cuthbert to have him raised.

12th - The party teleports back to Diamond Lake to pick up some magic items they had commissioned from Venelle.  She warns them about some potential conflict brewing in town.  The party returns to Icosiol's Cairn (via the portal Allustan had found in the Whispering Cairn) and recovers Allustan, who had fallen victim to a trap that had placed him in stasis.

16th - The party teleports back to Rosewater to meet with Learah.  Alexander explains what has happened recently, apologizes for taking/losing her father's items, and submitted himself to whatever legal process she thought was appropriate.  She informs the party that she no longer has legal standing to prosecute Alexander's crimes because her father has been raised from the dead.  Since the items were his, he would be the one who would have to complain.  This news filled the party with fear, because Alexander had read in his journal that the Rainbow Mage was a servant of Kyuss.  A mage that powerful would make a powerful enemy...

20th - The party destroys the Oculus Demon defending Icosiol's true tomb and recovers the seventh piece of the Rod of Seven Parts.

_Brewfest_

4th - In a public ceremony, Tarric is knighted at Greyhawk's church of Heironeous by the Order of the Shield.

5th - On the road to Magepoint, the party is ambushed by a small group of bone and barbed devils.  They take the party's piece of the Rod of Seven Parts and planeshift away.

6th - The party is greeted in Magepoint by Celeste!  She leads them over the causeway to Tenser's tower.  She informs the party that Tenser is currently on the Astral Plane conducting important business.  She invites them to enjoy Tenser's hospitality in the protection of his tower until he returns.  She also gave each party member an opportunity to drink from a magical fountain created by Zagig.

Year - 596 CY

_Fireseek_

1st - After having waited 3 months for Tenser's arrival, the party leaves Magepoint in an attempt to recover the White Eye, the third piece of the artifact needed to return Kyuss to Oerth.

2nd - The party discovers the Temple of the Dark Sun hidden within Arn's Mountain in the eastern arm of the Abbor-Alz mountain chain.

4th - While dominated by a vampire, Alees delivers a mortal blow to Katawan.  However, despite his wounds, Katawan does not die.  (Katawan explains that this was a one-time gift granted to him by Zagig's magical fountain.)

5th - Thorash is the victim of a dastardly acid trap and suffers the loss of most of his magic items.

6th - Thorash is killed by huge Displacer Beast.  Lacking a scroll of Raise Dead, Killick reincarnates Thorash as a human.

7th - Alees executes a prisoner against Alexander's orders, causing more party disunity.

10th - The party recovers the White Eye.  Tarric discovers that a sword he found in the temple is intelligent.

11th - In the early morning hours, while most of the party is still sleeping, they are suddenly attacked by numerous monsters.  Alexander is turned to stone by a gorgon.  During the confusion, Thorash suddenly turns on Tarric and tries to kill him.  Tarric slices Thorash to pieces, killing him.  Souref, the couatl guardian of the Temple of the Dark Sun, helps the party return to Magepoint with the White Eye.

27th - Tenser finally returns and he meets with the party.  He confides that his mentor, Bucknard, had been investigating the Age of Worms before his disappearance a decade ago.  The last place he had been before he died was the ruins of a city called Kuluth-Mar in the Amedio Jungle.  Tenser asks the group to investigate.

_Readying_

19th - Alexander's new cohort Jam is killed fighting minions of Kyuss inside the temple at the center of the ruins of Kuluth-Mar.  Killick and Grimlock are killed fighting a rear-guard action as the party withdraws.

27th - After several forays into the temple of Kyuss beneath the Spire of Long Shadows, the party finally clears the first level, defeating a corrupted eladrin named Kelvos.  (The party is grateful for the help of Celeste and Alexander's new cohort, Norvell.)

_Coldeven_

6th - The party destroys a spellweaver lich named Ma'kar in a cavern below the temple.  With the lich gone, the enormous Spire of Long Shadows atop the temple crumbles, crashing through the magical Obsidian Ring which had imprisoned the minions of Kyuss.  Some Kyuss worms and Sruggut (a Worm Naga) escape through the gap in the Ring.  Killick travels to the Elemental Plane of Fire to retrieve Alees's charred corpse in order to raise her.


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## Menexenus

*Campaign background*

The campaign starts in a small mining town called Diamond Lake, which lies 3 days travel east of Greyhawk, one of the largest cities in the known world.  Diamond Lake is nestled in an area called the Cairn Hills, named after the many elaborate and ancient burial tombs that are scattered throughout the region.  Most of these tombs were thoroughly plundered about 100 years ago during a golden age of adventuring, and conventional wisdom suggests that they have all been emptied of their ancient riches.  (There are frequent rumors of new Cairns being discovered that contain untold riches.  However, these rumors are almost always dismissed as tall tales.)

    Diamond Lake is a very bleak place to live.  Diamond Lake was once a fishing town, but over the years, the lake that gives the town its name has been horribly polluted due primarily to run-off from the mines.  As the fish population dwindled, those who were once proud fisherman were forced by necessity to take jobs in the mines, toiling in dark mineshafts for pennies a day.  These tired and dirty masses spend their hard-earned coin on the few diversions available to them in town: alcohol, drugs, gambling, and prostitution, all of which are legal.  But the greatest profit of all is made by those who own the mines, known collectively as the mine managers.  While they are not nobility, they are by far the most wealthy and powerful people in town.  These 6 individuals are embroiled in a constant, barely hidden struggle for dominance.

    Balabar Smenk is (at present) the dominant mine manager in town.  He owns the greatest number of mines, employs the most people, reaps the greatest profits, and casts the largest shadow over the town.  He attained his position of dominance very quickly after arriving in town 8 years ago.  Intimidation, bribery, ruthlessness, and the occasional assassination are his weapons of choice.  Smenk is widely feared and seldom crossed by the citizens of Diamond Lake, and that's exactly the way Smenk likes it.  Smenk is a rotund human in his 40s.

    Smenk took the position of dominance in town from a man named Gelch Tilgast, an older gentleman in his 60s.  In his heyday, Tilgast was no better than Smenk.  But now that he is no longer top dog in town, he is trying to mend fences and build coalitions as a check against Smenk's influence.  It is widely known that Tilgast is using what influence he has left to oppose Smenk with the goal of one day reclaiming the position of dominance in town.
    Tilgast has enlisted the aid of a mine manager who has fallen on hard times, a woman named Luzane Parrin (in her 30s).  Parrin inherited her mines from her father who, many decades ago, had been the dominant mine manager in town (before Tilgast).  Now Parrin's mining operations are teetering on the edge of bankruptcy and she is desperate to do whatever is necessary to salvage her family business.

    Luzane Parrin has been seen in town openly wooing another mine manager named Chaum Gansworth.  Gansworth is the youngest mine manager in town (late 20s) and has attempted to remain neutral in town politics.  If Tilgast, Parrin, and Gansworth were to join forces, they would present a real threat to Smenk's dominance.  However, as yet, there is no indication that Gansworth intends to join the opposition.

    Two other wildcards are Ragnolin Dourstone (a dwarf) and Ellival Moonmeadow (an elf).  Rumor has it that Dourstone was kicked out of Greysmere, a large dwarven community about two weeks' travel to the south.  The story goes that, after he was exiled, he came to Diamond Lake to profit from his mining expertise.  When it comes to the technical aspects of mining, no other mine manager in town is as knowledgeable or experienced as Dourstone.  Moonmeadow runs one of the most successful silver mines in town.  He ships almost all of his ore back to his native country of Celene, an elven nation southwest of Greyhawk.  Recently, there has been some political upheaval between Celene and the Domain of Greyhawk, so Moonmeadow and his elven lieutenants are little trusted in Diamond Lake.  But, since Moonmeadow and his entourage keep mostly to themselves, and since his money is good, his operation has been allowed to remain in town.  Neither Dourstone nor Moonmeadow seem the least bit interested in town politics.

    The authorities in town are Governor-Mayor Lanod Neff, a local minor noble appointed by the Directors of Greyhawk to administer Diamond Lake.  Neff is a selfish and corrupt narcissist who cares not at all for the people of Diamond Lake.  He realizes that his position is guaranteed only so long as the mines are productive and Greyhawk gets its taxes and raw materials.  Consequently, Neff can be counted on to do nothing that would antagonize or otherwise impede the mine managers.  Neff has appointed a boisterous alcoholic named Cubbin as the Sheriff of Diamond Lake.  Cubbin understands that his main function is to maintain law and order in town so that the mine managers can make money.  Cubbin leaves most of the details of day-to-day law enforcement to his deputy Jamis who is well-known to accept bribes and solicit "protection" money.  Cubbin and Jamis have hired six constables, most of whom understand the score and are just as corrupt as their masters.  

    Just west of town up on a hill is a garrison of 60 Greyhawk Militia soldiers whose job is to protect the town from possible incursions by lizardfolk from the Mist Marsh (which lies a day or so southeast of town).  They are also charged with protecting the roads to and from Greyhawk from bandit activity.  However, the garrison has no authority to enforce laws in town.  During town emergencies, the Governor-Mayor may officially request the assistance of the Militia.  Under such circumstances, the Militia is to execute the orders of the Governor-Mayor.  However, this power has never been exercised in the 5 years that the Militia has been stationed in Diamond Lake.  For the most part, the militia men keep to themselves.

    The only other source of power in town is Allustan, who is a powerful wizard and sage (late 40s).  He is Lanod Neff's (the Governor-Mayor's) younger brother.  About a decade ago, Allustan retired from a life of adventuring and built a comfortable home for himself in his hometown of Diamond Lake.  When not reading or researching, Allustan occupies his time by training promising youngsters as apprentices.  Allustan also offers his services as a sage.  He will answer any question for the price of 20gp.  If he does not know the answer to a question, he will research it.  He provides a guarantee that if he cannot find a definitive answer to a question within 3 months, he will refund the customer's money.


    Recently a band of adventurers from Greyhawk have arrived in town.  They are Auric, a burly fighter who always wears an ornate red and blue girdle around his waist, Khellek, a red-robed wizard, and Tirra, a female elven rogue.  Although their purpose in town was supposed to remain secret, the fighter of the group has let it slip (while talking to Tarric in a bar) that they are in town to explore a nearby tomb known as the Stirgenest Cairn south of Diamond Lake.  This tomb was thought to be fully explored, but apparently another group of adventurers has recently found secret passages in another similar cairn that was also thought to be empty.  Khellek, the brains of the operation, thinks that there may be a cairn near Diamond Lake with a similarly undiscovered stash of riches.  He thinks that the cairn in question must be the Stirgenest Cairn.

    However, Tarric, who was born and raised in Diamond Lake, thinks he may know better.  He suspects that there may be another cairn near Diamond Lake which has largely been forgotten.  When he was a child, he and his friends used to play near a cave entrance that he and his buddies called the Whispering Cave because of the strange wind-like noises that emerged from it.  This cave lies about 3 hours north of town near an abandoned mine office.  Tarric, Killian, Killick, Alexander, and other children used to take day-trips to the cave.  There they would test their own bravery by touching the strange glyphs near the cave entrance, and they would dare each other to go inside.  The cave was also the stuff of childhood legend.  As children, the group believed that there were ghosts haunting the cave and that anyone who sleeps in the cave overnight would die.  Whenever someone turned up missing in Diamond Lake, it was naturally assumed by the children that the Whispering Cave (and the ghosts inside) had taken another victim.  The adult Tarric now believes that this strange cave entrance might actually be the entrance to a cairn, and it may be this cairn that the adventurers from Greyhawk are looking for, not the Stirgenest Cairn.

    Tarric (who recently lost his job with the Greyhawk Militia) took this information to some of his childhood friends (Killian, Killick, and Alexander) and asked if they would like to go explore the Whispering Cave with him.  For various reasons, they all agreed that now was a good time to make a break with their previous lives and embark on a bit of adventure.  At a chance meeting, Tarric encountered Alees who had recently left the service of Balabar Smenk and was in need of an opportunity to make some money.  Terric suggested that she join their group of adventurers, and she agreed.

    Thus, 5 bold adventurers struck out one morning on the road leading north of town heading for what could be the Whispering Cairn...


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## Menexenus

*Alexander's backstory*

There is a memorial obelisk in the Diamond Lake boneyard that is dedicated to all the miners lost in cave-ins over the years.  The young wizard Alexander, apprentice to master wizard Allustan, goes to it from time to time out of respect for the father that died in a mining accident when he was still small.  One day, while visiting the obelisk, Alexander decides that his mother has paid Allustan enough tuition.  It is time for him to strike out on his own, earn his keep, and pay his mother back for all those years of apprenticeship that she paid for with back-breaking labor.

    After all, Allustan has treated Alexander and the other two apprentices mostly as servants, rather than students.  He did teach Alexander a few minor spells, but mostly he also had Alexander cleaning and cooking and doing other menial chores.  In addition, he seemed to favor the other two apprentices over Alexander when it came to attention in the classroom.  

Finally, Alexander gets up the courage to announce that he is leaving Allustan's service.  Alexander expects Allustan to be his usual gruff and uncaring self.  Instead, Allustan suddenly becomes much more congenial and almost sympathetic.  It was as if he had expected that this day must eventually come, but is surprised that it has come so soon.  

Allustan looks at Alexander and says meaningfully, "Yes, there is only so much we can learn from books and practice, isn't there?  At some point, if we truly want to become a master of the mystical arts, we must strike out on our own and face the challenges that can only be found on the fringes of civilization.  A nasty business, adventuring, but at the end of the day, it is also a *necessary* business, isn't it?"  For a moment, he seems lost in thought.  Then he abruptly continues, "Well, best of luck to you, my good lad!  If you change your mind, I'll keep your room ready for you for at least a couple weeks.  And of course, I'll be sending back your mother's next payment with a note saying that she need not send any more of them.  If at any time, you need help deciphering some strange puzzle you encounter along your travels, or you need something translated, or you simply want the advice of a man with more experience and knowledge, I will offer you my services as a sage at half the usual price.

"I've already taught you all the things that a young adventurer needs to know.  Just remember that your companions are counting on you to cast spells, not fight hand-to-hand!  The goal of an adventuring wizard is to discover new spells and to grow in arcane power.  You will achieve neither of these goals if you are dead!  Discretion is the better part of valor, my boy!  Don't let your conscience - or anyone else - try to tell you differently!  I say this because you've always been a very good boy who has tried to do the right things - defending those who are weaker than you, telling the truth, helping those who are suffering.  These are wonderful attributes in church, or in the safety of a town, but they will get you killed down in the dungeon.  Be careful, my former apprentice, and fortune will smile upon you!"

With these surprising words of encouragement, Alexander left Allustan's service and began the journey from boyhood to manhood.


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## Menexenus

*Killick's backstory*

Killick was raised by his father, a miner, after Killick's mother died in childbirth.  As he was growing up, Killick watched his father's health deteriorate over the years of toil underground, and the child became determined never to work in the mines himself.  Left to his own devices for long stretches of time, Killick explored the surrounding countryside with his boyhood friends.  Unlike his friends, however, Killick never outgrew this phase.  He became fascinated with the world of Nature, so unlike the lawlessness, deception, and corruption of Diamond Lake.  In the world of plants and animals, almost anything could happen, but at least you knew when your were predator and when you were prey.  The rhythms and cycles of Nature comforted Killick as his father grew sicker and sicker.

    When he was barely a teenager, Killick had to begin supporting himself and his father, who had become too ill to work in the mines.  Rather than sign up for a mine company himself, Killick became somewhat of a maverick in town by hunting for a living.  He taught himself to track and kill small animals, then brought the meat and skins back to Diamond Lake for food and trade.  At first, only friends and neighbors would purchase Killick's offerings, and considered it charity, but as he grew older and more skilled, Killick was able to trade with many across town, including innkeepers, and make a living for himself and his father.

    Killick had thought that all human society was as raucous, disorderly, and crime-ridden as Diamond Lake, but as he ranged further from the town hunting larger game, he made contact with other groups in the surrounding area that showed him how civilization could be.  A secretive band of monks from a far-off land began to trade with Killick, after he hunted a wounded bear almost to the door of their monastery.  Also, Killick found and befriended the druids of the area, and it was they who taught him to revere Beory, Goddess of the Earth, who represented the things he loved best about Nature.  Killick asked to be included in the druidic rituals, but they told him that he would be needed in Diamond Lake when the time came, and to return to them when he was older, if he still desired it.

    Killick's father has recently died.  The young man is filled with grief, but also with hope of escape from the dreariness and chaos of Diamond Lake, now that his last link to the place has been severed.  When Tarric comes to him with the idea of an exploring the old "Whispering Cave" of their childhood, it seems like as good a way as any to gain the wealth needed to begin his travels.

<fast forward to the second day of the campaign>  

It is late in the evening of the 12th of Planting.  Killick is on guard duty in the old abandoned mine office.  He has just finished skinning his wolves and is resting before the fire.  Suddenly, he hears a familiar call from out in the woods.  It is the distinctive bird call that Killick's mentor, Merris Sandoval, makes whenever he wanted to get Killick's attention without others knowing.  

    Killick takes a torch and wanders out into the night without alerting his comrades.  He follows the sound of the bird call for about 150 yards until he finally hears Merris's voice from above.  "I thought that was you, young Killick!"  Killick looks up and sees Merris sitting on a tree branch about 10 feet above the ground.  Merris continues, "You should probably know that we in the Greyhawk Militia keep a relatively close eye on this abandoned mine office.  It seems to be a magnet for bandits, vagabonds, and other ne'er-do-wells."  He pauses.  Then with an impish smile and a wink he says, "You haven't decided to take up a life of banditry, now, have you lad?"

    With catlike grace, he makes his way quickly and quietly down from the tree.  And in moments he stands before Killick, a thin man with weathered features.  His hair is almost completely gray now, but he retains a boyish charm that makes him seem younger than he is.  Merris goes on, "If it were anyone but you, lad, I'd be required to ask about your business out here in the middle of no where.  But since it *is* you, I'll forget I saw you and your companions and mind my own business.  Was that Killian and Alexander I spied in there with you?"  Before Killick can answer, Merris puts his hands up and says, "Nope, don't answer that.  Never you mind.  Tain't none of my business, now, is it?"

    He begins digging around in his backpack for something.  "I'm glad I happened upon you out here in the middle of no where, Killick, as I've been meaning to give you something.  I've spoken on your behalf at the Bronzewood Lodge, and they've agreed to allow you to attend our next communion service.  After they've had a chance to look you over and ask you a few questions, they'll most likely induct you as a member, if that's still what you want.  The service will be held starting at sundown on the night of the next full moon, which as I'm sure you know by now will be the 4th of Flocktime, 20 days from today.  It'll be best if you come with me, but if I'm sent out on a mission and can't attend the service for some reason, this brooch and a password will grant you access to the meeting."  He hands Killick a very simple wood and leather brooch with the figure of a bronzewood tree etched upon it.  "The password is 'Yin Maega un Dorada'.  It means something like 'Nothing is more sacred than Nature' in the language of the Druids.  I'm told it is a common greeting among them.  I'm not a druid myself, so I don't know their secret language."  Suddenly Merris's face beams with mischievous humor again, and he exclaims, "For all I know, it could mean 'I'm a ing idiot who can't speak Druidic'!"  Merris indulges in some quiet laughter at his own joke.  Then he continues, "But if it gets you in the door, I guess it doesn't really matter what it means."  He winks.

    "Well, my boy, I'm on patrol duty this evening.  I still have a ways to go tonight before I can head back to the garrison and make my report.  You and your friends be careful out here, alright?  Good night."


----------



## Menexenus

*Killian's backstory*

Killian Dunbar is an imposing man standing nearly six feet tall with shoulder length brown hair and a bushy fu-manchu style moustache.  Even though Killian has not lived a rugged outdoorsy life, per-se, he has been blessed with a muscular build and a hearty constitution.  Even more important, some say, is the fact that Killian is no fool.  He has wisdom beyond his years and a genuine, optimistic manner that endears him to many people.  

Sadly, Killian's mother died of disease when he was very young and he has only vague memories of her.  He has no siblings.  His father, a teamster for the local shipping company, worked hard to make their small family work, but being gone for days on end made it unfeasible to raise a small child.  Kindly, the Church of St. Cuthbert agreed to take the young boy as a live-in laborer.  However, Killian's father did not abandoned him.  They spent time together when his father was home and when he was old enough to take care of himself he moved back into their rundown two room shack.  However, he still maintained his employment at the church.  

It is no secret that Killian has always dreamed of becoming a warrior.  Even from his early years he was saving money to purchase armor and a weapon.  Today that dream has culminated in Killian proudly owning a suit of studded leather armor and a massive greatsword (which he is still learning to use).  Despite his dreams, however, Killian has found himself drawn to the teachings of the Church of St. Cuthbert.  He has even taken up the controversial practice of self mortification, taught as a method of purification by his mentor, Father Jierian.  This practice has significantly raised Killian's endurance level, enabling him to tolerate much more pain and injury than most could possibly bear.

When Tarric came to Killian suggesting that they team up to embark on an adventure, Killian thought that there was no chance he'd be allowed to leave the service of the church.  After all, swearing oneself to the church is a holy vow, one that cannot be broken simply for the promise of gold and adventure.  However, Killian did not want to leave his childhood friends without the ministrations of a priest as they embarked on what could be a very dangerous undertaking.  So he decided to ask Father Jierian, the charismatic leader of the church of St. Cuthbert in Diamond Lake, for special permission to accompany them.

At Killian's request, he is granted a private meeting with Father Jierian.  Strangely, the Father seems surprised to see him.  He asks Killian what prompted him to request a private audience.  Killian reports that his friends have decided to begin a life of adventure and have asked him to accompany them.  Killian confesses that he feels conflicted because he knows that the church needs him, but he also knows that his friends will need the holy guidance and assistance of St. Cuthbert.  Killian asks Father Jierian to help him recognize the path of righteousness in this situation of conflicting loyalties.

    Father Jierian's face lights up and he says, "Your coming to me today is no coincidence, my son.  Yesterday, during prayers, I fell into a deep trance.  During this trance, St. Cuthbert, the holy paragon of rectitude himself, appeared to me!  Yes, it's true, my son!  His Holiness told me that you would ask to leave the confines of the church and serve as an adventuring cleric, and He also told me that I should grant your request.  I bowed before His Perfection and told Him that I am his faithful servant and would do whatever He asked of me.  Out of curiosity, I then asked His Perfection if He might see fit to share with me why He felt it necessary to guide me so directly on this issue.  His Holiness responded that you, Killian, have a very important role to play in averting the apocalypse that I have been dutifully preaching about for so many years.  He said that much responsibility rests on your shoulders and the shoulders of your companions, and that you cannot be allowed to fail, or else the whole world will suffer.

    "So, with my utmost blessing, I tell you to follow your friends and bring the strength, wisdom, and unflagging direction of St. Cuthbert everywhere you go.  And know that St. Cuthbert himself walks with you, my son."

With these unexpected words of encouragement still ringing in his ears, Killian left the church to inform Tarric that he would be accompanying his childhood friends on their expedition to the Whispering Cave.


----------



## Menexenus

*Tarric's backstory*

One night, right after a night on patrol with the Greyhawk Militia, Tarric was feeling particularly depressed and lonely.  He really missed his parents.  So, without even taking off his armor, he immediately headed to the Diamond Lake boneyard after his shift was over.  When the green-robed acolytes of Wee-Jas saw that he was there to pay respects, they let him in, even though visitors aren't usually allowed after dark.  Tarric spent an hour or so standing over his parents' graves, mourning and talking to them.  As he left the cemetery, he felt a strong need to live a better life, a life that would have made them proud.

    As Tarric passed through the center of town, heading back to the garrison, he heard some woman sobbing and screaming nearby.  Without even thinking twice, he ran towards the screams.  When he found the blind alley that the screams were coming from, he discovered four street toughs guarding its entrance.  When they saw Tarric's intention to enter the alley and investigate the cries for help, they put up their hands and one of them said, "You don't want to go back there, Hero.  Nothing to see.  Best be on your way."

Tarric was in no state of mind to do the smart thing and take the easy way out of the situation.  He may have hesitated for a tenth of a second before bull-rushing past them.  At the end of the alley, he saw a middle-aged fat man with his pants around his ankles smothering a thin teenage girl whose shirt had been ripped.  With no fear and no thoughts of the likely consequences, Tarric drew his longsword and commanded, "Let the girl go."

    The fat man turned around to face Tarric.  Now Tarric could clearly see that he was Balabar Smenk, the most powerful and corrupt man in town.  Tarric was relieved to see that he was in time - the girl had not yet been violated.  Despite having his pants around his ankles, Smenk was nonplussed by Tarric's commanding tone and implicit threat of force.  In fact, if anything Smenk looked shocked to be spoken to in such a manner.  He said, "What's your name, soldier?"

    With the pride of a righteous man who has accepted his fate, he did not hesitate to answer, "Tarric of the Greyhawk Militia."

    Smenk replied, "You realize, don't you, Tarric-of-the-Greyhawk-Militia, that you have no authority to enforce laws here in town and that your brandishing a sword at me is an act of assault?"  Without giving the strapping young man an opportunity to answer his rhetorical question, he asked another.  "Do you know who I am, son?  I am Balabar Smenk.  I could buy and sell your pathetic life in a heartbeat without thinking twice about it.  I can make your life a living hell, boy."  With one hand clasped tightly around the girl's arm and one hand pulling up on the belt of his loosened britches, he began moving toward Tarric's swordpoint menacingly.  Under any other circumstances, the sight would have been laughable, but Tarric felt no urge to laugh.  Glowering, he continued in an unconvincingly avuncular tone, "Now, I can be a forgiving man.  Maybe you walked down the wrong alley by mistake.  Maybe you wish to leave right now and forget everything you saw here.  I think that would be in your best interests, young Tarric."  After a pregnant pause, he concluded with heavy emphasis, "What do _you_ think, Tarric of the Greyhawk Militia?"

    Unshaken by his not-so-veiled threats, Tarric replied, "Take your hands off the girl, sir."  Instantly, he could see the rage boiling inside the fat man.  But after three long seconds, Smenk released the girl's arm without taking his eyes off Tarric.  Without a word, the girl ran out of the alley and into the night.  In a quiet tone that belied his angry reddened face, Smenk said, "You've made a terrible mistake here tonight, son.  One that you will regret for whatever is left of your pathetic life."

    Tarric sheathed his sword, tipped his cap, and said, "Have a good evening, sir."  Then he turned his back on the man who had just threatened his life and walked out of the alley.  As he left, he happened to notice one of the guards at the entrance of the alleyway who had tried to stop him just a moment ago.  She mouthed the words "Thank you" to Tarric as he walked by.  Tarric thought it best not to reply.

    The very next day, at the beginning of Tarric's shift, he was immediately called in to Captain Trask's office.  When the captain told him to shut the door behind him, Tarric knew it was going to be bad.  Trask wasn't the kind of soldier who went for much small talk.  He began, "This morning, I had the Governor-Mayor standing right where you are now tearing me a new one, reading me the riot act about jurisdiction.  Now, Tarric, you're a good soldier, but I've warned you men over and over again about not getting involved in the hole Down the Hill."  (Tarric had heard Trask use this expression before.  It was his not-so-affectionate name for Diamond Lake.)  "How many times have I told you that our mission is to defend the town, not police it?"  Trask paused to give the young man a chance to respond, but Tarric was smart enough to know a rhetorical question when he heard one.  Trask continued, "The Governor-Mayor tells me that you brandished your sword at one of the mine managers.  Is that true?"

    "Yessir," Tarric replied crisply, standing at attention and staring straight ahead.  Tarric knew what was coming next, but he was determined to take it like a man - like a _soldier_.

    "Well, then, I've got no choice.  Neff has got a lot of pull in Greyhawk.  He says it's either you or me, and unfortunately he's not just blowing smoke.  He can have my a$s if he wants it bad enough.  To the Directors, I'm just an employee.  Neff is a nobleman.  I'm dirt to both of them, and I will not ruin my career in a futile attempt to salvage _yours_!" His voice had been rising over the course of the last few sentences so that the last word was almost a full shout.

    He paused for a moment to compose himself, and then began again more quietly. "Tarric, you're a good man.  Your father was a good man.  I have no doubt that you were acting honorably in town.  But sadly, in this town, acting honorably is about the same thing as acting stupidly."  Trask paused again, but Tarric had no response to give.  The Captain continued wearily, "As much as it pains me to do so, I've got no choice but to relieve you of your rank and your duties.  You are hereby discharged from service to the Greyhawk Militia.  You need to clean out your gear by the end of the day.  Dismissed."

    Without emotion Tarric replied, "Yessir" and then turned smartly on his heals to leave Trask's office.

    As Tarric reached for the doorknob, the captain stopped him by saying in a much more friendly tone of voice, "Tarric, if there's ever anything I can do for you, just ask.  I owe your father at least that much.  You were a good soldier, Tarric.  Take care of yourself.  And watch out for that Smenk bastard.  From what I've heard, that fat S.O.B. thinks of revenge as a hobby and is capable of just about anything."

    "I will, sir.  Thank you, sir" Tarric replied as he opened the door and stepped out of his former Captain's office for the last time.

    News of Tarric's discharge gets around fast.  Tarric has always been popular among his fellow soldiers, and they insist on getting him drunk at the local militia bar called the Spinning Giant.  The gravity of what has just happened to him starts to hit, so he's not in much of a mood to refuse the offer.  After much consoling, Tarric notices a tough-looking new guy walk into the bar.  Although the bar's patrons are usually not that welcoming to civilians, this guy is clearly no civilian.  He's built like a god, wearing armor, a sword, and a large, gaudy red and blue ceremonial belt with a gold medallion in the shape of a lady's face in the front.  He walks right up next to where Tarric is sitting at the bar and orders a drink.  He downs it in one gulp, has a seat, and introduces himself.  He calls himself Auric.  The two of begin talking about the lousy days they are having.  After Tarric tells his story, Auric agrees that his day was worse.  He says he's spent the day swatting away bloodsuckers while staring at the back of a rogue who's searching for secret doors.  Tarric asks where, and then the large newcomer suddenly gets a little quieter.  Sheepishly, he responds that he probably shouldn't tell.

    Auric makes himself quite a star at the Spinning Giant that evening.  He offers 10 gp to anyone who can beat him arm wrestling.  Many men try, but none win.  Later on, after he has had many more drinks, he is challenged to a game of darts which he loses decisively.  It is clear to everyone that he has had way too much to drink.  Defeated at darts, he returns to his barstool next to Tarric's.  Tarric asks him where he got the belt.  Proudly, he answers that he won this championship belt at last year's Champions Games in the Greyhawk Arena.  When Tarric seems unfamiliar, Auric explains that every year during Richfest, the Greyhawk Arena hosts a single-elimination tournament in which groups of adventurers fight each other to claim the prize.  Auric boasts that he is the leader of the group that won the contest and is currently one of the reigning Champions.  That's what gives him the right to wear the belt.  Auric explains that some groups fight for the honor, others are mercenaries fighting for greater name recognition among potential customers, and still others fight for the cash prize of 20,000 gp.  He says he fought for all three reasons.  He points out that Richfest is coming up again in about a month and a half.  He tells Tarric that he plans to go back and win the championship again this year.  Getting a little glory will be welcome after the humiliation of checking out the stupid cairn.  Then he shrugs and says, "Paying customers...  What are you gonna do?"  

Tarric decides that now's the time to pump him for more information.  This time Auric has enough liquor in him that he answers every question without hesitation.  He tells his new buddy Tarric that he's here with a rogue named Tirra and a wizard named Khellek.  They are in town investigating the Stirgenest Cairn south of Diamond Lake.  Tarric informs him that the Stirgenest Cairn was cleared out a decades ago.

    Slurring his speech, Auric replies, "Yeah, that's what everyone thinks.  But Khellek has heard that some adventurers recently discovered secret burial chambers full of treasure in other cairns that were thought to be previously cleaned out.  Khellek did some research, and he thinks there should be another cairn here around Diamond Lake that should also have a similar secret chamber.  And since the only cairn around these parts is the Stirgenest Cairn, we've spent the last week or so searching every inch of that place for undiscovered rooms.  So far, though, no luck.  I'm beginning to think that Khellek is just barking up the wrong tree on this one.  But, he's been right before, and I've learned that it pays to listen to him."

    Soon thereafter Tarric makes his excuses and departs the Spinning Giant.  As he leaves, his former coworkers insist that he is welcome back any time, and Auric assures him that they are now lifelong friends.  However, Tarric can't help but wonder if Auric will remember him - or, more importantly, what Auric _said_ to him - at all in the morning.

    Tarric lies awake all night thinking about what Auric said.  Maybe they are searching the wrong cairn.  Maybe the Whispering Cave north of town where he and his friends used to play around is the cairn they are looking for.  At first, Tarric considers selling Auric the information (since he is clearly a wealthy man), but then he thinks that maybe he and his friends in town could explore it.  After all, those childhood friends of his were all grown up now.  They can all take care of themselves in a fight.  Why should Auric and his group get all the wealth?  Besides, Tarric's savings isn't going to last very long if he doesn't find paying work soon.

    The next day Tarric goes around paying visits to all his childhood friends, discussing the opportunity with them.  Killick, who has become quite an outdoorsman says he's willing to join in.  Alexander, the apprentice of Allustan, the local sage and wizard, is also an easy sell.  Killian, the acolyte at the church of St. Cutbert, seems a bit more reluctant.  He says he'll need to ask permission of Father Jierian.  The next day, Killian returns and excitedly says he'll join the expedition, too.  But Tarric realizes that his growing party of adventurers really needs someone like Tirra in Auric's party - someone who's good at finding traps and secret doors and such.  After all, all the legends of the Cairns that Tarric has ever heard tell of fantastic deadly traps to which many an explorer has fallen prey.

    The following day, Tarric is in the town square getting a bite to eat at the farmer's market when he spots one of Smenk's bodyguards.  At first Tarric worries that maybe she's following him on Smenk's orders, but after a few minutes he realizes that she hasn't even noticed him.  As he watches her, he remembers that she is the one who mouthed the words "Thank you" after he rescued the girl in the alleyway.

Tarric walks up to her and starts a conversation.  She seems genuinely glad to see him.  She introduces herself as Alees and thanks him again for saving the girl in the alley.  She expresses shame that she was unable to do more herself.  She says that she now wishes she would have stood up to that depraved lout since Smenk ended up firing her anyway.  Tarric shares that he has recently been fired, too.  Tarric pauses for a moment weighing whether he should trust this young woman, but then he tells her that he has a job offer to discuss with her.  She says she's open to anything right now.  Tarric describes the conversation he had with Auric at the Spinning Giant a few nights ago as well as his suspicion that Auric and his group are exploring the wrong cairn.  Tarric confides that he has already recruited three other skilled adventurers, but they are looking for one more person with specific skill sets to join in with them.  Tarric asks if she's interested.  Alees momentarily tries to play it coy, but she quickly breaks down and seems genuinely enthusiastic about the opportunity to get rich quick.  She also seems happy to have found an excuse to get out of town quickly.  She officially agrees to join the party for a full share of the treasure.  You tell her that the group is planning to begin exploring the cairn the next day. She says that's fine with her, and she'll meet you at the same spot tomorrow at dawn.

    Thus, an adventure was born...


----------



## Menexenus

*Alees's backstory*

Alees grew up in a clan of Rhennee performers that traveled across this land entertaining countryfolk with crude amusements - and robbing as many marks as they could find along the way.  Alees was adopted as an infant by a husband and wife, named Gerick and Azlee.  She is an only child because Gerick and Azlee couldn't have children.  She loves her adoptive parents very much and is very close to her extended Rhennee family, but has come of an age in which she felt the need to strike out on her own to make her own fortune.

After being on her own for a bit, she discovered that the life of a lone rogue is not an easy one.  She was passing through Diamond Lake, and stopped for a few days.  Late one night,  a very inebriated patron of a bar accused her of trying to pickpocket his coin purse.  Alees denied the allegation strongly, despite her actual guilt. The situation took a turn for the worse when one of the town constables was called to investigate the situation.  Alees contemplated her chances of escape if she just ran away, but she decided they were quite low.  

Suddenly, a fat man in fancy but tattered clothes walked up to the accuser and the constable who was investigating the theft and made the whole issue go away.  After only a few words from Smenk, the accuser changed his story and apologized to Alees, and the constable simply went away without a word.  Afterwards, Smenk offered Alees his arm and asked her to accompany him outside.  Even though Smenk was clearly overbearing and distastefully overweight, she felt that she couldn't refuse after what he had just done for her.  The two of them headed outside for a walk, followed at a discreet distance by 4 bodyguards.

    Smenk started off with small talk that included some disgustingly blunt and graphic sexual humor.  Despite being uncomfortable with this man, Alees did not want to offend him and remained as polite as possible.  After gauging her response to his crass flirtations, he told her that he had need of people with talents like hers.  He offered her a position with his organization that would require the utmost discretion.  Although something was telling her not to get involved with this suspicious man, when Alees considered her current lack of funds, she found that she had little choice but to take the job.

    She was given what were clearly low-priority assignments while Smenk gauged her trustworthiness.  She participated in a few "collections" assignments and a few bodyguard assignments, during which time she met a number of Smenk's other employees.  She was never given any missions to perform on her own - she was always teamed up with more experienced employees.  

On one of her nights spent as a bodyguard to Smenk, he was enjoying himself at a rough drinking establishment he owned known as the Feral Dog.  He had a little too much to drink and was all over a young, pretty neighborhood girl.  It was clear to everyone that she wanted nothing to do with the pig, but she was clearly afraid of Smenk and was unable to say so directly.  He bullied her into walking with him out into the night.  Alees and the other three bodyguards followed at a discreet distance, as they had been trained to do.  Alees witnessed Smenk getting more and more grabby with the woman, trying to take her clothes off in the middle of the street.  

    At this point the girl started fighting back more aggressively.  This seemed to spur Smenk on.  He grabbed the girl and physically dragged her into an alley.  He gave Alees and the rest of his bodyguards the order to keep watch at the end of the alley and not let anyone through.  The girl started protesting louder and louder, eventually shouting for help.  Alees wanted to do something to help her, but she knew that if she tried to fight to help the girl, his other three bodyguards would stop her.

    Suddenly, a tall man in the uniform of the Greyhawk Militia appeared and loudly asked what was going on in the alley.  The other 3 bodyguards tried to shoo him away, but he would not go.  He was still in his armor, and he pushed his way past the lightly armed guards.  Once past them, he drew his sword and commanded Smenk to let the girl go in the name of the Greyhawk militia.  Smenk looked shocked to be spoken to in such a manner.  He asked the stranger for his name, and the stranger replied "Tarric of the Greyhawk militia."  Smenk reminded Tarric that the Greyhawk militia had no authority to enforce the law in Diamond Lake.  He asked threateningly if Tarric knew who he was.  But Tarric was steadfast in his insistence that he let the girl go.  As he pulled up his unbuckled pants, Smenk told Tarric that he was making a terrible mistake and that he would regret it.  The girl thanked Tarric and hustled by Alees and the other bodyguards as quickly as possible, covering her naked torso with her arms.  As Tarric walked by Alees to leave the alleyway, she mouthed the words "Thank you" to him.  

    Less than a week later, Smenk was drunk again and he tried the same thing on Alees that he had tried on the young girl in the alley, but Alees would have none of it.  When she pushed him away forcefully, he said if she didn't come with him and follow his instructions, she would be out of a job.  Alees insisted that that was fine with her - she quit.  Then Smenk replied ominously that she had better watch her back as long as she was in Diamond Lake.  Without waiting for Smenk to regain enough of his wits to order his bodyguards to harm her, she turned and fled into the night.

    The next morning she was getting a bite to eat at the open air farmer's market and trying to decide which town to travel to next.  There she met Tarric again who told her that he had been fired from the Greyhawk militia for standing up to Smenk.  She thanked him again for what he did for the girl and told him that she had lost her job as well.  It was then that Tarric invited her to join him adventuring, and since it offerred the possibility of making good money while also getting her out of town, she jumped at the opportunity.

The five newly minted adventurers left for the Whispering Cairn at dawn the next day...


----------



## Menexenus

*Katawan's backstory*

At the beginning of the campaign, Katawan is 18 years old.  His younger years were spent in Diamond Lake.  He left town to join the local monastery at the age of 15 and has not been seen in town for those 3 years.  As a boy growing up he was an inquisitive child, always asking why things were as there were and wondering why things happened as they did.  He was an average child in relation to size and stature, only about 5 feet 6 inches tall and rather slim at about 150 pounds.  Even though seemingly smallish his 3 years of training among the monks would eventually make him into a hardened, quick and worthy adversary.  He is a quiet person saying little but meaning what he says.  He has courage but also knows that at times the "best fight is one that is not made".

Katawan's family - the name of which was Caine before he was given a new name among the monks - still lives in Diamond Lake, although he has not seen or heard from them over these past 3 years.  When he left three years ago, his father and mother were still living along with his younger sister.  His family had been living on a small farm on the outskirts of the town where they were just able to make ends meet.  

   Throughout young Caine's childhood, he has occasionally seen monks in town, buying goods at the market.  While most of the townsfolk seemed to despise the monks, he admired their quiet wisdom and sense of peace.  Eventually he learned why the townsfolk despise the monks.  Twenty years ago, a mob of out-of-work miners stormed the local monastery, demanding that the mistress of the monastery use her mystical powers to help them find new sources of ore.  When she refused, the miners attacked.  The monks were able to repel the invaders, and only 15 miners returned to town to tell the tale.  That very night, each of those 15 townspeople were murdered in their sleep.  The monks had infiltrated the town at night and assassinated every last miner who had participated in the raid on the monastery.  Since then, the relationship between the town and the monks has been very tense.  The monks are allowed in town only to sell the exotic herbs and spices that they cultivate in their clifftop compound and to buy provisions for themselves.  Otherwise, they are not welcome in town (which is fine with them).

    About 3 years ago, when he was 15, Caine felt a strong calling to join the monastery and become a monk.  He left Diamond Lake in hopes of beginning training at the Twilight Monastery.  He traveled 8 hours north until he came to a towering crag called the Griffin's Roost, atop which is perched foreboding edifice known as the Twilight Monastery.  (It is called the Twilight Monastery because the monks inside it are heard chanting at dusk.)  Caine climbed the steep rocky hill and knocked on the large double doors of the compound.  At first there was no answer, but then after a few minutes, the doors swung open.  Behind them stood a man with a shaved head dressed in poor quality clothing.  He looked at Caine and beckoned him wordlessly to follow.  The shaved monk led the teenager into a large building and up some stairs.  He pointed at a doorway and motioned that Caine should enter.  He opened the door and found an elderly woman sitting alone on the floor of a relatively unadorned room.  Incense was burning in a small censer before her, and her eyes were closed.  

For a while, Caine stood there waiting.  After a few minutes, he seated himself across from the woman, waiting for her to speak.  Caine sat there with her in silence for about 20 minutes.  Suddenly, with eyes still closed, she began speaking.  "Greetings.  My name is Izenfen.  I am the mistress of this monastery.  I have been expecting you.  The stars told me of your arrival.  Your are to be trained for a great test.  When you face this test, the fate of untold multitudes will depend upon your actions.  Therefore, if you choose to undertake the training that we offer here, you must do so with the utmost seriousness and devotion.  Are you willing to devote your entire body and spirit to our teachings?"

    Although this experience had been a bit unsettling for the young man, Caine decided there was no point in turning back now.  "Yes," he replied.

    "Are you willing to follow my every instruction without question and without fail?"

    "Yes"

    She paused for a moment, as if trying to gauge the truth of his responses.  At long last, she opened her eyes and looked directly at him with a penetrating stare.  "Good.  Welcome to the Twilight Monastery.  Henceforth, you will be known among us as Brother Katawan.  Your previous name is of no significance.  You will never use it again.  Leave me.  Follow Brother Watano.  He will show you where you will stay and prepare you for what is to come.  He will be your instructor.  Follow his every instruction as if they were my own."  She closed her eyes again, and Katawan left her, as instructed.

    The training was brutal.  Every day the boy went to bed bruised and hungry.  There were times when he thought he couldn't endure the physical and mental punishment any more.  But then he remembered Izenfen's words.  The fate of multitudes will depend on him.  These words inspired him to withstand more punishment than he ever thought possible.  Eventually, he saw that his skills were indeed growing, and he came to appreciate his instructors and their teachings, despite their harshness.

    Almost 3 years to the day of Katawan's arrival at the Twilight Monastery, he was summoned to Izenfen's quarters for only the second time.  Again, she was seated and meditating.  He knelt across from her and pressed his forehead to the ground, as he had been taught to do out of respect for those who had mastered the martial arts.  He asked, "How may I serve you, Sensei?"  

    She responded, "Brother Katawan, the day of your departure has arrived."

He was so shocked by this sentence, that, for a moment, he began lifting his forehead away from the ground.  He quickly replaced it and replied, "But Sensei, I still have so much to learn.  I am not yet ready for the great trial you spoke of."

    "Nevertheless, the day of your departure has arrived.  You will leave us and join your childhood friends.  They are exploring the Whispering Cave about 5 hours south of here.  You know the one.  You will join them.  Together you will face many challenges, and these challenges will make you stronger.  And it is together, with your friends, that you will face the great test that I told you about when you first arrived here.  Remember your teachings and you will grow stronger in mind, body, and spirit.  When the time comes, you will be ready."  

Izenfen stood, so Katawan stood up as well, with his head bowed.  She gave the young man a short, curt bow.  This unnerved him a bit, because it was not customary for the master to bow to the student.  She said, "Our prayers go with you, Katawan."

    Katawan gave a deep bow in reply, signifying his great respect and lower station.  Then, even though his head was still filled with questions, he turned and left the room, as commanded.  Brother Watano was standing at the door carrying all Katawan's worldly possessions (which fit easily into a small tattered cloth sack).  Watano handed the sack to him as he left the room, escorted him to the main gate of the compound, bowed deeply, and closed the gate behind him.  Katawan had not left the compound in 3 years, and it seemed strange to be standing outside the walls of the place that he had called home for so long.  After a few moments looking around and experiencing the strangeness of it all, he began walking toward the Whispering Cave to meet up with his friends.

    It was thus that a great adventure was begun...


----------



## Menexenus

*Session 1: Into the Whispering Cairn*

Cast of characters:
Tarric (Scott's fighter)
Alexander (Jason's wizard)
Katawan (Dave's monk)
Alees (Kim's rogue)
Killick (JJ's ranger)
Killian (Jim's cleric)

_10th of Planting_:
    The 5 characters (all except Katawan) departed Diamond Lake at dawn and traveled 3 hours on foot to the abandoned mine office near the Whispering Cave where they used to play as kids.  The property is extremely dilapidated.  Inside, the characters fight and kill a RABID SKUNK.  

    After some looking around, the characters decide to use the office as a base camp for their exploration of the Whispering Cairn.  Killian stays behind to try to spruce the place up a bit and make it semi-liveable.  The other four scout ahead, trying to remember where the Cave was.  After some looking, they find the old cave entrance they remember hidden behind a collapsed tree.  They climb through the dead branches of the collapsed tree and enter the cave.  Alexander recognizes that the glyphs along the wall are written in ancient Auran.  (However, he is unable to decipher them.)  The party finds a broken mirror-shaped object with a glyph at the bottom.  Alexander identifies it as a personal glyph (i.e. someone's name), copies the glyph, and picks up some shards of broken black glass.

    The party notices a greenish light up ahead.  At that moment, Katawan - another old childhood friend whom the group has not seen for years - arrives at the cave entrance and hails his former childhood friends.  He relates that he was sent by the leader of his monastery to join them because the group of them have an important destiny to fulfill (as strange as that seems to all of them).  

Soon thereafter, the party is attacked by THREE WOLVES that had turned the entrance of the Cairn into their own lair.  Alees finds a silver armband and a leather backpack containing an ornate indigo lamp in the wolves' den.  Across from the wolves' lair is a fresco depicting a large room with seven alcoves, all of which contain gleaming lamps of different colors.

    The party follows the green light up some stairs and into a very large room with 7 alcoves.  Only the green lamp is lit.  There is a sarcophagus in the middle of the room carved with an image of a 7-foot tall hairless person in robes.  The sarcophagus is shaped vaguely like an arrow and is pointed west.  Alees finds and disarms a trap on the lid of the sarcophagus, at which time she discovers that the sarcophagus moves.  Four characters work together to move the sarcophagus one click clockwise.  An elevator comes up out of the floor in the alcove that the sarcophagus is pointed towards.  Alexander places a torch in the elevator.  The party decides to move the sarcophagus back.  The sarcophagus will not budge in the counter-clockwise direction, so they move the sarcophagus clockwise again.  The previous elevator descends, and a very loud, grating noise comes from below the alcove that the sarcophagus is now pointed towards.  After about 10 seconds of noisy racket, the party hears a loud mechanical-sounding bang.  The grating noise stops, but a new humming noise can be heard in its place.  It gets louder and louder until a SWARM OF BEETLES and a MAD SLASHER emerge from a hole at the end of the alcove and attack the party.  Alexander blinds the Mad Slasher with a Color Spray before being knocked unconscious by the swarm.  The swarm of beetles attacks by completely enveloping party members within its range of motion, doing acid damage each round, and then moving on.  The party kills the mad slasher but finds that it is unable to damage the swarm.  They are forced to run.  They burn some oil behind them, hoping that the smoke will delay the swarm's pursuit.  This gambit buys the party just enough time to make it out of the cave mouth before the swarm emerges.  However, once it emerges out into the open air, it disperses.  The party is safe.

    The party returns to the abandoned mine office and receives healing from Killian, who had focused his efforts on getting the fireplace and stove of the mine office working.  Killian returns to town for supplies to repair the well, and returns later that night.  While Killian was gone, Killick skinned and cleaned the 3 wolves they had killed and cooked up some wolf steaks that were tough but nutritious.

_11th of Planting_:
    The party (except Killian) return to the Whispering Cairn.  They check to see whether anything in the cairn has changed.  It has not.  They open the lid of the sarcophagus in the middle of the room.  It is empty.  Killick guts the mad slasher's corpse and finds a strange gooey orange substance in its stomach.  

    They decide to explore the hole in the floor below the green lantern (from which the beetles and the mad slasher emerged the previous day).  They tie a rope to a piton and climb down the 20 ft deep shaft.  The first room in this lower level contains a mangled/destroyed metal elevator compartment.  The party surmises that its destruction must have caused all the loud noise.  The walls of this room are covered with bas-relief carvings of hairless beings looking disapprovingly at those in the room.  (However, these bas-reliefs have been severely damaged by the acid beetles.) 

    A few feet ahead the passage branches off to the left and right.  Alexander, Tarric, and Killick went left while Katawan and Alees went right.  The room on the left contained 6 raised slabs that looked like beds and a large statue of a hairless being holding a great club in two hands.  At the end of the room was a corpse with a crushed skull lying on one of the slabs.  They entered the room to investigate, and Alexander was immediately overcome by an overwhelming sense of fatigue.  At that moment, they heard a scream from Katawan in the other room!

In their room, Katawan and Alees had discovered a large basin filled with a gooey orange substance that was crawling with more of the same blue acid beetles they had encountered the previous day.  Before they could react, a GIANT BOMBARDIER BEETLE that had been crouching near a hive in the corner of the room sprayed acid at both of them.  Alees dodged the acid spray, but Katawan took the brunt of it (causing him to scream).  Tarric came running to help his wounded comrade.  The fatigued Alexander also joined his friends in the room with the beetles.  He cast Sleep at the back of the room, but instead of incapacitating the Giant Beetle, the spell merely caused hundreds of the small beetles on the orange goo to fall to the ground in a dormant state.  Nevertheless, the giant beetle was quickly killed by Tarric, Killick, and Alees.  Killick poked his quarterstaff into the hive.  This aggravated the beetles within, but Killick chose to remove the staff before the beetles were aggravated enough to form another swarm.

    Alees and Katawan tied ropes to Tarric and Killick and sent them back into the room with the statue to retrieve the corpse's body lying on the slab.  Tarric quickly succumbed to the fatigue effect, but Killick quickly grabbed the corpse and left the room without any problems.  This man had been dead for years.  He wore masterwork red leather armor with an 8-pointed yellow star stitched to the chest.  He wore a silver ring with a similar 8-pointed star insignia on his right hand.

    Now that 2 party-members were fatigued and Katawan was wounded, the party decided to withdraw from the cairn for the rest of the day and return to the abandoned mine office (where they were given more healing by Killian).  Alexander and Tarric immediately fell asleep and slept soundly for 8 hours even though it was only about noon when they returned.


----------



## Menexenus

*Session 2: Alexander's Ear*

While Alexander and Tarric were sleeping off their fatigue during the day of the 11th of Planting, Killick and Alees were cutting limbs off the tree that has been felled just outside the entrance to the cairn in order to allow quicker exit from the dungeon in the future.  When Alexander woke up around 8 pm, he had the rest of the night to make a scroll before preparing spells for the next day.

_12th of Planting_:
    In the morning, Killian decided that the abandoned office was sufficiently cleaned and repaired for him to join the party in the dungeon today.  (He had grown tired of missing out on all of the action.)  So, for the first time, the entire party entered the dungeon together.  On the way there, they noticed that the sky was getting cloudy.  They guessed that rain must be on the way.  Upon entering, they spent a bit more time searching the wolves den and found a broken stone finger.  They found that the sarcophagus trap had somehow been reset, so they disarmed it (again.  They decided that the sarcophagus was as secure a place as any to place their valuables.  Then they returned to the area of the dungeon that they were exploring the previous day (the portion underneath the green lantern).

    The party encountered another GIANT BOMBARDIER BEETLE.  Katawan noticed 3 large lumps covered in orange goo behind the basin.  He scraped off the goo and found humanoid bones.  Tarric carried one of the lumps out into the corridor.  Alees poured water on it from her waterskin and wiped it off with an empty sack she had been carrying.  She found soiled and ruined red leather armor with the 8-pointed star symbol they had seen before.  In addition, they found a stoppered bottle on his belt.  They also cleaned off the other two corpses.  These had stoppered bottles on their belts as well.  One of them also had a belt pouch containing 2 gp, 5 sp, 8 cp, and a magnificent pearl.

    Tarric went to wash the goo off of his hands in the water at the end of the hallway and was attacked by a small WATER ELEMENTAL.  The party decided to explore the underwater room at the end of the hallway.  Tarric removed his armor so that he could swim more effectively.  Killian decided to keep his armor on and simply walk underwater.  The party tied ropes to both of them before they submerged.  Each of the two held an object with Light cast upon it.  When they were halfway into the room, Killian was attacked by a GHOUL wearing the same red leather armor as the rest of the corpses the party had found.  Killian tried unsuccessfully to turn the undead.  Tarric tugged on the rope to have his party-mates pull them both back up to the stairs.  The ghoul followed them and was killed on the stairs.  The ghoul was wearing a gold ring fashioned with the same 8-pointed star figure. 

    Tarric and Killian returned to the underwater room to explore.  They found another corpse in red leather armor who was carrying the violet lantern (that was missing from the 7-alcove room) as well as a scabbard that contained a short sword of very fine make.  In the pile of cracked bones that the ghoul had been feeding on, the party found a belt pouch containing 2 pp, 38 gp, and 55 sp.

    The party returned to the lantern room.  They experimented with turning the sarcophagus some more.  They discovered a false elevater CRUSH TRAP and avoided it.  They also discovered that one of the alcoves has a round passage cut into the stone 40 feet above the ground.  The party climbed up to it and found irregular scratch marks going down the length of the tunnel.  At the end of the 70 foot long tunnel, was a bas-relief of an angry face with a very large mouth.  Seeing this prompted Killick to plant a piton and tie a rope around Alees.  Then the rest of the party evacuated the tunnel while Alees checked for traps.  She found one right in front of her, a pressure plate that she was unable to disable.  The party decided to return to this corridor later.

    After much experimenting, the party descended the elevator in the alcove with the yellow lantern.  The elevator emptied into a small room whose egress was blocked by a large bolder.  The room itself was covered with a bas-relief similar to the one encountered below the yellow lantern, except this one showed a multitude of bald people in happy adulation.  Alees discovered tiny holes in the sculptures that she decided were part of a GAS TRAP.  She spent a while (with Alexander) plugging these holes up before moving the large stone block that kept them from moving into the corridor in front of the party.  Moving the stone did indeed set off the trap, but the gas was blocked and no one was affected.

    The party walked down a long corridor lined on both sides with statues.  Although each statue was different, they all had their right hands extended slightly with the palms facing up.  Killick noticed that each palm seemed to have a different shaped shallow impression in it.  At the end of the hallway was a cold room.  Killick and Alees found a BROWN MOLD growing on another basin full of orange goo.  Alexander poured oil on the mold and lit it with a torch.  The mold seemed to absorb the heat from the fire.  With this sudden intense heat source, the mold doubled in size almost instantly.  Those near the mold found the heat being drawn out of their bodies.  Alexander fell unconscious; he was shivering and turning blue.  He seemed to have taken severe cold damage from the mold.  Killian dragged Alexander's body from the mold, and then Killian, Killick, and Katawan worked together to stabilize Alexander.  However, the young wizard seemed to be in very bad shape.  

The party decided to withdraw from the Cairn and do what they could to revive Alexander.


----------



## Menexenus

*Session 3:  The Ghost of Alastor Land*

The party had just stabilized Alexander after he took severe cold damage from BROWN MOLD.  They had decided to exit the Cairn.  But just when they were deciding who should carry which end of Alexander's unconscious body, Killick's body was hit be a ray of energy emanating from the darkness.  Killick shook off the effects and went in to investigate.  He found that the party was under attack by a tiny floating abomination consisting of 2 eyeballs and a string of muscle tissue connecting them.  The thing cast a Sleep spell on most of the party, causing Alees and Killian to fall asleep.  However, Killick, Tarric, and Katawan caught up with the abomination and destroyed it.  After Alees and Killian were shaken awake, the party carried Alexander's body as quickly as possible back to the abandoned mine office through a light rain.  They warmed Alexander's body as well as they could near the fire, but it was too late.  Over night, Alexander's left ear and two of the toes on his right foot turned black and fell off.  However, with Killian's curative magic, Alexander awakens the next morning with only some minor hearing loss and a slight limp.  Although Alexander is depressed about suffering his new deformities, he is grateful to be alive.

_13th of Planting_. The party spent a day healing up, during which Alees and Alexander returned to Allustan's residence and paid 100 gp to copy the spell Identify into his spellbook.  The remaining 4 PCs returned to the room with the brown mold to do a bit more exploring.  They found a small closet with a large stone slab blocking the entrance.  They found a toilet and a shower spigot.  They also found a room with an interesting airbed.  When Alexander returned from town, he began identifying the party's magical items (a short sword +1 and a 1st level pearl of power).

_14th of Planting_:  The next day, the party returned to the room with the brown mold.  Each successful Ray of Frost cast at the BROWN MOLD killed a 25 square foot (5 ft x 5 ft.) area.  Alees found a switch to draw the stone block in the closet back up into the ceiling.  Behind the stone slab was a miraculously unharmed suit of quality chainmail armor (with a crushed body inside of it).  On the ground were 3 small, fantastically detailed models of equally fantastic buildings.  On the pegs inside the closet hung 2 wands and a pair of goggles.  After Alees did some additional checking for traps, these items were taken from the closet.

    The party returned upstairs to the alcove room.  They decided it was time to hang the two lanterns on their chains.  Killick was dispatched to town to buy a ladder and some candles.  Alexander returned to the abandoned mine office to identify the new magical items.  When Killick returned with the supplies, the remaining 2 lanterns were hung in their alcoves and (after a bit of experimenting) a candle was placed in each lantern.  (The Continual Flame Torch in the green lantern was removed and kept for future use.)  As soon as this was done, a rumbling sound of stone-on-stone was heard from above.

    Since nothing had changed in the rooms below the green lantern, the party (minus Alexander) explored the round tunnel they had discovered before.  They found that the trap Alees had found before was now disarmed, and the screaming face at the end of the tunnel now had a large hole where the mouth had been.  The hole in the mouth led into a strange room with a 3 foot wide beam that spanned a 50 foot long room with iron balls covering the floor.  Alees found a trap on the beam.  Katawan leaped over the trap's trigger.  Alees tried to do the same but was unable to jump quite as far.  Iron balls shot out of both walls aimed at every square along the beam.  Alees was hit but kept her feet.  Katawan was hit and fell onto the iron balls below.  A GRICK appeared from beneath the balls and attacked Katawan, knocking him unconscious.  Killick ran into the room to help, but inadvertantly set off the trap again (which resulted in Alees being knocked out).  Killian moved as quickly as he could to rescue Katawan, but he was also knocked unconscious by the GRICK's powerful tentacles.  Killick fell back and pulled Alees to safety (using the rope tied around her waist).  None of the party's weapons seemed to be damaging the bizarre creature.  Finally, when all seemed lost, Tarric jumped down on to the iron balls, took Alees's magic short sword, and charged into battle with the GRICK.  One powerful swing of the magical short sword chopped the abomination in two.

    Once all the party members were stabilized, the party members began discussing how they might get through the smooth metal door on the far side of the room.  At just this moment, the ghostly figure of a young boy appeared to the party.  He introduced himself as Alastor Land.  The young man said that his spirit had been trapped in this room for 30 years.  He asked the party to put his spirit to rest by taking his bones and laying them to rest with his family's in the family burial plot about 30 minutes east of Diamond Lake.  He claimed that if the party agreed, he would open the door on the far side of the room.  

Partly because of the child's taunting manner, some of the party members were suspicious of Alastor's story and motives.  So, to demonstrate his good faith, he offered the party some loot.  He led the party to the bodies of 3 adventurers who had died in the same room (and were buried beneath layers of iron balls).  The ensuing excavation to recover the bodies yielded a rusty (but serviceable) long sword, a suit of masterwork banded mail, and some cash (1pp, 47gp, 7sp).  

After some consultation, the party agreed to help Alastor.  He was grateful.  He gave the party a description of the room on the far side of the metal door.  Killian asked how he would open the door once his spirit was put to rest.  Alastor assured him that his curse would not be at an end until he fulfilled his promise to the party.  He led the party to his own bones, which were also buried under layers of iron balls.  The party placed the bones in a sack and returned to the abandoned mine office for some hard-earned rest.

_15th of Planting_.  The next morning, Killian did everything he could to heal the party's wounds.  After breakfast, they hiked through rain for about 3 and a half hours to bring Alastor's bones to his family's farmstead.  But when they arrived at the location the ghost had described, they found that the graves in the family plot had all been robbed and the bodies had been taken.  Killick did some tracking and found 5 sets of footprints near the graves, but only 4 sets leaving (with a heavily laden wheelbarrow).  He also saw muddy footprints leading to the nearby farmhouse.  The party opened the front door of the house and found blood and bits of flesh.  They rounded a corner and were surprised to find an enraged female OWLBEAR.  Alexander cast a Sleep spell that seemed to put a small creature in the corner to sleep.  He used his new Pearl of Power to cast it again.  This time, the adult OWLBEAR fell unconscious.  Killian performed a coup de grace on the sleeping magical beast.  

Killick picked up the baby owlbear in the corner and spotted a human arm with a distinctive tattoo.  Alees reported that this tattoo was shared by a gang of Smenk's thugs that frequents the Feral Dog bar in town.  Killick reported to the party that young owlbears can fetch large sums of money from the right sorts of people.  The party spent the night at the Land Farmstead.

[It was only after the session that I discovered that the adult Owlbear should not have been affected by Alexander's Sleep spell.  Oops!  -DM]


----------



## Menexenus

*Session 4: Kullen's Gang*

_16th of Planting_.  The party travelled from the Land Farmstead back to the Whispering Cairn.  Alexander cast enough Rays of Frost to clear a pathway to a previously unexplored room.  Immediately thereafter, Alexander headed for the Able Carter Coaching Inn to catch his stage coach to Greyhawk.  It was agreed that the cost of the stagecoach will be deducted from party funds.  With him, he took a baby owlbear, a set of masterwork red leather armor, a ring with an 8-pointed star, and an elven armband to sell.  (The swaddled owlbear was a little fussy until Alexander cast Sleep on it...)  Of course, Alexander avoids showing his "baby" to anyone until he arrives at his destination - Lord Henway's Menagerie on the east side of Greyhawk.

    After Alexander's departure, the rest of the party entered the unexplored room and found what appeared to be a sculptor's workshop.  Aside from some odds and ends, the only things that looked potentially valuable in the room were a large marble statue of a 7-foot tall bald headed humanoid creature (of the same race that that the party has seen on all the other sculptures) wielding a short staff or a long rod.  The other noteworthy item was a black egg with a golden equilateral triangle device sitting on a red pedastal.  Upon closer inspection, the rod/staff that the statue is holding is not part of the statue itself.  It is made of pale petrified wood and has 6 grooves in it, as if the staff were made of 7 distinct parts.  Also upon closer inspection, the red pedastal is made out of a very hard metal with sharp pointy spikes.  The metal's coloration is steel gray with abundant swirls of red that seem to shift position when the observer isn't looking.  Killian casts Detect Magic, but the only thing that glows is the ceiling of the room which has a permanent Daylight spell cast on it (making the room very bright).  

    Killian tried to take the black egg off of the pedastal.  As soon as it was touched, it immediately turned into a medium EARTH ELEMENTAL and asked the party a question in a gravelly language that none of the party understood.  When it did not receive the answer it was looking for, it attacked.  After the creature was destroyed, the party returned to looting the room.  Killick removed the staff from the statue's hand, and found that it would function as a lighter version of a masterwork quarterstaff.  Then the party experimented with breaking off a piece of the red-metal for taking into town.  The party found that the metal was harder than any metal they had with them.  Consequently, they were unable to break off a piece.  Since it was very heavy to carry, they decided to place the red pedastal inside the sarcophagus upstairs for safe keeping.

    Then they went to town.  First they stopped at the Diamond Lake boneyard and spoke to the green-robed clerics of Wee Jas that protected it.  Although the Keepers of the Dead seemed a little odd, when they learned of the grave-robbery at the Land Farmhouse, they seemed genuinely concerned about finding and arresting the culprits.  The party was introduced to the head cleric, a human woman named Amariss.  When the party asked her about Kullen's gang, she expressed disdain for Kullen as well as his employer, Smenk.  She confirmed that he and his gang had come through town with a wheelbarrow, but the contents had been covered.  The party thanked Amariss for her help.

Next the party went shopping.  First they went to Taggin's General Store on the town square and stocked up on trail rations plus some other odds and ends.  Taggin was a genial fellow who went out of his way to avoid learning about the party's business.  Then the party went to Venelle's leather/bowyer shop to sell Killick's wolf pelts and 2 suits of studded leather.  Venelle offered to sell the party some magical arrows for more money than they had available.  Venelle offered Killick some friendly advice about how to catch and skin animals in the future so that he would get maximum value for their pelts.  Next the party went to Osgood's Smithy, a metalworker who sells armor and assorted metal goods.  Although Osgood showed a great deal of pride in his craftsmanship, he did not seem to have the sort of items the party was looking for.  When the party inquired about purchasing weapons, Osgood explained helpfully that he stayed out of the weapons trade, but he recommended a shop called the Captain's Blade.  The party followed Osgood's directions to the Captain's Blade.  The proprietor, Tyrol Ebberly, welcomed the party with shots of scotch whiskey.  He bought a rapier and a rusted longsword from the party and sold Killian a heavy flail.  He told the party that he specialized in masterwork weapons.  He showed the party an ornate dagger that he called Vondoch's Claw which he claimed had a sordid history.  He also showed the party a broken spearhead that he claimed had magical properties.  Both were too expensive for the party.  He claimed to have a wand for sale, too.  Before the party could leave, Tyrol offered them more whiskey and pumped them for tales of adventure.  He confided that he was once an adventurer, too, who had traveled as far as Veluna back in his heyday.  Most of the party seemed a bit suspicious of Ebberly's his questions.  However, Tarric seemed to appreciate the strange old man.  He joined Ebberly for a few drinks when most of the party shied away.  However, Tarric was careful not to divulge anything about their expedition to the Whispering Cairn.

    For dinner, the party ate at one of only two sit-down restaurants in town, called the Hungry Gar.  People in town had raved about the food at the Hungry Gar, but the party found it to be merely mediocre.  Near the end of the meal, a noisy chef came out to visit the table and introduced himself as the proprietor.  He insisted that his food was the best in town.  The party humored him to avoid making a scene (and to expedite his return to the kitchen).  As they were leaving the restaurant, Tarric bumped into an old friend from the garrison named Melinde, a paladin of the church of Heironeous.  Although Melinde is not directly affiliated with the Greyhawk Militia, she was an acolyte in the church of Heironeous located inside the Militia stockade.  She seemed like she might be a useful contact if the party ever needed help from the church of Heironeous.

    The party decided not to confront Kullen's gang that evening since Killian was out of healing spells.  That night, each party member slept in various locations throughout the town (Killick in the woods, Killian and Alees at Killian's father's house, Tarric and Katawan at the Able Carter Coaching Inn).

_17th of Planting_. the party investigated farmhouses on the periphery of Diamond Lake, looking for more evidence of grave robbers.  None was found.  When they returned to Diamond Lake, they visited Benazel the chemist who works at the Smelting Plant and does a side trade in alchemical items and arcane potions.  Killick bought 2 sunrods and asked Benazel if he had ever heard of a hard, gray metal with swirling red patterns.  Benazel seemed intrigued and asked where the party had encountered it.  They replied rather lamely that they had heard of it from Alees's dead uncle.  Benazel did not press the subject any further.  He said that he had not heard of such a metal, but he'd pay 100 gp to anyone who could bring him a sample.

    At around 8 pm that night, the party entered the Feral Dog tavern, a noisy "townie" bar frequented mostly by mine workers renowned for animal fights.  The Feral Dog is owned by Balabar Smenk and located on the north side of the town square.  The party entered the bar, sat at an open table, and ordered a pitcher of ale.  They quickly spotted the half-orc Kullen and his gang seated at a table in the far corner.  The "gang" was composed of 4 members: Kullen himself, an albino half-orc with an imposing greataxe strapped to his back, a sullen human wearing chainmail with both a longsword and a shortsword hanging on his belt, an old bald spellcaster, and a fighter in banded mail with a long pole arm propped up in the corner.  Alees tried to read lips to find out what the gang was talking about.  Eventually she realized that they were talking about her!  They seemed to be discussing how to collect a bounty Smenk had put on her head.  Alees made a show of buying her "friends" another round and then leaving by herself.  Kullen walked by the party's table and warned them not to get involved.  Killian followed as they walked out the door, but as soon as he poked his head out, it was met by an axeblade burying itself into the doorjam.

    Both parties fought intensely, forcing each other to drain their magical resources (such as potions and scrolls).  Eventually when no one in the party was above zero hit points, and it looked like Kullen's gang would win by attrition, Alees ran next door and pounded on the Church of St. Cuthbert's doors.  Father Jierian emerged in his bedclothes with a light mace in hand and warned Kullen's gang to leave the party alone.  And, of course, immediately thereafter, Killian stuck his greatsword into Kullen's prostrate body.  Father Jierian warned Killian that if he wanted to continue the fight, he could do so without Father Jierian's assistance.  Reluctantly, Killian backed down, and Kullen's gang took flight into the night.  The party assembled inside the church of St. Cuthbert, where they were debriefed by Father Jierian who seemed very disappointed in them.

    ... the party still doesn't know where the corpses of the Land family have been taken or why ...


----------



## Menexenus

*Session 5: Filge and the Observatory*

_17th of Planting_.  The session began immediately after the inconclusive fight with Kullen's gang.  Father Jierian expressed his disappointment/frustration with the party for putting him in a position that compromised his church's neutrality in town politics.  He proclaimed that he cannot be put in a position of showing favoritism toward the party now that their public actions have proclaimed them to be Smenk's enemies.  He reluctantly asked his young protege Killian to remove his belongings from the church grounds, and he told the party to find someplace else to sleep that night.  Father Jierian instructed his acolytes to cast one more Cure Light Wounds spell on each party member to ensure that they have a fighting chance if Kullen's gang is waiting for them outside, and then the party was shown the door.  The party got the unmistakeable impression that it should expect no further assistance from the church of St. Cuthbert.

    The party decided to spend the night at the Whispering Cairn.  As they passed by the abandoned mine office, they discovered lots of heavy bootprints.  Killick went up to the building to investigate more closely.  He found a note nailed to the door (signed by the Greyhawk Militia) stating that whoever is squatting in this building must report to the Governor-Mayor's office immediately to either rent the building (5gp/month) or purchase the deed to the property (150 gp).  Failing that, anyone staying in the building must vacate the premises immediately or be arrested for trespassing.  Inside the dilapidated building, Killick found clear evidence that about a dozen soldiers entered the building and rifled through the few belongings left inside.  The party continues to the cairn and sleeps in the entrance hallway.

_18th of Planting_.  Killian and Killick both spent the day using their healing proficiencies to give long term care to their party-mates.  Killian stayed up until dawn to pray for spells.  He cast some healing spells and then went to sleep.  Later in the day (after Killian woke up again), Killick walked back to the abandoned mine office and found a new note posted to the door.  It read, "Dear Killian and company.  A potential benefactor has paid the rent on this building for you and wishes to make your acquaintance.  Please present yourselves at the Rusty Bucket at dusk on Earthday (19th of Planting) to hear a proposition."

_19th of Planting_.  The party headed into town later in the day (after another round of Killian's healing).  They chose to stop at Killian's father's house to drop off Killick's pony, but they found to their consternation that Killian's father's house has been burned down.  A little wooden sign with hastily painted letters near the burned out building read, "Too bad your dad wasn't here."  Killick decided to board his pony at the Lakeside Stable instead. 

The party arrived slightly late at the Rusty Bucket and were immediately ushered to a private meeting room.  Chaum Gansworth introduced himself and informed them that his lover, Luzane Parrin, has asked to meet with them privately.  He left and Parrin entered soon after.  Over a fine dinner, she applauded the party's bravery in standing up to Kullen's gang.  She expressed her wish that she and the party might find ways to cooperate in helping to rid the town of Smenk's influence.  She offered the party protection in the form of guards and minor influence with local law enforcement if the party would agree to undertake missions to investigate Smenk's dealings and undermine his operations.  When the party seemed amenable to such a deal, Parrin suggested that the party's first mission be to find out who Smenk is sheltering at the Old Observatory and for what purpose.  (Killian and Killick secured side agreements to house Killian's father until he finds new accommodations and to board Killick's pony indefinitely.)

    After dinner, the party walked to Parrin's manor in order to move into their new rooms.  The guest rooms were very comfortable, but the furniture and linens are noticeably worn and dusty.  At the party's request, hot baths were drawn up.  Before midnight, the party decided to scout the Old Observatory.  In case anyone was watching, they left town using the Elmshire Road (that leads to the Whispering Cairn).  However, after a couple miles, they doubled back traveling across country to scout the Observatory from the opposite direction (i.e. from the north).  Alees and Katawan spent some time investigating the circumference of the grounds of the Observatory.  When the lights visible through the Observatory's second floor window were extinguished, Alees and Katawan quietly approached the building.  Alees tried to open a tool shed and a tiny undead creature called a TOMB MOTE attacked.  In order to see their attacker more clearly, Katawan uncovered the continual light torch which he had been carrying in a closed backpack.  Upon hearing the fight and seeing the torchlight, the other party members came running to assist Alees and Katawan, but by the time they arrive, the undead creature has been dealt with.  

    After the fight, the party noticed that lights are on again in the top 2 levels of the Observatory.  Katawan climbed up onto the roof of the outer building and looked through the 2nd floor window of the Observatory.  Meanwhile, Alees used her rogue skills to unlock the building's only exterior door.  As soon as Alees opened the door, 3 skeletons at the far side of the room shoot arrows at the party.  Killian walked in and turned them all.  Killick used his quarterstaff to destroy them as they cowered in fear.  At this time, Katawan met up with his party-mates, having entered the building through the 2nd floor window and walked downstairs.  The party explored the remainder of the first floor and found an odd dining room full of zombies sitting around a table.  Strangely, the zombies did not seem interested in the party.  Instead, they act out a bizarre and somewhat gruesome scene that seems orchestrated for the sole purpose of stroking the ego of someone named Filge.

    The party ascended to the 2nd floor of the Observatory and discovered a bedroom, containing a strange funereal statue, a desk with lots of papers and some odd test tubes, a night stand with a book, and a halfling-sized figure wrapped in bandages wearing a top hat and holding out a silver platter with a preserved head on it.

    The party ascended to the 3rd floor which seemed to function primarily as an operating/dissection room.  Upon seeing the party members, a thin begoggled man with a raspy voice gave commands releasing 4 zombies that had been floating inside glass tanks (3 TROGLODYTE ZOMBIES and 1 BUGBEAR ZOMBIE).  Following the commander of the zombies was a small skeletal servant holding a book open.  Upon entering the room, Killian turned the small skeleton and 2 of the troglodyte zombies.  But immediately thereafter he suffered the paralyzing effects of a Ghoul Touch spell cast via Spectral Hand.  However, even without Killian's help, the party made quick work of the 2 remaining zombies and then destroyed the cowering ones as well.  With his zombies gone, the man dropped the syringe that he had been using as a weapon and surrendered.  The party began questioning him.  The man introduced himself as Filge.  Now that he was beaten, he seemed quite cowardly and willing to tell them anything they wanted to know.   He confessed that the skeletons they fought downstairs (as well as his skeletal helper) are the bones of Alastor Land's family brought to the Observatory a few days ago by Kullen's gang.  In a fit of disgust at Filge's manner and careless disregard for others, Killick struck Filge and knocked him unconscious.

    Even though it was already very late, the party spent 2 more hours searching the Observatory for valuables.  They took 4 sets of skeleton bones, Filge's spellbook, 3 heavy crossbows, 3 rusted scimitars, a silver platter, a set of silverware, a lammasu-skin rug, a masterwork tophat, 7pp, 18gp.  An hour or two before daybreak, the party grabbed a wheelbarrow from the toolshed to cart their loot (plus Filge's unconscious form) back to Parrin's residence.  They couldn't be sure whether anyone witnessed them making this pre-dawn trip through town.  

    The party revived Filge with healing magic in Parrin's presence for more interrogation.  Again, he seemed more than happy to tell them everything he knew if it would save his own skin.  He told them that he was hired by Smenk to investigate a green worm that Smenk had stolen from a cult called the Ebon Triad living beneath Ragnolin Dourstone's mine.  Apparently these green worms have the ability to create powerful, infectious zombie creatures called Spawn of Kyuss.  Kyuss was apparently an ancient lord of undead whose return is supposed to herald the advent of the Age of Worms.  Apparently, the Ebon Triad has been working to hasten Kyuss's return.  In exchange for not telling the authorities about him, Filge offered to use his knowledge of the green worms to help the party if they should decide to root out the cult.  However, the party wants nothing to do with him and makes no deals.  (Since these events occurred around dawn, Killian withdrew to pray for spells while the others interrogated Filge.)

_20th of Planting_.  After Killian casts his healing spells, the party decides to bury the Land family's bones.  On the way to the Land farmstead, the party informs Amariss, the priestess of Wee Jas, about Filge's necromancy.  The priestess appeared to be outraged by this news and pledged to inform the authorities and accompany them to the Observatory to investigate the extent of Filge's misdeeds.  After re-interring the Land family's remains, the party decided to remain at the Land farmstead for 24 hours in order to take advantage of the long-term care rules.


----------



## Menexenus

*Session 6:  Zosiel's Tomb*

_21st of Planting_.  The party returned to the abandoned mine office after burying the Land family's bones at their family plot.  However, on the way, Katawan began to look feverish and complained of feeling weak.  Upon arriving at the mine office, Katawan collapsed unconscious.  Killick examined him and found evidence of a disease called Corpse Bloat, which is typically contracted from bites by undead creatures.  Remembering that Alees was also bitten by the Tomb Mote, Killick checked Alees and found that she was also in the incubation stages of the disease.  With Killick's help, Alees avoided suffering the effects of the disease.  The party stayed with Katawan for the rest of the day while Killick and Killian did what they could to help him recover.

_22nd of Planting_.  After noon, Katawan regained consciousness but was very weak - too weak to stand, let alone adventure.  A few hours later, Alexander returned from his trip to Greyhawk.  He gave each party member 225 gp from the sale of the baby owlbear, a ring, and an armband.  He told the party that he learned that the 8-pointed star symbol is used by a mercenary group called the Seekers that is renowned for recovering lost artifacts for the highest bidder.  The Seekers have a bad reputation because of their underhanded methods and because they are willing to work for *anyone*, no matter how evil.  Alexander chose not to draw unwanted attention to the group by selling the leather armor and the ring that had the Seeker insignia on it in Greyhawk.

    Despite his feverish state, Katawan urged the party to return to the Cairn without him.  They reluctantly agreed to leave him in the wine cellar with 3 loaded heavy crossbows.  They also instructed the guard that Parrin hired (Gabriard) to watch over Katawan while they were gone.  

The party returned to the Whispering Cairn without Katawan and retraced their steps back to the iron ball room - the room with a door that the ghost of Alastor Land had promised to open.  When they arrived they found that the door was indeed open as promised (and there is no longer any evidence of Alastor's presence).  The party cautiously entered the newly accessible room.  It was a large, round room with 4 expansive bas-relief galleries on four sides.  In the middle of the room was a round chasm with 2 bridges extending towards a column of illuminated rushing air in the middle.  (It looked like there were originally 4 bridges, but the other 2 bridges have collapsed.)  The column of air led to a platform about 40 feet up.  Since there seemed to be no threat in the room, the party took some time to investigate the bas-relief galleries a bit more closely.  They depicted the bald-headed race that the party has seen elsewhere in the dungeon being attacked by armies of demons led by a giant creature that looked like a cross between a wolf and a spider.  The party identified that one of the bald-headed figures bore the same glyph that they had seen earlier on the broken mirror near the entrance of the Cairn.  That individual seemed to be someone important, like a general.  The party also identified that another of the sculpted figures bore the same glyph that they had seen on the sarcophagus in the alcove room.  This second individual seemed to be one of the first individual's lieutenants or personal guards.  In the last gallery, the party saw the bald race's final victory over the army of demons was achieved by plunging a rod with seven parts (like the one Killick is carrying) into the giant Wolf-Spider and imprisoning it in a planar rift.

    When the party was done looking at the galleries, Alexander made an Unseen Servant with his wand and tested the two walkways for traps.  Alees looked at the walkways for traps.  Neither Alexander nor Alees found anything wrong with the bridge.  However, as soon as someone stepped on to one of them, 2 warriors appeared out of the column of air.  They seemed to be animated suits of ceramic armor wielding 2 long swords each.  They got the better of the party with their swift blades and sonic attacks, but the party was able to escape the room in relatively good order.  The Wind Warriors did not pursue.  The party returned to the mine office to lick its wounds and strategize.

_23rd of Planting_.  The party spent the day at the mine office resting in order to heal.  Katawan is getting better slowly.

_24th of Planting_.  The party spent the day at the mine office resting in order to heal.  Katawan is slowly getting better, but he is still in no condition to travel or fight.

_25th of Planting_.  The party decided to return to town for a variety of reasons: Killian felt the need to protect his father from further retribution by Kullen/Smenk, the party was in need of rations, and they learned from Gabriard that they were wanted for questioning in connection with the Observatory.  They intercepted Killian's father (who had been driving a team of horses laden with ore along a circuit that included Greyhawk) and escorted him through town to the smelting plant (to turn in his wagon) and then to Parrin's residence (where he would be staying until his house was rebuilt).  Almost immediately after arriving at Parrin's, the party was taken into custody and brought to the Sherriff's Office where they were stripped of their weapons.  

After initially trying to mislead Sheriff Cubbin, the party eventually told him almost all of the truth about the attack on the Observatory.  The Sheriff interrogated Luzane Parrin to corroborate their story.  She turned in Filge, who had been a prisoner in her basement all this time.  Parrin was fined an unspecified amount for Obstruction of Justice (failing to hand over a criminal) and for Inciting Unlawful Behavior (hiring the party to trespass at the Observatory).  The Sheriff kept the party locked up all night while his constables tortured Filge.  In the morning, the Sheriff let the party go, mentioning that Filge has kept strangely silent despite the torture.  As the party left, the Sheriff warned them that he doesn't like uppity adventuring types in his town.  He insinuated further that, if they didn't keep their noses clean, they would not fare as well with the law next time.

_26th of Planting_.    The party left the Sheriff's office and took the opportunity to do a little shopping.  Alees placed an order for masterwork thieves' tools, and everyone bought extra rations.  The party returned to the abandoned mine office outside of town to find Katawan gone with an unsigned note that says, "We have your man.  Meet me at Parrin's at dusk."  The party returns to town and waits.  At dusk, Smenk, along with a phalanx of bodyguards (including Kullen's gang), walked up to Parrin's residence.  He pretended to be making a social call, but once inside, he quickly got down to business.  Smenk confirmed Filge's account that he was being blackmailed by a cult (or multiple cults) underneath the Dourstone mine.  He told the party that Katawan will be returned unharmed if the party eradicated the cult and brought him the head of the cult leader - a man with no face.  Smenk told the party that he was being blackmailed into supplying the cult's physical needs, and that he made weekly shipments to Dourstone's mine.  He suggested that the party hide inside the crates until they had gone down the elevator into the cult's temple area.  After a bit of haggling by Alexander, Smenk also agreed to pay some clerics to heal Katawan's Corpse Bloat.  He also promised to pay to have Killian's father's home restored.  Smenk said that his next shipment to the cult would be in two days, so the party should complete any unfinished business they had in town before then.

    The party headed back to HQ and attempted another assault on the Wind Warriors.  They find that the Wind Warriors have not fully healed from the party's first attack.  One Wind Warrior was destroyed by Alexander's Magic Missile, and the other was destroyed by a powerful blow from Killian's great sword.  Now that the room was secure, the party tied a rope to Alees and sent her up the column of air.  On the ledge at the top, she discovered another sarcophagus, identical to the one in the 7-lantern room.  Behind the sarcophagus was another bas-relief gallery showing the man on the sarcophagus being killed by a demon bearing a black sphere in a metal loop.  As Alees approached the sarcophagus, the sarcophagus started to glow with a bluish light, the bas-relief animated, and in her head she heard the man say "What is my name?"  Since she didn't know the answer, she kept quiet.  She searched the sarcophagus for traps.  She found no traps, but she also found that there was no way into the sarcophagus - it seemed to be a block of solid stone with no lid.  Having no way to get in, she returned to the party.  

Alexander tried the same thing, and the same thing happened to him.  Since the party doesn't know the answer to the question and has no way to open the sarcophagus, they left the dungeon somewhat frustrated.

_27th of Planting_.  The party returned to town.  Alexander paid Allustan to identify the glyph on the sarcophagus.  After revealing some information about the man, Allustan was able to find the book he needed and he identified the glyph as that of Zosiel.  Allustan explained that eons ago, a race called the vaati fought a demonic incursion into the Prime Material plane led by Miska, the Queen of Chaos.  The vaati were losing this war until they sent 7 of their best warriors on a quest.  These warriors returned with the secrets to creating the Rod of Seven Parts.  Once assembled, the vaati (sometimes called the Wind Dukes of Aaqa) assembled to face the legions of Miska in a final, apocalyptic battle of Law against Chaos.  (Apparently this battle took place somewhere on Oerth, north of the Nyr Dyv.)  The Rod was wielded in battle by the finest of the vaati warriors, and when the Rod came in contact with Miska, both were destroyed, opening a planar rift which imprisoned Miska forever.  With their leader gone, the vaati were able to defeat and scatter the remainder of the demonic host.  Legend says that the 7 pieces of the Rod were scattered across the world, but that the pieces will allow themselves to be found and re-assembled when the world is threatened once again by great Chaos and Evil.

    Armed with this new knowledge, the party returned to the Cairn, and spoke Zosiel's name when prompted.  This caused a searing blue light to reveal the sarcophagus's lid.  The lid swang open easily.  Inside was a pewter box, a circlet, and a pair of demon horns.  Opening the pewter box revealed a handle with a loop.  Both the circlet and the loop radiated magic.  Alexander spent the rest of the day identifying the objects.  The circlet was a Circlet of Wisdom +2, and the loop was of such awesome power that the Identify spell did not function properly on it.

_28th of Planting_.  The party returned to town.  They went to Tidwoad's gem and jewelry shop and each party member bought a 50gp emerald for future castings of Identify.  There were only a few hours left before the party was scheduled to report to the Feral Dog to start their mission against the cult lurking beneath Dourstone's mine...


----------



## Menexenus

*Session 7: Assault on the Ebon Triad, take 1*

_28th of Planting_.  Before heading to the Feral Dog, Tarric went back to the militia garrison to buy some cheap potions of Cure Light Wounds.  

    Upon arriving at the Feral Dog, the party was escorted to a back room where Smenk gave them a final run-down of what little he remembered of the cult complex.  Although he had been blindfolded for a great deal of the trip, he recalled going down a creaky hand-powered elevator.  At the bottom of the elevator was a dark cathedral.  On 3 of the walls were doors with evil insignias painted on them.  When he was led through the back door with a hand and eye symbol, he had to follow a twisting path through dark corridors with the sound of strange skittering feet moving around him.  At the end of this trip he was intimidated into providing the cult with supplies by a man in green robes wearing a metallic mask over his face.  Smenk reminded the party that when he receives this faceless man's head and mask, he will release Katawan.  

The party members were then packed in crates which were rigged so that they could easily bust out.  Although the party could no longer see anything, their sounds and feelings told them everything they needed to know about what came next.  The crates were loaded onto a wagon which was pulled by a team of horses to the Dourstone mine.  The mine guards gave them admittance.  The crates were off-loaded and carried through a locked gate to an elevator shaft.  The elevator made several trips up and down.  

When all the elevator noise stopped, the party members heard a door open and strange voices of 2 or 3 men entering.  They spoke in a harsh language that none of them could understand.  Killian felt his crate being dragged by one of these men.  He chose that moment to bust out.  Upon hearing Killian bust out of his crate, Alexander did the same, but the rest of the group found that they were unable to break out immediately.  Killian and Alexander found themselves in a darkly lit subterranean cathedral with vaulted ceilings, ornate pillars, and ancient stonework.  The elevator shaft (which is of much newer construction, mostly of wood and iron) came down out of a hole in the vaulted ceiling to the floor in the middle of the vast cathedral chamber.  There were short passages leading to doors on the north, east, and west sides of the room.  Each door had the symbol of a different evil deity painted on it - Hextor, Vecna, and Erythnul.  The south end of the cathedral chamber was domed rather than vaulted.  Beneath the dome was a large rectangular pit filled with a thick black liquid.  A winding staircase led to a platform 30 feet above the black liquid.  They saw that about 12 crates with the Feral Dog insignia have been piled near the elevator.  Near the crates stood two dumbfounded TIEFLING GUARDS with horns on their heads and battleaxes at their sides.

    Killian commenced the attack as the others made their way out of their crates.  One of the guards put up a magical area of inky blackness, giving one of them time to buff up while the other one ran to the door with a symbol of Hextor on it and began pounding and yelling.  Alexander webbed the western door while Alees tied a rope to the door knob of the northern door.  A group of 8 SKELETONS in rusty full plate came lumbering out of the eastern door.  Killian attempted to turn them once, but failed.  The second time he was successful and 7 of them were instantly destroyed.  The last skeleton emerged into the cathedral chamber and was quickly destroyed by a shower of attacks.

    A group of 8 CULT FANATICS wearing studded leather and carrying long spears emerged from a room at the far end of the hallway.  They tried to taunt the party into charging forward.  When that failed, half of them surged forward to meet the party.  Alexander cast a spell that sent 3 of the 4 who charged forward running away from the battle.  The party quickly dispatched the last charger, and then moved in to finish off the remaining 4 fanatics.  Once the party entered the large room, a DIRE BOAR charged in.  The party flanked it and dispatched it with surprising ease.

    The 3 fanatics who had run screaming away from the battle before seemed to suddenly come to their senses and opened a double door into a large lit room at the far end of the corridor.  One of the tiefling guards is with them using a longbow to shoot at the party from afar.  Killick, Tarric, and Alees follow them into the large lit room.  As they enter, the 3 party members realize that this room is an arena with sand on the floor, a large statue of Hextor in the middle of the room, and a 15 foot high catwalk along 3 walls.  Suddenly the double doors closed and locked behind them!  The party was split in two!  Three clerics of Hextor, 2 troglodyte zombies, and 2 tiefling guards with bows appeared on the catwalk above.  The clerics began casting spells and the tieflings began shooting down on them.

    The three trapped party members began fighting the cultists who had led them into the arena, but it quickly became apparent to everyone involved that remaining in the arena while their enemies attacked them from above was a recipe for disaster.  Desperate to open the double doors, Tarric launched himself at them and miraculously broke the lock!  At almost the same time, Killian took out the Wand of Shatter that he had looted from the Whispering Cairn and blew one of the doors to splinters.  These actions gave the three party members a way out of the kill zone.  

The head cleric summoned a FIENDISH APE to pursue the party.  Alees, who had been backed into a corner, tried to tumble toward the door but was hit by a spear and fell unconscious.  At almost the same instant Killian was felled by a tiefling arrow.  The party withdrew into the hallway and used healing potions to revive their unconscious comrades.  The Hextorites pursued the party into the hallway.  Alexander cast a Color Spray that ended up incapacitating one of the clerics and stunning the head cleric.  After the head cleric recovered his senses, he cast many spells at the party, like Sound Burst, Hold Person, and Spiritual Weapon.  After the party dropped 2 tieflings and a zombie, the two groups seemed to reach a stalemate.  However, eventually a tiefling got in a lucky axe blow that struck Killian in the heart.  With no magical healing left in the party, Killian died moments later from this mortal wound.  

The party was shocked and enraged by the savage loss of a childhood friend.  They wanted bloody revenge against the Hextorites.  However, when the cleric of Hextor that had been knocked out by Alexander's Color Spray revived, the party realized that their only hope was to withdraw via the elevator and fight again another day.  Alexander quickly grabbed Killian's Circlet of Wisdom and his Wand of Shatter.  Then the party made haste back to the elevator with the Hextorites in hot pursuit.  With the remaining Hextorites jeering at them, Killick, Tarric, Alexander, and Alees crowded into the elevator and pulled themselves up to safety, mourning their lost comrade.

When the got to the top of the elevator shaft, the found themselves in a dark, rough-hewn mine shaft.  They blocked the elevator mechanism so that it could not be lowered.  They scouted the mine shaft in both directions.  In one direction, they found a cave-in that blocked the shaft.  In the other direction, they found a wooden gate that was apparently locked or barred from the outside.  They had no choice but to camp for the night in the darkness.  

The party's situation was dire, and the party members' spirits were low.  Not only had they lost their childhood friend, but they had also lost the party's only healer.  In addition, they could only wonder about the fate of their other childhood friend Katawan who was being held captive by the honorless Balabar Smenk.  Without help, the party's future looked grim...


----------



## Menexenus

*Session 8: Assault on the Ebon Triad, take 2*

_28th of Planting_.  After the party pulled itself up the elevator shaft to lick its wounds after losing Killian to the Hextorites, Killick and Alexander began using their healing skills to tend to the rest of the party.  The party debated what it's next move should be.  Some thought that another descent into the cathedral to face the Hextorites would be a suicide mission.  Others were adamant that Killian's death shouldn't be for nothing.  Besides, if they didn't defeat the cult, how could they save Katawan?  As the party debated the issue back and forth, suddenly a dwarf stepped out of the shadows and into the torchlight to announce his presence.  The nasty-looking adornments on his armor put the party on edge and caused them to treat him very suspiciously.  The newcomer asked if this was the party of adventurers going down to face the evil cults in the mine below.  They hesitantly acknowledged that they were.  The newcomer introduced himself as Thorash and informed them that he had been sent by the church of Wee Jas to assist them.  The party asked where he had come from.  He replied that he had cast an enchantment on one of the guards at the front gate, and he had unlocked the padlock on the wooden doors leading down to the elevator.  Thorash offered to cast some healing magic on the party.  They had little choice but to accept the offer.  After the party received the dwarf's healing, they gladly welcomed the newcomer with few additional questions asked.

_1st of Flocktime_.  Late in the evening, after getting a full day's rest and after Thorash recuperated his spells, the party returned down the elevator shaft to the dark cathedral.  As soon as the elevator car touched down, Alexander and Killick jumped out heading in different directions.  At this moment, the Hextorites, who had been waiting in ambush at the southern end of the cathedral behind the elevator shaft, loosed a volley of arrows and a Silence spell.  Hextor's forces consisted of 3 tiefling archers on the landing, 3 clerics near the black pool, 1 cult fanatic wearing Killian's old banded mail, a zombie made from Killian's corpse (wearing studded leather and wielding Killian's greatsword), 4 zombies made from tieflings (wearing chainmail), and 1 troglodyte zombie.

    Alexander (who was the only party member not standing in Silence) quickly cast a Web spell that effectively cut the battlefield in two - 2 clerics and the archers were on one side while the zombies and the third cleric were on the other.  They began burning the web immediately.  Thorash tried to turn the zombies, but found that their negative energy had been bolstered by one of the enemy priests.  The party was forced to enter melee with the zombies in silence.  A half-orc cleric of Hextor wielding a heavy flail was tripping opponents with relative ease and made his way up to Alexander.  A fiendish ape was summoned, and once the web burned away it charged forward into battle.  Then Theldrick (the main priest of Hextor) called an additional squad of zombies out from behind a pile of stacked boxes.  They had been made from the corpses of cult fanatics, and they still wore their studded leather armor.  Thorash tried to turn them, and he was successful.  4 of the 5 new zombies bowed down before Thorash, and the fifth one attacked the Fiendish Ape at Thorash's command!  However, it was quickly ripped to pieces by the Fiendish Ape who promptly disappeared back to his plane of origin.  Then Alexander cast Scare and caused the two lesser clerics of Hextor to run away.

    For this one bright moment, it looked as though the party might be gaining the upper hand.  But then a series of events occurred in rapid succession that heralded the winds of fortune turning against the party.  First, Theldrick retook control of the remaining cultist zombies and called the tiefling archers down from the landing to join the melee.  Second, Tarric succumbed to a Cause Fear spell and was compelled to cower in fear inside the elevator.  Third, Alees was dropped by an attack by the troglodyte zombie.  The party quickly realized that they would be overwhelmed by sheer numbers unless they withdrew.  Alexander signaled the retreat.  

After staying to help Alexander escape, Killick was surrounded by enemies.  He tried to tumble out and failed, landing prone with enemies all around him.  But miraculously, the Hextorites were unable to take full advantage of Killick's moment of weakness; although they wounded him, he remained conscious and active.  He tried again to tumble out, and this time he was successful!  His enemies flailed about angrily as he tumbled by, but none could land a blow.  Thorash and Alexander blocked the entrance of the elevator while others tried to turn the wheel that moved the device.  During this time Thorash delivered a vicious magical touch attack to the main Hextor priest who tried to press the attack.

    Finally, the elevator car began moving and the party headed back up to the mine tunnel to safety.  On the way up, Alees revealed that she too now has healing power (granted by the god Fharlangn)!  She cast 2 Cure Light spells and some Cure Minors on those who needed them the most.

    Although some were dejected by another forced withdrawal from the temple of Hextor, others began thinking of ways to make subsequent raids more successful.  The party decided to make lots of buff and healing scrolls and try again.  While Alexander and Thorash collaborated on making these scrolls, Killick applied his healing skills to the party members while they rested.

_2nd of Flocktime_.  After another full day's rest, Thorash and Alees cast additional healing spells to bring the party to full strength.  With a ream of scrolls in hand, they have to decide whether to descend into the temple again tonight using the scrolls for spells, or wait another day to have full spell casting power in addition to the scrolls.  Meanwhile, Katawan is Smenk's hostage, and his time is running out...

[Only after this session did I realize that making scrolls requires casting the spell.  So they should not have been able to make so many scrolls so quickly.  Oops!  -DM]


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## Menexenus

*Session 9: Assault on the Ebon Triad, takes 3 and 4*

_3rd of Flocktime_.  After spending a second full day healing after the previous incursion into the dark cathedral, the party decided to wait a few additional hours and descend again after midnight (guessing that that's when the evil clerics would pray for spells).  

_4th of Flocktime (early in the morning, just after midnight)_.  With 5 party-members in the elevator car, even Tarric with 2 helpers strained to lower the elevator car safely to the bottom (without losing control and just plummeting in free fall for 400 feet).  But the car makes it down safely.  Again, the cultists seemed to be ready for them.  The 3 tiefling guards with bows were once again perched on the platform over the black pool.  A line of 7 zombies stretched across the middle of the cathedral area behind the elevator shaft.  The 3 spell-casting priests of Hextor stood behind the line of zombies along with the Killian zombie (wielding Killian's greatsword) as well as the last remaining cult fanatic (affectionately named "Joe Commoner" by the party) who still wears Killian's banded mail.  

Tarric was the first one out of the elevator car, and as before, as soon as a party-member emerged from the elevator, a Silence spell was cast on a nearby pillar, and a volley of arrows were loosed.  Tarric was quickly surrounded by zombies.  Alees found a safe place near the door to the Vecna temple at the north end of the cathedral where she was out of the zone of Silence and could cast her scrolls of Cure Light Wounds.  Alexander got hit with arrows a couple of times before he could get his Shield up.  Thorash tried to hit a zombie and quickly discovered that his morningstar was virtually ineffective.  Killick tumbled behind enemy lines, going straight for Garras, the half-orc priest of Hextor with the heavy flail and Improved Trip.  Killick was quickly surrounded by Garras, Kendra (the human female cleric of Hextor with a Wand of Cure Light Wounds), a Tiefling zombie, Joe Commoner, and a Tiefling guard who had stowed his bow and drawn his battleaxe.

    Due to some extraordinary luck, the Killian zombie got in a couple hits against Tarric with the greatsword and Tarric fell unconscious.  Just at that moment, when things looked the bleakest, Alees saw Katawan jump down from the top of the elevator car!  Somehow he had freed himself from Smenk's captors and had climbed down the elevator chains to help them in their hour of need!  Katawan did his best to tumble behind the line of zombies that were getting ready to surround Thorash, but due to some more bad luck, he ended up on the ground in front of them.  Then Theldrick (the main Hextor priest) cast Spiritual Weapon against Katawan.  Katawan was pummeled on the ground by the zombies standing over him and took additional damage from the Spiritual Weapon.  He was already in need of healing only moments after entering the battle!  He dropped back to Alees.  In the mean time, Thorash was able to kill a Tiefling guard and picked up the guard's battleaxe so that he would have a Slashing weapon to use against the zombies.  He moved to Tarric's body, but was soon surrounded by zombies and unable to heal Tarric.  Katawan used the opportunity to run up to Tarric, and pulled his body back to safety.  

Meanwhile, Killick was leading the Hextor priests on a merry chase around the black pool, and Alexander was in a death struggle with a zombie.  Alexander was beginning to call the retreat when he was felled by an arrow.  Alees healed Tarric and Alexander, and then Killick and Katawan got them to the elevator.  Hearing the retreat being called, Thorash made a mad dash for the elevator.  Unfortunately, he was dropped by a zombie's slam on the way there.  He was too far behind enemy lines to save.  The party had to withdraw without him, not knowing whether he was alive or dead.  As the elevator car began slowly moving up towards the ceiling away from danger, Theldrick's silent form gesticulated wildly as he mutely shouted profanity and curses at them impotently from below.

    During the long, arduous journey back up the elevator shaft, Katawan had time to relate the story of what had happened to him and how he was able to rejoin the group.  He was captured in the basement of the abandoned mine office by Kullen's gang while he was sick from the effects of the Corpse Bloat disease.  He was tied up and interrogated by Smenk who told him that he would be insurance against the party's good behavior.  A day or so later, Smenk hired a cleric to cure his disease.  Smenk told him that the rest of the party was cooperating, and that as long as they continued to do so, Katawan had nothing to fear.  A day or so later, one of his jailors quietly admitted to him that he was really a spy for Luzane Parrin.  As soon as this individual was alone with Katawan, he helped Katawan to escape.  After he was freed, Katawan went to Parrin's to find out where the rest of the party was.  She told him that the party had gone down an elevator in an abandoned shaft of Dourstone's Mine to combat (what she thought was a) Vecna cult that had been extorting Smenk.  After hearing Katawan's tale of being kidnapped by Smenk, she decided that they now had enough evidence against him to go to the authorities.

    Parrin, Katawan, and Parrin's spy all went to the Sheriff and provided sworn testimony about Smenk's kidnapping of Katawan.  It just so happened that the Sheriff had an official visitor representing the ruling Oligarchy of Greyhawk in the office, a priest of Pelor named Krastor.  When this priest heard about an evil Vecna cult operating below the town, he demanded that the Sheriff investigate.  Krastor ordered Sheriff Cubbin to arrest Smenk while he led a small group consisting of 2 constables and Katawan to the Dourstone mine with a warrant allowing them to investigate all portions of the mine for outlawed cult activity.  

When presented with the warrant, the mine guards reluctantly let the group in.  When they found the elevator shaft, Katawan asked permission to climb down the chain and join his friends who he guessed might need his help.  Krastor told one constable to stay at the top of the shaft until Katawan returned.  Then Krastor and the other constable returned to the Sheriff's office.  Before he left, though, he instructed Katawan to bring himself and his friends to the Sheriff's office as soon as he could to report what they had found down below.

    Learning that they could now exit the mine complex without having to fight their way through Dourstone's guards, the party decided to get some healing from the town's clerics and head immediately back down the elevator to try to save their new friend Thorash and to try to hit the Hextorites while they were depleted of spells.  The party members spread out across town looking for healing from the churches of Heironeous, St. Cuthbert, and Wee Jas.  Through the combined efforts of these three churches, the party was healed to full.  The church of Wee Jas contributed a scroll of Shield and a scroll of Magic Missile to the endeavor, while the church of Heironeous, upon learning of a cult of Hextor under the town, ponied up 5 potions of Cure Light Wounds.  

After the party was healed, Katawan convinced them to go to the Sheriff's office to talk to Krastor.  Even though it was now shortly before dawn, Krastor was there waiting for them.  When the party told them what they had seen and that they had had to leave a man behind, Krastor volunteered to use his clerical powers to aid the party in battle.

    The party returned to the elevator shaft and lowered themselves down once again.  This time they found the Hextorites in complete disarray.  Only Joe Commoner had been left behind to guard the cathedral area.  (Apparently the Hextorites had not expected another incursion so quickly.)  For many rounds, the battle raged in single-file conga-line fashion.  But when Krastor turned the Hextorites' zombies and Garras (the half-orc Trip specialist) was killed, it became clear to the Hextorites that they needed to fall back to a larger room.  One of the remaining Tiefling Guards put up an area of Darkness to cover the Hextorites retreat.  Alees quickly came up with the Everburning Torch to counter the Darkness, but the tactic still gave Theldrick the time he needed to marshall his forces into defensive positions.

    Alexander quickly put an end to those plans by casting Web in the room where they were lined up, incapacitating half of them.  Kendra lit the web to allow her comrades to escape, then she drew her Wand of Cure Light Wounds and prepared to assist her comrades in the double doorway.  Killick managed to tumble behind enemy lines when a bad guy in the doorway dropped.  For some reason, Killick was bound and determined to see Joe Commoner dead!  And although Joe Commoner dropped many times, Kendra brought him back to fighting shape repeatedly with her wand of healing.  Eventually the Tiefling Guards were burned out of the web and joined the fight, one chasing Killick and the other taking up the open spot in the doorway vacated by the turned zombie.  Kendra kept healing her comrades again and again and again, and the party was able to make little progress for a while.  Things looked dire for a moment.  So dire, in fact, that Alexander risked himself by tumbling into the room with the Hextorites to help provide flanks.  Alexander even stooped to stabbing at unconscious bad guys, an act that he had chided Killian for once upon a time.  

Theldrick did a lot of damage with his heavy flail, seeming to prefer targeting the cleric of Pelor whenever possible.  But when Joe Commoner and the 2 Tieflings were all killed outright in a very short span of time, Theldrick and Kendra found themselves alone.  Still, they asked for no mercy.  They spit curses at the party and prayed that Hextor might welcome their souls to his eternal service.  They told the party that the Ebon Triad was invincible and that the party's victory would be short lived.  Finally, at long last, they died.  And just when the party thought it was all over, a previously turned zombie returned to the room.  However, by itself it provided little challenge.  Tarric destroyed it with a single blow.

    Krastor gave the party permission to loot the temple (as a reward for their public service) until noon, at which time they would need to report to the Sheriff's office to provide depositions.  Realizing that there was a time limit, the party went into high-efficiency looting mode!  Alees and a "bodyguard" explored the remainder of the Hextor temple complex looking for secret doors and opening locks while the other members of the party stripped the dead and filled empty crates with valuables.  Thorash was found beaten and naked but alive in a holding cell.  He had apparently been rougly interrogated by the Hextorites, and was understandably reluctant to go into details about what had happened to him.  Being the strongest in the party, Tarric was on elevator duty, lifting the crates filled with swag up into the mine complex.  After 8 hours of hard labor and a long night of fighting before that, the temple was as looted as it could possibly be, and the party-members were physically exhausted.  But the party still needs to head to the Sheriff's office...

    Two important items that the party found during its looting were a letter written by Theldrick and Theldrick's journal.  The crumpled letter seemed hastily written.  In a blocky script, it read, "Dear Faceless One.  Praise be to the Unholy Trinity.  The cathedral area has been breached via the elevator for the past 2 nights by a group of adventuring do-gooders.  Either Smenk or Dourstone must have betrayed us!  We have slain one of their number and captured another, but they are making steady progress against us.  At this rate, my temple will be wiped out within the week.  Surely, you would agree that our efforts here will be undone without a temple of Hextor to defend the faithful!  How can the Overgod be born without our contribution?  And surely your own temple will not survive without my temple's military protection.  Accordingly, it is in your interest to transfer as many reinforcements to my command as can be spared.  Please reply at once.  Sincerely, Theldrick."  

At the bottom of the same page in a different, more wispy hand-writing was written the reply, "Request denied.  If you are worthy, you will succeed with the forces you have."  This reply bore no signature.

    Some excerpts from Theldrick's journal that seem noteworthy are the following:

"Praise Be to the Scourge of Battle.  The Faceless One grows increasingly concerned.  That addled beast Grallak Kur has yet to provide new insights into the Overgod's nature.  The crude missives he sends speak of the worms, of a slumbering power that must be awakened, but nothing more.  I wish he would go back to the black pit that spawned him if he has nothing more to offer!  The Faceless One tells me these ramblings refer to an ancient figure, a being of great power.  Of course, he tells me little else.  He enjoys keeping his secrets, but he forgets that they flourish only behind the protection of Hextor!  Were it not for the dictates of the Ebon Triad, I would lead my troops into the Faceless One's damnable labyrinth and kill every last bird and wizard within it!  Grallak is the key.  Thank the Scourge that he trusts me and not the Faceless One.  Otherwise, I doubt the Faceless One would bother imparting anything to us at all.  We cannot trust these mages.  When the Overgod arises, I think it will be time to settle some old scores..."

"Under the Herald's Watchful Eye We Conquer!  Grallak Kur has finally yielded a useful clue.  I personally delivered it to the labyrinth, and the Faceless one giggled like a blood-addled berserker when he saw the message.  Grallak spoke of the worms again, of course.  He says that even now they stir and writhe.  The world is like an apple infested with them.  All seems well for now, but soon they burst through the skin and swarm across the land.  Still, part of this vision troubles me.  Grallak spoke of a great power behind them, but the Ebon Triad teaches that these worms will awaken the Overgod.  Is there some other power at hand here that we cannot see?  Is it friend or foe?  The Faceless One knows more, but he of course has little to say.  Perhaps Grallak has invented everything.  His monstrous kin are few in number and battered after their pilgrimage through the Underdark.  If he is an imposter or trickster, we may need to root him out of this place.  In that case, our agents must make another supply run.  Six coils of rope, and perhaps bows and more arrows, should do the trick.  With the petitioners leading the way, we can uncover any ambushes they may have within the cliffs."


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## Menexenus

*Session 10: Burying Killian*

_4th of Flocktime_.  The party emerged from the temple of Hextor laden with swag.  They brought it all (including Killian's dead body) to Lady Parrin's residence.  Killian's father was there when the party arrived, and he took the news of his son's death very hard.  He was consoled by the fact that Killian died protecting his comrades and the town as a whole.  He gratefully accepted Killian's effects and the party promised him a full share of all of the loot they sell from the Hextor temple.  Killick promises to give Killian's father his share as well, in exchange for Killian's Circlet of Wisdom.  Killian's father gratefully accepted the party's offer of a full share and also consented to Killick's trade.  He told Killick that he hoped the circlet would help the party carry on the fight against evil Killian's name.

    After this emotional scene, the party reported to the Sheriff's office to give their depositions.  Each character gave a separate deposition, telling the whole truth but omitting any reference to the Whispering Cairn.  After being the first member of the party deposed, Killick took his leave of the party, saying that he would return within the next couple days.  After giving their depositions, the rest of the party returned to Parrin's for some well-earned sleep.

_5th of Flocktime_.  After a long rest, the party set out bright and early to sell their loot.  The party liquidated the mundane equipment collected from the Hextorites for a total of 4900 gp, making each party member's share 700 gp.  Tidwoad, the gnome jeweler, seemed to be driving some very hard bargains for the gems and jewelry, though.  The party agreed to sell only the evil idols and holy symbols to him.  Tidwoad explained that he could only afford to pay 10% of market value for those items, because he is going to have to melt them down for scrap metal.  The party agreed to this (with vociferous objections from Alees) because they were happy to see such symbols of evil destroyed.  Rather than sell the remaining gems and art object to Tidwoad, the party members purchased many of the remaining valuable pieces from the party out of their own funds and divided the cash value of these sales among the other party members.  A few items were still being carried by party members for eventual resale to someone willing to offer more money - a jeweled bracer, a dwarven bust made of gold with a jeweled crown, and a golden chalice.

    With this cash in hand, some characters went off to buy items that they wanted, like masterwork weapons and armor.  Now that the party was through examining the Whispering Cairn, Alexander felt comfortable confiding its location to Allustan.  Allustan was excited by the news of an under-explored cairn so close to Diamond Lake.  (He seemed more interested in the potential historical and archeological information that might still be discovered, rather than any material wealth.)  He asked Allustan about the adamantine loop that the group found in Zosiel's true sarcophagus (which was immune to an Identify spell).  Allustan recognized the object as a legendary item known as a Talisman of the Sphere.  It is of ancient construction and allows a person to move a (normally immobile) Sphere of Annihilation.  Allustan indicated that this item would be of extraordinary value to any party that knew the location of such a sphere.  (Allustan admitted that he did not.)  Alexander also showed Allustan the black shards that he found beneath the broken oval "mirror" in the cairn.  Based on the magical aura surrounding the shards, Allustan suggested that they had probably been part of some kind of teleportation portal.  Alexander also showed Allustan the demon horns that the party had found in Zosiel's true sarcophagus.  Allustan said that these horns were probably the remains of a powerful member of the demonic horde that the Wind Dukes had fought so long ago.  Allustan offered Alexander some cash for these items (the broken shards and the demon horns), and Alexander accepted.

    Alexander returned to Parrin's residence and began crafting a pair of Boots of Striding and Springing.  In the mean time, the rest of the party returned to the Whispering Cairn and found that the pedastal of unusual red metal and the brightly colored lanterns had all been removed from the cairn.  When the party returns to town, they determined that the other band of adventurers who had been searching the Stirgenest Cairn must have found out about the Whispering Cairn and looted it of its remaining valuables while the party was down fighting the temple of Hextor.

_6th of Flocktime_.  Another day passed while Alexander is crafting his new boots.  Tarric made donations to all 3 of the churches that had assisted the party in their time of need.  When he spoke with Father Jierian of the Church of St. Cuthbert, the Father seemed to be in a state of shock regarding Killian's death, bordering on disbelief.  He is adamant that St. Cuthbert himself had come to him in a vision and had told him that Killian was destined to help save the world.  St. Cuthbert could not have been wrong, so it was impossible that Killian was dead!  He promised to meditate further on this apparent inconsistency.  The church of Wee Jas offered to help Killian's father hire a masterwork stone mason for Killian's monument in the cemetery.  The church of Heironeous was still celebrating the fall of the temple of Hextor (Heironeous's archenemy).  Tarric was virtually dragged to the Spinning Giant, where he was bought many an ale by his former friends and coworkers and was begged incessantly for accounts of the party's victory over Heironeous's nemesis.

    Lady Parrin was also in a celebratory mood.  Her archenemy Smenk had been arrested, and it seemed that the kidnapping charges that Parrin and Katawan had leveled against him were just the tip of the iceberg.  Once the rest of the town heard that Smenk was under criminal suspicion, more and more accusations kept coming from anyone who had ever been wronged by him.  He was officially charged with a list of offenses so long, they had to be written on a scroll rather than a piece of parchment!  The offenses included murder, kidnapping, grand theft, extortion, blackmail, arson, and rape.  Kullen's gang had also been placed under arrest (for doing most of Smenk's dirty work), as well as Ragnar Dourstone (for aiding and abetting banned cults).  Filge is also awaiting trial for graverobbing and unlicensed creation of undead.  Generally speaking, the people of Diamond Lake are happy that there is finally going to be some justice.

However, on the flipside, the arrest of 2 of Diamond Lake's most prominent mine managers had sent the economy of the town into a tailspin.  All of Smenk's and Dourstone's mines had halted operation until the trials are resolved, so there were lots of miners out of work, desperate for a way to make ends meet while they are layed off.  The churches in town are bursting at the seams with people begging for alms and/or free meals.

_7th of Flocktime_.  Killian's funeral took place in the morning.  Father Jierian led the service.  When speaking in public, Jierian was usually quite inspirational and resolute in his beliefs, but at the funeral he seemed overwhelmed with emotion, confused, and almost defiant.  He definitely won no converts that day.  And the crowd was quite large.  The story of the party's exploits had quickly gotten around town, and many townsfolk attended the funeral to hail a town hero.  (Plus, many of them were unable to go to work, so why not show up at the funeral?)  At the end of the service, Killian's father announced to the throngs of people in attendance that he had commissioned a monument in Killian's name.  He also announced a large donation to the church of St. Cuthbert (including Killians weapons and armor as well as a significant amount of cash) to help the town in its time of need.  And he was seen giving silver pieces to the destitute, who thank him profusely.  However, he refuses the thanks saying, "This is what Killian would have wanted.  Thank him in your prayers."  

After the service, Krastor approached the PCs beseeching them to continue their assault on the evil temples beneath Dourstone's mine.  When the party agreed, he gave them an official document giving them access to Dourstone's mine and granting them full legal salvage rights to any and all property held by any member of an evil church residing under Dourstone's mine.

    After the service, the party retired to the Rusty Bucket for a quality meal.  After eating their fill, they headed back down into the Dourstone Mine (which had been closed and placed under armed guard pending Dourstone's trial).  The guards allowed the party to enter, after seeing Krastor's seal, and they descended once more into the depths of the earth.

    First, they checked the temple of Hextor to ensure that nothing new had taken up residence there.  They noticed that some of the bodies had been removed.  (Only the tieflings and zombies had been left behind.)  They used the Wand of Shatter to destroy the shabby wooden door that guarded the entrance to the Erythnul temple.  After going down some roughly hewn winding stairs, the party came to a small room/cave filled with stalagmites and stalactites.  Katawan entered first and was quickly surrounded by 3 creatures that seemed to come out of the stone itself.  The creatures had rough gray skin (that helped them to blend into their subterranean surroundings).  And disturbingly, they had no eyes in their eye sockets.  They were wielding crude stone axes.  After a few lucky blows, Katawan was knocked unconscious, but the rest of the party soon caught up and dispatched the nasty brutes with relative ease.  Thorash shared that these creatures were frequently encountered in the Underdark and were known as "Grimlocks". 

    Katawan was healed up and the party continued on down another rough-hewn stairway that opened into a larger room with stalactites and stalagmites.  An arrow came whizzing past Katawan's head out of the darkness.  When Tarric brought the light further forward, two dog-like animals pulled the skin back from their faces, creating a horrific visage.  They also emitted a frightening howl.  However, Tarric and Katawan stood their ground.  The rest of the party entered the room bringing more light, revealing a Grimlock wearing studded leather and carrying a bow standing near a ledge at the far side of the cavern.  Katawan moved into melee with one of the dog creatures.  It attacked Katawan, biting him, while the other one shrieked again.  While most of the party stood firm, Katawan began running away from the dogs in sheer terror.  The dogs were quickly dispatched by massive blows from Tarric while Thorash cast a Fear spell on the remaining Grimlock.  It cowered in a corner for a few seconds, but then grabbed its battleaxe and returned to the fight.  It dropped Thorash before succumbing to more of Tarric's mighty blows.

    Alees healed Thorash.  The party looked around and saw that the ledge looked over a subterranean cliff face.  They noticed that there were iron spikes in the cliff face, allowing one to climb down to the ground about 45 feet below them rather easily.  There was another vertical cliff face about 20 feet across from them.  There was an opening and a ledge on this opposing cliff face about 20 feet below the ledge they were standing on, as well as another opening on the far wall at the base of the cliff below.  The party heard movement from somewhere, and decided to camp for a few hours to allow Thorash to recover his spells.  In the mean time, Alees found 4 agates and a ruby near the Grimlocks camp, while Alexander spied 2 potions on the dead Grimlock's belt.  He tasted one of them and determined that it was healing of some sort.  He was unable to determine the magical effect of the other potion, but he was quite certain that it was not healing.

    After about 8 hours of rest, the party decided to descend the cliff face using ropes tied to stalagmites as well as the iron spikes.  First Alexander cast Web into the ledge that is midway up the far wall.  The party immediately heard plaintive squalling from someone in that tunnel who seemed displeased.  With his Boots of Striding and Springing, Alexander made it to the bottom of the cliff in 2 rounds easily.  However, when he arrives at the bottom, two Chokers come out from their hiding places.  Alexander was able to fire off a Magic Missile spell before the creatures closed with him.  They stretched their arms out and attempted to strike him with their tentacled hands.  Three of the four attempts were successful.  Then each of these hands attempted to grapple his throat, and one hand from each monster was successful.  Alees shot at the creatures from the top of the ledge while the rest of the party hurriedly tried to get to the bottom to aid their comrade.  Katawan and Thorash both took falling damage when they stumbled while trying to climb down.  Tarric made it down without falling.  In the mean time, though, Alexander and Thorash were both knocked unconscious by the Chokers' constriction damage.  Thorash was given a potion to get him back to consciousness.  He then cast his remaining healing spells on himself and Alexander while Katawan and Tarric killed the Chokers.  Alees made her way down just as the fighting stopped.  Among the debris at the bottom of the shaft, she found a leather necklace with 4 rubies as well as a coldiron longsword.

    The party decided that they were too depleted to continue onward.  They climbed back up the shaft and camped at the same place they had been camping just a few minutes earlier.  They decided to wait a full day to allow both Alees and Thorash to refresh their spells.


----------



## Menexenus

*Session 11: Against the Grimlocks*

_8th of Flocktime_.  The party chose to rest after its encounter with a pair of Chokers the previous day at the base of a subterranean cliff.  Killick returned during the party's downtime.  He informed them that he had been inducted into the Druidic order.  He also mentions that the High Druid told him to beware of Devil's Night (in 10 days) as that is often an active time for evil.

    The party waited until dusk, so that Thorash could pray for spells and the party could receive the benefits of a full day of rest.  After a few healing spells were cast, the party ventured down the cliff once more.  Again, Alexander placed a Web spell on the ledge on the opposite cliff face.  Again, there was noise of humanoids raising an alarm in response.  As the party made their way down, they noticed that the web was burning.  Almost all of the party made it into the 10 foot-wide tunnel at the bottom of the 45 foot deep crevasse.  After the web completely burned through, 2 archers stepped onto the ledge and began shooting at Alees (who was still climbing down).  Alees avoided the arrows and joined her comrades in the small tunnel at the bottom of the crevasse.  On the far side of the tunnel, the rest of the party had just engaged a small group of Grimlocks on another ledge 30 feet up.  They were throwing javelins and seemed to have a virtually endless supply.  Alexander cast Scare on them, causing one of the three to run away.  Then he cast Spectral Hand and Chill Touch to attack them from within the tunnel.  

    The Grimlock's ledge was connected by a rope bridge to another opening 20 feet above the party.  It seemed reasonable to surmise that this opening led to the other ledge on the far side of the crevasse that Alexander had webbed twice.  A female Grimlock in studded leather armor stood in this opening 20 feet above the party, drinking a potion.  Katawan climbed the wall to face the female warrior.  Tarric tossed up a rope with a grappling hook so that he could climb up, too.  The female Grimlock went into a rage and delivered 2 vicious hits to Katawan who dropped back down to the ground for healing.  The raging female jumped down to pursue Katawan, but she fell prone and was quickly beaten down by Katawan's comrades.  (As the life is leaving her, Thorash mysteriously bent down to touch the dying Grimlock, but there was no visible effect.)

    Meanwhile, up above, Tarric bull rushed one of the archers back into a twisty passageway.  The archers tried to beat Tarric with clubs, but didn't seem to have as much skill with that weapon.  After being healed, Katawan went back through the tunnel and climbed up the opposite cliff face, allowing him to join Tarric's melee from the opposite side.  Tarric and Katawan quickly dispatched one of the archers.  Killick joined his 2 companions on the ledge, but was immediately pushed off by the second archer.  The way was now clear for the second Grimlock archer to flee across the rope bridge, but he couldn't keep his balance.  He fell off and was surrounded by the party.  In the interim, the 2 javelin-throwing Grimlocks that had not run away have also been killed by a combination of Alees's shooting and Alexander's Magic Missiles, Rays of Frost, and Chill Touches.

    The previously scared javelin-throwing Grimlock returned and was the only remaining enemy holding the ledge.  Katawan crossed the rope bridge to engage it.  After suffering some damage, the last remaining Grimlock broke and ran down another twisty passageway at the far side of a small encampment.  The party found some cash on 3 of the dead bodies, as well as 2 tanglefoot bags and 4 potions.  Plus, the barbarian was wearing magical studded leather, which Alees promptly donned.  Killick found a burlap sack full of money and a preserved female drow head.  Killick also found some ivory dice on one of the archers.

    The party decided to follow the winding passage way.  It led to a small room/cavern at the base of a 10 foot tall ledge.  Suddenly, Grimlocks appeared at the top of the ledge and begin throwing javelins down on the party.  Alexander climbed up the ledge and found many more Grimlocks plus a male commander in better armor.  The shock of this sight caused him to fall back down the ledge.  Katawan pulled Alexander to safety, while the rest of the party performed a fighting withdrawal.  The Grimlocks gave chase and their leader hit Killick twice with his greataxe.  Things looked grim for the party, but then Alees hit the Grimlock commander with a tanglefoot bag.  Because the leader's movement was hampered by the goo, the party was able to escape back to the ledge with the rope bridge.

    After casting a few healing spells and doing a bit of strategizing, the party returned only minutes after the previous fight.  They found the Grimlocks waiting for them at the top of the ledge.  After expending their javelins, a few Grimlocks jump down to fight Tarric who quickly dispatched 2 of them.  Meanwhile, Thorash targeted the commander's greataxe with the Shatter Wand.  The great axe survived, but the commander seemed concerned.  He fell back and told his men to hold at the top of the ledge.  The party moved in and tried to provoke the Grimlocks to jump down.  The party made a show of grabbing all the javelins lying on the floor, but still the Grimlocks held and would not come down to face them.  Finally the party withdrew into the passage to draw bows.  They returned to the cave with the ledge, but as soon as the Grimlocks saw them wielding bows, they withdrew out of sight away from the edge.

    Feeling somewhat thwarted, the party decided to give up for the day and return when they were at full spell casting power.  They decided that their campsite for the past 2 nights would be the most secure place to retire to.  On their way back to it, they cut down the rope bridge and took it with them (so that it could not be repaired).  They also recovered Tarric's rope and grappling hook.  They climbed back up the cliff face, made camp, and waited for a new day.


----------



## Menexenus

*Session 12: Defeating the Temple of Erythnul*

_9th of Flocktime_.  As the rest of the party is making camp at the top of the cliff, Killick decided to head into town for a supply run.  He asked the party members if there was anything they needed.  Katawan asked Killick to buy him a crossbow and bolts.  Alees asked for more bolts.  Tarric asked for more arrows.  Killick left and said he would return as soon as he could.

_10th of Flocktime - early morning_.  After the party had 24 hours of rest (and both Alees and Thorash had prayed for spells), the party decided not to wait for Killick any longer (otherwise dawn would come and Alees would waste the spells she had memorized).  About an hour before dawn, the party decided to venture back down the cliff face.  Tarric and Katawan headed down first while the rest of the party waited at the top.  The party immediately heard yelling from a Grimlock in the mid-level winding tunnel.  When Tarric reached the bottom, he headed into the bottom tunnel.  When he emerged on the other side, he was pelted with 3 javelins.  Meanwhile, Alexander made it to the bottom, and Katawan climbed up to the far ledge 20 feet above the floor.  Katawan saw a Grimlock at the end of the tunnel, but it fell back into the tunnel rather than engaging him.  When Katawan checked again a few seconds later, that Grimlock was gone.  Meanwhile, Thorash attempted to climb down the cliff with disastrous consequences.  His fall knocked himself unconscious.  Alees made her way down the cliff and brought Thorash back to consciousness.

    In the other chamber, Alexander cast Scare on the Grimlocks at the top of the 30 foot ledge, causing one of them to flee.  This made room for Tarric, using the Spider Climb that Alexander had cast on him to good effect.  He made it to the top and engaged the javelin-throwing Grimlocks in melee.  Meanwhile, Alexander fired Magic Missiles at the Grimlocks and then cast a Spectral Hand to impart his Chill Touch.  Thorash cast Cause Fear, and then he and Alees fired bolts from their crossbows.  Grimlock reinforcements arrived, causing Tarric to be surrounded by Grimlocks.  He was also charged by the commander Grimlock wearing a nice chain shirt and carrying a greataxe.  After Tarric cleared some room, Katawan joined him on the ledge.  After most of the Grimlocks were killed, Tarric was knocked unconscious by the Grimlock leader's crushing axe blows.  Katawan seemed to retreat into the passage on the far side of the cave.  The Grimlock leader followed him, but he could not keep up with the monk and was unable to land a blow.

    Meanwhile, Alees made her way up to the ledge to heal Tarric and engage the remaining Grimlock.  At this point, the party saw that Killick had returned.  He tossed a grappling hook on to the ledge to help Thorash in climbing up.  Eventually, Katawan led the Grimlock leader back to the party, but now the Grimlock seemed winded from the chase.  The Grimlock that had previously succumbed to Alexander's Scare spell also returned.  Alexander and Killick joined the rest of the party on the ledge while Alees delivered the killing blow to the Grimlock chieftain.

    After a little healing and looting, Alexander and Katawan decided to press on because they were the fastest movers in the party and could retreat quickly if necessary.  They got back to the room with the 10 foot ledge and found it deserted.  They climbed up the ledge and saw 3 passageways.  By this time the rest of the party caught up.  Alees, Alexander, and Katawan decided to investigate one of the passageways (above another 10 foot ledge) while Killick, Tarric, and Thorash explored another.  Alees's group found what must have been the chieftain's private chamber and Killick's group found the common Grimlock sleeping cavern.  Alees and Alexander began looking for swag, while Katawan, Killick, Tarric, and Thorash pressed on into the third passageway.  This exit led to a longer passage that curved around in an approximate semi-circle before opening into a much larger area.  However, as soon as Katawan moved in, he was attacked by more Grimlocks.

    The Grimlocks backed off a bit, allowing Killick to move a bit farther into the room, but he was quickly surrounded.  However, the Grimlocks' axe blows are largely ineffective against him even when flanked.  It is at this point that the party noticed a cleric wearing a shiny breastplate on the far side of the room on a small ledge over a campfire 10 feet below.  As the party fought its way through the warrior Grimlocks, the cleric (who called himself Grallak Kur) cast numerous spells at the party including Hold Person, Cause Fear, Spiritual Weapon, and (when Tarric was approaching his position) Invisibility.  (Presumably, he also had time to cast some unknown buff spells.)  

After the warrior Grimlocks had been dispatched, Grallak Kur cast Sound Burst at the party which made him visible again.  He then climbed back up onto his little platform above the campfire and waited for challengers to face him one-on-one.  Tarric was willing to oblige him but was quickly knocked unconscious by the cleric's wicked skill with the morningstar.  When it was clear that the rest of the party was unwilling to climb up to face him one at a time, he cast Obscuring Mist to help protect himself from ranged attacks.  The party found creative ways to burn off the areas of mist that were protecting him.  And after suffering a couple painful arrows and bolts from Alees and Katawan in quick succession, he decided to jump down and face the party all at once.  This gamble seemed to pay off handsomely for the cleric as Alees and Katawan withdrew, and Killick was quickly knocked unconscious.  Grallak Kur emerged from the mist and saw Thorash for the first time in the battle.  He remarked that when he had foreseen this battle in the fire, he had not seen a dwarf in the party - only humans.  But his puzzlement at the presence of a dwarf did not delay him long.  He knocked the dwarf unconscious in short order.  

    With 3 of the party's melee fighters unconscious and Katawan wounded and avoiding combat, things looked dire for the heroes.  At this point, Alees decided that the party's only hope was to chuck her last tanglefoot bag at the cleric.  Alees called on the luck power granted by her deity to ensure that the bag would hit him.  Apparently, Fharlangn heard her prayer, because the Grimlock cleric failed to dodge it and was firmly rooted to the ground.  Without a slashing weapon, he had no means of escape.  Alees quickly stabilized Thorash, then she and Katawan gleefully shot him with arrows from a short distance away.  (Alexander made a point of not shooting the cleric while he was helpless.)  As he was being shot to death, he conveyed his confidence that the party would die and that the Ebon Triad would eventually be victorious.  He claimed that the awakening of the Overgod was inevitable.  With his last breath he prayed to Erythnul to receive his soul with honor.

The party was victorious over the temple of Erythnul.


----------



## Menexenus

*Session 13: Defeating the Vecna Temple*

_10th - 12th of Flocktime_.  Alexander spent time crafting magical items (a wand and 3 scrolls).  Others in the party spent time selling swag captured from the Erythnul temple in town.  When Krastor the judge and cleric of Pelor learns that the party is back in town, he tracked them down for a status report.  He asked them how things were going down in the mine and seemed pleased to learn about the party's success against the temple of Erythnul .  He encouraged the party to continue destroying the evil cultists, but asked that they not leave town without contacting him first.  He explained that he might need the some of the party members' testimony in the three ongoing trials he was presiding over (Filge, Smenk, and Dourstone).  Alexander and Tarric placed orders for masterwork gloves and boots (respectively).  Venelle told them that it will take about a week to fill the orders (which were pre-payed).

_13th of Flocktime_.  The party chose to descend back down to the evil temple complex about 2 hours before dusk.  Killick saw that the Vecna door had been opened since the party left last time.  Katawan entered the Erythnul temple and verified that the grimlock corpses were still where the party left them.  After some listening and checking for traps, Alees was able to pick the lock on the Vecna temple door (just barely).  This led to a short passage with a wooden door at the end.  After more checking and listening, this door was opened, and the party filed into a 5 foot wide hallway.  Thorash noticed that the high-quality stone masonry in this area is similar to the masonry in the Cathedral area.  He concluded that the Vecna temple and the Cathedral were constructed at the same time, and the Hextor and Erythnul temples were added on later.

    After a bit of exploring in the winding, labyrinthine passages, the party heard some mammalian squealing from two directions.  A few seconds later, DIRE WEASELS emerged from the darkness to attack the party.  As the party engaged them, walking bird men (known as KENKU) emerged from out of nowhere to attack the party.  Sometimes they seem to come from areas that the party thought they had already cleared.  The attack split the party in thirds with Killick and Katawan on the left side, Tarric and Thorash in the middle, and Alexander and Alees on the right.  One of the DIRE WEASELS latched onto Killick and tries to rip his throat out, but Killick killed it before it was able to succeed.  Tarric was faring well against the KENKU he faced and found himself looking for enemies to fight.  Thorash got flanked by them.  Alees got shot at by one of them.  Suddenly a KENKU BOSS and a KENKU SORCEROR showed up from an area the party thought it had already explored on the party's right flank.  The BOSS tore a bead off his necklace and threw it at Alexander and Alees, causing a fiery explosion.  Alexander was hurt but Alees was unsinged.  Then the SORCEROR smashed a feather token that turned into a disembodied whip which slashed at Alexander and got a tight grip on him that held him immobile.  All of the KENKU had a visible shield of force (Shield of Faith) in front of them as they fought, and many of them threw Alchemist Fire at party members when at short range.  When the whip constricted Alexander again, he fell unconscious.  But the sorceror and the whip mysteriously moved away.  Then the BOSS threw another (smaller, less powerful) bead of fireball at Alexander and Alees, causing Alexander further damage.  Slowly, the other two fronts of the battle begin to get the upper hand over their KENKU opponents and started coming to Alees and Alexander's aid.  Thorash and Katawan arrived first, followed by Tarric and Killick.

    Katawan and Killick fought on opposite sides of the BOSS, trapping him.  The BOSS exploded another fireball at his own feet, but no one took any damage this time.  The SORCEROR reappeared and cast Grease at an intersection 10 feet in front of him.  And the whip grabbed Alees.  Alees broke out and slid Alexander out of the Greased area.  Tarric moved across the Grease to threaten the SORCEROR.  The SORC tried casting magic missile at Tarric, but his Brooch of Shielding absorbed the hit.  Later, the SORC moved away from Tarric and casts Magic Missile at Thorash.  At this point the BOSS was finally killed by Katawan, and the SORC was all alone trapped in a corner.  He got off another Magic Missile at Alexander (ineffective due to Alexander's Shield), and yet another at Katawan, before finally succumbing to Alexander's Magic Missiles.  While the rest of the party finished off the SORC, Thorash went around a corner to retrieve the BOSS's necklace.  Thorash found it empty of beads.  When Katawan joined him a couple rounds later, the KENKU BOSS's corpse appeared significantly different from the way he had left it.  The corpse appeared desiccated.

    With the fight over, the party looted the dead bodies and explored the labyrinth more systematically.  The party eventually found two nest-rooms for the KENKU that contained a total of 600 gp as well as a pair of magical contact lenses.  The desiccated body of the KENKU BOSS was found wearing masterwork studded leather and a masterwork light crossbow.  The only thing of his that glowed magical were the three bottles of ointment that he was carrying on his belt.

    While Thorash was praying to renew his spells (at dusk), Killick and Alees discovered 3 secret doors on the far labyrinth wall.  They think a retreating KENKU might have gone through the door on the left, so at first the party went through that door.  Thei found a storage room, filled with barrels and crates all bearing the mark of Smenk's Feral Dog tavern.  When the party heard some kind of voice on the other side of the far door, they chose to attack from another direction.  The entered the middle secret door and launched an attack.  Tarric and Katawan were the first ones into a long room with pillars in the middle.  The pillars were made of a strange marble whose green veins that seem to move and throb.  The walls were a grey marble with large round protruding bumps at irregular intervals.  When Katawan moved far enough to see through a 10 foot wide doorway into the Inner Sanctum, a VECNA ACOLYTE cast Web to keep him from moving any farther.  Tarric opened another door into the Inner Sanctum, and the second VECNA ACOLYTE failed to hit him with a Scorching Ray.  Moments later, the second ACOLYTE cast Web on the second doorway.  Meanwhile, an ALLIP moved out of a wall to attack Katawan while he was stuck.  Katawan smashed a flask of Alchemist Fire he had picked up from a dead Kenku in order to slowly burn his way out of the Web.  While he waited for the web to burn away, he suffered multiple hits from the ALLIP that drained his Wisdom.  A FIENDISH MONSTROUS CENTIPEDE emerged from the far side of the room to protect the ACOLYTES.

    The CENTIPEDE was dispatched quickly.  Just then, the rest of the party heard the Allip mumbling.  Tarric and Alexander were hypnotized by its insane ramblings.  Meanwhile, Killick and Alees were stunned by 2 Color Sprays cast by the ACOLYTES.  The last KENKU found the courage to return to the fight while 4 of the party members were stunned or hypnotized, and it commenced beating on defenseless Tarric.  Another FIENDISH MONSTROUS CENTIPEDE appeared and joined the fight.  By now, Katawan was free from the web that had trapped him at the beginning of the combat.  He and Killick teamed up to flank the enormous magical insect.  Eventually, the ACOLYTES had expended their magic and were reduced to attacking with daggers.  They begged their master loudly to assist them, but a voice in another room just laughed.  Alexander awoke from his hypnosis and ran in to a back room to confront the source of the laughter.  It was the man described by Smenk as the FACELESS ONE.  Alexander cast a Fireball that the Faceless One shrugged off.  He replied with a Lightning Bolt of his own.  After getting the worse of the magical exchange, Alexander moved away.  The FACELESS ONE cast Web into the Inner Sanctum, immobilizing many of the party members.  Katawan and Alees both used flasks of Alchemist Fire to burn the web away.  The FACELESS ONE cast a Flaming Sphere at Katawan's feet, but he was able to avoid it rather easily.  However, Tarric was hit by the Flaming Sphere as he moved to attack the FACELESS ONE.  Katawan also move in to provide a flank for him.  Thorash cast Hold Person and Cause Fear.  Neither spell is effective against the Faceless One, who combat casts Lighting Bolt from a scroll, dropping Thorash.  (Meanwhile, Alexander has destroyed the ALLIP with Magic Missiles from his wand.)

    Realizing his danger, the FACELESS ONE tried to baracade himself in a laboratory behind the Inner Sanctum, but Katawan forced his way in.  Alexander entered from the opposite side of the room and dropped the FACELESS ONE with Magic Missiles to the back (his non-Shielded side).  With his parting words, the FACELESS ONE suggested that by killing him, the party had ensured the final triumph of the Ebon Triad.  (Meanwhile, Killick stabilized Thorash with a Goodberry.)  As life left the FACELESS ONE's broken body, the party felt a tremor in the earth.  Something was happening!  Quickly, Alees picked up the Wand of Cure Light and healed Thorash.  Then Alees went off looking for things she could loot quickly.  The rest of the party was concerned about the minor earthquake and the ominous warning given by the FACELESS ONE.


----------



## Menexenus

*Session 14: To Blackwall Keep*

_13th of Flocktime_.  The party had just killed the Faceless One and felt the ground rumble.  They quickly rifled through the Faceless One's journals to find some information about what might be happening.  The following quotes are the relevant journal entries that the party was able to find.  (Only Thorash was able to read the language that these journal entries were written in.)

    "Glory Be to the Lord of Secrets!  I finally stand in Vecna's own Dark Cathedral!  I walk His labyrinth and drink in His mystical power.  It is humbling to know that my Undead Lord once trod these very same steps!  Here I will be able to uncover and comprehend secrets that never would have been possible before.  Here I will be able to unlock the secrets of multiplying Vecna's power ten-fold.  The pieces are coming together.  The Ebon Triad will be invincible!"

    "At last the riddle of this place is solved.  In ages past, a great being known as Kyuss rose above the petty warlords who fought and struggled for material gain.  Mighty Kyuss is the herald of the Overgod.  Although he has been long imprisoned, his return is finally at hand!  Soon, he will sound the clarion call to the faithful.  The three sundered faiths shall be made whole!"

    "The undead our agents spotted must be located and captured.  If they bear the Worms of Kyuss then they perhaps hold the final answer to our research.  We must find the worms and the undead hosts that carry them.  If they are not here, then we must send agents to the Rift.  If Kyuss himself, or his agents, cannot shepherd in the Age of Worms, then we shall do it ourselves so that the Overgod may live."

    "The Ebon Aspect stirs within the pool, but it is still not ready to emerge.  Our Champion needs to continue gaining strength.  It will achieve its full strength on Devil's Night - when the barriers between Oerth and the Lower Planes are at their weakest.  But even then, it will not emerge without an extraordinary sacrifice.  Usually, we would sacrifice Unbelievers.  But to call forth an Aspect of the Overgod will require more.  To form the Unholy Union, the individual churches must perish.  Grallak Kur is the only one who is aware of what must happen.  I dare not tell Theldrick, as I am unsure what his reaction would be.  But the sacrifice will be well worth it.  The Ebon Aspect will be gloriously powerful.  The carnage and destruction that it sows will be marvelous.  News of its power will be spread far and wide, and the Ebon Triad will win many converts.  When the Unholy Trinity is forged and the Overgod rules over all Creation, we who sacrificed our lives to bring It into existence will sit by Its side in eternal glory!"

    "As Grallak Kur has foretold, a group of adventurers has come to make the sacrifice that is necessary to summon the Ebon Aspect.  May my death be pleasing to You, O Whispered One!  But they come too soon!  If only we can delay them for a week or two, Our Champion will rise at full strength.  And then the horrors in wreaks on the world will truly announce the presence and power of the Overgod!  Theldrick is a competent commander, but I don't know how long he and his temple will be able to repel the enemy."

    "Clearly Smenk has betrayed us.  His use is at an end in any case.  He must be eliminated.  After he is dead, we must send agents to the Mistmarsh, across the southern hills.  I believe that we will find what we are looking for there, among the lizardfolk.  If the calculations and portents are correct, the time for covert action is at an end.  As the Age of Worms begins, we must strike hard and fast to prepare the coming of the Overgod."

    "The filthy heathens have destroyed Theldrick and Grallak Kur.  My temple is next.  It sickens me to think of their presence in the Maimed Lord's unholy labyrinth, defiling our altar and laboratory.  But it is necessary, and I have made my peace.  Soon I will be no more.  But my death will allow the Ebon Aspect to be born.  If only I could live to see its horrific visage...  If only I could live to witness its destructive power...  But that is not to be.  I console myself with the knowledge that the first meal of the Overgod's Champion will be the battered corpses of those who have slaughtered me.  These adventurers will have the honor of being the first of many killed by the Overgod's Champion!  Glory be to mighty Kyuss, herald of the Overgod!  Glory be to the Ebon Aspect, oerthly manifestation of the Overgod!  Supreme Glory be to the Unholy Trinity, whom we have worked to unite!  I pray that my labors have been pleasing in the Overgod's sight, and that It will accept my soul into Its eternal service."

  Alees reported that the black pit in the cathedral area is now bubbling.  It seemed to be the source of the intermittent tremors that the party was still feeling.  The party expended 7 charges on the wand of cure light wounds in order to get the party back to full health.  When they think they are ready, they took up positions in the Cathedral and waited for whatever was coming.

    A couple minutes later, a large 6-armed creature rose from the pool, dripping sticky black fluid.  Three of its 6 arms ended in stumps, as if the hands had been removed.  The thing's face was like a skull with only one eye looking out.  The party went to work attacking the vile creature.  Katawan was an expert marksman with the new masterwork crossbow he had looted from the Vecna temple.  He struck the beast in critical location with 3 out of 4 arrows.  Killick moved around behind the creature to flank it.  The creature almost knocked Killick backwards into the pool, but Killick held fast.  The thing itself cast spiritual weapon on Alexander, and later moved it to Katawan.  The spiritual weapon seemed more effective than the creature itself.  He attacked with teeth and claws, but was unable to do significant amounts of damage.  For a few seconds, a fire lit up in its eyes, and it seemed more difficult to hurt, but that effect went away quickly.  Thorash tried to deliver a Death Touch, but the creature's spell resistance caused it to dissipate.  Alees helped out by using the Wand of Cure Light Wounds to heal the damage that the spiritual weapon had done to Alexander.

    Despite all the dire warnings found in the Faceless One's journals about the invincibility of the Champion, the Ebon Aspect was slain by the party in less than half a minute.  It fell back into the pool with a dull splash and returned from whence it came in humiliated defeat.

    Once the party was sure it was all over, Alees went back to the Vecna temple to continue looking for secret doors.  She found many, but only one of them had anything interesting behind it.  She found a third Kenku nest containing 300 gp and 2 small diamonds.  This search took Alees about 4 hours total.  The party gathered up its swag and returned to the surface.

    One of the guards at the top of the elevator shaft, when he heard of the party's victory, asked them what they wished to be called in bard songs that would sing their praises.  Aside from suggestions like "The Super Squad", "The Beatles", and "The No-Carrots", the party was unable to come to consensus on a fittingly heroic moniker.

_14th-16th of Flocktime_:  Those who had suffered permanent Wisdom damage at the hands of the Allip had this damage healed by clerics at the town's expense.  Father Jierian healed Killick's wounds.  He pumped Killick for details of Killian's death, and continued to insist that his death was impossible.  Amariss (the high priestess of Wee Jas) healed Katawan's Wisdom damage.  She asked for tales of how Thorash had helped the party.  She said she was proud of Thorash and confided that he was her most capable operative. 

    After all the party members were back to full strength, Allustan asked to meet with them.  He told the party that he had received a letter from a colleague and friend of his who worked as a battle mage for the Greyhawk militia stationed at Blackwall Keep (3 days southeast of Diamond Lake).  She wrote that rangers have been spotting zombies full of green worms that are very difficult to kill in and around the Mistmarsh.  Allustan said that, in light of the things the party had shown and told him, he thought that these zombies merited closer inspection.  He wished to travel to Blackwall Keep to examine the evidence that the Militia had found.  Since the party brought the potential danger of these green worms to his attention, he asked if they were interested in accompanying him.  The party agreed.  He told them he was making preparations to leave in a week's time.

_17th-22rd of Flocktime_.  Alees and Thorash headed to Greyhawk to sell their wares.  The other 4 party members remained in town.  Occasionally, they were called to testify in the trials of Smenk, Dourstone, and Filge.  Later in the week, all 3 trials concluded and a verdicts were reached.  Smenk was found guilty of numerous crimes including murder, rape, and kidnapping.  He was sentenced to be hanged by the neck until dead.  Dourstone was found guilty of aiding and abetting banned cults.  He forfeited all his possessions and was sentenced to 10 years of hard labor in the mines.  Filge was found guilty of grave-robbing and necromancy.  He also forfeited all his possessions and was also sentenced to 10 years hard labor.

_23rd of Flocktime_.  Alees and Thorash returned from Greyhawk and distributed the proceeds to the other party members.  Allustan bought riding horses for any party member that didn't already have one.  He did not ask for compensation.

_24th of Flocktime_.  The party headed east on the Urnst Road.  After a long day of travel, the party made camp at an abondoned farmhouse called Shank's Rest.  Allustan had been very complimentary to the entire party during the trip, but especially to Alexander.  He admits that he never thought Alexander was capable of such rapid advancement.  He admitted that, at the current rate, Alexander would be more powerful than he in a matter of weeks or months.  Allustan shared war stories with the party.  He talked about his own apprenticeship and the missions he was sent out on.  However, when asked for the identity of his old master, Allustan declines.  He said that he and his master had not parted on good terms, and it is something he doesn't like to think about.

_25th of Flocktime_.  After sleeping in a bit from the long journey the previous day, the party began following a newer, less traveled path, that led south.

_26th of Flocktime_.  In the afternoon, Allustan thought that the party should be coming up on Blackwall Keep soon.  He said that it was hard to miss the Keep since it sat on the highest hill overlooking the Mistmarsh.  Katawan looked in that direction and could barely see smoke on the horizon.  At that moment, lizardmen sprang an ambush on the party from the side of the road.  3 lizardmen and a leader were on the left of the road while 3 lizardmen and a large blackscaled lizardman with long arms and a greatclub were on the right.  The surprise caused Alees's mount to bolt.  It sped away back to the north carrying Alees with it.  Alexander fireballed the group on the left, leaving only one lizardman alive.  Killick entangled the group on the right, leaving only one lizardman unentangled.  The remaining lizardman on the left broke and fled into the brush.  The unentangled lizardman on the right formed up for battle.  He was followed by the blackscaled lizardman who, with a cry of rage, broke free of the the tangles and moved at remarkably high speed to the edge of the entangled area.  Both enemies were quickly beaten to near death, and they ran away to the south (towards the Keep).

    The party captured the 2 lizardmen that were entangled and saved the leader lizardman from dying.  They used goodberries and cure minor wounds spells to bring the leader back to consciousness.  Alees returned with the frightened horses.  Allustan offers to do some reconnaissance ahead and cast Invisibility on himself.  The party interrogated its prisoners (Alexander in Draconic and the others in Common, which the leader understood).  They learned that the lizardmen were fighting for a black dragon named Ilthane who had helped the Tanglebranch tribe gain supremacy among the Mistmarsh's lizardmen in exchange for service.  After having consolidated the lizardmen tribes by force, the lizardking now felt powerful enough to renew his raids on nearby human settlements.  The newly built Blackwall Keep stood in his way, so it was his first target to be destroyed.  The lizardking had sent his greatest warlord with an army of hundreds to complete the task.

    Allustan returned and said that he saw red smoke coming from the keep, which was a Greyhawk militia sign for help.  The smoke was a good sign becaue it meant that the keep had not yet fallen.  However, Allustan had seen that the keep was surrounded by small bands of lizardmen like the band they just fought.  He had counted 40 lizardmen in his immediate field of vision, but that was only part of the battlefield.  

    He said he would use a scroll of Teleport that he keeps for emergencies to return to Diamond Lake and gather the Greyhawk militia garrison and bring them back to relieve the siege.  He told the party that it would be 3 or 4 days before the militia could arrive.  He asked the party to do what it could to prevent the lizardmen from taking the keep until reinforcements arrived.  He also specifically asked them to do what they could to protect his friend and colleague Marzena, who might still be inside the keep.  Alexander suggested that Allustan take the lizardman leader back with him for further interrogation, and Allustan agreed.

    Katawan moved forward to check the situation for himself.  He saw a small squad of lizardmen moving along the road in their direction.  He returned to the party and told them what he had seen.  The party surmised that they might have been alerted by the sound of the Fireball.  They set up an ambush at the fireball blast-site and waited, but the lizardmen did not show up when they were expected.  Katawan moved forward to provide an early warning system to the rest of the party.  Alees took the horses and prisoners away to hide them.

    Just after dusk, the lizardmen finally showed up, but they were in significantly greater numbers than Katawan had seen the first time.  The party was quickly enveloped by about 20 lizardmen, 3 leaders, and 2 large blackscale lizardmen with greatclubs.  Will the party be able to fight its way out of this swirling melee?  Tune in next time!


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## Menexenus

*Session 15: Into the Mistmarsh*

_26th of Flocktime_.  Soon after dusk, the party had encountered about 2 dozen lizardmen warriors along with 2 Blackscales.  When the attack commenced, Alexander webbed a portion of the battlefield to trap some of the enemies.  But the web was unable to prevent the party from being enveloped by the more numerous foe.  The only party member who had not been surrounded by the attacking lizardmen was Alees, who had been farther back guarding the party's flank.  She moved forward and fired her crossbow at the lizardmen, which caused a group of 3 lizardmen and 1 leader to run out after her.  Killick, Tarric, and Alexander worked together to quickly drop one of the large Blackscale Lizardmen.  At about that time, the other Blackscale Lizardman freed himself from Alexander's web.  After the lizardfolk troopers spent another round swinging their stone axes wildly and hitting nothing but air, their leaders commanded them to try grabbing the party instead.  (Since they did not have shields, they were able to do this without dropping weapons.)  The lizardmen had success with this new tactic first against Thorash, who was quickly dog-piled.  But, in an amazing feat of strength, he was able to shrug off his 4 grapplers.  However, this favorable result was for naught because the newly freed Blackscale Lizardman brained him with a greatclub and knocked him unconscious.

    Tarric put his attacks of opportunity and his Cleave feat to good use as he killed many lizardfolk who attempted a grapple with him.  But eventually, one of them was successful, and a new dog-pile was formed on Tarric.  Not wanting to hit his comrades, the Blackscale Lizardman chose Katawan as his next target and knocked him unconscious as well.  All the while, Killick did his best to rescue those who were grappled.  At this point, he turned his attention to reviving his fallen comrades.  Throughout the battle, Alexander used his wand of magic missiles to excellent effect.  And Alees seemed to be getting the better of the 4 lizardmen who had accosted her.

    After dropping, Katawan, the Blackscale Lizardman wanted to go after Alexander next, but a well-placed shot from Alees diverted its attention to her.  Alees put all of her energy into avoiding the Blackscale's giant club.  Alexander came to Alees's rescue by firing Magic Missiles at the creature, eventually putting it down for the count before it could hurt Alees.

    One of the Lizardfolk leaders realized that the battle was lost and tried to run off to warn his comrades, but Alexander took him down with magic missiles as well.  Eventually, all but the 2 lizardmen caught in the web were dead.  Those 2 were captured, interrogated, and bound up with the other prisoners from the earlier battle.

_27th of Flocktime_.  The group rode off to a safe distance to make camp.  When they returned in the morning, they found their prisoners still bound.  The prisoners beg for water and Alexander gives them some.  The prisoners described the noises of battle that they had heard in the early morning.  The party rode on to Blackwall Keep.  They saw red smoke rising from the direction of the Keep, which they decided must be a good omen.  When they got within sight of the keep, they found dozens of dead bodies lying all around - mostly lizardfolk and some humans.  The hilltop had become a garden of arrows and crossbow bolts.  As they approached they were hailed by a sentry and welcomed inside.  Barricades were moved aside to allow the party to enter.

    Corporal Fritz, who was in command of the Keep's remaining 12 soldiers, informed the party that the garrison had just barely been able to repulse the lizardmen's last attempt to gain entry.  When Kushak (the commander of the lizardmen) was down to only about 30 soldiers, he and his men were seen moving off to the northeast.  The party spent the day doing what it could to help the wounded within the keep.  Because of the party's efforts, 5 more soldiers were brought back from the brink of death.  The garrison was very grateful for the party's assistance, and when they heard the tale of the party's fight, they insist that the keep would surely have fallen had those forces not been diverted from the siege.  As a token of their thanks they offered to replenish the party's supplies from the keep's provisions.

    During some down time, Fritz informed the party that a high-level ambassador had been sent directly from Greyhawk to make a treaty with the lizardmen.  After a trip into the Mistmarsh, he had returned to the keep in good spirits.  Apparently, his mission had been accomplished.  He had directed the commander to assemble a small group to deliver a wagon-load of goods to a specified location within the swamp.  He would have led that expedition, but he had apparently contracted some kind of disease in the swamp and quickly fell ill.  So the keep's battle mage, Marzena, had been placed in charge of the mission.  The next day, she and three guards had left the keep in the wagon at dawn.  Although no one was quite sure what happened next, apparently the lizardmen chose that same moment to attack.  Second-hand reports from soldiers who were long dead described the lizardmen ambushing those on the wagon at the tree-line.  Apparently, a few lizardmen had gained entrance to the keep while most of the soldiers were still sleeping.  They had killed the commander and about 10 others in their beds before the alarm had gone up and the gates had been closed.  Apparently, those who slipped inside the keep had been advance elements of the lizardman army, because only a few lizardmen had made it into the Keep and the first full attack from the swamp occurred hours afterwards.  The keep had been under siege for a total of 3 days.

    Corporal Fritz was not concerned about the remnants of the lizardman army returning, especially when he heard that Allustan was bringing the Diamond Lake garrison to relieve them.  He urged the party to follow the wagon into the swamp and rescue Marzena and her guards, if they were still alive, and to recover the contents of the wagon if possible.  (He said he did not know what had been transported on the wagon.)  Fritz said that a wagon would move very slowly in the swamp, so it was reasonable to think that the party might be able to catch up.  The party agreed to help and pledged to leave the next morning.

_28th of Flocktime_.  The party left early in the morning.  They quickly learned that horses would be useless in the swamp.  All the party members except Killick chose to send their horses back and leave them at the newly emptied stable at Blackwall Keep.  They found that the wagon tracks were quite easy to follow.  Based on the depth of the tracks, Killick determined that the wagon must have been heavily laden.  Walking through the swamp was very tiring because the party members' feet sank about calf deep into the muck with almost every step.  In addition, the species of tree that was most prevalent in the swamp - the mangaroo - had extended root systems that tended to lie hidden just below the surface, causing most people to trip and fall frequently.  (However, Killick seemed to have an unnatural ability to move much more quickly through the undergrowth than the rest of the party.)  Along the way, the party was constantly harried by buzzing insects.  Killick did what he could to find natural remedies to ward them off.  Many party members spotted small crocidiles lying in shallow water along the way, but they were small and tended to swim away when they noticed the party.  

Eventually, someone in the party spotted a stone statue of a crocodile several yards away from the wagon tracks.  This statue was of a crocodile that was significantly larger than the ones the party had been seeing throughout the day.  The statue was very life-like, and it was clearly in an aggressive pose.  Killick inspected the area around the statue and found birdclaw tracks and feathers.  Alexander determined that the crocodile could have been petrified by a magical beast known as a cockatrice.

    At the end of the day, the group was happy to finally make camp.  The party's legs were sore from the day's march and their exposed skin was itching from multiple bug-bites.  Soon after the party made camp, they heard the crash of some very large animal moving quickly through the undergrowth.  The party got to its feet and found itself under attack by 2 giant crocodiles.  These crocs did massive amounts of damage with their teeth and they also swang their tails at opponents to good effect.  Killick took some damage from the first croc and was lucky not to be grabbed by its massive jaws.  Tarric went to work on the other one.  The rest of the party resorted to missile weapons.  Alexander killed the first one with magic missiles as it tried to flee.  And although Tarric did a great deal of damage on the other one, it was finally felled by a bolt from Alees's newly magical crossbow.  Finally, there was silence, and the party gratefully took turns sleeping.


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## Menexenus

*Session 16: To the Lair of the Lizard King*

_1st of Wealsun_.  After being attacked by 2 giant crocodiles the previous evening, the party headed out in pursuit of the wagon that was carrying Allustan's colleague as well as some other unknown heavy cargo.  

    Around noon, Killick's horse inexplicably reared and ran off in a strange direction.  Killick and Thorash went off together to recover the horse.  While they were gone, the rest of the party was attacked by a HUGE MONSTROUS SPIDER.  It shot a web at the party which caught Tarric and Alexander.  Alees and Katawan remained free, and they both shot crossbows at the beast.  Alexander was able to reach his Wand of Magic Missiles and fired it repeatedly at the 8-legged freak.  Tarric tried to break free unsuccessfully.  Since it had taken the most damage from Alexander's boom-stick, the giant vermin turned its attention to him.  In the next few seconds, Alexander was bitten and poisoned twice.  The second bite made him weaker than a baby, and he fell to the ground, conscious but still.  Now that the beast had quieted the boom-stick, it turned its attention to the other three adventurers.  However, they were able to finish it off without much difficulty.

    Killick and Thorash returned with Killick's horse.  Luckily, Thorash had just happened to memorize 2 Lesser Restoration spells.  He cast them on Alexander.  This was enough to get him up and walking.  He also casts 3 Cure Light Wounds spells on those who were injured by the spider.  

    Alees decided to milk the dead spider's venom gland.  She and Katawan estimated that without alchemical help, the venom would degrade in about a week.  (Alexander declined to lend his aid to the endeavor.)  Alees successfully tipped 10 arrows with the poison.  Katawan decided that he'd like to try to do the same.  He successfully tipped 3 of his arrows with poison, before becoming poisoned himself.  Despite being significantly weaker, he continued trying to tip his arrows with poison.  He was successful once more before accidentally infecting himself again.  He was reduced to a catatonic state, like the one Alexander had been in before.  Only this time, Thorash was out of spells.  The party had no choice but to camp and wait for dusk, so that Thorash could rememorize spells.  This time he memorized 5 Lesser Restorations as well as 3 Cure Light Wounds.  He immediately cast all of his spells to get Alexander and Katawan as much strength as possible, while also healing all of the party's remaining wounds.

    Rather than push on during the night, the party decided to remain in camp and continue tracking the wagon the following day. 

_2nd of Wealsun_.  Upon waking, Alexander and Katawan felt a bit stronger than they had felt the previous day.  Apparently, this poison's effect was wearing off more quickly than most poisons.  The party continued following the wagon's trail.  Around mid-morning, many party members spotted a corpse floating face-down in some water a short ways off the trail.  Most of the party walked over to investigate.  Killick circled the corpse looking for signs of struggle.  Just then, 5 GHOULS emerged from hiding and the floating corpse itself stood up and revealed itself as the Ghouls' leader (a GHAST).  Killick quickly moved back toward his party and cast Entangle on the undead.  2 of the Ghouls were trapped by writhing vines and roots.  The others shambled towards the party, attempting to strike them.  The GHAST created a horrible stench that sickened Tarric.  Nonetheless, he was still able to strike the undead creatures for lots of damage.  The party quickly dispatched the ones that were free and then took pot-shots at the ones who were entangled until all were dispatched.

    Continuing along the trail, a few hours before dusk, the party spotted a pair of the large black-skinned lizardmen, like the ones that they had fought before.  They seemed to be on patrol.  The BLACKSCALE LIZARDFOLK also spot the party.  After giving a shout back over their shoulders to some comrades, they ran forward, charging into action.  They flanked and pummeled Tarric before being brought low by blades, bolts, and staves, as well as a lightning bolt from Alexander.  As the first pair was defeated, two more arrived on the scene.  Just as they began flanking and pummeling Killick, a HARPY began singing its song.  4 of the 6 party members were enraptured and began moving towards the beautiful music.  Only Killick and Katawan remained unenchanted.  Thorash was jarred back to his senses by a thump on the head delivered by one of the Blackscales.  Luckily, the Blackscales were defeated, and the harpy flew away.  Alees delivered a parting shot with her crossbow, and the harpy seemed to become visibly weaker as it rose above the canopy.

    The party found the wagon they had been following.  It had been emptied and was being used by the Blackscales for additional shelter.  Close by the wagon, the party found a well-traveled entrance into the root system of a gargantuan stand of mangaroo trees (clustered so close together as to be indistinguishable from one another).  Upon entering the poorly lit cave-like area, the party found itself beset on 2 sides by javelin wielding LIZARDFOLK and by 2 HARPIES on a third side (one of which was sporting a crossbow bolt stuck in its side).  Alees stepped forward to get in a good crossbow shot and was quickly caught up by an ASSASSIN VINE which began strangling the life out of her.  Just as Alees fell unconscious, Tarric chopped the vine to pieces and freed Alees from its grip.  The Lizardmen did their best to grapple with Thorash, Killick, and Tarric, but were almost universally unsuccessful.  Killick attempted 2 heroic tumbles to try to reach Alees's side and stabilize her, but both tumbles ended with Killick staring up at the ceiling and avoiding the blows of lizardfolk battleaxes.  (Luckily, Alees stabilized herself.)

    The lizardmen were quickly either killed or driven off.  The harpy that Alees had shot before was killed, but the second harpy escaped via an opening in the ceiling.  The party heard more noise coming from deeper within the structure, so they knew there were more enemies to deal with.  The party decided to press on.  Thorash used 6 charges from the Wand of Cure Light Wounds to bring his comrades back to full strength.  After about a minute, the party moved deeper into the structure...


----------



## Menexenus

*Session 17: Breaking the Twisted Branch Tribe*

_2nd of Wealsun (mid afternoon).  _ The party entered a large den of lizardfolk made from the twisted bark and roots of an enormous stand of mangaroo trees and was able to fend off an assault by dozens of lizardfolk.  The party healed up using a Wand of Cure Light Wounds and then pressed onward into the depths of the Twisted Branch tribe's seat of power.

    Soon after moving forward, Killick spotted 3 lizardmen with metal shields and axes as well as a spell caster with a viper animal companion.  The small group of lizardfolk seemed to be delaying.  When most of the party was in sight, the spellcaster cast Entangle on everyone except Killick (who had already tumbled next to the spellcaster).  Killick, guessing that the spellcaster was a Druid, spoke to it in Druidic, asking it to release the human female spellcaster that the tribe had taken prisoner.  The Druid replied that he wished to speak to the party under conditions of truce when the other three warrior lizardmen that accompanied him had been slain.  He intimated that while those warriors were watching, he could not be seen to be talking with the tribe's enemies.

    Not understanding any of this, the rest of the party fought on.  Katawan avoided becoming entangled and ran down a back hallway that ended up behind the Druid.  He took a shot with his crossbow.  Thorash also avoided the entangling roots.  He moved into the cavern and went to work on the lizardfolk warriors.  Alexander did get stuck, but that was fine by him.  He just pulled out his trusty Wand of Magic Missile and cast it at the Druid.  Tarric was also stuck, but that was fine by him, because he had an enemy lizardman right next to him that he could wail on.  Alees was also stuck, but that was fine by her.  She activated a power that the party has never seen her use before, and suddenly the vines released her and cleared a path for her to exit the area of entanglement.  She delivered a disemboweling sneak attack to an unwary warrior.

    The Druid's viper moved off to attack Katawan.  The Druid cast Fog Bank to keep Alexander from using his Wand of Magic Missiles.  Killick made a show of attacking the Druid, but all of his flailing attacks failed.  Katawan shot the Viper with his last poisoned bolt, and it seemed weakened by the shot.  The Druid moved into the Fog Bank and called his Viper to him.

    Moments later, when the 3 lizardfolk warriors were defeated, the Druid emerged with his hands up in a sign of peace.  He introduced himself in Common, calling himself Hishka.  He said that he had been the main shaman for the Twisted Branch tribe for 10 years.  The Twisted Branch tribe had been relatively weak, until the current king Shaka arrived and challenged the former chief to ritual combat.  Shaka defeated the former chief and assumed control of the tribe, calling himself "king".  Soon thereafter, a black dragon named Ilthane appeared who seemed to be in league with Shaka.  This gave him even greater standing among the tribe, and as word spread that the King of the Twisted Branch Tribe had a dragon as an ally, the tribe's size and influence quickly grew.  Although the tribe's prestige and power was growing under Shaka's command, he was pursuing a suicidal policy of instigating conflict with the softskins outside the swamp.  Hishka knew that no matter how powerful the tribe became, they were no match for the armies of the softskins.  Hishka could foresee that provoking the softskins would be disastrous for his people.

    Consequently, Hishka implored the party to kill Shaka (who was only a couple rooms away).  If the party were to do this, Hishka assured the party that he would install a king who would make peace with Greyhawk.  However, Hishka warned the party that Shaka was keeping the female spellcaster (Marzena) hostage, and that if he felt threatened, he would surely have her killed.  He would only bargain for her life as a last resort.  Killick asked the Druid if, as a token of good faith, he could heal some of Katawan's lingering Strength damage.  The Druid said he did not have the necessary spell memorized.  However, trying to be helpful, he did mention that there were some red-spotted mushrooms in a trash room to the north that could heal his damage.  However, he warned the party that the tribe kept its pet Otyugh in that room.  For those who did not know, he explained that an Otyugh is an omnivore with tentacles whose main purpose in life is to eat.  It would surely attack anyone entering the room.

    The discussion was cut short, though, by a booming voice in Draconic yelling, "Get him!" (as well as the sound of Alexander's wand shooting its missiles).  As the party moved to investigate, Hishka confirmed that that was the voice of Shaka, the lizard king.  Apparently, during the quiet conversation, Alexander had broken free of the entangle, and left it by the quickest route, which took him deeper into the tribal lair.  As he tried to find a way back to the party, he stumbled upon the king's throne room.  Luckily, the party was not that far away, so they were able to make it to Alexander's side before Alexander was in any real danger. 

While most of the party ran to Alexander's aid, Thorash seemed to be lingering near Hishka.  When he thought he was alone with the Druid, he attacked.  The Druid cried out that the dwarf was attacking him and that the softskins were traitors.  Tarric saw what Thorash had done, dropped his sword, grabbed Thorash, and pulled him away from the Druid.  Hishka took the opportunity to slip back into the fog bank, but his viper stayed and attacked Thorash.  Thorash was struck, and the viper's poison seemed to sicken him.  However, once the Druid was gone, Tarric was able to convince Thorash to leave.  (For a short time, the viper tried to chase down the vile dwarf.  But a slash from Tarric's sword convinced it to withdraw.)

    Meanwhile, Alexander was hovering at the ceiling of the hallway, using his Wand of Magic Missiles to strike the king.  The king was flinging a flying (obviously magical) trident at Alexander that would return to the king after it was done attacking.  The king's bodyguard came out into the hall to attack Alexander, but soon found himself fighting the rest of the party instead.  He screamed in a fit of rage, and seemed to become more powerful.  There were also several regular lizardfolk with various fancy adornments and ornamentations who did their best to assist in the fight.  (From the Druid's description, the party assumed that these were most likely the king's concubines.)  Alexander was able to see the form of a human female at the back of the throne room.  One of the female lizardfolk was kneeling over her with her painted claws at the human's throat, waiting for a command from her king to dispatch the prisoner.

    The king ordered the party to withdraw or else the human female would die.  Alexander ordered the king to give up the woman and they would let him live.  The battle raged on.  Thorash arrived and cast Cause Fear on the king's bodyguard.  He ran back to the throne room and cowered near the throne.  Killick tumbled to Marzena's side and tried to stun the lizardfolk that threatened her.  When he failed, Alexander cast Magic Missile at the same lizardfolk, killing her.  Seeing this, Shaka moved across the room to face Killick and threaten Marzena.  He did much damage with his stab-claw-bite progression, but soon the king was surrounded by Killick, Tarric, and Alees.  He tried to eliminate the one he perceived to be the weakest target first - Alees.  With one stab-claw-bite progression, she was on the floor unconscious.  Meanwhile, Killick had pulled Marzena away from the king, and Alexander just kept firing off his wand, doing automatic damage.

    Things started looking up for the lizardfolk when the barbarian shook off his cowardice and joined the fray again against Tarric.  At about the same time, some of the remaining lizardfolk were successful in grabbing onto Thorash and biting him for small amounts of damage that added up quickly in his poison-weakened state.  However, the lizardfolk's momentum faded quickly, as Tarric dispatched the king's bodyguard and Thorash escaped from the hold of 2 lizardfolk.  The remaining lizardfolk grabbed onto Thorash again and knocked him unconscious.  Meanwhile, Shaka fought with Tarric, giving at least as good as he got.  But those damnable Magic Missiles continued to rain in on him, despite his success in melee.  Killick moved off to stabilize Thorash and one of the remaining lizardfolk tried unsuccessfully to hit Marzena's unconscious form.  That lizardfolk was quickly dispatched.

    At long last, Shaka realized that his time left on Oerth was short.  So, in a fit of spite, he shouted, "AT LEAST THE HUMAN FEMALE WILL DIE BEFORE ME!"  With all his remaining strength, he threw his returning trident at the unconscious form of the human sorceress.  But the trident snagged on a protruding branch, was deflected, and missed her entirely.  Shaka cried, "NOOOOO!!!" in utter futility as Killick dispatched him.

    There was one lizardfolk left alive.  Seeing her king killed, she groveled on the floor, weeping and begging for death.  The party took her captive.  They also took a closer look at lucky Marzena.  The lizardfolk had broken her jaw as well as all of her fingers so that she would be unable to cast spells.  While some were tending to Marzena's wounds, the rest of the party interrogated the lizardfolk prisoner.  She told them that the dragon Ilthane stayed with the tribe only rarely, so it was unlikely that she was currently in residence.  However, she did leave a dragon egg in her cavern.  The prisoner explained that she promised to protect the lizardfolk eggs, and as a show of good faith, she had placed one of her own eggs in the same chamber.  The prisoner said that the dragon's lair was in a submerged cavern off to the southwest.  

    Upon looting the former king and his bodyguard, the party found a reasonable amount of magical swag, but Marzena (who had been healed by Killick) told the party that some of the items had been taken from her.  Alexander graciously returned those items to her.  The party also found a chest of gold with the seal of Greyhawk on it.  Marzena explained that Greyhawk had negotiated a treaty with the resurgent lizardfolk, and this chest of gold was to be given to the lizardfolk in tribute.  She claimed that, when the lizardfolk attacked Blackwall Keep, the terms of the treaty were violated, and hence, the chest of gold still belonged by law to the Domain of Greyhawk.  Alexander seemed to agree with Marzena's legal reasoning, but indicated that, when they all returned to civilization, he hoped that Greyhawk might see fit to grant the party a reward for the chest's return.  (However, glances exchanged by some other party members seemed to indicate that they were not all in complete agreement on this point.)  Alexander brought the lizardfolk prisoner into a separate room from the rest of the party, secured a promise of peaceful coexistence from her, and then let her go free.  She ran away from the lair at top speed.

_3rd of Wealsun_.  After praying for spells at dusk the previous day, Thorash began the process of identifying 5 of the items that didn't belong to Marzena.  When the others woke at dawn, he reported his findings, and these objects were divided among the party members (generating a small amount of conflict).  The party decided to rest for an additional 24 hours in order to rebuild their strength.  During the day, Marzena said that if there is indeed a black dragon egg in a nearby chamber, the party should do what it can to destroy it.  The party was contemplating defeating the Otyugh and harvesting the medicinal (and possibly valuable) mushrooms.  The party was also contemplating going on to investigate the dragon's lair.


----------



## Menexenus

*Session 18: The Spawn of Kyuss*

_3rd of Wealsun (evening).  _ After Thorash prayed for spells at dusk, he cast Water Breathing on the party so that they could investigate the egg chamber.  (They decided that facing the Otyugh was an unnecessary risk.)  The lead party member was caught in a Snare 4 different times in the narrow underwater corridor leading to the egg chamber.  But since the party was able to breath water, these harmless traps presented no serious obstacle.  When Thorash's head poked up above the surface of the murky water on the far side of the submerged passageway, he saw a large egg chamber guarded by 10 well-armed and armored kobolds.  They fired hand crossbows at him as he emerged from the water, wounding him slightly.  Killick moved forward and cast Entangle on the enemy.  Only a few of the kobolds were caught by the spell.  The others moved quickly to the side of the chamber that contained the dragon's hoard of gold coins (which was unaffected by the spell).  Alexander moved into the room and cast fireball, killing many of the kobolds and fusing most of the gold together.  Tarric moved to the front and killed many kobolds simultaneously with Great Cleave.  

Alexander cast lightning bolt on the larger black dragon egg in the middle of the chamber.  This vaporized the top half of the egg, but unexpectedly, thousands of tiny green worms began pouring out of the lower half of the egg into the surrounding water.  Alexander cast Web around the egg to try to slow the worms down.  Many worms got caught in the Entangle and the Web, but those few that were not stuck were fanning out and burrowing into the surrounding lizardfolk eggs, causing them to turn from bone white to dull gray.  Tarric and Alees worked briefly to free some large chunks from the fused pile of gold.  Killick threw Alchemists' Fire at the Web, killing some of the worms and causing damage to some kind of creature inside the web (as yet unseen by the party).  Killick also spotted some small objects swimming in the water like water snakes.  When Killick saw that these things were lizardfolk embryos that had been turned into some kind of wormy undead (and when he sees that more of these creatures are hatching every round), he called for the party to retreat.  Thorash moved up for a closer look and commanded 3 of them to attack their brethren.  Meanwhile, Katawan and Alexander moved quickly to recover the chests on the far side of the room.  The party finally withdrew as tens (perhaps hundreds) of little undead hatchlings moved menacingly (but slowly) towards them.  

After moving back through the submerged tunnel, they found Marzena, grabbed the larger chest of Greyhawk gold, took it to the wagon waiting outside, and headed back towards Blackwall Keep at the fastest possible speed.  It quickly became apparent that they were not being pursued.

_4th - 6th of Wealsun_.  The party traveled out of the swamp, back to Blackwall Keep.  Along the way, another giant crocodile was encountered and defeated.  The party also encountered more evidence of at least one cockatrice (bird-like animal with a petrifying gaze) living in the swamp.  During down time, the party opened the 3 chests recovered from the egg chamber.  Two of them were padded, protective chests, containing 4 potion vials each.  One chest contains 2 vials of opaque reddish brown liquid that turned out to be potions of Bull's Strength as well as 2 vials of inky dark blue liquid which turned out to be potions of Cure Serious Wounds.  The second chest contained 2 vials of silvery metallic liquid which turned out to be potions of Haste as well as 2 vials of dark black liquid which turned out to be potions of Invisibility.  The third chest contains 960 gp with a magical Ring of Spell Storing buried among the coins.

_7th of Wealsun_.  The party finally returned to Blackwall Keep.  Alexander and Thorash started coughing, suffering from diahrrea, and experiencing chills and weakness.  When party members inquired about these symptoms at the Keep, the soldiers said that it is a common disease called Swamp Fever that usually passes in about a week.  (It is deadly only in the rarest cases - usually among the very young and very old.)

    Although the Keep had been reinforced by soldiers from Diamond Lake during the party's absence, there are still relatively few soldiers defending the keep, as large groups had been sent out to pursue the remnants of the lizardfolk army.  The acting-commander of the Keep begged the party for help defeating some unknown menace that is resposible for 4 deaths.  Whatever it was that was killing his men had been trapped in the Keep's basement, and the party suspects that it may be related to the diplomatic negotiator from Greyhawk that had been quarantined prior to the attack on the Keep.  The party asked for compensation, and the interim commander suggested that if they defeated the beast in the keep's basement, he would forget about the chest of gold that they had brought back from the swamp.  (Marzena seemed to find this sort of under-the-table deal-making distasteful, but she held her tongue.)  Once Alexander was convinced that the commander had the legal authority to make such an offer, the party gladly accepted his offer.

    They opened the previously barracaded basement door and were quickly engaged by 3 zombie-like creatures that were literally dripping with tiny green worms.  The sight of these abominations caused Tarric, Alexander, and Katawan to flee in fear.  As they attacked the remaining party members, they usually attempted to slam the party.  But occasionally one would simply try to deliver a live worm to a party-member's exposed skin with a touch attack.  Although the latter attacks were never successful, multiple party members were successfully slammed.  When one of the zombie-creatures attacked Alees, the slam attack left a scratch that quickly seemed to become infected.  Killick also noticed during the battle that some of the zombie-creatures' damage seemed to heal itself each round.  However, when the battle was over, the party found 2 other bloated, green corpses of keep soldiers who had died in their sleep (but who had apparently not been turned into zombie-creatures).


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## Menexenus

*Session 19: To Greyhawk*

_7th of Wealsun_.  After defeating the Spawn of Kyuss in the basement of Blackwall Keep, Marzena gave the party a sealed note to deliver to Allustan.  The next day, the party headed back to Diamond Lake.

_8th of Wealsun_.  On the road back to Diamond Lake, Alees became ill.  She was visibly weaker, and her skin started to turn grey.  She began raving madly about things that weren't there.  Killick guessed that the wound Alees sustained when fighting the Spawn of Kyuss has started to fester.  Based on his skill, he surmised that the disease Alees had contracted would be deadly unless it was cured.  At dusk, Thorash memorized and then cast Remove Disease on Alees, and she started feeling better immediately.

_10th of Wealsun_.  The party arrived back in Diamond Lake in the morning.  Alexander delivered the letter to Allustan.  As a token of thanks, Allustan invited Alexander to use his magical laboratory for as long as he required.  Alexander took Allustan up on the offer.  As Alexander began setting up shop, Allustan admitted to Alexander that he had reached the limits of what he could find out about the Age of Worms with the limited resources available to him in Diamond Lake.  He suggested that Greyhawk's extensive libraries would be of great help to the investigation.  With some apparent reluctance, he told Alexander that he knew someone in Greyhawk who might be better equipped to find the answers to the party's questions.  He told Alexander to travel to Greyhawk and ask for a man named Eligos living in the Garden District.  If Alexander told Eligos that Allustan sent them, they should get his undivided attention.  

The party agreed to travel to Greyhawk, but only after Alexander was finished enchanting magic items in Allustan's workshop.  

_11th of Wealsun - 1st of Richfest_.  For reasonable prices, Alexander enchants an assortment of the party's weapons, shields, gloves, and boots.  

After a couple days of waiting around, Thorash asked Alexander for an estimate of when he would be finished.  Upon receiving that estimate, Thorash said he would meet the party in Greyhawk at about the time they were expecting to arrive there.  Thorash then left town on his own and was not seen again before the party left for Greyhawk.  Alees spent some time performing for cash at the Feral Dog.  Finally, after a couple weeks of down time, the party was ready to continue on to Greyhawk.  They left on the 1st of Richfest.  

_4th of Richfest_.  The party was assaulted on the road near Greyhawk by a pair of haggard-looking desperate-seeming troll brothers.  One of the trolls got in a good rend on Tarric before going down.  The party quickly learned about the trolls' regeneration ability and kept the trolls unconscious until a fire could be built.  Then the trolls were finally dispatched for good.

    The party continued on to Greyhawk.  When they arrived near dusk, they found extraordinarily long lines to get into the city.  While in line, the party heard about the Champions' Games that Greyhawk holds throughout the week of Richfest.  They were already under way.  Some of the people in line got into a sporting argument about whether Auric's Warband would go the distance for the second consecutive year.  (Tarric recalled that Auric was the burly fighter in the gawdy belt whose drunken complaints about the Stirgenest Cairn had inspired him to investigate the Whispering Cairn with his childhood friends.)

    Well after dark, when the party finally made it to the gate, they were given the once-over by some apparently suspicious city guards.  They were giving the party a hard time, and it seemed like the party would be delayed for some meticulous customs searches until Killick offered to buy one of guards dinner (and paid him 10 gp).  Then the guards became much more friendly and let the party into the city without any further hassle.

    Because of the festival, the streets were full even at this late hour.  The party happened upon a parade that included jugglers, acrobats, street performers, and a vicious chimera in a cage with iron bars enclosed in glass.  Alees sneaked off to pick some pockets amidst the crowd.  Killick noticed someone reaching for his pocket, and he cracked the man in the face with his newly enchanted quarterstaff.  The man apologized to Killick and faded quickly back into the crowd.  (After witnessing Killick's altercation, Alexander looked down to find that one of his belt pouches had already been liberated.)

    At about that time, the chimera was able to escape its cage (apparently due to metal fatigue).  Panicked citizens went running in all directions.  The beastmasters begged for help in subduing the frightened creature.  Tarric (with the help of his newly enchanted boots) moved up quickly to engage the beast in melee, as did Killick and Katawan.  Alexander cast Scare on the beast, and it tried to fly away.  However, its flight was hampered by the fact that its wings had been clipped by its captors.  Still, even with its wings clipped, it was faster than most of the party.  Alexander cast Fly on himself so that he could keep up.  He peppered the creature with magic missiles from the air.  When the effect of the Scare spell ran out, the Chimera turned on Alexander and breathed lightning at him.  But the magical beast succumbed quickly thereafter to yet another volley of Magic Missiles.

    At long last, the party made it to Eligos's house.  He received them, gathered their information about the Age of Worms, and promised to look into the matter.  He invited the party to stay for free at a local hotel called the Crooked House.  He promised to contact them within the week with his findings.  In the mean time, he suggested that the party enjoy the festival.  The party accepted his offer.  They headed to the inn (which was in the Foreign Quarter) and met the gnome proprietor of the Crooked House, Tarquin Shortstone.  He seemed friendly and had very kind words to say about Eligos.  Seeing that the party was tired, he promptly set them up with accommodations, as promised.  The party asked him about stores where they could sell magical arms and armor.  Tarquin said he knew someone who might open their shop in the morning as a special favor for him.  After promising to look into the possibility for them, the party went up to their rooms and fell asleep.


----------



## Menexenus

*Session 20: To the Sodden Hold*

_5th of Richfest_.  Alexander, Alees, Killick, and Katawan all returned to the Crooked House after selling two magic items (returning trident and spider hide armor) to a merchant who opened up his store just after dawn.  (Tarric did not go because he was sleeping off a night of drinking and rabble rousing.)  As the group entered the inn, the smell of breakfast wafted into the taproom from the kitchen.  The group sat down at a table to enjoy the morning meal.  Most of the bar patrons were discussing the events that had taken place in the Champions Games the previous day and speculating on how their favorite adventuring groups might fare today.

Just after the meal was served, long-lost Thorash strode through the door of the establishment in finely crafted full plate armor covered with nasty-looking metal spikes.  Thorash didn't have much time to brag about his new armor, because moments after he arrived, Tarric walked downstairs wearing all of his armor, weapons, and equipment.  Tarquin, the gnome proprietor of the establishment, politely asked Tarric to leave his larger weapons in his room during mealtime.  He explained that he liked to keep the number of weapons in his establishment to a bare minimum to promote a comfortable, homey feeling amongst his guests.  Tarric seemed to take offense at this request.  He started yelling at Tarquin, saying that no one has the right to tell him what to do.  And without any warning, he stepped behind the bar and stabbed Tarquin with a dagger.

    The party sprang into action to restrain Tarric from doing any further damage.  The bar patrons, on the other hand, seemed to be out for bloody vengeance.  Katawan was the first to move up to Tarric, telling him to stand down, but Tarric slashed him with a short sword.  2 bar patrons who moved to protect Tarquin got a similar treatment.  Alexander attempted to charm Tarric, but Tarric ignored the spell almost as if he were immune to its effect.  Katawan used a charge from his Ring of Spell Storing to heal Tarquin and keep him from dying.

    At this point, Tarric walked down the stairs in his underclothes, yawning and brandishing a bastard sword.  He asked what is going on, and the party members seemed perplexed, seeing 2 Tarrics.  They immediately seized on the idea that the Tarric who stabbed Tarquin was not the real Tarric, and they resumed the fight against the false Tarric with renewed vigor (and increased deadliness).  Alexander shot a lightning bolt at him (destroying a shelf of imported whiskeys and leaving a large black scorch mark on the wall in the process).  Killick was able to use a stunning attack to immobilize Tarric for a few seconds.  This gave the bar patrons the opportunity to jump on him and drag him down to the ground.  Moments later, the false Tarric was knocked unconscious by the bar patrons' ferocious pummeling.

    The party investigated the body and found that it did not feel the way it looked.  They took off his armor and found that it is studded leather rather than plate mail.  They cast Detect Magic and found that his entire body glowed, indicating that his false appearance was a magical effect.  In addition, his armor, his short sword, and 2 potions glowed with magic.  The tavern patrons agreed that the party could keep the sword and potions, if the party agreed to magically heal their wounds and give them any gold that the false Tarric was carrying.  After some vehement objections by Thorash and Alees, the party reluctantly agreed.  

Soon after the imposter's swag was divvied up, officers of the Greyhawk City Watch arrive.  They asked questions about what happened.  They took the unconscious imposter into custody and impounded his studded leather armor.  They told the party to direct their inquiries about the captive to Captain Auron at the local City Watch headquarters.

    After the cops were gone, the party took a closer look at an odd-looking key that they had found in the imposter's belt pouch.  With the help of some bar patrons, Tarquin was able to identify its insignia (a ship being pulled under the waves by a kraken) as the sign of an old abandoned warehouse near the docks called the Sodden Hold.  The party decided to investigate.

    They traveled to the Dock district without incident and begin investigating the run-down abandoned warehouse called the Sodden Hold.  Its old wood exterior had a greenish tinge due to moss.  Part of the rectangular building extended over the water of the Selintan River.  Alees tried the key in the lock, and it unlocked the door.  The double doors opened into a dusty storage room containing haphazardly placed crates and barrels.  Killick examined the floor and told the party that, despite appearances, this room had been traversed regularly by humanoid feet.  The party saw 3 doors and a ladder to a 10 foot wide, 10 foot tall loft on the far side of the room.  Alees investigated the doors and found no traps.  She tried the key in the lock to one of the doors and found a room that looked like it might once have been an office.  It was full of ledgers and papers in no apparent order.  Another door on the same wall led to an empty closet.  Katawan tried climbing the rickety ladder leading up to the loft.  It collapsed as soon as he got near the top, but mystically, he landed on his feet and seemed not to be hurt at all after falling 10 feet.

    After eliminating the first 2 doors and after Katawan climbed up to the loft and confirmed that there was no door up there either, the party became convinced that the third door must lead towards whoever or whatever inhabited this building.  Killick and Thorash stepped to either side of it and then turned the knob.  Suddenly a large trap door opened beneath their feet causing both of them to plunge into a 40 foot deep pit trap.  At just this moment, 3 of the boxes in the room transformed into large humanoids.  Tarric attacked the one nearest to him, but he noticed too late that these creatures seemed to be very sticky, covered with a mucus with the adhesive properties of super-glue.  His bastard sword stuck to the creature and would not come loose.  Thorash and Killick called out for help getting out of the pit.  Katawan moved to help them.  Meanwhile, Alees hid behind some boxes and shot at them with her crossbow.  Alexander cast magic missiles at them.  They came after him, but he turned himself invisible and continued firing magic missiles at them.  One of the creatures successfully struck Tarric and he was automatically stuck to it.  Tarric drew weapon after weapon from his personal armory to stab at the creature, and each weapon in turn stuck to the creature.  While Killick was still in the pit, he cast a spell, and a large Dire Bat attacked the enemies in his stead.

    Katawan set the Rope of Climbing for Killick and Thorash to climb up.  Killick did so successfully, but even with a knotted rope to help him, Thorash was unable to get to the top of the pit.  Katawan tried to knock out the monster that was grappling Tarric, but he delivered a crushing blow to Tarric instead (by accident).  Luckily, though, one of Alexander's Magic Missiles dropped the nasty brute before it could crush the life out of Tarric.  One of the remaining monsters captured Killick in its sticky embrace.  But it was dispatched before it was able to crush its prey.  With the other 2 monsters gone, the 3rd one didn't last very long on its own.  About a minute after the monsters were killed, their sticky glue started to break down, and the people that had been stuck to the creatures were able to remove themselves as well as their weapons.

    Having found no entrance into the rest of the building, Tarric began hacking through the worn, old wooden boards that made up the wall.  Once he made a hole, he heard and saw an elf women in a cage made of wooden walls and iron bars on the far side of the room.  He also saw and heard two men in a similar cage on the opposite side of the room.  At first the woman was strangely dubious and dismissive of the party's motivations.  She seemed to think that the party was trying to trick her.  But once the entire party was in the prison area, she started to be convinced that they were not her jailors in disguise.  She introduced herself as Ilya Starmane and said that she was a member of a noble merchant family, controlling most of the trade from Greyhawk to the neighboring elven kingdom of Celene.  The men in the opposite cell claimed to be traveling merchants who were abducted about a week ago after entering the city for the Richfest celebration.

    While the party was working on getting the elf woman's cell door open, Thorash noticed the men behind him drawing longswords and shields from underneath their beds.  They quickly pushed the iron door of their cell open, despite the fact that they had seemed to be locked a moment ago.  Ilya screamed as these false prisoners attacked the party.  Distrustful of the surly elf maiden, Alees kept a dagger at her throat while the rest of the party dealt with the attack.  Although the false prisoners seemed to be well-trained fighters, they were outnumbered and unable to maneuver.  They were beaten down without much difficulty.  As they died, they reverted back to their original form - that of a tall bony humanoid with large eyes and grayish black skin.  Alexander identified the creature as a doppelganger - an insidious shapechanger who steals others' identities.


----------



## Menexenus

*Session 21: Discovering the Doppelganger Lair, or Thorash vs. the Kraken*

_5th of Richfest (continued)_.  The party had just defeated the doppelgangers who had been pretending to be prisoners.  These doppelgangers were wearing tight-fitting (finely crafted) studded leather armor that they were able to conceal successfully underneath their merchant costumes.  They had pulled longswords and heavy steel shields out from under their bunks.  The longswords seem to be of fine make, but the shields seem to be of standard quality.

    With the action over, the party started interrogating the elf woman with renewed skepticism.  The party was now much more suspicious of Ilya, thinking that she may also be a doppelganger.  Although Ilya was haughty and impatient with the party's questions, she answered them in the hopes of finally being freed.  She told the party that she had been in the cell for about a month.  Her captives had fed her and occasionally played cruel tricks on her, like impersonating her friends and pretending to rescue her.  She said that the doppelgangers who were killed had been in the cell across from her for a week.  When the party asked why the doppelgangers would stay in a prison cell for so long, she replied in an exasperated tone that she had no idea.  She suggested that perhaps the doppelgangers had been working in shifts, changing places while she was sleeping.  The party asked what was beyond the double doors at the end of the room.  She said she didn't know.  She volunteered that none of the prisoners who had gone through those doors had ever come back.  Thorash cast Detect Magic on her.  Nothing on Ilya glowed.  (However, he did notice out of the corner of his eye that the longswords that the doppelgangers had been using were glowing.)

    Thorash, Alees, and Katawan were still distrustful of the girl and wanted to keep her locked up until the party was through with its incursion into the Sodden Hold.  Alexander was adamant that the girl should be set free immediately, and Killick reluctantly agreed.  Tarric, who was trying to score points with the hot babe, agreed that the girl should go free.  This left the party at an impasse until Katawan changed his mind.  Although Ilya was grateful that she was finally being set free, she didn't seem to have much love for the party.  She told them that when the doppelgangers captured her, they stripped her of all her valuables and put them in the closet across the room.  She went to retrieve her things (along with a couple members of the party who wanted to observe her actions in the closet), and when she came back, she tossed a bag at the party's feet, saying, "I found this along with my belongings.  It's not mine, so as far as I'm concerned, you're welcome to it."  With some reluctance, she concluded, "I suppose you've earned it."  Thorash, whose Detect Magic spell was still active, noticed that the bag was glowing.  He and the rest of the party looked inside and found that there was more room inside the bag than there appeared to be on the outside.  The bag contained hundreds of gold coins (864gp, to be exact).  As Ilya was about to leave, Thorash vindictively frightened the girl with stories of deadly monsters in the next room.  When she appeared to be somewhat concerned about the danger to herself, Tarric offered to escort her out to safety.

    Without waiting for Tarric to return, Thorash opened the double doors and found what must once have been a large loading dock.  There were large doors on the far wall that might once have allowed river boats to dock and unload their wares.  (However, these doors were completely boarded up now.)  The wooden floor of the room had almost completely rotted away, leaving only a few small portions of floor in the corners of the room intact.  Where the floor had rotted away, the party could see the shore of the Selintan River below.  In the shallow water had been planted numerous old, rusty swords and spears with points facing upward.  To facilitate traversing the room, narrow planks of newer wood had been lain across old wooden pylons that might once have held the collapsed floor up.  Alexander flew into the room to get a better look at the far side.  When he did so, a sudden gust of wind blew around him.  The wind seemed to take shape and started pummeling him.  Because of his surprise, he was quickly knocked unconscious.  But rather than plummeting to his doom, his unconscious body fell very slowly.  Once Alexander was knocked out, the second air being moved to Thorash and attacked him.  Killick moved in to help Thorash.  Katawan tumbled acrobatically across the narrow planks and grabbed Alexander's floating body, setting it to rest safely on one of the few remaining portions of wooden floor along the wall.  Alees fired a few shots from her crossbow at the invisible attackers, missing horribly.  Some of Killick's blows also missed due to the creatures' invisibility.  Tarric came running back and joined the melee.  Katawan heroically stood over Alexander's body, protecting it from the large wind creatures and also delivering curative spells from his Ring of Spell Storing.  Alexander awakened and cast a fireball in the area where he surmised that the creatures must be.  With the explosion, one of the creatures seemed to dissipate and the system of wooden planks was blown to smithereens.  The rest of the wooden building smoldered but did not catch fire due to its being water-logged.  Soon thereafter, Killick and Tarric combined their attacks to destroy the last remaining wind creature.

    Alexander used his flight to transport the party to the far side of the room where there is a door.  They opened it and found that the room beyond contained nothing but the stone shaft of an old well.  However there was a fairly new rope ladder attached to the side leading down into the well.  Peering over the side, the party saw that the water level was about 35 feet below where the PCs are standing.  Killick used tracking to determine that the ladder had been used frequently.  Katawan climbed down the ladder and swam under the water to try to find out how deep it went.  He returned to the party and told them that the water was deeper than 20 feet.  Thorash decided to hold is breath and go down to the bottom to investigate.  The ladder led down to a small cistern whose bottom was 40 feet below the water level.  A tunnel has been dug through one side of the cistern, leading away towards the direction of shore for about 40 feet before opening out into a larger space.  Thorash returned and reported this information to the party, announcing that he was going to investigate further.  Killick decided to join him, just in case.  This time Thorash sank to the bottom rather than climbing.  Killick followed him, swimming.  Thorash moved to the end of the tunnel and saw a much larger room with a large stone pillar in the center.  He noticed that the water also seemed to be about 40 feet deep in this room and that there was some air at the top.  He moved to the 10 foot diameter pillar to investigate.  He found a ladder constructed into the stone of the pillar on one side.

    At this moment, Thorash was attacked by a giant octopus.  It quickly grabbed him in one of its tentacles and began squeezing the life out of him.  Killick swam back to the party as quickly as he could and reported that Thorash was in trouble.  Meanwhile, Thorash used the grapple to automatically perform his Death Touch on the kraken, but it still continued to squeeze.  Then he used his new spikey armor to deliver damage to the beast, but still it continued to squeeze.  Realizing that he was about to black out, he quaffed a potion to keep himself conscious, in the hope that his party mates might still save him.  At just that moment, a porpoise swam out of the tunnel and attacked the octopus.  The octopus, distracted by the attack, quickly destroyed the summoned creature.  Then Alexander flew out of the tunnel and into the open air above Thorash.  He saw that there was a metal lever at the top of the stone pillar as well as a stone walkway leading to a door.  But an investigation would have to wait, as he had other pressing matters to attend to.  He cast Magic Missiles that struck the octopus.  Thorash, seeing that the cavalry had arrived, continued damaging the creature with his armor spikes.  The kraken now decided that the small dwarf was not worth the hassle.  It produced a large black cloud of ink to obscure its exit, and by expelling a jet of stored water, the octopus moved extremely quickly away from its foes.  Thorash, with his darkvision, saw the creature slither through a large grate in the floor on the far side of the room.

    With the creature gone, Thorash moved up the ladder as quickly as he could, and gasped for air when he reached the top.  As Thorash regained his breath, Alexander pulled the lever, and the water began to drain out of the room (and the well).  A minute later, when the water was gone and the way was clear, the rest of the party joined Killick, Alexander, and Thorash at the top of the large stone pillar.  They opened the door across the walkway and found a T-intersection with a long crosshallway lined with many single doors and capped by doubledoors at each end.  The area was lit by a continual light torch, and since Killick had just lost his old torch down the drain, he took this new one off the wall to replace it.  The party listened at each of the single doors and heard nothing.  Alees checked the floor for traps in front of the double doors and found none.  Tarric moved up to one of the double doors and the floor suddenly gave way.  As Tarric fell, everyone noticed that his scream ended very abruptly and there was no "thud" when he hit the ground.  Thorash moved up to the edge to investigate.  He saw a 30 foot deep pit, but Tarric was nowhere to be found inside it.

    Just at that moment, 4 of the single doors along the hallway opened, and doppelgangers emerged.  They tried desperately to push Thorash into the pit with no luck.  They attacked without weapons or armor and were quickly cut down.  During the battle, the party saw a continual light torch fly up out of the pit and fall back in.  When the "danger" was over, Alexander flew to the bottom of the pit, discovering that the bottom was an illusion.  When he passed through it, he saw Tarric standing at the bottom of a deeper spiked pit gesticulating wildly, but making no sound.  Alexander picked him up and flew him to safety.  

The party investigated the rooms the doppelgangers had came out of.  They seemed to be sleeping chambers.  Each chamber contained a bed, a full-length mirror, and rung full of hanging clothes.  The clothes were very differentiated, running the gamet from very poor-looking to very rich-looking.  Along with the clothing, each room also contained a small box full of costume jewelry.  None of the jewelry was as valuable as it looked at first glance, but Alees thought that she could still sell the whole lot to a vendor for about 500 gp.


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## Menexenus

*Session 22: The Maze of Mirrors*

_5th of Richfest (continued).  _ While Alees continued to search the doppelganger rooms, the rest of the party explored the unopened doors along the rest of the corridor.  After discovering a latrine, they opened the double doors at the far end of the corridor.  These opened into a large conference room filled with maps, books, and papers.  Alexander attempted to open the other double doors on the far side of the pit trap.  He discovered that those doors are false.  The party began looking for a secret passage that would lead deeper into the doppelganger lair.  Alexander flew down into the pit trap looking for secret doors.  Tarric, Killick, and Thorash took closer looks at the map room.  However, it is Alees's voice that called out with news of discovery.  She showed the party that there was an illusory wall in the last doppelganger room.  The party passed through that wall and found a closed iron door with a faint light coming through the crack at the bottom.  The party opened the door, finding an octagonal room with reflective polished metal walls.  In this room, the party saw... THEMSELVES - all 6 of the party members - dressed in rags and chained to chairs in the middle of the room.  As soon as these captives saw their counterparts walk through the door, they began calling out for the party to free them and insisting that their counterpart within the party is false and should not be trusted.

    Thorash walked menacingly toward his double.  Alexander advised caution.  Instead of destroying his double, Thorash dragged him and his chair out into the hallway for interrogation.  Alexander instructed Alees to watch the rest of the doubles until the interrogation of the Thorash-double was completed.  Tarric and Killick also stayed behind to keep an eye on the chained up doubles.  Katawan joined Alexander and Thorash in the bedroom where the interrogation was taking place.  The Thorash-double pleaded with Alexander to set him free.  He insisted that he had been replaced by a doppelganger.  Alexander asked him some questions about the party's recent exploits.  Although his answer is halting at first, he was able to produce the correct answers.  Thorash decided to leave the room and asked to consult with a suspicious Alexander in private.  While in private they shared the suspicion that the doppelganger may be able to read minds.  They decided to ask the Thorash-double a question to which even Alexander does not know the answer.  Thorash would write the answer on a piece of paper in dwarvish, and Alexander would read it only after the Thorash-double had already answered.

    Alexander returned to the sleeping chamber with the folded paper in hand.  He asked the Thorash-double how Thorash obtained his new spikey armor.  The Thorash-double insisted that he had never owned spikey armor and that it must belong to the doppelganger who took his place.  He asked Alexander if it didn't seem odd how Thorash was late meeting up with the party and suddenly showed up wearing unfamiliar armor.  These responses gave Alexander some pause.  He began to wonder if Thorash might not be a doppelganger after all.  But then he asked the Thorash-double to read the paper that Thorash had written on.  The Thorash-double insisted that the writing was gibberish.  However, Alexander read the paper, and he found the following sentence written in dwarvish, "I commissioned the armor from craftsmen in my home village of Dumadan in the Abbor Alz mountains."  This finally convinced Alexander that the double was the imposter.  He took out a bottle of ink, and placed a dot on the Thorash-double's forehead.

    When the Thorash-double was convinced that the jig was up, he called out loudly that Alexander was making a terrible mistake and that he was the real Thorash.  As Thorash and those around him considered what to do with the imposter, Alees walked through the illusory wall and cold-bloodedly stabbed at an unsuspecting Alexander.  Her first thrust missed him, but the second one struck true, causing Alexander grievous damage.  Alexander was so rattled by the attack that he turned and fled, but Alees struck him down before he was able to leave the room.  Alexander collapsed unconscious.  In the mean time, all of the doubles in the octagonal room slipped their shackles - except for Alees.  Tarric stood in the doorway to block their escape.  They took turns attacking him.  Killick entered the room with the Thorash-double and started attacking it, eventually killing it with a rain of blows from his quarterstaff.  As it died, it returned to its true form - the tall and gangly dark-gray-skinned form of a doppelganger.  Alees walked through the illusory wall and took up a flanking position behind Tarric.  Tarric, having heard that Alees was false, turned to face her and dealt her a hefty blow.  She withdrew back through the illusory wall to quaff a healing potion.  Despite being unable to see her, Katawan punched Alees through the illusory wall.

    In the mean time, Thorash had revived Alexander with the last remnants of the Wand of Cure Light Wounds.  Alexander drew his Wand of Magic Missiles and leveled it at Alees.  She was overcome by the barrage of missiles and fell unconscious.  Moments later she died and also reverted to her true doppelganger form.  At about the same time, Tarric dispatched the Killick-double, the Alexander-double, and the Katawan-double with a single slice of his bastard sword.  He then entered the room to face his own double.  He dispatched it with another single sword stroke.  (However, after doing so, he felt slightly disoriented.  But the strange feeling passed quickly, and no one else noticed.)

    The party freed Alees who had remained chained to her chair throughout the entire fight.  She explained that she had been led out of the Crooked House by a false note late in the evening during the previous night.  There she had been overcome and kidnapped by one of the doppelgangers.  She had been stripped of her clothes and belongings and placed in this room.  Throughout the morning each of the other party members had joined her in the room, similarly stripped of belongings.  Alees had assumed that the doppelgangers had successfully captured the entire party, one by one.  She had no idea that everyone else in the room was a doppelganger.  She was very grateful for her rescue and was eager to suit up and wreak vengeance upon her captors.  She quickly found a secret door leading out of the octagonal room.  

This secret door led to a mirrored maze.  As she stepped in to investigate, she was quickly cut off from the rest of the party by a section of wall that slid down behind her.  The rest of the party moved into the maze to find Alees.  Killick encountered a fighter who attacked him.  The fighter was quickly trapped and flanked by Alees.  Soon Katawan and Tarric were also nearby waiting for opportunities to attack.  Meanwhile, in another part of the maze, Alexander encountered someone who looked very much like Tarric.  He even had the same ink marks on his face that the party had drawn on themselves in an attempt to distinguish themselves from doppelgangers.  However, Alexander noticed that this Tarric was not wearing the right armor.  Alexander fired magic missiles at the imposter.  The imposter closed with Alexander and dealt the mage serious damage.  Katawan followed the sounds of battle and found the mage cornered.  Unable to break away without offering an attack of opportunity, Alexander decided to go down swinging.  He fired another volley of magic missiles before succumbing to the power of the false-Tarric's longsword.  Katawan and Thorash pinned the false Tarric on one side while Alees and Tarric keep it from escaping on the other side of the hallway.  False-Tarric called out to someone for assistance, and Killick who was out in the hallway noticed a face glancing down the hallway at him.  As he moved to investigate, he turned a corner and saw himself.

    Killick begins fighting his counterpart and called out to warn his comrades.  But as soon as he landed a blow against his imposter, he felt disoriented.  Hearing Killick call out that he was fighting himself, Tarric came to investigate.  Killick dropped out of the fight and instructed Tarric to take up his spot.  (It wasn't difficult for Tarric to realize who the imposter was, because the imposter was wielding a longsword - something that Killick was sworn never to do.)  The 2 fighters battled each other to a stalemate.  Just as Tarric was resigned to his fate, his opponent withdrew deeper into the maze, dropping sections of wall behind him to cover his escape.  On the other side of the battlefield, Katawan had taken so much damage that he could no longer stand toe-to-toe with the Tarric-double.  He resorted to his Spring Attack maneuver.  Thorash cast Shield on himself, attacked on the defensive, and took up a position on the front line.  Meanwhile, Alees attacked it from the flank position.  The Tarric-double focused on dropping Alees.  When she was badly wounded, she tried tumbling away, but the fighter got in an attack of opportunity and knocked her unconscious.  Killick, having left the fight against his double, stabilized Alees and kept the Tarric-double from escaping.  Finally, Thorash dropped it with a successful casting of Inflict Moderate Wounds.  With a terrifying glint in his eye, Thorash reached out to empower himself with the doppelganger's soul, but Thorash's quarry was elusive and it escaped to its eternal reward.

    When the Killick-double retreated, the party decided that it was in no shape to pursue.  The party collected the 2 doppelganger corpses and retired to the octagonal room.  They decided to hole up and wait for dusk so that Thorash could rememorize heal spells.  However, about an hour later, Katawan heard someone trying to open the secret door leading from the maze into the octagonal room.  When the person or persons discovered that the door had been barred, it/they did not continue trying to open the door.  About half and hour later, Katawan - who had taken up a watch position just beyond the illusory wall - barely heard the sound of glass breaking far away in the distance.  About half an hour after that, the conscious members of the party heard a loud boom.  Katawan poked his head out to see down the hallway.  He saw the map room at the far end of the corridor in flames and he spied two figures in the hallway - one that looked like Tarric and one that looked like Eligos, the mage that they met with only yesterday in the Garden District!  (Was it really him or just a doppelganger trick?)

    Katawan retreated quickly to the octagonal room and reported what he saw.  The conscious party members prepared as best they could for a final assault.  In desperation, Killick gave the two unknown potions recovered from the Tarric-imposter in the bar fight earlier that day to Alexander and Alees.  Alexander turned invisible, but Alees woke up.  However, the final assault that the party was anticipating never came.  Apparently the remaining residents of the doppelganger lair decided that discretion was the better part of valor.  They were gone.

    At long last, dusk came and Thorash prayed for spells.  He healed the party as best he could.  Now that Alexander was conscious again, he began resting his mind in preparation for rememorizing spells in 8 hours.  The party decided not to strike out again until after Alees and Killick had an opportunity to pray for spells at dawn (and Alexander had a chance to rememorize spells).


----------



## Menexenus

*Session 23: No Rest for the Weary*

_6th of Richfest_.  The party had holed up in the doppelgangers' octagonal room to rest and prepare spells for their final assault on the doppelganger lair.  Thorash did all the healing he could at dusk of the previous day, including reviving Alexander.  The party decided to wait until dawn, so that Alexander, Alees, and Killick would all have spell power before venturing out again.  After the party memorized at dawn, they left the octagonal room and investigated their surroundings.  First they looked through the charred remains of the map room.  They found a secret door open on the south side of the room, but everything in the room had been charred and burned by the fireball.  After spending a bit of time looking, no useful information was found to be recoverable.

    Next the party traversed the (now empty) maze of mirrors and found a door at the end leading into a large chamber.  Along one wall was a large, complicated-looking apparatus made mostly of glass tubes.  Many of the tubes had been broken, and there was a great deal of glass on the floor.  The tubes looked like they used to be connected to a strange-looking metal helmet and that the helmet would be placed on the head of someone who might have been strapped down onto the metal table.  Thorash cast Detect Magic on the apparatus and found that it glowed faintly with Transmutation and Divination magic.  He also discovered a receptacle that seemed to be a focus of the machine where a small object about the size of a large gem might be placed.

    Meanwhile, Killick noticed 2 booted foot prints that seemed to be traversing the room leaving small shards of glass along the floor.  Alees moved to the far side of the room to investigate a stage-like area containing a throne on the far wall resting on a dais.  As Alees moved to ascend the 3 short stairs that lead up to the throne area, a 10x10 pit trap opened under her feet.  However, due to her roguish reflexes, she was able to jump away at the last second and avoid damage.  She looked down into the pit and saw spikes 40 feet down at the bottom.  Alees and Killick decided to forego use of the stairs and climb up onto the stage in the middle.  They made their way to the throne.  Killick found more footprints around the throne.  Alees found a small button beneath the right arm of the throne.  When she pushed it, it opened a secret door to the left of the throne.

    The door opened into a nicely appointed sleeping chamber.  Alees searched the room thoroughly.  She found that the desk was empty of anything valuable or informative.  The generally disheveled condition of the room forced her to conclude that the room had been recently ransacked.  She found a closet full of nice clothing.  She checked all the pockets of the outfits and discovered that someone else had already done the same job.  She kept all the clothes that she thought might be valuable.  Alexander picked out all the items of clothing that he thought he could eventually make magic items out of.  Alees thought she could sell the rest for about 500 gp.  There were two other noteworthy items in the room - a large rug and a large gilded full-length mirror.  The rug seemed to change patterns as Alees watched.  Alees cast Detect Magic on the whole room and found that the rug and the mirror were magical.  The rug radiated Illusion magic and the mirror radiated Divination magic.  Alees tossed the clothes and the rug into one of the party's magical Haversacks.  When she tried to move the mirror, though, she found that it was very heavy - about 250 pounds.  She reluctantly concluded that they might have to leave it behind.

    Despite the general lack of valuable information in the room, Alees's efforts were not for nothing.  As she leaned over to move the mirror, she noticed a piece of paper that seemed to have been accidentally left behind lying under the bed.  It read: "I have a task for you, Telakin.  Meet me at the sewer junction beneath the Cold Forge and I will give you the details.  There are some troublesome small minds that must be removed."

    At this point, Alexander - who had not been feeling well all day - doubled over in pain.  His complexion suddenly looked very greenish.  Killick performed a healing check on Alexander and noticed something tiny writhing under his skin.  Killick realized that he had also been feeling a little under the weather and wondered if he might be suffering from the same ailment.  He checked himself out and found the same little writhing things under his skin.  He sliced his arm open to find out what it was and pulled a small green worm out of his flesh.  It writhed around between his fingers for a few moments, then went limp, and then liquefied.  Killick recognized the green worms as the same ones the party had seen in the glass jar that Smenk had given them and the same ones that the Spawn of Kyuss had been dripping with in the basement of Blackwall Keep.  Killick surmised that both he and Alexander had become infected somehow, although he couldn't think of how this might have happened.  Using his skills with the healing arts, Killick concluded that both he and Alexander had only days to live unless this affliction was cured somehow.  He also suspected that, if the affliction were allowed to run its course, both he and Alexander would turn into Spawn of Kyuss after their deaths.  Killick's examination also convinced him that their condition was not communicable until they died and became undead.

    Alexander insisted that the party leave and find help immediately.  Although Alexander wanted to leave the party behind, he was reminded that his flying ability was needed to safely traverse the Sodden Hold.  So he waited to ferry each party member from the well to the front room of the Sodden Hold.  Then he grabbed Killick and flew him directly to Eligos's house.  Alees headed for her church to ask for assistance.  Thorash said he would do the same.  Tarric and Katawan decided to follow Alees.  After about an hour, Alees made her way through winding streets of the city to the temple of Fharlangn.  She was greeted as a member of the faith, but when she described her party-members' ailment, the clerics of the temple seemed to be at a loss as to how they might help.  They recommended quarantining the two until the disease had run its course.  They also offered that their rates for casting higher level curative spells were very competitive and that Alees was eligible for a small discount if she chose to bring her friends back to the church for spellcasting.

    Alees, Tarric, and Katawan headed back to the Crooked House (the inn where they had been staying).  As soon as they walked in the door, Tarquin the gnome proprietor informed them that Eligos wished to speak with them immediately.  Although craving a warm, soft bed, the half-party continued on to Eligos's house in the Garden District.  They were quickly admitted through the front door by Pollard, Eligos's elven man-servant, and escorted to a sitting room where Eligos sat at the head of the table.  Thorash, Alexander, and Killick were also seated along the table, and a young lady with short blonde hair wearing a leather explorer's outfit was slouching against the chair across from Eligos with her booted feet propped up on the table.  This young woman turned to look at the incoming adventureres, sat up, and said, "Looks like the gang's all here.  Let's get started."  Eligos welcomed the newcomers and gestured for them to take a seat.

    As she was moving towards her chair, Alees glanced back at Alexander.  She noticed something strange - something different about him.  Alexander didn't look ill any more, but it was more than just that.  Finally, she realized what it was.  As she sat down, she said, "Alexander, you've got your ear back!"  Alexander had been missing his right ear ever since his encounter with the Brown Mold in the Whispering Cairn, but now it had apparently grown back.

    Alexander responded with a gesture toward the far end of the table where the young lady was sitting, "Yes, Celeste has been very helpful.  Not only did she restore my ear, but she also restored my health.  Killick and I are free of Kyuss's disease, thanks to her."  Celeste accepted the gratitude implicit in Alexander's statement with a quick nod.

    Now that everyone was seated, Eligos brought the assembly quickly to business.  He explained that, although they do not work for the same people, Celeste was a trusted colleague of his who he found was often working towards the same goals.  At times like these, he continued, they found it convenient to share information and work together.  Eligos said that through his investigations of the cult of Kyuss, he had found mention of an unholy document known as the Apostolic Scrolls.  These scrolls were used by the faithful of Kyuss to summon what was known as an "Apostle of Kyuss".  This "apostle" would be a giant worm whose usual abilities would be to swallow people whole, digest them in its stomach acid, and belch them forth as animated skeletons.  However, when summoned by a cleric of Kyuss using the Apostolic Scrolls, the worm would become even more powerful than usual.  Instead of belching forth skeletons, it would be able to belch forth much more dangerous Spawn of Kyuss.  Eligos's research told him that Apostles of Kyuss were usually summoned as part of larger rites that might accomplish even greater evil than just the presence of the worm itself.  His divinations had revealed that there is a copy of the Apostolic Scrolls in town and that it was currently in use under the Greyhawk Arena (where the Champions' Games were currently taking place).  Eligos believed that whatever the Apostle of Kyuss was being summoned for would likely take place the next day during the final day of the Champions' Games, and he begged the party to do what it could to prevent the summoning/release of the Apostle.

    Celeste said that she had been hired to investigate the disappearance of the daughter of a wealthy merchant which took place several months ago.  Killick asked if the missing daughter might be Ilya Starmane, the haughty elf girl that the party released from the Sodden Hold, but it turned out that the girl in question was a human girl named Lahaka.  Celeste said that, before her disappearance, Lahaka had been seen in the company of a man named Loris Raknian.  Raknian is a man in his 40s who had once been a gladiator who fought in the Arena.  He had been a very popular gladiator who earned a great deal of wealth during his career.  So when he retired about 20 years ago, he had enough wealth to purchase the rights to run the Arena from Greyhawk's Ruling Oligarchy.  It was at this time that Raknian introduced the Champions' Games, as a way to generate interest and bring in larger crowds.  For the past 20 years, the Oligarchy had been quite pleased with the increased revenue that Raknian's games had brought to the city.  Consequently, Raknian enjoyed a great deal of political protection in Greyhawk, making it difficult to confront him directly.  The Directors seemed willing to turn a blind eye to his more nefarious dealings, such as the occasional disappearances of his much younger love-interests.  Celeste confided that Raknian is foul character - a hulking brute with a violent temper.  She said that her investigations had uncovered that Raknian had been dabbling in the black arts for some time.  Apparently, he had a burning desire to somehow return to the glory of his youth as a powerful gladiator, and he seemed willing to make deals with any power willing to restore his youth and physical prowess.

    Celeste said she learned that Raknian was receiving a very important shipment a couple months ago, but at the time she didn't know what it was.  After consulting with Eligos, she now believed that Raknian was tied up with the cult of Kyuss and that the special shipment that had been received in the dead of night under heavy guard was in fact the copy of the Apostolic Scrolls.  Earlier this week, she had snuck into the catacombs under the Arena.  She went down some stairs to a sub-level and spotted an unusual undead dripping with green worms.  She quickly retreated and, not having seen such an undead before, she came to confer with Eligos.  Apparently, Eligos had just met with the party and was in the process of researching the green worm they had brought him.  That had been the lynchpin that had finally tied everything together.

    Eligos emphasized again that his divinations told him that the release of the Apostle of Kyuss would happen tomorrow during the finale of the Champions' Games when the crowds jammed into the Arena would be at their largest.  Eligos pleaded with the party again to take up the challenge of preventing whatever Raknian and the cult of Kyuss had planned.  Most of the party seemed willing, but Alees asked Eligos what was in it for her.  Eligos seemed displeased with this question, but he responded that if the Apostle of Kyuss was released, there may not be a Greyhawk any more.  So if she wished to continue to have a large city full of pockets to pick and merchants willing to buy looted swag, she had better fight to protect it.  With Alees's concerns silenced, the party officially accepted the mission.

    Celeste said she was willing to join the party and help them, but she emphasized that she was more of the sneaky type than the stand-up fighter type.  She said she would prefer to turn invisible and aid the party behind the scenes with her powerful magic. 

    She gave the party 2 choices.  They could try to infiltrate the Arena's sublevels during the games themselves (when the sublevels would be least guarded) either using teleportation magic or using illusions to sneak their way in.  The other alternative was trying to get into the sub-levels via the sewers.  Celeste confided that one couldn't be a successful sneaky type in Greyhawk without having good contacts with people in the Sewerworkers Guild.  She said that she was convinced that they could get into the Arena's substructure through a ghoul/ghast warren that had recently been discovered but not cleared out yet by the Sewerworkers.  The first option might be tricky logistically and left the group with very little time to accomplish their mission.  The second option gave the group more time, but would force the group to face unnecessary challenges on the way to their real mission.  The party opted for the second option.

    Since Celeste did not plan to do much fighting, she offered the party the use of her weapon.  She opened the palm of her gloved hand, and a heavy mace suddenly appeared.  She told the party that it could do extra damage against evil-doers and, on a lucky hit, it could turn undead creatures to dust.  Eligos also ponied up some items that he was willing to loan the party.  He took off a belt and handed it to Tarric, saying that wearing the belt would make him stronger.  He took off a ring and handed it to Alexander saying that the ring would increase his spell casting ability.  He pulled a pearl out of his pocket and said that it would allow anyone to re-cast a mid-level spell.  Alexander took it.  Eligos then unlocked a chest and pulled out a rod.  He said that this single-use item would negate any magical effect automatically.  He said that the item was very expensive, so he requested that the party not use it unless absolutely necessary.  But he said one never knew when such an item might make a big difference.  Finally, he pledged to try to procure a wand of healing on the black market over night.

_7th of Richfest_.  In the morning, Eligos handed the party a Wand of Cure Moderate Wounds with 38 charges.  He said it was the best he could do on short notice.  The party elected to give the wand to Celeste who could use it invisibly to aid the party.  The party made its way down into the sewers, and with Celeste's guidance, quickly found the undead lair.  It turned out that the lair was filled with ghasts, not ghouls.  4 of the 6 party members were sickened by the ghasts' foul stench.  However, Thorash was able to command many of them to attack their comrades, making the combat much simpler.  Killick had the honor of dropping the ghast leader, while Alees had fun using Celeste's mace to disintegrate the first ghast she struck.  The party found a pile of ancient bones that the ghasts seemed to be using for sustenance.

    The party continued on rather than waiting for the sickness to wear off.  After some tight twists and turns, the party came to a larger natural cavern with a large open pipe on the far wall draining sewage into a pool on the floor.  Around the pipe drain hung large masses of yellow goo.  Suddenly, the goo began moving toward the party!


----------



## Menexenus

*Session 24: Against the Undead Minions of the Kyuss Cultist*

_7th of Richfest_.  This was the big day - the finale of the Champions Games, the day that the Arena would be packed with more spectators than it would see on any other day of the year, and the day that something or someone was trying to unleash an evil harbinger of the Age of Worms to devour the city.  The party had been convinced by their patron Eligos to try to prevent the release of the Apostle of Kyuss with the help of an enigmatic young investigator named Celeste.  Celeste had shown the party a hidden path to the catacombs below the Arena via the sewers.  First the party encountered and defeated a warren of ghasts.  However, this encounter had sickened the party.  They pressed on nonetheless.  They made their way through tight subterranean passageways that finally led to an underground cave containing run-off from an ancient sewer pipe.  However, as soon as they arrived, they were attacked by large yellowish oozes clinging to the ceiling and walls.

    First, Tarric entered the room.  He swang his mace at the closest one, cleaving it in two.  However, being cut in half did not seem to damage the creature.  Instead, there were now more of them to fight!  Killick came into the room and tried hitting one of the smaller jellies, but that just caused it to divide again into 2 even smaller jellies.  Alees moved into the room and cautiously waited for something to attack.  When it did, she struck first, causing it to divide into 2 opponents as well.  By this time, the party realized that physical force would be useless against these strange creatures.  Katawan tumbled to the far side of the room and lit a torch which he used to burn the creatures.  Alexander stood in the doorway and used his Magic Missile wand to good effect.  Alees threw her bottles of Alchemist Fire.  Killick cast a spell and threw balls of flame at the creatures.  All the while, the oozes lashed out with pseudopods.  Through the entire combat, the yellow blobs only hit twice.  When they hit, they tried to grab their targets, but both times, the grab was unsuccessful.  Those who were hit took both physical and acid damage.  After the party had deduced that physical attacks did no good, they had little trouble dispatching the oozes.

    Celeste told the party that her sewer maps indicated that the party needed to climb up the mildly inclined sewer pipe on the far wall for about 20 feet and then up a vertical pipe for about 10 feet.  She thought that this should bring them into a sub-basement level of the Greyhawk Arena where she had seen Spawn of Kyuss.  Rather than pressing on immediately, the party decided to wait until the ghast sickness wore off.  In the mean time, Alees searched the jelly corpses for valuables, Tarric cleaned Celeste's Mace of Disruption (which he had carelessly dropped into the sewage), and Thorash cast Detect Magic to see if he could find anything of value in the cavern.  Alees came up empty in her search, finding only humanoid bones and half-digested muscle tissue.  But Thorash found a dim glow beneath the filthy water on the far side of the cavern.  He dug around until he found the object.  The enchanted item turned out to be a thoroughly befouled gauntlet on a severed hand that had been resting underwater for who knows how long.  Thorash wiped the rusty gauntlet off a bit and found that it radiated Transmutation magic.  He then greedily placed the filthy object on his hand, to the disgust of his party-mates.  However, without knowing the item's command word, he was unable to determine the gauntlet's magical properties.

    After the party's nausea subsided, they began climbing into the 4-foot diameter sewer pipe.  The party deemed Tarric to be the best climber, so he took Katawan's Rope of Climbing to the intersection with the pipe leading straight up.  Tarric was able to see what looked like a stone room up above with a lamp hanging from a chain on the ceiling.  He commanded the Rope to fix itself to the chain and knot itself.  Then he tossed the other end of the Rope back to the rest of the group.  Tarric climbed the rope into the small circular stone room, joined soon after by Killick and Alees.  Alees began looking for traps in the hallway outside the room while she waited for the other members of the party to arrive.  She quickly found herself almost nose to nose with 3 Spawn of Kyuss sitting on coffins in a small 10x10 room.  Alees and Killick leapt to the fight, but Tarric found the appearance of the Spawn too horrific to face.  He dropped Celeste's mace and started climbing back down the rope.  Alexander flew up and found himself horrified as well.  He immediately flew back down.  Having seen this effect before, Thorash knew to cast Remove Fear.  Luckily, Alexander and Tarric were still close enough to be affected by the spell.  Their panic subsided.  Katawan climbed up and found himself horrified as well.  As he fled back to the cavern, he felt a hand brush against him and some words of magic spoken by a female voice, and suddenly he was unafraid once again.

    Meanwhile, Killick and Alees were on their own against the Spawn.  One of the Spawn managed to put a worm directly on Killick's flesh.  The worm immediately tried to start burrowing into his skin.  Terrified by the prospect of being infested by the undead worms again, he dropped his guard in order to grab the worm and remove it.  The same happened to Alees.  Killick and Alees were holding their own against the Spawn, and when the rest of the party started to arrive, the 3 Spawn in this first room were quickly defeated.  Celeste's disembodied voice mentioned to the party that this was the room she had briefly entered and then quickly retreated from.  She said she had entered from a secret door behind a coffin on the north wall.  The party decided to open the door in case a quick escape route was needed.

    Down the hall the group found a side passage as well as a door straight ahead.  Alees checked the floor for traps while Killick and Thorash walked down the separate passageway.  Killick noticed that the passageway was very dusty from disuse, so he gave up and returned to the rest of the party without opening a door around the corner.  Thorash returned as well, which was a good thing because as soon as Alees opened the door at the end of the hallway, she found herself horrified to see six more of the Spawn of Kyuss led by a similar skeleton-like creature inhabited and animated by a large purple worm.  She fell to the floor in fear.  Tarric also felt the need to flee.  Celeste warned the party that she had no more Remove Fears memorized.  Things seemed bleak.  But, just in the knick of time, Thorash used his Pearl of Power to recall Remove Fear and cast it again.  The undead leader ordered one of his Spawn of Kyuss to go warn its master, and one of the Spawn shambled off toward a set of double doors as commanded.  Thorash cast Sound Burst in the middle of the room to damage some of the undead.  Celeste cast a spell to Bless the party's struggle against evil.  Katawan entered the room and attacked one of the vile creatures.  He struck the creature successfully but was quickly surrounded by 5 of them and seriously wounded.  As he cried out in pain, Celeste called to him to retreat to the back of the line so she could heal his wounds.  Tarric stepped forward to take Katawan's place.  With two swings of Celeste's Mace of Disruption, he was able to destroy all 5 of the Spawn of Kyuss standing around the doorway.  As the rest of the party cheered and clapped him on the back, he allowed himself a moment of amazement during which he looked at his own hands, marveling at the destruction he had wrought.

    The undead leader seemed incredulous.  As the party entered the long rectangular room (that seemed like it might once have been a training room), the undead leader stepped forward to attack with its claws as well as its wormy purple tongue.  The tongue struck Tarric and injected him with some toxin which his body was able to overcome.  The undead leader could not stand for long under assault by all 6 members of the party.  It took damage from quarterstaff blows, magic missiles, and the Mace of Disruption.  It was destroyed in a matter of seconds.  At about this time, the last Spawn of Kyuss reached his master's sleeping chamber after going down two short hallways and traversing a medium-sized altar room with a strange beam of green energy cutting the room in half.  When the undead warned the master of intruders, the master commanded it to fight them.  Soon thereafter a large white ape-ish creature with four arms emerged from his room and moved to face Tarric.  Thorash shot a Searing Light at it, wounding it.


----------



## Menexenus

*Session 25: The Apostle Awakens*

_7th of Richfest_.  The session began in the middle of a fight in a sub-basement beneath the Greyhawk Arena.  Most of the party was in an ancient training room where the party had just killed a skeleton animated by a purple worm (known as a Mohrg).  Tarric had moved into an adjoining silent room to fight a summoned Girallon along with the last remaining Spawn of Kyuss.  This silent room was illuminated by a beam of green light that cut the room in half.  The beam emanated from a stone altar with a scroll lying on it on the far side of the room.  The beam stopped (as far as the party could tell) on a pair of double doors illuminated with horrific visions of Kyuss on the opposite side of the room.

    Tarric fought the Girallon with great skill, but was knocked unconscious when the beast hit him twice and commenced rending his flesh.  In response, Celeste used the Wand of Cure Moderate Wounds and moved into the silent area in order to deliver the spell.  Killick tumbled into the room to flank the beast.  Alexander stayed at a safe distance and pelted it with Magic Missiles.  Thorash seemed intrigued by the scroll lying on the altar.  Katawan seemed intrigued by the double doors.

    Then another beast appeared where the Girallon had only a few seconds earlier.  This time it was a Fiendish Wolverine.  It charged in attacking Killick.  The Girallon also unleashed its fury on Killick, now that Tarric was down, but to little effect.  The Girallon was finally felled by some blows from Killick's magical Shillelagh.  Another creature was summoned from the room beyond the silent room - a Fiendish Hyena.  It also charged Killick, doing no damage.  At about the same time, a tiny sparrow clutching a small piece of parchment flew quickly over the party's heads.  Alexander saw it fly down the hall and dart into the secret door that Celeste had exposed earlier.  

    Alees chose to move forward to check out the smaller room from which the summoned creatures were coming.  She could barely see the form of the enemy spell caster in the corner of the room, but she found herself unable to enter the room for some reason.  Katawan helped to heal Tarric and then moved up to help against the summoned Wolverine and Hyena.  Meanwhile, Thorash discovered that the scroll on the altar was protected somehow from his grasp.  He then tried to take out a mirror to deflect the green beam, but the beam passed right through.  Alexander moved into the silent room and opened the double doors.  This allowed the party to see that the green beam continued down a short hallway to create a wall of translucent energy.  On the other side of this energy, the party could see only part of a giant slumbering worm.

    Meanwhile, in the far room from which the creatures were being summoned, the evil spellcaster moved up to deliver a touch spell on Alees.  Although Alees's body was wracked with pain as cold, black energy coursed through her, she did not succumb to the attack.  Alees could now clearly see that the evil spellcaster had horns, cloven hooves, and carried a club that glowed blue with energy.  After the attack, Alees found that she was now free to move into the room.  (Apparently, the cleric's attack on her had allowed her to enter.)  Killick (who had been standing right behind Alees, after the party finished off the two summoned creatures) found himself suddenly able to enter the room as well.  Tarric ran up to join in the fray, but found that the ward still kept him at bay.  

     Katawan ran up and delivered a kick to the green energy field surrounding the worm.  His kick had no effect on the energy field, but the cold, sickly energy that infused Katawan when he made contact with it definitely damaged him.  He warned others not to strike it.  Thorash attempted to Dispel the magical effects in the silent room, but his efforts seemed to make no difference.

    The evil cleric spat curses at Killick and Alees in some unholy language.  Alees used a tanglefoot bag to root the evil spellcaster to the ground.  Then Killick and Alees ran up to him and started beating on him.  Alees attempted to feint the cleric in order to deliver sneak attacks.  Killick used his quarterstaff to deliver multiple blows.  The cleric cast another spell that made his hand crackle with foul black energy.  He tried to touch Killick with it, but Killick's whirling quarterstaff kept the blow from landing.  Meanwhile, the rest of the party, unable to join the combat against the spellcaster, tried various other creative things in the other room.  Katawan tried punching the stone altar.  Thorash used his stonecunning to ascertain that destroying the altar would take too long to be worth trying.  Tarric tried hitting the green energy field with his holy mace to see if it would have a different effect, but the same sickly energy coursed through his body, causing him further damage.  Alexander kept a safe distance away outside the zone of Silence, waiting for an opportunity to cast Magic Missile at an opponent.

    Finally, the tiefling cleric realized that his death was nigh.  He uttered one more curse in his alien tongue before closing his eyes and concentrating.  Suddenly, the rest of the party saw the beam of green energy wink out.  The green energy field surrounding the worm dissipated and was suddenly gone.  Tarric, who now found himself standing next to a wall of wormflesh, gave it a smack with his mace.  The giant worm roared in pain.  Thorash tried casting Dismissal on it, but the creature remained.  Finally, its segments writhed and struggled, and those who were not in silence heard the great crash of stone breaking.  Then, with unearthly speed, the worm crawled up and out.  Daylight streamed down into the area where the worm used to be.  The party could now see that the worm had been held in a hollowed out sphere of rock just below the Arena.  Katawan used his Rope of Climbing and firmly attached it to one of the protruding stones at the surface level.  He gave it a hard tug to ensure that it would hold his weight.

    Alexander flew up after the worm.  Because it was still so early in the morning, there were relatively few people in the stands - maybe 50 to 100.  Presumably these people had gained entrance to the Arena early in an attempt to get the best seats for the show scheduled to begin at noon.  Alexander flew up as high as he could and waved his hands, telling the people to flee.  The spectators seemed to need little prodding from Alexander.  The sight of a gargantuan yellowish-green worm bursting forth from the floor of the arena seemed to be enough to motivate them to leave.  The spectators were definitely moving towards the exits in a panicked fashion.  Meanwhile, Tarric began climbing up Katawan's rope, bringing him almost to ground level.  

    Killick explored another room beyond the tiefling cleric's room.  He pulled open a curtain and saw a horrific mosaic image of a skull filled with green worms.  He felt irrational panic welling up in his mind, but he was able to overcome the magical effect.  Just then an amorphous blob with tentacles rose out of a large chest-high urn sitting in the middle of the room.  As the thing had no mouth, it communicated with Killick telepathically that he had made a grievous error and would now die for it.  When Alees tried to come to Killick's aid, Killick insisted that she should fall back.  The blob shot a Cone of Cold at Killick that had no effect due to his superb reflexes.  It also cast some sort of spell that made one of its tentacles glow with sickly green energy, but it found itself unable to touch him with that tentacle.  While Killick blocked the blob from moving forward, Alees worked on opening an ornate trunk with horrific scenes painted on all 4 sides in the cleric's room.  As the latch popped open, Alees felt her soul being pulled into the pictures on the sides of the trunk.  But her will was strong.  However, she became worried when she saw a green worm burst forth from one of her fingers.  It melted into goo as soon as it hit the floor.  Inside the trunk, Alees found a cache of magical items.  However, none of them seemed to be the worm-killing device that she had been hoping for.  Alees dragged the trunk and its contents to her party-mates.  Killick withdrew after her.  The blobby thing that Killick had been fighting did not pursue.

    Meanwhile, up in the Arena, the Apostle of Kyuss tried biting Alexander but missed.  Alexander tried casting Magic Missiles at the worm, but the missiles just dissipated when they struck the worm's rubbery hide.  Tarric climbed up to stand next to the Worm and drew his weapon.  Then the Apostle struck at Alexander again.  This time the wizard was swallowed hole.  Tarric could see Alexander's form writhing within the worm for a short time, then it went still.  Tarric attacked the Apostle with his sword slicing into it, but doing less damage than he thought he should have.  For his efforts, the Apostle simply swallowed him, too.

    Celeste was now visible because she had fired an ineffectual Searing Light at the worm.  As she saw Tarric being swallowed up above, she yelled, "NO!" and then disappeared.  The rest of the party could see a flurry of energy beams striking the Worm in the Arena above.  But finally they heard Celeste's tortured voice yell down to the party warning them not to get close to the Apostle because it could swallow them whole.  She sadly informed the party that Tarric and Alexander were already dead.


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## Menexenus

*Session 25 Aftermath: The Worm's Rampage*

_7th of Richfest (continued).  _ After being informed that Tarric and Alexander were dead, the party members were understandably in no hurry to climb up the Rope of Climbing and join them in the Worm's gullet.  However, there was little time to grieve.  Killick announced to the other party members that he had fought a particularly nasty blob-like creature with tentacles and spell-like abilities in another room.  The party formed up to take on this new challenge.  However, after cautiously advancing into the room with the large urn, the blob creature was no where to be found.

    Once the party was convinced that their flank was not threatened by a new foe, they made their way up to the Arena to assist in destroying the Apostle of Kyuss.  By the time the party made it up to ground level, the Worm had already slithered out of the Arena (causing damage to the stands as it left).  They could see that the creature was now about 100 yards away, leaving destroyed buildings and crushed people in its wake.  Once every few seconds, as if on a grisly schedule, the gargantuan creature's maw dipped down to swallow someone whole.  The party could also see about 25 people in the air above the creature.  Some of these were spellcasters shooting flame, electricity, and energy down on the worm.  Most of these attacks simply dissipated against the creature's hide, but some found their mark and seemed to damage the creature.  As the party moved to follow the Worm, they noticed that the leader of this small band of airborn spellcasters was Eligos.  A surprisingly large number of the flyers seemed to be fighters wielding bows, raining down a fire of arrows and bolts down on the creature.  The party was unable to see any sign of Celeste.

    The party had difficulty catching up to the Worm, as it moved surprisingly quickly for such a lumbering abomination.  However, the Worm's apparently unending hunger for humans slowed it down considerably.  Alees and Katawan finally got into crossbow range and began firing.  Alees found that her bolts were significantly more effective than Katawan's.  The Worm had extruded a series of tightly packed tendrils all over its body that seemed to absorb the damage from normal missiles.  However, ammunition from magical bows like Alees's seemed to get through this protective layer.  

    Eventually, the Worm began to realize that the damage it was taking from the skies was starting to add up.  It tried swallowing some of the flyers but found them to be out of range.  So, in order to strike at them, it disgorged the contents of its stomach in a spray of acid that instantly killed a number of the flyers.  As the bones of the humans the Worm had eaten fell to Oerth, they animated, becoming Spawn of Kyuss.  Up until this point, Alees and Katawan had more to do because they were able to strike at the Worm with their ranged weapons.  But now that there were undead to fight, Killick and Thorash went into high gear.  While all the members of the party were staying a safe distance away from the Worm, Killick and Thorash did what they could to destroy the dozens of Spawn of Kyuss that were now marauding through the streets of Greyhawk.

    This running battle through the city was incredibly chaotic, with townsfolk screaming and running in every direction.  Eventually, Killick and Thorash were separated.  Killick looked over his shoulder and saw that Thorash was gone.  However, Killick had no time to go looking for his dwarven comrade.  He continued fighting the Spawn on the theory that Thorash could take care of himself.

    Eventually, after about 30 minutes of all out warfare and destruction, the Worm slumped lifeless to the ground, crushing one last house in its death throes.  Hunting down and destroying all of its Spawn of Kyuss took significantly longer.  All told, the Apostle of Kyuss had caused extensive damage to the city of Greyhawk unlike anything in Greyhawk's history.  Many of the dead had simply been unable to get out of the Worm's way and were crushed by the enormous weight of the supernaturally quick monster.  Others had been swallowed whole and turned into Spawn of Kyuss.  Still others had been killed by the Spawn of Kyuss who rampaged throughout the city after being expelled from the Worm's gullet.  Many buildings had simply been flattened by the undulating movements of the gargantuan monster.  Others were in flames, either as collateral damage from Fireballs or from lanterns that had been knocked over.  Desperate people wandered aimlessly in all directions, looking for help or looking for loved ones.  The 7th of Richfest would be remembered forever in Greyhawk as the day of the Worm's Rampage.

    Soon after the Worm died, Killick linked up again with Alees and Katawan.  He asked if they had seen where Thorash had gone.  They had not.  Killick instructed Alees and Katawan that Alexander and Tarric could be resurrected, but only if their corpses were recovered.  He set them the task of trying to find which of the new Spawn of Kyuss bore their former comrades' belongings.  Meanwhile, Killick would help to triage the town's wounded.  He made sure to mark with ink all those who had been wounded or killed by the Spawn of Kyuss, since they might become infected and rise again as additional Spawn.

    Eventually, the four surviving members of the party met up with each other once again.  Killick asked where Thorash had gone, and he said that he had chased some rampaging Spawn down an unfamiliar alley.  Once the Spawn had been dealt with, he found that he had lost his way.  He made his way back to the party as quickly as he could.  Alees and Katawan had been successful in recovering the bones of their former comrades.  Because they were undead, Alees and Katawan had identified them by the items they still wore.  Most of their magical items were still intact, but it looked like the metallic items that they had been carrying took significant damage from the powerful necromantic acid in the Worm's stomach.  The magical short sword that Alexander had been carrying had been reduced to a useless hunk of twisted metal.  Tarric's magical shield and his bastard sword had been similarly destroyed, along with the handaxe that he had used in the last seconds of life in an unsuccessful attempt to escape the Worm's gullet.  (Tarric's magical full plate armor, which had previously looked shiny and new, now looked blackened and pitted.  However, it still seemed to function at full strength.  Tarric's back-up magical longsword was apparently saved by being in its sheath throughout the ordeal.)  There was no sign of Celeste, nor was there any sign of her powerful Mace.  

Finally, Eligos found the party.  He expressed regret at the news of Tarric and Alexander's demise, but the scope of the city's destruction was so great that the wizard found himself too shocked to shed any tears over the loss of these dutiful heroes.  He reassured the party that, when the current crisis was over, he would do whatever was necessary to bring Alexander and Tarric back from the land of the dead.  When he was informed that there was no sign of Celeste, he took the news in stride.  He commented that she was a very resourceful individual, and he would not assume she was dead until the fact had been proved beyond the shadow of a doubt.

    Soon thereafter, the party's services were commandeered by the City Watch to help organize emergency food and shelter for those displaced by the disaster.  (Thorash and Alees seemed somewhat reluctant to offer their services for free, but they decided not to make a fuss about it under the circumstances.)  They were placed under the command of a familiar face, Captain Auron, the man who had taken their doppelganger into custody in the Foreign Quarter.  The decision was made to use the Arena as the city's base of emergency operations.  Anyone looking for lost family members was to report there.  Similarly, the homeless were told to bed down on the sand of the Arena floor.  Although some people were wary of returning to the location from which the Worm had sprung, there wasn't any other realistic choice for a venue that could accommodate such large numbers of people.  

Knowing that she was infected by Kyuss worms, Alees asked Thorash to memorize Remove Disease at dusk and cast it on her.  He did so, and she felt the tiny movement of worms inside her body cease.

    After working with Captain Auron at the Arena into the wee hours of the night, the party shambled wearily back underground to loot the areas that they had been forced to leave behind so quickly the previous morning.

_1st of Reaping (early morning)_.  Although the party-members were bone-tired, they began looting the sub-basement area where they had fought the cleric of Kyuss and its minions the previous morning.  The party quickly noticed that the place was not in the same condition that they had left it.  The most obvious sign of this was an open secret door across from the Kyuss mosaic in the room with the large urn.  They also found that a previously unopened door at the end of that hallway was now open.  The room itself was apparently a latrine, but inside the room was a headless corpse.  Killick determined that the body - a human female - had already been a zombie at the time that it was beheaded.  With her photographic memory for swag, Alees was able to tell that some items were missing from the evil cleric's body as well as from the ornate trunk.  (It was apparent to Alees that someone had been in a hurry to rifle through everything.)  The cleric's holy symbol, ring, belt pouch, potion, and his glowing club were gone, and the cleric's cloak was missing its brooch.  In addition, the spoon, a potion, the dust, the money, and the gems were all gone from the trunk.  The following items of value were left on the evil cleric: 2 scrolls, a wand, magical chainmail, magical shield, and a strand of beads.  Inside the trunk, the party found 3 scrolls, seven blocks of incense, a wand, and 3 vials of oil.  As Alees searched the rest of the complex, the only other valuable items she found were two giant emeralds that had formed the eyes of the Kyuss wall mosaic.  She also noticed that the curtain that had obscured the urn from view before Killick pulled it aside was made of spider silk and was sheer on only one side (allowing one to see through the curtain from one direction but not from the other).  Alees was sure that the curtain must also be valuable.  

    The party followed the newly discovered secret passage and found that it ended in the basement of Loris Raknian's private residence on the Arena grounds.  His residence had clearly been ransacked for portable valuables, as much of value that was not portable had been left behind.  It was apparent to everyone that Raknian had liked to live in style.  All of the residence's amenities and appointments were of the finest quality.  There were several large portraits of himself throughout the residence, showing a strapping young gladiator in various action poses with scars running across and down the left side of his face.  Although Alees grabbed a couple candlesticks and a silver serving tray, most of the rest of the furniture and decorations were too large to carry out easily.  Also, the party didn't want to get charged with looting in a time of emergency, so the party left the remaining valuables in the house (much to Alees's consternation).

    The party decided to take their newly acquired loot back to Eligos's house.  When they arrived, he agreed to identify their swag at the earliest reasonable opportunity and discreetly asked for the return of the items he had lent them.  Once the Rod of Cancellation, the Ring of Wizardry, and the Pearl of Power were returned, Eligos instructed his elfservant Pollard to show the weary adventurers to a large guest room.  They fell instantly to sleep on cushy feather beds and slept through most of the day.

_2nd of Reaping_.  When the adventurers came downstairs early in the morning after sleeping most of the previous day, Pollard informed them that the master was away on important city business.  However, since inn-space in Greyhawk was being commandeered for use by all the refugees, it would not be possible for them to retain their rooms at the Crooked House.  Consequently, Master Eligos had invited them to stay with him while they remained in the City.  Pollard also informed them that the master had seen to the identification of the items they had recovered.  The items the party had lifted from the cleric were: a Scroll of Restoration (11th level), a Scroll of Heal (11th level), a Wand of Inflict Moderate Wounds (5th level), a suit of Chainmail +1, a small wooden Shield of Light Fortification +1, and a Necklace of Prayer Beads (containing a bead of healing).  The items the party had lifted from the trunk were: a Scroll of Death Ward, 2 Scrolls of Ethereal Jaunt, 7 Blocks of Incense of Meditation, a Wand of Restoration (36 charges), and 3 vials of Oil of Gentle Repose.  The party had most of the day free to try buying and selling objects.  (However, with the city in a state of chaos, it was sometimes difficult to find the items/vendors that they wanted to buy/sell from.)

    Later in the day, Eligos returned with an aged cleric carrying a number of scroll tubes and wearing a holy symbol of St. Cuthbert.  Eligos said this man would cast the spells necessary to bring Tarric and Alexander back from the dead.  The cleric asked the party to lay the remains out on separate tables.  He then asked for some privacy, saying that the process was a delicate one and that he needed to commune with his god in peace.  Eligos insisted that he had paid good money for these Resurrections, and he demanded to observe them to ensure that they took place smoothly and without a hitch.  Reluctantly, the cleric allowed Eligos to stay and observe, but he insisted that all others must leave.  About a half and hour later, Eligos and the priest emerged from the room, followed by Alexander and Tarric, who were greeted heartily by their grateful partymates.

    His business being concluded, the cleric of St. Cuthbert was shown to the door, and Eligos got down to business with the party in private.  He informed them that the City's best estimate of the final death toll resulting from the Worm's rampage was 524.  Along with the damage to the Greyhawk Arena, 67 buildings had been destroyed or severely damaged, most of them homes and small businesses near the Arena.  Eligos also informed them that the Ruling Oligarchy had placed the City Watch on alert, looking for them.  Apparently, the Ruling Oligarchy wanted to interview the party about their part in the disaster.  Officially, the party was to be treated as potential witnesses, i.e. as "persons of interest."  However, Eligos shared his concern that the Ruling Oligarchy may be looking for a scapegoat, so he was not sure whether to advise the party to submit themselves to the interview or go into hiding.  He pointed out that with all the local churches aiding the Oligarchy's investigation into the matter with divination spells, it would probably only be a matter of time before the authorities located them.  

    When asked where the party might go from here, Eligos noted that the only remaining lead the party seemed to have was the note that they had found in the Doppelganger's lair that referred to a meeting place "beneath the cold forge".  Eligos said that he knew of a blacksmith's shop called the Cold Forge, so the meeting place that the note referred to could be in the sewers (beneath it).  He suggested that if the party chose to remain in town, checking out that lead should be their next mission.  However, he left the decision whether to stay in town up to them.


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## Menexenus

*Session 26:  Beneath the Cold Forge*

_ 2nd of Reaping_.  Upon learning that the party was wanted by the Greyhawk authorities for questioning, Alexander was adamant that they should turn themselves in immediately.  The rest of the group was much more wary.  Alexander argued that the longer they waited, the more suspicious they would look.  Tarric was inclined to agree with Alexander but refused to abandon the rest of the party.  The other four party members, though, were equally adamant about not turning themselves in.  With his pithy wisdom, Katawan submitted that it would be foolish for the fly to willingly enter the spider's web.  Thorash agreed heartily with this sentiment.  Due to her prior experiences with the law, Alees wanted to leave town altogether.  Killick seemed concerned that, if the party did not investigate the Cold Forge lead soon, the bad guys might not be there any more.  

    At dusk, Thorash re-memorized spells.  Immediately afterwards, he cast a spell to seek his deity's guidance about what they should do.  He asked Wee Jas whether the enemies beneath the Cold Forge would be gone if the party waited a day for Alexander to be released.  The response Thorash received was that the enemies would remain, but Alexander might not be released in a day.  Although Alexander was dismissive of any information gathered from a deity the likes of Wee Jas, the rest of the party concluded that it would be better to continue on to the Cold Forge while Alexander turned himself in.

    Later that evening, the party headed towards the Cold Forge, cautiously avoiding City Watch patrols.  Using directions given to them by Eligos, they found the smithy (which was closed for business), found a manhole cover nearby, and descended into the sewers.  They found that the sewers reeked even worse than usual, because of all the blood and gore that had run off from the street level due to the Worm's Rampage.  At first the party became frustrated because there were no obvious exits or entrances that might lead to a subterranean lair.  Nor was there any sign of a secret door that the party could find.  Finally, though, Killick noticed a slightly phosphorescent bootprint near the waterline.  Killick investigated the substance and determined that it was Beggar's Gold, a relatively rare phosphorescent fungus that grew in subterranean environments near deposits of heavy metals.  Killick attempted to follow the tracks back the way they had come.  After about a half an hour (and after briefly losing the trail once), the party found that they had descended to a tunnel about 60 feet below street level (according to Thorash's dwarven estimation).  Finally, Killick spotted a collapsed tunnel wall leading into a natural cavern whose entrance was covered with Beggar's Gold.

    Alees moved forward quietly and poked her head in to see what was inside.  She saw a small room filled with Beggar's Gold.  Among the yellow phosphorescent fungus were 4 large toadstools about 2 - 3 feet high.  She returned to the party (which had remaind around a corner close by) and reported this information to them.  Killick moved forward with his continual light torch to investigate the toadstools more closely.  That's when the toadstools began making a shrieking noise that was tremendously loud.

    Realizing that their surprise was lost, the party sprang into action.  Katawan bolted through Beggar's Gold and past the shrieking mushrooms into a thin passageway beyond.  As he ran through, the yellow fungus on the ground shot out some spores.  Katawan coughed a bit as he inhaled them, and then yelled back that the spores were poisonous.  He stopped running when a clay jar was tossed down in front of him, exploding on the floor and igniting some oil that had been spread on the floor.  As Katawan jumped back, away from the mini-inferno, he looked up and spotted three dark-skinned elves with white hair staring down at him from a rocky shelf near the roof of the natural passageway.

    In the meantime, Killick identified the fungus that Katawan had run through and determined that it could be burned away.  He threw two bottles of alchemist fire on the ground to clear a safe path through the fungus.  Meanwhile, Killick's new animal companion, a wardog named Grimlock joined Tarric in attacking the shrieking mushrooms (whose loud screeches were making it difficult for the party to communicate).  Rather than waiting for the fire to burn itself out, Thorash jumped over the last 5 feet of yellow mold and moved to catch up with Katawan.  However, when he saw that there were 3 attackers waiting in ambush, he withdrew back to the fungus room (which was now blessedly quiet).

    Tarric, Killick, and Alees moved forward to catch up with Katawan.  But by this time, Katawan was already long gone.  He had continued on into a large cave with a small pool.  He saw a large snake with a woman's head emerge from the pool and hide behind one of the 3 natural stone pillars in the room.  Katawan yelled back over his shoulder to his comrades about the snake-creature and then went around the pillar looking for it.  He did not find it until he bumped into its invisible body, causing the creature to hiss viciously.  As Katawan tried to strike the invisible monster, he was attacked from behind by a small group of more dark-skinned elves which had entered the room from the far side.  Katawan tumbled away from his attackers, moving towards the direction they had come from.  He found another large cavern with a small cage full of poorly fed swine and cattle and a natural stone ramp leading up to a 10 foot tall ledge overlooking one side of the room.  In the middle of this room stood a female dark-elf spellcaster.  Katawan had found his target!

    Meanwhile, Thorash, who had remained in the fungus room while Alees and Tarric shot at the 3 drow on the ledge, suddenly heard footsteps coming up from behind.  He whirled around and almost fired a crossbow bolt at the newcomer before recognizing that it was Alexander!  Although Thorash was puzzled about how Alexander could have caught up with them so soon after turning himself in, he grudgingly admitted that Alexander's abilities would undoubtedly come in handy against the enemy.  Alexander moved forward and shot one of the drow on the ledge with a barrage of Magic Missiles that was noticeably more powerful than the ones he usually cast.  The drow enemy fell dead from his perch.  The other two drew tanglefoot bags from pouches at their sides and tossed them at Alees and Alexander.  Both were struck by the sticky goo.  Alexander was held fast to the ground.  Alees called on her god's luck power to avoid being cemented to the ground.  Tarric moved to help scrape the goo off his comrades.  Meanwhile, Killick and his faithful Grimlock moved in to flank the invisible snake creature.  After bumping into its invisible form, he cast a spell that outlined its invisible form with glowing light.  Then he and the wardog flanked the creature.  The damage caused by Killick's whirling quarterstaff finally caused the creature to strike back (thereby becoming visible again).  It sank its teeth into the dog, causing grievous damage, but it obeyed its new master and held its ground.

    Katawan moved to strike at the drow spellcaster, a cleric by the looks of her weaponry.  She drew a heavy mace and clocked him mightily.  Katawan shook off some kind of spell effect and marvelled at the unnatural strength the woman possessed - no doubt the result of vile sorcery.  When Katawan noticed that there was a door in the wall near the cattle pen, he ran over to see if it would open.  It did not.  Now that Katawan was separated from their mistress, the drow warriors took this opportunity to toss their tanglefoot bags at him.  He was only struck by 3 of the 5 bags, and he avoided being stuck to the ground.  The female cleric followed Katawan and brained him again.  Katawan decided that it was time for some healing, so he used a stored spell from inside his ring.  Immediately afterwards, though, Katawan's breathing became labored as he felt the effects of the poison he had inhaled earlier doing its damage in his system.  With a cough and a retch, he collapsed at the drow cleric's feet.

    Tarric ran into the room in time to see Katawan fall.  He faced off against the drow warriors and began slicing through them with the expertise and efficiency that the party had come to rely on.


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## Menexenus

*Session 27: Acquitted! (Scapegoats No Longer)*

_2nd of Reaping_.  The party was in the thick of battle against a large spell-casting snake creature as well as a small platoon of drow warriors led by a female cleric.  Katawan, who had rushed in to face the cleric in advance of the rest of the party lay unconscious before a locked door.  Tarric found himself surrounded by the drow warriors.  Killick and his new wardog Grimlock were flanking the snake creature.  Alexander, who had been charmed by the naga, was using his spell power to assist his teammates.  Alees, who had been hit with a tanglefoot bag, was moving slowly toward Tarric (and doing everything in her power to avoid the naga's gaze).  Thorash was bringing up the rear, defending the party against two advancing drow warriors who had dropped from their perch to pursue the party deeper into the system of caverns.

    One of these two drow faced off against Thorash directly while the second one moved toward the back of the cavern to assist the naga against Killick.  The naga, who was tired of being flanked, tried to concentrate to cast a spell once more.  The previous time she had tried this, the spell had fizzled.  However, this time the spell was cast successfully.  A familiar bead of energy left the naga's tongue and shot across the room.  When it impacted on the far wall, it exploded into a fiery conflagration which caught Alexander, Alees, and Grimlock in its path.  Alexander and Alees took the full brunt of the fiery blast, while Grimlock jumped and ducked in such an acrobatic fashion that the well-trained dog was able to avoid all damage.  

    Meanwhile, Tarric was consistently doing grievous damage to his drow enemies, but they were also consistently doing grievous damage to him.  In a relatively short span of time, Tarric had killed three of his enemies, but a wicked critical hit from the drow cleric knocked him to unconsciousness.  This freed the remaining drow to assist the naga in the adjoining cavern.

    Killick heard Tarric's plate-armored body collapse to the floor in the adjoining cavern, and he saw the drow that had been fighting him start entering his cavern.  He knew that Tarric must be in need of aid.  The second drow from the ledge had also moved in behind Killick, causing him to become flanked.  Killick whistled for his dog to come to his aid.  The dog, which had been helping Killick flank the naga, now moved around a natural stone column to threaten the drow.  Meanwhile, Killick moved and tumbled his way past the drow to Tarric's side.  When he reached Tarric, a scroll emerged magically from his gloved hand.  He read it and Tarric was instantly as good as new again!

    Unfortunately, Grimlock had been left to fight the naga and a drow warrior by itself.  In its depleted state, the wardog was no match for these foes, and he was quickly knocked unconscious by the drow.  This freed the naga up to fire off some spells of opportunity.  She noticed that Alees was staggering back towards Thorash for assistance, so she shot the rogue with magical missiles, knocking Alees unconscious.  Because of his Shield spell, Thorash had little to fear from the drow warrior that had been attacking him.  So he moved next to Alees's unconscious form and healed her.  When she regained consciousness, she used her magical prayer beads to heal herself even further.

    Meanwhile, Alexander stood near the pool, as far away from the enemies as possible and fired his magic missile wand at drow targets.  (Even after being fireballed by the naga, Alexander could not shake off her charm effect.  He refused to believe that she could have targeted him on purpose.  Surely it had been a mistake!)

    Tarric and Killick faced off together against the drow cleric and her dwindling warrior minions.  One by one, the minions fell away until the only the cleric remained.  She might have considered retreat had it not been for Alees's timely tanglefoot bag.  Even though the cleric was not rooted to the floor by the sticky goo, it rendered her so slow that retreat was no longer an option.  She opted to go down swinging.  She continued clocking Tarric for large amounts of damage, but this time Tarric won the damage battle.  The cleric fell dead to the floor at Tarric's hands.  Tarric, his hands drenched with blood and sweat, breathed a quiet sigh of relief.

    Thorash went in to investigate the fallen cleric, while the rest of the party faced off against the naga, which had been given a few seconds of respite while the party focused on the drow.  It had apparently been casting spells on itself during the lull.  Killick went toe-to-toe with the abomination and ascertained that the creature definitely was not as wounded as it had been before he had tumbled away from it.  Alees joined Killick against the naga.

    In the other room, Tarric called for healing from the dwarven cleric, but Thorash seemed more interested in finding a drow who was still breathing.  When Tarric heard the sound of battle being joined in the next room, he strode and sprang to his comrades' aid.  The naga saw that Killick, Alees, and Tarric were all in a tight group, so it backed up five feet and shot another bead of energy at the back wall, igniting another fireball.  Killick and Alees were able to use their reflexes to avoid any damage from the fiery blast, but Tarric was burned alive and instantly fell dead to the ground.  Another casualty of the blast was Killick's faithful wardog, Grimlock (who had been unconscious but who was now a charred cinder).

    Seeing the body of his dead friend Tarric and the charred body of his dead dog Grimlock, Killick began fighting the naga with renewed ferocity.  Suddenly and unexpectedly he felt someone pulling at him from behind.  It was Alexander!  Although the wizard's attempt to grapple Killick was unsuccessful, he cried out that Killick should not hurt his friend.  He even suggested aloud that Killick was the one responsible for Tarric's death!  Killick gave the wizard a threatening look and warned him not to try that again.  Then he turned his attention back to the naga.  Luckily for everyone involved, the naga was felled soon thereafter, freeing Alexander from his enchantment.

    Thorash finally got around to healing Katawan, who had lain unconscious near the locked door for most of the battle.  Although the party was curious about what might be waiting for them down the next passageway, they realized that they could not continue without their stalwart friend Tarric.  The party looted the bodies of the fallen drow.  Alexander noticed a dim light shining at the bottom of the pool.  He dove in and recovered 8 pp, a large emerald, and an ornate jug.  Disappointed, the party withdrew and carried their dead friend back to the surface.

    On the way back through the sewers, Alexander pleaded with his comrades to turn themselves in to the authorities, as he had done.  When Thorash resisted Alexander's pleas, Alexander explained that he would now start suffering serious consequences if the party refused to turn themselves in.  He insisted in no uncertain terms that the party *must* turn themselves in!  Thorash pressed the wizard for details of the "consequences" that he had mentioned, but Alexander was characteristically unwilling to tell the party more than they needed to know.  Finally, the group relented and agreed to turn themselves in after a brief stop at Eligos's house, to bathe and drop off the loot (as well as Tarric's body).  They told Eligos what loot he could sell, and they asked him to use the cash to hire a cleric to raise their friend.  The next day, Eligos did as he was instructed, and immediately after being raised, Tarric turned himself in to the authorities to face judgment side-by-side with his comrades.

_3rd - 10th of Reaping_.  When they were taken into custody, the party was split up and interrogated individually.  The interrogation was quite aggressive and harsh.  It continued on again and off again for more than a day.  Each of the party members was beginning to suspect that turning themselves in had been a big mistake.  Then suddenly, the interrogation lightened up.  A familiar face visited each party member in their individual cells; it was Krastor, the circuit court judge who had tried Smenk and Filge back in Diamond Lake.  Apparently, he had returned to Greyhawk in the wake of the Worm's Rampage and had heard about the party's plight through his contacts among the city's legal system.  Having fought by their sides against the temple of Hextor, he offered to represent them and offer them legal counsel.  The Ruling Oligarchy found that it had little choice but to accept Krastor's offer.  Krastor and Eligos had been working behind the scenes ever since to line up important witnesses that could attest to the party's innocence.  Apparently, their efforts had been successful, because the conditions of the party's imprisonment had improved dramatically.

    The next day, the party were given back their possessions and placed in a more comfortable cell together.  The interrogations were now much more polite and Krastor was permitted to be present.  Eventually, Eligos was permitted to visit the party.  He confided to them that the Directing Oligarchy had indeed originally set out to use the party as scapegoats for the events that had now become known by the citizens of Greyhawk as "the Worm's Rampage."  However, because of the stiff legal resistance presented by Krastor, the Directors had decided it would be more convenient to blame the disaster on Loris Raknian - the former gladiator who ran the Greyhawk Arena.  Although Raknian and the Directors had had a cozy relationship in the past, Raknian and his head bodyguard Okoral had disappeared immediately after the Apostle of Kyuss was released.  The suspicious timing of Raknian's disappearance along with the suspicious passageways leading directly from his residence to the sublevels of the Arena where the Worm had been summoned led the Directors (reluctantly) to the conclusion that he (and not the party) was truly responsible for the disaster.  A bulletin was dispatched to all Greyhawk Militia offices offering a reward for the capture of Loris Raknian, dead or alive.

    Finally, the party was released from custody after having been imprisoned for a week.  The party received a weak apology from representatives of the Directing Oligarchy for the inconvenience that they had endured.  While the party was still unhappy about their initial treatment at the hands of their jailors, they were too happy to be free again to hold a serious grudge.  

Now the party had to decide whether to return to the caverns in the sewers beneath the Cold Forge, knowing that their enemies had a week to prepare for their return.


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## Menexenus

*Session 28: The Mind-Flayer's Sanctum*

_11th - 17th of Reaping._  Alexander borrowed Eligos's laboratory in order to fashion some magic items.  Most of these items were for himself, but he offered to make something for Tarric as well.  When other party members placed requests for similar items, Alexander frostily informed them that he would only create magic items at a discount for Tarric.  All others must pay market price (or higher).  Killick, Katawan, and Alees were puzzled by Alexander's sudden expression of disfavor.  (Thorash, on the other hand, was not surprised at all.  Alexander has never hidden his dislike for the dwarf.) 

    During this week of downtime, Alees tried singing at local bars for spare cash.  On the first two nights, the crowd was too polite to boo her off the stage, but the paltry tips they tossed into her cap left no doubt about their true opinions of her talent.  Since she decided she wasn't going to return to that bar again anyway, she decided to pick the pocket of a particular wealthy-looking (and drunk-looking) bar patron.  On the third night she tried a new bar.  Apparently these new surroundings agreed with her, because she gave a much better performance and was rewarded accordingly.  All of her week's moonlighting (both the legitimate and the illegitimate varieties) netted her a total of not quite 5 gold pieces.  This experience reaffirmed Alees's decision to pursue a career of adventuring.

    At the end of the week, Eligos assembled the party to inform them of another possible lead.  He said that he had been using divination to try to track the source of the Apostolic Scroll that had been received by Loris Raknian and used by his nefarious accomplices beneath the Greyhawk Arena to unleash the Worm on the city.  Killick interrupted Eligos to ask if he had had any word from Celeste.  Eligos again expressed his confidence in Celeste's ability to take care of herself.  He said that he had been preoccupied this week trying to identify the source of the Apostolic Scroll, but he promised to spend some time in the coming days divining Celeste's current state.  Eligos continued.  The scroll seemed to have come from a man named Londar Brightrain - a wizard who styled himself as "the Rainbow Mage".  

    Eligos indicated that he was at least casually acquainted with Brightrain and described him as a typical member of his species.  Like other powerful wizards, he was arrogant, self-interested, and pre-occupied with the inner-workings of magic to the point of having no preference over the forces of good and evil in the world.  In order to give credance to his moniker, Brightrain had researched a number of spells and spell effects that made his magic particularly colorful and visually interesting to casual onlookers.  However, there was no evidence that his spells were more potent than their ordinary counterparts.  Apparently, he thought his research merited him a spot among the Circle of Eight - the most powerful and elite cabal of wizards in the Flanaess.  So when he was passed over for membership in the Circle when 3 vacancies were filled by other wizards about 10 years ago, he took it as a personal affront.  Since then, he has been noticeably withdrawn from the arcane academic community and has had relatively little contact with the outside world.

    Despite Brightrain's obvious petulance, Eligos expressed sincere surprise that Brightrain would have dealings with an apocalyptic cult as thoroughly depraved and destructive as the cult of Kyuss.  However, he could not deny that the evidence was leading him in that direction.  To make things worse, Brightrain himself seemed to have disappeared about a week and a half ago (approximately one week after the Worm's Rampage).  Although his body had not been recovered by local authorities, he was presumed dead.  His carriage had apparently been ambushed by thieves during one of his regular journeys into town from his secluded tower outside the small town of Rosewater in the Duchy of Urnst.  Eligos could not confirm that Brightrain was dead, but he was able to ascertain that, if the mage was still alive, he was no longer on this plane of existence.

    Eligos left it up to the party whether they thought it best to venture back down into the city's sewers to face what the party suspected might be a mind flayer in its lair, or whether they should embark on a long journey to investigate Brightrain's disappearance and try to find out how he obtained the Apostolic Scroll in the first place.  Since it would take at least a fortnight to travel to Rosewater, time could not be a factor in the Brightrain investigation.  Consequently, the party chose to tie up the loose ends that were closer to home - they chose to venture back into the caverns beneath the Cold Forge.

_18th of Reaping._  The following morning, the party headed out.  They were concerned that with 2 weeks of time to prepare for the party's return, they worried that their enemy might have restocked the areas that they had previously cleared out in the last battle.  However, the caverns that they had fought in before remained clear of enemies, and the dead bodies remained strewn about in various states of decay where they had fallen.  Venturing farther into the cavern system, the party came across a small widened area that bore a painted sigil on the floor.  The large purple insignia was composed of wavy lines vaguely reminiscent of tentacles.  Alees carefully checked the floor leading up to the insignia and the insignia itself for traps.  She found none.  Thorash cast Detect Magic and scanned the room.  He discovered a glowing spot on the ceiling of the cavern right above the sigil.  The party decided to skirt the perimeter of the room to avoid whatever magic was in the ceiling.  This tactic seemed to work - the party passed through the room unharmed.

    Soon afterwards, the natural passage opened up into a larger cavern that was all natural except for the smoothed floor and the marble double doors set into the northern wall.  The marble was mostly white, streaked with veins of purple.  These doors stood in stark contrast to the rest of the stone in this cavern (which was a more mundane grayish-brown color).  The double doors were each flanked by marble columns with the same tentacular symbol burned into their surfaces.  Alees moved towards the doors to check them for traps.  Just then, 3 purple beasts with one eye and many tentacles crawled out of hiding places among the stalactites on the ceiling.  They crawled with ease down 3 natural pillars near the perimeter of the cavern and attacked nearby partymembers with their fore-tentacles (which ended in mean-looking lobster-like claws).  One by one, the party-members found themselves looking into the tentacled creatures' eyes.  When they did, they found themselves unable to move with the same speed that they had in the past.

    However, the beasts did not seem smart enough to stay up on the pillars where the party was unable to reach them.  When the party moved out of their reach, they climbed down to the ground, allowing the partymembers to gang up on them and destroy them.  However, before the skirmish was over, a significant amount of damage had been done, forcing some members of the party to consume valuable healing spells.  (Killick was pleasantly surprised to discover that if he cast a curative spell on his new wardog - Grimlock II - he could share the healing benefits with his animal companion.)  Once the healing was over, Alees attempted to open the marble doors and found them to be locked.  Alexander cast a spell on the doors and the party heard a loud thump, as if a large bar had just fallen to the ground on the opposite side.  Alees tried the door again, and found that it now swung open freely.

    As the doors opened, the party saw a circular room with a large stone brain in the center sculpted out of the same marble that the door was made from.  Around the perimeter of the room were four stone benches with iron manacles bolted to the wall above them.  The party cast some buff spells and then Tarric moved through the room, into a winding stairway.  When Thorash moved into the room, he felt some kind of mental presence trying to take control of his mind, but it was being kept at bay somehow.  Thorash surmised that his Protection from Evil spell might be what was protecting him.  He announced to his comrades to be wary of this mental presence.  Since Tarric had avoided the attack, the party decided to just move quickly through the room onto the stairway.  They did so, and no others noticed themselves being attacked mentally.

    Alexander and Tarric found themselves at the top of the winding staircase first.  There they found a room that seemed to be a laboratory of some kind.  It contained a desk, 2 tall bookcases, a heavy table with various jars sitting on it, including a large tank full of opaque green liquid.  When Tarric stepped into the room, he saw something emerge from the green tank.  It seemed to be another of the one-eyed tentacled creatures that the party had fought outside the marble doors, but this one seemed particularly large, strong, and vicious.  In addition, its clawed fore-tentacles were longer than its predecessors had been.  It seemed to be able to attack any part of the room with its incredible reach.  Again, various members of the party found themselves moving more slowly than usual when they accidentally looked into the creature's eye.  The creature focused its attacks on Tarric (who had been doing the most damage with his magical bastard sword).  When the creature struck him with both claws at once, it started ripping.  The rest of the party stood horrified as they watched the creature almost rip Tarric in half.  Tarric's blood and entrails were strewn across the floor and no one could tell if he was still breathing.  Realizing that Tarric required immediate attention if he were to have any hope of survival, the party sprang to action.  Alees moved to Tarric's side and held out a potion.  Killick grabbed it and poured it down his throat.  Katawan moved up and delivered a jolt of healing from his ring.  Thorash was also preparing a curative spell when Alexander pulled out a scroll and cast a spell.  Suddenly, the creature's one eye widened in terror, and it collapsed dead!  For a moment there was stunned silence, and then a spontaneous victory cry went up from all the conscious party members.

    This time Tarric found himself needing to consume multiple healing potions in order to heal the grievous wounds he had suffered and bring him back into fighting shape.  He said a quick prayer of thanks to Heironeous, marvelling at the effectiveness of healing magic to maintain his combat readiness even after suffering what would otherwise have been a mortal wound.  When the party was ready, they opened a stone door on the opposite wall of the laboratory table.  The door opened into a 10 foot wide passage that led to a small circular room with a pool in the center.  Killick walked up to the pool in order to ascertain whether the water was drinkable.  He found an image floating at the bottom.  The shimmering image seemed to be of the sewer entrance to the cavern system that had led to where they were now.  Killick thought about Eligos's house, and the image at the bottom of the pool changed to show an exterior view of Eligos's house.  Killick announced to the party that he had found a scrying pool.  On the far side of the circular room was another 10 foot wide passage with a strange greenish glow reflected on the wall.  Thorash followed the passage forward and found that it ended in a balcony overlooking a cathedral-like chamber.  Below, to Thorash's left, the dwarf saw a ground-level entrance to the cathedral, and over the entrance was a one-eyed tentacled creature poised to attack.  To Thorash's right was a large black octagonal stone pillar set into the wall with glowing green arcane symbols carved into it.  At the base of the pillar was a shallow rectangular pool of water.  Hovering 40 feet above this pool (at the same level as the balcony) was a bizarre humanoid form with strange rubbery purple flesh, dressed in tattered black leather robes, and holding some sort of magical staff or rod that seemed to glow red hot.  The humanoid's head was hairless and bulbous, with 4 short tentacles where its mouth should be.  All the party members whose minds were not shielded from mental contact heard the following words forming in an alien voice in their heads, "You dare enter my sanctum?  Fools!  I shall finish what Telakin could not.  Your weak minds will be a sumptuous feast, and your terror will be a pleasing garnish!"

    Realizing that the battle had begun, Alexander flew into the cathedral chamber and cast Magic Missiles at his floating opponent.  The energy of the missiles washed over the mind-flayer harmlessly.  Killick and his wardog moved up towards the balcony get a view of the new opponent.  Killick began casting a spell.  At this point, the mind-flayer extended its bony arm in the party's direction and lowered its head slightly in concentration.  Suddenly Alexander, Thorash, Killick, and Grimlock II felt an explosion in their brains, as if all of their neurons were firing at once, overloading their brains with sensation.  Thorash and Killick were able to resist the effect and come to their senses.  Alexander and Grimlock found themselves stunned, unable to act.  At this point, the tentacled creature above the cathedral's entrance started moving quickly toward the balcony.  In addition, a previously undetected second tentacled creature attacked Thorash from above, but missed.  Thorash cast Searing Light at the hovering enemy, but again, the energy seemed to bounce of the mysterious creature harmlessly.  The mind-flayer began casting a spell in response, during which the length of metal in the mind-flayers other hand began glowing even hotter than before.  At the end of the magical incantation, it pointed its finger at the balcony and a tremendous lightning bolt crashed down the hallway, missing Killick, but doing serious damage to both Thorash and Grimlock.

    The other party members found that they could not get into the battle on the narrow balcony even if they wanted to.  Alees tried to run around to the cathedral's main ground-level entrance.  She went back through the laboratory and opened a door into a previously unexplored room.  In the middle of this room was a grotesque ebony statue of a vulture-headed humanoid with large feathery wings and sharp talons in a combat pose.  The rest of the room was taken up by large glass display cases along each wall full of various strange artifacts - from a shrunken head to a book that was chained shut to a number of glass jars containing severed body parts.  While all this sparked Alees's curiosity, she was in a hurry to aid her comrades in the cathedral.  On the far side of the room was a winding staircase leading down to what Alees was sure would be the cathedral entrance.  With his supernatural speed, Katawan moved past Alees, past the statue, and down the stairs.  Once he saw the cathedral's entrance, he hugged the wall to keep out of the mind-flayer's line of sight.  Tarric moved up and pulled the wounded wardog out of harm's way into the room with the scrying pool.  Killick finished casting his spell and a giant owl appeared in the cathedral, turning to attack the tentacled thing on the wall.  Despite the newly summoned assistance, Thorash decided to withdraw from the balcony to a safer position.


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## Menexenus

*Session 29: Death to the Mind-Flayer!*

_18th of Reaping_.  The party had just encountered a levitating mindflayer in a large silo-shaped cathedral floating 40 feet above a shallow pool swimming with large tadpoles.  The mind-flayer had stunned Alexander and Killick's dog, then it had cast a powerful lightning bolt, doing serious damage to Thorash.  When a Magic Missile and a Searing Light spell seemed to wash over the creature to no effect, the party was perplexed as to how they could defeat this foe.

    Alees loaded a crossbow and ran into the cathedral area through the front entrance.  As she ran in, one of the two octopins clinging to the walls attacked her and missed.  Alees fired a bolt at the mind-flayer.  The bolt went right through the place where the mind-flayer seemed to be.  The mind-flayer decided not to waste a lightning bolt on just one target.  Instead, he fired 2 scorching rays at her, striking her with one of them.  Katawan also drew and loaded his crossbow.  He entered the cathedral and shot at one of the octopins.  Moments later, Tarric followed suit, firing a longbow twice at the mind-flayer, missing both times.  One of the octopins struck Killick's summoned giant owl with both of his claws and then ripped the unfortunate avian in half, causing it to disappear and return to wherever it had come from.  The other octopin struck at Alexander's stunned body, creating a gash in his side.

    Meanwhile, Killick had withdrawn back to the scrying pool, where Grimlock had been dragged and where Thorash was standing.  Killick requested that Thorash cast Protection from Evil on him.  Thorash consented.  He dropped his shield, drew a pearl from his belt pouch, and recalled Protection from Evil, casting it on his teammate.  After doing so, Thorash headed the long way around towards the cathedral entrance, leaving his shield on the ground where he had dropped it.  At this point, Killick drew and drank a potion of Haste.  As he moved toward the balcony railing, wings suddenly sprouted from his back, growing to full-size almost instantaneously.  When he got to the railing, he leapt off and began flying!  He flew right up in front of the levitating mind-flayer and attacked him, using his quarterstaff to disarm it of its glowing rod.  The seemingly red hot rod fell into the pool below, but the water around it did not boil.  Needless to say, the rest of the party was impressed by Killick's new flight ability and drew courage from this symbolic victory.  Alees immediately moved up and grabbed the rod.  She tried to activate it, and she seemed to be successful.  But the only visible effect was that the rod glowed hotter for a few moments.

    The mind-flayer used its mind blast ability again, causing Katawan and Tarric and one of the octopins to become stunned.  It tried using this ability on Killick as well, but Killick shook off the effect.  It tried striking Killick with its tentacles.  This also failed.  Meanwhile, Killick literally flew circles around it, infrequently striking it for damage.  One of Killick's blows was so forceful that the creature was momentarily stunned.  The second octopin moved onto the black obelisk right behind its master in an effort to help protect him.  However, the octopins attacks of opportunity were no match for Killick's skill at avoiding blows.  Killick seemed unhittable.  At about this time, Thorash finally made it around to the cathedral entrance.  He tried using his Magic Missile wand, but quickly realized that the mind-flayer was shielded.  So he cast Magic Missiles on the octopin behind it instead.  The octopin dropped into the pool dead.  

At about this time, Tarric recovered from being stunned.  He moved over to the octopin near the front entrance and sliced into it with his bastard sword.  However, since the creature was stunned, Alees was able to stab it in its most vulnerable spot, killing it.  Now that the last octopin was gone, Alexander, who had just recovered from stun, moved to Tarric and told him that he would lift him into fighting position with the mind-flayer.  But at exactly that moment, the mind-flayer mind blasted them both again.  Tarric resisted the effect this time, but Alexander was stunned again.

    By this time, the mind-flayer had taken enough damage that it drew a potion of healing, but Killick knocked the bottle out of the creature's hand.  The mind-flayer began slowly descending in order to retrieve the potion.  Katawan moved up and grabbed the fallen potion before the mind-flayer could recover it.  The mind-flayer mind blasted him for his effort, stunning him and Tarric (who had unfortunately just drunk a potion of Haste).  Then he mind-blasted the other side of the room.  After these two mind blasts, the only character who was not stunned was Killick.  The mind-flayer moved up to Katawan's frozen form, grabbed the potion he was holding, and drank it.  Meanwhile, Killick continued raining occasional blows on the evil sorcerer with his feet and his quarterstaff.  The mind-flayer ripped a bead off of his necklace, throwing it against the far wall, causing a loud, fiery explosion that caught frozen Alees and Thorash with full force.  Alees dropped to the floor unconscious.  Katawan had recovered by this time and used his monkish reflexes to avoid all damage from the blast.  The party couldn't help but notice that the mind-flayer had not placed the fireball as effectively as he could have.  

    Seeing that some characters had started recovering from stun, the sorcerer cast a lighting bolt that caught stunned Thorash and recently recovered Alexander with full force.  But again, the mind-flayer mysteriously seemed to aim the bolt too high in a way that avoided hitting Alees who was lying vulnerable on the ground.  Thorash fell to the ground unconscious.  Again, Katawan used his monkish dexterity to avoid all damage from the lightning bolt.  Katawan moved to his fallen comrades.  He used a charge from his Ring of Spell Storing to awaken Thorash.  Moments later, he did the same for Alees.  (Both Thorash and Alees then administered additional healing to themselves.)  After healing his companions, Katawan moved back to help Killick flank the mind-flayer.  Throughout the combat, Killick continued landing blows infrequently.  Katawan landed a very lucky critical hit against the sorcerer with his fist.  The mind-flayer was almost stunned by the blow, and his tentacles gyrated wildly in pain.

    Realizing that he had few ways of harming the mind-flayer, Alexander decided instead to target his Magic Missiles at the tadpoles in the pool, killing several of them.  This seemed to enrage the mind-flayer even more than Katawan's blow had.  First he tried stunning the mage.  When that failed, he cast a lightning bolt at him instead.  This distracted the mind-flayer's attention long enough for Killick and Katawan to land another blow each.  But it was Katawan's blow that finally felled the vile aberration.  As members of the party awakened from stun one by one, they began cheering their victory, which had never been certain.

    Thorash cast Detect Magic and the party looted the magical items off the mind-flayer's corpse.  Alees searched for secret doors in the cathedral area and found none.  Killick informed the rest of the party that he thought that the tadpoles in the pool might be baby mind-flayers.  So Alexander and Tarric spent time tracking down the helpless creatures and squashing them all. 

    After the party had healed up a bit, they ventured back into the room with the statue and the glass cases.  Alees moved up to one of the cases to check it for traps.  This caused the statue in the middle of the room to animate.  Alexander called out that the creature was a Vrock - a demon from the Abyss.  First, the demon made a horrific screech that stunned Tarric and Alexander (once again).  Then it cast Mirror Image on itself.  However, Thorash quickly Dispelled that magical effect.  Then it tried to open a portal to the Abyss to call for reinforcements, but this attempt failed.  The party quickly surrounded the demon.  It released some demonic spores on all who stood next to it.  These spores lodged painfully into the characters' skin and began growing with unnatural speed.  Although the creature seemed resistant to much of the damage that it received, Tarric got a critical hit against it, Katawan stunned it, and Alees got in a sneak attack that finally dispatched the demonic bird creature.

    However, even after the Vrock died, the spores lodged in the party's skin continued to grow for a minute, causing significant pain and disfigurement.  Grimlock collapsed from the damage.  Alexander, who was the only party member unaffected by the spores, used his extensive knowledge of the planes to inform the party that the disfigurement was permanent unless the infected creature drank holy water or was the subject of a Cure Disease or Neutralize Poison spell.  Although the party was out of the necessary spells, Killick drank some holy water and cast a healing spell on his unconscious animal companion.

    The effect of the demonic spores reminded Killick to check himself for infection by Kyuss worms.  To his consternation, he discovered that he was once again infected with them.  He checked the rest of the party and discovered that Tarric was also infected.  Killick was puzzled as to what might have caused them both to become infected again.

    The party decided to take all of the items in the glass cases and return to Eligos's house.  However, before leaving, they all took turns looking at the scrying pool trying to look in on various people.  Killick attempted to look in on Eligos, but found that Eligos's house was impenetrable to the scrying pool's gaze.  Tarric chose to look in on some of his former colleagues at the Greyhawk Militia post in Diamond Lake.  He found them in the briefing room where Captain Trask seemed to be presenting a topic of great importance.  Alees tried to find Loris Raknian and found him traveling along an unknown road with a companion.  Next, she tried looking in on her adoptive family, and she saw her step-father playing a game of 3-card-monte with some foolish mark.  Alees smiled.  Killick tried to spy on the Rainbow Mage, but there was no change in the scenery.  Then Killick tried to spy on Telakin, but again there was no change.  He concluded that the scrying pool only worked on those who were sufficiently familiar to the scryer.  Then he tried looking in on Celeste, but again the scrying pool did not change its scenery.  Last, he decided to look in on his druidic mentor Nogwier.  Killick found him in the middle of brewing a potion.  

While the others played with the scrying pool, Alexander investigated the mind-flayer's laboratory.  He found numerous texts and laboratory notes related to the creation of the tentacular creatures the party had fought, known as "octopins."  He also discovered that the mind-flayer's name had been Zyrxog.  In addition, he also found some laboratory notes related to the creation of a "mind worm" - a Kyuss worm that would travel to the subject's brain, rendering it more amenable to suggestions.  Although Zyrxog's notes indicated that he had been making progress, his experiments had not been completely successful.  Zyrxog's extensive experimentation with Kyuss worms made it clear that Zyrxog had been either a worshipper of Kyuss or working very closely with the cult.

As the party left Zyrxog's lair, the stone brain again tried attacking the mind of the first one to enter its circular room.  But its attack failed, as it had before, and the rest of the party exited the room quickly.  Finally, the party exited the sewers and headed for Eligos's house.  However, given their obviously diseased state, the guards at the Garden District's gate denied them entry.  The party holed up at a dockside bar and waited for dusk to arrive.  When it did, Thorash memorized as many Cure Disease and Neutralize Poison spells as he could, curing all the party members of their disfigurement (and simultaneously curing Killick and Tarric of their Kyuss worm infections).  Then the party wearily made its way back to Eligos's house (having no trouble with the guards this time).  

Eligos gave them all a hearty congratulations on ridding the City of such a vile predator as Pollard ushered them up to their rooms.  In his room, Thorash began identifying some of the magic items that the party had recovered.  One of these items was a magic book that, once opened, tried to drain him of his mental faculties, but he was able to resist the effect.  Thorash recognized the item immediately by reputation as a cursed item known as a Vacuous Grimoire.

_19th of Reaping_.  After rememorizing spells, Alexander took his turn identifying the  magic items.  Once Alexander had confirmed all of Thorash's identifications, the party began divvying them up.  Alexander chose the Rod of Lesser Empower Metamagic, Katawan chose the Necklace of Fireballs, Alees chose a Cloak of Resistance +2 and the Boots of Elvenkind, Tarric got a Ring of Counterspells, Killick got a Periapt of Health, and Thorash got an unholy dagger as well as a book wrapped in chains.  Thorash cast a divination spell and then unwrapped the chains from around the book.  The book immediately started flapping its covers like wings and it attacked Thorash, causing him some minor damage.  Thorash was eventually able to destroy the book.  Alees took the remainder of the unclaimed swag to sell elsewhere in the City.  Thorash left to run an errand in the city, as did Tarric.  When Tarric returned, his shield was emblazoned with a new device: a black tower on a red background.  Some in the party recognized the symbol as that belonging to the Knights of Holy Shielding.  When asked about it, Tarric admitted that he had been accepted as a Squire in the Order and that he would be working his way towards full membership as a Knight.

    When Thorash returned home, Alexander brought himself to ask the dwarf for a favor.  He asked Thorash to cast Break Enchantment on the petrified pseudodragon in order to free it.  Despite all the open hostility with which Alexander had treated Thorash over the previous few weeks, Thorash consented to Alexander's request.  At dusk, Thorash rememorized spells and cast the spell.  The pseudodragon immediately came back to life and thanked them both.  It asked if there was a favor that it could do in return for its freedom, but Alexander said no and simply released it.

_20th of Reaping_.  Although the party had been considering leaving Greyhawk bound for the Rainbow Mage's hometown of Rosewater, Killick awoke in the morning with a terrible fever and nasty weeping sores all over his skin.  Killick found that he was tired, wobbly on his feet, and having trouble forming coherent sentences.  At dusk, after rememorizing spells, Thorash tried casting Cure Disease on Killick, but that spell had no effect.  He cast Neutralize Poison, but that spell also had no effect.  He cast Restoration, and that seemed to eliminate some of Killick's symptoms.  But the visible signs of the affliction were still present.  Eligos seemed very concerned about Killick's illness and vowed to find out what it was.

_21st of Reaping_.  After studying and divining all night long as well as most of the previous day, Eligos finally determined that Killick was the unlucky victim of a cursed item known as a Periapt of Foul Rotting (which the Identify spell had incorrectly categorized as a Periapt of Health).  He explained that removing Killick's affliction would require a number of high level spells cast in sequence.  Although Thorash could cast the first few, they would also need the services of a higher level spellcaster to complete the sequence.  (Or they would need to purchase a scroll of the necessary spell and hope that Thorash did not have a mishap trying to cast it.)  Although Eligos was happy to help the party hire a spellcaster/purchase a scroll, he regretfully informed the party that they would need to use their own funds.  He explained that if the party could/would not to pay to have Killick's curse removed, his symptoms could be dealt with by periodic Restoration spells.  Three spells per week would be necessary to keep Killick at his maximum fighting form.  The party began assembling its cash.

    Soon afterwards, Pollard ushered in an irate shopkeeper to speak with Alees.  The shopkeeper angrily threw the scabbarded greatsword at Alees's feet and insisted that she return the money he had given her.  He charged that the greatsword she had sold him was cursed.  He said that, as soon as a customer tried out the sword, he went berserk and attacked everyone around him!  He said that Alees was lucky that no one had been killed, otherwise she would have been responsible for the deaths.  He demanded his money back from the group as well as fair compensation for the loss of his shop's reputation.  Otherwise, he insisted that he would take his complaint to the City Watch as well as to the head of the Union of Shopkeepers who could bar the group from buying or selling anything within City limits.  Eligos did what he could to help calm the man, assuring him that the party would give him his due.  Alees reluctantly gave him back the money she had received for the greatsword as well as 500 additional gp, which basically wiped out all the profit that the party had made from selling all the curiosity pieces from Zyrxog's glass cases.  Once he had received this payment, the shopkeeper instructed Alees never to come to his store again.  Then he stormed off.


----------



## Menexenus

*Session 30: Conflict between Wee Jas and St. Cuthbert*

_21st of Reaping_.  After the shopkeeper returned the Berserker Sword to the party and took most of their spare cash as compensation, the party was at a loss regarding how to unload their cursed items for a profit.  Killick stayed in bed convalescing while Eligos left to make contact with a cleric friend who could be hired to cast Heal on Killick.  Thorash and Alees also left to investigate the possibility of selling their cursed items.  Alexander cast three spells into Katawan's Ring of Spell Storing.

   When Eligos returned, he informed the party that an old friend of his had consented to cast the necessary spell at dawn the next morning at a discount - 10% off the usual price.  When Thorash returned, he told the party that he had found a buyer for the cursed items who was willing to pay full market value.  Alexander was unwilling to take this offer at face value and asked some probing questions.  Thorash admitted that the potential buyer was the Church of Wee Jas.  Alexander demanded assurances that the Church of Wee Jas had no intention of using the items for any nefarious purpose.  While Katawan and Alees favored the sale, Tarric supported Alexander in demanding assurances before agreeing to the sale.  Thorash assured the group that he could obtain a signed statement from his superior that would satisfy Alexander.  Conditioned on the acceptability of this letter, Alexander reluctantly acquiesced to the sale.

    Thorash left and returned an hour later with the following letter:

_  "To whom it may concern,

    This document certifies that the church of Wee Jas has no intention of 
using or re-selling the cursed items which we are attempting to purchase 
from Thorash and Company.  We are purchasing these items with the 
intent of providing necessary capital to a group of adventurers whose 
history leads us to expect that the funds we provide will be used in the 
common fight against the Cult of Kyuss (may His plans be thwarted and His 
followers consigned to Hell).  However, we recognize that as a matter of 
commercial law, there is no way to dictate how the funds we provide will 
actually be used by Thorash and Company.  Once the transaction is 
concluded, we can have no legally binding expectations regarding the future 
actions of our transaction partners.

    Similarly, although this letter accurately reports our current 
intentions regarding the use of the property we intend to purchase, we do 
not consider those intentions (or this document) to place any legally 
binding constraints on the future disposition of property which is legally 
ours.

    We hope this document allays any concerns you may have and will permit 
you to accept what we consider to be charity - offering to buy something we 
don't need in order to help provide funds to those who are fighting a common 
enemy.

With great sincerity and best wishes for future success,

Mother Iridni, Prelate of the Church of Wee Jas"_

    Alexander found this wording to be satisfactory and, even though it was now getting late in the evening, Thorash left once more to complete the sale.  He returned with his Bag of Holding filled with thousands of gold coins.  Although Alexander took his share, he seemed uneasy accepting the money.  He announced that he would be donating all of his share to the Church of St. Cuthbert first thing in the morning in an effort to offset the evil that the cursed items might do in the future.  Tarric admired Alexander's pledge and made a similar pledge to donate 500 gp of his share to the Church of Heironeous and to give the remainder of his share to the party in order to fashion a wand of curative magic.  The other four party members took their shares and retired for the evening, thinking about how best to spend their new wealth.  

_22nd of Reaping_.  Soon after dawn, Eligos's cleric friend, Pentax, arrived.  He and Eligos exchanged some friendly banter, but he got down to business soon enough.  Once he was paid his 600 gp fee, and once Thorash was done casting Remove Curse and Cure Disease, Pentax cast Heal, and Killick was instantly cured of his affliction.  Killick immediately removed the Periapt of Foul Rotting from around his neck and smashed it into pieces in a fit of disgust.  

    With Killick's curse lifted, the party members fanned out across the city to take care of their own personal business.  Tarric took 500 gp to the church of Heironeous.  Alexander had to cast Tenser's Floating Disk in order to carry his share to the church of St. Cuthbert.  Alees went off to buy some potions, and Killick left to purchase some defensive magic items.  Katawan went to visit the money changers to make his cash easier to transport.  The group reassembled at Eligos's house for the midday meal.  When all the party members were together, Alexander announced that he would leave immediately for Diamond Lake.  Thorash said that he would do the same.  The rest of the party was puzzled by the sudden rush to return to their old hometown, but neither Alexander nor Thorash seemed interested in explaining their motives.  Since there had been talk of crafting a healing wand, some thought it might be wiser to craft it in Greyhawk before hitting the road again.  But Alexander and Thorash were both adamant that they must leave immediately.  They pledged to work on the wand together in Diamond Lake (circumstances permitting).  Tarric supported his friend Alexander and agreed to leave with him.  Killick shrugged and said that if he left immediately, he would be able to attend the Bronzewood Lodge's monthly religious service.  With 4 party members in favor of leaving immediately, the decision was made.  The party began packing up for the trip to Diamond Lake.

    Later that day, as the group traveled along the road, Killick offered Thorash a 450 gp IOU to cast a Commune spell to try to find out what was causing the seemingly random Kyuss worm infections among party members.  Thorash consented and memorized the appropriate spell at dusk.  After the party had made camp, the two of them both volunteered for first watch and quizzed Wee Jas about the cause of their infections while the rest of the party slept.  

_23rd of Reaping_.  The next morning, Killick announced to the party at breakfast that he and Thorash had learned that the Kyuss worm infections were being caused by potions the party was drinking.  However, he was not sure how to determine which ones were causing the infection.  Alexander surmised that the offending potions may have come from Ilthane's egg chamber in the Mistmarsh.

_25th of Reaping_.  When the party reached the outskirts of Diamond Lake in the early afternoon, Alexander conferred with the group briefly to inform them that a cold war was being waged in Diamond Lake between the Church of St. Cuthbert and the Church of Wee Jas.  Father Jierian had been preaching opposition to the Church of Wee Jas, and the opinions of the common folk in town had soured accordingly.  Some members of the Church of Wee Jas had suffered insults, threats, and even beatings as a result.  Alexander said that he had been sent as a representative of Matriarch Eritai of the Church of St. Cuthbert to investigate the source of the conflict between the churches and to try to encourage both parties to return to peaceful coexistence.

    As the party rode into town, they were surprised to see how many of the common people now wore weapons at their sides as they went about their daily business.  The party rented rooms at the Feral Dog and left word with an acolyte at the temple of St. Cuthbert (just a few yards away, across the town square) that they wished to meet with Father Jierian.  Thorash took his leave of the party to accomplish his own secret mission, the details of which he was reluctant to divulge.  When he returned a couple of hours later, the party informed him that Jierian had agreed to meet with the party as long as Thorash was not present.  So the five party members left Thorash behind and walked across the town square to meet with Jierian.

    The group was welcomed warmly by Father Jierian.  He told them that Killian would have been proud of all they had done to combat the forces of evil in Diamond Lake, in Greyhawk, and in the Mistmarsh.  The party thanked him for his praise.  Alexander announced that he had been sent to investigate whether there was any evidence to support Father Jierian's antagonism towards the church of Wee Jas.  

Father Jierian explained the joy he had experienced when Holy St. Cuthbert had come to him in a dream telling him that his young acolyte, Killian, was destined to have a crucial role in averting a horrific apocalypse.  Never before or since had Jierian enjoyed such direct contact with his deity.  Jierian felt proud and honored to be in a position to instruct such an important individual in the teachings of St. Cuthbert, so that when the time came, he would be strong enough to carry out his blessed destiny.

    But then Killian's life was unexpectedly cut short in the mines beneath Diamond Lake.  Surely this was not the glorious destiny that St. Cuthbert had been referring to in Father Jierian's dream!  Since St. Cuthbert could not have lied and could not have been wrong, the only explanation for Killian's premature death was the active interference of another deity - a deity whose purposes were at odds with those of St. Cuthbert!  Obviously, any deity choosing to thwart the will of St. Cuthbert must be considered an enemy of His Church!  But the question was, which deity?  Jierian meditated on this question for weeks.

Finally, he recalled the virtually miraculous coincidence that the party had recounted to him upon emerging from the mines.  As the party had recounted the tale, Killian died in the first foray against the Hextorites and the party had had to leave his body and retreat up an elevator back into a disused mine shaft.  There they sat in the dark, wounded, without a healer, unable to leave the mine, unable to continue the attack, and unable to give up (because Katawan was being held hostage).  Suddenly, out of the darkness, Thorash, the dwarven cleric of Wee Jas emerged, offering his services to the party.  

This was the missing piece of the puzzle!  This coincidence was just too good to be true.  Wee Jas must have been the deity interfering with the will of St. Cuthbert.  Apparently, She wished to insert her own servant in Killian's place.  Perhaps Wee Jas wanted her servant to enjoy the glory and the honor that would otherwise have gone to St. Cuthbert.  Or perhaps her designs were even more nefarious.  Either way, though, if Wee Jas was acting to thwart the will of St. Cuthbert, then She must be considered His enemy.  Father Jierian pledged to use all of his influence to combat this newly discovered enemy in Diamond Lake.  He began spreading the word to his parrishoners that Wee Jas is an enemy of St. Cuthbert and Wee Jas should not be allowed to continue gaining followers and exerting power in Diamond Lake.

    The party was very skeptical of Father Jierian's conclusions.  They suggested to him that it was more reasonable to conclude that Killian's death was caused by the influence of Hextor, Erythnul, or Vecna - or all three together - rather than by Wee Jas.  Jierian replied that that hypothesis would not explain the sudden appearance of Thorash at exactly the right moment.  Jierian refused to believe that Thorash's appearance was mere coincidence.  

    The party pointed out that preaching violence against those who are not evil is in violation of the tenets of St. Cuthbert.  Father Jierian agreed and told the party that he had privately spoken to those parrishoners of his whom he thought might have been responsible for the attacks on Wee Jas worshippers, telling them that their actions were not pleasing in the sight of St. Cuthbert.  However, Jierian did not deny that he wanted the followers of Wee Jas to feel unwelcome in Diamond Lake.

    The party asked if he had performed any divinations to support his claim that Wee Jas was the one thwarting the will of St. Cuthbert.  Father Jierian said that he had indeed tried divining the source of the interference, but the responses he had received had been unclear.  He said that it felt almost as if the responses he was getting from St. Cuthbert on this issue were muffled.  The party renewed their assertion that it must be some other deity trying to foster enmity between the two churches.  Killick insisted that conflict between two churches who had previously been working together to fight the Cult of Kyuss only served the forces of evil.  However, Jierian was unswayed.  He said that no evidence could sway him more than the direct Revelation he had received from his deity.  He said that, to a man of St. Cuthbert, nothing could convey greater certainty.  He wished aloud that he could convey the same certainty that he felt to the party members.

    At this point, Alexander decreed that he had heard Jierian's evidence and found it lacking.  He instructed Father Jierian that Matriarch Eritai had ordained that there should be peace between the Churches of St. Cuthbert and Wee Jas and that, accordingly, Father Jierian must cease preaching against the Church of Wee Jas in his sermons.  Jierian asked if Alexander had any documentation supporting his assertions of the Matriarch's will in this matter.  Alexander admitted that he did not, but he promised that he would request it and that it would be sent with all haste.  Since that day was a Godsday, Alexander assured him that the Matriarch's orders would arrive before his next sermon.  Father Jierian stated that if such an order came, he would have to consider whether his primary loyalty was to the hierarchy of his church or to the direct revelations he had received from St. Cuthbert.  At this point, Father Jierian thanked the party for meeting with him, and the party was ushered out.

    The party returned to their rooms at the Feral Dog and conferred with Thorash.  Alexander admitted that he thought Father Jierian was acting unreasonably and he revealed that the Matriarch had ordered that all hostilities cease.  He asked Thorash if he could set up a meeting with Sister Amariss, the leader of the church of Wee Jas in Diamond Lake.  Thorash said he was sure he could.  He left again and returned near dinner time, saying that Amariss had agreed to meet with the party in the boneyard at noon the next day.

    After dinner, Killick left for the Bronzewood Lodge.  He returned early the next morning.

_26th of Reaping_.  At noon the party met openly with Sister Amariss in the Diamond Lake boneyard, where they had first encountered her just a few months earlier.  However, this time her green robes looked bulkier, as if they were worn over some kind of armor, and she wore a heavy mace on her belt that had not been there before.  Alexander communicated to Amariss that the Matriarch of the Church of St. Cuthbert had ordered the violence against her parrishoners to stop.  Amariss seemed grateful to receive this news.  She thanked Alexander for his fair-mindedness in reaching a judgment that was at odds with his former priest.  And she expressed sympathy for Father Jierian, despite the hardship that his preaching had caused her and her church.  She could only imagine how hard it must be to hear the words of one's god and then see them contradicted.

    Thorash and Alexander retired to Allustan's house to begin working together to craft a Wand of Cure Serious Wounds.  Allustan welcomed his former pupil with open arms.  He reported that he had been spending a lot of time in the Whispering Cairn trying to discover more of the Wind Dukes' secrets.  He mentioned that he had been working to clear out a collapsed passage, and that he couldn't wait to find out what might lie on the other side.  Alexander asked Allustan if he knew of any magical effect that might cause divinations to become muffled.  Allustan said that he didn't.

_1st of Goodmonth_.  Thorash and Alexander had been working together for 4 days to craft the wand.  On this day, a courier arrived and delivered a letter to Alexander.  It contained a short message as well as another sealed letter.  The message instructed Alexander to deliver the sealed message to Father Jierian.  The message also informed him that Father Jierian was being ordered to stop making any reference to Wee Jas, the church of Wee Jas, or any followers of Wee Jas in his sermons until further notice.  Alexander assembled the rest of the party (except Thorash) and delivered the letter to Father Jierian.  He read it in front of them with a look of consternation, but he did not offer a verbal reaction.  He thanked the party for delivering it and ushered the party out, insisting that he had important matters to attend to.

_4th of Goodmonth_.  This was the next Godsday since the party's arrival in town.  Most of the members of the party were prepared to attend Father Jierian's sermon to discover whether he would abide by the Matriarch's orders.  However, at dawn, before the service started, there was a hubbub as people went to the boneyard to see something.  The party followed the crowd and found a small group of common folk celebrating around a large wooden sign planted in the ground.  The sign read, "Because of your foolish actions, Diamond Lake no longer enjoys the protection of Wee Jas.  May She have mercy upon your souls!"  Killick investigated the boneyard, and found that the sign was made from wood torn from the back of a utility shed.  When the party returned to the town square, they learned that all of the known worshippers of Wee Jas had gathered up their belongings and left town in the middle of the night.  Although the party found these events somewhat ominous, the townsfolk seemed relieved that the conflict was over and happy that their side had won.  Father Jierian's sermon later that morning expressed similar pleasure at what he considered to be an important victory over an enemy of St. Cuthbert (which he was careful not to name).

_9th of Goodmonth_.  Thorash and Alexander completed their Wand of Cure Serious Wounds, and the party departed for the town of Rosewater, home of the Rainbow Mage.

_15th of Goodmonth_.  About halfway to their destination, along what the residents of Greyhawk call the Urnst Trail, as it winds around the northern foothills of the Abbor Alz mountain chain, the party was ambushed by a tribe of marauding ogres.  The ogres blocked the road on both sides with felled trees and then ran down the hills from all directions, quickly surrounding the party.  The ogres were all clad in hide armor and wielded giant clubs.  Two of the 11 ogres seemed to be wearing slightly fancier armor and wielding slightly nicer clubs.  These two barked orders to their comrades.  The ogres did tremendous amounts of damage with their clubs.  After suffering one such blow, Alexander cast Fly and then rose out of the ogres' reach.  From the air, he pelted the ogres with lightning bolts, shouts, and magic missiles.  Meanwhile, the rest of the party became completely surrounded and flanked.  The party members dropped like flies beneath the ogres' furious blows.  One of the first to drop was Thorash, who was carrying the new healing wand in some unknown location.  Then Grimlock II (Killick's wonderdog) fell.  Then Katawan fell.  Then Tarric fell.  Although the ranks of the ogres were thinning as well, things looked grim for the heroes.  Alees tumbled to Thorash's body and rifled through his Bag of Holding until she found the Wand (wondering all the while why he didn't keep it in a more accessible location).  She was able to use it to revive Katawan and Tarric before being felled herself.  Having just awoken, Tarric nobly stood up to face the few remaining ogres, but he was in no shape to fight.  He was struck with a vicious blow that nearly took his head off just before the last ogre was killed.  His soul was almost ready to depart the Material Plane (yet again) when Killick administered a very timely charge from the new wand.  He then did the same for Thorash, who reclaimed the wand and restored consciousness to all the other party members.

    The party looted the ogres' bodies and found very little of value.  Only the 2 ogre leaders had magical items - magical hide armor and magical greatclubs.  Although these items were big and bulky, and although it might be hard to find a buyer for such items, the party found a way to stow them for sale at a future date and continued along the road south towards their destination.


----------



## Menexenus

*Session 31: Hall of the Rainbow Mage*

_23rd of Goodmonth_.  After a fortnight on the road, the party was finally nearing its destination: Rosewater, a small town that was once home to the Rainbow Mage.  As the party broke camp to begin the final leg of their journey, Thorash revealed that he had performed a divination and had learned that the party would not be facing the Rainbow Mage in combat (at least not within a week's time).  Alexander was typically dubious of anything that the dwarven cleric claimed to have learned from Wee Jas.  The others seemed at least somewhat relieved that they were not destined to face such a powerful and renowned wizard in combat.

    The party finally arrived in Rosewater a little past noon.  As they rode through town, they found that it was a bit smaller than Diamond Lake.  The roof of the wizard's tower was clearly visible poking through the tree tops on a hill about 5 to 10 miles away.  The party's first stop was at the Rosewater Stable, to board their horses.  They all tipped the stable boy, Radik, 4 extra silver pieces to pamper their road-weary horses.  He was very appreciative.  Alexander asked him where they might be able to find the Rainbow Mage.  Radik responded solemnly that the Rainbow Mage had been ambushed on the road outside town almost 2 months ago now and was feared dead.  No one in town knew who had attacked him or why.  Radik confided that, upon learning of the Rainbow Mage's disappearance, some strangers had been coming to town to loot his tower.  Some of these strangers came back from their expeditions and some didn't.  Those who returned seemed disappointed with what they were able to find.  By all accounts, none of them had found any of the wizard's secrets.  No one has found the wizard's body.  Alexander thanked the boy for his information.

    Next the party stopped at the Town Hall right off the village square.  Inside they met the town sheriff, Hamra Ranthas, a towering woman with a greataxe strapped to her back.  She had a large scar running down her cheek and neck.  Her voice was barely louder than a whisper, no doubt because of her wound.  When the party inquired about the Rainbow Mage, she inquired about the cause of their interest.  They told her that they were from Greyhawk on a mission to investigate the Rainbow Mage's death because there was evidence that he might have known something about the forces that caused the Worm's Rampage.  The sheriff seemed to accept this explanation.  She asked for the party members' names, and said she would convey them to her constables so that they would let the party pass.  She explained that the wizard's tower had seen a good deal of looting, and she was trying to put a stop to it by arresting trespassers.  

She shared with the party what her investigation had turned up about the Rainbow Mage's death.  He had been travelling to town in his carriage one evening when he was ambushed by several assailants at a bend in the trail.  A number of poisoned arrows were shot at the carriage.  3 of them struck the horse pulling the carriage, causing it to bolt.  It ran for about a minute before collapsing, causing the carriage to overturn a short distance off the trail.  Two arrows were also found in the driver of the carriage, Dane, Londar's longtime house servant (a local man).  Both the horse and the servant died quickly of the poison on the arrows.  It had been a warm night, and apparently the Rainbow Mage had opened the windows on his carriage, as some arrows were also found inside the carriage itself.  There was also blood found inside the carriage.  Killick asked for permission to inspect the arrows taken from the crime scene.  Hamra took out a sack containing evidence from the crime and allowed Killick to inspect its contents.  He found the arrows to be perfectly ordinary.  The poison was too old for precise identification, but Killick was able to ascertain that it was very deadly - whoever was using a poison like this one was intending to kill their target, not capture him.  

When the party asked for permission to investigate the wizard's tower, the sheriff referred them to the tower's lawful owner by right of inheritance, the Rainbow Mage's daughter, Learah.  Hamra informed the party that she was staying at the Red House, a local boarding establishment for wealthy and well-connected travellers, but she ate dinner each night at the White Boar Inn looking for adventurers willing to find out what happened to her father.  Hamra suggested that they party might be able to strike a deal with her.

    While most of the party left to get a room and order dinner at the White Boar Inn, Thorash went off to find Dane's elderly mother.  As delicately as he could, Thorash asked the woman for permission to exhume Dane's body so that he might ask his spirit for more information about the circumstances of his death.  While the old lady encouraged him to find and punish Dane's killers, she asked Thorash to allow Dane's spirit to rest in peace.  Thorash told the woman that he would respect her wishes and then left to join his companions at the White Boar Inn.  Each party member except Katawan and Killick rented a room for the night.  (Killick had been disappointed to learn that Baeris, the owner, did not allow guests to keep dogs in their rooms.)

    Since dinner would not be ready for an hour or so, the party took a stroll through town entering a small house with a placard outside indicating that healing services were available for sale.  Inside was a woman with long brown hair into which she had braided numerous wildflowers.  She introduced herself as Mara and asked if the party was in need of healing.  They said they were not, but they might be in the future.  Thorash asked her if she could tell them who in town had used her services at about the same time that the Rainbow Mage disappeared.  She politely replied that she had taken a strict vow of neutrality which required her to keep her patients' information confidential.  When the party asked her if she had any healing potions for sale, she said that she did.  However, if they wanted a greater selection of potions, they should find Maroof, the local apothecary, who sold a number of magical elixirs along with more mundane potions and salves.  Since it was about time for dinner, the party thanked her for her help and suggested that they might have reason to return over the course of the next few days.

    The party walked back to the White Boar Inn and found that dinner was well-attended.  It seemed that half of the town had turned out.  The party was lucky to find a small table available.  When they asked a waitress, they were told that this level of attendance was normal.  Just before dinner, a golden-haired woman with a lute took the stage.  She introduced herself as Khenden Brightsun.  She began singing and playing very pleasantly, and her performance was greeted with generous applause and not-quite-so-generous tips from the bar patrons.  As soon as the party was done with their meal, a well-dressed, well-mannered woman in her late 20s or early 30s approached the party's table, introducing herself as Learah, Londar Brightrain's daughter.  She asked the party if they could be persuaded to help her find out who attacked her father.  The party replied that they were in town to do just that.  They told her they had come from Greyhawk because they thought Londar might have had some information about the Worm's Rampage in Greyhawk.  Learah interjected that perhaps that is why her father was killed.  She explained that, since she was not a student of the magical arts, she had never had a reason to visit anything more than the first floor of her father's tower.  So she was unaware what might lie on the other levels, and she was unaware of the passwords that might disarm any traps.  The one thing she could help them with was getting in the front door, which she knew was trapped.  She said she was in possession of a key that would temporarily disarm the trap and allow the party to enter.  She said that her first priority was to find her father's remains and her second priority was to find out who had killed him.  She gave the party permission to investigate her father's house and read his writings.  She offered each party member one item of their choice from the house in payment for their help.  The party accepted this offer, and they all agreed to meet just after dawn to go to the tower together.

    After Learah retired for the evening, the party was approached by a dark haired man whom Alees had noticed earlier was watching them.  He introduced himself as Anders Fierk, a humble student of the arcane arts.  He surmised from observing the party's discussion with Learah that they would be helping her explore her father's tower.  He offered to pay the party generously if they would recover Londar's spellbooks for him to copy.  He explained that he was the Rainbow Mage's former apprentice, and he couldn't bear the thought of his former master's knowledge being forgotten.  He wanted to help spread the word of his former mentor's greatness, but in order to do so, he needed copies of Londar's work.  While Alexander complimented Anders on his motives, he said that he could not agree to such an arrangement without discussing it with Learah first.  Anders seemed disappointed.  As he left, he asked the party not to forget his offer, if they should change their minds.  After he was gone, Alees shared with the rest of the party that she thought Anders was not being completely honest with them.


_24th of Goodmonth_.  The next morning, the party met with Learah outside the White Boar Inn and they all headed down the road towards the wizard's tower.  Alexander asked Learah about Anders.  She replied that Anders had been making the same offer to everyone who arrived in town.  She was of the view that his offers were encouraging much of the looting that had taken place.  Consequently, she did not want the party to make any side arrangements with Anders.  Alexander assured her that they would not do so.  

Along the way, they came across the spot where the carriage had been found.  Killick poked around a bit, and found the deep wheelmarks where the carriage had left the road.  But there was nothing else of interest left there.  A few minutes later they came across the ambush site.  This location was easy to spot, because there was a large black blastmark in the middle of the road where the Rainbow Mage had apparently fought back briefly against his assailants.  Killick spent a half hour here while the rest of the party continued ahead.  He was able to find a few more arrows like the ones that Hamra had shown him before, but nothing new.  

    Killick and his dog caught up with the group just as they arrived at the wizard's tower.  A dead body lay on the steps leading up to the front door.  The corpse had already been picked clean of valuables.  After examining the deceased's state of decay, Killick guessed that the body had been lying there for about a week.  He determined that the man died from a massive discharge of energy, but the state of decay made it impossible to tell exactly what kind.  Two stained glass windows on the front of the house had been broken - a round one above the front door and a square one to the right of the door.  There was almost no glass at all left in the square one, while the round one looked as though a rock had been tossed through it.  Learah used her key in the front door and wished the party luck.  She informed them that she would be in the common room of the White Boar Inn if they had any news to report.  At that point she headed back to town.  The party scouted around the outside of the house.  There were two other broken stained glass windows on the other two sides of the building.  But on the rounded far side of the house - the side where the tower was - there were very large unbroken stained glass windows.

    Thorash propped the front door open to ensure that the door would not close and the trap reset.  The party entered the foyer.  There were darkened spots on the walls where pictures or tapestries had once hung.  There were 3 interior doors leading from this small room.  2 were closed, but the one directly across from the front door was open, showing a hallway that eventually opened up into a larger space.  Along this hallway were a number of doors, all of which were closed.  Alees took her time checking everything for traps and secret compartments.  She found no traps on the door immediately to the right of the main entrance.  She opened the door and found an emptied coat closet.  The door to the left of the main entrance was also not trapped.  When she opened it, she found the servant's quarters.  This room had been ransacked and anything of value big enough to fit through the window had been taken.  Everything else had been destroyed.  Alees also found a secret compartment behind a loose panel in the foyer.  Inside was a finely-made crossbow with some finely-made bolts.  Since Alexander was still outside, Alees made an attempt to switch her own mundane crossbow bolts with the bolts inside the panel.  She thought that her sleight of hand had not been detected by anyone in the party (or at least, anyone who might actually care).

    Next she started carefully checking the doors in the hallway.  She opened the door on the right side of the hallway, and it opened up into a kitchen.  There was a large brick oven in the middle of the room, flour was strewn about the floor, and all the cupboards were open and bare.  The party spotted a number of human-sized boot prints moving through the flour in all directions.  After Alees was convinced that there were no secret compartments in this room, began investigating the doors on the other side of the hallway.  While she was looking at the first door, Thorash moved into the open space at the end of the hallway and found that it was a dining room.  The table and all of the chairs had been overturned, and there was a noticeable odor of stale vomit in the room.  Thorash saw that there was a small ledge on the far wall below the broken stained glass window, where small figures might once have stood.  Indeed there was one small statue of a silver dragon still on it.

    At this point, Alees finished checking the door for traps.  Finding it untrapped, she opened it and found herself face to face with a group of 5 adventurers who seemed prepared for her.  As soon as the door opened, a wizard cast Web into the dining room, catching Thorash and Alees in the sticky strands.  An archer shot an arrow at her, missing her.  A rogue stabbed at her with his rapier, missing.  A cleric in the back of the room cast a spell on himself.  Finally, a large, well-muscled man screamed in rage, stepped up and slashed into Alees with his greataxe, causing grievous damage.  Her companions moved up to the Web to help Alees escape.  Katawan even drew a flint and steel from his backpack in order to help burn her out of the web, but Alees shook him off.  Instead, she closed her eyes in fervent prayer to Fharlangn, and suddenly she was able to slip out of the Web, avoiding another blow from the big man's greataxe.  The enemy wizard stepped up to the doorway and fanned a sheet of flames from his finger tips, setting the web alight.  This was the opening that Katawan had been hoping for.  He dropped the flint and steel, ripped a bead from his necklace, and tossed it against the room's far wall, engulfing the whole room in flames.  Screams of pain came from inside.  Alexander launched magic missiles at the man in the doorway who had struck Alees.  The enemy cleric cast a spell that caused Alexander to freeze.  However, Alexander was able to shake off this effect just seconds later.  Used his skill with the whirling quarterstaff to block the doorway and make it virtually impossible for anyone to hit him.  Thorash struggled to free himself as he saw the fire quickly approaching.  Alees healed herself in the safety of the kitchen.  Tarric attacked the man with the greataxe from around the corner, doing him serious damage.  Meanwhile, Katawan kept tossing in beads.  After the third explosion, the enemy party dropped their weapons and offered their surrender to Tarric.  They seemed to recognize his shield insignia and surmised that a Knight of Holy Shielding would be likely to treat them honorably.  However, just when the battle seemed over, a bearded demon suddenly appeared in the room.  The enemy party quickly rearmed themselves and began fighting it.  Tarric and Killick moved into the room to help them against the infernal entity.  Seeing that it was most likely going to be dispatched by force of arms anyway, Thorash waved a charred hand and the bearded demon returned from whence it had come.

    With the fight really over this time, the enemy party negotiated the terms of their surrender.  They offered the party all of their magical items in exchange for their freedom.  When the party realized that arresting and trying the looters in court would result in the looters' property being forfeited to the crown (rather than to them), they decided to accept their prisoners' offer.  However, before the prisoners left, they mentioned that the party might regret attacking agents of the Thieves' Guild engaged in Guild business.  The party found this comment to be laughable and sent their former prisoners on their way, warning them not to return.


----------



## Menexenus

*Session 32: Exploring the Hall of the Rainbow Mage*

_24th of Goodmonth_.  After accepting the surrender of a rival gang of adventurers, they were relieved of their magical items and released after pledging not to return.  Then the party continued its exploration of the Rainbow Mage's house.  After Alees certified that the door was not trapped, she stepped back and allowed Killick to open it.  When he did so, he saw a large wooden man standing in the far corner of the room, sculpted to look as if he were holding a light mace in each hand.  It raised its head and began emitting a tremendous howl from its mouth, making communication difficult.  It began moving forward in a threatening manner.  Killick suggested that the party fight the construct in the doorway, but not all of his party-mates heard (or wished to heed) this advice.  Tarric and Thorash moved into the room.  Katawan used spring attack to remain outside the room.  Killick cast a spell and then began throwing spheres of fire at the wooden creature.  Some of this fire did not affect the creature, but some seemed to scorch it.  After a small amount of maneuvering, the party was able to flank the creature.  Only Thorash, attacking with his dagger, thought he was doing full damage when he struck the wooden construct.  Alexander shot two volleys of magic missiles at the creature, but when he saw that they were not affecting it, he stopped attacking and left it to his party-mates.  Eventually, it fell to the party's combined assault.  

    With the action over, the party had time to look around a bit.  This room had clearly been a fancy bedroom at one time.  It had a small stained glass window on the far wall that had not been broken.  However, it was currently in a disastrous state after at least two pitched battles.  (Two mostly decomposed bodies lying in the room indicated that there must have been another battle in this room within the last several weeks.)  Killick requested that the party forego a detailed search and move on to the next room before the duration of his fire spell expired.  So the group moved through the dining room, through an archway into the living room.  The living room represented the ground level of the rounded wizard's tower.  On the far side of the room was a winding stone stair case leading up.  Above the staircase was a large and impressive bank of unbroken stained glass windows.  The many chairs and sofas in this room had been slashed to ribbons by previous looters.  Dark spots on the wall indicated where paintings or tapestries had once hung.  Along the west wall was a set of double doors.  Alees approached them and did a quick check for traps.  She did not find any, but she did point out a spray of blood that had been left on the doors.  Killick determined that blood's splash pattern was consistent with injuries received inside the room while the doors were open.

    With flames still dancing on his fingertips, Killick opened the doors into what looked like a large office.  There was a somewhat larger unbroken stained glass window on the far wall.  There were small crystal vases and statues ensconced in small depressions along the walls.  Each piece of crystal was backlit, producing a pleasant pattern of colorful refracted light that played along the walls and the ceiling.  There were also two wooden guardians standing in the far corners.  Again, they sounded a nearly deafening alarm and moved to attack the intruders.  Before the party could move in to engage the creatures in melee, Katawan tossed one of the beads from his necklace into the room, causing a concussive ball of fire that shattered the crystal objects ensconced on the walls (which also eliminated the colorful pattern on the walls).  The party moved into the room to face the guardians.  Again, they were able to flank the creatures.  Again, Alexander waited for his companions to take care of them.  Again, Thorash's dagger seemed to be the only weapon that was doing full damage.  And again, the creatures were destroyed.

    Again, rather than performing a thorough sweep of the room, the party decided to continue on up the stairs to face any potential threats before spell-effects wore off.  The party ascended the stone stairs that rose around the perimeter of the round room.  Above the office, the stairs ended in a landing before red stone door.  Alees noticed scorchmarks on the stone landing which helped her to find a trap on the door which she quickly disarmed.  Then she unlocked the door using her "locksmith" tools.  Inside the door was a round, empty, stone room.  The only thing in the room was another curving set of stairs ascending to the next level.  Before anyone entered, Killick checked for traps and ascertained that the tracks he had found throughout the rest of the building were not present here.  He surmised that the party was now in territory that no other looters had already exploited.  Alees entered the room and shot a bolt into the emptiness of the room and heard it thunk onto something.  She entered the room to retrieve the bolt and tripped over something unseen.  The rest of the party lost sight of Alees.  They called out to her, and she called back that she had fallen.  After a few moments of conversation, it became clear to all involved that the party could not see Alees but that she could see them.  She moved her hands over the objects in front of her (which she still could not see) and determined that they felt like furniture.  Thorash cast Invisibility Purge and the party saw that indeed Alees was standing among a large group of valuable looking castoff furniture piled up in the middle of the large circular room.

    The party chose to move on.  The ascended the next set of stairs which led to another landing and a blue stone door.  Alees checked it for traps and found another one which she quickly disarmed.  The party opened the door and found what seemed to be a reading room decorated with beautiful crystal lamps, broad wool tapestries, and ornate wood chairs with plush cushions.  In the middle of the room, a full-sized mirror was molded into the stone decorated with colored stone inlays resembling strange runes.  Alexander found the runes to be unknown in meaning or function, but he determined that the mirror radiated an aura of strong transmutation magic.  He also noticed a small gem-sized depression at the top of the mirror which Alexander speculated might be involved in the activation of the magical effect.  Along the circumference of the room was another winding staircase leading to a landing.  The party chose to press on.

    At the landing was a purple stone door.  To her surprise, Alees found that this door was untrapped and unlocked.  She opened the door and found a circular room with a massive crystal ball in the center of the room surrounded by numerous silver bowls filled with water.  Runes and sigils decorated the north wall above a circle of inlaid stone.  Thorash determined that none of the stonework in the room was any newer or older than any other.  Alexander determined that this room functioned to significantly enhance a spellcaster's scrying abilities.  On a table were a number of maps stacked on top of one another.  

    At this point, the party decided that the house was "clear" of threats, and so they began to take their time investigating everything they had found carefully.  After a bit of triangulation and pooling of general geographic knowledge, the party determined that some of the maps provided a detailed analysis of a region of the Eastern Abbor-Alz mountain chain to the southeast of their current position.  A mountain that was referred to as Arn's Mountain on the maps was highlighted as if it was of great significance.  This name rung a bell with Thorash.  He reported to the party that that name (Arn's Mountain) had been referenced in the Apostolic Scrolls as a legendary lost repository of ancient treasures sacred to Kyuss.  Other maps seemed to contain battle plans leading from the Abbor Alz mountains in the south towards important cities in the Duchy of Urnst.  The party also found an unsigned letter written by a Kyuss worshipper recording an agreement that the Rainbow Mage would conquer the Duchy of Urnst while the letter's author would conquer Greyhawk.  The letter also requests that the Rainbow Mage deliver something of great importance to Greyhawk with haste, as the day of the author's ascension was quickly approaching.

    After looking a bit longer at the reading room on the third floor and the furniture stacked on the second floor, the party returned to the ground floor.  They examined the bedroom where they fought the single wooden guardian.  Although most objects of value in this room were either destroyed or gone, Alees found a drawer with a secret bottom containing 7 potions.  She also found 2 nicely-made daggers and a well-crafted longsword on the corpses in the room.  Then she turned her attention to the office.  Although most of the papers on the desk had been charred beyond recognition by Katawan's fireball, there was still a scroll that might contain a few salvageable spells.  Alees noticed a suspicious-looking unbroken crystal on the top of the desk, embedded in the wood.  Alees discovered that it was part of a trap and disarmed it.  Papers inside the desk had remained unharmed.  Here the party found 3 scrolls.  Behind a bookcase near the desk Alees found a secret door.  The door was untrapped.  Behind it lay a tight spiral staircase descending steeply downward.  The party prepared to continue into the unknown.

    At the bottom of the staircase was a rough-hewn passageway with a dim light coming from up ahead.  Ahead they found a shimmering wall of force and a corpse lying on the ground in front of it.  Alees was able to find and disarm the trap that had killed the unfortunate adventurer, who seemed to have been killed by some sort of energy blast.  The only thing of value on the corpse that was not destroyed outright by the blast was his robe.  Just in front of the energy field was a thin pillar containing a hand print.  After some experimentation, the party discovered if someone placed a hand on the hand print and turned it one quarter turn clockwise, the energy field directly in front of them subsided.  They discovered a similar hand print on the opposite side of the field.  They also noticed that the air beyond the energy field was much noticeably hotter and moister.  About 40 feet ahead, the party came to a fork in the passageway.  They followed the left fork which turned and came to another energy field blocking passage into what looked like a jungle filled with lush vegetation that reduced visibility to only a few feet.  Again, there was a handprint on the wall which dropped the forcefield and allowed passage inside.  There were numbers of exotic bird and animal calls coming from inside.  Killick changed himself into one of the birds that he saw and flew into the jungle area.  While Killick was gone, someone decided to close the first force field the party had passed through.

    Ten minutes later, Killick returned and changed back into human form.  He reported that the area was indeed a large cavern, about 40 feet tall, illuminated with permanent daylight spells cast on some of the stalactites hanging from the ceiling.  The giant cavern was filled with lush vegetation, exotic birds and mammals, and one large giant with 3 arms (one of which extended from the middle of its chest).  The giant carried many large clubs and seemed to be watching a disk carved into the floor with magical runes inscribed on it.  Killick reported that there were at least two other similar disks in the cavern.  There were also at least 3 small pools of water which the creatures of the cavern seemed to use as watering holes.  Because of the lush, overgrown vegetation, Killick could not guarantee that he had seen everything that might be lurking in the cavern.  However, he had not discovered any other means of exit from the cavern.  It seemed to be a dead-end.  Alexander entered the cavern and started yelling loudly to the giant that he wished to negotiate with it.  It approached him and yelled in a language that no one in the party understood.  Then it threw a rock at him.  Alexander quickly stepped back out and reactivated the force field.

    Seeing no reason to attack the giant, the party decided to explore the other fork.  This also led to a cavern protected by a force field.  Through the force field, the party could see that this cavern was filled mostly with a large pool of water.  There was a narrow pathway leading around the pool to the far side were there was an exit protected by yet another force field.  The party disabled the force field and entered the room.  As soon as they did, they saw the force field on the far side drop and an elven woman reading a book walk through.  Then she looked up and noticed the party.  This caused her to scream hysterically.  She jumped into the pool and swam as far away from the party as she could get.  Tarric exclaimed that they must rescue the girl.  He began taking off his armor so that he could swim to her rescue.  However, the rest of the party was dubious.  Killick walked to the far side of the room and attempted to reactivate the force field that the elf girl had opened.  But something was wrong - turning the handprint did not reactivate the force field as it had done in the past.  Suddenly, Alees agreed that the elf girl must be saved, and she jumped into the pool.  However, she was such a poor swimmer that she was barely keeping herself afloat.  (How did she expect to rescue someone else if she could barely swim herself?)  Killick jumped into the water and transformed himself into a porpoise.  He used echo-location to determine that there was no elf girl flailing in the water and that there was a large tentacled creature floating below.  Unfortunately, he was unable to communicate these facts to the rest of the party!

    Finally, Alees made it to the elf girl and found that there was no one to grab onto.  This caused her to snap herself out of whatever was affecting her judgment.  She yelled out that the elf girl was not real and started swimming back to shore.  However, at this moment the creature rose to just below the surface and attacked her with its tentacles.  She noticed that the creature had drawn blood and that there was some icky slime around the wound.  Thorash cast Airwalk and walked out to aid Alees.  Now that Alexander could see the creature, he fired a volley of magic missiles at it.  Suddenly, Tarric stopped taking his armor off.  Instead, he drew his sword and attacked Alexander!  Katawan felt the creature try to take over his mind, but he retained control.  Killick returned to human form and got out of the water.  The creature attacked him with its tentacles.  Again, it drew blood and Killick noticed copious amounts of viscous slime around the wound.  Thorash was able to get Alees to dry land.  Seeing that Tarric was not himself, Grimlock launched himself at the fighter, knocking him to the ground.  Alexander continued pelting the creature with magic missiles.  Before it could sink back down to safety, it was killed by magic missiles cast by Thorash from a wand.  Its corpse floated to the surface, revealing a large fish-like creature with three eyes arrayed in a row leading toward its dorsal fin.  Alexander recalled reading about such creatures before and knew that it was called an aboleth.

    As the party celebrated its victory, they noticed that Killick and Alees's skin was already starting to become noticeably transparent.  Something was happening to them!  They seemed to be undergoing some grotesque transformation.  The party quickly surveyed its remaining spells in an attempt to save Killick and Alees from their unknown fates...


----------



## Menexenus

*Sessions 33-35: Securing the Rainbow Mage's Dungeon*

_24th of Goodmonth_.  After fighting an Aboleth, Killick and Alees were both in the process of turning into some kind of aquatic creature.  Alexander informed the party that a Cure Disease spell was needed to prevent the transformation.  Thorash had one memorized, but there were two party-members to choose from.  Rather than make the choice himself, Thorash left the decision to a party vote.  Killick and Alees voted for themselves, cancelling each other's votes out.  Katawan voted for Alees, but Alexander and Tarric voted for Killick.  Consequently, Thorash cast the spell on Killick, and his skin returned to its normal hues.  Alees was desperate to prevent the transformation.  She opened all 9 of the unidentified potions that the party had recently found and quaffed them all in sequence, hoping that one might have the effects of a Cure Disease spell.  Some of them made her stronger.  Some of them made her quicker.  Some of them healed her damage and restored her abilities.  One of them caused her to fall head over heels in love with Thorash.  But none of them stopped her transformation.  Minutes later, Alees became a fish creature.  She was unable to communicate with her friends and had a strong desire to keep her skin wet.  She sullenly jumped into the Aboleth's pond and swam down to the bottom looking for treasure.  But she found that she wasn't as good as she used to be at finding hidden things.  Thorash cast Fox's Cunning and Water Breathing on himself and had Alees accompany him to the bottom of the pool to assist him in looking for the Aboleth's nest (which she did gladly).  After a good deal of swimming and looking, the pair found a hidden cave where the Aboleth had stored some valuables.

    Alexander promised Alees that the party would take no actions until she was cured.  This seemed to raise her spirits a bit.  Unfortunately, though, now that the transformation was complete, Alexander informed the party that a higher level spell would be needed in order to return her to normal.  After he described the required spell, Thorash admitted that he was unable to cast it himself.  Consequently, the party pooled all of the loot that they had accumulated since leaving Greyhawk, and Alexander prepared to teleport to Greyhawk the next morning to purchase a scroll of the necessary spell.

_25th of Goodmonth_.  The party camped in the pond room overnight.  When they awoke, Alexander rememorized spells, gathered the swag to sell, and teleported to Greyhawk.  The party kept watch on the exits of the room and did what they could to keep Alees's spirits up.  The thing that Alees seemed to want most in the world was Thorash's love and attention, but all of her advances were gruffly spurned by the dour dwarf.  The party rested up and waited for Alexander's return...

_26th of Goodmonth_.  Alexander returned in the morning with a scroll of Heal along with the leftover cash in platinum which he divided evenly among his party-mates.  Thorash successfully cast the spell from the scroll and Alees transformed back to her old self.  Alees was over-joyed to be back to her old self.  Thorash had to fight to squirm out of Alees's exuberant hug of gratitude (and attraction).  The party got ready to continue on into the memorably bizarre dungeon of the Rainbow Mage.

    Leading out of the Aboleth's cavern was a narrow stone passageway that glittered darkly with small gemstones.  As they filed into the hallway, a loud noise exploded all around them.  The walls of the cavern seemed to be amplifying the effect, causing damage to those who were not fast enough to cover their ears.  The party moved forward quickly into a very large, dimly lit cavern of gem encrusted rock.  In the middle of this natural cavern stood a glowing pillar of light.  The party approached it.  The pillar seemed to be carved out of crystal with a magical light effect inside that gently changed colors as the viewer watched.  As the party began fanning out to explore their surroundings, they noticed figures emerging from the walls of the cavern.  The humanoid figures seemed to be made of gem-encrusted rock, just like the walls of the cavern.  There was little time to ponder who or what these creatures might be, because they were attacking the party!  The party formed up to defend itself.  The rock creatures moved into close range and then emitted a colorful spray of light from their mouths that had a stunning effect on some members of the party.  The rock creatures moved to grapple those who were stunned by this effect.  Those who were not stunned fought back, but found that their weapons had a significantly reduced effect against their enemies' rocky hides.  All except Thorash, that is.  His dagger seemed to be doing full damage.  As Thorash stabbed at the rocky creatures, he wondered suddenly why he had drawn his dagger.  Hadn't he intended to draw his morningstar?  Nevermind.  He lunged at the rocky creatures again and again.  But on two occasions, when he made particularly poor attempts to hit his enemies, his dagger doubled back and cut Thorash instead!  Thorash accepted these painful rebukes from his dagger in stride and pledged to wield it more expertly in the future.

    Alexander used his wand to cast Magic Missiles at the creatures.  Some of them damaged the creatures, but some did not.  When the rock creatures died, their bodies exploded, sending shards of rock outward in all directions.  Those standing close to the creatures had to jump out of the way quickly to avoid taking damage.  Just as the encounter seemed almost over, the party noticed more of the same shapes moving towards them in the gloomy distance.  Katawan pulled the penultimate bead from his Necklace of Fireballs and tossed it towards the reinforcements.  The explosion lit up the back of the cavern and revealed 8 more rocky creatures coming to aid their brethren.  Alexander also launched a fireball.  The combined explosions caused one of the creatures to collapse, but the other 7 continued their approach.  They also used their colorful attack at short range to disable some members of the party while others tried to grapple those who were stunned.  Tarric found himself grappled by 4 of the creatures, and had difficulty escaping their combined hold on him.  His party-mates tried to help, but both Killick and Katawan hit him instead of the rocky creatures.  (They both tried to make amends for their embarrassing mistakes by administering healing potions to their grappled friend.)

    However, at long last, the party was successful and all was quiet in the dark cavern.  The party explored the cavern and found a large pool at the far side of the pool, but no valuables and no obvious exits.  Could this entire underground complex be a dead-end?  Killick had found no exits in the jungle cavern, and there seemed to be no exits from this one either.  However, after about an hour of careful searching, Alees discovered a secret door hidden in the rock.  The door was opened using the familiar rotating handprint symbol that had also been used to drop and raise the force fields they had passed through earlier.  Since it was untrapped, Alees opened it.

    The contrast between the dark rough cavern they had just been in and the new room beyond the secret door couldn't be any starker.  Inside the door was a well-lit, immaculately clean sitting room, containing couches, comfortable chairs, rugs on the smooth floor, and pleasant tapestries hanging on the walls.  On the far wall was another door with a handprint symbol in the middle.  Alees carefully checked it for traps and found none.  She stepped away and allowed one of the better armored characters to open it.  It opened into a slightly larger but even more brightly lit room.  The light coming from this room was so intense that it took the party-members a while for their eyes to adjust.  When they could see clearly, they saw an empty room with a ceiling that glowed like the noonday sun and strange runes that circled all four walls in a repeating but uninterrupted pattern.  There were doors on each of the 3 other walls.  

    Alees checked the door to the right first and found it untrapped.  Killick opened the door and saw a dark room full of coffins - 3 smashed wooden coffins and 5 stone coffins against the far wall.  (One of the stone coffins was also broken or collapsed.)  Killick checked for tracks in the room and found some that were very old.  He looked up and noticed a strange mist hanging near the 20 foot high ceiling.  He and Thorash moved into the room to investigate the coffins.  The wooden ones contained nothing of value.  Thorash moved to the smashed stone coffin and found it was also empty.  Killick and Thorash jointly surmised that the coffins had been smashed from the outside, not the inside.  They noticed that the stone coffins were ornately decorated, but no names or dates were carved into them.  Killick asked Thorash if his faith would permit the party to disturb the closed coffins at the back of the room.  Thorash determined that since the coffins had no markings, they were probably empty.  (So there would be no offense in opening them.)  Killick tried to open the one in the middle, but found that the stone lid was too heavy for him.  He called for help.  Katawan came in to help out, and Tarric moved into the doorway as a precaution.  Katawan and Killick lifted the stone slab off the coffin in the middle and found 5 potions and a wand inside.  

    Just as the party members were becoming interested in the swag found in the coffin, the mist on the ceiling poured down onto the floor behind the doorway and became a pale humanoid with piercing eyes wearing a chain shirt and a bastard sword on his belt.  The creature gazed at Tarric and told him to close the door and prevent anyone from leaving.  As it spoke, Tarric noticed the creature's long, pointed incisors.  For a moment, Tarric paused, but then he shook off the creature's beguiling effect and drew his bastard sword to confront it.  Seeing that its command had failed, it drew its weapon as well.  The party surrounded the creature, taking turns lashing out at it.  When it was flanked, it resumed its misty form and returned to the ceiling.  Alexander continued peppering its misty form with magic missiles.  The mist reformed into its humanoid form standing on the wall.  It tried to command Alexander to fire his magic missiles at his friends, but Alexander refused the command.  With the next volley of magic missiles, the vampire turned into mist and entered the coffin in the far corner of the room.  The party fashioned a stake out of some of the broken wooden coffins, lifted the lid of the vampire's coffin, and plunged it into the creature's heart.  It opened its eyes and screamed in agony before turning into a pile of dust.  Inside the vampire's coffin was a bag with a number of pearls and some money as well as a finely made dagger.  Lifting the lids off the other coffins, the party found 3 scrolls as well as a ring hidden under a pillow.

    The party returned to the bright empty room and Alees searched the next door - the one opposite the one they had entered.  Again it was untrapped.  This time Tarric opened the door and found a large laboratory, filled with benches and bottles, shelves full of reagents, half-finished experiments, drawers containing glassware, and a basin for washing.  There were three other doors in this room as well, one on each wall (as before).  However, this time, one of the doors was purple.  Alees checked them all for traps and found that only the door across from the purple one was trapped (the door to the right of the door from which the party had entered).  She admitted that she was unable to disarm the trap.  The party decided to try the trapped door first.  Katawan thought he might be best able to avoid the trap and volunteered to open the door.  He placed his hand into the hand print and turnd the dial.  When he did so, a large jet of freezing cold air blasted out at him, but with almost unnatural reflexes, the monk was able to avoid the effects of the blast without removing his hand from the door.  Katawan finished opening the door and found a decaying corpse lying on the floor of a small square room decorated with multi-colored tiles.  The corpse wore a rainbow colored cloak and had a black arrow protruding from its chest.  Killick examined the corpse and estimated that it had been dead for about 2 months, which fit well with the timeline of the Rainbow Mage's disappearance.  The body also wore a signet ring identical to the one that Learah had worn at the inn back in town.  These were almost certainly the remains of the Rainbow Mage.

    The party removed the Rainbow Mage's body from the small room and brought it into the laboratory.  Someone cast Detect Magic, and all of the mage's magic items were removed from his body for safe keeping.  Then the party moved on to open the next door.  Beyond this door was a large library, containing shelves full of books that covered the walls, floor to ceiling.  In the middle of the room was a comfortable looking chair next to a round table.  Some books were still sitting on the table.  However, as soon as the doors were opened, 3 robed figures standing in the corners raised their heads and looked at the intruders.  Their faces were wooden.  Not recognizing the party members, the wooden creatures began to howl and moved to attack.  They seemed to be the same wooden guardians that the party had fought upstairs in the Rainbow Mage's office and bedroom.  Alexander screamed out to Katawan that fireballs were off limits in the library!  

    The party fought the 3 creatures from the doorway for a while.  After killing one, they moved into the room to take advantage of flanking positions.  The wooden guardians were no match for the party and were quickly destroyed.  As Alexander perused the library, the party heard a loud pop come from the laboratory.  Everyone came to see what had happened.  They found Alees standing over an open drawer with a soot on her grinning face.  She said sheepishly, "I guess this one was trapped."  Inside the open drawer was an ornate book titled "Utility."  Alexander cast Detect Magic and realized that it was a spellbook.  Then he walked into the library and quickly found 5 more spellbooks scattered randomly throughout the packed shelves.  Alees glanced at the books that Alexander was removing from the shelves and indicated that she thought they might be trapped.  The party also looked at the books sitting on his reading table.  Two of the books on the table comprised a 2 volume set titled "The Arcanari."  A third book on the table was titled "Jaeral's Jungle Guide."  The last book on the table was called "Iliachoam's Beasts and Saddles."

    The party moved back into the laboratory and investigated the purple door.  Alees certified that it was not trapped, but she could find no way to open it.  The handprint on the door would not turn and the stone door was locked firmly in place, with no wiggle room whatsoever.  Having no luck with the purple door, the party returned to the previous room (the bright room), and opened the last remaining door.  It opened into a dusty closet with a large trunk in the back corner.  Katawan moved into the closet to investigate, and as he bent down to investigate the trunk, a large mass of arms, eyes, mouths, and sinew rose up from behind it and struck him.  Katawan felt his body losing cohesion for a moment, but then used the mental training he had learned in the monastery to bring himself back under control.  The party jumped to attention and came to Katawan's defense.  The chaotic aberration did not last long under the party's expert assault.

    When the fight was over, Alees reported that she had discovered a secret door behind a false bank of bookshelves in the library.  The party came in and saw a large steel metal door exposed where there had only been books before.  Alees reported that the door was certainly trapped but she was unable to disarm it.  Again, Katawan volunteered to be the one to try the door.  Thorash remained in the room with him, but the others left the room, just to be safe.  Katawan turned the hand dial in the middle of the door and a tremendous thunderclap filled the room.  A huge lightning bolt struck Katawan in the chest and then arced across the room and struck Thorash as well.  Both were sorely wounded by the trap, but still alive.  After setting off the trap, Alees was able to finish unlocking the door.  The party opened the heavy metal door and found a narrow 10 by 30 room filled with valuables.  Inside were many of the Rainbow Mage's most powerful magical items, bags full of cash, and his journal.  Several members of the party were now regretting their agreement with the Rainbow Mage's daughter that each party member would receive only one magical item in payment for their work.

    The party decided to return to the large jungle cavern that they had encountered before the aboleth.  Thorash decided to cast Comprehend Languages on the giant in the cavern so that he could understand its speech.  But he would need to be able to touch it.  So he cast protective spells on himself, and Katawan donated a stored Invisibility spell from his ring.  Killick accompanied Thorash into the cavern in bird form.  The cavern was full of think underbrush making movement difficult and limiting vision.  However, Killick was able to lead Thorash to where the giant lay sleeping.  Thorash successfully delivered the touch spell (causing him to become visible), but the giant did not wake.  So Thorash slapped it across the face.  It woke up and said in a language that Thorash could now understand, "You stupid for coming back.  Me eat you now."

    The giant stood up and swiped at Thorash, but missed him.  Killick moved out of the giant's reach and transformed back into human form.  The rest of the party heard things going badly and began moving into the cavern.  The giant caught up to the retreating Thorash, drawing 2 clubs as he did so.  With its third arm (the one extending from the middle of its chest), it grabbed tightly onto Thorash and squeezed.  Thorash was in severe pain.  Alexander shot a powerful lightning bolt at the giant which also damaged Thorash.  As the party moved to Thorash's aid, the giant continued squeezing Thorash, causing him to collapse.  Keeping its grip on Thorash's unconscious form, the giant swung its 2 clubs at the remaining party members.  However, since it was not able to scare the party away, and since it was unable to run away, it fought to the bitter end.  As the giant fell to the party's combined assault, it released its grip on Thorash's body, which fell to the ground gently, like a feather.  The party looted the giant's body of some necklaces and bracelets.  They also found some valuables hidden where the giant had slept.

    With the threat eliminated, Alees did an extensive sweep of the walls of the cavern.  After a couple hours, she found a hidden door.  The party turned the dial and found a short narrow hallway opening up to a larger room.  Killick went in to investigate.  On the far wall was a purple hand dial, but there was no door.  However, on both sides of Killick were 2 force fields that seemed to be holding back some kind of gas.  Thorash cast Detect Poison and identified that the gas was poisonous.  Thorash offered Killick a vial of antitoxin to help him in case the gas was released, and Killick gratefully accepted.  After drinking it, Killick turned the dial.  When he did so, the force fields dropped, and the gas engulfed Killick.  He did his best to hold his breath.  But emerging from the mist he saw a horrific sight - 4 bandaged undead approaching him with arms extended and malevolence in their eyes.  Killick called out for help against mummies.  Alexander immediately pulled out a scroll and cast Fireball centered on Killick's position.  The explosion immediately dispersed the gas and destroyed the mummies.  Thorash found an extraordinary amulet around the neck of one of the mummies, and picked it up.  Alees mentioned that she thought she heard some sort of mechanism being tripped when Killick turned the purple hand dial inside the secret room.

    The party split up and started looking around to see if something had changed.  After 20 minutes or so, Alees called out that she thought the purple door in the laboratory was now unlocked and could be opened.  The party gathered around the last known door in the Rainbow Mage's dungeon and opened the door.  Inside was a bare stone room with magical symbols inscribed around the walls.  Even fancier symbols were inscribed in a circle on the floor.  And inside that circle stood a male human bard.  He thanked the party graciously for rescuing him.  The party was dubious.  They asked how long he had been there.  He replied that he couldn't be exactly sure, but he thought it had been months.  They asked what he had eaten and drunk during that time.  He replied that he had just recently finished the food supply that had been left for him.  They asked him where his waste products were.  He ignored this question and begged them for some water.  Killick asked, "Why don't you come out here and get some?"  At this, the male bard suddenly turned into an extremely beautiful naked woman with small horns on her forehead and large leathery bat wings extending from her back.  In a sultry voice, she said, "Thank you for inviting me out.  You deserve a kiss."  Then the demonic creature stepped out of the circle and started moving menacingly towards the party.

    Alexander cast Web into the room to keep it occupied.  But it started casting spells instead.  First, it produced an area of inky black darkness centered on the door.  Then it caught Killick, Alexander, and Katawan in an explosion of dark energy, causing them damage and sickening Alexander.  Thorash dispelled the Darkness and Killick tossed an Alchemist's Fire into the web, which immediately started burning.  Tarric moved into the fire and attacked the shapely demoness.  Thorash shouted out to the demoness in a harsh-sounding language.  It shouted something back in reply.  Thorash reported to the party that it was willing to leave the party in peace if they would allow it to leave.  However, the party was not interested in making such a deal.  The demoness began waving its arms, as if to cast a spell, but Tarric swiped at her with his sword, creating a gash that caused her spell to fizzle.  Killick tumbled into the room to take up a flanking position behind the demoness.  This acrobatic display occupied the demon's attention, causing her to drop her guard momentarily.  This was all the opportunity that Tarric needed to bring his martial training to bear.  With expert efficiency that surprised even himself, Tarric whirled around, giving his sword an increase in velocity which, when it made contact with the demon's neck, caused it to travel all the way through.  The demoness's head hit the floor full seconds before its body, ending its days on Oerth (for at least the next century).

    Having cleared the entire dungeon, the party made camp in and around the laboratory.  It had been a very eventful day.

_27th and 28th of Goodmonth_.  The party recuperated while Thorash and Alexander identified magic items.

_1st of Harvester_.  Alexander used the laboratory to begin crafting a Headband of Intellect +2.  Late in the afternoon, Alexander received a Sending from someone claiming to be Lady Learah's servant asking for a progress report.  He responded that he would meet her for dinner at the White Boar Inn.  He told the party where he was going and teleported directly there by himself.

_2nd of Harvester_.  Late in the morning, Alexander rode back to the Rainbow Mage's house along with Lady Learah atop a large wagon.  Attending Lady Learah were 6 retainers, 4 of which were heavily armed guards and 2 of which seemed to be scribes or advisers.  One of them took out a piece of parchment and scribbled notes as Alexander led Learah through the mansion, noting traps that she should avoid.  He led her and her servants down into the dungeon areas where the rest of the party had been waiting.  She was astonished by all of the strange caverns that she had never seen on her previous visits to her father's home.  She was shown all of the rooms in the basement and was finally brought to the vault, where all of the items the party had found were stored and cataloged.  

Learah was very pleased with the party's work.  She instructed her servants to carry her father's corpse out to the wagon and to bring her bodyguards down so that they might begin carrying her inheritance out to the wagon piece by piece.  The party asked if she planned to have her father raised from the dead.  She indicated that she would have to discuss the matter with her husband.  In accordance with their agreement, Learah invited each party member to select an item as payment for services rendered.  Alees choose a unique item called the Rainbow Crossbow, which fired a bolt of force once per round without first needing to be loaded.  Killick took a unique item called the Rainbow Ring, which would allow him to create and wield a staff of energy 3 times per day.  Katawan selected a unique item known as the Rainbow Bracers, which would allow him to cast Shield on himself 3 times per day.  Tarric selected the mage's Ring of Protection +3.  After clearing the choice with Learah first, Alexander selected the Rainbow Mage's spellbook, a Boccob's Blessed Book filled with 45 spells from levels 1 to 9, including 3 unique spells of the Rainbow Mage's own creation.  Thorash selected the mage's +3 Dagger (which he intended to trade).

    As Learah and her servants were loading their wagon, Killick asked if the party might retain the Rainbow Mage's journal along with the 3 items with strange magical auras that could not be identified by traditional means.  Killick suggested that the party would continue trying to decipher the journal in order to discover what the Decaying Book, the large faceted ruby with a black imperfection in the middle, and the miniature stone pyramid might do.  (Killick suggested that this was for Learah's safety.)  Alexander also asked her leave to remain in the house in order to continue crafting magic items in the mage's well-stocked laboratory.  She agreed to the arrangement as long as Alexander paid for any resources that were expended and as long as the party consented to defending the house from looters while they stayed.  The party agreed.  (Alexander paid her 100 gp up front for use of laboratory materials.)  Learah said she would return with her husband in a fortnight.  At that time, she would expect the return of her father's journal, the Decaying Book, the ruby, and the pyramid.  She would also expect the party to take their leave of her father's house.  

As she was leaving, she asked the party one more question: what did they call themselves?  She explained that she was thinking of having her bards compose a song about the party's bravery and honesty, and she wanted to know what she should call them.  The party told her they would have to think about it and try to give her an answer when she returned in two weeks.

    After Learah left, Alexander continued crafting his Headband.

_3rd of Harvester_.  Alexander continued crafting his Headband.  He also worked on deciphering the code with which the Rainbow Mage had written his journal.  (Alees tried unsuccessfully to use her roguish skills to help with this task.)

_4th of Harvester_.  Alexander completed his Headband.  Later that same day, Alexander finally cracked the difficult code that the Rainbow Mage had used in writing his journal.  As he read the Rainbow Mage's journal, he observed a brilliant man whose bitterness caused him to descend into a state of evil and near madness.  In his readings, Alexander discovered that the ruby, the pyramid, the Decaying Book, and the amulet worn by the mummy (which Katawan had claimed as treasure) were all powerful relics related to the cult of Kyuss and the Age of Worms.  Without telling the rest of his party-mates, he gathered all of these items together (except Katawan's amulet), and teleported to Greyhawk alone.

While he was gone, the rest of the party discussed how they should approach Alexander's apparent betrayal if he should ever return.

_5th of Harvester_.  Alexander teleported back in the morning.  The rest of the group insisted on casting Detect Evil on him, which he did not resist.  The party found that Alexander was untainted by evil, but Katawan's amulet radiated moderate evil.  Alexander belatedly informed the group what he learned from deciphering the Rainbow Mage's journal.  The Rainbow Mage had become intent on conquest and had turned to members the Ebon Triad to assist him.  The Decaying Book contained such potent arcane secrets of Kyuss's evil that merely reading about them warped the reader's soul, bringing his alignment in accord with that of Kyuss and his worshippers.  This had changed the Rainbow Mage into a man of scholarly arcane interests into a rabid Kyuss worshipper.  According to the journal, the ruby and the pyramid were two parts of a three-part artifact that, when used in concert, had horrific powers that (among other things) could be used to help facilitate Kyuss's return to the Material Plane.  The amulet that Katawan had selected for himself as treasure was really a key that would help unlock secret doors in a temple inside Arn's Mountain where the Rainbow Mage believed he would find the third part of the artifact, known as the White Eye.  Realizing the power of these items, Alexander had taken them immediately to his mentor Eligos in Greyhawk.  

However, Alexander confided that he was worried that Eligos might have been compromised as a trustworthy contact.  Alexander related to his party-mates that Eligos had insisted that Alexander spend the night in a hotel rather than staying in the house.  He also found it odd that Eligos wanted the group to recover the White Eye and bring it to him.  He thought that bringing the 3 pieces of the artifact together made little sense.  Alexander expressed his worry that Eligos may have been corrupted somehow.

    Killick asked where the items were now.  Alexander replied that they had been left with Eligos.  Killick expressed anger that Alexander had taken matters into his own hands without consulting the rest of the group.  He said that if the two were not lifelong friends, he would seek Alexander's expulsion from the group for this breach of trust.  This comment drew Alexander's ire, and things were tense between all of the party members.

    However, these disagreements did not have time to fester because Alexander reported that Allustan had just sent him a magical message.  Allustan had told Alexander in a hurried, panicked voice that Diamond Lake was under attack by a large black dragon and that it seemed to be looking for the party.  Allustan claimed that he had tried to draw the dragon's attention away from Diamond Lake.  He said that he had retreated into the Whispering Cairn and that he hoped he might find a weapon to use against the dragon there.  Alexander had replied that he would bring the group back to Diamond Lake as soon as he could.

    For the rest of the evening, the party's disagreements were set aside as they began planning how they might best confront a powerful dragon in order to defend whatever would be left of their childhood home.  (Alexander left a note for Learah, along with the Boccob's Blessed Book he had selected from the Rainbow Mage's belongings, explaining his actions and promising to face any necessary legal consequences.)

_6th of Harvester_.  Since Alexander can only teleport 3 people with him, two party members must be shrunk down in order to make the trip with the rest of the party.  Killick reduced his wardog Grimlock II and turned himself into an eagle.  Alees drank her potion of Gaseous Form and put herself inside a bottle for Alexander to carry.  The party teleported inside the Whispering Cairn and immediately saw that a previously collapsed passage had been cleared of rubble, revealing a new (and apparently functional) dimensional portal.  Killick found boot prints leading from the entrance of the Cairn into the portal.  Killick transformed into an eagle and flew out of the cairn towards Diamond Lake on a scouting mission.  On the way out, he spotted a large black dragon hiding in a small stand of trees on a hill overlooking the mouth of the Cairn.  He continued on towards Diamond Lake and found that about a quarter of the buildings in town had been destroyed, either by acid, weight, or strength.  The two most notable losses were the Church of St. Cuthbert in the town square and the Greyhawk Militia garrison just outside town.  He did see a few people moving in the town.  So it had not been completely destroyed or depopulated.  Killick flew back into the Cairn, transformed back into human form (for the second time that day), and reported what he had seen.

    Since the dragon was literally lying in wait just outside the Cairn, the party considered entering the portal and following Allustan.  Killick pounded a piton into the ground near the portal and tied a rope to it.  Katawan lost patience with the party's careful preparations for entering the portal and walked in without a rope.  Seconds later, he fell back out with a nasty-looking gash across his chest.  Katawan claimed that some humanoid creature with claws inside the portal that tried to block his progress to the other side.

    Now that it was clear that travel through the portal would not be automatic, the party decided to face the dragon after all.  All of the preparatory spells they had cast had been with a black dragon in mind.  They decided they might as well face what they were prepared to fight.  When everyone was ready, all the party members except Alexander left the cairn at once, scattering in all different directions.  Killick had sprouted wings and was flying.  Tarric was flying (via a Fly spell) near Killick.  Alees and Katawan were trying to sneak around the opposite side of the Cairn's entrance towards the dragon's position.  Thorash strode straight out the cairn's entrance and turned to face the dragon (trying to draw its attention away from Alees and Katawan).

    The dragon stood up from its hiding place.  She said in Common, "I chased Allustan here to force him to tell me where you are, but instead you have come to me.  All the better!  You will pay for your interference in my plans.  Prepare to die, heroes."


----------



## Menexenus

*Session 36: Ilthane and the Portal Guardian*

_6th of Harvester_.  The party had rushed out of the Whispering Cairn to confront the black dragon, Ilthane.  Alees found herself shaking uncontrollably at the sight of the powerful dragon.  Never in her days as a young thief had she considered the possibility that she might someday face a creature as powerful as this.  Part of her wanted to run, but she worked up the courage to stay and fight.  Killick flew towards the dragon and yelled out, "O powerful Ilthane, we understand your desire for revenge for the destruction of your egg in the care of the lizardmen in the Mistmarsh.  However, you should know that the egg was already infested with worms when we destroyed it.  So, if you are looking for those who killed your offspring, you should direct your anger at the Cult of Kyuss."

    Ilthane responded, "Fool!  *I* am the one who placed the worms in the egg!  I *serve* Kyuss through his Oerthly prophet and general, Dragotha.  You will die because you ruined our plans.  Die now, in Kyuss's name!"  With that, Alexander emerged from the Cairn and cast Ice Storm on the dragon.  Ilthane flew away from the spot where the chunks of ice were still falling from the sky and cast a spell on herself.  Alexander recognized (with some disappointment) that the spell she cast was Shield.  So he grasped his Empower Rod, causing it to glow, and cast a Fireball at her.  The dragon angled her wings to avoid some of the damage.  Now that the dragon was in the air, Alees and Katawan resorted to crossbows.  Killick flew back away from the dragon and began casting a spell.  Thorash cast a Flame Strike at the dragon, causing it to screech in pain.  Tarric flew toward the dragon, ready to confront it.

    Seeing that Killick was still in the middle of casting a spell, the dragon flew toward him and bit him as it flew by, causing him to lose the spell.  Alees and Katawan continued shooting.  Tarric flew up behind the dragon, but the dragon noticed his approach and turned around to attack the onrushing fighter.  It bit him, knocking him off his stride and causing serious damage.  The dragon's momentum carried it away from Tarric, but it performed a wingover and turned to face him.  However, rather than attacking the fighter, it shot a line of acidic green spittle at Alexander and Killick.  Both were struck by the acid, but both shrugged off the damage due to the preparatory spells they had cast before the battle.  Thorash attempted to dispel the Shield effect on the dragon, but Alexander recognized that the dwarf had mispronounced the final syllable of the incantation, rendering it virtually powerless.  Tarric moved closer to the dragon and unleashed his full fury upon it, slicing into its scaly hide.  Alexander grasped his Empower Rod, causing it to glow, and then shot a beam of black energy from his fingertip.  However, the energy danced across the dragon's scales and dissipated.

    The dragon's momentum carried it past Tarric.  It made a wide turn to the left, back towards the party.  Once again, it shot a stream of acid at Alexander and Killick.  This time, some of the damage got through Killick's protections.  Tarric flew down to the ground next to Thorash and asked for healing.  Alexander grasped his Empower Rod for the third time, and once again a beam of black energy shot out towards the black dragon.  But this time the energy seemed to have an effect, and the dragon seemed slightly weaker and less powerful.  Having no other way to attack the airborn target, Alees and Katawan continued using their crossbows to no effect.  Thorash cast a healing spell on Tarric.

    The dragon noticed that many of its targets were grouped together on the ground, so it swooped in low and landed right next to Tarric, Thorash, and Alexander, chomping at Alexander as it flew over him.  Tarric stepped up and slashed at the dragon while Thorash cast a second Flame Strike.  Now that the dragon was on the ground, Katawan charged at it but missed.  Alees moved up to try to sneak attack it.  Killick ordered Grimlock to threaten its flank while he continued hurling small orbs of magical flame at it.  Alexander tumbled out of the dragon's reach and cast a spell on his dagger.  The dragon spread his attacks to Tarric, Thorash, Alees, and Grimlock.  The party continued attacking it from all sides.  When needed, Alexander even tumbled back in to help threaten the dragon's flank.  The dragon turned its full attention to Tarric, but still the squire of Holy Shielding held fast, withstanding the dragon's full attack.  Katawan used his spring attack ability to remain out of the dragon's reach.  He also attempted to stun it with his blows, but he was unsuccessful.  Thorash continued healing Tarric.  The dragon continued raining blows down on Tarric, hitting him but not incapacitating him.

    Realizing that the dwarf was undoing much of the damage that she was inflicting on Tarric, the dragon turned her attention to the wands in Thorash's hands.  She sundered one and then the other.  In response, the dwarf shot a beam of Searing Light into the dragon's scaly hide.  Another of Killick's flaming orbs struck home, causing additinal damage to the embattled dragon.  The dragon focused all of its attacks on Tarric once more.  This time, without healing support from the party's cleric, Tarric was brought low.  Seeing that the party's fighter was down, Katawan threw his last Fireball bead at the dragon in an act of desperation, but the explosion had no effect on her.  Rather than following up on her victory over Tarric, the dragon disengaged from the party and shot another line of acid at Killick, wounding him again.  She seemed to be trying to get her distance from the party.  Now that Thorash was out of melee range of the dragon, he drew a scroll and cast Dispel Magic at her again, hoping once again to drop her Shield effect.  When Alexander realized that Thorash had cast the spell more proficiently this time, he drew his Wand of Magic Missiles and fired it at the dragon, hoping that the Shield was down.  It was indeed.  The Magic Missiles slammed into the dragon's skull, knocking it unconscious.  Alexander ran up to the dragon and continued casting Magic Missiles at it until he was sure that it was dead.

    Tarric was quickly revived and the party celebrated its victory!  Alees worked on removing the dragon's head as a trophy while Tarric, Alexander, and Killick flew into town.  Tarric and Killick flew to the newly ruined militia barracks just outside town.  Melinde, the paladin of Heironeous, was in a state of shock as she tended to over a dozen wounded.  She was grateful to see Tarric and Killick and to hear the news that the dragon was dead.  Killick did what he could to assist the wounded, as Tarric asked if there were any other survivors.  Melinde shook her head no.  She told him that when the dragon attacked, Captain Trask ordered them to form up for battle.  He knew that they wouldn't stand a chance against it, but they hoped that they could buy the civilians some time to flee or hide.  As she described the horrific efficiency with which the Captain, the High Priest of Heironeous, and most of their friends were cut down by the marauding dragon, she finally broke down and took refuge on Tarric's shoulder.  She blubbered that she was in charge because she was the only officer left.  She cried that she didn't know what to do.  Tarric shared in her pain and comforted her.  Tarric recalled that Melinde had been famous for her sunny and cheerful disposition when he had been a member of the militia.  She was always an optimist and always had a smile on her face.  So it was all the more difficult to see her overwhelmed by grief and despair.  It brought home the seriousness of the events that had taken place and put the party's victory over the dragon into perspective.

    After Killick was done assisting the wounded and after Melinde had had time to regain her composure, Killick asked if Merris Sandovar, the militia's scout and his old mentor, was still alive.  She said that he was the luckiest of them all.  He had been out on a scouting mission when the dragon attacked.  She told Killick where to find him.  When he did find him, he and his old mentor embraced.  After exchanging news and pleasantries, Killick asked Merris to deliver a message to Nogwier, the High Druid of the Bronzewood Lodge, informing him of the party's progress and asking for an update.  Seeming happy to finally have something useful to do, Merris said he would return by dusk the following day.

    Meanwhile, Alexander had flown into town to see what was left of Allustan's house.  It was completely destroyed.  After some asking around, he was able to find Mick, one of Allustan's apprentices.  Mick recognized Alexander immediately and seemed impressed and envious of his newfound power.  Mick reminisced with Alexander about how they had both been lowly servants just a few short months ago.  Alexander brought him back to the present and asked him about where Allustan had gone and what he had taken with him.  Mick described that when the dragon attacked, it landed in the town square and asked for Allustan by name.  The clerics of the Church of St. Cuthbert, led by Father Jierian, had filed out of the church to face the threat, but they were quickly cut down by the great wyrm.  With the sounds of screaming and crying all around them, Allustan had prepared to face the dragon by casting some defensive spells on himself.  He told Mick that he was going to try to lead the dragon away from town and that Mick should run.  Mick said that he followed his master's instructions, and he never looked back to find out what happened.  Alexander asked Mick about Allustan's activities at the Whispering Cairn prior to the dragon's attack.  Mick confirmed that Allustan had been excavating a collapsed passage in the Cairn.  Allustan had confided that he thought there might be a portal leading to another, possibly more important, Wind Duke Cairn.  He had found the portal only a couple days before the dragon attacked.  Allustan had been researching it carefully before entering it to make sure he was prepared for any challenges he might face.  Mick could not be sure that Allustan had entered the portal, but he thought that it made sense that Allustan might go looking there for something to fight the dragon with.

    When the rest of the party finally arrived in town with Ilthane's head in tow, the town's survivors erupted in celebration.  Since the Governor-Mayor and the mine managers were no where to be found, Allustan had disappeared, and the High Priest of Hieroneous, Father Jierian, and Captain Trask had all been killed by the dragon, all of the traditional authority figures in town were gone.  So the townspeople naturally turned to the party for leadership.  Alexander gave the townspeople permission to sift through the ruined buildings and sell anything of value to finance a rebuilding effort.  Killick advised them that they should focus on keeping at least one mine active so that they would continue to receive Greyhawk's protection.

    Alees inquired about Killian's father.  No one knew where he was, but since he was a teamster by trade, he might have been away on a delivery when the dragon attacked.  Killick used his healing arts to help his party gain the benefits of long-term care.  The Feral Dog Tavern was being used as a make-shift hospital.  So most of its rooms were full of the sick and the dying.  However, out of gratitude, the townspeople insisted that the best and largest suite at the inn be reserved for the party so that they could rest and recuperate.  Later that night, Alexander had a bit of insomnia and noticed that Alees was not in her bed.

_7th of Harvester_.  The next day was bleak.  A few people succumbed to their injuries and died, but not as many as would have died if Killick had not offered his assistance.  The party healed up as best it could in preparation for an expedition to find Allustan.  The party asked Alexander if they might take one more day to rest and recuperate before they ventured after his former master.  Alexander reasoned that, since Allustan had been gone for 2 full days already, he was either dead or safe but in hiding.  Either way, an extra day of recuperation shouldn't make a big difference.  So the party chose to recover for another day and leave to find Allustan the following morning.  

    Alexander spent the day sifting through the rubble of Allustan's home, trying to find a book or a journal or some papers that might help the party find Allustan.  Although he found many books and papers, he did not find any that would be of immediate use.  Alexander gave all of the books and papers that he did find to Mick for safe keeping.


Just before dusk, Merris returned and delivered Nogwier's response to Killick.  After receiving Merris's message privately, Killick shared the following information with the party.  Ilthane has been spotted flying north away from the Mistmarsh on a number of occasions, prompting the belief that her true lair is somewhere north of Nyr Dyv.  Additionally, Nogwier has uncovered some ancient druidic legends that seem related to the fight to prevent the Age of Worms.  Apparently, there was an ancient sect of druids, known as the Order of the Storm, who combatted an earlier attempt by Kyuss to bring forth the Age of Worms.  They banished Kyuss and were tasked with keeping his demonic minions in check.  The remnants of Kyuss's powerful army were contained in a part of Rift Canyon now known as the Wormcrawl Fissure.  Over the centuries, the Order of the Storm seems to have died out and it is unknown whether any of its members maintain the vigil.  The party discussed briefly whether they should go directly to the Wormcrawl Fissure or try to recover Allustan, but it was quickly decided that helping Allustan was the more immediate goal.

    Alexander noticed that, once again, Alees was not in her bed when he woke up in the middle of the night.

_8th of Harvester_.  After resting, recuperating, and rememorizing spells, the party ventured back to the Whispering Cairn to follow Allustan into the portal.  Katawan reminded the party of what he had experienced when he had tried to enter the portal before: the portal was narrow, filled with a dark soupy substance that made vision of any kind impossible, and blocked by some foul creature with claws.  Tarric went in first.  Others tried to follow, but the way was blocked by Tarric, who seemed to be fighting something directly ahead.  After a short time, Tarric was no longer blocking the way, so Thorash entered.  For a short time, he was also blocking the way as he seemed to be doing battle with something directly ahead.  Then he was gone, too.  So Killick moved in to take his place.  He immediately popped back out screaming that the creature inside had defeated both Tarric and Thorash by grappling them and that someone else needed to step into the breach.  When no one else volunteered, Alexander drew his dagger and jumped in.  He stepped out moments later to allow Katawan in.  However, Katawan also fell prey to the portal's guardian.  Killick stepped in and Alexander cast Dimension Door to appear on the far side of the unknown creature, flanking it.  Killick struck it with his staff and Alexander struck it with a casting of Magic Missile, finally felling the foul beast.

    The party stabilized its unconscious members and dragged the beast's carcass out into the light of day.  They saw a horrific undead creature resembling a ghoul, but much more powerful.  The party considered whether they should press on or rest yet again before actually entering the unknown cairn that lay beyond the portal.


----------



## Menexenus

*Session 37:  To Rescue Allustan*

_8th of Harvester_.  After facing the guardian of the portal, the party decided not to press on into the cairn.  They returned to Diamond Lake for a day in order to heal and recover spells.  Killick left the party to collect medicinal herbs.  Alees turned in for a midday nap.  The rest of the party struck a deal with Venelle that she would mount the dragon's head for free and would also skin the dragon in preparation to make something useful out of its hide.  If the party did not return to commission the creation of an item from the dragon's hide, she would keep it.

_9th of Harvester_.  The party was awakened by shouts of joy coming from outside.  They saw commoners outside dancing in the streets.  When they opened their door to go outside and find out what the commotion was about, they stumbled over a large bundle just outside their door with something heavy inside.  The bundle had a note pinned to the outside that read, "Thank you for killing the dragon."  They opened the bundle (which was made of torn clothes) and discovered 500 gold pieces inside!  They went outside and found that apparently everyone in town opened up their doors this morning to a similar bundle.  However, the commoners in town only received 50 gp in their bundles and their bundles did not come with notes attached.  The party discussed the possible origin of the money without coming to any firm conclusions.  The common people of Diamond Lake were very grateful for this money which could not have come at a better time.  The party asked Alees examine the handwriting on the note, but she did not recognize it.  The party then divided up the 500 gp between themselves.  However, Alexander refused to accept his share of the money, not wanting to be beholden to (or scryed upon by an) unknown benefector.

    After spending a little time speculating as to the identity and the motives of the town's benefactor(s), the party returned to the Whispering Cairn to find out what had happened to Allustan.  They entered the portal and emerged in a long smokey hallway howling with wind.  The noise and the wind seemed to be coming from small whistle-like nodules built into the wall.  The smoke that hung in the air quickly coalesced into beings that tried to enter the party members' lungs!  Tarric and Alexander were overcome by these strange beings and felt claws ripping into them from the inside.  The party responded to the attack.  Killick found that his walking stick/quarterstaff had no effect on the smokey creatures.  Grimlock was also unable to affect the creatures.  So, he dropped his walking stick and cast Magic Fang on his wardog Grimlock.  (However, he found that casting in the midst of such a loud noise required a significant amount of concentration.)  Meanwhile, Tarric coughed out the smoke-being that had entered his lungs.  Alexander was unable to do likewise.  The mage doubled over in pain as the creature continued to assault him from the inside.  Freed of the vile smoke creature, Tarric brought his magical sword to bear to great effect, cleaving quickly through the enemies.

    Thorash ran down the hallway and into the next room, guessing that the smoke creatures would not be able to reach him there.  But his plan was foiled as one of the smoke creatures followed him into the larger pillared hall with two strange spikey barricades.  Thorash fought the smoke creature with Katawan's assistance.  However, as he maneuvered to flank the wind creature, he inadvertently activated a trap.  A hurricane wind came up suddenly and blew the dwarf onto the barricade, causing him to become impaled on one of the spikes.  

    Alees and Killick were both briefly invaded by the strange smoke creatures, but they exhaled them quickly with some effort.  Alexander had much greater difficulty ridding himself of the insidious creature.  He did so briefly on two occasions, only to have the smoke re-enter his body.  Killick overcame the noise of the windy room to cast a spell on Alexander that allowed him to recover health slowly over time.  He also successfully cast more customary healing spells on the wizard to keep him from losing consciousness.  When the smoke creature emerged from Alexander the third time, the party was ready for it and cut it down quickly.  Some of the smoke creatures took physical form and attacked with wings, claws, and bites when they found themselves unable to enter their target's lungs.  But this mode of attack was not very effective.  All six of the smoke creatures were soon dispatched, and only Alexander was much the worse for wear.  (Thorash had quickly healed the damage the spike had done to him.)

    As the party moved into the adjoining hall, Thorash took care to warn his companions about the wind trap that he had succumbed to.  This room was larger than the first, containing two rows of pillars, two spikey barricades, three sets of double doors, and bas-relief sculptures on the walls near each set of doors depicting the same tall, thin, bald, robe-clad figures that they had first seen in the Whispering Cairn.  Alees moved to the far set of doors to check it for traps.  However, as she approached the door, she triggered a device which released smoke from the wall.  The smoke played across the bas-relief, causing it to simulate motion.  It showed an armored, apparently high-ranking Wind Duke fighting and defeating many twisted creatures of Chaos.  At the end of the display, the gas showed the Wind Duke holding out a square seal in one hand and a long rod or staff in the other, as if presenting them to those watching the spectacle.  However, as interesting as the smoke performance may have been, it caused Alees to cough.  When she was done coughing, she stumbled around and had trouble catching her balance.  She mentioned to the rest of the party that she felt weird.  Killick came up to her and cast Delay Poison, just in case.  Alees continued with her search of the door and found it to be untrapped.  In fact, in the middle of her careful search, she discovered that they were in fact false doors.  There was nothing behind them but stone. 

    Alees was now much more cautious about where she walked.  She found that the next set of double doors was similarly trapped, but the third set of double doors was untrapped.  Katawan volunteered to set off the known trap in order to see whether it would give them any new information.  However, the smokey display was identical to the first.  Katawan seemed unaffected by the smoke.  Killick moved to the third set of double doors (which Alees had certified to be untrapped) and set off another gas trap which produced another identical display.  Although caught slightly off guard, Killick was not otherwise harmed by the gas.  

    Killick opened the double doors and the party filed quickly into the adjoining hallway, before the gas trap could reset itself.  However, as Grimlock stepped on a stone in the floor, a loud arcane word was spoken to him and he was paralyzed.  The party waited for a short time, but Killick's faithful canine did not recover.  Ahead was a large statue of a Wind Duke holding an ornate greatsword.  Killick determined using his tracking skills that Allustan had come through this hall and taken a right turn, entering another set of closed double doors just ahead.  Since his dog was still paralyzed, he dragged it over to the far side of the statue, away from the double doors that they would soon be opening.  As he dragged Grimlock, Killick heard the same arcane word being spoken to him, but there was no effect.  

    When Alees certifed that the door was untrapped, the party opened it, revealing a large room with double doors on the far side.  From the ceiling hung 4 chandeliers shining with a purple light as well as a black sphere hanging between them.  Alexander immediately recognized the symbol on the black sphere as that of Bwimb, a cruel general from the para-elemental plane of ooze who had allied with the Queen of Chaos at the Battle of Pesh.  He also recognized that the chandeliers were crafted from loops of metal that resembled his Talisman of the Sphere (which he had obtained from Zosiel's tomb in the Whispering Cairn).  Sound in the room was very muted, as if it were being absorbed by the black tile floor.  Just beyond the entrance were two staircases rising to a second level gallery that traversed the room's perimeter.  The walls on the lower level seemed to contain detailed frescoes that were difficult to see from the entrance.    Alees investigated the stairs carefully and found them to be untrapped.  Killick ascended the stairs and found that there were two sets of double doors on the second balcony level as well, one set on each opposing side.  Killick called for Alees to continue checking for traps leading up to the doors on the second level.

    Thorash grew impatient with the care being taken by Alees and Killick and walked into the lower level to investigate the frescoes more closely.  However, as soon as he walked under one of the chandeliers, the floor seemed to come alive.  As it assembled itself into a lumpy black mass, it knocked Thorash off his feet.  The black ooze occupied almost the entire room.  Thorash immediately stood up and cast Flame Strike into the center of the room (singeing the black sphere and tarnishing the chandeliers on the ceiling).  It wriggled with pain.  Alees shot it with a bolt of force from the Rainbow Crossbow.  The bolt seemed to hurt the creature, but it immediately divided into two smaller oozes.  Killick cast his trusty flame spell and hurled orbs of flame at the oozes.  Katawan leaped forward striking and damaging one of the large fluid masses.  The two oozes formed pseudopods that lunged forward to strike out at Thorash and Alees.  Thorash was missed, but Alees was struck.  The ooze's body followed its pseudopod, completely engulfing the screaming rogue (to the horror of her party-mates)!  Tarric rushed forward and slashed at the ooze to free Alees.  His slash damaged the ooze, but it also split again into two smaller oozes.  Tarric noticed some smoke rising from his weapon.  He looked down to discover that his sword was dissolving in acid before his eyes.  If the creature was able to do such horrific damage to his weapon, imagine what it was doing to Alees!  Alexander refrained from casting Magic Missile at the creatures for fear of causing them to split even further, so he tossed his last Fireball at the creatures.  However, the one that contained Alees seemed to avoid some of the damage.  Katawan moved up to the ooze that contained Alees and pummeled it furiously with his fists.  After the assault, the ooze shriveled up dead revealing an unconscious Alees with some of her equipment still in the process of dissolving.  Killick tumbled down the stairs, dropping his walking stick along the way, and stood over Alees's prone body holding out a potion.  His magical petrified quarterstaff also appeared suddenly in his gloved hand.  Tarric grabbed the potion and forced it into Alees's mouth.

    Now there were two oozes left, a smaller one and a larger one.  The larger one attacked Thorash again.  This time it struck him and engulfed him.  Tarric dropped his shield and attacked the ooze with Killick's walking stick.  It damaged the ooze, which did not split in two this time.  However, Tarric found that the walking stick was also dissolving in his hands.  He dropped the stick just before the ooze's powerful acid completely vaporized it.  Alexander was still fearful of using his Magic Missiles, and Tarric was fearful of losing his last magical bastard sword.  So it was up to Katawan to use his fists to do most of the damage against the oozes while Killick threw orbs of fire at them.  The smaller ooze struck Killick.  As it engulfed his body, Killick released his petrified quarterstaff.  Just before the black fluid closed around his face, he implored Tarric to use the quarterstaff.  After dropping his shield, Tarric followed used Killick's weapon (made out of petrified wood) to good effect.

    A few moments later, both oozes were destroyed by the combined assault of Tarric and Katawan.  When the smaller one died and shriveled, it revealed a still conscious Killick.  None of his belongings had been ravaged by the creature's acid because he had cast a spell moments earlier that protected him from the harmful effects of acid.  However, as the larger ooze shriveled in death, it revealed Thorash's skeleton with only his Bag of Holding remaining.  The party was shocked: Thorash was dead and most of his belongings were gone!  Since Thorash was the party's cleric, they were unable to raise him without outside assistance.  It was clear that the party needed to withdraw from the cairn.  Killick offered to reincarnate the dwarf.  Many in the party found the idea appealing, hoping that Thorash's new body might come with a more pleasant disposition.  However, Alexander suggested that the party take Thorash back to his church to see whether they would revive him at their expense.

   Since he was out of healing spells, Killick removed Alees's Necklace of Prayer Beads in order to use it to bring her back to consciousness.  As he did so, he noticed that Alees also wore a ring around her neck on a thin leather cord.  Killick was surprised by this, but did not immediately say anything to Alees.  The party had more important things to do.  Alees used her remaining healing spells on the other party members.  The party then collected Thorash's remains and the still-paralyzed Grimlock and withdrew from the cairn.

_10th of Harvester_.  After rememorizing spells, the party teleported back to Greyhawk.  However, after Alexander's last encounter with Eligos, the party did not return to his house immediately.  They spent most of the day tracking down Mother Iridni, the Prelate of Wee Jas.  The party discovered that Wee Jas did not have a dedicated temple in the Free City.  So they were forced to track down Iridni's residence.  When they finally found it, it was well-appointed, as befitting the residence of an official ambassador.  When the party mentioned their business was related to Thorash, they were granted an audience with Her Excellency.  Mother Iridni greeted the party in a sitting room dressed in her ceremonial finest.  She was a tall but wrinkled and dour-looking woman with a prominent aquiline nose and hair that was dyed bright red.  She interacted with the party in a very formal manner.  Overall, the party found her to be a little creepy.  When they explained the circumstances of Thorash's death and asked if the church would be interested in raising him, Mother Iridni replied that Thorash's service to the church of Wee Jas had been exemplary and she was certain that his service to the Ruby Sorceress was not yet complete.  She was sure that the Death Goddess would consent to return her servant to the land of the living.  She asked for Thorash's remains and took them with her to a private chamber.  About 30 minutes later, she emerged with Thorash.  Thorash asked the party for his equipment and was disappointed to learn that only the contents of his Bag of Holding were left to him.

   The party decided to stay that night at a common inn that they had never been to before, in the hope that they would not be recognized.  Alees left the group to keep watch on Eligos's residence.

_11th of Harvester_.  After breakfast, Alees returned and informed the group that she had seen a very burly man whom she did not recognize leaving Eligos's house the previous night.  He went to the local bar and had some drinks, but kept to himself.  She followed the man back to Eligos's house when he was done.  He entered the house without knocking or being announced by the elven manservant.  She returned to the bar and asked the barmaid about him, and she told Alees that the man had been coming to the bar for about a week now.  One time he had come with a smaller man, but they had acted secretively whenever she or anyone else had approached them.  The smaller man was very non-descript, but definitely did not fit Eligos's discription.  Alees had continued watching the house until the morning.  Soon after dawn, someone resembling a door-to-door salesman carrying a satchel arrived at the house.  He was shown in by Pollard and left again about half an hour later.  His satchel seemed to be about as full when he left as it had been when he arrived.  She had been unable to peer into any windows because all of the curtains had been drawn.  She had not tried to open any windows from the outside, for fear of setting of arcane alarms.

    After breakfast, the party went together to sell some of the items that they had not had a chance to sell previously and split the proceeds between themselves.  Then the party members split up, resolving to conduct any business that needed conducting during the remainder of the day.  They pledged to meet outside Eligos's house for a potential joint confrontation at around 5 pm.


----------



## Menexenus

*Session 38: Confronting Eligos (or, Tying Up Loose Ends)*

_11th of Harvester_.  After conducting their individual business in the City of Greyhawk, the party members congregated at the Crooked House (a bar in the Foreign Quarter near Eligos's house in the Garden District) just before dinner.  Thorash revealed to the party that he had communed with his deity and learned a number of important facts: a) Allustan was alive but safe, b) there is another band of adventurers seeking the Eye, c) the Eligos that Alexander gave the Pyramid and Ruby to was not the true Eligos, and d) the new Eligos was in league with Kyuss.  Alexander was (as always) skeptical of any information reported by Thorash.  Still, it gave the party some useful ammunition as they were about to confront the potential imposter.  They cast a few protective spells and then made their way through the gate to Eligos's house.  As always, they were accompanied by a City Watch guard until they reached their destination and were accepted inside.

    Upon arrival at Eligos's house, they knocked on the door, which was quickly answered by Pollard, Eligos's elven butler.  Pollard invited them inside, inviting Killick to tie his dog up in the house's small attached stable.  Instead, Killick ordered the dog to stay just around the corner from the house's front entrance.  Pollard escorted the group through the house's ground floor to the conference room.  He invited them to make themselves comfortable and informed them that the master would be in to see them in a matter of minutes.  Thorash and Killick remained standing while the other members of the group took seats around a long table.  Given their suspicions about Eligos, all the party members were a bit on edge.

    After about 10 minutes, Eligos came in, greeted the party, and seated himself at the head of the table.  Killick and Thorash took their seats as well.  After some pleasantries, Eligos inquired whether the party had been successful in recovering the White Eye.  Alexander informed him that they had been distracted by a call for help from Allustan.  Eligos inquired about Allustan's state of health.  Alexander replied that his status was unknown.  Eligos showed appropriate concern for his former colleague, but suggested that they make the White Eye their top priority.  The party inquired as to the location of the Pyramid and the Ruby - the two pieces of the artifact that had already been delivered to Eligos privately by Alexander.  Eligos replied that after inspecting them himself, he had sent them up the chain of command to his superior who he insisted must remain nameless.  When he saw some incredulous looks on the faces of many party members, Eligos explained that Alexander was aware of the identity of Eligos's superior and that they should trust him that that individual was trustworthy.  Alexander confirmed that Eligos's superior is a powerful and trustworthy wizard.

    Next, the party expressed doubts about the wisdom of bringing all of the pieces of the artifact together in one place.  Eligos explained that there was no way he could find to destroy the individual pieces of the artifact other than to use the artifact's full power against itself.  And the only way to activate the artifact's full power was to bring all the pieces together.  Tarric asked why the artifact needed to be destroyed at all, as long as the pieces were scattered and hidden.  Eligos replied that a part of Kyuss's own essence had been reposited within the artifact.  So, destroying the artifact would weaken Kyuss, thereby making it more difficult for Him to break the barriers that prevented Him from returning to Oerth.  Finally, the group consented to retrieve the Eye, but they insisted that they would not deliver it to Eligos.  Rather, they suggested that they should assemble members of their respective churches and give it to them instead.  Eligos warned that there was significant danger in spreading word of their plans to assemble and destroy the artifact.  Even if the churches were trustworthy, the more people who knew of the plan, the greater the chance that word of their plans could leak to the Cult of Kyuss.  Killick mentioned that Thorash's divinations had revealed that there was another band of adventurers currently seeking the Eye.  Eligos pointed out that this fact, if true, made it all the more important that the party recover it first.  Killick asked how word of the Eye's location could possibly gotten out, since only he and the party knew its location.  Eligos said he did not know how that could have happened.  He speculated that divination magic of some kind might be involved.  

    The party reiterated that they would recover the Eye, but they would not deliver it to Eligos.  After Eligos confirmed that the party could not be swayed on this point, his demeanor suddenly changed.  He threatened that the party would not leave the house alive, and then, with a wave of his hand, he disappeared.  Alexander informed the party that he had cast a spell allowing himself to teleport only a short distance away.  He was probably still in the house.  The party heard loud footsteps coming down the stairs.  They jumped to their feet and armed themselves.  They arrayed themselves to surprise whomever should open the conference room's door.  But despite hearing many footfalls down the stairs and in the hall outside, the door did not open.  Finally, Tarric opened the door.  He saw a hulking figure with a scar running down his left cheek wearing banded mail and carrying a bastard sword waiting in ambush up against the wall just outside the door.  Tarric stepped out into the hallway to confront this opponent.  As he swang his sword at the aging gladiator, he suddenly felt a sting in his back that caused his stroke to miss.  He had been stabbed by some previously invisible figure standing on the opposite side of the door.  The figure was now visible.  He was short and nondescript, dressed in dark colors, carrying a shortsword in each hand.  Now that Tarric was out in the hallway he could see that a tiefling cleric whom the party had killed below the Arena was alive again and standing about 25 feet behind the gladiator.  And about 10 feet behind the cleric stood Anders Fierk, the wizard who had asked the party for help obtaining the Rainbow Mage's spells at the White Boar Inn in Rosewater.

    At the other end of the L-shaped hallway stood Pollard and a doppelganger.  Both of them were wielding longswords.  Katawan tumbled out into the hallway toward the doppelgangers.  Alees tumbled out as well.  However, she was struck by the darkly clothed shortsword-wielder in the corner.  This caused her to stop her movement prematurely for fear of being struck again.  Alexander cast a spell which allowed all of the party members to move faster and attack more often, for which they were very grateful.  Fierk commanded Tarric to attack his partymates in words that dripped with arcane power.  However, Tarric shook off the spell's effect.  Two more doppelgangers wielding longswords emerged from a door near Katawan at the other end of the hallway.  Thorash cast a spell on the gladiator, and he froze in place.  The shortsword wielder in the corner sliced at Tarric unsuccessfully.  He shouted out to the gladiator, "Get your head back in the game, Loris.  I would have had him if you had continued distracting him!"  Killick, who had cast a spell on his walking stick before the door was open, used it to pummel the dark-clad rogue in the corner multiple times.  The cloven-hooved cleric cast a spell and strode forward with black energy crackling across his fingertips.  He touched Alees, trying to draw the soul out of her body.  For a moment, it seemed that he was successful, but then, with a scream of pain, she pushed his hand away.  With the gladiator frozen, Tarric turned his attention to the backstabber in the corner, knocking him unconscious.  Perhaps as a result of seeing his friend get knocked out, the gladiator recovered his wits and was no longer frozen.  

    Katawan successfully occupied Pollard and his three doppelganger friends with his Whirlwind Attack maneuver.  Although they landed an occasional hit on him, his monk training was on full display as he avoided blow after blow.  Alexander chose to assist Katawan by casting a fireball at the end of the hall, causing significant damage to all of the doppelgangers while Katawan's cat-like reflexes left him completely unharmed by the fiery explosion.  At the other end of the hall, Eligos came down the stairs and cast a defensive spell on himself that made his skin appear to be as tough as stone.  The evil cleric stepped forward and cast a healing spell on Loris's rogue ally, whose eyes flittered open momentarily.  That is, until Tarric brought his bastard sword down onto the rogue's prone chest, closing his eyes once again.  He brought his remaining attacks to bear against the cleric, causing him grievous wounds.  Alees repositioned herself so that she was flanking the cleric with Tarric's help.  She stabbed the cleric with her dagger in a vulnerable spot, and he collapsed to the floor sputtering blood.  The gladiator turned to Alees and told her that she would pay for what she had just done.  He swang his bastard sword in a whirling frenzy that struck her several times.  Alees collapsed to the floor unconscious and bleeding.  

Fierk began casting another spell.  Thorash stepped into the doorway and tried to end the gladiator's life with a mere touch, but his attempt failed.  Katawan continued to pummel his doppelganger opponents, preventing himself from becoming completely encircled by withdrawing slowly back toward the rest of the party.  Tarric and the aging gladiator continued exchanging blows.  Thorash reached down and touched the unconscious rogue in the corner and energized himself by absorbing what little life force remained within him.  Alexander seemed disgusted by this evil act.  (Apparently this was the first time that Alexander had witnessed Thorash delivering his Death Touch.)  However, there was no time to dwell on Thorash's act.  Alexander tumbled out of the doorway into the hall, past the gladiator in the direction of the two enemy wizards.  Killick cast a spell that brought down a pillar of fire onto the two wizards at the end of the hall.  While both seemed resistant to the flame damage, both of them were damaged by the holy column of fire.  Fierk endured the pain and continued casting his spell.  Loris attacked Tarric and then stepped closer to Alexander in order to threaten him.  However, Alexander merely stepped out of the gladiator's reach and then cast a lightning bolt down the hallway, knocking Fierk out before he could finish his spell.  (Alexander was surprised to see that his lightning bolt did not blow out the windows at the end of the hallway.)  Killick tumbled down the hallway, onto the stairs, and struck at Eligos.  Eligos suddenly changed shape into a barbarian brute.  He gave out a cry of rage and then moved towards Alexander, drawing a great axe from his back.  He swang it at Alexander striking him rather than one of the several images of himself that surrounded him for a moderate amount of damage.  At long last Tarric won his battle with the gladiator.  Loris's head dropped to the floor apart from its body.  With the way now clear, Thorash moved out of the conference room towards the barbarian that had previously resembled Eligos.  He touched the raging barbarian, and wounds suddenly appeared on his flesh where they had not been before.  The barbarian collapsed, and reverted to its true form, that of a doppelganger.  Alexander quickly moved back towards the conference room and targeted Pollard with a barrage of magic missiles.  As the butler fell to the ground, its form shifted to that of a doppelganger as well.  No enemies remained standing; the party was victorious!

    Now that the battle was over, Killick quickly cast a spell that slowly rejuvenated Alees.  Alexander checked out the window to see whether any members of the City Watch had come to investigate the loud noises coming from Eligos's house.  There was no movement outside the window.  All seemed well.  The party did a quick search of the upstairs that Eligos had warned Alexander away from before.  They found that many of the bedrooms contained multiple styles of clothing, like the bedrooms they had discovered in the doppelganger lair.  One of the larger rooms contained an intricate (but incomplete) apparatus composed of a metal table and many glass tubes leading to a small receptacle.  This large apparatus looked exactly like a broken apparatus they had discovered in the throne chamber of the doppelganger lair.  In the closet of a deserted room, they found the bodies of both Pollard and Eligos in a state of decay that Killick estimated at 10 - 12 days.  Eligos's skull had been cracked open by a combination of blunt force and a sharp edge, and his brain had been removed.

    Alexander, desperate to revive Eligos, removed what remained of Eligos's skull.  He told the rest of the party that he planned to teleport across town to the Church of St. Cuthbert and call in a favor to have Eligos revived.  Killick suggested that he take Loris Raknian's head with him as well so that he might claim the reward for his capture and contribute that money towards raising Eligos.  Alexander agreed.  With a head under both arms, he cast the spell and was off.

    About two hours later, Alexander and Eligos returned on foot.  Eligos was visibly saddened to see the corpse of his butler Pollard.  While Alexander had been gone, the party had gathered all of the enemies' valuables into a pile for identification.  Eligos picked out the items that had been his.  In the pile that remained, there were various magical armors and weapons, as well as the standard magical cloaks and rings.  However, one notable item that was recovered was the very same Boccob's Blessed Book that Alexander had left behind in the Rainbow Mage's dungeon for Lady Learah to find.  Inside the book, Alexander found the note that he had left with the book being used as a bookmark.  Alees reported that the book had been recovered from Fierk's body.  The party also found three very large and valuable gems on Eligos's imposter that have magical auras.  Alexander confirmed definitively that the Eligos to whom he had given the Pyramid and the Ruby was the imposter.  He asked the party if either item had been found anywhere inside the house - they had not.  The party assumed that these pieces must now be in the hands of Kyuss worshippers.

    Thorash, Alexander, and Eligos decided to wake the next morning and spend 8 hours working together to identify the properties of the magical items they had found.  Then, after necessary sales and purchases had been made, they would teleport back to the cairn where Allustan was apparently trapped and try again to rescue him.


----------



## Menexenus

*Session 39: Rescuing Allustan (Take 2)*

_12th of Harvester_.  After spending all of the morning and most of the afternoon identifying what the party looted from some doppelgangers and Loris Raknian's crew, they went out together to sell what they chose not to keep and then went their separate ways to buy much needed equipment.  When they were done, they returned to Eligos's house.  After Thorash prayed for spells at dusk, Alexander teleported the party (with Alees in gaseous form, Grimlock shrunken, and Killick in bird form) back to Diamond Lake.  Killick and Alees hurried to Venelle's to catch her before she closed her shop for the night.  She was indeed still in her shop.  Killick had decided to purchase a masterwork cloak and Alees had decided to purchase a masterwork shield, both made from Ilthane's dragonscales.  Venelle said they were in luck, because she had already crafted those items.  

    As they were transacting their business, Killick asked how the town was faring.  Venelle warned that trouble was brewing.  She said that the mine managers had returned to town soon after the party left, but the political situation had changed drastically in their absences.  Since every family in town had received a gift of 50 gp, many of the common people were refusing to work the mines.  So the mine managers were finding it impossible to keep their mines fully staffed.  In addition, when all the authority figures in town were gone, Killick had told the townspeople to keep a mine open to ensure Greyhawk's defense of the town.  The miners had selected Dourstone's old mine and had been working it collectively.  But when the mine managers returned, they did not permit Gelch Tilgast (the mine manager who had bought up the lease to the mine after Dourstone was imprisoned) to resume control of the mine.  The townspeople claimed that Dourstone's mine was their mine now, and they cited the party's authority for support of their position.  Since most of the members of the old Greyhawk Militia garrison were either wounded or dead, none of the traditional authority figures in town had sufficient muscle to enforce their will over a large percentage of the townspeople standing together in solidarity.  So for the time being, Dourstone's mine was being run collectively by the townspeople while all the other mines in town were barely producing anything.

    Killick told Venelle to relay to the workers that he had not intended for them to commandeer a mine in violation of mine managers' legal rights.  Venelle told Killick that they certainly wouldn't believe it coming from her, and she guessed that they might not even back down if they heard it coming directly from him.  Besides, Venelle concluded, she couldn't help but root for the underdogs in this situation.  Killick conveyed that he and the party would return to help sort things out at a later date.  As he and Alees were leaving to rejoin their partymates, Venelle told them that Ilthane's head would be mounted and ready for pick up in two days.  She mentioned she was also working on something special for the party - a token of her gratitude for all that the party had done for the town.

    The party trekked out to the Whispering Cairn, reaching it about an hour before midnight.  They entered the portal and emerged in the loud hall howling with wind.  They moved into the next room containing the barricades and gas traps.  Alees attempted to disarm the one in front of the door that Allustan had passed through.  She thought she had done so successfully, but when Tarric and Killick walked across it, the trap was triggered anyway.  Still, since they were both ready for the gas, they successfully held their breath until the danger had passed.  When the gas had expended itself, the party moved on into the cross-shaped hallway with an 8-foot statue of a Wind Duke standing in the middle.  They carefully avoided the arcane word traps that they had triggered previously and moved into the room where Thorash had been devoured by the black pudding.  After Killick determined that Allustan's tracks led to the southern doors on the balcony level, the party prepared to enter new territory.  While Alees carefully checked these new doors for traps, Killick noticed that the fine craftsmen who had created the chandeliers in this room had produced scenes in miniature, and that all the lights of the chandelier were emitting from miniature Wind Dukes.

    Finding no traps, the party opened the doors and found a dark hall that turned to the left about 20 feet ahead.  They advanced slowly, giving time for Alees to check for traps.  Once they turned the corner, they saw a long hall that inclined downward.  Using his darkvision, Thorash informed the others that the hall eventually opened into a large room with pillars.  Then Thorash reported that he heard spellcasting coming from that room.  The party began moving forward more quickly.  Alexander cast a spell that made everyone in the party faster, while Killick and Thorash cast preparatory spells of their own.  When they entered the shadowy room up ahead, they found old stringy cobwebs hanging from the pillars, doors on each of the other three walls flanked by statues carrying a longsword in each hand, and a huge spider in the far corner that seemed to be arching its back in the process of doing something.  Soon thereafter, the spider sprayed a smooth silky substance over the entire floor of the room.  As characters began entering the room, they found it difficult to keep their footing.  The spider advanced towards them, climbing along the pillars (staying off the floor).  Tarric stepped up to the spider (barely keeping his feet) and cut into the giant creature's carapace.  Katawan moved around behind it and attacked from the rear, but missed. 

    The spider turned its attention to Katawan, the lone flanker.  It struck him with 3 claws and a bite, wounding Katawan severely.  It picked up Katawan's struggling body with 2 of those claws.  The spider seemed somewhat preoccupied with its new tasty morsel.  Killick cast a spell and a column of flame erupted around the creature, causing it to squeal in pain.  Tarric stepped forward and sliced into the creature's carapace again, slicing much deeper this time.  Recognizing that the creature was less mobile than it had been before, Alees dropped her new dragonshield, drew her crossbow, and fired it at the creature.  The bolt entered the wound created previously by Tarric and ripped into the creature's vital organs.  It slumped to the ground dead.  The party recovered Katawan from under the creature's bulk.  He used his monk abilities to heal his own wounds and he also received some healing from Killick.

    While Killick spent some time trying to determine which way Allustan had gone from here, Alees checked all the doors and the statues for traps, finding none.  When the silk on the floor suddenly sublimated away, Killick's job became much easier.  He determined that Allustan had gone through the blue double doors directly across from where the party had entered.  The party passed through these doors finding an empty room with a rotted carpet on the floor, an altar with a 4 foot tall golden idol of a Wind Duke, bas-reliefs depicting a victorious army on the walls, and a door to the south.  Killick used his walking stick to try to lift the rug.  The rug disintegrated with his touch, and he found nothing but stone underneath.  Meanwhile, Alees walked up to the altar with the golden idol and started looking for secret compartments.  She noticed that the eyes of the statue were made of blue gems.  

    When she touched the statue to check it for secret compartments, two of the soldiers depicted in the wall relief emerged from the stone and moved to attack Alees.  She tumbled nimbly out of the way.  One of the stone warriors pursued Alees while the other moved towards Killick, who was nearer to it.  Both warriors successfully struck their targets with mighty blows from their fists.  Alexander and Thorash both tried casting spells at the stony warriors, but the arcane and divine energies flowed around these constructs without having any effect.  Since Tarric was the only member of the party who seemed to be able to do serious damage to the creatures, the party moved back into the doorway and allowed Tarric to go toe-to-toe with the constructs one at a time.  Killick occupied the other spot in the doorway and aided his friend Tarric.  Just when Tarric was about to collapse from the wounds he had suffered, Thorash cast a spell that completely rejuvenated him.  Tarric attacked with renewed strength and destroyed one of the creatures, which collapsed into dust.  Then the rest of the party entered the room to surround the second one.  Killick, Alees, and Grimlock found that their attacks were useless against it.  Although Tarric's blade did most of the damage, it was Katawan's fists that felled the second creature.  (The party members could not help but notice that since Katawan bought his Monk Belt in Greyhawk, the damage that he could deal with his fists had increased significantly.)  While the others took stock of their situation at battle's end, Alees returned to the golden idol on the altar.  She used her dagger to pry out its eye gems and began investigating the gold content of the statue (and was disappointed to discover that the statue was merely gold-plated and not solid gold).

    However, the party cajoled her into leaving the idol for a moment and checking the next door for traps.  She found it to be untrapped.  The next room was circular with a downward sloping floor leading to the middle of the room where there was a large sphere of bluish energy.  Inside the sphere was a heavily wounded Allustan in an awkward pose with cuts that did not bleed.  After trying briefly to interact with Allustan unsuccessfully the party concluded that he was somehow frozen in time.  The party noticed that there was a steel pin emerging from the ceiling which barely made contact with the top of the blue ball of energy encasing Allustan.  Curious, Alees stepped inside the room, and a bolt of electricity arced from the sphere toward her.  It seemed that the lightning bolt was surely going to strike her, but, calling on Fharlangn for aid, she managed to jump out of the way just in the knick of time, taking no damage.  Alees retreated back into the previous room and began looking for secret doors.  

The party discussed how they might free Alexander's former master.  After a bit of thought, Alexander cast a spell that teleported him and Alees to the downward-leading stairs on the far side of the room.  There they both searched for a release mechanism, but found nothing.  They saw that the stairs led down to a 40-foot deep shaft, at the bottom of which were two passages.  Alexander was about to descend the steel rungs on the side of the shaft, but Alees stopped him, warning that the rungs might be trapped.  She volunteered to go down and check them out for him.  She drank a potion and then began crawling on the wall next to the rungs, inspecting each one closely.  When she got to the bottom, she found a pressure plate at the base of the shaft.  She attempted to disarm it by jamming it, but she heard a click and realized that she had triggered the trap by mistake.  She heard the sound of lots of rushing water moving quickly toward her.  Thanks to her climbing spell and her quick thinking, she was able to climb up out of the shaft and back onto the stairs just in time to see a metal plate slide across the shaft about halfway down.  Both she and Alexander heard the sound of rushing water beneath it.  When the crashing water noises subsided, Alexander drew his newly purchased Chime of Opening and commanded the metal plate to open.  It did, and beneath it he and Alees saw blood red water rushing in from the northeast and out to the east.  This water was at least 10 feet deep.

    At this point, Alexander and Alees yelled across the room to their companions that they were out of options.  Rescuing Allustan would be up to the other four party members.  After some strategizing, they decided on a new plan.  Killick cast a protection spell on himself, sprouted wings, and flew into the chamber.  As before, electricity arced out at him, but his protection spell absorbed almost all of the damage.  Killick flew up to the spike above the ball of energy and cast a spell that caused the stone around the spike to move aside.  Once a sufficient amount of stone had moved away, the spike fell to the ground and the ball of energy dissipated.  With the sphere gone, Allustan collapsed to the floor unconscious and started bleeding profusely.  Thorash ran into the room to help the old mage, but a bolt of electricity shot at him from the spike lying on the ground.  The dwarven cleric took the damage in stride and cast a healing spell on Allustan, who immediately returned to consciousness.  Killick flew down to the spike and grasped it in his gauntleted hand, causing the spike to rust at an accelerated rate.  Within a matter of seconds, the spike was no more than brown dust.  With the danger past, the rest of the party entered the room triumphantly and conversed with Allustan.

    Allustan asked if the dragon had been defeated.  They told him that it had been and, as proof, they showed off the cloak and the shield that had been fashioned from its hide.  Allustan asked about Diamond Lake and was told the mixed news that it had been done a great deal of damage.  Allustan asked how long he had been stuck there in his timeless prison and was surprised to learn that he had been in the room in suspended animation for 7 days.  

Alexander asked Allustan to recount what had happened to him on the day that Ilthane attacked.  He said that when he heard the dragon attacking in the town square, he cast some preparatory spells and emerged from his home to see how he could help.  By this time, the church of St. Cuthbert and most of its occupants had already been destroyed.  He saw the Diamond Lake garrison forming up for battle and went to their aid.  When the battle was joined, Allustan noticed that the dragon called him by name and seemed to be focusing on him.  He realized that neither he nor the garrison could seriously threaten the dragon, and it occurred to him that the cairn of Icosiel, the victorious Wind Duke commander at the legendary Battle of Pesh must surely contain weapons of extraordinary power.  He broke from the battle and flew at top speed towards the Whispering Cairn.  He was surprised to see that the dragon was following him, so he made himself invisible.  It was during this hectic flight that he cast the Sending spell to warn Alexander about these events.  He was aware from previous experimentation with the portal that there was something powerful guarding its entrance.  So he cast a spell from a scroll that allowed him to become ethereal, thereby bypassing the portal guardian.  His ethereal state also protected him from the smoke creatures in the first hall as well as from the gas trap in the following room.  He noticed that the statue in the middle of the next hallway was holding a potentially powerful sword, but since he was not a fighter, he continued on, searching for something that he might use against the dragon.  When he entered this room, he was struck by a bolt of electricity.  And that's the last thing he remembered before being revived by Thorash just a few minutes before.

    As Allustan finished telling his story, someone noticed that Alees was missing.  They called out to her and heard her acknowledgment coming from the room with the altar.  While Allustan had been talking to the rest of the party, Alees had been scraping chunks of gold off of the idol with her dagger.


----------



## Menexenus

*Session 40:  Antyress Redpike and Icosiel's Razor*

_12th of Harvester_.  After recovering Allustan from the cairn of Icosiel, the group was a bit more relaxed about time pressures.  However, the pressure from within the group to begin crafting items was intense.  The party asked Allustan if he could craft the party's desired items for them, but he admitted that he lacked the requisite knowledge.  However, he offered to adventure with the party in Alexander's stead, giving the party's wizard an opportunity to begin crafting.  Alexander surveyed the group to find out which items he could enchant the quickest.  He found that, although Alees and Killick would eventually like to obtain higher level enhancements, they would both appreciate receiving the minimum level of enhancement to their armor and cloak (respectively).  Doing so would only take 2 days.  So the party took Allustan up on his offer.  Alexander would leave and magically enchant these two items and Allustan would adventure with the party in his place.  Alexander would return in two days and the party would make further decisions from there.  Before he left, Alexander cast a spell that would allow his partymates to crawl into an extradimensional space in order to rest unseen if necessary for about half of a day.  Then he teleported back to Eligos's house in Greyhawk in order to begin crafting.

    The party had to decide whether to use Alexander's spell immediately in order to rest and recover spells or to continue on.  Tarric was curious about the sword that Allustan had mentioned seeing in the statue's hand.  Although the entire party had walked by it, none of them had noticed that it was accessible.  Killick suggested that the party recover the sword first before resting.  The rest of the party agreed.  Allustan lobbied to take some time to investigate the frescoes, the chandeliers, and other details of the tomb, but the rest of the party insisted that that should wait.

    The party walked back to the hallway where the statue stood holding the greatsword.  They were careful once again to avoid the Word traps that they had encountered before.  Alees looked carefully at the statue and concluded that there was indeed a trap on the sword in the form of a spell that would sound an alarm if it were removed.  Alees admitted that she could not disarm a spell.  The party concluded that the alarm would most likely alert protectors in rooms that the party had not yet explored.  Willing to take the chance, Tarric climbed onto the statue, removed the sword, and jumped back down to the ground, ready for action.  As he waved the enormous sword around him in one hand to test it out, he found that it was incredibly light and well-balanced - and from time to time a brief but intense gust of wind would keep the normally two-handed sword from falling out of his hand!  Apparently, there was an ancient Wind Duke enchantment on the sword that kept the greatsword balanced, permitting one to wield this greatsword effectively in one hand instead of two.

    As Tarric experimented with the new sword, the party heard a loud gong noise coming from a room at the far end of the hallway.  Moments later the double doors opened, causing a wave of intense heat to travel down the hall, like opening the door of an oven.  The creature opening the door was a large snake-like being that seemed to be composed of flowing lava with a humanoid face, holding a longspear in one hand.  Upon seeing the party at the other end of the hall, a broad smile crept across its face, and in stilted (sometimes archaic) language, it said, "Interlopers!  Adventurers!  What fun!  It has been so very long since I have had an opportunity for conversation.  Of course, the conversation will have to be short, because I am compelled by duty to kill you.  But that's no reason for us not to become better acquainted!  Allow me to introduce my bodyguard, Snoughed."  At this point the snake-like creature stepped aside to allow a huge being composed entirely of flame to squeeze into the hallway.  From behind the gigantic mass of living flame, the noble continued in a concerned tone, "I hope you have some skill in combat, otherwise we may not even have time to complete the introductions, let alone engage in any satisfying conversation!"

    The huge fire elemental moved forward laboriously (activating, but ignoring, a previously undiscovered Word trap) and clocked Tarric with one of its flaming fists.  The proximity of the flames from the creature's gigantic fist caused some of Tarric's clothing to smolder and catch fire.  Alees drew her crossbow at the creature and fired at it.  Because the huge creature was squeezed into the entire width and breadth of the hallway, it was a difficult target to miss.  Allustan stepped forward and fired a volley of magic missiles from a wand he had borrowed from Thorash, damaging the flaming behemoth.  Killick attempted to tumble into the cross-hallway in order to attack the creature from another direction and help set Tarric up for a flanking attack.  However, he was astonished to discover that the gigantic creature had extraordinarily quick reflexes.  It was able to swing its fist at Killick 5 times before he reached his destination, landing 4 blows and catching his clothing on fire in the process.  Seeing what had happened to Killick, Katawan chose to use his Spring Attack maneuver to avoid the creature's exceptional reflexes.  However, he found that his punches did not land in any satisfying way on living flame.  Consequently, Katawan did less damage to the creature than he would have done to a more tangible opponent.  Thorash cast a spell causing a column of flame to engulf the creature, which surprisingly seemed to harm the creature.

    From behind, the party heard the snake-like lava creature order its bodyguard to get out of the way.  It facetiously asked, "How am I supposed to make proper introductions if I cannot see my new guests?"  Obliging its master, the creature pursued Killick into the cross-hallway, leaving the intersection vacant.  The burning snake-like creature cast a spell creating a wall of fire at the far end of the hall, blocking off some of the ranged attackers.  Then it bowed and said, "My name is Antyress Redpike, Earl of Coalchester, keeper of Icosiel's Razor for more centuries than I care to count.  Please, against whom do I have the pleasure of fulfilling my unfortunately deadly duties?  I promise to record all of your names so that someday someone might find and mark your collective final resting place."

    Killick introduced himself and asked Antyress when was the last time that he had seen another party of adventurers infiltrating the cairn.  Antyress replied that it must have been nigh on a century.  Killick asked if those adventurers had worn red leather with an 8-pointed star insignia.  Antyress replied that that description did indeed fit his memory of the last force that had attempted to remove the sword.  Killick asked for more information about the composition and abilities of the previous party, but Antyress bragged that they had not lived long enough to tell him much about themselves.

    Thorash cast a spell on Tarric that would protect him from all bodily contact by summoned creatures.  So Tarric confidently moved down the hallway toward Antyress, ignoring the threat posed by the bodyguard.  However, the fire elemental took two swings at him as he walked by.  One of those blows landed, causing Tarric further damage as well as lighting more of his clothing on fire.  When Tarric and Thorash both gave incredulous looks at one another, Antyress explained, "Oh, you thought that I *summoned* my good friend, Snoughed!  No, no, he is simply my loyal bodyguard.  Quite an easy mistake to make, though."  Tarric continued moving forward, and sliced into Antyress's hide, causing his blade to glow red-hot where it had made contact with his body.  Tarric stood in the entrance of a long room whose floor was covered with burning hot coals.  On the opposite wall was a set of copper double doors.  Near those doors sat a chest made of black stone.  Tarric felt his armor starting to become uncomfortably warm in this room.

    Allustan, who was caught on the wrong side of the wall of fire stepped to one side and cast a spell protecting him from the flame's effects.  Alees was also caught on the wrong side of the wall.  But with no spells available to protect her, she simply bore down and stepped through, grunting aloud in pain.  She stopped immediately after passing through the wall and fired another force bolt at the elemental, striking it.  The elemental, seeing that its master was threatened by a fighter, called out asking Antyress if he would like some assistance.  Antyress replied that he would indeed.  The elemental stepped back into the corridor, blocking the party's view of the far room, and smacked Tarric again.  Katawan moved through the wall of fire as well.  Although he did not cry out, his fleshed sizzled as he passed through it.  After enduring the pain, he shot his body forward to strike the creature with his fists, bouncing back afterwards to end up next to Killick.  He asked the druid if he could be of any assistance.  Killick replied that he would take care of it and then cast a healing spell on himself.  He also called out, ordering Grimlock to heel, but the dog, who was caught on the far side of the wall of fire, hesitated to move.

    From behind the huge elemental, the party heard Antyress huffing and puffing as it attacked Tarric, saying, "I see that you carry an emblem proudly on your shield... but I am ashamed to admit that I am unfamiliar with its meaning...  having been stuck down here in this tomb for the past few centuries. ... Please favor me with some tales about yourself and your organization. ... Please hurry, though; you don't have long to live."  Indeed, Tarric had been stabbed 3 times by the creature's longspear.  With the elemental standing directly behind him, Tarric could see what was about to happen.  He knew that Antyress was probably right.  He did not have much longer to act.  So, rather than waste his breath on pointless introductions, he turned his attention to the elemental in hopes of weakening it enough to help his partymates get to him.  He swang his sword at it multiple times, but only landed a couple glancing blows.  Soon thereafter, the elemental bodyguard pounded Tarric with one of its fists, knocking him unconscious.  Then, without missing a beat, it quickly swiveled around and landed a second blow on Alees.  

    Killick moved forward into a position where he could see Tarric's unconscious body lying on the ground behind the huge fire creature and cast a spell that doused his friend with water, quenching the flames that had been consuming his clothing.  Allustan stepped through the wall of fire, causing barely a wisp of smoke, and fired another volley of magic missiles at the fiery bodyguard.  Seeing the wizard step through the fire with no apparent damage finally gave Grimlock the courage to advance through the fire in order to find his master.  However, when he ran through the wall of fire, he gave out a yelp of pain.  While Katawan continued to spring attack the huge elemental and Alees continued to shoot it, Thorash shot a beam of energy from his fingertip at the creature.  When this beam struck it, it gave out a roar and then finally collapsed to the ground and dispersed, leaving harmlessly dwindling bits of flame strewn about the hallway floor.  

With the huge elemental gone, Thorash, Katawan, and Killick moved up to Tarric's side and looked into the burning room, but Antyress was nowhere to be seen.  Then, from out of nowhere, a new fire elemental appeared in the doorway that was just as large and potent-looking as its predecessor.  From somewhere behind the new creature, Antyress called out in a more angry tone of voice, "You've proven yourselves to be worthy adversaries.  But now that you've killed Snoughed, my bodyguard and sole companion for all these many centuries, you'll forgive me if I admit that this fight has just become a bit more personal for me.  I'm afraid that the kid gloves have to come off now.  But, as you die, I want you to know that I hold you in the highest regard nonetheless."  

    With the appearance of this new huge fire elemental, the group unanimously called for a retreat.  Killick dragged Tarric's body back as far as he could, away from the new threat.  Thorash moved back to cast a healing spell on the party's fighter to get him mobile.  Katawan stood in the doorway, giving his comrades time to pull back towards the portal.  He stepped up to the creature, deliving a flurry of blows.  It traded blows with the monk, catching his robes alight.  Alees collected her weapons (some of which she had previously had to drop) and tried to jump over the gas trap into the room beyond.  Unfortunately, though, she stumbled at the last moment and activated the trap anyway, causing the jets of poison gas to shoot out of the floor.  Allustan fired his wand at the new elemental and moved toward the door, but he found it blocked by the other party members and was unable to make as much progress as he had anticipated.  Not wanting to be left too far behind, Katawan attacked the new fire creature once, and then sprang back toward the exit.  The summoned elemental followed the monk, but found Allustan first and walloped him with a closed fist, causing the wizard to become noticeably weakened and disoriented.  Tarric stood up and pulled him through the doorway, but the older man was unprepared and inhaled the poison gas, making it difficult for him to keep his balance.

    As the elemental pursued the party into the barricade room, it inadvertently activated a previously undiscovered wind trap.  But this had no effect on the huge creature other than to make it glow temporarily brighter.  The elemental finally caught up to the party in the loud and windy room.  It successfully knocked Alees unconscious, but Tarric grabbed her and pulled her toward the portal.  All of the party members slipped through just before the rampaging elemental caught up to them.  Although it had been a narrow thing, all of the party members had made it back to the Whispering Cairn with their lives.

    The party chose to walk back to Diamond Lake.  They arrived in town just before dawn.

_13th of Harvester_.  The party rested, healed, and identified the two magic items they had been able to liberate from the tomb, the sword that Antyress had called Icosiel's Razor and the bracers that the shadow spider had been wearing.  It turned out that the spider's bracers had very powerful protective magic on them.  While Killick was tempted to lay claim to them, he realized that Alexander needed them more than he did.  The sword had many distinctive markings.  Besides being a wind-balanced magical weapon made of mithril, it turned out that Icosiel's Razor was also exceptionally sharp (as its name implied).  Allustan recalled from his previous research into the Wind Dukes and the Battle of Pesh that Icosiel's bodyguard had wielded such a weapon.

_14th of Harvester_.  The party continued healing.  Alexander returned, meeting up with the party near dinner time.  He handed Alees her minimally enchanted chain shirt armor and Killick his minimally enchanted cloak of resistance (which Venelle had fashioned from Ilthane's hide).  Both party members were grateful to receive their protective items back.  The party gave the shadow spider's powerful Bracers of Armor to Alexander.  In gratitude, he offered to teleport back to Greyhawk to sell his old set of bracers as well as Icosiel's Razor.  Killick reminded Alexander not to reveal the existence of Icosiel's Cairn to anyone in Greyhawk who may want to compete for its riches.  Killick suggested that Alexander attempt to sell the unique wind-balanced sword to the church of St. Cuthbert, or one of its paladins.  The party hoped that they might get better than usual value for it.  Since none of them had ever heard of a weapon with the wind-balancing property before, they anticipated that buyers might be willing to pay more for such a one-of-a-kind item.  Alexander said he would meet the party in the Whispering Cairn after he had completed the sales on the following day, and then he teleported away again.

_15th of Harvester_.  The party returned to the Whispering Cairn and cast multiple preparatory spells with the expectation of facing Antyress and his minions once again.  As soon as they entered Icosiel's Cairn via the portal, they spotted Antyress waiting for them at the far end of the adjoining barricade room.  He slithered into the hallway, purposely causing the jets of poison gas to erupt, and the party lost sight of him.  Katawan, explaining that he was immune to poison, ran through the doorway heedless of the poison gas.  He discovered that Antyress was standing just beyond the poison gas but was invisible.  He slithered away from Katawan, towards the hot-coals room.  Tarric and Katawan moved into the room, both hearing Antyress in the process of casting a spell.  As Killick moved forward in hot pursuit, Grimlock carelessly stepped on the same Word trap that he had activated the first time and was paralyzed once again.  Seeing that his faithful hound was in no immediate danger, Killick continued following Antyress into the hot-coal room. Tarric pointed Killick of Antyress's general direction, and Killick cast a spell that caused glowing spoors to explode in a small radius.  Some of these spoors stuck to Antyress's invisible form, outlining him.  

Now that Antyress was visible again, the party moved to attack.  Katawan struck him 3 times, causing him to lose the spell that he had been in the process of casting.  Killick suggested to Antyress that he put his weapon down and surrender, but the proud creature replied that he was unable to do so.  Instead, he struck Katawan angrily, stabbing him with his longspear and wrapping him up within the coils of his searing hot tail.  Eventually, Katawan broke out of Antyress's grip.  Meanwhile, Antyress took damage from Allustan's wand of magic missiles, from Alees's dagger, and from Killick's petrified quarterstaff.  Things looked bleak for the creature that Allustan had previously identified as a noble salamander.  Then Thorash cast a spell that caused Antyress to return to his plane of origin.  Antyress's eyes widened with surprise when he saw what Thorash was casting.  As the magical energy washed over him, he made no attempt to resist its effect.  As his form was pulled away to some fiery place, he gave a quick salute to Thorash, saying, "I owe you one, friend."  Then he was gone.

    With the threat over, Alees moved quickly to the double doors at the far side of the room and discovered that they were false - the did not open and led nowhere.  Then she turned her attention to the black stone chest.  She had it unlocked in short order and revealed its contents to the party.  After some quick stacking and counting, the tally was 2300 gold pieces, 300 platinum pieces, 2 honey topazes, and 4 crystal decanters of some kind of alcohol.  After Alees had certified that the room contained no secret doors, the party moved out to investigate the frescoes and take a closer look at the chandeliers.  The chandeliers depicted miniature scenes of demonic forces surrendering to the Wind Dukes.  The craftsmanship of these miniature scenes was so astonishing that Alees was willing to bet people would pay a pretty penny for them (even if they didn't know what the scenes were about).  The fresco on the wall beneath the chandeliers depicted a creature reaching for a large block with a handle - a seal.  This seal was almost certainly the same object that had been represented in the scene depicted by the gas trap.  Allustan said that the creature was known as an inevitable - a creature of pure law from Mechanus, the plane of law.  In the fresco, there were words written in strange symbols spilling from the creature's mouth.  Allustan said that these words were written in Vaati, the language of the Wind Dukes.  Although he was certainly not fluent, his research of the Wind Dukes allowed him to read these words.  He said that they were "Aqaa", "Icosiel", and "Pesh".  He suspected that they were the seal's command words, but he could not tell from the fresco what the seal's magical abilities might be.

    Since the party had exhausted a good number of spells preparing for their short battle with Antyress, they decided to return to the Whispering Cairn and await Alexander's return rather than pressing on further into the cairn.  Alexander returned in the afternoon carrying a large sack of coins, amounting to 22,000 gold pieces.  He reminded the party that they had promised to meet Learah at the Rainbow Mage's tower the following day.  There was no telling how she would react when she learned that Alexander had given away three items that the party had promised to return to her after researching them (the Pyramid, the Ruby, and the Rainbow Mage's encrypted journal).  The party had to decide how best to proceed.


----------



## Menexenus

*Session 41: Facing the Music*

_16th of Harvester_.  Alexander thought it made sense for him to return to face Learah alone, in case she decided to have him imprisoned, but the rest of the party insisted that they should accompany him just in case.  Before they left, though, Thorash cast a spell allowing him to commune with his deity that revealed the following information:


The enemy party that had been competing for the White Eye was now dead.

The Cult of Kyuss/Ebon Triad was in possession of the Pyramid and Ruby, but those items were not at the Rift Canyon.

The Cult/Triad would certainly recruit others to continue trying to obtain the White Eye.

The Cult/Triad knows that the party is in possession of an Amulet of the Dark Sun.

It was unlikely that the party would be attacked directly by the Cult/Triad before finishing their exploration of Icosiol's Cairn.

Learah is not in league with the Cult/Triad.

At least one piece of the Rod of Seven Parts was in Icosiel's Cairn.
 
After considering the implications of these new revelations, Alexander cast spells that reduced Thorash and Alees and Killick did the same to his pet Grimlock, all of whom were placed in Bags of Holding for the brief journey by teleportation.  (They were all quickly released from their airless pocket dimensions upon arrival at the Rainbow Mage's tower.)  

    Learah was already there waiting for them.  She was pleased to see them.  She welcomed them and praised them for keeping their word.  Alexander regretfully informed her that he had lost the items that he had promised to return.  He explained that he had discovered that the items were instruments of tremendous evil, and he wanted to safeguard them.  However, he confessed that in his attempt to do so, he had unwittingly handed them over to the very agents of evil that he had been trying to keep them from.  He apologized for his actions and promised to yield to whatever applicable criminal proceedings she wished to initiate.  As a token of his regret, and by way of partial recompense for her family's potential financial losses, he returned the Boccob's Blessed Book that he had chosen as his payment from the Rainbow Mage's personal belongings.

    She was clearly very upset by this news, but she maintained her composure.  In the end she admitted that she had no legal standing to initiate charges of theft or fraud against the party, as she was no longer the legal owner of the items that had been lost.  They had reverted to their prior owner, the Rainbow Mage, Londar Brightrain, Learah's father.  She explained that a few days after she returned to her husband's keep with her father's corpse, a small caravan from the Church of Pelor arrived.  The priests claimed that her father had done their church an important service about a decade previously, and they wished to repay the debt they owed him by using their church's resources to return him from the dead.  Learah and her husband agreed, and the priests took her father's body north to Leukish, the capital of the Duchy of Urnst.  She believed that they must have reached Leukish by now.  So, for all she knew, her father was currently living again and on his way back to his tower right now.  She said she would leave the matter of the theft of his belongings for him to take care of.  She wished to have no further dealings with the party and asked them not to return to her father's house.  The party happily consented to that request.  

    With their business concluded, the party reduced 3 of its members again and teleported back to Eligos's house in Greyhawk.  Alexander discussed matters with Eligos and reported to the party that Eligos was willing to help the party craft magic items, out of gratitude for defeating his doppelganger and raising him from the dead.  However, he recommended leaving only one magic item with him at a time, since the Cult of Kyuss/Ebon Triad almost certainly knew who and where he was.  He was basically a sitting duck who could be attacked at any time of the enemy's choosing.  The party decided to have him start repairing their Wand of Cure Serious Wounds (which Ilthane had sundered).  Alexander also reported that Eligos recommended that the party continue searching Icosiel's Cairn for weapons that could be used in the fight against Kyuss.  Even a piece of the Rod of Seven Parts might contain powerful residual magical energy.

    The remainder of the day was occupied by commerce.  The party sold off some items, divvied up the gold, and scattered to make individual purchases at various shops around town.

_17th of Harvester_.  Some shrunken members of the party dutifully filed into their Bags of Holding for a return trip to Diamond Lake by teleportation.  Allustan was found in town evaluating the damage to his home.  As a favor, he asked the party to show him any items of historical value before taking them away and selling them.  And if there were any items that were of no monetary value, he would be happy to preserve them as historical artifacts.  

After quickly checking in with Allustain, the party traveled to the Whispering Cairn and entered the portal.  Upon arriving in Icosiol's Cairn, the party decided to clear out some of the regions of the tomb that they had previously passed by.  First, they opened a set of double doors behind a gas trap in the barricade room.  This opened into a small room with double doors on each wall.  Two of these double doors turned out to be false, but one opened into a long room with two rows of pillars and another set of double doors on the far wall.  Alees carefully checked the room and found that the pillars were trapped.  Katawan ran from one end of the room to the other, in an attempt to set off any pressure plates, but his round trip had no visible effects.  Alees walked to the far side of the room and examined the double doors on the far wall.  She determined that they were most likely the trigger of the trap.  Furthermore, she determined that they were also false doors.  She checked around for secret doors, but finding none, the party decided to leave the room alone.

    Next, the party investigated a set of double doors on the gallery level of the room that had contained the Elder Black Pudding.  Behind the doors was a small room garden scenes painted on the walls containing only a large urn on a pedastal and six small black boxes on the floor against the far wall.  Alees determined that the urn was trapped.  So, she set to work opening the small black boxes.  While many of their boxes' contents had disintegrated with age, some potential valuable items that were recovered were a wand, some small decorative gems, and a platinum necklace, ring, and earring set.  Unable to resist the urn, Alees worked on disarming the trap and was successful.  She opened the urn and found only ashes.  She stirred the ashes around just to make sure that nothing was hidden inside.  Thorash expressed the view that, since this room was clearly someone's final resting place, the items that Alees had taken should be returned.  Alees scoffed at Thorash's opinion.

    Next the party opened a set of previously unopened doors exiting from the hall that where the party had encountered the spider.  They found a collapsing stone bridge traversing a river of blood, leading to a gatehouse with corroded iron double doors covered in strange glyphs.  Thorash determined with his dwarven stonecunning that the bridge could carry the weight of one person at a time, but that person would have to walk carefully.  Katawan went across first with a rope tied to his waist.  When he got across, a strange being with 3 arms and 3 legs emerged from the ground, baring its claws as well as its fangs - which were located on _top_ of its head!  Killick sprouted wings and flew across to Katawan's side.  He told the xorn (which he recognized from his summoning list) that the party did not wish to fight it.  It replied that it was hungry and that it could smell their 'shinies'.  This was Alexander's cue to pump 5 maximized magic missiles into it.  Following Alexander's lead, Tarric drew his bow and fired at the creature, but he accidentally grazed Alees instead.

    At this point, 5 additional xorns emerged from the ground all around the chamber.  Thorash cast a spell that produced a column of flame.  Although the fire did not affect them, they took damage from the spell nonetheless.  Killick cast the same spell and saw the same effect.  Alees attempted to join her comrades on the far side of the bridge, but she slipped while going across.  Luckily, she grasped the rope tied to Katawan's waist at just the last moment, pulling him unexpectedly backward.  Tarric stowed his bow and jumped down from the bridge to the riverbank just a few feet below, but he was unable to keep his footing and fell to the ground.  The xorn on his side of the river moved to attack him.  Grimlock took bites at it from up on the bridge.  Killick was briefly surrounded, but he used his petrified quarterstaff to good effect.  Katawan flurried with his fists to good effect as well.  Alees was able to get in a sneak attack against one of them.  Alexander made excellent use of his boom stick.  Tarric noticed that his sword was not having full effect against the creatures' rocky hides, but he did significant damage to his opponent nonetheless.  Eventually, after 3 of the creatures had been killed outright, the remaining xorns (who were severely wounded) decided to look for safer feeding grounds elsewhere.

    To Killick's dismay, Alees cut open the bellies of the 3 dead xorns looking for gems.  She found only remnants of worthless base metals.  While Alees was taking care of her grisly business, Killick examined the rushing river of blood.  He found that the liquid was not blood but merely water colored by fine metallic sediment that had a reddish tint.  The party moved up to the rusted iron double doors and was unable to decipher the meaning of the corroded markings on the door.  So Killick touched the doors with his gauntlet, causing them to rust through, creating a 6 foot diameter circle.  However, just behind the first set of double doors was another identical set.  Alexander drew his Chime of Opening and activated it.  The second set of doors opened to reveal a third set of double doors just behind the second set.  Alexander used his chimes again, and the third set of doors opened to reveal a fourth set.  Alexander used his chimes again, but this time the fourth set of doors didn't budge.  Alees moved forward carefully to investigate.  She found that the fourth set of doors were false.  She checked all around the area looking for secret doors, but she found none.  Killick cast a spell that allowed him to shape the stone of the bridge and make it slightly more stable.  The party then carefully left this area empty handed.

    The party now moved to the last unexamined door in the complex.  It was directly across from the door that had led to the bridge.  This was merely a single door that opened easily.  Inside was a small room containing a dusty set of armor, a dusty altar, and a door painted on the wall.  Alexander cast Detect Magic and noticed that the armor was magical, but the altar was not, nor was the door on the wall.  Alees entered the room, carefully checking the floor for traps.  When she did, a ghost flew out at her from the wall yelling at her in some forgotten tongue that no one in the party understood.  Katawan tumbled into the room behind it.  It turned to face him.  As its incorporeal arm passed through him, he felt his lifeforce leaving him.  Katawan quickly realized that this opponent was better dealt with via spring attacks.  Seeing the gaunt look on Katawan's face, Alees quickly tumbled away from it and drew her crossbow.  Alexander drew his wand of maximized magic missiles and pumped bolts of force into the creature.  Tarric moved up to protect the wizard, but his sword passed right through the undead creature.  Realizing that Alexander's magic missiles were the greatest threat, the ghostly figure passed through the wall and waved its arm through Alexander's body, causing his face to go white.  Thorash presented his holy symbol and tried to force the creature back, but it merely hissed at him in defiance.  Alees shot at the creature but missed.  Katawan spring attacked the undead, but his attacks passed through it harmlessly.  Killick activated the Rainbow Ring for the first time, and a quarterstaff of multicolored energy appeared in his hand.  Alexander stepped back and fired with his wand yet again.  But the creature was not felled.  It advanced on the wizard and passed its arm through him once more, knocking him unconscious.  Thorash moved over his unconscious comrade in arms but cast a spell on himself protecting him from the baleful effects of the undead creature's touch.  Alees moved behind Thorash and cast a healing spell on Alexander.  With the wizard down, the undead turned its attention to the fighter, whose blade had occasionally done some damage.  Tarric also blanched visibly after the creature passed its arm through him.  Seeing that Alexander was OK, Thorash decided to cast a more offensive spell.  A beam of searing light emerged from his pointed finger and connected with the undead creature.  It seemed to be especially vulnerable to this spell.  It cried out as it was snuffed from existence.

With the threat gone, Alees did a careful exploration of the small room.  She found that there was a rectangular spot on the altar where the was significantly less dust than everywhere else.  Presumably something had been resting there that had recently been removed.

    At this point, the party was not aware of any more doors left to be explored in the cairn.  So where was the fragment of the Rod?


----------



## Menexenus

*Sessions 42 & 43:  Exploring Icosiol's Cairn*

_17th of Harvester_.  The party used its Wand of Restoration to heal the ability damage that many in the party had sustained from the Dread Wraith.  Then Alees spent a few hours taking a close look at all of the walls in the cairn, looking for secret doors.  When none were found, the party had no other choice but to begin exploring the tunnels that had been submerged when Alees set off the trap.  Luckily, many members of the party had selected spells with just such an exploration in mind.  Thorash and Killick worked together to cast Water Breathing and Freedom of Movement on the whole party.  They then climbed down the iron rungs toward the two passages that Alees had briefly observed before the river had come rushing in.

    First the party explored the passage leading upstream (northeast).  The party moved forward at a snail's pace as Alees took the lead and did her best to look for traps in murky water.  None were found.  However, when the passage led out to the larger river channel, Alees found the mechanism that had allowed the water to flood the tunnel in the first place.  After a couple minutes of work, she was able to repair the mechanism, allowing a large metal door to slide back into place, blocking off the flow of water.  Now that the water source had been closed off, the water within the tunnel flowed out in a matter of minutes and the party was once again standing in breathable air.  They returned to the iron rungs and then followed the eastern passage.  This led out to a yawning chasm of natural rock, about 25 or 30 feet in diameter, into which fell the rushing red river.  The waterfall was quite noisy.  Many members of the party spotted an apparently man-made ledge on the far side of the waterfall.  After considering how they could safely cross the chasm, Alees produced a potion of Fly and gave it to Tarric to drink.  The then flew the party members across one at a time.  Once across, the party members saw that there was a short stairway leading up to a room lined with statues.  The party could feel the temperature drop as they approached the stairs, and they could see that the floor of the room on the other side of the stairs was covered in red ice.

    Tarric decided to do some quick reconnaissance before the duration of the Fly spell ran out.  He flew up as far as he could until the space tightened and the passages became to small for him to navigate.  Then he flew down into the waterfall.  After zigzagging a bit, bouncing of rock formations, the waterfall collected in a pool about 30 feet below the ledge where the rest of the party was standing.  Tarric could see that the water continued pouring down into the chasm from the edge of the pool.  As he was flying down to get a closer look, he heard the twang of 6 separate crossbows and felt the bolts rush by him from out of the darkness.  Tarric decided to fly immediately back up to the rest of the party rather than try to face his ambushers alone.  They did not pursue him and he escaped without suffering much harm.  

    Since there was no pursuit, the party decided to continue exploring the cold room up the stairs.  They walked up the stairs and found a room lined by 6 statues.  All of the statues had their hands outstretched, and 5 of the 6 had little models of tall buildings the likes of which the party had never seen floating just above their outstretched hands.  There was one door on the wall.  Alees investigated the statues and noticed that there was a lever behind the statue without a building model.  When she alerted the party to its existence, the statue in front of it turned, grasped the lever and yanked down on it, causing an iron portcullis to fall from the ceiling in both of the archways leading in and out.  This left half of the party inside the room and half on the outside.  The statue-being said something to the party but it was in a language that they did not understand.  A fight commenced during which the being simply touched the party members and drew their life-forces out.  The statue-being seemed to be largely mechanical in nature, and when he drew out the party members' life force with his touch, this seemed to have the effect of repairing its mechanisms.  Alees had the presence of mind to flip the lever back to the open position, allowing the portcullis to slowly retract back into the ceiling.  Killick shouted back at the statue the phrase he had heard the Dread Wraith use a few hours earlier.  However, these words merely puzzled the creature and it replied using words that the party still did not understand.  Before the mechanical being could be surrounded by party members, Thorash cast a Flame Strike on the creature, causing the icy floor to melt in the location where the column of flame erupted.  Tarric, Killick, and Katawan led the melee portion of the battle, and eventually the creature fell.

    With the threat over, the party opened the door on the wall near where the false statue had been standing.  They were disappointed to discover a completely bare small room.  Alees went inside to look for secret doors but found none.  So the party turned its attention to the adjoining hallway.  Its floor was also covered in red ice.  Two enormous ice statues with white arcane runes on them stood vigil over this long empty hall.  When Katawan crossed the threshold into this hallway, the statues came alive and attacked the party.  They shot icy shards from their hands at those who were close by.  The ice in their eyes caused one or two party members to become temporarily blinded.  Alexander and Katawan rained fireballs on these ice creatures, exposing a large hole in the floor.  Thorash's Magic Missiles (from a wand) were ineffective.  Eventually, Thorash and Alexander simultaneously realized that no magic except fire-based spells could effect these large constructs.  Tarric found that his bastard sword slid right off the creatures, like an ice skate.  So most of the damage was left to Killick and Katawan, who eventually did fell the creatures along with their comrades.

    With all of their Water Breathing and Freedom of Action spells still in operation, the party decided to jump down into the hole exposed by the fireballs into a calm area of the red river that they had encountered elsewhere.  Thorash and Killick led the way as the party explored the underwater environment.  Before the party had gone far, Thorash and Killick were struck by pseudopods.  The damage was minimal, but Thorash noticed that his own blood was leaving his body where he had been struck and traveling in ribbons to join the pseudopod.  This blood loss weakened the party members while strengthening the blob-like creature.  After some observation, Thorash determined that there were two of these creatures and they were not only ooze-like, they were also undead.  As much of the party retreated back up the rope which Katawan had tied off ahead of time, Thorash moved into a position where he could present his holy symbol.  He did so, but his words were garbled by water and they undead oozes seemed to be unaffected.  When Tarric and Thorash saw the two oozes splitting off to form new oozes, they joined the retreat.  The party climbed back up to the hallway in the hopes that the oozes would not follow, but they did follow.  

    The party was particularly low on spells and resources.  And since there was a waterfall behind them, the party was forced to make a stand.  They concentrated their attacks on the first one to emerge through the hole in the floor killing it rather quickly.  Thorash once again brandished his holy symbol, causing one of the creatures to flee.  The party slowly retreated in the face of the other two newly created oozes.  However, after the party threw everything it had left at them (like Alexander's Shocking Grasp spell), they were indeed destroyed.  About 2 minutes later, the one that Thorash had chased off returned.  But with all 6 party members attacking that one target, it did not last very long.

    With the threat over, the party decided to check out the door at the far end of the hallway.  Behind the door, they found a swirling whirlpool of snow, sleet, and ice approximately 15 feet across.  Because Killick had previously cast a spell protecting him from cold, he jumped in and stirred around with his quarterstaff, looking for treasure.  None was found, however, when Killick emerged from the whirlpool, Tarric noticed that Killick seemed more commanding, handsome, and inspiring than he had been before.

    It looked like the party would have to venture down the waterfall to find Icosiel's final resting place.  But the party would be doing nothing else today.  They were completely tapped out.  So they withdrew carefully back through the cairn to the safety of the Whispering Cairn in order to make camp.

_18th of Harvester_.  The party had decided to make camp in Icosiol's Cairn, in case whoever had stolen the Seal returned.  The night was uneventful and the party returned to exploration after all the spellcasters had a chance to rest, pray, and rememorize.  Once the party returned to the top of the waterfall, they had a prolonged discussion about how best to proceed.  Thorash mentioned that he could cast a spell on most of the party that would allow them to turn into a vapor and float down to the bottom of the shaft.  Thorash cast the spell and then drifted down 30 feet to the large basin where the red water was pooling.  He was attacked by crossbow wielding Wind Warriors, like the ones the party had faced guarding Zosiel's sarcophagus.  The crossbow bolts passed harmlessly through him.  Thorash ignored the attackers and surveyed the location, looking for likely secret doors or entrances to additional rooms.  However, he found nothing of the sort.  By this time, the Wind Warriors had put away their crossbows and drawn their swords.  Although most of the warriors tried cleaving into Thorash with their swords, one of them clanged his two longswords together, producing a sonic effect which damaged Thorash.  Seeing that their sword-strokes did no damage, all 6 Wind Warriors began attacking Thorash with their sonic attacks.  Thorash retreated back to the top of the waterfall.  When there was no pursuit, Thorash made himself solid again.

    He described all that he had witnessed to the rest of the party and then cast a spell protecting him from sonic energy.  Killick did the same.  Again, there was more discussion about how best to proceed.  Some thought it would be best for Thorash to lead the Warriors away to give Alees time to check more carefully for secret doors.  However, the party could not reach consensus.  Finally, in frustration, Alexander simply flew down to face the Warriors, casting a fireball on them.  Killick sprouted wings and joined his childhood friend.  The rest of the party, though, was forced to move slowly down to the combat in vapor form and then begin the slow process of resolidification.  During that process, Alexander was surrounded by the floating suits of ceramic full plate armor.  He moved away from his attackers, taking some damage in the process, and then cast Shout on them, causing their armor to crack a bit.  Killick landed on the lip of the basin and fought the Warriors that would face him in melee.  Soon thereafter, the other members of the party appeared in vapor form and took up the remaining positions on the lip of the basin.  All except Thorash, that is, who moved out beyond the lip of the basin to peer down into the shaft.  He could not see the bottom.  The wind warriors attacked Killick with physical attacks and the gaseous party members with sonic attacks.  Alexander withdrew to the top of the waterfall to use his Wand of False Life.  Two of the six Wind Warriors moved to attack Thorash, who chose to continue downward until he could see the bottom.  

    Soon the rest of the party was solid again and began attacking the Warriors in earnest.  The Warrior on Tarric and Katawan's side of the battle was quickly felled.  Katawan waded into the basin to get to the fight on the opposite side.  He discovered that the water was only about neck deep at its highest point.  Tarric then followed him across.  Meanwhile, Alees was exploring some of her new feats on the opposite side.  She was now able to get attacks of opportunity when others hit a target that she flanked.  She was also able to get extra attacks when an opponent was successfully feinted or otherwise caught flat-footed.  However, when the remaining Wind Warriors discovered that they could not strike Killick, they turned their attention to Alees.  Alexander swooped down and put one of them inside a Wall of Fire to help protect her.  Soon after this, however, the two remaining Wind Warriors withdrew from this battle to join their brethren who were pursuing Thorash down the shaft.

    When it became clear that the Wind Warriors were relentlessly using their sonic attacks on Thorash and that he was not coming back up, Killick flew down after him.  The rest of the party reluctantly made themselves gaseous again, and slowly began heading down.  Since that was the way that the rest of the party seemed to be heading, Alexander decided to accompany them as well.  Since Alexander was flying via the Fly spell and was not gaseous, he caught up to the combat relatively quickly and found Killick in mid-air combat with 2 of the Warriors.  Many quarterstaff blows and Magic Missile castings later, only 2 of the original 6 Wind Warriors remained.  

    They broke off pursuit once Thorash found the bottom of the shaft.  The waterfall was finally hitting bottom.  It pooled up on one side of a large cavern and then began channeling swiftly downhill towards the far end of the cavern.  With the Wind Warriors breaking off, the rest of the party quickly caught up and resolidified, grateful to be standing on solid ground again.  While they talked about how best to proceed, some of the party members noticed a sickly green light reflecting off some of the rocks on the far side of the cavern.  Shortly thereafter a gaunt man with a goatee and a greatsword strapped to his back approached the party holding a lantern aloft - a lantern that emitted a sickly green light.  This stranger hailed the party and welcomed them cordially.  He introduced himself as Moreto, Marquis of Ravenstone.  He described himself as an explorer from a nation known as the White Kingdom which existed far below in the Underdark.  He said that he had been trying for months now to discover a way to the surface.  He explained that he wished to open up trade routes to the surface in hopes of eventually finding allies for his nation's war against the dark elves.  He told the party that he had been trying for months to find a way up the waterfall, but his progress had been stymied by the Wind Warriors.  He wondered if the party could help him.

    During his introduction, Thorash interrupted him more than once to ask about the bodies that he had left behind him.  Each time, Moreto looked puzzled at him and then continued on, essentially ignoring him.  Finally, Thorash announced to the party that Moreto was an undead creature and that there were two other undead standing somewhere behind him, out of sight.  With a sigh, Moreto acknowledged that he was indeed undead and that he did indeed have two bodyguards following him.  He explained that he had been informed of the surface dwellers' prejudice against his kind, so he had chosen to address the party without his companions, given that their appearance was a bit more disturbing than his own.  He insisted that surely beings of reason could come to an amicable arrangement regardless of their prejudices.  He said that he was willing to pay for the information he sought.  He said that in one of his attempts to bypass the Wind Warriors, he had teleported blindly into a room containing an altar with a large seal sitting on it.  Since it glowed with powerful magic, he had taken the object.  But as soon as he had done so, he had been attacked by a giant spider and forced to teleport back down here to his campsite.  Since he had no idea what the object was, he would be willing to part with it in exchange for information about how to reach the surface safely.  The party asked for time to confer, and Moreto walked back around a corner to give them some privacy.

    Soon thereafter, the party called for him to return.  Alexander, speaking on behalf of the party, informed Moreto that they had decided that they could not reveal the way to the surface for political reasons.  However, they were interested in bartering for the magical Seal.  Although Moreto was disappointed, he thought for a moment and said that if the party would bring him the head of the spider, he would gladly give them the Seal.  The party asked to confer again, and again he gave them their privacy.  Even though the party had already slain the spider, they were concerned that Moreto might somehow link up with the Cult of Kyuss on the surface and somehow make it stronger.  So they did not wish to let him know that it was already dead.

    At long last, they called Moreto back once more.  Alexander, speaking for the whole party, regretfully informed him that they could not make any deal with him.  Furthermore, he would be required to surrender the Seal to them or face destruction.  Moreto began casting a protective spell and the battle was on!  Moreto created a globe of protective energy around himself and called his servants forward.  However, Thorash quickly dispelled Moreto's protective bubble, effectively negating his action.  Meanwhile, the party's melee combatants moved forward, striking him and flanking him.  Killick summoned a dire wolf and Killick's wardog Grimlock successfully tripped him.  Finding himself prone and surrounded, Moreto drew a wand from his belt and activated it, causing him to disappear.  With Moreto gone, the party focused its attacks on the two Mohrgs which had appeared from behind the corner.  They focused on one and quickly destroyed it with (among other things) Magic Missiles and a Searing Light.  The second one grabbed Alees and paralyzed her with its purple worm tongue.  At this point, Moreto appeared from around the corner, apologized to its minion, and fired off a Lightning Bolt which struck all of the party except Alexander and Thorash who were too far back to be in the line of effect.  Being paralyzed, Alees took the full brunt of the attack and fell to the ground with a dull thump.  All of her exposed skin was charred and sizzling.  Killick moved to her side and cast a curative spell on her immediately.  Then he ordered Grimlock to drag her out of harm's way.  However, such caution was unnecessary as the next blow from Katawan's fist felled the undead creature.

    With the battle over, the party gathered around Alees to see if she would be OK.  Unexpectedly, a ghostly figure resembling Moreto rose suddenly from the undead explorer's body.  But recognizing that it was certainly outmatched, Moreto's new aspect flew directly into the nearest wall rather than face the party again.


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## Menexenus

*Session 44: The Elemental Guardians*

_18th of Harvester_.  After some discussion, the party decided to ascend back up the waterfall rather than follow Moreto into the Underdark.  The last of Moreto's belongings to be moved or disturbed was the Seal, which the party now saw was a rectangular chunk of polished quartz with a handle on top.  A mirror image of Icosiol's personal crest was carved into the bottom of the Seal.  One side was carved with the same symbols the party had seen on the fresco in the room above (which Allustan had informed them were the activation words - "Icosiol", "Aaqa", and "Pesh").  Another side was carved with a depiction of a man-like figure holding the Seal while standing on a small circle in front of a massive pair of doors.  At long last, Killick volunteered to pick up the Seal.  He spoke the words and held it aloft.  He felt magical power coursing through it.  He tried activating it by pointing it at things and reiterating the activation words, but there was no effect.  Alexander spoke the words and tried the same, with identical results.  Alees drank a potion of Protection from Law, spoke the words, and reached for the Seal with the intention of using her roguish ability to blindly activate magic items.  However, she found that she was unable to touch the Seal - it seemed to repel her.  Killick tried to put the Seal in his Heward's Handy Haversack, but it would not enter.  So Killick put the Seal back down and asked for other volunteers to carry it (as he wished to be able to hold his quarterstaff).

    Katawan decided to pick up the Seal without saying the words (just to find out what would happen).  Suddenly three 10-foot-tall beings appeared around Katawan.  These beings had the dark skin of people who spend a great deal of time out in the sun, and they wore the silk and satin clothing of (wealthy) desert nomads.  After identifying Katawan as the offender, they all transformed themselves into mini-tornadoes, that struggled against the ceiling of the natural cavern.  All three passed over Katawan, but only the third was successful in picking him up and spinning him aloft.  The rest of the party rushed to Katawan's aid, attacking the wind-beings.  Tarric swang his sword to great effect.  Thorash and Killick let loose their Flame Strikes.  Alexander havatu-ed.  Alees shot the creatures with force bolts.  And even Katawan was able to land a blow as he was being flung around in the air.  Within seconds, all three wind-beings had been damaged enough to cause them to disappear.

    When the danger was past, Alexander spoke the words again and picked up the Seal.  He would carry it.  Knowing that two of the Wind Warriors awaited them somewhere above, Alexander and Killick took the lead in physical form, while their companions returned to mist form and slowly ascended behind them.  After a few moments, Alexander and Killick found the Wind Warriors hovering, waiting for intruders.  However, when they saw the Seal in Alexander's hand, they stopped and bowed before him, seeming to await his command.  In addition, Alexander noticed something that he had not seen before - the outline of a secret door carved into the rock.  He spoke the words again, and the secret door opened to reveal a small landing leading to a 5-foot-wide staircase ascending.  The party assembled on the landing and reverted to physical form.  Then they ascended the staircase carved from natural rock.  Eventually, the apparently haphazardly-hewn staircase gave way to a large room made of carefully carved stone.  The only thing in this room was a 50-foot-tall set of closed metal doors.  Alexander said the words again, and the giant doors rumbled open.  Beyond the doors was a ledge.  Thorash walked up to the edge and looked down.  He saw no bottom.  What he did see was a rolling mist about 80 feet down.  He also noticed arcs of electricity that played randomly in the mist and along the walls.  However, the yawning chasm was not empty.  There were seven columns ascending out of the mist, leading to the far wall which was blocked by yet another massive set of metal doors.

    Alexander attempted to fly to the other side of the room, but he noticed 2 giant creatures that were made of living wind emerging from the mist below, so he returned to the floor with the rest of the party.  One of these creatures retained a vaguely humanoid shape with two gigantic fists which it swang at Alexander.  The other of these creatures took the form of a giant funnel cloud and flew over Thorash, picking him up and spinning him around near the ceiling.  Alees retreated to the doorway and shot at the creatures with the Rainbow Crossbow.  Tarric charged the one that had attacked Alexander, taking a pounding as he approached.  Killick, who had magically shrunk his companion wardog for the ascent up the waterfall, returned him to his usual size and ordered him to defend Alexander.  Alexander tumbled out of the Elemental's reach (taking another pounding in the process), drew a wand, and tapped himself with it, causing himself to appear visibly healthier.

    The funnel cloud elemental moved back out over the chasm and ejected Thorash from the funnel, causing him to fall down into the mist.  While the party expected to hear a loud 'thud', instead they heard Thorash's continued screams as he continued falling.  Realizing that this must be a very deep pit indeed, Killick decided to use his wings to dive down after his dwarven comrade in arms.  However, just as he felt he was nearing Thorash's falling body, he heard Thorash desperately cast a spell and then Killick could hear him no longer.  Killick assumed that he must have saved himself somehow, so he started making his way back up to the rest of the group.  However, when he cleared the mist, he witnessed the funnel cloud dropping his wardog companion into the mist about 10 feet away from him.  So he descended once again.  This time he caught up with his companion and struggled to carry him back up.

    Up above, the fight against the giant Wind Elementals was going poorly for the party - so poorly in fact that Alexander was forced to call for retreat.  Most of the party members quickly fell back into the staircase, where they were surprised to see Thorash who was now in mist form.  Alexander readied to cast Wall of Iron at the top of the stairs once Killick and Grimlock appeared - but they did not.  After a few excruciating seconds, the party heard Killick call out for help in a panic.  Tarric who was closest to the top of the stairs, reached into his pack and threw his bronze griffin figurine into the room.  As it hit the floor, the figurine turned into a large metal griffin.  Tarric commanded it to help Killick, but (unsurprisingly) it flew back to the doorway and attacked Tarric instead.  Katawan virtually flew up the stairs, moved past the griffin (which ignored him), and moved to the ledge to see what was going on.  He looked down and saw that Killick was about 70 feet down holding on to Grimlock and trying to fly up to the ledge, but he was flanked by both Wind Elementals and was taking a pounding whenever he moved.  Without hesitation, Katawan jumped off the ledge and grabbed onto Killick as he fell.  Suddenly, Katawan, Killick, and Grimlock appeared at the landing at the base of the stairs, collapsing into a pile of falling bodies.  Alexander breathed a sigh of relief and cast his Wall of Iron spell at the top of the stairs.  The party heard the sounds of the Wind Elementals attacking the bronze griffin, but then all was silent again.

    The party decided to return to Diamond Lake, confer with Allustan, rest, heal up, recover spells, and identify Moreto's magic items.  

_19th of Harvester_.  After accomplishing their tasks, the party returned to Icosiol's Cairn much better prepared for combat against the Wind Elementals.  Once they had returned to the staircase leading up from the secret door in the waterfall shaft, Killick used his Gauntlet of Rust to open up a hole in the Wall of Iron left behind by Alexander.  Alexander ordered the two remaining wounded Wind Warriors into the room to attack the Elementals.  The Elementals quickly pounded them to dust, but this gave the party time to deploy into the room.  The party then commenced efficiently destroying the two Wind Elemental guardians.  Although Flame Strikes were effective as always, perhaps most effective were Alexander's Maximized Empowered Magic Missiles.

    With the battle quickly won, Katawan pointed out something he had noticed before - that Icosiol's symbol was inscribed on the top of one of the columns that ascended from the mist.  Alexander flew over to it with the Seal and spoke the command words once again.  This caused a great column of wind to erupt from the top of the column, propelling Alexander through an illusion-concealed hole in the ceiling.


----------



## Menexenus

*Session 45 & 46:  The Rod of Seven Parts (or, "Easy Come Easy Go")*

_19th of Harvester_.  Alexander was propelled along a column of wind up through an illusion in the ceiling of the cavern into another, smaller room which had magical lanterns in each corner, a floating stone sarcophagus in the middle and a raised alcove on the far side.  One by one, Alexander's comrades joined him in the chamber which one could only guess was Icosiol's final resting place.  Katawan was the third one to bob into view riding on the column of air and join his comrades in the room.  He told the others that he thought he heard whispers on the far side of the room.  As others arrived, he lost track of the sounds.  When Alees arrived, she heard them too and said they sounded like spell-casting.  However, since nothing was happening, the party took no offensive action.  The party members had all remained near the column of air when they had arrived in the room, as it appeared to be the only means of entry and exit.  However, Alees now began moving forward into the room slowly, heading toward the sarcophagus, looking for traps as she went.  Just in case, Alexander cast Web into the far side of the room, where the whispers had been heard.

    Suddenly, a previously invisible creature cast a unholy destructive area effect spell that caught the entire party in its blast.  After suffering from the wave of evil energy, the party looked up and saw a flying demon hovering just above the web covered with independently moving eyeballs on all the surfaces of its body.  Its body was surrounded by a yellow glow that was most likely the result of some kind of spell.  Since all of the members of the party were able to fly due to prior spell-casting (except Thorash), many of them flew up and took flanking positions around the demon.  Their attacks caused it some damage, but it was clear that the demon benefitted from some kind of mystical resistance to physical attacks.  Since Thorash could not rise up to combat the creature, he called out to it in a horrific language, asking it a question.  It responded to him in the same language.  Thorash shrugged his shoulders, and cast a protective spell on himself.  It was at this point that the last of the party-members - Killick, holding a reduced version of Grimlock - bobbed into view riding the column of air. 

    Now that all of the party members were in view, all of the demon's many eyes glowed with energy simultaneously and continued glowing for the rest of the combat.  Additionally, three sickly gray rays shot out from random eyes striking party members every few seconds.  Alexander seemed to be affected by the glowing eyes.  He was held in place, unable to move.  Alees was quickly overcome by the sickly gray beams.  After being struck twice, she screamed in terror and ran away.  The demon hid among the webs (the effects of which it seemed able to ignore), so Killick set the webs alight with Produce Flame while Thorash accelerated the process with a Flame Strike.  Eventually, Tarric also succumbed to the gray beams of energy.  He dropped his sword screaming and tried to flee.  Thorash tried to block his egress until he too was affected by the beams and was also compelled to flee.  Fleeing the combat posed no danger to most of the party, as they were able to fly.  However, Thorash was the only member of the party unable to fly.  So when he made it down to the bottom of the column of air, he had a horrific choice to make:  stop fleeing (which seemed impossible) or leap from his column to another with a nearly bottomless pit threatening almost certain death if he should fail.  Luckily for him, Alees had shaken off the effects of her fear and was returning just as Thorash made his way down.  She cast a spell on him that removed his fear.  He thanked her and then began ascending back up the column of air to face the demon again.

    Meanwhile, Alexander had also become unfrozen and cast Magic Missiles at the demon, some of which the demon was able to ignore while others seemed to deal significant damage.  Alexander did this for as long as he could until he succumbed once again to the demon's petrifying gaze.  

    Virtually all of the members of the party took turns being held motionless or running in fear.  There were rarely more than two party members fighting the demon at any one time.  Although the demon had taken significant damage from various spells cast by Alexander, Killick, and Thorash (as well as minor damage from physical attacks made by Katawan and Tarric), it became apparent that the party was fighting a losing battle.  It was just a matter of time before the party would be unlucky enough to have all of its members motionless or running away, during which time the demon could simply coup de grace those who were motionless.  The party reluctantly decided to call the retreat.  Some did not wish to leave their favorite weapons behind (which they had dropped when they had panicked).  Two party members - Thorash and Tarric - attempted a brief but unsuccessful foray back into the demon's chamber to collect their dropped weapons.  They picked up the weapons for a brief time, but then dropped them again when they were affected once more by the gray beams.

    The party withdrew to Diamond Lake, camped, healed, and recovered spells.

_20th of Harvester_.  The party returned to Icosiol's tomb, fully prepared for all of the demon's modes of attack.  In this more prepared and protected state, they made short work of the foul guardian, putting it out of its misery.  When they examined the sarcophagus closely, they saw that Icosiol's hands were outstretched on top.  They placed the Seal in the hands of the figure that was reaching out from the top of the sarcophagus.  This caused the lid to disappear, revealing dust along with a short sword, a longsword, a ring, and a foot-long fragment of a long thin object.  The outside of the object was polished smooth, but the inside seemed to resemble a geode, whose small gem-like protuberances exhibited unnatural order and symmetry.  A sense of otherworldly calm and well-being came over the party.  All at once, Alexander felt sure that he could fully utilize his Talisman of the Sphere (whose command word he had never successfully researched), Killick - who wore the diadem recovered from Zosiel's tomb in the Whispering Cairn - felt much wiser and charismatic and he realized that he could now speak Auran and Vaati, and the entire party knew that the fragment was a piece of the Rod of Seven Parts, knew the command word for the Rod, and knew that it could be used to miraculously Heal someone of all the damage they had sustained.  The party emerged from Icosiol's Cairn victorious and in good spirits!  They spend time identifying the magical properties of the swords and the ring.

_21st of Harvester_.  The party teleported back to Eligos's house in Greyhawk.  Eligos gave them the Wand of Cure Serious Wounds which he had repaired for them.  He informed them that, since his position and mission had been compromised by the doppelganger minions of Kyuss that had killed him and briefly taken his identity, he had been instructed to sell the house in the Garden District and be reassigned to some unknown part of the Flanaess.  However, Eligos's patron had taken notice of the party's work against the Cult of Kyuss and wished to meet with them.  Eligos revealed that his patron and master was Tenser, archmage, former member of the Circle of Eight, and one of the most powerful mortals on Oerth.  Tenser had asked to meet with the entire party at his castle.  It was no secret that Tenser's castle was in a small but growing town called Mage Point, nominally in the Domain of Greyhawk, on the southern shore of the Nyr Dyv.  However, Tenser was currently away dealing with pressing business on the Astral Plane, so there was no telling how soon the meeting might take place.  Eligos had taken the liberty of informing his contact that the party had reason to fear attack by the Rainbow Mage in the interim and requested safe haven for the duration of the wait.  The contact had responded that the party would be given sanctuary in Tenser's near-impregnable castle while they awaited his return.  While their access to the castle would be limited (and guards would accompany them at all times), they would be given access to the library and the laboratory.  They would also be allowed to venture out to the town of Magepoint, if they wished.  The party was grateful for this news.

    Thorash left and returned later the same day wearing a much finer cloak.

    When the party chose to depart for Magepoint, they would be able to teleport to a small town called Hardride about 2 days east of Diamond Lake along the Urnst Road (which they had passed through before on the long journey to Rosewater).  However, it would still be another day and a half journey to Magepoint from there, following a small river north through very hilly terrain to Magepoint.  The party decided to travel together to increase their collective safety on the road.  That meant that the group had to wait in Greyhawk for another week and a half so that Tarric could be knighted by the Order of Holy Shielding on Godsday of Brewfest at Greyhawk's High Church of Heironeous.

_22nd of Harvester - 3rd of Brewfest (10 days).  _ Tarric spent most of his time studying and training with the Order of Holy Shielding in preparation for his knighting ceremony.  Alees slept most days and stayed out all night most nights.  Some nights she did not return at all and was gone for 2 or 3 days at a time.  Thorash made regular trips into the city, returning the same day.  Killick made a trip back to Diamond Lake near the time of the full moon and returned a few days afterward.  Alexander spent time studying in Eligos's library, since most of it was soon to be sold along with the house (and he might not ever have access to it again).  Katawan meditated and remained vigilant in case the party were to be ambushed by enemies.

_4th of Brewfest (Godsday).  _ Tarric was knighted by his mentor in the Order of Holy Shielding, Lady Lemanda.  His partymates were all in attendance - all of them except Alees, that is.  At the ceremony, Tarric gave the Order a magical bastard sword from his own scabbard as a donation to aid in their continuing fight to liberate the Shield Lands.  This gift was meant to help the cause until such time as Tarric himself could embark on his own crusade to lift the yoke of Iuz's slavery in formerly free lands.  The device on Tarric's shield was completed to indicate his transition from squire to full-fledged knight.  With his knighting, Tarric had ascended to the lowest rung of aristocracy.  Henceforth, all strangers would naturally look to Tarric as the leader of the party simply because he occupied the highest social station.  Tarric realized that he would also be able now to avail himself of certain legal rights and courtesies extended to nobility which he and the party otherwise would not have had access to in the past.  Having lived his entire life among peasants, servants, and laborers, Tarric knew it would take some time getting used to the idea of living and behaving as an aristocrat.

   The party engaged in modest celebration that evening, but they did not over-indulge themselves, as they knew they were to set out for Magepoint the following day.

_5th of Brewfest_.  The party waited as long as they could for Alees, who did not return to Eligos's house at the appointed departure time.  The party spent much of the day trying to locate her with no success.  Eventually, Thorash cast a spell asking his deity if Alees was in trouble.  When he was told that she was not in need of help, the party decided to leave without her.  She would have to find her own way to Magepoint.  The party teleported to Hardride and then began making their way north through the Cairn Hills towards Magepoint.

    Along the way, they were ambushed by a group of six evil outsiders.  Two were medium-sized and covered with spikes upon spikes - as many spikes as there were stars in the night sky.  These two seemed to be in command of the small force.  The other four were much larger bony creatures with long curving tails ending in stingers that dripped with venom.  All were flying and all had been invisible until they commenced the attack.  The smaller barbed creatures created explosions of evil energy (much like the explosion the party had experienced at the hands of the many-eyed demon guarding Icosiol's sarcophagus).  These explosions killed most of the party's horses.  While the bony creatures shot rays of green energy at individual party members, bathing them in a green glow.  (Alexander realized that the purpose of the green glow was to help prevent the party's escape.)  As they flew down towards the party, they yelled out repeatedly in broken Common that seemed to have been memorized phonetically, "Give us the Rod and you live."  Tarric, who had developed a sense for such things, determined that these were not demons (denizens of the Abyss).  Consequently, he concluded that these beings probably had no connection to Kyuss (or to Iuz, for that matter).  

    Alexander tried to magic missile one of the creatures, but the energy of his magic seemed to wash over his target harmlessly.  Killick and Thorash cast protective spells.  Katawan drew his crossbow and Tarric drew his sword and waited for a target to come near him.  Next the bone devils cast walls of ice that formed a square around the party, trapping them inside, while the barbed devils cast spells whose effects their targets seemed to resist.  Thorash cast Searing Light at one of the Bone Devils overhead.  Killick cast Flame Strike on a corner of the ice wall, causing it to melt and turn into steam which obscured sight.  He then rode his wounded horse through the mist, dismounted, and smacked its behind encouraging it to run to safety.  Grimlock followed his master, guarding him from potential attackers.

    Seeing that Killick had broken their perimeter, the barbed devils descended and attacked him with their claws.  One of them struck Killick, and because of the creature's spikey hide, it was able to get a firm hold on Killick, keeping him from escaping.  Killick was bleeding from where the creature's many spikes had impaled him.  The bone devil that had been hit by Thorash's searing light, flew down to attack him.  All the others converged on the corner of the ice wall from which party members were emerging, one by one.  One of the bone devils struck Alexander, causing him to panic and flee in terror.  Tarric was also overcome by terror when one of the barbed devils approached him, and he too fled in terror.  This left only Katawan, Thorash, Killick, and Grimlock in the fight.  Thorash was occupied by one of the bone devils who eventually stung him, injecting him with a poison that weakened him.  Meanwhile the barbed devils focused on Killick and Grimlock.  Katawan tried to help free Killick from the devil's grapple, with minimal success.  One time Killick did break out of the devil's grasp only to be grabbed again immediately afterward.  The creature's barbs were causing Killick so much blood loss that eventually Katawan was forced to draw the Rod and use its healing ability on Killick, restoring him to full health.  

    However, this act drew the attention of all the devils who surrounded him.  Now that they were ignoring Killick, he cast a spell on Katawan which magically protected him from the grasping spikes of the barbed devils.  Although they were able to hit him, they could not now get a hold of him as they had done to Killick.  So they were not able to damage Katawan as quickly as they had damaged Killick.  Although the bone devils had difficulty striking him, one of them did successfully disarm him of the Rod fragment.  Just as it ran away with the Rod announcing to its brethren that their mission had been accomplished, Thorash emerged from the steamy corner of the Ice Wall.  He saw Katawan surrounded by devils, so he began casting.  Katawan saw what Thorash was doing and yelled out for him to stop, but Thorash was determined.  He cast a Flame Strike centered on Katawan that wounded 3 of the 4 devils that still surrounded him.  Unfortunately for Katawan, though, the spell's damage gravely wounded him, knocking him unconscious and leaving him bleeding profusely on the ground.

    With their mission accomplished, the devils did not remain to finish the killing.  They simply teleported away.  The party regrouped and stabilized its wounded.  Then they continued on foot towards Magepoint, despondent and dejected at having lost such an important artifact.

_6th of Brewfest_.  Late in the day, near dinner time, the party arrived in Magepoint and made their way to the only bar in town, called the Blue Beacon.  They informed the barkeep that they were guests of Tenser.  They were given refreshments and accorded great respect.  They were asked to await one of Tenser's servants.  About an hour later, after a fine dinner, the party was surprised and happy to see Celeste stride through the door!  The last time the party had seen Celeste, she was shooting bolts of energy at the Apostle of Kyuss in the Greyhawk Arena during the Worm's Rampage.  They had not been certain whether she had survived.  After catching up a bit, Celeste led the party across the long causeway leading out to Tenser's castle which had been built on a promontory of rock jutting above the surface of the Lake of Unknown Depths.  The castle was really just a tall narrow tower, painted blue, with a gigantic ball of crackling blue energy at the top (which must have served a function akin to that of a lighthouse).  As the party traversed the narrow causeway, Celeste proudly pointed out many of the security features which would protect them once they were inside, such as the hundreds of nesting bloodhawks which were trained to attack any flying creatures that approached the tower, and the sea monster that lived near the tower who immediately attacked anyone attempting to swim to the tower, and the wards against teleportation, and the illusions along the causeway that would lead the unwary to fall into the lake.  Upon arriving at the tower, the party was shown to their luxurious accommodations, and she informed them that she would be in charge of escorting them wherever they might need to go within the tower (with the understanding that certain areas were to be off-limits).

    Celeste took them to a basement and showed them a magical fountain, believed to have been created by Zagig Yragerne, the mad archmage who had built Castle Greyhawk and who had presided over Greyhawk as its mayor for a short time.  Celeste informed them that those who drank from the fountain would gain a permanent boon but would also suffer a permanent impairment.  The drinker could either choose the impairment or the boon, but the other would be inflicted on the drinker randomly.  Alexander chose a specific impairment which he did not share with the group, and when he drank, a pair of magical gloves suddenly appeared in his hand.  He seemed pleased by this outcome, so Killick chose to drink as well.  He, too, chose an impairment, and was randomly granted a boon of increased vigor.  Katawan drank, choosing an impairment, and was granted a protective boon which would be of great value some time in the future.  Thorash drank, choosing an impairment, and was granted the boon of becoming slightly more perceptive.  Tarric drank, choosing an impairment, and was granted the boon of becoming more knowledgeable.  (Tarric and Thorash were somewhat disappointed with their boons in comparison to Alexander and Katawan.)

_7th of Brewfest - 28th of Sunsebb (85 days).  _ Alees showed up in Magepoint about a week after the rest of the party.  She found that Celeste watched her a bit more closely than the others.  Knowing that Alees was safe, Killick took his leave of the party, explaining that there were important tasks he needed to perform.  He told the party to contact him magically if his presence was required.  He returned 8 weeks later, seeming different somehow in some imperceptible way.  But there was still no sign of Tenser.  After a few more weeks, the party became understandably restless and impatient.  They had crafted everything they could possibly afford to make in the laboratory.  They were eager to continue the fight to save the world from the Age of Worms, and it seemed that waiting for Tenser was only holding them back.  Plus, they were just plain bored.  Their only consolations were that they were safe from attack, the food and lodging were of excellent quality, they had a large library to help them pass the time, and it was winter anyway - a time of year that was not conducive to adventuring (unless one is planning to explore the tropics).  Still, despite these consolations, the party was restless...


----------



## Menexenus

*Sessions 47 and 48: To Arn's Mountain*

_Needfest, Common Year 596_.  The party celebrated the beginning of the new year along with the citizens of Magepoint.  They had been waiting for Tenser to return for 3 months, and they were getting tired of waiting.  Alexander reported to the party that while he was in town, he felt that he was being scryed upon.  Many members of the party had already thought about leaving Magepoint.  Alexander's news seemed to remind the party how imperative it was that the party continue its efforts to prevent the Age of Worms.  The party resolved to head out in search of the White Eye at the beginning of Fireseek.  They purchased the necessary cold weather adventuring supplies in preparation for the trip.

_1st of Fireseek_.  Thorash cast a spell protecting each of the party members from the effects of cold weather.  Then he cast a much more powerful spell allowing him and his partymates to turn into vapor and ride the wind.  This allowed them to travel at tremendous speeds and cover a lot of territory quickly.  After many hours, the party saw that the terrain below them was changing and becoming more mountainous.  They had reached the eastern spur of the Abbor-Alz Mountains.  Since they were nearing their destination, they descended from cloud level down to about 100 feet above the ground.  The weather in the mountains was very cold with blowing snow.  The party flew over a few orc villages and were spotted by a lone orc ranger on their way, but they did not allow these things to distract them.  At one point, the party saw an enormous bird flying in the distance.  It came closer to them, but when it saw that they were not edible (because they were in vapor-form) it flew away.  

    After a total of about 7 hours of flight, Alexander indicated to his comrades that the party was near Arn's Mountain, the alleged location of the White Eye.  (Because Alexander had unknowingly handed over the Rainbow Mage's journal, the Decaying Book, the Pyramid of Tyranny, and the Heart of Darkness [a large ruby with a dark flaw at its center] to a doppelganger posing as Eligos, he felt a special obligation to recover the White Eye, which could reportedly be used in concert with the Pyramid and the Ruby to break the enchantment that prevented Kyuss's return to Oerth.)  Although Alexander had only read the Rainbow Mage's journal once before, he had remembered enough about the description of Arn's Mountain to research its location in Tenser's Library.  After another hour or two of circling around, Alexander indicated that he thought he had found the right mountain.  The party descended to ground level and returned to physical form.

    Killick cast a spell that gave him the lay of the land.  He reported to the party that there were 4 cave-like entrances into the mountain on opposing sides about mid-way up the mountain's face.  He also reported that he sensed the presence of undead creatures in the mountain.  Since Thorash had expended some high level spells getting the party to the mountain, he did not feel prepared for combat, so he lobbied the party to make camp.  They did so.  Alexander cast a spell that created a temporary comfortable shelter large enough for everyone.

_2nd of Fireseek_.  When the party emerged from their shelter, they noticed a fresh blanket of snow covering everything.  The party moved up the face of the mountain and found the nearest entrance.  They noticed that the air coming out of the cave-like entrance seemed warmer than the air outside.  They entered the narrow passage.  But after a short time, the narrow passage opened up to a landing looking down on a vast, lust forest in the heart of the mountain.  The "ceiling" of this gargantuan cavern was illuminated with magical light as bright as the sun.  A few hundred yards away, near the center of this cavern, the party saw the apex of a stone pyramid poking out from the top of the trees.  The party climbed down to ground level, and began hiking through the dense forest towards the pyramid.

    On the way there, the party was ambushed by a hungry-looking dire lion.  They put the animal out of its misery quickly.  When they finally reached the pyramid itself, they walked once around the structure.  It was a very old structure and each of its four faces was identical - a set of double doors in the middle and two single doors evenly spaced along each side of each base.  Before the party could decide which door to approach, a mystical large flying snake approached the party.  Its wings shimmered with light.  In the Common tongue, it commanded the party to halt its approach.  It introduced itself as Souref and explained that it had been given the task of protecting the contents of pyramid centuries ago.  The party would not be allowed to pass.  The party explained that they knew that the pyramid contained the White Eye and that they had come to retrieve it in order to keep it out of the hands of those who wished to use it for evil.  At first the mystical being was skeptical.  It asked if the party would consent to allowing it to cast a spell that would determine their souls' orientation.  All but Thorash permitted this, but Thorash resisted the effect of the spell.  This increased the creature's suspicion.  Thorash explained that he was not comfortable having his soul evaluated by a strange creature.  However, he said he would consent to allow the creature to cast a spell that would detect if he was lying.  The snake-being cast that spell instead and asked only a few quick questions to ascertain the party's intentions.  After it determined that the party was not lying about its intentions or about the fact that it was only a matter of time before the forces of Kyuss found and assaulted the pyramid to steal its treasures, it reluctantly agreed to allow the party to enter the pyramid.  

    Before it could leave, the party asked it some questions about the ancient history of the location.  Souref explained that about 1000 years ago, worshippers of Pelor discovered a temple of some unknown foul evil hidden inside Arn's Mountain.  Later it was revealed that this hidden pyramid was the main temple of an apostate group of worshippers known as the Ebon Triad who believed that they could bring about the union of Hextor, Erythnul, and Vecna, creating an Overgod that would dominate all others.  The forces of Pelor assaulted this temple many times in an attempt to root out its worshippers and cleanse the area, but the evil within the temple was powerful, and Pelor's mighty legions were repelled time after time.  After many months of siege, the leaders of the Pelorian force realized that, while the living creatures inside the temple might starve, the undead creatures residing within could resist them indefinitely.  So they focused their energies on trapping the evil within the temple rather than defeating it outright.  Eventually they were successful.  None of the evil creatures within the temple wouild ever escape.  However, there was still a threat that someone from outside could enter, take the artifact that rested within, and start a new temple elsewhere.  So Souref had been summoned to prevent anyone from entering.  Souref expressed some relief that, once the party members recovered the White Eye and hid it elsewhere, his guardianship would be at an end and he would be able to return to his plane of origin.  Souref wished the party well and flew away. 

    The party circled the pyramid again, this time noticing that one of the single doors had a lion's head carved into it.  The doorknob was obscured within the lion's mouth.  This door intrigued the party.  But first they tried opening the double doors on the same face.  This opened into a room housing row upon row of armored skeletons standing motionless in formation.  Killick was the first to enter the room because he had donned Katawan's Amulet of the Dark Sun which he had reason to believe would protect him from the denizens of the pyramid.  The skeletons did indeed allow him to pass unmolested.  But then Thorash and Alees entered as well, and the skeletons still did not move.  Killick tried to push a skeleton over with his quarterstaff, but found that it resisted his push.  At this point, Killick suggested that the party leave.  Thorash and Alees did quick searches of the walls to see if there might be some secret passages leading from this chamber, but they found none.  Almost as an after thought, as she was leaving, Alees checked out the crumbling fountain in the center of the room.  In the poisonous sludge at the bottom of the fountain, Alees discovered a pearl and a ring.  Although she did not expect much from these dirty items, she cast Detect Magic just in case, and to her surprise, both items did radiate magic.  

    Next the party returned to the intriguing lion's head door.  Alexander opened it from a distance with his newly purchased Chime of Opening.  Beyond the door was a narrow dark passage that opened up into a long room.  There were six statues of adventuring heroes in haughty, confident poses adorning the walls.  Alees used her flickering Detect Magic spell to determine that the statues did indeed radiate transmutation magic.  The party moved into the room carefully.  They noticed that the statues seemed remarkably clean for such an ancient building.  There were three hallways exiting from the room.  When nothing seemed to cause the statues to animate, the party explored the hallway leading left.  This led to a room filled with mirrors.  As Alees checked the room for traps and secret passages with Thorash and Killick nearby, they were all suddenly attacked by quick-moving invisible creatures.  Killick and Thorash, suspecting that the creatures were somehow tied to the mirrors, began attacking the mirrors with blunt weapons.  However, their strikes seemed to less damage than expected.  They cracked the mirrors, but did not shatter them.  Apparently, the mirrors were magically protected somehow.  Tarric and Katawan rushed into the room to aid their partymates.  Alexander remained outside.  After a few seconds of confusing combat where the party was struck by creatures who didn't seem to be there, the party members began to realize that the creatures were able to attack them from inside the mirrors.  Tarric rained powerful blows down on the mirrors causing them to shatter one after another.  The party noticed that there were doors behind 2 of the shattered mirrors.  Alexander called for the party to withdraw from the room so that he could cast a Fireball within.  However, unbeknownst to Alexander, one of the invisible creatures was blocking the party's exit from the room.  However, after giving his party-mates fair warning, Alexander tossed a Fireball in anyway.  The explosion did not shatter any mirrors (surprisingly), but it did cause the invisible creature that had been blocking the exit to collapse into a pile of liquid metal.  Seeing his success, Alexander fired again.  A second invisible creature collapsed, but so did Tarric and Killick's faithful wardog Grimlock.  At long last, Killick destroyed the final mirror in the room, and the sound of shattering glass comingled with the deathcry of the last invisible creature.

    Thorash cast curative magic on those in need of healing.  Then the party continued exploring.  They opened one of the doors that had been concealed behind the mirrors and discovered a narrow passage that led to another external door of the pyramid.  They opened the second previously concealed door and found a small room draped in red velvet.  On a dais in the middle of the room rested a transparent coffin containing the figure of a naked female winged elven creature in a state of repose.  Killick observed that she was not breathing.  Alexander observed that this being was descended from other-planar beings of angelic goodness.  Alees observed that there was writing on the coffin.  On the front, the letters read, "Huvarial, Pelor's failed champion."  On the opposite side, it read, "Even the brightest lights learn the power of the night."  The party chose not to attempt to open the coffin.  

    They left the room and returned to the statue room.  From there they took the opposite hallway leading to a door.  After Alees certified it clear of traps, the door was opened.  The party discovered an old barracks room filled with rotting overturned bunks and chests of clothing.  There was a stone door on the far wall.  As the party members entered the room, they were attacked by four small spider-like creatures with undead humanoid heads.  One of them cast a Web spell that ensnared Killick.  Another jumped on Killick, found some open skin, and began sucking his blood, causing him to turn pale.  Thorash immediately got out his flint and tinder and began trying to set the web alight.  Unbeknownst to Thorash, Killick cast a spell in the web that caused orbs of fire to appear in his hands.  These also caused the web to catch fire.  Eventually the web was cleared out of the room, allowing all of the party members to bring their martial skills to bear on the spider-like creatures, at which point they were quickly overwhelmed and destroyed.  Alees sifted through the broken chests using a Detect Magic spell and found two items of interest - a cloak and a stone.  

    After Alees certified the stone door as untrapped, the party entered the door on the far wall.  This opened to a luxurious bath house.  A scantily clad woman with dark wings rested on a couch on the far side.  She implored the party to help her.  When she saw that Alexander and Thorash both recognized her as an extraplanar being of evil, she reminded them that not all evil creatures work together.  She insisted that she despised the Ebon Triad as much as they did.  She attempted to cast an enchantment on Thorash to force him to assist her, but when that failed, she drew a rope and threw it at Thorash, entangling him in it.  The party rushed to Thorash's defense, attacking the lightly armored creature.  They combat was over almost as soon as it had started and the winged creature's blood ran into the bathwater, darkening it gruesomely.  Thorash cast a Detect Magic and found that the creature's sword was magical.

    Finding no exits from the bath house, the party returned to the statue room and took the last hallway leading out.  The party stopped at the first 4-way intersection about 20 feet from the statue room.  The went left and found a small throne room containing a large black stone throne polished smooth.  Thorash retrieved a dead spider creature and placed it on the throne.  Black energy swirled around the throne in response, but the energy quickly died away and the dead creature still lay there dead, apparently unchanged.  

    Thorash found this intriguing, but there was no time to investigate, as Alees called the party over to the far passage which apparently ended in a dead end.  Alees had found some dull green writing etched into the dead-end which read, "Put faith in darkest night and pass through solid rock."  Alees suggested that someone cast Darkness so that she could try to get through.  None of the spell casters had the spell available, but Alees reminded the party that the Amulet of the Dark Sun allowed its wearer to cast Darkness.  Katawan put the Amulet on and used its power to create darkness.  Alees found that she was able to continue down the hallway.  The rest of the party followed.  As they emerged from the darkness, Alees found a copper door with some strange symbols etched into it as well as the phrase, "In the end, only the darkness is real."  Strangely, there was no doorknob or locking mechanism on this door.  Alexander handed his Chime of Opening forward to Alees.  She tried to use it once on the door, but there was no effect.  She tried to use it a second time, and she heard an audible click and the door swung slightly ajar.  Alees opened the door just far enough to peek inside.  Inside, she saw a large copper mechanical creature with a spider-like form sitting hunched atop a large chest sitting in the middle of the room.  It immediately moved to attack.  As it extended its razor-sharp claws to stand up, those viewing the creature realized that it might have unusually long reach.

    Alees flew into the room to attack, but she quickly realized that the construct's metal hide made it impossible for her to do significant damage.  She simply tried to aid Tarric in landing successful blows against it.  Katawan tumbled into the room, but it seemed to ignore him altogether.  The creature emitted an electrical charge that arced off the polished copper walls, floor, and ceiling of the chamber.  However, because of their excellent reflexes, Katawan and Alees were unaffected by this attack.  So it resorted to attacking with its claws and had much better success.  When Thorash tried to move up into the room, it skewered him and sent him falling back into the dark hallway bleeding profusely.  For a while, Killick was stuck in the dark hallway unable to move forward.  So he attempted to summon an ally.  A dire wolf appeared and began attacking the clockwork creature.  But after it suffered a few slashing attacks it disappeared, returning to whence it came.  Alexander called for the party to lure it back into the hallway.  The party left the room one by one.  Alees was the last to leave.  She shut the copper door behind her and heard a click.

    The party regrouped, healed up, and came up with a strategy for defeating the creature.  Alexander used the Chime of Opening again to get the unlock the door again.  The party entered the room in pre-determined order and assaulted the copper construct.  It retreated to the back corner of the room to avoid flanking attacks.  The party members rained blows down upon it, jockeying for positions from which to attack.  Eventually, the creature fell apart into a heap of gears and broken bits of metal.  Alees quickly noticed that the chest in the middle of the room had an impression that seemed to match the symbols on Katawan's Amulet of the Dark Sun.  Katawan placed the amulet in the depression and the lid of the chest opened magically.  Inside the chest was a pile of copper pieces on top of which rested a copper key in the shape of a lion.  Alees began moving the copper pieces aside and found some copper bracers, a copper ring, a copper wand, a copper-tipped darkwood wand, 5 yellow topazes, and 4 amber gems.

    The party decided to exit the pyramid and make camp.  Alexander created a new magical shelter for the party to rest in while they recuperated and identified items.


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## Menexenus

*Sessions 49-50: Against the Vampires*

_3rd of Fireseek_.  After resting, rememorizing, and identifying swag, the party re-entered the lion door.  They were careful to verify that the statues were all in the same positions that the party had last seen them in and that the naked half-celestial being was still lying in her transparent coffin.  All was just the way they had left things.  Thorash made for the room with the black throne.  He picked up one of the slain spider creatures from the barracks room and placed it on the throne.  A small vortex of black energy appeared above the throne but then quickly dissipated, having no effect on the spider-thing's corpse.  Although Thorash was clearly still intrigued, he and the rest of the party decided that it would be unwise to continue experimenting with the throne's negative energies.

    The party began moving single-file down the last unexplored hallway.  After about 30 feet, it turned abruptly to the left, leading to an oak door.  On the wall leading up to the door was a worn tapestry depicting a man riding a black dragon.  Alees dutifully checked the new door for traps.  She found an alarm trap that she was able to easily disable.  She moved away from the door to allow others to open it.  She began looking more closely at the tapestry to see if it was of any value.  Tarric opened the door to reveal an armory stacked with rows and rows of carefully stacked spears, greatswords, and various exotic pikes and pole arms.  While Tarric walked in to examine the weapons more closely, Alees noticed a row of small holes behind the aged, frayed, and virtually worthless tapestry.  Just then, Tarric turned a corner and found himself face to face with a hairless creature with leathery greenish black skin.  Upon seeing Tarric, the creature opened its mouth and let out a deafening scream.  It wielded a shortspear quite expertly and traded blows with Tarric.  Thorash stepped forward, cast a spell, and touched the black-skinned undead.  It looked at the dwarf in sudden horror as it collpsed into a pile of dust.

    However, just then, Alees shouted, "Uh, guys, there's some kind of mist seeping out of the wall."  The mist was rising from the holes in the wall that Alees had found.  The mist coalesced on the ceiling into the form of a female vampire.  She looked at Alees (who was closest to her) and said in a very pleasant tone, "Hello child.  I am Narise.  Serve me."  Alees's eyes suddenly went glassy and she replied, "Yes, mistress."  Hearing Alees's cry, the party's main combatants came running out of the armory to her aid.  Tarric threw himself into melee combat with the vampire.  However, the vampire commanded Alees to follow her and then turned to Tarric and commanded him to defend her and not let anyone past.  Tarric's eyes also went glassy and he replied, "Yes, mistress."  The vampire and Alees retired to the recently evacuated armory and Tarric stood in the hallway protecting them both.  Tarric's partymates shouted at him to snap out of it, but to no avail.  When they tried to move past him to help Alees, he struck them with the flat of his blade and prevented them from tumbling past.

    Alees was drawn into the vampire's embrace and dragged behind a corner, out of the party's sight.  The party was desperate to get past Tarric to help Alees, but they couldn't see how.  Then Thorash cast a spell on Tarric which broke the vampire's hold on him.  He immediately ran back into the armory, with the rest of the party in tow.  They were in time; the vampire had not yet fed on their comrade.  At first their attempts to help Alees did as much harm as good.  Both Killick and Tarric struck Alees instead of the vampire who held her.  Thorash cast a spell that made his hand crackle with positive energy.  He thrust his hand forward, reaching for the vampire, but made contact with Alees instead.  This healed her of all her wounds, but that had not been the intended result.  After sustaining a volley of magic missiles from Alexander, the vampire who had lost its grip on Alees, now retreated back out into the hallway.  However, the party's pursuit, like Alexander's magic missiles, was relentless, and in a matter of moments she was forced to retreat in mist form back through the wall.

    The party brainstormed about how to get to the wounded vampire before she had a chance to fully regenerate.  Killick cast a spell that tunneled through the stone of the wall toward the vampire's lair, but he was not able to go deep enough and the tunnel came up short.  Killick then summoned a Xorn and asked it to go through the wall and come back to report.  It did so and reported that the wall was only about 2 more feet thick before becoming a small room with a stone coffin inside and a wooden chest at the foot of the coffin.  Killick commanded the creature to go back in and destroy the coffin.  It reluctantly did so and was quickly dispatched by the vampire's blows.  Then Killick summoned a Thoqqua and instructed it to bore a hole in the wall and attack the vampire's coffin.  Again, the creature was quickly dispatched.  Realizing that the vampire would soon be back to full strength unless action was taken, Alexander decided to fire a maximized fireball through the small hole in the wall left by the Thoqqua.  As soon as Alexander began casting, Narise could be heard casting on the far side of the wall.  Alexander shot the bead of energy through the still molten hole left by the Thoqqua which was followed by a tremendous explosion.  For a moment afterwards there was silence, and the party dared hope that it had destroyed the vampire.  But then the party could hear Narise cackling.  Killick shook his head and informed Alexander that she had cast Minor Globe of Invulnerability at the last moment.

    The party took stock of its situation and decided that they would be better off withdrawing and rememorizing before coming back to destroy the vampire.

_4th of Fireseek_.  The party re-entered the lion door once again, intent on destroying the vampire that had nearly drained Alees.  However, as they were approaching the vampire's lair, it suddenly appeared on the ceiling where it had been waiting invisible and shot a lightning bolt down the hallway at them.  They had seen this tactic before, so they were mostly prepared for it and took little damage.  Then she cast Shout which the party had not seen.  This did a bit more damage, but not much.  If this was the best that the vampire had at her disposal, then it would be a short fight indeed.  The vampire retired back to the armory and tried unsuccessfully to enthrall some of the party members.  Seeing that the vampire was surrounded and on the ropes, Killick focused on getting to the vampire's coffin and preventing the vampire from doing the same.  He cast another Stoneshape spell, allowing him to complete the tunnel that he had started the previous day.  Then he cast Wind Wall at the entrance of the tunnel to prevent mist forms from following him.  Finally, he climbed into the vampire's lair and attempted unsuccessfully to shape the lid of the stone coffin to prevent it from opening.  However, the stone seemed to resist his efforts somehow and he was unsuccessful.  Killick ordered his dog Grimlock to wait in the tunnel and prevent anyone from entering.  

    When Killick emerged to rejoin the party, he found a completely different situation than the one he had left.  Narise had indeed been reduced to a mist which was unsuccessfully trying to return to its coffin.  However, there was now a line-up of living enemies attacking the party from behind.  Killick recognized these new enemies as the flesh-and-blood versions of the statues that they had seen when they entered the lion-head door.  Above these living enemies, clinging to the ceiling, was a second vampire.  It was the half-celestial, Huvariel, who had lain naked in the transparent coffin.  She was no longer naked.  She now wore a thin mithral chain shirt which hugged her otherwise naked form and wielded a bastard sword.  Since most of the party was unable to get to the vampire past the line of new opponents standing in the hallway, she was able to attempt to dominate members of the party at her leisure.  Killick used his previously-cast spider climb spell to move over the enemies and threaten the vampire.  Huvariel commanded Alees to assist her in defending the temple, and Alees's eyes finally glazed over once again.  She moved into flanking position behind Killick.

    Meanwhile the rest of the party was shooting and hacking its way through the enemy party of living beings.  After a few of Alexander and Katawan's fireballs in addition to Tarric's relentless hacking, the enemy party was quickly dispatched.  When the enemy party's last member fell, Huvariel cast a Web spell trapping Thorash and Grimlock on the far side and trapping Katawan in a side passage.  Tarric did all he could to avoid the vampire's gaze while also trying to avoid Alees's deadly blades.  Killick kept disarming Alees to prevent her from using her abilities to sneak attack him.  Meanwhile the vampire withdrew to the room with the black throne and waited to deal with the party members one at a time, continuing to regenerate for each moment they delayed.  Alexander, who had nearly run out of offensive spells, cast what little he had left at the vampire.  But she did not die.  Instead, she dominated his mind and instructed him to kill Killick.  Alexander drew his dagger and began haplessly pursuing the druid.  Since Katawan had been cut off from the combat by the Web spell, he jumped into the web and tried unsuccessfully to wade through its sticky strands.  He was met there by Alees who gladly eviscerated him with a demonic smile on her face.  Meanwhile, Huvariel caught Tarric in a moment of weakness.  He opened his eyes to locate his opponent and the vampire used the opportunity to dominate the fearsome warrior.

    Since Alees, Alexander, and Tarric had all been dominated, Katawan was apparently dead, and Thorash and Grimlock were trapped on the far side of the web waiting for it to slowly burn down, Killick found himself alone.  Realizing that the vampire was the key, he drew his Wand of Healing and attempted to touch the vampire with it.  But the vampire's thralls were able to successfully protect their mistress.  After some desperate fighting, Killick finally succumbed to the vampire's bastard sword.  Since the fight was over as far as she knew, she ordered her thralls to sleep.  They collapsed immediately to the floor.  At just that moment, the final strands of the Web burned away.  Thorash and Grimlock stepped through.  Seeing his master's body lying bleeding on the ground, Grimlock gave a deep growl and prepared to launch itself futilely against the vampire.  But just then, Thorash held his holy symbol aloft and commanded the vampire with an otherworldly voice to flee the power of Wee Jas.  Huvariel screamed in fear, returned to mist form, and fled from the dwarf's holy symbol at top speed.  

Thorash stabilized Killick and ordered Grimlock to pull him out of the pyramid.  Somehow the dog understood the dwarf's command and complied.  Thorash knew that he had a limited amount of time to pull the rest of his party out before the vampire returned.  He did so as quickly as he could and slammed the lion-headed door shut just as Huvariel returned to her senses.  Thorash, breathing heavily, tied up all of the vampire's thralls and waited for dusk so that he could rememorize spells.  He had pulled Katawan's body out to prevent the vampire from raising him as a subordinate vampire.  However, Thorash was now astounded to see that Katawan was miraculously still alive!  Despite the grievous wounds that he had suffered at Alees's hands and despite the fact that he had received no magical healing, he was stable in a state of unconsciousness.  Thorash used some of his last spells to heal the monk and the druid (who had never been dominated by the vampire).


----------



## Menexenus

*Sessions 51:  Thorash's Bad Day*

_5th of Fireseek_.  Thorash dispelled the domination effects that were still lingering on Alees, Alexander, and Tarric.  With the party back to full strength, they debated whether to face the vampires again.  Alees had lost many of her magical weapons and wanted very much to retrieve them.  Tarric and Killick wanted to destroy the vampires out of general principle.  Alexander was convinced however that continuing to face the vampires was distracting them from their true purpose - finding and safeguarding the White Eye.  However, in the end, Alexander was outvoted, and the party prepared to return.  They reasoned that the first vampire, Narise, had not had enough time to completely reform, and Huvariel would no longer have living servants to protect her.  After recuperating and rememorizing as much as possible, the party entered the lion-head door once more.  They found Huvariel protecting her transparent coffin.  She attempted to dominate Alees and Tarric again, but this time she was unsuccessful.  And with the entire party directing its efforts against her alone, she succumbed to the party's might in a matter of seconds.  After the vampire misted and returned to its coffin, they staked it in the heart, destroying it forever.  They then went through the tunnel to Narise's coffin.  They opened it and staked her in the heart as well.  Both vampires were dead.  The party retrieved its items and also picked clean their opponent's bodies.  Alees found a secret compartment beneath Narise's coffin that contained a small cache of items and valuables.

    The party moved to the next set of doors on the outside of the pyramid.  These were double doors made of black metal.  When the doors were opened, thick smoke poured out that obscured vision.  The party entered the large room carefully.  The found a large marble statue of a snake-like creature with three heads in the center of the room.  This statue was flanked by two brass braziers that were spewing the room's smoke.  Killick sent Grimlock to use his scent ability to investigate the rest of the room.  Moments later, the party heard the dog whine.  The party moved in the direction of the dog's noise and found itself face-to-face with a spell-casting mummy.  However, despite its fearsome nature, it was no match for the combined might of the party and was quickly dispatched.  As Killick cared for his ailing and wounded dog, Tarric pulled the braziers out of the room and attempted to cap them to prevent them from releasing smoke.  When the smoke cleared, Alees searched for secret doors and found one right behind the mummy's sarcophagus.  Tarric came in and opened the door.  Inside the secret door were 5 silver statues of gargoyle-like creatures.  These creatures immediately animated and began flying in circles near the ceiling of the room.  When no one came into the room, the silver creatures flew down to the doorway and each belched a gout of flame out into the sarcophagus room.  Then they flew past Tarric and Killick, who each took a number of attacks of opportunity, and then they each entered melee against different members of the party.  Although the creatures were resistant to damage, the party was still able to overcome them quickly.  When they were destroyed, Alees investigated them closely to estimate their value.  It was then that she noticed the same impression resembling a reverse-image of Katawan's Amulet of the Dark Sun.  Fitting his amulet into its reverse image caused a small piece of worked silver to be released from each of the creatures' chests.  Alees collected all the pieces and examined them closely.  After a short time, she realized that the pieces could be fitted together to form a silver key.

    Finding no other secret doors or passages, the party moved to the next exterior door of the pyramid, which was a single iron door.  When it was opened, the party saw a room full of collapsed stone rubble which had apparently fallen from the ceiling.  Alees determined that this had been some kind of trap.  It was apparent that someone had moved enough of the rubble out of the way far enough to allow the door at each end of the room to open.  After a great deal of searching through the rubble, the party found the remains of 5 adventurers who had been stripped of all their valuables.  The party opened the door at the far side of the room and entered a completely different room.  While the previous room had been gray and dusty and destroyed, the new room was colorfully decorated and well-maintained.  Velvet covered sofas and chairs surrounded low mahogany tables.  Ancient but delicately preserved tapestries depicting bloody battles covered the walls.  Alees pulled back the tapestries and found more of the same small holes she had observed before.  The party tensed up, anticipating more vampires.  However, Thorash, with his stone-cunning, realized that these holes were merely on the far side of Narise's burial chamber (the vampire that they had already killed).  The party relaxed.  Alees appraised the items in the room and determined that the furniture was not worth the trouble of moving and that the tapestry was too old and delicate to survive being taken down and transported.  The party opened the door leading out of the well-decorated lounge and found another more dingy room covered in a layer of dust.  Near the middle of the room was a throughly decayed body that looked like it had been shot with arrows.  Alees investigated the room from the doorway and noticed holes in the wall as well as spent arrows lying on the floor across the room from the holes.  The poor soul in the middle of the room had certainly fallen prey to a trap.  Killick cleared away some of the dust on the floor and discovered a red path in the mosaic tile that constituted the surface of the floor.  As he continued to clear away more and more dust, he found that the red path continued all the way across the room in a non-linear fashion.  Killick was careful to follow the path until it took him past the corpse.  Killick used his quarterstaff to carefully pull the corpse onto the path where he could more easily deprive it of its valuables.  He was able to recover a dagger, a ring, an amulet, and a change purse.  The coins inside were ancient, having been minted at least a thousand years ago by the Suel Imperium.  

    After recovering the goodies, Killick was startled by some tapping at the iron door on the far side of the room.  Since the tapping did not seem particularly ominous, Killick opened the door to investigate.  He found Tarric standing on the opposite side of the door outside the pyramid.  With a smile, he said, "I *thought* this room would lead to another exterior door!"  Killick left the room via the iron door, but the rest of the party went back they way they had come and assembled at the next exterior door of the pyramid.  This was a set of lead double doors.  Alees checked it for traps.  Finding none, she set to work unlocking them, as she had done to many of the other doors in the complex.  However, after a few minutes, she threw her "locksmithing" tools down in frustration.  She did not like admitting it, but she did not have the skill necessary to pick the lock.  Knowing Alees to be an extremely accomplished thief, the party marveled at the level of craftsmanship that must have been involved in making such a complex lock.  Having already recovered a copper key and a silver key, many in the group surmised that they would probably eventually run across a lead key that would open these doors.  But Alexander did not wish to wait.  He pulled out his Chime of Opening and commanded the doors to open.  To his surprise, he saw the energy of his spell wash over the doors without affecting them.  The very metal of the doors seemed to be resisting his spell.  Alexander did not like being denied, so he continued trying again and again.  Finally, on the fifth attempt, the enchanted metal could resist Alexander's arcane prowess no longer - the doors opened.

    Dark smoke began pooring out of the room at a constant rate without seeming to dissipate at all.  The smoke reduced visibility to almost nothing.  Killick and Katawan entered first, because they were immune to poison, but they found that the gas was not poisonous.  Eventually, the party located the source of the smoke - a fountain in the middle of the room.  The carving on the fountain was that of a tall thin spell-caster with extended arms who seemed to be lifted up by a mass of giant writhing worms.  The dark smoke was pouring out of the carving's eyes, mouth, and ears, and there seemed to be no limit to the supply of smoke.  Eventually the party determined that smashing the fountain would probably be the only way to end the magical effect.  After a few bashes with mace and quarterstaff, the head of the statue crumbled and the smoke stopped.  The party left the doors open and waited for the smoke in the room to slowly dissipate.

    After the smoke was gone, the party saw a set of large copper double doors at the far side of the room.  Alees produced the copper key that the party had found in the copper room earlier.  She fitted the key into the lock and felt the door begin to swing open.  Beyond the doors was a long room magically lit by runes carved along the walls near the ceiling.  On the far side of the room was another set of double doors - this time made of silver.  In front of each set of double doors (near and far) was a narrow ledge before a short set of stairs led about 3 feet down to a depression which took up the majority of the room.  On the slightly lower level, there were 2 perpendicular passageways on each side of the room.  Killick noticed that there was some kind of strange powder on the floor of the depression but not on the ledge.  He examined it briefly and determined that it was not a natural substance, but rather an alchemical concoction of some sort.  Killick took some back to where Alexander was waiting and showed it to him, but he did not recognize it.

    Thorash cast a spell on himself and warned the party that they should not bring anything magical close to him because, for a short time, he would have a zone of anti-magic around him.  Then he went down the stairs and looked down the first two passageways.  Tarric followed a safe-distance behind.  Down the passageway on the right, Thorash saw a small room that seemed to be an armory full of weapons of all varieties.  Down the opposite passageway, he saw a similar room filled with all varieties of armor.  All of the weapons and armor seemed to be of excellent quality.  Thorash began heading for the room with the armor.  However, when he got 10 feet away from the room's entrance, the image of a room full of armor suddenly disappeared and a wall of liquid was crashing down all around him instead.  This wall of liquid was not quite as tall by the time it struck Tarric as well.  Alees, who had decided to follow Tarric at the last minute, quickly jumped back up onto the ledge and avoided contact with the liquid altogether.  However, a choking mist was rising from the floor wherever the liquid touched it.  The liquid burned Thorash and Tarric's skin and they could hear the sizzle as many of their exposed belongings began dissolving away.  Scabbards, boots, belts, clothing, and bags were all gone in just a few moments.  The contents of Thorash's bag of holding suddenly spilled out onto the floor all around him.  As Thorash and Tarric began coughing from the smoke, they realized that they had to get out of the acid and out of the room as quickly as possible.  They each grabbed two items that had fallen into the acid and then rushed out of the room along with the rest of the party.

    Once the party was out in the fresh air, they evaluated the damage.  Thorash had lost almost everything he owned to the acid.  Tarric had lost his boots and his back-up sword.  He also seemed to have inhaled more of the gas than anyone else.  After his coughing subsided, he seemed a bit disoriented.  Luckily, Alees and Killick had been carrying the party's newly found loot.  The party decided to camp, identify items, re-equip Thorash, and wait for the poison gas to dissipate.  Out of curiosity, Katawan had Alexander cast Fly on him so that he could fly over the shallow pool of acid to the opposite side of the room and test the silver key out in the far side of double doors.  The key seemed to fit.  But rather than opening the doors and venturing to face whatever lay on the far side by himself, he flew back to the party's campsite.


----------



## Menexenus

*Session 52:  Thorash's Even Worse Day*

_6th of Fireseek_.  After a bit of discussion, the party decided to clean out all of the pyramid's unopened exterior doors before opening the silver double doors on the far side of the acid pool.  They moved past the lead doors to the a single, plain stone door.  Upon opening it, they found a narrow hallway filled with stone rubble from another collapsing ceiling trap, like the one they had found the previous day.  Above the level of the collapsed stone, the party could just barely see the top of an oak door at the far end of the corridor.  The party spent two hours hauling stone out of the room in order to clear a path to the door on the far side.  In the process, they discovered the decayed body of an adventurer in full plate armor carrying a bastard sword and wearing two rings plus a gold amulet with a spider motif.  Killick examined the adventurer's bones and determined that they were not elven.  When the corridor was finally cleared of its rubble, the party sent Alees forward to check the oak door for traps.  She quickly returned dejected and informed the party that it was merely a false door leading to nowhere.

    The party turned the corner of the pyramid and started on the next side.  First up was an ornate stone door covered in carvings of animals.  Alees easily detected and bypassed a poison needle trap and then found the hidden button that unlocked the door.  Beyond the door was a short corridor filled with stone rubble exactly like the one they had just excavated.  The party thought about simply bypassing this corridor, but the lure of possible treasure caused them to spend another two hours excavating this hallway.  This time no corpse was found beneath the stone.  However, the door at the far end of the corridor was not false this time.  Alees opened it and found what seemed to be a sculptor's room full of statues in various stages of completion.  Alees spent a while in the room looking for secret doors and compartments.  As she looked at the statues carefully, she determined that each of these statues had an imperfection of some kind.  She concluded that these broken statues were cast-offs from some sculptor with exacting standards.  Eventually, under a piece of broken stone, she found something of value - a flute made of black metal.  When she brought it out to show the rest of the party, Thorash said that he thought the metal was the same as that used to make Katawan's Amulet of the Dark Sun.  Alees tried to play the flute.  Although she had no particular experience playing flutes, her notes had a beautiful tone that was pleasing to the ear.  Suddenly she found that she felt warmer - more comfortable - than she had before.

    The party left the dead-end room, exited the pyramid, and prepared to open the next set of double doors crafted from steel.  Alees detected that the door was trapped with a poison gas trap of some kind.  She attempted to disarm it, but she dropped her implements and exactly the wrong time and set the trap off by accident instead.  A puff of blue smoke caused her to start coughing and turning red.  After the coughing was over, Alees found herself seeing strange lights and hearing strange sounds that she quickly confirmed from the rest of her party mates were not really there.  However, after a couple minutes, this effect passed and Alees seemed none the worse for wear.  Alees picked the lock on the door which opened into a magical laboratory.  The ceiling was about 3 times higher in this room than in all the previous rooms they had seen.  A large ornate circle was set into the floor just beyond the entrance.  Past the circle was a long workbench with a single bottle on it.  Past the bench was a wall of shelving containing many bottles and lots of glassware.  As the party entered the room, everyone was careful not to break the circle set into the floor.  Alexander walked across the floor to the workbench.  He saw that the bottle on the workbench had an ancient note stuck to it which read, "Only one wish left.  Don't push him."  Alexander determined that this room could be used as magical laboratory suitable for the creation of magical items.  He cast Detect Magic and found that the bottle on the workbench as well as 15 other opaque stoppered bottles on the shelves radiated magic.  The magical bottles were all collected in one place on the workbench.

    Alees called out that she had found a couple secret doors, one at each end of the far wall containing shelves.  The party entered the secret door on the left first.  After following a short crooked passage, they discovered an ornate gold door glowing with a strange magical light.  Alees found no traps on the door and then unlocked it.  Beyond the door was a small room with small chairs and dust-covered cushions lining the walls.  In the center of the room was an amazingly life-like statue of a woman in full plate armor swinging a large sword in both hands.  Alexander determined that this woman had been the victim of a Flesh to Stone spell.  Tarric and Thorash looked closely at her armor to see if they could find any symbol which would reveal her allegiance.  They found none.  The party decided to leave the statue for now, but Alexander pledged to return when he had the correct spell memorized necessary to free the woman.  The party entered the other secret door, and after another short crooked passage, they found a room full of shields.  Seven shields were mounted on the walls and one more rested on a pedastal in the middle of the room.  All of the shields were identically decorated - red enamel paint with a black circle in the middle.  In the black circle was painted a stylized image of the face of a snarling carnivore with mouth open, about to bite.  It was impossible to tell whether the beast depicted in the shield was supposed to be feline or canine.  Sensing that the new-found room might be dangerous, Alees went back to the workbench and put all of the magical bottles into a sack.  She moved the bottle with the note on it to the room with the life-like statue.

    Thorash tied grappling hook to a length of rope and threw it into the room in an attempt to pull the shield down from the pedastal.  After a few attempts he was successful.  However, as soon as the shield fell to the ground, the snarling beasts seemed to jump out of the shields and into the room.  All of these beasts had 6 limbs, tentacles, and seemed blurry somehow.  While all of the beasts crowded into the room were large and ferocious looking, the one in the middle of the room was significantly larger than the others.  The one in the middle as well as the two that were nearest to the doorway attacked Thorash, causing him damage.  Katawan called out to Thorash telling him to get out of the way so he could cast a Fireball from his Ring of Spell Storing into the room.  Instead, Thorash cast a spell protecting himself from fire.  Katawan stepped in and cast the spell.  A loud explostion caused 3 of the smaller creatures to fall dead, but Thorash was significantly wounded from the blast as well.  Then the huge beast in the center of the room struck Thorash multiple times with tentacles and claws and finally ripped the dwarf's head off with his teeth.  Thorash's lifeless body slumped to the floor.  Katawan pulled Thorash's body back.  Seeing that the party seemed to be trying to withdraw, the huge beast closed its eyes and it disappeared - only to reappear in the large circle set in the floor of the main room.  Suddenly the party found itself flanked, down one member, and unable to run.  Tarric ran forward towards the huge beast, taking swats from its claws and tentacles all the way.  Killick moved back to deal with the remaining smaller beasts.  He cast a Flame Strike which killed all the rest of them but one.  And he defeated the last, twice-singed beast with his quarterstaff.  Meanwhile, Tarric sliced large chunks out of the huge creature blocking the exit while Alexander cast volley after volley of Magic Missiles into it and Alees moved around into flanking position and stabbed it in its vitals.  Although the creature delivered a great deal of damage and had a lot of staying power, it eventually succumbed to the party's might without taking any more lives.

    After surveying the party's resources, they found that they had no scroll of Raise Dead to return Thorash to life.  Killick proposed Reincarnating the dwarf in a new body.  Alexander raided what was left of the magical laboratory and produced the necessary oils and unguents.  Killick cast the spell and 10 minutes later an entirely new human body had grown from the remnants of Thorash's corpse.  Suddenly it breathed, and Thorash had returned.  He inspected his new body and did not seem to like what he saw.  He seemed most humiliated by his paltry new human beard.  But he suffered in silence, having no room for complaint.  Alees announced that while Thorash was being reincarnated, she had found another secret door in the hallway near the mouth of the shield room.  Given Thorash's recent experience with death and reincarnation, the party decided to not forge ahead immediately.  The party decided to rest, rememorize spells, and deal with the living statue in the other room.  Alees grabbed the bottle with the note on it before the party left for the night.

_7th of Fireseek_.  After the party was refreshed and Thorash became more accustomed to his new body, the party entered the room with the statue.  Alexander cast Stone to Flesh and the stone became a disoriented woman who was in the heat of desperate combat.  After calming her down a bit, they asked her why she had been fighting.  She described a battle between the denizens of the temple and the hosts of Pelor.  They asked her which side she had been on.  She replied that she had been among the Pelorian host, fighting to destroy the temple.  She asked if her army had been successful.  Alexander replied that it had been a draw.  The army of Pelor had not succeeded in destroying the temple, but they had succeeded in trapping all of its minions inside.  Alexander asked her name.  She said her name was Dourala.  Alexander offered her food and drink which she accepted gratefully, saying that she felt a hunger like none she had ever known.

    Suddenly, Dourala raised her sword and pointed it aggressively at Alees.  She asked frantically, "This one just tried to cast a spell on me.  Is this your hospitality?"  Before she could choose whether to swing her greatsword or not, Katawan punched her three times in the face.  Having been attacked twice, Dourala swung her sword at her alleged attacker, Alees.  The attack cut Alees slightly.  Alexander was confused by what had happened so suddenly.  He cast Slow on both Dourala and Alees and commanded them both to stand down so that the dispute could be resolved without violence.  Alees seemed unaffected by Alexander's spell, but Dourala was noticeably affected.  She held her sword at the ready and called out a challenge to Alees to face her in ritual combat.  Without reply, Alees stuck her sword into Dourala's neck and sliced off her head.  

   As the woman's head fell to the ground with a wet thump, there was silence amongst the group.  All eyes were on Alexander to see how he would respond to Alees's disregard of his instructions.  Finally, Alees broke the silence by moving forward to begin looting Dourala's body for valuables.  Alexander warned her in a furious tone to leave the woman's body alone or face his wrath.  Alees backed off, but scanned the rest of the party for supporters.  She announced that Dourala had been lying, and she added that the whole party saw the fighter attack her.  Katawan and Thorash seemed to have no problem with what Alees had done.  Killick and Tarric were not quite so sure that what Alees had done was honorable.  Alexander asked Thorash if he would raise the woman from the dead.  When he refused, Alexander pledged to keep watch over the body until such time as the party could teleport back to Greyhawk and have it raised.

    After some time passed and tempers cooled, the party agreed to explore the final secret door before resting and teleporting back to Greyhawk.  Alexander reluctantly consented to aid the party.  They filed into the secret door beyond the shield room and found a crossing corridor going in two directions.  The party tried the right first and found only an empty store room.  To the left the party discovered a heavy lead door.  Alees was able to determine that something magical would happen when the door was opened, but she couldn't disarm it and she didn't know exactly what would happen.  She stepped back and let others try to open the door.  When Killick opened the door, he saw a room with lead walls and ceiling.  At the far side of the small room was a crystaline being standing sentry in front of a large chest.  It made no move against the party, which was fortunate.  Because at that moment, a large bug-like devil appeared behind them in the hallway.  It was clearly cramped for space, but it still seemed able to wield its spear effectively.  However, rather than stab at the nearest opponent, it instead summoned a Wall of Ice to close off the secret door and cut the party in half.  Upon seeing the creature, Alees ran screaming into the empty store room.  Alexander grabbed Thorash and Katawan and transported them magically into the store room where Alees was cowering.  Katawan reached in his bag and produced a potion for Alees.  Tarric, who was undaunted by the sight of this bug-like fiend stepped up to the creature, taking an attack of opportunity as he approached.

[To be continued...]


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## Menexenus

*Session 53:  Finishing the Lower Level of the Pyramid*

_7th of Fireseek:  [in medias res]_  Katawan, Thorash, and Alexander had just teleported into the storage room behind the Ice Devil.  There, they found Alees cowering.  Katawan drew his potion of Remove Fear and gave it to her.  She drank it, and then drew her sword, rising slightly off the ground.  Killick cast Bull's Strength on himself and Grimlock.  Tarric swung at the creature, cutting into the creature.  Based on the way the creature recoiled, it was clear that his weapon was doing full damage to it.  The creature cast Ice Storm in the corridor, catching Tarric, Killick, and Grimlock in a zone of falling chunks of ice.  Katawan moved in behind the creature, moving into flanking position.  Alees flew up above Katawan, aiming for a vital spot.  Alexander tried to cast Magic Missiles at the creature but was unable to overcome its spell resistance.  Killick cast Resist Cold on himself and Grimlock.  The creature's wounds began closing as it performed a full attack on Tarric.  Despite its size, it was surprisingly swift with its spear.  It also bit at Tarric and whipped its tail at him.  But because of the narrowness of the corridor, it did little damage.  However, Tarric struck it again with his sword.  Katawan struck it with his fists, but little damage seemed to get through.  Alees struck it and seemed to find a vital spot.

    The devil was in a difficult spot - surrounded by enemies, fighting in a tight space, and taking more damage than it was dealing.  It decided to fight on ground of its own choosing.  It teleported into the lead room, behind Killick and Grimlock.  As the heroes moved forward to fight the creature, they saw that they now had a new ally.  The crystaline creature that had been standing motionless over an ancient oaken chest was now attacking the devil!  Its appendages had enlongated and sharpened into the shape of swords.  Katawan stood in the doorway of the lead room and cast a Fireball into the room from his Ring of Spell Storing.  This had no effect on the devil, but it did damage the crystal guardian.  Tarric charged past Katawan to engage the creature in melee.  Alees followed up as well, but more cautiously.  Killick cast Enlarge on Grimlock and then mounted his horse-sized wardog.  The devil hit Tarric with its spear and the cold that spread through his body caused his muscles to react much more slowly.  Killick leaned over and cast Freedom of Movement on Tarric to get him back into the fight.  After a few more seconds, the bug-like devil realized that it could not continue for much longer.  So it teleported to the safety of the corridor beyond the Ice Wall that it had created earlier in the battle.  Alexander and Thorash could vaguely see its blue color and shape distorted heavily through the Ice Wall.  It seemed to be resting and casting spells.  Alexander and Thorash, who were separated from the rest of the party, ducked behind a corner and waited for the rest of the party to come back to them.

    However, the crystaline guardian had transferred its attacks to the party, and the party had decided to take the opportunity to finish it in the devil's absence.  To allow everyone to get in on the fight, Killick cast Spider Climb on Tarric.  But they found that attacking the crystal creature was easier said than done.  Everytime Tarric, Grimlock, Katawan, or Alees tried to attack it in melee, it would simply cause itself to shatter in anticipation of the blow and then reform itself once the blow had passed through it.  Each time the creature shattered itself in this way, little cracks appeared in its reformed surface.  As the creature shattered more and more, these cracks became larger and larger.  Finally, Killick resorted to Produce Flame, which seemed more effective.  At long last, the crystal creature collapsed in a heap. 

    At about that moment, the Ice Devil teleported back into the room.  Most of its wounds had closed and it now had a black aura surrounding it.  Tarric swung his sword at it, but when he hit it, black energy leapt towards him from the devil's aura and caused him to become noticeably weaker.  Grimlock bit at the devil's legs, causing it to trip.  Alees swooped in, looking for a vital area to stab.  Katawan sprang at it from the back of the room.  Because the creature had to stand up, it was unable to deploy its full attack sequence.  So instead, it simply cast another Ice Storm, damaging all of its opponents in the room.  At that moment, back in the storage room, Alexander decided to take the opportunity secure the party's escape route.  He cast a Fireball, destroying the Ice Wall and then made for the exit, with Thorash right behind him.  Thorash called out that anyone needing healing would find him outside.  

Meanwhile, in the lead room, the same pattern repeated itself again and again.  Tarric damaged the devil at the expense of his own strength.  Alees drew her Wand of Restoration and used it on Tarric to restore his strength.  However, immediately afterwards, she and Katawan had to leave.  Neither of them could sustain the damage from another Ice Storm.  They exited the pyramid complex and sought out Thorash's healing.  Tarric, Killick, and Grimlock remained and continued battling the creature.  Just when the situation seemed dire, Tarric finally felled the foul beast, cleaving it in two.

    The chest in the lead room had been nearly destroyed by all the crushing chunks of ice from the multiple Ice Storms.  In the chest, Alees found a lead key shaped like an eagle with a forked tail, a dagger with worm-like symbols engraved at the base of the blade, a tube of diamond dust, and an adamantine ring shaped like a hell hound biting its own tail.  There were about a dozen assorted gems as well.  The party withdrew from the temple to heal and identify.  

    Thorash did not have time to identify everything, but he did inform the party that the bottles that he had thought were potions, were actually containment devices of some kind.  He thought that there might be creatures trapped/contained inside them.  Killick scanned the bottles for undead, and found one bottle that seemed to contain an undead creature.  He smashed the bottle and a Spawn of Kyuss suddenly appeared.  The party moved to destroy the creature, but Killick insisted that he would destroy it alone.  The undead creature was no match for someone as skilled as Killick and was soon destroyed.  Once the creature was dispatched, Killick kneeled down and grabbed one of the still wriggling worms from the undead creature's eyesocket.  To the horror of his partymates, he took of his glove and placed the worm directly on his palm.  It immediately started burrowing into Killick's skin.  Killick grunted and grimaced as he explained to the party that he and his mentor Nogwier had uncovered some scrolls written by the Order of the Storm, an ancient Druidic society whose task had been to fight the minions of Kyuss and keep them from threatening civilization.  He explained that some of the most successful of these Druids - known as Wormhunters - had taken in Kyuss's own negative energy into their bodies with the goal of using it against their enemies.  Killick sat in tortured meditation as he tried to maintain the upper hand against the energies of the worm as it tried to take control away from Killick and turn him into a minion of Kyuss.  Tarric stood over him, sword at the ready, in case anything should go wrong.  At long last, Killick emerged from his ordeal, scarred but in control.  He seemed different... but stronger.

     The party divvied up the remaining swag.  Thorash asked for the dagger, as a replacement for many of the magic items he had lost in the acid.  Killick asked for the diamond dust.  Tarric asked for the ring.  Alexander announced that he would teleport Dourala's body back to civilization to have it raised.  The party asked him to take some swag back with him to sell while he was there.  He consented to do so.  Killick asked Alexander if he would recharge his Brooch of Shielding.  Seeing as Alexander had been the one who depleted it when he had been under the control of the vampire Huvariel, he consented to do so.  After receiving a magical bag full of items to be sold, as well as a long list of items to be purchased for various party members, he grasped Dourala's dead body and departed with it, teleporting back to Magepoint.

_8th of Fireseek_.  There were only 2 exterior doors on the pyramid left to explore.  The party decided to check them out while Alexander was gone.  They opened the first plain stone door and found an empty corridor lying ahead of them.  Alees checked the corridor for traps and found a pressure plate in the middle that would cause the ceiling to collapse if it were set off.  She was able to disable the trap and make it safe for crossing.  She got to the door on the far side and found that it was a false door.  Disappointed, the party withdrew and made for the last exterior door left to be investigated.  

    This door was more ornate; it had carvings of animals on it.  Alees checked it and found that it contained a trap.  Since she knew the trap would spray liquid when tripped, she invited Killick over to purposefully set off the trap and absorb the effect.  Killick turned the door knob and was sprayed with a fine mist of liquid, but was unaffected.  After the door was open, they saw another corridor identical to the one they had just explored.  Once again, Alees found a trap in the middle.  Once again, she disabled it.  This time, though, the door at the far end was not false.  It opened into an empty but immaculately clean white room covered in hexagonal white tiles.  Alees quickly noticed some small smears of blood in the grout surrounding some of the tiles on one wall.  She announced to the party that there was a secret door there.  She found the release mechanism and opened the door.  Beyond the door was a crooked hallway filled with much more dried blood.  When they turned the corner, they saw a door covered in what looked like blue dragon scales.  After looking more closely, Alees determined that this door was magically trapped.  She set to disabling the trap.  After a number of minutes, with sweat on her brow, Alees finally declared victory.  She told the party that it had been a very close thing, but she had successfully disabled the trap.  The door could be opened safely.

    Upon opening the door, a dust-covered living room was revealed, with sofas and end tables.  Alees cast Detect Magic and noticed the glow of some magical auras coming from underneath one of the couches as well as from a statue on one of the end tables.  As the party entered the room to investigate, the statue animated.  It was a small statue of a red dragon, about the size of a house cat.  However, the statue seemed to be covered in real red dragon scales.  The statue screamed at the party causing Tarric and Alees to become deafened.  The party members entered the room and backed the statue into a corner.  It was a much tougher opponent than anyone expected.  When it bit and slashed at opponents with its claws, it did almost as much damage as the Ice Devil had done with its much larger spear.  However, despite the impressiveness of the construct, it eventually succumbed to the combined prowess of the party.  Alees checked the room thoroughly and found lots of heavy furniture as well as a magical wand made from the bone of a blue dragon and a set of magical bracers made from the scales of a gold dragon.  The party debated the ethics of keeping such an item, made from the body of a good creature.

    While the party had been fighting, Thorash had remained outside the pyramid, trying to discern what kinds of creatures were trapped inside the bottles the party had found.  So far he had met with no luck.  The party asked Thorash if he could take a break to identify the two items they had found.  He agreed to do so.  As he was working on the identifications, Katawan was carefully setting off the remaining acid traps in the room with the acid pool.  When he was done, the acid pool had quadrupled in depth - it was now a bit less than a foot and a half deep.  The flying members of the party set about constructing a causeway through the acid pool using chunks of rock from the corridors they had excavated whose ceilings had collapsed.  After a full day of work, the causeway was complete.  Now, even non-flying party members would be able to traverse the distance from the outside of the pyramid to the silver doors safely.  (However, where there was still acid, the acid was now about 2 feet deep.)  The party rested after a long day's work and waited for Alexander to return with the party's newly purchased items.


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## Menexenus

*Session 54:  Ascending to the 3rd Level*

_9th of Fireseek_:  Alexander returned the following day with a newly recharged Brooch of Shielding for Killick, two Heward's Handy Haversacks for Tarric and Katawan, a darkwood shield for Alees (to replace her dragonscale shield while it was being enchanted), a wand of healing for the party, and lots of gold pieces for everyone.  He reported that he had paid for Dourala to be reincarnated and that afterward he had let her go with his apologies for her rough treatment at the party's hands.  Out of curiosity, the party asked what form she had returned to life in.  Alexander reluctantly admitted that she had returned in the form of a goblin.  In spite of the seriousness of the previous showdown between party members (or perhaps because of it) most of the party laughed out loud when they heard this news.  Alees couldn't help pointing out that the gods were demonstrating her true nature by bringing her back in that form.  All were relieved that this issue was now resolved and the party could get back to work without the previous tension hanging over their heads.

    The party prepared to re-enter the pyramid and open the silver door.  However, Thorash informed the party that he would remain outside the pyramid.  The party shot each other worried glances.  Thorash had been acting strangely since his reincarnation as a human.  Alees asked why he would not be going in with them.  Thorash explained that he felt that he was close to a breakthrough on finding a way to divine the contents of the magical container bottles that the party had recovered.  The party tried to convince him that securing the White Eye was far more important, but Thorash had retained his dwarven stubbornness.  He insisted that if the party needed him, they could return to him.  When it was apparent that Thorash's mind could not be changed, Killick volunteered to remain with Thorash while the rest of the party went in to explore the pyramid.  Thorash protested that he didn't need a baby-sitter, but Killick said that he had wanted to spend a bit more time with Grimlock to ensure that there were no lingering effects of the mummy rot the dog had contracted a few days earlier.  Besides, Killick argued, if any of the monsters in the bottles were accidentally released, Thorash might need a hand.

    So Tarric, Alexander, Katawan, and Alees marched out onto the newly-built rock causeway spanning the pool of acid, put the silver key into the lock, and opened the doors.  Beyond the doors, was a medium sized room at the far side of which were two parallel sets of stairs leading up about 20 feet before ending in an unseen large room above.  Along the walls of both staircases were intricately carved bas-relief figures of powerful looking individuals.  Alees scanned these figures with Detect Magic and found only a lingering residue of ancient magic that had long since dissipated.  However, as she examined the room, she heard movement at the top of the stairs - something that sounded like footsteps.  She communicated this silently to the party.  The party spent some time casting preparatory spells.  Then Tarric and Katawan both ran up the stairs together, one on each stair case.  At the top, they were greeted by 4 of the greenish-black skinned undead that they had encountered before in an armory near the vampire's lair.  Their muscular bodies were covered in nothing but a loin-cloth and they all charged forward with shortspears.  Their actions were unnaturally swift and their skin was covered by a protective layer of stone that glittered faintly in the light.

    Although most of the party had a hard time overcoming these creatures' numerous defenses, Alexander found that they were vulnerable to his magic missiles.  After casting the Maximized and Quickened versions that he had memorized, he pulled out his trusty wand of magic missiles.  The opponents fought with unusually sound tactics for undead.  They sprang past Tarric and Katawan and tried to flank Alexander.  One at a time, each of them cast an area effect spell of evil black energy that seemed to harm Alexander and Tarric more than Katawan and Alees.  (Katawan was largely resistant to their magic anyway.)  One by one, the opponents fell, despite their attempts to fight intelligently and cooperatively.  Although none of the party members had fallen, they had taken a significant amount of damage.  They left the pyramid to get healing from Thorash, who complied half-heartedly and disinterestedly.

    With their cuts and bruises healed, the four party members re-entered the pyramid and ascended the staircase.  There was a pair of oak doors on the far side of the room at the top.  Alees checked it for traps, found that it was not trapped, and opened the doors, seeing a 10 foot wide corridor leading in both directions.  She carefully studied the ground for traps and after about a half an hour, declared that the corridor was secure.  Around a corner at the left end of the corridor was a set of steel double doors covered in frost.  Around a corner at the right end of the corridor was a set of steel doors that were glowing red with heat.  Alexander suggested that he could open either set of doors without touching them using his Chime of Opening.  The party chose the hot doors, so Alexander moved into position and activated the magic item.  As the glowing doors opened, a wave of heat traveled down the hallway and the party observed a room filled with fire whose floor was covered in slow-moving viscous molten lava.  Some of the flames in the room suddenly resolved themselves into a hulking figure with enormous fists that strode out of the room quickly and pounded Alexander, catching his robes alight.  Horrified, Alexander retreated to the far end of the hallway, taking another pounding as he left.  Alees and Tarric stepped forward to block the progress of the huge, hunched over fire-being.  Katawan guarded Alexander farther down the hall.  Tarric and Alees found that their swords did little damage to the being of living flame, but once again, Alexander's magic missiles were quite effective.  Katawan sprang back and forth at the creature, flying over Alees's head with his winged boots to strike at it.  The creature, frustrated at not being able to get past Alees and Tarric, punched at them furiously, causing tremendous damage and catching Alees's clothes on fire.  However, after many magic missiles, the creature was eventually brought low by the jolt of electricity from Alees's short sword.  The flames that had composed its body simply rose to the ceiling, and, finding no fuel, simply winked out of existence.

    This time the party was even more damaged than it was after the first fight.  They retreated once more to seek Thorash's healing abilities.  Thorash treated all of their burns successfully, but he informed the party that he had no more healing power available for the rest of the day, so he hoped they would leave him alone now, at long last.  He returned to examining the bottles in a huff.  By this time, Killick had become bored watching Thorash look at bottles.  He had been unsuccessful at engaging Thorash in conversation that might illuminate his recent strange behavior.  So he and Grimlock accompanied the other four as they returned to the pyramid.  

The party had hoped that the room full of lava might have cooled a bit while they were gone, now that the fire elemental inhabiting the room had been destroyed.  However, the room seemed just as impossibly hot as it had been before.  They could still make out a pair of double doors on the far side of the room, so Alexander used his Chime of Opening again.  Those doors swung open to reveal an oppulent sitting room.  Surprisingly, the furniture in that room did not immediately combust.  The party surmised that something must be protecting the objects in that room from the heat.  Katawan flew quickly through the lava room into the sitting room.  He confirmed that the sitting room was somehow at a comfortable temperature despite the proximity of the lava.  He reported that there were two skeletons standing at attention against the left hand wall, flanking a fountain that no longer functioned.  The skeletons did not seem to register Katawan's presence in any way.  There was another set of double doors on the far side of this room as well.  Alexander activiated his Chime once more to open those doors.  The next room contained 8 beds of very fine craftsmanship.  Katawan stepped inside.  He saw two wooden chests up against opposite walls, as well as 4 more skeletons standing at attention, one in each corner.  Again, the skeletons did not seem to register Katawan's presence.  Again, there was another set of double doors across from the set that had just been opened.  However, this time the doors were far more imposing, being made of some dark black metal alloy with an eye-catching opalescent sheen.  Alexander tried using his Chime repeatedly to open this new set of doors.  After almost 10 attempts he gave up, deciding that his best simply would not be good enough.  He gathered the party together and offered to teleport them to the far side of the lava room.  He informed Killick that Grimlock would have to wait.  Not wanting to leave his trusty wardog behind, Killick insisted that the rest should go on without him, and he would use his own spell power to get across, if need be.

    Alexander, Tarric, and Alees teleported next to Katawan.  Alees immediately looted the two chests in the room, finding magical implements in one and tattered vestments in the other.  With the looting done, she moved forward to check the door for traps.  Before she did so, she heard a strange sound coming from the doors.  They almost sounded as if they were breathing!  She reported this to Alexander who guessed that some living creature might be magically trapped within them as a guardian.  The party prepared itself for battle.  Alees touched the doors and suddenly a hulking fiend appeared in the room with them.  Tarric recognized it as a denizen of the Abyss, one of the many vile creatures that the Order of Holy Shielding had trained him to fight.  He relished the opportunity to dispatch such an embodiment of evil.  The stench of brimstone that accompanied the vile creature caused Alexander to wretch uncontrollably.  He wanted to get away from the stench but could not do so without entering the lava.  Between heaves, he called to Killick across the lava for a spell that would neutralize poisons.  Finding itself surrounded, the otherworldly opponent cast a spell identical to the one cast by the black-skinned undead in the earlier fight.  However, it was of limited effectiveness.  Meanwhile, Tarric hacked into the creature expertly with his holy bastard sword and Alees flanked it, stabbing it repeatedly in the guts.  In less than 10 seconds, the battle was over and the creature lay dead on the ground.  Killick had cast a spell to protect himself from the flames and another to allow himself to walk on the walls to avoid contact with the lava.  He had not even made it across the lava room before the enemy creature had been killed.  

    Alees got to work trying to use her lockpicking skills to open the door that Alexander's magic could not.  After a number of minutes, her efforts finally met with success.  She could not help but marvel at the skill of the locksmiths who had helped construct the doors in this temple.  Now that the doors were open, the party saw another long narrow hallway, one end of which was to the party's immediate left.  Alees turned right and proceeded down the hallway, taking care to ensure that the floor was safe.  Minutes later she gave the all-clear and the rest of the party moved forward.  They saw that in the middle of the hallway was a single staircase going up and at the other end of the hallway was a bricked up opening about the same size as the double door they had just come through.  The party listened at the base of the stairs, heard nothing, and ascended them carefully, Alees leading the way looking for traps.  At the top of the stairs was a narrow landing with two opposing doors, one painted with the form of a man in robes on a mountaintop speaking to a throng of worshippers far below him.  The other door was unpainted.  Killick decided to bash open the unpainted door.  The door did not give way.  He ordered his dog to attempt the same.  This time the door did give way.  (As it did so, Alees could not help but notice that the door had not been locked in the first place.) 

    The room beyond the door seemed to be a room for priests to prepare themselves prior to leading a worship service.  This room was guarded by two more of the black-skinned undead encountered before.  A fight broke out immediately.  These undead did not carry spears like the previous ones had.  Instead they fought with their bodies, in a style similar to Katawan's.  The party concentrated its attacks on the nearest enemy and destroyed it quickly.  The second one unhinged its jaw and let out a horrific scream.  The party braced itself, but the scream seemed to have no ill-effects.  Katawan moved up to the creature, preparing to strike it.  However, he heard a strange repetitive thud noise coming from the next room.  So he opened the door that was next to him and saw a sparse worship hall with a giant black-framed mirror on the far wall.  However, more importantly, he saw a bandaged undead creature on the far side of the room along with 2 massive gem-studded skeletons that appeared to be made of metal rather than bone.  They had seen him and were moving towards the door.  Katawan quickly closed the door again and informed his friends that they were about to have company.


----------



## Menexenus

*Session 55:  The Apex of the Temple of the Dark Sun*

_9th of Fireseek_.  Upon opening the first door of the third floor of the temple, the party had discovered two black-skinned undead of the same type that they had now fought on several occasions.  The party had engaged them and dispatched one quickly.  However, the second one had emitted an ear-splitting scream that had seemed uneffective to the party, until Katawan opened a door and saw a mummy and two metallic skeletons marching in his direction.  Katawan tried to shut the door to keep the new enemies out, but they simply opened it up again.  Katawan now found himself surrounded by enemies - the black-skinned undead was with him in the preparation room, and the skeletons and mummy were on the opposite side of the doorway.  The mummy started casting spells.  Then it moved directly behind the skeletons and urged them forward.  The skeletons raked at Katawan with their elongated, gem-encrusted claws.  When he jumped sideways to dodge their blows, he was struck unexpectedly in the adam's apple by the black-skinned undead.  This attack left him stunned and helpless.  The skeletons seized their opportunity and grabbed hold of him, sinking their claws into his flesh.  Tarric and Alees worked together to dispatch the black-skinned undead while Killick attempted to help Katawan by touching him with a wand of healing.  Unfortunately, though, he made contact with one of the constructs first, using up the spell with no effect.  The mummy moved forward and tried to touch Katawan with black energy crackling on its desiccated hand.  However, Katawan wiggled at just the right moment, causing it to miss.

    Tarric stepped up next to Katawan to take the mummy's attention away from his near-helpless comrade.  Tarric's heroic act was successful.  The mummy turned its attention to him instead.  It laid its hand on Tarric's chest and in a croaking voice, it said, "Die!"  Tarric's eyes fluttered, he dropped his sword, and fell to the ground lifeless.  And, at about that moment, the party saw two more metal skeletons moving forward from the worship hall on the far side of the door.  It was at this moment, that things looked the darkest.  Tarric was dead, Katawan was held, and so far they had done little damage to their enemies, who were about to receive reinforcements.  Alexander, who had tried to remain outside the room to avoid the gaze of the mummy, finally poked his head in to survey the situation.  While the mummy's visage was indeed horrifying, Alexander held his ground.  He shot a Magic Missile at it, which was absorbed by the mummy's brooch.  He ducked back onto the landing at the top of the staircase and suggested to his partymates that they should consider withdrawal.  

    Katawan finally threw the skeletons off of him.  Even though he had only been restrained for a small portion of a minute, those seconds had seemed to last much longer to everyone involved.  He asked for healing and made no movement to leave.  Alees obliged, tapping him with her healing wand.  Killick replied to Alexander, saying that they couldn't leave without Tarric.  Now that the skeletons were no longer grasping Katawan, they found other quarry to pursue.  One skeleton chased Alees into a closet, while the other moved towards Alexander.  Braving the skeleton's attacks, Alexander stepped into the room and cast a spell at the doorway on the opposite side of the room.  Suddenly the doorway was filled with a thick sheet of iron.  The mummy and the two new skeletons were trapped on the opposite side.  Alexander said, "There.  That should keep them out for a while.  Let's finish these two and get out!"  The party concentrated its attacks on the two remaining skeletons.  Just then, Alexander heard hurried feet coming up the stairs.  As he prepared for the possibility of facing a new threat, he wondered how the party could have missed something down below.  Alexander was relieved to see Thorash's gangly new human form running clumsily up the stairs.  As he tried to catch his breath, Thorash explained that he had been monitoring the party's progress from outside and had come running when he sensed Tarric's death.  He drew his mace and stepped into combat against the nearest metal skeleton

    Meanwhile, the two other skeletons pounded on the iron wall that blocked their entry into the room.  With each thump, the party could see indentations in the iron sheet becoming more and more pronounced.  Just when it seemed the iron wall couldn't possibly hold for much longer, the last of the first two skeletons was destroyed.  Alees quickly tied Tarric's body to Grimlock's military saddle.  The party began beating a hasty retreat.  Thorash started casting a spell and was quickly left behind with Killick who stayed behind to guard him.  At long last, the iron wall crashed open and the mummy immediately fired a beam of energy at Killick, wounding him slightly.  Finally, Thorash's spell was complete and a monstrous earth elemental appeared in the room.  As Killick and Thorash joined the retreat, Thorash instructed the elemental to attack.  It did so successfully, knocking a large chunk off of one of the skeletons.  However, the mummy stepped back with an aggravated look on its decaying visage, and cast a spell which caused the elemental to return to its home plane.  As Thorash was running back down the stairs, he saw his summoned ally wink out of existence.  He warned the rest of the party not to get too comfortable.

    They cast a couple healing spells and formed up in front of the opalescent black metal double doors where they had previously defeated a demon.  Soon afterward, the party members standing in the doorway saw the two metal skeletons descend the staircase from the upper level and enter the narrow hallway followed by their mummy leader.  When the skeletons moved to engage the party, Alexander let loose with a volley of magic missiles.  (This was his standard operating procedure.  Alexander found that sometimes his magic missiles harmed the creatures and sometimes they didn't.)  Thorash was frozen in fear when he finally saw the mummy for the first time.  Seeing that Thorash was inactive, it cast a spell that would have held Katawan immobile, but Katawan was able to resist the spell's effect.  Grimlock waited with Tarric's body in the sitting room antechamber while the rest of the party fought on.  If the party had to retreat, it might be difficult to get everyone back across the lava room without suffering further injury.  However, the battle seemed to be going the party's way.  In a matter of moments, the party had felled one of the last two skeleton constructs.  The mummy stepped up and took the fighting position vacated by its collapsed minion.  It formed a foul arcane symbol in the air above it for all to see.  When Alees caught a glipse of it, she was wracked by a powerful continuous pain, making it difficult for her to concentrate on anything else.  The party focused on the last remaining skeleton, so the mummy cast another spell which made the mummy seem even more powerful than it had been before.  It then commenced attacking the party with its bare fists.  The party was shocked by the potency of the creature's sudden combat prowess.  Seeing his partymates in danger caused Thorash to recover his wits.  He cast a spell on the mummy that would (hopefully) negate some of the magical effects that the mummy had cast on itself.  After Thorash had cast it, the mummy returned to its normal appearance.  Thorash's spell seemed to have met with some success.  To test the waters, Alexander cast a fireball on it (that also engulfed a number of his partymates).  After the explosion, the party could see that the mummy was on fire.  Its resistance to fire had been nullified along with its extra combat prowess!  The party knew that it had the upper hand now.  Every party member pressed the attack with as many fire-based effects as they could muster, and within a matter of moments, the mummy was dispatched.  

    Alees immediately began prying the most expensive looking gems out of the skeleton constructs.  The party collectively rolled its eyes at this behavior, and gave her a time limit of no more than 10 minutes.  She spent as much time as the party would allow collecting loot.  Then the party decided to go back up and investigate the third level.  They reasoned that whatever had been up there must have been alerted to their presence, and if it hadn't already come running to repel them, it was probably not much of a threat.  The party found that the remainder of the third level was now deserted.  They found two small mausoleums and two small libraries.  Alees wanted to spend time robbing the more important looking crypts.  However, after unsealing three of them, she was disappointed to discover that they were not buried with any of their valuables.  She gave up the search.  Alees did quick searches for secret doors and passageways but found none.  At the end of a long hallway, the party found a steel door with glowing pink runes surrounding a cloaked figure beneath which was written the words "Death is the entrance to new life."  Alees found herself unable to open the door with her lockpicks, so Alexander tried his Chime of Opening.  The door seemed to resist the chime's magic, but it finally gave way.  Beyond the door was a rising staircase.  A large room containing the apex of the pyramid was visible at the top of the stairs, lit by an eerie glow coming from somewhere near the floor.  The party members looked at each other and took stock.  What they were here for - the White Eye - was most likely at the top of these stairs.  But who knew what horrors might be guarding it.  Alexander and Thorash were nearly depleted of spells and Tarric lay dead downstairs.  Under those circumstances, the party chose to retire, make camp, revive Tarric, and return the next day replenished and ready for battle.

    Later on that evening, just after dusk, Thorash used up most of the diamonds that Alees had pried from the skeleton constructs in order to raise Tarric from the dead.  He was grateful that the party had seen fit to revive him before facing the temple's final challenge.  The rest of the party's spellcasters would regain spells at dawn, so the party made camp.

_10th of Fireseek_.  The party awoke refreshed and ready for the final struggle.  Thorash cast a number of preparatory spells to aid his partymates in combat, as did Alexander and Killick.  The party was as ready as it would ever be.  They ascended to where they had turned back the previous day and quickly established the marching order.  Alees led the way, looking for traps on the stairs.  As she crested the staircase, she saw an undead figure seated in a chair against the far wall and an ornate stone pedastal with a small glowing orb resting on a pillow under glass.  She reported this to her comrades and then fell back.  Tarric was the first to enter the room.  As he did so, the party saw him sheathe his bastard sword and draw the ornate longsword that he had been using as a backup strapped across his back.  The figure at the far side of the room remained seated and said, "Welcome!  Welcome to my humble prison!  I am Horgrim, last remaining disciple of the Ebon Triad here in the once thriving Temple of the Dark Sun.  Since you have defeated all of the temple's guardians on the lower levels, you must truly be the ones referred to in the prophecies - praise be to the Overgod!  Please come in."  By this time all of the party members save Thorash had ascended the staircase and entered the pyramid-shaped room.  They now noticed that the creature speaking was stroke a small blue dragon construct as if it were a pet.  The construct looked almost identical to the one the party had fought in the last room the party had explored on the temple's first level.  Horgrim motioned toward the glowing White Eye lying between him and the party and said, "This is indeed what you are seeking.  Please take it and fulfill your destiny... but only if you are pure of heart."  With this last phrase, Horgrim's decrepit face curled into the undead version of a smile.

    Alexander displayed the holy symbol that he carried as a devout worshipper of St. Cuthbert and said, "We are not here to fulfill your vile prophecy, Evil One.  We serve forces committed to *preventing* your Age of Worms."  The lich shrugged its shoulders and replied, "You are here to remove the Eye from its prison.  Doing so will set in motion the events that will finally lead to the creation of the Overgod - may his oppressive reign on Oerth be eternal.  Regardless of what you *claim* your purpose is, you are in truth merely pawns doing the Overgod's bidding." 

    Incredulous, Alexander asked, "And once we leave here with the Eye, what will you do?"  Horgrim replied, "I will finally have earned my rest and my place at the Overgod's side."  With a flash of righteous anger, Alexander said, "Then you won't mind if we hasten your end!"  With that he began casting a spell.  However, at the moment Alexander began casting, a coccoon of blue flame ignited all around Horgrim's body, protecting him.  As Alexander finished one spell and then cast another quickened spell, Horgrim impassively said, "If this is how it must be, then so be it."  Both of Alexander's powerful fireball blasts washed over the lich with no apparent effect.  Neither did they have any effect on his blue dragon minion.  The rest of the party charged forward to engage the enemies.  

    Tarric flew forward directly in front of the lich.  As his longsword sliced into the undead creature, wounding it, Horgrim betrayed a look of surprise.  However, when he noticed Tarric's sword, the look of surprise turned to one of recognition.  He stood up and said to Tarric, "I see you wield Branwhite.  I suppose there would be some justice if he were the one to slay me."  He then stood and cast a spell that caused a foul yellowish choking fog to appear throughout the room.  However, unbeknownst to the lich, none of the party members were affected by his spell because of the magical Heroes' Feast that Thorash had fed the party just before they had entered the temple. 

    Alexander continued to blast away at Horgrim and his minion with the same degree of ineffectiveness.  Jockeying for position around the enemies, Killick accidentally stepped up against the pedastal in the middle of the room, and a green bolt of energy shot out of the White Eye towards him.  Killick dove out of the way at the last second, avoiding the beam which was accompanied by a loud thunderclap.

[...to be continued...]


----------



## Menexenus

*Session 56:  Betrayal!*

_10th of Fireseek (continued):  _ The party had finally ascended the stairs to the top level of the pyramid.  This room was mostly bare.  Arcane writings were etched into the stone walls reaching all the way up to the apex of the ceiling.  On the far side of the room from the stairs was an undead humanoid seated on a throne, stroking a small blue-dragon-shaped construct.  Directly between the throne and the staircase was a pedastal on top of which rested the White Eye that they had been seeking for so long.  The undead creature, who introduced himself as Horgrim, had invited them to simply take the Eye and leave, since doing so would free him and set his god's plans in motion anyway.  However, Alexander had commenced an attack on the creature just on principle.  The melee fighters of the party moved forward to engage Horgrim and his clockwork pet.  As Killick jockeyed for position, he had inadvertently approached the pedastal containing the Eye.  And with the sound of a tremendous thunderclap, a sickly-green energy beam shot out of the Eye towards Killick.  Because of his excellent reflexes, Killick was able to dive to the floor just in time to avoid being struck.  He was prone but unharmed.

    Grimlock, Killick's trusty wardog, tried coming to his master's aid.  But he also found himself the target of a green beam from the Eye.  He, too, jumped aside at the last moment with a yelp and avoided contact with the beam.  Alexander and Thorash were both still caught in the choking yellow fog that Horgrim had cast at the start of the battle.  However, that fog seemed to be rolling down the stairway at a relatively quick pace.  Already, those near the lich were able to see farther than they could before.  The lich cast another spell that produced a blast of icy cold energy right at his feet.  Tarric braced himself to take damage, but surprised even himself when he was able to evade the blast's energy entirely.  The blue dragon construct attacked Killick on the ground and did additional damage to him.  At this point, after suffering damage from Alexander's fireballs, the lich's ice blast, and the construct's claws, Killick realized that he was seriously wounded and in need of medical attention.  He retreated into the yellow fog, searching for Thorash.  When the two located each other, Killick requested a high level healing spell, but he insisted that he didn't want Thorash to cast "Heal" on him.  Thorash obliged his comrade.

    Hearing the sounds of battle continue, Alexander strode forward out of the fog and cast 2 powerful Magic Missile spells at the lich in rapid succession.  Both spells were absorbed by the brooch that the lich wore on his cloak.  However, the brooch was glowing hot with the absorbed energy.  Alexander was sure that, given enough time, he could wear down the lich's protection.  Alees stepped forward and stabbed at the lich.  But rather than trying to do maximum damage, she struck him in a way that caused him to lose his balance.  This made it easier for Katawan and Tarric to strike him successfully.  Alees grinned.  She had finally found a way to help her comrades fight undead!

    However, her pleasure did not last long.  The lich stepped away from its throne and began invoking arcane energies.  As he cast the spell, he pushed his open palm in Alees's direction.  An image of his desiccated hand rushed towards Alees, and as it moved, it grew to enormous proportions.  The giant hand pushed her back toward the pedastal, which once again shot out its sickly-green beam.  This time the beam struck true.  Alees was gone, and there was nothing more than a pile of dust on the floor where she had once stood.  The lich's face contorted into a grotesque mockery of a smile.  Tarric stood in wide-eyed horror at what he had just witnessed, and threw himself at the lich in righteous fury.  However, Horgrim deftly redirected the giant hand to block Tarric's advance.  Killick, feeling refreshed, stepped back out of the fog and into the combat.  He surveyed the situation.  Tarric shouted to him that Alees was gone.  Killick decided to try to negate the threat posed by the Eye.  He cast a spell and called upon the rock of the floor beneath the pedastal to rise up and enclose the Eye.  But strangely, nothing happened.  Killick and Alexander shot each other puzzled glances.  In a state of confusion and disappointment, Killick muttered, "That should have worked..."  

    The blue dragon construct maneuvered to protect Horgrim's back.  So Katawan was forced to fight it instead of the lich.  Alexander cast two more enhanced Magic Missile spells in quickened succession.  This time the lich's brooch overloaded with energy, cracked, and fell useless to the ground.  The lich had seen an opportunity to press his attack.  Alees was gone.  Katawan was occupied by the construct.  Tarric was struggling unsuccessfully to get away from the enormous blocking hand.  However, because of Alexander's determined casting of magic missiles, Horgrim now had to waste an action casting Shield in order to protect himself from further magic missile attacks.  

    Suddenly, Killick realized why his spell had failed.  He shouted to the party, "The pedastal in the middle of the room is an illusion.  There's nothing there but an open pit."  And, as if to prove Killick's statement, Alees suddenly rose up out of the pedastal with her Lightning Sword pointed straight up.  Upon seeing Alees's return, the lich's expression noticeably changed from annoyance to disappointment.  Alees taunted Horgrim saying, "I guess you didn't realize I could fly, did ya?"  With Katawan and Tarric occupied, Killick was preparing to move up into melee with the lich.  However, Alexander held up a hand, instructing him to hold.  Alexander ran right up behind the lich and gave an ear-splitting shout directed at its fire-shrouded form.  The force of this magical noise blew what remained of the lich to pieces.  Its disconnected bones fell to the floor.  The party was shocked that the lich had been so close to death.  But the battle wasn't over.  The blue dragon construct fought on.  But without its master, it stood little chance against the combined might of the party.  The battle was quickly concluded, and the party could all see now that Killick had been right.  There was no pedastal in the middle of the room.  There was nothing but an open pit falling hundreds of feet straight down.

    The party was in a celebratory mood until two things dawned on them.  First, the lich would be back unless they were able to find and destroy its phylactery.  Second, they still didn't have the White Eye.  Alees informed the party that she had seen a passage way extending from the bottom of the pit that she had just fallen into.  She suggested that the Eye might be down there.  As the party prepared to descend into the pit, Thorash cast healing spells on those who needed it.  Reluctantly, Alexander asked for some healing as well.  As Thorash cast his spell, he noticed Alexander watching Thorash's motions carefully, making sure that he was indeed casting a healing spell on him.  When the spell was complete, Thorash remarked in an exasperated tone, "After all we've been through, after all the times I've healed the party and raised you from the dead, I still get no trust, no respect, no faith, no comradery.  Just because I used to experiment with the creation of undead, I will always be despised and distrusted.  Even though I have sworn off creating undead and sworn off using some of my most powerful abilities and spells.  Even though I have changed my entire moral outlook to better suit your prejudices, you're still not satisfied.  Even though you have returned me to life in the form of a weak and puny human, I still don't fit in among you.  For god's sake, what will it take to get you to bury the hatchet?"  Alexander was shocked by Thorash's sudden outburst.  In the past, Thorash had always responded to Alexander's snipes, jabs, and suspicions with stoic silence.  After a few moments passed without any response from Alexander, Thorash waved his hand in disgust, turned around, and walked away.

    As the party decided how best to descend to the bottom of the well, Thorash, who was still sulking, announced that he would remain up at the top of the well to ensure that nothing they might have missed would be able to attack the party from behind.  Besides, he was almost out of spells and would not be of much help if he were to join them.  The party consented to Thorash's plan, mostly to give him an opportunity to cool down a bit.  Soon afterwards, the party's flyers carried its non-flyers down to the bottom of the pit.  The rough-hewn passage at the bottom led in only one direction, and it wasn't long before the party's torchlight illuminated a 12-foot tall 6-armed statue.  All 3 of its left hands were missing, as was its left eye.  (The party recalled seeing a similarly shaped being emerge from the black pool at the bottom of Dourstone's mine.)  Before the party had a chance to look around the room, the statue animated and attacked.  

    Alees flew forward and tried to knock the statue off-balance, as she had done to Horgrim.  However, the stone creature was much more sturdy and her attempt failed.  Then the creature reached down with its 3 right hands and grabbed her.  It began squeezing her, causing her tremendous pain.  She begged her comrades to free her and to do it quickly.  Killick, standing on the ceiling, ordered Grimlock forward and began casting a spell.  Because the creature was occupied with Alees, Tarric was free to run forward and strike the creature.  Katawan did the same.  Alexander tried casting a Magic Missile at it from his wand, but quickly realized that the statue was completely immune to the harmful effects of magical spells.  He could do nothing but watch while it squeezed the life out of Alees.

    Killick finally completed his complicated spell, and a large creature made entirely of rock emerged from the wall of the cavern behind the statue and pounded on it with minimal effect.  Then Killick moved forward along the ceiling and reached down to touch Alees, casting a spell on her.  At first the spell seemed to have no effect, but then when the statue tried to squeeze the life out of her, she slipped right out of its arms and fell to the floor without suffering any further harm.  Alees knew she needed healing.  She tried to withdraw from the statue, but it pounded her with a fist as she tried to leave, knocking her unconscious.  Killick ordered Grimlock to pull Alees's body out of harm's way, and Alexander did what he could to tend to her wounds.  Meanwhile, Tarric, Katawan, and the earth elemental had been beating on the statue.  Although their attacks were not fully effective against its stoney form, they were knocking chunks off of it with almost each below.  Their combined assault seemed to be having an effect.  

    Now that Alees was out of its range, the statue turned its attentions to Tarric, Katawan, and the summoned earth elemental.  First, it pounded the earth elemental to dust, and then struck Katawan.  Killick ordered Grimlock back into the fight.  He chipped a tooth on the stone-hard statue, but was able to successfully knock it to the ground.  Killick walked down the wall, back onto the floor, and began beating the downed creature with his quarterstaff.  Tarric continued slashing at it with his longsword and Katawan continued bashing it with his bloodied fists.  Finally, the statue cracked into several pieces and was nothing more than inert stone once again.

    Killick cast a healing spell on Alees that brought her back to consciousness.  And the sight that she awakened to caused her to wonder temporarily if she had died and gone to heaven.  Now that the combat was over and she had an opportunity to look around, she saw that the back wall of the room was stacked almost to the ceiling with sacks and chests.  Alexander, who still had his eyes on the prize cast Detect Magic, looking for any sign of the White Eye.  At first he surveyed the statue, thinking that the Eye might be among its remains, but it was not.  All the magical power had left the statue.  But out of the corner of his eye, he noticed that two of the sacks were glowing with magical auras.  He pointed them out to the party and they quickly investigated.  One of the sacks was clearly a magical Bag of Holding, because it contained far more items and weapons that might ordinarily fit in a sack of the same size.  However, the second magical bag contained nothing but a round, featureless, oblong white stone small enough to fit in the palm of one's hand.  Alexander asked for it to be brought forward, and when he looked at it, he had to shield his eyes from it.  It's magical aura was nearly blinding.  Alexander was relieved because he was now sure that he had the White Eye in his possession - the key component of an artifact designed to break down the barriers that prevented Kyuss's return to Oerth.  

    The rest of the party began opening the remaining non-magical sacks and chests.  Each one was full of ancient gold pieces.  They grabbed as much of it as they could, stuffing the new bags of holding as well as the old handy haversacks full of the stuff.  Even when they had all that they could carry, they thought there was still about more than half of the original amount left behind.  The party flew back up to Horgrim's chamber at the apex of the pyramid and rejoined Thorash.  He was pleased to hear that the White Eye had been recovered and was curious to take a look at it.  However, Alexander insisted that they wait until it was safely in a vault in Tenser's castle before doing anything with it.  Thorash nodded and said nothing more.  Alexander drew a scroll of teleportation from its scroll tube.  The party joined hands in preparation for the casting of the spell.  Alexander intoned the words and... nothing happened.  The spell had fizzled for some reason.  They looked at each other for a moment in puzzlement.  But almost simultaneously, they all realized that teleportation in or out of the temple must be blocked, otherwise Horgrim would have left a long time ago.  The entire party, but Alexander in particular, felt foolish for wasting the emergency scroll of Teleport.

    So now the party had to decide what to do while Alexander rested.  They decided that they might as well wait until morning so that all the spell casters would have a full-complement of spells.  They decided to set up camp within the pyramid in a room on the first floor that had access to two exits.  Before they left, though, Alees took the opportunity to check Horgrim's room carefully for secret doors and compartments.  Her concentration paid off, as she discovered that one of the marble strips in the wall was hollow.  She showed the spot to Tarric who. borrowing Thorash's mace, smashed through the rock, revealing a man-sized chamber filled with a cloak, a brooch, and a ring that were all identical to the ones that Horgrim had worn.  In addition, there was a spell book and a small box attached to thin leather straps.  All of the items had magical auras when Alees cast Detect Magic.  Thorash told the party that the small box was most likely the lich's phylactery.  When Tarric saw the box, his longsword almost leapt from his hand in an effort to smash it.  However, Killick got their first with his quarterstaff.  The box smashed easily, spilling dust onto the floor.  Alees looked at the box again using her Detect Magic and saw that the magical aura around it was rapidly diminishing.  In seconds, it was gone entirely.  Tarric felt an emotional rush of satisfaction, contentment, and happiness course through his body.  It seemed to come from his longsword.  He looked at it, knowing for sure now that it could not be a regular longsword.

    As they were preparing the camp, Thorash sat down to identify a group of magic items that the party had selected as most interesting.  While some of these were disappointments, the party was pleased to discover the eldritch power of the lich's rings of protection.  Alexander was also happy to learn that the pile of magic items contained a Monk's Belt.  Thorash rememorized his spells at dusk, while the rest of the party was preparing to bed down for the night.  Having the White Eye in their possession and knowing that they had been scryed on before, most likely by the Rainbow Mage, made the party very paranoid.  Usually they were satisfied with a one-man watch, but tonight they decided to sleep in only 2 shifts, with half of the party awake at any one time.  Thorash volunteered to identify a new batch of items, remaining awake for another 8 hours while Alexander slept.  Alees used her lockpicks to re-lock one of the two exterior doors.  Killick placed shields on the ground behind both doors to help alert the party if intruders should open them.  A party-member was stationed at each door to guard it.

_11th of Fireseek._  Hours passed.  Suddenly, everyone heard a loud series of crashes along with Thorash's frightened voice yelling, "Oh no!  No!"  Suddenly the two rooms nearest to where Thorash had been sitting were filled to bursting with monsters - several orcs, bugbears, and kuo-toa, an otyugh, a griffon, a genie, a gorgon, and two trolls.  The room was packed - it would literally be impossible to swing one's arms without hitting a monster.  (It was almost impossible to swing one's arms at all!)  There was a single moment of quiet while all the disoriented beings took stock of their new situation.  Then, all at once, the combat began.  It was everyone against everyone.  The trolls attacked the gorgon.  The otyugh attacked a bugbear, grabbing it in a tentacle and squeezing.  Alees saw Thorash cast Invisibility on himself.  One orc attacked a nearby kuo-toa.  Another orc attacked a nearby bugbear.  Killick cast a Flame Strike into the room to a spot that was away from where his comrades had been sleeping.  Seeing this, a third orc charged out of the packed room at Killick who had been guarding the locked door.  Grimlock, who was standing next to his master Killick, attacked the orc, knocking it to the ground.  The genie turned itself into a whirlwind, picking up and battering another kuo-toa.  Katawan, who had been guarding the other door, just stared at the swirling melee in disbelief.  Alees stood up and tried to stay out of everyone's way.  Tarric stood up (in his chain shirt pajamas) and drew his bastard sword from its scabbard.  The gorgon snorted and exhaled a green vapor in the direction of the trolls.  One of them breathed it in and immediately turned to stone.  Unfortunately, so did Alexander, and he turned to stone as well.  Killick and Grimlock were able to hold their breath until the gas passed them by, but the orc lying on the ground in front of them did not - he became stone.  Seeing what the gorgon had done, the griffin attacked it fearfully, raking it with its claws.

    The melee was quickly resolving itself.  Tarric attacked the remaining troll, as did Alees its far side, using her shortsword with amazing efficiency, carving it into pieces.  The otyugh killed the bugbear.  The orc and the genie each killed their kuo-toa opponents.  The bugbear saw the exit that Katawan was guarding and charged Katawan.  The genie turned to the orc.  Killick and Grimlock attacked the gorgon.  It attacked them back, using its horns to attempt to gore them.  The griffin continued clawing at the gorgon in wild-eyed fear.  The genie in whirlwind form picked up the orc and started battering him against the walls.  The orc slashed its scimitar at the whirlwind in futility.  Katawan launched a blinding flurry of attacks against the bugbear, killing it.  The otyugh grabbed Alees in one of its tentacles and drew her towards its toothy maw.  The gorgon turned around and exhaled its magical green gas once again.  This time Grimlock and the Otyugh succumbed and became statues.  Now Alees was stuck in the grasp of a statue, but at least it couldn't continue squeezing her.  After finishing off the orc, the genie returned to physical form.  The griffin continued attacking the gorgon.  Tarric and Killick joined the griffin in focusing on the gorgon, and it dropped to the floor dead.  The genie began moving towards Katawan, but turned into mist before reaching him.  It tried to exit through the cracks in the door, but Katawan took several swipes at it as it flew past, damaging it but not killing it.  Now that the gorgon was gone the griffin started attacking Killick, but he recognized that it was merely afraid.  He yelled to Katawan and told him to open his door and stand aside.  When the griffin saw the open air, it crawled carefully but still fearfully towards freedom.  Once it was through the narrow hallway and outside, it stretched its wings and leapt into the air without looking back.

    With the confusing but brief melee over, Alees started calling out for Thorash, but he did not respond.  Tarric stepped over towards Alexander to see what had happened to him.  Just then, Alees and Tarric heard a sinister voice say, "Well, that didn't go quite as I expected."  Then they heard the crash of glass in the middle of the floor and suddenly a 9-headed hydra was standing in the room with them.  Tarric wheeled around to see the new threat.  From somewhere nearby he heard casting and felt a hand on his chest.  Suddenly Thorash was standing right in front of him with an evil smile on his face.  "Die!" he commanded.


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## Menexenus

*Session 56+:  Thorash's End*

_11th of Fireseek._  Thorash had just become visible after the party successfully dealt with a swirling melee against many monsters.  He had laid his hand on Tarric's chest and commanded him to die.  Tarric's eyes fluttered once again, as they had when they had fought the mummy.  He felt the life draining from his body again.  But this time, through sheer force of will, he prevented his soul from leaving his body.  He was wounded but alive.

    Katawan and Killick were stuck in the far room on the opposite side of the hydra.  They attacked it through the doorway and asked loudly what was going on in the room with Tarric and Alees.  In a quiet, confused voice, Tarric asked Thorash, "You're responsible for all this?"  But he did not wait for a response.  Tarric wheeled around with his sword in a display of martial beauty, bringing all of his skills to bear against his former party-mate.  His first strike chopped through the rings of Thorash's chain shirt, leaving a large gash in his side.  Tarric's second strike severed Thorash's right arm at the elbow.  With his third strike, he plunged his bastard sword into Thorash's heart.  Thorash looked at him briefly with a look of disbelief, but then the light went out of his eyes and his corpse slid off Tarric's blade.  Seeing that Thorash had been dealt with, Alees stepped forward towards the hydra, drawing her sword.  Some of the hydra's heads bit at Tarric, some at Alees, and some at Killick, but they did little damage.  Katawan flew across the room striking the hulking creature that blocked the doorway.  Killick stepped forward and delivered a full attack with his quarterstaff.  Tarric stepped forward swinging his bloody sword.  Alees did the same, disemboweling the creature.  It's heads slumped to the ground and then its lifeless body collapsed.

    For a short time, Katawan, Killick, Tarric, and Alees pondered Thorash's reasons for turning traitor.  But soon, more pressing matters intruded on their thoughts.  How would they get back to civilization without Thorash or Alexander?  If the bag of holding containing the White Eye had been turned to stone, would it still keep its contents?  It quickly became apparent that they had no way of answering the latter question, so they focused on the former.  Alees started picking up some of the magic items that Thorash had been identifying and tried to activate the Ebon Steed figurine in the hopes that it could help transport them.  Her attempt failed.  Tarric asked Killick if his contacts in the druid community might be able to help send them home.  Killick responded that he knew nothing about the local druidic community near Arn's Mountain nor did he know how to contact them.  For a few minutes, no solution was apparent and the level of panic began rising.  Finally, Katawan asked his party-mates if the couatl that they had encountered outside the temple might be able to help them.  It was quickly apparent that this was their only realistic hope of getting home quickly.  

    The four of them headed toward the cave where they had found the couatl before when they had needed to ask it some questions.  Killick addressed the couatl by name (Souref) and asked it to come out and talk to them.  It emerged and asked them gruffly what they wanted.  Killick explained the dire situation to the couatl, but before he could ask it for help, it interrupted him saying, "You are unclean.  You are defiled by the taint of evil.  I will speak to someone who is pure, or I will speak to no one at all."  The party looked at each other and decided that Tarric would be the best person to address it.  The other three walked away, out of sight, but still within earshot.  Tarric repeated what Killick had said and then asked the couatl if it could help transport them to Magepoint.

    It considered his request for a moment.  Then, in characteristically grumpy fashion, it said, "Name yourself."  Tarric replied, "I am Tarric of Diamond Lake."  The couatl addressed him.  "Tarric of Diamond Lake, I perceive that you are a man of pure intent.  However, you have allowed yourself to consort with riff-raff.  The one who spoke to me before is tainted by the influence of evil.  Another of your companions is primarily selfish and will do anything for money.  The third lacks moral direction, being driven only by loyalty to his friends, his training, and his sensei.  In the company of companions such as these, are you surprised that one of your former comrades turned on you?  I admonish you, Tarric of Diamond Lake, to consider the company that you keep so that their influence does not affect your judgment.  Do not allow yourself to be led by fools.  You must walk a narrower path if you wish to defeat the Ebon Triad and earn your eternal reward."

    Having said his peace, Souref paused.  Then he continued, "The answer to your question is, yes.  I can transport you to your destination.  But I will take only you, Tarric of Diamond Lake, as well as your friend who has been petrified - the one who bears the Eye.  The rest of your party must remain behind.  And I require you to give me your word that you will make it your priority to do whatever is necessary to secure the Eye before coming back to rescue your comrades."  Seeing no other alternative, Tarric agreed.  The couatl instructed him that they would leave when he had returned with Alexander's statue. Tarric rejoined his party mates.  They returned to the temple and carried Alexander's statue back to Souref's cave with great effort and exertion.  As Tarric prepared to leave, he told his partymates that he should return within 24 hours.  When the others were out of sight, Tarric called on Souref again.  He emerged from his cave and directed Tarric to lift the statue off the ground.  Tarric did so hesitantly, wrapping his arms around the statue's waist and using all of his strength to lift it a few inches off the ground.  Souref flew forward and touched Tarric with the feathers of his wing.  And with a flash of light they were gone.

    After a few minutes of silence, Killick, Katawan, and Alees moved forward to verify that Tarric and the couatl were indeed gone.  Then they returned to the temple to wait for his return.  Having nothing better to do, they began hauling the extra gold out of the treasure chamber and piling it up outside the temple next to Grimlock's statue.


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## Menexenus

*Session 57:  Tenser (at last)*

_12th of Fireseek_.  The afternoon was getting late; Katawan, Killick, and Alees were growing restless.  Tarric had promised that he and Alexander would return within 24 hours to recover them.  With nothing else to occupy their time, all they could do was wait and wonder if their comrades would return.  Because of the temple's protective properties, they were waiting just inside the temple where the statue of the otyugh, the statue of the troll, and the statue of the orc kept them silent company.

    ...

    Finally, they heard Tarric's voice outside the temple.  The three ran out of the temple to confirm that Alexander had indeed been returned to flesh.  Tarric dropped two empty bags of holding on the ground, and the party began the time-consuming process of filling them with gold pieces.  As they did so, Tarric recounted the events of the past 24 hours to his partymates with Alexander's occasional assistance.  

Souref, the couatl, had transported Tarric and Alexander's statue to some otherworldly place at the base of an impossibly tall mountain where the air was crisp, clean, and refreshing and the water tasted better than wine.  Radiant winged beings flew above him in the sky.  Some flew purposefully, as if on important errands, while others seemed to be flying just for fun.  Souref told Tarric that spending eternity in this place would be his reward if he fulfilled his destiny and stayed on the path of righteousness.  But before Tarric could take it all in, Souref asked him to repeat the name of the town that he wished to travel to as well as the name of the powerful patron who would safeguard the Eye.  After he reiterated the names "Magepoint" and "Tenser," Souref left him and told him to wait near the bank of a crystal clear lake.  

Tarric couldn't say how long Souref was gone.  The indescribable perfection of the smallest details of existence in that place had a strange ability to fascinate him.  His attention was so engrossed by these details that he couldn't reliably gauge the passing of time.  Eventually Souref returned and said that he was now ready to send Tarric and Alexander to Magepoint.  The couatl assured him that his allies would be waiting for them there.  The couatl instructed him to lift the statue once again, which seemed much easier than it had outside the temple.  As Souref touched him with his feathers once again, he said a few short words in a beautiful-sounding language that Tarric did not understand.

    And then, suddenly, he was in the main square of Magepoint, in front of the Inn of the All-Seeing Eye (which the party had frequented during their long stay at Tenser's castle before deciding to recover the White Eye).  Four people were standing around him.  One was Celeste, but the other three were unknown to him.  Celeste introduced an elven female as Cymria, the Head of the Town Council.  Standing beside Cymria was a beefy male human in platemail, most likely a bodyguard of some sort.  The fourth was introduced as Bourafane, one of the head clerics of the Temple of Boccob, direct subordinate of Patriarch Riggby.  After the hasty introductions were complete, Bourafane led the way to the Temple of Boccob which was only about a block away.  (The beefy bodyguard helped Tarric carry the statue which had returned to its original weight.)  The group hustled through the main hall of the temple - which was a cavernous library - through to a small audience chamber.  Breathlessly, Tarric carefully set the statue on the ground and thanked the bodyguard for his assistance.  

Moments later, an austere, elderly man appeared in the doorway, wearing ornate robes indicating devotion to Boccob.  Bourafane bowed to this man and introduced him to Tarric as Patriarch Riggby.  Riggby's face was an emotionless mask.  He walked by Tarric as if he weren't there and approached Alexander's statue.  He said some words and his hands glowed with divine energy.  Suddenly Alexander was lying on the floor in the flesh, disoriented.  Tarric did his best to reassure the suspicious Alexander that he was indeed safe and among friends.  Meanwhile, Riggby quickly exited the room.  Just before he closed the door behind him, he instructed Bourafane to collect the fee.  Bourafane handed Tarric a small sheet of paper which the latter quickly recognized as a bill for services rendered in the amount of 1000 gp.  Although Tarric was unaccustomed to such overt venality from men of the cloth, he did not object.  He reached into his bag of holding and created stacks of gold pieces on the table in the middle of the room until the price had been paid in full.  

    At that point, the group made their way back toward Tenser's castle.  Once they reached the causeway connecting the shore of the town to the small outcropping of rock upon which Tenser's tower was built, Bourafane, Cymria, and her bodyguard bade the others farewell.  Only Celeste, Tarric, and Alexander continued across the causeway to the tower.  As before, Celeste disarmed various traps along the way without revealing their secrets.  When they were safely inside the walls of Tenser's sanctum, Celeste revealed that Tenser had still not returned, but that he had sent word ahead informing her of Tarric's impending arrival.  She said that Tenser had instructed her to have clerics ready and to treat securing something in his possession with the highest priority.  She now asked what it was that she was supposed to secure.  Alexander replied the party had recovered the White Eye, the key piece of an artifact that was reputed to have the ability to break the barriers preventing Kyuss's return to Oerth.  Alexander admitted that it was due to his own folly that the other two pieces of the artifact were already in the enemy's hands, and he felt personally responsible to ensure that this last piece remained safe.  Celeste reassured him that there was no safer place on Oerth than in Tenser's vaults.  She said that she had the key to one such vault and would gladly secure it there for him until Tenser's return.  Alexander agreed.

    After watching Celeste place the Eye in a vault in one of the tower's basement levels, he retired to his bed chamber.  He was exhausted.  After he awoke late the next day, Tarric insisted that they return as soon as possible to recover their partymates.  Alexander memorized the necessary spells, and then they returned to recover their partymates.  It took multiple teleports for Alexander to get the entire party (as well as Grimlock's statue) back to Magepoint.  But they made it back successfully and again began waiting for Tenser's return.  

_13th - 26th of Fireseek_.  The party buys and sells some items and has other items commissioned by the remarkably adept mastercraftsmen in this unusual town.  Alexander used Tenser's laboratory to begin work upgrading his Headband of Intellect.  

_27th of Fireseek_.  Before Alexander was done crafting, Celeste excitedly informed the party that Tenser had finally returned and would see them in his office in two hours.  The party prepared for the long-awaited meeting.  At the appointed time, Celeste ushered them to a large room on one of the tower's upper levels.  The walls of the tall room were covered in paintings large and small.  At the far end of the room, in front of an ornate fireplace sat an enormous wooden desk piled high with papers and scrolls.  Near the desk was a dragonchess board with pieces arrayed in positions indicating an unfinished game.  Tenser stood up from behind the desk to greet them.  He was a thin, energetic man with short brown hair.  He wore a deep blue tunic made of some unrecognizable fabric and carried a golden goblet filled with wine.  The encroaching lines on his face and the gray at his temples were the only indications of his advancing age.  He welcomed the party, whose names he already knew.  He invited them to sit and made sure they were comfortable with drinks of their own before getting down to business.

    Tenser told the party that he had heard much about them from his agent, Eligos.  He asked about some of the details of the Worm's Rampage.  Then he thanked the party for its efforts and its sacrifices, which had certainly averted a much greater disaster.  He also inquired about the party's other run-ins with the minions of Kyuss.  The party mentioned the black dragon Ilthane that they had killed in Diamond Lake.  They mentioned that it had told them that its master was a dragon known as Dragotha.  Tenser seemed to recognize this name.  He informed them that Dragotha was an ancient dracolich - an undead dragon.  This information gave the party pause.  Tenser then asked the party about the difficulties they had encountered on the way to Magepoint.  The party described their discovery of a fragment of the Rod of Seven Parts as well as its loss during an ambush by fiends on the way to Magepoint.  Tenser informed them that the fiends had been servants of a powerful pit fiend named Visciannix.  Tenser estimated that Visciannix was now in possession of 4 fragments of the Rod.  Tenser would now have to devote a large amount of his time and energy to frustrating whatever plans Visciannix had for the Rod.  As a side note, he thanked the party for rescuing Allustan from the trap in Icosiol's Tomb.  He revealed that Allustan had once been an apprentice of Tenser's and indicated that they had not parted on the best of terms.  Nevertheless, he was relieved to learn that Allustan was well.

    Tenser returned to business and informed the party why he wanted their help.  He confided that he had been aware of the Age of Worms prophecy for some time but had never given it much credence.  He was even more dubious of the claims of the Ebon Triad cult.  However, his mentor Bucknard, one of the original members of the Citadel of Eight (precursor of the Circle of Eight) had felt differently.  Researching the Age of Worms had been a hobby of Bucknard's, bordering on obsession.  Bucknard had believed that Tenser was wrong not to take it seriously.  He had taken a trip to the ruins of an ancient city in the Amedio Jungle known as Kuluth-Mar, where Kyuss allegedly accomplished his ascension to godhood.  Unfortunately, Tenser had been busy on Circle business when Bucknard had returned.  Bucknard had left behind some scraps of paper briefly journaling his visit to Kuluth-Mar before leaving to investigate another lead.  Sadly, Tenser never saw him again.  Bucknard had disappeared without a trace approximately 20 years ago.  Tenser had confirmed via divinations that Bucknard had been killed on his final trip.  

Now that the Age of Worms prophecies seemed to be coming true and the Cult of Kyuss seemed to be growing in strength, Tenser expressed the hope that the party would be willing to retrace Bucknard's steps and try to recover whatever information Bucknard had found.  When the party seemed agreeable to this idea, Tenser suggested that they start by exploring Kuluth-Mar.  Maybe there was some key piece of information that had been left behind at the site of Kyuss's apotheosis that might help the forces of Good prevent the Age of Worms.  Alexander asked if they party could delay their departure for a few days so that he could finish upgrading his Headband.  Tenser agreed.  

    As the party was leaving, Tenser asked Alexander to remain for a moment.  Killick also hung back for a private word.  Killick informed Tenser that he had become a Wormhunter, following in the footsteps of druids of the Order of the Storm whose primary for centuries mission had been the defeat of Kyuss and the containment of his minions.  However, the key to becoming a Wormhunter was the consumption of a living Kyuss worm.  Killick explained that by doing so, he was able to use Kyuss's own energy to combat the Age of Worms.  He wanted to make sure that Tenser was aware that a living Kyuss worm resided in his head, but only for the purpose of helping him to hunt down and destroy the minions of Kyuss.  Although Tenser clearly found the transformation that Killick was undergoing distasteful, he thanked Killick for sharing the information and for risking his own well-being to become a more perfect weapon in the fight against the Age of Worms.  After Killick departed, Tenser led Alexander to one of the deepest sublevels of his tower.  There he welcomed Alexander him into the fold and inducted him as an agent in the clandestine network, sharing its secrets and capabilities with him.

_28th of Fireseek - 3rd of Readying_.  Alexander continues work on his Headband.

_4th of Readying_.  Alexander completed his Headband and announced that he planned to take a trip to Greyhawk to recruit a new cleric from the Church of St. Cuthbert there.  Alees asked for permission to tag along.  Alexander consented.  They returned later the same day with a cleric that Alexander introduced as Jamlammen, or 'Jam' for short.  Alexander informed the party that Jam had come highly recommended by Matriarch Eritai herself.  Without bragging, Jam admitted that he had seen a significant amount of action in the Vesve Forrest along the northern frontier of Furyondy, fighting alongside the people of Highfolk against incursions by Iuz's orcs.  He assured the party that he would serve them faithfully in their mission and could be relied upon to pull his own weight.  The party members welcomed him into their ranks but told him that they would hold him to his pledge.  They made sure he was aware that they were certain to face horrors the likes of which he had probably never seen.  He said that he understood the importance of his mission and was honored that the Matriarch had chosen him for it.  He would not let her, the church, or his god down.  And if the Matriarch had assigned him to this party, then ministering to the party's physical and spiritual needs was tantamount to serving his church, as far as he was concerned.  He could no more abandon them than he could abandon his own faith.  This satisfied the party members and they prepared to depart.

_5th of Readying_.  The party assembled in Tenser's office prior to departure.  Tenser pointed out a painting on the wall that supposedly represented Kuluth-Mar, but he informed Alexander that this town was almost 2000 miles away.  Alexander admitted that he could not teleport that far.  He would need to find a stopover point somewhere between Magepoint and their final destination.  Tenser suggested that they use a small town on the coast in the Kingdom of Keoland named Saltmarsh.  He reminisced that early in his adventuring career he had once uncovered a sinister secret there.  Once he became a powerful mage, he had commissioned a portrait of the town as it had existed then.  He pointed Alexander to one of the multitude of extraordinarily detailed and life-like paintings on his walls.  Alexander studied it in silence for a while.  Then he turned to the painting of Kuluth-Mar and did the same.  At long last, he said he thought he would be able to get the party there.  Tenser suggested an inn to stay at in Saltmarsh while they were there.  He couldn't be sure that it would still be there, but he was willing to bet that it was.  He asked the party to mention him to the proprietor and report on how he was doing.  They agreed.

    After Alexander cast his spell, the party appeared on the docks of a thriving fishing village which was much larger than the town that had been depicted in the painting.  They sought out the inn and it was indeed still there.  And when Tenser's name was mentioned to the proprietor, the party received nothing but the finest treatment for the remainder of their short overnight stay.


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## Menexenus

*Session 58:  Kuluth-Mar*

_6th of Readying_.  Alexander teleported the party once again to their final destination, Kuluth-Mar.  The party appeared on a hill in the middle of a steaming hot jungle.  The sounds of insects and birds were all around them.  In the distance, about two miles away, they could see the top of a ziggurat peaking out over the treetops.  And balanced precariously on top of the ziggurat was an impossibly tall stone spire that branched off in numerous places.  Killick suggested that he could turn into a bird and scout the ziggurat for the party.  They agreed.  After a few minutes of observation, Killick took the shape of a large predatory bird and flew off into the distance.  The party watched him as he flew in case he needed help.  As he approached the spire, they saw the Killick-bird momentarily in distress.  Then it continued on its path.  A second time, the bird's path seemed to waiver, but then it righted itself.  After making a number of circles, the bird returned.  Killick reformed into his human shape and turned away from the party in order to vomit.  He informed the party that most of the city had been completely overgrown by jungle except for the city center which was surrounded by a 30 foot tall obsidian wall with arcane writing on top.  The jungle had not encroached on the area within and around this wall.  When he had flown over this wall, he felt the Kyuss worm that lived inside him die.  (That was what he had vomited up upon his return to human form.)  He informed the group that he would be without some of his abilities until he could find another worm to replace it.  He reported that all of the the town's structures had crumbled down to the foundations except for the ziggurat which seemed to be untouched by the forces of time.  When he had approached the spire, he noticed that there was a spot at the top that seemed like it should hold something.  As he flew up to get a closer look he had experienced a vision.  He had seen a large black monolith that was slightly wider at the base and narrower at the top resting in that spot.  Then he had seen a large red claw grab it from its place of rest and carry it off into the distance.  He noticed that the dragon was of an advanced age, and he wondered if it could have been Dragotha while it was still living.

    The party asked if there had been any gate or opening in the obsidian wall.  Killick replied that there had not been.  So the party decided to fly over the wall and land on the ground near the ziggurat.  Killick grew wings out of his back and carried Grimlock.  Alees drew her Lightning Sword and used its flight abilities.  Katawan and Tarric used their winged boots.  Tarric carried Alexander while Katawan carried Jam.  After a short flight, the group landed at the base of the ziggurat.  Killick walked around the base of the ziggurat inspecting the ground.  He found multiple tracks of the same set of booted footprints walking in many directions.  He also noticed that the soil around the ziggurat was literally crawling with slow Kyuss worms.  He instructed the party not to lie down on the ground for more than a few seconds.  They took his advice to heart.  Finding nothing else to interest them, the party ascended the short stair case leading into the ziggurat.  

As they ascended, they all had a vision of Kuluth-Mar back in its heyday.  The ziggurat was surrounded by a throng of thousands who were looking up to the top.  At the top of the spire rested the black monolith that Killick had described seeing in his vision.  At the base of the spire - where the spire met the top level of the ziggurat - a tall, handsome, dark-haired man sat on a throne made of green stone.  On the man's dark gray robes was a skull and scythe motif reminiscent of the holy symbol of Nerull.  Beside the man, who had the copper colored skin of the Flan peoples who inhabited the Flanaess prior to the great migrations of Suel and Oeridians, rested an unusual polearm that seemed to combine the attributes of a morningstar, a glaive, and a pick.  As the party members listened, the chants of the throng became clearer and clearer - "Kyuss.  Kyuss.  Kyuss."  The rhythmic chanting increased in volume, threatening to shake the jungle apart.  Then the vision faded, replaced by the ruined city of today.  

The party continued up the stairs.  As they approached the entrance, an undead figure dressed in ancient platemail stepped out of the darkness.  Small green worms crawled over all of its exposed skin, and its eyes were replaced by the ravenous mouths of two bloated worms.  It drew its bastard sword and gave a horrendous shriek.   If any of its allies had joined it in undeath, they were certainly alerted to the party's presence.

    The undead knight seized the initiative and charged at Killick, who was in the lead.  It thrust its sword into his side, causing him grievous damage.  Katawan activated the Shield spell stored in his ring.  Tarric and Alees moved to flanking positions around it.  As Tarric's holy sword, bit into the undead knight's flesh, it looked at his weapon with violent anger.  In a language that no one in the group had ever heard before, the creature said that it would not allow Tarric to defile its temple with that execrable sword.  (Only Alees was able to understand the creature's speech because of a scroll of Comprehend Languages that she had read a few minutes earlier.)  Killick moved away from the undead knight to prevent any of its allies from entering through the double doors on the far side of the room.  Alexander and his faithful cleric companion, Jam, hung back and cast preparatory spells. 

    Because the two spellcasters remained outside the room on the stairs, they saw two enormous beetles burrow their way out of the worm-infested soil.  These bloated green beetles crawled toward the spellcasters and began emitting a maddening chitter from their mandibles.  This noise was so distracting that Tarric, Grimlock, and Jam found themselves momentarily unable to concentrate.  Rather than swinging its sword at Tarric while he was distracted, it targetted Tarric's sword instead.  And in one blow, it was able to sunder Tarric's newly enchanted blade, much to his consternation.  To draw its attention, Alees stabbed it with her undead bane dagger.  She succeeded in drawing its attention.  It said, "You will not bring that weapon into this unholy place!"  And with one more swing of its sword, Alees's dagger lay on the ground in pieces.

    Meanwhile, the two spellcasters had run into the room to avoid the terrible bite of the two beetles.  Killick had moved back across the room to block the stairs and protect the party's rear flank. At this point, with the two blades sundered, the combat became a bit more conventional.  The party tried to kill the undead and the undead tried to kill the party.  The party discovered that their enemies were capable of doing tremendous damage but, for some reason, their weapons did not seem nearly as effective against their enemies as they should have been.  One of Alexander's well-placed empowered fireballs did most of the work of frying the chittering beetles.  Then the knight was surrounded.  When it was severely damaged, it tried to make it back through the double doors at the back of the room.  Alees heard it tell Katawan get out of its way so that it could 'replenish' itself.  Although it did get to the doors, Katawan was able to destroy it before it could get through.

    Beyond the double doors was a cavernous chamber.  The characters' light sources only illuminated a narrow strip of the room lined with pillars.  And before the party members had time to let their guards down, they heard the sounded of mailed creatures moving through the dark in their direction.  From out of the dark, emerged two undead creatures covered from head to toe in heavy plate armor wielding greatswords.  They met the party members in the doorway, where they traded blows.  When the undead creatures struck the party members, they did tremendous damage with their swords.  

    The party concentrated its attacks on one of the two creatures.  After a few moments, it called back over its shoulder to one of its unseen comrades.  Alees understood what it said: "Brother, assist me.  Invoke the worm!"  From the darkness, a similar voice replied, "It is done."  Suddenly, a blast of black energy rose up out of the ground swirling around everyone in a 20 foot radius around the doorway.  The two undead creatures seemed to drink in the dark energy that rose around them, causing their wounds to close up, while the party members caught in the blast had to jump out of the way to avoid being damaged by it.  At about the same time, Tarric shook off the effects of a Hold Person spell, and a ribbon of black energy flew over the undead creatures' heads at party members in the rear.  There seemed to be unseen spell casters beyond the party's range of vision!  Moments later, a third armored undead warrior strode forward into the light, and the party saw it invoke the worm a second time.  They were surprised to find out that it was the armored creatures (and not a spellcaster) that invoked the worm, and apparently they could do it more than once a day.  Tarric dropped his shield and drew Branwhite (the living longsword) in his off hand, in order to take advantage of the sword's Evasion ability.  

    Again, from somewhere in the darkness two spells were cast.  Killick shook off the effects of another Hold Person spell, while in the rear of the party a Flame Strike went off.  Sadly, this column of unholy flame instantly killed and cremated Grimlock II, Killick's trusty wardog.  The dog had taken serious wounds from the beetles and had hung back around a corner at its master's instruction to avoid taking any unnecessary damage.  However, this column of flame had included the area behind a corner where the dog had been instructed to wait.  Perhaps it was fortunate that the dog never saw it coming...  This enraged Killick who activated Thorash's ring and turned himself into a lightning bolt in order to get past the undead into the room beyond.  He was determined to face the spellcaster(s) that had done this to his dog!  When he returned to flesh and blood, he saw only one skeletal spellcaster in platemail armor walking about 15 feet up in the air.  After studying the spellcaster briefly, Killick determined that it must have quickened spells, allowing it to cast more than one at once.

    However, despite Killick's sudden departure through the front lines, Alexander made an executive decision.  He recognized that many of the party members were severely wounded (including himself and Jam).  He saw that the undead seemed to be dealing more damage that they were taking.  In addition, they seemed to be able to heal themselves (while also damaging the party) at will.  Alexander decided that if the battle were to continue at its current pace, the party would lose.  So he loudly announced his intention to leave.  He then walked up to Jam and Alees, touched them both, intoned the arcane words, and the three of them were gone.  Katawan and Tarric stood staring at each other, suddenly alone.  Katawan used his monk ability to step sideways through the seams of space and time.  He emerged just outside the obsidian ring.  Tarric yelled out to Killick that the party was leaving, and he withdrew slowly, waiting to hear a response.  When he heard the whinny of an unseen steed from the darkness beyond the doorway, he finally activated his boots and flew away.  Once outside, he saw the shadowy image of Killick riding a black steed through the wall of the ziggurat.

    Hours later, the party gathered itself together at the overlook where they had initially arrived, about two miles outside the city.  Alees and Tarric were intent on getting their blades repaired.  Killick wanted to train a new wardog and find out why their weapons seemed only partially effective.  All of these tasks required a return to civilization, and Magepoint seemed the safest destination.  So the party rested until morning, waiting for Alexander to rememorize spells.

_7th of Readying - 17th of Readying_.  Alexander teleported the party back to Magepoint, via Saltmarsh.  Alexander paid the Temple of Boccob 100 gp to utilize their library for a week to research the minions of Kyuss.  At the end of the week, he discovered an ancient text written by a bard who had witnessed one of the decisive battles against the minions of Kyuss 1500 years earlier.  This ancient bard recorded that silver weapons seemed to have the greatest effect on the forces of Kyuss.  With this new information in hand, each of the party's melee fighters commissioned silver weapons from the local blacksmiths and metallurgists.  Tarric and Alees had their broken blades repaired, and Tarric paid to have Branwhite's magical powers enhanced to include undead bane.  Meanwhile, Killick purchased a new wardog from the halfling kennel master.  He named it Grimlock III, and man and beast formed a bond of respect and comradery almost immediately.  Killick taught his new wardog some rudimentary commands that would be crucial in combat situations.  Finally, the party was ready to return to Kuluth-Mar.


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## Menexenus

*Sessions 59-60:  Disaster!*

_18th of Readying_.  The party teleported to Saltmarsh and stayed at the same inn where they had overnighted on their previous visit.

_19th of Readying_.  The party teleported back to the overlook 2 miles away from the ziggurat at the center of the ruins of Kuluth-Mar.  Again, they flew themselves back to the ziggurat and climbed the short staircase leading to the western entrance.  This time they were not attacked.  They noticed that the double doors between the foyer and the larger worship chamber beyond had been closed.  Tarric opened the doors.  Nothing stood immediately behind them and all was quiet.  He began walking forward and quickly found himself face to face with another undead with worms for eyes, just like the one the party had dispatched before.  In an effort to prevent his sword from being sundered, he fought this undead with more evasive tactics.  Since this creature was the only visible enemy, it took quite a pounding from all of the party members (especially now that they all had silver weapons).  The undead knight called back over his shoulder for assistance and fell back into the larger worship area of the temple.  

    Jam cast Daylight on his armor, and then he and Alexander flew in to get a look at things.  They finally saw the entirety of the cavernous worship chamber.  At some point there had been a tremendous explosion in the middle of the room because there was a gaping hole in the floor about 50 feet across and all the nearby pillars had been blown outward.  Sickly green vapors rose slowly from the pit.  They saw the wounded knight retreating to the party's left towards a pair of double doors in the middle of the wall.  Approaching from the far side of the chamber was another undead knight.  On the right side of the room, just outside an open pair of double doors, were six undead creatures.  Three of the six were walking on the air about 15 feet up.  They were hunched over skeletal figures in full plate armor.  On the ground were three other figures in plate armor carrying greatswords.  Although he wanted to prevent the knight from reaching the "replenishment" that the other knight had spoken of before, Alexander fired a Maximized Fireball at the cluster of 6 undead nonetheless.  This caused significant damage to them, forcing two of the greatsword wielders to invoke the worm on themselves to repair the damage.  The third greatsword wielder invoked the worm on the wounded knight across the room, causing a number of its wounds to close.  Naturally, the cluster of 6 undead scattered to prevent taking similar damage again.

    The unwounded knight stepped forward to protect the retreating knight.  However, Katawan, Tarric, and Alees flew past the new knight to focus on the wounded one.  Killick, riding an enlarged Grimlock, moved up to face a greatsword wielder that was moving closer to Alexander and Jam.  Alexander produced another Maximized Fireball that wounded 3 of the original 6 on the right side of the room.  And again, the greatsword wielders invoked the worm twice, causing explosions of black energy which seemed to strengthen themselves and their nearby allies.  The one that had moved forward invoked the worm on Killick, Grimlock, Jam, and Alexander.  Killick and Grimlock were able to evade the blast of negative energy, while Jam and Alexander appeared to simply ignore the effects of the explosion of dark energy.  The greatsword wielder moved up to Grimlock, who promptly bit its leg and knocked it to the floor.  

    Meanwhile, the unwounded knight was incapacitating Tarric (who was flying in the air) with visions of the impending Age of Worms.  Katawan and Alees were focusing on the wounded knight but were not quite able to drop him.  Once the wounded knight reached the double doors on the left wall, it flung the doors open.  Inside, Alees saw a 10 foot tall being with beautiful golden hair, tanned skin, the wings of a bird, and arms that were flaming longswords.  She also noticed a green worm crawling out of its left ear.  It seemed to be holding back for some reason.  Realizing that this might be the last chance to put the wounded knight down, Alexander fired a scorching ray at it and empowered the spell with his rod as the rays left his fingers.  The rays shot into the creature's back and incinerated it from the inside out.  Its armor fell empty to the ground.  

    Then Alexander turned his attention back to the group of 6 undead on the right side of the room.  The nearest greatsword wielder had stood back up and had taken a big chunk out of Grimlock's hide, forcing the wardog into a slow retreat.  Meanwhile, the airwalkers had been tossing ribbons of black energy at the party while simultaneously ordering various party members to hold still.  However, these efforts at spellcasting were all in vain because, before the combat had started, virtually all the members of the party had been protected by Deathward spells.  These protective spells made the ribbons of black energy (as well as the invocations of the worm) useless against the party.  The attempts to hold the party were almost equally as futile.  Killick and Tarric wore Rings of Free Action, making them immune to the effects of Hold spells.  Only Jam was briefly affected by one of these spells, but he quickly snapped back out of it.

    Successive Flame Strikes from Jam and Killick put down two of the three airwalkers and seriously wounded two of the greatsword wielders.  At long last, the angelic-looking being on the left side of the battle emerged from its room, flew up and dove down at Tarric with both of its armblades extended.  It yelled out that the partymembers would pay for their intrusion on this temple that was so sacred to Lord Kyuss.  It seemed to be trying to fly right through Tarric, but it merely clipped him instead.  Tarric finally snapped out of his catatonia and announced to the party that something invisible had just emerged from the double doors on the left side of the room.  As if on cue, suddenly a pillar of fire erupted surrounding Alexander and Jam.  Jam had sustained some damage earlier in the battle from Flame Strikes fired by the airwalkers.  He had been able to persevere through those attacks, but this one caught him unawares.  He gave out a scream and collapsed to the floor dead.  Although Alexander wanted more than anything to avenge his young cohort's death, his monumental intelligence helped him to keep his wits about him and act rationally.  He announced a withdrawal.

    Hearing the call to retreat, all the party members flew back through the double doors that Tarric had opened to start the battle.  Unfortunately, this left Alees in an exposed position at the mouth of the corridor.  However, as an unintended consequence of Alees's danger, it caused all of the enemies to congregate together at the corridor's bottleneck.  Two of the severely wounded greatsword wielders were dispatched at this bottleneck, with magic missiles and spring attacks.  Alexander tried tossing a fireball at the end of the corridor to help take advantage of the bottleneck, but the fireball's effect was completely negated by some sort of magical protective sphere.  The undead creatures took turns targeting Alees, but her luck held true and she found a way to dodge all of the incoming attacks.  Finally, after taking their measure, she cast a spell creating an obscuring mist that allowed her to tumble away and join the rest of the party in relative safety.  (She had been very lucky to escape with her life as well as almost all of her weapons!)    Once Alees managed to evacuate, Alexander cast a spell erecting a wall of iron to prevent the remaining undead from following close on the party's heels.

    Although the intention had been to continue retreating, the party cast a number of healing spells and briefly discussed whether to stay and fight.  They were encouraged by the fact that they had been able to drop two of the greatsword wielders at the corridor's bottleneck just seconds earlier.  They also considered the fact that most of the enemies had used up their most potent attacks for the day and were probably just as wounded as the party was.  Tarric, who had stood in front of the wall of iron ready for the enemy to break through, pointed out to the group that they did not seem to be trying to do so.  There was no pounding coming from the far side.  This made the party nervous.  If the party was taking time to heal, what was the enemy doing?  Alees, who had run all the way out of the temple and had been called back, said she thought staying was a bad idea.  But if the party chose to do so, she would hold the healing wand and use it on anyone who needed it.  Katawan was also opposed to staying.  He complained of being severely wounded and said he would hang back to guard the exit and Alees.  This left only Alexander, Killick, and Tarric to fight the enemy.  Alexander said that he couldn't leave Jam's corpse behind to whatever fate the undead might have in store for it.  Tarric agreed.  Once he was healed up, Killick also voted to stay and fight.  After almost a minute of eerie silence from the behind the Wall of Iron - the only sound that had been heard the whole time was that of breaking glass - Killick extended his gauntleted hand and magically opened a 6-foot-wide hole in the wall of iron by causing it to rust at an accelerated rate.

    The angel had been left to keep watch at the end of the corridor.  It alerted its companions in the same unknown language, presumably that the party was returning.  Then it ducked back around the corner to the left.  Seeing that the way was momentarily clear, Alexander flew into the large worship chamber and took stock of the situation.  Since Jam's armor was still glowing as bright as day, he could see that the remaining undead - an airwalker, a greatsword wielder, a knight, and the angel - were all returning to the battle from the room on the left hand wall.  He also noticed that the greatsword wielder was now significantly larger than he had been before.  After having taken a quick look around, he flew to Jam's burnt body on the ground (which was thankfully still undefiled) and cast a spell that brought both of them back to the antechamber cotaining the rest of the party.  Alexander quickly communicated what he had seen.  The party saw the greatsword wielder move across their line of fire to a position around the corner on the right hand side.

    Killick rode forward on Grimlock III to occupy the end of the corridor for the party.  From around the corner, the enlarged greatsword wielder struck him twice, wounding him grievously.  Tarric moved forward to help out his comrade, but seeing Killick's terrible wounds and seeing the sundering knight with the visions of the Age of Worms moving quickly toward them, he became dispirited.  Tarric communicated his uncertainty to the rest of the party.  Sensing the gravity of his friend's doubt, Alexander announced yet another retreat.  He told everyone to gather around Jam's body.  Tarric looked at Killick.  They both knew that Alexander did not have the capacity to teleport all of them away.  Even though Killick was more wounded than Tarric, Killick volunteered to stay.  He ordered Tarric to fall back and leave with Alexander.  When Tarric resisted, Killick argued that he wouldn't leave Grimlock behind anyway, so Tarric might as well join Alexander's teleport.  Still Tarric hesitated.  Finally Killick argued that if Tarric stayed behind, he might get frozen by the knight's visions again, and if that happened he'd just be a liability.  Again, Killick ordered Tarric to withdraw.  He reassured Tarric that he and Grimlock would be able to make it over the wall together and that they would rejoin the party at the campsite in a matter of minutes.  Reluctantly, Tarric nodded and fell back to the circle that had formed around Jam and Alexander.  As soon as Tarric grabbed onto Alexander, the party (minus Killick and Grimlock) teleported out to the clearing 2 miles away from the ziggurat.

    As the teleported party members reoriented themselves to their new surroundings in the jungle, they turned to face the ziggurat and watch for Killick's escape.  Seconds passed and they saw nothing.  Then they heard a horrific howl of remorse coming from Grimlock.  Something had gone terribly wrong!  The party mobilized and began flying back to the ziggurat at top speed.  They arrived about 10 minutes later to find Killick and Grimlock's corpses lying on the ground about halfway between the ziggurat and the obsidian wall surrounding it.  Although Grimlock seemed untouched, Killick's body was nearly naked, having been stripped of almost all its valuables.  Already worms were crawling all over his body and were burrowing into his lifeless flesh.  The party hurriedly wiped the exposed worms off his body, picked him up, and flew away.  Tarric and Alexander stayed for a few extra seconds to liberate Grimlock's collar and barding.  Then they flew away as well, back to the campsite.

    The party had 2 corpses to keep them company as they waited nervously for dawn to arrive.  The survivors were almost as quiet as the corpses that night...

_20th of Readying_.  The party teleported through Saltmarsh back to Magepoint.  There they focused on scraping together enough cash to get their companions raised.  Once this was done, they asked Killick what had happened to him.  He explained that he took an unnecessary risk in an effort to magically cure the angel of its madness.  His effort was unsuccessful, and when he tried to withdraw, the knight landed a lucky blow that knocked him nearly senseless.  Grimlock did what he could to drag him away, but the invisible creature had come forward and cast a spell at him as he was retreating.  Although he had resisted the full effect of the spell (which would have destroyed him), the partial effect was enough to do him in.  When the party told him about Grimlock's howl of remorse, he said a quick prayer thanking the Shalm that he had not been alive to hear it or to witness his companion's slaughter at the hands of the minions of Kyuss.

    When Jam was returned to life, Alexander apologized for failing to protect him and dismissed him from the party's service.  Jam reluctantly departed Magepoint later that same day on a stagecoach headed for Greyhawk.

21st - 25th of Readying.  Alexander spent time in Tenser's workshop crafting an item.  During his off time, he recruited a new cohort at the local bar.  Meanwhile, the rest of the party made plans for another assault on the lost temple of Kyuss amidst the ruins of Kuluth-Mar.


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## Menexenus

*Sessions 61-62: Alexander's New Cohort Saves the Day*

_21st of Readying_.  When the party returned to Magepoint, they met with Celeste who told them that Tenser was not in residence.  The party told her the tale of their combat within the ziggurat.  Celeste seemed very intrigued by the description of the two angelic-seeming beings the party had fought.  Celeste informed the party that she had heard legends of a lost rogue angel named Kelvos who had supposedly led a small band of like-minded angelic warriors to destroy the growing evil of Kyuss while he was still a mortal.  Kelvos and his band had attacked Kyuss in contradiction to explicit orders given by his superiors, but he felt stopping Kyuss was important enough to disobey orders.  Sadly, Kelvos and his followers were never heard from again.  Celeste told the party that, from their descriptions, she believed that some of the beings the party had fought were remnants of that lost expedition.  The party asked her questions about Kelvos's abilities which she answered to the best of her knowledge.  The party asked if she would like to accompany them on their next assault of Kuluth-Mar.  At first she demurred.  She really shouldn't, she said.  But soon, she changed her mind and consented to accompany the party to help destroy the abominations that Kelvos and his follower had become.  However, she swore the party to secrecy regarding her participation.  The party agreed.


_26th of Readying_.  The party made sure to pick up Celeste before teleporting back to Kuluth-Mar.  After Alexander cast the spell, the party found itself at its campsite in a jungle clearing atop a hill overlooking the ruins of Kuluth-Mar.  They flew over the obsidian wall surrounding the strangely in-tact ziggurat in the center of the ruins.  Killick found a slow-moving Kyuss worm in the soil and devoured it to regain the abilities he lost every time he passed over the obsidian wall.  Meanwhile, the other party members cast preparatory spells.  Alees scouted ahead to get an idea of the position of the enemy forces.  She found that the double doors leading into the cavernous worship chamber were closed.  She listened at the door and heard hurried movement inside.  She came back out to her comrades and informed them that the enemy were aware of the party's presence and seemed to be preparing for battle, just as they were.  This caused them to hurry their preparations and attack as swiftly as possible.  The party opened the double doors and charged in.  They saw the same enemies that they had left behind before approaching them from the room on the left wall - the sundering swordsman, the winged angel with swords for arms, the airwalking skeleton in armor, and the enlarged undead fighter wielding a greatsword.  Tarric had activated Branwhite's ability to see invisible creatures, so he was also able to spot Kelvos from his position 10 feet in the air.  The enlarged greatsword-wielder charged forward at him and sliced a gaping wound in the Shield Knight's side.

    Finally seeing a target, Alexander poured all of his prodigious spell-power into destroying the enlarged creature that had harmed his friend Tarric.  He sent a volley of maximized, empowered scorching rays into the undead creature's hide.  This assault of arcane energy knocked it back on its heels, nearly destroying it.  It invoked the worm on itself moved back a bit and called out for assistance.  Either Kelvos had no help to give its ally or it chose to leave its companion to its fate.  The party heard an invisible figure command the large great-sword wielder to get out of the way.  Then, from a position hovering over the pit in the middle of the room, he shot a bolt of lightning toward the party members in the doorway.  After striking Alexander, the electricity jumped from one target to the next, harming Norvelle as well.  Then the airwalking skeleton called down a Flame Strike in the same location.  Despite his wounds, Alexander moved forward and continued focusing his most potent magic on the greatsword-wielder.  After another volley enhanced scorching rays, that enemy was destroyed.  The party had drawn first-blood in less than half a minute.  They were pleased; things were going well.  Annoyed at seeing its companion destroyed, invisible Kelvos flew forward and cast a spell causing multi-colored beams to strike the entire party (which was still mostly congregated near the doorway).  One of the beams struck Alexander and he was instantly turned to stone!  Meanwhile, the sundering knight of Kyuss was using some kind of mental power to show Tarric visions of the Age of Worms, rendering him immobile.  Suddenly, the party's two most potent combatants had been neutralized!  O, how the tides of war can turn!  The party's hopes for a quick victory were dashed.

   Since they couldn't see Kelvos and since the sundering knight was causing Tarric's catatonia, Alees and Katawan focused  their attacks on it.  Katawan assaulted the vile creature with silvered fists of fury while Alees tried to knock the creature off balance and moved around to provide Katawan with flanking attacks.  Meanwhile, Killick flew up to occupy the winged being and prevent it from diving at the party with impunity.  Lastly, Celeste, who had cast a spell to see invisible creatures, yelled out, "Kelvos, your twisted mockery of an existence ends here!  Your suffering ends now!"  With that, she flew up in the air toward the location from which the Prismatic Spray had appeared.  As she rushed forward, a shimmering greatsword appeared in her hands.  She then engaged in an aerial melee combat with an invisible opponent.  Alexander's new protege, Norvelle, was shaken at having seen his master turned to stone.  He did his best to provide himself and the party with healing when they needed it, but he also stayed out of direct combat.  

   For about a minute the combat swirled around in this fashion with neither side doing much damage to the other.  After having little luck with the winged being, Killick changed targets and attacked the airwalking spellcaster.  However, after that spellcaster had exhausted its few flamestrikes, it had nothing left with which to harm the party (all of whose members were warded against death and negative energy effects).  So it broke off and flew down into the pit.  Killick, sensing that his opponent was near death, followed it down into the pit until it landed in a tunnel and disappeared inside.  At this point, Killick thought better of following and flew back up toward the combat against the sundering knight.  When the sundering knight found itself unable to land a blow on Katawan, it tried to switch targets and attack Alees.  It had more luck with her, but she withdrew.  Killick and Katawan blocked it and kept it from pursuing her.  Killick struck it with his undead-bane quarterstaff.  This seemed to anger it.  Even though it was very damaged at this point, it took the time necessary to sunder the petrified wood quarterstaff that Killick had found on the party's first adventure in the Whispering Cairn.

    Out of other useful spells, Norvelle called on the power of St. Cuthbert and cast a spell making him larger and more powerful.  He then charged, heedless of his own safety, into combat, brandishing his mace against the large winged opponent.  They traded blows.  He even drew Kelvos's attention.  (Now that Kelvos was visible, it was apparent to the party members who looked that Celeste and Kelvos were dueling each other with the same kind of shimmering great sword.)  Kelvos broke away from Celeste and sliced her greatsword into Norvelle.  Norvelle had taken a great deal of damage, and his resolve was wavering.  Celeste sensed this.  She charged Kelvos and her greatsword sliced through him wounding him grievously, but he wasn't dead.  Celeste looked Novelle in the eye and insisted, "Finish him!"  Although what he wanted most was to withdraw and heal himself, he heeded Celeste's exhortation and swung his mace at Kelvos.  His swing connected, smashing Kelvos's skull.  He used the momentum of his swing to attack Kelvos's winged cohort, destroying it as well.

    Seeing that the momentum of the battle had swung decisively in their favor, Katawan unleashed a flurry of blows against the sundering knight.  Alees saw one of Katawan's silver fists punch all the way through the knight's armor, and then it collapsed around his arm onto the floor becoming a pile of writhing worms that decayed and liquefied in a matter of seconds.  Suddenly Alees's voice remarked from out of nowhere that, if she had known the party was going to defeat the enemy so quickly and decisively, she wouldn't have wasted her Dust of Disappearance.  Celeste congratulated the party on their hard-fought victory and reminded them ominously that she was never here.  Then, placing her index finger in front of her lips in a sign of secrecy, she teleported away.

    Although some in the party were tempted to follow the airwalking skeleton down into the pit, the rest of the party convinced them that it was time to retire.  Tarric flew Alexander's statue form back to the campsite while the rest of the party searched the two rooms.  Norvelle investigated the room on the right which was apparently a library of some kind.  As he looked around it, though, he found himself witnessing another vision of the past.  Suddenly the room was much cleaner and newer.  There was a man sitting at the desk.  The man seemed to be the human form of Kyuss that they had seen in a previous vision.  Standing behind him was a six armed undead thing with grey skin.  It pointed to something on the desk, a old and pitted bronze disk.  Suddenly a look of comprehension bloomed on the man's face... and the vision ended.  

    Inside the room were rows of dusty books.  There were also 12 jars resting on a shelf, each containing a writhing gray worm with arcane symbols written on it suspended in a cloudy liquid.  With a Detect Magic spell, the party determined that the only thing magical in the room were the worms in the jars.  Norvelle told the rest of the party about what he saw in his vision.  Being the party's expert on worms, Killick looked more closely at the worms in the jars.  He also found a book that was lying open on a small pedastal near the jars.  He investigates it closely as well.  

    In the mean time, Norvelle approached the other room across from the first one.  Apparently this room had been a torture chamber.  But before he could make out any details, Norvelle found himself witnessing another vision.  In this one, he saw the same man accompanied by the same 6-armed, gray-skinned creature.  The creature presents a jeweled golden box to the man.  He opens it, and with a pair of iron tongs, pulls out a writhing green worm.  The man's expression turns to one of exaltation as he examines the worm... and the vision fades.  The room's walls are covered with ancient instruments of torture, rusted iron hooks, knives, and other unrecognizable tools of vile intent.  One of the walls had apparently contained a pane of glass, as there was broken glass and green liquid on the floor.  Apparently, the glass had made up part of the far wall and the green liquid had been retained behind it.  Apparently the liquid had only been released days ago, as it was not yet completely dried.

    At this point, Alees suddenly appeared at the edge of the pit.  She informed the party that she had scouted out the tunnels below with the remainder of the invisibility effect.  After a few twists and turns she had come upon a wormlike creature with a horrific humanoid face.  Although it didn't see her, when she looked at its eyes, she felt strange as if she were being overcome by some sort of magical effect.  But she shook off its effects and flew back to report what she had found to the rest of the party.

    With this new knowlege of what enemies might be waiting below, the party instructed Norvelle to keep watch at the top of the pit while they looted the undead bodies for valuables.  Alees left the obvious stuff to her party mates while she looked around for secret doors and compartments.  After about 30 minutes, Norvelle called out that he had seen a face like the one Alees had described poking its head out of the top tunnel.  He had also felt that strange, disorienting magical effect that Alees had felt.  The party looked over the edge to see if it was still there, but it was gone.  The party continued looting and searching until their fly spells were about to wear off.  Then they grabbed what they could and returned to their campsite on the hill about two miles from the ziggurat.

_27th of Readying_.  Norvelle tried to cast Break Enchantment on Alexander's statue with no luck.  Killick learned that the worms in the jars would provide one with knowledge if one were to consume the worm (and survive).  Figuring that he had the best chance to survive, he took the rest of the party back to the library and consumed 10 of the worms one-by-one.  Each time, the process was disgusting to watch and visibly painful.  On two occasions, Killick screamed out as the worms made it to his brain.  But both times, he was able to bring himself under control.  After this ordeal, he seemed to lost some of his wits and had trouble expressing himself in clear sentences.  However, Norvelle cast a Restoration spell on him, and he was back to his old self.  In fact, he seemed noticeably improved - more knowledgeable about every subject.  Seeing the benefits that Killick had gained, Katawan risked swallowing the remaining 2 worms that Killick had said were repeats.  Katawan suffered no ill effects after swallowing the worms, and seemed to gain increased knowledge of religion and arcane spells.  After this the party retired to its campsite.

_28th of Readying_.  Norvelle successfully broke the enchantment on Alexander's statue, returning him to normal.  Alexander teleported the party back to Saltmarsh, where they stayed the night at the inn.

_1st of Coldeven_.  The party completed the second leg of the trip to Magepoint.  They sold the unclaimed magic items that the undead had been wearing, settled some debts, and purchased a few items.  Killick found someone skilled enough to repair his petrified wood quarterstaff inexpensively.  Killick purchased the components necessary to research a spell.

_2nd of Coldeven_.  The party returned to Kuluth-Mar by teleportation.  Killick noticed that something humanoid had investigated their campsite in the past couple days.  The party decided to abandon its hilltop campsite with a great overlook of the ruins in favor of a more nondescript campsite closer to the city.  Because they were concerned about security, the party left Tarric and Grimlock behind to guard the new campsite while the rest of the party flew back to the ziggurat to investigate the tunnels in the pit.  

    They all flew down into the pit and Alexander challenged whatever was within the tunnels to come out and face them.  Many members of the party heard slithering sounds coming from within the tunnels.  Alees, Alexander, and Norvelle all chose to fly back up to the top of the tunnel to stand on solid ground.  Only Killick and Katawan continued flying.  Soon thereafter, man-sized green worms with horrific humanoid faces emerged from the numerous tunnels carved into the sheer sides of the pit.  All who saw the eyes of these worm-creatures were forced to fight off some sort of magical effect.  As soon as the creatures emerged, the party let loose their prepared attacks.  Killick and Katawan both flew into the 4 foot tall tunnels to attack their targets in melee.  Meanwhile, Alees fired her crossbow at the third worm-creature while Alexander and Norvelle fired ranged spells at it.  The worm creature takes a surprisingly large amount of punishment before dying.  However, as soon as it died, another slithered forward to take its place.  

    The worm creatures seemed to prefer to attack by casting spells.  Killick noticed that his opponent cast Slay Living, Enervation, Ray of Exhaustion, and Blindness at him, all to no effect.  Each time, his opponent backed up to cast its spell and Killick was drawn farther and farther into the tunnel.  But he was clearly defeating his opponent, so he continued the pursuit nonetheless.  However, after about 30 seconds, he noticed a strange silence coming from his partymates outside the tunnel at the top of the pit.  Had something happened to them?  Killick dismissed this worry and continued attacking.

    Katawan finished off the worm creature in his tunnel only to see its place taken by another right after it fell.  With this brief lull in the action, Katawan also noticed the strange silence coming from outside his tunnel, so he flew back out to see what had happened.  He saw Alees, Norvelle, and Alexander just standing at the top of the pit.  They were still able to move, but they were doing nothing but looking at each other and at their own hands with confused looks on their faces.  Katawan yelled back to Killick that something was wrong.  Just then, one of the worm-creatures cast Dispel Magic on his Winged Boots.  Luckily, he was close enough to the wall so that he could use his Slow Fall ability.  He reached out and grabbed at a crevice along the side of the pit and held on, stopping his descent.  He yelled out to Killick that he was unable to fly and hanging from a ledge.

(to be continued)


----------



## Menexenus

*Interlude: Campsite Encounter*

_2nd of Coldeven_.  Tarric, in his full plate armor, was sweating profusely in the steamy jungle heat.  As he took yet another drink from his waterskin, he cursed his luck that he was the one who drew the short straw and had to stay behind to guard the campsite.  His only company for this duty was Grimlock IV, Killick's wardog (who, Tarric noticed, was equally uncomfortable wearing chainmail barding).  Grimlock lay down in the shade, panting heavily.

    Only a few minutes after the party left for the ziggurat, Grimlock suddenly stood up.  He sniffed the wind and started growling.  Seeing this, Tarric stood up as well, drawing his sword, and peering into the dense jungle looking for whatever was alarming Grimlock.  At first, Tarric saw nothing, but then, amazingly, an enormously fat 8 foot tall creature with leathery skin and large wings strode out of the jungle approaching the campsite with its hands up.  Tarric couldn't believe that such an enormous creature was able to get so close to the campsite so stealthily.

    In a deep, gravelly, but somehow friendly voice, the creature began to speak.  "No need for that sword.  I'm here to talk and hopefully to make a deal.  I'm not here to fight.  My name is Boshliwur, what's yours?"

    Tarric was put off-guard by the creature's amiable tone.  He almost found himself putting his sword down and greeting it in a similar fashion.  But that's when he caught a whiff of it - its stench was incredible!  Tarric struggled to keep his breakfast down.  He now saw that the creature's leathery skin was kept moist by a secretion with a slightly greenish hue.  No doubt it was this secretion that smelled so bad.  

Tarric had learned a great deal about demons during his training as a Knight of Holy Shielding, and this was no demon that he had ever heard of.  Still, it didn't take an expert to realize that this creature must be from some infernal region.  Tarric kept his sword raised and responded warily, "I don't make deals with the likes of you, fiend.  Go back where you came from and leave me and my companions alone.  Otherwise you will taste my steel."

    Boshliwur's enormous belly rose and fell with a loud sigh.  Then, as if to himself, he said, "Figures.  The one they choose to leave behind would have to be a narrow-minded paladin.  Oh well.  So much for talk." Then in a much louder voice, he ordered, "Seize him!"  

From out of the nearby underbrush charged 3 emaciated figures with long arms and a black, sticky tar-like substance coating their bodies.  They seemed to be vaguely of the same race as Boshliwur, but they were shorter (about Tarric's height) and lacked wings.  As they rushed at Tarric, they all tried to claw at him, but luckily they all missed, much
to Boshliwur's consternation.

    Tarric wanted very badly to destroy these fiendish abominations, but he knew that the tactical situation was not favorable to him.  They outnumbered him and they could probably guess his modes of attack, while he knew nothing whatsoever about theirs.  He made the decision to withdraw and live to fight another day, hopefully with the support of the rest of his party.  He picked up Grimlock IV, activated his winged boots, and flew as fast as he could in the direction of the ziggurat.  As he flew away, Tarric heard Boshliwur yelling, "You fools!  You let him get away!  We needed him!"  Tarric looked back to see Boshliwur flapping its wings just enough to lift its enormous bulk above the treetops, but it did not seem to be in pursuit.

    A few minutes later, Tarric landed on the ground just outside entrance to the ziggurat.  As he set Grimlock down on the ground, the dog bolted, running inside and barking.  Tarric guessed that there must be some action inside the temple, so he drew his sword again and ran up the short flight of steps leading into the ominous structure...


----------



## Menexenus

*Sessions 63 - 64: The Worm Nagas' Gaze*

_2nd of Coldeven_.  Although Killick heard Katawan's cries for help, he sensed that his opponent was near death.  And Killick the Wormhunter could not abide the thought of leaving one of Kyuss's minions alive unless absolutely necessary.  Soon thereafter, Killick's opponent fell as predicted, but he did not realize that there was another Worm Naga directly behind the one he had defeated, waiting to take its place.  At this point, he withdrew from the tunnel to find out what was going on.  As he emerged into the vertical shaft that led downward from the middle of the great worship chamber of Kyuss's ziggurat, he flapped his wings and took stock of the situation both above and below him.  Below he saw Katawan clinging to a rocky outcropping on the side of the shaft.  Katawan's magical Winged Boots had apparently been disabled.  Above he saw Alees, Alexander, and Norvell staring mutely and insensibly at the top of the shaft.  Of course, there were also Nagas pointing their heads out of two tunnels across from his, and he knew that a third naga was pursuing him and would soon emerge in the mouth of the tunnel from which he had just emerged.  He asked Katawan to report, but Katawan also seemed mute and insensible, just like the rest of his partymates.  For a moment, Killick was unsure which of his partymates to assist first.  But just then he heard Grimlock's bark from up above.  Then he heard Tarric calling out to Alexander, asking what was going on.  Killick yelled up to Tarric, telling him to lead Alees, Alexander, and Norvell away from the shaft and warned him not to look within it himself.  Then he commanded Grimlock to stay back.  Meanwhile, Killick dove down to retrieve Katawan.  Killick had to really exert himself to fly up to the top of the shaft carrying Katawan, all the while dodging spells cast by the nagas.  But he made it without incident, and the party congregated in the ziggurat's antechamber, out of sight of the shaft and its denizens.  They waited for a few minutes to see if the nagas would follow them, but they did not.

    When they were convinced it was safe, Tarric and Killick conferred with one another about how best to proceed.  Tarric informed Killick about a brief encounter he had just had at the party's campsite with a large winged fiend who seemed to want to make a deal with the party.  To bring Tarric up to speed, Killick surmised that the rest of their partymates had succumbed to some kind of magical gaze attack that he had felt coming from the nagas' eyes.  After consulting his knowledge of spells and spellcraft, he decided that the effects were similar to those of a powerful spell called Feeblemind.  If the effects were identical to the spell's effects, the party members' symptoms of idiocy would be permanent unless powerful curative magic were used to remove them.  Neither Tarric nor Killick were able to cast what was needed.  Somehow, they would have to return to civilization to bring back scrolls or spellcasters that could help.  For a while, they were stumped about how they might do this.  Eventually, though, Killick remembered his Ebon Steed.  It would allow him to teleport to a different plane, from which he could then teleport back to Magepoint.  He realized that there would be some error in the process - he wouldn't end up exactly in Magepoint, but he would be a lot closer than he was now!

    Now that they knew how they would get back, they started collecting things to sell in order to pay for the necessary scrolls.  (Since they had just recently been back to Magepoint, they had already sold all the enemy swag they had found in the previous combat.)  Luckily, they found that Alexander had a great deal of unspent gold in his Bag of Holding.  Next, they had to consider where the party would make camp now that their previous campsite had been discovered by the winged fiend that had confronted Tarric.  They decided to go a few miles south of the city and camp in some inhospitable swampy terrain until Killick returned.  After helping to set up this camp, Killick grabbed Alexander's Bag of Holding, mounted his Ebon Steed, and teleported away to the Astral Plane.  From there, he teleported back to Oerth with the intention of teleporting back to Magepoint.  However, when he returned, he found himself over a body of water with no land in sight in any direction.  Killick reasoned that this body of water must be the Nyr Dyv, and since Magepoint is on the south shore of that lake, Killick flew his steed south.  After hours of flight, he reached the coast, found a friendly local, got directions, and - many hours of riding later - finally made it to Magepoint very late at night.  He went to the temple of Boccob and asked for Bourafane, the cleric the party had dealt with before when the party needed to safegard the Pyramid of Tyranny (and get Alexander's statue turned back to flesh).  A few minutes later, a bleary eyed Bourafane greeted Killick and asked how he could be of service.  Killick explained the party's dire situation and said that he would like to confer with Celeste.  Bourafane said he could help.  He cast a spell, and after a few moments, he told Killick that she was on her way.  

    About 20 minutes later, Celeste arrived at the temple of Boccob.  Killick described the party's situation to her and described what kind of spells were needed in order to snap his partymates out of their stupor.  Celeste said that she could cast one of the necessary spells and volunteered to cast them in order to help the party.  Celeste had been there when Tenser had shown the party the picture of Kuluth Mar on the wall of his office, so she was confident she could teleport there, but she could only get herself there.  She could not include Killick in her spell.  Killick was not confident that he could get back to Kuluth Mar the way he had come.  He estimated (based on riding time) that the Ebon Steed had returned him to Oerth about 200 miles away from Magepoint.  He had been able to use his knowledge of the geography of the region as well as the information provided by helpful local residents to find his way.  He would not have those advantages if he suddenly found himself in the vast Amedio Jungle 200 miles away from his intended destination in a random direction; he would be hopelessly lost with very little chance of ever finding the ziggurat.  So, after some discussion, Killick decided to buy 2 scrolls of Heal and 1 scroll of Greater Teleport from the temple of Boccob (which Bourafane was happy to sell at standard market price).  Celeste would use the scroll of Greater Teleport to get them both there together, she would cast the necessary Heal spells on his partymates, and then the party would have 2 Heal scrolls as backups should the same thing happen to the party again.  But first, Celeste would have to rest and re-memorize spells.

_3rd of Coldeven_.  The next morning, after prayers and breakfast, Celeste and Killick gathered in Tenser's office.  She warned Killick that she was not as adept at arcane spells as she was with divine spells, so there was some risk of failure when she attempted to cast Greater Teleport from the scroll Killick had bought.  Killick reassured her that the party had the funds to purchase another one, if need be.  She unrolled the scroll parchment, concentrated on the picture of Kuluth Mar on the wall, and cast the spell.  Suddenly, the lifelike portrait dissolved and turned into the real scene.  Celeste's casting had been successful; they were at the scenic overlook that the party had used as their original campsite.  Killick sprouted wings and the two flew together toward the new campsite in the swamp.  There they found Tarric and Grimlock guarding their still senseless partymates.  One-by-one Celeste cast Heal on them, causing them to snap out of their stupor.  After she was done, she put her finger to her lips once again and said, "Remember: I was never here."  Then she teleported herself away.

    The party strategized about how best to proceed.  Alexander took his Bag of Holding back and gave Norvell the two Heal scrolls.  Alexander reasoned that his ability to teleport the party away from the jungle back to civilization was crucial.  Consequently, he gave his cohort strict instructions that the Heal scrolls were only to be used on him (Alexander) unless he specifically told Norvell otherwise.  Additionally, he instructed Norvell that only one of the two of them could be in combat at any one time.  With these safegards in place, the party returned to the ziggurat to eliminate the remaining Worm Nagas and discover who or what resided at the bottom of that long shaft.  Again, the entire party was magically warded from the effects of death magic, which shielded them from the nagas' most potent spells.  The party members also did whatever they could to shield themselves (to the extent possible) from the nagas' gaze attacks.  Using these tactics, the party was able to finish off the remaining four nagas in the tunnels near the top of the shaft without much difficulty.  This time only Killick succumbed to the nagas' gaze.  Although Alexander was tempted to leave Killick (at least temporarily) in the state of idiocy, once the battle was over, he relented and ordered Norvell to use one of the scrolls on him to restore his intellect.

    The bottom of the shaft was hard to see because of the greenish vapors rising from the bottom.  Norvell cast Daylight on Alexander and he descended slowly.  About 125 feet below the level of the top, Alexander spotted another series of naga tunnels.  Alexander let loose with his standard volley of Maximized Empowered Scorching Rays and Quickened Magic Missiles, and a second combat was under way.  Again the party members did what they could to shield their eyes from the nagas' gaze.  However, this time the party noticed that the nagas seemed to be better prepared than the original group had been.  Not only were some of them resistant to fire which the nagas above had not been, but they were now using Dispel Magic to try to eliminate the party's Deathwards so that they could bring their more deadly spells to bear on the party.  They were also using Bestow Curse and Ray of Exhaustion in tandem as a one-two punch that resulted in enormous losses of party members' physical Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution all at once.  Tarric's tactic was to enter one of the tunnels, cover his eyes, and use his Blindfighting abilities in close combat with the nagas.  Katawan's tactic was to pummel them with his fists of fury until a Dispel Magic spell knocked out his Winged Boots again, at which point he used his Slow Fall ability to descend to the bottom of the shaft.  Alees's tactic was to shoot at the nagas from range with the Rainbow Crossbow and occasionally close with one of them in order to feint it and do sneak attack damage.  After a short time, the party spotted the source of the nagas' better preparation and change in tactics; the Wormcaller that had fled the battle in the cathedral above was assisting the nagas in one of the tunnels.  This was of particular interest to Killick, because this particular Wormcaller still wore Killick's Gauntlet of Rust.  Killick used the power of the Ring of the Wind Dukes to transform himself into a bolt of lightning so that he could get past the naga blocking his way to the Wormcaller.  Then they exchanged a few Flamestrikes which did little damage to either of them.  Killick resorted to his Undead Bane quarterstaff which he found much more effective.  However, by mistake, he caught a glimpse of the Worm Naga's eyes and all reason left him (for the second time that day).  Now Killick swung his quarterstaff at the Wormcaller in an insensible panic, simply trying to escape.  Luckily, by this point in the battle, Killick was getting assistance from a number of his partymates fighting the naga on the other side.  It wasn't long before all the enemies were defeated and the party regrouped.  Unfortunately, by the end of the battle, Alees, Tarric, and Alexander had also been turned into idiots by the nagas' gaze, and Tarric had dropped his sword and shield to the bottom of the shaft.

    As instructed, Norvell used the last scroll on Alexander to return him to his senses.  Katawan described what he had seen in at the bottom of the shaft - swarms of writhing worms that seemed to know he was despite the Greater Invisibility spell that had been active on him at the time.  Since Alexander still had some Fireballs memorized that he hadn't used, he decided to fly down and launch Fireballs into the room at the bottom of the shaft in an effort to clear it of the worm infestation that Katawan had described.  After one Maximized fireball, Alexander saw a blackened layer of worms on top, but he saw that there was still writhing beneath.  He shot another normal Fireball in, and still he was not certain that the mass of worms in the room had been completely neutralized.  Katawan volunteered to help with his Necklace of Fireballs (his favorite magic item).  He tossed in the most powerful bead that he had remaining on the necklace, and finally the room was still.  Alexander and Katawan flew back to the rest of the party at the top of the shaft.  

    Killick, Tarric, and Alees were still Feebleminded and in need of Heal spells.  Alexander wanted to teleport back to Magepoint immediately.  Katawan asked to be allowed to spend some time to explore the naga tunnels looking for a lair or some treasure of some kind.  Alexander allowed him one hour.  When an hour was up, Katawan returned with the last Wormcaller's swag (including Killick's Gauntlet of Rust) as well as Tarric's intelligent longsword Branwhite and his magical shield.  (Miraculously, these had been shielded from the flames of the multiple fireballs by the mass of worms that had swarmed atop them.)  He reported that the naga tunnels were like a 3-dimensional maze.  He had not found a lair, but he was not confident that he had been through all the tunnels yet.  Alexander decided that the party could look for more swag later, preferably after the party was back up to full fighting strength.  The party teleported back to Magepoint.

    Once there, the party sought out Celeste, but she was unavailable.  She had apparently left town rather suddenly on a mission.  Consequently, Alexander paid to have clerics of the temple of Boccob cast Heal on the Feebleminded party members.  The party reimbursed him for these costs out of the proceeds of the sale of the Wormcaller's armor.

_4th of Coldeven_.  The party teleported back to Kuluth Mar - this time to a point inside the ziggurat directly above the shaft, rather than to some campsite outside the obsidian ring.  Although some wanted to search more for the naga's lair, the party decided to continue downward to explore the bottom level.  The party emerged from the bottom of the shaft into a room of worked stone.  The floor was covered with crispy worms.  Alees found the sight of all the burned worms on the floor repulsive and refused to step on them, hovering just above them.  She quickly checked the walls for secret doors, finding none.  The room had three exits: one open passageway leading into another room, one set of double doors, and another passage way leading into a large natural cavern.  The party chose to open the double doors first.  Alees certified that the doors were neither trapped nor locked.  However, she reported hearing running water on the far side.  She flew back and allowed Killick to step forward to open the doors.  They opened easily. 

    Inside, Killick saw a green fountain bubbling with liquid.  This fountain was flanked by three wormcallers who all beckoned at him to step forward.  In thickly accented Common (that had probably been learned phonetically), they croaked in unison, "Come. Drink."  Despite his hatred of all minions of Kyuss, Killick thought this sounded like an excellent idea!  (Now that he thought about it, he *did* feel a tad parched...)  Alees ran forward to attack the nearest foe, knicking it slightly with her sword.  All three of them turned on her in unison, launching ribbons of powerful black energy at her.  All three ribbons struck her, and she feel to the ground unconscious.  Katawan, Alexander, and Norvell repositioned and cast buff spells.  Tarric entered the room and attacked the nearest Wormcaller; Grimlock moved forward and did the same.  Despite Killick's thirst, he decided to move Alees back to the healer Norvell before taking a drink from the fountain.  He pulled Alees's pale and unconscious form back to Norvell.  As he released her next to the party's cleric, he said absent-mindedly, "Alees needs your help.  I need to go drink the water now."  Norvell looked at Killick strangely for a moment, but then Alexander gave him an order and he was unable to inquire further about Killick's strange behavior.  As the melee swirled around him, Killick moved past friends and enemies alike, walking towards the fountain in a strangely unguarded fashion, and then drank deeply of the water which came burbling up from the top.  Only after 3 full swallows did Killick realize that the water he was drinking was full of worms!  He could feel the worms eating away at his stomach!  He dropped to his knees and did his best to retch some of them out, but he could still feel most of them inside him, squirming and biting.  He had to get them out, but he also saw the Wormcallers shooting those ribbons of black energy at his wardog.  His duty to his animal companion came first.  He moved next to Grimlock and cast a spell that would protect them both from the black ribbons, whincing all the while from the stomach pain.  Then he cast Remove Disease on himself.  This killed the worms in his stomach, but it also killed the one that he carried around with him inside his head.  

    By this time, the battle was coming to an end; the party had easily gotten the upper hand against these three minions of Kyuss.  When it was finished, Killick asked the party to wait for him to go back up to the surface and find another worm that would be suitable for him to host, so that he could regain his Wormhunter powers.  They agreed to wait for him, but they told him to hurry - they didn't want their preparatory spells to run out.  He flew up as quickly as he could and returned about a minute and a half later.  Killick asked, "So, shall we check out the cavern next?"


----------



## Menexenus

*Sessions 65 & 66:  Ma'kar, The Harbinger of Worms*

_4th of Coldeven_.  The party moved to explore the large cavern near the bottom of the shaft.  The cavern was enormous - about 90 feet high, 70 feet long, and 120 feet wide.  The ceiling was covered with stalagmites and a number of large stalactites poked up out of the water.  Along the cavern walls were a few small disconnected landings of flat stone above the water line.  Across from the cavern's entrance was a short worked stone hallway leading to stone double doors.  There was also one worked stone passageway leading away on each side of the cavern.  As they approached the partially submerged cave, Killick noticed that the water in the room was filled with green worms, like the ones in the fountain.  

    While the rest of the party considered how best to proceed, Katawan flew out over the water, landed in the hallway on the far side, and approached the double doors.  Just then, two more undead clerics of Kyuss airwalked down from the ceiling, out from behind stalagmites, in Katawan's direction.  One of them cast a spell at Katawan while the other one lifted its arms and called out in a foreign language.  In response, an enormous green worm rose up from out of the wormy water.  It moved towards Katawan, blocking the passageway and his line of retreat.  However, Katawan was unphased.  He used his ability to slip through the cracks of time and space to transport himself directly back to the rest of the party on the far side of the cavern.

    Having a clear target, Alexander let loose with his artillery spells.  The Overworm absorbed the damage that Alexander dealt, approached the landing, and tried to knock Tarric into the water, just barely missing him.  Eventually the party withdrew out of reach of the giant worm.  Realizing that it could not get at the party, it submerged itself back under water.  The Wormcaller clerics continued attacking the party with ranged spells.  Dispel Magic seemed to be one of their favorites.  However, when the party concentrated their ranged attacks on just one of the Wormcallers, it was quickly destroyed.  The remaining Wormcaller decided to take a cue from the Overworm and withdraw behind a stalactite out of sight of the party.  With the party in hot pursuit using their flight powers, the Wormcaller once again summoned the Overworm to emerge from the sea of worms below.  It was clear that the Overworm had healed a portion of its damage for the brief time it had been submerged.  Again, it tried in vain to strike Tarric, missing him by the closest of margins.

    In a matter of seconds, the Overworm was destroyed without having ever successfully struck any of the party members.  The party breathed a sigh of relief, as some of them still had horrific memories of what it was like to die in the gullet of an enormous worm.  With the main threat neutralized, the party ganged up on the remaining Wormcaller and dispatched it quickly.  With the battle over, the party investigated one of the side passages and found a small suite connected to three small, spartan living quarters.  Alees did her best to find treasure or secret passages but came up empty.

    Next the party decided to check out the stone double doors that Katawan had originally intended to investigate.  Alexander and Norvell waited around the corner while Alees checked the doors for traps.  Finding none, the party opened the doors.  Inside the 20 by 20 foot room beyond was a six-armed undead spellcaster, the same one that the party members had seen in their visions aiding the mortal Kyuss.  Two of its hands were holding rods while the other 4 hands were free for spell-casting.  One of the rods began to glow as it shot a Cone of Cold at the party, but all of the party members standing in the hallway were highly Evasive.  At the same time, with another hand, it cast Magic Missiles at Tarric.  Katawan ran into the room, but as he did, a sword slashed down at him from the corner of the room.  There was another undead fighter in the room, like the one that the party had fought before in the temple up above.  Tarric came forward to give assistance and found himself face to face with the fighter, whose sundering abilities he feared so much.  He quickly withdrew, hoping to preserve his magical swords.  

    The opponents had clearly had time to cast many buff spells and the party members in the hallway were making little headway against them.  They called out for Alexander's help.  He cast Improved Invisibility on himself and reluctantly flew forward.  He noticed that the 6-armed spellcaster was able to see him.  It was clear that the combat was going poorly for the party: Grimlock IV was dead, Killick was unconscious and bleeding, Alees was held immobile by some magical effect, Katawan's actions had been slowed, and Tarric was avoiding the sundering fighter at all costs.  Alexander called for a retreat.  Tarric picked up Alees and flew her to the far side of the large cavern.  Katawan took great risk to pick up Killick's body and exit the room, facing many slashes of the fighter's sword in the process.  Once the party was out of the room, invisible flying Alexander created a Wall of Force across the passageway to separate the combatants.  The party began to exit at top speed.  However, when Alexander looked back over his shoulder, he saw that the spellcaster and the fighter had somehow escaped the Wall of Force.  The spellcaster continued to shoot ranged spells at the party as they exited, but once they were in the shaft rising towards the surface, there seemed to be no further pursuit.

    When the party was all together again, Alexander teleported them all to Saltmarsh hundreds of miles away, where they could lick their wounds, re-supply, and strategize.

_5th of Coldeven._  The party continues recuperation, casting all of Norvell's healing spells.

_6th of Coldeven_.  The party teleported directly to the fountain room in the basement level of the temple of Kyuss.  Katawan immediately went exploring some of the rooms that the party had missed the first time, finding large rooms containing stacked corpses.  In the first room, the corpses were undecomposed while in the second room the corpses had all rotted to skeletons.  But in both rooms the corpses were laid out in a very organized manner, as if stored for later use.  After running through these rooms, Katawan found himself at the side entrance to the large cavern.  Meanwhile, Killick and Alees flew to the stone double doors which were closed once more.  They listened at them and heard nothing.  Killick cast a spell that allowed him to reshape the doors.  He created a hole in the middle large enough for a man to walk through, but the room was empty.  Killick donned his Hand of Glory and attempted to see if the enemies were invisible, but he found nothing.  Killick communicated his findings to the rest of the party.  Tarric activated Branwhite's ability to see invisible creatures and searched for the enemies in the other rooms near the cavern entrance.  Having seen nothing invisible in the cavern, Killick listened carefully.  He thought he heard spellcasting coming from the suite of living quarters on the left-hand side of the cavern.  He moved up to the doorway, cast a preparatory spell that turned his skin to stone.  Then he stone shaped the door in the same way he had done the last one and stepped through.  Killick saw the six-armed spellcaster and the fighter was, but his Hand of Glory also allowed him to see an invisible worm naga.

    Killick yelled out to the party that he had found the enemies.  The spellcaster tried to hold him in place with powerful magic, but Killick's Ring of Free Action prevented the effect from taking hold.  The undead swordsman charged forward at Killick, missing him.  Katawan, Alees, and Alexander all tumbled into the room to support Killick while Norvell and Tarric waited in the hallway.  Appearing to receive a mental command from the six-armed creature who had no mouth, the sundering fighter withdrew to a corner of the room.  Then the spellcaster stepped forward and cast a Prismatic Spray.  Katawan and Alees were hit by the purple streams.  Katawan resisted the colorful stream's effect but Alees did not, and she suddenly disappeared.  Killick was hit by a green and a blue stream; he was immune to the first and resisted the second.  In order to allow Tarric to join the fight, Alexander fired his most potent spells at the undead fighter.  The first most potent spell expended the fighter's magical fire protection.  With all party members focused on the fighter and with its fire protection gone, it was quickly dispatched by Alexander's fiery barrage.  Seeing the damage that Alexander could do, the 6-armed creature cast a spell on Alexander that caused him to disappear from the battlefield as well.  A brief hush came over the party now that two of their number had disappeared under suspicious circumstances.  Where were they?  Would they be able to return?  

    With the sundering fighter gone, Tarric was able to commit more fully to the battle.  The 6-armed spellcaster and the still invisible worm naga were holed up in one of the small dormitory style rooms, and Tarric strode forward to block them from leaving.  The naga moved to the doorway and tried unsuccessfully to deliver a touch spell on Tarric.  This caused it to become visible again for all to see.  With his blindfighting abilities, Tarric was the best person to fight the naga because he could literally close his eyes and still have a good chance of hitting.  As he sliced into the naga with his blade, it recoiled back into the room, opening the way for other party members to enter.  The other party members averted their gazes from the naga completely and focused on the spellcaster, leaving the naga to Tarric.  Killick summoned small air elementals and instructed them to attack the spellcaster to help eliminate its mirror images.  Meanwhile, Killick himself flew into the room, attached himself to the ceiling using his Slippers of Spider Climb, and attacked the spellcaster from above.  The spellcaster was able to quickly eliminate the elementals, but this just allowed room for Katawan to move forward and begin pummeling it with his magically enhanced fists.  

    At this point, Alexander suddenly returned from wherever he had been.  This lifted the party's spirits and reinforced the feeling that the tide was turning in their favor.  The spellcaster's face betrayed a look indicating that it was annoyed with the naga.  It seemed to expect the naga to be doing something that it wasn't.  The spellcaster was clearly seriously wounded and began casting a spell.  Up above, Killick had been waiting and struck the lich just as it began to cast.  This caused it to lose the spell it was casting.  In addition, the force of Killick's blow was enough to cause it to crumple to the floor in a pile of dust.  Suddenly all the members of the party experienced a vision in which they saw many of the prophecies of the Age of Worms coming to pass in the last decade.  Only 2 more prophecies remained to be fulfilled - a tripartite spirit becoming one and a fighter of the pit gifting a city to the dead.  As the party's perception returned to the here and now, they heard a thunderous crack followed by an enormous crash that nearly knocked them all off their feet.

    Luckily, the remaining naga was no longer interested in fighting.  It quickly and nervously began begging for its life in Common (which none of the other worm nagas had ever spoken).  It assured the party that it had served the six-armed lich against its will and had, over the centuries, uncovered secrets that the party would surely want to know.  In return it asked to be left alive and granted its freedom.  Alexander agreed to these terms.  The first question Alexander asked was where they could find the lich's phylactery.  The naga explained that the lich's phylactery had been destroyed in the battle that had been fought centuries ago when the denizens of the temple had been trapped behind the obsidian wall.  Alexander didn't trust this answer at first, but when the naga insisted it was true, and when more details about the battle were supplied, his incredulousness abated.  Next the party asked the naga where Alees was.  The naga explained that the purple stream of the Prismatic Spray would have sent her to another plane.  The party asked the naga which one.  It said that it did not know for sure, but that it suspected the lich would send her to a plane whose environment was very inhospitable, like the negative energy plane or the elemental planes of fire or water.  The party guessed that she had been sent to the Elemental Plane of Fire.  They pooled their resources and discovered that only Killick had a means of getting there by using his Ebon Steed.  He activated the figurine, hopped on the steed, and disappeared.

    While the party waited hopefully for Killick to find Alees, they continued questioning their prisoner.  The naga explained that the six-armed spellcaster, whose name was Ma'kar, had tricked the mortal Kyuss at the behest of some elder god.  It had given Kyuss faulty instructions about how to ascend to godhood, so that when the process was finally utilized, Kyuss became trapped in the very stone monolith that had been used as a focus for the ritual.  The ritual had indeed transformed him into a god as promised, but it had also left him trapped and unable to work his will on Oerth.  In additoin, the Spire of Long Shadows which Kyuss had been led to believe was an important part of the ritual was in fact a conduit that helped to siphon off the devotional energy that would normally have gone to Kyuss, diverting it to this elder deity instead.  The naga said that he hoped that the loud crash that they had heard earlier was the spire collapsing of its own weight now that Ma'kar was no longer around to support it with his magic.  Alexander asked what would happen now that the spire was destroyed.  The naga responded that it believed that Kyuss's devotional energy would now flow to him unimpeded.  Alexander asked if this energy might help Kyuss escape imprisonment.  The naga thought so, but not on his own - Kyuss would still need assistance from his worshippers here on Oerth.  The naga added he couldn't be sure but he believed he knew the identity of the elder god whom Ma'kar had served - Tharizdun.

    The party asked the naga where they could find treasure in the temple.  The naga replied that it would be happy to show the party all the treasure in the temple in exchange for its freedom.  It showed the party the lich's treasure (mostly jewelry and artwork), his own treasure (mostly books including a Manual of Clear Thought and a Tome of Bodily Exercise), and the other nagas' treasure (mostly gold and magic items that required arms to function).  As the party moved around the complex, they observed that all the green worms in the cavern and in the fountain had disappeared.  At long last, the party emerged from the ziggurat and saw that indeed the spire had collapsed and crashed through the obsidian ring, opening a hole in it.  The naga cheered that it was finally free of this prison after all these centuries.  It thanked the party once again for liberating him and for keeping its word.  Then it airwalked away through the newly formed gap in the obsidian wall and disappeared into the jungle.  Katawan expressed reservations about letting the creature go, but Alexander reminded him of the promise they had made.  Katawan responded that it was only Alexander who had promised and griped sarcastically that he couldn't remember when the party had voted him party leader.  

    It was nearly dusk when Killick and the Ebon Steed flew back to the ziggurat bearing Alees's charred corpse.  He had been gone for nearly 12 hours.  He explained that he had had to summon many fire creatures on the plane of fire to help him locate Alees.  But apparently she had been unable to withstand the plane's intense heat for long.  The party was saddened by the news of Alees's death, but relieved that her body had been recovered so that she could be raised.  After resting a bit, Killick observed that the slow worms inhabiting the soil of Kuluth-Mar were now slowly leaving through the gap in the wall.  Alexander suggested fireballing them, but Killick restrained him saying that that would only kill the ones near the surface.  Most of the worms were deeper in the soil and would get through anyway.  However, Killick was determined to find a local druid population and warn them about the threat posed by the Spawn of Kyuss.

_7th of Coldeven_.  The party collected their belongings and their dead and teleported directly back to Magepoint with mixed feelings.  They had destroyed many minions of Kyuss, but they had also freed some.  They had learned a great deal about Kyuss's origins, but they had strengthened him by destroying the apparatus that prevented him from receiving the devotion of his worshippers.  They had all been touched by powerful divine energies that had bestowed upon them them limited control over their own fates, but the cost had been the grisly death of their friend Alees.  Truly, the victory was bittersweet.


----------



## Menexenus

*Session 66+: Trouble in Diamond Lake*

_7th of Coldeven_.  The party returned to Magepoint after defeating the denizens of Kuluth-Mar in the Amedio Jungle.  They spent the better part of a week enjoying some well-earned relaxation.

_12th of Coldeven_.  In the absence of any immediate threats or missions, Killick, Alees, and Katawan left Magepoint on personal business.  Killick informed the party that he would be returning to the Amedio Jungle to find and make contact with a local druidic community there in order to warn it of the danger posed by Kyuss worms that escaped from Kuluth-Mar.  Alees told the party that she would be returning to Greyhawk to engage in commercial activities that she was unable to profitably pursue in (much smaller) Magepoint.  Katawan said that he would be returning to Diamond Lake to check up on the old home town.  Alexander decided to remain in Magepoint and use Tenser's laboratory to begin crafting magic items.  Tarric also decided to remain in Magepoint to undergo additional instruction from the local legate of the Order of the Shield, an elderly vassal knight named Sir Abradius Stahzer.

_17th of Coldeven_.  Katawan arrived in Diamond Lake after a leisurely trip on foot along the road, south and then west.  Immediately upon arriving, he noticed that all was not well in town.  Very little construction had been completed since Ilthane wrecked the place in Harvester of the previous year.  For instance, the temple of St. Cuthbert on the main town square was still a deserted wreck, as was the Feral Dog tavern.  Among the noteworthy new buildings was a wooden palisade fort on the hill where the Greyhawk Militia garrison once stood and a new church of Wee Jas constructed on the outskirts of town near the cemetery.  Katawan also noticed that teams of four fully-equipped Militia soldiers were patrolling the streets.  Katawan remembered that, in the past, Militia members could only come into town when they were off-duty.  Katawan also noticed the unusually hostile reactions he got from the townsfolk, even some of the ones he recognized from his youth.  It was a given that the people of Diamond Lake didn't care much for the monks of the Twilight Monastery, but that old resentment did not seem to fully account for the level of hostility he was attracting as he walked down the city streets.  He decided to go visit Allustan to find out what was going on in town. 

    Allustan's house was one of the few that had been rebuilt.  He welcomed Katawan inside and informed him that things have not gone well for the people since the party left town for Magepoint.  In the chaos immediately after the dragon attack, all of the town's authority figures had either fled or been killed.  So the party had briefly "taken command" of the situation.  They had told the townspeople to pool their labor and keep at least one mine operating.  The townspeople took this advice perhaps a bit too literally.  After they had run a single mine on their own for a while without the supervision of mine managers, they took the position that the mine they had commandeered in the emergency - Dourstone's mine - was now theirs to run collectively.  And, naturally, they were reluctant to go back to work for the mine managers earning slave wages when they could work the collective mine and share in its profits.

    This political battle between the Collectivists and the mine managers became uglier and uglier.  The leaders of the Collectivists frequently bolstered the townspeople's courage to resist by referring to the implicit support they had received from the party.  Their leaders told the people that the mine managers wouldn't dare try to use force against them, because the local heroes - Tarric, Alexander, Killick, and Katawan - would surely mete out bloody vengeance if they did.  Eventually, the mine managers employed thugs to intimidate the Collectivists, but the townspeople stuck together and ran them off.  The people's spirits were high.  They would not listen to those (like Allustan) who told them that they had misunderstood the party's instructions, that Greyhawk would eventually be forced to respond to this challenge to the natural order in force, and that the party was unlikely to be able to help them when that happened.

    Just as Allustan predicted, eventually Greyhawk sent in the military to defend the rights of property holders (i.e. the mine managers) and to restore order.  After receiving reinforcements from Greyhawk, Governor-Mayor Lanod Neff (Allustan's brother) followed the orders that he had received from the Ruling Oligarchy and ordered the people to vacate Dourstone's mine and return to work by the beginning of the new year or else.  The townspeople resisted bravely.  Many of them still believed that the party would return in time to save them.  Others believed that the Militia would never turn their swords on fellow citizens.  The standoff continued until that fateful day, the first day of the new year, the 1st of Fireseek, arrived.  Neff declared martial law and ordered the Militia to clear out Dourstone's mine and force people back to their old jobs using whatever force was necessary.  Melinde, a paladin of Heironeous who was one of the few survivors from Ilthane's attack, pleaded with the Collectivists to submit to Neff's instructions.  They refused.  Neff instructed her to give the order to advance in force against the Collectivists' fortified defensive positions near the mine entrance.  Melinde refused.  She publicly offered her resignation from the Greyhawk Militia rather than raise arms against her own people.  Neff angrily accepted her resignation and summarily banished her from Diamond Lake.  Neff gave a battlefield promotion to Melinde's next-in-command and instructed him to carry out his order.  This newly-minted Captain Fetod was not from Diamond Lake and no allegiance to its townspeople.  He gave the order to attack.  In the ensuing melee, about a dozen townspeople were killed and and about the same number were seriously injured before the people surrendered.  The Militia suffered no losses.  All those living in town who had worked the mines before the dragon attack were escorted daily at swordpoint to their jobs.  For good measure, the Governor-Mayor ordered Dourstone's mine collapsed.  The spirit of the people was broken.

    It was in this atmosphere that the priests of Wee Jas had returned to town.  Katawan recalled that they had pulled up stakes after Father Jierian had started preaching against them.  They had left town in the middle of the night and left behind a sign in the cemetery warning of trouble to come now that Diamond Lake no longer enjoyed the protection of their Scarlet Mistress.  In this atmosphere of utter defeat and degradation, the clerics of Wee Jas returned and began preaching to the people that it was not too late to get back into the Scarlet Lady's good graces.  With the town's traditional church of St. Cuthbert destroyed and since the newly rebuilt chapel of Heironeous was associated with the hated Militia, the people had no where else to turn.  Consequently, Wee Jas quickly become the main religion in town.  Wee Jas is the goddess of death, and now that the people's spirits had been broken and their hope was gone, they had no trouble worshipping a death goddess.  Many townspeople believed that only death would bring sweet release from the injustices of this world.

    In any case, many of the townspeople harbored a great deal of resentment towards the party for not coming to their aid and defending them in their time of need.  Rightly or wrongly, the party was generally held responsible for the entire debacle.  Katawan thanked Allustan for the information and asked if he might stay at his house until attitudes were a bit calmer.  Allustan agreed.  Katawan spent that day meditating and considering how he should respond.

_18th - 23rd of Coldeven_.  Katawan realized that winning back the people's trust and admiration would be an uphill battle.  He decided to do what he could to help, despite the hostile stares and jeers that he got from many of the townspeople when he walked down the streets.  Whenever he encountered a group who clearly wanted to start trouble, he exercised great emotional control and turned the other cheek, accepting their abuse - both verbal and physical - without response.  He met quietly with the surviving leaders of the church of St. Cuthbert.  Since all of the priests and acolytes had been killed by Ilthane, only the lay-person leaders of the church remained.  They complained about the slow response to the tragedy from church elders in Greyhawk - it was as if the leaders had not received their requests for aid.  Katawan gave them 1000 gp to begin rebuilding the church.  Katawan assured them that once the church was rebuilt, it would not be so difficult to staff it with priests.  And once the church was re-opened, the people would return to their traditional faith.  The deacons expressed deep gratitude to Katawan for his generosity and his wisdom.  They promised to begin hiring contractors as soon as possible.

    Katawan then met quietly with each of the families that had suffered deaths or maimings during the Militia's assault.  He offered them financial assistance for the loss of earning power that their families had sustained.  This cost him another 1000 gp.  During the course of these visits, Katawan encountered a powerful cleric of Fharlangn named Talon who was also going around to families and offering healing assistance to the wounded.  Talon had grown up in Diamond Lake as well.  She had returned quickly when she learned of the conflict and had stayed to help the wounded.  Katawan and Talon struck up a fast friendship.  After Talon and Katawan had earned each other's trust, Katawan related to Talon that the party had not been available to help the townspeople because of their fight against the forces of Kyuss.  Talon was impressed by the importance of this mission and asked to join Katawan in this fight.  Katawan agreed to introduce her to the rest of the party and ask that she be admitted.

    After about a week of working behind the scenes to help alleviate suffering, he decided that there was only so much he could accomplish on his own.  Lifting the martial law and returning the town to some semblance of normalcy would require the presence of the rest of the party.  He asked Allustan to dispatch one of his apprentices to Magepoint to deliver a message informing the rest of the party of the situation in Diamond Lake.  He agreed.  In the meantime, Katawan - having done all he could do in town - returned to his monastery to meditate in solitude about how to proceed in town.  (He was conflicted about how much he should get involved in Diamond Lake and wished to achieve greater clarity.)  Talon would keep an eye on things in his absence.

_28th of Coldeven_.  Allustan's apprentice arrived in Magepoint and delivered Katawan's letter to Alexander (who recognized him).  Alexander shared the contents of the letter with Tarric.  Alexander explained that his magical research was at a delicate stage and he could not afford to leave it just then.  In addition, he was skeptical of the party's ability to affect real change in Diamond Lake - a place that he had no love for and to which he was not eager to return.  Tarric considered it his duty to return and do whatever he could.  He summoned his bonded mount and made haste for his old home town (along with Allustan's apprentice).

_2nd of Growfest_.  Katawan returned to Diamond Lake from his sabatical with a new sense of commitment and purpose.  He had decided that he must do whatever was necessary to assist the people of Diamond Lake in their plight.

_4th of Growfest_.  Tarric arrived in Diamond Lake and was brought up to speed on events.  Generally, Katawan found that Tarric was more committed to upholding law and order than he was to relieving the suffering of the people.  However, both he and Tarric agreed in their commitment to work toward an amicable solution between the mine managers and townspeople so that martial law will no longer be necessary.  They both used their influence to arrange a public meeting between the mine managers and collectivist leaders.  The Governor-Mayor and Militia soldiers are asked not to attend.  The mine managers were reluctant to attend such a meeting until they were given promises of protection and safe passage by the party members.  The meeting was to take place at the new Wee Jas church (the only building left in town large enough to accommodate a large crowd) in 3 days - the last day of Growfest.

_5th of Growfest_.  Killick suddenly returned to town on his Ebon Steed and was brought up to speed on events.  He related some of what he had learned in the Amedio Jungle.  First, he had contacted Boshliwur by spell and learned that he had wanted the party's help in overthrowing a local tyrant in exchange for some minor magical help.  In his travels Killick had visited two cities in the Amedio region - Sasserine on the coast and Cauldron in the crater of an allegedly extinct volcano.  He had learned that about 2 years ago, the long-dormant volcano under Cauldron had begun rumbling ominously.  There had been an incredible panic as people fled the city en masse.  During the evacuation, people had noticed spiraling red clouds hovering above the city which seemed to get noticeably wider over time.  Some people recalled seeing creatures falling from the skies (out of the red clouds).  Most of these humanoid-looking things had been thin, but some had been enormously fat.  They were all covered in gooey slime and they all had strange bat-wings that seemed a bit too small to actually carry their weight.  Tarric interjected that these creatures sounded exactly like the type that had attacked him at the party's campsite in the jungle near Kuluth-Mar.

    Killick continued recounting what he had learned.  As people had fled the city with all the possessions they could carry, a red dragon named Hookface had attacked.  Most people in town had thought the dragon was only a legend, but apparently the tremors preceding the eruption had awakened him and all the treasure that people were carrying out of the city had aroused his interest.  A valiant group of powerful heroes had remained behind to fight the dragon and try to stop whatever was causing the strange clouds and the eruption.  In the end, these heroes had been successful: Hookface was killed, the swirling red clouds disappeared, and the eruption was relatively minor, destroying only a small section of the city.  (Killick had been unable to learn much about the heroes themselves.  Apparently, they had moved on to greener pastures.)  Cauldron had experienced no further seismic activity since then.  So most of those who had fled the town eventually came back.

    Killick also related that he had been successful in contacting druidic communities in the Amedio, giving them as much information as he could about the threat posed by the Kyuss worms and how best to defeat the spawn that they might create.

_7th of Growfest_.  Katawan, Tarric, and Killick attended the summit meeting between mine managers and townspeople.  The mine managers laid out their position that they were paying the workers a fair wage, 1 sp per day - the same wages they had earned before Ilthane's attack.  They added that this payment was extremely fair considering the reduced level of productivity that the workers were currently providing.  After this, they were mostly silent as the workers complained that payment was irrelevant while they were being compelled to work at swordpoint.  They might as well be slaves!  They also brought up lots of old resentments going back to when they controlled Dourstone's mine.  The meeting was clearly turning into an opportunity to express anger rather than an opportunity to achieve consensus and move forward.

    Tarric quieted the crowd and addressed them.  He explained that laws exist to protect and benefit all people, not just those of wealth.  The wealthy may have more privileges, but nobody is above the  law.  He reminded them of what life was like when the city was ruled by Smenk and others like him who ignored the laws and ruled through threats, force, bribery and blackmail.  Tarric told his personal story again, of how he was fired from the best job he ever had (as a member of the Greyhawk Militia) because he dared to stand up for the law and protect a citizen of Diamond Lake from Smenk's evil intent.  Smenk got away with his deeds for far too long, but the law eventually caught up to him, as it does for all agents of chaos and evil.  <The townsfolk cheered.>

    Tarric explained that regardless of what certain people may think of the mine managers, their property rights must be upheld.  Their property cannot be seized without due process, so what the collective did surely was not acceptable.  This city had just suffered a major catastrophe, and we made some suggestions in the hopes that the people of Diamond Lake would come together as one to work through these new struggles.  Instead, they gave into their fears and became little more than a mob, shamefully squandering an opportunity for the town to gain some unity. <The townsfolk turned on Tarric and booed him vehemently.>

    Tarric continued lecturing the crowd asking, "Once things devolved into lawlessness and they seized the mine, what did you think was going to happen?  You fiercely protected what you perceived as 'your' mine; did you expect the lawful owners to do otherwise?"  <More raucous booing.  Hecklers told Tarric to sit down and shut up.  Some of the leaders quiet the crowd and explain to Tarric that they offered to pool their resources and purchase the lease to Dourstone's mine from Gelch Tilgast, the mine's "lawful" owner, but he refused.  Tilgast shrugged and said that it wasn't in his interest to allow the town to continue working one mine collectively while the other mines languished without workers.  He looked around him at the other mine managers - Moonmeadow, Parrin, and Gansworth - and said any of them would have refused the Collectivists' offer at virtually any price.>

    Tarric continued, defending the Greyhawk militia as good men and women who were just trying to uphold the law.  Everyone should be happy that they're not the monsters some of the townsfolk are making them out to be, or there would have been much heavier casualties.  <The crowd boos and hisses vehemently.  They had heard enough from Tarric.  One heckler asked sarcastically, "We should thank them for only killing 12 of us?  Are you serious?">

    At this point, Tarric turned his attention to the mine managers, asking them how they think they are any better than their predecessors in the way they are running things now.  He asserted that the mine managers had duties to treat their employees as people, not as slaves.  <This comment received muted cheers from the crowd.  Although they agreed with this one statement, they were clearly not behind him.>

    Tarric then turned back to the crowd explaining that when he started his adventuring career, he was penniless and no better off than any man in town.  Instead of wallowing in self-pity, he seized the opportunity of my and struck out with his friends to seek their destinies.  He suggested that if life is so bad in Diamond Lake, they should leave.  He said, "It's a big world of opportunity out there - trust us, we've seen it!  It's much more productive to seek solutions to problems instead of complaining about them, or even worse, taking the law into your own hands and engaging in lawless, evil behavior."  <The crowd was clearly tired of being lectured by Tarric.  One of the leaders responded, "Congratulations on your good fortune, but not everyone is so lucky.  Some people have families and mouths to feed.  They can't go off risking their necks in the hopes of finding some shiny trinkets in dark dungeons!  What if we get killed?  Who will feed, clothe, and shelter our kids?  Some people have obligations and can't go galivanting across the Flanaess looking for thrills!"  The mood of the crowd was clearly getting ugly.>

    Killick stood up to address the crowd and Tarric sat down shaking his head.  Killick was never much of a diplomat, and he was even less of one after the dark things he has seen, experienced, and sacrificed.  Killick spent his childhood looking for ways to avoid going to the mines for a living, hating the town.  Killick was upset that the townsfolk seem to be mad at the party.  He leveled a finger at the crowd, saying, "We never promised you a brand new life after the dragon destroyed half the town.  You seemed to want get back to the way things were, so we gave you advice to help you do that.  It seems to me that things are not so far from normal around here, as dreary as that may be.  Most of the mines are open, the connections with Greyhawk are reestablished, and people are working for about the same wages as before.  The chaos and deaths that took place after we left were a terrible thing, but they weren't our idea.  What I don't understand is why more people didn't leave town when they had the chance.  Everyone received a mystery gift of gold after the dragon was killed, didn't they?  If I had been in your shoes, I would taken the money and run for greener pastures.  But again, most folk seemed to want to keep the town going, so we gave you advice to help you do that."  <The crowd was unreceptive to Killick's defense of the party, eliciting more boos.>

    "I agree that the martial law and the fact that you all are forced to go to work is a bad situation.  I don't want to speak to my friends, but for whatever it's worth, I'll do my best to talk to the mine owners and the garrison to try to improve things around here.  But breaking the law will make things worse, not better."  Killick turned to the mine managers and suggested that they make some sort of gesture of goodwill to the town, like sponsoring a townwide feast/service in rememberance for those killed both in the riot and by the dragon.  Killick reminded the mine managers that forcing people to work at the point of a sword is only going to brew up more trouble, and won't work forever.  <The mine managers looked at each other, confering in private.  Their spokesman Tilgast said they were willing to host a feast of remembrance if it would get people back to work.  However, the townspeople did not like the idea of the mine managers "buying off" their grievances with a little food and drink.>

    Killicks suggestions seemed to be making some progress, but the two sides were clearly still far from agreement.  Katawan stood up to address the crowd, and Killick sat down.  Katawan briefly but assertively made the following points as if he had been giving them great thought and had rehearsed them beforehand.

1) He does not believe in forced labor and if a person does not wish to work 
for whatever reason that is his or her right.  <The crowd cheered.>

2) Any person or entity doing so is guilty of a crime against 
humanity...slavery.  <The crowd cheered even more.  They were quickly warming to Katawan, seeing him as perhaps their best friend among the party members.>

3) This person or entity must be stopped, preferably by nonviolent passive 
resistance.  <Confused cheers greeted this statement, since the crowd believed that it had already tried nonviolent resistance with their occupation of Dourstone's mine.>

4) Wages and working conditions should be established by mutual agreement.  <The crowd went wild for this comment.  Since there were fewer miners left in town since the dragon attack, they realized that they would be able to negotiate much more favorable wages and working conditions if given the opportunity.>

5) The mine owners have the right to bring workers in from out of town.  <Grudging acceptance from the crowd.>

6) Any city residents who wish to leave town must be allowed to do so.  <Applause>

7) Any person using violence or causing it must be held responsible.  <Loud applause.>

8) The best way for all to prosper in Diamond Lake is for all groups to work together in a common direction without intimidation or threat.  <Cheers from both sides.>

The crowd clearly appreciated Katawan's approach to the situation more than they did Tarric's or Killick's.  However, his statement of principles did not bring them any closer to an actual agreement.  After a great deal more talk, both sides agreed to consider what they had heard.  But no concrete agreement was reached.  It seemed that the mine managers were reasonably content with the status quo and had little incentive to offer the miners anything more.

_1st of Planting_.  Alees arrived back in town unexpectedly.  She was brought up to speed on events in town.

_2nd - 4th of Planting_.  No new negotiations were started between the mine managers and the townspeople during this period.  The people were clearly becoming impatient with the lack of progress.  Graffiti started appearing on signs around town accusing the mine managers of wrongdoing and ridiculing them by accusing them of embarrassing acts.

_5th of Planting_.  Having seen no progress after their big town meeting, the party members gather at the Rusty Bucket to discuss how to proceed over dinner.  Katawan vociferously championed the townspeople and exhorted the party to assist them against the mine managers, come what may.  He asks, "My Friends, not so long ago we offered our lives in support of the people of this town, even to the point of fighting a fierce dragon which we had little chance of beating.  Is it so much more different now to put our support behind the people once again?  True it may not be a direct attack by a wicked dragon this time, but it is as evil and potentially deadly as before.  Is it not our task to turn away the evil wherever we find it?  As for me, I choose right over wrong, light over darkness, good over evil.  It was not my wish to make a stand here, but it is here that I will stand.  I hope it will not be alone, but alone it will be if that is what is required."  He turned to each of his partymates in turn saying, "Good Sir Knight, is it not your code that says you should help the meek and downtrodden when you find them?  And you, Master of the Woods, is it not you who believe in the order of nature?  I ask you sir, where in nature do you find slavery being up held?  Is it not the natural order to be free?  And Lady of the Flute, do you not think that, with the wealth of the city rising through a genuine desire for individual profit, there should be enough to go around to all?"  

    He paused for a moment, as if collecting himself.  Then he continued, "Some might ask, is this pitiful town worth dieing over, and my answer is: for me, yes.  It would be an honorable death.  I know we all feel we have bigger fish to fry, but who is it among you who can tell me for sure that helping this town to survive and hopefully prosper is not part of that big picture?"  He smiled wryly and concluded, "Besides, after we are gone to the after life they may erect statues of us beside that lonely statue of Killian down in the cemetery!"

    The group was taken aback by Katawan intense level of commitment to the cause.  In some ways, these words were very unlike the Katawan they had come to know.  Something in him had changed, whether for the better or for the worse was for each of them to decide.  Still, Killick and Tarric were reluctant to employ force to resolve the situation.  They were convinced that there must be some way of getting the mine managers and the townspeople to see reason without resorting to more violence.

    After a number of good suggestions were offered and shot down as unworkable, Alees said in disgust, "Fine, I'll take care of this mess myself!"  She got up from the table and walked away, heading toward the restroom.  They waited for a long time for her to emerge, but she did not.  Killick, Tarric, and Katawan looked at each other, hoping that one of the others knew what Alees was up to, but no one did.  Eventually, they returned to their conversation, confident that Alees could handle herself, whatever happened.

    About 30 minutes later, Alees came back out of the restroom and seated herself back at the table as if nothing had happened.  Killick, Katawan, and Tarric asked her where she had been.  "No where," she replied with a barely perceptible smile.  The party members finished their dinner and left, without having come to consensus on how to proceed.  Katawan was still advocating armed revolution, while Tarric was convinced that the group might be able to convince Greyhawk's Ruling Oligarchy to replace Lanod Neff as Governor-Mayor.

_6th of Planting_.  However, by noon of the next day, this debate among the party members had become moot.  Out of the blue, for no apparent reason, the mine managers had returned to the bargaining table, saying that the miners' reduced productivity under martial law was hurting their bottom lines.  They offered to double the miners' normal wages if they would return to work uncoerced.  After a bit of foot-dragging, the townspeople accepted the offer.  Later in the day, the Governor-Mayor officially rescinded martial law, and there was dancing in the streets.  The impasse was over, but the party was dumbfounded about what had caused the sudden change.

_7th of Planting_.  To celebrate the new agreement, the mine managers sponsored the feast that Killick had suggested.  The wine was flowing as the townspeople celebrated in the streets for a second day.  The party members were hailed as heroes once again, despite their protestations.  Even though the party insisted that they had had nothing to do with the mine managers' sudden change of heart, the townspeople were certain that their presence had somehow been the motivating factor that had caused the mine managers to change their minds.

_8th of Planting_.  Seriously hung over, the party members departed their old home, headed for Magepoint with no further concerns about the welfare of their fellow citizens.


----------



## Menexenus

*Session 67: Welcome to Alhaster*

[I have gotten way behind on my recaps due to increased workload.  I will complete this recap as soon as possible.]


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## Menexenus

*Sessions 68-71: Into the Arena*

[IOU an account of the party's combats as participants in a gladiatorial combat celebrating Prince Zeech's 20th year of rulership.]


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## Menexenus

*Sessions 72-75: Invitation to Zeech's Party*

[IOU an account of how the party members fared, who they encountered, and what they learned at Zeech's bizarre garden party.]


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## Menexenus

*Session 76:  The Lost Island of the Order of the Storm*

_1st of Reaping_.  Having met with Lashonna at midnight the previous night, the party members were convinced of the urgency of finding Tilagos Island before Darl Quethos and his minions did.  Killick and Talon mounted his Ebon Steed and flew off to find the island, while Alexander teleported the rest of the party back to Greyhawk for some rest and a few hours' worth of shopping.

    About an hour after noon, Killick and Talon teleported to the garden in front of Eligos's house, where the rest of the party was waiting for them.  They informed the party about what they had witnessed from the Ethereal Plane as they had approached the island.  They had got through the storm raging around the island easily enough and passed into an area of relative calm.  Here they had found a small beachhead... and then nothing - about 5 miles of nothingness - before passing through into the raging storm again on the other side of the "eye."  Killick speculated that the area of nothingness was a portion of the Prime Material Plane that was no longer connected to the Ethereal.  Rather than risk coming out of the Ethereal Plane into nothingness, they had returned to the rocky beach head.  There they had seen the remains of numerous shipwrecks, perhaps 100.  They had also seen 8 or 9 shadowy humanoid figures moving about the beach.  Some seemed to be scavenging parts from the wrecks while others seemed to be building and still others were setting up a camp.  After observing them for a short time, Killick and Talon had entered one of the wrecks a safe distance from the humanoids' activity and emerged from the Ethereal Plane.  Killick had told Talon to teleport them immediately back to Greyhawk, without investigating any further.  The party prepared to teleport back to the island as a group.

    They arrived inside the wreck that Killick and Talon had left only minutes earlier.  They heard a constant rain and a howling wind beating against the side of rotting ship's hull.  Alexander cast a cantrip to ensure that the noise would not interfere with his ability to correctly intone arcane words of power.  (It did not.)  Killick assured them that what they were hearing was was merely a gentle spring rain in comparison to what they had witnessed inside the storm itself.  The party carefully crept out of the shipwreck and into the open.  They found 8 or 9 orcs moving about the beach near the newest wreck.  They seemed to be trying to build a seaworthy vessel using parts from the wrecks on the beach.  Neither Darl Quethos nor any of the other minions that they had viewed in Lashonna's scry attempt were visible on the beach.  After observing the orcs for a short while, Alexander decided to step forward and make contact with them.

    At first, the orcs huddled together defensively, with weapons raised.  Alexander and Killick asked them questions, which they were reluctant to answer (without some form of compensation).  Killick offered to use his wood-shaping spells to help them craft a new boat to get off the island if they would share what they knew about Darl Quethos.  They accepted this offer.  The orcs seemed to have worked for Quethos out of fear rather than loyalty.  The orc captain told the party that Quethos had hired them in Highport to deliver him and his men to an island in the Nyr Dyv the identity of which he would not divulge until the voyage was underway.  Of course, they were not told that the delivery would need to be made in hurricane force winds.  However, once Quethos and his "men" were aboard, the orcs quickly realized that they had no chance standing up to Quethos.  They had no choice but to follow his orders and hope for the best.

    After the boat crashed on the rocks, Quethos and his men made for the ancient stone ruins visible at the top of the hill.  Quethos has been gone for more than half a day now, and the orcs hope to never see him again.  An hour or so after Quethos left, the orcs had tried to follow him into the ruin to make a dry camp and get some shelter.  But after only a few minutes within the ruin, they were attacked by loud, angry rocks with lots of ropes.  The orc captain had lost only 3 sailors during the crash, but he had lost 6 more in the ruins.  He had ordered his men back to the beach and had been trying to figure out what to do ever since.  The party asked about what became of Heskin, Lashonna's former servant.  The orc captain replied that he had been thrown overboard immediately after being killed.  The party asked for descriptions of all of Quethos's people.  The orc captain described a red-skinned giant whose skin was burning hot to the touch (an efreet), an enormous black skinned horse with fiery mane that belonged to the red-skinned giant (a nightmare), a sneaky crow-man who almost never spoke (a kenku), a hairy but immensely powerful man with a bull's head (a minotaur), an ogre-sized demon with hideous scales, enormous wings, and vicious looking horns the size of longswords on its head (a horned devil), and two male twins with small horns on their foreheads who wore red silk robes and kept mostly to themselves (tieflings).

    In appreciation for the orcs' helpfulness (and out of sympathy for their plight), Alexander offered to go beyond the terms of their agreement and teleport the orcs off the island to whatever city they desired after their business on the island was concluded.  The orc captain, who now introduced himself as Grogriss, seemed appreciative.  He pointed out that most humans would not go out of their way for folks like him.  However, he noted that he would continue working on constructing a new boat anyway, since Alexander's offer was contingent on defeating Quethos.  Killick suggested that the orcs could improve the party's odds of success by accompanying them.  The orcs laughed off this suggestion and bid the party farewell.  As they trudged up the rocky hillside toward the ruins at the top of the hill, the wind suddenly changed direction, and the party noticed that the orc ship bore a hidden sail with a pirate emblem on it.

    After centuries of neglect the interior of the stone ruins had become maze-like.  After several twists and turns the party happened upon a relatively largre room dominated by many enormous stalagmites.  The room was also different in that there was a strange green glow coming from the center of the room.  Although Killick quickly realized that the stalagmites were unnaturally large and not matched by opposing stalactites on the ceiling, Killick had no time to convey this information, as Alexander strode confidently into the room to examine some intriguing runes he had noticed.  Suddenly (but not surprisingly) the stalagmites came to life and attacked those they could reach with their sticky strands.  The stalagmites were actually ropers.  The party members were not concerned.  They allowed the ropers strands to draw them closer to the bizarre beasts so that they could deliver extra attacks.  

    It turned out that the party's confidence was well-founded, as all 6 ropers were killed relatively easily.  Immediately after combat had concluded, Alexander (who had recently made See Invisibility permanent on himself) caught a glipse of a kenku spying on them from about 50 feet away.  Alexander announced the presence of an enemy to the party and charged after it.  He turned a corner just in time to see the kenku cast Dimension Door and escape.  Killick used Grimlock's scent ability to track where the kenku had come from.  Grimlock seemed to insist that the kenku had come from a towering pile of rubble.  Killick spoke with his animal friend and asked why he was pointing at a pile of rubble.  Grimlock replied that what the party was seeing wasn't really there.  Killick looked again and the pile of rubble was gone, replaced by a bedroll, cold firepit, and what looked like a hastily constructed nest.  Killick informed the party that the rubble was merely an illusion.  Alees checked the site, but found nothing of value or importance.  Having lost the kenku's trail, the party was about to return to the room with the green crystals.  However, just before leaving - Alexander, who had harbored a dislike for kenku since they nearly killed him in the Ebon Triad's Vecna temple in the mines below Diamond Lake - paused to urinate on the bedroll and in the nest.  The party returned to the room filled with dead ropers and found about a dozen glowing crystals, all of which they quickly pocketed.

    They continued exploring the ruin and came across something that looked important.  It was a large circular obsidian disc inlaid into the floor.  Its rim was decorated with strange runes.  At three points around the disc's circumference, were shallow hollows that looked to be about the same size as the gems they had picked up earlier.  The party tried placing 3 of the glowing gems in these shallow depressions.  When they did so, they found that the runes on the left-hand side of the disc began to glow as if back-lit from a light within the obsidian.  However, the runes around the other two depressions did not glow.  The party removed all three gems and continued searching the complex.

    Next the party came across what once might have been a collection of impressive marble statues which had all been reduced to a pile of rubble.  Killick noticed that the dispersal pattern of the rubble was strangely inconsistent with simply crumbling in place.  Alexander cast Detect Magic and noticed that the statues retained the dull glow of items that had recently been magical but which were no more.  He also noticed a more intense glow from underneath one of the crumbled statues - something different.  The party worked together to lift the tremendously heavy stone.  Underneath they found the shattered remnants of a gem glowing with blue light.  It occurred to Killick that since gems are essentially mineral crystals, Stone Shape might work to repair the gem and return it to its original shape.  Killick cast the spell and concentrated to reform the shattered splinters into a single whole gem, roughly the same shape as the green ones.  They took the blue gem back to the circular disc, inserted it into the other two depressions, and found that it did indeed cause the runes along the top portion of the disc to glow as if back-lit by an internal radiance.  The party surmised that Quethos had destroyed the animated statues that had been left to guard the blue gems and then had taken all of the gems he could find.  Either he did not see the broken gem, or he assumed that it was useless to anyone who might be following.  

    The party continued searching the complex for the third and final key to what they assumed was a portal that would take them to the hidden portion of Tilagos Island.  Eventually they noticed a red glow coming from up ahead.  As they turned a corner, they saw a murky pool in the middle of a junction connecting several corridors.  From the thick tangle of moldering driftwood and seaweed cluttering the pool grew and immense black plant whose roots coiled out through the surrounding water and whose twisted trunk supported eight rubbery-looking dark branches that seemed to sway gently in the breeze.  The red glow seemed to be coming from within the pool beneath the tree.  The party approached the pool carefully, and at the moment the tree began to animate, Alexander cast Maze on it, causing it to temporarily disappear.  Killick quickly jumped into the water and turned into a fish.  He swam down and retrieved two red crystals.  Then the party quickly withdrew with their treasure before the tree-thing could return.

    Having collected what they were sure was the third and final activation gem, they made preparations to teleport into an unknown situation.  When they were ready, they placed the gems in their appropriate depressions and stepped onto the disc together.  A swirl of multi-colored energy rose up from the disc, and the party-members were suddenly transported away.  Suddenly, there was bright light and there was no more noise from wind and rain.  Below them was another obsidian disc, but smooth - without runes or depressions.  Above them they saw a bright, overcast sky.  They looked around and found themselves on a plain covered with tall grasses.  To the right (east?), the party could see a sprawling, dense forest in the distance a mile or two away.  To the left (west?), the party could see mountains off in the distance a mile or two away.  The party-members were fascinated by what they were perceiving.  All the colors, sounds, and sensations were somehow sharper and more intense than anything they had ever perceived before.  It was pleasant, but slightly disorienting.  After a few moments, Killick looked around and noticed that, although the sky was bright, it was of equal brightness in all directions.  There seemed to be nothing approximating a "sun" illuminating this land.  Alexander and Killick both realized that the intensity of sensation was caused by positive energy which infused the landscape.  They speculated that if an undead creature were brought here, it would be rendered catatonic by the assault of positive energy on its senses.  Alexander also perceived that since they were in a pocket dimension that was no longer adjacent to coterminous realms like the Ethereal and Astral planes, many of the party's spells would be useless here - spells like Dimension Door, Teleport, Summon, and Plane Shift.

    No sooner had the party gotten their bearings than four figures suddenly appeared before them.  The four were not identical, but they were all quite similar in appearance.  They were tall, lithe figures with alabaster skin and gaunt facial features.  They wore a gossamer armor, covered by a cloak of vicious nettles.  A halo of churning insects swirled noiselessly about their heads.  Each wields a wicked barbed spear carried in both hands.  Protruding from each figure's back were four banners attached to poles, one fiery red, another translucent white, a third deep brown, and the last blue as a pristine ocean lagoon.  After a pregnant pause in which the four beings seemed to be waiting to see what the party members would do, one of them stepped forward, saying, "I am Tylanthros, guardian of this realm.  We are the Last Resort, as surely as the trees and stones and sea and air around you.  We protect the secrets of this island from all trespassers.  You have mastered the portal of storms, and therefore must be brave, but it remains to be seen if you belong here at all.  Why have you come to Last Resort?"  

    Killick answered, "We come seeking knowledge to help us prevent the Age of Worms.  We wish to know the secret location of Dragotha's phylactery."

    Tylanthros replied, "Then you seek the Fountain, although you do not yet realize it.  The Fountain of Dreams is linked to all things in Last Resort.  The earth, the dark trees of the Doomshroud, the clouds above, my life and that of my brothers are a poart of it.  If the waters are concumed, the Order of the Storm's rite is undone.  The secrets kept from the world will be released, and the great creatures of legend imprisoned here on this isle shall be unleashed upon your world once more.  To find the Fountain you must accomplish four tasks and prove yourselves worthy of the heroes of old.  Survive these trials, and you may slake your thirst on what you seek.  Fail, and Last Resort shall be your grave.  I am Tylanthros, and the first trial is the Claiming of Krathanos's Golden Belt."

    Tylanthros steps back and one of his brothers steps forward.  "I am Beskawahn, and the second trial is the Silence of the Doomshroud's Mournful Song."  He steps back and a third brother steps forward.  "I am Thadimar, and the third trial is the Death of the Thorn Vale Nightmare."  He steps back and the last creature steps forward.  "I am Sayren-Lei, and the final trial is the Harvest of the Living Feather of the Roc King."  This creature steps back and Tylanthros steps forward again.  "These trials complete, return here and we shall show you the Fountain of Dreams.  Until then, we will watch and wait."

    Sensing that the four watchers were about to leave, Killick asked quickly about the progress made by Darl Quethos and his minions.  Tylanthros spoke again, "The Hand of the Lich-Lord has come to Tilagos with his flock, seeking knowledge as you do.  Even as you linger, they seek to complete the tasks we have named.  If they outspeed you, then the secrets of the Fountain are theirs.  Who claims the secrets of the Fountain matters little to us, for once these secrets are claimed our role in Last resort has come to an end."  With that, the four imposing beings disappeared from view, and the party was left listening to the gentle wind carrying a tremendous variety of birdsongs, the drone of insects, and the occasional roar of distant predators.  Suddenly, the party noticed a flash of brilliant lightning striking the moutain tops off in the distance, however there was no sign of storm clouds.


----------



## Menexenus

*Sessions 77-79: Confronting Quethos*

_1st of Reaping (continued)._ Once the party members were convinced that the four mysterious Watchers would not return, the party members began speaking among themselves, strategizing. They surmised that the lightning strike indicated that Darl Quethos's team was currently attempting to Harvest the Living Feather of the Roc King. They had no idea how many other of the trials that they might have already completed. But they reasoned that, either way, they would have to deal with Quethos's team sooner or later. So it might as well be sooner. Consequently, they all resolved to head in the direction of the lightning bolt, hoping to intercept Quethos.

After a few hours of marching, Alees seemed troubled. She quietly announced to the party that they were being stalked by large beasts. As the party members began looking back to see what was following them, the stalkers launched their attack, charging at the party from behind. They recognized the stalkers as Displacer Beast Packlords, the same kind of magical beast that had once felled Thorash within the Temple of the Dark Sun. However, rather than only one Packlord surrounded by a pack of normal displacer beasts, all of the half-dozen beasts had the size and bearing of a Packlord. As had become her recent custom, Alees dove into the grass and hid while the rest of the party dealt with the threat, deaf to their exhortations and pleas for assistance. The Packlords coordinated their attacks, focusing on one of the party's clerics. One of their number successfully grabbed him and tried to make off with him, but the party was too powerful. They were able to slay the creatures faster than they could get away. When half their number (including the one that had been carrying Norvelle) were slain, the rest of the displacer beasts fled. The party killed another of their number before deciding to break off the pursuit. The party quickly healed up from the damage that the displacer beasts had dealt and then continued on.

Eventually, the party made it into the foothills before the mountain where they had seen the lightning strike. They continued to march for hours. Eventually, they realized that the sky was no darker now than when they had first arrived. Killick explained that the light that was diffused in the overcast sky was a magical effect that was not caused by the rising or setting of any sun. As a result, there would be no night in this place. The party would have to rely on their internal clocks in order to decide when to rest and when to pray. 

Once the party members had made it deep into the foothills and were nearing the base of the mountain, they started feeling tired and began scouting around for a defensible campsite. However, before the party could find a place to rest, they felt a strange rumbling beneath their feet. Moments later, an enormous set of jaws erupted from the earth. The landshark clamped its jaws on Katawan and maintained a firm grip on him. The party members tried to force the creature to release him, but in a very short time, Katawan was unconscious and near death. Sensing the opportunity a greater meal, it released Katawan in order to take a bite out of Tarric. However, the party had quickly recognized what a brutally efficient opponent the land shark was, and so they had found ways to get everyone in the air. While Tarric lured the beast away, Killick flew in to pick up Katawan's unconscious form. Then Tarric himself took to the air. The land shark bellowed in anger for having lost the meal it had earned. But once it realized that the party members weren't going to land any time soon and that they could continue damaging it from the air, it reluctantly burrowed back into the earth and did not re-emerge. The party flew a safe distance away, and Killick used spells to create a treetop refuge that would keep them safe from any further land shark attacks.

_2nd of Reaping_. When the party members awoke the next day, they saw that Alexander and Tarric were bleary-eyed. They both admitted to having strange nightmares all night long that had apparently prevented them from gaining the benefits of a normal night's rest. They wondered if the nightmares might have something to do with the tasks that the Wild Watchers had given them. But before they had time to consider this prospect further, Alexander was contacted mentally by Darl Quethos. He relayed Quethos's message to the party. Quethos had challenged them to mortal combat for control of the island's secrets. The two parties were to face one another at the site in the grassy plain where they had entered the demiplane. The party did not relish the idea of backtracking, but they decided it was best to take Quethos and his team out as soon as possible. This time they cast flight spells on everyone in the group and flew back towards their point of origin in a fraction of the time that it had taken them to hike the same distance. As they got close, they wondered whether Quethos's invitation had been merely a ruse to lead them away from Quethos's real target, but in the distance they could see that Quethos's team was indeed assembled and prepared for battle. The most spectacular of the enemy combatants was an efreet astride a snorting fiendish horse (called a Nightmare). There were also two identical-seeming combatants in hooded red satin robes. Near Quethos stood a hulking minotaur bodyguard as well as the kenku spy that the party had briefly pursued back on Tilagos island before transporting themselves to this demiplane. Out in front was a horned devil who seemed eager for battle. It quickly became clear that all the combatants on both sides were airborn, using either wings or spells.

As the two parties closed for combat, Alees dove to the ground to find cover in the tall grass. She had made it clear before that she would no longer be risking herself in combats, and she was acting true to her word. From long range, Alexander tried launching a fireball at a grouping of opponents, but predictably, the attack had little effect. As the two parties drew nearer, the efreet called out a warcry in some language that the party didn't know and charged Tarric waving his immense scimitar. As he rode by, he sliced a gaping wound in the fighter. The two hooded red-cloaked figures flew up to Alexander and Talon. As they moved closer, it became clear to the party that these robed figures were twin tiefling monks who had had Silence cast on them. However, Alexander was able to tumble away from his silenced monk and turned his attention to the efreet who had just wounded Tarric so grievously. He trained a Cone of Cold on the fiery efreet who screamed out in agony. Killick followed this up with an Ice Storm centered on the efreet. Suddenly, it was the efreet who was in very bad shape. He was no longer making any warcries. He rode back toward Quethos who had healing energy crackling on his hand, but he was felled before he could reach his master by a volley of Alexander's maximized magic missiles. Quethos reluctantly bestowed his prepared healing spell on the nightmare and spoke to it in an infernal language that no one in the party understood. After hearing what Quethos had to say, the fiendish horse turned to face the party without a rider. Tarric focused his energies on the horned devil, Grimlock and Killick were being attacked by the Nightmare, Talon and Alexander seemed to have little difficulty avoiding their tiefling monk pursuers, but Katawan was aiding them just for good measure. Norvelle did what he could to provide healing to those in need. On the other team, the kenku looked for opportunities for flank attacks against the party, focusing mostly on Talon and doing significant damage to her. It also eventually dawned on the party that Quethos's minotaur bodyguard was only an illusion and could take no part in the fight. Once Tarric felled the horned devil, he tried to approach Quethos but found that some spell effect made it impossible for him to approach the cleric of Vecna - who made no secret of wielding the Hand of Vecna. Alexander tried to cast a magic missile spell on him from afar, but it was turned back on him, dispersing harmlessly on Alexander's Shield spell. The party could also see that Quethos had cast a Stoneskin spell on himself. It was clear to the party that the Hand of the Lich Lord was well-protected. He would be a tough nut to crack.

Becoming annoyed with the tiefling monk who kept following him and putting him in a zone of Silence, Alexander cast a spell on him that compelled him to attack his master. The monk turned and began to charge Quethos! Quethos ordered his brother, whom he called "Jalagar" to protect him from the other monk, whom he called "Sabir." Jalagar reluctantly withdrew from Talon to try to hold his brother back. However, it turned out that Sabir was unable to approach Quethos beyond a certain point. So Alexander ordered him instead to attack his brother who was now right next to him. This order caused Sabir to shake off Alexander's influence. However, by this point, the tide had turned decisively in the party's favor. Killick had successfully turned the nightmare to stone, Tarric had dispatched the horned devil back to the Nine Hells, and the kenku was badly wounded and trying to withdraw. So now the party focused their attacks on the two monk brothers, standing side by side. The party's withering attacks caused Sabir to fall to the ground unconscious. Jalagar moved to stabilize his brother, but the party's attacks were unrelenting. The brothers died side by side amid the waving tall grasses of Last Resort under a hail of spell power and melee attacks. This left only Quethos. The party used all the Dispel power it could muster to bring down as many of Quethos's defensive spells as possible. When they had dispelled as much as they could, Tarric and Killick found that they were able to charge in and stand toe-to-toe with the wielder of the Hand of Vecna. Both felt the Hand's cold embrace, but they took only minimal damage from its touch. Although the cleric was able to heal himself many times, it soon became clear that without help or a place to hide, Quethos's time was limited. So when his healing power was exhausted and he realized that his end was imminent, he screamed to the heavens, "Vecna, why have you forsaken me, your most devoted servant? With my last breath, I command you to show these heathens your true power!" As an impressive column of fire fell out of the sky directly onto his position, Quethos just closed his eyes and held his arms aloft, as if waiting to be lifted up. The flames incinerated his flesh (along with the immense Roc feather he had in his possession) and did a significant amount of damage to Tarric and Killick as well, but the Hand of Vecna was none the worse for wear. The party searched for Quethos's kenku rogue with no luck. Even Alees could find no trace of him. The bird man was apparently highly skilled at avoiding capture. Convinced that they would not be able to locate the kenku without serious magically-aided effort, the party consoled themselves by looting the bodies of their enemies, making sure to take and stow the Hand of Vecna, to keep it away from those who might wish to use it. Having exhausted much of their spell power, the party made camp once again, using Killick's treetop refuge.


----------



## Menexenus

*Sessions 80 - 82: Completing the Four Tasks*

_3rd of Reaping_. Since the Roc feather that Quethos had had in his possession had been incinerated by his suicidal Flame Strike, the party decided to head toward the mountaintop where they had seen the lightning strike once more. But this time, they decided to use one of Talon's Windwalk spells to get there without having to face any pesky land sharks or packlords. On the way there, they spotted a valley from the air which looked like it must be the Vale of Thorns. The valley floor was covered in dense, enormous thorn bushes. On top of that, the valley was crawling with land sharks. However, the flying party seemed to have no need to actually land on the valley floor, because at the far end of the valley, they noticed a gigantic cavern far above the valley floor which was belching smoke. Surely this was the lair of the Thorn Vale Nightmare whose death was one of the tasks given to them by the Watchers. The party decided to take a quick detour to investigate this mysterious cavern. When they got closer, they found that the white "smoke" that the party had seen from afar was really just water vapor, probably emanating from some geological feature. But they had a very unsettled feeling when they landed at the cave's entrance which confirmed their hunch that this might be the lair of some dread beast. Alees wished them luck as they entered the cavern. They found that the water vapor in the cavern was thicker than fog and made sight by any means virtually impossible. The party members could barely see their hands in front of their faces. Their inability to see clearly made them extraordinarily cautious. Alexander quickly tired of his companions' caution, bordering on indecision, and he flew forward headlong into the cavern by himself. He flew over one crevasse that was emitting steam and then over another, after which he was suddenly able to see clearly in the torchlight that he had invaded the lair of an enormous creature with no eyes and huge tusks. The monster didn't seem to appreciate the intrusion. It charged at Alexander, causing him a grievous wound. Alexander fell back toward his party members and breakneck speed, yelling out about what he had found. The party could feel the creature's footsteps as it approached. The party members fell back out of the cavern to the ledge where they could see more clearly and readied themselves for a fight. But unexpectedly, the footsteps stopped. The monster had apparently decided not to follow Alexander out of the cavern. As the party waited uneasily, they set up a perimeter around the cave's mouth. Killick called it a chokepoint. At just that moment, a cloud of yellow gas rolled out of the cavern - a Cloudkill spell. "Chokepoint" indeed! The party withstood the worst of that spell and then waited for the inevitable attack. Then another poisonous Cloudkill rolled out, followed by an Incendiary Cloud. 

At this point, it was clear to the party that the beast had no need to come out on its own. So the party's melee fighters - Tarric, Killick, and Katawan - entered the cave once again to try to lure it out. It continued casting spells as long as it was approached by only one or two party members - Chain Lightning, Disintegrate, Heat Metal. But once it noticed the party members trying to surround it, it simply ran away, trampling over whomever might be in its way, causing serious damage. The party became very concerned. This was a beast that could not be targeted at range as long as it remained in the cave and who could easily avoid melee gang tactics by simply running over whomever might be in its way. However, the beast's trample ability was a double-edged sword, for while it could get away from multiple opponents in flanking positions, it was unable to focus attacks on a single target or prevent a single target from withdrawing to be healed up by the party's clerics. So, the party eventually won the battle of attrition, and the Thorn Vale Nightmare was slain. The party members intuited that one of their tasks had been successfully completed.

The party chose to continue on without rest to the summit of the mountain where they had seen the lightning flash in the hopes of completing a second task. When they reached the summit, they were disgusted to find the rotting corpse of an enormous bird partially submerged in a small lake of its own blood. Apparently, Quethos had attempted to burn the corpse so that no useful feathers would be left when the party arrived to collect one. However, Killick realized that a feather from a dead Roc would have been of use to neither party, since the Watchers had specified that the task was to return with a feather of the *living* Roc King. The party imposed on Alees, who provided a scroll of Raise Dead. Norvell cast it on the Roc and it returned to life. However, it returned to the world in the same state of mind that it had left the world with - namely one of fear and anger. Killick cast a spell enabling him to speak to the Roc and was able to use his affinity with nature to calm the creature and convince it of their harmless intent. They even displayed the disembodied Hand of Vecna in order to convince the creature that they had exacted vengeance upon its killers. Once calm, the enormous bird thanked the party for raising it from the dead and asked if there was something it could do for the party to repay the favor. The party members looked at each other with wide grins. They asked the Roc for two things: a single feather from its hide and some information about the rest of the island. The Roc gladly agreed to both requests. It plucked out one of its own feathers and gave it to the party and then consented to answer any questions that the party might have about the island and its denizens. From the Roc, the party learned that the Doomshrowd Forest was filled with giant Girallons and that at its heart was an enormously powerful tree that had tainted the surrounding trees for miles around. They also learned that Krathanos lived in a keep on the far side of the island. He seemed to be some sort of giant with the ability to hurl thunderbolts. The party thanked the Roc and made for Killick's treetop sanctuary in order to rest up.

_4th of Reaping_. Since the Doomshroud Forest was closer, they decided to deal with that task next. Once again, they had Talon cast Windwalk so that the entire party could avoid the Girallons on the ground and travel directly to the evil tree at the forest's heart. After a few hours of searching, the party felt confident that they had discovered the lonesome tree at the heart of the forest from which the evil that pervaded the rest of the forest seemed to spread. They landed a short distance away from the tree and carefully began their approach. From the ground, the forest was even more disturbing than it was from the air. It was an alien landscape whose black, monolithic trees seemed to shift unnaturally even when there was no wind. The canopy was able to block out so much of the light coming from the overcast sky above that the party experienced night-like conditions for the first time since arriving in the demiplane. The forest's drooping trees continuously wept a thick black ichor from which the party was careful to keep its distance. After a short time, the party reached the clearing dominated by a single evil tree which seemed to hover over the rest of the trees in the forest. As the party tried to decide its course of action, the tree struck first by casting a spell on Talon, knocking her instantly unconscious. The party leapt to action. Alexander reasoned that the tree would be vulnerable to fire, so he cast a quickened Fireball to test his hypothesis. When he saw that his hunch had been correct, he then followed up his first spell with a maximized Fireball. The tree creeked and groaned in ways that sounded eerily like shrieks of pain. The party was surprised to find that, not only was the tree vulnerable to fire, but it seemed to have no natural defense against spells. So they simply threw Flame Strikes and Fireballs on the thing until it was a burnt cinder. About 10 seconds after the fight had begun, it was suddenly over. The party huddled around Talon and was relieved to discover that she was fine. The tree's spell had appeared to be much more potent than it truly was. They investigated the base and the interior of the burnt tree, hoping to find some treasure, but they found none. Still, they were proud that they had accomplished the third Task with extraordinary ease.

Having some time remaining on their Windwalk spell and having most of their spell complement available, they decided to fly to the island's far coast and scout out Krathanos's keep. Once they emerged from the forest, the keep was clearly visible about a mile away. As they approached, they saw some winged creatures flying around. Eventually, those winged creatures flew out to meet the party. The party didn't know what to expect. They prepped for another fight, but the flying gargoyles made it clear that they wanted to talk, not fight. With pleasant words, the gargoyles invited the party to sit at their lord Krathanos's table tonight for dinner. The party was reluctant, but the gargoyles insisted that their master would take great offense if his invitation was refused. Suspecting the worst, the party decided to accept the invitation. The gargoyles were overjoyed. They led the party into the keep, which the party found was in a terrible state of disrepair. The keep's main entrance stood wide open without a door or a portcullis to keep enemies out. There was little left of the original keep other than the walls, and even these looked like they had been knocked down recently and had not yet been built back up enough to conceal Krathanos's head when he stood up. In the back corner of the keep were some shoddily-fashioned cages containing 9 or 10 normal-sized girallons.

Krathanos welcomed the party gleefully, saying that it had been a long time since he had had the opportunity to entertain civilized folk and learn about the outside world. The party wondered aloud that he hadn't been visited by Quethos's band. Krathanos admitted that he had recently been approached by a minotaur, but he had smashed him because he didn't like its manners. This flippant mention of killing a visitor on a whim sent chills up the party members' spines. They made sure they were on their best behavior. They asked how Krathanos had ended up on the island. Krathanos accused a group of druids of imprisoning him here. This topic seemed to anger Krathanos, so the party changed the subject. Once he was sufficiently calm, the party admired Krathanos's belt. Krathanos was very proud of it. He claimed it was a symbol of his rulership of a sprawling and powerful country on Oerth, prior to his imprisonment of course. He seemed to feel that if he ever escaped from his prison, he would need the belt when he returned to Oerth to prove that he was indeed the rightful ruler of his former realm. It seemed clear that the would not part with it easily. The party said they would pay him what it was worth, in gold or in trade. He refused. They tried persuading him that his best chance at freedom would be to give them the belt, because once they had it, the Watchers had assured them that all the demiplane's denizens would be returned to Oerth. This seemed to sway Krathanos somewhat. He said he would give them his precious belt if they would give him Talon. He said she would make a pretty pet who could entertain him for many long years. Although the party was very reluctant to agree to Krathanos's terms, he seemed to assume that this deal was so generous that the party could not refuse. He was completely oblivious to their reluctance, and moved toward Talon with the clear intent of grabbing her. The party forcefully interposed themselves between her and the titan and made clear that they were refusing his deal. This sent Krathanos into a pompous rage. How could such insects dare refuse him, especially when he was being so generous with them? His magnificent belt for a measly girl? How could they refuse, unless it was their intent to insult him? They would have to pay for their insolence. He drew his enormous warhammer and began pounding people with it. 

When Krathanos connected with his warhammer, he did tremendous damage. The party also discovered that he was nearly invulnerable to spells. So they had no choice but to withdraw. Alexander stayed behind to occupy the titan with spells and give the rest of his comrades time to escape. But Krathanos seemed to have little interest in pursuit. He realized that the party would have to come back to him if they wanted his belt, so he was willing to bide his time. The party withdrew to its secluded treetop sanctuary to rest and recover spells.

_5th of Reaping_. The party devised a plan and made an assault on Krathanos's keep the following day. However, when the gargoyles did not come out to engage the party as they had the previous day, this seemed to undermine the party's plan. They pressed the attack anyway. To their chagrine, they discovered that Krathanos was a master of the Chain Lightning spell. Not only could he hurl it from an enormous distance, but he could do it an unlimited number of times per day. Consequently, some of the party members were significantly wounded by the time that they made it to the keep itself. Just as the melee combat got underway, Alexander called the retreat. He realized that the party was fighting in suboptimal conditions and that the party would be better off retooling their combat plan and approaching again on a subsequent day. The rest of the party reluctantly heeded his call to withdraw. Krathanos seemed to find this turn of events extraordinarily amusing. He allowed the party to retreat without continuing to assault them with Chain Lightning. As they fled, he called out to them saying that he hadn't had as much fun in centuries and insisting that they return again the following day so that he could have more fun. The party returned to their treetop lair and plotted.

_6th of Reaping_. The party made a second assault on Krathanos's keep. This time they flew in invisibly so that they could avoid the killing field of Chain Lightning that they had endured the previous day. Once they were all in position, they unleashed their attacks as planned. Surprisingly, their attack plans focused almost entirely on a low-level spell that they had almost forgotten about since their journeyman days - Melf's Acid Arrow. The maximized it, quickened it, and empowered it, shooting it at the titan again and again and again. Apparently, Melf's Acid Arrow was immune to the titan's spell resistance, so the acid just kept eating away at his flesh until - less than 30 seconds into the fight - the titan was dead. The acid continued eating away at his corpse. The last thing to dissolve was the look of disbelief on the titan's face that such a puny spell had defeated him. As soon as Krathanos fell, his gargoyle and girallon minions fled. Alexander summoned a Floating Disk to carry Krathanos's enormous, emerald-studded belt back to the place where they had entered the demiplane. Needless to say, they also looted his other belongings and found a number of other valuable-looking treasures most of which he had stored in a bag he kept tied around his belt.

After a long march, the party members arrived back at the obsidian circle where they had entered the demiplane. As soon as they all stepped onto it again, the Watchers re-appeared. Tylanthros stepped forward and said, "Indeed you are the Heroes of Legend, for you have completed the tasks. Soon you will drink from the fountain and you will have the knowledge you seek and our purpose here will be at an end. Last Resort will be no more, and we, its Watchers, will cease to exist also. Before we go, we wish to give you our standards." He twisted around, grabbed the flag that rose behind his back, wrenched it free from his belt and handed it to Katawan. He continued, "When you wear my standard, you will be protected from fire and may cast Flame Strike once per day." Another watcher removed his standard and stepped forward, handing it to Norvelle. Tylanthros continued saying, "Beskawahn's standard protects its bearer from cold and allows him to breathe underwater at will." A third watcher removed his standard and stepped forward, handing it to Killick. Tylanthros said, "Thadimar's standard protects its bearer from electricity and allows its bearer to cast Air Walk once per day." The last watcher removed his standard and stepped forward, handing it to Tarric. Tylanthros said, "Sayren-Lei's banner protects its wearer from acid and allows its bearer to cast Stoneskin once per day." Finally, Tylanthros approached Alexander and handed him his ornate mithril spear, carved to look like intertwined thorns. He said, "Lastly, I give you my spear. I will not be needing it where I travel now." Suddenly, Tylanthros stepped aside, revealing a simple stone fountain gurgling with pure, clear water that hadn't been there a moment before. He said, "This fountain represents the knowledge you seek. Drink from it and all that you desire to know will be revealed to you." Alexander stepped forward and drank deeply, without hesitation. And Last Resort was no more.


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## Menexenus

*Sessions 83 - 84: The Heroes of Legend*

_Approximately 1500 years earlier_. After Alexander drank from the Fountain of Dreams, all of the members of the party were overwhelmed by a rush of alien yet strangely familiar memories. The landscape around them swirled away into a vortex of lightning and wind, fire and rain, ending in the darkness of utter nothingness. For several uneasy moments, the party members floated adrift in this empty silence. They felt the cold perpetuity of the infinite weighing upon them. Suddenly, the party members found themselves standing on a windy bluff overlooking an immense canyon that had to be Rift Canyon. The canyon was surprisingly lush, with enormous trees growing all the way up to the canyon's rim. Far to the south, across a long, flat plain, the party members could just barely make out the faint, looming specter of White Plume Mountain. Then the unmistakeable din of battle, both near and distant, assaulted the party members' ears. As if rising from the ground, on ledges and mesas both near and far, armies of creatures faded into view. In the distance, towns and villages lay smoking in ruin, and the sky was cast with a dark pallor. The cacophonous moans of the undead rode the wind. The party members saw huge numbers of armed and armored humanoids arrayed against an apparently endless wave of undead. Many of these undead creatures were familiar to the party - Spawn of Kyuss, Swords of Kyuss, Knights of Kyuss, Wormcallers, Morhgs, Eviscerator Beetles, Overworms, and Ulgurstastas - along with other Kyuss-creatures that the party had never seen, such as enormous worm-dripping centipedes, immense black scorpions, and immense wormlike dragons who breathed swarms of Kyuss-worms upon their enemies. And wheeling in the skies above, attended by numerous smaller dragons, was a horrifying shape - a skeletal red dragon of great size. Dragotha. For all of the humanoid army's numbers, it was clear to the party members that they were doomed to fall before the invincible minions of Kyuss. 

As soon as they became oriented to their new surroundings, they heard someone behind them say in an unfamiliar language that they could nonetheless understand perfectly, "Thank the Mother, they have arrived!" The party turned to see a small unit of perhaps two or three dozen somber druids wearing tattered, blood-stained robes. Although they were clearly tired and battle-scarred, they did not have the look of hopelessness about them that one might expect. The one who had spoken approached the party members who recognized him as the living Tylanthros who would eventually transform himself into the undying warden of the Fountain of Dreams. He approached the party members, saying, "The spell was successful! You must be the heroes of legend who have partaken of the Fountain of Dreams in order to prevent the Age of Worms in our future. You have been summoned to aid us now in our time of greatest need, for if we do not succeed in our task now, then there will be no future for you to save." He gestured behind him and the druids parted to give the party members a glimpse of a large package, a strange container with its sides carved in the shape of leering demonic and draconic faces. "Dragotha's phylactery is ours, yet at a great price. He and his minions come for us even now to reclaim it. We must hide it forever from his reach. If we take it from this land, he will sense its loss and abandon his army. Without Dragotha's leadership, the undead horde will wander without focus and will be vulnerable to counter-attack. This is our only hope of defeating an army that has us vastly outnumbered. However, in order for us to remove his phylactery, we need you to buy us some time. You must hold off the Kyuss-spawn that even now scramble at the edges of the cliffs around us. Our trusted ally will hold off his aerial forces while you prevent the ground forces from disturbing us while we break the wards that protect the phylactery." 

With this, Tylanthros gestured at a gorgeous young elf woman dressed in ornate mithral armor whom the party recognized as a younger version of Lashonna, Zeech's mysterious elven advisor! She stepped forward without any sense of recognition in her eyes and said, "I have volunteered to sacrifice myself in order to hold off Dragotha and his progeny. You will face Swords of Kyuss and Spawn of Kyuss. But beware, there is also something else approaching, an abomination the likes of which I have never seen before. It, too, must be delayed if our druid friends are to complete their work. Farewell and good luck." Having no time for lengthy goodbyes, Lashonna spread her arms and transformed into a magnificent silver dragon. With a single beat of her wings, she launched into the air and soared off toward the distant dracolich. 

As Lashonna receded into the sky, the company of druids began dragging the phylactery into a natural cavern in the rock wall behind them. Tylanthros paused to give the party some important last words. "Fear not, my friends. While Lashonna flies off to her almost certain death, you are summoned creatures. Your death in this place will not be your final death, for when you die here, you will reappear whenever you left, none the worse for wear. You will notice that any wounds you had when you left have been healed and all your spellcasting power has been refreshed. So be bold and be brave. Hold them off for as long as you can. At all costs, prevent them from disturbing our work in that cavern! It may benefit you to know that we plan to entomb Dragotha's phylactery in a place he'd never think to look, right under his nose in Rift Canyon! If you ever need to recover it, you will find it in a stone giant fortress known as Kongen-Thulnir." Tylanthros paused for a moment as if seeing or hearing something important. Then he continued, "I must fly! Protect me and my companions from the Kyuss-spawn, or the Age of Worms shall doom us all!" With that, Tylanthros ran into the cavern and was quickly out of sight.

Killick strode towards the cave and cast a spell, sealing its entrance up with a sheet of rock. Then he turned to his companions and said, "This is the main event folks. You all know what to do." Tarric looked over at Alees and saw her trembling with fear. He said, "You just heard the stakes. Can we count on you to help us this time?" Alees's eyes were transfixed on the unending horde of undead that stretched to the horizon. Without meeting Tarric's gaze, she replied, "Yes, I'm with you. Fharlangn protect me... Fharlangn protect us all! The Age of Worms is real!" At long last, she turned to face Tarric and announced, "We can't let this happen in our time! We have to stop it!" Tarric gave a nod of agreement. He was pleased to hear that she finally understood the stakes.

For a few moments, all that could be heard was the sound of frantic spell-casting, as the party members cast preparatory defensive spells. But less than a minute later, the first wave of Swords of Kyuss scrambled over the cliff's ledge and began approaching the party. Half of them approached the party at top speed - clanking forward in the heavy armor - but the rest of them used their abilities to call down black columns of unholy flame on the still-clustered party members. Most of the party was immune to this unholy magic, but although Alexander was invisible, he was still unprotected. The party heard his screams of pain as he was quickly dispatched back to his own time. First blood went to the minions of Kyuss.

The party members were all stunned for a moment, shocked by the sudden loss of the party's wizard. But then they sprang into action with a renewed sense of purpose and ferocity. With the use of potent clerical spells and deft melee attacks, most of the Swords of Kyuss were quickly dispatched. There were only about five left when the next wave of undead clambored over the ledge. There were two eviscerator beetles along with an animated pile of bones whose shape resembled an enormous white dragon. As this animated conglomeration of bones approached the party, they could see something protruding from its sides. These protrusions seemed to be growing larger and taking shapes of their own. This lumbering bag of bones was a surprisingly agile combatant, able to move from opponent to opponent. Grimlock moved up to it to protect its master, but the Boneyard bit the dog with its tremendous dragon jaw. The dog gave a horrific yelp. The party watched helplessly as the dog's bones flew out of its body and merged with those of the Boneyard. It had absorbed the dog's bones into itself! Killick yelled "No!" as the Boneyard tossed Grimlock's lifeless husk back down to earth. In the mean time, two giant worms - an Overworm and an Ulgurstasta - surrounded by about two dozen Spawn of Kyuss crested the ridge and began moving in to make attacks. Norvelle did what he could to keep the remaining Swords of Kyuss from reaching the cave entrance while Alees tried to occupy the Spawn of Kyuss, Killick attacked the worms, and Tarric and Katawan remained focused on the Boneyard. 

At this point, the Boneyard jettisoned three dragon skeletons from its body which began fighting independently. They surrounded Killick who was occupied with the two giant worms, but he was anything but disturbed by being outflanked by the enemy. Instead, he seemed to revel in the combat. He yelled with the glee of vengeance when he felled the ulgurstasta - the same sort of worm creature that had rampaged through Greyhawk when the party had been unable to stop it. Having been unable to hurt Killick, the dragon skeletons disengaged from him and headed straight for the cavern entrance. This forced the party to move back to make sure that none of them could disturb the druids' work.

Then three things happened nearly simultaneously that caused the party's hearts to sink into their stomachs. First, another wave of Swords of Kyuss crested the ridge, and they immediately began healing the Boneyard by calling down their black flames upon it. Second, the Boneyard successfully grabbed Katawan in its immense jaws and caused the monk's bones to fly out of his body, killing him in just the same way as it had killed Grimlock. Finally, in the distance, the party saw Lashonna's defeated and apparently lifeless body plummeting to the ground. Now Dragotha himself was on his way to deal with the party himself! But the party had no time for despair. They redoubled their efforts. 

But it was no use. One by one, the party members succumbed to the unending wave of Kyuss-minions. Norvelle was next to fall, then Tarric, then Talon, then Alees. Finally, only Killick remained, grievously wounded. He used his last potent spell to sheath his quarterstaff in flame. Using it, he was able to strike the Boneyard down at long last. He grinned as it collapsed into a pile of bones, and he didn't stop grinning even when he saw Dragotha himself land on the ledge. He approached Killick's position, but just as he was about to engage the druid, the undead dragon paused and gave an unearthly ear-piercing wail. Killick surmised that Dragotha had just sensed the loss of his phylactery. The party had succeeded; the druids had gotten away with Dragotha's phylactery! Killick gave a pained smile and beckoned for Dragotha to approach. Dragotha took his frustrations out on the defiant, but wounded druid, slaying him instantly with a slap of his tail. But before the life went completely out of his broken body, Killick's dying eyes saw Dragotha take flight. He was fleeing, leaving his army behind just as the druids had predicted!

Suddenly, Killick awoke to find himself surrounded by all of his boon companions. Killick told them all what he had seen just before his "death," and the party rejoiced in their victory. They could barely recognize the island they were on without the constant wind and rain that they had experienced upon arriving. They could clearly see the ancient temple where they had found the gems necessary to activate the gate to the demiplane, and beyond that they could see the orc pirates who had been shipwrecked by Darl Quethos on the coast, still working on fashioning a new ship. Alexander looked at his friends, smiled, and said, "I have a promise to keep," and he began walking toward the beach.


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## Menexenus

*Session 85: Arrival at Kongen-Thulnir*

_7th of Reaping - 4th of Harvester_. While many members of the party paid to have magic items improved or crafted, Talon was the party member who spent the longest amount of time crafting items herself - a total of 53 days. During this time, Killick spent time in the libraries at Greyhawk and Magepoint researching Kongen-Thulnir, the location of Dragotha's phyhlactery. He was astounded to see that references to Kongen-Thulnir were suddenly to be found in books that he was positive had contained no reference to that location on previous readings. Killick verified this suspicion by showing one such book to a librarian who was intimately familiar with the work. The librarian was equally as surprised to see the reference to Kongen-Thulnir, which he knew had not been there before.

Killick discovered that Kongen-Thulnir was a fortress-town built into one of the cliffsides of Rift Canyon by a tribe of stone giants who had been allied with the Order of the Storm. He met with the rest of the party in Greyhawk to relay this news. He was eager to travel to this location as soon as possible to seek the phylactery, but the party decided to wait until Talon was finished crafting. So Killick mounted his Obsidian Steed (Grimlock was jealous) and traveled to Kongen-Thulnir alone. As he approached the location that he had read about in his books, he entered the Ethereal Plane to evade detection. He found the cliffside fortress and observed hill giants and fire giants who seemed to be warring amongst each other within the city. He cast a spell that allowed him to determine the proximity of unnatural beings. He sensed the presence of one overwhelmingly powerful unnatural being as well as numerous smaller ones, and they all were in the same direction as the cliffside fortress. Rather than risk himself by approaching the city any closer, Killick wheeled his magical horse around and returned to Greyhawk to inform the party of what he had learned.

_5th of Harvester_.  Three weeks later, when Talon was finally finished crafting, the party made for Kongen-Thulnir via one of Talon's Windwalk spells. They resolidified about a mile from the edge of Rift Canyon. The terrain surrounding the Canyon was a depressingly dry, flat, nearly featureless plateau. Killick created water for a nearby scrub oak and magically asked it some questions about local goings-on, but the tree was of little help to the druid. As the party approached the edge of the canyon, they noticed that the fortress-town in the opposite cliffside was under attack by dragons! At least six dragons - green, black, blue, and red - were visible at any given time, wheeling in the sky and employing their breath weapons on those giants manning impressive static defenses, including catapults and heavy ballistae. The town was also equipped with well-camoflaged guy-wires designed to seroiusly injure flying creatures. It was almost as if the fortress had been constructed with defense against dragon attacks in mind.

The party observed that the northerm portion of the city had been almost completey destroyed by the dragons. They were currently focusing their attacks on the southern portion of the city as well as a fortification built on an outcropping of rock across from the middle of the middle of the city. A similar outcropping of rock across from the devastated northern end of the city had been completely leveled. Since the dragons seemed to be focusing their attention elsewhere, the party decided to use the still-active Windwalk spell to take mist-form again, fly across the canyon, land on the outcropping, take solid form again, and then walk across the bridge that connected the outcropping with the enormous cliffside cavern containing the city. The first part of their plan was uneventful. The successfully made it to the northern outcropping without attracting the attention of the attacking dragons. As the party members resolidified, Katawan heard something that sounded like a voice, but he couldn't tell what it was saying or where the voice was coming from. Then Alexander yelled out that an invisible green dragon was crawling out onto the outcropping. (Apparently, this dragon had been clinging to the underside of the stone bridge, lying in wait for enemies who might wish to organize new defenses on the flattened outcropping or in the destroyed northern portion of the city.) 

Killick cast Glitterdust on the dragon to outline it for his comrades. Alexander shot a Fireball and a volley of Quickened Magic Missiles which bounced off the dragon's Shield spell. The dragon belched out a cone of corrosive gas and then took off into the air, hovering above the party. Tarric flew up to engage the dragon in melee, but it was too fast for him to catch up with. Katawan had similar difficulties. It looked like ranged attacks and spells would be the order of the day. Norvelle and Talon had success bringing down holy columns of flame onto the dragon's head. Alexander had success with more Fireballs and a Polar Ray. Since the dragon's own spells had been completely ineffective against the party, it swooped in, grabbed Alexander in its tremendous jaws, and then flew away with him. For a moment, the party was concerned that Alexander was lost, because they knew the dragon flew faster than they did, but within moments Alexander teleported back to the outcropping none the worse for wear. In frustration, the dragon tried its breath weapon again, to little effect. Talon cast Dispel Magic in hopes of dropping the dragon's Shield spell. Alexander tried more Quickened Magic Missiles, which now struck true. Then he cast Feeblemind on the dragon. Alexander's impressive arcane power overwhelmed the creature and it reverted to animal intelligence. In its unthinking fury, it landed on the outcropping to engage the party in melee. Tarric obliged the dragon, using his spring attack ability to avoid the dragon's claws as he approached. However, after Tarric's sword, Branwhite, tasted the dragon's flesh, the dragon brought its full fury down on its wielder, biting him, slashing him with claws, buffeting him with its wings, and slapping at him with its tail. Tarric could not sruvive another such onslaught and withdrew to partake of Talon's healing abilities.

However, once the dragon had landed, it lost most of its advantages. Now all the party members could bring their abilities to bear. After getting Healed by Talon, Tarric ran back into the fight and delivered the killing blow. The ancient lieutenant of Kyuss slumped to the ground in ignominious defeat. (Perhaps its feeble-minded state was a blessing in disguise since its stupidity rendered it incapable of comprehending the humiliation of its utter defeat at the hands of beings less than a 20th of its age.)

Norvelle and Talon healed up the damage caused by the dragon and Alees relieved the dragon's corpse of an amulet and a ring. Then they headed across the bridge to the war-ravaged northern side of town. After briefly looking around, they found a functional well as well as the top of a stone ladder leading down the face of the cliff to a small under-city whose buildings looked small enough to house humanoids. In the distance, the party could see a keep guarding a gate which separated the northern and southern halves of the city. This keep was obviously still manned, as harpoons and catapults were being fired at passing dragons from that location. The party reasoned that if the dragons had destroyed this part of the city and had moved on, then the phylactery must not be here, so there was little reason to stay and search it exhaustively. The party chose to approach the manned keep and hopefully pass unseen into the southern half of the city rather than scale the ladder down to the undercity. 

Just when the party was about to move out, a small figure climbed out from hiding and hailed the party. As it approached, the party recognized this gnome as the Ominous Fabler, Prince Zeech's court jester! They asked him what he was doing here. He replied that his position as court jester for Prince Zeech was only a ruse which allowed him to spy on the Prince and attempt to learn what connection the Cult of Kyuss had with Alhaster. His former master, a stone giant from the floor of Rift Canyon had dreamed of the coming Age of Worms and his visions convinced him that this apocalypse would be initiated somehow in Alhaster. So the Ominous Fabler (whose real name was Gazilfek) had been dispatched to Alhaster to learn as much as he could and report back. When the party had arrived in town making no secret of their hatred for the Ebon Triad, Gazilfek thought that they might be useful allies in the effort to prevent the Age of Worms. On the way back to Rift Canyon to report what little he had learned to his stone giant master, he suddenly found a note in one of his texts on the Age of Worms that he knew hadn't been there before. It indicated that Dragotha's phylactery was hidden somewhere in Kongen-Thulnir. He knew that Dragotha was Kyuss's primary servant on the Material Plane, so he made a detour here to find out what he could. He arrived just a day before the dragons attacked. Since then he has been scouting out the city, looking for where the phylactery might be hidden. While he hasn't found it yet, he could still be of use to the party by guiding them through the town, saving them from wasting time on false leads, and he would also be willing to use his bard song to help the party in battle.

Alexander waited patiently for Gazilfek to finish his pitch before asking him why they should trust an undead creature such as himself. The rest of the party was surprised by this news - the gnome looked living to them. Gazilfek hesitated and then asked how he could carry out his mission to safegard the world from the Age of Worms with but one lifetime? Becoming undead had been necessary, he claimed. Killick used his Wormhunter power to sense if Gazilfek had become an agent of Kyuss. He had indeed. Killick informed the party that the gnome was indeed an agent of Kyuss and the party sprang into action. Tarric, Katawan, and Killick moved up to engage the gnome, who smelled of vomit covered up by strong perfume. As the three party members moved in close enough to attack, Gazilfek shot Kyuss worms into the air from all over his body. All three party members were struck, but they were able to scrape off the worms before they could begin burrowing. Each party member took a turn doing their worst to Gazilfek who didn't survive to take another action. Gazilfek's zombie-like corpse was wearing much more equipment than the Ominous Fabler had worn in Zeech's palace. Alees took everything of value so that the magical items could be identified later.

The party continued with their original plan of trying to sneak by the gatekeep that separated the currently destroyed lower-class northern half of Kongen-Thulnir from the besieged upper-class southern half of the city. The hope was that the keep's inhabitants would be too occupied with the dragons flying out in the skies to notice smaller beings like themselves flying up and over their gate. However, the plan didn't work. As they approached the gate moving slowly up against the back wall of the cavern, they saw a giant poke his head up, point in their direction, and shout an alarm to its brethren. The attempt to bypass the keep undetected had failed.


[Special note: This session was played at Origins and was briefly observed by none other than Monte Cook himself!]


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## Menexenus

*Session 86: Capturing the Roundhouse*

_5th of Harvester (continued). _A hill giant sentry in the round tower had detected the party and they had to decide quickly how to react. Alees hid. Alexander drew a wand and cast invisibility. Killick cast spider climb on Grimlock. But before combat could begin in earnest, Katawan stepped forward with his arms extended in a sign of peace and began speaking to the sentry in the giant tongue. Although the sentry still seemed wary, he did not attack. He shouted something back but seemed ready to toss something if a fight broke out. Tarric asked Katawan to translate. Katawan quickly informed the party that the giants refuse to let them pass unless they kill two dragons. Talon cast a quick prep spell. This angered the giant who began shouting. Katawan told the party to stop casting spells until the negotiations were over. After speaking briefly with Grimlock, Killick stepped forward, displaying his dragonhide cloak. He shouted up to the giant that the party were no friends of dragons and that they wished to ally with the giants against the dragons. The giant cocked its head in confusion. It said something quizzical to Katawan who then translated what Killick had said into the giant tongue. The party heard the giant repeat itself. Katawan confirmed that the giant was still insisting that the party kill two dragons prior to allowing their entry. Katawan yelled back in a more menacing tone, but the sentry was clearly unconvinced. Disappointed, Katawan said, "Oh well. He's not going to let us through. I guess it's show time." 

Just then, the party saw Alexander emerge from his invisibility atop the wall near the cavern's back wall. The arcane energies he invoked formed themselves into a Force Cage right in front of him on the battlements directly over the gate. A cry of anger and alarm went up from some unseen giant inside the cage. Tarric, Katawan, and Talon activated their Winged Boots and began flying up toward the battlements. Alees drew her lightning sword and activated its flight power. Norvelle cast Sanctuary and found a big rock to hide behind. Grimlock began climbing the wall toward the cavern's ceiling. Killick sprouted wings and began flying up. More giants came into view behind parapets at the top of the roundhouse keep. They all threw the strange green catapult loads that seemed to have bizarre sewn-up faces on them. They threw at Grimlock and Killick first, who were closest to the gate. Two of the hurled missiles impacted on Grimlock and one on Killick. Upon impact, the missiles exploded with greenish goo. The missiles themselves didn't seem to do much damage, but the goo had some sort of paralytic property. Killick's Ring of Free Action made him immunte to these effects, but Grimlock was rooted to his spot on the wall, unable to move. From his relatively secure position behind the Force Cage, Alexander peppered the giants with Maximized Fireballs and Quickened Magic Missiles. Talon cast Firestorm on them. Just as their two ballistae and catapults started to smolder from all the flames, Killick cast an Ice Storm on them and put out the flames. The giants seemed to have little defense against such attacks, but they did not flee. They continued defending their post against the intruders. Katawan hurled his last Bead of Force at the hill giant that he had negotiated with and it was caught in a force bubble, unable to attack. Katawan also hurled the last beads from his Necklace of Fireballs, which caused the first casualty on the gaints' side. Tarric flew up to teh battlements and attacked one of the giants through the parapet. Talon moved up to Grimlock and cast a spell to revive him. Alees made her way behind the one that Tarric had attacked to get a sneak attack. The roundhouse's two ballistae fired at and missed Katawan on the north side of the wall and Alees on the south side. 

In rapid succession, Tarric's blade felled one giant while Talon's Flame Strike felled two others. Half of the keep's garrison was now dead and two of the remaining giants were immobilized. At this point, the fire giant in the Force Cage shouted in Common that the keep surrendered. He shouted something in Giant and the two remaining active but bloody fighters put down their weapons and raised their arms in surrender. The fire giant said bitterly, "I suppose your dragon masters will reward you well for your service." Killick replied that the party members were no friends of these dragons. In fact, they had already killed one as they had entered the city. However, they were here in Kongen-Thulnir on important business. They were here to retrieve an important artifact from the city. That being the case, the fire giant asked if his remaining soldiers might be permitted to resume their attacks on the dragons. The party granted permission and the tired and bloody giant fighters rolled the ballistae back into their original outward-facing position and resumed launching missiles at the green, black, and red dragons, who were circling an impressive fortification built on an outcropping of rock about 100 feet away from the cliff wall.

Killick began interrogating the fire giant leader, who seemed reasonably cooperative after he learned that the party had no love for dragons. He explained that the giants who lived in Kongen-Thulnir were divided into 3 independent factions, the Riftlords who were loyal to the elderly cloud giant king, Achaime Silvereye, the Riftcrawlers, who were the remnants of a failed coup attempt and whose main base of operations was now in the servants quarters below the city, and the Keepers whose only concern was defending the Citadel of Weeping Dragons regardless of who ruled the city. However, all of the factions had united to defend the city once the dragons attacked. The fire giant and the troops under his command were all Rift Crawlers. The fire giant said that if the party was looking for the same thing that the dragons wanted, it was probably in the Citadel's Vault, but neither he nor anyone else knew what was in the Vault any more. The fire gaint warned the party that the Keepers would not let the party into the Vault without a fight. The Keepers were loony fanatics, as far as the fire giant was concerned. He also let the party know that there was no point in going down to the Vault until the party had both Vault keys but he had no idea where the keys were or who would know where they were.

The party began discussing the need for rest. The fire giant offered to let the party stay in the roundhouse. At first the party was suspicious of this offer, but the fire giant seemed honorable enough to keep his word. They accepted his hospitality. Before resting Alexander used a new ability to learn the basic function of new magic items to ascertain that the dragon's amulet had increased the power of his natural attacks and that his ring had been a Ring of Invisibility. Furthermore, Gazilfek, the Ominous Fabler had been wearing a Helm of Teleportation and a Ring of Chameleon Power. Although he was interested in learning more, he needed to rest so that the party could continue their search the following day. It was crucial that the party find Dragotha's phylactery before his dragon minions did!


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