The World of Telvar

People who were turned in to snakes at least once in the battle:
Ceydric, Pap, Darkeye, Letier, Claude, Xavier, am I missing anyone?

Number of automata destroyed by Eli: 1
Number destroyed last time: 1

Number of segments it took us to kill the hydra: 10
Number of segments it took us to escape the GO: 35
Number of segments we considered attacking it for: 0
Number of dispel magics cast: 3+
Number of times the dispel magic did not work on Claude: 3+
Number of times we annoyed it: Too vast to count.
Number of times it annoyed us: That +1.

Number of times Dari was very thankful that her Cloak of the Storm was
actually what it was and not a misidentified Rain Cloak: Too numerous to
count (She took _no_ damage from lightning).

Number of people occupied with holding open a portcullis or dragging dead
bodies or bagging or dispelling snakes at any one moment: On average, 5-7
at later points in the combat.

Note that the Koralgeshains are not for going back. We traipsed, licking
our wounds, into Middle.

Kyle/Alegra

Summary IVb: A More Complete Impression

We found that the danger in our mission was truly great. Were it not for
Aurora's guidance and inspiration, I would have surely been killed. Things
did not go well for our mission, but it could have been much worse...

(To continue from last time- leaving Tan-el after killing the first GO): After
casting some healing spells, the party continued on through the
transporter room. After minor navigational difficulties concerning the
party's map of the city, we made it to the 'log' - another entrance into
the city where a log spans a chasm immediately outside a broken down
section of the castle walls. Thanks to the divine intervention of Aurora,
the Bugbear guarding the entrance was incapacitated until Ludo slit its
throat. We then left the city and crossed the log into the forest and
back to base camp.

At base camp, we cured everybody, dispeled the snakes, opened the GO sack,
and raised Cassana. The GO sack contained several potions, a cloak, a
scroll of flame walk, and several coins and jems. We sent Cassana back
to Middle, for she was too weak to participate in our next adventure.Dari's
scrying revealed bugbears at the archway, snakes in the first room of the
castle, and rats feeding on the body of the dead GO. After we found no sign
of the Behir, the party entered the city via the log entrance.

We made it to the bronze doors of the castle without any trouble. Here we
found that the doors were propped open by a canister- we pulled the doors
open with rope, anticipating explosion. The canister expanded and
exploded- revealing a huge nine-headed hydra. The party fled initially,
but as it apparent that the hydra would easily catch the slower moving
members of the party, we turned to fight. After 10 segments it was all
over- the Hydra had taken 200 points of damage (60 on the 10th alone!)
only inflicting minimal damage. Three of the four people turned invisible
were now visible, however. Despite this, the party chose to continue.

We propped the castle doors open with a rock which Eli transmuted to look like
the original canister. After finding the first two rooms virtually the
same as we had the last time, we chose to disarm the trap on the NE door.
This worked, and we found that the door led to a courtyard inside the
castle. Since this obviously was not part of the outer bailey, we thought
that through this courtyard was the citadel- the innermost portion of the
castle. We turned back, deciding to check the other rooms first.

After opening a trapped door which Ludo failed to disarm, Ceydric was
moderately damaged. After some healing, we tried to force the doors open,
for it was appearent that they were barred. Claude managed to do this
(rolling 01 %!) and Chaos, Death and Confusion erupted. The entire party
was hit by a lightning bolt as a wall of ice formed over the entrance the
the door. The first few members of the party saw a glimpse of a great one-
a huge snake with a human head with an expression full of hatred.

Bluebear and Aria were killed instantly by the shock. Star, Jerem and
myself were fatally wounded, but rescued by the quick actions of Letier
and Allegra. The party decided to leave, as the GO appeared in a balcony
above. Many people were changed into snakes as the party fled trying to
drag the dead and wounded. Tesla was killed by a second lightning bolts,
and the automations attacked us as we were routed. Because so many people
were changed into snakes combined with the danger of lightning bolts and
the very heavy weight of Tesla, we weren't able to retrieve the body. The
moment of the most danger to us came when the GO attempted to polymorph
Allegra when Letier was already a snake. This would have resulted in the
permanent loss of many party members as well as Letier and Darkeye. We
were very fortunate, though, and we were able to transform back all of the
party members except Claude.

Severly beaten, the party limped back to base camp and then back to Middle
without further difficulty. Claude was latter tramsformed back without further
loss of his mind.

So ends our daring mission. The Koralgeshians believe this GO is beyond
us, and the party concurs. We should not attack again anytime soon.

Xavier

Summary IVc: Some further thoughts

>Should we divide treasure now and let the Koralgeshians leave, or do they
>want to participate in the raid on the mites' lair?

As I understand it, the Koralgeshians are going to be on their way. I would
suggest that we do have a Farewell Banquet however. And many fond hopes
that they may return later and help us vanquish the Evil Ones forever...

--Faranyn

Yeah, they're leaving. I would suggest that the Mites are something we can
handle on our own. We will need a lot of money to train certain members of
the party...

--Alegra

You haven't trained in TWO YEARS, right Alegra? Wow! That's an awful long
time. I think I'll write an Epic Poem about that......

--Star

--Pap, Nym, and the gang

Both Alegra and Faranyn disagree that recovering Tesla's body is solely for
the goal of raising him. A proper burial is important to Tesla, I am sure,
and so it should be done if at all possible. Alegra suggests a cautious
approach, tending to back up use of the Spell Immunities to go about it.
Faranyn has a hard time holding back his urge to punish the Evil Ones for
killing three of our number, but he suggests that whatever force we send in
be powerful, but not with the intention of proceeding further until we can
come back and make sure they are certainly destroyed forever.

However, Faranyn would like to see Tesla raised. Alegra thinks that's up to
Ceydric.