The World of Telvar

Hello, all!

Konrad & co. arrived with some fanfare, we killed the WOTW (see Zack's note below),
and prepared for the GOO attack. We prepared the party by dividing it into teams Alpha,
Bravo, Charlie, Delta, Foxtrot and Tango. Echo was dissolved since its
mission was not entirely clear. Tango's mission was to stay at the Transporter.

A,B,C checked out the courtyard and Theo and Konrad killed the 2 giant
poisonous snakes there before they could react.

We then executed the Plan, and entered the building, sleeping and killing
the guardian snakes in the Entranceway and burning the contact poison off
the handle (that Ludo discovered).

We opened the door to the GOO's quarters and entered its room, Ceydric and
Faranyn, with team A ready to fly in. It retreated out of a back door, past
a glyph, throwing lightning bolts. Xavier dispelled the glyph and the wall
of ice that sprung up. We chased it around corners and up stairs, getting
an occasional shot at it with arrows and by Konrad and Theo. It went over
another glyph and the rest of B piled up behind while A went forward. It
failed to open a door and they wailed it; Faranyn crashed over the glyph and
was Blinded. It ducked through a secret door and kept being hit by Konrad
and Theo.

The small corridor it slithered down could only be rushed one at a time, or
slightly more. It tried several times to lightning bolt, even though we
were Protected. Several times it reflected its attacks back at itself.
Once it even smashed itself with its own lightning bolt and was affected by it.

It slipped through the end and slammed the door behind, and Konrad failed to
keep it open. A Blade Barrier cutting down the corridor gave significant
trouble to A + Ceydric and Janthro (Jerem's brother). Konrad caught the
catch and he and Ceydric jumped through and we Flame Struck (ouch!). Konrad
managed to keep after it (and destroy the scroll it was using to do this
stuff) but Ceydric had to retreat. Faranyn kept after it, as did Janthro
after healing, Cassana, and Jerem. Theo and Ceydric returned to the surgeon
Gilthanus. Xavier was busy running every which way healing and pondering
the situation.

About this time, Alegra had rearranged the deployment of Delta once again
(after first accounting for the move by the GOO to cover our backs). She
heard noises from Konrad coming from behind the Glyphed area in the northern
corridor. She set the archers ready to attack and prepared a Dispel.

Konrad chased the GOO into the room beyond the Glyph and the archers let
loose. Alegra attempted to dispel the Glyph but failed. Star threw a Wall
of Ice in front of it to prevent it from getting out of that room through
the door it again failed to get through.

Several volleys of missile weapons, Konrad's continued attacks, and Jerem's
final attack, levelled the GOO, which had been healing itself all along but
could no longer withstand the persistent attacks of the forces of Good.

Its head was removed.

The Glyph remains in place, a Bell begins ringing in the Towers above us.

------------------This is where we ended until tomorrow ----------

kyle/alegra

We started out the game by defeating the Will-o-the-Wisp. We decided to
write a couple of scrolls with Magic Missile x2 on them and when the WOTW
showed up next, Eli and Deirdre hammered it and defeated it in 3
segments. This was after a great deal of time wasted, waiting for the
WOTW to show up.

Needless to say, base camp on the ridge probably looks like a lived in
apartment now...(we were there for over 60 days).

-Zack Hubert-

The attack of the third and final GOO came right after the second one's
defeat. Teams A and B were strung out still from the first kill and had not
yet regrouped when a bell rang. When Alegra regrouped part of D and C to
cover the corridors we had not covered well to the sides, bolts raked team D
in the great hall (coming from arrow slits around and above). Team D was
separated from A and B by a large glyph and from C by a large part of the
great hall.

Just as Henry and Daria came into place, the third GOO came from a side
corridor at them and they turned to engage it. It wielded a huge battleaxe
and a lance in its human arms. When the lance could not reach them when
they ducked out of the way, the lance shortened to spear size. A large
guardian serpent-man came from behind them at the same time, with a Lesser
One. Star Ice-walled them.

The ensuing chaos was long and hard-fought. Multiple volleys of bolts
rained down, though sporadic and some times poisoned. Eli and Claude ducked
into a side room where Eli summoned powerful warriors from another Plane.
Aria eventually ended up in this room as bugbears and LO tried to break in.
The doors held at first which saved Aria, then the Warriors arrived and held
off the line of bugbears and LO. Archers arrived and several LO were
plugged by team D remnants and some from team B. Eli lightning bolted the
lot of them and killed almost all of the bugbears instantly and one of the
LO. The other LO here was clearly insane. Short work was made of the
remaining.

In the great hall, Memphis plugged and knocked unconscious the LO who
stepped out onto a balcony with a couple bugbears. They retreated.

Teams A and B and party of team F converged on the battle with the GOO and
the serpent-man when he broke through the wall. It took a long time but
once the whole group was in place the sustained damage of Theo and Konrad
and Ceydric along with the new damage from Faranyn and Daria killed it,
setting off another bell, but no other people responded.

We retrieved all of the gear, healed people, killed the unconscious LO, and
explored and found treasure. All told, the adventure for the SS was not
hugely profitable, but the treasure was more than acceptable, and a huge
goal was accomplished.

Konrad's party took a good amount of treasure and the following magic items
(every body got treasure, the greatest portions going to, in this order, the
SS (includes exemptions from Middle), the Auroran Church, Konrad, followed
by the rest):
The +1 lance that changes from any size between a heavy lance and a spear.
The bastard sword +3 vs. troglydytes (I have no idea how to spell that).
[this was from the first GOO that we never recovered]
A potion of invisibility.

The SS got (using one of its tax-exemptions from Middle):
The Battleaxe +3
The earrings of lightning bolts (30 charges)
a clerical scroll at 12th level
several potions and tokens

The colony of Middle (and Faranyn) got:
The bastard sword +3 vs. bugbears
A potion of climbing and clairaudience.

Gor got:
A potion of water breathing

Gilthanus got:
A potion of cure disease

Still to come (but probably not until next semester):
The Grey Philosopher

perhaps other evil-monster killing in Tan-El.

--------------
This was the last SS game of the semester. There may be games in the summer
but we do not yet know. Stay tuned!

Yes, this summary was abbreviated but the details are not terribly important
to overall understanding ( but were very important to the battle ). Fill in
anything I forgot at your leisure, guys...

kyle

Posted by Joel Green at 11:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Divination on the Castle:
Creatures there are vastly powerful.
Very rich treasure in the area
The forces of chaotic evil are present and the chance of disturbing them are
high
The forces of lawful evil and vastly dominant, but dormant, the chance of disturbing is moderate to high under the special circumstances
---
Two days after back in town - in the war room -
"I WILL KILL YOU ALL IN YOUR SLEEP IF YOU DO NOT RETURN MY TREASURE"
Just some cud to chew on.
E-
---

Results of the Commune spell:

1) Does the LE force in the castle consist of Kobolds NO

2) Are there 2 abominations YES

3) Do they intend to assist each other NO

4) Is the second GO in the same room as last time YES

5) Is there large numbers of pets, guardians, and automata
in the castle that we should expect to fight YES

6) Can we expect to be attacked by the above pets etc. on the
way to attack the second go NO

7) Is the LE force undead NO

8) Is the LE force confined YES

9) Will killing the GO free the LE force NO

10) Does the LE force consist largely of beings of supernatural
evil YES

Hmmm. Looks like you might be right David, a friendly devil in a bottle
perhaps?

-Zack Hubert-

We should remember with these questions that the point was Power or
Control over the castle, not numbers. If a confined Devil controls Undead
in the castle this would be perfectly consistent, for instance.

kyle/alegra

Since you obviously have some idea what his party consists of, I'll clear
things up a little bit so you can incorporate it into your planning.

Konrad Paladin, magical full plate,large shield and scimitar. rides a
pegasus. He almost qualifies as a GAT (God Awful Thing)

Memphis Fighter/Mage

Muriel Fighter/Cleric/Mage

Vit Mage/Linguist

Daria Fighter, magical khopesh. Konrad's daughter.

Konrad will also be bringing various magic items to distribute for party
use while he is there. We can possibly arrange permanent trades if there
is something you want to keep. Spells are also available for trade.

If you want levels or more information I'll provide what I can.

Rodger Henson

Posted by Joel Green at 11:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Greetings one and all, we have an interesting story to relate today, one
of fame and fortune, but also of infamy and loss.

We started the evening in the library. There were a couple of things
that were brought up in email to try but both Jack and I didn't want to
get bogged down in the library again, so we took off to explore the city.

In one of the blocks, was a rather run down old Inn. Ludo detected a
secret panel in one of the walls, fairly well hidden. Xavier checked to
insure that Ludo was successful in determining there was no traps. Since
there were none, Ceydric opened up the panel. TAKE TWO.

Out of the panel flies a purple glowing ball, another Will-o-the-wisp. Being the
sturdy cavalier that he is Ceydric pummels the thing, while everyone else
is readying the weapons they will need to hit it. Eli leaves the
building (so he can cast a spell without him seeing it) and lets off a
Limm, near max damage. Canstin hits, Jerem hits, lots of 20's rolled.
Eli tries a burning hands and slow, both have no effect. The clerics are
busy healing and aiding Ceydric, the target of all its attacks. Eli
blasts it with another Limm and the thing takes off into the city.
Unfortunately, due to Eli's 4 segments recovery, it got away. So Ceydric
goes back over to the panel and some skeletal hand reaches out and starts
grabbing for his throat. He begins to pummel it, Eli limms it, the
clerics try to turn it (no avail). It is muttering in a very old dialect
of dwarven that Claude understands..'stay away from my money'. So,
eventually it hits Ceydric, grabs his neck, it proceeds to drain hit
points from Ceydric's total, kind of sucked but we managed to kill it.
The hit points returned. The skeleton had +1 leather armor (dwarven
sized), a Ring of Feather Falling, and a Bucknard's Everful Purse. We
grabbed those, and then, thanks to Jerem, we decided to grab the
nonmagical stuff too. Amongst the nonmagical stuff were 100 realmish
platinum and ... about 65000 in assorted jewelry. We return to Middle to
store away such treasures. At this point, the party is worth 100k :)

We again venture into the city, but as we leave Middle, marked on one of
the barn's is, "give me back my treasure - the behir", damn will-o-wisp,
we should have finished the job. The people are panicked but we assure
Faranyn that it is just a will-o-wisp.

We go to the plaza area (right next to the library) and explore the
central over grown portion. There are a couple of fountains and then in
the middle, a rather cool little building. Outside of it is a large
statue of a man on a big platform...non magical. We go inside the
building, brass pipes, wheels, gears, a mess of engineering, a water
runoff ramp, oh, and SMART stenciled in big letters on a huge cylinder.
We descend down some stairs and find a huge room with a stone cylinder
rising through the center. This, Eli guessed correctly, is a battery.
On the ground were two fuzzy, grey things. We weren't sure what they
were so brave Xavier went down with speak with animals and got within
30'. Ludo threw a rock to wake one of them up. It started to quiver,
slowly rise up, extend a huge hairless tail, open these big insect like
eyes and make straight for Xavier, it was a Volt. Several sleep magicks
went off and the things hit the floor. We left.

We decide to destroy the hornets. We go to Temple street and Ice Storm
their nest. A couple dozen fly out of the building and act confused,
they complain about high winds (thanks to 4 dust devils) and then
eventually notice our party. The swarm comes out...too many to count but
on the order of 40 or so. Xavier in his ultimate charm manages to
convince them that we didn't cause the winds. We take off, and decide on
a war of attrition against these guys.

I think the same day, but I could be wrong, we are heading back to the
library when Jerem fails to alert the party of a closing monster (Jen was
rolling terrible surprise checks, unfortunately it mattered this time),
trundling out of its camouflaged location, a Banshee Beetle gets within
range of the party and shreiks. Ludo, thanks to his insane dex, gets out
of the way (negated all three surprise segments) and is unaffected.
Unfortunately almost everyone drops. Standing is Claude, Henry, Canstin,
Ludo, and Jerem. Ludo hurls the dart of the hornet's nest (yes, it
looked that bad) and pummeled the beetle with 12 +2 darts, Canstin starts
attacking, Jerem attacks, Claude administers potion to Eli, Henry gets in
its face and starts thrashing it. Henry deals the killing blow and then,
oh, Gram was up too, Gram assesses the damage. Deirdre is worked and in
need of serious attention, potions are administered left and right to
prevent permanent shock damage. In the end, everyone is dandy except
Deirdre (Xavier's magic user buddy), she needs a month of bed rest.

We return to the library, Eli asks everyone to cover their wounds as they
head back to Middle so we don't look toasted. Unfortunately it didn't
work, at base camp we are attacked during first shift by the
will-o-wisp. Ceydric hits several times, Henry yells for the party to
awake. Henry gets toasted and runs with negative function to awaken
Alegra. Eli wakes up and hammers it with a 23 point Limm. Naturally, it
goes for him. Eli gets hit and falls over as if he were dead. Canstin
tags it, Eli rolls out of combat. Ludo hits, Xavier hits, Eli stands and
Limms it again. Max damage. Eli runs towards the party as it goes for
him. Within the next 3 segments someone hits it and causes it to flee
again, due to the night cover, it gets away.

We get back to middle, Eli acquires Magic Missile (limm is too slow
against the will-o-wisp). And then we head back to Tan-El.

The behir is in the city and we have a difficult time getting to the
people in the library but we do.

That is all!

Questions, comments, omissions?

-Zack Hubert-

Posted by Kyle MacLea at 03:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Some auguries to keep in mind:
To attempt to steal the spell books:
"Vast disappointment will surround any unlikely survivors."
[pretty bummin', I'd say!]
To try to test Tellah's powers with a monster summoning:
"Wounds will be nursed with the small comfort of disturbing answers."
[hmmmm, not exactly making us jump at it]
To try to pick-pocket or remove any of Tellah's rings, etc.:
"Only vast disaster will result."
[duh!]
To try to attack Tellah:
"Partial success could kill thousands of innocents."

Other things of note:
Spells or magical items cannot be used in the library (though latent
protections devices and so on were not prevented, and neither were spells
cast through the open door into the library).

We happened to mention the Tangg-Lord and he said that he "could only aspire
to ever reach such a position." He stated that Tangg-Lord was a proper name
and so we could not find it in the dictionary.

Tellah might have been stated in Xavier's Astrology reading:
"The tall, dark figure will fail to threaten you."

Trying to enter through the basement level would have resulted in:
"Certain disappointment will result."

The front door (before we used the chime):
"Faith in others abilities will rise." (This certainly makes me feel both
that Tellah is much more powerful than I expected)

Baleful is about as smart as dog, and has only the powers we have already
attributed to him. To look on the brightside, Edwin did say that Faranyn
would practically have to be feebleminded and on the brink fo death for
Baleful to take him over. :)

He is not a friend of Tyner.

He has heard of the Codex of Defense but has never seen it (random ?)

One book was found in the tongue of the Yavad, which I believe was something
like dwarven. The Runic I found here is somewhat dialectical.

Tan-El is not his civilization.

Zardos' "Life of Infamy":
Killed, tortured, and maimed many people.
Good clerics went to try to stop his rampage and summoned Devas
to their aid. Zardos killed the devas (ouch!) and made a
headress from their feathers (Alegra would like to smack him for
this, among other much worse things). At the end of the book, the vastly
powerful warrior-champion of the civilization ruled by a council on a
mountain-plateau attempts to stop Zardos. He died fighting Zardos and
Zardos uses the magical sword of the warrior to kill his compatriots. At
the end, Zardos takes the vast magical ring of the warrior and puts it on,
which causes something that results in his imprisonment and capture.

The council then 'addled his powers' greatly. They used much type 5 magic
to hold him to the library. he cannot leave. he cannot remember much of
himself, where he would go if he were free for instance. He does not deny
the facts of "A life of infamy," only the stated reasons for Zardos'
actions. [We didn't get a lot of his reasons on the original flip-through,
though more information is still avaible to get as we ended the adventure in
the library]

Tellah will attempt to restrain, and then destroy anything that violates his
conditions. But he cannot ever leave the library, so he cannot be drawn
outside.

He has black, dark hair, grey, pitted, not-quite-rotting looking skin, and
uniform blue eyes. No white no anything different in them.

He considers himself to be a "greatly crippled human."

He is 7 feet tall.

The binding facilities in the basement are not functioning (no visitors are
allowed in the basement!), due to some external problem (like SMART took the
battery for instance). The only golems in the library are in the bindery.
They have not worked in a long time, though Tellah seems unable to
distinguish much about time.

An attempt to enter one of Star's poems into the collection required the
approval of the "proper authorities," who are all dead probably.

>The name change is obvious, he is a new person now. With the powerful
>magic on him, he has to be Tellah the librarian, instead of Zardis the
>destroyer of worlds.

It is worth noting that the Council did give him his new name.

The Council has also changing in number and power over years.

---

Beck had some of the following info (which would have been useful
beforehand but somehow it slipped all of our minds that night):

Zardos was captured using the ring of the great warrior (as mentioned
before): it was a +6 ring of protection that had masked in its power a
spell that would addle/imprison the wearer that consumed the +6 ring as
its material component.

The people who captured him thought that to waste his mind by killing him
or putting him in a hole in the ground was criminal and so he was instead
chained to the library. He was considered to be one of the greatest minds
of his generation. But, actually, he couldn't be killed anyway...

The Council had determined that he could not be killed and was in fact
almost totally invulnerable to physical and magical attacks of all kinds.
This is why they needed to make an item that he would voluntarily accept.
The reason he was invulnerable/immortal was because he was "sponsored"
more or less by the evil deity who shall remain nameless because it is
dangerous to speak his name. Whether this is a devil or demon is also not
clear. Until that "sponsorship" was removed he would be totally invulnerable.

The Council had the power to demand answers of all kinds from him but this
was dangerous as he then could retain cognition of said things
potentially. (i.e. "How do you cast lightning bolt?" "ZAP!")
Others merely had the authorized answers of the Council.

Whether the sponsorship has been removed is not clear. However,
Zardos/Tellah IS still alive. Whether this is due to the holding magic or
the original effect is not clear.

All of the jewelry on Tellah's person is part of the enchantment: DO NOT
REMOVE! However, he has one item not mentioned in the sources: The key
to the front door. This item cannot be removed. "It is [his] charge to
retain possession of the key."

There may be more but this is all I can remember at the moment...

---

I agree that dealing with Zardos at this point is futile.
However, we can still come up with questions to ask him and things to try
over the week, if folks get bright ideas over the week.

kyle/alegra

Posted by Kyle MacLea at 03:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)