The World of Telvar

This week we played two games (Friday and Saturday nights) on our quest to
kill Groorg, recover the cash, and find the mithril key. Game time is 21
Sept 2180 - 11 Oct 2180.

We returned from the Dwarven Vale and went to the Aarokokra lair where
Alegra was met by the shaman and our guide, Tchoh-meh, was assigned to us,
to bring us to a hidden valley very close to Groorg's lair (On the way to
the bird-man lair, we ran into Onyx the artisan stone giant and her child,
who knew little of Groorg that we didn't already know)

Tchoh-meh led us onward. We were dressed in dark robes as dark cultist
clerics. A couple of hill giants tried to join us against Groorg, because
they wanted to join the returning evil clerics. Ludo spotted an invisible
large figure behind us. The hill giants were killed and the invisible hill
giant as well. We attempted to track the giants and a couple of noblink
tipped a rock slide on us which miraculously ended in no one getting
permanently damaged, though some equipment was scuffed. Ceydric pursued the
noblink and their witchdoctor, flying, and killed them trivially. We then
pushed on through the night to make it as far as possible through their line
of ambushes as possible. We ran into a couple of hill giants who spoke to
us, as if expecting we were replacement, "Hey guys!" Then we killed them
and moved on as well, covering our trail and laying a false one as we headed
up an old goat trail over a hill and down into the hidden valley.

Aerial scouting revealed the temple, a road leading down to the forest where
many humanoids and giants were camped, a blind canyon behind the temple, and
a grassy meadow adjoining the canyon. More surveillance determined that
there were many caves in the blind canyon which might form a back door to
the temple, since no one believed that evil clerics would have no escape
route. So, we hitched up and climbed over a mountain at night into the
blind canyon and caves. We camped and prepared to enter a particular cave.
We climbed down into that cave and eventually came to a passageway. Then,
we could go no further because a stone golem barred the way. We tried
several methods for tricking the stone golem, including various sneak plans
and dispels, but a wall beyond the golem (who jumped out of the side wall)
invisibly barred our way. Finally, we prepared and Theo used his short
sword with Oil of Sharpness +5, killed the stone golem and we advanced
onward. We found a couple of unholy water fonts, and some side passages.
Exploring revealed noise upstairs. Ludo determined gonging and scraping and
metal sounds upstairs. We thought that the golem killing might have
resulted in an alarm upstairs, but we expected they would expect an attack
from above. We sent Ludo to investigate.

Ludo sneaked past the gnoll formation at the top of the stairs, as well as
the various noblink. There were not that many creatures on that level, but
it was quite large. He wandered around (invisibly) and almost walked into
the largest troll he'd ever seen (about 10X normal size, wearing an armored
jacket and looking kind of mean) who smelled him and he retreated.
Eventually, the troll became uninterested and went back into his garbage
heap. Ludo went around and saw 2 hill giants and 2 dogs, so he avoided that
room. He went to the top level, which was filled with folks at the main
doors ready to deliver death to anyone who got through. The room was filled
(a huge room!) with gnolls and noblink, many noblink carrying explosives and
fuses. Groorg was not here. Ludo continued to explore downstair. At this
point, he found Groorg, who after a few moments knew he was there, and
through a bag of white goo at him, so he was visible. Ludo used the
dimension door token to get back to the stairs down (though he had also had
the giant token ready but he was unable to use it in time). He was shot at
and then fell down the stairs and ran back to the party.

The alarm was raised upstairs. The party decided it was time to attack,
since they were clearly not ready for an attack downstairs yet. Some of the
gnolls thought it was the "glowy things" coming out of the basement but when
some shaman magic missiled Ceydric's sword it became obvious that it was
"invaders." We tried to get to the top. A couple of rocks were dropped on
us, even an explosive on Ceydric. Then, Eli used his immobile ring Wall of
Fire. The Noblink standing with explosives and acid ready were immediately
consumed and delivered damage in a huge radius. Then, two hill giants were
trapped inside the ring and Groorg out but most everything else was dead.
Some ogres were seen dimly through the flames. While trying to get clear of
the stairs, Rangorn ran into more of his bad luck and was hit by a cask of
highly corrosive acid from Groorg and went down. Groorg then used his
domination ability on us, but only Xavier was turned. He used a command on
Ceydric and Theo, until the domination was stopped. We healed him, the hill
giants were felled, and everyone broke upstairs. Groorg came charging
through the wall of fire*. After an amazing targetted shot from Warwick,
several Lightning bolts from Alegra, several Magic missiles (and the all
important Slow) from Eli, and several other bowshots and hits from Raven,
Ceydric, Theo, etc. Groorg was in BAD shape. He even missed Ceydric both
times with his maul. (Groorg was in full (magical?) plate as well and
obviously had something that absorbed the first couple of magic missiles
that hit him). He tried to run out through the flames and then Alegra
Bolted him again and he fell. The Wall was dispelled and we made sure
Groorg was dead. We killed the group of trolls that attacked us, but the
noblink and gnolls all ran away from us. We secured the main doors after
they had run away and mopped up the main rooms. Then, we regrouped at
Groorg's body and considered our options, our secondary objective complete.

*There is some suspicion that since Groorg's actions were not completely
consistent with one known as the Cunning, that the giant we killed could be
an impostor. Certainly not a hill giant, the possibility remains that it is
actually some other kind of giant in the armor. Circumstantially, we have
evidence against this, but it is possible Groorg might have fled rather than
fight us.

**Unfortunately, the inability to use divination spells of any kind on this
area (detect anything, find anything, etc.) makes the searching difficult.
This could be due to the HUGE symbol on the roof of the temple, perhaps
designed for just that purpose. The temple is also still consecrated evil
ground and must be desecrated.

Kyle/Alegra