The World of Telvar

The ambush room itself had several statues in it which were actually figureheads on the bows of boats. One we actually recognized as belonging to a very vicious pirate.

We opened the secret door and turned down the corridor. We were saved by Chester, who smelled charcoal, which prompted Alduin to find the glyph on the floor for us. It was too large for Balinor and Felix to jump over, and so a pew was dragged there and used as a makeshift bridge.

Having sidestepped that, we opened one of the doors in the corridor. Inside were the badly damaged dead bodies of two priests of the QoG. The wounds were likely inflicted by the Flaming Fist during the fight, and we assumed that these bodies would later be Raised.

The opening of the next door triggered a ringing bell. An injured woman inside got out of bed and yelled, then began to cast a spell before Felix took her out by knocking her unconscious.

Balinor and Morgan had been ready at the back for a fight, and they got one. Two priests came out of one of the other doors, and Balinor moved to meet them. He dispatched one while Cassian and Morgan inflicted ranged damage on the other, who tried to retreat after Cassian threw a Silence spell in the area. Morgan caught him and took him out.

Meanwhile, two other priests had come out of another door and run into Kodo as he emerged from the room with the injured woman. Under a hail of attacks he went down, although his companion managed to get a Hold Person off, which miraculously affected no one. Kodo moved into close combat with him, and after being struck for a wound by the man’s footman’s mace, Kodo struck him down. The original injured woman was taken out.

Hoping there had not been a general alarm, we quickly moved down the corridor, Kodo having healed himself with the Ring of Health. We encountered a sleeping woman, who was easily knocked out under cover of Silence. We tied her up and moved on, hoping to have at least one prisoner at the end of this.

In the kitchen, we found an old man cooking, who seemed frightened. We tied him up, and then Felix used Peacemaker’s ability again: the man was VERY evil. Suddenly we had a dilemma—should we kill him?

We questioned the man, and he said that the high priest was a tall slender woman. He begged us not to kill him because he was an old man. We decided to incapacitate him, which we felt somewhat guilty about until Balinor determined that he survived the first blows, belying his claims of frailty. The man suddenly slipped out of his bonds and reached for a massive cleaver and a rolling pin. Balinor and Kodo both smashed him, but when he didn’t fall Cassian dropped with a Command. He was then killed. It was soon realized that this was the evil pirate whose figurehead we had seen in the ambush room.

Having cleared the area, we opted for the spiral staircase rather than the mysterious blue and red panel doors. As we headed down, Kodo and Felix suddenly stepped on a very nasty lightning glyph, which exploded loudly and really trashed Felix, though Kodo escaped relatively unhurt.

Some more healing was done, and then we continued down, into a fight probably more dangerous than the one with Caxathoros.

As Kodo, Felix, Quentin, and Cassian approached the base of the stairs, a Hold Person flew at them, catching Cassian. In addition, a Slay Living struck Quentin, who resisted thanks to tremendous magical bonuses, merely suffering a double wound.

We could see a single file corridor with three people standing in it, and a shadowy beach behind them. The closest man was blocking the corridor wielding a harpoon. The back two were a woman in silvery armor, and a man in jumpsuit. Felix and Kodo charged toward the lead man blocking the corridor. Quentin began a Cure Serious Wounds. Kain began a Remove Paralysis to help Cassian.

Chiaro, Alduin, and the Fist’s thief (Sharilla, I think?) flattened themselves against a wall as Balinor and Morgan began the slow trek to the front of the party, Donald following closely behind.

Kodo was stuck in the chest by a harpoon from the man in front. Felix was taken down by a Command, but Kodo kept moving. Suddenly, Kodo was lifted off of his feet and began flying down the corridor with increasing speed. He tried to swipe the defender as he went passed but missed. It wasn’t at all clear what had caused this.

Suddenly Quentin’s spell was destroyed by a Silence spell hurled at him.

Quentin shifted into a mountain lion to be partially healed and waited for the fighters to charge past. The harpoon man pulled out a flail and tried to kill Felix. Morgan rushed him desperately, resisting about three spells hurled at him by the clerics in back. He reached the flail man and sliced him up, barely penetrating his Aid spells, and wounding him, forcing him to stop killing Felix. Balinor pulled up behind Morgan but could go no further. Donald pulled out the Wand of Magic Missiles and prepared to fire.

Kodo found himself hurtling through the air toward a huge creature in the middle of the lake. It had lots of tentacles and was clearly pulling Kodo to it. He also noticed a cage with members of the Flaming Fist in it up above, but had little time to comment as the tentacles grabbed him, inflicting tremendous damage. Kodo smashed the creature with his axes, but they had no effect, and almost broke. He pulled out the Horn of Valhalla and began blowing it.

Felix finally woke up from being prone and stabbed the guard, injuring him badly. Donald completed the Magic Missiles just as a Darkness dropped on the fighters, who desperately began to pull out Continual Light pouches. The now freed Cassian threw a Silence at the priests, which cut off one of their barrages of spells (which were amazingly unsuccessful generally).

Kodo realized that he was about to enter the maw of the creature, and so he hurled the Horn at the cage. The Horn flew into the air, and was snagged by the fighter/mage! The Fist had been giving the fighters a play-by-play with Kodo, and Balinor told them to have a fighter blow it!

Unfortunately, Kodo disappeared inside the creature and eaten messily.

The darkness was suddenly lifted by our Continual Lights, revealing that the guard had retreated and the clerics were now surrounded by an entourage of eight ghouls.

No problem. Morgan isn’t affected by ghouls.

At that moment, Morgan replaced Kodo as the new target. The elf began flying through the air, and the prone Felix was unable to grab him in time. Donald released the Magic Missiles into the three enemies and then charged out of the Silence to throw a spell. Felix stood up and faced off with the ghouls, Balinor watching helplessly from behind him.

Felix began slicing through the ghouls one by one, dodging paralysis attacks.

Donald desperately threw a Web spell, which snagged Morgan before he was eaten! Morgan had managed to down a Flying potion, but was now completely stuck high in the chamber.

Kain and Cassian began throwing Hold Persons at the trio of priests. The woman in the silvery armor had begun to walk across the lake. The man with the jumpsuit was not visible, while the third man (the harpoon man) had taken cover behind the ghouls.

Felix chopped up two ghouls, avoided being paralyzed, and then continued to gauge them. The jumpsuit man popped around the corner, through a Hold Person which caught the frustrated Balinor, but missed Felix, and then jumped back. Felix pasted four more ghouls and dodged another attack, hacking through them like paper.

Cassian threw a Dispel Magic at the woman on the water, hoping to dispel her waterwalk and plunge her into the undead shark infested waters. This did not happen, but her spell fizzled—the Raise Water she was casting would have killed us all.

Quentin had finally been able to heal himself and moved into the first Silence by the stairs, looking for something to do. The hitherto forgotten Chiaro ran forward and scooped up the Magic Missile wand and fired at the woman, disrupting another spell.

Cassian ran to help Balinor with a Remove Paralysis. Donald hurled a Slow spell which caught the woman but failed against the tentacled creature due to some sort of magic resistance.

Felix had sliced down six of the ghouls, but suddenly he was flying through the air as well. At that moment, the Fist’s fighter/mage finished blowing the Horn. The portal opened, and the men popped out. They turned and hurled spears at the fighter/mage, who collapsed in a heap. Then they vanished back into the portal.

Kain threw a Hold at the woman, which actually succeeded! She froze in place on the water. Chiaro fired a magic missile at the tentacle creature, which definitely affected it. Donald hurled Magic Missiles at it as well, injuring it.

Felix flew through the air and was grabbed by the tentacles and trashed. He was still alive, and the creature was paid back by hideously powerful slashes of the +5 short sword. Felix slammed the creature twice, which greatly angered it. And then Felix was dead as well.

Quentin desperately ran forward, and then hit upon a brilliant idea. He began a Plant Growth.

Meanwhile, since the fighters were all dead or incapacitated, the thieves took the initiative. The ghouls fared horribly against the double dagger wielding Alduin who sliced one up thanks to multiple fumbles. He moved forward and took down the last one. He found himself facing off against the guard, or would have, had the guard not gone down from ranged damage.

Kain was about to launch a vial of oil at the jumpsuit man, when Sharilla appeared behind the jumpsuit man with a massive backstab. He turned to face her and stabbed at her, but missed. Then Alduin came up behind him and backstabbed him again!

Massive damage brought him down.

Quentin released the Plant Growth, and huge plants came out of the water, hindering the undead sharks, though it had little effect on the tentacle creature.

Balinor had been freed from paralysis by Cassian, and he downed his Flying Potion and took to the air to save the Flaming Fist. Suddenly, he felt the pull of the tentacle creature, and tried to resist. There was a duel between the creature’s levitation powers and Balinor’s potion, and the creature lost! Balinor went hurtling backwards but recovered and moved to help the Fist.

Alduin fired a flaming arrow at the Web to free Morgan, but it failed to light the Web. Cassian began shooting the Held woman, injuring her. Alduin lit the Web on fire with a second shot, and Morgan was freed. He descended into the water and plunged Thunderstruck in it. The explosion injured both of them, and Morgan retreated to fire his +3 arrow. Then Quentin threw his Entangle, but it didn’t catch the creature, which resisted the entire effect. His second Entangle held, and the vines began making life annoying for the squid thing.

In response, it began charging toward the shore.

A wide-eyed Cassian and Kain began to Turn the creature. Alduin hurled a vial of Holy Water but missed. Morgan fired his arrow and nailed the creature. Balinor began trying to bend the bars of the cage.

Chiaro and Donald sent Magic Missiles at the creature, injuring it. When Donald ran out of spells, he grabbed the wand from Chiaro. The creature had reached the shore, and spewed a massive acid spray! Cassian avoided the worst of it, but it slammed Donald, Kain, Chiaro, Alduin, and Sharilla. Chiaro and Sharilla fell down dying, but the others survived.

At last, Cassian Turned the creature back, and it began to flee along with the undead sharks!

Incensed, Donald asked Quentin to be his crocodile mount and to help him go kill that thing! Quentin would have agreed, but then Donald was suddenly caught by the levitation affect. Quentin grabbed on to him and they both went flying toward the creature.

Balinor failed to bend the bars of the cage and gave up, dive bombing the creature. He hit, but found that his hammers did not affect the creature (only +1).

Quentin pulled out his flying potion, and he and Donald each downed half of it in midair. The wand was slowly recharging…

Balinor put away his hammers, and pulled out his dagger+2 and a bar of soap. Let’s see how it likes being SCRUBBED! He flew down at the creature, and before he could attack it, was grabbed and smashed badly, suddenly in trouble.

Donald was rapidly approaching the creature, and he fired his Magic Missiles… and the creature died.

The surviving cleric was incapacitated but left alive. Chiaro and Sharilla were both saved by Cassian and Kain. Felix and Kodo were both dead, but stored within the almost kangaroo-like pouch in the creature.

The squid itself was something called a “tribute gatherer,” a demon that receives offerings and brings them to the Hells or wherever.

There are some ugly issues, but there have to be at least a few Raise Deads lying around the place.

The wrap-up and tying up of numerous loose ends should occur next time.

Well, it was a typical Defenders adventure!

Joel/Balinor

Log Supplement QQ: QQ

Alex's suggestion for dealing with the high priestess:

We know that the priests of the QoG prefer burial at sea. So to satisfy our law vs. chaos argument:

If she gives us information on the Church of Hindus and/or other evil churches, we will kill her quickly, Rest Eternal and then a sea burial.

If she refuses, we drag her back to Koralgesh for a trial, execution and land burial.

This has the advantage that as a chaotic evil priestess, she should have no qualms about divulging information about OTHER churches, and so we benefit and she loses nothing.