Defenders Summary #74: Thank You For Not Killing Us
Party Roster:
Felix, 7th level fighter, 70 hp, played by Alex
Balinor, 7th level fighter, 70 hp, played by Joel
Cassian, 7th level cleric, 45 hp, played by Katherine
Kain, 6th level cleric, 43 hp, played by Jeff
Morgan, 7th level fighter, 38 hp, played by Alan
Quentin, 8th level druid, 37 hp, played by Jeremy
Donald, 7th level mage, 37 hp, NPC
Albee, 5th level monk, 31 hp, NPC
Bogomel, 3rd level fighter, 31 hp, henchman
Nakumanu, 4th level fighter, 30 hp, henchman
Chiaro, 4th level illusionist, 8 hp, played by Aaron
(Chiaro was reinserted into the adventure.)
The party had discovered an open space behind a lava flow past the cursed bone statue. First we Stoneshaped through the hole, and found a second lava flow, broke through that, and then found ourselves in a long corridor. We quickly discovered a large complex.
Strangely, in the corridor there was a jet of poisonous gas coming out of the wall, which everyone in the front saved against. We avoided it for the moment.
We found a number of rooms, including one that detected as entirely magical. There was a high magic book in a corner, a statue in another corner, several “drill bits” (large twisty bits of metal) hanging from the ceiling, near a black section of the ceiling. The drill bits were also highly magical. The floor was made up of connected lizard things. There were also two high magic frescoes on the wall, both of a sandy beach. In one it was day, the other night.
There were also three rooms with doors with runes of “names” on them. One was cracked open while the other two were sealed shut. We checked out the open one and found a number of niches with bones in them. After a brief argument, Felix picked up three gems from the bones. Nothing detected as magical or evil or anything.
The next door was picked by Felix, revealing a weird sight. In the room sat a balance on a slab. On the balance was a beating heart and a flame, keeping the scale in balance.
We shut the door.
Felix picked the last door, and then a hideous undead monster attacked the party, right on schedule.
Chiaro, Nakumanu, Bogomel, and Morgan instantaneously aged 3 or 4 years (Morgan aged 25). In addition Nakumanu and Bogomel went screaming down the hallway. Chiaro decided that wasn’t such a bad idea anyway and went to stop Nakumanu and Bogomel.
Felix stabbed the ghost while Morgan fumbled and Balinor hit it once, clearly inflicting some damage. Donald threw a Magic Missile at it, hammering it. Kain began a Flame Blade while Quentin pulled the bug helm over his head to avoid a potential sonic attack. It was rapidly discovered that Quentin, Kain, and Cassian were immune to the aging attack, but everyone else shut their eyes.
The partly insubstantial creature then swept at Morgan and disappeared into him. Morgan dropped Thunderstruck and tried to touch Felix. Kain shouted a warning, and Felix opened his eyes and punched Morgan in the face, sending him reeling. Balinor swung a meaty fist and missed though not before pumping his strength with Wrath. Quentin tried to Dispel it while Cassian tried Hold Morgan. Morgan drew a dagger and tried to slit his own throat, badly injuring himself. Finally Balinor jumped on top of Morgan and held down his arms. The Hold went off, freezing Morgan in his tracks, and Quentin Dispelled. The creature emerged from Morgan and hovered in the air for a moment. Felix stabbed it and Morgan used the Ring of Health to save himself. Balinor activated the Ring of Protection from Evil. It swung toward Albee, who moved to evade, then changed its mind and headed for Donald. We yelled a warning and Donald swung at it, stabbing it with Mindwaster. Then it was in him. Balinor leaped him, but not quickly enough as Donald shot six magic missiles at Balinor. The fighter charged and knocked Donald down, pinning him. This time Cassian Turned the creature out of Donald, and Quentin dropped a Faerie Fire on it when it emerged. Donald began crawling away, unable to look at the creature to target it with a spell, while Balinor and Felix faced off with it in the corridor. The creature swung back at Felix and Balinor who both hit it and it turned back after missing Felix. It came for another pass, and Kain hit it with his Flame Blade, as did Balinor and Felix. The creature exploded. Somehow only Balinor failed his saving throw and system shock, aging 3 years instantly.
That completely sucked.
No one had actually changed brackets, but the fight left Bogomel at 39 years old and Chiaro at 55, which is uglier.
Behind the door lay a slab with a skeleton on it. The room itself had a magic bookshelf, chest, and urn. We moved the stone slab aside and discovered a magic circlet. All four were trapped.
We Dispelled the trap on the chest and opened it, finding a few dozen gems. We also Dispelled the urn and moved it into the hallway. The circlet was Dispelled but the trap was permanent and returned in a minute. Even though we had moved the circlet, the trap remained, and the area around the circlet detected as magical within a few feet.
We were worried enough by the type 5 magic of the bookshelf to hold off on investigating it immediately. Donald cast a Comprehend Languages on the door and discovered the name of the tomb’s occupant. It was apparent that the body had been robbed earlier in time.
A spellshift allowed us to use a Stoneshape to seal up the poison gas hole in the wall. Donald cast Identify on the urn, and we think it is an Urn of Holding. It certainly contains an extra-dimensional space.
We walked past the poison jet and found another weird room with a fountain full of mercury and another fresco on the wall, this time of a large tower with two suns (one red) in the background. There was also an archway in the picture. The floor was tiled with blue and white, and the walls were made of some smoky rock.
The fountain and the archway detected as highly magical. Again, nothing was evil.
Beyond we found more passages and discovered a connection to the vampire’s tomb where we found it last adventure. We also found another corridor that led to one of the transporter rooms like the ones on the original Orc Isle. The black dot was on the wall. We touched it with the Cloak of Passwall and found ourselves looking from a hill at the temple complex village. We coming out of the side of an obelisk. We filed that fact away for later.
This left mostly risky options. First we decided to Dispel the bookshelf despite detecting all schools of magic except Necromancy and one other I’ve forgotten.
Kain attempted to Dispel it from the hallway with the rest of the party a significant distance away. Kain failed, but we nonetheless heard a hissing sound. A blue beam shot out of the room and into Kain’s forehead.
Kain was being contacted telepathically. “As long as you don’t want to steal the books on the shelf, we can chat from the hallway came a surprisingly not hostile voice.”
Kain agreed and Quentin joined the conversation as well by moving with him. Inside the room were two, well, beholders. Or something. They had about a dozen eyestalks and a central eye and floated in the air.
It turns out that they are spectators, really powerful beings set to guard the place for the last 11,000 years. They only pop into the Prime Material plane infrequently and so haven’t discharged their duties, and don’t really mind anyway. They were generally good natured. They had been set by “dark skin toned” slight beings like Morgan. Take a wild guess what we think those might be.
11,000 years is just about the end of the era of the Kraken. Still, we couldn’t get much information out of them. They were fascinated by the room we described… but only by the décor. This didn’t really help. Still, they didn’t mind chatting, and eventually they asked the last question were expecting. “By the way, do you guys want any treasure?”
They didn’t want it, so they just gave it to us. A magic dagger, magic bracers, and some other jewelry. We wanted to offer them something in return, but they weren’t interested. We informed them that the island’s current inhabitants might be down here within a few years and they thanked us. We explained that our mission was to make sure that the books didn’t fall into their hands.
“Are they godlike beings?”
“Uh, no.”
“Then I wouldn’t worry about it.”
Reassured, we thanked them, explained that we rarely get this sort of warning from guardian monsters, and agreed to conclude our business in the room and seal it our first convenience.
A surreal experience, perhaps.
Finally, we checked out the fountain. Quentin decided to use it, and found himself talking with a being. It was humanoid with a fu-manchu mustache, named Shabrikar. It explained that the world would eventually end and warned Quentin, “Beware the beast around the corner, oh wait, that’s already happened.”
Quentin asked, “What does this fountain do?”
“It allows you to ask me a question once every ten years.”
DOH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Boy was that embarrassing. Oh well. At least we ruined it for the orcs. Before cutting off the contact, the creature warned Quentin, “When seven rivers run from a rock in June, if the Four Brothers meet catastrophe may result.” Or something cryptic like that. We wrote it down, and I don’t have the exact words with me. Someone may send out a supplement to the summary later.
That ends our gaming for the semester. We’ll resume sometime in late January!
Joel/Balinor