The World of Telvar

1. Is Obmi in the citadel? NO
2. Does the queen have the ability to access the treasure? UNANSWERABLE
3. When the queen came in had the general alarm been sounded? NO
4. Do we have the abilities and equipment to reach the treasury within an hour? YES
5. Does the secret door in the vestment storage room provide a more direct route to the treasure? YES
6. Has Lludd marked himself, or has one of his allies marked him with no intention of killing him? NO
7. Are there Fire Giant army reinforcements within a half day's travel? NO
8. Are there more than 50 battle-trained fire giants in the Citadel? NO
9. etc.
10. Was the queen aware of the danger?
11. etc.

Encouraged by these answers, Marriat breaks the second Fate... and the party is back in the throne room, with the beheaded King lying before them.

*****************************************

The team quickly moves into place to take out the Queen. Worried about not having a clear shot, Warwick and Marriat share a Potion of Flying and move into unassailable positions near the ceiling. Meanwhile, Mordrick saclaes a wall to ready himself for a backstab.

On schedule, the Queen's bodyguards enter, walking in a protective diamond around her. The two handmaidens trailing behind her stop short as the guards realize that something is wrong. Before they can react, Mordrick has dropped from the wall and struck with sword and dagger. The queen drops, and missiles strike the bodyguards. The maidens begin dragging their liege in retreat, and the guards strike a protective formation to cover the exit. Mordrick takes down each giantess, and the rest of the party eliminates the warriors. The whole battle takes a couple of minutes. The recently woken "pajama guards" are dropped with little effort. Mordrick stabs one who was still grabbing a sword, and the charging party destroys the other.

The bedchambers of the queen and king are scoured for obvious loot, and the party recovers expensive perfume, jewelry, battle trophies, etc. It appeared that the entire throne room and the royal area was clear.

Next, the party is faced with additional exploration. The captured shock trooper, Stomand, was released from the portable hole and given a chance to redeem himself (and win some favor with the Wunkan government). He showed no evil intent, as perceived by Warick's sentient armor, and his equipment was returned to him. Additionally, he identified more items that his party was using -- an ioun stone that absorbs 1st-4th level spells and another "chameleon ring".

They explore a new passage, which opens into a huge meeting hall. Stomand identified it as the central meeting room of the Generals. The party encountered some gnoll servants, who are slept and slain before they can raise the alarm. Next, a few lingering giants and ettin guards were slain via stealthy backstabs and quick arrow-shots. Stomand also identified the location of the armory. Hoping to strip the fire giants of their offensive power, the heroes decided to sack the armory.

They burst into the room, expecting a couple guards. Instead, gouts of flame engulfed the party. A very angry chimera was chained to the center of the room. Fortunately, the flame resistance magic was still in effect, and the beast was quickly dispatched by a volley of missile weapons and magic. Looking around the room, the party realized that destroying the armor and weaponry would take days -- there were at least 30 full suits of battle armor! The armory would have to wait until later.

The party returned to the rooms where they suspected the stone giants were resting. They barged into the quarters, announced their peaceful intentions, and bribed (15,000 gp) the stone giants to remain quiet and out of the way until the assault was completed. The need to free the hapless prisoners also began to weigh heavily on the team. With most of the main hall cleared, the heroes returned to the lower levels of the complex. They were able to surprise 4 fire giant guards and the dog with little commotion. With the screams of nearby trolls, tortured prisoners, and venting volcanic gases, the noise of a quick battle probably just blended into the background. Still, the party wanted to cleanse the entire area before a random giant (or worse) stumbled into them.

Unfortunately, the party stood at an intersection. One passage led toward a clan of gnolls, the other led toward a lair of trolls. Neither could be taken on singly, for fear of being cut-off by the other. With no other options, the party would hold the passage and take on both groups near-simultaneously. Cassian would be responsible for toasting the trolls with her Belt of Fire, while slaying tons of gnolls with the Wand of Ice Storms. The whole event took about 4 minutes. Three fireballs destroyed dozens of trolls, and the dead gnolls continued to pile up so high that they had to scramble over their fallen tribesmen to escape. None did. All told, over 100 gnoll slaves perished. Certain that treasure existed in the troll lair, but uncertain about how to find it, the party randomly selected caves and nooks to scavenge through. No significant treasure was found, but a couple of sets of fire giant footprints were noted. The prints led forward, perhaps into the troglodyte realm beyond. Were they aware of the assault? The party never found out.

As expected, the prison was disturbing. Warwick recalled his month in a frost giant slave pit; he shuddered as he tried to dismiss his own memory-demons. The prisoners included a fire giant, some Northerner tribesmen, a squad of Shabrundian dwarves, a haggard frost giant, and a cloud giantess. The fire giant and the frost giant were shot, a la "fish in a barrel". The cloud giantess was a trade ambassador from the giantish city of Lurten. She had been imprisoned by the fire giant king because of her trade demands, but was unwilling to attack the fire giant king in retaliation. She was cool, at best. The dwarves immediately recognized Lupent, and cheered upon their release. (Strangely enough, they were not particularly surpsised to see him -- he is, after all, the "Champion of the People".) The Northerners were also released, although they were certainly confused about the recent events.

At that point, most of the major objectives had been accomplished -- except the Treasury. Emboldened by the earlier Commune spell, the party (plus a band of non-combantant dwarves and barbarians) sneaked back to the vestment closet of the temple. The Chime of Opening was sounded once, and the party proceeded into the passage beyond.

After a frustrating search (almost an hour) some of the dwarven miners that were freed from the prison found a secret door. (Lupent declared that they would receive a share of his treasure.) The tunnels and passages were labyrinthine, including escape passages with pre-packed traveling equipment. Eventually, a minor treasure room was discovered -- piles of copper and silver with an angry chimera on top. The chimera ws dispatched with little effort, and the party continued its search for the real treasure room.

A final True Sight was used, and the treasury was located. As the party rounded the corner into the room, it found a pond of water with an enormous multi-headed hydra surrounded by mounds of gold, platinum, and equipment. At the first sight of the hydra, Cassian dove back around the corner and began to apply Oil of Fire Inulvnerability to herself. This is fortunate, as the hydra's breath weapon was a searing blast of flame that partially cooked everyone but Lupent (who completely avoided the effect due to his Boots of Avoidance).

Combat was aggressively pursued, and hordes of damage were inflicted on the poor beast. Brenard actually lopped off two of the heads with his Sword of Sharpness. Even a hydra couldn't withstand the tons of near-instantaneous damage.

As expected, the treasury was packed with goodies.

Efreet Noble [Efreet noble was the fight I sort of referenced in my faux summary with the hunderds of points of fire damage (like 60 damage every 2 segments) that Cassian absorbed with the oil. And we rained death on it --Joel]

Ring of Wishes, Potion of Longevity
Deva implored.
Stomand and Lupent (Lupent used his Hat to pretend to be Obmi for the ruse) use Obmi ruse to bring in lots of Giants
Last statue of the Fates is broken
27 Fire giants kill themselves [The 27 fire giants apparently died in the Obmi-faking thing
I think we corralled and killed them, Mark was probably being facetious. We don't think they fell on their swords or anything --Joel]
Headsman and torturer are slain.
Deva goes back to armory
Ogre servant of cloud giant ambassador freed.
The civilians are levitated to safety (from a balcony)
Lots of giant equipoment is destroyed; heads are dropped in lava

Attempt to escape foiled by a hound
Advancing phalanx of FG's is scattered by Screaming Bolts.
Brenard heavily wounded by ballista traps
Finger-tokens used to escape to a nearby mountaintop, where they are picked up by Al Hoch.

Epilogue -- a dozen giants (+4 scouts) are slain and converted into potions of FG control.

Additional notes:

Mordrick and Warwick share the potion of longevity, and the ring of wishes (1 wish) went to Lupent.

--Mark Wagoner (as transcribed by Joel Green)