Castle walls:
We completed the mapping of the Castle area by searching the walls for
trapdoors. We found two things of interest:
– some sort of spectre, haunt, or ghost that was rather easily destroyed
but reformed fairly quickly. It did NOT detect as evil. I suppose that a
rest eternal might put the spirit to rest before it reforms. Abjure and
Exorcism might also work.
– the entrance to the Castle Gatehouse complex. Many automata there. One
recent steel door. Castle defenses strong here.
Category: Stone Soules
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Summary XXXVI: Castle Exploration and the Revelation of the Death of Tan-El
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Summary XXXV: Xavier, Sahrak, and Recent SS Adventures
For those perceptive, Xavier has become less intolerant of Sahrak after
the 2H sword incident in which Sahrak used color spray to good effect.
After the recent Banshee beatle incident, Xavier became much more
accepting of Sahrak and his role in the party.
Also for those perceptive, mid way through the gatehouse illusion (which
I will describe shortly) Xavier started weeping heavily.
After his death and resurrection (by raise dead), Xavier became
slightly more serious, melancholic, and resolute.
Finally, after Carse, he mentions that he believes that the party doesn’t
have to worry about the owner trying to track down the 2H sword. When
asked how he knows this- he shows a rather sorrowful look and says that
he doesn’t want to talk about it. He obviously feels pretty bad about the
issue.
The sum total of all the events that happened pretty much in 2178 is that
Xavier has this look in his eyes of fierce determination but also great
sorrow (the kind one would get after seeing thousands die in front of
him and also being responsible of the death of innocents even though he
was ignorant at the time.)
Jack/Xavier -
Summary XXXIII: The Tale of Years and Other Things of Interest in the Castle
Hello!
Game-results-in-brief (this means that the major attack force of Auguries
will be summarized into the important ones):
I. The Falchion Sword of unknown mind-affecting but no bonuses to hit, etc.
and not intelligent, recovered from the body of Gen. Quarath along with the
magical plate of protection from Magic Missiles.
It appears to provide a charisma and confidence boost that makes anyone who
carries it look cooler. It has been evidenced that everyone experiences
“withdrawal” symptoms if the sword has to be taken off, even to go to bed. -
Summary XXXII: Some Things We Always Meant to Get Around to but Never Did
1. Castle enclosed courtyard: killed a couple of mobile tentacle-using
trees (that looked dead): by lightning bolts and having Henry fly over them,
dousing them with standard oil and then lighting them on fire with arrows.
2. Explored other rooms within the castle tower:
More alchemy rooms, and a room with a research library on
Lightning-related magics, in Runic I. Within this room was a _Wizard
Locked_ cabinet which contained a RUNE for DANGER and a large locked book,
and a key. The book, which radiated Type 5 magic of ABJURATION/NECROMANCY,
was labelled “The Tale of Years.” Before this, we had been told that in
opening the cabinet “No benefit could result.” The _Augury_ for opening the
book and reading it was more ambiguous (and yet not): Would it be
beneficial for the party to unlock, open the book, and look inside? “Yes,
but vast disaster is the more likely result.” “The Tale of Years” is an
often-used title for chronologies, but what this book does is up for grabs.
Here are some theories:
A. It’s a lich-maker. If you read it, you become a lich or
have a better chance of becoming a lich.
B. It’s ABJURATION side is linked in some way to the methods
used to contain the LE force.
C. In general, it could be a mini-codex of sorts.
D. There are many other possibilities, but it appears that it
SHOULD have some kind of link to the Lightning fetish of Tan-El and
this research library, but it is not clear that it does, since
NECROMANCY at the least has little to do with Lightning. -
Summary XXXI: The Future
As far as has been apparent to me, the Party has made it its once-and-future
goal to do the following:
—————————————–
1) Clear Tan-El of evil, threats, mobile treasure able to benefit the
Party, and knowledge plundered from within.
2) Allow a gradual occupation of the city limits of Tan-El by the Stone
Soules and extended party.
3) Settle the city as an independent city-state in some way associated
with, run by, set up by, or otherwise related to the SS, but not a part of
nearby Dunador.
4) Figure out the technology (golems, electricity, etc.) in such a way as
to provide it for its citizens and government in a safe manner. -
Summary XXIX: Turning to the Sacrol
What we did:
Argue.
We then attacked the Sacral. It was affected by fire, magic missles,
LIMMs, spiritual hammers, dust devils and Alegra’s crossbow bolts. (not
goblins though) Because of its slow movement rate, we were able to
outmaneuver it and eventually disperse it.
Alegra exorcised it while Xavier and Star chanted. It reformed during the
Exoricism and attacked Canstin and Alegra. It missed Alegra, and Canstin
made his saving throw. Konrad, Ceydric, Aria, and Canstin were able to
quickly inflict enough damage to destroy it. Alegra finished the exorcism.
We received alot of treasure from the Sacral’s pile of bones over which
it formed and from the gatehouse.
Total: Jewelry 8,000
Gems 11,250
Coins ~1,000
——-
20,114
Konrad and Memphis got ~2,500 gp and a wand of magic missles.
The stone soules got a token of ‘door’
We threw a huge party to thank Konrad and wish them farewell. -
Summary XXVIII: The Attack on the Grey Philosopher
In brief: Versus the Philosopher
We entered the area with some _Dust Devils_ (2 from support group, 1 from
Alegra) and advanced. 9 thoughts attacked per wave. Some got through on
each wave, and they all went for Konrad in the center who had Gram’s
sun-coin and his own Prot. from Evil. Konrad took damage from the thoughts
like everyone else. Eventually, we were closer to the main gate and decided
it would be better to advance and go through than retreat (i.e. it was closer).
The gate was to our right and a tower structure to our left. From the tower
a black cloud began to creep towards us. This killed the _Dust Devil_
Alegra had with her (draining it of a HD, before it died). The wall of
black cloud slowly approached us from behind. Zombie Bugbears appeared in
front of us. Weird telescope things sprayed lightning at us. A (later
identified as a) humanoid (with a staff) fired magic missiles into us (from
the staff). As it came closer, the wall was filled with skeletons, many
many of them. This matches the description of a Sacrawl (sp). Then it
basically became a race to escape. Lightning was thrown around blasted
zombies. Alegra _Called Lightning_ and dis damage to the wall of black
cloud, but the skeletons simply reformed 2 segments later, slowing it down
(it was moving 3″ anyway). We then hit the gate, opened it with the Chime
and escaped. The Sacrawl (and its haze) attempted to follow us out of the
city but stopped not far from it. (weird ghoul-like more intelligent undead
followed at this point) -
Summary XXVII: The Grey Philosopher and Sacrol: Reconn and Divination
A Divination of the Zone of the GP: (2000 + 2000 from Konrad’s diamond +
Ring of Alignment Shielding)
The Forces of XXXXXX are prevalent in the area
The strength of the forces are only strong, but inspiringly resilient.
There is vast immobile irrecoverable treasure in the area.
Moderate wealth is also in the area.
XXXXXX is the name of the/an infernal power who’s name should not be
invoked. We went to get the name researched from Beck, and Eli invoked the
name the second time. It summoned a weird abyssling-like creature with
weird abilities (Eli, Sahrak, Yorlik, Xavier, Claude went to End for this).
Yorlik was eaten. Eli escaped with a dimension door. Beck saved Xavier in
the end. Eli, before leaving, dropped some vitrioli which nearly killed the
first creature, sending it back to its plane, and ultimately killing the
second, which did not make it back. A third, small, fanged, winged,
cat-like being appeared and touched Eli. Eli then had many black traceries
all over his skin. This turned out to be “Tainting,” that is, Eli could be
_Turned_ by good clerics, detected as a point of Evil (Malignant), and could
not in fact be affected by clerical healing magics (since clerics can’t
touch him). An _Atonement_ would be necessary to help him.
When they arrived back in Middle, Eli was _Dispel Magic_ed/Remove Curse_d.
This temporarily (for 10 days) removed the Taint, which then allowed us to
attack the GP.
Kyle -
Summary XXVI: The Final Steps in the Inevitable Defeat of the Great Old Ones (or Great Ones)
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.