Gabe3e

26-27 Eleint 1357DR
[Game of May 30th, 2003]

Fighting a bastard vampire and a cowardly priest of Mirkul turns near deadly (and quite frustrating)
G’Kar has a serious talk with a dying priest of Moradin, scores gifts
The group confirms that Tracia does not turn into a pumpkin up to at least 3am

Long Summary

26 Eleint, 1357DR

the str damage from shadows wears off (Oh. Crazy)

So it’s morning and you’re post attacked in the middle of the mountain.

there is much praying and learning of spells
k: So G’kar, do you want to try dispelling this thing?
g: Sure. You go ahead and try first.
[dramatic music]
2 failures from k; another 2 failures from g
d: [whimper] heal
k heals himself
d: You healed yourself?!
ja: He only has about 50 times more HP than you right now…
k heals delenn, julian, jaran
g heals delenn, julian, jaran, himself
everyone feels semiokay

ja: we might want to spend the night inside the undead dwarven hall.
k: Yeah, it might help against dragon attacks

we travel back to the dwarven place and head into the barracks
[takes an hour to get back]
ja: Do we want to rest for another day and explore at full health?
[general agreement]

So you reach the entrance of the citadel. And G’kar walks in first.
d: The dwarf would.
g: I’m so sick of everyone calling me wuss, I would.
kalc hunches over at least 4 inches inside (6′ ceiling)
ja checks out the barracks
jul: Did you want to explore further?
ja: I think we should at least explore the upper floor to make sure there are no more undead waiting for us up here.
jul: Maybe shut the door behind us, set up some tripwires to warn us
ja: I listen at the front door
you hear the slight creaking of the door as the wind comes in behind you
the other baracks door is slightly closed
g’kar checks both barracks
g: Which one do you want to sleep in, the other side of evil?
ja: I’d like to check th emain room
d and jul agree
ja opens the door
you can’t open them yourself
k: Didn’t we leave them open?
ja: Yes. We ran. Why don’t you detect evil…
k: Sure. I’ll cast it and look around.
ja: Try opening the doors and looking. They might be too thick. They’re too heavy for me.
k opens a single of the doors. And now detects evil. You hear the screeching of stone and you detect evil flying towards your face. It slams into your face. 17 points of dam. It lands in front of you and snarls.
jul: Can I See any of this?
you heard a loud noise and something bumped into K
jul: I’ll delay
k: swings his sword. AC -7, 18 points damage
you notice the one sitting low against the floor streaks towards you and claws at you. First pummel hits. Second one bounces off the door
jul: I’m gonna go now. I move up towards the door and attack diagonally with the scimitar. I miss.
You manage to not cleave K, but with the door and K, you don’t get it through
del: I cast cat’s grace. My dex is up to 19
ja steps back from the doorway. casts cat’s grace on jul.
jul, jaran comes up behind you and touches you. You feel a lot faster and more dextrous.
g: cast prayer (all allies at +1 hit/dam, enemies -1 hit/dam) then move up to the other door, next to k.
[doors open in]
the gargoyle in front of k rears again and tries to punch. Hits and misses
k: I’ll attack again.
You hit but fail to penetrate through the stone.
the other gargoyle crouches and jumps away, disappearing into the darkness near the ceiling.
jul: I’ll try to attack.
Again, you hit but fail to get through. It has a touch skin.
jul: Then I’ll take a 5′ step back
ja: I’ll step by the dwarf and tell him: “Rock burst may be effective if you center it on these beasts.” Then cast polymorph self
d: I’ll drink the bull str potion.
it doesn’t seem to do much
g: by clang fury. It strikes square in the chest. 22 points. Second hits for [unknown number]
with your newfound speed you’re able to flick your wrist and strike it really quickly. The thing explodes in many shards
k: I’m going to cast a spell and reach out and touch a dwarven statue
The statue will start acting next round.
jul: I can’t see anything from this hall. And one door is still closed. I’ll go towards the doorway and see if I can see things, then back off.
It’s really dark up there, you don’t see anything even with your elven sight.
ja: I’ll just hold. I don’t want to be pounced on.
d: I’ll cast mirror image
5 more delenn’s appear
k: I’ll have the statue move in.
Once the statue gets 15 feet in, the gargoyle drops from the ceiling. The gargoyle lands on the statue, landing with full force. It crushes the statue completely. It crushes with its body, the four claws embed into it. The statue crumbles.
k: Then I’ll cast recitation
g: Fear us. By Clang fury! AC -14, I think it hits. 22 points, then 24 points
You hit with both hammer throws and you take off the wing and the head. Bits fly off everywhere.
k: Poor dwarf statue…
jul: I have nothing to do
ja, you cleave with the sword and it digs in, and purrs, and when you stab with the dagger it just shatters
k: I’ll climb up to the ceiling. Do we still see rubble from the other three?
You do. Once you get to the center of the room, it vaults up at least 100 ft up, you notice wide steps at the end of the hall, that glow. They look warded, they’re glowing blue and silver. The steps start at ground level and go up.
Looks like there were some nooks where the gargoyles could watch. You see no more up there. Do you get closer to the glyphs?
k: Sure
once you get within 10′ of the steps, you see large dwarven runes:

Brave and moral souls ignore these glyphs. Blasted by the power of Moradin be those who invade my sanctuary.

k: I don’t think I want to test it out right now.
so what’s delenn doing?
d: Making brownies?
k comes back and starts shutting the door. I say we shack up in a hidey hole for a while.
ja: We’ll make absolutely sure there’s nothing in the barracks first
d: Before they go to sleep, the priests might burn some spells to heal people
k: Okay, I’ll unload them
g heals k for 9, k heals himself some. Delenn gets healed a bit, and jul gets some (woohoo)
g’kar comes over and says who needs healing. ja: Cure mod on k, and cure light on me
d: Can we tend overnight?
Yeah, you’ll gain 2 overnight from that.
gkar leveled in priest. He can now pen his own scrolls
I have a dream for you gkar
in the middle of the night you awaken to find yourself at the bottom of a hill in the middle of the day. You hear the rumbling of footsteps behind you, on top of the hill. As you turn to look you see a tall dwarf with a large silverbeard, two axes in hand charging you. Charing straight towards you with his axes with fury in his eyes. As he comes halfway down the hill, you see a carpet of dwarves following him, he runs right up to you, when he’s 3 ft from you he chucks both axes towards your head, they skin the sides of your head, go right past you, you turn, one hits a goblin, the other hits another. You see a carpet of goblins coming to meet you, as youre about to draw your hammer, there’s a spear coming to your head, as it’s about to hit, clangeddin bats it aside with another axe. You see a spear heading towards clangeddin’s head, and you bat it away with your hammer. The dwarves scream in unison, “for the glory of battle,” and they all chuck their axes and you see this storm of axes flying over you, killing all the goblins
You can now cast axe storm of clang or defensive harmony. You feel like clang grants you more spells
polymorph wears off of jaran and she heals for 3, everyone heals a bit after the night.

You’re still in the barracks.
k: We’re still beat up, right?
ja: Just a little. I could cure light.
k drops a moderate healing on himself, g drops clw on gkar
k does his dispel thang on k. Both fail. G’kar tries and fails.
general cursing ensues.

jaran opens the barracks door, a blue glow enters the room. The entranceway is coated with blue glyphs.
d: all of a sudden? That weren’t there before?
yep. Everything, floor ceiling, etc
they look like wards
k: Do you still have that bug staff thing?
d: Yeah, but will it set them off?
ja: They are neither brave nor moral…
d: I’ll set them where I see a seem
you summon a swarm of insects, and nothing happens.
ja: Okay, I toe the ward.
gkar walks on em?
grabs dice.
nothing happens.
k does as well
ja: I told you you were brave and moral
delenn opens the main door.
jul: I wonder what made them appear?
ja: Do we want to go up the large stairway? It would keep anything evil out, but also keep it within.
jul, d and k want to go up the large stairs.
k goes in and casts detect evil
you detect evil coming from the stairs to your left, and nowhere else
k: I’ll try and focus on it. If it’s really strong I might know what kind it is
there is a strong evil. You do not pass out. There’s evil and there is chaos.
d: Question is is it from lots of little evil things, or one big evil thing
gkar says “Let’s go after the evil. Let’s destroy evil.”
k: pausing…”Okay”

we descend the stairs to the left, towards the evil. It’s 10′ wide.
You descend 25′ down, about 45 feet across. You reach a pair of double doors. There is a sign on the doors. The doors come together at a triangle split, and half of a skull is on either side of the door
k: What kind of dwarven place is this?
k knows what it is, it’s a symbol of myrkul.
k concentrates. The door itself is spouting some evil. And their is evil behind the door
g casts prot from evil, 10′ radius
d casts mirror image. There are 6 delenns now
ja casts polymorph self, grows a limb
jul is going to stand and look mysterious and intense
k casts recitation, opens the door
he opens the door, and a sickly yellow glow flows into your space. K sees the temple, there is a landing. at the far end, as is customary in evil temples, there is an altar with random things on it. A blackened altar. There are some corpses on the altar, and there is a man standing on the landing in front of the altar. He has a very white complexion, has black robes, and is clutching a longsword. Another next to him in plate and with shield, clutching a burning warhammer. There are 4, minions of evil, humantypes, their flesh is rotting and decaying. The odor of rotting meat floods in, you notice there are a lot of insects eating away at their flesh. They eat away, you can see a little piece of flesh falling down, you see the magots, and a bit of ichor falls.
jul: I’m hungry [munch munch]
the two in the back are just waiting to do something as you open the door
the guy in plate points at you and throws a spell. a column of fire descends on your [k] square. Jaran, G’kar, jul and K get fired. Jul drops.
The other guy casts a spell, you see a little globe shimmer around him that fades away.
k has opened the door, can still do something.
K pours a potion into jul. Jul regains consciousness.
k sees more glow further in, covering the whole chamber
g: I’m gonna cast…oh, I’ve been hit this round. I can’t cast. I’ll pull out a scroll of cure crit and heal myself.
d: I can cast lightning at a certain point, I just have to be able to see.
I’ll say you can see through k. The guy in plate had cast flame strike, the guy in robes has a shimmer.
d: Okay, 5′ wide lightning bolt down temple
It hit the globe and dissipated. It extends around the other guy a little. It hits the undead though. You kill all the bugs around the undead, some maggots drop out, parts of his flesh char and fall off. He doesn’t look hurt.
All save vs poison, you smell the stench of the air coming in. No one fails.
The undead who was hit by lightning starts moving up. He has long clawed fingertips, down to the bone. Swipes at K, scrapes against armor. Another undead lumbers over and opens the door.
ja: I cast globe of invul. From scroll. It encircles me, gkar, and jul at my side. I step back up the hall
A rotting guy goes back to the rear, and zombies come out scampering, looking out into the distance. Another swarm comes from the opposite side of the T
Guy in robes with the sword casts a spell on himself. Looks like he just hasted himself
The guy in plate starts reciting about the power of decay and the lord of the dead. Recitation
k casts a spell. Silence. It does not penetrate the globe
g: I cast withdraw, curatives on myself.
man in robes has jet black hair, in robes, with a black longsword. The other guy has a shield, facing away so you can’t see the face of it, with the flaming warhammer. You notice when the doors are open, there’s a symbol on the door. It looks like there was a symbol beneath that was carved out. But you can’t make out what it is.
d: I can throw something over g’kar’s head? I’m going to toss greek fire, aiming for the zombie behind the first row of clawed figures
you hit number 1, it explodes in a burst of fire. Barely missing other creatures. You notice the blue guys just shrug it off. The guys up front seem to take some damage. The undead in front of k chars the rest of his skin and falls against the wall, more fully dead. mirror images of delenn shift
the guy left in front claws k
ja: wall of ice. up the hall and surrounding the bad guys in the back
the zombies take damage, the ice melts aorund the globe at the back
the rotting guy moves forward up to k, claws, hits once
jul stands up
the zombies turn and go back from where they came
the guy in black robes points at k, and a barrage of magic missiles comes out, 5 of ‘em. The guy in platemail starts praying to myrkul to aid him and his companions in thie current struggle to slay the living
k: I’ll just attack the guy in front of me. 15 points dam
you cut through the undead clawed guy. Your sword goes through in a damaging way
k: I’ll move back into julian’s square…well, I’ll move back into the mirror delenn’s square.
d: Which of the two in front of me looks most hurt?
you have to switch first before you can cast
d: I’ll magic missile the hurt guy
the seem to just bounce off. The undead steps forward and claws jul for 4
jaran hits the une that stepped into the hall with the sword of bast
the rotting guy outside the door swings at gkar.
jul throws holy water, which smashes against it’s forehead. He burns from the holy water.
Another clawed undead comes out, attacks g’kar, missing with both claws
the guy in robes, casts magic missile, one at delenn, several images disappear, delenn gets blur-msised. The guy cackles evilly
the guy in plate points at gkar, and says die. G’kar makes his save. You feel a burning inside you, and you feel a burning inside you
k: I’ll cast neg plane protection
g: I’m gonna shield bash as well. The first hammer does 11 points. Second hammer hits again, shield bash.
the undead look dwarven sized. The guy falls down into a couple pieces
delenn, there are only two of you now (mirrors)
d: I don’t know these spells well enough. I’ll cast ice storm from the wand
blinding sleet hits the undead. The one in front of gkar is pummeled by the sleet and falls to the ground. The other takes damage and keeps going
ja quaffs clw, looks healthier
jul: That undead guy left looks gnarly? I’ll throw the holy water at him.
He burns. Then he moans and moves forward to attack you. He misses you with both claws
The guy in black robes casts a spell. There’s a billowing black cloud moving towards you very slowly. Cloud kill. It’s 5th level. It starts 20 feet out of the hall and ends at jaran and jul. Jaran and gkar are as well. The cloud burns at your skin. You realize that holding your breath probably won’t matter too much. You take 10 points of damage. Jul drops again. The guy continues cackling
You hear the priest asking for a blessing from myrkul. (but it doesn’t do anything)
k reaches into the cloud and heals jul. Jul regains consciousness. k says: “Let’s go” K runs out of the stairs and runs back to the entrance.
g attacks the evil thing with hammer, crits, even in the blinding fog, 20 points of damage. You hear the splatting against the wall. Then I’ll push past friendlies as far up the hall as possible
d runs way the heck out towards the entry
ja: I’ll cast invis on jul, and flee up the stairs.
jul: I’ll crawl quickly up the stairs. I’ll make it just to the top
The acid cloud moves further up the stairs
[gabe plots]
The platemail guy runs through the acid cloud, rushing right through. Taking damage. He moves out of the cloud and slides right up to g’kar. He’s moving really quickly. He swings his black sword at g’kar. (doing something whispered to gkar) He hits you, doing 13 points. With blinding speed he brings his sword down again, missing, glancing off the shield (the hasted black mage with the longsword)
k: Heal myself. Then I’ll close one door, get ready to close the other
g: Fucker. Step back 5′, throw the hammer. Hits. Twice.
He takes both hits…he continues snarling at G’kar.
g: I’ll snarl back, throw some good dwarven insults his way
d: I’ll step forward, cast magic missile at the bad guy. all 5 at him. 17 points
they all home in to a little brooch at his collar
ja: Improved invis, and walk in to the entry of the place
jul: I heal myself with the heal potion. Then I stand up
You see the wounds on this guy are closing in front of your eyes
The mage in robes takes a 5 ft step towards gkar, and the cloud sweeps behind him. He pulls out a scroll and looks right behind g’kar, and he reads some words off the scroll. It crumbles into little glittering things, an dyou catch a glimmering behind you. “Swear all you want, you’re screwed.”
The guy in plate screams as he runs through the acid cloud. He reaches the other side of the cloud
k: I heal myself for 9 points
g: I pull out the cure crit scroll, and I read another.
ja: I guess…I’ll walk out, drink a potion of clw and watch, invisibly from the back wall
Delenn moves away from the hall a bit
jul has an idea: psionics are not magic
jul, you are close enough that you would have seen that the pale mage has pointy teeth
jul: I’m going to try to wrench a weapon from their hands. I’ll try the flaming hammer. I activate the power successfully. I make it perfectly, so I can grab the sword as well.
So, give me a wisdom check against their str, for the sword. The guy holds onto the sword. The hammer stays in his hand as well. Your invisibility goes away
The mage guy casts a spell at gkar. Save against spells. A spray of acid sprays from his hands. “Use the staff!”
the cloud moves forward, enveloping gkar, and the two bad guys.
The priest guy says, “No, I want to kill him first”, and swings his warhammer. Because he’s blinded by the cloud, and the prot from evil, and jul fighting with the weapon, he misses.
k heals himself slightly.
g, you’re also blinded.
g: I’ll step back slightly, and throw the hammer. Even though he’s within 5′ to do more damage. AC 0, hit!
He disintigrates into a cloud. He’s right on the edge of the cloud. His cloud disappears into the cloud.
g: Then I’ll go at the priest.
Even shooting in the blinding cloud, you hear his platemail shifting and you hit him. He cringes in pain
ja: I’ll cast cat’s grace on jul
d: If I’m gaseous form I can’t get through the wall. I’ll just sit around
jul: I’ll try and smack him in the head with it.
You fail.
The cloud moves forward. G’kar takes damage. The priest bolts back down the stairs
k: I’ll concentrate on detecting evil.
there’s still evil down the stairs.
g: I’m going to use the scroll. Cure crit again.
You realize you can’t see.
g: I’ll use the staff instead, 12 healing points. I’ll stay by the doorway
ja: Move to the other stairs and look down.
You can’t see very far. The ceiling obscures your vision
d: I’ll just hang out.
jul: I’m gonna try inertial barrier. It fails to work
g takes more damage from the acid cloud. 7 points. The cloud drifts further
gkar, you hear somebody casting healing spells down the steps.
k: I guess it’s most useful to heal someone. I heal myself for 10
g: quaff a CSW potion. Then I guess I’m in panic mode, and get the hell out of here. I’ll go down the stairs
ja: Go up to k, put my hand on his arm and ask him to heal me.
d: I’d like to go scope out the main stairs in the vaulted hall.
The glyphs on that stair start 30′ from you. You can make it up the steps with half your move.
d: Oh hell, why not.
You run through the glyphs, nothing happens. You reach the top of the steps, and the whole palce glows blue with the glyphs, there are four statues, four doors. Two are half open, two on the left are closed. Four statues, one has a hammer, one with two crossed axes, third has a curly beard sitting there with breasts, the fourth also has breasts and chest plate, holding a sword above her head.
One of the closed doors has writing on it, similar to the writing at the bottom of the stairs. You can attempt to decipher it. You read it no problem:

Only the powers of life will open this door.

There’s a glyph on that door as well.
Jul: I’m gonna stand up, and step 5′ back from the wall of force.
The cloud moves slightly more down the hall. G’kar takes another 7 points of damage. You hear more spellcasting
k heals jaran
g: I run out of the cloud, and stop at the door when I realize. Do I see the priest in the room.
No, you see no one, only see th esickly yellow glow
g: I’ll read the CCW scroll. 20 points healing
ja: I’ll follow delenn and see what she’s up to. I’ll peek in one of the open door.
Looks like some kind of living quarters, they are completely trashed.
d: I’ll try to open it.
the handle doesn’t even move, Nothing on the door moves. It’s frozen somehow.
jul: I’ll walk up to the door and try to help her
gkar, You notice the cloud move further up the stairs. The platemailed priest with the flaming hammer says some words, you’ve heard this recently in the past. He attempts to touch you, but fails. He holds the charge.
k: I’ll go up the main steps
You see the same as everyone else, script, door with writing
g: Step back, throw the hammer. Second attack hits. It nailed and dented his plate, he’s wheezing and coughing
ja: Do the wards continue into the bedroom?
yes, but not on the door.
ja: I’ll loot check the room.
There’s nothing of value in the room
d: I’ll go over to the other closed door.
As you open the door, you see a room that loosk trashed, you see a pair of axes hanging on the wall, and they fall off and break on the floor. Same kind of crossed axes as the statue. They’re rusted, so they break on the stone
the cloud moves up again, the priest steps up and tries to touch again. Again he misses.
k: I’ll cast CLW and try and open the door.
You hear a click as you touch the door
g: Steps back up the stairs, whacks the buggering priest. Second attack bounces off
ja: If I have no idea when that wall will drop, I’ll loot check the other room.
Nothing else.
d: I’ll open the glyphed door.
Untouched living quarters. Desk, Bed, bookshelf. There’s someone on the bed. Small bearded man, plate armor
d: “Greetings”
jul: going ectoplasmic. I don’t make it. I’ll stay there.
The cloud dissipates, but the wall remains
the priest moves out of the range of sight of gkar
k: does he look alive?
his beard is really long and grey, he’s lying down on the bed, wearing plate armor. You see his chest gently heaving up
k: I’ll try to wake the guy up.
g: Walk up the stairs a bit, and try casting rock burst at the center of the glyphs and see what happens
You destroy the glyph.
g: I’ll move back down the hall
ja: I’ll go by the glyphed doorway, see what k and d are up to
d: I’ll check out the books.
All the books are in dwarven
d: do I recognize anything?
You pick out one, it reads: “History of the Twin Peaks.”
Jul: I fail to go ectoplasmic again
old dwarf: “I’m already awake my son”
k: Did you know there’s a vampire next door?
old dwarf: “I’m glad you have come”
cannon fodder comes out of the doors again. G is surrounded by zombies. 6 misses. You hear shouting from the corner. “Damn you blasted dwarf” You hear him casting healing on himself. He wastes the harm spell
k: Well, thanks. Are you aware there’s a vampire next door?
g: Ye olde 5 ft step back. Special damage against undead. The zombie dies. The second one hits, and a second zombie falls. You smack through the cannon fodder like it wasn’t really there
You also realize that your hammer, the blunt impact doesn’t seem to do as much, however since you do so muich damage anyways, you cleave him
ja: This guy isn’t sayin ganything, so I’ll go back and wait for the wall of foce to drop
d: You pick out another title, “Dwarves of the North”
jul tries again, fails again
old dwarf: yes, you must stop them. They are raising our dead to fight a war. I’m glad you’ve come, the oracle said you’d come.
cannon fodder zombies move up to the dwarf, they say “Brains” in dwarven. You’re surrounded by 3, none get through the armor. Then the lame priest comes up behind the fodder, looks at the dwarf, and says “Die”. Gkar makes it, and feels no compulsion to die
k: yes we must go demolish this evil, is there anything you can do to help
g: After I’m dispatched with these upright rags, I shall take my pound of flesh from thee. I’ll shield bash and hammer.
d: We can’t get to the evil temple. Can you help us?
jul: 8. Finally. I go ectoplasmic. I’m gonna go halfway down the stairs.
gkar, you see jul walking up behind you. He looks insubstantial and shimmery
old dwarf: Take this, [hands you a little gem] Once a day it will cure of you of blindess, disease or even the most seruious of wounds. In my bookshelf there are scrolls I penned myself, and books deatiling our history. Tell me, where is gkar?
zombies: Brains. Zombies move forward. They all miss. Bad guy says, “Wait til my friend comes back”
k: I’ll look at the shelf, looking for scrolls.
you pick out one and look at it. 4 versions of flamestrike on it
k: “He got separated from us, he’s…someone’s ass is being kicked.”
g: I’ll yell out “You’re worshipping the wrong god”. Miss, smacky smacky, one zombie drops, another hit with shield, and another zombie drops. And I’ll move back 1
ja: I’ll poke at the wall, presumably it’s still there
d: You want me to take these books?
he nods. he’ll explain on his turn
jul: the guy directly in front of me, I’ll throw my last vial of holywater. It hits.
He burns away, burning to the ground
old dwarf: I don’t have much time left.
d: Can I figure out what one more book is?
One is just too complicated
More zombies say brains. One finally claws g’kar. The platemail guy casts a spell
k: Ask if he has dispel magic, pull another scroll
6 copies of neg plane prot on the scroll
g: I’ll just smack some more zombies. 30 points of damage with the hammer. The zombie crumbles. (4 left in the hallway) Next one hits, but he barely hangs on
jul: I move forward and hit with my scimitar on the zombie.
You cleave him in half. He had just been hit by the zombie
old dwarf: there is nothing you can do for me my daughter. It is time for me to join Moradin in the great forge. The only thin gyou can do that would bring me peace, is to find the weapon that these bastards stole from me.
more brainy zombies move forwards and gnash at jul. G’kars presence drives away one of the claw attacks (prot from evil 10′ radius). They’re still on the steps.
gkar, you hear something in the distance, close to the altar, makes cackling
evil platemail guy: “I will kill you myself” runs past jul, but jul hits his shield and misses. He comes with the hammer, straight for g’kar’s head. He misses. It hits the armor, spews fire, but stops on the armor
k: Another scroll pulled
str of stone, 4 of them
g: I say, You are not worthy to use such a wonderful weapon, not worthy nor good enough to use such a weapon as that. Clang fury, 5′ step back, miss both times
d: We would be happy to help if we could get to the weapon. There is a magical wall blocking us from both gkar and your honor.
jul, big guy in plate right next to you. The zombies are still there.
jul: I’m gonna attack a zombie with my scimitar and then step back.
You hit very critically, but you still only do 6 points damage
old dwarf: if my belongings can help you, they can help you, but it is my time to go, I am not young like you. I would laugh at death, if it were not already here to take me. Three hundred dark years I have fought off these dark invaders. What you can do is continue my legacy.
brain attack on jul, hits. 12 points with a claw
Another voice from the back. “Hold them off while I regain my health. It will not take long”
platemail: “Fine, let me show you then,” and turns to jul, hits. Jul is bludgeoned and burned by the hammer
k: Another scroll
soul forge (3)
g: I cast sanctuary on jul, then stay
ja: try to tap the wall, and the hand goes through. The wall is gone! Run down the stairs, acid bolt that bastard priest. 24 points
He screams.
jul, You feel the warm glow of clang around you
jul: CLW potion, then step back
old dwarf’s breathing is getting heavier
zombie reaches out at jul, and misses. Not affected by the sanctuary spell
You hear spellcasting. The priest steps forward. He swings at jul. “I will overcome your petty magics.” He comes to strike down, and looks away, disinterested.
k: Pull the last scroll
stone storm, 2 of ‘em. You can move halfway down the steps
g: 5′ step back, scream at the priest “You are without honor”. Oh, at -4 for melee, how about AC -8 :) It’s going to be 24 points, second attack is deflected by the shield.
ja: Magic missile that guy. 4 at him
he grunts in pain
d: I’ll magic missile him also. 5 missiles
more grunting in pain
julian the brave.
jul: I’m going to try to do cell adjustment, healing myself. I’m successful, I heal 4 hp.
zombies: Brains. 2 zombies move up the hall (only 3 left). Both miss jul
they look like zombies, but are slightly smarter
“Fall back, I will protect you.” The vampire steps from the altar. He just sits there
The priest looks at gkar and says “Die”. And runs like a scared chicken back…to the vampire. You don’t feel particularly inclined to die again.
k, you make it back there and can still act
k: cast recitation
g: Take a 5′ back, and throw hammers. The zombie takes 30. On same guy, the second attack takes him out. Then I run past the zombies.
Once you get to the end of the steps, you see his hammer is not flaming
ja: Jul is up there by himself on the stairs with zombies, I’ll do something stupid and help. Step up and slash with the sword of bast. 12 points. Stab hits for 6, barely, drawn by the power of Helm.
Delenn stabs with the spetum from behind Jaran and jul, and pulls out a chunk of organ out of the zombie
jul, Someone is using a polearm above your head
jul: How far can I throw a fireball bead?
to the bottom of the stairs, maybe at g’kar or something
jul: I really wnat to throw the fireball bead…I’m gonna go past the two zombies. (they both miss). I’ll step up next to g’kar. “What do you think”
g: oh god no…
jul: I’ll just throw a greek fire at the white plate mail guy.
You smack him head on, and it splashes the vampire
zombie attack delenn, and jaran (still in the stairway, both miss
Vampire moves towards the stairs, and steps up to Gkar. “Do it, I dare you” and he claws you. Hits AC -6, -4 from recitation, -2 from prot. You block him.
Cleric groans and runs around the corner, hidden heals himself. More casting of healing.
k: I’ll charge down the stairs, and attack the zombie
make a dex check to see if you barrel into jaran ;)
k: It hits. It cleaves against the wall with the force of the charge
g: I’m just going to attack him. Stand toe to toe and have my two attacks. Lots of misses. “I’m taking into account…[dramatic look] that” I say “It looks as if you can negate magical effects. But clang will still triumph
ja: goes up, stabs with bast, 13, dagger crits, flurry of stabbing, 18 points.
The zombie falls, it was at full. At the base of the steps you can see the occassional glimpse of armor
d: I’ll go down and stand next to julian.
once you get to there, you notice that you undisplace, the ioun stone for charisma falls. You feel less pretty
d: I shriek, and retreat back up the stairs. Then run back again, stab with the spetum while behind g’kar. I hit negative something.
The spetum doesn’t pierce the skin.
the vampires wounds start to seal
G’kar’s training with the shield deflects the vampire claw. He jams it out of the way.
K: run down the stairs next to g’kar. Two handed slashing. It misses
g: I hit
it does nothing. Nothing happens.
g’kar draws next to him
on the other hand, that yellow glow, not glowing so much anymore, now that you’re close enough to see.
d: Oh heck, I gotta try, I’m gonna throw greek fire at him. it hits him, 10 points. Vampire is hit by the fire. G’kar gets splashed a bit
jul: I have a high wisdom, would poison do anything to him?
no, undead are usually not harmed by poison.
jul: He’s probably going to kick my ass after I do it. I step up to him, and soften the ground underneath him. Something really bad happens. The ground under him is strengthened.
Vampire snarls at the dwarf and claws at g’kar, scrapes at the armor ineffectively. He moves back to the center of the temple. The glyphs light up as he moves away, but there’s still path to him
k: I’m gonna try to charge him and grapple him. He tries to claw as k moves in. The grapple starts
g: I’m gonna charge him and grapple too.
You grab on to him, since k is already doing it
ja: Run down the stairs up to the vampire, draw silver daggers and stab at him
it hits, but fails to pierce
d: I go up to g’kar, and search for the holy water.
You find it and pull it out.
jul: I’m gonna go up and grab more holy water from g’kar
strength checks as the vampire tries to free himself from the grapple. He frees himself from k, but not g’kar. He shifts towards g’kar.
g: “Manacles? Wait, I ahve an idea”
k: I pull out my manacles
g: “Don’t kill him otherwise we’re all dead. The glyphs, the glyphs” and I’ll continue to hold him
ja: Drop my silver dagger and step next to him and try and grapple him. I fail. His arms flail around.
jul: Can I Threaten him? I’ll hold the holy water over him and threaten him. Tell him to stop struggling or I’ll pour it all over his nice vampiric face.
He continues struggling
Strength checks from g and k. He frees himself.
jul pours the holy water on the vampire as he tries to run. He burns. And he keeps walking. The glyphs kick in. The holy power of helm and protection from evil help shield jul. Cold swarms from the glyph. The vampire runs away, disappearing around the corner of the T.
You continue to hear chanting.
K walks towards the doorway, setting off the glyph between. He makes his save, but still takes 15 points.
g: Cast spiritual hammer, and I want to start chiseling on a glyph
d: jaran, give me the broom
ja: hands broom, picks up daggers.
delenn’s going to be brave, for once. I’ll take the broom
jul: I go ectoplasmic. Then I’ll go back to the stairs
You hear a door opening. The priest peeks around the corner, with a smug look on his face.
k: I’ll cast silence directly on him.
Nothing happens. He’s in the field of antimagic
ja: I’ll throw two normal daggers at him. One hits AC0. It does 5 points damage. The second dagger misses
d: I’m gonna use the bow, since I have a clear shot. The two arrows hit. Two points damage to him
He’s all bloody and stuff, but the arrows aren’t doing much
jul: I’m going to splash him with greek fire. He’s coated, and burns for 4.
He curses.
The glyphs reappear where the priest stands, he moves off. You hear a door closing
jul: This is the 8th time he’s ran away, at least.
k: I clw myself for 5 points
g: Got my weapon and shield, walk up to the end of the glyphs. Look at the altar, and throw my hammer at the altar, smashing it up. “I shall defile your altar for your wrong god”
ja: I’ll polymorph into something that hovers…a hummingbird, and hover over to the altar, check out the side passages, see if there are other things on the altar.
Nothing but body parts.
d: On the broom, fly around and check stuff out.
You see no door. Nothing new.
jul: I’m gonna cell adjustment myself and heal for 4 hp points.
k: Do you want to continue to pursue or maybe sleep on it. It’s really hard to pursue him. I have a potion of fly, but it only works on one person. I think we should go entertain the dwarf.
g: cure lights himself. I want to try to break the glyphs with my hammer. I’ll chip away at it from right next to it.
It doesn’t do much. The craftmanship of the stonework, kind of dwarven, Probably reinforced.
d: use swarming insects to set off 8 of the glyphs.
ja: Hming bird over, turn into full drow elf, search the walls for a door.
Keen elven eyes find the door along the middle of the T section
ja: We shouldn’t let him get away. He’ll just come back with more spells. They have very powerful magic. I think we’ll waste as much magic if they come back
k: We could pull back for an hour, and heal up a bit
or you could pull out and talk to the dwarf or something
so you pull back, close the doors, talk to the dwarf. It’s like, 10/11 in the morning

blargh.

Delenn’s Muse has returned—be it as cynical and depressing as it always was!

Glistening sunlight births me from tormentuous dreams
To a world full of terror of a wondrous fashion
A consuming loneliness temporarily weans
By a glorious day drowned in lust and passion.

Her quest of a reunion with comrades awry
Leads this troubled young bard to a treasure to show
Where one touch yields wisdom and a knowledgeable scry
Of ally Kouraf, imprisoned in a black tower of snow.

The vain but resourceful Mage Delgenar
Transforms simple glass to a vision of friends
With a reading of Parchment travels our bard to afar
Haste allows brief farewells and many untied ends.

Songs of joy, for she has joined her companions so dear!
(How strange! One has changed from what he was when she left!)
But little time for rejoicing, a new adventure draws near
To awake an Enchanterer from a sleeping death.

Menacing beings of stone, foul two-headed beasts
Plague our heroes’ entrance at the mouth into Hell
Horrid creatures of hypnotics, wings, claws, hair and teeth
Are but shadows of the terrors lingering as they ascend the well.

How could Man, in God’s image, be treacherous still
Than the hideous minions that ward their lair?
Weep for these devils! For how can we kill
Corruptions of our own flesh without a care?

20-26 Eleint 1357DR
[Game of May 23rd, 2003]

Entering the Dwarven Citadel in the higher peak, followed by a dragon hit and run

Long Summary

20 Eleint, 1357DR

[in the snowy “room” within the tower]
-You’re between…
-both portals are deactivated. As the storm secedes for a couple minutes, you have trouble breathing [up] here. [high altitude]
d: are we in the spine of the world…ooooh…
-you can see a peak, away from where you came, there’s a peak that rises higher. back the way you came there’s a drop, and lower peak. So you in this middle part with shear cliffs tha meld into the upper peak, and rise down to form a lower peak. There’s some flat area past the shear walls.
- To the right, starting from where you came, you can see a chain, well, you’re flying, there’s a bigger chain of mountains, that looks like a big wall that blocks the horizon. Although it’s kind of hard to see because it’s still snowing.
-it’s a lot colder here than in the tower, and windy, especially past the cover of the sheer walls.
delenn notices that the upper peak has some kind of pass or something near the top, once pointed out Jaran can see it too.
k:If I look at it with the spyglass, can I see it better?
-It looks like some kind of road or something, rather battered and beaten. It definitely stands out as being unnatural.
-kouraf squints and doesn’t see it. [the path] Eventually his invis fades, and he’s just a bear
ja: Do we want to go through the opposite portal?
d: The archway in front of us? But it’s deactivated. Kouraf can activate it?
k: I’d rather go through the portal than explore the mountain.
d: or back thtough the portal we came through.
ja: let’s go read the other portal, and see what it says.
k: Let’s read both portals.
kouraf turns back into a halfelf, but he has fur now. He runs his fingers over thr unes. Just instructions on how to activate the portal.
k: what are the instructions?
kouraf: the words you ahve to utter for the portal to open.
ja: you said before that the opposite portal goes to the opposite side of the tower. Where does it say that?
kou: It doesn’t.
ja: Then how do you know?
kou: I just do.
d: Yeah, how does he know that?…
k: I’d like to go through the opposite one.
d: I suppose he hasn’t done anything for us to not trust him at this point.
ja: Not yet.
kou starts grunting some words at the portal, sort of this hissy throaty clickety language. About halfway through it he gets sort of pissed off at it, yelling at it, getting visibly agitated, then it works
[this may or may not be in evil draconic]
ja:what does the portal look like?
red, swirling
d: You sure this goes to the other side of the tower? What did the other one look like?
red swirly.
ja: I’ll go.
k: I will too.
jul and gkar do too
delenn won’t be left behind again.
kouraf also steps through.
k: We should explore the perimeter to make sure it’s the same level
-you notice another concealed door, sort of opposite where the other door was.
k: What happened when we stepped through?
you stepped out of a doorway (the said concealed doorway)
k: So there are only 2 doors on this pathway, other than the center area.
oh, wait, there are another 2 perpendicular to that.
k: We should check out one of those.
ja: I’ll search for traps.
doesn’t looked trapped.
k opens it.
it opens up, and you feel cold wind and snow hit your face. There’s a path with two sheer cliffs and a lot of butchered bodies in the snow
k: I guess close the door and check out the other one.
there are no traps on the other door.
k opens it. You see snow and wind blowing away from you. And more bodies
k is starting to this place is alittle peculiar. Why they made all these portals in this configuration
-because they can
k: I guess…
kouraf sits and thinks for a while. shakes some of the snow off his boots, collects it in a pile, pats it down, smoothes it out, starts drawing something with his staff.
g: what draw you in the snow, master kouraf?
he draws and anvil, and a hammer. Then he smudges it out. and then he draws a triangle and fills in the middle with a skull.
k: myrkul? is this like a religious symbol maybe?
g rolls rel check. doesn’t recognize anything
k rolls. One of th epriest you killed last time had a small symbol of a skull around his neck, a little triangle with a skull. The guy with the robes. Maybe myrkul.
ja: Why do draw in the snow?
kou: memories. memories. citadel of the twin peaks.
g: is this one of your last memories before you were stuck…
kou: it just came to mind.
g: but what does it mean…
ja: what’s that ring on your finger.
kou: I don’t know. I hadn’t noticed it before.
k: we should probably identify it
k: cna you take it off?
kou: Yes of course…[tries, it doesn’t come off]
[ack]
d: it seems important but…
k: Why don’t we go back and look through the rest of the doors.
there are no more doors
d: I thought there was a third level…
ja: There should be.
ja: I bet that’s where jarl is.
d: The third level? oooh noo… Sir tunnel master.
g: So right now we’re standing at the edge of the door, we haven’t gone through it?
no, it leads out into the same snowy area.
d: I’d like to find out what’s on the third floor if we can.
-delenn make me an int check d: Yeah
-the top floor goes up 40 feet. The first floor was 30, the second was 20
k: So there’s an extra 10 feet within the tower…and not counting floors.
ja: So I guess we’re done then.
d: what does kouraf want to do, does he have a preference?
kou: Explore the peaks.
k: don’t you want to know what that rings does though?
kou: It doesn’t seem to do anything yet. It appears to be stuck to the flesh.
ja: I don’t exploring the peaks after we find out what that ring is.
ja lifts arm: “We’ve had problems before with things that won’t come off.
back to the igloo?
ja/k: sure
lightning wand, bast sword, kouraf ring, delenn dagger, fire resist ring
so you hole up in the igloo for a day. heal up sleep it off

the ring is indeed fire resist
delenn’s dagger: +6 demon slayer it’s obviously +6 and kills demons on a hit
the old wand of lightning: staff of lightning
now that he mentions is, it looks like the wand was shaved off in some places. It’s got this cut pattern, it could have been cut from something and then made into a wand, it could just be a staff cut into wand shape
bast swo: +2, +3 vs evil, +4 vs set
kouraf ring: he passes out

d: What does that mean. Aw nuts.
ja: I’ll try and wake him up
you find it hard to touch him. He’s in suspended anim again.
gkar tries to dispel him, fails twice
k tries: fails
ja: I’ll detect magic
kouraf - transmutation, strong
dagger - yeah it’s magic. faint, dim. Evocation.
ja to k: I think they were smoking the same thing
ja looks at her daggers (+1 and +2) and it looks more like the +1 evoc aura

d: I found some followers for you. If we keep sitting here they’ll go away.

[next day]
k tries to dispel, fails three times.
g tries. sooo clooose.
[another next day]
k tries to dispel, fails three times.
g tries. nope

ja: We may as well go to the peaks.
jul thinks there may be something in the peaks. It’s just an observation.
didn’t you say that one of your auguries say there’d be something here to help you back?
ja: ACtually gabe, that’s what you said.
k: what about heading back.
ja: Icewind dale is closer to those peaks than that other city.

you go back up to the tower. [cast fly on k, he lets down rope]

you open the door, there’s no wind, no snow. Lumps in the snow, fresh snow cover. Sunny. Hard to breath
you arrive on the other side. no snow giants throwing boulders
how do you guys want to climb the peak?

ja: I guess we’ll make our way up to the path?
takes the rest of the day to make halfway up the mt. you’ve reached the path.
very very well furred
it gets dark really early here. Your days are shorter, than say Velen.
d: do we have to do a watch thing. built fire. fur fort.
so you make camp, do your standard watch schedule. During g’kars watch halfway through the night, you hear some flapping noises, some roaring from above you. You see a dark shape flying overhead. It looks big, and it flies off.
g: I’ll wake K, and tell him what I saw. Don’t know if that means he saw us.
g: I’ll cont my watch. Did it feel like he saw us?
he was circling around the peaks. It was a dark winged shape. And it was big
g: did it seem like a dragon?
there was no heat signature from the dragon. It was a dark shape. Why you saw it was because there were stars, and it blocked it out.
g: judging from what you’re saying it sounds like a dragon.
k: The rest of the night goes without incidence?
unless the rocks come out and attack

[next day]
kalc rolls three 1s in a row on his dispel for kouraf’s shell
gkar drops dice. Another 2 misses
we go on the path, it was going around the perimeter, then curves into the mountain. it widens, there’s an archway embedded into the rock, about 5′ tall, with large double doors that are broken and off kilter. there’s an inscription.
It’s in dwarven. “The twin peaks of the frozen north. conquered by the dwarves of Citadel Daerbar. Only to the command of a high old one will these doors answer.” and the doors are broken and battered. Collapsing, looks like you could probably squeeze through. {gkar read it aloud, taking great pride in reading dwarven
the high old ones are dwarven high priests
g: do they look forced open or weathered?
like someone took a battering ram to them. Not age. Definite puncture wounds through the doors.
d: Well gkar, among us you’re definitely the oldest.
g: I could just stand in front of the door and say open in the name of clangedding, spout the whole clangeddin history name
the doors don’t move. The doors have sort of already been moved
ja: Do we want to explore?
d: When we go through, is it a 5′ cooridor? Are we all ducking?
ja: I’m 4′ 10, I don’t need to duck
g: [augury] will we meet any dwarves if we go beyond these doors?
“Yes”
[
d: Will we meet any friendly dwarves
ja: Evil can be friendly
k: Please, sit down, have some tea
]
gkar goes first
The tunnel goes into a little entryway, two doors also look beaten
The ceiling is about 6′. Kalcryx is ducking. A little bit
ja: are the doors open.
they look beaten. You could squeeze through them.
d: This is your home g
you open another set of doors, and they fall to the side with a clang
g: Who has done this. Who has defiled this place.
you open the doors and you notice in the corners of this room, 4 statues of dwarven warriors with axes across each shoulder. They’re all crumbling, looks as if they were battered as well. There’s another large set of doors leading in.
as you walk past you notice that there are secret doors between the statues to either side.
g: do I recognize the figures
no, they’re generic, canonical dwarves
ja: I’ll search them
they’re untrapped, somewhat open
ja: both doors?
does not appear to be trapped.
the door in front is actually closed. Scuffed and beaten, but closed.
ja: Are the main doors trapped?
appear to be untrapped. not locked

g: It makes too much sense to barrel forward, let’s check out the side doors.
g goes to a side door and pushes it open. You see a hallway forming as you open. A hand reaches out of the darkness and grabs you, or attempts to anyways. A dark clawed hand reaches out of the darkness, you hear this hissing sound, and the claw misses because you’re behind the door. The door opens up and the hall opens to a bigger room behind, and you notice a few of the shapes crowding the hallway.
[Round 1. Fight]
You see this shape, and a few more dark shapes behind it.
jul walks into the small room, looks around.
g: I’m gonna cast withdraw. First I’m going to cast bless.
you cast bless, and the withdraw ends. You can only cast heal and divination within the withdrawal
g: then I’ll take a 5′ step back away from the door
-something sneaks through the door and reaches out towards k, and misses.
d: shadowy? magic missile it. 13 points of damage to the one on K
it looks like a humanoid shadowy figure, and it has claws. It looks like a blob of ink, insubstantial. It just tensed a little when the missiles hit. It drifts along. It kind of squeezed through the door and reformed around K. Another one squeezes through around the dwarven statue and misses K. (fights within the statue)
one rushes towards g, and misses.
another slips around the door and attacks K
ja: I’ll attack with the sword of bast. It looks evil. Swish
you swing and miss. It hits the statue
another shadow slips from beneath the main forward door. It claws at g and misses
another comes from the cooridor beyond G, stands near the stat and misses g.
Another slips from the main door, attacking G, and misses.
another comes from the cooridor beyond G, stands near the other stat and hits ja.
ja takes 5 points dam and loses a point of str.
k moves back 5 ft, casts recitation, and shouts: retreat and fireball.
you all feel inspired
jul sees what’s going on. He will probably try to manifest something. He probably realizes these are not quite living. He’ll draw his scimitar. He moves in and takes an attack. He slices it well. He says: Pull back gkar, you’r getting surrounded.
g: Cast silverbeard, step back 5′
shadow moves in towards k, swings at K, misses.
d: which one did I hit before?
the one that came through the door and attacked k
d: I’ll throw another couple missiles at it, and 3 at the one behind. See what happens. 10 points.
the blackness kind of dissipates and crumbles to the floor
d: Oooh, nice again. 3 missiles for 12 points. And I retreat back to the outside doors.
a shadow moves up and attacks k and misses. another moves in through the dwarf doorway and misses, doesn’t even come close. The one wrapped around the statue unwraps and claws at k
ja: lance of disruption at the shadows, then step back.
one dissipitates. Two shadows just shake it off a bit.
one more comes from the dwarf door, and misses g. The final one comes through, flies around and again misses g. You’re just too dodgy.
jul gets attacked, and now he’s surrounded. That’s 1 miss. He’s most definitely not going to try to contact. Another goes up to jul, misses.
k: I’ll take a swipe at the one in the statue by my door. I crit. It’s like 42 damage or something.
[g: did it also take out the statue behind him? ;) ]
k: Then I run away like a little girl.
that provokes an attack of opportunity, and it misses.
jul…*eep* takes a swing at the one in front, then steps back.
g: Alright. This sucks. Aw the hell with it. I’ll just fight number 4, not throwing. Do you think -11 will hit? 13 points of damage. Then I take a 5′ step back into the narrow entry hall
d: I will hit 2 missiles at #4 (that gkar hit) and 3 at another. 8 points
he takes it and stays.
d: 10 points.
he also takes it and continues moving forward. then I go back 20 ft.
one moves in to strike jul. It hits, he takes damage and appears weaker.
the back corner one moves in, and attacks jul, misses. Jul is also a little dodgy.
another moves up behind the stat, and goes for jul, missing.
ja: Step back, mag missile
your missiles hit it and it breaks apart, and a lump of blackness falls to the ground.
a shadow steps into the hall and attacks gkar. Steps forward and attacks jul, missing. Another glides up to jul
k: *sigh* Sure, whatever. Move back into the short hall, and attacks with 2 handed. 17 points.
That takes it out. The sword cuts through and it splatters and darkens the wall.
Jul moves back. Scimitar on 5, he hits. 5 appears to crumble, then it hangs in there, reglues itself together.
g: I go for 5, hit, it dies. By clang fury at number 8. I rolled a 1, and miss.
d, from her position far away, moves forward just outside the door. Throw mm at 8 and 9 (9 points; destroyed) and (11 points; takes it)
a remaining one steps up to gkar, and another squeezes into the statue and misses
ja throws 3 missiles at 9, taking it out (so it’s not longer on gkar), and the last missile hits the one in front of gkar.
k: I guess I’ll just pull out. steps out of the short hall and outside.
jul attacks number 2. Drops his scimiter. “Crap” and he retreats.
g: step back, clang fury. definitely hits. it dies.
your hammer takes it with it, once the hammer returns the shadow comes with it, then crumbles to the floor
d: Cats grace on myself. I forgot to do this earlier. 7.
Your dex is now 19. Your AC improves
ja: 4 missiles at the last one. 17 points dam
It takes it.
k: I pray to helm for not losing strength
jul: Pulls out a dagger. Rolls a 19. He destroys the last one.
g: move towards the door, cast aid.
d: I’ll just move forward. Oh, what the hell. I’ll go in to the narrow cooridor and cast mirror image. Get some delenns. That’s 7.
ja: goes past the many delenn’s and opens the door
the door creeks open. A laaaarge chamber. The ceiling goes beyond your vision. The floor is littered with armor and weapons in various stages of rusting and decomposition. There are two sets of steps going down. Furhter up it starts arching. The walls are decorated with dwarven script.
k: moves in to the hall.
You basically see the decor. You can see 20′ with the light.
k: Do I see anything?
you see the steps. They both seem to go down.
k: runs in, takes the stairs to the right.
jul moves in cautiously, peeks down the other set of stairs.
k just ran in, pushed past you and ran down the stairs.
g walks in
stop (20′ in), you hear stone moving. You feel a little bit of stone hit your shoulders and helmet, and you hear the air screeching around you. You hear some kind of stone grinding, the air screeches above you, you look up, see this stone thing with wings, coming down with full weight, and it lands on you. You take 23 points of damage. It lands and it’s heavy, with it’s full weight *crunch* And it knocks you down (gkar) and it’s standing on top of you.
It’s a 6 or 7′ tall stone thing.
Then you see another one jumping down. It jumps on jul. Hits him, knocks him down. Takes a *lot* of damage, you hear some crunching, scraping.
gkar, you can still take an attack. This thing is pinning you.
g: How does it work if I try to push it off?
[you have to tickle it’s tummy]
You push it off, and lands next to you
delenn, you see one monster, gkar pushed it off and it landed next to him.
d: move the mirrors around, and pulls out the bow. Roll an 18,
hits, and the arrow breaks.
d: I can try a +1 arrow. Nope. It flies off
gkar, as you push that one off, another flies down and lands on you. 17 points.
ja: Melf’s, on the one not on top of gkar.
the acid hits, but doesn’t corrode the stone
ja: Runs up to g and tries to hit the bad guy, accidently hits gkar’s armor
jul tries to push it off, pummeling it, loses consciousness
it then coils up and springs, landing next to k
the one next to g starts pummeling on you, that’s a miss. second attack is a hit though. The stone fist pummels through the armor.
g: It’s beating the shit out of me. I ought to do withdraw.
You have 8 rounds of withdrawal.
g: I’m going to CLW myself. 8 healing. It has to be spell…CMW for 9.
they’re stone, they have wings. They grind when they move. You realize that the door guardians (the big stone guys back in the tower) whenever they moved you could hear the same grinding. You have 4 actions left
g: Do I see any more? The ceiling goes up pretty high?
only these 3. they were probably hiding away from your eyesight.
g: I’m gonna cast rockburst, as far up as I can see.
that breaks the withdrawal. The wall explodes, and it rains pebbles on you and everyone else. You’re too far away to take any damage.
g: I was trying to see if there were any more up there.
d:gkar is in the square with that monster? I’m aiming for the two to the right of gkar and kalcryx
you miss gkar and the one on top of him. The lightning bolt hits the two twice, and appears to not damage them at all.
The two near gkar attack and smack him once
ja: moves forward and attacks with sword of bast. Hits AC -1, does 9 points damage
k: Hit with two hander, 14 points, then I move, 5′.
the one that came to attack K, pounces on K, he goes down and jumps towards k and tries to crush him against the wall with the weight of his body, it hits, AC -7. 24 points. And it lands back in it’s square
number 2 turns towards jaran, and attacks with fists. It hits twice. On the second hit you feel a bit stunned but throw it off.
g: use the ability of Strength.
18(68) strength. you get another +1 to hit, +1 to damage. It’ll last for 6 hours
d: I’ll surround Jul wiht my images, and give him a potion. Cure Serious. 19 points.
Jul regains consciousness.
the one on top of gkar pummels him. His silverbeard runs out, recitation continues, but it hits you. 13 points. Second attack with the other fist, misses. Your shield gets in the way.
ja: I cast invis, and step back 5 ft
jaran disappears
k: attacks with 2 hander. 13 points.
you crush through it, your sword stops and you pull it out.
jul stands up
the one on k attacks, hits twice. Ouchy.
the one on jaran moves over to delenn’s image, and the image dissipates
g: I’m gonna try to get it off me again.
It rolls off. You don’t push hard, but it trys to push back and doesn’t resist much. Lands next to you.
d: I will throw greek fire at one.
It explodes in a flash fire, and nothing seems to happen. Fire on stone.
The one off g attacks you. Misses. Second one hits, 15 points.
g: I’m out
ja: I step forward to gkar, and administer a heal potion to him, invisibly. He’s fully healed but by 3
jul steps forward with his scimitar and attacks the beast on delenn. He barely manages to miss it, as he’s about to miss, he remembers the word of helm is inspiring me, and lunges forward and hits it. He takes off a bit of claw
the one on k pursues, it punches. It misses twice, banging his armor as he scampers up the wall
the one on delenn steps up and swings on jul, and hits. Jul falls. Then attacks delenn and misses the image
g: I’ll stand up and take a 5 ft step (roll backwards and stand)
d: One of those delenns is attacking with a mace (surrounding the one that fell julian). I hit. 6 points
you bash it over the head with the mace, and feel the nice impact of crushing beneath your mace
the one on top of gkar, moves up to gkar, tries to hit. Misses, hitting the shield first, then reaches around and hits. 13 points.
sharing a square with gkar, ja moves back and chugs a CLW potion getting 9 points.
k: Hits the flying baddy, return to the ground.
jul remains unconscious
3 disengages k and flanks gkar. 15 points dam to gkar. Second attack misses
2 surrounded by delenns, it swings at one randomly, and hits an image, which dissipates. Second attack misses
g: steps back and whacks into jaran. Decides to just cast silverbeard
d: Surrounds the 2nd golem again and attacks with the mace.
Hits, but no damage
badguy 1, leaps at K. Hits him. K takes 19 points. You’re still up
jaran steps back, making sure gkar knows where she is, and casts mirror image
k quaffs heal, gets all but 2 back. And steps 5 ft away from the entrance
badguy 3, attacks gkar. Hits. You take 8 points. 2nd attack, crits. You lose consciousness. Gkar is unconscious
badguy 2 has 4 targets. Attacks and misses, then hits. Another image dissipates
d: another 5 ft adjustment. I’m gonna drop a heal on jul
he comes back to consciousness.
1 attacks Kalc. Miss, and misses again
ja: If gkar looks still slightly alive, CSW to gkar
k: crit miss, but manage to hold on to sword.
jul stands up. He grips his sword
badguy 3. Thinks gkar is dead. It flies at K. Using the weight of its body to attack. It misses, hits armor and you hold ground and it lands in front.
badguy 2 has 5 targets now. Picks first one. Misses. Second attack hits, another image winks out
gkar quaffs heal while on the ground.
d: reorient and bash with the mace. Hit. 6 points
you feel the nice vibrations of the smackings
one on K attacks with fists, hits. 8 points. Another hit, 9 points. Save vs petrif. (makes it) Stunned but nothing happens
ja: Steps up and tries to backstab, but fails. Invis ends and jarans appear everywhere
k: whacks it, hits for 17
you clip off its head. It’s still standing there
jul: swings at the bad guy, misses, scraping the stone but not going through
badguy 3, not feeling great, it doesn’t care. Pummels at K. 2 att misses
badguy 2 has a lot more targets. Takes third target, attacking d image. Misses. Turns around and swings at another green, misses
d: swing with the mace. 9 points dam.
you feel a resounding crack and part of its jaw crumbles
ja: continue to flank with K, move my images forward around delenn’s. Attack with sword, but miss
k: Stay there. Hit.
you cut it in half, and it falls over
k: And I want to take a step, to the left, moving to engage the other one
jul continues to swing, hits. He does some damage, cleaves off a section of its back
the one by delenn picks a random target. It picks jul. First attack, hits with a fist, and again, misses
g: on number 1, by k.
you throw, notice k is there, you skew it a bit off and it misses.
d: attack with mace on mine, flanking with jul. 8 points, then my images swap
as you swap you see some stone hitting your foot from the thing you just whacked
badguy 1 on k. Takes a swing with fist and bangs on the armor. Second, crushes past armor, 12 points
ja: Two attacks, two misses. The images shuffle around to surround both bad guys
k: 5 ft diag, attack bad guy. A hit.
The head slices off.
jul takes a step to the side. And misses
badguy 2, swings at jul. Hits with first att. Second attack hits again. Jul takes a load of damage. He’s not looking too great
g: throw the hammer. guiding it through the melee.
he throws it really hard, it flies through where its head was, and hits on the return.
g: 24 points. Second attack also hits. Max damage [yay!]
your hammer goes straight through it and it explodes in a shower of rock
d: hits with the mace again. 11 points to 2. Then switcheroo
ja: I switch targets and attack the one on jul. Miss with sword and dagger. Move the images to surround it further and help out jul
k: Attack and hit the last one. 13 points.
you succeed in taking out the arm, and continue through it

Hey, you got through the front door
d: gabe, every single time you missed and then hit an image, the miss was on me.
you can still explore the 2 doors you left behind
k: I’ll cast detect evil and hopefully I won’t die or something
there’s evil down the steps, and further down the hall. In the front entry, there’s no evil left.
k: so we search those rooms and then leave.
the room off the hall to the right has some weapon racks and random armor, same on the other side. A few stone bunks. [gkar: comfortable]. You notice there’s small writing on the door, in dwarven: “Barracks” [gkar: I could tell, especially with these especially comfortable beds]. And the other room is identical. They’re concealed so if anyone rushes in they get swarmed
jul needs a lot of healing
k heals people (jul, jaran, himself)
ja: I’ll detect magic on the stuff in both rooms.
it’s all junk, corroded and stuff. It looks like it used to be pretty good stuff
So you pull out of the citadel.
k: Yeah, we make camp
it’s almost nightfall

you find a little place off the path, scoop out some snow to make a shelter.
On the last watch. Jaran and Delenn are up, everyone else is sleeping. A little before the sun starts to rise off in the distance. The sun rises effectively blocked for a couple hours by the big mountain pass to the east. There’s some minor ambient lighting. Once again you hear the flapping of wings and roaring up in the sky. This is only about 5 mins into spell memorization. The roar is actually pretty loud, and you see the snow…you sense tha tsomething flies very low above you, you see the snow flurry up, the tent top flaps, a potion comes undone from the updraft. And everyone wakes up. Gkar, you wake up from this huge noise.
g: Am I near k? Reach over, str of one
k’s sentry gets set off. White dragon
delenn, you’re interrupted. You’re in your tent, you feel the flapping.
d: steps out of the tent
you see a tail swing this way, and circle around up
d: is it at least 20′ in the air?
no, but it’s really far away
d: Whip out fireball wand, aim at it
as you look up and pull out your wand, you are jumped from behind and above. A little translucent blue guy wish sharp angular facial features and a long angular nose, icy claws, comes out from above, reaches down, misses with the first and second claw. It chuckles a bit, and you feel it’s cold breath on your neck as it chuckles evilly. another one comes up from behind, and strikes where it thinks you were, and acks, and strikes again and you dodge out of the way. Another one pops in from above. This one looks like it’s about to pounce, and breaths. You’re hit by a bunch of sharp icicle things. You save, and take 3 points. Another descends in front of the tent, and breaths at jaran. 1 point of dam after save. You feel little sharp droplets hitting your face. Another one comes from above. It cackles and breathes. 4 points of dam
k: I guess I can stand and move. [moves to edge of the tent]
another flies and breathes on delenn, 4 points
ja: steps out towards d, lightinng from wand
one comes from behind jaran, breaths, and hits
another drops to the ground and breathes on k, 3 points
another drops, breathes on d, another 3 points
jui stands, hears commotion
last one drops in from above, breathes on K. Take 1 point
g: Stand up, 5 ft towards the edge of the tent
d: These are little ice guys? I step 5 ft. The one I have left, burning hands. 19 points.
the little guy you were aiming for, is completely off guard and he just melts and drops out of the air. The frost giant fur caught on fire
delenn is breathed on again. and again (as the two are fleeing back)
gkar, you are breathed on, the one in front of the tent sees you stand up and grip your hammer, 1 point. Another moves back and breathes on delenn. You take 2 points. You’re just showered with all these little sharp droplets
k: All these guys are how far off the ground?
the ones targetting you are on the ground, to the left of the tent, the rest are still flying.
k: I’ll run around the two targetting me, climb on top of the nearby 7′ rock, and use the lightning wand, and hit all the ones flying. 24 points
It spears through 4 of the ones attacking delenn and gkar. number 8 melts (one on delenn at the far corner) the others stop cackling. They don’t think it’s funny anymore. number 2 thinks it’s very much not funny, and it mumbles behind a rock
ja: attacks with sword, misses (another friggin 5 rolled)
it diagnals away, and breaths on jaran, 2 points
two move towards K, breathe on k, 4 and 5 points
jul moves out of the tent toward k, manifests a power.
Jul takes damage from the blast of a bad guy, and maintains concentration
g: By clang fury, of course. on the one breathing on me, straight out of the tent. Hits for 28.
your hammer shatters him, and he rains down on the snow
delenn looks indecisive for various moments.
d: well I’ll use the fireball wand. Centered almost on K. 24 damage
The fireball totally envelops K, hits Julian as well, in the wash at the edge. Gkar is barely not hit, the tent roars into fire. K takes 4 points. 4 around K are toasted. The last one is dodging, but still melts as he gets hit slightly
Jul doesn’t even move. He was totally whacked, not expecting it at all
one near delenn dives behind a rock
kalc, fire erupted around you
k: Did I see where it came from?
from the bard pointing the wand at you
k: climb off the rock, past the tent, and shoots, does 15 points dam
he drops from the air with the first hit. The second one misses and flies over its head
the first hiding behind the rock jumps out and breath weapons k. 5 points. more sharp things hitting your face
ja: Step out of the flaming tent, attack the one near me with the sword. Hits for 4 points (it was hit by the arrow before).
It crumbles before you
jul runs away behind the shelter, yells at d: “What the hell was that for?!” and heals himself
g, you feel the call of clang, throbbing in your hand
g: I’ll move past delenn, by the corner of the tent, and throw my hammer at the one that stepped from behind the rock. It barely hits. 26 points damage.
You throw your hammer. It just seems to go through things. It drops from the air in many pieces
The fire spreads. Delenn puts out the fire. The fur is severely burned. About half is charred.
The last behind the rock flies away in terror
K runs forward and shoots it with arrows, and hits. 15 points.
You see it flying away, and it just drops. It’s done.
…and it’s had plenty of time to swing around, and none of you are under cover from the shelter. how fast do these fly? fast. It flies in from 400 ft in the distance. It looks like it’s headed straight for you. And it breathes. Everyone saves. Jul healed himself…so…well, you might not be too bad off.
[aka: this will suck]
A wide cone envelops half the tend, and all four but K. Let’s see who drops. G is still up. Jul is still up. Delenn drops. Ja is still up. You all take 24 points
ja: lightning and run
it lights up the sky, and you see the figure of a big snowy reptilian thing., but it does nothing
jul hides behind a rock
g: hammer. AC -14.
gee, that’s a hit. It struck it and it flinched a little
g: 30 points of damage
k: AC -5.
It fails to pierce the scales.
k: Second try. AC -11. 13 points with an arrow. Do I think hiding behind a rock will help? Probably not, but getting away from the dwarf probably will. K moves far away
it continues flying, goes up above you, you feel more of the updraft come up.
Gkar, k and jul fall down from the effect of the updraft. The tent top gets grabbed and it flies off. then jaran falls

g binds d’s wounds. She stops bleeding. Then K reads CLW scroll. Delenn wakes up
g: I guess he just wanted the tent back.
ja: It was a frost giant fur? Why bother?
k: I think the frost giant was it’s fur for it’s scent to snuggle up with.
ja: Did it look like the same dragon?
no, definitely a different, bigger dragon. The previous one was 30 ft long. This one was about 200 ft long
d: This was old icy death…
ja: Probably

now you can pray and get XP. 10080. The golems were worth a lot because of their flesh to stone power. When they double hit, one of you could have been turned to stone. Plus they had bazillion of HP, and the pounce attack is gigantically difficult

16-20 Eleint 1357DR
[Game of May 16th, 2003]

a Bane-bashing good time

Long Summary

16 Eleint, 1357 DR

The stone gargoyles adorning the circular chamber seem to leer from their lofty perches. Kalcryx shrugs off the lingering tension of battle and walks over to Kouraf’s body, accompanied by the brittle cracking of bone underfoot. The fiery glow of the word Heretic plays across his white claws as he runs his hand across the spongy-hard surface of the warding field. Kalcryx looks pensive, “Banites have been known to scribe such upon supposed heretics just before execution.” Turning, he gives a start as he notices Jaran at his side. “He is in suspended animation, preventing his body from aging. The field should be safe to move.”

G’kar’s voice rumbles deeply with irritation. “We’ll have to, since our attempts to dispel it have been wholly unsuccessful. My magic is exhausted. We would be better to start battle fresh, with vigor in our step and the holy words of Clangeddin guiding our blows.” Kalcryx nods to the scowling dwarf, “I agree. We are uncertain how many await us beyond that door, but it is certain they have priests of Bane.”

With each step away from the dark tower, a greater sense of security fills him. The sun has shifted only slightly when finally the tower disappears behind a veil of sun-bright snow. As Jarl carves a shelter into the snow, Kalcryx watches as Julian’s black hair whips about, unnoticed in his intense concentration. “I can reach his mind, but it is as bleak and empty as this snowy plain. I’ve…never seen anything like it,” Julian says, his face clearing.

Soon the early night of northern lands falls, and Shar spreads her cloak of darkness across the sky. Pacing the perimeter of the camp, Kalcryx sprinkles a fine dust, chanting with great gravity and clutching his holy symbol. Completing the circle, he returns to the center and collapses upon his pallet deep in sleep.

He wakes with a start in the dead of night, disturbed by the bellowing warcry of G’kar. The night is preturnaturally black, the sound of leathery flapping nearby. If this were a foe, I would have awoken with an image of it in my mind. What in Helm’s name is going on? Groping in the dark towards the entrance, he hears the crunching of boots and muffled cursing in indistinct languages. Flurries of snow burst upon his face as the flapping increases and suddenly leaves the shelter. The darkness seems to lessen, and stars wink upon black night. Jaran stares into the sky fiercely, “It’s Jarl. He’s flying towards the tower.” Kalcryx rolls his eyes, “I don’t think it really makes much difference. I have no means at my disposal to give chase.” Jaran looks at him sharply, then whips her broom beneath her and speeds into the sky. Kalcryx adjusts his blanket and slips back into sleep.

“The portal was swirling in a mass of glowing red motes when he entered,” Jaran explains, as the sun breaks over the horizon. “It closed behind him. He said, ‘I will go as summoned.’” She sits upright before the fire, cross-legged upon her thick cloak. “He was completely oblivious to my actions. I only hope that whoever summoned him is unaware of our presence.” Kalcryx lifts himself up from prayer, “I believe Jarl to be on another plane. Helm has granted me his wisdom.”

After a frustrating morning of failed dispellings upon Kouraf, Kalcryx and his companions return to the tower, after hiding the burdensome black pearl outside the gates. There will be a reckoning with all Banites for the destruction of Helm’s temple. Focusing his anger, he prys the stone doors open, leading the diminished group up the stairs. The small door remains closed, a slithery chanting filtering through. “Are we prepared for what lies beyond?” Kalcryx glances at each of his battle-made friends. “If you wish to scout ahead, I can make you invisible to the eye until you attack,” Jaran offers. Kalcryx nods shortly, eager to be off. After a few muttered words and gestures, the world seems to shimmer in his eyes, and with no further ado he pulls open the door, dashing through the strange filmy haze filling the doorway.

The hall beyond is coarsely worked granite stained black with streaks of smoke. This is too large to be in the same tower. Something here is strange. He spiders up to the ceiling and down the hall, yanking the double doors open and slipping unnoticed into the temple of Bane. The chanting stops.

Thickly piled purple carpet leads up to a raised landing. A priest in dark purple robes emblazoned with the grasping hand of Bane stands upon it, his lean face drawn in a cruel scowl. Another man, pale and muscular, in chain mail stands nervously beside him, loosening the morningstar at his waist. Torches gutter and spurt along the walls. A third man, hair as red as blood and shoulders broad, examines the open doors suspiciously, his matte black plate bristling with spikes.

Kalcryx considers his options carefully from his lofty perch. Calling upon Helm’s grace, he creates a sphere of silence near the robed man. The man tries to speak. Hearing nothing, he mouths something with a furious expression, and moves off the landing. “What’s going on?!” he bellows. Flame and lightning flood the chamber from the hall.

Solid rock splits open to reveal a slim door. A man with a chiseled face and cropped black hair clad in black plate steps out, scanning the room with a practiced eye. The robed figure dashes behind the fighter, “Protect me.” Kalcryx sees his friends enter the temple, weapons drawn and magic readied, moving to intercept the priests. Seeking the power of Helm, Kalcryx calls for His aid in guiding their weapons and thwarting those of their foes. Helm help us. I think we’ll need it. Feeling a warm glow flood through him, he surveys the chamber.

The black-haired man in plate moves toward the entry toward G’kar, guarding the mage behind him. Julian stands motionless in the doorway, staring fixedly at the cleric in chain. Blood drips from a rent in Jaran’s arm as she dances out of reach of the man in chain. Arcane and divine words echo through the room, followed by columns of flame and plummeting sheets of ice striking his friends. One enemy mage falls, a single arrow protruding from his heart, but another takes his place from the secret passage. Seeing the magic pummeling his friends, Kalcryx again creates silence near a mage, then descends to the floor. As the mage tries to flee, he strikes him hard with his two-handed sword. The invisibility breaks, and filmy haze over his vision clears.

Through the confusion Kalcryx sees G’kar, bleeding from a million pin-prick wounds, backing away from black-plated figure. With calculated care, Kalcryx hurries to the dwarf’s aid, his sword biting through the man’s thick plate like butter. A bright flash and roar of flame from behind distracts Kalcryx, and he’s caught off guard when a searing pain eats away at his shoulder. God-forsaken mages! Snarling in pain, he turns in time to see another mage wink into existence.

Jaran stumbles into view, backing away from the man in chain frantically. With an indulgent sigh, Kalcryx sets his shoulders and bears into the man, ripping his chainmail. Jaran quickly tosses a potion down her throat, then gestures towards the room. Ice crashes down around Kalcryx, missing him by inches, but dragging his opponent into the ground with its force. With anger flaring in his eyes, the priest in chain draws a scroll. Reading it, it crumbles to dust in his hands, and flame erupts from the ceiling, flooding around Jaran. Die, damn you! Digging his claws into the leather grip, the two-handed sword sings through the air. Blood flies. The priest falls to his knees, face pale, then collapses.

Kalcryx turns, and sees G’kar running into the hall, away from the field of battle. Where in Dispater’s hell does that fool dwarf think he’s going? Fury wells up, and he focuses it towards a mage, his face set in a grim mask. A lance of rippling air and another of lightning rip through Jaran, and she falls with low moan. Kalcryx stops, looking from the confident mage to the friend at his feet. Cursing G’kar’s cowardice under his breath, he kneels, forcing a healing potion into Jaran’s cracked and bleeding mouth. Her wounds knit shut. Standing again, the world seems to blur and slow as the battle surges around him, the sword rises and falls, parrying and striking.

The flow of battle takes him back to the entrance, where G’kar comes up from behind him, only to fall beneath the furious blows of the snarling brute in black plate. Grumbling, Kalcryx pours another healing potion down G’kar’s throat. As he pours, he can just make out Delenn and Julian desperately flinging bolts and arrows down the cooridor at the enemies within. He glances up at the cry of pure desperation as Jaran runs across the room, flinging a sphere of fire from her fingertips. Fire swarms across the floor, walls and enemy alike, tongues of flame licking at his feet. The fire clears, and only corpses remain. Another fiery pearl shoots from the hidden door, this time surrounding him in searing flame and washing through the cooridor. The furious white light fades back, and Kalcryx shakes his head to clear it. Mages. With a resigned sigh, he runs to Jaran’s side, keeping clear of the concealed hall. G’kar follows, together they heal the scorched half-drow body.

Lightning courses out of the hall, electrocuting G’kar and further punishing Jaran.

juilian moves toward the narrow secret cooridor, and uses cellular adjustment, healing himself for 4 hp
K moves down the cooridor after the mage. Sees that it snakes around opens outward into a circular room. The mage stands at the side. Swings and hits. 15 points.
delenn moves up, rifles through jaran’s stuff, finds a CLW potion. “Kill him Gkar!”
Gkar moves down the snakey cooridor, and casts aid on himself.
As you walk through, there is a shimmering globe, centered on the corner
Oh wait, he was hit this round. What does he have left. He knows that k is immune to lightning. He quaffs a potion. And he moves 5 ft. and he sits there and looks menacing
There a few beds against the wall, and random stuff.
Jui: moves into the room, shoots him with a knockout dart. I hit. He takes 3 damage
the mage falls unconscious
delenn dumps CLW down jaran’s throat
gkar moves up and slays the mage
there is much healing by K.

we search everything

gkar destroys the mage’s skull, jaran helps. Kalcryx destroys the altar.
we get to the door, and it barely opens. We all keep pushing until it opens.
K tries to lodge a stone golem head in the door, and the door stays open
the campsite has been undisturbed.
k casts fortify, sets gkar carving a rock (golem piece)

we sleep. Jaran idents
second day of resting, kouraf wakes up
day of identification - pouring over minute details of bracers, potions
weapons and armor

kou:who are you?
jaran:oh no. It was your clone.
k:what’s the last thing you remember
kou:old icy death. And ellen.
ja:Ellen…is in grimclaw. in the starspire mountains. She is evil, I think.
kou:the aasimar in bytopia
k:we found you in an evil temple.
k:some banites wrote this on your chest.
kou:where are we?
ja: sea of endless ice
kou:not far from where I should be. on a peak on the psine
kou:flamerule 1050
ja:1050?? it’s 1357.
k:do you remember making a clone.
kou:yes I met him once.
kou:he tried to kill me.
kou:and ellen suggested I do it in case I ever fall in battle, to continue my quest. to seek out and destroy old icy death.
k:who or what is old icy death
d:old white death?
kou:he goes by many names. The icy claws that wait at the end of the world. A Rauthaor.
d:we found your head in a carriage of evil doers. Then my evil clone is dead. and everyone thinks your dead.
d:except for this young…[juilian]
jui:I was sent to rescue, but I forgot my memories as well.
k:do you have any spells in memory?
kou:I do not.
k:well you have a long life in front of you
kou:my people only live to be 200 or so.
ja: I think there’s another clone of you.
k: Do you feel rested?
kou: I feel hungry.
spits out g’s ale
g:if I’d been dead a hundred years I’d want ale
ja: I will offer him my spellbook to study from if he feels up to doing it.
kou: Yes, thank you
kouraf appears to be healthy

he says something in a draconic lang, but you don’t understand the dialect.
are you not a half dragon?
k [in bronze]: Yes I am
kou:I speak the lang of all good dragons
k:oh, but bronze…

kou:you say there was a tower, and I was imprisoned in it.
ja:we’re working on identifying items, and there’s spare clothing you could wear.
kouraf identifies everything
ja: Yeah, I can use a two handed sword +2…when I have two hands.

at the beginning of the 3rd day, before you set out…
priests get what with cats grace? d4. K by 2. Gkar by 2. delenn by 5. juilian by 2. Jaran by 2. on everyone but himself…this will allow you to fly. On himself, he casts a bunch of things. Poly self, contingency, shield.
spells he can cast: spider climb, improved invis, shield, mirror image

we fly up to the tower, and land inside the top of the tower. Kouraf grows wings and follows. There are four doors. Jaran listens at all the doors
you hear nothing.
k: open the door we went through last time?
ja: sure
jaran polymorphs herself
there’s a winding cooridor.
we follow. k on the ceiling, kouraf in spider form
the cooridor leads to a passage that curves around the perimeter of the tower.
we go left.
[gabe rolls dice]
jaran and delenn, you notice a door on the inner wall, it seems concealed.
kouraf changes into an elf. turns juilian and kalc are improved invis
k opens the door
kouraf turns invis
k:how tall is the door?
5 ft
you open the door
g: I’ll cast bless
okay, a cold howling wind comes through and a bunch of snow blows on to you. Looks like there is some kind of storm on the other side of the door.
k: this is strange.
ja: I have a suspicion. I think if thre’s four doors there’s four elements.
it looks like…it’s like snowing and stuff in the room.
jui: the ceiling isn’t open is it?
no it’s not
g: I’d like to cast aid on myself
do you move in? you can kind of see that there’s some kind of like path or something, there’s like sheer walls of ice or snow, that this is some kind of trail.
g: how far can I move while flying?
18 squares. Even after casting.
g: I’ll go in.
ja: Move in carefully, along the wall
gkar you see a white object, hurl towards you from out of the storm. It lands right next to you, and it explodes in a huge puff of snow.
g: That’s all?
that’s all. you see it come out, and you’re covered in snow. And another one lands right in front of you
jui: I’ll go along the wall, elevated 10′ up
you see this big tall guy getting ready with a big stone over his head, looks like he’s going to throw it. Ther’es another on the other side of the path
k: I’ll cast recitation, then I basically fly 20 feet above the walls (80 feet up)
and you see…there’s a guy about half buried in the snow on either side (4 total)
they look large, like 20 feet tall, big beards coated with ice, wearing hides. HAve big stones made of ice that they’re about to hurl down on the path.
Another one targets gkar. THe stone hits your shield and glances off. The other one gets up, and smacks gkar with the rock. You realize it’s snow on the outside but boulder on the inside. You take 13 points gkar.
d: I didn’t see/hear anything?
snow whumping, snowball cracking against gkar’s shield
d: I go up until Isee something (20′) and I magic missile one of them. 19 dam from 5 missiles
he gets smacked, he staggers back a little from the blows.
a snowball is hurling at you from straight in front, but glances off the shield. And you see one, he’s about 20′ tall. He certainly looks like a giant. He has a stone, and is reaching for his back, he has something handled to his back. He screams in a deep voice in something you don’t understand, with a giant beard 10 or 15 feet long, viking helmet, furs.
g: If he wasn’t a giant he’d be really cool
kouraf the strong, huh…moves inand up out of the air. He’s feeling brave, goes up and swings his quarterstaff and thump. It hits the giants armor and it rattles doing no damage.
g: Um…gosh. Do I attack or improve my AC. Well, I Want to taunt him with my beard. I cast Silverbeard. I fly up and around him
ja: I fly up and follow d’s missiles, with my own, 4. 15 points.
the giant throws the boulder at delenn’s image, and one winks out.
the one further on the cliff pulls out another rock from his pack, throws it at gkar, hitting…your beard, showering your face with snow
gkar you see there’s some kind of archway on the other side
juilian moves up to help gkar.
jui: I’m going to life drain him with a touch. I drain 3 from him
k:I want to move into position to get these guys with lightning bolt (2 on the right wall) 24 damage
the giant on the right drops himself onto the ground
and number 3 on the left wall attacks the mage. misses kouraf with the greataxe
d: I am going to see what a bow will do to number 4. (on the right wall) on a 7 hits AC 1, which is a miss. Second hits firmly. 8 points.
he looks unhappy, your arrow pierces your armor
He pulls that axe, comes down on your head, and cleaves the snow right next to your head. You see it coming and you just…dodge.
kouraf casts a spell. A little ray shoots out, and [jaran sees this] the guy disappears….he disintigrates.
gkar whacks the guy, he takes triple damage. it does 48 damage. the hammer hits square in the face, blood spews out, you hear cracking of bones. It just cleaves him. He’s not lookin’ so great.
jaran: magic missile the same one, 14 dam
he takes it, and pulls out a stone, targets ja this time. It misses, flying straight past you
from this side, as you glance back, the door is actually an archway
opposite ogre climbs down, heading towards gkar.
“it” comes in
gkar you hear something flying behind you. And then, you feel cold breath of air hit you from behind. Roll saving throw against breath weapon. Take 5 points.
jui: flys past the ogre, throws two poisoned daggers. Both hits.
you hear a great moan, and the giant drops to his knees, and lands face first in the snow.
jui: Does he look dead?
Probably
k:2 hits with arrows. 17 points.
second hit takes him out.
the guy who just climbed down comes and charges. He misses as gkar dodges among his legs.
d: I magic missile the one that charged gkar. 19 points
that guy, flanks gkar. He misses, the great axe cleaves the ground, screams something else “Stupid dwarf”?
a snowy figure with wings flyes over and smacks the giant with something (kouraf), right upside the head. You hear the cracking of wood *thump*
g: I need to be able to get back far enough to throw it, and tell kouraf: breath weapon.
gkar takes a hit as he tries to step back. 21 points dam as the greataxe comes down on your shoulder
g: throws hammer at each. AC -15.
triple damage mr. dwarf
g: The second one crits. Quadruple damage. I slaughter his ass.
chunks of his body are thrown in all directions
both fall over dead. 14HD each
jaran moves in, sees something white with wings, a shape heading towards gkar. Casts fireball at it. 29 dam
it flies up right behind you and you hear a thump right behind you. A white clawed hand, streaks your armor from behind, another claw. that’s a hit, 8 points. This long face comes right next to you, this white reptilian face and tries to bite you
jui: can I see it from there? I’m gonna try to contact it. Powerscore made, establish contact
k: K crits with a longbow with +1 arrows. 32 points. The other one…AC2
that hits the scale and bounces off
d: I fly, over the left wall, to lightning it, from pretty far away, angled at the back of the dragon.
yeah, you can hit it
d: 30 points
kouraf backs the fuck out
g: I’m going to step 5ft back, and cast sanctuary
jaran moves over, 50 ft up, lance of disruption at it. 28 points
it turns around and flies the hell out. it moves faster than you can fly.

d: We could destroy the archway
ja:let’s not destroy the archway until we know what it is.
it’s a runed archway
g:k I seek your guidance. Would this be the time to use one of these potions?
ja: Those potions cost 1k each. Use those only in battle.
kouraf moves up to inspect the portal. Reads the glyphs up top
you see the snowy form with wings, pawing the archway, looking at the symbols.
ja: is there anything swirling in the doorway?
no, it’d deactivated.
k:he can read the door?
yeah. it’s in the language of evil dragons.
kou:I can activate the portal if you want. It has instructions for doing so. It takes you back to the other side of the tower.
jui recovers his two daggers.
jaran gets some giant teeth, beard hair, furs. knuckles
g takes a helmet

As I suspected, Kouraf was in the black tower in the Sea of Endless Ice. But what was he doing there? Why was he stripped of all possessions but for a single golden ring? The ring must be either powerful or important for it to have been left. I can only hope that such power sides with good for once.

Surely if he were in league with that traitorous bitch Silvia he would not be branded a heretic of Bane, and be marked for execution. However the answers to our countless auguries made while trapped aboard the boat give me the impression that some vital information is still missing to this puzzle. The one you seek is not evil. Is this the one we seek? He would not be the first clone of Kouraf we had fell in with.

If only we could dispel this suspension field, then I could finally have some answers.

We have returned to Velen today, my favorite town. It is uncertain what we shall do, so I have cast about for my options… I can work for Wendell again, he seemed quite pleased at the prospect, but I have not decided to commit to this. I still have not completed my sole task, in fact, in all this time, I have hardly advanced toward my goal at all. I think I shall try to improve my skills somewhat… Though I doubt that I shall see the others again, I will certainly be travelling again, and it is worth my while to seek out improvements in the areas where I can be of some use to a travelling party… I have not the strength to fight… medicine seems hardly necessary, and there are none but clerics here to teach it anyway, and I have no calling from the gods represented here… so my remaining choice seems to be to try my hand at magic.

Delgonar (the Magnificent Wondrous! as he introduces himself) has agreed to take me as an apprentice for a small sum of gold each week, and has offered me room and board in exchange for keeping his house. If I agree, I shall be a little maid to him, or perhaps a little wife.

16 Elient, 1357DR
[Game of May 15, 2003]

On the 16th of Eleint, the Silverfoot Sailor draws into the port of Velen with a strong trade wind filling its sails. The Bard’s Lament, name still shining from the fresh paint, follows close behind, led by a taut rope and crewed by a fleet of spectral servants. Only three leave the Sailor as she’s tied in berth: Delenn, a young woman, thin and stately, standing proud but with new lines of worry lending gravity to her faintly elvish features; a man, Donovan, strong and wiry, whose posture seems unsteady on the solid earth as he glares at any who eye the ship with too much interest; and a girl, Flanna, on the edge of womanhood, of sturdy stock and seeming uncertain of her place, looking around the city with unmasked relief.

A portmaster walks up, curiousity painted clearly upon his face, asking about docking fees and cargo. Delenn discretely pays the man, dodging his questions with expertise, and makes her way through the crowded streets towards the Church of Waukeen. Peddlers fill every free foot along the stone paved way, and the masses cause Delenn to shorten her stride to an impatient shuffle. Can’t these fools see I’m in a hurry? As she’s about to shove past a particularly large and unmoving man, the loud cry of a merchant catches her attention. Craning over the crowd, she sees the seedy man, swathed in voluminous robes of vibrant orange and bedecked with shining jewels too bright to be real. Her eyes shift, and behind him sits a crude but enchanting painting featuring a man upon a rampant horse. A girl, little more than a child, sits weeping before him. Lurking between the shadows of dark evergreens in the background are faint silhouettes of elves.

Memories of a nightmare long past return, of a frightning ride through the trees, clutching the mane of a wild unicorn. Intruiged, drawn by something deep within her, she walks towards the painting, and the crowd seems to part before her. The frame glows brightly, yet hagglers pass over it without a second glance. The merchant’s beady eyes gleam as he takes notice of Delenn’s interest. “That’s an interesting painting. Where did you get it?” she asks, keeping her voice casual. “Oh, that’s a cheap artist. Something I haven’t been able to get rid of. Came off some ship. Human maybe. Didn’t bother to check the ears. Suppose you’re interested in it then?” the merchant drones, “Can’t ask less than ten gold.” With a long-suffering sigh, Delenn pulls the coin from her heavy pouch, noting streaks of dirt and water damage along the bottom of the canvas. Snatching the money greedily, he passes the frame over. As her fingers brush the flaking gilt frame, a vision overtakes her.

High above the ground she floats, a cold draft causing her naked skin to rise in gooseflesh. The walls around her are black, frosted lightly with ice. Something prevents her from moving, but even so she can discern a faint glow as of something upon her chest. Slipping free of the body, she rises up, seeing the shape of the half-elven man she possessed. Kouraf? Faster she ascends, and in the blink of an eye she sees a black tower, rising from an endless field of pure snow like a scar upon the land, until the tower is as a dot upon a patch of white at the base of sprawling majestic mountains, and all Faerun lay spread below.

The vision fades, and reality comes crashing back. Disoriented, Delenn sways, and in the aftermath, two phrases float to the surface of her confused mind: Old White Death and Spine of the World. The merchant looks briefly concerned that she might fall across his wares, but she waves him off. “Let me know if you remember anything more about the painting. I will make it worth your while.”

Trying to wrench herself free of the merchant’s table, she catches a tired voice in the distance, calling her name, “Delenn! Mistress Delenn!” A hand waves frantically from above the surging crowd. The crowd reluctantly parts. A man with sparse white hair and a long beard shambles up, his overlarge armor shifting about on his thin frame. Is that…Johan? What’s he doing out of Greensvale? Behind stumps a stout, concerned looking dwarf. “Hello old friend,” Johan says, wiping the sweat from his brow, “I noticed your ship in berth. By Helm’s glory, it’s a great coincidence. Quickly now, where is Kalcryx of Helm?”

The dwarf shoulders forward, “I am Dorn Ogrecutter, son of Modar Ogrecutter. I have also come seeking Kalcryx of Helm. I saw his stone whilest traveling to Fallen Valley to visit my father. He urged me to seek out the Helmite to help us in these difficult times. We and thirty strong men wait to serve him. Take us to him now, we have traveled far to meet him.” Delenn’s shoulders slump, “I only wish I knew. We were separated at sea. Answers are coming though, I feel it in my bones.” Dorn stiffens, “We shall stay in Velen for only a short while. If you find him, come to the temple of Helm.” The dwarf turns abruptly and barrels through the crowd, and Delenn continues on her way, wondering at the taciturn nature of dwarves.

The intricate carvings on the temple of Waukeen gleam gold in the noon sun, causing Delenn to squint. Rushing into the marble lined pasages, she finds Galeon and draws him away. Quickly she explains her dilemma, sobbing quietly over her loss of crew and comrades. After the brief emotional outburst, she explains her vision, and her sudden compulsion to find the black tower. Later that night, as Galeon snores loudly beside her, she slips out of the bed and over to the window. Pulling out her book of magic, she studies an incantation carefully, the words blazing in her mind like a candle in the dark. With anticipation, she casts the spell, calling upon the magic to show her the black tower of her vision. Darkness clouds her sight, and the spell fails as a greater magic blocks it out. Well, if I can’t venture to the tower, I shall have to find some way to find my friends. Perhaps Delganar can be convinced to help me.

“You want me to do what!?” Delganar stares at Delenn incredulously as she concentrates on the scene in the mirror before her. Jaran, a thick bear fur pulled close around her, sits at a wooden slab table, her slender finger spearing a town on the map before her: Northgate. At the edge of the mirror, mead splashes from G’kar’s stein onto Jarl, whose eyes flash in anger before returning to stare longingly at the bar maid. His normal deep tan has a strange dusky pallor. “Surely someone as talented in the arcane arts as you would be capable of teleporting me to my friends,” Delenn purrs, placing her hand lightly upon his enrobed arm. Delganar nods ever so slightly, as he looks at the hand in resignation. He reads the scroll with little of his usual flair, and it crumbles to ash in his hands. The world splinters and reforms.

Jaran stands up. “Delenn, my good friend, I’ve been waiting for you.” The rough northern men in the tavern gape at Delenn, who draws her thin summer cloak close with the sudden wintery chill. “And who might this be?” Delenn asks, as she slides in next to Julian. Delganar, fear thinly masked on his face, quickly reads a second scroll and disappears from the tavern in a swirl of corruscating light. As the fog closes in around the small coastal town, the others tell Delenn of their woes since they flung themselves into the swirling black portal. After the initial shock wears away, Delenn tells of her vision, and a lively debate is launched. After a few hours, they all finally decide to return to the tower on the morn, using the last teleportation scroll, with the intention to save Kouraf.

Gathering her few possessions, Delenn follows the others into a short alley. In the clinging fog, she mutters a quick phrase, brushing a quick outline of her body with her hands. As her body begins to shrink, she dimly makes out other spells being cast. Jaran takes up her hand, her lips still moving with a whispered incantation, and again the world shatters. Sharp arctic sun makes the snow that appears beneath their feet blinding. To the north an ominous tower juts from the unbroken field of snow, its surface slick and black, that seems to deny even the hard light of the sun. A dream made in to reality. Or perhaps more rightly a nightmare.

Virgin snow crunches beneath her soles as she treds through wide path Jarl has broken. The tower looms near, and Jaran’s practiced hands flit over the surface of the door. With a satisfied nod, she tugs upon the door handle ineffectually. Kalcryx comes up to help, and his armor creaks and strains as his muscles bulge with the effort. Still the door remains closed. Jarl reaches a hand out to grasp the handle, and the doors soundlessly swing wide. With a calculating look at Jarl, taking in his wings, Jaran says, “There are good things about being evil, or at least appearing so.”

Within the chill interior, two collosal statues stand, filling the fifteen foot tall doorway. The priests call to their gods, and holy power fills the air. Jaran hands a longsword to Jarl, and Delenn pauses briefly to wonder at the move before she steps forward and creates lightning thick among the stone men. The spell dissipates with no effect. Stone groans as one golem swings a heavy arm at Jarl, striking his armor with a crack. Kalcryx and G’kar step past Delenn and make a wall at the door with Jarl, but one golem manages to lumber past, towards Jaran. More golems arrive from the shadowed interior, accompanied by the echoing baying of dogs. Delenn looses a few shafts from her bow, trying to avoid Kalcryx and Jaran as they dance out of reach of the golem. Several copies of Jaran spring from the ground around her. Stone shards whistle through the air, and a few golems fall to the punishment dealt out by the three fighters.

The barking becomes louder. Deep within the rounded halls, Delenn can just make out shadows shifting in the dark. At a commanding word, a pearl of flame streaks out from her hand and blooms within. Roaring fire explodes in the narrow confines, flooding out through the door and filling the air with the stench of scorched fur. Jarl is washed by the flames, but the heat seems to not affect him. As the last golems fall, Jarl switches to his bastard sword and prepares to meet the remaining enemies.

The dogs come in a mass of snarling tooth and claw, their thick fur black, dusted with the falling snow. Two heads rise from each of their unnaturally broad shoulders. The dogs are beat back from the wall of shields. Delenn takes advantage of the cover and sends streaming missiles of energy into the swarm. Julian seems to become insubstantial and flies through the snapping dogs, scouting further into the dim interior. Jarl’s sword rends the last few dogs, and the entry falls silent. Delenn steps past the steaming corpses, casting a spell which seems to fill the room with her double.

The coorridor angles in, leading to a large circular chamber adorned with leering gargoyles. Stairs in the center of the room spiral up to the second floor. Delenn pauses at the base of the stairs, letting Jarl dash up first. The stairwell surges with heat when Jarl makes the top of the stairs. Julian’s form solidifies, and Delenn stays close behind as he ascends the stairs.

Suspended, naked in the air except for a gold ring, Kouraf floats. Emblazoned across his chest in fire is a word: Heretic. Delenn, caught up in the power of her vision, runs into the room. Then she realizes her danger. Soaring upon broad wings in the tall room is a strange beast, seemingly put together by a child’s imagination. A slavering bear with bat wings spread and rending eagle talons dives at Jarl. It misses, roaring in defiance and whipping its curling goat horns about.

Ducking to avoid the beating wings, Delenn looks around for someplace offering more protection. Clinging to the walls are skeletal nagas, their bared skulls fanged and their serpentine bodies slithering in a hypnotic dance. Caught by the mesmerising dance, she loses all impetus to move, and the magical duplicates mirror her blank gaze. A voice speaks in her mind, dimly understood through the magical haze, I am the guardian of this place. Leave now or know the consequences.

Kalcryx’s giant sword swings in front of her, breaking the gaze of the swaying reptiles. Loosing a few arrows at the flying guardian, she edges closer to the wall. The arrows bounce inffectually off it’s hide. Ignoring the apparently feeble magic of Jarl’s bastard sword, the beast slams to the ground and swings at Delenn, raking her with a claw just as her eyes meet the swaying body of another naga. Again the beast comes, and as she flees its jaws bear down upon the meat of her calf. Backing away in terror, she surveys the room, seeing the shattered bodies of half of the nagas littering the floor with Kalcryx and G’kar standing over them. Conjuring magic missiles, Delenn directs them at a swaying naga, and it bursts in a cloud of dust. A sheet of ice comes crashing down from nowhere, flattening the remaining skeletons, but somehow melting around the guardian.

Only the guardian remains standing, it’s wings drooping and it’s fur matted with blood. Delenn backs away carefully, and Jarl floats down towards it, his black wings thrown wide. His shield swings down, and there’s a dull crack as the bear skull is shattered. The creature falls limp to the ground.

Kouraf continues to float, untouched and unmoving throughout the hectic battle.

Shaundakal must be trying my patience. I have oft followed his whims, blown by the driving winds to new lands. But drifting along the arctic coast in a tiny craft with only warm, tasteless gruel and soup for nourishment for almost two rides makes even the slightest affront chafe.

Still, something nags at my thoughts. I feel that something was missed when we fled the black tower so hastily. But the thought is too fleeting, like a shadow glimpsed from the corner of my eye. If I could just get the dwarf to stop bellowing out war stories at all hours, perhaps it might come to me.

How odd that I should turn to you, dear ink and parchment, to sort out my jumbled thoughts, seeking momentary refuge from the incessant rocking of the waves. Where I normally find comfort in caressing my lute into prose and song, I discover that my muse has eluded me, for my overwhelming sorrow and loss have eroded those talents normally gifted me.

Being of enough maturity at my young age to recognize the naïveté of my few years, I have been content to seek out those who have survived far more of this cruel world’s beatings and learned from their experiences, in hopes that I myself can avoid those same beatings and experiences. I have gained courage in following those bold, decisive souls, becoming braver still to occasionally offer up my limited wisdom in contrary to their sometimes-impulsive whims. But today, to find myself without guidance or companionship, I have been prematurely thrust into adulthood, proverbially pushed out of the nest by my once-nurturing mother-hawk. I have but no one I can turn to for consolation, no master wise in fate. Even those priests who turn to their Gods for answers have deserted me.

I now reside on this cursed ship with only Flana (my younger by a woman’s birthing cycle), Donovan (a rugged sailor ill-trained in ways of war compared to the companions I have admired for these past halfayear), and the mindless vapors I summon each morning to aid in the task of limping our two ships back to Velen. I spend what feels like eternities birthed by the devils themselves trapped in my own despair of worry and doubt. Though of course I must bury these manners of conscience lower than that wretched temple from where this destiny arose, so that I may at least appear to my two shipmates the determined and confident leader, eager to burden the quests of those comrades I’d come to depend upon.

Oh yea, the thought of my comrades wells tears upon my cheek that I must brush away quickly hence one should see me. What of Jaran, my mentor and confidant, who against my strong wishes tore off her own arm rather than spend one more moment with evil Leech attached to it. Her screams of agony pierced my own heart reminiscent of the pain that must have yielded them—I could not bear to watch and am ashamed to admit I hid in the shadows far from those horrid sounds that haunt me still when my weary body finally collapses for a moment’s sleep.

What of brave Jarl and Kalkrix and G’kar? My heart lightens at the thought that they could be safe from harm on a tropical island somewhere, with ample food and Dwarven Ale that numbs the muscles that were so recently ripped and bloodied. Though I know this is merely a waking dream and, though I cannot bear the thought that there is no hope left, I know the likelihood of me joining their service again is as bleak as the omen of bad weather that came that cursed Mid-Summer’s Day.

But upon reflection, overcoming the impossible has been as regular in my days as water and bread since I left the comfortable trees in search of adventure and knowledge. When my muse returns, only music can allude to the rush of fear and excitement coursing through my bones when 20 day ago I ascended to the surface on broom, only to find our loyal Silverfoot Sailor and its crew under attack of honor-less pirates. How could one young girl possibly triumph over two dozen barbarians under the control of one at least as trained in the ways of magic as I? In mere moments our entire crew of brave sailors was slaughtered despite my vain attempt to entangle those murderers in webs of magic (which brings to me thoughts of she who trained me in that wonder of magic, and how I was blinded to her deceit and treachery! But this digresses me from my tale! See now why my oratory talents are awry?).

Neither did pure Donovan aid my odds, for he was being bested by steel and thus my attention would be diverted toward saving his life over that of simply wielding my beloved wand of fire and igniting the lot of traitors in a flash of flame. Pleased in me must be Corellon Larethian who must desire my muse to spread His word upon these lands that I should survive that trial of lightning and chaos and save the lives of Donovan and Flana. Or perhaps it was Oghma who urged me into that weaponsmith shop in Velen that day, shining light on a fine new bow whose destiny would be to slay those of greed and apathy with but a single arrow from her string.

Nay I fear in my heart I pray to both of Them that more such adventures find their way to me, for only in the heat of battle my mind would turn away from lamenting my loneliness and paralyzing fear. These long empty days allow me only to drown in it.

With all those mournful bodies of our previously hard-working sailors on board, be it not surprising that my thoughts frequently drift to pitying souls in pain. Though I feel honor-bound to put these men properly to rest in Holy Ground, it also brings me to frightening visions of unearthly beings we have encountered in the past. I have vowed to better my skills with the enchanted mace I hold in my pack, the only weapon apparently effective against such cruel beasts. Dare I say that I already feel more dexterous with it!

For at least some fortune has our pitiful troupe that the winds be at our backs, and Donovan tells me we should be in Velen come the morrow. I would hazard to think that our sturdy Silverfoot Sailor rolling into port towing a scoundrel pirate vessel will be an odd sight for even citizens of a large city which thinks themselves to have seen everything. But perhaps the resources of that fair city may settle my heart and provide me truth on the fate of my dear comrades….

Treacherous Leech! Would that I see the hideous creature yet again I should kill it with my bare hands!

We all stood in the hallway of the evil, glyph-laden sancuary, below a sunken sailing vessel, at the bottom of the sea. After dispatching the mummies back to the hell plane from which they came, we debated the matter of Jaran’s dagger, Leech. It was pressing her to cut her own hand from her body and place it (and Leech) on the altar in the great room before us. Every moment which passed caused Jaran greater pain. Indeed it looked as if Leech might kill her if she did not comply.

Earlier, we encountered a ghost in the stateroom of the submerged vessel. Once I realized what it was I instinctively uttered the chant to bring forth Clangeddin’s protection from evil on both Jarl and I, lest the apparition steal years from us yet again. The ghost charged us to destroy a temple, the very temple in fact we later discovered laying below the sunken ship. Personally, I care nothing about evil temples–they can stand if they like. But the ghost pleaded with us to release him, that the only way was to destroy the temple which kept him earthbound. I take my contracts seriously–the ghost did us no harm so that we may help him.

So, we descended the great staircase to discover our path blocked by many glyphs. Delenn used her staff of insects to set off the glyphs in our path so that we could move freely. We engaged the mummies which we awoke, and destroyed them.

Jaran told us of Leech’s promise to reward her if she mutilated herself. I was not convinced of Leech’s sincerity, but Jaran believed it the right thing to do. I was inclined to go along with this because 1) it was her hand, not mine and 2) an agreement is an agreement. Still, Kalcrix had complained about being nearly blinded by Leech’s evil, and evil is not to be trusted.

So, Jaran approached the altar and proceded to remove her own hand, the hand of which Leech had clung to for months. Clangeddin Silverbeard had granted me a spell of injury repair, and I intended to use it once she had cut the vile dagger from her body. But I needed to wait until she had finished. Her screams of agony began to disturb me greatly–it seemed that she was taking way to long, so without realizing it, and against the protests of my other companions, I found myself uncharacteristically rushing to her aid.

When I reached her side, she had barely avoided passing out, and had successfully severed her own hand. But before I could administer my healing spell, she placed the treacherous Leech, clinging to a bloody limb, onto the altar. A great white explosion ensued and I blacked out.

Before me stood a great dwarf with a flowing silver beard, as brilliant and strong as polished mithril. Clouds floated about His head, and it seemed the heavens parted to make way for Him. He rasied magic axe and hurled it toward my head. The impact of His divine weapon brought me back into the world.

Kalkrix leaned over me, still holding the remains of a disintegrating scroll. “In Clangeddin’s Name, what has happened, Friend Kalkrix?!” I stammered, my throat burning with thurst. I sat up, feeling much weaker than I remember, and looked around. Biting cold numbed my joints, being transfered straight into my body through my banded mail. We were in a fortress, and there was open sky. Kalkrix explained that I had been killed at Leech’s altar, along with Jaran.

Leech had been transformed. He apparently grew into an eight-foot tall winged demon. “I’m free,” he shouted, and then proclaimed, “I shall destroy this temple.” With that, he opened a portal behind him and cast a spell, and leaped through. Even though Kalkrix had revived me, Leech had caused the entire temple to begin to fall to ruins. A great chunk of stone fell, finishing me.

Jarl and Kalkrix had very little time to think. Looking from Jaran’s dead body, to mine, then to the giant pearl which lay next to the altar, and knowing that neither one of them could carry both of us *and* the pearl and make safely across the great hall, Jarl picked up Jaran, and Kalcrix grabbed my body and the great pearl and leaped through Leechs’ still opened portal. Delenn hopefully escaped via broom back to the surface.

We now stare at a deactivated portal, wondering what plane we are now on and if we will ever be able to return. I implore Clangenddin for strength to fight whatever hideous entities which await us in this frozen hell.

Would that I could change the past, I would have cut Jaran’s hand from her body myself, administered blessed healing from Clangeddin, and then tossed that foul Leech into the depths of the sea.