2-5-2011 The way of Mui Wan

After a most refreshing rest we decided to return to exploring. We encountered a large room with a collapsed floor. Below was dark and foreboding, so we decided to span the gap and try to reach the door beyond. I used my stone rope to create a mock bridge to give us a walkway to cross. Over I went. Areli was next but I guess his paw pads got stuck in between the lengths of the stone rope causing him to fall. Instantly waves of horrid undead Wights lunged for him hungrily. We swiftly dispatched them and pulled a grateful Areli up. The door on the other side was strong but we managed to open it and expose the room beyond. It was empty except for having the right side of the stained glass window we encountered earlier in the room with the Troll, dominating one wall. We did find another copy of the Book of Master Mui Wan here. Perhaps this was once another meditation room.

The stained glass window of Master Mui Wan

The room below the on with the caved in floor was empty of anything of note. (Well besides the Wights). There was a single long passageway out to a room with two doors and two statues one on each side. The hairs bristled on the back of my neck as a sensed powerful traps and locks on both doors.  My friends and I did figure out the placement of the statues would unlock and disarm the doors without too much fuss. Each door revealed a single chamber beyond with items of worth each behind an invisible wall of force. Remembering that we would need the necklace with the correct color stones installed we returned to the level above to find them. 

Back upstairs we continued to search for the stones we would need. There we found a storage room with LONG forgotten food and supplies. But also hidden in the room was the final stone we needed to use the necklace. We eagerly returned to the Statue room and I slid through the barriers with no challenge. We were rewarded with some of the personal affects of Master Mui Wan. 

With all the loot collected we started back on our way to the surface. We continued to where the corridor again became a rough natural cavern. A chamber just beyond led us to the resting place of 2 adventurers, Part of our rescued Half lings party before they encountered the Blade Troll. There were two other passages from this chamber and we explored along a long section until we found a section that obviously was a temple to some strange deity. Longing for home we decided to return to the rough cavern and follow the path that our rescued adventurers  had taken from Ptolus. 

A long journey it was to the island, Great adventure, but it was good to be finally home.

1-15-11 Feeling REAL POWER

After climbing up and opening the secret door I found high up on the wall in the hallway, we found beyond a scorched room with stairs leading up and down. Looking for more trouble we decided to check out downstairs first. The smell of leather and acid along with the scraping of metal sounds provoked my curiosity to see what was down there. A quick invisibility and some silent movement and to my horror my eyes saw there a Gorgon. We quickly decided to explore the upstairs.


Up the stairs we found another burned chamber with 4 pillars. There was a cupboard  in each pillar with 3 hooks in each. We found an amulet socketed for stones and one blue crystal that seems to fit it. I will be on the lookout for more. We also found a note with three colors on it to use in the amulet.


 From there we found a wizard locked door. Not being the party to leave a locked door alone, Areli shaped the stone around the jam so we could slip inside and see the chamber beyond. There we found a comfy room with ever burning lanterns columns, frescoes, and a nice meditation rug on the floor. There was also a small shrine to physical prowess. We all remarked that this might be a nice place to rest when the time came. 


Heading up the corridor the other way we encountered  2 spirits in another burner out junction room that Areli was quick to make very uncomfortable. The rest of us quickly dispatched them. 


The next chamber was large and also burned and had a large pit in the center with fire down below. We tried our best to avoid the pit but as soon as we got to the center of the room we were greeted by a Fire Elemental and 2 Nessian warhounds. We were in a tight spot with little room to flee. With the hounds breathing fire and the elemental on a tear, we all were in grave danger. I tried to step away as quick as I could but the large dogs would snap at me and stopped most progress. Tau and Wegelia worked on the War Hounds and Areli cooled them off with an ice storm all the while trying to avoid the ragging Fire Elemental. I was quite frightened as my charm monster failed as the giant dog laid into Wegalia. Moreover when my 'little older sister's' lifeless body fell unconscious from a blow and I could ass Areli going to heal her exposing himself to the full wrath of the Elemental I knew what I had to do. Areli told me I should buy this arcane scroll of Polar Ray back in Ptolus and this was the day to use it. Gestures and words then from the base of my wrist charges a blue white ray of ice. Never have I felt such power as the bolt shatters the Elemental into thousands of pieces.  Tau, good as ever, having finished off the first of the hell  beast, engages the second one and finishes the work Wegealia started. As soon as it started, it was over. My friends and I were all safe again. 


We continued exploring and at a dead end we could hear cries for mercy coming from a door beyond. Hurriedly we burst into the chamber and found an adventurer being tortured over a pit by a grotesque Troll with blades embedded in its skin. We 4 went to work on the monstrosity and dispatched it to the loving embrace of the fire pit in the earlier chamber. Bradoc Fess is the name of the lost adventurer and he now joins our ever growing support crew on our way back to the city. 


From there it was time to rest, so back to the meditation room for a well needed sleep. 

11-07-09 Session Twenty Five

 Entering the large cavern, the we continued forward through some rough terrain. The high ceiling and open space gave me an eerie feeling of being outside, and soon came upon the twisted remnants of dead, dry trees occasionally rising out of the piled rocks.

We followed a worn path through the forest of dead trees until we encountered a  low iron fence. We passed through a creaky, rusted gate onto a low hill. As soon as we all passed through the gate, a figure approached, running in an ungainly, awkward fashion towards us and waving a nasty looking scythe around. His head appeared to be that of a pumpkin with glowing red eyes. As he drew closer, we feared for our lives and smote him mightly, sending his scythe and jaunty hat flying. It wasn't a moment after felling the creature that we noticed a figure from the top of the hill yelled "No, you fools! He kept the crows away!!" and before we could collect ourselves, two giant crows swept out of the air and attacked.

Areli and Tau did everything they could to keep the giant birds from taking Weguelia away! Areli commanded we make a fighting retreat to the small cabin at the top of the hill that the figure came from. We took some heave woulds but together we managed to fell the crows and make it to the safety of the cabin. 

10-31-09 Session Twenty Four

As the night began, our adventurers stood at a crossroads, literally. Having following the map in the dead explorer's backpack to its conclusion, the party found a panel with holes that seemed to match the key they found. After some discussion of various interpretations of the riddle, a consensus was reached and the key inserted into the correct hole.

With a rumbling sound, the panel slid back into the cavern wall, and an entire portion of the wall rose up, revealing a short passage beyond. Entering the passageway, the group saw a large chamber, obviously man-made with dressed walls and a cobblestone floor. A glass case with something inside it stood at the far end of the room.

As they crossed the room, Areli was alerted by a faint rumbling that the floor itself seemed to be rising up behind them  The party turned to face an odd construct that was made of the very flagstones of the floor! The creature attacked without a word, and the party was stymied for a while, as spells and weapons seemed to have no effect on the beast!

Finally, Lauryl slipped up to the giant rock monster and used the power of the runestaff she bore to disrupt the monster, temporarily dazing it and dropping its resistance. Without the magical protection, the party made swift work of the golem. Areli shattered it with a final blow from his javelin, sending pieces of rock flying across the room.

Investigating the only occupant of the room, the party discovered that the item in the case was an ancient dwarven axe made of adamantite and crafted by both dwarven and elven masters working in concert centuries ago.

After some deliberation, Tau remembered that his father had become famous for finding this same axe, and was on his way to the east when his caravan was waylaid by dwarven raiders who took the axe and left only Tau alive.

After searching the vault, the party retraced their steps until they saw the same fishman figure they had spotted tailing them during the last session. The fishman waved a dirty cloth in imitation of a peace flag, and motioned for the party to follow. Curious, the party followed him to a makeshift but substantial barricade that blocked a corridor the party had not explored.

After a bit of negotiating, the party agreed to kill a monster that had been threatening the settlement. The party was much more agreeable once they realized that they had already killed the creature in question, and merely needed to retrieve the head and find the daughter of the clan's warchief.

After some searching, and Areli's use of some summoned wind elementals to search for the girl, they located her hiding in a small cubbyhole. Despite some pleading and enticements, it took the presence of Graklah's father to convince her to come out. The clan rejoiced at the rescue of the girl and the destruction of the beast, and rewarded the group with some healing salves and the warchief's magical javelin.

The fishmen, who called themselves Skum (skoom), inivtied the dventurers to spend the night and the clan partied well into the evening, treating the party to a surprisingly good basilisk stew.

The following morning, the warchief and two of his warriors led the group to a passageway where other adventurers had been seen in the past. Choosing a direction, the party following the passageway to an opening into a large, dark cavern. It was here that the party decided to stop for the night.