Session13

April 16th, 216B Since Foora was nowhere to be found, the party decided to head to the temple of Heironeous to see if Alain was still alive and in town. A few blocks from the temple, Korvath and Ceejay, being at the rear of the party, saw an enormous globe of darkness coalesce around the others. They had only a moment to shout a warning to the others before sounds of battle began to emanate from the Stygian sphere. Alex heard scuffling sounds on either side of him moments before others heard Alex screaming in pain. Mel's sharp senses lead him to one of Alex assailants. Engaging them, he gives Alex a chance to escape from certian death. Moge threw down smokesticks to foil the attackers, as they seemed unaffected by the darkness blinding the party. Katie and Essandri assumed defensive stances, and Korvath hesitated outside the darkness until a word from Ceejay bolstered his resolve. Charging bravely into the darkness, Korvath's rapier strikes an unseen assailant. Hearing more movement, he struck out with his rapier once more, and glanced off of Alex's armor as he stumbled past, seeking to escape his attackers. Moge, hearing the shouts behind him, plunges through the fray like a boulder tumbling down a mountainside. One mighty arm entangles Korvath and drags him back out of the darkness to crash into Ceejay. After much cursing and kicking of shins, the two rush blindly into the darkness yet again. Only to narrowly avoid getting electrocuted by a wild bolt of Essandri's. Then Katie calls out in a voice thick with power and the darkness fades as the wisdom of Athena pulls the shroud of darkness from the party's eyes at Katie's humble request. The scene that was revealed was chaotic. Mel stood over the mangled corpse of one assailants, and was in the process of turning another into a fine red mist. The assailants were lightly furred creatures with long, oddly jointed legs, large transparent ears, and tiny eyes. Also looking quite surprised at the sudden absence of darkness was Dreyah, revealed standing over Alex's crumpled form with his blood dripping from her daggers. Before anyone could react to this revelation, an assassins leaps at Katie, his blade finding its way through her armor, but whether by grace of Athena or the hardiness of the halfling people, Katie rebuffed his killing blow. Essandri shouts words of power at Dreyah, whom shrugs off the incantation with casual ease. Dreyah now seems to slough off her very appearance, almost as one would remove a cloak after a long day's ride, and it was as if light emanates from within her. Where once a rather nondescript woman in traveling gear had stood, there was now a radiant and gossamer being, one whom most men would gladly kill each other to lay themselves at her feet. Barely an instant later, she speaks a single word both ancient and forbidding and vanishes without a trace. With her departure darkness again descends upon our intrepid heroes. Katie feels her way over to Alex's crumpled form and bestows upon him the kiss of life. Only partually concious he weakly fends her off and summons a wooden shied over himself, to protect against further assasination attempts. Elsewhere in the darkness M oge and Korvath advance upon the last assassins and help put an end to his career. The remaining assassin fled, but a spray of color from Essandri's fist stops him long enough for the fighters to swarm the assasin and drag her down. A quick evaluation of the assassin's bodies shed little light upon the reason for the attack. No one recognizes the oddly built creatures and the group find no clue why the creatures were so set on killing Alex. A quick inventory of Alex's gear, reveales the corpse of Qarnian the Imp. Braving the threatening glares and gestures from the others, Alex insists he was planning on an attempt to have the imp raised. Essandri *suggested* that Alex sit in the corner for a while, and while he did so the others used a waterproofed traveling cloak as a makeshift tub, and applied liberal amounts of holy water and used the ancient ritual of "Lather. Rinse. Repeat." to dissolve Qarnien's remains. The foul stench of dissolving imp was unbearable, but Katie noticed sometihng peculiar in the thick, filmy residue, and plucked a glowing pearl from the impish ichor. A quick detect magic confirmed a hunch of hers, and she pocketed the pearl for later study. A sullen and inconsolable Alex rejoins the party as they continue towards the temple. Along the way, the party discussed what they had seen of Dreyah, and the implications of her disguise, appearance, and disappearance. Essandri had noted the arcane traceries left behind when Dreyah had vanished, and stated that she had teleported away. No one had suspected that she was a spellcaster, or perhaps, something not quite human with magical abilities. Essandri had glimpsed Dreyah's "other" form once, and Ceejay admitted that Dreyah had looked beautiful the entire time they were traveling in the bag of holding together. The conversation then stilled as the temple of Heironeous loomed before them. Korvath crept up to the door and checked for a locking mechanism. As he was about to unlock it, Moge began bellowing at the top of is lungs. The door swung open to reveal a very cross looking Alain. Alain quickly summoned the party inside, and shut and barred the door behind them. The temple was packed full of refugees from this quarter of town. Alain and some others had been quietly resisting the diabolic incursion from here. Korvath and Essandri gave her a quick rundown of the information they had gained, and Alain told them as much as she knew. Korvath also mentioned a conversation that he had during the party after Alain's rescue. A seedy looking stranger had approached him, and told him that he represented a man named Cassiovar, a collector of scrolls, spellbooks, and various arcane texts, and let him know that he would pay double the market price for such goods. The name was unfamiliar to Korvath, and when the stranger referred to himself as 'The Eel', Korvath's initial distrust increased exponentially. Before he could excuse himself, "The Eel" mentioned that the next time they were in Wall, they could speak to one of his operatives there, a man by the name of Weyland. Korvath would have mentioned this to the others sooner, but death and its subsequent distractions had made him forget about it for now. Ceejay was familiar with the name of Cassiovar, reveals that Cassiovar is a high ranking individual in Lothia, a spy, or intelligence agent of some sort. Korvath noted that they should probably let Red Kate know about this when they returned to Wall. When the discussions ceased to bear fruit, the party returned to the temple of Pelor to relay what they had found to the others and to interrogate the Hextorite priest they had captured the previous day. Shella and the others at the temple of Pelor were still safe. Ceejay charmed the Hextorite priest, and questioned him in a rather unorthodox manner. Korvath was slightly put out by the fact that the others wouldn't let him do the interrogation using his billy club. Still CeeJay's methods yielded some information about the attack upon the city,and hinted upon a larger network of attacks planned. He also informed the party that the wing of the temple that they had yet to clear out contained a hellhound nested in a closet and the quarters that Darius had used. Mel, Moge, and Korvath immediately proceeded to investigate. They quickly dispatched the hellhound, and Korvath rummaged through the ruined and soiled contents of the room until he found a cloak with Pelor's symbol emblazoned on it that was still in good condition. Mel's sensitive nose lead him to (and then quickly away from) the latrine, and in a shining example of irony, Moge found the temple library. Katie was summoned forth to take a look through some of the many religious texts contained there. Katie, Mel and Korvath spent some time perusing the texts before advancing to the next floor. Luckily, Katie had been detecting magic in the library, and was still doing so when she re-entered the hallway, and was able to spot the magical trap on the door to the next floor. Much discussion ensued. Korvath wanted to scale the wall outside, or have Alex create a ladder, but there were no windows large enough to fit through. Moge wanted to smash through the wall on the other side of the staircase, but the others pointed out that the Pelorites might not be too pleased if their temple was destroyed even further. After a while, the four of them remembered the balcony in the center of the temple. Mel leapt from the floor to the balcony, and let down a rope for the others. Korvath noticed some nearly invisible traceries around the door leading from the balcony, and a detect magic showed another trap. Essandri used a minor telekinesis as well as the wand of summoning to safely detonate the trap. The hallyway beyond revealed a few small rooms, and another magically trapped door. Another charge from the wand and another celestial dog were sacrificed in the name of exploration, and the party was finally able to press forward into Darius' quarters. Unfortunately, they found nothing beyond a few coins and a large collection of underclothes that piqued their interest. Korvath remembered that Ceejay had forgotten to replace the prisoner's gag downstairs and excused himself for several minutes. A smiling Korvath returned a few minutes later, and the group set off for the temple of Heironeous, bringing everyone who had been left at the temple of Pelor with them. The temple of Heironeous was packed before, but now it was simply overflowing with refugees. makeshift bunks were erected, and rope trick spells were cast, and eventually everyone had a cramped spot to sleep. At one point during the night, a rope trick spell's duration ended, dumping its contents back out into the temple, and on top of Korvath. He sustained a little damage, but it brought suppressed memories of the battle in which he died back to him, and terror kept him awake for the remainder of the night. April 17th, 216B In the morning, the party set forth for the baron's keep. Before leaving the sactuary they consumed poitions and cast spells, preparing themselves for a battle that they were not sure they would return from. They were met at the door by one of the baron's attendants. Essandri *suggested* that he take them to the Baron at once. Katie then cast a Magic Circle against Evil, centered on Korvath, who was also carrying the bag of holding (which contained Alex and Ceejay). The party proceeded towards the baron's audience chamber. The emanation of the spell covered most of the room, and the party arranged themselves so that the baron was within its effect. Inside their circle the party was able to converse with the Baron while he was free from the mind flayer's influence. Mel wandered off after catching an interesting scent, while the others tried to warn the baron of the danger he was in. The baron recounted the events of the past few weeks at their request. It seems that he had met an individual during the fair who he immediately appointed as his chief advisor. Many memories of recent events were hazy. He recalled that the advisor had seemed rather agitated when the party arrived at the keep, and had left for his quarters. The party revealed to the baron who and what his 'advisor' was, and the events that had transpired in his name. They urged the baron to gather his people and flee immediately while they put an end to the mind flayer's threat. Mel had followed the scent up a staircase and into a large room, and waited outside of it, not wanting to walk into an ambush. When he felt he had waited too long and ventured into the room, he saw a nightstand near the bed rotating back into position, covering a secret passage. He leapt onto the bed and began sniffing and poking at the area, trying to find the mechanism that controlled the trapdoor. The party burst into the room shortly thereafter. Moge rushed forward, setting off a trap. a large section of the floor in front of the bed fell downwards into darkness, but the half-orc was able to keep his footing and leap back from the void just in time. The party successfully opened the trapdoor, which revealed a drop to another level, with a ladder on the floor. Mel leapt down and ran ahead of the others, who climbed as quickly as they could. This passageway was short, with anouther trapdoor at the end. Mel, far ahead of the others, jumped down and rushed through a doorway on the bottom level of the keep. Chasing the scent of the mindflayer, Mel is led into an ambush. The mindflayer steps from behind the doorway and lets rip with waves of force. Mel resisted the waves of pain and pounced, sinking his claws into its rubbery flesh. Korvath was the next into the breach, burying his rapier up to its hilt in the vile creature, . Moge then charged forward, flailing his spiked chain madly and butally tearing the creature in half. Blackish-green ichor sprayed in all directions, and the two pieces of mind flayer fell towards the ground they turned to a silvery liquid. Silver bubbles liquid began to float across the room, followed by a greasy stream of ichor which reformed in a carefully concealed passage on the far side of the room. The mind flayer stepped forward from its trap and brought Moge and Korvath to their knees with a blast of energy. Alex emerged from the bag which Korvath dropped on the floor, and sent forth furious blasts of mental energy to match the mind flayer, but the beast resisted the attacks. Katie arrived on the scene, but her attacks were shrugged off as well. The mind flayer sent out another mental shock wave, this time dropping Katie and Alex. Essandri snuck into the room under cover of an invisibility spell, and launched some electrical orbs at the mind flayer, but they had no effect upon it. Unable to hurt the creature directly, Alex whips out his silver serving fork and flings it at the creature burrying it deeply into the beast. He then animates the silver fork and has it pull itself deeper into the mind flayers body. Ceejay pokes his head out of the bag, and sees Alex and Essandri cowering defended by only a fork and a couger. Quickly assessing the situation, he imparts the gift of speed to Mel, and promptly returned to the safety of the bag. Mel, now even faster than before, advances upon the creature in a blur and grapples to pull it from the confines of its passageway. Failing to extract the creature Mel is subject to further waves of force. Mel pulls back with a howl and casting a spell in animal form he summons an incorporeal ally to strike at the mind flayer from within the walls. With its attention diverted, Mel lands a killing blow. The mind flayer's corpse slumpes to the ground, dead for real. The party had ended its reign of terror by only the slimmest of margins. Elated but exhausted by their victory, they exit the keep anxious to put this all behind them. SESSION END (April 17th 216 years after the Breaking) loot ---- Magical Pearl Potion (poison) Magic Battle Axe Magic Ring 7gp 6pp ruby ring silver amulet with bloodstones plush velvet robes with ermine trim potion (was their anything else?) NEXT TIME : Vacation, Retirement, or Death... REWARDS ------- 1000 Experience to all Present. 500 to NPC and absent characters. Bonuses ------- +200 Korvath (summary) +50 Moge (Short but amusing summary, I wasn't able to integrate into the larger story) +50 Moge (Playing a pretty decent CeeJay, saving Alex) +100 Mel (surviving multiple point blank mind blasts to save teh day) +100 Essandri (Essandri takes command) +50 Katie (Dispelling the "darkness from hell") +100 Moge (Guessing the trouble at the palace several sessions ago) +5000 Zack (for running such cool "blind" battles. *heh*)