July 3rd 216 The party is settling in their tent for the night, when Wintermoon hears a suspicious sound and suggests they get out. The sound turns out to be the flapping of huge wings. The area of the camp is covered over with a dark cloud, and the party flee from the terrifying aura. Alex is attacked by what seems to be a giant claw before he makes his escape. Outside the area of darkness the plainsmen are gathering in confusion. Suddenly some of the plainsmen seem to cast spells, and people fall dead in droves. Fortunately the party (including Murgen) seems unaffected. The party go after the mages when the undead angelic creature shows up. At some point Weejas forces join in the fray. Some of the enemy mages are trapped in a force cage for several turns. One of the Weejas mages is briefly lit up with a sickly green glow as he flies over, and only dust rains down... Korvath casts a burst of sunshine which destroys the undead angel, much to the disappointment of the lich. In the aftermath, the party discover that the enemies trapped in the force cage have teleported out, several dozen horse tribe members died in the attack, in the stampede as well as circle of death... The dragon was dealt with by mages issuing forth from the Weejas temple. The group is asked by the horse tribe to camp elsewhere. Hallows, unhallows, and forbiddances are raised in many camps. The gathering gets a lot more paranoid. Much of the group moves to the temple of Weejas where the special forces group can watch their backs. Korvath, Swiftwind, and Wintermoon stay out in Gold-horse camp within a forbiddance (cast while they are in the camp, it allows access to members of the tribe, so Korvath can't re-enter once he leaves.) July 4th 216 The party embark on a second attack on the tower. Wintermoon offers to cast teleport today and others are put in bags of holding. Instead the lich "books" a shipping Archon from the mage academy for the morning and dusk to pick up and drop off the party safely. (The temple casts a number of protective spells on the Archon as precautionary steps.) Once the party are at the tower, they get down to the bottom of the cliffs uneventfully. They examine a single outside room they find. Some sort of tinkling plant charms, compels rest, and then feeds on bodies. Party drags out some stuff, then burns the room. They recover a cloak and a dozen arrows from an Elven body. The room seems to have no way into the tower. The party then go to the top of the tower and go inside through the hole in the roof. There are ominous noises on the top floor. (Grinding stone) The party carefully circle in the direction of the noise finding a ring and some coins along the wake of the dragons destruction. The group arrives at a room with a chest upon a small altar. Korvath looks at the alter and immediately goes down under a pile of undead that materialize in the alcove with him. The party is simultaneously attacked from behind where Swiftwind is the one dog piled. Korvath vanquish the vampire spawn using the radiance of Pelor and the group turn their might on the other vampires. The vampires go down like wheat before a scythe. But maddeningly the walls and floors of the tower have so many cracks that the vampires are able to easily escape. Searching quickly the party find caskets containing several of the vampires in rooms nearby. They chase one vampire away and then create a mirror and direct sunlight coming through the ceiling hole onto the other vampires one at a time, destroying them. The party move onward more carefully. The entire place is filled with cracks so undead come and go as they please through the walls. The party is reformed to take this tactical problem into account. Murgen and Alex check sarcophagi in one of the surrounding rooms and get jumped by shadows. Only Korvath's god prevents Murgen from getting completely drawn into the land of shadow. Eventually the shadows are destroyed or driven away. Murgen is too weak to stand, so the party departs the tower and walk back to the camp. They discuss potential strategies while getting magically watched. Wintermoon finally creates a rope trick by the temple of Weejas and the party retires for the night. SESSION END evening of July 4th 216 NEXT TIME : Moge the ex-mortal EXPERIENCE TOTALS (Session 26) ----------------- Korvath Moge Alex Wintermoon Swiftwind Jaenelle Murgen 48848 50298 50633 47871 47871 47871 19552