SESSION 29 July 7th 216 Between A Vrock And A Hard Place While the group was out attacking the tower in the series of encounters that resulted in Wintermoon being body snatched, Jaenelle stayed in town to some items identified, have her clothes cleaned, and so she could socialize with some cultured individuals. (She declared thus as her taking a 'personal holiday' which is apparently a guaranteed right in Lothian controlled lands. Colin verified this for the group. So while they were busy getting themselves slaughtered she oversaw the acolytes of Weejas in doing identifications. Also at the temple for much the same reason was a gentleman named Herunaro. Herunaro was a travelling elvin battlemage. (on sabbatical) Upon being offered a share of the wealth contained in the tower he became intensely interested. Especially after it became evident that suppressive fire and gratuitous collateral damage were both considered fine in the Tower of Gulthias. "It isn't often that you get a scenario where there aren't any civilian obstacles'. He seemed to think this would be somewhat of a relief. Then the party came running back to the temple Herunaro immediately proved his worth by laying down sonic empowered fireballs to disrupt the vrocks chasing the party. Several vrocks were completely destroyed and the remaining ones were flamestriked and bombarded by imps. Of the 7 original demons only one escaped. Funeral services were organized for Swiftwind. Since the body was missing the tribe would wait two days before holding rights on the plain. The party was invited to join them two days hence. The all of the group except Swiftwind stays in the temple for the night. Herunaro joins them for post Vrock discussions. Swiftwind stays in the camp with his people to take part in the two day vigil observed for his friend. July 8th 216 Terrorist Attacks On Temple The group assembles at the crack of dawn. No one had thought to tell Colin of the groups pre-dawn plans. As a result there are no buffs and transport available. The group unanimously decide to go back to bed. Korvath bleary eyed decides to go outside and conduct morning rituals. An hour later when only Korvath and Herunaro (who was reading in the library) were awake there is a roar of fire that shakes the temple. A vrock had tossed a fireball into the temple badly wounding Colin and slaying several of the church clerks and underpriests as they were doing morning rituals. Korvath saw the whole thing. Herunaro goes into full battle preparations and is soon circling the temple flying, invisible, and scanning for invisible opponents. Korvath rushes back to the temple and helps stabilize some of the under priests. Colin and the surviving priests go to pray for healing magic for their colleagues while the party looks over the blackened refuge of once priceless artworks. Korvath quips that a make whole spell will touch everything up like new. One of the acolytes tending to the dead gives Korvath a withering glare. Korvath gives up on lightning the mood as Swiftwind comes running from his camp. He had heard off the attack second hand and seems relieved to see everyone alive. Just after Swiftwind arrived Herunaro noticed an invisible vrock appear in the temple foyer cradling something to its chest. Herunaro immediately saturates the area with high intensity sound waves and watches in horror as the vrock detonates in a wave of destructive energy as the sonic delayed blast fireball it was carrying is detonated. The wave of force from the overlapping explosions pulverizes much of the entryway, completely disintegrating much of the already damaged artwork and several inches worth of stone. Swiftwind is also caught in the area of effect and is blown into the temple. Many of those inside take slight damage and are deafened by the concussive force. Still, damage would have been much worse if it wasn't for Herunaro's quick reflexes. Colin erects a forbiddance over the temple with the pass phrase "Vrock to mud". Colin then calls upon a powerful celestial servant of Weejas and gets a Planetar whom restores the dead acolytes to life and heals those still wounded from the attacks. For its services Colin must build a memorial to those who have died in the vampire attacks and set up a school with a trust so that plainsmen children have a place to formally learn art and magic. After taking care of the wounded, the planetar Hurial (who seems to enjoy good humored verbal jousting with Korvath) offers to take the group to the tower if they were planning on making an attack. The party accepts and Hurial turns invisible cast some protective spells on himself and the conveys the party to the tower. Cleaning Out The Trash Outside the tower the group cast their preparatory spells. Jaenelle turns invisible to better stay out of harm's way. The entrances used in both previous attacks are sealed. The party decides to re-use the hole dug the previous day. Digging through the loosely piled rock proves a lot faster than moving several tons of dirt. The party is soon back in the room where they faced the three golumns. Alex and Murgen are give light bearing duties and the group prepares to enter.The bodies still lay in approximately the same positions as the previous day. Alex flies around the room and notices the floor is covered with filth crusted caltrops. The group carefully clear them out of the way and proceed into the golumn workshop. Checking to the north the group is assaulted by a mohrg whom manages to paralyses Swiftwind before being dispatched. The group frees Swiftwind from the tangling entrails that cocoon him. (Looking for a new host?) The entrails are destroyed and Swiftwind proves to be ok after several minutes. The group scout the floor to find 4 meaningful doors. 3 doors are unadorned stone, but the fourth which is richly engraved and reads "Here lies Rhunald, leave him in peace" in Draconic. The last door proves to be locked as well as magically warded. The others are all unlocked. The group open one door to find nothing interesting. Behind the second door the group encounters a pack of ghoulish undead creatures. Korvath destroyed about half of the creatures when the door behind the party opens and guerillons pour into the hallway surrounding most of the party. Swiftwind and Alex drag the others out of the guerillon's way and Herunaro lays down suppressing fire immolating two wights and several guerillons in the process. The remaining guerillons are taken down by Alex and Korvath with help from the others. A quick search of the premises turns up some valuable stones, some gold and a bit of platinum. The group also spends a couple of minutes investigating a suspicious section of the wall. The party finds a old disused shrine with a red marble dragon statue in it. The room with the altar also contains a entrance to the stairway leading up. The party accidently sets off the trapped door while everyone except Jaenelle and Murgen are in the area of effect. Lightning caresses the party for a few jarring seconds and the party finds a summoning circle. The circle is a permanent circles that is quite well made. From the looks of it, the circle had been used in the last few hours. The party destroys what they can of the room before heading upstairs. Upstairs the group finds a room with an eye tree carved into it. This is the room that they were attacked in the time before last when Alex had to dig an escape route through the walls. The Return Of Jackel-Boy Jaenelle and Murgen watch the previous room from the bottom of the stairs. as Alex destroys the carving. (Which proved immune to Herunaro magical bombardment) While the group is so divided several spectres attack. They concentrate on Korvath, quickly draining his life to the point where he turns and flees in panic dropping his weapon in the process. Swiftwind attempts to swing at the spectral forms shredding the soul of Korvath, but is unable to do so. Retreating the opposite way from Korvath Swiftwind is held with fear as his gaze is caught by the jackel-headed figure the group had fought twice before. The jackel-masked figure states, "I am Asok of Mejaire Ortian, the Claw of Ashardalon. You have the honor of dying at my hands. You will be first shapeshifter." Alex replies by stepping forward and bashing Asok over the head with his head with his morningstar, bending in a ear of Asok's mask. Asok snarls in frustration and throws a small packet at Alex. The packet goes wide and Alex mocks the Jackal with juvenile taunts while tripping him and pushing him down using his superior size. Asok clearly frustrated at the lack of respect he is getting vanishes in a cloud of dust. Elsewhere in the tower Korvath calls out to Jaenelle and her companion "beware spectres". Even as he calls out the warning the spirits catch him and tear his living spirit from his body. Jaenelle turns Murgen invisible right before the room the are in is overrun by spectres. The spectres sweep into room and start flying around the source of the invisible light like moths to a flame. Jaenelle and Murgen retreat up the stairs as Herunaro calls out. "Lets form up for the dance of ruin" (That being the party's slang for you have six seconds to get to me because I am getting us the hell out of here) Jaenelle grabs Korvath's corpse and Murgen grabs Korvath's weapon as the dodge spectres on their way back to the group. Alex quickly stuffs Korvath's recumbent form into the bag of holding and ports the group back to safety. The Death And Rebirth Of Korvath Back at the temple the group makes arrangements to restore Korvath. But first they must take care of his restless soul. The group carefully expose the Korvath spectre to sunlight and then proceed to blast it with magic missiles. After a very short battle they take his remains to a plainsmen elder to have him reincarnated. First Korvath is stripped of all his clothes and belongings except for his holy symbol which Jaenelle wisely decides to leave on the body for Korvath to be remade with. The group then watches for the hour or so it takes the druid to form Korvath into his spirits natural form. (Which oddly enough is a 28 year old blond fellow with a roguish grin) Back at the temple Colin and crew have been busy. The walls are freshly plastered and much of the rubble has been cleared away. A priest is directing one of the Gigantic undead in the excavation and constructvion of the future school. A basement is being dug and outlines of walls have been marked with dirt from the excavation. An area in the center of the school is marked off for the plainsmen memorial, but it is blocked off with canvas from which the sound of workmen can be heard. Plainsmen occasionally wander through the area to see what is going on. July 9th 216 The night passes uneventfully. Korvath mentions that he wishes to spend some time communing with his god to figure out what his personal role in all of this should be. He tells the others that they should feel free to go on to attack the tower without him. Some time to meditate and be alone is what he really needs. SESSION END evening of July 9th 216 NEXT TIME : A Weakness In The Tower's Defenses. EXPERIENCE TOTALS (Session 29) ----------------- Korvath Alex Herunaro Swiftwind Jaenelle Murgen 48697 60000 52386 58570* 57624* 25418 * - level was gained DEATHS ------ Korvath - dumped out of a bag of holding high above the ground and attacked by people he once called friends.