SESSION 30 July 9th 216 Restful wishes and undead thoughts 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 alone is what he really needs. The party makes some plans with the Temple of Weejas to conduct further attacks. Alex speaks with the lich via "dream" and learns something of the tower's defenses, as reported by an undercover vampire. It is believed that the tower has a lot of political rivalries and only Gulthias's lieutenants keep everything running smoothly. The locations of the lieutenants are described. The party makes plans to eliminate Asok (AKA Jackal-boy) since he is the one that seems easiest to reach. Before attacking the group decides to reprovision properly. July 10th 216 Unexpected journeys After having difficulties fencing the ring of water-walking in the middle of the dry plains, the group decides to visit the free city of Dibs, where Herunaro remembers having seen a temple of Bana, the mistress of open waters. Jaenelle suspects that the ring originally belonged to a member of that order, who got munched by the dragon, from whose possession the party liberated the ring. As they teleport, the group apparently miss their target destination of "large coastal city to the East." And wind up on mountainous territories with several keeps in sight. Immediately after appearing all of Herunaro's spells go down and everyone's items stop working. Herunaro gets even less happy when he realizes he cannot cast spells. A nearby tower sounds some horns and there is a flurry of signaling from the surrounding towers. Not waiting around the group gathers around Alex to teleport away (aren't they glad he is not using arcane teleportation...) This time dumping the entire party into the sea. Alex floats on the waves due to his waterwalking ring and Herunaro quickly gets fly spells up on the others. The group spies the famed cliffs of insanity behind them and with that they are able to turn about and teleport in the right direction. Or so they think... The party appears on the roof of an adobe cliff dwelling overlooking the ocean. Swiftwind relaxes - "ah! here's the coastal city - we're here." Herunaro: "This is the wrong coastal city..." All of his spells go down yet again, and he gasps "Alex get us out of here". The city is unlike any the party have seen, everyone around is dressed in russet colored robes or armor. Several men in russet plate yell out something in Thule and start running for the building's ladder. The party looks around for only a moment before teleporting again. Finally a squalid street of Dibs greets the party. As street vendors and passers-by stare momentarily at the group that just appeared, some urchins take the opportunity to lighten the hot-dog stand. "Finally.." sighs Alex as he gulps down a dripping hot dog and tosses the vendor a couple silver to cover the urchins as well. July 11th-14th 216 Morally dubious activities can be financially rewarding The next 3-4 days are spent trading with various factions in the cutthroat trade center of Dibs. Jaenelle uses her charming personality and an array of disguises to deal with unscrupulous individuals, using everything at her disposal to drive up the prices for party goods. The party gets in a few minor scrapes, but nothing they can't handle. And nothing opens doors like a reputation for having hasted trolls and sonic fireballs at one's beck and call. Eventually the party convince the Slaver Moranth to buy the cursed axe for almost 20k so he can transform slaves into halflings and make them non-traceable as well as easier to ship. "Of course, it's reversible!" Jaenelle assures him. This and other unsavory bargains make the party extremely rich, and they do not ask many questions about morality. They also find the temple of Bana and get some money for the ring of water-walking and the news of the demise of its ex-owner. The order returns the ring to the family of the deceased. When the party finally returns to the gathering, they have had several items created special order and purchased a number of other helpful do-dads. Alex happened to be in the right place at the right time to find one of Wintermoon's items dropped off only a few days before. Apparently Dibs has been the dumping ground of some of the goods Gulthias had to fence as well. Hmm, the vampires must have figured out a way to avoid problems when teleporting to a coastal city... July 15th 216 Korvath and his "big oops" After almost a week of downtime the party comes back to the gathering to find that Korvath's has been busy having his own morally questionable misadventures. While the party was gone he decided to single handedly take on the blue camp in an attempt to steal the amulet he promised Eloran he would retrieve. His tale was filled with invisible devils, screaming tribesmen, and stunningly attractive nude concubines that turned out to be Mature Blue Dragons. Korvath blew his cover after stumbling into the dragon's tent, but was somehow saved when he crossed the path of a convincing body double who then got mauled by the dragon. In the confusion Korvath stormed the Blue Leader's tent where he attempted to magically hold the chief and seize the amulet. His Rambo-style raid failed miserably and Korvath escaped to Elysium with only a moment to spare. After healing up for a few days and regaining his true form in the healing environment of Elysium he shifted back to earth where luckily he was only a few days away from the encampment. Hunting the Jackal-boy or "Asok! your internship has come to an end!" Party bargains with the temple of WeeJas for access to some loaner equipment. The group is given two Ghost-touch weapons from the Lothian academy for a day. The party preps up like never before and enters the tower at the top. Using Alex's knowledge of the tower's defenses the group slips unmolested into Asok's inner sanctum (no, they molest him later.) Asok's sanctum is a long vaulted hallway lined with elaborate sarcophagi. The party looks around for a moment before Herunaro lets rip with the sonic fireballs that are his trademark. As splinters of rock go flying several specters are revealed. They rush Herunaro and begin sucking his soul before Alex and Swiftwind are able to shake them off and bash them up. In the confusion Asok reveals himself, still a bit disheveled from his daytime nap. Korvath is paralyzed with fear, and the rest of the group prepare to make battle. Jaenelle yells out that Asok is undead and her powers are useless against him. Alex the troll steps forward and challenges the honorless turd named Asok to a proper battle. Asok, enraged at the insult and eager to attack the insolent and offensive Alex, leaps from his perch and lands on the ground that Alex covertly slimed only moments before. Alex proceeds to mock him. Then, while Asok is on his back, Alex jumps on him pounding him relentlessly. Swiftwind, Murgen, and Jaenelle form up into a firing squad with their bows. Others also try to join in, but Asok repeatedly avoids spell and weapon alike, dodging and blocking like there is no tomorrow. Asok somehow worms his way off the slippery area of the floor and disarms Alex before attacking him with the borrowed weapon. Then, seeing the group moving to surround him, Asok is overcome by cowardice and flees through the doorway to the stairs, only to catch a fireball in the middle of his back and burst into flames. Asok manages to make it to the stairs, but the fires seem to engulf his form and leave only ashes where he once was. The group recovers their borrowed weapons as well as some miscellaneous goods from Asok's corpse. Searching reveals the Asok's sanctum is rife with traps though some of them prove to have been disabled by the initial sonic fireballs. After a good hour of searching the party has a nice pile of gems and items. There is a brief foray into an adjoining hall but after Swiftwind almost falls prey to a nasty deathtrap involving an 160 foot chutes with razor projections and an elder fire elemental, the party decides to quickly get out of dodge and recover from the previous battle. They do remain long enough to deface two more of Gulthias' spy eyes before leaving. July 16th 216 "Cleaning house" After taking out Gulthias's dog-boy, the party decides to go through the fortress and systematically remove spyholes that Gulthias has placed throughout the fortress, in order to get the other lieutenant to attack them and take her out. In clearing the top floor the party encounters several vampire spawn, a mohrg, a cocky vampire, half dozen shadows, and some odd anti-organic goo. Alex throws coffins (with and without vampires inside) off the top of the tower, while singing "born free". Most of the coffins shatter on the rocks below. Except one - he throws it and hits it repeatedly to no avail. Upon closer examination, it seems to be made of mithril ore. Alex hides it in some bushes, crooning "my precious"... When they look in the "dining hall", the group discovers a secret door (with a dusty treasure chest) and rescues a cute female plainswoman, kept by the spawn to torment and possibly convert into one of them. (She is very beautiful about Cha 20 for a commoner, belongs to the Long Horse tribe) She saw several friends killed and brought back as vampires. (in that order) She also heard vampires talk while feeding on her companions. The party hypnotizes her and reads her memories while she is under. Little of high importance is revealed beyond that Gulthias is attempting to make a cult of Undeath and bring back his dead god by creating many undead followers. The party fantasizes about redirecting Gulthias' obsession into worship of broccoli... Since they rescued a prisoner, the party decides to head home and restore her to her tribe. Alex carries the girl home in his brand new coffin. SESSION END afternoon of July 16th 216 NEXT TIME : Trial and Error... EXPERIENCE TOTALS (Session 30) ----------------- Korvath Alex Herunaro Swiftwind Jaenelle Murgen 53659 62250 56425* 61063 60354 27087 * - level was gained DEATHS ------ Innocent man resembling Korvath. Asok, the monk/mummy/spymaster reputed to be Gulthias's left hand man.