January 12th The party rests for the night peacefully. Nothing seems brash enough to assault the dragons cave. The party spend a while divining on possible actions and get mixed results to their inquiries. Herunaro looks up as an invisible angel appears in the upper part of the dragon cave. The angel is dressed in finely cut silks with tasteful golden jewelry and a glass buckler. Herunaro curses the fopish feathered fascist in elven for his attempt to meddle in a perfectly chaotic enterprise. Herunaro then disintegrates the bugger, but the angel shrugs of the spell with the ease another shrugs off a weathered rain jacket. The angel then languously flies over to the elves and curses them in words that pulsate and suck the light from the air. The earth shrieks and a moment later Herunaro and Theringil are gone. Swiftwind spells his sword and runs close. Berrik and Qualintalote also charges in to do battle. The angel is not interested in fighting fair, he stays out of reach and easily parries each of the blows that do get close. The fallen angel then plays a blast of music from a trumpet that echoes across the plane. The party feals their shouls shutter and want to lift free but due to protections Theringill erected the previous day they are safe from the horns magic. The group lays into the angel but their weapons just do not get past the angels buckler. The one blow that does get past doesn't piece the silk of the angels clothes. It seems that the angel is toying with the group at this point. But while Berrik distracts the angel with a comment invololving a well-hung dwarf and the angle's halo, Swiftwind uses a potion to fly up behind the angel and attack up close and personal. From up close it is obvious that much of the angel's jewelry is mixed celestial steel and gold in the shape of angelic name runes. Not only is the angel fallen but he has been hunting other angels and making jewelry out of the trophies. Swiftwind's blade blazes a brilliant white and when he strikes the blade parts both silk and shield to lay the angel to the bone. Surprised by the suddenly flaming sword the angel retreats by teleporting to the far end of the cave. He attempts to heal himself but the group is on him before he can recover fully. Disoriented the angel flees back to whence he came. Separated from their comrades with no way to get home, Swiftwind, Berrik, and Qualintalote make for another shelter. The dragon cave is apparently not a safe place judging by the angels sudden appearance. Qualintalote scouts for better cover and is trailed by a group of windwalking Toll of Doom guards. Unwilling to bring the guards to his allies Qualintalote leads the guard on a chase losing them in some of the deeper fissures of the cube. The guards sweep by a couple more times and then try to jump Qualintalote but he is prepared and manages to lose them completely and get back to his friends. The group then carefully moves to the new hiding place avoiding the halfhearted search put on by the Toll of Doom Brotherhood. The new hideout allow the group to hide and rest for three nerve-wracking watches. Finally when they are rested Swiftwind is contacted by Theringil. Herunaro and him are fine and will be back within 24 hours. The spell the angel used prevents the elves re-entry to acheron for a day. 20 hours after the sending the group is reunited. The elves picked up some goods in Lothia during their imposed vacation from saving the world. They acquired a better casting focus for Herunaro, and a medium health charm. Theringil bought a religious focus and learned the history of his new armor. They also brought back a set of flying potions, a pair of flying boots, and an Apparatus of Kwalish. The dwarf was ecstatic but after 20 minutes of playing with all the knobs and gears the rest of the party manages to pry him away from the Apparatus with a reminder that the end of the world is Neigh. "Ah, but now I can die a happy dwarf lad" (How he would grow to regret those words) January 13th (Friday the 13th) While the party was putting away their new loot the group was set upon by a pack of iron predators. The predators were cloaked in darkness and struck by encircling the ravine and using their sonic roars. Theringil neutralizes the darkness and the cats all pounced Berrik. One of the elves coyly notes, "well they navigate by scent, it figures they only see him." Berrik however is not amused. The cats repeatedly pull him in to where he can't use his mighty axe. Herunaro checks outside the crevice and notices an invisible figure moving towards Theringil's back. Thinking quickly Herunaro blasts the figure with a cone of dazzling lights and when the magic dissipates only a fine trace of dust remains. Theringil has to work to keep the dwarf healthy despite the cat's efforts. Finally the last of the cats is slain and the party picks through the remains of the would be assassin. One noticeable item is a moderately magical weapon they dub the "pork blade" due to its incredibly badly written name. (Actually dark blade) The weapon makes everyone seem uneasy when wielding it, so it is placed in the magical hole and the group watches attentively as Theringil divines the best course of action. With Fharlanghn's advice the group decides to assault the tower. Plans are made and discarded before the group decide on a frontal assault as the safest approach. The group prepares, being careful to conserve power, then portals to the front of the Iron Tower. From close up the elaborate mechanisms that make up the fortress are more apparent and a Baatorian steel war golem is visable in the front entrance hall. There are also two steel predators flanking the front door. Herunaro places the party so close to the front entrance that Swiftwind appears straddling an iron cat. The party moves quickly to engage the cats and drop them before the war golem could start its infernal engines. Theringil and Qualintalote each take a serious chunk out of one of the cats. Berrik and Swiftwind drop the cats after they roar at the party doing significant damage. The cats are disposed of by the time the War golem finishes its starting sequence and stands bathed in the glow of its infernal engines. The party moves quickly. But as swiftwind lunges forward to attack the golem traps him with a large portcullis. Heronaro tries to destroy the portcullis but is just absorbs his spell. That is when he realizes that the entire builing is probably a golem. Theringil shoots throw the archway to give Swiftwind cover and disables the golem by puncturing one of the engines with his lance. Qualintal uses his size and might to open the portcullis and the others drag the golem under the gap so it can not close behind them. They can not open the gate further since the golem closed the gate by severing its chain. Inside the tower Theringil consults his god for the best path and leads the party unerringly through the twisting corridors. They fight a pride of metal cats and then a pair of incredibly dumb golems that they manage to shoot several times without the golems figuring out where the party is. Eventually the golems find the party and the battle is joined with the golems finding reinforcements in the form of a canabalistic dwarf monk. During the battle Berrik is hit by a lucky blow from a golem. The blow sunders Berrik from head to toe. The rest of the party manages to take down the golems but the monk manages to escape. Herunaro could not hit it with disintegrate and Theringil's arrows kept getting slapped out of the air. With the battle won Theringil brings Berrik back to life. Berrik is a bit disoriented and mutters something about the sword and dwarven lords, but so soon after death he can not make a lot of sense. Exploring the area the golems were guarding the party triggers a pair of Symbols. Swiftwind is inflicted with a malease of the spirit but it is easily broken by Theringill. The symbol is destroyed and then downstairs another symbol is triggered making Swiftwind suggestable. Fortunatly Swiftwind ignores the enemy's commands and the rest of the party come up behind him to see an enormous forge room. A hundred smiths are working a dozen forges with guards and dragons watching over them. There is no sign of the scimitar but one of the Slavemasters is yelling at swiftwind to get to work. The party bring up their magic wards and swiftwind lashes out at one of the guards but his god does not make his blade strike true due the the guards being regular contractors and not really evil. Heronaro sprays the room with magical destruction wreaking havock. Dozens of souls are released and one of the dragons goes on a insane rampage through the room after being blinded and driven insane by a spell. Then enemy reinforcements start pouring in. Iron cats, more dragons, golems, the angel, a devil, some spellcasters, a man in full plate dressed in armor of the adversary. The list of enemies is impressive. The party fights fiercely. Theringil shoults warning that one of the enemy spellcasters (mage with a cat) is a Rakshasha and is probably immune to the group's magic. He also warns that the floating wizard with the black goatee is a pit fiend and should be avoided. The enemy have so many magical spells running it is hard to tell them apart. Mirror images, blur spells, protective auras, and the haze of heat from the furnace come to gether into a overwhelming white noise that one just has to lash out in blindly. Qualintal eats a meteor swarm from the pit fiend to protect the party. The rakshasha sprays the party with prismatic colors and swiftwind is abruptly shunted out of the plane. The group kills some of the guards swarming them and petrify the fellow in Adversary armor after he became huge and charged the party. The angel attempts to banish the party and failing he resorts to dispelling Theringil's magic. The pitfiend flies into the middle of the party and sends them away with a curse just like the angel's. SESSION END January 13th 217B NEXT TIME : Getting the blade. EXPERIENCE TOTALS (Session 51) ----------------- Herun. Swift.Berrik Quelin.Therin. 122008 121096 110056 121096 121096