January 30th Last session we left off when the group was about to be attacked by a squad of orcs. Swiftwind caught a glimpse of the orcs and shouted a warning as tentacles sprang forth from the ground and entangled group members. The feeble light from Swiftwind's amulet revealed three hulking orcs in the room with the central orc wearing a harness in which the spellcaster was suspended. Swiftwind leaped into the unlit room and struck the caster a fierce blow. In the light from Swiftwind's amulet the central orc's face was illuminated revealing a pierced ear and a gaping socket where his left eye would have been. After attacking the goblin spellcaster Swiftwind noticed several more orcs nearby and realized his poor tactical position even as the orcs began springing into the room and hitting him with their mighty war cleavers. Swiftwind, badly wounded, tumbled out of danger and back to his allies whom had all pulled free of the tentacles by this point. The orc leader snarled something in disgust and the tentacles were dismissed. Herunaro blasted the room with a cone of cold staggering but not felling any of the orcs. The spellcaster in the harness attempts to feeblemind Herunaro and is resisted. Theringil patches up Swiftwind as the others cut into the swarm of magically enlarged orcish berserkers. From behind the group the Lilend tries to provide some magical support but she is badly outclassed by the other casters and her spells are all easily batted away. Qualintal makes the mistake of stepping into the room and immediately receives the bulk of the enemy's attention and falls as he is pounded with several massive blows. Theringil attempts to save the centaur but finds he is too late. Dumping magic into the centaur he miraculously brings the centaur back from death. The party then manages the rest of the battle pretty easily though the orcish leader holds out for almost a minute longer then his men. The orcs were well equipped and had some impressive magic running. There were Hero's feasts, several bulls strength, and a mass enlarge running. The orcs also had some magical equipment. In particular the orcish war cleavers were quite magical drawing amazingly viscous wounds on party members. Theringil found he was getting sadly depleted with all the demand for healing. Qualintal says he had a vision when he was dead. Some god grabbed him and told him that there was immanent danger to Korvath. This upset Qualintal quite a bit since he felt he wasn't supposed to go to any gods and felt disturbed that they would interfere in his afterlife. No one seems to recognize the god's description. Qualintal felt the god was female but was unsure of any further details. The party discussed what would make a god believe that Korvath is essential to all creation. They decide that whatever the issue is that it can wait several minutes and they can finish looking around the fortress before looking up their old acquaintance. The lilend whose name was Findula seems healthier after the attack. Swiftwind had healed her arms to the point where she was actually able to heal herself again. The party pick up after the attack. The lilend asks that the party let her leave the plane with them. She had been tracking down a missing sculptor when she ran into the forces of the iron fortress a few weeks past. Since then she had been kept in a cell. Systematically mutilated and tortured by a female dust mephit rouge and a chain devil. The group tells her to stay out of the way of battle but gives her a bow so she can participate safely from behind them. The group systematically explores the fortress and finds filled with tapestries. Destroying the tapestries pits the party up against a leathery old demon with razors for fingers and a tiny shrunken head. Despite the demons ferocious appearance the party quickly dispatches it and searches the area nearby. Also on the top floor the party finds a section of the fortress where several walls have been dismantled to make a back route into one of the most defensible sections of the fortress. The party finds a key left behind by previous searches then inside the secure section of the fortress the party find a planning room with an amazing assortment of maps. Especially considering that most of the good maps seem to have been looted. There were still thousands of maps piles that looked like tactical data for invading at least a dozen different plains. On one map there was a note in Draconic about Ashardalon being present in the abyss. The party eventually arrive at the fortress library which while missing a few dozen books appears otherwise unmolested. Gleefully the group begins dismantling the library grabbing dozens of books and stuffing them into the portable hole. There is a brief altercation when Swiftwind jumps a pair of orcs also hiding in the library. But the orcs are quickly dealt with and the library looting continues. While looting the library Berrik hears a patrol approaching the library. The party formed up in a defensive position and seconds afterwards an orc came around the corner and shouted an alarm. The lilend inspires the party to great feats of bravery and Berrik holds the door with Qualintal providing support. Theringil sends flames scurrying down the hallway seeking out enemies. During the battle the orcs are attacked from behind by Dwarven spectors. The spectors seem to prefer orcs to dwarves so Berrik refuses to fight the spectors or the orcs since he didn't want to deprive his former kindred orcish blood. The rest of the party indiscriminately wade in to both forces. Swiftwind's dagger cuts a swath through the spectors. One powerful spector gets away and Herunaro attempts to chase it down while the others loot the dwarves. The group gave up on packing books to instead drag gold and gems from the bodies of the fallen orcs. The orcs had broken into a treasure chamber just around the corner when the alarm was raised about the party's presence. There are muffled booms from below as Herunaro chases down the spector. (or so the party thinks) Far below Herunaro drifting ethereally does not hear the explosions. He is still hot on the trail of one spector and it has been giving him a good chase. Herunaro finally catches up to it when it stops to watch a battle royal being waged on the lower levels of the fortress. As Herunaro watches a mob of orcish berserkers charge a glowing giant and retinue. Scanning the crowd he spots the spector sliding slowly towards a group of a couple dozen orcs surrounding a rippling muscled one-eyed orc carrying a blood red spear that glows with a radiance that baths the battlefield in an unearthly blood red light. Taking a second to look, Herunaro realizes the orcs are led by someone whom looks a lot like Grumpsh and while the orcs are taking 3 or 4 attacks a round the cloud giant is dropping a couple orcs per round. It looks like it might be a battle between a giant god and Grumpsh. Herunaro seeing a chance to do something incredibly stupid and drops a prismatic spray into the center of the battle wrecking havoc on both sides. Herunaro gets targeted by several spells from below and decides to flee before things get nasty especially as a Pit Fiend pops into view amidst the orcs and begins to indiscriminately use meteor swarm. Deciding that hanging around any longer would just get him squished Herunaro flies ethereally back to his friends whom have done a decent job looting the treasury. (Something the orcish patrol was in the middle of when they apparently heard the party and went to investigate the group) The party then plane shifts away before the trouble downstairs can get up to them. February 1st Theringil does a find the path to Korvath and finds no information. (I incorrectly said the party found him, but he was shielded from detection at that moment.) Teleporting back to wall the group finds Korvath and a dead Gold dragon amidst the ruins of what was the church. The town is in turmoil. Korvath is a bit incoherent about devils and destruction and everyone dying. Coaxing him to calm down they get him to reiterate "everyone is dead" that he escaped by using "word of recall" but his friend (the dragon) died from poison before he could save her. (Yes some poison was used that was sufficient to kill an adult gold dragon) Settling down for the night the group learns that one of the items they picked up is a cubic gate and one of the books an orc was carrying was a diary of one of the tower residents. SESSION END February 1st 217B NEXT TIME : Bastion of Lost Souls. EXPERIENCE TOTALS (Session 55) ------------------------------ Herunaro Swiftwind Berrik Qualintal Theringil *136345* *136057* 132564 *136057* *136000*