March 9th 217B Party return to Ipsus learn that Jaenelle has been by while they were gone. Try to track down Jaenelle but find that she is no longer at the Temple of Jaas. Theringil magically sends to Alex to see what is going on. Alex informs the group that Jaenelle is with him and they are observing a cult that they have good reason to belive is composed of Constantine followers pretending to be another religion. Records found at the previous temple suggested that this was a stronghold for Constantine and that the entire religion may be a sham. When Theringil asks if they would mind the party's assistance Alex seems to think that the groups help would be welcomed with open arms. The cult is bigger than they had been led to believe lending more credence to the idea that followers of Constantine may be falling back to here as a "smokescreen" religion. The party show up and are briefed on the cult. It seems that Jaenelle is present but not under the direct supervision of Jaas at the moment. The founder is a charismatic spellcasters, there are several other prominent individuals that have also been fingered as being high up in the organization. One is a general in charge of training warriors, another is the quartermaster. A couple of minor officials are also described. Unfortunately it is not know how many people in the temple are not actually Constantine followers. To rectify this the party decide to go scout the place out and seize someone knowledgeable for mindprobing. The party turns invisible and flying before teleporting into the temple. Inside there are a couple dozen warriors. They are speaking in a impenetrable dialect and there seems to be no obvious leaders present. Herunaro watches for a moment and notices that when people talk one person seems to be addressed with a title. So Herunaro dives next to the "Maharaja" and teleports out of the building, or so the plan was, but as soon as Herunaro touches the "Maharaja" the spell fails and bedlam ensues. A bodyguard leaps on Herunaro and attempts to grapple the invisible mage before he can fly up and away but Herunaro stabs the man through the hand winning free of the grapple. One of the milling warriors pulls out a holy symbol and casts a spell dispelling the party's invisibility and gets trampled by a centaur for his troubles. Theringil seeing things turning messy fast fills the building with deadly fumes and watches as some of the defenders drop or flee the noxious vapors. The 'Maharaja' creates a magical ward in the vapor's path and shields his guards from the affect, but the ward prevents him from using his magical defenses and the party is able to take him down, though Herunaro does get caught in the antimagic and grappled and rushed, but he proves able to defend himself with the rapier quite fine. Eventually the building is captured and the party call in Jaenelle, Alex, and their companions. Examining the rest of the building reveals underground store rooms as well as ancient burial chamber from some long gone beast god. Theringil stops to examine the burial customs which are older than anything he has heard of, but while looking for auras he realizes that the whole area is a sham and he is being misdirected by some powerful illusionary magic. Dispelling Theringil reveals the cult leaders in a hidden room with one of Constantine's bodies. Herunaro dumps a massive blast of negative energy into the temple's founder and Swiftwind knocks out their leader so fast that the leader's guards surrender almost bloodlessly. The group takes the guards upstairs after Theringil looks over the body guards and sees little beyond a number of medium duration prep spells. Theringil stays downstairs with the body of Constantine until Jaenelle can contact Jaas. Upstairs the others have arrived. Jaenelle inquires why the group decided to take the entire building and learns that the party was prevented from leaving. An effect apparently caused by a hallow with a dimensional anchor laid over it. She starts to question one of the two guards from down stairs before she looks extremely put out and tells her guards to kill him revealing that one of the guards had slipped off after leaving below and left a simulacrum in his place. This infuriates Theringil whom manages to find the escape fleeing through part of pandemonium. A bit of further questioning reveals that the "leader" was only a figurehead and the real leader had been dressed as the "pseudo leader's" bodyguard at the time of the attack. After surrendering he waited until he was upstairs and silently cast a escape spell leaving a magical double behind to cover his escape. Only the lucky choice of him for questioning first revealed his subterfuge. Questioning revealed half of the cultists do not know who the real leader was and that there was an elaborate manner for concealing the real chain of command. (Besides the fact that there was no real insignia or rank displayed on any of the leaders.) It was revealed that most of the priest had not been getting spells back at all, so it seemed unlikely that Constantine had escaped yet. Going over the temple more carefully revealed a number of minor magical items as well as a pile of gems. The party kept 30k in gems. (Two massive 10k gems and two 5 k gems obviously intended for resurrections.) The party did set off one minor ward and lost a scroll but the party did recover a keen lance and a bottomless tankard of ale. Berrik also found a set of weighted dice among the warriors personal effects. After cleaning out the temple the party made arrangements to get their wishes and talked about the terms with Jaas (though Jaenelle's channeling her goddess). Jaas made arrangements for the party to get a hero's feast as well as their wishes tomorrow as the group gets ready to storm the Bastion. That night Theringil stays up late and finishes his book. March 10th 217B SESSION END Morning of March 10th 217B NEXT TIME : Please can we go to the $^(*^@ Bastion? ENEMIES DEFEATED ---------------- Fake cult leader Real cult leader General Dozen of greebs EXPERIENCE TOTALS (Session 66)
----------------- Herunaro Swiftwind Berrik Qualental Theringil 185410 181255 184132 185399 185396