6/29 session recap

After Siala and Rhin 'ported out, the rest of the party was left with three chests and a couple of piles of armor. Hrir immediately cast Detect Magic, and realized that one piece of armor in the pile was magical. At about the same time, the walls of the cave started glowing green. Rockaneeshoo recognized it as the Dimensional Lock effect, meaning that the party couldn't teleport out anymore. Unperturbed, Hrir dug out a set of leather armor studded with sapphires and put it in the rug of holding.

Of the two chests, two were quite large, and probably weighed a lot. Hrir tested one, and it was about 500 pounds. He set it down and smashed the lock with his adamantite axe. A cloud of burning phosphorus and smoke smothered the immediate area, but Hrir wasn't harmed, and Urgmob got out of the way. Hrir felt in the chest and encountered lots of coins, but he couldn't see their color because of the smoke. He tasted one, and got no taste. He then noticed that there was something burning in the chest, and he breathed a cold breath on the chest to quell the firey cloud. This served to extinguish the leather bag that was on fire, and when Hrir picked it up, it spilled out gems. Also, with the flame cleared, he could see that the chest was filled with gold pieces.

Enli was busy trying to Legend Lore the dragon during the time, and Rockaneeshoo was scheming. Hrir finally took the large chest, and dumped it into the rug of holding. Urgmob picked up the small chest to throw it in, and Evards Black Tentacles sprung up from the ground surrounding the chest. Still warded with Freedom of Movement, no one was really hindered. Urgmob then went to push the remaining large chest into the rug, but as he moved it, he and the chest fell upwards to smash against the ceiling. Urgmob was then hit by the chest on the way back down, where he took more damage from the floor. That trap sprung, the party managed to get the chest into the rug.

The green glow on the walls went away, and the party heard infernal voices back near the entrance shaft. As they dithered about what to do, a horned devil flew into sight and called out for his companions. Hrir uttered the Word of Recall, and got everyone but Rockaneeshoo out. Rock then turned into a Margoyle, and swam to the submerged corpse of the dragon. He then teleported himself and the hunk of meat to the desert. He then summoned a large elemental, enlarged it, strengthened it, and told it to carry the dragon onto the teleportation circle that he had just activated. Thus another dragon carcass found its way into Oriv.

A morning was spent counting money and tallying magic items. The following day, Rock identified the goods. During this time, Enli received a sending from an unknown elf that said that Dilithen requested to see him and his companions at his garden. After some discussion where Rhin claimed it was a trap, the party agreed to visit in one week.

The treasure contained approximately 58,000 gold pieces, 27,125 gold pieces worth of assorted gems (including diamonds), and several magic items.

• +3 Studded Leather Armor of Cold Resistance 10 (with sapphire studs)
• A square pottery vial with a label depicting an orc, an arrow, and a larger orc (of Enlarge Orc)
• A glass bulb with a wax seal containing a clear liquid that when swirled turns briefly blue (Darkvision)
• A smooth platinum band of Sonic Energy Resistance 10
• A steel ring with two small onyx set in a band of jade - It confers X-ray vision out to 20 feet when the wearer holds to the ring (on their finger) up to their forehead and concentrates. After 10 minutes per day, further use will tire the wearer, causing 1 point of Con damage per extra minute.
• The Watchsword, a +2 ghost touch bastard sword with ivory handle - This sword seems aware of it's surroundings, and can glow blue when it sees undead, especially incorporeal undead.
• An ash staff of Healing with 45 charges that gives clerics lesser restoration, cure serious wounds, remove blindness/deafness, and remove disease.
• Winged boots that are activated with a little tap dance - Wearer can fly for 5 minutes, 3 times a day.
• A Scintilating Robe that dazzles anyone within 30' who looks at it, and grants the wearer concealment - works for 10 rounds per day.

Enli, Rockaneeshoo, Rhin, and Davinov went to visit Dilithen in his antimagic garden, and Rhin was asked to remain outside for his own safety. When led into the house, the party saw Dilithen and Calathinius sitting at a table. While the rest of the party conversed with Calathinius, Dilithen went out and spoke with Rhin.

Calathinius explained that Vlemniir had returned somehow and possessed Jiyoomenath's body. Calathinius' sigil was active again, and he was ordered to find Sky Singer, one of the artifacts. In his search, he found Dilithen's garden, and found that his sigil was not active there. Rockaneeshoo and Enli then immediately stabbed and punched each other to make sure it was true, and sure enough, there was no repercussive effect. Calathinius said that he had generally located the cloud castle where Sky Singer was reported to be held, and gave that information to the party. He also gave them all the information he had about the devils, which was mostly what the party already knew. He agreed to look up more information about the dragonstone, it's uses, and it's location, while at Dilithen's. He also declared that he was on the side of the party.

The party asked if he could share what he knew of sigil removal, and he said that he might be willing to share that information, but that such a negotiation would be best left to later.

Meanwhile, Dilithen explained to Rhin that the reason he didn't give any more information about other liches was because he didn't want to influence Rhin's choices. He felt that Rhin's philosophy was one that he could accept at the moment, but he feared that too much knowledge of those who had gone before would throw Rhin off his current track, onto something that Dilithen wouldn't be able to accept. He also shared the legend of how the dragons were created by either Assuboz or another young deity, and how they had gone amok and unbalanced the world for the other races. Other gods had fashioned the dragonstone as a way of regulating the dragons, binding them to a seasonal cycle, and thus preserving the balance.

After a few divinations by Rhin and Enli, they found that the dragonstone was held on the eastern cliffs, in the old court of Lumat, god of war. They're not sure where that is exactly, but they asked Calathinius to look for it's location. As they left the anti-magic field, Rockaneeshoo and Enli suddenly felt the effects of their previous scuffle, proving that karma exists even where magic does not.

The party returned to Oriv and made some deals with the captured orc captain, Skoluk. Skoluk said that if he could return, he could organize some troops into a coup, and with the party taking on the major house sorcerors and the trolls, transfer of power in Mugron could be completed. He agreed that for the party's help in this, the orcs would ally themselves with the party for future conquests or holding of territory, and that that the party would receive a 10% tribute from revenues gained by the new regime. Skoluk was insistent that all of the sorcerors would have to die in the coup, but that priests of Lumat should be spared. Skoluk also agreed to buy back the looted orc armor at a 75% base price once the city was retaken, since he would then sell the armor back to his own troops, making a profit.

The Habergeon of Conquering Might was analyzed, and it's various functions discovered. In addition to awesome combat bonuses, the wearer is cursed so that they cannot take it off, and the armor must feed on at least one soul a day or it will eat the soul of the wearer instead. Hrir liked the benefits so much that he started trying to figure out how to obtain daily sacrifices. But no one has put it on.

Urgmob spent two weeks training, and can now suck the life out of a squirrel from 200 feet with his vampiric touch arrows. He is also more capable of penetrating spell resistance now. The rest of the party has decided to take a month off for item creation.

Everyone but Siala gets 100xp for this session. I will be on my camping trip for the next two weeks, so we'll start back up on July 20th. See you guys!

6/22 recap and 6/15 - 6/22 xp awards

The next step, the party decided, was to rest up and return to the dragon's lair, hopefully to find Hrir's armor. They geared up, used the teleport circle to get to the desert at dusk, and then teleported back to the room where they'd had their last encounter with the orcs. A quick search indicated that any remaining orcs had packed up quickly and left. All that remained were a few loose pieces of change and a piece of orc sketch-porn.

Heading further down the shaft, the party came across another passageway. Siala investigated a bit, and found two locked doors at the end. Deftly picking one of the locks, she discovered a tall room that was otherwise unremarkable. The rest of the party summoned her back before she could continue, however, and they headed further down the shaft to the bottom. Hrir created a spiral wall of stone to complete the ramp's descent.

At the bottom was a large cave filled with water and a central sandbar. In the gloom, no one could see out very far over the water. Enli and Siala flew out to investigate how far the cave went, and discovered a ledge that had three sleeping blue dragons on it! Enli immediately cast True Sight on himself, and was therefore able to see that only one of the dragons was real. In response to the scrutiny, the real dragon breathed a line of lightning at the two of them.

Combat ensued. The dragon's tactics seemed to be mostly flyby attacks with the occasional wing buffet or bite. It breathed every few rounds, and cast a few spells, but was somewhat hampered by the close quarters. It was dimensionally anchored pretty early on, keeping it from teleporting away. The entire party had prepared themselves with Freedom of Movement, and so none were able to be grappled. Enli unleashed Destruction on the dragon twice, burning and shriveling scales each time, but failing to utterly destroy it. Several Flamstrikes hit it, but most glanced harmlessly aside. The dragon was having some difficulty picking targets, for the ones that were doing the most damage were either protected by mirror images, or were unable to be grappled.

Siala transformed into a dragon herself, and picked up Urgmob and Davinov, in an attempt to ferry them around. Davniov nearly lost bladder control, seeing a dragon swoop down on him like that, but he managed to contain himself. Rockaneeshoo sealed the exit shaft with a Wall of Force at about this point too.

After a few more breath attacks, the dragon flew to the far dark side of the lake, out of sight of the party. After a few rounds of quiet, the dragon reared out of the water, blasting the party with more lightning. It was no longer glowing green. Rockaneeshoo responded by summoning a Solid Fog around it. The casters heard the dragon cast Teleport. Hrir charged into the cloud, and smacked into a beholder just opening it's main eye. Hrir dropped out of the air, and the rest of the party blasted the floating eye into char quickly.

Not knowing where the dragon was, Rhin and Siala started searching the treasure for the armor (which Rhin had located using Discern Location). There were a couple of piles of stuff under tarps, and a few chests. Rhin pointed to one of the tarp piles, and Siala tore into it with her dragon claws. Soon the armor was uncovered. As soon as it was in hand, Rhin cast Word of Recall, teleporting himself and Siala back to Oriv.

The dragon raised up out of the water again to breathe lightning on the party, and was met with another dimensional anchor and another solid fog. Hrir charged in again, and was this time able to strike true. The dragon fell, slain after only a round or two of concerted damage from the party.

We leave the party separated at the end of the session, with Siala and Rhin in Oriv with a bit of treasure, and the rest of the party in the pit, with a lot more treasure and a dead dragon.

Everyone receives 750xp for the encounter two weeks ago, including negotiations with the devils and the capture of one of the remaining orcs. For this past session, everyone gets 1700 xp for defeating the dragon. This brings the totals to:

Urgmob : 126,960 (16th)
Rhin : 116,160 (15th)
Rockaneeshoo : 143,136 (17th)
Enli : 148,050 (17th)
Siala : 99,650 (14th)
Hrir : 116,107 (15th)

6/15 recap

Hrir grabbed the energy axe from the shriveled orc leader's hand with a dwarven/dragon chuckle of greed, only to watch the blade disappear. He then started stripping the armor from the deceased. Enli took this opportunity to start praying to Ibenaikad for divine guidance. Urgmob and Siala explored the two doors leading out of the room, and discovered that they were merely illusions. Going just a bit further, they saw that some remaining orcs were holding a cautious discussion of their own in a back passageway.

A devil's voice called out from the shaft, calling for the party to relinquish the Wheel. The party hid in the corners of the room, out of sight, except for Siala who invisibly watched the corridor. A single cornugon stood at the entrance, blocking it, while another kept peeking around the corner. The party tried very hard to enrage the devils into coming into the room to attack, but the devils were having no part of that. They claimed that they would give the party knowledge of the dragonstone in return for the Wheel. When accused of trying to destroy the world, they said that they didn't share Vlemniir's desires, and that they merely wanted it for travel purposes. Rhin asked if the party could merely use the Wheel to send them wherever they wanted to go, but the devil said that they needed the wheel in general.

A standoff was held for about 5 minutes, and then the devils were flew off. A much larger creature flew up, however, and landed on the ledge of the corridor, out in the shaft. It was a blue dragon, and it started clawing through the stone, making the corridor large enough for it to enter. The party then decided to attack it. Rockaneeshoo fired spells at it, and in return it fired a black beam that struck him in the head. Rock lost 8 levels due to enervation, and staggered backwards. Enli decided to give up his divination, and moved forward to cast a flame strike. The dragon responded by hitting Enli with another black beam, which stripped Enli of 4 levels. Urgmob fired some arrows into the dragon, hitting true, but the dragon responded by putting up a wall of wind between them. It also breathed lightning down the passageway, scorching several party members.

After taking some damage, the dragon flew up the shaft, and out of sight. The party gave chase to the stairway, and was met by another blast of lightning from the dragon above. It then flew out into the desert, and away from sight again.

Rather than face it in the open, the party moved back to engage the remaining orcs. Siala snuck up invisibly, and started viciously stabbing her target. The others joined in, and soon there were two orcs on the ground. One was still alive, and Rhin stabilized him. Pressing through the doorway, the party faced only two more orcs, apparently spellcasters. Once managed to put up a blade barrier, but Hrir rushed through it anyways to attack him. That one dropped, and the other was commanded to drop his weapon and surrender. He did, and Urgmob put an arrow into him anyways. A warning was shouted again at the orc to lie down, so he did. And then Hrir fatally tenderized him with his axe.

A quick decision was made to leave the area quickly, but Hrir wasn't about to leave the scene without the armor. So he ran back through the blade barrier to the entry room, and across to the dead orc and his armor. On the way, a blast of electricity fried him, but he managed to keep going. He dragged the orc back with him to the party (not crossing the room again), and the Rhin uttered the Word of Recall to transport them all back to Oriv.

The orc was revived and questioned. He was merely a fighter, but he kept his wits pretty well. He said that the orc that had worn the Habergeon was the chieftain of Mugron, that the orcs and Devils had a pact, and that the Devils and dragon had a pact, but that the dragon didn't have any such pact with the orcs. The party made some comments about finishing off the orc leadership at some point. Later, they asked the captive why they should keep him alive. He said that if there were to be a violent change in the governing of Mugron, that he could probably make sure that the new people in charge would be amenable to an alliance with the party. Especially if he himself were the liason between them. The party turned him over to Keggrok for safekeeping, and explained the situation to him.

Siala explored the Green Dragon Inn, and stared down a group of unruly hobgoblins. They even bought her a round of ale, which wasn't too bad. Rockaneeshoo collapsed on his bunk, exhausted. Allison showed off her magic missile mastery before he fell asleep.

6/8 xp awards

Each of the characters gets 1700 xp for last session. This bring the totals to :
Urgmob 124,510
Rhin 113,710
Rockaneeshoo 140,686
Enli 145,600
Siala 97,200
Hrir 113,657

We left the party last time with several dead orcs. One of them is wearing the Habergeon of Conquering Might and has an energy axe still glowing in his shriveled fist. There is a blade barrier across the exit. See you guys tonight!

6/8 session recap

The air above the pit was filled with the not-so-whispered deliberations of the party. Some sort of concensus was reached, and Enli conjured two celestial monkeys to go down the spiral stairway as scouts. The monkeys came back very shortly, and said (in celestial) that there was a side passage. The party proceeded down the stairs, and saw a 10' wide corridor stretch 30' to a door. Enli instructed the monkeys to open the door and check inside. They fumbled with the latch a bit, then slipped inside. There were monkey screams and orc grunts, and then silence.

The party whispered some more, and then Hrir kicked in the door. Five orcs stood waiting, including one that was wearing ornate, black spiked armor. That one also carried an axe with a head of pure energy. Combat ensued. Every time that the lead orc was injured, he seemed to grow stronger and more dense. Hrir was hit and stunned. Spikes then shot from the lead orc's armor on chains, but everyone dodged somehow. After a couple of viscious backstabs from Siala, the leader grew to be ten feet tall. An invisible, beardless dwarf attacked, becoming visible. Urgmob fired several arrows at him, but the should pads on the dwarf's armor deflected the first, and he caught another scant inches from his face. Hrir recovered, and landed a few blows on the leader, but was then stunned again, as was Davinov. Siala delivered a couple of extra sneak attacks, which caused leathery wings to sprout from the orc's back. He resembled a cross between a devil and an orc. The orc then summoned a retriever, normally a demonic construct, and it attacked the party with it's eye rays. Urgmob had donned his spider climb slippers, and was perched high on the wall, firing arrows into the retriever. The retriever responded by turning Urgmob to stone with a ray. After taking massive damage, the beardless dwarf clicked his heels and teleported away.

During the melee, spells continued to rain down upon the party, seemingly from nowhere, or near the vicinity of the walls. Eventually the party figured out that there were casters in there, and passed through the illusions to attack them. Before either of the sorcerors could be killed, however, they teleported away. Rhin broke the enchantment on Urgmob, who resumed firing arrow after arrow into enemies.

Spikes shot forth from the armor again, impaling Davinov and Bob the Orc. They were then dragged foward, and lifeforce seemed to drain from them. Bob the Orc expired, but Davninov ripped himself from the spike with a cry of pain. He then fell to the ground, unmoving. Hrir was looking extremely bad too. Enli and Rhin stepped in with healing spells, reviving them and closing their wounds. Hrir shed his tower shield, put away his axe, and then drew the demon axe. Davinov recovered, and dealt the final blow to the lead orc before Hrir could even swing the artifact, however. As the lead orc fell, he cried out "No! I won't go! No, don't take me!" And then his body shriveled in on itself, shedding all of the features of a devil.

As a side note, the four other orcs were slain during the course of the combat.

June 8 Session

We're back after a one week break, and the June 8 session will be held as usual.
6:30-7pm, Sean's place.

The party is poised at the edge of a pit in the desert, Hrir's armor somewhere below. It's also possible that there is a real dragon and the Habergon of Conquering Might down there too. Tune in tomorrow to find out!