The Three Faces of Evil - Part Two

13 May 2006

Players/Characters

Aust (Russell) 2nd/1st level male Elven Spellthief/Rogue
Elzara (Will) 3rd level female Elven Monk
Tovar Hammerguild (Ian) 3rd level Male Dwarven Paladin
Tanith (Ewar) 2nd/1st level male Human Sorcerer/Warmage
Alexis Serria (Andrew) 3rd level female Human Cleric
Eolias (Richard) 2nd/1st level male Elven Ranger/Sorcerer

Game Events

Before they could launch an assault of their own, a massive pig with iron capped tusks came barrelling out of a side room and charged into Eolias, Elzara and Tovar, badly wounding Elzara before being despatched.

Having breezed through the cultists in the previous room this considerably shocked the group so they decided to hole up to rest to restock their spells. They chose the small room which had previously housed the cultists, and Aust used the padlock and chain from the dire boar's room to secure the door.

A couple of hours later, before anyone had been able to recover anything there was a smell of burning as the cultists set the door on fire in an attempt to smoke out the group. Aust was unable to remove the padlock and chain in time so Tovar (assisted by Elzara) charged through the burning door and into the corridor where Tovar was shot twice by a couple of demonic guards who then retreated back through the double doors at the end of the corridor.

One of the guards fell to arrow fire but the other made it back into a large ampitheatre-type room where three more cultists awaited, longspears at the ready. Tovar, Elzara and Alexis charged into the room whilst Tanith, Eolias and Aust sent arrows, bolts and spells from the doorway.

More cultists in heavy armour appeared on the balcony surrounding the room along with a couple of large zombies, and a major battle broke out. Eolias engaged the Cult Leader in a ranged duel (bow versus spells) whilst the other party members spread out into the room to engage the other cultists. Elzara climbed to the balcony and traded blows with a couple of troglodyte zombies and a cleric, Aust, Tanith and Alexis exchanged spells and arrows with the cultists on the balcony while Tovar tried to push over a 30' high six-armed statue in the centre of the room to try and make a ramp up to the upper level. A summoned fiendish ape attacked and wounded Eolias but was beaten off and despatched with Aust's help.

The battle suddenly turned in favor of the party when Eolias' use of True Strike combined with Magic Weapon from Alexis and a lucky critical strike penetrated the Cult Leader's protections and left him lying dead on the floor. The rest of the cultists were swifly despatched, despite one half-orc being enlarged and in combat, mainly due to his inability to hit anything!

The dead were looted to recover Scrolls of Silence and Sound Burst at 3rd Level and Dispel Magic and Bulls Strength at 5th Level, wands of Cure Light and Enlarge, a ring and plate mail and a number of Potions of Cure Light Wounds.

The party then explored and looted the rest of the temple of Hextor, finding a magic pearl in one of the rooms before resting to regain health and spells. They then returned to the elevator room where they now went to check out the pool of dark viscous liquid at the other end of the room to the passageways.

Tovar tested the liquid finding it to be deathly cold while Alexis investigated the platforms overlooking the pool where she found some GP and a gold holy symbol of Erythnul.

The group decided to avoid the unmarked passageway in favour of the one marked with the symbol of a human hand holding an eye.

Magical Items Found

• Four Potions of Cure Light Wounds
• Scroll of Silence and Sound Burst at 3rd Level
• Scroll of Dispel Magic and Bulls Strength at 5th Level
• Wand of Cure Light Wounds
• Wand of Enlarge
• Ring
• Full Plate Mail
• Pearl

XP Summary

• Dire Boar - 1,500XP
• 3 Cultists - 900XP
• 6 Demonic-Looking Guards - 1,800XP
• 2 Zombies - 1,200XP
• 2 Clerics - 1,200XP
• Cult Leader - 1,800XP

Total XP 8,400XP

• Eolias - 1,450XP
• Elzara - 1,450XP
• Alexis - 1,300XP
• Tanith - 1,300XP
• Kovar - 1,450 XP
• Aust - 1,450XP

The Three Faces of Evil - Part One

6 May 2006

Players/Characters

Aust (Russell) 2nd level male Elven Spellthief
Elzara (Will) 2nd level female Elven Monk
Kovar Hammerguild (Ian) 2nd level Male Dwarven Paladin
Tanith (Ewar) 1st/1st level male Human Sorcerer/Warmage
Alexis Serria (Andrew) 2nd level female Human Cleric
Eolias (Richard) 2nd level male Elven Ranger

Game Events

Returning once more to Allustan the party discovered that he was concerned that the green worm found in the Old Observatory and the undead creatures from which it came from could represent a grave threat to Diamond Lake.

He suggested that the letter also found at the Observatory stating that cultists were deep inside the Dourstone Mine should be followed up on. To this end both Eliolas and Elzara went to stake out the mine compound.

Tanith discovered that his Raven familiar had been kidnapped, and a letter requesting a meeting with Balbar Smenk was found nailed to the door of the character's base, along with a raven feather.

At the meeting Smenk returned the raven (which had been well treated) and explained that he had been forced to supply the cultists at Dourstone Mine with food and supplies, but when he tried to increase his prices he awoke one morning to find the decapitated head of his right-hand man in his bed. Suitably frightened, he has made contact with the party with a view to assisting them to get into the mine to eliminate the cultists.

Eliolas and Elzara were smuggled in in boxes with a regular shipment (including the adventuring gear of the rest of the party) whilst the others took jobs as miners and investigated from the inside.

After a run-in with the mine guards, Kovar, Aust and Elzara rode an elevator down and defeated a couple of demonic-looking guards and a few skeletons whilst Eolias, Tanith and Alexis dealt with more guards above.

More skeletons and Cultists were easily defeated along with a couple more demonic guards. Whilst the fighters followed the survivors of these groups as they retreated along a corridor and through some double doors and out of sight, Aust and Alexis searched the bodies, finding seven potions of Cure Light Wounds and four potions of Shield of Faith on the demonic guards' bodies.

The party readied themselves to assault through the doors (and also levelled up)


Magical Items Found

• Seven Potions of Cure Light Wounds
• Four Potions of Shield of Faith

XP Summary

• Infiltrating the mine - 900XP
• 8 Mine Guards - 2,400XP
• 4 Demonic-Looking Guards - 1,200XP
• 2 Skeletons - 600XP
• 7 Cultists - 2,100XP

Total XP 7,200XP

• Eolias - 1,550XP
• Elzara - 1,350XP
• Alexis - 1,175XP
• Tanith - 1,175XP
• Kovar - 975 XP
• Aust - 975XP

The Whispering Cairn - Part Three

6 May 2006

Players/Characters

Aust (Russell) 2nd level male Elven Spellthief
Elzara (Will) 2nd level female Elven Monk
Kovar Hammerguild (Ian) 2nd level Male Dwarven Paladin
Tanith (Ewar) 1st/1st level male Human Sorcerer/Warmage
Alexis Serria (Andrew) 2nd level female Human Cleric
Eolias (Richard) 2nd level male Elven Ranger

Game Events

After conferring with Allustan and getting items identified the party revisited the Land farmstead and re-interred the bones of the family then returned to the Whispering Cairn.

Hoping that the ghostly Alastor was true to his word, they carefully negotiated the balance beam where Elzara had defeated the Grick and found the door at the end was, indeed, open.

They entered a circluar room which was lit from above as if by daylight with a walkway around the edge and a column of air rising from the centre of the room and through a hole in the ceiling. Two walkways led to the central column of air. Around the room were bas-reliefs which, when approached, animated to tell the story of the Wind Dukes and their battle against Chaos, specifically the demonic entity Miska (a creature with a spider's body, and a human and two wolf heads. The final panel shows the Wind Duke Qadeej destroying Miska with a seven-sectioned rod.

As Kovar stepped onto a walkway, two Wind Warriors in full armor rose out of the air column and attacked, eventually being defeated but not before Kovar had been knocked unconcious and Elzara severely wounded.

With the Wind Warriors dead, Kovar, Eolias and Tanith rode the air column to the true tomb where nore bas-reliefs depicted the death of Zosiel, whose tomb this was, from a Sphere of Annhiliation. Inside his sarcophagus they found a Circlet of Wisdom +2, and a dormant Talisman of the Sphere.

Magical Items Found

• Circlet of Wisdom +2
• Talisman of the Sphere (Dormant)
  

XP Summary

• 2 Wind Warriors - CR4 - 2,700 (450 each)

The Whispering Cairn - Part Two

29 April 2006

Players/Characters

Aust (Russell) 1st level male Elven Spellthief
Elzara (Will) 1st level female Elven Monk
Kovar Hammerguild (Ian) 1st level Male Dwarven Paladin
Tanith (Ewar) 1st level male Human Sorcerer
Alexis Serria (Andrew) 1st level female Human Cleric (run as NPC)
Eolias (Richard) 1st level male Elven Ranger

Game Events

The party returned to the Whispering Cairn well stocked and refreshed. Entering the Lantern room they investigated each of the corridors and discovered a passageway 50' up the Blue corridor, down which they could see a carved face covering the entire 20'x20' end.

The everburning torch was retrieved from the green lantern. Aust went first and triggered a pressure plate after 50' which animated the face with the eyes whirling with all the colours of the rainbow and caused a wind to blow, increasing in strength each round until Aust, Eolias and Elzara were blown away and forced to grab at the lantern chain as they fell past.

After some deliberation they placed lights in each of the lanterns which effectively disabled the trap - now the pressure plate opened a passageway behind the face.

The room behind the face was another elaborate trap with iron spheres the size of oranges firing from the walls and knocking Elzara off a balancing plank onto an unstable floor made of the spheres. Once on the floor she was attacked by a Grick that burst up through the spheres, which she despatched in a single round due to an impressive critical hit.

A spectral figure then appeared and introduced itself as Alastar Land, a young boy who had fallen victim to the trap over 50 years ago. He told the party that the only way through the next door was to release a switch inside the room itself, and without his help there was no way through. All he wanted was for his bones to be buried alongside his family, to which the party readily agreed.

The party returned to Diamond Lake to recover, resupply, and level up to 2nd level and then set out for the Land farm where they discovered five recently opened graves and five sets of tracks leading to the abandoned farm but only four, running tracks returning.

Entering the farm Eolias was surprised by a wounded Owlbear, but it was soon despatched. The party searched and found a baby Owlbear (which Eolias took into his care) and also a dismembered human arm bearing a distinct tattoo.

Tanith recognised the tattoo as being the same as one on the face of Kullen, the half-orc leader a gang who frequented the Feral Dog inn, and so half of the party went to speak to Kullen in the pub whilst Eolias and Elzara took the baby Owlbear to the Druid's enclave a day and a half away.

Managing to change the half-orc's attitude to friendly, Tanith discovered that Kullen's boss, Balbar Smenk (one of the local mine owners) had instructed them to assist one of his friends, a Necromancer called Filge, to move into the old Observatory and get him whatever he needed. In this case, he needed skeletons to animate as guards.

Rather that wait for their friends to return, Tanith, Korven, Aust and Alexis decided to pay the Necromancer a visit - after destroying a couple of undead-type creatures in a toolshed and three skeletons (part of the Land family) and being wounded in the process the party decided to wait for the other two before returning to assault the building.

The party attacked and defeated the Necromancer and his zombie and skeleton bodyguards, capturing the Necromancer alive who bargained information for his life. He told them that his friend, Balbar, asked him to come and be his undead expert. He told the party that Smenk had been in the Dourstone mine where he found the place was crawling with hideous beasts in hooded robes. These cultists called themseves the Ebon Triad, and said something about the Age of Worms being upon us.

The party found a glass jar with a dead green worm floating in it - Balbar pinched it from the Dourstone Mine - Filge identified it as being one of hundreds that infest a powerful undead known as a spawn of Kyuss. If the worms get inside you they can turn you into undead within a day.

They also recovered a Scroll of Animate Dead (at 3rd level), potions of Gentle Repose, False Life, Ghoul Touch and Chill Touch (all also at 3rd level.)

Also found was a letter from Balbar to Filge detailing his discoveries at Dourstone Mine.

Magical Items Found

• Scroll of Animate Dead (at 3rd level)
• Potions of Gentle Repose, False Life, Ghoul Touch and Chill Touch (all at 3rd level.)
  

XP Summary

Passage of The Face - CR4 - 1,350

Alastor & the Grick - CR3 - 900

Owlbear - EL3 - 900

Kullen & the Gang - EL3 - 900

2 Undead things - EL2 - 600

3 Skeletons - EL1 - 300

Filge, 3 x Troglodyte Zombies, Bugbear Zombie, Skeleton - EL5 - 1800

Total XP gained - 6,750 or 1,125 each (565 for Alexis - NPC)

The Whispering Cairn - Part One

22 April 2006

Players/Characters

• Aust (Russell) 1st level male Elven Spellthief
• Elzara (Will) 1st level female Elven Monk
• Kovar Hammerguild (Ian) 1st level Male Dwarven Paladin
• Tanith (Ewar) 1st level male Human Sorcerer
• Alexis Serria (Andrew) 1st level female Human Cleric
• Eolias (Richard) 1st level male Elven Ranger

The Background

Elzara and Aust concocted a plan to help them get out of Diamond Lake by raiding a long forgotten cairn about an hour's travel outside the town. Realising that they didn't have the skills necessary to survive such an adventure they set about finding like-minded individuals within the town.

Aust, tasked with getting mining and clerical experience, recruited Kovar and Alexis whilst Elzara brought in Eolias and Tanith for their respective fighting and arcane abilities.

The entire group met in an abandoned building just a short distance from the cairn entrance...

Game Events

The party entered the tomb, discovering a long abandoned bedroll in an alcove. Elzara, Aust and Tanith, being born locally, recalled the tale of a teenager who went missing around 15 years ago after accepting a bet to stay in an abandoned tomb alone, overnight. After a quick battle with three wolves, where Alexis learned the virtue of not rushing blindly into combat, the group found themselves in an octagonal room with seven short passages running off it, all bar two containing lanterns on a chain corresponding to the colours of the rainbow with an everburning torch lighting the green one. The blue lantern, having been found in the wolves' lair, was returned to it's rightful place.

Also in the centre of the room was a sarcophagus resting on a base like a stylized arrow. Pushing it around topoint at each tunnel in turn caused elevators to rise under three of the lanterns. Beneath the yellow lantern the party found brown mold and an earth elemental-type creature to defeat, and managed to unearth a magical suit of chainmail, a wand of shatter, a wand of unseen servant and a pair of eyes of minute seeing.

The passage beneath the green lantern collapsed after delivering Kovar to another subterranean area. The rest of the party were attacked by a swarm of acid beetles plus a strange creature that was little more than a central eye with six sharp legs sprouting from it. Fire and magic from both Tanith and Aust was sufficient to defeat the swarm, but not before Elzara had been knocked unconcious. After climbing down the elevator shaft the party defeated another swarm plus two giant beetles. A search of the area turned up 3 cure light potions, a magical pearl and a magical ring plus a set of masterwork red leather armour emblazoned with the eight-pointed symbol of the Seekers, an organisation of archaeologists and adventurers, before they came upon an area that was fully submerged.

Elzara bravely volunteered to search the area (at the end of a rope) and was attacked by a water elemental for her trouble. This was easily despatched, and then both Elzara and Alexis searched the rest of the passages, finding and defeating a ghoul in the process. This area yielded a magical short sword, a gold ring with the Seeker's insignia on it and the final missing red lantern.

Out of spells and in need of rest, the party returned to Diamond Lake to get more information about the things they had found from Allustan, the smartest man in the village. He told them that the many glyphs they had found carved all over the tomb were, in fact, probably artifacts of the Wind Dukes of Aqaa, a powerful pre-historic race of elemental beings once said to have dominated an Empire that spanned worlds. He intimated that he would be willing to assist the party for free in future as long as they continue to bring him information regarding the construction and contents of the tomb.

He asked the party to return in a few days when he would know more about the Wind Dukes.

Magic Items Found

• magical suit of chainmail
• wand of shatter
• wand of unseen servant
• pair of eyes of minute seeing
• 3 cure light potions
• pearl
• ring
• short sword

XP Summary

• 3 Wolves - EL2 - 900
• Beetle Swarm & Slasher - EL3 - 900
• Brown Mold - EL2 - 600
• Earth Elemental - EL1 - 300
• Giant Beetle - EL2 - 600
• Giant Beetle & Swarm - EL3 - 900
• Water Elemental - EL2 - 600
• Ghoul - EL2 - 600

Total XP gained - 5,400 or 900 each