The Three Faces of Evil - Part Four

3 June 2006

Players/Characters

Aust (Russell) 2nd/2nd level male Elven Spellthief/Rogue
Elzara (Will) 4th level female Elven Monk
Tovar Hammerguild (Ian) 4th level Male Dwarven Paladin
Tanith (Ewar) 3rd/1st level male Human Sorcerer/Warmage
Alexis Serria (Andrew) 3rd /1st level female Human Cleric/Fighter
Eolias (Richard) 3rd/1st level male Elven Ranger/Sorcerer

Game Events

Having despatched the summoned ape the party swifly moved down the corridor in search of the Mage and found themselves in a smallish room containing a couple of bunk beds.

As they searched the room, they were surprised by the Mage standing at the end of a small corridor who lightining-bolted Tovar and then sent a rolling 5' high ball of flame into him. This had the dual effect of dropping the Dwarf to the ground, and effectively blocked the way through to the mage.

At the same time as this was happening at the front of the group, the incorporeal mage who had been repulsed earlier made his presence felt again and attacked Tanith, Aust and Elzara.

This time luck was with them as they made short work of it, and then moved to observe the strangely unmoving ball of fire.

Elzara was determined to get past, and attempted an acrobatic leap over the sphere. Unfortunately she had not considered the height of the ceiling above the ball, and bounced off it to land squarely on top of the flames.

As Alexis was kept busy reiving and curing both Monk and Paladin, the rest of the group waited for the fire to die down, but after a few minutes the group decided to try and find a way around instead.

Heading down a previously unexplored corridor they came upon a storeroom filled with boxes and barrels, and as some of the barrels contained water both Eolias and Elzara decided to manhandle a couple of them back to the sphere to try and extinguish it, but by the time they had returned the firey sphere had disappeared.

Opening the door previously blocked by the fire they came across a well equipped laboratory, filled with all kinds of alchemical equipment and apparatus including a large wax-sealed cauldron in the centre of the room. Also waiting in the room was their ellusive adversory.

Leading the charge, Alexis managed to get a hit on the Mage with her mace, but unfortunately this was not enough to distract him as he summoned another huge centipede between them both and the rest of the party.

As the party tried to take out the huge creature the Mage managed to hit Alexis with a Magic Missile which knocked her over before he fled to the main hall where he was to make his last stand.

The centipede was quickly killed with the assistance of a couple of charges from Eolias' Wand of Enlarge onto both Tovar and Elzara, and Alexis was brought around by Elzara before she could slip away forever.

The party converged on the mage in the main hall who had to resort to defending himself with a dagger, having exhausted all of his spells earlier, and so was easily done in. On his body the group discovered a pair of Bracers and a Rod, and they also found a Shield, Cloak and pair of spellbooks in the laboratory room, along with a couple of documents.

The group returned to the room with bunk beds to rest and recover spells, and also to investigate the two documents. From these they learned of the uneasy peace between the three cults, and also that they were also searching for the worm-infested undead that had been mentioned by Filge the Necromancer and their friend, the Sage Allustan, from Diamond Lake.

There was reference to an 'Ebon Aspect' stirring in the pool, but that it was not ready to emerge as yet without some traumatic event taking place, and also a mention of something held by the Lizardfolk of the Mistmarsh that could possibly be of use to the cults of the Ebon Triad.

The next morning, fully rested and almost healed of the effects of both centipedes and the Allip, the party returned to the elevator room and opened the unmarked door with a large stone key found in the Hextor temple.

The passageway beyond was totally different from the other two areas - this looked like a naturally formed passage, complete with plenty of stalagtites and stalagmites.

Entering a small chamber, the ever-alert Eolias noticed a humanoid creature hiding behind a rock formation, and with a series of hand signals he alerted most of the front rank as to it's location, and they attacked.

Another two humanoids revealed themselves and fought back briefly - two died and one ran away.

Alexis identified the bodies as Grimlocks - strange eyeless subterranean creatures who worshipped Erythnul, and the party moved on to the next cavern.

Here Eolias noticed a couple of large cat-like creature, but when he attached they peeled the flesh back from their faces and screamed in such a horrific way that he dropped his bow and ran away. The rest of the party were a little shaken by the screams (more from the Ranger than the creatures) but were able to despatch both cats and both Grimlocks accompanying them without too much fuss, despite one of them being in some kind of rage or frenzy. Elzara broke from combat to try and find the panicked Ranger. Searching the body of the dead barbarian revealed 3 potions.

The group discovered a 20' wide shaft leading down about 60' into the darkness, with a series of spikes set into the wall as hand and footholds and Eolias, obviously trying to compensate for his previous reaction to the screaming cats, stepped off the edge first and floated down with his ring of feather fall as Elzara used the spikes to rapidly climb down to join him.

As Elzara was nearly half-way down a couple of Grimlocks appeared on a ledge opposite and flung a couple of tanglefoot bags at her, one of which caught her squarely, sticking her to the wall, a perfect target for their arrows.

Eolias tried to shoot from the bottom of the shaft, Alexis from the top, and Aust tried to climb down and help to free Elzara, but was himself hit and caught by another Tanglefoot bag.

Elzara managed to get free of the bag's effects and lauched herself across the gap to engage the archers in melee, and Tovar started down to assist Aust. Elzara, with an impressive display of martial arts, deflected several arrows and easily took out both archers, finding two potions when she searched the cooling bodies.

Another tunnel, more of a crack in the rock really, was found just under the archer's ledge, and Elzara dropped a rope to help everyone get up there. Alexis went first followed by Eolias while Elzara was helping Tovar and the others to climb.

After a few feet Alexis was attacked by a female Grimlock who fought with two rusting knives. As the tunnel was so cramped Alexis found it difficult to use her mace effectively, but even so the Grimlock eventually fell, but not before doing a considerable amout of damage to the party's main healer.

At the end of the tunnel the party found a 20' long rope bridge that spanned another shaft - Eolias went first but when he was attacked with javelins by 3 Grimlocks on the other side he jumped off and floated to the ground, 20' below.

Elzara raced across the bridge to engage the Grimlocks in melee followed (more slowly) by Tovar. As Tovar was part way across he noticed that Eolias had been attacked by a pair of Chokers who had emerged from the pile of rubble at the bottom of the shaft, and so, having faith in his Dwarven constitution, flung himself off the bridge to assist his beleaguered comrade, in true Paladin fashion.

All these creatures posed no problems for the group who moved onwards up a steep natural slope into a larger cavern where two Grimlocks were on guard at the entrance to one of the three other exits.

These too were swiftly taken down, but when the party moved down this tunnel they were dismayed to find a full enraged barbarian Grimlock swinging a greataxe waiting for them. The barbarian dealt out large amounts of damage before being subdued and killed - on sarching the body a shirt of mithril chain was found.

Magical Items Found

• Bracers
• Rod
• Shield
• Cloak
• Studded Leather
• 5 potions labelled in 'braille'-type writing (2 of one kind and 3 of another)
• Mithril Shirt
• Backpack

XP Summary

• Incorporeal Mage - 1,200 XP
• Vecna Leader - 2,400 XP
• 9 Grimlocks - 2,700 XP
• Grimlock Kennel Master - 600 XP
• 2 Krenshaws - 600 XP
• 2 Grimlock Archers - 1,800 XP
• Grimlock Barbarian - 1,200 XP
• 2 Chokers - 1,200 XP
• Grimlock Chieftan - 1,200 XP

Total XP - 12,900 or 2,150 XP each