The Hall of Harsh Reflections - Part Five

25 February 2007

Players/Characters

Crumpus (Russell) 7th level male Human Fighter
Elzara (Will) 7th level female Elven Monk
Kamal(Ian) 7th level Male Human Hexblade
Zoook (Ewar) 7th level Gnome Bard
Alexis Serria (Andrew) 5th /2nd level female Human Cleric/Fighter
Eolias (Richard) 6th/1st level male Elven Ranger/Wizard

Game Events
Pausing briefly to heal the wounded, the group turned their attention to the remainder of the room.

A small enclosure held a scrawny underfed cow and a couple of pigs, but of more interest was the closed iron door to the south of the cave.

Opening the door, Alexis discovered four zombies, all with holes in their heads, which she managed to disintegrate with the power of her faith. These undead were guarding five frightened captives, whom the party decided to escort to the surface before returning to the underground complex to continue their investigations.

With Eolias and Alexis leading, the party discovered a small cavern where the floor had been smoothed and inscribed with a faintly glowing purple symbol which was the same as on Allustan's forehead in his natural form as a doppleganger. The two cautiously investigated the symbol, but were both caught unawares when the glyph of warding attached to the ceiling was triggered, showering them with an acidic spray.

The next cavern was dominated by a huge white marble double doors, streaked with veins of a weakly glowing purple mineral and flanked by a pair of ivory colums bearing the same tentacular symbol seen elsewhere in the complex.

As the group spread out to search the area before attempting the doors, Alexis, Zoook and Kamaal were surprised by three creatures that seemed to be some kind of mullusc-type hybrid that clung to the walls and cast slow on the characters with their gaze whilst ripping into them with huge claws. Unfortunately Alexis was not able to withstand this attack, and crumpled lifeless to the floor as the remainder of the party eventually despatched the monsters, but not withous sustaining huge amounts of damage in the process. The group decided to withdraw and recover, and also to revive the hapless Alexis.

After a day of rest at the Crooked House, as they returned to the marble doors Eolias and Alexis triggered the same acid trap as before through sheer carelessness, and the party attempted to open the doors which appeared barred from the other side. By a combined effort, the door was burst open to reveal a large chamber which contained a carving of a huge brain, fashioned in purple-veined white marble, which pulsed as if alive. Whilst in this room, several of the party were drained of some Wisdom, albeit temporarily, so they hurried out and into the next room which was a laboratory containing benches, bookcases and a giant tank filled with a murky green liquid.

The books on the desk, written in undercommon, detailed the creation of the octopus-like creatures that had so damamged the party earlier, but whilst searching the room Alexis, who was checking out the giant tank, was attacked by a much larger version of the mollusc which had been hiding within.

After the creature had been killed, the group followed a passage leading to a pool that appeared to have been used as a scrying device, as it was currently showing the throne room where Allustan had been defeated. Zook, Crumpus and Kamaal stayed to investigate while Alexis, Eolias and Elzara moved further on to check out the source of a strange green glow down the next passage.

The passsage ended in a small balcony about 45' above the floor of a huge room with a 80' tall octagonal column of jet-black stone glowing with green symbols running up one of the faces, and a deep pool of placid green liquid bathed the entire room with an eerie green light. Floating above this pool, almost opposite the trio on the balcony, was the Illithid that they had chased into the sewers a couple of days earlier.

The mind flayer taunted the three by telepathy before sending a stunning mind blast at them, followed by an enhanced lightning bolt causing serious injury to them all. Hearing the blast of the lightining bolt, Zook, Crumpus and Kamaal raced to their comrades and managed to drag them out of harms way, but not before one of them had received a magic missile for their troubles.

As there was no obvious way down, the party decided to press on and assault the mind flayer from the floor of the chamber, but before they got there they had to pass through a room containing display cases containing all manner of curiosities, dominated by a huge ebony statue of a vulture-headed humanoid with large feathered wings and razor-sharp talons.

Wisely deciding to leave everything alone the group moved to the large room where the Illithid awaited, and moved out to do battle leaving Zoook and Kamaal to bring up the rear.

As the others moved forwards into a barrage of enhanced lightning bolts, scorching rays, mind blasts and magic missiles, the rearguards were surprised by two more of the octopus-type creatures that had been hiding on either side of the passage entrance, Kamaal managed to break free but Zoook decided to go on the offensive, using his Boots of Levitation to get into strike range of the creature attacking him, only to be slowed by it's gaze and very nearly ripped apart before he could get aid from the others.

Due to a displacement spell in effect, most of the party's missile fire was innefective, so Elzara quaffed both a haste and a shocking grasp potion, raced to the octagonal pillar and started to climb. As soon as she was level with the mind flayer, she launced herself at the floating villain and, amazingly, managed to grapple and successfully deliver electricity damage.

Unfortunately for her, the Illithid had seen this tactic before through it's use of the scrying pool, and so was able to resist all of the damage before breaking Elzara's hold and dropping her into the glowing green pool 40' below, which turned out to be full of foot-long tadpoles!

With several of the party either slowed or stunned, Alexis was kept busy alternately healing the party and deific venganceing the illithid until the mind flayer was eventually defeated, leaving many of the characters severely wounded.

On searching the body two potions of Cure Serious Wounds, a Necklace of Fireballs Type III, a Lesser Empower Metamagic Rod, Boots of Elvenkind, a Cloak of Resistance +2 and a Ring of Counterspells loaded with Dispel Magic were found.

A small door led to a living area, where the group discovered that the mind flayer (who was called Zyrxog) had been buying and selling rare and dangerous items with patrons throughout the Free City. The most recent was the sale of an ancient relic called 'The Apostolic Scrolls' to Loris Raknian, the director of the Arena of the Free City.

Of more interest to the party was the discovery that Raknian had paid Zyrxog to eliminate the party!

Returning to the collections room, the group were not surprised when the statue came to life, but were surprised by the amount of damage it was able to resist until a fantastic critical from Kamaal sent it back to the nether planes.

Looting the cabinets the group found a +2 Holy Dagger with the ability to cast Heal on the wielder once per day, a bronze Griffin Figurine of Wondrous Power, a +3 Longsword of Defending and a Periapt of Health. They also were attacked by an animated book, but when it had been killed they discovered that the book contained the true names of 100 demons, the location of their homes and their conquests.

Zook tried to read another of the books, but to his horror discovered that it was really a Vacuous Grimore, causing him to permanently lose 1 point of Int.

Magical Items Found

• Two potions of Cure Serious Wounds
• Necklace of Fireballs Type III
• Lesser Empower Metamagic Rod
• Boots of Elvenkind
• Cloak of Resistance +2
• Ring of Counterspells loaded with Dispel Magic
• +2 Holy Dagger with the ability to cast Heal on the wielder once per day
• Bronze Griffin Figurine of Wondrous Power
• 3 Longsword of Defending
• Periapt of Health

XP Summary

• 3 x Octopins - 4,200 XP
• 4 x Zombies - 1,050 XP
• Giant Octopin - 6,300 XP
• 2 x Octopins - 2,796 XP
• Zyrxog - 8,400 XP
• Animated Book - 390 XP
• Vrock Demon - 4,200 XP

Total XP - 24,626

Kamal - 4,556 XP,
Eolias - 4,174 XP (part 50% NPC)
Crumpus - 4,556 XP
Zoook - 4,556 XP
Alexis - 2,228 XP (50% NPC)
Elzara - 4,556 XP

Current Totals

Kamal - 29,272 - Level up to 8!
Eolias - 30,632 - Level up to 8!
Crumpus 28,697 - Level up to 8!
Zoook, 28,697 - Level up to 8!
Alexis - 28,850 - Level up to 8!
Elzara - 28,697 - Level up to 8!

The Hall of Harsh Reflections - Part Four

4 February 2007

Players/Characters

Crumpus (Russell) 7th level male Human Fighter
Elzara (Will) 6th level female Elven Monk
Kamal(Ian) 7th level Male Human Hexblade
Zoook (Ewar) 6th level Gnome Bard
Alexis Serria (Andrew) 5th /2nd level female Human Cleric/Fighter
Eolias (Richard) 6th/1st level male Elven Ranger/Wizard

Game Events

Swiftly healing their wounds, the party chased after the fleeing Illithid into the maze of sewer tunnels that ran for miles beneath the city, but were soon hopelessly lost and had to surface and make their way back to their base at the Crooked House above ground.

Following up on the only clues they had, the strangely worded letter giving a meeting location as 'beneath the cold forge', and the strange yellow fungus coating the boots of the dead Drow, they were able to find a smithy called 'The Cold Forge'. Entering the sewers through a nearby grating, the group paused whilst Elzara and Eolias scouted ahead.

Turning a corner, the two scouts discovered a natural cave off the worked sewer tunnel which glowed faintly with phosphorescent yellow fungus and was scattered with huge swathes of giant toadstools, some quite gigantic.

Elzara and Eolias moved cautiously forwards, only to have four of the largest mushrooms emit a piercing shriek as they sensed the movement. Throwing all caution to the winds, the rest of the party hurried around the corner and piled into the mushrooms in a vain attempt to quieten them.

Moving on, about thirty yards past the mushrooms Alexis noticed that the floor ahead was glistening, almost oily. As the group were taking extra care not to slip, a flask of alchemist's fire was dropped from a ledge above onto Eoilas, igniting the oil on the floor and also catching Zook in it's flames.

Elzara, being the only one able to climb swiftly, scaled the 20' sheer cliff face to the ledge only to be met by a hail of crossbow bolts from the Drow stationed there, and was then bull rushed off the edge to fall back into the raging flames below.

The rest of the party started to shoot up at the Drow, keeping them pinned whilst Elzara made the climb again, and this time was able to keep her footing on the ledge while she eliminated the Drow with her martial artistry. Searching the bodies revealed another alchemist's fire and also two potions of Cure Moderate Wounds.

A few yards further on, the passage opened out into a large chamber dominated by a pool of water on the far side, but of more interest to the party was the fact that something in the pool was glowing green, bathing the entire room in curtains of gently shifting light.

As Zoook stepped forward, he noticed a serpentine form coiled around a stalagmite near to the pool which lifted to reveal that it had a human head! The Naga charmed Zoook with her gaze, and demanded tribute to allow the party to pass unmolested. Kamaal was next to be charmed, and Zook obeyed his new friend by slipping the Wand of Cure Moderate that he was carrying into the glowing pool.

Seeing this, Eolias drew his bow to fire upon the creature as he knew that Zook was acting out of character and shot at the Naga. This provoked a response in the shape of a fireball spell at him, and Alexis, who had also been charmed by now, grappled with him and interrupted his shots whilst the Naga turned invisible. The other charmed party members tried to grapple and otherwise stop their friends attacking their new friends, and a summoned swarm of bats descended on Eolias who immediately jumped into the pool to get away.

Unfortunately for him, this was the same hiding place chose by the Naga who attacked, poisoning him quite severely before being finally killed by the remaining members of the party. As Eolias was dragged from the pool he managed to grab hold of the wand dropped by Zoook.

Alexis and Zoook cured most of the wounds inflicted by spell and wand, then the party continued into the next chamber, where they found that the inhabitants had used the advance warning from the conflidt next door to array themselves in battle formation.

Three Drow faced the party as they entered, with two more providing cover from a high ledge whilst the leader, a Drow Cleric, threatened the entire cave from the rear.

No sooner had the group entered the cave than Eolias, Zoook, Kamaal and Alexis were hit with the effects of a confusion spell, causing Eolias and Zook to fight their own private battle which effectively removed them from the main fight.

Kamaal eliminated the first three Drow as the cleric cast a couple more spells and braced herself for the arrival of Elzara and Crumpus. Alexis struggled to despatch the two Drow crossbowmen who had charged her from their vantage point.

Despite taking a few good hits and a trip attack from the monk, the cleric summoned up all her force to drive Crumpus to his knees with a couple of well aimed strikes from the floor supplemented by her smite ability, then turned her attention to Elzara just as Kamaal arrived to assist.

Elzara was also knocked unconcious by a vicious swing before Kamaal finally managed to kill this most worthy of opponents. Looting the body provided a +1 light fortification Breastplate and a +1 Spell Storing Morningstar

Magical Items Found

Six potions of Cure Moderate Wounds
+1 light fortification Breastplate
+1 Spell Storing Morningstar

XP Summary

• 4 x Shriekers - 1,100 XP
• Drow Cleric - 4,600 XP
• 8 x Drow - 8,800 XP
• Spirit Naga - 4,600 XP

Total XP - 19,100

Kamal - 2,975 XP,
Eolias - 2,188 XP (part 50% NPC)
Crumpus - 2,132 XP (NPC)
Zoook - 3,600 XP,
Alexis - 2,975 XP,
Elzara - 3,600 XP,

Current Totals
Kamal - 24,716
Eolias - 26,458
Crumpus 24,141
Zoook, 24,141 - level up to 7!
Alexis - 26,622
Elzara - 24,141 - level up to 7!

The Hall of Harsh Reflections - Part Three

28 October 2006

Players/Characters

Crumpus (Russell) 6th level male Human Fighter
Elzara (Will) 6th level female Elven Monk
Kamal(Ian) 6th level Male Human Hexblade
Tanith (Ewar) 5th/1st level male Human Sorcerer/Warmage - Deceased
Zoook (Ewar) 6th level Gnome Bard
Alexis Serria (Andrew) 5th /2nd level female Human Cleric/Fighter
Eolias (Richard) 6th/1st level male Elven Ranger/Wizard

Game Events

Having revived the hapless Elzara, the group moved through a secret door that had been spotted by the sharp Elven eyes of Eolias and found themselves in a bewildering maze whose walls were made from polished steel.

Crumpus volunteered to lead, but was separated from the party when a steel wall suddenly sprang from the floor with dazzling speed.

As the rest of the group tried to find their way back to him, Crumpus was attacked from invisibility by two mopre dopplegangers, and in their haste to come to his aid the party triggered more of these moving walls and were split even further before they finally managed to assist him to wipe out his final opponent, despite them shape shifting to resemble the party in an attempt to sow confusion.

Unfortunately for Tanith, he was also separated from the group and set upon by an invisible doppleganger, but this time it was the hapless party member who was despatched with ease before help could arrive to slay the one remaining enemy.

After looting the doppleganger bodies of two potions of Cure Moderate Wounds and with little time available for mourning the party decided to move on. Just around the corner Elzara discovered a wrapped body in the darkness of an alcove, which turned out to be that of an unconcious Gnome.

Once revived by Alexis he introduced himself as Zoook, a Gnomish Bard, and asked to be allowed to accompany the group on their rampage through the lower levels to exact his revenge upon the dopplegangers who had abducted him.

Finally being able to negotiate the maze without fear of further attack, the party found and opened a door which led into a huge chamber with a vaulted ceiling. Along the far wall was lined with a macabre assembly of vats, pipes and tubing connected to a table equipped with numerous straps and a strange silver helmet.

At the far end of the room, a throne stood on a raised dais, and sat on the throne the party saw, to their astonishment, their friend and mentor the Sage Allustan from Diamond Lake!!

Allustan rose from his throne, and told the party to follow him to learn the truth of things, but as the party followed him the set off two spiked pit traps and two poisoned spear traps which did some damage to them.

As the first trap was sprung, Allustan whirled round and cast a fireball sttraight at the centre of the group, badly wounding Crumpus who was unable to get out of the way.

More spells followed, and with Magic Missiles flying around their ears the party prepared to attack, only to have Eoilas and the newly recruited Bard fall victim to a Confusion spell and start to attack each other, the end result being that Eolias was magically blinded, and …… was sorely wounded.

Kamaal, Alexis and Elzara charged Allustan, but were dismayed when his form shimmered and became that of a very muscled Orcish barbarian swinging a great axe whose edge trailed a stream of icy crytals.

Alexis was kept busy simply keeping the other fighters on their feet, but Allustan was eventually beaten down and killed, upon which his body turned into that of a doppleganger, but with a strange spiral pattern on its forehead. Searching the body provided a +1 frost greataxe, ring of protection +2, and a wand of cure moderate (26 charges) as well as a key ring holding many keys.

Searching the throne, the group found a button that opened a hidden door behind which was a lavishly furnished bedchamber. A quick search turned up a sack containing 1500gp, a scroll of dominate person and a letter which suggested that the doppleganger had not been working alone as he was ordered to meet his master at a sewer junction beneath the ‘cold forge’, whatever that was.

Having explored the whole complex, the party returned to the room which had been filled with water on their arrival to return to the surface, but were surprised by the appearance of two Drow fighters and a Mindflayer who had come through a secret door.

The two Drow charged the fighters at the front of the party whilst the Mindflayer blasted them with the power of his mind, but ultimately the two Drow died protecting the retreat of their master back into the sewers that lay behind the secret door. Their bodies were searched and two vials of alchemist’s fire, one tanglefoot bag and two potions of Cure Moderate Wounds were found. It was also noticed that their boots were caked in a strange phosphrescent yellow fungus.

Magical Items Found

Four potions of Cure Moderate Wounds
+1 Frost Greataxe
Ring of Protection +2
Wand of Cure Moderate (26 charges)
Scroll of Dominate Person

XP Summary

• 3 x Dopplegangers - 2,832 XP
• 2 x Drow - 4,000 XP
• Allustan - 6,500 XP

Total XP - 13,332

Kamal - 2,400 XP,
Eolias - 933 XP (50% NPC),
Crumpus - 2,400 XP,
Zoook - 2,400 XP,
Alexis - 1,866 XP,
Elzara - 2,400 XP,

Current Totals
Kamal - 21,741 - level up!
Eolias - 24,270
Crumpus 22,009 - level up!
Zoook, 20,541
Alexis - 23,647
Elzara - 20,541