A Gathering of Winds - Part Three

27 April 2007

Players/Characters

Crumpus (Russell) 10th level male Human Fighter
Elzara (Will) 10th level female Elven Monk
Kamal (Ian) 6th level Male Troglodyte Hexblade
Zoook (Ewar) 10th level Gnome Bard
Millardo Maquis (Andrew) 10th level male Human Knight
Eolias (Richard) 6th/1st/3rd level male Elven Ranger/Wizard/Arcane Archer

Game Events

With the main healer out of action the party’s first priority became to find a safe place where they could rest and recuperate, the coldness of the current area making it unwise to spend 8 hours there.

A secret door at the end of the corridor opened out onto a huge sinkhole down which the red river poured. There were obvious ledges and cracks that could be used by a climber, and so Elzara and Zoook went to take a look. On the opposite side of the cave they found a barely conscious figure in the water who had obviously been battered around but had been lucky enough to get his cloak hooked over a small rocky outcrop before he had been swept to almost certain death.

Elzara dragged him from the river and brought him back to the rest of the party who helped her recover. He introduced himself as Millardo Maquis and asked to be able to join the party until they managed to escape from the tomb.

The group briefly considered climbing down alongside the falling water, but after watching a dropped sunrod disappear into the depths they decided to return to the main body of the tomb and rest instead.

After quite a while spent negotiating the river the characters made it back to where they had first entered the water and made camp so that the spellcasters could regain their spells. Overnight, both Elzara and Eolias were taken ill, losing some CON. This, it became apparent, was now a major problem as with Alexis’ death they no longer had anyone capable of using the wand of restoration with any guaranteed degree of success!!

The next morning the characters investigated the huge gatehouse doors to find them covered in levers, dials, gears and other devices which made them impossible to open, so they carefully traversed the river and returned to the room containing the Spider creature with which they had bargained earlier.

From there they came to a room which had obviously been a shrine of some sort, but had succumbed to age with threadbare carpets on the floors and faded frescoes on the walls with a small statue of a Wind Duke in the centre of the opposite wall. The statue appeared valuable, so Kamaal rushed in to claim it.

This rash move activated the room’s guardians, a pair of two-dimensional golems who detached themselves from the walls and attacked, causing a badly wounded Kamaal to flee into the main room. Millardo braced himself in the doorway to await the attack of the creatures, but they simply bypassed him with the use of a Passwall ability and pursued Kamaal.

These golems were eventually killed, and the party moved onto the next room which contained a large transparent sphere in which floated an unmoving figure in tattered red robes – they had finally found Allustan!!

Before they could move to release the captive wizard a bolt of lightning came at them from a metal spike at the top of the sphere, and so they retreated out of the room to consider their options.

Elzara tried to attack the spike with a flying leap, but was not able to do much damage, and Zoook was hit by the lightning and disappeared, reappearing next to Allustan, but in stasis.

Arguments raged about the best course of action, but whilst the others argued Eoilas fired arrow after arrow at the metal spike from the relative safety of the doorway.

Eventually the spike gave way, dispelling the stasis field and depositing the Bard and Wizard on the floor. Discovering that Allustan was unconscious, the party reluctantly used some of their precious healing to bring him around.

He explained that he had been ambushed by the dragon as he tried to leave the cairn, and had fled back inside to try and find a potent weapon to deal with the giant lizard when he had been caught by the trap. He told the party that he believed that this was the tomb of the Wind Dukes’ greatest general, Icosiol, and that potent artefacts were often buried with notable Wind Dukes to preserve them for use against Chaos in the future.

Magical Items Found

None

XP Summary

2 x Relief Golems - 4,000 XP
Rescuing Allustan - 9,000 XP

Total XP - 13,000 XP


Kamal - 2,166 XP
Eolias - 2,166 XP
Crumpus - 2,166 XP
Zoook - 2,166 XP
Millardo - 2,166 XP
Elzara - 2,166 XP

Current Totals

Kamal - 52,194 XP
Eolias – 52,194 XP
Crumpus 52,194 XP
Zoook, 52,194 XP
Millardo – 52,194 XP
Elzara – 52,194 XP