Return To Form

Return To Form

I was feeling much more myself but have to say Roscoe, Zionestes and Holly all looked a bit rough after their energy draining experience. We searched through the maze of corridors around the spectre lair and were left with two choices: East down a corridor blocked by a waterfall, or south through a room where the wooden floor had disappeared or perhaps never been laid, only the timber joists remaining with the stone floor a couple of feet below.

Eldras, floor averse as ever just spider climbed around the problem and found a corridor running south on the other side. Barakor, confident in our trap detection systems followed and the rest of us likewise when all appeared well. Gareth meanwhile had some weapon upgrades as despite his peculiar accent the ex dog was growing on us.

There was another chamber off the southern corridor: This one had a balcony running around three sides which Eldras scouted. The balcony was supported by three pillars, two of stone, but one which was magical metal of some kind. Eldras shunned it and went to inspect the ceiling. Barakor though was not to be denied and using his strength ripped the metal pillar clear.

Now call me an old magic using tinkerer* but what happened next – probably shouldn’t have come as such a shock. I’m talking about the fact that the balcony, deprived of its support collapsed onto Barakor. The dwarf came up a little bruised but now examined his hopefully valuable prize. Eldras reflected that he’d had a lucky escape.

*Actually don’t call me that or I may turn you into something or use my famous indiscriminate lightning bolt trick

As it happened, his god seemed to have smiled on him on this occasion: The rod had a number of buttons that changed its form into a mace, battle axe, flaming sword, spear or climbing pole. Well worth the dents in his armour perhaps.

We continued down the corridor only to turn a corner and find it blocked by a flaming pit. We could see it wasn’t all that wide and Eldras laboriously took the door off the balcony room to bridge the gap, though quite how we would deal with the flames was another matter. On lowering the door, drawbridge style however we discovered that a barrier of some sort existed on the far side.

Testing with his mighty rod,* Barakor established that an invisible barrier ran floor to ceiling on the far side. Anyone leaping the pit would have had a nasty surprise striking the barrier and plummeting who knew how far to the fiery depths below. After a few unsuccessful attempts to dispel either the barrier or flames or both, we retreated. Time to try ordeal by water if we couldn’t face trial by fire.

* OK no tittering at the back

The waterfall also fell into an apparently bottomless pit. It was a narrow pit like the other but Barakor probing with his rod* could find no barrier on the other side. I reached into my robe of useful items and pulled out … a window. Hmmm, perhaps they should rethink the name of that robe.

*Ok don’t make me come over there….

We decided to take no chances. I levitated another door removed by our 9th level carpenter into the waterfall, deflecting some of the flow and allowing Barakor to deploy his climbing pole across the pit, though in a show of bravura our resident tiger bounded across it disdainfully.

We emerged into yet another corridor, this time with a north south choice of directions plus a door opposite. To the south another door; to the north a T junction. Sometimes I think we should try some sort of divination when faced with all these choices, but hey, I guess that’s just not our style.

We tried the door opposite without even looking round the corners to the north and entered a tomb. The clue? The sarcophagus at the southern end with an effigy of an armoured knight with a huge sword atop it. We gathered around; the top looked pretty hefty. We planned to attack and I floated the door towards the coffin with the vague idea of dropping it on whatever lay within. Barakor set up his rod of lordly might to force the top off it by extending it and Zionestes and Ripven wisely moved aside to avoid being crushed by the huge lid should he succeed.

The rod shifted the lid almost as if designed for that purpose. An armoured knight within, identical to the effigy sat up and demanded who dared disturb him. Eldras, always swiftest to react responded and suddenly we were having a cosy chat with an undead Allerzoi warrior named T’ Derigo*

*Where’d he go? Oh, Derigo.

We asked for directions to Ryzek’s tomb, unfortunately he said that the whole area is the tomb and Ryzek’s specific resting place is not known. He offered to help us however in return for an amulet bearing his coat of arms, a chess knight. Though we didn’t think to ask who he was, he seemed to have been buried here when the tomb was built and he warned us of two characters to look out for: Tirax and Asophores.

According to T’Derigo, Tirax is the power in this place, or as our new bestie put it, likes to think he is. Asophores he described as a rival who arrived recently and a daemon of some sort. In his opinion, the two of them will be whittled down to one given another ten or twenty years. So now we are looking for an amulet as well as a staff.

Zionestes muttered a lot under his breath about dealing with the undead and his hand twitched near his mace a lot during the conversation. If he had been more himself, perhaps he might have raised more objections, but he didn’t and now we’re working for the dead Allerzoi as well as the living.

South now and a small alcove revealed, but Barakor kicked in what proved to be a wooden panel revealing a room containing a pool that was once a fountain. It contained three exits and we chose west. The floor of the corridor crunched as we walked, tiny crystals everywhere. A portcullis jammed halfway down was negotiated with no difficulty. In the room beyond, frescoes of sea battles put us in mind of water traps and us being sealed somehow in a watery grave. Paranoid much?

However, our trap detection systems remained dark and we moved to open the chest. On doing so a swarm of writhing giant maggot like creatures burst out and we were all suddenly fighting for our lives. One bit Gareth and he began puking his guts out. More alarming, when struck the maggots were split into two equal creatures if not killed with a single strike.

After the first initial phase of fighting there were actually more creatures than when we’d started. I had wasted magic missiles and Saladin had actually stopped trying to kill the creatures because of their duplication. Eldras meanwhile heroically hid in the chest whilst Ripven stopped to heal Gareth. I took a momentous decision: We were in a confined space packed with bodies, but despite this I decided to fire my lightning bolt.

The bolt roared through the room and ricocheted around the place striking everyone and every creature. All the creatures were fried but unfortunately so were Ripven, Barakor, Roscoe, Holly and Zionestes. So I’d heroically saved myself, Gareth, Eldras and Saladin but killed everyone else. But hang on a minute, that’s not what happened, fate intervened and everyone was ok,* except Barakor, but Ripven saved him with his staff.

*DM’s note: Bit of denial going on here, Kravaine had badly wounded everyone she had not actually killed except of course the cowardly half elf who was partially protected by his cowering in the chest.

In the chest, we discovered a slightly singed half elf thief;* well sometimes chests have stuff in them that’s worthless. Of more interest though, two potions and a chess set that looked worth a bob or two, fashioned as it was in silver and gold.

*Not half as singed as the rest of us though the dirty coward

After substantial rest and healing we moved on again, a small empty chamber and then another corridor. We checked the three eastern doors. The first room revealed seemed unremarkable, but all our spells in effect reversed within its confines, or at least that was what happened to our magical light sources.

The northern most door contained a debris strewn room with a cobweb shrouded chandelier. Roscoe turned up a pair of magical boots with an inbuilt dagger sheath. In a fit of generosity we gave the boots to Gareth who discovered that they were boots of speed. However when he reached down to draw the dagger, he found that his hand stuck to it and he could not draw it, a somewhat awkward situation.

Ripven removed the curse enabling Gareth to let go and take off the boots. When not worn he could remove the dagger, so he kept both but separately. Passing through the magic reversal room we decided to rest up before tackling the corridor beyond that opened into a room containing a spike filled pit. There were more doors to pass en route however, so as usual in this warren we have plenty of options to consider and directions to explore, both ahead and behind.


8.11.14










Kravaine
Characterisation & Roleplay 20
Levitating door into waterfall 25
Argorian Wormkin 300
Wormkin treasure 150
Treasure room G 350

Total 845

Eldras
Characterisation & Roleplay 20
Scouting 20
Discovering wall of force at B 250
Negotiating the waterfall pit 25
Gaining intel from T’Derigo 50
Argorian Wormkin 10
Wormkin treasure 150
Treasure room G 350

Total 875

Barakor
Characterisation & Roleplay 20
Healing 50
Rod of Lordly Might 6000
Correct use of rod’s force function room 33 20
Argorian Wormkin 20
Wormkin treasure 150
Treasure room G 350

Total 6610

Holly
Characterisation & Roleplay 20
Argorian Wormkin 20
Wormkin treasure 150
Treasure room G 350

Total 540

Saladin/ Grom
Characterisation & Roleplay 20
Argorian Wormkin 20
Wormkin treasure 150
Treasure room G 350

Total 540

Ripven
Healing 50
Saving Barakor 200
Argorian Wormkin 10
Wormkin treasure 150
Treasure room G 350
Remove Curse 250

Total 1010

Roscoe
Argorian Wormkin 10
Wormkin treasure 150
Treasure Room G 350

Total 510

Zionestes
Healing 50
Argorian Wormkin 10
Wormkin treasure 150
Treasure room G 350

Total 560

Name Class 2nd Class B/F Cumulative Target Current Level
Kravaine MU*
930 76,645 77,575 95,001
( 7
Eldras T*
963 72,372 73,335 110,001
(9) 8
Barakor F*
3636 C*
3636 45,909
45,909 49,545
49,545 70,001/
55,001
(7/7) 6/6
Holly M
540 74,687
25,946 75,227
26,486 98,001
47,501 6
5
Grom/ Saladin F*
594 79,686 80,280 125,001
( 7
Roscoe T*
561 54,198
23,846 54,759
24,407 70,001
42,501 7
6
Zionestes C*
616 78,549
31,346 79,165
31,962 110,001
55,001 7
6
Ripven C*
1010 72,287 73,297 110,001
( 7

EP totals in bold are live totals following energy drain
*EP Bonus applied