Golden Spire Sacking Complete*
*After a record sixty months and one weeks delay
After finishing the battle with the tentacled monstrosity we took stock. For a moment looking around I felt as though something had changed, but no, there was the impudent halfling thief Roscoe Tosscobble, as ever looking ready to pick a fight with anything that wouldn’t fight back. There was the young cleric Zionestes whom we had rescued only a few months before, Eldras, the taciturn half elf, always handy with his sling, Barakor, the strikingly disfigured dwarf fighter cleric with his hideous eye mask and Holly Awesballs the lithe monk. Last and certainly not least, if his opinion was to be believed; Prince Al-Farak Bin Saladin* complete with man servant and slave.
*Somewhere between 2nd and 102nd in line to the throne of the glorious Empire of Ket depending on how drunk he is and the current rate of royal procreation back home.
We had relatively few areas of the Allerzoi building left to explore so we decided to check the locked door at the northern end of the temple area where we had killed the harpy. Barakor opened the door using the key found after defeat of the suit of armour, revealing a gargoyle beyond which attacked at once. There was a brief struggle and fortunately Saladin and Barakor were able to kill it assisted by a magic missile from me of course. Lucky they had magic weapons.
The room beyond contained a spiral staircase and seemed to be at the base of the spire that gave this temple its name. We decided to check other doors before proceeding up to the top and for safety* we decided to split up. Barakor, Saladin and his entourage plus Roscoe took the door on the south wall of the eastern ante chamber and Eldras and I the north door of the western ante chamber. Zionestes stayed in the chapel area as back up.
*That’s lack of safety of course.
The Eastern party found two rooms and in the second awakened a shadow that attacked invisibly, driving them back to the main chapel where the western party, having found nothing but a magically dark room rejoined them. Turning attempts failed and Roscoe quickly withdrew whilst Barakor and Saladin suffered strength draining attacks before we finally managed to kill the creature despite never seeing it. I finished it off using the spray of fire from my Burning Hands.
We next checked the north east door, discovering a wall dominated by a huge skull with the legend ‘Touch me with warmth and I will breathe again.’ I attempted my precognition ability to see if it was a good idea to touch the skull, but came up empty. We searched around but finding nothing, a certain fat ugly dwarf who will remain anonymous touched the skull, instantly filling the room with poisonous gas. The idiot and Saladin were unaffected, but our poor little thief collapsed. We fled and rested up for spell recovery and the strength returned to Saladin and Barakor after a couple of hours, Roscoe taking a couple of hours longer.
There was an incident during this time between Saladin and Roscoe, who I have to say had not been on the best of terms, even before Saladin began accusing Roscoe of cowardice. Depending on your point of view, the halfling either stumbled against the Prince, still affected by the gas, or made an attempt to lighten his purse in a botched pick pocketing attempt. Whatever the truth, the mood between the two remains ugly.
We decided to tackle the last unvisited area to see what was at the top of the stairs. We travelled up to a room with shuttered windows that contained four gold daemon shaped pillars that reached from floor to ceiling. The four pillars were circled by a purple powder and in the centre of the pillars was the familiar sight of a transmat terminal. Ominously resting on it grinning as they always do, a blackened human skull.
Saladin ordered his slave into the circle as we entered the room and circled the area, simultaneously Barakor broke the circle, one just hoped it was not a circle of power designed to keep something hideous contained. It was. The effect was immediate: The shuttered windows blew in and some force poured through instantly blasting the shutters to fragments. The energy seemed sucked into the skull which began to glow and then rose in to the air, the shadowy form of a wraith coalescing around it. It leapt forward and instantly drained the life force of Saladin’s luckless* slave.
*Luckless to be a slave, even worse to be his slave
We all piled in to combat, I fired a missile into the creature and others attacked, but this was another monster only vulnerable to magic weaponry, as demonstrated when a non magical broadsword and dagger hurled by Roscoe (as he retreated of course) passed through it. I was then gripped briefly by its icy fingers and felt life force drain from me, I fell back down the stairs casting shield on myself in the hope of avoiding another blow.
The slave now rose as another wraith joining the combat and as usual both our clerics’ turn attempts failed. The Prince’s manservant was the next to fall dead only to rise again and Eldras began back stabbing the creature. The first fell dead but this only empowered the two new wraiths as the destruction of the master completes their final transformation to full strength. Then Zionestes hit one with the mace he had found earlier.* The effect was dramatic, blasting it to eternity in an instant. This then was a fabled mace of disruption in action.
*Five years earlier
The last wraith was finished off too but not before Holly, boldly fighting with my borrowed magic dagger also suffered an energy level drain leaving her exhausted too. We returned via the transmat to Krim, richer to the tune of four gold daemon pillars and four transmat crystals, three of which we sold to the Mage of Krim together with the pillars. 70,000 gold pieces in credit. But easy come, easy go…
Unfortunately the local High Priest of Isis charged 35,000 for the restoration spell that restored my strength. The situation for Holly was more difficult, her god’s local temple was a few days journey through several state borders to the south west. The mage of Krim called in a favour from the local High Priest of Hephaestus, Lord Machio Vellyn to heal her at preferential worshipper rates, another 35,000. So brassic again.
But, interesting news, Roscoe and I are able to level up with a few weeks training, the Mage of Krim obliges me and Roscoe, well he slinks off mumbling something about seeing the local guildmaster. When he returns he looks like a Cheshire cat, but also enquires if we can get any more money, seems he has run up a substantial debt with the local guild for his training. I’m not surprised; the Mage of Krim has indicated that the training I have received was worth 20,000 gps.
Kravaine
Gargoyle room 13 80
Shadow room 10 50
Use of Precognition on Skull trap 10
Not activating skull trap room 9 10
Wraiths upper 13 250
Lending dagger to Holly 20
420
Eldras
Shadow room 10 50
Not activating skull trap room 9 10
Trying to prevent the circle in upper 13 being broken 20
Wraiths Upper 13 300
Playing Hardball on Restoration spell 30
Using Back stab 150
560
Barakor
Characterisation and Roleplay 30
Gargoyle room 13 80
Shadow room 10 50
Identifying shadow as undead 10
Wraiths Upper 13 300
Not selling Bag of Holding 20
Detecting trap indications Upper 13 30
520
Holly
Shadow room 10 50
Not activating skull trap room 9 10
Wraiths Upper 13 300
360
Saladin
Characterisation and Roleplay 30
Gargoyle Room 13 80
Shadow room 10 50
Not activating skull trap room 9 10
Wraiths Upper 13 250
420
Roscoe
Robbery Attempt Saladin 10
Not activating skull trap room 9 10
Wraiths Upper 13 150
170
Zionestes
Healing 10
Wraiths Upper 13 450
Shadow room 10 50
Not activating skull trap room 9 10
520
Name Class 2nd Class B/F Cumulative Target Current Level
Kravaine MU*
420 4696 5116 10000
(4) 3
Eldras T*
616 3000 3616 5000
(4) 3
Barakor F*
286 C*
286 5000/
5000 5286/
5286 8000/
6000
(4/4) 3/3
Holly M
360 5000 5360 10000
(4) 3
Saladin F*
462 5000 5462 8000
(4) 3
Roscoe T*
187 5614 5801 10000
(5) 4
Zionestes C*
572 4139 4711 6000
(4) 3
*EP Bonus applied
29.6.13
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