Chapter 2: The Demonwebpits
(New session 4/8-08) 28 marpenoth 1372: farewell, knighted and classic enemies
The lawbringers find themselves in clan Grimfists hold. Wythmord is given the scroll of raise dead given to them by the manipulative duergar cleric. He Raises Talon well knowing his god will not like it. But he is his friend and he is prepared to make ammence ( 1 day paying for forgiveness in Lathanders temple and 200 gp in donations see Forgotten Realms campaign setting) Talon wakes and Runegar also find himself awake in the temple of Moradin. They meet at their townhouse and welcomes back the newly-raised characters. There is much joy among the players at seeing their friends again.
The day after they are met by a group of townfolk. Appearently they have become quite popular in the secluded clanhold and people have come out to say goodby. Karragh embraces them all in warm hug and Tealgar "storyteller" Bronzebeard tells a story filled with sadness but concludes with a feeling of great joy. There are tears from both sides but it is tears of friendship and joy.
They leave the clanhold and are met outside by Taern Hornblade, high mage of Silverymoon who asks them whether or not they will accept his offer to become knights of Silverymoon??? They have discussed it and gladly accepts. He then teleports them to Silverymoon and tells them he will call on them in 3 days for the ceremony then he leaves....
They spend the next 3 days selling equipment buying magical items and relaxing ( it is only in the major cities in forgotten realms that magical items are easily bought and Silverymoon is one of those cities. It takes a long time because they are allowed to look up items from books)
Knighted
On the third day are taken to the high palace and on the way they see the incredible sight of the entire palace. White marble walls with towers carved to resemble unicorn heads and the grand palace with 4 curving white towers inlaid with golden murials. They are taken to Taerns tower to a minor throne room. A group are waiting for them. Warmaster Pheldon high priest of helm, Taern Hornblade, a friendly looking paladin of Tyr knight-commander Sernius Alathar and several servants. "kneel" says Pheldon a red-haired giant of a man. They kneel and Taren draws his sword and tells them of their great responsibilities to the Silver Marches, Silverymoon and the commen man of the kingdom. He also informs that as knights they answer only to Taern, Knight-commander Sernius and the high lady Alustriel herself. They are free to make their own way in the marches as long as it is to work for the greater goodness of the kingdom. Then Knight-commander Sernius Alather steps forward and commands them to swear alligiance to the Silver marches. Wythmord even manages to impres the knight-commander with his oath af loyalty and honour. They are then in turn knighted by both Sernius and Taern and given a badge of honour and a tabard and a monthly wage of 80 gp pr. level. Tearn gives Runegar a scroll (sending with orders to learn it the moment he is able) and says that he is willing to sponsor him to the Lady´s college and after seeing what it gives him ( in the Silver marches book by WoTc) he gladly thanks the old mage. They are addressed sir and are informed to rest in the city until they are needed for their first assignment...
classic enemies
A month later they are summoned to Taerns tower and are led below to a dirt wall room. Roots are visible and a portal of living vines stand in the center. They are told to seek out an elven settlement called Quastalwood on the fringes of The silver Wood something is killing elven. The settlement is situated south of Silverymoon and this portal will take them close." This is the living portal og Evandriel Stargazer who gave her life in defence of Earlann (knowledge:history old portal empire of the elves ) he explains. "Evandriel, high mage of Earlann, living portal i need your help" he intones in elven. It shimmers to life " old friend do you seek passage through me???" a soft elven voice purrs. " yes lady, this group is trying to prevent the slaughter of the Tell`quissir of the silver wood( meaning the people as the elves call themselves) and they need passage to the old dwarven outpost of Murandir. "You are allowed " she purrs and the portal springs to life. They see ruins and Taern tells them to go straight west for 2 days and gives them a map. "may Tymora guide you" and the party steps through..
They find themself at a ruined stronghold littered with dust-covered remains of dwarven warriors and crumbling stone. But they are not alone, along the walls trolls are scavenging, classic enemies.
The trolls win initiative and charges snarling in their own tongue. Talon is hit hard but the rest misses and are too fra away to attack. Runegar reverts to trog-form ( alter self) Talon strenghen their defenses with shield of faith mass. Tealgar attacks a troll and hits it hard while Wythmord summons holy storm drenching the evil trolls in searing rain.
Hurt the trolls attack en masse and scores wicked hits on especially Talon, but also Wythmord is hit hard by the trolls frenzied attacks. The group hit back and Tealgar smites evil cutting away pounds of regenerating troll-flesh. Wythmord moves away from an angry troll while Talon heals himself via his Healing belt and Runegar cast Haste enabling the party to attack more frequently.
One troll sees Wythmord moving away and creps closer and again scoring a viscious hit. Runegar also sees that Talon is hurt and dimension doors them away to safety( some 50 ft. or so). Tealgar does what he does best he attacks again and again and again nearly killing a troll in one round.
Runegar " the armored mage " Darkrift stalks closer to the troll attacking wythmord, arcane syllables flowing from his mouth as flame gathers around his fists. With a scream of rage he unleashes two lances of fire searing right through the foul troll killing it immidiately. Talon had cast axiomatic storm before escaping with the dimension door and the lawful aligned rain and lightning-bolt kills off a clueless troll. Tealgar kills off a screaming troll and wythmord heals himself ( he was severely injured ).
The combat ends as Talon axiomatic storm sears away the top half of a troll and the following lightning bolt splits another down the middle. The party is victorious...
This session took 3 hours and the party gained a level. They are now level 9
Talon is 9 cloistered cleric and dragonwrought kobold
Wythmord is 3 cloistered cleric/ 3 church inquisitor/ 3 Radient servant of Pelor(Lathander), and human
Tealgar is 6 paladin/ 3 Fist of Raziel, and gold dwarf
Runegar is 4 wizard/ 1fighter/4 runesmith, and shield dwarf
(New session 12/8-08) 28 uktar 1372: quastalwood and dark elves
The Lawbringers travel west for two days comong to a a mighty forest with a visible silver sheen to the canopy. As they advance elven riders wearing chains and lances advance from the cover of the forest. Their leader asks who they are and what they are doing here. They show their badges of honour and he looks relieved as it dawns on him that knights have been sent to help their village.
They are escorted to the elven village of quastelwood and a tree-top building made of roots and branches. An old elf sits in trance on the floor and a braided symbol hangs around his neck, the symbol of Rillifane the elven god of the forest. He wakes and ask them to sit beside him. They accept and are given fruit and water. He tells them that he has had a terrible dream about a large spider with a drows head sitting in a giant web and when the spider pulls her web his world shakes. He is afraid that something big is stirring and not just for him but for elves everywhere. He also tells that several from his village have been found horribly mutilated and tracks have been found leading to some distant caves. The party being the heroes they are spring into action and continue towards the caves.
Dark elves
The party makes camp in a wayhouse (from when times were better in the region) when Talon suddenly hears footsteps outside. Talon wakes the party and looks outside. He sees 4 lumbering ogre Zombies wielding small trees as clubs advancing. Runegar steps outside and cast protective magic. A mistake!!! the foul undead charge him and damage him severely and suddenly they hear chanting, a female voice filled with anger, and a horsesized beast with quills as mane appears right next to him hitting him with a foul bite.
The group springs into action. Talon protects the group with his divine magic and Wythmord conjures evil-searing rain damaging the zombies. Tealgar " the storyteller" moves forward to help his beleaguered ally. " Die !!!!!!" is shouted in commen as 2 drow barbarian charge from cover attacking Runegar and Tealgar.
Runegar cast invisibility and is attacked by the horse sized fiend, a Howler, and the drow barbarian and a an ogre-zombie. He is hit again and drops to 11 hp. Then they see their mysterious adversary, a wild eyed female drow wielding a dagger, advance and purges the area of invisibility with her spells. Runegar is suddenly visible but Tealgar advance killing off a an ogre-zombie. Talon cast a spell and his hands are surrounded by dark flames. He attack the drow priestess but fails to hit her due to cover. He also quickens a protective spell boosting his comrades. Wythmord turns undead and swift cast a boost spell enhancing his turn undead. 2 ogre zombies crumble to dust, dead again...
Down to 11 hp Runegar dimension doors away but is followed by the remaining ogre zombie which miss the dwarf with a swing from its club/tree. The priestess tries to confuse Tealgar but the dwarf shrugs off the tiresome spell and Kills off the Howler with two smites from his mighty waraxe. The drow barbarians attack Talon and Tealgar but only hit Talon. Wyhtmord heals his friends as Talon attacks the barbarian. He hits and burn away most of his shoulder.
Runegar " the armored mage" Darkrift kills the remaining ogre zombie with flaming rays in a display of arcane might. The priestess tries to nullify the 2 clerics spell as she cast silence on a drow barbarian. It works slightly but the same barbarians head goes up in flame as Talon touches his head with his flame-enshrouded hands. Tealgar Kills the last barbarian with mighty blows from his waraxe. The pristess is alone but screams "you will not stand in the way of Lloths will" and attacks. Foolish!!! as she is cut down by the group. They are victorious again and rest up.
They find a letter that informs them that the spider queen demands the death of elves everywhere and the wielder should seek out the Styx Oarsman where more information is forthcoming.
Dark elves 2
The party follow the tracks and come to grey dark cliffs. They see a cave-entreance. They follow and come to a huge cavern with a chasm down its center. In the corners they see 2 exits and guarding them are two female drow riding large green reptiles. The drow lizard riders snarl and unwind their spiked chains and attack.
The lizard-riders spur their scaled mounts on and ascend the walls moving closer to the party. The party prepare as Runegar reverts to his "home" form troglodyte form with the alter self spell. Talon boosts their armor classes and wythmord casts greater status on everyone save Talon.
The lizard riders advance along the walls and strikes from high above scoring minor wounds. Tealgar have not any range weapons on him and stands cursing and drooling at the cowardly drow. Talon again invokes Darkfire surrounding his hands with black flames. Runegar attacks the riders mount thinking it easier to slay the beast and get the drow down to earth but in the last possible second the drow female moves her lizard away from harm ( mounted combat feat). Wythmord heals the hurt members...
Next round Talon scorches a lizard-rider while they move further into the group and one of them identifies Runegar as a wizard (albeit a strange one as he wears platemail) and envelops him in faerie fire while the other strikes and hits Talon. Runegar hits one with offensive spells while wythmord again summons the burning holy storm damaging the dark elves. Tealgar again does nothing but swearing at his unreachable enemy.
The drow press the attack and scores wounds on both Wythmord and Talon. Tealgar then throws his waraxe and severely injures a dark elf almost taking his arm off while Talon scorches him with darkfire. His body gives up to the dark flames but he stays motionsless in his saddle (military) The other one is killed off by Runegars spells.
Suddenly a half human-half vulture creature appears on a ledge above them. They recognize the demonic creature a vrock. It attacks them scoring hits on Tealgar and Wythmord and starting spores to grow within their bodies. Then Tealgar takes action !!!!! wythmord had cast sacred weapon on his weapon and he smites evil hitting it doing a phenominal 67 in damage!!!! and not even a crit and he ignores its damage reduction when he smites. Wythmord had cast Turn anathema and is now able to turn evil outsider!!! He invokes his gods power and the demon flees before his awesome display of godly might.
The group waits and heals up for the next minute and again the Vrock appears this time summoning another vrock which tears into the group with demonoc fury. But this party is primed against demons. In one round they kill the summoned vrock and on the next round they finish of the remaining demon. The group is victorious.
This session took 3,5 hours and the party is still level 9
Talon is 9 cloistered cleric and dragonwrought kobold
Wythmord is 3 cloistered cleric/ 3 church inquisitor/ 3 Radient servant of Pelor(Lathander), and human
Tealgar is 6 paladin/ 3 Fist of Raziel, and gold dwarf
Runegar is 4 wizard/ 1fighter/4 runesmith, and shield dwarf
(New session 18/8-08) 30 uktar 1372: strange rats, Rule-of-three and the tower of the prophet
The party is suddenly contacted by Taern Hornblade of Silverymoon and he informs them that a fellow knight will be joining them. Then they hear footsteps in the cave as a small elf enters. His skin is brown with a copperry tint and his hair is dark brown. He wears a cloak over his head but they glimpse a mithral shirt and over his shoulders hangs a greatsword definately to big for the small elf to use. He introduces himself as Elbryn of Silverymoon and he was sent to aid them in their cause. They greet him and welcomes him in the group.
The party come to a cave where a curtain of swirwling energy is suspended between two weather-worn statues, a portal. They go through and is amazed.
They find themselves in a huge city a night. Thousends of different races and cultures are visible in the ring-like city. In fact the city looks like it is built inside a gigantic ring. A succesful the planes check reveals that they have in fact come to Sigil, city of doors .An extraplanar city suspended in a distant void ( yes yes not the actual location ) and they are far far away from home....
They are met by a half man/half ram creature ( a Bariaur ) who asks if they are new hoppers in town and if they want to buy some information about Sigil. They are a bit overwhelmed by it all and gladly accept. He gives them "The primers guide to sigil" a letter explaining some fact about Sigil and how to act ( basically lay low and don´t attract too much attention ) they thank the creature and ask if he knows the styx Oarsman and he tells them that it is an Inn in the lower Quarter and warns them that the lower quarter is primarily inhabitet by creatures from the lower planes, hence the name lower quarter i guess hehe.
As they walk through the city they are amazed by the many differents creatures living together. For instance they see a mighty planetar passing a pit fiend and they see vrock flying over the city close to a roost of lantern archons. Appearently something has enough power to discourage too much violence among the different races.
While taking a shortcut through a rat-infested suddenly they hear what sound like a thousend childrens voices talking a one. They warn the party of both the demons and angels and it demands the characters answer. Elbryn the wood elf warblade draws his sword and the rats gather as one swarm of brain-revealing beasts and the the cranium rats attacks.
It reacts first and the voices chant and a blanket of fire covers the rats. It moves into Elbryn ,who loses his lunch and is sickened, and Tealgar both of them taking damage from the biting rats. Runegar cast haste and Tealgar attacks the vermin swarm but it seems immune to his hits when his weapons flares and scorches the rat swarm. Wythmords sacred weapon spell has again come in handy. But alas the fire protecting the swarm injures the stout dwarf severely. Elbryn also attacks it and again sacred weapon does the trick but also he is damaged by the fireshield. Wythmord summons holy storm raining searing rain on the rats and Talon moves away protecting himself with spells.
The party has spread out and when the rat swarm chants again and a fireball explodes searing Talon, Wythmord and Runegar. The swarm engulf several characters hindering their spells ( sickened). Tealgar and Elbryn attacks again but without their sacred weapon-spell on their weapons the attacks seem futile. Talon steps away and casts darkfire while the sickened Runegar moves away severely hurt. Wythmord tries to move away but he too has been hurt severely and throws up excessively.
The swarm then discharges a mental blast stunning poor Tealgar for the next 9 rounds and it moves closer biting several characters. The rest succeeded on their saves and can act normally. The battle is furious and Talon casts Axiomatic storms hoping that the swarm is chaotic but it is not, and it only drenches the rats in water. Elbryn attacks again but again the damage is ignored and Talons darkfire bites deep into the ranks of rats. Wythmord Heals the beleagured party but damage is coming to fast for him to keep up.
Over the next couple of rounds the party is hard-pressed and when the "returned" ( he ran away when down to 11 hp. screaming that they cannot kill this enemy) Runegar, in an attempt to slay the swarm with a fireball, miscalculates the distance he and Talon is hit hard. Actually Talon would have died if it wasn´t for Wythmords ability to cast close wounds as an immidiate action. Again Wythmords powerful healing kept them alive.
But the party-members fills their roles nicely: Wythmord keeps the group alive with healing, Elbryn attacks, Runegar bombards the fiends with spells, Talon does the same and Tealgar is stunned hehe and in the end it pays off!!!! The holy storm sears away the last rats and the party is victorious....
Rule-of-three
They come the the lower quarter and find the Styx Oarsman. Inside they see the bartender is a Marilith and most of the costumers are denizens of the lower planes. Tealgar even manages to influence the Marilith with a goog diplomacy roll and she is friendly towards him. Despite being buddies with Tealgar she does not know anything about the letter or drow.
Suddenly an Ice devil and a vrock are at each others throats and several of their allies are ready to pounce. Then a figure rises from a table and with a wave of his hand he spreads the crowd. He glares at the fiends and they back down resuming their card-game. He advances and they see that he is a Githzerai, scholarly warrior-monks from the plane of Limbo.
He introduces himself as Rule-of-three and says that it is not commenplace that charaters of their shining persuasion come to the Styx Oarman. He also ask if they need help? They, after a brief discussion, give him the letter taken from the drow and he studies it for a moment.
He invires them to his table and tells them that Lloths agents in her home plane and here in Sigil have become more active and something big is brewing. Not just here but also on the myriad prime planes. But luckily he has no love for Lloth and the drow and hopes that the party has killed the bearer of the foul letter. He even offers to help them against the spider queen and help them get home.
He asks of them three errands and together they would foil Lloth plans. He tells them to go to the tower of the prophet and ask the prophet how to blind the spider Queen, that is step 1 in defeating Lloth.
Tower of the prophet
They come to the Tower of the prophet a white marple tower guarded by sword Archons. Inside they see a brass sphere with segmented covers inscribed in celestial, The prophet!!! A knight and his Aasimar retinue knells before it and huge warden archons stand guard. A warden archons step closer " I am Humbart how may i serve ??" Tealgar steps forward and the warden archons is impressed with his devotion to good and lawfullness ( +4 to diplomacy checks ) and Tealgar gives a speech about their plans to disrupt the plans of the evil deity Lloth (+4 again to diplomacy). Tealgar makes a diplomacy-check to persuade the archon to let them ask the prophet. He rolls and the result is 39 !!!!. The warden archon confirm that their cause is just and gives Tealgar a golden key on a chain.
He approaches the brass-sphere and inserts the key and asks "how can we blind the spider queen???". A clanking noise fills the rooms as segmented fittings slide aside and fills the room in holy light. In fact it is so pure and filled with goodness that the neutral characters looses wisdom for three consecutice rounds. Tealgar and Wythmord are unaffected but even for them the light is blinding and only Tealgar succeeds in avoiding blindness.
In the light he sees angelic figures floating above him and hear their voices. They speak celestial a language he does not understand but somehow he understands the meaning. They also hear a quill on parchment writing softly and as sudden as the light appeared, it is gone again. Tealgar stand beside his blind friends with a thin piece of parchment, the prophecy. It reads:
The bow of beasts dissolves the taint of the corrupted,
The bitter ice hides a giant´s sword to crack abyssal armor.
Search the Lady´s wisdom and the book of flesh,
Bide your time and flee when the goddes shakes her web.
A pair of keys: a blackened tongue, a golden word,
Pass through three gates: serpent, darkness, stone.
Kill the queen in her black pearl and find
Near the throne a fourth gate- home
They repair their vision and find their way back to the Styx Oarsman where Rule-of-Three contratulates them on their succes. He looks over the prophecy and ponficates: It appears to mention the bow of Thaas, a legendary weapon of an elven hero famed for killing demons and appearently it will help them defeat the spider queens plans. It is located in an secluded glen in the beastlands. He gives them the portal-key and the location of the portal leading to the great three of Yggdrasil where they can find a portal to the beastlands where Thaas rests.....
This session took 3,25 hours and the party is still level 9
Talon is 9 cloistered cleric and dragonwrought kobold
Wythmord is 3 cloistered cleric/ 3 church inquisitor/ 3 Radient servant of Pelor(Lathander), and human
Tealgar is 6 paladin/ 3 Fist of Raziel, and gold dwarf
Runegar is 4 wizard/ 1fighter/4 runesmith, and shield dwarf
Elbryn is 9 warblade and wood Elf
(1/9-08) 1 Marpenoth 1372: Squrril-people, Wild Hunter and Thaas
The Lawbringers venture to the slum of hive ward in sigil and activates the portal and a shimmering portal opens. They enter....
They find themselves on a giant branch at least 50 ft. in diameter and far off they glimpse a gigantic grey trunk. They have arrived on the plane-tree of Yggdrasil. They do not know where they are going but the only visible way is toward the mighty tree-trunk. As they approach the trunk they see handholds have been carved into the tree for easier climbing. Suddenly they see a Squrril-man climbing towards them, he wears a spear over his shoulders and have a head-sized acorn in his mouth. He comes down to the branch and introduces himself as Kippenwell the Fireholder. The Party succeeds in know. the planes and knows that he is a Ratatosk, a native of this plane and knows that his race is very fond of food and they are friendly towards dwarves and elves which they call Dwarfsir and Alfsir.
They are looking for a guide and offers him food and after a succesfull diplomacy-check by Tealgar"Storyteller" Bronzebeard he gladly accepts and takes off fetching a guide for them.
He returns with a female Ratatosk called Almveig who sets off with the party. During their travels they learn from Almveig that the Ratatosk worship Yggdrasil and their cleric-leaders actually gain spells from it and that the upper branches are relatively safe but down near the roots foul spawn of Niddhogg the great serpent rules.
They travel for 18 days and during those travels all of them fall several times through the foliage injuring themselves as they hit branches. But with Almveig they only loose a couple of days and on the 18th day they come to a dark portal and Almveig (having being befriended by the group) informs them of the generel direction of the resting place of the bow Thaas. They thank her and enters the portal.
Wild hunter
The party find themselves in a dark world filled with perpetual twillight and dark forests. They learn that is probaly is Karasuthra the lowest plane of the beastlands, a land with a pale moon and filled with great beasts. The set off in the direction given to them by the Ratatosk Almveig,
Passing through a great forest Tealgar and Runegar hears a soft growl and from the undergrowth springs several large panthers with fang-filled tentacles from their backs: displacer beasts lead by a tweaked Pack Lord. They growl and attack..
Runegar is the quickest ( because of skittish nerves spell) and moves forward ( bad idea as it turns out) casting an offensive spell that splits and creates 4 rays of flame scorching the pack lord. It responds and attacks Runegar hitting him hard and retreating back behind its lesser brethen. They also move forward and hits poor Runegar hard and even hits him with a critical hit, the poor dwarf-wizard is down to 17 hp. Tealgar moves forward and hits a displacer beast for 13 in dmg.
Next round "the armored mage" Runegar makes a hasty retreat with a dimension door spell. But not far enough !!! the pack Lord is an intelligent hunter and provokes an attack of opportunity from Tealgar, which miss because of the beasts natural displacement ability, and it double moves an incredible 16 squares and attacks Runegar (can do so because of a feat ) it crits the unlucky dwarf and kills him with a mighty sweep of its tentacle. The party cannot do anything!!! Even the two clerics with their immidiate action close wounds spell are powerless because they have not acted yet.
The two commen displacer-beasts attack Telgear only hitting him lightly. Elbryn charges the pack lord and crits but is sorely disappointed when its displacement ability shrugs off his attack. Wythmord heals Tealgar which have been injured by the beasts he is fighting and Talon quickens a Shield of faith mass and has a bright idea!! He casts true seeing on the damage-dealer Elbryn which now knows exactly where his foe is.
Next round Tealgar lets loose a furious assult on his enemy. He smites and power attacks twice and when he misses he invokes his bracers of blinding strike and attacks again killing the beast in 1 round of pure dwarven anger. The pack Lord creeps closer to Elbryn and attacks him again and again inflicting 39 in dmg. on the wood elf Warblade who now bleeds from several terrible wounds. The ever present Wythmord again heals his Elven friends wounds and Talon intones Righteous might of the faithful giving them all an extra attack and +3 to hit and damage and quickens a recicitation spell further buffing his allies armor classes. Talon is indeed a master "buffer". Elbryn raises his greatsword and power attacks with 9 and full attacks the pack Lord. When he finishes the pack lord lies on the ground almost cut in two but Elbryns face is a visage of stoic calm. In 1 round he dealt almost 120 in damage and is clearly the partys heavy-hitter.
Then they hear the sound of unshod hooves and a strange figure rides near. He looks vaguely elven exept his skin is transparent and his bones are roots and his hair is made of roots. He wears a shining mithral full-plate and a magnificient bow and over his shoulders hangs a polearm. His mount is a wooly rhino and he seems to have been tracking the displacer beasts but his face lights up in feral glee as he spots more interesting prey: the party....
The lawbringers regroup and moves in cover exept for Talon which is hit by an arrow from the wild hunter. The last displacer beast flees for its life.
Then Elbryn advances on the hunter and shouts a challenge holding his bloody greataxe high above his head. Tealgar also moves closer his fists white of gripping his waraxe so tightly. The hunter sends two arrows towards Elbryn both miss due to the protective magics cast by the two clerics.
And when Tealgar and Elbryn closes with the fey-hunter his days are numbered. Mighty cuts of Elbryns greataxe and crushing blows from Tealgar waraxe combined with the divine assistance of the 2 clerics kills him easily. Wythmord even surrounds the fey hunter with a wall of stone barring his escape hehe... The group is victorious again but a hero has died.
At night they bathe Runegar and Wythmord casts raise dead. When nothing happens thay assume he does not want to be raised when suddenly his body trembles and his eyes open. Runegar " The armored" mage Darkrift has come back from the lands of the dead and the party rejoice. They sleep and heal up and continue the next day..
Thaas
After a day more they spot some tracks leading in a slightly different direction, they follow them and come to a small crystal-clear lake with a small wooded island in the center. After a debate ( and realizing that none of them are any good at swimming ) Wythmord summons a wall of stone that acts as a bridge. They cross the bridge and on the center of the island, bathed in a shaft of moonlight, levitates a mighty-looking bow .It is made of the antlers of a white stag and brims with power ( They have learned that the island is the burial-site of Forest Hart an awakened white stag that helped stop a demonic incursion in the area decades ago and when he fell an elevn druid crafted Thaas from his antlers as a tribute) They pick it up and leave the small island when a dire wolverine growls from below some branches on the other side!!!! Suddenly the tree comes alive and old eyes stare at them and they hear an ancient voice in the wind "There must be a good reason for interlopers desecrating this holy site". Wythmord gives a speech about they are about to foil the plans of a greater evil: Lloth! and they will rid the world of her ilk and so on. The dc for achieving succes is 30 and he rolls.........32 and succeeds.
The tree ant druid considers it a fair use of the bow and the party heads for Sigil.
They leave the Beastlands and come to Yggdrasil where they meet a young somewhat sad looking Ratatost named Fastmundr. After a couple of succesful diplomacy checks he tells them that an evil branch has eaten his mate Almveig. The party tells him that they will avenge his mates death and sets forth to do battle.....
This session took 3 hours and the party is still level 9
Talon is 9 cloistered cleric and dragonwrought kobold
Wythmord is 3 cloistered cleric/ 3 church inquisitor/ 3 Radient servant of Pelor(Lathander), and human
Tealgar is 6 paladin/ 3 Fist of Raziel, and gold dwarf
Runegar is 4 wizard/ 1fighter/4 runesmith, and shield dwarf
Elbryn is 9 warblade and wood Elf
(8/9-08) 24 Marpenoth 1372: Iron maw, Giants sword and Rule-of-Three
The characters were led by Fastmundr their ratatosk guide to the tree where Almveig his mate has been killed. It was once a shrine to Yggdrasil the great tree but now something foul lairs in that holy place.
They climb up the tree and smell decaying wood and notice the complete lack of animal-life. Suddenly, through decaying holes in the tree, fleshy branches squirm through and attack the group. The Cleric wythmord is hit by a branch which attaches itself to the human cleric and drains his con. It must indeeed be a foul beast as it can drain con they gather.
Runegar "the armored mage" acts first and tries defensively to dimension door himself to a platform higher up but he rolls a natural 1 and stays put. Tealgar strikes at the tentacle-branch but is squirms away and his axe misses. Then a branch hits Tealgar and attaches itself to him as well . A tentacle-branch miss the dragon-cleric Talon by rolling a natural 1 but Wythmord is dragged within the tree itself where he stands before a terrifying flesh-tree with Iron-like fangs. He reacts instinctively and pulls forth a potion imbued with the shining light of all that is holy and good. It burns the Ironmaw and when he completes his holy storm spell the beast scream in pain as the drops of holy rain burns its flesh away. Talon recognizes the threat the con-draining poses and boost the party with a quikened righteous wrath of the faithful and a recicitation spell and creeps away. Elbryn, having also been missed by the beast, clims inside one of the holes and stands beside the huge tree-creature.
Next round Runegar advances and the beleugered wythmord is dragged closer by the power of the tentacle-branch. The Ironmaw then engulfes Wythmord and he finds himself inside the tree, battered by its hard interior and gasping for breath as no air exists inside the Ironmaw. Talon is hit by a branch and dragged closer to the beasts maw when he activates his bracelet of translocation and teleports right beside the Ironmaw. Elbryn Grit his teeth and clenches his greatsword. He power attacks and unleashes hell!! 3 times he hits each time cutting away huge chunks of fleshy wood (roughly 120 in. dmg.) The Ironmaw is hurt bad and it groans in frantic pain!!!Then the group sees a light from within the creature, wythmords enchanted potion burns it from inside its own belly and the light grows and grows until the Ironmaws flesh is burned so severely that its life leaves its body. It is dead and the party is victorious.
They loot the hollow-tree cave and find a sword of the planes and a mace +3 ( it is cursed and Elbryn wields it making him save or become CE each day he saves three times until they discover the terrible truth and removes the weapon from him hehe)
Soon after Kippenwell, the Ratatosk cleric, and roughly 20 other Ratatosk arrive. They chirp with delight as they learn that the "evil" branch has been killed. Fastmundr gather the ratatosk bones and depart mumbling something about a solemn ceremony to honour his mates spirit. The other ratatosk seem less saddened and are thrilled that the enemy has been killed. They give the party gifts and listen to their tales around the fire and several young are interested in Wythmords deity seeing him as a pure sun-god (being nature loving creatures it is easy for them to relate to a sun deity than Talons Le god Kurtulmak).
Kippenwell also tells them that some dwarfsir (dwarves in ratatosk) who, some time ago, ventured through Yggdrasil talked about a demon slaying sword guarded by frost giants in a plane called Rime Thuras. Runegar suddenly remembers the second line of the prophecy given to them at the tower of the prophet:
The bitter ice hides a giant´s sword to crack abyssal armor.
The group take it as a sign and sets forth (helped along by by a tribe of grateful Ratatosk) towards the gate leading to Rime Thuras. They come to the gate and Kippenwell gives them a map to the outpost containing the demon-slaying weapon. They enter...
giants sword
The group find themselves in sub-zero temperetures snow and frost everywhere. They don their cold weather outfits and continue through the snow. After 1,5 days of biting frost ( and several of Wythmords endure elements spells) they stop at the edge of a forest. They are hiding within the forest undergrowth and looking out over a frozen tundra. 175 ft away they see a white tower on a plateau of grey-white rock. They see a frost giant standing guard at the gate and another overlooking the battlements. They plan ahead for a couple of minutes and cast spells .The group is bolstered they all have +6 att +5 dmg +2 str +2 dex and 4 higher ac and 1 extra att. pr. round and that is only the buffs they all have, Runegar even has a mirror image and Trog form (alter self) and invisibility needless to say: They are ready to kick ass!!!!!
Runegar dimension doors to the top of the tower taking Elbryn and Tealgar with him. Wythmord had cast greater status on them and can heal them at range ( range =this plane ) so he stays behind along with Talon. They land on the narrow battlements and is forced a balance check, Elbryn succeeds and so does Tealgar but Runegar slips and falls, invisible and all, down the outer side of the tower taking 11 dmg. as he falls unto frost-encrusted rocks. Elbryn steps forward and almost crushes the head of the giant with a mighty blow of his mace ( yes the cursed mace ) Tealgar , wanting to get in flanking position, moves along the slippery battlements and falls!!!! down the same way Runegar fell also taking 11 in dmg. The 2 dwarves are wearing Full-plates or better and are not exactly considered thightrope walkers.
Initiative is rolled for the giants and the one guarding the battlements is cut down in 1 round by furious swings of Elbryn, the wood elf warblade. Runegar double moves to close the distance between him and the other frost giant. Tealgar also moves forward lusting for combat. The frost giant hears his ally die and opens the gate and and moves into the tower grapping the long chest they were guarding his eyes wild with greed.
The next round Elbryn bellows a challenge to the giant "come face me in combat and awaits the giant. It on the other hand has no desire to fight and flees through the gate carrying the chest. But Tealgar has forseen its actions and stands ready!!! he smites it as it runs clear and almost kills the enemy with fierce chops of his newly aquired sword of the planes. Runegar grips an axe and tries the same but the giants survives his attacks and continues badly hurt.
The giants head is immolated in dark flames and it screams as the flames devours its head, it falls to the ground, dead. Talon laughs!! while they were fighting he had been flying closer and immolated his reptilian hands in the Darkfire spell and it was that which felled the giant.
In the chest they find a large bastard sword and when identified they have discovered the right weapon to combat Lloths servants: a large mithral +3 evil outsider bane frost mighty cleaving Bastard sword!!!!! They decide to sell it later so the entire group can benefit from finding it but for now Elbryn of Silverymoon wields it, and believe me they are going to need it Ha ha ha ha ha..
They treck back to the gate, treck through Yggdrasil and say their farewells to the Ratatosk which tell them that they will allways have an ally in their people.
The party have been gone from Sigil for 42 days when they again enter Sigil.
Rule-of-three
Back in sigil they find their way back to the lower ward and the Styx Oarsman. Inside they find the Githzerai scholar who greets them and want to see the bow Thaas. They accepts and he fingers it between agile hands and chants in the githzerai-tongue. He gives them the bow back and then tells the group to keep Thaas hidden from view some of the more powerful demons may take offense if they see the demon-killing bow. They stash it away and Rule-of-three contratulates them on finding the weapon and says that they should rest for only a day because next day they must set their course for the realm of Lloth herself, the Demonweb pits!!! They have been gone for a long time and time is running out. A drow scholar in the demonweb pits has information regarding Lloths plans !!! She has rejected Lloths embrace and will trade the information for certain books. Rule-of-three gives them a satchel with the desired books and urges them to act quickly. He does not know where she lives but do know that the gate he gives them information on should end up "close" to the drow scholar or so he says....
This session took 3 hours and the party is still level 9
Talon is 9 cloistered cleric and dragonwrought kobold
Wythmord is 3 cloistered cleric/ 3 church inquisitor/ 3 Radient servant of Pelor(Lathander), and human
Tealgar is 6 paladin/ 3 Fist of Raziel, and gold dwarf
Runegar is 4 wizard/ 1fighter/4 runesmith, and shield dwarf
Elbryn is 9 warblade and wood Elf
(15/9-08) 18 Nightal 1372: spider-thing, sporebat and caught sleeping
The mighty Lawbringers sleep and set out next day. They come to the weavers guild and crush a spiders egg at the entrance and enter a gloomy portal.
Next thing they find themselves in a gigantic web where tubes of calcified webbing exists as corridors. They constantly hear the noise of thousends of tiny spiders scuttling about. The room that they are in contains the bones of chewed-up dwarves and they go north seeking the renegade drow Lisondra.
They enter a corridor and from an area of perpetual darkness a creatures scuttles forward. It is completely made of large spider-legs and makes strange scraping sounds as it attacks Tealgar , but the dwarven battle-preacher is heavily protected and the chchiwdra misses.
Elbryn lifts his newly aquired demon-slaying sword and charges but alas the spider-thing swiftly avoids the blow. Runegar the armored mage protects himself from harm and moves within striking distance. Tealgar swings at the beast with his blade of the planes and hits it twice cutting deep into the carapace of the foul creature. Talon quickly casts several protection spells that severely helps the group while wythmord activates his cloak of invisibility and moves closer ready to heal any hurt party members.
Elbryn again slashes at the creture but 2 times in a row he hits nothing but air. Runegar blast the beast with his spells and Tealgar attacks the beast 3 times and scores 2 crits and a standard hit !!!! The beast is hurt and green blood oozes from its deep wounds, Tealgar has almost killed it in a single round and the next round it dies, its legs twiching for several minutes after. The group scan the surroundings and see remains of a temple but nothing else. They continue...
Sporebat
Strange eyes scan the broken room. It has had its lair there for about a week and preys on the occasional lone drow, but steer clear of the larger patrols not wanting to end up dead as most of its kin. The room is perfect for it. The top half of the calcified web-room has been chewed away by its long dead kin and it hovers near the ceiling, awaiting prey. Suddenly a heavy-armored dwarf enters, he wields a long sword and looks rather tasty...
Tealgar has entered crossroads-room when out of the blue a sickly brown ray hits him, his skin turns pale as the very life force is drained from him ( -4 levels ) Talon sees it and recognizes the danger and administers a potion to the dwarf who regains his lost levels. Runegar turns himself invisible while Elbryns draws a mighty bow and moves forward. Tealgar draws a warhammer while Wythmord again turns invisible using his cloak and moves forward seeking to discover their enemy.
Again the ray hits a party-member this time Elbryn, but again the party help him regain his levels. Wythmord finds his potion that emits a strange light that hurts evil outsiders and in the shadows of the light they see a plant-like creatures with fibrous flesh and stalks with leaves resembling bat-wings. It hovers high in the air. Tealgar moves closer clenching his warhammer. Elbryns being an elf clearly sees the beast in the shadows and sends arrows streaking at it. It is caught unaware but just before it hits the arrow disappears and reappears right behind the spore bat. It is protected by some aura!! Talon quickly casts a protective spell while Runegar blasts it with magic missiles nicking it ever so slightly.
The sporebat moves closer to investigate where its prey have gone (invisible hehe) and blasts at Runegar ( it detects the not so sneaky dwarf easily ) it hits him but his 50% miss chance saves the day. He retaliates by hitting it again with missiles, but this time his missiles also drains a level from the bat-thing (fell-drain meta-magic feat.) it gets a taste of its own medicine. Elbryn hits the plant-bat 2 times with his mighty bow blasting holes in its weird body. Talon prepares a surprise for the bat: He quickens a fly??? spell and casts an Ice axe-spell and moves away his eyes filled with great malice. Tealgar throws his warhammer but misses it due to its aura. Wythmord moves closer and suddenly blasts it with flame-strike but to his dismay sees that the fire merely annoys the bat.
The bat flies away and strikes at Tealgar with a fly-by-attack but misses the dwarf paladin. Elbryn again hits the bat and it is beginning to look hurt. Runegar blasts it with magic missiles from a wand he always carries. Tealgar moves away picking up his warhammer ( his only ranged weapon ) Talon takes to the air and charges the bat. He lets go of his spear and from his hand springs an axe made of the purest ice. But alas his attack misses when confronted with the beasts aura.
Talon is blasted the next 2 rounds and loses 5 levels. Elbryn pebbers it with arrows and the dwarf wizard Runegar again unleashed death from his wand of magic missile. Tealgar tries to hit it but ithe bats aura is powerful and he misses. Wythmord, being so wise, awaits the outcome of the battle...
It ends when Talon , at last, hits the spore bat with his ice-axe and the beasts aura fails to protect it. The body of the bat-creature crystalizes to pure blue-white ice and shatters when it hits the floor of the cave.
After the combat the "heroes" decides to rest in the last chamber. But this is the plane where Lloth rules and her minions are everywhere, allways stalking, allways looking for prey....
caught sleeping
A tiny dart hits Tealgar on the cheek and his face turns bright red in anger and he feels it has been covered with poisen. He saves and sees 4 drow males wielding rapiers advancing. The rest of the party sleeps, only Talon stirs, his acute dragon-ears picking up the noise from a surprised Tealgar.
Next round an older male appears from the shadows. He gives the younger males orders using the drow sign language and fires a venow covered bolt against Tealgar. Luckily it bounces off his dwarven plate. The drow warriors, following orders, advance and covers 3 party members in faerie fire. Talon sees the approaching drow and shouts to wake the party up, they stir and he casts shield of faith mass protecting his allies with divine power. Tealgar steps closer to a drow and opens a huge gash in his abdomen with his longsword of the planes.
The party wakes and Runegar reverts to his "true" form, that of a smelly troglodyte. Elbryn grips his oversized sword and stands up while wythmord summens a cloud of pure goodness showering the drow in damaging water. Talon moves closer wanting to get a better look and casts
confusion amid 4 drows. But between being elves and their spell resistance he is happy to see a confused look on a single drows face. The rest close and attack Tealgar with dancing blows.... They miss the dwarven battle preacher but then their leader moves closer, actually he moves between the party members sreaming "this is the sacred soil of Lloth your blood will never sate her appetite" and cowardly attacks Talon, who is lying down and hits him for 11 in damage.
But then Tealgar and Elbryn has had enough and attack!!! Elbryn kills a single drow while Tealgar, not wanting to be bested by an elf, does the same!! Runeger moves closer and grins a wicked grin. ne traces 1 of the many runes covering his body and casts a twinned empovered scorching ray. The leaders head is covered in raw flames!! He screams as his eyes boil in their sockets and as his flesh melts from his face away so does his puny life. The other ray is stopped by a drows natural spell resistance. Wythmords searing rain damages the drow and being chaotic and leaderless they try to flee. They fail and are cut down by the Lawbringers.....
This session took 3 hours and the party gained a level. They are now level 10
Talon is 10 cloistered cleric and dragonwrought kobold
Wythmord is 3 cloistered cleric/ 3 church inquisitor/ 4 Radient servant of Pelor(Lathander), and human
Tealgar is 6 paladin/ 4 Fist of Raziel, and gold dwarf
Runegar is 4 wizard/ 1fighter/5 runesmith, and shield dwarf
Elbryn is 10 warblade and wood Elf
(22/9-08) 18 Nightal 1372: in and out-spiders, demon-temple ,demons of fire and demon council
The party finds on the drow leader an iron pyramid and it dawns upon them that they can use it to teleport from certain rooms to certain rooms. They think that rest is hard to come by so they treck on, teleporting and exploring more of the calcified web-realm that is the demon web pits.
They find themselves in a room where braided webs fill the floor. They can get down on their knees and crawl or move with balance checks. Everyone save Elbryn crawls as they are in heavy armors. Tealgar reaches the middle of the room when 3 large white spider with bluish legs appear and bites at Tealgar and Talon. They miss their targets and suddenly, save 1, disappears. Phase spiders!!! Elbryn reacts and slashes at the remaining spider. It has allready been hurt by a volley of missile from Runegars wand and Elbryn opens its belly with a wild stroke spilling steaming entrails on the web-floors, it dies. Tealgar crawls forward but is suddenly stuck, the webbing further on is appearently very sticky. He curses tries to break free and fails. Wythmord crawls away wanting to get away from the poisen-bite of the phase-spiders. Talon casts a protective spell increasing their saves and stands back.
A spider launches itself through the barriers of worlds and sinks its teeth into Talons back. He reels as poisen works its way into his system. He loses 7 con and looks weakened as he also has -5 levels from the encounter with the sporebat. He screams for help!!! The other spider appears and bites Tealgar but misses covering his mighty shield with venom. But the group is ready they have readied actions and when the spiders appear again they slash, chop and throws spells against them. One spider is almost cut in half and seeing their impending doom they retreat to the safety of the ethereal plane and stays there not wanting to face the mighty Lawbringers again.
The party heals their wounded and Wythmord has a magic item that is able to restore talons lost con. They continue exploring the maze-like caverns drawing a detailed map as they go on.
Demon-temple
They come to a blasphemous temple sacred to the spider queen. Luckily it is empty but foul web-runes cover the walls and Runegar tries to learn something from the runes using desciper script. He screams as he learns the true extend of Lloths chaos and evil. He loses 2 wisdom as the knowledge drains away some of his sanity (bad will save). They quickly leave this unholy place in search of the drow Lisondra who has the information they require.
Demons of fire
Their search for the drow Lisondra leads them to heavy stone doors, strange fiery sigils adorn them. They open them and see a chamber where parts of the floor has been removed and replaced with pool of scorching magma. Close to the door stands 2 palrethe demons cloaked in fire and wielding flaming longswords. They scream " foul mortal your souls will burn forever" and charge Tealgar... The first one hits the dwarf paladin hard with a crit inflicting 21 in damage, the other miss entirely.
Then the group responds!!! Elbryn, wielding the demon slaying bastard sword, charges the first demon and with a viscious cut cuts off the demons arm, spraying flaming ichor on the floor. It is hurt bad but Elbryn is also hurt as the flames around the demon burns him. A flash is seen cutting through the abdomen of the second demon!!! Tealgars weapon has been enchanted with a demon-slaying spell that now cuts clean through the demons hide spilling steaming entrails on the floor. Runegar and Talon moves away counting on the 2 damage dealers to take care of the badly injured demons. Wythmord heals the hurt dwarven paladin Tealgar.
The 2 palrethe demons curse the party and withdraws hrowing themselves into a pit of magma in the center of the room disappearing instantly. The party concludes that the magma-pit must be a gate to some fiery realm.
But when they try to leave the room a large spider made of pure magma appears where the demons disappeared. An Inferno-spider!!! It throws a flaming net at Wythmord and it burns the priest and anchors him to the ground. Elbryn moves forward but the creature is out of reach. Talon moves forward and heals the burnt priest Wythmord.
Another net hits Elbryn and also anchors him in place but the wily elf uses a maneuver that brakes the hold and he slips away only slightly burnt. Tealgar slashes at the fiery net but it is hard and resists his attack. Runegar sees that the spider has the advantage of reach and decides to flee. He casts dimension door and takes Tealgar, Talon and Wythmord with him shouting to Elbryn that he should follow as soon as possible.
Elbryn takes a chance and moves away form the spider taunting it to come out of the magma pool and devour him. The beast is nearly mindless and when confronted by only a single enemy it staggers out of the pool and attacks Elbryn. Mistake!!!! first its jaws miss then Elbryn hits it twice and crits it cutting right through its fiery body. It staggers for a moment then slumps dead on the floor. He cannot help to gloat when he catches up with his friends hehe....
Demon council
The party continues their search for the drow Lisaondra when they come to a dead end. Or so they believe!! Wythmords church inquisitor levels grants him a will save when he sees a illusion and he sees right through the illusionary wall. They pass the wall and comes to a chamber filled with bookshelves and a summoning chamber. It looks like living-quarters and they see the occupants: A drow female wearing a webbed chanmail and a tiefling with a pointy tail. Again Wythmord notices that they are illusions but the drow illusion talks to them; " greetings, what brings such fine people to our humble home???" Tealgar steps forward "we have some books for you and you have information we require".
The real couple steps forward from a hidden alcove ending the illusion. She is the drow Lisondra that they have been looking for and she gives them a letter saying thet they should read it right away. She thanks them for the books and after a short dicussion about paying for the letter( she is greedy) they ask her if she knows a portal to sigil as the one they came thrugh is one-way. She tells them that the gate that blocks the way to Lloths section, the black gate, have been forged by Gond, the god of crafting, and secretly acts as a portal. They thank her and asks if they could rest somewhere. She tells them that they cannot rest in her quarters but knows of a passage close by that should do the trick. But it is not cheap she says. Wythmord then insults her by offering a meager 25 gp hehe. She laughs and says that he is lucky that she does not venerate Lloth anymore because such an insult would have cost him a good flocking. They can stay for 100 gp and Wythmord have to pay 250 hehe.
They are lead to the chamber to rest and read the letter. It is grim reading as they learn that Lloth are having a demonic council where she will try to ally with the more powerful demon princes and being a god she will most likely succeed. Suddenly her plan becomes evident!!! She seeks to destroy or cripple the elven people on faerun with her new demonic allies/servants and that is why elven clerics and druids are having dark omens in their dreams ( see Qualtenwood-section above ) The Lawbringers ponder and are determined that the foul plan will fail..
This session took 3 hours and the party is still level 10
Talon is 10 cloistered cleric and dragonwrought kobold
Wythmord is 3 cloistered cleric/ 3 church inquisitor/ 4 Radient servant of Pelor(Lathander), and human
Tealgar is 6 paladin/ 4 Fist of Raziel, and gold dwarf
Runegar is 4 wizard/ 1fighter/5 runesmith, and shield dwarf
Elbryn is 10 warblade and wood Elf
(29/9-08) 19 Nightal 1372: confusing demons and demon at the gate
The party wakes up fully rested and start by examining the letter about the demon council. They roll history and Wythmord rolls a natural 20 giving him a terrifying insight about Lloths plans (actually he ket Tealgar roll for him hehe and he rolled the natural 20). He explains that the pact at the end of the council is a powerful geas that will enable Lloth to make the chaotic demons work together towards a common goal!! and given the the knowledge thay have gathered it is almost certain that the common goal will be to attack the elves of Faerun. They set out determined to stop Lloths plans. But first they must find their way back to Sigil so they can learn more from the scholar Rule-of-three.
They come to a dark corridor and several succeed in their reception rolls. They hear insane voices rending their sanity as they roll will save. Elbryn fails and stands babbling insanely and the rest of the group recognizes a confusion effect. Dark brooding voices fills their heads as beings of shadowy material climb up hidden shafts in the corridor. They recognize them as allips, undead that confuse their targets. The allips fly closer muttering insane propaganda and hit Tealgar draining 3 wisdom as his mental strenght is drained away. Again Elbryn babbles and does nothing ( a state that he will be in most of this fight) Tealgar on the other hand ( with his high paladin saves ) shakes of the insanities and smites an allip hitting it twice destroying its frail form. Runegar stands back and reverts to his true form: Troglodyte ( alter self spell) Talon moves away from the wisdom draining allips to cast a save-boosting recicitation-spell. Then a light pulses from wythmords holy symbol! He abhors the undead and so does his god Lathander!!! He turns undead and the shock wave of divine energy destroys all but 1 allip. But the maddening whispers continue as if something else is lurking about.
Tealgar moves closer attacking the Allip, but this time its incorporeality saves it from the destruction of the dwarven paladin ( or as he prefers it: battle-preacher!!! ) Elbryn also moves closer attacking the foul undead but also misses the elusive undead. Then suddenly a strange twisting demon crawls up from a shaft. It is ugly as hell with features of both man and a carapaced green insect. Its wings flutter insanely and and in the dark between its wings they can see the tortured souls of its long dead insane victims. Runegar is shocked by its appearence and picks up his axe and hits himself ( a strange confusion ability it has) Talon does the same with his spear skewing himself for 3 damage. Wythmord again turns undead destroying the last allip.
Tealgar sees the demon and smiles, again his chosen foe has come before him to be cast back to the hells where they belong. He charges the demon and smites evil!!!! but the demon is protected by a shadowy field that gives it 50% miss chance and he misses. Elbryns mind buckles under the pressure of the demons special confusion ability. He graps his demon slaying weapon and cuts a huge chunck of his own leg ( 26 in damage) Talon does nothing and stands back also confused. Wythmord is also affected and babbles incoherently but Runegar tries his best to attack the demon blasting rays of flame at the monster. He hits but the rays passes through the monster and it is unscathed.
Then something weird happens!!!! Tealgar and Elbryn attacks the demon for the next 4 round hitting it every time and everytime the demons 50% miss chance prevails, it is a lucky bastard!!! it in turn attacks Tealgar with incorporeal touches dealing roughly 70 in damage over the course of the 4 rounds. But in the ned its luck run out Tealgar hits it cutting it open with his long sword and the tide of the battle turns, again and again the heroes succeed on their will saves and hammers the demon with spell and weapon, at last killing the troublesome demon.....
demon at the gate
The huge demon stands before the black gate. Too long it has remained here without a decent fight. "Damned spiderqueen" it mutters in the dark tongue of the abyss,"Xtasilok desires mortals to flay" it continues. But then its ears hears something and it tilts its huge head trying to learn more of its prey. No one save the dreaded mistress of spiders and Eclavdra herself is permitted near the black gate. It silently hopes that it is not Eclavdra returning early from her quest in the forest kingdom and when a dwarf is seen it roars in feral joy, prey has come before Xtasilok, the self-proclaimed smiter of worlds
The group come to a huge chamber with a glass??? floor. Foul teaching of the spiderqueen it etched on the walls and below the glass floor thousends of spiders squirm. A huge black gate it on the far end and before it stands a powerful mucled demon 15 ft. tall. a Kastiguar. Initiative is rolled.
Tealgar reacts first and charges the demon!!! he connets with its iron like hide and cuts a huge gash down its forearm. Elbryn moves closer awaiting the right chance to strike. Talon quickly casts a protective spell, shield of faith mass boosting the ac of the party. Runegar steps closer unleashing hell as flames cover the demon. But alas it is unscated by the fiery rays. The demon retalites by teleorting as a free action and charging Runegar!!! It gores him and hits him hard 46 in damage and it one blow Runegar is down to 50% hp. he staggers and is stunned for a round. The group sees the fury of the attack and saves versus fear. They all succeed and is therefore not staggered. Wythmord moves closer to Runegar healing him for most of the damage.
Tealgar again attacks the demon, this time from behind and again hits it scoring a hit across its back. Elbryn tumbles closer and wielding the demon slaying sword he swings at the demon. Black blood flows from a huge wound cut by Elbryns attack and the demon roars in rage and pain. Wythmord casts a swift spell that gives +50% in damage to his spells of 3rd level or lower. Then he stands back and summons the evil damaging holy storm spell ( 3rd level spell + 50% dmg). It burns the demon but the canny priest is far from finished!!! He retrieves a potion imbued with the light of brilliancy-spell that burns evil outsiders i.e the demon and in the end the demon has been severely injured. Talon follows wythmords lead and summons rain that scorches chaotic creatures and then he quickens an ice axe-spell expecting a melee engagement in the near future.
Next round the party assails the demons. Tealgar and Elbryn opens its back and stomach with wild blows and the combined rain from the 2 clerics hurt it even more. The Kastiguar roars and threatens the party with dismemberment and attacks wildly at the party scoring severel hard hits. Talon moves closer and touches the demon with freezing its left leg solid while wythmord stand back healing the injured.
Tealgar hits the demons again this time almost cutting the right leg off at the knee. It staggers and is bleeding severely. Elbryn sees the weakness and with a presice blow he cuts the leg clean off spurting thick black blood high in the air. The demon falls to the ground dead.
Then the demonic body trembles and a huge swarm of black spiders erupt from the lifeless body of the demon. The swarm descends on the party eager to slake its thirts for blood. From the floor erupts 2 smaller spider swarms also moving forward and suddenly the entire plane shakes violently. They remember the prophecy that warned them to flee when the queen shakes her web. But they decide to try to fight the swarms. Runegar throws a fireball that inflicts 50% extra damage to swarms and scorches 2 swarms. Elbryn and Tealgar knows that this is dire indeed!!! The swarm is made up of dimunitive creatures and their weapons cannot hurt them they move away shouting to get away from the swarms and flee through the hidden portal on the black gate. Runegar is quickly overwhelmed by a swarm and so is Talon and Wythmord. Their bodies are covered in biting spiders that crawl in their noses ears mouths, they cannot do anything save a single move ( bad for. saves)
Things take a turn for the worst when a black spider with a drow females head starts to unravel the entire chamber her legs moving faster then they can follow, each round unraveling more and more of the web-plane. In 2 round most of the room have been unraveled only leaving a small path to the black gate.
The party flees the room by crushing a potion on the gate ( the portal-trigger is that they must destoy a magical item to activate it) and Wythmord is the last to flee the demonweb pits angered that they had to flee a combat they definately were winning hehe. 2 thumbs up for effort, for to the end he tried to kill at least 1 swarm before retreating...
This session took 3,75 hours and the party is still level 10
Talon is 10 cloistered cleric and dragonwrought kobold
Wythmord is 3 cloistered cleric/ 3 church inquisitor/ 4 Radient servant of Pelor(Lathander), and human
Tealgar is 6 paladin/ 4 Fist of Raziel, and gold dwarf
Runegar is 4 wizard/ 1fighter/5 runesmith, and shield dwarf
Elbryn is 10 warblade and wood Elf
(8/10-08) 19 Nightal 1372: Unlikely partner, jackal scholars and frog faced slaver
The party has fled through the gate and left behind the demonweb pits. They seek out their ally, the githzerai scholar Rule-of-three at the styx oarsman. He is mortified to learn that Lloth has summoned important demon princes to a demonic council and asks if they know what it actualle means??? Wythmord does and Rule-of-three is impressed by the knowledge of the young human cleric but informs them that the letter that they have received is fake. The information on it is probaly right but it is un-enchanted and adressed generally to the demon princes.He asks them to wait for no more than 2 tendays and in the meantime he will call in depts and find a way to stop od disrupt this unholy council.
In the off- time they shop for magical items in the many varied shops in Sigil . It was actually quite amusing. Among others they met a sinister gnome merchant (who probaly had the item Talon was looking for but being a kobold he refused to give the wreth HIS money) Talon also had a rendevouz with a human merchant who offered him heavy discounts if he were to part with a hand or some blood hehe ( he even considered it hehe for a moment)
18 days later they were summoned to The Styx Oarsman by an Imp messenger . When arrived they are told by Rule- of-three that an unlikely ally has presented itself. It is Orcus ambassador who has intercepted the letter adressed to Orcus and are willing to part with it, the time of the council and a map of the demonweb pits, appearently it has been remade since their last visit ( they saw the beginning of the remaking as they fled the pits).The reasons of such treachery by Orcus own ambassador is unknown but in this situation more then welcomed. The ambassador, named Dawnat sanp, will be waiting for them at the Inn of the Black Heart in Zelater, Grazz´zt unholy city. They are advised to seek out knowledge from two archon scholars called Kemet and Gambisola. They are also given a portal key to a one way portal to Zelatar. They rush out the door determined to find a way to stop Lloths plans....
Jackal Scholars
The party come to a seriously lavish mansion and knock on the door. A gnoll servant opens (Wythmord sees through its illusion and actually sees a jackel-headed humanoid but wisely says nothing) and they ask for Kemet and Gambisola. They are left in a grand room and after a couple of minutes 2 hound archons appear. They greet the party and after small talk the party asks if they know something about Zeletar. Sensing money the archons give general info about Zelatar and mentions that the only way to be relatively safe in Zeletar is to own a Merchant Charter issued by Grazz´zt himself and by "chance" the Archons have such a charter! Then starts the haggling hehe!!! The archons will sell it for 2000 gp and most of the group is willing to trade the Eye of Sseth, a 10.000 gp gem aquired in chapter 1, for the info and 8000 gp in diamonds. Talon refuses, he is after all dragonwrought, and has no desire to part with the gem as it is shiny and very beautiful. The group spends a lot of time haggling with their own greedy little party-member hehe. But Gambisola desires the gem and Kemet accepts a discount and gives them 8500 in diamonds as well as the merchant charter. Talon is chosen as the "merchant" on the charter as he is the only one in the group with ranks in bluff hehe.
The time haggling was very fun and the party started realizing that the gnoll servant only appeared whn either Kemet or Gambisola left the room. And when Wythmord explained that they were jackal-headed humanoid the party they realized that the scholars were not archons. But they felt they have not been deceived and left the mansion and entered the gate to Zelatar...
Frog-faced slaver
The party appear at a gloomy place.It is dark fog-filled plain with small twisted trees surviving amidst toxic clouds of sulphur and filthy pus-filled ponds. The appear behind some stones and gaze at a dark city in the distance. The walls are grey and a tall black iron gate is visible as the only entreance. They see a caravan of creatures walking slowly towards the infernal gate when they suddenly hear a croaking voice " ahh arrrived through the one-way gate have ye, welcome my new slaves". The speaker is a horrible fat frog-demon. a hezrou, who has spotted them while shackling a tiefling slave. Talon tries feebly to show him the merchant quarter but he recognizes the holy symbol of Lathander around Wythmords neck and attacks anyway. When Elbryn, allways wanting to test his skills, almost kills him in 1 attack 64 in damage) he shouts for help from the centaur-like demonic guardians who respond to his promises of wealth. They ride towards the group and 1 hits Elbryn with a bow attack as they demand surrender. Elbryn desires revenge and kills the hezrou demon outright.
Finally the leader of the demonic centaurs sees the merchant charter held by Talon and orders the almost frenzied demons to halt, well knowing he will face death if the minions of Grazz´zt knew his men had attacked a licensed merchant. He informs them that they are welcomed within the walls of Zeletar and their revenge is fair and promptly leave them ( hehe a demon talking of fairness)
The group takes the rest of the slaves as prisoners eventually releasing a tiefling named Rinis who offers his services as guide. They grudgenly accept but Wythmord insists that he still is their prisoner hehe. He starts by saying that the gate is deadly to good creatures as viper trees attack all good aligned beings. They enter Zeletar relatively unscathed ( the trees attack only once and they had a ring of undetectable alignment which meant that only Tealgar was attacked)
This session took 3 hours and the party is still level 10
Talon is 10 cloistered cleric and dragonwrought kobold
Wythmord is 3 cloistered cleric/ 3 church inquisitor/ 4 Radient servant of Pelor(Lathander), and human
Tealgar is 6 paladin/ 4 Fist of Raziel, and gold dwarf
Runegar is 4 wizard/ 1fighter/5 runesmith, and shield dwarf
Elbryn is 10 warblade and wood Elf
13/10-08) 7 Hammer 1373: betrayed, death dog and abyssal giants
The party of heroes find themselves in Zeletar. Their guide/prisoner Rinis asks if he should go look for the sign of the black heart. They accept his offer hoping that he will return (sense motive hehe). In the meanwhile they rest at the filth-hole, an inn run by a smoking tiefling. They spend 2 days there recupotating and after shoving their merchant charter they are given a better treatment. Appearently the denizens in Zeletar have a great deal of respect for the merchants sanctioned by Grazz´zt.
2 Days later Rinis reappear. He can take them through the green-fire ovens which acts as portals in Zelatar. he warns them that good-aligned characters probaly will take damage as the portals are infused with raw evil and chaotic energy. They grit their teeth and enter some of them experiencing their sanity ripped from them and some feel their bodies succumbing to the evil energy. They all survive and heal up. Rinis pulls out a map and guides them to a friendly looking inn.
Inside they see a Lamia noble gripped one of the 3 tiefling waiters in her coils. She laughs as she toss the plane-touched through the air chrashibg into some furniture. They are met by another tiefling who is very friendly and forthcoming. They ask about the ambassador Dawnat Sanp and she says they she is not allowed to disclose information about guests and refer to the porter Cloacoa in the the courtyard.
They enter the porters room and their lungs burn as the room is filled with noxious gas and a foul stench of acidic vapors. The porter, a green pus-filled ooze like demon, flip throgh a heavy ledger and asks, in a slurping voice, if they have reservations because everything is booked. They say that they are looking for Dawnat Sanp and again they are rebuffed, the Alkalith demon also refuses. He will on the other hand accept a bribe hehe but he asks 10.000 gp and the party refuses. They bargain and for 300 gp he will send a courier with a letter to Dawnat Sanp.
An hour later they are met by a rutterkin demon who shows them to a room on the first floor. They knock and hear a shrill voice "no visitors". They speak the password given by Rule-of-three and after a minute the door opens, a mane (lesser demon) servitor stand behind. Inside a lavish room their see a Bone large snake glide forwards, its dead frills around the neck clikking as it nears the part. Red burning eyes stare at them. The Bone Naga introduces itself as Dawnat Sanp and makes them swear thet the information will be used against the spiderqueen. They gladly accept!! He informs them that the demonic council is in 20 days and gives them the real council invitation written on cured elven hide.
Suddenly he slithers across the room opening the door. Outside stands a Lamia, one of Grazz´zt chosen creatures, it screams " spies!!! spies for Orcus!!! summen the elder demons". The ambassador screams flee you fools and teleports away. They party then talk waht to do. They hear sceams outside, appearently the have been betrayed.
The talk ends when 2 shadow demons teleport to the room followed by the slime demon porter Cloacoa. Battle begins!!! One of the Shadow-demons flies through the wall and hits Wythmord with its claws. He is hurt and the fiend grapples him. The other flies and attacks Tealgar also grappling him and cutting through his flesh. The slime-demon glides forward and attacks the almost helpless Wythmord. He hits 4 times burning away wythmord skin with acid. The acid is so vile that his shield even takes damage, but it survives. Then Elbryn moves closer to the shadow-demon grappling Wythmord!! His demon-slaying sword flares as it thirsts to slay the demon and with a violent chop he slays it outright sending shadowy wisps around the room as the demon body discorporates. Tealgar tries to shake the demon of his back and succeeds on escaping the grapple., he roars in anger as and attack the the demon smiting it and almost kills it but he is far from finished!!! He invokes his bracers of blinding strike and attacks the demon again this time destroying it utterly. Runegar sends magic missiles through the air crashing into the slime demon. Talon boosts their defenses with his divine magic while Wythmord moves away drinking a potion of cure moderate wounds.
The demon Cloacoa focuses its attacks on Elbryn and hits him twice. That is the last thing it does in its long life. First Elbryn chops at it almost killing it!!! Tealgar also hits it inflicting a gaping hole in its body. Then Wythmord retrieves his potion imbued with celestial Brilliancy that melts away the demons body, it tries to comtrol its dying body but the light is too powerful, it dies!!!
The party opens another door fleeing the room. they find themself in a gardenroom filled with carnivorous cacti and other foul plant-life. The spot a beautiful female standing in the room, her beayty is otherworldly and she has 2 bat-like wings. They recignize her as a succubus, demonic seducers!!!
She says "Your guide has betrayed you, the city is in turmoil, they seek your lives. But I have a way out all it takes is a kiss" and she look at the LG cleric of Lathander wythmord. Well knowing they are facing certain death he grudgenly steps forward kissing the CE demonette... Darkness and a terrible dragging at his soul he fells as he looses a level. But treu to her word she points at a door and tells them that they can find a gate to the the outskirts of Sigil. But to gain the portal key it requires another kiss. Wythmord again kisses the demon and gains the key. They enter the portal and flees the city.
They hear shouting from the demons at the wall "the giants will find you and bring back your heads" and see that the demon stop their pursuit ,leering at them. they escape Zelatar and stes out for the river styx knowing that night hags frequent the river and they can help them escape..
Death dog
The party treck a couple of hours when they hear terrible howls closing on them and out of the infernal mists comes a large dog-like being. It it foul beyond description its flesh is tattered and rotting and filled with maggots.
Runegar reacts first and resumes his favorite form, Trog-form, and steps closer. Elbryn charges at the beast and removes several bone-white ribs in a huge swipe. Then the Charnel hound howls with the voices of a thousend lost souls and attacks him. He is hit by a bite attack and twice by its pus-filled claws rending his flesh inflicting around 70 in damage. Tealgar charges and smites at the beast hitting it with a thunderous blow cutting away diseased rotting flesh. Wythmord moves closer healing Elbryn via his greater status spell. Talon moves forward and boosts their ac str and dex through his divine magic.
Runegar moves closer and casts haste at Elbryn Tealgar and Talon giving them an extra attack and +1 dodge ac. Elbryn makes the best of it and hits the foul undead 3 times hehe dealing apx. 120 in damage, the Hound seems severely hurt. It retaliates and hits Elbryn with a claw attack as well as a bite but Wythmord quickly heals Elbryns wounds in his next round. Tealgar also resumes his attacks and smites the demon twice cutting it open soilling rotting guts on the ground.
The beast is foul beyond reckoning but the Lawbringers are powerful and in the next round it is overwhelmed by the assults of the heroes. Elbryn cuts 2 precise on both sides of the neck, cutting its head off staring at the neck-hole as it tumbles to the ground... They continue
abyssal giants
The party come to the river Styx and sees a foul crone standing by the river bank. "the hound you fought has 2 masters, 1 giants they are coming for your heads but is hasn´t have to be like that. I can summon a ferry that will get you out of here. All it will cost you is a soul, one of your own or someone else" she says. But before they can answer they spot two giants emerging from the fog. They are huge and covered in writhing tatoos wielding greatswords. They laugh at the group and prepare to kill!!!! The hag hides in a bush eager to avoid combat...
The giants starts by throwing fell rocks filled with chaotis energies which explode dealing 21 in damage, one miss horribly ( natural 1). Elbryn charges a giant and hits the creatures opening a gash on its thigh. Wythmord heals the party damaged by the the giants rocks and Talon moves away taking cover ans standing so that he cannot be hit with another character if the giant throw them again. Tealgar moves closer desirering to aid his friend Elbryn in his struggle with the towering enemies. Runegar also moves closer itching to assail them with spells.
The giants let go of the rocks and draws their heavy greatswords. One attacks Elbryn and misses but the other crits with a roll of 17 and cuts open the young elf. Elbryn stares at his guts emerging from his stomach. He sags to the ground, dead!!!! ( massive damage, dealt 51 in damage). Wythmord sees the death and is determined to avenge Elbryn and as a swift action invokes a spell that doubles 1-3 lvl. spell-damage and covers the giant area in holy storm hurting the enemy. Talon sees the threat and invokes invisibility and creeps closer to Elbryn undetected, he has a plan hehe. Runegar throws a fireball at the giants but the wash of flame only annoys the fire immune giants. Runegar swears at his unluck and so does his player Peter.
The giants laugh at the party and advances to Tealgar again inflicting terrible wounds, this time on the dwarven paladin. One misses though as they are giants and Tealgar has + 4 ac versus giants boosting his ac to somewhere in the mid-30´ies. He laughs back at them and attack 3 times, hitting twice and spilling large quantities of giant-blood on the ground. Wythmord then summons flawful rain that, as well as his holy storm, deals damage to the giant and when he draws his potion of celestial brilliancy he manages to anger the giants. Runegar lobs a glob of acid at the giants but again it merely annoys the acid-immune creatures. Talon again creeps closer to Elbryns corpse and whispers prayers to his deity Kurtulmak. Elbryns body starts twitching his entrail starts reforming and his eyes open slowly. He is at 1/2 hp but otherwise unharmed. Talon has cast Revenancer a spell that tempoarily revives Elbryn for 10 rounds but then he dies again ( then Talon can cast Revivify on him hehe ûber-cool combo)
The giants attack Wythmord and Tealgar inflicting heavy wounds on the human Cleric but Tealgar high Ac saves him from the worst of the damage. Then Runegar casts a cool spell; unluck and affects one of the giants cursing him with bad luck ( must roll 2 times for att., dmg.,saves and take the worst result). Tealgar charges a giant provoking att. of opportunity but it misses because of Runegars Unluck spell. He connects with the giant almost killing him and when Wythmords storms hit him he is close to death. Wythmord in turn moves away from the pain-dealing giant and heals himself with a potion. Elbryn stands up and moves closer to the giants and Talon tries to confuse the other giant but this time it succeeds in its save.
The giants attack feriously but between Runegars unluck spell and Tealgars high Ac they miss most of their attacks. Tealgar jumps up and with a powerful downwards chop opens a giants neck arterie and continues to make its way through its body opening its body so that its spine is visible, its looks confused for a moment ans slumps dead to the ground. Wythmords potion of celestial brilliancy takes out the other giant, searing away its flesh and its un-fleshed bones clatter to the ground. The hag spring forward punching her talons throgh thr giants eye ripping forth a wriggling maggot with the giants face on it. "the payment is sufficiant" she croaks and summons a ferry and ferries them to the lower ward in Sigil....
This session took 3,75 hours and the party is still level 10, but we were in a hurry so xp will not be awarded until the start of next time, easily giving them a level.
Talon is 10 cloistered cleric and dragonwrought kobold
Wythmord is 3 cloistered cleric/ 3 church inquisitor/ 4 Radient servant of Pelor(Lathander), and human
Tealgar is 6 paladin/ 4 Fist of Raziel, and gold dwarf
Runegar is 4 wizard/ 1fighter/5 runesmith, and shield dwarf
Elbryn is 10 warblade and wood Elf
20/10-08) 14 Hammer 1373: disguised and battle royal
The mihgty Lawbringers have come back to sigil and returns to the Styx Oarman to talk to Rule-of-three. He says that they only have one thing left to do: disturb the demonic council and make sure that Lloths pacts does not come to fruition. He advises them to disguise themselves certail that the demonic overlords or their aspects are to "superior" to notice their true selves. They leave the inn and stock up on spells and make their disguises.
The disguise section was funny as i demanded that they are creative in their disguises. They were heh and Taelgar bought and stiched together meat to make him look zombie-like. He bought skulls to adorn his armor and colored his armor black.
Runegar coloured also his armor black and his face white. In his beard he knotted bones and animal skulls. His face was coloured white with dark patches around his eyes and he bought a skull-topped staff. He was going after the "evil-priest" look.
Elbryn bought black bandages to conceal his skin and a dark tattered cloak as well a a minor item that made his eyes glow red constantly. He was going after the "dark warrior" or a strange "mummy"-look.
Wythmord bought "bone-gloves" and dark tight-fitting clothes and bought chain to put around him that acts as armor and torture equipment. He went for the chain-demon look.
Talon was nominated as the ambassador in the group. This decision was based on the fact that he was the only one with considerable ranks in bluff. He went as "little Orcus" he is a small dragonwrought kobold and he bought fake bats-wings, horns and hoof-boots and something to give him a small pot-belly. He resembled a small Orcus hehe.
They left Sigil buffed up and ready for action and entered the portal to the Demonweb Pits.
battle royal
The party enters the portal and find themselves before a legion of drow warriors led by 2 sneering spellcasters. They present their papers and are escrted through the demonweb and through a black gate (opened by Runegar and a dread word spell)
Inside a huge chambar, where raised mezzanines lead up to a drow guarded throne, they see terrible beings waiting. On a small platform they spot Demogorgons aspect talking to the crowds of demon aspects and ambassadors. They see the aspect of the gnoll-demon Yugeehnu and the hulking form of the demon aspect Baphomet. Standing alone they see a hulking Frost giant, probaly the ambassador of Kostichie. A many eyed demon standing beside a fearsome crab/scorpion demon, the apect of the former prince of demons Obox-Ob. Near the throne they see a magnificient succubi, the aspect of the demon princess Malcanchet. Closest to them are 2 vrocks led by a richly-plumed ambbassador of Pazuzu, demon lord of the skies. Several drow are present as well as several sevants of these dark beings.
They advance when the vrocks, who just has killed 2 drow guards, begin and infernal dance. they recignize it as a dance of ruin and discusses whether to interrupt it or not. They wait to long and a wave of evil energy washes towards them. They all save ( they all have +9 save from spells casy by the priests ) but still take 31 in damage. When they near the vrocks the lets the characters pass, eyeing them closely.
"They wield the demon slaying sword, stands aside demons this fight is between me and the ambassadors of Orcus" bellows the many eyed demon, an oculus demon. Appearently it has seen that Elbryn wields the demon slaying greatsword and hates it. Then it envelops itself in a radience( shield of law) and attacks.
The battle commends with Runegar attacking it with an orb of force, but the canny dwarven wizards his target. Then the Oculus demon responds and unleashes rays of necrotic energy from its eyes. they hit Elbryn, Talon and Runegar dealing apx. 10 in damage. then it roars and charges Elbryn with its unholy longsword hitting him hard. Elbryn retaliates and chops off limps of demonic flesh with the demon-slaying bastard sword. Tealgar moves into range and attacks dealing almost no damage ( he is afraid the demons will recognize that he is a paladin if he smites) Wythmord moves away healing his allies from range via the greater status spell. Talon boosts his allies through a saves boosting spell.
The battle rages on but the Lawbringbringers have prepared themselves. They all have increased saves ac. and when Runegar casts hast they have the demon on the defensive. It fight with rage and necrotic bursts from its eyes severely damaging the warblade Elbryn but in the end Elbryn himself kills off the meddling demon with a moghty slash that opens its belly soilling guts on the floor.
Then the crab/scorpion demon steps forward " Ancient am I, worthy of your fealty am I, thou have slain my friend and champion but i will spare your miserable lives if thou swear fealty to the great Obox-Ob" it is adressed to Elbryn who appearently have slain its champion. " I will never swaer to yhe likes of you" he responds and attacks the aspect.
The demon it attacked on all front as spell, sword and might assails it. It takes to the air and attacks swiftly with ist poisened 3 stingers but Elbryn and Tealgar has an extra+ 11 to saves and Tealgar is dwarf so the poisen has no affect on the stout pair of warriors. Things change as Tealgars sword pierces its chitin and they see its insides. Its guts and organs are a mass of biting and stinging insects that crawl through the holes in its carapace. the demonswarm locusts are intelligent and attacks the spellcaster Runegar. Another swarm emerges when the aspect of Obox-ob is hit by a fierce blow from Elbryns sword, this swarm seeks out Wythmord who keeps the party healed up from far away.
The battle is fierce but the aspect of Obox-ob lacks the healing power of wyhmord and that spell his undoing. He is killed by a furious spell assult from Runegar but his swarms fights on, undaunted by their hosts destruction. The party made only one mistake, they had battled swarms before and knew that area-of-effect spells are powerful against them so Runegar unleashed a fireball which accidently hit a vrock who was standing close by. The vrock served Lummegier, a vrock blackguard, who is ambassador of Pazuzu. He did not take kindly to attacks to its servant. He screeched and flies to the attack.
And unluckily Talon was situated behind Lummegier hehe. He directed his attcks at "mini-orcus" and deals an impressive amount of damage to Talon. In turn Talon decides that the beast place to be is away from the demonic ambassador and casts mislead creating a illusionary double of himself while he creeps away. 1 of the vrock attacks the double but Lummegier is not so easy fooled and shouts not to attack the fake Talon but Talons trick pays off, he slinks away when Elbryn joins the combat.
Elbryn attacks and attacks the vrock ambassador who in turn hits him again and again, indeed a mighty bloodshedding struggle between the 2 combatants. Wythmord was attacked by a swarm who persisted in attacking him even when wythmord had casts holy storm in the area, but it in the end it died, killed by the holy storm. Tealgar was battling a vrock but with smites and pure anger he quickly dispathed the foul cretin. Runegar again had his trouble with the remaining swarm but it too was killed off.
Lummegier, the vrock blackguard, had Elbryn down to 18 Hp when Wythmord casts cure moderate wounds mass That does not sound as a powerful spell, but wythmord is THE "uber-healer, healing around 80 hp. to each character wirh said spell, bringing them close to full hp.
That action saved Elbryn and was the demons undoing!!! The party was almost at full hp and in the next couple of rounds they killed the remaining demonic adversaries.
The room was silent as the other aspects and ambassador looked on, loving the struggle between the ambassadors of Orcus ( the party ) and the aspects/anmbassadors of said demon princes and they even looked impressed with the fighting prowess of the group and gave them grudgenly respect.
All in all they had killed an Oculus demon CR 13, the aspect of Obox-ox Cr 12, Lummegier ambassador of Pazuzu CR 12 and 2 vrocks.
the session took 4 hours but again we finished quickly so the party will be awarded xp next time but they gained a level from the xp from last session.
Talon is 11 cloistered cleric and dragonwrought kobold
Wythmord is 3 cloistered cleric/ 3 church inquisitor/ 5 Radient servant of Pelor(Lathander), and human
Tealgar is 6 paladin/ 5 Fist of Raziel, and gold dwarf
Runegar is 5 wizard/ 1fighter/5 runesmith, and shield dwarf
Elbryn is 11 warblade and wood Elf
(3/11-08) 14 Hammer 1373: battle royal and rewarded by the gods (exept Runegar)
Rasmus/Elbryn was working and was therefore not present
The Lawbringers find themselves diguised as ambassadors of Orcus in the demonic council and they have just slain the ambassador of Pazuzu and the aspect of obox-ob, but luckily no alarm is raised. The drow have appearently expected some degree of violence from the chaotic entities at the meeting.
They also have the grudgenly respect of the gathered demonic envoys who off course only respect chaos and violence. They talk about fleeing but then it dawns upon them that they have not disturbed the council enough.
A drow servant steps forward and rasps in abyssal that the envoy of Lloth will see the ambassadors of Pazuzu but the twin-voiced demogorgon laughs " death by Orcus" and the gathered demons laughs, croaks and screams in joy.
Then the aspects are followed, one by one, to the audience chamber of the envoy of Lloth. Lastly the aspect of Malcanchet trows away his disguise and reveals himself as the aspect of Grazz´zt. He laughs at the party and walks to his audience with Lloth.
Finally the drow servant shouts: "the ambassadors of Orcus" and they pass a Bebilith porter and come to an oval room where a large drow female clad in flowing white ropes stand in the center of a huge silken web.
"so it is true what the dark prince says, Orcus has sent assasins to disrupt the meeting. You will suffer a painfull death but one will be animated and sent back to your master with a message : Orcus will be the first to fall " Initiative is rolled.
The envoy acts first and tries to target Tealgar with a confusion spell but the stout dwarf have been protected by clerical spells and throws off the spell. Then a large black spider descends from the ceiling, it was hidden and attacks Tealgar. It his and pumps venom into his body. But again he rejects the venom with his very high saves.
Tealgar responds with fierce blows to the spider creature spilling green blood on the web-floor. Talon casts righteous wrath of the faithfull giving his allies +3 to hit and damage and an extra attack. Runegar casts a fireball at the Envoy and rolling high on dmg. he inflicts blistering wounds on the low hp. envoy. Wythmord starts by healing his comrades and moves away from the spider.
Next round the envoy moves closer to Runegar and touches him draining away his mental stats. He is outraged and responds with an orb of force that completely shreds the envoys frail body, she convulses as the spiders within devour her body, she dies. The spider thing attacks Talon hitting him lightly and he makes his save rejecting the foul poisen.
Then the door open and Graz´zt appears. " noooooo all my plans have been spoiled, for that transgression you will die" he clenches his greatsword and moves closer hitting Tealgar 2 times spilling his dwarven blood on the ground, he also looks seductively at Tealgar who is filled with dark thought but again he shrugs off the enemy attack. Wythmord laugs and quickly heals all of Tealgars wounds as well as the others with a cure moderate wounds mass. Talon moves away and casts protective magic on his allies.
Runegar steps away and casts magic at the aspect of Graz´zt who recoils in pain as his magic hurts him. Telagar attacks the demon again and again with blows of his longsword. he smites repeatedly and power attacks severely injuring the dark prince. Grazz´zt again looks seductively at Tealgar who fails his save and turns towards Talon, muder in his eyes, and power attacks and deals 27 in damage to his friend. Graz´zt is not finished, he power attacks wiyh 10 and attacks Wythmord, who is keeping the group alive. Luckily he only hits once but inflicts 34 in damage with a cleaving cut. Talon recoils and heals himself as he has been injured by his friend.
Next round Tealgar tires off the meddling prince, he power attacks and smites grazz´zt ending the conflict by decapitating the dark prince. Then the demon web starts shaking and begins unraveling, asppearently Lloth is displeased with the outcome of the council and will punish everyone for it!!!!!
The flee the room and come to the council chamber where havoc has reigned. The demon lords had learned of the envoys death and took it as a sign of weakness and attacked the drow and their demonic allies. The conflict is at an end as drow troops assisted by demon are pouring into the chamber bent on destruction. They freeze as they realize what is happening and then flees the chamber, fearing their godly mistress wrath.
The Lawbringers find the hidden door behind the throne in the council chamber and after a short fight with a guardian Bodak ( Wythmord slew it in one try with a turning blast that shredded its unholy body) they escape through a portal to an upper plane.
rewarded by the gods (exept Runegar)
The lawbringers find themselves on a celestial mountain. Before them stands a legion of hound Archons and down from the skies float a Sword Archons. He descends before them and announces himself as the voice of the gods. He tells them that the gods of Light are have been watching them and that they are impressed by the actions of the group and they will be rewarded but only the good hearted will be able to keep the gift.
He tells Talon that the dragon-god Bahamut have been watching him and are willing to extend godly friendship towards him. The actions that they have done are more than enough to facilitate a shift to LG alignment and if he where to do that Bahamut will continue to grant him his chosen domains and as the voice of the gods say: "With Bahamut you will receive his friendship and patronage, with Kurtulmak yuo will forever be a errand-boy". Talon accept and before him his holy symbol warps and becomes a draconic eye. This is not the usual symbol but a unique symbol given to Talon only.
He tells Tealgar and Wythmord that their gods are impressed and they will be watching them in the future, for in them lies a hope for a better north..
Runegar is told that is all dwarves, evil or neutral, lies the grains of goodness and all he have to do is look into himself and find it. The voice of the gods also says that the dwarven father Moradin are impressed by Runegars clans willingness to accept change in a world where change is neccesary to survive. Runegar thanks for the kind words but stand firm on his alignment LN and there by rejects the gift ( hehe Peter the player have never played a good character and is not going to begin now)
Then the voise of the gods bestow upon them a feat. they are all exalted feats even though they do not have the exalted type. For instance received Talon NYMPHS KISS which is not an exalted feat but it was granted by ûber-good gods and therefore it is an exalted feat. This means that they must abide the rules of exalted feats or loose them again.
They are then tranported to Toril, their home plane and on the horizon the see Silverymoon.
the session took 2,5 hours and they gained a level from concluding an adventure
Talon is 11 cloistered cleric/ 1 contemplative and dragonwrought kobold
Wythmord is 3 cloistered cleric/ 3 church inquisitor/ 6 Radient servant of Pelor(Lathander), and human
Tealgar is 6 paladin/ 6 Fist of Raziel, and gold dwarf
Runegar is 6 wizard/ 1fighter/5 runesmith, and shield dwarf
Elbryn is 12 warblade and wood Elf
Conclusion
Well it was a handy adventure because i got married got a new job and therefore did not have the time to prepare and that would have meant that we would have to cancel a lot of sessions if i did not play this adventure, luckily we did not have too but....
It was a bit too much hack and slash for my taste and most of the players felt the same. Some times we had encounter after encounter and in the ned i even jumped over whole sections as the were entirelly combat-focused. The combat were actually okay, they were different and pitted the players against different types of foes. The "roll diplomacy and see what happens" feeling of the roleplaying aspect of the game was boring and lacked the finesse of complete control that my players have when they are engaged in real roleplaying.
I am looking forward to getting started on chapter 3: The shield of The North