Session 33

Members

 * Bob
 * Damian
 * Fitz
 * Henderbeard
 * Solaris

The Adventure
We begin today's adventure on the banks of a subterranean lake. The previous home to a huge turtle dragon. After some discussion, the party headed back to their headquarters and thought about heading to Naluun tower to rid it of bugs. Upon arriving at their tower, they found an Ogre mage there.

This was none other than Qesnef, the one they freed from White Plume Mountain back in session 21. It turns out that he is actually an ogre who had polymorphed himself into a halfling. Qesnef uncovered some information about his old master and felt indebted to the the party for setting him free, so he sought them out to give them the information.

Everyone was suspicious of his motives though, but Bob did share Qesnef's rot gut whiskey. Damien said that he could stay in the hut outside of the headquarters. The party left for town as Qesnef began setting up his hookah.

Heading to the nearest town of Phoroshe, the party went into Falk's Natural Medicine shop and purchased some potions of healing. It turns out that Rolg had been there too and left a ring of protection for them. Damian's negotiating got the party a free potion of heroism.

While in town, the party ran into Kilborn. He asked for some help in training his army and if the party had any spare magic items they could donate to the cause. The party made a few donations. Kilborn was very happy with his gifts, and is looking forward to entertaining the party at his camp. He is doing well with training his warriors, but is having difficulty training his apprentice mages.

Having prepared for adventure, the party headed out to the island of Tanala. They teleported there and walked south to the rumored location of the tomb. Arriving with little difficulty, they found a huge granite door with steel insets that spelled out three words: Errukiz, Exrubal, and Elomcwe. These words are the Three Sins of Ruin in Dwarven philosophy. Trying many things, Damian noticed that some of the letters could be pushed in. It turns out that this was the first of many attempts by the Mud Sorcerers to mislead the adventurers. The Dwarven words were only a ruse to throw them off, as the door opened when the letters of the last word were pressed in order to spell welcome.

The door stayed open for one minute, and Fitz almost got shut out. As it ground to a close, there was no visible way to open it from the inside. The entry chamber was carved from swirling dark green marble. Two long pools contained the bleached bones of some unfortunate humanoids. At the far end was a smaller pool. Solaris glanced in and saw a small crack with a hidden key. Fitz was able to mage hand it and bring it to the party (For future notice, mage hands disappear if they are over 25 feet away from the caster).



All the while in this room, a wailing sound could be heard from the northern corridor. At the end, the party found a strange room, covered in countless eyes, all of them crying tears of acid. Damian found it was very potent acid when hi touched the tip of one of Solaris's arrows to the liquid and it dissolved completely in a curl of smoke.

After much deliberation and many failed attempts, Fitz cast light, and the eyes closed. Taking the opportunity to examine the walls closer, the party found a secret door to the west, and went in. The most prominent thing was a nine foot tall green basalt statue with an elephant head. Damian quickly realized that it could turn, and that activated the four doors in the room.

Checking to the door to the south, Damian found a pile of loose dirt. Digging down about seven feet, he found a mummified corpse. It was holding a metal scroll tube and wearing a gold ring set with a topaz. In its mouth was an ancient silver piece. The scroll tube held a piece of vellum (Scroll 2).

To the west was a room with an enormous carving of a face. Searching the face found that the nostrils were hollow. One foot diameter tubes lead to an open area behind it. Damian tried everything, but he could not get the face to move.

Finally, turning the statue to the north, the party found a hallway. While doing this, Fitz noticed a small key hole in the northwest pillar and tried to fit the black key they found earlier into it. Turning it the wrong way, the three other stone statues came to life as stone golems.

Henderbeard quickly remembered that golems were immune to cold effects, and changed his tactics. The first round was rough. Solaris fumbled and dropped his bow, Bob suffered a critical hit that did 117 points of damage, dropping him to six HP. Damian used Dune Trader to get his allies to safety, but Solaris moved with out his bow. Deciding to try different tactics, Henderbeard moved out from the alcove he was standing in and tried to hit a golem with his Staff of Striking. It turned out to be a mistake as the golem scored a crit against Henderbeard too.

It turns out that casting elemental spells draws strange creations to the party. Henderbeard was the first to set off the magic ward on the tomb when one of his spells summoned a mud grue. It started attacking right away.

After the fight, the party looted the compartment at the back of the column and Solaris found a nice shiny mithral shirt. Two weapons, a sword and dagger appeared magical, but were in fact only enchanted to appear as magic weapons. More of the devious tricks of the Mud Sorcerers. There was also a sealed bone scroll case with a piece of aged vellum inside (Scroll 1).

After healing a bit, the party investigated the northern passage. They found a mummy crypt, and two giant mummies. Henderbeard and Fitz's fireballs blasted away the mummies and Damian was cursed with Mummy Rot. Henderbeard summoned another three grues through the use of his spells as well. It turns out that he does not like them (also, he doesn't like golems).

After nearly dying, Bob was able to lift the curse on Damian and the party looted the sarcophagi. In the loot, they discovered writing on one of the mummy's wrappings (Scroll 3). The door to the east was solidly locked with an intricate lock. The door was actually a barred gate with many curved swords welded to it, all facing east.

Lacking a rogue to pick the lock, the party headed back to the statue room to think about things. Damian was polymorphed into a cat and sent on ahead, through the nostril of the stone face. Once on the other side and back to his natural form, it was easy to open the one way door.

Moving up to the north, Damian and Bob failed to notice Cenixil, a spirit naga among the many snakes carved on the pillars. Fitz noticed her, and blurted it out. As soon as she knew that she was spotted, she cast a fireball, and combat started. With just a quarter of her life left, Cenixil stopped her attacks and begged for her life. The party granted her wishes and stopped attacking. Cenixil gave some information about a few traps to the south, but it was not enough to satisfy the party (mainly Damian), so the party killed her, and we ended our day in the Naga Lair with the party wondering about a strange mechanical suit of armor.

XP
Current session: 10,000 XP each

Total XP: 130,000

Current level: 13

Loot

 * 4 gold phylacteries worth 1200 gp
 * 4 sets of gold earings set with saphires (50 gp each pair)
 * 4 gold rings (25 gp each)
 * Ordinary sword and dagger enchanted to be magic (Evocation dweomer)
 * 7 Amber pieces
 * 5 Tourmalines
 * 3 Coral pieces (each gem worth 100 gp)
 * 2 Yellow topazes (500 gp each)
 * Symbols.jpg Magic (Abjuration) stones carved with Mud Sorcerer symbols (a bloodstone, a carnelian, a citrine, and an onyx)
 * Platinum statuette resembling the cat-headed statue (750 gp)
 * Gold ring set with topaz (250 gp)
 * Ancient silver piece (worth 5 gp to a collector, but only 1 sp to anyone else)
 * Potion of healing
 * Potion of flying
 * Scroll of stoneskin