August 23rd, 2013

Sins of the Saviors

Players present: Elora (Sally), Azalyn (Shelley), Bastian (Casey), Sirilenda (Melissa), Orden (Mike)

Elora appeared on a flat, desolate plain, thankful to be out of the burning acid fog. Cold winds bit at her flesh, while a featureless purple-gray sky above lit the ground in unnatural tones below. She listened carefully for any sound, but heard only the strangely loud echoes of her boots crunching the pebbled ground underfoot. A small distant mound disrupted the flat horizon, though whether it was far or near she could not say. With no other mark to give her guidance, she started toward it.

Hound of Tindalos from Leng

Orden, meanwhile, sought advice from the revelation quill. In answer to his first question, about Elora's current location, the pen scribbled a short, four letter word: Leng. Orden recognized the name from his earlier training: Leng was an obscure dimension in the outer planes, where time ran irregularly, and distance was deceptive. He recalled that the most prominent inhabitants were the so-called denizens of Leng, alien creatures that had no love of creatures from the prime material.

Elora kept walking toward the distant mound, but could not tell if she had made any progress. A human voice interrupted the monotonous sound of the wind; a plea for help echoed across seemingly great distance. With all the reverberation, she could not locate the direction of the voice, but suddenly as she turned an older man came upon her, begging for help and also pleading with her to run. At times the man would babble incoherently, or strike himself, so Elora watched him suspiciously. He named himself Farlen, said that they must be in Hell when Elroa asked, and begged her to help him escape. She considered his pleas, but an unnatural baying interrupted her thoughts. Without further warning, three alien looking hounds approached the pair, gazing with huge, soulless eyes. Elora nocked an arrow to her bow.

Alkaryon

A volley of arrows pierced the first hound through the chest, knocking it lifeless to the ground. Elrora's honed senses alerted her moments before Farlen swung a clumsy fist at her, shouting "I'm sorry, its not me!" The blow glanced harmlessly off her armor. The hounds, apparently chastened by the swift death of their brother, teleported away. Elora then leveled her bow at Farlen, who cowered on the ground and made meaningless noises. After a moment, his gaze drifted behind Elora, and she saw dread reflected in his eyes. She glanced over her shoulder to see a massive iron-walled fortress looming close, where moments before only featureless plain had been. It's great metal gate lay asunder and intricate spider webbing draped the entry. From the shadow filled doorway of the inner keep, giant spindly spider legs crawled forth.

Back in Runeforge, Orden rested, along with the rest of the party, so that he could prepare a planar ally spell to summon a Deva capable of plane shifting them to Leng. From the quill, they learned the name of the angel they would need, Alkaryon, and then performed the ritual. When summoned, Alkaryon bargained with Bastian and Sirilenda, and once he learned of their quest to slay a lich, he offered his services at a reduced rate. Orden then cast scrying to visualize her location for teleoport once they arrived in Leng.

Leng Spider

The scrying window showed Elora battling with a spider the size of an elephant. She fired her arrows true, but the thick shell of the creature absorbed the strikes. Quickly the  spider advanced and bit her, injecting it's venom into the wound. The poison coursed through her body, creating horrific hallucinations and draining her life. The visions convinced her that Farlen was the spider, so she filled him with arrows. He fell to the ground, lifeless. In her few moments of lucidity Elora managed to damage the spider enough to drive it off, but the venom continued its grim work, and seemed likely to drain the last of her life away.

Bastian arrived in time to use lay on hands and heal the poison. The party then hastily assembled around Alkaryon and plane shifted back to Runeforge...

August 16th, 2013

Sins of the Saviors

Players present: Elora (Sally), Azalyn (Shelley), Bastian (Casey), Sirilenda (Melissa), Orden (Mike), Vale (Dean)

The silence enveloped the heroes suddenly, giving them mere moments to react. Almost immediately following, the invisible bands of a forcecage surrounded them. Orden narrowly escaped being caught inside, but the spell ensnared the rest of the party. Those in the cage began attacking the bars, some to no effect. Orden, outside the cage and outside the silence, cast invisibility purge and revealed Azaven casting an acid fog spell at the trapped heroes. Slowly the acid began eating away at the trapped heroes as the fog obscured their attacker's location once more. The heroes scrambled to destroy the forcecage, or end the silence, while Azaven assaulted them with a color spray, sorely wounding Sirilenda, and shifting Elora to another plane of existence. Orden finally managed to dispel the silence, and then positioned himself to cast teleport as soon as his companions could reach through the bars of the forcecage. Azalyn rounded up her friends, including those killed by the relentless acid fog, and grasped Orden's outstretched hand. They teleported to the main chamber of the Halls of Sloth, and healed their wounds, and wondered where their dear friend Elora had strayed...

July 26th, 2013

Sins of the Saviors

Players present: Elora (Sally), Azalyn (Shelley), Bastian (Casey), Sirilenda (Melissa), Orden (Mike), Vale (Dean)

The heroes scrutinized the final words written in Vraxeris' journal, piecing together clues about how to create runeforged weapons. They concluded that they needed an item from the Halls of Pride, namely a shard from one of the many mirrors, as well as one from the Halls of Lust, described as "one of Delvahine's toys." Since they had not explored the lust wing yet, they did not know what exactly they would be looking for. They also concluded that the sludge-filled wing they had previously explored was not in fact the Halls of Envy, but more likely the Halls of Sloth. Armed with this information, they collected the necessary items from each of the wings they had already visited: Greed, Gluttony, Sloth, and Pride.

Next they tackled the unexplored portions of the Halls of Pride. They found a large library burned to ashes. The apparently once voluminous collection lay in blackened piles; a brief search uncovered no surviving books. Two adjoining rooms contained neatly stacked piles of identical bodies, approximately 200 of them. The heroes deduced that these must be previous clone bodies for the mage Vraxeris, whom they had found earlier, dead in a chair. Finally, they reached Vraxeris' bedchamber, which contained six scantily clad succubi that began screaming "intruders!" when Bastian opened the door.

Displaying more caution during this fight than their previous, the heroes soon cut the succubi to ribbons. They returned to the central hub of Runeforge, and decided next to search the Halls of Envy. A short hallway connected the hub to the halls, which contained a magic mouth effect at its threshold, warning the unworthy invaders to turn back or be destroyed. Paying little heed to the voice, the group cast their defensive spells, then pressed forward and entered a medium-sized chamber. Brief flashes of flame flickered along the walls, and a small rod stuck up from the floor, crackling with electricity. A low hum pervaded the room. 

After a brief search of the room, the group noticed a marked change in the hum; as the pitch elevated they retreated from the room but remained close enough to watch. Sirilenda erected a wall of force to shield them from any harm, unfortunately without success. The hum reached a crescendo, then the rod released an expanding wave of energy that melted the wall of force then traveled down the hallway and washed over the party. Orden recognized the effect as mage's disjunction, as all their active spell effects immediately ended. The effect temporarily suppressed many of their magic items and, disturbingly, permanently disjoined a few as well. Azalyn in particular mourned the loss of her boots of haste. 

The commiseration over the loss of their magic items was interrupted by a sudden silence effect, and though no creature appeared, Orden immediately suspected an ambush by Azaven the lich...

July 19th, 2013

Sins of the Saviors

Players present: Elora (Sally), Azalyn (Shelley), Bastian (Casey), Sirilenda (Melissa), Orden (Mike)

The party stood over the corpse of Jordimandus, blood and filth still dripping from their weapons. They looted his body and searched his chambers, uncovering a small horde of treasure. Amongst the trinkets they discovered a scribbled note about the components needed to craft runreforged weapons. Far from complete instructions, the note simply detailed the necessary ingredients, which turned out to be various items from each of the wings of Runeforge. The list identified the component from the Hall of Envy as a vial of 'ethillion,' a quicksilver-like fluid known to drain magic from magic items. The party scoured the sludge covered halls but failed to find any such substance.

At a loss, they returned to the central hub of Runeforge and voted on the next wing of the complex to tackle. They agreed Pride seemed a likely place, since two different inhabitants had indicated that the master of those halls, Vraxeris, would be the one most likely to know the method of casting runeforged weapons. Their last foray there had not ended so well, but they knew now what to anticipate, and so they felt confident they could prevail.

The heroes stopped at the threshhold of the Halls of Pride and cast their preparatory spells, while from further inside they heard the guardians of the halls casting as well. As soon as Bastian and Orden rounded the corner leading into the large central chamber, a barrage of fireballs shot towards them and engulfed the area in explosion upon explosion. Sirilenda fell long before the sixth and final fireball impacted. Those who weathered the storm of fire positioned themselves to attack.

Elora took aim, but before loosing a shot succumbed to one of several phantasmal killer spells aimed her way. Then Azalyn failed to throw off the effects of a confusion spell, and attacked herself. With three party members out of commission, the heroes feared all was lost.

Orden managed to heal Azalyn of the confusion, and Bastian began seeking the invisible enemies. Orden then cast invisibility purge and illuminated the targets for Azalyn's and Bastian's attacks, turning the tide of the battle. In a few more rounds, the six wizards lay slain, and the heroes found that all the enemies had identical appearances. The surviving heroes gathered their dead and retreated.

After a brief journey back to Magnimar to buy components for and cast raise dead, the heroes, including those recently revived, explored the Halls of Pride further. The discovered a secret door in the rear of the large chamber, leading to a small study occupied by a recently deceased individual who strongly resembled the six identical mages.

They found a journal in his lap, which lay open to a page detailing the process for creating runeforged weapons. The heroes studied the writing carefully...

July 13th, 2013

Prelude to Kingmaker

DM: Mike

Cast:

Krysalis, human sorceress - Sally

Makani Evergale, human druid - Melissa

Sol'kesh, human inquisitor - Arren

Hargus, human cleric - Kevin

We began this session by introducing Sol'kesh, brother of (and replacement for) Val'kesh, and by recapping what we knew or guessed about the story so far. We believed that Aladrin had come into the possession of an important House Cannith text after the death of her mother, which she then took to her uncle, the professor at Wynarn University. A warforged agent of the Lord of Blades then killed her uncle (and may have been responsible for her mother’s death as well), but could not obtain the tome because of our interference. The Lord of Blades (or his servants) then sent another warforged assassin after us, and located us using a Cannith artifact that points the direction to the book. Meanwhile, House Cannith has employed us to recover the book, the ring, and to locate Aladrin, but we still do not trust their intentions so we have not yet revealed that we have recovered the book already.

Our investigation had only one lead: Aladrin’s interest in a nearby ancient Cannith cache, located in a forgotten temple to Onatar, which a trio of bandits had discovered and made into their hideout. The town guard had captured one of the bandits earlier, but they could not force a confession from him, so we still did not know the location of the cache. We discussed plans to use the captured bandit to unwittingly lead us to the hideout, but after lengthy discussion we decided instead to research the known locations of old temples to Onatar.

Securing mounts from House Cannith, we trekked to the only location we uncovered in our research, about a day’s ride from Fairhaven. We found the entrance to a small cavern off the main road, and figured that was our destination. Krysalis cast light and we entered into a small chamber which lead to three possible routes. Taking the path to the right, we came a dead end, and before we could turn back, the walls of the cave came alive with thousands of scurrying beetles! Quickly we backed away after our druid realized that conventional weapons could not harm the swarm, and we had no torches, alchemist fire, or fire spells. We retreated outside the cave and discussed our options when the clang of armor clad feet interrupted our discussion. Two brigands strode forth from the cave, brandishing swords, murder in their eyes. We reacted quickly, raising our defenses and casting our spells, but the pair swiftly flanked Hargus, and in a flash he lay on the ground, bleeding. Sol’kesh stepped up to face them, aided by the druid. Togther they whittled at one of the seasoned warriors, while Krysalis put the other in a deep sleep. Once the fighting stopped, Sol’kesh healed Hargus, and we planned our next step.

We discussed various options for disposing of the brigands, but in the end opted to turn them over to the authorities in Fairhaven. Before we gave him up, one of them revealed that the Cannith portion of the Onatar shrine was warded by a symbol of pain. We stocked up on torches and alchemist’s fire and delved back into the ancient shrine. Our first mission was to torch the beetle swarm, and the fire proved effective in burning them. The commotion drew the attention of a small colony of rats, which immediately charged us. Sol’kesh and Hargus held the rats at bay, while the druid summoned a dog to help, and Krysalis put most of them to sleep. We then planned to venture further into the cave...


Next week, the Myers return to gaming, so we will resume our Rise of the Runelords campaign!

July 5th, 2013

Prelude to Kingmaker

DM: Mike

Cast:

Krysalis, human sorceress - Sally

Lenora, human druid - Melissa

Vel'kash, human druid - Arren

Serafina, human sorceress - Rachel

Hargus, human cleric - Kevin

The guard asked us to remain at the station for 24 hours while Aladrin was allowed to leave town. We dutifully waited, and during this time we each received a letter from the local house Cannith representative, inviting us to a meeting to discuss the recent murder and apologize for Aladrin's actions. While we waited we pondered what to do about the mysterious Cannith book, which was obviously magical but contained only blank pages.

After the 24 hours, the guard asked for our assistance again in investigating the professor’s murder, specifically they asked Serafina to help interrogate a suspect, one of Aladrin's contacts. She discovered that this rogue had not yet received payment from Aladrin, but he had provided her information about a possible cache of old Cannith artifacts. He expected to be paid once Aladrin made her haul, but she had not returned to pay him.

After the guards thanked us for our assistance, we retired to our inn, and planned our next move. We weren't sure we wanted to return the book to house Cannith, since we didn't know what it was or how powerful it might be. As we discussed the matter, we heard shouts and alarms from outside, and going to investigate discovered a fire blazing in the stable across the street.

We rushed to quell the fire, and came under attack suddenly from a trio of enemies. Two of them fired crossbows, wounding Velkash, while the single warforged leader shouted commands. Lenora raised an obscuring mist to shield us from the archers, while everyone rallied around Hargus. The assailants strode into the mist, where Hargus and Lenora coordinated their attacks. Krysalis moved into position behind the enemies, where she cast sleep, knocking out the two human attackers, leaving only the warforged leader standing. Finally, Hargus dealt a terrible blow to the warforged, killing him instantly.

We recovered the loot carried by the attackers before the guard arrived, and found a severed human finger bearing a house Cannith ring on the body of the warforged. We soon discovered that the ring unerringly pointed the finger at the mysterious Cannith book we recovered from the professor’s office. With some trial and error, we found that the ring needed the severed finger to function, and using the ring revealed the hidden printing in the book, which seemed to deal with ancient house Cannith creation forge construction.

We still didn't trust house Cannith, but we decided to meet with them and hopefully gain some insight about why Aladrin had lied about her uncle's murder, why the warforged disciples of the Lord of Blades wanted this book, and what the book might be. We met the representative within the Cannith enclave, and he revealed that he believed Aladrin had stolen the book and the ring from her mother, who had previously held the items. He didn't know why she would take it, and claimed that the book had more sentimental value to house Cannith than practical value, but it might be useful to the Lord of Blades. With it, he might find a way to make more warforged minions to further his goal of eradicating humanoid life.

The Cannith representative offered us 1,000gp each for the safe return of the book, the ring, and for finding Aladrin. We carefully considered his offer and accepted, but we still did not trust him enough to immediately return the book or the ring. Instead, we planned to find Aladrin to get more answers...

June 28th, 2013

Prelude to Kingmaker

DM: Mike
Cast:
Krysalis, human sorceress - Sally
Lenora, human druid - Melissa
Vel'kash, human druid - Arren
Serafina, human sorceress - Rachel
Hargus, human cleric - Kevin

The players began in a town outside the city of Fairhaven, home of the University of Wynarn. As third generation citizens of the town, the University offered us full ride scholarships, which we gladly accepted. Our troubles began on the night of our graduation.

We encountered one of our classmates, Aladrin, weeping in the halls. We approached her and she confided that she was upset because she had just found her uncle, a professor at the university, murdered in his office. She asked us to summon the police for her after she left the scen, since she didn't want to be involved in a scandal. She was applying for a prestigious position within House Cannith, she said, and needed to interview tomorrow, so she didn;t want to be held by the city guard. Her manner made us suspicious, so we made her stay while we alerted the guards. She was taken off to jail while we continued our revelry at a nearby tavern.

Afterwards, a university staff member asked us to help in cleaning the office, since we had several spellcasters who could magically cleanse the area. We agreed to assist, and simultaneously conducted our own investigation of the crime scene. We discovered an old book, bearing the gorgon symbol of house Cannith, notable because of the professor’s known dislike of house Cannith. We also noticed some mud on the windowsill, and looking out, saw more mud on the ledge outside.

Most of the party clambered out onto the ledge and followed the mud trail to a drain pipe leading higher up the building. Velkash summoned a dog to investigate the area above the drain pipe, and revealed a lurking warforged assassin, who promptly attempted to murder the party! Before we could safely subdue her, the assassin leapt to her death, shouting "For the Blade!" which we took as a reference to the Lord of Blades, a dangerous warforged cult leader.

We waited for the city guard to return to the university for yet another death in less than a day, and pondered what might happen next...

June 14th, 2013

Sins of the Saviors

Players present: Elora (Sally), Azalyn (Shelley), Bastian (Casey), Sirilenda (Melissa), Derani (Rachel), Kage (Arren)

After scouring the halls of Gluttony the heroes discovered a series of cleverly hidden secret doors which ended at a necromantic laboratory, with recent "experiments" still waiting on a pair of cold slabs. A search of that room revealed another secret door, this one in the floor of the chamber, leading down to a small room containing three plinths, two of which supported stone sarcophagi. The carved surface the sarcophagi resembled hundreds of tiny cavorting skeletons, and each one radiated strong necromantic magic.

Bastian pried the lid of one sarcophagus open, activating a magical trap, which filled the chamber with hundreds negative energy rays. The occupants of the cramped space, Bastian and Orden, suffered some wounds but quickly healed. They opened the remaining sarcophagus without further injury.

The contents of the stone coffins included several spell books andl a small fortune in gold and gems. The group gathered up the loot and resumed their search for Azaven's phylactery. With no remaining areas of the Gluttony complex to explore, they turned to the Revelation Quill for guidance.

Orden scribbled out several questions for the Peacock Spirit that answered the Quill. They learned that Azaven's phylactery no longer resided within the halls of Runeforge, but where exactly it lay not even the Peacock spirit seemed to know. They did learn though that it is shaped like a sarcophagus.

Without further leads to the phylactery's location, the heroes headed back to the slime drenched Halls of Envy. They delved further into the twisting tunnels, and discovered a large chamber containing three levers labeled in ancient Thassilonian. Perhaps wisely they left the levers untouched and proceeded further in to a set of large double doors.

Bastian opened the doors to reveal a chamber containing four vats of colored ooze surrounding a larger central vat. A corpulent human with a knot of writhing black tentacles sprouting from his chest sat motionless on a floating stone throne. His half-lidded eyes regarded them dully as they entered. The heroes questioned him about runeforged weapons, and he slurred out his responses, directing them back to Vraxeris in the Halls of Pride. The man, Jordimandus, then excused them and urged them to depart.

The party prepared to leave, but Elora posed one more question, which apparently rankled Jordimandus and stirred him to action. He began casting a spell, but the party, constantly expecting attack, anticipated his actions and struck peremptorily. During the ensuing barrage of spells, arrows, and flaming blades, a hidden attacker revealed himself behind the heroes: none other than Azaven the lich!

Omox demon

Orden provoked the lich, not realizing he possessed a paralyzing touch, and ended up immobilized. Jordimandus summoned a pair of Omox demons to harry the heroes, and one of them dragged Orden's helpless body down into the river of slime. Azalyn cut Azaven to ribbons, but just before the final cut Azaven's contingency activated, teleporting him away.

Without support from Azaven, Jordimandus soon fell to the might of the heroes. Orden managed to free himself while the rest of the party slew the Omox demons.

The heroes looted the bodies, then prepared to continue investigating the Halls of Envy...

With Shelley's recent delivery (welcome to the world, Emma Myers!), she and Casey are taking a break from gaming. As such, we will be taking a hiatus from Rise of the Runelords for at least a few weeks, until the Myers are ready to resume. In the interim, Mike will be starting his Kingmaker campaign so I will be sure to make some posts about those sessions.

June 7th, 2013

Sins of the Saviors

Players present: Elora (Sally), Azalyn (Shelley), Bastian (Casey), Sirilenda (Melissa)

With the return of Orden, the group retreated to Sandpoint to revive their fallen members. They knew that they had a short period of time to recuperate before the lich, Azaven, would be able to use his phylactery to regenerate. Also, they still had not found the runeforged weapons supposedly housed in the Runeforge complex. Exploring the remaining halls of that place would be more difficult with an angered lich looming in the shadows, so they hurriedly made their preparations to return.

Clay Golem

The heroes plunged back into the depths of Runeforge, returning to the Halls of Gluttony with the goal of discovering Azaven's phylactery. They first came upon an ancient burial chamber, stocked with dozens of perfectly preserved Thassilonian wine bottles. The armored clay golem guardian of the tomb immediately noted their entrance and attacked without warning, but provided little challenge for the seasoned adventurers. Azalyn's flaming greatsword carved the soft flesh of the construct easily, despite its additional armor. Orden quickly gathered up the bottles after sampling one of the vintages, which proved of excellent quality.

From the crypt the group moved on to the laboratories, where they found mangled corpses and body parts strewn about, and gore smeared on the walls. Closer inspection by Sirilenda revealed the skilled ministrations of a master necromancer at work, but this revelation did little to lessen their revulsion at the scene. The bodies appeared surprisingly fresh, as if the victims had been killed just minutes prior. They soon left the laboratories behind in search of the phylactery.

Nightwing

After the macabre tableau of the laboratories, the heroes returned to a previously explored room containing a rippling curtain of black energy suspended between two crystal pillars. Azalyn, with a death ward cast by Orden, approached one of the pillars and began smashing it with her sword. After two solid hits, the pillar exploded in a burst of razor edged shards, which damaged the other pillar but did not shatter it. The curtain of energy faded, but before disappearing completely, a hole in the fabric of reality opened up to the negative energy plane, and disgorged a monstrous denizen of the outer planes. The huge bat-like creature, which Orden recognized as a Nightwing, filled almost the entire room. 

The group retreated in hopes that the confines of the room would pen the creature in, but its long neck allowed for surprising reach. Elora feathered the creature with arrows while Azalyn, after sustaining severe wounds, withdrew. Bastian then charged the beast, but did not make striking distance before being mangled to death in its massive jaw. Elora felled the creature just as Orden revived Bastian using breath of life. 


The heroes, bloodied but alive, stanched their wounds and prepared to continue the search for the phylactery...

May 10th, 2013

Sins of the Saviors

Players present: Elora (Sally), Azalyn (Shelley), Bastian (Casey), Sirilenda (Melissa), Vale (Dean), Kage (Arren), Derani (Rachel)

Orden's gambit of casting dismissal on himself proved fruitful. He instantly disappeared from the halls of Envy deep in Runeforge, and materialized back in the prime material plane, in the town of Sandpoint. Meanwhile, her companions retreated from the halls of of Envy to the central hub of Runeforge. There they discovered that the main portal bridging the distance to the prime material plane was open. Hesitantly the party entered the portal, found themselves back on the prime material plane, and then quickly reunited with Orden.

Tsuto Kaijitsu

During the following week, the group cast raise dead on their two fallen members, then discussed strategies for their next foray into Runeforge. They decided to return and confront Azaven, the lich residing in the halls of Gluttony. They felt he had mislead them in their quest to find runeforged weapons, and Bastian wanted to eliminate his evil from existence. So they returned to Rimeskull and performed the necessary rituals for opening the portal to Runeforge.

Lyrie Akenja

As they walked through the entry halls once more they noted that some of the collected treasure they had piled up along the hallway during their previous trip was missing. Warily they progressed into the central hub of the complex, where they found Azaven waiting for them with a pair of undead minions. As the group parleyed with the lich, another figure appeared from behind one of the seven stone statues that circled the chamber. Sirilenda recognized her immediately as Lyrie Akenja, her sister's murderer. By Lyrie's side floated an elaborately bandaged figure, who the party knew to be Tsuto Kaijitsu, Lyrie's former paramour, twice defeated by the party already, and now returned as a mummy!

Battle erupted quickly. Spells flew across the room, including a prismatic spray from Azaven, which petrified Bastian, but not before he used his aura of justice ability to grant he team the power to smite evil. Sirilenda too fell from the fight, but Elora managed to stabilize her before she died. As usual, Azalyn proved devastating with her greatsword, but Vale became a dervish of evil-smiting axes, finishing a powerful Devourer in one turn.

At the end of the battle the heroes remained, minus only Bastian, now composed of rock. Without Bastian's spells or the help of their enduring cleric, Orden, they had no means of returning him to flesh...

May 3rd, 2013

Sins of the Saviors

Players present: Elora (Sally), Azalyn (Shelley), Bastian (Casey), Orden (Mike), Sirilenda (Melissa)

As Bastian looked into the large chamber beyond the hall of mirrors, six identical looking men began simultaneously casting spells. Elora stepped forward to support her companion, and both of them suffered a barrage of phantasmal killer spells. Bastian weathered them all, but Elora died instantly. The remaining heroes gathered the bodies of their fallen comrades and teleported back to the central hub of the complex, fleeing the halls of Pride.

Once they realized there would be no pursuit, the party contemplated their options. Searching for answers from the outer bounds of reality, Sirilenda scribbled several questions on parchment using her revelation quill. The minor artifact acted as a conduit to the Peacock Spirit in the outer planes, a being known for its capriciousness. She knew that the spirit would answer some of her questions with lies, but proceeded to query the being anyway.

Through the ten allotted questions they deduced that the only way to leave Runeforge (in order to resurrect their fallen companions) was through the Envy wing. They learned that a single creature resided in this wing, which, according to the quill, they could "probably" defeat. Without other options apparent, the party headed toward the halls of Envy.

They arrived at twisting maze of tunnels covered in slime and ooze. Slime-slicked walkways followed alongside sludge-filled canals, occasionally spanned by rusted iron walkways. Sirilenda cast fly on the party to avoid contact with the unidentifiable slime, allowing them to quickly navigate the winding tunnels.

A Chernobue

They entered a slightly larger chamber, where suddenly a pair of Chernobue Qlippoths sprang at them. The tentacled creatures exuded an unnatural aura and attacked with alien powers. Once the fight ended, the heroes reconsidered the advice given by the revelation quill in light of the fact that two enemies had appeared where there was supposed to be just one.

They soon questioned all of the results provided by the quill. Perhaps there were other ways to leave Runeforge aside from the halls of Envy? Orden contemplated using dismissal on himself, since technically he was not on his home plane. Before his companions could object he carried out his idea, heedless of the small chance that he could end up in a plane different than his home plane. His companions, surprised, could only watch him vanish...

April 26th, 2013

Sins of the Saviors

Players present: Elora (Sally), Azalyn (Shelley), Bastian (Casey), Orden (Mike), Sirilenda (Melissa), Vale (Dean)

Azaven

The dessicated figure stood before them, dressed in rich robes and flanked by a pair of menacing creatures. To his left hunched a slender, feral-looking corpse of a being, a serrated dagger clenched in one hand. To his right hovered a creature that Orden identified as a Devourer, an extra-planar undead being with the power to trap a soul within its vacant ribcage.

He reiterated his warning "I would not touch that, if I were you. It took me great pains to create it, and it's destruction would unleash a wave of negative energy likely to destroy you."

The heroes questioned him about his purpose. He admitted that he was Azaven, apprentice of the mages serving the Lord of Gluttony. He offered to assist the group in their endeavors to find runeforged weapons, but the former masters of his order had perished, and failed to pass along the secrets of their creation. He suggested that the mage Vraxeris, from the halls of Pride, might still know the formula.

Devourer

He encourged them to be more polite guests before entering the halls of Pride, and recommended they knock and announce themselves before barging in like thieves. Though the group sensed Azaven was evil, they heeded his advice and left the halls of gluttony and headed to the halls of pride.

They arrived at the halls of pride to find not a door, but a branching hallway lined with mirrors. Recalling Azaven's words, Bastian announced the group's arrival before proceeding in. A sonorous voice answered him, instructing him to leave at once. Disregarding that warning, Azalyn and Vale stepped into the hallway. Immediately two duplicates of Azalyn and Vale sprang from the mirrors at the opposite ends of the hall, and charged!

The heroes fought back against their doppelgängers, but not before Azalyn lay dead, beyond the help of Orden's potent revival magic. Bastian too was slain, but quick intervention prevented his permanent demise. Sirilenda managed to dominate one of the Vale-clones, adding a new member of the party.

Mirrored Hallway

After the group put sword to glass and smashed the mirrors, they took stock of their losses. Azalyn lay beyond salvation; they discovered that teleportation outside of Runeforge was impossible and they did not possess the necessary material components to cast raise dead. They would need to rest and consider pressing forward or looking for a way out. But even if they could leave, could they get back in?

While the party debated their options, Bastian could not resist the urge to peer into the chamber beyond the mirrored hallway. The six identical men he saw in the room wasted no time with pleasantries, but immediately began spellcasting when they saw Bastian turn the corner. The rest of the party, weakened from the earlier fight, groaned at Bastian's foolhardy actions...

April 19th, 2013

Sins of the Saviors

Players present: Elora (Sally), Azalyn (Shelley), Bastian (Casey), Orden (Mike), Sirilenda (Melissa)

Having driven off the metal-skinned mage, the group began planning a method to retreat and restore Azalyn from her petrification. The dragged the massive stone statue of their companion back through the halls they had explored earlier, resting in a room that contained a fountain. They sat down and assigned watch duties, while the spellcasters tried to get sleep to recover their spells. Soon they realized that the magic of this compound, which existed on a demi-plane, sustained their energy without the need for sleep. So the spellcasters rested without sleeping, and the others kept watch down the hallways leading to the room, vigilantly expecting the mage to return at any moment.

A Nalfeshnee

Before the rest period ended, their vigilance was rewarded. The metal-skinned mage used  dimension door to bring himself and a Nalfeshnee demon directly in their midst. The pair appeared suddenly, taking the group by surprise. Spells flew around the room; the mithral mage case reverse gravity, pushing the group up to the ceiling, and smashing the Azalyn statue to pieces. The group regrouped and using Bastian's smite evil, they destroyed first the mage, then the Nalfeshnee.

After the brief disruption, the group resumed their rest. Once Orden prepared his spells, he used mending to restore the Azalyn-statue back to (mostly) whole, then Bastian cast break enchantment to reverse the petrification. Azalyn returned to life only slightly damaged from her time as a statue, and the group proceeded to explore the rest of the compound.

A Runewell

They discovered the mage's library, which contained an extensive collection of books devoted to metallurgy and transmuting lead to gold. They scoured the works and found several spellbooks, which Sirilenda discovered contained convoluted arcane formulae. They also discovered a mention of the means by which Runelord Karzoug planned to outlast the fall of Thassilon. Apparently his apprentices created an enormous Runewell, a device which could siphon the souls of greedy individuals to fuel his return from stasis. The specifics of the plan were not detailed in the tome. 

 After scouring the rest of the Mage's quarters, the group returned to the central hub of the complex and decided on the next wing to tackle: the halls of gluttony. The hallway leading to realm

of gluttony ended in an immense set of iron doors. Without much effort the group breached the doors and confronted a half dozen mummies guarding the entry. They quickly dispatched the mummies ventured deeper into the complex. Soon they discovered a room containing two black pillars arcing lines of black energy between them. As the group debated what to do about the pillars, Orden remarked that they should smash them. A chilling voice behind them said " I wouldn't do that if I were you..."