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.