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...