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..."

April 12th, 2013

Sins of the Saviors

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

The magic portal

As Orden turned the key through its second complete rotation, the pillar before him began to glow and hum. Suddenly the key vanished from his grip, but the pillar remained activated. Quickly the rest of the party divvied up the keys and placed them in the proper pillars. With each subsequent activated pillar, the hum increased in volume and pitch, while the glow from the pillars grew in intensity. 

The activation of the seventh and final outer pillar triggered the activation of the much larger central pillar. Immediately the humming ceased. Wind rushed in from the smaller surrounding tunnels and converged on the central pillar, which seemed to absorb the light from the other pillars. The mingled glow from the outer pillars coalesced into a swirling vortex of energy; a translucent portal opened in the center of the vortex.

Without hesitation Orden charged through the portal, followed quickly by Bastian and the rest of the party. The far side of the portal began with a long, wide, stone-walled hallway. This straight path continued into a large circular domed chamber with a central fountain and eight divergent paths leading away. Before each separate path stood a 20 foot tall stone statue, which the heroes decided must be the likenesses of the seven Runelords of Thassilon. The eight path, which lead back to the portal, had no statue.

The ancient Runelords of Thassilon each claimed rulership over a particular virtue of leadership (which they later corrupted into the seven mortal sins), and the heroes inspected the likenesses for clues about which particular sin each statue represented. They immediately recognized the face of Runelord Karzoug, master of greed, the same face that once taunted them from atop Mokmurian's dead body. They assigned their best guess to each remaining statue before deciding to follow the path behind Karzoug's statue.

The lengthy path ended abruptly with a large, gem studded door. Orden used find traps to detect the threat posed by the door, but remained powerless to disarm it. With a shrug, he reached out to push the door, Bastian behind him for support. The door pushed back violently, crushing Orden against the opposite wall. Bastian dived out of the way quickly, avoiding injury. In a moment the trap reset itself, ready for further attempts to open it. 

The golems did not last long

Elora searched the area near by for signs of an alternate entry, and discovered evidence of a hidden door, which opened easily and without crushing anyone. A shimmering green mist filled the hallway beyond, which Sirilenda dispelled. The group moved quickly through hallway, as the green mist filled the hallway behind them.

The hall ended in a large room built containing a whale-shaped ice sculpture fountain, around which four water mephitis cavorted. The little creatures eyed the party suspiciously, but Bastian managed to calm them and even got them to volunteer some advice about the chambers beyond. The information provided by the mephitis seemed suspect to the group, but the party moved on and let the tiny beasts continue their play.

In the following chambers, the heroes faced several stone golems, but the group easily dispatched them. After several empty rooms they discovered a closed door.

The metal skinned man

As they approached the door swung open to reveal a thin, bald man with skin like silver metal. He spoke with a booming monotone, and demanded the group explain themselves. When they attempted to recount the imminent revival of Runelord Karzoug, the metal man dismissed the idea as impossible. He then called them intruders and began to attack. 

Spells flew from both sides, with Orden's destruction severely damaging the metal skinned man. He countered with prismatic spray, which fatally poisoned Sirlienda and turned both her and Azalyn to stone. The damaged wizard quickly fled, using dimension door to escape. Bastian cast break enchantment to return Azalyn and Sirilenda from their petrified state; Sirilenda immediately recovered with help from Orden, but Azalyn remained as stone...