Due to the delays on my part, here is a summary that hopefully catches you all back up to speed.  I keep saying this, but I'm hoping to get back up to normal faster posting again.

Characters:
-Unther: The gnome village leader who sent you with Geebo to find Tenvillah.

-Geebo:  A young gnome (Unther’s nephew) who is still learning the ropes of magic but who studied with Tenvillah and vaguely remembers where he went to hide out.  He is easily confused and scared but tries to be brave and is your best bet for navigating the outside world.  He also learned some spells from Tenvillah to survive the dangers of the mist like making “earthsoil rock.”  He does not speak your language very well.

-Fingus Hatt:  you met him in the Doomed Temple.  He has bravado and seems to take credit where credit isn’t due (including for killing the “dragon,” which was actually the baby of the real dragon, and which led to the dragon becoming infuriated with you).  He is a warrior type whose companion is a more modest mage named Battrus.  He accompanies you to help find the cure for Battrus.
-White Haired Man:  You rescued a man who was being held captive and chained down in a pool of Earthsilver in the dragon’s lair.  He may have been there for years or centuries.  He has gone possibly insane and speaks incoherently.  After being removed from the Earthsilver, he seems to have contracted some sickness, possibly the Black Curse, and remains in bed with the gnomes.



DANGERS:
Black Curse or Black Death:  This disease takes over the body in the course of a few days, turning the extremities red and black at first, and then spreading until it makes the person incomprehensible, violent, and then suicidal.  No spells work on it.  The only one knowing the cure is Tenvillah.  It involves using the earthberries and earthsilver (which you have collected) to make a cure.

Angry Earth:  You are safe when there is mist.  When the mist clears, you must be on solid rock to avoid being cursed with the earth.  The danger depends on the color of the foliage.  If they are red, the leaves and branches will turn to sharp bladed spikes.  If they have a brownish tint, they will emanate an evil magic that could take many different forms.  If they have a bluish tint, all they touch will be drained of water--even human flesh--immediately.  If they glow yellow, then touching them is touching poison or acid.  And if they glow black...all the gnomes know is that it is “pure evil.”


ITEMS:
Earth Berries:  When you find earth berries on bushes, their effect lasts only for about 10-15 minutes after being plucked from a bush unless preserved in Earthsilver.  They have healing properties but not as powerful as Earthsilver.

Earthsilver:  This is a healing water that looks bluish with a silvery tint.  It heals all wounds instantly but is rare and has no magical properties when removed from whatever spring it sprouts from—except that it will help preserve earth berries for up to one day.  It will preserve their nonmagical properties even longer.



SYNOPSIS

You seek Tenvillah.  He is the only gnome who knows how to cure the Black Curse.  Six gnomes you rescued, as well as Battrus (and perhaps some of you), have come down with the Black Curse while wandering through the Doomed Temple taking on the Trials of the Faithful.  You have already collected the needed earthberries and earthsilver for the cure, but the gnomes say Tenvillah will require a payment or task before helping you.

In the temple caves, you managed to wake and let escape a powerful dragon of unknown power (Ozymandius) whose breath turns those affected into crystalline statues.  It now seeks revenge on you and historically terrorized the area surrounding the gnome village.

The ground changes daily depending on the color of glow of the foliage.  You can tell when it is about to change because the fog dissipates.  This dangerous earth is called the “Angry Earth.” At such times, you must be upon solid rock to escape becoming part of it.

There is also a terrible creature that roams the mist (and is impervious to the Angry Earth) called the “Fiend in the Mist.”  You met it and found it to be a spiked giant creature with no intention except to rent and kill--although this was different from the description given you by the gnomes.  You defeated it and sent it back into the woods only to discover there is an even larger version of the metal spiked fiend.  The fog started parting, and you fled to the rock where the clues led you.  But between the clearing of the fog and your higher ground, the dragon spotted you from above. Geebo informed you that the tunnel had caved in, leaving you no entrance and a giant dragon coming straight at you.

But just as it swooped down toward you, the new giant spiked fiend engaged the dragon.  Geebo tried his spell to affect the earth and rocks, but instead of clearing the caved in rocks, it collapsed the ground beneath you, and you fell through the loose rocks and holes into a dark cavern...

…where you have now met something approaching you from the far end.
For those of you with private information, here is a reminder:

With the light from Tahldar's spell, you see the walls covered with skulls and bones.  And you see the figure coming close.  It is a bald gnome peering at you with suspicion.

"Tenvillah?" Geebo says.  "Tenvillah!"  He says in Gnomish, translated by Tahldar, "It is I, Geebo.  We are in need of your help."

Tenvillah stands there stoically.  In his arms is a white rabbit that he strokes slowly.  You also see several white rabbits at his feet.  "You speak Ashian tongue?" he says in a grated voice.  When you nod, he says, "Rabbits immune to Angry Earth but die when caves bring danger.  You come with me"

Geebo explains what you need and the items you have already collected to complete the cure for the Black Curse as Tenvillah leads you down the corridors, which are all stacked with bones and skulls.

Tenvillah leads you back to his hovel in the cave, where he prepares you all tea.  He uses hot coal-like rocks to warm the food and the cave instead of fire.  And only the dim glowing veins of purplish gemlight fill the room as he listens to all you have to tell him.

"What you see was not Fiend of Mist.  You see Shirinkah, an abomination borne from mist and Angry earth.  It was perhaps once gnome or human, perhaps not.  Fiend of Mist much more dangerous.  As for cure, no cure comes without price.  I do not seek price for myself.  The gods seek it as recompense for my powers.  Those seeking help must prove themselves worthy of the magic of the gods.  And remember this:  if I make cure, you have but one day to give it to afflicted or else it go wasted."

He points to one of the four exits from his hovel.  "Task is simple.  You go there.  You follow and make right decision on way.  You survive.  And you return to me with Chalice of Sanction filled with Earthgold.  Earthgold like Earthsilver--heal almost anything--but last much longer.  You take only one cup of Earthgold in the chalice, no more, else you anger the gods.  I help you when you return."

He reaches out to hand you the rabbit in his hands.  "You take rabbit.  If rabbit die, you know cave about to kill you.  If you no return, this healing was not meant to be.  So say the gods."

Borimer takes the dubious gift from Tenvilla and wraps it in one arm to keep it safe, "Yeah..thx little buddy." He gives a wolfish grin and looks to his companions. "Let's rest a bit and then go get that chalice of gold, eh?"
This message was last edited by the player at 08:50, Fri 22 Feb 2019.

Kahan listened to Tenvillah, and commits his words to memory. "How many cures can you make from one chalice? There are many affected by the curse," he asked, hoping they wouldn't have to make too many trips back and forth.

Tahldar is weary.  In many places his body is battered and bruised from exploits the like he never dreamed he would take part in.  But he is hardier than his wispy limbs would suggest.  In fact he has found he has a surprising constitution when it comes to life threatening, epic battles.  For the better part of a century he spent most of his time in research and quiet contemplation and never gave thought to an adventuring career.

If one could call his current life a career.  In truth he is just surviving as best he can.  His entire world literally is gone and he finds himself in a strange land where the rules are entirely different, rendering much of his previous learning useless.

Keeping his dagger aloft, Tahldar follows Geebo and Tenvillah using his dim light as a guide.

Addressing Tenvillah in his native tongue the mage says, [Language unknown:  E ceckck li ousredstr ugh set men p ha korameard evthi ol?  Tic ilet k hetha hasmi ti sta ainom Wecesa sa Hockieit son whlo Ivul-elet?  Adst vor astee i thuol po ous ad?]

OOC:  I have Talhdar down 12hp's but I don't know if this is still correct or not.

Tenvillah says, "It needs but filled once to make many cures."

He listens to Tahldar and says, "I can say nothing of the task before you.  To give you the knowledge you seek, I would anger the gods.  They make test, not me.  They require secrecy.  You go. You explore.  You do as I say and I make many cures."

When you describe your weariness, Tenvillah nods and finds furs for you to rest in an adjoining cave.  Kahan performs healing spells, bringing you all back up to full health, and you rest, slumbering long and awaking in fits, remembering that time is short.

OOC:  You have now awakened.  Anything else you want to do before setting off?

When the others wake, they see Kahan, looking down at his hands. "We need to hurry, or I will not be making the return journey," the priest comments, showing the others the signs of the Black Death in his fingers.

Tahldar wakes up stiffly and rubs his feet absentmindedly.  He should feel refreshed after his rest but something is off.  He lifts the furs off his body and notices his toes are covered in purple splotches and are oddly numb.

He lets the visual of what he sees sink in.

"I agree Kahan.  I think our time is running short.  I have it too.  We must hurry."

Borimer tries to rub the crick out of his back but stops short at the purplish look of his fingers. He dons his armor and checks his weapons before showing his hands to Tenvillah. "How long do you think we have?"

Leo checks his gear and makes sure everything else is in order.  He really didn't think there were any issues but he needed something to do and keep his mind off the apparent extreme danger that was coming.

IF YOU COULD PLEASE REREAD THIS CHAIN OF POSTS ABOVE, I THINK IT SHOULD BE ALL YOU NEED TO GET CAUGHT BACK UP AND MOVE FORWARD.

You are in the cave of Tenvillah the gnome, who is the only one with power to craft the cure to the Black Curse.  You all woke up finding the signs of the disease on you, so now your time is limited. You have 3, perhaps 4 days. (You have two people back at the gnome camp, the white haired old man and Batruss Moonshadow.)

Battrus is a monk and the companion of Fingas Hatt. He is quiet, but Fingas is a braggart who likes to take credit for others' work.

Fingas accompanies you, along with Geebo, the young gnome who trained with Tenvillah and knows a little magic, though it often goes awry and he is easily frightened.

Previously, Borimer saw a vision of something called the Source of Magic and a warning whispered in his ear about the 'man with the white hair.'

You currently have the following tasks:

1) Find the Chalice of Sanction (but take no other treasure)
2) Fill the Chalice of Sanction with Earthgold (a healing golden liquid)
3) Return the filled Chalice to Tenvillah to finish the cure
4) After healing yourselves, take the cure to heal Batruss and the white haired man back at the gnome village. (Using Earthsilver and making them rest, their disease has been slowed temporarily, giving you about 4 days from the present to save them.)

Your only directions are to take the white rabbit with you (which will die if you go into a part of the cave that is dangerous, as a warning) and go down into the caves and make the "right" decisions to get to the Chalice and Earthgold.

When ready, you need to start down the caves. [Note that it said four cave exits, but let's go with one for now and then move forward.]

This message was last edited by the GM at 06:59, Fri 24 Jan 2020.

I have been updating the game wiki. You might want to check it out as a reminder of some items. I put the exposition of Etag the Drow in there where he explains most of what you need to know about Allevia to date.

Let me know when you are all ready.

Tenvillah feeds you breakfast and then strokes his white rabbit while waiting for you to go. He is ominously silent, and his eyes burn as coals in deep thought.

The path down the caves leads down into a wood door that Tenvillah opens for you. He hands you the white rabbit with another warning that should the rabbit die, the poisons in the air will soon kill you as well.

You start down the sloping cave, which is barely 6 feet in width and 7 in height. At most, you can go two by two, and that's without swinging anything.

I assume the following marching order, including going single file:

Borimer (holding torch) Kahan

Fingas Hatt (with torch) Shae

Tahldar  Geebo

Leo

You can change it as desired.

After about 100 yards, the walls begin to have niches in them like this:



Looking in some of the niches, you see some skeletons of ancient peoples laid to rest. They appear primarily gnome and human.

Soon after, the niches give way to layers of bones in patterns, like this:



Then it suddenly branches left or right. To the right path, there is a line of skulls leading that way, like this:



To the left, there is no such line of skulls, just piles of bones.
This message was last edited by the GM at 01:53, Fri 31 Jan 2020.

Tahldar walks along with his party.  He is pensive.  Both about the scourge currently attacking his body, and the skull and bones that litter the passageways.  He wonders who had the grisly task of compiling the bones and arranging them as they are.  He also wonders who these people were and what they did to not warrant a proper burial.

In any event, he turns his focus to the rabbit.  Geebo holds the creature in his arms and gently strokes the rabbit around his ears.  "Mind him close.  If he falters we won't have much time." he says evenly.

"Bones or Skulls.  Anyone have a preference?" he asks in reference to the choice in direction in front of them.

OOC:  I assume Geebo will hold the rabbit.

Shae leans on her ancestral spear. She eyes the fork in the road. "It appears the skulls are leading in a direction. I say we follow them. It will prevent us from getting lost if this turns into a maze."

"Shae is right, it would be easiest to backtrack with that path," Kahan agreed, covering his mouth as he coughed a few times.

You follow the right path with the line of skulls. It weaves for almost a hundred yards, surrounding you with walls of bones and skulls.

And then it opens up into a roundish room with the entrance you came in and continuing down another skull and bone filled corridor on the far end.

In the center of the room is a stone bowl. Upon inspection, the bowl inside is splotched red from bloodstains going back years, decades...perhaps centuries.

And sitting on the edge of the bowl with its tip in the center and hilt resting on the rim is an ancient dagger. It is covered in dust and also is blood stained on its blades.

Written in ancient script on the rim of the bowl is writing that translates as, "Fill the bowl. Leave the dagger." The bowl is large enough to hold 2.5 gallons (20 pints) of liquid.



GM NOTE: FYI, some pictures I'm posting were taken by me when I visited the Catacombs of Paris. Others are taken off the internet to advance the story.
This message was last edited by the GM at 01:25, Tue 04 Feb 2020.

Leo quietly brings up the rear and tries to keep a lookout from behind.  But, glancing forward too, he is curious about the bowl.

Talhdar looks the bowl and dagger over with a disdainful look.  "Fill the bowl he?" he says suspiciously.  "I would guess from the look of it, it would be blood and plenty of it.  Maybe as much as three human sized creatures to fill it, likely more."

Looking to move on he says, "This isn't the chalice.  I say we leave it and keep going."

"That may not be an option," Kahan remarked, flipping the bowl over if he could pick it up, looking for any other markings or signs of what would happen when they filled the bowl successfully.

Before Kahan can touch the bowl, Tahldar says "Maybe you should check for evil first?"

"Those things give me a bad feeling." he adds as he points at the bowl and dagger.

Nodding, Kahan casts Detect Evil.

After casting the spell, you find nothing intrinsically evil about the bowl.

The bowl is built into the platform and cannot be removed. It is a stone bowl and stone platform.

Tahldar looks the group over.  "We can't possibly fill this with our own blood.  There isn't enough of us.  Maybe we can fill it with something else, or maybe we can ignore it entirely."

"I say we move on.  We can always come back here if we have to."

You have seven people.

Here is my blood loss rule:

-1 to hit, -1 to saving throws, and +1 armor class per pint lost. (I elected not to use Constitution, strength, etc. because it just makes it too complicated.)

For blood volume, I will say that the smaller individuals (gnome, dwarf, halfling) can give up to 3 pints before passing out. For humans, elves and half elves, up to 4 pints. And +1 pint per Constitution AC bonus.

(This might be a little more generous than real life, but I tried to make it work out close to realistic.)

Because the blood loss is a constitution related issue, it cannot simply be healed. But healing can be boosted. With no healing, we will say one pint regained per 1 day (instead of a week or so in real life), but up to 3 pints per day with a cure light wounds or cure disease spell...but you still have to wait 24 hours for full effect.

Shae casts detect magic on the bowl.

The bowl and its podium do radiate magic of some sort.

Kahan casts Augury. "What will happen if we do not fill the bowl?" he asked.

The answer he gets is: "The door will not open."

Shae says, "I'll give a few pints of blood if that's what it takes. I take it we are all in agreement to make that sacrifice?" She pulls out a small dagger to make the cuts if everyone is on board.

Tahldar steps up to the dais.  He looks at the knife with disdain and it is clear he is not pleased with the situation.

Gingerly he picks it up and pricks a deep wound on his left arm.  Blood flows freely and begins to slowly fill the bowl.  Pint after pint begins to collect, to the point where one would think the Elf has no more left to give.

Finally he grabs his arm to staunch the flow and seems on the brink of stumbling over.  "Kahan, I could use a healing spell." he says simply as his face has taken on a ghost like pallor.

OOC:  Being a non warrior and that Tahldar has a unusually strong constitution, he will give 3 pints.  So -3 to hit, -3 on save and +3 on AC.  We will need 5 more pints.  I would have given another pint, but I really don't want to go -4 on saves.

Leo offers to give what he can, but being a halfling it's probably not much.

"We need a lot of blood, unfortunately," Kahan begins explaining, going into detail about how much blood each of them could give, in rough measurements, before they pass out. "I think Borimer and Fingas should give the least amount of units, two a piece, as I am willing to give four myself. If the rest of you each give three, that should be enough to fill the bowl," he concludes, binding everyone's wrists when they are done donating blood, for the time being.

OOC: Not sure if I need to roll here as it should be pretty simple bandaging.

Since the damage is not to hit points, bandaging does the trick. I'm assuming the following:

Borimer: 3 pints
Geebo: 2 pints
Fingas: 3 pints
Leo: 2 pints
Tahldar: 3 pints
Kahan: 4 pints
Shae: 3 pints

You are able to measure out the blood in a one pint wood bowl carried by Shae. (I will leave it up to you what healing spells are cast. Cure wounds and cure disease are the two that will help, in addition to bandaging.)

As the last drop pours into the cup, it begins swirling like a tiny whirlpool, draining into a newly formed opening in the bottom which is now glowing a sickly green.

And then the wall beyond parts, opening like a gate of skulls, a door of bones.  Given your weakness, you all sit on the ground and simply watch while Kahan administers to you.

What you see beyond is mostly shrouded in darkness and mist, but it glows a deep red. Unlike the chilly hallway, the air beyond the door is hot and burns your nostrils. Flames leap up from little pools of lava spread throughout this cavern. Geysers of hot mud erupt from time to time, releasing a sulfurous stink into the air. Steam rises from the floor of this inferno. A small path, about two feet wide, can be dimly glimpsed through the steam as it winds its way among the lava pools. It leads to a golden door about 90 feet away; the door glistens in the muggy heat.

Kahan pulls a scroll out from his backpack and casts Cure Disease on two party members, then puts it away and casts Cure Light Wounds on everyone else, going in order of whichever spell would be more effective. "If the fires are too much for us to withstand, I can also cast a spell on us to help deal with the heat, but it will not last long," he explained, huffing a sigh of exhaustion as he thinks about having to go through, essentially, another trial, just to survive. It was getting tiresome, after all, to continually have to fight for one's life.

"I can't protect against flames, but I can give a little protection against...well everything." Tahldar says as he begins to cast.

Going around to everyone the mage weaves a simple spell on each party member.  When he gets to Leo, fatigue evident in his voice, he says "Sorry, but I'm done for the day for that spell."

OOC: Tahldar will give each party member the 0 level spell resistance which provides a +1 bonus on all saves.  Not sure how long it lasts.  I can't find the full spell description anywhere.  Tahldar can cast up to 6 zero level spells a day.  He gave preference based on how blood each of us gave.  He had one last spell to give between Geebo and Leo and choose Geebo as he's younger and likely weaker...

Shae thanks Kahan and offers her own healing spells, if needed. As a druid, she has some abilities in that regard. She looks across the path, agreeing with the assessment. "Another day, another test to pass. I think we will have to cross single file on the path. We should probably get a marching order and go, unless we want one or two people to test the path first. I can volunteer if you want."

The healing spells are done and everyone will regain their strength in 1 day (assuming a night of rest as well).

Tahldar also casts his spell of protection.

Shae tests the path and it seems sturdy if she or others want to cross.

"Let's go." Tahldar says as he begins to cross.

OOC:  I assume we'll go in a 5' marching order across.

Shae says, "I will test the path first." She holds up her arm to have the others wait at the entrance and says an incantation of protection before going across the path, looking from side to side for dangers.

As Shae is talking, the opening of the doorway has apparently caused a reaction of some sort, and steam is billowing up from the lava, obscuring vision of more than about halfway across.

Shae begins to cross the winding path, which is narrow but manageable. It seems to hold her weight with no problems. Everything seems to be going well, but about halfway across, you lose visibility of her as she is enveloped by the haze and smoke.

"We should go after her.  It's not safe to be alone." Tahldar says as he looks to his companions on what to do.

OOC:  Is Borimer still playing?  I haven't seen him post in a while.

Kahan nods, and tiredly lifts his shield and mace as he heads towards the door. "I will yell if we need help. Surely you'll still be able to hear us," he commented before heading into the steam.

OOC: He hasn't logged in for a week, he's probably just busy with rl or something. Borimer is the only player that's been here longer than me and I doubt he's going to quit on us now.

Kahan follows after Shae. When he reaches the center of the path, he too is enveloped in the mist and disappears.

In reply to DM Heath (msg # 45):

PM

"Well Leogold, I suppose we should cross as well.  Either they are in trouble, or they are fine but some magic is preventing them from returning." Tahldar says.

The mage is weary, but not so tired as to be unable to continue.  With tentative steps he starts to follow Kahan and Shae.

As Tahldar and Leo start across, a hawk flies through the hazy mist of the lava right toward them!

Leo follows along but then freezes a bit as the hawk approaches.

ooc: how big is it?

Tahldar holds firm.  "It could be Shae." he says tentatively to Leogold.  "Wait to see if it attacks before taking action."

Tahldar is correct, and the hawk reforms into Shae. She falls at their feet, wounded but alive.

Shae gasps for breath. "It's all an illusion. If you have dispel magic, cast it now. Kahan is down there hurt. We have to rethink this."

She casts cure serious wounds on herself while waiting for Tahldar's response. She looks out over the illusion seeing it for what it is now and taking it in to analyze the situation.

"Sure.  I can do that." Tahldar replies.  The mage moves up close to the area where his companions disappeared and casts dispel magic.

OOC:  Not sure if it applies here, but Tahldar's int is high enough that he is immune to 1st level illusions.  So the 1st level spell phantasmal force won't work on him (it's a visual only spell).  But I assume this illusion gives off heat, meaning it must be a higher level spell.

Leo follows to lend a hand...

Kahan continues trying to grapple hook his way out of the hole.

Tahldar casts dispel magic, revealing the truth behind what you saw. Instantly, the heat dissipates, the mists clear, and fiery lava is gone.  What you see is the bridge, but it is made out of bones, and it has a large gap in the center.

The floor of the cavern is covered with pointy stalagmites with a 30 foot drop. Kahan is at the bottom between the gap in the bridge, and he is surrounded by the skeletons and their final belongings of all those who failed to cross before. The dispel magic also dispels the zone of silence spell that had prevented Kahan or Shae from calling out or casting spells from the bottom of the pit.

After the gap in the bridge, you see that the bridge goes to a door that is not gold as you originally saw. Instead, it is made out of bones--mostly arm and thigh bones crossing horizontally.



Kahan is attempting to grapple his way out of the hole. So far, his attempt has failed.

NOTE: Are you grappling the side going back to the entrance or to the far door?

Shae receives 17 hp back from the healing spell.
This message was last edited by the GM at 06:11, Thu 27 Feb 2020.

Shae says, "I can transform three times per day. I can transform into another flying creature to get to the door over there, and that will leave me with one more. That also puts me all alone by that door. Any other ideas about getting over there? I think we need to get to that door."

She also addresses Kahan before he gets out of the pit. "You might want to poke around those bodies near you and see if there is anything valuable they left behind."

OOC: The way forward towards the bone door. Casting Cure Light Wounds on myself.

"Ah, thank you, Tahldar!" the priest calls out, before casting a healing spell on himself. Once he felt a bit healthier, he continued trying to get a good latch onto the bridge above with his grappling hook, which should be easier now that he can actually see what he's doing. Assuming he gets it hooked, he will follow Shae's advice and pick through the bones for anything that may seem useful.

Tahldar looks at Kahan with concern, but the priest seems okay which he finds a relief.

"Save your power Shae.  I will cast Fly on Borimer and he can ferry us all across."

OOC:  I will cast a Fly spell on Borimer who I'm sure is more than strong enough to carry us all over the gap, one at a time.  The spell will last for 12 turns in total.  (9 turns from my level, plus 1d6)

09:12, Today: Tahldar of Tyrannia rolled 3 using 1d6 ((3)).

Kahan casts cure light wounds on himself and is healed for 8 hp.

Tahldar casts Fly on Borimer, and the group makes preparations to fly across.

Kahan successfully grapples the bridge but stops to search the bodies before proceeding. He finds the following among the tattered clothes and ruined equipment:

• An old leather sack with a scroll, 50 Allevian gold pieces, and a set of 4 bone carved six sided dice.
• Another old leather sack with several stoppered vials. The vials are:
  -1 quicksilver vial with the words "Slippery" on it
  -1 deep blue vial with the words "Do Not Open" on it
  -2 light green vials with the words "Veggie Lovers" on them
  -3 light blue vials with the words "Feeling Better" on them
  -2 empty vials with the words "Not Air" on them
• A rotted backpack with the following:
  -A priest scroll
  -A dagger blade attachment (that would fit on Leo's dagger)
  -6 darts for a blowdart gun wrapped in resin and apparently poisoned
  -2 bracers of an intricate design that clearly must be magic
  -260 Allevian gold pieces

The rest of the items are rotted or useless. None of the bodies appears to be fresh. It has been at least a few years since anyone fell victim to this trap.

Borimer transports the group across through flying, and Kahan climbs up with his spoils. All of this takes about 10 minutes.

However, as Borimer comes back again, you are horrified to see that the door you entered suddenly slams shut, leaving you in complete darkness. Geebo and Fingas are trapped on the far side of the door, along with the white hare being held by Geebo.

You are thrown off balance for a moment as the entire circular room rotates slightly, about 45 degrees. The "door" is no longer where it would have been.

Now separated from the Geebo and Fingas, the rest of you are safely by the bone door across the room.
This message was last edited by the GM at 05:53, Fri 28 Feb 2020.

Tahldar looks the haul over.  "Leogold, would you want to try the bracers?  I already have a pair and likely won't need them."  he says as he lets the party decide what to do with the rest.

As the room shifts the mage drops to one knee to steady himself.  "Dammit." he mutters seeing that they have lost contact with Fingas, Geebo and the rabbit.

"I can teleport back to them if need be, but it won't do much good as I can only cast it once per day.  But by the look of it this room turns at a constant rate.  As long as we are back in here before it moves again, in three more moves we'll be back with Fingas and Geebo."

As for the door in front of them he leaves it to the others to open.

OOC:  In term of a clock let's say we were at 12.  We are now at 1:30 and Fingas/Geebo are at 6.  If we leave I would suspect we need to ensure we are back in here before it moves again.  If the door is locked and pick locks doesn't work I can use a knock spell.

Shae nods in agreement. She looks the door over to see if it can be easily opened or appears trapped. "Leo, you may want to check this for traps too. One per day is plenty for me."

She assumes Kahan will take the priest scroll, though she can probably use it if he can't.

She suggests pocketing the vials until they can be examined under less pressing circumstances.

She checks the scroll in the sack to see what it is and rolls the dice on the ground once just to see if anything happens.

"Maybe a detect magic spell is in order here?" she suggests to Tahldar.

Kahan looks over the scroll as the others check the rest of the loot. "Yes, we should try to make sure nothing is cursed before we try them on," he agreed.

"A detect magic won't let me know if an item is cursed.  Only that it is magic.  Instead you need the identify spell and many hours available to complete the rigors to use it." Tahldar replies to Kahan.

"I saw we hold off trying anything until we have time to analyze them.  And I think it best I keep as many spells at the ready as I think I'm going to need every one I have and then some by the end of this."

OOC:  I won't cast detect magic and suggest we store the loot for now.

Leo looks over the bracers.  "Perhaps these will be of use but I agree we should wait to make sure they are safe to use" 

Leo looks over the door to see if there is anything to be concerned about.

<ooc: for some reason the dice roller is giving me errors atm.  I can try again later.  Unfortunately the previous player didn't put a whole lot of points into trap finding it would seem.>

NOTE FYI: It's been a long time, so you probably don't remember, but the house rule is that an Identify Magic spell immediately gives you all the details of the item but only applies to one item each time the spell is cast.  So no need to wait if you want to cast on any specific item. Typically, you would cast detect magic first (which works as Tahldar suggested) so that you don't try to identify a non-magical object.

(If it cursed, there is a chance of misidentification (100% minus 5x spellcaster's level minus 2x spellcaster's wisdom. Example: A level 10 wizard with 10 wisdom would have a 30% chance of misidentification of a cursed object as a non-cursed object (100%-50%-20%=30%). Always at least a 5% chance of failure.)

OOC:  Taldar will cast detect magic on the lot, then will cast analyze magic on whichever item the party wants.  I get one freebie casting of each per day...

"I can also cast Auguries on items to make sure they aren't cursed, but perhaps you are right, we should wait. We need to find the way out of here before the room shifts again, assuming it is going to," Kahan commented, looking over the door with Leo. "What do you think? Is it safe?" he asks, looking for a handle of some sort.

After looking a bit, Leo declares, "I am not able to find anything dangerous on the door."

07:44, Today: Leogold Silvershaper rolled 54 using 1d100.  Find Traps roll.

Shae says, "Let's go in. We can figure out this magic stuff later. Maybe just cast the detect magic for now and we'll do the identify later."

Assuming no traps found, Shae opens the bone door and moves the party forward if it's safe.

Tahldar casts detect magic while Leo inspects the door. The following items glow magic:

-1 quicksilver vial with the words "Slippery" on it
-1 deep blue vial with the words "Do Not Open" on it
-2 light green vials with the words "Veggie Lovers" on them
-3 light blue vials with the words "Feeling Better" on them
-2 empty vials with the words "Not Air" on them
-A dagger blade attachment (that would fit on Leo's dagger)
-6 darts for a blowdart gun wrapped in resin and apparently poisoned
-2 bracers of an intricate design that clearly must be magic

Leo finds no traps or anything on the door. The bones cover a heavy stone door of ancient design. Pushing on it takes some strength, but it eventually swings open.

The room beyond has an 8 foot wide circular pathway. The room is large and circular like the one you are exiting. The room itself is covered in mist and you cannot even see halfway across. The center appears to lead down to a deep pit covered in the mist.

The walls here are similarly covered in bones. You cannot tell how tall the ceiling is because of the mist but it must be at least 20 feet above you.

At each 45 degree mark of the room is a giant 10 feet diameter bas relief carving of a circular intricate object with tentacles reaching out in spiral fashion, 8 in each carving, like an octopoid reaching out or spinning.

From the center pit area below you, a green spherical glow begins to rise, bobbing around in the center of the room.

"I think we need to get to those carvings, and quickly!  Not sure why yet, but I think it would be wise!"  Tahldar says as he begins to move to the nearest one.

OOC:  Talhdar is relatively slow at a 120' move so he'll run as fast as he can to the nearest carving.  I would assume Borimor is the fastest as he's flying and should go to the farthest.

The carvings to your left and right are equidistant. There are presumably 8 total with one being above the door you just entered and one at each "face" of an 8-sided die, if you think of it that way.

As the last of you enters the room to look around, the heavy stone door behind you closes, and you see another of those octopoid carvings above the door behind you. As the door slams shut, you see piles of bones (apparently dislodged by the slamming door) fall down into the pit from somewhere above. Based on how long passes until you hear them crash, you presume the floor of the pit is about 50 feet below you.

With the heavy mist, what you see is this:

8 foot wide stone block path circling around the room (about 230 feet to circle the whole thing). Each stone block has a faint carving on it of the following:



About 35 feet to your left and right (i.e., at every 1/8 interval of the circular room) are octopoid carvings in bas relief in stone. Each is about 8 foot in diameter with 8 lengthy arms spiraling around it. Another similar carving is above the door behind you. They look like this:



The mist obscures the rest of the room, but you presume there are 8 octopoid carvings at each 45 degree angle of the room.

The ceiling is above you beyond your view in the mist.

The pit is presumably about 75 feet across and sinks into darkness below and above. All spaces between the octopoid carvings are covered with bones of all types, similar to the catacombs you were just in.

The green glowing orb is bobbing around in the central area of the pit. It moves slightly to the left and right. The movements are erratic enough that you think it may be something sentient or controlled by something sentient.
This message was last edited by the GM at 01:43, Tue 03 Mar 2020.

Unsure of what to do, Tahldar begins to circle around.

OOC:  Detect magic lasts for 18 rounds for Tahldar so I assume it's still going from when I cast it on the stuff we found.  He will first encircle the walkway scanning for magic.  Then he'll look for secret doors on the carvings and the like.

Detect magic:  Duration: 2 rds./level, Area of Effect: 10 x 60 ft.

For detect magic, it does last 18 rounds, but he must concentrate for the round he is detecting. For example, the spell says he can scan a 60 degree arc per round.

Is the party going clockwise or counterclockwise?

Shae follows Tahldar. Let's assume counterclockwise to the first carving. She is alert to the carving but is also trying to observe the green glowing orb to figure out what it might be.

You circle the 35 feet to your right (counterclockwise) to the first wall carving. Looking more closely, you see that it is intricately carved. Even the tentacle spirals seem to pop out in great detail. In the center of the carving are two indented slots, one in the black spiral and one in the white spiral (see picture in previous post).

In the white spiral slot, a green peridot gem is imbedded. The slot in the black spiral is empty.

The green orb bobs a bit more and then dips down into the pit out of view.

From your new positioning, it appears the floor and wall continues counterclockwise to another of these octopoid carvings at the next 35 foot interval.

The mist is still just as heavy. Its smell is slightly sweet. It is not entirely water based.

NOTE: I am not sure of your light sources. It is pitch black in this room except for the glowing green orb and whatever light sources you are using.

"Well, it would seem we need to put something in the empty slot, but lets check the other carvings first.  I suspect that we will have to move the green gem from the white slot to the black one.  The green gem I think represents the green blob.  But it's not clear to me if we will need to move one gem in one carving, or more than one, in some combination."

"It could be that moving a gem will cause the blob to move to the place the gem is moved.  I'm not sure." Tahldar says as he continues to move.

Shae says, "I think we need more information. Let's go to the next carving." She will follow Tahldar counterclockwise to the next one and inspect it.

You move counter clockwise to the next carving. It is like the other, but in this one, there is an agate in the white center spiral. The lower black gem slot is empty.

The green orb bobs just a bit more before starting to head in your direction. It is vague in form, not wholly spherical but glowing like a large firefly. It veers right about 20 feet counterclockwise from you and hangs above the path you are on, bobbing as if asking you to follow.
This message was last edited by the GM at 04:31, Mon 16 Mar 2020.

"Well, what is the worst that could happen?", Leo remarks skeptically.

With a shrug Tahldar says "Let's follow."

Shae will also follow the green glowing orb.

Kahan shrugs and follows along. "Hopefully it doesn't lead us into a trap," he laughed, half sarcastically.

OOC: Last I remembered, we had some sort of Continual Light torches or something but I don't know if that's still the case.

Don't they always?  Leo follows along as well.

The group begins following the bobbing green sphere as it circles the pathway. When you reach the next octopoid statue, you feel the floor slightly give, and before you have much time to react, the entire floor collapses. Like the previous room, the marble floor had been an illusion, and the actual floor consisted only of a thin layer of rotted wooden planks.

Only Borimer and Tahldar manage to jump back in time to avoid the fall, Borimer is on the far side of the now 10 foot hole in the floor, and Tahldar is on the near side.

Kahan, Leo and Shae fall beyond the sight of Borimer and Tahldar...

The green glowing orb almost immediately sweeps down into the center area of the pit. A moment later, it pulses brightly from the deep area of the pit, and a shriek pulsates and nearly deafens you.
Just after the shriek, Tahldar senses movement to his right. He turns and sees that some of the bones and skeletons on the wall are starting to move. Borimer sees the same thing on the wall of bones behind him. They are trying to excavate themselves from the walls as they come to life.

NOTE: I had to laugh when I saw Leo and Kahan's posts, since I knew what was coming. I almost felt guilty about the trap. Almost.

PM

"Borimer, bring me down below!" Talhdar says to his flying companion.

OOC:  Reminder that Tahldar is immune to 1st level illusions.  Any basic visual only, or auditory only, illusion won't affect him.  In any event I wish for Borimer to grab me and bring me down below to check on the others.

Leo gets up and attempts to climb the walls.


17:24, Today: Leogold Silvershaper rolled 14 using 1d100.  climb walls.

Shae transforms into a large eagle to fly up out of the pit, and she tries to take Kahan with her as he begins casting. She will go back up to the ledge by Borimer.

But just before transforming, she yells up, "Borimer, fly down and get Kahan," just in case she can't pull him up.

Borimer flies to Tahldar and takes them down the pit to rescue Kahan and bring them back up.

Leo begins scaling the inside walls of the pit to escape the grasping corpses.

Kahan begins casting.

Shae transforms into an eagle and flies up to the top.

Borimer grabs Tahldar and goes down, where they see that the pit is covered with skeletons and bones that are animating and coming alive, moving like a mass of grubs over each other to attack their prey, which happens to be the trio who just fell down.

Leo successfully scales the wall using his rogue abilities. Shae makes it safely to the top.

Borimer grabs Kahan out of the pile of moving bones.

Kahan casts a spell. It is unclear if it had any effect or not because the bones are still moving, skeletons are reanimating, and they are reaching out to get you.

The party makes it safely to the top again, but the bones from the pit--some whole skeletons, some part skeletons--are trying to scale the wall from below.

The green glowing orb bobs up and down, still hidden in the mist but now back at eye level about 35 feet from you toward the center of the pit.

OOC: Would it be possible to get some sort of map or picture of what the room looks like now? I'm not sure how much was illusion and how much was real.

Hopefully this will help. I made up this room so this is a rough map. The room is octagon with 35 foot sides. The ledge going around is 8 feet wide. Approximately 8 foot square stone blocks make up the ledge, four for each side of the octagon (with two center ones being square and the two outer ones being more like trapezoids). On each of the stone blocks is the symbol of 8 arrows pointing out from the center. (The diagram below just shows the arrow diagrams on one side, but they are on all of the stone blocks going around the entire room.)

The pit is 75 feet across and 50 feet deep (at least, 50 feet down to the pile of bones--no one knows how deep the pile of bones goes). In the map below, the party started at the southern entrance and traversed two sides of the octagon. Each side has the strange octopoid carving. Upon entering the second side, one of the stone blocks in the floor was only an illusion, similar to the illusion in the room you just exited. All other blocks you walked across so far appear normal.

There is a deep sour, green mist blocking vision of most of the room. The green orb thing bobs about and pulsed and screeched once, which seemed to bring the skeletons to life.



This message was last edited by the GM at 04:42, Mon 16 Mar 2020.

Kahan pulls out his mace and shield and gets ready for the skeletons. "Someone else can work out which of the tiles are real or not, I'm tired of falling on spikes," he grimaced, although he was still mostly healthy so he didn't worry too much about healing. If there are any moving skeletal bodies nearby he'll smack them with his Mace of Disruption and watch them go boom.

"Lets stay put for now." Tahldar says in reply to Kahan.  Using his last third "level" spell he begins to cast.

OOC:  Tahldar will cast fireball, centered on the green mist.  In hopes he hurts it and takes out as many skeletons as possible.  Rolled 43pts damage.

19:06, Today: Tahldar of Tyrannia rolled 43 using 9d6.  Fireball.

Shae transforms back into her normal half-elf self. "Only one more transformation left today," she mutters. Then she pulls out her spear, ready to attack any skeletons.

"Kahan," she says, "You're a cleric. Can't you turn the undead?"

She will wait to see the effects of the fireball. She transformed back to herself on the north side of the illusion. (Everyone else is on that side too, right?)

She also glances at the octopoid carving to see if it the same as the others or has any differences.

NOTE: Sorry, I made a mistake. The trap was one more rotation up on the octagon than the map I made. Here it is, along with the placement of the gems in slots:

The numbers correspond to the Adventure Items, Goals and Info thread I created to help keep track of these things.



Tahldar casts fireball. It is effective...perhaps too effective. Just a little too late, you realize that the green mist with the strange smell is flammable. The entire room is like a fuel tank.

There is a blast below as hundreds of skeletal beings explode in fire, but you have no time to contemplate that as you jump for the corners and cover yourselves when the room is engulfed in flames...

Borimer: 13 hp dmg
Kahan: 15 hp dmg
Leo: 12 hp dmg
Shae: 15 hp dmg
Tahldar: 20 hp dmg

Feeling charred and with smoke flowing off your bodies, you rise up. The room is still mostly intact. Kahan hits skeletal hands reaching from the walls, and they fall to the ground.

For a moment, the mist is gone, and you see that the entire room, as predicted, has 8 of the octopoid sculptures, but the one directly in front of you (north face) has something different on it.

There are still many skeletons all around, even if many are scorched, but none appear to be moving anymore.

The green orb has moved to the far corner away from you, pulsing quickly. Green mist is again pouring into the room from below and above. Soon it will be just as thick as before.
This message was last edited by the GM at 04:49, Mon 16 Mar 2020.

As soon as his fireball takes effect Tahldar knows something is wrong.  "Hit the deck!" he shouts as a wave of fire engulfs them.

Standing he dusts himself off.  He is hurt but is heartened to see the skeletons are all pulverized.  But he suspects they have little time as the damnable green orb seems to be doing something.

Not wasting time he takes a good look at the Octopoid sculpture in front of them.

OOC:  I would like to encircle the room and look at all the Octopoid's as fast as possible.  But with Borimer skimming the ground in front of us for trap floors.  Since he's flying he can't fall.

Shae agrees with Tahldar's approach and will circle the room with him quickly, checking for false floors as she goes. Her spear is ready for the attack.

You begin circling around and make it to #5. OOC: We will stop here since it is a little different; then you can continue your tour.

This octopoid is similar to the others except for the following:

1) Instead of two slots, one in the white and one in the black, it has four slots above the white and four slots below the black. All of them are empty.

2) Above the four slots above the white is the following inscription in Allevian:

Top Inscription:

Drops of ice rainbow,
Frozen in the light,
Luck of a talisman,
Or evil eye in the night.

Below the four slots below the black is the following inscription in Allevian:

Bottom Inscription:

Brought from the mine,
And held to the sun,
Drops of frozen red wine,
From Hell's deep vats o'errun.

NOTE: Actually, let's take you one more square over to #6 since you can contemplate that while you move forward.

You move forward to #6. Before you can inspect the octopoid, you find that there is another false floor here. This one is 16 feet wide and covers the entire octopoid.

There are two gems in this one. In the top slot is a red Bloodstone. In the bottom slot is an Obsidian stone.

You currently stand just northeast of #6 and have not crossed the false floor. You cannot closely examine or touch the octopoid from where you are at due to the false illusionary floor.

EDIT: You did not examine #4 yet due to the collapsing floor and battle, but when you looked back, you found that it contained a green Lapis Lazuli stone in the bottom slot. The top slot was empty.
This message was last edited by the GM at 06:27, Fri 27 Mar 2020.

The party stands behind #6 while Borimer flies around to the remaining octopoid statues.

At the next one (#7), Borimer finds that the bottom slot has Yttrium (also known as a garnet) stone.

He flies to the next one (#8) and sees that it has Rossmanite (a type of boron silicate) in the top slot and Ulexite in the bottom one.

NOTE: That is all the slots.

In the meantime, the pulsing green orb has been flying back away from Borimer's approach. It is now over behind the green mist at about octopoid #3. It quickly swoops down into the pit below and lets out another screech and pulses strongly with that green light.

Around you, more of the skeletal figures begin coming to life. You hear the creaking, rustling and gnashing of bones from the pit below as an unknown number animate and begin trying to climb the pit. In the skeletal walls of the octagon room, the skeletal hands reach out and jaws of skulls in the wall snap open and shut.

Kahan stares at the puzzle, for a long time, blinking and counting on his fingers. "Borimer, please bring me all the named gemstones, and hurry! Tahldar, Leo, Shae, hold the skeletons off," he says, finally coming to a realization of some sorts.

When that's happened, he begins quickly stuffing the gems into the holes, in the following order;

Top:

Obsidian
Peridot
Agate
Lapis Lazuli

Bottom:

Rossmanite
Ulexite
Bloodstone
Yttrium

Tahldar watches Kahan work.  He notices the way the cleric has arranged the stones has the first letter of each stone when spelled out say:  "Opal" and "Ruby".

"Well done lad.  I think you got it." he says with a smile.

OOC:  I would like Borimer to carry us all over to the door, where we will protect Kahan as he arranges the stones.

"I think you're on to something there, Kahan," Shae says, waiting for Borimer to go around collecting the gems.

Borimer starts by flying to #6 where the 16 foot false floor is at. He reaches out to take the gems. As soon as he touches them, the octopoid tentacles whip out like a living statue to attack Borimer. As he is floating right in the center, the tentacles have a direct central access to hit him with their stone whip-like action.  Out of eight tentacles, three tentacles hit him straight on. (Total of 28 hp dmg.) One tries to grapple him like a python but is not successful.

He is surprised and has no time to immediately react but can attack or retreat next round.

Borimer goes from 77 hp to 49 hp.

Also, the skeletal masses from below are climbing the walls and will reach the top before long.
This message was last edited by the GM at 09:39, Thu 02 Apr 2020.

Shae says, "We have to try something here and get the gems fast. Let's get our own army of undead going." Shae begins casting as she focuses on the nearest skeletons. Shae casts animate dead.

Kahan casts Invisibility to Undead on himself and begins heading south to get the gems, as there aren't any more pitfall traps that way. But he is still extremely cautious the whole way, just in case they missed one or there is a new one. When he gets to the octopoid sculpture, he will crouch down as low as he can, while still being able to grab the gemstone they needed. If possible he will position his shield over his head to stop the tentacles from smacking him.

If Kahan circles clockwise, he will have to jump over the 8 foot pit at #4 (as compared with the 16 foot pit at #6). He also won't be able to reach the gem at #4 very easily, whereas Borimer could do so.

OOC: Is Borimer still flying? If so, he'll just cast the spell on him instead, along with a Cure Light Wounds. I don't want to dare the jump with his blood deficiency lol.

Yes, Borimer is flying. I still think he has plenty of flying time left

Shae will follow Kahan around clockwise to help collect the gems and ward off any attacks. She will leave any dead she animates to guard the others at area 5.

Tahldar holds point at the northern part of the room, flanked on each side by a sheer drop.

OOC:  Tahldar will hold off casting until Kahan and Shae are out of area 5.  He will then cast a web from area 6 to 4 to close off area 5 from the skeletons.  He can create up to eight 10' x 10' cubes of webs.  Not sure how far across that would be from 6 to 4.  But I'm thinking about 40' might do it.  In any event I'll use any extra web to make it thicker across it's length.  It's 10' high, which I hope leaves enough for Borimer to fly over.  If not I'll lower it.

Borimer will remove the gems as his first priority. His second priority will be to fly out of the reach of the octopoid's arms or fight them with his sword, if necessary.

Shae raises dead, and 11 skeletal undead rise from those around you to stand guard at #5.

Kahan has second thoughts, but Shae runs clockwise to go get the gems, easily hurtling the 8 foot gap.

Borimer is in the middle of trying to get the gems (at #6). He wedges both gems out, but not before being hit hard by three tentacles. (14 hp dmg.) Luckily, he is not constricted by any of them.

Borimer immediately flies to #5 to hand the gems to Tahldar and avoiding the reach of the octopoid's arms.

Tahldar begins casting webs.
NOTE: I'm not clear. Are you casting webs down the pit area connected to #5 or at eye level connected to the walls and ledge?

Shae will start with the gem at #7 and then work her way back counterclockwise collecting gems as quickly as possible (#8 then #1, etc)

Kahan begins casting a spell.

Shae begins running around clockwise.

Kahan begins casting a spell.

Tahldar is getting ready to finish casting web (as soon as we figure out where exactly).

Just as Borimer escapes with the two gems, the octopoid arms revert to their inert statue forms against the wall.

The upper and lower half of the central symbol (yin/yang) slides apart, and a round orb slightly larger than a marble begins to fall out.

Borimer immediately rushes back and grabs the marble before it can fall into the pit, and he brings it back to you at #5.  As he does so, the marble puffs out, changes and transforms into a familiar face.

Shapfren appears before you, seeming somewhat dazed and surprised. She looks around and about as if confused about where she is or how she got here.

Borimer jumps back surprised, his eyes wide. "That's odd," he says, "I was just thinking about our lost companions, and Shapfren in particular, and wondering if we would end up dead like them." He steps back as if warding off a superstitious omen.

Tahldar looks at Shapfren with surprise.  Too busy casting his webs, he leaves introductions for later.  But is heartened to have her back, especially as she was a spellcaster like himself.

Kahan was likewise busy spellcasting, but the look on his face was indicative of the shock he felt seeing their new old companion.

Tahldar casts web to keep the skeletal army below at bay.

The 11 skeletons summoned by Shae stand around twiddling their thumbs--those who have thumbs, that is.

Kahan finishes his spell, and a field of force shaped like a hammer appears, which he sends at the green glowing orb. It hits the orb. (6 hp dmg.) Kahan remains concentrated and can attack with it again.

But the orb, being unsafe even at a distance, begins approaching you. On the way, it pulses and screeches again. Behind you, more skeletons become animated, and others begin falling from the ceiling onto the floor (and web) around you, moving and getting ready to attack.

Meanwhile, Shae takes the Yttrium from its slot. Nothing happens.

And Borimer flies over to #4 with the false floor and takes the Lapis Lazuli gem out. Nothing happens.

You now have 10 skeletons trying to attack (plus more trying to get out of the wall or falling from the ceiling), countless skeletons below you trapped by webs and moving to the far side to climb up, and a green glowing orb quickly approaching you.

The ledge you are on is quite full of skeletons (21 total=11 from Kahan and 10 from the green orb) as well as having Kahan, Tahldar, Leo, and the newly arrived Shapfren. All in approximately an 8 foot by 40 foot section of ledge.

In response to the skeletons dropping from the ceiling, Tahldar takes defensive action.

OOC:  I cast mirror image.  I now have four images besides myself, so a one in five chance of hitting me currently.
08:54, Today: Tahldar of Tyrannia rolled 4 using 1d4+3 ((1)).

Kahan continues concentrating on his spell, hoping that destroying the orb would end the animation magic on the skeletons.

Leo will move near Kahan and try to run interference if necessary hoping that he is right about the orb.

Shap was confused as to what had just happened. She looked at her companions and knew that was a question for another time. She moved to begin the cast of a spell aimed at the floor behind them, with any luck that would stop some of the pursuing force.

Cast Grease

Shae continues to work counterclockwise to hopefully collect the gems before the skeletons reach the top.

Many things start happening all at once...

ROUND 1
Over on tile 5 it is getting very crowded...

Shae's 11 skeletons begin attacking the 10 skeletons that just fell from the ceiling.

Shapfren begins casting grease on the area of tile 4 just before the false floor.

Tahldar casts mirror image and four images of himself pop up around him.

Kahan concentrates on his spell, and the hammer again attacks the green glowing thing approaching you. (Kahan realizes about now that he has just really pissed it off!) (4 dmg)

Leo maneuvers to take best advantage in attacking the orb.

The skeletons are momentarily held back by Shae's skeletons.

The green glowing light comes close and its ghostly voice says with evil intent, in the Elvish tongue, "Intruders!" Its body brightens and dims as it speaks.


It does not come within melee distance, remaining just out of reach. And then it flashes its true face at Kahan...



Kahan feels himself dazed and loses concentration. (Saving throw failed.) Even worse, he feels compelled to start moving toward the creature. This causes him to step off the ledge and land in Tahldar's web, face down. This causes the dazed state to come off him, but now he is stuck in the web. He is now staring straight down into the skeletons trying to scale the wall but unable to get through the web. They will, however, be able to attack him through the web to some extent.

Kahan's spiritual hammer disappears in thin air.



And in Shae's neck of the woods at tile 8...

Shae begins trying to dislodge one of the two gems. This awakens another of the living statue octopoids. Its arms immediately come to life to attack Shae...(only 4 attacks per individual at a time, due to logistics, but there are 8 arms)

Shae finds herself hit hard. Two of the stone arms slam against her and one wraps itself around her waist, pulling her close to strangle her. (critical hit. 22 total damage.) Shae is now constricted and unable to move her arms as she is being slowly constricted to death.

Borimer flies toward Shae to help her out. He will reach her next round. His sword Godslayer is at the ready.


Here is the ledge you are on, which is 8 feet wide and 45 feet from the edge of one false floor to the other.
Each square represents a 3x3 area. (Normally it would be 5x5.)


SF=Shapfren
LE=Leo
KA=Kahan (face down in the web)
TA=Tahldar
mi=mirror image
sk=Shae's skeletons
US=Undead Skeleton attacking
or=green orb
W=Web (off of ledge)
Grease spell affects H1 to H3, and then moving off to the right
This message was last edited by the GM at 04:39, Wed 15 Apr 2020.

Shae will use her last transformation of the day to turn into a hawk and escape the clutches of the statue tentacles. She will fly over to C3 and transform back as she helps her companions get back in control of the situation

Seeing the orb menacing Kahan, and it's skeletons being held at bay with his own sides skeletons, Tahldar begins to cast.

OOC:  I will cast magic missiles at the green org.  I get 5 missiles and I rolled 20pts total.

08:57, Today: Tahldar of Tyrannia rolled 20 using 5d4+5.  Magic Missile.

Kahan is going to attempt to get back onto the ledge, if at all possible.

Someone will need to help Kahan since he is stuck to the web, face down. Kahan can still cast spells assuming he is still holding onto his holy symbol. He is just physically not able to move well due to Tahldar's web

Shae will try to grab kahan with her talons on her way back to the ledge and lift him back up to the ledge before transforming back.

Borimer will fly at the green orb and relentlessly attack it with Godslayer.

Shap runs sword in hand to try to cut Kahan out of the web. everything is too packed for her to attempt any magic attack.

Leo will also try to cut Kahan free or defend the area around him if needed.

ROUND 2
Borimer attacks the shiny green Will O'Wisp as it backs away from Kahan, hitting it twice squarely. It squeals even as it is trying to lure Leo with its beckoning call...but it fails.

Then it swoops at Borimer, buzzing him with powerful electrical energy. (9 hp dmg.)

Tahldar hits it with magic missiles, and it squeals in pain yet again.

Meanwhile, Leo, Tahldar and Shae (in bird form) are trying to cut Kahan loose from the web. Shae sinks her talons his back and struggles to pull him up, only succeeding after Leo joins in. Within moments, at least Kahan is back on his feet and the main part of the web is scrubbed away.

The skeletons fight each other, with four of the Wisp's skeletons going down and 5 of Shae's going down. That leaves 6 each.


The new map:

Each square represents a 3x3 area. (Normally it would be 5x5.)


SF=Shapfren
LE=Leo
KA=Kahan (face down in the web)
TA=Tahldar
SH=Shae
mi=mirror image
sk=Shae's skeletons
US=Undead Skeleton attacking
or=green orb (now off south of the map floating and fighting the flying Borimer)
W=Web (off of ledge)
Grease spell affects H1 to H3, and then moving off to the right

Seeing the skeletons are currently being kept at bay, Tahldar maintains his focus on the green orb.

OOC:  I will cast another magic missile.  21pts this time.
09:11, Today: Tahldar of Tyrannia rolled 21 using 5d4+5.  Magic Missile.

Kahan, fed up with this damn orb, begins casting.

Borimer will continue chasing the orb and slashing with Godslayer while they fly through the air.

Leo will try to provide cover for the casters and attack any skeletons that approach.

While uttering a prayer under her breath, Shae takes careful aim and hurls her ancestral spear at the green orb with all her might.

Shap doubted about whether to aim at the skeletons or at the orb. "Ok, let's help Borimer..." She began to cast hoping to finish on time, she would aim all of them at the orb.

22:58, Today: Shapfren Diditlew rolled 17 using 5d4+5.  Magic missiles..

ROUND 3

Leo jumps up and begins taking down skeletons. He is quick, having lost less blood, and quickly takes one down.

Another skeleton knocks out one of Tahldar's mirror image. And then another is knocked down.

Three of Shae's skeletons go down from the other skeletons attacking, and two more of the Will O'Wisp's skeletons are scattered to bones.

With all attacks focused on the Will O'Wisp, it sends out energy...but then is slammed by Borimer's sword. In his weakened state, Borimer is not as effective as before, but he gets one solid hit in, and then two sets of magic missiles hit from Shapfren and Tahldar. The green orb shudders and blinks out into invisibility to recover from the damage...

...but that is when Flame Strike hits it from Kahan, lighting it up, and Shae's ancestral spear finds its mark, digging itself into the glowing green undead thing. And then it blinks out and drops dead into the pit.

The skeletons around you collapse and fall useless to the ground.

And once more it is silent all around.

Kahan heaves a sigh of relief, glad that he had been correct about killing the creature and it ending the resurrection of the skeletons. "Okay, now where were we? I believe we need those stones so we can get out of here, and into the next trap room," he commented wryly.

The room suddenly is almost eerily quite now that the green orb and its skeletons cease to be.  Two of Tahldar's mirror images are gone, but he still has two left shimmering around him.

"Heal Borimer in case those tentacles are still active." Tahldar suggests.  "I will cast a stoneskin on him for added protection.  It lasts a while too."

OOC: Tahldar will cast a stoneskin on Borimer before he retrieves the stones.

Kahan casts up to two cure light wounds on Borimer.

The party regroups, and Kahan casts two spells on Borimer. (+16 HP) Tahldar casts stoneskin on him.

Borimer flies over to the #8 area and starts to remove the gems. As soon as he does, the stone tentacles immediately come alive and assault him.

ROUND ONE

He manages to dodge and swerve to avoid the attacks and attempted constriction of the tentacles while he removes the first gem.

He has one more gem to remove, and the 8 tentacles are coming in for a final attack.
This message was last edited by the GM at 06:55, Mon 20 Apr 2020.

Shae raises her hand and utters the recall word for her spear. Once it has returned to her, she will race around to help Borimer fight the tentacles.

Borimer strikes at the tentacles, trying to sever them. As a swordmaster, he gets three swings with Godslayer.

ROUND 2

Shae rushes around the room to help Borimer. Meanwhile...

Borimer manages to hack off two of the tentacles, but the rest swing down at him. One of them slaps him sharply in the leg, knocking him off balance, while another wraps around and starts to constrict him. (26 dmg total; critical hit) The others miss.

Borimer is now constricted by one of the stone tentacles. (He will have to roll higher than 1/2 strength -3 to get out or continue to be constricted (1d8 per round). His arms are bound by the constriction and he cannot attack until freed.)

Shae will reach Borimer after one more round. Everyone else is about 40 feet away. Much of Borimer's details are hidden by the green mist that is still settled about the room.

Shap aimed at the tentacles, hoping to distract them long enough for Borimer to get out.

22:12, Today: Shapfren Diditlew rolled 3 using 1d6.

22:12, Today: Shapfren Diditlew rolled 16 using 1d20.  Shoot tentacles (Thaco 13).

Borimer struggles to get free of constriction. If he succeeds, he will continue attacking the tentacles with Godslayer.

Tahdar sees Borimer struggle in the clutches of one of the tentacles and begins to cast.

OOC:  Cast magic missile on the tentacle grasping Borimer.  16pts
20:59, Today: Tahldar of Tyrannia rolled 16 using 5d4+5 ((1,3,2,2,3)).

Leo moves to slash at one of the tentacles if he can get there and reach it.

Kahan... can't really do much from here so he waited to see what happened, unfortunately.

As Shae approaches, she begins casting. Shae will cast transmute rock to mud on the tentacle wrapping Borimer.

ROUND THREE

In a feat of strength that will be sung by bards, Borimer cries out and not only breaks the grip of the tentacles, but actually breaks the stone tentacles into pieces, freeing himself. (Critical hit.)

The remaining tentacles attack...

Three hit him, but his stoneskin breaks the damage. Unfortunately, one of those tentacles also constricts him, so he finds himself back in the same dilemma, enwrapped by a stone tentacle.

Shae is within reach and redirects her spell onto the new tentacle, turning it to mud. It sloshes away from Borimer, freeing him once more. After Shae had called out the recall word for her spear, it now flies up out of the pit and into her awaiting hand.

Tahldar redirects his magic missiles onto another tentacle, hitting it solidly and damaging it. (8 hp remaining)

Kahan appears lost in mid-thought...

Leo, the most adroit of the bunch, runs counterclockwise, the closest path to Borimer. Instead of leaping over the 16 foot false floor, he launches himself at the skeleton filled wall, finds a foothold, and by all appearances seems to be running on the side of the wall, jumping off at the far side of the illusory floor and attacking the tentacles. His attack takes out the last of the tentacle damaged by Tahldar.

3 tentacles remaining.

ROUND FOUR

Borimer, now drenched around the waist in mud, swings with a cry at the tentacles. He knocks one of them to pieces with two swipes of his sword but misses on the third swing.

Leo strikes out and hits a second tentacle, which Shae then finishes off with her ancestral spear.

The remaining tentacle attacks but misses, and the three of them together hack it into shards of stone.

Taking a breath after that battle, Borimer retrieves the two stones. When he does so, as with the other octopoid, the central Yin/Yang stones separate, and another orb rolls out. Borimer catches it in his hand, and as he does so, the entire room is momentarily struck with crescent light and each of you is struck with a vision...


You hear a man's deep voice whisper in your head, "Beware the man with the white hair." And then you feel instantly transported to an underground cavern with a river of lava and a bulbous red wall that pulses like a heart with red and purple tributaries flowing around like veins throughout the cavern. The voice says, "Find the source of magic to undo the chaos started by the Anvil of Time in the Time Ark. Restore the World of Lesser Magic."

In your head, you see the image of a familiar room:

It then repeats, with slightly different wordage, "Beware the thing with the white hair. With three wishes, your life he may doom. Ashe needs your help. We all need your help. Tarimar lives on in this cursed world."
His voice continues, "You must end what you started."



The vision then fades. For a moment, you are dazed. Then you recognize the voice. It is the voice of Brand, the apprentice of the Wizard Ashe--a drow you have never met but who spoke to you once not long ago. (See message #1 here: link to a message in this game )

After that, the party has no problems retrieving all of the remaining gems without incident. You realize that the only tentacles that came to life were the ones with two gems. The ones with only one gem, or with none, were dormant.

Borimer wipes the mud from his body and says casually, as if this were a normal thing, "I remember just before Shapfren came back, I was escaping the tentacles and was thinking how good it would be to have her skills and song to give us strength. And then I touched that little orb, and now here she is. Then I was thinking about the vision I saw in the cave during my last brush with death with the dragon, and I touched the orb and it repeated. What does this mean?" Not the smartest man of the group by far, Borimer turns to all of you for explanations.
This message was last edited by the GM at 07:36, Thu 23 Apr 2020.

Shae says, "I think this is all connected. I don't know how yet, but I think we are about to find out. You remember that guy we saved from the dragon. He had long white hair. I remember that was his biggest feature. Is there something about him we should be wary of? Maybe next time we see him, that should be something to look into."

She turns to the door with the riddle. "I guess our next step is putting in these gems and seeing what happens. Are you all ready? Do we need to make any preparations?"

Moving this along...

OCTOPOID:


You put the gems in to spell "RUBY" and "OPAL" as you had already guessed. Upon doing so, the tentacles retract into the wall and the octopoid irises open to form a circular doorway leading into a small 8x8 chamber.


On the stone floor of the 8x8 chamber is the same symbol as in the other stone floor of the previous room.


Shapfren recognizes it from bardic lore. It is the symbol of Chaos.

But the small chamber itself seems harmless. You test the floor. Everything is real. No illusions. It seems to be an entryway to another door. This one is a circular wooden door, shut at the far end of the 8x8 chamber. It appears that this is like an antechamber leading to somewhere else. You just need to figure out how to open the far door.

This message was last edited by the GM at 04:14, Fri 24 Apr 2020.

Tahldar thinks on what Borimer has said happened.  "Maybe these little orbs have similar power to the orb we saw in the vision?  The ability to make any whim or wish to happen upon merely thinking it?  If so the larger orb we saw must be very powerful, but also very dangerous.  Only the most disciplined would have any chance to not do harm with it I would think."

Tahldar follows along until they reach the door without a handle.  He begins to cast.

OOC: Thaldar will cast a knock on the door.  I am assuming knock works by auto opening doors, but if it doesn't I'll cast the 1st level spell reduce on the door which should make it easy to swing open manually.

"The orb, do you still have it, Borimer, or did it disappear after giving us the vision?" the priest asks as he puts the stones into their slots and watches as the door opens... to another door. "I was wondering about that old man. He seems to be mad, but it might all be an act. When we get back to the gnomish village, we need to investigate him further," he nods as he watches Tahldar attempt to open the door. Meanwhile he looks around the room for any clues as to what may open the door if the spell fails.

Shap was happy to be alive, somehow. One of the first things she did was to ask about her spellbook, as it hadn't returned with her.

Now with this room, she had an idea. She approached Tahldar "Maybe it won't be enough to use a spell. The symbol means chaos, so opening the door will have something to do with it." She looked around to see if there were other features of notice.

Tahldar gives Shapfren her spellbook back:
Shapfren's Spellbook:
(1:19, 2:6, 3:1 )
LEVEL SPELL NAME
1       Read Magic
1       Detect Magic
1       Spook
1       Magic Missile
1       Hypnotism
1       Grease
1       Audible Glamer
1       Unseen Servant
2       Knock
2       Invisibility
2       Improved Phantasmal Force
3       Fireball
3       Fly spell
4       Shadow Monsters


Tahldar also casts knock. Although it seems to unlock the door, the door does not open. There appears to be a mechanism for making sure the door opens. (The chamber is like an airlock, though your characters don't know what that is exactly.)

Tahldar looks at the door with consternation.  He casts another spell.

OOC:  I will cast the inverse of the 1st level spell enlarge, reduce, on the door.

Is there anything else in the room whatsoever?

No. This is literally just a room to get you from Room A to Room B and separate the toxins from the last room, as well as to act as part of the gear for the rotating rooms.

Kahan will try to see if the arrow symbol in the floor can spin.

It does not spin.

Shae says, "Let's grab all these gems off the door in case we need them." She will remove the gems from the outside door and see what happens.

Shap told to Thaldar "Maybe we could paint the symbol outside on the door?"

Shapfren, I'm still waiting to see what happens if I reduce the door.

While Tahldar begins casting, Shae goes out to get the gems off the outside door. As she pries the eight gems loose, the large outside door begins closing again. She quickly pockets the eight gems and everyone slips into the 8x8 chamber before being locked in the octopoid room.

Tahldar finishes his spell, and the door shrinks to tiny portion of its size, allowing you to look into the far room...

[MOVING TO NEW THREAD]