When the door to the toxic green room of octopoids closes, you feel suddenly a little bit better and revived--as though a shadow has left. You are able to internalize all the experiences of the last few days and begin to feel how they have strengthened you and brought you together as a cohesive group.

XP
Please update your character sheets. (Including the date last updated in the character sheets helps remind you when it was last updated.) Note that these are high xps because I have not given them out in awhile. This will push some of you into a new level. You instantly gain the hitpoints, spells and skills of the new level--no training required. Please make the adjustments accordingly.

QUERY: If you would prefer me in the future to just say what the new total XP is rather than how much it increases, let me know.


As the relief of shaking off the last room leaves you, the light clears a little and you can see into the beautiful glow of the next room...
This message was last edited by the GM at 08:21, Mon 27 Apr 2020.

This room is about the same size as the previous room--about 100 feet in diameter. At first, you think it is octagonal like the previous room. Then you see that you are mistaken. It actually has 10 sides--a decagon.

Similar to the last room, it has 8 foot square stones at your feet, but these are marbleized granite, much more beautiful. On each of these stone squares is etched the following symbol with beautiful colors:



At first, you think this is another of the chaos symbols, but then you see that it has 10 arrows, not 8.

The room itself is colorfully lit by glowing mushrooms. They pulse with a slight magic. The hum is soft and almost transfixing.




You notice a 5 foot wide path going to the center of the room. There are 10 such paths, evenly spaced. You notice that lining the paths are mushrooms of colors matching those in the symbol on the floor. They grow in dirt to either side of the path.

The walls here are intricately carved marble panels. No skeletons or bones anywhere in sight. The mushrooms in the paths are tall and large, some of the 8 or 10 feet tall, and some of them just a couple feet high. They block your view of the far side of the room. You will need to walk around to see that.

But you do see what the paths all lead to. In the center of the room is an ornate gold pedestal. Crystal glass encases a chalice. It fits Tenvillah's description of the Chalice of Sanction that you must take back to him filled with Earthgold (the healing liquid more powerful than Earthsilver). (See post #2 here: link to a message in this game )

Then you let your gaze drift upward. It is difficult, if not impossible, to tell if or where the ceiling is because you see hosts of floating mushrooms not rooted to anything. At least, they appear sort of like mushrooms. They drift like jellyfish above the room with tentacles hanging down, and you realize they are alive, floating peacefully. Some of them have tentacles touching the stone walls, and they appear to be cleaning (or feeding off) the walls with their tentacles.


The path directly in front of you (facing north) is lined with red mushrooms. The one to your right is lined with orangish red mushrooms. The one to your left is lined with greenish blue mushrooms. And so each of the paths appears to be lined to match the symbol on the stones at your feet. You will need to walk around the room to be sure.

There do not appear to be any other exits from the room, though who knows what the marble tiles might be hiding.
This message was last edited by the GM at 23:52, Mon 27 Apr 2020.

I did a rough sketch of the decagon room. The color triangles show the color of mushrooms lining either side of the path leading to the center where the chalice is at. As you explore the room further, I will update descriptions. For now, you are at the entry area and can only see straight up the red path and to the sides of you (i.e., line of sight), but not any of the other paths or the far side of the room.
This message was last edited by the GM at 06:27, Tue 28 Apr 2020.

Shae will carefully go clockwise to the green area, staying on the rim away from the mushrooms. She will check for any more illusion floors. She also looks closely at the walls for anything out of the ordinary such as a button or holes or inscription. "I am not feeling so confident, now that all my shapechanging is used up for the day."

Her ancestral spear is ready and she is on full alert.

Shae moves along to the left. She sees nothing unusual about the floors--no illusions there--and the walls seem to be solid marble.

However, carved into the central wall tile in front of each path is a word. In front of the red path is the name "Hyrsam." In front of the light green is the word "Kelemvor." In front of the dark green is the word "Eldath."

But when she gets to the pathway leading between the green mushrooms, she sees a skeletal figure laying in the middle of the path. Whoever it was died long ago, reduced to just bones, boots, and a tattered cloak laying face down on the paved stone.

MAP UPDATED: Shows location of corpse, words on tiles with location, and corrects the tan color to make it white.
This message was last edited by the GM at 03:10, Tue 28 Apr 2020.

Kahan follows Shae's lead and  begins circling counterclockwise, carefully making sure the floor is solid before stepping on anything. "Don't touch that skeleton, whatever you do," he instructs, as if it needed said.

Tahldar holds his ground and waits to see what words his companions can glean.  He is deathly afraid of mushrooms as he knows how deadly they can be.

Shae will continue the same process of walking around the rim of the room searching until she meets up with Kahan on the far side.

Shapfren takes the red road and walks towards the center.

Borimer stays with Tahldar, watching what happens with a grunt of distaste. "Fighting mushrooms is not really my thing."

Kahan and Shae walk around the rim. They see nothing out of the ordinary other than the words on the walls, that line up according to the diagram below. (Note that I made an error on the earlier map. This one is accurate.)

They also see four more corpses on the paths to the center.

There are a total of five corpses:
GREEN: A skeleton wrapped in tattered cloak laying face down on the paved stone.
WHITE: A monk in a white cloak and boots holding a quarterstaff. The body is better preserved but is still long since dead.
YELLOW: An armor wrapped skeleton holding a battle axe. The armor and axe are slightly luminous as if lightly covered in ice.
LIGHT BLUE: A skeletal warrior in armor holding a sword and shield. This one is standing as if frozen in place long ago. A helm has fallen from the skull and lays on the path.
BLACK: A skeletal wizard, also standing as if frozen in place, still holding his spellbook in front of him in one hand and a staff in the other.


Shapfren starts out into the path surrounded by red mushrooms...


As she gets to about the second tile in, she suddenly feels herself paralyzed, unable to move. She shakes as she tries to fight it but is unable. She can talk through clenched teeth, but that's about it.

At the same time, the pores in the red mushrooms open up, and they begin spouting globs of bulbous liquid fire (like napalm) toward Shapfren, who is helpless and unable to move. She feels hit by several globs, which begin melting her skin and causing serious pain. (Luckily, they do not hit anyplace vital this round. (10 hp dmg)

But the mushrooms are contracting in order to pop out more of these globs...
This message was last edited by the GM at 04:25, Tue 28 Apr 2020.

"Get her out of there, carefully now!" Kahan instructs as he casts a spell.

Leo tries to creep up carefully and tries to drag her out.

"Leo!  Stop!  Don't go in there!" Tahldar shouts.

"Lasso her with rope!" he shouts to Borimer.  "And stay on the outside ring!"

Leo pauses ready to make a break for it if the rope thing doesn't work.

ROUND 2
Kahan casts a spell, extinguish fire, to help keep Shapfren from burning too much. It might help a little, but these are technically gobs of liquid metal--like lava or napalm--without much flame.

Borimer is fairly quick, but it takes a little time to get out the rope and prepare to lasso Shapfren. Meanwhile, another round of globules fly from the mushrooms. She is unable to move as the globs of searing heat hit her. Luckily, with Kahan's spell, the damage is minimized. (8 hp dmg.)

Leo is poised and ready should things go south.

ROUND 3

Borimer now has his rope out and is tying a lasso knot...

More globules fly up and at Shapfren...(7 hp dmg)

ROUND 4
Borimer throws the lasso at Shapfren...and misses spectacularly.

Shapfren is hit by yet another round of globules...(11 hp dmg)

ROUND 5
Borimer tries yet again to lasso Shapfren...and fails again.

Shapfren is hit once more...(8 hp dmg).

ROUND 6
Cursing under his breath, Borimer tries one last time...

This time he gets the lasso around Shapfren and quickly pulls her out of harm's way, just as globules fly near her.

As soon as she is pulled off the path and back onto the rim, the paralysis is lifted.

OOC: Half damage from Kahan's spell really helped her. Between the blood loss weaknesses and Borimer's bad rolls, she could have been in bad shape.

"Okay, let's not go that way then..." Kahan muttered as he tried to figure out where the names came from.

OOC: I have various history NWPs, but I'm not sure if any of them apply to these names. I'm thinking they have to do with names of gods, but I don't know if any of these are ones he would know offhand.

21:09, Today: Kahan Singh rolled 2 using 1d20.  Wisdom check to identify names.

The party meets back up at the entrance to exchange information while Shapfren is recovering.

Sharing your collective knowledge, Tahldar and Kahan confirm that they are all the names of gods mentioned in the Xren Codex and Allevian Annals.

You also share the following lore:
TAHLDAR'S LORE
Bahamut is a good deity of dragons. He was the dragon god of justice and a subservient deity to Torm, god of law. He was also the eternal rival of his sister Tiamat, queen of the chromatic dragons. Myths claimed that the great fortified castle that Bahamut called home was somewhere "behind the east wind" and many scholars believed Bahamut's castle was located on the Elemental Plane of Air. Others believed his palace was located "behind the north wind", this being the origin of his "Lord of the North Wind" title. Bahamut was stern and very disapproving of evil, always arguing with Asgorath about his crusade against it. He accepted no excuses for evil acts, and didn't tolerate even minor offenses by evil creatures. Bahamut also liked to prove the strength and worthiness of his followers by battling against them in his dragon form, halting the combat when his followers were injured or when they overcame him.

Tiamat was the eternal enemy of her brother, Bahamut. Tiamat was the evil dragon goddess of greed, queen of evil dragons and, for a time, a reluctant servant of the greater gods Bane and later Asmodeus. Tiamat was a unique chromatic dragon, who had one head for each primary color of the most common species of chromatics (black, blue, green, red, white). Each head was able to operate entirely independently of each other and had the powers of a member of the respective race of dragonkind. Her body also had traits in common with a wyvern, including a long tail tipped with a poisonous stinger. Tiamat was arrogant, greedy, hateful, spiteful and vain. She never forgave any kind of slight and was focused in obtaining more power and wealth. She disdained mortals, regarding them as mere disposable tools in her schemes.

KAHAN'S LORE
Selûne, also known as Our Lady of Silver, the Moonmaiden, and the Night White Lady, was a good yet chaotic goddess of the moon. Hers was the moon's mysterious power, the heavenly force that governed the world's tides and a mother's reproductive cycles, caused lycanthropes to shift form, and drew one to the brink of madness, and back again. In both her avatars and her religious artwork, Selûne appeared in many forms, like the phases of the moon. One was a dusky-skinned human woman with long limbs; perfect and exquisite beauty; wide, radiant, lime-green eyes; and long, ivory-hued hair that fell to her knees. Another was an ethereal young girl of slender frame, dark eyes, and dark hair, wearing diaphanous robes colored white or resembling dappled moonlight, which trailed her "moondust" or "moon motes". A third was a matronly middle-aged woman, plump yet fair and aging gracefully, with gray-streaked dark hair. She was generous and freely bestowed gifts and blessings on mortals. If pressed into battle, Selûne was an awesome warrior, fighting with divine fury but with martial and magical skill in coordination. She typically manifested as trails of dancing motes of light, similar to will-o'-wisps, commonly called "moondust" or "moon motes", which could shed moonlight where there should be none. In this form, she guided travelers lost in the night or journeying over hazardous terrain, and came to shine for her faithful when light was needed for a delicate action.

Lloth, known as the Queen of Spiders or the Queen of the Demonweb Pits, was the most influential goddess of the drow, within the pantheon of the Dark Seldarine. Her evil and chaos shown through when Lolth drove the drow into heavy infighting under the pretense of culling the weak, while her real goals were to hold absolute control over the dark elves, prevent the rise of alternative faiths or ideas, and avoid complacency (even though she found amusement in the strife that plagued her followers' communities).


SHAE'S LORE
Kelemvor Lyonsbane, also known as the Lord of the Dead and Judge of the Damned, was the god of death and the dead, and master of the Crystal Spire in the Fugue Plane. In his mortal days, Kelemvor was a skilled mercenary, with the heart of a noble paladin, concealed under rude manners and thwarted by his mysterious family curse. Law was elevated above all else, and good and evil subverted themselves to it. Fair yet cold, Kelemvor was the god of death and the dead. Kelemvor promoted that death was a natural part of life and should not be feared as long as it was understood. As a result of his deep respect for life and death, he held the undead in the uttermost contempt. He fiercely opposed the machinations of Velsharoon.

Velsharoon was the necromancer god who animated the dead into undead and used them for unjust and evil deeds, and thus stood against everything Kelemvor worked for. Velsharoon was once a lich wizard who, with the sponsorship of the deity Talos, managed to ascend to godhood.


SHAPFREN'S LORE
Eldath, also known as The Green Goddess or Mother Guardian of Groves, was a lake spirit who acted as the guardian of groves and watersheds, her presence was felt wherever there was calm. She was a pacifist who avoided hostile action, even if threatened. Although shy, quiet and enigmatic, Eldath was possessed of unknown depths of character and unexpressed resolve that could not be broken. Eldath protected rivers, streams, and druids' groves; her dogma was pacifistic, and her followers only resorted to violence in defense of themselves, of their friends and loved ones, and of pools and groves. She was regarded as a goddess of serenity, comfort, and healing. Any waters blessed by her were known to cure sickness and madness. They could also calm the dying giving them peace and a natural passing. Many rural communities have a designated pond or glade which serves as a holy site for local parishioners. These places were traditionally used as places to reflect and meditate. Offerings are typically weapons broken so they can never be used again, or an item that caused an argument and must be discarded to promote peace.

Silvanus, the Forest Father, was the god of nature, though formerly considered only the god of wild nature and druids. Silvanus is one of the oldest and most prominent deities. Silvanus saw and balanced all, meting out wild water and drought, fire and ice, life and death. All is in cycle, deftly and beautifully balanced. It is the duty of the devout to see this cycle and the sacred Balance as clearly as possible.

Oghma, also known as The Lord of Knowledge, was the neutral greater power of bards, inspiration, invention, and knowledge. Oghma was the leader of the Deities of Knowledge and Invention and his home plane was the House of Knowledge. His symbol was a blank scroll. He took no sides and simply observed and reported. His dogma was that knowledge, particularly the raw knowledge of ideas, is supreme. An idea has no weight, but it can move mountains. The greatest gift of humankind, an idea outweighs anything made by mortal hands. Knowledge is power and must be used with care, but hiding it away from others is never a good thing. Stifle no new ideas, no matter how false and crazed they seem; rather, let them be heard and considered. Never slay a singer, nor stand by as others do so. Spread knowledge wherever it is prudent to do so. Curb and deny falsehoods, rumor, and deceitful tales whenever you encounter them.

LEO'S LORE
Hyrsam, the Prince of Fools, was an ancient and powerful satyr archfey. He was a mischievous trickster who used guile and savagery to further his goals. He was handsome, with a wild mop of curly hair, dark, intelligent eyes, and a fair face. Hyrsam wore simple clothing when traveling, and dressed in formal attire when visiting fey courts. Though he outwardly presented himself as a fool, Hyrsam was exceedingly clever and manipulative, with a streak of vicious savagery. Hyrsam was essentially an anarchist who opposed the influence of civilization on the Feywild.

Borimer has no lore to share.

OOC: Note that this is the introductory lore. As we progress, I may make additional rolls to see if more lore is remembered. Feel free also to prompt me do so if you have something special in your character.
This message was last edited by the GM at 03:02, Wed 29 Apr 2020.

"Shapfren, you almost got yourself killed!" Tahldar says with concern once his companion is retrieved.

"Kahah, she could use healing if you have any left." he adds as he ponders what to do next.

"Borimer, using your rope lasso do you think you could retrieve each corpse on each path?  It might be useful to know how they died if we can determine it."

"Plus they may have on them something useful or maybe a clue on how to foil this dilemma we find ourselves in".

Kahan nods and casts Cure Critical Wounds on Shapfren. "I wonder if it has something to do with our particular beliefs and motivations, and the specific god's preferred way of behaving. Almost all gods have a preference in their followers' belief systems, and tend not to curry favor with those who disagree," he explained.

"Thank you"Shap had had a horrible scare. "Maybe it has to do with the symbol outside?" She thought "Maybe we could get there through Selune?" she paused, "I mean Thaldar and I. I don't think she would hurt us, would she?"

"If I had to guess, and it is just a guess, we might need to follow the path of our respective deities as Kahan seems to be suggesting.  Perhaps if true I might have actually survived." Leo ponders that a bit.

"We shouldn't be guessing and trying something unless we have a strong sense it will work." Tahldar says.

"Borimer, do you think you could lasso and retrieve each corpse?  And as much of their belongings as possible?  Especially the book the mage is holding.  I would really like to take a look at that."

"If we can get the bodies we might glean a clue that would help us.  Right now we don't know how this room is supposed to work.  The more we learn the better."

OOC:  I would like to retrieve as many of the bodies and their belongings as possible.  In some cases a lasso might work best.  In others you may need to drag them over.  I'm thinking a spear with two ropes tied on each end might work.  This way you could hook and drag.

Kahan grabs the Portable Hole out of his beltpouch and opens it up, fishing out two lengths of rope, one hempen and one silk, and then retrieves a grappling hook from his haversack. "This should help out," he suggests, tying the grappling hook to one of the ropes and handing it to someone else. "I'm in no shape to be doing feats of dexterity," he admits, continuing, "I can however help pull a body closer if someone ropes one." Once that was finished, perhaps they could figure out how to proceed...

Shae will assist Borimer in trying to lasso and retrieve the bodies without going onto the paths. They can go counterclockwise so that Tahldar gets his spellbook faster.

Shae also holds the colored gems from the last room. "I wonder if these colored gems are coordinated with this room."

Kahan casts cure critical wounds on Shapfren (+27 hp)

As he does so, the others try to go around collecting the corpses, starting with the mage. The bones fall apart but it appears to have been some kind of elf. He has been here for years, but you get his belongings:

MAGE:
1 staff
1 cloak
1 spellbook with following spells:
-copy
-chromatic orb
-detect disease
-choke
-ice knife
-delay death
-hovering skull
-invisible mail
-duplicate
-Otiluke's Dispelling Screen
-Wind breath
-Invulnerability to Normal Weapons
-Know Value
-Dead Man's Eyes
-Dragon scales
-Zombie double
Defensive Bracers
Boots
2 rings

The rest of his belongings have long since become tatters except for a writing at the end of the spellbook that is not a spell. Instead, it reads: "Zarahiah is contained."

You recover the body of the warrior, who has:
1 sword
1 shield
1 helm
1 set of ornate plate armor that is light as leather armor
1 ring

You next recover the body of the skeleton with the axe, which appears to have been a dwarf. He has:
1 chainmail armor, also light as leather armor
1 axe
1 helm
1 short bow
20 arrows
1 ring
1 set of gauntlets
1 horn

You then pull back the monk, who has:
1 staff ornately carved like a staff/spear combo
1 robe
1 rolled scroll
1 studded leather armor
2 rings
1 set of gloves

Finally, you retrieve the cleric, who is clutching a tattered vellum writing and a colorful stone tablet. He also has the following items:
1 tattered cloak
1 defensive bracers
1 set of boots
1 studded leather armor
20 blowgun needles (but the blowgun is old and deteriorated)
2 rings
1 bottle with a lead stopper
1 helm

You open the vellum writing. The writing is faded and looks like the scratches of someone working something out. It reads: "Zarahiah wished for this. He shall see the end and wish for more. The source of magic will be ours."

The stone tablet looks like this:


OOC: If your character worships any of the deities, they will have further information.
This message was last edited by the GM at 05:52, Thu 30 Apr 2020.

Shae will cast detect magic. She will also dig deep in her memory for any other potential facts that might be helpful.

Kahan studies the paths, and the stone tablet curiously, deep in thought. "Tenvillah gave us a white rabbit to help us on our travels, to tell us when the cave would kill us. Maybe he was talking about this room?" he thought out loud as he unrolled the scroll the monk was holding carefully.

The white rabbit was left with Geebo and Fingas Hatt.

Shae casts detect magic. All of the items above radiate magic.

On the scroll are what appear to be the scratches of the monk, which read:


Oghma chose not to be aligned.
Bahamut was good and lawful.
Tiamat minded his own evil law.
Sylvanus remained neutral with the druids.
Lolth was an evil god who obeyed no laws.

Kahan will also open up the two scrolls he found at the bottom of the first pitfall room because he keeps forgetting they exist.

While Kahan works to read his scrolls, Tahldar takes the stones of varying colors from Shae.

"It was wise Shae to take these before we left.  I have an idea I want to try." he says as he looks them, and the stone tablet over.

Walking around the outside ring he puts the primary colored stones on the opposite side of the colors as defined in the tablet.  Careful to keep the stones in line with the theoretical arrow.

OOC: I am going to try an experiment.  I want to put the stones on the opposite side of each primary color according to the tablet.

1. Opposite black is an arrow with green and yellow.  I will put the Obsidian stone on that outer ring tile that would be the spot where the arrow head would be on the outer ring.
2. Opposite red is the yellow blue arrow.  I will put bloodstone on yellow/blue.  (Or the Rossmanite.  Whichever is the more red of the two)
3. Opposite green is blue black arrow.  I will put the peridot there.
4. Opposite white is black red arrow.  I will put the Ulexite there.
5. Opposite blue is green red arrow. I will put the Lapis Lazuli stone there.

EDIT: If the above doesn't work I'll to put the stones on their respective colors.
Obsidian between parasitism and amorality
Bloodstone between chaos and impulse
Peridot between instinct and interdependence
Ulexite between morality and order
Lapis Lazuli between logic and technology
This message was last edited by the player at 19:07, Thu 30 Apr 2020.

Shae says, "Let's try going down the path of alignment. I will volunteer to go first. Just wrap the rope around me and if I get frozen in place, pull me back before I get injured. Alignment seems to match up pretty much with the color tile and the color of the paths. Sound like a plan?"

Tahldar takes the stones and puts them on the opposite side of the colors in the tablet. Nothing happens. He then puts them on their respective colors. Again, nothing happens.

Kahan examines the two scrolls. The first is a bard scroll with the following spells:

Bard/Mage Scroll:
Bard Spells
-Sound Bubble
-Wall of Sound
-Silence 15' radius (as per the priest spell)
Mage/Bard Spells
-Identify magic item
-Copy
-Color Spray
-Alarm
-Armor
-Charm person
-Comprehend languages
-Darkness, 15' radius
-Stoneskin
-Wall of Fire
-Advanced Illusion
-Animate Dead
-Bigby's Interposing Hand
-Chaos
-Flame Arrow
-Fireball
-Blink

OOC: Note that this scroll and the one found by Tahldar both have "copy" in them, meaning that both Tahldar and Shapfren (once they get out of this) can copy spells directly into their spellbooks while it is active.
Copy enables the caster to make a perfect copy of a map, letter, or any other written or drawn document. The caster must have a blank parchment or a book with blank pages of sufficient size to hold the copy. The caster holds the blank object over the object to be copied, then casts the spell; the copy immediately appears on the formerly blank object. The copy is permanent and is a perfect duplicate of the original.

Copy can also be used to copy spells from a new spell book into the caster's spell book, assuming the caster's spell book is of sufficient size to contain the new spells. The caster must first roll to see if he can learn the new spells; if so, he can cast copy to instantly copy them into his spell book.

Note also that the spells in the new scroll for Tahldar and in the Bard scroll (for Shapfren) have spells coming directly from the Complete Wizard's Handbook and the Complete Bard's Handbook. If you don't have access to these spell descriptions, let me know.

The second scroll Kahan opens has a passage written on it:

Zuggtmoy, demoness of fungus, goddess of fungi, and Lady of Rot and Decay, and who is worshipped by the Cult of the Spore, gave Zarahiah a task then. Three limited wishes would be his if he completed this task. But Zarahiah hid himself up waiting until he could enthrall her with surprise in her lair. And this, he thought, would please her most.

For the usurpers of Time and Tienna, who destroyed balance, would be within his grasp, and the Source of Magic would be at his command. Those who destroyed his likeness on the other world, who frustrated his purpose, would be at his mercy. He would be avenged with those wishes, and they would be deprived of all. For he was once Tarimar on Tienna but was reborn Zarahiah on Allevia.

At the bottom of the words is drawn this picture:



Shae (who is lawful neutral) tentatively starts walking down Kelemvor's path. She makes it halfway and nothing happens.

Continue...?

Kahan watches with bated breath as Shae tries her path of choice, and heaves a sigh of relief as she isn't set upon by poisonous fungus spores or acid of some sort. Retrieving the portable hole again, Kahan begins placing all the magical items within. Once that is finished, he heads towards Bahamut's path and begins heading down it towards the center...

This is where I tell you that all my OOC comments were just to throw you off and that this is not about alignment after all and that Kahan walks to his own doom...

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
...or maybe not. I'm not that cruel.

---

Shae and Kahan make it safely to the center without incident. They find themselves at the center with the crystal encased goblet which sits on a stone pedestal. On the north side of the pedestal is a small trough. In it, there are numerous small tiles with letters on them.

On the side of the pedestal above the trough are eight slots which seem to be the same size as the small letter tiles.

About a foot above the slots are two small holes just below the crystalline case. They are like keyholes about 6 inches apart but unlike keyholes are just a thin slot in the side of the pedestal and do not have any round or peculiar cutouts.

Just in between the tile slots and the keyhole-like slots is engraved the following in the side of the stone pedestal:


Swords like pins ripped through their scales,
Tiny but effective;
And she cast out the five good dragons to their realms,
Helpless to her directives.


OOC: I don't want to give things away here, but you have not had time to carefully examine the pedestal yet. One step at a time.
This message was last edited by the GM at 07:43, Fri 01 May 2020.

Tahldar looks around to see if his stone idea bears any fruit, but alas it did not.

He sees Shae start to walk down Kelemvor's path and thinks to shout out an alarm, but is surprised to see her unharmed.

Then Kahan walks down Bahamut's path and he too is unharmed.

"Guess that's it then." he says to the relatively easy solution to this room.

Being of a similar bent as Kahan, Talhdar starts to walk down Bahamut's path as well.

OOC:  Talhdar is LG.

Tahldar makes it safely to the center of the room with Shae and Kahan.

Tahldar pensively walks down the Bahamut path.  He eyes the fungi and at every moment thinks they are about to spew death his way.  But they don't.

He arrives at the pedestal and gives it a good look over.  He also inspects the tiles to see if they bear any special engravings or marks.

The tiles of are letters of the alphabet with nothing special otherwise. Upon counting, Tahldar finds that there are two of each letter of the alphabet.

Tahldar looks the tiles over and says "It's two sets of the alphabet.  No numbers though."

He then looks the poem over.

"The only dragons I'm aware of are red, green, black, blue, white, and gold.  The only good dragon of the six is the gold, but maybe good here means healthy?  So maybe the poem is referencing red, green, black, blue, and white?  And this would correspond the colors on the tablet."

"Interesting, but I'm not sure what it means here."

"Whatever the poem refers to is an eight letter word. I do not know what the poem is looking for, though. It doesn't seem much like a riddle, more like a statement talking about a person," Kahan remarks as he looks the rest of the pedestal over.

Shae says, "The good dragons are the metallic dragons. It would be platinum, gold, silver, copper, bronze, brass, et cetera. I wonder why the word sword is in there. It seems out of place and must mean something."

Shae doesn't have any real answers, but she will closely examine the pedestal to see if she finds any other clues.

Shapfren observed everybody walk down the different paths. After considering the options, she stopped to consider which one would best fit her. "Eldath it is." She finally stood up and walked using that path.

Shapfren makes it safely to the center with the others.

Shae inspects the pedestal more closely. She has to brush away years of dirt but finds that the pedestal is inscribed with dragons all around. She also finds three additional small holes, one on each of the other sides of the pedestal (total of 5 holes). Each of the hole slots are about 1 inch long and about 1/4 inch wide. Even more interestingly, she finds that there is a square metallic plate about 3 inches square around each of the slots. Each metallic plate is of a different metal. She calls out what they each are: platinum, gold, silver, copper and bronze.

Tahldar inspects the tiles more closely. Each tile exactly matches one of the tile slots. They will not stick out when put in the slots.

HINT: Check the inventory of your portable hole.

As if receiving a clue from the gods themselves, Kahan unfurls the portable hole and retrieves six miniature swords, each made of a different type of metal. "Perhaps we will need these?" he asks, handing everyone one so that they can all put one in at the same time, if the group decides it is for the best. "Whoever set this pedestal here, must have been from Allevia, or somehow knew we were coming, if these swords truly are needed to complete the puzzle, as I doubt they exist on this planet as well," he muses aloud. "Unless of course we end up bringing them back to Allevia for ourselves later, but... that hurts my head to think about," he chuckles.
This message was last edited by the player at 07:14, Mon 04 May 2020.

"These would all be good dragons." Tahldar says as he looks the platinum, gold, silver, copper and bronze plates over.

As Kahan takes out the portable hole and takes out a series of small swords he says "I totally forgot about those.  Where did we even get them?"

"But what about the pewter one?" he adds as he sees the one sword that doesn't match a plate.

OOC:  There are five slots for platinum, gold, silver, copper and bronze.  But isn't there two slots on the front for a total of 6?  Meaning I would assume the pewter would go in the extrea 6th slot.  Also, there are 8 tile slots.  I am assuming we spell out each of the colors one at a time.  Platinum is the longest word at 8 letters.  However if we place the tiles in the tile slots, will we be able to get the tiles back out to reuse them?

Swords: Miniature bronze sword, Miniature copper sword, Miniature gold sword, Miniature pewter sword, Miniature platinum sword, Miniature silver sword

In reply to Tahldar of Tyrannia (msg # 49):

OOC: I assumed the pedestal was a square and so therefore the double slot side would take it from 4 to 5 but I could be wrong. I have no idea what to spell out with the tiles.

In reply to Tahldar of Tyrannia (msg # 49):

"What if we spelled that one? Pewter?. It is the one that isn't here."

There are 5 slots on the pedestal, two on the side with the letter tiles, and one on each of the other three sides. The swords do look like they will fit perfectly. You do not see a place that would seem to be for the pewter sword.

"What if we try Bahamut? He is the god of the metallic dragons, and we have a sword for each one, I believe," Kahan wonders out loud, and unless anyone objects, he tries it out.

The word Bahamut has no effect. It also is only 7 letters and does not fill up all the slots.

However, when you put the miniature swords in their respective slots, something inside the pedestal clamps shut, locking them in place. You cannot remove them.

"Is there a famous dragon god that killed metallic dragons or a famous pewter dragon?"

Shae says, "What about Zarahiah? That has 8 letters." Shae will try Zarahiah and see if it works.

"Unfortunately, I believe there are only 2 A's," Kahan remarks as he ponders the situation more. Looking at one of the scrolls they had found, he tried Zuggtmoy, if Zahariah didn't work of course.

Tahldar says "Platinum has eight letters.  If your other attempts don't we should try that."

"Also, can I take a look at the portable hole?  Maybe there's more in there that can help us." he adds Kahan's way.

OOC:  Tahldar will look in the portable hole and read the following in case it helps.  He has the Allevian and Dwarvish language.

Scroll with Ancient Allevian writing
Scroll with personal note in Dwarvish
Vellum scroll with formal writings in Dwarvish
This message was last edited by the player at 15:29, Tue 05 May 2020.

Shae's attempt at Zarahiah, as Kahan suggests, will not work due to lacking an "A." Platinum also does nothing. Tahldar begins pulling out the writings from the portable hole as Kahan spells out Zuggtmoy. Tahldar stops what he is doing because Zuggtmoy (the goddess of fungi) seems to do the trick.

As the last letter is put into place, a greenish, sickly glow surrounds the pedestal. Above you, the floating jellyfish-like creatures part ways as a portal opens between them.

Descending through it is a foul, acrid demoness resembling a human only from the torso up. This portion of her body is composed of thick rancid sheets and coils of fungus that have grown into the shape of what would, otherwise, be an attractive woman. Four fibrous layers  grow from her brow where hair should be, and her hands bear cruel talons. Her lower torso is a coiling pillar of lashing ropey tentacles and other fungus growths. Her skin is a nauseating swirl of greys, blues, purples and blacks. She appears almost alien and inhuman as a skeletal-thin humanoid shape draped and veiled in mycelium and lichen.

Her bottom half fungi and tentacles wrap around the pedestal as she descends, making you take an abhorrent step back, as she stands at least 12 feet tall and looks down on you.

Then she speaks:

"Who dares summon me from my realm?"

PM

Tahldar is busying himself with the portable hole, but freezes as he notices the jelly's above them part and a gate to another world opens in their midst.

It is Zuggtmoy herself who travels through!  Of all the gods to be summoned!

Tahldar being a learned man, is aware of her.  He stumbles reflexively backwards as the entirety of her form descends upon them.

He thinks briefly of speaking as he is keen on etiquette in general, but he is also aware many simply do not like him.  He has an air of haughtiness about him in part due to being a member of that superior race of Grey Elves and having an extremely high IQ.  He does his best to be friendly, but finds many he meets don't warm to him until they have had a chance to get to know him.  Which can take a while.

His jaw agape, he clams up and doesn't say a word lest he piss her off in some way.

OOC:  Long story short, Tahldar has a low charisma.

Leo stays quiet as well but has a look on his face that probably says something like "Wasn't me.."

Kahan wasn't the most charismatic of the group, but it always seemed like he was the designated negotiator or diplomat. "Oh great and powerful Zuggmtoy, it is us, the travelers from Allevia who slew Tarimar, or as you know him, Zahariah, one thousand years in the future. We are here to stop him from doing the same to this planet, but first we need a cure for this black plague that has beset us. If he succeeds, he would destroy all life on both of these planets, and nobody would be left to worship you and your power," he explained. It was obvious Kahan held no love for her or her methodology, but she was a god and deserved respect all the same.

Zuggtmoy says with disgust, "In other words, you want to take this chalice to heal yourselves. You are not my worshippers. I have no time for this, but I shall enjoy making you rot."

She pulls forth a tentacled hand that holds what appears to be some kind of cauldron. She laughs with wicked delight as she reaches into the cauldron...

This message was last edited by the GM at 00:02, Thu 07 May 2020.

Here is the latest map. Note that Leo and Borimer never crossed to the center so they are still near the entrance.

Borimer, who is not known for his intelligence, wisdom or charisma, nor for his patience, has pulled out his long composite bow and his magic arrows. "Eat this, you stupid god!" He is also not well known for eloquence. He begins firing arrows into the back of Zuggtmoy, and Godslayer is ready at his side. He is also circling around toward the Selune path. He looks down at his sword, Chianta, and speaks to it softly, "You are about to earn your name."

Shapfren began to play her instrument, instilling her accords with all passion and precision she could muster. She was aiming towards the Velsharoon area so nobody was hurt, but the evil Goddess was caught in the center of the explosion.

Cast Fireball
22:19, Today: Shapfren Diditlew rolled 38 using 10d6.  Fireball.

Shae thought she might be the best suited to talk to the deity (Charisma 19), but then mutters under her breath, "Talking sense to a chaotic evil god is harder than talking sense to leaves on the wind. This was never going to end without battle."  Then she hears Borimer's taunting and decides it is time.

Shae slowly backs down Kelemvor's path. She aims carefully and throws her ancestral spear at Zuggtmoy's face and then instantly recalls the weapon as she thinks through her arsenal of spells.

"We should avoid clustering. She is the Goddess of fungi and will attack with spores."

She watches the effects of Shapfren's spell to see if fire damages the deity.

Kahan huffs, nods at Shae's summation, and begins casting as he steps towards Bahamut's path.

Tahldar steps closer to the pedestal, keeping it between him and the demon goddess for cover.  He attempts to heft the crystal glass case off the chalice in hopes that the work they've done so far has freed it.
Tahldar wants nothing to do with whatever the god of fungi pulls forth from it's cauldron and begins to flee via Bahamut's path.
This message was last edited by the player at 01:07, Fri 08 May 2020.

Not having an effective ranged weapon, Leo tries the path to the center that the others took.  He tries to be stealthy even as hopelessly impossible as that seems.

OOC: What path is Leo taking? They took different paths.

The crystal case has not changed and is beyond Tahldar's efforts to lift.

In reply to DM Heath (msg # 72):

OOC: The same one the other lawful neutral did.

Lawful neutral is Kelemvor. I assume he goes clockwise because going counterclockwise would put him in the line of fire of the incoming fireball.

(ooc: yes)

ROUND ONE
Leo begins sneaking around to Kelemvor, using the large mushrooms as cover to stay out of sight.

Borimer begins firing arrows as he moves around the rim...

Shapfren is playing her instrument and casting fireball...

Shae begins backing down Kelemvor's path, casting a spell, and throws her spear at the demoness...

Kahan begins retreating down Bahamut's path as he is casting Zone of Sweet Air from the Tome of Magic...

Tahldar quickly flees down Bahamut's path...

Zuggtmoy throws a handful of large spore-like items from her cauldron onto the paths of Kelemvor and Bahamut. They immediately spawn into fungus things...

Two of them spawn into mushroom fungi that begin emitting a high pitched shriek that is nearly deafening and makes it difficult to communicate. The piercing sound almost interrupts Shapfren's spell, but not quite.



Five other (3 on Bahamut and 2 on Kelemvor) spawn into fungus creatures. They resemble walking toadstools in human form. Their flesh is bloated and spongy and varies in color from purple to gray. Their wide feet have vestigial toes and their pudgy hands have two stubby fingers and a thumb on either side.



Zuggmoy also swings out with her tentacles but misses. (Critical miss, loses rest of turn.)

Shapfren's fireball hits straight on, exploding in a blinding light. It seems to do little damage to the paths of fungi, but it does injure Zuggtmoy, despite her resistance to fire. (50% resistance. 30 hp dmg.)

Shae's spear also hits true, causing damage as it sinks into her neck. (16 dmg.) As Shae holds out her hand, the magical spear pulls out of Zuggtmoy's neck and returns to Shae's hand.

One of Borimer's arrows hits, and one misses. (9 dmg.)

Kahan casts Zone of Sweet Air, and the air around you is purified and cleaned of toxins in the entire room.


Zuggtmoy laughs. "The Oracle said you had power. Your reputation is well earned. This will be fun."

She throws the cauldron and it hits and lands on the rim at the end of Sylvanus' path. The cauldron immediately grows to a giant 10' wide cauldron. It is steaming and curdling and something (or things) is about to spring from it.


Notes: For those of you who attacked/cast, you only move half your normal move for final location. For Tahldar and Leo, who did not attack, they get full move and can essentially be anywhere within halfway around the rim or path.


Zuggmoy: 488/542 hp
This message was last edited by the GM at 07:00, Tue 12 May 2020.

Kahan begins casting, wishing they hadn't stripped the dead bodies of their magical equipment.

Let's say that the skeletons followed you into here, if that's what you want. They would be over by the entrance area.

Shae retreat to the Oghma path while casting. She casts Earthmaw on the ground below the demon's feet.

She also keeps a close eye on the cauldron and orders her skeletons to attack the demon.

Borimer runs down the Selune path, attacking three times with Godslayer as his battle cry matches the pitch and intensity of the nearby shriekers.

Tahldar high tails it away from Zuggtmoy and hits the rim of the room running.  He needs to get away from immediate danger as he knows he has casting to do and shouldn't be so close to fray if he hopes to do what he needs to.  As well the timing isn't right at the moment for the spells he wants to casts.

Running clockwise around the rim, he stops near the path to Velsharoon.  He begins to cast a spell.

OOC:  Tahldar will case a dome of force (wall of force hemisphere shape) on the cauldron.

Leo and Shapfren?

Leo continues his way around trying to stay out of sight looking for an opening to attack.

Kahan will also start moving towards Borimer.

Assuming Leo will attack if he finds an opening...

Assuming Kahan means the entrance area since Borimer is currently moving toward Zuggtmoy to engage in melee.

I mean as in I want him to be next to Borimer (or close by) when he gets near Zuggtmoy to prepare for something next round, assuming he survives that long.

ROUND TWO

Kahan follows Borimer and is casting...

Shae begins casting...

Leo is sneaking up out of sight of Zuggtmoy...

Shapfren begins casting...

Borimer is directly approaching Zuggtmoy and begins swinging.

Tahldar begins casting...

The now ten foot wide giant cauldron throws out several giant fungi about 7 feet tall in all directions that resemble the shriekers but do not make noise and are more purplish in color. Each has three branches. Just then, Tahldar finishes his spell, capping the cauldron with a wall of force to prevent further expulsions of fungi.

Borimer hits once with the sword that is mastercrafted to attack demons and devils, hitting Zuggtmoy across the face.  (27 dmg.)

Shae finishes her spell, and earthmaw opens up beneath Zuggmoy, crunching at her tentacles from below. (30 hp dmg)

Shae's skeletons run up the path to attack Zuggtmoy. They are unaffected by the alignment requirements of the path and attack from behind. All of them miss.

Kahan finishes his spell, and the remains of the fallen adventurers rise up from the dead in skeletal form. They also are unaffected by the alignment requirements of the paths.

Shapfren finishes her spell, and a giant 10 foot tall two headed troll appears at the rim near the fungus creatures summoned by Zuggtmoy to attack and hold them back. They ignore you and try to attack it, though Zuggtmoy is not affected by the illusion.

Leo launches himself at Zuggtmoy, realizing a little too late that she, like plant creatures, is immune to sneak attack damage. However, he still lands a hard blow on her back with his Frehelian daggers, though the poison does not affect her. (10 hp dmg.)

Zuggtmoy launches her pseudopod against Borimer, but he deftly dodges it (despite his blood loss and weakened condition). However, she has four total that she levies against him, hitting him with two in an effort to both trip him and push him back. (16 dmg.) Borimer finds himself first slammed into the ground on his back and then whipped backwards...(saving throw made)...he barely avoids being flung into the path of Tiamat and the black fungi lining that path.

Zuggtmoy also has two claw attacks, which she swipes at Kahan. She hits with both, but luckily the damage is mostly superficial. (12 hp dmg.)

Zuggtmoy then launches a tail attack against Leo, but he adroitly spins out of the way, just missing a close call.

The two myconids near the troll start to move again after the first attack and, almost immediately, the spores shoot out of the nearby mushrooms, engulfing them in what appears to be white frost. The myconids freeze in place, unable to move. The other one, near the center, steps back into the center, leaving you with three viable myconids.

The illusion troll is unaffected.

You feel you have been lucky so far, but luck can't last forever...

Zuggmoy: 421/542 hp
This message was last edited by the GM at 05:58, Thu 14 May 2020.

Updated map:

This message was last edited by the GM at 23:33, Thu 14 May 2020.

Tahldar moves a little north along the rim and stops at Selune's entrance to the chalice.  He begins to cast.

OOC:  Tahldar will cast a wall of fire from east to west just south of the center of the room.  With the heat from wall radiating south.  I want to make sure the three violet 7' tall fungi that sprang from the cauldron are on the south side of the wall.  I also want to make sure Shae and Leo are not caught in the wall, but if I can catch Zuggtmoy's backside I will.

So it sounds like it is going right across Shae's leftover skeletons? What is the size?

Lined up as she is, Shae begins casting, and vertical column of fire 30 feet long and 5 feet wide flies down from the sky, lined up with Zuggtmoy and the purple fungus. (Casting flame strike.)

Still waiting on many of you to post...

Kahan casts a spell, after helping Borimer to his feet.

Borimer will rise to his feet, accepting Kahan's help and spell, and go after Zuggtmoy with renewed energy.

OOC: Waiting on Leo and Shapfren.

This may be a long fight, so if you want to post multiple rounds of action at once if you can't post daily, that's fine.
This message was last edited by the GM at 06:05, Sun 17 May 2020.

Leo will continue to attack with his claw dagger until dead or until something else makes sense for him to do.

Shapfren orders the troll to attack the Myconids and then casts another fireball directly south so that it gets Zuggtmoy but not her companions.

ROUND 3
The troll lumbers forward and starts attacking the myconid.

Kahan helps Borimer to his feet to start attacking.

Shae begins casting flame strike...

Kahan casts a spell (Aid) on Borimer as he helps him jump up and back into the fray.  (64/98 hp; +1 to attack and Saving throws.

Borimer receives strength from the spell and attacks twice with renewed vigor...

He makes two strong attacks across the midsection of Zuggtmoy (67 dmg) and she looks down on him with anger.

Leo attacks while Zuggtmoy is distracted, making a well aimed blow right inn a soft spot between her tentacles with his daggers. (Critical hit; 25 dmg.)

Tahldar is casting wall of fire...

Shapfren is casting fireball...

Zuggtmoy is attacking with her four pseudopods at Borimer... She hits him three times. (The first attack is absorbed by the stoneskin. The remaining two hits cause 10 dmg.) On one of the attacks, her pseudopod wraps around Borimer, grappling and then constricting him. (26 dmg) She begins pulling him towards her. Luckily, Borimer's hands are still free to attack as he is being dragged toward the goddess of fungi.

Her tail lashes out at Leo again. He barely dodges the blow again.

She uses her two claws against Borimer, who manages to lean to the side to avoid one but gets hit by the other. (13 dmg.)

The two myconids not engaged by the troll stumble forward to attack Shapfren in the center. Luckily, she moves to the side and avoids their attacks.

The two violet fungi send out their deadly fungus at Leo and Shae but miss.

She finishes her spell, and a flame strike hits Zuggtmoy, hitting her. (24 hp dmg.)

Two of Shae's skeletons hit Zuggmoy but do relatively small damage. (6 hp.)

Shapfren's fireball launches out, engulfing Zuggtmoy, Shae's skeletons, and one of the violet fungi. (Zuggtmoy reels from the damage. 40 hp dmg.) The five skeletons are destroyed, as well as the violet fungi.

Tahldar's flame wall strikes out, creating a wall of flame nearly dividing the room in two. Zuggmoy is near it and burnt by it. (6 hp dmg.) Borimer, Leo, and Kahan are close and feel the heat but are not close enough to be harmed.

NOTE: Keep in mind that next round Borimer will be right up next to Zuggmoy and AoE attacks are likely to affect him if they affect her due to his constriction. He will also suffer every round he is constricted.  A called shot may be made on the pseudopod holding him for a chance to have him released.

Zuggtmoy: 253/542 hp

NOTE: Borimer now at 15 hit points!
This message was last edited by the GM at 06:35, Mon 18 May 2020.

New map:

Tahldar sees Borimer being constricted and in great danger.  Running low on spells, he casts one of the few left that he has that might help.

OOC:  Tahldar will cast enlarge on Borimer.  He will double in size (Tahldar's growth rate at his level is 200%).  His weapon attack damage will double, but any bonus due to magic/class/strength will not.  I'm hoping his greater size will free him from being constricted...  Range is 50 yards so I can easily reach him.

Kahan, seeing how badly wounded Borimer is, begins casting a Cure Serious Wounds spell on the fighter.

Shae throws her spear at Zuggtmoy while moving clockwise away from the violet fungi plant and out of its range. She will then instantly recall the spear as she moves roughly to be behind Shapfren's troll as a "human" shield.

NOTE: Kahan can also control his skeletons.

Borimer will accept any healing or boosting spells while he continues to try to hack away at Zuggtmoy to his last dying breath.

OOC: Sorry, I thought I had mentioned, I wanted my skeletons to attack whatever the closest enemy was, mostly to distract it from attacking the others.

ROUND 4
The shriekers' loud, piercing wails are starting to get annoying and seem to overshadow and hurt your concentration.

Tahldar begins casting...

Kahan reaches out to touch Borimer with a spell. Borimer is healed 45 points (total of 60
current).

Borimer swings but only manages to hurt Zuggtmoy with one swing. (29 dmg.)

Kahan orders his skeletons, and they begin moving in.

Shae moves away from the violet fungi to behind the troll and throws her spear at Zuggtmoy. She misses. She is now out of range of the violet fungus.

Shapfren is casting a spell...and 5 magic missiles burst from her and directly into Zuggtmoy. (17 dmg.)

Leo attacks from behind to attempt to maximize his bonuses and damage. He hits with one attack in her back. (16 dmg.)

Zuggtmoy pulls Borimer's struggling body directly into her own, absorbing him into her center. Borimer feels himself weakening (-1 to each ability score) and Zuggtmoy absorbs his energy to heal herself (+26 hp).  But just then, Tahldar finishes his spell. Borimer grows in size to nearly match Zuggtmoy's giant form, and it appears as though he is bursting from her womb. (50 hp dmg to Zuggtmoy.)  Zuggtmoy staggers back... She is enraged...

Her entire visage changes as her face turns demonic and ugly with four horns sprouting as she transforms in anger.


She lashes out with three pseudopods at Kahan... (11 dmg.) This time it is Kahan who finds himself constricted by a pseudopod and being pulled into be absorbed by Zuggmoy... (13 points constriction damage.) The other two pseudopods miss.

Zuggtmoy continues to take another 4 damage from the wall of fire directly behind her.

Her tail whips out at Leo with the tail scythe...hitting him. The tail is exceedingly sharp and causes blood to gush from Leo. (20 hp dmg and -1 constitution.)

She reaches out with two long claws to attack Shapfren...She makes one very solid hit on Shapfren. (24 dmg.)

The giant troll attacks the myconid, and Kahan's skeletons move forward to block the others from attacking the group. The myconids miss the skeletons and the skeletons miss the myconids. The giant troll hits the third myconid, hurting it. (9 hp dmg.)

Borimer is now giant sized and going toe to toe with Zuggtmoy.


NOTE: I do not plan on updating the map this round because only Shae and Kahan's skeletons have really changed position. Everything else is generally the same.

FURTHER NOTE: As you noticed, Zuggtmoy has 7 general attacks each round. The typical attacks are 4 pseudopods, 2 claws, and one tail scythe. She can alternatively substitute in other special abilities--spells, summoning, movements, etc.

Zuggtmoy: 163/542 hp
This message was last edited by the GM at 01:17, Sun 24 May 2020.

Chaos whirls around Tahldar as he tries to cast his spells.  The piercing cry from the shriekers make it difficult to even hear his own voice, let along weave magic.  A giant scrum ensues in the center of the room and he does his best to help.

With horror, the mage sees Borimer be swallowed whole by Zuggtmoy, but he emerges from her body as he grows twice in size!

Glad he casted his Enlarge spell when he did, he begins to cast another.

OOC:  Tahldar will cast enlarge on Kahan.

"The word mushroom has 8 letters and we are surrounded by mushrooms.  Does that suggest a course of action for anyone?", Leo says as he cringes from his wound.

Shae begins casting another spell, staying behind the cover of the two headed troll.

In giant form, Borimer continues slashing away with his now much larger sword.

Kahan looks around the room as things go even more sideways for them, wishing he had more time to figure out what was going on, before it dawned on him that he could make some more time for himself...

Kahan withdraws...

Is Zuggtmoy an illusion? Is there another word that would come to mind for him to try? Basically, I personally haven't come up with anything but I'm sure Kahan is smart enough to at least have some sort of idea for me to mull over trying, or maybe some sort of hints as to what it could be.

PM

While still Withdrawn, Kahan will cast two Cure Light Wounds on himself (bringing him back to 81/90), then he will cast Idea and I guess we'll go from there? He should still have 8 turns or so left on the Withdraw yet.

I'm not aware of a spell called "Idea"

Kahan casts cure light wounds twice on himself. He has used 4 withdraw rounds. (Not sure what Idea is. I can't find that.)

It's in the Tome of Magic, second level Priest spell.

Great. New one I hadn't heard of.  Here goes...

Kahan breaks out of his withdrawn state and attempts to make it to the pedestal, not bothering to pass along his plans as it would likely not make it through the  incessant screeching of the fungi creatures.

ROUND 5
Kahan goes into a trance while things continue on around him...

Hurt and burning from behind, and now faced with a giant Borimer, Zuggtmoy scowls as she looks around at you as her countenance again changes. A foul creature, she looks somewhat human from the torso up. Her body is made of fungus, slime, and thick fibrous cords and tendrils that look as if they just happened to grow naturally into the form of what would otherwise be an attractive woman. Four large fibrous antler-like horns grow from her head and her hands bear exaggeratedly large talons. Her lower torso is a coiling pillar of fungous tendrils, lashing ropey tentacles, and other growths braided into a snakelike lower torso. The end of her tail is long and sinuous, arching behind her into a cruel scythe blade that has been attacking Leo. Her eyes are pale like white puff balls. Her skin is a nauseating swirl of grays, blues, purples, and blacks, the color of unhealthy mold and slime. Fluid and moisture drips and spurts from her body in odd places.



She casts an instant spell, sporegate, and she instantly reappears, as though portaling, and now she stands next to Tahldar with Kahan still being reeled in toward her with the constricting pseudopod.

Tahldar finishes his spell, and Kahan enlarges like Borimer did, forcing Zuggtmoy to release him. A giant Kahan and regular sized Tahldar now stand next to the 16 foot tall Zuggtmoy.

Borimer now finds himself unable to attack her because of the distance between them and his sword misses entirely. He begins backtracking around so he can get in close range for next round.

Shae casts flame strike again, hitting Zuggtmoy for 24 dmg.

The troll and Kahan's skeletons are still keeping the myconids at bay, but two of the skeletons fall. The troll takes out one of the myconids.

Leo, having no reach to Zuggtmoy, launches at one of the myconids, injuring it and taking it by surprise.

Shapfren sends more magic missiles at Zuggtmoy. (19 dmg)

Zuggtmoy, enraged by your obstinance, is now pulling out all the stops. She ignores the currently withdrawn and intangible Kahan, despite his giant size, and focuses on Tahldar...

Leo, meanwhile, is still bleeding from the tail attack, which is bleeding profusely (until healed). He suffers 4 damage and 1 constitution point.

Zuggtmoy now unleashes multiple attacks against Tahldar. First, she casts a spell, and an unholy blight grasps Tahldar. He finds himself weakened (-5 to saving throws) but is staves off some of the damage. (Saving throw made, only 12 hp dmg.)

Zuggtmoy next slices at Tahldar with her tail scythe but misses the elven mage.

Lastly, her four pseudopods lash out...and two of them hit Tahldar. The first hits him hard (8 dmg) and attempts to wrap around and constrict him like it did on Borimer and Kahan, but it fails. The second pseudopod sweeps hard at Tahldar nearly braining him as it tries to sweep him into the black mushrooms of Tiamat's area (9 dmg)...but Tahldar catches himself just before landing in the patch of black ominous mushrooms. (Tahldar is extremely weakened by the blight spell and loses -5 to saving throws and is last for all initiative until it wears off after next round.

OOC: Tahldar is now at 5 hit points.

One of the myconids is now pushing through to attack Leo next round.

Zuggtmoy is quickly darting her eyes around to Leo, Shae, and the cauldron as if deciding whether to portal again or to stay and finish Tahldar off.

Kahan comes out of his withdrawal trance. He is more healed now...and much taller.

Zuggtmoy: 120/542 hp
This message was last edited by the GM at 04:46, Wed 27 May 2020.

UPDATED MAP:

OOC: Am I correct in assuming that verbal communication is more or less impossible still?

You can communicate to anyone within about 15-20 feet of where you stand. Beyond that, it is drowned out by the shriekers.

Looking around the room after being teleported away from where he wanted to be, Kahan shrugs and pulls out his mace, intent on at least distracting the fungi goddess before she killed one of their companions. Not that the priest couldn't just bring him back, but that always came with risks...

Tahldar casts his spell but is surprised by Zuggtmoy's teleport, and right next to him!  He feels his body wracked by pain as the Goddess unleashes her fury upon him.  But it could have been worse and though he is hurt he is still alive.  But for how much longer?

Knowing he has to protect himself, he begins to cast the only spell left that might save him...

OOC:  Tahldar will cast Mirror image and got 6 images.

08:49, Today: Tahldar of Tyrannia rolled 6 using 1d4+3.  Mirror Image.

ROUND 6, PART 1...
Borimer is upon Zuggtmoy, getting his first swordmaster swing in...and making a fabulous hit in giant form (critical hit, 54 dmg).

Kahan also makes a hit with the mace in his giant form...(15 dmg.)

Tahldar casts his spell, and 6 mirror images of himself pop up around him.

Zuggtmoy uses her sporegate and disappears, reappearing next to the giant cauldron and violet fungi, where she begins casting...

Leo, Shae, and Shapfren get full moves, and Borimer gets a half-move for the remainder of the round. Tahldar and Kahan can make a half move and talk but cannot cast or attack.

Tahldar feels the blight wearing off some.

Leo feels himself still bleeding out profusely from the tail scythe wound. (-6 hp, -1 Constitution)

Zuggtmoy: 51/542 hp
This message was last edited by the GM at 04:58, Thu 28 May 2020.

"Tahldar, can you remove the letters from the pedestal from here?" the enlarged priest asks in his deeper voice as he begins moving as quickly as his longer legs will carry him towards Bahamut's path.

Tahldar shrugs as if to say no in response to Kahan.  He stands on wobbly legs.  He is hurt badly but he shrugs off the pain and begins to cast.

OOC:  Tahldar will cast Magic missile at Zuggtmoy, for 18pts.
09:12, Today: Tahldar of Tyrannia rolled 18 using 5d4+5 ((2,2,3,2,4)).

Shae throws her spear at Zuggtmoy, stepping into a straight line of fire but far enough away to be out of her reach.

Borimer hears Kahan and since Zuggtmoy is no longer in reach, he will rush to the center and remove the letters.

Zuggtmoy immediately begins casting...dispel magic. The wall of fire disappears, as well as the wall of force covering the giant cauldron.

She continues casting...

Borimer is going southwest toward the center pedestal.

Leo fights back, taking down the myconid before it can attack him.  The troll knocks down the last myconid and begins attacking the shrieker.

Shae throws her spear at Zuggtmoy but misses. It returns to her hand.

Zuggtmoy finishes casting, and two Vrocks appear in the air beside her, their wings flapping. You have heard of Vrocks in dark stories. They stand 8 feet tall, appearing as a cross between a vulture and a human. Their bodies are twisted and gnarly with a long neck and limbs all covered in sinew. The parts of their body not covered in sinew, especially their broad wings, are coated with small gray feathers, and their body stinks of offal and carrion. Their beastly appearance is magnified by their long talons and vulture heads. Their long, pointed talons could sink into hard stone. A slime oozes from glands beneath their wings, spreading a film over their thick coats of black and gray feathers. Their wide collars of pinfeathers, shining with mucous, stab outward like filthy, curved needles.



Just then, Borimer removes the letters ZUGGTMOY from the pedestal. Zuggtmoy casts an irritated glance at Borimer but the shriekers are instantly silent, and Zuggtmoy says in a booming voice that can be heard by all, "Today, you have created an enemy beyond enemies. I will return with all my forces and minions, and your screams shall be sung by bards until time untold."





And then she disappears just as suddenly as she appeared. Her summoned creatures, and the cauldron, all disappear immediately with her, leaving you alone and wondering just when she will get her revenge.
This message was last edited by the GM at 04:47, Fri 29 May 2020.

Now that he isn't in immediate danger, Kahan moves to heal Leo so he can stop hemorrhaging. He will cast Cure Light Wounds on him. "I cannot do much about the blood loss though, unfortunately," he explains.

"Thank you.  I imagine we will just have to see how this plays out." Leo tries to relax as much as possible amidst the pain.

And just like that it's over.  All seven of Tahldar's shoulders shrug in unison as he and his images begin shuffling over to the main pedestal.  He is hurt badly and has lost a lot of blood.  Hid head is woozy and his ears ring from the shrieking they endured.

Joining Kahan and Leo he says, "Can I get some healing too?  If you are getting low on spells do we have any potions of healing?"

Speaking to Leo he adds, "I think I heard you mention trying the word mushroom which sound good to me.  But maybe we should heal up a bit first before trying it."

OOC:  Tahldar is at 5hp's.

Shae will cast cure serious wounds on Tahldar. She approaches the center and says, "Yes, let's try mushroom. It can't be worse than what we just went through by summoning something from the depths of hell." She manages a wry chuckle as she puts the letters up to see what happens.

OOC: Honestly I keep forgetting Shae is a druid and that I don't have to do all the healing. Lol

Kahan offers to bind Tahldar's wounds before the healing is applied, as he can't after its already been done. "It dawned on me that Kelemvor and Sylvanus' names would both fit as well. I doubt we want to talk to the Lord of the dead but perhaps the nature god would be helpful as well, if mushroom doesn't work," the priest offers.

You put in the word 'MUSHROOM' and jump back in surprise when several tentacles from the floating jellyfish-like things above you--which you had nearly forgotten about--drop suddenly and land with a thud on the crystal case. They enwrap the case and you can tell the tentacles are sticky and wet and--

And then you see the crystal dissolving--from acid or chemical compounds or something in the tentacles. In moments, the crystal has dissolved. The tentacles rise just as suddenly back up, and the goblet is there in open air for you to take.

"Why didn't we just do that in the first place?" Kahan chuckled wryly, looking at the others before reaching out to take the goblet.

Kahan, who suffers from a dexterity score of only 8, and who is weakened from blood loss, reaches out to take the goblet, only to find that a tentacle from above drops suddenly onto his hand. (Dex check failed; saving throw failed.) Kahan feels the sticky wet touch of the tentacle on his arm as he retracts it in pain. (9 hp dmg.) The acid is wearing through his clothes and skin and will continue to do so until stabilized.

And the goblet is still sitting on the pedestal, open for anyone to (try to) grab.

Seeing Kahan's failure and injury, Shae says, "I almost forgot those things were up there. Now we know what they do."

Shae, with her 19 dexterity, will try to reach in as quickly as possible to grab the goblet, remove it, and step back out of the way of any falling tentacles.

Tahldar, battered and weary watches as Kahan tries his best to get the goblet.  Not known for his physical prowess, the mage doesn't attempt to wriggle past the dangling mushrooms.

OOC:  How much did Shae's cure serious wounds heal me by?

Kaham gasps in pain and begins working to get the acid off of his clothes and skin. He will bind his wounds as well rather than waste a spell.

Kahan takes an additional 6 points of damage from the acid before he gets his wounds bound and stops its progression.

Shae reaches out and quickly nabs the goblet, dodging a tentacle that drops right in front of her. She jumps back and shows the goblet to you all triumphantly



And then you notice what's happening around you...

Above you, at first you think the ceiling is starting to come down on you. Then you realize it is the mass of jellyfish-like floating creatures with their hanging tentacles.  They are starting to slowly descend toward you.



Tentacles begin randomly shooting down to floor level...you dodge quickly but know they will become more accurate and harder to dodge as the floating things descend closer to you. They cover essentially the entire ceiling area so there is no really safe space.

And that is when you realize that there are no exits to this room. The door you entered has been blocked by a wall falling down in front of it when Shae grabbed the goblet. It had been shut anyway, but now it seems closed off forever.

But you know there must be some way out of here. You just have a very limited amount of time to figure it out.

Kahan hurriedly removes the letters from the pedestal in the hopes... something happens.

Kahan removes the letters, but nothing happens. The jellyfish creatures continue to slowly descend, their tentacles moving around like whips.

Cure serious wounds heals up to half of maximum hit points, so it would be up to 27 hp for Tahldar.

"It has to be the pedestal!" Tahldar shouts as he reaches for the tokens.

OOC: Tahldar will try Sylvanus in the pedestal.  If that does nothing then Kelemvor.  Also, he will cast wall of force in a dome shape if the mushrooms drop too far down.

Tahldar puts in the letters for SYLVANUS in the pedestal. But this takes some time...

In the  meantime, the tentacles drop as though trying to attack you...

Borimer, Kahan, and Leo are hit by tentacles and feel the burning acid on their shoulders and arms. (Borimer 8 hp dmg, Kahan 9 hp dmg, Leo 9 hp dmg.) The burning will continue until the acid is neutralized...(1d6 per round.)

Once Tahldar gets the letters in place, it seems to do the trick. The wall at the Sylvanus corner slides away, revealing a dark exit out of this huge room of glowing mushrooms and acidic floating jellyfish.

Shae says, Don't forget to walk down the correct path. Then she runs as fast as possible down Kelemvor's path and counterclockwise to the exit door at Sylvanus.

Kahan raises his shield above him and runs down Bahamut's path as quickly as he can, using the pain from the acid as a catalyst to move faster.

Tahldar follows Kahan out via Bahamut's path, doing his best to avoid the falling tentacles.

OOC:  FYI I think I still have 6 mirror images running.

"You don't have to tell me twice!" Shapfren ran using the same path she had taken to arrive to the center of the area. Taking the wrong one was something she didn't have to do twice to learn.

Leo does his best to get to the exit as he winces in pain.

OOC: Given the position of Sylvanus, it will take two rounds for you to reach the exit. Had you chosen Kelemvor, it would have been only one...

Note also that Borimer and Kahan are still in giant form.

Additional continuing acid damage for two rounds: Borimer takes 5 hp dmg, Kahan takes 8 dmg, and Leo takes 4.

The tentacles snap out like whips as you run the two rounds...

Kahan is hit by the tentacles, but they hit his shield and do not hurt him.

Leo is also hit by the tentacles. (Critical hit) They wrap around his waist with their sticky goo... The acid causes him an additional 7 hp dmg. Even worse, now it is starting to raise him off the ground toward the jellyfish-like underside. (2d6 dmg per round, plus continuing acid effects.)

Shae, Tahldar and Shapfren reach the exit without incident.

Borimer stops in his tracks and backtracks to try to help Leo...

He swings but misses when he has to dodge another falling tentacle.

Leo, however, swings his daggers (6 dmg), hitting the tentacle. As it starts to release Leo, Borimer grabs Leo and snaps him away.  The two continue to run (losing another round)...

This time Borimer is hit by a flying acid tentacle. It hits him (4 dmg) but he shrugs it off.

Leo takes additional continuing acid damage from the second attack. (4 additional damage). Borimer also takes additional continuing acid damage from the second attack. (5 additional damage.)

Finally, you all reach the exit. And you find a gap of about 6 feet.  Luckily, that is not too far to jump, and you all jump to the far end. Kahan and Borimer, in giant state, simply step across, although they have to stoop and bend to fit.

You are now in a dark stone corridor, pitch black and leading west.  Borimer, Leo, and Kahan all have continuing acid damage that you might want to deal with first. (Note that healing takes a round, so those who wait for healing will continue to take acid damage while waiting. Bind wounds skill or a healing spell will stop the acid...as well as baking soda, if only you had such a thing.)

OOC: I played this through without waiting for actions simply to get us through it with the actions I expected from Borimer and Leo.
This message was last edited by the GM at 23:53, Tue 02 June 2020.

Shae will cast cure light wounds on Leo and then Borimer. Then Kahan can feel free to use healing on himself.

She says, "We are weak and hurting, but at least we have the goblet." She will peer down the corridor with infravision to see where it leads and what the options are.

Kahan binds everyone's wounds, his last, before Shae administers healing, to maximize its effectiveness. He will cast another CLW on himself as well. "I hope this is over soon. I am almost out of healing spells," he comments as he looks around.

Shae laughs and says, "Well, if I recall correctly, we are next supposed to collect the healing water, so that could definitely help us some. Are you and Borimer okay staying in giant form or do we need to shrink you back down with a dispel magic or something?"

Tahldar breathes a sigh of relief at finally being out of the room.  "I too am low on spells.  For the increased size I say we live with it till it wears off."

OOC:  What do we have for light?  The enlarge spell will last for 5 turns.

"I am fine with it as long as we fit down the tunnel," Kahan shrugs, looking down to see if he thought the tunnel stayed about the same size or if it got any lower.

The binding of wounds and spells goes without a hitch. You pull out your hooded lantern that has the eternal light spell cast inside. (I seem to recall you getting it a long time ago.)

As you start down the long stone hewn corridor, you soon find your next problem. The corridor ends in a stone carved set of stairs going up and then just ending at a wall. Not only that, but going up them will be impossible for the giant sized among you.

OOC: I forget, how much does Kahan's bindings heal? He has healing and herbalism as NWPs and I remember they stacked but I don't recall if it was 2d6 or 2d4.

Binding is 1d4+1 (plus, everyone under his care gains +1 hp healing per day even with exertion and without complete rest). An additional +1 can be added for herbalism (so 1d4 + 2)--no skill check for herbalism, so they get the +1 back even if healing check fails.

With both herbalism and healing, characters also gain hp at the rate of 3 per day.

Herbalism also helps with treating poison and disease.

Updated map:
You entered #5 at the place where you gave blood, and now you are at #10.

This message was last edited by the GM at 05:59, Fri 05 June 2020.

Now that things have calmed down, Borimer accepts a dispel magic from Shae, which dispels all the spells on him (including any flying or grow spell). He gets talkative for a moment, something unlike Borimer:

"Back when we were in the temple just before we met the dragon, you may recall we found a different goblet, a gold one with carvings on it, and I drank from it and fell unconscious, like I was dead, for a bit. I saw a strange vision while unconscious."

He pulls out the gold goblet you found before.


You recall that the words on it translate to:
"cup of water of life"
"pressed lips release its boon"
"fill and hold, sip and see"

Then, while everyone is healing and binding wounds and figuring out next steps, he tells you what he saw in the vision:

Borimer finds himself carried away in a trance.  He sees himself flying over a cavern with deep blue water.  Something moves beneath the water.  It raises its neck and Borimer sees a dragon.  The dragon is stretching its wings as if awaking from a long slumber.  In the dark chamber, Borimer cannot tell the color of the dragon, but it is very large.

As he floats further, he sees an old man with a beard tied in chains, spread-eagled facing up on a smooth rock.  The man is emaciated with only leather cloth covering him and long white hair and beard.  The water covers his feet, body and hands.  When it laps up under the movement of the nearby dragon, it briefly flows over his face.  He appears unconscious or very weakened.

Borimer starts turning around to float back...

"This," he tells you, "we already experienced. We found the dragon and the man with the white hair exactly as in my vision. But the vision continued:"


Borimer continues his strange out of body flight...

He swoops down into a tunnel, turns left and his body feels like it travels a great distance through rock and air until he appears far up in the sky.

The sun above has a purple ring around it, and below he sees something pulsing like a giant eye swirling into the ground, a deep chasm with bluish light coming from its deep recesses.

Then it all starts to fade to black, but as it does, he hears a deep voice, as if the sky were speaking to him with wind and volcano and deep bass tones, "The Source of Magic."  Then he feels himself falling, and it all goes black.

"I'm not sure what it means," he says. "But the Source of Magic came up again back there." He indicates the rooms you just exited.

He describes what he saw as the supposed entrance to the Source of Magic, and this is the image you get:



(The situation he refers to can be found here: link to a message in this game

See posts 78-93.

Tahldar listens to Borimer, but his mind is too distracted by the wall in front of them to think much on what he says.

"Mayhaps the wall is an illusion." he says as he starts to climb the steps upward.

OOC: Tahldar will inspect the wall ahead and any surrounding area for secret doors and illusions.  He's immune up to 2cd level illusions and has the elven advantages for secret doors.

The space gets tight enough where you do have to all get back to normal size. A dispel magic spell reduces Borimer and Kahan to regular size and removes other spells from them. But you are all still suffering from blood loss and weakness still.

However, Tahldar is right. As you squeeze further upward, the ceiling suddenly seems to disappear, just an illusion. You walk a few steps through the illusion and out into the familiar corridor of the catacombs, with the skulls and bones imbedded in the wall.

You now have the goblet and must next find the earthgold, which is like earthsilver with healing abilities but also can be used to form the cure for the Black Curse. You also have the needed lathia berries, which you collected from the dragon's cove. And then with Tenvillah's skills, you can have the cure mixed up.

That said, you are starting to feel the Black Curse more strongly. There is little time. Pools of blood are collecting at the tips of your fingers and in your lips. You've already lost one companion, and Etag, to the disease--the former turning insane and attacking you and the latter committing suicide before the inevitable insanity.

Looking to orient yourselves, you see the wall with the line of skulls on the wall behind you. That was the wall you followed from the south (currently, your left) before finding the cup you filled with blood to enter the secret door toward the goblet.

The path runs south or west. You are standing just outside the rock-looking illusion in the main corridor.


This message was last edited by the GM at 01:32, Mon 08 June 2020.

Shae says, "Let's go south. We need to figure out where Geebo is at and regroup."

OOC: Kahan would have waited until Tahldar checked to see if there was an illusion before dispelling the enlarges but I'll just go with it anyway.

Kahan looks around and nods. "Hopefully he and Fingas are alright," he agreed, preparing to go south unless someone had a better reason not to.

OOC: The space was too tight to fit through in giant size, even before you got to the illusion part.

You head south a bit down the winding catacombs.

After traveling just a little bit, you see two giant rats dead on the ground. They have recently been killed. They are about 5 feet long.

The tunnel also splits here, going south or west (or north where you came from).

You hear movement in the shadows around the corner to the west.

Tahldar points the group to go west, but says nothing for the sake of stealth.

Kahan points to Leo and motions down the tunnel, wondering if he wanted to scout ahead.

Leo shrugs and carefully finds his way forward to see what there is to see (and hear).

Leo begins stealthily scouting ahead to the west to investigate...

A minute later he returns. Behind him, you see Geebo and Fingas in tow.

Fingas says, "While you were all off galavanting in the secret tunnels to find treasure, we were attacked by these giant rats. I killed them." He sounds very proud.

Geebo says, "Mr. Hatt was very brave in slaying these giant rats. You should have seen him. He told me about his exploits and killing the dragon in the cave. He is very brave." (You remember that the 'dragon' was the baby dragon not much larger than these 'giant' (not so giant) rats.)

Fingas says, noticing the goblet, "While we were fighting off these beasts, I'm sure you were enjoying finding the goblet. That must have been a cakewalk next to fighting these monstrous, blood-sucking rats."

Geebo says, nodding, "Yes, they were quite formidable."

Based on what Fingas said, you realize they came up from the south passage and turned west. So they have seen what is south but have not explored west yet.

Shae says, a little sarcastically for a druid, "Yes, I'm sure your travails killing some little mice far exceeded our travails in fighting the undead, traps, and even a god. Now, why don't we continue heading west and see if we can't find this Earthgold liquid."

Tahldar is still battered and beat after the fight for the goblet.  He is no mood for Fingas's braggery.  "Enjoy?" he asks in regards to the goblet.  "If you enjoy trying to fight a literal god, then yes we had a blast."

Pointing from whence they came he says "Lets head back via the western passage."

"Yes, we forgot to thank you for killing that baby dragon, the one that made it's father, the real dragon, Ozymandias, go insane and try to kill us. How could I forget to thank you for such bravery..." Kahan sarcastically remarks as he follows Tahldar's suggestion.

Oblivious to the sarcasm, Fingas says, "Yes, you're very welcome. They will sing songs about our exploits and how we overcame the dragon. This is what every adventurer dreams of. If only we had a bard..." Then he sees Shapfren. "We do have a bard! You should start writing your lyric epic poem or song about this."

With a roll of your eyes, you head west. The tunnel then curves to the northwest.  After traveling about 50 yards in the tunnel, you come across a strange sight.

You see two corpses.

The first is the skeletal remains of some sort of human warrior or adventurer. His tattered leather armor is mostly scraps, and his valuables have been taken so that all you see is an empty scabbard attached to a rotting belt.

The second corpse has not yet rotted to a skeleton. It has been dead maybe a month or two at most but definitely long enough for the later stages of decomposition. It appears to be a balding elderly gnome who has been stripped down to now rotting undergarments.  He holds nothing except the rotting corpse of a white rabbit clutched in one arm.

Geebo jumps forward, looking with disbelief at the gnome corpse. Geebo squints and stairs.  "No," he says in disbelief, shaking his head. "This can't be so. We just saw Tenvillah alive and well yesterday."


From where you stand in the cavern, a slightly more narrow tunnel leads sharply to the southwest. The tunnel also continues to the northwest.

Tahldar ignores Fingas, but he's glad they found him and Geebo again.  He wasn't sure they would.

He frowns at the sight of the corpses.  "Can you raise him?" Tahldar asks Kahan.  Though he is dubious if the priest has the power left after the fight for the goblet.  Thinking about the situation he says "If this is indeed Tenvillah, who was it that we spoke to earlier?"

Not waiting for a response he begins to search.

OOC: Tahldar will search the corpses.

Seeing the rabbit, Shae will check to make sure their own rabbit is alive and well. She agrees with Tahldar's concern and says, "This is necessary, I think," before she begins going over the corpses closely to search for any clues, items, or an idea about how and when they died.

Kahan checks over the corpse to see if he can tell how long it has been dead. "I cannot raise someone who has been dead more than ten days. Unless this place has a rapid degeneration effect on corpses, I will not be able to raise... whoever this is. I should be able to communicate with them, however, but Tenvillah was not very good at speaking Common," he commented as he got ready to cast Speak with Dead.

Your own white rabbit is healthy, although the hare may be a bit hungry. You feed it a carrot as you assess the situation.

Upon inspection, the bald Tenvillah look-alike died between one to two months' ago. The other one is skeletal and has been down here for a long time. By the looks of him, he may have been part of the group who died in the mushroom chamber and/or those who fell to their impaled deaths in the room with the illusion bridge.

They do not have any weapons or anything of value on the bodies. They appear to have been plundered.

However, upon inspection, Shae finds that a vellum drawing and scroll were rolled up and tucked in the old scabbard.

The drawing is a charcoal sketch like this:



At the bottom of the drawing is the word ZUGGTMOY.

On the vellum scroll, the man had been writing down his thoughts:

"My companions think Zuggtmoy, the Goddess of fungus, is the key to obtaining the goblet. But my research of the Xren Codex revealed that this goblet was placed by a trickster godling or demigod who simply went by the name Shadowlock who was known to bind the other gods to appear against their will. I believe the key will be something much simpler--a word or phrase of something in the room itself.

"If we find it in time. The Black Curse is upon me and without the healing essence, my time is nearly done. Also, my companion Rickrack is not himself. I thought he may suffer from the Black Curse, but he appears almost as if another has taken him over. I fear dark spirits are at work here."


Kahan begins casting Speak with Dead...

Only the bald Tenvillah look-alike corpse will respond due to the long death of the other individual. You have four questions...

As Kahan casts the spell, a sound like a low groaning, deep breathing sound comes from the unmoving lips of the bald dead corpse, and it says in a thick accent, "Ask."

"What is your name?"

"How did you die?"

Kahan looks to the others to see if they had any other questions to ask.

The hoarse, scratchy voice of the dead man says, "My name be Tenvillah. My death come from behind. Before I die, I see only myself staring back."

Geebo is very nervous at this. He says, "If Tenvillah truly dead, then who prepare cure? Can he tell cure even though dead?"

Kahan grimaces and looks at Geebo. "He should be... Tenvillah, what is the recipe to make the cure for the Black Curse, exactly?" he asks.

Shae says, "If you only have one question left, maybe we should ask if anyone else knows the recipe around here? I mean, if Tenvillah himself cannot make the cure, who can?" Shae seems troubled by this, as all of their quest results actually require this dead person's help in the end.

In answer to Kahan's question, the dead Tenvillah says in a groaning, slow voice, "Ishkah ven villa inne des platte mon. Vash'ke innun."

Geebo hears that and translates, "He says formula...process...in his notes at his desk on vellum parchment marked 'vash'ke.'" Geebo seems to panic. "But I know not process. Who else can do cure?"

The voice responds to Geebo, despite the spell being Kahan's, "Effre ando feit kun Xren Codex non parpitur fren. Saiso Ashe saiso Tarimar saiso Fleivornor saiso con pariture feirde. Gaspar Tarimar renvalte sosho, mon sosho. Magica verdun."

Geebo translates, "He say those who master Xren Codex know its secrets. These are Ashe, Tarimar, Fleivornor and some others, not many. He say Tarimar prophecied return here soon, very soon. By magic...how you say?...container? Vial?"

As soon as Geebo finishes this, you hear a sound behind you. It is a movement in the darkness, and then it is gone and you hear what sounds like footsteps running down the dark tunnel to the southeast (where you just came from).
This message was last edited by the GM at 04:09, Thu 11 June 2020.

OOC: Can we get an updated map of all the caves we know so far? I have an idea but I'm not sure if it will work.

I actually don't have a master map, just sections due to the disparity in lengths of the tunnels. But you can easily find your way back by following the line of skulls that marked the eastern side of the wall in the area you just came from.

OOC: I was more wondering about line of sight than anything. How easy would it be to try to, say, shoot an arrow down the cave tunnels in the hopes of hitting whoever is down there, assuming light wasn't an issue?

"Sounds like a doppleganger got him.  Nasty buggers and very difficult to detect." Tahldar says as he muses out loud.

"There's one question left." he says, noting that Kahan has asked three of Tenvillah.

"It would seem we have a lurker watching us.  From now on someone needs to keep a sharp on our backs, lest he sneak up on us."

OOC:  I don't know what else to ask of Tenvillah.  In any event Tahldar speaks Gnome, fyi...

OOC: An arrow would be very difficult, as the caverns twist and wind, are narrow and have low ceilings. Line of sight is an issue. The question posed to you here is whether to pursue or take other actions.

The corpse of Tenvillah drops silent. It appears his responses to Geebo, even though Geebo didn't cast the spell, finished him off or made him decide to stop communicating.

Shae says, "I think we go back to get the instructions before we get lost. We can grab them and just come straight back here. We'll watch for our little peeping tom in the meantime. IN any case, we are running out of time really quick. Just keep watching that rabbit to make sure it's okay."

She will lead whoever will follow down the tunnels and back to Tenvillah's place.

"The source of magic?" Kahan asks Geebo as he fumbles his translation a little. "And according to these notes we found, Tarimar isn't Tarimar anymore, he has become Zahariah," he explains, looking down the tunnel towards whoever was following them.

"I just hope we weren't being eavesdropped upon, and that they don't beat us to the recipe," he responds to Shae as he moves to follow after her. As much as he would rather just find the Earthgold and try to locate someone else who can do the cure, it would probably be easier to do it this way.

Shae says, "Eavesdropping? I think that's exactly what happened. We need to get to the recipe before this doppleganger or whatever gets it ahead of us."

You begin to give chase before the figure can get away. You are afraid he may get lost in the labyrinth, but to your great surprise, a sudden glow far ahead rises up. He has lit a torch somewhere beyond your vision. He also seems to be following the path back to Tenvillah's living quarters.

But then, before you get too much further, a fireball explosion rocks the cave. Skulls and bones go flying everywhere as the ceiling 50 feet in front of you collapses. There is a cave to your right if you want to try an alternate path back.

Tahldar follows along but he thinks trying to follow the intruder is not such a good idea.  Better to keep going forward to finish this thing, one way or the other.

With the collapse and the only way available is the cave to the right he says "Well, I guess we go this way."

OOC: I propose we take the cave to the right.

You head to the right to work your way around. It takes some time, and you lose several valuable minutes, but then you get back on track and find the wall with the line of skulls.  You follow it back and soon find yourself in familiar territory.

You reach Tenvillah's living area ready for a potential fight, but it is deserted. However, Geebo runs to a box in the corner by the desk.

"It empty," he says, and you can see some scattered vellum writings nearby where it appears someone quickly went through papers in the box looking for the "vash'ke" writing. "He took it," Geebo says, and you notice the dead torch on the floor.

Then you spot a distant torch down the corridor from which you just came. It is moving away from you, and the glow is diminishing.

OOC: I was trying to figure out how to do a chase scene on RPoL where a two to ten minute chase does not turn into a month of real time waiting for everyone. So I am assuming everyone is going together (at the slowest person's speed) unless stated otherwise. I am also rolling for wisdom and saving throws as needed to guide things. I'll move things at about one major move per day as you give chase. But if you have any specific deviations or ideas, I'm all ears.
This message was last edited by the GM at 01:38, Sun 14 June 2020.

"We cannot let them escape. Our very lives depend on it!" Kahan urges the others as he hurried his pace, wishing he could at least see their adversary to be able to do something to them to slow them down.

"Let's go!" Tahldar replies.  "If I falter don't wait for me.  I'll catch up as I can!" he adds.

OOC:  Tahldar's CON is actually decent so he should be able to run for a while.  But I propose we break into two groups if anyone can't keep up.

You give chase...

At first, you head back a bit, not sure which way through the labyrinth Tenvillah (or whoever it is) went. Then you see a soft glow far to your left and begin to follow. It is moving quickly. He must know you are on his tail.

The light bobs and turns behind the cavern as you follow, always just a little too far ahead. Finally, it turns south and you feel you are starting to catch up. It is also here that the skulls of the catacombs stop and the walls are normal stone tunnels cut from the mountain. After weaving through the tunnel, the tunnel turns to your right (west), and you find yourself in a small cavern.

You face west. There is an exit tunnel to the north that dead ends in a stream flowing from the mountain. There is another exit on the far west side that also leads north out of view. And there is the tunnel behind you from whence you came.

But you stand here in the cavern looking out over a large whirlpool of water in the center. A short broken foot bridge with about a 10 foot gap spans over the water. It is only about two feet wide and would take some skill to jump, but would be doable with a little concentration and effort if not too encumbered. There does not seem to be any other way to easily cross the violent whirlpool, which is over 30 feet across.

On the far side of the bridge, Tenvillah has turned and is standing looking at you. In one hand, he holds a vellum writing. In the other hand, he holds a torch ready as if to light the scroll on fire. A white rabbit is in a tiny cage looped to his belt, and a pair of ornate daggers are slung across his belt.

"Don't come any closer!" he yells across the whirlpool at you.


"By now, you know Tenvillah is dead. But you need this formula. And I know where you can find the Earthgold and the exit. You see, I traveled here quite some time ago, taking the form of an adventurer. After wandering in and out of these caves many times over the last few years since my companions' death, I found Tenvillah in the caves. He tried to attack me, for he had the Black Curse upon him. I killed him in self defense only. I have waited in the guise of this old gnome for awhile now, knowing his people would return and could help me. In my life, I have absorbed the memories and powers of sixteen people--elves, men, dwarves, gnomes, and drow. Unlike them, I did not seek the goblet. I sought something else. And I think you have it. Give it to me, and I will give you the formula, the earthgold, and the exit. I do not wish harm to you. If so, I could have killed you in your sleep. I seek not to harm, but only to bargain."

You notice how much better his Common is now.

This message was last edited by the GM at 05:33, Mon 15 June 2020.

Shae scowls at what she sees and hears. Her hands grip tight on her ancestral spear. It is not the druid way to engage in a standoff. She says, "How can we trust what you say is true? How do we know you won't betray us the moment we give you what you want? What is it exactly that you want anyway?"

As she waits for an answer, Shae will softly start an incantation, casting detect magic in the imposter's general direction.

Kahan looks around the room, then back to "Tenvillah". "Yes, what exactly do we have that a god would want? Shadowlocke, I believe is your real name? Has any of this not just been a clever illusion?" the priest asks, now skeptical of everything they've encountered up until this point.

Tahldar waits for the man, or god, whatever he is, to respond.  It's unclear to him what he may want, but he figures it must be something from the mushroom area.  That would be the only place he would not have had access to.

Shap began having some doubts after hearing Kahan "If this is all an illusion, could I be an illusion myself?", but she didn't dwell on it. She wanted to add something. "Why don't we make it a fair trade?. I could go there and let you make me your hostage, but you tell me the formula. Then someone else goes with the item you want and we finish the exchange?"

The imposter Tenvillah laughs heartily and then says, "If I were being untruthful with you, I could certainly impersonate Shadowlock. That trickster demigod has not been seen for eons, not since he built the place for the goblet. But I am not here to present guile. Indeed, it is not I, nor even Shadowlock, you need to fear. It is my brother."

He continues in response to the questioning, "What I want is this. You took some things from my companions. I want some of them back. I want the ring with the gold band and opal setting. I want the two vials that appear empty but are marked 'Not Air' on them. And I want the bottle with the lead stopper. They do not belong to you. You lose nothing in giving them to me."

He looks briefly down at the white rabbit to make sure it is still alive. Then he pulls a sack from behind his belt and throws it across the whirlpool to you. It has been weighted down with gold coins.

"Put them in there," he says, "and throw them back to me. Then you shall have what you need. Change out the coins for rocks, if you wish, and keep the coins."

Shae's soft spell is complete. She relays softly that detect magic could not penetrate the area, which means there is a powerful antimagic aura radiating from the former Tenvillah.
This message was last edited by the GM at 00:23, Tue 16 June 2020.

Shae begins digging out the things he is asking for to have them ready, but she says, "If you are not this Shadowlock, then who are you exactly? Or what are you? And who is your brother?"

"Why do you want these so badly? What are they? You'll have to be more forthcoming with information if you want anything from us," Kahan adds as he finds the bottles and ring he is interested in.

He says, "If it please you, I will tell you more, but I am trusting you. My name is Dalharen Olathre. My brothers and I are abominations created by Tarimar from drow stock. One of my brothers here is called Che'alau Haklara. The two of us were rescued by a drow named Etag, who raised us in magic and taught us to embrace our abilities. You might call us dopplegangers or some other slur, and the drow have rejected us for our abomination. True, we can change shape and absorb any others we kill. Haklara and I rejected Etag and fled. I only sought to better our lives, but Haklara seeks to reunite with Tarimar as one of his generals."

He points to the items now held by Shae and Kahan. "Those items are my liberty and freedom. But if Haklara gets hold of them, they will be his transcendence and your destruction."

He looks down at the rabbit. It seems to be languid. "The time is nigh. I must depart. Please. Send the items over and will leave this for you." He indicates the formula. "I am desperate, I admit. I will tell you this. He points behind him to the west and north. That way leads to the exit from this place. You need only be able to survive where the white hare cannot and you can leave. This is why I need one of the items. Now you see I have been acting in good faith."

Tahldar listens intently but can't contain himself.  "Good faith?!?" he says incredulously.  "You murdered Tenvillah!  And now you want us to believe that once you get the items you want you'll actually leave the formula behind?"

"How about you join us and help us finish this quest to get the healing we need.  Then we'll give you what we want and you can go on your way."

Whispering to his group he adds softly, "Tenvillah said he was killed from behind.  If indeed he had the curse, was not of his right mind and attacked Dalharen, it seems unlikely he would have been stabbed in the back.  He lies."

Rolling Wisdom checks at -2 for everyone with WIS 15 or above...Not all were successful.

Geebo checks the white rabbit held in his own arms. It still seems alive and well.
This message was last edited by the GM at 03:04, Wed 17 June 2020.

Dalharen is getting frustrated now. "I have given you information. You need this formula, and I need what you have. I am done discussing it. If I must wait to pluck them off your dead bodies once my brother is done dispatching each of you, then so be it."
He looks down at the dying white hare with concern.

"I give you thirty seconds to decide. I am not your enemy, but I am desperate. And yes, okay, I did slay the old gnome. I thought he was my brother. I thought my brother had taken his form and would kill me. I was mistaken."

Shae collects all the things in the bag and says, "I think he's telling the truth. And besides, what choice do we have?"

"I agree with Shae. We need the formula anyway, what's the worst that could happen?" Kahan asks as he places all the items inside the coin purse. He will let the others decide if they remove the gold coins from within or not.

"Mark my words this will end badly, though I see no other course." Tahldar says in resignation.

Shae gets the things in the bag to turn over as you talk. Then several things happen at once.

A shockwave goes through you from behind, shocking you momentarily as it continues up to the rock ceiling, which then begins a collapse above Dalharen and his zone of antimagic. Boulders and rocks fall on him, crushing him.

The torch is dropped to one side and the formula to the other, only to then be buried in rock. But then, even worse, the rocks collapse the side of the ground under Dalharen. His body, his belongings, and even the vellum, wax coated formula, fall into the whirlpool.

The formula begins swirling just out of reach in the whirlpool. If you don't retrieve it soon, it will sink into the center vortex.

You find that in the midst of this, you can hear Shae yelling, "Hey!" as she is spinning. The bag has been ripped from her hands and Geebo holds it, running back north the way you came. Geebo holds the bag in one hand and the white hare in the other. He is going fast, not looking back.

Kahan pulls out his wand of paralyzation and fires it at Geebo. "Borimer, get the formula! We need to catch Haklara before he gets away!" he commands, chasing after "Geebo".

By the time you have recovered from the concussive blast, which was paralyzing in its force, and by the time Kahan pulls out his paralyzation wand, Geebo is already out of sight in the winding caves.

By this time, the formula has also already made one or two revolutions in the whirlpool. It is about 6 feet inside the whirlpool's circle and two feet down from the ledge (about 8 feet total). You will have to swim to it or reach it by some other means.

Leo gives chase to see if he has any chance of catching Geebo.

Shapfren was torn by the quickly happening events. "The formula!", she ran and jumped into the pool trying to get the formula back.

Tahldar begins to cast.

OOC: Tahldar will cast levitate on Dalharen.  Assuming he won't be able to get himself out by swimming.

Shae sees Shapfren jump in and Geebo sprint down the tunnel. "The man with the white hare, not hair," she says as comprehension dawns. "Geebo has the white hare. The rabbit. He is the one we are supposed to beware of. That and whatever creature that is." She indicates the fallen doppleganger thing.

Shae runs off after Geebo.

OOC to Tahldar: I assume you mean levitate on Shapfren, not Dalharen?

Shae takes off after Geebo. Fingas mutters, "And he seemed like such a nice little fellow," before he follows after Shae.

Shapfren picks just the right moment and dives in after the formula, just beating Borimer, who was about to do the same. Borimer begins pulling out a rope when he sees Tahldar step forward with a spell ready.

Shapfren...reaches out but misses the formula as it dips above and below the water. She goes around another circuit to try again...

Meanwhile, Tahldar is ready with a levitate spell...

And then you see movement in the rubble. Dalharen's hand reaches out. He is somehow still alive, but he seems to have reverted to his (supposed) true form. You can see the traces of his Drow heritage in his dark skin and pointed ears.


On the second revolution, Shapfren still can't seem to get her hands around the formula. (Bad rolls.) She is one revolution away from sinking to the center and being lost, so Tahldar must cast on her next round or lose the chance.

She will have one last chance to grab the swirling formula as it dips and bobs violently in the torrential water.

Kahan grabs one end of Borimer's rope and wraps it tightly around his arm before running across and jumping the gap in the bridge. If he falls, he hopes the fighter will be able to pull him out, if not, he means to try to save Dalharen by first using a Stone Shape spell to create an alcove he can perhaps climb out of, or at the very least, should alleviate some of the pressure from the collapse. If he seems to be in decent enough health, he will try to cast Cure Light Wounds but it might not work because of the antimagic barrier he doesn't know about yet.

OOC:  Tahldar will cast levitate on Shapfren.

On the next rotation, Shapfren manages to grab hold of the formula at last. Tahldar casts levitate and gets her safely out of the water.

Kahan runs and jumps across the bridge gap. He makes it to the other side, and he soon determines that no spells can work within a certain radius of the fallen doppleganger creature, which is now reverting to its original dark skinned, almost drow like form.

However, Kahan is able to move some stones to get Dalharen freed. He is very injured, almost dead, and no heal spells or the like will work on him. Bind wounds or the like might help.

Dalharen mutters, "My brother, his psionics are powerful. My other brother is lost to us." He points to the tunnel behind him (west, turning north) and says, "The exit is there. My brother is going now to the Earthgold. Follow the heat and it will take you there. I have failed." He is struggling to breathe now, which appears to be something different from the head and trauma injuries from falling rocks.

Having been across the bridge for even just a minute, Kahan feels a little light headed. The rabbit is dead.

Shae and Fingas are running after "Geebo." He is a bit far ahead of them and going fast.

PM
This message was last edited by the GM at 03:10, Tue 23 June 2020.

Shae stops and turns to Fingas. "When we were off fighting a literal god to get the goblet, were you and Geebo ever separated from each other?" Shae also watches to see if the doppleganger thing stops and waits.

"Kahan, come back to this side.  We have to get the earthgold, if there's any left after Geebo gets his."

"Borimer, can you fly over and carry them both back?"

Two points Tahldar and Kahan will have realized with their larger than normal sized brains:

1) You are not sure if "Geebo" is trying to get the cure at all, and if so, he will likely need the goblet and other materials

2) Geebo wanted the items he took that were put in the bag (that Dalharen wanted). He did not take the goblet. You are not 100% sure why they are wanted, but Dalharen said something about them helping him escape.

Kahan attempts to help Dalharen to his feet after binding his wounds, and if he can, will wrap the rope around his waist and essentially toss him over the gap, hoping Borimer can help him the rest of the way. They needed to get back across the gap to find breathable air, as whatever was in this cavern was slowly suffocating them. "Borimer, help me out here!" he shouts, and once Dalharen is across, he will also jump the gap if possible.

Borimer's fly spell was dispelled when the dispel magic spell was cast on him to make him regular size again.

ROUND 2
However, Kahan binds the wounds of Dalharen. As he does so, he begins to feel weak and a little dizzy.

Borimer goes to the edge of the broken bridge and lies on his stomach to catch the rope and haul in the "captive."

ROUND 3
Kahan then ties the rope around Dalharen. His eyes are beginning to sting, and his breath is shallow.

ROUND 4
Kahan then throws the end of the rope to Borimer. Borimer is blocking the bridge, so Kahan will need to wait for Borimer to move.  Kahan is feeling his breathing constricted and his eyes watering.

Dalharen's half-dead body is rolled into the whirlpool, where Borimer begins pulling it in.

OOC: Here is where rolls will start. Borimer will need to pull Dalharen up. Kahan is still on the far side of the bridge. How long it takes will depend on the rolls. Kahan cannot jump across the bridge without landing on Borimer, so he can wait, talk to Borimer about an alternate plan, or figure out another way across.

Back up the cave with Leo and Shae...
PM

OOC: How big is the anti-magic field around Dalharen?

It is hard to tell exactly, but it emanates directly from his body for about 10 feet.

In what side of the pond did Shap land?

She is by Tahldar on the far side from Kahan. She successfully retrieved the formula.

Shae says to Leo and Fingas, "Let's go back and get the group before we proceed. I think these things try to separate individuals before taking over their forms." If no one objects, she will go back to the group to lead them this way all together.

Shapfren finished recovering her breath and getting over the whole experience. She was still soaking, but didn't want to dwell on it. "Borimer! Try to move the rocks!"

Kahan pulls out his grappling hook and ties it to a length of rope. "Hurry up and pull him out of the water before I suffocate, will you?!" the priest coughs as he leans down to try to find some fresher air. Once he has the rope tied together, he will attempt to attach it to the other side of the rock bridge somewhere.

"Yeah, we should probably not follow him." Leo agrees.

You are all still feeling weak from blood loss. It is hard to believe that was only a few hours ago.

Luckily, with his incredible strength, Borimer is able to swing and pull the half-conscious doppleganger creature up onto the bridge after only the first revolution.  He quickly moves out of the way and drags Dalharen to the side where the others are at. Dalharen is still barely alive and suffering from whatever killed the rabbit.

Kahan struggles with both the blood loss and whatever it is that killed the rabbit and was killing Dalharen. This weakens him immensely. Yet he still runs and jumps to try to get across the broken bridge. It is a 10 foot jump to just a 2 foot wide stone, crumbling bridge...but Kahan makes the jump, tumbling to the ground.


At this point, Leo, Shae and Fingas return. They tell you that they followed "Geebo" and that Geebo was keeping ahead, but not too far ahead, to make sure they didn't lose him.  Then they stumbled on the body of the real Geebo, freshly killed, and Fingas admitted that the two had been separated for a time when they were fighting the "giant" rats. They can lead you back to the corpse and in the direction Geebo disappeared.
This message was last edited by the GM at 01:29, Mon 29 June 2020.

"What do you want to do with him?" Borimer says, nodding down at Dalharen.

"Why did you come back? We knew that wasn't really Geebo, obviously!" Kahan shouts angrily as he tries to regain his breath, kneeled down on the floor. "Dalharen may be our only hope of getting out of here alive, especially if his brother is as dangerous as he claims," he responds to Borimer, slightly more calmly but still a bit annoyed.

Shae says, "The brother is trying to get us to split up, I think so he can kill and transform again, now that his cover's blown. We should try to avoid too much splitting up. Let's take stock of the situation. We have Dalharen here alive. What are we going to do with him? I don't think we can trust him, at least not toally. His brother is Che'alau Haklara, who he claims is more evil, or at least that he wants to rejoin Tarimar, which is the same thing in my book. He also said Haklara is 'one of my brothers,' which makes me wonder how many more there are. He said that Haklara will be our destruction if he gets the items in the sack, which he already got. He also took our white hare, but maybe we can get another one back in Tenvillah's hovel?"

She stops and thinks. "We could tie him up here. Magic won't work and we can't even heal him to have him tag along. Haklara seemed to be waiting for us. I don't think he's going anywhere but we have to proceed cautiously. Dalharen said we can find the Earthgold, and his brother, by following the heat. They apparently use psionics instead of magic. I don't know much about that."

She looks to the others for ideas. Tying him up seems to be her best idea, and then they go chasing after Haklara.

"We need to follow the heat source for the earthgold.  Then leave."  Tahldar says to the group.  "And I agree with Shae, we should stick together."

"But it seems wrong to leave Geebo here.  He didn't deserve this fate."  he adds with concern.  "Kahan, can you raise him?"

Shae nods. "That's not a bad idea if Kahan can do it. Assuming he has the spells. We've done a lot of casting today. But what about Dalharen?" She points her ancestral spear at the man. "Maybe we tie him up? And one other thing bothers me now that I think about it. His brother was going to the Earthgold for some reason, but then after that, he will come straight through here to exit. If we all leave this area, he may easily bypass us and leave. Should we leave Borimer here to guard the exit just in case?"

She is both wary about splitting up and also about letting Haklara potentially escape.

"I can certainly try, but it might not take," Kahan responded. "It is possible that it won't work, depending on Geebo's fortitude," he adds as he begins climbing to his feet, still a little woozy from whatever gas was on the other side of the whirlpool.

OOC: I'm not sure where you guys are for next steps. Are you going to tie up Dalharen? Borimer is strong enough that he might be able to sling him over his back, but he wouldn't be good for much else while holding him.

Are you going to leave someone behind to watch the exit (and Dalharen) or all go together?

Are you ready to go to the point where Shae and Leo left (Geebo's body) are do you need more time at the whirlpool?

This is interesting because I never expected Dalharen to live, much less be rescued by Kahan, so we are definitely in unknown territory.

"I do not think tying up Dalharen will have much effect if he really is a Psychic, as they don't need to use their hands like us spellcasters do," Kahan explained. "Let's just take him with us and head towards Geebo's body. If we find any possible side passages, we can either ward them from passage, or leave people behind to guard them, as I doubt Haklara would dare try to fight us all," he continued.

OOC: I still can't believe I made that jump, twice, with 8 Dexterity, in full plate mail, after losing 4 pints of blood.

A roll of 7 and a roll of 6. Strength and Dexterity rolls were needed, so it was legit. I really didn't take into account full plate armor...maybe I should have? But I think with 13 strength, he probably still could have made it.

Remember as you proceed with Dalharen in tow that he projects about a 10 foot antimagic aura that will prevent spells from being cast into our out of that area. Same with the brother.


Borimer slings Dalharen over his shoulder and you head off in the direction shown by Shae and Leo (and Fingas). It takes a few minutes of meandering through the labyrinthian catacombs, but they are able to locate the place where you see Geebo's body on the ground not too far from where you gave the blood sacrifice.

Geebo has been dead for only a couple of hours.

Shae and Leo point you forward, where you see the tunnel breaks off to the right or goes straight. They indicate that Haklara turned right up ahead, and that's the last they saw of him.

You do feel that it is slightly warm here as compared to the main tunnels.

As they travel, Tahdar steers clear of Dalharen and his anti magic aura.

Seeing Geebo's body the mage grimaces.  "I hope he survives the revival." he says absently.  "It's getting warmer here." he adds as he notes the rise in temperature.

Just so you understand that, even if successful, Geebo will be essentially helpless, below is the rule on raise dead. Also, please check that you still have a 5th level spell to use before confirming if you want to cast the spell.

RAISE DEAD

When the priest casts a raise dead spell, he can restore life to a dwarf, gnome, half-elf, halfling, or human (other creatures may be allowed, at the DM's option). The length of time that the person has been dead is of importance, as the priest can raise persons dead only up to a limit of one day for each experience level of the priest (i.e., a 9th-level priest can raise a person who has been dead for up to nine days).
Note that the body of the person must be whole, or otherwise missing parts are still missing when the person is brought back to life. Likewise, other ills, such as poison and disease, are not negated. The raised person must roll a successful resurrection survival check to survive the ordeal (see Table 3: Constitution) and loses 1 point of Constitution. Further, the raised person is weak and helpless, needing a minimum of one full day of rest in bed for each day or fraction he was dead. The person has 1 hit point when raised and must regain the rest by natural healing or curative magic.

Kahan instructs Borimer to take Dalharen's body at least 10' away from Geebo. He pulls out his priest scroll and, assuming the others are okay with carrying Geebo out of here, begins casting Raise Dead from the scroll.

Kahan removes Geebo and casts the spell. Geebo has a 70% chance of survival. Everyone watches on from a distance. Geebo's head begins to move slightly. His eyes flitter open. He starts mumbling incoherently in Gnomish. But he is alive.

OOC: Geebo is now -1 Constitution, totaling 8, and is at 1 hit point. His hit points can be healed magically, but he will be very weak until he has a full day's rest to regain energy.

Shap gave a step forward towards the recently returned Geebo. "I didn't have to give my blood. I think he stands a better chance of survival if I carry him"

You now have Borimer carrying Dalharen (with a 10 foot zone of antimagic aura around him), and Shapfren carrying Geebo.

Ahead and to the right is where Haklara was last seen. Or you can go straight and into the unknown.

OOC: Is Dalharen conscious or unconscious? I'm assuming he's not awake by the fact Borimer is carrying him around like a sack of potatoes...

Dalharen is about in the same condition as Geebo. He is barely conscious and has sustained head injuries.

Shae will go ahead and peak around the corner, leading the others forward. Haklara had not threatened them in the past, so she will proceed with caution.

Shae peeks around the corner to the right (east), and she sees that the tunnel goes about 50 feet before curving slightly northeast and then ending in a 30 foot tall climb up a rock face to a cavern above.

"We need to follow the heat." Tahldar says as he points to the path on the right.

"Yes, and we must hurry. He cannot get away from us," Kahan adds as he makes haste down the tunnel.

Dalharen asks to be put down to rest. "He draws you where he has laid hid these last few months. Earthgold lies within. He ousted me just before I took the form of Tenvillah, which is why I mistook him for my ne'er do well brother. But he is not the worst. My other brother is the worst, the most Tarimar could mold from us. They both seek the Djinn."

He coughs and rolls on his side in pain, rubbing his head.

"Shapfren or Shae, can either of you cast a fly on Borimer?  If not I can cast a spider climb, but a fly is better."

"Borimer...Bore...yes, that is a good name for you. Like a lout, you stand around without speaking, such a bore. Yes, I shall call you Bore. By all means, Bore, climb up the wall and into my brother's lair. He has repulsed my attempts, and I dare not try again. His psionic power is much greater than mine. Do you even know what psionic power is?" He laughs, still reeling from the head wound. "Imagine the greatest magics without any of the side effects. No gods to bend your will to. No antimagic measures our counters. No memorizing. No spellbooks. No limits. A sheer force of mind and will."

He rubs his head and turns to sit up against the wall. "In fact," he says, "once I have my head about me, I imagine you could not keep me bound with your greatest efforts. And like I said, his power is stronger than mine. Etag told us that Tarimar infused in us essence from illithids, what you might call a mind flayer...as well as from many other powerful creatures. We may have started life as dopplegangers or shapeshifters, but we have been altered--enhanced--by Tarimar into something much greater. Perhaps someday we will be gods."

He chuckles to himself again. "I am the weakest of the three brothers. Haklara is much more powerful. And Izlaka...well, I don't even know how powerful he is now. He tried to follow us here, but I think we lost him. Or maybe he awaits. He is crafty, that one, and well versed in the Xren Codex and Allevian Annals."

Dalharen seems to be babbling due to the head injury.  "He also seeks the Djinn. We all do."

"If all that's true," Shae says, "Then what can we expect up there? We saved your life and you owe us a life debt, if that means anything to you. You should help us and give us what knowledge you can. I think also it means something to you for us to retrieve those items, which we can give to you."

"Surely your brother would not simply stay up there and wait for us. He may be powerful, but all of us put together are more powerful than he is," Kahan commented as he watched Dalharen for signs of betrayal. He honestly didn't know what to expect from the drow, if he had been honest in his desires in the first place they might not be in this mess, after all.

Tahldar dismisses Dalharen's mumblings with a wave of his hand.  "We have to get up this cliff face and whatever stands in our way we will deal with it.  We need the earthgold and can't tarry here."

"Does anyone have a fly spell?"

The 30 foot climb can be done in several ways: 1) by climbing (with a skill or by a 1/2 Dex check +3), 2) by magic (fly, levitation, spider climb, etc.), or 3) by using gear (grappling etc.). Of course, if one person gets up, he can help the others to decrease chances of a failure.

Dalharen laughs at Kahan's comment. "All put together? Hah. Hubris will be your undoing. When I first saw you, I thought you were evil, perhaps sent by Tarimar. Then I thought you were greedy adventurers. Now I see you are just dim. What if he psionically controls you and has you step off this cliff? What if he sends rocks crashing on your heads like he did to me? What if he simply makes you topple over into lava? There is an immense cavern up there, and he is familiar with every inch of it. I don't think he is waiting for you specifically, other than to prevent you from stopping him. Of course, you may already be too late."

Dalharen groans and rubs his head again.

"Then again," he says, after a moment's thought, "he may need you if he does not have the Djinn's name. You had the bottle, after all. You must have its name somewhere."

After another moment's thought, he says, "I can help you, if you desire. But you must promise me the items I requested when we recover them."

"We might not need a fly spell" Leo attempts to climb up.

"Leo, wait," Kahan instructs as he pulls 9 pitons out of the portable hole, and hands him a hammer to pound them into the wall. "Take some rope with you as well, you might find something to anchor it to for the rest of us," he explained, tying a grappling hook to the end of the rope coil and handing it to Leo.

Leo takes the rope and continues.

"I have one!" Shapfren raised her hand