Episode 9, Part 5 -- Displacing Krekie

Keenly inspecting the ruined keep of the titan, the party revels in the valuable treasures now in their hands.  Vasco stands pondering the absolutely massive titans staff of evocation, Zeek and Kaydence at the grizzly sack of heads and Talis archaeologically inventorying the magic composite longbows and other items. Chillingly from just outside the Keep’s main entrance, Krathanos’ voice smugly calls out “You are not finished with me yet!”

Shocked that Krathanos would somehow return from the plane Vasco sent him to, everyone spins around to see what threat the voice brings.  But all they hear is the thwap of crossbow bolt striking nearby flesh. Clutching at some object in his heart, Kaydence gasps, momentarily shocked and wide-eyed, and collapses lifeless to the ground.  Yldar discerns the source of the bolt, not some deadly device wielded by the titan, but one held under the sharp beak of a familiar hooded Kenku, standing on top of one of the keep’s crumbling walls. Three deadly arrows fly from his bow in reply, and Krekie, Darl’s trusted assassin is badly wounded.  Scorching Rays arcing from Vasco’s fingers and Krekie’s eyes impossibly widen in surprise, as his assassination of Kaydence is responded to with impressive force.  His charred body tumbles lightly to the ground.  Silence follows, as Zeek falls to his knees beside his deceased loyal follower, for whom a True Death (DC 27) has been brought upon.

Talis, Kydara, and Vasco go to Krekies’ body and begin to liberate her many magical devices – gloves of arrow snaring, potion of darkvision, scroll of mirage arcana, scroll of permanent image, wand of cure light wounds (34), wand of mirror image (17), +3 leather armour, +2 mithral buckler, +1 repeating light crossbow, sword of subtlety, +1 amulet of natural armour, boots of speed, +2 cloak of resistance, +2 headband of vast intelligence, ring of chameleon power, +1 ring of protection.  On her wrist is an intricate bracet of knotwork that Vasco sees has been sealed with an arcane mark.  The Seekers in the party recognize these intricate knots as lining up to reflect a value.  This is a a credit note for 100 pp and 10,750 gp that Krekie must have in trust with a thieves' guild in the Free City. An ingenious way to carry one's weight in gold! Now that the bird is dead, the bracelet slips easily off her wrist and is secured by the party.

Kydara announces to the others that he has decided to speak with the dead and attempt to ask the 7 questions that her god may allow.  She enters the seance, and compels the nearly departed spirit of the assassin to respond to her questions.

Kydara: Where is Darl?

Spirit of Krekie: Far but near.

Kydara: What quests has he completed?

Spirit of Krekie: He is questing, I’m sure, but I can’t tell you anything more.

Kydara: What has he come to this place looking to the well for?

Spirit of Krekie: Deeper knowledge about the gifts of our god.

Kydara: Where will he take the Phylactery?

Spirit of Krekie: The Hand of the Lich Lord keeps his secrets about that!

Kydara: What other artifacts does he seek?

Spirit of Krekie: The Eye of Vecna!

Kydara: Who is with him?

Spirit of Krekie: He of course, has his most loyal and dangerous servant, me, who gives him my eyes to search with.  Also loyal to him is marvellous Malhazar, the Exiled Flame and her terrible black horse,  the twin monks Jalagar and Sabir Sinfire, and the terrible devil, who I refuse to name.

Kydara: What is his weakness?

Spirit of Krekie: He has none!

..and the bird's confident laughing chirps fade away as speak with the dead ends, and Krekie’s spirit fades way.

Krekie’s spirit’s response prompts the party with a general discussion about the possible meaning of using her eyes to search, and concludes that she may be part of Darl’s impressive scrying technique.  Zeek takes his finely honed blade and severs the birds light head, its black eyes still open wide.  He defiles the head and eyes in gorillion dung and leaves it on the ground to rot. Then, returning to the body of the late Kaydence, he pulls out his late friend’s bag of holding and draws it over his corpse.  Bodily fluids ooze through and stain the bag that Zeek has committed to carry around.  Meanwhile, the others discuss the significance of the attach.  Likely Krekie thought that he would be able to pick off the party, one-by-one, harassing and weakening them without consequence.  They figure Darl may have split his group up to complete the quest, with Krekie and the Minatour not having made it.  Or that he is just waiting for the party to either finish off the quest or be finished by its trials.

The party decides to get out of the mad titan’s keep – it is a place that would bring too much attention now that the mad titan is gone.  They before resting or healing any further, they set out for the hour-long hike across the open grass plain and into the lush area to the edge of the Doomshroud forest.  There Vasco casts rope trick to give them a pocket reprieve from this bizarre world, a place for undetected rest and recovery.  In the morning, Talis prepares a Hero’s Feast bringing everyone back from the gruelling events of the previous day and prepare them for what may come.

Reflecting on their quest, they recall how they need to resolve the Thorn Vale nightmare, and to bring a living feather of the Roc King.  The nightmare puzzles them still, with no idea of where to look for Thorn Vale.  However, the Roc King, they deduce, logically resides on the highest point of land.  A very tall mountain can be seen from almost every point on Tilagos Island. They decide to make for this highest point of land in the north east section of the Islands’ mountains, a point 10,000 feet high.  It will take days of walking through the brighter-than-life island, but they’ll have plenty to eat and hopefully little but the local flora and fauna to bother them.  Their hopes were by-in-large true, save for the day they are stalked and tracked by a pack of four Displacer Beast Pack Lords!

These beasts had been silently tracking them for several hours, since the party had wandered into their hunting grounds.  At a moment when the party had been lulled into the drudgery of overland travel, the Pack Lords manage to creep up within 60 feet.  Before pouncing, they are finally noticed and the party groups together to defend. Towering 10 feet tall with a 20 foot reach with spiny, raking tentacles, the beasts reach into the party’s formation, swatting them time after time, and drawing a terrible amount of blood. Kydara wisely casts true seeing on Yldar, for whom the beasts come into strong focus. Zeek tries his magic lamp, but to no practical effect.  Vasco then takes flight with Yldar following shortly behind, both taking hits from the vicious tentacles of the beasts before suspending themselves in air. Talis uses her last bead of fireball, which seems to fizzle more than flame.  His blood dripping onto the ground below, Vasco strikes hard with chain lighting, cone of cold, and maximized fireballs, eventually killing one.  Also bleeding heavily from the air, Ydlar shoots arrow after arrow to assist.  Zeek dances around at close range with his hooked hammer, working to find a vital spot on these enormous felines, but their displacement frequently evades Zeeks normally deadly blow.  Kydara calls on her god for a protective prismatic shelter, but is harshly reminded that she will have to prove herself further for her god to reveal the power of such a 9th level spell.  Rebuked, he joins in with empowered burning spells and sword play, challenged by the constantly shifting light that seems to bend around these glammering creatures.  Finally, after what looked like was going to certainly be a meal of at least a few adventurers for the commanding beasts, the party manages to slay three, with the final wounded one fleeing.  Yldar follows it and delivers the last blow.  Exhausted, spent and bleeding, the party retreats to another rope trick shelter for the night.

After several more days journey by foot, the party manages to avoid becoming the prey of the islands’ many residents.  They make it to the base of the Bloodfeather Peak, were they start to ascend.  After Zeek falls 50 feet due to the strenuous climb, Vasco and Yldar decide to do some reconnaissance themselves.  Vasco uses his clairvoyance to look ahead.  He sees the Roc Kings’ nest in amongst some crags and an escarpment at the top of the peak.  The King is clearly in the nest, but his body is entirely still. Vasco peers more carefully and sees one eye open, but no other sign of movement in the area.  Yldar decides to look first hand by ascending invisible by flight.  He approaches the Roc King and sees the movement of flies and maggots.  Clearly the great bird is dead.  Signs of battle are clear, scorches, numerous open wounds on the bird, broken rocks and parts of the nest.  A bloody scene in all, but with no trail of blood leading away from battle, not sign of who was left.  Yldar decides to take a feather.  Too hard to pull out by hand, he uses his blade to hack one away.  Another feather is clearly missing from the otherwise proud roc king.  As the party awaits Yldar’s return, they survey the area below – this is the most impressive vantage on the island to see – and see a gargantuan bullette making his way across the valley below.

The party looks forlorn at the Kydara’s divination request of where they will meet the nightmare, describes the location of the valley.  In response, Kydara is met with a clear vision of a valley nestled between two dark peeks in the western reaches of the Tilagos highlands. The valley is teeming with wild underbrush bedecked with vicious irony thorns – the Thorn Vale. With that vision, camp is made for another night beside the corpse of the Roc King.

Episode 9 - Part 4 -- The Krathanos Conundrum

Previously...Kydara raised Vasco and Talis from the dead.  They try teleport again...it failed.  They set off to walk to the ruined keep.

A few days later, the party are still walking...

The party muses on the knowledge we have about the current situation: Krathanos was a murderous titan - he vanished from the world 15 centuries ago. They speculate why teleport failed, and theorize that it might be related to being on this other plane.  Somebody casts knowledge planes and realizes that this place has no connection to the astral plane, and perhaps to other planes, so teleport spells don't work properly.  We wonder about shadow spells...the commune spell worked, so there are obviously some planar connections.

Then Vasco notices small things flying ahead - they look like butterflies but are too big...man sized?  They are dark but not black...similar to the dark angel things from the city but not the same.

In the distance the party sees the keep.  The walls are 30 feet tall and 20 feet thick.  There are four towers around a central compound.  It looks partially collapsed.

Vasco takes flight again to see what is ahead.  He sees cage upon cage of girallons.  The flying figures are six dark skinned gargoyles!  Slumped against the wall is a storm titan.  He looks like a bum! He has a gold belt encrusted with fist-sized emeralds! His weapon is an enormous spiked warhammer.  The gargoyles have leather armour and longbows.

The party discusses what to do next.  They need that belt!  Talis persuades them that she can get the titan to come out.  She casts glibness on herself, borrows Zeek's tiara of charisma, and works an amazing bluff.  Talis visits the titan in a dream, charming the heck out of him, and convincing him that there is a really interesting party of adventurers who are waiting to meet him outside.  She succeeds in gaining the Titan's interest, and the gargoyles come out to invite us inside, saying “Krathanos the Conqueror, exiled by the gods for his designs to rule all of creation, and shackled by the treacherous druids of Tilagos until such time as brave stalwarts arrive to free him.”

The audience with Krathanos quickly reveals he is mad with his dedication to be freed from his hateful prison.  At first calmly speaking through his dishevelled appearance, he tells the party he is an honorouable servant of Kord who simply needs to be plane shifted or gated to anywhere but this hateful place.  However, his decorum quickly erodes when he takes offence to something uncommonly innocuous said by Zeek, smashing part of his keep and setting off lightning.  However, he didn’t attack and he’s brought back to the negotiation.  When the party reveals they are only interested in his belt, he reaches into his grubby sack to pull out the head of a minotaur who “had come earlier to purchase his buelt on behalf of the Hand of the Lich-Lord”.  Krathanos boasts how he hates things whose heads don’t batch the rest of their bodies, and he pulled it off.  He then went into a rant about how if out of this place, there would be humans and elves to torment, far more interesting than these beasts and occasional visitors.

Finally, after a moral conundrum about unleashing a menace who had long plagued the world of men and elves into another plane, Vasco decides that the offer of the belt is worth it and offers to dismisses the titan to his own plane in exchange for leaving the belt and the dangerous staff of evocation behind.  Golden belt in each other’s hand to the last moment as a show of 'trust', Vasco seemed to have persuaded Krathanos to part with his staff of evocation (fireball - 1, magic missile - 1 charge, shatter - 1 charge, ice storm - 2 charges, wall of force - 2 charges, chain lightning - 3 charges) as part of the deal for getting him back to his plane. Krathanos does let go of the best, but tries to trick Vasco by grabbing for the staff at the last moment of the gate spell.  He doesn't manage to get it, but does take off wearing his large +2 icy burst greatsword, large +1 mithral full plate of speed, and belt of giant strength +4. Krathanos’ parting words were for the gargoyles and garillons to attack!

A challenging battle ensured, but not too much for the party.  In the end, each of the six gargoyle minions had a +1 composite longbow, and the keep is left in permanent ruin.

Krathanos left a battered iron chest which contained 23,000 sp, three casks of ambergis (worth 50gp / cask), an ivory elf-maiden carved from a dire mammoth’s tusk and inlaid with jewels worth 8,000gp.  Krathanos left his sack at the spot where he had been sitting on the floor near this throne.  In the sack are sixty pounds of grotesque Island trophies – enormous bulette teeth, several now well desiccated girallon heads, and the very recently severed head of a minotaur.

Episode 9 - Part 3: The Darkness of the Doomshroud

The camp wakes after an uneventful night spent not all that far from the obsidian portal.  All are rested, though Vasco has the uneasy sense that they have been watched.  Magically.  Through scrying.  He’s not entirely sure, but it seems if the Darl Quethos and his party have a very good sense of where the party is and where they are going.  Vasco attempts to scry back, focusing on the tiffling twins they saw on the boat when scrying with Lashonna, but to no avail.

Talis has been doing some thinking of her own over the night.  The name Krathanos is more clear to her now.  She remembers the vague tales of an ancient titan named Krathanos, a murderous menace whose reign ended abruptly when he vanished from the world fifteen centuries ago.  Tilagos must be where he has been banished these long years – and somehow without his titan’s ability to gate away.  A titan’s golden belt, indeed!

Yldar decides to take advantage of the morning sun.  He casts fly to drive straight up and get a good look overland look, to better determine where they may be going.  Gazing to the mountains north, he sees that there are at least a couple of valleys distinctly withing the range.  To the south, the black forest stretches most of the way to the southern coast, but not entirely.  There, in the distance, he spots what must be a massive ruin – large enough to be seen from this distance.  Reporting back to the party, Kydara queries her god again, and confirms, the ruin is the coastal destination they are looking for.

Vasco offers to teleport the group there, to expedite their journey in this vibrant land.  He sends up a magic eye to help him look directly at the massive ruin in aid of the teleport.  The spell somehow fails and the group ends up in, what Yldar figures is somewhere deep in the Doomshroud forest.  The place is a lonesome, alien landscape. Its black, monolithic trees appear to shift unnaturally without the aid of wind. The canopy blocks out the dim light provided by the overcast skies, and the forest is dark as night as a result.  It is not, however silent or lacking in odour.  Vibrant with life become accustomed to the dark, the namesake of the forest is not apparent.  Kydara notices they have arrived in an area of broken, scattered bone and rocks.

Zeek notices that the Doomshroud’s drooping trees continuously weep a thick black ichor. This sap is oily and foul smelling.  Zeek decides that the fowl smell is sometimes worth a taste, and that indeed it is actually quite edible.  In fact, Zeek kind of likes it and gathers up a source to supplement the breakfast rations that he was not so fond of today.  Shortly after consuming the ichor, Zeek’s skin turns the ink black of the forests.  The rest of the party, laughing with Zeek, follows suit, each turning ink black, the elves laughing over becoming like Drow.

Humour passes to strategy, as they stand discussing changing tack and following their second quest – to silence the forest – since the are here.  Yldar heads up a tree and spots a single 50' tall tree in the middle of a fairly large forest clearing.  Then, there is a terrible crashing from the bush, something moving quickly towards them. Everyone in the party hides behind the trees – blending into the darkness – to brace for what arrives

Seeming to know exactly where they are, a gigantic Girallon Beheamoth – 15 feet wide and at least 25 feet tall – thunders in and does an alpha male warning to the party to get out of his territory.  An easy knowledge nature test confirms this, and that Girallons are said to have a remarkable sense of smell.  It hardly matters if they can’t be seen, because surely they can be smelled!

Yldar stands out and full round attacks him with arrows, with Vasco wondering outloud if that is the best idea to this local beast.  Too late for second thoughts, as several arrows hit, doing Yldar’s typically massive damage, and truly angering the Girallon. Kydara steps out from behind her tree, having cast repulsion, to act as a kind of bait.  Alas, the spell does not repulse, and the Girallon moves in and gives him a monstrous hit.

More volleys of arrows and spells fly – Talis scorching him with a fireball, Vasco following it up with an ice storm, effectively slowing down the giant beast without lighting the entire forest on fire (a concern Zeek hollers out between spells).  Kydara goes ethereal to avoid being completely pulverized, and Girallon chases Talis, who runs away, dodging amongst the trees.  More arrows and spells, and the Girallon who had just caught up to Talis is finally taken down by Kydara who comes out of ethereal mode and scorching him, the beast luckily not falling on top of Talis.

Zeek comes out of hiding – having blended into the dark woods and not wanting to be crushed by the giant beast.  He floats the idea of skinning the beast to carry his pelt, but is persuaded by the force of the party (who had clearly smelled the pelt) that the true value is in the testicles and gall bladder , which now fill his bag of holding

They carry on towards the clearing where the ancient tree stands.  By the time they arrive their inky flesh had returned to their usual pallid colours.  Shroud by the forest around them, the look upon the huge, gnarled and twisted tree.  The elves realize that this is a particularly old twist, a kind of intelligent tree that is known to speak elvish and even at times other languages.  They are also known to be magical.  The party arrives mid-day, and the forest is quiet – no sign of the “song” that is to be silenced, unless it is the sound of thousands of birds.

Vasco casts comprehend languages on Talis, who approaches the tree to make inquiries of their quest.  The ancient tree seems to sway slightly, as if waking to the unfamiliar sound of voices, it having been so long since it had a visitor.  And with good reason, perhaps, that not even the other trees will grow near it.  With the swaying, twisting and cracking of branches and twigs a monstrous charge of magical energy is snapped off.  The response to Talis’s question is given to both her and Vasco, who see the worst nightmare of their past somehow conjure before them.  Talis is struck with horror as the old necromancer, a villain who many years ago she encountered vially desecrating a tomb that she and another archaeologist were investigating, stood before her.  The necromancer had killed her archaeologist friend and begun to use her body against Talis, nearly killing her too before Talis remembered the trigger to an ancient trap and saved herself.  Here, the wicked man was before her again, and this time to finish her completely with the femur of her friend in hand.  Talis buckles to the floor in an uncontrollable freight, her mind shutting down entirely before this memory.  Her friends only see the look on her face in the mere moments before her death.

Vasco is similarly tormented, but by his own more recent demons, ones which raged in the temple of Kyuss.  His bravado and wit during the Champion Games had nearly become unnerved as Rancik had gone toe-to-toe with the ooze demon.  Here the demon was back, swearing to finish what he had started, to suddenly and powerfully obliterate the supposed Champion.  The demons’ ooze enveloping him, Vasco too grabs frantically at his body, and is overcome, falling to the ground.  His companions see only a brief struggle with himself before Vasco, like Talis, lies dead from their own nightmares. A rumoured but not yet seen by her, Weird is clearly a terrible spell, Kydara thinks.

And thinks some more of the need for immediate and urgent protection.  She casts an antimagic field hoping this will protect them from whatever other evils this terrible twist could hail on the party.  The tree tries to sing its miserable despair song, but its effects are muted within the field. Birds, voles and other nearby forest creatures not in the anti-magic field, suffer their own despair and, their short lives beyond controls, neglect themselves and die. Yldar, seeing this as an opportunity to comfortably penetrate the life of the tree with as many of his deadly arrows as he can, stands for many minutes, blasting at it with literally hundreds of arrows sinking deeply into the wood, drawing a sickly resin much different than the dark but lively ichor of the surrounding wood.  While it attempts to defend itself with regular gusts of winds, the hundreds of Yldar’s arrows finally fatally plunge into the wood.

Preparing the costly ritual, Kydara once again moves to bring back to life Vasco and the Talis.  Pelor favours them for the second time in as many days, and sputtering and frustrated, the mad, broken minds are restored, and life jolts back to their bodies.  Shaking his head, Vasco requests that they burn the tree down, in spite of whatever attention it may bring.  Zeek, seeing a good idea when he hears one, is quick to oblige.

The party waits out the night at the site of the tree, confident that no animals will approach, and make plans to teleport the next day.

Waking up to another uneventful night (not a single creature sniffed at the smouldering clearing), Vasco prepares another teleport, which this time fails completely.  Concerned that there may be something in the way this plane may somehow not be fully connected to the Astral Plane, they agree to walk south towards the ruins where they hope Krathanos the titan may be found.  After a long hike out of the forest and through grasslands, they can now see the broken edifice  and hide behind some oddly placed rocks – they seem almost to have been placed or thrown here – and consider their approach...

Episode 9 – Part 2 – The Shattered Crystals of Menhirs’ Maze

Twitchy, nervous, and on guard, the party collects itself, heals from the ropers and vicious assassination attempts and takes some time to decipher the ancient druidic runes slashed into the stalagmites .  Vasco, having permanent comprehend languages cast on his eyes, sees that their topics vary widely.  Initially, they appear to concentrate on local detail of weather patterns and the eating habits of sharks, with some being simply gibberish.  A few more minutes, however, reveals that they are in a pattern of chapters of an ongoing history of the natural world.  As the runes move towards the centre, they become warped, chaotic and nonsensical.  There is, however, a glowing green crystal growing out of this rocky bed.  It doesn't appear magical, but Zeek carefully uses his hammer to break it off and bring it along.

The party pushes forward through the maze.  They are stuck looking up, at the scale of the place, with ancient black basalt walls and standing stones risking out of sight into the storm, which rages 60 feet above.  Vasco decides to fly ahead, keeping just shy of the ceiling of the storm.  The others track for footsteps or trails, but no tell-tale bird feet can be seen.

Rounding a corner, they find a pile of rubble collapsed and cluttering up a corner of the giant stone walls.  It doesn’t seem quite right to Yldar, who quickly determines that it is an impressive illusion.  Seeing through it, a simple camp is revealed, with one small unlit fire and a bedroll.  The camp has clearly been in recent use.

Vasco scouts ahead, noting large obsidian disk set into the floor at the very northern most part of the maze, and another wide area of rubble and broken statues.  While checking it out, he feels the sting of two crossbow bolts.  Letting off a scorching ray into the general area he things the assassin bird may have shot them from no one is revealed.  He flies quickly back to camp, skin itching from the bolts, where they are determined to have been poisoned.  Luckily, it seems the poison did not take.  Strategy is discussed.  Half the party want to chase down the solitary bird, true seeing lantern unmasking any invisibility the assassin may be using but the Seekers in the party – archaeologically fascinated with the place – want to continue their exploration of the obsidian disk and broken statues.

At the 20' diameter obsidian disk set into the stone floor they find more druidic runes to read “Return my eyes to me, and I shall gaze through the storm” There are three shallow divets set around the circumference of the disk, at the pupils of stylized eyes.  “The crystal must be the eyes” says Talis, and they strike out to find more.

Arriving at the site of the broken statues, all is quiet.  They search around carefully, and see some fairly recent bloodstain amongst the rubble and on the wall.  The statues appear to have been of some druids guardian, each cloaked and holding mammoth stone quarterstaffs.  Shattered now, they lie in ruin.  Under a huge torso of one of the statues there is a faint blue glow.  The party words together to push and leverage the torso aside, and they hear the crushing of rock as they do so.  There is a scatter of blue glowing crystals, with at least seven major pieces and many tiny fragments recoverable.  Talis tries again and again with a mend spell, but the crystal does not reform.  She hassles Zeek for some gnomish crafting skill, but Zeek declares that he’s an architect not a jeweller and is unable to help.  They pocket the fragments, and go looking for more.

Pressing south back into the maze, and still concerned that any one of them could fall victim to a swift assassination, they find a large pool that Vasco had spotted. The murky tidal pool seems to be filled from a small break in the ancient ruin, and there are clumps of driftwood and seaweed all around.  From the centre is an immense black plant – at least 20 feet in diameter – with a thick truck and eight major limbs.  It sways in the gentle wind the storm whisks through this place.

Vasco, with a few minutes of his fly spell left, picks up a stone from the nearby debris and flies 15' over the giant tree to drop the stone on it.  A look of complete surprise crosses Vasco’s face, as the dropped cobble provokes an entirely unexpected reaction from the tree.  All eight major limbs simultaneously swing violently up and smash into Vasco.  Every single one hits with sheer, bludgeoning force.  Every bone and organ in Vasco’s body is crushed and broken.  The momentum of his flight and the force of the hit hurdles his lifeless body to the floor skiddering gruesomely up against one of the stone walls.  Vasco is dead.

Yldar, not to be phased by the site of his lifeless, powerful friend, fires arrows deep into the core of the tree, doing massive damage with only two well-placed shots.  Fire damage, more arrows and some electric shock follow, before the ancient octopus tree responds by throwing a huge, thick wall of thorns.  Not before blood was drawn from nearly everyone one in the party, Kydara managed to dispel the thorns away, and more arrows puncture into the now sapping tree.  A forceful line of energy emits out, strongly repelling all wood away from the tree, pushing nearly everyone back almost 60 feet.  Yldar tries to let loose some arrows, but they splinter and shatter in mid air.  Now smouldering with fireballs from Talis, the tree finally is taken down.  Ash and smoke fill the air and water, but the threat is gone – and fortunately there had been no sight of the assassin.

Kydara, not having known Vasco for long, feels the obligation to kneel at his corpse.  Bringing the power of Pelor into the room, and forfeiting a minor fortune, he sets about performing Raise Dead and Restoration.  After some time, with nearly all from the party now gathering around to observe, Vasco’s broken lifeless form revives.  Kaydence nods with the impressiveness of this seldom-observed power.  All respects paid to Pelor as Vasco, gingerly stands up, returning from the dead.

Zeek, not standing on ceremony, asks if anyone has water breathing, as he wants to plunge down into this pool and find what must be the crystals below.  His eyes stinging and straining to see through the ashy murk, he persists and thoroughly searches the bottom, coming up with the lost magic armour and weapons of the advanced octopus tree’s last victims, and a handful of glowing red crystals.

They return to the obsidian disk, unable to activate it without the blue fragments repaired.  Kydara finally decides to try stone shape to reshape a new crystals from the fragments and the base rock at the original site. Success.  With two blue crystals, three red crystals, and one green crystal with them, they approach the disk and spend several moments buffing up.  They step onto the disk, place the crystals into the small hollows, and find the world shift completely around them.  The crystals are gone, and the cloud enshrouded maze is replaced by a bright, vibrant life-filled landscape, with a forest nearby, meadows to either side and a backbone of mountains behind them.

A few shimmers of light flicker momentarily in the plants ahead. Unsure of what to expect, the party watches.  Momentarily four figures appear to simply emerge from the vegetation itself.  These four tall figures are cloaked in a glimmering ,gossamer armour.  A halo of churning insects swirl about their heads. They carry four banners, red tapered in flames, white trailing into cloud, deep earthy brown, and blue and bubbling.  One steps confidently forward and speaks:

“I am Tylanthros, guardian of this realm. We are the Last Resort, as surely as the trees and stones and sea and air around you. We protect the secrets of this island from all trespassers. You have mastered the portal of storms, and therefore must be brave, but it remains to be seen if you belong here at all. Why have you come to Last Resort?”

Vasco offers that they are here to fight a great evil, with Zeek embelishing with a story of how they are the emissaries of the ancient Wind Dukes.  There is a pause in the response from Tylanthros, who considers their answer and seems non pulsed.  He continues,

“You seek the Fountain, although you do not yet realize it. The Fountain of Dreams is linked to all things in Last Resort. The earth, the dark trees of the Doomshroud, the clouds above, my life and that of my brothers are a part of it. If the waters are consumed, the Order of the Storm’s rite is undone. The secrets kept from the world will be released, and the great creatures of legend imprisoned here on this isle shall be unleashed upon the Material Plane once more. You say you are heroes? This remains to be seen. Accomplish four tasks and prove yourselves to be the heroes of old returned. The Fountain shall not be despoiled lightly.”

The strange creature looks at his four brothers, then back to the party. “The Fountain of Dreams shall know those destined for its gifts in but one way. It will know them by the Trials of Tilagos. Survive these trials, and you may slake your thirst on what you seek. Fail, and Last Resort shall be your grave. I am Tylanthros, and the first trial is the Claiming of Kratharios’s Golden Belt.”

A second of the quartet of creatures speaks up next. “I am Beskawahn, and the second trial is the Silence of the Doomshroud’s Mournful Song.”

The third speaks. “I am Thadimar, and the third trial is the Death of the Thorn Vale Nightmare.”

Finally, the last creature speaks. I am Sayren-Lei, and the final trial is the Harvest of the Living Feather of the Roc King.”

Tylanthros speaks again. “These trials complete, return here and we shall show you the Fountain of Dreams. Until then, we shall watch. And wait.”

All four turn away and three slip instantly into the plants.  Zeek urgently tries to catch their attention with a question about if others had been there before.  Tylanthros pauses his retreat to say,

“You speak of the Hand of the Lich-Lord. He has come to Tilagos with his flock, seeking knowledge as you do. Even as you linger, they seek to complete the tasks we have named. If they outspeed you, then the secrets of the Fountain are theirs. Who claims the secrets of the Fountain matters little to us, for once these secrets are claimed our role in Last Resort has come to an end.”

Then he is gone.

Kydara offers to commune with Pelor and to seek an answer to where they may find the trials they face.  After considerable discussion, she asks what island environment they may find Kratharios’s Golden Belt. The commune reveal that Kratharios may be found on the shore. Disappointed but not deterred, the party sets out west for several hours before taking up camp.

That night, Talis, a loremaster, reflects on their circumstances and realizes that this must be the place on a nearby plane that was ripped out from the Material plane 1500 years ago by a group of druids, and that these Watchers who met them must be directly connected to those druids some how.  Vasco adds that based on the obsidian disk which is so similar in design and materials to what they had encountered in Kuluth Mar, that these must be of the same order of druids who imprisoned Kyuss so many generations ago.

Episode 9, Part 1 -- Lashonna Reveals a Storm

The party arrives back in Alhaster, invigorated – triumphant even –  and intrigued at what Lashonna will have to share.  They arrive at their midnight meeting at her palace on time, and are impressed by the tasteful and comfortable office you are led to by her mostly silent servant.  Wrapped in a gold-trimmed gown, she dismisses her obviously well-armed help and opens the conversation by showing them what is left of Balakarde’s journal.  She draws the party all in to her real purpose for the midnight meeting  – to reveal that she is likewise on the trail of the Age of Worms, and about her hunch as to what must be done to stop it.

“Thank you for meeting with me tonight. I know why it is you are here, you wish to learn more about Balakarde. My sources in Alhaster have told me as much, and though you mentioned his name but a few times, you have very nearly wrecked centuries of planning for old lore does not die in Alhaster as it does in other places. However, I think for now we are safe and the tale may be told in its entirety. In truth I have little to say about Balakarde himself, but perhaps what I have to say will serve instead.” Lashonna pauses for a moment and searches your eyes before continuing. “What I am about to tell you is known to very few living things, though there are those things which do not live that also know this tale.” As she speaks these words, a shadow of pain crosses her flawless features but she swiftly regains her composure and continues.
“Two millennium ago, my father Tellanar was one of the leaders of the army that dared to approach the befouled city of Kaluth-Mar in the aftermath of Kyuss' failed apotheosis. It was his righteous army and the drudaic Order of the Storm that constructed the ring about the center of that accursed place that forever would bind the servants of Kyuss within its obsidian walls. Through Tylanthros, leader of the Order of the Storm, we learned that the ring was raised too late, for while it most assuredly bound the remaining servants of Kyuss in that benighted city, the great monolith that rested atop the ziggaraut was taken by the red dragon Dragotha years before. Even in that distant time, the name Dragotha was a name of death and fear. The heroes of the army quailed at the thought of seeking him out to reclaim the stone that held the essence of the failed god of writhing undeath.”

“Despite the risk, my father, the leaders of the Order of the Storm and others began to search for Dragotha. He was never found. Mighty spells were cast, the past and future were plumbed, the gods themselves were consulted to no avail. All that could be gleaned was that Kyuss remained trapped between worlds and that at some point in the future, his agents would move to bring him forth, to cover the world in darkness, to bring about the Age of Worms. So the Order established a network of Watchers in those places their divinations told them yet had a role to play in the coming darkness and they waited. Decades passed without a sign, and then a century and another and another. And then finally word came that Dragotha was dead, slain on another plane by the b&%%&-queen of dragons, Tiamat. But the elation was short lived, for the Watchers soon learned that Dragotha was remade by the will of Kyuss as a dracolich and it was this abomination that would serve as Kyuss' general when his armies blighted the land. But there was a glimmer of hope, for the Watchers were vigilant and they noted Dragotha's return to our plane; they watched him bore like a maggot into the heart of the Wormcrawl Fissure, a putrid offshoot of the great Rift Canyon that lies less than 200 miles north of this very spot. Plans long laid were put into motion. The Order gathered the Watchers and once again assembled an army. Little did they know what awaited them.” Lashonna pauses for a moment to sip her wine. She closes her eyes and collects herself for a moment and then resumes her tale.

“I had come of age by then and served in the vanguard of this army. My father and Tylanthros led our forces to the edge of the Rift Canyon and beyond. At my father's insistence, I remained above with our reinforcements. I know not what happened in that battle, only that Dragotha had built a vast undead army and our surprise attack became a pitched battle. Our forces were overcome and my father...” at this Lashonna cannot hide a catch in her throat, “fell, only to rise as a servant of Kyuss. As the undead swarmed toward our position, Tylanthros and other leaders of the Order of the Storm arrived, caked with blood and filth. They bore a chest or stone upon which were carved leering demonic and draconic faces. This, they claimed ,was Dragotha's phylactery. Their arrival could not have been more opportune, for just then Dragotha climbed into the sky above the battle and made straight for our position. His advance filled our foes with a madness and filled the hearts of our bravest with fear. But as his undead gaze took in those that stood against him, he saw that his phylactery was taken. What passes for wisdom in his mind gave him doubt or perhaps fear and he fled the field. This turn of events restored our hope and our forces were able to buy Tylanthros and the other leaders of the Order of Storms time to flee with the phylactery.”

“The next 50 years were ones of constant fear. One by one, the servants of Kyuss that survived the battle hunted down the Watchers and members of the Order that managed to escape. They searched too for the hiding place of Dragotha's phylactery but their search was in vain. For my part, I came here to this land at the instruction of Tylanthros himself. I was to assume the role of a Watcher and inform the Order should anything stir within the Wormcrawl Fissure. Over time, the city of Alhaster rose and my own divinations told me that this place has some part yet to play in the Age of Worms. I waited, always vigilant for the signs of Kyuss. I had a hand in destroying the Cult of the Ebon Triad and it was I that told the few Watchers that remained that the cult was but a front for the cult of Kyuss himself. I have remained here, acting quietly as an advisor to rulers great and small all the while maintaining a watchful eye on the events in Redhand.”

“This was the state of affairs when Balakarde found me twenty years ago. A new leader conquered Redhand, Prince Zeech, and I was busy ensuring I was a trusted advisor. Perhaps this distraction was why Balakarde was able to so readily convince me that he could aid me in my task. I met with him and heard how his research led him step by step to me. It seemed he knew much of the tale I already told you, though not as completely and not as accurately as I. I shared what I knew, glad to have found a compatriot that could help free the town of the last of the Ebon Triad. For his part, he was a good man, but I believe now he suffered some deep hurt at the hands of Kyuss that left him obsessed with the Age of Worms. As I worked with him, it became clear he trusted no one; he was feral and prone to bouts of melancholy or mania. One night he announced that he had learned enough, that there was nothing left for him to do here. I tried to get him to stay but it was no use. He left magically that evening, leaving only a scrap of his notes behind."

Lashonna hands the party Balakarde's notes.

“He mentioned trying to learn more about Dragotha by traveling to the Wormcrawl Fissure. I advised against this reckless act but my words went unheeded. He never returned.”

“This brings us to tonight, and our meeting. I no longer can ignore the portents. Look at it this way: Balakarde learned much of this tale before he met me, which indicates things long held secret are coming into the light and I am afraid more now know of this lore than ever before. Prince Zeech is building that damnable ziggarut that reminds one far too much of the blasphemous architecture found in Kaluth-Mar. You heroes have risen, battle-weary from fighting the servants of Kyuss. Even the raving predictions of the cultists have come to pass. Something has changed, the writhing dead grow restless, the Age of Worms is at hand.”

“If things but were as they once had been, I would fulfill my duty as a Watcher and report all I know to the Order. However, this is no longer possible. The Order fled to their island-fortress of Tilagos almost 1500 years ago to avoid destruction at the hand of Kyuss' minions. There they are strongest and it is there they kept the greatest bulk of their lore. It is said that they built a library of sorts there that houses hundreds of years of history, memories, dreams and secrets as a last bastion of knowledge against the Age of Worms. Of course, merely fleeing to an ocean fortress would not ensure their safety. It is said that the Order drove a lasting bargain with primal elemental forces. They sacrificed their lives to whisk the island's interior off the Material Plane. In its place is a barren rock surrounded by an ever raging storm of such intensity that that any ships that approach within ten miles are invariably lost. The island appears on no maps, but lore maintained by the Watchers hints that the druids left a way for those in need to reach their secrets while at the same time warding the place away from the eyes of Kyuss' undead fanatics.”

“Fate has left us to deal with the rising of the Wormgod. But it is fate as well that seems to have placed heroes capable of the task here with me, in the very hour of our need. It seems obvious that Dragotha intends to release Kyuss from his prison and in so doing usher in the Age of Worms. The solution is also obvious. A king without his general is powerless. It has taken Dragotha 1500 years to reach this point. If he can be removed now, it will certainly be centuries before anyone or anything has a chance to release the Wormgod again. Of course, you cannot follow Balakarde into the Wormcrawl Fissure, one does not simply attack a dracolich without forethought. Dragotha may not know where the Order of the Storm hid his phylactery but that does not mean it is not useful to him. If he is destroyed before his phylactery is found, it is as good as turning it over to him. "

“The first order of business must be to find his phylactery and destroy it. I have no idea where it may be hidden but then again neither does Dragotha. Certainly his doubt to its location is the main reason he has not tried to simply destroy himself as a desperate way to discover it. It has undoubtedly been secreted away by the Order of the Storm for this very need, either on the isle of Tilagos or elsewhere. Furthermore, if a written account of what Tylanthros did with the phylactery exists, it must be somewhere within the library. It is my fervent hope that you will take up this task, travel to Tigalos, and uncover the lore that the Order of the Storm gave their lives to hide from the world.”

Lashonna ends her tale and pauses for another drink, attending to questions from the party.

“I’m afraid others have learned this as well, in part as an unfortunate result of my own research. I have a fair amount of competition in the arena of gathering and keeping secrets, and invariably word gets out that I’ve made a discovery. My enemies are always quick to nip at my heals. I speak, in particular, of a simpering dog of a man named Heskin who once served me. I’m afraid Heskin has been wooed from my side with promises of wealth and power, and has taken word of this discovery to a disreputable man indeed, a powerful priest of Vecna named Darl Quethos.”

She offers to use a scroll to scry on Heskin with the party right now, to see how pressing this competition is.  The party agrees and a tumultuous scene fades into view.

There is the howling sound of an oceanic tempest. The image clears to show a deathly pale man lashed to a ship’s mast with several coils of rope. Although details beyond a ten-foot-radius around Heskin are hazy and unclear, it’s obvious that the ship is caught in a tremendous storm—the decks are awash in foamy water as both waves and driving sheets of rain torment the terrified man. Sounds of gruff sailors shouting commands and curses in Orc can be heard under the raging tumult of the storm, and now and then, frantic orc sailors move quickly into view and then back into obscurity as they busy themselves at securing the ship. At one point, two lithe, cloaked figures drop to the deck from the rigging on either side of Heskin. They are identically dressed in tightly wrapped silken scarves, small devilish horns sprouting from their heads. The cloaked figures spare condescending glances at Heskin, their eyes glowing faintly with infernal fire before they move out of sight toward the ship’s unseen bow. Soon thereafter, a blazing red-skinned humanoid with an immense, bulging frame strides almost casually through the scene. The rain skin. As he reaches Heskin, he looks down at the man and then looks toward the bow, crying out, “Darl! It looks like your pet might be taking on water!” With that, the creature explodes into a tremendous belly laugh. A few moments later, another two figures step into view. The smaller of the two is a shifty-eyed humanoid bird who wears a hooded cloak and carries a repeating crossbow. The other is a towering man clothed in flow ing blue robes trimmed with eye designs. His cowl protects his face from the wind and his hands are obscured by long, rain soaked sleeves. He squats before Heskin and speaks to him in a low voice, “Only a few hours more, Heskin, and we shall see if you live or die.”

Suddenly, the blue-robed man’s head whips around to look directly into the scrying sensor. His face is pale but command ing, and twists into a snarl as he stands. “It seems we have guests, my friends,” he says. “Perhaps allies of this cur?” He turns back to the bound man, and as he does he pulls back his left sleeve, revealing a rot ten, black-nailed appendage that seems to writhe and twitch with its own life. “We can’t have your friends watching us, so it seems your journey comes to an early end, Hesken!”The putrid hand unfurls and reaches out to caress Heskin’s brow. Heskin shrieks in mortal pain as the fingertip freezes the skin it touches into an angry black scar. The blue-robed man then makes a fist and utters a single unintelligible word. As he utters the word, Hesken’s eyes bulge, the cords in his neck throb, and he slumps against his bonds, dead. The scrying link is broken, and the image fades from view.

Vasco observes that the rotting hand is none other than the Hand of Vecna, the terribly powerful artifact.  Those of the party who had seen the visions in the Zigurat of Kyuss, recognize the man and the hand as the same as they had seen in their vision.

Lashonna is plainly a little shaken by the entry of the Hand of Vecna into play, something she had not known of until now.  She reiterates her request, that the party travel to Tilagos Island, which is located in the northern reaches of the Nyr Dyv – the nearby sea. The island itself doesn’t appear on most maps, but she does have some old travellers notes that point at its approximate location.

The party takes some time alone to weigh their decision, choosing in the end to pursue this as the best possible next lead.  They debate arrangements for travel into the storm at length.  Polymorph into a whale? Water Walk? Elemental Bodies?  Finally, they shadow walk most of the distance along the coast of Nyr Dyv, and then conjure phantom steeds, to make their final leg dropping down into the eye of the storm from above, and making it in good shape.

Landing one clear beachhead, they see it littered with the wreck of a ship.  Eight orc pirates, more interested in having their ship repaired than doing battle, end up bartering with the party.  As an act of good faith, the keel and gunnel are repaired by the party’s powerful magic, and Grosgriss, their captain reveals that they had been hired by Darl Quethos to bring his henchmen to the stormy isle.  They tell the party that Darl and his men entered the ruins to the north, but the orcs were deterred to follow by ‘loud, angry rocks with lots of ropes’.

Trusting that the orcs truly have the self-interest of departure in mind, the party heads in to trace Darl’s group.  They soon encounter the rope-wielding rocks, six bizarre Ropers, all etched with ancient druidic runes.  Though Yldar is for a time grappled by three ropes, the party Vasco and Zeek manage to use scorching rays and arrows to destroy the creatures.  Ambushed briefly during their skirmish by crossbow bolts shot from the fringes, the party mobilizes to search for what might be at least one remaining member of Darl’s party...

Episode 8 (part 5): Zeech’s Feast

The Ominous Fabler leads them out to a wide balcony, set on a cliff side above the river.  The Ominous Fabler perches himself on the balcony and announces the next event, a slaughter of curious avians.  Servants wheel out large racks of masterwork light repeating crossbows and cages each filled with 10 birds.  Zeech strides up, grabbing a crossbow and challenges anyone to bring down more birds them himself – the prize 1,000 GP.  All fo the guests, playing along, grab a crossbow.  The servants release the birds, who fly quickly out of sight in a wonderful burst of colour.  Zeech shoots six, a remarkable feet as the crossbows all seem to only have 5 rounds in them.  Yldar, Talis and Zeek pick up two crossbows, and with impressive speed Zeek manages to best Zeech.  With diplomatic grace Zeek bows and offers that he has no doubt trudged through killing more wildfowl than the good Prince, who laughs off his loss and moves to the next event.

The guests are next led to the basement, where kid of cockfighting pit has been arranged.  The Fabler offers two rings to be worn by combatants who will control their proxies in the pit.  The prize – a large 1,000GP golden egg – goes to the winner who creates the most ornament.  A dozen ferrel cats are released and frantically dart around the little arena.  Two cockatrices are presented to Zeech and Zeek, who stand up as champions for the fight.  The rings go on and their concentration now channels through the cockatrices.  Cat after cat, the two birds strike and battle to turn them to stone.  The Prince’s cockatrice is simply not as adept, nearly every one he attacks he either misses or fails to turn to stone.  Zeek’s cockatrice, quick to take advantage of the confused cats, moves into flank and charges, and makes an impressive collection of stone cat ornaments.  The crowd, including Zeek’s own party, gets a bit concerned and agitated at the Prince being bested twice, but Zeek and Zeech are oblivious, locked in battle.  After a long battle the two birds turn against each other with Zeek finally turning the Price’s bird to stone.  The Prince rips his ring off as the battlers receive polite but not overly enthused applause from the audience.  Prince Zeech looks distinctly displeased now, and the party looks on anxiously, remembering the Professor's comment that the Prince is nothing if not capricious.  But the irrepressible Zeek, with a self-deprecating laugh, says by way of explanation, "Well, you know, I've no doubt had a lot more practice than you...at playing with a small cock!" Somewhat molified, Zeech leaves the room without ordering Zeek's immediate dismemberment. The Omimous Fabler buys Zeech some cooling off time by recalling a ridiculous tale while walking the group to a twilight garden on the north side of the palace.

Here a rack of differently coloured skulls is waiting for the party, and a black one in the hands of Prince Zeech.  In a kind of bocce game where the Prince’s black skull serves as the pallino, the guests each throw their skulls.  While the party does their best, Captain Vularis is easily makes the finest shot, winning Zeech’s offered price of a necklace with a small silver skill with ruby eyes worth 2,500GP.  Talis chats with Maris Quemp, the handsome half-orc barbarian, who becomes charmingly enamoured with her.  Vasco looks to get a sense of Lord Kilraven is, but feels closed to his seriousness.  Zeek and Vulras strike a rapport on the way to the banquet.  Toris, the little gnome they had met a few days earlier, chatters annoyingly and proudly about the achievements of his brethren kind.

The banquet hall is set in a magnificent room, with guests each having seats already set out.  No one from the party is sitting beside the Prince or beside each other, though Talis’s seat is near the end of the table where Lashonna’s name-card rests.  Angels fly overhead of the banquet hall, but these angels are clearly from the city’s aerie of law enforcement.  Mounted 20 feet above the table are a ring of severed heads, mounted on iron spikes.  They sing and echo the Prince as he speaks during the night.  Finally, Lashonna’s arrival is announced, just before the first course is served.  She sits gracefully in her chair and strikes polite conversation with Talis.

The feast is then brought out over four courses; a feast of worms; a four and twenty blackbird pie; a roast of tojbasarrirge; and finally a purple worm aspic.  Vasco bumbles through the grace of eating a formal meal but no true social gaffs are made, with each course being eyed and endured.  The goblets of green worms are merely tasty scrubgrus, the blackbird pie is enhanced by a wonderful illusion of flying birds, the Tojbasarrirge – a meaty but rotten invention of the price – is attempted and dismissed; and the purple worm aspec – potentially instantly fatal, is first attempted by the night’s champion Zeek, who announces it is fine.  Talis and the Fabler spar to entertain the group with story and music.  Talis is a far better musician than story teller.  Nadroc, hoping to impress with a tale from the age of the Wind Dukes, digresses into detail that finally gets cut off by Zeech’s jester (before the rest of the table falls asleep)!  As the final desert is brought out, the likeness of Zeech topples, and the Fabler, Talis and Zeek all make good humoured jokes to lighten what has become Prince Zeech’s foul mood.

Zeech retires alone to his throne in the hall after the banquet is cleared, and the guests are left to mingle amongst themselves.  Talis and Maris Quemp continue to rapportée, through the evening, with no serious intent, and Maris (who Vasco reveals already has two wives) is clearly popular amongst the other nobles.  Vasco and Kilraven end up in the corner having a serious chat about honour and duty to the kingdom.  Here Kilraven reveals that he hopes to see Alhaster freed from Zeech’s rule and believes that the majority of the citizens are honest folk.  He doesn’t ask for help staging a coup, but asks to stay in contact as things advance.  Zeek and Captain Vulras, the commander of a band of rangers in the northern watch continue their good rapport.  They also get to a quiet discussion where he hints that if Zeek and his friends ever move against Zeech, they would certainly get the support of the Captain and his men.

Talis takes the opportunity of a moment where Lashonna is free to be in touch with her.  Lashonna appears genuinely interested in a meeting, piqued by the antics of the group and the feast and the sense of compelling need for seriouis talk expressed by Talis.  She agrees to meet them in her mansion in a weeks time, for a private meeting.

Vasco tries approaches the half-fiend Hemriss – rumoured to be Zeech’s illegitimate daughter – and asks after the heritage of her fiendish looks.  Completely offended by being a woman spoken to simply about her looks, she storms off to the Prince’s thrones to exchange familiar whispers and hostile gestures back to Vasco.  The Prince seems unimpressed (as usual) with his daughter.

The dour Shag Solomon, the affiable Professor Montague Marat and the annoyingly gregarious gnome Toris make a trio of hobnobbers that evening, trying to shmooze better positions in the high society of Alhaster.  They seem at neither well respected nor unliked by anyone, and make efforts throughout the night to keep it that way.  Toris continues to celebrate his common gnomish heritage with Zeek, to the point of searching for some fictive kin connection.  Zeek is highly sceptical of any of those claims but does not deny them so not to make offense.

Both Mahuudril and Mischen Michwillow – female sorcerers are approached by Vasco and Talis.  While Mahuudril bails on any conversation, saying that she too is feeling ill, Mischen engages a rapport on the ins-and-outs of the economics of the magic trade, having retired from adventuring to partake in the profits of that market.

Yldar tries to speak with B’Kruss and V’juss, but they are both rather non-responsive for this kind of engagement, both saying they are feeling some ill effects of their indulgence at the meal.  A sly health check by Yldar leads him to believe that they may have been poisoned at some point, but he quietly takes his leave of his formal rivals.

Zeek steels an opportunity to speak with Prince Zeech himself.  He is in a completely foul mood, feeling like the grand feast in his honour was something of a string of failures.  He is momentarily interested in making the briefest of small talk when Zeek gets to the point by discussing the architecture of Zeech’s Great Project.  Clearly this is a monument of pride for the Prince who says it is to become the cultural centre for Alhaster, Redhand, and perhaps one day the lands beyond.  Following that Zeek is summarily dismissed and the Prince shortly after takes his retire.

As they trays are begin swept away, the hard-drinking and eating dwarf Hoff is literally following the food out the door.  Talis strikes up conversation, and Hoff plays up a challenge of his own – to an arm wrestle with Hoff, who appears to be the strongest of the group.  Best two out of three.  Talis looses all three bouts, though not without trying, and Hoff is humoured and impressed by her serious effort and invites her and the others to join his mercenary band – anytime they like, they have a place with Hoff!  With that, Hoff leaves with a tray of food.

The great feast honouring 20 years of rule by Prince Zeech comes to a close.  The skeletons who have clattery danced through out the evening help the servants whisk away the remanets of the party, and the grand carriages take all the guests back to their lodgings.  With a final trumpet bast offered by the Ominous Fabler, the celebrations are closed.  The party observes that the revelling in the streets – the common party that corresponded to the banquet, broke early and festive city has retired to their beds.  The party leaves the feast feeling successful and more ensconced in Alhaster society.  They are now known in the streets and amongst the aristocracy as skilful but not perfect, heros with humility, powerful but (for the most part) dignified.  It is little wonder that talented folk like Kaydence have sought to become followers of this party.  They truly are something.

Indeed, with their presence in Alhaster brightly sung, the party receives +12 Authority Points, to be used soon enough...

* * *

The next morning the party wakes to ill effect little other than what one would expect from having dined and drank at a feast for the Prince.  But more pressing matters are at hand.  They decide to take what they have learned back to Magepoint and discuss matters further with Manzorian, taking advantage of the access to his library and the wisdom of his counsel.  Manzorian suggests that indeed the time is ripe to have swift effect of the remnants of the Ebon Triad that come from the itinerary secretly hidden in the pages from the Triptych Well.  There is a week before their meeting with Lashonna, and this time can be used to better effect than musing around Alhaster.

So, each pair supported with followers of Manzorian, Zeek and Talis, and Vasco and Yldar split off and infiltrate these final cult members.  In stories the bards will sing another day, the remainder of Ebon cultists are hunted down and destroyed.  In the act, there are encounters with a few other Wormspawn that the cultists have been conspiring to bring the Age of Worms into the world.  Zeek and Talis disrupted a group of ninja heretics infiltrating Garalenn in the County of Urnst with several infectious Spawn of Kyuss.  Yldar and Vasco went to Ixworth on the edge of the forest in the Horned Society kingdom to take down cultists who managed to  liberate Wormspawn almost as powerful as those found below the Spire in Kuluth-maar.  On the way back, they also had another encounter with a  pair of bone devils who teleported in to try and seize information that would lead them to the party’s fragment of the Rod of Many Parts.  In the end, the party broke these critical cells of the Ebon Triad, and captured their assets.  The Ebon Triad had 50,000 in gems, platinum, gold, and vial art, and the following magic items:  

• +4 shocking shuriken
• +4 ring of protection
• +3 amulet of mighty fists
• +4 bracers of armour (x2)
• +2 gloves of dexterity
• wand of charm person (22 charges)
• scroll of plane shift
• wand of dispel magic (14 charges)
• +1 merciful quarterstaff (1d6+1 plus 1d6 non-lethal)
• potion of cure moderate wounds (x3)
• potion of cat's grace
• potion of mirror image
• potion of invisibility
• wand of stoneskin (19 charges)

Following this, the party has a short time in Magepoint, where all sorts of magic is to be had to help level up for the next encounters, and there is wide access to Manzorian's library for study.  

They return before the week’s end, feeling more mature and experienced from the whole effort, and find themselves back at Alhaster on the morning of their meeting with Lashonna.

Episode 8 (part 4): Battle in the Well

Nadroc emerges urgently from the well below to report his startling findings to the group – a massive outsider, three headed and six armed, has awoken below with a violent fury. Hushed conversation ensues when they realize that they are being watched. The man -- Kaydence – reveals himself to the group as a cleric of Heronious who has been living quietly sheltered since the early days of Zeech’s rule. The clerics who are sheltering the group in secret trust this man and revealed them to him, seeing that there may be an important alignment of interests in their working together. After some intense discussion of motives and risks, the group agrees that Kaydence is sincere in his convictions, and accepts his pledge as co-hort to the party, taking a personal liking to the ever-charming Zeek.

Back to their plotting of how to return the party to the well of the triptych of heretics, they resolve on fooling old Furpotia, the keeper of the sickhouse that covers the well. With half the party invisible, Talis wrapped up and disguised as sickly, Furpotia is approached to take a sick woman on for her final days. Furpotia obliges, shooing the ‘family’ away, and quickly succumb to a sleep spell. With the ‘sick’ rising from her cot, Talis cracks the door open and admits her friends.

The party gets to work to reveal the trap door that offers egress into the well, and they fly, feather-fall and scamper down iron rungs of the first stage of the well. As they emerge into a domed room with mat covered floors, a tangle of ropes animates into a large golem, ready to be the hangman of all who try to pass into the hallway beyond. Blasted with spell after spell, the rope golem imperviously smashes and grabs at the party dealing awesome blows. A whirlwind of ropes lash against nearly everyone, with seemingly only the adamantine weapon of Zeek seeming to do any real damage. A desperate spell of animate rope by Talis only hastens the entire creature’s attacks and reflexes. Finally, with shouts across the room, Vasco and Talis discharge enough natural flame and conjured grease to lite the rope golem on fire, weaking it though not before Zeek takes a massive hit. Finally, the rope is a smouldering ruin, and Kaydense finds himself an invaluable healing servant of the party.

Now more alert, the party moves slowly down the hall little niches and alcoves stand empty, but Yldar sees a desiccated familiar green worm dried up in the corner. If this wasn't proof enough, they enter into a brick-lined passage, encrusted in harmless mould that covers what is an entire fresco of runes and pictographs. The seekers recognize the language as avolakia, an ancient, nightmarish race of intelligent, humanoid worms they thought was only legend. Using comprehend languages, Vasco and the others study the area for over an hour, filling in details hinted at during their time in the Spire of Kuluth-Mar.

A recurring theme in the prayers is the mention of a ceremony known as The Ravenous Awakening. This ritual involves the animation of huge numbers of undead who are then led like cattle into vast banquet halls, where they present themselves to the feasters for consumption. Further study reveals that while the avolakias worship Kyuss above all things, they also believe that his power is waxing. The passages suggest that Kyuss himself is trapped in some form of large stone monolith. He managed to partially escape this prison once, 1,500 years ago, but he was unable to maintain his freedom for longer than a few short months before the defeat of his armies by a force the avolakia refer to only as the Enemy forced him back into his monolithic prison. More obscure mentions include reference to a location (phonetically translated as M’theskuss) called the Writhing Tabernacle, the place the avolakias seem to hold as the most holy site of Kyuss. Mention is also made of their great ally and the Voice of Kyuss, the Consort of the Five-Faced One, the eternal dragon Dragotha.

These runes are ominous indeed, and the party decides to stay on, rest and recover, hearing no further sounds from the well beyond.

Knowing that at the end of the next descent awaits the aspect of a god, the party braces with their most powerful spells, buffing against what is to come. They descend further down the well, emptying into an immense chamber with a dome filled roof built a full 50 feet above the floor. Alcoves hold statues of worm-like monsters coiled around pillars of skulls and bones. The party knows that the huge statue in the middle of the room is no inanimate object, and descend on it with full force working to devastate it will spells and blows. The battle rages in what seems like slow motion. Yldar’s magic-holy arrows and Nadroc’s magic-holy spiked chain seem to knock the huge statue back, while all other hits seem trivial. It’s claws, bites savage those around it with Kaydense being taken almost completely out of the battle. Finally too, this massive aspect of the Ebon Triad is utterly destroyed. Zeek sets to work to stuff one of its heads in a bag while the others explore the room, discovering a hollow wall.

Breaking through, an important cache of treasure if found. Four chests with thousands of gold and platinum pieces, potions and elixirs, a cache of wands, rods, rings, and other magic items, and finally a large, leather-bound ledger. The book bore no title, and appears to be a mere outdated list of the contents of the room. Vasco, suspicious that it may carry more that it reveals, holds on to the book for later study.

Taking time to recover and pack the chests, the party return to the surface, and to their confidants who are keeping them in the church of Kord.

The next day Vasco and Yldar get to work on the ledger. They draw on their resources to evoke a secret page spell. This reveals that the ledger is an exhaustive list of the members of the Ebon Triad, including its numerous allies and the locations in which these individuals live. Vasco recognizes some of the names that have had lines drawn through them: “Theldrick,” and “Faceless One” he and the party had defeated in the mines below Diamond Lake. “Loris Raknian” had kept the Kyuss shine in the free city before it was exposed by them during the Champion Games. The ledger gives only one entry for Alhaster: “Ilthane— Traitor’s Graves.” Indeed, the list confirms the late black dragon’s place in the Ebon Triad.

Now more flush with coin than they have ever been, the next day and a half the party spends in the black market and in the couture shops, bartering for magic and getting ready for Zeech’s feast. Having been put off by the prices and continual limits at Iomandi's Wonders,  the supposedly 'best' magic shop in Alhaster, they fare much better in the black market, bartering with apparently well connected magic purveyors who are impressed by the amount of coin the group is bringing around.  For a mere 1000GP an item, the party manages to bring such things as celestial armour and a ring of force shield into their position within hours.  Outside the unappealing shops of the aristocrats and nobility, Alhaster's true markets indeed live up to their reputation.

Indulging themselves at the Deluxury, they make their final preparations for the Great Feast, with Vasco studying enough to cast permanent comprehend languages and resistance on himself and resistance on Talis.  Their finery include

 Yldar -> 600 GP suit, no weapons or armour Talis -> 800 GP dress and concealing her dagger Vasco -> 100 GP suit, glitterdust, no weapons or rods Zeek -> 200 Gp hat -> with a newly purchased cane and a very fine codpiecel;  Nadroc -> himself as artifact, cleaned up to a shine, no weapons

They wrap in spidersilk a gift for Prince Zeech of the Harp of Charming they had found in the treasure chests of the Ebon Triad.

Finally, the night arrives. The elaborate gold chariot – just as garish as had been described – picks them up, complete with crystal decanters and silver serving trays.

At least a dozen other aristocratic guests arrive, a few of which the party already knows. Lashonna is notable by her absence. A funny little man, clutching a mummified raven and a small horn acts as the emcee for the event, announcing the arrival of the guests and the gifts each brings for the Prince. While every individual gives the prince a gift of rare wine, jewels, exotic caged animals, and in one case an outstanding fiendish horse outfitted with the horseshoes of a zeypher, the party’s sole gift of a harp seems humble at first. Talis, however, presents it with a flourish of diplomacy and the Prince appears genuinely pleased. Prince Zeech thanks everyone and mentions that Lashonna is coming too, but will be a bit late. The crowd buzzes with a bit of excitement, and the night’s first event ensues.

The little announcer, who calls himself The Ominous Fabler, calls for the staging of a series of short plays to open the evenings’ entertainment. He has named them The Harlequinade Mortificatio and they are performed by a troupe of animated skeletons, acting out their own unfortunate (but seemingly not quite accidental) deaths. The macabre humour strikes a tone with the group which is furthered by the announcement of the first refreshment of the evening, a great cake in honour of Prince.

While unusual and deformed servants circulate with drinks and canapes, a huge 8 foot tall cake is carried out on the back of a manticore. The cake – a remarkable resemblance to the Ziggarut of Zeech’s project – is topped by a marzipan figure of the Prince himself. Seemingly very pleased with this sweet smelling cake – and surrounded by the enthusiastic applause of everyone assembled, the Prince cuts himself the first piece, and invites his servents to them dish out to the other assembled guests. Beaming at the early success of the event, the Prince awaits the Fabler to announce the second event.