Session 26

Members

 * Naryrr the Druid (Natalie)
 * Oleander Thorne the Fighter (Matt)
 * Rolar the Ranger (Josh)
 * Innos Goldrake the colonel (Slav)

The Adventure
We begin our session back at Pradaqa Tower. The party was pleasantly surprised to see Zap, Jurgen, and Qesnef getting along well. The beginnings of a garden are visible from the south windows, everyone is making plans. Zap is working on an archery range. Qesnef took over level 5 and is renovating it into a small tavern. He has aked that you guys take trophies if you get the chance. He needs some decorations.

They also set up a weekly trade route with the Dwarven towns. Rolar and Oleander took the week to just relax and repair their equipment. Innos made himself a new glaive from the teeth of the purple worm. It seemed okay at the beginning. No more stiff muscles and bruises. No more death threats. Stuff like that. By about the fourth day, they realized that they had pretty much been adventuring for weeks on end. The fifth day, they realized that sitting around wasn't for them.

That day, a strange merchant came along with the trade caravan. Maavu, a merchant of esoteric goods, had heard of the party and their exploits and wanted to establish a relationship. He didn't carry much, but the party was interested in what he did have. A half meter long ivory map case and the map within. Palkobo was off farming or hunting or doing something dragony so he wasn't there to bankroll the 1000gp purchase. Rolar and Oleander wanted that map though. They basically let Maavu loot the library and a trade was made. Maavu had four new books and the party had a map.

The first thing they did was make some copies. Rolar's looked pretty good. Oleander, on the other hand, did his in purple crayon. Rolar and Oleander started to get stir crazy. The rest of the party was still not ready to head off on adventure. Borrowing Zap's tools, he fashioned himself a scroll tube for his map. By the end he had one scroll tube and one bloody hand.

By the seventh day of sitting around in the tower, Oleander and Rolar just set off. Qesnef noticed their preparations and gave each of them a care package. Inside was some beef jerky, trail food, beef jerky flavored sand, two potions of hydration (basically ... water), and some other stuff he thought they might find useful. Naryrr and Innos headed out a bit later. Along the way, both parties encountered wandering bands of Taldor, and readily slayed them.

Oleander and Rolar arrived at their destination first and quickly found their way in. The entrance was a dark-gray block of granite with steel insets spelling out three words. "Errukiz", Ezdrubal", and "Elcomwe". These are the Dwarven words for treachery, sloth, and foolishness, the Three Sins of Ruin in Dwarven philosophy. All was a red herring though. Oleander depressed the letters out of order to spell welcome, and the huge door slid into the ground. From within, they heard wailing voices.

The entry chamber was a lofty room with walls of swirling dark green marble. Inside the first thing they saw was a row of four black pillars (B on map). Behind them was two long pools filled with water. At the far end, a smaller pool sat under a massive black iron bell. The wailing voices came from the side passage. Rolar threw a rock in, and when nothing bad happened, they went in. One minute later the granite door closed behind them.

Carefully examining the room, Oleander noticed some strange symbols carved into the back side of each pillar.

They quickly recognized symbol #4 as the symbol of Keraptis. The same one that was drawn on their map.

What the other three mean is yet to be determined.

Rolar coouldn't hold back his curiosity, and headed for the bell. Oleander examined the long pools. Getting closet to them, he saw that they were littered with bleached humanoid bones. The pool was only five feet deep, so he hopped in. At about the four foot mark, he sensed a tingling feeling. The bones seemed to be somewhat magical. He kicked some around and decided to leave them alone.

Rolar lost to his inner nature and the his rock at the bell. BWOOOONNNNGGGG! The sound reverberated throughout the room. As soon as he did this, the water level of the far pool began to drop one foot per second. In half a minute the 30 foot deep pool was drained and they noticed a black key at the bottom. Oleander lowered Rolar into the pool and they grabbed it.

Having examined everything they found, the two of them headed off to explore the side passage. At the same time, Naryrr and Innos arrived at the entrance. They spent a lot more time trying to figure it out. Inside, Oleander and Rolar came upon one of the stranges things they had ever seen. A chamber with walls covered in eyes. Countless eyes of various shapes, sizes, and colors. Rivulets of tears poured forth from each one and they blinked, squinted, and looked around. On the floor a narrow stone gutter ran along the walls and in each corner was a small drain hole. The holes were the source of the strange wailing, and by this time it had become almost overwhelming.

Rolar pulled out a piece of cloth and tried to wipe off some tears. The cloth was soon saturated and the tears soaked through to his hand. They were acid tears and he burned his fingers. By this point, Naryrr and Innos were in and they heard Rolar screaming. The party met up in the crying eye chamber and tried to figure out this dead end. Innos tried to javelin an eye and only managed to destroy one of his javelins. The party searched, but to no avail. Finally Innos got the idea to grab a 'magic' bone and just start poking the eyes. This worked to an extent and they found a secret door.

Having had enough of being stared at, acid tears, and the loud wailing, the party headed through. Inside, they found a room with four alcoves. The walls were painted with fading geometric designs of red, gold, and green.

An imposing 9-foot tall statue stood in the center. It depcted an elephant-headed human pointing an accusing finger at the door the party just came through.

Around the room were four alcoves containing a gray statue of a jackal-headed human, a cat-headed female humanoid, a hawk-headed male, and a black pillar. The black pillar had all four of the previous symbols carved into it in a diamond shape around a key hole.

While the party was examining the pillar, Innos stepped to the other side of the room and tried to chip a piece off of the jackal-headed statue. As he pressed his knife into the rock, a chip flew off and all three of the alcove statues came to life. Innos went down almost immediately and was bludgeoned into unconsciousness. Oleander took some heavy hits and Rolar was stuck in a corner with Naryrr. The battle went south quickly. Naryrr cast a flaming sphere and a strange Mud Grue appeared next to her and joined the melee.

With Oleander, Innos, and her unicorn down and Rolar in dire straits, Naryrr cast mass cure wounds. The party was up again, but a series of critical hits put them near death again. Innos made a wish. He healed the party back to full, and the fight was over for the stone golems. First one went down, then two more Mud Grues popped up. By this time, Rolar was on the other side of the room and attacking with range again. His volleys did some massive damage. He lost his first Hunter's Mark to a Mud Grue. They seemed to have the strange power to disrupt concentration.

Soon a second golem fell, then the Grues, then the final statue was smashed as well. Bruised and battered, the party decided to open the black pillar. The key they had found earlier fit perfectly. Inside was some loot (see below). Naryrr cast detect magic and found something else magical in the far corner, but they left that alone. Feeling slightly secure, they set down their bed rolls, curled up, and started a long rest.

XP
7,500 Each

Current XP: 92,500

Current level: 11 (7,500 until next level)

Rolar: 104,500 XP - Current level 12 (15,500 until next level)

Palkobo: 90,750 - Current level 11

Paldrag: 123,250 - Current level 13 (16,750 til level 14)

Loot

 * 1 magic sword (unidentified)
 * 1 magic dagger (unidentified)
 * 7 Pieces of amber (100 gp each)
 * 5 Tourmalines (100 gp each)
 * 3 Pieces of coral (100 gp each)
 * 2 Yellow topazes (50 gp each)
 * Platinum statue resembling the cat-headed golem (250 gp)
 * Potion of healing
 * Potion of fly
 * Scroll of stoneskin
 * Sealed bone scroll tube (unopened)

Golem Items

 * 1 Vial of Crystalline Powder: Appears to be normal gems, can be detected by magic or if a search is performed to look for gems that shift like liquid. Can be used as the material component of a Conjure Elemental spell, which has its casting time reduced to 1 action but can only summon Earth Elementals.
 * 6 Golem Stones: Can be used to lower the cost of creating a stone golem by 2,000 gp. 12 of these can be mastercrafted (transmutation) by a spellcaster into armor or a weapon, both which require attunement. The armor acts as magical Splint Armor which grants the wearer immunity to poison damage.  The weapon can be a club or greatclub, and allows a creature attuned to it to cast Slow. Once this property has been used, it can’t be used again until the next dawn.
 * 5 Motes of Elemental Earth: Appears as a rock that glows dimly. If dropped or thrown to the ground as an improvised weapon, the ground becomes mud as if it had cast Grease centered on the mote. Can be used as the material component of a Commune spell to contact a deity in the Elemental Plane of Earth. Using either of these abilities destroys the mote.