Post by David on Jul 21, 2008 13:32:18 GMT -5
They say that third time's a charm...Well, after two previous assaults on the skyship over Pommeville, the party (Ichi, Torr, Maedhros, Kyron with Dart, Wooden Thighs, Idky, and Saanau) made a final attempt on the morning of the 22nd. Montrose is waiting for the heroes on the Charn side of the gate, offering them cure light wounds and goodcherries.
The heroes fly up to the ship, now using BOTH the magic brooms they've found (Hexen and Vedma). At 2500', as they pierce the skyship's continual darkness, the group spies what Montrose warned them off -- a skiff flying via animated masts like bird wings and piloted by a juju zombie and bearing two ghoulish gunners... Saanau flies ahead to deal with the threat. Her amulet of protection from normal missiles offers her protection (this time) from the gunshot. Using her dagger (she's unskilled with!), she manages to cut both sail/wings, so that the craft slowly loses altitude, spiraling away into the darkness below.
The heroes reach the vessel without any further difficult, finding it mostly deserted. Saanau's trained sailor's eye notes that without the ghoulish and skeletal crew, the ship is now being battered by the winds and slowly coming apart. The sailing ship is listing badly. Meanwhile, the collection of darkness balloons have come out of alignment, gaps of sunlight now shining upon Pommeville below. The party battle several beholders (actually, now recognizing them as some minor beholderkin with no special powers) and even immature beholders as well as many large blobs of emerald slime. Curiously, there's much more slime and almost no bodies on the deck now... The group also destroys a few shadows which come out of the darkness in waves, only to be turned by Maedhros. Saanau lobs a fireball into one group of shadows and beholders, blasting all the creatures while also incinerating all the rigging on the last mast with rigging. The skyship is now free of the balloons around it and begins to drift with the air currents. The heroes quickly deal with both wood golems on the main deck and then move on to destroy the scarecrow below the foredeck. The exterior of the ship is theirs!
The party quickly searches the forecastle of the ship, only to encounter three rooms full of skeletons, all of which Maedhros quickly destroys. The group heads to the aft, this time searching the holds and below decks. They find and quickly defeat three more adult and one child beholder in a nest or creche. Searching, the group finds quite a lot of treasure, mostly potions and scrolls. Maedhros reads one particular scroll, however...
And so, all the party within 30' are transformed into their totem animals (including Idky, who though he was safe enough in the next room!). Maedhros is now a stag, Torr a ram, Idky a mallard duck, and Wooden Thighs a mountain lion. Luckily for the Flan warrior, however, his lycanthropy allows him to return to bestial form. Ichi smashes an exit for Maedhros (his antlers spread much more than 5' feet, so no where below decks is accessible normally). The group decides to continue before their fly spells fail, Maedhros now on deck (Ichi smashed through one of the cargo hatches) and Idky (the duck) on watch with Dart. Torr backs up Woody, Kyron, Ichi, and Saanau, trusting to his paladin's aura.
The group find three more beholders and a half dozen turned shadows in the next (sub-divided) hold, as well as a bit more treasure. Woody opens a false, fire-trapped door and nearly dies. Ichi knocks out the false back of the door and find another room full of shadows as well as ghoulish gunners. Saanau, trusting her amulet to protect her, pokes her head in and unleashes her last fireball. The explosion causes quite a bit of structural damage to the ship, but doesn't kill any of the undead. It DOES trigger some additional explosions in the room, and those destroy two ghouls, but fill the room with toxic green vapors.
On deck, the rest of the party is screaming -- once attacked, the shadows are unturned and come pouring on deck. The heroes charge up and deal with them, skipping to the forward hold. There, Dart spies a room full of shadows as well. Saanau quaffs the potion of mass destruction and flies down with Woody and Kyron to help her, as well as Torr offering his paladin-in-ram's body aura again. Unbeknownst to the group at first, one of the shadows is really a shadow demon, hedged out by Torr...
The potion causes havoc to the undead, but doesn't destroy any of them. In truth, Torr's aura saved the day, allowing Woody (now locked in human form) and Kyron to start taking out the badly damaged shadows. That's when the demon unleashes fear, causing the ranger to fly screaming out of the ship. Ichi comes to the rescue, and somehow the pair manage to defend Saanau and destroy most of the shadows. Torr uses his body to shield the elven mage, taking many shadow hits. Finally, Saanau regains her feet just as the last of the shadows is destroyed. Torr is barely able to stand and both the monk and werelord are a single hit from unconsciousness (or worse). The heroes attack the shadow demon! It attempts to goad them to leave, but fails, trying to subtly convince Torr to attack it (and violate his aura). The demon drops Woody and then with a critical strike KILLS Ichi. With only Saanau left, he moves in...getting his skull caved in by the mage's staff!
Things are looking very bad for the heroes at this point. Ichi is dead. Kyron has flown away (with Idky and Dart following him). Torr is a ram (albeit, an air-walking one with a 10' radius protection from evil). Maedhros is a stag stuck on deck. Woody is unconscious. And Saanau is badly wounded with only a couple spells left. That's when the group remembers the scroll of remove curse they'd found days ago...
Kyron returns about 15 minutes later. Saanau gathers Maedhros and the other curse-victims together and uses the scroll, returning both Maedhros and Torr (but not Idky) to their regular forms. Unfortunately, she forgot about the witch-bane coin in her pocket and suddenly the elf's skin grew green and scaly! But their paladin and cleric were back. Maedhros dealt with Woody's wounds and used the two scrolls with cure serious wounds to restore the remaining fighters to some semblance of health. Saanau then uses the spell book with remove curse to fix Idky too.
Another find traps shows that magical traps bar the way. Remembering the scroll with locate object Maedhros casts the spell, seeking the runestone. It's in the aft of the ship, one level below. The group goes there and Maedhros drinks the potion of x-ray vision. Looking through the deck, he sees the runestone in a chamber below, guarded by a dozen skeletons, a pair of zombies, and another spook. Ironically, he also sees the glyph of warding in the room, but it cannot blast him through the deck and instead destroys a skeleton!
The group tries to figure a way down, but Maedhros spies that a dragon guards the only entrance into the room with the runestone. So, using the potion of acid breath the party found earlier amongst the beholder's treasure, he "corrects for the engineering oversight" and burns a hole partially through the floor. Unfortunately, it's not large enough for any of the party to pass, so Torr, Kyron, and Woody use sword, hammer, and ice axe to make the way larger. Torr's sword of sunder cuts a bit too deeply, all the way through a damaged and weakened support strut, so the deck collapses into the room below...
Idky falls on his reptilian head and is a victim of the skeletons. Saanau is likewise quickly dropped by a juju zombie. And yet, Woody and Torr make short work of the spook while Maedhros quaffs the other potion of mass destruction and destroys all most all the other undead. Having each drunk a potion of heroism and with a dragon in the next room, the paladin and werelord actually find themselves in agreement and charge!
The dragon is surprised the heroes got through the wizard locked door. It shadow (mirror) images itself as the group charges, Kyron now following behind (in support of his friends but thinking this is a BAD idea). Each of the potion-junkies destroys an image, but that's it. The dragon breaths a cloud of life-energy draining vapors but only Kyron is badly hurt. In the next room, Maedhros still hasn't recovered from the potion while Idky is, uh, bandaging, Saanau (for several minutes...yeah, right!).
Woody tells Kyron to leave, but instead he stays and calls to Dart to help him. Torr fumbles about in the dark, unable to hit the dragon. Woody seriously wounds it and the monster attempts to color spray the werepuma, but the spell fails. Woody is badly wounded but so too is the dragon. Dart destroys the last image. The dragon claws the Flan warrior, but misses with it's bite (just BARELY) and he stands on shaky legs with the strength of a child...but that doesn't stop the werepuma from then killing the dragon!
Torr dashes back to help with Saanau while Idky suddenly finds her bravery. The group searches the chamber for lighter treasure. Using the last of his spells, Maedhros restores the mage and the heroes evacuate. Kyron remains behind in the hold to shatter the runestone with his magical hammer. Unfortunately, drained by the dragon, he can't seem to hit it. The rest of the party is floating 6500' over Pommeville until finally Wooden Thighs flies back in to help the exhausted ranger. One hit shatters the stone. Woody grabs chunks of stone and a handful of the formerly-orbiting stones, while Kyron grabs the hammer. Woody leaves and Kyron grabs a handful of stones before following the werepuma.
Outside, the heroes see all of the balloons with enhanced continual darkness spells suddenly wink out, the spells returning to normal dimensions. Then, a few seconds later, the levitate spell holding the skyship up fails, so it's only (non-existent) rigging and the coal-powered fans doing the work. Already badly damaged from many fireballs and a fire breath, the vessel comes apart under its own weigh as Wooden Thighs and Kyron come shooting out of the hold. Timber, wreckage, and coins (from the dragon and beholders' lairs) rain on the town below...
And in a rush, the heroes FEEL the spirits of Pommeville finally able to move to their rest. Hundreds of souls finally rush skyward and through the group -- so much spiritual energy that the party can actually make out the hint of several ghostly forms, including Ichi's.
The group descends to the ground to find Montrose, elated. The shaman explains that the spirits are free and many are quite thankful to finally be able to achieve their rest. The wereraven communicates their gratitude:
Maedhros, the spirits tell you to sleep near Saanau tonight, on this world, not yours. You elves are not something those of Charn know. But, do so and you will gain one of your greatest desires (the reverie).
Torr, this world of spirits and witches respects your sense of devotion as well as your god. Your blade is now blessed so that those future deeds of goodness you do will slowly allow your inner holy fire to shine through (apply eeps to gaining a holy sword).
Wooden Thighs, think of your sister and blow into the locket you found. So long as you touch it, your memories of Black Eagle will return. Just don't open the locket again, lest the memories escape!
Saanau, your bravery is without question. There is a small brass pendant in the shape of a lion's head in a white house at the edge of town. Find it a wear it. So long as you do and do not give into your fear (or fail a save vs fear), you will find yourself VERY resistant to cowardice (+9 saves until you blow one).
Kyron, your wife and unborn child have been your greatest concern since you arrived here. The grandmother-witches here are thankful now that their own children can now move on and thus one has agreed to act as your son's guardian angel until he reaches adulthood. Take this finger joint from her remains with you and make it into a necklace to place around the infant's neck for a year so that her spirit may leave Charn and identify with your son.
Idky, you will find in a pale blue house on the edge of town a ceramic talisman of gold and closiné. Wear it and you will find yourself able to once resist your greatest fear, a crippling hit that deprives you of life or mobility.
With that, the remaining spirits of a more magical or spiritual nature stayed with the heroes overnight. During this communion, the souls of the thankful dead expressed their well-wishes and appreciation to the heroes. Now they could all find rest. And in the process, each of the living gained insight into the nature of ghost and spirit, animists and shaman...calling to the soul of each and bringing out hidden gifts...
In the morning, after a night of strange, pleasant, and thanks-filled dreams, the party awoke to a land mostly cleared of the taint of necromancy. Although the chill of Fall was in the air, clean, pure, golden sunlight kissed the ground. A handful of ghouls survived the fall of the skyship, but these were no match for Black Robe's party, which finally entered Charn. The Lakota shaman removed the slug from Maedhros' skull as well as Saanau and Torr's legs then performing the ritual to raise Ichi from the dead. Black Robe demanded a quest from the party -- to which Torr, Maedhros, Idky, and Saanau agreed. Their mission: to slay the Queen of Charn and close the gate to Tovag Baragu. Meanwhile, Kyron felt the call, asking Black Robe to complete what the spirits began and train him as a shaman.
And so the 23rd passed without incident as the heroes regained their strength and resolve.
The heroes fly up to the ship, now using BOTH the magic brooms they've found (Hexen and Vedma). At 2500', as they pierce the skyship's continual darkness, the group spies what Montrose warned them off -- a skiff flying via animated masts like bird wings and piloted by a juju zombie and bearing two ghoulish gunners... Saanau flies ahead to deal with the threat. Her amulet of protection from normal missiles offers her protection (this time) from the gunshot. Using her dagger (she's unskilled with!), she manages to cut both sail/wings, so that the craft slowly loses altitude, spiraling away into the darkness below.
The heroes reach the vessel without any further difficult, finding it mostly deserted. Saanau's trained sailor's eye notes that without the ghoulish and skeletal crew, the ship is now being battered by the winds and slowly coming apart. The sailing ship is listing badly. Meanwhile, the collection of darkness balloons have come out of alignment, gaps of sunlight now shining upon Pommeville below. The party battle several beholders (actually, now recognizing them as some minor beholderkin with no special powers) and even immature beholders as well as many large blobs of emerald slime. Curiously, there's much more slime and almost no bodies on the deck now... The group also destroys a few shadows which come out of the darkness in waves, only to be turned by Maedhros. Saanau lobs a fireball into one group of shadows and beholders, blasting all the creatures while also incinerating all the rigging on the last mast with rigging. The skyship is now free of the balloons around it and begins to drift with the air currents. The heroes quickly deal with both wood golems on the main deck and then move on to destroy the scarecrow below the foredeck. The exterior of the ship is theirs!
The party quickly searches the forecastle of the ship, only to encounter three rooms full of skeletons, all of which Maedhros quickly destroys. The group heads to the aft, this time searching the holds and below decks. They find and quickly defeat three more adult and one child beholder in a nest or creche. Searching, the group finds quite a lot of treasure, mostly potions and scrolls. Maedhros reads one particular scroll, however...
"I'm sick of you filthy, thieving savages stealing my magical treasures! You think you're related to animals? Well fine, now I CURSE you to become like them!"
And so, all the party within 30' are transformed into their totem animals (including Idky, who though he was safe enough in the next room!). Maedhros is now a stag, Torr a ram, Idky a mallard duck, and Wooden Thighs a mountain lion. Luckily for the Flan warrior, however, his lycanthropy allows him to return to bestial form. Ichi smashes an exit for Maedhros (his antlers spread much more than 5' feet, so no where below decks is accessible normally). The group decides to continue before their fly spells fail, Maedhros now on deck (Ichi smashed through one of the cargo hatches) and Idky (the duck) on watch with Dart. Torr backs up Woody, Kyron, Ichi, and Saanau, trusting to his paladin's aura.
The group find three more beholders and a half dozen turned shadows in the next (sub-divided) hold, as well as a bit more treasure. Woody opens a false, fire-trapped door and nearly dies. Ichi knocks out the false back of the door and find another room full of shadows as well as ghoulish gunners. Saanau, trusting her amulet to protect her, pokes her head in and unleashes her last fireball. The explosion causes quite a bit of structural damage to the ship, but doesn't kill any of the undead. It DOES trigger some additional explosions in the room, and those destroy two ghouls, but fill the room with toxic green vapors.
On deck, the rest of the party is screaming -- once attacked, the shadows are unturned and come pouring on deck. The heroes charge up and deal with them, skipping to the forward hold. There, Dart spies a room full of shadows as well. Saanau quaffs the potion of mass destruction and flies down with Woody and Kyron to help her, as well as Torr offering his paladin-in-ram's body aura again. Unbeknownst to the group at first, one of the shadows is really a shadow demon, hedged out by Torr...
The potion causes havoc to the undead, but doesn't destroy any of them. In truth, Torr's aura saved the day, allowing Woody (now locked in human form) and Kyron to start taking out the badly damaged shadows. That's when the demon unleashes fear, causing the ranger to fly screaming out of the ship. Ichi comes to the rescue, and somehow the pair manage to defend Saanau and destroy most of the shadows. Torr uses his body to shield the elven mage, taking many shadow hits. Finally, Saanau regains her feet just as the last of the shadows is destroyed. Torr is barely able to stand and both the monk and werelord are a single hit from unconsciousness (or worse). The heroes attack the shadow demon! It attempts to goad them to leave, but fails, trying to subtly convince Torr to attack it (and violate his aura). The demon drops Woody and then with a critical strike KILLS Ichi. With only Saanau left, he moves in...getting his skull caved in by the mage's staff!
Things are looking very bad for the heroes at this point. Ichi is dead. Kyron has flown away (with Idky and Dart following him). Torr is a ram (albeit, an air-walking one with a 10' radius protection from evil). Maedhros is a stag stuck on deck. Woody is unconscious. And Saanau is badly wounded with only a couple spells left. That's when the group remembers the scroll of remove curse they'd found days ago...
Kyron returns about 15 minutes later. Saanau gathers Maedhros and the other curse-victims together and uses the scroll, returning both Maedhros and Torr (but not Idky) to their regular forms. Unfortunately, she forgot about the witch-bane coin in her pocket and suddenly the elf's skin grew green and scaly! But their paladin and cleric were back. Maedhros dealt with Woody's wounds and used the two scrolls with cure serious wounds to restore the remaining fighters to some semblance of health. Saanau then uses the spell book with remove curse to fix Idky too.
Another find traps shows that magical traps bar the way. Remembering the scroll with locate object Maedhros casts the spell, seeking the runestone. It's in the aft of the ship, one level below. The group goes there and Maedhros drinks the potion of x-ray vision. Looking through the deck, he sees the runestone in a chamber below, guarded by a dozen skeletons, a pair of zombies, and another spook. Ironically, he also sees the glyph of warding in the room, but it cannot blast him through the deck and instead destroys a skeleton!
The group tries to figure a way down, but Maedhros spies that a dragon guards the only entrance into the room with the runestone. So, using the potion of acid breath the party found earlier amongst the beholder's treasure, he "corrects for the engineering oversight" and burns a hole partially through the floor. Unfortunately, it's not large enough for any of the party to pass, so Torr, Kyron, and Woody use sword, hammer, and ice axe to make the way larger. Torr's sword of sunder cuts a bit too deeply, all the way through a damaged and weakened support strut, so the deck collapses into the room below...
Idky falls on his reptilian head and is a victim of the skeletons. Saanau is likewise quickly dropped by a juju zombie. And yet, Woody and Torr make short work of the spook while Maedhros quaffs the other potion of mass destruction and destroys all most all the other undead. Having each drunk a potion of heroism and with a dragon in the next room, the paladin and werelord actually find themselves in agreement and charge!
The dragon is surprised the heroes got through the wizard locked door. It shadow (mirror) images itself as the group charges, Kyron now following behind (in support of his friends but thinking this is a BAD idea). Each of the potion-junkies destroys an image, but that's it. The dragon breaths a cloud of life-energy draining vapors but only Kyron is badly hurt. In the next room, Maedhros still hasn't recovered from the potion while Idky is, uh, bandaging, Saanau (for several minutes...yeah, right!).
Woody tells Kyron to leave, but instead he stays and calls to Dart to help him. Torr fumbles about in the dark, unable to hit the dragon. Woody seriously wounds it and the monster attempts to color spray the werepuma, but the spell fails. Woody is badly wounded but so too is the dragon. Dart destroys the last image. The dragon claws the Flan warrior, but misses with it's bite (just BARELY) and he stands on shaky legs with the strength of a child...but that doesn't stop the werepuma from then killing the dragon!
Torr dashes back to help with Saanau while Idky suddenly finds her bravery. The group searches the chamber for lighter treasure. Using the last of his spells, Maedhros restores the mage and the heroes evacuate. Kyron remains behind in the hold to shatter the runestone with his magical hammer. Unfortunately, drained by the dragon, he can't seem to hit it. The rest of the party is floating 6500' over Pommeville until finally Wooden Thighs flies back in to help the exhausted ranger. One hit shatters the stone. Woody grabs chunks of stone and a handful of the formerly-orbiting stones, while Kyron grabs the hammer. Woody leaves and Kyron grabs a handful of stones before following the werepuma.
Outside, the heroes see all of the balloons with enhanced continual darkness spells suddenly wink out, the spells returning to normal dimensions. Then, a few seconds later, the levitate spell holding the skyship up fails, so it's only (non-existent) rigging and the coal-powered fans doing the work. Already badly damaged from many fireballs and a fire breath, the vessel comes apart under its own weigh as Wooden Thighs and Kyron come shooting out of the hold. Timber, wreckage, and coins (from the dragon and beholders' lairs) rain on the town below...
And in a rush, the heroes FEEL the spirits of Pommeville finally able to move to their rest. Hundreds of souls finally rush skyward and through the group -- so much spiritual energy that the party can actually make out the hint of several ghostly forms, including Ichi's.
The group descends to the ground to find Montrose, elated. The shaman explains that the spirits are free and many are quite thankful to finally be able to achieve their rest. The wereraven communicates their gratitude:
Maedhros, the spirits tell you to sleep near Saanau tonight, on this world, not yours. You elves are not something those of Charn know. But, do so and you will gain one of your greatest desires (the reverie).
Torr, this world of spirits and witches respects your sense of devotion as well as your god. Your blade is now blessed so that those future deeds of goodness you do will slowly allow your inner holy fire to shine through (apply eeps to gaining a holy sword).
Wooden Thighs, think of your sister and blow into the locket you found. So long as you touch it, your memories of Black Eagle will return. Just don't open the locket again, lest the memories escape!
Saanau, your bravery is without question. There is a small brass pendant in the shape of a lion's head in a white house at the edge of town. Find it a wear it. So long as you do and do not give into your fear (or fail a save vs fear), you will find yourself VERY resistant to cowardice (+9 saves until you blow one).
Kyron, your wife and unborn child have been your greatest concern since you arrived here. The grandmother-witches here are thankful now that their own children can now move on and thus one has agreed to act as your son's guardian angel until he reaches adulthood. Take this finger joint from her remains with you and make it into a necklace to place around the infant's neck for a year so that her spirit may leave Charn and identify with your son.
Idky, you will find in a pale blue house on the edge of town a ceramic talisman of gold and closiné. Wear it and you will find yourself able to once resist your greatest fear, a crippling hit that deprives you of life or mobility.
With that, the remaining spirits of a more magical or spiritual nature stayed with the heroes overnight. During this communion, the souls of the thankful dead expressed their well-wishes and appreciation to the heroes. Now they could all find rest. And in the process, each of the living gained insight into the nature of ghost and spirit, animists and shaman...calling to the soul of each and bringing out hidden gifts...
In the morning, after a night of strange, pleasant, and thanks-filled dreams, the party awoke to a land mostly cleared of the taint of necromancy. Although the chill of Fall was in the air, clean, pure, golden sunlight kissed the ground. A handful of ghouls survived the fall of the skyship, but these were no match for Black Robe's party, which finally entered Charn. The Lakota shaman removed the slug from Maedhros' skull as well as Saanau and Torr's legs then performing the ritual to raise Ichi from the dead. Black Robe demanded a quest from the party -- to which Torr, Maedhros, Idky, and Saanau agreed. Their mission: to slay the Queen of Charn and close the gate to Tovag Baragu. Meanwhile, Kyron felt the call, asking Black Robe to complete what the spirits began and train him as a shaman.
And so the 23rd passed without incident as the heroes regained their strength and resolve.
