Post by David on Aug 11, 2009 19:27:34 GMT -5
The morning of 618/1/28 Marc, Dion, Sky, Daj, Mikhail, Corvin, and Mang returned to finish off the kuo-toan threat. The heroes quickly reached the entrance to the subterranean city cut a sheer rock wall blocked their entrance. It would appear that someone again used rock to mud to prevent entrance to the ruins. This time, however, whether out of deseration or carelessness, at least 100' of solid stone flowed down and blocked the main passage.
Mang invoked his scarab of earth elementals but couldn't maintain his concentration long enough to complete the task -- the elemental disappeared instead of turning on the dwarf. Fearing the watery entrance to the city, the heroes explored the other side passage, following tracks until they came to the clear center of the destruction of this ancient city. In a massive chamber formed of rock-that-once-flowed-like-water lay a small lake. In the center of the lake, at the heart of a series of concentric rings of rippled stone, lay a partially unearthed monument or obelix of black obsideon. When Mang investigated it he surmissed that someone had been transforming the rock encasing the more than 200' x 200' x 40+' chunk of black crystal into mud and then washing it away...hence the small lake. Someone had been at this for QUITE some time...probably years...
Using his spells, Corvin determined that the object was not evil but was DEFINITELY chaotic. The group searched the rest of the area -- once this was yet another part of a large and thriving city belonging to some lost civilization. Now, however, there were several opening, probably into the "wild" Underdark...
The group returned to the surface and Klarr. In the morning of the first, the group returned and this time Corvin used Mang's scarab to completely uncover the sealed tunnel. The group stealthily made their way through the ruins of the kuo-toan city, encountering no living thing, but finding several combat rooms and an ancient library. Using the map from Jasmine's captire fish-man, the group headed directly for the Priest-Prophet's quarters, but found no one. They did uncover a few trickets and even a couple of barrels of wine, but no gogglers.
The party then headed toward the large communal pools of the kuo-toan community. Walking in a group with Dion near the back, somehow none of the previous ranks managed to look down OR step near a glyph of warding that blasted lightning at the hapless cleric of Apollo. And that, it seemed, was the fish-men's signal to "ATTACK!"
An ice storm smashed down on the group followed by a rain of harpoons and a wall of skeletons. Dion, quite wounded from the electricity and then cold, managed to turn a number of the skeletons, but more came. Before the party was totally overwhelmed, however, the cleric cast a dispel undead and destroyed all but a single goggler-skeleton. Dion's reward, however, was a flame strike which dropped him and Daj both!
More harpoons whizzed through the air and while Marc, Mang, and Sky charged forward in a cohesive line, Corvin found himself alone in the back after Mikhail timeshifted to avoid being surrounded and killed. Both dwarves started hacking their way through fishmen, Mang taking time out to chug his potion of speed in order to become a killing machine! Marc slashed through a couple of kuo-toa, but was mired in the others. Sky, however, had a fairly easy time and once Mikhail reappeared and psionically blasted the bulk of gogglers, the she-salamander simply slithered up and encoiled the priest-prophet, Va-Guulgh, himself!
Somehow, miraculously, numerous harpoons slide harmelessly off Corvin's armor and even missed the downed figures of Dajamira and Dion. Unfortunately, as two new foes engaged the dwarven cleric, he fumbled and struck down, smashing in the top of Dion's skull on accident!
Meanwhile, the Va-Guulgh recovered from Mikhail's mental assault and tried to use Marc's magical gauntlet on Sky but could get a good grip. Mikhail uses his mental powers to become invisible and then augment his strength, in order to help Marc. Mang, however, has slaughtered the nine fishmen attacking him and charges into to get more! The smell of searing fish-flesh assaults the party's nostrils -- Sky is frying the priest-prince-prophet alive!
Va-Guulgh calls for the last of his reserves. A fighter with Helga's black rune sword charges in while another cleric backstabs Mang. But it's no good, within moments all but two amazons kuo-toa lie dead. One grovels at Corvin's feat, begging in her piscine croaks for mercy while Marc slaughters the other. Meanwhile, normally-gentle-Mikhail as discovered Dion's body and assumes his death is the work of the kuo-toa. The cleric of Clangaddin grants the last survivor quarter and Mikhail instills self-loathing into her mind. Marc moves to kill her in cold blood, but Mang and Sky stop the Maneän beast master.
The group agrees to bring the survivor to the surface for questioning and Dion's body for burial. They heroes gather QUITE a lot of treasure off the bodies, but as Mikhail goes to gather up his former ally, the young druid-turned-psi notices that Dion's wounds have quit hemorrhaging and have even started to scab over. Although the cleric is still dead, it is as if his wounds have begun to heal. Mikhail immediately loads Dion into his bag of holding and teleports back to Stephanos in Klarr where it's discovered that his new magical ring is of regeneration...!
While he was "dead" Dion's spirit watched the end of the battle and had a vision of the nearby black obelisk -- it was an ancient relic of great chaos from a long-dead civilization.
The party questions the kuo-toan amazon and learns from her that the black obelisk contains some great artifact that will return the kuo toa to greatness. It was the prophet-prince's reason for coming so near to the surface in the first place and he was only days from achieving his goal before the heroes killed him. With the amazon kuo toa, Shurgulp's, help, the party searches the fishmen's portion of the ruins and discover an ancient library. There they read that this is the fabled lost city of Jewel -- not a remnant of the Suloise empire but with the long-dead civilization of Morganti! Among the works are four spell books and several scrolls (as well as Daj's missing things) as well as MANY tomes from Oerth's "Atlantean" forebearers.
Corvin goes to the obelisk and casts a number of spells, one of which causes the spirits of three dwarves who died 10,000 years ago when the city did to warn the party that they "can no longer guard" that which lays within the black crystal. Although the gods spared them from destruction as the folly of the humans was not theirs, these valiant dwarven souls have been steadfast guardians of this "relic of chaos" for the ten millennia since...but no longer!
With Shurgulp, the party finds several treasure stores as well as the various fingerling pools of the fishmen -- their children being unable to breathe air until at least a full year old! While searchign one chest of treasure, the heroes briefly battled a spectre that touched Mikhail, but was quickly vanquished. Stephanos restored the young psi. Finally, using Pepper's detect invisibility the party found a series of secret passages that revealed a long-forgotten captive, a nearly dead female drow. The party gave her water and she revealed herself to be Derilin of House Noquar. Like their other captives, the party brought the evil drow back to the surface to be charmed by Jasmine.
So, it's been a couple of days. The heroes have "dumped" a kuo-toan monitor and the amazon as well as a 9th lvl noble drow fighter with Jasmine. All are charmed (Derilin is also enslaved) but none will remain so for long. meanwhile, there is a massive horde of treasure to divide, a city to explore, an "ancient relic of chaos" lying exposed to the Underdark, AND the original Temple of Elemental Evil to deal with...what to do? What to do?
Mang invoked his scarab of earth elementals but couldn't maintain his concentration long enough to complete the task -- the elemental disappeared instead of turning on the dwarf. Fearing the watery entrance to the city, the heroes explored the other side passage, following tracks until they came to the clear center of the destruction of this ancient city. In a massive chamber formed of rock-that-once-flowed-like-water lay a small lake. In the center of the lake, at the heart of a series of concentric rings of rippled stone, lay a partially unearthed monument or obelix of black obsideon. When Mang investigated it he surmissed that someone had been transforming the rock encasing the more than 200' x 200' x 40+' chunk of black crystal into mud and then washing it away...hence the small lake. Someone had been at this for QUITE some time...probably years...
Using his spells, Corvin determined that the object was not evil but was DEFINITELY chaotic. The group searched the rest of the area -- once this was yet another part of a large and thriving city belonging to some lost civilization. Now, however, there were several opening, probably into the "wild" Underdark...
The group returned to the surface and Klarr. In the morning of the first, the group returned and this time Corvin used Mang's scarab to completely uncover the sealed tunnel. The group stealthily made their way through the ruins of the kuo-toan city, encountering no living thing, but finding several combat rooms and an ancient library. Using the map from Jasmine's captire fish-man, the group headed directly for the Priest-Prophet's quarters, but found no one. They did uncover a few trickets and even a couple of barrels of wine, but no gogglers.
The party then headed toward the large communal pools of the kuo-toan community. Walking in a group with Dion near the back, somehow none of the previous ranks managed to look down OR step near a glyph of warding that blasted lightning at the hapless cleric of Apollo. And that, it seemed, was the fish-men's signal to "ATTACK!"
An ice storm smashed down on the group followed by a rain of harpoons and a wall of skeletons. Dion, quite wounded from the electricity and then cold, managed to turn a number of the skeletons, but more came. Before the party was totally overwhelmed, however, the cleric cast a dispel undead and destroyed all but a single goggler-skeleton. Dion's reward, however, was a flame strike which dropped him and Daj both!
More harpoons whizzed through the air and while Marc, Mang, and Sky charged forward in a cohesive line, Corvin found himself alone in the back after Mikhail timeshifted to avoid being surrounded and killed. Both dwarves started hacking their way through fishmen, Mang taking time out to chug his potion of speed in order to become a killing machine! Marc slashed through a couple of kuo-toa, but was mired in the others. Sky, however, had a fairly easy time and once Mikhail reappeared and psionically blasted the bulk of gogglers, the she-salamander simply slithered up and encoiled the priest-prophet, Va-Guulgh, himself!
Somehow, miraculously, numerous harpoons slide harmelessly off Corvin's armor and even missed the downed figures of Dajamira and Dion. Unfortunately, as two new foes engaged the dwarven cleric, he fumbled and struck down, smashing in the top of Dion's skull on accident!
Meanwhile, the Va-Guulgh recovered from Mikhail's mental assault and tried to use Marc's magical gauntlet on Sky but could get a good grip. Mikhail uses his mental powers to become invisible and then augment his strength, in order to help Marc. Mang, however, has slaughtered the nine fishmen attacking him and charges into to get more! The smell of searing fish-flesh assaults the party's nostrils -- Sky is frying the priest-prince-prophet alive!
Va-Guulgh calls for the last of his reserves. A fighter with Helga's black rune sword charges in while another cleric backstabs Mang. But it's no good, within moments all but two amazons kuo-toa lie dead. One grovels at Corvin's feat, begging in her piscine croaks for mercy while Marc slaughters the other. Meanwhile, normally-gentle-Mikhail as discovered Dion's body and assumes his death is the work of the kuo-toa. The cleric of Clangaddin grants the last survivor quarter and Mikhail instills self-loathing into her mind. Marc moves to kill her in cold blood, but Mang and Sky stop the Maneän beast master.
The group agrees to bring the survivor to the surface for questioning and Dion's body for burial. They heroes gather QUITE a lot of treasure off the bodies, but as Mikhail goes to gather up his former ally, the young druid-turned-psi notices that Dion's wounds have quit hemorrhaging and have even started to scab over. Although the cleric is still dead, it is as if his wounds have begun to heal. Mikhail immediately loads Dion into his bag of holding and teleports back to Stephanos in Klarr where it's discovered that his new magical ring is of regeneration...!
While he was "dead" Dion's spirit watched the end of the battle and had a vision of the nearby black obelisk -- it was an ancient relic of great chaos from a long-dead civilization.
The party questions the kuo-toan amazon and learns from her that the black obelisk contains some great artifact that will return the kuo toa to greatness. It was the prophet-prince's reason for coming so near to the surface in the first place and he was only days from achieving his goal before the heroes killed him. With the amazon kuo toa, Shurgulp's, help, the party searches the fishmen's portion of the ruins and discover an ancient library. There they read that this is the fabled lost city of Jewel -- not a remnant of the Suloise empire but with the long-dead civilization of Morganti! Among the works are four spell books and several scrolls (as well as Daj's missing things) as well as MANY tomes from Oerth's "Atlantean" forebearers.
Corvin goes to the obelisk and casts a number of spells, one of which causes the spirits of three dwarves who died 10,000 years ago when the city did to warn the party that they "can no longer guard" that which lays within the black crystal. Although the gods spared them from destruction as the folly of the humans was not theirs, these valiant dwarven souls have been steadfast guardians of this "relic of chaos" for the ten millennia since...but no longer!
With Shurgulp, the party finds several treasure stores as well as the various fingerling pools of the fishmen -- their children being unable to breathe air until at least a full year old! While searchign one chest of treasure, the heroes briefly battled a spectre that touched Mikhail, but was quickly vanquished. Stephanos restored the young psi. Finally, using Pepper's detect invisibility the party found a series of secret passages that revealed a long-forgotten captive, a nearly dead female drow. The party gave her water and she revealed herself to be Derilin of House Noquar. Like their other captives, the party brought the evil drow back to the surface to be charmed by Jasmine.
So, it's been a couple of days. The heroes have "dumped" a kuo-toan monitor and the amazon as well as a 9th lvl noble drow fighter with Jasmine. All are charmed (Derilin is also enslaved) but none will remain so for long. meanwhile, there is a massive horde of treasure to divide, a city to explore, an "ancient relic of chaos" lying exposed to the Underdark, AND the original Temple of Elemental Evil to deal with...what to do? What to do?
(Jyoli laughs at this point to the extent of falling off her chair)
