Session #22

Aaron's recounting is pretty close. Just replace Azer with Magmin.

For this session I believe everyone made it and we started a little early because I had stop the session early (wake up time was 5am).

Ok, enough slacking, let's write this baby.

Just remember, I'm writing from 2 weeks old memories. You'll have to excuse me if I get a few things wrong or cut some of the story short. You can also check the comments part of this entry to get Krieg's (Aaron's) account of what happened. It's probably more accurate.

Map

Valden had just been raised from the dead by Mythlyrian, and the party gave their thanks in assisting in healing and helping the current wave of wounded from the fighting in region I. Valden all but licked Mythlyrian's feet (figuratively of course).

Afterwards they rested, and proceeded with their exploration of region J.

Preemptive levelling!
I went ahead and levelled up everyone except Valden (some had enough XP to level, some were close, so I let them all level now to save time).

Thunderclease added a level of barbarian (brb 8/ftr 2)
Krieg added a level of cleric (clr 10).
Dalron added a level of rogue (rog 10).
Torin added a level of rogue (rgr 3/ftr 2/rog 4)
Zorak added a level of sorcerer (src 10). His 5th level spell was the nasty Cone of Cold.

Room J16: The party returned to the scene of Valden's shredding. Standard checking of the door to the west turned up nothing, but checking the door beyond that turned up some sounds of chanting.

Room J17: The party slowly opened the door and saw a couple dozen north-facing magmin chanting near the lava river. Then a small earthquake rocked the area and all of the magmin cheared. The cheers of the magmin sounded louder than what the party could see from their vantage. So a couple of spells later one of the party scouted out the area a little closer. He counted around 100 magmin and saw the beginning end of a bridge. The numbers and the lack of knowledge of magmin forced the party to decide to move on.

Room J13: This room appeared to be made out of basalt and had carbon scorch marks were every where. Also there were several piles of gold on the tiles on the floor. Torin investigated after he was turned invisible. His searching of the room turned up that one of the piles had some kind of sigil under it. In an attempt to get a better look at the sigil, Torin instead triggered a trap. Three large fire elementals appeared around Torin. Had he not been invisible, Brian would have created a new character. All 3 hit him, but his being invisible saved him from 1 of the hits. That left him with single digit hp.
The party cleared a little room for Zorak to try his new spell...Cone of Cold. Between that and the meleers, fight is over.
Gold gathered by the party...now all they have to do is find a Quik-E-Mart to spend it.

Room J14: This 10'x10' is quite cool and refreshing. It is also full of books & scrolls...rotted to mush. The party discussed resting in the room, but the lack of room forced them to move on.

Room J9: The party returned to this room and this time Krieg was ready for it. The small rivulet (is that a word?) was now bypassed by Krieg's domain spell, Wall of Stone. He made a bridge.

Room J8: Another hot room similar to J9, but without the river and with a statue. The statue had an inscription on the base that Dalron was able to translate: "Kser Igenis, Protector of the Boundaries".
He also investigated the statue for traps. And he found a good one. Anyone touching the statue would cause part of the nearby wall and floor to collapse and let a good portion of the lava river to flow into the room.
He also found a secret door.

Room J7: The party slowly moved into this room and found 3 large fire-engulfed salamanders, all with nice & big longspears. The party attempted to parley, only to be rebuffed and told to leave. And the party did so, having to reason to fight the salamanders...yet.

Room J6: This room was full of rocks, oil, filth, and tar. There was also a single small salamander (not flaming) that had its tail stuck under a rock. It hissed at the party to stay away. Thunderclease, who had a Protection from Fire spell on, went into the room while offering to aid the poor salamander.
:) Sucker
Before Thunderclease was able to get close to the salamander, it erupted itself in flames. The tar and oil in the room caught fire. It was a simple trap. The salamander was faking it, and ran off.
Thunderclease, not feeling a thing, investigated the door in the northwest.

Room J5: Upon opening it, he found 5 man-sized salamanders and the small 1 from before.
Combat began, but not much happened. By the time anyone from the party was able to get to the room, the fight was all but over.
The salamanders were no match for an immune to fire Thunderclease.

Well now the party knew that being nice and diplomatic to the big salamanders was probably not going to fly. And the party knew that the salamanders were evil (I'm getting sick of that damn Detect Evil spell again :)).

So the party wanted to scout room J7 again. Why? I dunno.

Well, Torin went in with an Invisibility spell. But he didn't do so well with his move silently skill check. It was obvious that the salamander heard him, so he didn't wait around to find out what happened.

The party buffed up. And so did the 3 noble salamanders.

The combat takes place in rooms J6, J7, and the hallway to the right of J7.

When the party was ready, they opened the southern door of J6 into the hallway. They met a Wall of Fire spreading throughout the entirety of the hallway.

Thunderclease ran through the fire filled hallway and fought a noble salamander.

Torin, Valden, and Dalron headed into room J7 and faced another noble salamander. All were invisible except Valden (I think).

Krieg cast spell immunity spells on Zorak, so Zorak went and helped Torin, Valden, and Dalron. Krieg moved into room J5 and waited...and waited...

Each group was able to defeat their salamander, but after much damage and difficulty.

Before Thunderclease could move into the southern side of J7, a large fire elemental appeared and blocked his way.

Torin, Dalron, Valden, and Zorak moved into J7 and saw nothing. Then a fireball exploded around them. Valden responded with an Invisibility Purge.

All of the party was visible now (except for Krieg, who was making shadow puppets in J5). Also, the last noble salamander appeared at the southern edge of J7. The party swarmed him, except for Thunderclease who was having a rough time killing the non-evil, non-critable elemental.

The last noble salamander had his escape route cut off by Dalron. So the salamander ordered his elemental to ignore Thunderclease and clear him a path. The elemental pounded Dalron good, dropping him.

The salamander fled into J8.

1 round later, the elemental was gone, Dalron was healed, Krieg started returning to the group, and the rest ran after the salamander.

They stopped in their tracks as the salamander had triggered the statue trap and caused the southern half of the room to begin to fill with lava.

The party, needing rest, had to travel along the edge of the lava river until they could find an alternate way back to the exit to region I.

Room J15: The party never made it into this room, but when they got close, they could see the bridge from before and see its other end and the edge of an "island".

Going through rooms J12 & J10, the party was able to make it back to the transition area to region I.

We ended there for the evening.

This upcoming session should be interesting. Open up your monster manual and look at all of the fire dwelling creatures. Chances are, the party is going to fight them.

The cruise was awesome by the way. Luck went our way all cruise long (from my perspective anyway). The parking-transit bus at the airport stopped for us. When we got to the gate, the plane was boarding. We get to Tampa w/o a problem. No line for the taxis to take us to the docks. Get to the boat just as they started serving food (and man oh man did, they never stopped with the food), and on and on.

We did some snorkeling, swimming with stingrays, parasailing (wife only - I'm a big fat wuss), well all kinds of stuff. And the food was neverending. We never even had a chance to be hungry. It was like in the Shire; breakfast, 2nd breakfast, lunch, afternoon tea, dinner (with appetizer, salad, entree, & desert), and finally room service 24 hours a day.

And my father-in-law taught me how to play Blackjack, and spotted me $100 to get started. If I lost, it was his money that was lost. If I won, I just returned the $100. Seven days later and I'm up $250+. And then I spent it.

We all had an awesome time. The only place I hated is the one place everyone else loved...
Senor Frog's

Session #21

After skipping a week, everyone was ready to play...and chat a lot.

Brian was ready to play, but he dislocated his knee earlier that day. So now he's out for who knows how long (upwards of a month I hear). This is where I feel like I should insert a Bob Herzog quote along the lines of "the game must go on" and then go wuss-slap the boy. But it's early, I'm tired, and my KoDTs are just out of arms reach...so eh. He'll just pay the price by having a character lagging way behind the rest in XP.

Torin was played by Jeff.

And for Justin "the Moody", he has been screwing himself out of damage dealt in combat. I created a combat matrix for Thunderclease, showing the overall bonuses to attack and damage during combat and the changes that result from Power Attack, Bull's Strength, and raging. He's been making this mistake for a while now.

Here's Thunderclease's attack and damage if he is Power Attacking at 5, had Bull's Strength cast on him, raging, and his target is evil aligned, while he is using his +2 holy greatsword:
2 attacks at +15/+10 for 4d6+24 damage. 6d6+48 if he gets a critical.
On a critical he will average 69 points of damage!

Up until this night his record max damage was 48. Now it's over 70. All because simple math is just too darn hard in the heat of combat. Heh.

Alright, let us begin...

Day 27, midnight.

We last stopped with the characters having defeated the fractured inevitables and the barghests causing a new garrison force to gate into the dungeon. The party spent 3 days giving the new garrison members and their leader, who now has a name - Mythlyrian, all the information they have.

After that the group leveled:
Krieg added a 9th level of cleric.
Valden added a 9th level of cleric.
Zorak added a 9th level of sorcerer.
Dalron added a 9th level of rogue.
Torin added a 3rd level of rogue (is now rgr 3 / ftr 2 / rog 3).
Thunderclease added 7th level of barbarian ( is now bbn 7 / ftr 2).

Mythlyrian, a solar angel, informed the party that this new garrison is going to be in the process of "cleaning house". In the past couple days they had cleared out the remaining barghests, shadows, and a lair of shadow mastiffs that the party had never stumbled across.

Next would be assaults into regions A, G, and I. With region I being the first on the list. And the party had to option to join in on the assault or to continue on their journey towards finding their objective and way out.

(Basically I am railroading the party into region J. Reason: I'm not exactly a fan of drow/driders. Drow elves get used way too much. Plus the group is ready to move on to a new kind of area. Regions I & M are linked, by drow. Region J has a different feel to it. This is not meant to offend Jim Hague, it's just the personal tastes of this DM.)

The party asked Mythlyrian what he knew of the area they'll soon be exploring. He told them they are heading to an area known as "The Pyrefaust". Long ago a red dragon known as Tyrus, the Devourer of Kingdoms, was imprisonned in ice in the region. His followers were imprisoned there as well. Boy did the party not like the idea of taking on an ancient red, but our group as a whole has not taken on a dragon since that young blue dragon in the moathouse from the Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil. That was about 2 years ago. Besides, what's the worst thing that could happen? >:)

The next morning, the party stood behind a force of 50 shiny new garrison members that were ready to extinguish the evil of region I.

The party made a direct route to the only exit from region I (that didn't lead to region E). They had to go through Mahir's cache once again, but it involved nothing more than answering a few riddles that they already knew the answers to.

So let me introduce to you, region J...

Map

The party descended a long path of stairs, easily 60' down. As they descended the air became hotter and oppressive. Had the 2 clerics not cast an Endure Heat spell on everyone (3 1st level spells for each of the clerics), they'd be in for some heat effects soon.

And the moment they get to the bottom of the stairs, the party members have to make a will save or be "shaken" (-2 to attack rolls and ability & skill checks). Only half the party makes their save (Dalron failed of course).

Detect Evil and trapfinding showed nothing on both doors. The background evil is gone, that was an effect of the messed up chaos of region I.

Room J9: Heat and smoke filled the room. A small rivulet of lava split the room in half. Valden looked down into the flowing lava, and could almost make out a face looking back at him. Further investigation of the room found nothing.

The party goes out the east door. They find a large river of lava covering the horizon (the smoke of the region is limiting their vision to 60'). Although they could travel along the edge of the river, it is only 5' wide. That makes them think and that any creature living in the lava would just have to pull the party just a little bit and they're dead. So they backtrack a little.

Room J10: A cloud of hot, moist air poured out of this room. A small film of water coats the floor. Thunderclease takes a step into the room and a surge of electricity fills his body. A failed save means he takes 49 points of damage.

That wakes up the party. Dalron has an electrical protection spell cast on him so he can investigate the room. He determines that the trap was a 1-shot.

Room J11: Small rivulets of water collect into a puddle in the depressed center of the floor. At the southern end of the room is a pedestal with a nice shiny sword resting upon it. Dalron moves forward investigate the pedestal, Krieg quickly reminds him to check the puddle for traps. No trap found. Luckily for him, he has a nice reflex save bonus. The floor with the water is a simple pit covering. Dalron pulls his foot back in time to prevent him from tumbling down into a deep pit.

Dalron then decides to jump over the depression in the floor. He makes it relatively easily (75% chance of success).

Joe: "Couldn't he have just walked around the puddle?"
DM: "Yes."

Anyway, Dalron checks the pedestal and finds no traps. He grabs the sword and investigates it. For a brief moment he sees red runes in the blade, but they fade very quickly. He decides that he's going to try out this new longsword.

Room J12: This room has 3' of water. Luckily it is also set 3' deeper. Thunderclease says that he's not going into the water. So Dalron volunteers to take a look into the water, by laying on the ground of room J10, and sticking his head into the water of room J12. Bzzzzk. A lighting blast fills the water for 22 points of damage (Dalron only takes 2 thanks to his protection spell). Then a big blue lizard creature bursts from the water.

Combat begins:
Round 1: Zorak casts haste. Thunderclease charges into the room and takes 2 swipes (1 regular and 1 haste) at the behir. Hit with a crit, and hit. Valden came in a got a hit in too.
Round 2: There is no round 2.

The behir had over 90 hp. Thunderclease did over 60 on his 1st attack, then 30 on his 2nd. Valden only had to deal 2hp in damage.

That was quick wasn't it?

A search for treasure finds a few trinkets on some skeletons, but nothing magical.

Hallway J85: 2 statues of angels stand in this hallway turn, each with rubies for eyes. On the floor lies a dead azer, burnt to a crisp. Dalron investigates the area and rolls so well that the DM gives him plenty of information (39 on his search check). These 2 angels each shoot a bolt of lightning down the corridor they face. The unfortunate person who triggered the trap takes damage from both bolts.

The group ties a rope to Dalron, then walks away and ties the other end of their rope to the Immovable Rod. Dalron diables the trap, but only temporarily. He then searches the azer, and finds a lump of 36gp, slagged together.

Hallway J83 (left): An inert angel statue stands here. No diamonds for eyes. (The party puts 2 & 2 together)

Hallway J86: 2 crumbled and broken angel statues once stood here.

The party moves on and finds an entrance to region G and a new view of the lava river.

Hallway J84: Another alcove with a statue of an angel with diamond eyes. This angel had a sword in one hand and the other held a horn to the angel's mouth. Dalron checked the area twice and found no traps. The party thought better of that. So once again they tied Dalron to the immovable rod. Dalron moved to investigate the statue and its eyes. The moment he stepped in front of the statue, the horn started blasting. Dalron got buffeted pretty hard. Had the party not reeled him back in, he would have been knocked unconscious. Also, had he not been tied to something, he would have taken a lava bath.

The party had had enough of this, so they turned back.

Room J16: Detect Evil by Valden showed nothing. Searching for traps by Dalron found nothing. But listening at the door by Torin, well that turned up something. It sounded like multiple big somethings were behind the door, and they were fighting.

So the party buffed up their usual pre-combat spells, and then burst in the door.

They found 3 behirs fighting furiously with one another. One was much larger than the others. But all 3 stopped their in-fighting once the party kicked open the door.

Round 1: The party sets up a conga-line-of-death. One of the 2 regular behirs moves into the doorway and blasts the party with a lightning bolt for some damage. It doesn't live to see round 2. The 2nd regular behir moves off to the side, not being dumb enough to fall for the trap. The large behir uses a hidden magic item to cast Word of Chaos upon the party. Thunderclease and Zorak, both being chaotically aligned, had no effect. Everyone else had to make a will save (DC20), or become confused. Dalron and Torin failed and also had to make another (DC20) save or become stunned. Dalron failed, and he had to make a 3rd (DC20) save of become deafened (like it mattered at that point).

Dalron is now under the effects of Greater Invisibility, Protection from Energy: Electricity, Bless, Prayer, confused, deaf, and stunned. No one can even see him to help him.

Round 2: The large body of the behir slows movement in the area where it fell. This hinders the party making it into the room. Torin's confusion causes him to attack Krieg, but he wildly misses (which ruins his Invisibility spell). Krieg casts Fire Shield. Zorak casts Haste on everyone except Torin and Dalron. Thunderclease moves into the room to fight the remaining regular behir, and nearly brings it down. Nearly. Valden moves in to take on the big behir and does some minor damage (the regular behirs had 94hp, the large one had 175hp - but the party didn't know this). The regular behir bit Thunderclease for scratch damage, and successfully grappled him. The large behir bit Valden for over 25 damage. Leaving him with under 40 hp, and in the bad position of being grappled. The only way for him to break the grapple - natural 20 for him, natural 1 for the behir (probability 1 in 400).

Round 3: Torin's confusion results in him rushing to attack the large behir. Thunderclease fails in his 2 attempts (Haste gave him a 2nd chance) to break free. Both failed. Same results for Valden. Zorak hits the large behir with 2 Scorching Rays. Krieg casts Flame Strike on an exposed portion of the large behir.

Although plenty of damage was done to the large behir, it wasn't enough. The large behir got a constriction attack automatically (4d6+12 damage) and 6 free rake attacks on him. 5 hit for 1d6+6 damage each. A total of 78 points was done to him. Valden was ripped into shreds.

Thunderclease did better, but not good. He was down to under 50%.

Round 4: Zorak's Scorching Rays and Krieg's (2nd of 3) Flame Strike brings down the regular behir. This frees Thunderclease from the grapple, who then dashes to the large behir. Torin's confusion roll leads him to attack the large behir, for some decent damage (including a crit). The behir responds by hitting the Toring and Dalron with its lightning bolt attack, leaving both with under 20hp.

Round 5: Fireball, Flame Strike, Torin's attacks, and Thunderclease's attacks finishes the large behir off.

The group immediately gathered the remains of their fallen comrade. Unlike before with Dugan, the party now has a cleric that can raise dead. But they don't have the diamonds required for the spell. Except for the diamonds in the eyes of the statue that nearly blew Dalron into the lava river. So they decided to go remove the diamonds.

But not before searching the room for loot. They are adventurers after all.

They find...a diamond. A large fist sized diamond that weighs over a pound.

Hmmmm....

Hallway J84 (again): After a few seconds of searching, Dalron finds the trap this time. But it requires over a minute to remove the trap, temporarily.

Dalron climbs up on the angel statue and investigate the diamonds. Each is worth at least 5000gp, more than enough the Raise Dead spell. But as he investigates further, he realizes that it will take a long time to remove the diamonds, and that each diamond is also trapped.

Not wanting to risk Dalron's life (any more than required anyway, not that it's stopped them before), they decide to return to Mythlyrian to ask for his help.

So the party begins to return to region I. But before they begin to ascend the stairs, they can make out the backside of a drider.

That stopped the party in their tracks. They move back into region J and Zorak casts Invisibility on Torin, who has the best skill in Move Silent. His sneaks up the stairs to scout.

Side story: At the time (heck until they read this) the party had no idea what exactly was happening. The party had been in region J for a little over 3 hours. During that time the new Garrison army had assaulted region I with a vengeance. The inhabitants of the region barely stood a chance.

Much was lost on both sides, but the Garrison had the numbers, the drive, and the discipline. The driders had become nearly complacent and the drow used this as an opportunity to settle a few scores with the driders. But the drow initially had no idea the extent of the angelic assault.

End result: Arioch, a powerful drider, and Lorath, the 3-armed drow, were once brothers. Arioch's forced transformation into a drider ended that family bond, until now. The two brothers sought refuge in Mahir's old lab area (Lorath and Siglinde had spied the party heavily once contact was made - yyyeah, that's the ticket).

Torin found a drider and Lorath facing the door, ready for combat. What he didn't know is that Arioch heard him, but did nothing about it.

Torin returned to the party, who casts their buff spells, while Arioch casts Invisibility on himself and creates an illusion of himself where he was standing and climbed onto the wall, and waited.

The party's plan: Silence on Thunderclease's sword and Greater Invis on Torin and Dalron.

Round 1: Thunderclease, Torin, & Dalron rush silently up the stairs.
Round 2: Thunderclease swings at the illusion of Arioch, solidly hitting nothing. Arioch observes the combat from a safe distance. Lorath readies for combat.
Round 3: Thunderclease and Dalron corner Lorath and wound him horribly. His misses with all his swings of Eight Strikes Fang, so he switches his weapons. Arioch moves into position to attack Krieg.
Round 4: Arioch gets his full attack on Krieg, bringing Krieg to -4hp (2 hits with a weapon, 1 is a crit while smiting good, and a bite attack). Dalron and Thunderclease finish off Lorath. Torin makes his spot check to see Krieg's situation. Zorak casts Scorching Ray at Arioch but misses narrowly (he also used his reroll point because would have hit Krieg and killed him).
Round 5: Dalron notices the situation and runs off to Krieg's aid. Thunderclease does not, so he searches Lorath's body - thinking combat is over. Arioch moves along the wall to engage Zorak, but the DM rolls a 1. Torin dumps a healing potion down Krieg's throat. Zorak hit Arioch with all 5 missiles from his magic missile spell (he broke through spell resistance with each one).
Round 6: Thunderclease finally notices the combat and runs down the stairs to help the party. Dalron gets a single hit in, but since he is invisible, he gets his 5d6 sneak attack damage. Torin moves in to combat as well, but misses. Arioch attacks Zorak and wounds him, including his poisonous bite. Zorak loses 1d6 points of strength.
Round 7: Dalron, Torin, and Thunderclease finish off the surrounded Arioch before he has the chance to get away.

A quick looting of their bodies turns up some nice items, but in that period Zorak succumbs to the drider poison once again and is reduced to 1 strength. A couple of Lesser Restorations later, and he back in fighting form (dang clerics).

The party finally gets back to region E.

They find the busy Mythlyrian and ask him for his help to restore Valden to life. He says he cannot, there are many others who need his help as well and the raising Valden is not something he can do lightly. The party is able to convince him to do it through a diplomacy check by Krieg, but at a cost

Mythlyrian needs diamonds just as much as Krieg would, so he offers to raise Valden and give the party enough diamonds to cast Raise Dead once more on their own, IF they give him that 1 pound diamond they just found. After some deliberation, the party agrees.

The diamond is a Chaos Diamond, worth 120,000gp if sold. Mythlyrian, a lawful good solar, smashes the diamond to pieces. He takes half for the Garrison's use, gives the party 5000gp's worth, and casts Raise Dead on Valden.

And the party rejoices.

We stopped there.

There will most likely not be a session entered next week. The wife and I are going on a cruise. We leave early saturday morning and will not be back until the following saturday. Although there is internet access, I don't think I'll have the free time for that.

:)

See you all in 2 weeks.

Session #20

It was a long 2 weeks and I had a really bad day at work.
I was determined to take it out on the group. Hey, they come to the game to kill things for their stress gained from the week, and so do I.
[insert evil grin here]

Justin could not make it this week because he's 20 and broke and chose to work an extra shift at his job. Now I'm torn between my experiences of having been there and my joy at mercilessly picking Justin. Dangit.

So let us begin:

Day 21 (give or take a few hours)

Room I9: The party has just finished off the twin monstrosities Anguish & Madness. Now they quickly cast healing spells and quaff healing potions.

Then they hear yelling and many footsteps and other footsteps coming from many places in the nearby dungeon. They know they only have a quick run from this room to the safety of region E and its protective wards.

After a minute of arguing, the consensus is that they don't have the strength or spells for a direct fight and they have business to deal with in the Garrison.

The door is opened and they see a 3 armed drow elf waiting.

"You don't have much time! Hand Eight Strikes Fang to me.", says Loreth.

"Why would we do that?"

"It is a weapon we need to defeat the driders. Hand me the weapon now!"

Members of the party begin to decline individually.

"Give me the weapon now or I will yell and they will take it from your corpses!"

The party makes a wise decision and Zorak hands Eight Strikes Fang over to Loreth.

"Thank you. Now run."

Region E:

Hacked up map

The party enters the region to find it utterly quiet for this section. They don't like that they have to, but they rest.

Two hours into their resting, they hear many foot steps. They see 7 wolf-sized barghests and 1 horsesized barghest. The barghests obviously notice the group but do not prepare for combat. After a minute the barghests return. This time the large one parlays with the group.

He informs the group that they are now members of "The Redeemed" and that the wise inevitable Dubar is now in charge of the Garrison. When asked about what happened Kelara and the rest of the celestials, the barghest gives vague information that led the party to thinking that she was dead.

Every two hours a patrol of barghests walks by. Each time the party is disturbed enough to force them to have ro rest an extra couple of hours.

The party believes that the celestials of the Garrison are either imprisoned or slain so they intend to prove to Dubar that he is not fulfilling the requirements of the charter he signed. What will happen after that, they do not know. But they do know that what is going on right now is not in their best interests.

Near room E43 (the 25' x 25' un-numbered room): The party opens the door to find 7 barghests and a large barghest.

The barghests greet the PCs, bid them a wonderful hello, and asks them their business. The party states that they wish to enter the charter room. The barghests politely reply that they cannot allow that to happen; direct orders from Dubar.

The group does not like this, but they fear that attacking barghests who are acting on Dubar's behalf will bring the wrath of the inevitables down upon them. So they move on.

Room E66: The party enters this room very cautiously. They seek to find supplies from Wetoq and his stores, but have no clue what to expect. What they find is another squad of barghests and a few inevitables. One of the large barghests seems to be occupying one inevitable's attention. But all eyes were on the party.

They opened the door the store rooms of Wetoq. They were rebuffed by him, stating that "I cannot waste precious resources on the likes of you."

Once again, the party decides to move on before things get ugly.

Next they head to the location where the barghests usually hide. In the hallway entry is only 1 barghest. A short parlay proves this to be another dead end.

Now the party has no choice but to find a back way into the charter room. But their personal map is no where near complete, and the map they found of the region long ago shows no obvious way of getting to that location. But they travel on, hoping an answer will present itself.

It does in the form of a small ball of light appears before them. The party knows it to be Spark (a.k.a. Augury). It begins to move away from the party and they follow. It leads them to a dead-end room that is not frequented by the barghest patrols.

The party asks many questions, and he answers them the best he can (while capable of only giving yes or no answers).

The party finds out that there are celestials alive in the charter room. The only thing keeping the barghests out the room are the glyphs, but the barghests remain to keep the celestials pinned down.

Now the party plans to take out the barghests guarding the charter room. But they have to do it quietly because if one gets out an alarm, they're doomed. Their solution; put a Silence spell on Thunderclease's axe and have him stand in the center of the room, thus preventing any alarm being put out and will keep the sounds of the combat muted.

But the barghests have one thing that will help them at the last moment - their sense of smell is as accurate as their sense of sight.

The party buffs up, including Haste and Protection from Fire (on Thunderclease).

Round 1: Thunderclease bursts through the closed door, knocking it off it's hinges. The party was betting on a round of surprise, but their scent alarmed the barghests. (What do you think this party is going to smell like after 20+ days w/o a bath?). The barghest on the other side of the door was ready for combat and was able to prevent Thunderclease from knocking him back. Zorak tosses a Fireball into the room, striking all of the barghests and Thunderclease. And because Thunderclease is stuck in the doorway, the Silence effect on his axe does not extend entirely into the room. Barghests are very intelligent and are able to deduce what is going on. The large barghest moves into a corner of the room and casts Mass Bull's Strength on his allies. Another barghest is able to get Thunderclease to succumb to a Crushing Despair spell. The other barghests converge onto Thunderclease doing nearly 40 points of damage. The rest of the party moves down the hallway but are currently unable to move any further. At least until Valden is able to bring one down.

Round 2: Thunderclease has 4 barghests around him (all softened up by Zorak's Fireball). Swing #1 (primary attack) - one barghest down. Swing #2 (Cleave feat attack) - 2nd barghest down. Swing #3 (Secondary attack) - 3rd barghest down. Swing #4 (Haste attack) - 4th barghest down.

After that show of strength, the other 3 barghests make a run for it. But end up in a dead end. The party took some minor scratches but the 3 barghests were no match for the party.

The party quickly moved to the area of the charter room.

Rooms E40-E43: After the standard "Who goes there?" shtick, the party gets into the room. Inside they find 2 bralanis, Doj & Besar, and 1 hound archon, Spers.

The three garrison members (now 4 with the return of Spark) tell the party their story:

Dubar's sanity had been rapidly deteriorating (read as - programming was swiss cheesing). He was becoming more and more aggressive in his assertions that Kelara step down and that he be put in charge. He was also constantly looking for a legal way to subvert Kelara's power, also to no avail.

A short while ago Kelara allowed him to attempt to convert a handful of evil humanoids. She had hoped that this would occupy him and keep him from being a danger to himself and others.

He called these humanoids "The Redeemed" and in spite of all the proof otherwise, he felt that all these born-evil beasts had the full potential to be brought to the side of good.

When the party returned 3 of the 4 missing ward staves directly to Kelara, his sanity finally fractured. He now began to act upon the notion of "any means to an end".

In come the barghests. He contacted them to negotiate their reform and induction into The Redeemed. Saraas, the leader of the entire barghest pack (thanks to the party killing her rival), all too readily agreed.

From that point on Saraas filled Dubar's mind with even more madness.

Dubar called out one more time for Kelara to step down. She declined. Then he unveiled his new recruits. Over 2 dozen barghests poored into the great hall (room E66). Kelara snapped that Dubar had gone too far. But it was too late. All of the inevitables' programming had been deteriorating. Each one had become solely focused on their individual duties and had become blind to their original goals.

Kelara and her handful of true garrison-members number under 2 dozen. They could not fight this threat. She surrendered under Dubar's oath that they not be harmed. He agreed.

That was less than a day ago. Since then the 3 of them had been hiding out in this room, hoping to think of a way to save Kelara and return things to normal.

For the next hour (real time) the party plans on what to do. After Dalron plays Devil's Advocate, they realize that convincing Dubar that what he is doing is wrong won't work, and using truth enforcing spells will be worthless against Saraas as she can easily avoid the questions, or even give misleading, but honest answers.

Finally they take a close look at the garrison charter. They note that none of the inevitables' have their name on the charter. Spers confirms that they did sign the charter, and that could only mean that they no longer follow the charter.

The party then re-read the charter in the hopes of finding something they could use. The oaths boil down to:
- Always do what is right.
- To defend the weak.
- Always help your brothers in arms.
- Never relent to evil.
- And if a person who has signed the charter ever turns on its tenets that person shall be struck with a vengeance should they ever touch the charter again.

...That sentence is followed by the sound of Jeff smacking himself in the forehead...

They now have the beginnings of a plan, so they rest and heal up.

The 6 party members, Spark, Doj (who now carries the charter), Besar, and Spers move off to confront Dubar and his allies.

Room E66: The party bursts into the room and sees...
2 kolaryut inevitables (1 is Dubar)
3 marut inevitables
14 barghests
3 greater barghests (1 is Saraas)

Krieg: "Dubar your name no longer appears on the charter..."

Saraas: "They lie and you know it. They are here to usurp your rightful power."

Dubar: "Destroy them."

(Party enters from the eastern doorway. Looooong combat timewise - facts are fuzzy. Standard buffs are in use. Additionally Zorak cast Greater Invisibility on Dalron and Torin.)

Round 1: Thunderclease rushes into the room. Zorak nukes the barghests as the near end of the hallway. Some barghest get Bull's Strength cast on them. Other barghests get Enlarged. Thunderclease gets swarmed on all sides and loses half his hitpoints in one round. The inevitables move forward to engage the party but cannot get there because of distance and a crowded battlefield. Several of the party call for a retreat. Krieg retreats believing the others will follow.

Round 2: Thunderclease is surrounded but is able to once again drop 4 barghests. Dalron moves in and is able to sneak attack a greater barghest and brings it down. The celestials move into the room, believing that this may be their only chance and if they fail, Kelara will be killed (they know she is not because her candle is still lit). Over half of the party is now in the room. The other half are still confused as to what they need to do. Zorak tosses a Fireball at the other end of the hall, softening up several more barghests. Krieg returns.

Round 3: Thunderclease and Dalron continue their slaughter of barghests, and Torin and Valden join them. Zorak lobs another Fireball at the barghests in the west. Krieg begins his standard "heals on wheels" action. The door at the western end bursts open. It is reinforcements. But this time for the party. Morkor, Kelara's mate, has been waiting for this moment to free Kelara. But there are still 5 inevitables to deal with. One of the Marut's gets a single hit on Valden for about 15 points of damage.

Round 4: The celestials bring the charter into play. They run up to a marut and state that his name is not on the charter while attempting to show it to him. He does not believe them until he tries to punch through the charter. A blast erupts from the charter, melting the maruts hand. Then marut finally realizes what he's done, and he shuts down. The other inevitables, save for Dubar, also stop in their tracts.

The rest of the combat is a wash. Saraas can't defend herself against the party. The other barghests succumb to sneak attacks, Fireballs, or an enraged Morkor.

Dubar stands alone in the middle of the room, with all of his allies now dead or out of commission. He shouts, "Fine I shall put an end to this treachery. Let me see your fake charter."

When he touches the charter he says something to the extent of "No! This cannot be!" or some other junk that the bad guys usually say right as they're about to die.

Then smoke and light begins pouring out of Dubar's body. The steps back and then Dubar's body explodes with a small blast (5d6 damage to those who are within 15'). But that causes a chain reaction with the other fallen inevitables. The party then dives out of the way.

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!

The party now stands victorious.

Kelara appears and is in bad shape. Krieg heals her.

Then the ground rumbles. The party readies themselves for anything.

Several small pinpricks of light appear throughout the room. Then they enlarge until they are big enough for a being to walk through.

Through these portals step out several being of pure good. Including one that has golden skin and is bathed in radiant light.

The next 3 days pass for the party while these new members of the garrison, including some new inevitables, sign the charter and begin repairing the local area.

This new garrison leader (no name yet) thanks the party heartily and informs them that this prison has been condemned. Once this region has been stabilized, they will begin moving to the other areas to cleanse them of evil. He hands them all some minor trinkets (like healing potions) and tells them to head northeast to find their way out, and that returning will not be possible because of the cleansing. Once the leave region E, it will most likely be unavailable to them. The same for region I soon.

Next session, the cleansing and burning of region I.

No game next week because I'll be in Toledo playing in another Texas Hold'em tournament for the Make-a-Wish Foundation.

I hoped you enjoyed this read. I know the party enjoyed the evening.