bluegargantua (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
bluegargantua) wrote2008-10-01 01:02 pm
bluegargantua) wrote2008-10-01 01:02 pm
Adjo's Journals (7 of N)
Hi,
At last, after days of pointless wandering, we have a solid plan of attack for clearing this complex and getting the hell out of here. Although if we don't get a move on, it won't be worth coming up for daylight.
We took a long breather after our fight with the Drow. Ander and Thrace rejoined us and during the wait, Ander asked if I could transfer the magical enchantments from a longsword we'd found in battle to Ander's scimitar. An easily accomplished task. You ritually consume the first item, vomit forth the ectoplasmic essence of the magical bindings and then smear the plasm over the item to be enchanted. The plasm sets into the object and you're ready to go.
For some reason, the party was rather put out by all of this.
Oh, the Drow had a moonsword (claimed rather fiercely by Alanna) and a magical sword and scourge. I offered to transfer any magical effects for those weapons, but no one wanted to take the time apparently. Which was fine by me. We were wasting time and scourges give me gas.
The drow came up from the left side of a pair of steps, so we decide to follow them back down their path. Kestrel and Shay led the way and discovered a trap left behind by the Drow . Shay "disarmed" it. Then, proving that failure is a learning opportunity and that pain is a great motivator, disarmed the trap.
The steps led down to a wide shelf overlooking a vast chasm. Across the chasm was a long, narrow bridge with a series of platforms every so often. There was also a narrow set of stairs on the side leading to a catwalk looking down over the entrance. Kestrel and Shay examined the stairs and the catwalk and pronounced everything safe. But before the rest of us could leave the safety of the stairwell, Kestrel decided to take a quick peek up the other stairwell coming down from where we fought the Drow. She gave a yelp and went skittering away shouting something about a dragon.
There was a dragon.
A white dragon that burst from its stairwell, rushed onto the shelf and promptly blasted us all with a wave of cold and ice. Many of us, including myself were completely disoriented. Luckily, not everyone was as badly affected and they were able to mount some basic defense. Eventually, I shook off the effects of the chilling breath and, although seriously wounded, stepped forward to support my comrades with a magic missile. I got in a solid shot, but this only enraged the vile lizard and it immediately sent out another freezing blast that swept over me in a burst of white that quickly faded to black as I faded from consciousness.
Fortunately, I have learned from my previous brush with death. I had positioned myself strategically near the cleric, who quickly revived me. Upon coming to, I spied a band of gibbers rushing across the bridge towards our position. Although the dragon was still a menace, it was surrounded on three sides by our strongest warriors and not looking too good. Stopping the gibbers from reliving the dragon was obviously my priority so I let loose with some flames that cooked the gibbers to a satisfying crisp.
At this point, the dragon struck a mortal blow to Shay who fell beneath its terrible claws. Thrace or Anders were nearby and one of them kept him from sliding all the way into oblivion, but Taras contributed as best he could by tipping the dragon over on its side. Reminded me of some of the japes my friends and I perpetrated at college. By the time the dragon was back on its claws, Shay was up as well and he went completely berserk, plunging his sword into the dragon and killing it. The dragon fell into the chasm but left behind enough claws/fangs/scales to give everyone a suitable trophy.
After resting up we crossed over the bridge to the other side of the gap. Every 30 yards or so was another platform and on the platform was a pair of ballistas. Apparently, there was something that came up from the pits every so often that needed shooting down. I can't tell you how thrilled I was to see that.
On the far side of the bridge is an opening to a large room and flanking the doors are two statues. One is of an avalanche or rockslide and the other is a large pillar of flames. Hendel mentions that these are emblematic of the Dwarven belief that they arose from rock and fire. I had to suppress my urge to laugh. The religious superstitions of otherwise reliable people in these enlightened times never ceases to amaze me. Everyone with half a brain can look to the evidence and see that all intelligent beings (except the Warforged, obviously) were created during a particularly spectacular moment of onanism by the Source. Where His seed fell upon the mountains, the Dwarves were born. Where it fell upon the woods, the Elves were born. Where it fell upon the swamps, the dragonborn and other reptilian races were born. Humans, of course, were what the Source was considering at the moment of release and thus we were formed whole from His desires (although I'd hardly be so elitist as to claim this give humans any special status). Centuries of political spin by the various gods have clearly done more harm than good.
At any rate, we enter the large room. Like much of this place, it seems unfinished. The only notable feature is a large mosaic pattern in the floor made up of large tile panels that appear to be jumbled up. Obviously it's a puzzle of some sort and probably trapped in some fashion. Kestrel and Shay confirmed the latter hypothesis by triggering the trap. the rock statue slammed down, trapping us within the room. Although we couldn't see it, the quickly rising temperatures suggested the the flame statue was heating the rock and threatening to cook us in the oven-shaped room like a pizza.
Time was of the essence and once again, I had to step in to (quite literally) pull everyone's bacon from the fire. Directing my two able assistants Kestrel and Shay, I initialized the puzzle pattern and quickly began to solve it. The Dwarves left behind any number of clever twists, like panels that could be flipped to the other side and locking sub-sections that would only move when other portions of the puzzle were solved, but the basic pattern was almost immediately obvious. When complete, the puzzle would form a giant dwarven face. After several, rather warm minutes, we completed the puzzle and deactivated the trap. The statues returned to their proper form and we were free to leave.
The completed pattern however, was quite informative. The center of the pattern was clearly a map of this complex. Deciphering the icons and colored lines connecting the map provided another important clue. This facility contains two very powerful magical nodes. One attuned to fire, the other attuned to earth. The fire runes the Gibbers possess might be part of their efforts to control the fire node. The earthquakes we've experienced recently might be part of some botched attempts to control the Earth node. In either case, these powerful control centers must be captured as quickly as possible. There is absolutely no time to delay.
So, of course, the party decides to bed down for the night. To be fair, we have just fought a dragon. But both nodes are a long ways away and we'll have to do a lot of walking to get there. Time, as I mentioned, is of the essence. To think of those barbarian gibbers and varten banging away on terrifying power sources with their sticks and bones was not at all comforting. But no matter, it's beauty rest for everyone and so we camp.
We don't die during the night and quickly make our way back over the bridge. We've decided to go for the Earth node first in part because we'd explored in that direction earlier and in part because the fire node was across the chasm with the collapsed bridge. Securing one of the nodes quickly was a priority. We retraced our steps back to the gibber barracks we'd camped out in the night before. In the barracks were two dead feral gibbers and one, not-quite-dead-but-trying-hard halfling. We revive the halfling who explains that his name is Elias (*sigh*) and that he's part of an independent adventuring company called the Six Swords. Apparently, they'd stumbled across a reference to this place from some long-forgotten treasure pile and had just broken in when the earthquakes, gibbers and drake hounds broke them up. Elias had come over from the fire node side of the complex. He'd crossed the gap over a temporary bridge the gibbers must've built (yay!), but pushed the boards into the gap after coming over (boo!). After ascertaining that he was probably an ok guy (and after Hendel gang-pressed him back into the Legion), we let him up. He cut off the ears of the ferals he killed "for the bounty". Bounty? You get cash money for gibber ears? Not if you're in the army apparently. Bastards.
My tirade on how a free market system would improve overall shieldwall defenses were put on hold. Elias had been in the fire node and seen a large model of the city of Icewatch. The varten were inscribing a large silver rind into it. They also mentioned that preparations at the Earth temple would soon be complete. Now, Elias is no expert in ritual magic, but it hardly takes a genius of my caliber to realize that we need to break up whatever is going on and we need to do it now. Despite the time needed to get across the gap (with two halflings we can make a halfling bola), going for the fire node is still faster than going for the Earth node. So it's back to the chasm to work out the engineering.
But as soon as we arrive back in the chasm room, there's another earthquake. A giant hole opens up in the ground and Blaze and Alzor slid from view. There was no time to help as another section of wall collapsed and filthy naked dwarves came pouring out. Oh, pardon me, not Dwarves, Derro. Hendel seemed disinclined to parley so there was a big fight. We won. I was too distracted thinking about the ritual nearing completion and my spells were for crap. Clearly a failure of concentration on my part. But they were basically primitive cave-dwarves and for the most part we battered them down.
At the end of the fight, Blaze managed to crawl back up out of the hole she fell into but Alzor was gone. Poor fellow, I barely knew him. Oh well. Gain a new guy, lose a new guy I guess.
Now we're trying to get a bridge thrown up over the span. Although it doesn't fit the "smashy-smashy" profile of the group, I'm hoping we can capture both nodes intact. I'm not sure what effect they're attempting to inflict on Icewatch, but if the nodes can act on areas some distance from the main complex, then I suspect we could use the nodes in defense. Putting up a lava field in front of the Shieldwall should blunt the Northman attack quite nicely.
later
Tom
At last, after days of pointless wandering, we have a solid plan of attack for clearing this complex and getting the hell out of here. Although if we don't get a move on, it won't be worth coming up for daylight.
We took a long breather after our fight with the Drow. Ander and Thrace rejoined us and during the wait, Ander asked if I could transfer the magical enchantments from a longsword we'd found in battle to Ander's scimitar. An easily accomplished task. You ritually consume the first item, vomit forth the ectoplasmic essence of the magical bindings and then smear the plasm over the item to be enchanted. The plasm sets into the object and you're ready to go.
For some reason, the party was rather put out by all of this.
Oh, the Drow had a moonsword (claimed rather fiercely by Alanna) and a magical sword and scourge. I offered to transfer any magical effects for those weapons, but no one wanted to take the time apparently. Which was fine by me. We were wasting time and scourges give me gas.
The drow came up from the left side of a pair of steps, so we decide to follow them back down their path. Kestrel and Shay led the way and discovered a trap left behind by the Drow . Shay "disarmed" it. Then, proving that failure is a learning opportunity and that pain is a great motivator, disarmed the trap.
The steps led down to a wide shelf overlooking a vast chasm. Across the chasm was a long, narrow bridge with a series of platforms every so often. There was also a narrow set of stairs on the side leading to a catwalk looking down over the entrance. Kestrel and Shay examined the stairs and the catwalk and pronounced everything safe. But before the rest of us could leave the safety of the stairwell, Kestrel decided to take a quick peek up the other stairwell coming down from where we fought the Drow. She gave a yelp and went skittering away shouting something about a dragon.
There was a dragon.
A white dragon that burst from its stairwell, rushed onto the shelf and promptly blasted us all with a wave of cold and ice. Many of us, including myself were completely disoriented. Luckily, not everyone was as badly affected and they were able to mount some basic defense. Eventually, I shook off the effects of the chilling breath and, although seriously wounded, stepped forward to support my comrades with a magic missile. I got in a solid shot, but this only enraged the vile lizard and it immediately sent out another freezing blast that swept over me in a burst of white that quickly faded to black as I faded from consciousness.
Fortunately, I have learned from my previous brush with death. I had positioned myself strategically near the cleric, who quickly revived me. Upon coming to, I spied a band of gibbers rushing across the bridge towards our position. Although the dragon was still a menace, it was surrounded on three sides by our strongest warriors and not looking too good. Stopping the gibbers from reliving the dragon was obviously my priority so I let loose with some flames that cooked the gibbers to a satisfying crisp.
At this point, the dragon struck a mortal blow to Shay who fell beneath its terrible claws. Thrace or Anders were nearby and one of them kept him from sliding all the way into oblivion, but Taras contributed as best he could by tipping the dragon over on its side. Reminded me of some of the japes my friends and I perpetrated at college. By the time the dragon was back on its claws, Shay was up as well and he went completely berserk, plunging his sword into the dragon and killing it. The dragon fell into the chasm but left behind enough claws/fangs/scales to give everyone a suitable trophy.
After resting up we crossed over the bridge to the other side of the gap. Every 30 yards or so was another platform and on the platform was a pair of ballistas. Apparently, there was something that came up from the pits every so often that needed shooting down. I can't tell you how thrilled I was to see that.
On the far side of the bridge is an opening to a large room and flanking the doors are two statues. One is of an avalanche or rockslide and the other is a large pillar of flames. Hendel mentions that these are emblematic of the Dwarven belief that they arose from rock and fire. I had to suppress my urge to laugh. The religious superstitions of otherwise reliable people in these enlightened times never ceases to amaze me. Everyone with half a brain can look to the evidence and see that all intelligent beings (except the Warforged, obviously) were created during a particularly spectacular moment of onanism by the Source. Where His seed fell upon the mountains, the Dwarves were born. Where it fell upon the woods, the Elves were born. Where it fell upon the swamps, the dragonborn and other reptilian races were born. Humans, of course, were what the Source was considering at the moment of release and thus we were formed whole from His desires (although I'd hardly be so elitist as to claim this give humans any special status). Centuries of political spin by the various gods have clearly done more harm than good.
At any rate, we enter the large room. Like much of this place, it seems unfinished. The only notable feature is a large mosaic pattern in the floor made up of large tile panels that appear to be jumbled up. Obviously it's a puzzle of some sort and probably trapped in some fashion. Kestrel and Shay confirmed the latter hypothesis by triggering the trap. the rock statue slammed down, trapping us within the room. Although we couldn't see it, the quickly rising temperatures suggested the the flame statue was heating the rock and threatening to cook us in the oven-shaped room like a pizza.
Time was of the essence and once again, I had to step in to (quite literally) pull everyone's bacon from the fire. Directing my two able assistants Kestrel and Shay, I initialized the puzzle pattern and quickly began to solve it. The Dwarves left behind any number of clever twists, like panels that could be flipped to the other side and locking sub-sections that would only move when other portions of the puzzle were solved, but the basic pattern was almost immediately obvious. When complete, the puzzle would form a giant dwarven face. After several, rather warm minutes, we completed the puzzle and deactivated the trap. The statues returned to their proper form and we were free to leave.
The completed pattern however, was quite informative. The center of the pattern was clearly a map of this complex. Deciphering the icons and colored lines connecting the map provided another important clue. This facility contains two very powerful magical nodes. One attuned to fire, the other attuned to earth. The fire runes the Gibbers possess might be part of their efforts to control the fire node. The earthquakes we've experienced recently might be part of some botched attempts to control the Earth node. In either case, these powerful control centers must be captured as quickly as possible. There is absolutely no time to delay.
So, of course, the party decides to bed down for the night. To be fair, we have just fought a dragon. But both nodes are a long ways away and we'll have to do a lot of walking to get there. Time, as I mentioned, is of the essence. To think of those barbarian gibbers and varten banging away on terrifying power sources with their sticks and bones was not at all comforting. But no matter, it's beauty rest for everyone and so we camp.
We don't die during the night and quickly make our way back over the bridge. We've decided to go for the Earth node first in part because we'd explored in that direction earlier and in part because the fire node was across the chasm with the collapsed bridge. Securing one of the nodes quickly was a priority. We retraced our steps back to the gibber barracks we'd camped out in the night before. In the barracks were two dead feral gibbers and one, not-quite-dead-but-trying-hard halfling. We revive the halfling who explains that his name is Elias (*sigh*) and that he's part of an independent adventuring company called the Six Swords. Apparently, they'd stumbled across a reference to this place from some long-forgotten treasure pile and had just broken in when the earthquakes, gibbers and drake hounds broke them up. Elias had come over from the fire node side of the complex. He'd crossed the gap over a temporary bridge the gibbers must've built (yay!), but pushed the boards into the gap after coming over (boo!). After ascertaining that he was probably an ok guy (and after Hendel gang-pressed him back into the Legion), we let him up. He cut off the ears of the ferals he killed "for the bounty". Bounty? You get cash money for gibber ears? Not if you're in the army apparently. Bastards.
My tirade on how a free market system would improve overall shieldwall defenses were put on hold. Elias had been in the fire node and seen a large model of the city of Icewatch. The varten were inscribing a large silver rind into it. They also mentioned that preparations at the Earth temple would soon be complete. Now, Elias is no expert in ritual magic, but it hardly takes a genius of my caliber to realize that we need to break up whatever is going on and we need to do it now. Despite the time needed to get across the gap (with two halflings we can make a halfling bola), going for the fire node is still faster than going for the Earth node. So it's back to the chasm to work out the engineering.
But as soon as we arrive back in the chasm room, there's another earthquake. A giant hole opens up in the ground and Blaze and Alzor slid from view. There was no time to help as another section of wall collapsed and filthy naked dwarves came pouring out. Oh, pardon me, not Dwarves, Derro. Hendel seemed disinclined to parley so there was a big fight. We won. I was too distracted thinking about the ritual nearing completion and my spells were for crap. Clearly a failure of concentration on my part. But they were basically primitive cave-dwarves and for the most part we battered them down.
At the end of the fight, Blaze managed to crawl back up out of the hole she fell into but Alzor was gone. Poor fellow, I barely knew him. Oh well. Gain a new guy, lose a new guy I guess.
Now we're trying to get a bridge thrown up over the span. Although it doesn't fit the "smashy-smashy" profile of the group, I'm hoping we can capture both nodes intact. I'm not sure what effect they're attempting to inflict on Icewatch, but if the nodes can act on areas some distance from the main complex, then I suspect we could use the nodes in defense. Putting up a lava field in front of the Shieldwall should blunt the Northman attack quite nicely.
later
Tom