Ches 3
Ches 3, 1370: (nearly full moon)
High = -15, Low = -30
Trace precipitation (1/2" snow) starting @ 8:10am
Wind gusting to 25 mph from the west.
Partly cloudy most of the day.
Shortly after sunup, Ag looks out through the doorway of the
Amethyst Tower and notices a huge flattened area of snow right in
front of the door, just before a dragon that was sitting there
drops his invisibility spell right in front of him (almost nose to
nose). Remarkably, Ag makes his roll vs. cowardice (the GM didn't
remember until later that there should be modifiers in cases like
this) and remains in place and continent. The dragon opens with
"So what shall we have for breakfast?"
The party gives all of their venison to the dragon, a gem dragon
whose name is Greskactl in his tongue, Crystalblight in Common and
Bad Gem in Orcish. He claims that the party has violated his
territory and therefore are subject to being eaten. He further
explains that they have not broken his treaty with the orcs, since
there aren't any real orcs in the party. Oguch looks a little
sheepish. He then explains that he's willing to let the party
slide on getting eaten this time if they'll just collect
all of the gems in and below the white & red tower that was
protected by the force field (gems are apparently his favorite
food). He assured the party that he could a) get the force field
down for 10 minutes and b) detect gems by smell well enough to
know if the party was holding out on him.
The party returned to the protected tower and Crystalblight joined
them there. He explained that the party should also bring him a
map of the dungeon below the tower and report on any goblins or
gargoyles that they encounter, as he is in an ongoing conflict
with The Beastmaster - an Illithilich who controls the surrounding
mines and underground tunnels and commands an army of goblins and
gargoyles.
Crystalblight brought down the wards around the tower with a
combination of spellcasting, breath weapon and a massive roar that
nearly deafened they entire party and they hurried inside the
ward's boundary.
Dexter used a Detect Traps spell to determine that the
doors and windows were all magically trapped, but didn't get a
chance to point out the trap inside the door before Henkles set it
off, receiving some electrical damage. The first
floor (9' high ceiling) was one large banquet hall with stairs
going up and down. The only things of value that had survived the
passage of time and/or centuries of magic poisoning were two
ornate silver candlesticks, worth 250gp each. In
addition to the front & back doors and entryways, there were also
traps on the first step of each stairway, with kickpoints beside
them to deactivate them for 10 minutes.
The second floor (also with a 9' high ceiling) was a large open
L-shaped kitchen area around a large rectangular room (20'x40')
which when opened was found to be magically chilled. It still
held a fair amount of frozen foods on shelves, apparently well
preserved. The party found a 5 piece silverware set for 12 people
in the kitchen and took it. The pattern
of traps on the steps continued.
The third floor was a single huge 30' by 60' chamber with a
ceiling 28 feet overhead. The walls, floor and ceiling were all
bare marble, scored or discolored in many places. The only
furniture in the room was a "desk" consisting of a wooden desktop
floating at a convenient height above the floor for a standing
human, and a glowing glass globe floating near the desk. There
was a single switch on the side of the desk and some papers, a
bottle of dried ink, a worn quill from some exotic bird and a
glass paperweight on top. Instead of stairs, there was a series
of metal rungs set in the wall near where the desk was floating,
forming a ladder up to a trap door in the ceiling. A test of the
switch revealed that it caused the desktop to float up to the
ceiling with sufficient speed and force to crush the bottle and
paperweight. Flipping the switch back (from the ladder) lowered
it back down. The notes on the desk were part of some spell
research project. Dexter collected them for later
study.
Ag tried to grab the floating sphere, which he was able to do, but
after that the sphere was constantly trying to float behind and
above him, like a tall and stubborn torch bearer. Further
experimentation showed that he could cause the light to dim all
the way to complete darkness or get brighter with a thought.
Other people touching the globe seemed to have no affect on its
attachment to Ag.
On poking their heads up to the next level, the party was startled
by a "coat rack" made from the top half of an animated skeleton
attached to a stand, which collected their cloaks and other
outerware and returned them when the party left. This prepared
them for the surprise of the butler - another animated skeleton
which offered them drinks of a very nice wine from a decanter it
had ready. The level was a large open area with a 9' ceiling like
the first level, but it was clearly divided into a bedroom area
and a library area. Darius reported that none of the books were
magical or relevant to magical research, but he grabbed a couple
that might have value to scholars. A search of the room showed
that most of the clothing had deteriorated past the point of
value, but the party did find 2 gold chains, a silver belt buckle,
a platinum circlet and a platinum necklace, all of excellent
craftmanship.
The ladder in the wall continued up to a trap door in the roof,
but it was too securely locked to open safely. Ag? (is this
right? should it be Mrap-M'rap?) flew around from a window to
check out the roof, but the only things up there were the rock and
stick that the party had left on the force field the day before.
The party returned to the first level and proceeded into the
basement, noting that the pattern of stair traps continued.
Beyond a door thirty feet below ground level they entered a
30'x30' room with doors in the right and opposite walls containing
some cleaning equipment and other basic tools. The walls of this
room and the next were lit with metal spikes glowing with
continual light set in the wall. Through the door to the right
they found a 20'x30' wine cellar. They were also surprised to
discover that the skeletal butler had followed them down from the
fourth floor and was now trying to refil the decanter it had been
serving them from. It was hampered in its efforts by the
discovery that many corks had popped off as the wine went bad over
the centuries and it had no nose to test the rest with. The
butler got Henkles to smell three bottles for it (all bad) before
the party left it to its now hopeless quest.
The other door from the toolroom led to another trapped flight of
stairs leading down 30' to a 30'x40' laboratory, also magically
lit. Most of the materials in the lab have long since become
useless and many tools have rusted away, but the party does find a
large jar with a quite animate and angry scorpion inside, 4 small
bottles of different liquids wic radiate magic, one large clear
jug of a viscous liquid that also radiates magic and a small white
ceramic object, about 2 inches long and bulging-cigar shaped, also
magical.
The door to the right led to a corridor with 4 10'x10' cells on
either side and a 20'x20' room with a well at the end. There were
skeletons in some of the cells. These rooms were also magically
lit.
The other door from the lab led to another stairway going down.
This one was magically darkened with multiple spells. It took the
destruction of four continual light buttons to dispell the
darkness. There were three trapped steps on this stairway (first,
third and last) and no kickplates to deactivate them. The
stairway descended 60 feet before entering a large chamber.
The chamber was 70' wide, 40' long and 130' from floor to ceiling.
The floor was 110' below where the stairs entered the room, but
they continued their descent through the room, leaving through the
opposite wall 40' lower than they had entered. The steps were 10'
wide slabs of marble, 1 inch thick, apparently floating in space.
The distant floor was lined with long spikes. The Detect
Traps spell showed that every other step was magically trapped
in some way. Beyond the (magically lit) room, the stairs became a
corridor continuing onward.
Stalker and Ag joined Ursula on Deep Rear Guard. Active at this
point (6/19/09 game, IRL) were Chusnog, Darius, Denyae, Deringa,
Dexter, Henkles, Maanamere, Mrap-M'rap, Oguch, Staric, Stalker,
Steve, and Tristan (with guest player Rickland Jr.)
Henkles stepped carefully onto the stairs and discovered that he
was in a null-magic zone.
leave buttons on stairs
one button in fanny pack
henkles goes down on rope, collects skeleton on floor
beyond null-magic/floating stair room corridor Ts, to E is large
room from which party hears noise, inside they discover "chair
golem" and 2 dead goblins, much battle, maanamere & chusnog
wounded
darius uses all CLW on chusnog
loot goblins, explore side rooms
8500xp to Darius, Denyae, Deringa, Dexter, Henkles,
Maanamere, Oguch, Staric, Stalker, Steve, and Tristan
for defeating some old furniture.
A door off of the E-W corridor leads to an "office" where
nonanimate objects would just stay floating wherever they were
placed. There were two gnoll skeletons in the room with special
boots that could walk on the ceiling. They attacked.
dexter destroys one, henkles kills other
take boots, non-crumpled paper, scrolls, silver
darius carries 2 scrolls, steve takes comp lang
130xp to Darius, Denyae, Deringa, Dexter, Henkles,
Maanamere, Oguch, Staric, Stalker, Steve, and Tristan
for gnoll skeletons
Another door lead to a room where 2 gargoyles and 6 goblins armed
with pistol crossbows with poisoned quarrels waited in ambush.
darius snowballs goblins, gargoyles killed by maanamere & henkles
collect loot, 2 darts per goblin
1010xp to Darius, Denyae, Deringa, Dexter, Henkles,
Maanamere, Oguch, Staric, Stalker, Steve, and Tristan
for gargoyles and goblins
At the west end of the T, there was a 30'dia. round chamber with a
spiral staircase circling down into darkness.
light spells magically cancelled 200 feet down
light button in fanny pack ok
floor is 300' down
bottom 12 steps (except for bottom 3) teleport anyone stepping on
them back to top
henkles pops up, experiement, orcs popped back up
henkles lowers everyone on rope, jumps down, discovers feather fall
One corridor left the bottom of the stairway, going north to where
the party spotted a bunch of goblins and gargoyles (enough to fill
the corridor as far as they could see)
henkles leaps in, discovers force field later
all but 3.4 goblins on other side of force field
orcs spot it first, then dexter
loot goblins (3 darts total)
195xp to Darius, Denyae, Deringa, Dexter, Henkles,
Maanamere, Oguch, Staric, Stalker, Steve, and Tristan
for 3.4 goblins
Party comes to realization that they've searched everyplace they
could find in the tower and dungeon without finding a single gem.
(new game day)
marching order:
stalker henkles
ag chusnog
maanamere dexter
darius
steve oguch
staric tristan
denyae deringa
The party begins methodically searching the walls for secret doors
back to stairs, search stairs, search E-W corridor, ...
In the room with the floating staircase, the Ag discovered an
invisible portal, floating about a foot away from the steps near
the middle of the room. Ag? stepped through and found a tiny
pocket dimension. The pocket dimension consists of a 50' radius
marble disc floating in a maelstrom of chaotic mist. the area
above the disk is clear for 10 feet, but everywhere else the mist
glows different colors and disturbing images seem to half form and
reform constantly in the mist. The portal opened in the middle,
facing a desk, two large sets of shelves and some large chests.
Ag went to look at the papers on the desk as others followed him
in before realizing that the other side of the disk was filled
with animated skeletons, many of them quite large.
battle ensues, some skeletons have spellcasting abilities, oguch
gets 6 pet skeletons
6560xp to Ag, Darius, Denyae, Deringa, Dexter, Henkles,
Maanamere, Oguch, Staric, Stalker, Steve, and Tristan
for sundry sorcerous skeletons
chests
1-travelling clothes, ring
2-travelling gear, magic tent, magic cooking kit
3-magic carpet 3'x5', keep 6 bolts of silk as well
4-gems
500 rubies - lost skeleton to 3d4 trap
500 emeralds
500 diamonds
5 scrolls, potionss, large jars
rack 1, 10 vials, all but 8 magic
rack 2 same but it's 3 that isn't magic
rack 3 5 long tubes of powder
rack 4 6 scrolls
rack 5 2 jars viscous fluid
bookcase - 1 skeleton lost to electrical trap
2nd disarmed & blank
(new game day - present are Dina, Ian Jay, Fred, Rickland)
Assorted party members read the scrolls to see what they held:
Scroll #1 (MU), 5 spells:
5) Zwei's 2nd extension
6) Sadebreth's reincarnation - id'd
7) Yong's dissipation
7) Noanar's delayed fireball - id'd
8) Lucke's 6th monster summons
Scroll #2 (MU), 2 spells:
3) Nalevac's deep sight
4) Zwei's 1st extension
Scroll #3 (MU), 4 spells:
3) Gwynn's vampirism
8) Lucke's 6th monster summons
8) Kutson's antipathy/sympathy
10) Proctiv's move mountain
Scroll #4 (MU), 4 spells:
4) Proctiv's dig - id'd
4) Zwei's 1st extension
5) Stoca's fauna growth
7) Toscudlo's bulk invisibility
Scroll #5 (MU), 3 spells:
6) Lucke's 4th monster summons
8) Anglin's wall
9) Smolyn's foreseer
Scroll #6 (MU), 2 spells:
7) Toscudlo's bulk invisibility
10) Mavin's create volcano
Steve was able to confirm that Sadebreth's reincarnation is the
spell now known as Reincarnation, Noanar's delayed fireball is now
known as Delayed Blast Fireball and Proctiv's dig is now simply
known as Dig. The other spells were presumed to also be known by
different names now.
The party decided to get Ag to disarm all of the electrical traps
on the first set of 45 books to see what they found. Ag got
zapped on the third book (#5 but pressed on. The party quickly
figured out that there were three 1st level spell books spaced one
every seven books (7, 14, 21) followed by three 2nd level books
eight apart (29, 37, 45), etc. Some spell books were empty to
keep the three-books-per-level pattern. They went up to 10th
level spells (after which Ag got zapped again where the 11s should
have been):
1) Aksa's growth
1) Aksa's repair
1) Brightfinger's dancers
1) Brightfinger's light
1) Carbury's servant
1) Carbury's spook
1) Decampus's alarm
1) Efteran's sleep
1) General Matick's armor
1) Jarm's mount
1) Keonid's charm human
1) Keonid's friendship
1) M'dhal's dispel evil
1) Nalevac's spray
1) Niquie's reflection
1) Quantoul's changer
1) Quantoul's climber
1) Shan's tallow
1) Trebbe's scry identify
1) Trebbe's scry magic
1) Trebbe's scry undead
1) Undine's hold portal
1) Veridon's wall - id'd as Wall of Fog
1) Xanad's glamer
1) Xanad's message
1) Yturn's feather fall
1) Zahn's familiar
2) Carbury's improved force
2) Cragh's deafness
2) Enollar's isolation
2) Fahren's darkness
2) Hamring's hypnopattern
2) Jarm's spectral hand
2) Jarm's summon swarm
2) Pockall's invisibility
2) Primidon's pyrotechnics
2) Primidon's sphere
2) Ptack's knock
2) Ptack's locking(1)
2) Quantoul's alterer
2) Shan's web
2) Smolyn's blindness
2) Smolyn's replica
2) Tolodine's stinking cloud
2) Trebbe's scry alignment
2) Undine's rope
2) Veridon's cloud
2) Vilate's restriction - id'd as Bind
2) Yturn's levitation
2) Zahn's location
3) Aksa's object
3) Carbury's spectral force
3) Carbury's steed
3) Enollar's delusion
3) Gwynn's feign death
3) Gwynn's vampirism - failed to id
3) Keonid's suggestion
3) Lucke's 1st monster summons - id'd as Monster Summoning I
3) M'dhal's missile shield
3) Noanar's fireball - id'd as Fireball
3) Oberon's blinking
3) Primidon's arrow
3) Prug's hold human
3) Prug's hold the dead
3) Ptack's secret script
3) Quantoul's wraithmorph
3) Stoca's water breath
3) Stoca's wings
3) Tipald's runes
3) Tolodine's gust of wind
3) Volhm's bolt
3) Zahn's seeing
4) Carbury's killer
4) Fjord's vacancy
4) Keonid's confusion
4) Keonid's emotion
4) Keonid's fear
4) Lucke's 2nd monster summons
4) Pockall's invisibility plus
4) Pockall's monster hex - id'd as Charm Monster
4) Quantoul's manymorph
4) Quantoul's othermorph
4) Quantoul's selfmorph
4) Rohgero's Pummeling Servant
4) Stoca's feign
4) Toscudlo's hallucinatory terrain
4) Toscudlo's illusionary wall
4) Trebbe's minor invulnerability
4) Trebbe's scry scrying
4) Veridon's ice wall
4) Zwei's 1st extension
5) Aksa's contrivance
5) Aksa's passage
5) Berthot's disorder
5) Fjord's animation
5) Fjord's distortion
5) Hamring's feeblemind
5) Mavin's iron wall
5) Oberon's teleportation
5) Proctiv's rock-mud transmution
5) Shadow's demimonster
5) Shan's forcewall
5) Stoca's fauna growth
5) Tolodine's cloudkill
5) Toscudlo's advanced illusion
5) Zwei's 2nd extension
6) Aksa's glassteel
6) Enollar's mislead
6) Fourfinger's lower water
6) Jarm's saga
6) Kutson's programmed illusion
6) Proctiv's earthmove
6) Proctiv's water-dust transmution
6) Shadow's shades
6) Tolodine's death fog
6) Toscudlo's permanent illusion
6) Trebbe's invulnerability
6) Valdick's snare
6) Volhm's chaining
7) Enollar's aimlessness
7) Lucke's 5th monster summons
7) Oberon's flawless teleport
7) Prug's plant control
7) Quantoul's flat body
7) Quantoul's statue
7) Sadebreth's undead control
7) Trebbe's turning
7) Valdick's forcecage
8) Aksa's morphing
8) Anglin's wall
8) Dethed's clone
8) Kutson's mind blank
8) Lucke's 6th monster summons
8) Primidon's cloud
8) Toscudlo's dominate
9) Ptack's brittleness
9) Smolyn's foreseer
9) Trebbe's weird
9) Valdick's gate
10) Mavin's create volcano
10) Mavin's earthfast
Steve and Darius were able to identify some of the spells here
that they already had knowledge of. Darius stated that given time
he would be able to figure them all out (the unknown ones would
probably take longer).
At this point, Dexter pointed out that he had another Detect
Traps spell ready, the party groaned, and Dexter pointed out
all the remaining non-trapped books (all on the other bookshelf,
each one the fifth in a set):
Book 1130: Lab notebook, studies in Fjord's work on Necromancy
Book 1175: Lab notebook, studies in gravity
Book 1355: Lab notebook, studies in Fjord's work on Necromancy
Book 1400: Lab notebook, studies in gravity
Book 1445: Hollow, 5 Ioun stones
- pink rhomboid, +1 Con - Darius "carried" it
- pearly white spindle
- pale lavender ellipsoid
- 2 x dull gray ellipsoid, burnt out
Book 1580: Lab notebook, studies in Fjord's work on Necromancy
Book 1625: Lab notebook, Darius couldn't figure it out
Book 1670: Shameful Tome of Dishonorable Attacks
Book 1715: Hollow, 3 Magic Darts, Wand of Lightning Fan
Book 1760: empty
Book 1805: Lab notebook, studies in Conjuration
Book 1850: Lab notebook, Darius couldn't figure it out
Book 2030: Lab notebook, studies in Conjuration
Book 2075: Lab notebook, Darius couldn't figure it out
Steve used his Legend Lore ability to identify the carpet as a
Carpet of Flying and the wand as a Wand of Lightning Fan. No luck
w/darts or ring. Darius then connected the command words he'd run
across in the notebooks with the Carpet and the Wand.
The party slept on the demiplane.
Elsewhere:
Rumors spread of mysterious "troop movements" in the eastern High
Forest.
