Gygax & Greyhawk Session # 75 - The Wizards End

DRAMATIS PERSONAE:

Skeef Hawkridge (Half Elf Druid 7 / Thief 7) 
Goro (Half Orc Cleric 6 / Fighter 6) 
Solcha (Elf Fighter 5 / Magic User 6) 
Chanee (Human Paladin 5)
[Baqua Irontoes (Halfling Fighter 4 / Thief 5)]

Date/Time

Wealsun 12 (morning) to Wealsun 14 (morning) 

The party takes one last scan of the bedchamber and decides it is time to head back down to the laboratory to figure out what to do with whatever pulsed and swirled above the pentagram. But as they head for the stairs, Solcha notes a strange crunching sounds emanating from her backpack. Opening it up, she is horrified to find a pair of the big green worms crewing up her spell book! One is quickly squished, but the other escapes to the sounds of muttered sweary elfish.   

One back in the laboratory, they decide to remove Asflag (assuming that is who it is) from the swirling ashen cloud, hoping that will close the gate or portal. A complex collection of rope is used to brace around the pillars at the edge of the room. Solcha lassos the legs as they pass by, and the whole party heaves and pulls the body out of the cloud. Horrified, they see the upper half of the body is partly skeletal, defleshed, torn and bleeding and diseased. Equally horrifying is the view through the 'hole' left in the cloud; a gloomy dull grey landscape emanating waves of ennui. As the party turns to see what can be done to help/pump information from Asflag, a cloud of green-grey spores shoot out of the cloud causing all the hack and cough. This is shortly followed of a trio of strange creatures, like man-size storks with wickly long and sharp beaks, and human like hands.   Battle ensures, and the party takes much hurt before the three vile things are destroyed. 

Turning to Asflag, they try to question the wizard. But being short of tongue and missing part of his brain, communication is difficult and degenerates into grunts and pointing. Solcha use a potion of ESP to pry into what little grey matter is left. She learns the wizard had been trying to entrap the Oniodaemon from the glooms of Hades, but something went wrong and he was himself pulled partly into the Lower Plane. Asked how to close the gate, his response was a bit confusing and garbled, but they party surmised either someone has to go though  the cloud and close the gate from the other side; or they had to 'reverse' the pentagram on the floor.  They opted for the second, and the party started work under Solcha's supervision, shifting the diamond powder forming the pentagram into the mirror image of that protective device.  Chanee, refusing to even touch such an evil thing, dispatches the dying Asflag and stuffs the body back in the hole, hoping that will block it while the party works. That work takes painstaking hours to shift the grains perfectly one by one. Nearly complete, it is interrupted by another strange creature that pushes Asflags body out of the way and bursts  out of the grey haze; round with five wicked clawed arms, three legs and a beetle like head. It grabs Skeef with all five claws and nearly kills the druid with one blow; luckily the blades and magic of the rest of the party destroy it before it destroys Skeef. 

Successfully completing the mirror pentagram, the party watches the cloud quickly fade and disappear. And then they sweep up the diamond dust, hoping the gate does not come back. Which luckily for them, it does not. They also gather up the dead wizard, wishing to speak with dead with him later. 

They leave the tower, going over the wall (on which they note the flickering electrical protection is now weaker than before) and head for a new inn, "The Tall Queen", to try shaking any wizardly attentions. There Skeef and Solcha examine the spellbook, and the thief opens the three locks on the lead bound tome. This releases an enchantment that withers Skeef's left leg, a ray that drains Baqua's strength, and an umber hulk that tries to kill them all. Everyone survives, and they settle in to rest so they can memorize new spells in the morning. 

In the morning, Goro speaks with Asflag and learns the crystal ball and carpet of flying are actually his; it would appear the two College wizards had lied about their ownership. He also extracted the command word ("command word") for the carpet of flying before letting the wizard return to his final rest. However, when Solcha goes looking for the crystal ball, she finds it is missing. A locate object from Goro points them to the College of Wizardry and Thaumaturgistry; it seems the gnome Endoc obtained the object of his desire afterall. 

After letting Solcha salivate over her new (sadly somewhat worm-eaten) spellbooks for a bit, the party prepared to head out to the College and discuss payment for a successful job from their employers ... 

GAINS

3 gems [3x 100gp]

Diamond Dust (15000gp)  

2 Spell Books

KILLS/VICTORIES

1 Bookworm

3 Diakk

1 Deghordaemon

12 Umber Hulk 

LOSSES

Full use of Skeef's left leg 

Gygax & Greyhawk Session # 74 - The Upper Tower

DRAMATIS PERSONAE:

Skeef Hawkridge (Half Elf Druid 7 / Thief 7) 
Goro (Half Orc Cleric 6 / Fighter 6) 
Solcha (Elf Fighter 5 / Magic User 6) 
Chanee (Human Paladin 5)
[Baqua Irontoes (Halfling Fighter 4 / Thief 5)]

Date/Time

Wealsun 9 (early morning) to Wealsun 12 (morning) 

The party returns to the The Unicorn & Tankard and settles in to rest, recover spells and heal up. Having taken quite a battering , the healing part took a few days. They also are accosted by the three wizards who hired them, who interrogate the party about the state of the job, including their individual "side quests". The scoundrel Tullintot takes to opportunity to charm Goro into making sure the party turns over the spellbooks when found.  

On the third day, the party returns to Asflags tower to rescue their petrified companion. They climb the wall, enter the towers servant entrance, and move swiftly through the entrance hall with the brass snake chandeliers, and back to the landing on the second floor. Where thankfully Chanee still stands, Goro and Skeef open up with a barrage of dispel magic. But alas none are successful on the paladin. So the party retraces steps, heads to another inn (to avoid the attention of their wizardly employers) to rest up and memorize more spells. And once more return; and this time is successful in bringing the paladin back to flesh and dispelling the petrification trap on the door as well. And the charm person on Goro. 

Beyond the door is Asflags circular library, stuffed with long curved lines of shelves loaded with books, scrolls, and tablets. The party proceeds carefully using find traps and detect magic to wend their way safely towards the centre, where lies two large tombs that appear to be spell books. Both are trapped, so Solcha carefully slips them into sack to investigate latter. Goro likewise wipes clear a shelf of volumes on the lower plane; for research purposes of course. 

Having looted the library, they head up the stairs to the next floor. This passage is interrupted when Solcha notes a strange green worm crawling up Goro's leg. She flicks it free with her sword, and the critter wiggles away like greased lighting. Vermeology complete, they reach the top of the stairs and enter the wizards laboratory. At the center, above a pentagram of silvery powder,  swirls a vaporous mass of dark ashen grey. Out of which stick a a pair of legs. Asflag, or part of him, presumably. Chanee helpfully informs the party that this thing is Evil. The party concurs. Solcha checks the pentagram, and a quick glance suggests it is intact. Feeling confident they can leave this thing in their rear, they party proceeds to the trap door in the ceiling which leads into Asflags bedchamber. They see right away the carpet of flying, crystal ball, and a chest. Which they pop open to find a fortune of gems, gold and platinum. But looting is interrupted when an octet of gargoyles burst through the (curiously unseen from outside) windows and attack. The battle turns in their favor by a tried combination of spells from Solcha, blades from Goro, Chanee and Baqua, and a stink cloud from Skeef (who transforms into a giant skunk). 

GAINS

carpet of flying [6x9]

crystal ball

400pp

1100gp 

Black Opal (1000 gp) Black Pearl (500 gp) Black Star Sapphire (1000 gp) 2 Bloodstone (50 gp) Bright

Green Emerald (5000 gp) Carnelian (50 gp) Citrine (50 gp) Deep Blue Spinel (500 gp) Emerald (1000

gp) Eye Agate (10 gp) Freshwater Pearl (10 gp) Golden Yellow Topaz (500 gp) 2 x Iolite (50 gp) 2

Jade (100 gp) Jasper (50 gp) Jet (100 gp) Lapis Lazuli (10 gp) 3 x Moonstone (50 gp) Obsidian (10 gp)

 2 x Star Rose Quartz (50 gp) Zircon (50 gp). [10490gp total gems] 

KILLS/VICTORIES

4 gargoyles 

LOSSES

None 

   

Gygax & Greyhawk Session # 73 - Stone Paladin

 DRAMATIS PERSONAE:

Skeef Hawkridge (Half Elf Druid 7 / Thief 7) 
Goro (Half Orc Cleric 6 / Fighter 6) 
Solcha (Elf Fighter 5 / Magic User 6) 
Chanee (Human Paladin 5)
[Baqua Irontoes (Halfling Fighter 4 / Thief 5)]

Date/Time

Wealsun 8 (night) to Wealsun 9 (early morning)

Moving on, the party finishes their exploration of the basement with a tromp through the wine caller. There they encounter wine, webs and an ettercap which is soon destroyed. When additional detailed searching fails to find further areas to explore, the party moves up to the main level. There they find Asflags ballroom, a massive room with space for  hundreds of guests. Surrounding this central area are a series of utility spaces such as storage, powder rooms, and a cloak room. In the cloak room, Goro fiddles about with the cloak pegs and finds one is actually a button. He presses it, and with a mechanical whir and grinding of stone, half the room floor starts to descend. Everyone hops on and it lowers them 50' to the end of a long tunnel. This is followed to  the end, where a narrow circular staircase twists upwards. At the top is a trapdoor, which initial efforts cannot open; it feels like there is something on top of it. A second try and it flies open, leading the party into the centre of the rock garden which they noted on their earlier stroll amongst the flower beds. They are somewhat startled when the largest rock starts moving and tries to roll over Solcha. The elf dodges, and she and the rest of the party decide the return to the tunnel, hearing what they assume is the moving boulder roll over on trapdoor of it once closed. 

There being no obvious way to get the elevator to rise again, they treck back up to stairs to the ballroom. Poking about the stage at one one of the ballroom, they find a violin on the conductors podium. Goro takes it up and starts to play; and finds he cannot stop. And begins to play faster and faster and faster. As the rest of the party desperately tries to break it or wrest it from the clerics hands, Chanee breaks into a dance along with the music. In the end, the paladin collapses from exhaustion, and Skeef uses warp wood to destroy the violin and break the spell. 

Done with ballrooms. the party moves through the double doors at the north east end of the room. These lead into a long entry hall hung with tapestries depicting pastoral scenes. At one end of the room a brass-railed stairway curves up. As the party moves into the room, the hear a faint sound of metal on metal, and suddenly a rain of brass snakes drop from the ceiling. These prove hard to hit, so the party retreats up the stairs. The snakes do not follow, and they find themselves in front of another set of double doors. Chanee reaches out to open them, and as soon as his left hand touches the brass handle, the paladin is transformed into stone! 

The party now faces a dilemma; how to get their now quarter-ton comrade past the snakes and out of the tower. But they can think of no way to do so and still avoid getting bitten to death buy the brass snakes. In the end, they decide to leave the paladin behind, and return when fully healed and re-spelled to recover him. 

GAINS

none

KILLS/VICTORIES

1 Ettercap

1 Fire Snake 

3 Brass Snakes  

LOSSES

Channe the Stone Paladin