Session 24

Members

 * Patrick - Arendar the Half Elf Warlock


 * Brittany - Ceilidh Holimion the High Elf Cleric


 * John - Ulric Von Bok the human fighter


 * Jayne - Robin the human rogue


 * Illaura - Helbena the Taldor Sorcerer


 * Ron - Sylvar the Half-Elf Bard

Special Guest:


 * Thorok Amberbrew

6The Adventure
We begin our session in the hideout of Sir Bluto Sans Pite. The party is rested and healed from their fight at the bottom of the terraced room in White Plume Mountain. Setting off in search of Blackrazor, they made their way to the bottom of the terraced room. There they found a hidden recess, and Robin triggered a trap when she tried to open it. Grabbing the leather bag and large black pearl within, the party ran for the door, just making it in time to avoid water crashing down around them.

Robin was able to move first, using a cunning action to get the door open, and everyone ran through. As they passed the doorway, a barrier formed, and they watched as the iron glass cracked and exploded outward, flooding the entire room.

In the hallway, they found an unconscious dwarf. Caelidh checked his alignment, and healed him. He introduced himself as Thorok Amberbrew, and joined the party for the rest of the adventure. Moving forth, they found a locked door, and someone (not mentioning any names here) decided that the best thing would be to knock on it.

From inside, a voice inquired who was out there and what their motives were. Unknown to the party, most of them had fallen under a confusion spell that was set in the hallway, greatly reducing their wisdom. Thorok headed in and joined the doughty halfling who seemed to live there. They shared a bong hit from a six foot bong, and Fesneq the halfling offered the rest of the party a hose.

The room was quite luxurious. The vaulted ceiling stood 15 feet overhead, and was decorated with scrollwork and mosaics. Thick rugs and cushions were strewn about the floor, and the walls were covered in tapestries. To the left was a very large couch.

The party was wary of the halfling they found. Ulric stepped into the room and noticed a huge greatsword above the door. Attempting to grab it (was it Ulric?), he was shocked by negative energy. Fesneq offered the sword in return for getting him out of White Plume Mountain. Arendar especially did not trust him.

They finally agreed that they should not split up, so the entire party took Fesneq to the entrance. Etrusca greeted both the party and Fesneq. Sensing his chance, Fesneq cast Charm Person on Helbena, and asked if she would employ him. Arendar, sensing something was amiss, covered her mouth. Fesneq turned his attention to Ulric and charmed him as well. Ulric agreed to hire the halfling. With that, Fesneq walked right over the sigil, and attempted to leave. Arendar blasted him with a spell, and Fesneq turned around, let go his illusion and showed his true form, that of an ogre mage. He threw a cone of cold down the hallway, and made a break for it. In anger, Arendar tried to jump the sigil, but was struck unconscious.

Unbeknownst to the party, an invisible Grushnik stayed behind with Blackrazor. The quasit grabbed for the blade, but quickly lost a struggle of wills and was dominated by the sword and the need to kill something to feed it a soul. Arendar knew something was up, but not what it was. As Grushnik rounded the corner, Arendar was able to establish enough control to dismiss his familiar, and the sword dropped to the floor of the watery hallway.

Sylvar ordered his dog to try and that too failed its save. Dragging both the dog and Arendar back, the party got them up, and two Djinn popped out of two portals that appeared on either side of the party.

"Not thinking of leaving, are you?  You've been so very entertaining.  I just couldn't think of letting you go, especially with those little collector's items of mine.  And since you've eliminated all of their guardians, why, you'll simply have to stay ... to take their places.  I'll have to ask you to leave all your ridiculous weapons behind and let us, Nix and Nox, escort you to the indoctrination center. I'll be most disappointed if you cause me any trouble and you have to be eliminated. Don't worry, you'll like it here."

Both Djinns created a whirlwind and started sucking the party into the portals they had created. It was a fierce battle, but the Djinns won out in the end. Helbena was the last woman standing, and finally, she too ended up in a portal.

The party came to in a large circular chamber. It appeared suspended over the center of the volcano by five crystal pillars, and the floor had a large pentagram drawn on it. Each member was trapped under glass domes. Caelidh and Arendar were in the center and the others were at the five points of the pentagram. Soon Ulric found that he could move his, and lifted it off. The rest of the party tried to get out as well. Then the Djinns appeared and combat started. The djinns hit hard, and started dropping people. Sylvar failed attempt after attempt, and Thorok helped Arendar.

The battle looked about to end poorly for the party, when Sylvar finally got free. He sang an amazing ballad and inspired the entire party. Parrying off critical hits, and re-rolling misses, the Djinns could not hold up. They were vanquished. At the center of the pentagram was a skeleton, its muscles and nervous system seemed to be regrowing. A clone of Keraptis!

Arendar destroyed it. The crystal pillars began to crack and the party felt the entire platform shudder. Water started to flow out of the northern pillar and a section opened up with a ladder. Running for their lives, the party climbed the ladder and found themselves in the hallway behind Etrusca. Etrusca greeted them, the party saw that the glowing runes were gone and ran for the exit. It appeared that Etrusca's bond was broken as well, and she followed the party out of White Plume Mountain, and just in time. Boiling hot water flooded the caverns and exploded up out of the stairwell like a geyser.

The mountain belched a huge cloud of steam and lava started to flow out of the steaming caldera. Looking at eachother, the party started running. With nothing better to do, Etrusca followed. The surrounding temperature rose and the air filled with choking ash. Glancing over her shoulder, Etrusca saw the eruption column rise into the air. Ceilidh was the first to trip, but didn't let her exhaustion stop her. Sylvar and Helbena soon followed. Arendar grabbed Helbena, Robin grabbed Ceilidh, and Ulric helped up the bard. The eruption column continued to rise. Soon Thorok succumbed to exhaustion as well. In a short time, their speed slowed by half. It was now a forced march instead of a full on run. Pushing on, Thorok passed around a tankard of beer, and the party seemed to revitalize a slight bit. It was short-lived though, and everyone felt their senses and abilities dulled.

At that point, a tremendous eruption occured. The force wave threw the party to the ground. It did not take a healer to let them all know that they had been seriously injured. With the encouragement of Etrusca, the beer of Thorok, and the battle song of Sylvar, the party pushed on. Finally, near death, Helbena, Sylvar, and Ceilidh could not go on. Their health sapped, and their speed at zero, they hit the ground.

The rest of the party, aided by Etrusca, found a small outcropping, just as the air started to fill with lightning bolts. The static buildup generated three KM long bolts of electricity along the now darkened skies. The ground shook with harmonic tremors and the air smelled of sulfur.

XP
3,700 each

Loot

 * 7400 sp


 * 800 gp
 * Black Pearl (500 gp)

Magic Items

 * Blackrazor, sword of souls


 * Folding boat

Consumables

 * Potion of invulnerability


 * 2 Potions of Superior Healing


 * Potion of clairvoyance


 * Potion of Gaseous form