Post by Bandgoat on Jan 14, 2015 15:47:36 GMT -6
Abadius 27, 4708 – Early Morning
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It is difficult to judge the passing of time here. Runeforge seems to have no visible daily cycles and it somehow maintains its denizens without the need to feed or sleep. It is only with Ryll’s and Tolgun’s communions with their gods that I can tell when a new day has dawned, reminding me that my prepared spells have faded from my memory.
We have entered the ancient Thassilonian laboratory of the arcane, though that in itself was no mean feat. After fighting off the dragon at the shore of Lake Stormunder and securing the magical keys allowing us entry to Runeforge, we ascended the massive stairway at the base of Mount Rimeskull that looked like it must have been built by giants. It must have taken years – if not decades – to complete, its structure chiseled out of the side of the mountain. The final steps led directly up to a carving of an ancient face, its open mouth forming a cavern entrance. The now-familiar seven-pointed star was etched deeply into its surface, prominently positioned at the highest section of the arch. Bones, bleached and pitted by time, lay in iced-over heaps along the visible areas of the stairway. Upon attaining the summit of the stairs, we saw that the skull at the top seemed to have been well worn by time, unlike the other Thassilonian ruins we have encountered. When we arrived at a flat landing and prepared to enter the cave, we moved toward the entrance and were set upon by a quartet of large elementals. It was a long, exhausting fight, but we destroyed two of them and the other two eventually disappeared in a bright flash as if they had been summoned.
As we entered the mountain cave, we found a natural stone cavern that tapered down to a narrow passageway, leading straight into the mountain with a slight decline. Following the path, we eventually came to a pair of large stone statues, their hands upraised as if to ward off intruders, their other hands grasping carved swords. Soril and Nala noticed that the floor of the tunnel went off into the darkness, but on the left side behind one of the statues, little bits of debris along a three-foot wide path trailed off into the darkness. Finding no obvious traps, I cautiously used a simple spell to throw small stones down the hall. Looking closer at the rubble on the path, we found that the floor was illusory, and the real floor of the tunnel sloped hazardously downward and was covered with slippery dust. There was a ledge that continued on a more horizontal path. Nala took off flying down the tunnel to scout. Surprisingly, he returned. Choosing to follow the narrow ledge, we came to the edge of a gaping chasm of darkness, huge icicles hanging down from the ceiling and coils of mist rising from below. The hole seemed to be hundreds of feet deep. Left with no other passages, we began our descent down a long, winding staircase. When we got to the bottom, we saw the walls of the cavern sparkle with sheets of ice. Seven twenty-foot tall pillars, their sides encrusted with ice and engraved with ancient glyphs and runes, surrounded an eighth pillar twice their size. Tunnels exited the central cavern winding deeper into the mountain. Yet, perhaps the most notable feature in the room was the sparkling mound of coins, works of art, gem stones, jewelry, weapons, armor, and other things poking up from a pile that occupied the northwestern section of the chasm. The seven pillars were each marked with hundreds of Thassilonian runes – arcane formulae describing each of the seven Thassilonian schools of magic. On each, we found a small keyhole a few feet off the ground, facing the central pillar. We were able to identify each pillar by its school of magic. We gathered up the rather impressive treasure hoard and searched the tunnels leading off from the central cavern. Each of the tunnels trailed off into the mountain only about forty feet before abruptly coming to an end. Returning to the central cavern, we decided to try the keys we found in the standing stones. We opened them one at a time and each pillar then began to hum and glow softly, the keys disappearing as they activated the stones. Once all of the keys had been inserted and turned, activating all of the pillars, the central pillar glowed and hummed very loudly. Ripples of light appeared, each of the pillars shooting a beam of light toward the center, causing a vortex to appear – looking like some sort of magical teleportation portal. We cautiously checked it out, but eventually chose to enter the portal to see where it led. Once we all passed through the portal, it closed, giving no impression of how to reopen it again. We then noticed that each of us now wore a small necklace with a key hanging from it. It seemed to be permanently attached to each of us.
We traveled down a long tunnel and entered into a domed chamber, nearly 200 feet across, the room in which I now sit. We knew immediately that this was the Runeforge. A large pool of bubbling, prismatic liquid occupies the center of a raised dais in the middle of the chamber. The spiky flanges of the seven-pointed sihedron are engraved into the marble floor. Each tip of the enormous rune points at a twenty five foot tall statue facing the pool with its back approximately ten feet from a partially concealed arched opening in the wall directly behind it. Each statue depicts a different figure, but all are imperious and finely detailed. They look like the seven runelords of Thassilon. The best we could guess when we first entered, the pool was filled with liquid magic. We thought it was quite curious. Upon touching the liquid, Nala got quite sickened, his senses being assaulted by the magic of the pool.
All of the tunnels trailed off into the darkness, except for the tunnel corresponding to abjuration magic. It seemed much shorter than all of the others. We decided to take that tunnel first. As we stepped into the tunnel, a voice boomed out a resounding command, “Stop!” The source was a large, disembodied human mouth stretched across the ceiling of this section of the tunnel. It continued, “These are the abjurant halls of eager striving. Know that your powers will be crushed and you shall die. You are not worthy.” At that point, I noticed that my key necklace felt warm to the touch and gave me a nice, euphoric feeling, like coming home after a long absence, making me feel more powerful. Ryll and Soril said their necklaces grew freezing cold and they felt disheartened and out of focus. We continued down the hallway a short distance and then a wide staircase of stone descended into a large partially caved-in chamber. The murals and decorative bas-reliefs on the walls had been blasted and fractured from what must have been a titanic war of magic. Sooty humanoid bones were scattered about and flames sporadically flickered along the walls and floor, as if the room still resonated with the power unleashed there. Electrical discharges sparked from a silver rod protruding from the floor in the center of the room. It almost looked like the metal rod had fused with the floor. A magical appraisal revealed that the rod appeared to be a damaged rod of cancellation magic. We thought the rod was an after-effect from the battle that took place there. However, after looking around the room for a few seconds, the rod discharged and turned some of our magical items into worthless trinkets, permanently negating their magical energies. After that, we decided to leave before more of our items were damaged.
While returning to the circular entry room of Runeforge, Ryll’s, Soril’s, and my necklaces all returned to normal, seeming to leave us with no lasting effects. We next proceeded down the hallway represented by the runelord Sorshen, the practitioner of enchantment magic. That hallway was much, much longer than the first one. As we passed through and into the hallway, Tolgun received the euphoric feeling that I had previously experienced. Nala and Ryll both suffered from their pendants. We reached the end of the tunnel, and emerged into a chamber. The grand cathedral we witnessed could be called nothing less than opulent. The floor was covered in polished red and white tiles. Thick pillars, carved into likenesses of the same beautiful nude woman with long flowing hair, circled the room and supported the domed ceiling nearly a hundred feet above where a gargantuan mural depicted men and women engaged in all manner of carnal acts, offending my sensibilities. Numerous cubes lined the outer ring of the cathedral while at the center stood a pavilion of opaque silk sheets. Near the walls of the cathedral stood several delicate looking cages, their sides more decorative than practical. Some of them contained what appeared to be long dead bodies, although one body in a cage in one of the chamber’s corners seemed to cling to life.
Tolgun entered the chamber to investigate, seeing a possibly injured person to tend. Once he moved over to the cage, we heard cackling and taunting from a quartet of winged demon maidens who had been hiding among the ornate decorations high above. Soril said they were half-breeds, some demented cross between demonic succubi and humans. Tolgun strolled up to the cage containing the still-living human. The interior of the cage contained a shivering man wearing little more than a set of chains and a thick leather collar. A pair of clay bowls occupied one corner and a pile of straw sat in another. He appeared dirty and unkempt, but otherwise uninjured. His confines appeared to be made of gold and silver, more decorative than useful; however, there was some sort of magical field surrounding it, most likely a second cage of force magic. We moved toward the curtain-covered pavilion in the center of the chamber. When we did, the semi-succubi attacked us. In our minds, we heard a feminine voice utter, “What is your purpose here, mortal.” Tolgun said something belligerent and stupid. Unsurprisingly, a fight ensued. The demonic half-breeds attacked with mental attacks and pole arms. We eventually killed three of them, though the fourth teleported away. We took a moment to heal ourselves and then we continued, investigating the large structure in the middle of the room. Numerous thick rugs, cushions, and tasseled pillows covered the floor of that decadent chamber. Strange exotic scents were in the air, likely coming from several smoldering braziers and censors placed on elegant silver stands in the corners of the room. There was also a contingent of stone giants in the curtain-covered chamber. After a few words in exchange with them, we learned that they were the thralls of a mistress named Delvahine. After a moment of tense conversation, we were begrudgingly allowed to continue farther into the chamber. The air in the farthest room was unusually close, seeming almost to shimmer with a pleasant smelling mist. Pillows, cushions, and throw rugs covered the floor. Four beds sat in the corners of the room, each having an iron frame to which numerous ropes and leather straps were attached. A large padded throne sat on the far wall between two beds, while opposite it, in another corner, a tall spindly censer rested on a low wooden table. It was from here that the faint smelling mist issued. Two beings inhabited the room: the first was one of the half-demons we met outside, likely the one that disappeared; the other was a full-blown succubus, apparently the mother of the four half-breeds.
The demon mother spoke telepathically, “You have cost me three daughters, and whatever brings you here had better be good.” “Karzoug brought us here,” was my answer. She responded that she had no interest in the petty squabbles of runelords. Ryll asked her what her purpose was. She replied that she was the ruler of this section of the Runeforge. Ryll played nice for a while, gathering some useless information. However, she did say that the agents of the Runelord Belimarius had a catastrophe befall them. They were arrogant and the other Runelord agents plotted together to wipe them out, confirming what little we had found in the halls of abjuration. After a brief conversation, the paladin invited her to return to her plane of origin. Unsurprisingly, a fight ensued. We fought the demons and the stone giants, winning rather easily thanks to Ryll’s holy power. The succubus teleported away just before she was slain. Searching the area, we found a magical bag, a tome on how to practice patience and understanding, and several useful potions. A magical censor was found to emit a dense foggy aroma, lowering our resistance to mind effects.
At that point in our adventure, we noticed that we had been in the Runeforge for quite some time and expended plenty of spells, but we were not tired or hungry yet, confirming some of the tales told about the arcane laboratory. We talked to the surviving victim, who appeared to have been tortured for quite some time, his rational mind hanging by a thread. We broke through the force cage with our adamantine war hammer to free him and Soril used a potent spell to cure his mental feebleness. We were then able to talk with him, though he only spoke Thassilonian. The man mentioned he had been the prisoner of the succubi for ten thousand years. He was curious about the realm of Bakrakhan and he introduced himself as Nelevetu Voan, a commander in Sorshen’s armies before he was captured and brought into the Runeforge for experimentation. We informed him of our present quest. While striking up some pleasant and informative conversation with the ancient Thassilonian warrior, we rested to prepare spells, but we were all very wakeful. We were neither hungry nor thirsty, so once we prepared our daily allotment of spells, we continued. Nelevetu mentioned he would appreciate tagging along, especially since we failed to actually kill the succubus. Unfortunately, however, as we left the iron cages of lust, Neveletu suddenly fell to the ground in pain, turning into a desiccated husk of a corpse. Apparently whatever magic kept him alive for so long was limited in range.
We then decided to reenter the abjurant halls. Tolgun volunteered to strip to his skivvies and walk in with the adamantine war hammer to destroy the malfunctioning rod. As he entered, the same magic mouth warning appeared to him that we had seen before. Once he destroyed the rod, we all safely returned to the room to begin our exploration. A number of passageways appeared to have been collapsed, but two had not. We searched the room for anything useful, finding nothing of value. We proceeded down one of the passages, which led to a room with a pool of ooze on the floor. It had the overwhelming stench of mustard and vinegar. None of us were interested in entering the room, except, of course, for Nala. He entered the room, flying just above the floor. That act was sufficient to awaken the slime covering the bottom of the chamber. It attacked Nala, who barely escaped with his life. Soril put up a wall of force, temporarily sealing in the creature. The jelly attacked the wall fiercely, while we regrouped and tried to figure out what to do next. When we retreated, the jelly stopped beating against the wall of force, apparently unwilling to leave its protected area. Leaving the jelly corridor for the time being, we followed the other corridor leading from the main abjurant hall. We eventually came to another chamber, decorative lanterns illuminating it. A tiled path in the granite flagstones led from the entrance to three steps, leading down to a strange mirrored surface. Ryll threw a pebble onto the metallic floor. The stone acted like it hit a liquid: little ripples of the mirrored surface radiated out as if it were a calm pond. Ryll tested the surface with a weapon. Nothing seemed to happen. Taking an analytic approach, I touched the surface and it felt cool to the touch. Our paladin then tasted it, describing the taste as slightly sweet, like almonds. This prompted Nala to drink an entire vial full of the liquid. Nothing adverse seemed to happen, so we collected some of it for later examination, filling enough empty flasks for later research.
Having exhausted our exploration of the abjurant halls, we returned to the central hub of Runeforge and decided to explore the tunnels associated with Krune and conjuration. As we sauntered down the hallway, Gorm’s key glowed warmly, while Soril’s and Lai’Ki’s keys grew cold. At the end of the corridor, we began to smell a very foul stench – a combination of rot and excrement, causing Tolgun to retch. Slime and sewage were the features of this area of Runeforge. Stagnant water filled shallow channels running along passages. Despite the repugnant stench, the water shifted in ways to suggest something may be alive in the river of sewage. A series of massive levers protruded from one wall, slime encrusted plaques bearing their intended usage. Upon wiping away the slime, the plaques read “Access Control,” “Portal Control,” and “Warning: Cleaning Cycle.” Not having enough information to start tinkering with the levers, we continued. As soon as we started down a pathway, we were attacked by a large water elemental and several things the dwarves could only describe as “poop demons.” It was a hard, disgusting fight. We finally finished them off, their substances splashing back into the sewage channels whence they sprang. We paused long enough to heal before continuing. We tried using the levers to clean out the sewage using the cleaning cycle. When the lever, stuck with age and disuse, finally budged, torrents of water came rushing down from overhead pipes, drenching us and doing very little to clean the area of its filth.
We started to explore further. Wending our way through the labyrinth of sewage and walkway, we eventually found ourselves in front of a set of large iron double doors. We entered, the room inside reeking of strange chemicals. A five-foot wide metal walkway looked out over a large pool of foamy, filthy water ten feet below, from which five metallic pipes emerged through the walkway. Four of the those pipes were five feet in diameter and extend up the four corners of the room to a height of about a foot above the balcony. Each was filled with a different colored bubbling fluid. The fifth pipe was twenty feet wide and extended up one wall. That conduit was filled nearly to the rim with shuddering, glowing green sludge. Thin streams of fluid flowed through the air from the four corner pipes to drain into the central one. A stone throne floated in the air above the slime. There was someone in it. His rotund body appeared to have black tentacles coming out of a hole where his heart should have been. When we entered the room, he welcomed us, saying, “Welcome to the Festering Mazes.” Ryll took up the mantle of diplomat, asking about the purpose of the mazes of sewer, to which was replied, “This area is dedicated to the Runelord of Sloth, the great and might Krune, may he rule forever.” The man, calling himself Jordimandus, volunteered that he was one of the original wardens of the Runeforge. All of the others are supposedly dead and he has been here since the laboratory’s construction. We asked if he would be available to aid us in our quest to confront Karzoug and his return to power. He explained that the central hub of Runeforge contains a pool, containing an amalgamation of liquified magic that can be used to enchant weapons with certain properties. We asked about the mirror-like liquid in the abjurant halls. He called it ethillion – a substance that can drain magic from weapons and armor and can be used in crafting. This might be useful to help enchant our weapons further. We continued our discussion, and he said that weapons could be enchanted to be particularly effective against a runelord, according to the runelord’s magical schools and its oppositions. Therefore, the material we need to combat Karzoug would be from the areas of enchantment and illusion. We asked him for specific instructions on enchanting a weapon. The “Poop Meister,” as I call him, told us that once we have gathered the components that embody the virtues of the opposing runelords, a rune-forged weapon must be infused in the fluids of the runeforge pool in combination with the assembled items. Once placed in the pool, the items will become enchanted after a few moments and the weapon will act as a bane against the runelord in question. The magic is not infinite, so only about six or seven weapons can be aligned this way. Once a weapon is aligned, it cannot be re-aligned. We figured the brazier we collected from the succubus shrine would work for enchantment magic. We then knew our next task would be to gather something from the halls of illusion. Our host explained a little about the workings of keeping Runeforge clean, but I chose not to pay much attention, my mind focused on the enchanting of weapons. The sooner I leave this place, the better. As we prepared to leave, Jordimandus asked us a boon, in return for some kind of payment. He said that he would like us to combat his enemies in Runeforge found in the evocation halls of wrath, and the illusory shimmering veils. In payment for this task, he would offer a magical tome and several useful scrolls. He offered to feed us a splendid feast before we left, but we declined as the atmosphere was less than appetizing.
We returned to the central Runeforge hub and after a brief discussion of where to explore next, we proceeded to the shimmering veils of illusion. Entering the illusory area of Xanderghul, Lai’Ki’s key glowed warmly while Gorm’s and Nala’s keys grew cold. As we entered, we found a brightly lit corridor lined floor to ceiling with mirrors. The reflections gave the dizzying impression that the corridor opened up on either side, extending infinitely into the distance. When we all entered the corridor, our reflections in the mirror came to life, springing out of the mirror on the far side of the corridor and attacking us. Our first impulse was to break the mirrors, which we did to cease any further mirror realm incursions. Next we put up a fight with our evil counterparts. It was an absolutely brutal fight. Several us were taken out of the fight from exploding bombs from Nala (the real one or the mirrored counterpart, I could not tell). Soril was killed outright. I myself went down from a sword blow from the fake Ryll. However, I awoke some time later, finding that I had been dragged by Ryll back into the central hub of Runeforge, so we apparently were successful finishing the fight.
We rested for some time and tended our wounded and unconscious. After their prayers, Tolgun and Ryll are about to perform a ritual to bring poor Soril back to life. His powers are too useful to let him pass. I felt so helpless in the last fight. I really wish my arcane talents were at least on par with that human’s skills. Also, Ryll’s unbelievable holy might has saved us more times than I can count, if only I could wield such power and beauty…
- E
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It is difficult to judge the passing of time here. Runeforge seems to have no visible daily cycles and it somehow maintains its denizens without the need to feed or sleep. It is only with Ryll’s and Tolgun’s communions with their gods that I can tell when a new day has dawned, reminding me that my prepared spells have faded from my memory.
We have entered the ancient Thassilonian laboratory of the arcane, though that in itself was no mean feat. After fighting off the dragon at the shore of Lake Stormunder and securing the magical keys allowing us entry to Runeforge, we ascended the massive stairway at the base of Mount Rimeskull that looked like it must have been built by giants. It must have taken years – if not decades – to complete, its structure chiseled out of the side of the mountain. The final steps led directly up to a carving of an ancient face, its open mouth forming a cavern entrance. The now-familiar seven-pointed star was etched deeply into its surface, prominently positioned at the highest section of the arch. Bones, bleached and pitted by time, lay in iced-over heaps along the visible areas of the stairway. Upon attaining the summit of the stairs, we saw that the skull at the top seemed to have been well worn by time, unlike the other Thassilonian ruins we have encountered. When we arrived at a flat landing and prepared to enter the cave, we moved toward the entrance and were set upon by a quartet of large elementals. It was a long, exhausting fight, but we destroyed two of them and the other two eventually disappeared in a bright flash as if they had been summoned.
As we entered the mountain cave, we found a natural stone cavern that tapered down to a narrow passageway, leading straight into the mountain with a slight decline. Following the path, we eventually came to a pair of large stone statues, their hands upraised as if to ward off intruders, their other hands grasping carved swords. Soril and Nala noticed that the floor of the tunnel went off into the darkness, but on the left side behind one of the statues, little bits of debris along a three-foot wide path trailed off into the darkness. Finding no obvious traps, I cautiously used a simple spell to throw small stones down the hall. Looking closer at the rubble on the path, we found that the floor was illusory, and the real floor of the tunnel sloped hazardously downward and was covered with slippery dust. There was a ledge that continued on a more horizontal path. Nala took off flying down the tunnel to scout. Surprisingly, he returned. Choosing to follow the narrow ledge, we came to the edge of a gaping chasm of darkness, huge icicles hanging down from the ceiling and coils of mist rising from below. The hole seemed to be hundreds of feet deep. Left with no other passages, we began our descent down a long, winding staircase. When we got to the bottom, we saw the walls of the cavern sparkle with sheets of ice. Seven twenty-foot tall pillars, their sides encrusted with ice and engraved with ancient glyphs and runes, surrounded an eighth pillar twice their size. Tunnels exited the central cavern winding deeper into the mountain. Yet, perhaps the most notable feature in the room was the sparkling mound of coins, works of art, gem stones, jewelry, weapons, armor, and other things poking up from a pile that occupied the northwestern section of the chasm. The seven pillars were each marked with hundreds of Thassilonian runes – arcane formulae describing each of the seven Thassilonian schools of magic. On each, we found a small keyhole a few feet off the ground, facing the central pillar. We were able to identify each pillar by its school of magic. We gathered up the rather impressive treasure hoard and searched the tunnels leading off from the central cavern. Each of the tunnels trailed off into the mountain only about forty feet before abruptly coming to an end. Returning to the central cavern, we decided to try the keys we found in the standing stones. We opened them one at a time and each pillar then began to hum and glow softly, the keys disappearing as they activated the stones. Once all of the keys had been inserted and turned, activating all of the pillars, the central pillar glowed and hummed very loudly. Ripples of light appeared, each of the pillars shooting a beam of light toward the center, causing a vortex to appear – looking like some sort of magical teleportation portal. We cautiously checked it out, but eventually chose to enter the portal to see where it led. Once we all passed through the portal, it closed, giving no impression of how to reopen it again. We then noticed that each of us now wore a small necklace with a key hanging from it. It seemed to be permanently attached to each of us.
We traveled down a long tunnel and entered into a domed chamber, nearly 200 feet across, the room in which I now sit. We knew immediately that this was the Runeforge. A large pool of bubbling, prismatic liquid occupies the center of a raised dais in the middle of the chamber. The spiky flanges of the seven-pointed sihedron are engraved into the marble floor. Each tip of the enormous rune points at a twenty five foot tall statue facing the pool with its back approximately ten feet from a partially concealed arched opening in the wall directly behind it. Each statue depicts a different figure, but all are imperious and finely detailed. They look like the seven runelords of Thassilon. The best we could guess when we first entered, the pool was filled with liquid magic. We thought it was quite curious. Upon touching the liquid, Nala got quite sickened, his senses being assaulted by the magic of the pool.
All of the tunnels trailed off into the darkness, except for the tunnel corresponding to abjuration magic. It seemed much shorter than all of the others. We decided to take that tunnel first. As we stepped into the tunnel, a voice boomed out a resounding command, “Stop!” The source was a large, disembodied human mouth stretched across the ceiling of this section of the tunnel. It continued, “These are the abjurant halls of eager striving. Know that your powers will be crushed and you shall die. You are not worthy.” At that point, I noticed that my key necklace felt warm to the touch and gave me a nice, euphoric feeling, like coming home after a long absence, making me feel more powerful. Ryll and Soril said their necklaces grew freezing cold and they felt disheartened and out of focus. We continued down the hallway a short distance and then a wide staircase of stone descended into a large partially caved-in chamber. The murals and decorative bas-reliefs on the walls had been blasted and fractured from what must have been a titanic war of magic. Sooty humanoid bones were scattered about and flames sporadically flickered along the walls and floor, as if the room still resonated with the power unleashed there. Electrical discharges sparked from a silver rod protruding from the floor in the center of the room. It almost looked like the metal rod had fused with the floor. A magical appraisal revealed that the rod appeared to be a damaged rod of cancellation magic. We thought the rod was an after-effect from the battle that took place there. However, after looking around the room for a few seconds, the rod discharged and turned some of our magical items into worthless trinkets, permanently negating their magical energies. After that, we decided to leave before more of our items were damaged.
While returning to the circular entry room of Runeforge, Ryll’s, Soril’s, and my necklaces all returned to normal, seeming to leave us with no lasting effects. We next proceeded down the hallway represented by the runelord Sorshen, the practitioner of enchantment magic. That hallway was much, much longer than the first one. As we passed through and into the hallway, Tolgun received the euphoric feeling that I had previously experienced. Nala and Ryll both suffered from their pendants. We reached the end of the tunnel, and emerged into a chamber. The grand cathedral we witnessed could be called nothing less than opulent. The floor was covered in polished red and white tiles. Thick pillars, carved into likenesses of the same beautiful nude woman with long flowing hair, circled the room and supported the domed ceiling nearly a hundred feet above where a gargantuan mural depicted men and women engaged in all manner of carnal acts, offending my sensibilities. Numerous cubes lined the outer ring of the cathedral while at the center stood a pavilion of opaque silk sheets. Near the walls of the cathedral stood several delicate looking cages, their sides more decorative than practical. Some of them contained what appeared to be long dead bodies, although one body in a cage in one of the chamber’s corners seemed to cling to life.
Tolgun entered the chamber to investigate, seeing a possibly injured person to tend. Once he moved over to the cage, we heard cackling and taunting from a quartet of winged demon maidens who had been hiding among the ornate decorations high above. Soril said they were half-breeds, some demented cross between demonic succubi and humans. Tolgun strolled up to the cage containing the still-living human. The interior of the cage contained a shivering man wearing little more than a set of chains and a thick leather collar. A pair of clay bowls occupied one corner and a pile of straw sat in another. He appeared dirty and unkempt, but otherwise uninjured. His confines appeared to be made of gold and silver, more decorative than useful; however, there was some sort of magical field surrounding it, most likely a second cage of force magic. We moved toward the curtain-covered pavilion in the center of the chamber. When we did, the semi-succubi attacked us. In our minds, we heard a feminine voice utter, “What is your purpose here, mortal.” Tolgun said something belligerent and stupid. Unsurprisingly, a fight ensued. The demonic half-breeds attacked with mental attacks and pole arms. We eventually killed three of them, though the fourth teleported away. We took a moment to heal ourselves and then we continued, investigating the large structure in the middle of the room. Numerous thick rugs, cushions, and tasseled pillows covered the floor of that decadent chamber. Strange exotic scents were in the air, likely coming from several smoldering braziers and censors placed on elegant silver stands in the corners of the room. There was also a contingent of stone giants in the curtain-covered chamber. After a few words in exchange with them, we learned that they were the thralls of a mistress named Delvahine. After a moment of tense conversation, we were begrudgingly allowed to continue farther into the chamber. The air in the farthest room was unusually close, seeming almost to shimmer with a pleasant smelling mist. Pillows, cushions, and throw rugs covered the floor. Four beds sat in the corners of the room, each having an iron frame to which numerous ropes and leather straps were attached. A large padded throne sat on the far wall between two beds, while opposite it, in another corner, a tall spindly censer rested on a low wooden table. It was from here that the faint smelling mist issued. Two beings inhabited the room: the first was one of the half-demons we met outside, likely the one that disappeared; the other was a full-blown succubus, apparently the mother of the four half-breeds.
The demon mother spoke telepathically, “You have cost me three daughters, and whatever brings you here had better be good.” “Karzoug brought us here,” was my answer. She responded that she had no interest in the petty squabbles of runelords. Ryll asked her what her purpose was. She replied that she was the ruler of this section of the Runeforge. Ryll played nice for a while, gathering some useless information. However, she did say that the agents of the Runelord Belimarius had a catastrophe befall them. They were arrogant and the other Runelord agents plotted together to wipe them out, confirming what little we had found in the halls of abjuration. After a brief conversation, the paladin invited her to return to her plane of origin. Unsurprisingly, a fight ensued. We fought the demons and the stone giants, winning rather easily thanks to Ryll’s holy power. The succubus teleported away just before she was slain. Searching the area, we found a magical bag, a tome on how to practice patience and understanding, and several useful potions. A magical censor was found to emit a dense foggy aroma, lowering our resistance to mind effects.
At that point in our adventure, we noticed that we had been in the Runeforge for quite some time and expended plenty of spells, but we were not tired or hungry yet, confirming some of the tales told about the arcane laboratory. We talked to the surviving victim, who appeared to have been tortured for quite some time, his rational mind hanging by a thread. We broke through the force cage with our adamantine war hammer to free him and Soril used a potent spell to cure his mental feebleness. We were then able to talk with him, though he only spoke Thassilonian. The man mentioned he had been the prisoner of the succubi for ten thousand years. He was curious about the realm of Bakrakhan and he introduced himself as Nelevetu Voan, a commander in Sorshen’s armies before he was captured and brought into the Runeforge for experimentation. We informed him of our present quest. While striking up some pleasant and informative conversation with the ancient Thassilonian warrior, we rested to prepare spells, but we were all very wakeful. We were neither hungry nor thirsty, so once we prepared our daily allotment of spells, we continued. Nelevetu mentioned he would appreciate tagging along, especially since we failed to actually kill the succubus. Unfortunately, however, as we left the iron cages of lust, Neveletu suddenly fell to the ground in pain, turning into a desiccated husk of a corpse. Apparently whatever magic kept him alive for so long was limited in range.
We then decided to reenter the abjurant halls. Tolgun volunteered to strip to his skivvies and walk in with the adamantine war hammer to destroy the malfunctioning rod. As he entered, the same magic mouth warning appeared to him that we had seen before. Once he destroyed the rod, we all safely returned to the room to begin our exploration. A number of passageways appeared to have been collapsed, but two had not. We searched the room for anything useful, finding nothing of value. We proceeded down one of the passages, which led to a room with a pool of ooze on the floor. It had the overwhelming stench of mustard and vinegar. None of us were interested in entering the room, except, of course, for Nala. He entered the room, flying just above the floor. That act was sufficient to awaken the slime covering the bottom of the chamber. It attacked Nala, who barely escaped with his life. Soril put up a wall of force, temporarily sealing in the creature. The jelly attacked the wall fiercely, while we regrouped and tried to figure out what to do next. When we retreated, the jelly stopped beating against the wall of force, apparently unwilling to leave its protected area. Leaving the jelly corridor for the time being, we followed the other corridor leading from the main abjurant hall. We eventually came to another chamber, decorative lanterns illuminating it. A tiled path in the granite flagstones led from the entrance to three steps, leading down to a strange mirrored surface. Ryll threw a pebble onto the metallic floor. The stone acted like it hit a liquid: little ripples of the mirrored surface radiated out as if it were a calm pond. Ryll tested the surface with a weapon. Nothing seemed to happen. Taking an analytic approach, I touched the surface and it felt cool to the touch. Our paladin then tasted it, describing the taste as slightly sweet, like almonds. This prompted Nala to drink an entire vial full of the liquid. Nothing adverse seemed to happen, so we collected some of it for later examination, filling enough empty flasks for later research.
Having exhausted our exploration of the abjurant halls, we returned to the central hub of Runeforge and decided to explore the tunnels associated with Krune and conjuration. As we sauntered down the hallway, Gorm’s key glowed warmly, while Soril’s and Lai’Ki’s keys grew cold. At the end of the corridor, we began to smell a very foul stench – a combination of rot and excrement, causing Tolgun to retch. Slime and sewage were the features of this area of Runeforge. Stagnant water filled shallow channels running along passages. Despite the repugnant stench, the water shifted in ways to suggest something may be alive in the river of sewage. A series of massive levers protruded from one wall, slime encrusted plaques bearing their intended usage. Upon wiping away the slime, the plaques read “Access Control,” “Portal Control,” and “Warning: Cleaning Cycle.” Not having enough information to start tinkering with the levers, we continued. As soon as we started down a pathway, we were attacked by a large water elemental and several things the dwarves could only describe as “poop demons.” It was a hard, disgusting fight. We finally finished them off, their substances splashing back into the sewage channels whence they sprang. We paused long enough to heal before continuing. We tried using the levers to clean out the sewage using the cleaning cycle. When the lever, stuck with age and disuse, finally budged, torrents of water came rushing down from overhead pipes, drenching us and doing very little to clean the area of its filth.
We started to explore further. Wending our way through the labyrinth of sewage and walkway, we eventually found ourselves in front of a set of large iron double doors. We entered, the room inside reeking of strange chemicals. A five-foot wide metal walkway looked out over a large pool of foamy, filthy water ten feet below, from which five metallic pipes emerged through the walkway. Four of the those pipes were five feet in diameter and extend up the four corners of the room to a height of about a foot above the balcony. Each was filled with a different colored bubbling fluid. The fifth pipe was twenty feet wide and extended up one wall. That conduit was filled nearly to the rim with shuddering, glowing green sludge. Thin streams of fluid flowed through the air from the four corner pipes to drain into the central one. A stone throne floated in the air above the slime. There was someone in it. His rotund body appeared to have black tentacles coming out of a hole where his heart should have been. When we entered the room, he welcomed us, saying, “Welcome to the Festering Mazes.” Ryll took up the mantle of diplomat, asking about the purpose of the mazes of sewer, to which was replied, “This area is dedicated to the Runelord of Sloth, the great and might Krune, may he rule forever.” The man, calling himself Jordimandus, volunteered that he was one of the original wardens of the Runeforge. All of the others are supposedly dead and he has been here since the laboratory’s construction. We asked if he would be available to aid us in our quest to confront Karzoug and his return to power. He explained that the central hub of Runeforge contains a pool, containing an amalgamation of liquified magic that can be used to enchant weapons with certain properties. We asked about the mirror-like liquid in the abjurant halls. He called it ethillion – a substance that can drain magic from weapons and armor and can be used in crafting. This might be useful to help enchant our weapons further. We continued our discussion, and he said that weapons could be enchanted to be particularly effective against a runelord, according to the runelord’s magical schools and its oppositions. Therefore, the material we need to combat Karzoug would be from the areas of enchantment and illusion. We asked him for specific instructions on enchanting a weapon. The “Poop Meister,” as I call him, told us that once we have gathered the components that embody the virtues of the opposing runelords, a rune-forged weapon must be infused in the fluids of the runeforge pool in combination with the assembled items. Once placed in the pool, the items will become enchanted after a few moments and the weapon will act as a bane against the runelord in question. The magic is not infinite, so only about six or seven weapons can be aligned this way. Once a weapon is aligned, it cannot be re-aligned. We figured the brazier we collected from the succubus shrine would work for enchantment magic. We then knew our next task would be to gather something from the halls of illusion. Our host explained a little about the workings of keeping Runeforge clean, but I chose not to pay much attention, my mind focused on the enchanting of weapons. The sooner I leave this place, the better. As we prepared to leave, Jordimandus asked us a boon, in return for some kind of payment. He said that he would like us to combat his enemies in Runeforge found in the evocation halls of wrath, and the illusory shimmering veils. In payment for this task, he would offer a magical tome and several useful scrolls. He offered to feed us a splendid feast before we left, but we declined as the atmosphere was less than appetizing.
We returned to the central Runeforge hub and after a brief discussion of where to explore next, we proceeded to the shimmering veils of illusion. Entering the illusory area of Xanderghul, Lai’Ki’s key glowed warmly while Gorm’s and Nala’s keys grew cold. As we entered, we found a brightly lit corridor lined floor to ceiling with mirrors. The reflections gave the dizzying impression that the corridor opened up on either side, extending infinitely into the distance. When we all entered the corridor, our reflections in the mirror came to life, springing out of the mirror on the far side of the corridor and attacking us. Our first impulse was to break the mirrors, which we did to cease any further mirror realm incursions. Next we put up a fight with our evil counterparts. It was an absolutely brutal fight. Several us were taken out of the fight from exploding bombs from Nala (the real one or the mirrored counterpart, I could not tell). Soril was killed outright. I myself went down from a sword blow from the fake Ryll. However, I awoke some time later, finding that I had been dragged by Ryll back into the central hub of Runeforge, so we apparently were successful finishing the fight.
We rested for some time and tended our wounded and unconscious. After their prayers, Tolgun and Ryll are about to perform a ritual to bring poor Soril back to life. His powers are too useful to let him pass. I felt so helpless in the last fight. I really wish my arcane talents were at least on par with that human’s skills. Also, Ryll’s unbelievable holy might has saved us more times than I can count, if only I could wield such power and beauty…
- E