20100424

CELESTIAL CAPER

April 24, 2010

Day 1 (cont.) <date TBD; late spring>

Noon

Tarva casts Detect Magic and checks all of the things we've found on the Fire Giants (well, except for the strange hearts, which are already destroyed). The only thing which detects as magic is the Rod, of Moderate Strength, Enchantement school.

Velia asks for permission, then tries to activate the Rod with Use Magical Device; she succeeds and a 30' area of Darkness appears. Tarva's Dark Vision can see into the area, so it isn't any especially strong type of Darkness. Zeln is of the opinion that Darkness is too minor a spell for anyone to waste the effort and expense to imbue it into a Rod, and thus the Rod must do something additional. We decide to wait until we have enough items to cast Identify on; meanwhile Zeln will carry this Rod.

We decide to abandon the Fire Giant's huge weapons and armor; Velia arranges them artistically, so anyone coming across them will get the idea that they should turn back.

For lack of a better direction, we have been proceeding mostly due North. Rowan and Velia each sense that there is some sort of 'wrongness' just to the West of due North. Sort of a ripple, sort of like a heat shimmer, only felt more psychically than seen. They have a good fix on what direction it was in. Tarva thinks we should go investigate it, so we change our bearing to head in that direction.

Side note: Rowan is now tracking for the group at 60' in front, closer than her previous 100'.

Several of us hear the sound of something very large approaching, pushing trees out of its way as it comes. We can see tree tops waving, even though we can't see it yet.

1. Rowan shoots two Seeker arrows which hit for 14, 14; Velia moves up, see huge humanoid made of earth and stone; Ninalyn flies up, feels that she is in the presence of Unhallowed land - except that it's moving; Tarva moves up and sees ditto; Zeln moves up, casts Timestop:
1.1 moves up to X, sees that it has corpses and tomestones sticking out of its body;
1.2 casts Sphere of Ultimate Destruction (but X's SR makes it fizzle);
1.3 casts a Wall of Force, 100' long by 17' high, to the creature's left and along its backtrail;
1.4 casts Web (and Stinking Cloud as a side effect), moves way back;
Axe activates his boots::Speed and moves up to X; Surune moves up towards X; X hits Axe for 27, grapples.

2. Rowan shoots for 88; Velia moves around the far end of the Wall of Force; Ninalyn charge-flies for 20; Tarva uses Knowledge::Undead to determine that X is a Corpse Gatherer (henceforth CG) but doesn't know much more, tells everyone that it's an undead called a "Corpse Gatherer", SpringAttack's for 10 plus HR::Holy; Zeln casts Enlarge Person on Axe to help his grapple; Axe tries to break grapple but fails, fails; Surune charges for 64 & 5-fire; CG absorbs Axe for 23, hits Ninalyn for 40, grapples, hits Surune for 31, grapples.

3. Rowan shoots for 98; Velia shoots crossbow for no effect; Ninalyn tries to break grapple but fails; Tarva springAttack's for 15 plus HR::Holy; Zeln casts Enlarge Person, Mass on Ninalyn, Surune, and Tarva; Axe Rages, tries to break grapple but fails, fails; Surune tries to break grapple and succeeds; CG crushes Axe for 24, absorbs Ninalyn for 20.

4. Rowan shoots for 17, kills; it dissolves into thirty humanoid zombies (plus Axe and Ninalyn). Everyone suffers 2 hp damage while killing the 1/2 hd zombies. Axe deactivates his boots.

A -76 N -62 R -2 S -33 T -2 V -2 Z -2
-47 -33 0 -4 0 0 0 Ninalyn Cure Serious Mass
-8 0 Ninalyn Cure Critical (twice)
0 0 Tarva wand Cure Light (twice)

No treasure.
Tarva and Ninalyn dissect bodies: Zombie hearts 'normal' (as much as they can be for Zombies); CG has no heart left over.

12:30pm

Velia reports that the ripple of wrongness has appeared twice more. Both times it (or we) was closer, but not close. We're still going in the right direction.

3:00pm

Various people spot three winged creatures flying directly towards us from the direction of the ripple. They seem to be dragonish in shape, but are of no discernable color. People have time to position themselves among the trees and open spaces.

0. At roughly 600', Tarva can see that they are strangely multi-colored dragons, she doesn't know of anything like this, says, "they look like Patchwork Dragons", shoots D-2 for 19; Rowan moves up, shoots D-2 for 18; Dragons move much closer; Zeln casts a region of Reverse Gravity immediately above Tarva and to the sides; Velia moves up; Surune moves up; Ninalyn flies forward; Axe activates his boots::Fly, goes up to the treetops.

1. Tarva shoots for 18; Rowan shoots for 111; D-1 on Surune for 15; D-2 towards Rowan; D-3 on Ninalyn miss -- close up we can see that these are constructed (?constructs?) of the body parts of many different dragons stitched together -- the stench causes Surune to be shaken for 20 rounds, Ninalyn for 21 rounds; Zeln runs up, casts Tactical Teleportation and moves Velia (who becomes shaken for 22 rounds), Axe (who becomes shaken for 21 rounds), and Ninalyn (to ground level) to help Surune surround D-1, and moves Rowan back into some trees; Velia hits D-1 for 34; Surune hits D-1 for 44 & 3-fire, then misses, then bloopers and drops her sword; Ninalyn hits D-1 for 39; Axe hits D-1 for 153, kills.

2. Tarva moves directly under D-2 (hoping that its flying skill won't let it turn on her there) and shoots for 28; Rowan shoots D-3 for 101; D-2 on Rowan for 14 and shaken for 18 rounds; D-3 on Zeln for 17 (Zeln saves and is not shaken); Zeln <<does something>> and turns into a Beholder, uses his Finger of Death eye on D-3 but nothing happens, uses Spellcraft to determine that Dragon Flesh Golems are immune to magic; Velia charges D-3 for 10; Surune picks up her sword then moves towards D-2; Ninalyn moves towards D-2; Axe on D-3 for 68.

3. Tarva changes to HR, charges D-2 (shaken for 21 rounds) hits for 19; Rowan switches to her longsword and hits for 73; D-2 on Rowan hits for 27, on Tarva hits for 28; D-3 on Zeln hits for 24, on Axe for 9, on Velia for 29; Zeln flies away, AoO from D-3 for 34; Velia on D-3 for 30; Surune charges D-2 for 49; Ninalyn charges D-3 but misses; Axe on D-3 hits for 28, kills.

4. Tarva on D-2 kills.

A -9 N 0 R -41 S -15 T -35 V -29 Z -56
0 -8 0 -2 -6 -23 Ninalyn Cure Serious, Mass
0 Ninalyn Cure Serious
0 0 0 Tarva wand Cure Light (three)

Rowan and Tarva pick up their bows.
Tarva and Ninalyn dissect bodies: hearts are as normal as they can be for constructs.

3:45pm

Everyone is able to detect the ripple of wrongness, this next time it manifests. Tarva asks Heart's Reach if he thinks there might be a Gate involved -- since there seem to be non-local monsters coming at us from it. HR says that when we get closer, Tarva's amulet may be able to tell us with more certainity. Meanwhile, HR might have a better chance of determining that if Tarva kept him out. So Tarva will be walking with HR drawn. Later, both HR and Zoln believe that there is a Gate near the ripple.

6:00pm

0. DD-1 appears behind Ninalyn, standing in the air, hits for 21, plus 6 from adjacency; DD-2 appears behind Tarva, criticals for 56 plus 5 from adjacency; Velia shoots at DD-1 but misses; Tarva turns, uses Knowledge::Planes to recognize a DeathDrinker, yells, "Deathdrinker. Demon. Resistant Acid Cold Fire Electricity" (she also knows that it is also immune to negative energy and poison, but figures nobody would be trying those anyway), criticals on it for 30 HR::+6; Rowan shoots DD-1 for 19.

1. DD-1 Greater Teleports behind Rowan for 50 plus 11; DD-2 hits Tarva for 41 plus 11; Velia moves behind DD-2, hides poorly; Zeln starts to cast Channel Sound Blast; Ninalyn moves to near DD-1 and casts Banishment, "By the power of Kord's goodness I banish you back to the Hell you came from", gets past the SR, DD-1 doesn't save, is banished; Surune charges DD-2 but misses; Tarva misses, criticals for 42, hits for 18; Rowan shoots for 116; Axe charges DD-2 for 51.

2. DD-2 Greater Teleports behind Ninalyn for 49 plus 11; Velia moves to DD-2, uses Flick-of-the-Wrist to surprise attack for 39; Zeln reshapes Greater Sound Blast as four 10' cubes, gest past DD-2's SR, for 29; Ninalyn casts Banishment, gets past the SR, but DD-2 saves; Tarva moves, charges, misses; Rowan crits for 51, crits for 55, rest total 57; Axe stands back-to-back with Zeln.

3. DD-2 on Velia for 29, crit 49, 26, 31, plus 11 on Velia, 4 on Tarva, 9 on Ninalyn; Velia tumbles away, hides; Zeln uses <<something from a membership?>> to pull Tactical Teleport back into his available spell set; Ninalyn crits for 56; Surune charges for 28; Tarva hits for 15 plus HR::Holy 9; Rowan shoots for a crit of 53, rest total 58; Axe moves, charges, misses.

4. DD-2 Greater Teleports to behind Zeln for 24, 25, 22, crit 52, leaving Zeln down at -15, laughs with delight, seems to get healtier; Velia is hiding; Ninalyn casts Flame Strike, gets past SR for 34; Surune moves towards DD-2; Tarva starts singing Inspire Courage; tumbles to Zeln, defensively casts Cure Light for 10, stablizes; Rowan shoots for 87; Axe charges DD-2 for 39.

5. DD-2 Greater Teleports to behind Ninalyn for 27, 26, 21, 25, leaving Ninalyn down at -24, again laughs with delight, again seems healthier; Velia is hiding; Surune charges, misses; Tarva - Inspire Courage takes effect - tumbles to Ninalyn, defensively casts Cure Light for 7, stablizes; Rowan crits for 58, rest total 84; Axe charges, crits for 127, kills.

A -9 N -187 R -61 S 0 T -92 V -146 Z -112
-157 Tarva Faith Healing
0 -116 -20 -51 -105 -71 Ninalyn Cure Critical, Mass
-72 0 -7 -61 -27 Ninalyn Cure Critical, Mass
-32 0 -21 0 Ninalyn Cure Critical, Mass
0 0 Ninalyn Cure Serious (twice)

Ninalyn and Tarva dissect the one DeathDrinker still here: its heart is twisted and solid like the Fire Giants. Tarva asks HR if he thinks he could destroy this heart, the way that Ninalyn destroyed the Fire Giant hearts with her Holy sword. HR thinks it is worth trying, and succeeds.

Treasure:
breastplate
leg armor
longsword
gems
jewels

Ninalyn casts Detect Magic, DD-2's Breastplate and Longsword are both magic, moderately strong, "w&a" school. We take everything except the leg armor

We move a short distance away, then Zeln casts Mordenkainen's Magnificant Mansion for us to spend the night in.

Make it through the night.

During the night, Tarva asks Heart's Reach what he meant about Tarva's amulet being able to help identify a Gate? Was he talking about Aunt Millicent's amulet, which is a Gate? No, says HR, he's talking about the amulet Mordenkainen gave Tarva. Part of how it works, continues HR, is tied up with Gates. [Tarva knows that the amulet's primary attribute is to protect her and HR from being magically detected or spied upon: anyone trying that gets a response as if they were no longer on this plane. Now that she thinks about it, generating that false response does seem to be at least parallel to Gateing -- she has this undoubtedly very wrong mental image of the Scry itself being Gated onto a different place, where "Tarva not on this plane" would be a true condition. Also, she knows that Mordenkainen spent a lot of time teaching Heart's Reach a lot about detecting Gates, and shielding himself from them, and possibly a lot of related stuff that she wouldn't have been able to follow even if she had been there; so anything HR says about Gates, Tarva is going to accept as accurate.] Tarva asks how the amulet will help them with this gate. HR isn't sure, he hasn't had any opportunities to see the amulet near any Gates; but he knows that he will, from what Mordenkainen taught him, be able to detect interactions between the amulet and a Gate, once they get close to one.

Day 2

When we step out and across the Mansion's boundary, the world looks different. The forest, which was normal looking when we left, is now all gnarled and twisted; inidividual trees do not look healthy. Passing very close to the entranceway is a nearly straight East-West 20' wide path of total destruction: everything above the surface of the ground has disappeared, and in the path are small bits of stone and metal, all with spiral patterns on them. Zeln uses Knowledge::Dungeoneering to recognize this spiral residue as being left behind by a Spirax; Tarva uses Knowledge::Planes to know that a Spirax is a titanic creature in a metallic shell which destroys all life and organic matter in its path.

Rowan determines that the Spirax was moving from West to East, but cannot put a time on its passage more accurate than somewhen in the last twelve hours.

Despite the obvious danger the Spirax represents to any people or township it comes near, Tarva declares that our primary task remains taking out the insane Solar -- and that we're more likely to find him near the 'wrong' rippling gate. So we press onward.

10:00am

Some of us see a spherical cloud of darkness, but with tentacles, about 15' in diameter, flying (or at least drifting).

0. Velia points, says, "Big Bad Thing", and moves back inside the group; Tarva starts singing Inspire Courage, moves towards it; X moves towards us; Rowan shoots for 14;

1. Velia reserves; Tarva's Inspire Courage takes effect, Tarva moves to 60' away, sings Inspire Greatness on HR; X moves 40', bounces Velia, Axe, and Zeln 100' into the Air, dispells that spell, Axe and Velia fall for 29, Zeln's Phantom Steed keeps him from falling; Zeln casts Wall of Fire as a ring around X, but sculptured to leave a 10' opening in the wall; Velia activates her boots::Fly; Rowan draws her longsword and casts Seering Light for 42, but resheathes sword as light appears to be absorbed by X. Axe moves to opening, positions himself for AoO; Ninalyn reserves to go after Surune; Surune moves to other side of opening, positions herself for AoO; Ninalyn moves, casts Blessing of the Righteous on Rowan.

2. Tarva moves back 40' from the firewall and casts Magic Missile for 15; X Greater Teleports to behind Zeln (and his steed); Zeln uses meta-Rod to cast Slow as a quick action, dispells his steed, activates his Feather Fall ring, X AoO on falling body for 19, grapple; Velia fly-charges X for 13, yells out "undead"; Rowan shoots for 122; Axe activates his boots::Fly; Surune taunts, moves closer; Ninalyn flies closer, casts Heal as a Ray for 156.

3. Tarva sheathes HR (with apology), shoots for 22; X pulls Zeln inside a "void" for 34 & -3 Strength; hits Velia for 28, grapples; Zeln casts Timestop:
3.1 casts Teleport to get to ground;
3.2 casts Sphere of Ultimate Destruction;
3.3 casts Summon Monster IX: Celestial Roc;
Velia tries Escape Artist but fails; Rowan shoots for 128, kills.

A 0 N 0 R 0 S 0 T 0 V -57 Z -43
-16 -5 Ninalyn Cure Critical (twice)
0 Ninalyn Cure Moderate
0 Ninalyn Cure Light
Ninalyn Lesser Restoration to bring back Zeln's Strength

no body

end of run