Level 8 - The End of an Era

Our group decides to sneak into the cavern through an alternate entrance. We start canvassing the area for a back door. The hero of our group, Rick, instantly finds the perfect secret entrance, located below what seems to be the main floor of the cave. We all sneak along this thin, deep crack until light begins to spill in through the top. After a quick check, we ascertain that we are, in fact, right under the main floor of the cavern.

Rakshasa (tiger dude)

We are suddenly attacked by 2 Rakshasa, which are giant man-shaped tigers, learning that they are dangerous in close combat. We fight the tiger dudes, and gain:

• 1000 gp
• Strong of small pearls 3500gp
• Black velvet mask 105
• Potion shield of faith
• Scroll of eagles splendor
• +1 short sword
• Potion protection from lawful
• Other mage
• Necklace of fire ball level 7
• +1 bastard sword
• Heavy steel shield
• Scale mail

What began as a fact finding mission, has gotten more and more dangerous. We scout ahead, further down the crevasse, and find that it keeps going. It gets hotter and hotter, indicating that we may be close to the lava chamber where we previously fought the Lord of Blades. Tux casts protection from elements on the rest of the group once again, to protect them from the increasing heat. 

The group tries to decide what to do. Why has an impostor taken over the the Lord of Blades' position? Who is the impostor? What's with the gathering of this army? Everything in the army, the water elementals and the topaz dragons, seems to be from a water plane. Maybe there's a portal, we decide. But rumors indicate that there IS a seal here, somewhere. Could it be deeper underground?

Ki uses a spell to detect where it could be. The only magic she detects is coming from the direction where we believe the lava chamber to be. Cas yells out, "maybe the creation forge is the the seal!" No one listens. Constance thinks hard about where the seal could be. Malik remembers that he could not teleport near the other seals. He tries and cannot teleport here either. Constance has a horrible realization which he announces to the group: the creation forge is the seal.

What do we do with this information? Surely Merrix d'Caneth already knows this. He could have us killed for finding out. Maybe by now the new "Lord of Blades" also knows. There's nothing left for us here. We have to kill the impostor. We have to shore up the seals. We are the only thing standing between all of Eberron and this evil.

We come upon a vertical passage with lava spilling down the side. What now? Malik wants to climb it, but cannot get close enough to the lava. Cas puts on her ring of invisibility (loathe to reveal what she really is) and uses her wings to fly up to the top. They are noisy and everyone (except Tux, of course, because Tux never notices anything) knows they are wings until Ki glibs them all to think that Cas is just farting in the tunnel. Cas flies up to see the "Lord of Blades," two humanoids, and a warforged-looking creature on the creation forge. Without the help of her more intelligent and strategy-savvy group, she comes up with a plan.

We use everything we have to go after the imposter. Cas still has her small bronze griffin, which is helpful for getting the rest of the group up through the lava shaft. We learn early in the battle that the warforged on top of the creation forge is part way between planes, being summoned by the false Lord of Blades. Every member of the team hurdles themselves against this horrible evil, racing against the summoning, and somehow we continue to survive. In a last, ditch effort to keep the warforged out of our realm, Tux throws a desperate spell.

The explosion of the fire balls throws the warforged out of our plane. But the seal is rocked by the blast. It is weakened and groans loudly from the stress. Suddenly everything in the room is ripped through it to another plane. Tux and Cas get warped to Gehenna, the neutral-evil plane of the out realms. A few items follow us through the seal:

• Tongue worm
• Wand of wall of ice
• A +3 heavy crossbow
• Living breastplate (Cas is afraid of this, but Tux decides to put it on)
• All of Malik's items, now spilled into Cas's bag of holding

Ki, Malik and Constance are warped to Baator, the lawful-evil plane also known as the Nine Hells. The plane itself is composed of nine different layers, each of which models a differing but no less inhospitable and dreadful environment, including barren plains of ash and rock to frozen wastes of endless ice. Unknown the them, Rick has also been heroically sent to Baator.

Cas knows that this is a different plane, but does not recognize where they are. Gehenna is unlike any plane she has learned about. She thinks back to the seals and wonders. If her and Tux were sent though together without the others, the rest of the party may have gone to another plane. She wonders what happened to the rest of the seals in Eberron when this crumbled.

Level 7 - Another Seal Cracked!

We learn that the seal to the plane of demons has been cracked by the lich we just dispatched. Sam tries to speak with the lich to find out what has been done, but he is unable to discover much. We decide we need another way to gather information on what is happening to the seals. Our group heads for the Eldeen Reaches, parting ways with Sampson and Dean who will continue to do what they can to keep more seals from breaking.

Tux suggests we go see Oalian, the ancient greatpine tree that is the ruler of the Eldeen Reaches. He is known as the Great Druid, now some 5,000 years old, with memories stretching back to the dawn of the current age. He is likely to know more history of the seals than most living things in this plane. He is not difficult for Tux to find. Upon locating the massive tree, Tux approaches slowly and cautiously, though, he quickly realizes he has no idea which side is his "front."

After several minutes of greetings, Oalian graciously offers us council on the matter of the cracked seal. Ki approaches and describes the events at the seal in the Demon Wastes (and more infomation on the lich) and in the seal in Xen'drik. She neglects to mention that many seals are breaking. Oalian is not pleased and is troubled by the news. He suspects that the liches are being informed by an outside party.

He spends hours recounting the history of the seals and various tangential stories of the past. His speech is slow and meticulous, Tux is the only one able to listen for very long. Cas is disturbed by the very idea of a talking tree and waits further off in the woods. After a while of gathering (way, way more than enough) information on the seals, the party takes leave of Oalian, thanking him for his help.

His most disturbing news is out of the Mounlands. Oalian has told us that a seal used to be located in the city of Sire, now destroyed. But we've already been there: it's where we fought the Lord of Blades. But we also left behind an impostor and an army. The group decides this is the most pressing of the seals, and we head back out to the Mournlands, for the ruined city of Sire. We are going back to attempt to locate the opening of the plane that is in the warforged stronghold. Our search leads us back to the cavern where we fought the Lord of Blades.

Upon entering the main passage, we are surprised to come across a topaz dragon, resting on a hoard of gold and gems. We are hidden under Ki's invisibility and silence, but it seems to see us. Cas, with her ring of invisibility on, approaches a little closer. It calls out for her to stop. She does. It asks what she is doing in this cave. She explains that she is a lone adventurer, exploring this cave. He tells her to leave, and she does while praising his graciousness, because dragons love that. We leave the cave post haste.

topaz dragon

We head up above the cave entrance. Our new plan is to enter from where Tux and Malik had entered when we overthrew the Lord of Blades. While climbing up, Rick remembers that he can still use his ectoplasmic legs to climb despite the fact that he is now a Hobgoblin. It is upsetting in the least.

On top of the cave, now on the flats, we are attacked by a thoqqua. This water elemental does a lot of damage to Malik by crashing down on him. Suddenly we remember the sponge. Maybe it can save us one more time! Ki produces it from her pack, while Constance gets a rope and shapes the rope like a basket around it. The rest of the group continues to attack the creature. When it is ready, Malik takes the sponge-on-a-rope weapon and throws it onto the thoqqua. It does upwards of 50 damage, but the monster has over 150 health, and it takes us several rounds to defeat it.

water elemental (thoqqua)

Now rid of this monster, we move towards the chasm. We peer down through the crack, into the main cavern below. The city is similar to before, but instead of being totally ruined, it looks like it's being re-built. Ki recognizes shifters among the crowds. There are also warforged, like we expected, and more water elementals. We decide that this is a strange army to work together. We also decide that this must be the work of the "new" Lord of Blades we left behind. We should never have left him, this army is our fault (the good aligned characters think). The others are more interested in why this is happening.

Just as we stand around, trying to make a plan, a topaz dragon begins to fly up. He seems like he could be the same one from below. We only have moments. Tux shifts into an animal. Malik has such improved hiding that he finds a place to hide. Constance and Rick do nothing. Cas disguises as a warforged. And Ki shifts into the Lord of Blades. Nothing can go wrong now. She activates glibness.

The dragon comes through the crack and seems surprised by us. "What are you doing here? I just saw you below," it asks us. Ki, in all her powerful glory, responds, "I am the Lord of Blades, and I have returned to you. The impostor you follow is a fake!!" The dragon is clearly confused. "So...," he thinks out loud, "the creature that's been paying me all this time, isn't really the Lord of Blades?" He looks ready to kill, not caring about justice or goodness, only money and gold. "I will pay you more to help me regain my power!" Ki spits out, to stop him. The dragon is placated.

Cas reaches for her backpack, going for the Deck of Transformations in her bag. Ki sees this, pleased with the idea. Cas draws the deck, "as payment for your service the Lord of Blades offers you a prize worthy of your splendor." The dragon pauses for a moment. Cas yells, "what do you say to your Lord??" The dragon perches on the edge of the crack, he agrees to draw. In moments, the topaz dragon is transformed into an Orc. He is furious, but he has no weapons or armor, and our group takes him down easily. They go to leave him, but Tux makes sure to coup d'etat him.

Dragon's Loot:

• (6000) gold
• (10,000) worth of 100 gems
• 6 minor magic items:
• (1000) +1 heavy steel shield  (keep, Rick)
• (300) potion of eagle's splendor (+4 Char)
• (25) scroll of endure elements
• (1500) javelin of lightning (keep, Malik)
• (4500) dorge ("wand") of 2nd level power energy stun (keep, Constance)
• (150) power stone of 2nd level power concealing amorpha (keep, Constance)
• 3616 each

We split the treasure and begin to brainstorm a new idea on how to enter the cavern. Cas remembers now some information about the planes. Both water elementals and gem dragons are from the water plane. It's possible that there is a breaking seal under the cavern, but it's now more likely that someone has opened a portal to the water plane to summon these creatures.

Level 7 - Demon Wastes and a Lich

A seal is slowly crumbling between the demon plane and our plane. Our party is en route through the demon wastes to shore that seal. We continue our new mission of protecting the seals.

Day One

In the demon wastes, we battle a babelith. Tux used a Quicken Flame Strike and a normal Flame Strike and did 14d6 damage for ~50 damage. Sam and Malik took a lot of constitution damage. Since it was storming, Tux used Call Lightning and Quicken Call Lightning to summon.

Day Two

Still traveling through the demon wastes. Our party becomes a little lost at one point. We encounter a small glade in a wooded area. A nymph and two satyrs appear from the water in the center of the clearing. The nymph asks what we a doing. She is tricky with words, but Ki tells her we are adventurers. The nymph would like to offer us something to help on our journey. Ki declines her offer. This greatly offends the nymph.

Battle seems likely to break out. Ki talks the nymph down, and Cas leaves because people that are tricky with words suck. The party gets ready to leave as well. The nymph is again offended by our group leaving, the satyrs attack everyone. Cas decides to return to help in battle, they are a team after all, when an idea occurs to her. The group exchanges a few rounds of combat. Cas returns, pulling out the Deck of Transformations.

Ki instantly realizes what she is doing. Cas begs her to stop this violence. Ki adds that they have a gift worthy of her beauty and greatness. The nymph is intrigued, she loves to make tricky deals. She accepts a draw from the deck as a gift. Upon drawing, she is transformed into a halfling. She is very upset by this. She wants to fight us, but is bereft of her former power. Instead, she retreats into the pool, very, very mad. Our group makes a quick exit.

Day Three

Along our next day's travel, we run into a succubus and two babau. After unsuccessfully trying to hide by climbing up the walls of the canyon, Malik jumps down and attacks all three of them. The two babau summon two more babau, as Tux unsuccessfully uses Arc of Lightning, since babau are immune to electricity damage. Malik takes over thirty damage from one babau! Lareth tried to trip but failed and took 17 damage. Rick tried to trip one of the babau with his whip but failed. The whip took acid damage and was destroyed! No one is sad that Rick will have to stop acting like Indian Jones.

On the next turn, Cas took a lot of damage, and her sword took 7 acid damage from hitting a babau. Tux then used Flame Strike on two of the babau, summoned a Dire Weasel, and the weasel did constitution damage on one of the babau, and it dies. Cas summoned her bronze griffin to battle the babau. The griffin attacks but only does 2 damage. Cas then attacks with her sword, only doing 3 damage. Lareth misses his trip again! These things suck.

On the next round, Malik does a good amount of damage, even though he has very low HP. Lareth turns from the dead Babau, runs ten feet to the Babau threatening Ki and Rick and trips it. On Constance's next turn, he fabricates a 10 cubic foot chunk of the cliff to fall onto the currently prone Babau, which does 55 damage to it, and as a result the next Babau dies. Cas had enough of the babaus' shit, so she uses smite evil to rid it from the world and kills it, and thus concludes the battle.

Time to loot the bodies!

• Gold and gems
• 200 gold, 400 gold, 800 gold, a black pearl worth 500 gold, a carnelian worth 50 gold, and a gem of purple corundum worth 500 gold, 800 gold. Total 3250 gold
• ART!!
• A golden comb worth 1050 gold
• An empty golden bottle with bottle stopper worth 1050 gold
• A silver plated steel longsword worth 550 gold
• A silver comb worth 550 gold
• 3200 gold, but Cas wants to keep the sword, so total 2650 gold
• Minor Magic Items: A magical +1 Kama, which is a mini-scythe worth 2300 gold

Day Four

The party makes it to the seal, which is guarded by 10 zombies and 3 wizards, one is a lich. Constance recognizes that this lich is a very powerful wizard and seals him within a sonic energy wall, effectively disabling him. Tux wild shapes into a Fleshraker dinosaur, pounced on top of and then later kills one of the wizards and two zombies. The lich casts a cone of Cause Fear, making Malik and one of his wizard allies run away. Lareth, Sam, Dean, Cas, all then destroyed the remaining zombies. After this, the party surrounded the lich, readied attacks, and quickly dispatched him.

Loot:

• (7,000) assorted pearls         (sell)
• (16,000) bracers of armor +4 (sell)  
• (750) potion of gaseous form (sell)
• (1,000) cloak of resistances (+1 to saves) (going to Tux)
• (6,750) wand of 9th lvl magic missle (50) (going to Ki)
• (2,000) ring of protection +1   (going to Constance)
• (65,000) staff of necromancy  (sell)  
• (25,000) x-ray vision ring        (keep this in Tux's pack for party)
• (700) scroll of summon monster IV  (sell)
• (24750) staff of alteration (sell)
• Total to sell: 114200gp.

22840gp base to each Malek and Cas
Tux: 22840 - 1000 = 21840
Ki: 22840 - 6750 = 16090
Constance: 22840 - 2000 = 20840