The Cabal of Eight II – Pt.26: Duel for the Cabal

The 2nd of Low Harvest – It was high noon at the White Prong and Excor and Fauna were sitting around a table enjoying a lunch of honey-drenched vittles, greasy squab with roasted onions, and plenty of cool, foaming ale. Both were solemnly awaiting the imminent wizard duel. They were halfway through their meal when Xanto the Wasp burst in through the door setting the spring-bell into a cacophonous fit of ear-battering ringing.

Xanto the Wasp (gliding over to Excor): “My friend! Oh, my friend! I have heard the dreadful news of your impending duel!”

He emphatically drew up his striped cape as a flourish.

Excor: “Here it comes.”

Xanto: “Oh! My dear friend! I will be your second, trust me! I have had plenty of experience in duels both as second and as duelist! And a fine duelist I am.”

Fauna: “How many duels have you been in!?”

Xanto: “A duel? A few in my time.”

He whipped his cape from his shoulder, “I have yet to lose an honest duel!”

Excor: “So where’s your apprentice Bumble?”

Fauna: “Oh yeah I was lookin’ for her.”

Xanto (waving away the question): “She’s off with her family somewhere, I don’t know family duties or whatnot. Anyway, I will be proud to back you as cabal leader and will stand by your side in the guild house! They cannot prevent me this …”

His words sort of fade into a mumbling mess.

Cris (Excor’s player): “I sense motive. … Nat-Twenty!”

Excor got the sense that Xanto was just using him to gain access to the Star Sapphire Confraternity’s guild house for whatever reason. Additionally, he probably also knows exactly where his apprentice is, he just isn’t saying.

Cris: “Screw it! I accept him as my second, might as well have this guy in my corner.”

Jenn (Fauna’s player): “Yeah you don’t want the Wasp in the other guy’s corner!”

Xanto (throwing his arm in the air to signal a waitress): “Ah, my friend it pays to have Xanto in your corner.”

Excor (his finger in the Wasp’s face): “No cheating.” With that, he drained his jack of the last swallow of ale.

            The odd trio sits and drinks on the Wasp’s tab (mostly grog) until evening. They conducted various conversations and fragments of just killing time until the common room of the Prong was noticeably darker, and the golden sky of approaching dusk shone through the windows, the great purple moon and its rings dominating the sky. The Wasp proposed a final cheer before the three got up from their table, quiet and sullen (save the Wasp). They started on their way through the dusky streets to the Star Sapphire Confraternity’s Guild House.

Later, in the Star Sapphire Confraternity Guild House basement – The entirety of the cabal was there in the large dark dirt-floored chamber. They were somewhere underneath the main guild house in one of its many cellars. The air was heavy with must and the candles and lanterns that lit it caused the moist air to become heavy and sweltering. Around the perimeter awkwardly stood Szoosha, Fauna, and Excor who occasionally tried to say something inspirational but failed each time. Across from them in a far corner were Bumble and Rhiam huddled around Belrae next to who stood a middle-aged guild wizard none of the others had yet seen. At the center of the chamber carefully scribing a circle in the dirt were three mages in silken blue robes overseen by the old wizard that had taken the unicorn wand from Excor. Jirek was there sweating bullets alone in another corner.

Cris: “Yup. There it is. Bumble’s in Belrae’s corner. … Hey wait a minute! Where’s the Wasp!?”

After the circle was complete the old wizard stepped into the center of the circle, “I am the honorable Xendo Zhaivo! I am a high-ranking member of the confraternity in high-standing and will serve as the official arbiter to this duel! If there are no objections or protestations from any present we will continue, and the dueling process shall commence! … No one? Good. Attention seconds! It is time to set the terms of this duel! We must confer with the participants’ seconds! To the circle, now!”

Xanto (appearing from nowhere eagerly stomped off from behind the trio towards the circle): “Ha! Time for me to shine!”

Minutes passed as the three mages and the seconds announced and negotiated terms running them back and forth. Finally, terms for the duel were reached, recorded, and signed. Excor had tried to include that the winner would take control of the cabal. However, he learned that the winner of a duel over the leadership was automatically the leader of the Cabal of Eight. It was already written in the charter.

Cris: “Aw man! I should’ve got a copy of that damn charter!”

The GM (me): “Or read it.”

The terms were these: no magic items, no physical binding of your opponent (Belrae’s stipulation which caused some contention), no weapons only spell magic, no total immobilization (Excor added in response to Belrae’s previous stipulation), and the duelists would enter the arena with 3 active spells to be prepared directly before the fight (as was traditional).

After this stage in the duel ritual, Xendo advised all witnesses to stand away from the circle. Then he and Xanto, as well as the three other mages in guild garb, began chanting casting a chain spell (led by Xendo) on the small circle of open ground within the scribed dirt circle. A crackling, mostly transparent dome of pure magical energy faded into existence and enclosed the area within the circle. Those who could see directly into the area of effect found that the ground contained within seemed to be a much larger area than what could possibly be contained within the circle’s circumference. The magic caused a strange lensing effect while looking through the field. Most observers had to turn away as the effect hurt their eyes. The actual diameter of the duel area was about 10 ft, within it was 50 ft.

Meanwhile, Excor cast the Mage Armor, Breath Without Air, and Shield spells on himself. Unbeknownst to team Excor, Belrae cast Death Armor, False Image II, and Invisibility II on himself. As soon as the dueling arena, as it was referred to, was up and functioning, both duelists were asked to enter from opposite but facing sides. With no further ceremony, the duel commenced.

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Belrae got the jump on Excor and began casting flamboyantly but the spell fizzled. Excor cast Slow on his opponent however the spell did not take effect for whatever reason. He watched carefully as Belrae tried to cast the same spell but again failed. Excor then took the time to size up his opponent and tried to guess what the spell was that he was trying to cast. A quick Spellcraft check revealed that Belrae was trying to get a Bolt of Stunning off. Belrae then cast Daggerfall instead on Excor destroying his shield. Excor hit Belrae with a cone of fire (Cone of Energy: Fire) visibly scorching his purple robes.

Excor moved away and cast See the Invisible. He rolled a Natural 1 on a general detection check of his surroundings which cost him a move equivalent action. Belrae immediately cast a fireball (Energy Ball: Fire) catching Excor in the blast reducing his mage armor by half. Excor shot a Lightning Bolt at Belrae but it fell short. Belrae appeared to flinch as if hit anyway. Visible scorch marks appeared on his robes. Then Belrae began a spell which quickly got out of his control and went wild. He twitched when a poisonous green bolt of energy blasted from his hands and struck Excor’s mage armor, destroying it. Excor charged forward and let loose a Force Ram spell, Belrae amazingly dodged with a natural 20.

The opponents circled each other like dogs in a fighting pit, each looking for an opening that would end this contest. Belrae seeing his chance, tried to cast a spell, but it fizzled out. Excor let loose a Bolt of Stunning striking Belrae but to no effect.

Excor: “What!? Hmm. Dammit!”

Belrae went to cast another spell and again it went wild in his clumsy hands. The skulls of both opponents flashed with a blast of purplish-white energy causing each of them to shudder with pain. Both had suffered temporary wisdom (WIS) damage from the wild magic. Fortunately, not enough to render either completely insane. Excor shot Belrae again with another Bolt of Stunning. Again, it was to no effect.

Excor: “Damn!”

Belrae began approaching and carefully sidestepping, motioning as if casting a spell. Excor fell for the ruse and prepared to take a hit, but nothing came. Excor then unleashed a Paralyze II spell trying to cripple one of his foe’s arms thereby preventing his spellcasting. However, nothing happened again.

Isis: “Aw man!”

Jenn: “Oh no!”

Cris: “Sh*t. What the hell? … I’m missing something.”

Suddenly, Excor was smashed from behind by a Force Ram spell strong enough to put him out of action. The dome of energy faded away and all wounds suffered during the match likewise disappeared. Excor got up dusting himself off. Xanto was already congratulating Belrae on his “flawless” victory.

Cris: “Shit! Good one.” (Directed at me) “Damn!”

Then he realized something and groaned loudly before face-palming.

Isis: “What? What’s going on?”

Cris: “The spells he used to get me in the duel. False Image II, Invisibility, and Force Ram?”

Me (the GM): “Hey, you guessed it!”

Isis: “Yeah.”

Cris: “He got those from my and Gornix’s grimoires! When we traded spells way back when! He learned that from us!” (I don’t think the actual moment is recorded dear reader, but they traded spells at the end of almost every cabal meeting while Gil (Gornix’s player) was still playing, so I probably truncated the actual occurrence in the blog).

With the match over and leadership of the cabal settled Excor limped back to his room in Fauna’s new rental and went to sleep. The others, however, had their own plans, and as all were shuffling from the guild house Szoo and Fauna decided to invite Bumble along for a drink at the Red Helm. They had intended to ply her for information over drinks. They were convinced the Wasp was planning something. However, Bumble collapsed after the first tip of the mug. Fauna had dosed her ale with yellow lotus.

Szoo: “Ugh! Why did you do that!”

Fauna: “I dunno, we were trying to get her f*&%ed up right?”

Szoo: “Not that messed up!”

Fauna then left Szoo there to take care of the Wasp’s apprentice. She went to see the grove tender in Central Park, Anishi, and after a brief discussion, while Anishi was busy leading a chant around the central tree with his pupils, she found he was a member of the Southern Order of Druids. After that brief and mostly fruitless adventure, the druidess shuffled back to the new rental and did some yellow lotus.

The following day, the 3rd of Low Harvest, the three adventurers plus Jirek and Bumble found themselves around the old round table in the club room. Belrae lorded over all of them and most of the time it was him making speeches and plans that would eventually require the assistance of the rest. They all pretty much just tuned him out. All save for Excor as Belrae couldn’t help but send a verbal jab his way every now and then. Szoo, as usual, was gazing out of the window most of the time but looked over at Belrae just after he had finished his last vainglorious speech and loudly uttered, “Ugh!” Before the meeting was dismissed it was declared that Xanto the Wasp would be donating his “consultation services’ to the cabal. Belrae prevented Excor from talking when he piped up with his objections.

Over the following eight days, Excor brewed mead and Fauna brewed several potions. She had gone to the bank to make a withdrawal realizing that the banker, Xander (see Cabal of Eight II pt.3: Blue Cloaks & Bankers), was a member of the cult she was leading. The next meeting was dominated by the superstar team of Belrae and the Wasp who ultimately decided, with the input of Fauna, to begin planning an expedition to find the Golden Bee. Apparently, the Wasp had “come upon some valuable information concerning” it.

12th of Low Harvest – Szoo had just put the finishing touches on his brand-new staff and had exited the “bone sculptor’s” hole in the wall into the narrow maze of narrow back alleys that hid him. The naga was strutting his way to the nearest main street with his new staff in hand. It was made of dragonbone with a starmetal inlay that wound up along the length of it to a single large moonstone embedded at its head. It was a staff of elemental blast (fire) and could deal +1D6 fire damage on a strike. Suddenly, Szoosha’s shield spell was triggered by a blast of concentrated water. He spun around and prepared for battle.

Before him stood a slight, fair-skinned human, a Fuglotian mage, wearing soft leather armor with a grey serpent sown on the breast, and a wolf skin mantle on his shoulders. It was the water elementalist who had accompanied the Grey Serpent Pirates (The Cabal of Eight II Pt.15: Something on the Table).

The Grey Serpent Mage (pointing accusingly at Szoo): “You’re too close to the sea fire tosser!”

Szoosha could feel his hatred. It was instinctive between the two of them. They were each harnessing opposing elements by instinct. So, it only followed logically that casters of opposing forces would instinctively hate each other. Apparently, the water elementalist had taken his lack of facing down Szoosha in battle as a personal insult.

Szoo (hissing angrily): “Alright! Let’s do this!”

To be Concluded…

The Cabal of Eight II – Pt.25: Calm in the Dragon’s Wake

It was late morning; some carpenters were measuring the warehouse. Vor Jetl was overseeing a crew with a winch and chain by the large hole in the dock floor. He was going to recover the dragon’s corpse; it was simply too much money to just leave it to rot. He promised each of the trio that they could claim a share at the safehouse sometime tomorrow evening. Jirek had taken his leave and Fauna and Szoo had left together to breakfast at the safehouse. Excor, still mourning the unicorn wand, decided to breakfast at the White Prong. From there, he would head to the Red Helm hoping to smooth over the situation with Draega.

It was nearing afternoon by the time he reached the Red Helm tavern. Draega was out front overseeing some workers. They were constructing a new framework and facade over the gaping hole in the front of the place.

Draega (taking time from setting up a sandwich board with a red helmet next to a frothing mug of ale painted on it): “oh… it’s you.”

Excor (handing Draega a large sapphire and emerald): “This should cover everything.”

Draega: “Ha! I knew you wouldn’t leave our friendship in the dirt to die! I suppose you and your friends might still come around for your meetings and whatnot. But this does not cover the clubroom rent. And no more complementary drinks!”

His aims met, Excor was about to walk away and head to his apartment far to the south. However, as he turned, Belrae and his right-hand man Riahm were in his face—the de facto leaders of the Cabal. Belrae was a fresh-faced young Ezmerian, his purple robes fluttering in the breeze with a prominent green frog on his chest. Riahm was a young Ivoran man with a sun-kissed face his half brown half green cloak testified to the fact that he was a graduate of the Ezermian Bardic College.

Belrae: “There you are! You interfered with a very important deal we had with the dragon queen! You screwed up a prime bit of cabal business!”

Excor: “Whoa! Whoa! That dragon business was going to go bad no matter what! Even Draega warned you.”

Belrae: “Shut up!”

Cris: “Oh? Well, that’s it I’m through with this guy!”

Belrae: “Now I hear you’re telling everyone that you’re the leader of the cabal!”

Excor: “What!?”

Cris: “Sh*t! It’s that damned Wasp, he’s been workin’ Belrae while we were dealing with that dragon sh#t.”

He was not wrong although he had no real reason for believing so other than being familiar with Xanto the Wasp’s modus operandi.

Belrae: “Y’know what! Y’know what!?”

Excor: “Well…”

Belrae: “I challenge you to a duel for leadership of the cabal, a wizard’s duel! Anytime you want it!”

Excor: “Fine. Let’s duel. You pick the time.”

Belrae (after consulting with Riahm): “In two days’ time at dusk in the Star Sapphire guild house.”

The pair stomped off. Excor just shrugged.

Isis: “Oh! It’s those two connected to the Sapphire guild!” (see The Cabal of Eight II Pt.24 – Wrath of the Dragon Queen)

Morning of the 28th of Monsoon – The trio of Excor, Fauna, and Szoo sit around a table in a bustling and already smoke-fogged common room of the White Prong the board brimming with steaming meat, fresh fruit, and foaming tankards of dark ale, morning conversations sizzled through the greasy air.

Fauna (lifting an overfilled tankard to her mouth): “Aaah! Breakfast ale!”

Szoo and Fauna had slept at the safehouse and Excor had taken a room for the night at the Shield & Helm Inn. They discussed the battle with the Ocean of the Desert, mentioned how none of them wanted to deal with the Wasp (Szoo still had his key) for a while and ran through the list of loot. Excor had spent an hour before sunrise identifying all four pieces of the dragon queen’s jewelry.

There was the silver and diamond necklace with five silver acorn charms, a silver bracelet, a gold bracelet, and a diamond-encrusted silver diadem/tiara. All were insanely valuable and somewhat magically powerful. The gold bracelet had the constant ability of Death Armor (1D4 + 5), and the silver bracelet had Heal Self (10D4) three times a day. The silver diadem on the other hand, had the abilities of Track Enemy (98%) once per day, Scry twice a day, Soul Armor at will once per day, and the central sapphire held the ability to cast Negate Magic I at will three times per day. However, the necklace was something else altogether.

The necklace was a legacy item, and each acorn charm was able to control the mind of a slave. Clairvoyance had revealed to Excor earlier that it was an item of legacy and only fire intense enough to shatter the diamonds can destroy it. Unanimously they decided to destroy the necklace as legacy items are not only useless but also can be dangerous to those who are not part of that legacy. For that they would reconvene at Fauna’s rental, or in what was left of it anyway.

A little more than an hour later the group was back in the old rental in the north quarter. The trio voted three to one that the fire elementalist would be charged with the necklace’s destruction. After all, if the fire elementalist couldn’t create flames hot enough to destroy it, who could? Szoo lit the hearth with his fire magic and the other two backed off, trying to find cover as Szoo prepared to throw the necklace into the roaring flames.

Szoo (the necklace dangling off the end of his naginata): “Oh boy! Okay! I’m doing it!”

The other two ducked behind what cover they found and the naga tossed the diamond necklace into the flames. A blinding flash of magical light caused him to jump backward and shield his eyes in the crook of his arm. When he looked again the flames of the roaring fire had been frozen and turned to solid ice. Szoo used his fire touch ability to recover the necklace from the ice and then took it into the alley to try to use his Encase in Element (fire) spell.

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Eventually, after building what amounted to a bonfire in the alleyway, Szoo, through superior concentration (N20), encased the necklace the flames shattering the gems and melting the rest. The trio sighed in relief Szoo had successfully destroyed the necklace without much incident. They finally settled down to split the loot; Szoo kept the tiara, Excor took the gold bracelet, and Fauna the silver bracelet. A few moments later, they went their separate ways.

Szoo hoofed it down to the seafront looking for Paej (see The Cabal of Eight Pt.20: Rats, Rowdies, and Imps) as a favor to Excor. He was to inquire about “any important info about the brewers and distillers in the city”. Whatever that meant. The naga eventually found Paej at the bar in a scuzzy pirate-infested dive. She had a crew and a boat and was just looking for a job. As it turned out, there was only a single brewer within the city, the Red Scorpion Barrel. Otherwise, there was no other information.

Szoo: “Oh hey, you know a bone carver that can enchant stuff?”

Paej: “Yeah, yeah I know a guy, but he can be a little paranoid.”

Paej gave Szoo the location of the bone-carver, it was a rickety staircase deep in an alley in the West Quarter just off the Shop District. Szoo shrugged and thanked Paej then went off to check to see if the dragonhide and bone was ready at the safehouse. A few hours later, and to his delight, he found that his share was ready and waiting. After packing up his wealth of dragon bone & hide, he went to find the bone-carver.

Another couple of hours later, Szoo easily found the rickety staircase on the alley side of a low-end apartment building. After he took a few minutes to remember the specific knock that would get the door opened, he was face-to-face with a wild-eyed, skinny, pale, man with a heavy Hyvalian accent and a bush of wild, gray hair dressed in a dirty, tattered robe. After convincing the twitchy nervous guy that he wasn’t any kind of authority, Szoo revealed his purpose to the “bone-sculptor” as the guy insisted that he was though he was likely some sort of bone-specialized necromancer.

Szoo wanted help in creating a magic staff with a star metal inlay and a large moonstone at its top out of the dragonbone with the Elemental Blast (fire) spell on it. After showing the bone-sculptor he had the means to pay, they embarked on creating the magic staff that would take 13 days to complete.

Meanwhile, Fauna was heading out unsure as to what to do as a messenger reached her while departing the old rental with two messages for her, Draega wanted them out of the rental as did Vor Jetl from the safehouse. So, she went apartment-hunting. She was talking to barkeeps and paying criers 1 bit to read board posts for her. Eventually, she found herself somewhere in the South Market District near the Main City Gate chasing down a lead when she ran into a familiar face. A longtime contact, Kosapio Belahgastro (see The Cabal of Eight Pt.24: Plate of Scorpions), the Creschan woman was wearing a white robe and blue apron with a white star on the chest. They talked for a few minutes and Fauna lamented that she did not keep in contact like she should. Then they parted ways again.

Cris: “Wait!”

Jenn: “What?”

Cris: “You had a contact in the White Star guild this whole TIME!?”

Isis: “What!? Really!?”

Cris: “Yeah! She was wearing the White Star, they’re the biggest healers’ guild in the city!”

Jenn: “So what?”

Cris: “So what!?” He went into fits of incomprehensible sputtering.

Isis: “JENNY!”

Cris (his outrage finally subsided after several minutes): “Ya know, having a contact in the world’s largest healers’ guild could’ve been helpful.”

Jenn just shrugged.

Fauna finally found a place she liked and put down a deposit.

At the same time, Excor had walked to Baba’s Apothecary to “smoke and chill” with the naga apothecary. They were calmly discussing various herbs, especially lotus. She mentioned she had a new supplier for lotus. He wears a gold mask with a gold bee and flower blossom on it. She did have a backup supplier, a smaller-time guy in the city. Excor knew who that was (Anishi the Grove Tender, Fauna’s friend and co-cultist). After a few hours of smoking, Excor decided to go to the safehouse to collect his share of the spoils. From there, he went back to his room at the Shield & Helm. The duel with Belrae was ever-present in his mind.

Morning of the 1st of Low Harvest – Excor sent a whisper to Jirek and Fauna inviting them to breakfast at the White Prong. There he asked Jirek to be his second in the duel at morrow’s dusk. He would also need access to Jirek’s warehouse. The scribe also agreed to this. Excor then departed to a tailor. He wanted a purse, cowl, gloves, and potion bandolier made from the blue dragon hide. With a 10gp deposit, it would take 10 days to be ready for pickup.

Then he went to a cooper near the docks purchasing two empty hogsheads. He had them delivered to Jirek’s warehouse where he had hoped to fill them with his magic goblet. (Cabal of Eight Pt.38: The Black Tombs Pt.2 for the chalice, Cabal of Eight II Pt.2: A Letter and a Map for the birth of his scheme). However, he realized too late that it would take forever to fill them that way. Seriously, we ran through the (approximate) math for about half an hour.

Later, as the sky darkened and the sun was nearing dusk, Fauna went to find Vor Jetl. However, she couldn’t find the Dragonfly anywhere. In his stead, she sought out Anishi. But he was busy directing initiates of the Southern Order in maintaining and landscaping Central Park. Both with druidic magic and standard gardening tools. So, as she wanted a magic cloak made from her share of the dragonhide, Anishi suggested a member in the Old Market District. She got there close to dusk and put in an order for a Cloak of Many Pockets. It would take 10 days for the seamster to complete. He guaranteed his work would be of high quality and gave her a great price with a wink (he was a member of the cult she was head priestess of as well).

Cris: “Geesh, must be nice to have a cult! Y’know, we need to think about how to use them in the future.”

Isis: “Yes! We really need to.”

Jenn: “Hey, that’s my cult!”

Cris: “Well! You need to start using ‘em!”

Jenn: “That’s what I just did!”

Both Cris and Isis sighed with disgust.

Fauna eventually found her way back to the safehouse where the servant still let her in. The first thing she did was plop down on the sofa and dose herself with some yellow lotus powder. She passed out immediately and was tormented by a disturbing dream about Vor Jetl. She dreamed that he was nude laying on grey silk pillows with the general feeling of undefined dread.

Elsewhere, Excor spent 5 hours filling the hogsheads in the warehouse then quit and retired to the Shield & Helm. When in his room, he laid back onto the feather pillow and bed after a hot meal and bottle of wine. The duel was now only a matter of hours away.

To Be Continued…

The Cabal of Eight II – Pt.24: Wrath of the Dragon Queen

It had taken an entire day and night to talk Vor Jetl out of “confiscating” the wand. He wanted to cash it in with the blue dragon. Fauna had even pulled rank on him. His soldiers were apparently cult members themselves, they relented to her before he did. So, he spent an entire day and night “conversing” with them about possession of the wand. Eventually, however, the trio finally talked him into letting them keep the wand. They could keep it safe. Then they formulated a plan which they needed Vor Jetl’s resources for. He cheerfully endorsed the idea since now, they would “owe” him “two” now.

Excor: “What?”, turning to Fauna, “What did he say?”

Fauna: “Oh, don’t worry about that right now.”

Excor (pointing at Fauna): “You and me, we really need to have a long talk when this is all over.”

Fauna waved his concerns away, of course, they would tell each other everything afterward. Note dear reader, Jenn (Fauna’s player) winked at me.

Meanwhile, Excor had formulated a plan. Vor Jetl would lend them the use of an empty warehouse on the docks, and he would send a messenger who would deliver the trio’s location to the dragon: the warehouse tomorrow at sunup. The trio would use what remains of the day to hire members of the dragonslayers’ guild to assist them in “ending this”. All adventurers were nervous and taking deep breaths (as were their players).

Vor Jetl: “Um…”

Szoo: “Aw crap, what!?”

Vor Jetl: “The Roaring Skull – dragonslayers’ guild? Um…”

Fauna: “Spit it out!”

Vor Jetl: “During that nasty storm a few nights ago…”

Fauna shrugged her shoulders; she had been the guest of the Wasp the night that summer storm struck. Szoo and Excor had passed out completely exhausted (and drunk) before it had even started to thunder (see The Cabal of Eight II Pt.19 – The Dragon & the Wasp).

Vor Jetl: “…lightning struck the guild house and most of the slayers were killed when it burned down… to the ground.”

Szoo: “In the rain!”

Vor Jetl (he shrugged): “Well…”

Excor: *sigh* “We all know what happened, that damned dragon queen – Ocean of the Desert or whatever her name is.”

So, they decided to find any survivors and hire them, they should be raring for some vengeance. All went about their roles for the rest of the day.

Morning of the 27th of Monsoon – the first bleeding rays of sun were starting to pierce the slit windows of the massive barn-like warehouse. The floor was the moist wood of the pier onto which the place was built. Above on a central heavy support post and along the ceiling supports was a hook and tackle. The mages spread out at the far end and the three survivors of the dragonslayers’ guild massacre, for that’s what it had been, were hiding in the rafters. Jirek was to wait by the huge pair of sliding doors; when the dragon entered, he was to slam the doors shut trapping her inside with them. At least that was the hope.

They had figured at just past dawn that their message had reached the dragon queen – the Ocean of the Desert. It read:

The Cabal of Eight awaits the presence of the oh-so-powerful Puddle of the Pisspot if she does not fear the true power of the mages of the Cabal of Eight. We have your wand here in the red warehouse between the first and second piers on the waterfront. Come alone or we will disintegrate the wand before your very eyes.

Signed,

The Cabal of Eight.

The sun had just fully peeked over the dark blue horizon of the Silverset Sea, and the mages were stretching tired of waiting. The dragonslayers were silent and waiting like eager cats in their perches.

Jenn: “So. We’re going to destroy the wand if she doesn’t show?”

Cris: “Hell no! I mean, we don’t have the magic to destroy it, it was a bluff but she don’t know that.”

Dark clouds moved over the horizon causing the warehouse to become shrouded in a muggy, grey gloom.

Szoo: “Well maybe she won’t show.”

Excor: “Oh, she’ll…”

The warehouse doors crashed as they were thrown open, standing between them was the silhouetted human form clad all in blue and silver of the Ocean of the Desert, the dragon queen. She seemed angry.

Excor: “Well, here we go! Jirek! Jirek?”

Szoo: “Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy.”

Fauna: “Alright! Let’s kill this b*#@h!”

The queenly form of the Ocean of the Desert instantly swelled into that of a giant blue dragon as she strode angrily toward the young mages. Her true dragon form still wearing the silver diadem on her head, a silver and diamond necklace with five silver acorn charms dangling on her neck, and the gold and silver bracelets on her left and right wrists. Still very much a dragon queen. The trio of adventurers sucked in air but held their ground, as did the dragonslayers in the rafters, Jirek, however, shrieked in terror and backed into a corner failing to shut the doors.

Fauna immediately moved to the side towards Excor while throwing fire at the dragon. Her flames hit a shield spell, but she maintained them as they jetted from her hand. The dragon queen’s throat swelled and the mages and dragonslayers braced themselves as the entire place vibrated with the dragon’s inhalation. Then with a deafening roar, she let loose a blast of lightning from her mouth catching Excor and a dragonslayer. Fortunately, a shield spell protected both from the thundering energy. Some rafters blasted through the hole made in the roof of the warehouse and flaming splinters rained down on the mages sizzling out on the damp planks as they fell. Excor summoned a giant earth-elemental that erupted into existence from thin air. The planks under its feet creaked.

Szoo activated his ring of Fearsome Form II and flew up into the rafters, a hideous insect-like version of himself with leathery dragonfly wings. The head dragonslayer leaped from the splintered rafters and landed a tremendous leaping blow with his sword but the blade hit another shield spell. The second dragonslayer also dropped from the rafters with a single tremendous axe blow, her axe hitting a third shield spell.

Excor: “It’s okay! It’s okay! Her shields are down! Her shields are down!”

The third dragonslayer shot his bow launching a dragonbone arrow right at the heart of the beast, however, she instantly knocked the fragile projectile to the side with a claw. It hit the wall shattering. Jirek tried to flee but was too afraid to run past the dragon and just dove behind a heavy wood stud. Fauna ran across the warehouse floor to the side opposite Excor as she maintained her flames dealing very little damage. The great blue dragon queen clawed the elemental tearing a significant chunk out of its solid stone chest.

Excor cast Mage Armor on himself as he drew his Wand of Spell Penetration. Szoo flew to the apex of the warehouse ceiling, near the hole should he need to escape, and shot a ray of fire at the dragon dealing no damage. The head dragonslayer slashed the dragon with his sword dealing some damage followed by his fellow who landed a blow with her axe, but it bounced off the steel-hard scales. The slayer in the rafters took aim with his bow and hit with a magic arrow but it shattered harmlessly against the monster’s scales. Fauna continued to blast fire at the dragon dealing very little damage. The dragon snapped her massive jaws at the axe-wielding dragonslayer who dodged instant death by a hair’s breadth. Excor channeled the Slow spell through his wand at the blue dragon and penetrated the dragon queen’s impressive magic resistance.

Szoo & Fauna (both at once): “Yeah!”

Emboldened, Szoo flew down using his naginata to strike at one of the dragon’s eyes, but the blow glanced harmlessly off the beast’s cheek. The lead dragonslayer lashed out with his sword again but the dragon easily parried with a claw. The archer in the rafter drew his bow again and this time hit, nailing the dragon with a magic arrow which did a little damage. The blue dragon’s massive tail whipped at Fauna, fortunately, hitting a shield spell. Excor cast Verminous Might on himself gaining a pair of insect wings, he buzzed up to the apex of the roof. The dragonslayer leader slashed again but his blade bounced harmlessly off the monster’s hide. The axe-wielding dragonslayer swung as well but her axe also bounced harmlessly off the dragon. The archer shot and hit but did very little damage this time.

Szoo, still hovering about the dragon’s face, tried to shoot a ray of fire into the dragon’s eye but missed and dealt no damage. The axe-wielding slayer put all her might behind her next blow in a power attack and dealt some damage. The archer used his last magic arrow, he dealt a little damage. Fauna maintained her throw fire spell dealing some damage as her flames continued to increase in intensity. The dragon touched a claw to the central sapphire set in her diamond-encrusted silver diadem. A flash of magic light and Excor instantly knew that his slow spell had ended. The lead dragonslayer attacked with his sword and not only missed but dropped it. The earth elemental stomped forward and slammed both its fists against the dragon queen’s ribs but did no damage while Excor cast slow again but the dragon successfully resisted this time.

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Szoo tried to grab and pull off the dragon’s diadem but failed to even touch it. The axe-wielding slayer swung again in a power-attack hacking at the dragon, dealing minimal damage. The archer shot a highest-quality arrow at the dragon, but the projectile shattered on a deflecting wing. Fauna maintained her flames the intensity of which all in the warehouse could now feel but the dragon took no damage. The dragon belched another bolt of lightning right at Excor, but it hit his mage armor instead, sparing the structure of the warehouse. The lead dragonslayer backed off and retrieved his sword. Excor cast shadow ribbons on the dragon, but the black straps of shadow stuff melted away as soon as they touched the creature. Jirek was juking left and right as he ran about aimlessly panic-stricken trying to escape the massive dragon.

Szoo again tried to pull the tiara-like diadem off the dragon queen but again failed. The archer loosed another highest-quality arrow that splintered on the dragon’s deep blue scales. Fauna maintained her flames dealing a decent amount of damage this time. The dragon surged forward and tried to stomp on the axe-wielding slayer knocking her prone and wounding her badly. The archer shot his last highest-quality arrow, and again it broke on the dragon’s scales. Excor cast shadow ribbons again but again his magic failed to penetrate the dragon’s defenses.

The dragon twisted its body and swept one side of the warehouse with its massive tree-trunk tail. All the axe-wielding slayer could do was scream until her fearless leader leaped in its way and miraculously parried the blow with his sword. One of the heavy wood supports was smashed and as a result, a small part of the roof caved in. However, the archer was able to stay on his perch as the rafters quaked from the blow. The lead slayer again struck the dragon with his sword dealing some damage. Excor moved to the corner farthest from the dragon queen.

The battle raged on for another round where Szoo was able to snatch away the dragon’s diadem and was surprised when it shrank in his hands to a wearable size. The archer tried for the dragon queen’s eyes but repeatedly failed, and Fauna maintained her fire dealing increasing amounts of damage. The dragonslayer leader continued to slash away, Excor began using his force ram spell as his chosen weapon, and the dragon unleashed its breath on the archer nearly killing him and blasting away a portion of the roof. Jirek was barely able to dodge a portion of the falling roof.

They continued to fight on. Excor shot a storm of force ram and shadow ribbon spells at the dragon queen including a quickened slow spell, all ineffectual. He had to renew his mage armor as the first instance was almost gone by the end of the round. Fauna was dealing the most damage with her long-running throw fire spell. Szoo hacked away at the dragon’s face with his naginata while wearing the dragon’s diadem.

Jirek found a space under some debris to hide and cower. The three dragonslayers were barely able to hang on using recovery checks and dodging along with power attacks and attempted eye shots as their main strategies. The dragon snapped repeatedly at Fauna and Szoo fortunately hitting their shields. However, it blasted the two dragonslayers that were on the ground horribly wounding them. Fauna, caught in the blast, lost her last shield but mage armor activated from one of her items.

The fight ground on. All three dragonslayers were dead by the first minute thirty seconds of battle. Jirek finally overcame his horror and began using a magic dagger that flew at the dragon on command, however, it never landed a blow. The dragon eventually smashed Fauna with a tail swipe causing her to lose her carefully maintained flames and she could not overcome the dragon’s spell resistance with subsequent instances of the spell. Szoo resorted to hand-to-hand combat and the elemental remained unable to damage the dragon queen with anything but a lucky blow though it was devastating.

The battle continued for another grueling thirty seconds.  Fauna nearly died save for a very lucky recovery check and a healing potion. Szoo nearly died, save for a decent recovery check before performing a suicidal power attack driving his naginata blade into the dragon’s neck. The dragon queen continued to blast the mages and the warehouse with her lightning bolt breath and snapping her steel-trap jaws at them eventually putting a sizeable hole in the floor planks exposing the seawater below. Jirek was unconscious and bleeding on the ground. Excor exhausted his repertoire of force ram spells, dealing severe damage to the warehouse but ultimately scoring the death blow on the dragon with the last spell possible for him to cast (he had 1 KO pt. left).

The dragon queen was finally dead, her massive corpse slid through the gigantic hole in the dock planks into the ocean. The last three standing began to giggle. They had won and survived by the skin of their teeth. Then they heard the grinding of wheels and the clopping of the horses of a coach pulling up to the doors. Excor and Szoo went and looked through the ruined opening. There was a black coach with a large seal painted on its door. The mark of the Ezmer branch of the Star-Sapphire Confraternity. A man of advanced age in black and blue silk robes opened the door and slowly disembarked the coach.

The Old Wizard (at Excor): “Ah-hem. I think you have something that belongs to me.”

Excor: “Oh, of course, of course, sir!”

Excor immediately fetched the wand from his robes.

Fauna: “What!? You’re just handing it over! After all that!?”

 Cris: “Hell yes! That guy could probably take us at our best, right now we’re done. I don’t have spells left, do you?”

Jenn: “Damn. Okay, you’re right.”

The Old Wizard: “Yes. I remember you all.” He gingerly took the wand from Excor’s hands. “We’ve been tracking this baby since it arrived in the bay aboard ship.” His eyes washed over it hungrily.

Excor introduced himself with his full noble name (sorry dear reader, I lost the notes though only the old wizard heard it anyway) finishing with a flourish of his still-smoking hat.

The Old Wizard: “Indeed. Well, I am grateful. You and your companions speak well of your little cabal just as your other two friends have proven themselves. This cabal of yours has been noticed. Though this does not mean you four have earned an audience with the guild as the other two have.”

The four young and rather haggard mages were puzzled.

The Old Wizard: “Well, I might entertain a favor from any of you, maybe. I am Xendo Zhaivo, arbiter for the confraternity.” With that, he turned and leaped back into the carriage. It almost immediately trotted off.

Szoo: “What did he mean by that?”

Excor: “I have no idea. … Oh well, we’ll probably find out soon. We have a cabal meeting in two days.”

The remains of the warehouse creaked dangerously. The splintered floor with its gaping hole was now treacherous. Small dusty bits of wood and roof tiles were occasionally falling down from above the survivors’ heads. Excor walked over to Jirek and poured a healing potion down his throat. After that, he looted the dragonslayers’ corpses. He kept the bearded axe, the two-handed longsword, and the bowie knife. Not long after, the trio and Jirek limped to the road where they collectively collapsed to their duffs. Suddenly, a carriage clomped up to them. None other than Vor Jetl leaped out of it roaring with anger at the three victors. His warehouse was “ruined”! Fauna gave him three large sapphires. He went back to smiling immediately and told his footman to arrange for carpenters as soon as possible.

Cris: “Hey! That old bastard didn’t give me his name!”

To Be Continued…

The Cabal of Eight II – Pt.22: The Wasp’s Nest

They easily made it through the mirror into the Wasp’s strange extra-dimensional hideout guided back to the mirror in the library closet by Fauna.

Szoo (mesmerized by the vaulted ceilings more than 20 ft. above him): “Whoa.”

The trio had the previous instant just been in a tiny closet and walked through an out-of-place mirror as if it were a thin veil of shimmering mercury and found themselves here. The walls were nearly featureless vast swaths of smooth cold beige. The magic sconces, large dragonflies of colored glass mosaic far up the walls lit by flickering golden magic flames. They lit the hall before them well enough though they were all made nervous by the fact the magic light also seemed to deepen the numerous shadows.

The trio looked down each side of the cross-hall, it seemed to continue both left and right into unlit sections which prevented them from seeing how far the cross-hall went. Jirek, the cabal scribe, was close but apart from the group.

Cris (Excor’s Player): “Crap, that’s right. Jirek’s still with us.”

Before them was a set of winding ivory stairs that rose to a spacious mezzanine, all the floors were a polished marble tile mosaic. In a niche under the stairs were stacked books and piles of scrolls, several of which were strewn about the floor along with several open books next to an oblong case.

Excor (to Fauna): “That it?” He pointed to the case.

Fauna: “I dunno, probably is.”

Excor looked at the green lacquered double door under the mezzanine ledge.

Fauna: “That leads to a library… I think.”

They turned around. Behind them was a large built-in mirror rimmed in gold with a sapphire and emerald dragonfly at the top edge. This main hall area was of considerable size.

Excor, not wanting to appear over-eager to get the case in his hands, starts questioning Fauna about what’s here – bedrooms up there and a bath, a kitchen somewhere (she had no idea), the library there beyond those doors, and that’s all she knew.

Szoo: “Should we start exploring this place?”

Excor: “Yeah, yeah… pick a hallway, there’s three ways to go. We kind of know what’s up there.” He pointed at the mezzanine and the main hall. He turned around to face one of the side hallways.

Szoo: “Um, the right one?”

Then as a group with Excor in the lead, they started to go down the dim hallway, the lights began to light up as they moved down. They continued for several minutes only noticing after they had made a long distance that the lights were progressively dimmer than the previous. They pushed on eventually stopping about a dozen feet or so from a virtual wall of darkness.

Excor: “Holdup.”

The trio each in turn tried to penetrate the impenetrable shadows with their eyes. Neither the druidess nor the naga could see a thing. Excor, however, thought he saw “something moving in there”. It was shapeless.

As a result, They began lighting torches and lamps, casting light spells, and trying to penetrate the supernatural darkness. It was as if they had come face to face with a brick wall but of solidified shadow instead of masonry. Fauna was prodded to “poke” her torch into it. When the flame submerged into its depths, its light was completely obscured. It came back out extinguished.

Excor: “Great. It probably has energy drain on it or some sh*t like that.”

Fauna: “What do you think it is?”

Excor: “A wall of shadows or something…”

The four mages, the trio of adventurers with Jirek following far behind, went in the opposite direction to the same result.

Excor: “Man! There’s gotta be something good back there. Ah! Do we wanna die trying to get it?”

Cris looked over at me with an accusing glare. I could only shrug and signal a “who me!?”, then wave my hands helplessly in the air.

Cris: “Yeah, yeah, I thought so.”

Excor (aiming his question at his companions): “So, do we try to get through this thing?”

Szoo & Fauna (in unison): “Screw that!”

Excor: “Cool, cool. We’re getting sidetracked, let’s get that f@*#’in wand!”

 They retreated to the box.

Cris: “Yeah, I don’t want to mess up my royal clothes!”

Excor was still in his royal duds; an embroidered silk robe with a black silk sash at the waist over a buttoned undershirt, black silk shoes on his feet, a black felt pork-pie hat with a peacock feather on his head, and the magic blue cape on his back.

Cris (to me, the GM): “Yeah, I need to get back into my adventuring gear, I need to keep my noble clothes clean.”

Isis (Szoo’s Player): “What!?”

Jenn (Fauna’s Player): “Oh! He’s a fancy lad!”

That’s when they noticed that Jirek, who was with them when they entered the Wasp’s strange extra-dimensional hideout, was already on the case trying to suss out how to open it.

Excor: “Hey! You get back from there!”

Szoo: “Don’t make me burn you, man!”

Fauna: “Yeah!”

Jirek backed off with his hands up, “Just curious, this is it though!”

Excor: “No kidding!”

Then Excor sidled up next to the case and began carefully inspecting it. Shortly after a concerted effort, they spotted a white outline of a keyhole under a seal. Excor had the other three stand back while he used his magic platinum key (see Cabal of Eight – Pt.17: Fight for Sleep) to temporarily open the magically sealed case. They were all stunned for a moment standing transfixed as he gazed upon the treasure within.

There, sitting within the small but long black case, was the wand that every power player in Ezmer was desperate to get their hands on. The scepter was almost as long as a short spear with a shining pearlescent twisted alicorn consisting most of its length.  The horn was set in a polished platinum horse-head guard with a polished jet grip and large polished azurite pommel stone.

Both Jirek and Excor grabbed the wand. They stared each other down for a moment, then Jirek reluctantly let go after Szoo threatened him.

Excor: “Okay. We need something to wrap this in.”

The case snapped back closed. They could all hear the locking mechanism reengage.

Fauna: “Got it!” She darted up the stairs and then after a few brief minutes ran back down the flight of stairs with a delicate silk blanket pilfered from an upper bedroom bunched in her arms. Then as they wrapped the glorious object in silk, they noticed that Jirek followed every movement of the wand with his eyes.

Isis: “Aw man, the wand’s got Jirek!”

Jenn: “Oh no, do we have to kill him?”

Cris: “Naw, we just have to keep an eye on him, don’t let him be alone with it… Damn.”

Jenn: “What?”

Cris: “We’re all wizards.”

Isis: “So.”

Cris: “None of us can really outrun him, if we were faster, we could lose Jirek on the way.”

Szoo: “Wait. Where are we going?”

Fauna: “Duh, the safehouse man!”

Isis (to Cris): “Wait. Why did you invite Jirek anyway?”

Cris: “…”

Jenn: “Well.”

Cris: “I forgot.”

Without analyzing anything further they fled back through the mirror leaving the empty case behind. They were going to run all the way to the safehouse set up for Fauna by Vor Jetl hoping that they could avoid the Blue Dragon’s servants, the two pirate crews, and the Wasp.

To Be Continued…

Current State of Affairs Aug 2021

Currently, the Ranger Games Publishing blog is on hold. Don’t worry there is still plenty of material for it. The blog will start again in October with the final entry in the Dead World Zombie Horror Campaign. There are more entries for the Cabal of Mages campaign all the way up to the finish as well. The hold is due to the publishing work on two, possibly, three new books for Dice & Glory.

I’m hoping once the first book rolls out others will begin coming one after the other over the following months. Dark Home: Land of the Dwarves is back on the roster as well. I am working with GM Cris on that one. In the meantime, there may be intermittent miscellaneous blog entries and downloadable PDFs. My schedule currently precludes articles, however. Although do not completely write off an article or two in the next few months. For now, though, there is nothing ready to go for a while.

If you want to support us, please look for our books and/or PDFs on DriveThruRPG.com, Amazon.com, Lulu.com, and Itch.io!

Write-Up – Have You Heard of …

Burnt myself out again, happens often when I write, so regular blog entries for the Rats of Tanglethorn will Adventure comes from the brain pan - writeresume next week. I am working hard to complete the current books on my plate but the going is slow. I’m also trying to put together an art portfolio which I will put into print as well.

Meanwhile, there is a little write-up on Dice & Glory titled Dice & Glory! Have You Heard of Ranger Games Publishing, from Neal Litherland. While you’re there check out his other posts and blogs on literature, fantasy, and roleplaying games.

Read it here – Dice & Glory! Have You Heard of Ranger Games Publishing?

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The Cabal of Eight Pt.44: Betrayed at Last!

Nighttime – the four mages stumbled into camp, beat-up and dirty. Gornix (played by Gil) was nursing a gut wound. On their way out from the treasure vault, they had backtracked to a few rooms that they had missed. Gornix had been gored by an animated obsidian rhino statue. Szoosha (played by Isis) and Fauna (played by Jenn) had been trampled but their shield items had saved them from everything but a dirty floor. Excor (played by Cris) emerged relatively unscathed from that encounter.

The porter and Arcan the wanderer were waiting for them with a hot dinner. Behind them, there was the carriage and three other wagons painted with the college arms with draft animals. They had found two more wagons hidden around the area.  In answer to an innocent “how long have we been here” he answered that “tomorrow will be the first of Late Summer”. The four mages also found that the pair hadn’t heard from the others since their departure days ago. Soon after eating, they settled in to sleep and the night passed peacefully.

Come morning the four mages began to patrol the perimeter hoping to get a bead on their lost companions. Fauna used her cabal medallion to try to contact the others but she got nothing. As they rounded the eastern portion of their clockwise run, Gornix tried his medallion. He got a static obscured reply with a faint voice that seemed to sound from a great distance. They continued south and as they came to the southeast corner, Szoo spotted a large red dune and a young swordtail dragon slithering over the crest towards them.

Excor got the drop on the beast and snared it with his Shadow Ribbons spell. From there on the fight was a slaughter until Gornix knocked it out of the ribbons with his Force Ram fortunately in the process killing the dragon. It had even managed to resist about half of the spells they had slung at it but the mages had attained a plateau of power that was beyond the unfortunate creature.

They wandered west then north, Szoo used his medallion and got a stronger signal. The words, “Yeeeargh! We’re comin’ through! WATCH OUT!” blasted into his head. At that moment, Gornix found a half-buried stone door and wanted desperately to get it open. Excor used his medallion to try to contact them. He was able to find out that they were fleeing a cave-in down a long hall that slanted steeply upward towards a stone door. However, they were all out of spells.

They backed off from the door and Gornix smashed the stone doors in with a well-placed Force Ram spell. Suddenly, through the door, their companions ran up and out one after the other. Belrae in dirty purple robes a green frog on his torn breast, Riahm his tattered half-brown half-green cloak flying behind him, Jirek in his shabby robes nursing a broken arm,  and Xanto the Wasp and his apprentice Bumble followed by two large wasps each hauling a large sack of booty.

Out of breath Belrae turned a finger towards the Wasp and shouted “we were almost KILLED because of THAT GUY!”.

The Wasp: “What me? No. I was looking out for all of our welfare, what would this little venture of yours be without the wealth I collected? We are all now very rich, celebrate my friends, we have all survived!”

Just then, a blast of sand, pebbles, and dust engulfed them from the open passageway. Later the four adventurers led their companions back to camp. They later prepared for dinner and were ready to ship out come dawn.

As they ate they talked excitedly amongst themselves with the Wasp being mildly ostracized, his apprentice next to him. She was somewhat reticent to talk to Fauna when the druidess tried to strike up a conversation. Gornix left the group for a quiet rock a ways outside of camp, a place where he could “see the stars”.

He sat lotus style on the pale stone in an area of hardened red waste and gazed at the endless Elysian field above. Studying the stars he used his astrological knowledge trying to divine whether their passage home would be a safe one. He also gathered some mana points and stored them in the crystal that topped his staff, just in case.

Seeming about to make an announcement the Wasp stood up, the two bags of loot just behind him and Bumble.

The Wasp: “Well, my friends though I regret to leave this little party despite the undue treatment, Adieu!” He waived his hand and both bags and Bumble all teleported away.

Cris: “F@#k’in Wasp! I should ‘a grabbed Bumble!”

Excor had tried to beat the Wasp to the punch and made a snatch for his arm. Unfortunately, he had been just a hair too slow. Cris was right though. With his roll, he could have easily grabbed Bumble leaving the Wasp in a precarious position when he arrived back in town sans pupil. Her father would have killed him. However, Excor went right for Xanto and thus missed, not by much, but missed all the same. The mages were disappointed the villain had flown. The missing loot just added insult to injury.

Paradoxically the players actually seemed quite relieved that Xanto the Wasp had finally betrayed them even as they griped about it.

About one week later, the mages arrived back in Ezmer sans Arcan. He had parted company just before they hit the headland. As they pulled the wagons to the city gates, they saw the city bulwarks singed and blackened. In places, they were nearly completely demolished. Dozens possibly more Wher dragons laid in several rows and clumps, most dead some still twitching and being speared by the legion of guardsmen cleaning up the battlefield.

Fauna: “What the hell happened here!?”

Isis: “Yeah, geesh!”

Cris: “Oh yeah, it’s a Dragon Summer. They converge on the Ezmerian Headlands to mate.”

The crowded corner of Silver Circle street and Western Avenue was bustling with wagons, carriages, pedestrians, and horse riders. A group of agile street urchins weaved through them all before disappearing. Szoosha ineffectually watched the scene coursing around the street level of the Red Helm tavern from the window above in the cabal clubroom.

Fauna, Gornix, and Excor were sitting around the table dividing the loot that they had won. Each of the four had received a gold ring and necklace with a bee motif as well as a gold dagger as their share. Fauna claimed the gold skullcap that granted a +4 bonus to I.Q. when worn. Gornix took the bracers that granted +2 STR. Szoo claimed a gold ring that granted the Fearsome Form I spell and a constant +5 bonus to resist poisons. Excor took the ring that granted the Verminous Might (Winged Flight) spell and a necklace that granted the Sting spell 3 times per day (after a roll-off between the players).

Excor pulled the small silver chest from the portable hole and found it empty; it had a felt lining that had an indentation in it that fit the Amber Bee. They left the lotus mirror, an intelligent item, hidden in the cabal room, as none of them wanted it. They hung the lotus maces that they had captured on the walls of the tiny chamber as trophies.

After that had been accomplished, Excor pulled forth the first large chest that Gornix had holed up from the lotus vaults. The chest was oak banded with black iron. In place of a lock, there was a polished gold skull with a large ruby, citrine, and emerald in the eye sockets and nasal cavity. The jaw was jointed. Showing restraint Gornix “clairvoyanced” the lock finding out that the gems were buttons and to unlock it, the correct two must be pressed. However, the wrong combo would unleash a blast of toxic Grey Lotus spore.

Suddenly the mechanism unlocked and the top popped open as Fauna pushed the yellow then green gems without prompting. They admonished her lightly and then turned their attentions to the contents.

Within were a high quality nega-steel bottle with an aquamarine stopper carved into a flower that contained three doses of water charged with anti-magic energy. There was also a phoenix feather cape (Level 7 item, fire proof, Charm Against Evil (constant), Temporal Jump (1 x day), Seal of Health (10 charges)), a copper armlet with a large emerald carved into a lotus (level 8 item, grants a +1 I.Q. to wearer), 10 platinum talons, an alligator hide sack filled with gold bee husks (approximately 10 lbs. of gold), and a Drake hide sack filled with 100 pieces of tiger’s eye.

They each took 2 platinum talons leaving 2 for the cabal coffers. Finding that the locking mechanism could reset itself they closed it intending to leave it in the cabal room. Excor then withdrew the second chest.

It was another large iron-banded oak chest. Its locking mechanism was a solid gold faceplate inscribed with a honeycomb pattern where four of the cells had holes and three were buttons. Each button was inscribed with a black wasp, a gold bee, and a gold lotus. They argued a little back and forth about which two buttons to push after Gornix used his clairvoyance to confirm that was what they had to do.

Isis: “I got this! Um, the people there had a religion centered around gold bees and lotuses so…”

Szoo pushed the gold bee and then the gold lotus buttons. The chest popped open. The naga released a held breath.

Within the chest were a pair of highest quality leather gloves with amber buttons (level 7, +8 to sleight of hand, Quickness (constant), Counterspell: Curse: Affliction by touch 1 x day), a highest quality mirror-polished mithral priestess figurine (level 8, a command word grants a +9 to diplomacy and Owl’s Wisdom (1D4 + 3) 2 x day), and a highest quality stiletto with a clear quartz pommel stone, a blue-dragon-hide grip and decorative runes along the starmetal blade (level 14, +1D6 acid damage, keen weapon (18-20 critical)). There were also 10 talons of ice-steel, a silk sack filled with 100 pieces of obsidian, and a superior quality silk sack filled with 100 emeralds.

From that hoard, each mage got as their share 25 emeralds, 25 pieces of obsidian, 2 ice steel talons, and 25 pieces of tiger’s eye. Szoosha took the phoenix feather cape (after a player roll-off), Excor the armlet (after a roll-off between Cris and Gil), Fauna the gloves (after a roll-off between Jenn and Gil), and Gornix took the stiletto. They left the cabal coffers with 2 ice steel talons and the priestess figurine.

The following day the mages decided to finish off their reading of Vordan’s Tome. They picked up at the fourth section. The section began with a brilliant full-page illuminated gold lotus illustration. The section goes on to discuss the gold lotus giving a location where it could be found describing the location as “southern ruins alongside a billabong overseen by a warlord’s red edifice by a river at the foot of a bloody spire far southeast of the old black temple”.

Cris: “Well, there it is. Guess that’s next?”

They read on. Several gold gilded pages made up the meat of the section. They described the spell of legend Alchemical Gold but it was incomplete. The pages following those were from an old accounting ledger with pictures of various types of gold coins.

The fifth section was composed entirely of more entries from Vordan’s diary. All lamented or cursed something. The most interesting parts were of Vordan lamenting the loss of his ladylove to a lying, handsome, & corrupt official followed by several bad poems, revenge fantasies, and laughable schemata to win her back. There was a potion formula however of Allure and the spell Eatables to Maggots.

The sixth section consisted of several pages of reproductions of familial heraldry, only some of which were recognizable as those still in use. Vordan’s personal arms occupied a page. A black, white, grey, green-eyed Karkadann head on an orange lozenge like a longshield with an open book at helm and crossed green-leaved branches at bottom composed the wizard’s arms. Following were some more accounting pages with an address in the Market District. They also found the Luminescent Sigil and Harmless Beam spells. A large illustration of a key was on the page with the latter.

The seventh section was a beautifully illustrated catalog of mystic lotus types. Its final page was about the gold lotus and mentioning, “The royal jelly of that certain bee is required to grow them”. The section ended abruptly however cutting off the text. A few almost incoherent poems in a loose and sloppy hand occupied the margins. The section also talked about the refinement and use of the mystic lotus in alchemy. When using this section to identify lotus flowers the reader would get a +3 to identify and a +2 skill bonus when using alchemy.

The eighth and final section was simply a fusion of three sections taken from Vordan the Magnificent’s autobiography. The three sections concerned a torrid love story, a wizard’s duel in which Vordan lost, and the laments of an aged shop-keep. There were also three amateurish sketches of an alley shop front, an old man, and a small room with a chair in front of a strange circular window. There they found the spells Alarm, Amulet of Power, and Tele-Location.

They had heard that the twin swans had left on a ship with their brothers in arms in pursuit of a Creschan vessel, something to do with Creschan Fire. They had also heard that their former benefactor Virtra Wefa had poisoned herself along with her grim servant when faced with arrest by the black and white swan knights.

Later that week they tried to track down the Wasp at his house behind the Nezorik family mansion. He wasn’t home. So Szoo and Excor deposited the animated armor in the portable hole in his living room and left.

The mages found that Bumble became scarce at the next few meetings. Also the two ‘leaders’ were becoming ever more secretive as they seemed to get closer to Draega Skullshine the publican. However, Jirek was still chummy with them.

As the Dragon Summer ended, the mages prepared for fall. Fauna readied to make certain necessary political maneuvers involving the Brothers of the Rope. The other three were gearing up their operation for the rat fights, which would go into high swing come winter.

End of the Campaign (played between June 2016 and June 2017).

The Cabal of Eight Pt.43: The Final Room

The sound of stone grinding against stone filled the mages’ ears as the solid black-stone door slid the monster in the final chamberdown into the floor stopping with the finality of a thud. That door would never close again. A large central fire lighted the oblong octagonal chamber before them. The walls were of the same dull black stone as the rest of the place and floors were polished white marble tile. The ceiling was flat and very high.

Directly to the south was an elevated platform with white stone steps leading up to its top where sat a small silver box with wood panels. Supporting the western and eastern walls were a pair of thick but plain black pillars. Against the southerly diagonal walls, one to the east and the other to the west sat large iron-banded oak chests.

Gornix (played by Gil) immediately prepared to run in to one of the large chests and Excor (played by Cris) was eyeballing the small silver box.

The GM (me): *Exasperated Sigh* “Make a spot check.”

Gil: *Roll*Roll* “Nope. I go to the first chest.”

Fauna (played by Jenn) and Szoosha (played by Isis) stopped the Salt-Lotus Wizard from blindly charging into the newly opened chamber. They pointed out the giant lion-like creature lying at the center of the room, the firelight being at the tip of its tail. Its three heads were rousing but still groggy. In a rumbling voice that they felt more than heard, the central head spoke. However, the mages did not speak its language nor did they want to “waste” any spells trying to understand what it had said.

Cris: “It has three heads!? And it can TALK!?”

Fauna immediately charged in casting Lightning Bolt. The bolt struck the beast with no effect. Gornix on the other hand, moved in cautiously to the side and using his Dark Secret wizard ability was able to let the others know that it was immune to electricity. He also gave them a pointer on how to take it out which was mostly an educated guess. Meanwhile, Excor cast Shadow Ribbons and amazingly bound the monster. The creature struggled against the shadows. All three of its heads roaring a horrific bone quaking roar of rage and confusion but the mages were unshaken. Szoo cast Elemental Half-Plate Armor (fire) on himself.

While the players all yelled at Jenn that the monster was immune to electricity, Fauna cast Lightning Bolt on it yet again. Gornix cast Amplify Magic his spell easily penetrating the monster’s resistance. Excor cast Slow on it, his magic also penetrating its resistance easily. The beast spat a fireball from its central head catching Fauna, Excor, and Gornix in the ensuing blast of swirling flames. Fauna stumbled but was saved by her Mage Armor, which was dispersed. Gornix took half damage having forgotten to engage his Shield and Excor’s Mage Armor absorbed the damage but was greatly weakened (not many Hit Points left). He had used an item to don it just before Gornix had opened the vault door. Szoo summoned his flaming naginata and charged in.

Gornix cast Force Ram at the creature crunching in some of its ribs wounding it horribly. Excor cast Paralyze II at it, his magic again easily penetrating its resistance to magic. Szoo put all his strength behind his blow as he rammed his weapon into its battered and bleeding side. However, the flame born weapon couldn’t penetrate its hide.

Gornix slung another Force Ram at the creature dealing it a crushing deathblow. The beast’s massive corpse slowly faded into nothingness. The battle was over. The mages assessed the damage, only Gornix had been wounded in that fight but he dismissed it as “nothing”. They spread out inspecting but not touching the chests and box.

Fauna checked the stairs leading to the top of the platform for traps, seeing none she ascended to the box.

Fauna (eagerly): “Should I open this chest guys?”

In response, Excor stepped out of the room and prepared to duck behind the stone jamb. Fauna took her time inspecting the box and the platform upon which it was resting. She found that the box had already been opened a long time ago and it was definitely trapped. She figured that it sat on a pressurized crevice that if it were removed would unleash poisonous gas from a hidden reservoir. Gornix tried to sense magic on it but was unable to get anything so instead he got a little frustrated.

Consequently, he cast Breath without Air on himself. Fauna backed off to the bottom of the stairs. Szoo left the room and ducked behind the doorjamb opposite Excor. He tried to identify the box but it was just a box. Therefore, he attempted to disarm the trap. Fauna retreated to the others. He failed to disarm it. Suddenly, a large several inches thick blue-steel door started to slide down over the lone entrance. Thinking quick, Excor tossed Gornix the Portable Hole. A second later, the door slammed down sealing the room airtight. A vast amount of gas billowed from the square hole the box had formerly concealed.

Gornix was now at the center of the room with the hole in his hands. He tossed the silver box in as the billowing gas snuffed out the last vestiges of his vision. The gas was sickly green and very thick. It blotted out all light blinding all normal vision. He was in pitch black even though he tried to light his way with his staff.

Cris: “Man! You’re totally blind in there! Be careful!”

Gornix carefully felt his way slowly around the room to the first chest. He holed it up suddenly feeling and hearing a huge torrent of gas blasting into the room causing his ears to pop with the pressure.

Gil: “Aw man, I’m glad I got breath, breathe without air on me!”

He slowly moved across the room to the other chest. Almost tripping at about the center of the room, he was able to maintain his balance. He edged ever closer but had a little bit of a struggle to feel out the second chest. The gas chilled his skin. He could feel it billowing through his hair and between his fingers. Eventually he found the second chest and holed it up as well. Once again, he triggered the trap concealed by the chest and again a huge ice-cold gust of gas hissed into the room. Consequently, Gornix felt the building pressure in his lungs now and the gas was leaving a sticky residue over his skin, in his hair, and on his clothes.

So, he moved quickly towards the metal door keeping his hand on the wall after he felt past the pillars. He made it easily to the now freezing blue-steel and used Ghost Step to exit the gas-filled chamber.

Fauna: “I wonder if there were any concealed doors in there?”

Szoo: “Oh yeah, we never checked!”

Gornix: “Well I don’t think anybody is going to be able to go back in there ever again.”

He “prestidigitized” himself clean. Fortunately, the toxin did not seem to be a contact poison.

Excor (shrugging): “Whatever let’s get outta here! And give me back my hole.”

Jenn and Isis burst out into hysterical fits of maniacal laughter. Gil just clinched his eyes shut and put his hand over his face. Cris flipped the two women the bird.

To Be Concluded…

The Cabal of Eight Pt.42: The Lotus Vaults Pt.2

The shattered remains of the door lay before Gornix (played by Gil) revealing a long hallway to the The Lotus Vaults and all its doorssouth. As the others, Fauna (played by Jenn), Szoosha (played by Isis), and Excor (played by Cris) moved slowly and carefully down the newly opened passage, Gornix peeked back through the eastern archway. He found another passage going southward. He sneered with doubt and followed the rest of the group catching up to take over lead position.

The group approached the dimly lit chamber at the end of the hallway (9 on the map). The small room flickered with firefly light from its southeast corner. Against the northwest corner and occupying all of that 5 ft.-square space was a large piece of semi-transparent yellow-orange amber. Caught within they could see an ancient warrior in scale mail, a horned open helm on his head , his axe raised, his sharpened teeth bared in an eternally frozen bestial rage.

This feature made them wary of the room and Gornix took a little time to search the floor. He found a small, hastily scrawled magic circle. It was still carrying a charge and he was sure that it summoned something when crossed. He just did not know what. Excor heedless, portable-holed the amber encased barbarian.

Excor: “What? It’ll go great in my tower! … When I have it built.”

Gornix was determined to move on and with the barrier of the amber husk gone; he began to lead the group. Of course, he accidentally stepped directly over the magic circle activating it.

Three Lightning Bugs sprang into existence with a magic flash identical to the one that they had faced not long before. The fight was brief. Gornix turned the tide early with a cone of fire that killed two and Szoo and Excor pummeled the last to death with a fire ray and Chrono-Missile. That taken care of they proceeded to the end of the short passage.

There they found a rusty iron door with a magic rune carefully inscribed upon its face to the north (D8). Its key lock mechanism was jammed and badly rusted. Gornix used his knowledge of Magical Script to identify the rune and its purpose. He knew that if the door was attacked in any way that it would summon a giant inferior water elemental.

Cris: “aw man! If we activate that thing we’re all dead! DEAD! Look at where we’re at! A giant water elemental will fill this place up, engulf us, we’ll all drown!”

They stood there puzzled for a little while and very wary of the door. The players even checked their sheets to see who could swim. Only Fauna had the skill.

Gil: “There is definitely something worth it behind that door.”

They searched the old iron door for the depression that would allow the Amber Bee to open it as it had others previously. However, they found that it did not have this. Gornix and Excor decided to do a synergized check for traps. They scoured the surface of the door and its edges for any sign at all.

They found nothing aside from the rune. So Excor tried using the Knock spell from his platinum key. However, the door was firmly jammed shut and simply couldn’t be opened without the use of force. In response, Gornix had the bright idea to just “ghost step through”.

Gil: “Wait, wait, wait! Mini-portal spell to see what’s happening first.”

Through the small portal, they could see nothing but darkness. Therefore, Szoo shoved his flaming naginata through it allowing them to see inside via the flame light. The chamber beyond was another octagonal chamber and very plain with a flat ceiling each of its walls lined with dark and very dusty wooden shelves (10). They could see several jars of what appeared to be seeds and maybe some preserved honey.

Excited by this sudden treasure trove Excor and Gornix ghost stepped into the chamber. Excor cast illuminate. They proceeded to loot the place shoving everything into the portable hole. The group managed to snatch a single jar of grey lotus honey, 2 jars of golden lotus honey, 1 jar of yellow lotus honey, and 1 of purple. They also found 3 jars of lotus seeds with grey, blue, and black respectively. With that they also found 4 jars of pure lotus pollen; purple, red, blue, and yellow. The pair also found an ancient rotting scroll case hidden amongst the shelves and holed that up without opening it. They exited via ghost step.

They backtracked with Gornix in the lead. He slowly moved towards the next chamber at the end of the hall just above the amber warrior room the passage opening to the east. This chamber (11 on the map) was lit by several firefly ambers in the wall niches and seemed very plain save for the white tiled floor. Other than that, the room was completely empty. He was sure that there were no traps in here so he lead them through noticing however that there were weapon nicks everywhere along the walls and even on the floor.

The group moved through into the next connecting chamber through a tall deep archway. There may have been a door ages ago but there was no trace left. The room before them was enormous and very brightly lit as if by the sun itself. All four of the mages were gazing in wonder from the archway.

Within the room had a domed ceiling its apex at 35 ft. tiled with a mosaic of a sparsely clouded blue sky. The floor tiled with polished white marble, the thick black pillars were lotus themed, and gold leafed with chevron patterns. They could see what looked like a miniature sun orbiting around the inside of the dome cascading the room with pure daylight. At the center of the room was a barren planter sunk into the floor. However growing in that was a 20 ft. tall woody lotus flower of a kind unknown to any of them. Its large brown petals were shriveled and leather like, and its woody bole was wart covered and twisted.

In the south wall were a recess and a door cut from the same black stone. Standing in the north where the room opened into a natural cavern was a golden statue of a bee about the half the height of a man. Within that portion of the area, there was a small waterfall to the east pouring down a wall of uncut natural stone into a large curbed basin or cistern. They could smell the strong scent of fresh, clean moisture and the musk of old damp wood.

What concerned them and impeded their progress was the giant brown lotus. They were hesitant to trespass on its territory. Therefore, Fauna used her wilderness lore to surmise that the plant was indeed dead, she thought. Gornix however knew through his monster lore that the Lotus was not dead but dormant and was some sort of mutation caused by the nexus. He guessed that they must have been near the nexus that fueled this place. Gornix cast Breath without Air on himself and made sure his shield item was activated. They stood at the archway looking in. None of them wanted to be the first.

Gornix: “I have Breath without Air and Shield so f@#k it!”

Fauna: “Wait! Let me Commune with Nature first!”

Before the brash Gornix moved in towards the giant lotus, the druidess was able to discern that the plant was indeed an unnatural monster and was very much alive. She also was able to locate the rest of the cabal whom were still alive and close. In addition, the monstrous plant was growing directly on top of the nexus point. Gornix stepped in. With the painful creaking of wood, the monster plant turned and opened its petals like jaws.

Fauna cast Lightning Bolt from the arch dealing little damage. Excor cast Mage Armor on himself. Szoo hurled fire at the creature singing it a little bit. The mouth of the giant lotus turned towards Excor and Gornix unleashing a blast of woody seeds as projectiles. Excor dodged while Gornix attempted but failed losing his Shield.

Fauna lobbed another Lightning Bolt again dealing a little damage. Szoo again hurled fire at the creature barely singing it. Suddenly the soil in the planter erupted and a root like a tentacle whipped at Gornix. The White Lotus Wizard used his battle magic to intercept its attack with Force Ram. His spell smashed into the bole shattering bark and splitting the tentacle.

Excor cast Lightning Bolt at the creature dealing a little damage. Szoo hurled more fire dealing some damage this time but the plant had still not caught fire. Another root-tentacle erupted from the soil and snapped Excor wrapping around his waist and grappling him in a crushing noose. Gornix successfully cast Amplify Magic at it.

Another root exploded from the dark soil narrowly missing Szoo.

Fauna cast another Lightning Bolt this time the magic amplified she shattered bark and split wood nearly killing the creature. Gornix followed up with Force Ram smashing the monster into splinters. After they were sure it was dead, they spread out to explore the gigantic day lit chamber.

Excor wandered over to the gold bee statue. Formed by pressing and welding hundreds maybe thousands of dead gold bee husks together it was impressive. After searching it, he found an old note rolled and stuffed into a small crevice. He read it after casting Comprehend Languages. It read:

I have faith that you have found my note be that only you, my love, would in our little place. I am confident that we will soon be together as you have the bee to guide you. Though I still fear for you as the barbarians near the temple after trampling the capital. But I still pray that my yearning will be ended and we will be together finally at the glorious spire.

The signature had long since disintegrated and just after finishing the note the ancient parchment crumbled to dust in his hands.

Gornix: “Hey, what was that?”

Excor: “Aw nuthin’”

Excor bagged the gold bee statue. Meanwhile Gornix turned his attentions to the dead lotus. Inspecting the stump, he found the control obelisk within as the plant had grown over and around it encapsulating it. After all were satisfied that they couldn’t and probably shouldn’t bag the miniature sun, mostly Excor objected, they turned their collective attentions southward towards the black door.

This recessed door was of the same solid black stone from which most of this place had been chiseled (D9). It was 5 ft. wide and close to 12 ft. tall. Carved on the dull surface a couchant lion with a flame burring over its head. There was a small niche in the shape of the Amber Bee just below that.

Excor unwilling to open the door himself tossed the Amber Bee to Gornix who unhesitatingly opened it.

Gornix: “All right! This is it!”

To Be Continued…

The Cabal of Eight Pt.41: The Lotus Vaults Pt.1

Our four adventurers, Excor (played by Cris), Fauna (played by Jenn), Gornix (played by Gil), and Szoosha (played by Isis), stumbled into camp to the northeast of the ruins. They were dirty and somewhat worn by their foray into the black tombs beneath. Here they found Arcan the wanderer and the last of Bumble’s attendants whom prepared some food for them. Arcan and the driver were a little dismayed at Fauna’s frog mount though. The mages sat and ate for only a half hour and then immediately left again. Szoo and Gornix wanted to check out the hill.

Before they vacated the comforts of their campsite however, Szoosha used his cabal medallion to try to get a hold of the others.

Szoo [gripping the medallion and “concentrating”]: “Where are you?”

“Underground”, was all that he got in response. Disappointed at that the four mages disembarked for the hill. Before that, Fauna made sure to have Arcan care for her “froggy”. Arcan seemed to be able to keep it under control so she left her “steed” with him with no further worries.

Excor [to Gornix]: “Didn’t you fly over that already?”

Gornix: “Yeah. But it was a fly by, so I didn’t get a good look.”

Thanks to Gornix’s magic (Mass Nature’s Ability: Winged Flight) it was not long before they found themselves crowning the strange hill between the broken black pillars. They had guessed that a Leyline Nexus Point was around here somewhere, maybe at or under this hill. Therefore, Szoo used his Geomancy skill to try to suss it out but to no avail. The only thing he could glean was that they were very close to a source of great mystical power and that was all.

They all stood around the low and badly weathered black stone alter at the center of the small plateau. A layer of dirt and tangles of dead grasses covered the ground concealing a floor of solid smooth black stone. Gornix, in his continuing search for hidden compartments and secret doors, noticed a small depression in the top of the altar near its top edge. He turned to Excor but Excor wasn’t there. He had stayed on the ground still at the base of the hill.

Gornix: “Hey! We need the bee! Get up here!”

Excor: “Hell no! I don’t wanna be up there!”

The other two began yelling at Excor to come up and bring the Amber Bee. Eventually he relented and used his Gold Ring of Winged Flight and flew up, handed the bee to Gornix, and backed off hovering a good distance away. A little nervous from Excor’s performance of nervosa Gornix cautiously fitted the Amber Bee into the depression.

They all jumped when the ground began to rumble but were relieved when the round altar began to slide back revealing a hidden spiral stone-stair. It took a little while for Gornix to convince the rest of them to accompany him down yet again into the breach.

Gornix: “C’mon! Let’s adventure for the treasure … and stuff!”

Isis: “You had me at stuff!”

So they elected Gornix to lead them down. The Salt Lotus Wizard lit his oil lamp and tied it to his sash instead of using a spell to light his staff for light. On the way down, he checked every step before he stepped on it by “jabbing” it with his staff.

After several minutes of winding slowly down the spiral step they ultimately set foot into the bottom octagonal chamber (1 on the map). The walls were of dull black stone carved from the living rock. The ceiling was 12 ft. above their heads its dome tiled with a pale blue glaze a golden orb at the apex. Amber fireflies burned eerily in their niches. There were doors to the south and west. The western door was solid gold painted with lotuses of all the known colors wrought in crushed gems (D2). It was apparent that the door was locked. The eastern door was identical to the west (D1).

After some time spent inspecting every nook and cranny as best they could the four mages were at a sort of impasse. Gornix however unilaterally decided to force ram the western door. His magic smashed in the door, the opposite way that it actually opened.

Excor: “Man you knew that door opened in!”

Gornix: “Oh! I forgot about that.”

Excor: “We can’t shut it now!”

Gil: “I got trigger happy. C’mon guys! I couldn’t help it.”

Szoo: “Well, if there’s anything down here they know we’re here now!”

Gornix wanted to inspect the southern door but the others wanted to keep moving due to the racket he caused. He didn’t argue.

Behind the mangled door, they found a short hallway that turned south to steps down with amber fireflies flickering in the niches. Just before the steps, lying across the floor was a corpse. Upon inspection, they found that in life it had been a warrior perhaps centuries ago. Excor judging by the remnants of armor on the body and the sharpened teeth still in the skull guessed that it had been an ancient Westlander warrior.

Excor was an expert on Westlander culture though he was Ivoran nobility. He often tried to adopt the ways of the Westlands but his foppishness and refinement always seemed to surface. Gornix did a necrology check to make sure it wasn’t an undead creature lying in ambush. It wasn’t.

Cris [to Gil with a scowl]: “You have the necrology skill!? I’ll be watching you.”

Gornix led them into the lower chamber past the steps. This chamber was another octagonal cell with black walls and amber fireflies burning in their niches to the west. The ceiling was a gleaming gold tiled dome. On the northeast and southeastern walls were colorful mosaics of priests and priestesses among lotuses with gold bees flying all about them. To the south was a solid gold door painted with powdered gems representing all the known colors of the lotus blossom (D3) with a latch and no lock. To the east was a plain black iron door with no apparent lock (D3A).

Gornix pondered it for a second then decided to open the plain iron door. Excor cast Shield on himself. Behind was only a short dark passageway that ended at yet another plain unlocked iron door. Somewhat disappointed whereas the others were relieved Gornix cast Mini-Portal on the gold door (D3) in order to see what was behind it. He could see the end of a long hallway a firefly lighting the area behind the door (H2) and could also see that the floor was glistening as if it were mirror-polished or maybe greased. Though he wasn’t sure. The floor slanted down to the east. However, despite that he did still want to open that door.

He agonized for ages about maybe using his Ring of Levitation in order to prevent contact with the strange floor. Gil kept flipping through his notes, his spell sheets, and wavering between “I’m doing it” and “Let’s not but I can’t stop being curious”.

Cris: “Well do it or don’t do it!”

Ultimately, Gornix decided to go through the short passage behind the iron door. He led the adventuring party into another octagonal chamber where the amber fireflies burned in niches to the south and the ceiling dome was bare black stone (4). To the north was a solid gold door with a honeycomb and bee motif with an obviously hastily scrawled ward on it (D5). It also appeared locked. To the south was an iron door identical to the one from which they had just emerged. On closer inspection, the door to the south had severe rust damage to the bottom half to the point that the edge was ragged and brittle.

They stared intently for several minutes at the golden door and its sloppy rune. Excor identified the runic marking and told the group that should the door be touched in any way that the rune would summon a Lightning Bug. Gornix pried in closer and saw that there was an indention in the door where the locking mechanism was. He questioned whether using the Amber Bee to open it would set it off. So of course, he stuck the gem in the notch and hoped for the best.

The door opened and in a flash of mystical light, a Lightning Bug appeared to block their way. The Lightning Bug was a wasp-like creature the size of a man. Its body was black and yellow with the yellow stripes having a lightning bolt pattern on its abdomen. The cold metallic green compound eyes reflected their wide-eyed faces back at them.

Szoosha moved in and slashed unsuccessfully at it with his flaming naginata. Excor cast Slow on the monster but to no effect. Gornix cast Chrono-Missile at it. It moved in a flash as it tried to dodge but instead put itself into harm’s way. The missiles hit it hard cracking its flamboyant exoskeleton. Fauna tried to stab at it with her dagger but fumbled the strike.

Szoo slashed at it again but again missed. Excor cast Shadow Ribbons and easily ensnared the monstrous vermin. Gornix unleashed more Chrono-Missiles blasting a hole in its side. It struggled desperately to free itself of the shadow wrappings buzzing madly. Fauna stabbed it with her dagger getting a raw smelling light brown fluid on the blade.

Szoosha stepped into his blow and ran the creature through killing it in a burst of flame that reduced it to blackened ash.

Gornix undaunted by the fresh stench of cremated wasp-monster walked over to the iron door to the south and inspected it for traps. Finding nothing, he opened and peered into the hallway behind it (H2). Against the eastern wall of the hallway was a forest of long iron spikes that still seemed to be razor tipped. Tangled in a slowly disintegrating heap were a score of human bones.

Gornix [shrugging]: “Oh. We’re going north.”

He led them into a short passage lit by fireflies in the niches that turned eastward to a long stone stair down the other end of which was also lit by firefly gems and visible. The passage at that point angled south onto more downward steps and into darkness. They noticed a faintly glowing magic circle scribed into the floor that had been behind the gold door. They couldn’t identify it so they just “stepped around it”. This time they tramped quickly not testing every step.

However, when they were about halfway between the lighted portions of the long step in the middle of the stair the magic circle they had stepped over and another at the other end sparked to life briefly throwing out an intense a red glow. After the light faded a fire as high as a man and with the faint shape of one, stood at the top of the stairs, and at the bottom swarmed three large unnaturally colored bees.

Szoosha being a Fire Elementalist tried to rebuke the fire elemental. He failed. The bees buzzed in and attacked. One struck Gornix’s shield dispersing it. Another aimed its dagger-like stinger at Fauna who parried it with her dagger. The third jabbed at Szoo and struck home as he opened himself up to the blow while trying to avoid it (Natural 1 parry). Luckily, Szoo was immune to the bee’s poison and the bee was now dying but still able to use heretofore unseen other attacks. Gornix activated his Shield. Excor cast Chrono-Missile at the “lead bee” blasting it to bits. Fauna stabbed at a second bee dealing a killing blow. The fire elemental advanced on Szoo getting close enough to singe the naga’s scales.

The bee that had stung Szoo spat what looked like a Sting spell at him but the magic had no effect on the naga. Szoo turned and successfully rebuked the fire elemental forcing it under his control. With the battle won Szoo decided to let the fire elemental lead for a while.

They turned onto the now lit southward stair and then onto the level paved floor of a short passage leading into a large octagonal chamber (H3). On either side of them were firefly niches. They emerged led by the living fire into the large chamber at the end.

This octagonal chamber had a gold-leafed dome ceiling with the apex at 25 ft. There was a thick black stone column in each of the four corners with a lotus blossom motif and gold leaf chevron patterns ringing them. To the west, a stone stair sank into the floor and to the east stood three badly rusted and battle-damaged suits of full plate armor. Each bore weapon, one had great sword, the second a great axe, the last a great mace.

In the south rested a 3 ft. high dais serving as the pedestal of a 15 ft. tall white marble statue of a four-armed goddess with gold insect wings and a pair of golden horns. Two of her arms reached towards the heavens the other two extended palms up. A solid gold beehive vessel rested in her large right palm and in the other an amber scroll case. At her feet were the remains of ancient sacrifices and libations, bits of clay, glass, seeds, old wax, cinders, and bits of bone.

Cris: “Aw man, those armors are going to come alive and kill us!”

Excor rushed to the first suit of armor, the one with the great sword in its hands, and whipped out the portable hole draping it over and safely storing the thing inside. Immediately the suits of armor became animate, their rusty joints squealing like dying boars. Excor hastily rolled the portable hole back up and stuffed it in his robes.

Gornix cast shadow ribbons on one but it was too strong. It tore the ribbons of shadow that shattered like glass and then evaporated into nothing. Szoosha remembered that his ruby-studded copper bracers contained the armor bane spell and so he touched the axe wielding armor damaging it badly but not disintegrating it. The fire elemental touched the same target with its fiery touch but to no effect. The axe wielding armor hacked at Excor dispersing his shield. Fauna cast a lightning bolt at the mace wielder to little effect.

Jenn: “But I thought that metal couldn’t reduce electricity damage.”

Cris: “Yeah, but there’s nobody in there!”

An animated armor smashed its mace into the semi-solid fire elemental causing its flame to weaken and dim.

Gornix cast energy tentacle summoning forth a bolt of magical energy that he could use as an appendage. He tried to grapple the axe wielding armor but it was able to break free. Szoo reached out and grabbed the axe wielder disintegrating it to a pile of reddish flakes and dust. Fauna pulled her dagger and stabbed at the last animated armor to little effect. Excor activated his gold turquoise ring that cast a circle of protection around him. The mace wielding armor smashed the fire elemental with its weapon causing the living fire to poof out of existence.

Gornix maintained his energy tentacle and tried once again to ensnare and entangle the last animated armor but again it easily broke free. Szoo smashed his fist into it smashing it into a cascade of rust. It crumpled into a scattered reddish mess on the floor.

After the fight, Excor used far hand to grab the amber scroll case, as he was wary of traps. Casting comprehend languages on the scroll he found within he found it was simply a prayer scroll to a long forgotten deity in whose statue’s palm it had lain for centuries. Gornix far handed the gold beehive for the same reason. Fauna identified the gold lotus honey that remained within (1 dose). They stowed away their loot and moved on with Gornix in the lead.

He guided them down the stairs that sank into the next lower chamber (6). The room was pitch dark and much colder than the previous as chilly as the black tombs. They passed between two thick columns of black stone and as they passed between two large solid-gold braziers bejeweled with emeralds, the ancient things burst to life as white flames erupted forth and lit the room with a pale flickering firelight but leaving the corners dark and deepening the shadows behind the pillars.

The blue ceramics tiled the floor and at the center of the room, a faded white stain in an odd shape marred the tiles. To the west lay a solid gold door with a honeycomb and bee motif with no lock but a latch (D6).

Gornix eagerly moved into the center of the room to inspect the white stain. He saw that it had an uncanny resemblance to a human in fetal position. He realized what it was.

Gil: “Aw f@#k!”

Szoo caught movement out of the corner of his eye somewhere in the shadows at the edges of the room. The naga pointed out the direction and Excor and Gornix were able to spot a young priestess ducking behind the northernmost pillar.

Isis [at Jenn]: “Hey sis ya gonna talk to her?”

Jenn: “Hell no I know there’s nothing living down here.”

Excor cast illuminate casting the whole room in a bright light. The young priestess suddenly became transparent in the full light and her features withered and shriveled into that of an ancient corpse.

The battle was brief but energetic. The Lotus Wizard had identified the priestess as a wraith and the white spot her likely resting spot her body having disappeared over time. Gornix caused a magic explosion on a fumbled spell that wounded himself, Szoo, and Excor. Fauna slung lightning bolts and ultimately after their victory Gornix was out of spells and down a K.O. point. The creature dropped an agate, gold necklace fashioned after a lotus blossom, and a gold light mace with the head fashioned after a lotus flower.

Gornix carefully inspected the gold door and found that it was trapped and more by luck than skill, he disarmed it and opened the door. They moved into a smaller plain room with lotus motif pillars at each corner and amber fireflies in the niches (7). At the center of the room squatted a superior quality scrying pool, long since dry, of rose marble. They opted to move through the open archway to the south after Excor snatched the scrying pool up in the portable hole.

In the next chamber (8 on the map), amber fireflies burned in the niches their strange little lights glinting off the gold leafed dome ceiling. To the south were a sturdy carven wooden door (D7) and an open archway to the east.

The wooden door fascinated Gornix. Upon it was finely carved a scene of humans gathering honey from honeycombs surrounded by lotus blossoms. A heavy black iron key lock that appeared rusted shut even if they had the key to open it secured the door. Excor tried to use his magic key on it but found that the knock spell just wouldn’t work on it.

Szoo: “Ooh! Ooh! Let me BURN IT!”

Gil: “Naw. I know what tool to use … force ram!”

To Be Continued…