October 23rd, 2016

Yet Again to the Hidden Citadel

The adventurers return to the well one more time in the stronghold of Zelligar and Roghan (the names that no one has ever grasped the significance of, even if I transposed letters in one of them).

From my left to my right:

Nilo playing Arden the not-really-racist-just-against-elves halfling cleric

Nick playing Merrick the mostly/somewhat/infrequently sane human fighter

Hunter playing Strix the shield specialist elven magic-user

Sarai playing Desorna the new but familiar elven fighter

Chris playing Valandil the magically effective elven spellsword

Zack playing Ahri of the Nine Spells, elven magic-user

and, by divine fiat, Catherine's character Ydee the excessively mercenary half-elven thief being played by the (supposedly) excessively evil DM.

Our adventures begin back in the town of Twinlake Vale where the party has returned after their latest foray into the lost stronghold of Zelligar and Roghan. Part of this return to town was so Merrick and Ydee could improve their skills as Merrick reached level three and Ydee level two. During the mostly restful week when the two were training the remainder of the group managed to spend their time resting and recuperating from their adventures, but Valandil the somewhat chaotic decided to experiment with the Mirror of Sending that used to belong to Marfae (see last adventure). He wrote "Hi!" on a piece of paper and left it on the mirror. After a number of days passed when he checked the mirror which had a reply that said "No.". Encouraged by this response, he continued messaging until he learned that the possessor of the other Mirror of Sending was a man named Quervin. Quervin said that he would be coming to get the mirror to which Valandil replied "Calixta cantu est", which Marfae's letter indicated were the command words to activate the portal to the Castle in the Sky. Quervin determined that he would be retrieving the mirror that much more quickly, and so that had begun.

In the meantime, the party decided to venture back to the stronghold to explore further in areas that had previously been unmapped. After descending through the usual opening, the party went toward the northwest room where the hole led to the higher level. Along the way they came to what looked like a battle site. Some greenish slimy stuff was on the floor of one of the rooms they passed through, and several weapons, a short sword and two spears, were discovered. No corpses remained, so the party scorched the goop with some of Strix's oil and continued on, expecting to encounter more of the putrid pusbag monsters. None were found on the way, so the party ascended through the hole in the northwest room and continued their plan to finish exploring the map on the eastern side of the level. Back across the north part of the map to the eastern side they traveled, and after taking a southern hallway to an intersection near where they had first entered the map via a teleporter, they proceeded west to a previously unexplored door.

This door opened into a 30'x30' room with colored tiles in each of the four corners filling a roughly 4'x4' area. Orange/burnt umber in the northeast corner, greenish and muddy brown in the northwest, sky blue in the southeast, and grey/brown in the southwest. A single trail of colored tiles gently spiraled to the center of the room where they 'mixed' into a section of white tiles in the center of the room. Beyond the pattern on the floor there was a door in the center of each wall. After determining that the tiles were nothing more than decoration, the right hand rule stated that they would open the north door.

Once the north door was open, the party found themselves looking into a cave that seemed to extend into the far distance. Expecting another illusionary room like the forest elsewhere on this level, the party made an effort to determine the room's size by tying a rope around the spellsword and sending him in. After some vague exploration they determined that it was likely a 30'x30' room and they determined that there was a one-way secret door in the southwest corner of the western wall that led back to the hallway where the forest room was. After finding nothing else of interest they left to explore the western door out of the spiral room.

When this door opened the party was looking down a 10' long alleyway into a village plaza where people were moving around and mingling around a central well. Once again securing a rope around Valandil the spellsword ventured in. In the plaza it was determined that the people were certainly illusionary, though the water-filled well was real and not a well so much as a cistern. The water was stagnant, but not too bad, and Valandil continued his explorations. The plaza seemed to fill a roughly 20'x20' area and there were doors into what looked to be shops around the perimeter. The two doors on the west wall seemed to be locked, but they likely weren't actually doors at all. The double doors in the north wall seemed to lead into a tavern and Valandil discovered that these actually opened. Inside was an actual bar with patrons seeming to mingle. Vaalandil went to the bar and asked for an ale, and the barkeep set a mug on the bar. In spite of the illusion of the area, the bar, the mug, and the ale were real, though the ale tasted bad as if it had been sitting out and exposed for many years. Valandil hopped the bar and determined that there were mugs and mugs of mostly ale on shelves under the bar, all of which seemed real. There were also some of honey mead, which did not taste as bad as the ale. In fact, it tasted pretty good still. As Valandil looked around further he noticed that one of the booths in the northeast corner had skeletons sitting in it. Closer investigation revealed that these armed and armored figures had been dead for many years, and the chainmail that one was wearing had somewhat rusted. Some coins were found in the belt pouches and confiscated by Merrick, but little else of value was found, so the party exited the room to explore through the south door.

The south room was an illusion of a mountain peak view with the sun setting in the west and giving and orange-red glow to everything. The 'peak' overlook was relatively small, but some 'walking on air' meant that the room was discovered to be another 30'x30' room, more or less. That done, the party went back to the central spiral room and then east and south along the corridor. Quickly passing the door to the teleporter to the cavern level where they had once entered this level from, they proceeded south and into a maze of twisty little passages, all different (there's a throwback!). Along the way, following the right hand rule, they discovered and passed through a door. A relatively short pillar stood in the center of this room, with an indention in the top of it. After some exploration and tinkering with the pillar, the party dumped oil into it and set it afire. Then they left the room to discover that they were in an unfamiliar hallway area. Sarai, the party mapper, cursed me at this juncture for no good reason.

Continuing along the hallway following the right hand rule, the party passed another door on their left and then reached a dead end after a few more twists. This dead end had two levers side by side in it, and pulling the right hand lever got Merrick and Desorna slightly singed. And life was as usual in this way. The left lever was then pulled, and a click was heard. After leaving the dead end, still following the right hand rule, they came to and entered the door they had passed by before, finding themselves in another 20'x20' room with a short pillar in the center of it, but without an oil fire burning in this one. Tinkering with this pillar did nothing, but when they left they found themselves in a different hallway altogether, and Sarai decided she hated me and was happy to tell me so. Right hand rule continued and after a few more twists and turns the party found another dead end, this time with a heavy iron bound door at the end of the hall which had three diamond shapes in it, one of which was lit. Grumbling, the party continued back and discovered that nearby there was another dead end with a pair of levers in it. Arden went back to the corner so he could watch the door and the lever-pullers at the same time, and Ydee detected a trap on the right hand lever, so Merrick pulled the left lever and another click was heard and at the same time Arden noticed another diamond begin to glow leaving only one unlit. The party continued on, leaving Arden to watch the door, and found another dead end with two levers in it. This time Ydee did not detect the trap and Merrick pulled the left hand lever, scorching him again. Pulling the right hand lever here got a satisfying click and the third light on the door began to glow. As the party started making their way back Arden opened the door and found a hallway heading west on the other side. About fifteen feet or so down on the right hand wall were three levers. Overcome by temptation, Arden went and pulled them all causing the door to slam shut with all the lights out. As the party came around the last corner and discovered the situation, there was a lot of frustration with Arden, but not too much since Arden is the only healer they have. Arden used the levers to reopen the door and the party joined their cleric.

The hallway came down to a four way intersection and following the right hand rule the party took the north passageway. After forty feet the hallway dead-ended, though Merrick was able to find a secret door on the east wall. No way was found to open this, so it was decided that it must be a one-way door that only opens from the other side. Continuing the right hand rule, the party took the west passageway which ended at a door after 20'. The door, once opened, led to a stairway that went down to the south. The party went downstairs but found it to be a dead end. Disbelieving this bullcrap, the search for secret doors discovered one in the east wall which, when opened, led into the room where they had originally entered the complex by falling during their first adventure. Returning back to the top of the stairs, the party decided to head south from the four way intersection and after thirty feet the hall ended in a door in the south wall. A sign beside the door read "Monster Control Room". The party, excited at the thought of controlling monsters, entered.

The party entered into the northeast corner of a 30' east-west by 50' north-south room. In the center of the room was a 10' diameter pillar that extended from floor to ceiling and seemed covered with strange runic and geometric symbols. Strix decided to explore these and, after running his hands over the pillars, something activated. Four oversized ogre-like creatures were summoned into the room and they closed to attack the party while Strix looked for a way to undo what he had done. These creatures were tough and hit hard, battering several party members down close to zero hit points before the monsters were finally vanquished. Strix was instructed to not touch the pillar again, and the party decided to explore further. A door in the southern wall had a sign next to it that said "Treasure Chamber" on it, so after Ydee said that there were no traps on the door the party continued for the treasure!

Opening the door led to a 30' hallway that ended in another door. Ydee was unsuccessful at trap detection on this door, so the party was taken by surprise when the entire hallway floor opened up, dropping them into a pit and chute. They were NOT delivered where they were expecting to be, and instead were dropped into the trench in the Doom of Zelligar room taking some falling damage along the way. Valandil was quick with the rope and grappling hook, so the Doom was averted and the green lever pulled so the badly injured party could unlock the way to the trophy room and go take advantage of the room with the angel door.

During the trip around the complex to pull all the levers the party entered one area that seemed to have a cloud of dust in it. It coalesced into a dust strangler and wrapped itself around Ahri's neck. The quick actions and attacks of Ydee and Desorna killed it quickly without killing the magic-user and the party continued on.

The lights were all lit and the trophy chamber was empty. The fire trap hallway seemed to have had the trap disarmed meaning it could be crossed without fears. When the party arrived the angel and devil doors were gone, leaving only blank walls. Tired and frustrated, the party went on to Zelligar's bedchamber to rest for the night. Some spell points were regained and the party was ready to go forth the next day to explore more.

The next day the party awoke, stiff, sore, and somewhat rested, and decided to return upstairs again. Taking their now-familiar path through the halls, they encountered some glowing motes of light, each about the size of a tennis ball, that suddenly arced to the two heavily armored (comparatively) fighters dealing electrical damage. Battle was joined and the five spark motes were fairly quickly destroyed before they dropped anyone, though some damage was dealt. That completed the adventurers continued along towards the secret doorway in the upper room with the hole in the floor. They followed the spiral staircase up until they exited into a roughly 20' diameter room with what looked like arrow slits in each of the four cardinal directions, though the north one didn't show much light coming through it. Looking out the crossletted arrow slits the party could see that they were in a concealed lookout post far above the floor of the valley. The three arrow slits with a view had good vantage points to approaches to the area. Upon further investigation, the fourth 'arrow slit' was determined to be the barred window of a concealed door that opened on the ledge where the lookout post sat. The lookout had no other way to reach it from the outside, and the bunker was made to look like a completely natural peak from the outside. Since the trapdoor to the staircase could be barred, the party decided that this might be a good place to rest in the future.

Descending back down the stairs, the party decided to return to the octagonal room and explore the steps up through the north wall of that room. But on the way Nick rolled his fourth '1' on a wandering monster roll, then a 1 and a 1 on 2d10, meaning that a spectral guardian appeared and the party was in trouble. The guardian did not have a lot of luck on its attacks for the first couple of rounds while Merrick was not Wheatoning his way towards death. The guardian did finally hit Merrick and stole away 6 points of strength and constitution from him, reducing his maximum hit points, if not his current hit points. Several successful attacks, including a holy aura from Arden and a magic missile from Ahri destroyed the guardian and left the party alive if not feeling great. The party returned to the angel door and found it back, whereupon they decided to pass through it and recover. And there the adventure ended for the night.

Side note: The spectral guardian is a slightly nastier version of the spectral wanderer that the party had faced before. Nick took on Thomas' old role of rolling the ones at the most inopportune times for the party. Good job Thomas Jr. I mean Nick! Ydee demanded and received payment from other characters for doing things, setting a precedent that will possibly suck for the group. :-p