Castle Maerimydra
Having defeated Kourgoth and
rested in the ruined
Flying across to the tower,
they found a small door. Cobol quickly bypassed the wards on the door and, each
speaking the password obtained from Logala, entered the depths of the Lesser
Tower. Quickly disposing of a couple of drow priestesses on guard there, they
quickly made their way across the tower to the walkway to the larger tower.
Abyssal Ghouls & Angry
Mages
Entering the larger tower,
they moved through an empty hallway, past one door to the right and another
with a stylised hydra painted on it, to a set of double doors. Opening
the double doors they found a curious room where, surrounded by four sturdy
pillars, a glowing green pillar of light disappeared through a ten foot hole in
the floor and ceiling. Not trusting the green light, Cobol Shemdar and Beth
squeezed past the pillars to the double doors opposite which Cobol checked for
traps – finding none.
The double doors opened out
to what had once obviously been a fine library, now ruined and suffused with
the foetid stench of death. The reason for the stench soon became apparent, as
from behind the bookcases abyssal ghouls poured out. A frenzied combat ensued,
which only worsened as more ghouls poured out from the door to the right
attacking Aerlyn and Didagi in the hallway. Eventually however the party
prevailed, though sorely tested and wounded.
After healing and briefly
resting, the party pressed on, moving through the ruined library. Noting the
stairway that led up to a balcony, they moved through a doorway at the far end
of the room and followed a passage along the curve of the tower they found a
room where they dispatched two cult champions. Heading back to the passageway
it ultimately took them back to the empty hallway, they’d started in.
They now decided to
investigate the door with the stylised hydra painted on it. Yellyond
opened the door and they trooped into a narrow corridor with three doors
leading off it to the left the passage opened out to a dimly lit area.
Examining the first door, Yellyond pushed it open to me met by a lightning
bolt from within which hit Aerlyn and Shemdar as well. As he dodged the worst
effect s of the bolt Shemdar noted a shadowy figure emerging from the gloom in
the open area. Ignoring this he charged past his comrades drawing a scimitar
and attacked the spellcaster. Ashe charged into the room a second spellcaster
cast another lightning bolt at him, but this one failed to penetrate his
spell resistance. Yellyond and Didagi also moved into the room to tackle the
spellcasters, leaving Aerlyn to face the third assailant as he charged her he
was revealed by his decomposing flesh as a revenant.
Undead aberrations
Once these drow were dealt
with and the rooms searched, the party decided to ascent the staircase to the
balcony in the library. At the top of the walkway was another set of double
doors- beyond them was another room with the green pillar of light. As Yellyond
began squeezing past the pillars, an horrific beholder-like form
manifested in the green light and fired one of its eye-rays at her – draining
her Con.
As her colleagues reacted to this
new threat, Yellyond, still reeling, withdrew. Shemdar cast a flame strike
at the ghostly aberration and Aerlyn cast a maximised orb of cold – both
to little effect! Didagi unlimbered his bow. The doomsphere began attacking
with its eye rays – hitting Didagi and Shemdar hard. As the party began to
retreat from this horror the apparition followed them passing through
Didagi and Yellyond to hover above the library, where it unleashed another
eye-ray attack as the party assailed it. Eventually Yellyond’s ghost-touch
weapon and a series of ghost touch arrows from Didagi slew
the beast.
Battered and bruised, the
party spent some time healing and restoring themselves before progressing
onwards. They made their way through a shattered series of rooms, before on
entering one, Yellyond was attacked by a roper. As the others moved to assist
her, the roper called out for help. As the others deployed into the room
attacking the roper, Yellyond cast dimension hop to free herself. Aerlyn
found herself next entangled by the roper’s tendrils as she cast and orb of
cold, but a freedom of movement spell from Shemdar enabled her to
free herself. As Didagi launched another series of arrows at the roper, from
across the room a six-armed grey render launched itself out of the darkness
at him launching a furious assault. At the same time the dim figure of a
drider could be seen who cast a destruction spell at Yellyond to little
effect. Shemdar cast a flame strike at the roper which finished it off. The
arachnoid grey render launched another series off attacks on Didagi and
Yellyond before it too succumbed. As the party passed around healing potions
and scrolls of Restoration, Cobol peered warily into the doorway the drider had
been casting spells from. There was no sign of the drider but with his
darkvision he could see the room beyond was a tangled mass of webs.
Shemdar stepped forward
casting a flaming sphere spell to burn away a clearing in the webs, Aerlyn
noticed in horror that the corpse of the grey render at her feet was twitching!
As the animated corpse lumbered to its feet; Yellyond, realising that Didagi
was sitting on the floor next to it defenceless, swiftly cast stand - bringing
the bedine to his feet. As Aerlyn cast greater disrupt undead at the zombie
grey render, Didagi drew his sword and went to work! Assailed by the twin
assault, the zombie was swiftly destroyed.
At the other end of the room,
Shemdar’s flaming sphere had cleared sufficient webs to allow entry to the
room. Yellyond and Beth went forward only to find themselves confronted by a
huge spider, as Cobol tumbled into the room a second huge spider dropped from
the webs and joined the fray. Moments later as the others entered the room
Didagi felt something drop past his face and a tiny spider-like creature bit
him on the cheek, simultaneously a flame strike hit Shemdar Aerlyn and Cobol –
the enemy spellcaster had returned to the fray.
As Beth and Cobol and
Yellyond & Aerlyn fought the huge spiders which fell one by one - Didagi
felt himself becoming weaker from the effects of the bite of tiny spider
attached to his cheek. He frantically tried to sweep the tiny
drider vampire off, to no avail calling his comrades to help, they too failed
to budge the tiny creature as Didagi weakened further – Beth even tried her
breath weapon – but the tiny creature remained stubbornly attached, draining
Didagi’s blood. Calling on his psionic abilities, Didagi, converted his body to
ectoplasm, casing the tiny spider to drop to the floor. As it tried to scuttle
away, Beth tried stamping on it – but didn’t seem to harm the drider as it
disappeared into the webs.
As the party scoured the webs
for the tiny beast Didagi, Yellyond and Shemdar were attacked by swarms of
locusts – the unseen spellcaster had struck again. As Shemdar retreated from
the swarm unnoticed to him, a tiny form dropped from the webs above him. He
noticed however when the vampire bit him, and in an attempt to trap her, cast
wind wall. The party deployed around the room – warily peering at the wind wall
as Yellyond cleared the remaining webs from ground level using her spells A few
seconds later Aerlyn was surprised as the drider, having used etherealness to
escape the wind wall appeared next to her and attacked. As the vampire
appeared Beth charged, swiftly followed by the rest of the party as the
assaulted the drider.
The concentrated
attacks of the party soon overwhelmed the vampire who after revering to her
gaseous form fled to her cocoon-coffin in the next room. Yellyond was on guard
for this and followed the misty form, where as it coalesced in its coffin she
destroyed it.
After briefly resting and
recovering the vampires treasure, the party – led by Cobol – ascended a nearby
stairway an found themselves in a kitchen!
The corrupter of the weave
After searching the kitchen
and helping themselves to some additional supplies, the party moved on through
this level. Despite the tidy appearance of the kitchen, most of the floor
seemed to be empty; on the far side of the levitation chamber however they soon
ran into trouble! Opening a set of double doors, Yellyond was confronted by
three armoured drow males bearing halberds. The gaping wounds and lifeless eyes
swiftly identified them as undead – though as one cast an ice storm into
the room where the party stood, it was apparent these were no ordinary zombies
but revenants. Revenants or not, a combination of Shemdar and Aerlyn’s
spells and Yellyond’s enchanted blade made short work of them.
Beyond this hallway led off
two doorways, one led to what was once a richly appointed bedchamber now, like
much of the castle, despoiled and devoid of interest. The other proved more
interesting – Shemdar, listening at the doorway could feel an unnatural
coldness; stepping aside to let Yellyond open the door he saw an unearthly blue
glowing mist began to spill out of the room. Yellyond strode confidently in to
the low-lying mist and just had time to see a ghostly figure raise his arm and
point at her before she found herself trapped in a forcecage.
Aerlyn and Shemdar deployed
into the room, they too saw the ghostly apparition – unknown to them this was
Duneth Wharrail the archmage of Maermydria turned into a powerful form of
wraith by Irae. As Dunath cast a circle of death at them Aerlyn
retaliated with a greater disrupt undead – nether spell had any effect.
Shemdar suddenly ran forward and reaching out to touch the ghostly apparition
cast heal on the archmage. With an unearthly scream the archmage’s
spirit vanished!
While they waited patiently
for the forcecage to release Yellyond, Aerlyn and Shemdar examined the curious
mist which seemed to be poring though from nowhere from a point several inches
above the floor. Shemdar also found a large pearl sitting in the corner of the
room. After 32 hours of waiting and study till Yellyond was released, they had
determined that the mist was actually the raw magic of the Weave, corrupted
somehow to bolster necromancy and hinder the use of positive energy – although
the mist itself was invisible outside this room - the effects would soon spread
across the city and then beyond! At the rate the stuff was poring from the Rift
it could be across the whole of the Dalelands in weeks!
Once Yellyond was freed from the
boredom of her captivity, the party went on – more determined than ever to stop
Irae and her plans. Heading up a level, and avoiding the effects of a symbol
of death at the top of the stairs, they came across a large room dominated
by two dragon corpses – one black one white. As they stood in the doorway the
black lumbered to its feet and began moving unsteadily towards them. The zombie
was quickly despatched, however as they enter the room, the corpse of the
white, turned her head and greeted them. She introduced herself as Ice and
welcomed them to her “domain”. Shemdar engaged the undead dragon in
conversation, who told them that Dunath held her here against her will using a
powerful magic pearl - should the party retrieve it for her she would offer what
information she could and leave in peace. Yellyond gave her the great pearl
they’d recovered from Dunath’s quarters and after exchanging some further
pleasantries – the dracolich began battering down the wall of the tower to make
her escape.
The Irritated Ambassador
Moving up a level in the
tower, Shemdar opened a door to reveal a room shrouded in Shadow – an irritated
voice called out asking what the hell he was doing breaking into an
ambassador’s room? A spirited discussion with the occupant revealed him to be
an ambassador from the city of
Eventually they left him in
peace and moved on through the tower. Across the hallway was a richly appointed
suite of rooms that had once belonged to the matron mother of Maermydria – the
room still showed signs of the titanic struggle that had ensued when Irae
overthrew the previous regime in the city – however one door seemed undamaged.
Examining it Yellyond triggered another symbol of death – this time
however Aerlyn fell victim to the trap and crumpled to the ground - Shemdar
reacting swiftly cast last breath on
the fallen half-drow.
As the form of a young gnome
began slowly to appear next to the body of Aerlyn; watched over by Shemdar,
Yellyond went beyond the warded door to find five large chests filled with
treasure.
A Sorcerer Reborn
Once used to her new form,
Aerlyn attempted to fashion clothing for her new body from her backpack,
grumbling irritably about the diminished form she found herself trapped
in, Didagi, Shemdar and Yellyond stood guard. Once Aerlyn was ready, and
without a backwards glance at her discarded corpse on the floor of the room,
she led the way forward to the bridge to the lesser tower.
At the far end of the bridge
a set of double doors waiting, Shemdar opened them, to reveal another pack of
abyssal ghouls guarding another levitation shaft, relieved at finally having
something to vent her frustration on Aerlyn cast Field of Icy Razors and
Shemdar followed up with a Firestorm. The badly wounded ghouls consumed by
their hunger still pressed home their attack, but Yellyond and Didagi
swiftly finished them off.
Heading down a staircase, the
party emerged into a large hallway presided over by a huge greenish statue of a
spider, just as Yellyond was warning that it would probably animate and attack
them, it obligingly did so! The serrated edges of its legs doing fearful
wounding damage to those it struck. However Shemdar's scarab of Golembane and
Didagi's adamantine dagger proved more than a match for the construct.
Moving through a set of
double door from the lesser tower to a bridge connecting to a third stalactite,
the were confronted in as hallway by a drow warrior,dressed in demonic looking
armour, who as he got to his feet said "finally, something worth
killing!" As battle ensued, two abyssal ghouls joined the fray from a nearby
room. The combat was brutal and swift as brutal blows were traded. Ultimately,
Aerlyn, still peeved, hit him with a maximised disrupt undead, greater, and
then for good measure hit the abyssal ghouls with the same spell!
Beyond the room guarded by
the warrior, was a curious room decorated from a demon's nightmare - in
bizarre statues depicting scenes of tortured painful death. There was a large
staircase at the far end and with the floor between made of what looked
like bones. The party barely had time to take in the bizarre sight when three
large four-armed demonic figures appeared and began to attack.
As the creatures blows struck
Didagi, Shemdar and Yellyond they could feel the grave-cold of negative energy
surging through their bodies as levels were drained. As the brave warriors
strove to hold off the beasts, Shemdar cast an empowered mass cure light
wounds, healing his friends but damaging the vampiric demons. Things were
looking dicey for a moment until Aerlyn unleashed her disrupt undead greater
ray and the bloodfiends fled in gaseous form.
Waterdeep and Back
After facing down the
vampiric demons, the party decided that a strategic withdrawal was in order,
and retreating back to the room where they’d freed the dracolich, used the hole
she’s battered in the wall to exit the castle and Aerlyn used greater teleport
to send them to Waterdeep. Once there, those level drained by the bloodfiends
headed to the
Re-entering the castle through the same hole in the
walls, the party were confronted by two ghostly demonic forms –silverwraiths!.
Aerlyn immediately cast field of icy razors at the wraith, only to have
her spell rebound on her in a fearsome burst of negative energy. As Aerlyn
collapsed to the ground, Yellyond dashed forward pulling a healing potion from
her pouch; Shemdar cast a cure light wounds, mass & Didagi drew his sword
to face the threat.
As battle joined the two
silverwraiths attacked and withdrew tactically, sometimes disappearing through
walls and appearing up through the floors forcing the party to chase after
them, Shemdar too fell victim to the silverwraith magic absorption ability
having a flame strike reflected back against him as negative energy. Eventually
however, aided by a greater disrupt undead or two from Aerlyn, the
wraiths were destroyed.
As the party swigged healing
potions, the door opened and the revenant of the drow blackguard they’d slain
two days previously stood regarding them, red eyes blazing. As he strode into
the room he raised his greatsword and issued a challenge to the party.
Yellyond, stepping forward accepted the challenge and the revenant charged her.
As the duskblade and the blackguard exchanged blows, the rest of the party
stood by anxiously watching the fearsome combat.
Suddenly the blackguard
issued a series of telling blows and Yellyond, badly injured and realising
accepting the challenge had probably been a mistake called out to her friends
for aid. For a moment her colleges were uncertain whether to intervene in the
challenge or not, but Didagi called out to the revenant saying, “my colleague
has obviously yielded, I accept your challenge!” The revenant, turned its fiery
eyes on him, and nodding grimly turned to face Didagi, as he did so he wheeled
suddenly and swung a final mighty blow at Yellyond - dropping the duskblade to
the ground.
As Shemdar rushed of to cast
Heal on Yellyond, Didagi and the revenant began trading blows, eventually the
uninjured Bedine gained the upper hand and the revenant was destroyed.
The Lesser
Moving through the deserted
areas of the castle the party made their way back to the entranceway to the
Lesser Temple where they’d fought the Bloodfiends. Though the entranceway was
dark from the bone-wrought staircase at the end of the room the cloying scent
of incense wafted down and a low chanting could be heard.
Led by Yellyond they party
inched their way up the stairway. The temple was decorated with tapestries
depicting Kiaransalee and her favoured hierophant – Irae T’sarren. Two mindless
zombies stood holding aloft a slab of stone as an altar, three other zombies
stood cupping burning censers in their hands, the scent of the incense mingling
with the reek of burning flesh, Behind the altar a drow priestess was in
the middle of performing some foul observance to her death-goddess.
Didagi dashed into the room ,
heading straight for the opposite wall. Aerlyn, not far behind the Bedine, cast
a Polar Ray at the priestess as Yellyond and Shemdar followed on Cuddles
remaining at the foot of the stairs. The drow priestess, sorely wounded, cast
spiderfom and dropped from sight.
Unnoticed till now,
another drow form dropped from the ceiling and moving out of the shadows
attacked Aerlyn, his red eyes glowing. As Aerlyn reeled from the vampire’s slam
attack, Yellyond and Shemdar retaliated against the undead. Shemdar’s eyes
eagerly sought the vanished priestess to no avail as her diminutive form
crawled under the tapestries behind her. A ferocious combat ensued with the
vampire - but ultimately he was badly damaged, reverting to gaseous form and
fleeing for the safety of his coffin.
As the party congratulated
themselves on another victory and saw to their wounds and ills, a howl of pain
from below told them that cuddles was in trouble. Rushing down the stairs to
aid his animal companion, Shemdar found to his horror a bloodfiend attacking
the dire bear. As Yellyond and Aerlyn ran to help the druid, Didagi’s
normally keen vision failed to spot two further gaseous forms seeping under the
tapestries at the far end of the room.
Confusion and chaos rained as
two more bloodfiends joined the fray, made even worse when the first one used
his dominate monster supernatural ability to turn Cuddles against his erstwhile
friends. Just when things seemed to be going the party’s way as one of the
bloodfiends was defeated the drow cleric returned and cast a fire storm at the
comrades. Spells cracked through the air and blades flashed as battle raged, till
first one then the last remaining bloodfiends were destroyed. The drow cleric,
left on her own was swiftly finished off by a flurry of elvenbane arrows from
Didagi.
Resting briefly and healing
after the ferocious combat, the battered and bruised party headed through a set
of double-doors at the far end of the
Crushing Blows
After some brief
contemplation of the huge shadowy figure immersed in the purple flames, Shemdar
strode forward, only to be smashed as a huge metal arm slammed into him. Seeing
her colleague assaulted so, Beth rushed forward using her breath weapon and too
felt the golems fists slam into her. Withdrawing with Shemdar for healing - the
party briefly reconsidered their options before deciding to try attacking
again.
Beth, Didagi and Cobol moved
forward, supported by Shemdar, drawing adamantine weapons.
While Aerlyn stood helplessly
by, he magics nullified by the golem’s magic immunity, battle was joined – the
golem lashing out with fearsome crushing blows of its huge metal hands. The
party retaliated with darting strikes, braving the heat of the flames as their
adamantine weapons hit home. The golem periodically belched forth gouts of
poisonous gas, but Shemdar through effective use of his wand of neutralise
poison ensured no-one came to lasting harm - however the slam attacks the golem
took a fearsome toll.
Aerlyn suggested retrieving
the drow priestesses House insignia, donning it and simply walking past the
huge construct, but no one seemed inclined to take her up on her idea, however
she went and fetched it from the priestess’s corpse anyway.
As the battle raged, dreadful
wounds were taken, while each piece of damage inflicted on the golem seemed to
magically repair as the flames licked across it. Sensing this, Aerlyn used a
limited wish and cast a greater dispel magic on the wall of fire. Deprived of the
healing from the flames – the damage to the golem finally began to mount.
However, despite Shemdar’s healing magics, first Cobol, then Beth were driven
to the ground with fearsome injuries – Didagi too staggered as the damage
mounted.
Seeing her colleagues could
not prevail Aerlyn used a scroll to cast a wall of stone between the golem and
her friends, which gave everyone time to retreat and gain healing. After a
brief respite - and some additional preparations - the battle was rejoined.
Didagi, after borrowing Shemdar’s ring of adamantine touch, broke down the wall
of stone with his scimitar. As her comrades joined the fray once more, Aerlyn
decided to test her theory of earlier, and as blows rained down on her
colleagues, strode confidently and untroubled past the construct. The golem
ignored her!
As she turned to regard the
combat now behind her, Aerlyn noted that this time the ebb and flow of battle
had turned in their favour - deprived of the healing flames the damage on the
golem mounted rapidly, and despite the carnage wreaked by its fists, its end
was inevitable.
Moving past the wreckage of
the golem, the others joined Aerlyn as she made her way through the
double-doors at the end of the corridor. The party found themselves in a large
cylindrical cave, in the centre of the cave a twisted tower rose crookedly
upwards. Near to top of the tower, obscuring it from view, a sphere of utter
blackness hovered ominously.