The Dead Heart Of Xin

From Lexicanum

Xin Rising

After going shopping (a lengthy process), they attended the reforging ceremony as guests of honour. Sheila gave a speech, to which they paid little attention, naming them as the Sihedrons keepers once it was reforged and (as expected), all hell broke loose in Magnimar.
First, an earthquake shook the city, releasing on of its less favourable denizens – and enormous Shriezyx. As Magda attacked, Lerel cast Forcecage, nerfing the poor little thing and enabling them to kill it’

Second , the monuments of old Magnimar reawakened, humming softly and limned with glowing light.

Third, a tsunami struck the city, causing havoc along the waterfront and bringing new threats to the city, in this case three clockwork leviathans. They dealt with two of  them with ease (and magic) but the third swallowed Magda. They raced to help, arriving just in time for the plucky dwarf.

The Sihedron Halo

After the events of the previous hour or so, a period of calm,as citizens returned to the shore to pick over businesses and homes and lament their lost loved ones.

Meanwhile, there was still the problem of the Sihedron, which was solved by Tristan who picked it up and received the Users guide to the Sihedron Artefact for his troubles. It shifted in his hand,, ending up as a pointy halo and giving him all sorts of positive things.

At this point all hell broke lose upon the shore, as an enraged Scylla attacked the returning citizens. They flew from the bridge at speed to help, as fog enveloped the scene, and made the fight  even more difficult. Eventually, with little risk to themselves, they were victorious.

Crystal Palace

As it all settled down, Sheila asked the party to accept a reward, a Wayfinder of Endless Doorways, each, which they did. She asked them to attend a meeting of the Council, which would be addressed by Bhreacher, an expert in Thassilon and the constructs of Magnimar. He informed them that Xin, the first leader of the Rune lords, had a great skill with constricts and Golems, surrounding himself with an army of them. From ancient texts recently found under Jorgenfist it appears that Xin had sought immortality via a clockwork reliquary, giving the rune lords a chance to assassinate him using a rune giant assassin. After the Sihedron shards are mentioned but the story grows parse, as Xin fell into ruins. The party was asked to investigate the cause of the tidal wave, and set off in a fishing boat supplied by Sheila.

They soon found a new group of islands, risen from the depths, and a crystal arch leading underground. There was no water damage of smell of rot from within the arch, but they came under mental assault almost immediately, as three Aboleths targeted them. They resisted the Aboleths powers, and easily defeated them as they closed to combat.

The Aboleths disposed of, they moved to study the door at the back of the arch which proved to be trapped with an explosion of crystal shards. The room beyond was a grand foyer, with three strange females who spoke as one and attacked as soon as the party attempted to pass them. The Axiomites of Xin proved extremely irritating and fought to the death.

Thr Throne Room

After spending the night in a moderate hotel (full continental breakfast rather than the full heroes feast), the party entered the door at the end of the foyer. The room beyond was lined with hundreds of metallic statues of warriors, both in this room and below in a flooded chamber visible through the crystalline floor. The other features of the room were a flat black crystal twenty feet on a side and a crystal throne, with a leg less corpse seated upon it. As they approached, the 'corpse' came to, as though roused from a nap.

In Thessalonian, it said 'What strangeness disturbs my well-deserved rest? Another assassin?', to which Tristan replied that the party were insurance assessors, come about a claim by the city of Magnimar. After a brief, disjointed conversation, the corpse rose up and ordered his guards to attack, at which point six of the clockwork legionnaires raised there axes for battle. This lead to the first vision - of King Xin throwing a huge diamond to the floor and it growing the palace. Ten thousand years pass, the city is reborn and a clockwork army destroys Magnimar lead by a shape with a skeleton inside. A new city of clockwork and crustal ruled by Xin rises from the ashes of Magnimar.
The vision ended and the present intruded, with battle joined. For a while, it looked bleak, until Lerel found the creatures where vulnerable to lightning and Arkwright finished the job. The last clockwork soldier, who was under the control of the old man’s ghost, fell just before casting a spell.

After some healing, Tristan moved to the first door on the left. He discovered a room with seven crystal pillars containing the desiccated remains of people. As he investigated two of the pillars lit by an orange glow, two Dread Wraiths attacked and he immediately dimension doored away badly hurt. The fight was short and brutal, with everyone getting constitution drained before the wraiths were overcome.
The next room opened by Tristan was an archive, where an animated lectern trotted up to ‘Sorshen’ and proffered a black crystal. Nonplussed he handed room and contents over t, Arkwright to investigate. The crystal was an occupied soul trap, and there were a couple of scrolls in the room, together with Xin’s tome of living runes. Also in the room was the flamma horacalcum, a device for seeing through time.
The next room contained a spellwell through which all transmutation magic could be studied.

Visions of Xin

The party continued checking out this level, finding a room covered with strange glyphs, which turned out to contain symbols of the magical type. Deciding caution to be better then valour, Tristan investigated with antimagic shell. He found a robe, some gold and a phylactery, similar to the one he was wearing. The robe he handed to Arkwright for magical investigation and moved ten feet away, at which point the curse on it became active. They removed the curse from Arkwright,who promptly set fire to the robe.

The final room, had a vision of Xin hosting a great banquet, when suddenly they were separated by walls of force. Arkwright immediately flew up to the ceiling and discovered it was illusory, hiding three Shining children. Lerel took dragon form and flew up as well, Magda hid under a table and Tristan healed those who fell in the battle above – Lerel taking particular damage as a Golden Dragon was seen as threatening in the extreme.

The threat was finally overcome and the room contained place settings of superb quality, apart from the dragon shaped damage to some of them.

They now spent a while wondering how to move on, until someone remembered the black square in the audience chamber. Standing on it, they saw a great spiral staircase leading down into murky water. They went up, to huge hall, lined with constructs of all shapes and sizes, and doors to other rooms.

The first door on their left lead to a small collapsed room, with a magic field emanating form a pillar Investigating, they found a safe, which Magda opened with violence. Inside was an amulet, which Arkwright surmised was the control unit for a Shield Guardian, somewhat damaged by the opening of the safe. The door opposite revealed a large chamber, with a Retriever on the ceiling, from which they backed off.

The Clockwork Dragon

The retriever was a little cheesed off at it’s visitors closing the door on it and burst through, in a blaze of eye rays, It put up a good fight, but was ultimately doomed. They combed through the rubble of its room, finding some odds and ends, before moving on.

The next door lead into a cultivation area, filled with large vats for cultivating aberrations. One such was in residences, a Corpse Orgy , which lumbered forth and attacked, using it’s grab attack with some success before falling to the magical assault it faced. Arkwright took a lump, since the flamma horicalcum had a vision of Xin becoming frustrated by his failure to create life.

In the silence after the battle, they heard noises from beyond their visual range, and were confronted by a clockwork dragon flying from the darkness. Unfortunately for the dragon, it moved into a barrage of magic and muscle, which soon put it down.

Golems of Xin

The party continued opening doors, finding a spellwell (evocation) and a room with coins floating in the air, which they ignored. The next door had three axiomites of Xin completing an inevitable behind it, which proved difficult to ignore, but, with Lerels disintegrates and the attacks of Magda and the angel, were soon overcome.

They decided to rest, with Arkwright casting a generic version of Mordenkainens Magnificent Mansion.  The next morning, refreshed, they exited the mansion and opened the door, to be greeted by two golems. As Magda engaged one of them, Lerel and Arkwright put fog clouds and walls of force to stop the other one. They soon beat their foes and prepared to move on.

Inevitable Consequences

The party moved to the end door nearest them and opened it, finding a spellwell keyed to the school of enchantment before a djezet chair.

The way forward was blocked by a crystal wall, which a spell used against it triggered several traps. The flamma also revealed the fourth vision, of a disagreement between the Rune lords and Xin, which Sorshen calmed.

Deciding to look into it later, they moved to the other end of the hall and opening the door, looked in, using the flamma. As they did so, the golem orchestra within struck up a melody pure and bright, inspiring them with Greater Heroism. The angel retrieved the horn of blasting found through use of detect magic, shrugging off the discordant orchestral sounds as he moved out of the light of the flamma.

They went back to the other end of the hall of golems and used the horn of blasting on the crystals, shattering them. Within was a large circular room, with a sihedron painted on the floor, which Arkwright told them was a inert teleport circle. Tristan tried activating it, but only succeeded in summoning a Marut Inevitable, which attacked. With a lot of effort, the angel dealt with the situation and they went back to considering the teleport circle.

A Vision of Prophecy

The angel, having finally read his contract, disappeared after explaining the detail to  Tristan. The party finally decided the teleport circle had to be activated in the order in which they had found the sihedron (as the universe had told them) and did so, appearing in a vault lined with a coppery metal, in front of a statue of Xin, holding a strange contraption like an hourglass. At this point they became aware of a smoky pillar with an swirling vortex in the centre – a Bythos Aeon as Arkwright informed them, before falling foul of its confusion gaze and dropping the flamma. The party moved as though through treacle, as did the Bythos, suffering the effects of a slow spell. With the only one capable of understanding the slow effect came from the flamma incapacitated, the following combat was a slow motion affair, with the party finally victorious. Investigating the statue, they found a quantity of Horacalcum and a Timeglass. As Arkwright took the timeglass, he had a vision of Augustille the Augurs prophesy;
 
 
Deciding that it had come true, they ignored it and, after little healing, moved via teleport to the next chamber. This contained statues of the seven runelords, who knelt, offering tribute. When the party failed to give then  correct response, the statues attacked. Tristan found himself grappling Sorshen, and the others dealt with the rest with fireballs and magic missiles, before aiding Tristan, who had nearly beaten himself up. They found two pieces of adamantine, one of which turned to to be a +3 defending transformative adamantine longsword.

The Spell Ooze

They decided to rest, and Arkwright produced his mansion. The next morning, they opened the door to find golems outside, again. This time, Magda took them head on and dealt wuth them fairly easily, with some magical backup and a few injuries.

After a bit of healing from Tristan, they moved on, into a pair of variant Mezlans. This combat took a little longer, the Mezlans spell batteries proving difficult for the mages. Finally, they were dead, and the party searched the room, finding about 100 pounds of djezet.

They moved on to the next chamber, just having time to notice the silvery metal lining the walls when the two Dread Wraiths caused Tristan to call for a tactical withdrawal and they ran away.

Crystal Statues

Fortified by Death Ward,the Dread Wraiths had no chance and were quickly beaten. Apart from the large quantities of Inubrix in this room, the only thing of interest was a Ghost Iron Scimitar.
They moved on, to a room containing two Elder Crystallises, which turned Arkwright and Lerel to crystal and prompted another retreat.

After restoring them (several times) and a crisis of confidence form Tristan, they came up with a plan – get in, with Magda as backup, and use Arkwright to cast dismissal. The eventually worked, and they entered the chamber, which proved to contain some Noqual and some worked armour and weapons.

The next chamber contained a Siccatite Iron Golem, which did hot and cold damage,  as well as chain lightning. Magda, with healing from Tristan and Acid Arrows from Arkwright and Lerel, soon dealt with it.

The Rune Giant

After overnighting in the mansion, they moved on. The next chamber proved to be full of Abyssium, a metal that is nauseating to breathing life forms. They could hear a large snake moving, which proved to be a very inquisitive Marilith.  After asking what had happened in the world, they appeared to annoy her with their lack of answers and she attacked. After returning her to the Abyss, they had a collection of large long swords and 240lbs of Abyssium, which they decided to return for.

Confidently, they moved to the next room, a workshop for some form of reliquary. The Flamma Horacalcum triggered a fifth vision,  with some hints that the reliquary was vulnerable to positive energy. Passing through a doorway, they had a vision of the assassination of Xin, by a Rune Giant. As the vision cleared, they found themselves confronted by the undead form of that same giant. This proved a life ending situation for Magda and Lerel, before the party managed to withdraw, to bring back the dead and regroup.

Stoned Again

After a bit of limited wish and so on, the party was back together. They decided to deal with the giant and did so with relative ease the second time around. They then decided to ignore what had happened every other time and rest. The next morning they were unsurprised to see two Crystallises outside on waking, who promptly breathed on them, causing Tristan and Arkwright to be petrified. Magda and Lerel had limited time to react, given the Mansion would end soon, and teleported to Magnimar. They spent some time there, getting stone salve, then returned cautiously.

Lerel cast Wall of Stone between the Golems and the statues, then Teleported into the gap as the Golems tried to bash down  the wall. Having restored their friends, they took on the Golems, successfully.

Xin

They travelled to the antechamber of the last room, a spellwell for Evocation. Arkwright began to contemplate it, drawn in to a reverie by the power contained within, as the others prepared for battle, Tristan giving the Sihedron to Magda. As they stood outside the final door, discussing their action, it opened a crack and a stream of Djezet came out , stroking Lerel, who successfully shrugged off its influence.
The door opened and Arkwright cast Destruction (unsuccessfully) as Magda and the reliquary went toe to toe. Arkwright had another go and managed to get through the spell defences as Tristan healed Magda. As the first of several elementals turned up, Magda fell unconscious and the reliquary took control of the Sihedron.

At this point, Arkwright made things complicated, by casting a couple of timestops. The first  he seemed a little confused by the effect, but with the second he moved Magda, enabling Tristan to heal her, and (because the spell is so infrequently used) managed grab the sihedron as well. Enraged, the reliquary destroyed the sihedron, just in time to fall to a magic missile.

As the  palace began to tumble around their ears, they grabbed what they could and left. Back in Magnimar, they were a little disappointed to find that the population were unaw2are of their efforts, but Sheila and the mayor made up for that.