Crystal Quest Aftermath, Part 8
12-21-04
The group is clumped on the platform, looking up at the closed hatchway, still listening to the various noises and bad screams coming from the other side. After consideration, Andune uses her Unseen Servant spell to lift up the hatchway, and sends her owl up to look around.
Getting an 'all clear', the rest of the group ascends the ladder, finding another, very large storeroom, that is dank and smells of flour. Finding two doors out, they split up into two groups and listen at the doors. Andune hears birdsong, and Oy-aht hears the sounds of a voice making demands of someone else, but not clearly. They debate for a little while, and take the door that leads towards the birdsong. The door opens into a hallway, and while Andune is exploring the far end, Akili listens at another door. Hearing snoring, Akili opens the door pretty quietly, and looks in. There are several people sleeping with weapons nearby. Andune silently takes one sword; Sarai scrapes the other across the floor, and they promptly wake up. They are more slavaakians. Andune whips out her rapier, and it promptly bursts into flames for no immediately apparent reason. Combat ensues, and they are shortly all taken out. After searching the place, Akili unearths a small stash of hold pieces, and miscellaneous equipment.
After going down a few more hallways, and finding the source of the birds - a falcon room - they stop to listen at another door, where they can hear interrogation, followed by more screaming. Opening the door, they see a grand hall of white marble, that is some kind of holy room... although most of the white marble has now turned black. There are a few guards, and a guy standing over an alter, where another guy is in more than one piece. Farther up the hall, towards the far wall, are two people sitting on thrones. One is a Slavaakian, and the other is... Salervan!
Akili manages to recover fastest, and casts Chaos at Salervan. A giant tree spouts in the corner next to him, and starts attacking him with branches. Salervan leaps out of the way - jumping over 40 feet, easy - and lands on the balcony, sending beams of multicolored light at the group and dishing out a lot of damage.
Things then become much more complicated, with the tree beating down a few more guards, and Oy-aht summoning a Celestial Archon (humanoid wolf) to flank Salervan, and a Celestial Lion (Bear) to attack the other guy who was on the throne, after he merely pointed at Andune and dealt out more damage. Sarai also climbs up the stairs to attack Salervan on the other side, and successfully begins grappling him.
After some more combat, the other throne guy attempts to teleport out, but fails his concentration check - and being a faradhim, passes out after overexerting himself to attempt that teleport.
After more extended combat, during which Salervan is unable to free himself from the combined grapple of Sarai and the Archon, the tree assists by whacking almost everyone else while the various guards try to handle the party, combat is finally ended, with everyone defeated save Salervan, who is still solidly pinned.
After tying up Salervan and stripping him of his armor and any other items, Akili goes off to consult with Eldar about finding Salervan, since he was killed at least twice as a result of Crystal Quest, and is back again. He learns that Salervan, by his nature of being a Orange Adept, is more like a plant than anyone thought: he can create branches of himself, just like a tree does. The main root, or Salervan himself, is somewhere else, and must be found. Eldar also requests that before going back to the Watchers, that this temple be cleaned up - I.E., divinely cleaned of the sacrifices that were happening here.
When Akili goes back to tell Sarai about what he find, he discovers that Sarai and the Archon had rolled Salervan off of the balcony and onto the altar, and had the Tree whomp him into pieces, which were then set on fire. Akili shakes his head, then relates what he learned to Sarai. He then discovers that she didn't take the remains of what was previously on the altar off, so what's left of this branch of Salervan are mixed with the other. Sarai considers this, and carefully selects bits of the remaining Salervan parts to save them to possibly create a location spell.
In searching the bodies that are left, they find several useful items, not the least of which is Salervan's Prismatic Rod (presumably), as well as several magical suits of armor, and other such items that are spread among the group to some degree of evenness, depending on the individual needs of people.
Akili realizes that his 400' of silk rope that was used to tie up Salervan was also burned off. Akili puts his face in his hand, and declares that Sarai owes him some more rope, knowing that she still has plenty of gold from their earlier endeavors. She replies, "I'll give you some at the next town we go to." Oy-hat then chimes in: "We *never* go to town!"
The group is still battered and in relatively poor shape after the prolonged fight, and the rest to try and recover themselves. The game is paused here.