= Crystal Quest Aftermath, Part 18 =
9-5-05

The game continues with the party moving back up the hall to investigate the temple.  The circular room they emerge into, with Andune in the lead, has a large pit of lava in the center, with a bloody altar ajacent to it on the far side, slightly angled to drain into the pit.  On opposite sides, there are crane-like structures, that have burnt crispy remains sticking to them.  In a semicircle around the pit are several kneeling stands, for worshippers.  Opposite the hallway, there's a metal mask, about 20 feet in size, of the evil god Koron, and also arranged around are large tapestries, each of which has an image of a dragon.

Sarai suggests, "Hey guys, how much of this room do you think we can toss into the pit?"  Akili responds, "Uh, anything that's not nailed down."  Sarai grins, and answers, "Let's do it."

While destruction of the room commences, starting with the kneelers, Atheele fires a holy arrow at the mask.  The arrow sticks, and a bolt of black lightning erupts from the mask, although it only makes it as far as the lava pit before fizzling out.  

Akili and Sarai move closer to the mask, contemplating the best way to get it off of the wall.  He investigates it carefully, garnering what spells might be on it.  There are many; he immediately recognizes four: Unholy Aura, Unholy Blight, Magic Circle against Good, and Cause Fear.  Frowning, he tells the others of what he's discovered.

Andune steps up next, and attempts to Dispell the mask.  She disenchants a number of spells, but several are still remaining.

Sarai moves closer, and ponders the mask, applying her Engineering knowledge to try to get it off of the wall.  The mask appears to be embedded into the wall, but those cranes might be able to have their hooks put through the eyeholes.

Therath cooks potatoes over the lava pit.

Atheele pokes around for secret passages, and thinks there is one behind a tapestry, and perhaps another behind the mask.

Akili ponders, then ignites his sword, attempting to carve a line out of the wall behind where the mask is embedded - hopefully, anyway, since he can't tell just how deep it is - he's counting on no more than four inches, so he carves in a foot away from the mask.  A moment later, his hand stings painfully, as the negative energy is channeled up his sword to his hand, due to touching the mask: it was embedded deeper than he thought.

Sarai grabs a hook from one of the cranes, and approaches the mask, then stops, eyeing Akili.  She frowns, then hands the hook over to Manq, and instructs him to toss the hook at the statue.  He tosses it successfully, and hooks the eye.  Sarai goes to grab the second hook and repeat it.

Oy-hat considers his options, and in the end casts Magic Circle against Evil on himself, then moves up to the mask.  An arc of energy goes from the mask to herself, causing some more damage, although she gets the impression the spell sheltered her from the worst of it.

Therath finishes his potatoes, and starts pulling down a tapestry.  Atheele works on pulling down the other tapestry that he thought there was a passage behind it, and indeed there is, as it's revealed to the room.

Others continue to help tearing down tapestries.

Akili decides not to prod the mask again, and instead helps Sarai fetch the second chain, handing the hook to Manq, who hooks the other mask successfully.

Sarai inspects the crank, worried about being injured by trying to pull the chain, now that there is a line from the mask to the crane.  Sarai suddenly remembers that she has a winding spell!  ...Then she realizes she's short a spell component.  She contemplates, and improvises with another twisting spell.  She warns everyone to step back, then casts it.  The crane handles start cranking by themselves, and everyone waits.

After several minutes, the mask finally pops off of the wall, rolls forward, smashes the altar, and breaks the chains.  The mask reveals itself as actually being a giant skull that was embedded in the wall.  And indeed, there is a passageway behind the mask.  The party also finds a set of hinges on one side, indicating that it was a door.

Ideas about how to move the skull fly around.  Akili realizes that he has a way to touch it safely, and does so.  Bracing himself against the far wall, he pushes as hard as he can, and shifts it about four feet, over the altar, over the pit.

After some more discussion, Akili and Atheele go up once more and try to shove the skull the rest of the way into the lava.  Then they pause, and realize that they need to wait a little while longer, if they want to check out the other passages, because the room has a good chance of being flooded with lava due the pool overflowing after the skull being pushed in.

So the party leaves it for now, and starts exploring down the passage behind the dragon tapestry.  Therath spots a trap, but doesn't have a way of disarming it.  Andune does, however.  She eventually manages to disarm the trap, and another one is spotted also.  She manages to disarm that one as well.

Inside the small chamber, some of the party discovers that appears to be a Mimic.  However, the small chamber doesn't allow any more than four people in the combat, so the remaining three are left out in the open.

Sarai gets anothe successful critical strike with her Sword of Thundering, and shatters the chest, revealing a long, black box, and a large pile of gold - about 14,000 worth.  It's split evenly between the party.  The group checks the box out to make sure it's not trapped.  Within is a black sword on a very nice lining.  Akili recognizes it as similar to the one that was found and left behind at Thomas's Castle, which was also likely Salorvin's.

Akili snags the sword, narrowly avoiding being shocked by it, and stashes it in his bag of holding.

Also, underneath the chest was a locked trap door.  Therath picks the lock and pockets it.  Underneath the door is a 5-foot deep hole, and there's a mummified body inside.

Atheele attempts to search the hole without going inside, and after a few moments, the mummy reaches up.  Atheele narrowly avoids being grabbed, and attacks.  He and Therath pummel the mummy for a couple of rounds, and then it leaps up out of the pit, opening itself to a few more attacks.  In fact, the two manage to knock it back into the hole, dead.

Oy-aht draws close, still in wind form, and peeks down into the pit, finding a black stone and a ring.  Sarai identifies the ring as Feather Falling, and Akili determines that the rock is, in fact, a Lucky Rock.  Upon encouragement from the party, Akili keeps it.

The passageway behind the metal skull is duly investigated by Oy-aht, still in wind form.  She finds nothing particuarly useful, save for some books (white text on a black background) and a plate of cheese and crackers.  Another tunnel is investigated, and another chest is spotted.  Therath attempts to pick the locked chest, and fails.  Atheele tries to dismantle it from the joints.  Using a dagger, he pops out one of the pins, and wrecks his dagger trying to remove the other.  Lots of coinage is inside, and a small bag full of some kind of dust.  Atheele asks Sarai's help in trying to identify it.

She figures out that it's a bag full of Dust of Tracelessness - it allows someone to conceal their passageway through an area.  She pockets it.  Atheele pockets the coinage, since so many others already have lots of money.

Sarai then goes down the corridor behind the skull, grabbing the books and the cheese.

The group discusses how to safely destroy the skull and still get out of here.  The decision is made to all crowd into the corridor behind the skull.  Akili and Atheele will push the skull into the lava; if the room is still safe, they'll stay around.  If Bad Things start happening, they'll flee through the Dimension Door that Andune will create beforehand.

The skull is pushed into the lava, and it does indeed overflow, starting to destroy the remaining contents of the room.  It is soon clear that it will fill the room easily, and so the party flees through the door.

The entire group emerges on the grassy plain, and it is very early morning, around 1am.  Some lava seeps through the door, and starts igniting the grass.  Andune reacts quickly, and casts Ice Storm on the fire, putting it and the lava out entirely.  Now that they're out in the open, Atheele casts Pass Without Trace on the entire party, ensuring that they cannot be traced for the next nine hours.

The party starts to head towards the castle, then pauses, realizing that they're all very tired, and they just camp out in the field for the night.

After a full eight hours' rest, the group continues on their journey towards the castle.  Sarai digs up a segment of red carpet, and pins it to Oy-aht's 11-foot pole as a flag, so that the castle won't attack them... hopefully.  She asks for something tie-dyed at first, then concludes that that'd be a bad flag to be flying.

Atheele, who had sent his eagle out to scout, is contacted by his eagle as it's falling out of the sky - it seems to have been paralyzed, according to Sarai's spellcraft check.  They are then contacted by the castle guards, wondering who they are and what they're doing here.

Sarai explains that they're here to help lift the seige of the castle, and explains that they've recently killed a big bad guy.  After a pause, another voice instructs them to come on in.

This makes everyone suspicious, since we haven't even seen them yet, and they accepted the story rather quickly.  The group exercises caution as they enter the castle.

They find a priest of Eldar adjacent to a man in more royal finery upon entering the courtyard, where there are also a number of guards, and a large city can be seen beyond.

They converse with the two for a while, then fully come inside Davos Castle.

Akili finds out that Vortex has been taken over, which is where Kenlow was heading.  He doesn't like hearing about this.

They also learn that there is a stronghold up north that's being used as a supply line, which presents itself as the next possible destination.  No word has come from the Tower of the Mages, but they've heard about Thomas's castle near the Watchers' Tower being overtaken - Akili takes it upon himself to inform them that they're not a threat anymore.  The two are understandably worried at Akili's appearance; they obviously know what he is, but they are okay with that - it seems Eldar has vouched for him.

The party commences shopping.  Sarai invents a new spell to count all of her gold, and everyone spends lots of money and offloads loot, Akili in particular.

The game is paused here.

CategoryCrystalQuestAftermath