= Crystal Quest Aftermath, Part 27= 8-5-06 Andune casts Dimension Door to allow the party to get out the pair of rockfalls and into the open area at the exterior of the cave entrance.
The party is standing in a sunken platform that extends in an upside-down U surrounding the cave entrance, that is carved into stair-steps leading up and off of the platform, with a few spots that have added railings. There are eight symmetrical 60' columns standing within the platform, although they aren't supporting anything. Also, carved into the ground between the pillars is the symbol of Matro, a stylized lightning bolt. There are also four dragon-ish statues spaced between the outer pillars. Buildings of varying sizes are also located outside the platform.
Off to the left, one of the larger buildings has a much smaller platform with a single pair of pillars in front of it.
Straight in front of the platform is the palatial structure made of Matrite that stands a good chance of being Matro's palace.
Some distance to the right and behind the palace lies the sunlit tree.
Upon closer inspection, the largest building to the left is reminiscent of a temple, but not to any god the characters can recognize. To the right are a cluster of smaller buildings that are probably homes, but they are... Sad. As in, the people living in them clearly don't welcome company, or much of anything else.
Kenlow splits up from the group and heads into the temple. Sarai and Atheele follow him. Akili protests; he wanted to see the sunlit area... but Kenlow is apparently oblivious, so he sighs and heads after him. Everyone else does, too.
As the party approaches the temple, they can hear sounds of screaming... except Kenlow. Irritated, Akili finally realizes that Kenlow's loss of hearing is a form of damage, so he moves up, touches Kenlow, and casts Cure Minor Wounds. Kenlow promptly gets his hearing back, and also identifies the screaming as coming from within the temple. Realizing he can use his map-building ability, he echo-sounds the temple, getting the sense of several rooms with people in them, and a large pit at the far end, and beyond the pit is... something weird that he can't easily identify. Trying again, he gets the distinct sense of an altar with the remains of someone on it, still screaming, and someone next to the altar that is responsible for that... and behind that person, a giant statue.
Atheele makes a move to start going into the temple, and Kenlow stops him with a hand on his shoulder, draws Godslayer, and starts walking straight down the hall. As he goes, he pulls out of his memory that this - the sacrificing of people - was one of the methods that Matro used to gain power.
Sarai remembers the Sunblade or Holy Avenger that was stuck in the table at Koron's trashed palace, and thinks that they might be able to duplicate the effect. Kenlow, however, is ignoring this, and continues to stride down the hall with a particularly determined gait.
Andune and Oyaht keep watch at the temple entrance for other forces that may approach, and everyone else - including Akili, against his better judgement - go after Kenlow.
Atheele pauses to listen at the side doors that were closed that the party passes by. At the end of the call, there is a set of double-doors, with one side partially opened. One of the rooms Atheele checks seems to be silent; in the other, he can hear the sound of pen on parchment. Atheele mentions this to Kenlow, who shrugs it off - he has bigger concerns.
Kenlow whispers to Sarai, asking if she still has the detecting stone. He carefully points the stone towards the open door an asks Sarai if she can figure out if he's in there. Both stones are a very rich blue, close enough in hue to seem as though they're next to each other, or very near. She compares the intensity of the stones in her mind to the richness of the red back when they were facing Salervan, and she thinks they're within 60 yards... and that Matro is slightly closer.
Kenlow, preparing to kick open the double-doors, and overhears the whispers of Sarai and Akili about Matro possibly being there. Reluctantly, Kenlow puts his foot back down. The possibility exists that Matro is overhead, also, as the temple has more than one level.
Atheele very carefully peeks through the open door, trying to not be noticed. Towards the far end of the room is a very roughly-cut pit, that is glowing in very unpleasant shades of red. Lining the room up to the pit are equally-spaced benches, not unlike what you'd find in a church, with the altar on the other side of the pit. There are also a lot of Black-Hand priestly types sitting in the benches, with some soldiers standing in the back of the room. The guy on the other side of the altar, performing the sacrifice is not Salervan... and it's not Matro. However, behind that figure is a stature of Matro. Excluding Oyaht and Kenlow, this is the closest any of the party has come to seeing him. Also, off to the side of the room are two closed doors on the left and right, with one door on either side of the pit.
The guards are wearing their armor, and while they aren't currently holding their weapons, they have them close to hand.
Kenlow shows a SEG, and whispers in Akili's ear, "How's the weather?" Akili thinks about that, and answers, "Um... cloudy with a chance of destruction?" (note: SEG: a look of extreme satisfaction on someone's face that is annoying to other people who are less happy.) Atheele mentions that he'd like to take care of the rooms behind them first, and then everyone's voice is drowned out by the sounds of chanting.
Akili figures out how to best deal with the situation, moving close to Sarai to discuss plans with her so he can overhear.
Andune and Oyaht, meanwhile, are dealing with developments that are taking place outside the temple entrance.
Atheele also goes off to deal with the guy who was writing something on a sheet of parchment. Drawing within range, he draws arrows and fires. All four arrows perforate the hapless priest, and pin him to the wall. He's killed instantly.
Back in the pit, Sarai hurls a Delayed Fireblast at the front-right section of the benches, enveloping approximately 18 of the seated priests, and only leaving three left standing.
Kenlow leaps into the room, taking wing, and lands on the other side of the pit, near the evil priest that's standing in front of the statue. He channels the remainder of Air through the Godslayer to generate a Chain-Lightning effect to hit the priest, that will jump both to what remains alive on the altar, and to the crotch of Matro's statue. The remains are slain, and the head priest takes some damage, and scars are etched on the statue at the appropriate spot. Kenlow then bellows, "I dedicate this sacrifice to Tarlek, the God of Death of Annor! May he have mercy on this man's soul."
Akili then steps into the doorway of the room, picks his spot against the left row of seats, and unleashes a Stampede, extending the entire length of the room.
Coming out of the origination portal are 4'w x 3'l boxes on legs, with a hole in the front. A bunch of them come running through the portal and attack whatever happens to be in front of them, attempting to put the hole over the top of the top of the target's heads, complete with grinding sounds. (Ambulatory pencil sharpeners!)
Atheele comes out from the room he was in, and manages to take one long shot at the priest behind altar all the way across the room, and hits, but not very hard.
Kenlow then channels some Earth power, with a shout of "I smite down the false god Matro in the name of Eldar!", he beheads the statue, adding a point of fire to make it more spectacular.
After he strikes it, the entire statue falls over, and crushes the altar. The head priest just manages to jump out of the way.
Sarai, tapped out of her Fireblast spell, gets closer to one of the untouched guards to throw a gout of flame.
Unfortunately, the priests and guards have a chance to move out of the slow-moving stampede, and move directly in front of Akili. Several of them hit Sarai, while a fusillade of bolts whiff by Akili's head, some going through the fur of his mane. One does hit his shoulder, though.
On the other side of the pit, the head priest points his palm at Kenlow, and a large chunk of ice approaches Kenlow, exploding almost in his face. Amazingly, he manages to duck out of the way unscathed.
One particular priest, standing on a pew, points all the fingers of his left hand at Akili, sending some sort of sonic waves at him. After avoiding the worst of the damage, Akili identifies it as an almost unheard-of spell named Sound Lance.
Black rain begins pouring down on top of Akili and Sarai.
Snarling, Akili leaps into the air, flies north out of the rain effect, levels his palm, and unleashes a spell he just recently learned to employ without the aid of the Rod of Chaos: Prismatic Spray. It otherwise destroys every priest covered by the spell, which is every single one that had turned to attack him, and all the ones that had flung spells at him. The only surviving priests are those that were already fleeing to the south beneath the stampede effect, and the one that's still tangling with Kenlow. Akili looks extremely satisfied.
Outside, from the vicinity of the sunlit circle, a figure in robes of white next to the tree gestures to Andune. After a moment of consideration, Andune teleports to the tree, and encounters a strange character; he's wearing white robes, that signify a cleric of Eldar, although he's wearing several multicolored rings, one of which indicates Eryn. He's wearing hide armor with green ivy carvings, that go along with Tarianna, and a stone mace that is Herulok's symbol... every good god of Annor is accounted for, in fact, except Kala. He looks taken aback, and addresses Andune, wondering who he is and what brings him here.
He explains his friends and himself are here to investigate Matro and put a stop to his efforts, possibly by destroying him. He mentions Kenlow, and the Godslayer. The white-robed character invites him to step into the circle, and Andule will be protected. After a moment, he does so. The stranger introduces himsef, "I am Eyenor. I have been sent by the Gods to assist you. I was slain in the past in my attempt, and I hope you can succeed where I failed. I cannot leave the circle, but perhaps these items I carry can assist you. This robe, for example, is of Eldar, and he named it the White Robe of... Coolness? This white-and-blue ring was forged by Eryn, and is a ring of protection, of sorts. Much more powerful than a ring of protection; it is protection of bodily harm, essentially. This other ring of vibrant colors will protect you from the elements. This hide armor is very strong, made by Tarianna, and will reshape itself to fit anyone. This stone mace is the Herulok's Mace of Ruin."
Andune asks if he can bring his party here to receive his blessing, and Eyenor regretfully says that his time here is short. "Please, make all haste to slay him." He holds out his hands and a vision appears between them. In that vision, Audune can see that the portal is gone, the edge of Matro's world is almost at the edge of Annor, and platforms are lowering to provide a bridge across the worlds.
Andune asks for more advice, and Eyenor tells him that Matro must be hit by the Godslayer at least once, at which point the other items he have given to Andune will be more effective. Matro's surviving armies will be substantially weakened by the loss of his support, and can be dealt with in more conventional means. Eyenor also mentions to be careful on his way back, gesturing to the two of the eight statues that are advancing towards him. He then teleports back to Oyaht at the front of temple, and goes inside.
Atheele moves away from the black rain area, and returns to the room where the priest was scribing the parchment, exploring the corridor beyond that room.
Sarai blasts a guard still standing near her with another gout of flame, moves out of the rain's area of effect. The guard attempts to swing at her as she dashes by, but misses, slightly disoriented by the flame she tossed at him.
Akili lands in front of Sarai, draws his plasma sword, and takes a defensive posture, while the sharpeners move closer to the fleeing group of priests.
Kenlow steps off of the statue and swipes at the High Priest's head with the Godslayer. He strikes a critical blow, and follows up with a second sound hit. The high priest is knocked into the air, and falls down, Quite Dead.
One guard steps up to Akili, but is not able to get through his defenses at first, but then slips one strike through. Another priest gestures at Akili, and delivers a mightly blow. Akili's hurting.
Andune arrives, moving down the hall of the temple, and fires a lighting bolt right into the midst of the priests that were standing between the pews. While the priests hit are killed, the lightning does not appear to affect the green monkey-demons that have appeared.
Kenlow, perched against the wall, channels Fire and Spirit through the Godslayer to cleanse the pit with 'holy fire'. He feels some of the evil fade away, but there's still a lot of it left.
Up in the hall, Atheele fires some arrows at the priest at the end of the hall who fled from the temple chamber, and drops him. He nocks an arrow for the next victim.
Sarai squeezes in next to Akili and casts another gout of flame at the soldier facing them, which finally falls.
Akili reaches into his sack and quaffs one of his rarely-used potions of healing, then casts Wild Strike out of his Rod at one of the green demons. The ground around it erupts into flames and rocks, and it takes some amount of damage.
A priest that had been charging out of the temple chambers on the heels of the first one fails to stop in time, and is also peppered by Atheele.
One of the priests that had earlier been rendered insane by the Prismatic Spray goes up to one of the animated sharpeners and sticks his sword in, resulting in his possession of a keen-edged toothpick. One of the demons charges Andune, but he manages to avoid him. The second busts through all of the pews towards Akili, who also manages to avoid its attack.
Andune swings at the demon in front of him with his adamantium rapier and slays the demon.
Atheele moves further down the hall, and opens one of the doors along that hall. It opens into a small storage chamber.
Akili then swings with the Scepter's blade at the demon creature, and connects all three times, destroying it.
Sarai fires Kavron's Firey Dart at the injured priest way down south of the room, and drops him.
From his perch on the other side of the pit, Kenlow releases his grip on the wall, glides over to the last priest in the temple chambers, and charges him with the Godslayer, smearing him across the tiles.
The rest of the sharpeners make it to the pit, where they fall in.
The party chases down the last few stragglers, and easily disposes of them. While doing so, they find prisoners in holding cells, including some from the ice-world in vats. They also find a secret storage area that contains a bucket of gold, a pile of scrolls and an armband that has some sort of pouch attached to it. Within is a folded-up sheet of paper. Atheele, reading the paper, is unable to comprehend it, but takes some damage in doing so.
Anyway, now that the bad guys are taken care of, the players discuss their plans, and Andune shares what he experienced in the sunlit circle. Upon being surprised, they then discuss the items that have been given to them, and figures out how to distribute the items.
Ring of Protection: Damage reduction 15/?. Ring of Elements: 30/all elements (sonic, lightning, fire, ice, acid). Hide Armor +6 (+9 total, -3 armor check, +4 dex), shapechanges to fit its wearer. Robe: All ability scores +2, and +2 armor deflection. Mace of Ruin: +7, deals epic damage, ignores all damage reduction, and crits on uncritable things.
Here's how the items are assigned, after a great deal of debate. Sarai: Ring of Elements Oyaht: Ring of Damage Reduction Andune: Robe Kenlow: Hide Armor Atheele: Mace
The scrolls are identified as: Ghost Sound* Enlarge Person* Poison* Resistance*
Sarai spellcrafts the armband. It is an Evil Periapt of Wisdom. Sarai puts it in her bag, as there is no one that is going to use it.
Akili pockets the Stone and Acid Arrow scrolls.
Sarai casts her counting spell to determine the bucket has 2,488gp.
Atheele has the idea of putting some of their arsenic poison in the pit of blood. After a bit of discussion, they take 18 of their 918 doses of arsenic and dump them in the pit.
Eventually, the party finishes in the temple, and steps back outside. The giant stone statues have since moved back into their original positions.
Atheele gets the sudden feeling that perhaps the stones weren't the exact same color after all, but they're having a hard time being certain. Akili suggests if one of the two flyers should circle the area. It is decided for Akili to take the Matro stone and Kenlow takes the Salervan stone, and they both circle the platform.
Akili is struck by a pair of lightning bolts, which he partially avoids, but he quickly lands again at the temple steps, smoking and hurting. Unfortunately, he was too distracted to check his stone. Kenlow avoids the pair, and manages to partially guess where Salervan might be. Andune pulls out and gives Akili another potion, which he quaffs gratefully. "Owwww... thanks, Andune."
After determiming that the lightning came from the tower, potentially from what appear to be rods sticking out of the tower, Kenlow considers the possibility of redirecting incoming lightning from an incoming pole and directing it to the other - shorting out the tower, in other words.
Atheele pulls out his bow, and fires an arrow at each rod, attempting to damage them. He thinks he slightly dented them, but that's all.
Kenlow leaps up, and hovers over the plateau, equidistantly between the towers. He channels some Air power to redirect the lightning. He redirects some of the first bolt, but takes some excess damage due to the bolt's strength. The second bolt deals him a bit more... but the effort is successful. Both poles are destroyed; their tops popping off and the rods shredding.
Landing back at the temple, a smoking Kenlow looks at a smoking Akili, and absolutely loses it, laughing uproariously. Sarai grins, and peers closer. "Are you crying, too? I've got a vial ready!" She's thinking that a vial of tears from something as unique as Kenlow after being struck by lighting is bound to be useful. Akili, hearing Sarai, also starts laughing for several minutes, although the two of them eventually regain their composure.
After distributing some healing, Pass Without Trace is cast, and the party retreats into the temple, moving into the empty library, and dangling the rope over one of the bookcases, and the party pulls the rope up and retires.
After a night's rest, Atheele and Kenlow leave the Rope Trick room. As they step outside, the destroyed lightning rods have been replaced. Atheele pulls out his bow and fires more arrows at them. One snaps in half and leans at an angle. The rest of the party emerges from the room and steps out onto the temple platform as Atheele finally sunders the second rod. As Kenlow steps up behind Atheele, Atheele responds, "Good morning, Kenlow. Give me a moment and those rods will be taken care of." Kenlow shrugs; behind him Akili coughs and says, "Those rods actually hurt some of us, y'know."
Atheele asks Akili if he can determine the magical nature of those doors. Akili blinks, and attempts to spellcraft them, not having attempted such a thing at this distance. His results are questionable at best, and he is way out of range for a Detect Magic spell. Reluctantly, he admits, "I'll have to get closer."
Sarai wanders off to try a new spell. Akili manages to get out, "Sarai, where are you-- oh." She invents a new fire spell after testing it on one of the pews.
Kenlow wanders into the temple chambers, grabs the burning pew and blesses the fire with Spirit points, then tosses it in the pit filled with blood and other unpleasantness. The burning pew goes out.
Akili begins discussion again about what they want to do from here; they've already heard from Eyenor through Andune that they're running out of time. Sarai really wants to check out those bad, sad-looking houses, but it's mostly because she's putting off confronting Matro... a point of view Akili could perfectly understand, if he knew why. Nonetheless, she agrees it's not a good use of their time.
Kenlow flies over to the sunlit circle, bowing before the trees and prays to all the good gods of Annor (excluding Koron, but he's not of -Annor-, so that's okay). Within the circle is fresh green grass, and wonderfully clear air. Due to where a particular plant is growing, he gets the impression that it's a grave marker, as though given by Tarianna. Behind the grave are ten footprints, in a circle around a tree, and magical - signifying where Eyenor walked. He kneels down in front of the plant, draws Godslayer, and intones, 'May I succeed where he failed.' He finishes his benidiction to the entire area, reluctant to leave, and finally rejoins the group they approaches the palace entrance.
The world is hereby dubbed Matronia, populated by Matronians.
Within some fifteen feet, Akili spellcrafts the door again, while Atheele fires an arrow at it, which lodges in the door. The doors seem to have a spell on them - an Illusion, in fact, and Akili thinks that the doors themselves are an illusion. Andune and Atheele, upon Akili's statement, realize that the arrow sticking in the door is actually on the ground, and that the doors are made of matrite and are spiky. However, they're currently open, leaving the usefulness of the illusion questionable. Andune detects traps, and is pretty certain he doesn't detect any such spell as what Kenlow was describing, which was some sort of teleportation into Matro's chambers. Matro also has a history of luring passengers into mazelike dungeons.
Prior to entering the doors, Kenlow sonically maps the area - a feat especially handy in these circumstances, although it doesn't go very far before being blocked. Bracing themselves, the party steps inside a chamber with 60' tall ceilings, several pillars, and another symbol of Matro against the fall wall that, according to Kenlow, used to lead into Matro's throne room. Akili muses that while he visualized taking on Matro several times since this quest started, actually standing inside his castle is really surreal. He shakes the feeling off, though. At a suggestion from Atheele, Akili spellcrafts the area (natural 20, 54 check), and discovers that this entire room is *littered* with illusions: the walls, the pillar, the floors, everything. Virtually the entire room is illusory.
They attempt to disbelieve the illusions again, and Andune can kind of see through the one on the wall, but it's... weird. It appears as though there's an illusion of the wall over.. the wall. Identical, in fact. Atheele suddenly checks for a scrying sensor, and spots one! He fires an arrow at it, and absolutely demolishes it.
Akili moves up to touch the wall, and feels cold metal. Atheele successfully makes a will save against that illusion that does no good.
Irritated, Akili draws his scepter, and stabs the blade into the wall in the center of Matro's Symbol.
As the blade touches the wall, it actually *reflects* off of its surface, like a beam of light. It even reflects onto itself, glowing brighter where the blade overlaps. Akili is stunned, and is out of ides for a little while.
Atheele successfully disbelieves the illusion over the pillars to discern that they're... pillars. He goes through and checks all the pillars looking for triggers or buttons of some sort, and doesn't spot any.
Kenlow goes over to the door on the west side of the chamber, and knocks 'shave and a haircut' on it. It appears to be wood, but sounds like matrite. There is no answer. (Except for some neighbor that overhears outside the apartment and knocks back 'two bits'.) He puts his ear to the door, and scratches it with a claw, getting kind of a pseudo-eep, and gets the vague impression of a room filled with textures.. He repeats it on the only other door, and gets the impression of a larger room, not quite as textured.
The game is paused here, because it's late.