Rise of the Runelords

You pushed open the door at the end of the hall and looked into a more natural shaped chamber.  However, the walls of this chamber, while not 'finished' per se, were smoothed over to an even greater degree than those of the rest of the library level.  You started in when your light exposed three hounds not of this world.  They immediately charged but stopped short and glared at the front of the party.  Their gaze seemed to tear at the very fabric of matter itself, leaving bloodless rents in flesh.  You closed on them and quickly destroyed them, as they were no match for melee combat.  But not until after they did some damage with their gazes.

The only thing in the room was another exit.  There was no treasure, bedding or even signs that anything lived here.  The exit was an ornate set of bronze doors that closed so neatly that you could barely make out the edges.  The main feature of the door was a silvery metal inlay of a seven pointed star.  Other small  bas-releif detail covered the rest.  The detail is mostly depictions of giants.

You psyched yourselves up and readied for your entrance.

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You led the blind to some comfortable chairs where they could sit so they didn't wander around and risk falling over the railing that looked down into a deep shaft lined with shelves and shelve and shelves.  You spent some time 'getting to know' the librarian and what kind of information might be found in the library.  You learned that the entire history and knowledge of Thassalonia could be found here.  You asked about magic scrolls and were a bit surprised by the answer.  It seems there is a collection of those here as well.  You asked the librarian to fetch a number of them.  Sometimes it came back empty handed, other times not.  You were able to get a a scroll or two to help remove your companions blindness.  The librarian was also able to fetch a heal scroll, but you soon found that none of the library materials may leave the library.  So much for that thought.

You started asking the librarian to fetch materials about various topics: the seven-pointed star, the Sihedron medallion, the Patient Blade/Sword of Wrath, the Lecherous Spear/Point of Chastity, the runelords, and more. Below is a short bullet point list of what you were able to learn in the short time you spent in the library in between rest periods and preparing to head back out.

• the sword of wrath was created by/for the Alaznist, Runelord of Wrath
• the lecherous spear was created by/for Sorshen, Runelord of Lust
• there are seven of these weapons; each was created in someplace called the Runeforge
• learn more details about those who have wielded these weapons and some hints as to their powers
• the Runelords each ruled one of seven dominions of a great empire called Thassalinia
• they each were masters of one type of rune magic, which seems to roughly correspond to the seven schools of magic you know understand (abjuration, alteration, etc.)
• they were at first benevolent rulers
• over centuries, rune magic was corrupted and each area of study bifurcated
• the runelords started to take on the more base aspects and soon started warring with each other
• some of the greatest battles were between Alaznist and Karzoug, Runelord of Greed
• the seven pointed star is the symbol of rune magic
• and the last and most disturbing piece of information,
• the Sihedron medallions were created to aid each runelord's allies and were used to keep track of the wearer

You asked the librarian if Mokmurian had been here and learned that he had not.  You guessed that is was because he could not pass the guardian.  You recast protective spells and headed off to find him through the only other door you knew of.

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After a brief conversation, you learned that in the next room was a Runslave Cauldron and that was about it.  The sword had no helpful information.  There were a few grumbles about precious time being wasted for short duration spells.  You opened the doors and moved down a hall.  In the middle of the room was, as expected a large cauldron.  It was surrounded by a smoky fog.  You couldn't tell if the source was the fire under the cauldron or the bubbling liquid in the cauldron or the cauldron itself.  Standing on the other side of the huge iron pot was a stone statue with its arms outstretched as if holding the cauldron up, which clearly it didn't need to do.  A detect magic revealed the fire, fog, cauldron and statue to all be magical.  The cauldron was artifact level magic - yikes. Pirozzi summoned a monkey in the fog to 'test' its viability.  The monkey seemed a little put off by the fact that it had to breath a smoky fog, but otherwise there were no adverse effects.  To be safe, you used the wand of dispel cast at a high level in an attempt to get rid of the fog. It worked - the fog disappeared but began to spill out from the top of the cauldron almost immediately.  The group ran to the far side of the room.  The statue took a swing a Balros as he ran by a bit to close to it.  You fought the golem as hard as you could in hopes that you could defeat it before the fog billowed out to its greatest extent.  You found it immune to all the magic you threw at it and very resistant to any of your blows or arrows.  That is until Golian moved up and sank his (adamantine) sword deep into the creature.  Most took  the next few rounds aiding Golian to help his blows strike true.  The creature crumbled just before the fog covered the area you were fighting in.

As you were recovering, you heard a heavy, yet muffled scraping coming from the direction of the fog.  Soon, a large, metallic creature emerged from one of the walls and made straight for the group.  It belched a blast of molten slag from its 'belly maw' and continued with a wicked bite and claws.  D'Argo yelled, "A forge feind! "  Many of you responded with a "So? what do we do!?"  D'argo quickly told you that these creatures were outsiders and capable of tearing through stone and metal with their bite.  "Kill it quickly!"  You did so.  A few more cures and you were ready to move.

You passed through a short hall and Malloric was the first into the next room.  The room was cold like those in the tower above, but not as slippery.  While a little surprised by the movement of four of the six large suits of armor lining the walls, they only shuffled and could not reach you before the surprise wore off.  You proceeded firing arrows and swinging weapons.  You were a bit surprised again as an area of darkness engulfed much of the back of the room.  Noting came out of it, nor did it impact you battle with the suits of armor, so you ignored it. It wasn't until Wolfgar entered that you all thought that these might not be animated suits of armor at all, but instead might be giant zombies in armor.  Wolfgar feebly tried to turn one.  Edwin entered and was much more successful.  With a lot of effort, soon the armored zombies were destroyed.  You turned your attention to the darkness and threw an everburning torch.  The torch sputtered as it negated the darkness (and itself).  Standing at the edge was another, albeit smaller suit of armor.  This one however, was wielding two hatchets that flickered with a thin blue flame.  And it had no helm, or even a head.  Strangely enough it was deadly with its hatchets.  There was great, unnatural force behind each blow.  And each time it landed a hit, some of the blue flames would leap to the target.  Any ill effects it might have had were resisted.  You soon were able to beat this monster down.  After another minute of curing you headed off again. This time while having a discussion about how the groups resources stood.

You walked through what would have been a very narrow hall for giants and entered a long, wide hallway. Roughly across from you was what might have been a doorway but it looked as though it had been stoneshaped over.  To the left, just before the complete collapse was a single stone door.  To the right, you found a bronze, double door covered with a large seven pointed mirror and a smaller seven pointed indentation.  Some of you recognized the door from the description on the scroll taken from the Black Monk.  There was no obvious opening mechanism so you tried pushing to no avail.  Malloric removed his medallion and fit it into the indentation.  As he turned the medallion there was a click.  He found he could not turn the medallion back or remove it.  As nothing had happened, he continued turning.  Past several clicks, it stopped after 180 degrees.  You heard several heavier clicks and metal on metal.  You figured the locking mechanism on the doors were opening.  Just then, a bright creature started to coalesce in front of the door.  You all backed up a few feet.  It took a few rounds to fully form.  When it did, it flashed with a light brighter that even Edwin can muster and several of you were not able to avert your eyes fast enough and were blinded.  The battle began and you soon realized little you could do was having much effect.  Someone yelled, "Hey, what was that word on the scroll?"  You helped Balros dig out the scrolls, found the right one and someone said, "Viosanxi."  The creature stopped attacking and faded away to wherever it came from.

The doors behind it were now open and there to greet you was a man-sized, mechanical creature. It said, "dkehogh ok hmm qkiits rufrern of thssonfhsl. hkuo wna g koipl yni?"  You all looked at each other and no one seemed to understand a word.  It repeated, "hkuo wna g koipl yni?"  It stood still for a few seconds and cocked its head.  It started to speak again in another language and both Wolfgar and D'Argo smiled and said, "Ah Giantish."  You were being welcomed to the great library of Thassilonia.  It wanted to know how it could help you.

You quickly looked behind you and seeing nothing, stepped into the library. Malloric removed his medallion from the 'key' and helped push the door closed.

[A separate entry will deal with what you learned in the library.]

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