Rise of the Runelords

You headed cautiously back to the shrine to hold up for the rest of the day and to regain spells.  Balros asked what the plan of action was and most replied that it was to continue down to find Mokmurian.  Balros asked the group to take a side trip to the black tower first.  His reasoning was that while he signed on to help rescue the hostages, he was also here for the treasure in the tower and that he did not see any incentive for the group to stick around after freeing the hostages.  There was a some back and forth - rather heated at times - but the ultimate decision was that the hostages would remain "safe" as long as Mokmurian allowed and that he appeared not to have been told of the group's activities by Galenmir, the 'general' in charge - probably out of fear.  You decided to try to get the the black tower in the morning.  Conna told you that luck was on your side in that Galenmir had ordered all the giants out of the hall above on patrols.  There should be minimal resistance in the keep from the giants.  You only had the harpies to deal with.

Malloric started spending more time aside from the group.  You started to worry about him a little as he has started mumbling to himself.

Prepared with silences and circles of protection from evil you ventured up and into the courtyard in two small groups.  The harpies took notice of you but did nothing until you were about 150' from the black tower.  They started signing.  Only Golian could hear the undertones directing him to walk toward the main keep doors.  He relayed that information and his group started walking in that direction.  The other group, not sure of what was happening, followed.  The harpies flew toward you and both groups started to bolt toward the black tower.  Pirozzi used the wand of knock to open the tower door.  As the group was protected from the harpy's song, the battle was over fairly quick.  They attacked with their wing claws and talons as if they'd had martial training and they were quite adept at dodging the few area of effect spells cast.  After they were beaten you dragged their corpses into the tower.  You were surprised that the inside was absolutely empty and completely covered by a layer of hard rime which made the surfaces slippery.  Everyone turned to Balros who stood still with a perplexed, blank expression.  "So where's this treasure?" someone asked.

You quickly found a trap door in the middle of the room that opened to a descending circular stair.  Some distance down the stair ended at another black stone door.  On the other side was a nearly identical room, complete with a layer of frost.  However, in the center was a mummified humanoid holding a large scroll tube.  It appeared to be hovering about four feet off the ground.   D'Argo moved up and cast telekinesis and tryed to pull the whole humanoid and then just the scroll case.  Neither worked.  He speculated that it must weigh more than 250 lbs.  He volunteered to telekinese himself into the room to avoid the floor and inspect the object more closely.  A few people followed.  Most only tried to follow as they found the footing treacherous and fell almost as soon as they entered.  When D'Argo neared the mummy, it righted itself and blasted a ray of light through much of the group who were still in the hall just outside the room.  You started to scramble on the slippery surface when it followed up with a cone-shaped breath of tomb gas, ice and dust.  A few of you were drained of several levels.  Balros made it to the creature and found it extremely resistant to physical blows.  D'Argo moved himself away and dropped to the floor.  Pirozzi entered and promptly fell.  He started unleashing magic missiles from the ground and found they had effect.  Others had difficulty moving around, except for Edwin, who had cast air walk.  The creature tripped Balros and pummeled him several times after that.  Each time it hit, a cloud of tomb dust would puff off its bandages and Balros had to struggle to not breath it in.  Edwin moved right up to the creature and called on Pelor's aid as he raised his holy symbol.  A blinding flash of light followed.  When your vision cleared, only a pile of dust remained of the creature.  On top was the scroll case.  Another search revealed a trap door with a small chest.  The scroll case was very elaborate and locked by a series of tumbler locks.  It was also covered with the runic language you have been seeing more and more often. You gathered the loot and heded back to the shrine to wait out the day and to prepare for the journey to the library level.

The next morning Golian had a comprehend languages cast on him and he was able to unlock the scroll case after reading the script.  It was a poem and the number of syllables in each line was the clue to the proper sequence. Inside were many pages of wyvern hide (identified by Balros).  More than half were the Emerald Codex of the Therassic Order, a compilation of rituals related to the deity worship of the Thassilonian Empire.  Others were powerful divine scrolls and one was a detailed description of a large door with a seven pointed mirror and a smaller seven pointed indentation.  The description ended with a one word sentence: Viosanxsi.

Conna informed you that Galnmir had increased patrols in the tunnels after he discovered the ratcatcher was missing as well as a few giants.  You took the same path to the library level as you had before and had to battle two giants on the way.  You were able to trip them up (with grease) and kill them fast enough that they had little time to run for aid.  After reaching the library level, you noticed a definite difference in the construction of the tunnels.  They were no longer natural and all corners were rounds.  There was not a hard angle to be found.  Balros suggested there had to be a reason someone went through that much trouble.  For what he wasn't sure.

The first room you approached surprised you a bit. The floor, walls and ceiling were glossy, polished black and gray marble that was hard to focus on.  When you did, the areas in your periphery seemed to withdraw, making a determination of the room's size impossible.  You slowly entered to get a more exact layout of the room.  When you could see the far side, you noticed a hunched creature sitting on the rubble of a collapsed wall.  Recognizing it as a giant, you started a charge.  Edwin, armed with the giant word for fall supplied from Wolfgar, commanded it to do so, which it did.  D'Argo blasted it with a cone of cold.  It clearly took damage from the spell but did not flinch in pain at all.  A little unnerved you continued.  It rolled toward you and clenched its muscles and looked as though it was wracked in pain.  As it did this, many runes that covered its body glowed slightly.  The floor, walls, and ceiling of the room seemed to pull away from you infinitely.  This was extremely disorienting and some of you found yourselves nauseated and unable to do anything other than move and wretch.  Others found yourselves part of the 'expansion' with the result that you were, in effect, reduced in size.  The 'rune' giant reached for a great club and attacked from the ground with speed.  It never tried to get up and you beat it before it did too much damage.

After the fight, some of you opted to stay small. D' Argo used a wand of enlarge to cancel the effect on others.  You formed up at the only other way to go, a set of polished granite doors when you all heard an unfamiliar voice say, "Wait!"  Everyone looked around to see who said that.  Eventually all heads turned toward Malloric, or rather his sword.

The conversation went through the night and into the next.  Edwin, needing a break, set off to see if there was anyone else around who might know about the giants.  He came across an old hermit/madman from who he learned more about the history of giants and civilizations than about the current affairs and status.  On the second evening, the group was approached by a gruff old man in heavy armor and wearing an eye-patch.  He asked if he could join you.  As the debate was at a standstill, you figured you could use the break.  The man, probably in his late 30's or early 40's, introduced himself as Balros Darkeyes.  He said he had an interest in the giant fort you all were discussing so clearly and that if you were going back, that he'd love to go with.  You asked his interest, and he informed you it was personal, but could benefit everyone.  You figured it was treasure of some sort and he didn't say anything to correct you.  He also said that he gathered that you were having difficulties getting into the keep.  He said he had the answer to that dilemma.  The 'should we let him join the party' negotiations continued for a while.  Henrik was still insistent that you all, even with this Balros, were outmatched there.  And even though there were captives from Ardrinn, he could not justify a certain death for all of you.  He decided to return to Ardrinn with Bach's body.  You decided to split up Bach's possessions and bid Henrik good travel.  You listened to Balros' tale and his idea for getting into the keep.  It was too simple.  Merely walk in.  There was slightly more too it, but that was the jist of it.

During your conversations, Pirozzi and Malloric sometimes looked quizzically at Balros. Pirozzi asked if he had ever served in the army of the County.  He said he did.  Malloric asked if he was active in the Tehn.  Again he was.  Malloric then replied, "Apparently the rumors of your death have been exaggerated."  "They always are." was Balros' reply.

The plan of entry was to simply ride up the gate and flag down a harpy and informed it that you were there to trade.  The gate would be opened for you and you would walk in and meet with a giantess and probably two other stone giants.  You would kill them and quickly take cover.  Balros was confidant that as long as you left the black tower alone the harpies would be no problem.  You tried the plan and it went as he said it would up to a point.  When you reached the point in negotiation where you had to present your goods (some giant armor and weapons and 'stories', of which she was not interested) a few of you met with the giantess in the middle between the two groups.  She said she was going to cast detect magic to confirm your story.  After she did, she quietly whispered in common, "I have seen your coming."  Malloric whispered back, "Great, now duck."

The fight began. The two giant thugs approached and she cast blink.  The party met them separately and began fighting.  The giants started doing what they do - thumping. She continued to cast spells with no obvious effects.  After the group had the upper hand, one of the giants looked confusedly at the giantess and asked,"Aren't you going to do something."  She responded with a spell cast at Pirozzi, who recognized it as a spell that wouldn't have any effect on him at all."  Pirozzi feigned a staggering blow and the giants were quickly finished off.

The giantess looked around, and said, "Follow!  We can't stay here!" She started at a quick pace toward the pit and then down into it.  You followed.  She paused about half-way down and motioned for you to wait.  That gave you a moment to cast a few cures.  She soon came back and led you to a what might be a small shrine for giants, but was quite large enough for your whole group.

[Long story short] You learned from her that the captives are still here probably in the tannery or armory, but direct rescue is not a good idea because you'd never be able to make it off the mesa.  Further, due to giant culture, she owes her fealty to Mokmurian, who took control of here clan.  But she feels he does not have the best interests at heart of her clan, or any of the others gathered for that matter.  Why he gathered them she does not know.  Because of her situation, she can not directly act to usurp Mokmurian, but instead offers her aid to the group.  She drew you a sketch of the level you are on and provided some detail on the denizens.  She told you Mokmurian is on the level below and that your only hope of leaving this place alive is to kill him or make him flee.  That will destabilize the situation and things will quickly fall apart as there are others that feel the way she does.

She said there are two paths to the level they refer to as the 'library' - one longer than the other.  It was this longer one she suggested you take.  It would be easier to pass.  That is the denizens would likely to be easier to beat.  You would have to beat the rat-catcher - a kobold (which caused some of you to snicker), a couple of giant guards and some vicious trolls.  What is on the library level she does not know.  She said that you could come back to the shrine to rest if you needed and that she could hide the seven of you but not any rescuees.  Their presence would not be tolerated by Mokmurian and would cause problems.  She said that if you left now you could get past the dining hall which is currently empty.

You did just that and came upon the rat-catchers room.  A tidy little room with organized piles of junk and a small hammock hanging in front of a narrow passage leading deeper into the earth.  You moved cautiously into the room when from hiding, a little kobold jumped and skewered Malloric with several blows of a shortspear.  The little kobold was severely outnumbered and fell quickly, but put up a fight, dealing a good amount of damage.  You stripped the body and dragged it into the tunnel to hide it.

You moved on and went to candlelight to avoid being seen by any creatures working in the tannery or armory.  When you pulled the torches back out, the two giant guards that had been curiously watching you unleashed a few rocks, pegging D'Argo.  You closed the distance and began melee.  Balros has a curious, but effective habit of disarming his foes before fully engaging them.  Thees giants were like the others and it hurt when they connected with their blows.  They too fell to your numbers. Their bodies were too big to move easily so you moved on.

You got to the hall where the giantess said you'd meet the trolls, but it was empty.  You moved cautiously forward, when a massive pole arm was thrust through a hole in the wall first from one side and then the other.  Not having seen anyway to get 'behind the wall,' you hurriedly moved forward.  A few were skewered before you reached the end of the hall.  Edwin suffered a particularly nasty strike as he moved up.  He had to resort to small advance while using his shield for cover from whatever was striking at him.

At the end of the hall were entranced to either side.  You split in two to take both pole arm wielding trolls at the same time.  Golian, D'Argo and Malloric on one side.  Wolfgar and Balros on the other, with Pirozzi and Edwin in the middle dividing their time.  One troll proved much easier than the other because it left itself in the 'entrance' to the room.  It became a slug fest.  With spell support and healing, Balros and Wolfgar defeated it.  The other one stayed in its room and had more maneuverability.  Using its reach, it would strike and move away too far to easily get to it.  It would then alternate with charges back into melee range.  You were able to beat them and pound them down enough to buy you some time.  You decided to pull the giant bodies from the guard area and pile them on the rolls and then let D'Argo cook them all with a wall of acid. All after you looted them of course.

You healed up a bit but are now very low on spell resources.

You moved off to establish camp and decide how to proceed.  You decided to run a scouting mission after nightfall.  You volunteered D'Argo to fly into the keep and look around.  The group approached the keep to a comfortable distance and looked to D'Argo and said "G'luck."  He was off.  About a half hour later, Malloric felt a tap on his shoulder and spun quickly and connected with an invisible creature.  D'Argo appeared brushing his cheek. "Sorry 'bout that."

D'Argo filled the group in on the layout of the keep and what he saw of its occupants as well as the make up of the 'armies' camped around it.  You headed back to camp to discuss options.  No one came up with anything good.

The next day you decided to ring the mesa to look for something more that might help.  Early in the afternoon, you noticed a small group of riders leaving the keep.  They were following the only road that led past a stone structure about half-way to the keep (as the crow flys) and on toward the pass where four dead stone giants lay.  You figured you'd beat them to the pass and interrogate them for information.

Some of you hid while the other more eloquent of the group waited at the pass.  The riders approached and stopped.  You began a parley.  They, a male human fighter in light armor and scimitars and a female in medium armor and shield, rode in the front.  About a half dozen other riders followed slightly behind.  Some of you recognized the symbol of Wee Jas she wore.  You learned that they had just completed some trading with the giants and that they were heading back to civilized lands.  You told them that you were on your way to the keep when you came across the dead giants.  You weren't completely sure she believed you.  But she did nothing about it.

A little frustrated with the pace and/or results of the conversation, D'Argo follwed the plan and put up a wall of fire behind the riders.  Bach charged the priestess and the fighter lept off his horse and landed near her.  Malloric opened fire and the fight ensued.  The fighter had taken a defensive stance and did not attack.  The priestess dismounted and approached Bach.  She reached out and gently touched his shoulder.  Wracks of pain contorted his body and he fell to the ground dead.  Fighting continued witht the scimitar weilding fighter defending them without making any attacks of his own.  She cast another spell with her hand on his shoulder and they disappeared.  You dispatched the other mercenaries and took their horses.

A fractious debate followed about what happened, why, how it could have or should have gone and what to do next.  The consensus developing is that the group will head back to Wraithekeep and make a final decision there.