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.