Rise of the Runelords

After celebrating the victory over the ice devil and resting the night, the group decided to tackle the mountain.  Wolfgar, having one of his few 'good' days treated all to a hearty breakfast.  Afterward, you headed out. The first few hours hiking on the golden road were quiet.  Then you spotted, and were spotted by, a couple of giants and two other beasts you could not make out.  One of the giants was clearly of the 'rune' type.  You prepared for a fight.  The enemy inched forward as you cast preparatory spells.  About when you were ready to head to meet them, you were surrounded by a 20' tall, circular wall of whirling blades.  Everyone looked quizzically at Edwin who replied with a 'wasn't me' kind of look. Pirozzi, not sure if he should be glad or not, found himself alone on the 'outside' of the wall.  He was invisible, so he figured it didn't matter too much. The giants approached with a frost giant out in front.

Using Malloric's cloak and D'Argo's spells, the group, sans Pirozzi, teleported to the enemies rear.  Here you got a good look at the other creatures.  One was a combination of some sort of dire-cat on the bottom and giantess on the top and armed with a large greatsword .  The other was one of the first 'normal-sized' creatures you have encountered here.  It looked like a human in ragged robes, wearing a turban and a cloth scarf covering its face. You concentrated on the rune giant.

Meanwhile, Pirozzi was getting ready to launch a few spell from the anonymity of invisibility and distance when out of hiding charged another cat-giant (lamia).  Somehow she was charging right at him.  As she neared, he became very nervous as his invisibility was dispelled as she pounced.  Quickly casting a few defensive spells he started racing toward the rest of the group.  The second lamia ordered the frost giant to cut him off while she cast another blade barrier around the group at their new location. 

A few key dispells and you were able to move about again.  Henrik girded himself and said, "This is gonna hurt - a lot.  Edwin, you ready?"  Edwin replied, "Sure, do you have one of the platinum rings?" 

"I have all sorts of magic rings, which one are you talking about?"

"It's not magic, just one of a set."

"Oh that one, yeah right here." Henrik said as he raised his hand to show Edwin.

Edwin replied, "Yup you're right, this is gonna hurt." as he cast shield other on Henrik while he charged off to tackle the rune giant.

The man in robes cast a few ineffective illusion type spells and stayed near the first lamia as Golian maneuvered invisibly.  Wolfgar headed to the second to help out Pirozzi.  When he was close enoughm he charged the last remaining feat expecting her to swing her sword at him.  Intstead, she simply held out her hand as she had a spell readied.  He saved against the harm spell and started hacking away.

The lamia were tough divine casters and proved challenging for D'Argo and Piorzzi with their spell resistance.  However, they were no match for your numbers.  The robed man was not a strong in melee, but his poison blade and bite kept you on your toes. The rune giant dished out massive damage, but it was much more survivable being shared by two.  Soon all were dead.


You looted what little they had and headed up the path.  You explored some of the outer buildings at the lowest level of the rise to the great spire.  All were empty and looked like they had been abandoned some time ago.  While near the road that led from here to the spire, some of you heard a distant 'ping.'  Shortly after, you were hit by a wave of force almost as if you were being pushed away from the spire.  Those with sihedron rings were not affected.  Others took damage as the wave passed. Golian, who must not have been prepared, fell to ground clutching his head in pain.  Moments later, he screamed "I can't see!"  You calmed him as he explained he saw vision of some alien world in his mind and he felt as though some being or beings were trying to get at him from that place.  You needed to cast a restoration for the ability drain and a heal for the blindness.  After that he was good to go.

Deciding to hold off on heading higher, you decided to search the rest of the lower buildings in hopes of finding more sihedron rings.  The other lower set of buildings turned out to be an old prison.  A giant-sized prison.  On one of the many floors, you came across one of the old guards - a giant stone golem. Immune to magic and taking reduced damage, it took a while,m but you were able to defeat it.  You rested here.

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