Rise of the Runelords

Again you went through the normal morning routine. Wolfgar had a good day, so you all felt better going into the day with Edwin having a Heal ready to go.  Airwalks all around and you headed back up into the spire.  You opened the doors at the top of the spiral ramp to meet a rune giant waiting for you.  Edwin had already cast mass resistances to everything he could, so the giants cone of fire/sparks did little damage.  You quickly moved in.  Expecting a tank-n-spank, you were a little surprised when the giant withdrew into the large room you fought in just yesterday.  You followed.  It continued to withdraw toward the next room where the lamias were.  You fired arrows, cast spells and threw whatever you could at the retreating giant until it stopped in front of the opening to the pagoda-like structure you had seen yesterday.  It was quite hurt.  You had stopped at the entrance to this room realizing the giant was pulling into something - and ambush, trap, or something else.

There was a brief lull as you sized each other up and some of you cast a few more defensive/protective spells.  Then Golian (invisibile) and Balros started to inch forward hoping to draw the giant toward them.  Sounds of spellcasting started from the room but no one could readily see from where exactly.  The giant was suddenly nearly healed as two lamia harridans maoved out from the pagoda behind the giant.  Golian suddenly appeared. "Damn invisibility purge!" Balros heard him grumble as he moved closer to Balros.  Malloric and Henrik were not far behind.  Edwin, DArgo and Pirozzi were bringing up the rear. Soon the other spellcasting finished and an ice devil appeared near the statue.  That was enough for Pirozzi to see the mage but still no enough for a target specific spell.  He instead silenced the area, but not before a familiar, glowing red 'pea' shot out landing amongst the group.  The group scattered and the wizard and one lamia retreated to get out of the silenced area.  The giant, Golian and Balros were trading blows and Malloric was moving and firing arrows.  Henrik and Wolfgar headed toward the devil.

The giant took a step backward as one harridan cast a blade barrier around Golain and Balros.  The other took a few quick steps and lept over the statue and landed near Malloric and Edwin.  Henrik and Wolfgar were headed toward the mage who cast a spell at them that was dissipated by their rune-forged weapons.

Malloric was firing like crazy at the giant and lamias when one of them took a few quick steps and lept over the statue landing near him.  D'Argo, Edwin and Pirozzi backed away.  A third lamia, yet another variety, came out of the pagoda.  One of her first actions was to circle Malloric in a blade barrier.  The lamia that landed near Him encircled Pirozzi in one.  Malloric was content to stay were he as even with the slight penalties for firing through the barrier.

Pirozzi cast air walk so he could get out. That took a few rounds.  D'Argo dimension door'd into the first blade barrier to grab Balros and Golian.  He was the target of a dispell magic and he lost his images.  Almost on cue, the third lamia blasted him with a ray and instead of zigging, he zagged and was hit square in the chest.  He turned to a pile of dust.  "That sucks!" Balros said, "We'll never get out of here now."

Henrik and Wolfgar were pushing the mage further back and closer to some of the lamias and giant.  The mage cast a spell and separated them with an invisible wall.  Now Henrik was the only one standing with the mage, two lamias and the giant.  With arrows from Malloric still flying the giant soon fell.  Pirozzi had by now 'walked' to near Wolfgar only to encounter the wall of force.  Edwin cast a long spell and was now standing next to an angelic creature.  Edwin grabbed onto its clothes and pointed to Balros and Golian.  The creature concentrated and then it and Edwin were next to the two in the barrier.  Edwin's (the angels) next action was to dimension door the bunch of them to slightly behind the enemy to help Henrik. Pirozzi flew up to find the top of the wall and started in again with spells.

Henrik was pounding on the main lamia and doing good damage, but she kept casting quickened cure spells each round.  She ran out after a few rounds.  The beat down commenced.  Once again, the mage was beaten hard and popped away before  you could kill him.  The last of the lamias fell, but not after dishing out some damage with her unholy dagger.

You pondered about what to do about D'Argo and decided you needed to hunt the mage down now.  You started down one hallway, then another before Golian said, "Hold up. I have an idea." as he cast a spell.  "Follow me."

You soon reached one particular door and forced it open. Inside was the mage and two summoned devils.  The group was getting low on spells and hit points, but so was he.  It didn't last long.

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You went back to the lower levels to rest and decided that, with air/wind walks that you could cover the distance from the lower city itself in little time and that if you held up way down there anything looking for you would have a much harder time finding you, resting in the skulk tunnels was the better plan.  You readied the next day and headed back up.  You got all the way back to the huge double doors and moved people around to be able to force them open.  To your surprise they swung open at only a modest push.  You found yourselves face to face with two storm giants.  The melee began with Balros moving in and Golian disappearing. Others maneuvered for spells and arrow fire.  One giant started things off with a chain lightning.  Edwin had anticipated that.  After about three rounds, D'Argo noticed some cloud giants moving up from around a bend in the hall.  He cast a wall of force that stopped them in their tracks.  They turned and ran the other way.  You were quickly getting the upper hand against the giants, who after the chain lightning have to resort to melee.  This worked great for Henrik, but not so well for Edwin who had cast a shield other earlier.

Just as the second giant was about to fall, the other set of double was opened by several cloud giants.  "Ah, there they are." someone yelled.  The melee continued.  The cloud giants cast fog clouds behind you forcing you into the room where there were a couple more.  Fighting continued.  As the giants fell, you moved further and further into the room.  Soon a door to your right opened and - surprise - more giants.  This time a rune giant followed by several more cloud giants.  Balros noticed, and pointed out, a man-sized mage-looking person behind the giants.  The mage cast a few spells with no obvious effect. Then he cast a fireball - sort of.  The 'pea' landed behind Henrik but did not explode.  Some of you looked at D'Argo and Pirozzi for some arcane guidance.  "That can't be good." was Pirozzi's only response.  Before anyone could do anything, two of the cloud giants obscured the area around where the 'pea' landed with multiple fog clouds.  Pirozzi responded by dispelling one of them.  D'Argo, itching to disintegrate a mage, dimension door'd into the room beyond the mage, lining him and some giants up for spells.  Golain was moving to the mage when he discovered an invisible barrier blocking the open doorway preventing him from getting behind the mage.  Wolfgar, Henrik and Balros were keeping the giants from moving too much while Edwin cured and Malloric was running short on arrows.  Pirozzi alternated between damaging spell and helping Edwin cure.

Seconds later, the 'pea' exploded in a massive fireball.  No one took serious damage except maybe Ewdin who still had Henrik shielded.  One of the cloud giants landed a couple of nasty blows on Wolfgar who went down.  Henrik moved to keep the giant from killing the dwarf.  D'Argo aimed his disintegrate and fired, only to be disappointed when it landed short of the mage and instead removed the wall of force that D'Argo had not noticed.  Golian was now able to flank the mage with Balros' help. They started to pound away.  Wolfgar was healed enough to be able to move, but that worried some of the others as it set him up for a killing blow.  Swings and arrows were targeted on the giants that could reach Wolfgar. 

About this time, the inevitable happened. The only door that had not yet opened, did just that.  A storm giant looked out and waded into the room. It stopped in the middle of the fog cloud and looked around before it let loose with its chain lightning (again little damage as you were all protected) and moved into melee.  Soon only this giant, the rune giant and mage were left.  And he didn't stay around too much longer.  Golain quickly realized that his rune-forged weapoon was having its bonus effect on the mage.  The mage turned to Golian, cast a spell and touched Golian square on the chest.  No one noticed any effect, although Golina will tell a tale after the fight.  He and Balros landed a couple good blows which seemed to cause the mage to 'blink' out of existence.  D'Argo muttered, "Damn dimension door spell.... wait he didn't even cast that... what? where?"  With two dangerous opponents left, no time was spent pondering.  You all proceeded to beat them down.

After the fight, D'Argo told thew group what he saw in the other room. There were two main things.  First was a statue of Karzoug holding a greenish, crytsal lens and in front of that was a large brazier with a blazing, yet smokeless fire.  Across the fire from the statue was a smaller structure within the vast room.  He reported that it appeared to have one entrance, a wide open archway.

You cast some cures and debated about going in.  You decided Golian should go have a look first.  He faded away and was back shortly.  There is what looks to be a sarcophagus in the middle of the floor of the building.  Surrounding it are three lamia - one the the more 'traditional' type and two of the kind we encountered on the streets below.  "Oh and by the way, they saw right through invisibility."

You quickly decided you were too low on resources to tackle three lamia, especially with the mage who knows where.  With wind walks still in effect, you left for the safety of the skulk tunnels.

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