Rise of the Runelords

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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