Session 13

Sleeping in the large chamber where the arrowhawks had been and where the ogres had tried to kill them, the Secure shelter was quiet. Until a rapping at the door was heard. Getting up and realizing that the paladin was missing and the priest was back who was opening the door only to find a human male with scarred face and simple black robes.
"My name is Varachan and I think its time we had a conversation."
He explains that he has had a change of heart and is no longer a priest of Tharizdun. He wishes to atone for his sins and by helping the party believes he is. He explains all about the Doomdreamers and their plan to resurrect Tharizdun so he can come back and destroy the world. He says that he came forward because he had not heard from Hedrack in a few days and when he went to check on him he found the secure shelter. He truly wishes to help subvert the Doomdreamers and stop them from reviving Tharizdun. He explains all about the recovered temple and what is to go on there with the elemental nodes along with the Orb of Silvery Death and the Champion of Elemental Evil. He tells them that the magmin ambassadors could be a great way to encase this whole mountain in lave and on the way shows them a secret door that leads out to the Blasted yard, with its huge iron spike pounded into the center of the volcano. With some diplomacy the magmin agree that being used by priests of Tharizdun who lied and said they were of the Elder Elemental Eye certainly did not make them happy, and they would be glad to excite the volcano and make it erupt when they said it was time.
From the cliffside path that leads down from the secret door to the Blasted Yard, the wizard began ferrying people using his Dimension Door ability down to the door. Varachan comes down to open the door then leaves saying that he cannot risk any more, he does tell them to say "Tharizdun is great" upon entering this chamber and one other. Entering the Black Spike, it is bigger inside than outside, also strangely there is a purple stone just sticking down from the ceiling and wrought iron stairs going up. Going up they find a vrock who stands down upon uttering the words. Up again, and they find the purple stone now takes up most of the room in the tower and shapes seem to be floating in it. Once more up they hear, "The dark God gives much to those who risk much" and they find a skeleton fortune teller. The rogue pulls three cards, get out a situation, and three wishes. The fighter pulls 10 cards(no I don't run things like Decks and wishes like the rules say)and gets out of problems and major magic weapon (+5 Ghost Touch Heavy Flail), 1 wish, and loose all wealth, loose a level, gain a level, defeat your next encounter to level. The mage drew a few and got a major magic weapon(+3 Icy Burst Longsword) and three wishes.
Up the iron stairs one more time brings them to a sitting room with two doors. They open one and find a priest  in reverie. Trying to enter the room, only the wizard gets through at first because of some spell(Forbidance). The priest let out a howl and stunned everyone but the wizard, but a priest cannot stand up against massive damage round after round so....

Levi Cutscene

The priest of Vecna found himself floating again. The gray light that shined with no direction was actually calming, and having no landmarks to see made the stomach a bit queasy. The corner walls of a room come into view, and he thinks himself forward and lands on the plush carpet. The two enormous book cases are easily twenty feet tall and ten feet wide. Filled with books and dust from unknown ages, a single book, easily six feet wide lays out open to a page near the middle . Reading the undecipherable script is impossible, but then the letters rearrange themselves into the common tongue. Further reading and images begin to flood the brain quicker and quicker then...
You are standing in a ornate and expensive garden, the full noon day sun beats down and a well appointed woman is standing near,urging you on. The candle stands just three feet away unlit, and you raise your finger and it lights. The woman claps and smiles, fades...Nighttime. Fire. Mob with weapons charging through the beautiful garden, trampling the flowers. Woman in night gown dragged by her hair out under the stars. Stately official reading from a scroll but you only hear the woman sobbing. You struggle but strong arms grip you tight. The sword falls in a slow arc as the top of her head flings off with a snick, and equally as quick is the secondary swing that removes her head. 
"Now for the boy!" the official says, "we need to be rid of these witches once and for all!" The men drag you kicking to in front of the swordsman and force you to kneel.
"Vecna you have been found guilty of witchcraft and by order of the Crown of  Fleeth I condemn your soul to the pits of Hell!"
The swordsman raises the sword and you close your eyes and imagine yourself far away with your mother and you think you hear a voice in that silence. A quick rush of air and you are standing on a hill outside of town, turning your back you walk into the night.
The page of the enormous book turns to the next page.
A baby being born, screams, blood, and a dripping sound. A cry turns to a howl as the scaled head and nub horns followed by rows of sharp teeth, hellish eyes, and claws gripping at the air. Fades...cambion(half-demon) lighting a candle with a flick of a finger. A undead man with red coal eyes steps from the shadows and says his name is Vecna, and that he can take you from this place and teach you as a apprentice, agreeing he departs knowing that at night a torch wielding mob will burn his house to the ground along with his mother. 
Riding a horse over a field of battle and into a walled city, rides you,Vecna, and a vampire warrior in front of a army of undead and living alike.
"And so the capital of Fleeth falls," adds the lich Vecna, "farewell not! None shall know of your existence for I shall wipe it from the histories!"
Fades...
Standing in the shadow of a tall single tower in the afternoon sun, you watch as Vecna and a the vampire warrior argue about tactics and then finally about the who controls what. Sword flashes, fires scorch, an explosion in a great cloud of dust and smoke, throwing you far into the field....darkness.
A multitude of wandering days, hungry, tired and lost. Finding a cave you find provisions...and what appears to be a secret lab of some sort. Turning it into a arcane lab was easy. Now to get the materials. Performing the ritual, becoming a lich,
"Now the work begins" 
The book turns again. 
A beautiful towered city rises majestically into the sky. Slim bridges join spans and people look out and walk along them. Then the sky darkens, and the people begin to lay down where they are and go to sleep.  Thousands of people suddenly sleeping, darkness, cold, lifedraining.
Flash of dark horrific towers piercing the darkness amid flashes of lightning. Crumbling bridges and a soul numbing cold.

Now the page turns and the images are now of watching from a distance and flying over low treetops. A full moon is high in the sky illuminating a open space and a mound of earthwork and boulders layed out to form a skull when seen from the air.
The book closes and library disappears and you fall asleep only to wake up in a Secure shelter.






 

Session 12

Resting in a Leomud's Secure Shelter, the party rests after the harrowing combat with the Arrowhawks, close up the curtain, and pretend that the vampire wasn't watching every move from outside, which he was.There was much table talk about his being invited in. The priest was again sleeping on the Astral Plane. Then, the party, being harshly awoken to the sounds of muffled giant voices and a furious bashing on the cabin. The wizard decided to use his ability to Dimension Door to the far side of the room, but the ogre mage spotted him and couldn't react fast enough to stop the Fireball from getting them all and 'soften them up'. Two ogres charge the wizard and those in the cabin poke at ogres through the holes. The wizard casts Disintegrate at the vampire who appeared only to watch it seems, but who quickly fled. The ogre mage goes invisible and the other ogres continue beating on the cabin which now doesn't afford any protection. So out come the paladin and the fighter who begin cutting down ogres with relative ease.
After the fight, the party had to use a Knock spell and found a room of slaves in bad shape, spending some time healing them, they will now follow the party. They find the room that was a obvious ogre room figured out that they wouldn't have known about them unless someone had told them, a vampire perhaps.
This session began and ended with rest.

Session 11

The spectre attacks the paladin takes two levels, and Caleb makes the save to only take one. The mage moves and casts Scorching Ray at the female priest and she dies. Then the fighter and paladin take it out. The new brother rogue searches a chest and it explodes nearly killing him. The mage uses open on the rest which all explode in a blast of cold. Lots of work for some potions of protection from elements fire and acid and lots of female jewelery that the mage mentioned "that it would be great but were 1000 miles away from a town that we could sell it". The cleric notices a man on the stairs but fails his WILL save and now is best friends with the vampire.
Moving forward down the hall they go down some more stairs and come to a door. Listening brings nothing but silence so they open it. On the floor are large symbols of a red lozenge, blue green square, brown triangle, and white circle. A summon monster 1 goes into investigate and nothing happens. Finally they enter and one of each type of elemental of large variety arrives. Nice fight but still short, due to at least 3 criticals I can remember. Going down some more steps they find a lever and dial with 12 spots, two silver circles, and a area of the room that drops 40feet into darkness. The rogue uses his dagger to break the circles and then uses some rope to decend into the pit. Down at the bottom it is filled with 12 forcecage cells mostly filled with living beings like halflings, human, lammasu, azir, troll. Then the rogue sees the vampire and manages to yell before he too has a new best friend.
Continuing down the hallway, they come to another door where the rogue hears flapping wings with lots of reverb. Opening the door the ceiling goes up about a 100feet and its dark up there, with windows open to the sky. Mage throws a fireball up and hits some arrowhawks who then being a fly by attack. The fighter notices the vampire and fails his save. The fight in the air takes longer because not everyone has a ranged weapon or are not that good with them. It comes down to the mage, who took a flyby attack and was nearly killed, while being healed he sees the vampire and makes his save and uses a lightning bolt on him. The vamp retreats.
A Leomud's Secure Shelter and rest...

Maybe its the cuts the Dwarven miners made on the stonework of this place, but everything seems at odds with its surroundings. The mine section of this place seemed rather normal but crossing the Stalagos, the crater lake, and heading farther toward the center there now is a growing feeling in your stomach that something is not right,  and it feels like a burden. These inner caldera rooms are of a different excavation type and are very smooth and everything seems rounded but off center. You push on, seeking to resolve this wrong pervaded upon the world and stop these evil cultists from returning their dark God, Tharizdun, back from the abyssal hole he was put in. 
You daydream while your walking through the corridors, of dining with your deity while they tell you to stay on the path 'for now you walk into the flame and into the heart of the darkness'. 


Walking through the new door to the north past the tentacle trapped pentagram room, you find what appears to be a storage room. It is full of crates and a few barrels, A wooden table is covered with tools of all sorts and even a few weapons. A large coil of silk rope sits next to the table, and tools and implements hang from hooks on the wall. Checking the only exit to the west, you find no traps, and find a short hallway then stairs down and a continuation of the hallway. Following along down the stairs and twenty feet farther you come to two doors across from eachother. Checking and listening to the right, you hear nothing and open to a sitting room with plush reddish-purple carpets cover the floor. Couches and chairs, two tables with iron chandeliers holding lit candles.Searching you find nothing of interest but a book on a footstool called, Dark Juices of the Mind.
Crossing the hallway, you check and listen only to hear slight muffled movement sounds. You open the door to a sunken area filled with pillows and blankets. Three chests and a wardrobe are pushed against the south wall, while the other walls are covered with dark violet curtains with black obexes embroidered on them.
A dark ghostly shape of what looks like a human peasant immediately approaches with a threatening stance while a female human priest begins casting spells on herself.

Session 10 and/or 11

The earth elemental was so anticlimactic that I deign to mention it.  Suffice to say it was taken out post haste. Some simple exploration of statues, and other rooms with nothing in them. They turn this way then that way and finally find a forbiddance spell and a high priest of Tharizdun. Very tough fight, were a few people are nearly dead but... victory. Then we took a break for a few weeks.

Last night, the cleric went missing but the party decided to trudge on. Tim rolled up a rogue and no sooner had he brought him in to do some searching that he got himself slayed by slay living (shortest played character of all time, not even 1 min in game time, had three FORT saves to overcome but didn't). So her brother shows up to help. hehe. Flesh golems hiding in alcoves followed by a textbook takedown of them, an area of Deeper Darkness that the party was to scared to go through, unholy fountain room with the words "The Black Tears of Tharizdun, Be Anointed and Walk Unhindered", tentacle trap room with a red pentagram as soon as you walk in tentacles appear and attack(many dead bodies were thrown in to attempt to disarm the trap, finally a fireball followed by fast running made it through), and who could forget the Infernal Device. The best fight of the evening was a silenced room that the paladin went in to examine because a knight of Heironeous was tied up and over time turned to bones and bits of flesh. The paladin examines and the rest of the party watches from the hallway, when they see a humanoid form coalesce out of gas behind him. Grapple, grapple fail, grapple pin, drink....gotta love 3.5 vampires. So, the wizard casts distentigrate. Rolls a natural 20, confirms crit and blows the vamp away who quickly gaseouses away. He will return later...

Awesome fun last night!

Cutscene

Opening the door, the smell of loam greets the party as the enter the dirt filled room. A colossal pile of dirt and rocks is in the corner.
 As everyone enters, the sound of rocks grinding together and dirt shifting are heard as the giant pile of dirt and rocks stands up in a vaguely human form towering up to near the top of the chamber, 40 feet tall.

It stands there for a second, seeming to scan the party, then it shuffles forward arms raised to strike...

Session 9

Administrative/Travel/Buying/Selling

Getting back to Hommlet the party tells Burne about what they have found. He extends all hospitality to the party, taking them on a daytrip to Sigil, The City of Doors to buy things.
Everyone buys something and Burne helps to purchase an item for everyone as long as they continue to thwart the Temple. The paladin notices something strange about Burne but isn't sure although the sun seems to hit him just about anywhere he goes, once they get to Sigil. Trying to determine his motives, the paladin only senses good intentions

They head back to the Crater Ridge Mines and go to the bridge and the wizard casts mass fly and they fly to the bridge with the Air key and they open the door, the smell of dirt and a collossal 10x30 foot pile of dirt and rocks greets them.

Session 8

After resting in the duregar's room, the party decided to return back to Hommlet. On the way back they ran into a ogre raiding party that nearly killed everyone, but the ogres had done quite well for themselves...quite.

Session 6

Picking up right were we left off, in the barracks room with the Howler, the party continued North toward the Earth temple. They found a troglodyte priest praying as the broke his door down and began attacking him. After some discussion at the paladins prompting, the priest agreed to take them to his leader, in the Earth Temple. They walk past guards and other priests, some follow along behind expecting trouble. Upon reaching the blood and loam smelling Earth Temple, a priest holds aloft a bloody human heart from a recently beating chest and a Xorn appears.
The party is introduced and some more conversation about human sacrifices and their willingness by the paladin makes the instigation of combat much easier. 8 Trog priests, high level trog priest, average xorn, another priest with earth elemental buddy, and a trog fighter with a great sword all are in the area.
Paladin attacks the head priest, monk and fighter attack, priest uses his wand of Cause Fear on the trog fighter and he runs, Xorn attacks and wallops the fighter. Monk and fighter cleave through the remaining trogs and the xorn, after than the fight was almost just clean up.
The silence returned again afterward.

Session 3
Heading to the Moathouse, because of rumors of sightings of black robed figures on the roads near there. The party makes the two day journey without event. Finding the moathouse in complete disrepair they enter and begin looking around. They find a few dead people with black cloaks on and a young blue dragon attacks. The dragon put up a good fight but didn't last very long. Searching around they find very little but find a stairway down.
Gnolls amubush them at the bottom of the stairs and they find the town paladin, Xaod, chained and nearly dead having been feasted upon by ghouls. They release and heal him and continue and find a woman in black robes with some gnoll guards looking at a blanket with artifacts gathered on it. In one round the gnolls are dead and the woman is tied up. They head back to town.



Session 4
Back in town they talk to Burne, the aging adventuring wizard, about the strange symbols and statues they found. Burne tells them that the symbols are actually related to a imprisoned god named Tharizdun and connected with the Temple of Elemental Evil. Going back to the moathouse they find it empty of any enemies and have a hard time figuring out the shallow well/pool. Eventually, they break into a large cavern with a huge obelisk of black and purple stone. A crazed priest lurks in the dark but runs away madily cackiling. A few times the monk touched a object and was hurt, paralyzed, and once teleported.
Searching out the entire area doesn't provide them with to many clues.

They find the secret exit and find the wagon tracks and follow them. Two days later they catch them at night and take them out, only after the two priests Melded into the Stone statue to escape, but a few hours later they pop out only to be dispatched.

Back to Hommelet to research, level up, sell, and make scrolls and potions.

Session 5
Finding out about old mine to the west they head off. 5 days into their travels, the priest is supposed to be on watch, but is sleeping as a wyvern comes and tries to snatch him away. Everyone wakes up and drives him off.
2 days later they arrive at the base of a large mountain chain with a dormant volcano and a small road leading up.
About 3000 ft up they find a large gate complex but with open doors. A large hallway depicts scenes of brutality, hellfire, and elemental destruction. The find a barracks full of gnolls and a well placed fireball dispatches them all, then a ogre and a half elf emerge from their rooms and gnoll reinforcements come and a large battle ensues. Some well planned tactics and a 10ft wide lightning bolt make short work...

Session 2

After running through the Mill's basement and removing the evil priestly types, our heroes returned to the Inn of the Welcome Wench to celebrate. The next morning, a paladin(Matt) arrives at the inn asking for Xaod, and being introduced to the party. Casting Detect Evil on everyone who enters the inn. He finds the baker, a woman, radiates evil. So they get up and follow her as she delivers her baked goods around town. Eventually asking her if she knows Karlun, to which she replies, "Of course I do, hes the miller." So off to check the millers house, which they find open and Karlun and his wife murdered inside. A passerby alerts Elmo, the militia captain, and he arrives shortly with a few of Burne's Badgers. Elmo figures out that the party couldn't have done it because they are two plus days old. He mentions that black robed men sighted east of town again, and mentions to Cabel(Matt) that his buddy Xaod went to the moathouse two days ago.
So off to the moathouse the party goes. Two days travel uneventful.
The dilapidated fortress is quiet so they enter. Upon entering the great hall the monk(Mark) spots the dragon slinking in a shadowed hallway. Combat ensues and its back and forth but the dragon dies while doing a decent amount of damage. Exploring the rest of the upper story they find little and move down the stairs.
Two gnoll guards attack at the bottom of the stairs and are just as quickly taken out. They find a prison room and Xaod manacled to a pillar with a ghast gnawing on him, still alive. They free him and Spugnoir, who explains that these evil priests are excavating the lower levels, and continue exploring. They find a priest with two gnoll guards cataloging artifacts on a blanket. It takes like three rounds and they are all dead, the closet full of undead unused. Finding a secret door that continues down... they rest.

Session 1
Enter the Village of Hommlet

For various reasons, our party finds themselves drawn toward the village of Hommlet. For most of them it is because of family history being tied to the Battle of Emridy Meadows that happened some 15 years ago, for another it is just the path before him.

Joining up and entering the village, they begin to explore around and find out if there is anything amiss. Soon they find that dark cloaked individuals have been seen in the surrounding area and that strange things have been going on at the mill.

Heading to investigate the mill, the monk sees a small metal crafted owl in a tree directly opposite of the mill entrance, and the wizard(Tim) magic missles it to pieces. The two commoners working there assume they are "Karlun's friends" and directs them to the basement.

Heading to the basement, they find four people, two of which are casting spells. A fight ensued and the parties monk(Mark) got hurt quickly, and so did the fighter(Aj). Cause fears flying around, banes, and a bad attempt at a hold person. Finally, they were dispatched.