[14:08] <Grey> Session missed.

[14:09] <Grey> *** 15/8/1026 (continued) [14:17] <Grey> We just defeated a mage with some sort of parasite on its back. They are now captives. [14:22] <Grey> Time passes slower here. The date is actually the 22/8/1026. In the period of two days, nine days has actually passed.

[14:22] <Grey> *** 22/8/1026 (date corrected) [14:44] <Grey> The demon gods fane was dedicated to the demon god Ogremenschk. However, it was destroyed by a hero and cleric and his buddies, dedicated to Gruumsh, about 700 years ago. The leader of the mages here thinks the temple may be operational again. We have no idea where the temple may be. The local cleric is unable to do divinations. The mages are also unable to do so. [14:47] <Grey> The mage who is possessed had left the keep for a while, before coming back in her unfortunate state. She had said something had come up and she was going to go deal with it. She went to the village, and that is presumably where she was infected. [14:48] <Grey> There is lots of wilderness in this area. We are not in a major population centre. [14:52] <Grey> She was also seen talking with the guy who was infected in the town. [14:52] <arkon> Hmm... if someone saw her and then reported to these people that means someone else was in the village. [14:53] <arkon> Or the infected peasant left the village. [14:53] <Grey> We dicuss casting true seeing and wandering around the village looking for other parasites. [14:54] <Grey> One of the orc mages is able to cast true seeing. [14:56] <Grey> However, he has no more components with which to cast it. [15:00] <Grey> We vaguely discuss how we might be able to find the temple. [15:04] <Grey> We give up on summoning celestials. Too much effort, and they don't last long enough. [15:07] <arkon> Sending out birds to scout would be difficult ... but how about summoning/chatting to birds from the surrounding area. [15:07] <arkon> If there is a 'bad place' they might well know. [15:08] <Grey> Lani chats to some local birds. [15:12] <Grey> Safranna wanders off to chat to local wildlife. [15:12] <Grey> DM reminder: the temple was a statue of the god. And was big. [15:17] <Grey> Lani looks around the lake, and finds smooth dome-like rock coming out of the water, with some demonic writing and a hatch. [15:18] <arkon> Hmm... remind me to give Kasin and Alamark a decent water adventure some time soon. [15:24] <Grey> We have scraps of knowledge from the previous expedition. The fane itself stood like a massive demon. Vaguely in the shape of Ogremenshk the Defiler, the huge stone idol held its evil sword and and raised its claws as if to reach down and swoop up sacrificial victims into its horrible, twisted grin. [15:24] <Grey> Like anything else, you must go the the Fane's heart to find the true source of its power. [15:25] <Grey> To get from head to heart, or at least on your way, make the demon smile and use the key to open the invisible lock. [15:27] <Grey> To reach the heart you must partake of the three sacraments of Ogremenshk. Such is distasteful to all good and noble, but one soul is a small price to pay. [15:28] <Grey> Blood flows through the fane, carrying both knowledge and life - for demonspawn and their hellish brethren. [15:29] <Grey> Chaos and evil for Ogremenshk, are words that are also the key with three uses. [15:30] <Grey> We have obtained: scroll of analyse dweomer, tongue of fiends. [15:31] <Grey> Whilst Lani was investigating the structures on the lake, Rih observed a humanoid leaping out of the water and attacking/killing a fishermen on the lake shore. [15:38] <Grey> The villagers are aware of the attack. [15:39] <Grey> The villagers have locked themselves within their homes. [15:39] <arkon> Good, that gets them out of the way. [15:43] <Grey> We go through the heavily forrested, hilly terraine to the lake edge. [15:45] <Grey> Lani learns tongue of fiends. [15:49] <Grey> We arrive.
[15:56] <Grey> The lake is a faint golden colour. [15:56] <Grey> I summon some tritons into the water, but in the short time they remain, they find nothing. [15:58] <Grey> The water has apparently been drying up recently. [15:59] <Grey> Zim boils some water, boiling it dry to see what remains. Some darkish material remains. [16:00] <arkon> Hmm.... darkish material covers lots of possibilities. [16:00] <Grey> including dirt, yes.
[16:03] <Grey> The village is called golden lake village. The lake has always been this colour. [16:06] <Grey> I cast improved tongues, and translate what is written on the hatch: The crown of Ogremenshk. [16:07] <arkon> Crown as in 'top of the head'. Cute. [16:09] <Grey> The hatch is arcane locked. [16:10] <Grey> Zim casts knock on the hatch. [16:13] <Grey> Lani and Zim only just manage to open the hatch. It falls off, and falls into the water. [16:14] <Grey> Below the hatch is a room. Inside is a black statue of a man, wtih yellow dagger shaped eyes. He's wrapped in leathers. [16:14] <arkon> How sure are you that it's a statue? [16:15] <Grey> Well, humanoid anyway.
[16:15] <Grey> Not sure, but we haven't entered the room yet. [16:16] <Grey> Grey and Safranna await teleport coordinates. [16:17] <Grey> There are markings on the walls. [16:17] <Grey> Pictures: several scenes, people being tortured, ripped to shreds, flayed, a guy being raped, and so on. [16:18] <arkon> Lovely place. Remind me to ask who their interior decorator was. [16:20] <Grey> Also within the room is a floating, invisible box. With a keyhole. [16:21] <arkon> Hmm... so you make the statue smile and then say the words? [16:21] <Grey> The box is unlocked. Within are some knitting needles, steel. [16:22] <Grey> Tickle the statue?
[16:23] <Grey> This is the box at the base of the statues feet. [16:23] <arkon> Do any of the pictures show torture involving knitting needles or some such? Perhaps they have to be inserted into the statue at the right places to please the god through torture. [16:24] <Grey> We start prodding the statue. [16:24] <Grey> Some parts are hard, others soft. [16:25] <arkon> Just hope you don't need to insert them into a living being to make the god smile. [16:25] <Grey> The invisible floating box with a keyhole moves away from approaching people. [16:25] <Grey> There is a font in the room, spouting fresh blood. [16:26] <Grey> The blood smells dark and ironish. Not mammalian blood. [16:27] <Grey> Grey samples a bit of the blood. [16:33] <Grey> Grey drinks blood from the fountain. It feels good. It has a healing affect (ie, normally a harming one), and an image appears in my mind: a beautiful women, a bit of blood trickling down the side of her head, somehow accentuating her beauty. She says: Carmaknar is dead. Rally to the defence of the temple. [16:35] <Grey> Grey collects some blood for its healing qualities. [16:40] <Grey> Grey then "tortures" the statue. It smiles in pleasure at the horrific pain. As it does so, a forked tongue rolls out, a key at its end. Grey then opens the moving invisible sphere, except the sphere disappears. [16:41] <Grey> A hole opens in the floor. Safranna falls through, but then seems able to levitate herself. Grey tries falling, but doesn't end up levitating. [16:41] <Grey> There is a room full of big, bloody iron hooks. [16:43] <Grey> The key also disapppeared. [16:43] <Grey> There are two exits.
[16:44] <Grey> There is also an iron grate in the middle, which has several grooves in the floor running to it. [16:44] <Grey> The dooors are arcane locked. [16:49] <Grey> The channels in the floor could not only have blood run to the grate, but also towards the doors. [16:51] <Grey> We use the blood Grey took from the fountain to open the east door. It works. [16:52] <Grey> Zim found some peepholes cunningly concealed in the east door. [16:53] <Grey> We start searching around. Not listing every detail of dungeon crawling. [17:00] <Grey> Lani and Grey press a ruby eye set in the roof. They're teleported back to the start chamber. The plug hole seems to have been sealed up again. [17:02] <Grey> We rejoin Zim.
[17:10] <Grey> Various doors in this place seem to favour themes of torture. [17:18] <Grey> Not long later, whilst exploring the first level, we get attacked by a giant metal chimera, one that breathed lightning. It knew we were there, as it attacked immediately upon Lani opening the door to where it was located. [17:21] <Grey> Combat ensues. Grey enters melee. [17:36] <Grey> The metal chimera is very powerful, and badly wounds Grey. [17:41] <norse_grp> Zim casts Mass Resist Elements on the party [17:41] <norse_grp> Zim casts Reduce on the chimera but it resists [17:41] <norse_grp> Safrana chanes back to centaur form and then attacks [17:41] <norse_grp> changes
[17:42] <norse_grp> Rih casts Haste and Mirror Image on Grey [17:43] <norse_grp> Lani summons an Earth Elemental [17:43] <Grey> After a short but furious battle, we defeat the construct. [17:43] <norse_grp> The elemental bashes it somewhat before Grey smashes it to a bunch of smouldering, iron plates [17:45] <norse_grp> We start searching the rest of this level before going down. [17:45] <norse_grp> Lani sends her elemental off to have a look for us [17:47] <norse_grp> The chimera appeared to be an iron golem [17:49] <norse_grp> Lani sends her elemental off down the stairs to have a look [17:52] <norse_grp> We hear a dull boom, like an explosion. The earth elemental comes back somewhat blackened [17:52] <norse_grp> It raises its arms and growls to try and indicate what happened. IT then disappears. [17:54] <norse_grp> We stop for a bit to let Grey regenerate and cast protective spells. [18:03] <norse_grp> There's a pentagram on the floor of the short corridor. IT's lit up in glowing red energy and illuminates a single orcish word [18:03] <norse_grp> "Which we are very careful not to say out loud [18:04] <norse_grp> Lani and Grey determine that it is a teleportation circle [18:06] <Grey> A two way teleport.
[18:16] <norse_grp> We argue as to what action to take [18:16] <norse_grp> Grey and Safrana step into the pentagram and disappear [18:17] <norse_grp> Lani votes to follow, steps on the pentagram and disppears also [18:17] <norse_grp> Zim and Leo are left on their own [18:18] <Grey> Despite it being discussed, Zim and Leo do not follow any time soon. [18:21] <Grey> The rest of us appear in a pentagram, on a platform raised above molten lava/fire. The pentagram is made of still living body parts. There is a clear area in the centre of the pentagram. [18:28] <Grey> The center has a spell similar to tensers floating disc. Grey hops on. It lowers him to 5 feet above above the lava. When he reaches the bottom, an imp appears, with some religious wafers on a golden platter. He says: Consume the flesh of the demon god, and become one with him. [18:29] <Grey> Grey eats some of the wafers, and is surprised he does not regurgitate it up. The rest of the party choses not to. Grey did so as the tips provided to the party suggested it was necessary. [18:30] <Grey> We return to where Zim is, and go down some stairs. [18:41] <Grey> Below is a big room, full of spell effects, and a bunch of demons. A glabrezu, two vrocks, and three bodaks. [19:25] <Grey> Battle ensues.
[19:34] <Grey> Grey makes to charge, but ends up in a reverse gravity area. [19:43] <Grey> One of the Vrocks was already wounded when we entered the room. [20:01] <Grey> Th glabrezu teleports near Lani, who was using projected image. [20:03] <Grey> Grey moves forward, blocking off the Vrock's with a Wall of Force. Grey fights next to a wall. [20:04] <Grey> The Vrock's teleport past the Wall of Force. Grey is surrrounded, back against a wall. [20:07] <Grey> Grey takes out the Bodak's that Zim had damaged with a Maximised Sonic Fireball. [20:10] <Grey> Grey chops into the Vrocks [20:13] <Grey> The glabrezu gets a hold of Lani's neck between its big pincers. [20:15] <Grey> Zim polymorphs into a dire bear, and moves to aid Lani. [20:15] <Grey> Safranna is also aiding Lani. [20:23] <Grey> Lani casts a song of thunder, and a song of whirlwind, at the glabrezu, but to only little effect. The glabrezu then absent mindedly bashes Lani against the walll whilst attacking Zim. [20:31] <Grey> One of the Vrock's charms one of Lani's summoned creatures, a bebilith. Grey kills that Vrock, after calling out to Lani to unsummon her creature. [20:54] <Grey> The battle continues. Safranna, Lani, Dire Bear Zim, and Lani's Huge Air Elemental, are generally fairly ineffective against the Glabrezu. [20:57] <Grey> Lani goes Tinkerbell, but gets pincered again by the Glabrezu (Zim had earlier helpes het get ungrappled). [21:00] <Grey> Grey knocks off some Vrock mirror images. [21:03] <Grey> Lani summons another monster, a devil this time. A kyton. It's not much good. [21:03] <Grey> (before that Zim got Lani free of the grapple) [21:04] <Grey> The glabrezu grapples Lani again. [21:09] <Grey> Grey's Vrock casts another mirror image. Grey starts using spells instead. [21:10] <Grey> Zim dispels the mirror images. [21:12] <Grey> Tinkerbell Lani bites the glabrezu's claw. It laughs. [21:13] <Grey> Lani polymorphs back into herself, and it loses grapple. She backs away. [21:15] <Grey> Safranna displays amazing incompetence. [21:17] <Grey> She throws her hands down in frustration. Then she seems to have a quarterstaff in hands, and even she doesn't seem to know how. [21:20] <Grey> Meanwhile, the Vrock casts another Mirror Image. Grey then dispels the Mirror Image, and kills the Vrock. [21:23] <Grey> Lani ineffectually flame arrows the glabrezu, the last remaining demon. [21:25] <Grey> Lani's Kyton actually does a little bit of damage! [21:32] <Grey> Grey moves in, and starts blasting the glabrezu. [21:32] <Grey> Zim glitterdusts the glabrezu. [21:32] <Grey> Lani negative energy bursts the area. [21:33] <Grey> Apparently the staff just fell into Safranna's hands. [21:34] <Grey> Unfortunately, the glabrezu teleports away. [21:36] <Grey> We loot.
[21:36] <Grey> Session ends.
Session Close: Sun Jul 21 21:36:47 2002