The daemon proved difficult to hit, whether with magic or weapons or magic weapons. More over it really really wanted to eat some souls and did a fairly good job of sucking away some of the party’s energy before it was banished. The Planetar accompanying the party was particularly useful against the Astradaemon.
The party then set to examining the cells, establishing that there was an anti magic shell in each cell and that if gnomes put their faces to close to those they get temporarily bleached a little. Science!
Searching the rest of the rooms led them to discover two nice bedrooms, evidently previously occupied by two snake-bodied Lamia. From the cameos they kept, they were identified as Xanesha and Lucrecia, the Lamia agents who had directed the Skinsaw Cult to murder greedy people in Magnimar and drowned a whole bunch of greedy people on the casino boat in Turtleback Ferry respectively. Lucrecia had also engineered the sacking of Fort Rannick with Mokmurian’s allies. Yeah, we’ve been playing this game for a long time.
In another, even fancier bedroom they found a golden shrine. They futzed around with it for a bit until someone who knew what they were doing took a look at it, popping open a hidden compartment that contained three scrolls of Resurrection (BOOOOOM. What a great spell to have a available right before you walk into a deadly situation!) and one of Commune, which is great if anyone had a god they wanted to talk to.
There then followed some hilarious foiling of Khalib the Apprentice’s great plans, (Halvard confirmed that this was the man the Planetar wanted to kill), as Tersplink flooded the hallway with Ankylosaurs. Khalib, evidently a bit rusty after 10,000 years of stasis flubbed his first offensive spell, that would have cleared the corridor, unable to stay focused as he attempted to dodge the Ankylosaur bonemace tails.
The Planetar disappeared and reappeared after having shut down Khalib’s Shield and Stoneskin spells with a Greater Dispel Magic. Bereft of his defenses, Khalib really needed to get his spell off this time, but amazingly flubbed his second defensive casting check. By then, the ankylosaurs, Dagfinn, Kerplak and the Planetar had closed with the Apprentice. Dagfinn hitting him with his Dominant sword, a bane-weapon against Transmuters; Kerplak pinning the man’s robes to the pagoda behind him with a well placed bolt and the vengeful angel eviscerating him and then slashing his throat. Good doesn’t mean Nice.
One side effect to this stampede of Ankylosaurs was that the thinning in space and time through which Karzoug could poke his projection through was full of dinosaur. The party hustled out of the way of the weak point, top avoid provoking the Runelord and moved to investigate the rest of the room, although not before looting the Apprentice’s body of a Staff of Size Alteration, Evil Robes of the Archmagi and an Amulet of Natural Armour. Kerplak took the staff, pretty much just to cause mischief with.
The hallways terminated in a large open space in which a pagoda and a statue stood. On the far wall a shimmering golden haze blanketed some golden doors, presumably with golden hinges and golden handles. The statue was also gold, this dungeon having been designed by T-Pain, and stood 20 feet tall. It was Karzoug, naturally, and he stood with his arms bent and his palms towards the ceiling.
Inside the pagoda, two more statues of Karzoug, and a sarcophagus with a representation of Karzoug on it too, although as they discovered, it was a false sarcophagus.
The shimmering golden haze was identified as a Wall of Force, which almost zapped Kerplak when he tried to mess with it. Halvard Disintegrated it and the way was clear. Kerplak listened at the door, hearing a deep rhythmic swooshing sound and cracked the door a little. Inside he could see… another furious Lamia.
She wasn’t the pushover that the others were. Although she does mark the last in a long line of women that this party has beat up. It makes them feel like big men. Jerks. When will the cycle of violence end? She pounced on Halvard and then Dagfinn, tearing shit up hard and draining more Wisdom, which Halvard might feel, but Dagfinn like Fire Trucks!
Her Blade Barrier chopped up everyone who got too close, and after some initial hard hits from Ron’s subduing shuriken and everyone else having a go, she cast Heal successfully and went right back to it. Debuffs didn’t stick particularly well to her and mind control didn’t work which has also been a feature of the Pinnacle of Avarice. More damage was exchanged and then Ron capped the fight with a bunch more subduing shuriken, knocking the Lamia High Priestess unconscious.
So, the party has 35 hours (including just one sunrise) to save Varisia, two unconscious women, an Angelic ally who has agreed to aid this just cause… just coz, and some sort of massive arcane contraption in the other room which they must by now suspect will let them get to Karzoug…
hey what levels are the toons at?
Uh, 13-15 at the moment, I think. The XP split is harsh for them because the group is 5-8 people depending. That said, they get to flood the combats with extra bodies.
I love how I carried those shuriken around for months before I got to the top of this stupid tower and remembered that… hey, once you make it past all the constructs and undead and elementals on the pointy end of a scary superwizard’s army you start to get in touch with bad guys that have brains you can disrupt or disable.
You know… when you hit them.