Session 22 & 23

We were down a cleric and a wizard the first session and the party decided that they would be best served to wait a day and have the wizard on their side for the final battle against the Dracolich.

The Adventure

Setting off from the great apes and their trainer, the party headed south, further into the cave.  The first thing they encountered was a succession of thick metal doors.  With great trepidation, they opened the first door, the second, and the third.  Thea was ready for a trap.  Her senses proved her wrong though, and the final door opened up to a sunken stone ledge that projected out into a boiling lake.  The ceiling was a rubbery magical forcefield that kept out the waters by forming what they could only describe as a sort of elastic skin of super surface-tension.  The shape of the room was not square, but rather semi-circular, as if a series of hoops were supporting the ceiling.

Thirty feet in,  the corridor widened into a low, dome shaped area with a huge crab in the center.  Easily the biggest crab anyone in the party had ever seen.  On its right "forearm" was a rune-covered copper band.

The party strove valiantly to kill the crab, while at the same time not tear a hole in the field holding back the boiling lake water.  After a long fight, the crab was finally killed.  Its chitin turned to stone.  Finding some loot in a chest, Theavara noticed a sparkling scimitar behind the forcefield.  She felt a strange compulsion to have the sword.

Cad offered to teleport into the water and grab it for her.  he was slightly boiled in the process, but managed to retrieve Greenswathe, the magic scimitar of the druids.

The battle attracted the attention of the Dracolich, who send one of her minions down the cave to check it out.  The Green Dragon, being no match for the party, was quickly dispatched.  From off in the distance was heard a great roar.  This startled Lorien into action and he ran down the cave to join his compatriots.

Moving further down the cave, Thea had her Faerie Fire going ahead of the party, until Lorien cast light and illuminated the room.  The dragons moved in.  Morgoth's invisibility was no match for the poison breath of the green dragons.  He quickly succumbed.  Cad jumped into the center of combat and held his ground valiantly while the rest of the party ran in fear.

Down the hallway, as people gradually shrugged off their fear effects, they returned to the melee.  Dragons began to fall.  First the two greens, then Thea struck the final blow on the dracolich.  Cad was disappointed he didn't get the kill.  Another lost trophy.

Further searching brought the party to a locked door on the western side of the cave.  It led down a hallway and ended at another door.  Opening the door, the party found a doughty halfling warrior.  Milo instantly took a liking to Qesnef, but quickly realized something was not right with the halfling.  The rest of the party was taken by his jovial nature.  Slowly, things became apparent that Qesnef was not what he seemed to be.  The huge two handed sword on the wall, the giant bed (easily big enough for four halflings), and other items around the room tipped off the party that something was amiss.  Lorien tried to dominate Qesnef, but didn't notice he failed.  Qesnef noticed the spell though, and led the party on.

The party had had enough, and engaged combat.  Qesnef proved to be a tough foe.  Casting gaseous form and mirror image, he almost evaded the party.  Lorien fell back to his trusty thunderwave, and quickly turned the tide of the fight.  Thea tried in vain to feeblemind the Qesnef, who was in fact an ogre fighter/mage.  Finally, Thea managed to get a feeblemind to stick, and the ogre lost all of its tactical finesse.  

Try as he might Lorien could not stop the party from dropping the ogre.  Lorien's ring was screaming for knowledge of Keraptis, the necromancer who won the bet with Qesnef, forcing the ogre to be bound for 1001 years in this cave.

Cad and Thea decided to create a short cut though the rock to the cave exit.  They smashed at the rock for a full 4 minutes, and managed to get through.  

This ends our adventuring day.

A wee bit of Metagaming

Lorien held back as the party exited the cave and ventured to the guardian androsphynx.  His ring, demanding that he find the phylactery, the soul of the dracolich, would not let up.  Cast upon cast of Detect Magic were done, but to no avail.  Search as he may, there was no phylactery to be found.  Somewhat downcast, he joined the party at the cave entrance.

Loot

Potion of healing

scroll of protection from evil (divine)

Greenswathe

Luckstone

Wand of Frost (17 charges)

Belt of the Lions

Helping hand

Gloves of Holding

Ring of Blinking

Ring of Cirulon

+2 Plate armor

+2 huge two handed sword

+2 ring of protection

Ring of mirror image (4 charges)

50 pp

100 gp

100 ep

4 earrings (worth 1100 gp) 

17 assorted gems worth 1,935

2 large emeralds (100gp each)

*If you could make a comment about who picked up what loot, that would be great.

XP Breakdown

Current Level: 14
Total XP:  150,000
XP til Level:  40,000
*Congratulations on gaining a new level