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Chapter 3: The Temple of All-Consumption

Turn 74: The Air Temple

“Well, that is just great,” muttered Sparhawk. “We hath lost our element of surprise against our foes of the Water Temple since they now knoweth we art alive. We incinerated but six of their foot-, or shalt I sayeth fin-, soldiers. In addition, we hath a strong disinclination to drive into the water and hit them in their element. And, the Air Temple stands as a fortress waiting to be assaulted. We doth need a different approach—to draw them onto the land for a battle on our terms. Then, we canst cast our magicks and thrust our blades with proper effect.”

“Be not overly pessimistic, Sir Sparhawk,” said Danton as he looked out into the waters of the vast, dark lake. “It may be as you fear, but it could also be that Syll hath landed the coup de grace to our fleeing foe. Still, prudence counsels that we not be unduly optimistic, and so we should probably imagine that Kelashein wilt learn of her advance team's thrashing.”

“But, frankly,” added the Velunese, “even if we had killed them all outright, she probably would have learned of it anyhow. But thanks especially to Syll's pyrotechnic display, our attack could easily have been perpetrated by Fire Temple dead-enders. Moreover, no one in this damned place considers themselves friends of anyone else -- thus, anyone could have committed the attack. In short, unless the fleeing kuo-toa wast among those who actually laid eyes on 'Delchin & Co.' in the past, methinks there wilt remain a question mark in Kelashein's own mind as to who perpetrated the attack.”

“But, regardless of whether 'twas wisdom or folly, the attack is done, and we art now faced with the next decision: where to now? Mine vote is that we explore the Air Temple. We hath removed this nearby Water Temple threat from our rear, and we art close at hand to the Air Temple. Plus, we hath gained no actionable intelligence at all since our last strategizing. Thus, methinks that we've gained no solid reason to double back and attack the Water Temple altar. In short, mine vote is that we move westward and clear out yon temple. Notably, as I hath reported, the window in our hidden redoubt lieth fairly near the main southern entrance to Mt. Stalagos, so we should be very cautious in moving forward.”

“Nay,” protested Sparhawk. “Let us stay thy assault on the Air Temple for the moment. We may hath lost the element of surprise, but we mayeth be able to draw the forces of the Water Temple from their natural surroundings onto land and draw them into a trap. Surely, the Queen wilt be furious we hath survived her subterfuge and wilt want revenge upon us for that and smashing her forces to smithereens. Mayhaps we shalt devise a suitable plan for the elf to scourge the rest of her gilly warriors, and for our swords to clean up the remainder.”

Danton shook his head. “I am at a loss as to how we might accomplish the drawing of Kelashein’s forces to us. True, if Kelashein is now aware of our killing of her advance force, she might send a group to deal with us ... and she might even accompany that group. But why? Frankly, to her, we wert little more than useful idiots to help penetrate the Fire Temple and then abandon to their tender mercies. No doubt Kelashein would prefer us dead to alive. But I doth not think she is one to be goaded into precipitate action. Wilt she be angered that we destroyed her sparsely guarded redoubt? Surely. But I doubt that she wilt be so angered as to pursue us for vengeance -- those kuo-toa mean less to her than they do to us, I suspect. P'raps you have a plan to draw her hither, and I would gladly hear of it. I'd much rather kill her here than in defense of her watery altar.”

“My thinking is in line with Danton’s,” said Syll, before Sparhawk could disagree once again. “Let's hit the Air Temple now, but before we enter the Outer Fane we need to deal with the Water Temple.”

“Ah, it matters not,” said Sparhawk. “I do not mean that I do not care and hath regained my stupor. I only mean to say let us be about our decision with some dispatch here and hit our enemies soon, though we do so really without a plan. Let us assault the Air Temple with the succor of Heironeous the Good blessing our arms and magicks.”

“By the way, mine good elven mage,” added the paladin, “I hath yet another cautionary note to offer regarding the hurling of thy firey masses. The Air Temple mayeth be able to blast them back upon us. Keep that in mind for all of our magicks. I hath been fried by them before and wish not to be in their path
again.”

Syll ignored the comment and looked at Danton, who said, “'Twould appear that we are nearing agreement, since, at mine count, now Syll, Sir Sparhawk and mineself art agreeable to explore and assail the Air Temple first off. Tenaris, fair daughter of Celene and wielder of Maicarya, and Luger, brother of Mauser and wielder of Geistblatt, wilt you join us and make it unanimous?”

“Sure, I’m in,” said Tenaris. “Let’s go.”

“I see little choice but to assault the Air Temple,” admitted Luger. “However, I am still concerned that we are walking into a trap. If we do not have the ability to reconnoiter the area, then we don't know what they have set up for us. Peter and I can use our detection of evil to at least get a feel of where the strength of our enemies lies. Danton needs to be on his toes looking for traps, which may have been laid out before us. I would hate to find ourselves in some hole as our enemies congregate above us dumping pots of flaming oil down upon us.”

“If we do not know what we're walking into,” continued the cleric, “I think our only option is to hit fast with spells blazing. We will not have the luxury of looking around and deciding what to do or attempt to parley with the enemy. Where we detect their strength, we need to rush in and immediately unleash our spells of fire upon them.”

“For our exploration of the Air Temple, I am willing to skulk ahead of the group, looking for traps and other things and listening to whatever I might overhear,” said Danton. If I am able to spy out, or one of you is able to magically detect, a knot of Air Temple defenders waiting to spring a trap upon us, methinks we'll have to make an on-the-ground determination as to whether 'tis a reasonable assault to make.”

“And one thing more,” said Danton with a glance around at the various party members. “We knoweth through Erky that a trap wast laid for ‘Delchin,’ so the ‘Delchin’ ruse aideth us little going forward. And while I am theoretically open to using another ruse, I am not sure that one can be credibly erected. So I guess I would agree that we should not bother to parley. That having been said, I would like to spend a bit of time placing disguises upon us all -- even if it buys us a moment of indecision on the part of our enemies, I'd rather not walk around in our already-known guise.”

With this comment Danton turned to Tenaris and began rummaging through his pack.

“Come, sweet Tenaris, 'tis time for me to run mine comb through those comely locks you bear and give you, straightaways, a new coiffure. Though she had her role to play, the evil Ventanarix must needs now be retired. In the place of her cold and vicious beauty wilt now come ‘Siranet the Sly,’ half-elven, male thug and swordarm. Ah, but I shalt miss mine dominatrix, perilous though she wast!”

Sparhawk rolled his eyes and muttered loudly, “O Heironeous! Thou allowest this minstrel's gut-wrenching wooing to pass unpunished whilst thou punishes thy faithful knights. O, the injustice!”

The paladin then smiled and winked at Danton before bowing to Tenaris.

“Milady . . . I mean, Milord.”

While Tenaris stood with her hands folded in front of her chest looking dubiously at Danton, Luger said, “I think the jig is up, so to speak. If they still thought they were dealing with Delchin, they are no longer confused on the matter. No doubt, that demonic presence in Erky has at least apprised Hedrack of our company. I heard it taunt Peter and specifically called him ‘Paladin.’ They have no misconceptions of our intentions.”

“I remain nagged by our lack of intelligence,” complained Sparhawk. “I prefer not to rush into battle sans information about mine enemy or the surroundings.
But, a good blade oftimes provides a proper compensation to balance things out in the end…”

After trailing off for a moment, Sparhawk looked at Danton and finished, “…though a foul stomach, whether by a potion of mysterious origins or by the words of a fool in love, is a poor ally indeed.”

Using a combination of makeup, wigs, and other items from his disguise kit, along with the many cloaks and other bits of clothing the party had gradually accumulated, Danton did his best to alter the appearances of everyone in the party (Danton disguise checks: take 20 on all: 20+7=27 base result on all party members). Accomplishing this task was relatively easy with the male members of the party, whom Danton was only trying to make appear to be a different group of thugs than they had been previously (+5 to disguise checks, thus total score is 32 with Danton, Luger, Syll, and Sparhawk).

With Tenaris the challenge was greater, as Danton sought to transform her appearance from that of a female elf to a male half-elf. When the Velunese proposed cutting her white hair short and dying it another color as part of the disguise, she gave him a look that could have curdled milk, so Danton settled for concealing her long braided hair under her helmet and using a long cloak to disguise the shape of her body, which was otherwise obvious even under the chitin armor she wore. The result was not as good as Danton would have liked (-2 penalty on disguise check due to attempt to disguise as different genter; thus total score 25), but he judged that it could withstand casual scrutiny—at least as long as Tenaris wore a helmet and long cloak—and did not speak, for no one would ever mistake Tenaris’ musical voice for that of a man of any race.

When he was done, Danton gave Tenaris a soft slap on the rear and muttered, "Some feminine things, even a master such as mineself cannot disguise ... and happily so. Thus p'raps 'tis best if you wear your cloak low in the back at all times.  Otherwise, I wilt continue to be bothered to distraction."

“Well, if I have to endure this,” replied the elf warrior with a gesture at herself, “then I can hardly await the day when all of you have to be disguised as women. Now that would be amusing.”

“The way this fop behaves, who could tell the difference?” muttered Sparhawk with a glance and a smirk at Danton.

“Funny you should say that,” ignoring Sparhawk and replying to Tenaris, “for, mine Lady, you maketh such a beauteous ‘boy’ that you hath me wishing I wast a girl … almost.”

While Tenaris laughed, Sparhawk felt as though he might lose his breakfast.

***

Before the party moved out of the immediate area, Danton opened the strange clamshell-shaped chest in the living quarters that the kuo-toa spellcaster had emerged from. The chest was both unlocked and untrapped (Danton search: 12+15=27). Inside were a large quantity of gold coins, a leather bag with ten pink pearls, a potion vial, and a scroll. The party members divided up the gold and pearls equally, while Syll used a spell (Read Magic) to examine the scroll, finding the spells Bless.Hold Person, and Dispel Magic on it. Realizing that the scroll was clerical rather than arcane in nature, he handed it to Luger. Finally, upon close examination of the potion (spellcraft: 17+10=27), Syll realized that it was a healing potion (Cure Moderate Wounds). Since everyone else in the group already had one or more such potions, the elf kept this one for himself.

With this accomplished, the party made its way back through the complex of abandoned rooms until they stood in the area just off the main east-west hallway. Once there, Syll cast invisibility on Danton in order to facilitate the scout’s efforts to carry out reconnaissance ahead of the rest of the party. As he had done the last time the elf sorcerer cast such a spell on him, Danton took advantage of it to plant an invisible kiss on Tenaris. This time the woman was not surprised by the move and she reciprocated, making it fairly obvious to the others what was going on, provoking a snicker from Syll and a rolling of eyes from Sparhawk. Luger simply ignored the display.

Danton’s invisible hand then opened the door to the hallway and he moved through it, with one last reminder that he wanted the rest of the party to follow no more than a few hundred feet behind him.

While the others waited to give Danton the head-start he wanted, Sparhawk approached Luger and said quietly, “I knoweth thou hath healed my transgressions at great cost to thyself. I . . . I . . . simply do not knoweth how to thank thee. Mayhaps thou shalt receive a divine reward that I simply cannot give in recompense.”

Sparhawk paused and then gripped Luger’s shoulder tightly, “Thank you brother, for restoring mine allegiance and mine soul to its proper bearing.”

“We all have our moments of doubt and weakness, Peter,” replied Luger. “Surely I need not remind you about my own display outside the mountain after Nanoc was killed. But there is no shame in such things as long as we learn from them and do not repeat the same errors. Now, let us follow Danton before he gets into too much trouble and requires a hasty rescue on our part.”

***

Using his boots of elvenkind, Danton moved down the long hallway without a sound. The scout was continually amazed at the properties of the boots and he could not help but wonder how much more effective he would have been during his spy days in Ket had he possessed the boots then. With such thoughts in mind, he passed by the stairs leading south and up to the party’s hideout and continued until he neared the western end of the very long hallway. There he had to choose between approaching the massive, closed set of engraved double bronze doors at the end of the hall, another set of stairs on the south side of the hallway leading south and up to a landing, or a hallway running east.

The Velunese decided to start with the stairway, which brought him to the landing he had seen from below after a mere twenty feet. From here, the stairs turned westward and continued to ascend. Moving as quietly as he could (move silently: 13+22=35), Danton glided up the second set of stairs. At the top he found himself looking at a twenty-foot by twenty-foot platform that seemed to be suspended over a larger room below. The platform hung from the ceiling of the larger room, but was also connected to the eastern wall of that room. The connection was exactly where the stairs Danton had climbed ended so he could step right out onto the platform if he wished.

The platform was empty save for a single human warrior in silver banded mail. The man lay on his stomach at the far edge of the platform, gazing down on the room below. He had a heavy crossbow at the ready and appeared to be watching the chamber below him for any signs of movement or activity.

Thanks to Danton’s boots and the man’s preoccupation with the room below, he heard nothing as the Velunese approached him from behind (move silently: 3+22=25). Although someone else might have protested that such a move was hardly sporting or fair, Danton intended to run the man through with Rat’s Tail before he ever knew the Velunese was present (attack: 4+10+4 (defender prone)=18; hit; 20 damage). Guided by Danton’s skilled hand, the blade slipped through a gap in the man’s banded mail. He flailed about helplessly on the end of the blade for several moments and then lay still.

The attack had cost Danton his invisibility, but he judged the result was worth the cost. He quickly rifled the dead man’s belongings (search: 7+12=19), finding little of note save for a single vial that looked like it contained a potion of some sort. Danton pocketed this and then crouched low and moved to the edge of the platform to gaze down on the chamber below.

When Danton looked down and to the north, he saw another set of closed bronze double doors identical to those in the corridor he had just left, right down to the engravings of monsters and demons that covered them, and he judged that they almost certainly led into the same room as the others. On the south side of the room below were two closed wooden doors. These were barred on the side Danton could see. There were also two separate closed wooden doors on either side of the massive wooden double doors. Finally, when Danton looked off the western side of the platform on which he crouched, he could see a long corridor running off to the west that appeared to ascend gradually. The corridor was lit with torches, but because Danton was so high up and because the hallway ascended, he could not see very far down it.

With little else to do here, the scout retraced his steps off the platform and down the two sets of stairs to the main hallway. When he looked off to the east, he could see the other party members moving slowly down the hallway towards him. They froze when they caught sight of him, clearly surprised at the loss of his invisibility. Using hand signals that he hoped would be understood, Danton tried to tell the others he had encountered and eliminated a single guard. Mauser would have understood the gestures, but Mauser was not present. Danton could only hope that Luger had shared some of the same checkered background and ‘learning experiences’ as his brother.

While the others waited, Danton darted across the hallway to the opening on the other side. Once across, he found himself in a narrow corridor that ran north for twenty feet before turning east for another twenty and then ending. Three closed wooden doors were spaced evenly on the north side of the hallway after it turned east. Danton approached the first door and put his ear up against it (search 12+15=27, listen 3+8=11). Sensing no danger, but determining the door was locked, Danton proceeded to attempt to pick it (open locks: 9+12=21; failure).

Surprised at the resistance of the lock, but not certain he wanted to take the time to attack it more systematically, Danton moved on to the second door (search 15+15=30, listen: 10+8=18). Once again, he detected nothing. This door was not locked, so Danton gave it a slight push inward. As soon as the door opened a bit, a foul smell assaulted the scout’s nostrils and he realized he had run across someone’s latrine. Looking inside the small room, he saw no other ways out and quickly closed the door, trying not to gag at the stench.

Moving on to the third and final door (search: 16 +15=31, listen 6+8=14), Danton finally heard sounds of activity. Several male voices were audible beyond the door. From what was said and the other sounds he heard, Danton judged he had run across a group of off-duty guards engaged in a combination of card-playing and idle chat. Most of the talk was of no interest whatsoever, except for one brief exchange that piqued his interest:

“Wonder what ever happened to that Delchin guy we were supposed to be looking for,” said one voice.

“Dunno,” replied another. “And what about that other warning about a woman and some monster half-orc warrior on a rampage? We never saw any sign of them neither.”

“Probably just a lot of rot to try to keep us on our toes,” said a third man. “Now, you guys gonna play this round or what?”

After that, the conversation was of little interest and Danton retraced his steps back to the main hallway where he moved east to rejoin the others. Whispering as the others gathered round him in the stairwell leading up to the party’s hideout, Danton informed the party of all he had seen and heard down the two paths he had thus far explored. He also showed Syll the potion he had found and the elf identified it (spellcraft: 14+10=24) as a potion of cure light wounds.

“So,” said Syll when Danton had finished relating everything, “it seems like this room with the bronze doors on all sides is the main obstacle to our moving forward.”

“Indeed,” agreed Danton. “Tis likely barred from the inside. ‘Twould appear the only other option would be to climb down from the platform where I hath slain the sniper, but that would drop us right in front of the southernmost bronze doors. Surely those inside must have some sort of spy-holes through which we wouldst be seen and an alarm raised.”

“Well,” said Syll, “in that case, I might as well just blast down those doors. Since they’re made of bronze, they should melt nicely under the impact of a fireball or two.”

"Just be careful,” cautioned Sparhawk. “Those fireballs could be blown by a strong gust of wind back upon us. That may be true for many magical attacks." 

“Let’s do it,” said Tenaris, her voice artificially lower in pitch in a poor attempt to imitate a man’s voice.

Because Syll’s fireballs were effective from a great range, the party moved out into the long hallway and then formed a protective circle around the sorcerer. They were at least a hundred feet away from the bronze doors. Sparhawk and Luger stood in front of Syll, while Tenaris and Danton stood behind him, watching the route back to the east. Once all were ready, Syll launched his first flaming projectile the hundred feet down the corridor to the west, where it impacted on the bronze doors with their monstrous, demonic engravings (20 damage caused).

[Initiative: Tenaris: 27, Syll: 24, Luger: 22, Danton: 13, Sparhawk: 11, Enemies base: 8]

The impact of Syll’s fireball did not blast away the bronze doors, or even cause them to buckle, but it did melt away all of the engravings on the doors, along with a fair amount of bronze. Although shouts and sounds of movement could be heard from the far end of the corridor, Syll was able to get off a second shot before whatever defenders might be present were able to react in any effective way. The second fireball flew down the hallway and exploded into the doors (27 damage caused) and this time, they did buckle. Both doors shook and rattled on their hinges and copious amounts of liquefied bronze flowed down the doors and wall.

“Those doors won’t be able to survive a third such hit,” said Luger. “Be ready to face whatever lies behind them when they go down.”

Even as Syll was preparing his third spell, small slots opened up on what remained of the bronze doors and arrows and bolts began to rain down the corridor at the party. Given the range and the rivulets of bronze that were dripping down from the door and in front of the archers on the other side, most of the shots went wild, but Sparhawk and Luger were each hit once (Sparhawk 10 damage, Luger 9 damage) by arrows. Then Syll fired again.

The third fireball was not as powerful as the second had been, but it was enough. This time the impact actually blasted what remained of the bronze doors off their hinges and backward into the room beyond, carrying much of the explosive power of the fireball with them (20 area effect damage from fireball; 17 of which makes it past the doors).

Although it appeared that there had originally been at least a half-dozen defenders behind the bronze doors, several of these were killed instantly by either the remains of the doors falling on them or by the explosive power of Syll’s fireball. When the smoke cleared, only three defenders remained standing: a pair of huge ogres and an armored man. These three now charged past the wrecked doors and rushed towards the party, obviously not wanting to be hit by any more fireballs. The ogres wielded massive clubs, while the man carried a longsword.

“Let us go forth and face them, milady…er, milord!” said Sparhawk, over his shoulder, to Tenaris.

The elf woman needed no encouragement and soon the pair were rushing down the corridor to meet the remaining defenders head-on. Danton, Luger, and Syll followed close behind.

When Tenaris and Sparhawk met the ogres, the elf warrior ducked under the club of one of the monsters and then cut his legs out from under him, using his own momentum to increase the amount of damage he suffered when he slammed into her longsword. The ogre crashed to the ground and rolled before coming to a stop. He did not get up.

The second ogre fared no better, for he reacted too slowly to avoid a devastating sweeping swing from Sparhawk and Caladbolg, which lifted his massive head right off his shoulders (Sparhawk attack: 19+12+2 charge bonus=33; potential critical hit; 2^nd roll—20+14=34; critical hit: 27 damage). The headless body of the ogre fell lifelessly to the floor.

Thus in a matter of seconds, both ogres were down and Sparhawk and Tenaris found themselves facing the armored man who had rushed down the hallway immediately behind the two massive humanoids. The man wore black half-plate armor, a long black cloak, and carried a longsword and a shield with the face of a red dragon on it. The man was also very fast; before Sparhawk could recover his balance from the swing that had killed the second ogre, the man brought his blade down on the paladin’s shoulder (hit for 9 points). Sparhawk’s attacker tried to hit him a second time, but by then the paladin managed to bring Caladbolg up to parry.

Seconds later, Danton and Luger were on the scene, taking advantage of the relative width of the corridor to move around the armored man from one side, even as Tenaris did from the other. Thus surrounded by four foes, and with a fifth, Syll, hovering in the background, any sensible foe would have surrendered, but the armored man did not.

Tenaris led the final assault, her blazing speed enabling her to cut the man twice while he was still primarily focused on Sparhawk. Luger was next (attack: 12+10+2 flanking bonus=24, 5+5+2=12; one hit and one miss: 4 damage), striking the man in the back once with Geistblatt before he could spin to block Luger’s second attack with his shield. Danton struck at the same time, but the man’s heavy plate mail deflected Rat’s Tail with ease (attack: 8+10+2 flanking bonus=20, 9+5+2=16; both miss).

Although attacked from all directions, the armored man somehow still managed to get in two lightning strikes on Sparhawk, his blade slicing right through the paladin’s plate armor (hit for 14 and 13 points).

“This guy’s bad news!” yelled out Syll unnecessarily as he watched the man pound away at Sparhawk.

Although he could not hope to match the other man’s speed, Sparhawk counted on sheer strength to carry the day. He swung Caladbolg high over his head and brought the blade down on the shield and helmet of his foe, knocking the shield aside and then crashing into the helmet (attack: 15+12+2 flanking bonus=29, 9+7+2=18; one hit and one miss; 15 damage). The blow literally cut the man’s helmet in half and smashed it down onto his skull. Such a strike should have killed anyone, but somehow the man, although badly wounded, remained standing. He rushed forward to have at Sparhawk again, but then four of Syll’s magic missiles (14 damage) slammed into his body, knocking him off his feet and onto his back, where he lay unmoving.

While Syll and Danton moved to loot the three fallen enemies, Luger moved to heal his own and Sparhawk’s wounds (Convert 2 detect evil and 1 bless to cure light wounds, convert 1 silence to cure moderate wounds; cast cure light wounds on self: +7 HP, cast 2 cure light wounds and one cure moderate wounds on Sparhawk: +43 HP).

The ogres carried nothing of value or interest, but when Syll cast detect magic and examined the fallen human warrior, almost all of his equipment resonated magic, including his armor, shield, longsword, cloak, and a potion. Syll gave each item a once-over (Spellcraft checks: 19+10=29, 3+10=13, 8+10=18, 7+10=17, 19+10=29). He quickly recognized the potion as a vial of cure moderate wounds, and judged that the armor had been enchanted to enhance its protective qualities (half plate +1), but was not certain about the other three items, so for those he fell back on identify spells (cast three times: items are longsword +1, cloak of resistance +1, large steel shield +1).

Highly pleased at finding so much useful equipment on a single individual, the party quickly distributed it for maximum effectiveness. Tenaris claimed the enchanted longsword, while Luger took the shield with the dragon’s head emblazoned on it. At the same time, Danton put on the protective cloak, while Sparhawk replaced his own damaged half-plate mail with the magically enhanced set the dead man had worn. This left only the potion for Syll, who grumbled mightily about the lack of suitable items for an arcane spellcaster.

“Methinks there is much more to be explored in this area,” said Danton when the group was ready to move out once again, ”but surely all this chaos hath been heard and alarms sounded throughout the Air Temple. Unless we wish to give our foes still more time to harden their defenses, strategy would suggest we move quickly for the heart of the temple to destroy its altar.”

“Fine by me,” said Syll, “as long as we come back here later to loot anything else down any of these other passages.”

"Good Danton, lead the way,” said Sparhawk, looking rather sinister in his new black plate armor, “and I shalt protect thee from harm. And, probably step on a few traps that somehow elude thy keen detection," he finished with a broad smile.

“Siranet is always up for a fight,” grunted Tenaris in her false deep voice.

“Heironeous is truly with us this day,” said Luger. “Let us go forth and scour His enemies from this world.”

With that, the party moved down the remainder of the corridor to the west, past the hallway on the north side where Danton knew at least some soldiers had been earlier, but from which none had emerged during the melee. But what had happened to these men was a mystery to be solved later, and the scout led the others through the wreckage of the bronze doors and into the room beyond them.

The chamber, roughly fifty feet from east to west and forty from north to south, was empty except for a central dais 7 feet off the floor, with six large steps leading up on two of its sides. Both the dais and the steps were made of black stone. There were three sets of bronze double doors, located on the south, north, and eastern walls. The eastern doors had, of course, been destroyed by Syll and they lay atop the burned bodies of three armored men. But the southern and northern doors were intact and remained shut and barred from inside this room.

Uncertain which set of doors to use, Danton chose the northern ones, purely because he had already seen what lay on the other side of the southern ones and going north would allow him to chart entirely new territory. After examining the doors (search: 12+15=27, listen: 1+8=9) and finding nothing untoward, he had Sparhawk unbar the portal and then open it.

Beyond the northern doors were a short hallway and then a set of spiral stairs leading upward. No sounds of activity could be heard, but Danton and Sparhawk still proceeded up the stairs with maximum caution. The stairs circled around only once and then emerged onto a twenty-foot wide, long hallway running westward. The hallway was lit by torches and ran for close to two hundred feet.

Several openings and doors were visible on either side of the corridor and Danton elected to give each at least a quick glance as the party tried to make its way to the Air Temple altar as quickly as possible. The first opening was a narrow hallway on the south side of the corridor about fifty feet west of the spiral stairs. It led into a thirty-foot by twenty-foot room that appeared to be a storage area. A few boxes and barrels lay scattered about in the chamber, while marks on the floor seemed to indicate that there used to be more here. Danton wasted no more time here and motioned for the group to move on to the next possible path: a closed door on the north side of the hall forty feet past the storage area.

The door on the north side of the hallway was not locked (Danton search: 10+15=25, listen: 18+8=26). It led to a short flight of stairs leading downward, ending at a second door, which was also unlocked (Danton search: 9+15=24, listen: 10+8=18). When Danton opened the second door, he found himself looking out on a natural ledge that someone had made considerable effort to transform into a sort of balcony over the dark lake at the center of the mountain. Someone had flattened the floor of the ledge, widened the sides, and added an iron railing.

When he moved through the door and out onto the balcony, Danton had a fine view of the dark, still waters of the lake within the crater, the volcanic island at its center, and the bridges that crossed the lake to the island. From this vantage point, two bridges were visible, one far off to the north and eas and the other, slightly closer to the north and west.

Next to the door leading out onto the balcony was a table and a pair of chairs. A pair of brass scroll tubes lay upon the table. Danton quickly moved to the table and removed the scrolls from each of the two tubes. When he unrolled them, he saw that both were written in dwarven. The first appeared to be some sort of treatise on volcanoes and the minerals and metals found in them, while the second concerned a dwarven queen called Tulian Saltheart and the fabulous diamond that her craftsmen supposedly created from a raw diamond found in the mines of Mount Stalagos. The finished jewel was apparently named after the queen: Tulian’s Eye. According to the short text, the dwarves had abandoned the mines at some point, but before they fled, they hid Tulian’s Eye somewhere in the mountain. Not sure what to make of all this, Danton replaced each scroll in its tube and then put the two tubes in his pack.

The third and final potential opening before the end of the long east-west corridor was another wooden door, this one on the south side of the hallway twenty-five feet past the door leading to the balcony over the lake. There seemed to be nothing unusual about the door (Danton search: 8+15=23; listen: 6+8=14), but it was locked. Danton made a quick effort to spring the lock (open locks: 18+12=30; success), and it opened with ease.

Beyond the door was a twenty-foot by forty-foot lavish bedchamber suite, with a wooden poster bed covered in blankets and pillows, two wooden wardrobes, a chest of drawers, a circular rug intricately woven in silver and sky blue, a desk and chair, a round table with two padded chairs, and a pair of wooden shelf sets. An open brazier on the table lit the room, but only dimly. Paintings in elegant frames decorated the walls.

“Nice. Bet there’s some good stuff to be had here,” said Syll as he gazed over Danton’s shoulder and into the room. “We’ll need an ox-cart to haul it all off.”

“I admit that we hath liberated some fine equipment from the clutches of the evil ones,” said Sparhawk, looking at the armor he now wore, “but time is now of the essence. Let us proceed to the Air Temple and bring swift death to the enemies of Heironeous. Let us attack the Air Temple!”

“Yes,” said Luger. “If we are victorious at the temple, we can return here later to recover anything of value.”

Syll sighed. The elf seemed visibly torn between the prospect of carting off everything in the lavishly furnished room and that of throwing flaming death at more foes.

As the party moved down the last, long stretch of the wide hallway, Danton’s sharp ears caught faint sounds of movement and what might have been whispers of conversation (listen: 9+8=17), and he motioned for the others to halt. Syll again cast invisibility on the scout, who then moved the rest of the way down the corridor (move silently: 11+22=33).

When Danton finally reached the end of the hallway, it bent south and then immediately opened up into a vast chamber at least eighty feet wide and over a hundred feet from east to west. The chamber was relatively quiet, except for a distant whispering, as if the air itself were playing tricks. At times Danton thought he heard someone whispering words into his ears and at others it sounded more like distant laughter or screams. At the same time, the breeze was so strong that it tousled Danton’s invisible hair and clothing, and caused bits of equipment to make slight noises as the air rustled through it.

At the center of the huge chamber was a fifteen-foot high square dais that commanded the room. A set of steps was visible on its eastern side. The dais and steps were made of gleaming white marble, with silver inlay. The south wall of the chamber bore a life-size relief of a whirlwind engulfing humans, elves, dwarves, halflings and gnomes, tossing them about like dolls. The north wall had a procession of eight white and silver tapestries, each depicting a demonic creature more terrible and horrifying than the last. The whispering wind made Danton’s skin crawl, and he felt a strong desire to flee from this place and never return.

Atop the dais was a circular platform of alabaster ringed with silver. This altar, for it could be nothing else, was at least ten feet across. Standing next to the altar was a short, overweight bald man with a dark goatee. He wore ochre robes and a long silver sash, and held a silver trumpet in one hand and a silver censer in the other. The air around the man seemed to swirl, dart and whisper with even more force and intensity than elsewhere in the room.

Although Danton’s attention was initially drawn to the dais and the man atop it, when he looked about, he could see that others were present. Standing just to the north of the dais was a massive armored half-orc warrior. Scattered about the room behind him were large numbers of gnoll and human warriors. Danton could not help but notice that they were spaced such that no more than a couple could be hit with a single one of Syll’s fireballs.

To the south side of the dais was a human woman with long blond hair weaved into braids with feathers and what looked like animal bones. This woman too wore ochre robes with a silver sash, as well as a black cape. She wielded a massive mace, and gnolls and men were arrayed at intervals behind and around her as well. Although Danton could not see whether more defenders were hidden behind the bulk of the dais, he was able to count two dozen men and gnolls scattered about the chamber.

Everyone that Danton saw was facing eastward towards the entrance where he stood invisibly in the northeast corner of the chamber and towards a similar entrance at the southeast corner. It was obvious that they were expecting the arrival of enemies from the east and had arrayed themselves to defend their temple. From what Danton could see, there were two more exits at the southwestern and northwestern corners of the temple, as well as closed doors on the south wall near the southeastern corner and at the center of the eastern wall.

As the air continued to swirl about Danton, whispering fell thoughts into his ears and mind, the invisible scout gripped the hilt of Rat’s Tail and wondered what to do.

________________________________________________________________

Notes for turn 75:

Please send postings for Turn 75 by the end of Friday, November 2nd.

Current date/time/location: 18 Kolovoz; approximately 1030; The Temple of All Consumption

Items gained this turn: all described in the turn and listed below

Undivided Loot previously gained: none

Items used/lost/destroyed/sold/left behind this turn: Sparhawk’s old half-plate mail

FOES DEFEATED:

Active party members listed in bold.

This Chapter:

Entire Campaign:

Current Status of the Party:

Danton (CURRENTLY INVISIBLE)

AC: 16 (17 vs. one opponent)

Hit points: 47/47

New XP: 630

XP total: 42,391

XP needed: 45,000

Equipment: 6 daggers, light crossbow, studded leather armor, quiver with 33 bolts, bedroll, backpack, flint & steel, thieves picks, 3 waterskins, 30 days trail rations, hooded lantern, gold ring engraved with the name Karakas, 1 sap, 1 metal key from Yusdrayl, Everburning Torch, old journal, 8 iron triangles with upside down ‘Y’ inside,1 inverted ‘Y” pendant in a brown triangle, new journal, notebook, pen, ink, parchment in sealed waterproof box, pipe, tobacco, metal box, whetstone, six packets of tinder for lighting fires, gold inlaid dagger, Journal of Geynor Ton, a folded piece of parchment with a note addressed to someone named Festrath, spider pendant, a disguise kit, letter to Master Dunrat, ochre-colored robe, potion of love, a dozen vials of lantern oil, masterwork thieves’ tools, Rat’s Tail (Rapier +1), silver and gold brooches, bracers of armor +1, potion of hiding, pouch of unknown dried herbs taken from the home of Tal Chamish, emerald pendant, a small ebony troglodyte statuette, a curved dagger, six sticks of incense, an emerald pendant, boots of elvenkind, 1/3 of Oamarthis gems, tattered dwarven book, pearl from the Dark Lake, potion of cure light wounds, nine inverted Y pendants with blue-green squares behind them, 3 iron keys from Fire Temple forces, inverted y pendant with red diamond background, map of Fire Temple area, letter from Hedrack to Tessimon, potion of blur, 2 vials of unknown liquid #1 and three vials of unknown liquid #2 (Turn 66), healing elixir from the fungal forest man, masterwork dagger, sack of random bits of metal intended to be used as chess pieces, 4 bottles cheap red wine, 2 pink pearls, potion of cure light wounds, 2 dwarven scrolls found on the balcony over the dark lake, cloak of resistance +1

Gold: 1025

Silver: 430

Luger

AC: 22

Hit Points: 80/82

New XP: 630

XP total: 39,241

XP needed: 45,000

Spell Selection:

Level 0 (6): Detect Magic (x3), Light (x3)

Level 1 (5+1): Detect Evil (X1), Bless (x1), Protection from Evil (Domain)

Level 2 (5+1): Hold Person (x2), Bull's Strength (x1), Silence (x1), Aid (Domain)

Level 3 (4+1): Searing Light (x3), Dispel Magic (x1), Divine Power (Domain)

Level 4 (3+1): Restoration (x1), Discern Lies (x2), Holy Smite (Domain as 10th level)

Level 5 (1+1): Flame Strike (Domain)

Turn Undead attempts left on current day: 7 of 7

Gold: 448

Silver: 0

Syll

AC: 14 (15 versus one opponent)

Hit Points: 43/43

New XP: 630

XP total: 26,910

XP needed: 28,000

Equipment: Ring of Protection +1, Cloak of Resistance +1, Urrtarr’s spellbook, Masterwork Longsword, backpack, 3 water skins, 30 days rations, bedroll, magnifying glass, 2 flint & steel, 10 candles, map/scroll case, parchment, ink & pen, mirror, oil flask, 40 arrows, clothing, longbow, 1 dagger, sack, 50’ rope, chalk, 5 torches, storm whistle, 5 bells, gold brooch, lamp, black cloak, inverted Y pendant, rose quartz gem, ring of climbing, bracers of health +2, 1/3 of Oamarthis gems, scrolls of Pyrotechnics, Protection from Fire, Animal messenger and stone shape, Summon Monster II, Change self, Enlarge, Sleep X2, Wand of Monster Summon I (8 charges), potion of water breathing, potion of cure light wounds, potion of lesser restoration, ring of feather falling, wand of fireballs (13 charges; caster level 6), potion of protection from elements (fire), suit of chainmail +1, potion of cure moderate wounds (X2), 2 pink pearls

Spells per level per day:

Level 0: (6) (2 used)

Level 1: (7) (5 used)

Level 2: (7) (3 used)

Level 3: (5) (4 used)

Gold: 3557

Silver: 42

Sparhawk

AC: 19 (21 when using longsword/shield combination instead of great sword)

Hit Points: 57/60

New XP: 630

XP total: 20,990

XP needed: 21,000

Spell Selection:

Level 1 (2): Protection from Evil, Divine Favor

Turn Undead attempts left on current day: 6 of 6

Lay on Hands healing points left on current day: 18 of 18

Smite Evil used today?: NO

Gold: 153

Silver: 0

Tenaris

AC: 23

Hit Points: 57/57

New XP: 630

XP total: 20,770

XP needed: 21,000

Equipment: longsword, chitin full plate mail, large steel shield, masterwork morningstar, 5 javelins, 2 troglodyte spears, inverted Y pendant, 30 days rations, potions of cat’s grace, spider climb, 1/3 of Oamarthis gems, cloak of resistance +1, black robe, Bracers of Kord (strength) +2, potion of cure light woundsX2, pearl from the Dark Lake, short sword +1, large steel shield +1, two strength enhancing wafers and one healing elixir from the fungal forest man, Masterwork longsword, Maicarya (flaming short sword +1), 2 pink pearls, longsword +1

Gold: 327

Silver: 30