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Chapter 4: A Deeper Darkness

Turn 84: The Hand of Fate

While all of the others stood in shocked silence, Sparhawk got to his feet, sheathed Caladbolg on his back, and then shook Danton’s hand and hugged him.

“Good Danton, I am pleased to see thee alive and well! I know thou didst only strike me because thou wert betwitched. Set thy mind and heart at rest, for I knoweth that thou probably hath suffered greatly for the blow thou didst strike me.”

Smiling broadly, Sparhawk added, “I hath traveled back from the dead, for thou owest me a Furyondian red and tales by a warm fire yet!”

Embracing Luger next, the paladin said, “I knoweth thou hast raised me from the dead. To thee, I literally owe mine life. Thou art mine brother, good cleric. I wilt lay down mine own life for thee, though I hope never to have to, for I wilt then be deprived of thy friendship.”

Sparhawk next bowed to Syll. “Mine elf-friend, thou magicks hath saved mine life
many a time, whilst thy jaunty wit hath bolstered mine spirit. I shalt be the steel to protect the magic in our group.”

Finally, Sparhawk bowed again and took Tenaris’ hand. “Mine lady, thou art truly the ‘Lady of Death’ against our evil foes. Thy sword and heart art true and hath won my admiration many times. I shalt be there at thy side to help protect thy spy from harm.”

“Welcome back, Sparhawk,” said Tenaris, the first of the group to find her tongue. “I was beginning to worry that I would have to slice through all the ogres and assorted thugs in this place by myself!”

Sparhawk snorted and then turned to Varachan. “Please alloweth me to introduce mineself. I am Sir Peter Sparhawk, devoted and humble servant of Heironeous. It seemeth that we art indebted to thee for our lives. How didst we come to gain such an ally in this evil temple? How canst we end its scourge once and for all to protect the good people of these lands and of all of Oerth? And, what canst I do to thank thee for the service thou hast rendered us?”

“It’s a long story,” interjected Syll, “but don’t worry, we’ll bring ya up to speed.”

After Varachan had introduced himself to the paladin, Danton said, “Plainly, Sir Sparhawk, reports of your death hath been greatly exaggerated. The tears I shed for your demise now seem both needless and needlessly maudlin. No matter, for I am glad to see you hale and whole. And you return to us not a moment too soon, for we hath quite a bit of work to accomplish ... and that's just to enter the Inner Fane.”

Danton proceeded to read quickly through the copious notes he had taken since the party had met Varachan. It was a lot to absorb all at once, and Sparhawk struggled to keep up, but by the time Danton was finished, the paladin did have at least a rough idea of all that had transpired.

“Virtually everything we must needs accomplish lieth to the north and east of here,” summed up Danton, “killing Hedrack, seizing his journal, obtaining this godawful orb, liberating prisoners, and then managing to enter the blasted wasteland ... and thence to the Inner Fane. It seemeth to me that we'd might as well accomplish them geographically.”

Pointing at his map, which he had heavily updated based on Varachan’s information, the scout explained. “Methinks we should first liberate the prisoners, stopping nearby to eliminate Naquent. Some of the prisoners may aid us directly by joining us, and many wilt aid us merely by wreaking havoc inside the Outer Fane and causing a distraction within.

From there, methinks we should go south -- if at all possible, bypassing the vampire's lair -- and deal with Hedrack. He must die, plainly, before we art to seize his journal, obtain this orb, and enter into the Inner Fane. Speaking of which, methinks once we art on the eastern side of the Outer Fane, we may as well try to enter the Inner Fane from that direction, although I am not necessarily adverse to backtracking to obtain the gem and then enter through the secret passages in the Vast Hall south of our present position. I am merely of the mind that, once we art in the Greater Temple, we may as well move forward from there. I can be persuaded otherwise.”

“It seems we have much to do,” said Luger. “I only wish we could figure out where Hedrack and Ukemil are so we are not caught by surprise by either while fighting the other. Ukemil's chambers seem to be the closest at hand and so would be the easiest initial target. As we've seen, we cannot use fire on the lions, but other spells can hurt them. I think we can take them if we are prepared.”

Turning to Varachan, the cleric added, “Can you use your crystal ball to locate Hedrack, Ukemil or Naquent? Also, what is to keep Ukemil and his beasts from finding us here by our scent? Can we be sure Hedrack or Naquent or anyone else is not using another crystal ball to look at us or even spy on you?”

"I first used the crystal ball to spy on my rivals for power within the cult structure,” replied Varachan, “both during my Fire Temple days and since moving to the Outer Fane. Because both Naquent and Ukemil are loyal to Hedrack, I have watched them many times. Since my...change of heart...I have watched them for other purposes—seeking ways to undermine their activities and Hedrack's. There is always the risk of detection, but as long as I am careful, even if they realize they are being watched and that I am the one doing the watching, this would merely strike them as cultist business as usual.”

“Unfortunately,” added the ex-Tharizdun cultist, “I cannot observe or track Hedrack in the same way. He has always been blocked from my sight in the crystal ball. I suspect he uses some spell or magical item to accomplish this effect. As for whether anyone can track you here, I have taken what precautions I can, but nothing is certain. Thus you would be wise to get moving again expeditiously.”

Danton looked at Syll. “I know, good elf, that you hath grand plans inside this place, involving extensive exploration, extensive looting, and the liberating of prisoners. Methinks 'tis necessary to set aside such grandiosity, at least for present. Rather, we must move with a surgeon's precision, and rapidly, to accomplish the main goals. All else is secondary. Thus, methinks we must bypass the Infernal Device and hold off on exploring any other room that is not obviously necessary. By this way of thinking, there seemeth no reason to explore the southern reaches of the Outer Fane at all. Moreover, the weakened prisoners that we found near the Air Door -- their ultimate liberation must wait until the moment we depart the Temple of All-Consumption altogether. P'raps, when 'tis time to leave, we can throw a parting show -- that is, fireball -- at the Infernal Device, but, for now, methinks we avoid it altogether.”

Syll scowled and shook his head. “I really don’t understand you sometimes, Danton. Your friend Erky gets fed through an evil machine and you don’t even want to destroy it so nobody else has to suffer such an awful fate. You come to this place seeking ways to destroy this cult, and you don’t even want to bother searching it thoroughly for weapons or items that might help in the effort. And, worst of all, you don’t give a crap about all the poor people locked up in all the prisons here! Think about all those guys we abandoned out in the mines! Now we’ve abandoned even more in that dark room where everybody had their tongue cut. And, as if that ain’t enough, now Varachan tells us about a prison where powerful allies might be held, and we aren’t making that our number one priority? What’re you smoking, man?”

Stung by the sorcerer’s criticism and keenly aware of Tenaris’ gaze on him, Danton shot back, “While all the things you hath mentioned are worthy goals, Syll, we must retain focus. We cannot simply start liberating prisoners or destroying the devices of the enemy just yet—the tasks I hath outlined are gargantuan, and of enormous importance. That doth not mean that freeing the victims of this vile cult is not important or that it shall not be effected, rather it means we have other tasks we must accomplish first. I have not come to these decisions lightly, let me assure you.”

“And as I hath said,” concluded Danton, “I am open to discussion on any of these points. I merely offer them as what I believe to be the best way forward.”

“Let us follow the plan as thou hast laid out,” said Sparhawk, looking at Danton and then at Varachan, who had gotten up and withdrawn to the far side of the room. “That is the best path to destroy evil and rescue any prisoners in this evil temple.”

“Yeah, if all the prisoners haven’t been fed through the machine by then,” groused Syll.

Danton sighed, but chose not to argue the point further. “If Varachan hath the wherewithal to spy out the locations of Naquent and Ukemil, I canst think of no reason why he ought not do so. Plainly, 'tis part of our mission to find and eliminate them, and any intelligence to that end would be welcome. Mine thought, going forward, is that, using Varachan's crystal-ball intelligence, we should seek out the nearest of the villains -- whether Naquent, Ukemil or Hedrack -- and kill him or her, moving on in logical geographical order as we move clockwise around the Outer Fane in the direction of the Greater Temple.”

“And, as we move along clockwise, we may as well accomplish other things as we go,” he added in a placating tone, “for instance, liberating the prison with the ‘dangerous’ detainees, which wilt involve killing that hag. I hath already labeled that one of our higher priorities.”

“There seems no further purpose in waiting, other than we should place ourselves in maximum health and readiness -- for, plainly, there is about to be quite a bit of bloodletting in our future. Let us endeavor that blood spilt not be our own,” finished the Velunese.

While Danton and Syll had been speaking, Varachan had been doing something with his crystal ball on the far side of the chamber. He returned now, saying, “Ukemil and his lions are still out in the mines, apparently searching for someone or something. Naquent is currently in a library on the southern side of the Outer Fane, not far east from the door guarded by the red dragon. I do not believe either one of them discerned my scrying, but I cannot be certain.”

“Hmm,” mused Danton, “’twould appear that both are elsewhere, with Ukemil chasing ghosts in the elemental nodes of the temple beyond and Naquent doing who knows what. Methinks 'tis good news that Ukemil is out and about. I frankly am not keen on facing him, though I suppose we must do so eventually. Moreover, for mine part, methinks we should not bother pursuing Naquent in the southern library.”

“Yesterday you mentioned a Torch of Revealing and Black Thurible used to get the Orb of Silvery Death,” said Luger. “Where do we find these things? Also, does the red dragon have a name and does he hold or guard anything worthwhile enough for us to face him again? It may be worthwhile for us to dispatch him simply to open an escape route for us should we need to retreat to the mines for any reason.”

"The dragon is called Chymon,” replied Varachan. “She is formidable in the extreme. I do not advise that you take her on if you can avoid it. Fighting her does not advance the goal of wrecking the Doomdreamers' plans as do the other things I have suggested. If you want to open up a route back to the mines, you would be wiser to do so via one of the other doors. The Earth Door is guarded by an earth elemental, while some strange water beast protects the Water Door. These two wardens are formidable—make no mistake—but they are relatively weak foes when compared to Chymon.”

“As for your other question,” continued the man, “I assumed you already had a torch of revealing and a black thurible. The torches of revealing are long black iron torches into which can be placed black cones of the incense of dreaming that serve as fuel for the torches. The black thuribles are metal censers--black, of course--that can hold a round, ball-shaped packet of incense of dreaming, which is then lit, just like the cone-shaped incense used in the torches. If you do not have any of these items, which are widely used and distributed by the cult, you should be able to find some in a vestry located near the library I described earlier."

“Hmm,” mused Danton. “Frankly, though it seemeth strange, I knoweth not if we hath acquired any of these things in our travels. So many times in so many places, we hath simply thrown various and sundry items into our packs without the fullest of examination. Couldst you examine our collection of second-hand cultist goods and tell us if we hath all that which we need?”

There followed a good twenty minutes of sifting through backpacks, pouches, bags, pockets, and every other sort of container carried by the party. When Varachan had poked through everything, he identified the black cones carried by Luger as exactly the fuel intended to be used in a torch of revealing, and said bits of the incense sticks carried by Danton could be broken off and used in a black thurible. Unfortunately, it appeared that the party had neither the torch nor the thurible.

“However,” said Varachan, “the thuribles and torches are widely used by the cult and could likely be found in many locations. But I am certain that they could be found in the vestry near the library.”

“The more I think about it, the more not knowing where Hedrack is makes me uneasy,” said Luger. “I think we should make Hedrack the top priority and keep an extremely low profile until we find him. Freeing prisoners, killing Naquent, and the like is just going to force Hedrack to bring in more reinforcements. If we can take him out, Varachan here will be in a greater position of power to aid us and we can find our other targets easily through the crystal ball.”

Thinking out loud, the cleric looked at Varachan and asked, “Are there any detections in the Outer Fane for invisible persons? Can any of the creatures in the areas you've mentioned see invisible persons? I know undead can and I do not currently have the spell to counter that, but should anyone or anything else concern us? Does Hedrack possess any items to afford him True Sight? What about aura detection? Dispel Magic fields?”

“I do not know of any devices or spells in permanent effect to detect invisibility,” replied Varachan, “but I believe that there are a fair number of people and creatures in the Outer Fane that can detect invisibility in one way or another. As I have indicated before, the full extent of Hedrack's powers is unknown to me.”

“Interesting,” said Luger. “Danton, What do you think about doing some spy work? Syll could make you invisible and I could silence you from a scroll. The only downside will be that you will not be able to hear anything either. You could determine Hedrack’s location and then come back to collect the rest of us and eliminate him.”

Danton looked first—briefly—at Tenaris, and then at Luger. “I am persuaded that you art right,” he said. “Eliminating Hedrack is perhaps the most crucial of the immediate goals, and 'tis best not to tip our hat to him until he is dead and gone.”

“I wilt undertake the spy mission,” he said forcefully. “Indeed, 'twill be the apotheosis of mine career in espionage. I wilt find Hedrack and then bring in the cavalry -- which is to say, the rest of you -- to deal with him. We must eliminate him, and I am always of the mind that intelligence is the key to the best operation. 'Tis high time I earned mine keep in such a group of worthies, and this is mine chance to do so.”

“Besides,” he added with a wink at Tenaris, “I'm the best man for this job, bar none. For that reason, while I welcome invisibility, there is no need for any magical silence. I shalt move with the deftness of a cat and the silence of air itself. Fear not.”

“How exactly art we going to slay Hedrack with this plan?” asked Sparhawk. “Is he a viable target if we doth not know of his location? Shalt we instead draw him out into the open?”

Danton shrugged. “When I locate Hedrack, we will plan out the best tactical programme under the circumstances and act upon it. I doth not think I want to ‘lure out’ Hedrack. Frankly, I think from all we hath heard about him that he is a crafty son of a bitch. He hath not gotten where he is without being cunning, deceitful, suspicious, powerful and conniving to the extreme. He wilt not easily be fooled or tricked into showing himself vulnerably. Any notion that something is up, rather than summoning him to the spot, wilt more likely end up having him send Ukemil, those drow, or other such servants.”

“Frankly,” added the Velunese, “methinks we're going to have to go search for him and deal with him where we find him. I am cognizant that that is likely going to be in a place favorable to him -- his chambers or the Greater Temple. But methinks there is no better way.”

“I agree,” said Luger. “Hedrack is essentially the leader of a massive fortress - a mountain converted into a fortress. Though I doubt he has had to deal with many interlopers to this domain and I very much doubt he has had to contend with anyone breaching the Outer Fane as we have, I do not doubt he is prepared. If we were to draw him out, I would expect him to arrive with every demon, dragon and undead abomination at his disposal to deal with us as quickly as possible. Our presence and our successes cannot endear Hedrack with his Doomdreamer masters. He will want to destroy us or capture us and feed us to his machine.”

“No,” said the cleric, “we need to find him and catch him by surprise. We need to hit him hard and not allow him any avenue of escape. I fear if we have to give chase, he'll lead us to our doom. We cannot allow him to escape us.”

“That’s right,” said Tenaris. “We hit him hard, fast, and with everything, so that we drop him before he can flee, call for help, or whatever.”

“I guess I can live with going after Hedrack first,” said Syll. “It’s true that once we start really causing mayhem and whacking people in here, we will tip our hand, so we ought to deal with the biggest and baddest first. But,” he added quickly, “I wanna storm the prison as soon as possible after we ice Hedrack.”

“I am pleased that all art in agreement,” commented Danton. “Once we hath ‘whacked’ Hedrack and gained his journal,” continued the Velunese, with an air of insouciance, “if we still hath not obtained the torch and thurible, mayhap we'd best go seize said items and find Naquent and eliminate her before she can team up with Ukemil. Next,” he added with a nod at Syll, “we can liberate the prison and let the prisoners wreak havoc throughout the Outer Fane. Whilst that is underway, we can make an attempt to gain the Orb. And then,” he finished with a flourish, “we can enter the Inner Fane to have a showdown with the Triad and the rest of the Doomdreamers. Truly, ‘tis all merest child’s play.”

While Syll had a scowl on his face by the time Danton finished and Luger was inscrutable as ever, both Tenaris and Sparhawk were smiling and nodding at Danton’s blasé summation of the tasks facing the party.

“If that is the plan you favor, then so be it,” said Sparhawk. “Caladbolg hungers for battle.”

“This is going to be fun,” agreed Tenaris.

“Tell me more about these Drow visitors,” said Luger, pulling Varachan aside while Danton, Sparhawk, and Tenaris joked about the mayhem to come. “Where are they in relation to this room and what are they doing here? While they and the other peripheral demons and creatures are not our main concern, I am still concerned about these beings getting in our way or coming to the aid of whoever we are fighting at any given time. I had thought the Drow worshiped the spider goddess, Lolth. Are they here to form an alliance or to join the ranks of the cult or are they lackeys of Hedrack's? Does Hedrack command undead? Frankly,” he added, “I would not mind hearing more about all of the peripheral, as you call them, creatures that we may encounter through no efforts on our part... It would be nice if we could manage to steer clear of as many threats as possible while going heading towards our goals...”

Varachan nodded, "The drow pair, Maracla and Dirass, are fairly recent arrivals. Hedrack has sought to keep me away from them, but my impression is that, whatever they may once have been, then now worship Tharizdun. They are quartered to the south of here, just north of the dragon, but there is no reason to trifle with them. They have not been here long enough to be involved in Hedrack and the Doomdreamers' plot.”

“This whole place is a magnet for devils and demons, and evil elementals of all sorts,” he continued, “but all of these are best avoided. They are constantly coming and going, so I cannot say what or whom you might encounter. I have seen Hedrack command the wights that roam the wasteland between the fanes. Avoid all of these creatures if you can, and show them no mercy if you are forced to fight. At the moment, I know there is one particularly powerful cornugon quartered to the south of here--near the drow. I also know of a pair of dark nagas residing in the south-central area of the Outer Fane, as well as one illithid. The latter is known as Satau, and Hedrack regards him as some sort of oracle."

“An illithid?” asked Luger in surprise. “Do you mean to tell me there is a mind flayer here? I am no expert on them, but I've heard they do not ‘pick sides.’ Rather, they do what is the most beneficial to their own cause. I would not be surprised if Satau is aware of your duplicity, but has not found it advantageous to inform Hedrack. I am concerned that he also very aware of us...”

“The creature is a strange one,” agreed Varachan. “He may well have his own agenda, but I still see no reason for you to bother with him. If he knew of my…duplicity…and meant to tell Hedrack of it, he would have done so by now.”

“Good Danton,” said Sparhawk with a loud laugh, “In recompense for thy cruelest cut of all—in mine poor back, I shalt be glad to accept thy offer to buy me a bottle of Furyondian Red rather than merely drink one with me. That is thy light penance. What say you, master of spies?”

“I shalt be only too pleased to furnish a bottle of Furyondian red for our palates,” replied Danton with a smirk. “And, bottle in hand, I shalt be happy to drink to your continued health.”

When Tenaris smiled and turned for a moment to look at Luger and Varachan, Danton lowered his voice and whispered to Sparhawk.

“Moreover, if I don't prove mineself too much of an idiot—which, concededly, is not always the easiest of things—p’raps I'll furnish us another reason to toast the day. Time wilt tell.”

“Let us get on with it,” said Luger. “I shall provide what healing I can and then let us have Danton begin his explorations.”

Moving quickly from person to person, Luger converted a large number of his spells to healing (Convert 2 Detect Evil to Cure Light Wounds for Syll (+26 HP), Convert 2 Command to Cure Light for Tenaris (+27 HP), Convert 1 Comprehend Language to Cure Light for Danton (+9 HP), Convert 2 Sound Burst to Cure Medium for Luger (+41 HP), Convert 1 Sending and 1 Restoration to Cure Critical for Sparhawk (+59 HP).

Once all were in much better shape, Syll cast invisibility on Danton. After he had faded from sight, Danton moved to kiss Tenaris, as had become his regular practice when turned invisible by the sorcerer. He half expected to receive a slap this time, but instead Tenaris just whispered back, “Have fun, but be careful too—and leave some of them for the rest of us!”

“One last thing that I nearly forgot,” said Varachan just before he opened the door to allow Danton to depart. “As you travel east around the fane, you will eventually come to a room with a red glass pentagram embedded into the floor. The pentagram is a trap—unless you say the words, ‘The Dark God is Watching’, as you enter the room, the trap will go off. I do not know what the trap does, but I presume you’d rather not find out.”

“Agreed,” replied Danton. “Now, once more into the breach!”

As soon as Varachan had verified that the hallway outside was clear, Danton slipped outside, with the ex-cultist closing the door quickly after him. The scout then began making his way north and east through the Outer Fane. As far as he could tell, this whole part of the fane seemed deserted at the moment. When he finally came to the first door that barred his way—the one leading to the aviary—Danton checked the portal carefully (search: 11+16=27, listen 3+8=11) and then opened it slowly. The aviary appeared to be deserted, but someone had cleaned up and removed the bodies of the lightning birds the party had destroyed the previous day.

Danton moved across the empty aviary quickly, gave the door on the eastern side a quick check (search: 13+16=29, listen: 6+8=14), and then moved through it. He slipped quietly down the hallway to the east. At its far end—eighty feet from the door to the aviary, he looked first at the closed wooden door on the north side and then at a short flight of stairs leading down to the south. With his goal of moving clockwise around the Outer Fane until he found Hedrack, Danton judged that moving south here was more likely to take him where he wanted to go than would going north.

Danton slipped down the stairs, which went for less than thirty feet and then came to another hallway, which ran off to the east for a hundred and twenty feet. Burning torches lined the walls. Forty feet east from where Danton stood, there were closed wooden doors on either side of the hallway, followed by another short flight of stairs as the hallway continued to the east. Danton passed by the closed doors, went down the stairs, and into the lower part of the corridor.

At the far end of the corridor were two doors, one on the eastern wall and another on the south. For the first time, Danton was confronted with a choice of paths that both seemed like they could plausibly lead clockwise around the fane. He shrugged invisibly and approached the eastern door (search: 17+16=33, listen: 5+8=13).

The door was not locked, and beyond it lay a forty-foot by forty-foot storage room. The chamber was filled with crates and barrels. A wooden table was covered with tools of all sorts and even a few weapons. A large coil of silk rope sat next to the table, and tools and implements hung from hooks on the wall. Danton immediately recognized the value of the silk rope and he would have taken it then and there had he not realized that Hedrack and his lackeys might find it unusual to see a coil of silk rope floating up and down the hallways of the Outer Fane. Instead, he made a mental note to return for the rope later when he had the rest of the party with him. There were no other exits from the storage room, so Danton went back into the hall and shut the door once again.

Turning to the southern door, Danton yet again saw and heard nothing unusual (search: 3+16=19, listen: 15+8=23). This door was also unlocked, and Danton opened it as quietly as he could. When he looked inside, he froze in his tracks.

The room that Danton looked into was roughly the same size and shape as the storage chamber. However, it appeared entirely empty and unremarkable—save for a circular plate of glass that had been set into the center of the floor. It was five feet across. A red pentagram was painted onto the glass, and all that could be seen through the glass was darkness. There were two other closed wooden doors, one on the east side of the room and the other on the south.

“The Dark God is Watching,” said Danton quietly, watching closely for any sort of visible effect of the words. When there was none, he put one hand into the pouch where he had pre-positioned the refuge stick that Varachan had given him and then moved as lightly and quietly as he could into the room (move silently: 3+23=26). Nothing happened, as far as he could tell, but Danton was still anxious to get out of the chamber as quickly as he could. As he had done before, he decided to try the eastern door first (search:12+16=28, listen: 8+8=16).

The eastern door opened easily. Beyond it was a fifteen-foot wide hallway that ran east for fifty feet before ending at another closed wooden door. Danton shut the door to the pentagram room behind him and then moved down the hallway. The door at the far end was unlocked as well (search: 1+16=17, 14+8=22).

Beyond this door was another hallway, this time running north to south. Immediately to the north of the door through which Danton passed was a spiral staircase heading downward. It was made of black iron arms linked together, one holding the next, in an intricate yet disturbing pattern.

To Danton’s right, the corridor ran south. Its walls were made of a dark gray stone and displayed images in relief showing horrible scenes of human sacrifice, carnage, rape, and worse. The door through which Danton had come was incorporated into the terrible display, with a relief of a window in the door overlooking a scene of mass slaughter beyond.

Still trying to move clockwise around the fane, Danton headed south, trying not to look at the awful images on the walls to his sides. The corridor was initially twenty feet wide, but after thirty feet it narrowed to ten feet and then turned east for twenty feet before heading south again, where it remained only ten feet wide.

After the corridor turned south again, it ran for fifty feet before Danton came to an opening on the western wall. As he stood in the opening and looked into the chamber to the west, a chill settled on his skin. The temperature dropped noticeably as he moved a few feet through the opening and into the room to the west—just far enough inside to look around. To the north were three alcoves set into the wall. These were almost entirely filled with thick, mucous-like green goo. These alcoves, eight feet high and four feet wide were probably about four feet deep, but it was difficult to know for sure due to their opacity. A black, oblong rug covered much of the floor in front of them.

Looking west, beyond the alcoves on the northern wall, Danton could see a short hallway that led into another room. Some sort of black font was visible in the farther room, but it was almost sixty feet away, so Danton could not make out much else.

Looking south, Danton saw a long, wide hallway that ran for eighty feet before ending at a set of closed metal doors with some sort of demonic face engraved onto their surface. Down the length of this hallway, about every 10 feet, a purplish stone panel had been set into the walls on both sides. The panels were carved with intricate images of robed and hooded people in procession, each carrying a torch.

Having taken all this in, Danton moved back into the eastern hallway, rubbing his arms together to try to shake off the chill that had sunk into them in the few moments he stood looking into the other hallway. He then moved south once again, walking the last forty feet of the narrow corridor until it finally ended and opened up into a large chamber to the east.

The room into which Danton now gazed was fifty by fifty feet square. There was a closed wooden door in the northeastern corner—on the northern wall. A hallway extended off from the southern side of the room; at first this hallway was twenty feet wide, but it soon narrowed and then ran for another sixty feet before ending at a stone wall. Danton thought he could see a wooden door on the western side of the hallway at its far end.

As for the room itself, it was empty except for a large pillar that stretched from floor to ceiling in the center of the chamber. Each of the four sides of the pillar had an alcove in which the stone had been sculpted into a different statue form.

Danton moved into the chamber and looked at the pillar from each of its four sides. The first was jet black and depicted a tall, muscular man in plate armor with strange flanges and fluting. He wore a cape and held a wavy-bladed sword. The second side was dark green, appearing like a man swathed in a flowing robe with long sleeves and a high collar. Covering his face was a mask. The third side was a deep blood red and depicted a man in high boots, a doublet, and gauntlets of twisting design. A hood drawn tight around the face covered his head. The fourth side was a deep indigo-colored statue of a man clothed in a many-pleated robe with a girdle covered in strange sigils. His head was covered in a cowl and he cradled a scepter in his folded arms.

Even as he looked at the various sides of the strange pillar, Danton was struck by the fact that he had still not seen or heard anyone in his explorations. It seemed odd in the extreme for the fane to be so—seemingly—abandoned.

This thought was still going through Danton’s head when suddenly the door at the far southern end of the long hallway opened. Danton pressed himself up against the western wall of the room and then waited and watched as three figures gradually made their way up the hallway, into the room, around the four-sided pillar, and up to the door on the northern side of the room.

Two of the figures wore chainmail, long black cloaks, and strange lilac-colored stone masks that hid all of their features save their eyes. Danton, as one who paid attention to such things, could not help but notice that the two figures made almost no sound whatsoever as they moved.

One of the masked individuals walked ahead of the third person in the group and the other one behind him. The third person was an older male human with gray hair and a thin face and build. Although he looked to be at least in his sixties, if not older, the man appeared to be in good shape physically; he wore heavy plate mail easily and had no trouble keeping up with the two fast-moving masked figures. The man carried himself with obvious authority, and, based on this and the description given by Varachan, Danton was convinced that he now gazed on Hedrack, the master of the Outer Fane.

When the trio reached the door on the northern side of the room, the older man removed a key, unlocked the door, and went inside, shutting the door behind him. The two masked figures then turned and took up positions with their backs to the wall on either side of the door. Danton stood silently and watched the door and the guards for another five minutes, but when nothing else happened, he decided to withdraw and collect the others so that they could take Hedrack before he had the opportunity to move off somewhere else.

Trying to slip back up the hallway to the north as quietly as he could (move silently: 7+23=30), Danton was chilled to the bone when, just as he was about to move up the hallway and out of sight of the room, he saw the head of one of the door guards turn towards his location as if the guard had heard something. Danton froze for several moments, but the guard continued to look directly at him—or at least so it seemed. Danton was certain he had not made any significant noise, but when the guard continued to stare his direction, he finally swallowed hard and then moved off to the north. No sounds of pursuit came, but Danton still felt a powerful urge to get far from here and back to the others.

Playing a hunch and hoping to deliver as much useful intelligence as possible, when he reached the opening into the cold hallway to the west, Danton cut across it quickly and then down the narrow hallway beyond it, until he emerged in the room with the black font. The scout had a feeling that this path would likely lead him back from whence he had come, but via another route that it might be useful for the party to know about when it moved against Hedrack. Investigating this path also helped to take his mind off the fear that one or both of Hedrack’s guards might somehow have heard or sensed his invisible passage.

The room with the font was only twenty feet to a side and the only object in it was the black font. The thing was stone, and it was filled with clear water. Strange runes ringed the rounded edge of the font. As for the room itself, each of the four walls had a single purple tapestry with a black symbol upon it: an inverted, two-step pyramid. As in the hallway through which he had passed, Danton felt a soul-numbing cold here (fortitude save: 16+4=20; success).

For the moment, Danton was able to shrug off the chill that threatened to sink into his bones, but he was anxious to get away from the awful cold as quickly as possible. He had not felt anything like this since his experience in the gigantic chamber with the inverted black obelisk underneath the moathouse near Hommlet months earlier.

Aside from the hallway by which Danton had entered the font chamber, the only other exit was another narrow hallway heading north. Seeing no reason to mess with the font, Danton headed quickly up the northern corridor. It ran for forty feet before ending—with a closed wooden door on its western side at the far end. Danton examined the door (search: 11+16=27, listen: 17+8=25) and then, finding it unlocked, opened it and moved inside as silently as he could (move silently: 9+23=32).

Danton pulled the door silently shut behind him and then looked around the room in which he now stood. It was forty feet to a side. A long-dead corpse in the northeast corner hung from chains, old plate armor bits clinging to dried flesh and brittle bone, with a symbol of Pelor hanging around its neck. Other than that, the room appeared empty. There was another closed wooden door on the northern wall, near the northwestern corner of the room. A single burning torch on each of the four walls provided flickering light.

Although the temperature in this room was not quite so bone-chillingly cold as in the areas Danton had come from, it was still cool. There was also something else about the room that Danton could not quite identify that made his skin crawl—a general feeling of wrongness that propelled him quickly across the room to the other door (move silently: 9+23=32). When he reached the far side, he hastily examined the door (search: 2+16=18, listen: 19+8=27), and then opened the door and slipped through it (move silently: 2+23=25).

The door creaked faintly but distinctly when Danton shut it behind him, and the sound made the Velunese cringe. As he had suspected might be the case, the Velunese was now back in the pentagram chamber and, aside from the sound of the door shutting, Danton had felt obliged to whisper the words, “The Dark God is Watching” as he entered the room. For reasons he could not explain, he felt that someone or something had heard the creaking of the door, his words, or both, and he ran across the room to the door on the north side of the chamber and rushed through it without bothering with his usual precautions. The scout felt a fell presence watching him and he wanted nothing more than to be far from here as quickly a possible.

Now prioritizing speed over stealth—at least to a degree—Danton made his way all the way back north and west through the fane. He saw no one and nothing else moving about and before long he stood back in the western part of the fane outside Varachan’s door. The scout knocked faintly and then the scarred man opened the door to allow him passage.

During Danton’s absence, Syll had taken the time to determine the nature of one of the unidentified magic items he had carried for some time—a black wand (Cast Identify: Wand of Detect Magic with 14 charges). Danton’s invisibility faded not long after his return, and the scout took advantage of this fact by updating his maps, which he could not have done without being able to see them, and then using the maps to explain to the others all that he had seen and experienced.

“Yeesh,” said Syll when Danton described the area of cold and the feeling that something or someone had detected his presence when he moved through the nearby area with the corpse, “let’s avoid going there if we can. Ugh. Gives me the chills just hearing about it.”

“Danton hath done his job and done it well,” pronounced Sparhawk. “Since it seemeth that we art set on attacking Hedrack and Danton hath determined his location, let us be about it before the villain hath time to relocate. Let us thus begin our quest to rid this place of evil. Lead the way, scout, and I shalt bring up the rear to protect us, especially the magic-users, from being assaulted from behind.” 

“Just a moment,” said Syll. “Even though I think Hedrack will mostly use spells, I still think some advance stoneskins are in order.” The sorcerer then went from person to person administering his protective magic to everyone except himself (Cast Stoneskin five times: each party member (except Syll) now has 80 total points of damage reduction 10 stoneskin protection).

“We need to make sure Hedrack is really dead,” said the elf as he applied his magic. “I wouldn’t put it past that dude to have a cloak of resurrection. On a side note, when we dust him, I want to loot him big-time, but under the watchful eye of Sparhawk and his detect evil ability. We all need to be on watch for evil items. We are now in the territory of people who are likely to have some really nasty stuff—the kind of stuff that could bite your arm off or turn ya evil if you just touch it.”

“Also,” added Syll pointedly, “I’m not going to have stoneskin since I don’t have enough spells of such power available, so I’m counting on you all to keep the bad guys off me. If you don’t, I’ll be using this here refuge stick in a heartbeat and you’ll be on your own, so keep that in mind.”

Luger had a series of preparatory spells he wanted to cast as well, including Bull’s Strength on both Tenaris (+4 Strength for 10 hours) and Sparhawk (+5 Strength for 10 hours), Endurance on Sparhawk (+2 Constitution for 10 hours), Magic Vestment on Sparhawk’s armor (Sparhawk’s +1 chainmail is raised to +4 chainmail for 10 hours), and Greater Magic Weapon on Tenaris’ longsword (Tenaris’ longsword +1 is raised to a +4 longsword for 10 hours).

“Good luck, my friends,” said Varachan when all the party’s preparations were complete. “I intend to watch your progress in my crystal ball. If you succeed in slaying Hedrack, I will have to move quickly to attempt to seize power before Naquent or Ukemil can do so. Thus, I may not be back here for some time. Feel free to come and go from here,” he said, handing a key to Danton, “but use utmost caution that you are not seen doing so, particularly as long as Hedrack remains alive.”

“You have our thanks, brother,” said Sparhawk, clasping Varachan’s shoulder. “’Tis the will of Heironeous that hath changed your course and brought you together with us. We shall see you again soon and celebrate a great victory together!”

With Sparhawk wanting to watch the party’s back, Tenaris exchanged positions with the paladin and moved up to the front alongside Danton. Despite Danton’s emphasis on the dangers he had seen and sensed during his explorations, Tenaris seemed more excited than anything else as she and Danton led the others away from Varachan’s chambers and off to the north and east. When Danton admonished her at one point to be careful, she simply laughed, grabbed the scout by the straps on his leather armor and kissed him, then pushed him away playfully with another laugh.

The trip back through the northern reaches of the Outer Fane was uneventful, although Danton felt increasing paranoia at all the noise that his associates made. Although all were doing their best to keep quiet, the constant clanking of armor, creaking of backpacks, and the like set the scout’s taut nerves on edge.

Still, the fane seemed as deserted as ever, and the party quickly made it as far east as the room with the pentagram on the floor. Danton had the party outside that chamber long enough for him to steal the silk rope he had spotted earlier in the nearby storage room, and then he led the others into the pentagram chamber, with each saying, “The Dark God is Watching,” as he or she entered.

While most of the party members simply said the words quietly, Syll did so with a high-pitched sarcastic, mocking tone. If Tharizdun were offended by this, he did not make it evident, for no trap activated to harm the elf or anyone else.

Danton moved across the room towards the east door, intending to take that route and avoid the disturbing and cold areas to the south (move silently: 9+23=32). Danton was as quiet as ever in his elven boots, but unfortunately the same could not be said of Tenaris, Syll (move silently: 7+3=10), Sparhawk (10-2=8), or Luger (19-2=17). Some were worse than others, particularly Tenaris and Sparhawk with their metallic clanking and constant shifting of chain links, but collectively the group made a great deal of noise as they moved across the chamber towards the door.

While Danton crouched down at the door to do his usual search and listen routine, the others were arrayed behind him and scattered about the room (spot checks: Syll: 3+9=12; failure, Sparhawk: 13+3=16; failure, Luger: 16+4=20;failure). With everyone focused on either Danton’s efforts at the eastern door or one of the other two doors of the room, the attack came utterly without warning.

With blinding speed, something large and black fell from the ceiling and slammed into Luger, knocking the cleric off his feet and then hacking into him with hammer strokes from a massive blade (hit twice for 23(reduced to 13) and 26 (reduced to 16) damage).

[Initiative: Enemy: 27, Tenaris: 23, Sparhawk: 19, Syll: 17, Danton: 16, Luger: 13]

Before anyone could do much more than realize it was a tall man in a black breastplate that had fallen from the ceiling and begun hacking away at Luger with a huge black two-handed sword, the man was standing over the cleric, who now lay on his back, and bashing away at him with the massive weapon. Luger managed to block the blade twice with his shield before his attacker knocked the shield out of Luger’s hand (hit for 22 damage (reduced to 12)).

As if this sudden attack were not shocking enough, at the same time it was happening, Tenaris shrieked like a banshee and attacked Sparhawk with her longsword, which had been conveniently enhanced for her by Luger (Sparhawk hit once for 12 (reduced to 2) damage).

“She hath been ensorcelled—as was done to me!” screamed Danton as he got up from the eastern door. “Ignore her and attack the source of the problem!”

Heeding Danton’s advice, Sparhawk stalked towards the man in the black breastplate and swung Caladbolg with all his might, hoping to knock the man off of Luger (smite evil attack: 12+14+3=29; hit; 22 damage). The blow was a mighty one and Caladbolg flashed bright white as it struck the man.

"I walk by the light of Heironeous, who is good,” said the paladin as the armored man absorbed his mighty blow. “You art evil and must repent of thy ways. It is the only way to save thyself,” he continued as he hit the man again (attack: 18+9=27; hit; 18 damage) with another brilliant flash of light. “Otherwise, the judgment of Heironeous wilt be upon thee, and he wilt decide the fate of thy soul."

Even as Sparhawk hacked away at the armored man and, with his second stroke, managed to knock the man off of Luger, four beams of magical energy fired by Syll slammed into the man’s back (magic missile: 15 damage).

Syll was not the only one who had thought of attacking the armored man from the rear. Hoping against hope to be able to avoid having to fight Tenaris and determined to free her from the man’s mental domination as quickly as possible, Danton rushed up to the man and tried to stab him in the back (attack: 5+11+2 flanking bonus=18, 6+6+2=14; both miss), but to no effect. Rat’s Tail could not find a way through his defenses.

Feeling waves of evil and nausea sweep over him a fraction of a second before he was knocked off his feet and onto his back, Luger realized almost instantly that some creature of great evil had set a trap for the party. The cleric was actually somewhat surprised when he found it was—apparently—a human that was attacking him.

Still, Luger recognized a powerful foe when he saw one and even as he was lying on his back, trying to fend off its blows, he decided to use one of the powerful spells that he had been saving for Hedrack (Cast Searing Light). When his shield was knocked aside and he was hit, the cleric nearly lost his spell (concentration check: 20+9=29; success), but somehow he warded off the pain long enough to project Heironeous’ divine light from his palms right into the face of his attacker (attack: 9+10=19; hit; 53 damage).

The effect of Luger’s spell was like nothing the cleric—or anyone else in the party—had ever seen before. The holy light swept from the head of Luger’s attacker up and down the length of his body, causing him to scream in agony, setting him afire and burning his entire body to ash in a matter of seconds. The Searing Light spell was a mighty one, to be sure, but it had never done anything like this before.

As the ash from the man’s body fell to the ground, a cloud of translucent smoke formed in the air above the spot where the ash fell. After floating for a second or two, the cloud of insubstantial gas flew towards the southern side of the room and then under the door.

Taking in all of this, Luger was on his feet in a flash. “That was a vampire!” he hissed. “We’ve destroyed its physical form for the moment, but unless we want to face it again, we have to follow it back to its lair and drive a stake through its heart!”

Sparhawk and the cleric were at the door to the south moments later. The paladin wrenched it open and the pair rushed through into the room beyond—just in time to see the cloud of misty smoke slip through a crack in the floor and out of sight. Syll was not far behind, but Danton lingered in the outer room, trying to help Tenaris, who still seemed disoriented by what had happened.

“Danton! Get in here, now!” commanded Luger. “That thing just went through a crack in the floor to somewhere below. Perhaps there’s some way that we can follow—if only we can find it! Peter, you search too! Syll, start carving us a stake!”

While Luger and Sparhawk began searching the room (Luger: 18+0=18, Sparhawk: 13+0=13), Danton and Tenaris rushed in at last. Seeing a wooden troglodyte spear extending from Tenaris’ pack, Syll pulled it free and then used his right boot to break off part of the throwing end of the shaft. He then withdrew a dagger and began sharpening the piece of wood that he had broken off the spear.

While Sparhawk and Luger were poking around the floor near where the cloud of smoke had disappeared, Danton’s attention was drawn to the corpse that he had seen earlier hanging in the corner (search: 13+16=29). Moving it carefully aside, the scout examined the wall behind it, soon spotting a small button that extended slightly out from the bricks of the wall.

“Here’s something!” he hissed. “Make ready for anything!”

When Danton pushed the button, a twenty-foot by twenty-foot portion of the floor in the center of the room dropped downward one foot and then began sliding towards the south. Both Luger and Sparhawk were able to jump off the moving portion of the floor before it slid into a recession on the southern side of the room, revealing a thirteen-foot deep pit in the center of the room. At the bottom of the pit was a single closed black coffin.

Using Danton’s newly acquired silk rope, Tenaris and Sparhawk lowered Luger and the scout down into the pit. With Tenaris holding the rope, Sparhawk then followed. Once the paladin was down in the pit, Syll tossed him the makeshift wooden stake he had fashioned. Sparhawk slipped the stake into a belt pouch and then withdrew Caladbolg.

“Be ready for anything!” cautioned Luger as he withdrew Geistblatt and moved to one side of the coffin while Sparhawk moved to the other. “Danton, you open it and then stand back!”

The Velunese nodded grimly, and when both Luger and Sparhawk were ready, he gripped the top of the coffin firmly and then wrenched it open.

Inside the coffin was the body of the man who had attacked Luger. Although it still bore signs of terrible burns, these were slowly healing even as the three party members looked down into the coffin in shock and horror. The man’s head and face were already mostly healed. Yet apparently the vampire’s healing was not fast enough, for he did not yet seem to be in a condition to leap from the coffin and defend himself. Scattered around the vampire’s body were a handful of items, including a dagger in a scabbard, a necklace, an amulet, and a ring.

“Stake him, Peter, quickly!” hissed Luger.

The paladin sheathed Caladbolg and withdrew the stake. He stood over the body of the vampire and gripped the small wooden weapon with both hands. With only a second’s hesitation, Sparhawk drove the stake into the vampire’s chest. When he did so, the body did not explode into fire or dust as the paladin had thought it might, but the slow healing of the body that he and the others had seen previously did immediately cease.

“Is it done?” asked Danton, looking down into the coffin. “Have we destroyed it permanently?”

“There are other precautions we must still take to ensure it never rises again,” said Luger, “but, yes, as long as the stake is in its heart, we have nothing more to fear.”

After Sparhawk drove the stake through the vampire’s heart, he found himself looking at its face once again. Something about the vampire had been nagging the paladin in the back of his mind ever since it had first attacked Luger in the chamber to the north. But with all the subsequent excitement, he had not had a moment of peace to stop and think about it—until now. Danton and Luger continued to chat about the various means of dealing with vampires, but Sparhawk ignored them and continued to look down at the vampire’s face. There was just something…

Suddenly realization dawned with such force that Sparhawk felt the world around him spinning. He felt light-headed, giddy even, as the enormity of it all sank in. The paladin’s knees buckled and he stumbled back from the coffin until he bumped into the wall of the pit.

“Sparhawk, are you all right?” asked Danton, looking away from Luger at the sound of Sparhawk bumping into the wall. “What is it?”

Seemingly unable to do anything other than stare at the body in the coffin, Sparhawk fumbled at one of the pouches at his side until he withdrew a single coin—a Furyondian gold piece, known officially as a ‘wheatsheaf’, the second most valuable coinage minted by the government of Sparhawk’s homeland. He looked down briefly at the front side of the coin, and then flipped it to Danton.

“Peter? What is going on?” asked Luger with concern, even as Danton caught the coin the paladin had tossed.

Danton looked down at the coin. Like all Furyondian gold pieces, it had the image of the royal palace in Chendl on the back and a likeness of a member of the royal family on the front—long lost Crown Prince Thrommel to be specific—on the front.

Danton looked at the front and back of the coin in confusion, then back at Sparhawk again, and finally down at the body in the coffin. When he did so, his breath caught in his throat.

“That man…in the coffin,” said Sparhawk slowly, finally regaining his voice and pushing off from the wall of the pit to draw close to the coffin again, “is none other than Crown Prince Thrommel, Knight-Marshall of Furyondy, Provost of Veluna, hero of the battle of Emridy Meadows, and—with the recent death of his father, King Belvor IV—the rightful ruler of Furyondy. And we—that is I—hath just slain him.”

________________________________________________________________

Notes for turn 85:

Please send postings for Turn 85 by the end of Friday, February 22nd.

Syll has earned enough XP for 9^th level. Please do the usual level-up and provide me the changes along with an updated copy of his character sheet.

Current date/time/location: 22 Kolovoz; approximately 1100; The Outer Fane of the Temple of All Consumption

Items gained this turn: key to Varachan’s chamber, 200’ silk rope

Items used/lost/destroyed/sold/left behind this turn: Tenaris’ troglodyte spear

Undivided items: none

FOES DEFEATED:

Active party members listed in bold.

This Chapter:

Entire Campaign:

Current Status of the Party:

Danton (80 points stoneskin)

AC: 17 (18 vs. one opponent)

Hit points: 51/51

New XP: 3240

XP total: 54,619

XP needed: 55,000

Equipment: 6 daggers, light crossbow, studded leather armor +1, quiver with 23 bolts, bedroll, backpack, flint & steel, thieves picks, 3 waterskins, 24 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, 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, 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, 2 dwarven scrolls found on the balcony over the dark lake, cloak of resistance +1, Fachish’s papers, letter from Hedrack to Terrenygit, potion of cure light wounds, Naquent letter to Dunrat, 3 Greater Slaying Arrows (humans), one refuge stick, key to Varachan’s quarters, 200’ silk rope

Gold: 1025

Silver: 430

Luger (50 points stoneskin)

AC: 22

Hit Points: 40/91

New XP: 3240

XP total: 51,369

XP needed: 55,000

Equipment: masterwork heavy mace, chainmail +1, masterwork large steel shield, light crossbow, 13 bolts, 3 belt pouches, large bag, 50’ rope, flint & steel, 24 days rations, silver holy symbol of Heironeus, 3 healer’s kits, backpack, cleric’s vestment, traveler’s clothing, 3 waterskins, bedroll, iron triangle with upside down ‘Y’ inside, eight cockatrice feathers, scroll of cure disease, Geistblatt (ghost touch longsword +1), 5 vials of Furyondian Fire, cloak of resistance +1 (+1 to all saves), potions of reduce, nondetection, 2 silver and 2 gold brooches from Woodstock, tattered black cloak with burning eye emblazoned on it, note from Master Hedrack to Master Uskathoth (in Draconic), one large triangular metal bar and one large diamond shaped metal bar, 2 emerald endants, book on history and worship of Elder Elemental Eye cult, one inverted Y pendant in brown triangles, scroll with remove paralysis and protection from elements, Oamarthis note, 3 books: The Worship of the Elder Elemental Eye, A History of Evil Cults, and The Temple of Elemental Evil, Aseneth’s House Torquann dragon ring, ring of jumping (+30 to jumping checks), 1 iron triangle with inverted ‘Y’, three black cones made of some unknown substance, a black scepter decorated with a half dozen violet gems, metal scroll tube, one inverted ziggurat pendant; scrolls of contagion, greater magic weapon, bracers of health +2, scroll of bless, hold person, and dispel magic, 2 pink pearls, large steel shield +1, scroll with neutralize poison and silence, purple lamp (everburning torch), unknown magic morningstar, scroll with three Cure Serious Wounds spells, one Neutralize Poison spell, one Remove Disease spell, and one Remove Curse spell, scroll with Resurrection, Greater Dispelling, Heal, and Restoration, one refuge stick

Spell Selection

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

Level 1 (5+1): Protection from Evil (Domain)

Level 2 (5+1): Aid (Domain)

Level 3 (4+1): Searing Light (x2), Dispel Magic (x1)

Level 4 (4+1): Divine Power (x1), Holy Smite (Domain as 11th level)

Level 5 (2+1): Flame Strike (x1), Flame Strike (Domain)

Syll

AC: 15 (16 versus one opponent)

Hit Points: 38/50

New XP: 3240

XP total: 39,138

XP needed: 36,000

Equipment: Ring of Protection +1, Cloak of Resistance +1, Urrtarr’s spellbook, Masterwork Longsword, backpack, 3 water skins, 24 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, Summon Monster II, Change self, Enlarge, Sleep X2, Wand of Monster Summon I (8 charges), potion of water breathing, potion of lesser restoration, ring of feather falling, wand of fireballs (12 charges; caster level 6), potion of protection from elements (fire), potion of cure moderate wounds, 2 pink pearls, eyes of the eagle (+5 to all spot checks), gauntlets of Kord (not worn), scrolls of blink and shield, wand of detect magic (14 charges), unknown potion from the battle at the western bridge complex, one refuge stick

Spells per level per day:

Level 0: (6)

Level 1: (7) 2 used

Level 2: (7) 1 used

Level 3: (6)

Level 4: (4) 4 used

Gold: 3737

Silver: 42

Sparhawk (70 points stoneskin; +5 Temporary Strength, +2 Temporary Constitution)

AC: 17 (19 when using longsword/shield combination instead of great sword) (AC temporarily 20/22 due to Magical Vestment)

Hit Points: 64/66 (temporarily 71/73 due to Endurance)

New XP: 3240

XP total: 25,543

XP needed: 28,000

Equipment: backpack, water skin, 24 days rations, bedroll, tent, 2 daggers, masterwork great sword (Justice), longsword, composite longbow, 1 quiver with 10 arrows, ink & inkpen, 50’ silk rope, whetstone, 1 vial holy water, masterwork large steel shield, 2 candles, signet ring and sealing wax, gilded warhorn, chalk, 2 mirrors, flint & steel, 5 pitons, 20 pieces parchment, 2 empty sacks, silver holy symbol of Heironeous, Everburning Torch, black cloak, inverted Y pendant, gauntlets of dexterity +2, pearl from the Dark Lake, gold-inlaid black urn, Tessimon’s jewelry box, golden orb set with amber, Book of the Dark Eye, Caladbolg (barbed great sword +1 with special properties), two dark vision potions and one strength enhancing wafer from the fungal forest man, 2 pink pearls, suit of chainmail +1, cloak of resistance +1, unknown magic club

Spell Selection:

Level 1 (2):

Turn Undead attempts left on current day: 6 of 6

Lay on Hands healing points left on current day: 21 of 21

Smite Evil used today?: No

Gold: 333

Silver: 0

Tenaris (80 points stoneskin, +4 Temporary Strength, Longsword temporarily +4)

AC: 23

Hit Points: 58/76

New XP: 3240

XP total: 22,998

XP needed: 36,000

Equipment: longsword, chitin full plate mail, large steel shield, masterwork morningstar, 4 javelins, inverted Y pendant, 24 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, 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, golden dagger, golden necklace, 2 vials Furyondian fire oil, slippers of spider climbing, one refuge stick, potions of haste, bull’s strength, and heroism

Gold: 507

Silver: 30