Merric Blackman
Australia
Waubra
Victoria
Ramping up my reviewing.
Happily playing games for many, many years.
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Our latest session of the Greyhawk campaign found the group in the middle of the Lost City, having penetrated the Forbidden Archive and overcome most of its encounters, but still needed to find the treasure they'd come to find: the body of an Exarch of Kaima, Goddess of Rebirth.
Participating in this session were the following players and characters:
Maximilian the Bard - Adam
Geran the Cleric of Zodal & Pelor - Chris
Drakuld the Paladin - Rich
Kurgan the Ranger - Josh
Riardon the Psion - Martin
Frath the Thief - NPC Companion (hired & controlled by Adam)
The characters are now 14th and 15th level, with most PCs reaching 15th or 16th level by the end of the session. (There's some debate over the level reached by the new characters, but I'll let them work that out themselves.)
The session began with the group debating whether to climb the stairs in their current chamber, go through the magic circle that they'd finally activated, or enter the chamber that the ogre mage had emerged from. Eventually, Riardon sent his astral form into the ogre mage's chamber, and reported back that it was safe to enter. Well, sort of - if you left it by one of the two passages that led to it, you'd activate a tainted scrying pool which caused feedback to destroy the projection and daze Riardon. The group entered by the other passage.
There they found a number of books for giants; quite difficult to read and carry. Max still had his comprehend languages ritual in effect, and so was able to find a couple of rather interesting books: the first was about The Waterworks of Kadralhu, which described the ingenious scheme of sewers and channels that lead to and from the Waterworks, as well as the facility itself. The Waterworks was the place where all the water in the city was created, distributed from, and purified upon its return. Strangely, it seemed that some areas of the map were left blank and not mentioned in the text.
The other book was on the Symbology of Kaima, describing how the goddess Kaima's symbols all appeared in threes - representing Life, Death and a third state something like Hibernation. It also mentioned the importance of the blood of the goddess, and how it was often represented as flowing water. Both books didn't seem that important at the present time, but - hey - Max is a bard and knowledge is always great for them.
The group then ascended the stairs to find a vault or museum of sorts - various magical artefacts were stored here, all with a necromantic flavour. A magical wall of force prevented the group from accessing them, but when they attempted to remove it, they managed to strengthen it by mistake. They resolved to come back the next day to try again (as it should have weakened by then).
So, it was time to go through the magic circle: the teleportation effect led them to a spherical chamber in which a sarcophagus held a large, reptilian humanoid: Sohm Parahni, Exarch of Kaima. Geran used the Last Sight Vision ritual to discover that Sohm had died in combat with giants, and Max used Tenser's Floating Disc to lift his sarcophagus out of the chamber and back to the oklu (with Kurgan and Drakuld aiding it along).
The oklu of the Cult of Rebirth were ecstatic to have Sohm Parahni's body in their possession, and wasted no time in setting up the revivification ritual; the party were invited as one might expect. Unfortunately, it didn't go as planned: Sohm Parahni's spirit refused to return and a backlash from the ritual animated all the giant corpses around! Soon the party were facing two hill giant mummies, two fire giant mummies and two frost giant mummies! (Poor Drakuld, on zero healing surges and the party's defender, was not sanguine about how the combat would go).
Luckily, having a couple of characters who could deal radiant damage made things go a lot better than they otherwise might have; the battle took place over a wide area, with the fire giant mummies throwing fire, the hill giants engaging in melee, and all the mummies cursing the characters and making things uncomfortable for them. Kurgan and Geran were in the heart of the action, with Drakuld weakening and dazing one of the hill giants and making sure it couldn't interfere with the others.
In the midst of the combat, one of the oklu, Omna, returned to undo the ritual. Max helped him, and although it couldn't stop the giants altogether, it did weaken them. Eventually, all of the giants fell and though a few oklu cultists had perished, all the group were still alive. The oklu of the Cult of Rebirth were chastened and allowed the group sanctuary to take a well-deserved rest.
The next morning, the group went in search of Archibald, who was apparently aiding the other oklu of this enclave - along with some ghostly giants that still remained in the area. They didn't have much trouble in finding him, but, unfortunately, it seemed that Archibald had raided the Forbidden Archive while they were sleeping and liberated one of the necromantic artefacts of the vault: a suit of armour that allowed one of the spirit giants to become corporeal again!
Archibald and Gromley fled as the giants attacked the party. This was a difficult combat, as most of the giants were insubstantial! That could be overcome if they took enough radiant damage, which both Geran and Drakuld were capable of, but it still didn't make for an easy battle.
The giants were overcome - and a suit of elven chainmail gained - but given the damage some of the group had taken, it was time for another extended rest. Archibald was nowhere to be seen: it seems he'd escaped again!
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Ramping up my reviewing.
