Divine Group, Session 5

The Battle Raged
The group continued their epic struggle against the Jarl. His resistance to most attacks was shocking, weathering arcane explosions, lightning bolts, even the holy judgement brought down by the Vessel of Raya herself. While Matthias and Sev managed melee against the giant, things turned grim when Jarl flung the skald forty feet down the hall and shook away the archdruid's attempt at a suplex.

Victoria took a defensive stance before Finduilas as the cleric tried again to send the life-mocker into oblivion. Again he resisted, now turning his full, bane-filled sights on the raptoran.

Matthias' Challenge
In a desperate few moments which could have seen the full fury of the Jarl unleashed upon Finduilas, Matthias rose to his feet, a bloody mess, and challenged his former childhood hero, a giant he had always admired and modeled his very life after. The harsh, yet honest, words ignited the last semblance of pride in Jarl Rhathgar's chest, and he summoned forth two dread wraiths, fallen giants hooded and draped, to end the pitiful northman's puny saga.

However Victoria's mastery of the undying allowed her to send the wraiths reeling. The window was open, the time was now, for Finduilas to finally overcome the blackest powers which animated the great king.

Jarl Rhathgar's Final Peace
And in Finduilas' strongest attempt, spurred by Matthias's endangerment, the floodgates of heaven flung wide and the awesome powers of Life were unleashed. A black hole formed in the center of the giant's stomach, tearing the wraiths and the husk of Sigfein within it before turning the jarl inside out! As a wave of hate-animated entrails shot for the cleric, a flash of sunny brilliance disintegrated all that had been of her enemies but for the giants' armor and weapons.

Regent of the Fist
As the group regained themselves, having fought a long and trying battle, Serren collected remnants of Sirocco and Izaki for resurrection. The immortal also tried collecting the new gear, but found himself unable to lift the Jarl's helm, mantle or glaive. He tucked the prince's gear within a bag and stepped back as a wrecked Matthias began to openly weep. Finduilas swooped over to comfort him. It was a trying time for all, Tasha balling over the loss of Izaki, and everyone feeling the gloom of friends lost. In time, the group lifted its injured or upset members, while Matthias wrapped his hand around the glaive...

An arctic wind blew through the complex as the skald easily lifted the weapon. Its surface froze away the webs and blood, shedding them to reveal an exquisite weapon whose craftsmanship was no longer capable in this age. Hand-prints and runic names of all the Jarls in its long line imprinted its silvery length, leading to blade in the likeness of a grim, bearded giant's face. Icy mist rose about it, and with it a chilled aura. In that moment Matthias's eyes widened, as he seemed to see something no one else could, something he spoke openly of as "his valkyrie".

While some were getting worried about his sanity, Matthias dawned the armor and helm. In a sudden cry for "Thorm!" he lifted his glaive-clenched fist and transformed into a towering frost giant! So bedecked in the Jarl's things, Fin could only marvel how much he looked like Thorm himself. Matthias made a pledge to restore the Fist and keep well the emblems of the giants, using them to defeat the enemies of the north. His name and hand-print magically etched themselves into the weapon's legacy. So stood the Regent of the Fist!

A Much-Needed Rest
The group proceeded to rest, holing up in Opal's chambers, perusing her things in the meantime. In the library, the upper shelves were saved from acid fogs and flames, revealing books on the Glacial Plane, the Plane of Steam, the Polarbite Glacier, Portal Making, Iron Golem Creation, the underflows of Yssidral Gulf, among other specific studies.

The holy ones prayed to the east, while the mages read, while the skald snored and the archdruid suffered a terrible vision. In it he saw the Archdruid of the East fall to the sting of a newly awakened demon lord. The world was running out of time...

Izaki's Second Tail
Fin took Tasha's collected tiger sheddings, using them to summon the Phoenix Fire and resurrect the casual ronin. In ten minutes of spectral flame, he was reborn, in weretiger form, naked. After overcoming the sheer joy of being alive again, he leaped across the room out of his suddenly-realized nudity. The girls couldn't resist looking, finding Izaki had a "second tail", spurring laughter, japes, and a bit of frivolity in an otherwise dreary dungeon.

After dressing in sheets and the scraps of his group mates, the embarrassed ronin spurred everyone to get on with saving the world and stop picturing him in the buff. He also found a terrible truth, that even with his sword, he could no longer return to human form. It seemed his returning to life through tiger hair had come with a price after all.

The Witch Doctor's Gift
Just as the group was readying to strike back out and find the Crawling Queen, the ceiling above Sev's head cracked and crumbled, raining soil and rock and unfurling roots baring a leopard cloak. A tiny white flower sprouted, sighing the last words of the eastern archdruid. Sev took the cloak, vowing to find the next eastern archdruid once balance had been restored.

Determined, the goblin led the way out.

A Vacant Level
The group emptied into a now vacant level, from everything they could tell. The idea was strangely unnerving. Perhaps they had simply killed everything in the basement, but somehow the notion didn't ring true.

Serren scouted ahead...

Don't Mess with the Umbral Widow
Serren first explored the southern tunnels, finding a clover of caves whose center held a dark and terrible spider the size of a grizzly with so sized legs. It was sleek and black and seeped shadow. The mage thought it looked to have crawled from the corpse mouth of Delilah herself, as it shed a fearsome aura. It seemed to know Serren was there, hissing lowly as it anchored in the far shadows, enough impetus to get the immortal the hell away from there.

He then explored the southeastern passage, finding a dozen giant-sized sarcophagi with blazing ruby eyes. As he approached one, a beam shot between two of them, creating a persistent red laser level with a man's neck. Gulp.

Returning to the group, he explained what he found, and they ventured to the eye-beams.

The Red Gazes of Death
There was a long pause before the red eyes as the group tried to figure out exactly what was in store for them. Victoria flew up and activated all the beams, vectored on a single sarcophagus that branched out to the others, and one beside the vector that did not activate at all. Unsure what was beyond the lasers, or why the sarcophagi had complicated latches keeping them shut, they paused.

Fin began studying the religious significance of the symbols and effigies, obviously representing very crude, exaggerated giants. Victoria seemed intent on sending a corpse guinea pig through. Serren went scouting in the unexplored passages behind them.

Before this strange collection of corpse sheaths with blazing eyes, the group seemed to rediscover their fear of the unknown...


Experience: 6880

Loot: (Opal's Trunk & the Library)

1. Bolt of Gold Cloth set with Deep Blue Spindle (5000 gp)
2. Dragon Scale Dagger Scabbard wreathed in Green Continual Flame (2000 gp)
3. Gold Tiara (1100 gp)
4. Platinum Holy Symbol of Raya inlaid with Gold (1400 gp)
5. Small Bag of Rare Spices (100 gp)
6. Ebony Dice (pair) set with Moonstone (700 gp)
7. Peridot Idol of Laz inlaid with Hepatizon (9000 gp)
8. Porcelain Mask set with Zircon (1000 gp)
9. Smoky Quartz Ewer (1400 gp)
10. Tooled Leather Shoes (900 gp)
11. Potion of Water Breathing x 2
12. Pale Green Ioun Stone in the likeness of a Grinning Skull x 2 (+1 competence bonus on attacks, saves, skill and ability rolls)
13. Ring of Protection +4
14. Wand of Slow (l3, cl15, 10 charges)
15. Scroll [Divine] Control Water (l4, cl17)

As well as The Glaive of Giantkind, Mantle of the Jarl (the magic chain), Helm of the Frost Lord, and Sigfein's mysterious breastplate and runic sword...

Objectives:
1. Rescue Ilpa/the Hoping
2. Kill Anansiel
3. Defuse the demons' portal network (the source of Shalraza's efficient troop movements)
4. Find and Defeat Shalraza the Ice Queen, Vessel of Delilah's Spark

Session Pushed to Wednesday

Going to play on Wednesday while I figure out RPTools and try and get us a program worthy of our time.

Divine Group, Session 4

Gimme the Loot
Before continuing on with their mission, the group divvied up the loot Finduilas had recovered from chests, webs and mattresses. As the Archdruid watched with mild amusement, everyone else took what they could use or looked expensive. Among the items, Gravant gratefully claimed his old armor and flaming greatsword Integrity.

Fork in the Passage
The large group collected, the paladin now in the mix, at a fork in the passage Serren and several others took the narrow hall up to a hammered tin door depicting scenes of Saspien. The immortal managed to unlock it, but a howling wind trap activated, blowing everyone down and out. There was a shriek of surprise, then a few moments later the dark sorceress Opal emerged with a sheepish hello.

Opal's Ruse
After a failed death spell from Victoria, an angry Opal motioned everyone inside her chambers, saying everyone didn't understand. Once Fin, Victoria, (and Serren) were inside, she triggered the door shut. Two wranglers dropped from the ceiling and one of the worst abominations you've seen yet emerged from the library: Spider Mother.

Its upper half looked like a bloated, pregnant mother with human and spider features, all the color of a sore, and the lower half that of a bristly tarantula. She proved capable of an alarming power, the continuous birthing of demonic spiders. It seems the group had found the source of the spiders on this level.

Force walls, Fire and Acid, Oh My!
It was a desperate battle, the group divided. Many spells and shoulders were thrown before coming back together. In arrogance, or perhaps foolishness, Serren attempted to separate the wranglers from their victims. However his manipulation of the energy wasn't accurate enough and he ended up slicing off Finduilas's face and Victoria's arm. More force walls went up. Matthias kicked down the door. Spiders died. Finduilas reattached her face and went after Opal was a passion, who had be slinging death spells. A silenced Opal eventually burned to death, and before all was done in the room even Spider Mother fell (the remainder of her brood tearing out of her stomach in attempts to swarm the enemy). Contained in a force wall, the dozen brood were tentacled and acid fogged to death... but for one.

Needless to say, tensions ran high, and it became apparent some no longer considered Serren much of an ally, in fact another threat. Before anything could truly be resolved, screams echoed down the narrow hall, a goblin archer's... then a tiger's...

The Restless Jarl and the Fallen Prince
Matthias was first down the hall, shying a bit in the face of one of his childhood heroes demented by demons and risen from his eternal slumber to become a creature of unfathomable evil. He looked terrible beyond reproach in his gnarled armor and mammoth-tusk helm, eyes red, skin a deathly white, gore splattered over him and on his once-pristine glaive of legend corrupted into a tool of Anansiel. Izaki's legendary blade stuck in his chest, though the creature seemed unperturbed.

And beside him danced his fallen son Sigfein, the sad prince possessed and used to bring about the fall of the Fist, but now with a twisted, rictus grin on his otherwise handsome features. He swiftly wielded a runed greatsword, cutting Tasha over and over.

Izaki and Sirocco were dead. Pieces of them littered the floors, walls, ceilings, and even Tasha, Gravant, and the giants. As the battle was joined by the rest of the group, Tasha and Gravant took point, fending back the dozens of demonic and monstrous spiders trying to flood the passage in search of their silent mother.

Matthias managed to remind them of their past lives through a dirge, but the peace was quickly broken as Victoria attempted to rebuke them. Sigfeing awed, but the jarl seemed less impressed. Matthias then leaped onto the Jarl and stabbed him with a live lightning bolt, someone persisted through the power of his Ixitilan gloves. Massive holy and unholy energies swirled as Finduilas and Victoria attempted to destroy and control the giants. The Rayan did manage to overcome the prince with positive energy, casting him into final sleep, but the jarl only looked more angry.

"I DEFY YOU!" He roared like the bellows of a hell forge.

The battle must be won. If this party, the world's last hope, falls... the result would be the destruction of all creation.


Experience: (humongous amounts coming when Jarl Rhathgar is done)

Objectives:
1. Find Ilpa/the Hoping
2. Kill Anansiel
3. Destroy the Portal Network
4. Find and Prevent Shalraza's Ascension
5. Win!

Monsters: Spider Mother, Brood Spider

NPCs: Opal, Undead Prince Sigfein, Undead Jarl Rhathgar

Places: Opal's Chambers, Opal's Library, The Unnamed Hall

Session Moved

This week we'll be playing Wednesday at 7pm. Just reminding everyone. This is not a permanent switch, however.

Divine Group, Session 3

And so the child was named Kalinda. After a prolonged rest amidst the idyllic landscape, the group was ready to continue through the distant dungeons of Veluvia, which now seemed almost like a fictitious nightmare.

Finduilas was hard-pressed to leave her daughter, despite Victoria's insistence, though the living felt supreme bliss in the child's presence. Matthias seemed to take on a more fatherly role, inspiring Kali to reveal something personal for Sev. If all ended well, the Archdruid and his barbarian love would produce a half-goblin daughter named Sevanna, who Kalinda anxiously awaited and called her best friend. Sirocco also took some time out to apologize to Sev for his poor service as protector, vowing to give his life if it meant the Archdruid's survival. Sev graciously responded there was no need for such words.

Finduilas's egg hugged tightly in her small hands, Kalinda waved them luck and well wishes as the group stepped through the portal, slipping from nirvana into pandemonium...

Back in the depths of Bladen Wing, the group found themselves in a narrow hall leading to a thick, oak door shut tight. The way back was barricaded with debris, collapsed earlier in what could have been the party's demise. Matthias kicked it in, inadvertently avoiding a spike trap with his makeshift bridge. They found this room to be a modest guard room, consumed by spider webs, and housing two spider demons of similar breed as those in the storeroom, as well as an ink arachnid the size of a lion.

Though the battle seemed momentarily overwhelming to the skald, who had his face nearly swallowed by one of the demons, the group fought hard to earn an advantage. There were slip ups to be sure, Matthias cutting his own arm off then Finduilas attaching it backwards, or Victoria's summoning of black tentacles which entangled, besides herself, a poor, tiny Sev in bird form. However, once the sloth was summoned, the squid limbs dispelled, the fire of heaven and mage hands delivered, the group turned the tide.

The wrangler spider seemed particularly formidable, able to snatch Serren from down the call and tear him to waiting fangs in one blinding move. It clawed and fanged in a terrible onslaught, as was its face as it was charred and charred and charred again by Serren's bursts. The demons managed to escape into the next chamber, slamming the door behind them, and the group focused on finishing the wrangler and saving the mage, who in a desperate move shoved his arm down the creature's throat and detonated an explosive sphere of water.

When the room was clear, the group took a momentary breather, preparing for what Tasha marked as something huge waiting up ahead. A natural spider crawled up Sev's leg and into the edge of his ear, delivering a message from Anansiel herself. It seemed their return was no longer a secret...

Serren bid everyone step back while he summoned centipedes from the garbage heaps of Torment's derelict city of Torpor. They tore through the halls and burst into the next room, the first of which was met by four blindingly intense rays that left it nothing much more than a puddle. The subsequent battle required the skills of every magic user in the group to summon elementals, monstrous insects, and cosmic bane magics to overcome the demon engine. The Warden Spider, as the two escaped demons referred to it, was a construct of a massive spider with pistols for eight eyes, each of which fired a deadly beam. Wisely, the group themselves remained out of the room for the most part, allowing their conjurations to do the brunt.

During the battle, the group happened to notice a man trapped in the webbed, iron-barred cell across the room. Familiar to some, it was a starved, beaten, and mentally drained Gravant Marr, former lord marshal of the city and commander of the guard. It seemed he survived the invasion and had suffered as a prisoner of war for months under the demons.

When the Warden Spider finally succumbed, sparks and flashes marked it ready to explode at any second. Serren summoned a shaped wall of force which managed to contain the series of fire, ice, electrical and petrifying discharges, though the ceiling and floor of the containment blew energy into the upper levels and lower levels of the dungeon. The final ray also converted the force into stone, creating a hollow pillar where there was none before.

The group raced to Gravant's aid, who'd deficated himself in the face of what he thought certain death. No doubt his revolve was worn to almost nothing after being subjected to the hideous tortures so displayed by the devices lining the prison walls. Between Sev and Finduilas, the once-noble man was restored to much of his former glory, though still strained and looking a bit unbalanced.

A short dialogue followed, where Gravant explained that Ilpa (the girl who holds the Hoping) was alive and trapped somewhere in the dungeon. He also explained she was actually a weapon of the churches of good, a creature a thousand years or older, though appearing no more than a fourteen year old elf (comparatively to a 14 year old human girl). He also warned that the demons were constructing a network of portals to link the places they'd conquered for quick and easy troop movement, with a fourth portal rumored to be nearly finished in the lowest bowels.

He offered to guide the group through the basements, which he knew well, and fight alongside them deeper down if they could find his armor and weapons. Serren checked the other cells, finding the remains of the Wolfson, what pieces weren't eaten simply exploded... from the inside out.

Finduilas recalled they had passed a chest in the guard room, and another by a cot across the room, and she rushed to collect the items before striking ahead. Meanwhile, Victoria ventured down the hall, this one seemingly carved so recently as to have not been properly worked yet. It branched in several directions, with shadows and webs apparent everywhere...


Experience: 2400

Loot (2 chests, under a mattress, and in the ashes of the webs):
Armor: buckler +3 (arrow catching), 3 suits of +1 plate of minor cold resistance
Art: brass mug with tourmaline inlays (311 gp), fire opal pendant on a fine gold chain (1,220.6 gp), mithril brooch with serpentine stones (902.8 gp), oaken staff, shod with meteoric iron, and smoky quartz gems set in the head (1,174.1 gp), ornamental silver skullcap, with gold inlaid runes and an onyx set above the brow (1,098.2 gp), pewter beer stein, 12 inches tall, gold-plated iron frame and handle, with hunting scenes (108.8 gp), silver & gold lock and key (971.9 gp), silver and steel slave-girl outfit (91 gp), silver chalice with lapis lazuli gems (93.1 gp)
Coin: 5,475 gold pieces
Potion: Potion of Bull's Strength, Potion of Cat's Grace, Potion of Owl's Wisdom (all cl7)
Ring: Ring of Improved Swimming
Rod: Lesser Rod of Metamagic, Empower; Lesser Rod of Metamagic, Silent
Scroll:
Arcane: Stinking Cloud, Displacement, Fly (all l3, cl5)
Divine:
Wand: Fireball (l3, cl6, 21 charges), Summon Monster II (l2, cl3, 14 charges)
Weapon: flaming greatsword +3, dagger +3, great axe +2, hand crossbow +3 (detect undead at will), 3 javelins of lightning
Wondrous Item: Manual of Quickness of Action +1

Objectives:
1. Find Ilpa/the Hoping
2. Kill Anansiel
3. Disrupt the portal network and stop demon troop movement

NPCs: Kalinda, Daughter of the Sun; Gravant Marr, Lord Marshal of a Lost City

Monsters: Spider Demons, Wrangler Spider, Warden Spider

Places: Kalinda's Plane, Bladen Wing Dungeon: Guard Room, Prison

Mondays Session Begins at 9pm

I scored IMAX tickets for The Dark Knight Monday afternoon, and considering the movie is almost 3 hours, then I have an hour drive home afterward, I expect I won't be back till around 9pm. So session starts at 9, and don't be surprised if you fight giant bats and grinning demons!

Tackling the Dungeons

Hey, all! Hope you had some fun last night.

Just wanted to present my DM philosophy on how we'll be tackling the dungeons in the coming sessions. Basically, I do want to get through them all, but time, pacing and patience doesn't allow for a traditional initiative, 3 hours of combat, next initiative, 3 hours of combat, etc etc.

So my solution is pretty obvious: We'll roleplay much of the grind, rolling when necessary, but for the most part allowing the characters to be the heroes they are and marking off spells and items as they're used. Then at the crucial moments, like the point in which the Warden Spider was going to blow up last night, we'll enter initiative and play it. When we reach a major boss, we'll enter into full traditional combat. I think this way the dungeon, combat and pacing will be enjoyable and fast-paced as it's meant to be.

Divine Group, Session 2

While exploring the storeroom, Serren discovered four spider demons and their web-wrapped mummies collecting dried bodies enough to feed a large force. As the rest of the group entered the room, Matthias tipped a crate, drawing 32 red eyes and 4 empty eye sockets in his direction. With arachnid shrieks of surprise, the demons and brute dead attacked.

The demons consisted of lithe, red-skinned male torsos with long, sharp claws. Their faces bore wide, fanged mouths and many glistening eyes. Their humanoid sections sprouted from where the heads should have been on their giant, black-red-orange spider haunches.

The foremost of their breed scurry-charged Victoria, biting deep into her shoulder, but pumping its venom for naught. Matthias and Sev met the attacker with steel and tooth, forcing the demon to call on its brothers for aid. Serren answered with a fiery burst that also ignited a block of dry crates. When Finduilas summoned shafts of burning radiance that struck all her enemies, another spider demon was finally provoked into using its most potent weapon: webs. It coated much of the group in cords of steely silk, instantly immobilizing them.

In response, Victoria rebuked the giant mummies from between sticky strands, forcing them to cower in the presence of a superior undead. Their wails were enough to mask the furious clicking of spider legs as the second and third demons charged Serren, biting deep but unable to poison him.

While the entangled group fought for freedom, Finduilas fired light rays which seared every demon and even blinded the second in their number. This all-encompassing attack enraged the fourth demon, who raced towards Finduilas.

The flames grew into a blaze, producing thick black smoke and consuming most of the crates in the block. They eventually spread wide enough to even burn one of the demons, though it grew apparent these abominations were not only resistance to many different elements, but able to weather a lot of damage.

Victoria siphoned dark matter to inflict critical wounds upon the enemy, though still they endured. However, some were beginning to see the lethality of the unexpected conflict. The second demon, already blind, burned, and wounded, scurried with wisps of webs like walking sticks as it made for an exit passage. The third demon attempted to stun the group to aid its brother's flight, playing its front legs at a mind-scrambling pitch. Little did it know the furious screech paled to what the group had heard in their war experiences, among them the last cry of a demon lord.

Sirocco fired another shot, but the screeching forced him to pull his shot. The arrow ricocheted off the ceiling and stuck his kidney. It wasn't long after the goblin grew pale, woozy, and then collapsed face-first. Meanwhile, Izaki still struggled in his were-tiger form to part from the webs, only managing to grow more tangled, and Tasha just began to stir from having fainted beforehand.

Matthias managed to break his silken bonds with a roar, and likewise Sev ripped his way toward a spider enemy. Yet the pull was so mighty, and the web so strong, that in his battle sloth form Sev managed to tear out a section of wall. The integrity of the storeroom became compromised and the entire far side collapsed. A deafening crash was followed by a wave of choking dust and stinging debris.

The first demon, cowed by such havoc, decided it better to flee for reinforcements, and chased after its second brother toward the exit. However, Serren waited in the wings to catch the first, second and third in an explosive sphere of water, which also served to dampen the air, replacing the dusty fog with mud and puddles.

Finduilas fired on the fourth demon, provoking it into a frenzy of gnashing teeth and claws. It even braved a devastating blow from Matthias, determined to protect his Finch. Still it came!

Victoria tried to end this annoyance with another critical affliction, yet the spiders survived. The second demon hobbled down the passage and out of sight, likely to bring reinforcements if the crash wasn't enough. The third again tried to aid its blind brother, spraying web in the loose direction of the waterball's detonation, capturing Serren. The first demon, on its way out, couldn't resist the opportunity to unleash its fury on the mage, and despite Serren's attempt at a spell shield, the spider would not be denied.

Matthias continued to tear at the webs, invoking an awe-inspiring threat which, though failing to divert the fourth demon, did panic the third. It fled, but not before Sev raked its back. Yet what was another wound if escape was in sight! It pushed on, all but the fourth spider in retreat.

In Finduilas's last chance to act before the demon was upon her, the priestess took flight and released a flaming breath over the thing. It accepted the attack with open arms and made a supernatural leap, very nearly catching Finduilas in what would have surely been a painful, bloody barrage. Victoria attempted to finish the bug off, but its spell resistance prevailed.

When the first spider made it out into the hall, Serren burst his way out of the webs and followed after, launching a waterball of such magnitude it not only killed the first, but also the second somewhere unseen. In an even more impressive display, Matthias tore free of the webs in a death-from-above attack that not only sliced the fourth demon in twain, but also supercharged its halves enough to explode in a rain of gore.

And following that display, Finduilas's water broke. The egg roiled in her womb and began a painful, brilliant, and hot descent. Then a VERY big crack formed in the ceiling, jolting the already crumbling walls. The roof was collapsing, threatening to kill everyone, and incrementally grew lower and lower, the space in which to work growing tighter and more claustrophobic.

Victoria attempted to kill the third and final spider, but it suffered her bane magic, Serren's fire and even a blow from Sev before finally dying. By then the roof was down to a mere ten feet, the mummies unable to even stand. Worse, Victoria and Izaki were still caught in the webs, Sirocco unconscious, and Finduilas immobile in the midst of childbirth.

Seconds left to them, the sorceress commanded the nearest mummy to help. It crawled across the webs and pushed the ceiling over Finduilas's head up, though the incredible strain snapped its sinew and began splintering its bones, signaling but a quick fix. In the tense moment, Serren cried for those in webs to burn themselves, while Victoria screeched to Laz, then Tameroc.

The mage rushed out of the room, dragging Sirocco's body with him. Likewise, Sev morphed into a huge green slime, washing Izaki, Tasha and Finduilas out of the room with him. Matthias, in a feat of epic daring, leaped into the webs, tore Victoria out, and threw her to safety. However, he was trapped, and the ceiling dipped to only five feet... Victoria summoned tentacles to support the failing mummy. Finduilas screamed like mad for her skald, knowing this was the end...

Serren conjured a weak fireball to free Matthias from the webs, also killing the susceptible mummy. In a feat of god-like grace, the skald escaped, falling into the priestess's arms as the head of the egg crested. On the other side of the crushing room, the group heard spider demons by the scores seething, and moments later the entire storeroom slammed shut.

Suddenly the ceiling of the safe zone cracked. It seemed this room was also about ready to cave in. Just as the egg emerged completely in an explosion of light, the ceiling fell crushing everything. The response was mixed, from wails, prayers to mad laughter.

Blackness... Then Finduilas's egg shone as a single star. Light spread, revealing the priestess, then Matthias, then Victoria, Sev and Serren, and Izaki, Sirocco and Tasha. The black revealed stars and swirling planes. They were floating in the astral sea! Finduilas's egg broke open and golden liquid light spilled out, swirling around the group, forming hills, rivers, forests and distant mountains until a new plane was formed! It was a great, golden realm with a mythic haze across it. On a high hill formed a new forge, a cross between the Phoenix Forge and a Rayan temple.

When Sirocco was properly attended to between Sev's surgery and Fin's healing wish, the group nearly collapsed from the sudden turn and turn again of events. Then the sun crested the far mountains, a fiery, curled figure vaguely like an infant. Victoria stormed off in a rage, while Matthias and Finduilas admired the new scape.

The doors to the forge-temple on high open and a great light spilled out. A lone figure, a child's figure, stood smiling, looking an awful lot like a toddler Finduilas but also brilliantly golden to the point of nearly being ignited. "Mommy, I saved you."

Fin let go of Matthias and quickly moved close to the child, kneeling to her level. "You did... you saved me and everyone else..."

She embraced the child and was embraced back. A new dawn.

Experience: 4000
Objectives:
1. Clear my dungeon
2. Find the Hoping
3. Kill Anansiel

Character Sheets

Yikes. My links are outdated and I need your sheets. When you happen to see me online, if you could send me the link to your character sheet that'd be great. Thanks.

Divine Group, Session 1

On the harsh, frozen Roam, the parties trudged, pelted by supernatural weather like acid hail and blood rain. In the snow-choked mists they watched monsters and barbarians flee, but the group's destination was their very source of terror: Veluvia, Shalraza's strongest demon base. Thoughts heavy with all that had transpired and been learned in the last four weeks, it was a relief when the groups met.

Sev, Serren, Sirocco, Finduilas, Matthias, Victoria, Tasha, and Izaki.

Reunited, the groups traded words, some warm, some skeptical, some mumbles, and made camp. Everyone became reacquainted over a fire and roasted caribou, new friends were made, and at least one foot caught fire. It was plainly apparent, despite the casualness, that both parties had grown in power and presence since last meeting (and one in belly size).

The next day the group continued on what they knew was the final stretch to Veluvia, though the biting winds had been replaced with thick, sickly cloud banks which blanketed everything in a stale, rotten fog. Victoria's troops acted as silent escorts, flanking the mounted party. Talk drifted to Finduilas's ordeal in the fire plane, then uneasy silence before thunder crashed over head and blood drops began to speckle the ground and group.

Sirocco, who'd been riding ahead, flew back through the fog in a panic, warning they were but a stone's throw from the walls. As the wind shifted, there came a strong stench of decay and faint chittering. Serren slipped into the ethereal, discovering what the others would a few minutes later as the storm picked up and tore the fog from the lower city. Spiders! And not the natural kind. They ranged from the size of dogs to horses, select few pushing the breadth of carriages! They swarmed by the thousands, the walls black with eight-legged, fanged insects. Victoria ordered her doomed legion forward just as the spiders took notice. There might have been a climactic and potentially fatal battle, but Serren's nightmare nudged each of the party members and brought them into the safety of the ethereal plane.

In that colorless, soundless reflection of life, the cloud cover was translucent and the highest tiers of Veluvia laid exposed. To the group's combined horror, they saw a two hundred foot tall titan looking like the decayed husk of a mammoth angel. It's bare-bone wings were still, in fact its entire frame thusly so, as it sat on the largest fortress in Veluvia like some sort of throne. Horns spiraled from the back of its head, around its jaw line, and covered its eyes... though no doubt the epic being could see very well, even with the storm rolling across its form. As the group continued to gape, half-spider demons in four large hunting parties left the gates, systematically exploring the area, likely in search of the group.

Victoria, torn at the sight, suspected she might be able to control the massive being, and at the very least was going to try. She entrusted Finduilas with her severed pinky to do with what she will should things go ill, and with such outcome likely the dark sorceress took flight, in the process drawing the attention of the half-demons (who could see into the ethereal plane with one of their eight eyes). They chased her to a point, leaping over walls, rubble and rooftops in hot pursuit and with supernatural grace, but veered away once they grew too near to the brooding titan.

Meanwhile, the group slipped through a crack in the wall and into the streets, flooded with rubble, corpses and scavenging undead. Spiders also infested every corner and crevice, though it seemed nothing in the area could tell they were there.

Hovering before the titan's horn-masked gaze, Victoria stated her intent in the name of Laz. In a surprising exchange, the being who came to be known as Tameroc the Blind expressed his vague awareness of his father Laz's return, and a growing distaste for his mother's spider servants. He most especially despised their Crawling Queen Anansiel. Seizing the opportunity, Victoria managed to make a deal, though at once point she nearly angered the titan into snuffing her out of existence. Recovering quickly, Victoria promised to destroy Anansiel. Tameroc said that he could not help, but he could decide not to do anything at all, even if they were seeking the Hoping. In a massive quake, the titan rose, revealing a hole in the wall where his back once rested. Victoria quickly gathered the group and through various means of flight entered in, landing in the lowest sub-basement of the mighty fortress.

Before much of the area could be discerned, Tameroc sat back down and all light was snuffed. It smelled of the dead and chittering abounded. Of those that could see in darkness, Sev was the only with sufficient knowledge of spiders to recognize the entire room was covered in nests of the most poison varieties the continent over. After informing the group, they became understandably paranoid. Hundreds of the natural spiders scurried here and there, but Sev managed to talk them into allowing the group passage through, as well as discerning Anansiel was somewhere down below, past earth and water.

Turning the corner, the group came to a sprawling storeroom filled with food stuffs, however the crates, bags and barrels contained the dried and preserved remains of Veluvians (woman and children) to feed the demons and spiders stationed in the city for the long months of war ahead. It was a gruesome sight that unnerved even Victoria and Izaki. When a fat spider crept out the side of a little, dried girls frozen scream, Tasha even fainted.

Experience: 2,800
Objectives:
1. Find the Hoping
2. Kill Anansiel