Week 2

Day 8

We decided our best option at this time is join the Garrison and aid in what little ways we can. This of course entailed our travelling from the north-west corner of the region to the south-central portion where the charter is located. To aid in our travels Kelera sent a Lantern Archon to accompany us.

We traveled through the jungle as the shortest path to the Charter rooms. (1) After passing through a series of tests to prove our worth, we were allowed to pass into the Charter room itself. The entire group signed the Charter, then we rolled the charter up and took it with us. After lighting and placing our candles we moved into the next room and called it a night.(2)

Day 9

Almost ran into a group of Barghasts. We found them, they didn't find us. We avoided the conflict.

Moved south and found a magical laboratory, ransacked it for much needed supplies. As we left the laboratory, we were almost ambushed by a group of shadows. With much help from Shah Jahan, we were able to kill every single one of them with minimal damage.

We continued through the southern most hallway in this region. Unfortunately, it looks like the all the lights have been put out by the shadows or something else. We passed through a couple of interesting rooms with portraits on the wall, the second of which contained a fire trap which we successfully avoided.

After passing into the next room we were set upon by 4 shadows. Several of us took minor loss to our strength. After defeating the shadows, we decided to call a break. Found a nice cozy room off the beaten path with only a single entrance/exit.

Day 10

Very big day today. Nanashi and the archivist remained behind to finish healing. The rest of us moved forward. Back into the southern hall. We found another shadow in the same room where we were ambushed by four yesterday. This one slinked into the shadows, seemingly afraid of us. At the T intersection, we went North to look into the room with the doorway that leads nowhere. In there we find the All-Door. After setting up the all-door, we opened the door-way to Kelera. The provided us with additional healing, a ghost-touched rapier, and a potion of Lesser Restoration. She pulled the all-door from her side so we no longer have access it to, but we still have the Lantern Archon to relay messages if needed.

Upon leaving the All-door room, another four shadows set upon us. This time, Shah Jahan's rebuke attempts did not go so well. Boc took a major hit to his strength that even the potion of Lesser Restoration could not recover. After several attempts, Shah Jahan was able to rebuke all of the shadows. Selene was able to kill most of them using her spells then Boc's new ghost-touch rapier. Shah Jahan took out the last with his bow.

After finishing off the shadows, we continued on despite the strength loss. We made it to the south-west corner and investigated the secret door back in the U-shaped hallway. This lead us to another Ward-Staff. We stayed here overnight while our Lantern Archon made his way back to inform the Celestials.

Inevitably Wrong

While waiting, Percil found the group once again. During Boc's watch, he is approached by Percil (he does seem to have a habit of finding the group with a Ward Staff).

Percil approached Boc and claimed the staff for the Inevitables. Percil demanded Boc hand the staff over so Percil could return north to the rest of the Inevitables. At this point, Boc informed Percil that the staff was for the Celestials, since the group was now part of the Garrison. Percil asked for proof of this fact, at which point Boc pulled out the Garrison Charter. Boc then informed Percil that The Inevitables had strayed from the path set by the Charter and touched Percil with the Charter.

The sound of crackling energy woke both Selene and Shah. Percil looked like he was in agony at this point. Both because of the Charter and what it meant for the Inevitables. After a short discussion in which the group informed Percil that the Celestials would be down in a few hours for the Staff and Percil admitted that the Inevitables must be broken, he left to meet with the other Inevitables.

A few hours later, Sanjid and Sper appeared to take possession of the Staff. The group informed both that the Inevitables knew of their transgressions against the Charter. We also devised a way to inform the Celestials of any other major finds using the All-Door connection in the southern hallway near the Ward Staff. Sanjid and Sper mention they hope to meet with the Inevitables later in the day after dropping off the staff.

Day 11

Only 11 sessions in and we've accomplished so much

The group continued on its way towards the Celestial Hive. They have slowly been working their way there for several days now. The Archivist and Nanashi have rejoined the remainder of the group.

They continue north and discover a room with what they believe is a Hellswarm inside. No one is quite sure how to kill a Hellswarm, but they mark the door and continue. Just before entering the Celestial Hive, six shadows jump the group. Shah and the Archivist both take some strength damage before they're able to kill and drive off the shadows (killed 3, the other 3 ran).

As they enter the Celestial Hive, they notice the honeycomb shaped rooms and sleeping chambers. They explore the 9 lower rooms, the entrance into the Queen's chamber, and finally the Queen's chamber itself. It appears as if a heated battle took place here at some point in the past. The group discovers three few magic weapons, 4 potions, 2 rings, and 3 pieces of jewelery, as well as the third Ward Staff.

Their willing companion, the Lantern Archon, returns to All-Door meeting poing with a copy of the map pointing to the group's current location while they remain to collect the goods. The group decides to wait for the Celestials. This turned out to be a very bad idea. While waiting, the group hears a screaming wail that puts the fear in most. Then the sound of feet stomping the ground as something approaches the Queen's Chambers. Nanashi, Selenne, and the Archivist hide in one of the antechambers, Boc hides behind the Ward Staff's pedestal, while Shah takes up a position behind the Queen's decaying body.

A patrol of five goblins shortly enters the Queen's Chambers. The Archivist is seen peeking out from the antechamber, so the group comes out of hiding the the exception of Boc. The goblins want to know what the group is doing up here. When Nanashi explains that they've been searching, the goblins want to know if they found any weapons.

Nanashi picks up the short sword and approaches the goblins. After she hands the sword over, explaining that the short sword is the only weapon found that the goblins would be capable of using, the goblins split up and dimension door around the room surrounding the exposed group members.

It turns out that these were not goblins, but Barghasts. Boc had an idea that something wasn't right. As soon as one of the goblins appeared next to Shah, Boc let loose an arrow. During the several rounds of combat, The Archivist died, Shah put one foot in death's door, Nanashi proved ineffective against the Barghasts, Boc only slightly less ineffective, and Selenne able to clean up with her spells, the Barghasts were dead and the group was extremely wounded.

The question is now what are they going to do?

The groups is down it's only healer, every single member in the group is wounded, if not severely wounded. To add onto this, they can't stay where they're at in case the battle was overheard, and they can't afford to leave the treasure behind.

Day 12

March 9, 2008 (3)

After the battle with the Barghasts the group is both exhausted an on edge. They move south from the Holy Hive and make camp in small room off of the main tunnel that fortunately has a lock. While setting up the room, Shah hears the clanking of heavy armor. Knowing that the Barghasts wear lighter armor and the Inevitables make no noise, the group takes its chances and opens the door to find a humanoid wearing full plate at the nearest intersection. The humanoid is slightly shorter than a human but much broader, most likely a dwarf. Shah gets the dwarf's attention and the group invites him into the room. Once inside, the dwarven cleric introduces himself as Garth. He has been wandering the dungeon alone.

The group accepts Garth as one of their own, and they set down to sleep. During Garth's watch, he wakes Boc after hearing goblinoid voices at the door. When the goblinoids mention the fixed lock and Boc hears the two beginning to work on the lock, he wakes both Selenne and Shah believing that those outside the door are Barghasts. Selenne sends a Shocking Grasp through the lock almost killing the goblinoid attempting to open the door. Boc quickly warns the goblinoids that they received their only warning. When the group hears the goblinoids moving away from the door, one being dragged, Shah opens the door and finds two kobolds. He immediately puts an arrow in the back of the one still standing. Shah and Boc then bring both kobolds into the room before shutting and locking the door. Once inside the room, a short discussion ensues to determine what to do with the kobolds, since they are both still technically alive. Not wanting to take any chances, the group puts both kobolds out of misery. The remainder of the watches went without incident.

After resting, the group continued south to meet with the Celestials at the All-Door. The group returned to Celestial controlled space with Sanjid. There the group had the 4 potions identified they found in the Holy Swarm rooms, and left two of the swords and the two rings for identification. They group returned to the South-east corner (E8) to retrieve the war-hammer known as Foesmith from the pit trap(4).

After retrieving Foesmith for Garth, the group North, West, and South again to reach what looked like a fountain on the map. Here they found 4 Large Monstrous Centipedes drinking from a fountain. The centipedes, joined by a monstrous scorpion attacked the group. In fairly quick fashion, the group dispatched all 5 of the vile beasts. During combat Boc was the only one injured. While he resisted the initial impact of the poison, he succumbed to secondary damage. Fortunately, the group felt the energy flowing from the fountain and Boc decided to drink, immediately healing most of the of the damage he suffered (5).

Day 13

March 30, 2008 (6)

After resting, the group heads North into what they have been told is an area controlled by Shadow Mastiffs. Unfortunately, while leaving E90, Boc was unable to locate a Fireball and Lightning bolt trap. Fortunately, most of the group was able to survive mostly unscathed, with the exception of Garath, the dwarven cleric.

After checking ahead south towards E93, Boc returned informing the group that they had located at least a few of the Mastiffs. The group passed through an empty room before reaching the doorway into E93. Here the group found 3 Mastiffs waiting for them. The Mastiffs each use their bay ability which the entire group, with the exception of Nanashi, withstands the feat affect created by the mastiff bay. After a couple of rounds of combat in which the group suffers minor injuries while killing one of the mastiffs, the other two run from E93.

The group investigates the surrounding rooms, finding a room full of cogs(E97) and a room already lit with the sun (E94). They decide to pursue the known mastiffs through E94 and find them in E95 attempting to get the attention of 3 other mastiffs, apparently sleeping. The group finds the room in complete silence, the mastiffs are caught flat-footed. Selene and Shah both hit the mastiff's with spells. Garth hits another with Doom. Both Nanashi and Boc hit them with ranged attacks, in the process dropping one of the mastiffs from the previous room. While the Mastiffs are coming around, Selene drops a flaming sphere into their midst, Boc and Garth enter the room. Shah casts carnal touch through a spectral hand. Nanashi continues with ranged attacks.

Combat doesn't go all that well for the group. Highlights include the group getting jumped form behind by another 3 mastiffs. The death of 4 mastiffs total (out of the 9 faced in E93, E94 and E95). Shah driving away a mastiff with Scare. 2 mastiffs escaping through a secret passage under a mattress in E95. The last 2 mastiff in E94 running they realized how poorly things were going in E94. Nanashi laying the smack down on one of the Mastiffs that attacked the group from behind. Boc spending most of the battles attempting to get away from the Mastiffs after being tripped.

The group recovered, searched the dead Aasimar in E95 finding a pearl, a masterwork halberd, and a potion. They then went to discover how the Mastiffs escaped which was through a secret passage under a mattress. After following the passage the group surmised the Mastiffs are holed up in E100 and set about devising a plan to kill what they believe is 7 Mastiffs–but thats for next session.

Day 14

May 3, 2008. Yes a month has passed The group, with a complete overhaul (7) and missing both Shah and Selenne approached E100 with a plan. With the addition of the Dwarven Favored Soul; Claptrap, the Gnome Beguiler; and a Human Kinetisist; the group still favored attack from both doorways simultaneously. Nanashi, the dwarf, and the human approached the closest door, while Boc and Claptrap proceeded to the further door.

Prior to combat: The Dwarf casts Guidance on the entire group. Kinetisist creates a construct to dish out some damage. Claptrap makes Boc invisible as well as himself.

Combat starts with a bang, the group facing off against two larger shadow mastiffs and five of the normal size. The Dwarf casts of Waves of Grief affecting most of the mastiffs. The Kinetisist opens with a power that puts some of the mastiffs in a shaken state, while his construct waded into battle. Claptrap opens with a colorful display of lights to blind and stun two of the mastiffs. Nanashi put herself into position and attacked the nearest mastiff. Boc was able to slip into the room undetected and dealt a crushing attack to the first mastiff he encountered.

Most of the mastiffs retaliated with their bay ability which the entire party was able to ignore. Three or four rounds of combat ensued in which several of the mastiffs died, while the party suffered casualties of their own…none of which put any of the party out of combat. During this time, three of the mastiffs had died. Then mastiff reinforcements arrived with 7 or 8 regular mastiffs arriving through the door that Nanashi, the dwarf and the Kinetisist entered. These mastiffs immediately used their bay ability.

In the following round, one large mastiff withdrew from combat with the construct. Boc killed the other large mastiff, both Nanashi and the dwarf were tripped, Claptrap ran in fear. The dwarf hit most of the reinforcements with Waves of Grief, the Kinetisist used his energy missiles to deal some decent damage to most of the mastiffs, while Nanashi continued her trend of clearing out the wounded.

Two or three rounds later, Claptrap returned, the remainder of the mastiffs were dead, the last two with coup-de-grace attacks from Boc and the dwarf, and the party hurt, but not badly enough to be a major concern. The searched the room finding several useful items, see the treasure listing.

At Boc's insistence, the group checked the room just north of E100 and found Doj's room. Boc let Doj know that the Shadow Mastiff problem had been eliminated. Then the party continued their way north to Celestial controlled rooms and found Kalara.

The group was informed of the properties of the magic items previously left for identification, the Redeemed (a group of humanoids used by the Inevitables for patrols) had been released, and the schism between the Inevitables and the Celestials was on the mend (as evidenced by the tree situated between their two areas). The group spent several days with the Celestials trading magic weapons for armor for both Nanashi and the Dwarf. During this time, the Celestials informed the group that the united Inevitable/Celestial Garrison would handle the Barghast problem because the last Staff was last located in that area.

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Footnotes:

1. We approached from the north and entered the northern room first, but Amber ran the rooms as if we had entered from the south.
2. At this point we were informed that we gained 3rd level.
3. Nanashi was not available for this session.
4. We couldn't remember what happened to Foe-Smith after the Ward Trap. It may have actually been used since that incident by a character, but no one would remember for certain. To play it safe, we put it in the Pit Trap
5. We stopped here as it was getting late. Also since the group is slated to level up, we decided this was probably the best place
6. Sorry memory isn't work as well as usual, combat sequence is not up to par
7. See Characters for listing of changes that took place on Day 14