7th Day of Brewfest, CY 580 - Jarrus and crew explore further into the ToEE ruins

Part 1 - The Temple Ruins

After retreating from near death by black pudding, Jarrus, Othmar and Dardac returned to camp where Janziduur was able to apply some healing. Jarrus inspected his armor and weapon and saw the damage the pudding had wrought to the metal. It was still functional, but some of the magic had been worn away, making it less effective than it once was. Perhaps there is a way to restore its luster, but for now, he would have to make due. After discussing what to do next, the party decided to rest overnight and then delve in again, hoping to find the source of the evil that still taints the land and whatever was creating these monstrous undead.

Before venturing back into the temple, Janziduur cast Negative Plane Protection and Protection from Evil on each of the three party members. They then went exploring. Whatever was left of the black pudding was gone. Exploration of the remaining, accessible portions of the third level of the temple seemed clear, though there were plenty of track marks around to indicate zombie bugbears have been roaming around. The upper levels were completely collapsed, as were portions of the third level, so, after exploring as much as they could, the party took the steps down to the fourth level.

"This is where we fought Hedrack and came face to face with Iuz," Jarrus told a skeptical Othmar. The air down at this level was very cold, though not quite freezing. Luckily Othmar was able to find some clothing and an extra cloak in a storage room on the level above, after the pudding burned away what he had been wearing before. Six more bugbear zombies were found on this level, and they were as tough as ever. They were slow and didn't hit very often, but they sure packed a punch, as Jarrus lost more than half of his hit points in a tough fight. But the group eventually prevailed and were able to move on.

Further up the hall, as they approached the altar where Iuz had been summoned, a crack appeared in the middle of the floor and widened as it went down the hall. The party had to choose to be on one side or the other and chose the left side. On either side of the altar, the statues of Iuz and Zuggtmoy still stood, looking as menacing as ever. The four hallways that led to the demi-planes were completely collapsed and inaccessible. The crack in the floor, now a wide fissure, continued past the altar into the room beyond, where the treasure chests were located (which had previously triggered demons to be summoned). There were still four chests in the room. One was open and empty (having been previously looted by the party the first time through), one was broken across the floor with its contents spilled out, just as the party left it when they ran away to escape the demons. One was still closed and another was now open, showing the 25,000 or so platinum pieces ready for the taking. Othmar was about to start filling his pockets when Jarrus shouted for him to stop. "Messing around with these chests is what got us in trouble last time," he said. "Don't touch anything." As if they needed more warning, there were two new, sinister additions to the room. On opposing walls, two human bodies were nailed, their skin peeled away and tacked to the wall in a gruesome display. Their cloaks were intact, black druid cloaks, similar to ones worn by mysterious men the party had seen before. Their blood was dry, but otherwise these bodies were reasonably fresh.

The party moved forward, now entering an area never explored before. A round room and a dias that previously held a throne. Both were ripped apart by the fissure that ran through the middle of the floor. Here, the air was even colder, coming up from the hole now in the floor, where a strange purple glow could be seen. The fissure exposed a staircase below the temple, though this appeared to be the work of someone or something entirely different. Dardac noticed that there were human footprints here, going down, and the party decided to follow into the depth far below the Temple of Elemental Evil.

The stairs went down more than 100 ft. into the cold darkness. Only a very faint purple glow illuminated anything, and the continual light the party had been using seemed only to brighten an area of 5 feet around them. At the bottom of the stairs, they came to a hall leading south to an octagonal room with four exits (north, south, east and west) including the way they came in. Inside that room, laying against the wall on the east side, were two dead bodies. These bodies also seemed somewhat fresh, and were dressed in the black druid cloaks that have become familiar. As the party began to look around, a voice boomed out of nowhere saying "LOOK ABOVE YOU TO KNOW YOUR FATE."

Jarrus looked up and the domed ceiling became translucent, revealing an infinite violet hue through which floated glowing black runes. Jarrus was immediately able to understand the runes, which said:

"Those whom I find unfit, I place on my left"

"Those who succeed, I place on my right"

"The chosen may come before ME!"

The ceiling then faded to black and became opaque again.

(DM's Note: Clearly there is a dungeon on top of which the Temple of Elemental Evil was built. Which dungeon this is might seem obvious to some, but I'd like it to remain a mystery for my players, so no discussing it in the comments, please.)

Jarrus decided this meant they should go right (west), and off they went down a short hallway into a hexagon shaped room. Within this room were five strange formations, resembling small trees. An opalescent black tree, a deep green tree, a metallic crimson tree, and indigo blue tree and a smoky purple tree. Each tree had fruit-like growths on it. Jarrus picked one of the fruits and it crumbled to dust in his hand, and he took some form of damage. Othmar tried to do the same and the fruit again crumbled, but Othmar didn't take damage and instead seemed, somehow, changed for the better. Jarrus tried again and took damage again, and decided it was best to stop messing around with the trees and brought everyone back to camp for healing and rest. Othmar, now curious, decided they should return and start picking multiple fruits to experiment with and, so, the next morning they returned to experiment. Othmar's experimentation did not go so well, as, after picking one particular fruit, a blackness started to crawl up his arm, disintegrating him as it went. Jarrus, acting quickly, cut-off Othmar's arm before the mage was entirely disintegrated. Othmar was now one-armed, unconscious and barely hanging on to life. But this didn't stop Jarrus and Dardac, both of whom picked fruits of their own without taking damage and felt much better about themselves for it. NOW, they were done with this place, and decided it was time to abandon this dungeon and go to Furyondy.

And so they carried Othmar's unconscious body to the surface where Janziduur healed him (though she couldn't fix his arm) and they took their boat back to Verbobonc. In Verbobonc, Jarrus put up money with the Temple of Trithereon to advertise for adventurers to come down to the area around the temple and help clear it out of monstrous infestations (though no words about the temple itself). After that, they took the boat up to Stalmaer in the Gold County of Furyondy.

Part 2 - Off to Furyondy

It has been known to the party for a while that Jarrus' mother is Countess Kyaren Rhavelle of the Gold County in Furyondy. She left her adventuring partner and lover, Jarrus' father, Correal Sunleaf, when Jarrus was still pretty young. The Countess' older brother had died, leaving no heir, and so she left her family behind in order to take her place in the political landscape and protect her family's legacy. Jarrus stayed with his father, who was now a cavalier without a lord, being trained in the ways of warfare and chivalry. With his father dead, Jarrus was now returning to the only family he has.

The first stop was the town of Stalmaer, along the Att River (a tributary to the great Velverdyva). Jarrus tried asking around there about the whereabouts of the countess, which only drew suspicions from the local militia. They then decided to travel up to Libernen, the seat of government for the Gold County. There, they approached the palace gates and, after some discussion with the guards regarding who Jarrus was, were let in to meet with the chamberlain/butler, a tall man in colorful garb named Jorgen. Jorgen informed Jarrus that the countess was not in the palace, but was currently at her country estate. A carriage was summoned, along with servants for the trip and four knights to escort the party (not that they needed an escort, but protocol for VIPs was being employed).

After a few days, the party arrived by coach to the Ravelle estate, nestled in the beautiful countryside of the Gold County. Upon pulling up to the estate, they were greeted once again by Jorgen (who must have used some form of magical teleportation to beat them here) and they were led inside to the great hall. Inside were several people who looked like nobles or other people of importance, drinking wine eating food. Soon, Countess Ravelle came down the stairs, eager to greet her long lost son. Jarrus bowed to her formally, rather than embrace her as she wished. Nonetheless, the countess was pleased to see her son and began introducing him to the others in the room with great pride. Some of the folks in the room were:

• Baron Jemian of Littleburg
• Gellain, Ambassador from Veluna
• Rafendyl, "Gildentongue" - Half-elf bard from Highfolk
• Schyzer - a human mage who seemed uninterested in socializing
• Jelleneth - a young human woman who serves Trithereon and appears to be a fighter of some repute
• Sir Kiprien Rahlden - Knight of the Hart from Castle Hart
• Tobian Rushkane - A flamboyant Backluni man

There were several other petty nobles and merchants in the room, but Jarrus was not introduced to them all.

DMs Note: It is now the 10th Day of Patchwall, CY 580. Jarrus and his group will move to an online game as they do a lot of social interaction with the countess and her guests. These interactions will likely not make it into the blog, so we will pick-up with this group again when and if they get back into a tabletop-worthy adventure.

1st Day of Brewfest, CY 580 - The Party Divides

While the party was in Verbobonc, each of the player characters went about taking care of separate business. The next two days in the city were played online so that we could have a more productive session in person. A summary of events over these two days were:

Jarrus

• Jarrus accepted knighthood and lands granted by Lord Wilfrick. He specifically requested the lands surrounding the Temple of Elemental Evil and Nulb so that he could build a keep and convert the once evil place into a prosperous town
• Jarrus also met with the high priests at the Temple of Trithereon and managed to convince them to restore an ancient order of knighthood associated with the church called the Guardians. Jarrus was named First Guardian and committed to recruiting others to the cause. The church, in return, agreed to shift its focus to take a more active role in combating the growing threat of Iuz. Additionally, he gave the church enough gold to arrange the transportation of Janziduur, the High Priestess of Trithereon in Greyhawk (with whom Jarrus had developed an intimate relationship) and the refugees that were under Janziduur's care. The church agreed to send a replacement priest to take over Jaziduur's position in Greyhawk, and to send four clerics with him to his new lands to help get the keep established and spread the word of Trithereon.
•  Jarrus asked some dwarven builders to build his keep and that required doing a land survey so that a proposal could be put together. Jarrus was now responsible for escorting 4 dwarven surveyors and 6 assistants to his lands, in addition to the refugees that arrive from Greyhawk
• Jarrus also commissioned the building of a boat that would allow travel from Verbobonc, along the Velverdyva, and south down Imeryd's Run to Nulb (or what used to be Nulb)

Sarril

• Sarril turned over the names of all of the Temple of Elemental Evil agents that were operating in Verbobonc to the Viscount through Otis (a document previously uncovered in the temple had this information)



Prince Jimm

• Additionally, Sarril met with Prince Jimm, the gnomish ambassador and showed him the gnome friendship ring that was given to him by the gnome merchant. The prince invited him to dinner and Sarril was able to ask about why so many agents of Iuz and the Temple were asking about a gnome named Lysander. Prince Jimm was able to tell the story of Lysander - a gnomish adventurer who made bold claims about the discovery of mythical places and things. Some time ago, Lysander took an expedition party to some ruins or dungeon somewhere in Perrenland and when he returned, he wasn't the same - unable to speak or care for himself. The gnomes of the Kron Hills took him in, until agents of the temple started showing up looking for him. When no answers were given, gnomes started getting kidnapped and tortured. Prince Jimm took it upon himself to hide Lysander somewhere in Verbobonc where he could be cared for in secret. This is something that very few people know, and that was only shared with Sarril due to the trust instilled by the ring.

Pontus

Callista Thornheart - Seer

• Pontus went in search of a seer that he was told may be able to scry on his people and show him what is happening in his homeland. He was shown many things, one of which was a heavily tattooed man handing over what looked like a black shard to men in black robes. The man accepting the shard had tattoo of a fang with a teardrop under it on his forearm. The black robed man handed something back to the heavily tattooed man, but when Pontus tried to look closer at it, a black spider leaped toward him, and the water in the scrying pool was disturbed. The seer then said “There are powerful forces at play. Someone does not want you to see something. You should not have come here. Leave my home. NOW!" as thousands of black spiders began filling the room. Pontus ran from the hut, deeply disturbed by the experience.

Cadwin

• Cadwin went in search of druids of the Gnarley Forest, which led him to Oakvein (technically in the Welkwood) where he met the sylvan elf protectors of the great tree. They told him the story of the black shard that once poisoned the trees nearby and how the Enchantress Alyndra and her apprentice, Athan, once took the shard to Jaroo in Hommlet. Interested in learning more, Cadwin then flew toward Hommlet.
• On his way to Hommlet, an extremely large, ancient green dragon named Chausticlorinus intercepted Cadwin. The great dragon was prepared to consume Cadwin, who was trying to talk his way out of the situation. Eventually, the dragon realized that Cadwin could be useful in delivering a message, and so gave a message to Cadwin to give to the Lords Rufus and Burne. It turns out that the green dragon that the two supposedly slew to that earned them their titles and lands was never actually slain. Rufus and Burne had been paying off the dragon to keep it satiated, but recently have been missing payments, and the dragon was planning retribution if payments were not caught up soon.
• In Hommlet, Cadwin met with Jaroo and learned that most of the village had been rebuilt. He also asked about the black shards and was told about the large black bubble in Istivin that Delvin and Kella were sent to investigate, believing it to be related.

The Great Chaustichlorinus - ancient green dragon

Luapan

• Luapan left the group for a few days to visit with the Temple of Celestian in the nearby Kron Hills (his player has out doing fun summer things).

The party also met three new players characters - Othmar the magic user, apprentice of Juehlim who also has some sort of association with Drawmij, Dalron Sharpe, the ranger, and Dardac Kosk, the other ranger. Both rangers were part of Gareth's party back in the day, but had broken up after Gareth's disappearance. Having heard that the party rescued Gareth and adventured with him for a while (before he was eventually killed), they wanted to meet the group.

During this time, Jarrus also confronted Rufus and Burne about their scam related to the dragon. They insisted they had no choice, as the dragon proved far too powerful to be slain, and any attempts to do so now would only enrage it and it would take vengeance out on the people of Verbobonc. They did agree that it was wrong of them to keep this information from Lord Wilfrick and that they were now in over their heads. They agreed to come clean with the Viscount and accept whatever he decides. Cadwin spied on the meeting in the form of a bat. It was certainly uncomfortable for the two petty nobles, but in the end, Lord Wilfrick agreed to make the payments to the dragon while sending Rufus and Burne on a mission to discover a weakness so that it may eventually be slain.

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Sarril was not interested in helping Jarrus establish his keep and felt the mission to Istivin was too important and could no longer be delayed. Pontus, after having experienced the vision with the seer, agreed to go with Sarril, as did Luapan, for reasons provided by his temple. After speaking with Jaroo and learning about the black shards, Cadwin expressed interest in going with Sarril, as did one of the new rangers, Dalron Sharpe. Sarril turned in his favor with Lord Wilfrick to have the archmage Juehlim teleport Sarril, Cadwin, Pontus, Luapan and Dalron to Hochoch on the border between the Dutchy of Geoff and the Gran March, where they could take the Javan River south to Istivin.

This left Jarrus, Othmar and Dardac to escort the surveyors and clerics down to Nulb. So this brings us to the 1st Day of Brewfest, the day after the ship building was complete. Janziduur and the refugees had arrived a week earlier and were being sheltered at the Temple of Trithereon. One of the refugees turned out to be a ship captain, and was able to help oversee the completion of the boat and help coordinate the ordering of supplies.

Jaziduur (an NPC, but I left her in control of the player characters so they could have four PCs) decided to accompany Jarrus on his first trip, which Jarrus characterized as a scouting and surveying mission. That brought the total to three party members, Janziduur, the boat captain and crew, four clerics, four surveyors and six assistants. The trip was two days down the Velverdyva, then four days upriver on Imeryd's Run to Nulb.

Imeryd's Run goes through a nasty swamp called the Fens of Tor. One reason pirates were able to establish Nulb and keep it as a hideaway is because no one wants to navigate through that extremely dangerous area. During a place on the river where the water was low on a shelf, the boat got stuck.

Eight people had to get out and attach ropes and use a pulley system to dislodge the boat and pull it over the low shelf and back into the deep water. Of course this made for a perfect ambush opportunity. Lizardmen surrounded the boat, staying back just far enough to keep cover with the trees, and started throwing spears. While these lizardmen were no problem for the party members, they were able to pick off quite a few of the crew. Thanks to the clerics, most people were able to be brought back from the brink of death, but one of the surveyors died, which wasn't a great outcome.

Eventually, they got the boat to Nulb and saw that it was still mostly destroyed and uninhabited. Dardac was able to determine that lizardmen and other humanoids had been through the area and ransacked the remaining buildings that still stood. Jarrus decided to lead the group directly to the Temple of Elemental Evil - something that the surveyors and assistants started to protest, as they did not expect to actually be building there. Still, the area was mostly swamp, and the temple was built on solid ground, so it makes some sense. The state of the area around the temple was still how it has been since the temple was operating. Everything within a quarter mile is gray and dead-looking. The skies over the temple are permanently cloudy, and an ominous feeling seeps into everyone. The surveyors and crew were unable to further approach the place, so the party went on ahead to scout. They found that where the temple once stood, there was now only rubble. Still, the presence of evil was not gone.

Jarrus then led the entire group north, just outside the radius of the ominous feeling, and made camp in a field. During the night, something surrounded the camp, remaining just outside of the campfire light. Othmar, who was on watch at the time, did not see it, but Dardac, when he was woken up for his turn at watch, immediately asked why Othmar did not sound the alarm for the dozen or so bugbears that were obviously present. Dardac then shouted for everyone to wake up, starting the fight.

These were no normal bugbears. They moved slowly and made strange sounds. Othmar, removed the leather cover from the orb tip on his staff, bathing the area in continual light, and revealing the zombified nature of the bugbears closing in on the camp. Dardac started shooting his bow, but quickly realized these things were tougher in death than they ever were in life. Othmar struck a whole

line of them with a lightning bolt, injuring many, but killing none. They both quickly realized this was going to be a long fight and the problem was not whether or not they could kill these things, it was whether they could kill them fast enough. It was only three rounds total before Janziduur was able to wake up, get out of her tent and turn undead, but those three rounds were enough for the undead bugbears to slaughter several more people - another of the surveyors and some more assistants. Once turned, however, the party was able to chase them down and kill them all.

The next morning, the party decided to have Dardac track the zombie bugbears back to where they came from. The tracks led to a cave in a nearby hill. Leaving Janziduur behind to protect the remaining survey team, Jarrus, Othmar and Dardac proceeded into the cave. The cave had several passages, but the tracks led a clear path to one of the side tunnels that came up to a large crack in a wall. On the other side of the large crack was what looked like a carved hallway. The party made their way through and began to walk around. Jarrus was soon able to recognize that they were in the Temple of Elemental Evil.

Pushing through a door, the party entered a room called The Room of Eyes, which is where the previous party had once fought a hill giant, several ogres and some bugbears. There was no sign of those bodies, though not because they were reanimated, but because Pontus had unleashed the black pudding he was keeping in order that it consume the bodies and hide the evidence of their presence. It worked, and the bodies were gone, but unfortunately, the now enormous black pudding was still here, clinging to the ceiling. Dardac noticed it as they were going to leave the room. Othmar decided the best thing to do would be to hit it with a fireball, which he did. The fireball did some damage, but not enough, as the pudding dropped to the floor in front of the party, blocking their exit.

Jarrus charged forward and hit the pudding twice with his +5 defender sword, doing no damage, but dividing the pudding twice. Now there were three. Soon, Jarrus was covered in pudding, which was beginning to dissolve his magic sword and armor. Dardac threw some flaming oil on one of the puddings and then struck with a flaming arrow, lighting it on fire. Othmar tried a lightning bolt which had no affect, and he soon had a pudding on him, trapping him in the corner. Jarrus, in a futile attempt, punched the pudding for no damage as his armor and sword continued to dissolve. Dardac then doused Jarrus with flaming oil and lit him on fire. This seemed to stop the black stuff from dissolving his equipment, though Jarrus was still helpless to do any damage to the thing. Back in the corner, Othmar began to hurl magic missiles at the pudding that was now covering his body and which just dissolved his own staff (this killed the continual light, but the fire still provided light). The magic missiles did damage, but not enough to kill the pudding.

The party realized this was about to be a TPK (and, honestly, the DM thought it was about to be as well). Dardac decided to make a running leap for the door, smashing another bottle of flaming oil on the pudding on his way out. Jarrus, still on fire, ran after him, lighting some more of the pudding on fire as he did. Othmar felt his backpack straps dissolve away, and in a desperate attempt to save the valuable spellbooks inside, he reached in and threw the spellbooks in the air as the pudding lashed out at him again, then caught the spellbooks on their way back down as the rest of his backpack and its contents dissolved away. He then immediately cast Dimension Door and stepped through to join Dardac and Jarrus in the hallway.

It is now morning on the 7th Day of Brewfest (for this branch of the Badass Motherfuckers). Jarrus, Othmar and Dardac are now in a dark hallway inside the ruins of the ToEE. Next session will either be a continuation of this adventure, or picking up with Sarril and party at Hochoch.

17th Day of Flocktime, CY 579

This week, we were short two members of the group, with another joining via video conference (isn't modern technology great?). I have a quorum rule that a simple majority of players must be present, so in this case, 3/5 was enough. Given that the party had to come to some agreement as to what to do next, less players probably helped make things go more quickly.

Sarril was very concerned that Iuz would, at the very least, have demons waiting for them when they went leave, if not deal with them in-person, so time was ticking away. Having touched the skull in order to operate the throne, Sarril knew that Iuz was aware of his location, despite the Amulet of Proof Against Detection that he now wore. The rest of the party decided it was worth the risk and they should do a quick search of the level for any treasure or other things of importance while the strength spells were still in effect. And so the party spent a few turns searching, turning up with some more magic items, including a second Wand of Fire and a Daern's Instant Fortress. The players immediately thought about how effective these two things could be together in a battlefield (i.e. the mage goes inside the indestructible adamantine tower and shoots fireballs out of the arrow slits), which inspired Sir Gerard (whose player was absent, so the DM took liberties) to insist that these items needed to be brought to Castle Hart immediately to assist in the coming battles against the Horned Society/Iuz/whatever that was certain to happen.

While the party was sifting through these items, Jarrus was busy prying gems from Zuggtmoy's throne. He managed to pull out 33 diamonds worth about 5,000 gp each, which he made clear is NOT "party treasure" as he placed them in his backpack. The party also found a map of the Flanaess on a wall in war room, which they rolled up and placed in the portable hole (DM's Note: this translates to the party being able to use the fold-out maps from the Greyhawk Boxed set whenever needed, which makes my job much easier). The search was cut short when the party entered a room and saw some mushrooms growing on the floor. Realizing this isn't a video game and they can't press "save" before continuing, they decided to get out while they were ahead.

Sarril used the skull to raise the throne back up to the ground level of the temple, where they expected to have to fight their way through demons. On the way up, he realized that he no longer felt the presence of Zuggtmoy through the skull, though the hateful gaze of Iuz was still upon him. As the party emerged into the upper part of the temple, they were nearly blinded by a bright light emanating

from the center of the room. At the center of the light was an angelic figure - a Movanic Deva. The deva congratulated the adventurers on their victory over Zuggtmoy and asked the party if they were ready to take the final step. Sir Gerard, after failing to detect evil, immediately fell to his knees and bowed in awe, presenting his sword in service to this magnificent creature. The rest of the party were skeptical, and used every limited form of detection they had available (Detect Evil, Detect Good, and plain old "disbelieve"), all of which turned up nothing. Having used up his True Seeing spell on Zuggtmoy, Sarril decided there was little choice right now except to play along and see what happens.

The deva asked Sarril to reveal the skull and place it upon the ground, which he did. She then explained that she cannot destroy the skull herself, but she will tell the party how to destroy it, and provide them with what they need, if they will agree to destroy it right now. Sarril agreed, upon which the deva provided exact instructions to the party, which were to expose the skull to a hurricane force wind, strike it with a maul made of pure granite, expose it to a fire as hot as a forge, then immerse it in freezing cold water. All of these things must be done in quick succession (within one combat round). The deva even provided the maul to be used (how convenient. . . and suspicious). She then thanked the party for the service done for the cause of good and said this would not be forgotten, then disappeared.

The party started by preparing the freezing cold water using an Ice Storm, and setting that aside. Then Sarril and Luapan got ready with scrolls of Gust of Wind and Flamestrike, while Jarrus stood by with the maul. Sarril cast Gust of Wind, Jarrus struck the skull, Luapan hit it with a Flame Strike and then Shan Ju knocked the glowing hot skull into the pool of freezing water. The gems shattered and the skull cracked. Shortly after, the ground began to shake and pieces of the temple roof began to fall. The sealed front doors blew open and crumbled. The party ran for the front door and out into the temple grounds.

And thus ended the adventure of The Temple of Elemental Evil (aside from a few loose ends, of course).

The arguments about where to go next were few. Jarrus wanted to go see his mother, who has since been revealed as the Countess Rhavelle of the Gold County in Furyondy. Sarril wanted to go to Greyhawk. The group recognized that if they go to Verbobonc, they would be right across the river from the Gold County, and they could take a boat from the same river directly to Greyhawk. After some brief discussion, they decided they would take a boat to Greyhawk first, then back to Furyondy. This would require a hike Southwest to Hommlet, then Northwest to Verbobonc (thus avoiding the swamplands, which everyone agreed should be avoided). The entire trip would take about 5 days on foot, during which Sarril would be identifying magic items. The first night in the ruins of Hommlet were uneventful. The second night spent on the road in the Kron Hills were also uneventful, as the party got to spend the night inside their new instant fortress. The third night was another story.

It was the evening of the 19th Day of Flocktime. Jarrus was on watch at the top of the tower, sitting in an unpleasant rainstorm while the rest of the party was sleeping in the floors below. Suddenly he was engulfed in complete blackness as he felt three spears impale him from all sides. While the attack didn't kill him, he was very near death and would not survive a second blow. As he yelled for everyone to wake up, he reached in his bag for the Potion of Extra Healing that would save him from his demise. He was able to grab both the potion and his Continual Light coin at the same time. The Continual Light cancelled the darkness, and Jarrus was able to see his attackers. Three Babau Demons, withdrawing their spears from his body as he desperately drank the healing potion. This immediately exposed him to their gaze attacks, which had the effect of a Ray of Enfeeblement spell. He was able to save against the first, but failed the second (the third was behind him), and without his strength, Jarrus was pretty useless to continue fighting, and chose to dive down the trapdoor into the tower.

Once down in the tower, Sarril spoke the command to close the trap door. Unfortunately, one of the demons managed to slip through by polymorphing into a dragonfly and slipping through before the door closed. Jarrus, Gerard and Shan Ju attempted to hit the dragonfly unsuccessfully. After moving into the corner of the room, the demon reverted back to its normal form and went on the attack. Sarril dispelled the enfeeblement on Jarrus to make him active again while Luapan healed him. The party then began throwing everything they could at the demon, which proved to be a formidable foe. After a Prayer and Chant from Luapan, combined with Gerard's Protection from Evil bonuses, the party was able to get the upper-hand on the demon, with the final blow coming from Shan Ju (whose player rolled double 20s) punching through the demon's chest with his fist, grabbing its spine and ripping its skeleton from its body in a move worthy of the most gruesome of Mortal Kombat fatalities. Celebrations were short-lived, however, as three more babau demons gated into the room, spelling certain doom for the party. In response, Sarril ran out the front door where he saw two of the demons heating the metal of the adamantine tower to a bright glow. Sarril then spoke the command to return the tower to its portable cube form, trapping the party and the demons inside in statis.

DM's Note: The first edition Dungeon Master's Guide does not describe this property of a Daern's Instant Fortress, however, the ToEE module states that Hedrack possessed such an item and that he would use it in combat to summon forth a force of bugbears. This suggests that the bugbears must be in stasis inside, and thus I described this property when Sarril identified the item. This also led to the players discussing some interesting, and quite possibly overpowered, use of the item, so we'll see where that goes.

Lucky for Sarril, he had already cast Mirror Image earlier, and thus was able to survive the first round of attacks from the two demons outside. This gave him enough time to grab the cube and teleport away to the University of Magical Arts in Greyhawk, where, as chance would have it, the Patriarch of Boccob was up late studying, and agreed to meet with him.

It is late in the evening of the 19th Day of Flocktime in the City of Greyhawk. Sarril is alone with the party, and three badass demons, locked in stasis inside the Daern's Instant Fortress. He is actively seeking the help he needs to deal with these demons and get the party back out alive. It looks like we will be doing some one-on-one gameplay online for the next two weeks. Stay tuned. . .

14th Day of Flocktime, CY 579

DM's Note: As I mentioned before, my players were getting a bit anxious to finish this module. A lot of hints have been dropped about things going on in the "outside world" that have got them excited to move on. I've been playing with this same group of people for many years and we like to play hard and do epic things, which may be because we all know we have limited times we can get together. I have to balance the desire to push forward with the pace of the overall campaign story, which can be challenging. The good news is that, this week, the PCs figured out how to speed-up it up on their own, and were able to bring things to an epic climax and are nearly finished.


The revelation came between two of the players (and maybe a DM hint about re-reading the powers of the Golden Skull). As the party was making its plans for how they were going to safely tackle the Air Node, some ideas were bounced around for how to limit their exposure to elements. The random lightning strikes and blue dragons flying overhead meant they need to get to the caves around the perimeter of the place pretty quickly. Sarril realized he could cast Fly on each of the party members, then hold hands, touch the Air gem (which would make them appear on top of a mountain peak in the center of the demi-plane) and then, instead of climbing down the mountain and running across the open, they could just fly directly from cave to to cave. It was an okay plan, but at the last minute, Sarril remembered that when the gem is inside the skull, he can Teleport Without Error to anywhere within the Air Node he wants. Given that Shan-Ju and Gerard already knew the layout of the place (my excuse for basically handing the players a map), this would allow Sarril to teleport the entire party from cave to cave at-will. The party decided to use this process to bounce from cave to cave, using Detect Magic to sense if the next power gem was present and, if not immediately apparent, teleport to the next cave. They would ignore any monsters they encountered until they had to fight the elemental grue that they knew by now would be protecting the item they sought.

The plan worked perfectly. Looking at the map, the players stated a number and were teleported to that section safely. After a quick Detect Magic, they teleported to the next cave. A few monsters were encountered, but the party teleported away without fighting them, until finally they wound up in a save surrounded by fog, which immediately attacked (Ildris Grues - the elemental grue of air). At this point, the party's AC ranges from 0 to -4, thanks to all of the fantastic gear they have been acquiring on this adventure. Between that, and Gerard the Paladin's Protection from Evil aura, the grue's were unable to hit the party (pretty much most of the things encountered at this point require an 18 - 20 to hit one of the party members), and the party was soon victorious. They grabbed a couple of unidentified magic items from the treasure stash, along with the power gem, and then decided to head straight to the Water Node to repeat the process while they still had their flight spells activated.

The water node proved to be even more dangerous. Although it didn't have random lightning strikes from overhead, it also provided no shelter whatsoever, so every area of the map was open to the sky above, where a family of white dragons were constantly on the hunt. The party randomly picked an area of the map to start with - a floating sheet of ice on the west side of the node. It just happened to be the right place, and they were immediately beset upon by Vardigg Grues (the elemental grues of water). These nasty beasts have an instant-kill on 1 out of 6 hits (they blind their victim, then follow up by drowning them in one round). But to get a kill, they have to hit first, which again, for this party, was nearly impossible. The issue this time wasn't whether or not the party could kill the grues. That was a given. The issue was whether or not they could do it quickly enough, and Sarril familiar reported that three white dragons would be on top of them in less than 5 rounds. Once the party killed the grues, they briefly considered having Jarrus and Gerard fly up to meet the dragons and slay them, given that their current strength spells would allow them to do ridiculous amounts of damage. Then someone remembered that the damage from their cold breath would likely be doubled in this node, and no one had protection from cold. They instead grabbed the gem and teleported away quickly, without searching through the loot first.

Sarril then inserted the last gem into the skull, expecting a magical light show that would open up a portal back home. But no such thing happened. After some consideration, he decided to try messing around with the portals in the Fire Node. Standing inside the portal to the air node, Sarril held the skull to see if he can control where it took him. As he did so, he saw the room around him changing from node to node as he moved between corresponding portals in each node. When he saw the recognizable Greater Temple, he and the party stepped through, finally out of the demi-planes. It was quite an emotional moment for some characters. For Sir Gerard, especially, it had been 6 years since he knew freedom. The party discussed what to do, and decided to return to the ruins of Hommlet to see if Jaroo had returned. Jaroo was, after all, searching for the answer of how to destroy the Golden Skull - or at least he was before the village was destroyed.

The party spent two days in Hommlet, resting in the ruins of the Temple of St. Cuthbert one night, and in the ruins of Burne's tower the next. They never saw Jaroo, or anyone else for that matter, but being fully rested with all of their spells returned, and the fact that there was an hour left in the game session, they decided to return the temple to face Zuggtmoy herself. And so, off they went on the morning of the 17th Day of Flocktime.

The party snuck back into the temple the same way they have been. With all of the leaders dead, and Iuz pre-occupied, they were able to easily make their way to the ground floor to use the skull to operate the throne that would lower them sealed off third level where Zuggtmoy was trapped. Being experienced dungeon crawlers at this point, they new that the wide steps leading to the west likely led to the big bad, while the smaller doors around the room likely led to other distractions. They were on a mission. The spellcasters hit Jarrus and Gerard with strength spells, and were ready to cast Haste as soon as the battle started. Sarril decided to read his second (and last) Scroll of True Seeing - which of course proved very useful. Sitting at the far end of the room on a throne of gems sat an old feeble crone, who begged the party to leave her alone. She told them they could take the pillars of precious metal that stood at the east side of the room if they would just leave. The party knew this was Zuggtmoy and knew better than to do anything she asked. She then fiddled with some dials on the throne causing a prismatic spray that burned her to ash, but Sarril saw through this illusion, pointing out that there isn't actually anyone sitting in the throne at all. Behind the throne was a purple curtain similar to the one encountered in the greater temple, which the party knew could be burned away, and so they hit it with a fireball to destroy it. Behind the curtain was Zuggtmoy, still in her crone form, but now angry, She immediately transformed into her true fungoid form and appeared within a circle of dirt in the center of the room and began to attack with her large, elephant-like appendages.

Unlike other opponents, this 42 hit die demon queen and lesser deity could actually hit the party members. Her attacks basically consisted of stunning her opponents by hitting them with two of her appendages (which she could do to two people at once), and then trampling them to death while stunned. The amount of damage she could deal was incredible, but with two healers in the party, the fighters were able to keep up. Sarril was able to use Remove Paralysis to counter the stun effect and keep Jarrus swinging twice per round in his haste and strength-enhanced form. At one point, Jarrus and Gerard together were able to deal 90 HP of damage in a single round. But of course, this is the big bad boss, and she had well over 200 hit points, so this continued for a bit. Lucky for the party, Zuggtmoy was still bound inside the temple as no one had broken the seals. This meant that she did not have most of the innate spell-power of a lesser deity (like Finger of Death, Gate, etc.). She did have Fear, which was countered by the presence of a paladin, and Improved Invisibility, both of which she used. The invisibility did make her slightly harder to hit, but that was mitigated slightly by Luapan casting Prayer. At some point, Sarril read a "Detect Invisibility" scroll on Jarrus to give him his edge back.

But Zuggtmoy still had one more trick up her sleeve, and summoned five Violet Fungi to her aid. Violet Fungi have a "save or die" attack that was sure to take out at least one or two party members. But Sarril quickly responded with a Wall of Fire (that Wand of Fire he picked up sure has come in handy) to surround the fungi and cut them off from the party so they can remain focused on Zuggtmoy. After a few more rounds, the damage added up, and Zuggtmoy fell. In her final death throes, she found peace as she realized her essence would return to the abyss, finally free of her entrapment. Her look of contentment turned to horror and she screamed as both her essence and her physical body withered away. It appears she may have been destroyed for good - an act that Sir Gerard stated firmly is a victory for Heironeous. Sarril then tossed three fireballs over the wall of fire to destroy the violet fungi, clearing the room.

And so we ended the session. It is the afternoon of the 17th Day of Flocktime. Zuggtmoy is dead. The Golden Skull is complete with all of its gems - but not destroyed. The Temple of Elemental Evil has been cleared, for now. And Iuz is still out there, ready to come after the party at any time. The group has the next two weeks to think about next steps. . .

12th Day of Flocktime, CY 579

DM's Note: You know how sometimes you play an entire day, and you know lots of things happened during the session, but in the end you feel the ball just didn't move forward? That was this session. A full five-hour day, and the entire thing consisted of just one encounter. To be fair to the players, much of this was my fault as we decided to play two weeks in a row instead of our usual every other week, and I just didn't have as much time to prepare as I would have liked. I spent entirely too much time looking things up and flipping between pages of the books.

But this encounter was important, as it really helped the new party members to learn how to work better with each other. And another player character died, which always makes for an interesting session, if nothing else.

We started with the party having just finished off some Vortexes in a cave inside the Air Node and, having no place to rest, decided to keep exploring caves until they found the next power gem. Another cave off in the distance, up high on a cliff wall, with a steep, narrow, and very dangerous ledge going up to it looked like the perfect place to start. The party would just have to get there, avoiding random lightning strikes and hoping the blue dragons were not out on the hunt as they ran across an open area the size of a few football fields. They decided to stay close to the cliff wall so they can handle the wind better, and dive for cover into the closest cave if the dragons showed up.

As they ran toward their destination, Sir Gerard noticed someone looking out of one of the caves up ahead, and darting back inside. He knew that particular cave led to the Water Node portal, and suspected that might be Grank or one of his bandits, and they may have to deal with them. Jarrus was definitely on-board with killing some bandits, so the party took a detour into the cave. Inside was a large cavern 100 ft. wide at the front, and even wider further in. There wide shelves on either side, 30 ft. up, as well as multiple large columns in the middle of the largest part of the cavern. There were more than enough places for snipers to be hiding. The party recognized right away that they were about to walk into a trap. Unfortunately, the monk was out of invisibility for the day, and couldn't effectively scout what was going on, but Sarril was able to send his invisible familiar around and count up the enemies. There were at least a dozen bandits, four on one shelf and three on the other, with hiding behind columns. There were also three zombies dressed in armor and clothing, a cleric and another spellcaster.

The party walked to just below the closest shelf and started arguing about their plans. At some point, they decided that Sarril should cast Ice Storm (using his Wand of Ice Storms) on top of the shelves to clear out the snipers. Of course they heard that, and while they would have preferred for the party to be further inside before attacking, they knew they needed to take out the spellcaster before he could do what the party was discussing. No less than eight arrows flew at Sarril, who was covered by Sir Gerard and Shan-Ju. Sir Gerard stopped several arrows his shield and Shan-Ju was able to deflect some as well, but Sarril still got hit. This action started the initiative, and the fight began.

More arrow fire, followed by an Ice Storm clearing out one set of snipers. Shan-Ju decided to climb the 30 ft. up to the other shelf. It would take one round to get to the wall, followed by a climb rate of 10 ft. per round, so off he went. Sir Gerard heard the shouts of prayers coming from around the corner and rushed in that direction, while Jarrus headed for the closes column to take on the snipers hiding behind there. Sir Gerard turned the corner to see Ashrem, former high-priest of the Air Temple who had been exiled here after betrayal by his brother Allrem, high-priest of Fire. Ashrem was commanding the zombies to attack as he started to lift off the ground and wave a wand at Sir Gerard, putting up a Wall of Fire. Sir Gerard jumped forward to avoid the flames, and was now trapped in an alcove with two zombies, Ashrem and two bandit snipers.

Shan-Ju slowly started climbing the wall to get the shelf above with the snipers, taking some arrow fire along the way. Unfortunately, a monk cannot deflect arrows while he is climbing. Jarrus began taking out his opponents as he generally does, while Luapan attempted, and failed, to dispel the levitation that was raising Ashrem up into the air. As Ashrem levitated higher up, he began to unleash fireballs at Sir Gerard, killing two of the zombies and the bandits in the process. After a couple of round of taking fireballs, Sir Gerard was taken down to -3 hit point, and lost a magical dagger in the process, but he stood proud as a paladin/cavalier would - even while his burnt skin was sloughing off his body.

In the meantime, after finishing off two bandits and taking a few magic missiles from the spellcaster, Deggum, Jarrus rushed Deggum to finish him off but Deggum went invisible before he could get to him. Shan-Ju continued to climb, finally reaching the shelf at the top to see there were two bandits left, as Sarril had already gotten impatient and taken the other two out with another Ice Storm. He might have gotten three, maybe even all four, if he had tried, but he thought that would be unfair to Shan-Ju, who had spent all of that time climbing. Seeing that Deggum had gone invisible, Sarril reached into his scroll case and pulled out a Scroll of True Seeing and cast it on himself. He didn't see Deggum, and determined that he either ran into the Water Node portal, or behind on of the large columns. As Sarril looked around, he saw an invisible woman standing near the cavern wall in the distance, watching the fight take place. The woman looked like Darley, whom Sir Gerard had previously described, except that she has vestigial horns and small bat wings. He decided to shout to Sir Gerard "Darley is here, invisible, watching us!" to which Sir Gerard replied "Do not trust that woman! She is here to see which group comes out on top. She will try to manipulate you!"

Sarril decided to cast Fly on Jarrus so he can fly up to Ashrem and kill him. Jarrus would not be able to reach him in one round, even with the 120 ft. movement granted by the spell, and he wanted to get a surprise attack, so he used his Frostbrand to make a break in the Wall of Fire to run through so he can fly up to Ashrem next round. Luapan used the break to run through and heal Sir Gerard. Meanwhile Shan-Ju finally got to attack and killed the bandits he was facing. Deggum then appeared and tried, and failed, to cast Hold Person on Sarril as Sarril turned and noticed a Bodak running toward him, about to unleash its dreaded Death Ray attack. The Bodak needed to be within 30 ft. and wasn't quite there yet, so Sarril cast Dimension Door to move over behind Deggum and next to Darley. It would take at least another round for the Bodak to reach him.

The next round, Jarrus leapt into the air and flew at Ashrem while brandishing his frostbrand. He connected with a devastating blow, killing the cleric. Shan-Ju saw the Bodak and leapt down off the shelf to run at it and engage it. Sarril then unleashed a lightning bolt at both Deggum and the Bodak behind him. In the Air Node, lightning does double damage. Even after he saved, Deggum could not take the damage and he died. The bodak, however, was still coming at Sarril, but he still had one more round to act. He used Spider Climb to get up the wall, but it was not far enough to avoid the Death Ray, which it unleashed on him. After failing his save, Sarril dropped to the floor, dead. The bodak, with only a few hit points left, was killed shortly thereafter by Shan-Ju.

The rest of the party, far on the other side of the cavern, saw all of this from a distance and began to run over to Sarril. As they did so, they noticed as Sarril's leather sack carrying the Golden Skull lifted off of his body and started floating toward the portal. Luapan moved to block the portal and used a scroll of Spike Growth to cover the floor between the invisible Darley and the portal. Jarrus took a blind swing at where he thought Darley would be and managed to connect pretty hard with his frostbrand sword. Darley, the Alu-demon, then cast Suggestion to tell Jarrus to kill Sir Gerard (DM's note: we had much debate about this, because the players argued that Suggestion cannot be used to make someone do something that is against their nature or that they really don't want to do. This is not true - they are thinking of basic charms. The spell says that the victim cannot be made to cause direct harm to themselves, but doesn't say anything about harming others. We continued to debate it as the party realized that Jarrus would very likely kill the already wounded Sir Gerard. I finally compromised with a ruling that Jarrus would be allowed to resist the spell one more time just before performing the act, given how heinous the actual command was. This amounted to a second save, which he was able to make). Even though Jarrus was able to shake off the suggestion, it still gave her the time she needed to get to the portal. As she ran forward, she hit the spikes, fell forward and impaled herself. Jarrus cut off her head just to be safe.

The party then checked Sarril and determined that he was, in fact, dead. He did happen to have on him a Scroll of Raise Dead, which Luapan was able to find and cast, bringing him back to life. As the party looted, they were able to piece together what happened. Ashrem was previously a lone survivor hanging out in the air node. As a 6th level cleric who could pray for spells each day, he had enough power to survive, but not to be a formidable force against anyone. That is, until Deggum, Barkinar (Hedrack's second in command)  and the zombie body of Senshock (Hedrack's wizard) came wandering into the Air node portal after having been turned by Luapan in the Greater Temple. The party was just wondering what happened to those zombies, who still happened to have the equipment of their former selves on their bodies. Now they had their answers. As an evil cleric, Ashrem was able to command the zombies and take all of their equipment, which included some nice bracers, and ring of protection, boots of levitation and a dreaded Wand of Fire. With these items, he became powerful, but when he ran into Deggum and Barkinar, a fight broke out, as Barkinar was involved in throwing Ashrem down here to begin with. Ashrem was able to defeat Barkinar, due in part to his new equipment, and Deggum joined forces with Ashrem right after. Ashrem was able to animate Barkinar and bring him into his service along with Senshock, which was less about having undead body guards as it was about gloating over his enemies.

Darley knew that the party had the skull and that it was the key out of this place, as she had been spying on them for some time. She also knew that they allied themselves with Sir Gerard, and that paladin would never accept her into the group. So when she saw the fight take place between Ashrem and Barkinar, she realized she could use Ashrem to help her get the skull, so she charmed him into taking on Grank in the Water Node and taking control of his bandits so they could set a trap for the party. What she didn't reveal is that the bodak is her companion, and their plan all along was to watch the fight invisibly and take action depending on who came out alive. The whole time, if she saw a chance to take the skull, she would. The chance came when the rest of the party went to the far side of the cavern, leaving Sarril alone. That's when the bodak attacked, intending to kill Sarril quickly so Darley could grab the skull and run. Fortunately, Sarril's Dimension Door prolonged the encounter long enough for the rest of the party to get there and block Darley's escape.

The party decided it would be safe to rest on top of one of the shelves. It wasn't. They were able to get a full rest in, but realized they would need a couple of days, so decided to rest again. Of course, unlike the video game version where you can click the Rest button any time you want, the party would have to wait on top of this shelf for 16 hours. Wandering monster rolls are once per turn, and most of the things in the Air node fly, making the shelf not so safe. The first encounter occurred within the first hour after the party woke up. Two strange alien creatures called Mihstu, which Sarril quickly learned are stunned by cold attacks. This allowed the party to take them out while they couldn't move, though even that was a close call as the killing blow occurred just one round before they could have attacked with their devastating constitution drain attacks. Realizing it wasn't going to work to stay here, the party went back to the Fire Node where they could rest behind a locked door. They then took a two day rest before deciding to head out again. It is now the morning of the 14th Day of Flocktime.

9th Day of Flocktime, CY 579

We started the session with Jarrus, Luapan and Shan-Ju in the earth node cavern, wounded, wondering what just happened to Sarril. After some brief discussion, they decided they needed to go find him, and decided to try the portal to the Fire Node. Shan Ju led the way, which happened to go through the cavern of a Dracolisk. They decided to have Shan-Ju turn invisible and walk silently into the room to see if the creature was there. As the invisible Shan-Ju stomped loudly into the room, the creature came forward to investigate the noise. The rest of the party held back, but Shan-Ju ran forward, into the narrow passageway that led to the portal. Due to his monk speed, he was able to stay ahead of the Dracolisk as it chased the sound of his feet down the narrow tunnel.

The rest of the party chased after it. Shan-Ju realized that in this narrow part of the tunnel, the creature would not be able to turn around, and so stopped to face it before the tunnel opened back up wide again. By stopping it in the tunnel where it couldn't turn around, Jarrus and Luapan were able to attack it from behind without worrying about its gaze or breath attacks. Shan-Ju, on the other hand, was vulnerable, but still invisible (he uses a psionic form of improved visibility, so the duration is limited, but he is able to fight). He was able to avoid the gaze while fighting, so the creature decided to use its breath weapon instead. Fortunately, Jarrus was able to deliver the killing blow before the breath weapon went off.

The party then went back to the Dracolisk cave to search for treasure, and found some clerical scrolls that Luapan was happy to have. They then headed down to the Fire Node Portal where Sarril and Sir Gerard had just stepped through. After some introductions, the tired, hungry, thirsty, wounded and spelless party recognized they needed to rest, so Sir Gerard took them back through the Fire Node portal and led them to his secure room, where the party held up for two full days.

During this time, Sarril identified many magical items, Luapan healed everyone, and Sir Gerard and Jarrus got to know each other very well. It seems Sir Gerard recognized the breastplate that Jarrus was wearing - the breastplate from his father that signifies both House Sunleaf and the Order of the Knights of Luna. Much discussion was had about how each felt about knighthood, with Sir Gerard making it his personal mission to show Jarrus the way. Jarrus was wondering if he could stand two whole days locked in a room with a paladin, or if he should take his chances outside with the red dragons.

After a long rest and recovery, the party knew what they needed to do. Sarril had recovered books about elemental grues from each of the elemental temples and after the party fought the Chagrin Grues in the earth node to find one of the power gems, Sarril deduced that somewhere in the fire node would be Hargin Grues protecting another gem. He described the Hargin Grues to Sir Gerard who confirmed that he has, indeed seen such creatures in one of the rooms, which he avoids for good reason. But with a well-prepared party, they should easily prevail. On what they guessed to be the morning of the 12th day of Flocktime, the party prepared for action by first having Luapan cast protection from fire on everyone, then Sarril putting a strength spell on Jarrus. Just before entering the grue room, Sir Gerard drank a potion of Fire Giant Strength.

There were eight grues in the room, and although their fire-based attacks normally would do double damage while in the fire-node, the fire protection spells negated that, making them due just normal damage. Being 4+4 HD creatures, they really couldn't hit well. Since the fire protection spells allowed the party to put their armor back on, their ACs ranged from -2 to +2. With Sir Gerard's protection from evil, the grues pretty much needed to roll 20s to hit them. It was a very easy fight, but the credit goes to the party for being so well prepared.

In the center of the room was a chest that contained the object they were looking for. The rest of the party argued that Sarril should insert the fire node gem into the Golden Skull before doing anything else. Since it required touching the gem, which doesn't teleport you if you are already in the node. Sarril was very nervous to touch the skull, as each time he had done so in the past, Iuz could tell where he was. But he went ahead and did it anyway, and the gems popped right into place. As soon as the gem was placed, Sarril became aware of its powers, which were pretty significant. He told the party what those powers were, which included "Teleport without error" anywhere within the fire node. Sir Gerard warned Sarril not to be tempted to use the skull for any reason. This prompted the party to wonder what Athan would have done at this point, and they all agreed it might be best that he is dead. The good news for Sarril is that, whether it is because of the strange place they are in or something else, when he touched the gem, he did not feel the presence of Iuz or Zuggtmoy watching him. He felt something else, though. Something much stranger. If it was an intelligence, it was very alien and not recognizable in any way.

The party decided to all hold hands as Sarril picked up the next gem, which instantly teleported the entire group the air node. The air node is considered the most dangerous of the four nodes by those who have visited. It is full of narrow ledges and hurricane force winds. Large masses of rocks float high up in the air - the home to cloud giants and the dreaded blue dragons that dominate the sky. The winds pelt unprotected adventurers with continuous debris. Storm clouds constantly swirl overhead, causing lightning to strike all around (10% chance per person of being hit by a bolt of lightning each turn). Sir Gerard knows that a bandit named Grank lives here with some of his men, as does the former priest of the air temple, Ashrem, who wants revenge on his brother Allrem and Kelno, the current (now deceased) air priest. How these men survive here is a mystery, as Sir Gerard never tried to venture very far. This means that while the party had a general lay of the land, they didn't know where they should go first.

The party appeared at the peak of a small mountain with a narrow spiral ledge circling down. Jarrus used the 50' of rope in the coil dispenser he bought from the gnome that took over Rannos Davil's shop (the poor gnome was the same one the party rescued from the moathouse, but he is probably dead now). It was put to good use tying around each of the party members waists so they stay together. It worked well. Even though the wind gusts would occasionally blow a party member off the ledge, they were always able to pull the person back with the rope. After an hour, the party emerged on solid ground below, just as Sir Gerard was hit by a lightning bolt. They realized they needed to get to shelter quickly, and started running toward a cavern they saw at a distance to the south.

As they ran, they occasionally looked up to see if there were dragons overhead. They think they saw some dragons in the distance, but they weren't spotted in return. While looking up, there was an occasional break in the clouds, through which the party was able to see that this place curved around a massive black and purple swirling orb, which had random tendrils appearing and disappearing throughout. A strange sight indeed.

The inside the cavern, the party made their way (using the rope and spikes) up a steep incline to a shelf above where they fought several vapor rats. They were easy to kill, but let off a noxious gas when they died that incapacitated Jarrus and Luapan. The party was able to drive off most of them without killing them, which is probably a good thing. The party then climbed another steep incline to another shelf, whereupon they were hit by several Vortexes. One grabbed Jarrus and began spinning him to death. Another grabbed Sarril and began to do the same. The party was able to figure out that a grapefruit sized mass inside each vortex could be struck with a weapon and they freed Jarrus and Sarril, allowed Jarrus to do what he does best and finish the others.

Not necessarily a cliff-hanger, but this is where we left off until next week.

9th Day of Flocktime, CY 579 (online session)

We've been leaving off on a lot of cliffhangers recently, which is good, because it keeps the players coming back. This time, we left off with a severely injured party, two members dead and one just teleported away to the gods know where. So where did Sarril go? Here is his story (we played this part out online, in preparation for our next session). . .

It turns out the touching the garnet power gem instantly transports the wielder to the center of the Fire Node, an oppressively hot dungeon full of carved hallways and doors. Within every crack in the floor spewed hot lava, making it an inhospitable environment indeed. Sarril was out of touch with his familiar, Krek, and unable to gain the extra benefits provided by him. Lucky for Sarril, the power gem made him immune to the environmental effects of the Fire Node. As he was collecting his bearings, another human walked into the room. The man carried a sword and shield but wore no armor. The stranger immediately said to Sarril "if you want to live, take off your armor now!"

Sarril wasn't sure what to make of this man - was he threatening him? The man repeated "I'm serious, take that armor off now. The heat of this place will kill you." Realizing there might be something to what the man was saying, Sarril removed his armor and stripped down to the bare minimum of clothing. The man immediately offered to take Sarril to a safe place, and Sarril followed.

The two walked down the hall to a door which was stuck tight. The man slammed his shoulder into the door and forced it open, then went inside with Sarril, and forced the door closed behind them. He then offered food and water to Sarril, and Sarril responded with his own Decanter of Endless Water, which was a welcome item to have in this place. The man introduced himself as Sir Gerard of House Hugard, from the Viscounty of the Reach in Furyondy, a paladin of Heironeous and proud member of the Order of the Hart. He could sense that Sarril was not evil, and that makes him a welcome addition to this place.

The two spoke for a while, introducing themselves and explaining how they got to where they are. Sarril told about the party he was with and their quest to find the gems necessary to destroy the evil artifact - a quest that Sir Gerard found to be noble. Sir Gerard explained that after many years serving as a squire for the Knights of the Hart, he was finally raised to full knighthood as a paladin and on his very first mission, he was given the honor of being part of Prince Thrommel's cavalcade as he rode to Veluna to be married. He doesn't remember what happened on the road as he was knocked unconscious by a spell early on, but he woke up in a cell inside the Temple of Elemental Evil. He was tortured and questioned for months about troop details at Castle Hart, but he never provided any answers. One day, out frustration, he was tossed into a portal and ended up here. That was years ago, by his estimate. Since then, he has watched many people show up here - almost all of whom eventually become food for the dragons or other beasts. But Sir Gerard's strong will and quick wit have managed to keep him safe. This is a test from Heironeous, who is saving him for some greater purpose. Perhaps Sarril's appearance here is a sign.

Sir Gerard also explained to Sarril all about the four nodes and what types of creatures could be found there. The water and air nodes being the most dangerous because they are open-air and therefore the party would be most susceptible to the dragons hunting overhead. Each node has multiple  dragons. Earth = black, Fire = Red, Water = White and Air = Blue. Sir Gerard goes to the water node only to collect water and to kill some of the aquatic creatures for food, but returns as quickly as possible, avoiding the other nodes. He also explained who some of the other inhabitants of the nodes were - all of them evil, so Sir Gerard would never ally with them to try to find a way out. But the arrival of a party of non-evil adventurers on a quest for good is what he has been waiting for.

Sarril then mentioned that the rest of his party would be looking for him, and he needed to get back to them immediately. Sir Gerard then equipped himself and escorted Sarril through the hallways of the Fire Node dungeon, opening stuck doors and closing them behind as they went, until they reached a portal leading to the Earth Node, and stepped into it.

8th Day of Flocktime, CY 579 (continued)

Continuing from the previous session, it is still the 8th Day of Flocktime and the party is down one barbarian. They decided to take the time to carefully search the area for the elemental power gem(s). (DM Note: this was the first session after I instituted new house rules regarding the timing of searches, and this resulted in more random monster rolls while the party was doing this). Athan managed to find a couple of ochre jellies (or they found him) while searching around. The jellies immediately began attacking him, hitting him with blobs of acidic jelly that burned his flesh. As he screamed in pain, the rest of the party rushed in to help, attacking the jellies with everything they had. Athan started using Magic Missile to hit the jelly that was starting to crawl onto his body. It was having an affect, but he was still getting hit multiple times every round. When he was down to only a couple of hit points, Luapan asked if needed healing, but Athan proudly answered "no, I'm okay, I got this" before getting hit twice more, taking him to -13 damage.

The rest of the party managed to kill the jellies before they made a complete meal of their former party member, but he was otherwise beyond saving. They placed his body in the portable hole, along with statue-Pontus, in case they should be able to find a way to bring him back - though the clerics knew that would be nearly impossible to do for an elf. And so the tragic story of Athan came to an end.

As the party was finishing up their fight with the jellies, a strangely robed man with a shaved head appeared before them, swinging a glaive-guisarm. After the fight, he introduced himself as Shan-Ju, a Disciple of Zuoken who found himself unfortunately trapped in this strange place after botched attempt at planar travel. He had been here for a few weeks, staying out of sight, looking for a way out. He was watching the party for some time, seeing if they were people he could trust, and decided to reveal himself when he realized they were good people. The party accused him of not helping their friend, but he insisted he did try. To prove his trustworthiness, he would reveal to them everything he knew about this place. He started by drawing a map, and pointing out where the worsts dangers were. He also led them to a place he determined would be safe for rest.

The party, severely wounded and out of spells, knew they had to rest somewhere in this inhospitable place, so they followed the monk down a tunnel and into an alcove where the the natural dangers of falling rocks, etc., did not seem to be severe. The party setup watches and got some very limited sleep. They were attacked in the middle of the night by Xaern's - strange rock creatures that eat metal weapons and absorb their magic. The party managed not to lose any gear, but the encounter prevented them from getting a full rest. The next morning (assuming it was morning), Sarril recognized that they needed to find these gems quickly, as every minute spent in this place was wearing the party down, and they already lost two members already. He had the brilliant idea to use a Potion of Treasure Finding that he had recovered from portable hole in Senshock's quarters. Using the potion, he was able to determine the direction of treasure, which appeared to be in a large cavern to the south, according to the map that Shan-Ju drew for them. He hoped the gems they were looking for would be there.

Taking the most direct route, Sarril, Jarrus, Luapan and Shan-Ju came to the cavern where they were immediately attacked by Chaggrin Grues - nasty creatures from the elemental plane earth that stick their claws in their victims and rip them apart. The grues gained a surprise round by rising up out of the earth to attack the party. Some party members got claws stuck in them, taking auto-damage every round. There were five grues and four party members, ensuring that everyone got at least one set of claws, with some taking two sets. It was all Luapan and Sarril could do to keep healing everyone while Jarrus and Shan-Ju fought them off. It was another very near TPK, but the party managed to survive. Everyone was near death, healing spells were mostly used up, but everyone was still breathing.

Sarril found the treasure pile and, using Detect Magic, tried to quickly find the gem he was looking for. He found it in the form of a garnet, and as soon as he touched it, he disappeared, leaving Jarrus, Luapan and Shan-Ju alone in the cavern on approximately the morning of the 9th Day of Flocktime - at least for those back on Oerth.

8th Day of Flocktime, CY 579

We started the session with the party having just released an "elf" with blue hair and blue skin from the mirror. The strangely attired, and strange looking, elf attempted to speak with the party using a variety of different unrecognizable languages before Sarril said something in Ancient Suloise that was understood. The elf asked where they were and what year it was, and then asked Sarril to hand over the mirror. As the elf started to cast a spell, Sarril handed over the mirror and the elf's spell destroyed it, releasing Athan, several horses and squirrels, and an apparently human figure in red robes with arcane symbols on it, and a water weird. The party didn't get much of a chance to assess the situation before what Sarril believes was a time-stop spell was cast. Within a blink, the blue elf, the red-robed man and the water weird were gone, leaving behind Athan, the horses and the squirrels.

The party decided to look for a new place to rest, being that this building was demolished. They settled on an abandoned temple of St Cuthbert, which was still mostly intact due to its solid stone construction. While the magic users did their thing, Athan and Luapan and Jarrus went exploring. Jarrus walked around town to see what the townspeople were like (answer = skiddish) whole Pontus and Luapan investigated the broken mage tower. While nothing of value was discovered in the tower, the eerie shadows moving inside indicated it was not entirely empty. Pontus managed to fall through two flights of rotten stairs and got some splinters in his butt, but is otherwise okay. The party spent two nights in the temple, discovering on the second night that demonic creatures were circling overhead, and realized it was time to get moving again. So on the morning of the 7th day of Flocktime, the party headed back to the temple to look for the power gems needed to complete, and then hopefully destroy, the skull. Finding a, once again empty temple, they headed straight the portal teleporting them to the Earth Elemental Node (demi-plane of earth).

This harsh environment, resembling a series of caves winding and twisting every which way, was filled with dusty, very cold air that was hard to breathe and difficult to see in. The environment was also dealing damage from falling debris every turn. The party soon learned they can limit the damage by use of helms and shields, though the visibility and general cold continues to be a problem. Following the caves around, the party eventually came to a lair of a small black dragon protecting two eggs. While the two fighters managed to make short work of the dragon, its mate was sneaking up from behind to hit the remaining party with its breath weapon. Sarril managed to avoid it altogether, while Athan made his save. Unfortunately, Luapan failed to save and his clothing and most of his skin was burned/melted off by the caustic acid. He dropped to -4 hit points. Athan released a lightning bolt, followed by Sarril shooting magic missiles, bringing the second dragon down. Sarril was then able to fully heal Luapan, who, in addition to losing his clothes, lost some of his items due to the acid as well.

The party explored further, running across a couple of Galeb Durr (earth-elemental type creatures with magic abilities). The party decided to talk to the Galeb Durr, who expressed appreciation for dispatching the black dragons who were not respectful of the earth. The galeb durr warned the party about the gorgons up ahead, which ended up being the next encounter. The party found a large cavern full of stone statues - a sure sign that this is where the gorgons must reside. Because of the extremely
low visibility with the dust, the party was unable to see the gorgons, but Pontus heard their breath, which prevented a surprise attack. Two gorgons attacked, with the first being quickly dispatched by Pontus and Jarrus working in unison, but the second turning Pontus to stone with its breath weapon before being dispatched by the rest of the party.

To keep statue-Pontus safe from breaking, the party placed it in the portable hole before checking their inventory and determining that no one has a stone-to-flesh scroll. Luapan (at the time being voiced by Ian since Graham had to leave early), wisely suggested speaking with the galeb durr again. Unfortunately, stone-to-flesh is not a spell they were capable of, so at this time, Pontus is to remain a statue unless/until someone can figure something out.

It is the afternoon of the 8th Day of Flocktime, in the year CY 579 - with the party trapped in a demi-plane somewhere. . .

6th Day of Flocktime, CY 579

On the afternoon of the 6th day of Flocktime, 48 hours had passed and Jarrus and Pontus were released from prison. While Pontus and Jarrus were sitting in a cell, Luapan sent a message to the Temple of Celestian in Verbobonc to update them on what was found in the temple, and Sarril used the mirror to visit his master in Almor to update him on what was happening. Sarril and Athan then decided to use the mirror to contact Iuz and let Iuz know that the party is in Hommlet. Luckily, this was on the last day and the party was able to skip town as soon as Jarrus and Pontus were set free.

DM Note: Sarril was actually trying to use the mirror to scry into the 3rd level of the temple. However, trying to use a scrying device like this to scry within a temple controlled and watched by a demi-god is never wise. Just ask a half-elf named Zolan (oh, sorry, wrong game). Athan wisely smashed the mirror before Iuz could snatch Sarril and have his way with him. Good thing for Sarril is that he managed to pick-up an amulet of proof against detection, so other than messing around with the mirror to say hello to him, Sarril is otherwise invisible to the demi-god who would like to take revenge on him for making him dance.

The party headed straight back to the temple, now empty again, to search the Wizard Senshock's room. Many interesting magic items were found, including a Portable Hole and Mirror of Life Trapping. After taking everything of value or interest there, the party moved to Hedrack's room, where they discovered a few more items of interest (although Hedrack had most of the good stuff on him at the time of his first death). They also discovered two women who were charmed into Hedrack's service. After dispelling the charms, some of the party agreed to escort them out to safety, with Athan thinking they would be a hindrance and Pontus seeing an opportunity to act creepy (a real shame, since he is the best looking and most charming, when he wants to be, member of the party - but he's also a barbarian, and their ways are strange). One item found was a figurine which is used to contact and summon Iuz. As Athan was playing around with this figurine (as he tends to do), a summoning was triggered which the party recognized as a sign to get out fast, and they all ran for the exit to return to Hommlet. As the party got close to Hommlet, they could see the smoke still rising from burning buildings. It looks like the entire village was decimated, with no signs of life anywhere. The party then changed course to head to the next closest settlement, the Town of Sobbanwych, which is also the town from which the women had been taken.

Sobbanwych was a once thriving town, walled and under the protection of a local lord who had a keep within. Today, few people still remain, with about 2/3s of the building empty and many, such as the mage's tower and the keep crumbling in age and disrepair. Luapan gave the rescued women several gold pieces each to begin a new life, being the good-aligned cleric that he is (note to DM to give Luapan some bonus exp) and let them go on their way. The party then settled into an abandoned warehouse building to study/pray/identify. When Sarril cast identify on the mirror and looked at it, he was (apparently) polymorphed into a Purple Worm, which the party immediately had to fight. The worm was so large that is destroyed the roof of the building. Even with the massive damage dealt by Jarrus, the fight was tough, with one party member getting swallowed whole (but living to tell the tale).

After the fight, Athan picked up the mirror and was polymorphed into Sarril. That's when Sarril explained that this is a Mirror of Life Trapping and that looking into the mirror actually transports the victim into an extra-dimensional space, trapped in stasis. There are 12 "slots" in the mirror and, because the slots are all full, whenever someone looks in the mirror and gets pulled in, something else gets popped out at random. Based on this knowledge, the party decided to use the mirror to start trapping harmless animals, in turn popping out a random creature or person, one of which would eventually be Athan. Following this process, the party started trapping horses until they ran out of horses, then started trapping squirrels. Many things popped out of the mirror, most of which had to be fought and killed, but due to dumb luck, Athan wasn't one of them. The final "creature" that was released was a blue-skinned "elf" in strange dress. This is where the session ended.

Sarril Visits Otto and Bigby

While Pontus and Jarrus were sitting in jail in Hommlet, Sarril decided to use the mirror as a gateway to go to Chathold and see his master. When he got to his house, he was led into the kitchen, where Otto was cooking while talking to another man.

"Greetings Master," Sarril says.

"Sarril! My boy!” replies Otto, “Come in, come in!"

"Have I got news for you!" says Sarril, excitedly.

"We were just cooking up a fantastic meal that I learned about from a merchant in Onwall. He managed to get me some prized sea serpent meat, which I am boiling in. . . "

Otto gets cut-off by the other man, "No, we were discussing important matters"

"Nothing is more important than feeding oneself. You can't think on an empty stomach, now can you?" says Otto in an incredulous tone.

Sarril jumps in and says "I have important matters to discuss as well.  As much as I would love a great meal... There is much to tell”

"Ah, no better place than over dinner. Step over here" says Otto, motioning with his hands. As Sarril steps forward, Otto starts handing him utensils and instructing him on stirring various things and shaking various spices. Otto then says "Oh, where are my manners. . . now, see, this is what happens when we don't eat. Bigby, this is my apprentice, Sarril, the one I was telling you about. Sarril, I don't know if you remember Master Bigby, it was a while back."

Not able to withstand the excitement of what he is about to say Sarril blurts out.  "I made the Old One dance!  He danced the jig!  Your spell worked on him!!!"
Bigby looks at Sarril funny. Otto spits something out of his mouth. They both stare at him for a few moments.

"I am dead serious" Sarril says. "St Cuthbert arrived and took him away before he could kill us all."
Otto finally breaks the silence by bursting out laughing

"Here, it’s all in my journal” Sarril says, trying to reach into his bag while stirring the pots.
Otto looks at Sarril, "Sarril, I was about to offer you some wine, but I can see you clearly don't need any.”

Sarril maintains a serious look and says "I know that its Zuggtmoy that’s locked in the Temple of Elemental Evil. Master, I am telling you the truth.  We rescued Prince Thrommel from the temple as well.  He has returned." He shows them Prince Thrommel’s medallion.

Bigby says "Oh, enough of this!" and snaps his fingers. Two disembodied hands appear out of nowhere and pick up the cooking utensils and start stirring. He then steps aside, grabs a goblet and starts pouring some wine "Sounds like we all need to talk"

Otto says "Oh, very well." He grabs a small plate, places some pieces of food on it that Sarril does not recognize, and begins to eat.

Bigby looks at Sarril and says "We know Prince Thrommel has returned. He arrived in Furyondy just a few days ago."

"On an Ebony Fly that I gave him,” interrupts Sarril.

Bigby continues, "I was asked to inspect him personally. To validate it was him. Much to everyone's surprise, it really is. That is why I am here. It seems King Archibold of Nyrond isn't too happy about Thrommel's return. The idea of a combined Furyondy and Veluna makes him feel threatened. Especially if they annex back the Shield Lands."

He turns to Otto, "Otto, this if your territory. You need to turn your attention to Nyrond. They are more of a threat than you think. The Scarlet Brotherhood has infiltrated their ranks at every level. And now that the Theocracy of the Pale is in full civil war, they will have no buffer between Tenh"
Otto replies "yes, yes, I'm on it. . . now Sarril, tell me more. I want to hear the story. Tell me everything."

Sarril asks "You have the information that Krek gave you, want me to start after that.  Or back up and start from the beginning?"

Bigby says "Who is Krek?"

"My Orrek familiar."

"An Orrek. . . most peculiar. And you are a cleric of Boccob also?"

"Yes, I am. I am a Curate / Magician."

Bigby looks at Otto. Otto looks back at Bigby and shrugs his shoulders. Bigby says "Go on. Otto can fill me in on the earlier stuff"

"We found a secret entrance into the Temple of Elemental Evil.  It took us to a secret part of the third level.  There we fought a mage name Falrinth, his imp familiar, and a half orc assassin. He was a follower of Lloth. It was from him that we came to possess the mirror of mental prowess, the golden orb, and improved our spellbooks. We also found a crystal ball that was linked to Zugtomy.  We since have destroyed that item."

Otto perks up at the sound of the mirror

"The mirror is how I got here,” Sarril states in response, before continuing the story. “We continued to search and clear the 3rd level.  Fighting our way through all sorts of things.  It was here that our companion, Gareth, was killed by an umber hulk. We rescued Jarrus, son of Coreal.  He joined our party. While searching the 3rd level we found the body of a dead drow.  The drow had a letter on her to her Mistress Eclavdra. More searching and we found and rescued Thrommel."

"With the 3rd level cleared we moved up to the 2nd.  We found 4 elemental temples up on the 1st and 2nd floors.  Destroying them all.  Earth, Fire, Water, Air. I have books that tell many things about the temples.  It was there that we discovered that the 4th Level, the Greater Temple was control by Hedrak, a cleric of the old one. We made our way to the 4th level and encountered the forces of the Greater Temple.  Slaying many of them, Hedrak, Senshock, giants, ettens, bugbears."

"Stop," interrupts Bigby, "Did you say CLERIC of the Old One?"

"Yes."

"I won’t say his name.  He is more pissed at me then he is at you. " Sarril says looking at Otto.

Bigby asks, very intently, "Did you see this ‘Hedrack?’ Did he cast spells?"

"Sure. We killed him twice. He cast Slay Living on Jarrus, Hold Person on me."

"Did he have a Holy Symbol?"

"Yes.  I can describe it."

“Draw it for me. Otto, give the man some paper"

Otto waves his hand and some paper and ink comes into the room. Sarril takes the paper and starts drawing.  As he is drawing he keeps talking "With his last breath, Hedrack called out to his master.  A few seconds later,” Sarril holds up a drawing of Iuz, “This thing showed up.  The old one.  He was in our heads, telling us things."

Bigby nods, "That's him. One of his forms anyway."

"He was pointing his finger at people and they died on the spot."

Otto says "he isn't as pretty as the last time we saw him."

"No," Bigby says. "That's what I've been trying to tell you. He's changed. And grown in power as he has. And now we know why."

Sarril continues, "He wanted Gareth’s finger and the Orb. He got Gareth’s finger, then I read your spell from my scroll and it got through his resistance and he danced the jig! Oh, how pissed he was at that."

Otto laughs and claps his hands "Oh, I wish I could have seen that!" Otto looks at Bigby and says "not so silly of a spell NOW, is it?"

Bigby shakes his hand and says "you are lucky to be alive, but it might have been better for you if Iuz had killed you on the spot."

Otto says "oh, stop being so gloom."

Sarril keeps telling the story. "We tried to run, but a wall of force was put in front of us. Just as he was about to kill us and take the skull.  A loud booming voice we heard.  and St Cuthbert showed up. They exchanged a couple words and both disappeared, but not before raising all the dead.  We had to fight again."

"Here, it’s all in my journal, even our conversation with Jaroo and his daughter afterwards."  Sarril places his journal on the table.

Otto says, "do you have the skull now?"

"Athan has it.  Jaroo wanted us to give it to him, we said no."

Bigby picks up the journal and starts perusing it. "So Jaroo wants you to destroy the skull?" he asks. "Does he think he knows what that will do?"

"Athan is Alyndra's apprentice. But we think she is dead."

"So sad,” Otto says, “We believe the Horned Society was behind her fate."

"It was definitely devils. From the way Athan described the encounter” Sarril responds. "Oh, did I mention that the Old One said he is making deals with Lloth, it’s in my journal if I skipped over that."
Otto says "I'm telling you, they are most assuredly the threat. The temple distracted everyone from them, but devils are patient. They will wait for the demons and their worshippers to destroy each other, then swoop into the void."

Bigby says "that may be so, but if Iuz has accomplished what it seems like he has, then our focus needs to be clear."

Sarril cringes at that word.

Bigby says "oh, it's just a word. If it had any real power, we could be done with him by now."
"Yeah, but being in his presence, feeling him in my mind, and again when I touched the skull.... I am not an arch mage like you two..."

"Keep making creatures like Iuz dance and you will be soon” Otto says with a smile.
"Please don't encourage him. This is serious business." Says Bigby as he continues reading the journal.

"I have a question,” Sarril says, “I keep hearing or reading references to Nexus's.  Almost like the temple is on one.  And another might be found near Perrenland.  What are they referring to you think?"

Bigby answers as he continues to read "some sages believe that there are places were the fabric of the prime material plane is weak. This could result in anything as benign as the hair standing on one's arms, to weird effects like teleportation, or gravity not working as it should. Basically, the laws that govern the prime material plane in these places are weak. It is a sound theory and seems relatively harmless. But some believe that there are nexus points where the veil between this world and the void beyond is such that raw energy seeps through. Places like Tovag Baragu are said to be built on such nexus points. This isn't anything that we would understand. Even the existence of a void itself is just theory. No one has ever been to or seen such a thing."

Otto jumps in "but if the void exists, that explains many spiritual things. Like, what happens to a soul when a raise dead spell fails? Where does it go? Where did the planes of existence that we know of come from? Everything must have a beginning."

"Is that why they built the temple there, so she could use the nexus to build her demi-planes?" ask Sarril.

Bigby continues "So of course, the cult of the temple, which we now know was serving Zuggtmoy, even if they weren't aware of it, is seeking the Elder Elemental God, whom they believe was banished to the void eons ago."

"Banished by the other gods, some say, while others say it was Lolth who did so" adds Otto.
"Clerics of Lolth claim that, but clerics of Celestian reinforce that myth,” adds Bigby, continuing "Cults of the elder elemental God crop up from time to time, but history has shown us that each time, it is either a complete farce, or another power manipulating things. That is what you are seeing in the temple here. Humans would never worship a god of fungus. But if they believed she was helping them tap into something greater. . . Maybe." Bigby is still reading as he talks, then he stops, looks up and says "Zuggtmoy wanted Hedrack dead?"

"Well, each of the Elemental Temples had priests.  As well as elemental forces, inside.  But the temples seemed to fight each other more than the outside world, but that was what Hedrack wanted. So yeah, seems he wasn't trying to free her. He was stopping the elemental temples from Freeing her, actually.  That is why Kella is sorta mad at us for killing him."

Otto says "it is typical of chaotic evil. It always turns on itself. Alliances are always short lived. Once one has used the other to get what they want, they turn on each other. That is why I don't worry about demons so much."

Bigby states, "Clearly, Iuz was using Zuggtmoy for something. Whatever it was, he got it, and now he wants her out of the way so she doesn't become a threat. He could try to kill her, but if he succeeds, she would just go back to the abyss. It seems her imprisonment is perfect."
"See, that is what I said,” says Sarril.

Otto says "but if Iuz has succeeded in becoming a Demi-God, then what real threat could Zuggtmoy be to him? . . ." (A long pause, then) he looks at Bigby, "you don't think?" Bigby says "I do."
"The rest of the party were like ‘let’s go kill her.’  I said ‘Why? We’d just free her and send her back to the abyss.  Leave her stuck there and weak.’" Sarril is staring at them back and forth, waiting to see what is so eye popping as he realizes they are not paying attention to him.
Bigby gets up, if you will excuse me, "Otto, we'll catch up on that other stuff later. I need to go see Mordenkainen."

“Um, nice to meet you again" says Sarril as Bigby leaves.
Otto says, "This is quite the dilemma. Leave her there, and the temple will become active again. Someone will eventually free her. Look at all the spies we had there trying to prevent that and it still almost happened. Kill her, and she goes back to the abyss, but maybe that's not such a bad thing if she is going to be a problem for Iuz. But destroying the skull might weaken them both. This should be your primary focus right now.”

After the talk, Otto gave Sarril a scroll with “Otto’s Irresistible Dance” written on it. “Do try to be more careful this time,” at which point, he heard a loud crash in the kitchen Otto and Sarril ran in and realized that since Bigby left the house, the disembodied hands in the kitchen were now running out of control, making a mess and destroying everything Fantasia-style. Otto dispelled the hands and started the magical clean-up process, while complaining about his wasted dinner. He then turns to Sarril “I guess I am going out to eat. You still have clothes upstairs. Go get cleaned up and changed, and I’ll take you with me to Greyhawk.”