Comments - October 25th session

The party started off in the room with the collapsed roof and the orb. I was summoned by the orb and was hesitant to touch it once I watched two others get knocked unconscious trying to do the same. However, I was sucked into the orb and met Hallaster Blackrobe in an extradimensional space. Hallaster was a disciple of Mystra and asked me if I would undertake a quest to reconstitue Mystra. Mystra was a neutral god who tended towards good, and I figured that if we were able to complete such a task it wouldn't be too bad to have a god on our side; so I said yes.

Our mission is this: Mystra's essence was shattered into eight distinct parts at the time of her death. Those parts represent the eight schools of magic. Each essence was captured in a ring, therefore there are eight rings out there that we have to recover. The rings are artifacts in their own right, however, they tend to be a tad chaotic and potentially harmful to the wearer. We also need to recover the staff of Arun's son in order to perform a specific ritual that will use the staff as a focus and combine the eight rings which will revive the dead goddess.

I was released from the orb, which shattered into fine dust. The stone statues of plate armor (helmed horrors) were animated once I touched the orb and the party fought them off effectively. Our new party member, Travan, was able to open the arcane door adjacent to the room and discovered a rod that controlled one of the helmed horrors.

After defeating the helmed horrors, I told the party of the proposed mission given to me by Halaster. The party accepted.

We continued through the Underdark to another room where we encountered a freaky swirling vapor of mouths and rending limbs. The vapor feebleminded me and one other PC (can't remember who it was). At this point, the party was a mess, and we decided to head back to HQ (Chateau Anderway) in Waterdeep. There, the dwarven cleric Fargrim Stonehammer Healed me and the other PC. Having shirked the feeblemind spells, we decided not to re-enter the Underdark.

I remembered that the vampire we fought in the massive graveyard, the City of the Dead, wore an ornate ring with a large skull on it. I remembered that the ring eminated arcane magic when we cast detect magic in the room just before the first battle. That ring, therefore, contained the necromantic essence of Mystra. We fought the vampire, and I (Andreas) was killed by a Cirlce of Death spell. I failed my save and was hit with a death attack that affected 32 HD--ouch. The rest of the party handled the vampire and gained the ring.

I was True Res'd by clerics of Tempus. I awoke to see Keira in the church of Tempus. I owe her a fairly large debt.

Sounds about right to me, but his name is Blackcloak. Not Blackrobe.

Uncle Mart wrote:

Sounds about right to me, but his name is Blackcloak. Not Blackrobe.

Blacknegligee?

You weren't supposed to tell anyone about that. Now I'm going to have to Lightning Bolt you.

*slowly exits the topic, quietly closing the door*

Rikan wrote:

*slowly exits the topic, quietly closing the door*

Dude, you should never have posted; you brought attention to yourself! Lol.

Wait, how do you exit a topic? Is every forum a house and the topics the rooms? Wow, odd visual. Never thought of it that way. i'm going to start another room. Come on over and talk in my room! (Sounds like a boring date.)

/quit

Rikan wrote:

/quit

LOL.

So now that we have the ring from Vampy, what do you think our next course of action should be?

I'd like to get a better handle on who Halaster Blackcloak was. Also, in order to complete the ritual whereby we revive Mystra from the dead, we need to attain the staff of Arun's son. We have no idea what this item is (I'm assuming it's an artifact level item). Does anyone have any idea where to start looking?

Secondly, we have a quest in the works--find the Axe of the Dwarven Lords so that the dwarves have a better shot at mowing this unknown "great evil" that's coming our way. Frankly, I kind of see this one as more imperative. On the priority list, I think Mystra can wait.

However, this means diving back into the Underdark again. Are we all up for more fantastic PC ass-kicking?

I'm curious as to what our little band of adventurers would like to do. Thoughts?

I would like to place the Axe on top of the priority list, and hopefully "crosses fingers" it too is one of the artifacts we need for our overall journey. Then with that, we can look for the other pieces as we go on these two quests. Besides, if we have the dwarfs on our side, things should go much smoother

Rikan wrote:

I would like to place the Axe on top of the priority list, and hopefully "crosses fingers" it too is one of the artifacts we need for our overall journey. Then with that, we can look for the other pieces as we go on these two quests. Besides, if we have the dwarfs on our side, things should go much smoother

Agreed. I guess it's back to the Underdark for us. I think we need to shop around Waterdeep for some supplies before we head back down there. Healing potions need to be at the top of our list (Cure Lights are 50gp/each; Cure Serious 750gp/each). Plus, some scrolls of Remove Curse and Remove Blindness/Deafness would be helpful - both are a 3rd lvl cleric spell. Each is 375gp (p. 491).

We also need light sources, although I can cast Light whenever. That doesn't help us if we split up though.

I have 255gp to contribute to the buying of equipment. What is everyone else willing to throw in? If we're adequately prepared, we should do fine. I think we went in last time helter skelter--and you see where that got us.

I'm thinking we grab some everburning torches only 125 gold each, and what happened to that huge surplus of gold the party had generated.

That huge surplus of gold was blown on hookers and beer. Or was it the ridiculous magic item shopping spree? My memory isn't so good anymore.

Yeah, our vault-o-cash has dried up. Mart told us how difficult the Underdark was going to be and we went nuts buying items. Unfortunately, we switched systems AFTER the spending spree. Most of the stuff I bought doesn't translate. So, it's sitting on my 4th ed. character list. Our party is a vibrant--yet poor--group of 8th lvl characters. Damn you 4th ed. (shakes fist towards the sky)!

Fair enough. Next time the walking bank statement (Pete) dies we're cashing in on all that magic he's flaunting.

Rikan wrote:

Fair enough. Next time the walking bank statement (Pete) dies we're cashing in on all that magic he's flaunting.

Already did. That's how I got these shiny rings--a ring of natural armor and a ring of protection. Thanks Pete!

BTW, we shouldn't blow our money on ever-burning torches. We need the potions and scrolls way more than those. Normal torches will do fine.

fair enough. i too can cast my own light source.

Take a look at DM Tabletop. I continued this conversation in-character so we can hopefully get a little xp out of the deal.