Session Notes for 2004-11-29
Armed with a new key we head to the nearby passage that was previously locked. A passageway ends at a door. A yellow ceramic key slot sits in the middle of the stainless steel door. We hear nothing beyond.
We head back to the second sphere, the location of another orange socket. Instead of moving in the direction we expect, the sphere rotates downward. The floor rotates to provides access to a hole in the floor. The route back remains open.
Below is a sharp drop. Below water is visible about thirty feet below. There doesn't appear to be anything else of note. The pit does not widen. The sharp incline means several of us slip a bit, but no one falls into the hole. We head back to the first sphere.
Time to face the fire.
The final blue corridor smells of soot and ash. The walls are blackened. What was probably once a metal door is now a blob in an doorway. At the end of the hallway a flicker of flame is visible. Eight uses a scroll to magically protect Red from fire.
As we advance a ball of flame rolls down the corridor toward us. It engulfs Red, but the enchantment holds and protects her. We strike at it. Only magical weapons seem to be damaging it. It senses that I'm the more serious threat and burns me. It and I spar; I cut away large parts of its flaming form while it burns me badly. Crossbow enchanted by Eight, Lin sinks a bolt into it. Red finishes the flaming sphere off with a blow with her halfling talenta tangat.
225 Living Spell: Flaming Sphere
Beyond we find another set of barracks. A side room contains another large pool and latrines. Further in are barracks.
Search the place, we find a bit of silver and gold, a House Cannith signet ring, and a brown key.
After some quick discussion, we decide we shouldn't camp and recover; we don't know if we've been followed by the necromancer.
We back up to the first sphere and open the northern brown passage. A short passage ends in another metal door. It has a conventional lock. Lin takes several minutes and opens it.
A small room surrounded with shelves is beyond. It's a storeroom. There is dried and magically preserved food, water, and wine. There is some rope. We find some potions. Two are labeled with a plus, three are labeled with a man with arms extended above. Nothing else seems noteworthy.
Taking the south passage from the first sphere we find another short corridor. The door beyond is ajar. Beyond is a dining room with long tables. The room is filled with fresh bodies. There is no sign of injury on the bodies. There is some gold, some silver, a few brown key rods, and a pile of blue key rods.
An open archway in the back of the room leads to another room. A counter separates the two. A body inside is dressed like a cook. In the back is a cabinet with mithril engravings. The cabinet has fifteen drawers, each with a different label. The labels are simple symbols. They include a cactus, fire, an icicle, and a fish. The cactus one smells spicy. The fire one is warm and the icicle is cold. The fish drawer smells of fish. Lin puts her hand the fish drawer. There is a hum and her hand smells of fish. Eight tests the fire drawer with a piece of jerky from the dining room; the jerky is warmed.
Red remembers that the officer's quarters had a chest locked with a brown key. We head back to see the wolves. We tell Rorsa what we've done and seen and give her a brown key.
In the chest we find clothes, some platinum, a silver and jet ring set with an oval cut bloodstone, a vial of silvery liquid, two vials full of oil labeled with swords (probably magic weapon), and a red key. Apparently it's time to revisit the second sphere.
We tie ourselves together and to the pedestal. Lin slots the red key. The floor resets itself. Re-inserting the key results in a quiet click. Leaving the red key in place, inserting the orange key leads to the expected direction instead of to the pit.
A corridor brightly lit with everburning lanterns curves to the left out of sight. The passage ends in double adamantine door. The doors bear the house symbol of House Cannith. The doors radiate heat. Lin doesn't find any traps, so we push the doors open.
A large room lays beyond. Two giant bonfires are in the rear and left side. A shallow pit in the middle is filled with molten glass. A set of metallic dragon busts rings the pit. A crystal chest clearly holding several items including the schema sits in front of the chest.
As we step in, the bonfires animate and move toward us. Red charges and strikes a mighty blow to one. I call Councilor Eladrean's blessing upon her. Boosted with the Undying Court's power, she quickly finishes the first fire elemental off. Assisted by the others, Red takes only minor burns before striking down the second elemental.
450 2 fire elementals
Lin tackles the lock on the chest while the rest of us search the room. Behind the ring of heads is a small hut with controls. It looks like the heads are some sort of machine. Eight studies the controls. One opens the ceiling, one lifts the pedestal the machine sits on, one rotates the machine, one sets the range, one activates the machine.
Inside the chest we find two potions labeled with a fire symbol, two potions labeled with a plus symbol, an arcane scroll, an adamantine disk covered with mithril runes and symbols, and two copies of a diamond shaped schema.
The disk contains sockets for four items. One slot looks like it will hold the second schema. Another looks like it will hold the first schema. There are two other roughly diamond shaped sockets.
Eight realizes what the device is. As I suspected, it's probably a weapon; it's probably responsible for covering Rose Quarry in glass.
Red fetches the wolves; this may be our way out.
Eight opens the ceiling and raising the platform. He sits on a hill. There is space on the platform to carry two.
We agree we should probably destroy the weapon; it's too powerful. Lin considers the machinery. She thinks it could be rigged to self-destruct. She performs the alterations; now it simply needs to be triggered.
We look for Failin. The bastard disappeared. Heading south to the river we have about a week's walk. We don't have enough food; Lin and I dart back and grab food from the storage room. We guess we have a week of food and water.
We tell Rorsa what the situation is. She wants to see the sun; she'll join us.
We debate sleeping one final night inside the relative safety of the garrison. Eight wants to recover his spells. Lin wants to move on before the necromancer follows us. I point out that it will be at least ten hours until I can commune and regain my spells. That cinches it. We head south. We travel through the night without event.
We set the gun to self destruct and flee. There is a massive explosion.