Attendees:
We begin the week by going back into the dungeon. Why? Well, we never really got the gem now did we. Why were we getting the gem? Well... dunno. We were going to trade it to someone who came looking for it, but none of us were exactly sure what we were getting. Some thought it was a teleportation circle so we can send people between town and the keep. Others thought it was personal magic items.
Anyway, we go down and look around. We have to defeat those golems. Remember those? The ones that Guzgern could barely hurt and the rest of us couldn't hurt at all? Turns out you need an adamantine weapon, and Guz is the only one with one. So the plan is for Krayden (and maybe Etrin) to distract while Guz hits it and Morningstar and Vernal perform serial healing. Khouzam slows the golem by hitting it with electrical spells, which act as slow.
Rather than go THROUGH the trap room, we take a page out of the monster campaign and go AROUND it. We find the golem is back in his home with the other statues. What's a golem do when left alone with a bunch of statues? I fear to ask. We wind up luring him down the hall and smacking him around in the hallway outside. Krayden gets in some successful trips on it from time to time while Guz does the smacky-smacky thing and crumbles it. By now we have the process perfected and do likewise to the next golem that appears. A main reason we did not fight in the room: There was a flammable gas that came out during fights and the metal golem was fighting in rubble that caused sparks. Did not sound like a safe place to fight, hence the luring out. Also we could get more people on it that way (and flanking).
The next two statues selected are the right ones! We are done with golem-smacking! Now to figure out the riddle of how to get our reward. Vernal decides there is a clue in the original words given us by Golem #1. And it turns out he is correct! In his speech there is a clue as to how many times to turn the keys.
Given as a reward is some sort of adamantine scepter Great! Give is the clubbing thing right AFTER we need it. The clever dwarves built the sarcophagus to recede into the ground after giving up it's gift, and to be covered up by stone.
Now we had a chance to explore another room, but Morningstar and Vernal both had holy objections about disturbing a tomb. After getting the staff and no gem, we came back to look at these rooms. Ultimately we find a few treasures, and eventually we find what we're looking for. I forget who had it, but we got it.
More discussion on what we are getting for the gem.
POSITION ONE: Magic Items will help us individually. Plus, the circle
creates a way for invading armies to get back to town (3 people at a time).
POSITION TWO: A magic circle would allow us to increase trade, but more
importantly allow people to evacuate in the case of emergency, or more
troops to show up if we need reinforcement.
There's a postion #3 in which I am proponent of hiring guards to come through the circle then beating them to death on the other side for experience points, but nobody agreed with that. And I guess Krayden really wouldn't propose that.
Ultimately we wind up with the circle after Vernal, who was infavor of the magic items, shifts his vote when he realizes Etrin was the only other person voting for the magic items. I might propose Etrin use reverse psychology next time.
We journey to town. We talk to Lord Ordin. Actually, we talk to him many times, via messenger, enough so that I think many of us fear annoying the heck out of him with questions about how to run things. But truth is, Lord Ordin has bigger concerns: The Wolf Nomads have moved along the border, overtaken a town in Perrenland, and are on their way to the pass. On the other side, the Tiger Nomads are simultaneously starting up, thus splitting the armies. It seems that they are all acting on some pact with Iuz. Their target? Well, we'll get to that.
Now there's also a problem to the south. You see, Khet has sent some troops... at least 60, to set up a fort in our pass. Later we discover during discussion with their emissaries that they came seeking a piece of an artifact that once belonged to the royal family of Khet. The item, when put with the other pieces, allowed the royal family to protect itself from scrying and to send messages thousands of miles away. Useful stuff, that we wouldn't normally allow an enemy to have, except that we've got forces on the northern border. It is decided that if we make a deal with Khet and accept their token gift that we can create a sort of non-aggression pact. It works, so far as we know. They will not start up any hostilities, they claim.
One item that I skipped over (because I write these things more in stream-of-consciousness than in any real chronology) is the elven village. Apparently an elven village nearby has had issues with... well... being made completely ethereal. They are all trapped in the ether and cannot get back to our world. When we go to try and fix things we manage to make them worse. A "guide" of sorts: An ethereal being who can't speak with us so much as point and gesture, indicates that he needs a specific gemstone in order to free his people and turn them back. When communicated that he wants us to give him the gem, Vernal does, and then the guy proceeds to run off with it, while ethereal. He is gone, and from our conversations with the elves, we need either a wish spell, or that gem (which likely has a wish involved with it) in order to free them. For now we leave them in a lerch, because they can't really die while ethereal anyway and we have many irons in the fire. Later on in communication with the guy to whom we traded the other gem (the gem of brightness that we got from beneath the keep), he says he can track the ethereal guy if he has to.
So that leaves us with what Iuz wants. It seems that in our keep, below ground, is a gateway. Said gateway may very well be an opening to hell. Evil gods like such things. Thus the wolf nomads come to secure it for him. Bastards. Back in my day, the Wolf Nomads didn't stand for any Iuz chicanery. In fact, Iuz killed my entire tribe of wolf nomads. I'm the last of my clan! And I will get even.... OH, wait...sorry, slipped into my barbarian from circa 1992.
PROPOSALS: We may need the help of the elves to defend ourselves. So we need to turn them back to normal so we can call on them later for help. Also, does anyone know Khet's position on HELL? I'm pretty sure even they consider it a bad thing. It's possible we may need to request reinforcement from them should the Nomads make it to the keep.