Having cleared up our activities in town, we set our sights on completing our retrieval of Whitlesee and his restoration. Going down the list of things we had yet to retrieve we ultimately decided that the fact that we were missing a ring was incidental to our cause; not something that would stop us outright from achieving our goal. However, we did still need a key, and a couple pages from a journal that we have show that we’re still missing a few pieces for our artifact collection (things like the other two parts of a three part staff—copan thinks they attach to the part he has).
We have dinner with Rayson’s family and friends. Sadly he has no hot sisters.
Our journey will take us down into Khet. Unfortunately our native of that region is in traffic school. But the first leg of our trip is through a pass down into Molvar. On the way we pass the keep that is home to our other characters. We don’t notice a beholder wandering around or anything up on the battlements.
Pon Pon sets up Leomunds tiny hut and we pack everyone in (All of the above people, our horses, 2 mercenaries and 2 animal handlers—which makes me question the word “tiny” in the spell name, because it all fit.) During the night a pair of undead spirits come down to say hi and ask if they can borrow a cup of soul. (Mhorgs, or some such.) The fight that ensues isn’t all that close, but the creatures keep paralyzing Jim’s summoned pets, and it sucks some characteristic points out of Mavin. No Mathius’ were killed during this encounter.
The bulk of this game is spent in the next dungeon. Seems a group of powerful wizards got together and founded the Ministry of Winds, an organization dedicated to summoning a great Air Elemental to our world. They long ago failed for whatever reason and their clerics/wizards have not been seen again. There is however a large Obelisk left behind that was part of their summoning effort. From what we understand, there’s a door that appears in its side but only if the winds are stopped. Pon Pon takes care of that by using a spell of his to summon a wind that blows against the current one, neutralizing currents. The door appears and Marcen makes with the magic-door picking. Inside we find a spiral going down and that the place goes up further but without stairs. Rayson uses his sticky boots to go up the wall and look around; up there he finds an area that is not visible to the outside, but is a transparent room that affords a nice view of the city from 60’ up. There are papers lying around but none have anything on them that we can read. While we’re pretty sure that Zuka will be able to read them, it’s probably a good idea if I take Decipher Script next opportunity (next level) so we don’t run around with possible clues in our hands next time.
Our first major encounter in the place involves a hallway with heavy winds blowing down it that keep one from encroaching without a fortitude save. But that’s alright because the guys in this hall, a ten-pack of undead, are pretty much wasted when Pon Pon nails them with a fireball, Mathius webs them in, and then Pon Pon nails them with a second fireball, which then benefits from burning web damage. The one that is left is dispatched by Mavin the Bear-Girl and her pet, I think.
There’s a doorway to the left of where we enter this hall, and that’s fortunate because nobody wants to go the length of that hallway against the wind.
Beyond the doorway is a hallway and a side hallway. We continue on the main hallway and encounter a room full of bad guys. Marcen peeks and lets us know what’s there. Rayson tries to peek and is targeted with a bad case of Tasha’s Hideous Laughter. He is out of the fight for about ¾ of it. Mathius puts up his “foresight” from his object, which is good because it actually saves him from dying in a fireball mess. Their wiz has fireball and proceeds to try and take out the team.
The enemy crew are a minotaur, a wizard, a priest, a Dire Wolf and a Barghest.
Bear Girl takes on just about everything during this fight, often standing in the middle of a cluster of enemies, using her wolf as flanking. Marcen tangles with a Dire Wolf which rips him up pretty well. Pon Pon Provides artillery support. Mathius gets in a few magic missiles that don’t seem to make much difference in the scope of things; but his foresight tells him that if the cleric goes down it will turn into something troublesome. He warns the party as such, but they don’t need the warning because they witness this happen to the archanist, who goes down and then turns into a wraith. Copan’s can take a more direct approach on attacking these spirits, and does. When Rayson breaks from his fit of laughter, he’s able to run into the room and takes some of the heat off of Mavin. I don’t have an accounting of who all killed what, but that’s okay because we have Jim Doezie: Death Accountant on the job.
I also skipped over the part where we encountered a pack of wolves in a pass and Mavin talked them into letting us pass. There’s some discussion of whether that’s a “kill”, six kills, or none. But that’s up to our death accountant.
We find some spirits in a hallway who try to enlist us to join their church. We decline their free brochure.
Rayson decides we should leave while we’re ahead, because everyone is alive, walking, and we’ve found our magic key (among other things). Outside we come across a band of Arabian types with whom we nearly come to blows. Half the team is itching for a fight because of the attitude they are giving us, but Rayson agrees to follow them into town without relinquishing our weapons. There we meet with the local sultan who seems like a nice fellow and does not poison us. Instead we give him a “tribute” from our cache of plundered goods, to the tune of 2k in gold.