SUMMARY

Session of February 8, 2004

Covering evening Sunday, 10 Workmoon, through noon Satyrday, 16 Workmoon, CY 937

"Dwarves Build Things to Last"

Hurrah, another day survived -- and we'll play the final battle at the start of next time.

A quick recap of events so far... Once you reach Innport, you meet your
contact, per Jalminx's instructions -- a half-elf woman named Kyrim, and her
associate, a big lunk of a fighter named Lutini...

Hired by the mysterious pirates, who say "Ahoy" even 100 miles inland, to retrieve
four Works of Art from an underground facility, you discover this facility is actually
an 8000-year-old Dwarven fortress. 8000 years, hmm... why, that dates it around the
time of the Universal War -- you know, when Orcs led by Gurfang briefly ruled the
world but were ultimately defeated by means of a strange spell, which legend has it
was risky and easily reversible... though all facts have since been lost to the sands
of etc...

SO: right off the bat, a choker attempted to remove Thoor's face, and was only stopped
when Tak removed the face-removing limb. Then you quickly found the crashed cart
belonging to Abu Zakaar, the merchant who disappeated while transporting these objects
d'art. In fact right there you found the Painting, Object #1.

In the very next room, a tricky floor triggered a sealing of the exit, and the
summoning of a trio of fire elementals, so happy to see you they couldn't stop
themselves from hugging you. In particular they seemed to like Footstool -- I'm
sure it had nothing to do with almost all your front-liners staying on the far side
of the room lobbing arrows... nah...

The second time you fought the fire elementals, you were much better at it.
Onward, where Tharamil said "I don't trust that curtain," which sounded deranged
but actually proved to be a good instinct. And 73 arrows and 2 rounds later, no
more Cloaker.

The 3 Xorn in the next room proved to be stickier... thanks to a web sneezed onto
most of them by Aziz. Tanestha practiced her trip skills with the spiked chain,
only to realize she needs a little more practice against 3-legged enemies, and finally
one of the Xorn eluded its smiting. But it chose to pop back in, here and there, to
reminisce about the fight, and later managed to befriend Footstool in the only way
Xorn know how, by knocking him out and eating a third of his arrows.

You found the Rug and Censor -- Object #2 and ## -- in a room Abu used as his lodging
while hiding out down here. And not far away, you found a Dwarven journal, which
described the preparations for the spell that would end the war, and alluded to
misgivings about it -- warning, in fact, not to open a certain box. "Right," you
all agreed, "We find any boxes, no more opening them."

You went on to kill a Destrachan, hardly a fair fight since all he had was a sonic
cone weapon capable of 4d6 damage per round, and there among the rubble you found a
head that must have belonged to Abu, against whom it seems the Destrachan did not
roll a 1 initiative. Tak carved 50 lbs of steaks and kept its hide. Sure, what
the hell.

A trail of blood (always follow those!) led to a crypt, where you enjoyed a very
cinematic battle with a power trio of sneaky wights, during which Althea realized
Tanestha needs a little more practice on the spiked chain. After the battle, Thaed
celebrated his negative level by sneaking off to break into one of the graves, and
Tak opened a secret trapdoor. Also you found a Bag of Holding, which was holding
the Statue and a... second Painting? Objects #4 and #1.1?

Aziz became suspicious when he found Thaed standing innocently beside the newly
opened crypt, and as Thaed didn't successfully hide the grave-robbed Dwarven Waraxe +2
under his shirt, the jig was up. Aziz Charmed him, and Thaed became more than happy
to hand over the ruby amulet, too.

There was no time for love, however, as down below, Tak and Footstool had taken
initiative and found a secret room containing an altar, four stone tables with dust
atop them, and a box. On the altar was a spill of wax into which someone had pressed
a signet ring, bearing Dwarvish script: "KH." The dust (it seemed safe to assume)
had once been the bodies of high-ranking dwarves. Tak, naturally, having really not
been fully engaged in the no-open-boxes-no-more decision process, which had come about
only after reading the journal, itself a project for which our half-orc friend had
not felt broad enthusiasm, opened the box.

At this point, 3 things happened. First, a burst of lightning shot from the box
and struck everyone in the forehead, burning there a glyph which quickly faded from
sight. Second, a shimmering, orange, spectral figure of an Orc leapt out of the
box -- tall, terrifyingly fierce, radiating hatred -- and swept past Tak, and up
stairs, where as it passed the rest of the party they felt their strength sapped
by the horror of its appearance (Str sapped by 2, in fact, as well as Dex 2 and Con 1),
and continued its rush up the corridor, quite possibly to the outside world. A few
weapon swipes as it passed and Thoor noticed as he struck with his glowing new axe
that he felt a tingle where the glyph had burned into his forehead...

Meanwhile, Tak and Footstool down below both began to feel a certain amount of
concern -- nothing too crazy, but you know, *concern* -- as from the four stone
tables of dust arose four more spectral orcs, burning orange with fury, except for
their eyes -- which burned RED with fury.

And that's where we thought it best to end the session. Just before the initiative
roll.

For these feats of featitude, everyone involved gets 1900 XP. Not too shabby,
when you consider the total was divided by 7.