Rappan Athuk #107: Vault of Horrors

The party has gone “down the well” to stop the Ravager, and have found themselves in a lethal dungeon.

(-GM)

6th day of Sarenith, 4722 AR

If it wasn’t for Deckard Cain we would all be dead. Seriously. After being surrounded by wraiths he clutched up. Shia gave him a little more time to cast his spells so he was able to cast three spells in rapid succession. He first weakened all of the wraiths and made them more vulnerable to his spells. After that he cast Storm Bolts which, in case you didn’t figure out, makes giant bolts of lighting come out of his hands and strike everything. The enemies were about to descend on him but he burned them with his flames. Some survived but were wiped out when he regained his breath.

We retreated out of the room but this time made sure to not have everybody leave. We did not want to have to fight the wraiths for a third time. We summoned an apple tree with our Sapling Rod and Grom-Gil-Gorm and I ate a few apples to restore the damage the wraiths had dealt to our physiology. Those with more severe damage had to return to the capital to buy scrolls of spells that could heal them. 

Finally, we were all back together and ready to address the vault door. It was unlocked but very heavy. However with Grom-gil-Gorm’s mighty strength, we were able to pry it open enough for us to slip through. The walls in the room beyond were made of a strange rock. The rock was embedded with strange colored crystals and our wizard informed us that it had the special property of being immune to any magical effects. The room itself was filled with small pillars that seemed to go into the floor and up into the ceiling. There was another vault door on the other side of the room, but as I scanned the walls and ceiling, I noticed a secret door on the right hand side.

 

Rappan Athuk #106: Down the Well

The party has taken upon itself to deal with “the Ravager,” a legendary force of destruction imprisoned within the dungeon.

(-GM)

5th day of Sarenith, 4722 AR

The world is coming to an end. Even the Deck of Many Things confirmed it. If we don’t slay the Ravager then it will escape his prison and have its revenge on humanity. The party decided to examine the bottom of the well at the entrance to Rappan Athuk. We have a dagger key that was given to us by an anonymous party. We didn’t know exactly where to put it, but we had always been warned not to go down the well.

At the bottom of the well there was a room with a muddy dirt floor. We dug down through a couple of feet of dirt until eventually we stumbled upon a metal trap door inlaid into the stone floor beneath the mud. In the center of the trap door was a keyhole. Bright Yilling took the dagger and pushed it into the lock. It fit perfectly. He turned the key in the lock and the trap door opened. A hurricane of wind pulled everybody but Susurrus and myself down into a void of darkness. After a few seconds, our fellow wizard and I jumped in willingly to aid our party in fighting whatever lay at the bottom of this hole.

 

Rappan Athuk #105: The Solution

In an unwritten chapter of our tale, the party miraculously survived a demon-goblin ambush, the party explored the remainder of their caves, finding altars to Orcus, treasure, and a revealing note. Bright Yilling also was murdered by a half-orc viking fighter, Grom-gil-Gorm, who stole his gear and joined the party…

(-GM)

29th day of Desnus, 4722 AR

Valestar looked up from the pile of treasure which lay before us in the chest of the once-leader of the goblins. The “compensation” we had received from this long and extremely eventful encounter was hardly worth the amount that was spent here. However, it did not matter, for a long-time bastion of the Prince of the Undead, the demon lord Orcus, was no more. The goblin priests of this abyssal city were among his most devout and brutal followers, never shying from the opportunity to spread his corruption. 

Among the treasure we had found a note from the persona “GC,” which we have interpreted as the Grand Cornu, which used to lead the Cult of Orcus in the ancient evil city of Tsar. In this letter he revealed that he had in fact given the goblins the balor demons who we had fought in the antechamber outside the room in anticipation of our eventual “return” to the city. Orcus and his followers have become aware of our party’s growing prowess. The challenges of the past will likely pale in comparison to what we are going to face in the future.

 

Rappan Athuk #103: The Ambush

In an unwritten chapter of our tale, the party decided to destroy Greznek, the goblin city deep within Rappan Athuk. They got more than they bargained for, as the goblins and hobgoblins were led by priests who seemed to have been granted favors by demons…

(-GM)

27th day of Kuthona, 4721 AR

In this chapter, the party pays another visit to the goblin city…

The session started in the middle of murdering hobgoblins which Deckard Cain defeated with jatembe’s ire and fireball. After most were weakened by Susurrus’ amazing ray of frost, DFSIFA shot six arrows, missing four and completely killing one of the flying hobgoblins. Suddenly, two large spellcaster hobgoblins came forward and one attempted to dispel my fly, but I still had my wings of flying. Then two smaller hobgoblins advanced and were pushed swiftly out of the air and into the Jatembe’s Ire. After this, an alchemist came at DFSIFA but failed to throw a bomb.

 

Rappan Athuk #101: When the Dead Speak

A hunt begins, and the party defends itself against its accusers. The slayer-cum-scribe Death from Somewhere Irrelevantly Far Away tells their tale.

(-GM)

4th day of Kuthona, 4721 AR

An ancient prophecy on display referenced walls of color.

Two extreme battles took place this past week. I left off last time right after Bright Yilling had slain the Second of Orcus, Maphistal. There still remained two Balor Demons and a couple of Winterwights. It only took us 30 seconds to dispose of them and collect what little loot there was.

But that is not what mattered, we had slain Maphistal, one of Orcus’s lieutenants. We decided that the best course of action to achieve our goal of killing Orcus would be to slay his greatest allies first. We set our sights on Sonechard, General of Orcus. Even our wizard, Susurrus of the Wind, knew very little about him.

In hopes of learning more, we went to a library in the capital Nerosyan. The library provided us with some basic knowledge of Sonechard’s power, place of residence, and his tactics in combat. Something else that caught our eye was an ancient prophecy on display. In the text it referenced walls of color.

Colored wall sounded familiar to me. I thought back to our recent adventures. It only took me a few seconds to remember the Prismatic Wall puzzle that was down on the level with the big Orcus temple. As I explained what I remembered, the party nodded their heads in agreement, remembering the area and declaring that that was where we were going next.

On our way out of the museum, however, an arrow flew out of nowhere and struck Susurrus right in the side of the head. However, because of my robe of eyes I was able to see that the arrow came out of a slit in the wall, on the second story of an opera house. Valestar’s companion griffon flew him up to the arrow slit in a matter of seconds, but our paladin was only able to catch a glance of two figures. One was an elf, holding the bow that had just loosed an arrow at our wizard. The other was a bearded human with a purple cloak on.

 

Rappan Athuk #100: The Trial

Here we are: the 100th writeup of the Rappan Athuk campaign. Several members of the party have something to about a day that was one for the ages. But we begin with the letter from the party’s slayer, addressed to the judge overseeing the lawsuit against the party for recent deaths on the Air Elemental Plane.

(-GM)

28th day of Neth, 4721 AR

Death From Somewhere Irrelevantly Far Away:

Dear Mr. Judge,

This is Death From Somewhere Irrelevantly Far Away or better known as DFSIFA. I am writing to you because my party and the church were sued due to a recent scandal. The situation involved cursed gold that we had unknowingly brought into your marketplace. It caused around 30 people to be unable to sleep for a night. Our party was also afflicted with this ailment.

After rudely barging into our residence, the Air Marshal demanded that we undo all the damage. The Air Pope was also accompanying him and after we could not come up with a good way of doing this, he suggested that we pay him 25,000 gold and he would use a Miracle to remove the curse from everybody. We readily agreed to this plan and quickly paid him the sum he asked for. However, during the casting of the Miracle he worded it poorly and caused an Orcus Temple to be teleported to the main vault of the bank. A massive battle ensued which led to the death of several priests. I think it is ridiculous that 500,000 gold is charged to us to resurrect these people when it was the Air Pope’s idea to do the Miracle in the first place and he was the one who messed up the wording.

First of all, as the Pope on the Material Plane can verify, we are a very good party. He has been keeping an eye on us for the past three or so years and he has watched as we have slain our way through the megadungeon Rappan Athuk. He can confirm that anything the party does is not of ill-intent and that we are merely trying to survive. We recently slew the demon lord known as Maphistal. The well renowned paladin in our party, Valestar, cannot lie due to his paladin oath so that means that when he says the party was unaware of the curse on the gold it must be the truth. The party does all of its business in your city and we would never want to jeopardize that.

 

Rappan Athuk #99: Shut Out

The party confronts the demon lord Maphistal and encounters Rappan Athuk’s most confounding puzzle yet.

(-GM)

3rd day of Neth, 4721 AR

The demon lord loomed over the party. It was weak but not quite dead. Bright Yilling launched an assault on it and missed every attack. His axe did not do that much damage in the first place, but if he hit it would have temporarily lowered the demon’s guard and I could probably slip an arrow in. The demon lord known as Maphistal ran 30 or so feet away and then vanished into thin air.

The moment he vanished, Susurrus appeared where he had been standing. To my surprise, our old friend Doomfist was accompanying him to aid us in this fight. Susurrus immediately began a complicated high-level spell to bring the demon lord back to us so we could slay it. In the meantime, Bright Yilling casually beheaded the Marilith demon with his axe.

Our wizard finished his spell and there was a blast of air as Maphistal appeared in the room once again. The blast knocked me and some of the others off our feet. Still lying on the ground, I fired off a volley of arrows at it. It should have been dead, but it must have healed while Susurrus was casting his spell. However, Doomfist was here to give it a real taste of what melee superiority felt like. Suddenly, after blasting the demon with ice, Deckard Cain came to the realization that because this was a demon lord, it could only be slain in its home plane, therefore we could not kill it right now, only force it to return to its homeworld to heal. This was still beneficial to the party, so we proceeded to knock it out. Once it “died” it would be immediately teleported back to its pocket dimension so we made sure that it was only unconscious so we could loot its vicious-looking crushing mace, the legendary Vox. After we had the mace it was a simple matter of cutting off his head and watching his body disappear.

 

Rappan Athuk #98: The End of the Tunnel

Flush with their victory over what seemed to be the remnants of the ancient evil Army of Tsar, the party attempts to cash in on their haul before venturing further into what seems to be a heart of power for the Orcus Cult.

(-GM)

18th day of Lamashan, 4721 AR

He cast miracle, but it was worded in such a way that instead of the intended effect the Orcus temple was teleported to US.

After the huge battle down in the temple and taking all the gold treasure out of the Orcus Temple, we returned to the capital of the Air Elemental Plane to sell stuff, spend some of our money, and to give me some time to train some new abilities. However, once we arrived there and tried to sleep we found we couldn’t. Same with the next night as well. We figured it must be a curse of some kind, so we went around and asked different people what they thought it might be. We didn’t get an actual answer, so we continued on and hoped it would end soon.

That day, we sold off all our treasures at the main market in exchange for around 200,000 gold. We returned to our hotel with our money. Deckard Cain tried to do some remove curse spell but it seemed to have no effect. Suddenly, the Archbishop and Pope of Sarenrae of the Air Elemental Plane burst into the room and cast a spell that was supposed to paralyze all of us. Me and Bright Yilling resisted the effect, but the intent was the same. We repeatedly asked what we did wrong. They said that 30 people were now infected with this “curse” you guys have been asking around about. They informed us that the gold we brought in must have come from an Orcus temple because it is carrying the curse that many items from those places have. They said that they had quarantined all the infected people and confiscated all of the gold.

After some planning, we decided that we should just use the spell miracle to cleanse all the people and gold. The Air Pope decided on what the wording would be, and we supplied the 25k diamond. He cast the spell but it was worded in such a way that instead of the intended effect the Orcus temple was teleported to us. There was a massive battle between all of the Orcus priests and the crusaders. The crusaders won but not without a few casualties. The Air Pope took the blame, however, because he was the one who worded the spell. Thankfully, in addition to moving the Orcus temple in the capital it also cleansed all the people and gold and we were free to leave. The spell had also cleansed us so we were finally able to rest. (However, the party and the Orcus temple and the Air priests received a summons to appear in Air Court in two weeks’ time. -GM)

After a much need 19 hours of sleep, we decided that it was time to return to the not fully cleared temple. Last time we had ventured down here, we had taken a left at the first bend but this time we took a right to further explore this part. After a few corridors we emerged into a room that was inhabited by around fifteen zombies. This was laughable to a party as strong as us but as we entered the room to… dispose of them, twenty shadows came out of the walls. Now this was a little more threatening to the party because they could drain your strength away if they hit you and there was no way to resist it. I had to dig into my quickly depleting supply of ghost touch arrows to finish them off before they dealt any serious damage to anybody in the party. There was a set of double doors on one wall of this room. I opened them and stepped into the small room beyond with absolutely no fear of what could be there. Oh how wrong I was. The room was empty when I first moved in, Bright Yilling at my heels. There suddenly there was a loud gushing wind over by the far wall. I only realize now (4 weeks later), that this was Susurrus trying to warn us of the dangers that lay beyond that wall of the room.

They all started to scream… the sound was so soul-chilling and so horrible that Deckard Cain fell to the ground, unconscious.

To our surprise, 5 banshees floated out from the back wall by the wind. They all started to scream… the sound was so soul-chilling and so horrible that Deckard Cain fell to the ground, unconscious. Bright Yilling and I were able to cover our ears in time but it still took all of our strength to resist it. And just to top this party off, shadows and greater shadows sprung from the walls to attack us. They surrounded me but I was too invasive for their attacks. Bright Yilling was able to revive Deckard Cain with a heal scroll that he carried for some reason. With volleys of arrows and a few spells, all of them were dead including the banshees.

The wind started howling again except this time it was louder. If only we had known. Two Marilith Demons slithered through the far “wall” with ease. Bright Yilling dove on them with his axe, screaming something about eating their hearts. I started casually putting arrows into them. These demons might be formidable to crusaders and warlords but to us they were just little bumps in our road to Orcus.

And then I heard it. The faint beating of wings coming closer by the second. The unmistakable sound of a whip being unhooked from a belt. There was a Balor Demon coming from behind us! We had fought a demon this size before but not while two Mariliths were present. I spun around and loosed six arrows at it in the blink of an eye. It’s armor was tough and blocked two of my arrows. However, I was still able to get enough damage across so that Deckard Cain could knock it unconscious with a few spells. Unconscious was better than dead because when they die, they explode and that is not what we needed right then.

Bright Yilling got lucky and was able to behead one of the Mariliths. Just when we could see a light at the end of the tunnel a bunch of priests had to channel negative energy through the illusionary back wall. Not only did this kill a bunch of their own folk, it also killed the Balor which caused him to explode doing massive damage to everything within 100 feet. Unfortunately, the Marilith was able to resist most of the explosion but the party was for the most part ok as well. Most of the priests who channeled had died to their own ability but a few of the more powerful ones remained. These were manageable and the light at the end of the tunnel returned, only to be covered by complete darkness as a Demon Lord flew out from behind us to stand over the body of the dead Balor.

I aimed all 6 shots very carefully, and this time didn’t miss a single one. I smiled to myself, as surely it was dead. Nothing survives that amount of damage. It stumbled and let out a roar of pain, but managed to stay on its feet. Deckard Cain blasted it with spells but they had less of an effect on it. Still it stood, menacingly over the party. It tried to snatch my bow out of my hands but I was too nimble, I was too quick, I jumped over his reaching hand like a candle stick. I could tell it was close to death, but it still had some fight left. Who knows. I might not survive the hour. Maybe I will.

Signing off for now,
DFSIFA

Need to talk? Got something to say?
Well that’s too bad, I’m Irrelevantly far away!

 

=========================

Bright Yilling, fetchling barbarian 16 / antipaladin 2
Deckard Cain, aasimar oracle 18
Death from Somewhere Irrelevantly Far Away, tiefling slayer 19
Susurrus of the Wind, sylph wizard 18
Shia Labeouf, merfolk bard 16
Valestar Ekhart, aasimar paladin 19

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Rappan Athuk #97: The Army of Tsar

Wherein Susurrus, the party wizard, tells how the party fared against Orcus temple and an ancient undead army.

(-GM)

3rd day of Lamashan, 4721 AR

Things were looking bleak — well, I was fine but the rest of the party was not — they were slowly having their strength sapped from them by shadows and a few dread wraiths. It looked like I would have to save them, if I wanted them to live.

Before I did anything towards saving the party, The Wall Flesh (a.k.a. Bright Yilling), who had been watching us with the Holy One, created a gate that opened toward the sun; and rendered the dread wraiths powerless. Though it was not enough, as Living Flame and Sir. Yells-O’-Lot both fell into a coma. I was enjoying the chaos, but I felt like I would  incur the wrath of some extra-dimensional being if I did not at least try to save the party. So I reluctantly used my scroll of meteor swarm to decimate the remaining shadows. We then finished clearing the room with minimal effort.

While the rest of the party was healing I decided to go scout ahead to find out what was making a ruckus in the next room. I saw what appeared to be a market and an undead army heading our way. From the banners they carried I surmised that this was the Army of Tsar Also known as the Army of Twilight. After a short discussion we decided  to send half of the party home and face this undead horde as a three-man team.

The ensuing battle was more or less a massacre. I started the fight by hitting the forward portion of the army with a large amount of holy tentacles. Then the army’s archers and ballistas launched a volley of projectiles at The Wall Flesh, most of which missed. In response I entangled the army’s ballistas, archers and any evil creature unfortunate enough to be caught within the area of effect of my second round of holy tentacles. At the same time, Irrelevantly Far Away bowed down a graveknight who was probably a general or something of the sort. There was also an empyreal angel which had been corrupted and become a deathleech. Though it seemed like it might be a worthy foe, all it did was charge at us before dying. Probably the most interesting part a fight was when I cast polar ray on a marilith demon and it turned out to be wild. The polar ray was apparently very scary because it caused the marilith and 2 hezrou demons to run away in  fear.

After cleaning up the remaining undead, we then proceeded to take everything and anything worth something so that we could sell it at the capital to make some gold.

-Susurrus of the Wind (Torin)

=========================

Bright Yilling, fetchling barbarian 16 / antipaladin 2
Deckard Cain, aasimar oracle 17
Death from Somewhere Irrelevantly Far Away, tiefling slayer 19
Susurrus of the Wind, sylph wizard 17
Shia Labeouf, merfolk bard 16
Valestar Ekhart, aasimar paladin 19

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Rappan Athuk #96: Overshadowed

The party assaults the greatest Orcus temple yet.

(-GM)

3rd day of Lamashan, 4721 AR

Oh boy! Today was the day. The day we were finally going to assault the last Orcus temple. We spent the first few hours of the day shopping and preparing for the fight ahead. None of us expected just how dangerous that temple would be.

After we had spent most of our gold, we headed downwards. Susurrus insisted on scouting with an arcane eye for 30 minutes before we moved forward. He reported back a few wraiths. We move into the first tunnel and quickly dispose of two wraiths. We get to move not even 10 feet before a small army of the shadowy creatures swarm the party. There are at least 20 and it takes a combination of Valestar using holy energy and Deckard Cain casting a spell that made a barrage of lightning bolts strike and kill all of them. With only minor injuries sustained, the party moved cautiously forward.

Right before we turned the corner at the end of the hall I opened my Ever-Smoking Bottle. Smoke billowed out and around the corner. Seconds after the smoke filled the hallway, wind along the floor blew some of the smoke away, forcing me to fly upwards into the smoke by the ceiling.

The room at the end of this tunnel was a large one. With a giant skull atop an altar. Priests, zombies, and other horrific creatures filled the room. There were some more powerful beings on the left side of the room that Susurrus identified as a Lich, a Devourer, and a Nalfeshnee.

Our wizard bravely flew in and called a meteor swarm to strike and burn our foes. All of the zombies and priests died instantly, but the stronger folk brushed it off. The rest of the party flew in but were soon occupied as waves of wraiths came from the walls. Deckard Cain cast spell after spell, felling the shadowy beasts with impressive magic. I did my best, but I could only fire so many arrows each turn.

Eventually, the waves of incorporeal creatures seemed to stop. But not for long. Five Dread Wraiths floated out of the wall followed by 54 shadows. The shadows sucked the strength right out Shia and Deckard Cain. They fell to the ground, in a coma. Shadows swarmed around me, too, but I was able to evade almost all of their attacks.

From the other side of the room beyond a large pair of doors, we heard a war song, sung by many voices coming closer. The situation looked very grim. And that is where I must leave you today. This may be the last you ever hear from me.

Need to talk? Got something to say?
Well that’s too bad, I’m irrelevantly far away!

Farewell,
DFSIFA

=========================

Bright Yilling, fetchling barbarian 15 / antipaladin 2
Deckard Cain, aasimar oracle 17
Death from Somewhere Irrelevantly Far Away, tiefling slayer 18
Susurrus of the Wind, sylph wizard 17
Shia Labeouf, merfolk bard 16
Valestar Ekhart, aasimar paladin 19

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