Reflections
Chapter 26 - Pit of Toil
More powerful symbol magic washed across the party. Ke'rik and Gondogal both collapsed in despair, whimpering quietly. Kory and Kale somehow broke free of their despair and leapt into action. Xej and Gexbat made short work of the remaining pit guard, the spiked steel warrior, but two huge iron golems with bladed arms were outside the room and stepped in to attack him. Their massive blades started chopping him down quickly. Kale leapt in to take some of the heat while they tried in vain to injure the huge things.
Then Lark and his doggy came around. A quick healing spell on Xej, followed by a massive assault by the four party members on the two golems managed to defeat them, but as they were doing so, more foes appeared. From out of a blazing furnace came another Azer, this one large and flaming, followed by three huge fire elementals. They leapt into the fray with the party. Kory managed to slay one of the elementals with a spell and her ice shield was instrumental in seriously injuring two others. The whole party was assaulted by the flame however and everyone was burning.
The combined might of Xej's rapier, Gexbat's arrows, Lark's axe, and Kory's spells, including two timely mass heals, managed to defeat the remaining enemies.
With Gondogal and Ke'rik still whimpering in despair the party quickly gathered up loot, questioned Qadjee, the petitioner they had come for, and had time to look in on a massive curved blade on a black anvil within the furnace, before there came again more enemies, from the stairs leading up to the rest of the keep.
From the stairs, the enemies flowed down. All of them were invisible except for a single enemy, a dwarf man with red scaly skin and wearing full plate and carrying a huge hammer. Xej and Kory who could both see invisible people also saw the two steel lion creatures, the angel warrior, and the non-descript man in velvet cloths. These new comers seemed calm, adapt, and had murder in their eyes.
The party immediatly considered fleeing, but first Kory was struck down by the dwarf, and then managed to crawl to safety. Then Xej got Arquestran, Qadjee, and Kory and teleported himself and them to safety elsewhere on the cube. Lark immediately made a run for Ke'rik while being attacked, while Kale made a run for Gondogal. As Kale ran past his foes and picked up Gondogal, they continued to attack him. An invisible foe however blocked his way and he was struck down.
Lark commanded his dog to make a run for the sword while he stood defensively, but he was then knocked over by a huge invisible steel creature that pinned him to the floor. He could sense that his dog had gotten the sword but was struggling to resist the weapons mind control, and eventually failed. Lark also tried to reach Ke'rik, but pinned by the huge steel creature, he wasn't able to, and invoked a magic item to teleport him to freedom.
Lark, Kory, Xej, and the two wind dukes were safe in the caves, missing their allies. They quickly asked Qadjee how to dstroy the staff. Qadjee apparently spoke to Arquestran's mind about how to do it, as they said, "It will take an hour.", and then the left. True to their word, an hour later, the three felt their curses lift.
Chapter 27 - Faerun's Gift
Shortly after their curse was lifted, Ke'rik returned from the fortress with Gondogal's familiar, having escaped (the small grey ooze having been undetected in the room). The party was then scryed upon, so they decided to leave quickly, and planeshifted back to Faerun. They appeared in the ocean and then windwalked back to land. Every couple hours they would be scryed upon. They landed and decided to teleport to a magic dead area they knew about, and rest there. They did so, going to a swamp within Cormyr and resting on the small island within the magic dead area.
About 10 hours later of resting, they left the magic dead area to memorize spells. A scrying sensor appeared less than 5 minutes later. They managed to memorize/pray for 15 minutes before an attack came.
A vicsious battle ensued. The angel, four steel lions, and a flying dust woman attacked the party. It was unorganized defense on the party's side and they were lacking any of their fighters so no one was around to suck up the initial beating. Kory instead was attacked by the angel, who dropped her. She was still alive, but a bolt that had struck her previously from the dust woman continued to suck at her, and she died moments later. Ke'rik meanwhile turned into a gold dragon to fight more effectively.
During the battle, the angel destroyed Xej's rapier, and the group was unable to really hurt the enemies. The angel meanwhile hacked into the party, teleporting into Lark's protective shield to massively smash on him, forcing him to flee, he then turned on the dragon and slew the dragon which turned back into Ke'rik. Xej, with Kory's body, lumbered away with enemies in pursuit, while Lark fled another way. Then something went the parties way....
A massive eruption of explosive power (what? what did I say?) emerged from the swamp and a powerful banishment spell slammed into the angel who vanished in it's wake. Kral also appeared and ressurected Ke'rik in a moment. The tide of the battle was inverted in that moment. The dust woman was slain and the steel lions killed or driven off. Kral also ressurected Kory. He then explained that Toril itself, the very land, wanted to thank the party for removing the staff of law from the plane. He also explained that it had let him know that they were in trouble, and he had been brought here to help them. He was now back for good, having completed whatever quest he had been working on previously. The party took pause to determine their next actions.
Chapter 28 - Price of Freedom
Ke'rik, Kory, Xej, Lark, and Kral, who apparently now wanted them to call him Turek, rested for another hour, preparing spells and then took stock of their situation. They decided to find out more about angels, and also talk with the wind dukes, so Kory funneled the power of Lathander to carry them to Arborea. Appearing within deep forest on the alternate plane of existance, they then used a teleport spell to travel to the Vale of the Wind Dukes. A magical barrier required their identity before allowing them to pass, but they otherwise arrived safely.
Arquestran came to welcome them and brought them to his house. Feeling safe here, they took the time to identify some of the magical items they had found. They spent nearly a full 24 hours in the Vale. Arquestran was able to flush out their knowledge about angels and explain that Fallen Angels, while rare, do occur. He also let them know that their lists of items that they submitted as reward was turned down, as destruction of the staff was a far more pricey gift to the wind dukes then the party could know.
The group then returned to Faerun where they spent some time resting and preparing spells, as well as planning their return visit to the fortress. Around 6am the next morning Kory again called upon the power of Lathander to carry the party across the barriers of reality and into the outer planes...back again to Acheron and the Cube of Koloryla. The party appeared next to a lake of murky water on the cubes surface and Xej suddenly piped up, mentioning something about a dream he had, before walking towards a outcropping of jagged iron. Behind this, the party found a rough passage of jagged metal leading straight down into darkness.
The party explored and found a portal leading to another layer of Acheron. This next layer was an infinite pile of the petrified remains of the machinery of war. They explored for a while before finding half of a Illithid spell jamming ship which Xej remembered. They journeyed into this and found yet another portal, this one of swirling mist.
Xej decided to enter first, followed a few seconds later by Turek. The others paused and poked around, waiting a short time to enter. Xej and Turek appeared in blackness. The void was not empty however, it was filled with razor sharp shards of ice flying about at immense speeds and shattering into each other and exploding into yet more shards. The razors began slamming and slicing at both of them. They had mere moments to live before a shard would peirce their skull, or a huge flat sheet would sever them in two. A few seconds of deliberation and futile attempts to protect themselves went by before Xej used a limited wish to carry them back to the first layer of the plane. Turek immediately sent a magical message to Kory telling them not to enter, and to meet them back up on the first layer.
A while later they were reunited after everyone teleported to the meeting point, and then they windwalked to the fortress. There Ke'rik burned a hole through the roof and the party began sneaking around. Defenses like symbols of fear and death, magic that purged their invisibility, and areas of forbiddance were deployed all through the upper floor, but the group managed to get through without harm. They looted as they went before eventually burning through a wall to a room of a strange guest of this place. The mostly human looking man tried to escape but was unable to and the party tied him up and questioned him. He gave them information about the Lord of the fortress, Imperagon, and how he was finding metal workers to work some magic item. He also said that Imperagon was half dwarf and half dragon, apparently his father was one of the oldest most powerful dragons ever, a creature named Ashardalon.
Leaving the helpful man upstairs, they went down and almost immediatly found a torture chamber, here were Gondogal and Kale, as well as a snake woman, all chained up and looking horrible. A humaoid creature covered in chains was also here and turned to the intruders. The group moved in and Xej unleashed an acid attack while Turek attempted to disintegrate the creature, but the creatured managed to avoid being outright slain and suddenly all the spiked chains hanging from all over the room came to life. The chain creature let out a hideous whisper, "move and they all die"..as spiked chains danced about threateningly.
Chapter 29 - A Frozen Tear
Having rested, they then brought Kale back to life and realized they would need to pay a priest of the hightest caliber to bring back Falc (Gondogal). They did so, handing over a number of magical items to bring Falc back to life. This done, Falc seemed unhappy, depressed, and even angry at the group concerning his death. They took this in stride. The party then made a plan to survive in the environs of Acheron's fourth layer and Xej, Lark, and Kory traveled through the path Xej had dreamt of. Using walls of force and resilient sphere's, the small group managed to teleport to the location Xej had dreamt of and found the woman beneath the ice.
They used some flame spells to melt the ice, which turned straight to steam and as they inhaled, they all lost their memories of the last day. They shook it off and were more careful, using more fire until the ice level was reduced so the woman could escape. As the steam cleared, they saw only a crystal tear. They grabbed it and fled.
Xej used stone talk and the crystal spoke back with a beautiful female voice. Apperently they held in their hand the memories and limited powes of a diety. The diety was that of Sorrow and Hope, worshipped on a foreign world, but she had been captured by a demon lord named Grazz't from the Abyss, who had submerged her in the River Styx which had stolen her memories and power. Apparently the infinite wall of black ice in the fourth layer of Acheron may be the beginning, or end of the River Styx, or both.
At any rate, the party decided to try to rescue her and traveled to Sigil to try and find out more about Grazz't and the abyss. They used a portal in the Shining plains, a small mound of dirt surrounded rotting doors, to get to Sigil. There they found a tout boy who led them from place to place as they found their path. Grazz't's realm, the 45, 46, and 47th layers of the Abyss, was known as Azzagrat. They found out some information about this, including the primary city known as Zelatar, that spanned all three layers. They also were directed to a wine/spirits merchant at the great bazaar who might know how to get there.
On the way, the depressed Falc bought a great many things at random (whatever was offered), including a Tanarukk by the name of...well...we won't mention his name cause he cause insane and starts killing everything around him. Anyway, for 160 gold he received the Tanarukk, a piece of paper with "instructions", and a small neck manacle and chain which were attached to the beast. The beast was well spoken and fairly intelligent.
The found the merchent, named Finsent, who, given their investing of a few thousand gold, agreed to leave within 2 days for Zelatar where he did most of his business. The PC's agreed to help guard his caravan.
Chapter 30 - A Stroll through Hell
Two days of shopping in Sigil done, the party met Finsent and traveled through the gatehouse of Sigil to the first layer of the Abyss with a caravan of three heavily armored wagons. They traveled down a road with a wall on one side until they came to a battle. They were inadvertently attacked over the wall by a swarm of demons, but Kory's healing managed to keep most everyone alive as the party defeated the enemies (mostly) and departed, less two archers, two knights, and nine horses.
They reached a large keep where they left the bodies of their fallen and journeyed through a portal to the 39th...or was it 40th, layer of the Abyss, a vast red desert. Across the stinging desert for a few days there were assaulted by a dust storm caused by a rampaging air elemental, and later by several dozen Manes that could control the sand in some way. They managed to escape mostly unscathed (except for the loss of two more archers and a knight). Thorlin went for a 140 foot flight in the hands of the elemental, but his fall was cushioned by Ke'rik the shape shifter who turned into a dragon to partially catch him. The party, mostly unscathed continued on their way.
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