Session 4; September 07, 2006 

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Session 4:  Further explorations in Jzadirune

DM's Note: A few people couldn't make it this time and a long lost player finally managed to rejoin us (welcome back Mike D), so, employing some less than subtle DM's slight of hand, I just had the missing characters pack up and return to the surface while Mike D's character just joined us as if her had been there all along...

Player's map from sessions 1-3: this represents what they have explored thus far.

This is a map they found of the complex; they have discovered that smaller tunnels, secret doors and traps are not marked on this map.

Celceor The Wise (Elven mage, male); Dave M.
Skylar (Human Duskblade, male); Al G.
Angrod Moonstar (Elven Cleric, male); Mike M.
Nick (Human rogue, male); Dave P.
Bane (Half Elf Rogue); Mike M

At the end of last session. the players were in the abandoned theatre at Jzadirune where they had just seen an brief play performed by illusionary gnomes in animal costumes.  The play was pretty sappy but the music was nice.  Moved to tears by his own performance, Corniel had to leave the auditorium and Nakama and We-Zel accompanied him.  Nick stepped forward to check out the stage while Celceor looked for (and found) a secret door in the north wall.

Nick noticed a small trap door in the floor of the stage and moved forward to investigate.  Opening it, he saw a storage area under the stage with what looked like some rolls of canvas (painted scenery) and other items squirreled away under the stage.  He went down to investigate and suddenly was attacked by a tentacle armed beast that sought to grapple him.  The creature managed to wound him with it's abrasive hands but every time it attempted a grapple, like a wet watermelon seed, Nick managed to wiggle free.  While it attacked him, the creature held the trap door shut with it's other hand.

After struggling to force open the trap door, the group tried various attacks and which failed, and, after being hit twice, Nick was near death.  Bane had somehow decided to bring alomg a scimitar rather than a weapon he had any proficiency with and was probably more dangerous to his comrades than the monster as he waved the curved sword clumsily in the confined space beneath the stage. Finally a lucky hit by Skylar sent the thing running out the trap door and up the wall where a crossbow bolt and acid splash spell brought it down.

Investigating the area under the stage, they found a few old bundles of canvas (scenery), a masterwork mandolin in a case and a box that contained a magic cloak, a wand, a spell book and an iron key carved with the "J" rune.  Celcior claimed the wand and spell book while Nick got the cloak and Bane took the key. 

After debating their next course of action, they returned to the surface and went to visit Jenya at the Temple of Saint Cuthbert.  On the way there, they passed a parade led by a capable looking pair of fighters (male and female) as well as a bard or rogue type and a woman in robes.  Nick identified the adventurers as "The Stormblades."  The Stormblades semmed to be quite popular and were tossing silver and copper coins to the crowd and showing off some gruesome trophies in the form of severed lizard man heads.  Bane shouldered some of the street urchins out of the way and scabbled in the gutter for coins.

They went to the Temple of Cuthbert and reported on their progress and were healed.  Jenya urged them to move more quickly to find the children.  Here Bane made a bad impression by revealing his chaotic nature earning him a reproof from Jenya.  Nick looked with admiration at Jenya; Jenya gave them some scrolls with cure light wounds spells on them and sent them on their way.

While the rest of the party went off to buy material spell components or rest, Bane went out looking for an easy mark and managed to filch a few silvers.  He also nearly got gutted by someone who was also trying to pick pockets and ran into a flute playing dwarf bard who tried to pick his pocket as well.

Meanwhile, Nick and Celsior visited Skie's Treasury; a magic shop where Skie sold them two pearls suitable for identify spells and asked Nick to keep his hands where she could see them.  Celceor headed back to his room and cast identify on the cloak and the wand and used read magic to identify the spells in the spell book.  The wand was a wand of Secret door detection and the cloak had some sort of false aura of magic on it (Nystul's Magic Aura) as well as some sort of other non-beneficial spell woven into it.

The next morning both Celceor and Nick looked wan and pale -- as if the color had been bleached out of them.  Suspecting the vanishing curse, they went to the Temple and begged Jenya for a cure.  Jenya asked them if they had handled anything unusual in Jzadirune and Celceor mentioned the cloak which he tried to hand her but Jenga recoiled in horror and indicated that they should throw it in the fire.  She cast remove curse which helped with the symptoms and sent them on their way,  reminding them that they should avoid handling cursed items.

They returned to Jzadirune and entered through the locksmith's shop.  After a brief discussion in the mask room, they decided to explore the west hall because a sniper had fired at them from that position previously.  The hallway ended in a T intersection, just as drawn on their map, and the newly discovered hallway ran north to south.  They explored the north branch, making note of what runes were inscribed upon the gear doors on their map.  They then explored the south hall and, similarly, found more gear doors. 

Suddenly the floor opened up under the adventurers -- a pit trap!  Nick managed to scuttle out of the way but Skylar fell straight down into a wood lined pit with some sort of spikes on the walls.  The others saw him hit the floor with a might thump and suddenly they was a mechanical gear-grinding sound and the pit trap snapped shut.  They could hear machinery of some sort grinding beneath the floor and could hear thumps and cries of pain from Skylar.

Since they couldn't call C-3po and tell him to shut down all the trash compactors, Nick quickly tied a rope around his waist, threw the other end to his comrades and stepped out onto the pit while Bane took a running jump over the pit.  They could see that Skylar was in a pivot box in the bottom of the pit that was pivoting from side to side, hurling him against the spikes on the walls.  As the pit pivoted past, in the process of slamming Skylar against the spikes on the other side of the box once again, Nick dangled himself down over the pit and urged Skylar to leap up so they could pull him to safety.  Sylar leapt just as the pit tilted again; and although he caught Nick's ankle, he wasn't quick enough and the pit swung round and slammed into Skylar, dropping him onto the spikes again and into unconsciousness.

Since Nick could see the gears that controlled the pit, he jammed a dagger into the teeth, stopping it.  At this point, however, the box was stuck on it's side and several planks of wood blocked them from Skylar.  They couldn't hear their comrade (he was in the negatives but stable), but determined to at least attempt to recover his body.  Since the gear mechanism was jammed, they cut through the wood and found his bloody and unconscious body.  Angrod used his healing magic to revive Skylar and they climbed out of the pit to explore the hall beyond.

On their  found map, the hallway ended in a small room --- so they were surprised to see that it ended in a blank stone wall.  Celceor experimentally shot an arrow at it and the arrow dissapeared, so he touched the wall with his hand and was surprised to see that the wall was just an illusion.  They walked through and found themselves in a small room with a map of Jzadirune engraved on the wall and finished with luminous paint.  Like the map they had found earlier, the map on the wall did not show secret exits, traps or the little tunnels.

They then decided to return to the mask room and try the J-key on one of the gear doors there.  It opened the door and beyond they found a dusty barracks with gnome-size beds.  Little footlockers held blankets, gnome size clothes and little tabards marked with a gear shaped emblem.

We had to end here for the night due to time.

Character / Player:	Race / Class & Level:	XP at start:	XP for session:	XP total:	Notes:
Bane; Mike D.	(half-elf / Thief 1)	0	450	450	xp bonus for backstory included
Celceor The Wise; Dave M.	(Elf / Mage 1)	921	360	1281	Level 2!
Nakama; Tom S.	(Human / Ranger 1)	921	0	921	not present
Skylar; Al G.	(Human / Duskblade 1)	821	360	1181	Level 2!
Angrod Moonstar; Mike M.	(Elf / Cleric 1)	871	180	1051	npc; Level 2!
Nick; Dave P.	(Human / Rogue 1)	921	360	1281	Level 2!
Corniel; Brook	(Dwarf / Bard 1)	471	0	471	not present
We-Zel	(Half-Orc/ Barbarian 1)	250	0	250	not present

DMs Comments:  I thought this was one of the more fun sessions -- the choker encounter seemed really challenging and I even hoped he would get away; although I failed to remember one of his special abilities that would have made him even more challenging... next time I guess.  The tilt-a-pit trap was, undoubtedly, a real killer.  If you hadn't wedged the trap so it couldn't continue slamming him around and Al hadn't stabilized on his second attempt, perhaps he would be rolling up a new PC.
The obvious advantage of having fewer players is that the XP gets divided fewer ways.