Episode 3.3

Kathy, Brad, Bob, Tony, Ernie, Greg

Bob, Ernie and Brad went through a set of open doors and into the red tiled hallway. Kathy, Greg and Tony stayed back. Brad found that the hallway ended with a double door. Carved on the door, in bas relief, was he image of a roaring dragon’s head. While they examined it, the image became a yellow glow, then fire shot out from the door, filling the hallway. At the same time, the southern doors shut, trapping Bob, Ernie and Brad in the hallway and Kathy, Greg and Tony outside. Brad immediately began trying to destroy the door. Bob aided him by firing lightning bolts at it. The door continued to shoot flames, which burned Bob and Ernie, but somehow kept missing Brad. Ernie cast healing spells on Bob and himself. Meanwhile, Tony, Kathy and Greg tried to force their way into the room. Brad and Bob eventually destroyed the door and the fire ceased.

Beyond the dragon door, the party went around a corner and found a large chamber containing an intact triangular gate and it’s fully functioning guardian. The guard warned them they were not allowed in, and, remembering the note they found in the desk (see episode 3.2), decided they were not going to change his mind. Tony noticed that the gate had six icon slots instead of three. There was a slot at each corner and a slot in the center of each side. The three center slots will filled with triangular icons. The three corner square slots were empty. The party found a square icon in the room with the three chests (see episode 3.2).

After resting, they decided to go in the opposite direction. This led them down a short flight of stairs and into a large oval room. There was a door on the opposite side. The ceiling was so high that none of them could see the top. Bob cast dancing lights in order to see what was up there and saw two cloak-like things floating around in circles about 60 feet above them. Even farther up, was a large platform with some type of mechanism. The domed roof was above that at about 100 feet. One of the two cloaks began to float down towards the party. As it did so, it seemed to duplicate itself, which Kathy recognized as a mirror image spell. They took this as a bad sign and attacked it. Bob shot lightning bolts. Brad shot his crossbow. Kathy shot a fireball at it. Ernie attacked it with a spiritual weapon. Tony went to check the other door. Everyone else stayed outside the room. They killed it just before it got low enough to reach anyone, and began to attack the other cloak. About that time a large humanoid creature came down on a chord from the platform. It was about 9 feet tall and looked to be made of reanimated human body parts. It immediately pounded Kathy, who left the room as soon as she could. Brad and Greg surrounded it. They had little luck against the creature. Bob, Kathy and Ernie all tried casting spells at it, but it send to be magic-proof. Kathy decided to help the fighters by casting buffing spells on Brad and Tony. Tony closed in with his swords and between the three of them, the eventually destroyed it. The quickly killed the other cloak with spells and arrows. The party searched the room, though Tony decided to use pound his way through the other door while he was still buffed.

In the next room, the floor had two sets of tiles, a smooth white set that formed a cone shape on the floor and broken tiles outside the cone shaped area. Where the point of the cone would be, was a large white dragon. In each of the far corners of the room there was a large white wolf. Bob cast phantasmal killer on the dragon, who missed both saving throws and died. Kathy enlarged Tony. Brad, Greg, Tony and his wolf charged in to fight the wolves. Bob killed one of them with another phantasmal killer. The remaining one died soon after. Beyond this room, the party found a short hallway with a treasure chest. Inside the chest was one of the icons along with 1400gp, 4 pieces of art, a +1 chainshirt, pipes of sounding, elemental gem, and a ring of minor acid resistance

Realizing that they still needed to find the third icon, they searched through the dungeon again. The first ting they found was a secret room with a treasure chest containing, 1200 gp

full plate +1 of silent moves, a wand of knock, a potion of cure light wounds, a Ring protection +3 and a Cloak of resistance +2, but no icon. They eventually found the icon sitting on top of the platform in the tall room that the creature came down from.

After that, they went back, rested and spent several days making items to use agains the guardian.

Episode 3.2

Kathy, Brad,Ernie, Tony, Greg, Bob

The room with the destroyed gate had two doors, but only the door to the south could be opened. Beyond it was an office with a table, desk and other furniture. On the table was a large open book, looking very much like a spellbook, and a crystal ball. They determined that the spellbook, the crystal ball and something in the desk was magical. Bob went to check out the spellbook. It exploded damaging Bob severly and destroying itself. Brad cautiously examined the crystal ball. Inside was an image of three triangles. The left most and right most triangle was light blue, while the center one was a faint grey. They concluded that the triangles represented the gates, the blue ones indicating inactive gates and the grey one indicating a damaged gate. Inside the desk, the found an ancient note written in dwarven which read:

I do not know when or why Coalvein betrayed us, but that no longer matters. He destroyed the returning gate when he left. I am sending everyone onto the next station, but I am leaving the gate open in case the scouts return. I have instructed the guardian to let them pass but after that, to deactivate the next gate, place the icons in their secure locations and let no one else pass.

Gelvar Stonehand – Archmage

Further searching found a key attached to the underside of the drawer.

The key opened the other door in the room with the broken triangle. Beyond was a hallway that curved to the left ending with a door. There were two other doors on the sides. Ernie opened the first door and found a room that seemed empty except for a large pillar on the center. On the floor, they noticed slots cut in the floor that ran perpendicularly to each other intersecting in almost every square. Tony cautiously made his way in and eventually mad his way to the back of the pillar, where he found a large opening containing a key hanging in front of a geared mechanism. He tried to take the key and jam a staff into the gearings at the same time, but when he touched the key, the staff broke. The doors in the room slammed shut and blades came up in random slots in the floor and raced across the room. Tony was lucky in that he was in a square where no blades appeared. Tony made his way back to the door but they could not get it open.

Suddenly, Greg used a previously unknown power and magically swapped places with Tony. Inside the room, he floated in the air, above the dangerous blades. He drifted back over to the mechanism to see if he could damage it with his soulblade. In the meantime, Tony and Brad tried to beat the door down. Greg managed to damage the mechanism in the pillar but before he could completely disabled it, Tony and Brad forced the door open.

The next room contained three locked chests and four crystal balls on rods. Bob blew one chest apart with a Lightning Bolt and Tony went in to discover that it was empty. When Tony went in to try and unlock the next chest, the crystal balls each struck him with a magic missile. His brooch of shielding absorbed the damage, but he decided to remove it and absorb the damage instead of using up his magic item. He eventually broke open the other two chests. One of them contained an icon for a triangle gate.

Using the two keys they already found, they opened the door at the end of the hallway. Beyond it was a long room with a parapet at the far end. On top of the parapet were three orc archers who immediately began firing arrows at the party. Tony fired arrows back. Kathy shot magic missiles . Ernie cast Holy Smite. Bob unleashed a fireball (which appeared to do no damage). Brad and Greg ran forward to go behind the parapet to see if they could get on top of it. Brad got there first and ran into the battle axe wielding orc that was guarding the ladder. After a brief but intense mellee, the orc went down. Brad went up the ladder and found only one orc had survived the onslaught of spells and that orc was quickly defeated.

On the of the parapet was a catwalk that led to a door. Beyond the door was a hallway going left and right. The party turned left, went around a corner and found a long hallway with a red tiled floor and three alcoves on each side.

Episode 3.1

Brad, Tony, Greg, Kathy, Ernie

On the other side of the gate, they group found a large room with tables on two sides, a large alcove with equally large working fountain on one side and a large door with glowing purple dwarven runes on the forth side. In one corner was a spiral staircase going up. The runes said “only the bloodline of the dwarf may proceed.” They could not find a way to open the doors and decided to explore the staircase. Upstairs, they found a vast chamber divided up into small cubical areas. They determined that this was intended to be a staging area for a large group of people. Since the population of Stonekeep was filing through the gate behind them, they were sent upstairs to camp out and wait. Returning to the door, they had Ceodoc try it but with no luck. Reading the runes again, they had the dwarf cut is finger and rub his blood on the door. This worked, and the door opened easily.

Down a short hallway, they found another room with it’s walls covered in tapestries and with a raised area in the center where a large statue of an axe wielding dwarven guard in the center. On the far end of the room was another door that they could not open. On each corner of the platform, was a crystal ball sitting upon a metal rod. From each crystal ball emitted a purple light with struck the statue. At the base of each rod was a slot on the floor that was perpendicular to the light. They discovered that the light and the statue were both hot and caused damage when touched. Using mirrors, they tried to redirect the light at the door and various other places, but to no effect. Searching behind the tapestries, they discovered a secret door. The door led to a small hallway which, in turn, led to a larger room in which a hill giant had been summoned to attack the party. Realizing that the hill giant could not leave the room due to the size of the hallway, they decided to try to hit the giant with the purple light via two mirrors. While they were setting this up, Kathy was attacked by an, until then, invisible ball of light. Others tried to hit it with little luck. Kathy damaged it with several magic missile spells before Brad finally destroyed it with a blow from his fist.

Turning their attention back to the hill giant, they managed to hit it a few times with the purple light before it positioned itself out of it’s line of fire. Greg took it upon himself to go in and kill it. Ernie Healed Greg, who took serious damage in his fight with the hill giant. In the room, they found two metal shields that appeared to fit perfectly in the slots.

They found another secret door which led to a similar room with another hill giant, though this one was armed with rocks that he could throw. Kathy made Brad invisible with greater invisibility, and they set up another attempt with the purple light, with Brad using the second mirror. Since he was invisible, the giant would have a hard time hitting him with rocks. However, as Tony was setting himself up to use the first mirror, he started dancing and singing in an absurd fashion. Kathy cast see invisible and spotted a small flying fairy like creature. She shot it with a magic missile and it died. With Tony still dancing, Greg took the mirror from him and he and Brad tried to hit ht giant with the purple light. They succeeded, but the giant, seeing that light reflect around the corner, decided to throw rocks at that spot. They missed Brad, but since the mirror was getting hot, Brad backed away. Kathy and Ernie each moved in to attack it with spells, Kathy with a fireball and Ernie with Searing Light. After that, Greg and Brad went in to finish it off.

They found two more shields in the room. Taking all four shields, they placed them in the slots which reflected the light. The statue cooled off and they found that, with great effort, they could turn it. They turned it far enough that the great axe pointed at the door and the door opened. Beyond this door, they found another short hallway. This led to a large room that contained the remains of a destroyed triangle and the remains of a dead guardian.

Episode 2.11

Brad, Tony, Greg, Kathy, Ernie

After barracading themselves in the room for a rest, they searched it and found a second key. The next day, after casting several preperatory spells, they entered the next room. Two more mummies were waiting to attack, but the battle was much shorter than last time. Greg was again inflicted by mummy rot, but Ernie had the proper spells ready and cured him of it. Searching the room yielded the third key.

Soon after, they were confronted by the ghostly dwarf who silently appeared, posed no threat and convinced the party to follow him. He led them back to another room that contained a stone coffin and an orcish temple. After casting a lot more preperatory spells, the party openned the lid, while Ceodoc destroyed the orcish alter. Inside the coffin, they found the scrambled parts of a dwarven skeleton. They rearranged the parts into their proper place. The ghostly dwarf laid back down in the coffin and vanished. Searching the room, they foind the fourth key.

They took the four keys and openned the last door. Inside the room, was a dwarven throne and another orc temple. It was gaurded by a fast moving zombie-like creature with sharp claws and a paralyzing tongue. The party destroyed it after a brief battle. Searching the room, they expected to find the third icon, but were disappointed when it wasn't there.

Soon afterward, the ghostly dwarf reappeared and led them to a blank wall. The dwarf spent an hour or so dismantling the wall, revealing a hidden room. Inside the room, they found a stone coffin containing a dwarf body, a magic shield, some coins and the third icon. They took the third icon back the chamber with the gate. The guardian was cleaning up the bodies of several orcs, some bugbears and at least one hill giant. He had been attacked while the party was away. Seeing this as a bad sign, the party returned to Troglodyte lair, gathered everyone together and returned to the gate. Using the three icons, they activated the gate. The guardian told them that it was a one way journey and that there would be a gate that returned to some place nearby. They assumed that the return gate was the broken triangle they found previously (see episode 2.3). Despite these reservations, everyone decided to take their chances and go through the gate.

Epsiode 2.10

Greg, Kathy, Brad, Ernie, Tony

After seeing the ghost, Tony ran back to the party. The ghost went through the wall and appeared right in front of the group, but came up short before attacking them. Instead, it looked at them, then went back into the wall. The group went to follow it, but it did not reappear so they started exploring the tomb.

Ernie opened a door, revealing a room full of stone coffins, a large number of skeletons and three mummies. Everyone backed up and a protracted melee began. Ernie tried to turn them, which destroyed all the skeletons, but did not affect the mummies. Two of the mummies came out the door that Ernie had opened, the other came out a different door and into a side hallway. Brad went to intercepted that one. Kathy cast several magic missiles and used her wand several times. Greg stepped straight into melee and get hit numerous times. Tony started out paralyzed with fear, but fought with his swords once he regained control of himself. Ernie tried turning them again, failed, then cast spiritual weapon before healing people as fast as he could. The fight lasted many rounds, and when it was over, the mummies were destroyed, but Greg, Tony and Brad were all dying of mummy rot.

They did what healing they could, then ran back to the troglodyte lair to rest and recuperate. Everyone was back to full strength after several days rest, several remove curse spells and several restoration spells, though Greg cane very near death. They went back to the tomb, bringing Ceodoc along to, hopefully, talk to the ghost. Not finding the ghost right away, they searched the room Ernie entered several day earlier. The room was devoid of treasure but they did find a small silver key.

They continued to explore. The next room they entered was empty, but had several other doors. The door opposite them had three keyholes, one of which the small silver key fit into. They opened one of the side doors and found two more mummies. Another furious melee ensued and the mummies seemed to be more powerful than the three they encountered earlier, but the party was better prepared this time so the outcome was less devastating. Kathy cast cat’s grace on Brad, then shot a few magic missiles before unleashing a fireball. Ernie tried turning, then healing and finally cast searing light at one of the mummies. Brad and Tony fought one mummy in the doorway while Greg took on the other, who had entered the room from a different route. A few people were afflicted with mummy rot, but Ernie and Kathy had the spells prepared to counter it this time.