chapter 5.3 - audio

The audio from chapter 5.3 is available here.

Episode 4.2

Bob, Kathy, Brad, Ernie

In the third room beyond the node, they hallway ended in a mist that blocked all vision beyond five feet. In the mist, they could see the forms of skulls, bones and weapons appear and fade away. Brad eventually entered the fog and become gaseous. He found that he could only partly control his movement and could not exit the room, though he did find two more doors. He eventually made his way back to where he came in and someone reached in and grabbed him. When they touched him, he became solid. They surmised that they could make a chain across the room as long as one person remained outside. They did this and made their way across to one of the exits. The first exit led to a series a pit traps that were the home of two phase spiders. An extended melee took place with the party winning. The second exit led to a large room with a huge flaming ball that emitted no heat. Inside the ball of flames, they could see tortured faces of past victims, which acted as a fear spell. Brad eventually passed the test and found the switch inside the flaming ball that opened the door and led to the next room. The next room was actually a tunnel with flames roaring down its entire length. They could see a switch at the far end, next to another door, waiting for any one capable of dodging the flames. Brad turned out to be that person. He tumbled down the tunnel and hit the switch, turning off the flames.

The room beyond contained a table with a book, two cages, three summoning circles and a desk. The desk had a crystal ball with a scene inside of two tiny skeletons and a table that looked like the third icon. The book contained illustrations instructing that a person be put in each cage and then a hand placed over the book. They followed the instructions and put Brad and Ernie into the cages. The two disappeared and reappeared inside the crystal ball. At the same time a dire wolf appeared in each summoning circle and attacked Bob and Kathy. Bob dove behind the desk while Kathy tried to fend them off with spells. The wolves converged on Kathy and killed her. Bob unleashed fireballs at them trying to kill them before they made a meal of him as well. Meanwhile, inside the crystal ball, Ernie and Brad fought the two skeletons, one a fighter and he other a sorcerer. They destroyed them after a quick battle and grabbed the icon – which brought them back to the cages. The three remaining characters killed the three dire wolves. Ernie raised Kathy.
Having found all three icons, they rested and went through the next gate

Episode 4.1

Brad, Kathy, Greg, Bob, Ernie

Beyond the gate, the party found a series of defensive nodes, each with one other gate, three icons and a trap guarding each icon. They seem to have been designed to let those with knowledge of the pass through harmlessly while those without that knowledge were in mortal danger.

In the first room of the first node, there were three exits. Above each door were words written in dwarvish. The first, the words “Hidden Danger, Cleansing, Sustenance”; the second “Boreal” and above the third was a scratched out word followed by “Courage, Fortitude.”

Beyond the first door, was a large reflecting pool filled with a calm clear liquid and a door beyond. Ernie eventually touched the pool and was immediately covered in the liquid. It both suffocated him and confused him. He and Brad fought an extensive grappling melee with Brad eventually knocking him out. They cut a while for Ernie to breathe through (the liquid had solidified somewhat) and he eventually came out of the spell. In the meantime, they cut off the liquid from around his feet and hands and finally pealed it all away. People tried to open the door at the far end but were unable. Greg eventually used telekinesis and used one of the liquid gloves (having been removed from Ernie’s hand) and used it to open the door. In the next room was a fountain which they quickly discovered dissolved the liquid. Beyond the fountain was a very deep pool of dark liquid. Soon after entering the room, a large tentacled creature burst forth and attacked them. Bob and Kathy blasted it with spells and killed it before it got much of a chance to attack. At the bottom of the pool, they found a lever that opened the door and revealed the first icon.

In the second room beyond the node, the party found a transparent door of light beyond which they cold see a bookshelf. They tried knocking the wall down and discovered it did cold damage to anything it touched. It also absorbed heat spells. Working on a hunch, they hit the door with several fireballs and it came down. Quickly searching beyond the door, they found the second icon.

Episode 5.2

Bob, Greg, Ernie

Meanwhile...

Ceodoc mentioned to the party that several of the refugees had been complaining that the party led them into the dungeon and all but left them there. He knew that this was not a fair statement, but since the party was always gone, he understood how it could be seen that way. It was decided that, at least for a few days, Bob, Greg and Ernie would stay behind and improve relations with the refugees while the others explored beyond the next gate. They were talking to the guards in the gate junction room, when Edic, the Halfling barbarian, ran up to them and said there was trouble back at the dorms.

Edic took them to see a young woman named Dalacia, who seemed to be in shock. Ernie and Bob both talked to her and coaxed her a bit out of her condition. She said she witnessed a murder. Erigord, one fo the guards killed another guard named Meladis. They went to the location where she said the murder happened but found no evidence of violence. They did find a note, addressed to Ernie, that said:

“All is not as it seems - JG”

From there, they decided to go to where the two guards were living. Meladis's cube was empty, though it showed signs of recent occupation. In Erigord's cube, they found his sister, Kultra. She seemed surprised to see the party and very nervous. She said she had seen both men not too long ago and that they were going with two of their friends to see the skull room (the name the guards used to refer to the gate junction room.) - Thartur, another guard and Gwibaen, the half-elvin ranger that the party had rescued from the grimlocks but only recently came out of his condition. (see episode 1/9)

The party went searching for Gwibaen and his friends, starting in the gate junction room. No one had seen them there. Searching the complex, they eventually found Gwibaen, Erigord and Meladis in the trap room where the party had encountered the cloakers (see episode 3.3). Gwibaen was making a heated speech to the other two about how the party had led the refugees astray and needed to be replaced. When he saw the party enter the room, rather than ending his speech, he included them in it, hurling accusations at them and ending his speech by asking the gods to show him a sign if he was right. At that moment, a dire wolf appeared and attacked Ernie, beginning a viscous battle.

Bob quickly teleported himself, Ernie, Greg and Edic into the room and away from the dire wolves. Meladis decided to join Gwibaen, but Erigord hesitated at first. Greg and Meladis fought against each other for several rounds. Edic took on the dire wolf. Bob tried to hit Gwibaen with a touch spell but discovered him to be an illusion. In the meantime, some invisible opponent hurled a fireball into the party. Also, the party felt a curious sensation as some unseen magic force aided their combat skills. Bob cast a dispel magic at the opposite side of the room which revealed a vaguely humanoid creature. The creature responded with a lightning bolt which took down Meladis, one of the wolves and nearly took out Ernie. Ernie healed himself and then he and Bob unleashed a series of attack spells that quickly destroyed the creature. They later determined it to be a doppelganger.

After being healed, Meladis and Erigord claimed that they had been charmed by the creature pretending to be Gwibaen. They were very grateful and swored allegiance to the party. Outside the room, the party found a dead Thartur. He had no marks on him, but sitting on him was a note that said:

“We don’t have to be enemies – JG”

The whereabouts of the real Gwibaen are unknown.

Episode 5.1

Torcyn, the halfling psion, joined the three as they explored the area beyond the gate. They began by talking to the dwarven child. They learned that the girl, Aliella, was a dwarven slave, one of a group of about fifty, that worked the mines. Going by what the girl told them, the slavemasters were gnolls, an ettin and a giant all led by a dragon. She also mentioned some type of monsters the gnolls kept as pets that sounded like either wolves or bears.

She told them that she had been performing a secret ritual every day at sunrise. Someone else had done it before her as far back as anyone could remember. A few days ago, the gate suddenly came to life when she finished the ritual and today, when she finished, the party arrived. She referred to the party "angels" that were supposed to take the dwarves to "heaven". She also said that the dragon had another gate that led to "hell" and that the dragon would punish people by sending them through it.

After making arrangements with Ceodoc to close the gate then reopen it 24 hours later, they asked the girl to take them to the leader of the dwarven slaves. She agreed and suggested that she stay ahead of them and look out for the gnoll guards. She led them through several rooms containing long sprung traps. She eventually ran into trouble when she was accosted by gnoll guards and one of their pets. Sensing that she was about to be eaten, she ran back towards the hiding party. A quick, violent melee later and three dead gnolls and one dead winter wolf lay at the party's feet. They took their equipment and dumped the bodies into a sprung trap that contained a pool of acid.

They ran into more resistance when they tried to exit the tunnel and go out into the main hallway of the complex. They could see daylight and feel very cold air coming from down the tunnel, but before they could get anywhere, they were attacked by more gnolls and winter wolves. After that, they decided to hide in the side passage, and wait to attack anything that opened the door.