Session 07 - Preparations

[avisarr]

Session 07 - Preparations

A meeting was held and the Kitaran and Imperial officials ask the characters to infiltrate the Citadel and steal the Avisarr. This will have two effects. First of all, without the Avisarr, its power source, the Dimension Gate will not function. And second, high priests back in the empire assure the emperor that, if given the Avisarr, they can exorcise the demon's soul from it and destroy the soul... in effect killing Draxorith forever. The mission placed before the characters will be extremely difficult. But the possible rewards would end the war. Most of session 7 involved discussion, planning and such.
The Citadel is a huge building built of stone into the side of a mountain.  It is about 25 levels tall. The Dimension Gate was built into the main temple which is on level 19. Directly beneath the temple, on level 15 is the Shrine of Lost Souls. The Temple and the Shrine are connected by a large vertical shaft. The Shrine of Lost Souls is the dark heart of the Citadel, a place not openly spoken of. At the center of this chamber is the actual shrine - a tall stone obelisk with four small stone pylons surrounding it. The central spire of stone has several hundred purple gemstones embedded in the surface of the stone. Each gem is a magical prison. About half of the gemstones are occupied. Half are empty. The Shrine is sort of a prison. The most dangerous people, criminal or not, are placed in here. Basically anyone that Duthelm wants to forget about. But this horrible place is much more than a prison. The people trapped inside the gems are tapped for energy. They are still alive. The Shrine feeds off of their life energy and sends that energy up through the shaft to the Temple high above. The dark priests of Draxorith drink in the power and fuel their spells. This is one thing that makes them so powerful.

This will be the most difficult assignment yet faced by the heroes. They are venturing into the very heart of darkness...the central chamber of the central building of the capital of Duthelm.

To aid in this mission, the empire and Kitar officials gave the heroes several powerful and useful magic items. Defensive items, weapons and healing magic were all handed over to help ensure that this mission was successful.

One of the items that the empire had offered to the characters was a small, black glass sphere. It had formerly belonged to an imperial noble who had not been able to ascertain its functions. All attempts at identifying it had failed. After much research and spellwork, Mutaki, the myrian wizard, was unable to discern the orb's nature. Ugita, the priest, went to his god in prayer and asked for guidance. Whenever Ugita goes to his god in prayer, the response usually takes the form of a voice coming from the shadows, often uttering a cryptic verse or rhyme which holds clues. The voice from the shadows spoke these words...

He known as Saramuthak, did bind his work in baubles black,
Wherein tomorrow's never seen and dweomercrafts are ever keen.
Necromancies unfinished stay to be done up another day.
As they were then, so this one now. A fashioned man who waits to bow.

After some thought, Ugita concluded that the glass sphere was a container... nothing more. It had been invented by a necromancer named Saramuthak. Apparently he used these glass spheres in his work quite often. Anything placed in the glass sphere was protected from outside magic, from the passage of time, etc. The myrian brothers figured out how to open this one. They wanted to know what was inside. So they cast it upon the ground and spoke the command word "Saramuthak".  The glass sphere spewed forth a dark swirling mist from its heart which began to coalesce and take shape. From the swirling black nothingness, a creature emerged. It stood up to its full height and surveyed the area. Two words describe this thing - "borg zombie". It was a zombie such that it was assembled from various body parts and seemed to be some type of undead creature. However, it was a zombie with all kinds of tubes and metal plates and wires and such. A half zombie, half golem. He appeared that he was a construct of sorts and that his construction had not been completed.  [DM Notes – This construct had not been completed when it was put into "stasis" in the sphere. Now suddenly released, this thing did not know what to do. It had no programming, no current mission directive and did not see its master. So he served the next closest thing. The Ugita priest was almost a necromancer. The borg zombie could sense the aura of death magic about the little priest.  Therefore, it latched on to the myrian brother and began to follow him around like a faithful puppy. ( or as I like to think of him... a walking armored half-ton undead puppy...)

The borg zombie can understand Ugita, but cannot speak. (I think this might prove to be an interesting NPC. Just entering the average city with this thing in tow in future sessions is going to be fun). The myrian brothers named this thing "Grimnoth". I don't remember how we came up with the name, but it seems to suit him.

With their new "henchman" in tow, the heroes prepared themselves for the journey that lay ahead of them. The heroes traveled out to a village out in the war zone which was serving as a base of operations for several Kitaran field commanders. This was the last bastion of civilization before venturing into enemy territory. This is where the session ended. Next session, we start with the characters going into the Citadel.

One of the most important magic items given to the heroes was a small, single-use teleport "plaque". It's a small rectangular decorative sheet of silver. If it is thrown to the ground and the command word is uttered, the plaque will grow in size to 6 feet by 8 feet. Anyone standing on it gets teleported. Well, actually, the plaque folds up around the people and teleports itself then unfolds on the other end. The plaque would take them to a predetermined destination some 15 miles outside the Citadel.

The plan is to stealth their way in, grab the Avisarr, teleport out. Very simple. The characters learned through an augury spell that they would not be able to teleport out from the Shrine chamber itself. Too much high energy magic in that chamber which would interfere with the teleport spell. They would have to put some distance between themselves and the Shrine before any such spells will work. Like about 500 feet. No problem. They figured they would run/fight for that 500 feet.

To aid the players in their mission, the heroes were told of two Kitaran spies in the Citadel that would be able to offer them assistance. One of them was named Peraul and was to be their primary contact. The heroes were told to contact him at a gambling hall called Fellgor's Ring. If they got into any trouble, there was another spy – a scribe named Valkov that worked at a small library and scribe's shop named the Gilded Page.
At the 15 mile point, the Kitaran soldiers that escorted them set up a small camp. It was a small grove of trees on a hill. Those soldiers would wait for the characters to teleport in. With the arrangements made, the heroes left the small camp and finished the last 15 miles of the journey to the Citadel.

Currently the party consists
The two myrian brothers - one priest and one wizard.
Callister Draabyn - the fighter mariner
Katharana - linguist, scholar, sage
Martin - wizard, assassin
Blanchard - Callister's first officer and henchman
Grimnoth - the undead borg zombie (wearing a hooded cloak).