The Crystal Dominion - Session 15 Summary

[avisarr]

The Crystal Dominion - Session 15 Summary

The Heroes:

RedEye - A sayune darkwalker with rogue skills and a few spells of sorcery.
Eiran - An elven ranger and archer with a gift for communicating with animals.
N'sahd - A human wizard, born without vocal chords, who casts all his spells silently.
Sir Tristan - A knight in shining armor, man of honor and courage, and a skilled swordsman.
Alan - A human arcanologist... a magic tinkerer with a keen ability to "reprogram" spells and magic items.
Rikhaal – A human priest of Barrinor with an array of spells and powerful healing magic.

NPC Characters:

Koeglur – An ogre warrior, former slave, rescued by the party. Now serves the party.
Osh – A 12 year old human male serving as a squire to Sir Tristan.


The Story:

Last session, the party had begun their climb of Bloodspire Mountain. They are attempting to reach the top and find the "Weeping Rock" where they hope to gain entrance to the legendary mine of Kalrothis. Half way up the mountain they had found an old orcish outpost which they explored and cleared out a few orcish zombies. They also had a run in with a firedrake and her nest on the upper floor. They killed both the firedrake and her eggs. The party spent the night in the old outpost.

The next morning, Rikhaal and Eiran began coughing up blood. It was discovered that certain areas of the the old orcish outpost was infected with mold spores and those two seemed most effected by the spores. This was probably due to where the two had ventured in the old orcish outpost. They simply came into more contact with the spores than others. [DM Note: Two players couldn't make the session. The rule is... if a player misses a session, his character gets "taken out", one way or another, for the duration of the session. This is mainly so that I, as the DM, don't have to worry about running their characters. Also, it's fun just to punish the party for absent players].

After a hearty breakfast, the party packed their gear and resumed their long trek up Bloodspire Mountain.  Rikhaal and Eiran both got progressively more ill as the group climbed up the mountain. Possibly altitude, spores or a combination of the two.  Within an hour, both of them had passed out.  Having no immediate way to revive them without the cleric's magic, Koeglur carried them slung over his shoulders the rest of the way.

From the old orcish outpost, the party had taken the map and the box with the crystal in it.

The map was written in orcish and showed the mountain they were on. The map indicated something called "great stone face" near the top of the mountain and the party decided to head there.

The box with the crystal in it was an intriguing mystery to Alan, but the others considered it mostly unnecessary cargo. The crystal was a dull grey thing which was a rocky sphere with many crystalline shards radiating out from the central mass. It was about 18 inches in diameter from shard tip to shard tip.

Half way to their destination, the party spotted two bright blue pinpoint lights moving across the face of the mountain through a cloud bank. The two lights were appearing and disappearing as they dipped into valleys and crested ridges.  It soon became apparent that the lights were moving toward the group at high speed and they seemed to by flying just above the ground.

The party assumed the worst and gathered into a tight group so that Alan could make them all invisible with his Gem of Invisibility, 25 foot radius. Koegular dropped the two unconscious party members behind a boulder to hide them and joined the group under the umbrella of the invisibility cloak.

As the lights flew  toward the party, the heroes realized there were five separate lights, not two. Each light was a crystalline mass with shards radiating out from a central mass. Each crystal was glowing internally with a cold blue light and was flying just a few feet off the ground.

The heroes realized immediately that these things were identical to the crystal they had in the box. The party assumed that these were some kind of crystalline life form and that they had a "dead" one in the box.

The crystal creatures took up a position hovering 15 feet directly overhead and began firing lightning bolts into the crowded group. The electrical bolts of magical energy were striking specific objects on the heroes, rather than the heroes themselves.  The bolts of energy were targeting the party's magic items one by one.

One of the crystals flew over to where the two unconscious party members were laying, hidden behind the boulder, and began firing lightning bolts down at them. Tristan ran over, raised his magic shield and activated its force bubble function - an invisible force barrier usable once per day. The magical bubble proved effective. The lightning bolts could not penetrate it. However, the crystal creature continued firing bolts down at the bubble itself.

A fierce battle erupted. The players threw everything they had at the crystal things. Rocks were thrown and crossbow bolts were fired as the crystal things fired bolts down at the party.  The party quickly realized that the electrical bolts of energy were draining their magic items of power.

Alan and N'sahd each threw a fireball (N'sahd threw a spell and Alan used his staff of fire) and detonated them well overhead. The crystals seemed unaffected by fire. N'sahd threw a shatter spell which seemed very effective and gravely wounded one of the crystal creatures. Unfortunately, he only had one shatter spell to use.

RedEye used his boots of jumping to leap 20 feet in the air and grabbed a hold of one of the crystals. He intended to bear it to the ground, but misjudged the power of the thing. The crystal creature bucked like a wild animal trying to throw off the attacker and then rocketed straight up into the sky, carrying the sayune darkwalker with him.  The two battled even as they flew toward the heavens. The little thief beat on the strange creature with his rapier, sending broken crystal shards flying off and the crystal creature zapped him over and over with electrical shocks.

Meanwhile down below, Alan pulled out the drellisian crystal that he had. As soon as he withdrew it from its container, its dark anti-magic energy flooded the area. The crystal creatures back away from the crystal, but continued firing bolts of energy. Everyone noticed that while the drellisian crystal was out, the lightning bolts were much weaker.

Up in the air, RedEye, clinging to his flying crystalline thing and soaring toward the heavens, continued smashing the crystal. Its electrical bolts were getting weaker and weaker. With one final blow, he shattered the creature. RedEye immediately began to plummet downward amidst a sparkling cloud of falling crystalline shards. 

RedEye had a flying potion. He quickly pulled it out, uncorked it and drank it. Immediately he knew something was wrong.  It seemed that the potion of flying had been drained almost entirely of magic. Very little of its magic was left and RedEye, rather than flying, was barely able to slow his fall. He managed a few weak spurts of flight and slowed his descent, but still came crashing down into a cluster of trees, breaking branches as he fell. He landed on a slope and tumbled to a stop. The potion had worked well enough. Other than a few bruises, he was fine. He jumped up and began running back toward the group, who were a quarter mile away.

At this point, Alan and N'sahd both remembered that the box containing the "dead" crystal had notes in it, written in Roeda, the orcish spell system. N'sahd had glanced at the notes before and ignored them because they had looked like nothing more than vague notes on an orcish spell. Now, seeing as how they were fighting these creatures, the notes might hold some valuable clues. While Tristan, Osh, N'sahd and Koeglur continued throwing rocks at the crystals, Alan quickly retrieved the papers from the box and handed them to N'sahd, who could read Roeda. The battle continued to rage around him as he quickly read. Koeglur managed to kill one of the crystal creatures with a well thrown heavy rock.

The orcish shaman's handwriting was terrible, but N'sahd quickly found what he was looking for. The shaman had performed tests on a weakened, but still living crystal. He had found that electrical energy stunned them. 

At this point, RedEye finally reached the group and found that they had managed to kill two of the four that they had been fighting. Only two crystal creatures remained. He began to tie a rope around his waist and was about to hand one end of the rope to Koeglur (a clear improvement on his earlier jump-and-attack plan). However, before he had a chance to execute this improved tactic, the two remaining crystals began to retreat.

The two crystals flew away to the west at a high rate of speed. Alan and N'sahd looked at each other... they were intensely interested in these creatures and didn't want them to get away.

Alan put the drellisian crystal away allowing N'sahd to cast a spell. N'sahd fired a lightning bolt at the two retreating crystals and managed to hit one. It instantly fell to the ground and lay still. Alan rushed up with the box. He discarded the "dead" crystal creature and put the stunned crystal (which N'sahd had just shot) into the box. He then closed the box and locked it. Both mages were pleased... they had managed to capture one alive.

At this point, the party heard a crashing sound behind them. They turned to see something moving in the trees. Two trees at the edge of the tree line came crashing down as a giant stepped out. The party realized that the last two crystal creatures had not retreated from them, but most likely were fleeing the approach of this giant.

The giant stood 20 feet tall. He appeared to be orcish or ogrish or some mix. He was wearing trousers fashioned for elk hide. He had a necklace of skulls around his neck and two saddle bags slung on a belt. He hoisted a tree sized club over his head, bellowed at the party in orcish and charged.

N'sahd spoke orcish and translated for the party. The giant was ordering the party off of "his" mountain. [DM Note: The party would have known about this giant if they had bothered to ask the wounded orc they healed days earlier, or the young boy they had rescued from the sorcerer or anyone in the nearby hamlet of Five Timbers or, frankly, anyone in the area. But no... asking questions is not this party's strong suite. They're good at blowing things up, but not so much with the information gathering. In any case, back to our story...]

The giant was bellowing and charging. Tristan ran forth and bellowed his own challenge at the giant. He and Koeglur surged forth and met the giant halfway before he could reach the party.  They immediately began trading blows with the giant.

The rest of the party rushed up, surrounded the giant and attacked from all sides. RedEye stabbed at vital spots with his rapier. Osh stabbed wildly, but enthusiastically. Koeglur and Tristan tried to draw the attention of the giant away from the others.

N'sahd fired another lightning bolt and burned the giant badly, leaving a nasty blackened scar across his chest.

Twice Koeglur was hit by the giant club that sent him hurtling through the air.  Each time Koeglur got back up and charged back into battle. Tristan was hit as well, but his armor and magic shield took the impact well. Then the giant raised his club high and brought a terrible crushing blow onto Koeglur that drove him to the ground. This time Koeglur didn't get up.

N'sahd threw a fiery combustion spell at the giant and burned him badly again. At this point, the giant was burned and bleeding from more than a dozen wounds. Clearly he had misjudged this group. Panting heavily and coughing blood, he turned to flee and ran back toward the forest edge.

The party let him go. The giant was much too fast, covering 20 feet with each stride. They would never be able to keep up with him. N'sahd, hearing coins and other metal items jingling in the saddle bags, was not about to let this monster get away. He cast a spell to transform himself into an avarian and flew after the retreating giant.

The other party members turned their attention to Koeglur. He was badly hurt. They bandaged him up as best they could and fed him a little bit of a healing elixir. Unfortunately, their healer was still suffering ill effects from the mold spores and was in no condition to cast healing magic. For the time being, bandages and a dribble of healing potion would have to do.

Meanwhile, N'sahd was flying at a high altitude in the direction the giant had gone. After 3 minutes, he found the giant... sitting on a boulder about a mile away and catching his breath.

Approaching silently as he glided in from behind, he cast another fiery combustion spell. The giant reeled from the blast, but managed to swing his club at N'sahd. The club hit him hard, but thankfully N'sahd was wearing his necklace of reflection (a defensive magic item that he had picked up several sessions earlier). The magic necklace reflected melee damage. The force of the blow overloaded the necklace which exploded. Both the giant and N'sahd took damage. However, most of the force was reflected back to the giant. The giant staggered backward from the force of the magical blast and fell to the ground. N'sahd finished him off with a shocking grasp spell. Even this was only enough to knock the giant unconscious. N'sahd landed, drew a blade and slit the giant's throat.

N'sahd checked to make sure the giant was actually dead. There was no pulse. He then checked the two saddle bags. One was filled with food (a dead mountain goat, a wheel of cheese, a large loaf of bread and something else... foul and rotten). The other saddle bag was filled with treasure. Coins, jewelry, a dagger and all manner of sparkling metal objects that must have caught the giant's eye.

That's where we ended session 15. So the current situation is this...

N'sahd is separated from the party, but managed to finish off the giant.  Although he has recovered the giant's treasure bag, the bag is heavier than he can lift.  In an attempt to lighten the load, he is discarding all of the iron pennies and copper coins, keeping only the gold and silver and other objects. [He'll be there awhile].

The party has managed to capture one of the crystal creatures. However, they have no idea if there are more crystal creatures in the region or if they are coming back. They now have three party members down (one of whom is the healer). They also suspect that several of their magic items may have been "drained" of magic during the battle. They have not yet had a chance to check their equipment and find out what magic items survived.