Seeking in Earnest

Part 2: Served Cold

In Game	Out of Character
On the Edge of the Void There is a brief discussion about whether they should just leave now. They have a lot of gold, some of their gear, and the material components to create a Planar Portal home. Jarlaxle is opposed, as he came for revenge and the Pool. In the end they decide they want all of their gear back and it is too risky to leave their foes free to ambush them after they are weakened by a confrontation with the pool’s guardians. The cheaper price tag on Planar Portal was also a factor, albeit a minor one. So they head towards the exit where they’re sure an ambush awaits. In the entry room they see the archway that leads to a ledge outside, and it is empty. Behind the door they hear the tell-tale signs of non-stealthy people trying to stay quiet. They open it up to see Malice, Warduke, Iuz, and the Grandfather of Assassins arrayed on the ledge with many yuan-ti and troglodytes at their side. Floating off of the ledge and in the void are many more troglodytes, each with a brace of javelins. A call to “close the door and let them come to us” goes out, but the Grandfather of Assassins hurls a dagger over and over, forcing Jarlaxle and Chaugnar to dodge it or be skewered. When the stream of fire ends they find they’ve been driven out of the entryway and onto the ledge. Jarlaxle, now in the reach of Warduke, flicks his rapier out and sends the man’s sword hurtling into the void. The horned society magnate has several other weapons dangling off of the armor he stole from Arik, but Jarlaxle hopes to get rid of them all over time. Arik steps out and drives his axe out at Malice, forcing her to backpedal off of the ledge and hover momentarily in the void. Chaugnar lays a curse on Iuz and Warduke, then steps onto the purple stair, becoming invisible and flying away. Once hidden back inside the room he wraps Iuz in a shroud of otherworldly stars, freezing his bones and slowing his movement. Iuz calls down the Wrath of his God (himself), and challenges Jarlaxle. Malice rights herself and floats back into the battle, and strikes twice with the Dragon’s Fang Strike but misses both times. Even the threat is enough to tire her target and force them out of position. Naxis steps up and calls down a Shyran Cataclysm, killing many of the yuan-ti and damaging nearly every other opponent on the ledge. With heroic effort he strikes out with a Dimensional Slash and misses, but his follow-up swing slams hard into Iuz, almost killing him. Artesano hurls a ceramic sphere that bursts amongst he enemies, coating them in pain and his allies in a protective sheen. Iuz screams in agony and then goes silent forever. The Yuan-ti who survived walk up to fill gaps, but their bites are ineffectual. Warduke draws a flail and twirls it around Naxis’s legs momentarily, using an attack that would have missed had he not been wearing Arik’s bracers. With the swordmage distracted and off balance, several of the javelineers take the moment to strike, and two out of eight manage to hit. Up on the ledge Iggwilv steps into view and fills the entryway and a small piece of the ledge with writhing black tentacles, its casting laced with her own blood. All but Jonathan are wracked with pain and stunned. The troglodyte curse chanters target Naxis, except for one who heals himself and his bloodied allies. The Grandfather joins the dog pile on Naxis, giving him a deep dagger wound. Jarlaxle disarms Malice, who has only one weapon on her, and Arik feints weakness to draw his foes in. Warduke charges, but drops to his knees when he sees he is about to step into the tentacles, as do the Grandfather, a curse chanter, and several minions. Malice, floating in the air, steps up and gets chopped hard for her efforts. Arik then cleaves straight through her and a minion, killing them both. With Naxis now out from under the ledge, the yuan-ti waiting above can act. A malison chants poison into his veins while the rest whisper words of betrayal and rage into his mind. Chaugnar trusts in his guiding star and ignores Iggwilv’s blurry form, striking home with a hard hit at a critical juncture. He also tries to wrap Warduke in Frigid Darkness but fails, then teleports invisibly out of the field of tentacles. Jonathon teleports out onto the ledge and away from the tentacles, then fills the air with lightning, killing more minions and setting up an electrical field around himself. Warduke stands, drops his mace, and snaps his fingers causing a halberd to appear in his hands. His indomitable strength knocks Artesano down and invigorates his morale. Three of the floating troglodytes hit Jonathon with their hurled javelins, and Iggwilv’s tentacles Arik. They would alos have grabbed Jarlaxle, but Arik interposes his shield just in time. Iggwilv then calls out a destructive salutation, filling minds with psychic energy and stunning Chaugnar, Arik, and Artesano. The Grandfather sends a flurry of feints at Jarlaxle, sending the drow into hyper drive trying to defend. Artesano creates a healing figurine beside himself and drains much of its energy out immediately before crawling next to Warduke to put the man in range of his lightning matrix armor. Warduke responds with a Mountain Breaking Blow that almost hurls the artificer into the void. Iggwilv’s tentacle tear at Jarlaxle, and a thuderwave slams into the draow mercenary as well. Curses are chanted at him, and the grandfather sends more daggers his way, while keeping up the feinting flurry. Arik takes a moment to catch his breath and then draws in three of the curse chanters with a challenge. The air around the teleportation circle begins to shimmer, and an overlay of a temple interior appears in the air as Adran’s planar portal opens. Chaugnar curses Iggwilv and then traps her within a far realm phantasm. Artesano stands, moves up to Warduke and a troglodyte, and heals Naxis. Adran steps through and Enthralls the enemies, bloodying Warduke and the Grandfather of Assassins. It takes all of his divine trickster skills, but he manages to slam everyone except the floating minions with his psychic assault. He also sends out healing energy to his allies in the form of mass cure light wounds and a healing word. Warduke unleashes a familiar maneuver, mimicking Arik’s Devestation’s Wake. Two of the floating troglodytes hit Artesano with their javelins, leaving their braces almost empty. Iggwilv the Archmage calls down another Destructive Salutation, which fails to hit Jarlaxle, but stuns everyone else except Adran, who she was enthralled by. A curse chanter chants curses at Artesano and they scatter, while the Grandfather pierces Adran’s side with a well-aimed strike. The yuan-ti dominate Arik, and Chaugnar moves out to kill Iggwilv with Frigid Darkness. Adran fills the air with fire, missing Warduke but hurting a lot of minions. Hoping not to die, Warduke activates his Iron Warrior’s surge, and the Grandfather slips around to stab Naxis in the kidneys while one of the yuan-ti on the ledge whispers poison into the swordmage’s blood. Arik’s befuddled mind sends him charging at Artesano and slamming his axe into the Eladrin. Arik shakes off the mental control just in time to see Naxis succumb to it. Chaugnar grants his friends Caiphon’s Hungry Mercy, letting them offer of their life energy to the dark entity in exchange for renewed power. As always, they accept the offer. The warlock wraps Warduke in a starless void, drawing upon Iggwiv’s death to fuel the curse. Adran keeps the fires burning, heals Artesano, and uses his renewed enthrall to hurt even more foes. The Grandfather shakes off the psychic assault, but it still makes him miss the priest, and the distraction is enough for Jarlaxle to sheathe a dagger and disarm the assassin, driving the man’s own blade in between his ribs. Arik reorients his gravity and flies up to the ledge, his charge killing one of the dominators. But the others whisper their commands into the ears of the fighter and swordmage. Chaugnar kills one of them with a cloak from the starless void. Naxis crawls under the ledge to avoid being controlled again, and Artesano finally unleashes a power he’s had and never used: the Closing Spell. He kills every last standing enemy.	Planar Portal normally isn’t cheaper if you start at a teleportation circle, but it’s the only one that isn’t so we house ruled it to be so. Closing the door was a good idea, but the Grandfather won initiative and Tornado Strike from an artful dodge made that impossible. Because how far one falls isn’t really defined in the rules, we said that someone pushed off of the ledge wouldn’t fall immediately. They’d get a chance to reorient their gravity on their turn, and fall if they failed. Starless Shroud’s -5 AC and Combat Advantage is huge. +7 to hit for 4 out of 6 PCs and +2 for the rest is a big jump. Wrath of the Gods would be +8 damage to all of his allies for the rest of the encounter, but I took the magic threshold for NPCs to be intended to apply to other huge buffs as well, so they didn’t get the entire benefit. It’s definitely not rules as written, but it makes using a high level paladin with WoG a possibility. Anarch of Shyr was beastly this round. The cataclysm is a blast that deals half on a miss, so it pulverizes minions. Their action point ability lets them make a basic attack after they AP, which let him follow up a missed daily with a critical hit. The artificer’s runic resistance surprised me. Because of the fights and the player’s seeming inability to roll other than a natural 1 when he uses it, I never even realized it was a burst. This time it hits four NPCs, killing one of them. Warduke’s Chains of Sorrow only hit because of the reroll from Arik’s Couters of Second Chances. Curse Chanters are very versatile. Their attacks weaken or slow, they can heal bloodied allies in a burst, and they can give all of their allies +5 to speed for a round. The heal alone was effectively an extra 100 hit points because there were four of them. Wariror’s Challenge would have pulled them into the hindering terrain of Evard’s Black tentacles. Instead they all managed to make their saves, falling prone in a pile with three of them in one square. The original encounter was balanced for the full party, including Adran. Jarlaxle was added when Adran’s player couldn’t make it, so that Chaugnar would know how to get to the fortress and as a little extra punch. But it turns out that a drow mercenary NPC is nowhere near balance for the lack of a divine oracle cleric PC. To make up for my screw up and avoid a TPK, the cavalry comes in on a planar portal. Iggwilv shouldn’t have been able to do the Destructive Salutation, but the length of this fight had already caused a metric ton of “oh wait, such and such should have so and so-ed.” So rather than roll back half a round and completely change the battle, she would have used her next turn attacking the air because of Far Realm Phantasm. At this point I was seriously considering a “no take backs” house rule, although the main source of roll backs (the Warlock’s Curse-based teleport and Intercession of Caiphon) probably won’t be around for much longer, as the player is looking at changing to wizard once he’s been through the Pool of Elements. I don’t mind rolling back, and will never refuse to do it if it’s going to kill someone, but its happened way too often recently because long fight makes people wander away from the table rather then pay attention so they can activate their class abilities that happen during others’ turns. Closing Spell does more damage if it’s your last daily power. Battle Mages also get a 12^th level daily power that can’t trigger until you’ve been dropped to 0 hit points. The two combine to mean that to really capitalize on Closing Spell you have to get your ass kicked first. We house ruled Closing Spell to only need to be your last remaining attack spell.
To the Victor The captives quickly take back their stolen gear, and also find a few new items to play with. They talk a bit about the maze of death that protects the pool, and though they can rush through the short hallway that their captors created, they still risk getting their lives permanently cut short by the darkness of the void. Jarlaxle hands out elixirs of strong spirit, which will protect them a little, and then runs straight through, using his burrowing to bypass the walls. They upgrade Naxis’s sword with a long ritual, sleep the night in the fancy beds, then press on. Only Arik ends up in danger of losing part of his life force, but a brief look through time shows him the proper path. Inside, they take a short break to get ready and then head into the chamber with the six xeg-ya.	They also find a Halo of Fallen Stars, Sylvan Leather +5, a Ring of Regeneration, and an Amulet of Protection +6. Naxis’s sword gets upgraded to +5 Their short rest recharged Arik’s Pool of Time reroll, but it also made their elixirs wear off, dropping their death saves by 3. This would be a big difference when they meet the guardians, who end up forcing a lot of saves versus death.
Guardians of the Pool of Death Sliding through walls and floors, and ignoring the congealed death that is the maze, an unseen wraith shadows the party, avarice in his glowing red eyes. . . As they open the door Arik drops into his stance and flies out towards the closest one, completely at home in the shifting gravity of the plane. He slams his axe into one of the tentacled globes and follows it up with a hard smash of his gauntleted hand. A ring flares as his fist hits home. Adran attempts to fly out and just barely makes it, as he walks along the walls to drive a hammer of fate into the same beast. Jarlaxle also tries to walk out, but he fails and slams into a wall before re-orienting his gravity and heading back to the doorway. Naxis also tries to fly out and fails, landing on the wall beside Artesano before doing it again and shooting out into the room to be within reach of the one Arik and Adran just bloodied. Tentacles flash like lightning. The first hit feels good: a surge of pure life energy. The second and subsequent hits reveal the danger though, as cells rupture and blood vessels break. There’s too much for a mortal form to hold. Arik, Naxis, and Adran are all left reeling, their eyes turned red and blinded by blood, and their heads feeling as if they’re about to burst. Artesano fills the air with lightning, but though he manages to strip away a lot of the excess life from the cleric, he fails to hit the rapidly moving balls of light. Chaugnar summons the tendrils of Thuban, making sure to put Adran inside them, as well as two of the xeg-ya. Arik pulls himself together but is still blinded, while Adran and Naxis don’t even do that well. Jarlaxle finally manages to control his gravity and walks out to where he can stab the hurt xeg-ya twice. The xeg-ya lash out again, slapping the same three targets again, but this time with only one tentacle each instead of four. The Eladrin artificer teleports down to the “floor” of the giant 25’ cube and hits the cleric and three guardians with a lightning matrix. Chaugnar’s tentacles hit Adran again and his Far Realm Phantasm fails to fool one of the beasts, so he gives a bit of his soul to Caiphon to keep it available. The half-giant fighter moves around, taking a couple of attacks on himself, activates his belt of titan strength, and calls the creatures to him. He misses two of them but uses a glimpse through time to make sure he slams Naxis hard, and kills the one they’d hurt. A devestation’s wake follows, hitting only one xeg-ya but setting them all up for some pain later. Adran recovers, as does Naxis, and Jarlaxle kills another. One of the creatures flurries at Arik again, putting him well beyond the danger zone. The rest also attack, leaving him in severe danger of death. Artesano puts a burrowing projectile into one of the creatures, but a second bounces off of Arik’s war plate. Chaugnar’s tentacles continue to slam one of the creatures, and he teleports to the floor to surround the creature with frigid darkness, freezing it to death. Arik is still blind, but it doesn’t bother his keen warrior’s senses, and he slams one of them hard. Adran wraps Arik in purifying fire, along with two of the xeg-ya. Worried that Arik may die, he calls down a prophecy of prosperity for the half-giant. Jarlaxle stabs another and the sword mage calls down another cataclysm, hitting two xeg-ya, Arik, Artesano, and Adran. The guardians continue to fill the two defenders with life, and Artesano’s Closing Spell hits one of them and Arik hard. Chaugnar gives the group a chance to give a bit of their life to Caiphon to replenish their arsenal, and they do. Artesano is lucky and gets back his Closing Spell. Arik misses a swing and moves out towards the middle of the xeg-ya, while Adran proclaims a prophecy of doom for Arik, trusting that the extra life inside him will protect him against the dealy blow it can cause. Jarlaxle’s darkfire misses the cursed xeg-ya, and he tries to fly towards it but misjudges gravity and slams into the pool od inky black in the center of the room. Having not passed its guardian, the pool is harder than rock to him. Naxis hits Arik with a bane blade, tuning his sword to be especially harmful to humanoids in the future. With heroic effort he slams the blade into Arik again, and it sends shock waves of electricity through the pit fighter. A follow-up strike smacks into a tentacled blob. Both of the xeg-ya miss their attacks against Arik, and a repeat of the Closing Spell, Starless Void, Warrior’s Challenge, and Flame Strike finish them off simultaneously. As soon as they are dead Jarlaxle sinks into the pool, and the rest of the group follows. When they come out they have gained the ability to drain the life from others to heal themselves. As they do, the lurking wraith rushes into the room, but bounces off of the pool. It would seem that one cannot ride another’s accomplishments to bypass a pool’s guardian. The enraged creature flies through the walls and out into the void, but not before they recognize it as the one that got away back in Zhengyi’s tower, and get an inkling of how the captors knew so much about them.	With a DC of 21, Arik’s Wisdom + ½ level means he cannot fail to move around in the plane unless he tries to get fancy. Adran might also be unable to fail, but we had an older sheet because the player wasn’t there, so it’s hard to be sure. We went with the numbers we have. Between the critical hit, the War Ring boosting the crit, and Epic Resurgence giving him back the power he just used, they’re off to a really good start. The xeg-ya’s attacks give the target temporary hit points. Too many and you have to start making saving throws versus death. Their encounter power (which recharges when bloodied) lets them attack four times and means that the cleric, fighter, and sword mage were all in danger immediately. It also means that every party member has the ability to “heal” the rest by targeting them with attacks. We see a ton of that from here on out, starting with the artificer critting the cleric. At the end of their turn Arik has 100 temporary hit points more than his base hit point total, meaning he’ll be making saves versus death until his friends can beat the crap out of him. Two rerolls on the part of the warlock and fighter kills one of the creatures and hurts the other. Another critical hit on the cleric makes him safe for now. Prophecy of Doom lets anyone before the end of the oracle’s next turn make a hit become a critical hit. The sword mage uses the prophecy to crit the fighter, and his action point ability lets him smaclk another xeg-ya. The Pool of Death gives the ability to touch someone and do necrotic damage. IF you can bypass their fortitude defense with a secondary attack, you’ll also steal a healing surge and heal yourself the damage you dealt to them. It also gives the standard 5 build points.
Secrets Learned Adran’s work has secured them a chance to bathe in the pool of Secrets, with Chaugnar lying about his reasons to the Pasha of Calimshan.	This all happened off screen, as part of “what the cleric does while the player is gone.” The Pool of Secrets gives bonuses to finding and keeping secrets, as well as insight into what pools another might have been through.
Into the Pool of Time Arik leads the party deep into, and then under, the jungles of Amedio. When they get there, the pool’s guardian (and ancient Phane), steps aside and lets him walk past with his charges. The fighter gazes into the pool and sees two possible paths. One way leads them to a land where they look much like themselves and are fighting demons. The other shows them in tight clothes and wearing capes, flying trhough the air to fight similarly powered villains. There is a flicker, and the path to the demonic battle changes to show them walking down a street not unlike the city streets Arik has seen in the future. As they watch, the vision-Arik’s hand changes into long claws. They step quickly into the more familiar path.	The Pool of Time involves travelling to another time period and game system. Because Arik had been through before, he can meditate for a minute and extend his temporal senses into the pool, giving them two options. I had originally tossed together a table of games I knew and had handy to run, and they rolled Marvel Superheroes and Rolemaster. After some discussion we made a different table, using games that everyone was more excited about, and they rolled Marvel Superheroes and World of Darkness. They chose World of Darkness.