SessionFifteen

December 20, 2008

700 XP for various things the DM forget before. (Like the upstairs of the zombie bar and the gypsies)

The party retreats to the outside of the tomb and rests up, luckily encountering nothing else undead -- or in any other state of life or death. There is still no sign of Cinoi.

The next morning, they return to the upper part of the ruins without encountering any undead things. Alecsa reaffirms the lack of traps on the trap door and give Osrik the go-ahead to open it up. Pulling up the door reveals a set of stairs leading down. Osrik heads down and sees a flaming skeleton, along with a possible two others that are obscured by the darkness. He bravely calls for Alecsa to go down and keep him company.

Alecsa hits decrepit skeleton #2 with a shuriken, destroying it. Dex's crossbow shot misses its target. Decrepit skeleton #1 scoots down to take a swing at Osrik but misses. Osrik, in turn, destroys skeleton #1. Then, he marks the flaming skeleton. The flaming skeleton hits Osrik and sets him on fire. Again! Gloriana moves out to hit skeleton #1. Chaedi hit skeletons #1 and 2 with a thunderwave, which pushes them back 10' and damages them. The boneshard skeleton moves in and hits Osrik with a scimitar, giving him some necrotic damage, too. [Icky.] Skeletons #1 and 2 attack Gloriana but miss.

While Alecsa moves to hit the flaming skeleton with a riposte strike, the missing warlock finally rejoins the group. He's thinking things don't look so good... Dex shoots and actually hits the "big nasty" skeleton, presumably the flaming one. Osrik's attack on the flaming skeleton misses, since he's busy extinguishing his own fire. The fire skeleton misses him in turn. Gloriana turns skeleton #1 and the boneshard skeleton, pushing them back and immobilizing them. Chaedi hits flamer with icy terrain, knocking it prone. Cinoi warlock curses the flaming skeleton and hits it with eldritch blast.

Alecsa hits flamer with torturous strike. Dex misses with his shot. [No idea who he was aiming for] Osrik hits flamer with reaping strike. Looking close to dead [again], flamer stands back up. Gloriana hits flamer righteous brand, killing it and boosting Osrik's next attack swing. Chaedi attacks skeleton 2 with cloud of daggers. Boneshard takes a swing at Gloriana but misses. Skeleton #1 moves in and hits Chaedi, while #2 moves up to hit Alecsa. Cinoi warlock curses #1 and then kills it with eldritch blast.

Alecsa hits #2 with riposte strike. Dex actually hits #2 with a crossbow bolt! Osrik moves to attack boneshard with a reaping strike, but misses. Boneshard shoots out a wave of necrotic energy, hitting Osrik, Gloriana, and Alecsa. Gloriana hops up onto the altar, since Osrik has boneshard penned in the corner, and hits boneshard with righteous brand. Chaedi hits boneshard with cloud of daggers. Boneshard hits Gloriana with his bone shard, causing necrotic damage. Skeleton #2 attempts to hit Alecsa, but she interrupts his attack. Cinoi curses skeleton #2 but misses with his eldritch blast.

Alecsa hits #2 with riposte strike. Dex misses his target again. Osrik marks boneshard and hits it with reaping strike. Gloriana hits boneshard with Lir's radiance, destroying it. It gives of a blast of death of death magic as it dies, hitting Osrik. Chaedi misses Skeleton #2 with cloud of daggers, but it takes damage from the daggers it's still standing in. The skeleton tries to hit Alecsa again, but she interrupts the attack, destroying it.

While the injured in the party perform healing surges, Cinoi starts kicking through bones looking for loot. Alecsa tells him there never is any and asks where he's been. So, he tells her the story about running off to the stone circle and the encounter with the man, who shows him the Well of Stars, while he continues to fruitlessly kick around skeleton bits. Alecsa is disappointed that she missed out on the Well of Stars and even more so when he says there was no treasure to be had. In turn, Alecsa tells him about their fun in the temple and that Osrik didn't include Cinoi in the divvying of treasure. She says if he asks nicely, she might share hers with him. Cinoi claims he's too excited about the stars to care about loot-splitting, to which she replies that the more money you have, the more you can run around and look for stars. He makes a little dig about Chaedi spending hundreds of gold on fortune tellers.

Osrik tells Cinoi that he had thought the warlock had abandoned the party. He tells Cinoi if he needed more money, he is happy to share his. Cinoi looks at him with a puzzled expression and tells him he's not poor. Chaedi rubs her lump of gold and says nothing about sharing it. [Yeah... ]

Alecsa gives Cinoi the tracings of Abyssal from the altar and now destroyed bowl, telling him she found a "star language" for him. She also gives him the pebble she collected for him. He tickles her in thanks for the pebble as Osrik asks if she wants to examine the current altar. She squirms away from Cinoi to keep an eye on the smash-happy dwarf. Osrik says speaking a demon language is dangerous, to which Alecsa replies, "Not if you don't talk to any."

Upon the altar are two chalices, a bow, and a bone knife. The dwarf looks around for something on the altar he can smash in a fit of peevishness. She admonishes him not to smash them before she can look them over. Determining that the language is the same but that these markings are different enough to be considered different words, Alecsa and Cinoi make note of them while Osrik pants to smash them. Alecsa declares the chalices and bowl are full of blood and sends Osrik upstairs and outside to dump them out to keep him out of her way for a few minutes. Outside, Osrik dumps the blood, says a blessing to his god, and smashes everything, and then splits it up into 5 equal pieces, leaving out Dex. [I don't think the boys really like him.] Cinoi notates the markings on the bone knife before Osrik returns to smash it to bits. Alecsa offers to have demolition dwarf break off a piece of the altar for his collection, but Cinoi says he's happy with the runes.

Finding nothing else of interest in the room, the party prepares to move into the hallway. [Osrik and Chaedi stay behind so Osrik can catch up on his healing surges. Fire just loves him! Cinoi and Alecsa discuss having Dex go in front but not as cannon fodder as Cinoi wants. Alecsa points out that Dex needs to stick around to make a future meeting with his crazy team easier, if they are dope heads like these two. If he dies in combat, it should be in fair combat and not because he was considered expendable.

As they advance down the hall, they spot two goblins! Cinoi warlock curses the nearest one and hits it with eldritch blast, killing it. Minions. Alecsa moves down to hit the first minion's buddy with a riposte strike, killing it. Goblin warrior #2 darts up from further down the hall and hits Alecsa with a javelin. Then, he makes some sort of odd sound. Dex hits the goblin with a crossbow bolt, to which Cinoi tells him to get his butt down the hall and close on the enemy! [See, Dex likes to "watch."] Then, Dex moves further down the hall, stopping just past Alecsa. Gloriana moves up a bit and performs healing word for Alecsa. Another goblin runs out and hits Dex with a javelin. A goblin cutter runs and hits him, while yet another pops his head up from behind a chest near the back of the "room" [this place was built weird] and tries to hit Dex but misses.

Cinoi warlock curses goblin cutter #3 and hits it with eldritch blast. Alecsa moves down to a pillar on her right and kills a goblin there, then moves up into a corner that is a sort of alcove section near the pillar. Dex moves forward and hits a goblin warrior. Gloriana's attempt at a priest's shield fails. The hexgoblin "cheers" on his friends, inspiring the warrior to move back and attack Dex. It hits him. Then, the hexgoblin creates a vexing cloud that blankets the entire room, except for a space to the far right on the map. The warrior moves into the clouds and then misses with his throw at Cinoi. [Idiot goblins]

Cinoi is able to spot the goblin warrior and hits it with dreadful word, curses it, and then moves to conceal himself again. Hexgoblin blinds Dex. Alecsa darts out to kill a goblin cutter with piercing strike, then moves back to her corner. Dex shakes off the blindness, and Gloriana performs a healing word for him.

Cinoi holds his attack, since he can't see anything through the cloud. The hexer fails to hex Cinoi. Alecsa quietly moves past Dex using her fleeting ghost ability, stopping beside the chest. She sees goblin warrior #2 hiding on the opposite side of it and hits him with a shuriken. Dex can't see anything to fight. Gloriana sees the hexer, who is hiding right in front of her on the outer side of the pillar. She hits him with avenging fire, badly hurting him and setting him on fire. Goblin warrior #2 hits Dex with a javelin. [Where does he keep getting these things?]

Cinoi can see something burning off to his right. He warlock curses the hexer but misses with his eldritch blast. He then moves to conceal himself again. The flaming hexer runs, Gloriana hitting him as he passes her. He does manage to put out its fire, though. As the hexer moves up the hall toward the altar room, the cloud moves with him. Alecsa spots the hexer and moves to him with fleeting ghost, killing him with a riposte strike. The cloud dissipates. Dex hits warrior #2. Gloriana hits it with priest's shield, giving herself and Dex a defensive bonus. The warrior throws a spear, misses, and makes a run for it. Gloriana kills it as it passes by her.

The party moves to the chest, and Alecsa checks it for traps. She finds a poison needle trap and disarms it. Then, she unlocks the chest to reveal silver candlesticks and other temple paraphernalia worth about 200 gp. She's excited until Gloriana, and Cinoi, point out that it is equipment from a temple of Lir. Damn it! Disappointed, Alecsa mournfully tells Cinoi Gloriana is not going to let them sell the stuff.

SessionSeventeen