Temple of Eternity

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In a land that worships the Greek pantheon, a terrible curse has recently struck the land sickening crops and farm animals. The high priest of Zeus who normally protects the area against supernatural dangers is also missing. Rumor says an unnamed demon is behind this. The local king hires a group of adventurers to rescue the high priest of Zeus and help him break the curse. An initial group investigates the chapel where the high priest of Zeus lives. The chapel appears abandoned as the group investigates. The chapel turns out to be abandoned and ransacked except for one remaining acolyte of zeus named carl, hiding in a hidden room. Carl tells them that a demon only known as the “adversary” attacked the chapel when the curse fell. He tells the adventurers that the high priest of Zeus left a few days before saying that he was going to the Temple of Eternity which has been abandoned for some time. Following this lead the adventurers travel to the Temple of Eternity leaving a message for the king on the way telling him of the lead. After they enter the temple some of the group goes one direction and finds a pegasus chained up in what is now a cell. The rest of the group goes a different way and find some orcs in what was once the temple’s library. Most of the group fight the orcs which includes a spellcaster. While the rest of the group is busy with this one of the group, a rogue, slowly and painfully kills the pegasus. The group defeats the orcs in the library and for some reason choose to burn the bodies in the library. The books in the library soon catch fire and cause an inferno in the room. Fortunately because of the stone construction the fire doesn’t spread beyond the library. Continuing on the adventurers soon find the central altar room of the temple. The altar room has an altar in the middle and and 6 pillars surrounding it with glowing runes covering them. They also see the high priest of zeus behind a magical cage with a symbol of pain on him torturing him. The magical cage is outside the circle of pillars. Using a scroll the group salvaged from the library before it burned they dispel the symbol of pain. Almost immediately the adversary himself appears. The adversary says 'Why have you come here? Do you seek the power too? It is mine and I will never give it up. Not until I manage to claim the souls of...' but is cut off as the high priest, no longer being tortured, casts a spell that traps the adversary in a gem. As the adversary is being sucked into the gem he drops a small glowing crystal that he was carrying. It hits one of the runes on the pillars and there is a flash of light as they meet. When the light fades the crystal is lying on the ground no longer glowing. A number of gates appear and some monsters fall through looking confused. The adventurers easily defeat these surprised monsters. After this the high priest tells the group he has only temporarily imprisoned the demon and they will need to release him in order for him to fully defeat the demon. He tells them the crystal is a powerful artifact that allows one to create portals for traveling however it has lost all it’s power when it touched the pillar. The priest doesn’t know how to recharge it but if the adventurers can do so he can use to create a gate out of the cage. He also is certain there is a way to bring down the magical cage as well. The adventurers continue exploring the temple and soon come upon an orc on the toilet which they quickly dispatch. Shortly after this something happens to this group of adventurers and they vanish [OOC: there was a long break between sessions and all the character sheets but one were lost at this point so almost everyone had to reroll]. A week later the king decides that the first group must have been a bunch of losers and sends in a 2^nd group of adventurers. Knowing the last location of the first group they go straight to the temple of eternity. As this 2^nd group comes they find no sign of the first group except for the crystal. Tonto remains outside to guard the camp and pack animals. The new group which includes Lola, Marilyn, Delilah, monk #6, Jonathon, and Fry begins to explore the temple again they find the destroyed ruins of the library, the rotting corpse of the pegasus, as well as the rotting corpse of the orc still on the toilet. The altar room has been cleaned out some how. While the others are exploring Lola and Delilah check out the room where the pegasus corpse was closer. While Delilah is distracted Lola picks Delilah’s pocket and steals a small mirror without Delilah noticing. Not finding anything the two of them start trying to pick up the pegasus corpse which comes apart and Delilah falls underneath it. Delilah isn’t really hurt but gets covered in rotting pegasus guts which smells horrible. The rest of the group soon finds a room with a single glowing rune in it. One of the group recognizes the rune as representing water. After trying a few things they touch the darkened crystal to the rune which vanishes and a water elemental appears. They soon defeat the water elemental and continue on. Lola decides to try using the pegasus corpse as a disguise to pretend to be a zombie pegasus. The disguise is really bad and fools no one who wonders what Lola is trying to do. They find what appears to have been an old infirmary and some unidentified herbs. Around this time Marilyn picks Lola’s pocket and steals the same mirror Lola stole from Delilah. They then find an air rune near an outside courtyard which again they make vanish and defeat the corresponding air elemental. They next find a kitchen near a dining room. All of these rooms appear to have not been used in a century and while investigating the dining room the chandelier on the ceiling fell down and slightly damaged Delilah. In the kitchen the group finds some old spoiled meat that appeared to be from the orcs and some old spoiled flour from when the temple was in use as well as some garlic. While the everyone else was away Lola covered herself in the flour and started making “woo woo” noises to try to pretend to be a ghost. Despite how pathetic this disguise was it did actually manage to fool a few members of the group. As the group continued to search they did soon find a room with a few scrolls in it, and a rod of raise dead. They also find a blank room with a raised column in the middle with a button to push. They characters push the button and the door closes behind them and 10 runes appear near the ceiling. They slowly vanish after a few seconds one by one. The group in the room vainly attempts to exit the room and flee however after the last rune vanishes the door just opens on it’s own. After doing this a few times they group can find no other purpose of this room. One of the characters successfully determine where a secret passage must be based off the architecture of the rooms and they eventually find the entrance. While searching for it Lola (who currently had the crystal) decides to wash the pegasus corpse in a fountain located in the courtyard near where the air rune had been. One of the other characters manages to steal the crystal off Lola afterwards while Lola went off to explore elsewhere. In the secret passage they discover a hidden room with a long rectangular wooden box in it none of the characters who find this room are able to identify the rune but they make it vanish like the others by touching the crystal to it. Although they did not notice it previously they see that the crystal is now glowing again. After the rune vanishes no elemental appears unlike all the previous times. Afterwards most of the group decides to leave the temple to get something to eat as it is now nighttime. While most of the group is eating by the campfire Caleigh Eu Daegh comes walking up with someone named Yolo. Caleigh Eu Daegh was a bounty hunter tracking down an escaped murderer that from the description Fry recognizes as one of his original team (the one who killed the pegasus). On hearing the story of the group Caleigh Eu Daegh asks them what the king promised to pay them for breaking the curse and it as this time they realized they were never promised any payment at all. Yolo then speaks up and identifies himself as a treasure hunter who had heard about riches within a hidden room in the temple and was on his way to investigate it when he ran into Caleigh Eu Daegh less then an hour ago. He offered to take some of the group in to work together to find the treasure. Lola was not at the campfire at the time but inside the temple though he heard this new person and went back to the kitchen to again cover himself in flour and try to make his ghost disguise again. Fry and Jonathon went to check the library again and Marilyn went with Yolo to find the treasure. Yolo took Marilyn to a room the group had already searched and found only junk in before. While alone in the room Yolo tried to grapple Marilyn but missed. Marilyn looked at him in surprise and asked him what he was doing. Yolo smiled seductively saying she was cute and they were all alone now. Marilyn believed Yolo but indicated she wasn’t interested. When her back was turned he tried to grab her again. He successfully grabbed her this time and bared his fangs (showing he was a vampire) but when he attempted to grip her tighter so he could bite her he lost his footing and fell completely prone. By this point some of the group came by and Marilyn told them what happened. A fight broke out in the hallway just outside the room Yolo and Marilyn had just been in. During the battle Lola hearing the commotion found the battle and attempted to pretend to be a ghost to get past Yolo but Yolo was not fooled by the pathetic disguise. At this time Delilah realizes her mirror had been stolen as she tries to use it hold off Yolo. Lola also finds that it also doesn’t have the mirror but remembers there was garlic in the kitchen runs off to get some. During the battle Fry summoned a bear to block one direction of the hallway and Marilyn uses the mirror to prevent Yolo from going the other way. With Yolo temporarily being held in place. Delilah goes into a nearby room where there is some broken wooden furniture to try and fashion a stake to finish Yolo off with. Deciding that the bear and mirror won’t hold Yolo by themselves Monk #6 decides to try and pin Yolo. Yolo and Monk #6 mutually grapple each other. Fry then commands the bear to join the grapple hoping that the two of them will be able to hold Yolo long enough for Delilah to come back with her wooden stake. Yolo ignores the bear and successfully pins Monk #6 and bites. The group suddenly realizes their mistake as Yolo instantly drains all of Monk #6’s blood [OOC: Monk #6 rolled 6 for constitution and after race modifiers only had 4 points] killing her. Their concern turns to terror as the power of the temple causes Monk #6 to immediately raise as a vampire herself under the control of Yolo without the normal waiting period. Yolo then uses gaseous form to escape the grip of the bear. Those involved in the fight with Yolo run away and leave the temple. Caleigh Eu Daegh realizing his bounty wasn’t here and two vampires is too dangerous to tangle with decided to leave completely and find another bounty. After the entire group except Lola (who was still in the kitchen) were able to regroup outside they decided to go back in and search the temple in teams. One group found Monk #6 who attempted to convince them she hadn’t been vampired and had simply escaped however no one really believed it and Monk #6 eventually ran off when he realized he wasn’t going to trick anyone. The group eventually managed to kill Yolo by burning him which freed Monk #6 from Yolo’s control. Although still a vampire himself now the group accepted Monk #6 back into the group figuring his new abilities would be useful in the upcoming battle against the adversary or the high priest of zeus [OOC: the group had mostly convinced themselves the high priest was the true villain despite no in-game evidence for it]. Also since prior to this there were equal number of evil characters as well as good characters he fit in well and tipped the balance of the group to evil. The group at this point took the crystal to the high priest who used it to open a gateway from inside his cell to outside his cell. He thanked the group and said he would deal with the adversary. He went to the altar and using it’s power erected a forcefield between all the pillars with all the players outside. He then took out three gems all identical to the one he trapped the adversary in and smashes them. The souls of three people appear. One of them, the voice of which they recognize as the adversary 'You fools! Why did you not listen to me and leave when I told you? Now he will use us in his infernal ritual. But... now that we're free you have a chance to set things right. You mustn't let him touch our bodies. With our souls free they are now able to be raised from the dead.' The priest laughs at this. 'Bodies? I never needed your bodies? It's your souls that I require.' He looks over at you and says 'If you want to be the first to worship your new deity just wait here 15 minutes and I'll be right back'. He then begins to chant a spell. All 3 spirits scream in a haunting manner and slowly begin to fade just before the pillars flash with walls of light appear between them that completely surround the altar. The players are trapped outside. They attempt to break down the forcefield but quickly realize they are unable to do so either through physical or magical means. They eventually decide to just wait 15 minutes. During this time Fry summons the most powerful bear that he can and allows Monk #6 to intentionally vampirize it. Dubbed the "super bear" it quickly rises. After the 15 minutes are up the forcfield drops and the high priest starts laughing like in an insane person claiming he is a god and all powerful. They players quickly attack him as he just stands there laughing apparently not even aware of them despite they can see that they are doing damage to him as they hit him. It quickly becomes apparent that while he is still powerful due to his natural abilities the ritual has done nothing more then make him insane and the players eventually beat him into a pulp and kill him.

Aftermath of the temple of eternity

After defeating the high priest of zeus, Delilah states that she will be taking over the temple of eternity herself. The rest of the group asks permission to stay the night since it is late before leaving. They camp out in the altar room together while Delilah goes off by herself. Some time later Fry wakes up finding that he is in one of the cells along with most of his other companions. He finds that Monk #6, Lola, and Delilah are the only ones not in the cells. Everyone else is trapped in the cells and appears to be under a magical sleep as they don’t wake up when he calls out to them. He notices that his cell isn’t completely closed as a rock was in the way and he walks out. He realizes that while he still has his weapons and armor he is missing all of his personal possessions including his rations and is also a bit hungry. He notices footprints around the cell that he recognizes as Lola’s. He finds that most of the temple is blocked off by walls of light but is able to make his way outside. As he walks out the door he sees two new people he doesn’t recognize walking up to the temple. He asks them their story and Kir begins his story first. He explains that he is a traveling priest of the Lord of the Harvest and that his order has few temples and mostly travels providing help to villages too small to warrant their own permanent cleric. He was transported to this area during a “dispute” with a magic user and he doesn’t know if he’s still even on the same plane anymore as no one here has ever heard of his deity. He said he wandered into a nearby town and entered the local tavern in order to get out of the rain. While he was there a representative of the king came in declaring that another group of losers had failed to break the curse. Before he even finished speaking everyone in the tavern except for Kir and Dave bolted out the back door or windows. Being the only two left in the room the representative told Kir and Dave that they had been “hired” by the king to break the curse. When asked about pay the representative said something non-committal but did indicate there would be punishment if they didn’t do it. As they left the tavern they found out from the locals that the only thing the king was doing to break the curse was to have his representative force anyone in the tavern to go without pay in the hopes that eventually someone will do it. After seeing the first two groups get stuck with the job this way everyone has learned to run as soon as the kings representative appears in the tavern. As a stranger to the area Kir didn’t know about this and Dave is too mentally deficient [OOC: Dave has in int score of 3 and a wis score of 5] to realize it. Stuck with the job Kir and Dave traveled up to the temple of eternity where they met Fry. Kir also told who he met someone who after describing Fry recognized as Lola. Kir and Dave soon discovered that their rations were missing as well. Fry explained how the curse had recently been broken and how his group had been put into magical sleep. On attempting to enter the temple Kir found that the doors had been magically sealed with a minor shocking spell that did no damage and a voice, which fry recognized as Delilah’s, stated that the temple was closed. A brief search showed no obvious way in as all the possible entrances were sealed. At this time Fry was becoming very hungry and both Kir and Dave were a little bit hungry. Fry tried foraging but the area was too barren and nothing was found. Kir told Fry that the Lord of the Harvest would provide and eventually Fry attempted to summon a squid which Kir killed. Although they had flint and tinder there was no more wood in the area to start a fire. Fry however used his magic to cook the squid however before they could eat the squid vanished and Delilah’s voice could be heard “Thank you for the offering”. Realizing they probably weren’t going to be able to eat anything while near the temple the group left. They eventually came near an inn located in a heavily wooded area between the town and the temple of eternity. Fry noticed that the woods were unnaturally dense. As they reached the location of the inn they saw a guard standing nearby. Kir questioned the guard who told them the inn was closed. Although hungry Kir suggested they move on. Dave however smelled cooking meat from inn and bellowed “want food!” and kicked down the door. The guard drew his sword and rushed to attack Dave. Kir called out to the guard saying he was sorry his companion had done damage to the door. The guard turned around and gestured threateningly to Kir with his sword. While doing this Dave run up behind the guard and struck a heavy blow with his axe. As the guard lay dying Kir came up to the guard and gently knelt down beside him telling him not to worry as the pain would end soon. Kir then cast a spell that finished off the guard. Kir then started saying a prayer over the body while Dave and Fry went into the inn. While they were checking out the inn Kir finished his prayer and then animated the guards body. Inside the inn all 3 of the group found that the “cooking meat” was the burned bodies of three individuals in the inn. While Dave and Fry searched the inn for anything useful (especially food) Kir prayed over the bodies in here thanking the Lord of the Harvest for his bounty. Kir however animated two of the bodies in the inn. The third he cast speak with dead on and interrogated. It told him it was killed by a bandit pretending to be a guard and warned of the desk and of the boat. After the spell ended Kir advised that the Lord of the Harvest had provided and began to make plans to butcher the body for meat. Rations were soon found before this happened and not being able to animate any more zombies at this time Kir then had his zombies take this corpse outside and help him bury it in a location where it would help fertilize some plants. Fry, being concerned about Kir’s actions asked him about it. While burying the body Kir explained that the Lord of the Harvest demanded that all harvests, whether plant or animal, should not be wasted. By animating the corpses they become tools that perform useful actions. Butchering the body into meat would be another use however since they have safer food to eat (since he wasn’t certain how long they had been sitting out there) there is no need. This leaves the final use of being used for compost by burying without a coffin in a place where plants will grow. However leaving the corpses lying around would be a waste of the “harvest” and is something to avoid if at all possible. He also warned Fry of the desk however Dave, who hadn’t really understood the conversation, thought Kir was saying there was something good in the desk and went over and picked it up and carried it out. While carrying it out the door a piece of paper fell off of it that Fry happened to notice. Fry picked it up and read it while Kir looked around for long stick. Fry found that the paper was a ledger detailing the guests at the inn including a scrawl that one guest can say as long as he wants for free in a shaky hand. A quick count of body and entries found that there is one less body in the end then accounted for in the ledger. Kir poking at the desk with his stick didn’t find any traps like he suspected. Kir also found that one of his zombies was carrying a hand crossbow with the bolts covered in some sort of liquid (assumed to be poison). Having no use for the crossbow he gave it to Fry. Having replenished their food supply the group decided to move on. The road split at the inn with one choice going to the town and the other going to the river. Believing the boat to be trapped Kir suggested walking to the town. They soon encountered a group of Orcs lead by an Ogre “guarding” the road. Kir politely thanked the guards for their timing and told them about the nearby inn that had been attacked by bandits. The guards just laughed at Kir and told them they weren’t going any further. Kir commanded his three zombies to attack the nearest orc who went over and did so. Fry retreated back out of sight and shape shifted into a bear. He then went through the trees which had been enchanted to make people lose their way however his skills at tracking managed to overcome this enchantment though at the cost of making him move slower then normal. The zombies got some licks in but got pummeled by the orcs. Realizing they were outmatched left the zombies to distract the orcs and ran away. Dave decided he should just follow Kir since that’s what he’d been doing since the tavern. After they left the Ogre cast a freezing spell that blew away not only the zombies but some of his own orcs as well. Fry, who had heard Kir and Dave running away, though he didn’t yet know it was them. Was on the edge of the spell and saw the trees in front of him immediately freeze into ice. He figured he had probably heard Kir and Dave running and decided to run for it too. He made his way out of the trees and happened to see Dave as he turned down toward the river. Kir had reached the river first and gotten into the boat and had untied one of the two ropes connecting the boat to the shore. Fry, still in bear form, was running to shore. Dave, not realizing the bear was fry in another form, ran towards Fry to attack him. Fry managed to run a ways away from Dave and shift back to his normal form. They both came back to the boat which Kir untied and figured out how to use the magic in it to make it move. The boat took them straight to the castle of the king that had originally hired them. It took about 30 minutes to reach the castle by boat and Kir ate some of the rations on the trip. As they got out of the boat onto the dock Kir knocked on the door. A guard who grumbled a bit about not being paid enough to let people in opened the door. They entered hallway where they saw what appeared to be some sort of receptionist. Kir attempted to strike up a conversation with the guard who grumbled to himself and said the group should talk to the receptionist and then wandered off. Looking at the hallway it was noticed there were statues of a gnome but they were proportioned wrong as if the gnome was taller then a human. The receptionist asked if the group were members of the adventuring party that had left to break the curse. The three members identified themselves and she checked their name off a list that involved all three groups sent out to break the curse. She said the king was eager to meet them but was busy at the moment and if they would wait a little bit for him. Kir asked her if they had some sort of chapel or some religious place where he could commune with his deity, though somewhere where he wouldn’t intrude on one of the local deities. The receptionist said they didn’t have a chapels in the castle but that the dining room was usually empty at this time as well as the dock storage room. She said the castle was free to the group except for the kings room behind her, and another door nearby which only the king was allowed in. Kir went into the dock storage where he found some stuff but didn’t take anything. He decided this would work if he had too but a bedroom would probably be a better choice. Dave, on hearing about a dining room, decided he hadn’t eaten enough earlier and went into the dining room to eat another ration. Fry checked out the construction of the building and noticed it wasn’t made out of real stone but out of papier mache made up to look like stone. Kir asked the receptionist for a place to sleep and she gave him instructions to the barracks. As Kir went to the barracks he happened to notice a trail of flour on the floor but didn’t understand the significance of it. He went into the barracks, and noticed a soldier who appeared to be sick. A closer look found that the soldier wasn’t truly sick but had a spell on him that mimicked illness. Kir left him alone, took off his armor, and laid down to meditate on the bed. While eating, Dave noticed a portion of the wall that looked a little different. He went up to it to touch it but it was similar to paper and his hand went right through it. Thinking that his arm was missing somehow Dave panicked and easily bashed down that section of the wall which took him into the room that the receptionist had forbidden them to go into. Inside this room Dave found a large mirror that was proportioned in such a way that what it reflected appears larger then it really was. Dave didn’t realize he was looking at his own reflection and thought he was looking at another half-orc bigger then him. Dave attempted to scare away the “other orc” but ended up scaring himself badly enough he ran out the room bellowing about the “big orc”. Fry heard the receptionist say “Gruggs at it again” in a resigned tone of voice while listening to the bellowing. Kir got up and poked his head out the door and seeing Dave running down the hallway decided it would be best if he just went back to his meditation. Fry tried to get Dave to explain what had happened but only managed to get the general idea that there was a “big orc” in the dining room. Fry went into the dining room and seeing the hole in the wall went to investigate. He found the mirror and quickly realized what must have happened. Fry noticed that the mirror made him look as if he was about 20 feet tall. Dave calmed down and finding the barracks decided to lay down on one of the beds too. Leaving the mirror room and dining room Fry finally noticed the flour trail on the floor that Kir had seen earlier. Knowing of Lola’s fondness of pretending to be a ghost, Fry was immediately suspicious that Lola was in the area. He followed the trail to a room with a massive statue (about three stories tall) of the same gnome seen in the other statues that was part of a fountain taking up most of the area. He also saw a half-orc worker sweeping with a broom. The worker was mumbling to himself about disliking his job and wasn’t really sweeping but was more just going through the motions. Fry struck up a conversation with the worker who identified himself as Grugg and mentioned he was barely paid but mentioned the job had other benefits. Fry began searching the room with the giant statue fountain in it while Grugg left and eventually went into the barracks. While searching the fountain room Fry found that the grate in water outflow was a little loose. He managed to easily remove all the screws holding it in place and remove the grate. After removing the grate the receptionist opened the door behind him to notify Fry that the king was ready to see him now. While Fry was doing this Grugg and Kir struck up a conversation in the barracks. Grugg admitted he worked cheap because he would often “lose control” and sometimes kill people. Kir began to teach Grugg about the Lord of the Harvest and how the times he does this he is just following his will. During the conversation Grugg decided that rampaging was a good thing and since he hadn’t done it in awhile now was a good time. He roared and ran out of the barracks. Kir followed him. He ran into the receptionist and began beating her with his broom. A group of heavily padded guards came running up and in a manner indicating they had done this many times before piled on top of Grugg and managed to subdue him. The receptionist was alive but badly bruised from the beating she had taken and was quietly crying. Kir came up to her to comfort her and offered her the help of the Lord of the Harvest for her injuries. She accepted Kir’s help and he cast a poison spell on her. She immediately mentioned she felt weak and Kir laid her down on one of the barracks bed and she died shortly afterwards. Kir then dragged her body to the docks and tossed it into river with a blessing that the corpse would provide sustenance for the plants and fish in the river. Fry found Kir and Dave and told them the receptionist had told him it was finally time to meet the king. Kir put on his armor under his robes for his formal meeting with the king and then the entire group went into the throne room. The group entered the throne room through a door located behind the throne itself. The room was huge and everything in it was proportioned almost for a giant. The steps to the throne itself were about six feet high each. Following the prompting of the guards they went down to the bottom of the “steps” for the audience with the king standing in front of what the group presumed to be the main doors. The king turned out to be a gnome, and an especially small one even by gnome standards. Kir bowed as best he could to the king but before he could really say anything the main doors opened and a swarm of peasants armed with torches and pickforks stormed in lead by what appeared to be a blacksmith. Kir attempted to placate the mob saying “Friends, what is the meaning of this?”. The blacksmith stepped forward and said “Shut up! We’ll deal with you later. We’re here for the king right now. He’s the reason for all the problems we are having. He’s such a cheap jerk instead of hiring real adventurers he just sends out some random drunken losers like yourself he can find in the tavern”, The mob shouts in agreement. Kir replies “Friends, you have valid concerns about the methods of your king. I however am simply a wandering priest and happened to step in that tavern to stay out of the rain. I did not appreciate being sent on the quest in such a manner but did so since the danger was real. I tell you know that the threat is over and he curse has been broken”. “You talk fancy but that don’t matter none.” Dave, who hadn’t really understood the conversation but had been increasingly distracted by the kings shiny crown, yelled out “shiny!” and charged the king to take his crown. Some of the peasants took this opportunity to attack the king and also charged the king to kill him. The rest used their torches to set the papier mache walls of the castle on fire. Seeing Dave charging towards him the king started to dive out of his throne to escape out the back door but Kir, who had decided helping the peasants would best suit the will of his deity cast a spell on the king that paralyzed him so he couldn’t move. The kings guards blocked Dave from reaching the king and began fighting him. The blacksmith looked at surprise at Kir and said maybe he was wrong about Kir before leaving out the main doors. More peasants poured into the throne room yelling that the king needed to die. Fry moved off to one side and using his magic caused a flaming ball of fire to move over towards the king who of course couldn’t even attempt to move out of the way and was unable to summon the mental strength to overcome Kir’s spell. The throne room was quickly going up in flames as the fires originally started spread and new fires were being started by Fry’s magic and also from the torches being dropped by the peasants the guards were slaughtering. Dave managed to fight off a few guards by himself while Kir used his magic to weaken the enemies and especially focused on weakening the will of the king to lower the likelihood he would be able to overcome the paralyzation. Soon the fires spread enough that many of the peasants had perished in the flames and their bodies had blocked the main exit leaving only the back door the group had originally entered in as the only open exit. The guards lost their morale and ran out the back door. The king was still alive but continued to burn. Fry yelled that they needed to get out of there. He and Dave were conveniently near the back of the room by this point however Kir had remained at the bottom of the steps and while not on fire himself was surrounded on all sides by the flames. Kir calmly stepped into the center of the open space he was in as far from the fire as he could get on all sides and shouted to Fry and Dave to go on ahead and not worry as everything that would happen would be through the will of the Lord of the Harvest. Fry and Dave left through the back door and ran to the dock to take the boat while Kir used his magic to transport himself to the barracks room. At the dock the boat was missing and Fry saw one of the castle staff using it get away himself. Remembering the grate, Fry told Dave to get to the fountain room and they both started running there. They passed Kir who decided to follow them. The castle was quickly becoming engulfed by the raging inferno and Fry and Kir wasted no time in opening the grate. Dave meanwhile was distracted by a door in that room that was closed. Fry got the grate open and dived into water outlet but got stuck with his head down the outlet and his feet sticking out of the water. Despite being worried about going down a water pipe with his armor on but knowing there was no time, Kir jumped onto Fry pushing him down the outlet but got stuck himself. Dave meanwhile had opened the door and was about to explore the room he found when Kir yelled to Dave for help. Dave ran up and jumped down onto Kir, injuring him a bit, but pushing him down into the water outlet. Fearing Dave might get stuck too Kir grabbed Dave’s legs in order to pull him down if Dave got stuck too but there was no problem. Fry’s animal companion tried going into the pipe but it hit it’s head on the statue and briefly knocked itself out. It managed to come to enough to successfully dive down the pipe after the rest of the group. [OOC: we had a lot of unlucky rolls near the end] They found a safe zone in the pipe where they camped for the night. This next morning they went back into the pipe and were flushed down into a cavern and got stuck in the mud. Meanwhile three prisoners in the dungeon of the king were trapped in the castle inferno and fell into a nearby cavern. The prisoners were Gregory the dwarven wizard, Filegon the Elven rogue, and Buddy the human shaman. They soon found a large ant that had a magical rune imprinted on it. Gregory recognized it as a spell that controlled the body but not the mind of what it was imprinted on. Dodging the flaming debris they went towards the ant which they attacked. The ant seemed unaware as Buddy's axe glanced off it's armor and still didn't respond when Trevor hit it with a minor acid spell. Filegon drove his dagger directly into it's heart though killing it instantly. They then went down the corridor and around a corner where Kir, Dave, and Fry were stuck in the mud. Kir prayed to his deity who allowed Kir to simply walk out of the mud. Fry and his wolverine managed to force their way out while Dave struggled. Kir tried to use his scythe to help Dave out of the mud but Dave grabbed for the blade and cut his hand. Buddy was in front and so was the only one to see this happen and started laughing hard at the sight of Dave grabbing the blade and cutting himself. Filegon and Gregory were still around the corner and didn't see this so had no idea why Buddy started laughing. Kir went up to Buddy and introduced himself while Dave managed to work his own way out of the mud. While they were talking Filegon and Gregory came up and they all introduced each other. While this was happening Dave and Fry went up some nearby steps and found a room full of ants, all with body control runes on them. There was also a human in the room dressed as a wizard working with a magical device with his back to them. The ants were excavating what appeared to be the entrance to an underground temple the door of which was visible on the far side. Buddy looked up and happened to notice the wizard. He yelled out "Filthy Wizard!" and drew his greatsword. The wizard finally noticed the group and cast a magic missile that targeted the entire group damaging them a little bit. Some of the ants who looked a bit bigger then the others, quickly identified as warriors, came forward and took a defensive position between the group and the wizard. Fry summoned a bear near the wizard.  Kir, snuck up near one of the ants that continued to work and realizing it was unaware of him he simply touched it and it died. Buddy, who really hated wizards, went into a rage and charged past the defending ants and attacked the wizard. As he swung towards the wizard he lost his balance a little bit and hit the bear badly gouging it's back. The warrior ants attacked the bear bringing it almost to the point of death. Dave charged the wizard and struck him with a great blow. The wizard collapsed to his knees and a powerful force pushed everyone away. A sphere of light surrounded him while the armor he was wearing began to glow. As he did he started laughing in the exact same voice they heard from the high priest of zeus. Kir, Fry, and Gregory recognized the magic being used. The outer sphere would prevent anyone from getting close while the armor would reflect all spells. Fry summoned a dire wolf inside the sphere which was able to finish off the wizard. As the wizard died fry heard him whisper "run you fools" which he shouted out to everyone else. After the wizard died the runes on all the ants faded which plunged the room into darkness. All of the ants both worker and warrior began turning on the group. Dave, who could see in the dark attacked a nearby worker but fell into a nearby stream of water and was washed a short ways away. Gregory, who could also see the ants coming to attack turned himself invisible. Fry, who happened to be near the temple doors at this point, cast a light spell on them so he could see. Kir, cast a light spell on his holy symbol so he could see as well while his animated ant corpse went to attack it's previous comrades. Buddy and Dave began teaming up and swinging their massive weapons began slaying workers. The ants quickly surrounded and attacked the group which had gotten seperated from each other. Filegon became badly wounded and Kir was hurt somewhat too. Gregory summoned an ice storm near Filegon being careful not to hit him. The ants near Filegon were easily crushed. Fry escaped through the temple doors. Kir trying to move away from the swarm of ants near him accidentally wandered into the ice storm and was hurt even more but still managed to use his power to weaken the ants while empowering his comrades. Empowered by Kir and with the ants weakened Buddy clotheslined two ants knocking them into the stream where they washed down to Dave who quickly dispatched them [OOC: DM allowed Buddy to do a bullrush against two opponents at once with penalty]. The ants rallied a little and destroyed Kir's ant corpse and also managed to kill off Fry's badly wounded bear. The ant queen also began to join the battle as she came in and attacked Buddy who shrugged off her attacks. Dave had to get himself out of the water and make his way back to the fight. Gregory took out most of the workers with a well placed fireball spell as Filegon sniped a worker with his bow that was threatening Gregory. Kir animated the body of the bear while Buddy took out a few more workers. The few ants that remained, including the queen, did what damage they could to the group but it was minimal. Dave charged up and in one valiant swing sliced the queen from top to bottom. Buddy finished off the remaining couple of workers and the battle was over. After the battle ended a beam of light shown down in the room they were in and a voice could be heard saying "The den is cleansed". Kir animated the corpse of the ant queen along with one of her workers. Unable to animate any more corpses he began to pray to the Lord of the Harvest. While he was praying a portal opened and all of the dead bodies in the room were sucked into it. A voice came through the portal saying "This harvest offering is accepted". The portal closed and where it used to be a vial of liquid remained. Kir recognized it as a holy potion granted by the Lord of the Harvest only to his most faithful and devout followers. With thanks he drank the potion which increased his power. With his new power, Kir killed one of the remaining dire wolves Fry had summoned earlier and animated it's corpse as well. Searching the room Kir also found the robes worn by the wizard. With a little study he recognized them as an artifact that causes beings that manage to do damage directly to be teleported a short distance away. The color of the robes did not match that of those worn by his order (either black or brown) so Kir did not wear them but did keep them for later. Because the group was so tired they camped for the day outside the temple. The next day the group split up with Kir, Buddy, and Dave exploring the temple, Gregory maintaining the camp, while Fry went back through the cavern with his animal companion to see if there was another way out. Upon entering the temple Kir's zombified ants collapsed and Kir was unable to animate them again. They entered a short hallway with a glowing field blocking the way forward and a dead body lying down near it. Kir recognized quickly that the body was too damaged to animate. Dave picked up the body and searched through it while Kir examined the field. Kir managed to recognize this as a spell that attacks the mind. The smarter a being is the more damage the does when crossed. With silent agreement Kir and Buddy sent Dave through the field who was hurt a little by it but easily shrugged it off. Dave had picked up the body and was still carrying it which wasn't affected any more by the field. On the other side of the field out where Kir and Buddy couldn't easily see Dave found some sort of mechanism. It had a pole sticking out of it pointing up with two symbols on the up side and three symbols on the down side, Dave couldn't figure out what to do so he decided to smash the corpse he was carrying around. While this had been going on with the main group, another group of individuals Xin the human druid, Ranger Jack the elven ranger, and Han the dwarven paladin woke up in jail cells. They didn't know each other and each of them had been relaxing in a village when they were attacked without warning and incapacitated. They all woke up in seperate cells from each other with no clue as to where they were or why there were there. For some reason they had all of their equipment and weapons on them and the only thing missing was Xin's animal companion, a crocodile. Investigating the bars they quickly realized they were very weak. Using a crowbar he had Ranger Jack bent open the crowbars on his cell without hardly any effort. Xin, who had been planning on using his magic to get out decided to just try using his bare hands once he saw how easily Ranger Jack escaped and he also managed to bend the bars with his bare hands. Ranger Jack attempted to free Han with his crowbar but he accidentally got the crowbar stuck in the bars somehow. Han just used his bare hands and bent open the bars. The crowbar fell down onto the ground and Xin picked it up. There was only one door so Ranger Jack opened it. The door opened to the room where Dave was and he happened to open it right as Dave was trying to smash the mechanism with the corpse. Seeing this strange sight he quickly closed the door and backed away. Xin asked what was going on and Ranger Jack described as best he could that he saw "big dumb looking giant smashing a body against something". Kir, realizing that Dave was trying to turn off some sort of mechanism but unable to see what it was from beyond the field suggested that Kir just try breaking it. Dave took his axe and smashed the mechanism, the magical field went off allowing Kir and Buddy to join Dave. Hearing the crash Han and Xin came through the door ready for a fight but seeing Kir, Buddy, and Dave near the smashed mechanism they didn't immediately attack. Ranger Jack remained in the room with the jail cells but listened in through the door. All the characters introduced themselves to each other and agreed to work together to escape this place they were in. Because they were both druids Dave thought Xin was Fry however. From the room they were in with the damaged mechanism there were three places to go that neither group had been in, a door that was closed and two corridors going in opposite directions. Kir, Xin, and Dave opened the door and entered a room with a large sigil in the center and crates piled around the walls. Kir mistook the sigil for a death spell that would kill anyone that entered the room. Dave saw the sigil and mistook it for a free beer sign. He rushed in and was disappointed when no beer magically appeared. Xin also went in and started searching the crates. Seeing Xin and Dave not immediately die Kir took a closer look at the sigil and realized he had made a simple mistake and this was really one-way sigil of teleportation [OOC: Kir critically failed his spellcraft roll but DM allowed reroll next turn]. Somewhere in the world there was a corresponding sigil that would teleport anything to this one however it was one-way and could not be used to escape. While doing this Han went down one of the corridors. The entire complex was well lit with torches but as he went around a corner he thought he saw a beautiful dwarf woman going around a further corner. [OOC: Han had critically failed a spot check] He shouted "check out the hot stuff" and began running after her. Dave and Buddy rushed down the same corridor Han did, Kir decided to go down the other corridor. Ranger Jack went back into the room with the cells and took some time to secure his gear better and camouflage himself. Kir found a room full of beds that were enchanted to immediately heal and restore all magic in a matter of seconds. Han, still trying to catch the "dwarven hot stuff" continued around the corridors which looped around to the other side where Kir was. Han asked Kir if he "had seen a hot dwarf chick running by". Kir gravely replied he had not seen any dwarves "hot or otherwise" except for Han. Han decided to go back the way he had come and check out a door he had passed thinking maybe the dwarf chick had gone in there. Dave and Buddy meanwhile had opened a door close the corner where Han had first seen the "dwarven hot stuff". In it they found a room with a large pit full of countless skeletons. They called out to Kir to come and check out what they had found. Xin meanwhile had finished searching the storeroom and finding some food stocked up a bit. Hearing the shout for Kir to come he followed Kir as he went by to "the skeleton room". Ranger Jack, seeing everyone apparently going the same direction carefully snuck down the corridor Kir had originally gone down and was not noticed by anyone. As he went by he did extinguish the torches down this corridor to avoid being seen and Kir did not the corridor seemed darker but he didn't think much of it. After showing the skeleton room to Kir, Dave and Buddy went around the corner and down the corridor finding a door to what turned out to be "the spear room". In it were countless numbers of spears hanging up on racks in it. Dave immediately grabbed at a spear but as soon as he pulled it away the spear returned back to it's place on the rack. Thinking he had just missed he kept trying. Buddy tried to grab a spear too but as soon as it vanished from his hand and reappeared on the wall he figured there was no point and left. Kir began preparing the skeleton room to his deity [OOC: he cast desecrate]. Han opened the last door he passed before encountering Kir and found "the armor room". It was a large room full of countless numbers of full plate armor. Xin decided to go look for his animal companion when he heard a strange noise appear back in storage room where the sigil was. Rushing back to that room he found his crocodile companion in the middle of the sigil apparently just teleported in through it looking very confused. Kir finished preparing the skeleton room and began animating as many skeletons as he could. Dave became frustrated that he couldn't grab one of the spears and began attempting to sweep them up in his arms with no change. Eventually he realized he just wasn't going to be able to take them and followed Buddy away the the spear room. At this point Kir had animated 16 skeletons who without Kir's direction automatically marched down the corridor to the spear room where they each took a spear, then down to the armor room where they each donned a set of plate armor, then back to Kir standing at attention. Xin saw the skeletons going by and was concerned at first but then when they stopped in front of Kir and appeared to obey him he understood they were under Kir's control. Buddy, Dave, and Han all met together at the far end of the corridor where the last two doors no one had investigated yet were. Comparing notes they realized everyone had searched everywhere except for the last two doors they were at now. They opened one of the doors and entered. As they entered the door slammed shut behind them with no obvious way to open it. Inside was a giant mural that Buddy recognized as showing the war between Zeus and the holy gods against Cronus and the evil titans. Unknown to everyone else the sigil in the storage room activated and Slugfigberg, the dwarven berserker, [OOC: Slugfigberg is a ranger/barbarian] teleported in with no clue as to how he got there. Seeing he was trapped Dave started to panic and smashed his axe against the concrete door. With a resounding crash he destroyed the door completely bringing down part of the wall with it [OOC: natural 20 on strength check] that was heard everywhere through the temple complex and even outside. Hearing the noise Jonathon rushed into the temple and seeing Xin and Slugfigberg, followed them to where Dave, Buddy, and Han were. Kir with his army came as quickly as he could to where the crash was too. Seeing the destruction and Dave in the middle of it Kir just quietly just mumbled "oh it's dave again..." to himself. Checking out the mural he recognized it as depicting a war between the false gods the people in this area worshipped. By this point the group was all together except for Ranger Jack who was continuing to stay in the shadows and out of sight but did see the now large group all together. They opened the last door and in it found a large lift controlled by a hand winch. They all went in and winched themselves down, Ranger Jack climbed down afterwards so the group wouldn't see him. At the bottom they saw three ghosts, one in the garb of a warrior, the other a wizard, the last a cleric. Kir came forward and introduced himself. The ghosts explained that they had been fighting someone in the next room who had been attempting to release the titans. The ghosts had been unable to defeat this person by himself and if the group agreed to help they would reward them. Everyone agreed and the wizard ghost offered his bag open. Everyone reached in and pulled out a magical artifact that greatly benefitted them. The only person to not do so was Ranger Jack who continued to hide in the shadows still unseen by anyone. The ghosts then melted through the walls into the next room. The group opened the door and followed after. The next room was very large with another sigil in the center. In the middle was young man that looked kind of like a librarian but he was laughing maniacally in the same voice heard from the High Priest of Zeus and the wizard they fought outside the temple. The room was almost empty except for a few pillars and what appeared to be four museum display cases situated around the room. As everyone took up positions hordes of kobolds poured out of the cases. Ranger Jack remained outside the room in the dark. Kir immediately called upon the favor of the Lord of the Harvest [OOC: he cast prayer and hit everything in the room, Ranger Jack was not affected because he was out of range]. The battle started with Jonathon casting his ice storm spell to wipe out one of the groups of kobolds and also hit "the bad guy". Kir tried to use his skeletons to keep the kobolds busy though they did take out a few. Xin used his magic to summon another crocodile while his animal companion croc ate a kobold. Ranger jack used his bow to quickly snipe kobolds from the shadows. The bad guy cast a spell that wiped out some of the kobolds but also damaged some of the players. Buddy, Dave, and Slugfigberg rushed up to attack the wizard directly and did some damage. Kir accidentally got surrounded and tried attacking with his scythe directly but kept missing horribly. He had his skeletons try to protect him but they only got rid of some of them. Ranger Jack began shooting at the bad guy directly and hit him with an arrow. Xin summoned lightning that killed off kobolds while his two crocodiles continued to munch kobolds like they were popcorn. The cleric ghost did some minor healing while the other two tried to help hold off the kobolds. Some orcs began to appear out of the cases, one group Jonathon wiped out with a properly placed fireball that also hit the bad guy. The bad guy in his madness summoned a cottage around him, Buddy, Dave, and Slugfigberg. The wizard ghost, Han and Xin managed to hold off the group of kobolds and orcs in their area but Kir, who was alone except for his skeleton horde, got stuck between the enemies and his skeletons. Despite the armor Kir was wearing, the kobolds and orcs got in some good hits that it looked like he was about to collapse but it wasn't as bad as it looked and was still in fighting condition despite his wounds [OOC: originally we thought Kir was down to -2HP after the kobolds and orcs attacked however we had forgotten to take the prayer modifiers into account and he ended up at 2HP after the recalculation]. The cleric ghost put a magic shield around Kir that made him immune to damage but also prevented him from doing anything else. Seeing that Kir was no longer able to hold the Kobolds in that section of the room anymore and that Kir was protected Jonathon summoned another ice storm that wiped out half the skeletons but eliminated all the kobolds and orcs in that part of the room as well. Focusing on the bad guy Slugfigberg, Buddy, and Dave managed to finally finish him off. As he died a glowing portal appeared where he used to be. Because they were the only ones in the cottage where the bad guy died, Slugfigberg, Buddy and Dave were the only ones to see the portal. Everyone else just saw that the portal started glowing. After the remaining kobolds and orcs were killed the ghosts, their duty complete, faded away. Dave tried attacking the portal and kept vanishing through it and apparently coming back through in his confusion. Buddy showed him how he could just step through. The protection spell around Kir vanished and Ranger Jack, who had been rather successfully sniping enemies all battle finally came out of the shadows to introduce himself for once. Han and Xin had completely forgotten about him and no one else had met him by this point. Everyone else went through the portal while Kir remained behind with the massive pile of dead kobolds and orcs.



This story is concluded