| Session Date | January 16, 2021 |
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| Base XP Gained | 2409 |
| Player Notes | ZZ's Notes |
Having discovered the sortie port into Castle Solen, the party decided that it would be wiser to enter at nightfall, when there would hopefully be less activity. So, they slipped back to their temporary camp in a small woodland to the east to await darkness. They did this and returned without incident. As the sortie port door radiated magic (according to Knar's wand), they opted to us a dispel magic which worked. The door opened to a long, straight passageway running due west towards the castle some few hundred yards beyond a nearby ridgeline. After 300 yards or so, it dead-ended into an easily located secret door. That opened into a large room filled with zombies, most easily destroyed by Knar and Mordecai.
With magical silence on a coin, the party checked a door to the north. After many, many tries, it opened into an irregular-shaped crypt of some sort; the party merely shut and spiked that door. To the south, a door opened to a thirty-foot passage ending in another door. This one, too, they spiked shut without exploring. This done, the party stepped off into a passageway running west...and promptly Thunderfist and Floi fell into a pit trap. The two Dwarves were fished out of the pit and the party continued through a door, coming to a junction of ways. Iban now used clairvoyance to look behind a few doors. To the north he saw a dimly lit temple of some sort. West was darkness, but he could make out what appeared to be a torture chamber. Looking towards the southwest he could see nothing. The party moved south a sort distance into an open and empty area. Though their were passages out of here to west and east, they decided to check the temple first, hoping to take the red-robed priest they'd fought at unawares.
The temple proved to be exactly that, a temple of the vile Roshim, a greater god, known as the Lord of Evil and Nightmares. The temple was dimly lit by hanging green lamps. A 13' tall statue of the evil god stood at the northern end, his eyes glinting red with large gems; before that was a blood-0stained altar of malachite. There was a door tot he east which the party popped open, revealing the quarters of the red priest himself. The priest responded rapidly to the intrusion, calling down a pillar of flame atop the front half of the party (two of the dwarves and both elves). But, the party rallied and rushed the priest. The red-robe fought tenaciously but futilely, at one point drinking a potion in an attempt to gain mental control of some in the party. As the priest fell, cursing impotently, the party began to plunder the room until another door opened and a Clay Golem rushed in. It proved as devastating as the priest, nearly crushing Knar and hurting ZZ, as well. But it, too, fell before the party at last. (Knar took some clay from it, a nice souvenir from his near-death encounter).
The party proceeded with their plundering. A chest radiated magic so Mordecai tried to dispel it, in case of traps. He failed, but Amadin was subsequently successful. The chest contained a goodly sum of treasure. Unfortunately, the two wounded now spellcasters realized that the wounds from the Clay Golem proved to be uncurable with their clerical magic or healing potions. With Knar in particularly bad shape, the party decided to take the body of the priest and retreat from the dungeon. This they did in good order, and a few hours later, found themselves back int heir temporary woodland camp. Over the night, Iban used his crystal ball to scry the priest's chamber, and saw Lord Solen there with some guards, clearly very angry!
The party now decided to return to Manston to seek healing for the two hurt by the Golem. They rode overland and crossed the Durn Flow by swimming the same place they'd crossed previously. Taking the same track north, they rode on into the morning. A few miles on, they overtook an old man in grey leading a mule. The party and old man exchanged greetings and entered into a conversation. The old man was a mere tinker, he said, traveling the land to sell his odds and ends. The party was apparently suspicious of a lone traveler on this backward track, so Iban tried to ESP him. It did not work, though the old man winked at him. ZZ then asked him what he had for sale. Most of it seemed to be pure junk of a low sort, though he did have some "brass buttons once belonging to the Emperor Haldir II." ZZ bought them, paying much more than was asked (5 SP instead of 2 SP). This seemed to please the old man, who grabbed ZZ's arm to thank him. Knar, who was invisible, then asked if he had any healing magic for sale. The old man was completely unfazed by this, and seemed fully aware of Knar's presence. Indeed he did have such a potion! He sold a potion to the magic-user who found that, not only did it heal some of the Golem damage, it seemed to dispel the overall prevention of healing. Indeed, the same seem to have happened to ZZ from the old man's touch. They asked his name and he laughed a bit, saying they could call him Dem. He did not, alas, have a gem of seeing for them. Indeed, now that their little healing issue was fixed, he seemed to hint that the party ought to return to what they'd been doing to get one. The old man toddled off afoot to the north and the party turned back south.
Before they had gone too far, though, they decided to question the dead priest using the Spirit Vessel. ZZ took it out and filled it up to ask his four questions. Where in the Castle did Solen keep the gem? (its not in the castle). Where does he keep the gem? (In a cabinet..clearly the dead priest was not going to be helpful). What was the route to the cabinet from the sortie port and zombie room? (North or South, the same). Does the norther route go through the crypt? (It can). Apparently, all this activity had over-stimulated ZZ. From out of some hidden pocket in his jester suit he pulled out the Deck of Many Things and began pulling cards. The first revealed was the Fates (avoid any situation once). The second was the Talons (all magic ripped from the character -- NOTE: I screwed this up a bit; all magic should mean ALL magic, including the deck itself, since it was essentially ZZ's possession. Alas). The third was the Balance (turning ZZ from CG to LE). This was then followed by the Key (which gained him a treasure map and a magic sword). Looking at the net result of this, evil ZZ realized that,not only had he lost all of his magical property to include the powerful Jester Suit of Chaos, but that he would be cast off by the god Dumathoin and be forced to supplicate a new god; this process would certainly cost him a good deal of his own personal power. So, in an act of pure selfishness (in keeping with being LE) he used the avoid any situation to undo the entire experience. Restored as the old ZZ, complete with all his gear, the gods of chaos were pleased at all this sound and fury, signifying nothing. The Deck was back in the same mysterious pocket it had been in for some time, ready for the next foolish mortal to play with it. (FYI, we worked this out by email after we ended the other night).
Back on track, more or less, the party prepared to return to Castle Solen and their quest to retrieve (now, really to steal) the gem of seeing, the existence of which was apparently confirmed by the dead priest of Roshim.