The guise of Vecna Stone Golem went on a rampage moving over Mara, Pretis and Lythandar, slamming each as it moved past. Of course a few Opportunity Attacks were given to the various party members also. Demin shot off crossbow bolts and Melisana created an area where the Golem had reduced attack, defense and saves abilities. Gofin used ranged affects with little to show as the party discovered that the Golem's defenses were very effective. Alhellara's use of radiant damage didn't seem to cause any additional damage but blinding the Golem helped somewhat. Demin slowed the creature and Pretis charged and dazed the Golem. Mara assumed the form of mountain thunder and Lythandar kept casting fire affects at both the Golem and Mara.
Since the standard had been planted and with Lythandar's negatives for hitting allies the fire wasn't damaging Mara but only the Golem, at least for a while. The guise of Vecna monster then attacked with slam and Touch of the Grave against Mara and Pretis, followed by an action point and another set of attacks against both. Mara and Pretis were bloodied followed eventually by the Golem being bloodied. The battle raged on as this monster seemed very powerful, he moved up towards Demin and Alhellara and when he was blasted again the creature exploded hitting everyone in the party, although Alhellara and Lythandar used teleports to move away. Demin was hit by a critical blast and hit the floor along with Pretis.
But the encounter was complete and Alhellara used Battle Surge to give everyone a healing surge worth of recovery. Healing was still needed by most of the party and they took a short rest. Opening the door exposed a 20' by 20' room that was full of dust, much to the groups disappointment. Discussion ensued about where to head next. The options were one door in the original entry foyer, or the room beyond the airlock. Given that they had seen many creature beyond the airlock the group proceeded to the door leading off the foyer.
Mara found the door untrapped but locked. Demin remedied the lock and the group entered another Supplication Chamber filled with alchemical equipment. Another door led off of this chamber and Demin evinced another hidden door leading south. Opening the obvious door required another lock pick from Demin. Inside was a Knowledge Vault, although the cabinets here were larger than previous versions of this type of room. Lythandar determined that magic existed in the cabinets and Melisana opened the first one revealing a 1 foot diameter sphere of utter blackness. Since evil emanated from this item she moved to the next cabinet where she found full body heavy leather body suit. It had bone buttons to close the front, the suit covered the entire body including the head. Trailing from the rear was a organic looking tube, about 10' long, ending in a needle-sharp metal spike. Using good judgement Melisana also left this item alone.
The third cabinet held a flesh golem, wearing a hard seal over its head, torso and arms. Lythandar decoded the text to read "Break in Case of Emergency." Some discussion ensued around how to control a Golem. Demin being bored by the discussion decided to pick up the utter black sphere. As he touched the sphere which immediately merged into his skin. Demin fell on the floor writhing in agony as the sphere moved around under his skin, distorting torso, limbs, and face. The party quickly moved to Demin's aid but none wanted to touch him. Mara tried to hack at the ball using her sword and successfully imparted damage to Demin. Alhellara and Melisana put their heads together and decided that a Remove Affliction Ritual may be able to remove the ball from Demin. As Melisana aided her Alhellara cast the ritual which was successful and Demin stopped writhing in pain as the sphere left his body. Lythandar used his mage hand to return the ball to its cabinet.
Returning to the concealed door the party found a short passage that led to the Disciples quarters, apparently they had missed the door on the way through that area. Now the discussion turned to the shiny alloyed double doors leading off the the foyer to the west. These showed engravings of Vecna and two creatures flanking him that had resemblance to an eye and a hand. Lythandar used the mage hand to open the doors, which pulled into the room. Behind the doors was a stone wall, Pretis moved up and put her hand on the wall. It seemed to be a solid wall of stone. The relics of Vecna were distributed so that each party member had at least one relic. The discussion centered around what "incorporated into his or her body" meant. Pretis surmised that maybe just sticking the finger bone into ones finger meant incorporated, others just want to hold the item. Lythandar touched the molar to his own molar but he still saw a stone wall.
Next the group tried touching the wall all together, holding their individual relics, but all felt and saw the stone wall ahead of them. Melisana did not want to use the phrase from the Compendium Maleficarum herself, not wishing to be the only one in the inner temple. Pretis then said the phrase, "May Vecna reign over all; life, death, and everything in between will call him master!". Suddenly the wall disappeared from Pretis' view and she saw a large room. Plates of mirror bright metal tiled the walls, floor and ceiling, all heavily graven with relief sculpture. A crystal eye-shaped lantern hung down from the center of the ceiling, its blazing yellow light highlighting the pile of carrion filling the chamber in ghastly detail. Pretis also viewed several skeletons, zombies and ghouls wandering the chamber. On the far wall was another set of doors and the room extended north and south. A font was set to her right.
The rest of the group saw Pretis' eyes roving around but they only saw a stone wall still. Pretis indicated that she could see the room and described its contents. She then moved into the room and the party saw her disappear into the stone wall. A hand was thrust back to the party and Mara grabbed it, Pretis attempted to pull her through but as soon as Mara's hand hit the wall it stopped. Reluctantly Pretis rejoined the party.
With disgust the hearty adventurers determined that they must REALLY INCORPORATE the relic. Melisana asked Demin to cut off her third finger and she then put the third finger of Vecna next to the wound. It immediately started to graft itself onto Melisana's hand and in 30 minutes or so it had turned flesh colored and Melisana could use it effectively. More importantly she now saw into the inner temple area. She did not feel compelled to the dark side but was still wary of the effect. Discussion continued and the party decided that trying the heart or skin was probably a bad idea. Gofin settled on the index finger of Vecna, Demin on the middle finger, Lythandar the molar, Mara the foot and Alhellara lastly the incisors. After taking damage from the removal of their own body part, the items grafted into each member. Now all could see into the Atrium area beyond the doors.
Scorecard: Each member gained 457 XP for the battle with the guise of Vecna Golem. In addition they received 500 XP for incorporating the Vecnian relic, or in Pretis case for reciting the Vecnian phrase. They now stand at 42,384 XP and need 4616 more to reach 14th level. Each party member with a Relic also received a "boon" from Vecna. These are individual and are a new house ruled item on the character sheet.
No comments:
Post a Comment