Towers and Thralls

[jedipotter]

Each of the driders lowers their resistance an lets themselves be charmed.



As the group approaches the hardened mushroom doorway.........they see a dwarf ghost, now with a massive ghostly battle axe, blocking the doorway.

[Tjallen]

"Greetings Master Guidestone. I am not very pleased with the defenses in place. We will be taking the gem with us back to the headquarters." seemingly noticing the battleaxe for the first time he continues: "Is something the matter?"

Mentally groaning Eliphas sends out a short message Be on guard, I might not be able to talk us out of this one.

[jedipotter]

Dunagan Guidestone's face flickers several times.

"Take the Eye away to a safe place? It has been safe right here. Few found there way this far, and none who entered this place ever left. It was safe here. Though you and your group have more magic then I have seen in a long year. Your gnome friends shoot magic from their hands, the like I have never seen.

But still what place is safer then here?''

[Tjallen]

"I am afraid that the ease with which we have taken hold of the Eye reflects badly upon the original plan of keeping it here. I do not yet know where a safe place would be, therefor I will return with my associates to our headquarters and get it sorted out. Magic seems to flow strongly nowadays, many powerful mages and warriors are rising up, not all of them are working towards a brighter future I am afraid. We found this place, albeit with help, so it is no longer safe. As for the magic they wield it is not entirely agreed upon where it comes from, some claim to get it from the Fey, while others have been known to acquire it from outsiders. both from the lower and upper planes. I know not what is true, what I know is that they, as we all do, serve the greater good. Also the driders have been bound to my will, they will make a good layer of protection for where ever the eye will be placed, since the wards will no longer be needed we are going to remove them. For now Master Guidestone all I can give you is my word that I will do everything in my power to keep the Eye out of the wrong hands, that all of us will.

[jedipotter]

Dunagan Guidestone flickers several times and then fades away.

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How many ranks you got in Bluff, 100? Lol......

[Tjallen]

Okay people, lets blow up this ward, I doubt we have what it takes to simply dispel or suppress it. These kind of things usually work by the lines being unbroken, see if you can fix that. I will meditate for a while and get in the right state of mind to break them. Eliphas then sits down to meditate, drawing forth his martial training.

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As I looked over my sheet I found the horrifying truth to be none...
I do seem to be able to lie without actually telling a lie. A shame he 'only' has 18 int... Never enough skillpoints.

[jedipotter]

Iziaslava I doubt we can dispel wards that lasted centuries. But we should have no trouble simply destroying the physical rock the wards are on. It is barbaric, but it works.

[Tjallen]

Seems like my martial training will be good for something at last. A shame it's not very... useful beyond that. As he finishes his meditation he picks up one of the swords, and swings it at the runes, making sure to break as many lines as possible. While taking a short while to breathe and recover his focus, he looks at his handywork, trying to guess how long it will take to completely break the runes.

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Mountain hammer with one of the swords to ignore dr/hardness, then taking a moment to recover the maneuver. Then rinse and repeat until the runes is a thing of the past.

[jedipotter]

The utter destruction of a single sigil is all it takes. Your single sword blow is enough. Like a blown out candle, the sigils stop glowing. The driders now pass freely.

[Tjallen]

Addressing the driders Eliphas tries to make sure no violence comes of this: Now that that is done with, I will be releasing you from the charm, those of you that wish to join me can follow, and we will make sure you are lodged in a home suitable to your individual taste, the ones who do not wish to join I will grant this one and only chance to leave alive. You helped get the eye and as so you have earned your freedom. as he finishes Eliphas lifts the magic from the driders.

[jedipotter]

Two of the driders split off and leave, the other three wish to stay.

[Tjallen]

With that out of the way we have a somewhat time consuming journey ahead of us. We might have to avoid the major roads as traveling with Driders no doubt upset any and all elves we could encounter. But let's not waste any more time, I cannot wait to see how far the army has gotten. And of course to claim the eye for my own. Rengis then starts to lead the way back towards the headquarters.

[jedipotter]

You back track through the Underdark, slipping past the basilisks again, then up to the surface. The two bears and the fey are a bit surprised to see you, but don't overly care.

Then it is just a couple days travel out of the mountains, and another couple of days travel over the grasslands back to the army camp.

[Tjallen]

Iziaslava, please let the rest of the spellcasters and the warchief know that we are here. I require a report of anything important that has been going on before I start to attune to the eye. Also we need to find the driders a place to stay.

[jedipotter]

Iziaslava nods and casts her message spell.


The army looks to be in good shape. They are set and organized. You watch from a distance as several dozen troops drill.

The Tower of Ice is easy enough to spot. Pure white as it is, it reflects the sunlight.

[Tjallen]

The tower is our destination. I wil take the report in there, after that the attunement can begin. Eliphas then starts leading to the group towards the ice tower, a smirk obvious on his face; this has been a good couple of weeks.

[jedipotter]

The tower of ice is just as you remember.

Bukhval has the report ready.

Zakiya of Auril greets you with Vorn at her side. You notice Vorn is wearing Icerazor on his belt.

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What were you looking for in the report?

[Tjallen]

Greetings, I take it no real problems have arisen while I was away? Also I will be starting the bonding with the Eye tonight after a sacrifice, which I hope you can supply. If not, one of the nameless will have to do. Eliphas looks at them in turn, raising an eyebrow slightly at seeing Icerazor at Vorn's side. Remembering the Driders he continue, this time in his raspy voice: "Also the Driders will require a place to stay, find them one and suitable positions in the organization."

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The progress of the religious conversion of the Hobgoblins, anything noteworthy happening, such as Icerazor changing hands.

[jedipotter]

Bukhval "Vorn made a formal challenge to Bruntorak. The two fought, and it was a good long fight. And Vorn won. He did spare Bruntorak. And now Bruntorak is quite an avid follower of both Auril and Vorn.


Almost half of the tribe now worships Auril. We even converted half of their shamans. The hobgoblin faiths remain strong, but they don't interfere with the worship of Auril.

There have been no problems.

We have a small pool of sacrifice victims. "

Zakiya of Auril "I have a special sacrifice just for you, a cleric of Torm."

Iziaslava "The driders like it underground, so we have started building a home cave for them."

[Tjallen]

"Perfect, I did not expect things to go over that smoothly. You have all done very wwll. I trust there will be no problems in Vorn and one of the mages acting as guardians along with my own small group while I attune to the eye? Also I would like for the sacrifice to be ready in two hours. as he looks around he conveys a feeling of satisfication.

[jedipotter]

Zakiya of Auril "No problem, we can have everything ready."

[Tjallen]

"Good. Till then I will be meditating." Eliphas says in his raspy voice before finding a quiet spot to meditate in, silently asking the Ice Queen for guidance, having accomplished more in a few weeks than most do in a lifetime.

[jedipotter]

The topmost floor of the tower of ice is a quiet room for prayer and meditation. The room is quite cold, naturally.

[Tjallen]

Sitting down to meditate Eliphas casually sets his retinue to guard the entrance: We will be here until the sacrifice is ready, perhaps the Goddess has something she wishes me to do.

[jedipotter]

Experience!

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20,000! Experience Points

[Tjallen]

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That would bump me up about two levels, so... cool! It will take some time to level up Eliphas and Rengis, not too long tough... I hope.

[jedipotter]

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I did mean to post that a lot sooner. I've just been adding it up on the side. Every couple of days. And then I added in the childbrin and was like 'woah' .....

But it does fit that after the long adventure a character gets experience....

Eh, just do an easy level bump...take two levels of commoner :)

[Tjallen]

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Commoner DOES sound pretty sweet. But alas it is too powerful. More thralls sounds nice. I will try to level asap. Wow... I now have the pleasure of 25 level 1's, 2 level 2's and 1 level 3's... Nice.
If I pick up psychic reformation and use it, can I speed up retraining of levels, Turns out, warblade really does not do much for Eliphas and he is wishing he put his time to better use, more specifically factotum levels.

[jedipotter]

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Well Warblade did help destroy that sigil.... And warblade would sure be useful in a single melee fight. For example, it would have been helpful vs the childbrin, if you did not have all the blaster support.

[Tjallen]

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Indeed, but now I can get a 3rd level warblade for the mountain hammer, and factotum gives me more skillpoints and has much better synergy. I somehow thought that I would be able to tough it out with my 7 strength, I was very wrong.