Nineteenth session - 10 October 2003 - Ghost in the Palace

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All six players in attendance:

As he prepares to leave the grand council meeting, King Thor of Shima pulls Dhersion aside and asks for help. It seems his palace in the city of Meli may be under the influence of a Slaad - much like the situation back in Paco. He does not have (or at least does not offer) many details, but his concern seems genuine and the party agrees to follow him to investigate it. Since Meli is on the river they planned to travel down anyway, it seems the obvious decision.

On the morning of May 23rd, the group joins King Thor on his barge down the river. The trip takes most of the day and, aside from some unpleasant weather, is uneventful. During a brief nap, Roderick has another glimpse of destiny.

When they arrive in Meli, the palace guards greet the king at the docks and inform him that they have abandoned the palace. The Slaad that the party was expecting seems, instead, to be a ghost. And, with three guardsmen killed in very messy fashion, the palace was thought to be unsafe.

The party decides to enter the palace immediately. Once at the gates, though, Kesi's staff begins to glow - indicating that there is chaos present. If this is a ghost (which Roderick insists do not exist), it is clearly a chaotic ghost!

Inside the palace, Kesi's staff glows erratically - in a way she hasn't seen before. The party explores the vast building from the top down, moving swiftly in and out of rooms. They discover some of the rooms have had furniture moved around in strange ways, but other rooms have been left untouched. On two separate occasions, Kesi's staff flares to full intensity and Bigby's See Invisibility spell spots a creature in the room. However, in both cases, the party is unable to do anything to the creature and it “vanishes” abruptly (once even seeming to sink through the floor!)

After nearly an hour, the vast palace has been searched from the top to the ground floor. The only remaining areas are the food storage cellars and dungeon. The dungeon is a small group of cells, probably only used for short duration stays for select prisoners. However, when the group reaches the door, a foul odor reaches up from below. Something is clearly wrong here!

Once down, they see that seven of the eleven cell doors have been torn from their frames - one on the left side of the hall from the inside and all six on the right side from the outside. In the left side cells, a huge trench cuts a swath across all but one of the cells - as if the ground had been torn from below. Amazingly, the one, intact cell still has a prisoner: A young man (probably still a teenager) who is lying near death, as he has had no food or water for at least two days.

While Roderick tends to the comatose prisoner, the rest of the party begin searching the prison cells and the trench. The cells contain evidence of recent prisoners (but only in the form of blood splatters). The trench is piled with muck and garbage - apparently scavenged from other parts of the palace. But the biggest surprise is the two giant garbage monsters (Otyughs) lying in the waste. After a volly of arrows, the beasts are destroyed and, since Kesi's staff seems to glow a little brighter down here, the party decides to explore further into the trench.

To the right, the trench opens up into some sort of cavern. To the left, it drops steeply into darkness. Because of the slippery garbage and the steep grade, the cavern is deemed the “safer” route. Aramil is sent in and has to move an Otyugh carcass out of the way to make a path. However, the real problem he faces is the five carrion crawlers lurking in the cavern. The party presses in behind Aramil and, after a short fight, four of the creatures are slain and the fifth makes its escape through an exit tunnel (that also drops steeply down).

With the only options to be go back or down, the party decides to send Kesi down the tunnel on a rope. She finds herself in a huge cavern, perhaps 100 feet across, and briefly witnesses an Umber Hulk munching on the last Carrion Crawler (whose escape from danger apparently didn't last long).

Kesi is quickly pulled back up the tunnel, but the Hulk scrambles deftly up the stone and attacks the party in the upper cavern. Despite its magical confusion gaze and enormous strength, the group manages to defeat the beast. However, a second one follows by burrowing directly through the stone. Vincent is the most to suffer from the confusion and finds himself ferociously attacking comrades. Bigby is forced to cast Hold Person on him to keep him from causing additional damage.

Vincent's paralysis turns into an unlucky break when, after the second beast is finally killed, a magical opening appears in the wall directly behind Roderick and a great, blue-colored Slaad steps into the room and snatches the surprised cleric. Vincent, being the only person near enough to do anything about it, and (because of his frog totem) certainly the person most able to do something about it, is forced to watch helplessly as Roderick is dragged back into darkness.

The rest of the party responds to Roderick's yelp and turns in time to see the Slaad disappearing back into the new tunnel. Kesi, after a cue from Roget, charges into the darkness. Roget and Aramil are quick to follow. However, Dhersion sees the gateway closing and chooses to stay on this side. Vincent, after being released from Bigby's hold, does not have enough time to get to the gate in time.

When all is done, Vincent, Dhersion, and Bigby remain in the cavern, while the other four are gone! The only thing that remains on this side is a solid stone wall.

XP awarded: 1,000, Running Total: 23,000. (20,000 for Kesi and Bigby)