Five Wands - Turn 1.9

Spelljammer	Seas of Fate
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Current Turn?	No	Subject:	The Towers of Time and Space
Campaign:	Greyhawk	Turn Start Date:	9/4/597
Adventure:	Seas of Fate	Turn End Date:	9/16/597
Adventure Number:	AAJ	Characters:	Barthon Brightwave, Darkthorn, Dyson Teague, Kalin, Lorcan Smythe, Orielne, Wiley Finch
Turn Number:	1.9	Send To:	fivewands@championsoftheempire.com; dntimm@gmail.com; mghaught@gmail.com
Greyhawk Campaign?	Yes	Combat Turn?	No

Name	Lethal	NL	Current	END	PROT	LOW	DEF	ROF	Flash	Heal	Luck Pts	Fate Pts
Darkthorn	0	0	109/109	/0	11	3	78	10	0/0	4/day	2/2	1/1
Dyson Teague	0	0	95/95	2/2	12	4	89	14	0/0	1/day	2/3	2/2
Kalin	0	0	74/74	/0	8	3	73	0	0/0	1/day	2/2	1/1
Lorcan Smythe	14	0	50/64	8/8	10	1	30	0	1/1	1/day	2/2	1/1
Wiley Finch	0	0	90/90	/0	11	4	67	20	0/0	1/day	1/2	1/1
Barthon Brightwave	0	0	79/79	14/14	11	4	90	20	0/0	1/day	3/4	2/3
Aeryl Razorfin	0	0	78/78	4/8	7	4	56	10	0/0	2/day	3/3	1/1

Mage/Psioncist Name	Psionic Pts	Spell Pts	Spell Pool	Miscellaneous Information
Lorcan Smythe	6/6	17/19	19/19
Wiley Finch	/	23/25	11/11
Kalin	14/14	/	/
Darkthorn	9/9	/	/

Name	Notes
Darkthorn	Ranger Pool (27/27), 25% Damage Reduction (all damage types)
Dyson Teague
Kalin	Cleric Pool (27/29)
Lorcan Smythe
Wiley Finch	25% DR Elemental, Familiar-Cristo (not along)
Barthon	Magic Points (19/19)
Aeryl

01/19/2023 (GM-Steve)

The battle continued. Darkthorn finally took out the final vine man, leaving the forest witch and three phookas. The forest witch eventually forced Barthon to withdraw via one his his spectacular acrobatic moves. Then it started concentrating on the most wounded character that stepped up. Eventually the 3 phookas were killed and Darkthorn, Wiley and Dyson were fighting the witch. Initially Kalin was using his healing to good effect but then she started hitting Kalin with an oaken shard whenever he started casting a spell. People were able to use healing potions as well as crystals of healing. Lorcan hit with a couple of bolts of water and also began using psionic attacks to good effect. It was one such attack that finally dropped the witch. By this time, Kalin was unconscious, Wiley was very badly wounded, Barthon, Lorcan, Aeryl were badly wounded and both Dyson and Darkthorn had 25 or less HP remaining.

The following round, Lily Greyweb reappeared and announced that the Green Man had awoken and the war was won. Celeraph, Shayla and Thayla succeeded in keeping many of the phookas busy to prevent them from swarming the group but Thayla was killed in the battle.

GM: This is where we stopped for the night. Next week we will resume Gamma World. When we start up with Greyhawk again, be prepared for a session with some of your followers. If you want to fully develop them on the COTE server, feel free to do so (if you haven't already). Otherwise I can come up with some basic stats for them.

GM: I awarded 7,000 EXP for the last 3 sessions.

05/25/2023 (GM-Steve)

The group planned their entrance into the cloud giant castle and attack on any jann guarding the portals. Then, with Barthon in the lead and hasted, the group attacked. When Barthon burst into the room, he saw 3 jann guarding the room, all on alert. He performed an acrobatic maneuver and reached one of them and attacked. Another moved up and the 2 jann attacked Barthon. Darkthorn was the second through the door and he moved up on the final jann. Unfortunately for the group, there were actually 8 jann in the room but 5 of them had managed to go invisible as the door was bursting open. Thus, Barthon was quickly outnumbered 3 to 1. The rest of the group moved in. The jann caused quite a bit of damage the first round, including 2 lightning bolts that hit Darkthorn (twice), Dyson and Wiley. Fortunately, the group knew of the ability of some jann to use lightning and had prepared with Protection from Lightning spells.

Once Wiley moved into the room, he was able to see all 8 jann due to his Witchsight. He cast the Visibility Field out of his Ring of Spell Storing. This ended the invisibility of the Jann, but also ended his own invisibility.

On round 2, Barthon performed another acrobatic maneuver to get out of the 3 on 1 situation. The jann in the back moved up and the battle was joined by all except Kalin, who cast Prayer on round 2.

The night finished at the end of round 3. Darkthorn, who had had to use his Greater Blessing and both of his luck points to avoid 3 grievous hits on him, dropped his own opponent with a grievous hit. Lorcan and Barthon killed another one. Everyone had been blessed with a Greater Battle Blessing but, by the end of round 3, only Kalin, Lorcan and Aeryl had theirs remaining. Everyone else had had to use theirs to avoid critical and grievous hits. A few regular luck points were also used in this fashion.

As we start round 4 next week, Barthon is still outnumberd 2 to 1. Wiley and Lorcan are fighting 2 jann, Dyson is fighting 1 opponent and Aeryl is fighting 1 opponent. The entrance has been closed and blocked with a Wall of Thorns cast by Kalin.

GM: I gave everyone 1600 EXP for last night (or will give them that once I get replication working again).

06/01/2023 (GM-Steve)

The battle against the elite jann continued. On round 7, they dropped the last of the jann.

A few rounds earlier, Shadow (Darkthorn's falcon follower) had gone through the portal that led to the Sea Ghost. It returned at the end of round 7 looking agitated and clearly indicating that the group should make haste through the portal. On round 8, the group went through the portal and found themselves in a wooden building with 2 doors and 3 windows, all closed. The windows were shuttered. Lorcan went to one door and Barthon the other but neither was able to open it quickly. Darkthorn followed Barthon and forced the door open and went through to another room with another door. Wiley moved up to help Lorcan but was also unable to force the door. By the end of the round, Darkthorn had opened the other door, which led outside. There Shadow indicated for him to follow him. Aeryl forced the other door which also led outside. The group was at the harbor. They were not able to see the Sea Ghost due to the buildings in the way.

They followed Shadow and found the followers engaged in battle against some jann. They joined the fray and the tide of battle quickly changed - the followers had been doing poorly, especially against the greater jann.

With the battle almost over, some of the group charged down the pier towards the Sea Ghost. The 2 jann guarding the gangway leapt into the water and were lost to sight.

When all of the jann were dead, dying or fled, the group boarded the Sea Ghost. They found Captain Merrick locked in his stateroom. The crew were locked below decks. They also made sure those in the extra-dimensional spaces knew that the Sea Ghost was in friendly hands again. In particular, Lanita fled to the temple to check on her husband and baby. Both were okay but the baby needed feeding.

GM: This is where we stopped for the night.

06/08/2023 (GM-Steve)

The Fifth Door to the Ghost Vaults is available and needs to be developed.

The group gets away from the island that held the Sea Ghost and begins making their way towards the Towers of Space and Time. They find a good sized-island where they stop for a few days to replenish supplies. Those with skills in Hunting and/or Foraging went ashore and, over the course of the time there, managed to gather lots of fruits and vegetables, and hunt a goodly amount of meat, primarily large birds.

Then they continued on towards what the map referred to as the Icewall where a channel led to the next region of the Elemental Planes. It is in this next region where the Towers and Space and Time can be found.

The group found the channel and sailed into it. The water was a bit choppy so Lorcan cast a Calm Waters spell centered on the ship.

An hour later, tentacled horrors from the deep vaulted onto the ship and began attacking. The creatures looked like larger and stronger sahuagin but each had 8 tentacles emanating from their backs and sides. They were also armed with two handed swords. The tentacles made them very hard to hit but Dyson confronted one right away and showed that he was equal to the task, hitting with a critical and then a grievous wound. That horror is currently stunned.

Two more vaulted onto the quarterdeck, manned only by two seamen and Lorcan. Darkthorn, up in the crow's nest, shot and hit one of them but did not do much damage. One of the sailors went down very quickly and the other is also obviously overmatched.

GM: Of the main group, Dyson, Kalin, Darkthorn and Lorcan are on deck. Barthon is in his Ghost Vault and has not yet noticed that a battle is going on (each Ghost Vault has a crystal ball that allows people in the vault to see what is going on up above). Wiley is in the barracks where there are enough people to have someone assigned full time to watch the crystal ball but an auto-fail roll indicated that the person is momentarily distracted. Lanita is watching the crystal ball in the temple vault but also has not yet noticed that a battle is going on.

GM: Of the followers, Rufus and Erendriel are on deck. Kalin's followers are all in the temple while all of the other followers are in the barracks vault.

GM: We are currently on initiative 7. We need to back up slightly because each of the vaults will get another PER roll on 10 to notice that a battle is going on.

GM: When we start up again, we will move to initiative 6.

GM: Darkthorn was in the crow's nest but used the feather falling ability of his armor to get to the deck and will arrive on a 5. He can make one attack at the end of the round.

GM: Kalin is busy casting Dispel Evil on one of the horrors on the quarterdeck (since Dyson seems to have his under control on the focsle).

GM: Lorcan is on the quarterdeck and about to be attacked by the horror that just dropped one of the sailors. He cast a Torrential Geyser out of his wand to try to knock the horror off the deck but it failed to connect. He also has a Hellfire in his wand that he might try to use.

GM: I awarded 1600 EXP to each of the main characters, and 1000 EXP to each of the followers.

06/15/2023 (GM-Steve)

Lorcan used the Hellfire in his wand on the two closest horrors and learned that they were susceptible to fire. He did not kill either one but accumulated a lot of damage on both.

Kalin cast a Dispel Evil at the horror attacking Lorcan. With the help of a Luck point, the horror failed its save and was banished.

Dyson continued to hold his own against the horror on the bow with the help of Rufus.

Then, as others from the Ghost Vaults began arriving on deck to assist, Darkthorn switched from normal attack to Great Blow and scored a critical hit, doing over 60 points of damage. The horror was suddenly very badly wounded and, the next attack, dead.

Aeryl arrived to assist Dyson and scored a critical hit, badly wounded the horror on the bow. It fled back into the sea.

The group performed first aid and healing and proceeded the rest of the way through the channel at a higher level of alert. Lorcan also dropped the Calm Waters spell.

Once out of the channel, they were in the next region of the elemental planes. This one did not have the arc of fire of the previous region but had more "stars" that were really fire gates to the elemental plane of fire. The temperature is a lot hotter here with the daytime temperature reaching over 100 degrees F daily.

It took another three days to reach the Towers of Time and Space. These proved to be four towers that rose out of the sea in a square pattern, with each tower about a hundred yards from each other. In the center of the towers was a massive plane of magic that a ship could sail through. The information that the group had did not include what to do once they arrived so they would need to figure that out on their own.

A long-range inspection of the top of each tower revealed a circular building in the middle beyond crenellated battlements. Each building had a door. In one tower, the door was standing open. An iron rung ladder ran from sea level to the top of each tower.

The group climbed to the top of the tower with the open door and entered. They descended a circular staircase that descended at least a hundred feet more than they ascended, indicating that they were under the sea. They found a wide passage leading off and followed it. They found a few empty rooms before coming to a door. Opening the door led to another empty room with a door opposite but, as the group entered, a skeleton bowman suddenly appeared and shot at the group. As the group converged, it disappeared and reappeared and shot again. The group managed to get in a few attacks before it disappeared but then it reappeared (or a different one appeared) and shot.

GM: This is where we stopped for the night.

GM: I awarded 1600 EXP for the session. I also awarded 500 for the followers.

06/22/2023 (GM-Steve)

After a couple more appearances and disappearances by the skeletons, Lorcan discovered that they seemed to only disappear if the group moved around. When everyone stayed in one place, the skeleton did not disappear and no new ones appeared. In this manner, they destroyed a skeleton. Then a couple of the adventurers moved, causing two skeletons to appear. When they did, the group stopped moving and those closest attacked and destroyed the skeletons. Kalin cast a Spiritual Weapon spell which allowed him to assist with every skeleton when others were stuck far from the skeletons and did not want to move for fear of causing them to disappear.

They eventually destroyed five skeletons in this manner and, when Aeryl and Barthon wandered all over the room and no new ones appeared, they assumed there were no more. This was incorrect as, when others started to move, more appeared. Lorcan eventually figured out that each adventurer had a skeleton tied to them. Once their skeleton was destroyed, they could move around the room without causing more to appear but, if an adventurer moved and their skeleton was not destroyed, it would reappear.

Then Dyson happen to glance at the floor and, amidst all of the other magic, he saw something different. He eventually mapped out 10 locations in the room with the differing floor magic and the group determined that not only was this where skeletons would appear, but if someone whose skeleton was not yet destroyed stepped on one of the spots, their skeleton would appear in one of the other locations. Thus the group was able to control the final encounters, causing the skeletons tied to Wiley and Kalin to appear and then destroy them with minimal options for retaliation.

The group also discovered that, for those whose skeletons were destroyed, the far door was intangible and could easily be passed through.

The group continued on after all skeletons were destroyed. They found some empty chambers and then came to a corridor where Darkthorn noticed some inscribed writing on the wall. The inscription said, "A cleric, a mariner, a ranger, a swashbuckler, a thief and a warlock walk into a dungeon...". A short distance away, and written much smaller, was another inscription that continued, "...but do they walk out again."

As they approached the archway leading to the next chamber, which was quite large and well lit, a wyvern suddenly appeared in the center of the chamber.

GM: This is where we stopped for the night.

GM: I awarded 1600 EXP for the session. I also awarded 500 for the followers.

06/29/2023 (GM-Steve)

Barthon moved up and entered the room. As soon as he did, a wall of force came into being preventing anyone else from entering. Barthon was stuck fighting the wyvern by himself. The wyvern was extremely difficult and defeated Barthon. As he dropped, his body disappeared and the wall of force dropped. The group was flummoxed on what to do next. They thought maybe the group needed to enter in the order of the inscription found on the wall, indicating that Kalin (cleric) should go first. That seemed very risky so Lorcan suggested an Augury. Kalin cast an Augury and some of the bones that he cast spread far and wide, surprising him. Those he could easily see strongly indicated that he should not enter the room with the wyvern. As he gathered up his bones, he had to do some searching and it took him five minutes to find the final bone. At about the same time, the wyvern suddenly disappeared and a skeleton appeared in its place. The skeleton looked to be that of a large ogre or small giant.

The group decided to wait and, five minutes later, the skeleton disappeared and a manticore appeared. Five minutes later, the manitcore was replaced with a chimera. Five minutes later, the chimera was replaced with a troll. Five minutes later, the troll was replaced with a roper. Five minutes later, the troll was back. As they watched, the same monsters continued to cycle every five minutes in seemingly random order.

Then Kalin came up with a sudden insight. He noted that the first letter of each monster corresponded to the inscriptions found earlier - cleric-chimera, mariner-manticore, ranger-roper, swashbuckler-skeleton, thief-troll, warlock-wyvern. The group liked this reasoning although another augury failed to confirm whether it was a good idea. Nevertheless, with the troll currently in the room, Dyson (thief) was talked into entering to fight the troll. The battle lasted only three rounds before Dyson killed the troll with his flaming mace. Then he was able to exit through the opposite corridor.

The roper came up next and, if anything, Darkthorn had an even easier time defeating it then Dyson did the troll. He joined Dyson in the other corridor. In this manner, the other monsters, except for the skeleton were defeated by Lorcan (manticore), Kalin (chimera) and Wiley (wyvern). Then everyone in the group was in the opposite corridor leaving Aeryl alone. The skeleton had reappeared and Aeryl was wary of trying to face it after seeing Barthon defeated by the wyvern. Kalin shouted back that the group would investigate further and Aeryl should stay there for now.

The next room could best be described as an archery range, with six platforms to the left and six targets to the right and partial walls separating each set of platforms and targets. The group found Barthon's body on the fourth platform. He was unconscious and very badly wounded but Darkthorn was able to bring him around with first aid and then Barthon used his Armor of Curing to heal half his remaining damage. Kalin followed up with a cure critical wounds spells.

Since there were six archery lanes and six members of the group, each took one lane. The biggest challenge was that Kalin did not have a ranged weapon so he used a spiritual hammer spell to his his target. Then Darkthorn hit his target and so on down the line. In each case where the target was hit, the projectile simply hit the target and fell to the floor. It did not stick. But nothing happened. The group decided to try again with two changes. The first was that Kalin would throw a rock instead of using his spiritual hammer, and all attacks would occur simultaneously. This resulted in Kalin missing with the rock, Darkthorn auto-missing with his bow, Wiley missing with his bow and everyone else hitting the bulls eye. With these attacks, hit or miss, the targets descended into the floor. The wall of force was still in place as strong as ever.

The group decided to wait for the targets to come back up. This took six hours. The group tried again and ended up with four bulls eyes out of six. When all was done, Lorcan looked at the wall with power perception and determined that the wall of force was somewhat weakened. Everyone tried to force their way through, but failed.

The group decided to wait another six hours for the targets to come back and try again. This time, Kalin would cast Bless, Prayer and Greater Blessing. He would use his spiritual hammer while everyone else would use their ranged weapons.

Six hours later, the targets came back up. Kalin cast his spells and the group attacked the targets. With the help of the spells, everyone scored a bulls eye and the wall of force dropped.

The group continued on. They discovered an empty room and continued down the passage. Then they came to a pair of locked, magical doors with a hollowed out square indentation, about 4 inches square, with rounded corners.

They went back and searched the previous room and found a locked, invisible chest. Despite the invisibility, Dyson was able to pick the lock and open it. It appeared empty and, when Dyson ran his hands around, it was empty but, stuck to the underside of the lid was an invisible object that became visible as soon as Dyson touched it. It looked like it might be one fourth of the square "key" required by the last door.

GM: This is where we stopped for the night.

GM: I awarded 2000 EXP for the session. I also awarded 500 for the followers.

07/06/2023 (GM-Steve)

The group headed back to the entrance, searching each room as they went, but finding nothing of interest. The challenge rooms were now empty. When they reached the top of the tower they had entered, Darkthorn scanned across the water to the other three towers and thought he saw that one of them now had an open door.

The group returned to the Sea Ghost, spent the night, and then headed to the second tower in the morning. As with the first, they descended well below sea level to a dungeon level that led off into darkness. The first door they encountered led into a 30 by 30 empty room but it had a plane of magic across the entrance. Studying it, Lorcan concluded that a person going through it would be teleported somewhere. In fact, when Darkthorn did step through, tendrils of magic emanated from the doorway and touched everyone, teleporting them to a high ledge in a massive cavern.

Six archways, labelled "Path One", "Path Two", and so on, led away from the ledge leading to narrow walkways across a bottomless gorge. At the back of ledge was a shelf of rock, akin to a table, on which was engraved a detailed map of what was probably the massive cavern. A small spyglass that radiated magic was attached to the shelf by a chain. Kalin picked it up and used it to study the map. He found the ledge the group was on and followed the trail of path one and discovered that it led the group through a series of six challenges that used six different skills, most of which the group had. In this manner, the group studied each of the paths through the spyglass to see what awaited them and discovered that each followed different paths through the massive cavern and that each included six skill challenges.

The group took the time to write down what skills were required for each path and originally thought that path one looked the best. It included an acrobatics challenge that would be child's play for Barthon. It also included a diving challenge that Barthon could probably do as well. But then Wiley suggested since there were six challenges, and six of us, we might each need to do a challenge. With that information, path one no longer looked the best. Eventually the group settled on path three, which included an artillery challenge that Wiley would attempt, an artistry challenge that no one had any skill with, a maze that seemed to rely on direction sense that Darkthorn could try, paths through a dangerous fungi jungle that Lorcan would lead, a rowing challenge that Dyson would attempt and a singing challenge (singing a dragon to sleep) that Kalin was already skilled with. That left an artistry challenge that no one had any skill with, and Barthon with no challenges he had skills for. He volunteered to try the artistry challenge.

The group set out down path three. They reached a ridge where a ballista was located along with a gondola that could be suspended by a rope. The rope was coiled on the floor with the end tied to a ballista bolt. Wiley loaded the bolt into the ballista and aimed it at a metal ring suspended above the far side of the chasm. His first shot missed but he was able to draw the rope back and try again. His second shot was a bullseye. The ballista sailed on through the ring into darkness and the rope holding the gondola started to uncoil. Wiley disappeared after completing the challenge while everyone else scrambled into the gondola. The rope rose, lifting the gondola, which swung towards the opposite ridge. When the swinging motion lessened over the ridge, the group (minus Wiley) disembarked and continued on.

The trail wound this way and that and eventually ended in a small cavern. A section of the opposite wall was smooth and a table in the center held drawing supplies. Barthon picked up the drawing supplies and began drawing a full-sized door on the smooth section of wall. When he finished, the door was okay but not perfect. Barthon disappeared. The group was able to force open the imperfect door and pass through.

The path continued through tunnels and grottos and eventually came to the entrance of a maze. Darkthorn led the way and got the group through the maze using direction sense skill. Once on the other side, he disappeared and Lorcan, Dyson and Kalin continued on.

The next challenge led the group to a fungi jungle and a raised area where Lorcan could survey the entire jungle and try to pick the best of the six paths through the jungle to avoid the most dangerous fungi. He did this with ease and the group, now minus Lorcan, continued on the far side.

It was down to just Dyson and Kalin when they came to the shore of a raging river with a rowboat pulled up in a small sheltered spot. Kalin climbed aboard and Dyson pushed the boat into the water and took up the oars. He guided the boat through the rapids to another shore where the path continued. Then he too disappeared, leaving Kalin by himself.

Kalin followed the tunnels and paths to the lair of a tired dragon. There he began singing the most soothing lullaby that he knew in an effort to put the dragon to sleep. He succeeded somewhat but didn't feel that the dragon was in a deep sleep. He cast a silence spell and tried to sneak across the dragon's cavern. He made it most of the way before the dragon awakened and breathed fire on him. Badly wounded he rushed for the exit on the far side and raced down the tunnel. He reached the door that took him back to the Towers of Time and Space.

Kalin was not the only one hurt in the passage. Barthon, who drew the imperfect door with his newly acquired artistry skill, also suffered when he was teleported back. The group took some time to do some healing on Kalin and Barthon and then continued on.

The group came to a room where the ceiling had collapsed in two places. As they started across, a manticore rose from behind a mountain of debris and fired a volley of 2 tail spikes and Lorcan. Darkthorn shot at it with arrows, while Lorcan used a torrential geyser spell from his wand, Wiley hit it with magic missiles and Kalin used a spiritual hammer spell. Dyson switched to throwing axes and attacked. Barthon headed across the room to the far exit and went through it to see what was there, and verify that the group could exit if they so desired.

GM: This is where we stopped for the night. One thing I forgot to mention is that when Barthon reached the other exit, he could see behind the mountain of debris and noticed a large nest among the rubble. He can see human remains among the nest that might indicate treasure. However, if Barthon decides to investigate, it seems likely that he will then become the target of the manticore's wrath.

GM: I awarded 1600 EXP for the session.

07/13/2023 (GM-Steve)

The battle with the manticore ended with Kalin getting the killing blow with his spiritual hammer. Meanwhile, Barthon had noticed the nest among the pile of debris and, once the manticore dropped, he moved up to investigate. Others joined him. Digging in the nest revealed a set of +1 chain mail, a wand of skill (24 charges), a scroll containing a rope trick spell, a potion of flying and another potion that was not immediately identified but later found to be a potion of water breathing. These items were gathered up and taken.

The group did some healing and then moved on. The next room contained a pair of tables, one against the east wall and the other against the west wall. On each table was a red "button" (red gem set in a metal setting), 2 gray slates embedded in the table, and four small cubes (dice). Two of the cubes had +1 on every face while the other two had -1 on every face. Set into the wall next to the east table was a hand statue held out as if to accept an offering.

On the north wall were four large, glass windows (display screens) that were currently blank. Another was above the door.

Darkthorn and Barthon entered and then a wall of force sprang up preventing anyone else from entering. When each took a spot behind a table (Darkthorn at the east table and Barthon at the west), cubes of force spring up preventing them from leaving the tables. They could still hear the group beyond the wall of force and many suggestions were offered. Eventually Barthon and Darkthorn pushed the red buttons and numbers appeared on the display screens, and were duplicated on the grey slates. The first grey slate on Barthon's table, and display window in front of him, showed an 8 and the second a 5. Darkthorn's slates showed a 0 and an 8 and these also showed on the display windows. However, the numbers then disappeared and the red buttons started flashing again. Not sure what to make of this, they pushed the buttons again. The slates and screens then showed different number that stayed this time. At this time the four dice began flashing. By placing the +1 and/or -1 dice on the grey slates, they were able to change the numbers by that amount. After one round, the hand near Darkthorn's table also began flashing. He placed a silver coin into the hand but nothing happened. Not sure what to do, Barthon and Darkthorn against pushed the flashing red button, finalizing their choices. The result was that everything on the table reset and both Barthon and Darkthorn were teleported back to the hallway.

The group tried a couple more combinations which also resulted in getting teleported back to the hallway. Finally Kalin and Dyson went in and this time they put a platinum coin in the hand after they had pushed their buttons and waited. They used the +1 and -1 cubes to alter their rolled numbers (39 and 01) to 10 and 10 (-2 and +1 for Dyson and +1 and -1 for Kalin). When they pushed the buttons to finalize their choices, the cube of force around Kalin lifted and the far door opened. Also, a display screen above the door showed "20". They assumed this was a result of the platinum coin to give a hint as to what happened. Kalin exited and Lorcan entered and took Kalin's spot. Everything was now reset. They pushed the buttons and got a 78 and 94, which they modified with the cubes to 50 and 74. They put a platinum coin in the hand and pushed the button. Everything reset but no one was teleported. The display screen above the door showed 1.48. It was Dyson who had the thought that 74 divided by 50 was 1.48. The party learned that the two sets of numbers were calculated with an unguessed operator after they were finalized. When Kalin was able to exit, they added. This time they divided and nothing happened.

Lorcan and Dyson played again and got 32 and 98. Lorcan fed a platinum coin to the hand and, without modifying anything with the cubes, they hit the red button to finalize. Dyson's cube went down, as did the wall of force on the north door. Dyson exited and joined Kalin. The display screen above the door showed 3168, which indicated that the two numbers had been multiplied.

Barthon took Dyson's spot and they played again, getting 98 and 23. The used a platinum and finalized. Both cubes lifted and both Barthon and Lorcan exited, the displace screen showed 75, indicating that subtraction (98 - 23 = 75.

That left Wiley and Darkthorn. They obviously wanted a result where they could both exit but had not figured out how to guess what operator would be used. They rolled 01 and 43. They spent a bit of time trying to decide how to guess the operator and finally just had Darkthorn change the 01 to a 03 and finalized. Both cubes of force lifted and they were both able to exit. The screen showed 135, indicating multiplication.

Both times that both cubes lifted had a number that was an odd number and also a multiple of 5. The times where one screen lifted ended in an even number. Two times where fractions resulted ended in reset and play again. Thinking back, times when it ended with an odd number (other than 5) indicated teleportation out of the room.

They still did not know how the game chose the operator (add, subtract, multiply or divide). It wasn't until later that they realized that it was decided by one of the numbers rolled. If none of the numbers rolled was 1-4, they had to roll again. Otherwise, going from left to right, it used the first number that was between 1 and 4 and, if a 1, added, 2 subtracted, 3 multiplied and 4 divided.

The whole group moved forward and came to a door similar to the previous day that required a four section key. On a magical table near the door, they found the second part of the 4 part key, which required 2 platinum to acquire.

The group departed and headed back to the ship where they rested and healed.

The next day, the group headed to the third tower, which now had an open door. They descended and came to another challenge room. Inscribed in large flowing script above the door were the words, "Chamber of Illusions". They opened the door and found a room bisected by six stone blocks. They were able to easily move the blocks forward or to the side but, whenever they moved a block to create a passage through more blocks showed up to block the way. They tried many combinations and were eventually able to see the far door briefly before it was blocked. They searched the entire room for secret doors but found none. Eventually they departed they way they had come, closed the door, waited a short time, and opened the door again. The room had reset to the original configuration.

GM: This is where we stopped for the night.

GM: I awarded 2000 EXP for the session. The math challenge was difficult but there was a lot of good thinking going on.

08/03/2023 (GM-Steve)

The group tried a couple more ideas related to moving blocks but kept coming back to the sign over the door that indicated that this was a Chamber of Illusions. So they tried looking for faults in the blocks that might indicate that they are illusions. Then they tried closing their eyes and walking through a block, but bounced off.

Finally, they all exited the room and closed the door. Then, with everyone keeping their eyes closed, they shuffled across the room towards the other door. They did not encounter any blocks and successfully reached the door. Barthon opened it and the group all trooped through. Only when everyone was through, and they had closed the door behind them, did they open their eyes. They were through!

Before them was a passage. There were some doors off the passage. The first led to an empty room. The second led to a magical bathroom with toilets that actually flushed and a tub with warm water. On a table was a pitcher of drinking water. They examined the room carefully, and used the toilets but found nothing to further their quest. Certainly they did not find a key.

The third door led to a bunk room with four sets of two-tier bunks. A table contained a pitcher of water and a carafe of wine. There was nothing else of interest.

The passage turned a corner and entered a music room. A stage dominated the room and six instruments were on the stage setting in circles engraved into the floor of the stage. Kalin, Wiley and Barthon were the only ones with any familiarity with musical instruments (through Courtesan skill) but none considered themselves skilled with instruments. The group decided to move on through the other passage in the room. But there was nothing else of interest. Eventually they came to the locked door that required the four part key but they had not found the key from this section. They returned to the music room.

When Kalin stepped on the stage, a gynosphinx appeared and said, "play for me and I will give you the key". The group asked more question whereby they learned that they would take time to familiarize themselves with the instruments. She asked if they wanted her to come back. The group asked her to come back in four hours.

After four hours of practice, everyone had gained some skill (mostly they gain 1 rank of Musician skill), but their play-through was not good. They asked her to come back in 24 hours. She agreed.

Ultimately, the group spend over two days practicing and gained some proficiency (4-5 ranks). They also came up with a plan to have Kalin cast a Greater Blessing to assist them in the challenge, and to use the Wand of Skill to increase their skill with the instruments. So when she showed up next, they asked her to come back in 30 minutes. She said she would come back in 24 hours and disappeared.

When she returned, Kalin cast a Greater Blessing and then Lorcan aimed the Wand of Skill at each person in turn and gave them some ranks in Musician. How many ranks varied by how proficient the character had become. Barthon was given the fewest ranks (his super human dexterity served him well in playing his instrument). Wiley was also fairly good and only took 3 ranks. Everyone else was given 4 or 5 ranks, using up the Wand of Skill.

Then everyone took their place and they started the music. Everyone except Darkthorn did well, gain full success. Wiley, Lorcan and Darkthorn all used the effect of the Greater Blessing for a reroll, which helped Wiley and Lorcan, but not Darkthorn. Nevertheless, the combined effect was a very successful performance (overall Success) and so the gynosphinx handed them the third part of the key and then disappeared. The group returned to the ship.

The next day, they assailed the final tower. Their first, apparent challenge was a series of six empty, twenty foot square rooms, one right after the other until the sixth room where there was no where else left to go. The first room still had an unexplored door but they decided to do a much more minute search of the rooms. They started with the last one and decided to spend 10 to 15 minutes searching every nook and cranny. Since all of the walls of this complex have been covered with intricately carved mosaics, they do not lack for places to search.

Suddenly, after ten minutes of searching, glowing letters appear on the floor in the center of the room. They say, "A cleric, a mariner, a ranger, a swashbuckler, a thief and a warlock walk into a dungeon. The warlock is safe in his magical fortress."

Since previous references to a warlock in this complex referred to Wiley, the group assumes this one does as well. Wiley stays in the room and the group moves to the previous room and searches and waits. After ten minutes, glowing letters again appear saying, "A cleric, a mariner, a ranger, a swashbuckler, a thief and a warlock walk into a dungeon. The thief intrudes into the princely castle."

This seems to refer to Dyson, so he remains that the group moves to the next room. After ten minutes, glowing letters appear that say, "A cleric, a mariner, a ranger, a swashbuckler, a thief and a warlock walk into a dungeon. Sir swashbuckler seeks high adventure."

The group repeats the pattern with the next three rooms and gets the same glowing letters each time, but with a different second sentence. The fourth room yields, "...The ranger strides through nature's temple.". The fifth room reads, "...The mariner serves as the king's champion.". The last room, which is actually the first room the group had originally come to, reads, "...The cleric intones a fiery sermon."

The group sets the right person in each room and waits for something to happen but nothing does. Eventually the group moves on, curious as to what this all meant.

Beyond the other door in the original room, the passage continues but then dead ends after about 100 feet. At the end are six cubicles, three on each side of the passage. Each is five by five and each contains a number from one to six. The group assumes that one applies to the cleric, two to the mariner, etc., using the order of the characters from the glowing phrases and each enters the proper cubicle. Each tries to step on the engraved number at exactly the same time. After stepping on the numbers, the group is teleported to another room. They are each standing on a five by five square with a number but only Wiley's number aligns to the one he stepped on in the previous hall. The room is forty by forty with a checkerboard pattern on the floor created by different types of tiles. Letters are engraved on some of the tiles. The room is well lit. On the opposite wall is an exit passage. There does not appear to be anything keeping the group from simply walking across the checkerboard floor to the other exit but the group is understandably wary and remains on their respective locations to study the situation.

Lorcan makes the comment that this isn't really set up like a chessboard but then seizes on the similarities. A chess board certainly has a checkerboard pattern and is a grid eight by eight grid. If this were a chessboard, then Dyson and Wiley in the corners are in the rook positions, Lorcan and Barthon in the knight positions and Kalin and Darkthorn in the bishop positions. Suddenly the group remembers the previous rooms with the messages and quickly makes the link between the messages and the locations on a chessboard. Kalin and Darkthorn's messages seemed to refer to religion, which could be bishop, which is where they are standing. Barthon and Lorcan's messages clearly referred to knights and they are in the knight positions. Dyson and Wiley's messages referred to castles and they are in the rook, also known as castle, positions.

From there it is a very short leap to realize that each character must move as their type of chess piece. Doing so, the group covers some of the letters that spell the word ACROSS. Nothing happens when they do so, so they continue to move as chess pieces to get to the other side. They are successful in crossing. In retrospect, the group wonders if the letters on the floor were a meaningless distraction. Only Lorcan got hurt when he failed to move exactly as a knight once, and he suffered a Cause Serious Wounds effect.

GM: This is where we stopped for the night.

GM: I awarded 4000 exp for last night for the great work in solving the puzzles, especially the chessboard one. Hopefully this covers the negative expenditures for musician skill and leaves some left over.

GM: I am still surprised that the group took 10 minutes in the clue rooms to get the glowing letters. It made the chessboard challenge much easier. :)

08/10/2023 (GM-Steve)

The group continued on and came to another challenge, which turned out to be the final challenge. The room contained six cubicles walled off with Walls of Force. In the archway leading to each one were words or phrases; Armor and Weapons, Elemental, Magic and Artifacts, Monsters, Religion, and Undead. The group correctly surmised that this was a knowledge challenge and that each character would have to do one of the challenges. The last two were easy. Kalin was the only one in the group with religious lore and Darkthorn was, far and away, the best with undead lore. Others were less sure. For example, Lorcan was the only one with elemental lore but he was also the best to try the magic and artifacts challenge. He was also the best for the monster lore challenge.

The group decided that studying was in order. They returned to the ship and some of the group made use of Darkthorn's Tome of Knowledge to brush up on subjects. Wiley picked up Elemental Lore from scratch. In the end, the group decided that Dyson would attempt armor and weapons, Wiley would do elemental, Lorcan would answer the magic and artifacts and Barthon would try monsters. Kalin, of course, would still be on the hook for religion and Darkthorn for undead.

The group spent two days studying and then returned to the challenge room. They collected their respective tokens and entered their respective cubicles. Each was then asked five questions from a small statue sitting on a table.

GM: Although the tests all ran concurrently, we did them one at a time, starting with Kalin.

GM: Kalin rolled success for all 5 religion questions.

GM: Then Barthon failed his first monster lore question, rolled near success for his second, partial success for his third and full success for his last two.

GM: Then Dyson rolled near success for armor and weapons questions 1 and 3, partial for question 2, success for question 4 and failed question 5. Dyson used his Mind Link with Kalin, who was able to help him with some of the questions.

GM: Then Darkthorn rolled success for all 5 undead questions.

GM: Then Wiley rolled near success for his first elemental lore question, success for his second, partial for his third and failed his last 2.

GM: Finally, Lorcan rolled success for his first 4 questions and partial for his last.

Once all the questions were answered, the tokens disappeared and reappeared on a small table. Five of the tokens were stacked on top of each other while the elemental token was by itself. Additionally, the word "Elemental" above the elemental challenge glowed green. But the words above the religion and undead challenges glowed red. The group had some theories about what this might mean but the end result was that Lorcan picked up the elemental token and entered the elemental challenge cubicle. A wall of force sprang up and he was given the opportunity to answer five elemental questions. He rolled success for 4 of them and absolute success for one. Then the token disappeared and reappeared on top of the other tokens on the table and, next to the stack, was the final piece of the four-part key.

Wiley figured out that glowing letters indicated that the elemental challenge could be tried again, but could not be attempted by either Kalin or Darkthorn because they had done so well in their own challenges. It was fortunate for the group that Lorcan had not scored full success on his final magic and artifacts question or he would also have been disallowed to attempt the elemental challenge!

The group took the key and continued on. They encountered the door to the final room, as they had three times previously, but this time they had all four parts of the key. The parts clicked together like magnets and Dyson fitted the key into the indentation. The door slid down into the floor, as did the other three doors to this room.

In the center of the room was a statue on a pedestal. The statue spoke and asked where they wanted to go in the Sea Ghost. Lorcan answered with the City of Glass. Much later, he wondered what would have happened if he had answered Saltmarsh. Could the group have used the magic of this place to get themselves back to the world of Greyhawk?

The statue answered that the portal would open in one hour and the group would have an hour to get the ship through.

The group returned speedily to the Sea Ghost and made preparations to depart this hot sector. When the portal came up, they sailed through and found themselves in the vicinity of the City of Glass.

The group decided to spend the money to tie up at a dock for 24 hours. Godwin the Acquirer agrees to pay for it as he is very interested in exploring this legendary city. The group also learns that the primary language of the city is a conversational offshoot of the magical language of Elementian. That means that only Lorcan knows the language. However, the group invests in a few potions so that others can speak the language as well and then set out to explore the city.

Lorcan and Wiley speak to a navigator who is willing to get the Sea Ghost to Saltmarsh at a cost of 10,000 silver. This will take most of the group's party treasury so they tell him they will consider it and get back to him.

Others explore the nearby bars looking for the safest ones with an eye towards shore leave for the crew of the Sea Ghost.

Then the group starts exploring magic shops. Darkthorn spends 1350 on a Cloak of Elvenkind. Both Wiley and Dyson spend money on better shields. The group also finds other interesting items that they consider buying. Among them is a Rod of Alertness that looks and functions as a +1 mace but also has many other abilities that would be ideal for Dyson. Unfortunately the cost is 6500 silver so Dyson would need to find additional funds to buy it.

The group also finds some magical helms and a few magical wands, including a Wand of Life, and Wand of Bravery and a Wand of Positive Energy. With the cost quoted to get the ship back to Saltmarsh however, the group does not want to spend much in the way of party funds.

GM: Keith, what did Dyson pay for the +2 LR shield? I will give him the money back since there is already and +2 LR Shield in the treasury that he can have. I updated his character sheet.

GM: I will take care of selling the items the group doesn't want but I need to know what you don't want and who will take what you do want. Be thinking of followers as well. Here is the list:

Magic Weapons

+1 Short Sword
+3 Ice Bastard Sword
+1 Long Sword
+1 Longbow (Medium)
+2 Two-handed Sword (x2) (From Horrors of the Deep)

Magic Armor

+1 Shield (SR)
+3 Ice Plate Mail
+1 Shield (LR) (was Dyson's)
+1 Leather Armor
+1 Chain Mail

Magic Items

Boots (something that improves speed)
Wand of Fire (23 charges)
Nanorien Stone (minor)
Arawan's Quiver
Berry of Flying (from Cloud Bush)

Arawan's Quiver might be ideal for Elendriel since her primary weapon is a bow.

DARKTHORN: There is nothing the Darkthorn or Drogo are interested in.

GM: I will also come up with some weapons that the group will find in the City of Glass.

08/17/2023 (GM-Steve)