A few days (2/24 – 2/27) passed on the ships while the party pondered their next move. When a week had passed (2/28), Urgesh was non-committal, at first declining to return to the island, then reconsidering, finally deciding to stay. Ghevont stayed with him, but this time Bale and Silverfish went with the party with the expectation that the third attempt would get them into the workshop. This turned out to be true, but not in the way imagined.
Access to the island was had by way of Hocuspo transforming into a dragon, once again, but this time he resumed human form as they all went into the underground complex. The ring got them past the force wall. Tienarrth attempted to use a passwall spell to skip right to the crypt, but Ollie’s map was not accurate and the passage only went into solid rock. So, they waited out the magic mouths. Ollie used a potion of polymorph to make himself a fire-resistant azer. Tienarth sped everyone up with a haste spell, and they dashed towards the three devils.
The devils were little trouble, banished in less than a minute. Presently, they all rushed past the crypt and into the hall with the moving pictures of the island. As before, a quick battle sent the devils there away. One of them managed to summon a wall of fire that filled the chamber, but Tienarth dispelled it immediately afterwards.
A search of the hall turned up a secret door behind which was a short passage filled with seven magical walls. The closest wall burned like fire, and the second wall corroded like acid, except that the ring bearer was immune to the magic. Jerker tentatively went through the barrier to get a glimpse of the chamber beyond. It was seventy foot square with a ceiling a hundred feet above. On the far side was a glowing archway, and floating above it was a figure in robes holding a scythe. Jerker retreated.
Some discussion began over how to proceed. It ended with a plan where Ollie took the ring. He deactivated the barrier. The rest of the group shuffled past him into the chamber where Jerker activated the cube of force over the rest of them. Now Ollie could see the full figure of Death floating fifty feet over the floor. It turned to Ollie and said, “Oh, in the name of master Molok, I have visitors once again! Know that I am charged with keeping out unauthorized visitors. I do not wish to fight, but as a messenger of death, I do have the ability to send you to that fiery realm to which you will eventually spend eternity. Prove your authorization or leave.”
Ollie held up the ring, and Death agreed that he was authorized to proceed. The rest of them were slowly creeping forward inside the cube, ignorant to the conversation going on outside because Jerker had the cube blocking everything, including sound. Ollie made a vain attempt to distract Death with idle questions, but Death quickly became impatient with the disobedience and fired a bolt of energy at the cube. Jerker could feel the energy drain slightly.
At this point, Nate argued vigorously for retreat. Jerker was not ready for retreat and kept moving forward. When a second blast rocked the cube, he was convinced, and they all went out of the chamber, past the seven-layer wall. They knew they had to get Silverfish past Death but he wasn’t authorized, whatever that meant. The team seemed ready to give up, which seemed to rile Nate, who asked for the ring and intended to go through the glowing archway alone.
Death greeted him again with some aggravation, mentioning that he was merely doing a job. He may have wondered aloud that no bargaining was made, but in any event, Nate was permitted to go through the archway. He found himself at the top of a room filled with sheets of lightning. A glass-smooth path curled down sixty feet to the bottom. The light from the lightning was nearly blinding, but the ring seemed to offer some protection. He made his way carefully to the bottom where he came to a door. In the center of the door was an impression matching the ring.
Nate removed the ring to place it in the impression. The intense light all around him blinded him before he could close his eyes. He felt the door swing open as the ring merged into the surface. He was blind, and thought about waiting out the blindness, but it occurred to him to pray. He knelt, saying a word of thanks to the Anointed One, and his blindness was cured. He carefully stepped through the doorway before opening his eyes. Before him was the shimmering outline of a stairway climbing up in the night sky.
He made his way up, seemingly going up in the air. Suddenly, the stairs seem to come to a platform, and then the view was a room filled with innumerable telescopes. He looked through several of them, seeing the moon, a red desert, a star and a vast city. He was sure he’d found the Workshop of the Telescopes, but he didn’t have Silverfish and his special lens.
Presently, a figure climbed into the workshop, a wizard in rich robes. He showed some dismay at finding a paladin in the workshop, declaring that whoever opened a portal to allow non-wizards to reach the workshop was surely evil. The wizard explained there were many entrances to the workshop, and visitors could only go back to entrances they knew of. The paladin made to go back. He climbed down the stairs, this time shutting his eyes tight as he approached the bright room. The door was still open, stuck open in fact. Without sight, Nate wasn’t sure he could make it back up the ramp without falling into the sheets of lightning.
So, he went back to the workshop where the wizard was still busy with a telescope. He explained his inability to return to his friends. The wizard, who called himself Therandil, offered to “banish” the paladin back to his native realm, which Nate accepted. Suddenly, he found himself beside his friends, who were still waiting in the hallway with the moving images.
Escape seemed difficult. Tienarth said he could get out by way of a dimension door, but he could take only what he could carry, which might include one other person. Jerker suggested polymorphing into a dragon on which they all could climb upon. This scheme worked. They soon found themselves outside the complex, and Tienarth flew them back to the ships.
End Notes
- Days
- 2/24 – 2/27 Downtime on the ships
- 2/28 Meeting Death
- Treasure:
- none
- Combat: xp
- 3 Barbed Devils 945 xp each
- 2 Horned Devils 450 xp each
- Characters (6.5 shares of 575 xp)
- Aderian (human, fight) 638 xp
- Bale (npc) 288 xp
- Elaria (hireling) 288 xp
- Hocuspo (hireling) 288 xp
- Jerker (human, fight, lead) 644 xp
- Nate (human, fight) 638 xp
- Ollie (underground, fight) 587 xp
- Silverfish (merely present)
- Tienarth (avoid combat) 581 xp