The intrepid heroes of Brindinford had finally completed the trek to the Keep of the Fallen Kings; property for which they had received the title from Baron Euphemese. Viewing the keep from the entrance, the wear and tear of the ages was quite apparent. The Kings Road wound its way all the way to the front entrance of the keep, where the doors had been destroyed. Searching the rubble in the doorway, Drake noticed the body of a dead dwarf under the door and found a pale blue ioun stone wedged between two of the flagstones on the floor. The dwarf had been dead for awhile, but, there was no way to tell just how long it had been since he had given up the ghost. Hoping to garner some type of answer, Drake used his ability to speak with plants, and was only able to learn that a large creature had recently passed this way. Wondering what the creature may have been, the party soon found out, as a half-fiendish ogre sauntered into view, attracted by the sound of Drake's voice.
The group acted quickly, realizing that the creature looming before them, had no peaceful intentions. The fiend gave a battle cry, calling for his compatriots to aid him, and then moved to attack. Drake and Lianna managed to loose a few arrows into the creature's wretched ashen hide, hoping to distract the ogre fiend's attention from the stunty dwarf Gyrr, who maneuvered closer to engage the foul beast in melee combat. The tactic failed. Entering into a raging fury, this harbinger of death stepped forward, acting so quickly that Gyrr failed to see the glint of the large falchion that swung toward him. The mighty blow struck Gyrr at the collar bone with a sickening crunch and cut so deeply, that the blade stopped only after reaching the dwarf's sternum. Gyrr died before he hit the ground, his heart exploding, showering his nearby companions and the ogre with a bloody sheen. Stunned, the rest of the party stood, with mouth's agape, wondering if their fates would match that of the indefatigable Gyrr.
Realizing that now was not the time for mourning, Ymir launched himself at the ogre, intent on avenging his friend. From behind a wall inside the keep, the sound of a horn blared and the party realized that the ogre had friends. Placing himself in a position to take out any enemies who might try to flank them, Solanthos readied himself to cast a web spell as soon as an enemy came round the corner in the hall at the rear of the group. The wizard's keen situational awareness was proven, the moment another ogre fiend rounded the corner. Launching his web spell, Solanthos was frustrated the the creature was dextrous enough to avoid becomming entangled. He knew, however that the ogre would at least be slowed down as it tried to traverse the web's expanse. In the meantime, Ymir, Drake, Lianna, Dexter and Ymir continued to concentrate their attacks on the abomination that had killed Gyrr. Collectively, the damage they dealt was overwhelming, and, Lianna grimaced with a small sense of satisfaction, as she buried an arrow in the beast's chest and watched it fall.
Turning their attention to the other ogre, the group fired volley after volley, killing him, before he had a chance to get out of the web. While the second ogre fell, a group of howling orcs stepped over the body of the first ogre and continued the assault. To add to the group's problems, the orcs had with them, a pet dire bear. To make matters worse, a chimera landed behind the group, coming into the keep through the entrance that the party had used just a moment before, and exhaled a stream of acid which struck three of the party members. Again, after assessing the situation, Solanthos used his magic to conjure a debilitating cloud of festering, putrisent noxious gas. The cloud enveloped three of the orcs and the dire bear. The dire bear and one orc were unable to withstand the gas, and they became violently nauseated; vomiting and excreting all of the foulness that their bodies could not absorb. Korik used a few of the attack spells in his arsenal to attack the chimera, while dexter and drake attacked with ranged weapons. Lianna felled the chimera, Drake focused his arrows on the helpless dire bear, and even korik pulled out his crossbow to help with the animal. Meanwhile, Ymir laid the hurt down on the leader of the orcs, and, it was at this point that the party began to believe that they might just survive the encounter.
Killing all but one of the attackers, the group manacled the nauseated orc and began questioning him. The orc was unwilling to trade his life for answers to the party's questions, and, after the nausea wore off, the orc lunged at Ymir, trying to strangle him. One attack leter, the corpse of the dead orc lay sprawled out on the ground. After looting the bodies of the fallen enemies, the party decided to heal themselves and then head back to civilization to see if Gyrr could be raised.
The sense of relief at the sight of Gyrr's rejevenated body washed over his friends like a wave. Although not quite feeling like his old self, Gyrr was happy to be alive again. (Gyrr is now 7th level again)
Going back to the keep, the group located a trap door that opened to an area below. Drake searched the door for traps, but, after finding nothing, he stepped back and JJ suggested that the meat shield that was not his real character (I mean, Gyrr) open the door. WHAM! The anti-gravity spell that trigged when teh door opened, sent Gyrr falling all the way up to crash into the ceiling, at which point Gyrr fell back to the ground taking damage from the fall and from the rubble that fell from the ceiling, burying Gyrr beneath, The group acted quickly to dig Gyrr out, but sadly, Gyrr was dead again! (Just kidding) They dug Gyrr out of the rubble and healed him back to full. Drake then descended into the hole and as he touched the ground, he watched as a large blue creature, of a type he had never seen before, stepped out through a wall. The scout scurried up the ladder and formulated a plan with the rest of the group.
Those party memebers who had the ability to feather fall, used the tactics of a vertical assault and dropped down the hole. After the party had all descended, the started to move into a large central chamber, where they once again encountered the Blue Slaad. A fight ensued, and the slaad was joined by a pair of fiendish-Girallon allies. This level fo the keep exuded evil. A river of blood, emanating from the statue of a devil on a dais at the far end of the room, flowed in two sections, which each meandered to the mouth of a demonic fresco on the floor. The mouth was an obvious source of evil. While most of the party maneuvered to fight, Korik used his turn undead attempts to destroy the manifestation of evil on the floor, as well as to destroy a pair of ghostly doors, which also exuded an evil taint.After killing the slaad and the girallons, Drake began to investigate the source of the blood that flowed relentlessly from the statue. Moving to get a closer look, he caught the attention of a crimson ooze, which then followed him into the large room, and the party once again had to fight. Eventually, the ooze was dispatched and Drake the statue was destroyed. The flow of blood ceased, and, after the blood pool drained, the party clearly saw a crystalline crown within the pool. Donning the crown, Drake was immediately receptive to the power of the crown. The Earthcrown allowed the wearer to summon one huge, two large or three medium sized earth elementals, who were tasked with the serving the crown wearer as long as the crown remained within the confines of the keep. The crown has several other powers, but, Drake immediately realized that if he takes the crown out of the keep or its environs, it will crumble to dust.
However, after placing the crown on his head, three blue crystal pillars shattered, and tehir former occupants are ready to fight.
When we return, the game will pick up at this climactic fight.
I'll explain more on the crown in the coming days.
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