Vecna Drain Me

They recover a note from the corpse – written by Paldemar, the rogue Sarunian mage. An offer of alliance with Black Fang Keep against his former colleagues. Hinting at powers gained beneath the mountain, an acquisition of lordship on a ‘Tower Of Mist’, of powers gained from Vecna! The key will show the way, it says, when you walk the path of lanterns.

Along the path they spot a door which they key fit. In the cavern beyond, they find the ghastly black tower. No entrances seemed apparent from the distance. As they circumnavigate the base, they come upon a scarlet-robed, half blind, and maimed apparition standing on a runed circle. For entry, Vecna demands sacrifice of lore, power or soul from the new arrivals. The group fails to sate the dark entity. Consequently, bolts of lightning hit them and they find themselves transported inside, their powers greatly diminished.

In the first level, they are beset by goblins whilst bolts of black energy beam out of the faux skull-eyes of sculpted pillars. Quorbin falls and the remainder race around the bend to find some goblinoid casters. At length they are dealt with, the fallen revived and the dead looted. At the next level, they find a bronze warder patrolling the corridor. Before they even deal with it, more goblinoids appear. The elf falls again, trampled by the warder. When the enemies are finally dispatched, Kurgan ministers to the wounded and revives the elf. They continue the exploration, they come upon a laboratory. Of interest was a contraption that controlled the warders. Casval fiddles with it but fails to divine its workings.  Later, they find a library. An eclectic selection of scrolls and books on lore. Casval discovers that the tomes have a spell of beffudlement cast on them and tries to trick Kurgan into being beffudled. ‘Tries’ is the operative word.

~ by Carlo on August 18, 2009.