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The Banewarrens, Part 6

Players/Characters Present:
John Sikking - Basil Amantes (Ftr7)
Bruce Barnett - Bonzimir Amantes (Rog4/Hlf3)
Barbara Muth - Nereida Amantes (Clr7) and Elida (KSK4)
Chris Wood - Tutor (Ftr7)
Peter Drake - Demetrios Amantes (Wiz4/Hum3)

[GM's Note: This session entailed a party loss of a different sort, as we lost both John "Basil" Sikking and Peter "Demetrios" Drake. Both are moving on to other pursuits. We'll miss you both. ]

[Also, we will soon lose Chris Wood to culinary college!]
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Once Nereida returned the surface, she frantically told her tale to Sister Donna Mara and to Flavia Brassus. Both agreed to help recover the bodies of her family. The Church sent a team of two paladins, while the Inverted Pyramid sent Tutor, a swordmaster (Chris Wood's new character). The bodies of Bonzimir, Demetrios, Elida, Basil, Kalerecent and Rsanir were recovered, though Felix was nowhere to be found. 

In addition, it was evident that a battle had been fought before the now-open Sealed Door. The bodies of Nisselanter the Ettercap and the carnivorous ape lay strewn amidst those of four inexplicably naked men. The rescue party decided to recover one of the naked men, in hopes of learning who they were.

Later, the Great Church raised each of the heroes. The Starborn had no money to pay for this, but the Church agreed to foot the bill as the Starborn had been quite loyal. In addition, they gifted the newly-raised Starborn with quite a few potions and mundane equipment to aid in their quest to recover their equipment from the Pactlords. Flavia Brassus loaned a spellbook and some spell scrolls to Demetrios. Though it did not come close to replacing his own spellbook, it was nevertheless very useful.

The Church then used speak with dead to interrogate the body of the man found at the scene of the Sealed Door. When asked who he served, he replied "The Lady of Shadows". When asked what his group had sought in the Banewarrens, he answered "power." He also revealed that one of his team had escaped from the battle, and this had been the Lady of Shadows.

Returning to the Banewarrens, the Company of the Starborn slipped into the Outer Vaults. Bonzimir disarmed an alarm spell set at the entrance. He and Basil slew Erzak the gnoll ranger quickly and quietly. Then the whole team entered the Outer Vaults. 

At the Room of Many Stairs, Bonzimir discovered a trap to the north that caused stone walls to crash down in a cube around him. He managed to duck under and out of the cube before it closed. The cube then slid north and fell into a deep pit, revealing another passage. He activated the trap again, and this time ran across the trapped plate behind the cube, thus avoiding triggering the trap. He communicated this to the rest of the team, who followed him using the same trick. Passing through the Warding Generator room, they heard the sounds of battle to the south. They took a few moments to use all the buff spells they had and raced south. They suffered damage from a magical trap that flung spears of force magic at them, but they moved on.

In the Room of the Crazed Guardian, they found the survivors of the Grail Quest Team (Yuinthu the Mind-Flayer, Ostarach the Ogre Mage and Wiver the Heiracosphinx) battling the animated corpse of a great bear. This time, the shoe was very much on the other foot. The team won initiative and rushed Yuinthu, giving him no time to use his deadly Psychic Blasts. Surrounded and badly injured, Yuinthu dared not try to plane shift. Instead, he withdrew to a position behind Ostarach, who failed woefully in his attempt to kill Tutor. Ignoring Wiver and the bear golem, the Company of the Starborn pressed home their attack. Bonzimir tumbled amongst the combatants to get to Yuinthu, and Demetrios's magic missiles defeated the monster's spell resistance at long last. Basil, under the effects of both a bull's strength and an enlarge, killed Ostarach in a single round. In two rounds, the entire battle was over and the Company of the Starborn had not lost a single hit point.

[GM's Note: There were any number of differences between the two battles, and luck definitely played a part (particularly in so many of the PC's rolling a high initiative). However, I believe two factors were decisive: The Grail Quest Team did not have an ambush prepared, and the Starborn swarmed Yuinthu and took him down with physical attacks. The ceiling in the room was only 12'. Had the Grailquest Team chosen their ground, it would have been someplace where Yuinthu could float above the combat.]

[GM's Note: This also shows how possible it was to win the first time, had not a number of factors, including unlucky rolls, weighed against our heroes.]

Cowed, Wiver the heiracosphinx bargained for its life. After giving up its treasure, it exchanged a promise to leave the Empire and never return, as well as to tell the Starborn where their equipment was, for a promise to let it go free. The rather stupid sphinx told the Starborn as much as it knew of the layout of the Outer Vaults, including that Yuinthu had spoken to a "metal man" in a room down the southeastern corridor off the Room of Many Stairs, that there was a "teleportation trap" to the west of the Room of Many Stairs and that the Grail Quest Team was looking for a way past the "magic wall" to the south. Ultimately, they were looking for something important called the "Black Grail." Wiver didn't know anything about Quann agents in the city, although he knew there were some. He told them that their gear was located by the magic wall.

Asked about the battle in front of the Sealed Door, Wiver said that the naked men had been "big wolves" when they fought, and that they had fought to protect a woman with little horns on her head. Asked about the name "Kikanuile", the heiracosphinx shuddered, saying that she was a big woman who was the team's leader, and a powerful sorcerer. It was clear that he feared Kikanuile, though he did not know where she was. On their way out, they were again hit by the force spear trap.

Returning to the Cube-and-Pit trap, Wiver flew through the triggered area and escaped while the team tried to disarm the trap. Traveling south to look for their gear, the team encountered a room where the entire floor was a trap door, which had become disabled by the ancient geologic upheaval. They found a wall of force beyond that which blocked any southward travel, and they relocated their gear (though many of the potions were missing).

Next, they decided to try to find the "metal man" and took the southwest passage out of the Room of Many Stairs. Bonzimir set off a trap which froze him half to death. He later disarmed this trap. Ascending a series of stairs beyond this, he discovered a door which slammed shut behind him and filled a small corridor with gas. He managed to hold his breath and escape that trap, though he did not investigate the doors beyond. Heading south from the gas trap, the Company found a room with three metal humanoids in it, which stood when they entered but did nothing. Moving south from there, they found a weird sunken room. This room had blue tiles up to the level of the door (3 feet above the floor) and drains above that. Two large glass columns contained huge dormant octopi. A metal tube into the ceiling contained a wheel valve. Feeling that this was a trap, they retreated.

Next they decided to return to the room of the Crazed Guardian, and try to travel south from there. The Cube-and-Pit trap was still disarmed, but the force spear trap got them a third time. South of the Crazed Guardian room was a door which led to a strange, round room. In this room there was a central column and a circular track. A metal plate covered the northwest quarter of the room and was attached to both the track and the column. The ceiling had a metal plate that covered everything except the northwest quarter of the room. A metal staircase led from the floor plate to a hole in the exposed ceiling. By experimentation, the Company discovered that controls on the metal column would move the metal plate, exposing a different quarter of the ceiling and a different hole each time. 

Ascending the stairs, Bonzimir saw a small room with a single lever in it. His entrance set off a piercing almost-inaudible sound and teleported the halfling to the pit of the Cube-and-Pit trap where he fell 100' feet onto the rubble of the cubes. His ability to tumble allowed him to avoid just enough of damage to survive the fall and instead be pummeled into unconsciousness. 

Since Nereida was in telepathic contact with Bonzimir via a lesser telepathic bond spell, she knew Bonzimir had suffered a bad fall. Demetrios suggested that the only pit they knew of was at the Cube-and-Pit trap. Wanting to avoid the force spear trap, Demetrios also suggested that the double doors leaving the round room might be the same as they had seen from the inactive trap door near the wall of force. He was right, but when the Company raced to the Cube-and-Pit trap, they found that it had been reactivated. Knowing that if they activated it, tons of stone might fall down on Bonzimir, they returned to the round room, and backtracked for a fourth time through the force spear trap. They did indeed find Bonzimir's unconscious body at the bottom of the pit, where he was rescued by Tutor and returned to health by Nereida. Next, the team decided to rest and then tackle disarming that damned force spear trap.

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Where is Kikanuile?

Who and where is the Lady of Shadows?

What lies beyond the wall of force?

Where is the metal man?

What where the mechanical humanoids near the Octopus Room?

Who re-armed the Cube-and-Pit trap?

What is the purpose of the levers in the Round Room?

How may those levers be manipulated without activating the Sound-and-Teleportation trap?

Will Wiver live up to his bargain?

Who the hell is going to play all these player characters?

Tune in next time!

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