ADVENTURE 33 Lost and Found

ADVENTURE 33 Lost and Found: The PCs explored the rest of level 6a. Turning ethereal, they entered the pyramid, finding an easily slain mind flayer and a wizards tomb, which they quickly looted. Then they explored southward, fighting a somewhat challenging battle against a couple well-equipped trolls. Afterwards, they checked the trolls lair, discovering a large amount of gold ore in the water near their island, along with a chest. Though Telok wanted desperately to take this ore, the others didnt want to waste their time getting it all out of here. Thus, they just teleported back to the city to rest. During the few days they spent there, Telok went shopping with Mindy, Verrof cooked some more and went to dinner with his wife, and Jestyn identified some of the trolls items. The other PCs decided to ask Telok about his quest in the dungeon. They wanted to know how he was to free the stone Akbeth from her curse. At first he was very hesitant to tell them anything, refusing to show them the vial of earthblood he had. Finally, he went to take it outdiscovering that he had no such item! Apparently, Telok had been so lax in his quest that he had forgotten the earth-blood at his temple over four months ago! (Out of character, the player never wrote down the earthblood on his sheet, despite various warnings from me to write his items down! He hadnt even mentioned the quest of his for over ten sessions, and so I figured his character just lost the stuff)Telok finally recalled leaving it at his temple grove, and back in town he decided to look for it (after Verrof made him remember). Back in the temple, he could not find it anywhere. Consulting his god in a divination, he was told to look for a woman who he had previously had a relationship with. At first he could not remember who: the prostitute, the girl who was a fan of Jerrysthe list went on and on. Finally he recalled a priestess of Obad Hai that he had dumped when she disagreed with him on a matter of killing things (Moon Dove, though he had forgotten her name). He began scrying on her, finding her meditating in the sacred grove. Approaching her angrily, Telok assumed she had stolen his item, and was very rude. Eventually she told him that she found the vial in the grove many months ago. Not knowing whose it was, she gave it to the Temple of All Gods lost and found department, which was located in the main shrine area. Still pissed off, Telok went there, and spoke with a little gnomish priest who ran the department. After some magic confirmed that the vial was his, Telok got it back, though he was highly irritated by the ten gold fee the priest wished to charge him. He nearly got into a fight with him over it, and the little gnome even threatened to call the temple security on Telok. Eventually, Telok ended up paying an even higher fee for the item, as the small cleric seemed very annoyed at his rudeness. That day also featured the return of Karsyla, who had apparently been on a journey to a sacred temple on the astral plane with her young student.
Some time later, the PCs went back to the dungeon. They teleported to level 4a and its sinkhole leading down. This took them to a series of interconnected rooms with images of the moon all throughout themsymbols of Hecate. Northward they went, through a boring maze and into a large cave with many gigantic rocks all around. Here they were attacked by a tribe of phase minotaurs, who injured many characters but were defeated in the end. While going through their treasure, there was a bit of a problem with Telok, but nothing major (he wanted a valuable drinking horn, but didnt want to give up any other loot for it.) They decided, after sleeping in the room for a bit, to go on, taking another south path through yet one more maze. At the end of this maze was a dead enda circular room, where a gelatinous cube attacked, a minor threat indeed. A secret trap door on the ceiling lead to southward hallway and eventually to some stairs that lead to their goallevel 9a and the gigantic cavern that was there. Jestyn sent some magical eyes ahead to scout, though in the entryway they ran afoul of a huge number of gargoyles, who destroyed them. The PCs got ready and went down.
The fight at the bottom was long but easy. They killed nearly fifty gargoyles, who could hardly hit any of them. Jestyn got a chance to use his Delayed Blast fireball spell (although Telok blew most of the monsters away with a firestorm before the blast could go off). During the battle, Verrof decided to be funny and push Telok down, just before the last couple gargoyles died. Telok was highly angered by this and threatened to kill the ranger. As they argued, it was much the same as beforeTelok threatening not to heal, etc. Jerry was so tired of this that he said he was leaving if Telok didnt heal party members. Jestyn agreed to go with him, and so did Verrof. Telok finally agreed to stay along with the party, though the situation seemed very tense indeed.

DM’S COMMENTS: About half the session was wasted by a certain player’s antics, and the end was a little hectic for everyone. It feels like a full-fledged confrontation will have to happen soon, and the results are sure to be messy, one way or another. As far as the dungeon goes, it’s actually gotten almost easy lately. It seems like once the PCs break into the later levels of RA2, they tend to be higher level than most of the things they fight, resulting in far less fatality. Kazleth, for example, was a wimp. Still, they may have some more pain in store for them soon…