And on to the Mage in the black tower

So we hear from Terra that Grog is indeed the general of Kurgan's army. We still need to find out why Kurgan has an army. We head back Terra's tower, get her a couple of $5k value opals for a spell, I get myself a scroll of Go Behind from Terra and we head out to the Black Tower.

Dugan drops us off at the coast of the desert and I get the 3rd watch. The servant and pavillion show up with the tower. I wake up everyone else and the mage comes out. We start a conversation with Gildere saying "We came for Gabriel." Silly silly Gildere. We banter back and forth and finally someone insults his mother, so it's on!!!

The servant, whose name is Tim, shouts, "He's torturing Gabriel," and draws his swords. Endel and Gildere charge him, I go poof and move to the left from the Pavillion. Endel strikes him and we hear a thunderclap (just a coincidence). Endel swings right through him and we look behind and he's standing in the middle of a 120 foot wide patch of grass/foliage with a staff sticking out of the ground. We all halt in our tracks and move towards him. Endel moves towards him and Terra disintegrates about 5% of the grass (we figured out the math, and the grass was larger than she expected). However, we know that there isn't an anti magic spell covering the grass.

I dimension door and try to backstab, but he had truseeing up so it wasn't a backstab damage. Over the next couple of rounds, sorry it's a blur, but here is what happened. Tim falls over writhing in pain, we get rid of his 14 extra mirror images (which sucks up a round of my 22 strength which sucked balls). Baldin got trapped in a cage. He stuns Terra and Gildere, I ironbands of bilarro him and Baldin casts insect plague so he can't cast spells. He takes off straight up in the air and I take off after him. (Note - Baldin wouldn't have been able to cast his bug spell unless the Mage conjured up some grass.) I clear the insects just in time to see a fireball go right down below him and the incects scatter and Baldin, Tim and Gildere take some fireball damage. I swing again and hit and then...

HOLY CRAP!!!!

I stand up and i'm on the ground, I figured out that I was flesh to stoned. Terra is dead and they stick her in Gildere's bag of holding. I'm around and we go to the base of the ramp and Tim turns around and says to Baldin "Promise me you'll get me off this world."

We head in and Tim takes us to the wall where the mage goes and sees Gabriel. I passwall and we see Runes of Pain. We pass through and I start to shake and am in pain. We see Gabriel, I attempt to pick the lock but fail. This pain...REALLY IS FREAKING ANNOYING. I use my misorly Chime of Opening and get him out of the shackles. We go back through the hole in the wall and the PAIN INCREASES 2 FOLD! OMFG, now I'm shaking convulsively. We head out and the band of 6 of us head out. As we leave, Gildere flies up and finds the mage's body on top of the tower, Gildere disintegrates the body. Luckily this annoying shaking ends in about a half hour and we make it to Dugan's boat by the afternoon.

Baldin speaks to Terra (he evidently can speak to dead), she doesn't know what killed her, Gildere doesn't need any information about her tower, and we find out that she can get rez'ed at the archmage world. Gildere and Gabriel head to Terra's tower and the rest of us head to the Archmage world. On the boat, Tim attones for his deeds. When we arrive on the Archmage World, we get Terra to the clerics ASAP. A half hour later, the clerics come out to get the mage that met us. Another half hour the cleric and mage come out and explain that it was Monterro's Retaliation. Gildere disentigrated the body so we can't bring back the mage which is preventing Terra from being resurrected. Yea... at this point, gildere prevented terra from being resurrected. Endel and I head to a room they prepared for us, he seethes...whatever the hell that is.

OH HOLY CRAP!!!

We see Terra, Endel takes off for the docks where Baldin is. Terra and I have a conversation and what kind of pull does he have on this world. We then head to the boat and have an intense conversation with Endel. He said that Baldin just very recluse and wouldn't tell him what was going on. So we wait to go back to the tower. When we arrive, we see that Baldin has no symbols on his armor anymore. Endel head straight to the tower and finds a room. We all gather in the main hall and Baldin tells us that he lost all of his powers. He is no longer a healer or has any powers. He is just a straight up warrior....

....

What am I supposed to say here? He's not a healer anymore. We are all conversing with Baldin and he turns to head to his room. Gabriel pipes up and says that the weapons that are in the trunk that Gildere has are uber and will allow us to hurt Kurgan. He says that Kurgan has a Barrier of Thoth. Which means anything lower than 10th level spells can't go through it, but he can cast out of it. He also has Nova which he uses after the Warlord clears the city of high level mopes. He explains that Terra is going to learn a spell that will reverse the Barrier of Thoth so that the Nova will kill him. Gabriel says that when we are ready all we have to do is open the chest.

And that's where we end for now.

Back to the Malkeri World we go

So since Gildere was banished, we figured we had better go. yes...I think you better hand.

We make it back to the Malkeri World, farely easy. Dougan does a good job and we get there uneventful. We go and see Benedict at his place. Benedict brings out a chest and a note. The note is from Gabriel, it says that this chest contains weapons that will help us defeat Kurgan and that the next step in our quest is to free Gabriel. Nothing about going and killing the mage that is imprisoning and torturing Gabriel, just that we have to rescue Gabriel.

"So we are currently trying to formulate a plan as to how to accomplish this. And stumbling over ourselves. I guess to me it seems like we waste a lot of time sitting around and talking. I'm much more of a doer rather than a talker. Maybe that's a bad thing and a drawback of me being part of this party, but it seems we sit around and talk ALOT. Why does Kurgan need a general anyway if he's soo freaking powerful?" - Aidan

We finally decide to head out. We talk to Dougan about getting to a world where we can pick up some armor for Endel. So we are traveling and a storm hit, Dougan sends us below to our quarters. When the storm clears, he comes and gets us and we go topside. We are in a cove and Dougan tells us it's going to be awhile before we know where we are and plot a new path. So we head ashore.

It's unusually quiet on the beach and Baldin speaks to a squirrel. We find out there is another human around so we plod through forest looking around. We come upon a human in full plate with markings and a giant axe on his back. I poof before we see him (I heard a noise). The rest of the group approaches him and engages in a conversation. The conversation leads to the guy's dead wife and the forest seemed more lively when she was alive. He seems nice enough and we head to his castle.

The next day we head out to the castle, he doesn't seem weird about seeing me the next day just show up where he didn't see me the day before. He tells us that Minotaurs frequently attack his city/castle. We travel until we see his castle off in the distance with the sounds of cows in the distance. We decide to wait and he walks about 10 feet in front of us and a spectral horse appears below him. Then a spectral army appears (not skeletly) and they dispatch with the minotaurs. After the minotaurs are destroyed, we head towards the keep and to the castle doors. There are no guards at the entrance to the keep and the door is open so we head in.

We speak with the Steward/head mage for the area/head of the church/old guy that wants a pickle. We found out that there was a mage that came and saw the lord that looked out of place. We find out that the mage asked the lord if he would lead his army in exchange he would rez his wife. The lord declined and demanded that he leave.

So...we figure it's Kurgan. What we know is that so far he has spoken to two different guys that a) have ties to family dead and b) are leaders that have magical powers. Kurgan could offer each of these guys a way to possibly bring back a life and in exchange lead his army. So the behemouth that is Kurgan's general must have some ties to a dead that Kurgan is agreeing to bring back to life. It was brought up that it might be Grog, because we remember the cave with the living wall.

We head to the Armorworld and I fingale...poorly i might add...so that Endel and Gildere have new armor. I end up going from 8000 plat to 2000 plat, but they have armor and can defend themselves, etc. We head out and the plan is to back to our world and do two things...rescue Gabriel and investigate Grog's grave.

We arrive ok at Terra's tower and there appears to be a couple of people camping on the grounds. I'm weary, terra goes up and talks to them. It turns out it's Bobbie and V and they have great news for me. I was very distraught by hearing that the Platinum Halflings have been pretty much destroyed. The news that they brought offset the new of the Halflings...to a point.

We head to Grog's grave half way up assassin's peak. There is no body in the gravesite....that's where we are at.

The Adventure Continues...

We didn't update last week (which sucks) we killed the Lich, but it took us forever to figure out how to do it and we needed the help of an NPC. It wasn't our best time...ever.

We get back to Baron Rivendare's Keep and speak with Lucious. He told us of the portals that Kergan passed through. There are 7 of them and they are all located in the Scarlet Monastery to the east of here. What we know is that Kergan passed through these portals for 1000s of years, but Lucious would not tell us why he went through the portals. Obviously it was for information gathering and gaining some sort of strength.

We part ways with Lucious and Sebathius (the paladin that helped us out) and head east to the Monastery. We come upon an 80 foot wall. It looks the same as the Black Gate. Gildere casts fly and takes my magnifying glass to see if he can see over it. He can't, burns a truseeing and still can't see past the gate. He comes back and says that it might be a darkness spell.

After checking around (flying up, checking for traps, etc) we knock. The doors swing open and we speak to a guy in robes who looks like a monk. We asks us to follow and we do. There appears to be a village, a temple and other buildings. As we walk through the doors, it feels forboding. The shadows are longer than they should be and the room appears bigger than it should be. He takes us to the sitting room, as we go, Baldin looks towards the alter. Once the Monk leaves, Baldin tells us it's the church of Hades.

A little while later, a gentleman in a silk shirt/pantaloons comes into the room and asks "can I help you?" We have a conversation about the portals. Kergan spent the most time in the land of the Restful Dead. Hades (who we find out is the guy in the silk shirt/pantaloons) gives us a room for the night at the monastery while we discuss our next plan of action. As we theorize why Kergan spent extra time in the realm of the Restful Dead, it was brought up that what Kergan is doing might be doing good, in Kergan's own mind. He may be thinking that he's doing the right thing. We talk for many hours and decide that it was better going back to speak with Lucious to see if he knows why Kergan was turned away (meaning he turned and left, not that he was defeated). We appear at the gate and a lich appears and tells us that the master doesn't wish to be disturbed. We head back down the path to go where the Baron Rivendare's ghost first appeared to us. Katrina appears to us and we speak to her...for a long time. We converse and say that Gildere should cast "Vision", unfortunately he doesn't get the outcome that we were hoping for. Baldin/Endel suggest that we should go and find something of Lucious's. I step up and remind the group that, yea...he's been a death knight for a VERY long time so he won't have anything remaining. Gildere tries a second time, this time sacrificing his beloved armor (it has special powers that do stuff like cast wraithform and dimension door twice a day), again...nothing. Gildere tells us that he needs to leave this world immediately (probably a drawback of failing the spell). He leaves for the city with the pirate ship.

.....and that's where we are at.

A Gift for a Friend

Not too long ago, I came upon the unfortunate experience of death. Luckily, I know a guy named Baldin (I know, this was the same guy that in just the previous post, I was talking about not trusting me). He happens to be a paladin and they are good at bringing people back to life. I know that I could never give him anything as valuable to him as life is valuable to me, so I did the next best thing.

He had the unfortunate experience of death as well, what is worse is that his armor was ruined. When we arrived back in town, I took it upon myself to see that his armor was either repaired or he received a new set. Endel and Gildere offered to help, but I told them that I would take care of it.

I made my way to the Lord's blacksmith and spoke with Joe. Joe was the lord's steward and he and I were able to strike a deal for a new set of armor for Baldin. Spared no expense. I was even able to get some money back on the ruined armor from before. I also was able to gain recognition with that particular lord.

The armor wasn't cheap, but I was able to gain a bit of reputation and more importantly, I helped out a friend who was in need. Do I feel that I have repaid the paladin for the gift of life? No, but I feel better knowing that I was able to give back.

-Aidan