Ab'Hara Thahn

So there you are, face to face with Esai who has possessed the body of a nine-year-old girl, and (s)he is telling you that you have done a wonderful job of throwing the world into a state of chaos. Now won't you all just help him light the Ab'Hara Thahn forge so he can complete a small little project?

How on earth did you get HERE?

It all begins with that cool tunnel that lit up and did funny things to your runic items. The tunnel lead into the Runic Temple of the Ab'Hara Thahn forge, not to be confused with Khul-Thahn Forge. What you all figured out over the course of time was that the temple was laid out in the form of the Tree of Life. In the first room on the inside of the runic circle on the floor were a set of 10 stone cylinders arranged as if they were on the hour positions of a clock; 12 and 6 were blank spaces without anything at all. Silus used his split phase powers to make 9 copies of himself and he pulled all the cylinders out at once. Once removed, the metallic rune circle rotated around nearly a full revolution. The holes where the cylinders had been closed up and a slot opened up at the six o'clock position.

Each cylinder had a number on the bottom, 1 though 10, and with the help of Mirella, Agar, and Landros you figured out how the cylinders must be arranged in the temple. You made it is far as the “Knowledge” room which left you with three more cylinders to put in place. This room houses a library of scrolls: some seem to itemize things made at the forge while another set of documents seems to include extensive directions on how to use the forge. It was at this point that you realized you had company. A number of demonic little beasties were gathering in the Kingdom room (secret passage ways behind the fireplaces) presenting you with a dilemma. Do you go ahead and just complete powering up the forge, or do you deal with the bad guys first?

You decided to try to take out some of the monsters, which went pretty well, but the thing is, they are just blocking the only exit out of the temple. This is when the crowd parts and a nine-year-old girl in tattered rags with dark, sunken eyes appears and asks you to follow her as she walks up to the Crown. Powering up the forge is easy she goes on to say, but she still needs Eldvod for some part of the process and she wants you to use it to light this forge for her. Oki suspects that Esai-En-Dar is actually nearby.

Other things of note that you have learned: Ab'Hara Thahn is a Third Order Forge. The implication is that there are many forges of different “Orders”. Oki strongly suspects that Atai is a higher, Fourth Order runic item.

D'Agshalem

Node, Khouri and Agar went to work to try to repair Theoninn. Supplies are limited of things like optic cable and multiconductor (24,32, 48 pin) interconnects, and you are right out of LCD/plasma screen displays. So, while you can regain a fair amount of funcionality, things will not be perfect. Fortunately, most critical engine and life support systems use analog gages. Flight attitude, slip and elevation have basic gyro, vacuum and pitot-static driven gages. Advanced flight instruments for IFR flight are offline.

The rest of the party (Farallon, Oki, Landros, and Silus) uses Raven and Vaka to locate Lodos and Treasda. What remains of the captured Theoninn crew (Mirella, Treasda, Svarturinn and Ginsberg) are being force marched by a dozen Gromeks up into the mountains a couple hundred miles south of Marhund. Landros uses Vaka to look through Treasda's eyes to suss out a good attack point. The original plan involves having Oki and Landros banf in half the party in front of the Gromeks and half behind. Unfortunately (?) Void latches onto a passing thought of Farallon's and you all arrive in style in the Mako directly in front of the Gromeks. Another bit of wishful thinking and fate conspires to make killing the Gromeks easier than taking candy from a baby.

Mirella's lost her ring and pinkie finger of her right hand (she is a lefty). Treasda has been thoroughly beaten, and Ginsberg and Svarturinn are in no better shape. However, thanks to the Healing Circle cast by Landros, everyone got better quickly.

Mirella knew of an old Dwarven ruin in the mountains; you all suspect that is both where the prisoners were being taken and where Lodos (and Abassi) have been hidden. The other four prisoners of the Gromeks (a merchant, etc.) have become replacements for your old, dead red-shirts. A short journey onward and you came to a ravine which leads to the great silver doors of D'Agshalem.

The main entrance corridor has a vaulted ceiling and an upper hidden gallery with arrow slits that look onto the hallway. Obviously the defensive architecture of this location suggests is was built sometime during the Great War. The middle of the corridor is intersected by a circular room with a portculis at either end. Oki walked into the room and set off a trap which brought both gates down, trapping her there. She used her various powers to ascertain how the device worked and reported that info to Silus who then used Chronos to rewind time before Oki set off the trap. Silus then related to everyone what would happen if they went forward...

The work around involved levitating various party members across the room; these folks then went around and found the gate controls and disarmed the system by wedging an iron spike in the gears of the machine. At this point it was safe for everyone to cross the circular room.

Exploring the underground city you quickly found the 'throne room' which then lead, room by room, to a secret door and passage way. This brought you to some sort of ancient dwarven 'office' building of some sort which you found your way out of in short order. “Outside” of this building you find yourselves in a massive cavern with a series of waterfalls and a river running through it. Other buildings of various types are carved into the cavern walls giving t he sense of a real city built underground. Further wandering and you find a field of glowing flowers that have obscured an stone pathway (sort of) that leads to a circular metal double door. This door leads to a temple.

The corridor beyond the door is also circular and the walls are covered in runes. All the runes glow in a wave down the hall, pulse, and then glow softly. Farallon enters first; as he takes a few steps in, various runes along the walls light up in vibrant colors. He takes out Eldvöð and the runes along the blade project off like 3D holograms, revealilng another dimension to the shape of the letters. Landros enters the corridor and attempts to use his past sight ability, but is overwhelmed by seeing all past events simultaneously – so he steps back out.

A quick view of the past reveals that Ililsus and about 40 of his henchman entered the temple area only a couple of days ago. And, of course, the energy signature of Lodos is coming from within.

Anskut

You had been trapped in a temple wrapped in a nightmare hosted by Anskut, the baalrog that was working for Ililsus.

You had decided that the "crying baby" in the cell at the end of the corridor was most likely a trap, so you went in the opposite direction. The smooth cut stone walls gave way to rough, natural stone. A spell or toxin of some sort was present and temporarily incapacitated Agar. Farallon sacrificed his cloak to be used as a sort of rug so that you could all drag the very heavy and limp Agar along with you.

After a short journey you found yourselves in a large open cavern. There was evidence that this place was used for sacrifice...human sacrifice. Three diverging passage ways lead from the cavern toward what you hoped might be the surface. Only a few steps in the direction of freedom, and you saw dozens of demonic beasts coming for you from what you had hoped was an escape path. Landros quickly threw down a circle of protection.

Then, from behind you came the horrible slow stomping of the baalrog. Oki grabbed and joined the two parts of Atai. As a team you all made very quick work of Anskut, despite the fact that he was wielding Void.

Ah, Void....

Farallon now has Void.

But there was more: you learned from Anskut and some random clothing and body parts that the alternate team in Theoninn had been captured.

You immediately traced down Theoninn, damaged and partly sunk in marsh flats of a river delta just outside of Marhund. The ship was ransacked, and there is much work to do to put it back together again. Ginsberg had escaped capture by hiding in the Raven chamber; he explained that he and the others had been tricked by a fake distress call from Farallon.

So Mirella, Treasda, and the others are missing. Presumably held hostage somewhere or dead. You at least have the digit of Mirella to show that some form of torture has been going on. Now you must find your friends - if they are still alive.

Updates...

Wow, I didn't realize how long it had been since an update! I feel as though some intervening got lost somehow. Sorry about that...

Well, really quickly, you returned to Palladium and found Aja under seige by forces from you local demon temple at Naylon. Actually, the city was deserted and it looked as though maybe everyone escaped through the rift point in the main facility, but the corridors in there kind of reminded you all of the inner depths of Naylon, which seems ominous, so maybe they did not have a happy ending. The gem was a nuclear warhead parked right there by the doors, timer ticking away. You easily disarmed the timer and took the warhead with you.

Next, you returned to the site of your last run in with Echo and those crazy crow beasts. By following the underground limestone caverns you were able to find and reunite the entire party.

Then on the agenda was wiping out Echo by using the warhead. It took a while to hammer out the logistics, but you nailed it and vaporized Echo. This also means that Necros is buried under tons of radioactive rubble deep inside the mountain, so it is unlikely anyone will retrieve this any time soon.

You know that Anskut and Illilsus are still hunting for you, so you decided to return to Marhund to confront them. You re-entered the temple and made your way deep inside and found yourselves in a small room, tucked neatly inside a deep illusion....

and that's where I get a little hazy, so if any of you remember details, let me know.