Orhan 5 Day 34 (Continued)

When last we saw our heroes, they were wandering around in the abandoned temple of Cay, studiously avoiding the plot. Suddenly we decide to stop fleeing from the plot and go back to the door with the iron bands. D. checks for traps. There are no traps. D. tries to pick the lock. That doesn't work. Oathar asks his staff of Cay if we could please go though. It think about this for a minute, "Those who are worthy may pass the magical barrier."

Vallandra touches the door with the holy symbol of Cay that was given to us. The magical barrier bends a bit. Jack tries to use some form of unspeakable power to open the door, but the door is unimpressed by his cries of "OPEN!" We flounder for a bit. We decide to go search the whole throne again. Vallandra sits in the throne. From the throne, she sees a little release catch, and presses the button and it goes click and opens the secret door. The fire pit blazes up even higher. There's a secret corridor going to the West. But first, a Greater Fire Elemental shows up and tries to smite Vallandra even though she's wearing the holy symbol. Sigh.

It turns out to be superlarge so things aren't so good for us. Haeraan and Kyrik bash it a bit. Oathar shoots a slaying waterbolt. Haeraan finally smashes it with his mighty strength. Vallandra meanwhile is unconscious. Imre works on it a bit. While unconscious, Jack mind reams her but doesn't tell any of us.

We go back to examining the secret room. We head down the corridor. We hear a click, and the door closes behind us. The room starts filling with a Death Cloud. Oathar blows the death cloud backwards while the party runs forwards, but sadly Jack already ran backwards to the locked door. Jack gets quite zapped. Imre dives in and pulls him right out.

This path leads to more passages. Bah! Seeing this and being disenheartened, Jack goes back to try his unspeakable powers once more. But no, it still doesn't work.

Then he casts some spells and says, there's an undead of level 25 down there. Oathar thinks it's the ghost of the high priest and we'll have to talk the key out of him. Haeraan thinks about this for a while. The staff of Cay says the high priest was named Esmerla. She died in sorrow. She was in love with Innlotu Pohal.

Jack thinks he could talk to the ghost. He casts some spells. "He will be protected. I am his protector. He will be protected. I am his protector..." Oh dear. Jack tries some diplomacy, but the ghost doesn't change her tune.

We are so scared of the ghost that we go back, and Oathar casts portal on the Door. It portals since he had the staff and the symbol of Cay. We go down the corridor and find a hole covered by an old rusted door. Power perception yiels lot's of arcane magic. There's a nice meadow with birdies and stuff on the other side. Oathar goes through but brushes the edge of the hole and it slides down an inch or so. Oathar come out and pushes the "hole" to the side revealing a corridor on the other side. We push the hole completely to one side and head down the corridor. Damn it's back where we started. The nine doors (study, rubble, rubble with skeleton, crystal orb split in two, garbage, library, bathroom, dining area, storage area), rubble pile has a small room to the south. We need to crawl over the rubble pile to get to the small room. Sealed with silver.

Frustrated, Imre consults destiny. "You should face and pass the priestess." Sigh, we go that way. The ghost rises up clutching the wand and the broadsword. The staff starts to glow. Oathar starts tipping the staff forward that it might intersect her. She attacks the staff with her sword and there's a blinding flash for 10 seconds. We hear a ghostly scream. She's standing there with the wand and sword and frozen. Behind her is a bathroom with a secret door leading to a small cubicle with 20 small chests neatly stacked about the walls? Bah. People look for hidden openings. It's fruitless. D. picks a chest. It opens. Inside there is a piece of a mirror. Opening the other chests we reassemble a rectangular mirror. It sure is a mirror. The staff says those are the pieces of the mirror of the gate. They can only be assembled by the direct touch of Cay. We decide to bring them back too.

We find a secret passage back to the down that leads to a door of shining steel. A message in several languages. "Enter not the resting place of those beloved of Cay." Etched below that in an unsteady hand "unless you be the prophesied raiser of the Paladin Pohal."

We go back upstairs and start looking for keys. It's a crazy frenzy of key finding destruction. A skeleton has a ring on it. Nice set of cookware (10 pieces)in the kitchen complete with runes. Library crumbles out over us.

We suddenly realize that there are no keys and start picking locks. Oathar portals it. There are constructs there, they ignore us because we have robes. We try the center of three doors. It leads to a rusted door. We try the right door. It's locked. Left is locked too. D. unlocks the right door. D. unlocks the left door. Catacombs on the right. The right hand catacombs lead a long ways. We set off a catacomb trap. We run away from it. It casts sprint on itself (damn boulder) and chases faster. We jump into the corpse niches with the corpses. Yay! The ball goes by and smashes through stuff taking out th eleft catacombs too. There's an octagonal chamber! We look for the southwest door! (see diary before.) We go through the southwest door.

It meanders around. There's a crypt! Lined with drawers. We look for Innlohu Pohal. He's not there. There are two doors. North door not locked. East door is locked. North door leads another locked North door. Haeraan picks it. Another crypt. Ten foot tall metal statues with maces. The statues follow us with their eyes as we go North. We pick another door, and go through finding an Earth Guardian. We wail on it. It dies. We go past it. We go left. We open the double doors. Four pillars support a high ceiling. It's quite the place. A blue laen sarcophagus. Wow. We read our scroll. We do the ritual. The lid of the coffin slides back. Innlotu Pohal raises up an arm and takes an unsteady step forward. Then he slumps forward into D.'s arms. He starts glowing red at his feet and the glow moves up his body. He turns black and becomes a dark elf. He smiles with his sharp and pointy teeth. His body is encased in black demonic armor. He thanks us for our incompetence. The staff doesn't know who that is. "It has come to pass! Fools! I was placed here at the end of the wars of dominion and waited here for the time of the return.We corrupted a priest of Cay and the body of your beloved paladin was switched. Our agent planted the prophesy. I am Xiax. I will rule. Soon my Lord Lorgalis will rule and I shall rules by his side. Fools! The crowns can not stand against us. Lorgalis is power incarnate. And now it is my time." We unload on him. He laughs at us. (AT 12 DB 80 Complete with demon armor).

Orhan 5 Day 43

We flee. We leave with the Mirror of the Gate. We report to the council. 6000 years ago, you guys were screwed, and it's not our fault. "Behold the Mirror of the Gates." "Behold the Staff of Cay." They give us 200 Gold each! We also got a Magic ring from a skeleton.

In between the session, Anton comes up to us. He knew it was a deception all along. He suggests we leave town. We go to the Knight's Dream to "talk." Anton thinks it's time that we gained some oversight and backing. We listen. "We think it's time you came under our tutelage. I am a loremaster. It is time you be introduced and recruited by the loremasters." They will provide us training and we'll preform tasks. He talks about the wars of dominion. We need to be ready for the next one. We should go with him to Griffin College in North Rakhan in the Duchy of Prevan.Jack truths him a lot. He's telling us the truth.

We put our affairs in order for an afternoon. Let's talk about this as we travel.

Orhan 5 Day 53

We get to Kyrik's family lands. His third brother, James, is in charge as everyone is in armies or otherwise engaged. But in fact, even he's traveled North to Haeraan's place to investigate some rumors. Fighting on the Zorian border. Western border stripped bare. A whole bunch of independent warlords in the west have become more active.

Orhan 5 Day 68

We get to Haeraan's place. Haeraan's brother comes out and greets us. He's smarmy and junkie. Haeraan has secret meetings with his family. So does Kyrik. Some riders show up, led by a young woman. She's dressed in riding clothes with a glowing sphere (Cornelia?). Behind her is a woman in a black cloak (Xin?). Behind her ride a pair of what appear to be servants (Talks to D. in thieves cant.). We start having fits. Anton seems interested. Haeraan's mother says his brother is expecting guests that are involved in some plan he's cooking up. Up in the tower appears a Loar woman (Vallandra's little sister.) Imre tries to flee, but is restrained. But his restraint slips and Imre starts to flee. Cornelia grabs Imre and tries to calm him down. She wraps an arm around Imre's waist. "Ooh, I like this one." A high pitched voice, "Imreee! Imre, is that you? That is you, my, my, my." Now Anton looks confused. Woeful woe ensues for Imre.

Apparently, Vallandra's sister is here to arrange weapons shipments for Haeraan's brother.

We effectively get 5th level. (But not until we leave this place and go to the college.)