Week 21 - “Just a few questions, sir”, and some pickles.

Steve will be leaving us soon, but we have managed to find another player who has introduced "The Tool", a warforged fighter. This weeks session ran late, as the arena combat took ages but we wanted the new guy to get at least one combat in.

The party communicate to Ekaym, indicating that they need a scroll of Heal. This will take a few days to source, here in Eberron. In the meantime, they have their next fight to deal with - Pitch Blade, the dwarven triplets.

Flash does a little nosing around and discovers that Pitch Blade are straight-up dwarven barbarians who wield flaming bastard swords. Apart from that, there is not much to tell - they are mean SOBs.

The day dawns bright and nice, and Rough Diamond and Pitch Blade face off at opposite ends of the arena, some 180’ apart. The giant hourglass once again counts off the last few seconds and the teams buff. Tom has sourced another potion of Enlarge Person and towers above the field, the other party members sheltering under his kilt. The dwarves each quaff a potion that has no visible effect, another than causes eight duplicates of themselves to spring into existence, and in the final few seconds they quaff another and disappear.

The horn sounds. Frith quickly drops a Flame Strike at the location where Pitch Blade were standing. Flash casts a Dispel Magic, but what effect it mght have had he does not know. The fighters make ready to strike as soon as they see something. Mysteriously, there are no footprints in the sand running towards them. A Mystery soon eludicated: Flash cats a See Invisibility and sees the triplets rocketing toward the party through the sky. He warns his comrades and commences casting a Glitterdust. He hits one of the triplets, who is both blinded and also outlined in shimmery glitter. His mirror images, however, also duplicate his invisible-but-glittered form and so he still has that protection. His comrades, who reacted slightly more slowly than he, come down the field.

Other stuff was happening too, but as usual I forget what, exactly.

Next round, Flash manages to glitterdust the other two, and all three spend a round washing out their eyes (with a potion of Cure Moderate Wounds, in fact). Frith uses a Command spell to order one to "Fall!", and he does so, and the party hitters move in. Jericho, under the effect of an Improved Invisibility spell, calls into existence a pair of firey whips and attacks the dwarf - but strangely the whip has no effect whatever. The other party members also notice that their spells are having difficulty affecting the dwarves.

At this point, I told the players what was going on. Flash and Jericho would have worked it out by the fact that the dwarves were wearing a full 8 mirror images, meaning that the caster was high level. Loris Raknian had paid for some very expensive buffs for these guys, over and above what was they had on them. He had one of the best artifices in the city prepare 3 potions of Mirror Image, and a Greater Armour infusion (spell resistance 19) for each. Pitch Blade already had their flaming swords, and their potions of Fly and Cure Moderate Wounds.

Damn. What else hapenned?

• Eventually One of the dwarves managed to close with Flash, and hit the real Flash rather than one of his images. With one swipe, he reduced Flash to half hp, who then did something or other to run away.
• Tom took a Mighty Swing, dispelling a couple of the mirror images and I think hitting the dwarf as well.
• Frith summoned a Spiritual Hammer and siced it on one of the dwarves. It commenced to pop his mirror images like an animated pin at a child's birthday party.
• Jericho gave up on his whips, and reverted to the tried and true "rogue sneak-attacking with a dagger and improved invis", doing a stack of damage.
• One of the dwarves and Arn fought a regular melee.
• Another of the dwarves (or maybe the same one) flew down next to Frith and took a swipe, doing a stack of damage.
• Flash Suggested to one of the dwarves that he ascend and take a panoramic view of the oval. he did so - disqualifying himself - and flew back down.
• Frith used a Greater Command to order all the dwarves to "Fall!".
• Flash used Suggestion again, but this time suggested that the dwarf ascend and keep going.
• Arn killed his foe outright in fair battle.
• Tom or Jericho reduced one of the others to unconciousness, who was then stabiized by Frith.

And so - one member of Pitch Blade was killed outright, one was reduced to unconciousness but saved by Frith's prompt action, and one is flying above the towers of Sharn, soon to go splat when his Fly spell expires.

The party once again ascend the podium stairs. If Raknian is upset, he gives no sign. He awards a silver trophy, and a prize of cash to the manager. The party retire to the Coenoby.

Downstairs, Ekaym arrives with the prize money and - far more importantly - a scroll of Heal, purchased at terrific expense. Perhaps now they will get some answers.

Meanwhile ...

Officer Tool of the watch has been observing. Tool does not work for Raknian, he is simply one more-or-less independent cop assigned to keep the peace in and around the games. There were a number of irregularities in this battle - the plain animus between the parties, the dwarf who rejoined combat after disqualifying himself by flying above the 40' limit, and of course the death of one of the combatants. While deaths do occur as part of the champion's games, and Lord knows this ain't some nanny state where people are not allowed to risk their own lives doing silly things, nevertheless deliberate murder or duels to the death inside the city must be investigated and (an absolute minimum of) paperwork filled in. Public ones, anyway. And so Officer Tool also goes down to the Coenoby, meeting the party and their manager Ekaym.

Some role-playing commences, and your humble DM politely butts out, apart from suggesting that the party not simply give the cop the brush-off as (out-of-game) he is supposed to join them.

The party admit to Tool that they have reason to believe that Raknian is trying to get them killed, and further that he is involved in a vast and terrible conspiracy to bring about one of the many prophesied apocalypses. As for evidence … well, they have this mad guy right here, to whom they are about to administer a Heal spell brought by their manager.

Frith reads the scroll and casts the spell. The madman - Strop - is effusively grateful. He was merely a street person, kidnapped and brought to a cell - he does not know where. There he saw a horror. Someone with tiger-like eyes placed a green worm on his mate - Sloughy. In less than a minute this worm had burrowed into Sloughy, multiplying to the point where worms were crawling in and out of the orifices of his face, consuming his flesh which regenerated as fast as it was eaten. The party recognises this description, having seen already the Spawn of Kyuss in the basement of Blackwall Keep. Flash, too, connects the man with tiger-like eyes with the Rakshasa - evil beings from ancient times. Stop can tell them little more, but that the man smelled faintly of rotten meat and pickles.

Pickles? Pickles? Perhaps ... vinegar? Flash recalls one of the rooms they saw above in the service level - a room full of wine flasks, some of which were off. The party resolve to return to the room - no problem at all, as Officer Tool has an Access All Areas pass.

Interestingly, last week Bevis suggested that the vinegar might be there to hide the smell of undeath. "Pickles" was the best I could do, although today's fast-food pickles have precious little of the stuff in them. I suppose an alternative might have been "fish and chips".

Jericho searches the room and discovers that one of the shelves is mounted on a swivel. Behind it is a landing and a staircase. He searches this landing for traps, only just (juuust…) discovering a powerful Glyph of Warding. He disables it, and Flash and Frith determine that it would have fired a Slay Living spell - an immensely powerful and evil necromantic enchantment. The party decide to rest overnight and tackle this new area fresh - leaving the possibility of discovery more or less to chance.

Next day, the party (which now includes Tool) form up and head towards the stairs. Jericho descends the stairs and opens the door at the base. Behind it are three Spawn of Kyuss. He quickly shuts the door and calls for Frith. Frith opens the door (the spawn have moved forward) and calls upon the power of his gods, destroying the dark power that animates them. The worms in the spawn survive for a moment more, but without undead flesh to feed on quickly die.

The party enter the rooms here. There are coffins, and some sacks. The coffins show signs of recent use, and the sacks contain traces of sand - undoubtedly from the arena above. Frith decides to Detect Undead. To the east, beyond a door at the end of a corridor, is an overwhelming aura of undeath - far stronger than the kyuss spawn. Flash casts Clairvoynace to see what is beyond the door.

Beyond are six kyuss spawn and a horror - a creature looking like a gaunt, nearly skeletal corpse, its rib cage filled with horrid, writhing viscera and with a long, cartilaginous and clawed toungue.

First, they deal with any immediate threats around them. Behind them is some sort of waste-disposal pit, odiferous and with night soil clinging to the sides. To the north is a short corridor that ends in a door. Tom elects to toss the coffins down the pit. But nothing much happens.

And so, the training room. Frith bursts through the door, destroying three of the Kyuss spawn. Tom succumbs to the fear aura, and flees. Arn does not, and Tool does not, as the powers of these particular undead hold no horrors for one made of wood and steel. Flash casts Ray of Dizziness, limiting the Morhg's ability to act. Tool and Arn advance on it. It attempts to paralyse Arn with its toungue, but fails. Instead, Arn swings and connects, doing considerable damage. Flash runs off after Tom, and Frith destroys the remaining three Kyussspawn. Tom, now freed of the fear, turns back - but it's all over. Tool swings, and kills it the all rest of the way dead.

And so it stands. There is still the rest of the level to do, and discovery of what Raknian is really up to. It's pretty dreadful, so stay tuned!