Iuz makes an appearance

Late on day 4 of the Temple investigation, you're back together. Resting, memorising, planning, and doing push-ups.

Looks like someone has come to find out what happened to Falrinth. A late night wandering wizard was caught short and found himself on the end of Arnie's sword.

Wizard: "Wall of Fie-yarr - ha HAAAAA!!!"

Arnie: pauses <shrug>

Wizard: "Huh? You just walked straight through my Wall of...." <gurgle>

Yeeup. Arnie's bad-ass.

Oh - and Sahrim - nice work on the Detect Poison. Yeah. That was a *good* idea. I mean we all know how much dwarves like to quaff poison BUT...

DAY 5

Ok. Here's the plan. We go in - front door - start punching guys in the face. Their friends come. We kill them. We kill their friends. We take their stuff. Don't talk to me about strategy son, *I* know strategy. I know heaps of it.

OR

We disguise someone as that wizard, who kinda looked important around here, and lure a few bad guys out, killing them swiftly and quietly. When we can see a hole in their defences, we conceal ourselves and sneak in, springing our trap on the unsuspecting guards.

We also take out one of their commanders in his sleep, go toe-to-toe with Iuz the Evil and a few minions for a couple of rounds just to see what he's made of, then organise a diversion whilst an agent of good planted deep inside the temple shows us to an escape route where we can re-group.

What will we use as a diversion? Easy. We just happen to have a beagle, who is actually a hydra, but who *thinks* he's a beagle. We dispel him back into a hydra, and make our grand escape.

Press "play" on that one!

---

Well as it turns out, plan B is the better one.

What next then?

The Guru has been recalling, slowly, parts of a poem that seems to relate to the Temple and the powers within.

Kella (your secret agent on the inside) has also told you about the existence of portals somewhere in the lower levels that lead to elemental planes. Although some lead directly to the plane - a potentially lethal environment - some lead to elemental "nodes". Although the nodes are no doubt hostile, they are potentially habitable, and may contain the secrets to eradicating the evil in the temple and surrounds.

But what about that mysterious part of level 3 that you know about but have struggled to access? What about those brass-bound doors? Have you missed something critical here, or are you best to leave it alone and come back to it?

You've suppressed the factional elements on the upper levels effectively, and even hurt the Greater Temple guard. But with Iuz on the prowl and god knows what else, how long will it be before new, stronger factions emerge from the seemingly endless supply of evil-doers passing through Nulb and the surrounding areas.

TheDM.

Comments

[TheDM]

Yeah look I've checked the records and that Lysander is bloody useless with regards to elemental protections/existing in elemental planes etc. Just not designed for it. Bloody sea elves. Hopeless.

Where is that Druid by the way? Haven't seen him around on the blog lately. We have to be careful what we call him too these days as I think he is a shapechange away from being an actual "Druid" as per the players handbook, and not a mere "initiate".

[Owen]

Taran has a ring of fire resistance and a ring of aquatic adaption. Don't think Lysander has anything of use.

Really, it's all about the drood here ain't it.

[Pan]

We also need to find out who in the party has elemental protections. Pan has a Necklace of Adaption that may come in handy

[Owen]

I think we should have Pan (and Lysander?) run recon on level four during the last watch of the night. That way, we'll have some idea of what Iuz has been up to, and the casters will have some intelligence to work from when preparing spells for the day. Taran has oil of etherealness which could be used for scouting. (This stuff can hopefully be resovled via weblog.)

Once rested, I think the approach would be:
• Avoid another confrontation with Iuz by moving discreetely.
• Investigate the portals to the elemental nodes, discover which lead to nodes and which lead to elemental plane proper.
• Go to each node and retrieve the keys from each.
(This stuff probably requires another face to face.)

[Pan]

Whoever is on watch wears the ring of invis and carries the pouches of Dust of Appearance.

[TheDM]

So rest overnight in dungeon - back at Falrinth's rooms?
The trap-setters then will likely be Lotto, The Guru, maybe Sahrim?
And after resting, barrell through the rest of level 4, or do you have other priorities?

["Lord"Taran]

In addition to the achievements listed in the post, I though it pertinent to reiterate that Taran made 9th. NAME LEVEL!!! You may now refer to Taran as "Lord" Taran, as per the Player's Handbook™.

Ok, so we're agreed that we should rest for the night, and I see no reason to deviate from previous resting arrangements. I guess resolving any traps we want to leave behind us is the next step here. Anyone?

[Pan]

Roger that. I say we keep the backup plan open that if it all turns bad, we leap through that teleport mirror back to Hommlett and Chris follows by grabbing the mirror and doing his own teleport.
We also will have to set up some serious traps in the corridor. Have we got any wards memorised from the clerics?

[TheDM]

Some reasons to push on then are that you have defeated a significant number of the Temple's forces, and may have a surprise advantage still.
But, is your cover blown now that Iuz has been summoned? And how many are left down here? If it is only a few, then can you afford to rest, do any *actual* levelling (not just the "pre-train" rule), and perhaps gather any other items, intel, or resources?
Have you explored enough of the upper levels now? Are you ready to plunge through the gates to the nodes/planes? How will you know which gate goes to where? What are the consequences of failure?
What happens if Iuz comes looking for you? And what actually happened to Iuz when the beagle-hydra appeared?
Hmmm...tough decisions to be made. Wouldn't want to be you.

[Owen]

I think we should definitely press on whilst we have some semblance of advantage. The longer we leave it, the more resistance we'll face.

Here are some useful notes that I made after our discussion with Kella (Agent of Good).

• There are four nodes in the temple that lead to elemental nodes.
• The paths to these nodes lead off from room 419.
• However some paths lead to the elemental plane proper - that's bad.
• What you want is the node which is like a link to the elemental plane.
• These should contain the keys to plug into the golden orb of death which can then be used to destroy Iuz and the temple.

At this stage, I think another rest is in order - we threw a lot at Iuz. However, we should run regular recon of level four, and be prepared to slip through to the portals to the elemental plane nodes once we're rested.

[jase]

Is this the point where we pull out of here?