Mettle and Mind

9th Day of Goodmonth, CY 592

The Calling
Imix had told us that in two day’s time, the Ritual of Unmaking was to take place. We spent the first twelve hours resting and preparing for the dragon and the three challenges. Creden readied the Feast of the Saint, while the rest of us planned our day’s work.

Vannay called the ghaele, Rowenar, from Arvandor to help us in our task. He gave a summary explanation of what our group had been through, and what still lay before us. He said that the cult is dangerously close to attempting to free Tharizdun, and though we are a powerful group, we may not be able to defeat Imix on our own. Vannay put it plainly, “We need help.”

Vannay decided that the ghaele would be more likely to help us if we did not anchor him into the calling circle prepared by Creden. It was a good idea, because that is the first thing Rowenar mentioned. The ghaele said that his kind would normally not interfere with the affairs of our world, but the head of his order had spoke of the “destructive tide threatening to wash over our world”. Rowenar went on to say that the First of the Seldarine, Corellon Larethian, looks fondly upon his elf children. So for that reason, Rowenar was willing to help us. He only asked that a donation be made to the elven church after the task is complete.

The Dragon
Any battle with a dragon is dangerous. Most dragon hunters (those who live long enough) say you must find an advantage. If you can show up ready to give battle, and the dragon is not, then the advantage is yours. The dragon, Ixenkurik, could not determine when we would exit the magnificent mansion, so we had just what we needed.

Rowenar, a summoned air elemental and an illusion of Victor closed with the dragon. The dragon breathed fire on them, but the protections held. Delvanos let loose with a volley of arrows dealing great damage. The dragon managed to get a full attack on (the real) Victor, but that was his last action. The next volley of arrows from Delvanos dropped the dragon to the ground. The hard fall finished Ixenkurik.

Ten Stones
We pressed on to the first of the three challenges.

Two armor clad efreet were in the room. One of them explained that each challenge was made up of a guardian, a puzzle and a “high price for failure”. The genies were ordered by Imix to design all three of the challenges, and they were the guardians of the first one.

The battle commenced, and Safadin managed to drop the talkative genie with a cold orb right to his face. Uthgar nearly fell into a concealed lava pit, but he was enchanted with a fly spell. We closed with the second one, but he turned ethereal before we could attack him. We readied actions for his return, but when he returned he had multiple images of himself. We destroyed all of them, but he feebleminded Vannay before we finished him off.

Victor went and collected Safadin and the babbling archmage, while Creden and Delvanos examined the puzzle. The writing on the wall said:

Ten little stones point to the west,
Change their direction in three moves or less,
Take heed of this warning and measure the cost,
Failure while trying and all protection is lost.

Creden spent a few moments looking at it, and came up with a solution. The rest of us gathered around the puzzle with a short diversion of Victor dropping Safadin on another one of the lava pits. Luckily, he had immunity to fire and succeeded on staying afloat long enough to fly out. We all agreed with the solution, and Creden moved the stones. The first challenge was complete. Rowenar healed Vannay and we moved on.

Fiery Pudding
We moved into the next room, which looked quite similar to the first. The main difference was a huge lava pudding hanging on the ceiling. Safadin and Creden recognized it as being similar to a much smaller version they encountered in the bowels of the Hellfurnace Mountains. It was conflagration ooze.

Creden sent Cuthbert’s Grasping Hand up to grapple the ooze. The hand succeeded on the grapple check, but the ooze did not seem to be affected a great deal. It did turn out to be a good idea though, since the pudding’s ability to grapple the rest of us was diminished. It did manage to burn Rowenar’s blood, before our combined efforts destroyed it. Unfortunately, it exploded spraying lava over several of us when it was killed. Uthgar and Rowenar were weakened considerably by the fiery toxin racing through their veins.

Now we just had to do a bit of healing, and then we could attempt to solve the second puzzle.