Decision Making Under Uncertainty

Episode Eleven: With or Without You

AK 594/9/25 (1974 PK)

Death's deposits

Beyond the last pillar lay a force wall, and beyond that was a 20'x20' dead end. The two side walls were covered with small safety deposit boxes (one of which was supposed to hold the circlet Sunset was focused on), the far wall had a control panel with markings in a language nobody present recognized (perhaps githyanki), and the floor was marked with the githyanki version of a pentagram (think of a thaumaturgic circle with small triangles coming off the main one -- two on one edge, one on another, like githyanki arms). Ganeth thought the githigram could double the mass limit of a teleport spell, but he worried that it might be programmed into a local network of teleport platforms and not allow unrestricted transit.

After a lot of deliberation, the party decided that trying to drop the astral shields was still their most productive course of action, so Silvana bypassed the force wall (dropping it for a turn) and went to work on the control panel, Yves started trying to pick his way into boxes, Beeel and Lorcan retrieved the githiborg's beam cap in case the party was trapped behind the wall of force, Ganeth cast his remaining Det Invis and started scanning for trouble, and Frankel successfully hid in the shadows (which he found very exciting).

Yves failed to pick the first lock he tried, but Sunset got a feeling about where the circlet was and directed him to another box. Silvana got the cover of the control panel off and found a glowing glass globe inside, with a lot of fiberoptic cables (some with astral or ethereal extensions) and live electrical wires hooked up to it. Lorcan tried on the mesh cap and was blessed with a set of eight targeting lines in his visual field and a sense that the beam would fire on mental command; he also found it could detect invisible objects when he was thinking about it.

After a few rounds, Silvana finished detrapping the glass globe and pulled it out of the control box. The astral barrier dropped and all of the safes opened, spewing death fog laced with a paralytic agent into the room. Lorcan burned the fog away with a wall of fire, but in the commotion, a small blue starfish jumped out of the safe nearest Yves (which did in fact hold the circlet) and attached itself to him. A tetrahedron in another box started shrieking in a stunning and damaging sonic sort of way, and a snake jumped out of that box and dropped a holy damage on the area, killing the starfish and royally pissing off both Sunset and Yves, who each indicated that if the snake didn't go away, they'd kill it. (As far as Yves was concerned, taking random holy damage was definitely not something he'd signed on for.) Meanwhile, the snake sent out empathic waves of thanks to all the assembled Good folks who didn't have mind shielding.

Frankel examined the snake and found that it was attached to an armband; he was able to communicate with it on some level and convince it not to breathe any more holy damage for the time being, which improved Yves' state of mind. Silvana and Ganeth used the thief's hand to dump the shrieking tetrahedron into an extradimensional pouch. Lorcan temporarily brought Beeel back from the edge with an aid spell. Ganeth noticed a lot of astral worms converging on the area -- if Elbleem's speculation about the Thin Man's symbiote is correct, along with the rakshasa's recollection of the Thin Man lurking in a Death Temple, then one might speculate that the astral barrier was hiding a secret Asmodeus shrine from prying extraplanar eyes. (Apparently there are no dedicated Asmo temples per se; his followers subtly subvert existing temples away from other gods.) Sunset proposed that Yves put on the circlet and let her possess him again so she could word of recall them out of the temple; Yves picked up the circlet (which was cool to the touch) but didn't put it on.

Sunset:

"This place is rapidly becoming unpleasant. What are you waiting for?"

Yves:

"In spite of everything, they're still my associates."

Sunset:

"It seems unlikely that they will want to tag along to Marakeel, my friend."

Yves:

"True, but I must at least help them escape this place."

Silvana:

"If you wish to leave, go."

Sunset:

"Thanks, but I'm not going alone. Put it on."

Yves:

"Would you be willing to cast spells to help their escape?"

Silvana:

"We prefer that Sunset not cast, since it's not clear who her targets are. Also, please wait until you get farther away from us before donning the circlet."

Sunset: [to Silvana]

"I see that you trust some dumb good minion over an intelligent person such as I."

Silvana:

"I trust Lawful Evil completely. A Lawful Evil will always act in such a way to optimize her own chances of success, without considering those around her."

Yves:

"You make Lawful Evil sound indistinguishable from Chaotic!"

Silvana:

"In many ways it is."

Ganeth:

"Lawful Evil plans ahead more."

Yves:

"Sunset has made her goals clear; she will not act randomly to upend them. I do not fear her using me against the party against my will. If she does, she will answer for it."

Sunset:

"My word of recall will not carry all of them with us. It is clear that your former associates have a clear bias against me. Let us depart on amicable terms."

Yves:

"Could you at least take away the most wounded members?"

Sunset:

"Back to the temple in Marakeel?"

Silvana:

"No thanks."

Yves:

"Is that the only destination?"

Sunset:

"Unfortunately for your associates, yes."

Yves:

"Then perhaps that is not the spell we are looking for."

Sunset:

"No, it is exactly the spell we are looking for. It is not the spell they are looking for."

Yves:

"I recall an unused Power Word still about."

Sunset:

"You want me to Power Word Stun an associate?"

Yves:

"No, as part of an escape plan, against some other foe."

Sunset:

"I would gladly assist your ungrateful associates in their escape, except that we are leaving from here."

Yves:

"I have no intention to leave without them, and it seems you can't leave without me. We've got an impasse."

Sunset:

"We have a temporary conflict of interest. You can rejoin the party at a later date. I would prefer to do this willingly, but if needed, I will possess you by force, Yves."

Yves: [indicating Silvana]

"Even with her nearby?"

Sunset:

"We have come a long way together. She will not interfere in this matter unless you seek her help. As a Neutral, she holds no sway over you, I believe..."

Silvana:

"We can get out okay."

Sunset:

"This is not your concern, elf."

Silvana:

"Take your armor before you go."

[The snake, perhaps sensing anger, starts looking intently at Sunset. Yves does a last scan for spiders.]

Yves:

"Was that box taken care of? Was it a power source?"

Silvana:

"Yes, we deactivated it. The astral shield is down. The wall of force is down. We're not sure what effects it will have."

Frankel:

"It did accomplish something, some undead got their souls released. That's always something."

[Yves sheathes his sword and picks up his armor.]

Sunset:

"I am going to enter your mind now. Say goodbye to your friends. You are about to embark on a very successful career."

Frankel:

"Bye, Yves. Was good knowing you."

Silvana:

"Good luck in Marakeel. Guess you should have learned Eastern Common instead of Orcish."

Sunset:

"I am sure that we will meet again."

Silvana:

"Is that a threat?"

[The party leaves the vault while Sunset merges with Yves.]

Sunset/Yves:

"Thank you."

We don't know if Sunset/Yves made it out through all the astral traffic.

The retreat

As the party moved back through the pillars, Aunt Exelia decided she was still feeling ornery.

Exelia:

"None shall pass."

Frankel:

"Last chance to have your chains snapped."

Snake: [in centaur]

"Bad."

Exelia: [after failing MR against a lot of holy damage]

"You may proceed!"

But a round later she fired her last batch of magic missiles into Frankel, G, Silvana, and the snake. (This was expected, but G missed the interruption shot.) The snake healed Frankel 1 hp and started regenerating itself (1 hp/round).

Meanwhile, two wights had entered the room below the stairs through a secret passage. The combat was unremarkable, except for Lorcan trying out the monocle: he thought "zap", the crosshairs changed from blue to violet, a violet beam shot out, and a wight was promptly disintegrated.

The party closed the secret door and set to work on Stealth's Evards, which were still blocking the stairway. They quickly changed targets to a wight who'd wandered down the stairs; the wight was severely damaged (from having fought through lots of tentacles) and dropped fairly quickly. Something tried to push the secret door open again, but Rogroc was able to hold it back. Rumbling sounds moved through the temple, and Ganeth saw what might have been signs of astral combat.

Silvana dropped an extradimensional pit trap in front of the secret door, and Rogroc let it open. An ogre zombie came through and landed in the pit, where Rogroc obliterated it. Behind the zombie was a skeletal figure with red dimly glowing eyes, a dark cowled robe, and a crackling blue aura around its hands (from a multipower set to immunity to electrical attacks). The mini-lich got off a slow (nailing Beeel, G, Frankel, Silvana, and the snake), Stealth tried shooting some burning arrows, Silvana got off a holy damage, Lorcan managed a yellow beam (which didn't do anything to the robed thing, but the monocle display shut down), and G temporized by blocking LOS with a web spell in the passageway. The mini-lich switched its multipower to fire resistance (red crackling glow), burned off the webs, received a miscast magic from Lorcan, ate lots of electrical attacks from Silvana and Ganeth, and watched its body crumble away. The skull, now howering, just grinned, and Rogroc slammed the door in its face.

Stealth started summoning a little air elemental for the trip up the stairs, Silvana and Pepper grabbed the chains that had previously held the zanthaloth, Rogroc and Ganeth shoved the ogre zombie corpse (all 700 pounds of it) in front of the secret door, and G cast fly and Melf's Minute Meteors to lessen the combat impact of the slow.

The party made it up the stairs fairly uneventfully, except for four skeletons which caught the rear of the party and were quickly dispatched by Pepper and G. The trapezoid room was deserted, and the door into the courtyard was closed, though the secret door into the entry hall was still open. The party moved out into the main hall, and Stealth used the thief's hand to pull out the still-shrieking tetrahedron and toss it through the window into the courtyard, disrupting the ceremony there. They then left as quickly as possible, but as they reached the exit, the courtyard doors opened. There was a fire in the courtyard, and in front of it was something really scary that sent Ganeth, Rogroc, and Pepper fleeing into the night. As he was running away, G tossed his last Melf over his shoulder and hit the thing; it was not pleased. Lorcan dropped a wall of fire across the entry hall (perhaps torching a tapestry or two), and the remaining party members left the scene.

Pepper solved the problem of the sewer entrance trap by crashing through it in his panic; he was unaffected by the death blast. The fear effect faded after two rounds, and the party headed off into the sewers.

A little chaos

The party very quickly came upon a pair of halflings, one of whom unleashed a psionic stunning attack (special effects: "a cacophony of voices and images of a shifting, insane plane"; i.e., a taste of Limbo) on the party. Well, githzerai are sort of halflings...aside from a few deep-seated pathologies...

Githzerai 1: [accented elvish]

"Chaos rules!"

Githzerai 2: [accented Western common]

"Down with Law!"

Githzerai 1:

"Tall ones will suffer!"

Githzerai 2:

"Everybody kneel! We won't be looked down upon."

Silvana and Pepper did a cool horse-kneeling maneuver; Ganeth didn't kneel, but he used his fly spell to lie down and hover just above the sewer floor; Stealth tried to be inconspicuous; Frankel (still in kobold form) tried to hide in shadows. Lorcan greeted the githzerai with a blessing from Nuket, which got their attention, particularly after he offered his holy symbol for inspection.

Githzerai 2: [taking holy symbol and biting it]

"Ah yes! The taste of chaos! You do not look like a Glurf. Good gift."

Lorcan:

"Erm, I'd rather like that back."

Lorcan was able to get his holy symbol back by trading a stink bomb for it; the githzerai promptly launched it at Frankel, getting everyone, including themselves, in the resulting stinking cloud. Afterwards, they got down to business: They'd been called in by their brethren (Prime-dwelling halflings) because the githyanki ("Hated githyanki! Die die die die die!") had been attacking halflings and humans in the area. They were there to take down the githyanki ship, except they needed some help getting aboard.

Githzerai 2:

"There is a special gate that can get you aboard, but you need a mage with a KnockKnock."

Githzerai 1:

"Elves are mages and have KnockKnock, no?"

Silvana:

"We aren't like you guys. We don't have granted powers. We have to plan in advance."

Githzerai 2:

"But you'll have a KnockKnock in the morning, eh?"

Githzerai 1:

"Then we'll go a Knocking in the morning. Heh heh."

Silvana:

"Where is the gate?"

Githzerai 2:

"Can you Dimension Walk?"

Silvana:

"Not even on a good day."

Githzerai 1:

"Then we'll bring it to you."

Githzerai 2:

"It will be a great invasion! Chaos Rules!"

Githzerai 1:

"Where do you live? We will come live with you, KnockKnock elves."

Githzerai 2:

"And in the morning, we shall Destroy! Chaos Rules!"

[Githzerai 2 gives Lorcan a little wooden duck.]

Githzerai 2:

"This is a token of luck. Keep it near. We will find you."

Lorcan:

"Thank you. I shall value it and keep it safe."

Githzerai 1:

"We'll be back. Remember the KnockKnock! We're bringing friends."

Githzerai 2:

"Chaos Rules!"

Ganeth: [aside]

"I'm never going to finish training, am I?"

The githzerai phased out, waving goodbye to G's eyeballs as they went. (Incidentally, there's a Western halfling village called the Wooden Duck Village, because the children there play with ducks like the one the githzerai gave Lorcan.)

Can we go home now?

Silvana activated the feather and brought Horon in to guide them out of the sewers.

Horon:

"So how did your mission go?"

Beeel:

"One party member was sucked away by a ghost, in case it wasn't obvious."

Silvana:

"Not sucked away."

Ganeth:

"Just possessed and relocated to Marakeel."

Silvana:

"More like charmed and left semi-voluntarily."

Conversation turned to githyanki and githzerai for a while (Horon has a psych lim regarding halflings -- "God I hate halflings. Creepy little twerps." -- but it's not his fault), then to the overall lack of profit (no artwork, just a fifty-pound gold chain), on the suckiness of aging, and eventually back to the missing and departed.

Horon:

"Did you bring back whathisname's body?"

Silvana:

"Who? Tubbins' body?"

Horon:

"No, the guy who got killed by the ghost. I have access to some resurrection stuff."

Ganeth:

"He's not dead. He just got intimate with a dead priestess and moved to Marakeel."

Horon:

"Wow! You let him go without a fight? I thought you priestesses were pretty possessive." :-)

Silvana:

"He wanted to go. I wasn't about to fight a high level evil priestess over a non-Good person who wanted to go with her. He wasn't charmed in a deep way; possibly a glamour of some sort but not a direct control attempt."

Lorcan:

"And I'd rather she was in Marakeel than here. Unless someone's still got that crackpot idea about moving the army to Marakeel."

Horon has heard rumors regarding githyanki and beholders (to which the snake commented "Eye!" in Western common) among the resistance but hadn't really believed them. His major news was that people were rushing out of the sewer in droves to escape the plague; there were also rumors that the Westgate had also been opened. The party decided they wanted to get out of Banzeel asap, so Horon took them toward a pentagram belonging to House Baleel. To avoid attracting ridiculous amounts of attention there, Silvana used her last magical disguise to turn Pepper into a housewife.

The party encounted a few beggars; Horon exchanged some signals with them and reported that they'd entered Baleel territory. A bit later, they encountered a blind man with giant rats on a leash; Horon knew him as an alchemist and tinker, and he had the following for sale:

1. "An ointment that improves the natural toughness of your skin for 1 day."
2. "A perfume that makes people susceptible to suggestions."
3. "A clockwork toy that scuttles forward 60' and then blows up with a bang." (something he'd gotten from some gnomes)

Lorcan made a quick deal for #3 and the party moved on.

A little while later, the party arrived at a secret door in the wall of a sewer passage. Horon rapped on hit with the hilt of his knife, and it was opened by a woman in black leather armor, with a nasty-looking black dagger...and, after seeing Horon produce a large green gem, a rather suspicious demeanor.

Horon: [all in E.C.]

"I need a favor."

Woman:

"You always seem to need favors."

Horon:

"My associates need to teleport out of Banzeel in a hurry. They're being tracked and the longer we talk, the riskier the situation. You don't want trouble here, do you?"

Woman:

"What have they done?"

Horon:

"They're probably the most wanted people in Banzeel right now."

Woman:

"Oh great. Why me? Why here?"

Horon: [shrugs]

"We should get moving. Pursuit could be right behind us."

Woman:

"Donations accepted, folks."

[Silvana hands Horon a black pearl.]

Woman:

"Black pearl? Elf's got taste. Certainly."

Horon:

"You get this when they get away safely."

Woman:

"Spoilsport! Okay, come along folks."

Beeel:

"Thanks."

Woman: [to Horon]

"What's the housewife doing here? Surely she's not a great wanted criminal?"

Horon:

"She's my aunt. Taking care of the guild back in Cthul-Ra."

The woman (who seemed impressed by the air elemental) led the party along a passageway chock full of crossbow slits and grillwork (for dropping flaming oil in) and into an empty room with a pentagram (3x capacity) in the floor. That it, empty except for the tripwires, ceiling weights, crossbows, and and other implements of extreme nastiness directed into the pentagram.

Horon:

"Wow. You guys are paranoid."

Woman:

"The hardest part is taking care of the stoneskins. These things are dwarven-tipped."

Horon:

"Impressive. The Baleel don't cut corners, eh?"

Woman:

"Tell your friends to leave -- and not to ever come back this way."

[Stealth instructs the air elemental to stay with Horon.]

Horon: [nodding at elemental]

"I assume that your stuff isn't +2. Just insurance you see..."

[Woman looks very pale.]

A potion of diminution was quaffed, a wand of reduction was zorted, and the party was off to a teleport mat in the Western encampment.

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