Gluttony is Evil

[Tahlvin]

For those of you who missed last night's session, here's a quick recap:

If you'll recall from last session, we entered the hall of gluttony and encountered and defeated a number of mummies. At the start of this session, we discovered a number of hidden alcoves around that same chamber, all of which contained a skeleton (not animated undead, just skeletons of actual dead people) dressed in workers' clothes who appeared to have been buried alive; we suspect they were workers who helped build this hall. When Hal attempted to detect evil, there was so much background evil that he had trouble picking out anything more specific. We also discovered that our healing spells and potions do not work well in this area (you have to pass a caster level check to see if it even works).

We moved from that chamber to the next chamber: there was a bridge in the shape of a + sign spanning a pit that went down (Anna descended about 120 feet down to the bottom, I believe), and went about 30 feet up to the point of a domed ceiling. There were 4 bas reliefs in each corner, which Dothan thinks are related to 4 ancient families. The walls of the pit, all the way to the bottom, were filled with nooks containing sarcophagi that appeared to have been emptied of their contents.

There were three exits from that chamber, plus the one we came in. We tried the left door first, and it led to a room that contained two crystals and a beam of negative energy that appeared to be a portal to a negative energy plane. We think this is what is supplying all of the background evil that is jamming Hal's detect evil ability, and perhaps interfering with our healing spells. Dothan said destroying one of the crystals will close the portal, but there is a very high likelihood the crystal will explode when destroyed, which could briefly open the portal between the two planes and allow things in that negative plane to come into Runeforge. A number of us were interested in destroying that portal before continuing, since we suspect it is providing additional power to the foes we will face further on in this hall. Anna was adamant that she did NOT want to destroy the thing yet, worried about what it would summon and what the affects of an explosion of the crystal and an opening of the portal would be. (Since we were underpowered for the evening, we decided not to risk it at this time, so we moved on to the next door from the previous chamber.)

Trying the next door (the one straight ahead), we discovered a room full of dismembered and disemboweled bodies in light blue robes. They were very well preserved due to the preservative effects of Runeforge, which makes us suspect that effect is not related to positive energy, but comes from some other source, since it doesn't appear to be affected by the negative energy in this hall.

There were two doors out of this chamber, which both appear to lead to the same place: a study/lab containing a bunch of preserved limbs and organs preserved by various means. I think there are a couple of other doors leading out of that chamber. That's where we called it a night.

Overall, several of us think this is by far the most evil of the Runeforge halls we have entered. Yeah, necromancy!? I believe it was Hal who said he suspects we'll find a very powerful undead at the end of this hall, like a lich or a vampire or something along those lines. Not a happy place, and we've started to question whether it is appropriate for us to continue searching this wing, struggling between the need to destroy/cleanse a wing that is obviously very evil with the possibility we will not be able to handle whatever we find at the end of this, or even in the middle.

[Zen]

Oh... and Kay took 1 CON and 3 CHA damage from the combat with the mummies... So her HP is down as well as her CHA bonus and anything else associated with that (I presume there is an impact on her spellcasting in some manner, but I haven't looked into what that is at this point.)

Needless to say, she's in favor of finishing up in this place as quickly as possible.

[Tahlvin]

By the way, I like the images of Sandpoint in .

[Zen]

Those are awesome!

[Mike]

Dothan wants to blow up a crystal. Our adventures in Runeforge have made all of the death and danger around us real to her for the first time. She's scared of her friends getting killed but more scared of what happens to everyone else if they fail to stop the Runelords.

This area in particular is disturbing her like nothing else has. She finds the undead abhorrent and the negative energy powering this place even moreso.

She recognizes the danger in destroying this portal, but thinks the team can be smart about it and that it is worth the risk.

[Phoebe]

I'm really sorry I missed it. Things have been going very poorly here for many reasons I can explain elsewhere. I am expecting it will be better in 2 weeks (or really whenever is next).

[Zen]

Kay agrees about the crystal, she just thinks it's best done as a parting shot when we're ready to leave quickly, preferably by people who are flying... with Haste spells applied so they have a nice healthy speed boost so they can fire their weapons/spells at the crystals from a distance and then hightail it out of there before the earth-shattering kaboom.

[Tahlvin]

The question is, will destroying the crystals/portal make it easier to defeat whatever else we have to face in this wing of Runeforge, and how does that compare to the likely threat that will come through the portal when it is destroyed? If people think we can handle the rest of what we might face without first destroying the portal, or what might come through the portal is worse that facing buffed-up baddies in the rest of the hall, then I'm fine waiting to destroy it on the way out.

[bralbovsky]

No idea how to logically weigh those two values with the data we have.

Hal sees three benefits to destroying the portal first:

Watch our six - things come through portals. Not apparently live things, but it's some negative planar thing, so maybe bad dead things.

Eliminate the negative aura - this is a maybe, but nowhere else in Runeforge has this amount of background evil/dampening of healing. It's like having an opposing bard's music piped through the section. It can't be helping us either in combat encounters or when we cast our spells, or when we try to heal.

Stop the madness- Is there a door beyond? Who knows, can't get close enough. Perhaps that's exactly where we need to go to get out.

Maybe it won't go away instantly. Things change slowly here, but I suggest we have whatever encounter we're going to have at this gate, go off to recover, and see if there's a change.

This has put us at a similar impasse to the wrath portal, with two significant differences: We know we don't wish to pass through it, and it emanates huge evil. Closing it obviates both those possibilities.

I've gone on too long, but I see three reasons to keep going, in general:
---Finish our collection of materials (entirely optional if we focus solely on Karzoug's weaknesses)
---Erase the bad stuff so this place becomes forgotten and powerless (Optional for many of us, but once we accomplish our third objective, what's to say anything we left behind can't follow us?)
---Find our way home. (After, of course, enchanting our weapons in the Runeforge, which may hold its own peril.)

[Mike]

I'm of the opinion that "explode" means magical area of effect thing that would be like a high level spell going off, and not demolition charge that collapses the whole structure. Squishy group members hide, and persons with good hp/saves/etc, attack a crystal from a prudent distance.

My Knowledge check said something from the other side "might" come through, which I take to mean "will". My meta-sense tells me it is something we can likely handle.

But I admit I could be super-wrong. Potentially, this thing is what's powering the whole non-aging thing on this demi-plane. I mean, I don't think it is, but necromancy powers gentle repose (but that's just for corpses). But this is ancient and powerful magic. Maybe we break this thing and the first thing that happens is we're all suddenly hungry again, and we have to pee for the first time in a week.

[Zen]

Alright, Kay is being swayed toward the break now, regret later mindset.

[Phoebe]

For the last hour, all I can hear:



This clip has so many golden lines I like to use in real life, like
"It is to laugh..."
"Hocus Pocus, Now I Crush You!"
"Pocuscadabra!"
"Splendid looking specimen, though"
"Golly, what big mosquitoes they do have around here!"
and of course... the song he sings.