Eberron: The Kingmaker Plot - The Story So Far...

[Kelvin273]

dont forget the warehouse in sharn, that one disintergrated as it got sucked into a portal to HELL.

That wasn't me either.

[Sheldon]

Nobody saw you didnt do it!


































...or did they?

[Wreckferret]

Any that did see were sucked in HELL at the same time.

Ooops- did I say that out loud?

[meatshield]

Are you sure there weren't some bats or something nearby watching? Or am I getting confused?(Been so long since we were in Sharn, I finally get us un-exiled thanks to a good word from the Brelish Ambassador and we find ourselves up to our necks in a conspiracy involving a bastard we really, REALLY want to do over).

Remember - we can always return to Sharn, sell off some of our adventuring gear and invest the proceeds in a small business and never adventure again. I have enough Appraise skill, Bluff and Sense Motive to make "Stefano's pawnshop" a reality even if "Stefano's holistic inquisitive agency" gets shut down forever.

[Kelvin273]

Lyrander are now in a tizz, as they NEED their driver. Now that Orien have updated their choo-choo they no longer want to delay. So we have one night to find the missing heir ...

Lyrander's method for getting us in was ... interesting. We get on a Lyrander airship, and as we go over the Orien enclave they throw us off for not having tickets. Dropping by life-ring we land outside the ominously dark testing building ... when we opened the doors we were 'snatched' inside. Within, we realised we were in a pocket plane, dark and oppressive. Searching we found the entry way to the main part of the testing dome blocked by two war golems. Although they dished out fierce damage, they were rapidly dismantled ...

[Wreckferret]

....And the Outsider spirits that were possessing them to control them fled into the walls of the structure.

The alternative attempt at gaining allies in the confrontation with the expected possessed (or something worse?!; replaced) Orien heir would seemed to be in charge of at least the kidnapping, and high up in the plot to do 'something' with the Race, failed.

The Signet Ring that They wanted 'lost' as it would prove the falsity of the heir was couriered from outside the Orien enclave to the suspicious Baron, with a request for aid.
But this was intercepted, and proof of this interception was left just inside the the building for the party to uncover and demoralise them.

So, guardian war golems disabled, the entrance to the main testing chamber is now unblocked.

Onwards to confront whatever the Orien heir really is & to attempt to defeat him and rescue the kidnapped Lyrander heir who must be stashed round here somewhere......

[Kelvin273]

I have updated Kiteshi and re-levelled her as an Illumine Soul.

[Sheldon]

And so, the race is on!

STOP THAT TRAIN!


I'd say from the start that knowledge on the Lords of Dust is going to be similar to knowledge on other Secret Secret Organizations like the Mosaic Committee, or the Aurum.

Rumors, legends, hints and misinformation.

Not like the Emerald Claw or the Swords of Liberty, who make their mark by publisied terrorism.

After all, an extinct race of god-like fiends from many thousands of years ago still alive and active in modern day Khorrvair? Preposterous!

That would be like a continent full of highly intelligent and organized dragons who could wipe out all life on Khorrvair in a matter of weeks!

Or armies of horrendous aberrations marshalling just below your feet to once more march forth and conquer all sane life on this planet!

who'd even want to consider such an insane idea to be true?

The presence of a real live Rakshasa, and not some magic effect, possessing spirit or shapeshifting rogue; would be something of a terrible and earth-shattering revelation. And only Emilys character might have seen anything which would point to such being reality.


LAST SESSION FOR THIS CHAPTER ON THE 29TH.

after which I will take October off and begin the next chapter in November online using Fantasy Grounds II if Kelvin has moved by then.

[Wreckferret]

Indeed.

So the party opened the double doors to the testing room....

.....to now find it full of sand and a giant whirlwind at it's centre.
That wasn't there when they looked in from the observation booth on the level above?!

Calling in a challenge that was un-answered, Richter strode in first.
The others followed.
And then the doors slammed shut behind them and were covered by sand.

This sand then turned to glass as someone blasted Steffano & Whisper who were standing in it.
Steffano nimbly dodged aside, but Whisper was momentarily encased- until she teleported out.

Two humanoid figures emerged from the sand- a miasma of foul dust surrounding them- and then battle was joined.

Small dust-devils were also created that scoured the party back & forth, sapping their energy.
Kiteshi & Steffano engaged one of the 'Dust-Wights' after Richters attempts to Turn them failed (a natural 20 still only means he can turn up to 14HD, and these puppies were 16HD each!).
Steffano got in the occasional hit with his rapier for minor damage.
Kiteshi's positive-energy imbued mindblade did wicked damage when it hit- but after her initial swipe, she had a string of bad luck in connecting.

The pair were also affected by a construct shining a heat ray on them, that fatigued them in the fight.

Richter went toe-to-toe with his one, and initially neither could hit each other.
Then it got a hit that corroded even his adamantine plate armour!
Richter wasn't happy about this and managed 2 hard blows in return.
And then they continued their merry dance.

Richter's Radiant Aura giving both combats some extra protection!

Whisper meanwhile activated her telepathic senses to try to find unseen assailants and started to levitate up the room scanning for enemies.
She also dispelling one of the dust devils.

Kiteshi got on a run of damage (with some excellent use of Riposte) and Steffano did his normal Kill Stealing to make the final blow!

Mindblade was thrown at the flying construct to destroy it. (tho did Steffano KS that with a magic missile too?)

Whisper meanwhile had found 6 invisible figures flying within the giant whirlwind at 150ft up.
She got blasted backwards.
And she reciprocated by 'fireball' blasting in return- which destroyed his mirror images.

She then fired a dispel at him which got rid of his armour buffs, but not his invis.
However it did get rid of his fly and the figure started to drop!

Down below, Kiteshi & Richter finished off the last Dust-Wight and at Whisper's warning that their man was falling invisible, Richter activated his Invis Purge.

No sign of him tho.
Whisper just managed to catch their opponent re-casting fly before disappearing from her range of 'sight'.

Unable to see their opponent below- and still taking damage from the dust-devils, Richter healed Kiteshi who had been taking the brunt.
Steffano knocked back a potion and then with nothing better to do than try to get out of the range of the 'devils, started to climb the wall.

Whisper descended and dispelled the remaining 'devils.
And their there opponent appeared (dimension leaped) next to Richter and blasted both him and the far off Steffano with a cone of sand.

Next round Kiteshi got close to throw her 'blade and did some damage, before he blasted her with a psychic attack & dropped her to negative.
Richter tried to Dismiss what he thought was the possessed Orien Heir but to no avail- and so ran to heal the kalashtar.
Steffano tried a magic missile- which was absorbed by his spell resistance.
Whisper got another energy blast in past his spell-res- but some of it was absorbed by one of the guy's protective items.
He then retreated into the storm again and laughed off everyone's attempts to hit him - the storm ruined Steffano's crossbow attempts, Richter's Searing light either missed or was absorbed by the SR, Whisper enervated herself and got dazed, and the barely concious Kiteshi- still suffering from her psychic attack, missed with her mindblade.

Things looked grim, but their adversary laughed and left- sucking all the sand with him as he flew out of the exit in the ceiling of the dome.

Staggered and stunned, the group collected themselves- healed a little bit, and Steffano found a Decanter of Endless Sand in the room.
Climbing the gantry to look for the kidnapped Lyrander heir, Steffano noticed it was morning and that the Portal to the desert for the start of the race had been activated as dignitories arrived on the other side of the Orien compound.

Frantic, the party explored the rooms again looking for the heir- and eventually found him chained and locked in a Rope Trick.

The urgency of getting the abused and stunned half-elf pilot to the race were easily grasped by the race fanatic who still wanted to compete.
And as they helped the weakened Scion out of the building, he explained what he knew of his kidnappers and their plans.
Whereas Whisper thought the replaced Khyber crystal in the Orien vehicle would be to awaken something Olde and Nasty imprisoned under the sands (their logic relating to demons possessing people- and Kiteshi's exposition that their opponent was in fact a Rakshasa!).
The pilot said it was more parochial than that- that the crystal was set to explode during the race- and that the Rakshasa and his allies (& masters; the Lords of Dust???) wanted national instability.
House Orien would blame the explosion on House Cannith- House Cannith would blame each part of itself- and Orien would also blame Lyrander for involvement.
Basically, the bad guys were looking to set off an inter-house conflict, that ideally would result in an international war.

GULP!

So, charging across the Orien compound and leaping thro the portal to the desert for where the race was to start- could the party (& the pilot) do anything to stop this from occurring?.....

[Kelvin273]

Current state of the party: ****.

We are all on 1/2 to 1/3 hit points, healing is all but gone. Whisper is down to 2 (count them) power points and a few power stones. Richter must have used at least 1/2 his spells. We had better prey we can talk our way through this, and don't have to fight!

[Wreckferret]

Yeah- I think Richter used up all his 3rd level spells, 1/2 his second & 1/2 his third. But he does have his other 4th level spell.... if it can be used.

Steffano is 10points below max (so just under a 1/4) but he does have a HB charge left that he could use to get to max (he used his Potion in the battle to get to where he is now).

Richter is 2/3 -3/4 of hp, but has no HB charges left.

heh- yes, diplomacy is the way forward I think.
Or at least "No Combat" is.
Stopping the shard from being used (did I say sabotage?) could be done- as long as it doesn't involve combat!

Guess we will see on Tues eh?.....

[Kelvin273]

"I have a cunning plan, my lord ...."

[Sheldon]

Thats all folks, for another chapter.

Enjoy your private jet.

[Kelvin273]

As we arrived in the Blade Desert, the lightning rail was already pulling out of the starting post, and our mad pilot was racing over to the Lyrander station desperate to stop it ... transpires his half-brother was the driver! (Weird thing going on there, methinks). Unfortunately our sponsor didn't want to be involved - if Lyrander didn't race, then they couldn't be blamed by his logic.

We were having none of that.

Racing up the ladder we saw our Lyrander Patron booted off it with a life-ring and our pilot hauled us aboard the Silverfish. Whisper and Stefano took up steering positions and Richter became our engineer. The silverfish took off like a shimmering silver dart across the desert, chasing the Orien lightning rail. Even as we geared up, the sky darkened and an unseasonal sandstorm clouded the sky ... <queue exciting chase music>.

Again and again dust devil strove to bat us out of the air, some of them made from red salt, again and again we dodged and outran them. Soon our Pilot placed us in a dive and scissored to bring us up directly above the lightning rail carriage as it raced along. Leaping from the back of the airship we landed on the roof of the carriage and skidded along. Whisper used one of her remaining points to Dimension Hop inside and screamed a warning:

"Your Khyber crystal is rigged to explode! STOP THE LIGHTNING RAIL!" With an awesome Diplomacy check just when we needed it! But they weren't about to give up that easily, until Richter and Stefano piled through the back door and reinforced Whisper's story. As Richter rightly pointed out, if we were lying, they had us as proof that Lyrander had cheated, if we weren't they avoided certain death. The lightning rail began to slow as the crystal suddenly started to change colour. Stefano performed a daring feat of Disable Device to disconnect it, and the carriage glided to a halt as the crystal cracked and clinked, clearly busted.

Unfortunately, as our patron had been thrown off an airship we took without permission, ie stole, we need to leave with the world speed record for the nonchalant fly ...

But we do have an airship and a pilot!

[Sheldon]

The fastest hunk'a'junk in Eberron!