ep 58 11/6/4713 AR Beyond the Doomsday Door #5

[3-Sept journal]

Summary:

- return to WindSong Abbey with Koriah
- open Doomsday Lock
- fight 6 skulks and a clockwork golem
- investigate workshop and find important notes
- fight 4 skulks and Giantess

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We met at the Pathfinder's Lodge to discuss our next steps.

Casamir (Koriah's father) told us that on the third level of the Temple of the Windsong there may be a magical stash. There is a hidden panel in the floor at the base of a statue of Desna. The statue itself is a female angel with butterfly wings).

We agreed that Casamir would stay at the Pathfinder's while Koriah would travel with us back to Windsong Abbey. We returned by way of Transport Via Plants and found that little had changed in our absense. The bodies lay where they had fallen, undisturbed except by the hunger of scavengers.

We crossed the Abbey to the Doomsday Lock to the basement levels of the Abbey. Koriah warned us that the lock also required some sort of combination, not just the key, so we returned to the Abbot's rooms and searched until we found a poem which appeared to be the combination.

We returned to the lock and stood well back, using Irizati's mage hand and Claw's long-distance vision, we translated the poem and successfully opened the lock without issue. We all hurried inside as the door was bespelled to close quickly.

[2000 xp for each player character]

We followed the stairs down and came upon what seemed to be primarily storage areas for beer. The rooms had been ransacked with barrels destroyed and lots of debris on the floor. We picked our way into the room carefully and I started to poke around the barrels, startling a Skulk from it's hiding place. It attacked and Claw, Koriah, and I responded in kind. While we battled the Skulk, we could hear the heavy tread of some sort of metal golem or clockwork approach. When it entered our sight, we could see it vented glowing green gas, and the grinding of it's gears indicated it had not been maintained.

Koriah landed the fatal blow on the Skulk and in the same move managed to pull the Golem over with her aklys, forcing it prone. Irizati took advantage of this and landed a series of shots which did a large amount of damage.

While we were engaged with the metal golem, five more Skulks appeared around the room and fired at us with Inubrix Sky Metal arrows, which passed through iron and steel like it was not there. Irizati, first hit, swiftly removed himself from the room and turned invisible. The rest hit Claw, Yukiko, and Clank. The Skulks then hid themselves in such a way that it was like they were invisible. I took Earth Elemental form and struck at the golem with Clank assisting me; it was Claw who finally destroyed it.

Koriah struck at the one Skulk that had not hidden itself and Yukiko, having taken much damage from the Inubrix Sky Metal arrows, cast Bless on us and retreated to hide away from the Skulk's aim. Irizati struck at a Skulk and was struck in return, dropping him but not yet killing him.

Claw landed the fatal blow on one Skulk then chased after one which was running away; the one running was chittering in a language we could not understand (later identified as Under-Common) and therefore was of great interest. Koriah, following Claw, killed the retreating Skulk while Yukiko brought Irizati back to consciousness. A Skulk attacked him and so he retreated once more to safety.

I killed the Skulk that went after Yukiko, Clank killed another, and Irizati claimed the last kill.

[3500 xp each, including Clank and Koriah]

After checking the Skulks for anything of interest, I moved down towards the room which the Golem had come from. There was nothing of interest so we headed the direction the Skulk had been attempting to retreat.

Koriah remembered that there should be some stairs around somewhere and Claw spotted several the footprints of a giant sized creature, some weeks old.

We found a cistern of fresh water. Claw jumped in and swam to the bottom, finding a small 1 foot egress to somewhere outside but none of us could fit through there, so he returned to the surface.

We then found a small workshop, which contained various sets of tools and some very important notes on crafting clockwork golems. The scrolls seemed to contain information that even the GolemWorks craftsmen may not know. These were carefully tucked away for further reading as it appeared to contain information that would allow tranfering Clank's "brain" to another body as well as the best way to destroy some golems.

Heading into the next room, Claw shuddered back with four arrows in his chest, then another 3. He shook off the damage and prepared to engage the Skulks while Irizati cast Mass Suggestion in Under-Common, managing to encourage two of the four Skulks to assist us against the Giants (Suggestion was summarized as: Help up against the Giants because they are very bad). This became very useful as a Taiga Giantess, Ikoradmus, squeezed into the room moments later. Yukiko had cast Guardian of Faith by the door, which struck the Giantess.

Koriah moved into the room to support the rest of the party and the Suggested Skulks attacked the Giantess. The other two Skulks struck at Claw and Irizati.

Claw killed one of the enemy Skulks while I engaged with the other and Irizati shot at the same. Yukiko cast Flame Strike at the Giantess, which was particularly useful as we recognised that the Giantess has some sort of regen ability which the fire stopped temporarily.

Clank killed a Skulk while the Giantess struck one of those attacking her. We struck together against the Giantess and I took flame elemental form to help prevent her regen. Yukiko's flame strike killed the Giantess and then the remaining Skulks turned on us as there were no more Giants in the area. Claw killed one and Irizati the other.

We dug through the Giantess' bag to see if there was anythign interesting but only found some gold and gems.

While we treated our wounds in preparation for continuing, word was sent by magical means that Irizati was needed to attend an urgent matter and he bid us good luck and darted back the way we came, off to meet a companion who would spirit him away to his new challenge.

[3500 xp each char inc Clank and Koriah]

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Koriah's status :
- full HP
- XP = +7000

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Loot:

5 x +1 Short Box (one to Yukiko)
1 x +1 Short Box (Yukiko)
42 undamaged Inubrix Sky Metal arrows
18 damaged but repairable Inubrix Sky Metal arrows
12 bottles of wine
2 x masterwork craftsmen tools - advantage on one check per day - engineering, carpentry, stone masonry, etc
golem / clockwork scrolls, including information on changing clank's body and destroying clockwork golems - worth approx 5000gp
5500 gp worth of misc gold, gems, etc from Giantess