The Lion of Cairo by Scott Oden

I don’t often use the word ‘excellent’ when talking about books; there’s often some niggling little thing that detracts from the performance that an author has crammed into the space between the front and back covers. However, in this instance, I think the word ‘excellent’ is justified.

I found this one through following up on The Desert of Souls by Howard Jones (another cracking read). I’ve become less enamoured of modern fantasy, finding the rush towards the Edge of Grit a bit off-putting; perhaps as I’ve got older, I’ve started to hanker for the more heroic lustre of the fiction I used to read. In Oden’s book, I think I’ve found it.

The Lion of Cairo is set in the Middle East of the mid 12th century, a time when caliphs and viziers, Mamelukes and eunuchs vied for power in the greatest city of Egypt. Add to that the presence of the Crusaders, their military hardmen the Templars and a generous sprinkling of sinister sorcerous shenanigans and you’ve got a recipe for intrigue, skulduggery and high adventure.

The main character is Assad, a member of the Nizari Ismailis, otherwise known as the hashishiyya, the original Assassins. He is a fascinating fellow who carries a sword that has echoes of Stormbringer; there’s more to his weapon than meets the eye and I suspect we’ll find out more about it in future volumes. Oden brings a good-sized cast onto his stage and gives them all plenty of time in the limelight with a shifting focus depending on the needs of the plot. I liked this technique and didn’t find it distracting; it personalises even the minor characters effectively. Speaking of which, a major historical figure in the Crusades appears here as a minor character; he’s one to watch, as I suspect that his part in future adventures of Assad will be key.

Oden’s pace is cracking; there’s never a dull moment and even when there’s no swordplay, he manages to keep the tension high. The plot runs right to the very end as well. No winding down in the last few pages for this writer. He really can write as well; his descriptions evoke a real sense of place that should be a lesson to many fantasy writers who, it seems to me, struggle somewhat with imaginary cities and fall back on the bog-standard mediaeval European setting.  Oden’s Cairo really does drip with atmosphere; perhaps a map might have come in handy but often I find that when there is one, I’m popping to the front of the book to check where we are rather than paying attention to the action.

And speaking of action, there’s a lot of it. Deaths aplenty and swords spend a lot of time bloodied. It’s rippingly good stuff. Here’s a taster

“…his broadsword licking out to shear through a Turkish neck. The heathen’s head rode a geyser of blood as his body tumbled to the ground…”

Oden references Harold Lamb and Robert E. Howard in his introduction. Howard’s Gates of Empire covers this period as does Lamb’s Swords from the West. It’s a worthy tradition and Oden is a fine inheritor of it.  I hear that this is the first book in a planned trilogy and I hope Volume 2 hurries along soon; I’ll be waiting.

Team Adventure - Fifty Not Out

You join us on this blog's 400th post and Team Adventure's 50th session. I like the way that's worked out. Despite the hot weather, we had a good day's play but due to overlapping holiday commitments on the part of the lads, it's uncertain when we'll game again before September. Still, onwards and upwards, as they say. We join our gallant band having just left the temple at the foot of the pyramid, feeling rather pleased with themselves.

Having lifted the curse on the Pyramid, the party gathered itself together, filling water bottles from the new stream that was slowly irrigating the desert, checking weapons, making sure their horses were all right, setting their sights westward. Elysia had remembered seeing a distant line of mountains in the west with what looked like a pass and beyond it a vast area of flat green-grey. Alurax recalled that when they had first met Benbo, the hobbit had mentioned a vast swamp and wondered if that had any connection.

On their first day out, the party spotted, in the distance, what appeared to be ruins in the sand. They approached with caution and Elysia sent in the air force to scout it out. The flying friends returned, having seen a mysterious creature that appeared to be half lion, half woman, lurking amongst the fallen stones. Galadeus, ever cautious, went galloping off toward the ruins, keen to find out what it was - and kill it. The rest of the party followed on, albeit slightly more slowly.

When he arrived at the ruins, Galadeus started to scout around and heard a faint cry for help, coming from a set of stairs which descended into the ground. He slowly crept down them and found, in a dark chamber, a woman in flimsy garments, chained to the wall by her ankles. She told him that she had been captured by a monster and begged him to free her. Galadeus was about to do so when he suspected something and paused in his efforts. As he was about to resume his attempts to free the woman, the rest of the party came clattering down the stairs. Alagon and Lydia felt their hackles rise at once - they knew that they were in the presence of evil.

 I can see how she distracts unwary adventurers now

The woman did not respond to their enquiries as to who she was and what she was doing until she saw Elysia, who used the Star they had found in the pyramid to determine the woman's true form. She was revealed as a Lamia, who preyed on lone travellers, luring them into the ruins, draining them of wisdom and then killing and eating them. Now, however, recognising the magic user as her sole chance of survival, she flung herself on her mercy, offering choice magic items in return for her freedom. Elysia agreed and took delivery of two potions and a sword, whereupon the party left the chamber and the ruins soon afterwards.

The next day, the party saw a tiny shape flying towards them. Unwilling to wait to be attacked, the air force was once again sent out to see what it was;  they soon returned, in the company of a creature who had the body of a lion, the wings of an eagle and the head of a bearded man. He greeted the party and introduced himself as Lammasu, a servant of the forces of good. The boisterousness of the party was frustrating his attempts to communicate vocally, so he used his telepathic powers to speak directly with Elysia's mind.

If in doubt. go with Tramp

She told him that they were on a quest for the Holy Avenger; he replied that they were on the right road. It was housed in a tomb over the mountains in a gloomy and dangerous swamp, guarded by evil and horror. However, he revealed that there lurked in the mountains a source of great evil and they would, in all likelihood, have to deal with it before they could proceed.

As a bonus, Lammasu also told Elysia that there would come soon a great test of courage and integrity for the paladins, which would prove their worth to wield such a mighty weapon of good. He could (or would) say no more about it and left the party soon afterwards, heading east on a mission from Good.

The day after that, the party came across the remnants of a merchant party which had perished in the desert. Anything of value had already been looted and there was nothing worth taking - unless your name was Ferros. He animated eight of the bodies to join his shambling Undead Army.

The mountains were getting ever closer now, towering over the party where before they had been a mere line on the horizon. The pass was clearly visible and it was towards this that the party headed. The party encountered a small group of jackals, which were no threat to them, but Galadeus used his Ring of Mammal Control to commandeer them; the party's menagerie grew ever larger.

Galadeus' new henchmen

Following the pass up into the mountains, the party pressed on for a couple of days. Then, on 21st September , they found a river cascading down a ravine, crossed by a stone bridge. On the far side of the bridge were two stone towers which flanked an entrance into the mountain itself.

Crouching in the rocks on the far side, the party watched the towers and the entrance. Galadeus decided to send his jackals in to investigate the towers but unfortunately, they could not find a way in. Elysia sent in the air force to see what was on top of the towers. They flew down but then shied away very quickly. When they returned to the party, both Elysia and Ferros got images of tall, spined and barbed figures who were standing sentry. Galadeus broke control of the jackals and they headed back across the bridge and down the pass towards the desert as fast as they could.

What was needed now was a plan and after a while the party came up with one. Galadeus decided that Florin the phoenix was to fly up to the left-hand tower and deliberately allow herself to be killed so that she would detonate a fireball and then return to figurine status. Galadeus himself edged onto the middle of the bridge, whilst Alurax took up position at its far end. Whilst Alagon, Wolf and Lydia waited on the far side, amongst the rocks, Elysia would fly Gullhor and Larsh (in figurine form) up to the right hand tower, then Elysia would go back for Ferros.

The plan got off to a bad start straight away as Florin detonated but when the fire faded away, the creature on the tower was unharmed. It bent down, picked up the phoenix figure, then vanished.

Elysia landed with Gullhor. The creature facing them sent out a wave of fear to deter them but neither was affected and whilst Elysia took off again, Gullhor activated Larsh and they attacked the creature. At this point, the creature which had vanished with Florin reappeared on the right-hand tower, joining in the attack on Larsh. Desperate to get revenge for the theft of his phoenix, Galadeus tried to climb up the tower, only to fall off - twice.

Having landed Ferros on the tower, Elysia now flew down to pick up the luckless ranger. On the top of the tower, the battle was raging. One of the creatures tried to Hold Gullhor but had no success, while the other creature pressed home its attack on the polar bear.

I'll take the phoenix, Steve, you deal with the polar bear.

Under the weight of the party's attack, the first creature was killed; the second continued to attack Larsh, who was now looking pretty battered. Nevertheless, the party fought on; Galadeus landed behind the creature and in a fierce round of combat, Larsh was reduced to figurine form and Galadeus got the killing blow in on the creature, scoring his revenge in a very impressive fashion.

Whilst Alurax was investigating the main cave entrance between the two towers, the rest of the party were more interested in an entrance at the rear of the right hand tower that led to a tunnel running into the mountain. Where did it go? And more importantly, where was Florin?

Monsters the Manual never mentioned

Nature can come up with nightmares worse than the most inventive DM.

Pleasant dreams.

Team Adventure - Tomb with a View

The party began to investigate what the question mark could signify. Whilst they were thinking about it and what they might be required to do in order to activate it or progress further in their quest, Galadeus decided to short-circuit the process and jumped into the water.

At once, he vanished from sight. Nobody knew what had happened to him or where he had gone. Alurax sent Eristar to see if she could find him on the next level down and the hawk swiftly flew off through the passages down which the party had made its way. She soon found out that he had been washed down through a series of channels and ended up coming down the waterfall into the Pineapple room again. He had taken a bit of a buffeting on the way down but was otherwise all right.

While the party waited for Galadeus to make his way back to them again, they continued to investigate the question mark. Ferros used an exploding pineapple to try and damage the floor where the symbol was engraved, thinking that it might mark a trapdoor or secret entrance but his tactic did not bear fruit (sorry!). 

In the end, it was Galadeus who stumbled across the solution. Shaking the water out of his armour, he walked into the room and hit upon the idea of standing on the question mark itself. It glowed briefly and from the water, a deep booming voice asked him his name, his quest and on whose holy ground he now stood. With the assistance of the rest of the party for the last two questions, he passed the test. The voice then told him to take its hand and a white watery hand emerged from the column. As Galadeus touched it, the waterfall changed from down to up. Galadeus stepped into the upward flow and was carried up through the hole in the ceiling. Alurax was right behind him but nobody else followed.

Unwilling to risk the water column, the rest of the party - Elysia, Ferros, Gullhar, Alagon and Lydia started to explore and decided to check out what lay behind the bronze doors at the top of a flight of stairs opposite the water. Ferros pulled them open and found beyond them, a huge fist of bronze in the middle of the room.

From behind the fist a deep booming laugh emerged, followed by a dark figure. Everybody backed quickly down the stairs. Elysia found herself in the front rank, ready to deal with whoever it was.

She used the Illuminate capacity of her wand to reveal the figure as a gaunt, leathery-skinned human, who was nevertheless emanating an aura of intense evil which Alagon and Lydia picked up at once. He announced himself as Munafik, high priest of the pyramid. He told them that they had violated his sanctum and now they must pay.

At this point, he raised his hands and fired a lightning bolt which hit Elysia, two zombies, Alagon and Gullhar. Nobody was killed but they were all damaged; Elysia was within a hair’s breadth of death. She had already cast Shield to protect herself against Munafik, unsure about what he might try next, then cast her Fireball into the room of the giant fist, filling it with searing flame and blasting heat. Munafik seemed completely unaffected and blasted Elysia with magic missiles but because she still had her shield up, this attack did not harm her.

Munafik switched targets at this point, firing a Web spell at Ferros, who did not escape its sticky, entangling strands. He was trapped along with two of his zombies. Lydia drew her sword and moved in to cut him free. 

At this point the party, with a little reminder from Lydia about her last encounter with Munafik, realised the connection between the high priest and the heart that they had found in the glass jar. Alagon, Wolf and Relic headed off to the cave to try and destroy it.

Elysia, remembering that her Wand of Illumination had reduced vampires to dust in the past, tried Sunburst on Munafik but this had no effect either. She then tried to web him and succeeded in immobilising him while the rest of the party weighed in with their swords to try and hack him apart but this achieved little – apart, perhaps, from cutting through some of the strands of web.

It became obvious now that until the heart was destroyed, the party had little chance against Munafik and so Elysia, Ferros and Lydia fled the room. Gullhar sent Larsh in to delay the evil high priest but he managed to detonate a fireball in the chamber which inflicted damage on Gullhar, forced Larsh back into his figurine state and incinerated Ferros’ remaining zombies.

By now, Alagon had made it to the cave of the heart and was hacking away at the glass jar, finally breaking it open and destroying the heart. Once that happened, Munafik collapsed and rapidly crumbled away to fragments of skin and bone.

The party congratulated itself on the victory and licked its wounds – fortunately none fatal – before exploring the final passageway on the far side of the room. They found a book on a pedestal which emanated a strong sense of evil. Ferros fired an arrow at it and knocked it off its pedestal onto the floor, where Lydia unilaterally set fire to, declaring it so evil that it was a danger to the party.

But what had happened to Galadeus and Alurax?

At the top of the column of water, they had stepped out into a long corridor that ended in a set of bronze doors. They followed the corridor and carefully pushed open the doors to find themselves in a large room. In the centre of the room were four pillars; on the left-hand side, a thirty-foot long reed boat and on the right hand wall, a painting of the same boat, flying in the clouds. Beyond the pillars was another set of bronze doors. 

The intrepid duo set to searching the boat and found within it ten vases. Having ascertained that these were not canopic jars, they took one out and opened it, to find that it was full of platinum coins. They tipped said coins out onto the floor and, having done a rough count, realised that there were five hundred of them. The other nine vases contained the same amount and Galadeus and Alurax’s eyes lit up when they worked out they had the equivalent of twenty-five thousand gold pieces’ worth of treasure.

They moved on to investigate the second set of bronze doors. Beyond lay a room that housed a stone sarcophagus and a huge statue of the King, holding the staff and a multi-faceted gem.  On the sarcophagus was the actual staff itself; Alurax took it and was relieved when nothing happened. Galadeus, on the other hand, wanted to know what was inside the sarcophagus and levered it open, the heavy lid crashing to the floor. 

Can't a mummified King get any sleep?

A wizened, bandage-wrapped hand reached up and grabbed him by the throat. Its grip tightened and he hurriedly drew his sword and hacked at the horrible thing as it clambered out of the sarcophagus and pressed home its attack. Alurax stabbed at it with his trident, which seemed to do a strangely low amount of damage. Eventually, he realised that since it was covered in bandages, it would probably burn quite nicely, he set it on fire with an oil bomb and stood back to watch it consumed by a roaring blaze. The creature released its hold on Galadeus and fell to the floor, soon becoming little more than a pile of charred bandages, leathery skin and bones.

Alurax and Galadeus searched around the room for anything else of interest but could find nothing except an inscription on the wall, which Galadeus managed to decipher (albeit partially) to read

“A passage was always provided between the tomb of the King and his likeness, whereby his spirit may pass into his ordained statue and live within the stone we worship in the outer world.”

Neither of them knew what this meant, but Galadeus decided that the worship reference might mean that the statue would be responsive to prayer and so he got out the prayer mat that he had taken from the room at the top of the shaft some time ago and started to bow down to the statue.

This is the scene that met the rest of the party as they arrived in the boat room. They had used the same technique as Galadeus to ascend the column of water and were now given the low-down on what had happened to the two missing party members. 

Despite everybody now joining in the search, they were able to turn up nothing new except a small alcove behind the King’s statue. Everybody wandered around, each investigating a different aspect of the rooms until people started to wonder how come it was nowhere near as stuffy as it ought to be in the heart of the pyramid.

Eventually, Elysia managed to get the staff off Alurax, who was very proprietorial about it (since he believed that he was the chosen one who had been told by the spirit of the King to find said staff). She discovered that when she touched the surface of the painting with the end of the staff, it went through. She tried with her hand and that passed through as well.

As the party realised that the painting was a portal to somewhere unknown, Galadeus declared that he was going to jump through the painting. He did so and promptly vanishes. Florin, his phoenix shot through after him.

Trying to find out what was on the far side of the portal, Gullhar poked his head through and saw that there was a floating version of the reed boat some way off, tethered to a cloud. At its prow was a glistening gem that the party realised must be the elusive Star. The portal appeared to open some ten thousand feet above the pyramid. Galadeus went hurtling towards the ground, saved only by the intercession of his phoenix.

Realising that there was nothing that could currently be done for him,  Elysia used a Fly spell to get to the floating boat, casting Enlarge to detach the Star from its cradle of wood in the prow of the boat. She searched the boat but could find nothing else of interest. Before she flew back to the portal, she noticed that from her vantage point, thousands of feet above the desert, she could see a very long way indeed and saw, far off in the west, a range of mountains and beyond them, a hazy green-brown expanse. This would be of interest later, since the party was still supposed to be heading west to find the Holy Avenger.

Either the party had found the Star or they'd just won five more seconds inside the Crystal Dome

 Getting hold of the star and staff, Alurax tried various methods of getting them to work including knocking them together, but eventually he copied the position of the King on the statue and the staff and star began to glow. He realised that he was onto something and stepped into the alcove behind the statue. With a flash of light, he vanished from sight.

He appeared in another alcove of the same size, sealed off by what looked like a door of stone. He pushed at it and it slid away to reveal a torch-lit room with several hooded figures inside. As he stepped out, they looked up at him and gasped in wonder. They declared that the King had returned before and started to bow down to him.

Ever modest, Alurax explained that he was not the King, whereupon they accused him of stealing the staff and star (accurately, as it turned out) and moved towards him with daggers and swords. Alurax backed into the alcove again and vanished, reappearing back in the alcove in the pyramid.

When he explained to the party what had happened, they realised that the alcoves served as teleportation terminals. This was clearly a way out of the pyramid and the entire party crowded in there, familiars and all and laid hands on Alurax as well as they were able.

The next moment, they were in the second alcove. They emerged to the curious but hostile glances of the hooded figures. Elysia explained who they are and what they  had just done. It looked as if her explanation was not going to convince anybody until another hooded man rushed into the room to announce that “the curse is broken”.

All thoughts of the party forgotten, the hooded men went rushing out of the room and the party followed on. They came out into a large lime-cement basin, which although dry and barren, was now being filled by water which rose to the overflow channel and poured out into the desert.  Above them, the silent stone shape of the pyramid looked out across the timeless sands as it had done for centuries.

The hooded men, who worshipped the King as a god, celebrated as it was clear that the curse had been broken and their King had now passed on to the afterlife. They thanked the party but had little of material value to give them. Nevertheless, the party counted their adventure in the pyramid as a success; they had found a huge amount of treasure, including the Staff and Star, Elysia had acquired a Fireball spell and even Galadeus had survived, albeit dazed, battered and bruised by his descent which, by the look of him, had been partly down the side of the pyramid itself. He had a lot to thank Florin for.

The party  had been lucky but would their luck hold as they pressed on across the desert towards the western mountains and the tantalising hint that their quest would soon be at an end?

Team Adventure - Paladins and Pineapples

Alurax and Galadeus followed the passageway to a dead end but started to get a bit edgy about the prospect of being so far away from support and headed back to the shaft. When they arrived in the Minotaur room, they found the party gone.

The rest of the gang were probing the passageways to the south of the minotaur room. They found that two of the passages looped round and returned them to their starting point.

The third passage produced a three way split which led to three more rooms. In the first room were three dead bodies – ever the opportunist, Ferros animated them to become the latest recruits in his undead army

The door to the second room stayed open on its own until Alagon stepped in and it swung shut behind him, the bolts sliding into place and trapping the paladin within. As this happened, the walls started to close in but the party could not get the door open. Larsh was brought forward to smash the door to pieces and they found Alagon stuck between the two walls and being crushed. Elysia cast a Reverse Enlarge on him and with that, they managed to pull him out.

The third room was empty was disappointingly empty.

Eschewing further exploration of the maze, the party now decided to head up the shaft to see what they could find. As they headed back towards the minotaur room, they had an odd experience when a stone flew out of one of the misty doorways. They thought they were under attack for a moment until it was revealed that it was Alurax, testing to see what lay beyond the door from his side. With the party reunited (albeit temporarily) Elysia flew up the shaft and then lowered the rope so that everyone could climb up without recourse to pesky DEX checks.

Rather than take the seemingly dead end passage, the party found the passageway that led north out of the statue room. There was writing all over the walls and ceiling and at the far end of the passageway was a shimmering curtain and the sound of running water. Alurax approached it and prodded it with his spear to find out what it was. He realised that it was the rear of a waterfall.

Ferros used his Comprehend Languages spell to work out what the writing said – it was an account of the activities of Munafik the High Priest and contained some valuable information, though it did not seem as if anyone reading the verses really worked out what this was.

The party tried the two doors on the left of the passage and found that they led into gloomy rooms where tattered curtains screened empty rooms.  Ferros pushed on through the second of these rooms, then out across a passage and into another room, where he found two stone sarcophagi. Beyond them was another door which he opened and peered through.

He found a figure in armour holding off what looked to be eight ghouls with a sword. He stepped in and raised his holy symbol – the power of his faith blasted the ghouls to fragments. The armoured figure removed its helmet to reveal a beautiful young girl who thanked Ferros for saving her life.

Hello, boys

She introduced herself as Lydia – Ferros sensed an aura of purity and goodness from her and when Alagon arrived shortly afterwards, the truth was revealed – she was a paladin, just like him. In fact, she was slightly more experienced.

Now came the interesting part – who would Lydia pair up with? Ferros, who had saved her life but who was commanding a small force of undead, or Alagon, a fellow paladin and undoubtedly more charismatic? Both men seemed eager to win the young paladin’s favour and this started a subtle rivalry that would run on and on.

For the moment, Lydia was making no choice, but she did explain that she had come into the pyramid in response to the request of a spirit figure which had visited her in a vision, asking her to plunder his tomb of the star and staff. The similarities to Alurax’s vision were all too obvious. She also mentioned that she had taken on the High Priest Munafik in a room with a waterfall but despite striking him with her sword, it had no effect. He declared that his life was ‘kept elsewhere’ before rising up into the air and disappearing into a dome. Although Ferros was listening intently, he may well have been affected by Lydia’s beauty because he did not relate this information to anybody else in the party later.

While the rest of the party gathered in the ghoul room, Elysia and Alurax were investigating the waterfall. Once they had realised what it was, there was no problem in passing through it. They found themselves in an octagonal room, whose ceiling was a good fifty-five feet high, twenty-five more than the other rooms in which they had been.

The waterfall was coming from a huge carved lion’s head and it fell into a large pool, then flowed out in a stream through an entrance in the north wall of the room.

There were four palm trees in the room, each with pineapples growing on them. to either side of the pool were identical granite altars, with the impressions of a right and a left hand carved into their tops. On each face of the altar was a gold rune. They managed to decipher the mysterious runes on the sides of the altar and even placed hands into the impressions but nothing seemed to happen.

Alurax managed to climb one of the palm trees and secure a pineapple, which he brought back down to examine more closely. However, when he cut into it with a knife, it exploded in his face, knocking him off his feet and spattering both himself and Elysia with chunks of wet fruit, which – unfortunately – was inedible and smelt of gunpowder. (not that the characters would recognise the smell but I had to give the players something to go on.) Elysia, in high dudgeon, decided to make use of the pool to get a bath and wash her clothes.

Meanwhile, Ferros led the party through a door on the far side of the ghoul room and down a passageway which led to three short tunnels. Each of the tunnels led into a circular room, with a walkway looking down into a room below. In the first one, there seemed to be nothing although Ferros noticed that there was something not quite right about the ceiling of the room. He decided to stab at it with a knife, then shot at it with a bow; at this point, the lurker above – for such it was – decided not to hang around and dropped down into the room below where it tried to make itself scarce. The party gave up at that point.

The next room looked down into an empty chamber; the party wasted little time in here and tried the last room. This one gave onto a chamber full of spears that extended from floor to ceiling. It was clearly a trap that had been triggered and the skeletal remains of a dwarf that had been caught by it still  hung impaled on several of the spears. Ferros could see that the dwarf had been carrying a bag in which were a quantity of gems, some of which had spilled out onto the floor. Unable to get to the dead dwarf, Ferros sent Rufus in to collect the jewels and the bag, finding that amongst the fake gems were five very valuable ones, which the cleric stuck in his pocket.

The party retraced their steps and investigated two more doors, which appeared to lead to kitchens and store rooms, long since abandoned. Beyond the store room was another passageway, beside which was an alcove with a carved stone statue in the shape of a woman with the head of a cat. The party managed to dislodge the statue and investigated the plinth, which sounded hollow when they tapped it. They smashed it open and recovered the treasure that lay within.

As with most cats, this one was on top of what they wanted to get to.

At the far end of the passageway was a stone door that led into a brilliantly lit hall.

The party immediately noticed the rapidly-moving stream that flowed from an entrance in the southern wall right through the room and out through an exit in the northern wall. The presence of water and light from the ceiling explained the lush tropical vegetation that filled the room on both sides of the river and almost entirely screened the walls of the chamber.  Amidst the foliage, they found two huge bronze bowls full of fruit but as they approached the bowls but as they did so, the ‘fruit’  took wing and flapped around, making for the upper reaches of the palm trees. Alagon and Gullhor grabbed for them – Gullhor was unsuccessful but managed to shoot a couple down with his bow. They found that when they ate the fruit, they felt a lot stronger and more nimble and agile.

Whilst they were there, Elysia and Alurax came through from the next room. They revealed what they had found, including the exploding pineapples, which Alurax demonstrated to the party.

They had managed to locate a side door out of the foliage room and this led them into a long and winding corridor. As they explored the passage, they found two hooded figures huddling over a sack. The figures turned out to be wraiths and they moved menacingly towards the party until Ferros managed to turn them. The sack was filled with gold pieces – another profitable encounter for the cleric.

Your soul - give it to me

At the end of the passage, they entered another octagonal room, in which were three wraiths gathered around a glowing sword. Ferros turned them as well and the party took the sword. They could not immediately identify it as Elysia was back at the foliage room. Everybody took turns in trying the blade  but Ferros got the most positive feeling about it.

As had been the case on the far side of the level, Ferros found passageways leading to three viewing rooms and with Alurax, he investigate each one.

The first room looked down into a chamber in which was a chest filled with platinum pieces. Four skeletons were pinned to the wall around it by steel spears. The opposite wall was covered with small holes. It did not take them long to find out that anything which passed in front of the holes triggered a steel spear to fly out. Neither of them wanted to risk being hit by an unknown number of spears so they pondered the conundrum for a few minutes before deciding to go back and get Elysia to join them so that she could use Unseen Servant to carry the treasure to safety. This is just what happened, although there was a hairy moment when the three wraiths reappeared; Ferros managed to turn them again but he was very much the cleric in demand as nobody felt safe going anywhere in this section without him.

The next room that they entered looked into a chamber which had a large X carved into the floor. Alurax decided that he wanted to know what happened if anybody stood on it and he soon found out as a large stone box fell out of the ceiling and struck him. He managed to extricate himself with Ferros’ help and he was very annoyed when he found that the box was empty.

The final room held little to see; a blade attached to a pendulum had been tied up against the wall; it was clear that anybody entering the room via the door would trigger the trap but our heroes were looking into it from above and therefore it was of only academic interest.

Ferros, Elysia and Alurax returned to the fruit and greenery room, where the rest of the party was waiting. They began to go over their options; Alurax headed off up the tunnel down which the river was flowing but he had only got so far when he decided to return, realising that nobody else was willing to accompany him.

Meanwhile, the others had begun to wonder about the walkway thirty feet above their heads and the fact that this room’s ceiling was substantially higher than other rooms that they had entered. It was decided to use Larsh’s height to try and get Alurax up to the ledge. The polar bear lifted the fighter as high as it could, and Alurax leapt for the ledge, actually managing to get hold of it. He could not lift himself on the fist attempt and the ledge crumbled under his grasp but a second attempt got him onto the ledge.

Once up there, he began to look around but before he could investigate the door in the south wall, he heard a tapping noise from behind the stones of the east wall. He soon found that the noise was coming from a loose stone in the wall, which he prised out to reveal behind it a narrow tunnel and the wizened face of a gnome, who introduced himself as Prit. 

Let me introduce you to my friend Mr Spoon...

Prit had been tunnelling through the interior of the pyramid in search of treasure. He told Alurax that at the end of the tunnel was a small statue with a big treasure. Alurax decided to investigate and asked the gnome to show him what he was talking about. Prit led the fighter down the narrow tunnel until he came out into a rough-hewn cave where a dark figure stood near a dusty but glittering object. Alurax was very reluctant to approach an unidentified dark figure, so he went back to ask Ferros to come up. The cleric did so, accompanied by Elysia and when they all stood in the cave, it was possible to see that the dark figure in question was a large man sculpted of clay. Alurax edged around him and approached the object it seemed to be guarding. As he got within touching range of it, the clay figure animated and turned to attack him. A flash of inspiration led both him and Ferros to defend themselves with blunt weapons, which was just what was needed – the clay golem, for such it was, had no such luck, blundering around and missing with most of its strikes. The two gallant heroes felled it with little damage to themselves.

Examining the object which it had been guarding, they found that it was a glass jar inside which was a beating human heart. Alurax wanted to smash the jar to get the heart, but Elysia advised against damaging it until they knew what it was and what it did. She had visions of it being the heart of the pyramid and the whole structure coming crashing down on them if they harmed the heart.

It's significant - but why?

Once they had brought the whole party up to the walkway and down the passage to the cave of the heart, they located another tunnel leading south and followed this for some considerable distance. They came out through a hole knocked into an octagonal chamber which led into two others – one that seemed to be a torture chamber of some sort, the other a dining room. Through the dining room, they came to a room that was clearly something special –

It was a 30-foot wide semi-circular room into which a huge column of thundering water poured from a hole in the ceiling into a hole in the floor. A symbol on the floor in front of the column of water represented a question mark and on the other side of the room were two large bronze doors. Where they led, and what the function of the room was, the party  had no idea. They would find out in the next session.

An Adventure for Every Monster - Demon, Type VI

What will happen to your party if you're successful in this adventure

(artwork from Craig J Spearing - check his stuff out here)

Frequency     Rare
No. appearing 1-3 or 1-6
Armour class  -2
Move  6”/15”
Hit Dice 8+8
Percentage in lair  20%    
Treasure type F
No. of attacks 1
Damage per attack 2-13    
Special attack  Whip and flame for 2-12/3-18/4-24 (damage dependent on size of demon)
Special defences +1 or better weapon to hit
Magic Resistance 75%
Intelligence High
Alignment Chaotic Evil
Size  L (12’ tall)
THAC0  12
XP value  3600 +12/hp

Abilities:

Cause Darkness, 10’ radius at will
Cause Fear
Detect Magic
Read Languages
Detect Invisible Objects
Pyrotechnics
Dispel Magic
Telekinese 6000gp weight
Use Symbol of Fear, Discord, Sleep or Stunning
70% chance of gating in a Type III (80%) or IV (20%)
Infravision
Darkness
Teleportation


Legends tell of a mighty battle deep in the heart of a mountain fastness, in which a terrifying demon fought the last of the Grey Wizards. Enchantments, magicks and thaumaturgical power of awe-inspiring proportions were hurled between the adversaries and finally the demon was cast into an abyss and half the mountain brought down on top of it.

The Grey Wizard knew, however, that this would not kill the demon, merely trap it and that its evil would linger there unless he found some way of destroying it forever. He set off on a quest to locate the arcane knowledge that would enable him to do this but whether he succeeded or not is lost in the mists of legend. Even the existence of the demon is now doubted by those in the know; modernist revisions of the legend now hold that it is merely a metaphor for the struggle over the resources of precious metal that surely still exist deep within the mountain’s caves.

Needless to say, this is tosh. Of course the demon still exists and, like anybody who’s spent centuries with a mountain on top of him, he’s very, very angry. You would have thought that he would be angrier still that most of his hoard of treasure, unguarded since his fall, had been looted but this, strange to say, pleases him greatly. Why might this be so?

Simply put, the treasure had been in his possession for so long that he had started to imbue it with his essence; it had taken on part of his spirit and after many years under the rubble, he found that he could see shadowy images through that link. Practising concentration (because he really had nothing else to do down there) he was able to fine tune the connection and learn a lot about the people who had looted his hoard and where those items were now. He found that he was able to send images and suggestions into their dreams and he now uses this to lure adventurers to the place where he is interred so that, egged on by the promise of more loot, they will uncover him and set him free.

The party has acquired an item that once belonged to the hoard of the demon. They don’t know this but over the course of the next few weeks, one of them (or more if the item is held communally) will start to have dreams about a fabulous treasure hoard, buried in the depths of the mountains,  just waiting to be looted. Try as they might, the party will be unable to determine the source of the dreams but like a game of ‘hot or cold’, the dreams will become clearer and more vivid as they home in on the direction of the demon.

The demon takes a philosophical view of his centuries-long imprisonment; after all, it is inevitable that at some point, a determined band of adventurers will manage to find him and free him. He has some very interesting experiences in mind for them as a special reward for setting him free.

There is one slight problem with the demon’s plan, however;  in the centuries since he was imprisoned, there has developed in the mountains a cult that has been drawn there by the evil influence and now worships at a crudely constructed shrine very near where the demon is trapped. They are savage, cunning, inbred and fond of human sacrifice to their supposed deity (the demon gains no benefit from this, alas). They also know by heart the tunnels and caves surrounding their shrine and have set up simple but effective booby traps to guard it. This is going to make getting to the demon very difficult for anything but a determined and tough party.

Team Adventure - Flame On!

The disappearance of their heavyweight fighter had discomfited the party and they quickly put their heads together to try and work out what to do. It was decided to test the fire with a second zombie (they  had used one earlier, but I’d forgotten to include this in the last session write-up). Said zombie shambled up the steps and into the fire, which had the same result; one vanished zombie.

Elysia decided that this was getting them nowhere and hit upon the solution of sending Relic through the fire. She was hoping that nothing bad was going to happen and figured that the telepathic link between them would net her more information than if they risked another member of the party. The little pseudo-dragon flew into the flames and was gone in an instant. Elysia concentrated on the connection between them and started to receive images from the other side of the flames.

Alurax was not, in fact, dead, or indeed in any immediate danger.  Relic had appeared in an octagonal room with four arches leading off it, each filled with a rusty orange mist. Beside each arch was a lever marked “Pull me”. One of the levers was up, the others down. In the middle of the room, a skeleton lay, a sword in its bony claw, pointing at one of the arches. Whilst Relic was taking all this in, he heard a call from above him and looked up to find Alurax stuck to the ceiling of the room. 

What had happened to him was swiftly deduced by Elysia, who worked out that a powerful magnetic field had been triggered by Alurax pulling one of the levers. As the only member of the party not wearing anything metal, she knew that she would have to go through the fire and having seen that Relic was not harmed, she knew it would be safe.

She arrived in the room, cast Web to secure Alurax from falling, then switched off the magnetic field. He fell into the sticky strands, whereupon Elysia cast Fly to rise up and cut him loose, lowering him safely to the ground.  While she was doing this, Ferros sent Rufus through to get information on what was happening and relayed the goings-on to the rest of the party.

One by one, the party members used the fire bowl to travel to the octagonal room. Once they were all there, Ferros realised that he would be unable to bring any of his undead army with him as he was not there to issue their commands. At least, he thought, he had two zombies with him. The party looked around the room and wondered what was through the mist-filled arches. Whilst they were pondering this, a strange growling howl came from beyond the arch to which the skeleton’s sword pointed.

It should be pointed out at this juncture that Galadeus had been the only one bold enough to touch the skeleton and take the sword. The party had half-expected it to animate and do something nasty but instead it just lay there. The strange noises, however, prompted the ranger to draw his weapons and go hurrying off into the mist to investigate. Without the rest of the party. As usual.

After ten feet or so of swirling mists which would have fuddled his brain had he not been wearing a home-made face mask, he found himself in a clear passageway. Ahead of him was another archway filled with mist; there were two more, one on each side of him. As he was taking this in, out of each archway stepped a huge minotaur, armed with a nasty-looking axe. They laid into the luckless ranger, battering him badly. He put up a valiant fight and Florin the phoenix used its fire-based ability to set the genitalia of one of the minotaurs aflame.  Enraged and in agonising pain, it attacked all the harder.

Rufus came through the mist to find out what had happened; a brief scan of the scene enabled him to flash the message back to Ferros that Galadeus was in the process of being hacked to pieces by the minotaurs. The party surged through the mist to his rescue - Alurax relieved his comrade, who was virtually finished by now, Elysia flew in and pulled the ranger to safety and Gullhor brought ten feet of furry white power with him.

I'll see your three Minotaurs and raise you a Polar Bear

Alurax finished off one minotaur and Larsh ripped the two others to pieces although he did take some damage from the axe of one.  As the party were searching the bodies and clearing up, it was noticed that there was a trail of gold pieces that led through one of the unexplored arches. Having healed Galadeus, they decided to follow it.  Another mist-filled stretch of passageway awaited them, followed by a clear passage, followed by a mist-filled one, followed by a clear one…and so on. The party soon realised that their choices had brought them round in a circle and back to the octagonal room again.

Galadeus decided to try another direction, turning right where they had previously turned left and came to a passageway that ended not in an archway but in a heavy planked door. They suspected that something interesting lay beyond and how right they were as kicking in the door revealed a large pile of hay in the centre of the room and two more minotaurs closing in on them. This time the party was prepared and able to spread out and engage their enemy on advantageous terms. The fight was swift and the two minotaurs were quickly eliminated, leaving Alurax free to search the room, discovering a large stash of electrum pieces below the pile of hay. Whilst he was doing that, he and Galadeus noticed that there was a thirty foot shaft in the ceiling, and at its top, some sort of wooden trap door. There were also three other plank doors leading off the minotaur room.

Elysia realised that she was running low on spells now and did not want to start opening more doors without being able to fend off what might lie on the other side. She set up Leomund’s Tiny Hut and the party bedded down inside – all, that is, apart from Alurax and Galadeus. The two of them had decided not to pass up the opportunity of investigating the shaft and climbed up its side to the trapdoor, Galadeus using two minotaur horns that he had hacked off the head of one of the party’s defeated opponents. They managed to get the door open, although it swung down to hit Alurax but did not dislodge him.

They emerged into a vast room, thirty feet wide and as high. The floors were covered with old prayer rugs, their patterns worn by years of use. Ahead of them against the wall was a statue of the King that reached nearly to the ceiling and in its forehead was a glimmering red gem. In the floor in front of the statue was a compass rose carved into the floor.

The lure of the gem proved too much for our heroes; Galadeus instructed Florin to fly up and take it but the phoenix could not get it free, so in an act of lèse-majesté, Alurax scrambled up the statue and used a dagger to prise the gem out of the stone.

As soon as he did so, a deep booming sound started up from the statue. Both he and Galadeus ran back to the trapdoor and climbed back down the shaft again. Elysia was rather annoyed to find out what had been going on, firstly because her rest and spell recovery had been interrupted and secondly because despite all the fuss, the gem that Alurax had stolen was revealed to be worthless cut glass. She insisted that Alurax put the gem back as she had deduced that this would stop the alarm. She was exactly right and with the gem replaced, the party bedded down to some peaceful rest.

Eight hours later, on the morning of September 14th (if anybody is actually keeping track of time; I know the party isn’t) Alurax and Galadeus woke with a keen urge to continue their investigations at the top of the shaft. Elysia was not interested in the upper level but the ranger and the fighter pressed on regardless whilst the rest of the party continued its exploration of the room they were in. Alurax had wondered if the gem, despite being glass, might shine a clue onto the compass rose, giving a hint as to the way out.

Meanwhile, Alagon had started to investigate the three other doors that led off the minotaur room. Beyond the first one, he found a leather knapsack that contained two scroll cases and a pouch with about a thousand gold pieces inside it. Elysia was very interested in the scrolls and was even more so when it was discovered that one of them was Fireball. This spell, so inseparably identified with the most powerful wizards had long been missing from her spell book and her delight at its acquisition was hard to conceal.

The second of the doors opened to reveal another misty corridor, as did the third, although Elysia used Relic to scout out what lay beyond. It was definitely pay day for the magic user as the pseudo-dragon saw a glowing ring on the floor of the corridor. Relic snatched it up before Ferros could get to it and took it to his mistress, who used an Identify spell to reveal it to be a powerful Ring of Protection. As she was unable to wear armour, the magic user thought it best if she appropriated this item.

Meanwhile, on the level above, Alurax and Galadeus had managed to find a secret door in the statue room and opened it to find beyond a passageway which they decided to explore. Thereby splitting the party but no matter. It’s never bothered them in the past!

DG note - this week was the first time that Larsh the polar bear had made his appearance on the table, courtesy of Brian at Lead Legion. I'd like to take this opportunity to thank him for all the effort he made in locating the figure and painting it up for us.