Fun With Runes

Summary:

Flush with gold for quests well done, the Victors heaped patronage upon Seven Pillared Hall vendors, buying the mundane and the magical with equal abandon. Outfitted with powerful new implements, and party set out once more.

Key in hand, Orchid led the party down a twisting corridor. Some twenty yards outside Seven Pillared Hall, a set of runes burst into color on the floor in front of the party. At the same time, the key flew from the rogue's hand and into the side of the wall. The party heard an audible click as the key turned and a doorway emerged. The door slid open with a grinding sound, revealing a passageway and a room beyond.

VoSfK eased cautiously into the room. Inside, a spectral image inside a circle of runes cackled insanely about a range of seemingly random talking points, a common theme revolving around the futility of organized thought and sound. Gilic grimaced and said, "What ho, minion of Cyric? You babble incoherently with the best of his ilk." The visage responded with insane laughter and motioned slightly. Seven more images suddenly materialised along the perimeter of the runed circle. Each was a copy of a party member, though twisted, withered, mad versions of the originals. The minion of Cyric laughed with delight at the new arrivals and said, "Answer correctly the questions put forth by you and you may pass. Hahahahahahahahaha. Answer incorrectly and doom yourself to spreading Cyric's blessing of strife and torment upon Toril."

Each member approached their doppelganger and took turns answering questions specific to their profession and life experiences. Most answered correctly, enough so that the cackling Cyricist and his summoned images disappeared with a soft pop. "May Corellon protect us," Shave intoned as she pushed past the party and stepped onto the runes. She disappeared in a cloud of crackling ozone. The rest of the party followed.

Upon teleporting next to a duplicate rune circle, Taegahn strode through a short archway into a large room sprinkled with odd-looking pillars. The two nearest began to hum and vibrate and then suddenly pulsed translucent energy at the ranger. Taegahn screamed in agony as a thousand mind pricks pierced his mortal consciousness. The agony faded quickly but Taegahn staggered away, his battle prowess blunted.

The rest of the party fanned out. Queequeg and Orchid made first contact with a band of norkers, distant cousins to the swampy troglodyte. Orchid cried out, "Incoming!" and the two formed a weak front against the coming wave. Soon the rest of the adventurers swarmed to their aid and a massive battle ensued. In the back of the room, a new set of runes glowed cheerfully, sporadically churning out norker reinforcements. When the last norker fell, Shava said, "I'm going in" and then ran into the portal. Gareth yelled, "Shava!" but the cleric was gone before he could finish. The warrior muttered a curse and then followed suit, Queequeg right behind him.

At the same time, Orchid focused on a nearby door. She jiggled the handle and found it locked. She next attempted to pick the lock but it stubbornly refused to open. Gilic took a running charge at the portal but promptly bounced off. Gareth reappeared out of the rune portal and said, "Minotaur construct. Big" before he quickly accessed the problem at hand and plunged his great axe into the door. It fell before him revealing an empty room but for the two slobbering enigmas of Vecna. The party instantly inferred this pair as responsible for channeling psychic energy through the pillars. Queequeg followed Gareth through the rune portal and immediately charged one of the aspects. Shava came out of the portal grinning saying, "By Corellan, that's one angry minotaur." The party got to work on the two Vecna mindslayers and the two horrors were quickly slain.

The party rested briefly as Gareth explained what waited beyond the runed portal: a massive minotaur construct armed with a proportional great axe. The Victors readied themselves and then arranged for two teams to port back to the construct. The first wave teleported back to face not just the construct, but newly arrived norker and enigma of Vecna reinforcements. Gareth, Gilic, and Taegahn moved to face the construct, while the rest of the party harried the norkers and enigmas. Cedric cast a moving glob of snow and ice and damaged and slowed a good chunk of the enemy, while everyone else hacked and parried and thrust. Finally, Taegahn took careful aim and felled the churning minotaur. It collapsed hard, metal parts bursting and twisting at acute angles, the sound of metal on stone reverberating throughout the chamber. The enigmas paused for a moment as the metal heap came to a piled halt. They suddenly turned around and ran into yet another runed portal as the norker howled in fury at the naked cowardice.

The party soon silenced their indignant screaming.

TO BE CONTINUED

Line(s) of the Night:

"I don't have a dick." - Megan, explaining to Simon the physiological differences between them.