DM: Rusty
The Party:
Artimus a.k.a. "Artie" (Nick): Revenant Hexblade
Calla Noble (Matt): Human Knight
Ember (Leigha): Tiefling Wizard
Eve (Jesse): Eladrin "Lazy" Warlord
Jerry (Nick): Human Cleric
Joanna Winters (also Jesse): Human Archer Ranger
Kossack (Cliff): Minotaur Fighter
The Session:
Short a few players last session, we were forced to surrender to the Air Temple, and agreed to help them assassinate Fire Priest Alrrem. Calla, Artimus, Ember, and Eve teamed up with Air Temple Priest Kelno, and two of his Gnoll archers. We ended the session just after killing Alrrem (A). Today we started right where we left off, with Jerry, Joanna, and Kossack still MIA.
The four of us searched the nearby rooms. Ember found a book about Fire Elementals (B). We started to explore the East hallway (C), but Kelno was impatient. He ordered us to head straight for the Fire Temple (D). Once we arrived in the Fire Temple, Kelno asked us to dismantle a large bell that was hanging from the ceiling. As we approached the bell, we saw an altar on which many tiny Salamanders were moving about.
As we discussed our next course of action, our three missing party members finally caught up to us. Jerry, Joanna, and Kossack entered the Fire Temple from the North door, and were quite surprised to see us in the company of the Gnolls.
Kossack and Jerry recognized the Gnolls as some of the same ones that mugged us back at the moathouse. Artimus and Calla started to tell them the Gnolls were on our side now, but Kossack would have none of it. He immediately charged the nearest Gnoll with a bull's temper. It took a couple of rounds to decide who was on who's side. Of course Calla and Artimus wanted to be loyal to their friends, but Eve had never seen Jerry and the others before. As far as she knew, they were enemies. Jerry was even wearing Fire Temple robes he'd picked up a while back ("because they looked nice"). Eve used some of her Warlord powers to compel Calla and Artie to attack Jerry's group. Meanwhile, Ember stayed out of it, and just kept watching the Salamanders.
Whenever Calla or Artimus had a turn, they would attempt to calm things down, using Diplomacy checks on different people to explain the situation. But it just wasn't meant to be, so they allied with Jerry's group against Kelno and the Gnolls. After the battle, we kept Kelno alive, removing his equipment and tying him up. Kossack very nearly attacked Eve, but instead he just spit on her and threatened to kill her if she ever attacked him again.
Even though we no longer worked for the Air Temple, we still wanted to desecrate the Fire Temple. So Joanna and Kossack worked together to get the bell down from the ceiling. Then Jerry desecrated the altar. Against (in character) objections from most of the group, Artimus sacrificed Kelno on the Fire Altar. As soon as he did so, a bunch of the Salamanders jumped off the altar and started dancing around the room. They kept getting larger and larger. Not liking where this was going, we started heading for the West door.
After a couple of rounds, the Salamanders started combining with each other, until we faced four large Salamanders. Then the fight began. The Salamanders had a fire aura, but Calla and Kossack were both resistant to it due to their equipment. Once all the Salamanders were dead, Jerry started digging through a fire pit until he found a huge box. Ember used a cold spell to cool the box down enough for us to open. Inside, we found a few potions and a Frostfury Battleaxe. Kossack used the axe to smash the Fire Altar to pieces.
Next we went West, then North, until we found ourselves in a large octagonal room (E). There we were attacked by a creature called "Agera of the Shadow Face". This shadow creature was just full of surprises. It could attack three times per round, or hit all of us with one big blast attack. Its attacks had all sorts of nasty effects, like slowing us, giving us ongoing damage, pushing us, and making us attack each other.
Early in the battle, Artimus drew a crit card which basically marked the enemy, causing it to only be able to attack him. This isn't the best thing for a striker, and he barely survived the battle. But eventually we wore the thing down and killed it. After the battle, we searched the room and found three secret doors. We ended the session there.
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