Chat Summary for 28 April 2000

While there was a lot of talk at last night’s chat session not much actually happened.

Nikki briefed the party on the magic items she had identified. Sane also cast an Identify spell and learned more about the Wand of Fire and the magical helm. The party then spent quite a while sorting out who should get what magical items on an interim basis. The list of who ended up with what can be found by following the Magic Items link off of the Resources page. Shadow made out like a bandit <g>, even though she herself didn’t ask for anything.

Towards the end of this scene something else happened. Matar noticed that the Ring of Protection that Nikki claimed she got off the behir looked a lot like a ring that she had worn before - and that she now had a new ring on. Diana had noticed the same thing earlier so she began questioning Nikki about it as well. Kat and a few others joined in, while others walked off. Nikki dismissed their concerns and ended up leaving, going to the foggy cavern.

The suspicious party then did a close check of the magic items found in the two lairs and noticed that an amulet was missing. When asked about it Nikki told the party she hadn’t seen it. Sane had carried the amulet back to the house, so he cast an illusion of what it looked like. Using that Diana cast Locate Object and went in search of it. Her spell indicated that the amulet was on Nikki. When confronted about this Nikki just shrugged. When pressed she said it wasn’t important. Things got pretty tense. Castinar finally told everybody to forget about it for now but that the party would have to have a long talk about this when they returned to TSR.

The party then broke camp and followed the tunnel on the far side of the dragon’s lair. It continued to lead south. After almost a day’s travel the tunnel ended in a small cavern. The party started the search the cavern. Using his Stone Tell ability, Xaveus learned that the cavern was used as a "gate" by very tall and thin figures. Using Azure Nikki determined that the whole area had the same magical signature as the points the party found earlier that Nikki had teleported between.

At about that time Castinar leaned up against the stone to try and hear something Xaveus pointed out. Unexpectedly, a pair of hands with long, slender fingers reached out of the stone and grabbed Castinar. With a single heave they pulled back into the stone, taking Castinar with them. Before the party could react Ari, Nikki, and K’harn were all abducted in the same manner.

The shocked party searched for the lost members as best they could. Xaveus used his Stone Walk to move into the stone. He did feel the presence of the others for a short time. They were moving down and away from him at a very rapid pace. Diana used several spells as well, but didn’t turn up any information.

The party pulled back and rested. Diana then cast several auguries while Amber tried a few omen readings. They were able to determine that those who were taken were safe, but that they would not return earlier than a day or longer than a month. After some discussion the party decided to stay in the area for a week to wait for them. Shadow made it clear she was going to stay as long as was necessary.

During the week that they waited the party worked on cleaning out the small lake in the dragon’s lair. They got it fairly clean, but there was so much stuff along the bottom it never did clear up.

Finally, just as the party was discussing leaving the area the lost ones returned. They were all rather silent and thoughtful. When asked what had happened to them Castinar told the group that they couldn’t say. They had made a promise that they would not speak of their recent experience. While this drove the others crazy they finally gave up on trying to drag any information out of the ones who had disappeared.

That’s about the time the chat session self-destructed. Kat wanted to pour out the Potion of Good Dragon control. Several party members became so upset about this they walked out (ie, left the chat session). Seeing that the situation had gone far enough, the DM called it a night.

One last thing that happened was that Ari cast Lower Water on the lake, allowing the others to go in and finish cleaning it out. Before, when the water was murky, cloudy, and full of carrion the cavern was beautiful. Now that the water is clean the view is simply dazzling. The entire cavern is filled with dancing patterns of light and darkness as the light is reflected and refracted both from the crystals above and the crystal clear water below.

The party now needs to decide what to do. Diana has already inscribed a Portal glyph on the floor, so you could head back to town easily. Keep in mind that several people have probably leveled up. Many others want to get this whole magic item thing aired out quickly. Most of the spell casters have spells or projects to work on. The other option is to travel down to the next unexplored section, which is past the Slime Temple.

So, QUICKLY in e-mail make a decision on what you want to do. We’ll then know where to go from there.

Saif