The group found a strange tropical paradise within snow locked mountains by following the map left by Onyx's departed husband (described in Adventure 1: The Nexus Has Opened). After a battle with some rusty Iron Golem guardians the group discovers the golems were guarding a portal. One can only hope that this is the Nexus.
From Dungeon Issue 92 May/June 2002. Changes have been made to accommodate the group's level and the campaign.
We see a field that is silvery and shimmering. It no longer has electrical arcs. While the cleric is busy healing the group, Onyx helps out with a couple of cure light wounds and some cure minor wounds.
The shimmering field could be a portal. It has a molten silver like appearance. While Onyx sits and starts to memorize “Analyze Portal”. Envy starts to play with the portal. She pushes in a piece of the iron golem and then tosses another piece in. She then puts her finger in and removes it. Nothing happens. She sticks her hand in and out and nothing happens. She holds her breath and sticks her face in and it sucks her in. Deciding that time is of the essence, Onyx takes Zaphod’s scroll of “Analyze Portal” and casts it from the scroll. From the spell Onyx determines that yes it is a portal, it is active on all the time. It is a one-way portal. Looking through the portal, all Onyx can see is an infinite plane of silver. She does not see Envy. This is a creature only portal. Once it senses a mind it pulls the rest of the creature through.
The group waits 15 minutes while Zaphod memorizes and then casts “Portal Beacon” so Zulkash knows we found a portal and where it is. While Zaphod memorizes that spell Onyx completes the memorization of “Analyze Portal”. We go through. Valentine and Sunder are completely disoriented and flail around. There is no gravity. Looking around we see floating clouds, bits and pieces of rock floating around. We see a troll approach us. It is Envy. She explains we can all fly by just thinking where we wish to go. We fly off toward a dark tornado like cloud off in the far distance.
The group travels for what seems like hours. Seven hours go by and envy stops being a troll, but we are still not hungry. We don’t feel tired. We stop at a cloud and decide to rest so the cleric can get his spells back. Envy thinks this might be the astral plane. Time has stopped. We won’t age, get hungry, but our wounds won’t heal either. Zaphod memorizes a couple of lesser restorations and cast them on Sunder and Valentine to restore their lost CON points.
Traveling onward, it takes the better part of the day to get to the tornado. We see an island with a pyramid, and some towers. As we approach, we notice there is gravity there. We start to fall. Envy casts “Fly”. Onyx had opted for other spells, but still has “Feather Fall”. Envy (as the troll) catches Sunder and Valentine. Zaphod has a ring of “Feather Fall”. Zaphod and Onyx approach an obsidian tower with a gold dome. They will land on near the front of the tower. Envy intends to land on the roof. She notices 4 ballista. They are not manned. However, as Envy, Zaphod and Valentine approach the ballista seem to come to life and point their weapons at the three. They fire on Envy. Only one hits, but it is “Dispel Magic”. It dispels her “Polymorph Self” and “Familiar Pocket”. Her cat and the rat appear and cling to her. She stills has “Fly” and “Cat’s Grace”. She manages to land in the middle of the 4 ballista. After they land, Valentine and Sunder open up the trap door in the roof. The ballista all fly down the open trap door and set off “Guards and Wards”, a 6th level spell. Envy recognized the spell. All doors become arcane locked; there is fog and webbing everywhere. The trap door slams shut. Envy tries to pick the lock, but fails. Looking around, the front door has iron portcullis and there are iron bars or shutters on all of the windows.
The group decides to try the tower ruins first. Some of the group point out a flying galleon approaching a dock area. We go to the tower ruins. It looks recently destroyed and it is obvious that magic destroyed the tower. The group heads for the nearest tower. As we approach the top of a ridge, we can see that the galleon is at the dock and there are 3 red dragons, each with a rider, zooming by the towers. We catch a glimpse of the end of the battle and a dragon lands on each of the towers. We can see that human size shapes are exiting out of the galleon. As they get near the third tower they disappear and reappear near the fourth tower further off. At that moment one of the red dragons spots Sunder and Valentine on the ridge. In draconic we hear “Spies on the ridge”. (Envy and Onyx know draconic).
One of the dragons spots part of the group and shouts (in draconic) “Spies on the ridge.” The 3 dragons and their riders head toward us. Sunder stands up and tries to draw their attention to him alone. Envy casts “Ghostly Visage” on herself. Valentine starts singing and moves a little away from Sunder. The three dragon riders disappear and appear behind us. One is behind Envy, another behind Sunder and the last one is behind Valentine. The dragons cast a spell. Onyx can tell it is the “Shield” spell. Zaphod casts “Prayer” on the group. Onyx casts “Ball Lightning”. And sends one ball to each of the riders and the other 2 to stay with her and attack whoever or whatever attacks her. She does some damage on each of the riders.
Sunder succeeds in hearing the one behind him (Rider #6).Sunder attacks the rider and hits him twice (with some shock damage). Envy hears the one behind her and crits him. Valentine does not hear the one behind her. The rider on Envy crits her and the other attack misses and then he vanishes. The rider on Sunder crits and hits Sunder and then he vanishes. The rider on Valentine is hit and then a miss and then he vanishes. The dragons charge up and the riders appear on the dragons. Zaphod hits dragon #1 with both arrows. Onyx casts “Ice Storm” also on dragon #1 and his rider.
Sunder prepares to evade and also throws a dagger at the hovering dragon. Envy flies up and attacks the dragon and her attacks bounce off its scales. Valentine uses a crossbow and doges the dragon near her. The riders hold their actions. Dragon #3 does a bite, attacks with both claws, a wing buffet and a tail slap on Envy. The dragon manages to land without crashing and the rider tumbles off and attacks Envy, but misses. Dragon #2 breathes fire on Onyx. Dragon #1 is in front of Zaphod and the rider decides to go after Onyx. Zaphod crits dragon #1 and it is dead. Onyx is surrounded by dragon #2 and 2 riders. She casts “Improved Invisibility” and moves. Dragon #2 gets an attack of opportunity on Onyx and manages to hurt her even more.
Sunder charges dragon #2 from behind and does 24 pts. of damage. Envy attacks dragon #1 and its rider. Valentine attacks one of the riders that had been surrounding Onyx. Dragon #3 casts “True Strike” and bites Envy. The rider finishes off Envy. Rider (#4) attacks Valentine. Rider (#6) drinks a potion and appears to get slightly better. Dragon #2 casts Darkness and takes Sunder down. Zaphod attacks rider (#$) and he goes down. Onyx casts “Stoneskin”, drinks a potion of “Cure Light Wounds” (pulled from her potion belt) and moves a short distance.
Valentine attacks rider #6. Dragons #2 and #3 rush up and breathe on Onyx. Onyx goes down and is at fate point. Those still alive and conscious see a grey green light hit rider #5 and go poof. His armor drops in a pile.
Zaphod waits for Valentine. Valentine attacks rider #6, but does not take him down. Zaphod attacks one of the dragons with an arrow. Dragons #2 and #3 shout something (in Draconic). The remaining rider (a Githyanki) vanishes and the 2 dragons breathe on Zahod and Valentine. Valentine tumbles behind dragon #3 and hits him in the rear. Zaphod fires 2 more arrows at #2. Both dragons leave.
Off in the distance Valentine and Zaphod can see seven githyanki appear and the dragons land near them. The two can see that the dragons are being healed. Somewhere a hail of ice appears and hits one of the dragons. Valentine and Zaphod think that someone was shouting when the “Ice Storm” appeared. The dragons fly off toward the sound and the 7 githyanki follow the dragons in the same direction.
Zaphod checks Sunder and rescues him from certain death. Onyx is unconscious, but Envy is dead. The rider must have kept hitting Envy fearing she would regenerate and get back up again Envy is her troll form. Sunder drags Envy’s troll body and Zaphod and Valentine manage to move Onyx and they retreat to a low lying fog crystal area which the group had passed by earlier. Zaphod heals Onyx enough so she is conscious. Onyx casts “Detect Poison” to check out the fog. It is not poisonous. Onyx then casts “Dispel Magic” on Envy to get rid of the troll form. We notice there is some humming in the crystal field. Onyx spends 15 minutes and memorizes “Shrink Item”. The group strips Envy and Onyx casts “Shrink Item” on Envy. Just in case she memorizes “Ice Storm” as well. The group heads for the ruined tower. After 15 minutes we arrive and start to look around. Onyx spots an area where rubble has been moved and pushed back. We find a trap door. We open it and go down it. It is a very long tunnel with branching passageways. We explore the tunnels and end up under the gold domed tower. We find a door. Zaphod uses his Chime of Opening and undoes the wizard lock and the regular lock. When Sunder opens the door there is a cloud of reddish dust. It burns Sunder. Onyx throws water on him and Valentine casts “Prestidigitation” on Sunder. The burning stops, but we are not sure if it was the water, the spell or it had stopped its burning. We enter and see a huge “U” shaped pool with a pair of Githyank lovers at one end of the pool. We look around. There are 2 sets of double doors with something written on it. Onyx, using her Comprehend Languages read “The Lich Queen observes you and bids you enter”. The pool is magical and has a conjuration spell on it. Valentine checks it out and it is ice cold water. Onyx casts “Regenerate Light Wounds” twice upon herself to bring her up close to full hit points. Zaphod casts a couple of “Cure Minor Wound” which gives her a couple more hit points.
We see stairs leading upwards into the tower, but it still has webbing and the fog is still there. We decide to look elsewhere and come back later when the spell “Guards and Wards” may have finally expired.
Looking around in the tunnels we find a short passageway leading to a room with a lot of rubble. Sunder looks around and discovers broken pieces of statue, all of Githyanki. There is a glow and it is magical. Clearing the debris we discover a dome shaped force field. Inside the field we can see an unconscious half Sun elf female with reddish hair. She is very muscular and nearly 6 feet tall. We see a symbol of Torm, the goddess of Justice. Zaphod casts “Dispel Magic” and it succeeds. The half elf is named Santhi and she is a paladin of Torm. She was born in 1350 and appears to be 22 years old. She has not been that field for very long. We decide to go back to the gold tower and rest. There were a few rooms on this level that we managed to break into and it looks like a good place to rest.
Envy’s list of magical items
The unidentified items will require identify spell to determine what they are.
The clerics can finally memorize spells. As Zaphod and Onyx memorize the last of their spells, Sunder checks out the spiral staircase and encounter three ballista. Ballista #3 loads a bolt and fires, but misses Sunder. Ballista #1 shoots Santhi and misses. Ballista #2 fires and misses Zaphod.
Santhi moves closer to the ballista. Zaphod fires an arrow and hits #1. Onyx maneuvers to see a ballista and fires from her magic missile wand. Valentine moves out of the way of the ballista and attacks #2. Sunder hits only a glancing blow on #3. Santhi attacks ballista #1 and it crumbles to pieces. One of the ballista fires a flesh to stone arrow at Zaphod, but he saves against it.
Zaphod moves and fires at ballista #3.Onyx casts Cat’s Grace on herself. Sunder hits #2 and it falls to pieces. Santhi moves closer to #3. Ballista #3 fires off a web and it leaves. Santhi is confused and goes up after it (through the webbing) and ends up in a room with a couch. Only Onyx is caught by the web. The group sets fire to the web. Onyx is slightly damaged by the fire, but is now free. She casts Cure Light Wounds on herself. She then casts Bull’s Strength and Familiar Pocket.
The group goes after Santhi. We eventually find her, but are also caught by 2 ballista. They each fire a bolt and run off. After a couple of wrong turns (confusion) we manage to get back downstairs. Onyx casts her Create Magic Tattoo. While she is doing that the others investigate the door and room that had runes about the Lich Queen. Upon opening the door group sees statue of the Lich Queen. Valentine, Sunder and Santhi move closer to an altar. There is a silver bowl inset into the stone of the altar as well as a pitcher of water. Putting the water into the bowl, it becomes a scrying device. Onyx investigates the scrying device, but after a while she gives up. We take the pitcher as it can refill with water. To avoid spilling water we set it upside down and leave it that way to prevent more water from getting into the pitcher. Once it is turned upright, it fills with water. The group heads toward the pyramids. Once we get there we notice that there is a hole on one side of one of the pyramids. All of the 3 pyramids are abandoned and gutted. We are not sure when this occurred. Santhi can tell that something evil has been here. Sunder and Zaphod see smoke. It may be toward the towers. Santhi recalls that Githzerai are against the Githyanki. The group discovers another crystal grotto. We find 2 sides of a fight. We find a dead hell hound.
The group decides to give Envy’s haversack to Sunder. Within the haversack are 20 arrows, bedroll, climber’s kit, crow bar, one scholar’s outfit (female), another sack, a composite longbow, a masterwork thief’s toolkit, 5 tinder twigs and a waterskin.
Looking around Santhi can tell that there had been an astral storm (the one we say coming to this island) and it is almost gone. While the storm was going people would not have been able to plane shift.
We decide that it might be safer to return to the underground tunnels. Group comes across a bone door. Sunder smashes the door down. The group can see a 10 foot tall statue of a Githyanki and an altar at the other end of the room with a few pews in between. When Onyx tries to enter the room she is zapped for 25 points of damage. Onyx can tell it is a forbidden sigil (of opposing alignment). Onyx tries a dispel magic which fails. Zaphod heals her damage. Everyone manages to save against the sigil (Onyx had to use a fate point to avoid damage again).
After we are all in the room and start to examine the statue, it comes to “life” and hits Zaphod. Sunder misses and loses his second attack. Santhi hits the statue. Zaphod casts Spiritual Weapon, but it goes right through the statue. Zaphod is hit for 27 points of damage and he decides to retreat back beyond the golem (ex- statue)’s reach. Sunder and Santhi attack the golem. Onyx casts Bless. The golem casts Slow on Sunder and hits Sunder twice.
Sunder goes into a rage. Santhi hits the golem and it goes down. Zaphod heals Sunder and himself. Beyond the altar room the group finds a large library. There are books on many different topics. As Onyx goes around and reads the titles, she can tell that the books are rigidly organized and cover many different topics. Onyx picks up a couple books on the various planes and Valentine takes 2 books each of the topics.
Opening up another door we find some kind of lab. In the corner is an Otiluke’s Resilient Sphere. Suddenly, Onyx can see someone rise from behind one of the lab tables and fires a Prismatic Spray (spell) at the group. Santhi is hit by a yellow beam and is blinded for 6 rounds. Sunder is hit by a blue beam and saves against a flesh to stone. Zahod is hit by an indigo beam and saves vs. an Insanity spell. Onyx is hit by a violet beam and saves vs. being transported to another plane. Valentine is hit by a green beam and saves vs. a death spell (required fate chip). Zaphod casts Prayer. Sunder moves up to where the spray came from. Santhi attacks the devourer and misses. Onyx fires an arrow at the invisible foe and it shatters (Stoneskin?) Valentine is surprised. The wizard has improved invisibility and Onyx is the only one who can see him. Sunder manages to dodge a cone of cold. Some attack the devourer while the others try to find the wizard based on Onyx’s comments about his location. Onyx casts ball lightning against the devourer. Valentine goes up against the devourer. The necromancer attacks Onyx and she drops to the floor unconscious (at -2 HP). Zaphod attacks the devourer. Santhi casts Bless while the others either attack the devourer or try to find the necromancer. Valentine does a bard song and
Zaphod casts Cure Critical on Onyx. Sunder leaves the room, going back into the library and tries to taunt the necromancer into following him. Onyx casts fireball at the necromancer. The necromancer again attacks Onyx and she is unconscious again. Zaphod fires a couple of arrows at the necromancer since he got close enough to Onyx. Onyx is stable at -9 HP. (Fate point). Santhi casts Holy Smite. The necromancer casts cone of cold and gets Valentine, Zaphod and Onyx. (Onyx – another fate point). Zaphod casts Air Walk and goes up and shoots the necromancer. Sunder takes Onyx and moves her to the corner with the Otiluke’s Resilient Sphere and gives Onyx a Cure Serious Wounds potion. The group manages to take down the devourer. The necromancer grabs Onyx and pulls her into the sphere. Onyx casts magic missile and fires from her magic missile wand. Unfortunately the necromancer had shield up and it deflects off of the shield. The necromancer talks and we call a temporary truce. The group negotiates a deal with the necromancer.
The group manages to negotiate a deal with the necromancer, Karluth. We agree to destroy the citadel in exchange for passage back to our plane. He heals us and portals us under the citadel. The room we are in is safe enough while we rest and get our spells back. Notes – Karluth is a githyanki. The citadel is on one of the demi-planes. The one we are in is a cavern system of the four elements where the passage of time proceeds normally. This demi-plane used to be used as a staging area in preparation to attack one of the elemental planes. After we are rested we need to look for a shaft to the level below which will lead us to the citadel. Karluth takes us to the portal and we go through. He casts mass heal and Valentine takes a crystal from him. When we break that crystal he will open up a portal in this location. He will wait 15 minutes and then close it. If he spots any danger he will close it before the 15 minutes are up. We can hear howling of winds. There is only one tunnel leading from this room. We wait until the clerics gain their spells back. During that time Onyx uses her free slots and memorizes identify and then casts it to identify Envy’s magical items.
List of Envy’s items and who they went to:
Since Zaphod took the mithral shirt, Onyx takes his mithral shirt +1. Also there is a pair of boots of elvenkind since Zaphod’s mithral shirt negates the need for the boots of elvenkind.
Onyx uses 2 identify spells for the above.
As the spell casters of the group finish memorizing their spells, something stabs Zaphod for 29 points. Zaphod makes a grab for it, but misses. Santhi looks around, but can’t figure out where it is. The invisible person stabs Zaphod for 28 points and 23 points of damage. Onyx, who has "See Invisible" permanently cast upon herself, can make out a hazy outline of an invisible monster. Onyx casts magic missile at it and hits. Sunder swings and misses. Valentine puts away her flute and takes out her fans.
Zaphod casts “Invisibility Purge” and the group briefly sees something, but then it is gone again. Zaphod retreats when he realizes it didn’t stay visible. Santhi tries to hit it but fails. Onyx sees it fly over people and it attacks her for 29 points. Onyx casts defensively Ball Lightning and attacks with all 5 balls at the invisible monster, but only two of the balls hit it. Zaphod casts healing spells on himself. Onyx can see it leaving. Santhi figures out it was probably an invisible stalker.
Santhi does Cure Serious Wounds. Onyx casts Cure Light Wounds on herself. Santhi then does a laying on of hands to get Onyx completely healed. While Zaphod and Santhi casts spells to heal Zaphod, Onyx is busy casting her spells. (Familiar Pocket, Create Magic Tattoo, Cat’s Grace and Bull’s Strength).
Onyx feels a little ill and is vomiting. Santhi thinks she caught something and does a Cure Disease on Onyx. Valentine realizes that Onyx is pregnant. Onyx tells Santhi that she did not know she was pregnant when she started adventuring and that neither Sunder nor Zaphod is the father. No comments from Sunder or Zaphod.
The group travels down the tunnel. The greenish rippling we noticed earlier is from a greenish pool of water. Santhi does Detect Evil on the water and discovers IT IS EVIL. She warns the group just as a pseudo pod rears up. Sunder goes into a rage and gets an attack of opportunity as it attacks. He hits it and avoids being grappled by it. Santhi tells us it is water weird and it can not be permanently killed. It just takes time for it to reform after “dying”. Zaphod casts Spiritual Weapon, but it does only a little damage.
Santhi springs forward and attacks it. The water weird hits Sunder and Santhi and tries to grapple them. Valentine tumbles up and attacks. Onyx casts Fireball and it laughs. It is immune to fire. Sunder manages to get a hit against it. Zaphod casts Greater Magic Weapon on his arrows. The water weird hits Sunder and manages to pull him into the water and the water weird sinks down with sunder. Santhi and Valentine get an attack of opportunity as it leaves. Once down there Onyx looks and thinks she can see an outline of the water weird. She casts Ball Lightning on the water weird. Sunder attacks and manages to do some damage, even though he is under water. Zaphod uses his spiritual weapon. Santhi casts Holy Smite and does damage on the water weird. The water weird becomes a vortex. Sunder is caught in the vortex/whirlwind of water. Valentine swims toward the vortex. Onyx casts a magic missile from her wand. The vortex stops and the water become calm. Santhi thinks it will only take a couple of minutes before it reconstitutes itself, so the group makes a hasty retreat. Valentine thinks she can see a portal and sees a kraken. It is probably a portal to the elemental plane of water, but the group avoids that portal.
Over to one side we can see three tunnels. We try the leftmost one. Investigating the tunnels we find a large web with a hole in it. We also find a very large spider that has been partially dissolved. Santhi and Valentine suspect a very large ooze type creature caused the dissolving of part of the web and of the giant spider. Looking around the group does not find any magical items around. Investigating the middle tunnel we discover a shaft leading down. We suspect this is the shaft that Karluth mentioned. We decide to investigate the rightmost tunnel before going down the shaft. We also find a very large black pudding. We avoid it and check out the rightmost tunnel. We find a portal with a lot of wind. We suspect it is a portal to the elemental plane of air. Onyx can see an invisible stalker. We decide to avoid a confrontation and leave.
On the way back the black pudding is blocking our path to the shaft. Hitting it with an arrow causes it to split. We decide to hit it a few times with arrows (split it off) and then Onyx casts fireball at the pieces. We manage to get rid of some of it and the rest of the pieces that survive scatters and retreats from us.
The shaft has perfectly smooth sides and is about 10 feet wide. Onyx casts fly and ferries people to the bottom. Looking around we find a big chamber with a pool of lava and 2 lava falls at the far end of the cavern. There are some smaller tunnels which we investigate. We find skeletons and one chamber used to be an egg chamber. Santhi finds some dragon tracks (large). In the “egg” chamber we only find shells and a crucified skeleton with a message in draconic. “The price you pay for killing my babies”. We see a couple of tunnels at the far end of the lava pool.
Onyx flies Santhi toward it. A huge adult red dragon burst out of the lava shouting “baby killers” in draconic. Sunder and Onyx are affected by the yell. They are at -2 for morale, attacks and saves. Onyx is affected for 16 rounds and Sunder is affected for 13 rounds.