Episode IV - A New Hope

[at]

Gathering up a few books and the talisman the party rushes past the construct and makes for the door. Smashing the key does not prove difficult and its destruction is met with a thundering sound of impact followed by relative silence as the winds outside stop, while inside dust begins to flake away from the walls and ceiling filling the place with dust much like the forest outside.

Pushing open the door the party find themselves back in the material plane and move themselves and Ka'lions animal beyond the edge of the forest to get a little fresh air. It is early morning and as the sun rises Ka'lion spots something flying overhead - a man who he thinks he recognises as his cousin Astwick, a mage from his home.






(Players will be advancing to 8th level. Prior to the start of the adventure proper you will be given the opportunity to trade in your various possessions for 27,000gp of gear from the usual sources - DMG, MiC and the like. Original Class restrictions remain in place so no psionics, DM approval on any wierd dragon magazine stuff, etc)

[sageaqua]

Ka'lion uses the bone dagger to refect the suns light at the flyer as he waves to get his attention

[(George) 3.5./ ZEM ( 4.0)]

George gives ka'lion a hug, your a genius buddy. Wow we got out of that one but i could use one drink and some rest. Next time when we go look at a crazy tower remind me use my dimension door to get out and not in.

In a very joking manner: " So about that trade are u really are letting him have that sword ? Cause u know he could poke his eye out . Sorry buddy sorry u know I mean well. And thanks by the way he could use a proper weapon like the one u gave him.

[sageaqua]

He can keep the sword. I is a +1 magic short sword that adds +2 to his strength if he has it on him. I'm going back to using basic gear. Animals don't have much use for weapons.

[(George) 3.5./ ZEM ( 4.0)]

He thinks about it a bit


Animals dont use... O wild shape forms ya true. Tho if they knock you out of forms it might be handy to have one or two on you. As a back up is all.

[sageaqua]

I'm able to shapeshift up to 4 times a day in small and medeum forms. I'll carry a magic missile wand as a back up for those fights that I can't hit someting because it requires a magic weapon to hit something or I'm having a bad luck day. I'm tired of missing. My wand will fire 2 missies at a time. So I'll have 100 missiles in all. I'll also be carrying 650 gold peices on basic gear in a haversack, a bag of holding and in my quiver - so I wont need a wagon or horses to carry my stuff any more.. I'm just walking away from most magic weapons until I find something I like. Other then that I'm picking up bracers of armor. You and Samious might want to do that to. We can always pump up our defences in the feild when we need to. 650 gold peiece is about how much we spend at first level for our equipment. I'm just gitting rid of all the clutter in weight. It's a releaf you know that. If I want a horse and a familer again I'll summon them.

I'm still hitting once a turn but I will be hitting.

How about you two? asks Ka'lion

[at]

Bone and the ethereal blade don't prove an especially good reflector, but George is able to flag the spellcaster down with his ring of light.

Astwick seems surprised, "I didn't expect to see you back here so soon Ka'lion, after what you did. Is this also your handwork?"

Glancing at George and Shamious he strikes a more upright pose and holding his staff out before him he adds in a formal tone, "My name is Astwick. my calling is that of an arch wizard, one who controls evocation magic, the strongest of all schools of magic"


George isn't quite sure what to make of the young man, though Ka'lion knew that his decision to pursue evocation magics rather than more traditional family schools combined with his somewhat overwrought showmanship had not always gone down well at home.

[sageaqua]

"The strongest of all schools is time Astwisk. I've seen first hand just how powerful that can be. Evocation is showy and desearves our respect. So which two schools have you walkd away from? We could use a arch wizard. Exspeshally one with dig spells? Are you skilled enough to do that?" asks Ka'lion

[at]

"That would depend on how big a crater you want. I see your time with the monks has been productive, does you grandmother know you've wandered off?"

(Ka'lion knows that he is an elemental mage, mostly focussed on fire but not specifically evocation - spells like passwall are likely within his repertoire. His just dislikes having to stray from his preferred field of study and is a little egotistical of the sheer power of his signature spells)

[at]

For future reference there is also now a wealth tracker here -
kmansadventures.proboards.com/thread/8958/kalion-george-item-tracker


This keeps track of your basic gear at any given time and can be used when you are switching items in and out from various sources - it'll make more sense in context but for now it's there to help you to plan out your initial starting gear.

[sageaqua]

"I was bit by Quest. I suddenly became enraged. I killed him. My dad and mother telaported me to a freind of my fathers near Bur-town about 3,000 miles away. Just in case grandma killed me because of it. It was the Skull Cheif's desision. I was told not to return until I could control my rage.

As far as the stone building I caused it to calapse but it is filled library with books made of stone and has other treasures and monsters. So this needs to be a careful dig to recover all of it." says Ka'lion showing Astwick the few stone books the party was able to save. "There is a huge library of stone books under that. Do you want to help us recover them? I'm sure our people can use them."

[at]

(the building is still standing, though likely somewhat unsafe)

"Yes, I heard what happened.". He looks over one of the books, "whose library is it?"

[(George) 3.5./ ZEM ( 4.0)]

" sorry i have been so silent as ka'lion here said im george and this is shamious nice to meet you. The owner is no longer alive. I know ka'lions family deals in the arcana arts with some dealing in necromancy. That tower no longer looks safe to enter at this time. If you wish to retreave whats left i cant stop ether of you tho i do not feel it would be a wise action.

[sageaqua]

"it's a question of knowledge. We can learn from the past a great deal. Is it wise to abanden knowledge? If we do we are doomed to repeat our mistakes. But I agree it looks unsafe. So the question remains - how do we retreave the treasure. A library is a terable thing to waste. I have to try. My grandma would understand and approve." says Ka'lion

[(George) 3.5./ ZEM ( 4.0)]

" buddy we just got out of the darn stupid tower, u really want to go back in? I know u want knowledge , me i go for wisdom at times i do need a good book. knowing how to build a tower knowing if it will collapse, anazing feat of intolect yes its a grwat use of ones brain.

Yet having enough wisdom to see how unstable it is knowing it could very well crush you is perhaps using said past knowledge of ones life experience. Both of those keeps us alive yet we must use both notbjust one or the other.


Ka'lions we were fortunate to get out once, to do it twice could be poking the fates a bit too much. Again i know u well enough u still want them, but i should prepare my spells for the day anyway before we try. Any requests that will help in your task?"

[sageaqua]

"I also need differnt spells and it looks like the safest way in is flying and levataion from above. We dismantal the building from the top - done that way it wont calapse on us. We still need to deal with the gargoyles, golems and the undead and traps we find but the main library is on the second floor and it's likely other writtings will be found if we are pashent but we can use some help and it might take a month or more to finish. But food and water is not a problem with Goerges help. Arch-mage lord of fire Astwick how can you help us. Your fire spells are great for a fight but not so good when we need to be careful and you clearly know the fly spell we need to be seccessful?"

[at]

Rubbing his hand against the surface of the book Astwick notes the thick dust coming off the cover, as if the whole thing was just tightly packed dust, "if they are all stone they'll be too heavy to teleport, and they'd not survive any other journey in this condition. You can see the pages are already crumbling"

He considers for a moment before, "ah, of course." He pulls a thin crystal disc from a belt pouch and places it upon the book before uttering a short incantation - Ka'lion recognises it as one of the simple spells most mages learnt early in their training but he had never been one for sticking with his arcane studies. It allows the reading of books with a touch.

A moment later Astwick is done, "I don't understand the language, or perhaps it is just garbled from the magic or from being hauled around in this state. Whatever the case this is a task for wrights." Wrights were small homunculus created from clay and used for menial tasks that required little physical ability.

[sageaqua]

" I was thinking it could be a family project. Our families can have anything we find that we don't need that they want to keep. To fully restore the books I would cast polymorph any object but that would take an arch mage of advanced ablity. I'm just first level as a wizard. I'm forth level as a druid now. and I'm second level barberrain so at least my rage is under my control now. I'm working towards becoming a shapeshifter. I just like animals. If I've done my homework right. I'll be a able shapeshifting ranger when I've completed my early studies. As far as understanding the language a comprehend language spell should work just fine. Wright are how hard to create?" asks Ka'lion, "Goerge do you know how to create them?"

[at]

"The druids have been grading you? I'd be curious to hear of their tests".

He peers into the stone forest, "a pity there is no easy way to shelter it. Riin would would be best suited to this I think, perhaps she'll even teach you how to build those constructs. Actually the tower might be the best place for you as there are things afoot, and I think I know where you might hide yourself away from your grandmother if you don't plan on being banished away again."

[sageaqua]

"I agree with that. I love this petrified forest. It's beautiful but far to fragile. The dust is a major problem. You can’t breath in it. That I think can be dealt with with a light rain. It deserves a good dragon or sphinx or wizard to protect it. I just don't know how to contact them.

I'm self trained as a druid. I started with a magic item that gave me quasi druid abilities but it was cursed. I couldn't take it off. I enjoyed the ability to shapeshift at will into a wolf. I just didn't like being unable to eat anything but liquid foods. I ended up destroying the mask because I had to cut it off my face.

I tried to contact the local druids - ended up offending them unintentionally - they where in the middle of a personal war - And I was trying to get them to work together for the greater good - do to a demon attack -. I had a druid friend in my old party but she knew even less about druids then I did. She had lived in voluntary captivity most of her life.

Can you send a message to Riin for me. It sounds like I could really use her help. I'm love to figure out a way to protect this forest. It's a priceless para-natural treasure. We found it trapped to another plane. So there may be some hidden dangers in it we don't know about. Once we are done here we may be available to investigate what’s a foot? As we will be looking for work.

George and Samious where escorting me home. I'd like to arrange for some custom pieces to made for us. I also have a large number of things to trade with our family. 35 books of music and history plus a number of magic items and a few other things. George and Samious may also want custom pieces made and may have additional items to trade.

I thought saving a library for our family might buy me a second chance. You know how much grandma likes to read and our family has always been important to her. . She had me reading and writing in 5 languages before I was ten. I just loved the outdoors and taking care of the animals in need of care at her hospital for animals more then reading in the library. It may not be the way our family studies but it would add to our knowledge. Wouldn't it?" asks Ka'lion, "Besides most of the skull folk have little to do but read when they are not teaching or telling us stories. They could learn some new stories in the books. Learning a few new unknown languages would be good for them. Don't you think?"


What does Ka'lion know about Riin and Askwick? And what does he know about the tower?