Baron Baron Baron
Ballard Sledgehammer Crayon
Hellyeah Air
Marshall Q
Featherhammer
Palmerin
Summary for
Enter the Psionics
1
Andrew advised the players that psionic monsters and
NPCs have been added to his game, and that all characters should roll to see if
they have psionics. None of the
following characters had the fabled psionic abilities: Cadra Sledgehammer,
Ballard, Q Featherhammer, Palmerin, Hellyeah, Crayon, Kordson.
[Note that Scott’s character Creyn is yet
to roll]
2 Andrew also advised that although Scott is no longer playing D&D, Ballard, Palmerin and Creyn would continue to be played as NPCs for the foreseeable future. It is hoped that people like Dennis may cameo in these characters for a weekend once-in-a-while.
Pylon of the Duat (gateway to the valley of the dead)
3
It’s the
4 You reflect upon Crayon’s record of events in his “Mission Diary”. You agree that it’s a good way to keep an accurate record of your exploits for the final report to Tehi‑neken, Superior Priest of Thoth. Crayon says it records you foiling the Desert Bandit’s ambush and killing the Demon Croc in Aartuat. You wonder if it records Palmerin being arrested for an “unprovoked attack” and his subsequent release on bail. Sticky situation that one…
5
After the ambush and killing the croc, you rested with
Merha‑aptut, the Priest of Hapy.
In recognition of all that you have done for the town of
6 From Q’s climb up the Gorge wall just then you know this to be the outer building of the Gorge of Osiris. On the other side of this is a large square structure, and after that the Gorge gets narrower and there are some small buildings coming out of the cliff walls.
7 Concentrating on the task at hand, Ballard and Khonsu quaff some potion of invisibility and scout the entrance, looking for tracks. They report that there are several going into and out of the Pylon.
8 In another 20 minutes Q has scaled the outside wall of the Pylon, and you have ascended the rope he sent down. On the roof Q gets the trap door lock “working” complaining of how this good lock has been neglected. You descend through the trap door and the circular stairs through each of the top 2 floors of the Pylon of Duat. The rooms are all empty and show signs of being unused for a significant time — maybe 10 years or more. The 1st floor is the same except for one corner which has a rough sleeping palette and some old personal things like combs, but nothing of value.
9 As Ballard and Khonsu are moving silently down the spiral staircase to the ground floor they hear a faint shuffling noise from below and withdraw back to the top floor. Crayon consults the will of the Gods to see if you should parley with whatever is there. Essencia is fickle though and gives a cryptic message: “if you aren’t defeaten, you won’t be eaten”.
10 Dismissing the will of the gods, you descend the stair to deal with whatever is below. It’s a group that look to be the physical manifestations of Khemitian gods, creatures with human bodies but animal heads. Khonsu does a quiet benediction to himself:
(a)
Apuat —
wolf head
(b) Nebkau — wolf head
(c) Mabheri — Owl head
(d) Sebtef — jackal head
(e) Amikhat — baboon head
(f) Nephthys — lioness head
(g)
(h) Gebir — wolf head
(i) Afabu — wolf head
11 As usual Cadra Sledgehammer is in the thick of combat, alongside Ballard. They both using their finely honed fighting skills to dance with death. You gather that the supposed “gods” are some kind of shape shifter, as a Jackal headed beast changes form into a Jackal and then back again.
12 Fighting gods doesn’t seem too bad until the lionesses each cast a lightning bolt into the fray. Crayon is pissed; he fails to resist the full effect of the first bolt, then uses two character points to re-roll the save twice and fails both. Hellyeah uses his arcane knowledge to call upon an Alternate Reality, but even in that world Crayon cannot resist the full effects of the lightning. Crayon suffers minor electrical damage from the lightning bolt, but his equipment does not far so well, and another character point bites the dust. He looks distressed as he goes through his magical possessions and curses many things as now useless, even before he had a chance to use them; Hat of Disguise, Rod of Resurrection….
13 Palmerin has a similar problem, using a character point to re-roll the saving through for the portable hole which has become the Baron’s magical removal van.
14 Palmerin and Khonsu ruefully look at the Cold Touch Battleaxe and the Trident, weapons that the priest of Hapy gave you. They are now no more than twisted lumps of metal.
15 During the combat the only door to the room opens and there stands Anubis with a jackal head who demands of the nearest person, the dwarf Q: “gibber gibber gibber”. Q shrugs and asks him if he can speak common. “Identify yourself so that I might answer to Osiris in the hall of judgement as to whom I bring into his realms!”. Q has his number now though, and answers that you are here to pay your respects to the dead. Anubis accepts his answer and turns to the melee and demands that his companions “stop attacking these people damn you!”.
16 He mutters to himself that he will teach them a lesson and reads a scroll that sends a fireball into the midst of his creatures. He tells Q there is no need to worry, he (Anubis) is a god and immune to magical fire. In such a small area the Fireball expands to fill the room but flames also leap out into the hallway where Anubis stands and up the stairs a bit to where Hellyeah and Crayon have taken cover. After that performance Q decides to “go him”. Meanwhile Hellyeah’s War Shirt has gone up in smoke, and he is not a happy chappy. He pulls out a wand and lightening springs from it’s tip and bolts through Anubis, killing him. The last “god” left alive is Apuat, and he is overborne, tied securely, questioned, and then gagged for return to town.
17 All the “gods” now lay dead at your feet, including the helpful Anubis, who looks slightly different now that he is dead. While you are checking the bodies you find that while all the creatures were fair dinkum, Anubis was a human in a very well made (but now slightly burnt) mask, and probably had an illusion too. You question your prisoner about this and it informs you that his kind were using the mad human to their own ends.
18 You discuss your options and you agree that Crayon should try to speak to the dead Anubis to find out more information. His answers puzzle you though, he still insists that he is the god Anubis. You wonder if the real god Anubis is amused, and if there is room for two of them in the afterlife. With what you now know, you think that he could be a valuable source of information on the Gorge of Osiris if you can get him past believing he’s a god (and immune to magical fire).
Back at Aartuat
19 The party head back to the Priest of Hapy, a drafty ride bypassing the town for Crayon, Palmerin and Khonsu, who had all their clothing burnt by either fire or lightning. Seeing the devastation of the lightning and fire, Q hollows out his saved demon croc teeth, and pours his potions into them in the hope that they will give some extra level of protection against such attacks in the future. He offers them to his colleagues, but has no takers.
20 Hellyeah uses one of Hapy’s rooms to study the spell books he got from Anubis. He’s definitely a Wild Mage, having two surges while he is analysing the books. Unbeknown to the others (at least in a safe place), the unseen powers of Oearth surge through him and temporarily turn him into a Choking Vine Plant, and then another surge makes him let off a stinking cloud, but what’s new?
21
Because he lost his Dimension
Fold platinum tissues, Crayon decides to try to get back to
(a) “When the ship of the desert offers to sail you to the cavern of wonders, seek instead the demons devils and serpents of the wall”.
22
You watch in wonder as Crayon sends his essence into a
Bull Rusch in the pool of Hapy. Unbeknown to you, his essence emerges some
time later out of a Bull Rusch on the bank of
23 From here he shape shifts into a bird and flies to Sky Cathedral where he rests for the night. On 3 Wealsun Crayon meets his followers and accesses his cache of spare material components, including the platinum tissue for Dimension Folding. He also checks in at the keep with Adestra to ensure that all is well on Pogrom. She advises that it is and that she has another new member of the Mages of the Black Star.
24 On 2 Wealsun Crayon Dimension Folds back to the Priest of Hapy, where he rests. Some hours later he then collects the body of Anubis, Palmerin and Ballard, and Dimension Folds to Scant.
Raising Anubis from the Dead
25
In Scant Palmerin goes off looking
for material components while Ballard and Crayon visit John the Hoptist, the
head of the order of St Cuthbert in Scant (and an old friend to the
Barons). They ask him if one of his
clergy can Heal
the man Anubis once he is raised from the dead, and also use Tongues to translate his Khemitian
speech to common for you. They agree on
a price of 7,000gp for these services, which Ballard pays on the condition that
he is re-payed from the group treasure of this mission. [Ivan to check Ballard’s sheets for exact cost deducted] After these are done, Crayon uses the Hand of
Essencia to confirm that Anubis is indeed cured of his insanity.
26
“Anubis” turns out to be
Medinet, a 14th level priest of Anubis, one of the original kheri-heb (mage-priests) recruited by
Pharaoh Tutankhamen’s secret police to destroy Rahotep over 1000 year ago. He says the last thing he remembers is during
a battle being cursed by Rahotep to guard his evil “eternal house” in his god’s
image. This was before the
27 With a priest of St Cuthbert translating, Crayon and Palmerin bring him up to speed on the current state of events; he’s over 1000 year old, the conclusion of his battle back then left Rahotep in an eternal house in the Necropolis, Pharaoh is Tuthmosis now, Rahotep now possibly stirring in his eternal house readying to come out.
28
Crayon then visits Larze and the
(a) the downfall and devastation of Onnwal as we know it
(b) the youngest son of the Szeck will be the sole survivor of the royal line in Onnwal
(c) the Szeck’s son will be the rallying point in the years that follow the devastation.
29 Crayon advises Larze to start preparing the framework for an underground resistance that can be used when these tragic events comes to pass.
[DM Note: Ivan, I need to write down your exact prophecy. I don’t know if you recorded the info I gave you, so I will document it so there is no confusion. This will also allow me to fix any mistakes I may have made (you’ll remember I did it off-the-cuff), so if you have any notes, send ‘em over please]
30
Meanwhile Palmerin has bought all
his material components and visited a church of Heironeous to get a new holy
symbol (last one got lightening bolted), and at 6pm on 4 Wealsun Crayon once again
opens a Dimensional Fold to Scant so that Palmerin can walk through and re-join
the party.
31 Once you are back in the home of the priest of Hapy, Medinet performs a small ritual to re-devote his allegiance to the Pharaoh of Khemit. He then advises that he must report to the Council of Anubis to before joining you to finish what was started so long ago. He asks/expects that you have the Nine Evil Objects (as his group did) so that Rahotep can be utterly destroyed. He is shaken when you admit you do not have them all, only the Serpent Ankh and the Bloodied Moon. Medinet emphasises that you must have these objects in your possession to have any hope of destroying Rahotep, without them he can be defeated, but will not be destroyed, and will return in another age to work his evil. Although defeating him is better than leaving him to work his evil plans in this age. He also tells you of the prophecy that makes him think this:
(a) “Take ye the nine objects unto the hall of the nine pillars. Destroy them and ye shall destroy Rahotep”.
32 At this point you mention Crayon’s prophecy about “ships of the desert” and “demons devils and serpents of the wall”. Medinet says he does not know of what you speak.
33
Crayon Dimension
Folds a small group of you to “Kebes” (you recognise that Medinet is
talking about
34 Seeing his discontent, you work on him to try an get him to come to the Gorge anyway. You ask where his allegiance to Pharaoh is, and tell him that he must complete the mission he started some 1,000 years ago. He is clearly torn, but seems to come to a conclusion; he swore to undertake the mission for his Pharaoh (Tutankhamen), and his word to his pharaoh must bind him. He whispers that he will go against the word of the Council, and that he and your group must leave immediately, before the council can apprehend him and make him stay.
Into the
35
At
36
Ballard confirms that there are
fresh tracks in the pylon from after the last time you were here. So you all walk through watching for danger,
and proceed through the Avenue of the Sphinxes, which Khonsu advises you is a Khemitian tradition not to be skipped.
37
You are then at the gates of the
38 Inside you are met with a pleasant scene; well kept green gardens, stately paths and a blissfully higher humidity than the dry desert sands. You decide to go for the centre and have walked halfway down a hallway when three people appear at the end. A human male welcomes you and introduces himself as Priest Tcheripep, and his lovely assistants as Isis (in red) and Nepthys (dressed in blue). He invites you in to see the temple and meet the High Priest (Khonsu translates for you). After a quick and quiet consultation in your Fools Speech, you accept the offer and pass a happy group of 24 clergy singing and playing musical instruments. Hellyeah voices his hope that it is all an illusion, he looks petrified and hardly being able to take his eyes from the woman in blue…
39 Hearing Hellyeah’s comment, Crayon subtly casts a True Seeing and quickly warns you that the place is no hallucination, but that the clergy all are Chaotic Evil. He also sees a sort of “magical mist” all over the place and that Nepthys and Isis are linked by a some magical fashion to Tcheripep (it looks to Crayon like their heads are joined by a magical rope).
40 You decide to keep up the ruse of being friendly and enter Inner Sanctum. The room has a hushed feeling to it, noises somehow quieter here, the ceiling is about 60 foot high. In the centre of the room is a large reed boat that Crayon advises is magical as is the floor beneath it. Around the walls are shrines to the major Khemitian gods. The back half of the room’s walls are made from wood panelling, and Crayon advises there is a concealed door in it on both sides, where the silver spheres (also magical) sit on wooden stands. The many columns are engraved with coiled serpents with eyes that seem to glow. There is a wooden partitioned area down the back of the room.
41
You then see the High Priest, Setem‑nefer,
who stands down the far end near the alter. He bids you welcome and waits for you to
advance. He indicates that although
difficult, he divined your mighty nature and your great deed in slaying the
Demon Croc in Aartuat. He looks
concerned and wrings his hands, saying that such a beast has found it’s way into the blessed Osirium beneath these halls. He asks your help as even with the aid of his
priests and priestesses he has not been able to exorcise the horrid thing, and fears that more will come. He offers you great rewards in gold for your
help. Crayon whispers that he is also
Chaotic Evil, that the cleaver on the high priest and the silver globes radiate
magic and evil and that the pillars each act as some sort of gate…
42 Once he has spoken you attack, and a very large scale and complicated battle ensues. All the priests you have seen so far start to converge on the Inner Sanctum to attack you. Early on both Khonsu and Medinet are held in their place by an evil spell, but the rest of you resist. Ballard and Cadra then manage to resist the urgings of 9 separate spells to hold in place rather than fight the priests. Hellyeah casts a Wall of Fire in the adjoining room where the assistant priests are to block them off and Cadra follows it up with another Wall of Fire in the Inner Sanctum to further hamper their progress. The last thing that really stuffs the ones trying to get in is the Stinking Cloud that Hellyeah lets rip near the double bronze door entrance to the Inner Sanctum. Meanwhile Crayon has magically held Nepthys, while Isys has stabbed Q with a poisoned dagger. Crayon notes Q’s queasy looks cries of “oh shit, she’s poisoned me” and magically neutralises the poison coursing through Q’s body.
43 The high priest calls out a command phrase and soon after a Boar Demon steps out from one of the columns. When Crayon shouts a suggestion to silence the High Priest, Cadra disagrees and keeps fighting. Crayon shakes his head at Cadra when you end up fighting 5 of the horrid demon things which seem to pick one person and relentlessly attack them. Hellyeah learned that they were immune to electrical damage, loosing an awesome bit of lightening which lit up the temple. In the mean time most of the junior priests have killed themselves trying to get thought the two walls of fire, you shake your head at their fanaticism. Then another Boar Demon appears, shunting the silver orb against the North wall into some other plane of existence.
44 It’s when Crayon goes Ethereal to escape the clutches of a Boar Demon that he meets a floating skeletal platypus looking thing on the ethereal plane. He changes form into a baboon, and then moves toward the bronze doors of the Inner Sanctum, but it follows him, and attacks his mind after he returns to the prime material plane, consuming one of his memorised spells as he changes form.
45 No-one can see it, not even Crayon, so he changes form into a human and then runs from the room. He runs to outside and then changes into a Welcome Swallow and flies around the Temple of Osiris to try and loose it, wherever it is… In the mean time it has attacked Hellyeah and consumed one of his memorised spells, and sent him Flying from the room in terror. By the time he is flying down the hallway, Crayon (in Welcome Swallow bird form) has returned to half way up the hall and flies after Hellyeah and overtakes him as Hellyeah stops in mid air. Not knowing if this is the thing that attacked him, Hellyeah is preparing to Fireball when the bird changes form into Crayon.
46 They return to the battle scene to find the last Demon Boar dead, and Palmerin recalling his Remove Paralysis spell can remove the Hold Person effects from Khonsu and Medinet. Crayon tells all about the thing on the ethereal plane eating his spells from his memory and Medinet uses his own Ethereal spell to take four of the party with him to the plane to see what goes. They see, attack and kill it swiftly before returning to the prime material plane—no problem Crayon!
47 After the combat ends, Crayon excitedly asks if anyone saw him punch and knock down one of the evil priests as she ran past him. No-one did, but most saw Hellyeah using a stick to try and hit the cockles of the priest he had levitated. You count your casualties after the battle and find very few of you hurt. Ballard exclaims that he has lost almost no blood and sustained only minor injuries (for once).
48 You line up the dead and go over their bodies for information, gathering their equipment as you go. From the High Priest, you get a strange device which Medinet identifies as the Cleaver of Set. This is carefully wrapped up in some cloth and put safely in Palmerin’s backpack (he refuses to risk putting it in his portable hole). You are one step closer to destroying Rahotep.
Sanctum Sanatorium
49
Having a closer look at the wooden
doors at the back wall of the Inner Sanctum, you note that they are sealed with
a simple red rope and red clay seal to prevent covert entry. Cadra cuts the rope and opens the doors to
reveal a desecrated shrine. Instead of
Osiris, a 10 foot tall statue of a grinning crocodile stands in the holy place,
holding a sceptre and a red ankh. On the
tables next to it are some gold utensils and an amulet-like figure of an ibex,
whose legs are drawn out like a stem behind it.
As the croc statue slowly comes to life, you fan out and guard
yourselves. It doesn’t stand a chance
though. It manages to touch it’s sceptre
to the Cuirass of Hapy , but nothing happens. Everyone hits it and when Khonsu’s magical
spear struck it (end of round 2), it shattered.
50 You are just recovering from the quick combat when a giant croc appears, apparently summoned by the Croc statue you just defeated. It is slain easily by such hardy and experienced people as yourselves.
51 Cadra continues to use his Find Traps spell and locates both magical and physical traps on the centre of the rear wall. This suggest to the party that there is a secret door there. Q confirms this. Q then motions everyone back and puts on his leather apron and hair net while he looks at the tools he keeps in his pack. Its looks like tricky work, but he finally advises that they have been successfully neutralised. When no-one volunteers to open the door, Cadra pushes you all out of the way grumbling something about trap detectors. He can not find the trigger to open the door however, so after everybody finishes searching in vain, Ballard uses his Frost Giant Strength to simply bash the door open (just after Cadra has put his dagger with a Silence on the blade under the door to kill the noise).
52 It looks like an empty stone chamber, but a search reveals another secret door, which is opened by simply pushing it. Cadra follows the narrow corridor revealed, noting its length, direction and termination. He then returns to the party.
53 When Crayon suggests going back to town to recover after the massive battle, Cadra looks at him in disdain, stating that he has hardly been scratched, and neither have the rest of you.
54
You then start to explore the
55 In the next room you find a couple of young priests on guard. You quickly overpower them and they surrender rather than be killed. You start to question them about the contents of this side of the temple and they mention the slaves (that were here when they got here, honest!) that keep the garden live in the stables. At the mention of slaves, Cadra the Dwarf Advocate starts to gets fired up. He deplores slavery and swears to see them freed. You have heard his heartfelt words of freedom and choice for all before, but they still stir the heart: your cause is noble, you shall not fail. Rahotep will be destroyed and Pharaoh will be freed from Set’s influence!
56
Last but not least, Q is set the task of neutralising
the silver sphere in the Inner Sanctum, so that you may pass through the
concealed door. It’s a familiar routine
as he removes all his gear, opens up his toolbox-like backpack, dons his hair
net and apron and starts tapping his lips. He reaches out to move the globe by
sliding the bottom of the stand. You are
amazed to see his clothes and the few items he wore disappear from his body,
leaving a rather hairy looking creature.
As you watch Q seems to shimmer as some unseen power tries 
unsuccessfully to work it’s magic on him.