Reconsecrating the Temple of Osiris (Converting Q to Set)

Writen by Ivan and Sean

[Document Version 2]

Baron Ballard	Baron Crayon	Baron Cadra

Air Marshall Palmerin	Hellyeah	Q Featherhammer

1) We last left our heroes traveling in a self propelling magical boat in the Osirum, an enormous cavern several hundred feet under the Temple of Osiris . Crayon is in giant eagle form, the captured priestess of Set is still bound on the floor, and none of the party is dead despite the best efforts of four Demon Hippodiles.

2) The party slowly drifts closer to the building in the middle of the cavern. From where they are, they see a building with steps leading up to it. Around the cavern walls there was a 9’ raised platform with numerous pylons evenly spaced along its entire length. Along the cavern wall is various painted scenes. At the back of the cavern were two enormous double doors.

3) Palmarin cast a true seeing spell on himself and proceeds to climb on to the back of Crayon who has remained in giant eagle form. Crayon then flies around the cavern allowing Palmarin to determine was is really there. Palmarin reports the stairs leading to the building in the middle of the Osirum are trapped with glyphs. He also sees that there are seven painted scenes on the outer cavern walls. The majorities are magical and Palmarin warns that no one should touch them. The painted scenes were:

· a. Shimmering paintings of a Soul bird, doors, heart hieroglyph and Set monsters. All magical.

· b. Paintings of pleasant scenes, doors, Set monsters, a senet board and stringed musical instruments. All magical.

· c. Paintings of ‘hell scenes’, half open doors, Set monster with a crown (Rhaotep?).

· d. Bas-relief of huge doors, gave a good feeling but had devils and demons on it (same creatures as on island). Magical traps on heads of four creatures.

· e. Paintings of joyful scenes, hunting scenes, an ass-headed creature with crown, the sun and moon. All magical.

· f. Paintings of scenes of life of ‘common people’, fiend with knife, falcon like bird and a ram-headed creature.

· g. Paintings of gloomy/dead vegetation, a 12 legged winged serpent (magical), frog-headed deity in field of flowers, owl (magical) and ass (magical).

4) With the aid of the true seeing two secret doors are also seen in the walls between the two double doors at the end of the cavern. Crayon flew Palmarin back to the party and then returned to elf form.

5) Discussions of what should be done first ensue and it is agreed that outer platform should be investigated to see if any of the doors hold any surprises. With Cadra steering the magical reed boat, the party heads for the outer platform at the back of the Osirum. At this point an obscuring mist rises and the party was attacked by a pair of three-headed ( python, cobra and ?) snake creatures popping out of the water. The party responded to the snake heads attempted poison spitting and biting in the usual fashion – knocking the snot out of their adversaries, using various spells and physical attacks. One strategy that was found to be very effective was when Cadra used a free spell to cast snake charm. The three heads of one attacking creature were all stupefied and then easily dispatched.

6) When the back platform is reached the enormous double doors are inspected and a number of the paintings are examined up close. Everyone takes care not to touch then given Palmarin’s previous warnings of magical energies and traps. The two double doors are painted in what appears to be goddesses and several of the party senses the Khemitian god statuettes they carry growing heavy and have a feeling of foreboding. The doors have four buttons on them just waiting for someone to press one saying ‘what’s this button for?’ It was presumed that they needed to be pressed in an exact order to activate. Given the previous feeling of foreboding, Crayon decided to call upon Esscensia’s blessing and cast an augury. The bones pointed to the need to tackle the central building sooner rather than later.

7) All doors, including the two secret doors were left undisturbed and the boat is re-boarded and pointed towards the island. The boat was tied to the side so the glyphs on the steps could be avoided. The bound priestess was left in the boat and Ballard uses one of his special knots on the boat allowing quick release only by someone ‘in the know’.

8) Each door is guarded by an animal headed statue ( sphinx?) – Ass, Warthog, Camel and Okapi. As the closest statue ( Ass-headed?) is approached, it give a spiel inviting ( some class of adventurer?) to throw down there weapons for great power and rewards. Each statue repeated the same spiel but for a different class (mage, fighter, priest and rogue). The offer of power seemed too good to be true and a trap is suspected.

9) Curious as dwarves are, Cadra and Q start debating what to do. Q suggests that he do it and then if something bad happens it only happens to him. Cadra wants to do it as well arguing that it would not be right to let a fellow dwarf face possible danger alone, but Q talks him out of it. With a sacred guardian in effect on Q he removes the majority of his equipment and enters through the door for rogues.

10) Inside is a statue of set. Q is suddenly transported to a strange place, where he is in front of the actual evil god Set, who commands him to kneel. Q fights the compulsion but fails. He is forced to kneel in front of Set and a ring is placed around his head. Set does his thing and Q is made chaotic evil and a worshipper of Set. On the plus side he gains a level in each class, some psionic abilities and some of his magic items are turned into supped-up nasty weapons (the blades of the sun become the blades of Set - +4 chaotic evil daggers).

11) Set orders Q to try and get the rest of his party to lay down their equipment and enter the sanctuary. If he cannot do that, he is to try and stop them entering fully armed.

12) Whilst waiting, due to the sacred guardian he had previously place upon Q, Cadra sees an image in his mind of Q kneeling before Set and therefore knows that Q is in great danger. Cadra alerts the rest of the part as to what he has just ‘seen’ and all are very concerned about the effect this turn of events will have on the powerful dwarf. As a consequence an ambush is set for Q with the aim of trying to capture and restrain him. Set warns Q that the party has set a trap for him.

13) Q the contemplator becomes Q the cunning. He goes out the back door and climbs to the top of the building. He sees the trap the party has set but they don’t see him. Q uses his newly acquired psionic to telekinesis a dagger to the bound priestess in the boat so she can free herself and help Q in the glorious service of Set.

14) With the aid of her newly acquired dagger the priestess sneaks up behind Hellyeah. Q tries to get her attention so that they can coordinate their attack. She sees him but given she is a fanatical chaotic evil priestess of Set she has her own ideas and totally ignores Q. Trying to take advantage of the priestess blatant lack of tactical skills, Q jumps up into view at the top of the shrine and shouts a warning to Hellyeah who is able to avoid her attempted strike.

15) The priestess is easily recaptured, Ballard again applies his special roping technique and the party tries to talk Q down. Q states that he is quite happy to talk from where he is. A detect evil is cast and the suspicions that Q has been ‘turned’ by his little meeting are confirmed.

16) The priests Crayon, Palmarin and Medinet attempt to cast hold person on Q so that he is not injured and is unable to inflict any of his prodigious dagger blows. Q makes several saving throws until one of the hold spells finally has effect.

17) With Q held Ballard climbs to the top of shrine using Hellyeah’s immovable rods. Ballard pushes Q over as precaution and then tries to put a bag over his head (what does Ballard get up to in his spare time?). Although his body is paralyzed Q mind is still active and he uses a psionic blast ??? stunning Ballard. (Andrew proved this could be done by lying on the floor and getting Sean to try and blindfold him. Is there no limit that Andrew will not go to make sure of game accuracy or does he just like being tied up?)

18) With Ballard mysteriously going down the party anxiety and suspicions are throbbing. Cadra then uses the immovable rods and climbs up and taking no chances pushes Q off the building to the rest of the party below. Q was not happy.

19) Q is bound, gagged and hooded. Various spells are cast on his to try and remove the band of his head. Finally, a combination of remove curse and dispel magic works. Q is back to normal and after a confirming detect evil is cast, he has the hood and gag removed, but is kept bound. He then spills the beans (except the fact that he has gone up a level, this he keeps to himself).

20) The party gears-up and tries to enter the shrine. Q asks to be moved first. The group splits up among the four doors. However, as expected the four statues animate and ‘come to life’ and start to attack. ( I’m pretty sure that each of the sphinx’s tried to fear??? us by cursing or squealing?? But everyone made their save???) Q asks again to be moved, as this great big statue ( which one?) is coming towards him and he is tied up. The statue starts to attack Q and Q wishes that he had of attacked the party before.

21) The ensuing battle ends quickly with the powerful combination of Cadra, Ballard, Konsu and Palmarin attacking the statues with powerful blows until all are destroyed. Only the bound Q suffering any serious damage. The party then enters the shrine to face a gigantic statue of Set, when Osiris should reside. (I think we have to make a saving throw at this stage to resist commands to kneel before Set?) With great pleasure the statue of Set is smashed under hammer blows. In the rubble is the Book of Eternity and a small ruby statuette of Set. A detect evil is cast on the objects and it is confirmed that they are evil. Palmarin again shoulders the burden of carrying the fourth obtained evil object. Only five more! While the ruby statuette is considered to have substantial value in gems, it is agreed that it should be smash as a display of the party’s disgust with the desecration of a place of sanctity. The statuette is placed in a bag and smashed into ruby dust.

22) The party now goes to investigate the doors on the cavern. A find traps spell is cast by Cadra and the secret door on the right is opened. A routine is established that a scan for traps will be done ever twenty feet. After traveling down the corridor for about 120’, the tunnel comes to a dead and a trap is detected. It is decided that the other secret door should be explored first while the find trap spell is still working.

23) The part retreats and opens the second secret door. It is seen that stairs descends into the darkness. The routine of trap detection is again employed and a slow journey down the stairs and the along a very long and gently sloping corridor follows. Eventually another cavern, with dazzling green luminous water, is found. The water off to the left of the narrow platform is darker and something big is seen. After investigation is is seen to be giant statue of Osiris submerged under the water. Somehow we find out it’s not real. There are two things in the water I think. One big, one small, can’t quite remember – neither can I (probably delete text in red or Andrew do have any notes?).

24) Crayon shape changes into dolphin forms and swims down, taking Palmerin who has again activated the ioun stone to check out the statue. A small replica of the temple of Osiris is located. Are much contemplation an amount of wet clay from the bottom of the glowing water cavern is retrieved and Hellyeah using his artistic ability non-weapon proficiency a small replicate Osiris idol is created. It is place in the replica temple. At this stage a great feeling of peace is felt by all the party. (Andrew lets us know we have completed the mission but “not quite right” but won’t tell us more.)

25) [deleted].

26) There are narrow stairs going up to the right. However a feeling that they are leading away from the prime material plane (??) means that the party decides to leave them for possible later investigation.

27) We head back up to the Osirum and notice that the paintings on the wall have changed. They now contain pictures of the party performing heroic deeds. The paint from the previously noted paintings has fallen away and underneath, are the thousand year old painting – somehow containing our images. Marveling at how this occurred, the magical boat is boarded and is flown back up top to the main temple.

28) In the mop-up it is learnet that Q‘s headband, will turn him back to chaotic evil in about a week. A procedure is worked out on how this will be combated. Q agrees to be bound, even helping Ballard know where possible weaknesses where his prodigious strength may break the bonds. A regime of recasting remove curse and dispel evil and detect evil is established.

29) Crayon casts a dimension fold and Hellyeah is taken to Pogrom Island to meet Adestra and train. The rest of the party remains at the Temple of Osiris to guard it and ensure that no remnants of Set followers remain. On 8 Wealsun CY 577, Crayon brings back 60 Pikemen troops from Pogrom to help guard the temple.

30) On 11 Wealsun ‘the Pharaohs men’ come led by Major General Unas Atet. Given some of the ‘renovations’ to the temple, he is concerned that the party are grave robbers and in breach of the decree of Pharaoh Tuthmosis IX that anyone found desecrating an ancient grave is now subject to summary execution on the spot without trial.

31) However, after some discussions Major General Unas Atet agrees to take a tour of the temple and cavern. He remains skeptical until he sees the ancient images of the party on the walls of the Osirum. He sends runners to Famoc for military advice.

32) With the Pharaohs men await orders from their superiors a standoff exists. In the late afternoon Crayon again dimension folds to Pogrom Island . The next morning (12 Wealsun) after praying at his temple Crayon dimension folds back along with 40 Pogrom Island Longbowmen.