GoCorral

The session was held over Roll20. Trajan, Avery, and Jamie attended. Will also made it, but was a little late.

House Guests

Having just left the Alliance, the party wondered where to go next. Should they go aid the Rebellion in the west? Delve into the Lich Shade once again? Tie their wagon to the Björn in Dalleer? Go raid the Xorian financial capital? Do something in Aractrash? A lot of options got thrown around. Eventually they decided to go talk with the Björn.

The team was admitted to the Björn’s Palace. The prime minister, Terolio, met with them. “I’m sorry gentlemen. The Björn is busy at the moment. He’s having one of his worse days today and is yelling at the books in his library for containing too many words. Is there anything I can do for you?”
Tagenadi said, “Yes. We’ve just been banished from Bradel Fields and we were…”
Amalius broke in, “Hoping you could set us up here.”
Terolio said, “Yes. Of course. The Björn has made such arrangements for friends of his in the past. However, you can’t stay in the palace. I’ll make arrangements for you to stay elsewhere in the city. But first, there is some business to attend to.”
Amalius said, “Oh?”
“Prior to yelling at Homer, the Björn gave me instructions for you should you return. Scouts report that the city of Crux is on the move. The undead appear to be moving the entire city south. They have already crossed the Curving Stream. It would please the Björn if you went to Crux’s current location and opened negotiations with whoever rules the city. The Björn felt that the common connection between Tagenadi and the undead might mean something.”
Amalius asked, “Would we have official negotiating power of the Björn if negotiations take place?”
“Unfortunately, no. I can’t promise such a thing. You will be provisional ambassadors at this time. Full negotiations will have to be approved by myself or the Björn.”
Accepting the situation, the party rested for the day.

The Lich Witch

In the morning one of Dalleer’s mages scried Crux and showed the party. Masses of skeletons, zombies, wights, and ghouls moved buildings upon their backs. They carried the buildings a few dozen yards, before setting them down, and going back to move another building forward. Living and undead clerics directed the movements of the weak-willed undead. At the center of the city stood the Silver Tower, looming over all.

The party teleported in a few miles in front of the city’s path. They waited for scouts to spot them. A human on a skeletal horse spied them and ran off towards the city. The group waited until the scout returned with many other riders on skeletal horses.
“You have the looks of a negotiation team, not spies.”
Tagenadi said, “We are.”
“Saddle up then. We’ll take you to Vecna. She’s the one in charge for now.”

The party got on the horses. Sabriyya gritted her teeth as she did so. She hated undead. Her friend, Tagenadi, had turned into one. Now they were talking with them instead of sending them to Hades like they deserved. It was beginning to get on her nerves.

Riding through the city, the adventurers saw all the undead and clerics moving about. Tagenadi took out a special gift that Hades had given him, the Cap of Invisibility. Tagenadi set it upon his head and all the undead and clerics knew what it meant. Tagenadi was the general of Hades. They saluted him, prayed, and bowed as he winded his way through the city streets. All the while, the former Alliance members drew closer and closer to the massive Silver Tower at the city’s center.

They reached the base of the Tower. The Tower slowly moved through the earth on it’s on. There were no windows or doors. To the side of the tower, a dozen skeletons lifted a small hut. A staircase descended from the hut’s door to the ground. One of the scouts said, “Vecna is in there.”
Tagenadi said, “I’ll go in alone.”
Amalius said, “Wait! Take Black with you. He’ll protect you if something goes wrong.”
“Alright.”

Black hopped into Tagenadi’s pocket and the warrior went up the steps into Vecna’s hut.
Candles lit the hut. The candles sat in skulls, metal dishes, and on the bare wood of tables and shelves. Hundreds of spell components, books, potions, and magical knick-knacks covered the shelves and hung from the ceiling. At the center of the hut was a table with a crystal ball on it. A dusty cushioned seat was on Tagenadi’s side of the table and Vecna sat on the other side. She wore a long dull purple robe. The only soft tissue remaining in her body was her right eye. Her arms rested upon the table, showing that she retained her right hand, but her left was missing.
“Welcome Tagenadi. How’s your family doing? Same as always?”
Tagenadi glared at her and took the dusty seat.
“Ooo… All business. Okay then. Have you anything to ask me or shall I just tell you what you need to do?”
“I have something to ask you, but it can wait. What do I need to do?”
“The Antenator controls this army, not I. You must speak with him. He will tell you Hades’ plans for war. But I wouldn’t go alone into that Tower. You should take your friends with you. Even the little stone you have in your pocket.”
“I see. So I have to speak with the Antenator because you don’t know what I need to do.”
“I didn’t say I don’t know. Hades has different ways of speaking to all of his children. But you had a question for me.”
“I want an item to reverse the polarity of energy upon me. I want positive energy to heal me once again and negative energy to hurt.”
“I see, but this will come at a price. I already have all the money in the world. Instead, I deal in favors.”
“What sort of favor do you want of me?”
“I don’t know. It could be anything. I don’t need you now, but I might later.”
“Then my answer is no. I made my bargain with Hades because it hurt only me. A debt to you could hurt others as well.”
“Oh, did you want me to talk with Hades for you, little soldier?”
Tagenadi’s dead eyes opened wide when Vecna said this. “No! Not yet! No!”
“Let me know if you change your mind, dearie.”
Tagenadi got up to leave. As he turned around, Vecna waved her left stump goodbye.

Little is Big and Big is Small

Torin said, “So what’s the plan?”
“We have to go into the Tower.”
“How do we do that?”
As Torin spoke, a ten foot wide door appeared in the Tower’s walls. The party stepped in and assembled themselves in a small oval shaped room within. Words were written on the opposite wall,
Little is big, and Big is small,
You’ll learn that size doesn’t matter at all,
Small scrapes wound, and cures fatal,
Do the opposite if you are able.

The party began puzzling over the meaning of the riddle. As they did so, the door behind them reverted to its previous wall form and the wall in front of them disappeared. Beyond was a large circular room. Tables and chairs littered this dining room and unlit chandeliers hung from the ceiling. Dozens of torches were affixed to the walls in upside down positions. At the center of the room was a gargantuan ogre looking man with a wooden club. The ogre roared and moved to attack.

Tagenadi and Sabriyya both ran forward to engage, but found the monster’s natural armor to be ridiculously thick. Torin threw a flame strike at the beastie that seemed effective. The beast brought its club down on Tagenadi, dealing a heap of electricity damage. Fortunately, death knights are immune to electricity, so Tagenadi didn’t care. Aldarian turned invisible and Amalius used a psychic crush on the ogre.

The ogre freaked out, shouting “WIZARD!” It barreled forward towards Amalius. Sabriyya got a devastating cut on the ogre’s ankle and Tagenadi whirled his chain to prepare for a devastating strike. The beast missed its attack on Amalius. Unfortunately for the psion, the beast was trained in anti-mage techniques and casting defensively within its reach would not be possible. Amalius chose to set a spell off anyway and he got hit with the club for some electricity damage. In response he threw up an energy adaption. The protection wasn’t enough to stop the paralysis effect of the ogre’s cattleprod. Amalius went down. Aldarian swept in with a portable hole and bagged his master up safely. Sensing something amiss, Torin cast true seeing on Tagenadi. The warrior noticed that the large ogre he was fighting was in fact an illusion.

Tagenadi whirled around to see Amalius disappear into the void of Aldarian’s bag. Next to the elf was a small red demon with electricity glowing in its hands. Tagenadi engaged the demon and Sabriyya joined in. The two of them quickly took the beastie down with some help from Torin’s animated tables and chairs and a suggestion spell from a restored Amalius.

Zeno’s Paradox

At the opposite end of the room were two staircases that led up to a landing. On the landing was a silver door with more writing upon it:
“That which is in locomotion must arrive at the halfway stage before it arrives at the goal.” –Zeno of Elea
Halfway forward, Halfway back,
Go forward and you’ll shrink,
Go back and you’ll be halved,
To succeed you must halve the Halver,
Or shrike the Shrinker.

The party opened the door and saw a long, 5-foot wide corridor. At the end was another silver door. Not wanting to venture in without info, Torin quickly sent his chairs running in. After much more experimentation the party learned a few different facts.
1. Going halfway in to the corridor causes something to shrink to half its size. Going to the three quarters point from there will cause a second shrinking. This continues until the objects disappear.
2. Coming back across one of the halfway points causes that object to lose half of its body. A chair they sent across lost two of its legs upon returning.
3. Both of the above effects only happen once per halfway point. Therefore when a chair goes forward and back across one halfway point it is only shrunken and halved once.
4. The upside down torches within the corridor and in the dining room do not shrink or halve when they go through. However, if the torches are cut in half by a sword and then thrown through a halfway point, they do shrink.
5. Amalius used his divination power and received this response,
The Halver is a ghost,
The Shrinkers are all traps,
Defeat either or you won’t last.

Tagenadi went deep into the corridor, pushing a table ahead of himself to ensure that one of the traps didn’t shrink him. When he pushed the table across the halfway point, a ghost came out of the walls and attacked him. It held a long black sword that it swung at him. Fortunately, the sword seemed solid and clanged off of Tagenadi’s armor.

Sabriyya ran in and doused her weapons with an oil of ghost touch she’d purchased earlier. Tagenadi swung as best he could to hit the ghost. Torin used his curing magics to keep Sabriyya in action and damage the ghost. Every time the ghost’s sword hit the victim felt half their vital strength sapped away. Amalius and Aldarian sat on their hands and felt useless. Eventually, the tide of the battle was turned and the ghost was vanquished. A yellow flash went off at each of the halfway points, signaling that the trap there was dispelled. All the chairs, torches, and other items returned to their normal sizes and regained their other halves.

The party went down and read the riddle upon the next door:
Going up and going down,
Going around and round,
All ways are closed,
But there’s another way out.
The guys opened the door. Beyond was a staircase, spiraling up to the left.