Maure Castle: The Statuary
Contents
About the Saga
Timeframe
- Greyhawk Date: Flocktime 24, CY 592
- Real World Date: Jan. 12, 2007
- Read other Maure Castle Sagas
- Read other Blackrazor Guild Sagas
Cast of Characters
- Andulf Truedeath, undead hunting cleric
- MacEntyre, occult slayer
- Hogarth Middenfeldt, rogue and dwarf-friend
- Korem, priest of blades
- Fonteyn the Hand, halfling sorcerer
- Sladious, expert mage of the Wizardholme
Notable Quotes
- "I cheated. I did it again … in my favor." -- Ken
- "Bend the rod while it is hot" - Ancient Chinese Proverb.
What Has Come Before
The Blackrazors have defeated the evil Cult of Kerzit on the third level of Maure Castle, and are now preparing to penetrate to the fourth level, known as the Statuary.
The Saga
Flocktime 24, CY 592 After fighting the cult on the third level and finishing their exploration there of, they retreat to Seltaren to rest and recover at the guild hall.
Andulf communes with Mayaheine, who declares "Doom lurks in the shadows. The correct ritual might protect one, but a sacrifice of power is needed."
Flocktime 25, CY 592 That morning, the Blackrazors have a great feast for breakfast (hero's feast). Teleport back to the castle, arriving in the torture chamber. The party moves to the south, seeking to explore a region of the gnoll lair that they had avoided earlier.
The Clay Anti-Hero
They find an oddly shaped worship area, apparently belonging to the gnoll. Catch sight of a massive clay golem, which Andulf identifies with his golemblane while Sladious identifies its weaknesses as move earth and disintegrate while Fontyn remembers that the creature lands terrible blows that can't be healed normally. Korem casts blade barrier on the creature, which ignores the effect. It's eyes flash red and it advances on the group. Korem and Andulf move to fight it, with the cleric of Mayiene quickly moving to attack. His blows wound it badly, but Korem and Hogarth, who runs around to flank it, aren't as effective, the creature's thick clay hide deflecting many blows. The clay golem attacks back, striking repeatedly at Korem and Andulf, hurting them badly.
Andulf is finally able to land the decisive blow against the creature and destroy it. Andulf struggles to heal himself and Korem. They find the chieftan's room, and Andulf detects a magical harp, which the party takes with them.
The Horror on the Slope
After recovering, the party heads down the tunnel to the foruth level, where they find a bizarre creature that looks something like a jibbering mouther gone mad, if that's even possible. Hogarth sees it first, and is shocked when it spits -- of all things -- a gray ooze at him. Sladious quickly moves up and casts a spell that holds the monster in place, allowing the others to skirt past the ooze and engage it.
The great proves remarkably resistant to the Blackrazors weapons, even more so than the goelm had, but given time and a hail of spells, they are able to destroy it and its ooze minion.
The Statuary
The creature reduced to a pile of blackish-green goo, the Blackrazors press on down the corridor, finally arriving in a circular room lit by pale blue torches that seem more like the memory of torches then the real thing.
When the Blackrazors enter the level, the lights suddenly go out, plunging the area into darkness. As they do so, a the outline of a sexless blue face appears on the wall and says "your doom is upon you ..." and fades away.
They press on, and find a huge chamber lined with rune-inscribed pillars, each of which has a human face with a small "M" carved into its forehead. Corridors seem to split off in every direction, and confounded by their choices, the Blackrazors randomly pick a southern door. It leads to a crooked corridor terminating in another round room -- this time with a chimera.
But like the torches, this seems more like a perfect memory of a chimera then the real thing -- though it proves to be exceedingly dangerous, and its bites were painful enough to be real. After a pitched fight, the Blackrazors slew the beast, which disappeared in a flash of blue light.
This fight concluded, the Blackrazors decide to teleport back to Selarten to rest and recover. Sladious casts the spell and finds he can't teleport out, forcing the Blackrazors to retreat to the third floor where Korem teleports instead, returning them to their new guild hall.
Experience
- 13th level characters (Hogarth): 2600
- 14th level characters (MacEntyre, Andulf, Sladious, Fonteyn, Korem): 1984
Treasure
Magical research reveals the harp to be a harp of charming.
