We began after the party had rested in the secure room at the top of the dungeon. When they wake up however they hear a bubbling noise, like some enormous beast is hungry. The Shugenja has now decided that he has had enough of pondering and charges out ahead to see what is going on. It turn out that the sand pit at the bottom has now become a rolling plane of fire. This illuminates the entire cavern and is obviously something that should not be touched nor messed with. He throws a rock down into it. Then the barbarian decides that pissing in it is a brilliant plan. Adventurers everyone, bastions of brilliant intelligence.
So with that done the hole erupts, and a giant lava plume comes out of it. Despite requests to the contrary this does not singe the barbarian's dick off, but merely creates a humanoid figure that is on fire, and in fact burns the very air around him, leaving air for some reason but burning any within the radius. Not understanding what is going on the party results to plan A, kill shit and ask questions later. Of course they are fairly inept at actually killing things, especially things that are immune to fire, their main source of damage. So what results is a comical chase around the circular cavern with Benny Hill music in the background.
With that craziness going on the Shugenja decides to simply step out, retreating into the sleeping rooms from before. From there he realizes he has a spell called silent image and wonders what it does. Given his skill in the illusory arts he decides that he will create images, a lot of them. He creates dozens of the barbarian, a few of the rogue, and a few fiery humanoids just to add to the confusion. Of course this doesn't help the party too much because they do not actually know that he is casting this. With that the rogue continues shooting arrows and doing no damage to the fiery being, the sorcerer starts freaking the fuck out, and the barbarian continues doing what he is doing, losing in a fight to the elemental.
The figures that were conjured eventually start exploding randomly, changing form, and in general screwing with anyone watching. Finally they form into one enormous fiery being and then explode into a bunch of humanoid figures that begin killing themselves and each other until there is nothing left. It was an incredibly entertaining display, but ultimately didn't accomplish too much, though it was a decent distraction. Then the Shugenja goes and heals the barbarian who collapsed at his feet with zero. With the barbarian up and under constant healer supervision they manage to kill it, and then get the fuck out because the ceiling is shaking.
Turns out the purple worm that opened up this place is back and he is pissed. Aside from that though as they retreat they steal a few more mender corpses. After running away they travel through the dessert awhile. Eventually they arrive back at the kobold town with little incident. There they go back to the Golrog wizard and he tells them a little bit about the stone they found. It turns out it is a variant of a weirdstone, a powerful artifact that prevents divination and teleportation. This one however is portable, something that was unknown previously. It could have huge impacts on warfare because of the threat that teleportation poses. Now this artifact is wanted by many, many people, primarily the goblin people who want to live in isolation but are having a bitch of a job.
This however is a less pertinent issue as it turns out a dwarven army has taken up residence outside of the city and is planning to take it back for the dwarven people, who have a slight dislike for kobolds. Not quite as much as gnomes, but still. The sorcerer wishes to parley and to avert violence, the rest of the party disagrees, though not quite violently. Despite this they both head to the camp and talk to the leader. First the sorcerer convinces the dwarves to stop in exchange for the mender's corpses, and the promise of more if he never attacks the kobolds. Of course then the Shugenja decides to go and ruin it all by telling him where to get more mender corpses, and declaring open war on the kobold.
Hearing this, and with a little whisper in his ear by a certain changeling assassin the sorcerer decides to go and warn the kobolds. He convinces them all to evacuate and then goes back to the dwarven camp to tell the leader about this. Unfortunately the leader is not happy, and decides that torturing him for the location of the kobolds is a decent plan. One of his bodyguards finds this plan delightful and begins it with glee. Luckily the Shugenja is there to keep him alive for more torture, and he is left in manacles as the army decides to check the nearby area after the sorcerer starts spouting out random locations.
So with that done the hole erupts, and a giant lava plume comes out of it. Despite requests to the contrary this does not singe the barbarian's dick off, but merely creates a humanoid figure that is on fire, and in fact burns the very air around him, leaving air for some reason but burning any within the radius. Not understanding what is going on the party results to plan A, kill shit and ask questions later. Of course they are fairly inept at actually killing things, especially things that are immune to fire, their main source of damage. So what results is a comical chase around the circular cavern with Benny Hill music in the background.
With that craziness going on the Shugenja decides to simply step out, retreating into the sleeping rooms from before. From there he realizes he has a spell called silent image and wonders what it does. Given his skill in the illusory arts he decides that he will create images, a lot of them. He creates dozens of the barbarian, a few of the rogue, and a few fiery humanoids just to add to the confusion. Of course this doesn't help the party too much because they do not actually know that he is casting this. With that the rogue continues shooting arrows and doing no damage to the fiery being, the sorcerer starts freaking the fuck out, and the barbarian continues doing what he is doing, losing in a fight to the elemental.
The figures that were conjured eventually start exploding randomly, changing form, and in general screwing with anyone watching. Finally they form into one enormous fiery being and then explode into a bunch of humanoid figures that begin killing themselves and each other until there is nothing left. It was an incredibly entertaining display, but ultimately didn't accomplish too much, though it was a decent distraction. Then the Shugenja goes and heals the barbarian who collapsed at his feet with zero. With the barbarian up and under constant healer supervision they manage to kill it, and then get the fuck out because the ceiling is shaking.
Turns out the purple worm that opened up this place is back and he is pissed. Aside from that though as they retreat they steal a few more mender corpses. After running away they travel through the dessert awhile. Eventually they arrive back at the kobold town with little incident. There they go back to the Golrog wizard and he tells them a little bit about the stone they found. It turns out it is a variant of a weirdstone, a powerful artifact that prevents divination and teleportation. This one however is portable, something that was unknown previously. It could have huge impacts on warfare because of the threat that teleportation poses. Now this artifact is wanted by many, many people, primarily the goblin people who want to live in isolation but are having a bitch of a job.
This however is a less pertinent issue as it turns out a dwarven army has taken up residence outside of the city and is planning to take it back for the dwarven people, who have a slight dislike for kobolds. Not quite as much as gnomes, but still. The sorcerer wishes to parley and to avert violence, the rest of the party disagrees, though not quite violently. Despite this they both head to the camp and talk to the leader. First the sorcerer convinces the dwarves to stop in exchange for the mender's corpses, and the promise of more if he never attacks the kobolds. Of course then the Shugenja decides to go and ruin it all by telling him where to get more mender corpses, and declaring open war on the kobold.
Hearing this, and with a little whisper in his ear by a certain changeling assassin the sorcerer decides to go and warn the kobolds. He convinces them all to evacuate and then goes back to the dwarven camp to tell the leader about this. Unfortunately the leader is not happy, and decides that torturing him for the location of the kobolds is a decent plan. One of his bodyguards finds this plan delightful and begins it with glee. Luckily the Shugenja is there to keep him alive for more torture, and he is left in manacles as the army decides to check the nearby area after the sorcerer starts spouting out random locations.
