This was quite the experience. Even though we had only three players due to a last-minute cancellation and a scheduled birth, we went ahead with the adventure anyway. Despite what I'm certain is to be some players' disappointment at not being present, rest assured that every character played a key role in the success of the session.

The session started with the party and the two attendent NPCs quietly huddled in the cooridor outside General Scar's office on the top floor of the leaning stone tower. A surprisingly quiet debate raged for some time about how, exactly, they were to prevent the scheduled execution (to happen within two hours) as well as recover Iris' soul gem and escape from the settlement. Despite a pretty strong push for mugging the General now, cooler heads eventually prevailed and the party decided to perform a bit of subtrefuge so they could regain full health and then try the frontal approach.

The first step of the elaborate plan was to save the prisoner. After much debate, it was decided that a member of the party would sneak out to the cage where the prisoner was being held and give them the party's Bottle of Air - thus allowing the execution to happen, but still keeping the prisoner alive under the surface of the quicksand. Rusteen was all set to go, but then the group realized that he would have to talk to the prisoner and convince them that this was not some elaborate plot on the part of Ozmandius. As a result, Rusteen did not go. Instead, the party sent Shazarr.

Donning Zin's Shadow Leather and using a Potion of Invisibility donated by Jack, Shazarr used a Spider Climb spell to easily run out across the latticework of iron chains and beams and scamper down the chain to talk to the prisoner. The target was a male tiefling by the name of Thialla. Having been caught as a spy, Ozmandius was apparently most displeased with the him as his cage was neck deep in the quicksand. Shazarr tied a small length of rope to the cage and the bottle, and then gave it to the prisoner. The party's tiefling was easily able to convince Thialla of the party's good intentions and then left him to wait under the sand until the party's return (in some nine hours).

The prisoner saved - for the moment - the party then elected to head back into town (Boton's hut, actually) to rest up and up prepare for the next day's rescue and escape. On the way to the hut, the party stopped off in the hut of Grima (supposedly the high-up's right hand man) and woke him. After doing so, Shazarr both Charmed and Bluffed the heck out of the guy (natural 20 on the Bluff roll) to convince to not tell anyone that he'd been mugged and Shazarr had been walking around impersonating him. The matter settled, the party then went to Boton's hut and rested.

Somewhat to the party's surprise, nothing interrupted their rest. (Although Greymankle did get mildly annoyed at Boton as during their sparring, she managed to hit him and do a point of damage. Which didn't heal.) With most of their spells and hit points and the like refreshed, the party then tried to figure out how to get back into Ozmandius' complex to rescue the prisoner, steal the gem, and leave Corraco Amargo. After more debate, the party decided against a plan and just went with the outline they'd come up with.

First, the party had to scout out their supposed exit portal to make sure they knew where they were going to be running to once they had rescued the prisoner. Shazarr disguised himself and Zin as a pair of Githyanki (Shazarr being the one that is a known resident of the town). The two then went up to the top of the ziggurat and managed to bluff/intimidate their way onto the uppermost tier. There was a large, stone ring set vertically into the top of the structure, which Zin was able to quickly confirm as a portal. Also nearby was a large pile of dried swamp mud, arranged a rather suspiciously regular shape. (The party eventually decided that the mud was concealing something, most likely the key to the portal.) Before Zin was able to use his Portal Feel skill to determine where the portal might actually lead, the guards decided they'd had enough and forced them to leave.

After this scouting mission, the party then headed back into the high-up's complex. First off was another stop at Grima's. Once again, Shazarr charmed and bluffed the yes man into getting some more information about the portal and the prison cages. Although not too much was gained, it was confirmed that the ring was a portal off Carceri, but no one in town could use it as they would die if they passed through. After again convincing Grima to stay put and stay quiet, Shazarr again cast an illusion to appear as the yes man and the party entered the stone tower.

There, they decided to head up to the top of the tower and try to Charm General Scar into operating the levers for them, so as both to not look suspicious as well as to not make a mistake. And, just in case that didn't work, the rest of the party was all prepared to beat the living snot out of the wemic. So, as Shazarr quietly opened the door in an attempt to take the General by surprise, an ill-timed piece of dust activated Jenny's allergies and she involuntarily sneezed, accidently alerting the wemic to the party's presence in the hall. However, as it appeared to be Grima in the doorway (and the DM rolled really lousy for the General's initiative), Shazarr was able to cast his Charm spell - and it worked!

With the now charmed wemic as their friend, everyone moved down to the main level of the tower to finally get the prisoner out from under the muck. Boton and Shazarr (as Grima) accompanied the General out to the platform over the cages. Everyone else took up defensive positions inside the tower to prevent both attack and their being seen by anyone who happened to be looking out over the cages. Just as the General was about to reach out and pull a lever, Boton attacked him from behind, attempting a Death Strike. Fortunately, she failed. Unfortunately, this broke the charm on the wemic and battle commenced.

Rusteen and Greymankle charged the platform, initially in an attempt to prevent the enemy monk from killing the General. Of course, once out there, they also ended up having to put the General down on the ground as well. In the meantime, Jack and the two githzerai provided missile fire from the cover of the tower. Which proved to be a good thing, as the four guards on the door heard the battle and charged inside. This proved to be a mistake as Zin mindblasted the group ("accidentally" catching Jenny in the area), Ginaea then stomped the group to the ground, and Jack followed up with a blast from his color spray wand just to make sure. The four guards never stood a chance. For her part, Jenny managed to survive the onslaught unscathed.

After the fight, the party proceeded to figure out how the levers worked and rescued the prisoner. There was a scary moment when Greymankle decided to open the cage before the party was in place to take the prisoner out of it. He was expected the door to swing open to the side - instead, the bottom dropped out, nearly pitching the prisoner into the quicksand he'd just been extracted from. As Thialla dangled from the bottle which was still tied to the cage, Shazarr ran out there and cast spider climb on the spy so that he could easily climb back to the safety of the platform.

After all this, the party took stock of what they had and what they had yet to do. What was left was to give the soul gem back to Iris (the female drow) and somehow get through the portal. What they had was Shazarr still looking like Grima, and the equipment of four town guards and General Scar.

It was decided that the party would attempt to use the portal via deception. Jack, Rusteen, Zin, and Ginaea all put on the guards' armor and "escorted" Grima to the portal. Meanwhile, Greymankle would lag behind to guard both the spy and Jenny. Also, Jack asked Zin to send a missive to Iris to have her meet them at the portal as well, so that the gambler could help her escape the plane and give her her soul back. And so, naturally, all hell broke loose.

Once the five disguised PCs were fully on top of the ziggurat, the eight guards attacked. Greymankle proceeded to run up to the top of the ziggurat along with Iris. Jenny and the spy stayed below for a round or two. In the course of the fight, Iris took the soul gem back from Jack and abandoned the party to its fate. As the spy started running for the portal, Jenny finally took the opportunity to reveal her true nature and stabbed him in the back. And, during all this frenetic melee, Shazarr was desperately trying to figure out how to activate the portal. Plus, reinforcements were on their way.

However, the eight guards were soon overpowered, along with Jenny. (It should be noted that Zin was able to openly use his weapons against Jenny to help subdue her.) Shazarr, meanwhile, had broken through the shell of dried mud which was covering a pedestal. Upon the marker were carved the words: "Freedom is a gift, given by lips which have spoken no lie from a heart which holds no bitterness." The party almost immediately figured out that someone who hadn't lied recently had to kiss the pedestal. This immediately narrowed things down to Jack, Ginaea, and Greymankle. The second part indicated that person couldn't be holding a grudge or harboring feelings of revenge. This meant that only Ginaea was able to activate the portal. Which she did, and the party charged through with the spy, just as another squad of eight guards was charging up the stairs of the ziggurat.

The party ran through the portal and found themselves in a lush, tropical garden at sunset on an unknown plane.

When next we meet, the party has to figure out where they are and how to get back to Sigil so they can finally complete their mission and get paid for both this one and the last one.

Authored by: Ken Lipka E-mail me: krlipka@yahoo.com

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