Summer Gaming Marathon Summary

The adventure began with the party making its way from Stoink to Radigast City. The Party of Pholtus continued down the Yol River, about one day out of Radigast City. A small band of Radigast City Guard met up with the party and shared food and stories for part of the night. They guard escorted them to the city. While staying at the city for the day, Theodis sought passage for them on a boat that would take them across the Nyr Dyv Sea to Greyhawk City, their ultimate destination.

That morning the party made their way to the dock to board the barge for which they were to mercenaries (to protect the sailors); the boat was transporting good on behalf of the church of Pholtus. Along the way, Lac converted and became a member of the church of Pholtus. The party also held a service on the boat. The party was attacked by four sea lions, but the party killed two so that the others swam away.

The party arrives in Greyhawk City and makes their way right away to the Temple of Pholtus. They are greeted by Helden, who informs them that the High Priest Arkandy Benris will not be available until tomorrow morning. Some errands are run and the party is ready for their early appointment with Arkandy.

The High Priest greets them and inquires about why they needed to speak to him. Aleron immediately gets into a discussion regarding the motivations of everyone in the party. Aleron wanted to make sure that the reasons everyone was in the party were their own and not at the request or requirement of someone else. After some heated discussion, it seemed clear that everyone was doing this for their own reasons, be they whatever.

When the party explained their quest to find three different artifacts, Arkandy seemed somewhat troubled. He explained to the party that one of the three items is being held in a burial cairn for High Priest Phillius. While part of the cairn is staffed by priests for upkeep purposes, deep within their are guardian creatures whose sole purpose is to make sure that no one takes the Crown of Pholtus found within. Arkandy also reports that it has been a little while since his priests have reported in. He is worried that something has happened to them. He lastly informs the party that the three items are likely meant for the paladin.

Before leaving, the party runs some errands attempts to gather some information regarding the cairn. The party purchases a few sets of armor and Aleron becomes a member of the College of Magical Arts with his sizable donation (it may or may not involve the use of unicorn horns). While searching for information, the party finds some rumors:

• The crown is guarded by a black dragon.
• The crown is guarded by a giant snake with the power to kill in one attack.
  
• All metal weapons turn to dust when you walk into the dungeon.
• There is a magical fountain with healing powers found within.
• It has been partially invaded by evil creatures.
• A man dressed in black has been seen around it.

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The next day the party makes its way to the cairn. On the way they are attacked by five giants. This was by far the biggest combat they have been involved in. Despite a few characters going down with wounds, the party was able to defeat the giants. They also managed to accumulate some gold in the process. Later that day, they arrived at the edge of the cairn.

The first room that they walked into was a room with a fountain and a pool of water; there was a passageway to the left. They followed the passageway and found four room that created the living quarters for the priests. They were found dead. The party also found two vrocks that they defeated. They also found a small worship area for Pholtus. When they held a ceremony in the room, it opened a secret passageway in the fountain room.

Through this passageway, they found two hallways of defiled graves of other Pholtus priests. They were turned into zombies. The party defeated the zombies. It was obvious that as the combat ended, frustrations were heightened and some interesting conversations among the party were on the way.

Until the fall semester...