7. Into The Vaults

Nymm 7, YK 1000

We make our way to the Guardian Tower, and pass, among other things, a pre-Schism Temple of the Sovereign Host. We go past the Hall of Champions, which is the base camp of the Champions of Argent, and between that and the Temple is the Marketplace, which is a collection of deserted shops and residences.

Obenharr asks us to hold off any questions and help him defend it from siege by giants and elemental creatures, who are making their way to vaults beneath the tower. He heads into the tower, and Rrowthar leads us down to the vaults, where a door is partly ajar.

As Magnus and Xiu examine the well-constructed walls, Torgen and Alain hear odd, metallic whooshing noises from inside. Alain suspects earth and/or cold elementals inside. Xiu sneaks up to the door to scout, and she sees a large earth elemental and three smaller ice elementals, reports back to the group. Magnus gives nail of sealing to Alain and Xiu. Xiu asks Rrowthar what is in the vaults, and he explains that beyond the entry chamber lies an approach that lies upstairs and a central room with magical defenses to prevent intruders.

Xiu pushes the door open, and uses Bait and Switch on the earth elemental and moves in next to the cold elementals. Rrowthar gets into the middle of the door and uses cause fear to push the earth elemental next to Xiu, immobilizing it. Zargosz launches a fire hawk at the ice elemental nearest Xiu, killing it. The earth elemental (Battle Wall) hits Xiu and shakes off fear. Alain uses Greater Magic Weapon on Battle Wall. Frostfell harrier hits Xiu and the other misses Zargosz. Torgen moves in and charges the Battle Wall. Magnus moves in to attack the Frostfell harrier with crushing surge, misses and takes cold damage and slides back on ice.

Xiu uses Tornado Strike on Battle Wall and Frostfell Harrier, critically hitting the Battle Wall, bloodying it and missing the Harrier, taking cold damage and sliding back, then she shifts back and moves up to the door at the far end. Rrowthar claws the Battle Wall. Zargosz, now standing next to the Battle Wall, shifts back and uses his fire hawk on another Frostfell Harrier, but it misses, and Zargosz is affected by cold damage and slides back. Battle Wall slams its fists into the ground and tries to attack Torgen and Rrowthar, missing both of them. Alain fires magic weapon bolt at Frostfell Harrier near Xiu, destroying it. Frostfell Harrier shifts and attacks Torgen, but misses. Torgen shifts between Frostfell Harrier and Battle Wall, and uses Whirlwind Smite on Harrier, killing it and on the Battle Wall, which is looking pretty bad. Magnus uses crushing surge on the Battle Wall, killing it.

Xiu uses the nail of sealing to seal off the entryway back to the tower. Rrowthar pushes open the door, yells out "The defenses are up! More foes!" and we see four more Frostfell Harriers. Zargosz moves forward. Alain moves up, detects faint aura of enchantment and an abjuration effect in the chamber, and notices that the Harriers are not moving with their usual alacrity, uses curative admixture on Xiu and reloads his crossbow. Frostfell harriers slowly move up and one attacks Rrowthar. Torgen moves and misses. Magnus rushes into the room, drawing an AOO from Harrier, which hits him, and then uses Tide of Iron on the harrier, destroying it.

Xiu sheathes her katar, quick draws her shuriken and kills a harrier with it. Rrowthar moves in and gets in the way of Magnus, attacks another harrier and misses it, but inspires everyone else, although he slides back onto a sigil on the floor. It flares to life and accelerates the slide, and is pushed through another one and past the barrier on the side of the room. Zargosz misses with firehawk, takes cold damage and slides him back. Alain moves up, misses a harrier and is slid back. Frostfell harrier moves to attack Magnus and miss, the other one tries to draw us into the room. Torgen moves up, throws a handaxe at a harrier and kills it. Magnus uses tide of iron on the harrier nearest him and misses, causing him to slide back near Alain, and he moves back to engage again.

Xiu throws shuriken at harrier and kills it. Zargosz moves up, uses prestidigitation to clean dust off part of the floor. Alain moves cautiously in, looking for glyphs, but doesn't see any. Torgen spots two glyphs and moves in, spotting two more, and Magnus moves up to join him, spotting another one.

Xiu follows in the path of the dwarves, and Magnus hears a shout of triumph from beyond the door. Rrowthar is trapped behind the barriers, yelling encouragement at us. Zargosz moves in behind the dwarves. Alain also moves in, and the group is together, moving around the glyphs. Torgen moves up to the door and pulls it open, revealing two Fire Archons and two more Frostfell Harriers, as well as one of the defensive curtains of force. The Fire Archons' shields flare, one crits Torgen and pulls him in, the other one hits as well and Torgen is crispy fried and on fire. Magnus bull charges a Fire Archon, pushing him back and knocking him up, then uses his appalling crunch on the downed Archon, bloodying it.

Xiu moves up, uses defensive stance on Fire Archon and misses with a shuriken. In the back of the room, near the force curtain, a human elemental mage steps out, Magnus spots him wearing a bag of holding, and then mocks us for being too late before firing an elemental burst of cold and fire. He misses Magnus but hits Torgen, sliding him into the corner. Zargosz moves up and calls lightning on the mage, missing. Alain fires and misses the mage, gives restorative infusion to Torgen. The harriers slash at Magnus, but he ignores their attacks due to his resistance, Torgen takes a hit from a harrier. Torgen takes a bunch of fire damage, attacks the frostfell harrier, misses and gets bounced against the wall, he is not on fire or dazed any more. The downed Fire Archon stands up, swings his scimitar at Magnus and misses. The other one attacks Magnus and misses as well. Magnus, standing in the midst of two Archons and two harriers, uses inexorable advance, hitting one Fire Archon.

Xiu moves up, quick draws her katar, changes her defensive stance on the mage, and leaps across the room to land next to the mage with aerial assault. Zargosz hops up and fires locusts out of his mouth at the Fire Archon. Alain pulls out his staff, fires Runic Resistance to kill two harriers, damages bloodied Fire Archon and grants fire resistance to Magnus. Harrier attacks Torgen, bloodying him. Torgen takes a second wind, closes with the fire archon and attacks with valiant strike. Fire archon uses flame shield enticement, hitting Magnus and Torgen, the bloodied fire archon also uses flame shield enticement and hits everyone. Magnus resists all his fire damage, hits the bloodied fire archon, nearly killing it, and he is no longer on fire.

Xiu takes fire damage, uses her armor of sudden recovery to end ongoing fire and gain regeneration, then crits the bloodied fire archon, killing it. She uses her changeling trick on the mage, but he spots it, she uses her action point to use wild tumble cut on the mage, then shifts back. The elemental mage steps back, calls up elemental burst on Xiu, Torgen and Alain, damaging and dazing them, then slams them into the walls. He then spends his action point to do it again, hitting Alain and Torgen and knocking them into the wall, bloodying Alain and knocking Torgen out. Zargosz uses floating death on the fire archon, shifts over to the mage and attacks him, transforms out of his toad form, uses action point to use furious assault and nature's balance on the mage, damaging him and making him vulnerable to damage. Alain takes fire damage, takes second wind, uses action point to fire life-tapping darts at the mage, saves against fire and daze. Frostfell harrier moves to flank Zargosz, slides him into the wall when he misses his AOO, then attacks him, bloodying him. Torgen takes a lot of fire damage, fails his death save. Fire archon crits Magnus, who then takes aura damage, shifts and uses come and get it, drawing in the archon, the harrier and the mage, and the harrier sends him flying into the wall when he misses, then he takes his second wind.

Xiu regenerates, throws a shuriken at the harrier and kills it, she is still dazed. The elemental mage steps back, fires another elemental burst at Alain and Xiu, dazing them. Zargosz moves over and pushes Torgen into the room where Rrowthar can see him, then turns into a big snake. Rrowthar uses healing word on Torgen. Alain uses restorative infusion on himself, is still dazed. Torgen takes fire damage, lays hands on himself, saves against daze. Fire archon regenerates, hits Alain with scimitar. Magnus takes fire damage, moves up and grabs the mage.

Xiu throws a shuriken at the elemental mage, hits him and he teleports away, leaving a burst of elemental force, is still dazed. Zargosz fires and misses fire archon. Alain hits the fire archon with positive energy infusion, saves against daze. Torgen uses majestic word on Alain, lays hands on himself, saves against being on fire. Fire archon hits Alain. Magnus runs around the archon, which misses with his AOO, uses tide of iron to push it next to Xiu.

Xiu hits the fire archon, is still dazed. Zargosz slithers over and spews a cloud of locusts at the fire archon. Alain moves in and kills it with a repulsion strike. We take a brief rest, inspect the area and see that there are things missing that the mage obviously stole.

After about ten minutes, the wards come down, Rrowthar rejoins us, and a lean and haggard Obenharr teleports in. "Argent's defenses are once again in place, we can afford a few moments of rest to talk about the day's events. He took a piece of the divine engine and left everything else." He offers food, drink and explanations.

We take an extended rest, he presents Alain with a magic staff.

King Galifar sent Obenharr here, and sent champions, and he's been here ever since. Argent's mission to guard against incursions from the elemental chaos. According to the Paragon compact, champions are to be sent every generation. Alain explains that Galifar has fallen. The giants are behind the latest attack, but Obenharr is surprised to learn that the mage who attacked us was human. They stole a piece of the divine engine that the dragons used to imprison a primordial named Tinanoh.

If there is a power behind this that is controlling the giants, perhaps that explains the change in strategy. A magical effect keeps the temple district from falling to ruin, even though the inhabitants of the city have died out long ago. Most of the former inhabitants have either died or left when no further champions were sent.

Obenharr did detect the mage teleporting out, but was too weak from sealing the defenses. He tells us about the divine engine, which was used after the end of the war between the demons and dragons. The dragons established the paragon compact, and bound all future civilizations to this compact, which defends Eberron against powerful threats to the safety of the world. The Mystagogues guard against Xoriat, the Argent Defenders protect against the Elemental Chaos.

Quotes:
"Nobody puts Battle Wall in a corner!"