We have a temporary player, who will be playing an 'aasimar' genie (marid) named Plank. I forgot to copy down his character, so his stats won't appear until next week after I see him again.
After Cast discovered that there was a permanent deeper darkness in the cave during his initial scouting attempt, he flew back to inform the party, where they all waited until after Urorae finishes animating the skeleton. At which point, the entire party suits up and heads over, but Ethedril's followers/cohort/dragon skeleton will wait at the entrance due to possible dangers if they enter it with the party.
Walking up to the limits of the darkness, Marshal stares it down until it's suppressed for a short time, showing them that 40' into the cave is a concave wall filled with skulls; all facing the spot immediately in front of a 10' square door that has the Arcanis words for 'Beware' and 'Trespass and Die' inscribed upon it. Once the darkness returns, Cast walks forward and gropes around for the door to open it and take the trap, and shrugs off the phantasmal killer thrown at him twice; once for opening the door, again for smashing it down to make sure it doesn't close behind him.
Inside is a 20' wide tunnel going deep underground, eventually splitting into three paths, the leftmost one with barely noticeable lights flickering and Ethedril hears light breathing down it. Going down that path, they find an abandoned 'open-courtyard' kobold warren, with but a single kobold in leather armor who asks for the party's business. When told that the white dragon is dead and they demand his hoard, the kobold curses them and declares that their lord's vengeance shall continue even in death; at which point, an animated and magically treated huge stone dragon wearing mechanus armor rises out of the courtyard and begins the offensive (it's got inscribed runes for magic slam). Cast goes on the defensive and hurls Draw Fire on it while the rest of the party slugs away at it for a good six rounds. While fighting, the kobold goes down the one other tunnel in the area and causes a cave-in so the party can't follow after it or the rest of the escaped warren.
Turning back, they go down the middle path, finding a massive vault-like door inscribed with the Arcanis words "All that glitters". Marshal figures out the question and states 'door' in the same language, which causes the entire thing to open, revealing a fairly sizeable ceremonial dance hall. Ephemeral music fills the air, never-melting ice crystal chandelier hang, and the walls hang a score of elaborate paintings of various wizards the party aren't terribly familiar with; including an empty frame with a design similar to the nearly-complete copper tower.
After extensive searching, the party finds some things, but not much due to the lack of any member of the party even possessing a single rank in Search. Everything is extensively gilded and very well designed. Even the center of the room features a rather large decorative circle with a pair of embedded dragon footprints (Hollywood style) filled in with never melting ice. They do find a supply closet filled with goblets, serving trays, wines, etc. They also find a brass bottle with a wax seal and words in Primal (eventually translated as "In Asar's name I bind thee"). Not finding anything else, they strip the place of everything of value; the furniture, the paintings, the goblets/trays, the bottle, the chandeliers, and even pry out the ice-made footprint casts in the center of the floor (informed to be surprisingly easy).
While going up-tunnel, they hear the sets of three footsteps coming towards them, but they take the one tunnel the party hadn't explored yet instead of the center one. Shortly, they hear blood-curdling screams of agony in Infernal & explosions, followed by silence. Dropping their stuff momentarily, they run for the source, and see bits of barbazu scattered everywhere in the room except where the large pile of gold and gems lay. They toss a rock, see nothing happen, followed by a length of rope which is dissolved when they try to pull it back. Then Marshal uses dispelling glare and waits four rounds, then tries again (rolling poorly this time), at which point one of the black gems sparks and attempts to use violent thrust telekinesis to pull him towards the pile, but he makes the save. Ethedril then flies over the pile, staying as close to the ceiling as possible, and cuts out a large chunk of stone from above to have it fall onto it; this knocks around some of the coins, revealing a shell with runes on it, but the coins roll back over it as several gems sparkle again; firinglightning bolt & flame strike at Ethedril, who simply parries it. Not sure of what else to do, they leave for the entrance.
They dump their accumulated loot with Ethedril's followers, with the command to begin constructing a wicker basket like thing so the dragon's ribcage can be used for carrying. Urorae analyzes the bottle, and determines that it contains a creature of some sort, and it is potentially a major magic item (at least a moderate) as it should ensure that the inhabitant will serve the owner of the bottle. Because he doesn't know which node it is connected to, let alone whether the node has been redirected or waned, he cannot guarantee that the item functions and will actually control whatever is released.
Figuring they can kill whatever comes out if uncontrolled and hostile, or get a servant they can sell for a shiny profit, they open the bottle. Which releases an amnesiac marid by the name of Plank, who wishes to follow the party to get a sense of what the world is about.
This is swiftly followed by a nearby ice puddle shimmering in reflection and four identical mirrored creatures rise up from it, asking for information as to the party's presence. The party states why they're here (talked to dragon, got in a fight, searching for loot), to which the creatures respond with acceptance and declare that any loot they have yet to claim still falls under 'finders keepers' rules (in so many words). The party doesn't mind, and as they speak, one of the four sinks back into the reflection. In a quid pro quo, the party asks for their identity. The three creatures tell them that they are natives of Mirror Peak, subjects to the King of Three Shadows, and seek treasure as well. After informing the party, the fourth returns holding a rather large tome and informs its compatriots that the library was found, but the hoard remains unaccessible.
This causes another disturbance in the reflection, alarming the creatures as a robed figure appears (stays on the reflection side) calls them back. Immediately after the creatures sink back into the reflection, the robed figure looks at the party and informs them that twice now they have seen him and lived, but they shall not survive a third encounter. With that, it fades away. Because I'm not the best person at voices, I simply told the party that the figure's speech pattern was much like the one they heard back when Cali escaped; he was going down a hall with a robed figure who was chastising him for some unmentioned slight, and when the party tried to catch them, the figure grasped Cali by the arm and the two teleported away. I just now noticed that scene wasn't in the old session notes, which is odd, because it was fairly important.
Meanwhile, Cast is eager to return home. After some time with a map of what they know, they properly explain to Plank where they need to go for his plane shift to work. Since they can't bring Ethedril's followers, Ethedril leaves standing orders to them to desconstruct the copper wizard tower and relocate it at the home village in the woods, reminding them of what she's willing to do if they disobey and run off (that wizard and the dragon were killed almost solely for granting sanctuary to a handful of them).
This cuts travel time to a week after a short sojourn through the elemental plane (description coming soon in setting), though they did miss on the first attempt to the Prime and landed on a tiny island in the middle of the sea (~300 miles south of Cast's castle); which they took as an opportunity to rest for awhile, since they figured nothing would know where they were at that instance.
At the castle, capital of Crystalis, they discover that the area had been attacked by ninja. Amongst the fallen were the royal triage expert (some healing focused adept), the castle interrogator, and several of the guards that had been guarding the former Queen and Gina. Fortunately, the castle did have Marshal's entire dojo relocated there (Sarou and all), Gina could take care of herself, as was Tenoc; who if you recall, is still the head of a noble house, and is attempting to get back into politics by hanging around the castle. There were five highly trained ninja that attacked from hiding within the castle, and two score lesser trained ninja came in from over the outer walls (which is where Tenoc had his fun, as he's since advanced to 5th level); only one ninja survived, mostly, and is held in the dungeon below for the party to handle.
Cast double checks every guard that watches the prisoner, as well as the personal guard of the family, by using his helm of telepathy as well has having them remove their armor to ensure that they aren't ninja in disguise; and then the interrogation begins. Marshal is the primary talker, but Ethedril is in the room as well to nick him with his sword while they talk, Plank joins to squirt him continuously, and Cast glowers behind him to use his helm of telepathy, who had Gina accompany them for additional intimidating support. When the ninja made the first Will save against the effect while Marshal yelled at him, Cast joined in and demanded that the ninja stop resisting and forgo all saving throws, knocking him into unconsciousness when he balks and having Marshal awaken him with healing. While he's getting brought back to consciousness, Cast reapplies detect thoughts and finally gets a hold in, and reiterates his demand in the ninja's mind when he comes to.
It's at this point, I get frustrated with one of the flaws of interrogation in D&D. Every single time, you get the entire party swarming and groping their prisoner, usually resulting in three or four people using aid another on the primary interrogator; and even if you don't allow aid another, you still result in them doing it anyway 'for moral support'. And unless you have a paladin around, it almost always breaks down into more torture than interrogation. As a result, I have a house rule to introduce...
Limits of Interrogation: Using intimidate to get information cannot receive aid another benefits. Use of torture or other sensory overloads, shorten the time to perform the check to a round at the cost of information limit. If the victim would not give the information to a good friend, then he will either resist all further torture or break and confess/believe anything the party wants, regardless of actual validity.
Once faced with this, the party leaves and waits a day to decide what to do, at which point Plank goes down alone to use Diplomacy (gets a 33). He learns that the ninja was trained in a dojo two days north of Naught Hill, and was recruited by the guild along with four others who joined in the attack. The ninja doesn't have a rendezvous point any longer, because the guild will have assumed him to be KIA by this point.
After conferring with Sarou (aka, my suggestion), they get a poison that will make the victim paralyzed, barely conscious, and easily suggestible, which they secretly apply to the ninja in one last torture session; so that the ninja will think that the party thinks him to be dead and toss him onto the trash just outside the castle, where the poison will wear off and he will believe his escape to be good fortune. This will give the best chance of a safe meetup with his guild, so Sarou will stalk the ninja to see who he meets with while the party plans their sojourn to the dojo north of Naught Hill.
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