Defending the Lizard Colony III (1st of First Stores, Rose: 47)

There was a big, big battle.

It was so large, so confusing, took so many sessions ... that I really can't describe it all to you, my fair reader, in all of its glorious detail other than to say it was ... epic.

In the midst of their battle, the party had to hold-up in the Temple of Gzz't - the lizard-woman-goddess temple built into the side of a mountain - in order to rest and recuperate. During that time, the party watched on in horror as the evil Clerics of Tahkesis committed their atrocities.

• The clerics instructed their pirate mercenaries to move four massive eggs that lay at the feet of a large statue of Gzz't, the Lizard Goddess. These eggs weighed over 800 pounds each and took many men to dislodge them from their sticking points and relocate them to the beach. There were four eggs made of platinum, gold, silver, and gemstone.
  
• The clerics rounded up priestesses of Gzz't - innocent lizard women who didn't do a thing to protect themselves. They were mercilessly murdered with blows suffered by mace strikes to their skulls, and, their eye lids were cut off and mouths sewn together, as so they could witness the truth in the afterlife and tell no lies.
  
• Tolman did note that - after the slaughter - perhaps Gzz't was a false goddess after all since the lizard women did not bother or couldn't bother to exercise divine intervention to save themselves. "Maybe the eggs really do belong to Mother Takhesis?"

In a clever bending of the rules, three player characters were enveloped by Siegride's Cloak of Starlight; time dilated and what was hours within the cloak were only minutes in the outside world. These three PC's gained a Full Rest (8 hours) when they emerged from the pocket dimension ... just a wee bit more afraid of the dark than what they were before they entered.

It was then - after resting and witnessing the theft of the eggs and the Cleric's atrocities - that the party committed themselves to wiping this scourge from Shae Tahrane! They thrust themselves into battle once more until they alone remained victorious.

At the end of the battle, the PC's were alive but we couldn't say the same for the 59 Pirates, 37 Berserkers, and 3 Clerics of Tahkesis. Their bodies littered the lizard colony. Huts were still on fire and large columns of smoke raised to the sky. Those lizard folk who survived came out to mourn their dead; the militia was rapidly trying to re-assemble and create a repelling force, believing that more pirates would be attacking shortly; the Queen of the Lizard Folk knelt in humble prostate before the state of Gzz't, in silence, perhaps praying for guidance, or, begging for mercy and atonement for her loss.

At the end of the pitched battle, Siegride cast a ritual to heal the party, while Tolman and Ma'yah cast their own rituals to Comprehend Languages to help them communicate with the Lizard Folk. After that, Siegride started into the nasty work of investigating the bodies of the clerics and taking their armor, weapons, and possessions; Tolman, Llew, and Elan scouted out to the beaches.

Along the horizon some 1,200 feet out from the shoreline were three black ships. One ship had raised-anchor and was adrift and being taken by the current while a skeleton crew onboard attempted (unsuccessfully) to raise its black sails. The other two ships were still trying to load their stolen eggs; dingys surrounded those vessels as the pirates managed ropes and chains to hoist the contraband. They were having a slow go of it.

The party boarded an abandoned landing boat left by the pirates and started rowing for the first ship that appeared to be close to getting away. As they approached, they noticed only four pirates onboard the vessel that were being commanded by a very eager and earnest Pirate Captain who insisted that they flee at once. Elan took pot-shots at the pirates and struck the captain, who fell backwards behind the railing after being hit by one of her deadly arrows. Still alive, he attempted to command his crew to continue and pointed commandingly at his crew from a prone position, which exposed his hand above the railing, which could be seen by Elan, who tried to shoot at the Captain's hand and rolled a natural 20, causing the Captain's hand to explode into a burst of crimson and bone.

And so it went: the party boarded each of the three vessels until dispatching numerous pirates and berserkers. They took one Pirate Captain and 3 Pirates hostage after their surrender; two Pirate Captains escaped into the water; the last of the Cleric's of Tahkesis - the green cleric - killed herself with a steely dagger to the throat. The battle won, the enemy vessels were anchored and Tolman sent his owl to the Sea Wyvern to notify their crew to bring the ship to their current location. Eventually, they would off-load all of the cargo and booty on to their own ship and run-aground the pirate's vessels on the beach of the Lizard Folk, who both appreciated the return of their blessed Eggs, and, the extra sturdy wood for rebuilding their colony. The Queen - apparently in a fog of grief - was elated at the return of her Eggs, and, promised the party that they were always welcome in their colony.

There was a lot of loot onboard each of the ships (adding them all up here):

• 2,400 Copper Coins (odd minting, very thin, small coins; just pictures of desert landscapes)
• 16,000 Silver Coins (similar minting, thin, desert landscapes, numbers that could be dates)
• 4,400 Gold Coins (ditto)
• 390 Platinum Coins (thicker coins, seemed to be minted with the head of a dragon)
• 9 Amethysts (~100 Crowns EA)
• 6 Yellow Topaz (~500 Crowns EA)
• 2 Ceremonial Robes (one linen, one silk, both embroidered with dragons, ~250 Crowns EA)

There were mundane items...

• A soapstone harp with decorative inlay
• A cloth of gold embroidered handkerchief
• A feather-embroidered handkerchief
• An exotic wood pitcher and wood goblet
• A soapstone figurine of a dancing woman (closer inspection: a dancing Cleric of Tahkesis - you can see the fine craft resembling tattoos)
• An ivory locket
• A glass statuette with gold and silver inlays

... and not so mundane that seemed to radiate magic when Detect Magic was used (and Identify was cast):

• A Scroll of Fire Shield
• A Luckstone (Stone of Good Luck) - weightless stone, in a pouch
• A Wand of the War Mage +2 
• A Cloak of Protection +1
• A Glyph of Purification (a humble article, a sheet of waxed paper with a glyph on it, that appears to separate elements into component parts)
• A Blindfold ... perhaps used in training others for blind fighting? Uncertain
• A Set of Juggler's Balls. No ordinary balls - should they attempt to be juggled, they simply never miss the juggler's hand, and they never seem to drop.
• 3 Potions of Superior Healing
• A Driftglobe (a glass sphere with a silver seal with three magic command words written into the seal)
• A Spellbook that read: "The Book of Names" in a foreign script, but, could be interpreted using Comprehend Languages
• A Door

"The Door" in this case was a large, ornately-crafted single-door that opens inward but is locked with a very formidable and impressive lock (Tolman said so). The Door would appear (to you or I) as Arabic in design and origin. Behind The Door is empty space; it appears to lead nowhere. The Door was bolted to the floorboard of the captain's quarter's of the third ship. The Door is locked. As the party found a large brass key on the Blue Cleric, they currently presume this key fits into the Door's lock and it seems that's the case, but they didn't unlock or go through the door. Identify gave mixed results (it's a door, and a portal, but a door is a portal, just to what's behind it, and it likely works with a similar door/portal on its opposing side, so long as that door/portal continued to exist - so that if they destroyed this Door, the corresponding door on the other side wouldn't open to it), but it was definitely reeking of Conjuration School of Magic.

The party decided to leave The Door be for now and set sail for Sphant for training, re-supply, and thinking about their next move.

DM's NOTE: 

What happens next occurred when most of the players left the game table - there were three players remaining - Camille, Melissa, and Allen - when Melissa wanted to understand what was in the spellbook that was recovered from this adventure. I said that I wanted to RP (Role-Play) that discovery and it could wait until the next session; I didn't feel comfortable doing it over email. Melissa wanted to understand the book now for it could relate to the spells she'd take when revising her character sheet to 7th Level over the next two weeks. I said, well, okay, sure - grab a 20-sided dice.

On the return voyage to Sphant, in the late hours of the evening, Ma'yah was up trying to make sense of the Book of Names. It wasn't a hefty tomb but did have several hundred parchment pages. She had cast Comprehend Languages and Detect Magic as a ritual to understand it and to make sense of it.

[DM's NOTE: At this point I reminded Melissa of what happened the last time Ma'yah just tried to open up a spellbook in my universe - it blew up in her face and she took damage. Ma'yah knows that spellbooks can be trapped or bewitched to protect their secrets - just as chests, coffers, and crypts in the natural world, they are guarded to protect what lies within. Books don't give up their secrets easily. She still pressed forward. I also informed Melissa in my 2015.06.15 email/D&D Follow Up on how to defuse a spellbook that could be potentially trapped ... that process wasn't followed ... please keep this in mind.]

Ma'yah cracked open the book to see lists and lists of names. These names were of individuals; they were translated from the weird Common (that looks like Arabic script) the party encountered, and, the names were a little bizarre, but included their name, physical description, and what they did in life. 

On the first page, the ink on the page, Ma'yah noted, seemed to reorganize itself, and it asked a question:

"What is Your Name?"

[DM's NOTE: At this point, I had Ma'yah role a check on Arcana and she rolled a 12.  She failed this DC check. Names in magic are like IP Addresses ... knowing a name is like knowing the specific address of where to go on a network, or, in this case ... surrendering your name is like handing somebody a piece of a key. It's one of the most potent forms of vulnerabilities in magic...]

Ma'yah, alone in the dark, thought about it for a moment, and was at first going to write it, but then she said it out loud. "Ma'yah of House Syln'dakar". 

The book then provided the script and letters in the odd Arabic-like language which was then re-interpreted by her Comprehend Language spell as "This Book Belongs To..." and then her name. The book felt warm to the touch.

As she began reading through it, Ma'yah started to feel the book getting warmer, and her limbs were going numb. Siegride was praying near by and saw that something was amiss at Ma'yah's table. To Siegride, Ma'yah's body was dimming, becoming fuzzy, lines and stripes were cascading down from her head; to Ma'yah, she could see letters and words and scripts in the air around her, and her hands were covered in lettering and ink! Words on the page began to meld and mesh together. Ma'yah's eyes opened wide, she gasped ... her thoughts panicked, she tried to remember her counterspell -

There was a crack of light and a split second where Siegride could cry out Ma'yah's name, before suddenly, with a flash, Ma'yah's body was gone, the book slammed shut and fell back to the table.  Ma'yah was gone.

"Ma'yah!", Siegride yelled, and jumped up and rushed to the table. All that remained was the Book of Names. Gingerly, Siegride picked it up, started thumbing through the list of a hundred or more names, and came across a listing. "Ma'yah of House Syln'dakar" - a physical description of Ma'yah, and, her accomplishments in life. Meanwhile, as she looked at the front of the book, the first page's lettering reorganized to appear in Arabic script (that Siegride couldn't read but I told Camille): 

"What is Your Name?"

Siegride immediately then put down the book.

Dru, the pseudodragon, who had been napping happily on a stack of silver below decks, came rushing up to the room where Ma'yah had been. He started sniffing around the table, looking about confused, as his psychic link with Ma'yah had been severed. Dru whimpered, and curled up on the table, next to the book, looking at it with longing eyes ...

R