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| The party is separated by a wall of fire |
The party made its way down the flight of stairs that led to the basement. Here, unlike the rest of the palace, the walls are unadorned.
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The first part they came upon were the cellars and storage areas, but everything of value here must have been looted centuries or millennia ago.
Passing through this area, they then came upon the prison cells; one larger room had a plinth in its centre, with a groove that ran around its base - there were red-brown stains upon the plinth that looked like old blood.
The passage then led to another flight of stairs, descending deeper into the bedrock that the palace stood upon. As they descended these stairs they felt a warmth in the air that came from the far end, which grew hotter as the further they descended, until at the last few steps they could see a glow at the end of the stairs.
A short passage led to a cavernous hall, its ceiling held up by tall pillars. In front of our heroes three stone bridges spanned a narrow chasm filled with fire. In the far end of the hall was a dias, at the centre of which was a round pit from which a glow was seen. Standing next to the pit was a tall man in fine robes; he held a staff in one hand. Next to the man, on bound and lying on the floor next to the pit, were two men dressed as the Medjani.
When he noticed the party the man spoke arcane words, and flames wreathed his form, but he appeared unharmed by it. Percy and Gio charged towards the man, but before Entana, Strigoi, and Finaz could follow, the man raised his hands, and a wall of flames rose up between them, cutting the party into two. To make things worse, beasts made up of flames leapt out of the chasm of fire, and began to attack our heroes.
Finaz spoke a spell and three simulacra of her appeared, confusing her attackers.
Strigoi doused himself with the water from his waterskin, and made ready to dash through the wall of fire.
Gio and Percy struck at the man, but even as they wounded him, they were themselves burned by the magical flamed that sheathed him.
Gloating, the man kicked one of the Medjani into the pit. Percy reached out, trying to save the man, but lost her footing and fell in after him, but was able to catch the edge of the pit in the nick of time. But even as the screams of the Medjani died, Percy saw a form emerging from the flames below her.
Strigoi charged through the wall of fire, his hair and clothing singed, and set upon the man before he could throw the second Medjani in.
By now the form in the pit had risen, and showed itself to be a creature of fire, in the shape of a giant. It raised one hand, and flung a ball of fire at our heroes, which caused grievous burns on them.
With her grasp slipping, Percy called upon the aid of Kellos, and her body de-materialised to reform a short distance away, on solid ground. Together she and Gio dragged the other Medjani to saferty behind a pillar, while Strigoi kept the man busy with his sword.
On the other side of the wall Entana channeled the magic of his Force runebound shard and caused a force to emanate from him - it struck the fire beasts with such force that they dissipated. Finaz copied Strigoi and doused herself with water, preparing to charge across the wall of fire too.
The man now called upon the fiery giant to lift him up in its hand so he was out of reach to Strigoi - this however made him visible to Entana behind the wall of fire! Entana cast magical missiles at him, causing him to lose his balance - he fell off the giant's hand and clung on to its arm. Gio tried to use Fortuna's magic to pry the man's fingers loose from the giant's arm, but he managed to hold on until the giant placed him on the ground.
But by now Strigoi was ready: dropping his sword and shield, he pulled the two hand axes from his belt, and hurled them one after the other at the man; the first one struck his forearm, causing his staff to fall from his hand; a split-second later the other one struck his face, killing him instantly.
With its summoner dead, the wall of fire vanished, and the fire giant began to shrink, until at last it disappeared back into the pit.
The party now took time to heal themselves, and Strigoi claimed the head of the summoner's staff, then together with the Medjani they returned to the surface, and taking the men's camels and gold as loot, they started back for the Medjani camp.
The sun was setting when they were near the Medjani camp, and the Medjani, observing their approach from a distance, came out to welcome them back. Though sad at the loss of one of their own to the summoner, they were still grateful to our heroes - tomorrow they would enter Eresh, the Scented House, and try to make the spring of Essilim flow again.
Prepping and Running the Game
As I mentioned in the previous post, this encounter was the final part of the palace location in the module. I have reduced the whole "dungeon level" to a single location, and changed the features of the encounter area and the enemies based on the mat I had in my Giant Book of Battle Mats and the fire-themed figurines I had in my collection.
Most of my sessions have the party going through two minor fights, before ending with a 'boss fight', and this session was no exception. It's rather formulaic, and I try to make things interesting for them by giving them some clues to the nature of the 'boss', and making the terrain and opponent tactically challenging.
This particular fight was challenging for two reason: the summoner had the ability to case fireball or wall of fire, which are both spells with high damage output capacity, and I also gave him immunity to fire-based attacks, which was important as most of Entana's damage-dealing spells were fire-based. I did this not to screw my players over, but because I decided that the summoner was a warlock who dealt with djiini, specifically efreeti.
The whole thing ties in with my interpretation of the history of Al-Kalim.
To me, the period during which the people of Al-Kalim were ruled by the djinni must have corresponded to the pre-Islamic era in our own history, and the period before then must likewise correspond to an even earlier period in our own history.
I looked at the various possibilities, and decided that in ancient times the humans of Al-Kalim must have developed great Bronze Age civilisations, and perhaps this civilisation then spread part of itself to the other continents too. Then must have come the Bronze Age collapse, which may correspond to a period of internecine warfare, during which the kings, desperate to obtain victory over their enemies, took to the summoning of demons or djinni. The djinni brought with them magic which allowed the kings to gain temporary advantage over each other, before the djinni then turned on their summoners and became rulers over humans. The wars between the djinni and their human armies must then correspond to the (relatively) short-live Mesopotamian empires that rose and fell and rose again, until at last they were conquered by the (successive dynasties of) Persians, which would correspond to a period of relative stability in the stage before the people overthrew their djinni overlords.
In the next session I will be able to reveal more of this to the players, and they may see themselves being written into the history of these people...
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