Game log 24 May 2020: Good things happen when you're polite

Dramatis personae

Horace, wizard scholar
Felcanis, elf cleric
Jiro, swordswoman
Lucdalen, elf-hating elf wizard/thief
Kurt, hobbit fighter

Quid occurrit

They rest, and Horace reads some of his book. He finds the passage: “Trákkē bore with her a staff, her power item, that shed a light that only wizards could see.” Thus, Horace casts Seeker for this staff, and finds it is to the east. So the group goes back to the garden. Lucdalen casts Displace Spell to circumvent the magic door, and it works after a few tries.

Once in the garden, Lucdalen inspects the creek then rests. Horace and Lucdalen see stairs beyond the bridge, but rubble blocks them. Horace crosses the bridge and inspects a pine tree, which has cones that are cylindrical with a blunted tip at the end. He looks in his book, and finds the passage: “The wizard caretakers of the Garden in the Cairn were the Collectors, who bred trees to have odd properties, like odd leaves, odd hues, odd ways of reproduction, odd smells, odd tastes. The goddess Rōrpermónē did smile upon these attempts to make her creations more hardy, and did send a guardian.” Horace then inspects a white willow, which shocks him. Felcanis heals him with Stop Bleeding, Lucdalen casts Share Energy, then Felcanis uses the extra FP to cast Major Healing on Horace.

Now on the other side of the garden, they see a door, and Horace sees magic trap on door. Lucdalen opens it with Wizard Hand and uses his Wizard Hand to open later doors. He also uses it to trigger Evil Runes, and these dispel his Wizard Hand. Lucdalen uses Displace Spell to get through the magic trap on the door. He casts another Wizard Hand to open the other doors they see to their left. Horace casts Glass Wall to see into the room with the Evil Runes, and sees a summoning circle. Lucdalen uses Displace Spell to handle a patch of the Evil Runes. He then goes to work, one patch at a time. While Lucdalen works, Horace and Jiro go to the left and see two giant flies. They choose to wait to fight the flies until Lucdalen is done, so go back.

While he works, four flies come in through the door on the other side of the room with the runes. After a moment, they see Lucdalen, who readies his spear to stop thrust. The flies buzz nearby, but stay clear of the spear. Horace casts Haste 2 on Jiro, who then whips out her sword. Felcanis fires up Sunbolt, and Kurt tries to jump into the air to grab a fly. The fly gets out of the way and Kurt falls a few inches short of some runes. Jiro rushes towards a fly but misses. Lucdalen starts casting Mass Sleep. The flies bite at Jiro and Kurt, but Jiro parries and Kurt’s armor soaks up the bite. Jiro again swings at a fly and hits air, but her second swing hits one. Kurt gets out his mace and smashes one. Felcanis lobs a Sunbolt and misses Kurt and a fly, but hits another one in the leg. That’s enough for the flies and they pull back. The heroes can’t chase them because that means stepping on the Evil Runes.

Lucdalen finishes making a path through the Evil Runes after some rest. While he casts, Horace reads, “Rōripermónē loved the garden, and blessed it after the cult left. Some other plants moved themselves into the garden as well, and enjoyed the eternal light.”

The gang goes through path, and comes into room with a naga inside. Horace and the naga chat, as he thinks staff is behind her. The naga hisses at them but speaks: “Come closer, Children. Rōripermónē welcomes you to her garden, as you've already passed through. I am Ímvā, guardian of the garden, now living in the home of the Collector. So many of you today! Are you with the other Children? Need you a curse removed as they did?” Lucdalen says he is a Child of the Spider, while Horace guesses the naga is the Guardian, and asks Lucdalen to ask her about the staff. Ímvā says, “Really. Son, you're not going to impress me with that. You should be like your friend, quaking and quivering and sweating and going on about the staff.” Lucdalen says he’s suffered exile, which is worse than death, but Ímvā says, “Relax, Child. If I had wanted you dead, you'd be dead already. Didn't your friends say something about me?” Lucdalen says Ímvā is hiding Horace’s staff. Ímvā says, “Oh, no, it's not his staff, but it has been here for centuries. Funny, your friends didn't bother to ask me about it, just wanted to get their friend turned back into flesh.” Lucdalen insists the staff is Horace’s, but Ímvā will have none of it, while Horace tries to flatter her. Horace casts Aura, and finds Ímvā’s is a golden aura. They keep chatting, and find that Rōripermónē sent Ímvā to watch over the Garden, and that she doesn’t like the ogres. She also says, “I figure I'll do this for a few more millennia, then go on to do a stint in Kelestia or Oerth. My sister is in Kelestia. Last I hear she was scaring some peasants.” Her other sister, she says, lies dead in the rooms to her right, but don’t touch her body because she called a dying curse. Horace asks where the staff is and says that if she lets him take it, he’ll leave, and amazingly, she agrees. Horace walks around the corner and takes the staff. Ímvā says, “There you go, Child. You just asked and it was yours. Is that really so hard for folks to understand? Nobody bothers to be polite. Last time anyone was polite and asked was on Krynn and that nice boy with the hourglass eyes.” She also lets them know there are more ogres and a medusa. They then head off.

Res aliae

I'll leave off with the observation that the difference between a TPK and a magic item is often a good reaction roll. There's a little more to it than that, of course. It also helps when the naga is sent by a goddess and not a narcissist living in a swamp, though those naga were a little weaker than she.