A classic comparison of what happens when you fail to properly plan for sneaking and when you do.

After talking with the barmy fiend, the party quickly made it's way to the temple of Crius, the Titan of Weight and Density. Actually, it took them several hours to arrive at the temple once they found it. A little problem with scale and distance. Given that this is meant to be an impressive white marble edifice for beings that are about 30 feet tall, the party could see it long before they got to it.

Once on the temple's plateau, the party then proceeded to sneak around to be within sight of the back door. Having been travelling for quite some time, the party decided to rest inside one of Jack's rope tricks. Unfortunately for the party, they neglected to realize that a six-foot tall person in hot pink armor might be a bit conspicuous. So, when they emerged from the extra-dimensional space, the temple's guardians - ogres and ogre magi - were waiting in ambush. Although they wounded nearly every one of their attackers with area of effect spells, there were too many and the foes were too tough to actually kill any of them. The party was quickly forced to retreat lest they be killed. The retreat consisted of teleportation magic back to the barmy fiend's cave.

After spending a day patching themselves back together, the party decided to be a bit more careful with their return to the temple. They made good use of Jack's familiar, Maxx, letting the rat sneak into the temple and scout around for a while, getting a basic idea of the layout and some potentially key locations. With this information, Jack was able to teleport the party inside the building. Once there, they quickly moved to the first of the two locations of interest (some sealed doors that Maxx couldn't slip under).

The first door proved to lead into a prison of some sort. All of the surfaces of the bare room were polished to a near-mirror sheen. The vast expanse of white proved to quickly play havoc with one's sense of direction and distance. The room was also filled with a chaotic pattern of dispel magic and anti-magic zones, which would indicate that anyone inside could not escape without outside help. The fact that the door meshed nearly seamlessly with the walls so that anyone inside would not be easily able to find it reiniforced this impression. Unfortunately, the person they were supposed to rescue was not inside the chamber.

While investigating the room, the party heard a patrol of ogres coming their way. At first, discretion won out and the party quickly hid inside another one of Jack's rope tricks, intending to let them pass by. Unfortunately, Oz had earlier decided to go to the bathroom in the hallway and the ogres found his... um... offering. Acting quickly to prevent the alarm from being raised, the party dropped out of the rope trick and dispatched the ogres without too much trouble (although the foes landed a couple of good blows against the party).

The party then moved to the other side of the massive building and investigated the other sealed door. Rusteen attempted to disarm the poison "needle" trap on the lock (a needle the size of a javelin), but failed. So Oz proved that wizards can be thieves as well and disintegrated a hole in the door. The room beyond proved to be the Titan's vault. Rusteen quickly ran inside and scooped up two large sackfuls of coins and gems. The two characters then ran like hell back to the party and the entire group once more teleported out of danger, as they noticed the ogres rushing them as well as one of the Titan's bodyguards - a giant of some variety.

So, the group has made some bit of profit from the adventure, though they still haven't done what they set out to do. They've got to decide if the money is enough and they're going to leave the prisoner to his fate, or if they're going to make one more attempt to rescue him. Also, we'll find out if the characters ever remember to follow-up on a revelation they experienced at some point during the adventure. That revelation being that Shazarr, Twig, Jack, Zin, and Rusteen all had the same tattoo - a brain wrapped by a pair of roses.

Authored by: Ken Lipka E-mail me: krlipka@yahoo.com

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