Campaign 4, Session 21

The party seeks out Caen's guitar and meets a powerful foe.

After resting and healing up, the group woke up in the morning determined to put the issue of Caen Borland to rest once and for all. Making their way into the spire, they transported to the second level, where they soon attacked by a pair of moon spiders, though these moon spiders were much larger and deadlier then the ones they had run into previously. After dispatching the creatures, Christie pointed out to Jimmy the trapped pit where they had thrown Caen's guitar previously. Jimmy attempted to disable the trap, but fell into the pit, and his hand accidently grazed the guitar itself, causing him to become possessed by Caen.   The pit began to fill with the sounds of the guitar and suddenly, as though he teleported there, Jimmy was behind Mongoose, attempting to stab her to death. Likewise, the form of Caen was there as well, also attempting to kill the holy woman. A great battle commenced, Jimmy was not able to throw off the effects of the guitar, and Caen attempted to fill the whole group with fear, much like before, but this only affected Hans and Mongoose. Thankfully, Christie was able to free Mongoose from this enchantment with one of her scrolls. Meanwhile, the warrior Guiliman used his superior martial prowess to hack and slice away at the undead bard, eventually felling him. This however, did not break the enchantment upon Jimmy, who was continually hacking away with his daggers at a cowering Hans. Once he was outnumbered however, Jimmy elected to touch the spire and teleport somewhere further down, to a floor that was not one of the first six they recognized. The group bravely followed after.   The group found themselves in a huge chamber, the center of which was the Spire, but it had been carved into an elaborate throne, and sitting upon the throne was a lich. Throughout the room were more emerald clockworks like they had fought previously, though they looked much tougher. Jimmy was there, kneeling infront of the lich, a strange necromatic energy surrounding him.   The lich revealed himself to be named Noul'zadan, and he laughed and mocked the party. The group battled against him as he tried to use his enchantment magic to ensnare them, but besides Jimmy, the rest were lucky enough to throw it off. The lich seemed to have control over Jimmy, who tried to drag Christie away from the Spire, he seemed to have a particular interest in her. Everyone tried to grab Jimmy, hoping to teleport back with the spire tokens and escape the lich's lair. Guiliman bravely grappled the lich himself to try and prevent it from using it's spells. Mongoose cast a spell of protection from evil, but even that did not free Jimmy. Christie told them all to flee, for the cause was clearly lost, and Christie, Guiliman, and Hans teleported back through the Spire. Mongoose however, did not because of her faith. It was at this moment that Jimmy, with the aid of Mongoose's spell, was finally able to throw off the enchantment of the guitar, and he grabbed Mongoose and they teleported back up the Spire.   The group fled out of the Spire as quickly as possible, Jimmy throwing off the guitar before it could take ahold of him again, and they asked the cleric Jormez to help as he had promised. Jormez had them all join hands and led them in ritualistic chanting to his deity, The Wanderer. The Spirit of Caen was separated from the guitar, and he apologized for all the problems he caused them. He further explained that his soul was unable to move on to the afterlife because of the Lich's foul magic, and asked them to bury his guitar somewhere far from here. Before the ritual ended, Caen's spirit flew into the dagger on Jimmy's belt.   The dagger suddenly became sentient, apparently possessed by the spirit of Caen. He lamented that he no longer had a body but expressed hope he might one day have one again if they could kill the lich. The dagger itself turned magical and silver, and the group advised their new talking dagger friend that he may want to keep quiet around other people.