Verjigorm hunting - Part 1

==Introduction==
What follows is a transcript of events from July 12<sup>th</sup>, 2000.  Before I begin, let me introduce the cast.

{| border="2" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="4" width="95%"
! Persona !! Title !! Player
|-
| Nereus || Caster Of Bones || Ed Douglas
|-
| Alias || Warder of Secrets || Max Douglas
|-
| Damien || Prince of Demons || Jason Stevens
|-
| Oberon || Lord of Forests and Wands || Paul Schmidt
|-
| Morphia || Weaver of Dreams || Ivy Hamiora
|-
| Oddin || Caster of Runes || Rod King
|-
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
|-
| '''GM''' || '''Evil Scroat''' || '''Jim Arona'''
|}

==Setting==
The events described here begin in the town/city of Silverstone on Sparlainth.  After much discussion it was decided that the party would seek out an entity going by the name of Verjigorm.  Information about said creature, they decided, might be found near a place called Prism.

==Locating Prism==
Alias, having heard of Prism before, believed that it lay somewhere to the west of Silverstone in a desert of Salt. Having recently acquired Vilya, the Ring of Air, he decided that now would be a good time to try out its flight capabilities.  Ascending into the air, he quickly rose to a height of 1 mile and, using his mystical arts, did confer upon himself the ability to see great distances.  Peering off to the west, he could see no great desert within the horizon.  Thinking to look even further, he rose another mile into the air, looking anew.  Again, he could not see the landmark he had expected.

Frustrated by now, and doubting his belief of Prism<nowiki>’</nowiki>s location, he did scan the terrain from his lofty perch.  After much time, he espied a desert, far to the north, beyond a range of young mountains.  He quickly informed the rest of the party, through Morphia<nowiki>’</nowiki>s Dreamlink.

After a quick discussion, the party decided that Alias would fly off to the desert to place a specially prepared wand of Oberon<nowiki>’</nowiki>s making at a suitable point from which the party would embark.

==Vectored Flight==
Alias once again took to the air. Rising swiftly to he previous position, he accelerated off to the north, gaining speed rapidly, until he was moving damn fast and the terrain below began to blur (300 mph).  About now, he thought to himself, <nowiki>’</nowiki>Damn those mountains are getting close<nowiki>’</nowiki>. Fearing for his safety, he decelerated vigorously before he became a smear upon the hard faces of the peaks.  He managed to slow himself and eventually stop, ending up in the middle of the mountains, breathing a sigh of relief.

Barely had he taken a breath before he was caught in a vindictive downdraft that hurled him into the rocks below at a horrific speed.  In the instant before he hit said rocks, he managed to prepare himself for the impact in some weird magical way, and instead of becoming a beaten mass he somehow managed to grab a handful of a cliff face and slow his decent, wrenching his elbow badly.

Deciding that he had had enough for the day, he quickly returned to the party, explaining that there were some difficulties in travel by his method and that we would perhaps be better to proceed by other means.

==The Journey==
Given the great distances that needed to be covered, it was decided that the party would fly to the mountains, find an appropriate pass and continue on to the desert and thus Prism.

Alias sprouted bat-shaped wings made of Shadows from his back, Oberon and Oddin changed form into that of a swallow. Damien summoned a great Fell Beast that he and Morphia mounted.  I, Nereus transformed into a murder of 12 or so crows.

Taking to the air, we flew off to the north at about 5 thousand feet, heading to the mountains in the distance. Several (hours/days?) later, we arrived at the mountains and began searching for a pass.

A narrow, steep walled pass was found, but before we could make an attempt at passage, Oddin piped up, recommending that the sheer walls and narrowness of the pass would contrive to funnel high speed winds, making flying dangerous if not impossible.  Discretion being the better part of valour, and Immortals being known for their practicality and commitment to this thing called living, we quickly landed, resuming our more normal, human forms.

Moving through the pass turned out to be very difficult, and Oddin was indeed proved correct as many of us endured wind burns as we struggled for over an hour to traverse the pass. Despite this, it was damn hard going and bloody cold to boot. But, I suppose, we lived and got through the mountains, so I can<nowiki>’</nowiki>t complain.

Once we had passed the mountains, a great desert was revealed to us, and on the other side of it, surrounded by a desert of salt, we could see Prism. The desert itself turned out to be smaller than we had originally thought, it being only 40 miles to Prism itself.

==Prism==
Prism itself is a large, square shaped structure, 330 ft on a side and about 50 feet high.  At the corner of each side, is a 8x8 ft pillar made of a substance similar to that of the Pit.  These pillars somehow support the structure.  Upon further investigation, it turned out that in times of siege, Prism can project walls, inner baileys and a great keep about itself.  This entire area seems to be closely associated with illusions, and that the illusions themselves become real.

Each wall of Prism seems to be made of a glass or crystalline substance and has an astral connection to some other place.  Inset into the southern wall were a set of double doors.

==Entry, the polite way==
We were now at a crossroads.  Should we knock politely upon aforementioned doors, or attempt to sneak in some other way.  Damien explained that he and Alias had been here before and had attempted to knock politely at first.  Upon doing so, he said, they were beset by some weird creatures that lived within the walls and eventually, after fighting them off, broke the doors down.

Now, Damien without armour looks completely different to Damien with armour.  When asked, Damien did admit that he was wearing his armour when he knocked.  Damiens armour is a demon with backward bending legs and cloven hooves.  It therefore seemed likely that Prism<nowiki>’</nowiki>s controller was justified in attacking him on sight, as indeed, we would ourselves not open our doors and welcome any demon or devil with open arms.  As a result, Oberon and I volunteered to remove our visible protections and knock on the doors, in the hope that we would receive a more peaceful response.

Alas, it was not to be. No sooner had we knocked on the doors that two Iron golems appeared in a trench, running along the face of the wall.  Each golem was standing on an escalator, and was moving swiftly up either end of the trench.  On golem was armed with a sword, the other a mace.  Both constructs were right handed, bearing a shield in their left hands and a crossbow mounted upon their forearms.

Not willing to miss an opportunity for a peaceful resolution, we waited to see what they would do.  Would they speak or simply attack.  Well, they sure didn<nowiki>’</nowiki>t talk.  Once they had reached the end of their trench, they turned and charged us.  Oberon reacted quickly, and transported himself back, behind them, beyond the trench.  I, though slightly slower to react was also prepared and did fling myself beyond their reach, in the same direction as Oberon had taken.  Both golems open fired with their crossbows, but neither bolt came close to hitting the mark.  We did note however that the bolts dug large furrows in the earth, it seems that there was a lot of force behind them.

Seeing all of this, the party as a whole (except maybe for Morphia) smiled and powered up, ready and willing to do combat.

==Two Down==
The mace wielding golem turned and focussed itself upon Oberon, intent on skewering him with another bolt.  Its partner in crime decided that Alias would make a nice kebab on its own bolt.

Oberon, being the lazy bugger he is, merely stood still while Mace boys bolt fired in, only to hit his force shield and shatter into pieces.  It should be noted however, that the bolt made a significant impact upon his force shield, reducing it quite a lot.  Alias, having previously raised a physical warding, was not too concerned with the second bolt, but did attempt to dodge away, rather successfully I might add, although, his warding too took a bit of a beating.

With the golems first attacks thwarted, Oberon was quick to respond with his own volley of destruction.  Immediately, he sent out two volleys of Hellfire, one at each golem.  While particularly nasty, the golems were able to block most of the attacks with their shield, taking some bad burns in the process.

Damien pounced at Mace boy, preparing his shield and attempting a lightning strike, contrary to all common sense.  Seeing this, Mace boy was quick to smash down on his shield, driving him up to his armpits into the salty earth.

Seeing an opportunity to strike at an exposed area, I cast myself towards sword boys now exposed right knee (his shield was still up from the hellfires). Alias, quick to recover from his dodging, snapped off three shots from his pistol at the other knee, hoping to weaken it.  At this stage, Morphia had decided that she would disable the crossbow on Mace boy, by shooting a force bolt at its string.  This worked well and rendered its weapon useless.  By this time, I had arrived at my target, in full flight, and I did draw back my hammer and send it crashing forth as unto a wave upon the rocks.  BOOM! And Sword boy was rather surprised to find his momentum reversed.  He was knocked back and attempting to recover for the next attacks.

About the same time, Oddin worked his magic arts and sent a great Riving upon Sword boy<nowiki>’</nowiki>s arm.  This opened large rents in its armour, exposing some of its delicate innards.

The combat continued in this fashion for some time, until both golems were laid low; one by Alias and Oberon, the other by myself, Oddin and Morphia.  There were no major injuries on the parties<nowiki>’</nowiki> part.

==Entering Prism==
We decided that anyone in Prism would by now be alerted to our presence and thus, using Alias<nowiki>’</nowiki> dark sabre, cut the front door open.  It had been barred from the inside.

The walls of the inside of the house were entirely black, reflecting nothing.  Using Oberons<nowiki>’</nowiki> friendly light, we were able to see, although it did not reflect.

We moved on, into the house, following one of the corridors.  Alias noticed a hidden door on one of the walls, which he promptly stuck his dark sabre into, destroying the door and its connection to wherever it went.  Unconcerned at this stage, we moved on.

Not long after this, Alias noticed a concealed passageway.  Although it was somewhat narrower, being only 18" wide, we decided to pursue it.  As we moved down, Oddin changed into a wolf to allow him greater movement options.  We passed several passages, Alias in the lead.

Upon turning one corner we encountered some sort of trap.  The trap turned Alias into an obese person with a small head.  The trap was an effect of a weird mirror (of which there were plenty).  In no mood to dilly-dally, Damien began to throw large, black lightning bolts of some abyssal nature about, smashing all the mirrors.  When we looked at the pieces of the mirrors, we could see a complete image of ourselves just before the black lightning began.

==Horrors==
As we moved deeper into the house, we cam across as set of louvered mirrors, behind which was concealed a Horror from outside time and space.  We left this alone, not wanting to die at that time.

==Treasure==
Getting frustrated with our lack of results, Damien used the King chess piece to locate the chessboard and we followed its lead.  It lead us back to the concealed door that Alias had destroyed earlier.  After some investigation, I determined that the board was somehow either part of the room the door led to, or the room itself.  At any rate, we never discovered the answer, as Morphia drunk a treasure finding potion and we followed that, aiming for the Gift Box.

The potion lead us back, past the Horror and down into the depths of the house, where Alias and Damien had been once before.  They knew of a nasty trap ahead, and with prior warning we, knowing of the water elemental lying in wake, were able to command it and take its treasure.

To cut a long story short, we moved on, and found ourselves in the basement of the House of Endless Rooms.

The potion pointed off to a structure in the far corner, so we set off in the air.  It took us 3 weeks to covert a quarter of the distance required.  Realising we were getting nowhere fast, Alias sought out the secret ways to make our travel faster.  Instead, or as a result, we ended up in a fractal landscape, on a narrow path.  Following the path for 3 days, we came to a large red gem, which Damien promptly touched, believing it to bet a doorway.  He disappeared, followed shortly thereafter by Alias, myself and the rest of the party.  It was indeed a doorway, and we found ourselves right next to the structure.

Another period of travel ensued before we arrived at the location of the gift box (actually, just above it), on top of the structure.  Damien used a door from his robe of useful items to create a trapdoor in the roof.  Opening the door we discovered a room, with a table and a lamp (on the table).  Knowing the book would be trapped, Alias entered, searching for said traps.  He failed to notice the trap, which was basically an increased gravity on the floor done via a charm effect.  It was nasty and he almost died.

We decided that by lighting the candle, we would be able to dispel the trap, eventually managing to do so.