In the old days they always used to say…..“Don’t split the party”
In recent times they still held by this dictum.
Now, in Gossamer, we find the that not much has changed.

Inside the Room of Three Blessings, the Questors are attacked by nine undead neopriests on two fronts. Most questors follow Kane the Traveller, but Sir Keoghen charges by himself into a group of five priests that isolate him from his friends and lead to a very sudden (but honourable) death. Jezrab Flinchal‘s spectacular spring attack turns out to be less effective than his other magic. Tippit remains alive but is visibly shaken by the ferocity of the neopriest attack on the Paladin. Aibron Torromson continues to struggle against the creatures with his slashing weapon and Baris the Black laments his critical hit ineffectiveness against such creatures. Quintine Excavar is unable to prevent Keoghen’s demise, but bolsters her fellow adventurers with positive energy and good vibrations.

With the neopriests destroyed, the Questors travel to the Valley of Divine Light to replenish themselves. Jezrab’s help with a small mushroom harvest is much appreciated by Gerald Scarfe, as is Traveller’s storytelling technique. A new morning starts out with a failed attempt to investigate a portal that elicits an Entropic Enemy attack. Once destroyed, the attempt is repeated and Jezrab looks into the dark portal window of the armoury.

All is dark except for a Marilith dead ahead, sheathed in faerie fire about 50’ away. Looking carefully, Jezrab also notices three other pinpoints of faerie fire. Two undead drow outlined by Faerie Fire guard a passage to the right about 60’ away. Behind the Marilith, over 160’ away are two more groups of undead drow guards, about 100’ apart.

Time to prepare…

Leaving the bodies of the looted undead warrior drow of Eillistraee in the web strand, the Questors move quickly to the next intersection in the Demonweb. All seems quiet but when the party enter, three camouflaged sporebats fly from the roof and begin to attack. They are soon despatched, however, and the group look around the room to find three teleportation circles, a statue of Eillistraee and a pattern on the wall, which they discover to be a map.

With this in hand, they use the portal to arrive at the Room of Three Blessings. Finding a secret door, they discover magical writing which Traveller knows to be Doctrine of Eillistraee. When he reads it out aloud, a doorway opens and the party move through a series of triangular rooms until they come to one with a statue of Eillistraee draped in a silver chain with a Crescent Pendant. Jezrab identifies this to be a greater portal key, and when he puts it on, all doors in the system are opened. But the Questors face undead Neopriests on either side of them.

By defeating Iuz and determining the whereabouts of the Chains of Gond , the Characters have completed the first of the Droomalith’s Tasks.

They have already used the Heart of the Dracolich (now wielded by Baris the Black) to start the second quest, Savandem, which is aligned with Gossamer, in The Demonweb.

A domed ceiling arches high above this octagonal room, which is lit by a flickering radiance from a broad circle of fire on the floor. Within this circle are three smaller circles, each defined by a rim of flickering runes like the larger one. High above, three balconies (each encased in a dome of reflective silvery metal protrude about 5 feet out over the floor. Three immense, deformed humanoid forms move restlessly about the larger circle. A human female stands within one of the rings. A human male stands within another.

As the Questors enter this room they realise that this is the destination of their first Quest. Realisation and resolve, together with memories of the Quest so far and the hardships they have overcome serve to reach deep into their very souls where a great fire is kindled, igniting the soulfire within each person so that Divine Inspiration seems to shine from within each Questor. For a full minute, this power suppresses the latent Primordial Energies within the temple and each member of the group feels directly inspired by their God.

Wizard Vayne, Cleric Shyrath and three Giant Rutterkins are the physical enemy here at the moment and the battle begins. Tippit cast Magic Jar but fails to possess a demon. Aibron and Keoghen wrestle with the demons, falling prey to their deadly snap-tong grapples. The cleric’s Confusion spell confounds Aibron. In a ripple of Divine Power, Sven is replaced by Baric the Black, immediately wielding the Heart of the Dracolich. Enbabling the True Seeing function, he determines that the Wizard in the hall is a Projected Image and that the real foe is behind one of the balconies, which are in fact rooms shielded by One Way Mirrors and strengthened by a Wall of Force. Tippit disintegrates the Wall and Traveller flies over to it and starts beating on it, while the Wizard within strengthens himself with spells. Quintine casts a potent Dispel Magic spell, which lifts the Invisibility Purge and Jezrab does his best to move between the fighters, helping Quintine to heal and bolster them, while Baris attacks the cleric and demons with deadly knives.

Soon both the cleric and two demons are dead, but not without loss. Keoghen is killed by one of the demons. As Traveller is starting to crack the capsule, the Wizard, armed with Mirror Images appears on the opposite side of the room. Traveller immediately flies to the attack.

As the Questors round the corridor of the passage to enter the Blue Steel doors, they are beset upon from behind again. The Arrow Demons are attacking them in a group of four, one using Dimension Door in and the other Dimension Door out, with their colleagues firing arrows, such that they appear, fire a rain of devastation and disappear in the same turn. Traveller moves to the predicted spot of appearance so that some of the reappearing Demons will be shunted when they arrive in the spot, while marksman Sven hides and readies his deadly crossbow bolts.

Near the doors, the paladin, Keoghen, and the fighter, Aibron, battle against Bar-Lgura skeletons issuing from a room up ahead. Kassadin readies himself for unexpected attack in one of the smaller chambers and Jezrab prepares to take on the main healing duties in the absence of the cleric. Although the Questor’s tactics are effective, they are not able to prevent the tragic death of Tippit, who succumbs to a deadly onslaught of giant arrows.

In a skirmish of deadly attrition, the Questors gradually wear down their foe – turning and battering exploding skeletons and depleting the ranks of Arrow Demons, while all the time moving closer to the entrance of what they discover to be The Temple of the Old and the Dead – a temple containing shrines and statues to both Iuz and Nerull. The room is filled with Desecration and Invisibility Purge and commanded by two Clerics – a male hobgoblin and a female human.

As the Questors force their way into the Chapel, Traveller despatches the hobgoblin Cleric of Iuz with his explosive Eyes of Light. Out in the corridor, two Entropic Enemies appear and Kassadin, able to see them clearly, attacks with his Bow of the Night, gaining extra advantage by using his Careful Strike and Dead Eye feats. Jezrab bolsters the fighters with song and heals them with his wand, carefully minimising the appearance of more Entropic Enemies.

As Traveller battles with the Cleric, Keoghen and Sven move into the room to combat the few remaining demons and skeletons, but two of them Dimension Door into the corridor, where Kassadin succumbs to a mortal barrage of giant arrows that decapitates him and lays his body flat. Near the end, only the one Arrow Demon and the female cleric remain. She knows her time is nigh but as she dies, the Statue of Nerull explodes. From the smoke she rises again, new life in her body through the Divine Power of Nerull. She commands the last remaining Arrow Demon to whisk her away. “Take me to Vayne NOW!” she screams and he uses his _Dimension Door- ability for the last time to place them in front of the doors at the end of the passage.

Opening the door, she manages to escape. While the Questors finish off the last Demon and the remaining Turned Skeletons, the Blue Steel doors ahead shut with a bang! A few minutes are spent gathering magical items from the fallen foes and then Quintine is resurrected through the fading power of the Divine Time Lock, but in arriving, her most powerful item, the Scroll of True Resurrection given to her by Pelius, her brother in Pelor, is destroyed. A minute later, Tippit is resurrected with the loss of his powerful Bracers of Defence.

Kassadin does not return. His soul, it seems, is no longer with the party and their quest. After everyone has magically healed themselves, the Questors waste no further time, and enter through the Blue Steel doors, through short passage, and push open the doors to find a large room populated by three Giant Rutterkins, the female cleric, Shyrath and a thin scrawny man with a staff, who must surely be the wizard Vayne – all ready and waiting. By the shape of the room, the strange spherical balconies and the four burning magical circles inside, the Questors believe they have arrived in The Hall of Beckoning.

The brave Questors attempt to sleep with Kane the Traveller guarding the door. Within an hour a Bar-Lgura skeleton enters the room carrying an earthenware decanter. Undeath and earthenware both meet their end. Twenty minutes later a further four skeletons attack. After killing these, the party decide that rest is best sought through the teleportation ring in the chamber guarded by Captain Starlet and his men.

At 7am (you know how accurate those hour glasses are) the party enter into the Halls of Beckoning fully replenished. They open the door of the room to find a further four skeletons and a demon who promptly disappears. Within the space of one minute, the party are attacked by exploding Bar-Lgura skeletons and ‘teleporting’ Arrow Demons. Both Grunthy and Pelius die, their souls now removed from the quest. Intense fighting continues until four demons and five skeletons die, shutting the heavy metal doors.

Falek Grange, hiding in the empty library, finds a secret door and the whole party sneak into the library of Avagozel. As they stare in wonder at the room full of books, a solitary drow momentarily appears in their midst and slits Falek’s throat. He too leaves the quest.

The quest is joined by four new members – Quintine (Priestess of Pelor), Aibron (Fighter of Greyhawk), Sven (Shield Dwarf of Faerun) and Kassadin (Blood Elf Infiltrator of Greyhawk). Their arrival must surely be Divine Providence because Tippit is aware that the Heart of the Dracolich draws them into its power and thus into the coexistant Plane of Shimring in which the others all exist.

Inside the room the party discover three spellbooks, a copy of Boccob’s Blessed Book, a mithral leaf and two adamantine boxes. By the end of their period of intense investigation they have identified an Analyse Dweomer scroll, which they use to identify the other items, adding two powerful scrolls and two Wishes to the party’s arsenal.

At 7.30 am (By the hair of Boccob, that hourglass is accurate!) the Questors leave the room and open the Heavy Steel Doors. Another set of doors awaits, but when they open these, an alarm is sounded and once more the party is beset by a deadly combination of Bar-Lgura skeletons and Arrow Demons, killing the new Cleric, Quintine, in the first round.

The battle continues………..

With the party united, interrogation of the prisoner begins. Tippit offers some bleak alternatives and Falek tries to use feigned friendship but Balaik Troistan, self confessed Marshall of the army of Genreral At-Ur is unmoved and Jezrab Flinchal suggests the use of magic, None of his Charm spells are effective so he starts singing. It is such an emotive song that the Marshall is totally fascinated and Jezrab begins to contemplate suggestions, but just at that time the noise of clinking armour is heard and the Sorcerer, Tippit and Grunthy ready themselves for action, Grunthy fires an arrow into the shoulder of one of the emerging Greyhawk troops and the voice of Captain Starlet pleads with the Questors to desist from further damage.

While Pelius talks to the priests, Jezrab and newcomer, Kane the Traveller check out the portal and decide to enter. The party spend some time handing over the Obisidian Key and other important information to the Greyhawk force but when Sir Keoghen and the others discover that the gnome and the monk have left, they follow, entering the Halls of Beckoning to find that Jezrab and Traveller have found them a restroom. After a few minutes of rest, they are rudely interrupted by a Devil knocking on the door.

The party, apart from Falek, who is lying on the floor recouperating from wounds and exhaustion, attack with all their might. Pelius is grappled and life begins to seap out from him, but just before he expires, he touches the Barbed Devil with a mighty Harm spell and the Devil falls like a sack of potatoes before it can utter the name of the Devil it intends to summon.

The party are now in the Halls of Beckoning but they are both tired and spent and it seems that sleep or rest is not even an option!

With effects from the vanquised Gauth still weighing heavily on the Questors, they are quite litereally stunned when they bump into a rogue Illithid. With Grunthy, Falek Grange and Sir Keoghen all stunned it falls on the spell users Pelius and Tippit to prevent horrid brain suction, with the musical moral support of Jezrab Flinchal and his powerful emotive songs. Things are looking desperate as spells fail and tentacles flail, but in the nick of time, one of Tippit’s Feeblemind spells takes effect and with the mindflayer unable to escape, the group act as one to despatch him to the dark netherworlds of existence.

Without wasting any time or even stopping for second breakfast, the group forge on into a hot smoky room filled by enslaved Verbeeg golem builders. A primordial power effect creates a bubble of chaotic energy and Falek falls to the ground with a massive surge of Divine Energy that informs him of a new party companion – Kane, the Traveller. Straightaway he proves his worth as he flies in to engage the Efreet that seems to be controlling the giant golem builders. However, the Efreet moves, and would do serious damage but for the critical arrow from Grunthy that slays him.

As the party mobilize to defeat the remaining Verbeegs, they begin to realise that another is firing arrows from the door behind. Pelius, flying past the door, shoots a Sunbeam into the man’s eye. The sunbeam seems to blind the Soldier, but he closes the door and magically pulls the last of his Verbeeg followers inside. By the time the party can get through the door and kill the Verbeegs, the Marshall is gone.

A secret passage is found, and while some of the party track down the blinded warlord to a room guarded by a demoness pretending to be an elven princess, Falek, Keoghen and Jezrab investigate an alternative exit and set off a gas trap but manage to bypass the threat with Dimension Door, only to discover a new enemy – a giant axe-throwing Formorian named Mashface. After succumbing to some mighty blows, Falek, on his last legs, makes a sword thrust worthy of the greatest Dusk Covenant blade masters of Faerun and fells the giant in one great arc of his mighty arm.

Returning to the War Room both groups meet up with joyous news – a glorious victory over a powerful giant and a captive Marshall, firmly grappled and ripe for questioning. Where will they go from here?