After discussing Varaug a bit more, our heroes decide to go level Kathmar. Ayslin is back, and better than ever. Greater Teleport will make this whole travel thing much easier. Our heroes nip back to Karem-kora to buy some Potions of Jump and Boots of the Cat, then greater teleport to the cliffs above the Charcoal Minaret.
With unbelievable ease, our heroes appear on thousand tall cliffs overlooking Kathmar and the bleak desert beyond. Rache and Jeptha don their Boots of the Cat and drink their jump potions, then leap into the void. Thanks to the potions they both are able to land on the minaret, and thanks to the boots they both take 20 damage instead of 20d6 damage. They immediately dispatch the two guards on top, then wait for Swaggles and Ayslin to fly down. So far, so good.
The group makes use of their new ascension power, pocket sight, to identify and see out of pockets of their element: plants and animals for Rache, water for Ayslin, and strong fires for Jeptha. They search for the council room, where they hope to murder the high council. Swaggles watches the door into the Minaret, and downs some more guards who come up.
Jeptha finds the council room after about 10 minutes of searching (though it is only partially occupied), but around this time they are challenged by guards in the staircase. The claim to surrender, kill a few guards as they come up, and then chase the other guards down the stairs. The alarm goes off.
For the next fifteen minutes they make their way down the tower, easily slaughtering any resistance. The tower acts as an effective bottleneck, and these CR 3 and 4 guards are not even worth rolling against. They find the council room empty, and, as time passes, the tower becomes deserted.
They reach the bottom of the tower, open the door to perhaps 500 armed and ready enemies, then close it again.
Hmmm.
At this point, Swaggles looks over his spell list and finds "Control Weather." A tornado would be pretty awesome against a city of sand and gravel, right? They head to the top of the minaret. Swaggles starts casting the spell (10 minutes), while climbers come up the mountain. There are a handful of flyers around, and Ayslin snowballs them to death.
Then, out of nowhere, insects appear. First a colossal scorpion with nasty venom. Then a swarm of caterpillars. Then another swarm of caterpillars, then another colossal scorpion. During the fight Rache is grabbed, Jeptha is poisoned, Ayslin lobs a few snowballs of different flavors, and Swaggles loses his spell casting after being confused and nauseated. But the vermin are overcome.
Swaggles has one more casting, and the heroes decide to go somewhere more remote. They teleport to the cliftops two miles out of the city, and Swaggles casts Control Weather unmolested. As the winds pick up a few people attempt to dispel it, but CL 19 is hard to contend with.
A massive hourglass shape appears over the desert and moves towards to city. It reaches impossible proportions as it nears, an immense funnel bringing black sand up and into the clouds. The tornado is bulbous and, from this distance, smooth and hypnotizing. As it moves over the city it completely obscures it. Kathmar is now a pillar of black and grey sand.
And it will be for the next 29 hours.
It is now May 26th, 2015 A.C. Our heroes played this session at level 15, Ascension Level 4.
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