Githyanki

When last we left the group, they were on the Astral. They had just left the relative safety of a githzerai war encampment, and were approaching - white flag billowing in the astral winds - a huge githyanki fortress built on the remains of what might be a dead god. They had come to ask a githyanki sculptor to return with them to Eversink, so as to fix the art they had accidentally destroyed on the Market Exchange building.

As they approached the main gate at the fortresses' "mouth", they ran into a telekinetic shield that seemed to be protecting the entire fortress. It was solid, and must be what has prevented the githzerai from storming the fortress during their long four-month seige. Suddenly steam was expelled from a building near the "nose", and - with a roaring noise and a precipitous lurch - the entire group was sucked into the mouth, dragged in an iron-hard telekinetic grip down through the gate into a coliseum of sorts.

The were telekinesed into force-barred cells, one person per cell (except for Raevynn the druid, who twisted enough to change her trajectory), set up in a 3 x 3 grid. Beneath them, in the same cells but separated by force bars, were captured githzerai.

Thirty or so githyanki watched them from the stands. The floating githyanki leader announced in a growling voice that they would have a chance to state their case if they won the fight; if the 'zerai won, they would have the possibility of being set free. And then, ignoring entreaties from the party, he ordered the martial drums to begin, and he sat down to watch as the force bars separating the two groups disappeared.

--> Picture 3 rows of 3 10' x 10' rooms each, but each 20' tall - and with a prisoner in both the top and bottom half of each cell. I expected some good gladiator style fighting here!

One of the first people to go was Raevynn, the druid. She cast Wall of Thorns, once again separating the two groups. Several rounds went by while the Defenders cast protective spells, the 'zerai figured out that trying to pierce a thorn barrier without armor was stupid, and the 'yanki spectators hissed and growled. Nolin the bard played a song of friendship on his magical instrument (with a skill check of something like 48!), further stilling any battle rage. Sir Malachite's detection indicated that the 'zerai weren't evil, while the 'yanki were. Finally, Raevynn cast plant growth on the wall of thorns.. expanding it downwards and pinning every 'zerai against the bottom bars.

Having won the battle (although not with a good show!), the 'yanki leader declared that there would be no banquet, freed the Defenders and asked them what they wanted. The group explained that they came to offer the sculptor P'Keen a commission on the Prime. With an evil, feral grin, the Commander said that they were welcome to do so, and they would be escorted through the citadel to him; he also wanted to see them before they left. The Commander warned them against the perfidy of the 'Zerai, as the bastard spawn of the Liberator could not be trusted.

The group got the impression that the Githyanki were a little unusual, with slightly animalistic mannerisms and sloping foreheads. Nothing much was made of it, though, and with the warning that any treachery would be repaid ten-fold, they were escorted through the fortress. They descended down into the storerooms and past the food stores, ending by a huge reinforced door. "Behind here is P'Keen," they were told. "He is in self-imposed exile beyond the fortress." A sledge hammer was given them so that they could signal for an exit, and they were sealed behind the huge door in the darkness.

Summoning lights, they opened the interior huge door - and found what appeared to be a stone tunnel. Checking for traps revealed a miniscule stone thread crossing the doorway, linked to the walls on either side. Careful disarming by TomTom the psion/rogue allowed the group to pass into the tunnel beyond. Doing so, though, caused the druid and Tao the ranger/priestess to keel over, spasming. "Cool! The women are on the ground, squirming!" said the bard, but everyone ignored him.

Quickly checking them, Velendo the cleric determined they were boiling with positive energy. They quickly recovered, but oddly enough the touch of either woman against the stone walls caused oddly-shaped grass to grow. Removing their touch caused the grass - or the memory of grass? - to harden back to stone and quickly break off. The group started guessing about reasons, then, and they decided it was most likely that they were somewhere in the innards of a dead God of Nature! Somehow, Raevynn and Tao were channelling the last memories of its power. Occasionally, when the divine casters took actions, a rumbling was heard (felt?) from deep in the rock ahead. As you can imagine, this worried the group.

Moving slowly and checking for traps, they proceeded. Carvings and tiny statues or bas reliefs began to cover the walls. Busts of the githyanki lich-queen gave way to variably sized statues of githyanki. In some of these, it appeared that part of the statue - some sort of companion animal, perhaps? - had been cleanly removed from each piece. Creepy.

After an hour or so, they reached a place where the path was blocked by ribbons of stone criss-crossing the path. These could be negotiated around with some difficulty, but the decayed bodies of dead githyanki floating within the stone webs made the group pause. TomTom decided to save effort by using dimensional slide to shift to the far side.. where the first thing to greet him was a long growl, as a huge stone githyanki wardog detached itself from the stone web and attacked.

--> It turns out that any of P'Keen's sculptures that were of animals became animate, and the web were full of dozens of tiny-to-medium stone wardog sculptures he had done over the years, wanting nothing more than to rip and tear, with fang and blood. TomTom happened to end up next to the largest, with the stats of a dire wolf (+10 hit dice, plus damage reduction).

The wardog criticaled the poor halfling, punching through his inertial barrier to do massive damage and bear him to the ground. Nolin dimension doored over with Tao, Raevynn and Malachite, who managed to hit the beast. Tao the ranger/priestess spoke to it though in the animal tongue, and (with a 20 on her animal empathy check!) managed to convince it that they were allies. It was suspicious, and wanted to rip the throats from the others, but held back for Tao's and Raevynn's sake. After Tao healed it, it (and the other, smaller dog sculptures) returned to its guardian position in the stone web.

Floating deeper into the carcass of the God, the group discovered many things - odd plants and fungi, a multitude of sculptures, and branching tunnels. A theme started to evolve in the artwork; it appeared that P'Keen had been trying to develop a theme embodying the spirit of the Githyanki in his sculpture. Finally, they reached the pinaccle of his work: a huge, glorious, triumphant statue of a noble gith warrior, not animalistic and feral like the githyanki above ("The God's presence must be changing them!" declared Nolin and Malachite simultaneously), but terrifying and magnificent. Ten feet tall it stood, partially blocking the passage, but as the group tried to sneak past it there was no sign of life.

And beyond it, in the center of a large cavern, was the God's petrified heart. And in the heart was a door. And beyond the door was P'Keen.

First, though, they examined the bas relief story carved into the cavern's walls, which told of P'Keen's attempt to make a bust of the lich queen that she hated; it showed his flight from certain death, back to his home, and his retreat down into the tunnels where the githyanki did not go. It also showed his attempts to mollify her by creating his masterwork sculpture, something of such magnificance that she could not reject it. At the story's end, it showed (hopefully?) P'Keen bringing his magnificant statue to her temple, and him walking free through his peers once again.

Waking P'Keen from a sound sleep and convincing him to let them in to his sanctum, he seemed to be clearly insane and paranoid (or at least very scared); he claimed that down here the stone comes alive, but usually only with animals. His statue "The Spirit of Gith" came alive though, but it seemed to channel only the essence of the lich queen instead of any less vengeful animal spirit.. and as a result was trying to carry out the lich queen's dictate that P'Keen be killed. The sculptor refused to come to Eversink until the death sentence was lifted from him, but he could not do that until he could figure out a way to get the 9 ton statue to stop trying to kill him, so that he could deliver it - unharmed - to the temple back in the upper fortress. Twitching and scared, he refused to leave hiding until his death sentence was called off.

P'Keen also mentioned that the 'yanki were mining the divine essence of the corpse and using it to power their telekinetic defenses. Nevertheless, they would no longer come after him here, for none had ever survived the stone guardians. "No wonder the commander let us in, huh?" remarked the party.

Oh, boy. Nothing is easy, is it? "What happened to 10' x 10' rooms and lone orcs guarding chests?"

So, the party remains closeted in with P'Keen, locked safely within the stone heart of a dead God while outside a perfect golem waits for P'Keen's reappearance while the group discusses possible solutions.

Next episode: Will they manage to safely transport the sculpture without getting P'Keen killed, and if so, how? Can they find some way to pacify its spirit, diluting the all-consuming rage of the lich queen? And can they stop the old sculptor from twitching so much?