Michael

Synner has regular movement but loss of feeling in the palm and palm side of her fingers/claws, which is where the grey color is. The appendage still refuses to morph with the rest of her, but absent sceptre will be easier to hide, including something as simple as gloves. The Lich responds to Nizell I have no idea why they want that shard, I am in fact surprised anyone knows of its existence..I have to say, I am somewhat flattered that a trinket of mine is now a central part of some kind of prophecy. Makes one feel quite important. He might be being sarcastic. Hard to tell given everything is delivered in a rasping monotone, and there are statues with greater ranges of facial expression. You are correct on the second point. This gate entry is keyed to 3 locations. In my time they were strategic places to aid my war effort. It is interesting to hear a city remains at one site, though in my time the city was known as Ja'Shaarat, and was one of the jewels in my empire. The other two locations were other cities, one several thousand miles north, another a similar distance north east. I have no idea how they fared.

No worries.

Yes, of course Rasps the lich. He holds out the shard for one of you to take. As to what happened to your hand, that is your problem, not mine. The results of rash attempts at utilising my artefacts is your issue. It is a curse, if that helps, one which someone skilled in curse lifting should be able to cure..which is not me, even if I were so inclined.

No, it's all the rooms from the portal you arrived in then to the throne room, so basically all the rooms along the southern end of the map, all of which you have moved through.

Power flows from the sceptre into the undead, the touch of the sceptre causing frozen flesh to thaw and be made supple again. After a short time the lich is able to lift its arm up and grasp the sceptre fully, which in turn allows the succubus to release it. A short time after that and the creature is stranding, probably for the first time in millennia. Sadly Synner notes that while she has her hand back, so to speak, it retains the same grey pallor it had when attached to the sceptre. What ever the lich did does not seem to have fixed the problem completely. The lich speaks, rather than using telepathy, breath rasping through long unused mouth and lungs. So you have fulfilled your end of the bargain, I will do mine. You can have all the rooms west of this throne room to the portal at the end, and use this room to contact me in future should you have the need. I can key the portal to your own signatures, or to some inanimate key, your choice. I can also join it to two other locations apart from its current position. However, so much time has passed since I knew the lands above I have no idea what those other locations currently look like. I shall be spending my time reclaiming the rest of this complex, as the first step of my path.

The Lich gives a telepathic grunt equivalent perhaps to the shrug his frozen form is incapable of. Wise not to show all the cards in your hand, especially at the outset He responds telepathically in Abyssal, continuing: Step forward, touch the sceptre to the back of my hand gripping the armrest.

yes

As the succubus flips through some of her alter egos, she notes, perhaps with some rising panic, that her claw does not shift with her, at least not grey part wrapped around the sceptre. As such her various mortal forms all look a bit chimeric. Obviously it could be hidden under a robe or blanket but it is a bit of a style cramper. Clearly a polymorph flip book doers not faze the curse. We are not using action points. The curse is not a polymorph effect, baleful or otherwise. Meanwhile I continue to resist the temptation to have the hand go all evil dead.

Shillereese now has a sceptre permanently attached to one of her succubi claws. The flesh where it contacts said sceptre takes on a grayish hue...and is it spreading? Perhaps that's just her imagination.

Feat is fine. as is the det poison

Ryfte is returning, he'll fade in from the background.

Shillereese waves the sceptre about, concentrating on what aspects of the magical aura she can detect, and possibly understand. There's a sudden drop of temperature in the room followed by a massive blast of necrotic energy which one suspects would be quite beneficial to anything undead...which isn't any of you. The entire room comes under the effect of a desecrate spell. Shillereese needs to make a DC 20 will save or be cursed and be unable to release the sceptre. The succubus suspects this is just one of many powers of the sceptre.

It's very magical (as I said) but otherwise inert. Likely needs activation

Group seems split between more explore and going back to the lich. If it helps, the DM thinks the latter a good idea.

I Don't think the lich can provide you Sydney real estate.

Also, there's no initial zapping or other untoward effects from picking up the very magical sceptre which contains auras from many schools, necromancy, conjuration and evocation being the strongest.

, and others thinking of nicking the sceptre and going home, remember:

Good grief, I go off to erect a greenhouse for a couple of days and come back to... I'm not going to pick a side here. Up until right now I had thought both of you were enjoying the exchange and characters. I hop you can get to the handshake part and move on.

somone's gonna have to do something actionable!

Carmine fires off just enough of a blast to take out the third enemy, leaving 1. Emboldened by the sudden improvement in numbers, the remaining fiends, well, Kerapsis, Brandisher and Nizell, surround the final undead goblin and eliminate it. Combat Over given a chance to look around the room, the fiends see the ancient remains of some kind of fire pit in the centre, the stone altar with the sceptre on it just south of that, and the remain of come kind of cell or cage against the south wall. There are another 4 exists from the room.

Carmine grazes one, Brandisher almost kills another. Kerapsis brawn in this round is sadly no better than his brain the round before. Nizell continues to slice and dice, taking out another. The two remaining enemy tear some strips off Brandisher, who nevertheless remains upright. Your turns.

Will do.

Nizell strikes true with her sword and tail, downing one of the enemy. Kerapsis' divine might once again proves to not be very mighty. One of the creatures has a flurry of attack against Brandisher, with one connecting, another hits Kerapsis twice, and the last one moves up to Nizell and scores a solid hit. Note I misrolled, the one that moved up only gets one attack, not 3. Your turns (doesn't matter if you are last in this round or first in next)

Correction: Molgrug ignores the dire peril facing his work colleagues, and instead tugs futilely at the shard. He realises there is another force in play apart from ice, because it does not budge, nor can the thing layer of ice on the shard or the creature be chipped. Carmine backpedals and fires off a bolt which goes wide. ROUND 2: Brandisher steps up into the gap left by Carmine, and get a solid hit on one of the critters. Actions from Kerapsis and Nizell

Kerapsis attempts to exert supernatural control over the twisted undead, but fails. Nizell lays down some strategic grease, causing one of the critters to fall over. Brandisher rushes in and appraises the situation. The creatures rush to attack, and though they run through the grease they are not affected by it. The one that fell prone managing to get upright as well. The smushed up goblins claw and scratch on arrival. It is clear to the fiends that there's enough working brains left in the binary undead critters that they can probably swing quite a few limbs given the chance, which is a worry, given how well they swung just the one. Carmine takes 8, Kerapsis 7. Sceptre is on altar north adjacent to Kerapsis+critter Actions from Molgrug and Carmine.