Destroying a wizard - the second try

 

So last time party went into the elder wizards transpacial dungeon base and despite several guest wizards blew the crap out of many foes but trolls kept coming and the part backed off. 

Royalty leading coalition arm asked party to finish that elder wizard up to something quickly as it had allowed its armies to be destroyed. It appears all the piles of treasure and huge groups of trolls and ettins and other monsters were just delaying the defences of the dungeon to slow intruders. Next time they would have to be faster and just kill the wizard fast and let minions mop up.

This time the Amazon wizard and the dragon spirit monk changeling went in. Brought through the entry portal bunch of clerics to locate best path and discovered the wizards secrets of not being a man lich but a woman and has her body in stasis and spirit is in a golem. Turns out the planar portal made outside divination more hazy so this was good. 

The amazon wizard made her and the dragon monk invisible and they flew in past rooms of trolls down to level two and another staircase to a vast fungi cavern and could follow a path or look at one side passage. Was a huge pile of treasure and magic items the adventurers pounced on and their invisibility spells ended. As they greedily debated and monks familiar cast identify four ancient ghost lieutenants of the elder wizard appeared. So a quick anti-undead shell put the party back on the road but visible, 

So into the wizard's sanctuary, they got caught by an attractive medusa bathing and vapourising her with magic missiles. While using clairvoyance to seek hidden panels in the pool they searched and found 5 secret doors. They chose one without an opposite and found a smaller chamber with a crystal golem on a throne - their target at last. She was pretty angry and a bit half-cocked and unsure so made some poor decisions first few rounds of the fight. Heroes trapped her in a force cube which then had the problem of what can we do now. The villain teleported outside and the dragon managed to turn the body of the golem to dust with a spell and a luck bad saving throw. The elder wizard's spirit went to her body and was awoken. The party used magic to burrow through walls to find secret doors and chased the wizard. 

So a long battle of counterspells and spells went on and the party was quite worried and just survived magic missiles because the missiles were spread among both. Amazon used an anti-magic shell and rushed the wizard while the dragon used his new power to make fire spells do acid damage which was quite effective as fire resistance is pretty common. She tried to collapse ceiling on them and drowned the area in mud and the heroes were unphased. Once the elder wizard was inside the anti-mag shell her shield spell ended and the monk managed to stun her with his dragon-style punches. She did beg and offer power at the end but those ghosts appeared and said she was a liar don't believe her. So while stunned and her defences down she was magic missiled into ash and dead.  

They grabbed some magic and escaped allowing an army of followers and priests to finish the dungeon. Party got an artefact and a wand of shooting stars among all the loot and some nice weapons including a female sword with a really nice personality. Also many long-lost spells and some new ones for the amazon wizard. She is desperate to increase her stats to help her go higher level. The changeling dragon had already changed class to the monk and this game it finally felt like it paid off. The amazon wizard has rep for killing one of worlds oldest wizards now which is a mixed bag. The monk who befriended the ancient red dragon family last session and helped them migrate to the dragon kingdom with their loot in return has an offer of dragon air support in the coming battle. More gods have now heard of the heroes' deeds. 

Interesting pacing this adventure as one party under time pressure found puzzles and traps and treasure just slowing them and distractions. One of the best wizard battles ever with various defences countering each other and both sides being defensive. The could have taken 3 or 4 sessions but i was happy they responded to time and came to see treasure rooms as just a problem.