You could try. I just meant that's not what I was referring to.

I use the same rule as in the rules, which is:

Portable Hole: A portable hole is a circle of magical cloth spun from the webs of a phase spider interwoven with strands of ether and beams of Astral plane luminaries. When opened fully, a portable hole is 6 feet in diameter, but it can be folded as small as a pocket handkerchief. When spread upon any surface, it causes an extra-dimensional hole 10 feet deep to come into being. This hole can be "picked up" from inside or out by simply taking hold of the edges of the magical cloth and folding it up. Either way, the entrance disappears, but anything inside the hole remains.
The only oxygen in the hole is that allowed by creation of the space, so creatures requiring the gas cannot remain inside for more than a turn or so without opening the space again by means of the magical cloth. The cloth does not accumulate weight even if its hole is filled (with gold, for example). Each portable hole opens on its own particular nondimensional space. If a bag of holding is placed within a portable hole, a rift to the Astral Plane is torn in the space, and the bag and the cloth are sucked into the void and forever lost. If a portable hole is placed within a bag of holding, it opens a gate to another plane, and the hole, bag, and any creatures within a 10-foot radius are drawn to the Astral Plane, the portable hole and bag of holding being destroyed in the process.

We haven't really updated the portable hole contents reliably. It seems like it will have a lot of stuff in it to make it cramped quarters in the 6' diameter, 10' deep hole. The last update I see was by Kahan back in 2015 but people have been just tossing stuff in as your adventure has gone on. We may want to update that inventory as well. You might fit 2-3 people in it right now without it getting too uncomfortable.

I do have some stuff listed in my sheet that I admittedly completely forgot to update in the public list, like the stuff from that octagonal room with all the corpses. Maybe using the portable hole isn't the best way to go then, if it's only going to offer a couple rounds of air...

You could find some nice comfortable chairs, sit down and relax with a cup of tea inside... :)

Did we want to try to strategize some sort of plan while we wait for Heath to get back from his hopefully not that bad family emergency? I was thinking about casting a Continual Light on... something, but with Geebo having those antimagic rings on it'll be hard to keep him far enough away that he doesn't accidentally disenchant them. I can't really think of anything to do about the poisonous gases unfortunately, because there's a spell that can blow the air around but I'm not sure where the gas is coming from or how much of it there is so blowing it around might not actually do anything. We could, if we were desperate, send someone through by themselves to try to find the source, but that has some dangers on it's own of course. Thoughts? Kahan has a pretty good Con score so he can hold his breath for awhile, I'm fine with it if everyone wants him to either lead the way, or hold up the back to make sure nobody falls behind.

I think keeping the anti magic doppleganger and Geebo to the rear of us makes sense.  I especially don't trust the doppleganger with us.  I expect his betrayal at some point.

Tahldar has no air spells and a poor con.  We can try to burn the flames, but only if we can do so without immolating ourselves.

Is Dalharen with us? I thought he had "died", but then his body was missing? Or do you think he is mimicking someone with us?

The good doppelganger is with us. The bad one survived and is responsible for the increased lava flow. But I expect betrayal at some point. Now that I think about, I wouldn't  be surprised if geebo was the bad doppelganger. It would make sense.

Unless I missed it somewhere, we don't know where either doppelganger is, although it appears one of them is mimicking Borimer (or so I would assume).

There's 3 doppelgangers.  The 'bad' one is ahead of us and causing havoc.  He's the one we thought died earlier.  The good one is with us.  I forget what happened to the 3rd, but I suspect he's pretending to be Geebo and will betray us later.

I suspect all of them are in cahoots anyway.  But it might be a good idea to pretend to look at his hand and see if you can surreptitiously remove the anti magic rings.

I completely forgot there were three of them. That would make sense, then, that he had "rings" on, but I still like the idea of chopping his fingers off. If he really is Geebo, he ought to go for it, if he is a doppelganger, then he'll fight us and reveal his true nature before we start going through the tunnel.

Here is some context and reminders since time does horrible things to memory:

Tarimar (your nemesis and evil foe in this campaign) has teamed up with other like minded individuals to try to tamper with humanoids to create a nearly perfectly strong, smart, indestructible person, which he can then use to fashion himself into this almost god-like being. (The very first adventure ever in this campaign introduced Alboron, who tried to create a super being but ended up turning himself into a monster.)

In this quest, Tarimar has done several things: 1) he has a menagerie of monsters that he experiments on to try to adapt and absorb their magical or unique qualities, 2) he has been able to create clones of himself (none of which perfectly matches his strength or abilities), and 3) he has created other unique creatures.

Of these other unique creatures, you have found out that there are three "experiments" that we are calling "dopplegangers" due to shapeshifting abilities. They call themselves "brothers," but technically are only so called because they all derive from the same experiment and were once Drow elves or actual dopplegangers.

Of these dopplegangers, Dalharen was the weakest. He was pretending to be the balding "man with the white hare" -- Tenvillah. He joined forces with you (a cautious and potentially untrustworthy ally), but was later killed by Haklara pushing him off the cliff (after Dalharen had already suffered severe injuries, including a bad head injury).

The middle strength one (Haklara) led you on a chase to trick you into getting what he needs. Both were trying to escape the underground system but could not get out due to the area you are about to try to cross without some items that Haklara eventually got (possibly from Dalharen's body).

Upon returning, you found that Dalharen's body is gone. You don't know where he went. However, Fingas' statement that Borimer came through makes you suspicious that Haklara changed into Borimer's form to sneak past. As far as you know, Haklara has already escaped ahead of you.

You have not yet met Izlaka, the strongest and most evil of them, who has supposedly mastered every psionic ability, can completely control his White Noise anti-magic aura, and can shapeshift at will into anyone living or dead, including their belongings. He has powers over the mind as well, possibly gifts taken from a mind flayer or similar creature.

In addition to seeking the exit, the two dopplegangers you met were also seeking a Djinn for some reason.

After you thought Haklara was dead, and then his body disappeared, you surmise that they may have some natural healing abilities that are more powerful from one to the other (with Islaka presumably the most able to heal quickly and a lot).

These are also laid out to some extent in the Wiki here: http://wiki.rpol.net/?id=11516/Villains

Yes.

Per my post above, you have only met the weakest and middle strength one so far. They get more powerful and more evil as Tarimar perfected his experiments.

All:

As far as long term plans, I currently have in mind 4 adventures remaining in this campaign arc. This could change, of course, and then what campaign will begin after that remains to be seen. Just thought I'd give you a big picture idea. In my mind, we will actually finish the campaign in the next 1-2 years real time (if all goes well), but it could go faster or slower since RPoL is glacially slow.

Are you saying that the game might actually be... over? I don't know what I'll do if that happens.

The campaign as far as Tarimar, the 3 Pillars, The Source of Magic, and the Two Worlds will likely come to an end. I am developing ideas for the next campaign. One thing I'm wondering, though, is if we should bring in new, low level characters at that point and have your characters in semi-retirement. It's hard to get proper challenges for a powerful group and keep the story interesting.

Then you will be probably much higher in level and back on Tienna--if you survive. Then we can discuss a more epic high level campaign or a simpler one.

What level were you thinking? I hate starting off brand-new, but I get wanting to lower our power level since it does get hard without just tossing 50 monsters at us every fight, or literally god-level threats like Zuggy girl, which could have definitely gone badly for us if it weren't for some luck with the dice roller.

Does anyone have preferences for their next characters? I like to plan stuff out ahead of time, and will likely start working on at least my sheet, if not my backstory, while we wait for things to finish up, just so its done for later and I won't have to worry about it. I think I might want to play a Mage but that's just a possibility, maybe I'll try multi-classing for the first time...

As long as it's not a mage, I'm open to anything.

We would be starting off at level one. Your characters would likely progress fairly quickly through the first few levels.

I do like the old school reference there in that photo.  I won't spoil it for those that don't know what it is.  ;^)

I did change a few things, but yes, it is a classic.

In reply to DM Heath (msg # 723):

Speaking of stuff... would this be kosher? https://baldursgate.fandom.com/wiki/Sorcerer

I'm going to assume that an Ancient History check will turn up nothing about whatever that ominous glowing red dagger in the center of the ceiling is?

In theory, I wouldn't object to this, but it depends on what happens in the last adventure, "The Source of Magic," what happens to magic in the world, which would affect this.