Jester's page

I received the download link for Pathfinder #1 in the mail today. I was quite amused by the lackluster attempt at a digital watermark. Just enough of an effort to try to keep most people honest, but not enough to kepe the serious file trader from being able to remove it.

However, I was quite annoyed that the download was a ZIP file consisting of multiple PDF's. I would much have preferred a single larger PDF instead of breaking it into smaller grouped sections. Looks like I will need to use a PDF writer to combine all of the files into a single PDF myself for easier usability.

I received mine yesterday while last months Dragon never showed up and had to be replaced showing up for me today. USPS is a fickle beast these days it seems.

My replacement copy of #355 arrived from Paizo today.
Thanks for the excellent customer service!

I'll get a replacement sent out.

Thanks. I will post again when it arrives!

After a flawless execution of my dual Dragon & Dungeon magazine subscriptions since Paizo took over, I find myself suddenly missing my very first issue. Dragon #355 never arrived and it is now past the date where it will appear on the newsstand. I would appreciate some assistance in the matter. Thanks!

Chapter Ten – Headless

Location: Galvinston & Nearby Foothills

PC Dramatis Personae

Basil Jr – Human Male Paladin 11
Gavin – Halfling Male Rogue 10, Guild Thief 2
Mirushal – Gnome Female Wizard 3, Shadowcaster 3, Noctumancer 5
Mist – Moon Elf Female Bard 12
Raindrop – Human Female Monk 7, Drunken Master 5
Storm – Human Female Barbarian 8, Frenzied Berserker 4
Zodel – Human Male Cleric 11

Nightal 7, 1337 DR

While preparing for a humanitarian mission to bring cold weather gear, wood, food and other supplies to the beleaguered inhabitants of Galvinston during a prolonged period of a freak winter storm system, word came from guards at the northern gates of town that they were under attack. Upon arrival at the scene, a group of Frost Giants, Minotaur’s and Undead had managed to overrun the defenders of the gate and were in the process of moving inside of the town. Unwilling to let such monstrous foes free reign of the town they had spent so much time defending over the last several decades, the members of the Guild rushed forward to hopefully forestall the invaders.

At first the Guild tried to use the front gate as a choke point to keep the attacking marauders from funneled together, but this ended up failing when a pair of giants climbed the exterior walls and started using zombies as missile weapons. When the Minotaur’s suddenly burrowed their ways underground and up the other side was when things started to get really nasty. Zodel turned the first wave of undead to ash, but end ended up being the target for the both the thrown weapons of the giants on top of the gates, but from the chilling blast of the undead leader who appeared immune to the divine power. This forced Zodel to retreat to behind a building with solid cover to conduct first aid upon himself.

In the interim Basil and Storm fought their way to the front of the pack with Raindrop not far behind. Waiting for just such an assault, the Minotaur’s then used some type of earthen magic to buckle the ground causing movement to slow to crawl. It was at this point that Raindrop become a casualty of war under the intense blows of the great horned creatures. Zodel managed to come to the rescue with the aid of a Fly spell and his power over Earth creatures to send one of the Minotaur’s scurrying away. He arrived just in time to save the bleeding Monk’s life and rallied the Paladin and Barbarian to cut down their immediate adversaries.

This turned out to be the turning points of the battle. While Gavin provided some excellent ranged support, sending bolt after bolt into sensitive areas on each creature and Mist sang her heart out while avoiding the blows of the Winterspawn leader, the worshipper of the Wind Walker carried the battle. The rest of the battle quickly turned into a rout with the enemy falling in rapid succession. The undead leader with its powerful Greataxe and icy glare was the last to perish. Investigation of his possessions revealed a statue of Orcus, a letter written in a dark touched version of Abyssal in addition to the axe. The details of the note suggested a greater power had ordered the attack with the goal of collecting the heads of all of the fallen for some undermined nefarious deed.

Nightal 8, 1337 DR

Armed with powerful necromantic divination magic, Zodel interrogated the remains of the deceased giants for details as to their origins, intentions and leadership. As with any use of the Speak With Dead spell, sometimes the answers were more oblique that the questions themselves. Nevertheless after two castings, the Guild was able to determine that the armed force had been one only many that had been tasked with identical orders. Some type of base camp had been established somewhere in the general direction of the main pass through the Galena Mountains on the way to Downslope. Mirushal created a large number of magical steeds and everyone headed off to investigate, except for Basil Jr. who had gone missing under mysterious circumstances. With the urgency of the situation, he was left behind with instructions on how and where to follow should he turn up.

A mere three hours later near the crest of the pass, the Guild stumbled onto a hastily constructed wooden fort blocking the road. A pair of Frost Giants stood guard behind blinds. Given little choice but to defend themselves, the veteran band of adventurers dismounted their swift magical steeds and entered the conflict. One of the giants started throwing rocks at any target within range while the other banged on a large drum to alert the rest of the camp. In total a quartet of the Giants, a pair of Winter Wolves and a lone Bulezau had been left behind as a rear guard for the entire camp. While at first this seemed like overwhelming odds, a few well chosen tactics leveled the playing field quite rapidly.

Raindrop surprised everyone by activating her Mineral Warrior skin and then burrowing up underneath opponents using hit and run tactics that made her almost untouchable. Zodel & Mirushal used fire based spells to the empowered effects felt by creatures especially flammable due to their icy heritage. Gavin’s magical cloak was invaluable in allowing him to strike again and again at the most vulnerable portions of the enemy anatomy. As usual Mist’s bardic songs inspired battle prowess of an amazing quality. Leaving Storm’s melee aptitude to clear the way up and over the front gate and to Intimidate the demon into fleeing for reinforcements rather than risk its own demise.

Investigation of the remain of the camp revealed a small collection of coins, gems and a some very crude maps. The hand drawn atlas’ were very short on detail, but broad on size and scope of attack. Multiple bands of giants had been sent to every established settlement within several ten-days range based on the roughly scribbled maps. A larger map of the region directly to the east labeled several mountain peaks as well as the Hold of the Frost Jarl. The map itself was too vague to provide exact coordinates lacking such useful items as a compass or scale. However, Storm felt that if she got anywhere near the key points on the map, she would be able to orient herself in a way that they would eventually find the hidden caves. After Mirushal satisfied herself with blowing up large portions of the make-shift fort with fire magic, everyone remounted their magical mounts and headed east.

Using the lose details of the maps coupled with Zodel and Storm’s orienteering skills, they were able to may their way to the hidden fortress of the Frost Giants by nightfall. Mirushal used magic to scout the interior baileys and determined that it was guarded by as many as four Dwarf-like spellcasters. They appeared to be some type of magical construct, perhaps Simulacra, rather than real dwarves and they could become Ethereal seemingly at will as part of their regular patrols. Also of note was the skeletal remains of a white dragon underneath a pile of frozen rubble. The head of the dragon was strangely missing which made sense when it was pointed out that the original invaders had been ordered to collect the heads of anyone they killed. Deciding that waiting until they had recovered to full strength was a higher priority that rushing in, the Guild camped for the night inside of a magical structure provided by Mirushal.

Nightal 9, 1337 DR

Approaching carefully and using magic to open the front gates, the Guild was surprised to discover a demon, in the form of a Retriever, rather than a small contingent of dwarves guarding the outer bailey. A pair of ice statues also turned out to be Entombed, a type of undead who could walk through Ice like water and enjoyed grappling their prey and dragging them into the ice to drown. This posed a problem as the Guild had prepared for Spellcasting dwarves, not a Tanar’ri and a few Undead. To make matters worse, the demon had the high ground on the top of a narrow ledge up an precariously icy wall. It was able to blast away with energy rays from its eyes while the Entombed seem to ignore the divine power of Shaundakul channeled through Zodel.

Storm climbed up the cliff the hard way while Raindrop activated her earthen skin and burrowed up from the inside both arriving together on opposite sides of the canine-like demon for maximum combat efficiency. Mirushal was grabbed by one of the undead and used magic to re-appear on a nearby battle out of any future melee range but close enough to toss spells for or against any enemy or ally. Mist sang her heart out and did her best to stay out of the way of anyone or anything while using her newly fiery eye blast to great effect against the frozen undead. Gavin drew attacks from the undead and ranged attacks from the Tanar’ri while keeping up a regular fusillade of bolts against whatever target he was the most effect. Zodel was grabbed almost immediately and drug under the ice, left to die if Mirushal had not interceded with fire based spells to blast huge holes in the ice pockets scattered across the area.

Eventually the Guild was able to slowly whittle away at the defenses of the enemy all while keeping a sharp eye out for the dwarven simulacra seen the night before. The Retriever was destroyed first is a flashy explosion belying its construct nature followed in short order by one and then the other Entombed, but not before Zodel was boiled and then re-frozen a few more times then he would have wished. Detailed investigation of the inner and outer bailey revealed little else of detail other than one sealed door leading into the core of the fortress. Amongst the remains of the undead a few items of value were collected, evaluated and then stored away for later. After everyone’s wounded were adequately tended to, everyone turned their focus on how to safely and quietly bypass the main entrance.

It was much warmer just inside the main door. A large domed ceiling wide hallway opened into what must have been a beautiful temple at some point in the past before it became a dumping ground for piles of headless corpses. While the room was slightly warmer, only a slight smell of decay permeated the room from the heap of Frost Giant and Winter Wolf corpses spread around the room. The reason behind the lack of rot became clear after Mist went to investigate and was attacked by a Blood Hulk, a type of undead composed primary of red liquid that sustained most humanoid life. Multiple of the mindless creatures clambered forth from the cadavers and moved towards the nearest living creatures hoping to feed on the spark of life pumping from the Guild members.

When Divine energy from Zodel failed to halt a single of the creatures, Storm and Raindrop moved into direct melee ranged and started to pound on the massive creatures. As it turned out any type of weapon with a sharp point seemed to caused more damage and it took very little to break through the thin skin of the creatures. Nevertheless the Blood Hulks seemed to be able to take a massive beating before they exploded into a pools of coppery colored liquid bathing everyone nearby in a sticky and possibly toxic mess. With the Undead rendered down to their constituent components, the Guild moved deeper into the mountain citadel looming for clues that might reveal the location of the Frost Jarl.

In an uncharacteristic moment of frustration Mist pushed ahead of the group and managed to set off a pit trap, narrowly managing to avoid it. After being dutifully chastised, by almost everyone. The group moved ahead with Gavin in the lead this time making a large amount of noise on a lock that was slightly harder than previous ones bypassed earlier. This alerted the denizens of the room inside who were ready to attack the moment the door was opened. Surprise, surprise, but it was none other than the escaped Bulezau from the encounter at the mountain pass a few days earlier. Much like in the previous melee, the demon proved to be almost just as ineffective as before.

At first the frenzied Bulezau charged Storm and was surprised to find itself on the receiving end of a battleaxe. Raindrop then practically danced around the demon occasionally getting in a hit while Gavin used his magical cloak to send it several volleys of sneak attacks to great success. Changing tactics, the Tanar’ri tried to fill the room with Solid Fog which was immediately counter spelled by Mirushal. Thrashed and bleeding from far too may wounds, it decided to flee again via Teleportation magic rather than perish at the hands of the insufferable adventurers. Exploration of the room revealed a summoning circle which suggested the demon had been bond by a Calling spell or was some type of Planar Ally. The presence of demons, undead and the lack of living creatures suggested that either the Frost Jarl was not in charge of his own domain, or that he was a powerful spellcaster in his own regard.

The lone door exiting this room was unnaturally cold while wind could be heard behind a previously bypassed barred door. The later turned out to be a rear entrance into one of the inner bailey towers with a alchemical trap that sealed the trap door to the roof when it was triggered. While the former opened into a huge cavern filled with ice, snow and piles of both littered around as natural formations. A tiny amount of light filtered in from cracks in the ceiling from above illuminating the room in a vague bluish twilight reflected and refracted by the large amount of crystalline ice. This served to help obfuscate a pair of Rimefire Eidolon’s who laired nearby who sprung forth and attacked by means of frigidly cold based magic as the Guild unknowingly passed near their hiding places.

The Fey did their best to stay out of melee whenever they could using their ability to ignore the slippery terrain, as well as shape it, to their advantage. Accentuated by powerful elemental magic harnessing the freezing temperatures of the cavern also played a major role. At one point half of the Guild members were encased inside pillars of ice until being freed by themselves or their allies. Everyone felt the chilling bite of a Cone of Cold or Polar Ray at some point as well. Tenacity eventually won the day as the Eidolons were eventually vanquished through coordinated attacks or just lucky strikes. Exhausted from the ordeal and critically wounded, everyone retired to the relative safety of a the extra dimensional space of a Rope Trick to rest and recuperate.

1335/Year of The Snow Winds

A concentrated effort by the armed forces of Galvinston strikes back against active Zhentarium presence at the Port. Agents of the Black Network utilize terrorism and counter insurgency to retaliate and the harbor turns into a regular battle zone. This makes it all but impossible for any quantity sea trade to take place. The Zhentarium all but embargo the Port, forcing all ore shipments to take the more expensive and hazardous overland routes. Exercising extreme measures, the Council authorize the use of the Wickermen to enforce the law through often less than civilized warfare. Lead by hired adventurers with the local Army and Militia, the Port stoppage is eventually broken and the majority of the Zhentarium are forced to withdraw. As a result of the conflict, large portions of the Port are razed to the ground by the retreating forces as revenge.

1336/Year of The High Mantle

The brutal nature of the insurrection during the previous year at the Port darkens the hearts of many council members. More than half decide forgo reelection. The first major test of the new government has definitely met with mixed results. While the immediate threat of the Zhentarium has diminished, rebuilding the Port has once again stressed the mine finances to a breaking point. With half of the town council as freshman and the other half from the initial founding, sessions frequently end in dead-lock stalemating even the simplest legislation.

1337/Year of Wandering Maiden

Marshes of Vaasa never thaw in the spring. Winter remains all year long. Extreme weather is blamed on the presence of an Ancient White Dragon. The extreme cold weather musters hordes of snow goblins, winter wolves, polar worms, yeti and frost giants. A constant cavalcade of creatures continually attacks the Northern Gates of Galvinston straining the resources of the weather embargoed town. By the end of the year, the intense weather has turned the nearby area into a nigh glacier. The town is under siege, food supplies have dwindled to dangerous levels and the council is debating over capitulation or evacuation to the Port. The warmer saline Moonsea has managed to keep the Port from suffering the same weather conditions, somehow maintaining a more temperate climate likely through the same insidious magic causing the blizzard conditions further north.

Ches 18, 1334 DR

Heading straight for the throne room, the Guild encountered the Crystal Golem immediately upon moving onto the causeway between the Entry Tower and the Throne Room. The construct had an annoying habit of dispelling magical effects and then using the energy to power its own healing while at the same time trying to push all assailants off the edge to the depths of the water below. Both Ruby and Gavin were on the wrong end of a Bull Rush and ended up treading water until help arrived to swiftly return them to battle. Only through sheer tenacity and constantly beating, blasting and bullying the massive pile of animated gem stones were they able to finally defeat it.

Initially apprehensive about traps due to a earlier mishap, Gavin was bullied into examining the front door in the absence of any helpful Fey. Ironically, the door was indeed trap with a dead fall wall in place of the front door that almost squished him and Ruby much to the intense amusement of the rest of the guild. Inside of the door way was a sheer columnar tunnel with no apparent means of entry until the scepter found in the locked vault of the Library was activated, summoning small Air Elementals to carry everyone up the shaft. Once on top, they entered what appeared to be the main throne area accented by almost life-like statues of Queen Titania and King Oberon. While they could not be exactly sure, they guess that the crystalline figures were most probably the actual rules of Faerie, trapped by the Transmutation magic shifting the entire plane into a realm of reflective surfaces.

Passages lead in both directions away from, the main room and back tracked following the curvature of the tower. Each hallway ended in a single, identical doorway. Deciding to head left first, they carefully check for the presence of traps, secret doors or other pitfalls. Once at the door, Gavin confirmed that it was indeed trapped by a undeterminable magical effect. When he initially tried to disable the effect, he managed to set off a Prismatic Spray effect which he deftly avoided. When Mirushal mentioned that the spell effect was random deadly effects, Ruby decided to try and use his breath weapon to take down the door in a more direct method. Unfortunately, while he was able to avoid several effects, one of them managed to send his body off to another plane of existence leaving the group suddenly without the presence of their quite formidable Dragon Shaman.

Extremely frustrated and bolstered by Divine Magic from Zodel, Storm proceeded to bash the door down, ignoring all remaining effects. Yet when all the dust had settled, the entrance was false and did not contain anything but a blank wall on the far side. Searching the other doorway revealed another magical trap in the form of a Chain Lightning spell that Gavin was able to dispel on the second attempt with the aid of Bardic Inspiration from Mist. Yet the door would still not open, apparently under some other type of magical effect. Undaunted, Mirushal applied a Knock spell to the entrance and was rewarded with it opening to reveal a room on the far side. A small entry hall lead to a much larger room and filled the remaining portion of the tower via a glistening translucent stairway.

Upon a raised platform at the top of the stairs was stone circle of menhir, but completely missing the horizontal braces that the portal to Fey had contained. In the center was an elevated rough hewn stone bowl with a deep hole in the center where Mirushal and Mist surmised a key might be placed to activate the magical portal. Strewn around the room in a large circle around the portal were a dozen additional menhir also made out of crystal, cut to the same size and overall dimensions as the eight on the main platform. When a detailed investigation of the exterior of the room and all of the menhir revealed nothing, Gavin climbed into the stone bowl. Almost immediately thereafter a series of silicon based creatures appeared to step forth from random menhir and attack.

Quickly identified as Shardcasters, beings only seen on the Plane of Mirrors or Elemental Plane of Earth. While only three of the creatures initially were appeared, additional creatures kept appearing over time as if summoned by something. The Shardcasters seemed vulnerable to the Shaundakul granted ability to rebuke Earthen creatures that Zodel had recently received. They also seemed to be able to coax tentacles from the menhir which attacked anything nearby. Eventually, the Guild was able to determine that the largest of the Shardcasters had a central core that was responsible for the continual summoning of reinforcements. Once the effect was Dispelled after several tries, they were able to finish off all of the creatures and destroy the remaining tentacles as well.

Perhaps the strangest event of the entire battle was the sudden appearance of a human male in his mid-twenties through one of the menhir. He clearly was a priest of paladin of Ilmater and he claimed to be the son of Basil Goatherdson claiming that he had just been back in the village of Galvinston mere moments before. Only Raindrop and Storm recognized that the boy bore any resemblance to the son of their former ally and family member, but his sudden appearance was circumspect. His behavior was odd, his claims about how he arrived even more outlandish and his accusations that Mist was a demon spawn was even more curious. Once the battle was over, it was clear that the Guild was going to need to investigate the young mans claims to his identity and other anomalous behavior.

After a prolonged interview and discussion, it seemed that the young paladin was indeed telling the truth about his background and his relationship to the Guild exile and father Basil as well as his Aunt Susan. While the circumstances of his arrival were indeed out of the ordinary, Basil Jr. appeared to be forthright in his convictions. With the aid of this new ally, the Guild made their way back to the tomb, easily climbed their way up the lift tube without the aid of Air Elementals, unlocked the door and entered the main crypt area. As Storm lead the group into the center of the main floor, she was attacked from around a corner by a hidden Neera who flickered into and out of visibility as it attacked and then vanished just as quickly as it had appeared.

The reflective invaders from the Plane of Mirrors had clearly staged an ambush, but it almost immediately failed due a series of mistakes and poorly chosen opponents. While half of the attackers were invisible, a True Seeing spell on Storm and a See Invisibility on Basil removed that advantage. While the Neera definitely put up a fight causing half of the Guild to suffer physically debilitating wounds, some of which bleed until treated, they caused very little overall harm before falling to the onslaught of the party. One of the Nerra did manage to vanish into one of the nearby walls, but he was so close to death that it was unclear if he made it alive to the Mirror Plane.

Of the five nearby exits, two had been used to stage the ambush and contained small sealed wall cairns that were not all that easy to open. Two others contained small dead fall doors while the main entrance contained a much more elaborate dead fall door that was the focus of everyone’s interest. Storm & Basil worked to lift the door inches off the ground and then Mirushal used her magic disc to lift the remaining distance and hold it in place. The room on the other side contained three items of note. A small central sarcophagus that was sealed, but not trapped; a massive frozen icicle containing the body of a fey frozen inside and a small tomb completely obscured by magical darkness.

The ice stalactite was so cold that when Storm probed it with her battleaxe, it froze solid and shattered. A strange eerie Evocation magic seemed to permeate the two side tombs; so Gavin spent his time on the main sarcophagus. He would have opened it if Mist had not insulted Storm about the unexpected loss of her weapon causing the graying Barbarian to leave the room quite incensed and jump down the lift shaft rather that deal with the insults hurled by the elven bard. This caused the group to stop searching the main burial chamber to avoid being split up. Once Mist was able to calm down Storm by apologizing, she and Raindrop decided to lift up one of the small side doors while everyone else was busy back at the sarcophagus. Some type of Nerran spellcaster was on the far side and it blasted both the Barbarian and the Monk in the brief moment before they dropped the door from surprise.

The majority of the Guild moved towards the door waiting it to be broken down so that they could assault whomever was one the far side. Instead the door served as a distractions as another Neera and a renegade Fey appeared in the hallway and separated the group by a Wall of Thorns. They then started to attack Basil and Gavin on the other side. Thinking quickly Zodel was able to Teleport everyone except Mirushal to the other side to join the battle. The two Nerra were then quickly destroyed and the Verdant Price was forced to retreat. As a last ditch effort, he was able to dispel the magical darkness that was covering on of the two tombs, but he died before he was able to oath bind whatever had been imprisoned on the other side.

The creature in the tomb called itself the Queen’s Darkness and was clearly Fey. Mist swiftly realized that while the Fey might look humanoid, it was merely a metaphysical representation of the absence of light. When questioned Darkness blamed the Queen for his imprisonment and inquired as to who had freed him. Mist tried to parley with the Fey, but things got out of control when Mirushal tried to blast it with a wand and Gavin tried to assassinate it from behind. Things could have gotten really nasty at this point, but rather than kill those who freed him, the Fey instead toyed with the Guild. He called forth Deeper Darkness, returned the assassination favor on Gavin and then vanished. The Darkness did not manage to hit a vital area, so Gavin survived, but he certainly wasn’t please about the almost crippling injury.

Searching the nearby rooms revealed dozens of captured Fey inside of magical cages, Frustrated with the turn of events, both Storm and Gavin took out their anger on Sage. While they both has murderous intents, Gavin was faster and his revenge was quite thorough. The remaining Fey were shocked at the treatment of their own kind. They had been told that the Guild was going to rescue them from the Nerra and instead Sage was killed in cold blood. While they were all offered their freedom, every single Fey refused the offer in defiance of the unexpected execution. Disgusted with the lack of gratitude, the Guild left the Fey to rot in their cages and started to look for a way home.

Digging through the remains of the Neera and the traitor, they found what they felt was the likely portal key. When they took it back to the crystal portal room and utilized it, not only did it eventually send them home, but it also started the process to remove the planar intrusion. As the planar magic flowed across the pocket realm, all presence of mineral calcification decayed off every surface, leaving behind only the living organic material underneath. The Queen spoke directly to everyone’s mind as they began to Plane Shift back to Galvinston. While she thanked them for freeing her people, she rebuked them all for their behavior. As a result of their actions, she would remove the gateway to Faerie from Galvinston and withdraw the friendship of her people. All Fey would consider the Guild and Galvinston as enemies from this point forward.

Upon return to town, the Queen upheld her promise and the stone circle collapsed into a sinkhole, almost trapping Basil and Gavin inside. Without exception, the Guild was quite proud of themselves and their actions. They removed the Fey threat from their town with what appeared to be a permanent solution. While a few of them argued that the killing of Sage was excessive, none of them could argue with the end result. The Fey Mound was gone. The portal to Faerie was closed. Gavin was proclaimed a hero in the eyes of his friends. Yet, none of them could help but wonder if they would ever cross the path of the Faerie at some future time with dire results.

Ches 17, 1334 DR

The following day had the Guild deciding to explore the Throne Tower first, hoping to surprise the leaders of the invasion force. They needed to deal with the guardian Sand Golem with a nearby Ice Golem protecting the Tomb if they wanted to enter either location. In an extremely rare moment, Mirushal actually participated in direct combat with the Ice Golem in order to keep the rest of the Guild from being out flanked. He had some assistance from both Mist and Sage as well, allowing time for their more physically imposing allies to dispatch the first of the constructs. Perhaps the most impressive tactic of the battle was when Storm reversed an attempt by the Sand Golem to push him off the narrow walkway down to the water below and instead managed the leverage to send the construct to its own demise instead.

After bashing their way through the front doors of the Throne Tower, they discovered that the only way in was up an eighty foot tall sheer crystal wall. There was no way to tie a rope, no obvious means to control a lift and the circular walls were too wide for reach across. While some of the group had the ability to fly to travel extra-dimensionally there was no easy means for the entire Guild to make it up safely. With the strange behavior of their magical storage devices as a concern, they felt that using travel magic might be a bit risky. After some discussion, they decided to proceed to the Library first and see if they could discover an easier way to navigate the obstacle. If not, then they had several different ideas on how they might be able to bypass the formidable passage.

Gavin was able to force open the Library doors and standing in the Foyer just inside the door was a pair of Stone Children. One activated some type of defensive magic item while the other warned the Guild members to return to their home plane in Terran. With Mirushal translating, Ruby decided to force the issue and walk into the Foyer which prompted the Stone Children to close and relock the door. Faced with the potential of a trapped ally, alone on the other side of a door faced with potentially hostile forces, Storm immediately went berserk and smashed the door down with a single swipe of her battle axe. The rest of the group than moved into to engage with the enemy.

Thanks to a Stoneskin like property from a magic item used by one of the two adversaries, he managed to stay standing longer than his peer. Rather than wait around for Gavin to unlock another door, Storm bashed down another one and moved ahead to smash a third. When that door managed to withstand her amped out physical prowess, she turned her anger to anyone who happened to be nearby, starting with Raindrop. While Mist tried to calm Storm down with her music, Storm was able to resisted somehow.

Raindrop managed to disarm Storm, but then her Frost Rage activated in some type of previously unseen manner. Thinking quickly, Rudy started to taunt Storm which focus all of her rage on the Dragon Shaman who was able to bear the brunt of the attack until Storm was able to calm down. This would have been the end of it, except that the Faerie Dragon tried to its Breath Weapon to get things under control and failed miserably. The Fey fled when they received an retaliatory swipe for their interference and then the tense moment passed.

Exploration of the nearby rooms revealed a pair of privies and piles of supplies, bed rolls and other items one would need to barrack a small army. Ruby was able to identify the magic item from the body of the Stonechild as a Skin of the Mineral Warrior. The skin flowed over the bearer for less than a minute a day imbuing them with a potent array of defensive and offensive based magic based on the Elemental Plane of Earth. The last remaining door lead to a small office, likely used by an enemy commander with another door in the rear. Several stone tablets were scattered on the desk containing requisitions, patrol logs, contingency orders, but nothing of value.

When Gavin went to explore another door, a pack of Nyth who had been hiding invisibility near the ceiling. While their were only four of the creatures really only armed with an endless supply of Magic Missiles, once Mirushal tried to use a Fireball on them, they multiplied to eight rather quickly. As the Guild learned the hard way the Nyth absorbed Fire and Electricity, using it to heal themselves as well as reproduce. At least Sonic and Acid based energy seemed to be effective, so they used a combination of both to vanquish the mosquito like creatures. Hidden amongst the litter behind the doorway was a collection of magical trinket and a chimney-like crawl space that lead down the main level of the Library.

The next level down seemed to contain a mostly derelict and empty research depository that was protected by a small groups of Liths’. Two of the gargoyle like creatures jumped the Guild right inside the main door way from on top of the shelves while the third provided magical support from across the room. Once dispatched, the Guild surveyed the room and found that it was completely devoid of all periodicals, scrolls or devices to store information, which was quite odd for being in a library. There were four crystal statues of Fey creatures in the middle of the room, each containing a sconce to place a large tear shaped gem into around the forehead area. Unfortunately, no gems shaped objects were anywhere in the room and the gems discovered along the way did not seem to activate any of the statues.

Finding the stairs, the proceeded down to a small foyer and a room filled with wall to wall mirrors. Ruby was quite nervous about the mirrors due to the previous problems with local creatures walking out of reflective spaces. Gavin was able to determine that a portion of the mirror was trapped, subjecting anyone contacting it to a massive electric shock. Mist pointed out that the same area contained some type of concealed or secret door, so they needed to disable the trap. When Storm tried to smash the mirrors, she was surprised to have the attacked reflected back onto herself as if the copy of her battleaxe in the mirror was able to swing out and cut into her. Eventually the trap was disable, the door was opened and revealed a flooded research laboratory.

Clearly this lower level was below the water line of the ocean outside which had flooded it to the depth of around four feet. Numerous tables, benches, shelves and other furniture stuck out above the water including an operating table than seemed to contain a partially finished Flesh Golem in a slow state of transmuting into silicon. Since Ruby was at home in the water, he started to investigate the area with Raindrop following behind. Ruby ended up stepping onto an Earth Glider hiding under the water and was thankful that Zodel had cast Heroes’ Feast earlier in the day protecting him from the poisonous horns.

Raindrop ended up suffering the brunt of the initial attack after Ruby moved back hoping to draw the creature back to try land. The tactic did work, but not as expected when the Earth Glider burrow through walls and started to attack the opposite flank where the more melee challenged portion of the Guild has been standing. Ruby & Storm managed to backtrack through the water, Raindrop got healed by Zodel and they all attacked given Mist, Gavin and Mirushal a change to move away and provided tactical assistance more suitable for their individual skills. Finally after numerous near strikes and misses, the Guild managed to damage the creature enough for it to retreat for a short period of time and move to the flank again before finally being destroyed without anyone suffering from a fatality.

A through search of the laboratory revealed numerous coins, gems and items of value locked up inside of a vault. Also inside was a tear-shaped gem that Mirushal confirmed worked in the statues up in the main library. The gem contained the memories and thoughts of the Jester of the Fey Court as he witness the initial stages of the invasion from the Plane of Mirrors to the Plane of Faerie. It provided some insight into the tactical nature of the invaders, how many troops, where all of the Fey had vanished to and other important details. They also found a magical crystal rod which no clear use other than as an elemental control device. Deciding to play it safe, the Guild made camp for the evening, fortifying themselves inside of the flooded vault area for their protection.

Chapter 4 - End-Game
424 AC, Yurthgreen 11th - 23rd

Yurthgreen 11, 423 SC ( 09/23/06)

Dear Knuckles,

Illiam spent some time examining the music box revealing that it is not magical at all. While the scroll tube from the Clock Tower is some type of Universal magic of amazing power that he is completely unable to translate. The head of the gnome colony sends us out into the swamp to met with the Black Dragon Pitch and his draconian majordomo named Brathrus. We also hoped to run into the local gnomish wizard who was also supposed to be off conversing with their local dragon protector. We spent a rather boring day traveling through the swamp. This gave me a lot of time to think about what might have happened to poor Karick at the hands of the nasty demon. If he had died, it was likely that his ghost would have come back to at least say goodbye, so he was probably alive somewhere, lost in the abyss with all of the other demons.

Yurthgreen 12, 423 SC (09/23/06)

Dear Knuckles,

Today was another horrible day that started with a pair of tree creatures called Gnarlwood threatening us to leave their swamp and ended with the death of Bly. In between we all fell victim to some of the most vile and evil magic we had ever experienced before. They were so tainted by negative energy that they animated the Ergothian corpse, returned him as a zombie and sent him to attack us. Two of our long time allies have now either died or gone missing beyond out ability to rescue them in a very short period of time. We are halfway around the world and while that should be really intriguing with me, it is all I can do to avoid becoming preoccupied with death and falling into a morass of depression again. The only thing keeping me going is the mystery of the lens and the elven ghost. Fate dictated that the music box fell into one of my pouches, so we need to follow the threads of destiny to see where they lead, hoping that we do not lose anyone else along the way.

Yurthgreen 13, 423 SC (10/07/06 – Not Present)

Dear Knuckles,

In a very rare occurrence, I actually fell asleep on watch. I must certainly have been quite conflicted over the tragedy that occurred to Bly the day before. Watching a friend die and then be brought immediately back as an undead creature was quite disconcerting. What was even stranger was the dream I had about Bly coming back in the middle of the night and taking all of his weapons that we had collected from the battlefield after we had to put him down. Yet when I managed to struggle awake the next morning, the weapons really were missing as if the entire dream had actually been real. Illiam suggested that I had been under the influence of some type of Enchantment spell which might have explained by abnormal behavior and the lucid quality of the entire nights events.

Yurthgreen 14, 423 SC (10/07/06 – Not Present)

Dear Knuckles,

While traveling through the swamp we came up a misshapen group of Giants attacking a single gnome who was accompanied by some type of crocodilian construct. The Gnome was named Grumb and was the arcane caster we had been sent out to find by the inhabitants of Picketville. He was able to translate the engraving on my music box as “Property of Kayleigh, Dragonsinger” inscribed on the inside. As we traveled to meet with the Black Dragon guardian of the swamp we were attacked by more Bakali Lizardman who were much further along in the disease than the group that had attacked us a few days earlier.

Eventually we managed to find the island in the middle of the swamp were the dragon laired. Near the center was a stone amphitheatre filled an audience of kobolds, humans, Lizardfolk and Wyverns. On stage was a motley collection of entertainers putting on some type of performance for the dragon. They were lead by the Aurak Draconian majordomo named Bathras. Even the mighty Dragon had been contaminated by the disease that seemed to only infect lizard-like creatures. One of the dragons minions had made some progress in identifying the cause and maybe a cure before they too fell under its influence and became another victim. What really pissed me off was this researcher was none other that the cowardly Master Yap. I so wanted to beat his weasel-ly ass but Illiam stopped me. Instead he got directions to this placed called the Fountain of Renewal that would help us solve the mystery behind the disease.

Yurthgreen 18, 423 SC (10/21/06 & 11/18/06)

Dear Knuckles,

After a few days of travel we ended up at the location which seemed to be little more than a old stone stairwell. A batch of tribal humanoids guarded the chamber and while we tried to parley, they attacked us anyways. One tries to escape and we hunt him down before he manages to escape through a secret door. We explore the tunnels, finding a stone tablet that explains how to turn draconic creatures into undead. We rummage through several bed chambers, including one with a poisoned door trap that saps my strength. We find a series of correspondence between Onyx and Pitch from several years before. A secret door hides a chest filled with coins, pearls and a magic shield.

When we find no resistance anywhere else, we realize that they must be lying in wait inside of a central room with four entrances, so we device a plan to enter all four at the same time. The strategy doesn’t work quite as well as we had intended, with me arriving quite late in the battle. A stupid Green Wyrm Dragon decides that I look like a tasty treat until I blast it with my one magic spell taught to me by my ghost friends and it flies off in disbelief. One of the enemy, a priestess of Chemosh tries to bait us to kill her, but we do not fall for the ruse and take her prisoner instead. Illiam manages to at least partially convince her to renounce her path of evil but when she makes threats to continue to kill in the name of her undead god, we have to leave her all trussed up until we can take her to the proper authorities.

We back track to the secret door and make out way through several rough caverns and tunnels. We stumble upon a treasury filled with all kinds of useful loot, like used to bank roll the coven we discovered. We also discover a strange sarcophagus with a horn and use the mouth piece we found in the treasure stash together and blow it at an altar we discovered. Then in an astounding series of events, a manifestation of Chemosh himself appears to taunt us. He summons his minion, the majordomo draconian of Pitch, imbues the creature with great power and prompts us to attack each other for his own personal amusement.

While we ultimately destroy his minion, he continues to tempt all of us with ultimate power which Jan almost agrees to. The fight ultimately ends because of some type of inner conflict within Illiam. Apparently, this whole contrivance was to force our friendly neighborhood priest to final choose a deity to server and his choice was one we did not expect; Mishakal. While we managed to find out the who was the cause behind the disease and managed to put the stop to them, we were no closer to finding a cure. We did discover a fifth column within the allies of Pitch and has earned the ire of one deity and the acceptance of another. The events of the past few weeks have certainly held major ramifications for the rest of our lives. Will these revelations continue?

We decided to interrogate the prisoner for information about the Fountain of Renewal after we are unable to find it. As it turns our Bathras had hidden the lens somewhere safe, the green house in the town of Picketville. My elven ghost friend from the music box had even warned us of that it was not what it appeared. Armed with that knowledge, we waited for Grumb to join us before heading back to town to collect the object. He arrived near sun down with a new construct companion, having replace the broken crocodile with a massive Hill Giant.

Yurthgreen 19-20, 423 SC (11/18/06)

Dear Knuckles,

We travel back to the village, acquired the lends and had Grumb’s magical friend haul it back for us to the old ruins. Once there we were surprised to see Bathras and a Demon suddenly appear and try to kill us. Illiam figured that it was because the Aurak Draconian was some type of Lich-like creature and we would have to find something called a Phylactery and destroy it to be rid of the creature. This battle was quite an embarrassment to me falling victim to a spell that tried to crush all my bones and made my so sick that I was unable to help anyone. Grumb almost, but was saved at the last second by Illiam who seemed to be taking to his new deity with quite a passion. Afterwards Grumb foolishly gave everyone the control words for his Hill Giant. He thought it would allow us to all help him in battle, but I could think of dozens of fun things I might want a magical creature to do for me while I spent time alone on watch. Silly humans and their magic gizmos.

Afterwards we added water to the fountain to make it start to bubble again and had Merket climb up and remove a plug in the ceiling to allow access to the surface. Grumb guesses that exposure to the moon light of Solinari that evening would activate some type of magic based on writing he was able to roughly translate. He turned out to be correct and once the light struck the fountain all of the horrible paintings of Chemosh were washed away and replaced with pleasant pastoral scenes. In addition, a serpent-like creature with a female head called a Naga appeared and announced that it was the new guardian for the shrine. Those who bathed in the healing waters would recover from their afflictions. She was able to imbue the Tears of Mishakal with that power so that we could heal all the sick, but Pitch would have to come to the fountain as he was the likely cause for the disease. When we ask about the strange fountain, the Naga freaks out and uses powerful magic to destroy it, sacrificing her own magic to be rid of something called the Horn of the Corruptor.

Yurthgreen 21-23, 423 SC (11/18/06)

Dear Knuckles,

While traveling back to the swamp island of the black dragon, we encounter a cross-breed between a giant toad and a dragon that tried to eat me for lunch. While I managed to amazingly fend it off three times, on the fourth try it managed to swallow me whole and I had to cut myself out of the corpse after everyone else teamed up to kill it. We did manage to find its treasure hoard of coins, weapons and a brooch hidden deep in the mud in large pond. Illiam’s Divination magic identified the two weapons as having a property called Dragon Bane which could be used to injure Draconic creatures. Since no one else wanted the dagger, it was given to me, which made it a nice compliment to my Undead Bane Hoopak. I was also given a magical head band that amplified my already impressive intelligence which was quite cool. Now I could have arguments with almost anyone and win them through sheer my sheer brilliance.

Chapter 3 - Scene 3
423AC, Deepkolt 21st - 424 AC, Yurthgreen 10

Deepkolt 22-25, 423 SC (07/08/06)

Dear Knuckles,
We spent four days of practically uneventful travel to the south, first to Tantyvil and then onto Gwynned. Along the way we learned that Bly’s family had perished in one of the waves of plague that had swept across the island shortly after he left home several years before. He was quite distraught and ended up burying several of his weapons alongside their graves to honor their memory. Merket also almost suffered the wrath of the superstitious townspeople who consider him a demon until he wisely chose to flee rather than to face a lynch mob. Apart from that little bit of excitement, the rest of the walk across the western plains of northern Ergoth was boring, cold and basically tedious to the extreme.

Deepkolt 26 – Yurthgreen 1, 423 SC (07/29/06)

We spend the winter in Gwynned and I eventually grow really board even with discovering a strange elven designed music box in my pouch after a night of expensive binge drinking and random gambling. The music box plays this really haunting music when it is wound up and I am pretty sure that a female elven ghost haunts the object. She occasionally sings along to the music, but it really shy and won’t talk to me, Knuckles, Gong or Naladas. Even more odd is that once I start to try to talk to her, Naladas finally decides to vanish and move onto the Elven realms of the dead. I guess he must have gotten bored sticking around with my after we dealt the Sickle a major set-back to his world domination plans a few months back. Even the rest of my friends eventually grow restless and we go looking for something to occupy our time. We end up taking a job from a Red Wizard called the Professor to try and find a Clockwork Tower across the bay of Monsters near Hylo.

Yurthgreen 2-8, 423 SC (07/29/06)

Dear Knuckles,

We travel across the mountain range, meet some of my own people and get attacked by a group of disguised Bozak Draconians. We spend some time with a wandering Carnival which reminds me of my childhood. We even ran afoul of a White Dragon minion of the Overlord Gellidus that we somehow manage to parlay with instead of getting into our usual array of violent trouble. We eventually find our way to an old light house and meet a crazy Gnome named Tick-Tock who we convince to take us to the tower after s short side trip into Hylo to acquire a few spells that would help carry spare part for the tower rather easily. Tick-Tock agrees to let us explore the tower for the High Conclave once we make it clear that we will help fix whatever is broken with the crazy place. Some people seem to think that Kender are instance, but this Gnome is quite a piece of work unto himself and should probably avoid polite society to avoid being locked up somewhere rather permanently.

Yurthgreen 9, 423 SC (08/26/06)

Dear Knuckles,

I manage to get us through the impressive lock on the front door of the tower with a little help from Illiam, which is surprising since he seem disinterested in helping me figure out the secrets of my music box. The first level of the tower is little more than bedrooms and general storage. We do find this really need wind-up mechanical butler that appears to be broken which Tick-Tock won’t let me touch. The Gnome busied himself taking part inventory while the rest of us poked around. We eventually found a motorized lift shaft with no lifting device inside forcing us to climb up a ladder to move between levels. In addition, the entrances to each level were by means of very well concealed secret doors that I seemed to be the only one that could find and manage to unlatch. The second level consisted of an woefully overgrown arboretum that was filled with found plat creatures that seemed eager to teach us carnivores a lessen. This was the first of several combat in the tower where I felt completely useless and really did little good.

The third level contained several really fancy alchemical and magical laboratories along with the private rooms of Tick-Tock and his assistant Cogsworth. The poor assistant we completely bonkers and I had to talk some sense into him before we could make any sense of out his ravings. The fourth level was filled with crates filled with source materials to craft magic items and something that the Prof called a Negative Energy Elemental right before he was vaporized to dust by it. The strange thing about this battle was that Illiam was messing around with the undead. As it turns out he is having a crisis of faith right now with Zivilyn and was getting assistance in battle from both Mishakal and Chemnosh who both wanted to swing him in their direction. If the Seer goes the path of Chemnosh, left me be the first to warn you that I will put his ass down the moment he makes the decision.

Yurthgreen 10, 423 SC (08/26/06 & 09/23/06)

Dear Knuckles,

The fifth level was filled with dazzlingly bright light that might have originated from stars while the sixth level was amazingly hot similar to what the surface of the sun must feel like. The seventh level was filled with twirling balls of metal of three different sizes that were meant to represent the three moons of Krynn. We all had to weave and dodge to make out way across the room without being hit. Every single one of us managed to get whacked by the smallest and fastest of the three metal spheres while others got hit by more than one while trying to safely across the room. All that remained was the eight and final level where the dreaded Celestial/Infernal engine was supposed to be located. This strange gnome built creation was what broke the tower in the first place and had currently moved the tower from the shores of the Bay of Monsters to some unknown dimension of space and time. Our only way of getting back home again would be dealing with it properly.
The mechanical monstrosity at the top of the stairs was huge and came alive once we entered the room. Metallic tentacles grabbed most of the group until Illiam suggested that I try to break the machine somehow. I jammed my lucky chunk of obsidian into one of the larger gears which set off a chain reaction breaking off a huge piece and sending it careening into the main core of the magical construct. The small explosion broke off a scroll case that rolled across the floor shortly before the entire mass of whirling gears, cogs, valves and pistons all imploded leaving behind a massive minotaur looking demon in the aftermath. With the construct gone, everyone but Karick is dropped to the floor and we began to pound the demon, which Illiam called a Goristro. We must have really been hurting because suddenly it swallowed Karick whole, grabbed a weapon dropped by Janissary and vanished by some means of magic. We were suddenly missing on of our own and with no clear means to recover him.

Eventually after things had quieted down for some time, Tick Tock showed up and informed us that the tower had arrived on the other side of Ansalon in a place called Noordmaar., near a small town called Picketville. After collecting the strange scroll and all of the magical materials, we set off towards civilization in hopes that we maybe might find out where Karick had gone. The town was full of gnomes who had forsaken their tinker ways and had gone native. They were under the protection of a smaller Black Dragon named Pitch who help defend them from the Black Dragon Overlord Sable many years before. They were all quite friendly, willing to put us up somewhere, but seemingly terrified by roving packs of Bakali Lizardman who seemed to be infected with a type of plague.

Also of major curiosity was a huge magical lens they had discovered out in the swamps that had been converted into a source of energy in their local town hall turned greenhouse. When I went to have a look around on my own, the previously mute elven ghost suddenly spilled forth from the music box in my pack and started to scream loudly. She suggested that the gnomes had no idea what they had in their possession and it did not belong to them. When I tried to explain this to everyone else, we were interrupted by a pack of marauding lizard folk. These reptilian creatures were infected with a disease that seemed to be in the middle of turning them into undead. After destroying the creatures, I offered to help the gnome village deal with the cause of the problem in return for the lens. When no one complained, it was clear a deal had been struck, even if the rest of my friends were surprised to see me act so assertively any anything.

Chapter Nine – The Twilight Tomb

Location: Galvinston & Faerie

PC Dramatis Personae

Gavin – Halfling Male Rogue 10, Guild Thief 1
Mirushal – Gnome Female Wizard 3, Shadowcaster 3, Noctumancer 4
Mist – Moon Elf Female Bard 11
Nameless – Wild Elf – Dragon Shaman 10
Storm - Human Female Barbarian 8, Frenzied Berserker 3
Zodel – Human Male Cleric 10

Ches 15, 1334 DR

Raindrop was visiting with Storm when a knock on the door revealed a surprising visitor in the form of the Fey named Sage astride none other than a Faerie Dragon. Think that she wanted to avoid any untoward violence, Raindrop slipped outside and parleyed with the two Fey rather than risk Storm going berserk and killing them both. Sage revealed that something untoward was occurring in Faerie and was hoping that his old friends might be interested in helping out. Raindrop gathered all of the Guild together and they all met up at the Fey Mound to discuss the particulars. At first Storm was quite wary about helping the Fey with anything until it a pack of Energon’s, energy based Outsiders, spilled forth from the portal to Faerie and attacked everyone nearby. When it was clear that whatever was causing the Fey Mound to act so erratically was likely threatening the entire town, the distrustful Barbarian reluctantly agreed to render assistance.

The other side of the portal was unlike what they had expected based on the initial description by the two faeries. A night realm covered by a rough sea stretched to the visible horizon. A narrow bridge transversed the distance between the arrival point on a small island to a translucent crystal tower. Several other towers were visible nearby through the fog thanks to several sparking light sources shining from within each structure. A massive skeletal serpent lie atop the main bridge as if a guardian, but suggested no movement so perhaps it was little more than a warning. Magical investigation of the area revealed additional bridges and a guardian golem protecting each causeway. A glass golem was hidden amongst the bones of the deceased serpent standing guard in front of a large double doorway.

Prior to Sage leaving to look for help, the nearby area was a bright sunny day, with crystal clear coastal waters and massive tower grown from the stone and trees. He blamed the radical transformation on a planar rip that was being caused by the invaders. Based on the transition from light to dark and from organic to crystal, Mirushal surmised that the intruder were from a less known elemental plane closely related to either Earth or Dust perhaps nearby to the Plane of Radiance. Whatever the source, it favored creatures made from energy or crystal based on the presence of four constructs built from mixtures of those two different source materials. This also explained the amplification sonic based energies with a slightly weaker gravity allowing for easier climbing and jumping.

After becoming quite annoyed that neither their extra-dimensional luggage nor a Rope Trick spell seemed to work near the portal, Mirushal conjured up a rustic structure that grew up from the crystalline rock and everyone settled in for the night. The two elves started to see creatures in whatever reflective surfaces that happened to be nearby, first with a mirror carried by Ruby and then along the walls of the magically created hut. Eventually a an initially mirror-like creature crawled out of one of the interior walls and attacked, but was dispatched without much effort. Mist called the creature a Susurrus which was more known for attacking undead rather than living creatures. Obviously something really weird was occurring this close to the planar rift and the Guild would have to keep a watch out for other strange occurrences or out of character behavior.

Ches 16, 1334 DR

Fresh from a marginally interrupted period of rest, the Guild easily dispatched the Glass Golem guarding the entrance to the main tower thanks to several sonic blasts provided by Zodel. and then immediately set about exploring the interior of the transformed edifice. Corpses of numerous Fey were scattered across the main foyer surrounded by piles of dust, dirt and other mineral substances. A huge glass statue of a Fey dominated the room and while Ruby initially thought it might attack, it remained quite dormant. A pair of Gulgar on the other side of a door were not quite so friendly and attacked with their sonic blasts before letting lose with their warhammers. Storm, Ruby & Raindrop simply waded into melee and chipped away at the earthen humanoids with Gavin providing ranged critical hits until nothing was left but a pile of rocks and some next to worthless granite based armor and weapons.

A nearby room’s main feature was a active fountain with several Fey bodies floating in the water. A trail of blood lead from the fountain to one of two doors in the room. When Raindrop went to investigate, a pair of Walking Walls stepped out from adjacent spaces to the doors and started to pummel her. The noise of combat alerted a small group of Crystalline Trolls on the far side of the door who agilely moved into attack. The battle was on and for once in a long time, while Raindrop was in the thick of things, she could do no wrong. Of course, having the Bardic Music backup of Mist, ranged magical support from Mirushal and little bit of medical first aid from Zodel certainly did not hurt. It did not take long before all of the creatures were disabled and eventually dispatched. The Troll lair yielded a collection of magical items clearly harvested from the deceased Fey seen in previous rooms. It was all collected and codified for later evaluation.

Moving upstairs the second floor, the Guild encountered the first organized and tactical response from an enemy force. Upon entering the remains of a large former ballroom, they were attacked from an overlooking balcony by four silvery humanoids. Mist later identified the enemy as Nerra from the Plane of Mirrors once she was able catch her breath again after being the focus of the ambush. The Neera had several unique qualities including being able to fire blasts of mirror shards out of their hand and to reflect most spells cast against individual Nerra. They used the strategic position of the balcony to rain down missile attacks until the Guild was able to climb, fly, or otherwise use magic to move into melee range. Once every were able to move in close they made short work on the Nerra.

Exploring the rest of the second floor revealed an exterior door that lead off to two more towers, a partially collapsed section and a mostly empty office. The office contained a desk which had several hidden compartments. Each contained a decanter that when one was opened by Ruby revealed itself to be a Swarm of Elementites that attacked. The tiny creatures tried to destroy the remaining decanters and free their brethren, but failed once the Guild realized their tactics. Everyone quickly grabbed a container and raced away except for those best capable of handling a large volume of very small nuisance creatures. This left the Guild in possession of three Decanters filled with an unknown type of Elementite Swarm that they might be able put to good use elsewhere.

The third floor was completely empty except for another external door leading out to the fourth crystal tower and a trapped hallway that was being used as a hiding place for an actual still living Fey. The Fey called himself Mistletoe and it seemed that he and Sage were somehow previously acquainted. Mistletoe had been hiding out and drawing invaders into the reusable trap for some time and was quite surprised to discover someone who was not initially out to do him harm. As with most Fey, he had no reasonable sense of time, so could not really provide any details on how long the invaders had been present. However, he did provide a few details as to the origin and goals of the attackers.

The planar raiders seemed to come in all shapes and sizes, but the Neera appeared to be in charge of the invasion. Once the four towers were taken, the spellcasters of some kind detached them from the Plane of Faerie and were slowly moving them to the Plane of Mirror through an unknown process. This was what was causing everything to slowly transmute into crystal from its natural wooden state. Golems were placed outside of each tower with some type of password used to bypass them. Regular patrols of disposable shock troops did occur between towers, so it would be difficult to avoid notice for too long. Enemy forces seemed to be heaviest at the tower reachable via the third floor exit. The floor fourth of this tower was little more than an observation area and was empty.

Deciding to fortify themselves in order to partake of a prolonged period of rest, the Guild made camp behind relative safety of the mechanical wall trap. This ended up being rather a wise decision when a pair of Gulgar commandos showed up looking for the cause behind their missing allies. The compressive nature of the trap combined with Ruby being quite alert on watch allowed the attack to be funneled through the narrow and trapped hallway. Defending the small room where everyone was camped out was then a simple matter. The Guild avoided heavy casualties other than the usual front line melee fighters. Once the earth based elementals were reduced to a pile of crystals like others, the trap was reset again and the rest period passed without any further incident. Yet, all members of the Guild experienced some rather vivid dreams unique to each individual while the Fey had no similar occurrence.

I got the second printing of the D&D Basic & Expert boxsets acquire from a thrift store that are all in quite excellent condition. These were identical to what my mother bought for my 9th birthday back in 1982. I also acquired the latest Doctor Who 2005 & 2006 season box sets from the BBC.

My copy arrived in Portland, OR on 12/14.

1330/Year of The Marching Moon

With the increased threat from the northern wastes emininent, construction begins on town gates leading to the pass through the Galena Mountains. The long term goal of the Mining Consortium is to finally build defendable walls around Galvinston as protection against all external threats. While initially starting as nothing more than a bar fights and back alley mugging, a full on gang war erupts in the Port between the Zhentarium and a new group calling themselves the Wickermen. To complicate matters, sabotage and other terrorist activities start back up again, mostly targeted at the mining operations. Blame is pointed at the two rival groups, but rumors suggest a third well-funded, but yet unnamed, organization has set up shop in the area and is looking to shake up the local political climate.

1331/Year of The Leaping Dolphin

Internal strife between the town militia and three different rival groups threatens to become out of control. Regular citizens start to complain loudly to anyone who will listen, whither it be local clergy, the sheriff, or even their favorite bartender. The town jail swiftly becomes overflowing every night of the week with miscreants, malcontents and drunk disorderly cases. To make matters worse, rumors of internal factional issues within the nearby Baronies of Damara reaches Galvinston. Apparently numerous assassination attempts within the Baronies have sent several nobles into hiding in the Galena mountains. Damaran adventurers, mercenaries and bounty hunters alike are suddenly seen all over the nearby area looking to make quick coins and thereby adding more fuel to powder keg of the local crisis.

1332/Year of The Sword and Stars

In an unusual display of diplomatic openness, the Mining Consortium invites all factions, organizations and public interest groups, both public and private to the Mid-Summer collective bargaining tables in hopes of resolving the internal crisis before it breaks out into a full blown civil war. Agents from all major and a few minor groups send representatives, diplomats and ambassadors to participate in the talks. Based on feedback, a great council is proposed and free elections are held for the first time in the region. The newly elected councilors immediately descend into bickering and general disagreement as they try to formalize the first session of the new government.

1333/Year of The Striking Falcon

Known Zhentarium agents suddenly become quiet within the eastern edge of the Moonsea. Demons are seen with increasing frequencies in the marshes of central Vaasa. The fey stones slowly start to behave quite erratically and unpredictably. One day it will snow, a week later it will be completely overgrown with plant life or covered in mold spores while by the end of the month the entire area had changed color to a rather nauseating shade of yellow. The stockade walls around the city of Galvinston are finally completed after massive cost overruns threaten to bankrupt the Mining Consortium. Almost immediately the price of land within the walls of the town skyrockets in value.

1334/Year of The Blazing Brand

Two previously unknown spell casters of questionable, but undeniably powerful backgrounds, Manshoon and Fzoul, with the help of their beholder allies, become the new lords of Zhentil Keep. The new formalized alliance between the Zhentarium and the Church of Bane publicly announce their intention to take over all trade and religious faith for the western Moonsea region. In response, all major Moonsea cities expel all known Zhentarium agents in an effort to avoid being take over from within by a fifth column. The Black Hand retaliates by announcing a Jihad against all non-believers of Bane and begins to recruit forces from across the region. Zhentarium presence in Galvinston increases ten-fold in a rapidly short period of time creating all kinds of strife predominately in the port.

Uktar 6, 1329 DR

After much discussion and planning about how the might surprise anyone approaching the beach head, they choose discretion over valor. The Guild backtracked to the defaced Shrine and spent the night safely tucked away in the extra-dimensional space provided by a Rope Trick spell. On the following morning they discovered a pack of Kuo-Toa with a pair of Yugolith mercenaries poking around the chamber looking for potential intruders. A Priest of Blipdoolpoolp was amongst the expedition and was in the process of trying to repair the damage to the holy shrine both physically and spiritually. Thinking that they could try to parley with the creatures, the Guild unexpectedly came crashing down from their hiding place with nothing but malice on their minds in the eyes of the resident defenders. Therefore, rather than any useful conversation being conducted between potential future allies, things immediately turned violent with missile weapons being hurled by the Kuo-Toa.

Ruby led the way dangling from the end of a rope brightly lit by a spell provided by Zodel. As a result, he took the brunt of the initial assault until he dropped safely into the water around the shrine. Mirushal stepped out on a floating magical disc and provided magical cover while Mist and Zodel began to climb down the rope. Not wanting to get caught behind slower allies, Storm climbed across he ceiling and made her way down one of the stone columns that supported the main cavern. Gavin spent some time trying to snipe from the relative safety of the portal before climbing down the rope and dropping into the water as well. What no one was prepared for was he extensive reach of this sub-species Yugolith called Voor. While they were just over nine feet tall, they each had four whip-like appendages that were almost twenty feet in length and a preternatural quickness to use them rapidly whenever anyone let their guard too for even a second.

As it turns outs, the Kuo-Toa, while good enough on spontaneous offense to knock Ruby senseless and unconscious, there were unable to follow through on their lethal threats. Even with Gavin being out of the battle for failing to remember that no one had even taught him to swim, this turned out to be of overall little consequence. Zodel kept busy pumping healing spells through a Great Status spell while Mist provided a inspiring song and Storm went off with her usual berserker frenzy after making her way down to ground level. Once Ruby was roused he also provided some of his trademark acidic breath weapon from any adversary slow enough to not get out of the way.

The battle quickly moved from a botched parley to a complete route in a mere thirty seconds leaving only a single Kuo-Toa left behind who surrendered hoping to be cut down on the shrine to provide some measure of faith to its deity. Attempts at interrogation yielded next to no information from the petulant captive. Eventually the creature was put out of its misery when something strange happened. The death of the Kuo-Toa in the water of the shrine to its own goddess prompted a verbal response from the divine being. Only Mist was able to understand what was spoken thanks to a previously cast Tongues spell. Based on the strange behavior of the former captive combined with the cryptic statement of Blipdoolpoolp suggested that there were at least two factions of Kuo-Toa in the nearby city. One that was in league with whomever was infected and another that was trying to do something to resolve it.

Deciding to push ahead back in the direction of the city, the Guild made a stop at the labor camp. Using light based spells to drive off infected creatures along the way, they stumbled onto something quite unexpected. All of the infected had been busy harvesting a red, mossy type plant that was growing over the entire surface of the nearby stream. Based on the consistency and texture of the plant matter, along with the symptoms of the infected suggesting that they were transmuting into some taxonomy of vegetation, clearly indicated that the red fungus was the main cause of the Scarlet Tide. Following the stream towards the underground city lead the Guild to unattended gates of the derelict metropolis. It was going to take some exploration of the moss encrusted structures to find the source of the flora in order to destroy it.

They warily entered the market on the outskirts of the city and saw nothing but corpses, debris, signs of a riot and the occasional scavenging lizard, The city appeared to be complete deserted and empty with no obvious signs of the thousands of Kuo-Toa who must have dwelled there. They decided to focus their initial foray at a lone stone building that sat alone on an island completed surrounded by walls. The red moss had grown over the surface water and seemed to bear weight when walked upon. Ruby used his acidic breath to slowly eat away at the surface of the structure and was immediately under attack from a group on infected Kuo-Toa trapped inside. Judicious use of bright light and melee weapons dealt with the creature who had been trapped inside due to the extreme growth of he red moss. When nothing inside the build yielded any more clues, the Guild moved on.

Climbing back up on the interior walls of the city, the Guild could make out several buildings of notice further inside. Their first stop was the ransacked remains of what had been some type of museum before moving onto the main temple of Blipdoolpoolp. The build was a combination of a circular and pentagonal shapes. It had five exterior doors, all locked and barred from the inside. All of the noise made by the Guild was heard by whomever had barricaded themselves inside. Eventually they opened up a dialogue via magic with Mist under the effect of a Tongues spell.. The Kuo-Toa were clearly quite dubious of strange foreigners claiming to be able to cure the disease. Mist was able to negotiate a means to enter and talk with the Kuo-Toa inside after proving herself with some type of magical test. Everyone participated in and passed the test except for Ruby whose likely cause for failure was defiling the Shrine the day before.

Under general agreement of a truce and that Ruby not enter the temple, the doors were opened and information was passed back and forth between both parties. Storm was actually asked to enter to the center of the temple to have divination magic cast upon her to prove that she had been previously infected but then later healed of the Scarlet Tide. The parlay was proceeding along quite well when the sounds of a trapped entrance up on the roof previously set off by Storm were heard and intruders of some kind managed to penetrated the temple from above. Within moments, the Kuo-Toa priestess was slain by enemy magic, breaking the bonds control over a pack of Yugoliths and Forge Wraiths who turned on both Guild and the other Kuo-Toa alike. Melee immediately broke out as everyone moved to defend themselves against hostile enemy forces.

Right before the priestess died, she provided a defensive Blade Barrier spell that interposed the main floor of the temple with the open areas of the levels above. This gave everyone a brief moment of respite to deal with the unexpected attackers on the main floor before whatever had breached he defenses above had made their way down to the main level. For their part the undead briefly attacked Ruby & Storm before flying off to attack something on the other side of the barrier. They behaved like there were under some type of Confusion effect. Occasionally attacking both enemies and allies alike, which is impossible for most undead to be under the influence of. Also instead of discorpreating upon death, they flow back into the corpse of the High Priestess as if they were really part of her mortal essence than actual undead.

Meanwhile the Yugoliths used their expansive reach via their multiple tentacles to grapple with the nearest opponents and attempt to rend them into pieces. Working as separate units, the Guild dispatched five of the size without taking significant harm thanks in part of a Fugue spell provided by Mist that kept half of the extraplanar mercenaries off guard or under constant damage. The last was cut down under the combined efforts of the Kuo-Toa temple guards who them rushed to their fallen priestess to see if they could revive her. Shortly thereafter the Blade Barrier was dispelled by something on the upper levels and infected Kuo-Toa started to make their way down. The board majority of them fell catatonic when they came within range of a Daylight spell cast upon Ruby’s shield, but some seemed immune. It seemed that the real battle for the temple and the city was bout to take place momentarily.

The band of unlikely heroes was given only a mere moment to prepare before creatures started to move down from the upper levels and attack. Leading the charge was a group of Briarvexes, a hybrid humanoid plant creature that seemed to be infected with the Scarlet Tide, but still remained immune to the light vulnerability. These creature had a rather annoying ability to pummel opponents and then later use the briars left behind in their wounds to rip and tear into them at a later time, even at range, as if the briars themselves had a mind of their own. Luckily some of the Kuo-Toa temple guard guards were around to help provide some offensive and some nastier creatures ripped through the exterior doors of the temple and attacked.

Leading the charge was a massive infected Kuo-Toa Leviathan that had a good half-dozen of the infected stones embedded into its skin. Throughout the course of the battle, this creature managed to swallow Mist and only through the insanely quick thinking and self-sacrifice of Zodel was she managed to almost certain death. The priest of Shaundakul actually voluntarily followed mist down into the gullet of the monster and kept her alive long enough for Storm and Ruby to dispatch and cut open the stomach of the beast before both occupants were burned alive by the vitriolic intestinal acid. The death of the massive beast caused the strange stones around its neck to dissipate into smoke and vanish.

The remainder of enemy were a horde of Uchuulon, a ooze warped variant of the common Chuul and a cadre of Echinoloth, another type of Yugolith mercenary. These new shock troops were all paralyzing tentacles and nauseating auras. The sheer quantity, physical size and volume of attacking creatures made for a deadly battle. Over the course of the fray every member of the Guild, except for Mirushal was seriously wounded or worse and all of the defending Kuo-Toa were slaughtered to the last fishy corpse. The several minute long affair was certainly both the longest and potentially most deadliest conflict the Guild has faced in their thirty year careers.

In the aftermath, they raided the bodies of the fallen Kuo-Toa and the temple for anything of value before looking for the mysterious spellcaster who had killed the Priest of Blipdoolpoolp. The found the Theurge on the third floor, collapsed into unconsciousness due to the presence of bright light, but still alive. Rifling through its possessions revealed a strange stone similar to the other stones at the Shrine cave and around the neck of the Leviathan. When Mirushal calmly picked it up she found herself rapidly infected with Scarlet Tide and collapsed due to the nearby light source. Based on the all of the clues discovered, the renegade Kuo-Toa was the likely cause of the heinous disease and the stone was its creation.

After collecting up everything of value, patching up their various wounds as best as possible, the group decided to strategically retreat out of the city rather than trying to camp within the temple. Shouldering the comatose bodies of the Kuo-Toa Theurge and Mirushal, they set out and warily made their way back from whence they came. Along the way, they saw remains of infected Kuo-Tia littering the streets as well as numerous Chuul who were preoccupied with the sudden bounty of fresh food left lying abbot in the form of corpses. As a result, they were able to navigate their way back to a relatively space place to camp without any interference from hostile creatures.

Uktar 7, 1329 DR

The following morning found Ruby & Gavin having come down with Filth Fever, likely from the Bulette a few days before that required immediate attention. Immediately thereafter was the quite grim and bloody interrogation and torture of the captive Kuo-Toa for any information that might lead to the cure of Scarlet Tide. Only Mist seemed to be bothered by the treatment of the prisoner and flat out attacked Storm to try to make her stop to no avail. Eventually enough information was dragged from the prisoner as to give clues, but it ultimately killed the Kuo-Toa in the end. Zodel used he proper selection of spells to remove curses and diseases to eventually relieve Mirushal of all symptoms of the Scarlet Tide. Albeit, she still remained unconscious, likely requiring extensive bed rest to recover fully. Fully mended, the Guild activated the portal using a Darkness spell and the master stone, destroying it on the other side and made their way back through the mine shafts to Galvinston.

Returning to town, they were met by guards inside the experimental portion of the mine who then escorted them to the surface. Mist was sent off to explain their misadventures over he past few days to the Foreman on duty while Storm went to the Temple of Auril to share the details with the clergy there. Ruby and Gavin dropped off Mirushal with his family to allow him to rest and recover and then joined everyone at the temple. They all ran into Raindrop, who had returned to town after more than a year to seek a cure for her mine Foreman; Grimble Grimble. After the details of the cure were shared with all of the towns healers, they set to work on tending those the most worse off. With the limited number of healers in town working around the clock, the cure would still take several ten days to pass along to everyone who was infected.

As night came, everyone gathered at the Blythe Bandele Inn for rest and relaxation. As usual whenever they returned victorious, they were not paying for any of the food or drinks. Shortly after sun down the militia alarm sounds and when everyone went outside to investigate, strange lights were seen to be emanating from the Temple of Auril. Grabbing their gear and rushing to the look into the problem, they passed screaming towns folk running for their lives. Some type of creatures had appeared inside of the holy sanctuary and were slaughtering clergy, disease victims and their families alike. Realizing that perhaps the demonic patron of the Kuo-Toa who created the disease was likely the cause, the Guild members rushed ahead and entered without any strategic forethought or planning.

Inside of the former consecrated build were a random assortment of Purple Fungi an a Vrock all lead by an Aspect of Zuggtmoy. The patron demon of disease, slime and fungus had come to Galvinston to acquire some modicum of revenge for the destructions of its plans in the subterranean Kuo-Toa city. It was using is demonic powers to turn innocent bystanders into Purple Fungus by ingesting them and vomiting them out again. Both Storm and Mist experienced the fist half of the procedure first hand, with the frenzied barbarian being able to cut herself free on her own while the bard requiring significant assistance to avoid almost certain death. Raindrop & Zodel went face to face to the Vrock and the poor monk took the brunt of the damage when she became infected by the demons supernatural spores which overcame her natural immunities Meanwhile Gavin and the barely conscious Mirushal blasted away at the Fungus and the Vrock.

While the Guild was eventually able to overcome the demonic presence and escape with the lives, there were numerous fatalities on the part of the town people who had depended on the Temple of Auril as a safe house against such attacks. Someone the Tanar’ri had overcome the most basic protective abjurations of Auril and turned the turned the make shift hospital into a charnel house. Whither fate or luck, both Storm’s son and Raindrop’s adjutant managed to escape death, but dozens of others were not so lucky. The ramifications of the bloody battle and the search for the cure for the plague would likely dwell on the minds of everyone in Galvinston for years to come. With some the emotional scars would fade with time, but for others, they would place the blame on whatever convenient target they could find.

Chapter 3 - Scene 2
423AC, Deepkolt 21st

Deepkolt 21, 423 SC

Dear Knuckles,

As we made out way to the City of Truth we were attacked by numerous undead creations that could only come from the Sickle himself in that they all shared the same features of the Boneyard destroyed the day before. They all were freezing to the touch when they struck and when they perished, they exploded in a blast of negative energy harmful to living flesh. We first encountered a pair of Blood Wight’s, a misnamed creature have little to do with a common Wight but everything to do with Blood. Poor Karick was engulfed by one of these beasts during the battle. Later we fought a herd of Lantern Goats who hunted with a type of Life Sense attacking those who seemed to have the weakest spark of life. Yet, the worst battle was yet to come as we stumbled upon the Sickle himself, surrounded by a coterie of undead minions, in the middle of some type of clandestine ceremony.

The insane necromancer had somehow managed to coerce Master Yap into doing his bidding and had brought forth the remains of Merket’s tribe as his lackeys. The poor man ranted and raved about being unstoppable and for a time he might have been correct. The crowd of Skeletons, Zombies and Ghasts made an effect wall between us and the magical artifact that he was imbuing with unknown magical powers. The creatures exploded upon their demise healing the others in the line and were quite effective in keeping us contained. Then the Sickle completed at least part of his incantations, setting off the weaker undead like exploding cinders, bringing forth a Shadow and the igniting dozens of magical effects on himself.

The Sickle used his sudden magical prowess to amazing effect, vaporizing Jaheira, snuffing the life from Merket and almost killed Jann. While Karick was quite effective in destroying the Shadow thanks to his Disrupting weapon, Illiam kept busy just keeping us alive, Bly fought like a madman and I was effectively useless the entire battle. We only managed to prevail because before Jaheira died, she realized that if the two portions of the Tear of Mishakal came together, Sickle might be stripped of his powers. Illiam executed the procedure and was thrown across the battlefield, while Karick, Bly and I took advantage of the turn of events to destroy the man we had been chasing for the past half year. Yet, we were unsure of our success since our enemies body seemed to melt away rather than remain as proof of our victory.

At first we thought we had achieved no tangible benefits from our effort, but when we examined the strange artifact that the Sickle had intended to destroy us all with, it granted us a possible vision our of future and a magical gift that seemed to compliment each of us. The quick and sudden demise of our hate enemy left us all with a void of activity in our foreseeable future. While we camped for the night and tended to our grievous wounds, we discussed possible options. After some time we decided to travel south to Bly’s home town and then to the capitol to spend out spoils from the Tomb of Horrors. Illiam also managed to return Merket’s soul to his body thanks in part to his effort spent to destroy
the Sickle.

When you touch the Heart of the World, you experience the following vision: You see yourself, decades from now, raising young children. You are an older kender to be having children, but you are content and happy with your family. You sense that everything is at peace. You know that, should you have children now or stop what you are doing now, this vision will not come to be.

Chapter 3 - Scene 1
423AC, Deepkolt 19th - 20th

Deepkolt 20, 423 SC

Dear Knuckles,

We spent the rest of the previous evening and the following day rooting through all of the wonderful items, coins and jewels we had managed to haul back with us out of the atrocious dungeon we had barely managed to escape. We were then approached by a lone rider who turned out to be a member of the tribe who was holding Yap captive. The rider, named Merket, was quite odd, seemingly to share much in common with legendary dragons, but somehow contained in the form of a man. He lead us back to his people only to discover that they had been destroyed by a massive undead ossuary called a Boneyard. This gigantic creature almost ripped me to pieces and would have succeeded if it had not been for my faithful friends and allies. Yet the destruction of the creature almost killed us all when it exploded into thousands of bone shards.

Uktar 5, 1329 (continued)

Divination magic and quite a fair amount of sheer common sense was used on a strange rock was in possession of one of the afflicted dwarven miners that clearly pointed it out to have been the initial cause of the infection. With all signs pointing to the mines, the Guild packed up their gear and head down. After significant trail and error, they were able to use the stone as a key of sorts with the addition of a Darkness spell to act as a catalyst to open up some type of magical portal in one of the experimental bone holes. They then crawled through narrow and constricting tunnels for better part of an hour before the passage opened up into the first large cavern they had seen. There were no immediate signs of any having passed by recently, but it was clear that they were quite deep in the earth, way beyond the range of surface tunnels dug by anyone in Galvinston.

The cavern was oval in shape, filled with stalactites and stalagmites with an exit on the far side that appeared to be some type of lava tube that was much larger than the crawl space the Guild had been previously navigating. As Gavin and Mirushal moved around to search the area on the far end, the gnome was suddenly grabbed from his floating magical disk but a multi-tentacled creature that seemed to be a collection rock on the ceiling on second and something quite carnivorous mere moments later. Several members of the group realized that it was a Balhannoth, a natural Underdark predator that had evolved to snuff out the magic of any creature it touched in order to allow it to feed unhindered. Needless to say, Mirushal was going to have to depend on everyone else to get himself free.

The rest of the group was clearly up to the task with Zodel providing a few well aimed spells, Gavin spending quarrel after quarrel at the creature and Storm jumping him into the air to get in a few well placed licks. At one point Mirushal stopped struggling and was dropped in favor of the nameless Dragon Shaman as the next likely dinner choice of the anti-magical generating Aberration. Storm also figured out that she could climb on top of the magical disk allowing her to get in quite a few extra licks standing around almost in mid-air that her previous jump and run strategies. As usual, Mist provided her usual degree of battle poetry inspiring everyone else into combat formations. Eventually the creature perished, but not before it tried to squish Mirushal into a pulp who had been kept from the brink of death by Zodel.

After a detailed search of the cave revealed no other obvious entrances or exits, nor anything of obvious financial value, the Guild pushed onward. Several hours later and at least one dead end led them to a tunnel that was under guard by a pair of Kuo-Toa. When they moved ahead to try and parlay with the creatures, they were attacked not only by the aquatic humanoids but by a pack of Dragonspawn abominations known as Bluespawn Stonegliders. The creatures were part Blue Dragon and part Termite who glided into and out of the stone like water as well as being so lightning quick that as long as they kept moving, they were quite difficult to land a blow upon.

The combat was just getting under control when the noise of the battle called more creatures to the fray. By sheer luck, Mist pulled out a Sun Rod and its brightness seemed to put the Kuo-Toa into some type of torpor. It was then that everyone realized that the creatures were infected with the same disease as had afflicted Galvinston. The quasi-natural daylight provided by the alchemical item made it quite easy to subdue and destroy the pack of Kuo-Toa. It also proved that the Guild was heading in the correct direction to the ultimate source of the disease that was clearly still some distance deeper into the confusing labyrinth of tunnels.

Once the Guild actually moved into the room that had been guarded by the now deceased Kuo-Toa they came under attack from a burrowing Bulette drawn to them by the vibrations on the ground. Gavin was in the lead and so was smashed against the wall by the massive creature until he was able to tumble away to safety. Storm and the Dragon Shaman moved in to pummel the beast working together as a team aided by Transmutation magic provided by Mist. Mirushal, wary of the battle a few hours before with a creature many times her size, stayed back and provided ranged magical support while Zodel provided both healing and melee coverage when it seemed sensible.

The dust from the first battle had barely settled when the Dragon Shaman stumbled onto another opponent. The main feature of the cavern was a some kind of shrine built in the middle of a pool of water. When the Wild Elf went to swim across to investigate further, a guardian Chuul tried to grab and drown him. Being granted power of his Green Dragon proctor, the elf easily escaped, but we snatched again on dry land. Everyone quickly moved to engage with Gavin blasting away with bolt after bolt and Storm charging ahead. In a matter of moments, the beast was dispatched allowing the Guild to explore the vast underground chamber without interference.

Zodel identified the shrine as belonging to Blipdoolpoolp, the main deity of the Kuo-Toa. Cleary this room was some type of holy location for the aquatic humanoids. General exploration revealed a single exit on the far side as well as several dozen stones infected with the Scarlet Tide that matched he one that had some how made its way up to Galvinston. A more detailed search of the pool and shrine revealed numerous coins, gems and a pair of scorpion carapace bracers from amongst the offerings made at the shrine. Fr her part, Storm climbed around like a monkey through the numerous vertical columns, stalactites and stalagmites looking for hidden treasure caches, secret lair or other exits to no avail. After a few hours of concerted investigation, the Guild decided to moved ahead through the adjoining lava tube deeper into the cavern complex.

They swiftly came to a three way intersection lit by some type of bioluminescent moss or fungus. Along the way they started to noticed cave drawing, caving and painting suggesting that they were nearing what might pass as civilization for a community of Kuo-Toa. The tunnel on the far left lead to some type of work area filled with Chuul, Kuo-Toa and other aquatic species all busy building something. The center tunnel clearly lead to the local village based on the volume of religious and secular artwork that was inscribed along the tunnel. The right tunnel left to a small shoreline littered with mineral and metal ore on the far side of a massive underground lake about a mile across from the city by watercraft.

Unfortunately the last tunnel was occupied by a Lodestone Marauder who had been busy feasting on the rock piles at the beach. Once it was alerted to the presence of intruders it moved down the tunnel to investigate. Mirushal sent a few well placed magic missiles and tried t use the terrain against it only to have the rocky skinned aberration burrow underground and come up from behind the group. The beast had he power of magnetism and use it to try to knock weapons out of enemy hands or known those wearing metal armor prone. Even with this nifty set of tricks, it was no match for the guild and went down under a combined assault. However the noise of the battle attracted unwanted attention from the nearby city forcing the Guild to collect whatever valuable ore they could rapidly appraise and set off for a safer location.

Chapter Eight – The Scarlet Tide

Location: Town & Mines of Galvinston

PC Dramatis Personae

Gavin – Halfling Male Rogue 10
Mirushal – Gnome Female Wizard 3, Shadowcaster 3, Noctumancer 4
Mist – Moon Elf Female Bard 10
Nameless – Wild Elf – Dragon Shaman 10
Storm - Human Female Barbarian 8, Frenzied Berserker 2
Zodel – Human Male Cleric 10

Uktar 1, 1329 DR

After a month since the initial illness occurred in town, begrudgingly the Mining Consortium initiates attempts to quarantine Galvinston from the outside world to help stem the deluge of infection. The local population has given the name Scarlet Tide to the disease after the shade of skin color of those contaminated turn once they are exposed. The infection vector appears to be touch related and the disease is clearly both magical of evil in origin. Things look quite bleak, with the infected rising into triple digits, but strangely no one has actually died from the disease. Instead they simply become comatose during the daylight hours and need to be force-fed, washed and changed by volunteers. Over the course of several ten-day they become more and more lethargic eventually slipping into a complete coma.

Since the Guild is ultimately ordered by the Mining Consortium, this forces them to get involved with what is clearly becoming a town crisis. Still upset by the takeover of their organization by the Consortium, as usual, they perform a quite lackluster job of keeping the peace. Strangely, amongst all of the people trying to leave town by any means necessary, an unknown wild elf warrior actual tries to enter the enter Galvinston. Apparently, the elf was an outcast from one of the local tribes who had come to finds information about the plague, which also was afflicting his people, as well as to petition to join the Guild. Needing all the help they could and benefiting from the knowledge that the disease had already spread outside of any attempt to contain it, the elf was given conditional membership and put to work.

With little information to work with, it was agreed that Zodel should try a few Divination spells and inquire from his deity in hopes of gaining any type of useful lead. Over a series of four questions asked, only two were answer and both were quite oblique. Yet armed with that data, they were able to determine that of the twelve initially infected people town, six were from the same mine crew. They all had been working on a series of experimental tunnels before coming down with the disease. The mostly likely cause was something that they discovered or stumbled across during their digging. When the Guild petitioned to enter the mine, the Consortium demanded that an experienced crew investigate in detail first before allowing the untrained to poke around an unsafe work zone.

Uktar 2-3, 1329 DR

The experimental tunnel collapses when a crew send by the Mining Tunnel is sent to investigate the potential lead. Due to a number of architectural short cuts taken by the infected former mine crew during the initial delving, the entire area is quite unstable. The Miner are confident that their co-workers are safe on the other side, being prepared for just such a eventuality. As they can do now is take their time to carefully dig out the buckled section of the tunnels, properly bracing them along the way. The initial estimate is that it will take several days to safely perform the excavation. All help offered by the Guild is politely decline by the self-supposed expert miners.

Uktar 4, 1329 DR

The collapsed tunnels are excavated and the all members of the delving crew are rescued. A detailed investigation of the main shaft along with the half-dozen ancillary shafts both by magic and in person reveal nothing strange or out of place. The tunnels are explored using natural vision as well as being aided by a magical light source. Mist conjectures that perhaps some type of magical darkness should be used instead based one of the Divinations made by Zodel a few days back. Everyone agrees that this is a good idea that will have to wait until the priest of Shaundakul is able to pray to his deity for the use the spell on the following day.

Uktar 5, 1329 DR

Members of the Guild are awoken in the middle of the night to either knocks on their doors or the sounds of distraught voices coming from the center of town. It appears that a group of ten of the initial infected, including Storm’s son Jamison, have started to sleep walk are milling about in the streets. No amount of pushing, prodding or cajoling seems to either awaken the individuals or stop them from wandering around aimlessly over time. The Guild tries rather unsuccessfully to dissuade the friends and family that are present to leave the area until the last two remaining individuals from the original infection shamble into the square. The dozen Scarlet Children suddenly all become alert as if under the control of a single presence and then randomly attack the nearest person to them.

Most of the victims were the afflicted loved ones, friends or family, but a few members of the Guild were also part of the initial attack. Once the it became clear that the gathering in the middle of town had gone completely out of control, those not grappled by the Scarlet Tide ran from the area screaming for their lives. Those that were trapped in the embraces of the enemy quickly fell victim to the eyes and tongues of their attackers shooting out like tendrils, kissing them and then dropping the now comatose bodies to the ground. At first the Guild tried really hard to disable rather than kill the innocent towns people afflicted with the Scarlet Tide and clearly not under their own mental faculties, but once both Storm and Gavin receive the Scarlet Kiss and collapsed, more lethal actions were take. In the end, three of the afflicted were burnt to cinders with the rest smashed into various states of unconsciousness via blade, spell or fist.

Strangely, those who were knock unconscious or worse all appeared to still be alive and seemed to manifest trait more in common with plants rather than living humanoids. For their own and others safety, all the afflicted and the newly infected were all bound and restrained. Emergency medical care was provided for all of the newly infected and everyone, including the Guild members, had the taint removed, albeit they still remained passed out even after the healing magic was administrated to them. Everyone consider themselves fortunate that things had not been worse since Jamison was amongst the afflicted and they could only imagine the ire of Storm if they had been forced to kill her only son. As it was, the first victims of the plague had come to Galvinston at the hands of the Guild in defense of the town.

I've an in the middle of four different campaigns right now, each on a different game world: Krynn, Forgotten Realms, Planescape & Eberron.

I certainly prefer leaving the stat blocks inline with the section of the adventure they reference. Of course, I still think that the new stat blocks ought to include the AC break down (Armor, Deflection, Natural Armor, etc), but that doesn't seem likely to be changed anytime soon.

My copy of #139 arrived here in Portland, Oregon on Wednesday, September 6th. I expect Dragon #349 to arrived by the following Wednesday based on the shipping date.

I am using a version of this adventure in my 3.5E campaign over the next few weeks. I am removing most of the entire middle section of the campaign due to its tediousness and redundancy. My reworked version of this template is below. The main change was the limiting the Constution damage to 1d6 which I felt was more in line with a +1 LA template.

CREATING A Scarlet Child

Size and Type: A scarlet child’s type does not change, but it gains all plant traits.
Hit Dice: The base creature changes to d8 Hit Dice.
Armor Class: The creature suffers a -2 penalty to its natural armor bonus, if any (minimum bonus of +0)
Attack: A scarlet child retains all of the base creature’s attacks. It also gains a ranged touch attack. As a standard action, it can shoot forth a whip-like mass of fibrous red tendrils that lash out from the eye sockets, nostrils, or mouth to a maximum range of 15 feet. This ‘tendril attack’ has an attack bonus equal to the scarlet child’s BAB + Dexterity modifier.
Damage: Damage caused by the base creature’s attacks remain unchanged. The scarlet child’s tendril attack deals no damage but could infest the victim with scarlet rust (see Special Attacks – Infestation).
Special Attacks: The scarlet child has all the special attacks of the base creature plus those given below.
Infestation (Ex): A victim hit by the scarlet child’s tendril attack must succeed at a Fortitude saving throw (DC equals 10 + half the scarlet child’s Hit Dice plus Constitution modifier) or become infected with scarlet rust. See scarlet rust for details.
Breath Weapon (Ex): Once a day, the scarlet child can spit a concentrated glob of scarlet rust from its mouth at any target within 30 feet. The victim must succeed on a Reflex saving throw (DC equals 10 + half the scarlet child’s Hit Dice plus Dexterity Modifier) to avoid the glob. Otherwise the glob deals one point of temporary Constitution damage per round for 1d6 rounds as it quickly spreads through the victim’s body. Remove Disease destroys the infestation. Someone who dies from Constitution loss in this manner transforms into a scarlet child in 1d6 minutes,
Special Qualities: A scarlet child retains all of the special qualities of the base creature plus those given below:
Regeneration (Ex): Damage dealt to a scarlet child is treated as subdual damage, which the child heals at a rate of 3 points per round. The scarlet child suffers normal damage from electricity, acid and sunlight.
Susceptible to Sunlight (Ex): Scarlet children are susceptible to natural sunlight and daylight spells. Exposure to sunlight forces a scarlet child to make a Fortitude saving throw (DC 15) or collapse into dormancy until the exposure ends. Continued exposure forces a new Fortitude save every minute.
Susceptible to Remove Disease (Ex): A scarlet child targets by a Remove Disease spell must resist the spell with a successful Fortitude saving throw or be instantly slain. Even if the saving throw is successful, the child takes 3d6 points of damage plus 1 point per caster level.
Abilities: +2 to Constitution (undead base creature do not gain this bonus), -2 to Charisma.
Skills and Feats: As base creature. Scarlet children gain a +4 racial bonus to Hide and Move Silently attacks.
Environment: Underground.
Organization: Solitary, band (1d4+1) or cult (5d20)
Challenge Rating: Same as base creature +1
Treasure: Standard.
Alignment: Always neutral evil.
Advancement: Same as base creature
Level Adjustment: Same as base creature +1

1324/Year of the Grimoire (continued)

With the vanishing of all members of the adventurers Guild, the Mining Consortium executes a hostile takeover. While the install the last remaining adopted member of the Kiyoshi-Farren family as acting Guild master, he clearly has little say in the day to day functions of the Guild. Members are paid in mine shares based on their tenure and are given free accommodations in the shanty town. The New Dawn quietly moves into the Fairgrounds and begins to erect a formalized headquarters in a direct response to the aggressive actions of the Consortium. Meanwhile a wandering priest of Shaundakul appears from the wilds and opens up a map shop at the Port.

1325/Year of the Great Harvests

The beer and wine of this year are legendary as the bounty of Faerun is quite abundant. As a result, the local Chauntean faith experiences a major up swelling. This prompt the local worshipers of the Earth Mother to kick-off a major agricultural festival that they promise will occur on each and every High Harvestide holiday. A regional dwarven war hero from Damara is installed as the replacement town Sheriff and the adventurers Guild are re-assigned to report to the Constable. The Guild becomes little more than the town militia acting as underlings and lackeys for such mundane tasks as breaking up bar fights, handling unruly sailors and dealing with the occasional rogue wild animal that wanders into town.

1326/Year of the Striking Hawk

The Zhentarium kick off a major economic offensive in town rapidly acquiring several warehouses, the granary, a small Inn, a nearby pub, several fishing boats and marina access at the port. The New Dawn makes a surprising move to organize the miners while the Consortium is distracted by the hostile takeovers, but ultimately fails in its bid to unionize. As a result, the ring leaders flee Galvinston for fear or major reprisals. The town of Downslope is destroyed during a battle between a tribe of goblinoids and a pair of passing Hill Giants. Rumors of a major Bloodstone strike in the nearby kingdom of Damara wrap up a tumultuous year.

1327/Year of the Blue Flame

Snowfall occurs on Mid-Summers to grace the birth of a grandchild to Frostfell clan at the Temple of Auril. A school is built in town by a wandering Oghmite who seems to be completely disinterested in local politics and simply wants to invest in the education of the town’s truant youth. Using adventuring proceeds inherited as a result of the death of two of their adoptive children, the Blythe Bandele Inn goes through a major renovation adding on several floors and improving many of the major features to the business. A small post office opens at the Port offering the ability to send and receive personal messages with guarantees of security and delivery around the Moonsea region.

1328/Year of the Adder

A Temple of Chauntea is consecrated on the site of the former town fairgrounds. This large open air structure is capable of seating all of the nearby faithful who have flocked to the religion over the past several years. The Consortium wizard opens a small shop dealing in potions,, alchemical wonders, curiosities and the occasional magical trinket. The Sorenson clan obtains enough Mine stock to finally gain a seat on the board and uses its new found power to acquire a major trading coaster along with a small shipping fleet. Local gossip suggests that the head of the Human clan is using some type of magic to prolong his life span in order to avoid his children taking over the family enterprise.

1329/Year of the Lost Helm

Frost Giants are spotted at the northern pass from Galvinston into Vaasa. While unsuccessfully trying to keep it a secret, the New Dawn makes a major mineral strike far outside of town and suddenly reappears on the political scene burgeoning with new found wealth. A long time rumor suggesting that Sharess was no longer worshipped at the Cat’O’Nine Brothel is revealed as fact when a major orgy is uncovered purely on accident due to noise complaints from the neighbors. A strange sickness starts to hit miners with no obvious cure or means to resolve. Local clergy of all faiths are stymied as to the origin of the disease which seems to turn the skin of its victims a shade of Scarlet confirming infection.

Ches 28, 1324 DR

The next day saw an only slight increase in the overall general mood of the remaining Guild members in a positive direction. While they somehow managed to survive the night uneventfully, they were still trapped inside of the strange Shenshite temple with no clear direction. They seemed to have stumbled onto the central nexus of the place, but no one else was around. Searching several chambers revealed sleeping and eating areas with left over food still sitting on the tables and unmade beds. Quite a large amount of valuables were still left lying around so they were collected up as a means to somehow wrench victory from this clearly humbling defeat. As they moved to the very last chamber at the rear of the building, they were loathe to a discover that is was protected by a very same dragon-like creature venerated on the walls, in motifs across the structure and one the room of the building. They were clearly up for another fight for their very lives.

The Shensahti Serpent was armed with a sonic based breath weapon that could also Confuse those affected by it. In addition it was graces with numerous defensive spells to aid it in protecting the treasure cache of the Citadel. Gavin was caught by the secondary effects for the first half of the battle and was unknowingly taking pot shots at Mist which caused much frustration until she realize what was going on and dispelled the effect. Storm and Raindrop were on the front line trading blows with the creature who seemed to excel on Trip attacks caused most of the group to spend more time prone that vertical. Nevertheless, with sheer persistence and large amounts of personal blood being shed, they managed to dispatch the guardian icon of the entire temple complex. They then proceeded to dig their way through the urns the Shensahti had been protecting and removing all items of value before preparing to find a way out and head home.

Their plans were interrupted by what sounded like a alarm originating from a bell. They were able to find the source of the sound, a hidden bell tower and ended using it to climb up and out of the structure and onto the main room area rather than try to fight their way back through the entire structure itself now that anyone inside was aware of their presence. Ironically, the bell tower was not actually an alarm, but in fact to alert the residents of their return of their warlord and his band of bandits. The leader was a massive Yuan-Ti Abomination by the name of Histchok and he stood guard at the front entrance with a pair of Ophidian warriors blocking the escape route of the remaining Guild members. Realizing that they were going to need to run the gauntlet to escape, the band of adventurers set about formulating a plan.

Using a crossbow bolt ensorcelled with a Silence spell taken from one of Mist’s rarely use collection of scrolls, the group silently moved across the roof, dispatched a guard and made their way down to the ground. They then wait for the enemy leader to be almost alone with all of his pillage unloaded before they fired it at him and rushed to engage. The large serpentine humanoid wielded a massive great axe in addition to multiple tentacles spilling out of its side. Storm and Histchok traded massive blows with Raindrop, Mist and Gavin taking out the few remaining body guards who happened to be near by., It was only by a sheer twist of fate that the Yuan-Ti perished a split second before Storm fell down herself. Focusing on retreat instead of any additional engagement, Mist nursed Storm back to health and the entire group absconded with an empty wagon and drove their way out of the isolated mountain valley in the direction of home.

Tarsakh 30, 1328 DR

Arriving back in Galvinston, the members of the Guild were shocked to find out that for each day spent inside the citadel, a year had passed in the real world. All of them had been assumed lost or perished more than four years ago and the town had moved on without them. They were greeted by various children as they walked into town on foot and were meet by the new town Sheriff, and the town wizard, both dwarves, and the four junior members of the adventuring Guild lead by Meeshani and Mariasha’s last remaining sibling Mirushal. Mist’s family had packed up and moved out of town when she never returned, while Raindrop’s New Dawn had tried to unionize the miner and failed, so they had fled the local area to avoid being arrested. Storm’s lone child had returned to town after the completion of his schooling and was living with Storm’s sister Jill. Gavin was the only one without any local family of friends to speak of, so he was the least impacted by this unexpected passage of time.

Ches 27, 1324 DR

The more intriguing portion of the western wing turned out to a room that was still being used to preserve corpses of various shapes, sizes and classifications. Numerous chemicals, mechanism and accoutrement were litter across the chamber with a humanoid body lying prominently on a table in the middle of the room covered in a clear resin. When approached it tried to grab Meeshani, failing that it stood up and started to cast several spells. While the creature resembled a well armored Mummy that radiate despair to those who viewed it directly and whose touch caused disease, none of the usual vulnerabilities applied. Holy Fire seemed to cause it no real damage, it ignored the divinely inspired power of Jorial and seemed to be healed by positive energy. When it died, it actually thanked its killer for the effort before collapsing into a pile of dust and magically enhanced gear.

Hidden inside of the shield of was a strange book that seemed to be blank to everyone but Raindrop. Once she cracked open the book and read a few words, she was infused with a weird level of magical energy that seemed to waft around her body and manifest itself in the form of a pair of rose tattoos that spiraled around her forearms. She appeared both physically healthier and imbued with a bizarre preternatural quickness mere seconds after simply opening the mysterious tome and appearing to read the first few words. Simple divinations and rudimentary health checks revealed that nothing untoward had occurred to the monk. Raindrop claimed that the book was a missing piece of training that had been considered long list by the members of her monk order at the Abby of the Rose.

Moving deeper into the building the Guild was pretty confident that the next room was underneath the eastern bronze dome which means that it was defended by a Fiendish Displacer Beast and a pack of Kamadan’s. First they needed to get through the front door which Meeshani and Storm found out the hard way was trapped with a magical glyph that took all of Gavin’s skills to detect and disarm. Deciding that since the element of surprise was lost, they opened the door and rushed into the room only to have half the group caught inside of a sleep inducing breath weapon from a Kamadan ruining what little tactical advantage they might have had left. Nevertheless they pushed on and manage to soundly thrash the three feline creatures guarding the room in short order.

The guardian creatures had been protecting four sarcophagi, all filled with deceased six armed humanoids. One of the toms was more elaborate that the rest gilded with a diamond and containing armor, weapons and jewelry amongst the remains of the corpse. In addition, tucked away inside of a shield was a book that was titled the Art of Being Dark that only Gavin seemed to be able to read. Mere moments after he opened the book a strange series of shadow-like tattoos spread out from his eyes clearly changing him in some unknown way similar to Raindrop. Jorial seemed concerned that two members of the group were suddenly under the power of strange unidentifiable magic, but when no one else objected, the group moved on to examine the lone exit out of the room.

The other side of the door opened to the exterior of the building at the foot of a waterfall caused by rapidly melting snow. The door was concealed in the side of the build so it had been unnoticed when the group had scouted the room area the day before. Strom volunteered to dive into the pool of water and scout around. But after finding nothing and almost getting sucked down into an underground stream, the group backtracked inside of the building and headed back to a set of stairs bypassed earlier. They made their way through a set of abandoned barracks, ransacked armory and stumbled onto a giant three armed Aberration called an Athach cooking in what might be considered a kitchen if you had the culinary skills of a garbage collector.

Meeshani scouting ahead taunted the creature and drew it back to he rest of the party laying in wait to take it down. Unsurprisingly the twelve tall beast took a great dealing of beating and ripped into Storm with its bloody cleaver quite a few times before it was eventually hobbled and ten taken down. In order to keep Storm from attacking any allies, Meeshani bluffed that other creatures were just down the hallway, prompting the insanely angry barbarian to run down a series of hallways looking for anyone of anything to smash. The end result of this poorly prepared bait and switch was Storm outdistancing the group and smashing open the next closed door that came across her path. Ironically on the far side was what appeared to be Dendrail engrossed in some type of conversation with several different creatures each with multiple tentacles, arms or both. None of them looked all that thrilled to be interrupted and everyone but missing glacier dwarf moved to attack the unexpected intruder.

The lead creature was a Hound of Gloom, a canine with a collar of poisonous tentacles and right behind it was some type of mutated Grey Render. Both creatures clearly focused on unarmed combat with a specialization on grappling and either ripping their opponents to pieces or incapacitating them with toxins. When Storm tried to engage in dialogue with Dendrail, the dwarf either didn’t recognize her or was not under his own control as he ordered his monstrous minions to attack. Dendrail looked and acted quite different that the disagreeable dwarf that everyone had know for years until his mysterious disappearance almost a decade ago. To start Dendrail no longer carried a bow, instead favoring a heavy mace which he wielded in two hands. He also dressed better, seemed to bear himself with considerable confidence and even bothered to groom himself quite meticulously. Something was quite definitely wrong with the man they had come to rescue, so the Guild moved to subdue him and deal with the fiends in a less pleasant manner.

Raindrop played the part of interference with Dendrail and moved into and out grapples over and over, trying to pin the dwarf and perhaps render him unconscious. Each time Raindrop got close to succeeding she was pushed away, yet for his part Dendrail was totally unable to make any offensive ground himself, so the two were locked in an almost constant deadlock. As usual Storm was up at the front lines, but this time around was quite ineffectual, spending most of her time wrapped up in the tentacles of one enemy or the other for the majority of the battle. This gave both Gavin and Meeshani a rare change to move in close and tag team their opponents with direct melee attacks with devastating results. Mist and Jorial continued their usual support role with inspirational singing and first aid wherever it was required.

While Storm almost managed to die not only once, but twice while spending a great deal of time in the grasp of icky tentacled beasties, that die not turn out to be the least of the Guild’s concerns. Once the evil guardians were dispatched, they all moved into try and restrain Dendrail, but they were quickly surprised when the wily dwarf smashed his mace into both Meeshani and Jorial in short order dropping them dead in rapid succession. With the proverbial arms race of the battle suddenly going nuclear, a peaceful resolutions to the struggle was no longer and option so the gloves were taken off and the dwarf was summarily beaten to a pulp. Along the way, bits of flesh and bone were shed as a result of massive wounds to reveal that some type of fiend has possessed poor Dendrail. Perhaps the most horrifying moment was when Mist revealed that the cloven hoofed, winger and goat headed corpse remaining belong to none other than an Aspect of Orcus, the Demon Prince of the Undead.

Fraught with the fact that two of their friends and allies had perished at the hands of a demon who had possessed another friend only served to heighten the tension of the situation. At several moments Raindrop, Gavin, Mist and Storm all almost came to blows trying to determine the next best course of action they should complete after recovering the deceased corpses of their fallen friends in hopes of giving them either a proper burial or coaxing a major deity to restore them to life if they could ever manage to find themselves a way back home again. Eventually first priority was given to find a secure area to rest and recover from the horrendous after effects of the last few hours of battle. After locating a suitable shelter, they set a watch with Storm remaining up all night long with others taking shifts.

Ches 26, 1324 DR

After a restful evening spent over the camp fire sharing grilled Dire Bear meat with their new Uldra hunter friends, the group decided to enter the citadel directly through the front door. After checking against for traps, the Gavin and Meeshani moved cautiously inside exploring a large entry hall hundreds of feet wide, cover in serpentine stone carvings, with the prominent features being a single door opposite the main door and a serious of four balconies that overlooked the room at differing heights. Within less than a moment, they both heard the noise of multiple creatures approaching on the balconies. They were quite surprised to see two Girallons appear on the left balconies followed by two Arrow Demons on the right side. While the magical beasts seemed willing to posture and make threats to encourage the Guild, the demons had no such reservations and immediately opened fire.

The forthcoming battle was perhaps the most intense in the long 25 year life time of the Guild. It would have been much worse if Mist had not Fascinated the Girallon with her Bardic music while hiding around the corner from all of the missile weapons who wee attracted to her likes bees to honey to her cursed ring. This left everyone else the task of climbing the walls to take engage the Tanar’ri directly since their raged weapons were only have limited effect due to some type of inherent demonic toughness. Storm was the first to make the climb and in retrospect it was what almost killed her if Jorial had not slid in at the last second to save her from certain death. Yet, her valiant lead was what encouraged the rest of the group to make the same perilous climb, using Gavin’s magical rope, up to the balconies.

The Guild ended up pushing the battle to the hidden stairwells behind the balcony where they had to deal with demons who could summon more of their own kind. In addition well armed Outsides had the natural ability Dimension Door away at their convenience in order to evade being flanked and to take up better ranged combat positions. This made for a very pitched and long battle with heavy casualties on both sides until the last of the Tanar’ri fell. As they tended to tended their wounds, they attempted to be very quiet in order to trick the Girallon who were no longer held sway under Mists music that they had left. Their subterfuge seemed to work, but it also likely left them trapped inside of the building once the main doors were closed and locked again as the Girallon departed. After collecting the magical weapons from their fallen enemies and uncovering a concealed door, the Guild move deeper into the building.

The doorway turned out to be a portal for an elaborate maze. The front half of the maze was littered with desiccated corpses, spider webs and piles of dust while the back half was filled with rotting bodies, moisture dripping off the walls and channels of water flowing down the hallway. Both sections contained numerous statues some of which were little more than terra cotta or granite while others contained guardian creatures that attacked when a member of the Guild passed nearby or investigated. Whither undead or demon, the creatures were dispatched with the usual ruthless efficiency with only minimal effort apart a bit of psionic mental damage to Meeshani and Gavin that no one really noticed being any different from their usual abrasive demeanor.

Front Line Assembly - Artificial Soldier
Bitcrush - In Distance
Wai Pi Wai - Beat Planet
Synapscape - Act!
Covenant - Skyshaper
Suicide Commando - Bind, Torture, Kill
Snog - Faecal Juggernaut of Mass Culture
Ayria - Flicker
Psychob@~## - Electrolicious
Pig - Pigmartyr
Gary Numan - Jagged
Chemlab - Rock Whore vs Dance Floor
Monolith - Talisman
Leaetherstrip - Walking the Volcano
Klutae - Hit'n'Run
Ryoji Ikeda - Dataplex
Das Ich - Cabaret
Dive vs Diskonnekted - Frozen
Shinjuku Thief - Sacred Fury

Ches 25, 1324 (continued)

The Guild ultimately decided to move a little bit closer to the action between the massive ursine and what would eventually be revealed to be a small group of Uldra hunters. Deciding to intercede before things got too out of control, Meeshani, Storm and Raindrop ran ahead to engage with the bear while everyone else rushed to catch up being limited in their speed and ability to keep up. Three of the Uldra when down quickly and a fourth fell just as the Guild joined the battle and dispatched already quite would Dire animal. Things almost went out of control went thanks to Storm’s frenzy, so Mist Fascinated the out of control Barbarian rather than risk her potentially attacking the Uldra. Afterwards, language and communication were an issue initially with the Uldra quite on edge about a group of unknown strangers showing up, even if they aided in the melee with the bear. Even after Storm had calmed down, once it was revealed that the Uldra were Fey, she went to retrieve her Cold Iron weapons based on her past experience with such creatures.

Thankfully, Mist was able to provide a Tongues spell to Jorial who was already quite a competent negotiator even if he did not share a common language with the Uldra. Using Jorial as a common point of translation they learned that they Uldra were from a nearby tribe who traveled to this location every time the temporal citadel reappeared. It was considered a high honor to be chosen by the tribe to enter the structure and part of their rite of passage. Those who passed the test inside went onto become tribal elders, those who perished never returned. The remaining three Uldra felt that they had failed their first test against the bear and were completely unworthy to enter the building, but the Guild had earned that right be rescuing them. In fact, they confused Jorial with one of their Shaman and asked him to perform the death rites on the failed Fey and agreed to stand guard outside to await the Guild’s return.

Deciding that these Fey seemed to offer no real threat and were instead quite useful and providing information, the Guild set about to explore the area before entering. Gavin set about opened up the series of three locks on the massive double doors while Raindrop climbed up to the room to investigate. From above it was clear that the building had three wings with various roof structures, some of which from a distance appeared to be potential ways inside. While poking around underneath the statue of the dragon, Raindrop was suddenly attacked by a trio of tentacled cat-like creatures. Rather than face them alone, she ran and took a controlled fall down the roof using the rope she had climbed up with. The beasts did not follow her down, but they did alert the group to the potential of attackers on the roof. When the rest of the group went up to investigate further, the creatures made their presence known and attacked.

The feline creatures turned out to be a pack of three Displacer Beasts consisting of two smaller and more common specimens and one much larger pack lord. Mist provided minutiae that the magical beasts were under the effects of a permanent Displacement and also had a natural defense against ranged weapons. While the two lesser felines were quite easy to dispatch, the larger one was another story altogether. It used the sloped terrain of the glass roofed arboretum to its advantage along with its impressive reach to pluck Guild members up at random, slash into others with its serrated tentacles all while deftly avoiding most attacks. At one point the battle was so pitched that both Gavin and Jorial almost perished from life threatening injuries before the group was finally able to take the creature down under a protracted assault.

Exploration of the rest of the eastern wing of the revealed two prospective means to enter the structure from the roof, the first required breaking into the glass roofed arboretum and the second was through a hole in the roof of a bronze terraced dome. Regrettably it seemed that an massively large Girallon occupied the interior of the dome, passing time by reading some type of book while lounging underneath an even larger patina bronze statue of a multi-limbed humanoid with a massive belly. Having faced Girallon a few years back, while it was quite odd that a creature or surmised animal intelligence was reading something, its size excluded any potential desire to enter the citadel by this particular entrance.

The western wing was patrolled by a foursome of Chokers that surprised the Guild from around corners as the passed by. At one point everyone in the group except for Meeshani were grappled by the multi-limbed creatures before they were able to disengage from the Aberrations and eventually terminate them. An almost identical metallic dome graced this wing as well, but the insides were quite a bit different consisting of numerous gold embossed sarcophagi patrolled by a fiendish looking Displacer Beast of equally impressive Leopard-like creatures with a ring of tentacles around the nape of their necks that Mist identified as Kamadan. These distant cousins of Displacer Beasts had a nasty breath weapon and poisonous venom amongst their arsenal of natural abilities. Armed with as many as four means to enter the mysterious building, the Guild set about making an informed decision about which path was the best choice.

Chapter Seven – Temple of the Demonic Winds

Location: Town of Galvinston & Mountains in Northwestern Vaasa

PC Dramatis Personae

Gavin – Halfling Male Rogue 9
Jorial Skye – Human Male Priest 5, Morninglord 4
Meeshani – Gnome Female Scout 9
Mist – Moon Elf Female Bard 9
Raindrop - Human Female Monk 6, Drunken Master 4
Storm - Human Female Barbarian 8, Frenzied Berserker 2

Alturiak 28, 1324 DR

Sage arrived in town shortly after the first thaw of the season, with the ice just starting to break in some sections of the Moonsea. He seemed completely unaffected by the still quite cold temperatures, but in high spirits and wanting to start off on the trip to the citadel. The fey was quite eager to dispatch with the payment of his long owed favor and to return to the realms of the Faerie to be amongst his own kind. He pushed, prodded, coerced, begged and practically loaded all of your gear just to speed up the process of getting you on the way out of town for what he describes as an arduous journey deep into the upper altitudes of eastern Galena mountains. He recommended that you pack the necessary cold weather, climbing and survival gear to facilitate such a expedition. Sage also suggested bringing along enough food for several months to a year if you manage to get stuck inside of the magical citadel for prolonged period of time like he did last time.

Ches 1-24, 1324 DR

Once the Guild managed to get packed up, find someone to cover for their various jobs and roles around town, they finally made their way north over the pass towards central Vaasa. The first ten-day was spent skirting the foothills along the eastern edges of the Galena mountains in the central Vaasan valley with the sole highlight of witnessing a very cold goblin tribe wintering at the remains of Downslope. The next ten-day was spent on the slow and relentless climb of the mountain range during the dead of winter. Very little vertical progress was made, which kept the weather from becoming much more than their cold weather gear could properly handle. Eventually, during the third ten-day they started to gain serious altitude and needed regular magical enhancements to avoid the worst of the inclement weather and oxygen deprivation. Thankfully, they had planned ahead for just such an eventuality, so no one was bothered by anything more than a little tedious physical fatigue by the end of any given day spent hiking through the harsh Galena Mountains.

Ches 25, 1324 DR

Around mid-morning the usual silence of the area was broken by a rapidly increasing low bass hum that seemed to increase over the course of an hour, with no obvious source, becoming more and more intense, before suddenly ending with an audible treble pop. There appeared to be no visible effects of the sound on the nearby terrain until after the noise vanished, when all of the nearby unblemished snow suddenly appeared to have been subtly rearranged as if an minor earthquake had slightly dislodged just the top layers of the fresh snow pack. Clearly something strange had occurred that even Sage was unable to discern, but he was quite sure that they were very near the location of the mysterious citadel and that they would arrive by nightfall at the latest.

A few hours later, several members of the guild heard the sound of something rapidly approaching by air at the top of the ridge and were able to prepare for the sudden arrival of a blue winged Outsider that appeared to be composed of an unholy merging of both ice and flesh. The demonic creature wielded impressive natural spell abilities that focused on the cold and use them to great effect in the initial moments of the battle. It also did its best to both stay aloft and out of melee range while dividing the group up with a dome of ice. It wasn’t until the creature moved in for a direct assault on the group before they were able to truly overcome it defenses and methodically destroy the creature. The corpse then proceeded to melted away before their eyes upon its death as if it had never been. Its origins were a complete conundrum with Mist only being able to speculate that it was likely a Tanar’ri from one of the many cold-based planes of the Abyss.

Trudging along at the altitude was beginning to wear even on Storm, but when they rounded what they thought was yet another snow covered rocky crag and stumbled onto vista overlooking a huge natural canyon they were relieved to have reached their destination. The ravine was filled with swiftly melting ice from the nearby snow fields with a massive stone structure at the far end. Cleary whatever the origin of the building, it came from some place warm enough that it could sustain its own micro-climate. The main feature of the building was a massive stone statue of a dragon over the main entry way along with several strange features spread across the wide roof . Also of note was a group of a half-dozen bluish humanoids that were waging a battle with a Dire Polar Bear in the middle of a pool of freshly melted water by the main entrance. The Guild had to pause to consider just exactly who the potential allies might be and if they might intercede or simply wait until one side eventually emerged victorious.

Intra-Chapter Timeline

1320/Year of the Watching Cold

The Mining Consortium spends most of the year reeling from a sudden absence of a hired wizard. Ore refining and mineral discovery experience a major decline without the addition of magical assistance for various mining different endeavors forcing the consortium to negotiate their first contract with on a year by year profit sharing increase. Repeated attempts to hire a replacement wizard generally end in various disasters up to and sometimes including the death of the applicant. While the presence of the Drow in the nearby region trickles to almost nothing, sabotage, vandalism and straight out terrorism is on the marked increase, clearly from internal sources, likely disgruntled miners. To complicate matters, Zhentarium traders arrive in the area in possession of Mine Shares and open up a mercantile shop at the port. Needless to say, the absence of Basil seems to be the single largest challenge Galvinston had faced in recent memory.

The gallivanting brownie Sage returns shortly at the first spring thaw with a fantastic story concerning the whereabouts of their Guild’s long lost friend and ally Dendrail. Apparently the dwarf had fallen in with a bunch of demons and damned souls trapped within a mystical fortress deep in the far northwestern edge of the Galena Mountains. An unknown set of circumstances and conditions afflicted the nameless fortress keeping it out of flux with time and space from the prime material plane. Only pure fey luck allowed Sage to escape the constraints of the magical structure and return to Faerun. As near as Sage could figure, the building would return to the same location in four years time. He agreed to return to town in the spring at the next scheduled return of the citadel and lead the Guild to its location.

1321/Year of Chains

The general economy of the mine continues to slid downhill even as the port seems to stabilize with alternate sources of revenue coming from increased forestry products from the vast untapped forests in the region. Continued attempts to hire arcane assistance to aid in the general health of the mine end are repeated misfortune. The overall mood of the town and outlying community turn brooding and introspective with blame being laid on anyone that could conceivably be pointed at as a scapegoat. This ends causes many of the alleged saboteurs responsible for various crimes over the years to be turned into the constable. A detailed investigation reveals no real culpable mastermind behind the attacks. Instead the interrogations reveal no single source behind the any of the acts of mining disruption.

1322/Year of Lurking Death

Local politics and in-fighting grind to a complete halt as monstrous attacks reach a 50-year high. Galvinston is attacked by random arrays of goblinoids and orc humanoids from the Grey Wastes of Thar as well as numerous wandering monstrous humanoids and the occasional Giant pouring down through the passes in the Galena mountains from Vaasa. The shanty town of Downslope is practically destroyed by the almost daily assault of hostile creatures leaving behind no stable governmental structure and almost totally lawless. The port manages to remain relatively unscathed from the attacks, causing a small number of the population to migrate out of the main town for safety. All of this has a serious impact both on the local economy as well as town morale. Things goes from bad to worse with the critical wounding of the town Sheriff in battle against a particularly nasty Ogre leaving Rayina on her deathbed at the temple of Auril.

1323/Year of Dreamwebs

Most of this year is spent on reconstruction and repair from the monster attacks of the previous year. This requires attracting additional miners, construction workers and day labors to participate in all of the required repair efforts. This causes the Galvinston to become filled with more and more strangers, some of them only stay a season while others decide to stick around and try to make their fortune. The Mining Consortium begins to learn the hard way why no one else had built roads in such a cold and inhospitable climate as several sections of the highway between the town and the port start to buckle, warp and crack due to the expansion and contraction based on the extreme weather. They also manage to hire a competent dwarven wizard who seems to be able to stand up to the harsh conditions of the local and is able to defend herself from the numerous questionable accidents that had befallen her previous attempted replacements.

1324/Year of the Grimoire

With the help of the new town wizard, the Guild is finally able to decipher some of the details behind the strange codex discovered almost five years ago. Apparently it was missing fragment of the Demonomicon of Iggvilv, a legendary tome of demon lords, that seemed to detail a lesser lord by the name of Eldanoth whose appearance resembles a Tiefling with snakes replacing his fingers. The single page seemed to illustrate a ritual meant to summon an aspect of the Tanar’ri, which based on the configuration of the grotto was what the Artaaglith demons seemed to had been attempting with the undead Vour. By stopping the ceremony from being created the Guild had been able to thwart the lesser Tanar’ri from bringing forth a Aspect of a demon lord right in the middle of Port Galvinston.

Interlude 2 - Scene 4
423AC, Deepkolt 14th - 19th

Deepkolt 14-15, 423 SC

Dear Knuckles,

Little did I know at the time, but today would be another extreme test of my faith. When awoke inside of the elaborate tunnel filled with mosaics, pictographs, and paintings and spent some time messing around with the weird portal with the flashing gems. Eventually, we stumbled onto a pattern that seemed to mean something and foolishly Jann and Bly went through the portal and vanished. Luckily, Illiam had the foresight to cast a Greater Status spell on them before they vanished so we could at least track their general direction and health. After a short period of time, it became clear that they were in trouble, so while Illiam kept sending healing spells down the magical link, the rest of us figured out how to turn off the mist in the archway so that we could pass through once things had calmed down. Later we would find out that they had been attacked by a large group of Tomb Motes after falling into a deep pit and that they would have likely perished without the Illiam’s help.

When the rest of us went through, we also vanished and appeared somewhere else. The first chamber contained an inanimate four armed gargoyle with single missing arm. With some deduction, we placed some gems in the remaining outstretched hands only to have them crushed. Thinking it was safe to proceed we moved into a long, elaborately painted chamber filled with pictograms of various creatures all holding differing colored spheres. At the far end of the gallery was another mist filled archway, lit with three different colored gems. Investigation of the walls revealed some to be illusions that hid concealed doors. Behind the very first concealed door we found was another gargoyle, this time it had all four arms, was animated and seemed to want to crush us into a pulp. The melee was intense and would have been a complete disaster if Bly and Jann had not have heard the entire fracas and managed to come and find us. As it was, Gong was a victim of the battle, killed for interfering even after begging for his life. I became quite numb and mentally withdrew from my surroundings once I heard confirmation of his passing.

The activities of the next few days only came to me after the fact. I clearly recall arranging Gong’s body after taking all of his personal effects off his person. I felt that it was the only way to treat the fallen Gully Dwarf with dignity since we had no real way to properly conduct any formal ceremony in the middle of this crazy puzzle crypt. I then recall proceeding to a series of chest discovered by Jann & Bly and opening them one by one releasing several creatures that I apparently attacked as if under the influence of a frenzied rage. One of the chests had a simple mechanical trap that I disarmed before recovering a crystal box containing a silver ring. Apparently I also searched another room in the longer gallery that contained a jar with a preserved eye, a divine scroll and a bag of gems. I guess I pocketed the gems, slipped the scroll into Jaheira’s pockets and handed over the jar. I was clearly not acting either rationally or anything like myself if I truly did these things.

I guess we eventually left the gallery filled with real and imagine creatures holding multi-colored spheres and moved down a narrow tunnel deeper into the dungeon eventually ended up in a long abandoned temple of Chemnosh. The pews were filled with the left behind donations of the faithful as well as several traps. Most of us inhaled some type of poison when someone other than me opened a pew without properly checking it beforehand. It seems that I also wandered up to the temple alter during my watch and picked up a sacrificial daggers, triggering several traps that almost killed both Bly and Illiam. I vaguely recall running off and collapsing in grief over what I had done coupled with finally coming to terms with what had happened to Gong. All of the deaths for the past few decades came back to me all at once and it was if I had wakened from some type of horrible nightmare.

Realizing that my actions over the past few days had almost lead to the death of the only people that I had ever considered my friends, I felt that now was the time to finally come clean with all of them about my past and the fact that the dead spoke to me. I shared with them those most intimate of moments from the death of my family at the hands of those bandits so many years ago, the ravaging of my body from those cruel enough to take an unwillingly partner and the eventually lose of you, my beloved child, during your birth. I revealed that I continually spoke with the dead, usually with Naladas, the strange ghost elf we found in the Sickle’s original lair some many months ago. It was also at this time that I realized that Gong had started speaking to me. He didn’t seem to be blaming me for his death, he just seemed happy that his life had meaning.

Deepkolt 16-17, 423 SC

Dear Knuckles,

This infernal dungeon appears to be one trap, secret door or elaborate puzzle after another. Whither it is an impenetrable wall that can only be opened with a magic ring, a series of interlock doors with swarms of blood suck undead, or the most complex series of locks that I’ve ever witnessed this place is starting to get on my nerves. I certainly wanted to give its creator a piece of my mind on the subject and was rather surprised when we stumbled onto his tomb. He took offense at my criticism of his home and tried to kill me with a Disintegrate spell, according to Jaheira. Luckily, I had the foresight to pick up what appeared to be a rusty weapon and pass it off to Bly. He used the mace to send Lich Acerak back to the oblivion for his role in building the undead spawned structure.

After the death of the Lich, we rushed to get out before the room collapsed. However, this turned out to be an illusion which we only discovered on accident during a break trying to dig through the walls looking for another way out. We found quite a few magic items and keys for the door we could not pass through. This lead to a derelict laboratory evidently used to create undead. While investigating I was grabbed by a species of ooze that paralyzed me until I was able to be rescued. Hidden inside was part of key that unlocked another hidden doorway. We passed through a tunnel filled with a quite long spiked pit trap and culminating in an elaborate room trap. Illiam almost died thanks to a green slime posing as elaborate tapestries. Based on the consternation we all exhibited as a result of this encounter, everyone was clearly showing signs of adventuring based anxiety with no clears means of resolving the condition.

Deepkolt 18-19, 423 SC

Dear Knuckles,

Will this infernal dungeon ever end? The next trap we encountered was a complex series of pits, spears, sliding doors and a juggernaut in the form of a massive elephant that tried to run us all down. If I had not insisted that we be careful and discovered the lesser traps, we would have likely all perished in the large trap when the construct was let lose and tried to turn poor Karick and Bly into metal pancakes. While I was more than a useless in the eventual battle that occurred, when we stumbled onto the Crypt Chanter a few rooms later, the situation was completely reversed. Everyone but Jann and I fell under the sway of the creature’s twisted magical melody leaving the two of us to batter the creature with ranged weapons. I dove under the water that was all over the room and then blasted the creature while it was surprised. We each only took a single shot and the creature fell under the onslaught of our fury. Unfortunately, the encounter left everyone else quite drained.

Eventually we found out way deeper into the tomb via yet another secret door and camped in a small hallway protected by a intricate lock. Bly was finally able to deduce how it worked and opened it by using three of his bladed weapons inserting them into appropriately sized slots. This opened the door to reveal a room filled with disturbingly colored magical columns, several doors, a throne and numerous trinkets strewn around the area. Having learned from past experience not just pick anything up, we first thoroughly searched the area for obvious signs of danger before starting to do anything stupid. Divination magic revealed multiple powerful magic items on the thrown, over doorways, and in the center of a scorched section of the room, in addition to several undead creatures hidden behind two of the three obvious exists.

Eventually we formulated a plan and initiated it, but of course, things did not turn out quite exactly as we intended. Jaheira put on a magical crown which revealed additional dangers in the room as well as another hidden doorway, but when she touched the wrong end of a scepter to the crown, she vaporized into dust. I had to get creative at that point, grabbing a gem on the floor hoping it would help, wishing the elf back into existence, tossing the gem away before it exploded and opening up the door with the other end of the scepter. Luckily this all worked and we decided to push ahead rather than risking our luck with the other more obvious exists. Proceeding along, we found a hallway with the key to its exit lying in plan sight. While the key was magical, I seemed resistance to its effects and used it to open the door without an issue.

The next room was filled with iron statues, a sarcophagus, several chests and a smoking brazier. The inhabitants of the brazier ended up being an Efreet who was rather upset about being disturbed and attacked. The chests were covered with traps and held nothing more than a pile of shiny stones made to look more expensive via the use of illusion magic. The coffin had been stolen from elsewhere suggesting it was another false crypt. The exit happened to be hidden underneath one of the statues which we had initially feared were magical constructs. Moving ahead, we found another hallway and another secret door, revealing a third supposed burial chamber of the mad necromancer.

This one was protected by a floating skull, which seemed to be its phylactery and hidden amongst its valuables was the item we had really been sent to find; the Tear of Mishakal. The fragment of the undead was difficult to dent, but with the help of the magical artifact of healing, some creative use of alchemical items and Karick’s maul, we managed to defeat it. After collecting all the items of value, we used the last key we had found and used it to find ourselves outside of the dungeon for first time in days. We were jubilant of our success and head back immediately to recover master Yap from the band of Ergothian brigands who had accosted us previously.

Interlude 2 - Scene 3
423AC, Newkolt 28th - Deepkolt 13th

Newkolt 28, 423 SC

Dear Knuckles,

While heading towards the lost city, we stumbled onto this monstrously large construct of what Gong called a Thunder Lizard. Apparently of band of crazy gnomes had created the creature and then lost control of it when the primary gnome who was attuned to it had a heart attack. I tried to climb on top and look for a way inside and was starting to tear over the neck joint before I got thrown off. Bly managed to use some Universal Solvent to some success so I joined him in this endeavor which managed to weaken one of the rear legs. Nevertheless, over the course of the next few minutes, we all managed to get swallowed by the creature and get ourselves trapped inside of it in these strange little cages. Only master Yap managed to get away and he promised to find someone to get us all out as he rode away on his war pony.

Newkolt 29-Deepkolt 11, 423 SC

Dear Knuckles,

Over the next twelve days we all spent more time in each others immediate company that we have ever spent before. Something in the construct kept us all under a magical dweomer that removed the need for food, water and sleep. This meant that we all spent most of the time talking, singing, sharing stories and getting to know each other so much more than we ever had before. At the same time, we also argued, complained, farted, taunted and generally made each other quite miserable. We were having some much fun that I almost told them about you, but then I decided against it at the last minute. Imagine out surprise when we finally got out of the creature and discovered that our savior was none other than Karick. Some strange series of event occurred back in Solanthus and he set out after us to see if he could help out after all.

Deepkolt 12, 423 SC

Dear Knuckles,

We had two different life threatening conflicts today. The first being with a particularly loud and exceedingly touch undead creation called a Wheep. It snuck up on us and tried to scare us all with its unnatural yell, but Gong dealt with that problem rather quickly. We then had to chase the thing all over the place as it primarily tried to chase down Jann who seemed to have the greatest success at trying to kill it. In the end I managed to get the killing blow, much to Bly’s chagrin who felt that Gong would once again give me all the credit. Unfortunately, he was probably right as Gong immediately responded by saying that I was the most famous and renowned kender currently still alive. I supposed that is what I get for allowing the little brat to tag along and right stupid poems and songs about me.

The second was with a group of five giant-like humanoids covered in crystal scales that resembled trolls in shape, form and the ability to regenerate. We stumbled upon them while stopping off in the remains of a plains village on the edge of the forest. The place had just been burnt to the ground a few hours before by a band of the Ergoth tribesman who had long standing violent relations with their more domestic neighbors. Karick and Illiam both demanded that we honor the dead, so we stuck around to burn the bodies of those who had died. As a result, we were still around then the Trolls came down from the mountains to pick over the remains of the destroyed settlement. Gong even managed to kill one of them after Master Yap paralyzed it with a spell. The gully dwarf was so happy about being able to clobber something twenty times his side, that I suspect that we will never hear the end of it.

Deepkolt 13, 423 SC

Dear Knuckles,

Gong & I foolishly get lead into a trap by a tribe of crafty Ergot thanks in part to the idiocy of Jann chasing after a lone rider on the plains. As is turns out, the tribe made a deal with the Sickle that allowed him rite of passage and entrance to the City of Truth. We were forced to agree to a similar quest to recover a Tear of Mishas on order to gain our freedom and directions to the city. We were taken to the Dark Mound by the tribe and left without horses or Master Yap. When Illiam communed with Zivilyn about the quest, he became possessed by something that gave us a complex riddle about the quest that made little sense at the time. Searching the mound revealed three buried entrances, two of which were trapped and ultimately lead to dead-ends while the other was much more elaborate and seemed to match the litany riddle. I spend quite a long period of time discovering and disabling various traps in the last tunnel as well as determining the nature of two potential doorways into the burial mound before we all decide to camp for the night and start fresh the next morning.

Interlude 2 - Scene 2
423AC, Newkolt 18th - 27th

Newkolt 22-23, 423 SC

Dear Knuckles

The boat journey ended up taking four cold, wet and windy days; much of the time I spent feeling very apprehensive about returning to the homeland of my people. I had always grown up on the road and have never been to either Hylo or Kenderhome in my lifetime. I had no idea what to expect when we would arrived, but I had a feeling of dread similar to those fateful moments before the caravan attack that killed my parents and ultimately left me with you. This led to a great deal of apprehension about the entire trip. I can only surmise that if we had not been on the hunt for Sickle, I would have never voluntarily partaken of this journey home to begin with.

Imagine my surprise that when I suddenly found myself surrounded with thousands and thousands of my own people that I felt completely homesick. Why I had never bothered to come home, I cannot quite understand. Just being among our own people brought back all kinds of the happy memories of my childhood. I truly regret that I did not return here after losing you so many years ago. It would have certainly allowed my mind to heal from the dark tragedy that much quicker if I had been among my own kind. Alas, we can not turn back the River of Time, so there is no real point in lamenting over the past.

Perhaps the biggest personal surprise of the trip to Hylo was the sudden and very specific urge to procreate with wanton abandon. For the handful of days we spent in Hylo, I was horizontal most of the time enjoying some of the finest offerings the local den of pleasure could provide for my meager coin. While losing myself in the pure physical pleasure was certainly quite enlightening, my primary focus was to become pregnant and hopefully carry a child to full term. The need for this was paramount in my mind and drove my urges to take tumble and tumble with some of the most skilled male kender I’ve ever had the luxury to experience in my life. Only time would tell if would achieve my goal. I would know for certain by the next turn of Solinari if I had been successful.

Apparently, while I was pre-occupied, Jan got herself into quite a bit of trouble. Allegedly, she kicked and stole from a Kender child and was incarcerated for her crimes. Eventually, Seer was able to negotiate her release from the Queen of my people no less. Yet, Jan felt completely humiliated by being lead around in chains until we were able to procure horses and lead town. So much so that she officially cancelled her contract with Seer to provide his protection services and instead became a self-made woman warrior. While she still intended to travel with us, she chose to do so without being shackled to the very man that while ultimately saving her life, also lead to her to deep personal shame.

Newkolt 24-27, 423 SC

Dear Knuckles,

Several days ride north from Hylo we stumbled onto a strange scene. A black-robed kobold Wizard with magically summoned undead was attacking a human Sorcerer with two armed guards. At first it was quite unclear just exactly who was in the right, after all the kobold was wearing lack robes and using undead as his allies. In the end, he turned out to be a renegade hunter sent from the Conclave itself to deal with a rogue spellcaster. The battle was quite pitched with control changing sides several times before we managed to achieve victory over the renegade and save the kobold from almost certain death. Afterwards, the wizard explained the situation in detail as we patched him up, thereby confirming our choice of action as proper and just. Of course, I did have to have a frank and civil conversation with the small draconic creature over the perils of using undead, but I am not quite sure he either cared or even understood my point of view after my lecture was over.

Interlude 2 - Scene 1
423AC, Newkolt 2nd - 18th

Newkolt 2-4, 423 SC

Dear Knuckles,

We spent a single night at this horrible place and all shared the same terrifying nightmare. In the very vivid dream, both Jaheira and Illiam were struck down by a Shadow Wight and we all forgot that they even existed. This scared almost everyone quite thoroughly, so while we originally intended to spend several days recovering at the Ergothian outpost, instead we packed up and headed out almost immediately. Several days of uneventful travel through the cold snow pack passed us by. I made sure to stop and pay my respects to Paws at the shallow grave we had dug for him when we traveled by. For a second I thought I felt his presence nearby, but it was probably just the chilling breeze rather than the company of an errant soul of a non-sentient creature. I guess I am just getting spooked more and more these days with all the undead I have been experiencing. I am starting to jump at every perceived undead presence these days now that it seems that I can sense them with a single thought.

Shortly after passing Kyre, we noticed dispersed smoke on the horizon and many figures on horseback headed our way. Imagine our surprise when the riders were none other than several Knights of Neraka lead by the former Watch Commander from Palanthus. Apparently they were on the run and were willing to offer us a bribe to delay those who were chasing them. While several member of the group seemed intrigued by the offer, Karick was a little more direct in his bartering process, using his maul to kill the Knight of the Skull for her impetuousness. The morale of the Knights disintegrated with the quick deaths of half of the group, leading the remaining three to surrender. Surprisingly, one of the Knights seemed willing to give up his previous life and repent his crimes. Illiam was eventually able to broker a deal with an armed contingent of Knights of Solmania who were chasing down the quarry we had captured. We ended up being escorted back to Solanthus by a squadron of knights and the prisoners were going to be given a proper trial for the crimes they had allegedly committed.

Newkolt 6-10, 423 SC

Dear Knuckles,

We only end up spending few days back in Solanthus sorting through the various knickknacks we picked up on the last trip. Gong is still wearing the ridiculous tribal head piece he acquired from the fallen Ergoth Shaman. He looks like a complete goofball when he wears it, but whenever I try to take it off he scraps and bites until I leave him alone. Illiam seems convinced that we need to hurry our way to the City of Truth in Northern Ergoth so we hit the road again. Thankfully, Gong & I have acquired horses from the fallen Nerakan so we no longer have to share mounts with anyone. This tie around we spent most of the time on established roads as we make our way towards Caergoth where we hope to hire a vessel to take across the Bay of Monsters to Ergoth.

Along the way we happened upon a pack of half-woman half lion creatures that Jaheira called Lamias. While we first noticed that at quite an extreme range in the middle of attacking a single human, we later learned that it was all a ruse to get us to come closer. The touch of the Lamia drains mental acumen of anyone its touches. To make matters worse, they have uncanny skill with Enchantment spells and used them to turn Bly against us until Gong used similar magic to incapacitate the Ergothian before he killed any of us. They even used some of that pesky magic to put me to sleep until Illiam slapped me hard enough to wake me up. Eventually we were able to overcome their magical gifts and emerge victorious, but not before most of us were subjected to the Lamia touch and end up suffering mental sickness as a result.

Newkolt 11-18, 423 SC

Dear Knuckles,

The next few days were spent on the road to Caergoth and within the city itself. The last day of the trip had us in melee with eight white furry giants that none of us could properly identify, and while they were quite fierce, did not present that much of challenge, even without Karick traveling with us. Once in Caergoth we settled in at the Inn of the Thirsty Whale and tried to find passage. It ended up taking a few days, but we arranged a trip. We had some time to kill, so Gong sang songs about our adventures and travels which ended up paying for out food, drinks and lodging which just about made up for the fact that he was embarrassing all of us with his crazy stories about our supposed heroism. This also allowed all of us to recover from the various mental and physical wounds we had incurred on the trip from Solanthus. As a result we were completely rested and ready for anything when the ship departed Caergoth for Hylo at the end of the week.

Marpenoth 16, 1319 DR (continued)

They selected a direction mostly at random and proceeded down the path farthest to the right. It ended rather quickly horizontally but proceeded up at a serious vertical incline. The group debated how to proceed until Basil used a Fly spell to head off to investigate leaving everyone else behind to explore the cavern in a more conventional manner. Basil’s flight took up upwards through a very damp cavern and eventually to the surface at the top of a butte. The butte looked down upon a simple stone circle with carving of various bladed weapons that was clearly the central focus of some local religious practice, likely Drow related and having been used recently. When Basil returned, the group had climbed up several hundred feet, worried that the wizard might have encountered some type of trouble as he had been long enough to worry his sister.

The rest of the caverns seemed to perpetually expand into a seemingly endless series of warrens, loopbacks, lava tubes and rock falls. The entire place was a proverbial maze in the most natural occurring sense of the word and seemed to be more of a dead end based on the lack of any signs of traversal then some place to hide a Drow crèche. Nevertheless, Gavin and Meeshani spent some time poking around until the group got bored and decided to head out of the cavern complex altogether. It was starting to become dusk, so they reconnoitered to look for an out of the way, but defendable location to camp on the far side of the canyon at the base of a cliff face. After setting a low fire to keep warm on what was going to be a cold night, they set a watch and settled down for the evening.

Much like the previous night, they were attacked during the first watch, this time by at least eight humanoid-like aberrations called Deadly Dancers whose four limbs were little more than blades formed by bones. The creatures use their numbers, multiple attacks and the ability to find the most deadly places to strike to their maximum advantage. This forced the Guild to get creative utilizing tactics such as calling down area spells on themselves, crossing over one line of attackers to get range on the other, drawing attacks away from the more vulnerable members of the team all while struggling to stay alive themselves. This seemed to be working to their advantage when it became clear that the attack was merely meant to distract them from the larger threat, the presence of Drow.

The Drow called out in broken Common to cease hostilities and to return their kidnapped children. While the Guild was more than willing to comply with the second half of the request, given adequate time, they were not ready to end the melee until the opposing side did so themselves. The Drow repeated the warnings, but left their allies to press the attack, forcing the Guild to cut down all of the Aberrations, taking significant casualties from the fracas as a result. As soon as combat ended, the Drow tossed a belt containing Zhentarium badges into the camp and demanded the return of their children. It became clear that the Drow were unable or unwilling to distinguish between the various human factions. The Drow left only when the ground made it clear that they would need to wait until dawn to return the children, leaving the Guild presumably alone on the side of a cold mountain for the rest of the night to recover from the ambush.

Marpenoth 17, 1319 DR

Basil left at dawn to Galvinston to recover the two Drow children and was supposed to return to the rocky Butte by the stone circle. The rest of the group spent two frantic hours climbing up the tunnels trying to arrive in time to support Basil in case of trouble. Instead, when they arrived, Basil was nowhere to be seen and they were subject to cries of betrayal from the Drow. This almost broke out into open hostilities on several occasions, even after Mist was able to use Tongues spell to act as a translator for the two opposing sides. For whoever unknown reason, Basil had not returned with the two children as he had indicated he was going to do. Instead the Guild was forced to broker a second agreement to return the children at moon rise at the next full moon slightly more then a ten-day away. This would give them time to return to Galvinston by mundane means and to determine just what had exactly had occurred to Basil.

Mist seemed to think that Basil had chosen this moment to go rogue and betray the guild and the way she spun the argument suggested that several others felt the same way. The Drow clearly could care less about the internal affairs of the Guild. They just wanted their children to be returned to them and to live alone in peace. When the suggestion came up that the Drow had been involved with sabotage, they vehemently denied it and instead points fingers and a group of four adventurers who chased after then with wanton abandon. This lead more fuel to the fire that Basil had become traitorous, but there was still no concrete evidence of any such event. The Drow ended up being a mixed faction of worshippers of Eilistraee and Vhaeraun who just wished to be left alone to live their lives without outside interference. They only ventured on the surface to hunt and gather supplies and to worship their deities. Once they were assured that no harm had come to their children, they parleyed for some time until the agreement was made for the next Full Moon.

Once the Drow had departed the group discussed how they might proceed. Meeshani mentioned that it would take about three days to get back to town if they back tracked to their horses, while only a day and a half if they left and walked back as the crow flies. Storm felt that they all needed stick around for at least a day in case some type of foul play had occurred with Basil, requiring an extra day for him to make it back to the party. While most of the group felt that it was not a good use of their limited time, they acceded to Storm once agreeing that they would abandon their horses and walk back in the most expedient manner the following day. The guild then spent the rest of the day exploring the stone circle consecrated to Eilistraee and the nearby forest before camping for the night in the old lava tube.

Marpenoth 18, 1319 DR

With no sign of Basil an hour after dawn, Storm reluctantly agreed to return to Galvinston. Strangely, both she and Raindrop received slightly conflicting magical messages from Storm as they broke camp and headed home. The Sending to Raindrop suggested that Basil had run into trouble with the blame being pointed at Mist whereas Storm’s message was on an altogether different tone and subject, which she said was private and would not repeat. This lead to quite a rousing discussion about what might exactly have happened to Basil with Mist blatantly suggesting treachery of the part of the absent wizard. While no one could quite agree on what had occurred, they all felt that the faster they could get back to Galvinston, the sooner the mystery might be revealed.

Marpenoth 19, 1319 DR

Meeshani and Gavin received sending’s from Basil at dawn, both of which seemed to conflict with the messages from the day before. It seemed that Basil clearly did not want to be found and had taken the Drow to an unidentified destination with some unknown intentions. After an uneventful trip back to town, the guild checked in with various friends, family and long time acquaintances concerning Basil. The junior adventuring brigade had not seen the wizard since he showed up the day before, walked into the Blythe Bandele Inn and then never walked back out again. Basil’s apprentice then disappeared a short time later and had not been seen since. Meeshani’s mother verified that she had seen Basil the following morning and they exchanged a few sentences concerning the disposition of the Drow children, he took both of the kids and then vanished in a flash of magic. She just assumed the Basil had taken the children to their parents as he had hinted at in their brief conversation.

Checking in with the Constable Rayina revealed several more unexplained murders having occurred down at the Port. Since the guild was busy with the Drow problem, she asked a wandering priest of Lathander named Jorial Skye to poke around for clues. Since Drow issue seemed to be on hold, at lease until the Full Moon, a ten-day away, she asked the group to head down to the port and try to determine the identify of the maniac committing the crimes. Reaching the port by sundown, Mist found a room at the local inn to catch up on her quality time with Elendil, while the rest of the group asked around for the current whereabouts of the worshipper of the Morninglord. They eventually found him at the Cat’s Cradle immersed in a detailed discussion about the true nature of sex with their old friend Shizy.

Jorial was a vibrant young priest, eager to offer help to those in need and willing to carry on vigorous arguments with people with radically different viewpoints without getting offended if the other party failed to disagree. His only real flaw was that he was perhaps the clumsiest person anyone would be likely to meet. Their introductory dialogue was cut short by the discovery of a fifth body being found down by the waterfront. This time around the corpse belonged to a halfling sailor with a tattoo of a silver dog on his fore arm. This clue led the group to speak to the first mate of the Silver Dog trading coaster where it was revealed the deceased bosons’ love of fishing. After tracking down his favorite watering hole, the guild discovered cloven tracks of creatures leading out in the water. The sound of chanting was heard echoing across the water that eventually lead to a hidden cave at the water line out on the far side of the breakwater on the main pier.

Using Gavin’s magical rope to make their way into and through the water filled cave, they stumbled onto a pack of Goat demons performing a diabolical ceremony of some kind on a very odd undead creature called a Vour. The creatures favored the use of A Stinking Cloud spell that nauseated most of the group at some point in time during the relatively short melee. Thankfully, Mist was able to dispel each of the foul-smelling magical effects, keeping the entire group from becoming totally disabled and likely slaughtered. Jorial provided his priestly skills on the form of spell that blasted the undead creature into ash after Storm had hacked into it several times. Investigation of the grotto revealed a pentacle inscribed on the floor with spinal bone taken from each of the murdered bodies at each point of the symbol. The only object found in the area was an undecipherable codex that appears to be made of several intelligent humanoids species skin. Also of interest was that the goat demons appeared to match the remains of the assailants who attacked Dendrail right before he disappeared several years before.

Marpenoth 30, 1319 DR

The Guild arrives at the peak of the pass between Galvinston and Downslope shortly after moonrise to make their appointment to meet with the Drow contingent. Upon arrival, the crest pass appeared to be deserted until a half-dozen Drow suddenly appeared from behind trees, levitating down or dropping Darkness spells. The priestess of Eilistraee and the wizard both approached carefully and listened to the story spun by Mist concerning the origins of their missing children, the apparent treachery of Basil and what they knew about the Zhentarium in the Moonsea area. The entire group of dark elves patiently waited throughout the entire monologue, occasionally interrupting to ask short specific questions about term, names, or locations previously unknown to them.

Once Mist completed her explanation of the situation, the Drow responded with a story about being approached by a group of Zhentarium offering one of their children as a token of good faith and the second if they agreed to terrorize Galvinston. Not only did they refuse the deal outright, they euthanized their own child, and killed all of the Zhent agents, except for one. They sent him back to his masters to pass the message on that they do not negotiate under duress and they will go as far as to kill their own to maintain their privacy and isolationist manner. This particular group of Drow was clearly more concerned with remaining neutral in the region than engaging in politics with anyone. They respectfully asked the Guild to keep their home a secret and thanked them for telling them the truth about the situation, rather then lying and trying to extort them into performing actions against their will.

Marpenoth 16, 1319 DR

Dawn sent Basil, Storm and Raindrop back to Galvinston via the use of a Teleport spell to acquire wood samples from the wrecked wagon, check on the Drow children and report to Rayina as to the current state of the investigation. The trio then returned and the whole group proceeded down the trail towards the lumber site. Along the way Teegahn confirmed that the wood samples were taken from this part of the forest, but that they were much too green for them to have been cut down by his crew of lumberjacks. After a few hours of riding the cramped trail, the mail wagon trail was reached and they picked up speed heading towards the camp. As they got closer, Teegahn made an off hand comment about there not being any sounds suggesting that anyone was out working the forest which set the party immediately on edge and preparing for a potential ambush.

When no immediate threat was revealed, Meeshani was sent to scout ahead. She quickly made her way quietly through the wood up the lumber camp which took the form of a wooden fort made from vertically logs arranged in a square. A single look out post was located at the front left hand side with a single door way in the front middle. Meeshani circumnavigated the entire fort looking for any oddities and discovered very little other than the complete absence of anyone around the fort until she approached the door. Once there she found signs of tracks of some type of huge serpent that came from the woods, slithered up tot the front door and then continued along following numerous foot steps away from the camp. The door to the wooden keep was unlocked, so Meeshani made her way inside noting the presence of a well, a collection of recently cut logs and a single long house. She heard the sounds of buzzing as she neared the single major structure inside the keep and decided to report back to the group rather than risk getting caught by whatever was making the noises.

The wily gnome returned to the group and everyone made their way cautiously towards the lumber camp. Once inside they looked down the well, examined the wood piles, checked the look out post and then went inside of the long house where they discovered numerous dead bodies. Almost of note was the presence of a trap door leading underground into a storage area. All of the bodies had clearly been killed in combat by weapons of Drow manufacture. They had all apparently made their stand inside of the long house and had died to the last lumberjack defending it. Teegahn was quite dismayed to discover all sixteen of his seasonal workers had been killed. He went around and identified all of them just to make sure that they were all present and accounted for, before laying them out and beginning last rites.

Meeshani and Gavin poked around the storage space and were surprised to discover recently used blankets as well as an impromptu latrine. The blankets contained wisps of white hair and were placed as far away from the trap door as possible. The latrine had been used for many days including as recently as the previous day. Perhaps strangest of all was the discovery of hand-carved Espruar script on the rear of a storage crate. Once translated by Mist, they suggested that the author might have been a young Drow based on the grammar errors and spelling mistakes. The message was a plea for help from Vhaeraun, the same Drow deity the Guild had encountered on a potion bottle taken from a deceased Drow several days before. Teegahn could not explain what had occurred, but Basil seemed quite sure that some type of misdirection or planting of evidence was occurring.

The next few hours was spent tracking the Drow as well as the serpent creature that was following them higher and higher up the mountains. Eventually the Guild had to abandon their horses and proceed on foot eventually reaching a deep canyon cut by a swiftly flowing underground steam where the Drow tracks vanished. Storm was sent down on a rope into the crevice and could find no obvious clues where the Drow had vanished to, so the group followed the serpent tracks to the end of the canyon until they slide down a chute and into the entrance to a cavern from where the stream flowed. There were several pitons hammered into the rock face, making it easy for the Guild to climb down and enter the tunnel as well. Once there, it was clear that the Drow had passed this way as their tracks continued.

The Guild cautiously made their way through the narrow cave following the crushed stone shoreline that hugged the left wall. Teegahn shifted into a seal and swam through the cold waters following along ad his own pace. After a few hundred yards, the tunnel cut immediately to the left and back to the right again before seeming to open up both vertically and horizontally. Meeshani was in front when she noticed a single word being spoken followed by the presence of a pea sized blob of fire moving her way that exploded into a Fireball inside of the cramped cavern. The group immediately went on the defensive as something deeper in the cavern pulled up a Fog Cloud between the adventurers and it as well as suddenly going quiet trying to prevent its hiding place from being discovered.

The after effects of the Fireball sent Storm into a Frenzy as she charged ahead looking for something to smash while the rest of the group moved to keep up. Mist called forth a rousing tune to instill bravery into her allies, Raindrop moved up to provide back up while Meeshani, Basil, Teegahn and Gavin cautiously proceeded through the Fog wary of any potential dangers. On the far side of the Fog was a wand wielding Banelar Naga with malice in its eyes at which Teegahn warned that Zhentarium would likely be somewhere nearby. The Naga while impressively large and able to cast spells as well as attack almost simultaneously, it could not hold up to the burning anger of Storm compiled with the assistance of the rest of the group providing cover fire or flanking.

However, instead of the creature perishing, according to Basil, it vanished thanks to a contingency Teleport spell previously cast upon it by an unknown source. Luckily, Raindrop had liberated a wand from the Naga before it managed to escape or the party would have had no clues as to the origin of the creature. Unfortunately, the Drow tracks vanished at this point with the narrow shoreline vanishing being replaced with shallower and shallower flowing water, which while quite cold, was easily passable for everyone. The tunnel narrowed again on the far side of the cavern and proceeded deeper into the mountain until it eventually branched into five different small tunnels, each barely large enough for a medium-sized humanoid to fit in single file. At this point, the Guild paused to consider their options and to determine which direction they might end up selecting before continuing.

Marpenoth 15, 1319 DR (continued)

Yet, when everyone decided to head out to meet Teegahn and then ultimately ride out to the lumber camp to investigate, Mist showed up in town to join the group. Apparently she had been attacked by the same Drow who the group had encountered previously, this time with clear intentions to capture her alive. Rather than sticking around, she fled back to Downslope instead and caught up with the Guild. Whatever had set her off concerning Basil seemed to be less important that dealing with situation at hand. As a result, they all mounted up together and rode off to the southeast ultimately destined for the timber yards run by Teegahn on the foothills of the Galena Mountains.

The early afternoon was spent traversing a steep path suited more for goats than for humanoids on horseback, when the trail eventually opened up into a pristine forested valley. Teegahn warned everyone to not become distracted by the beauty as something about the area attracted local beasts and strange creatures of all kinds. This quickly became evident after an hour of riding when they started to hear the calls of some type of ursine creature echo across the valley sporadically. It was Meeshani who eventually spotted a strange Aberration, latter to be explained in detail by Basil as a Tooth Beasts, which appeared to be a hairless bear covered in all manner of sharp protruding bones. The beast had a natural bellow that seem evoke fear in those nearby and a preternaturally fast ability to charge its prey across all types of terrain quickly followed by a pounced and a rend from its tooth encrusted bodies.

It was at this point that Teegahn revealed himself to be a Druid, taking to the air in the form of an eagle to scout for other potential attackers. The rest of the group sprung into action using their usual tactics, dispatching a pair of the creature off quickly and then moving on to a second pair that Teegahn alerted them about. While no one was seriously injured in the battle other than Storm, the larger issues was fatigued experienced by both the Barbarian and the Monk due to staying all the entire previous night, riding all day, followed up by a tiring battle. Needless to say that when their guide suggested bivouacking at the edge of an ancient graveyard at the far end of the valley near sun down, that only Basil argued against such a foolish camp site. Nevertheless, he was voted by the rest of the Guild and Teegahn who assured everyone that the site was perfectly safe.

As such, Basil was completely unsurprised when the group was attacked within an hour of setting camp by a half-dozen extra-planar creatures called Shadow Eft’s. The pesky little beasts functioned best in total darkness, so Basil denied their natural combat prowess with the use of a daylight spell. While this seemed to slow them a little, they still were able to move quickly into and out of melee slashing at targets of opportunity with claws magically endowed with poison. Miraculously, only Mist experienced the debilitating effects of the venom before the creatures were dispatched to the Plane of Shadow from whence they originated. Investigation of the nearby area by Gavin looking for other potential threats revealed a several decade old wooden box filled with several potions and scroll cases, but otherwise nothing of value.

Marpenoth 14, 1319 DR

Everyone awoke at dawn and rode heard all day long towards Downslope, arriving shortly after sunset. They decided that they should break up and explore several different methods of gathering information. Mist took a single horse and headed into the tented section of the town posing as a trader looking for information on lumber or wood dealers. She easily found someone willing to trade the horse for a significant amount of cut wood that matched the types of species found in the runaway wagon in Galvinston. Storm and Raindrop went off to pasture the remaining horses and quickly discover that a half-elf named Teegahn was sold a larger amount of wood was likely to be found at the Dustaway Inn on any given night. Meanwhile Meeshani and Gavin took care of reserving lodging at the White Hart Inn.

As the various Guild members made their way to the tavern, they were all quite surprised to find Basil already there and in the middle of a detailed discussions with a group of humans and a half-elf. Once Basil noticed the group, he disengaged from his business dealings in order to talk to his old friends and allies under the pretense of conducting a private narcotics deal. Everyone soon discovered that Basil had been working under an assumed name for years in Downslope as Timothy Redcap, a well known dealer in Devilweed and other alchemical supplies. The reunion of the Guild members, sans Mist, was used to quickly share information about Bail’s mysterious disappearance as well as the various events that had occurred over the past few days in Galvinston. They compared notes and all realized that they were all involved in trying to do the same thing, determine the identities of the terrorists and stop their activities.

Eventually, Mist arrived in the tavern in disguise. She was shocked to see Basil alive and well, happily conversing with her friends as if nothing was amiss. She walked over to Basil, demanded to speak with him and then informed Meeshani on the way out to gather everyone at the edge of town or risk her leaving the group permanently. Storm had tried to call it an early night and had to be collected before everyone arrived at the edge of town out of immediate visual and auditory range from any nearby camp sites. Once there, Mist confronted Basil, accusing him of being responsible for all of the terrorist activities and sabotage over the past few years. She demanded that Basil explain himself or risk her wrath.

This sudden allegation of crimes and collusion against Basil stunned the rest of the Guild who were initially unsure how to react. Gavin had grown close to Basil over the last few years, so he moved into to protect his friend, while Raindrop prepared to grab Mist if she did anything rash. Storm stopped both of them from interfering the moment that Mist committed herself to attacking Basil, hoping for a resolution of the encounter without anyone else getting involved. For his part, Basil admitted to playing both sides for both the Mining Consortium and The Cause, but this wasn’t enough to satisfy Mist who felt that actual violence was the only way to resolve her concerns.

Basil showed admirable restraint, casting only defensive or movement based spells to keep himself away from as much direct harm as possible while trying to explain things. Mist continued to push and prod the issue all while attempting to attack Basil in any way shape or form. Meeshani tried to stay out of the entire affair, instead scouting around the group in case anyone came looking for the source of the loud and flashy disturbance. Raindrop attempted to remove whatever options Mist had to attack including disarming the elves bow and tossing it into the darkness. Things escalated when Mist swipe an offer of a drink out of Raindrops hands and threw at Basil, hitting him in the side of the face. Raindrop was forced to stun Mist into submission to try and stop things from getting any worse.

In the end, Mist eventually calmed down and offered what little evidence she had of the allegations. Apparently when she had left Galvinston in mid-1317 for parts unknown she had instead gone undercover in disguise and joined The Cause. As a result, she had a first hand view of the activities that some of its members participated in a very unofficial capacity. Many a terrorist action was performed by its members, apparently on a whim with blame placed on the Wild Elf nation or Mist’s recent boyfriend Elendil. Yet, there was never an example of any of the leadership of The Cause either ordering such actions or participating in them. Both Raindrop and Basil seemed honestly shocked that the joined membership of The Cause and The New Dawn had been involved in such criminal activity. In the end, everyone decided to retire for the evening to ponder the evidence. Mist got her own room at the Inn and left her journal for Raindrop and Storm to read in her absence.

Marpenoth 15, 1319 DR

Mist awoke early and went out on the town to find the wood dealer, Teegahn. She found him at the tavern and carried on a short conversation with the half-elf. Apparently Teegahn, due to his elven heritage, was allowed to harvest the wood from the elven lands and sell it in places like Downslope. The druid practiced a type of sustainable agriculture that only removed deadfall, diseased or trees of a specific age. Teegahn had no interest is deforesting his homeland, but he could run a respectable business and use the profits to help his people out. He was quite friendly and willing to take anyone out to his lumber operations in the Galen Mountains so that they could see the forestry harvest themselves. Mist arranged for just such a trip scheduled for later that day.

Back at the White Hart Inn, everyone was discussing the journal over breakfast. Raindrop and Storm had stayed up all night reading it and were trying to concisely share its contents with the rest of the Guild while grilling Basil over certain details. Basil certainly seemed concerned about The Causes participation in the events over the last few years, but he seemed to be telling the truth about his involvement. The alleged facts were purely conjecture on the part of Mist, so it was clearly her word versus Basils and Storm was quite annoyed with being stuck in the middle trying to mediate. Eventually Mist showed up, provided details of the arrangement with Teegahn and the trade of the horse for a wagon full of wood. She then said her goodbyes, handed in her guild page and rode out of town. Meeshani rode out after her and unsuccessfully tried to convince Mist to stay around for the general good of the Guild and Galvinston, but ultimately she refused and rode off alone towards Bonesville.

Marpenoth 12, 1319 DR

Several hours down the trail, the tracks spit once and then split again a short time later. Deciding that they would have a better chance of gathering information by following one of the side trails, they followed it for several hours across difficult terrain. Raindrop and Meeshani went ahead since they could move faster on foot without being constrained by being on horse back. The managed to stumble onto the remains of a ambush that occurred at a trail head a sometime around dawn. Whoever had performed the attack had cleaned up after themselves quite well and then lead the horses of the defenders off in a different directions along with the bodies of the dead

Following that trail lead to a dead end at the top of a several hundred foot cliff with no clear means of easily traversing it. All signs suggested that the ambushers were likely Drow who were acting to retaliate for the kidnapping of the two male children that were resting comfortably at Blythe Bandele Inn in Galvinston. With half the day spent chasing one dead end, Raindrop convinced the group to check the second side trail as well, but they were unable to find anything or catch up to those making the tracks before it became too dark for the humans in the group to see clearly Storm decided that it would be a good idea to set-up camp on the trail and proceed in the morning.

Marpenoth 13, 1319 DR

Some time in the early hours of the morning, a group of assailants launched poison laden crossbow bolts at those on watch. They then followed up by tossing a deceased human body at Storm while shouting a curse in broken common before attacking from the darkness. The attackers kept themselves on the fringes of the light provided by the fire which prompted the Guild to activate a few light sources of their own to get a better idea of just who was attacking. The enemy also called forth a Fog Cloud in the middle of the camp to obfuscate themselves followed by a Darkness effect nearby and culminating with a Fireball dead center in the middle of the camp where most of the Guild had withdrawn to hide within the Fog Cloud.

It quickly became clear that there were at least four enemy attackers, two who seemed to be proficient with ranged weapons along with both a divine and an arcane spellcaster. Meeshani eventually spotted the two bowmen floating, likely by magic, above a pair of evergreen trees and dropped another light source underneath it to make it a target. It was immediately hit by ranged weapons and perished. Mist dispelled the magic on the other causing it to fall across Storm’s melee range immediately leading to its instantaneous death as well. The two casters were slightly more difficult to track down and deal with.

The arcane caster was spotted first and seemed to go into hiding as a result while the divine caster was unexpectedly discovered by Gavin trying to sneak up on Mist. Once exposed, it moved into the relative safety of the still active Darkness spell where is tried unsuccessfully to hide. Raindrop managed to sneak up, grapple it and drag it outside of the darkness. The arcane caster chose this moment to disclose itself and tried unsuccessfully to free its ally before escaping by Teleportation magic. This is moment when things almost went catastrophically wrong.

The attacker was able to use levitation magic to move the grapple into the air. Meeshani, Mist and the Gavin all let lose with ranged weapons trying to take it down before it escaped, but instead all three hit Raindrop causing her to plummet to the ground. Thankfully Meeshani’s weapon choice was a blunt arrow; otherwise the three erroneously aimed weapons might have killed Raindrop. Instead it allowed the divine caster the brief few moments it needed to escape into the night and the arcane caster to return to collect the body of one of its fallen allies. Only one body was left behind and it was revealed to be a male Drow with indications that it was a worshipper of Vhaeraun, a deity favored by assassins.

The repercussions of the mistaken targets in the battle were felt most by Raindrop who was at the unfortunate receiving end of the poorly aimed missile weapons. She took the brunt of her anger out on the newest member of the group, the albino halfling. She also requested that no one else ever utile lethal force that had a chance of injuring her if a similar situation occurred in the future. This prompted Meeshani to arm Mist with several blunt arrows and to suggest that Gavin keep similar measures handy as well in the future. The discussion then turned to why the Drow had attacked them and the identity of the human body that was thrown at Storm. The human appeared to be wearing the same style of boots as the group of rides they had been tracking, so perhaps the attack was simply in confusion over who was ultimately responsible for the aforementioned kidnapping several days before.

Chapter Six – Woe to Galvinston

Location: Town of Galvinston

PC Dramatis Personae

Basil - Human Male Wizard 5, Incantatur 4
Gavin – Halfling Male Rogue 8
Raindrop - Human Female Monk 6, Drunken Master 3
Meeshani – Gnome Female Scout 8
Mist – Moon Elf Female Bard 8
Storm - Human Female Barbarian 8, Frenzied Berserker 1

Marpenoth 11, 1319 DR

The core Guild members were enjoying a relatively quiet autumn day over brunch mostly discussing the mysterious appearance of Bail a few ten-days before when they were interrupted by the sounds of shouting from the direction of the main road. When they ran out to investigate, they witness an uncontrolled covered wagon careening down the street in the direction of the stream ford. The cart plunged into the stream, rolled over and then disgorged a pair of four armed albino beasts that Mist would later call a Girallon. Just to make matters worse, several members of the group heard screams originating from inside of the slowly sinking vehicle.

Gavin responded the fastest, pulling and shooting a crossbow at the lead creature without a moments notice. Meeshani noticed that Storm was not quite armed for battle, so she pulled out her trusty Shortspear and stuck into ground as she moved by. Mist provided a bit of magical enhancement to the spear before Storm grabbed the weapon and shouted out orders that sent Raindrop running down the cobble stones moving at speed up to the bridge over the stream. Looking inside the Monk saw two small forms underneath a cloth tarp amidst the overturned remained of several freshly cut green logs.

Further up the road, Storm and Gavin moved to engage the first of the creatures while trying to dodge out of the way of their excessive reach. Raindrop dove off the bridge and into the wagon tearing back the trap and was surprised to see two small Drow children inside. She managed to grab both of them in a head lock and jump outside in the waist deep water, moving slowly onto shore. Raindrop then moved under the bridge dragging the children with her to keep them from the prying eyes of the nearby monsters, the locals and her friend Storm who had just go into complete battle frenzy. Mean while the combined melee offense of Storm and Gavin managed to drop the first gorilla beast and they moved onto the second after it charged at Meeshani.

Within seconds the second creature also vanished under the onslaught but not before several Guild members suffered critical wounds from the gnashing teeth and rending claws of the Girallon. Storm even went as far as to attack her friends deep within the mental rage that over took her senses, before being calmed down by the soothing music of Mist. In the aftermath of the battle, Storm and Meeshani stayed behind to answer questions and to help clean-up while Raindrop, Basil and Gavin smuggled the Drow children back to the Guild where they tried to figure out where they came from and just what to do with them.

The Constable showed up shortly thereafter and asked all sorts of questions. She sent a runner to the Temple of Auril to treat the wounded, had the corpses hauled off to an empty field for further investigation and arranged for draft horses to pull the wagon out of the stream. A through search of the wagon revealed freshly cut wood from a region of the forest off limits to the population of Galvinston as a result of the treaty. Both the owner of the wagon and the wheelwright who constructed it were clearly marked on the vehicle so they were called upon to answer a few questions. The wagon turned out to have gone missing on a regular ore shipment to Downslope a few days before. Meeshani performed a brief bit of scouting to determine where the runaway had originated. She found a pair of horses loitering around the north road and tracks leading up the hill towards Downslope.

Back at the Guild, Mist was trying to question the Drow children with little success. While she was able to create an effective disguise accentuated by a Tongues spell and some Illusion magic, the children were clearly traumatized and knew very little. In fact, one of the two children had collapsed into unconsciousness due extreme fear of the bright light. The other knew little more than that he had been taken from the safety of the crèche by strangers and had woken up in the wagon moments before the crash. He was quite hesitant to answer questions from a strange Drow female that he had not previously met before. Mist even managed to make matters worse when she tried to sing a traditional Drow lullaby and was met with complete dread and abject terror.

When everyone got back together it was decided that they would gather up their horses and ride up the trail looking for clues. Meeshani sent her brother down to the port to collect the junior adventuring band to stand guard over the guild in case a mob came looking for the Drow. Then she asked her parents to take the now sleeping Drow down into the basement of the adjacent inn to keep them completely safe from potential persecution. Storm stayed behind to wait until her young protégés showed up passing the time by sending the other children home from the day care center the Guild had turned into over the past few years.

Several hours ride up the road revealed a camp site used the night before by perhaps a dozen armed men on horse back. Thrown off the road were six bodies, which clearly matched the descriptions of the missing caravan guards and driver. The bodies were killed some place else and thrown off the road at the camp site. All tracks suggested that the armed raiders rode back towards Downslope. After Storm caught up with the main group, they all decided to head in that direction to hopefully obtain clues along the way. She had talked to Constable Rayina before leaving town about potential leads on the lumber cutting and was given the name of a less than scrupulous timber dealer who worked out of the White Hart Inn at Downslope. Armed with that extra bit of information, the Guild felt confident of tracking down the perpetrators of the crimes.

Chapter Six – Woe to Galvinston

Location: Town of Galvinston

PC Dramatis Personae

Basil - Human Male Wizard 5, Incantatur 4
Gavin – Halfling Male Rogue 8
Raindrop - Human Female Monk 6, Drunken Master 3
Meeshani – Gnome Female Scout 8
Mist – Moon Elf Female Bard 8
Storm - Human Female Barbarian 8, Frenzied Berserker 1

Marpenoth 11, 1319 DR

The core Guild members were enjoying a relatively quiet autumn day over brunch mostly discussing the mysterious appearance of Bail a few ten-days before when they were interrupted by the sounds of shouting from the direction of the main road. When they ran out to investigate, they witness an uncontrolled covered wagon careening down the street in the direction of the stream ford. The cart plunged into the stream, rolled over and then disgorged a pair of four armed albino beasts that Mist would later call a Girallon. Just to make matters worse, several members of the group heard screams originating from inside of the slowly sinking vehicle.

Gavin responded the fastest, pulling and shooting a crossbow at the lead creature without a moments notice. Meeshani noticed that Storm was not quite armed for battle, so she pulled out her trusty Shortspear and stuck into ground as she moved by. Mist provided a bit of magical enhancement to the spear before Storm grabbed the weapon and shouted out orders that sent Raindrop running down the cobble stones moving at speed up to the bridge over the stream. Looking inside the Monk saw two small forms underneath a cloth tarp amidst the overturned remained of several freshly cut green logs.

Further up the road, Storm and Gavin moved to engage the first of the creatures while trying to dodge out of the way of their excessive reach. Raindrop dove off the bridge and into the wagon tearing back the trap and was surprised to see two small Drow children inside. She managed to grab both of them in a head lock and jump outside in the waist deep water, moving slowly onto shore. Raindrop then moved under the bridge dragging the children with her to keep them from the prying eyes of the nearby monsters, the locals and her friend Storm who had just go into complete battle frenzy. Mean while the combined melee offense of Storm and Gavin managed to drop the first gorilla beast and they moved onto the second after it charged at Meeshani.

Within seconds the second creature also vanished under the onslaught but not before several Guild members suffered critical wounds from the gnashing teeth and rending claws of the Girallon. Storm even went as far as to attack her friends deep within the mental rage that over took her senses, before being calmed down by the soothing music of Mist. In the aftermath of the battle, Storm and Meeshani stayed behind to answer questions and to help clean-up while Raindrop, Basil and Gavin smuggled the Drow children back to the Guild where they tried to figure out where they came from and just what to do with them.

The Constable showed up shortly thereafter and asked all sorts of questions. She sent a runner to the Temple of Auril to treat the wounded, had the corpses hauled off to an empty field for further investigation and arranged for draft horses to pull the wagon out of the stream. A through search of the wagon revealed freshly cut wood from a region of the forest off limits to the population of Galvinston as a result of the treaty. Both the owner of the wagon and the wheelwright who constructed it were clearly marked on the vehicle so they were called upon to answer a few questions. The wagon turned out to have gone missing on a regular ore shipment to Downslope a few days before. Meeshani performed a brief bit of scouting to determine where the runaway had originated. She found a pair of horses loitering around the north road and tracks leading up the hill towards Downslope.

Back at the Guild, Mist was trying to question the Drow children with little success. While she was able to create an effective disguise accentuated by a Tongues spell and some Illusion magic, the children were clearly traumatized and knew very little. In fact, one of the two children had collapsed into unconsciousness due extreme fear of the bright light. The other knew little more than that he had been taken from the safety of the crèche by strangers and had woken up in the wagon moments before the crash. He was quite hesitant to answer questions from a strange Drow female that he had not previously met before. Mist even managed to make matters worse when she tried to sing a traditional Drow lullaby and was met with complete dread and abject terror.

When everyone got back together it was decided that they would gather up their horses and ride up the trail looking for clues. Meeshani sent her brother down to the port to collect the junior adventuring band to stand guard over the guild in case a mob came looking for the Drow. Then she asked her parents to take the now sleeping Drow down into the basement of the adjacent inn to keep them completely safe from potential persecution. Storm stayed behind to wait until her young protégés showed up passing the time by sending the other children home from the day care center the Guild had turned into over the past few years.

Several hours ride up the road revealed a camp site used the night before by perhaps a dozen armed men on horse back. Thrown off the road were six bodies, which clearly matched the descriptions of the missing caravan guards and driver. The bodies were killed some place else and thrown off the road at the camp site. All tracks suggested that the armed raiders rode back towards Downslope. After Storm caught up with the main group, they all decided to head in that direction to hopefully obtain clues along the way. She had talked to Constable Rayina before leaving town about potential leads on the lumber cutting and was given the name of a less than scrupulous timber dealer who worked out of the White Hart Inn at Downslope. Armed with that extra bit of information, the Guild felt confident of tracking down the perpetrators of the crimes.

Intra-Chapter Timeline

1317/Year of the Wandering Wyrm
The first High Blade takes power in Mulmaster across the Moonsea. A small group of Wild Elves appear in Galvinston demanding to speak to the local authorities. Constable Rayina manages to broker a treaty between a previously unknown nation of Tel’Quessir and the Mining Consortium. The details of the treaty layout established boundaries for town expansion, mining and logging for the Consortium while the elves agreed to provide historical records on forestry and mineral within the agreed upon treaty boundaries. While most of the local inhabitants feel that the treaty is a good thing, many of the miners feel cheated as a result of the deal. The treaty also formally protects all elves within the borders of the treaty from threat of retaliation for the previous years of sabotage and terrorism, leading to elves coming to town to trade on a fairly frequent basis.

1318/Year of the Tired Treant

Mulmaster enters into a formalized trade agreement with the Mining Consortium to provide timber, quarried stone and metal ore. This turns the port overnight into a raucous and at times lawless urban blight. Most of the service related businesses immediately put up a local establishment at the port with more of the traditional services migrate back to the main town in original river valley. The lure of quick money encourages most of the area’s youth to move to the port causing yet another increasing dichotomy between the populations of Galvinston. Sheriff Rayina is forced for the first time to keep active officers on duty at all hours to deal with the increasing criminal element that inevitably results with such a rapid increase of business opportunities in a small coastal town. Drow are seen with increasing in the wilds in southern Vaasa.

1319/Year of the Fallen Throne

With the collapse of the local government due to the passing of an heirless royal line, the Zhentarium take formal command of Zhentil Keep. In order to foster good will with other local governments of the Moonsea, the Zhentarium attempts to open formal diplomatic relations. While most of the Moonsea is completely ambivalent to such endeavors, the town and port of Galvinston completely rebuff any such attempts at negotiation based on past historical precedence. Increased criminal activities both from Downslope and Port Galvinston force the official founding of an authorized town militia and defense force called the riders of Galvinston known for their skill and speed negotiating the well traveled toad between the town and port.

Eleint 6, 1316 DR (continued)

Basil quickly appraised the value of both contested religious items and realized that apart from the church of Ilmater, they held very little value for anyone. Once he made that clear to Meeshani, the increased tension of the situation vanished as if it had never been, albeit Vachlan was a bit perturbed by the greedy actions of the two adventurers. Moving along, they decided to question the Tiefling still shackled in the torture room for information on Dendrail. With reluctance, the Tiefling revealed that he was told that the dwarf had escaped. Feeling relieved that their friend and ally had not been caught, tortured or killed, the group moved on to look for any items of value. They eventually stumbled onto a secret room hidden behind a mural in the largest and most ornate bed chamber. Four magically trapped chests contained a variety of magical and mundane loot for all of the hassle the Guild had to put up with resolving the subterfuge of the Temple of Loviatar.

Returning back of the Temple of Ilmater with the Tiefling in tow, they shared the results of their research with acting High Priestess Edna. With her assistance, they confirmed that the fallen Paladin Shaunnra had indeed been put to rest and her soul was on its way to its final destination in the Outer Planes. Afterwards, Edna places Twilight Hollow own under martial law and orders assistance of an Inquisitor from the Monastery of the Yellow Rose to investigate if they are any more traitors present in town. Basil even takes the time to enact his own personal style of revenge by informing the Innkeeper of the death of his son at the hands of Andress herself. The rest of the even is spent relaxing, partying or sleeping back at the Inn, helping themselves to all the food and drink they can lay their hands on.

Eleint 7-12th, 1316 DR

After spending a day identifying their treasure and divvying it amongst the party, the group decided to head back home after being given approval from Inquisitor of Ilmater. The ride back to Galvinston is anticlimactic at best after the tense events of the past few days. Vachlan was required to remain in Twilight Hollow to handle the pending Inquisition forthcoming from the Monastery of the Yellow Rose. The entire town was placed under full martial law until everyone was able to be properly interrogated. Somehow you managed to leave without either an official thanks from the church or the townspeople, but also managed to avoid having to tithe any portion of your treasure to the clergy. The only thing that makes the trip home interesting is Gavin relishing in his freedom and pestering the group with questions about your home town.

Unfortunately, along the ride home, the Guild does stumble onto a pack of wolves devouring the remains of several corpses. They scatter the animals, but amongst the remains they find several items that appear to have belonged to Dendrail. The half-dozens corpses are strewn with arrows suggesting that Dendrail put up quite a fight before he was subdued or killed. The creatures all appear to be medium-sized humanoid bipeds with heads similar to a goat or a ram. The bodies are either too decayed or half-eaten so it is impossible to reveal just exactly what creatures that attacked Dendrail might have been. Basil has quite a few ideas, but nothing concrete to work with the evidence on hand. In addition, any useful tracks appear to have been wiped clean based on Meeshani’s rudimentary tracking skills.

Eleint 6, 1316 (continued)

Deciding that this was the best course of action was head upstairs, the group carefully climbed up the spiral staircase to the balcony area above the main temple. The foyer contained three rough hewn stone columns and a pair of hallways that lead off to numerous doors and fire lit alcoves. As the group move to explore the area, one by one the columns shifted into a trio of Earth Demons wielding stone Greatclubs and attacked. While the melee never truly became life threatening it was certainly made more difficult by the fact that the Outsiders had some type of molten blood that escaped through wound marks are anyone that hit them with a slashing or piercing weapon. Raindrop found this out the hard way when she grappled several of the Demons and got splattered with molten rock as everyone took advantage of their opponent’s momentary combat deficiencies and reduced them to piles of rubble.

Moving down the far hallway, they carefully listened at doors, check for traps and opened several rooms. The first room was certainly the most elaborate complete with the vilest of wall murals, a leather bed hung on chairs, a large mirror as well as a wardrobe filled with fancy women’s clothing and a small hand-sized sarcophagus containing a poisoned dagger. The other rooms were much smaller containing little more that basic bunk beds and empty chests. Meeshani did discover some strange sounds coming from the only chamber that contained double doors leading into it deepest into what must be a dormitory. At the same time as Storm went to investigate the noises, Mist noticed something strange about the wall sconces that suggested some type of hidden entrance. It was this innate curiosity of both the Bard and the Barbarian that ultimately led to a battle that would be fought on two fronts.

On one side, Storm & Meeshani discovered a Tiefling being voluntarily tortured by some tiny of bluish-purple ball of energy while on the other, Mist discovered that all of the wall sconces contained secret doors which lead into a hidden central chamber where the escaped High Priestess was hiding protected by a Prismatic Roper standing guard. The Barbarian and the Scout quickly learned that the spherical creature packed an offensive blast attack and it appears that their weapons were effectively useless, prompting a strategic retreat. While the Bard was surprised to notice her Monk friend suddenly fall victim to a magical effect from the Roper and voluntarily walk within melee ranged of the multi-tentacled Aberration. The rest of the group was then caught in the middle of this quickly escalating battle.

With all of the sconces suddenly becoming open doorways, the group was quite effectively able to avoid the Roper and focus their attacks on the High Priestess all while trying to avoid the energy creature that had been conducting the torture session. While most melee weapons seemed ineffective against the sphere, Basil’s magic was quick effective blasting it several times in rapid succession. His magic was also useful against faithful of Loviatar electrifying her quite successfully. Mist was quite successful in fascinating the Roper, effectively taking it out of the battle for the short term while the group focused on the other combatants. Storm finally managed to get lucky with a hit that finally dissolved the energy sphere creature for good.

For his part, Vachlan rushed into battle that obviously was meant to resolve the Ilmater versus Loviatar issue in Twilight Hollow. He smashed into the priestesses, knocking off her mask and revealing her to be none other presumed missing High Priestess of Ilmater; Andress. The now revealed double agent retaliated with a curse from her deity followed by dosing poor Vachlan with a potent poison.
However, this did not stop Meeshani and Gavin from letting lose with arrows and bolts striking the traitor on numerous occasions. Raindrop even tried to enter into the fracas with a grapple, but was frustrated when it was clear that worshipper of Loviatar had planned for just such a tactic with a Freedom of movement spell. Yet it was clear that the imposter wasn’t long for the world, so with her dying breath, she tossed a lone dagger at her ally the fascinated Prismatic Roper, in hopes of shattering the Enhancement Magic.

It was clear that the tactic worked when the Aberration went berserk and started to thrash anyone and everyone within twenty feet with its massively long tentacles. While the appendages themselves did not cause all that much inherent physical damage, they were laced with a poison that impaired the natural agility of someone under its effects. Several people became under the influence of the effects of that poison as they dodged out of the way of the grasping limbs while trying to offer any type of offensive action they could provide. As usual, Storm was at the front of the battle, having used an Enlarge Person potion, but was unable to connect likely due to both being affected by the poison and her unwieldy size. Nevertheless, with repetition comes success and she was finally able to destroy the beast wit a few lucky blows.

With the battle complete, the clean-up began. Raindrop, Storm and Mist decided to investigate the rest of the closed doorways, summarily smashing them all to bit, looking for any hidden enemies or items of value. Meeshani, Basil and Gavin poked around the hidden chamber looking to pry any hidden secrets from it. For his part, Vachlan patched up much of the party, but not before he had liberated a few material items from the body of Andress, most specifically a holy symbol of Ilmater and what appeared to be a holy relic. This apparent act of looting on the part of Vachlan ended up causing a serious contention with both Basil and Meeshani. They argued that since Vachlan had been unable to pay them for their effort, the spoils of battle belonged to the group. Vachlan argued that the spiritual items of his church had never been under any such strictures since their ownership by the church of Ilmater was never in question. This lead to a quite loud argument between the three individuals that seemed likely to escalate into something nasty if it wasn’t diffused quickly.

Eleint 6, 1316 DR (continued)

Backtracking to the one remaining section of the tunnel seemed to lead the group deeper into processes and procedures to administer pain as exhibited by the increasingly detailed paintings, motifs and drawings that were scattered across the walls. The tunnels eventually lead to two different, but identical doorways, similar in all ways to the mouth shaped doorway elsewhere in the tunnels. Wary of potentially collapsing the tunnel, the group decided for a more direct method entering. Storm volunteered to insert her hand into the mouth shaped door casing and was surprised when it would not open due to her natural toughness accrued over years of battle. The task ended up falling to Basil who embraced the task with his usual zeal and the mouth bit down, drew blood and the door opened.

Something hidden in the shadows or by magic was on the far side and it made a massive roar alerting anyone nearby of a burgeoning conflict about to ensure. Yet when Basil moved to use magic to reveal the creature, it failed, leading him to believe that the creature was some type of outsider, likely a demon or devil, with some type of natural cloaking field, some type of damage and spell resistance as well as some type of energy resistance. Meeshani found out the hard way that the creature was quite large and able to scoop up opponents in its mouth. Luckily, with the information provided by Basil, Vachlan was able to use a Protection versus Evil effect to make the gnome untouchable by evil outsiders, causing the creature to drop Raindrop. Unfortunately, the creature was still practically invisible and as such quite a challenge to make any type of concerted effort to defend against or attack.

To make matters worse, the roar had alerted the central temple complex of intruders in the form of what appeared to be several zombie creatures directed by a human priestess. In addition, some strange violet colored creature was also nearby and its simple presence seemed to induce some type of momentary weakness to anyone within line of sight. The zombies took the form of a pair of Otyugh’s and a single Rust Monster who headed straight for Storm proceeded to munch both her magical halberd and a spare Morningstar. Vachlan’s impressive power over the undead was having no effect that in part to the desecration of the temple by the worshippers of Loviatar. Luckily, Meeshani had wisely place the magical halberd taken off the dead half-dragon on her haversack and provided to Storm. Using that weapon, the barbarian was able to push forward and drop several creatures quickly thanks to some previously unknown magical effect on it.

As the group moved further into the temple, they noticed an elaborate altar area where a priestess of Loviatar had strung up a prisoner. The poor victim was none other than the son of the town innkeeper and his death was swift thanks to the sacrificial scourge wielded by the dominatrix in charge. His passing, alone with the destruction of the zombies and the lesser priestess all seemed to fuel the power of the violet hued undead creature that Vachlan identified as a Soul Stealer. Even stranger was the fact that when Mist got close to the creature, she saw what looked like the disembodied form of the fallen Paladin Shaunnra trapped inside. While the evil presence of the Soul Stealer was difficult to be near, the guild was able to work together to vanquish the creature while Raindrop tried to capture the high priestess. Unfortunately, she managed to escape the clutches of her grappler through the fortuitous use of a Dimension Door spell.

With the battle over, the group moved to explore the temple proper and the nearby exits. A single stairwell lead up to a overlooking balcony and a series of rooms on an upper level. Underneath the altar area was a small torture chamber filled with several bodies, some of whom Gavin recognized as belonging to his traveling circus. A single doorway lead to a more elaborate torture chamber complete with cells that resembled an abattoir filled with the deceased remains of numerous species. The room was quite difficult to stomach especially after finding the remains of Grr, Dendrail’s wolf companion. A doorway on the far side of the room led to a simple bed chamber obviously used by a professional torturer. Prior to moving on Vachlan felt the need to taken down all of the bodies and administer some form of last rites. He felt it was the least his faith could do for letting such heinous actions take place under the noses of the Temple of Ilmater for such a prolonged period of time.

The last major exit from the chamber was a pair of elaborately carved metal doors that seemed to indicate that they were the main entrance of the temple proper. Rather than waiting for anyone to check for potential issues, Storm opened the doors and was subject to a series of magical traps and narrowly avoided falling into a pit trap that opened underneath her. She was barely standing after the conflagration and it took immediate medical attention to keep her from dying from the after effects. On the far side was an intricately designed stairwell that lead down and greeting chamber and a small number of additional rooms. Exploration of those rooms revealed the other side of the collapsed tunnel from the day before as well as another torture chamber filled with an iron maiden occupied by a wraith. This particular undead was quite easy to destroy in seconds thanks to a transdimensional spell of Basil’s and the exalted power over the undead of Vachlan.

Several surprising revelations occurred over the tense several minutes fighting and exploring around the central portion of the temple of Loviatar. The first was when Mist was trying to be sneaky and encourage Basil to use undead when she though the battle was going badly. She thought that by speaking in Celestial, she could avoid detection. Ironically, Vachlan heard and understood every word of her desperate plea. Next, Gavin was quite emotionally overwhelmed when he came up the remains of his former friends and traveling partners in the circus he used to perform with. Seeing the tormented and besieged bodies of close personal acquaintances hanging like meat in a chop house was simply more that the poor halfling could handle without becoming physically sick. Lastly, while it appeared that soul of the fallen paladin had been released with the demise of the Soul Eater; the real villain had managed to escape from Raindrop’s grasp to locations unknown. It was likely that she was on the upper level of the temple and would have to be hunted down and dealt with properly.

Eleint 5, 1316 DR (continued)

A significant period of time was spent going over the valuables of the fallen enemy forces as well as searching the area for any potential hidden entrances, exits or caches. While they were unable to find any obscured areas, they did find quite a collection of coins, gems, artwork, weapons, gear and other magical effects. Basil took a moment to identify the potions before handing them out to those who could use them most effectively, before the group decided to move on deeper into the tunnels. They moved through several rooms with locked doors that contained nothing much of interest until Meeshani stumbled onto a massive crypt area full of skeletons. While the group moved on the offensive, Vachlan simply walked up and turned them all to ash with the power granted to him by Ilmater.

Pushing ahead, Meeshani scouted down several tunnels finding three potential directions to focus their investigation. One was a bridge over swiftly moving water while two others were deeper into a crypt area where she heard something rattle off in the background. Deciding to move back towards the main group and report, just as she got within visual range, she felt strange magic try to take effect and turned around to noticed a strange Fey-like creature dresses in Jester’s motley waving a rattle. This chance encounter with what clearly was an insane faerie would end up causing more problems than anyone could have ever anticipated.

Several members of the group identified the creature as a Grey Jester, a type of Fey that derived nourishment from the emotions of the living and favored Enchantment effects that changed those emotions. Mist though she would be cute and give the creature a does of its own medicine, but that only ended up angering the Fey who singled her out for most of its attacks. In addition, anyone who got within thirty feet of the Grey Jester came under the effects of its emotional feeding. This quickly lead to most of the group suffering from personality drain, and Gavin falling to the effects of a laughter spell and then catatonia as his essence was bled dry. While the fey did not turn out to be much of a melee opponent, the overall impact it had on the group was unprecedented in the history of the Guild.

After some discussion and detailed searching of the nearby crypts for anything of value, the group decided that rather than risk getting into anymore trouble that they would return to the Temple of Ilmater and rest for the remainder of the day. This would allow both Vachlan and the acting priestess Edna the ability to remove their personality drain on the following day. In the mean time they caught up on the news of the day. Andress was still missing with no real clues as to her location. In addition, the innkeepers’ son was also missing as well as Dendrail who had not been seen since the night before. This meant that potentially three different innocent victims had fallen prey to the machinations of the cult of Loviatar that had taken up residence under Twilight Hollow.

Eleint 6, 1316 DR

After restoring the personality drain with the use of quite a few Restoration spells and determining that no additional information had been discovered about the missing High Priestess or the Innkeepers son, the group made their way back down into the tunnels under the city. They returned to the area with the wooden planked roped bridge leading over the roaring flow of an underground river to where Meeshani had seen some strange ooze like creature the day before. While the Gnome was keen on taking things safe and slow, Storm ruined that by wandering into a Glyph of Warding that exploded in flame as she walked by. The brazen barbarian then callously proceeded down into a maze of hallways, stopping only when two of the oozes came into her visual ranged.

Most of the group followed quickly behind Storm in order to keep her from falling prey to her own idle curiosity. Gavin and Meeshani all moved in close enough to see and take advantage of their ranged weapons while Raindrop tried to figure how she was going to be able to enter melee with a creature that would like injure her by contact alone. Mist and Vachlan brought up the rear and they all soon rued the fact that they had all clustered together in a corridor as one of the ooze tried flow over, across and through most of them. Luckily, everyone but Storm was able to dodge out of the way and avoid any of the acidic burning that Storm encountered. They then all quickly turned reduced the two offending oozes to little more than pools of acidic slime

After successfully identifying the creatures as Gelatinous Cubes and daring to be different, Basil decided to take a different tunnel. This turned out to also be trapped causing him some serious burn for his effort. Unabashed, Basil armed himself with various types of Necromantic magic, webbed a passing ooze, then burnt the web off, hoping to be engulfed and thereby cause the creature to expire from its own incessant hunger. Unfortunately, both Meeshani and Mist ended up earning his ire after they let lose with arrows, destroying the creature, thereby ruining his meticulous plan. Once again, the wizard and the bard were at the opposite ends of yet another incessant argument with no obvious means to resolve their differences.

Eleint 5, 1316 DR (continued)

Upon examination of the second prisoner in more detail by Vachlan, he discovered the remains of some type of magical charm inside the mount of the comatose albino halfling. Once he pulled out the charm, the prisoner started coughing and rousing from his coma. After providing him with food and water, the Guild started asking questions of the prisoner who introduced himself as Gavin Shortspur. Apparently the halfling was part of a traveling circus that frequented most small towns and cities in the Moonsea region every few years. During a stop over in a small town some two and half ten days ago, the circus was attacked and many of the performers were taken captive. Over the last few weeks, Gavin was constantly tortured for no apparent reason as he saw all the rest of his former companions taken from their cells and lead somewhere to be sacrificed to the Mistress of Pain.

While Basil seemed eager to send Gavin off back to town, the halfling was quite eager to understand why he was captured and where the rest of his former performers had been taken. In addition, Raindrop was more than a little suspicious of the motivations of the strange halfling, but after some discussion it was agreed that Gavin could tag along. Meeshani then provided some basic weapons and gear to Gavin since they both had the same basic physical build and size. Once everyone was ready, they headed down the long hallway past the prison into an area of the tunnels filled with strange symbols as well as drawing and paintings of various types of torture emblazoned along the walls.

The hallway ended in two different features; an elaborate door and handle complete with a metallic monster-like mouth with a handle inside and a recently abandoned forge room filled with rusty tools, an anvil, stone storage cabinets and an eerie black flickering flame. Investigation of the forge and the fire revealed an unknown type of elemental who was hidden behind an illusion of the fire. The creature struck out at both Mist and Basil causing an unexpected side effect of massive paranoia and mistrust. Overall, while the elemental was quite easy to destroy and it ultimately caused very little physical harm, the mental ramifications of its touch seemed to have the potential for long lasting effects.

The taint of the creature seemed to accentuate the already prevalent fears and suspicions of the elf and the greedy wizard to such a level that they started to bicker and provoke each other and their friends into arguments and the prospect of violence. Poor Gavin was stuck in the middle of what had the possibility of breaking out into a full fledged melee between what he though were a band of friendly adventurers. Luckily Vachlan was there to add his insight into the situation and to also keep things from blossoming completely out of control. Meeshani also gave one of her rare interjections and practically screamed at everyone to get themselves under control. Eventually some level of sanity crept in, but Mist and Basil still looked at each other with extreme suspicion.

Storm, Meeshani and Gavin then focused on the strange door, noticed trap that would cause the mouth to snap shut on anyone using the handle and disabled it. Unfortunately, with no handle to open the door, Storm was forced to bash it down and this had the unintended effect of causing a collapse of the hallway on the far side of the door which spilled over into a pile of rubble on the near side, almost burying a few people. When Storm went to try and remove some of the debris, Basil warned her away, fearing that any significant movement of the crushed stone would cause further collapse. He also surmised that some type of deadfall trap had been triggered when the door was smashed down rather than being opened in the normal fashion.

Reluctantly realizing that they had hit a dead end, everyone made their way back through the tunnels, up the pit and back above ground. They all decided to head straight to the Temple of Ilmater to share what they had learned with Andress the high priestess. They also wisely brought the slightly insane worshipper of Loviatar with them in hopes of being able to glean more information from him. While Andress was out ministering on the town and unavailable, they were able to give their report to the priestess on duty instead. She immediately mustered the temple guard, took the prisoner in for interrogation and kicked off all of the emergency procedures that were in place for just such an emergency. Loviatar was a long time enemy of the church of Ilmater and her presence in the tunnels underneath Twilight Hollow was certainly a dire providence.

Strangely after almost an hour, no one had been able to find Andress, which it itself was not all that unusual since she often rode to outlying farms some distance away to preach to the faithful unable to make it to town, However, under the current circumstances, there was some definite concern that perhaps something had happened, so the search for her widened. In the mean time, the Guild decided to head over to the Inn and have some lunch as well as to investigate the strange hidden areas behind their sleeping areas. Everyone sat down for lunch while Gavin snuck around the ground floor of the inn looking for secret entrances. It did not take long for him to find a hidden door in the back of a closet that contained a ladder heading up to the hidden hallway and down to an area under the Inn.

Gavin snooped around and discovered a pair of rooms, one empty and the other filled with supplies. In addition there was a hallway which led to a bridge over running water and further down an unknown tunnel. Meeshani eventually joined Gavin in exploring and they decided to leave lantern burning in order to draw out anyone nearby. The gnome and halfling then went back up to get everyone After trussing up the charmed Inn owner, they all started to make their way down to the hidden tunnels below, but the distraction they created ended up not turning out as they expected. A trio of three hobgoblins lay in wait down below and jumped Storm as soon as she went down the ladder. While this alone would not have been so deadly, there were more hobgoblins lying in wait nearby by.

A pitched battle broke out at the bottom of the stairs as the various members of the guild jockeyed for position and tried to make their way down to aid their allies. Raindrop, Meeshani and Gavin were able to fall or tumble their way down to help out Storm and eventually everyone else was able to force their way down. For the defenders part, they gave up quite a fight putting more than a dozen of their forces into the battle with limited degrees of success. Most of the brute force was provided by a gang of Hobgoblin grunts. Additionally support was provided by a priest of Loviatar, a magic missile happy Sorcerer, a half-dragon barbarian and a stealthy rogue. While they put up quite a good fight, in the end, they were unable to overcome the determined forces of the Guild and all fell quite quickly.

Oregon (Portland) and I have had my copy of #132 for almost two weeks now.