Friday, December 2
The conclusion of the playtest of “Faerie Tale.”
Morning of 25 Ready’reat, 592 CY
The party exited the rope trick and was relieved to find no miniature trolls waiting for them. Apparently, Ulainn’s trick of using dimension door the day before to break the trail of their scent worked.
Wending their way through the thick woods, they returned to the Candy Cottage and surveyed it from outside the low chocolate walls. They considered some alternate ways of entering, but finally decided to once again go through the front door. Everyone set themselves up in the most tactical positions they could think of. Andrew and Padril crept up to the heavy chocolate door. It was closed and locked once more. Andrew had it open a moment later after jimmying it open with his lock picks.
Pushing the door open, Andrew and Padril saw only a halfling woman standing on the first landing of the stairs at the opposite end of the long foyer. She told them they had one last chance to leave and never assault the mistress’s cottage again. The party was hardly intimidated by this veiled threat. Suddenly, a ruddy skinned imp appeared near Andrew’s head and whispered, “That’s not the real paladin Maccabee, and the others are going to betray you. Take them out before they get their chance!” Andrew nodded and slipped into the shadows of the cottage.
Padril cried out to the others that Andrew had been bewitched by an imp. The others began moving up, but Padril was stung by the poisoned tail of the tiny devil and the little halfling woman on the landing hit him with magic missiles. As the party began advancing, the halfling darted up the stairs snickering loudly.
Ulainn took off after her while the others held back. Suddenly Andrew darted out from the shadows and head faked Padril. While the elven scout’s attention was diverted he stabbed him with his kukri, inflicting serious damage. Padril was almost forced into wolf cub form again, but this time managed to fight it off.
As the others began moving into the cottage, Mira Luna cast dispel magic, which removed the suggestion spell from Andrew. With the sorceress hanging back, everyone began making their way toward the stairs when 5 of the witch’s miniature trolls exited the tower and moved out to attack the party.
Mira Luna sent a few spells at her enemies and then fireballed the trolls attacking Andrew, Maccabee, and Padril, but was subsequently grappled by one of them and couldn’t manage to get any other spells off. However, her fireball killed the imp, which had just been harassing Ulainn upstairs.
Ulainn trapped the halfing spellcaster in an Evard’s black tentacles spell. Soon, the halfling was able to wriggle free and dart around a corner to a short stretch of hallway where a balcony overlooked the foyer below where the others were fighting the trolls.
Ulainn moved to an area on the stairs opposite the balcony and sent a lightning bolt into it. Candy canes and other assorted parts composing the balcony railing exploded in every direction. Somehow the little halfling woman survived.
Below, only two trolls remained. The halfling spellcaster feather falled down to the foyer. She moved outside of the cottage where she cast a web spell, which caught up the adventurers and one of the trolls that were still inside. Maccabee quickly got rid of the webs using the last bead from his necklace of fireballs, killing the last troll fighting inside the cottage, wounding the halfling woman, but inflicting minimal damage to his companions.
Mira Luna finally got free of the troll and Ulainn hit the halfling woman with the killing blow. The last troll was polymorphed into a bunny by Ulainn and it hopped away. Immediately after combat was finished the party saw that the dead halfling had changed to a strikingly beautiful woman with raven hair. Could this have been the Warty Witch?
As they stripped her body of accoutrements, four munchkin trolls like those they had encountered the first time out in the woods, came out and kneeled down before them. In Giant, they proclaimed, “You killed the Warty Witch! You are the new masters of the Candy Cottage.”
Only Maccabee and Ulainn could speak their language. They conversed with them for a while and learned that the dead spellcaster had been their mistress for as long as they could remember. When asked what this place was, they simply replied that it was the world. Who created it? They could only respond that GOD had made it. WHICH god was up to the party to puzzle out.
They led the party up to the top of the tower showing them how to get past two traps and into a very large chamber – extradimensional, perhaps – and were shown a door leading into the witch’s treasure vault. The trolls warned that the door was actually a creature that was a pet of the witch’s. When they attempted to talk to the supposedly living iron door, it responded to them in Common. It was a servant of the former mistress and was fed regularly with small warm-blooded creatures caught in the woods in exchange for making itself look like a door and guarding the room behind it. It was a mimic.
After a suitable bribe of the bunny that was formerly a troll, the thing morphed into a large chest to the side of an opening leading into a closet with many shelves, a trunk, and a coffer. While it munched away on the bunny, the party pilfered the contents of the room. The most notable thing they found was a pouch of magical dust with instructions to toss it into the air and name the desired location to go to. They surmised that it would create a gate or maybe just teleport them where they wanted to go, which in this case was home.
Ulainn tossed the dust and named Rel Mord on their Material Plane. It coalesced into an oval ring and suddenly there were the streets of Rel Mord on the other side. A few people walking along the street drew back in alarm and people started shouting an alarm of witchery. The group sprang through the opening and as they did they reverted back to adults. The gate winked out of existence as the last of them came through. They then left the area quickly to avoid any unwanted questions.
Later that day, in the home of Maccabee’s brother, they found out that only 5 hours had elapsed since they had left to the 5 days they had wandered the enchanted fairy tale forest. They sat around the den musing over their strange and unexpected adventure as the sun went down in east.
Vote Redhand!
Through the Eyes of a Paladin #36
The entry into the candy cottage was going to be faced with more resistance than previous encounters. Seeing Andrew having to unlock the door was the first obvious obstruction, but when the witch charmed Andrew, the battle seemed to go on for hours. In many ways it did. I failed the attempt to help Padril in his face off with Andrew, hoping to aid him from being hit by his deadly Kukri. Mira Luna successfully dispelled the charm on Andrew. Andrew was back to himself and I was able to use the Icon to heal most of Padril’s damage. Soon after this the Trolls stormed in as the Imp continued its attack on the party. Ulainn seemed to get ahead of the bulk of the group; he made it his business to confront the witch head on with her Imp closely protecting her. At which point I called upon the name of Heironeous and my blade cracked with electricity. Drawing the attacks of the Trolls I gave Andrew, Ulainn and Padril an opportunity to get through the hallway full of Trolls. With some minor success Andrew was able to cause great harm on the trolls and Ulainn took on the witch. Casting spells over our heads the witch and Ulainn as well as the Imp duke it out. Padril was able to send forth a stinging strike with his bow but Mira Luna was regrettably grabbed and held by a charging Troll. I had to hold my ground and was unable to help Mira Luna. Gradually the trolls were whittling down when suddenly we all were immersed in a web. Fortunately I had the one minor lesser fireball on my necklace and was able to destroy the webs and some of the remaining trolls. The party as well as myself took no damage since I had prepared myself of the possibility of this with a resist fire spell. At that point I saw standing behind me was the witch. She casted some spell at me and could feel the protection from evil surrounding me fizzle the evil witches powers. She looked at me in fear and with in the next moment I called upon the power of righteousness and smite the warty witch into oblivion. The witch was dead.
Many people suffer from witches in life, and many times they are children when a witch strikes. On this day it was good to kill the witch once and for all.
Some of the best points of the game were the ability to roll play as children. We had fortunately found our way quickly to the cottage. Learning of all of the other potential obstacles this fantasy world made it that much more intreaging to play in. The situations were not impossible, but would be without the teamwork of fellow players. That was the most enjoyable part of this game session for everyone to work together in a humorous scenario. O and one more thing, this was real good therapy.
Vote Redhand!
What the... ?! How'd that get in here? Ah, Rich, you know you have my vote. You've never tried to cram a huge coral snake through a 6" wide arrow slit so that makes all the difference ;)
Friday, December 9
The party has returned from their adventures in “candy land,” as Ben has now named it, and is back in Rel Mord. It is still 21 Ready’reat, though the party passed several days in the Forest of Lanterns demiplane. Apparently time there passes much faster. They decided to spend a few more weeks doing some training, learning new skills, and purchasing/commissioning new gear.
Winter has descended upon the lands of the Flanaess once more. On 21 Sunsebb the group rejoined one another in the home of Maccabee’s brother in Rel Mord. There are a few things that the party learned in the past few weeks that they talked about after dinner as they relaxed in front of a warm fire in the den.
Rel Mord, like many other large cities, has its share of “street corner prophets” and doomsayers. They are usually ignored or tolerated by most, but Andrew and Padril happened to hear one talking about the return of the ancient masters who will assume their former places as the rulers of Oerth. Mention of a great faranth champion – a master of masters – that would fall from the heavens like a shooting star to herald their return piqued their curiosity. When they asked the crazed old “prophet” about it, he seemed to not remember ever saying it.
Maccabee, meanwhile, had received a magical sending on behalf of Brandon, the errant monk of Rao, who has continued the party’s quest on his own for a time. The message was that he had found a map to the Valley of the Stone and wished to share the information with the party. He requested that they meet him in a small town called Torum, which is west of Rhale, which is in turn south of Mowbrenn. The latter is the seat of local government of the county of the same name in Nyrond and about 5 days overland travel northwest of Rel Mord on the other side of the Duntide River.
**We start “The Black Egg” from Dungeon 106 with some adaptations to suit the campaign**
22 Sunsebb—27 Sunsebb, 592 CY
The party was ferried across the Duntide and trekked across the snow-covered rolling plains of Mowbrenn County for the next 5 days. Aside from patrols and other travelers the only thing of note was the daily lessons Ulainn was giving Padril in speaking Draconic. The elven scout had begun learning as many languages as he could find instructors to teach him.
In the town of Mowbrenn, the party made their presence known to Count Huldane. Maccabee also learned that aside from occasional acts of banditry and encounters with hostile humanoids, the only thing of note lately was the sighting of dark-skinned, hulking figures traveling by night southward.
Night of 28 Sunsebb, 592 CY
The party only stayed a single night in Mowbreen and set out early the next morning following a dirt road southward that they were told would take them to the walled town of Rhale some 2 days travel from there. Ulainn had learned a new spell that would conjure up a comfortable little cottage complete with bunkbeds, secure windows and door, and a good sized hearth from which they could enjoy a warm fire each night.
It was a couple hours after retiring to Ulainn’s magical cottage for the night that Padril happened to step outdoors for a little air when he noticed a shooting star streaking across the night sky trailing a long tail of scarlet flames. As quick as it streaked overhead, it stuck the ground many miles away – about 20 to 30 miles by his estimation. A flash of light and a billowing mushroom shaped cloud far away preceded a hot blast of wind and tremors in the earth that shook the cottage and stirred the others to come running outside to see what all the commotion was about.
The party watched as far away flames engulfed the plains. For the next hour or two, the far countryside looked like a huge army encampment – hundreds of patches of fire burned on the plain. The party felt uneasy about the whole thing and wondered if Brandon had been close to that explosion.
1 Needfest, 593 CY
The first day of the new year dawned with choking, stinging ash and smoke heavy in the air and shrouding the plains as the party set out southward once more to the town of Rhale, not sure what they would find, if anything, when they got there. The further south they went, the party encountered bedraggled travelers carrying bundles on their backs or pulling hand carts with all of their worldly possessions in them. Covered in soot, burned, and battered, all of the commoners the party met believed that the end of the world had come. Lost and disconsolate, they headed north toward what they hoped was safety.
Late in the day the party encountered another group of travelers up ahead, but suddenly a pair of women in fine apparel – one extremely beautiful with straight auburn hair and a sneer wearing a rich purple cloak, the other a half-elf with blonde wavy hair and carrying a reddish, twisted staff – with duplicate images surrounding them appeared out of nowhere and began interrogating the travelers none too gently. Apparently they were looking for a group like the figures sighted near Mowbrenn that Maccabee had heard about. One of them singled out a middle aged woman, pointed toward her, and suddenly a grey skinned giant hefting a greataxe appeared and grabbed her.
The party decided to rush to the woman’s aid. They began closing the distance.
The trio noted the approaching group, but didn’t seem concerned with them. They continued to question the woman squirming in the iron grip of the stone giant. Padril was the first to approach close enough to converse with the 2 women and the giant. Once he began questioning them and made mention that their party was looking for the same people, the stone giant dropped the struggling woman and growled, “Competition, huh? Then you need choppin!”
The giant advanced on Padril and struck him with his massive axe as Maccabee charged him on his mount Neon. The paladin pierced the giant with his lance. The giant looked down at the wound and muttered, “You made Tovak bleed! Tovak crush you, puny manling!”
Andrew tumbled past the giant and landed a sneak attack on him with his kukri. The giant grunted and turned to look at him. He shouted, “This one’s a damned rogue!” to his 2 female companions who were now regarding the enemy adventurers as a threat they were about to deal with.
Ulainn and Mira Luna approached last. The dwarven wizard had gone invisible. Mira Luna hoped to engulf the group in her signature fireball spell, but the commoners were still among them and she didn’t want to risk killing innocents. Instead she cast mage armor on herself and continued approaching at a slow and steady pace.
Padril didn’t want to risk another blow from the stone giant’s axe so he tumbled away and took a shot at one of the images of the woman in the purple cloak. His arrow went wide of its mark.
The stone giant turned on Andrew and swung viciously at him, but missed. However, a moment later the purple cloaked woman sneered and told the giant she would handle him. She cast a spell, walked up and struck Andrew with an open-handed slap, which suddenly drained life from the rogue. She in turn appeared more energized as if feeding on his energy.
Ulainn suddenly appeared on the far side of the gathering after casting a spell he hoped would dispel some of the magical effects the women had on them. There was no obvious sign that anything had happened, but he was sure that he had taken out some of their spells.
Mira Luna cast a blindness spell on the giant, but it failed to affect him. The blows he rained on Andrew a second later, laid the young rogue out on the ground, where he appeared to be dead or dying.
Maccabee, ever the champion of the down-trodden, poor, and endangered souls, galloped up on Neon suffering a mighty blow from the giant’s axe as he rode past him, leaped from his saddle, and laid his healing hands upon Andrew.
Padril continued firing arrows at the giant, but keeping a safe distance from it. Mira Luna cast dispel magic on the women spellcasters and was gratified to see the blonde half-elf’s mirror images disappear.
Now that the commoners had scattered, Ulainn was able to cast an area spell that affected the 2 women. An Evard’s black tentacles spell writhed around the women. The half-elf woman was grappled in the tentacles, but Ulainn had miscalculated with the other woman and only succeeded in “popping” all of her illusory images. The real one was just outside of the area of effect.
Andrew was now conscious, but decided to play dead considering the giant and his deadly axe loomed over him. Maccabee’s warhorse Neon charged the giant, but was horribly wounded by a critical hit from its axe. The giant then focused its attacks on Maccabee and wounded him severely as well.
Mira Luna tried to weaken the giant with a ray of enfeeblement, but missed him. The purple-cloaked woman tried the same thing on Maccabee and also missed. The blonde spellcaster, though being grappled, caught Ulainn and Mira Luna in a fireball using her magical staff. Both survived the flames, but were singed and blistered.
Padril was raining arrows on the women spellcasters. However, they seemed to have very little effect on the woman in the purple cloak. Suddenly, the tide of battle shifted when the stone giant clove both Andrew and the paladin Maccabee with his great axe. Fortunately, Neon had been sent back to the celestial realms or the warhorse might also have died.
The blonde haired woman in the grip of the black tentacles of Ulainn’s spell finally decided that she had had enough and teleported away and did not return.
Padril was given chase by the stone giant and struck again. The scout tumbled away and over to the bodies of Maccabee and Andrew and gestured desperately for Mira Luna to come over and whisk them all away with a dimension door spell.
Meanwhile, Ulainn had assumed troll form via polymorph and was grappling the remaining female sorcerer, both of them now flying above the battle below them. Something happened that changed his tactics, though. He released the woman hastily and flew away from her.
Padril was struck by the giant’s axe and joined his 2 companions in a bloody heap. Mira Luna could now see that the woman in purple robes had changed into a humanoid shaped tigress with backward hands. Ulainn called out for Mira Luna to get the others and get out of there. She was able to fly up invisibly right under the nose of the giant standing over her companions’ bodies and cast dimension door to safely spirit them all a safe distance away. It turned out Padril was not dead, so Mira Luna used healing magic to bring him back to consciousness so he could take care of himself.
She tried to return and rescue the woman that the giant had been throttling when they approached, but when it appeared that the woman was quite fast and outdistancing the giant and tigress woman, she returned to her companions.
2 Needfest, 593 CY
Via teleport spells, Ulainn transported the dead and living back to Rel Mord where arrangements were made to have Andrew raised at the temple of Pelor and have Maccabee’s brethren use a scroll of true resurrection he had acquired to bring back Maccabee. Though it was a holiday week and the city was in the middle of New Year’s celebrations, they found the aid they needed and their dead companions were brought back to life. They made preparations to return to the locale of Rhale and find out what was happening.
Ulainn revealed to his companions that the purple-cloaked spellcaster in the trio they had fought was actually a rakshasa, a shapechanging sorcerer that was highly resistant to magic and very hard to damage with anything but blessed piercing weapons. The party talked about the combat that had gone so badly for them and vowed that if they encountered the group again they would have much different tactics.
3-4 Needfest, 593 CY
The party returned to where Ulainn had last erected his magical cottage and rested the remainder of the day. At first light they continued their journey to Rhale through the ash and smoke clinging to the plains, which were blasted and buckled.
Late in the day the sight of where Rhale had once stood came into view. Only a massive crater remained where the center of the town had been. The area around it was nothing but scorched rubble. Just above the huge crater floated a dense black sphere. Details were hard to determine through the smoke and steam from where they were.
As they entered the ruined town they noticed muscular black-skinned figures in company with some reptilian creature combing through the ruined town. The party hid and watched while Ulainn cast fly and approached invisibly. When he got closer he watched as the reptilian creature that walked on 2 thick hind legs made a low sound in its throat that suddenly caused the remains of a nearby building to collapse in pieces. It hopped up on the rubble and seemed to be looking around.
Ulainn could clearly see that the 2 dark-skinned figures were orcs with draconic features – half dragons most likely. Each wore emblems that he recognized as symbols of Tiamat, the goddess of evil dragons.
Suddenly, the other creature made a low trumpeting noise and looked in Ulainn’s directions. The half-dragon black orcs that were talking among themselves looked up and began pointing toward where Ulainn was, though they could not see him. The dwarf flew quickly back to his allies and reported what he had discovered. As the group whispered back and forth, the tuba-like trumpeting sound came again and as they looked around the corner of the ruined building they hid behind, they could see the group walking rapidly toward their hiding place behind the eyeless bipedal draconic creature.
**The session ended there poised to start another big encounter**
Through the Eyes of a Paladin #37
End of Harvester 592 CY
Maccabee knocks on his brother’s door in Rel Mord, when a servant opens it up with obvious recognition the name Maccabee is heard to echo throughout the Manor House as news of his return spreads among the staff and retainers. Yosephus and Maccabee share a warm brotherly embrace followed by introductions all around as the group of adventures—his companions—enter behind him. After a few short hours all are shown to rooms suited to them while Maccabee and Yosephus spend time in front of the fireplace in the den talking well into the night about adventures past.
Maccabee: Yosephus, it has been a long time since I have heard from Mom and our sister. What has been going on?
Yosephus: Well, Mom still keeps busy at the manor house, still occupying herself growing grapes and making wine. There has been no sign of Dad yet; it’s been nearly a year since your leaving on such short notice gave us all a stir. I would have thought you had headed into the Mountains in hopes to find Dad; instead you were at the far north?
Maccabee: Well, it was the strangest thing; I felt this longing to head north. It was as if I was taken away in a whirlwind. Before I knew it my quest called for my return back here. Yosephus, what about Deanna?
Yosephus: You would not believe how great she is doing. She became a priestess of Pelor in the short time you were gone and now is an apothecary in Woodwitch. She is settled in with a friend and they both seem to be doing great healing the locals. Apparently she has been working close with the Wood Elves trying to help reduce the tension in that region. Maccabee, you’ve got to tell me how and what you have done since you left a year ago.
Maccabee: Well, it began like this I was heading on the northern road out of Rel Mord...
As the sun was coming up the two had an early breakfast and retired for the remainder of the day only to continue with the story the later that day.
2 Ready’reat 592 CY to 22 Sunsebb
I spent the remainder of my time in Rel Mord tracking down reliable sources in having specific items made. Having a magical helmet with protection from evil on it seemed to be a good idea; that and a necklace of fireballs just in case. I made it a point to speak with the local clergy of Heironeous to sponsor three families in need paid for with a good portion of the treasure I had acquired; a tithe to help paladins like me stay humble and not set our hearts too much on worldly wealth. Writing letters to my sister and mother letting them know I was ok. Most of my time I spent on patrols gathering up the sites and sounds of the city forgetting about the troubling times that we were in. When Andrew disappeared in the book it was a nice distraction although odd for the circumstance. It wasn’t until I received a sending from Brandon that the reality of the coming destruction with the Faranths brought all things to perspective.
Maccabee: Yosephus, can I speak with you for a moment?
Yosephus: Sure Maccabbee. What’s the matter? It sounds serious.
Maccabee: Well, remember what I told you of the north and the story of the Destiny Stone. Well, I have to leave to further that cause. I just received a sending from Brandon and must head west to meet up with him.
Yosephus: OK?
Maccabee: Well, little brother, I don’t think I am going to survive this adventure.
Yosephus: How can you say that? No man knows his own Destiny!
Maccabee: That may be so, but ever since I have joined in the quest for the Destiny Stone it has changed me in ways I would have never dreamed of. Even in the areas of my faith.
Yosephus: How so?
Maccabee: Well, take for instance this Icon I carry with me. It bares the symbols of all the deities of good including Heironeous. As if all that in which is good is in harmony with one another instead of at odds. I learned of the ancient ones, gods who were no more than common men filled with weakness and frailty who man in their weakness worshiped only to give them strength in their dogmas.
Yosephus: So are you trying to say you are no longer a worshiper of Heironeous?
Maccabee: No brother (with a smile). I am just beginning to be aware that there is much, much more to the universe and that our walk in seeking the truth should not be limited to man’s dogmas.
Yosephus: Well, that’s good to know. You had me worried there for a moment. Look Maccabee, I have seen much change in you and I do believe you will see the quest all the way through. But if, and I do mean if, anything goes bad for you, I will stand in your stead. Besides you never told me if you met any woman of promise yet.
Maccabee: You always were a romantic. The answer to that question is no. Since
I have to go west and our final destination is to the south I will see if I can visit with Deanna and Mom. The call to leave is drawing hard upon my soul and hearing what Padril and Andrew have just reported we will leave at early light.
Yosephus: You make this out to be the end of the world.
Maccabee: You don’t realize how close you are to the truth (sigh).
Yosephus: You’re so dramatic.
Maccabee: Good night, little brother.
(With a final warm embrace, both brothers retire to their respective rooms.)
I awoke before sunrise with my early prayers and the only thing I could think of was, “Help me! Help me! Help Me!” At first light in a still sleepy house the adventurers departed.
I cant believe it. Just as I thought we were finally starting to work well as a group another mistake nearly got us all killed. I couldnt believe what I saw when Andrew decided to go toe to toe with a stone giant of all things. I mean he saw what it did to me in a single blow then decided to jump right in and join the fun. I am aware of rogues being deadly from a distance but he has never used that method before and I must ask him why since it may have saved his life as well as Maccabes if he had picked the giant apart at a distance rather than getting ripped in two by his great axe. Then of course I almost got killed by trying to get the party together so that we could take our dead and get out but that didnt work either. The spell casters seem to over estimate there companions ability to survive these very destructive attacks. Perhaps I should not be so hard on anyone since I too have made my share of mistakes but I wouldn't be thinking this at all if it were not for that trip we took into Strahds domain. I have never been quite the same since.
Perhaps I should not be so hard on anyone since I too have made my share of mistakes but I wouldn't be thinking this at all if it were not for that trip we took into Strahds domain. I have never been quite the same since.
You can say that again!
Friday, December 16
Late Afternoon, 4 Needfest, 593 CY
The black scaled orcs and their companion—a destrachan, Ulainn had called it—had not yet seen the party, though they appeared to be approaching in the correct direction. Maccabee, crouched low in Neon’s saddle, suddenly dug his heels into his mounts flanks, nd they leaped out from behind the feeble bit of wall they were hidden behind. The draconic orcs grunted something in their language and pointed at the paladin.
Ulainn suddenly appeared as well after attempting to deafen the destrachan with a spell. The orcs began pointing at him as well and growling something to each other; perhaps debating on which one to attack. The destrachan continued moving in their direction, but all three were suddenly engulfed in flames from Mira Luna’s fireball spell.
The battle only got uglier for the black orcs and destrachan. They never quite reached the adventurers to engage them. Between Padril’s arrows and Ulainn and Mira Luna’s long range spells, they never had a chance.
As they stood over their bodies after the short battle, pulling valuables off of them, a man hailed them from across the ruined hillside town. He had the appearance of a ranger—sturdy, but dirty clothes, a bow across his back, and an axe carried in one hand—with a couple days of stubble on his face and dark brooding eyes. He wanted to join forces with the adventuring party. He claimed he wanted to stop a group of draconic evil beings called the Black Covenant from retrieving something powerful and evil from inside the huge metal sphere hovering over the crater that was once the center of town.
By the party’s leave, he approached the dead draconic orcs and pulled out some kind of magical rod. When he touched it to their bodies something disturbing happened: it seemed to be sucking energy from the bodies—the longer he held it to them, they shook and convulsed and a moaning of pain came from them followed by an image of the creatures exiting the bodies and being sucked into the rod as if had captured their souls. He claimed it ensured a final irrevocable death. Such was his hate for all dragons and their kin.
The party wasn’t entirely comfortable with him, but he assured them the magic rod only worked on draconic creatures.
As they conversed, the women from the battle a few days earlier—the rakshasa in disguise and the blonde half-elf—stepped out into the open, seemingly from out of nowhere and addressed Tobias by name. They told him they wished to settle things with the adventurers. Their gear would soon belong to them as it rightfully should have the other day before it was stolen from under their noses. Tobias simply stepped aside and said, “Be my guests. Settle your differences.” However, as he moved away he gave a sly wink to Maccabee and the others.
As the women conversed with the adventurers the giant Tovak had apparently been sneaking around behind them under cover of invisibility and flying. Only a crunching sound behind Maccabee, Padril, and Andrew alerted them of someone there before he appeared and struck Maccabee with 3 quick crushing blows that sent him sprawling from his saddle to lay on the rocks and rubble looking as if he was dead. The others sprinted away from the giant and his deadly axe. Neon whinnied in panic for his master, but also galloped away taking a vicious cut from the giant’s axe in the process.
After nearly a minute of fighting the trio again, things seemed almost identical to the two groups’ last meeting—Maccabee lay unconscious, but being tended to by an invisible Mira Luna, Andrew also laying unconscious and dying, and Ulainn and Padril attacked from a distance.
When the blonde spellcaster took damage after Padril narrowed in on the real her among all of her mirror images, she once again teleported away. Mira Luna had raced around the battlefield helping to heal up Andrew and Maccabee, and Ulainn had kept the rakshasa occupied long enough for the group to bounce back and surround Tovak and the rakshasa named Locke. Mira Luna and Ulainn struck Tovak with 3 rays of enfeeblement that dropped the giant to the ground, too weak to do more than twitch convulsively as he tried to move. Maccabee blessed Padril’s arrows and they struck true and fatally against the rakshasa.
Tobias attempted to save the giant and the rakshasa, proposing an alliance between all of them. He had revealed his treachery. Apparently, this whole fight was a testing for his pleasure to see if the group was up to snuff. He had been allied with Tovak, Locke, and the errant wizardess Maerith the whole time.
When Ulainn snared him in an Evard’s black tentacles, he activated his cape of the mountebank and teleported away.
This fight had proven exhaustive both on their health and resources. After moving a safe distance from the area, Ulainn erected his magical cottage and the group retired until the next day.
5 Needfest, 593 CY
The adventurers returned to the ruined town and walked completely around the lip of the massive crater at the center of the destruction. It was about 100 ft. deep at the center with very steep walls gradually curving into a bowl shape towards the bottom. Smoke and steam still rose up from it and curled around the great black iron sphere that hovered over it.
The sphere appeared to be covered in massive overlapping scales like that of a dragon. Jutting out from the middle of it on one side was a lip extending out from what looked to be the only entrance in—a tall and wide opening big enough to accommodate very large creatures.
Ulainn cast a mass fly spell on the party and they began gliding through the air. Closer to the lip they could see that it led deeper into the sphere where the ash and smoke in the air and deep shadows obscured whatever was inside.
Ulainn went invisible and flew into the entrance. At the end of the huge corridor a pair of gargantuan iron doors stood ajar. Red lurid light could be seen coming from beyond it. What truly drew his attention, though, was a large pale, scaled giant with wings. It clutched a massive sword etched with lighting bolts all along its length and wore a suit of polished full plate. The dwarven wizard could tell that the creature knew the party was there and seemed to be hiding and waiting to pounce on them.
Flying quickly back to the group, Ulainn warned them, but a moment later the creature flew out of hiding and quickly sizing up the adventures that were all within reach of his huge sword, he struck Maccabee a vicious blow that crackled with electricity. He bellowed, “How dare you even think to enter this holy sight, defilers!!!” Taken aback by this massive creature and remembering the damage that the stone giant mercenary dealt with his greataxe, the party fled in different directions and regrouped near the lip of the crater several hundred feet away from the entrance to the sphere when it was apparent that the draconic giant had not pursued them. Perhaps it was guarding the entrance.
There was talk about abandoning this foul place and moving on, but the party hesitated and decided to give this a little more thought. This was of obvious importance and creatures of great evil and power were involved. There was also the prophecy of the mad prophet in Rel Mord about some kind of faranth champion falling from the sky. They would need to do some planning before attempting to enter the sphere again, if they did.
Through the Eyes of a Paladin #38
Whoever said “what ever doesn’t kill you makes you stronger,” aught to be hung until made dead. Sending those disciples of Tiamat back to the nine hells was the highlight of our day with little to no effort on my part to see to their destruction. Drawing their attention was a perfect move yet I underestimated Mira Luna’s and Ulainn’s ability to strike at such a long distance. After the fireballs and lightning bolts were caste the enemy was fallen.
What was rather suspicious was the new fellow Tobias, whom took it upon himself to pass as potential ally. Personally the fellow gave me the creeps and it wasn’t before long my intuition was proven right once again. The popping up of our old foes motivated me immediately to go to a gallop but the over sized Stone giant had the jump on me and I was seeing stars once again from this evil creatures axe. Not certain how much time that lapsed but was grateful to see Neon survive the giants attack. Awakening, the tide had turned only to prove me right once more Tobias was the instigator of such a brutal attack. Hoping to face off with him once and for all he seemed to disappear as Padril has done and was seen no more.
Upon the next day seeing that my skills were far from excellent my faith in them seemed to diminish at every turn. How was it I was able to bring on so much destruction upon the man sized Trolls but on these encounters my skills other than healing were zero to none? Beginning to believe I am out matched out smarted and simply having a bad Paladin day. It seems I simply have to wait on my magic-wielding friends to face any future encounters. I must wait and see, on any account, I am not going at the quick to face my next foe. Right now its all about having a break through of some kind to turn things around, and frankly I don’t see it happening in this dismal place that is filled with carnage. I am already feeling the effects of such things, catching myself looking thousands of miles away in the endless void of nothingness.
Hmm, maybe I should clean out my Hewards. It has been a while since I have taken inventory or what I got. Wow, I forgot I was trying to keep a jurnal. It has been some time since I wrote in this. Maybe I should catch myself up on what has happened lately.
Lets start with that damn book. I guess Tom the Tomb of Tales heard my thoughts of what I had planned on doing to him. For after we got out of that retched plane, Tom had disappeared from the room I was staying in at Macabee's brother's place. Upon futher thought, I wonder why I was so upset about being in a new place on a new adventure though, after all what is it that adventures like myself do but go on adventures. I would have been better with it I think if I did not have to wait for my friends to show up with all my stuff. After all what is an adventurer without his adventuring gear.
(personal note here)[Fairy Tale was quite a fun adventure, I am only dissapointed in the fact that was our group is known to do we some how found our way to the end without getting to experience all the fun that could have been had. At the end of the adventure Steve gave us an overview of all the things we missed. And oh man would that have been an excellent adventure. I envy the people who are going to get to play it to its fullest extent.]
I most say, dying sucks. I can say this will utmost certainty. That damn stone gaint and his "handlers" They are not on my list of people I like even a little bit at all. I am so glad we had an opportunity to meet them again, even though it looked like it was going to happen the same way again. But some how the battle turned, I don't know when or how because it happened when I was again dying. Man I hate that damn gaint. But in the end they all died, well except that one who teleports away when things aren't going her way. But oh well on to this black egg thingy.
Oh great another gaint, just our luck, I wonder who he is going to go after... Not me... good, to bad for Macabee though. I wonder how we are going to handle this, my vote is to just leave it alone, but I have a feeling we are not going to do that, which my deep down insides tell me is the best, for if I die, it will be for the good of more people than just me, and I feel mostly secure in my own soul.
Friday, December 30
The party had just flown up to investigate the massive black iron sphere hovering over the crater that was once the center of the town of Rhale and retreated & regrouped after Maccabee took a pounding blow from the half-white dragon frost giant guarding the entrance into the thing.
Stanley is in Idaho with family still so our group tonight consisted of Maccabee the paladin, Mira Luna the sorceress, Padril the ranger/scout, and Ulainn the wizard.
There were moments of greatness and despair in our session tonight, so this one deserves a title.
“The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly”
Morning of 5 Needfest, 592 CY
“The Good”
“Flight of the Valkyries” seemed appropriate as the party regrouped and flew back in a formation of flying adventurers in a chain with no two members more than 30 feet apart from each other. At 100 feet from the lip of the metal sphere, Padril and Maccabee began to make out the entrance to the sphere again through the smoke and ash. The giant crouched at the edge scanning the smoky surroundings. Suddenly spotting Maccabee and Mira Luna (the others were invisible), it hefted a large stone and hurled it, but it went wide of Mira Luna, his intended target.
Ulainn cast a baleful polymorph spell at it, but the creature’s formidable fortitude crushed the spell. Mira Luna tried a hold monster spell on it, but that also failed. As the party continued to approach, the giant calmly took out a potion and quaffed it. Then the party was up on it.
Padril—invisible up until now—hurled a tanglefoot bag at the creature and the goo splashed all over its legs and feet. Suddenly it was stuck to the spot. Mira Luna engulfed it in a fireball, but it seemed unfazed. Maccabee, on a flying Neon, surged forward with his lance. Sparks were struck as the metal tip of the lance met with the breastplate of the creature’s massive suit of full plate. Aside from a dent in his armor, the half dragon giant was unscathed.
At first it seemed that things were going to be very difficult as the creature was very hard to hit thanks to its armor and scaly skin, but after its magical protection from fire was dispelled by Ulainn and he and Mira Luna weakened it severely with their rays of enfeeblement, things turned in the party’s favor. The giant was forced to retreat to the doors at the back of the entry tunnel taking deep gashes from Maccabee’s hacking blade as it did, but never made it inside the sphere. Padril finished the giant after all of the other punishment it had taken by landing an arrow in the back of its neck between 2 vertebrae. It collapsed to the ground twitching convulsively but soon it just lay there dead.
“The Bad”
The party stripped the giant down, but could do nothing with his massive armor. It was nonmagical and thus would not resize itself to them. However, its sword was obviously a prize, so it was carefully wrapped in a bundle and put into Padril bag of holding along with his unused healing potions.
As the party was doing this, they could hear growls, flesh tearing, and bones snapping from beyond the partially open iron doors. There was obviously something eating on the other side.
Ulainn went invisible again and snuck a peek inside. The chambers beyond were all bathed in a dim reddish glow that seemed to come from the black, iron walls themselves. A wide hallway got even wider and at that point an 11-headed hydra stood gorging itself on the dead bodies of black scaled orcs like the ones the party had faced down in the ruins of the town.
The dwarven wizard told the party what he saw and explained as best he could about how to kill such a creature. He also warned that its regenerative abilities were amazing so they would have to work quickly to sever all of its heads and burn the stumps before another pair could sprout from the wound.
Ulainn then began incanting and a lightning bolt leapt from his fingers, striking the creature and lighting up the inside area a little bit more for a moment. All elven heads rose up from their meal and looked back at the entrance. It snorted and charged down the hallway towards the doors. Maccabee, now unmounted, had been behind the one that was still in the closed position. As the hydra hit the door, Maccabee was sent sprawling backward from the force of the blow. Both doors banged open and the 11 heads of the hydra growled and shrieked their outrage. The wounds from the lightning bolt were now completely healed up.
Maccabee moved up 5 ft. and aimed carefully at one of the heads in an attempt to sever one, but was suddenly assaulted by all 11 heads as he did so. Gouts of blood flew everywhere as a good half of them tore through armor plating and into soft warm flesh. The blows were shocking in their ferocity and the paladin knew fear. His blow was true, though it wasn’t enough to sever the head. Neon also attacked the hydra, the paladin’s warhorse raining hooves and bites down on the creature side-by-side with its master.
Mira Luna fireballed the creature and Ulainn missed it with a ray of enfeeblement. Padril stayed well clear of the creature. The hydra attacked again, splitting its attacks between Maccabee and his warhorse. More wounds were inflicted and the paladin was forced to use his lay on hands ability on himself before he died from all of the savage bites.
Ulainn stepped up behind him and whispered that he was turning him into a troll to fight better. Suddenly Maccabee transformed into the strangest troll anyone had ever seen… a troll paladin!
With the support of Ulainn and Mira Luna’s rays of enfeeblement again, the hydra was soon too weak to support its own weight. It collapsed to the ground, though it still tried to bite its attackers, even landing a few good blows. However, Maccabee and Padril systematically severed its heads followed by burning hands spells from Mira Luna to destroy the creature.
In the ensuing silence, the party could just make out voices muttering from a side room along the wide corridor. The group decided that another fight right now was out of the question. They were teleported away with a dimension door spell from Mira Luna and after observing the sphere from hiding in the surrounding ruined town, Ulainn cast a rope trick spell, they crawled up, and rested until the following morning.
Early Morning of 6 Needfest, 592 CY
“The Ugly”
The party wasted no time and used dimension door to teleport right inside the black sphere to the wide corridor just inside the iron doors. The hydra was no longer there. Smear marks on the floor hinted that it had be shoved or dragged out to the lip and pushed over the edge. The iron doors were now closed.
Ulainn and Padril recognized Draconic being spoken from the same side chamber they had heard voices from the day before. Ulainn could pick out bits of it as one voice speaking to a group of followers or henchmen. What he heard was:
Leader’s Voice – “Them warriors what took out the hydra must be tough. Real tough. So we gotta be ready for ‘em because you know they’ll be back.”
Henchmen – Grunts and growls of agreement.
Leader’s Voice – “They’ve got some powerful magic too, or they couldn’t have burnt the hydra all crispy. So, when you see ‘em, you close with ‘em fast!”
Henchmen – “Aye! We’ll hack ‘em to little bits and pieces!!!” More grunts and growls of assent and rattling of weapons.
Ulainn crept up to peek at the group and saw a large chamber with 2 long stone slabs and a big chunk of translucent green stone with undead-looking creatures frozen inside like insects in amber. A group of 7 black-scaled draconic orcs like the ones the party had killed down in the ruins were seated on the slabs or standing around them listening to a white furred gnoll with draconic features (white scales & horns) in black full plate.
The little dwarven wizard struck quickly. He cast Evard’s black tentacles and caught all but 2 of the black orcs in its area of effect. He than ran back to the others and told them what he saw and had done.
The group moved up the hall, but stayed out of the room with the enemy half dragons. Mira Luna engulfed the grappled foes in a fireball spell. Ulainn pelted the leader with magic missiles. Padril also struck him with an arrow. Maccabee waited at the entrance to the chamber. Some of the black orcs had gotten free and were moving to engage him while others disappeared through an opening at the back of the chamber.
The half-black dragon orcs continued to move to close with the party and the half-white dragon gnoll broke free of the black tentacles. As 3 of the black orcs were rounding a corner up the corridor (the ones that had exited through the back of the chamber), Ulainn blasted them with a lightning bolt. As if on cue, the black orcs suddenly spewed acid from their mouths in long streams 60 feet long—some from up the corridor and the others from point blank range near Maccabee.
All of the party members were soaked in the caustic liquid, but Mira Luna felt its effects far more than the others. Having been struck by crossing streams, she suddenly dropped to the ground dead, the acid melting the flesh from her bones.
Ulainn moved away from the nearest black orcs not wanting to experience that again. He cast a suggestion spell on one of the fresh black orcs that had stepped up on Maccabee. He told him, “All of those other black orcs are going to kill you after this fight. You should kill them first!” The creature looked at his companions angrily and muttered something under his breath.
Maccabee continued swinging viciously at the ones engaging him. The half dragon gnoll leader was finally free of the tentacles and growled, “Move out of the way so I can breathe on him!” in Draconic. Heedless of their leader’s wishes, the black orcs surrounded the paladin and their greataxes proved the death of him. He fell under a rain of unmerciful chopping blows.
It was now just Padril and Ulainn. Padril sized up the nearest black orc and saw that he was near death so he put one arrow in it eye socket killing it, and sent his other arrow at one of the orcs that had just killed Maccabeee, but missed it.
The black orc that Ulainn had enspelled turned on the gnoll leader and struck him with his great axe. The half-dragon gnoll shouted, “You traitorous scum!” and breathed a cone of frost on him and the other 2 black orcs nearby.
Ulainn stayed hidden while these 2 fought it out, but Padril continued to fire arrows at the black orcs in the corridor, killing another one. That left only 2 and the gnoll leader.
The charmed black orc swung on the gnoll leader again and killed him. The other black orc muttered something and fled up the corridor. Padril gave chase and a moment later that one, too, was dead.
Ulainn had used dimension door to teleport into the chamber the enemy half dragons had been in, putting him on the opposite side of the black tentacles spell area from the last black orc. After it had killed the gnoll leader and saw that its other companion was fleeing, it knelt down to loot the body of the dead paladin. Ulainn struck it with magic missiles. It jumped up and began moving into the chamber to kill the “filthy dwarf.”
About this time Padril had returned. When the black orc offered a parlay, the two agreed. They learned that there were more of these half dragons deeper inside the “Fane of Scales,” which he called this place. Their goal was to hatch a fiendish hellfire wyrm or red dragon (one or the other, he wasn’t sure) from an egg stored here. Their leader’s name was Synder.
Having got enough information from the black orc, Padril and Ulainn let the creature slink out to the entrance. Padril changed his mind about letting the creature live at the last minute and followed him out. By that time, the creature was flying away very quickly into the smoke and ash filled sky. An empty potion vial lay on the ground nearby –a potion of flying apparently.
Ulainn and Padril stripped the bodies of the black orcs and the gnoll leader—quite a hefty bit of loot, most of it magical—and gathered up the bodies of the fallen. Ulainn teleported them back to Rel Mord once more and quickly sold the treasure as fast as they could to raise enough gold to have raise dead spells cast on Mira Luna and Maccabee.
As it turned out, though, when the respective churches learned what had happened (the scale of destruction) and what Nyrond would be facing if the Tiamat worhshipping half-dragons succeeded. The 2 fallen adventurers were given true resurrections to keep restore them to full strength and succeed on stopping this evil event from happening.
Even so, offerings were made to the 2 local temples of Pelor and Heironeous, still leaving quite a bit of loot left over for the adventurers. First things first, though. There was no way they were going to let the half-dragons hatch some demonic dragon.
Well that was quite an ordeal but we were able to pull through albeit with heavy loses.
Let me start from the beginning. We new the winged giant would be waiting for us so we moved into formation and myself and Ulainn went invisible that left only Mac and Mira out in the open. I had remembered that I had some tanglefoot bags in my Heward's and how well they worked against flying creatures so I was ready with one in my hand to try and ensnare this giant and watch him plummet to his demise or at least goo him up a bit to slow him down. We approached and he wasn’t flying but perched on the ledge. He hurled a rock at Mira but missed and we closed in. My shot was true and the giant was stuck to the floor unable to move and I moved back. The rest went very fast with some fireballs, rays of enfeeblement, my arrows, and of course Mac's steel and the giant lay dead.
Then the Hydra.... Ulainn shot a lighting bolt at it then maneuvered behind the party and told us that we must cut of the heads because the body will heal to fast to kill it. Then the hydra slammed into the doors knocking Mac back and engaging him along with his horse. I though we were goners when Mac hit one head and was attacked by all 11 for his trouble and huge bits of flesh were torn from his body but my relief came in more rays of enfeeblement and Ulainn turning Mac into a troll which made quite a difference in cutting of the heads while Mira singed the stumps from growing back new heads. I advanced with Raven and helped hack away the heads and soon the beast lay dead. Then we rested and this is were the heavy losses started.
Ulainn scouted ahead and found a room full of the black orcs and a gnoll that was in charge. He used his tentacle spell and then moved back. I ran up and stuck an arrow in the gnoll, Mac advanced, and Mira threw another fireball. It looked like it was going to be a quick end to these monsters until they unleashed streams of acid over the whole party. I of course dodged all the streams without harm but the rest of the party did not fair so well. Mac was badly injured and Ulainn only slightly but Mira was practically melted into a pile of goo by the acid. My heart sank not only because we lost our fireball thrower but also because I considered her a friend. Then they were on us fast. Mac was surrounded and was killed only moments after Mira so that left only Ulainn and me to deal with the remaining creatures. Ulainn was instrumental in the fight with a well placed lightning bolt and a suggestion spell that turned one of the orcs against the gnoll leader who quickly breathed ice on several of the orcs killing them and making our lives easier. One of the orcs rushed up and clobbered Ulainn who looked like he was about to die and then he looked at me and said he would be back and poof he was gone. I wasn’t about to just give up so I continued with several more volleys of arrows and we eventually killed everyone of them except the suggested orc who was now free from the spell. He parlayed with Ulainn would got some useful info from him and then per the agreement let him go out the front door. We gathered all the loot and took our friends bodies with us as we teleported back to Rel Mord to have our companions raised yet again. They both have a remarkable will to live and returned to us albeit a little weaker than before. So our quest continues on.
Through the Eyes of a Paladin #39
I seem to be finding my self in the same predicament over and over again. I am beginning to feel as if I am knocking my head against a wall and hoping to discover a different outcome. Doesn’t that constitute insanity? The giant was difficult in and of itself. Padril’s timely intervention with the tangle foot bag made the giant less difficult to eliminate. Then of course facing off with the hydra was gratefully assisted by Ulainn’s ability to turn me to a Troll. But when we had to fight the dragon disciples it would have been nice to receive the same assistance. Needless to say I came to an untimely death. I had asked Ulainn for the same assist but was responded with “get your own wizard”, this statement made me rethink the alliance with in our long standing group I suppose the next time Ulainn bellows out orders I should respond in turn get your own Paladin. It is said as it is written, “A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.“
These visits into the after life have become rather bothersome, but I was happy to see the face of the High Priest of the temple of Heironeous back in Rel Mord. My brother on the other hand was a bit upset of my untimely death. It appears his long time friend Barnabus was also interested in our travels and for good reason; he was a Vassal of Bahamut and apparently will be on the hunt for that one departing dragon disciple. It appears the entire realm is interested in our quest now. So after a short time to improve on our provisions we are hastily departing, I was fortunate to find a few magic items in trade and will be using them with wisdom upon any other strange encounters in the sphere.
Friday, January 6, 2006
Our first gaming session of the new year and quite an interesting one it was.
5 Needfest, 593 CY
The party teleported back to Rel Mord and were able to get Mira Luna and Maccabee brought back from the grave to continue their fight. The party’s spells and other resources were very low, though. They spent the last of the daylight left to them making quick purchases of items that would aid them in their fight. Though the city was celebrating Needfest all week, they managed to find shoppes open that had the things they needed.
Morning of 6 Needfest, 593 CY
Returning to the Temple of Heironeous to seek out some added muscle among Maccabee’s brethren, the party was told of a certain newly converted member to the faith. He was described as very different and perhaps not completely the best candidate, but in need of testing his newfound faith.
The party was intrigued and agreed to take a chance.
Down into the depths of the temple the party was led. A clanging sound began growing louder and louder the deeper they went. Entering a tall, wide corridor lined with massive iron doors, they could hear the loud clanging coming from behind the nearest one. The templar stopped the party and asked them if they were sure about this to which they answered yes, they were.
Taking keys from his pocket, the templar worked the heavy lock and got the door open, the sound within suddenly ceasing as he did. “Have you been banging on your kettles and vats again, Sir Clubber?” the templar asked the room’s occupant. The reply was a deep, rumbling, “Uh huh.”
The templar said, “Sir Clubber, I have some people I want you to meet. They are going to accompany you on a short adventure.” The deep voice within exclaimed, “Oh, boy! New friends? I like new friends!!!”
The templar motioned for the party to enter, but warned them not to make any sudden movements within 15 feet of Sir Clubber as he was quite jumpy at times. They cautiously entered the huge room. Large, dented iron vats were strewn about. One still shook from what apparently had been a heavy blow from the massive iron club the huge creature sitting in the center of the room held across its lap. It looked like a troll. The biggest troll the party had ever seen before. It wore a massive tabard bearing the hand-clenching-a-lighting-bolt symbol of Heironeous cinched at the waist by a wide leather belt. The club had the look of part of an iron portcullis the creature must have yanked apart.
Sir Clubber was introduced to each of the party members and seemed to take well to them except for Ulainn the dwarf. Him he snorted and hissed at until the templar got him to calm down. A few words of wisdom got Sir Clubber a bit more amenable towards Ulainn, but he still looked troubled by him.
Sir Clubber agreed to come with them to kill “bad dragon men” that were trying to set loose a very bad monster into the world to hurt and kill people. The mountain troll agreed that it was a bad thing that must be stopped. He got up and told the party he was ready to go and take care of the bad creatures. Mira Luna used the teleport scroll provided by the temple to transport herself, Sir Clubber, and Maccabee. Ulainn cast his own teleport spell on himself, Padril, and Andrew. The all arrived in the wide hallway of the metal sphere where they had fought the black orcs the day before.
Looking around, there was no sign of the half-black dragon orcs. However, Maccabee peered into the adjoining chamber and spotted their bodies lying atop the stone slabs. Each wore a death grin and their fingers and arms were frozen in postures of twitching and convulsing. They surmised that Tobias had used his strange rod on them.
As they listened to see if they could hear anyone about, the large iron door at the back of the hallway at the deepest area of the sphere opened partially and a red scaled troll with a great axe stepped out. He sneered that he had thought they might be back and was ready to show them their doom. He whispered back into the room behind him, “Do what you need to do Tobias. Just in case…”
It was fighting time now. Synder approached Sir Clubber, thinking the mountain troll all size and bluster. He was rewarded with a painful thump from his iron club.
Maccabee and Ulainn darted in to the side room to try and flank the creature whose name they now knew as Synder. Padril darted up the wall with his slippers of spider climbing. Mira Luna cast magic missiles at the half-red dragon troll and Andrew slowly advanced.
Too late, Synder realized that Sir Clubber was an extremely formidable foe. He was knocked to the ground and had to scramble away from the mountain troll’s heavy club to avoid being pasted to the floor.
Andrew had moved around to help Maccabee flank Synder and Ulainn snuck past him invisibly. Synder breathed a fiery blast at Maccabee, singing him good, but Andrew and Maccabee took him down a moment later.
Meanwhile, a blue scaled elf emerged from deeper within the fane and blasted Sir Clubber and Mira Luna with lightning breath. He then picked out Padril as the target of his arrows. He and Padril exchanged volleys, but soon the half-blue dragon elf had to scramble away from the swinging club of the mountain troll. Two black orcs took his place and kept Sir Clubber busy with their acidic breath and great axes.
Padril followed the blue scaled archer into a side hallway and Andrew soon followed them in. It was short work they made of him after that, having already been tenderized by Sir Clubber.
Suddenly a green skinned elven female with long white hair breathed a cloud of acid on Mira Luna and Sir Clobber. They survived the acid gas, but she didn’t survive the disintegration ray of Ulainn appearing down the hall from her. All that remained was an echoing scream and dust.
A cacophony of shrill shrieks sounded in the chamber beyond the iron door Synder had come from. Everyone started regrouping as Ulainn crept invisibly up to the door. Looking in he saw a vast room with a huge frog-like, green-scaled creature with dozens of long green tentacles in place of a head. Prostrating himself on the ground before it was Tobias, mumbling words of adoration and devotion.
Suddenly the huge creature leapt over to the door and gurgled in Draconic, “Are you a servant, small one?” Ulainn was surprised that the thing could see him and stammered, “Uh, yeah… I’m a servant.” The creature then commanded him, “Then stand aside while I deal with these others.” Ulainn obediently scurried away, more out of not wanting the creature’s tentacles on him than true obedience. He hastily whispered that it was some kind of Faranth like the ones in the mountains except it dripped acid.
A shrill shriek sounded and suddenly Sir Clubber started looking around him at his companions with a violent look in his eyes. Maccabee and Padril sprang to action, knowing the charming abilities of the Faranth. Padril grabbed out a potion of magic circle against evil and it nearly cost him his life as he quaffed it. Sir Clubber hit him so hard that he dropped from the ceiling and landed hard on the ground. Maccabee read a scroll of the same spell and now Sir Clubber seemed to be calm again… so long as they remained close. The problem was that Sir Clubber didn’t understand this. He roared and charged the creature that had just done something to his mind. Halfway there he stopped and scratched his head. He again turned to face his companions with a wrathful expression.
The faranth creature took the opportunity to breathe acid on Sir Clubber and Maccabee. Padril was barely missed and was quite grateful since he was near death. He took the opportunity to quickly down a potion of healing while Andrew ran up and used a magic curative item on him to heal him even more.
The session ended there. We begin right in the heat of battle next session – round 11.
hmmm, can't say much right now, I am in the middle of what could be my death, and the deaths of those around me... gotta go, Padril needs some serious help...
Friday, January 13
Continuing the big battle in the Fane of Scales (The Black Egg from Dungeon #106).
6 Needfest, 593 CY
Keeping Sir Clubber from moving out of range of the magic circle against evil spells to nullify his domination was foremost in Maccabee in Padril’s plans. The others simply took up positions where they could see what was going on but stay out of trouble. From back in the large chamber beyond the huge tentacle-faced draconic creature, Mira Luna spotted Tobias touching his foul soul-sucking rod to a massive black egg-shaped stone. Suddenly another one of the huge creature coalesced in front it and Tobias prostrated himself before it. This one had a frosty, white look to it—white scales covering much of it.
Sir Clubber asked Maccabee what he should do, to which the paladin told him to step back from the door a bit. As he did, Maccabee stepped forward in enlarged form to try attacking the creature. Padril remained near Sir Clubber to ensure that he didn’t get out of control. For his troubles, Maccabee was grabbed up in the creature’s tentacles and pounded into the hard ground. Ulainn had crept down the side hallway that turned and went around to another door into the massive black egg room. The white scaled aberration suddenly emerged into the hallway and closed with him. Ulainn turned himself into a troll as it tried attacking him and then assumed the fangs and claws of a tiger. A grapple ensued, but soon Ulainn was getting the worst of it.
Sir Clubber stepped into the large room and joined the grapple with Maccabee and the scaly tentacle creature. He managed after a couple tries to pull the paladin free and drop him in the hallway behind him where he was safe from the creature.
Mira Luna and Padril did their best to attack the creatures, but Mira Luna’s spells couldn’t get past their spell resistance and Padril’s arrows just didn’t enough damage to give them pause. Eventually, the first of the creature’s lay dead, but Tobias had made another one—red scaled and smoking—hatch from the egg. It breathed on Maccabee when it had a chance, but Ulainn managed to use his troll size and vicious fangs and claws to defeat 2 of them and play a major role in the defeat of the 3rd.
Tobias had used dimension door to flee to another room when the group closed in on him near the egg. He dropped his rod, which Maccabee safely stored in his pack where it couldn’t be used to create anymore of these creatures. When Tobias appeared again, Andrew who had been staying outside of combat with these massive combatants closed with him and used his bluffing skills to sneak attack him. Padril’s help dropped him.
With all of their enemies defeated, the group breathed a collective sigh of relief. Maccabee told Sir Clubber to go to work on the black egg with a vengeance. The mountain troll swung with all of his might, but even as powerful as his blows were, it took him a while to finally reduced it to a pile of rubble.
To rest or take a look around a bit more first? The group decided there was no harm in just looking into a couple of as of yet unexamined chambers, tired and drained as they were. Padril found a small chamber with a stout bed so he and Andrew stepped inside to check it out. Mira Luna followed them in while Ulainn remained out in the hall taking his ease. They found a secret drawer recessed on the underside of the bedframe. Andrew examined it for any traps and decided it was safe to open. When the lid dropped down a few things dropped out of it, but it exposed some kind of symbol that suddenly began glowing.
Padril and Andrew were suddenly and violently torn in two. Blood splashed all over Mira Luna and she screamed. The others came running and Ulainn recognized the trap as a symbol of death. The quickly hurried away and after a while when it was safe, they returned to fetch their torn bodies.
Of the things that had fallen out of the drawer, there were 3 scrolls. One happened to be a resurrection spell so at least they could have it used to bring back one of them. Gathering all of the gear on their dead enemies and what was found near the trapped compartment, the group teleported in 2 groups back to Rel Mord—Ulainn with Sir Clubber into the Temple of Herioneous to return him into their keeping and Mira Luna with Maccabee to a spot near the temple grounds.
In the following days, they found enough loot and possessions on Padril to have a true resurrection spell cast on him and simply had the scroll of resurrection used to return Andrew to life. After reporting of Sir Clubber’s invaluable assistance, the group spent some time to gather more gear and other necessities and would continue trying to catch up with Brandon near the end of the second week of Reaping.
Through the Eyes of a Paladin #40
By my own request, I felt the next encounter inside the sphere would be a deadly one. Plus knowing Ulainn’s ego was getting too big for the party members an extra fighter would be helpful for the safety of the party. I must admit I would have never expected to have a Mountain Troll as a worshiper of Heironeous at my side. Sir Clubber was truly an oddity. By his size and girth he was beyond doubt a formidable ally or foe. I was greatly fascinated by his desire to serve and his eyes were filled with the sincerity of a simple child. I have had some strange friends in my lifetime but this was by far the strangest.
By the gathering of the high Priests we were quickly teleported into the sphere. I had hoped to enter the sphere with stealth but by Sir Clubbers loud and boisterous voice the creatures from with in was alerted to our trespass. Moments went on for hours it seems. Entering into the side way and hoping to flank the large dragon type creatures Clubber was already mowing down the opposition. Andrew and I were able to finish off the creature called Synder. As the battle raged The Farlanth dragons began to emerge, it was apparent Tobias was the main character who orchestrated the entire situation. Regrettably Sir Clubber was affected by the dazzling sounds of the Farlanth and was about to turn against his party members. Padril and me quickly applied a circle of protection against evil around us knowing its negative affects upon those who would be affected by mind-altering spells. Sir Clubber returned to his senses. I was able to enlarge myself as well and moved in to strike the nearby white Farlanth. I stuck a devastating blow causing the Farlanth to think twice of attacking through the main door. Slowly one by one the Farlanths fell.
Perhaps the most humiliating aspect of the battle was being the center point in a tug of war between Clubber and the Farlanths. O the indignity! The last Farlanth had felled me but thanks to Padril’s quick action in dimensioning door my body out of harms way I was soon back into the fight. Sir Clubber obliterated the Egg; Tobias meeting his timely death the threat to all of Greyhawk had ended at least for the moment. Sad to say in hopes to ensure the safety of the sphere Andrew and Padril had activated a most deadly trap. It truly grieved me to see my fellows split in half but encouraged to the fact that our return to Rel Mord may give us a reward for their lives be returned to good as new.
Friday, January 20, 2006
Post Black Egg…
6 Needfest – 14 Fireseek 593 CY
The party was able to enjoy the last couple days of the observance of the yearly winter solstice known as Needfest in the home of Maccabee’s brother. Mira Luna needed a couple of weeks to come to grips with her speedily developing magical powers and temper her skills. During this time Ulainn the dwarven wizard surprised the group by telling them that his heart was no longer in their quest. He wanted to spend more time creating things of magic within the comforts of his dorm in the headquarters of the Arcane Order. As far as he was concerned the destruction of the Black Egg and the draconic aberration it had spawned had defeated the machinations of the faranth. He also happened to have some outstanding debts to pay off within the Arcane Order. For all of these reasons he bid the party farewell, left them a few things he didn’t feel he would need, and teleported back to Greyhawk City.
The Adventure Continues…
15—17 Fireseek, 593 CY
Now able to cast teleport on her own, Mira Luna had just enough juice to get her and her remaining 3 companions to the western side of the Rhale ruins. They scanned the ruins a moment, could see nothing stirring there, and began a 2 day overland journey along the dirt road to a small village called Torum where supposedly Brandon the monk of Rao had left something for them to help guide them to Turak Mithras (the Valley of the Stone).
Arriving in Torum they found it bursting at the seams with refugees from Rhale. An entire tent community had sprung up around the village and they soon found blatant signs of Brandon’s presence there. The villagers and refugees extolled the virtues and saintly demeanor of the peaceful follower of Rao. A shrine had been built in his honor and half a dozen members of the local militia had taken a vow of peace. They had buried their weapons in an empty field and erected a shrine in his honor over it. They had taken to calling themselves Disciples of Saint Brandon and had taken over tending the needy, the refugees, and the destitute that lived there in Brandon’s absence.
When it was discovered that Maccabee, Mira Luna, Andrew, and Padril were close friends of Brandon’s they were given a nice tent to stay in for the night, brought gifts of food, their gear cleaned for them, and basically treated with reverence. They were also given a map to their destination in the Abbor-Alz mountains on the Urnst side. They found out that Brandon had continued his journey westward just a few days ago, so the next morning they also departed westward following the map Brandon had left them.
18—25 Fireseek, 593 CY
For the next 8 days the party traveled by foot through small farming communities, rolling hills, and sparsely wooded copses, leafless at this time of year, until they reached a large town called Hammensend on the banks of the Franz River. Tired and trail weary, they entered the first inn they came to on the eastern fringes of the town—a quaint place called The Cart & Horse. They paid for a room and a meal and took a place at a partially occupied slab table on the long benches around it. The common room was filled with many similar tables and nearly full to capacity with nearly a hundred people—merchants, rich travelers, commoners, and simple laborers. A few games of cards and dice were being played at other tables and all around it was quite lively.
Master Drae and Mistress Elle served them some hot tea and tankards of beer and wandered off to attend to the other patrons. As the group made small talk with the others sitting at their table, a voice from across the noisy inn caught Padril’s attention. He heard something like, “…know that stinking elf over there. Why I think that’s Padril.”
Padril looked around to see who was talking about him and after a moment his eyes met those of another elf, blonde-haired, pale, mean-eyed, and wearing a derisive sneer. The elf was one Beluldur Villisen, the most rotten elf from Padril’s home village that ever lived; a pampered son of nobility that had made it his life’s work to torment and tease young Padril. It was Beluldur who had left the horrible scar on Padril’s face that he had taken great pains to cover since then. But Padril had left him a bad limp in return before fleeing his homeland and setting foot on the path that had led him to this moment in time.
Beluldur could see the recognition on Padril’s face and sneered even more cruelly at him and started advancing across the room. He pulled a long leather wrapped rod from his cloak and suddenly two sword blades snicked out, making a two-bladed sword. Some of the patrons began shuffling out of the way and wood scraping on wood echoed loudly in the large room as Beluldur closed the distance calling out insults and promising Padril his due reward for his effrontery all those years ago.
Padril simply stood and pulled his bow and sent an arrow whizzing at him. Beluldur had to deflect it with his sword or take it in the ribs. Suddenly Andrew stood and hurled a dagger at Beluldur, which also missed. Two hulking human barbarians with greataxe and greatsword growled as they followed Beluldur, who was obviously a friend of theirs. Padril had moved back behind the table and Beluldur moved toward him growling, “You always did need others to do your fighting for you!” Padril called out to Andrew to stop attacking him. Beluldur got to Padril and opened him up with a quick viper-like slash with his sword. Padril suddenly scampered along the walls of the common room with his slippers of spider climbing and took another shot at Beluldur from the opposite corner. The arrow ironically sunk into the elf’s gimpy leg.
Meanwhile, Mira Luna had cast hold monster on the front most barbarian freezing him in place. His companion tried shaking him out of it to no avail. As Andrew stepped forward clearly intending to sink his kukri into the paralyzed barbarian, the other stepped in front of his friend and raised his sword threateningly. Andrew stopped and held his kukri poised to strike. The 2 stood there daring the other to make the first move, but neither did.
Beluldur quaffed a potion of haste and nimbly jumped up onto the bar near Padril and savagely slashed him 3 times and stepped back a ways to the other corner of the bar, arching his eyebrow and motioning with one hand to “come and get some.” He was obviously showing off.
Mira Luna and Maccabee had decided to sit this one out, but as Padril darted back over to his companions the paladin rested his hand on Padril’s shoulder and said encouragingly, “You’ll do well.” Unknown to Beluldur, Maccabee used his laying on hands ability to heal all of the damage Padril had taken.
The enemy elf pulled the arrow from his leg and quaffed another potion that appeared to be a healing drought. Bounding over tables and through the now muttering crowd, he moved to intercept Padril again.
Maccabee, Mira Luna, and Andrew were aware of the angry mutters and outright challenging shouts from many of the tavern-goers that appeared to be getting angrier and angrier by the moment at this disturbance of their peace. They had also seen a man dart out the entrance and run down the street into the town apparently going to fetch the authorities. They decided it was about time to get out of here so they started inching their way to the exits.
Beluldur followed Padril to the far corner of the bar near an open window and hopped off of a table, flipped over Maccabee’s head near the exit, landed in front of Padril and slashed him three times again in quick succession. He then stepped back and again looked at Padril with that mean, challenging sneer.
Suddenly a man stood and hurled a clay pitcher at the elf shouting obscenities and recriminations about disturbing a perfectly good meal. The pitcher missed the elf, but struck a man at the far side of the room, dropping him to the floor with a split scalp. The others at that table suddenly stood, and others with them. The common room suddenly erupted in violence as angry tavern-goers began hurling things at the 2 elves and their companions and enraging the other folk nearby as their attacks struck them as well.
The party was engulfed in a riot of nearly a hundred men and women brandishing mugs, clubs, daggers, chairs, and pretty much anything else that could be used as a weapon if 2 fists weren't enough. It was clear the party had to get out of there fast. They were being well and truly pummeled. Mira Luna lifted her spell from the barbarian who was now being carried by his companion toward the exit. She then ran out the front entrance with Maccabee while Padril and Andrew jumped out the nearby window and ran from the inn.
Of Beluldur and his barbarian friends there was no sign. Padril had downed a potion of flying and circled the inn to see if they would be climbing out one of the windows. Bloodied commoners and others carrying unconscious friends stumbled from the common room, but not Beluldur or his friends. After a minute, Padril gave up on exacting his revenge… for now… and caught up with the others who were quickly walking further into town, now healed and also cleaned up via Mira Luna’s prestidigitation spells. She did the same for Padril and soon they passed up a large squad of men from the town watch running to The Cart & Horse. One of them was carrying a large sack full of manacles. There would be many arrests today, but it wouldn’t be these adventurers.
Once the party found another more peaceful inn to stay in near the river, Mira Luna looked for an art gallery or sage’s shop where she could see some pictures, likenesses, or just a reliable description of the towns of Nellix, Seltaren, and the ruins of Maure Castle. The plan was to cut their long travel time (38 days if they traveled overland) down to merely the time it took to cast teleport to arrive at each of the above locales.
26 Fireseek, 593 CY
The next morning the gossip around the common room of The Lilac Crown where the party had stayed the night was about the riot at The Cart & Horse that had left 6 people dead and over a dozen others seriously injured. The group that had instigated the riot was still at large.
Wasting no more time in Hammensend, Mira Luna cast her first two teleport spells and arrived exactly where she wanted, though many people were frightened near to death when a group of adventurers suddenly appeared out of nowhere in the middle of the busy town roads. Her next teleport spell should have brought the party to the outskirts of the Maure Castle ruins. Instead they found themselves in the foothills of a mountain range. It was anyone’s guess as to which mountain range. Mira Luna tried again and now the party stood in the shadows of a ruined castle. However, looking around, the party could see 3 ruined castle towers surrounded by an immense dry moat and a long narrow earthen causeway extending out to a copse of trees and scattered woods beyond. In the far distance they could see a river and perhaps a city on a bluff overlooking it.
This was obviously not the ruined castle Mira Luna had intended to arrive at, so she used her last teleport spell of the day to get it right. Finally, the party arrived at a ruined castle. The CORRECT ruined castle. However, they popped into a camp of goblins and a single hobgoblin standing around a campfire where they had a large boar roasting on a spit.
The goblinoids grabbed up their short bows and a few of them got shots off before the party could act. However, Mira Luna’s fireball spell and magic missiles along with Andrew’s deadly sneak attack abilities, Padril’s arrows, and the heavy blade of the paladin left the goblinoids dead before they could do much. One managed to get away after tricking Padril into thinking he was dead, but the group wasn’t concerned with one goblin and decided not to hunt it down.
After taking anything that might be sellable from the dead bodies, the party trekked the rest of the day southward along the foothills of the Abbor-Alz mountains. They located the spot Brandon had marked and spent a good deal of time searching for a hidden opening he had described. As it was getting dark they found a fissure wending deep into the side of a cliff. It had been concealed by illusion magic.
They set camp nearby, prepared to enter the fissure the next morning. The Destiny Stone was finally in sight.
AWWW!!!!!!!!! (Blood boiling with rage) How could HE be here..... I left them all so that I would never have to relive those times again..... and now Andrew is asking questions about my past. I told them the simple version and that seems to have satisfied them for now but I'm sure it will come up again.(Growling) I will KILL him I SWEAR IT!! Should I not have to rest of the parties interests in mind I would hunt him to the ends of Oerth and after I killed him I would find whatever plane his damned soul was sent to and kill him again and again until his very existence was forgotten. Raaarr!!!! I will not soon forget this exchange and in due time I WILL have my revenge.
The party was engulfed in a riot of nearly a hundred men and women brandishing mugs, clubs, daggers, chairs, and pretty much anything else that could be used as a weapon if 2 fists weren't enough. It was clear the party had to get out of there fast. They were being well and truly pummeled. Mira Luna lifted her spell from the barbarian who was now being carried by his companion toward the exit. She then ran out the front entrance with Maccabee while Padril and Andrew jumped out the nearby window and ran from the inn.
Sorry to interrupt you journal, but I was wondering. . . did you use the Mob rules for this enounter, or set up a bunch of commoners? Since the DMG II came out, I've been trying to figure out how to do a more effective mass royale bar fight in my game. I *really* like those rules, but I've not had a chance to play one out yet.
Just curious to know how you ran it.
Enjoyin' the read,
Chris
The party was engulfed in a riot of nearly a hundred men and women brandishing mugs, clubs, daggers, chairs, and pretty much anything else that could be used as a weapon if 2 fists weren't enough. It was clear the party had to get out of there fast. They were being well and truly pummeled. Mira Luna lifted her spell from the barbarian who was now being carried by his companion toward the exit. She then ran out the front entrance with Maccabee while Padril and Andrew jumped out the nearby window and ran from the inn.
Sorry to interrupt you journal, but I was wondering. . . did you use the Mob rules for this enounter, or set up a bunch of commoners? Since the DMG II came out, I've been trying to figure out how to do a more effective mass royale bar fight in my game. I *really* like those rules, but I've not had a chance to play one out yet.
Just curious to know how you ran it.
Enjoyin' the read,
Chris
Thanks Chris. Yes, this was a mob from DMG II. The numbers were exaggerated for the sake of story telling and because the players couldn't tell up from down while they were being pummeled. After the initial damage that caused many raised eyebrows the words "It's like a swarm except with human beings..." sent them running for the exits.
Wow, I have been having so much fun as of late, can't seem to remember it all, I keep leaving this plane and traveling to what I believe will be my final resting place, only to have my dear friends bring me back again. With just a few of my memories scrambled. All my friends seem to be getting better at what they do and I stay just as good as I am now, no better no worse, but that really frightens me for I know these guys they are gonna pick fights with those who challenge them, but hey, gotta love that feeling of not knowing if this will be my last day in this mortal realm or not.
So we met a "friend" of Padril's just the other day. Well ok maybe not a friend but someone from his past who didn't seem to be a very nice little elf. In fact I would say the man is carring around some serious issues, and that must be hard with that gimpy leg and all. I believe he is just doing that for pitty though, because watching that "man" move around in combat and well, there wasn't no limp then.
I haven't been in a bar fight like that in a long long time, in fact I don't believe I have ever been in one quite like that, them little country bumkins get reall pissed if you disturb their meals, I will have to make a mental note not to do that one again.
Well we are here, where ever the nine hells here is, and I have an uneasy feeling about this place, I really feel that this is going to be the end of me, the last and final chapter of the Book of Andrew, no more suprise chapters to come, but oddly I feel at peace knowing that what I shall be giving my life for is something to make the world at large safe from real big evil nasties. I shall go bravely into the what ever may come, my fate as already been predetermined.
Ah, Andrew... stop being such a drama queen ;)
Through the Eyes of a Paladin #41
Standing in the courtyard of the Temple I thought I would try my hand at refocusing my ability to turn the undead to my shield. After previous weeks and months of doing so I feel confident in do time that I will be more than capable of performing such a feet. The positive surge of my faith seems to make an illuminating aura around my shield. Well it is a good thing, Ulainn has left us and having just four of us adventuring for the Destiny Stone will be hazardous that much more. It was nice to give my last farewells to Sir Clubber, although when he gave me a hug he nearly broke my back. I was saddened to see him there waving his good byes to me. It was almost as if it would be the last time. That same somber face was on my brother Yosephus as well; in truth I didn’t feel as if it was my last time, as a matter of fact I was beginning to feel, as the Destiny Stone was merely a new beginning not an ending.
Looking over the busy streets of Rel Mord it was good to be preparing to get back on the open road and having to ride upon the back of Neon with the Reaver at my side. I even took it upon myself to enjoy some conversation with Mira Luna. Being through so much together we managed to stay alive for the most part since the beginning of the quest. I bet that old man the seer is having a gay old time in the cold north, knowing that we still plug on for the Destiny Stone. I made it a point to inform the elders of the Temple of our next move as well inform them of the Faranths in the north in the Rakers. Protection spells, namely protection from evil is one of the greatest defenses against the Faranths, so that they don’t over rule your mind. Needless to say observing the group, Mira Luna had become a most impressive spell caster. The fact that she can teleport us at will was impressive indeed.
The spirit of the party was rather jovial even while addressing the towns folks in the coming days following after the bread crumbs that Brandon had left made for some real interesting times. The bar room skirmish we had definitely allowed for there to be more to tell about our scout Padril, seeing the hatred in his eyes it was apparent that these foes were not going to go to far without hunting us down. I didn’t like the fact we had to pull a fast one against the town militia, but it was obvious we had already over welcomed our stay. Truthfully though I never had traveled so far in such a short period of time. Mira Luna was obviously trying to get the bugs out of her spell casting. I just wish we could have stayed a little bit longer in each place to absorb the greater out doors, the sites and scenes of the landscape was truly picturesque. Giving me a chance to forget the reason why we were out here.
On Mira Lunas final try we teleported right smack dab in the middle of a Goblin encampment. Fortune had favored us and we all suffered no injury in the fray. Upon further examination we began to follow the trail that Brandon had left us, in doing so would lead us into the Abbor-Allz, our final destination in finding the Destiny Stone and perhaps even my missing father. The words came to mind that for every ending there is a new beginning.
Friday, January 27
We had a new addition to the gaming group. Dan joined us and brought in a elven wizard/argent savant and his sworn sword arm a human fighter.
THE VALLEY OF THE STONE - PART 1
20 Fireseek, 593 CY
Long shadows settled over the party's campsite in a small hollow safe from prying eyes where they could build a fire and rest for the night. Not long after, the sounds of quiet conversation and booted feet cruching on gravel got the groups' attention.
Two figures crested the ridge above the hollow and fell silent as their eyes fell on the assembled adventurers. Padril had an arrow knocked and the others were ready to respond to any attacks. It turned out to be a traveling wizard name Thal'Talis - an elf - and his companion and sworn protector Tysis. After initial questioning back and forth it appeared that the 2 travelers were heading north to Seltaren after a busted adventure somewhere to the south. Veiled comments about manscorpions was made, but no other ellaborations.
When Thal and Tysis learned of the important quest the group was on they warmed to it and soon asked if they could lend their assistance. Both of them spoke in a way that gave the impression they were proponents of the cuase of good and interested in the overall wellbeing of likeminded beings everywhere.
Thal's magical ability and Tysis's enormous bow were soon put to use and proven to be a welcome addition to the party's arsenal when a group of hill giants found their campsite that night. Fireballs scorched them, arrows pincushioned them, and Thal's force spells punched large holes in the giants. Even Andrew's sneak attack ability came into play once the giants got close.
Quite satisfied with each other's abilities, the 2 respective parties joined forces and in the morning they entered the hidden fissure in the nearby cliff.
21 Fireseek, 593 CY
Midmorning the party emerged from the long, winding fissure into a bowl shaped valley with a tall rocky spire jutting up from its center.The group looked around cautiously, asking each other, "Is this really it? There's nothing here."
But as the party moved further into the valley they soon noticed a set of stairs carved from the rocks ascending up to a shadowy cave opening. As they moved around the rocky spire to get a closer look at the cave entrance, the spire suddenly began trembling. Rocks and debris shook loose from it and it took on a somewhat humanoid shape.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! Its footsteps shook the canyon floor and the party ran as fast as they could to the cave to get away from it.
Not quite fast enough, a massive stone hand reached down and scooped Maccabee up and began crushing him. Andrew, Padril, and Thal made it into the cave to found that it ended only 15 feet in at a massive steel door of some kind. No key hole or latch could be found, though, and it seemed to hum faintly.
While they searched around Mira Luna and Tysis were trying to get into the cave as well, but even though Mira Luna had cast a greater invisibility spell on herself she was scooped up in the other massive hand of the stone creature before she could escape. Her and Maccabee were being badly crushed.
Maccabee tried to feign death. To Tysis and Thal it appeared that he was, but the stone creature just kept crushing him. Mira Luna managed to cast dimension door and whisked herself away toward the opposite end of the canyon.
Andrew found a panel in the cave wall near the door and opened it to find some kind of odd series of studs protrudring from a metal backing - 3 rows of 3 studs with archaic symbols on them.
Padril began searching the silvery steel door for any hidden devices or opening mechanisms and then moved over to the other wall to continue his search. Andrew began mumbling to himself, obviously trying to decipher the symbols on the studs.
Suddenly the stone colossus hurled Maccabee against a cliff wall a short distance away. He crashed against it hard, but floated gently to the earth thanks to his ring of feather falling. He stumbled to his feet while the stone colossus slammed Tysis who was wailing away at its feet with a heavy maul.
Maccabee ran to the opposite end of the canyon - away from the stone behemoth - at the urging of Mira Luna's disembodied voice.
Thal'Talis and Tysis both retreated back into the cave and Thal cast wall of force over the front of it. The stone colossus slammed it over and over to no effect though it shook the earth with the force.
Andrew finally made a satisfied shout of accomplishment and began rapidly pushing the buttons and mumbling about the number of possible combinations.
Mira Luna and Maccabee suddenly appeared in the cave via dimension door. There was a satisfactory buzzing sound and the stainless steel door slid open revealing a long downward sloping corridor all of the same silvery metal as the door. Long light tubes mounted in the 10-ft. high ceiling provided soft scattered illumination for most of its length.
Near at hand a rectangular mechanism hanging from the ceiling with tiny red light and a glass bulb at one end seemed to move back and forth as if tracking the party's movement.
As soon as the party entered the corridor a loud buzzing sound filled the air repeating over and over and a red flashing light came on from further up ahead.
PART 2 COMING UP...
VALLEY OF THE STONE - PART 2
Why two parts for one session, you ask? I was short on time ;)
With the buzzing and flashing red light going, the big steel door began to close. Crushed by part of a mountain outside the door or face unknown mystery inside? The party darted inside. Maccabee quaffed a potion of flying and was about to soar down the sloping metal corridor, when far ahead a pair of long section of ceiling slid aside and two long metal rods with strange lights and tubes snaking out of them lowered from the openings.
A soft humming sound accompanied a red beam from each of the cylinders that struck Maccabee, burning armor and searing his flesh where they hit him. Padril was also struck witht the next beam and more were sent Maccabee's direction.
At the back of the corridor the door was now closed. Andrew searched around to see if there was a way to open it back up. The others sort of milled around casting spells on themselves or just trying to avoid the searing hot beams of energy.
Maccabee and Tysis both moved quickly up the corridor and began hacking away at the complex iron rods. More beams were fired, another hitting Maccabee. But after a moment Maccabee and Tysis had hacked the strange weapons down from their mountings. The remains pivoted back and forth mechanically, but were no danger now.
Andrew had found another hidden panel in the wall with another set of 9 studs with archaic symbols like the other one outside. He tapped the keys a few times, guessing at the combination to open the door, but nothing happened. The same sequence that had worked on the other panel did not work for this one.
The party traversed the long corridor and found a room at the end where another steel door had been knocked down. Broken peices of metal men (golems?) littered the 30-ft.-by-30-ft. room as if a battle had been fought here. A u-shaped desk contained glass scrying panels of some kind. Of the four, 2 of them showed a fuzzy kind of black and white. The 3rd was a seen of the corridor that the group had just exited. The 4th seemed to be some kind of magical map showing this area. The tunnel they had just come through was flashing red and a lot of archaic symbols kept repeating themselves under it. They could also see that there was a room beyond one of the nearby walls not visible to them.
Andrew and Thal'Talis examined the archaic symbols on the scrying screen and found that under the desk was a slide out drawer with a rectangular device with dozens of buttons with more achaic symbols on it. They figured out that pushing the buttons did something. Examining the sequence of symbols on the screen that kept repeating, they pushed the same buttons on the rectangular device and suddenly the buzzing stopped and the area of the map showing the entrance corridor changed from red to blue, matching the rest of the areas of the map.
At the back of the room were a pair of narrow steel doors with no handle or keyhole. A panel next to it had a single button on it with more of the strange archaic symbols. Maccabee was pushing the button to see what it did when Thal'Tallis and Andrew did whatever they did to stop the buzzing and flashing red light. It also caused the button to light up. So Maccabee pushed it again.
A whirring sound could be heard from beyond the metal doors and a moment later the doors slide aside revealing a 10-ft.by-10-ft. room of steel. Inside, a wall panel had 4 buttons with yet more symbols on them. Maccabee, Mira Luna, and Padril went inside to look around, but that was all there was. When the doors suddenly began closing, Padril stuck his arm out to shove them back, but they opened back up with no resistance. The group shuffled out of the little room and decided to investigate the wall where there was supposed to another room.
Padril found that when he pushed on the wall, it swiveled open to reveal a stairwell of corrugated iron. Steps descended to another landing and continued winding downward. The party entered the stairwell and began the descent.
At the next landing, Padril pushed on another panel in the wall where there should be an opening and found one, but it would only move a fraction of an inch as if stuck from the other side by something heavy. He tried another couple of times with Maccabee, but it would not budge.
There was nothing to do, but continue downward.
At the next landing, Padril found another moving panel and the group entered a small room with a closet at one end with a thin white coat hanging on a bent metal wire and a corridor leading off to the south at the other end.
As they all emerged and looked around, booted feet could be heard coming from around a bend in the nearby corridor. Suddenly four humanoid figures in white coats like the one in the closet appeared. Each had skin of silvery metal and facial features that were both beautiful and frightening in their inhumanity. Mira Luna cast a spell to understand what they ALL kept saying over and over in their tinny, inhuman voices.
I AM MAN-MACHINE... PERFECTION... ERADICATE...
Mira Luna repeated the mantra to the others and as the metal men approached, weapons that looked like metal hand crossbows without the crossing peice appeared out of their forearms arms and slid into their hands. Aiming at the closest adventurers, they fired humming green beams of energy from them. Padril was hit. As was Andrew. Even Maccabee took a hit. The beams were very harmful, burning & sizzling where they struck and nearly toppling their targets.
The group jumped into action and began attacking them back. For several minutes the creatures fired, nibmly tumbled back behind one another, fired, tumbled back, repeatedly until the adventurers had finally destroyed them all. The peices sparked with electrical discharges and smoked where the parts of their bodies lay. Andrew tried to dislodge one of the weapons from their hands, but they appeared to be part of the constructs. He did manage to find and recover a thin rectangular object with sybols raised on one side and a black stripe down the opposite side.
The silvery doors in the corridor appeared unopenable-no latch or keyhole evident. However, next to each was a protruding mechanism with a thin slot down it center and a little glowing red light on it.
With the group trying to make sense of the new developments in their quest, we ended our session there.
I am not sure what to make of these strange devices and this extreme use of metals. Never before have I traveled in a place that was completely encased in steel. It must have taken millennia for craftsman to forge such a place. Those weapons of light were like no spell I have ever seen before and they seemed to be without end since they kept on firing and moving to match our location. The damaged they caused was great it felt as thou my skin being seared from my body and I was almost downed by a single volley from them. It seems as thou it was a trap of sorts but I do not know how they worked or who made them.
And those metal golems that looked like humans and sparked like lightning when we damaged them I have never before seen their ilk. This is indeed a strange and wondrous place. I can only hope that the destiny stone is near and we can leave this place before it is to late.
Through the Eyes of a Paladin #42
OK so I slept through the attack of the hill Giants, but it was good to get a good nights rest. As for the two new guys I am still trying to adapt to their accompaniment. They seemed to be holding their own as for the mage he was quite good with those force spells he has been using, as for the guy with the bow and hammer has been moderately faithful. Having to travel without Neon was a bit inconvenient then as for that huge giant of a golem grabbing me as a rag doll didn’t do much for my armors shine. I took a bit of damage from that thing and was glad we were able to eradicate ourselves from its huge grasp.
If it wasn’t one thing it was something else, then those two mobile magical wands hitting me at every turn, I was beginning to believe I was now the groups walking pin cushion. As if I couldn’t sustain enough damage for one day we ran into a bunch of iron golems with magical wands. I have expended most of my healing for one day and my sword arm is getting tired. It would figure perhaps the most important part of our quest is becoming the most painful of them all and its only mid day. Well I just need to shake it off and hope for a better encounter perhaps not from some nuisance of a creature but perhaps even a potential ally. Well like grandpa Pharez use to say, “when there is life, there is hope”!
Friday, February 3
Conclusion of “The Valley of the Stone”
20 Fireseek, 593 CY
Andrew examined the thin card he had found on the metal-men bodies—raised symbols on one side and a black stripe down the other side. Pocketing the item, he and the others began investigating the corridor. Maccabee and Padril walked around the corner and found more metal doors. The corridor ended at another one much bigger than the rest with another one of the depressions in the wall with 9 raised studs with symbols on them.
Andrew was examining the mechanism with the thin slot and red light and began experimenting with the card he had found. On his second attempt of pushing the card into the slot the red light turned green and the door opened. Inside the door was a plain room with a bed, metal shelves, closet, and a desk. Padril had come back and joined Andrew. The two entered and looked around. When the door closed, they panicked a little until Padril noticed a button on the near wall and pushed it. The door slid open once again.
Searching around, there was really nothing here. Up in the far wall they noticed a wire mesh grill. Padril gave Andrew a boost up and he began prying at it with his dagger to create an opening he could see into. It appeared to be a very small shaft with air coming out of it—an air shaft, obviously, to provide breathable air to the former occupants of this place.
They continued the same process with the next several rooms and the same results. They finally focused their attention on the large door at the end of the corridor. Andrew began tinkering with the buttons on the nearby wall. This time, though, a massive electrical discharge from the door answered his first attempt, shocking Maccabee. Padril and Andrew both reacted quickly enough to avoid it. When Andrew rubbed his hands together and began tinkering again, the others moved back a good distance. Good thing, too, since the same thing happened.
Maccabbee stepped up and swung at the door with all his might. He barely damaged the thing, but received another heavy dose of electrical discharge for his efforts. The party decided to leave this door alone for now until they had investigated the rest of this place.
Returning to the metal stairwell, they climbed down to the next lowest level. Opening the door panel and peeking in, Padril saw a large room with 2 short corridors leading off of it ending at big metal doors. There was also a pair of metal doors in the wall to his left with the familiar single glowing button on a panel next to it. It was just like the one on the first floor.
As Padril stepped in, one of those gadgets they had seen mounted to the ceiling of other rooms began following his movements. A red light began flashing and a loud buzzer ringing out. Suddenly the door opposite them slid open and 4 of the strange metal men began spilling out and firing their energy weapons at him.
The group all began moving up to do battle. It was similar to their previous encounter with them—very tactical movement and targeting of the most threat to them along with very damaging wounds from their weapons. Mira Luna fell in combat and the others rushed to cover her while Andrew poured a healing potion down her throat. Only 2 of the metal men remained, both fairly damaged, but the metal men had dealt out a pretty large chunk of damage to the party in return. Thal’talis was out of combat spells so he had to resort to his longbow. Tysis hammered away with his maul. Maccabee had spelled up to make himself extremely hard to hit and draw fire away from the rest so they could heal up or withdraw.
As the combat wore on, a loud roar sounded from the corridor the metal men had come from. Both of them moved to areas aside from the opening and a creature that looked like a metal-encased centaur trotted up to the opening hefting a long metal weapon that fired beams of green energy. It missed Maccabee, but tore a burning hole out of the metal wall behind him. The time was right for the group to retreat and recover from their wounds.
They made a tactical withdrawal and marched up the stairs to the rooms they had recently searched. There they shut themselves into one of them and rested for the day and through the night.
21 Fireseek, 593 CY
Returning to the scene of their last battle, the group entered to the same results. The opposite door slid open and the 2 remaining metal men spilled out with the iron centaur close behind them. Thal’talis cast an Evard’s black tentacles spell that had mixed results. It kept the iron centaur from coming out, but didn’t stop the metal men. Mira Luna removed the threat of the iron centaur’s ranged weapon by casting a web spell around it in the room it was still stuck in.
Though the party still took wounds, the 2 metal men were a fair bit easier to deal with rather than four of them. They were soon destroyed, but there was still the problem with the iron centaur. The group decided to let it out and hammer it with their collective fire power. The spells were dismissed and the creature came trotting out. It was evident with the first blows that fell from Tysis and Padril that the creature needed special weaponry to damage it. Luckily, Maccabee and Padril both had magical scarabs that would allow them to damage golems as well as any other creatures. Apparently that was what this thing was. Padril had adamantine-tipped arrows just for the occasion, as well, and made use of them.
The fight was relatively short once all of the party was hammering it with their respective weaponry. The iron centaur blew a stinging poisonous vapor from holes in its arms, but none of the party members in the area of effect—Maccabee, Padril, and Tysis—were affected by it. A moment later, the thing was destroyed.
After the fight the party examined the adjoining rooms. The one opposite the paneled opening they entered through contained a sort of assembly room for making more of the metal men. It also had a U-shaped desk with a pair of the glass scrying devices in them. One kept replaying an image of an elderly man in elaborate robes entering a chamber occupied by a dark obelisk with silvery spider web tracery on its faces and an opening near its top occupied by a round, brain-like object. It shot lightings and other energy at the man, but he merely raised a hand to stop them and walked up and removed the “brain” and left.
The other room appeared to be the one depicted in the scrying glass. The large metal door had faded words on it, Mira Luna deciphered as _ESTIN_ _ONE. The party became very excited. Though symbols were missing, it seemed obvious at one time they probably read DESTINY STONE. The obelisk in the room was missing something from the space near its top and small wires writhed and twisted spitting electrical sparks everywhere. An occasional flash of lightning would shoot from it, hitting a wall or the floor and leaving a blackened scorch mark. It also kept gabbering something in an incomprehensible language, which Mira Luna interpreted as, “I am… Stay away… perfect weapon… DO NOT TOUCH!!! No! Stop! …incomplete…” There was more, but that seemed to be the gist of it. It was obviously the Destiny Stone, but something had happened to it and it was now malfunctioning. It seemed to actually have intelligence and had been rendered insane.
As the group stood around discussing this, Thal’talis seemed to remember where he had seen the stylized M on the crest of the man’s robe in the scrying glass. It was the ancient symbol of the Maure’s, a noble Suel house that had built a wondrous castle near here several hundred years ago, but it was now a ruin that adventurers had taken to pilfering and making a name for themselves in much the way of Castle Greyhawk’s ruins. There was said to be numerous unplumbed dungeon levels beneath the ruined castle and a level called the Chamber of Antiquities where all manner of magical trinkets, trophies, and other curiosities were stored. If this Maure wizard had come here and taken the “brain” from the Destiny Stone, it stood to reason that their Chamber of Antiquities was a good place to start looking, though if the man was a Maure, his theft of the brain had occurred at least a hundred years ago. A long time.
Well… the first thing was to see if they could figure out a way into those hidden dungeon levels.
The group gathered up a few of the metal-men bodies in hopes of maybe selling them to some gnome engineers and turning a profit. They also grabbed up the strange ranged weapon the iron centaur had been carrying for the same purpose.
They did look in on the bottom most level to see what else was here and found a large chamber with 4 huge hivelike metal containers with little windows in them where lightings could be seen flashing inside. Strange mechanical apparatuses were connected to them as well as thick cables that ran through holes in the walls and ceilings. Tending the machines were large metal men with tools that strode around making small adjustment to the machinery—iron golems and 4 of them!
The party wisely left the golems to tend to their affairs and ascended back to the top level. With Mira Luna’s and Thal’talis’s abilities to teleport the party, they settled on the nearby trading town of Seltaren as their next destination. It was close and a good place to launch an expedition to Maure Castle from. Poof! And they were gone.
Through the Eyes of a Paladin #43
Yosephus,
It is becoming apparent that our quest is taking us to more far away places, yet coincidently to places we have seen in the passing. I must insure to tell the local church of Heironeous in Seltaren of our movements and to continue to be vigilant of the events going on in the Rakers. It was an interesting expedition in a dungeon made of steel. I was glad that the metallic men that we scavenged were used for the good of the local Gnome enclave.
I enjoyed watching how the group worked together and beginning to be more at ease of being the party’s meat shield. Thanks to all that is good for my ability to use my shield in ways I would have never known. I am more capable of protecting my party members and myself. Now if I can openly further my ability of protecting myself I could be the cork that stops the flow of evil while the remaining party members lay a barrage of metal and spells upon an on coming onslaught. This strategy in the close quarters of a dungeon would be very effective although in an open field not so expedient.
I have further my cause to vow for the protection of Mira Luna since she and I are the only two remaining of the original group of adventurers. When she had fallen from a Metallic man weapon I saw to it that she was cared for while I took the battle to the creature. We are currently preparing to venture forth in the ruins of Maure Castle. I hope this will bring us to the Destiny Stone that we have been in search for in over a year. Tell mom of my state of being as well as sis and hope to hear of our fathers return soon. May the Fist of Heironeous bring you close to his greater glory and may our paths meet soon. Your Brother,
Maccabee
So, I'm sitting at my desk at work (on my lunch break, thank you very much) and thumbing through the Maure Castle super module from issue #112. I'm so damned excited, I can hardly think of anything else. Been waiting patiently to gey my group to this point so we can delve into some sweet ass Gygax/Kuntz adventuring.
The last bit of advice over on the Maure Castle thread was to tweak my players' characters life expectancy. Heh! We'll see.
Well that didn't turn out the way we wanted..... Just another wild goose chase to yet another dungeon full of undead, constructs, and who knows what else. :Smiling: Then again there is also the untold riches and magical items that have been lying in wait for just the right person to come by and pick them up. Perhaps this will not be such a bad adventure after all. I need to remind the two fighters that they need to purchase some adamantine weapons this time around so that we will be prepared for whatever gets in our way.
The old Crone gave me the information that I needed. Cryptic....but can one ever expect a straight answer from a witch?
I had spent the last 20 something years learning of the world. Training myself, honing my skills, gaining allies where I could. I did the work that anyone with any shred of honor would avoid. I don't pat myself on the back for it. I did what I had to do, a means to an end.
I could feel that my efforts were not in vain. They had brought me to this point, to Maure Castle. She told me what I needed would be in there. I had vowed revenge on that day so long ago. I could taste it. I dreamt about it. I would have it or die. I will restore honor to my family's name and my house. Lord Baldune WILL pay for his treachery. I can see his face. And his lord, the most foul Iuz, will pay as well. I swear it on my father's blood.
Now, I need to find a group of people brave enough, or crazy enough, to enter Maure Castle with me. For my salvation, or our deaths, only time will tell.
Friday, February 10
We had another player join our merry band tonight. Robert brought in a ranger/fighter named Savaun Blackhawk, a son of a minor house of Furyondy whose lands were overwhelmed by the forces of Iuz during the Greyhawk Wars. His hereditary holdings have yet to be reclaimed.
21 Fireseek—6 Readying, 593 CY
For the past weeks since returning from the strange metal-encased dungeon housing the malfunctioning Destiny Stone, the party had enjoyed the city living Seltaren offered. While Maccabee and Padril dealt with the gnomes of Goldplain north of Seltaren to sell the parts of the metal men and their contraptions, the others used their time to refine their skills through training and also research the legends and local lore of Maure Castle located only a few days southwest of the city.
Towards the end of this stint, Maccabee and Padril relaxed in the common. Maccabee’s inquiries about Maure Castle earned him the attention of an old explorer by the name of Sir Dirfen. The man claimed membership to an old and noble fraternal order knows as the Seekers—a group dedicated to finding and cataloguing all manner of antiquities and artifacts, both mundane and magical. Such was Maccabee’s affect on the man, that he revealed things to the paladin that were normally secret; knowledge kept within the brotherhood of Seekers.
Of the things they discussed was the matter of a missing seeker named Kerfane who had been cataloguing all of his findings in the ruins and dungeons of Maure Castle some 25 years ago. He had been missing since then and Sir Dirfen confided in Maccabee that his writings might still be in the ruins somewhere. The Seekers would pay handsomely to have the writings and should Maccabee come across them, the paladin gave his word to bring them to Sir Dirfen.
While Maccabee and Sir Dirfen softly discussed things, Padril noticed a man in the corner paying close attention to their whispered conversation. He had the look of gentility hardened by years of rough living; a tabard over his sturdy clothing bore an emblem of a black hawk. Indeed, perched on the ladder-back chair next to him was a black feathered hawk that seemed to be his companion or pet.
Padril walked over to the man and confronted him for eavesdropping. The elf’s mannerism seemed to be at its worst today. However, though Padril behaved in a hostile way, going so far as accosting the man’s bird, the human warrior behaved with tact and forbearance. When Maccabee’s attention was diverted from recounting the group’s adventures to the barkeeper, his arrival at the stranger’s table seemed to rescue the encounter happening from turning violent.
Maccabee recognized the black hawk symbol as that of a minor noble house of Furyondy swallowed up by the armies of Iuz and thought destroyed. The paladin formally introduced himself and Padril, even apologizing for the elf’s behavior. The man’s name was Savaun Blackhawk, possibly the last of his noble line. He also was planning an expedition into the depths of the Maure Castle dungeons for something that would aid his cause, though he wasn’t free with exactly what that was. He seemed quite interested in joining forces and after meeting the rest of the party, which began arriving as the afternoon turned to evening; they agreed that he could be a good addition to this dungeon delving expedition they were planning.
Securing a private room, the party gathered around a table and Thal’Talis laid out several maps he had bought from the town sage which the man had obtained from past adventurers. Maccabee also told the rest of the party that there was supposed to be a small fortified building the seekers used to launch expeditions into the ruins from that warranted expedition. It was supposed to lead to a passage blocked by a pair of supposed “Unopenable Doors.” He also explained about the Seekers and that he had agreed to retrieve Kerfane’s papers if they happened to find them.
They all agreed that in the morning they would teleport to the same spot Mira Luna had taken them before and trek overland to the Seeker outpost.
7 Readying, 593 CY
All had gone according to plan so far. With the morning barely halfway done, the party found themselves trekking through the rocky scrub-covered hills west of the castle ruins. A little after noon the party sited the dilapidated stone hovel. After Padril scouted the area and Savaun had his hawk take a look from above, they approached the hilltop building and looked around inside.
Within, a rotting table stood against the far wall, several clay urns were collected in another corner, and a trapdoor in the floor obviously led to areas below the building. Fresh water in one of the urns indicated that someone was still using the stone shack. When Padril smelled oil from the trapdoor and then opened it on perfectly functioning hinges, their suspicions were confirmed. Someone was definitely still using this place. A long shaft under the trapdoor descended 50 feet. A very tall stout ladder was used to climb down to the area at the bottom.
Seeing no danger, the party descended one-by-one with Padril taking the lead and Maccabee bringing up the rear.
A long, smooth tunnel led off to the east for as far as they could see. Thal’Tallis examined the glassy surface and deduced that this passage had been created by hundreds of castings of disintegrate. The party was wary of such powerful magic used so freely and preceded down the slightly sloping passage cautiously. After several hundred feet the passage gave way to an obviously man-made corridor of granite slabs and flagstones. Continuing on, the party descended at a gradual angle for several hundred more feet and finally came to a T-intersection.
On the floor of the intersection they found a curious engraving of a large, eight-pointed star that still radiated a strong dweomer of magic, but seemed to be unfunctional. It was missing something that would have fit into each triangular shaped point of the stars.
To the left the corridor continued another 10 feet and ended. To the right the corridor continued sloping downward and out of sight.
As the party proceeded down the long corridor, guttural voices called out challenges and demanded that the party leave. Of course, the party had no intention of doing so and found themselves fighting a pair of beefed up orcs with magical longspears. They were very tough for orcs, but no match for the combined might of the adventurers.
After looting the bodies, the party examined the huge double doors in the small chamber the corridor ended in. Though tried ramming it, shoving, and prying it open with a crowbar, it never budged.
Mira Luna and Maccabee used dimensioned door to get to the other side and found a huge chamber opening up to their left, a corridor ending in a door ahead of them, and another corridor leading of to their right. Mira Luna cast the spell to return to the other side and brought the rest of the party to the other side via the same means.
The group took a look around and marveled at the immensity of the chamber to their left. A large pool seemed to be at its center, though they couldn’t see much of the rest of the room. A glowing urn stood on a wide platform at the center of the pool. None of them could really agree on what color it glowed. To each of them it seemed a different color and changed from minute-to-minute.
Exploring the right corridor the party found another branching corridor ending in a magically crafted wall with arcane symbols warning of magic and harm. A hammer and chisel had been used to knock a small hole in the wall and still lay nearby. In it, the party could see a small chamber with a door at the opposite end.
Backtracking the other way, the found a horrible smelling chamber with everburning torches on the walls and a silver sun painted on the wall—the symbol of the Seekers. Odd that they should find that here, they thought.
Continuing down the corridor and around a bend the found another door and entered. It opened into a round room with 4 doors at opposite sides. One of them they recognized as the door at the end of the corridor opposite the Unopenable Doors and would lead them back to the area they had started from after being teleported by Mira Luna.
Candles on the floor in front of each door illuminated paintings on the doors of colorful human warriors. When Maccabee crossed the chamber and opened the door to his left, the air wafting through the 2 open doors snuffed two of the candles and suddenly the warriors on the doors leapt out and attacked the paladin.
The party all came to help Maccabee, but after a moment the other 2 candles also went out and 2 more warriors leapt from the paints doors.
The battle finally ended with the party destroying the men and they each reverted to puddles of paint.
Exiting the room through one of the other doors, they traversed a long corridor with yet another door toward the end. Inside, the small room was scribbled on every available surface with insane ramblings. Mira Luna took the time to examine them and though it was hard to follow the insane ramblings of the genius that had penned them, she came away feeling enlightened. There was nothing else there so the party backtracked back to their starting point and entered the huge pool chamber.
They decided not to closely examine anything at this point. Rather they walked about the room just to take its measure. This huge room had many doors leading off into other chambers and to the south a massive curtain approximately 200 feet wide separated one massive hall from another equally massive hall that appeared to be designed for spectators to view events happening at its center.
At the very far wall stood a great stone platform with 2 statues—one a warrior, the other a wizard—flanking a large figure holding a sword and a strange flail seated on a throne.
The group all helped their mapper catalogue all of these areas and then talk turned to perhaps resting for the day as it was now early evening.
Through the Eyes of a Paladin #44
Dear Yosephus,
Our stay at Selteran is coming to a close. We have been pre-training in case we are too far from civilization. As for our stay here it has not been without new acquaintances. A fellow has approached me from some group known as the Seekers. Apparently this is some form of noble order that seeks out information of far away places and keeps journals of them perhaps you have heard of them while serving in the kings court. Apparently one of their own has gone missing for some time in the place we are soon to visit, the Maure castle. The task is pretty simple just retrieve whatever journals there are of their comrade; hopefully it will help to reduce our time at the ruins of Maure castle. I have been briefed by the Seeker Derfun of the whereabouts of the missing seekers outpost and will begin our trek from there.
Interesting enough, our quest to visit Maure Castle has given us an alliance with a fellow from the noble family of Black Hawk his name is Savaun. Apparently Savaun believes there is something there that would return him to his families former glory. We’ll see. I sense a great deal of change in the air. Our group has increased to seven now including myself. You and the family are in my prayers. I will send word through the church of Heironeous so you know I am in good fellowship. God speed.
Your Brother
Maccabee
I had been in Seltaren nearly 2 weeks. I was growing increasingly weary of the downtime. My muscles twitched, my hands itching with anticipation of holding my sword, the last remnant of my family, Bright Flame, and bleeding my enemies. I was beginning to think that the witch had lied to me. Maybe I wouldnt meet anyone in this town.
My despair growing, I had decided to try to take my mind off the situation with some fine red wine and a nice meal.
A few minutes after I had taken my seat I overheard 2 men speaking of Maure Castle. Could this be true? Do my ears deceive me? I listened intently, all but ignoring my wine. I think perhaps my intentions were a little too obvious. Indeed, I was soon approached by what could only be an elf. His face was covered by his eyes were showning. Only an elf's eyes were capable of looking that deep in to you as if searching your very soul for an answer to a question only he knew.
He told me quite bluntly that I was eavesdropping on a private conversation. I had no excuse, he had caught me red handed. Sensing he was with one of the two men speaking I decided to answer truthfully. The elf could probably sense a lie anyway...
However, my honesty did not go unpunished as the elf grew more unfriendly by the second. He even attempted to grab my compation, my only true friend since childhood, my black hawk, Entwidamela. Thankfully his friend had noticed and decided to intervene before the situation escalated and became physical.
His friend, I could only surmise, was a paladin. Odd company....He was clad in mail with the symbol of Heroneous emblazoned upon. He had the bearing of a judge and carried himself like a warrior. His mannerisms were extremely polite, even given the current situation. Definitely a paladin. He even recognized my coat of arms as belonging to House Blackhawk of Furyondy and attempted to address me as first lord, and then sir. I corrected him on both. I was neither. Not yet, anyway.
We began to talk in earnest over a meal and drinks. The paladin, whos name, I learned, is Maccabee, was very forthcoming. I, however, was not. I gave as little information as possible as to my reasons for wanting to venture in to Maure Castle. Maccabee did not pry further. He afforded me that bit of hospitality, at least.
His companions soon arrived and introduced themselves one by one. A stout group of adventurers. They all looked to be seasoned though not warriors like myself save for Maccabee, though I couldnt be sure.
After a brief discussion we decided to head to Maure in the morning. By teleportation. I hate teleporting. Makes me feel sick to my stomach and gives me a headache. Better than walking, I tell myself. I would spend the rest of the day preparing my gear. I would, unfortunately, have to leave my horse, Padreic, behind. He will probably get fat from eating to well and just being lazy. Lucky guy.
......................................
The day passed without much to speak of. A few orcs, stronger than most and some odd....paintings? The died easily enough....but the bled paint. Odd. More magic.
We have begun mapping the area, moving carefully, slowly. We are preparing to rest for the evening. This group seems good. I feel I can almost let my guard down for the evening, almost. It has been so long....so long.
"Well Ip, my friend, this is the first time we've had to sit back and take in all of the events that have transpired over the last month." Thal'Talis was speaking to his friend of many years, a black raven he had summoned and bonded with since the dawn of of his arcane life. Not long after their original meeting, Thal'talis had begun the process of teaching Ip the common tongue, aided by thier magical empathic bond. "What happened in the temple in the desert just over six months ago seems like so much more. What we felt was counter-zenith end of a mission has become a new beginning. Sadly, only Tysis has survived from our original group. I am grateful for his companionship, but it has changed a bit. What was once a peer level of camraderie is now occasionally becoming a relationship of overbearing protector and protected."
"Well, what did you expect? You did save his life in the temple. With his background you couldn't have counted on anything less."
"You have such tact in dealing with these matters. I swear, I'd have summoned a toad if I knew you'd be so candid with me. I am immensley grateful for him though, and everyone else. Mira Luna has an amazing inborn talent, one that quite honestly I am envious of. Maccabe is a man of great integrity and nobility, Andrew a cunning man and entertaining to have around. Padril troubles me though. Whatever scars lie behind that mask must be 10 times as deep on the inside. His palpable hatred of me for my heritage - our heritage - is a scary thing indeed. Hopefully I can plant some seeds of healing in his soul while I'm teaching him the language of the fey."
"What about the new hawk, and his friend Savaun? They seem to have a bond that goes deeper than most bonds of non-magical nature."
"True, that they do. There is definitely something inside of him, something kinetic, just waiting to be released. I think it will be something great, but only time will tell. Ip, it's getting late and we head out to Marue Castle tomorrow. Let's get some rest."
Friday, February 17
Early evening of 7 Readying, 593 CY
The party discussed where they should camp for the night in a group near the Unopenable Doors. As they talked, something caught the group’s attention from the hallway to the west of them. Padril and Thal’Talis could see a group of men in hooded cloaks and ragged tabards moving quietly towards them. A large silver sunburst adorned each of their tabards; their hoods made their features hard to discern, though they seemed pale of skin and slack mouthed.
The rest of the group was only aware of a soft shuffling sound since their human eyes couldn’t see as far as the two elves’. Savaun called out a peaceful entreaty to whomever or whatever was approaching, but the response was a chorus of growls and snarls.
Mira Luna cast a dancing lights spell to brighten up the dark hallway and now the party could clearly see a group of 6 men in Seeker uniforms. From what they could see of their sallow grey faces, they looked haggard; their mouths hung open, flesh sagging from their bones. Their eyes were cast in deep shadows from their hoods, but seemed to be dark pools of emptiness.
Thal’talis immediately cast Evard’s black tentacles in the middle of the enemy group with satisfactory results. Every one of them became wrapped up in the coils of the numerous black appendages. Tysis sunk an arrow in to one of the creatures at the forefront, but it seemed to inflict very little damage. In fact, the arrow dropped out of the wound and it seemed to heal partially almost immediately.
Padril moved up to use his goggles of lifesight to determine if they were indeed undead and maybe get a better look to see what kind. When he was within 30 ft. of them, the two at the front struggled to get free to reach him and their hoods fell back somewhat and their lifeless, empty sockets gazed balefully at him. The goggles confirmed that they were undead and he began to call back to the party, “Yeah, they’re undea…” Suddenly his mouth fell open in shock and he collapsed.
Maccabee moved up far enough to use the Icon of Ravenloft to turn them. Though the creatures couldn’t get free of the tentacles for more than a few seconds when they did manage it, most of them were overwhelmed with the positive energy washing over them from the paladin and were doing their best to try to get away from him. Savaun moved up next to Maccabee and pulled Padril’s body back to the safety of the rest of the party. The elf's face was contorted in a look of grim fear and he was obviously dead.
Between Mira Luna’s charged up fireballs that burned white hot and incinerated the creatures that couldn’t shield themselves from the flames and Thal’Talis’s force spells, the creatures were finally destroyed. Maccabee remembered where he had seen creatures like that—a book of undead in the Temple of Heironeous described them as bodaks, creatures that died from utter terror and returned to slay others the same way with their deathly gaze. He also remembered that a creature slain by one of them would rise as a bodak in 24 hours.
The group found a room filled with nice furniture at the north end of the hall and rested for the night. They decided in the morning to see if they could find some loot that they could use to help fund a resurrection or true resurrection to get Padril back and prevent him from becoming a bodak.
8 Readying, 593 CY
The group started their search for loot by taking the glowing chalice from the middle of the pool and discovered that the pool was full of what at first appeared to be hundreds of koi. They turned out to be some kind of hot fish. They swarmed around where Maccabee disturbed the water and burned his hand. Savaun caught one on the tip of his spear and examined it. It was an ugly thing covered in blisters and bubbles. He thought he’d try cooking it up and sampling it, but found it to be absolutely horrible.
The party started exploring the rooms on the south side of the fountain and found a series of chambers that happened to belong to the Seeker Kerfane that Maccabee had been told about. They found his writings and his remains. They even found a few items that looked valuable as far as old relics & antiques go. With the day getting later, they decided to leave the dungeon in 2 groups with different destinations.
Mira Luna and Andrew teleported to the city of Greyhawk where Andrew would use his connections to get top coin for the orc loot and the things they found in the dungeon and get Padril brought back from the dead. Maccabee, Savaun, Thal’Talis, and Tysis teleported back to Seltaren to take their findings and the remains of Kerfane to Sir Derfen. They would all rendezvous in Seltaren in 2 days.
10 Readying, 593 CY
The party regrouped back in Seltaren. Mira Luna and Andrew had been more than successful in finding buyers willing to pay the highest price for the loot they had. Andrew had sweetened the deal with a little bit of embellishment and twisting of the truth, but the fact that they had raised enough money to not only get Padril returned to life, but also purchase a raise dead scroll and have enough left over to split up over 5,000 gp among the group made everyone very happy.
Maccabee, Tysis, Thal’Talis, and Savaun had made Sir Derfen very happy with the return of Kerfane’s corpse and his writings. He had awarded them a sack of 100 sterling dukes (platinum pieces) and promised future rewards for more such findings.
Before the party returned to Maure Castle to face more nasty creatures like the bodaks, they decided to prepare a little bit. Thal was given 15 days to craft a wand of one of his more potent force spells. The others honed their skills with determination and purchased a few things they thought might be needful.
26 Readying, 593 CY
All preparation was completed for their second trip to Maure Castle and the party teleported into the Great Hall. They peeked into Kerfane’s old rooms and found it the way they had left it. Moving over to the next room of chambers they found a room full of exquisite, if aged, tapestries with 2 lanterns of magical flame on opposite walls illuminating it. They began appraising the values of the tapestries and observing some of the artistry. One piece was repugnantly pornographic and offensive to Maccabee and Savaun in particular. It was quickly rolled up. In fact, they all were taken down from where they hung and rolled up to be stowed in their bags of holding.
Padril noticed a sack on the ground and opened it. Inside was a dark tapestry that he shook out and unrolled. Its surface was covered in shifting shadows and there seemed to be some kind of pictures that faded when light was shone on them, but became clearer when they were brought into areas of shadow. Thal’Talis recognized the pictures of hands in complex positions as the somatic spellcasting components of a group of 4 shadow spells—shadow conjuration, project image, shadow walk, and shadow evocation.
All of the tapestries were stowed and the group exited the chamber via the door in the north wall. As they approached the next door to the west, a voice deep, booming voice to the north of them shouted, “Thieves! Steal my tapestries, will you? You will pay!”
Ice suddenly covered everything, obscuring their vision for a moment. It was quite painful and bone numbing. When it cleared, they could see an ogre sized creature with blue skin dressed in fine silks and sashes clutching a large greatsword with a quiver at his hip and a longbow hung across his torso. Long, sharp tusks jutted from his mouth and his eyes seemed aflame.
Savaun replied quickly, “We didn’t know they were yours. We’ll give them back.” The others looked at him oddly and Andrew said, “No we won’t.”
Then everyone started moving into attack mode, quaffing potions, casting spells, and moving to better positions to attack the ogre magi from. The group began pelting him with their attacks. It in turn struck Andrew, the closest enemy, with magic missiles, but then it disappeared and began taunting them from a distance to the east.
The group tried pinpointing where it was, spreading out and straining to hear any sounds it made. As Andrew flew over the fountain, he suddenly lost his ability to fly and dropped down into the water. The hot fish swarmed around him and burned him. A moment later he hopped hastily out of the basin. The ogre magi laughed at the party and continued to taunt them.
Suddenly it appeared in the air heading toward the immense curtains separating this hall from the even larger hall to the south. As it floated lazily on its back, it waved at Maccabee and taunted, “Here I am,” as it disappeared through the curtains.
The party all converged on the area Maccabee spotted it at and ducked under the curtains into the huge chamber. They could see it at the far end of the room now, visible, floating in the air about 40 feet above the ground. It was near the massive block of granite at the south wall that held the seated figure on the throne and the 2 flanking statues. It was bloodied from their repeated attacks, but he ogre magi seemed to be healing its wounds at a slow rate. Tysis immediately sunk an arrow in it and Padril moved up and did the same.
The creature disappeared again, but Padril’s keen senses allowed him to track the invisible ogre magi to the opposite side of the large seated statue of iron. Maccabee, Andrew, and Padril all flew towards where the elven scout was directing them.
Maccabee targeted the area he thought the creature was in and swung with all his might.
SPLAT!!! A hit! Blood sprayed all over the nearby iron statue and throne and the ogre magi groaned in pain.
A moment later the ogre magi was moving again and Padril lost track of him. Suddenly, Maccabee’s spell he had cast to empower himself was gone, as was Andrew’s and Padril’s fly spells. The two of them dropped gently to the platform in front of the iron statue and the statue suddenly animated and stood up, a red glow flaring from within its too-wide mouth.
To be continued next week…
Through the eyes of a Paladin #45
Dear Yosephus, 25 Readying
I am writing you from Selteran. We have managed to enter into the depths of the Maure Castle’s ruins. I have only to realize the magnitude of the Seekers strength and number. It had appeared that the outpost had led into a tunnel that apparently was created by some powerful magic’s. The mage Thal’ Tallis especially was concerned explaining the use of a disintegration spell had been used so numerously. In light of this we seemed to have stumbled upon two very buffed up Orcs who apparently insisted of being in our way. Thanks to every ones efforts they were dispatched in short order. There was a door that was inoperable by our skills so with Mira Luna in hand we dimension door to the other side, her skills in magic has gained my respect over time. Eventually she was able to bring the others to this side of the door with the same spell. The place we had entered was huge. It didn’t appear anything like any dungeon I have been in, it was more like the open area of a castle yet we were a good fifty feet under ground.
Something interesting happened to me while exploring this large underground area, I felt this sudden feeling of divine strength, I don’t know how else to explain it but it felt like a ”knowing”. A knowing of what may be wrong or right. This place has me captive on many levels. I hope in exploration I will be able to further to explain. After combating an assortment of mysterious creatures. Our party had a set back with Padril dieing in our midst from the gaze of a few Bodacks. We were able to dispatch them, with the help of my turning skills and the mages magic’s. Oddly, Andrew had coward away, I have not seen him this frightened since Ravenloft. It was truly unbecoming since he bares the symbol of Heironeous. I have come accustomed to seeing death even if it is of my own party. The group as a whole minus Savaun wanted to leave immediately. My new founded instincts new of a room that would have been fitting for rest even though it was yet to be explored. That is when Savaun and me examined it and turned out that my instincts were correct. We had managed to find the journal of the old seeker and his body. Upon its return to the seeker Sir Derfun he happily awarded us with some Platinum.
There was this other new oddity Yosephus, there was a great hall with a throne in it. It felt as if it had beckoned me, the familiarity of this place is haunting as if I had once lived here long ago. Strange I know but that is not all that was strange. When waiting for Mira Luna and Andrew to return to Selteran from Grey Hawk City with the risen Padril there was an immediate ill wind in the air. I didn’t want to mention it since in a few weeks we were planning our return to the castle ruins. I have managed to acquire a pair of boots of striding and springing and hopes it will be in my favor to have. Well my brother, take care and God speed.
Your older brother
Maccabee
Yet another death to add to the toll that has torn at my soul. I am wondering about the Rakers. We have taken so much time getting here that I am worried about just how much the city has thawed and what new threats are awakening in its depths. Perhaps I will investigate further once we are done here. Once again we are in a dungeon filling with undead which of course I am useless against and I go and make a foolhardy mistake by walking right up to a group of Bodaks and having the life drained from me. I suppose since I had never encountered them before I should not be so hard on myself but these kind of mistakes can cost the party dearly and I do not wish to bring any of them to harm, well except maybe Thal'Talis. He has so far proved he can hold his own against the small things but I have yet to see him in a real fight but then again who wouldn't be ok with a body guard to do your beckoning like a lap dog and besides he is an elf after all. A pompus, big headed, arrogant...Bah. I hate elves and all they stand for but he has his uses so I will behave myself until such time as he no longer deserves my restraint and I'm sure that time will come for I have never met an Elf yet that didn't plot and scheme behind everyones back.
Wow, I haven't been that frightened in a long time. Padril walked up to some creatures trapped by own handy new mage who I call Little T and he just fell over dead... gone no more for this world. That the holy bejesus out of me so I ran, and tried to convince everyone else to as well, but no they had to stand thier ground and so I was forced by that nagging little voice in the back of my head to come back. After they were all dead and gone Macabee informed us that they were Bodacks and that Padril would be coming back as one unless we got him raised in the next 24 hours. So I say we should be off post haste, but no, everyone wants to do some exploring... What is it with these people? And for Heironeous's sake what does Macabee have against resting in places we know to be safe when half out numbers are in bad need of a rest for their "fire power" is almost out? I try and think back on how many times Mira Luna, and our other magic user, what ever his name happens to be at the time, has saved all of our skins... and to go into unknown areas when they are not prepared to help, it is just lunacy. But once Macabee gets an idea in his stubborn head he won't let it go. Ok sure this time he was right, but all that is going to do is build up his ego, and one of these times he "knows" he is right it is going to be the end of most if not all of us.
And now for a question I have been asking myself as of late, is it ok to let a little evil stay in the world if by doing so you bring forces that strive to do good back to full power? I can not elaborate on this for I never know who is reading my journal, but if I ever get a answer I will let you know. For now, more of the fun of saving the world.
Tabbish Worthen
Chief Steward of the Manor House Of Yosephus Daystar
Rel Mord, Nyrond
Dear Sir I thank you for your letter, I must confess I have my concerns of the fate of my brother. Fortunately Padril the masked Elf Scout you had once met in our visit to the house will be attempting to make his way to the Rakers to assist my brother to curb the plans of the Faranth. Ensure to apprise the elders of the Church of past letters to see that they may be passed on, so my brother can be kept apprised of our progress in acquiring the Destiny Stone. It is of utmost importance that any encounter with the Faranth’s to be faced with extreme caution. Fortunately Padril is well acquainted with there tactics and will be a mighty deterrent to their villainy. Padril has also specific instructions to contact me on the progression of his scouting and the whereabouts of my brother. The Faranth’s will have more than likely enslave the local citizenry to continue in their evil plans to over come all of Oerth. Insure that the Church elders are aware of the necessity of protection from evil with permanency on their person so they too will not be enslaved by the mind bending abilities of the Faranth’s.
God speed and hope to receive a good report from you.
Maccabee, Shining Blade of Heironeous
Church of Heironeous, Selteran
Friday, February 24
25 Readying, 593 CY (continued)
Flames flickering out of its mouth, the large, grey metal golem rose into the air from its throne and seeing Maccabee and Padril trespassing where they ought not to it cracked its strange feathery whip at the elven scout and struck him. Suddenly Padril turned to stone in his surprised pose. With its other hand, the golem struck Maccabee repeatedly with its large crystal sword. The wounds inflicted on him were horrible and gaping. The paladin decided upon the better part of valor and fled for his life.
Andrew had not been noticed as he was invisible. However, he was standing right beneath the deadly construct. Tumbling with great agility down the stairs, he also fled from the golem.
As the party seemed to be in a route, the ogre magi laughed derisively and hurled a volley of magic missiles at the fleeing paladin that had just struck him a very painful and nearly lethal blow just a moment ago. The missiles pierced the paladin in a satisfying way and the ogre magi sneered.
A second later, the sneer became a worried frown as the golem, seeing another interloper (and nearer than the others), began floating toward him rapidly.
Before the ogre magi had time to get away, Mira Luna engulfed him with a fireball spell. It immolated the ogre magi who screamed in pain and plummeted to the ground. It lay there smoking and dead; a blackened husk.
Now the golem changed course and pursued the paladin once again. The others were either invisible or fleeing for the great curtain and the hall beyond.
Maccabee and Thal stayed behind, both of them invisible now. After the golem passed under the curtain pursuing the others Thal used a telekinesis spell to begin moving the petrified elven scout over to him. Maccabee silently crept over to the smoking corpse of the ogre magi and found a few items worth taking from his body before exiting the dungeon. While Padril floated toward Thal’Talis in his petrified state, Maccabee picked a few items from the ogre magi’s body and stowed them
Meanwhile, the rest of the party—Mira Luna, Andrew, and Savaun—had lured the golem through the recently explored room full of expensive looking rugs and toward the Unopenable Doors, which Andrew had discovered were no unopenable at all if one tried them from this side.
Andrew and Savaun held the two large doors open while Mira Luna stood nearby them. They waited patiently for the golem to arrive at any time hoping perhaps to lure the golem into the outer corridor and close the doors on him. However, the golem never appeared and they began to worry over their allies.
The trio abandoned the doors and went back to the massive curtain to see what was going on. What they found was the golem hovering over the burnt form of Thal’Talis and the melted looking statue of Padril lying on the floor next to him. Tysis called out to them in great distress lamenting that the golem had breated fire on his friend and killed him. Tysis seemed to be the next target of the golem. The old warrior darted back under the curtains and the deadly golem pursued him.
To the party’s great relief, Thal’Talis still clung to life, though barely. They used healing magic on him to relieve his pain and restore most of his lost vitality. As they did, Maccabee suddenly came charging up on his mount Neon and told them that Tysis seemed to be luring the golem away, but the golem might be there again at any time.
They discussed a few plans and as Tysis came running up, they decided to go with Maccabee’s plan to lash Padril’s statue onto Neon and the paladin would dismiss his mount back to the heavenly realms. He would then summon him back and they could have Padril restored to flesh back in Seltaren. As they began preparations with Savaun and Maccabee working together to lash his body onto the horse, the golem came flying through the curtains some 100 or so feet away from them. Spotting the group it began soaring towards them.
As the golem neared, Thal’Talis decided now was as good as any time to get out of there. He grabbed hold of Andrew and Tysis and teleported to Seltaren. With the golem bearing down on them, Savaun had just barely fastened the knot to secure Padril onto Neon when Maccabee dismissed him. Mira Luna who had been practically dancing with anxiety and telling the 2 men to hurry up, slapped her hands on them and teleport them all to Seltaren just as the golem was raising its sword.
Remainder of 25 Readying—27 Readying, 593 CY
Back in Seltaren the party visited the local Temple of Pelor and cashed in on the last of the Benedictions the party had earned for their deeds in Marner (well, Brandon actually). A priest named Elder Coralis used a make whole spell to repair the damaged statue of Padril and other priests that were present tended to Tysis who had been poisoned by the golem’s large sword. Maccabee also received a note from Elder Coralis. Apparently, the temple maintained a cote of messenger pigeons and had received a message for Maccabee some days ago.
Elder Coralis directed the party to a local College of Wizardry where they paid one of the instructors to have Padril returned to flesh. The Elder asked for them to return to speak with him before they departed the city again.
Padril was relieved to be restored from his stony existence again, but announced that he was going to leave the party for a time. He explained that there were too many rumors of things happening in the Rakers and one of them needed to return to the Rakers and scout out the area of the frozen Faranth city, which by this time, had had a lot of time to thaw since they last had been there.
Maccabee also told the party that his letter was from the Chief Steward of his brother Yosephus’s manor. Apparently, shortly after Maccabee had left the last time, Yosephus had mounted his own expedition up into the Rakers and had been gone now for several weeks. Maccabee was actually relieved to hear Padril’s decision as he didn’t trust his younger brother’s abilities against the Faranth.
After the party had split the spoils of their latest foray into the dungeons of Maure Castle, Padril departed to return to the Rakers.
Before the party returned to Maure Castle, they paid Elder Coralis a visit at the Temple of Pelor according to his wishes. It turned out that the priest had wanted to explore those same dungeons for some time now, but had not had the chance to leave his duties at the temple until just recently. He asked permission to join the party and add his considerable healing abilities and offensive divine magic to their cause. The party could not turn down such an offer and gladly welcomed Elder Coralis into their fold.
28 Readying, 593 CY
The party once again teleported back to the Great Hall with no mishaps and decided to explore a room where they had found a secret trapdoor with a narrow tunnel under it. Lifting the trapdoor, Andrew could see that the tunnel was about 5-ft.-by-5-ft. and led off to the east. It looked safe enough so he dropped down into and led the way to the end where he found another trapdoor in the ceiling.
Andrew lifted the trapdoor and peeked into a very empty room. Seeing all was safe, he clambered up into it and the rest of the party followed. In an alcove at the far side of the room, Andrew found a door—the only notable feature of this room aside from dust showing numerous footprints going back and forth from the trapdoor to the door.
The young rogue examined the door very carefully and then opened it while the others stood back. Elder Coralis had been standing in front of a wall directly west of the door Andrew was opening. As he did, there was an audible sound of something mechanical and suddenly the priest of Pelor lurched forward with 4 bronze spears sticking out of his back. Another 2 grazed him and continued past him, one of them almost hitting Andrew.
Elder Coralis gasped as dozens of dark green tendrils began spreading under his skin. He choked out the words, "I've been poisoned." Maccabee rushed over to him and handed him a potion that would neutralize the poison. The priest quickly quaffed the potion, which halted the spread of the green maze of tendrils spreading under his skin. He then pulled out a scroll with a divine prayer written on it. Uttering the prayer, the sickly look to the priest’s skin faded and disappeared and Elder Coralis breathed easier; the effects were removed from his system.
Now that the party was ready again to proceed, Andrew continued opening the door the rest of the way and found stairs descending and winding to the right. He again took the lead, meticulously searching every step for some new trap and feeling a little guilty for not catching the last trap that had wounded their newest ally so badly.
At the bottom of the steps they opened into a wide hall heading south and then turning eastward. In the far wall was a rough cave opening and Andrew could hear heavy breathing coming from it. As he whispered this to his comrades that were creeping down the steps behind him, Andrew could hear sniffing sounds. Suddenly a huge creature like a cross between a spotted hyena and some great cat poked its head out of the cave opening and growled menacingly. Andrew hastily told the party members that couldn’t actually see it what had just appeared and then the creature lunged out of its cave emitting an ear-splitting, mournful howl.
Andrew and Mira Luna stood their covering their ears and stunned. The others moved up to attack the huge beast. After several moments of exchanging blows with the creature, Andrew and Mira Luna snapped out of the stupor and joined the battle. It was, in fact, Andrew’s carefully aimed blows at the creature’s neck over and over again that finally opened its jugular vain and ended its life.
Mira Luna had used dimension door near the end of the fight to teleport her, Tysis, and Thal’Talis to an area farthest from the stairs and furthest from danger. Thal had suffered bites that had dropped him and was dying. As Tysis finished administering a healing drought to the unconscious elf, the battle with the huge beast ended. However, a pair of crossbow bolts zinging at them from the darkness behind them to the east narrowly missed Mira Luna and Tysis.
And that is where our session ended for the night.
Through the Eyes of a Paladin #46 continued
Sister Deanna Daystar
Temple of the Rising Sun
Woodwych, Duchy of Woodwych, Nyrond
Dear Deanna,
I hope this letter finds you in good health. I apologize for my long delayed correspondence. It has been a long time since we both have spoken. I know you do not approve of my adventures especially the ways of the sword. I find it difficult in a world with such injustice that your lifestyle for peace seems either too idealistic or sheer lunacy. We have not seen eye to eye for some time. But I just want to make all accounts known. I have been on a quest for some time as I am sure you have heard from our brother Yosephus.
I am currently North West of you, writing from an Inn in Selteran. I am in search of an ancient artifact known as the Destiny Stone which although may sound overly ambitious is to help save the world as we know it. I am not sure if Yosephus had given you any details, but he has taken it upon himself to go to the Rakers to help foil the pending army of the ancient race of Faranths. I know your duties there in Woodwych is important especially to ensure the continuing peaceful relations between the elves of the Celedon Forest and the Duchy of Woodwych. I had hoped in these times we may put away our differences, and perhaps put aside childhood resentment. You refuse to admit how you begrudge our father remarrying and the fact he had a new son, Yosephus. Yosephus, to this day has idolized you and worships the ground you walk on. All you have done in return is dismiss his warmth with a cold and indifferent embrace. Our father still remains missing and with your scrying abilities as well as influence I would have thought by now you would have taken up the search.
My next letter I will be writing will be to our mother, and yes although I do not remember my natural mother I will be addressing her “mother”, still. She has been a perfect replacement, one in which I have easily grown to love and respect. Something you have forgotten it happens to be the doctrines of your faith. Come to your senses Priestess of Pelor search your heart and do the right thing.
Affectionately,
Maccabee
Through the Eyes of a Paladin #46 continued again
Lady Regina Daystar
Daystar Estates
Callistor, Duchy of Korenflass, Nyrond
Dearest Mother,
It has been much too long. I miss your fruitcakes, cream pies and homemade wines. But most of all I miss your laughter and wisdom. My last message sent to you was when I was in Marner the good Paladin of the local temple was kind to relay word to you and the remainder of the family. I wish I could be there to over see the estate but I am called to a mission of dire importance. It saddens me that I have been called away to such deeds knowing father has not returned. Have you received any word of his whereabouts? I am seriously contemplating breaking off from my quest to go look for father. Last I heard he was taking a patrol into the Abbor-Alz. I am just north of his last known position investigating the Ruins of Maure Castle. At the moment my party is at rest in Selteran. We will be returning to the castle ruins by next morning.
I was in Rel Mord for a few months and enjoyed my visit with Yosephus; he has gone on a small expedition to the North in the Rakers and I have hopes to hear from him soon. I have written to Deanna but she can be as stubborn as a mule.
In our adventures in Maure castle we have made Selteran a place to break from our adventures. This will be the best place to send correspondence if you wish to respond. The Church of Heironeous is very adaptable for messenger and the Temple of Pelor has access to carrier pigeons, either way would be good. We have become one of the local fixtures here mostly any one knows who I am. Hope to hear from you soon.
With loving kindness,
Maccabee
6 more months... 6 more months... And then this difficult oath I made will be fulfilled.
Damn, this elf! I try to keep him out of harm's way and he just seems to leap at it. I thought he was dead for sure, laying there blackened and raw from the Terrible Iron Golem's fiery breath. A failed oath...
But, no, he yet lives. The others, God's bless them, got to him in time to save him. I'm going to have stick much closer to this elf child if I'm to have any hopes of saving his foolish arse.
But, no, he yet lives. The others, God's bless them, got to him in time to save him. I'm going to have stick much closer to this elf child if I'm to have any hopes of saving his foolish arse.
Ok, Now I am a bit confused, I thought Tysis was an NPC?
Well I have informed everyone of my decision to leave the party and head back to the Rakers to check on things there. Maccabee got word that his brother went missing and I agreed to keep and eye out for him as well as send word back to him about the condition of the area and whatever else I may find out. I will miss everyone that I have been traveling with for almost a year now. It seems only yesterday I felled that horned drake that was attacking the party the first day we met but after dying at the hands of the Bodaks and then being turned into stone by that golem I no longer have any desire to continue exploring the depths of these ruins. I am not effective against things that do not live so I shall set my sites of the Farranths because I know there weaknesses well. Perhaps later I shall again meet up with my companions and dare I say friends. Of course I will no longer have to share the company of that elf anymore either. :Smirks:
But, no, he yet lives. The others, God's bless them, got to him in time to save him. I'm going to have stick much closer to this elf child if I'm to have any hopes of saving his foolish arse.Ok, Now I am a bit confused, I thought Tysis was an NPC?
Ahh... So NPCs aren't people too? Damn your prejudice!