This was a campaign that I ran from 99-02. It began in 2ed and then transitioned to 3.0
Basically it is a 2nd edition, no skills and powers, Character kits are discouraged, use PHB, DMG type game. I allow all races to mutli class or dual class at any time within reason. There are no race class restrictions, but a Dwarven mage will have some problems. Stats are rolled 4d6 re roll 1s, 7 times and take the best 6 and arrange them, as you want. Characters start at 1st level. Humans get a +1 to any one stat. Mages get bonus spells like priests do based on their INT. I don't use alignments, characters are judged by their actions. We use miniatures extensively. I encourage role-playing, problem solving and combat. I work hard to ensure that everyone is having fun and allow the campaign to move in the playing style that the players prefer (roll-playing, problem solving and combat). I hate power gamers and munchkins and am careful to not allow magic to over power the game. I also work to keep a single PC from becoming dominant.
----NIGHT 1------
Currently the party is made up of:
Darius Male elf Ranger level 1
Morak son of DaK Male dwarf Fighter/Priest level 1/1
Shendar Male elf Mage/Thief level 1/1
The game takes place in a world of my creating. The basic premise is that there were two kingdoms that were at war over 1000 years ago. Kingdom A unleashed a plague/curse on kingdom B that resulted in the death of all the humans and demi humans in kingdom B. The plague however started to spread toward kingdom A. The mages from Kingdom A cast a powerful spell in the one mountain pass that separated the two kingdoms to stop the plague from entering kingdom A. This spell halted the plague, but also caused a 100 to 40 ft wide canyon rift to form in the valley effectively separating the two kingdoms.
The plague/curse is believed to be about to expire so pioneers, explorers, and adventurers are flocking to the valley in anticipation of the plague's expiration. It is believed that there will be land for the taking, cities full of the treasures of the dead, dwarven mines to be reclaimed, mages lore to be rediscovered and who knows what else. The party has come to the rift valley in search of adventure when the plague expires.
The Party approached the Inn at 5 Points, an Inn one day's travel to the valley of the rift canyon. As they approach the Inn they notice all sorts of pioneers, settlers, adventurers Etc. gathering at the Inn. Since it is early evening the party enters the Inn to gather information and get some food. They hear several rumors about "the other side" and learn that the Inn has no rooms available. Shendar ran a few con jobs and gathered some money for the party since they were basically broke. Morak and Darius settled down at the bar and began to gather rumors.
As the evening progressed, Shendar began to work the crowd picking pockets. Darius subtly attempted to open a closed door at the end of the bar only to find it locked. Shendar then proceeded to insult a few patrons (in an attempt to have some fun???) A general bar melee ensued with Shendar trying hard to avoid combat and loot those knocked out. Morak jumped the bar and entered the kitchen only to find that the chef was an Ogre. The Ogre proceeded to bat Morak around the kitchen. Meanwhile, Darius decided to attempt to open the locked door (Rolled a 1) and completely destroyed the door only to find himself face to face with a cabal of 13 wizards robed in black, sitting around a table. Quickly excusing himself, Darius went back through the door as the mages magically reconstructed it with iron reinforcing and chains as well as multiple locks.
Having heard there was a fight going on a group of dwarves decided to enter the bar making the way impassible for those who were attempting to exit. Shendar jumps the bar, witnesses the Ogre swatting around Morak and decides to intervene by shouting "Hey, There is an Ogre back here who is pissing in the beer to dilute it!" This takes place just as there is one of those awkward silences that happen in conversation occurring in the bar fight (CHA check, 1 rolled). The newcomer dwarves seem overly upset by this, having quaffed several pints each earlier in the evening. They proceed over the bar and into the kitchen where they witness the Ogre chef deftly b%#*!-slapping Morak around.
The bar tender and his bar maids beat a hasty retreat in the face of overwhelming customer dissatisfaction, grab the Ogre's attention (which is a good thing for Morak) and head out the back door and flee into the woods. Into the Inn then enters a very respected and probably very powerful Paladin to calm the local uprising and restore order. The Paladin sees Darius and tells him to get everybody out of the kitchen. Shendar continues to loot any bodies he encounters until his actions are checked by the watchful eye of the Paladin. Darius decides to check for some loot and kicks in a door in the kitchen (rolls a 1 on open doors) and the door splinters reveling the living quarters of the Inn staff. Hearing the crash the Paladin looks into the kitchen to find Darius standing with his foot through the door and a sheepish look on his face. Darius is ordered back into the main room.
The Paladin kicks everybody out of the bar and the party decides to set up camp, heal their wounds, and look over their loot. While sitting in their tent Shendar opens up a small spell book he looted from an unconscious mage only to set off a ‘Fire Trap’ destroying the book and burning a large hole in the tent.
The next morning the party is one of the first to head up the trail to the valley of the rift canyon. About noon they come across a wagon that they had seen head up the path the night before. The occupants are dead and the Wagon had been looted. Darius tracks the attackers to a small cave. Shendar moves into position to backstab a lone sentry who is heading for the latrine. Failing miserably in his attack attempt, he is forced to fall the bandit with a ‘Sleep’ spell. Shendar then dresses in the bandit's clothes and attempts to draw the remaining bandits out of the cave. The bandits and the party are at a standoff until Shendar bluffs them out by claiming he is going to fireball the cave. The bandits surrender and the party escorts them to the Paladin back at the Inn.
I'll post a session or so every couple of days If there is any interest.
Feel free to leave comments if you'd like.
ASEO out
Sounds like it was a really fun campaign. The players sound like quite a handful. The type that always keep the DM on his/her toes! I like the idea behind the setting. Very interesting.
Glad you find it interesting. Here are 2 more sessions. The first couple sessions were shorter, but the write-ups get more indepth as the campaign goes on.
----NIGHT 2----
Darius Male elf Ranger level 1
Morak son of DaK Male dwarf Fighter/Priest level 1/1(not with party)
Shendar Male elf Mage/Thief level 1/1
The Inn staff has yet to return but since it is early evening the Paladin allows the party to sleep in the inn. The next morning Darius and Shendar are ordered to find the Inn's staff who haven't returned. The Paladin opts to keep Morak as assurance that the other two do indeed return. Darius tracks the inn staff's trail through the woods and finds a site where they were apparently ambushed by some other creatures. Following the ambusher's trail Darius finds a small cave entrance in the valley wall. (Kobold Lair from B2, Keep on the Borderlands)
Entering the cavern Shendar nearly falls in a covered pit. The party explores the cavern complex fighting some giant rats before finding the ambushers, a pack of Kobolds. The party fights through several ranks of Kobolds to rescue the two barmaids who are held in the Kobold chief's lair. They then back track to free the Dwarven Inn keeper/bar tender and the Ogre chef who had been badly hurt by Morak and the dwarves who burst into the kitchen. A healing potion for the Ogre, a sleep spell, a grease spell, a Ranger with the blades of vengeance and a P.O.ed Dwarven bartender later, and the floor is covered with Kobold jam.
The party escorts the Inn staff back to the Inn where the staff beginning to clean up. The bartender is mystified by the new heavy-duty door he has on his private meeting room, but doesn't have the time now to fret over it now. The Paladin releases Morak and sends the party on their way up to the rift canyon valley.
----NIGHT 3----
Darius Male elf Ranger level 1
Morak son of DaK Male dwarf Fighter/Priest level 1/1
Shendar Male elf Mage/Thief level 1/2
The party buys a goat at the Inn since their gathered Intell says that the plague may still lurk is regions of "the other side" and that a goat is more susceptible and will die before people do, much like a canary in a coal mine. As the party approaches the valley they are forced to pay an "entry tax" by some men at the entrance to the clear area in front of the rift. They pay begrudgingly and enter the tent city that is forming in the area. There are people of all sorts in the camp, settlers, pioneers, dwarven miners, adventurers and thugs. The party witnesses the beating of a person that wouldn't pay "this night's rent" and comes to the rescue, killing two of the attackers but allowing the third to escape. Their bravery is rewarded by the attention of "The Kid" who offers them a place to hide since the thugs will soon return. The Kid offers to run errands for the party and watch their goat...for a price. The party settles in and the "rent collectors" stop by. At first the party refuses to pay, but a crossbow bolt out of the dark nails Shendar squarely in the back changes the party's mind. They pay.
The next morning the party hires on to a lumber team in order to be allowed to cross the rift on the contraption that is being constructed. The kid watches their goat and gathers info on the thugs while they are away. The party is cutting trees when a fellow lumberjack stumbles into the area horribly mauled. Morak heals him and learns theft he was attacked by a large creature. The party goes to investigate. They come on the attack location and are ambushed by two Owlbears. Morak gets horribly mauled by one of the creatures, his eyes only being saved by his helmet as the creature works him over. He is rescued by Darius while Shendar runs around "hidin…uh...keeping the other creature occupied". Both creatures are finally slain and a round of healing potions are hefted in celebration.
Both Owlbears have burn marks on their flanks so the party follows their trail back to their lair, which is, once again, in a cave in the valley wall. The creatures nest is searched but nothing is found, however, more interesting are a couple of vertical bars which seemed to have kept the Owlbears out of a side passageway. The party enters a confusing network of caves and despite their efforts to the contrary, they become horribly lost. Morak manages to get separated from the party. After several hours of wondering, Darius and Shendar find a large chamber dominated by a single natural stone column. Detecting some movement behind the column Darius begins to sneak around the edge of the room to a side passage where he comes face to face with a Minotaur. Combat breaks out and Shendar heads for the column to hide. Shendar encounters a couple of flying creatures that he dismisses even as he feels a slight poke in his back. As combat rages between the Minotaur and Darius. Shendar begins to feel lightheaded and is harassed by one of the flying creatures. Morak meanwhile wanders aimlessly through the caves stringing strips of yellow silk, which he found in a side cavern during his wanderings, and re-encountering a pair of large beetles with glowing glands by their eyes.
Shendar tires of the flying creatures attention and attacks it, killing it and getting a good look at it for the first time. It looks like a four footed bird with a long sharp needle like beak. Shendar looks over his shoulder at his back and sees the first of these creatures hanging there drinking his blood. Very low on blood Shendar succeeds at smashing the Stirg between his back and the wall, right before he passes out. About this time Morak rounds the corner and comes face to face with a big'ol Minotaur butt and proceeds to attack. The Minotaur tiring of the game dispatches Morak with a spear (+1) through the head and Morak is out and fading fast. Luckily Darius finishes off the Minotaur and dumps a potion of extra healing into the gaping hole in Morak's head just in time to save him. They gather the Minotaur’s “Spear of Dwarf Piercing” and search the cave to find a secret door. Upon opening the door, the Minotaur’s living quarters are found, as well as a locked chest and a staff (staff of curing). Shendar is unsuccessful in detecting traps and triggers a poisoned needle when he opens the chest. His primary arm turns bright blue as the poison enters his system (it’s actually a magical dye) He Doesn’t seem to be taking any damage, and the color stops spreading so he chalks it up as something weird but not fatal. Inside the chest they find a ring (+1) and a couple of potions. They gather Shendar and wander a while before emerging from the cave with the Minotaur's head on a stick.
After resting the night they proceed back to the camp collecting the Owlbear's heads on the way. They post the heads around their camp and begin their search for a sage to tell them about some of the things they found in the Minotaur's lair. They approach an elderly mage type who promptly vanishes leaving a backpack behind. (From DUNGEON Magazine #18 Adventure ‘IronGard’) The party picks up the pack just as the old man pushes his way back through the crowd. "Steal my secrets will you. Then you deserve the curse..." Old man touches Shendar, who immediately forgets his spell ‘Read Magic’, and vanishes a second time with his backpack. However a small box falls out of his pack and the party collects it. It contains 4 healing potions that glow in the dark, and a map of a city or something on "The Other Side". Seeking a second sage they inquire about the first and learn that Shendar has the curse of forgetfulness and will totally forget 1 spell every 10 days never to be able to learn that spell again if the curse is not removed. The creator of the spell lived in the shadow of a great statue located about two days from where they are now, about 1000 years ago. The party gathers supplies to set off and get the curse removed. They leave their goat with The Kid, arming him with a dagger.
ASEO out
----NIGHT 4----
Darius Male elf Ranger level 2
Morak son of DaK Male dwarf Fighter/Priest level 1/1
Shendar Male elf Mage/Thief level 1/2
As they set off they are approached by a Mage and a Wench who having seen them stand up to the thugs, and the heads of the creatures they killed are impressed and would like to join the party. (They are also both broke and fear getting their skulls cracked by the thugs when they are unable to pay the rent tonight).
Bertha Bumblebee, a runaway tavern wench Female human Fighter level 1
Tevroc, a mage apprentice who has just finished training Male human Mage level 1 Join the party
The party heads off to the statue stopping at the Inn at 5 Points for the night. The Inn has re-opened and the stays there for the night. The next morning they head down the road toward the statue. They come across a sigh that warns that they are approaching the site of the Battle of One Thousand Banners.
(The Battle of One Thousand Banners <I stole the name from somewhere> took place 1000 years ago prior to the casting of the plague/curse. The armies of kingdom B greatly swelled with giants, humanoids and other foul beasts made it this far into kingdom A before there was a titanic battle in which the forces of kingdom B were defeated with great loss on behalf of kingdom A Prior to the battle, the troops of kingdom A made a pledge/vow/swore and oath to defend this land to the last. The combined magics of the two armies along with this pledge has caused many of the fallen soldiers to become undead and they still defend the area to this day)
The party takes note of the sign, but continues. They then come across a second sign that warn that they are now entering the site of the Battle of One Thousand Banners. The road at this point becomes fairly over grow. As they proceed they come across the mutilated bodies of several people. They continue on spying the statue in the distance. The area is gently rolling hills with grass growing about knee high; the area is devoid of all animal life. Every now and then they find a patch of ground that has been churned up, or a patch with bones sticking out of it.
They see a hill that looks man made and approach to discover that it appears to be some sort of Cairn. As they approach they are attacked by several skeletons that climb from the ground and begin their assault. After defeating the Skeletons, several of which has sticks tied where they should have had bones, the party entered the burial barrow to find that it was empty and had been looted. They do however manage to trigger a trap that which causes a portcullis to drop sealing Bertha and Tevroc in the Barrow. After some searching the release is found and the bars are raised. Upon emerging they spot a second man made hill and a discussion on whether to stay here for the night or try to make it to the next barrow, since darkness is fast approaching.
The decision is made to go to the second barrow. Upon approaching they are attacked by zombies who claw their way up from their graves. The Zombies are eventually defeated. The party finds it locked and Shendar is unable to open the lock. Bertha proceeds to chop through the door with her axe. The door is finally breaches and Shendar reaches through the hole to see if the door can be opened from the inside. It is deathly cold inside the Barrow, (This is the crypt of the traitorous Colonel, see below, who was killed before it was discovered that he had sold out. He is a Specter) the door can't be opened from the inside and the sun has just dropped below the horizon. A decision is made to high tail it back to the first barrow. Camp is made inside. Watch is set. During the night each watch sees and hears movement outside the barrow. During the final watch a Ninja-like character wielding magic daggers attacks the party. The ‘Ninja’ is defeated and the daggers are claimed by Shendar. After some experimentation the Daggers are discovered to be: THE DAGGERS OF THE SEASONS (see below for details)
Daggers of the Seasons: This is a set of 4 throwing daggers that come in a bandoleer. The daggers may be thrown up to 2 a round. The daggers return to the bandoleer 1 combat round after being thrown. The daggers may only be removed in the proper order of seasonal progression. Spring>Summer>Fall>Winter>Spring…
Spring: This dagger’s hilt and pommel resemble stylized thunderclouds. The blade resembles a lighting bolt. When thrown, this dagger becomes a small lightning bolt doing 1d6 points of electric damage, 2d6 to creatures particularly vulnerable to lightning. This dagger always has a faint electrical charge feeling when touched and smells faintly of Ozone.
Summer: This dagger’s hilt, pommel and blade resemble stylized sunbeams. When thrown, this dagger becomes a small sunbeam doing 1d6 points of heat damage, 2d6 to creatures particularly vulnerable to heat or sunlight. This dagger is always warm to the touch.
Fall: This dagger’s hilt and pommel resemble stylized branches and blade resembles an orange maple leaf. When thrown, this dagger tumbles through the air and resembles a much-accelerated falling leaf doing 1d6 points of withering damage, 2d6 to undead. This dagger has a slight drying feeling to the touch.
Winter: This dagger’s hilt, pommel and blade resemble stylized icicles. When thrown, this dagger becomes a chilling wind doing 1d6 points of cold damage, 2d6 to creatures particularly vulnerable to cold. This dagger is always cold to the touch.
The next morning the party arises heals some wounds and heads toward the statue. They cross a small stream and see a large Barrow that is surrounded by trees. A small blond figure scurried from the top of the barrow and into the slightly opened door. The party approaches carefully. Shendar detects an activated needle dart trap that has been set off some time back. (Modified Middle Earth Adventure) The party enters the barrow to find a large temple like room decorated with war banners. At the far end are large closed double doors, and to the right of the entrance is an altar. The party approaches the altar to find a small human girl, perhaps 8 years old hiding behind it. She is dressed in ancient clothes and only emerges at with the F's kind encouragement. Her name is Mackame.
(Mackame is the daughter of the general who led kingdom A’s armies, and who is entombed here. She was part of a baggage train that was attacked late in the battle by a force of humanoids that were provided with a route through kingdom A’s lines by the corruptible traitorous Colonel of the army’s east wing. Mackame was the sole survivor of the attack. Lying dying at –9.999999 HP, her body was possessed/invaded by the spirit of a Neutral Necromancer M/P who was serving in kingdom A’s army, who has been slain on the battlefield. At the Necromancer’s intrusion Mackame stabilized and was animated by the Necromancer inside of her. Realizing that the body he was trapped in was that of the General’s daughter, the Necromancer hid and avoided the grave digging details that passed through after the battle. The child’s spirit still in the body recovered slowly and has since pushed the Necromancer’s spirit into the back of Mackame’s mind. Since she was basically dead, she has remained at the age of 8 for the last 1000 years. She was attracted to her father’s tomb and has lived here feeding off rats and small rodents (which she may or may not need). She gathered the Necromancer’s skull from his grave at the behest of her underlying Necromancer. The Necromancer was able to partly re-inhabit his skull, but a portion of his spirit is still bound in Mackame’s body. As such, Mackame is able to communicate with undead, and cast Necromantic Priest and Mage spells as a first level M/P. The skull, which she keeps in an old silk sack, chants to her in her sleep infusing her with the spell knowledge. She is not aware that she is casting magic when she ‘sings’ various songs, and she sees nothing strange about undead, having been surrounded by them for the last 1000 years. She has a Zombie dog named Brunur. Basically, she is an NPC that I as the DM use to keep the party on track and if the need arises bail the party out.)
Meanwhile Morak and Tevroc attempt to open the doors and are rewarded for their efforts by having two large stones from the ceiling drop on them. The girl is questioned about her presence her and she states that she lives here with Brunur. Her parents died and she's never opened the big doors. About that time a zombie 3-legged dog caring its fourth leg in its mouth enters the barrow. The girl runs to the dog and scolds it for playing with the squishy boys, humanoid zombies, and takes its leg from its mouth, sings a little song and re-attaches the leg. This really mystifies the party and Morak tries to turn the dog to no avail. Bertha asks her if she would like to come with the party.
The girl asks allowed if she may go and a booming voice says, "You have been chosen, Prepare to be tested!" The double doors then opened inward reveling a long rectangle room with double doors on the far end and three smaller doors on each side of the room. The party entered the room at which point the doors closed behind them. The room was lit by a dim light, and the party read the plaques above each of the 6 side doors. Apparently these were the tombs of 6 warriors whose names and deeds were recorded. Suddenly all 6 doors open and a single 4 HD skeleton emerged from each one. Combat commenced with the party eventually winning but emerging much worse for the wear. The double doors at the far end of the room entered and the voice announced, "The test continues".
The Party attempted to rest, but the ghostly din of the long forgotten battle that dominated the area proved too much for their concentration. The party entered a large circular room dominated by a large coffin on a raised dais in the center of the room. The lid of the coffin was pushed aside and out emerged a figure in plate male armed with an ancient sword wearing a crown on his head (a 8HD skeleton). The party tried to parlay, but the figure only offered a soldier's salute and advanced. Pointing a ring at Morak the figure released a minor fireball severely hurting Morak. Darius suffered a broken leg, Bertha smashed one of her own fingers into a bloody pulp with her war hammer, Tevroc was rendered unconscious, but the party finally proved victorious. A secret door on the opposite end of the room then opened, reveling a room containing 6 chests on the floor and a longs word, a battle axe and a short sword hanging on the wall.
ASEO out
----NIGHT 5----
The Party is now:
Darius Male elf Ranger level 2
Morak son of DaK Male dwarf Fighter/Priest level 2/2
Shendar Male elf Mage/Thief level 2/3
Bertha Bumblebee Female human Fighter level 1
Tevroc Male human Mage level 1
Mackame appears to be an 8 year-old human female Mage (Necro)3/Priest (Necro) 3 NPC
Brunur Mackame’s Zombie dog NPC
The party slowly entered the treasure room and took stock of their surroundings. Each of the 6 chests was carved with a design, spiders, suns, hearts, wasps, leaves, and skulls. Hanging on the wall was a long sword of Elven make named ‘Master of Watch’ (+1, detects undead 50’), a battle axe of Dwarven make named ‘Darkness-Cleaver’ (+1, +2 vs. evil humanoids), and a short sword of Human make named ‘Noble Friend’ (+1, levitates to defend the unconscious wielder at +2 for up to 12 rounds) Around the wall in 12 alcoves were the crowned skulls of giants and humanoids. While the rest of the part was taking in their surroundings, Shendar attempted to remove the short sword from the wall and was dropped into a pit that opened beneath him. He was rendered unconscious by the fall and to add insult to injury, suffered additional damage when he was struck by the wasp chest that fell into the pit just after he did. Darius grabbed a healing potion from his pack and entered the pit reviving and retrieving Shendar and the chest.
Shendar failed to detect traps on further chests and weapons, so Bertha cautiously opened the Sun chest to find 100gp.
Next she opened the Leaves chest and discovered 10 dehydrated healing potions. Water was added to several of these and the remainder of the party was revived.
Bertha then cautiously stood to the side and removed the axe from the wall. A trap was triggered by this, which Bertha luckily avoided. Morak however was not so lucky and was hit by three darts fired from the wall behind the axe.
Shendar attempted to open the Wasp chest and was pricked by a needle trap. He quickly read a scroll ‘Protection from poison’. Inside the chest were 6 throwing daggers designed to resemble wasps.
The Spider chest was the next checked. A trap was detected and disarmed and the chest was opened and found to contain a dagger designed with a spider/web motif (free action in webs only). A small vial that was part of the chest’s trap was also removed.
The Hearts chest was opened and found to contain an ivory wand (shocking grasp 30’ 10 charges) and pair of earrings (+10%detect noise).
Darius finally gave into temptation and carefully removed the long sword from the wall and was able to avoid the huge stone block that dropped from the ceiling.
The party then attempted to leave the room and found their way blocked by an invisible force. Runes above the door were read to say, “The wearer of the crown of the master of the kings men is my master”. The crown that matched the one worn by the last skeleton they fought was found on one of the skulls in one of the alcoves. Shendar wore the crown and passed out of the room then handed the crown back for the rest of the party to do the same.
As the party re-entered the room of the master of the king’s men, they found his ghostly figure standing before them and the walls were now carved with the glorious deeds of this man. The ghostly figure saluted the party and then presented them with a ring which fires a 2d6 fire bolt once a day, a collar which minimizes critical hits to the neck, and a belt which blurs the wearer for 3 rounds a day. He then asked the party to take care of his daughter and faded from view. The party speculates that Mackame may not be the 8 year old she seems. At this the doors to the hall of the champions opened and the party was greeted by the 6 ghostly figures of the champions each of who presented the party with a gift.
The party received a pair of spiked gauntlets (+1 in unarmed combat, damage 1d4+1), a pair of fine mesh gauntlets (first strike in unarmed combat, 2 pts damage), a ring which protects vs. cold, a belt which minimizes critical hits to the stomach and abdomen, a golden headband (+1 vs. mind affecting spell), a pair of bracers (AC 8), and a golden arm band (prevents further HP loss when character is at less than 0HP). These ghostly figures then too faded from view and the doors to the entry hall opened to reveal Mackame and her zombie dog Brunur waiting for the party. This room too now appeared carved with the great deeds preformed by the host of good who battled here so long ago. One scene in particular interested the party. It showed a wizard standing on a great slab at the feat of the giant statue casting spells into the advancing humanoid hoard. The party had Mackame gather her stuff that included a gray silk bag that contains something quasi-spherical about 8 inched in diameter. When questioned by the party she wouldn’t say what it was and began to cry until Bertha took up for her and the rest of the party let the issue drop.
The party then headed for the statue. They were approached by two skeletons that Mackame apparently knew and welcomed into the party (Mackame is friendly with the undead of kingdom A). Surprised by this the party continued on, catching site of a skeletal dragon on a far off hill they quickened their pace. They crossed several strange sites, including ruined heavy siege equipment, the remains of a razed iron tower, several areas of turned earth, a large square iron pad set in the grass and a skeleton crushed by a bolder. This last sight took some investigating, and about the time it was determined that the skeleton was more recent than the battle a large bolder came flying over the hill slightly wounding Morak. The party then observed a Skeletal Giant approaching and made ready to do battle. A second stone was thrown which squarely squashed Brunur much to Mackame’s dismay. The Skeletal Giant was engaged and eventually defeated. Upon investigation it was discovered that although trapped by the rock, Brunur was still alive (alive perhaps not being the best word)…ur…moving. Shendar wanted to leave him, but tears from Mackame softened the part’s hearts and the stone was rolled aside and Brunur rose to move to Mackame's side where she softly sang to him and he seemed to strengthen.
The party reached the statue that was surrounded by a low spiked iron fence. Entering the fenced area they were unable to locate any trace of the panel depicted in the wall carvings. Upon checking for tracks, Darius discovered that the panel was buried and the party set about to unearth it. Having cleared the panel it was discovered to be doors, which the party then opened. (Combined ‘IronGard’ from DUNGEON # 18 And Mages lair from HHQ2, Wizard’s Challenge)
The doors led to a spiral staircase that descended into darkness. A torch was lit and Shendar slowly proceeded down the stairs. At the bottom of the stairs the party found a room in which a skeletal figure sat upon a stone thrown. A hallway led off from the room. The figure seemed to by actually dead, (the R’s new long sword seemed to glow when within 50’ of undead and was not doing that now, the two skeletons and Brunur having been left at the base of the statue to guard the door.) The figure was decapitated “just in case”. A small hole was found in the base of the thrown out of which flew a living/flying dagger which hit Shendar who was unable to learn anything else about the hole and opted to lead the party down the hall where they were pursued by the dagger.
3 roughly carved hallways lead off the main hallway. While investigating the first of these the party was attacked by an Owlbear that was covered in dust like everything else in this room that appeared to be a kitchen/pantry. The Owlbear was defeated as was the flying dagger that engaged the party during their combat with the Owlbear.
The second hallway led to a rough cavern living quarters that connected to another room that in turn connected to the main hallway by means of the third hallway. Nothing was found in either of these rooms, the third room being found to only contain two pools of geothermaly heated water.
Darius detected a secret door. It was opened to reveal an opulent bedroom. Here it seems were the mage’s real quarters. Some writing instruments were found on a desk as well as some notes and the spell ‘undead familiar’, as well the following map. (Modified from DUNGEON #13).
A door leading from the room proved to lead to the mages work room where several half finished projects littered the workbenches. Tevroc picked up a staff capped with a glass ball and hung with feathers (torch light on command, feather fall when grasped), as well as a new Iron shod quarter staff (proficient staff, may be used by those not proficient in staff with no penalty), his old one having been destroyed in the R’s effort to remove the long sword from the wall back in the barrow’s treasure room.
Another secret door leading to yet another workroom was discovered. Upon entering this room the party was attacked by another flying dagger. After defeating the dagger a small box was found. It contained a wand made out of 5 different types of wood bound together (wand of wonder, 17 charges), the spell ‘Ray of Enfeeblement’, a list of possible command words, and a stone plug that was determined to be some sort of key to the throne.
The party raced back to the throne, inserted the plug and turned it, which caused a drawer to open. In the drawer was the spell ‘ curse of forgetfulness’ which was reversible and instantly read by Shendar thus removing his curse.
The party then headed back up the stairs and tried out some of the things they had found. 1 of the wasp daggers was thrown where upon it became a giant wasp that hovered over the fence post it was thrown at for a while, and then flew away. The 5 wood wand (which had communicated it’s command word telepathically “ZAPPO!, ZAAAPPOO! SAY IT! SAAAAY IT!!! ZAAAAAPPOOOO!) was tested and it produces a 60’ ray of death which killed the grass and almost hit Morak who once again was found to be standing in the wrong place at the wrong time.
The party then headed back to the large Barrow for the night, and then back to the Inn at Five Points the following day.
ASEO out
ASEO
Glad to see that you have begun to post your campaign! Now is this the campaign as of a few days/weeks/months ago...or does this go back all the way to 1999 and you just haven't loaded it all yet?
Might I suggest that you put a time-stamp (01Jan2001) at the beginning of each entry so we have an idea of the date that the event occurred?
Keep up the great work and let me know if you see/hear anything of interest that I should turn my interest toward.
Stay Frosty and Watch Your Six, Bro!
ASEO
Glad to see that you have begun to post your campaign! Now is this the campaign as of a few days/weeks/months ago...or does this go back all the way to 1999 and you just haven't loaded it all yet?Might I suggest that you put a time-stamp (01Jan2001) at the beginning of each entry so we have an idea of the date that the event occurred?
Hmmm... The campaign began in 1999. I don't have dates on the particular sessions, but the campaign ran until I got deployed to Oman in 2002. By the time I got back, several of my players, who were also military, PCSed so the campaign died and I began another one that is still ongoing to this day.
The ----Night #---- is the session number for that game. The campaign ran 32 sessions and then I wrote an "Afterwards".
ASEO out.
----NIGHT 6----
The Party is now:
Darius Male elf Ranger level 3 (Not with party)
Morak son of DaK Male dwarf Fighter/Priest level 2/2 (Not with party)
Shendar Male elf Mage/Thief level 2/3
Bertha Bumblebee Female human Fighter level 2
Tevroc Male human Mage level 2
Mackame appears to be an 8 year-old human female Mage (Necro)3/Priest (Necro) 3 NPC
Brunur Mackame’s Zombie dog NPC
Approaching the Inn, the party convinces Mackame to have Brunur stay in the woods so as to not alarm anybody by his zombieness. The party entered the Inn in the early evening and sat down for dinner. Darius and Morak were taken aside by the Paladin who seems to be a local police force in the area of the Inn.
They excused themselves from the party and agreed to meet the rest of the party in “a day or so” back up at the rift. Overhearing some discussion by and about the party, a Ranger/Druid approaches the party and inquires about their slaying of a couple of foul Owlbears. The party tells their story. The party inquires about Roam's travel plans and destination and then invited Roam to accompany them.
Roam D'Le Rold , a novice druid with a desire to explore the new realm Male human Ranger/Druid 1/1
joins the party
The Party then all settled down for the night. The next morning they arise, gather Brunur and head up to the rift canyon. Their trip is uneventful until they enter the tent city that is forming at the rift site. There they are “persuaded” to paying an entrance toll, which they begrudgingly pay.
When they arrive at their old campsite they find no trace of The Kid, their goat, or the Owlbear and Minotaur heads that they had left posted on stakes. A little asking around produces an elderly man who tells the party that shortly after they left the thugs came by. “That kid, he sure put up a fight, killed two of those fellers before one up and grabbed him then chucked him over the cliff into the rift. We all still hear his ghost calling for us to help him. This must be his curse for us since we were to scared to lift a hand in his defense”.
The party cautiously approaches the cliff edge despite warnings of catching the plague/curse by bystanders. Upon peering over the edge, Shendar spies a dark shape huddled on a ledge about 70’ down. Tying a couple of ropes together, Shendar climbs over the edge while the rest of the party holds the rope. Upon reaching the ledge he finds that the dark shape is a dead goat. Calling out “Kid”, he is rewarded with a reply from another ledge a little further down. Climbing down he retrieves The Kid and climbs back up. After a couple of healing potions and some food and water, The Kid is left to rest in the tent as the party investigates the thug’s camp.
The thugs live in a semicircle camp at the base of the eastern valley wall by the waterfall. Their camp is surrounded by a shallow ditch and several sharpened stakes pointed outward. Inside this circle the area is well lit by torches. There are 3 gypsy wagons, two large tents that seem to sleep 6 men each and 5 pup tents that sleep 2 men. The party estimates that there are a couple of dozen men in the camp. 2 archers are up on top of the wagons, 4 guards patrol the perimeter of the camp. There are a couple of other men sitting out front of the northern 6 man-tent talking. The party’s Owlbear and Minotaur heads are also seen decorating the thug’s camp perimeter.
An attack plan is made. (The thugs encountered are the group of bandits from the tower in the T1-4, Temple of Elemental Evil) Shendar will attack from the north side of the camp, Bertha, Tevroc, and Roam will attack from the south. Mackame, Brunur and The Kid are left in the party’s camp. Shendar casts ‘Sleep’ and 2 of the guards, 1 of the archers fall asleep. Seeing one of the archers fall of the top of the wagon, Tevroc opens up with his 5 wood wand of death.
Firing the wand Tevroc is rewarded not with the Ray of Death he was expecting, but a bedazzling area of shimmering lights that manages to blind the remainder of the guards. Roam and Bertha charge as a guard calls out an alarm.
Shendar casts ‘Grease’ (which I allow to be ignited in my game (burns for 2 rounds, damage2d4)) in front of the 6-man tent near him, catching the 2 talking men in its area.
Bertha and Roam engage the blinded guard.
Guards begin to exit the large tents, the ones emerging from the northern tend getting caught in the ‘Grease’, which Shendar ignites with his SUMMER dagger. Only 2 men escape the blaze.
After dispatching the blinded guards, Roam and Bertha move to melee with the men exiting the large southern tent. From the southern wagon emerge 2 men in plate armor armed with morningstars. The door of the northern wagon opens and then closes due to the flames from the burning ‘Grease’. Tevroc throws one of his WASP DAGGERs, which turns into a giant wasp and attacks one of the plate-clad men. Critically hitting him, the wasp’s stinger emerges from the man’s back pumping poison through his impaled heart.
While Shendar promptly dispatches the men on his side of the camp, the battle doesn’t fare as well for the southern attackers.
Bertha critically fumbles 4 times in a row, and then fumbles 3 more times in the next 5 rounds. Her armor binds hurting her AC by 2, but the other fumbles are not so bad, just numerous. A man clad in chain armed with a rune incrusted long sword and shield emerges from the middle wagon and moves to engage the southern attackers. He is hampered in this by the attacks of 3 more of the WASP DAGGERS. Tevroc manages to tare his robes thus inhibiting his defense while he struggled to keep clothed.
Meanwhile, Shendar casts a second ‘Sleep’ spell to stop the assault of the two ‘Grease’ fire survivors. He then slits the throats of the ‘Sleeping’ guards as the opportunity arises. 2 men in ringmail armed with shields and short swords exit the northern wagon after the flames have died down and are caught in a second ‘Grease’ spell that Shendar promptly ignites.
Roam casts ‘Entangle’ and managed to snare the remaining man in platemail, while Tevroc dispatched a guard with a ‘Magic Missile’.
Soon the only remaining combatants on the southern side of the camp are the archer on top the wagon, the 'Entangled’ man in platemail, and the man with the beruned long sword. Bertha suffers a couple of critical hits and is forced to quaff a couple of healing potions. Roam begins to attack the ‘Entangled’ man with arrow fire. Tevroc dispatches the archer with a couple of daggers between ‘Magic Missile’ attacks and wasp dagger attacks on the leader of the thugs.
Shendar is attacked by both of the men in ringmail and wounded severely, however he manages to defeat his two foes. He calls out to the leader and the ‘Entangled’ man to surrender and that if they do so they’ll be allowed to live. The ’Entangled’ man surrenders and drops his weapon. Shendar then throws tow of his DAGGERS OF THE SEASONS at the man.
The leader fights on and wounds Tevroc who is forced to throw his final WASP DAGGER in order to put something between him and the leader. Bertha engages the leader and manages to break her fumbling streak with a couple of sound hits. The ‘Entangled’ man curses Shendar as a liar and coward and picks up his discarded morningstar. At this, Roam re-engages him with his bow, but never manages to hit. Shendar finally kills the ‘Entangled’ man as the ‘Entangle’ spell expires. He then moves to attack the leader, as does Roam. The leader is finally cut down.
Bystanders from the tent city having been awakened by the noise of the battle and a stray arrow or two watch on as the thug’s camp is ransacked by the party, copper, silver, elecrtum, gold and platinum coins are found. A couple of potions are also found as well as 9 rune arrows (+1), Bertha sizes up the formally ‘Entangled’ man’s platemail and collects a crossbow from one of the dead guards. The leader’s longsword (+1) named by the rune as ‘Slasher’ and his shield (+2) also found to be beruned and named ‘Iron wall’ are also collected. Many more mundane items obviously collected as “rent” are found. Roam is given the shield. The arrows and the sword are held for Darius’s return. The following map is also found
FRONT:
"Map showing site of Forbidden City"
BACK:
"Magar,
The items of Elemental Power found in the shrine would prove a great value to our cause. Hasten to me so that we can collect these items. I fear we must hurry before this wear takes its toll on us all.
La'Ngal"
(I had inbeded several photos and illustrations into my campaign journal)
ASEO out
----NIGHT 7----
The Party is now:
Darius Male elf Ranger level 3
Morak son of DaK Male dwarf Fighter/Priest level 2/2 (Not with party)
Shendar Male elf Mage/Thief level 2/3
Bertha Bumblebee Female human Fighter level 2
Tevroc Male human Mage level 2
Roam D'Le Rold Male human Ranger/Druid 1/1
Mackame appears to be an 8 year-old human female Mage (Necro)3/Priest (Necro) 3 NPC
Brunur Mackame’s Zombie dog NPC
The Party spent the remainder of the night resting in the thug’s camp and organizing the thug’s loot for redistribution to the camp personnel, minus any gold and platinum recovered. In the early morning a line of camp personnel was forming at the party’s direction.
About this time Darius arrived at the camp and joined back up with the party as they were handing out the thug’s loot.
After this was completed, Tevroc and Shendar which had been rewarded for their kindness and generosity with a minor spell book containing 2 second level spells ‘Knock’, ’Spectral Hand’ and 4 first level spells ‘Light’, ‘Color Spray’, ‘Shocking Grasp’, ‘ Wizard Mark’ spent the remainder of the day scribing their new spells into their books. ‘Knock’ and ‘Light’ going to Shendar the others going to Tevroc.
(In my game it a spell can only exist in one place at a time, so merely copying it causes it to vanish from the source document. It takes several days of study to successfully learn a spell then copy it from memorization at which time it leaves the mages memory and appears in their book. This system keeps all the mages in the party from having the same spells and it creates some competition/bargaining for spells when they are found. Thus, the spells in the spell book were split between the two mages in the party to be miserly copied into their books. In my game, spells can be cast from a spell book as it they were a scroll, at which time they vanish)
Bertha set about sewing a multi-colored doggie sweater/second skin for Brunur so that his appearance would not be so vile to others.
Roam set about gathering herbs to pack the sweater with the help control the smell.
Darius spent the day hunting and came back to camp that evening with a couple of rabbits.
One night Roam, who is sharing a wagon with Mackame, wakes up to hear mumbling coming from the silk bag that rests by Mackame’s head. As he goes to investigate, the mumbling stops and Mackame wakes up. Roam asks Mackame what is in the bag.
Mackame snatches the bag and holds it behind her back. “Nothing” she replies
Roam: “I heard talking coming from your bag. What is in there?”
Mackame: “Nooothing”
Roam: “Give me the bag.”
Mackame: “Nooo, it’s mine” <starts to cry>
Roam: “Look, I’m bigger than you and I’ll take it away from you if I have to. So, Why don’t you just let me have it”?
Mackame: <through sobs and sniffles> “No, cause you’ll tell the others”
Roam: “We’ll see. Now, give me the bag.”
Mackame hands over the bag then curls up on her bunk crying. Roam opens the bag and sees a human skull inside amidst several rat skins and stray clutter gathered by an 8-year-old girl.
Roam: “What is this?”
Mackame: “He tells me stories.”
(The necromancer’s skull works like a spell book for Mackame, with the skull chanting the spells to Mackame while she sleeps. Mackame is aware of the chanting, but doesn’t consciously understand it. Sub-consciously, she is gaining her spells for the nest day)
Roam: “It tells you stories?”
Mackame: “Uh hu…”
Roam: “What are these stories about?”
Mackame: “Knights and princesses”
(Mackame doesn’t really know, but she finds the chanting comforting and since she has had no human interaction for 1000 years, equates it to stories told to her by her mother over 1000 years ago.)
Roam: “How long have you had this?”
Mackame: “Always, I think.”
Roam: “Do you know whose skull this is?”
Mackame: “It’s the story teller.”
Roam: “It’s not going to hurt any of us is it?”
Mackame: “No”
Roam: “Ok, here is you bag back”
Mackame: “Are you going to tell the others?”
Roam: “No, this will be our secret.”
Mackame takes the bag and curls up and quickly falls asleep. Roam watches her for a while then steps out of the wagon and sits on the wagon’s step contemplating what has just occurred. He is so lost in thought that doesn’t realize that he is petting Brunur who has been diligently sitting by the wagon’s door. Only when part of Brunur’s ear crumbles off in Roam’s hand does Roam realize what he is doing. He jumps up with a look of disgust on his face and heads down to the stream to wash his hand.
The following evening, the party was approached by a man who was building a bridge that he planned to swing out over the chasm/rift. Seems that in order to build it he needed some people moved from their current camping locations. He offered the party money and first crossing rights if they would rid him of this obstacle to his work. The party turned him away and then set about preparing to settle down for the evening.
Just as the sun was setting, somebody in the camp yelled “Smoke!” and everybody looked to the west across the rift to see several plumes of smoke like a campfire would give off slowly trailing into the reddening sky. There is a whole lot of hub-bub in the camp, especially when the soldiers who had remained closed up in their towers manned the battlements and sounded several alarm horns.
The party sets up a watch schedule and settles down to rest. At about midnight Darius is waking Bertha for her watch when the sound of War Drums begins to echo from The Other Side. Darius opts to remain awake while Bertha is on watch. A few hours there is the sound of arrows whistling through the air and several screams from with in the main portion of the camp. The majority of the Party members are sleeping in the thug’s gypsy wagons. Darius using his infravision is able to see several man-sized shaped on The Other Side. He fires several arrows and manages to fell two of the beasts. Several other of the beasts are outlined by a lavender glow. These, visible to Bertha, become her targets as she fires a crossbow she has commandeered from a dead thug. She also manages to hit and kill one of these creatures. The guards on the towers pepper the woods, which come nearly to the cliff edge, on the Other Side with arrows and catapult shrapnel bursts. Eventually the beasts retreat and the camp grows quiet save for the sounds of the wounded. The drums continue through the night only to stop as dawn breaks.
Tevroc and Shendat spend the following day bargaining with some wizards who have set up a large pavilion near by. They arrange to have some of their items identified, and learn the identity of the 5 Wood Wand = Wand of Wonder, that the Minotaur ring is a weak ring of protection, that Shendar magical short sword has levitative magic associated with it, that the headband provides protection vs. mind affecting magic, and that the M’s magic armband will prevent further bleeding HP loss once the PC reaches 0HP. They also arrange to buy some scrolls at 1000gp per spell level. They don’t have much selection, but pick up ‘Levitation’, ‘Mirror Image’, ‘Hold Person’, for Shendar, and ’Flaming Sphere’, ‘Taunt’, ‘Jump’, ‘Wall of Fog’ for Tevroc. This nearly depletes the party’s cash reserve. Shendar then spends time with The Kid seeing if he has thieving potential. The Night is once again filled with the sound of war drums, but nothing else.
The next day the party purchases 3 scrolls, at 50 gp each, from a wizard who is selling a way to The Other Side. The scrolls when opened on the Day of Crossing, estimated to be two days away, will link with the ‘Dimension Door’ Scroll that the wizard will read and everyone with one of these scrolls will be able to cross through their own ‘Dimension Door’ to The Other Side. Shendar is a little weary of the wizard and has The Kid follow him at a safe distance to insure he doesn’t leave the area.
Later that day the entire camp’s attention is captured by a sagely man trailing a long sheet of paper who claims that the calculations are wrong and that the plague/curse will not end at mid day following the next full moon, but at mid day two full moons from now. Shendar and Tevroc, the only ones in the party that can read, gather the paper work up and assure the mob that they’ll check the calculations. They spend hours doing this while the watch Mackame. They finally arrive at the conclusion that there may be a problem with the order of the constellations progression in the sages work, but have no way of checking it. Finally Mackame, who has been watching over their shoulders, points at a portion of the page and says “No, the lion was chasing the dragon when the bright star went out”. Tevroc and Shendar look at each other and then look at her and ask her how she knows. She tells them that back in the hill she’d spend the night lying on the hill watching the lights in the sky. They figure she had probably been doing it for 1000 years and probably knows better than anybody else. Now the problem is to convince the sage without tipping the fact that they believe Mackame is 1008 years old. Some careful doubletalk and a few fast talking proficiency checks and they manage to convince the sage that there is an error in his calculations and the plague/curse will expire at the expected time. They do, however, decide to let some people cross in front of them “Just in case”. That night the drums once again break the silence. Many of the camp residents have constructed arrow proofing on their camp sited to be on the safe side.
The following day is spent in rest, spell memorization and healing. That night the drums are silent, but the sounds of several large creatures are heard crashing through the woods on The Other Side.
The Next morning the camp is alive with people packing and preparing to cross. The Dwarven Single-file Bridge is in position; the Swing Bridge is complete needing only the people in its path to move before it can be employed. Several more unusual crossing methods are also witnessed. The Party gathers their stuff, Mackame, Brunur and The Kid. The meet up with the Wizard and all patiently wait as the shadow cast by a stick in the ground shortens as noon approaches. At noon a gong is sounded from atop one of the towers. Then the crossing begins. Magical grapples are fired to The Other Side, Mages fly or teleport across, the dwarves deploy their bridge, the Mage reads his scroll and his door appears on The Other Side through which he steps. The Party opens their scroll that reads “SUCKER!” The Mage on the other side vanishes before Darius can fire an arrow at him.
The party experiences a brief moment of panic and heads toward the Dwarven, bridge. Halfway there, they are recruited by the swing bridge crew, which needs extra mussel to get their bridge in place. The party helps out then heads across the swing bridge to arrive safely on The Other Side.
As they pause to count heads and investigate the creature killed several nights past, a Bugbear, there is a mighty crashing of wood and a splintering of trees directly in front of the party. Up from the forest rises a wooden construct 30’ tall (a Wooden Clan Guardian Juggernaut from Jakandor, Island of War).
The party fans out to engage and succeeded in causing serious damage before the beast lands it’s first blows that smash an innocent by standard and Brunur in to the ground. Subsequent attacks by the Guardian Juggernaut hit Bertha causing major damage and forcing her to withdraw to Roam for healing.
The Guardian Juggernaut then manages to smash the swing bridge sensing it and several people on it crashing into the rift. Among those on the bridge is The Kid. Luckily for the party, the Guardian Juggernaut’s foot becomes trapped in some fallen logs. By the time it is able to free itself it is nearly destroyed. It lurches forward and the party spots The Kid climbing up over the edge of the rift right in its path. A furious assault is launched and the Guardian Juggernaut is destroyed right as it reaches the cliff edge. It topples over the edge falling right on The Kid and they both vanish in a cloud of dust. The party anxiously waits for the dust to clear even cautiously venturing into the cloud despite the possibility of falling into the rift. Then, they see the huddled shape of The Kid teetering on the cliff’s edge and coughing in the thinning dust. The rush forward and pull him to safety.
The see that at least two other Guardian Juggernauts have been defeated, one by the Dwarves, and one by the Mages.
Mackame runs to Brunur and pulls him out of the hole he has been pounded into. Chanting quietly, she holds Brunur who suddenly begins to move. The party is alarmed to hear the pooping noises of his bones refusing. Soon Brunur is good as new, much to Shendar’s dismay.
ASEO out
----NIGHT 8----
The Party is now:
Darius Male elf Ranger level 3
Morak son of Dak Male dwarf Fighter/Priest level 2/2 (Not with party)
Shendar Male elf Mage/Thief level 2/3
Bertha Bumblebee Female human Fighter level 3
Tevroc Male human Mage level 2
Roam D'Le Rold Male human Ranger/Druid 1/1
Mackame and her Zombie dog “Brunur” NPC
The Kid NPC
Standing around, the party takes stock of their surroundings. They realize that their goat was smashed to jelly in the battle with the Guardian Juggernaut. In a panic they look around and see that nobody seems to be suffering any plague/curse affects and that there are several people on their side of the rift that seem to have healthy goats.
They attempt to buy a goat, but nobody is selling. Finally they spot a lone goat on the side they originally came from. Darius threatens anybody who approaches the goat with an arrow through the head. Shendar eventually crosses back across the rift on the Dwarven, bridge, recovers the goat, and returns to the party.
Since it is early afternoon, the party decides to leave the settlers, who are starting to cut trees by the rift, and proceed into the forest. Darius opts to stay with the settlers and help ensure a safe crossing is constructed. The rest of the party follow the swath of destruction left by the Guardian Juggernaut as it passed through the trees. They come upon a clearing in which they find three dead bugbears laying inside three circles of stone, much like those that would ring a campfire. They also find three posts where 6 goblins and kobolds have been tied and sacrificed. Roam searches for tracks. The clearing shows signs of periodic habitation by about 40 individuals. There is evidence of large-scale wooden construction having happened here in the past week, and the party figures that this is where the Guardian Juggernauts were made. While they are investigating this site, other adventurers and settlers are heading westward past them in the woods. Eventually the party abandons the site and heads westward as well.
They come to a group of people who have gathered at the edge of the forest at a point where the valley
walls draw in making the valley only about 400 yards wide. Ahead of them is an area about 800 yards
long that is bare of all vegetation. Only a small stream cuts across this barren swath of land. The reason for the hold up in the settlers’ progression is soon pointed out. The ruins of a small keep dominate this stony pass.
Located on a shelf about 60 feet up the side of the northern valley wall, this keep would offer commanding view as well an ideal perch from which to launch arrows at those below. The party questions the settlers and learns that several of them claim to have seen movement in the ruins. Shendar gases at the ruins and he the glint of sunlight reflected off metal coming from the ruined keep’s walls. Further surveying the scene, Shendar notices that there is a small cave or perhaps a mine shaft which has been exposed by a landslide at the base of the shelf about 60 feet below the keep. The party announces that it will go and investigate. Bets are instantly made at 3 to 1 against the party’s return. Shendar wagers 5gp in favor of their safe return and the party sets off.
They approach the mouth of the cave and discover that it is more of a mineshaft, having been hued out and then braced with timbers. Roam checks for tracks and finds that this area is frequently used. (The party is entering the dungeon of the Moathouse from T1- The Village of Hommlet. They are entering from the exit located in area 32. I’ve made some modifications so that this dungeon better fits my campaign. Feel free to follow along on your maps at home;-) Shendar presents The Kid with the staff with the feathers and glass orb attached and tells him the command words to operate the staff’s ‘Light’ and ‘Feather Fall’ functions. The Kid spends several seconds flashing the ‘Light’ on and off before he is cuffed by Shendar and instructed that magic must be respected and not abused.
Shendar then scouts ahead down the passageway. At the end of this western running path he finds two doors, one in the north wall which has a skull nailed to it, and one at the end of the passage in the west wall. Both of these doors look to have been placed as an afterthought, being shoddily nailed to the supporting timbers. Shendar attempts to open the northern door with the skull, but finds that it has been iron spiked closed. He could open it with some effort, but opts to try the western door.
The western door opens easily and leads to an ascending tunnel heading northwest. He backtracks to the party and leads them to the two doors. When the party arrives with the benefit of The Kid’s ‘Light’ staff they are able to see that the skull nailed to the door is that of a large humanoid, and that it has a rune painted on it’s forehead. They (correctly) guess that this is a warning and decide to head up the NW tunnel.
Shendar once again scouts ahead he comes to an intersection with a north-south tunnel. Exploring south he finds a tunnel which forks off to the west. Following this tunnel he comes to a place where several boards have been nailed across the tunnel to block progress. To these boards is nailed another humanoid skull. Deciding caution is the better part of valor; Shendar heads back to the party noting that the southern hallway ends in descending stairs. On his way back to the party Shendar decides to explore the northern end of the hall. Here he finds a door. After listening to the door and hearing nothing, he decided to open the door. It opens to reveal a natural cavern about 30 ft to the north and 50 ft to the west. He returns to the party.
Informing the party of his observations and they opt to check out the southern stairway. They proceed down the stairs into a natural chamber, the center of which is dominated by a large pool of water. The entire room is encrusted with mineral deposits and the party soon discovered that there are several skeletons encrusted by the minerals. While they are investigating the skeletons Tevroc notices a small tube grasped in the hand of one of the skeletons. He attempts to grab it, but as he does it comes lose and starts to slip down into the depths of the pool. Tevroc splashes after it and grabs it just before it falls over a ledge where it would have certainly have been lost forever. Tevroc emerges from the pool with his prize and the party gathers around to see what he has. They are all busy watching open the tube so don’t see the bubbles coming from the center of the pool. They see that the tube contains three scrolls. They are mage spells, but neither of the mages has ‘Read Magic’ memorized so the spells remain unknown (They are Stinking Cloud, Push, and I replaced ‘Fly’ from the module with Dark Light {a 2nd level spell that works like ‘Light’, but can only be seen by the caster}) Behind them rising out of the water, the Giant Crayfish lunges to attack.
The party turns to battle the beast that is eventually slain leaving the party only a little worse for the ware. The highlight of the battle coming when Shendar fumbled so badly that he disgraced his deity who struck him blind for 3 rounds. Finding himself so afflicted, he fell down and played dead much to the panic of the rest of the party who immediately rushed to his aid. The Kid struck the killing blow against the beast and was haled by everyone as a hero, which really stroked his ego and made him feel like one of the party.
The party then heads back up the stairs to the cavern at the end of the north end of the passage. Shendar scouts ahead into the cavern and finds that it has two doors in the south wall, a hallway exiting from the north wall and another hallway leading out to the west.
Having the party wait in the cavern Shendar scouts down the western passage that eventually turns north. (I replaced the Gnolls in the module with Bugbears) Spotting firelight from a long chamber ahead of him he slowly creeps to investigate. He spies several large humanoids sitting around a fire sharpening weapons and putting on what he guesses is war paint. He moves in for a closer look but is surprised by a Bugbear that was standing guard behind a heavy curtain that covered a small alcove in the hall.
Shendar is wounded but reacts quickly casting ‘Sleep’ and then slaying the Bugbear before it is able to call out. He pushes the Bugbear back into its alcove and goes back to the party and tells them what he saw. The staff of healing is also used on him.
It is decided that Shendar will take the 5 wood wand (of wonder) and use it against the Bugbears in the cavern while the party stays a little ways back so as not to get caught in any strange event that may take place.
Shendar moves into position aims the wand at a Bugbear in the rear of the group and yells “ZAPPO!” An 8d lightning bolt is released from the wand wasting 3 of the Bugbears in its path before striking the wand’s target frying him hitting the wall behind him and rebounding back through him and the next closest Bugbear. 3 of the hit Bugbears instantly die; the fourth one is standing looking at the hole in his chest (1hp left)
Shendar points the 5 wood wand (of wonder) another target and ZAPPO! The Bugbear turns into a giant rabbit that hops over to the corner of the room. The remaining Bugbears rush Shendar who activates his ‘Blur Belt’ and ZAPPOS once again. This time the effect is a dispel magic centered on the caster. Shendar’s ‘Armor’ Spell goes down as does his ‘Blurring’. Shendar is then dealt a near fatal blow to the head that leaves him at –7 hp. Since he has on the armband that prevents bleeding he is stable, but unconscious. At this, his magical short sword (+1, levitates to defend the unconscious wielder at +2 for up to 12 rounds) does its thing and levitates and attacks. The party rushes to join the fray. The Sword quickly and brutally dispatches two Bugbears, and the party finishes off the remainders.
Bertha pours a potion of Extra Healing into Shendar. As he regains conscious his sword lowers itself back to the floor at his side. The party opts to not tell him about what his sword did. Shendar questions the party why his sword is out of its scabbard and covered with blood. They say that it must have fallen out when he was brained, and the blood on it must just be splatter. Shendar is skeptical. The safety tie he had on the sword is broken.
The Party loots the bodies gaining some coins for their efforts. They then leave the room and the giant rabbit that is still hiding in the corner and proceed back to the cavern that they had come from. Examining the doors, Shendar notices that the door in the center of the south wall is of better construction than the others they have seen in this complex. He opens it and is trapped by the falling portcullis that seals him in the small entryway in front of the door. The Party hears the clinking of chain up the northern passage way. They all search for a counter lever and try to lift the gate with no luck. Shendar finally resorts to taking a potion of Gaseous Form and floating through the bars. While in this form he decides to scout the northern hallway.
He heads north and comes to a fork with a hallway leading NW and one heading east. He heads down the Eastern passage and enters a cavern room very similar to the one where he left the party. It has three doors on the east wall and another hallway leading off the north wall. Seeing firelight coming from this northern hallway he investigates.
The scene before him is another Bugbear war band preparing for a night out. This group seems a little more alert that the last group, probably because of the clanking chain. Shendar feels his ‘Gaseous Form’ fading so he hastens back to the party, coming out of ‘Gaseous Form’ just as he reaches the NW hallway. Investigating this he finds it leads to stairs going up. He rushes back to the party. The party who has been searching the room for some trace of him is amazed to see him enter from the northern hallway.
He tells the party of the Bugbears and an attack plan is made in which the 5 wood wand (of wonder) will once again play a prominent roll. The party proceeds to the North then takes the Eastern hallway arriving in the chamber off of which is the Bugbear den.
Shendar moves into position at the mouth of the northern hallway off this chamber using his thieving skills. Just as he gets into position, the Bugbears notice the light coming from the staff carried by The Kid as the rest of the party also moves into position. Shendar points the wand, ZAPPO! And one of the Bugbears starts to dance and caper. The Bugbears charge! Shendar realizing that there is nothing between him and the advancing Bugbears fires the wand again. ZAPPO! The center of the room the Bugbears are in is filled with a sphere of darkness.
The party reaches Shendar at the same time as the Bugbears. The mage is fortunate enough to get off a ‘Grease’ spell between him and the front rank of Bugbears. Unfortunately two of the four Bugbears caught in the spell manage to make it to the party’s side of the spell at the end of the round.
Melee is joined. The party attacks the Bugbears on their side of the spell while the other Bugbears back up to retrieve spears to throw across the enspelled area at the party. Bertha strikes down one of the Bugbears and moves to engage the second. Shendar backs up allowing Bertha to move between him and the Bugbear. Roam attacks using his magic spear (+1) stabbing at the Bugbear fighting with Bertha.
Shendar decides that he wants to jump over the ‘Grease’ spell and the two Bugbears still trapped in it and past the dancing Bugbear to enter the magical ‘Darkness’. Using Tumbling at –10 he barely makes it and finds himself standing in pure ‘Darkness’. He moves to the western side of the room luckily avoiding any Bugbears also caught in the ‘Darkness’ and emerges from the ‘Darkness’ right behind a Bugbear who is retrieving a spear. It was the most ideal set up for a back stab and would have been a beautiful attack hat not Shendar rolled a 2. The Bugbear turns to engage Shendar just as another Bugbear emerges from the ‘Darkness’.
The party is holding their own against the Bugbears having killed the two trapped in the ‘Grease’ and severely wounding the one caught on their side. Much to their dismay, a Bugbear emerges from the ‘Darkness’ with a burning log from the fire. It throws this on the ‘Grease’, which ignites. Bertha slays the remaining Bugbear on their side of the blaze and prepare for the Bugbear assault once the fire burns out. This comes sooner than they expect as the ‘Grease’ spell expires and the flames vanish.
Meanwhile, Shendar reacts to the two Bugbears attacking him with a second “Grease’ spell which leaves these two rolling on the ground. Shendar is about to ignite the ‘Grease’ with his Summer Dagger when a third Bugbear exits the ‘Darkness’ and attacks him. He is forced to divert his attention to this new foe uses his ‘Blur Belt” and the Summer and Fall Daggers are thrown striking this new target. One of the Bugbears manages to escape the ‘Grease’ and Shendar now out of spells decides to quaff his potion of Levitation. As he floats up to the ceiling he hears the Bugbears say something like “Piñata” and reach for their morningstars.
Bertha and Roam are able to blunt the advance of the three Bugbears that are charging them, but then get locked into a brutal slugfest in which neither side is able to score a hit for several rounds.
Shendar barely dodges several Bugbear spear thrusts and lobbed morningstars while returning fire with ‘The Daggers of the Seasons’. However, the Bugbears seem to hit more often than he does and he opts to kick off from the wall and float into the ‘Darkness’ only to emerge on the other side of the room where he sees the Bugbears attacking the party. He throws his Spring and Summer daggers critically hitting and killing one of the Bugbears.
About this time the Bugbears, which he had encountered, come wandering around the wall and see Shendar and throw spears at him, which miss. Shendar returns fire with the daggers scoring two hits and then kicking back off the wall and into the ‘Darkness’. Emerging back on the western side of the room he discovers that the Bugbear in the ‘Grease’ is free and he attacks it. Although he has hit it several times, he is forced to kick off the wall once again as the two Bugbears come back around the edge of the room looking for their “piñata”. This goes on for a couple of rounds with Shendar nickel and diming the hps out of these three Bugbears and using his last ‘Blur’ for the day.
Bertha and Roam finally begin to land some blows and manage to kill two of their foes before the third Bugbear bashed Bertha’s head in. Bertha collapses at –7 and is fading fast. Roam and Brunur hold the Bugbear at bay while Tevroc and The Kid drag Bertha to safety –8 and pours a healing potion in her as she hits –9. She is healed for 1 hp and lays unconscious but stable at –8. Seeing her mother figure bashed so, Mackame rushes to her side and utters soothing words as she runs her hands over the Bertha’s wound. To every one’s surprise Bertha is healed for 8 hp Mackame continues and Bertha receives 6 more hp and gains consciousness.
The Bugbears facing Shendar finally tire of running back and forth around the room hunting their prey and send one Bugbear to scare Shendar into the clutches of the other two. Shendar throws his daggers at the approaching Bugbear and kicks off the wall. As he emerges back on the other side of the room he is confronted with two Bugbears waiting for him. He is able to kill one of them before it attacks, but suffers a nasty wound from the survivor. Shendar strikes first the following round and fells this Bugbear as well.
Descending to the ground, Shendar sneaks around the edge of the room and finds the remaining Bugbear waiting for him to emerge from the ‘Darkness’. This backstab goes flawlessly and Shendar moves to help the party with the remaining Bugbear threat. On the way he dispatches the dancing Bugbear with a barrage of ‘The Daggers of the Seasons’. As he reaches the party, Roam kills the last remaining Bugbear.
The Party loots the bodies and decides that they should probably find somewhere to rest.
ASEO out
----NIGHT 9----
The Party is now:
Darius Male elf Ranger level 3 (Not with party)
Morak son of Dak Male dwarf Fighter/Priest level 2/2
Shendar Male elf Mage/Thief level 3/4
Bertha Bumblebee Female human Fighter level 3
Tevroc Male human Mage level 3
Roam D'Le Rold Male human Ranger/Druid 1/1
Mackame and her Zombie dog “Brunur” NPCs
The Kid NPC
While the rest of the Party settles down to rest, Darius, Shendar and Roam Head back out of the cavern complex, Shendar to refill water skins and see if he can up the bet with the people in the wood line, and Roam to be able to rest under the stars since he was getting claustrophobic being underground. Roam remains outside to ensure the bet is maintained. Morak meets up with Shendar at the wood line where he has learned the Party entered the cave and has been waiting for their emergence. He now goes back into the cave with Shendar.
Darius says he needs a rest from the oppressive underground conditions and says he will meet the party when they emerge. He then goes and places a 5 gold piece bet against the party’s survival.
Morak’s healing spells are greatly appreciated by the party and they all settle down for a little rest. Having no way of telling time underground, the humans in the party thoroughly mess up the watch schedule. At one point Bertha wandered around in the caves nearly getting lost in an attempt to see what time it was by checking the sky outside. Eventually Tevroc, Shendar, and Morak arise feeling rejuvenated enough to have regained spells and are ready to travel.
The Party travels west and then takes the northwest branch and goes up the stairs. They find and open the secret door. Passing through the door, they find the spiral stairway leading up and the back of a second secret door. Shendar investigated the spiral stairway and found it ended in the back of a secret door. He returns down the stairs and informs the party.
Shendar listens to the secret door and hears metal scraping on stone (The Ogre in the room is sharpening his weapon) and decides to slowly open the door and peek in. Opening the door he isn’t really able to see anything. As he opens the door a little further the door is suddenly hit by a heavy weight (a deer carcass thrown by the Ogre). Shendar sees only short fur and antlers the instant before the deer hits the door and slams it shut almost crushing Shendar’s head in the process.
The Party spends some time deciding if they want to charge the room, or go up the stairs. The eventually decide to charge the room. With Bertha leading the way with her shoulder, the party crashes into the room. The Ogre throws a deer skull at Shendar who points the five wood wand (of wonder) and yells ZAPPO! Shendar is then lifted from the floor to the ceiling by a tree that has instantly grown beneath him. Fortunately for him, this moved him out of the path of the deer skull which would surly have brained him.
Bertha and Morak engage the Ogre in melee and are able to defeat it with out suffering a single hit. The party then searches the room and finds that it has two other exits, a door in the west wall and another in the south wall.
While the Ogre’s belongings are searched, Shendar listens to the southern door and is totally repelled by the stench of rotting flesh that comes from behind the portal. He then goes and checks out the western door.
Nothing of value is found in the Ogre’s room so the party decides to leave via the west door that they open. The room beyond is filled with dry brush and broken furniture and has a door in the southern wall.
Opening this door the party find themselves in a large room that has several cells to the south and some stairs to the west. Beyond the stairs are two doors on the room’s far west wall. The western part of the room is rather damp and moss grows from the ceiling and on the walls.
To the south there are 5 cell doors on the west wall and a single door on the east wall. (I am modifying the map and encounters from the original module) Shendar investigates the cells and finds them all to be empty. He listens to the eastern door, hears nothing and decides not to open it. He rejoins the party who are checking out the stairs leading up and the two doors beyond. The northern most door is opened and found to have once been an armory that has long since been looted. The southern door on the west wall is opened and found to contain a large number of mushrooms and other fungus growing on the rotting remains of something. The party closes this door and heads back to the stairs.
They decide that it would be better if they went up the spiral stairs since their emergence from a secret door would be more strategic than their emergence from an open stairway should their be something living in the keep above.
The party backtracks and heads up the spiral staircase. As they climb the stairs, Bertha steps on a lose stone which causes cow bells to sound from above the Party investigates the stone and finds a piece of twine leading from it, up the wall and into a small crack in the ceiling. While the party is doing this, they hear a heavy thump from above.
Finally reaching the top of the stairs, Shendar listens to the door and hears nothing. Slowly opening the door he sees a large room the floor of which is covered with sleeping mats. A large table is overturned in the southwest corner of the room and beyond that is a door. Shendar slides into the room followed by the F. Suddenly, Bertha is attacked by a Bugbear who was hiding behind the secret door. Shendar moves around to attempt a back attack. The Bugbear misses Bertha who slams the door into the Bugbear’s face. As Shendar moves into position, three Bugbears with crossbows rise from behind the toppled table and unload at Shendar’s back (they have a +6 to hit). Luckily for Shendar they all miss (the highest d20 roll was a 4).
Shendar turns and fires off a ‘Grease’ spell, which causes all three Bugbears to fall. Bertha finishes of the Bugbear she was fighting, and the rest of the party enters the room. Tevroc moves to engage the ‘Greased’ Bugbears, but gets caught in the ‘Grease’ himself and falls down.
At the same time, Shendar tries to light the ‘Grease’ with his ‘SUMMER DAGGER’. Fortunately for Tevroc, Shendar fumbles and fails to light the ‘Grease’. The next round Tevroc and one of the Bugbears get out of the ‘Grease and the throws the ‘FALL and WINTER DAGGERS’ hitting one of the ‘Greased’ Bugbears. Bertha and Morak engage the Bugbear that escaped the grease while Tevroc and Shendar continue to attack the two Bugbears still in the ‘Grease’. All three Bugbears are slain with out anybody in the Party taking damage. The Party all congratulate themselves on this.
The party searches the room and then exits via a door in the south wall. (Through this door they enter room 6 in the Moathouse from T1) They emerge in the northeast corner of a 50’ x 50’ room with a hallway off the center of the west and south walls, and a set of double doors in the southwest corner.
Shendar cautiously enters the room and is immediately attacked by a Bugbear who lunges out of an alcove on the east wall. Bertha moves out into the room to assist Shendar and is attacked by a Bugbear who was hiding in an alcove on the north wall. At this time two Bugbears armed with bows appear in each of the side hallways and open fire. As arrows whiz by Tevroc’s head, he points the 5 wood wand at the Bugbears in the western hallway and ZAPPO!…The room is filled with blinding shimmering lights. Bertha is blinded, Morak is blinded, Shendar is blinded, the Bugbear fighting Bertha and the one fighting Shendar are blinded, the archer Bugbears are not blinded.
This sudden loss of vision greatly hampers both Bugbears and Shendar, even though he is blinded drops to the ground and takes a called shot to the Bugbear’s nuts. (-4 blinded, -6 called shot) rolls a 20! The crowd goes wild! The Bugbear suffers triple damage and dies with a very high-pitched scream. The archer Bugbears fire arrows most miss, but Bertha takes a hit. Tevroc realizes that his blinded buddies aren’t doing so well so plays with the 5 wood wand again ZAPPO!… All weapons in hands within 30ft turn into a bouquet of flowers. Bertha and Morak feel their weapon hafts change to the stalks of flowers and drop their weapons. Morak who is now fighting the same Bugbear as Bertha takes a critical hit to the head, suffers triple damage and takes a total of 3 pts due to being hit with a bouquet by the Bugbear.
The fight continues for several rounds, with Shendar regaining his sight and charging the two Bugbears in the southern hallway. Bertha resorts to punching attacks with her spiked gauntlets (+1) and manages to pummel the Bugbear to death. Morak also regains his sight and charges the Bugbears in the western hallway. At this time two Bugbears flanking a third (Bugbear Shaman/Alchemist) who is wearing a deer skull on his head appear at the double doors in the southwest corner of the room.
Shendar ‘Sleeps’ one of the Bugbears in the southern hallway and using tumbling and unarmed attacks disrupts the arrow attacks of the other. The Bugbear retaliates by beating Shendar with his bow. Shendar finally manages to dispatch his enemy with several dagger thrusts.
Meanwhile, Morak gets shot in the head while he charges the Bugbears in the Western hallway. He would have lost an ear had it not been for his trusty, all be it very dented helmet. He is aided in his attack by Brunur who tears out the throat of one of the Bugbear archers facing Morak. Two more Bugbears armed with spears come out of a doorway behind the Bugbear archers in the western hallway and the tide turns against Brunur and Morak.
Bertha charges the three Bugbears in the southwest doorway and is narrowly missed by a flask thrown by the Bugbear Shaman. This flask shatters behind Bertha and the floor starts to steam and hiss where it hit.
Tevroc also rushes to aid Bertha against the Bugbear Shaman, but seeing the damage caused to the floor by what ever the Bugbear Shaman threw decides to rely back on old faithful…ZAPPO! (‘Dispel Magic’50 ft) All the flowers on the floor revert back to weapons. Bertha is grateful for this since her magic battle axe had been reduced to a lovely arrangement of daffodils and orchids. This manifestation of the wand isn’t readily apparent to Tevroc however so he shakes the wand points it again and ZAPPO!…A stream of butterflies emerge and thoroughly obscure the vision of the Bugbear Shaman, his two bodyguards and the M. This reprieve allows Bertha to retrieve her battle axe and war hammer and return to the fray with a vengeance.
Brunur and Morak finish off their Bugbears and turn their attention to the Shaman and his bodyguards. The Shaman throws a vial that cracks Morak squarely on the head covering him with a sweet smelling citrus concoction (To Bugbears this would be like a ‘Stinking Cloud’, to Morak it is a minor annoyance, to the butterflies it is heaven). The butterflies swarm Morak allowing Tevroc and Bertha to dispatch the bodyguards. Having lost his bodyguards, the Shaman makes a break for it and runs. Tevroc takes aim at the fleeing Shaman and ZAPPO!…Vanishes.
Meanwhile, The Kid having dispatched his foes and not wanting to enter a swarm of butterflies, decides to explore the southern hallway and finds that it ends in a collapsed room that was once a barracks. Looking over the rubble he sees several gold coins. Carefully investigating further he discovers that these are just lead painted gold. He sees a hole in the northwest corner of the room and contemplates climbing through it and backstabbing the Shaman but decides against it and heads back to his friends.
The Fleeing Shaman drops a potion that explodes in a cloud of smoke. The party is afraid to enter this and lets him go.
The, now ‘Invisible’, Tevroc speaks up and scares the beejeebees out of Bertha and Morak.
While in the collapsed Barracks Shendar had seen a tower outside which had a rope hanging from a third floor window. As the smoke clears, the party all see this same tower across the small keep’s courtyard. However, the third floor window is now shuddered and the rope is gone.
Shendar decides to cast ‘Invisibility’ and ‘Levitate’ on himself and investigate the tower roof. The rest of the party waits in the shelter of the great hall. Shendar finds the top of the tower covered with painted runes. There is also a trap door that catches his interest. Investigating the trap door, he finds it also covered with runes.
“What do the runes say?”…Ahhhhh famous last words… As the ‘Explosive Runes’ detonate the ‘Invisible’, ‘Levitating’, and now unconscious Shendar is flung off the tower only to stop suspended 30ft to the west and 10ft above the tower and 100ft above the valley floor. Luckily he is once again saved from a certain death by his magic armband that holds him stable at –5 hp.
The party hears the blast and sees a waft of smoke rising from the tower roof.
“That can’t be good!” says Morak and the party moves out into the courtyard to investigate. Observing the tower, the party sees that there is an oak door on the ground floor, a door on the north and east side of the second floor that access the catwalk of the keep’s walls, and the window overlooking the court yard on the third floor.
The party opts to try the second floor entrance on the north side. The party finds a place where they can scale the rubble at the north end of the courtyard to reach the catwalk and, in turn the door.
As the party climbs the rubble Bertha and Morak are attacked by a giant lizard that was living in the ruined room behind the rubble. The lizard critically hits Morak, who is not having a good day. Morak counters the attack by fumbling and critically hitting Bertha. Bertha is pissed and kills the lizard through a brutal round of attacks. Morak, Bertha, and Tevroc now on the catwalk find their attention focused on The Kid and Mackame who are pointing to the sky and yelling something about a flying sword. Upon further investigation, there does indeed seem to be a short sword hovering in the air about 30ft west and 10ft above the tower. The Party puts one and one together and correctly realizes that Shendar must be unconscious, still ‘Invisible’ and more importantly still ‘Levitating’ just below the sword. Now, how to get him down?
Bertha: “Any idea how long his ‘Levitation’ spell will last?”
Invisible Tevroc: < Shrugs >
Looks like the best chance to do that will be from the top of the tower, so back to entering the tower.
As the party approaches the door on the battlements, they are bombarded from above by a flask of burning oil. The party backs off to see the Shaman at the tower battlements getting ready to throw another flask. Bertha and Morak retreat back to the ground floor door while Tevroc casts ‘Spectral Hand’ and ‘Shocking Grasp’ to engage the Shaman. As the Shaman tosses another potion which leaves a sticky mass of foam in the courtyard, the ‘Spectral Hand’ hits and the ‘Shocking Grasp’ goes off. The mage becomes visible, and the Shaman seeks shelter inside the tower.
Bertha brakes down the ground floor entrance to the tower and enters to find a ladder leading to a trap door in the ceiling. As she is climbing this ladder she is attacked by a Huge Spider. She punches the Spider and is aided in her attack by Mackame who has a glowing blue nimbus on her hand. Between Mackame and Bertha, the Spider is killed.
Reaching the top of the ladder Bertha finds that the trap door seems to be bared from above.
Meanwhile, Tevroc entered the second floor and finds a box of rocks sitting on a trap door in the floor. He begins to remove the rocks because he can’t budge the box while it is full. Eventually he removes enough rocks so that he is able to move the box. He opens the trap door for Bertha who has been banging on it from below.
The Kid, who has been holding the party’s goat, retreats back to the great hall, while Mackame, the F, the M, and Morak stand in the tower’s second floor. Brunur remains on the ground floor eating the dead Huge Spider.
In the ceiling of the second floor is a trap door. Bertha moves the box of rocks over to beneath it and climbs up to try the door. It is bared or blocked from above. Out comes the battle axe and after several rounds chopping it is discovered that there are rocks piled on top of the trap door and that further chopping will open the door, but cause the rocks to fall into the room. Bertha sees no other way around it and has the rest of the party exit onto the battlements, except for Mackame who joins Brunur on the ground floor and closes the trap door between the ground and second floor.
Chop…Chop…Chop. Down come the rocks that were apparently in a box on top of the trap door. Bertha gets hurt by the falling stones and Morak casts healing spells on her.
The Shaman begins dropping all sorts of vial mixtures and volatile potions through the trap door at the party. The party takes shelter outside the tower until the bombardment subsides. The M, armed with the 5 wood wand makes his way into the tower and attempts to peek up the trapdoor and fire the wand at the Shaman.
Initiative roll: Shaman 3 / Tevroc 9 – Shaman throws a vial which releases a rubber-like substance which bounces around the room finally exiting via the east door and clocking Morak for 4 hp on the way out. Tevroc has no target as the Shaman has withdrawn from view.
Next round
Initiative roll: Shaman 1 / Tevroc 5 – Tevroc dodges a vial of acid thrown by the Shaman. Tevroc has no target as the Shaman has withdrawn from view.
Next round
Initiative roll: Shaman 4 / Tevroc 9 – Tevroc is pelted with a silver candlestick hurled from above. (The Shaman has exhausted the potions he had on his person and is throwing anything he can reach. He fears that if he takes the time to retrieve more potions from his workbench, the party will climb through the trap door.) Tevroc has no target as the Shaman has withdrawn from view.
Next round
Initiative roll: Shaman 3 / Tevroc 7 – Tevroc is pelted with matching silver candlestick hurled from above. Tevroc has no target as the Shaman has withdrawn from view.
Next round
Initiative roll: Shaman 5 / Tevroc 2 – “Come on daddy! Baby needs a new set of shoes” “Hopefully this damn wand will do something useful for a change” Random die roll: 79 Check the book “Fireball as Wand” WHOOOSH Shaman fails save takes 38 pts of damage and is reduced to a pile of ash.
Now you may ask your self: “What happens when a 7D ‘Fireball’ explodes in a 20’ x 20’ alchemist’s lab?”
Well, let me tell you. It is NOT GOOD. As the fireball expands, the trap door on the roof is blown off and a column of flame shoots skyward. The shutters are blown off the window overlooking the courtyard and a column of flame shoots off in that direction. And, our intrepid Mage sees the flames headed in his direction. It’s time for an initiative roll: ‘Fireball’: 2 (it doesn’t look good for mage boy) / Tevroc: 1 “YES!”
He dives out of the room taking damage as he skids along the battlements nearly falling over the edge. Makes a DEX roll at ½ since he is only got one hand to catch himself, the 5 wood wand firmly grasped in the other and the flames shoot over his head. He makes his save and is left smoldering at 2 hp.
Bertha and Morak see Tevroc diving in their direction and dive out of his way. Bertha safely clears the blast area. Morak is not so fortunate. In his effort to get out’a the way he falls off the catwalk. Luckily it is only a 15ft drop and he lands on his head taking 5pts and further denting his already well-worn helmet.
Now things get interesting. The ‘Fireball’ ignites various components in the lab and the columns of flame are replaced with multi colored smoke, strange whizzing lights, huge spark showers, and other special effects which cause the settlers in the tree line and indeed even Roam to UUUhhh and AAAhhhhh at the sight.
As the pyrotechnics finally subside, the party cautiously makes their way through the still very volatile lab and up to the tower roof. Once there they are able to locate the ‘Invisible’, ‘Levitating’, and unconscious M/T by his levitating sword. A lasso is fashioned and after several throws, Shendar is pulled safely to the tower roof just as his ‘Levitation’ spell expires. Morak casts his last healing spell on Shendar who regains consciousness at 2 hp.
Shendar looks into the eyes of his fellow party members, surveys the smoldering tower around him and says, “I think we may want to rest up some before continuing on”
ASEO out
I really like the style that you write in. Short and sweet and moves the story along. No real pretence of being Micheal Morcock or something. The adventure is filled with interesting side notes like what material is being used, which from a DMs perspective can be nice since I know at least some of the works you cite.
I really like the style that you write in.
I'm just glad that someone is reading it. Thanks for doing so.
ASEO out
---NIGHT 10---
The Party is now:
Darius Male elf Ranger level 3 (Not with party)
Morak son of Dak Male dwarf Fighter/Priest level 2/3
Shendar Male elf Mage/Thief level 3/4
Bertha Bomblebee Female human Fighter level 3
Tevroc Male human Mage level 3
Roam D'Le Rold Male human Ranger/Druid 1/1
Mackame and her Zombie dog “Brunur” NPCs
The Kid NPC
The Party makes its way back to the Great hall of the ruined keep to heal and rest.
Meanwhile, Roam, having witnessed the explosion and following fountains of flame from the tower, decides that he had better investigate. He slowly approaches the keep by taking the steep winding path up to the top.
As the party is settling down, Tevroc and The Kid who are on watch hear some growls and the sounds of combat coming from the front of the keep. They hurry to investigate. Seems that as Roam was approaching, he stumbled on a trio of Bonesnappers who are quickly giving him a working over.
As Tevroc and The Kid arrive on the scene, Roam is knocked unconscious by the beasts. Fortunately for Roam, Tevroc and The Kid capture the Bonesnappers’ attention. Tevroc casts ‘Spectral Hand’ and then powers it up with a ‘Shocking Grasp’. The Kid charges the closest Bonesnapper and clunks it good with a morningstar he had gathered from one of the dead Bugbears. Tevroc attacks with his ‘Shocking Grasp’ via ‘Spectral Hand’ and viciously zaps a second Bonesnapper. The shocked Bonesnapper is so jolted by the attack, that he fumbles his bite and munches down on the leg of the previously uninjured Bonesnapper, severing the leg and leaving his fellow Bonesnapper dying in a pool of blood.
The Kid is swatted to the ground by the tail of the Bonesnapper he is fighting, but is able to deflect it’s savage jaws. Then, suddenly Brunur comes bounding through the keep’s gateway followed by the rest of the party. Brunur jumps on the Bonesnapper menacing The Kid bowling it over. The Kid quickly regains his feet and bashes the Bonesnapper while it is rising. Shendar throws two of his ‘Season Daggers’ at the shocked Bonesnapper scoring two hardy hits and sending the creature scampering for safety. This Bonesnapper’s retreat takes it straight into the path of a waiting Brunur who bites the reptile and latches on until the Bonesnapper dies.
Morak joins the Kid in beating the stuffing out of the remaining Bonesnapper, a feat that is accomplished with only minor injuries to our heroes.
Roam is healed through a combined effort of Mackame and Morak and the party headed back to the great hall to rest. This time their rest goes uninterrupted.
At about an hour before sunset, the party arises refreshed and ready to finish checking this place out. They head down the southern hallway and investigate all the rooms, finding a Finely Made Bastard Sword (Non-magical +1) that was hidden behind an old bookshelf in a room that may have once been a study.
A door on the opposite side of the hallway is forcefully opened to reveal the contents ruined by a deep covering of bat guano originating from the hundred or so bats which are living in this room and just waking up to begin their evening feeding. The door is quickly shut.
The second door on the western side of the passage way is open and a devastated bedroom can be seen beyond. The party passes this room up.
The hallway ends in a large room that was previously explored by Shendar, so the party turns their attention to the Western hallway.
Morak takes interest in a passage heading north off the west hallway way that has been blocked by a large wardrobe. The party moves the wardrobe to see what lies behind it and are attacked by a swarm of Giant Rats. Several rounds of good ol'’ rat smashing fun are enjoyed by the party before they are free of this threat and able to investigate the passage further. Beyond the Rats is a descending staircase. The party decides to leave this for now and continue to explore the ruins of the keep.
There are two doors on the southern side of the hallway, one on the northern side and a set of double doors at the hallway’s west end. Shendar listens to the first door on the southern side (I roll a 99 for his hear noise) and he hears a deep voice saying “Beeeee Goooone!” (Actually it is the wind outside blowing across the windows). The door is thrown open by Tevroc and Bertha. There, standing in the growing darkness is a Minotaur and a figure in old spiked plate armor. Bertha, full of battle lust, rushes to engage the Minotaur, while Shendar who sees a red glinting glow (two large rubies hidden there by the Bugbear Chief are reflecting the party’s light) coming from the slits in the helmet of the armored figure, casts ‘Grease’ beneath the figure’s feet. As Bertha severs the Minotaur’s arm, Shendar ignites his ‘Grease’ spell with the ‘Summer Dagger’. In response to this, the Minotaur and the armored figure just stand there.
This lack of action by their foes strikes the party as odd and a round is spent realizing that the Minotaur is stuffed, and the armored figure standing amid the flames is just an old suit of plate armor. Shendar decides to push the armored figure over “just to make sure” and burns his hands on the hot armor.
Shendar: “Ok people,…Um… Yeah… that was good practice…aaaand I’m sure that, had that actually been a Minotaur and a Death Knight, we’d have taken them…right?”
Roam: “Those look like some nasty burns you got there on your hands”
Shendar: <hiding his hands behind his back> “Nobody mentions this again,…OK. It didn’t happen… right?”
The second door on the south side of the wall is opened to reveal a small room that is completely empty.
The door on the north side of the hallway is opened. Beyond it is the very ransacked kitchen that once served the keep.
This leaves only the double doors at the end of the hallway. Shendar checks for noise and hears nothing. Checks for traps, nothing. Bertha goes to open the door and finds them blocked. Morak joins in and the doors are pushed open sweeping rubble before them. This room that was once the keep’s barracks is now in ruins since a large portion of the ceiling has caved in. In the Southwest corner of the room is the corpse of the Giant Lizard that the party killed earlier in the day. In the Northwest portion of the room an unopened chest lies trapped in the rubble. The party moves to retrieve this chest and is completely surprised by a second Giant Lizard. Bertha and Roam instantly engage the creature. The combat is furious and doesn’t go well for the Party. Roam slips and cracks heads with the Giant Lizard leaving them both stunned. Hoping to capitalize on this, Bertha takes a mighty swing with her magic Battle axe (+1, +2 vs. evil humanoids), misses horribly, and shatters the weapon on the stone rubble (Fumble, 1 in 100 chance, break weapon regardless of enchantments. Sometimes life just sucks). The Kid and Morak join the melee while Shendar skirts the combat waiting for an opening to throw his daggers. The now very ticked off Fighter pulls out her war hammer and proceeds to beat the Giant Lizard to a bloody pulp.
Bertha: “Take…” Thud
“That…” Thud
“You…” Squish
“Big…” Squish
“Damn…” Squish
“Frigg’n…” Clank
“Clank?…”
Hearing a strange sound that she didn’t expect to hear from the mushy remains of the Giant Lizard carcass, Bertha stops her beating and investigates. Roam is asked to gut the Giant Lizard. As he does so, he flings some guts at Shendar who has his back turned, hitting him (with a 20) and thoroughly covering him with Giant Lizard entrails.
Shendar takes it all in stride and casts a ‘Clean’ Cantrip on himself. . (I use the cantrips out of UNEARTHED ARCANA. Cantrips can be taken instead on a spell of any level. Cantrips are each .5 spell levels, so 2 could be taken instead of a first spell, 4 instead of a second level spell. Mages get their INT # of cantrips which are memorized like other spells.)
In the Giant Lizard’s stomach she finds a few pieces of armor and a metal shield (+1) with a rune naming it “Protector”.
Meanwhile, the chest is opened by Shendar and found to contain a lt. crossbow, 24 bolts and a scale mail tunic. Tevroc casts ‘Detect Magic’ and the shield glows with the same intensity as Roam’s spear.
(I use a rainbow system for the intensity of magic detected by a ‘Detect Magic’. A starting color will = +1, red in this case. Orange is then +2, Yellow +3, Etc… The players have to watch combat to determine the plusses on their weapons. Here is an example:
Morak attacks with his known non-magical war hammer and hits AC 3, a miss. Roam with her Spear, which is +1, but she doesn’t know that. Hits AC3 on the same creature, it hits. Since the known non-magical hammer missed, and the magical spear hit, the spear must be at least +1.
Now, the spear which glowed red under ‘Detect Magic’ is stabbed at an Orc, hits AC6 and misses, the non-magical war hammer hits AC6 and misses, but Bertha with her Axe (+1, +2 vs evil humanoids, which glows red and orange) hits AC6 and hits. So the orange glow must be more powerful than the red glow. Some math gets done and the party figures out my system. I use this since no spell tells you an item’s plusses. It usually takes the party some time to figure this out, 10 sessions in the case of this group, after that, when they ‘Detect Magic’ on something and it glows red, they can write +1 on their sheet and I don’t have to keep track of which magical items are affecting their THAC0s and ACs. Since a +1 sword has the same magical enchantment as a +1 shield, they would both glow the same color. Items such as the Battle Axe +1, +2 vs evil humanoids will glow in intensity from their base, red in this case to their max, orange in this case. A “Frost Brand +3, +6” would glow Yellow at its base to purple at it’s tip. A “Flame Tongue +1, +2, +3, +4” would glow red, orange yellow to green at its tip.)
The party remembered that there are two areas in the dungeon that they have yet to explore, so they set off to head back down the spiral stare case they used to enter the keep. They backtrack down past the Ogre’s room, back to the boarded off hallway. (Which leads to room #31, if you are following along at home)
Morak checks the hallway and determines that it appears to be structurally sound. The party tears down the planks baring their passage and proceeds on. Around the next bend, the hallway gets damp and there is moss and fungal growth on the walls. Water is dripping from the ceiling and pooling on the floor.
Suddenly a large slimy green mass drops from the ceiling and lands squarely on Morak. The party launches into action. Shendar is the first to act and he casts a ‘Clean’ cantrip on Morak effectively removing the Green Slime from Morak and depositing it on the floor before it caused too much damage. As the party is working to light torches, a second Green Slime drops on Tevroc. Shendar uses his SUMMER DAGGER to good effect and kills the Green Slime that had attacked Morak. Tevroc fires off his Flame Bolt ring and kills the Green Slime on him but also burning himself in the process. Once the Slimes are dealt with it is realized that the Tevroc’s robes are trashed, so the party rummage through their packs and provide Tevroc with a cloak and some boots. A round of “Flasher” comments are made and then the party headed off down the corridor once again.
The Passage way eventually ended in a room that was obviously once a crypt. Burial niches in the walls and splintered coffins and scattered skeletal remains on the floor prompted the party to take caution when entering the area. Unfortunately, not enough caution was taken, and Morak was surprised by the rapid assault of a Ghoul who leapt out of one of the niches. Five other Ghouls then shamble out of various niches and assault the rest of the party. Finding Morak paralyzed, the party is forced into combat to defeat the Ghouls.
Shendar, armed with THE DAGGERS OF THE SEASONS is a Ghoul slaying machine until he fumbles and hits the F’s normal battle axe, which she had reverted to using after the destruction of her magical axe, destroying this axe as well (Fumble #47, if you reference my chart which I posted to the list).
Left with only her war hammer, Bertha snatches the Shield +1, from the Giant Lizard’s gut, off her back wields it and continues to bash away, vowing to morn her axe once combat is concluded.
Roam fends off the Ghoul with his spear +1 while the mage bashes away with his staff.
A single Ghoul makes a snatch attempt at Morak, attempting to drag him away for future dining enjoyment. Seeing this about to happen, Mackame screams, “Don’t touch him!” (Effectively turning the Ghoul). At this, much to the party’s surprise, the Ghoul flees the combat and enters one of the niches at the north end of the room. The remaining Ghouls are eventually slain by the party and their remains are gathered and lit on fire with the aid of a couple flasks of oil. As the fire blazed the smoke builds and soon the party are all choking and coughing, except for Morak who is still paralyzed. Roam notices that there is a draft in the room blowing out through the northern niche that the fleeing Ghoul entered. The niche is investigated and found to contain a narrow tunnel that leads to a very narrow spiral staircase going up.
Shendar followed by Tevroc and the rest of the party slowly climb this staircase. Roam brings up the rear dragging Morak by his collar.
At the top of the stairs, Shendar finds the back of a secret door that is slightly open. Peaking into the room, he sees a dozen Zombies and the fleeing Ghoul in a 20 x 50 room. Tevroc who is holding a dagger on which he had cast ‘Continual Light’ illuminates the room, peers over Shendar’s shoulder and says “Oh, my.” Then before anybody can act he follows his comment with a pointed five wood wand and a mighty “ZAPPO!”
A 9-headed Hydra, a Grey Ooze, and a Ghast now complement the dozen Zombies and Ghoul already in the room. Then all hell breaks lose. The Hydra, Ooze and Ghast tear into the zombies making a horrible mess. The Zombies strike back slaying the ghoul with a magnificent critical hit to the head. The battle rages for four rounds concluding finally with the room containing a 5-headed Hydra and a Grey Ooze.
Shendar offers a bet of 5gp giving 2 to 1 odds that the Ooze can take the Hydra in 3 rounds. Tevroc accepts the bet, dismisses the creatures and collects 10gp from Shendar.
A door is found in the west wall of the room, but found to be bared from the other side. Shendar casts ‘Knock’ and the party opens the door to find them selves once again in the roughly L-shaped room with the 5 cells in the west wall. To the north is the door that leads to the Ogre’s room as well as the stairs that lead up to the keep where the party fought the Giant Rats.
Well, one more place to check. The door with the Bugbear skull nailed to it that they bypassed when they first entered the cave. The party heads back to the cave entrance, sees that it is midnight outside and decides to rest while Morak recovers from hid bout of Paralysis.
While the party rests, Shendar and The Kid head back to the crypt room to search for treasure. They find a tunnel at the back of one of the niches and decide to explore it. About 30ft into the tunnel they find a pile of silver coins, several vials of what appear to be water (holy) and a vial containing a de-boned finger floating in a clear, colorless, glittery liquid (Potion of Ghoul control, you have to eat the finger, like the worm in a bottle of Tequila) while The Kid is collecting this treasure, Shendar spots and begins to collect several gold coins which lead off in a trail down a side passageway.
Suddenly The Kid hears Shendar cry out in surprise.
While picking up the gold coins, one of the coins (actually a Lock Lurker) Shendar was holding suddenly formed a scorpion tail, which seemed to form out of thin air, and stung Shendar. By the time The Kid arrived, Shendar is thoroughly paralyzed. The Kid ignores the gold coins and grabs Shendar dragging him back to the room where the silver hoard had been. Gathering the sack that now contained the silver and the flasks, The Kid then dragged the paralyzed Shendar back through the muck filled passageway and back to the party.
Roam smacked Shendar several times in an attempt to “snap him out of it” and even Bertha joined in by throwing dumping some water on Shendar to “see if that helped”. Finally the party determined that the paralysis would eventually ware off and they propped Shendar up against Morak. The party rested, and Brunur curled up on Shendar’s lap
ASEO out
---NIGHT 11---
The Party is now:
Darius Male elf Ranger level 3 (Not with party)
Morak son of DaK Male dwarf Fighter/Priest level 2/3
Shendar Male elf Mage/Thief level 3/4
Bertha Bumblebee Female human Fighter level 3
Tevroc Male human Mage level 3
Roam D'Le Rold Male human Ranger/Druid 1/1
Mackame and her Zombie dog “Brunur” NPCs
The Kid NPC
After sufficient rest, the party gets up, Shendar is no longer paralyzed, and prepares to assault the final door before them. They remove the spikes from under the door, and the boards that have been nailed to the door to keep it closed. Bertha then kicks the door open.
There, beyond the door is a short hallway that has a second, more refined doorway in it about 30 feet down. Just beyond this second doorway lay the remains of three bugbears. The party approaches cautiously. As they pass through the second doorway, Morak realizes that the construction has changed. After examining the stonework, he announces that it is Dwarven.
Investigating the bodies, the party finds that the Bugbears have been ripped to shreds and appear to be partially eaten. About 30 ft past the bodies a pair of statues of Dwarven warriors flanks the hallway. Beyond them, the hallway Ts going left and right. A small plaque on the wall catches the party’s attention.
The text on the plaque is in Dwarven, so Morak translates for the party. “<=Monastery Chapel =>”
This plaque as well as the Dwarven statues gives credence to Morak’s suggestion that this was once a Dwarven holy site.
The party turned right and headed for the chapel. About 40 ft further the hallway turned left and opened up into a room 30 ft wide and 60 ft long with two rows of parallel pillars running the length of the chamber. On the floor in this chamber were the shredded bodies of 4 more Bugbears as well as some human skeletons. At the far end of the chamber was a set of large double doors.
Shendar moved into the room to investigate. The Bugbears were zipped apart and had been partially eaten like their comrades, which the party had passed earlier. The human skeletons looked as if they had been long dead and been lying in the room for quite a while. As Shendar moved toward the double doors, six of the human Skeletons animated and turned to attack the party. Morak tried turning them but as he did so he felt a chilling weight of evil that seemed to permeate this place. Thus he was not to surprised to see that the Skeletons did not flee.
Bertha and Roam launched into melee and laid waste to three of the Skeletons. The Kid and Morak finished off two more with out too much problem. The final Skeleton wielding a rusty scimitar attacked Shendar. Shendar found that his short sword was proving to be ineffective against the Skeleton and was beginning a strategic withdrawl when the fateful blow came. The Skeleton swung furiously and severed Shendar’s right leg at the knee. Shendar topples over (Makes a System Shock roll, and thanks to his amulet is not bleeding). The rest of the party rushes to his aid and Bertha bashes in the Skeleton’s head with her war hammer, laying it to rest permanently. Morak casts ‘Cure Lt Wounds’ on Shendar, but that does nothing to re attach his leg, only erase the pain. Shendar gathers up his leg, which Brunur is licking hungrily, and puts it in his backpack. He then reclaims the ‘Light/Feather Fall’ staff from The Kid and uses it as a make shift crutch. Mackame offers to “put that back on”, but Shendar declines fearing ending up with a Zombie leg. (A round of Monty Python “It’s only a flesh wound” jokes orbit the table and them play resumes)
Shendar considers retreating to the wood line, but knows to do so would damage his image in the view of the settlers waiting there. Staying here is not an option because he fears being set upon by more foul creatures in his weakened state. It is finally agreed upon to finish clearing out the keep before returning to the wood line. So, the party, with the hobbling Shendar in tow, moves to the double doors and opens them.
The doors open to what is obviously the chapel. 80 ft long and 40 ft wide, the ruined pews and religious paraphernalia show that this ancient Dwarven site had been converted to a church of a human deity of protection. The party’s attention is captured by a pillar of light which shined down from the ceiling on the altar at the far end of the room. There, face down on the altar with a dagger protruding from it’s back is a skeleton.
Suddenly movement through out the sanctuary draws the party’s attention from the scene at the alter. Zombies and Skeletons are rising from the floor and making their way toward the party. A Ghast, betrayed by its stench, bounds over the pews intent on feasting on the party’s flesh. As the party panics and back tracks, Tevroc draws the five wood wand of wonder aims it at the approaching Ghast and “ZAPPO!”
The Ghast is covered in a sticky yellow substance which smells strangely like honey. Caught in full bound by this new obstacle, and blinded by a face full of honey, the Ghast slips as it leaps over a pew and crashes face first into one of the ceiling support pillars. This buys the party a round of action and Tevroc takes the opportunity to empty the five wood wand of wonder’s final charge in to the approaching Zombie, Skeleton hoard. “ZAPPO!” A ‘Fireball’ engulfs the room utterly destroying all the Zombies and Skeletons, and leaving the Ghast - Well Done with a Sweet Honey Glaze. Brunur cuts to the front of the buffet line. Having expended its final charge, the wand goes limp in the M’s hand.
As the party makes its way toward the altar, Shendar casts ‘Detect Magic’. He sees a red glow (+1) coming from the dagger in the skeleton’s back, and a red glow (+1) coming from a war hammer at the skeleton’s side. The pillar of light seems to be coming from an enchanted stone in the ceiling designed to spotlight the religious speaker.
Morak claims the war hammer and the dagger goes to The Kid. Further investigation of the altar area shows concealed door on either side of the room, just behind the altar. Shendar investigates the door on the right and finds that it opens up to a storage closet. Inside this closet are several rusty candle stands with dim ‘Continual Light’ cast upon them. Obviously meant to light the sanctuary chamber, they have been thrown haphazardly into this room. Morak pulls several of these out, but finds nothing else of interest in the room.
Bertha opens the concealed door on the left side of the room and finds a cloakroom with a passage leading from it. The party surmises that this is how the Chapel staff entered this room. The passageway is taken and found to end in a stout wooden door. This door is opened and the party finds themselves confronted with a long hallway that runs perpendicular to the passageway they just emerged from. This is of secondary concern however, because the dozen Zombies led by a Ghoul that stand in this hallway quickly capture the party’s attention.
Shendar opens with a volley of his ‘FALL and WINTER DAGGERs’ while Bertha and Morak backed up by Roam and his spear take up a more defensive position and prepare to hold off the coming assault. As the undead host fall upon the party, the party puts their weapons to good use. The Ghoul makes a daring attack and paralyzes Morak while the Zombies are being badly mauled by the party, the Ghoul manages to grab and drag Morak from the party’s line. As the Ghoul turns and drags Morak down the hallway and around a corner, the party can do nothing but fend off the Zombies.
Several Zombies find themselves impaled on the spear of Roam who makes a very good in the battle. While Bertha severs the final Zombie’s head from its body, the rest of the party launches off down the hallway after the Ghoul and Morak. Rounding the corner, the party finds the Ghoul trying to pry off Morak’s helm in an attempt to feed.
The ‘DAGGERS OF THE SEASONS’ thrown by Shendar blast the Ghoul away from Morak and Roam charges the Ghoul with his spear leading the way. Roam’s aim is true and he is rewarded with the sickening crack, squish, crack combo of his spear completely penetrating the Ghoul’s rotting head. While Roam forcefully pries the Ghoul’s corpse from his spear, Mackame heals Morak’s wounds.
While Morak recovered from his paralysis, Bertha and Roam investigated further down the hallway the Ghoul was fleeing down and found it to lead back to the two Dwarven statues. Along the hallway were several doorless, small cell monk living quarters that were long abandoned.
Morak recovered as Bertha and Roam returned and several doors up the hallway to the right if the last battle were investigated. The first was found to be a dining area with a door at the far end. The 3 Zombies in the room quickly fell to the party’s might.
Beyond the dining room was a kitchen with a pantry to one side, and servant living quarters on the other. In the rear of the pantry a small human skeleton was found hidden behind several crates and barrels. The doors to the servant’s quarters were broken in and the rooms thoroughly ransacked. Several severely gnawed skeletons were found in one of the rooms.
Moving back out to the hallway, the party continued to move down right of the Chapel entrance. Two more doors on the left hand wall and a third at the end of the hall capture their attention.
Opening the nearest door, the party find themselves in a large bedroom complete with a large bed, wardrobe, desk, chest, and two Zombies and, by the stench, a Ghast. While Shendar, hobbling along, searched for an opening the throw his daggers, Morak, Roam and Bertha waded in to combat their newest foes. The stench of the Ghast took its toll and all three characters suffered its malignant effects. The Zombies were quickly dealt with while it took longer to slay the Ghast. Finally the Ghast was slain and the party began to investigate the room.
A letter on the desk was found:
Mylie,
We must act quickly if we are to take control. At the service tonight we must act. If we do not, the people of Atmose will surely hale Cartelon as their savior ant their loyalty to him will be unchallengeable.
S.
When Shendar picked up this piece of parchment it crumbled into dust. A second letter was found, written by a different hand:
Brother Mylie,
Hasten to the town of Atmose and gather the villagers still residing there. Bring them to the chapel. Pray that my research has paid off so that we all may be saved from this hideous affliction that our foes have placed upon us.
Father Cartelon
The party surmises that it was Father Cartelon’s skeleton they found on the altar. The wardrobe contains only old ruined cloaks, now reduced to rags. Shendar checks the chest for traps, finds none and picks the lock. The chest is found to contain a suit of scale armor, a mace, a helm, and a scroll tube. The scroll tube is opened by Morak. (The scroll inside contains 1d6 random clerical spells. I roll ‘Barkskin’, ‘Control Temperature’, and ‘Produce Flame’) He takes notes of the spells and pockets the scrolls.
The other items, while well protected by a layer of oil, are not enruned and are left by the party.
The next door down the hall is opened and proves to lead to what must have once been a sitting room. Beyond the ruined furniture in the room, a second door leads to another large bedroom. The Stench in the area bespeaks of the presence on more Ghasts. The party is thus not surprised to see two Ghasts leap through the bedroom doorway. The creature that follows the Ghasts into the room, however, strikes true fear into the party. A Wight. The party quickly retreats back to the hallway where Bertha reads her scroll of ‘Protection from Wights’. As she finishes reading the two Ghasts launch themselves into the party. Claws raking and teeth biting, Morak is saved from being paralyzed only by sheer luck as the blows rain down upon him. While Bertha, Roam and Morak fend off the Ghasts, Shendar throws his ‘FALL and WINTER DAGGERS’ at the Wight. ‘FALL’ misses, but ‘WINTER’ scores a direct hit that does nothing (Wights are immune to cold damage). Shendar deduces (incorrectly) that the Wight is immune to all his DAGGERS OF THE SEASONS, with the exception of FALL, which he knows causes severe damage to undead. In order to throw ‘FALL’, he must throw the other daggers in order so he discards all other daggers into the corner of the hallway until ‘FALL’ comes up again. This gives him 1 attack with ‘FALL’ every other round.
Once again, the Ghast’s stench adversely affects the party and their combat skills suffer. The Ghasts are eventually defeated, but when Bertha moves to attack the Wight, it retreats out of range. As the Wight retreats (out of the sphere of protection created by the scroll) Morak moves up to engage. The Wight hits Morak a chilling blow, and Morak is drained 1 Fighter level that he had just gained.
(I allow characters to advance in level whenever their experience points exceed that required for ascension to the next level. I give ex. after every combat and when ever the party earns it for other actions. When a character advances in level, HP, Saving throws and special abilities are instantly gained. Proficiencies may be gained only if they are something the character has been working on, such as wielding an unfamiliar weapon at the negative to hit as determined by class, or always being the one to try to light the party’s campfire may allow gaining the fire building proficiency. Spell casters gain the ability to cast more spells, but still have to study or pray to gain those additional spells)
Morak quickly retreats back to Bertha’s side. The Wight retreats to the bedroom where it begins to throw bits of furniture at the party. Roam moves in with his spear +1 and is able to strike the Wight from within the protective sphere. Between Roam and Shendar the Wight is finally defeated.
The bedroom contains much the same furniture that previous one did. A letter which has been torn in half is found beside the desk:
Brother Shanton,
Your lack of patience gives me cause for worry. You must learn that growth within the order comes to all who are deserving in time. You should not place your own ambition above your duty to our god. Spend more time in study and meditation and less time at the tavern in Atmose and you will do well.
Father Cartelon
A chest under the bed is found, and Shendar checks for traps. Finding a poisoned needle, he disarms it and picks the lock. Opening the chest, a suit of chain armor, a helm, a mace, and a scroll tube are found. (Once again, the scroll tube contains d6 random clerical spells. I roll a 6. Realizing that there may be a chance for a ‘Regenerate’ spell, Shendar player begs to be able to roll the spells. I let him. Rolling is done, d8 for level with 8 being first level. Them d100 for spell, with any roll over the # of spells listed in the PHB being re rolled). The first spell is ‘Cure Lt. Wounds’, the second: ‘Charm Person/Mammal’, third: It’s a 7th level spell…’Change Staff”…Ahhhh Damn. Fourth: ‘Cure Lt Wounds’ again. Fifth: ‘Cure Critical Wounds’. The players are all following along in their PHBs. Sixth, last one…d8 roll…7!…d100…IT’S ‘REGENERATE’!!! THE CROWD GOES WILD…Tevroc’s player spits rootbeer all over the table... I as the DM don’t believe it. It’s like the one time in 14 years of DMing that I had the guy roll the 18/00 strength right in front of me. Shendar player is doing the ‘I get my leg back dance’. Tevroc’s player heads to the kitchen to clean up the rootbeer).
Morak reattaches Shendar’s leg and Shendar takes a couple of test runs around the room. The party heads back out to the hallway and checks out the final door.
The door opens up to a truly devastated room. Suddenly a Ghostly figure (a Haunt) forms. It appears as an elderly man wearing religious garb. He appears to be sitting at a desk that is no longer there. He looks up as if there is someone at the door talking to him. The party watches as he gathers some papers from the desk and staff from against the wall. He then gets up and the party follows him as he moves down the hallway leading to the cloakroom. Here he appears to put on some robes and then he enters the chapel through the concealed door. He proceeds to the altar, takes a scroll from his robes motions for the people who mush have been in the chapel to gather closer. Then just as he is about to read the scroll, the man shudders and a dagger appears in his back. He stumbles and then collapses on the altar where he slowly dissolves leaving only the skeleton that the party found on the altar. The party gathers the bones and Morak and Roam take the bones out side and give them a proper burial. The rest of the party watches on as the two conduct a simple service. As the party heads back to the tree line, they are greeted with calls of “Hey, who bought it?” “5 gold it was the Dwarf” “Well, are you done?” “Is it safe?” “What is your party called?”
The party announces in a grand fashion that the keep is cleared of dangers. Shendar collects his winnings from the bet he made. A crowd gathers and Shendar tells of his great exploits and feats of daring death defying…Bla, bla, bla. The rest of the party move to a quiet spot and take a long deserved rest.
NOTE: The Priest Cartelon was able to find a cure for the Plague/Curse. However, it would only affect a small number of people. The villagers from the nearest town, Atmose, were called to the chapel because the advancing Plague/Curse had not yet reached their village.
When Cartelon went to cast the spell from the scroll he had written he was attacked by his under priests, Mylie and Shanton who had been plotting against him. Seeing their chance to be the saviors of the villagers, they murdered Cartelon as he was about to read the scroll.
Shanton grabbed the scroll from Cartelon’s dead hand and began to read the scroll. To late did he realize that his power was not significant enough to get the spells full effect.
The villagers in the chapel already in a panic began to panic even more as they realized that the protective glow emanating from the scroll had not expanded enough to encompass them all. It was then that they turned on each other neighbor slaying neighbor in an attempt to be one of the few who would survive the plague. For the horrors which took place in this chamber, the surviving villagers and the under priests were cursed with undeath, but forced to remain forever in this area which their evil actions had defiled.
A Bugbear war party entered this area and were all slain. The remaining Bugbears boarded up the area to ensure the horrors trapped with in stayed confined to these chambers.
ASEO out
Good stuff.
---NIGHT 12---
The Party is now:
Darius Male elf Ranger level 3
Morak son of DaK Male dwarf Fighter/Priest level 2/3
Shendar Male elf Mage/Thief level 3/4
Bertha Bumblebee Female human Fighter level 4
Tevroc Male human Mage level 3
Roam D'Le Rold Male human Ranger/Druid 2/2
The Kid becomes a PC- - Male human Fighter/Thief 2/2
Mackame and her Zombie dog “Brunur” NPCs
While the party takes some time to rest, Darius rejoins them. A band of Paladins from the Order of Light arrive at the rift, and the 12 Paladins along with their priest, two sub priests and a wizard along with the usual baggage train of squires and such make a quick crossing of the rift by means of a conjured ‘Rainbow Bridge’.
Noting the wizard accompanying the knights, Shendar attempts to make contact in order to possibly obtain some new spells. He is quickly rebuffed by the knights and the wizard. Some bystanders then direct the leader of the knights to the party. The knight seems interested in the party’s exploits especially when he learns of the small keep that the party explored. In an attempt to gain access to the wizard, Shendar offers the keep to the paladins.
Shendar: “Well, I guess we don’t have much use for a keep, you are welcome to it in excha…”
Head Knight “Thank you. You can carry on, we’ll take over from here”
The column of knights then pushes past Shendar leaving him coughing on the dust stirred up by their horses. The column of knights slowly traverses the winding pathway up to the keep. Shendar makes an effort to intercept them by climbing up over the switchbacks. Finally Shendar makes it to the top of the path just ahead of the knights. Attempting to shout his demands, but horribly out of breath, Shendar is finally able to catch the lead Paladin’s attention. The Paladin sends the three priests of his order over to “see what this sell sword wants”.
Realizing that he will be unable to see the wizard, Shendar settles for the priests and tells them of the tunnel at the base of the cliff and of the ruined chapel. The priests take immediate interest in this and accompany Shendar to the tunnel entrance where they investigate the temple. It seems that these priests are of the same order that was using the temple before the tragedy that transpired there. Shendar offers to exchange some religious items that the party had recovered for some information on the identity of some potions the party is in possession of.
The Priests identify the following potions for the party.
Ever changing potion – ‘Polymorph Self’
Sea foam green – ‘Water Breathing’
Hot and steamy in a metal flask – ‘Fire Breath’
The priests obviously recognize the potion which is clear with gold glitter and a severed, de-boned finger suspended in it (Ghoul Control – You have to eat the finger, like the worm in a bottle of Tequila) but refuse to tell the party what it is and recommend that the party rid themselves of this item. The party quietly refuses and returns to their camp.
The next day the party heads west hoping to find some landmark from one of their two maps. They travel for about half the day following the stream that is flowing westward. At about noon they begin to notice the remains of stone walls which may have once marked field boundaries, now well over grown and in a forested region. The party eventually comes upon the ruins of what once was a town. Very little remains, just the stone foundations and the ruins of the town mill which was an all-stone structure. The party moved to investigate the Mill ruins but as Morak entered the mill, he was attacked by a Giant Badger who was not happy about having his home invaded. The Party made ready for battle, but Roam stepped in and attempted to calm the Badger. Roam efforts were successful, and the Giant Badger moved off and allowed the Party to check out the mill. The only clue the party found was the name of the town carved on the side of the millstone. “ATMOSE”.
Several hours were spent investigating the ruins of the town in an effort to find some treasure. No treasure was found, but while investigating an old chimney Morak was attacked by a Giant Tick. Roam moved in and attacked the Tick with his spear. Roam rolled a 20 and her water broke… Not Roam, but my wife who was playing Roam. Needless to say, this brought the session to an abrupt end as I rushed my wife to the hospital.
My son was born at 4:07 AM the next day. 6lbs, 8oz and 19 inches tall. He’ll be joining the game in no time.
ASEO out
Well thats one pretty unique way to end a session.
Yep. It was one of the most memorable sessions ever.
Here is part of Session 12 from a character's view.
---NIGHT 12 PART II---
Darius Male elf Ranger level 3
Morak, Son of DaK Male dwarf Fighter/Priest level 2/3
Shendar (Blue Arm) Male elf Mage/Thief level 3/4
Bertha Bumblebee Female human Fighter level 4
Tevroc Male human Mage level 3
Roam D'Le Rold Male human Ranger/Druid 2/2
The Kid Male human Fighter/Thief 2/2
Mackame Appears to be an 8-year-old Female (Necro M/Necro P 3/3) NPC
"Brunur" Mackame's Zombie dog NPC
A page from the
Memoirs of Shendar Blue Arm
Having investigated the ruins of the town of Atmose, we traveled for the remainder of the afternoon in a westward direction.
We finally settled down for the night, and not a moment too soon. My feet are killing me. What I wouldn’t give to have my old master’s spell of flying in my repertoire. We found a nice “defensible position” as the woodsmen would put it, within a ruined foundation of what was probably once a house. I managed to score a spot in the corner, out of harm’s way and comfortably close to the fire. Damn, I’m good. Watches were divided up, and I once again managed to shirk my duties. So far, claiming that I need the rest to memorize spells has worked like a charm at getting me out of much of the unpleasantness of this miserable trip. Ahh, looks like I’ll finally get a chance to get a nice, warm, relaxing night’s sleep for once.
Wouldn’t you know it, in the middle of the night, a terrible noise awakened us all. It was so loud that none of us could manage to get back to sleep. In our anger, we decided to seek out whoever or whatever was making this noise and get rid of it. Now, normally I am not in favor of wanton killing (particularly when there are no ladies around to impress – and believe me, the fighter tavern wench doesn’t count as a lady), but with my night of rest ruined, I find myself in a particularly foul mood. After casting an invisibility spell on myself just to be safe, we set out for the source of the sound.
About an hour later, we came upon what appeared to be a ruined settlement of some sort. At this point the sound was comparable to one of my late father’s temper tantrums. Of course, I responded with the same strategy I used to use as a boy (wax in the ears) and several of the other party members followed suit. Exploring around the first few buildings, we came upon one wall that looked to be quite new, while everything around it looked to be in an advanced stage of decay. The dwarf went to investigate, which is just as well, since he was attacked by the wall as he approached! It seemed to just bud out and strike at him. Of course, I warned the rest of the party of the dwarf’s fate and then followed at a safe distance. At this point, it was apparent that we would have to fight this monster, because it appeared to have secreted some sort of glue that had the dwarf stuck fast. In fact, it looked suspiciously like the stupid dwarf had actually tried to head-butt his way out of trouble. I was just running up the stairs to the near by battlements to get a better angle of fire for my magical 'season' daggers when the wall-beast went after me. Startled, I barely got out of the way before the pseudopod slammed into the mage in our party. After all, I WAS invisible. Let me just say that this spell seemed a lot more useful when I was envisioning its use to help me get into and often out of the brothels in my hometown undetected. Anyway, we eventually killed the wall beast and managed to remove it from the dwarf and the mage (who had become stuck during the fight) before they suffocated. It was during this fight that I made a startling discovery about electricity – monsters conduct it rather well. Fortunately, my poor party members who had become attached to the wall beast seemed too happy to be alive to be concerned with the electricity burns.
While we had rescued the dwarf, we had done absolutely nothing about the god-awful noise, so we continued to search through the compound. The wench thought she saw something glittering in one of the ruined buildings, so of course we stopped to investigate. After wading into the rubble about 10 feet or so, she was attacked by some zombie-like hands. I have heard of such things, used as guardians by powerful mages who know the secret of their creation. Personally, I’d chose to go straight to the golem instead of wasting time on these pathetic creatures. We killed a couple, but couldn’t find anything of value in the area.
After beating a hasty retreat, we came to a big building that housed some of the strangest bugbears I had ever seen. They were sickly looking and not hostile at all. In fact, in a moment of generosity, I actually suggested that we heal one. Instead of giving us any useful information, it just up and died right after we cured it. How ungrateful. Oh well, my father always said nothing good comes from being generous. Oh yeah, I almost forgot. The dwarf actually descended into the world of thievery. Upon spying a platinum cup that he just had to have in the compound. He walked up and tried to take it. Of course, the bugbear shaman cast some spell that froze him in mid-step. The shaman then came over pried the cup from the dwarf's fingers and then tipped him over on the floor. I chuckle about the incident even now. Not even the lowest street thief would conduct a robbery that incompetently.
Still without any ideas as to how to combat the noise, with the volume now reaching the level of a horde of merchants who have just realized you sold them fake paintings for exorbitant prices, we set out across the compound. We quickly ascertained that the noise was coming from a well-like structure set in the corner of the compound. The elven ranger went up to the lip to investigate, and was quickly snatched from view by a fat tentacle. Naturally, I exhorted the rest of the party to see what happened to him, and they did. Man, what an ugly beast it was, and it smelled worse than the dwarf. The Kid jumped down into the pit to help out, which I suppose was brave, but also rather stupid. I’ll have to work harder on developing his sense of intelligence, as he shows promise in all other areas. Anyhow, after about five minutes of furious fighting, we managed to kill the beast, but not before it had spent some time chewing on the ranger, and snatching the fighter with it's other tentacle. Having some interest in the sciences, I experimented during this battle, my 'Spring lightning' dagger once again seemed to demonstrate the propensity of foul beasts to conduct electricity. The Ranger twitched for several seconds even after I slew the beast, and the Fighter wench seems none to delighted about her new curly hair.
Anyway, Upon leaving the pit which we filled in with the surrounding rubble, and looking for a place to rest, the Kid, the Ranger, and the Dwarf all seemed to come down with a bug of some sort. This hardly surprised me, having witnessed the filth surrounding and indeed even covering the pit beast, which the Ranger informed me, is a Otyugh. We used the healing staff to cure the Dwarf, but we must wait until tomorrow to cure the Kid and the Ranger. I really hope they don’t die before we can cure them, as they are basically the only friends I have.
We found a nice, relatively intact building to rest in, and we quarantined the Kid and the Ranger so the rest of us wouldn’t get sick. I can’t believe that anyone would volunteer to take watch, since we are all mind-numbingly tired, but the more noble elements in the group selflessly volunteered, and I went to sleep.
ASEO out
---NIGHT 12 PART III---
Darius Male elf Ranger level 3
Morak, Son of DaK Male dwarf Fighter/Priest level 3/3
Shendar (Blue Arm) Male elf Mage/Thief level 3/4
Bertha Bumblebee Female human Fighter level 4
Tevroc Male human Mage level 3
Roam D'Le Rold Male human Ranger/Druid 2/2
The Kid Male human Fighter/Thief 2/3
Mackame Appears to be an 8-year-old Female (Necro M/Necro P 3/3) NPC
"Brunur" Mackame's Zombie dog NPC
(The characters are exploring the ruins found on page 78 in the book, Jakandor, Land of Legend)
As the party rested in the old Blacksmith’s shop, Tevroc who was on watch noticed two large humanoids heading from the large structure where the sick Bugbears had been, to the area where the party had filled in the hole.
Suddenly the conversation that these two creatures were having seemed to be greatly magnified to the point that it woke the sleeping party members. This apparent sound magnifying effect seemed to cause quite a stir in the Bugbear sick house and soon a flood of Bugbears came flowing from that building to the pit area. Among this group was seen the Bugbear shaman. With the Shaman’s arrival to the area a great ceremony seemed to begin, with the Bugbears lighting torches, the Shaman chanting and Bugbears painting strange images on the interior of the protective outer wall that bordered the pit area.
During this time, Shendar climbed to the roof of the smithy for a better view. He witnessed several Bugbear war bands moving through the walled compound toward the pit site. As the number of Bugbears at the pit site began to swell, Shendar decided to take the opportunity to return to the Bugbear shrine in the sick house and retrieve the platinum cup that Morak had attempted to recover. Shendar moved stealthily through the compound avoiding several war bands in the process. He quietly entered the torch lit chapel and crept up to the altar upon which rested the platinum cup, resting upon a metal plate set in the altar. When he was sure that there was nobody else around, he grabbed the cup off the altar…only to find that is was fiery hot to the point that the flesh on his hand stuck to the cup. In an effort to remove the burning cup from his grasp, Shendar violently shock his hand which only server to remove the chard flesh from his hand as the cup loudly clattered to the floor. Quickly bundling his hand in wet rags, he cooled the cup with water from his water skin and sheepishly retrieved it. After experimenting with the plate in the altar, he learned that it heat any item set upon it. Unable to see a means of removing the plate from the alter, he made his way back to the party and sought out healing from Morak for his severely burned hand.
Meanwhile, the party had been fortifying the smithy best they could and decided to wait out the Bugbear ritual. Luckily the Bugbears didn’t seem interested in any of the buildings and left the party unmolested.
Eventually, as the sun came up, the Bugbears departed the area and the party was finally able to get some rest.
Just after noon, the party arose, took stock of their surroundings and began to further explore the area.
A building to the right of the smithy seemed to once have been a stable, but now lay in ruins. The evidence that Bugbears sometimes slept here was noted by Roam, but he opted not to pass the information on.
Next, the long-house style building behind the smithy was explored. Morak and Darius entered through a hole in the building’s wall while the rest of the party entered through the building’s now doorless doorway. Inside the building which still had its roof, but which showed signs of fire, the party notices several partial Bugbear skeletons, as well as a few skulls of lesser humanoids. The floor of the building was covered with at least a foot or so of dirt, blown in over the years. Darius began checking for tracks and found several large reptilian footprints and the signs that a large lizard had been about. While the rest of the party waited by the door, Bertha and Morak began to examine the contents of the building. It seemed from the trash that the building had once been some sort of troop barracks. Brunur began to growl.
Suddenly, the ground beneath Morak, who had been inspecting the security of the rafters, shifted. Morak was catapulted into the air by a Giant reddish Lizard that had been sleeping beneath the dirt. As Morak scrambled for his feet, Bertha drew her weapons and moved in to attack. Brunur also joined the fray, bounding across the room to attack the Lizard. The Lizard opened its mouth and breathed fire at the very startled Morak, who was caught in the blast but not badly burned. As Bertha and Brunur approached the beast from the rear, Shendar moved into position so that he could cast ‘Grease’ on the Fire Lizard’s head.
The Fire Lizard turns to attack Morak and Brunur bites onto its tail and locks his jaws. Bertha wades into combat with the beast smacking it with her axe. The Lizard in turn viciously attacks Morak with a savage claw/claw/bite combo that sends Morak reeling. The beast then turns to assault Bertha as Shendar casts his ‘Grease’ spell on the beast’s head. Brunur, who is firmly latched onto the Fire Lizard’s tail swings around as the Lizard turns and narrowly avoids colliding with the retreating Morak. Tevroc fires a round of ‘Magic Missiles’ just as the Fire Lizard breaths slightly burning Bertha and igniting the ‘Grease’ on its head (which has absolutely no effect on the creature).
As Brunur continues to gnaw on the Fire Lizard’s tail, Bertha launches into a devastating attack combo that leaves the beast severely mauled. The Fire Lizard breaths a final blast of flame at Bertha as a volley of ‘Magic Missiles’ fired by Tevroc slam into it and slaying the reptile.
Shendar suggests gutting the Fire Lizard to see if it had anything of value in its stomach, but he doesn’t want to get dirty so refuses to do it himself. The other characters have no desire to witness the foul beasts last meal, so none of them will do the gutting. A discussion begins on the value of the Fire Lizard’s fireproof skin, but the weight, and tanning necessary to keep it from rotting make taking the skin impractical.
The party exits the building and spends a couple of hours moving through the rubble of a couple more structures.
Finally their explorations leave them with one final building. It appears to have once been a warehouse, with several large wagon-sized doors still hanging on rusty hinges. Morak moves up to one of the less sturdy looking doors and, judging the structure to be relatively sound, bashes a hole in the door. Peering through the door into the warehouse that is dimly lit by sunlight shining through many holes in its roof, Morak notices a glint of silver in a far corner. After glancing briefly around for some danger, Morak pronounces it safe to enter. The hole in the door is enlarged, and the party enters.
The warehouse is empty except for a large messy, knotted ball of silver wire in the corner, and a few stray sticks, leaves and bones. The party moved to investigate the silver wire. Darius notices a few more wads of this wire crammed into the rafters.
Upon reaching the wad of wire, Morak discovered that it was as strong as steel. While the party attempted to recover some of the wire from the knotted mass, a silvery shape moved in the rafters above them.
Suddenly a large Silver Spider (from page 144 of Jakandor, Land of Legend) dropped down among the party. Roam recognized the Silver Spider as a magical abomination, his chosen enemy, and launched into action, attacking the beast with his spear. The Silver Spider seemed focused on Tevroc and attacked him almost exclusively. This allowed the rest of the party to quickly slay the Silver Spider, but not before it bit Tevroc on the leg. While Roam gave the Silver Spider’s corpse a couple more jabs, Tevroc investigated his wound.
A shiver of fear passed over Tevroc as he witnessed a spreading silver stain emanating from the wound the Silver Spider had inflicted. Not only was the Tevroc’s skin turning silver, but it also seemed to be hardening, freezing him in place.
The party called out suggestions:
Morak: “I don’t have any way to slow or stop the spread of this toxin, I could cast ‘Cure Lt Wounds’ on you just in case”
Tevroc: “ Do it!, I cant move my knees”
The spell is cast and the silver continues to spread and harden.
Mackame: “You’ll look nice all shiny.”
Tevroc: “Come on guys I need some help here. The silver has moved up to my waste.”
Shendar: “Hey, get in a fierce, menacing pose, that way if we can’t get you out of this you’ll at least make a nice statue”
Tevroc: “WHAT!” ---silver to stomach---
Morak: “You are on to something there. You know how much a solid silver mage statue would be worth?”
Tevroc: “You’re lucky I’m out of spells!” ---silver to armpits---
Bertha: “Come on People! We have a serious problem here! If you Hurry and hold your arms straight out in front of you, it would make you much easier to carry.”
Tevroc: “Much easier to carry? EASIER TO CARRY! I’LL GIVE YOU SOMETHING TO CARRY!!!”
Roam: “No, hold your hands over your head so you’ll be easier to drag.”
Tevroc: “HOW ABOUT IF I HOLD MY ARMS LIKE THIS! (makes a rude gesture) YOU FRIGG’N, *(&%^!$, SPAWN OF *#$^*!, THRICE DAMNED ORC SUc..mmermm..mm” ---all silver---
The Kid: “He should have just curled up quickly, then he’d have harden into a ball and we could have rolled him where ever we need to.”
The party then spends some time trying to figure out what actually to do with Tevroc’s silver form. It is finally decided that the best option is not to divide Tevroc up as party treasure, but to transport him with the party until as Roam suggests the poison may wear off like that of other spiders.
The party, dragging Tevroc left the compound and headed west through the woods. As darkness began to fall the party made camp.
ASEO out
The Kid: “He should have just curled up quickly, then he’d have harden into a ball and we could have rolled him where ever we need to.”
ROTFL.
---NIGHT 13 part I---
The party is now:
Darius Male elf Ranger level 3
Morak, Son of DaK Male dwarf Fighter/Priest level 3/3
Shendar (Blue Arm) Male elf Mage/Thief level 3/4
Bertha Bumblebee Female human Fighter level 4
Tevroc Male human Mage level 3
Roam D'Le Rold Male human Ranger/Druid 2/2
The Kid Male human Fighter/Thief 2/3
Mackame Appears to be an 8-year-old Female (Necro M/Necro P 3/3) NPC
"Brunur" Mackame's Zombie dog NPC
The party rests through the night, but hear the chanting of the Bugbears that seems greatly magnified.
In the morning the party arises except for Tevroc who is still silver. The party heads west with Bertha carrying Tevroc.
As the party travels, the ground begins to become marshier and the oak and pine trees give way to willows and cypress. Around noon, Bertha feels Tevroc move a little and the party gathers around to watch Tevroc de-silverfy. Shendar suggests hacking off the Tevroc’s leg while it is still silver and is rewarded with a threat of a ‘Magic Missile’ salvo up the nose by the now conscious Tevroc.
With Tevroc now self-mobile, the party continues their westward journey. Having to make a couple detours to avoid swamp hazards, the party eventually comes to a river that is flowing southward. This they deem is the river on their map, and thus turn north in search of the tomb of Duluan Meir, which is marked on their map.
Adventure "The Moor-Tomb Map" from DUNGEON #13
As it begins to get dark, the party heads to a small hill in the swamp to make camp on dryer ground. Luckily for the party the hill is occupied by a large plant (Man Trap) with very soft looking leaves. The entire party with the exception of Brunur and Morak climb into the comfortable looking leaves, which then close around them. While Morak stands, content to wait his turn to rest, Brunur begins to growl and tear at the plant. This weird action causes Morak to re-evaluate the situation and he realizes that his compatriots are in danger. Brunur and Morak tear into the Man Trap, severing stems and the leaves holding the party members. As the plant is hacked apart, Morak frees Bertha, who waking from her slumber finds herself covered in a mild acid that has partially digested her armor. Man, is she pissed! Unfortunately her axe has been digested, so she resorts to attacking the plant and freeing the others with a dagger. One by one the party members are freed in various states of consciousness. Eventually the plant is destroyed, and Morak casts healing spells to revive those left unconscious by the plant’s digestion. Several personal articles of clothing and equipment were ruined by the plant’s digestive juices. Searching around the plant’s roots the party found several gold coins which the plant evidently couldn’t digest, as well as a magical battle axe named ‘Scale Bane’. Tevroc cast ‘Detect Magic’ on the axe and it glowed red, with the scale pattern on its face glowing orange (+1, +2 vs. scaly creatures). Bertha claimed the axe to replace her damaged non-magical one. Now that the plant was dead, the party set up a watch schedule and set up camp for the night.
The night passed uneventfully. The next morning Shendar cast ‘Levitate’ upon himself and levitated up above the trees to see if he could see anything that resembled the obelisk on the party’s map. He doesn’t see an obelisk, but does see several lakes to the north. The obelisk on their map in on an island in the middle of a lake, so the party decides to head north.
Shendar drops a rope to the party and asks them to drag him along so that he doesn’t have to get all muddy walking through the swamp. Bertha gives it a try, but the rope keeps getting tangled in the trees, and small birds keep attacking Shendar who is disturbing their nests with his passage. Shendar eventually abandons his levitative travel and joins the party slogging through the moors.
As the party enters the lake region, they do some scouting and do find a small lake with an island on which rests a stone obelisk upon which is carved some sort of text. Since Morak is the most knowing in the history and languages of this dead kingdom, he is ‘Levitated’ by Shendar, and pushed in the direction of the obelisk by Bertha, who had the foresight to tie several lengths of rope to Morak before sending him hurtling in the direction of the obelisk.
Fortunately, Bertha’s aim was good, even though the force of her push may have been excessive. Morak impacted the obelisk with a tooth jarring crunch, shook it off, and then was ‘Levitated’ up to the top in order to read the text upon the four faces of the spire.
The text on the obelisk was (correctly) translated as:
North Face:
“The gold you give repays in kind,
Give well when asked, and safety find.”
South Face:
“Desire for gold may secrets show,
But giving stills the fatal blow.”
East Face:
“Those crossing deep to gain the ground,
May fall as biting fear is found.”
West Face:
“One’s days can ne’er be forged anew,
But magic may give the great their due.”
At the top of the obelisk, Morak found a hole that pierced the top of the obelisk. Looking through this hole, Morak saw a magnified view of an Island in a lake several miles to the north. He signaled to be pulled back to the shore and informed the party of his discoveries.
The party then headed out in the direction of the lake Morak had seen. They are having a leisurely stroll through the swamp when they are suddenly ambushed by a Lizard Man war party. Shendar bursts into action, taking three Lizard Men out of action with a well-placed ‘Stinking Cloud’. Bertha waded into combat with her new axe that allowed her to dispatch several Lizard Men in quick succession. Brunur, Mackame and Morak squared off against two Lizard Men while Tevroc fires off a ‘Magic Missile’ salvo at a Lizard Man who burst from the water next to where Tevroc was standing. Darius and Roam kept a stream of arrows poring into any Lizard Man who was not engaged with party members.
Brunur latched on to the throat of one of the Lizard Men that was menacing Mackame, while Morak cracked the other one with his hammer, or at least tried to. Seems that the humidity of the swamp must have made Morak hammer slippery because when he swung his hammer went flying into the bushes. Luckily Mackame is not defenseless. She swung her staff and crotched the Lizard Man dropping him to his knees.
Meanwhile, Tevroc was stabbed in the knee by the Lizard Man he had ‘Magic Missiled’. As Tevroc drops like a rock, Shendar throws his spider dagger of web movement at Tevroc’s attacker. Missing horribly, his magical dagger goes skidding into the underbrush. Darius and Roam rush to the M’s rescue, and each pump 2 arrows into the Lizard Man who is dead before he hits the ground.
As the ‘Stinking Cloud’ dissipates, Shendar moves to dispatch the three Lizard Men who are still retching. Brunur and Mackame slay the two Lizard men that they were facing while Morak swung ineffectually, but made a good show of trying to fight.
Roam rushed over to Tevroc and cast ‘Cure Lt Wounds’ returning Tevroc to consciousness. Shendar killed two of the retching Lizard Men, but the third one escaped. Morak uses the ‘Staff of Curing’ while Mackame casts “Cure Moderate Wounds” on Tevroc. (This combined effort heals the 18 points Tevroc suffered and removes the penalties to the M’s movement that were caused by the critical hit to his knee). Darius and Roam head off in pursuit promising to catch up with the party shortly. Luckily for Morak and Shendar that Shendar had a ‘Detect Magic’ memorized, because with out it the spider dagger and Morak’s +1 war hammer would have been lost to the swamp. The weapons recovered, the party continues their travels north, marking a path for Darius and Roam to follow.
ASEO out
Adventure "The Moor-Tomb Map" from DUNGEON #13
Good choice.
One of my favourites...when I ran it many moons ago in my late teens the party managed to get themselves really messed up in the area with the masks and the poison gas.
To top it off when my players accused my of having an unbeatable death trap I lucked out as one of the player's little sister (of 10 or so) came into the room to see what all the 'big kids' where doing. So I ran the set up with her "your in a room with a bunch of masks and poison gas flowing into the room. What do you do?". Her reply was along the lines of "I try on all the masks on and see if that helps" - which is of course (more or less) the correct answer...So I loudly lauded her brilliance and proclaimed that she should be leading the party.
For weeks afterword she would tell anyone who would listen about how much smarter she was then her big brother...much to his ire and everyone elses great amusement.
Night 13 part II
The party who is now:
Darius Male elf Ranger level 3 (not with party)
Morak, Son of DaK Male dwarf Fighter/Priest level 3/3
Shendar (Blue Arm) Male elf Mage/Thief level 3/4
Bertha Bumblebee Female human Fighter level 4
Tevroc Male human Mage level 3
Roam D'Le Rold Male human Ranger/Druid 2/2 (not with party)
The Kid Male human Fighter/Thief 2/3
Mackame Appears to be an 8-year-old Female (Necro M/Necro P 3/3) NPC
"Brunur" Mackame's Zombie dog NPC
Travel northward until they reach the lake with the island that Morak had seen. It is about 3 hours to darkness.
The water of the lake looks clear and placid, with scores of little white fish moving slowly between submerged clumps of reeds and weeds. A tree-covered island rests in the center of the lake about 30 yards away.
The party spends some time pondering over the poem copied from the obelisk and in particular, the words from the East Face:
“Those crossing deep to gain the ground,
May fall as biting fear is found.”
The party agrees that they really don’t want to learn what the “biting fear” may be. They decide to fell some trees and construct a raft. Just as the last rays of the setting sun begin to fade, Tevroc, Bertha, Shendar and The Kid climb aboard the raft and paddle their way to the island. One there, Bertha and Shendar disembark, and Tevroc and The Kid begin to paddle back to retrieve Mackame, Brunur and Morak.
About 10 yards from the island, the uncoordinated rowing efforts of Tevroc and The Kid cause the raft to capsize. Into the water go the two adventurers. The Kid quickly scampers back on to the raft. Tevroc is having a little more trouble. Suddenly Tevroc feels a sharp pain in his leg as something small bites him. Tevroc intensifies his effort to get back on the raft, but in doing so only manages to tip the raft causing The Kid to fall into the water. Several more bites fallow the first and the party on the shore notices all the white fish heading toward the raft.
As the water about Tevroc starts to foam with small white biting fish (Quippers) both The Kid and Tevroc begin to panic. Shendar from shore throws his SPRING DAGGER, and the electrical shock it produces kills a few of the fish and stuns many more enough for both Tevroc and The Kid to climb back on the raft. With Tevroc’s blood in the water, the Quippers are enticed into a feeding frenzy. The water about the raft is a foaming mass of little white fish and needle like teeth. The Paddles, which had fallen into the water, are chewed to splinters. The Raft it’s self is large enough to remain undisturbed by the savage fish.
Tevroc and The Kid are now stuck on a raft with no paddles in the mass of blood crazed Quippers. Shendar throws his SPRING DAGGER several more times, but the fish only turn on their dead brethren and further fuel the feeding frenzy. Bertha finally resolves to throw a rope o her friends on the raft. Taking care to keep the rope from hitting the feeding fish, she throws the rope to Tevroc. Holding onto the rope and laying down on the raft, Tevroc and The Kid Are hauled back to the Island.
“Well, that didn’t go so well.”
Some new paddles are constructed and given to The Kid and Tevroc who once again head back across the lake, this time trailing a rope, and doing their best to keep it out of the water. While their paddles are periodically nibbled, they make it almost to the other shore with out incident. Then suddenly, just as they are about to reach the shore, the raft strikes a submerged stump and Tevroc is flung once again into the water. With lightning like speed, Tevroc, who in only in water about 3 ft deep, lunges for shore…and makes it safely.
With the lessons learned from the first two crossings, the remainder of the party board the raft, lay down, and is pulled to the island by Bertha. Once on the island, the party sets up camp and settles down for the night.
As the morning sun lights the island, the party sees a large statue of a robed man on a large stone platform. His right is arm raised, his left arm is lowered palm downward. A 5ft diameter stone bowl rests on a short pillar of stone just in front of the mysterious statue. Carved in the rock floor below the bowl are the following words:
“Respect this tomb, so firmly sealed,
Most giving gain admittance.
A noble gift will gain fair yield,
A shocking due for pittance.”
Further investigation revealed a 4-inch hole cut into the bottom of the bowl. The text from the obelisk’s north face comes to mind.
“The gold you give repays in kind,
Give well when asked, and safety find.”
The party dumps 800 gp worth of coins and gems into the hole. Nothing happens. The party decides to check out some large copper doors that Morak has found in the side of the hill that occupies the center of the island. (These doors deliver an electrical shock for 1-8 hp damage every round of contact. This is 90% likely to happen, -1% for every 10gp worth of treasure deposited into the bowl). Since there is no apparent opening mechanism, and the pushing of Bertha (who wasn’t shocked) and Morak (who wasn’t shocked) failed, Shendar cast ‘Knock’ and the door opens. Beyond the doors is a small rounded room with a 5 ft diameter stone tube like hallway exiting further into the hill. Shendar slowly entered the room and fell 15 ft into another 5 ft round tube that had been carefully camouflaged. At the bottom of this tube, which was more like an elbow joint, the tube continued in a direction 45 degrees to the left of the above tube. Shendar climbs out of the hole, and the party moves down the upper tube. Just as the last member of the party entered the tube, a large iron door descended from the ceiling just behind the copper doors, sealing the party in.
The party, many of the members forced to stoop over, proceeded down the tube which made several winding turns as it descended. Morak begins to feel a slight rumbling in the stone beneath his feet, as if stone is moving on stone somewhere else in the area. He comments on this to the party who all stop to listen.
Quietly at first, and then building, the noise becomes more discernable. It almost sounds like something…rolling..? Bertha moves back up the tube only to see a stone ball that almost completely fills the tube rolling strait toward her. She turns and runs, best she can being stooped over. Back to the party yelling “BAAAALL!!!”
The party spurts into action, unfortunately Morak is in the front, and his movement is less that the rest of the party. The traffic jam is compounded by Shendar who is second in line. Fearing stumbling into a trap in their rushed state keeps 10 ft behind Morak. Around another bend the party goes, but it looks like the stone ball will catch up to them. Bertha drops he cooking pot as she flees, but it does little to slow the ball’s descent as it is mashed beneath the sphere.
There, in front of the party, Morak sees that the tube opens up into a room. He sprints toward the opening…only to fall into another elbow joint pit. Shendar sees Morak fall, and easily tumbles over the pit. The Kid coming up next is barely able to stop before falling into the pit himself. Teetering on the edge of the pit The Kid is impacted by Tevroc who is unable to stop in time. The Kid is knocked into the pit and lands on Morak who is just regaining his feet. Shendar realizes that the Ball will drop down the pit in its path of destruction. Seeing her party backing up at the pit, and realizing that the ball will hit them at it’s current rate of advance, Bertha makes a huge self sacrifice.
Turning to face the oncoming bolder Bertha launched into action. From her pack she withdraws her cast iron frying pan, her only link to her bar maid past, the only link to her mother who once used this very pan to teacher to cook so many years ago. That was before the fire. Before she had been forced to flee the Inn of the Frothing Otter, knowing her mother was trapped inside. But what could she do, she couldn’t lift the beam from her mother’s unconscious form… Help me… Somebody help me!…
Clearing the memories from her past, she throws the frying pan before the rushing sphere. Sparks blaze as the ball strikes the pan and pushes it down the tube. (I gave it a 1% chance of success) Tevroc jumps across the pit. Bertha grabs up Mackame and tosses her roughly across the opening. Brunur easily jumps the pit.
The Kid and Morak having regained their feet see only the silhouette of Bertha outlined against the sparks of the approaching ball. Shendar digs franticly through his pack to get some rope to get Morak and The Kid out of the pit. The Ball is speeding toward the party. The grinding of the pan on the stone as it is pushed in front of the ball is deafening. Bertha drops into the pit determined to try to catch the ball as it drops so that it doesn’t smash her friends…her new family. The grinding grows closer, Tevroc and Shendar freeze in panic, sparks shower on to those in the pit as the ball rolls closer. The screeching of metal on stone as the pan slowly wedges itself further under the sphere. In the pit Bertha sees the edge of her pan break the lip of the pit, she braces to catch the ball, or be smashed flat trying. Those in the pit close their eyes and wait for the end…that never comes. The grinding has stopped; a cheer is heard, made by Mackame. Bertha opens her eyes and looks up. There, illuminated by the light of Mackame’s staff, precariously balanced on the edge of the pit is the frying pan, which is wedged beneath the ball and has stopped its deadly descent. (I actually rolled 01 on that 1% chance of success. I couldn't believe it. Bertha's player asked if she could have the dice to get them bronzed. I gave them to her and now they sit in a glass box on her desk) The Kid and Morak breath a collective sigh of relief, and then with the aid of Shendar’s rope Morak, The Kid, and Bertha climb out of the pit and onto the cold stone floor of a 60ft x 60ft chamber.
The 60ft x 60ft room the party finds them selves in has two pillars on each of the four walls. Hanging on five of the pillars are masks portraying different emotions, Disturbance, Courage, Fear, Greed, and Generosity. On the floor in the center of the room are three more masks: Happiness, Sadness, and Serenity. Each pillar has an iron spike in it on which the masks are hung. There are no apparent exits from the room with the exception of the lower portion of the tube that leads out from the bottom of the pit.
The party spends a couple of rounds evaluating their situation. Suddenly their situation takes a turn for the worse as the hiiissss of gas pouring into the room comes to every one’s attention. The party starts putting the masks on the floor on the pillars. This seems to have no effect and the gas continues to enter the room and the party begins to suffer its ill effects. (HP loss)
Bertha: “Maybe we should try on the masks.”
Tevroc, Shendar, The Kid, and Morak in unison: “WHAT? ARE YOU CRAZY?!”
Bertha: “It was just an idea.”
Shendar: “Forget it. We’ve got to figure out the combination of these masks before the gas kills us.”
Several more rounds of various mask-to-pillar combinations prove fruitless, and Tevroc is in danger of succumbing to the gas.
Bertha: “Ha ha ha Haa Ha”
Tevroc: “What’s so funny?”
Bertha: “Ha…I…just…ha…put on…ha ha…the Happiness mask…ha…”
Morak: “Are you OK lass?”
Bertha: “Yeah,.. he..he… It’s…just so …ha hehe…funny.”
Bertha laughs for about five minutes, and then recovers completely, none the worse for the wear (no pun intended). Tevroc is on his last few HPs and the gas is evidently preventing the spell casters from being able to concentrate enough to cast their spells.
Various members of the party grab masks and try them on.
The Kid – Courage – feels a wave of bravery sweep over him (will go berserk in next combat, +2 to hit, +2 to his AC, will fight until he or his enemy is killed)
Tevroc – Serenity – falls into a comatose state (which will last a week)
Morak – Generosity – the gas ceases to affect Morak
Mackame – Happiness – Laughs for five minutes “Hey, …he he…Bertha seemed…ha… to be having…he…ha…ha… a good time…he he… when she put …ha ha…this mask on ...so...um..giggle -snort-”
Shendar – Greed – suddenly sees the outline of a secret door in the pillar that had originally held the Generosity mask. “Hey, I found a door” He immediately goes to work opening the door. As the door opens, the gas stops and a blast of cool, but stale air washes through the room. Beyond the door lies a descending stairway.
Morak casts ‘Cure Lt Wounds’ on Tevroc, but is otherwise unable to revive him. Bertha asks Mackame if there is anything she can do Tevroc. Mackame responds that she knows a song (spell) which “…will wake him up, but he’ll be really, really tired and when he goes back to sleep he’ll be out for a half moon (two weeks). ” The party agrees that she should chant her song, which she does, and the Tevroc’s eyes flutter open. (The mage will lose 1 from every stat, combat roll, saving throw each hour until his lowest stat, strength <8> in this case reaches 0 at which time he will pass out and be in a comatose state for twice as long as he would have been had this spell not been cast.)
As Tevroc revives, Shendar pockets the Greed mask, and tries on the Fear mask – a sense of dread fills his mind. (In the next combat in which the party is out numbered, he will flee as if affected by the mage spell ‘Fear’) Shendar removes the mask and puts it in his pack.
Tevroc tries on the Disturbance mask and feels ill and seasick. (He loses 2 hours to Mackame’s spell, and all his rolls/stats/saves are reduced by 2)
The rest of the masks are gathered by the rest of the party who then follow Shendar through the door and down the stairs. The stairs descend 60 ft. At the bottom of the stairs, the party finds themselves in a 20ft x 30ft room. A 5ft-wide walkway runs around the west, north, and east sides of the room, half circling a dark pool of liquid about 6ft below the floor level. In the far wall, just opposite of the party, is the only apparent exit to the room, but this doorway is almost entirely blocked by a human-size statue of stone.
Shendar moves around the edge of the room searching for traps. He finds one in the center of the northern portion of the walkway. It is a 5ft portion of the floor that is designed to swing down and drop anyone on it into the pool of liquid. Tevroc throws a coin with ‘Continual Light’ cast on it, into the pool. A stream of small bubbles rises from the sinking stone, which illuminates the 6ft deep pool with an amber glow.
Shendar marks the trap and then leaps across to investigate the statue. As he moves in front of the Statue, it animates and attacks, trying to grab Shendar. Shendar makes a hasty retreat and the statue follows. Shendar tries tumbling to keep away from the Statue and is successful until he reaches the trap (he rolls a 20 on his proficiency check). Trying to cross the trap while being attacked by the Stone Statue proves to hard and Shendar slips and falls into the pool, which proves to be filled with a mild acid. Shendar scrambles out of the pool on the far side of the trap and casts a ‘Clean’ cantrip on himself to remove the acid from his person. He then retreats back to the party while the Statue returns to its doorway position.
Shendar throws his DAGGERS OF THE SEASONS at the Statue for a couple of rounds, but they seem to have little if any effect. It is decided that Bertha and Morak should move up to engage the Statue with The Kid in reserve. These three move to engage the Statue which re animates. The Kid goes berserk, and Bertha withdraws from combat when she learns that her axe hardly wounds the Statue. (Edged weapons cause ¼ damage) The kid attacks with a vengeance using his Magical Gauntlets ‘of speed when used in unarmed combat.’ Magic Gauntlets do 2 points of damage, The Kid is specialized in unarmed combat +2 damage, 18/82 STR +4 damage, berserk +2 damage, two attacks per round. The Statue lasts a round and a half against The Kid’s furious assault before shattering into a pile of rubble.
Impressed by the viciousness of The Kid’s attack, Bertha tries on the mask, and after feeling the adrenaline rush of courage, returns the mask to The Kid who puts it back on. (Now they will both go berserk in their next combat)
Beyond the Statue lies a 20ft hallway that ends in a door. Shendar checks the hallway for traps and finding none, ushers the party to the door. Finding no traps on the door, Shendar asks Bertha to open it, which she does.
As Bertha opens the door, the party is nearly overwhelmed by the foul stench of putrid flesh. The room however, seems to contain nothing more than an old, sealed sarcophagus resting against the far wall on a semicircular, 3ft tall stone dais. The party recognizes the stench as that of the foul undead known as Ghasts.
Bertha scans the room, seeing nothing. Mackame and Morak move into the room and move up on either side of the sarcophagus. Glancing behind it, they see nothing. The Kid and Bertha then move up to push the lid off the sarcophagus while the rest of the party stands by ready to attack anything that should emerge. As the lid is pushed aside, two Ghasts spring out sending the lid flying in Morak direction. While Morak flings himself clear of the sarcophagus lid, Shendar unloads the SUMMER and FALL daggers into the nearest Ghast. The Kid and Bertha go berserk and the Ghasts both fall amid a storm of savage attacks.
With the Ghast’s demise, the party is able to check out the contents of the sarcophagus. The inside is bare, except for a metal handle to what appears to be a trapdoor in the sarcophagus’ floor. Shendar checks for traps, but the time spent doing all this checking is costing Tevroc who is growing weaker as each hour passes. No traps are found and Bertha is asked to open the door, which she does. Beyond the trapdoor is a ladder leading 20ft down through a 5 ft diameter shaft that appears to open up into a room at the 20ft point. Bertha leads the way down, followed by Shendar. the rest of the party waits at the top.
The room below is 20ft x 20 ft with two doors on each of the four walls. The doors appear as follows:
North wall:
Solid copper sheet
Stone door with dial: In the dial are five holes into which it is surmised fingers are placed to turn the dial
West wall:
Wooden door with a sliding view port similar to a cell door
Segmented metal door with a handle at the bottom that appears to open by lifting it similar to a modern garage door
South Wall:
Solid stone plug with a lead seal
Metal double door that comes together in the middle like a creatures jaws
East wall:
Shimmering glowing portal which illuminates the room
Metal door with a combination lock
Shendar holds a silver mirror up in front of the cell like door on the west wall, and opens the view slot. A crossbow bolt flies out and puts a large dent in Shendar’s mirror, and leaves Shendar’s hand stinging. Peering through the slot, he sees only a stone wall with a hole in it and hears a faint clanking noise of the trap re setting. Shendar closes the view port.
Next he checks for traps on the stone door with dial. He finds that the door is indeed trapped, but fails to disarm the trap. Shendar then calls Bertha over and asks her to open the door. She is hesitant to put her fingers in the holes and turn the dial, but Shendar assures her that her fingers will be fine (He’s guessing since he was unable to discern the exact nature of the trap). Bertha inserts her fingers and turns the dial…and a portion of the ceiling above her collapses wounding her and Shendar in the hail of stone.
While Bertha is digging herself out of the rubble, Shendar attempts to listen to the tumblers as he turns the combination lock on the door on the east wall. He can’t hear a thing and thus abandons the door. Next, he throws a gold coin into the shimmering portal. Suddenly a fiery blast whooshes through the room burning Bertha and Shendar.
Shendar: “Note to self: don’t throw a coin through that portal”
Shendar decides to give one more door a try and moves to the garage like door on the west wall. Throwing caution to the wind, he grasps the handle and throws the door open. Before him is a 30ft x 50ft room which contains all the trappings of an Egyptian tomb. There is a chariot, small jars, amphora, small statues of servants, and a large golden sarcophagus. The rest of the party is quickly ushered down the ladder and into the entry of the tomb. Once again Bertha and The Kid move to cast aside the sarcophagus’ lid. Shendar readies two vials of ‘Holy Water’. Tevroc moves in to position to launch spells, and Morak shifts his shield and hammer in preparation for the anticipated combat.
As Bertha and The Kid reach the middle of the room, the sarcophagus bursts open and out launches a Mummy. Shendar lobs his ‘Holy Water’ scoring one direct hit. Bertha and the Kid go berserk, due to the mask, and attack with no regard for their personal safety. The Mummy swats The Kid out of the way sending him flying into the corner of the room where he crumples into a heap (Kid is infected with Mummy Rot). Mackame rushes to The Kid’s aid.
Shendar casts ‘Grease’ on the Mummy, catching Bertha in the edge of the spell. The Mummy is able to keep its feet beneath it, but Bertha slips and falls. Tevroc hits the Mummy with salvo after salvo of ‘Magic Missiles’. As Morak moves to drag Bertha from the ‘Grease’, Shendar hits the Mummy with his SUMMER dagger and, never to be one accused of fear of causing collateral damage, sets the ‘Grease’ ablaze. The Mummy and Bertha are caught in the flames that burn out in two rounds. Mackame casts ‘Cure Moderate Wounds’ on The Kid who returns to the fight. Having dropped his weapons when the Mummy bashed him, The Kid goes in punching with his Magic Gauntlets and lands two good solid blows.
As the Mummy continues to advance, Shendar retreats and climbs partially up the ladder. As the flames on the Mummy die down, the party notices a strange glittery smoke trailing from the Mummy’s back. (The cloak +3 that the Mummy was wearing under its wrappings failed to save against fire and was destroyed).
Mackame squirts the Mummy with a wineskin full of ‘Holy Water’ and this coupled with a sound blow from Bertha axe slays the Mummy.
The battle won, Shendar re-enters the room and casts ‘Detect Magic’. He sees magical glows emanating from the Mummy’s hands. Shendar begins tearing at the Mummy and comes up with two rings (ring +2 and a ring of clear thought, featured in the module, which gives a +1 to INT, and immunity to some mind-affecting spells) (and a case of Mummy Rot thanks to a curse for stealing the Mummy’s ring). Additionally around the room he sees a glowing circlet (‘Feeblemind’ for 5 rounds, then unremovable for 10 rounds) on one of the small statues. There is also a medallion (of missile attraction) sitting on a small pillar that radiates magic. These items Shendar gathers as the rest of the party investigates the wealth around the room. In the ceiling in one corner of the room is a hole beneath which is a pile of coins including all the items that the party had placed in the bowl at the statue on the island.
Tevroc finds the remains of a spell book that was sitting in the chariot and had been caught in the burning ‘Grease’. The following spells were the only ones recoverable from what was evidently once a rather large tomb: ‘Item’, ‘Protection from Cantrips’, ‘Mending’, ‘Affect Normal Fires’, and one more I can’t remember at the moment.
In the sarcophagus are found three vials of a quick-silvery liquid (potion of ‘Longevity’) and a potion of ‘Extra-Healing’. Also in the sarcophagus the party found a human upper front tooth made out of gold and set with a small diamond. This tooth also detected as magical…
As these treasures are collected, Tevroc finally succumbs to his drowsy ness and lapses into a catatonic state. The rest of the party settles in, sorts treasure and rests.
ASEO out
---- NIGHT 14 ----
The party who is now:
Darius Male elf Ranger level 3 (rejoins party)
Morak, Son of DaK Male dwarf Fighter/Priest level 3/4
Shendar (Blue Arm) Male elf Mage/Thief level 3/4
Bertha Bumblebee Female human Fighter level 4
Tevroc Male human Mage level 3
Roam D'Le Rold Male human Ranger/Druid 2/3 (rejoins party)
The Kid Male human Fighter/Thief 3/4
Mackame Appears to be an 8-year-old Female (Necro M/Necro P 3/3) NPC
"Brunur" Mackame's Zombie dog NPC
The two Rangers (have had an adventure, details to follow…Perhaps…) find themselves standing on the shore of a clear lake teeming with small white fish that Roam identifies as Quippers, and cautions against entering the water. Darius is now equipped with a cloak made of Keetch hide (+50% hide in forest shadows) and magical boots (+50% move silently through forest). Roam wears a new token that allows him to meld with trees (similar to the spell ‘Meld with Stone’). He also wears a pouch that keeps missile toe ever fresh. Finally, Roam carries a satchel with 50 leaf-wrapped amber shards that he knows he must disperse during his travels. Neither adventurer has a clear memory of what has transpired since they left the party, or how much time has passed. They only have fragmented memories. Warning signs…Large Beasts…Standing Stones…A Golden Glow…The Woman…Shattering…Foul Beasts…Gifts Given…A Favor Asked.
At the edge of the Lake, the two Rangers find evidence of their compatriots passing and deduce from the cut trees that the rest of the party built a raft. Peering across the lake the two Rangers see the remnants of a smashed raft on the shore of an island 90ft into the lake. Beyond the raft on the island stands a raised platform adorned with a 12ft statue of a man in robes.
The Rangers decide to make a circuit of the lake to see if there are any narrower crossing points. As they circle the lake, they spy several large canoes pulled up on the shore on the opposite side of the island from the statue. Beyond these canoes are two large huts, and the remnants of a campfire. The Rangers complete their circuit and find that the area by the statue is the best place to cross. They spend several hours building a two-person raft. Once the raft is complete, the two easily cross the lake without incident.
Once on the island, they examine the ruined raft and can tell that it has been smashed by some large humanoids, based on the footprints found in the mud at the waters edge. Darius follows the party’s tracks that lead to the statue. Investigating the statue Darius finds the large stone bowl with the hole in the bottom. Neither of the Rangers can read the text, but Darius throws a gold coin into the hole “for luck”.
Nothing happens, not that Darius expected anything to. Meanwhile, Roam has followed the party’s trail up to a large iron door that seems to have dropped from the ceiling and blocked a cave entrance. To either side of the door is an open copper door pressed against the hillside. When Roam nears the copper door, he feels hair on his arms stand on end, and warns Darius about that the copper doors are electrically charged. Examining the Iron door, Roam finds it to be slightly dented from the impact of a large piece of wood. Darius finds more of the large humanoid tracks in the area around the door and estimates them to be Ogre tracks, or at least that size.
As the two Rangers are examining the door, they hear a deep rumbling coming from behind the door. They step back and ready their weapons as the rumbling gets louder. Suddenly there is the sound of something big and hard bumping against the iron door, and then the rumbling seems to move away from the door. Darius moves back up to the door and pounds on it with the hilt of his sword, but gets no response.
Finding no way to open the door, the two Rangers begin to set up a defensive position overlooking the door. About two hours later they hear the rumbling again. They move to cover the door, but like before, the rumbling gets louder, something clangs off the door, and the rumbling moves away. This strange sequence occurs again every half hour for the next two hours. Then, a half hour after the last rumbling, there is the sound of something moving on the other side of the door.
Meanwhile…The Rest of the party recovers from the ‘Nap’ cast by Morak. They gather what treasure they can, gather the M, and begin to move back through the complex. As they are doing this, it is discovered that The Kid and Shendar both are breaking out in a scabrous rash. The Staff of Curing is brought to bear, and The Kid finds himself slightly scared, but free of the affliction. Shendar, on the other hand, finds much to his despair that the staff has no effect on his similar affliction. Morak deduces that Shendar affliction must be the result of a curse. Shendar discovers that magical healing is not working on him.
The party decides that they must make a rapid exit from this vault, and they make their way back up to the Mask Room, carrying as much treasure as they can. They decide to head up the upper tube, but must remove the stone ball that is wedged in place by Bertha’s frying pan. A rope is tied to the pan, and it is jerked out of the way. The ball rolls forward and down the hole. The party heads up the tube only to hear a deep rumbling that bespeaks the approach of the ball. The party rapidly retreats back down the tube and then drop down the lower tube and head up the lower tube. As they head up the lower tube, the party is shocked to discover that the tube is blocked by another stone ball. Shendar pushes on this ball but it fails to move. With the first ball dropping into the lower tube, the party find themselves in quite a bind. Bertha acts quickly and once again throws her frying pan in front of the rolling ball (rolls a 20). The ball hits the pan and comes to a screeching halt tightly sealing the party between the two spheres. While they are trapped, they hear a loud banging that lasts for about half an hour.
Morak sets to work with his pick and begins chipping a path around the ball pined by the pan.
About three days later, the party squeezes around the ball and moves back to the Mask Room. Bertha retrieves her pan. As they are doing this, they hear a clanking sound as if a small metallic object is falling down a narrow shaft.
Once back in the Mask Room, the Party begins to work on a plan to get up the tube. Morak uses his pick to dislodge one of the pillars, which he has deemed decorative, from its base. Bertha then rolled the pillar over into the hole leading to the lower tube. This effectively blocked the hole. Shendar took shelter behind one of the other pillars in the room while the rest of the party exited the room via the secret door and waited on the stairs. The Kid then headed up the upper tube until he heard the approach of a ball at which point he beat a hasty retreat back to the safety of the secret door. As the ball approached, Shendar cast levitate on it to help it roll over the pillar and into the room. Bertha then emerged from the secret door and rolled the ball out of the way, and the process began again. This was repeated four times before no more balls were forthcoming.
Once the tube seemed clear, The Kid climbed up the tube and reported that the exit was still blocked by the large iron door. The rest of the party hastens up the tube. Bertha and Morak try to lift the iron door, but it seems locked somehow. Shendar casts ‘Knock’ and Bertha Morak try once again to lift the door. This time they meet with success and slowly lift the door enough for the rest of the party to crawl under
Scampering under the door, The Kid finds a sword placed at his throat. Looking up to view his assailant he sees that it is Roam. The Kid quickly identifies himself, and the two rangers help the party out of the crypt.
ASEO out
Night 14 part II
The party who is now:
Darius Male elf Ranger level 3
Morak, Son of DaK Male dwarf Fighter/Priest level 3/4
Shendar (Blue Arm) Male elf Mage/Thief level 3/4
Bertha Bumblebee Female human Fighter level 4
Tevroc Male human Mage level 3
Roam D'Le Rold Male human Ranger/Druid 2/3
The Kid Male human Fighter/Thief 3/4
Mackame Appears to be an 8-year-old Female (Necro M/Necro P 3/3) NPC
"Brunur" Mackame's Zombie dog NPC
Darius tells the party about the large huts and the canoes on the other side of the island. Shendar goes to scout out the area and returns with news that there are two Ogres roasting an alligator over a fire between the two huts. The party decides to leave the island via the Rangers’ raft.
Darius and Bertha begin to head across the lake, trailing a rope behind them. Halfway across, the raft hits a stump, and Darius falls overboard. Darius scrambles back on the raft as the Quippers attack. In the feeding frenzy the rope, which was dragging in the water got, chewed through by the vicious fish. Bertha and R are forced to partially dismantle the raft in order to improvise paddles so that they were able to paddle back to the island.
At this point it was about an hour to sunset. A plan is made to ambush the Ogres and thus secure safety on the island for the party while they wait for Tevroc to wake up. Morak begins to circle around the island clockwise, while the rest of the party circles around counter clockwise. Shendar moves up toward one of the huts when an Ogre emerges from a previously unseen cave in the side of the hill that dominates the island. The Fear Mask which Shendar had previously worn kicks in and Shendar flees in terror back toward the party followed by two Ogres that witnessed his screaming retreat. As Shendar flees through the party, Roam holds his arm out and clothes lines Shendar. Bertha then tackled Shendar before he could flee further.
At that moment, Morak comes running over the top of the hill…pursued by five Ogres that had been heading around the island to investigate the recent rumbling sounds and the recent changes at the copper doors. Roam cast ‘Entangle’ in front of the cave and catches the two ogres who were chasing Shendar in the spell. Shendar is beginning to recover, so Bertha moves to intercept the Ogres coming over the hill.
Darius fires two arrows that soundly strike the first Ogre to come over the hill. When Morak reaches the party, he turns to attack his pursuers. Bertha wades into the melee hacking at the Ogres with her axe “Scale Bane”.
Shendar, now recovered moves to the hill above the cave just as an Ogre emerges and gets tangled in the ‘Entangle’ spell. The other two Ogres in the spell are making little headway moving toward the party, but are advancing. Roam pumps arrow after arrow into the nearest trapped Ogre. In a dash of daring, Shendar jumps down onto the Ogre at the cave mouth, backstabbing him. As the Ogre reaches behind him for his attacker, Shendar who had ‘Levitate’ cast, Levitates up 20 ft above the Ogre.
The battle on the hill is going poorly for the Ogres. Darius’ arrows have felled two and severely injured another. Bertha has exchanged several blows with the Ogre she engaged and eventually slays the brute. Morak on the other hand, hasn’t been able to hit anything, other than himself once for double damage. He even managed to drop his war hammer twice. Despite this, he hasn’t been hit by the Ogre. Bertha turns to attack the Ogre menacing Morak, while The Kid who had been watching Tevroc throws several volleys of daggers to fell the Ogre that had been wounded by the ranger’s arrows. Bertha and Morak double team the remaining Ogre and Bertha finishes it off despite being hit twice by Morak, who is having a very bad day.
Shendar decides that he wants to drop down on the Ogre under him, and kick off that Ogre’s face to propel himself over between the two other Ogres attacking them as he passes, then halting as he hits the hut.
DM: ”Give me 4 DEX checks and 3 to hit rolls at -4.”
(Player rolls 2,4, 4, 1, 19, 18, 20!)
(DM checks the player’s dice)
Shendar drops, kicking the first Ogre squarely between the eyes. He is then propelled between the other two Ogres, stabbing one with his dagger, and the other one he critically hits stabbing it in the head for max double damage, which kills it. (It only had 1 hp left after being nickeled and dimed by a dozen or more arrows from Roam who kept rolling 1s and 2s for damage). Shendar them ‘Levitates’ up above the hut and continues attacking the Ogre at the mouth of the cave with his ‘Daggers of the Seasons’. Suddenly a ballista bolt is fired from a hidden port in the hillside. This bolt barely misses Shendar who then ‘Levitates’ down behind the hut for cover.
About this time, the ‘Entangle’ spell expires. As it does so, Roam switches to his magical spear. The Ogre not being attacked by Shendar bellows a mighty cry and charges Roam. Roam sets his spear against the charge and holds his attack. As the Ogre rushes in Roam attacks and rolls a 20! (Player rolls on critical hit chart and ends up doing triple damage that is then doubled vs. the charge) The Ogre finds itself very impaled and very dead on the end of Roam’s spear. While Roam removes the Ogre from his spear, Darius fires a volley of arrows at the Ogre at the mouth of the cave killing it.
Shendar cautions that there are more Ogres in the cave, so the party forms up and slowly enters the opening in the hillside. Within the cave is a large chamber that is lit as Morak throws several coins with ‘Continual Light’ on them into the chamber. At the far side of the roughly 50 ft x 50 ft cavern is an over turned table behind which can be seen the top of a helmet. On either side of the chamber are hallways; the one to the left of the entrance is blocked by a curtain made of hides.
Shendar casts ‘Grease’ on the area behind the table, then Bertha, The Kid, and Morak rush to engage any foes caught in the spell. When the three get halfway across the room, three Ogres emerge from behind the left, curtained hallway and attack. Luckily for the party, Shendar is able to catch two of the charging Ogres in a second ‘Grease’ spell. The third Ogre attacks Bertha. Four more Ogres emerge from the right hallway and move to attack the party. Darius and Roam move to intercept them, backed up by Shendar who has cast another ‘Levitate’ upon himself and Brunur. Mackame waits outside guarding the wizard. On his way to fight the Ogres on the right, Shendar lights the ‘Grease’ catching the two Ogres therein in a burst of flame.
Bertha and the Ogre attacking her swing away, neither able to hit the other for several rounds. (The highest hit roll between the two after 5 rounds is a 9) The Kid throws a volley of daggers into one of the Ogres in the burning ‘Grease’ while Morak moves to attack anything behind the overturned table. Morak finds that behind the table is only a helmet sitting on a log, do he turns to engage the Ogres which are no standing up, the ‘Grease’ having been burned out. The Kid hits one of the burned Ogres with another volley of daggers, killing it. He then engages the other burnt Ogre with his ‘Gauntlets of Speed’, only to find himself blinded. (An Ogre Shaman hiding behind the left curtain cast ‘Blindness’ on him). Fortunately for The Kid, Morak wades into the combat and shoves The Kid out of the way. The Kid moves until he feels a wall at his back and starts punching blindly.
By this time, Darius, Roam, and Shendar have dropped one of the four Ogres they are facing with combined missile fire. Darius then attacks an ogre with his Long sword and short sword, while Roam uses his spear to square off against an Ogre wearing what looks like human sized chain armor tied to the front of his leather shirt. This Ogre is also armed with a spear, so the two combatants stab at each other from a distance of 10 ft. Shendar hovers above the other two Ogres assaulting them with his ‘Daggers of the Seasons’, keeping them occupied with some assistance from Brunur who, after several attempts, bites and latches into one of the Ogres.
Bertha finally scores some solid hits, but then lapses back into a string of misses and minor fumbles. (The Ogre she is fighting has 1 Hp left, and stays that way for the next 8 rounds). Morak defeats the ogre he is fighting, and shakes off the effects of a ‘Darkness’ spell which appears in the area where The Kid is standing, between the hallway and the cave exit. Morak moves over to help the Brunur with the Ogre he is fighting.
Darius started out strong, but then suffered several minor fumbles one of which left him fighting with his breeches down around his ankles. He finally killed the Ogre he was fighting, and since he is kind of fond of the F, pulls his pants up and rushes across the room to her assistance. As he draws up beside her, he fumbles his attack, trips over a bench and falls breaking his leg. The next segment, Bertha struck the killing blow and defeated the Ogre she was fighting.
Brunur and Morak are able to kill the Ogre they are fighting while only sustaining minor damage themselves. Roam is having a harder time of it. The Ogre he is fighting is strong and very skilled at combat. If it were not for a quick ‘Cure Lt Wounds’ cast by Morak he would have fallen. The final Ogre beside the one with the spear is killed by Shendar and his magic daggers. Seeing himself drastically out numbered, the remaining Ogre draws a flask and pours the contents into his mouth.
Suddenly to the party’s, and the levitating Shendar’s in particular, dismay, the Ogre levitates up to the ceiling. Roam draws his bow, as the Ogre pushes off the wall and heads for the unguarded exit.
In the confusion, the Ogre Shaman sneaks out from behind the curtain and attempts to maneuver through the magical ‘Darkness’ in order to reach the cave exit and make good his escape. Unfortunately for him, he forgot that The Kid was caught in the ‘Darkness’. Feeling something moving by him, The Kid lashes out wit two savage punches (and rolls two 20s). His first punch catches the Ogre in the face (#87 on my chart, causing triple damage and destroying both of the Ogre’s eyes) His second punch smashes the Ogre’s windpipe killing the Ogre Shaman (#94, causing triple damage + some other stuff that didn’t matter because this Ogre is way dead). Feeling two his two punches landing very soundly, and feeling the shattering of bones, The Kid quickly drops down to feel the body and is relieved to find that he didn’t just beat the crap out one of his comrades.
Meanwhile, High over the cavern floor, Shendar engages the levitating Ogre. Shendar attacks with his short sword, misses, and is sent flying across the room by a blow from the Ogre. The severely wounded (1HP left) Shendar reacts as he sails across the room and fires a firebolt at the Ogre out of the ring which he has flinched from the comatose Tevroc. The bolt hits the Ogre as Shendar impacts the wall. The firebolt smashes into the Ogre killing him and leaving his bloody and scorched body levitating 20 ft above the floor. The impact with the wall causes Shendar to lose consciousness and he too is left levitating 20 ft off the ground, his short sword levitating above him.
Morak heals Darius’ broken leg and the party’s other wounds. A rope is thrown over Shendar and he is pulled to the floor. Magical healing won’t work on him, due to the Mummy Rot, and his normal healing is greatly slowed. While Roam yells into the ‘Darkness’ that the battle is over, Bertha retrieves Mackame and Tevroc and the party waits for Shendar to wake up. The Kid emerges from the Darkness, and the ‘Staff of curing is brought to bare to cure his ‘Blindness’. Eventually the levitating Ogre crashes to the ground, and his body is searched. Morak casts ‘Detect Magic’. An Ogre sized shield glows red, (+1) as does the human sized chain mail strapped to the Ogre’s chest. The Ogre’s spear glows Orange, (+2) and is claimed by Roam. A potion, which looks like a cloud in a bottle, is identified from past experience as a potion of ‘Gaseous Form’.
A couple of days under the healing care of Morak, and Shendar regain consciousness. It is decided that Shendar, Morak and Bertha will use the ‘Wind Walk’ scroll and travel back to the Rift Valley with a large portion of the party’s treasure. They will replenish the party’s supplies and hopefully find a cure for Shendar curse with the Clerics who accompanied the Paladins who seem to be setting up shop in the keep the party cleared out.
The plan is to return in about a week at which time, Mackame has assured the party, Tevroc will regain consciousness. They agree to meet back at the bridge across the river where they turned north in their search for the tomb.
ASEO out
----Add-in Session----
Morak, Son of DaK Male dwarf Fighter/Priest level 3/4
Shendar (Blue Arm) Male elf Mage/Thief level 3/4
Bertha Bumblebee Female human Fighter level 4
Use a scroll with 'Wind Walk' to return to the Rift.
Return to the Rift:
A page from the
Memoirs of Shendar Blue Arm
Well, after dispatching the ogres around the other side of the island
without finding a cure for the curse that I have been afflicted with, I
managed to convince the others to let me use the Wind Walk scroll to make a quick trip back to the rift. I took the dwarf and the bar wench with me for protection and muscle (someone has to carry all our loot). We agreed to meet the rest of the party by the bridge just to the South of the Weeping Willows in about two weeks time. After making arrangements and gathering a shopping list, we cast the spell.
We arrived just out of sight of the fast growing community of lean-tos and log cabins and walked into town. I pulled my cloak very low as a precaution against some idiot starting a lynch mob thinking I have the "plague". The only plague I have is having to share a town with these commoners. I tried to get a meeting with the head priest, but was rebuffed and told to come back for services tomorrow. I can't believe this imbecile has the audacity to kick me out of a temple that our party cleaned out anyway. I spent the rest of the day trying to identify the magic items we found in the mummy's lair. The only thing I got for my eight hours of trouble was that the magic tooth does indeed work by removing one of your own teeth and shoving that
one in. Exhausted, I retired for the evening.
The next morning, we went to services. The sermon was unbearably boring and full of the philosophical rubbish that charlatans like the bishop use to screw people out of their hard-earned coins. Why they jail thieves and exalt clergy I will never know. Anyway, someone managed to jostle my hood up a little bit as I was making my way to see the charlatan, and predictably, started blubbering about the plague. Things were looking pretty grim when people started asking about our goat (or lack thereof), but a combination of my sweet-talking, the wench's battleaxe, the dwarf's war hammer, and the charlatan's pleas for peace eventually prevailed, and no blood was shed.
After waiting forever in the charlatan's office, we got down to the serious business of getting rid of the mummy's curse. After an hour of negotiation, I can say with complete certainty that the only god the charlatan worships is the god of greed. He managed to extort 5000 gold pieces out of me, talking about how he needed the money to sponsor a missionary trip to the northern barbarians. From what I've heard of the barbarians, he should use some of that money to pick himself out a nice headstone. In fact, this was such a disaster that I added the charlatan to my list of people I'm going to get around to killing sooner or later. Anyway, with that distasteful business out of the way, we went shopping.
Shopping was uneventful, and although prices tended to be inflated, it was a welcome relief to only be ripped off a little bit after dealing with the charlatan all morning. In the evening, I spent some time at the newly built bar trying to pick up any hot rumors that were going around, but the only good things I got were a party going to get a dead dragon's treasure and some treasure vault that has lots of loot in it and the typical deadly traps, etc. This was mostly useless information since nobody knew where the vault was and no one knew which direction the dragon hunters went.
Unbelievably, I couldn't find a single lute or lyre to buy. I have decided that since we have no bard to tell our heroic tales and help us get famous (and more comfortable with the ladies) I must take on that role. I have been itching to try my hand at songwriting and my mother always said I was delicate, which means, "having musical aptitude" in our family (or at least that's how mother meant it). I briefly contemplated stealing an instrument from a bard in a rival adventuring party, but I figured I could wait a little longer and let my creativity ripen. Certainly, the more tales of heroism I have, the better the songs will turn out. Right now, I'm struggling with how to refer to myself in the songs. Should I sing the song in first person, or in third person and subtly imply that I am the protagonist? Chicks dig modesty, or so I'm told, so option number 2 might be better. Oh well, like I said, some more time to put together the arrangements in my mind will do me good.
The next morning, I decided to take the plunge with the tooth. I paid a local barber more than I ever thought I would pay for the privilege of having pain inflicted upon me, and the whisky he served was absolutely terrible, but in the end the tooth went in. It turns out that this particular item allows me to spit acid like some snakes 3 times a day, but doing so weakens you until you eat 10 gold coins. I know, it sounds disgusting, but as a last resort, it's always nice to have a surprise up your sleeve.
A few days after this, we started back to our party. The journey was relatively uneventful, if you ignore the moronic paladins that accompanied us for part of the journey. They peeled off and headed to the ruined monastery where we observed the sick bugbears. Hopefully all those bugbear war bands we saw will take care of the paladins before they make me sick.
Of course, I forgot to mention how many bugbears were in the area before the paladins left, but then again, they never asked. After another week or so of steady travel, we made it to the bridge where we were going to meet the party. We arrived before them, and camped by the bridge as the rest of the caravan headed into the other town we were going to investigate on our map.
Oh well, I guess that makes our decision to go to the "Shrine of ElementalPower" that much easier. My feet hurt.
ASEO out
----NIGHT 15----Part I
The party who is now:
Darius Male elf Ranger level 3
Morak, Son of DaK Male dwarf Fighter/Priest level 3/4
Shendar (Blue Arm) Male elf Mage/Thief level 3/4
Bertha Bumblebee Female human Fighter level 4
Tevroc Male human Mage level 3
Roam D'Le Rold Male human Ranger/Druid 2/3
“The Kid” Male human Fighter/Thief 3/4
Mackame Appears to be an 8-year-old human Female (Necro M/Necro P 4/4) NPC
"Brunur" Mackame's Zombie dog NPC
Shendar, F and F/P traveled with a caravan from the rift destined inland following the ancient road that the party had followed in their earlier journey. The caravan traveled through the ruins of Atmose, and a few miles from the ruined Monastery of the Voice. A group of Paladins, which had been traveling with the caravan, split off at this point and headed off in the direction of the monastery.
As the caravan reached the bridge at the river named the Uton on the party’s map, Bertha, Shendar and Morak split off from the caravan and set up camp waiting for their compatriots to arrive. Two days later, the rest of the party, with the now conscious Tevroc came trekking through the swamp.
After reuniting, it was decided that the party would investigate their second map and head south to try to find the Shrine of Elemental Power that the map showed to be located in a place called the Forbidden City. The party spent a couple of days traveling southeast in an attempt to find the Xericha River that is on their map. As evening approaches on the third day, the party hears the roar of rushing water. Moving forward to investigate, the party finds their path blocked by a deep canyon about 100ft wide and 60ft deep, at the bottom of which is a rushing river.
Shendar casts ‘Levitate’ and pushes off a tree to sail over to the other side trailing three of the party’s ropes that have been tied together. Once on the far side, Shendar ties the rope to a tree, the other end being tied to a tree on the opposite side of the ravine. Tevroc is the first one to cross, looping his feet around the rope, and then pulling himself forward. It is very exhausting work, and Tevroc is barley able to make it to the far side. His arms are so exhausted when he gets there, that he is unable to lift them and they hang limply at his sides. The Kid comes next, followed by Bertha. Roam is the next after that, but also has a hard time crossing, and like Tevroc reaches the far side only with extreme effort. Roam arms are rendered temporarily useless by the effort of the crossing.
It is now dark, and Morak, Darius, Mackame and Brunur have yet to cross. Several ‘Continual Light’ coins are brought out by party members on both sides of the ravine. As Morak makes his way across the rope, Shendar hears a loud buzzing approaching. Attracted by the lights, four Giant Mosquitoes attack the party. One goes after Morak on the rope, but Shendar casts ‘Grease’ on it and, its wings fouled by the substance, it plummets in to the rushing river below. As the Giant Mosquitoes attack they hover and dart among the party members on Shendar’s side of the ravine. Tevroc and Roam, unable to lift their arms due to the exertion of crossing the rope, are forced to kick wildly at the three remaining Giant Mosquitoes. The Kid and Bertha fair better, and are able to kill one of the insects that had attached itself to Tevroc. Morak puts extra effort into his crossing of the rope, but realizes that it is doubtful that he will get across before the battle is over, one way or the other. His main concern is getting off the rope incase he is attacked.
As a Giant Mosquito moves in to attack Shendar, Shendar lunges forward and flings himself onto the Mosquito’s back, grasping firmly to one of its wings, which Shendar then proceeded to rip out. This leaves this Giant Mosquito spinning around in circles on the ground. Shendar peppered this maimed Giant Mosquito with the Daggers of the Seasons until it managed to spin itself off the cliff.
Meanwhile, Roam and Tevroc are acting as bait for the final Giant Mosquito while Bertha and The Kid swung wildly at it. Eventually Tevroc clobbers it with a whirling, roundhouse kick which leaves the bug stunned long enough for Bertha and The Kid to hack it to pieces.
Morak makes it across the rope just in time to get splattered with blood from the bursting Giant Mosquito. At this point it is realizes that there is no way that Mackame or Brunur are going to be able to get themselves across the chasm. Shendar casts another ‘Levitate’ on himself and pushes off a tree to move across the ravine. Once on the other side, he bids Darius to cross, then unties the rope, grabs Mackame, who throws a fit about Brunur being left behind. Shendar switches Mackame for Brunur and carries the moldy dog across the chasm. He then returns for Mackame and ferries her too across the ravine. He then uses a ‘Clean’ Cantrip to remove the “Brunur ooze” from his apparel.
The Party moves about 100 feet away from the edge of the cliff and sets up camp for the night.
The next morning the party arises and continues on their trek south. Around mid-day, they become aware that they have entered an area that is some sort of humanoid burial ground, with the remains of several different types of humanoids placed upon raised wooden platforms. The party decides to continue on and as they approach the top of the hill that this burial ground is built on, they find a ring of stones similar to a Druid's ring. Tevrov, Shendar, Morak, and Roam are all able to feel the power of magic flowing
through the area. The ring of stones was once carved with magical runes, but time and the elements have taken their toll, ant the inscriptions are now unreadable. Inside the circle (is a Dead Magic Area where several magical lay lines converge) the ground is flat featureless stone. The party skirts the stone ring and proceeds southward out of the humanoid burial grounds.
(Thus begins the play of the module I1, Dwellers of the Forbidden City,
at least in part)
Over the next couple of days, the party enters an area of gently rolling hills with periodic stands of hardwoods. Darius looks at the Map the party is following (the Map from Night 6) and notices that the hidden entrance on the map is by what looks like a pine tree while all the other trees on the map in this region look like non-evergreens. With this information to go on, the party begins searching for a stand of evergreens.
Just such a stand is spotted by Roam and the party heads off in that direction.
As the approach the stand of trees, the crest a hill and discover that there is a crater in the center of the hill. At the bottom of this crater, 1,000 feet below lay the ruins of a small city. With out much more thought, the party makes their way to the stand of giant pines. After some searching, they locate a hollow beneath one of the huge trees that seems to lead into the hillside. A faint trickle of water runs out from this
opening. Since it is nearly dark, the party sets up camp a short distance from the cave mouth, and settles down to rest while keeping watch on the opening.
The following morning, the party rises after an uneventful night, and proceeds to enter the passageway beneath the giant pine. Shendar casts 'Invisibility' and 'Dark Light' on himself and enters the tunnel in advance of the party. The party follows about five minutes later. Shendar travels around 200ft down the tunnel and finds himself on the edge of an underground body of water. The area he is in is lit by two braziers that flank a large statue of a snake-bodied, six-armed woman. The walls of this area are
carved with scenes of men and snakes. Upon the beach are three canoes. Shendar chucks a few lose stones into the water while he waits for the rest of the party to catch up.
The party catches up with the invisible Shendar who startles the be-jee-bees out of Morak. The party searches the area, and Bertha considers using he cooking pot to douse the fires in the braziers. She is
cautioned against this by Shendar who recommends not messing with any idles, or alters. It is decided that there must be a passage across this subterranean lake, so the Party files into the canoes. The first canoe
contains Darius, Morak and Shendar who sits in the middle so he doesn't have to paddle. Morak places his Potion of Water Breathing within easy reach. The Second canoe contains Bertha, Tevroc, and Mackame. In the third canoe ride Roam, The Kid, and Brunur.
Canoe one leads the way through the maze of stalactites and columns. As the second canoe makes it's way through a narrow area between two cavernous chambers it was savagely attacked by a Large Crocodile who surfaced beneath it. Mackame, Bertha and Tevroc were all thrown into the water. None of these three characters could swim, so things started to rapidly go down hill for the party.
Mackame holding her staff which 'Lights' on command managed to cling to the overturned canoe and shout out a warning as she say four more Crocodiles approaching. Bertha flung herself onto the back of the Large Crocodile, and was reduced to holding on for dear life. Tevroc was thrown into the water and had his breath knocked out of him (big time failure of CON check). With out any swimming skill he began to drown.
Canoe one at hearing the commotion behind them make a hasty attempt to turn around. They finally get spun around and moving back to the party, at which time Darius unloads a volley of arrows into one of the Crocs approaching Mackame. Shendar attacks one of the Crocodiles moving in to munch on Tevroc with his Daggers of the Seasons, and manages to electrocute both the Croc and Tevroc with the Spring Dagger. He does manage to score a solid hit on the Crocodile with his Summer Dagger that causes it to momentarily withdraw. Shendar becomes visible.
Meanwhile, canoe three enters the area, and Roam savagely attacks a Crocodile that makes an attempt to attack that canoe. The Kid draws his two magical daggers (each +1) and prepares to attack any Croc that gets close.
Bertha makes an unbelievable series of STR and CON checks and manages to maintain her hold on the Large Crocodile, and even get a few punches in with her spiked gauntlets, while the Large Crocodile is spinning and thrashing around in the water trying to dislodge her.
A Crocodile manages to make it past Roam's spear, and The Kid's daggers and bites a huge hole in the third canoe that begins to sink. Roam impales the offending Croc as the creature tries for a more meaty bite. Brunur is thrown into the water, and The Kid tries his best to stay in the partially submerged canoe.
Shendar fires three volleys of 'Magic Missile' at the Large Croc while Morak tentatively paddles the first canoe closer. Darius maintains his attacks on the Crocodile that is moving in to attack eventually slaying the beast.
Bertha finally manages to score a devastating hit that breaks the Large Crocodile's jaw and kills the creature. She then clings to the carcass until she is able to grab hold of canoe one.
Of the remaining two Crocs, one attacks The Kid through the hole in the canoe, and the other makes a beeline for the M. Brunur manages to bite the tail of the Croc heading for Tevroc and latches on. (Like a Pit Bull, Brunur can lock his jaw once he scores a hit [I don't think I mentioned this before]). The Crocodile dives. Brunur is drawn under water. Brunur is a dog. Brunur is dumb. Brunur is dead. Brunur doesn't care. The Crocodile tries to thrash around and bite Brunur, but is unable to do so. In it's
thrashing, the Crocodile manages to hit its head on a stone column and knock itself unconscious. As it floats to the surface, Roam spears it killing it.
The Kid has a rougher time of things. He is grabbed by the Croc attacking him and pulled from the canoe. As the Croc dives under the water to drag The Kid off to place where it can eat him in peace, The Kid stabs the beast repeatedly, eventually killing it. At this point, The Kid who can't swim fails a CON check and begins to drown.
Mackame has managed to grab Tevroc and is barley able to hold his head out of the water. Roam dives after The Kid and pulls him to the surface. Canoe one has the party members who are in the water hold on and paddles them all back to the shore where they started. Brunur dog paddles back on
his own.
The Kid and Tevroc are revived. It is decided that Bertha, Darius, and Shendar will take canoe one, the only remaining canoe, and will paddle back out and see if there is a passage way beyond the lake. As they paddle through the corpses of the dead Crocodiles, they stop long enough to retrieve The Kid's magical daggers from one of the corpses. These three eventually come to another underground beach upon which lay two additional canoes. Bertha, and Darius each get in one of the other canoes and all three canoes are
paddled back to the original beach where they retrieve the rest of the party. This time, the entire party makes the crossing uneventfully.
Beyond this beach is a worked stone hallway that goes 30ft and ends in a door. Darius checks the beach for tracks and finds evidence that this area is commonly used by large humanoids which he believes to be his hated foes, Bugbears.
Shendar casts a second 'Dark Light' spell, his first having ended, and proceeds up to examine the door.
He can see firelight coming from beneath the door, and hears some guttural voices. He then padded back to the beach and informed the party. They decided to put Bertha up front and just kick the door open. The party approached the door as quietly as possible, and Bertha kicked the door open.
Beyond was a 10ft by 10ft room with four Bugbears cooking a lump of flesh over a small fire. Shendar quickly cast 'Grease' and the four Bugbears all fell on the floor. The 'Grease' spell was then ignited by the
small fire in the room. Roam moved to spear the nearest Bugbear with his spear, while Shendar peppered the others with a couple of volleys of Seasonal Dagger fire. By the time the spell burned out, only one Bugbear remained, and he beat a hasty retreat through the door on the opposite side of the room. As he bursts into the room beyond, The Kid throws three daggers (he's now specialized) all of which thud into the fleeing Bugbear's back, sending his dead body skidding into the room as the door swings shut behind him. From the room beyond arises a great commotion and the sounds of furniture being cast aside. The party hesitates in entering the room to ensure they are all ready. Finally Bertha kicks in the door and the party is met with a hail of throwing axes thrown by four Bugbears that have barricaded themselves behind some overturned tables in front of the only other door exiting from the room. The Bugbears hold the party at bay from behind the tables until Shendar casts another 'Grease' spell and causes two of the Bugbears to fall. These two are quickly dispatched by Roam and Bertha, who then move to flank the two remaining Bugbears that are quickly slain by Morak and The Kid. Shendar ends his spell and the party exits through the far door.
Shendar leads the way and scouts ahead. He finds that the narrow 5ft hallway beyond leads more than 60ft before branching off to the north. He investigates the eastern hallway that turns south 40 ft later. He then abandons this hall and returns to the northern hallway that he scouts and finds ends in a stout wooden door. It is to this door that he leads the party.
Shendar listens to the door and hear nothing. The door is locked, but Shendar picks the lock easily and opens the door. The room beyond is a strange site. A line of metal rungs cross the ceiling in the center of
which stands a large chest firmly sitting upside down on the ceiling. While the rungs stop short of the chest by 5ft, they do continue across the ceiling to the door on the far side of the room. (I've slightly modified
this room from the module) Shendar cautiously steps into the room, and instantly falls foul of a 'Reverse Gravity' spell set just inside of the doorway. He takes 4pts of damage as he falls to the ceiling. Once on the ceiling, he stands up and walks toward the chest at which point he leaves the 'Reverse Gravity' area and falls to the floor, taking 5pts of damage. Once again, he dusts himself off, and heads back toward the party in the hallway...and falls back up to the ceiling taking another 5pts of damage. Swearing, he stands, walks over to the doorway, and reaching up (for him) grasps the top of the doorframe, and swing up (for him) in order to flip himself through the doorway and into the hall where he lands safely on the
floor.
Now Shendar decides to re-enter the room and does so by throwing a rope into the room. Bertha and Morak hold the rope that has fallen to the ceiling, and Shendar enters the room holding the rope, and then climbs down to the ceiling. Once there, he ties the rope off to one of the rungs. The rest of the party follows him to the ceiling until only The Kid, who is holding the rope; Mackame and Brunur remain in the hall. Mackame enters the room holding her staff, which grants her 'Feather Fall', and gently floats down to
the ceiling. The Kid then throws the rope into the room, gets a running start from down the hallway, and dives into the room falling slightly as he passes through the 'Reverse Gravity' area and re-enters the normal gravity area. This he successfully does through the use of his tumbling ability. Brunur is coaxed to follow The Kid and makes the leap as well, but isn't nearly as graceful.
Shendar leads the party out of the 'Reverse Gravity' area using the rungs set in the ceiling. One of the rungs breaks and Shendar falls to the floor suffering 6pts of damage. Mackame also floats to the floor to join The Kid, Brunur and Shendar. Shendar walks around the room throwing silver coins on the floor to see if they fall to the ceiling. In doing this he finds another 'Reverse Gravity' area in front of the door on the far side of the room.
Meanwhile, Mackame enters the 'Reverse Gravity' around the chest, and floats down to the ceiling by the chest. The rest of the party makes it across the rungs, to the last rung by the chest. Here they thread a rope through the rung and climb down to the floor. Shendar climbs up the rope, and with Mackame's help, swings into the 'Reverse Gravity' by the chest. At this point, Shendar shoes Mackame back to the floor. Now alone on the ceiling, Shendar searches the chest for traps (fails his check) and determines that there aren't any. Shendar then picks the lock on the chest and releases a 'Fear Gas' that causes Shendar to flee in panic toward the door from which the party entered the room. As he bolts toward the door, he
leaves the 'Reverse Gravity' around the chest and falls to the floor taking 6pts of damage, he then enters the 'Reverse Gravity' area in front of the door and sustains 3pts of damage from the fall back up to the ceiling. Here he finally overcomes his fear, and climbs out of the 'Reverse Gravity' area with the use of ropes. Shendar then borrows Mackame's staff and floats down to the ceiling in the 'Reverse Gravity' area around the chest. Once here, he retrieves a key from the chest, and steps out of the area and floats down to the floor.
Shendar then moves over to the other door where he enters another 'Reverse Gravity' area. He floats down to the ceiling, then climbs up to the door and tries the key he found in the chest. This key unlocks the
door, at which point, Shendar opens the door and looks into the hallway beyond.
The hallway is damp and moist, water flows down the walls and pools on the floor. There is a leather sack sitting in one of these pools. Shendar tries to detect traps from the doorway (rolls a 00 and fails spectacularly) and informs the party that the water is acid. Shendar notes that the sack is not being destroyed by the "acid" and deduces that it must be made of Black Dragon hide. He easily swings from the doorway into the hall and lands safely on the sack. He then throws a rope back through the 'Reverse Gravity' area to the party.
The rest of the party carefully cross through the 'Reverse Gravity' area on this rope which is held by Shendar at one end, and The Kid on the other. Each party member carries Mackame's staff with them as the cross. Brunur runs and leaps through the 'Reverse Gravity' area and crashes into the "acid' and takes no apparent damage although he does splatter Shendar with mud. The rest of the party crosses with out incident.
The pouch is fished out of the mud, and is found to contain a crystal key tied with a red tassel. This is pocketed by Shendar, and the party moves on. Ahead of them, they see that the hallway has caved in. Just
before the caved-in area is a large crack in the wall on either side of the passageway. Shendar scouts into the crack on the right side of the hallway and finds that it ends some 20ft back. The crack on the left side of the hallway is much wider, and found to extend beyond the party's visual limits. Shendar again scouts ahead and finds that this cleft in the rock is quite extensive. The party follows Shendar's trail through this natural crack through the stone.
After traveling more than 200ft, the party spies sunlight up ahead, and can smell vegetation. Shendar moves up to examine the area, and finds what appears to be the bottom of a vertical mineshaft that leads straight up to the open sky over 100ft above. This shaft is choked with a heavy growth of vines that stop just short of the chamber's ceiling. The chamber seems to be a makeshift blacksmith's workshop. In the center of the room is a circular forge about 3ft high. Connected to this is a large bellows apparatus. Stacked about the edges of the room are wooden shafts, crude iron bars, short swords, some barrels of what appears to be water, a stack of cordwood, a smaller mound of charcoal, and a large chest. Chained to the
bellows are two Bugbears that are very dead, yet very active. Shendar moves into the chamber to investigate further. He is careful to keep away from the Zombie Bugbears. While he is examining the chest, a hissing voice, originating from the far wall up above the vine line, yells "ATTACKSSsssss."
Suddenly Shendar is bombarded by a rain of small javelins that come raining out of the vines. As Shendar scrambles for the safety of the hallway, Roam casts 'Entangle' on the vines closest to the hallway.
Muttered curses are heard, and several small furry creatures (Tasloi) are seen struggling in the vines. Darius and Bertha sprint across the room followed by the rest of the party. Darius gives Bertha a boost up to the
non-'Entangled' vines on the far side of the room. Climbing up into the vines, Bertha spots a cave that must be the origin of the hissing voice, and she relays this information back to the party. As She is scrambling up to the cave mouth, she comes under attack by yet more Tasloi. Darius and R/D fire arrows into the vines at the attackers, and despite the heavy vine growth are able to kill several of the creatures. As Bertha climbs into the cave, she comes under attack by a snake-headed man (Yaun Ti Half-breed) who attacks her with a mace. Shendar and The Kid quickly scramble up to the cave mouth covered by the deadly hail of arrows Darius and Roam are firing on their foes.
Bertha goes toe-to-toe with the Yaun Ti inflicting several savage wounds on it before she stumbles and falls. As the Yaun Ti towers over her preparing to bash her skull in with his mace, The Kid dives into the fray, and tackles the Yaun Ti. The Kid puts his Gauntlets of Lighting Punches to good use, and only retires from his assault when his hands are dripping with the Yaun Ti's brains. The remaining Tasloi make a break for it, and flee up the shaft. The Rest of the party climbs up and enters the cave with Bertha and The Kid.
This cave leads to a long hallway that the party follows for more than 500ft before arriving at the edge of a great underground chasm. Spanning the (80ft) wide chasm is a rickety rope and plank bridge. The bottom of the chasm is beyond the vision limits of the party and it is determined that a fall into the chasm will certainly be fatal.
ASEO out
(Thus begins the play of the module I1, Dwellers of the Forbidden City,at least in part)
Another good choice. Original source of the popular Yuan-Ti as I recall.
(Thus begins the play of the module I1, Dwellers of the Forbidden City,at least in part)Another good choice. Original source of the popular Yuan-Ti as I recall.
Yep. The PCs will be getting a nice dose of Yaun-Ti. One thing with I1 was that the module was mainly the two wntrances to the city. The City itself was fairly basic. I created a full range of different adventure opertunities within the ciry, then allowed the PCs to go and do what they wanted. They took one route, and the rest basicly got left in the dust, which was fine with me. My whole DMing philosophy is "Have all the doors covered, let the characters go where they want to, and make sure the way is paved before them". Somewhere I have a notebook on several mini quests and adventures I had set up in the city. I know that they involved freeing the Mongrel Men, chosing sides in a Bullywog vs Whatever the other frog man race is (I'm totally blank at the moment), Recovering a Water Dragon's Egg, "The Pit" from a past issue of DUNGEON and a few others. Once again, I had to deal with my fellow military gamers and myself getting deployed to the middle east and Bosnia as well.
ASEO out
Night 15 Part II
Shendar once again volunteers to scout ahead. He cautiously ventures out on the bridge that seems fairly solid, but still swings from his movement. Slowly, Shendar progresses across the swing bridge. On the far side he is able to make out an opening in the cliff face. AS he approaches it he draws his short sword. The Bridge leads to a cave that Shendar enters.
Just as Shendar enters the cave he is attacked by two chained Subterranean Lizards. Shendar beats a hasty retreat back to the bridge and out of the Lizards' reach. Once here he draws his Daggers of the Seasons and begins to hurl them at the Lizards from a safe distance. While he is doing this, Bertha, Darius and Roam begin to make their way across the bridge. Darius notices movement on the ledge above the cave mouth which to the party's dismay appears to be swarming with Tasloi who appear to be preparing to roll a large bolder off onto Shendar who is on the bridge. Darius fires an arrow which kills one of the Tasloi causing their bolder to roll to the side and fall, narrowly missing Shendar and the bridge.
The sight of a large bolder falling so close to him sparks Shendar into action, and he decides he has a better chance of survival against the two Lizards than he does against surviving a fall into the chasm. Darius, Bertha and Roam sprint for the "safety" of the cave. Their running causing the bridge to bounce dangerously, and nearly sending Mackame, Brunur, Morak and The Kid, all of whom had just started to cross, bouncing off into the chasm. Morak is left clutching the ropes in the middle of the bridge as the others sprint past him.
Darius, Bertha and Roam join Shendar in his battle against the Lizards. The Lizards are forced back by the party's vicious assault, and beyond them, Shendar sees a staircase leading up. Deducing that this leads up to the ledge where the Tasloi are at this very moment rolling another large bolder into position to drop on the bridge which the remainder of his party are crossing, Shendar dives in a tumbling flip over the head on the Lizard guarding the staircase. In a move that would have impressed the ancient Minoan Bull Dancers, Shendar cartwheels over the Lizard, lands on his feet and sprints up the stairs. As Shendar reaches the top of the stairs, The Kid reaches the end of the bridge, just as the Tasloi push a large bolder off the ledge. The bolder falls smashing the planks in the 10ft portion of the bridge just in front of the cave. With the boards splintering at his feet, The Kid makes a valiant leap for the cave...and comes up short, plummeting in to the darkness of the chasm. The force of the bolder smashing the bridge causes the bridge to bounce erratically and once again nearly bounces Morak, Mackame and Brunur off.
Bursting out on to the ledge, Shendar grabs two of the Tasloi by the backs of their loincloths and attempts to throw them into the chasm. Unfortunately all he succeeds in doing is giving them both severe power wedgies. These two Tasloi begin thrashing about, but are unable to free themselves from Shendar grip. While two more Tasloi prepare to roll another bolder off the ledge on Mackame who is shimmying across the left side ropes that span the hole in the bridge, two more turn to attack Shendar.
Shendar uses the two Tasloi he is holding as shields and successfully deflects the blows of the attacking Tasloi at the expense of the life of one of their be-wedgied companions. Seeing Shendar in trouble, Morak stops his crossing of the bridge long enough to cast 'Hold Person' on the Tasloi. Two of the creatures succumb to the spell, one attacking Shendar, and one positioning the bolder...that rolls uncontrolled toward the edge of the cliff. Brunur leaps across the hole in the planking and lands safely in the cave to find the two Lizards slain by the combined arms of the F, the R, and Roam. Shendar tosses the dead Tasloi off into the chasm and sweep kicks his 'Held' opponent over the edge as well.
As he does this, the bolder rolls off the edge of the ledge and tears through the rope holding up the right side of the bridge. In the resulting snapping of ropes, the bridge lurches to the right violently. Mackame loses her grip on the rope and falls into the chasm and is last seen gently floating toward the bottom, her 'Feather Fall' staff firmly gripper in her little fist. Morak is also flung off the bridge in the center of the
chasm. As he falls, he makes a desperate attempt (at 1/4 DEX, his is 13) to catch the rope as it snaps back toward him... (He rolls a 3) and catches the rope by the tips of his stubby fingers. He holds on with all his might (and fails 2 STR checks) but begins to slide down the rope at an alarming rate. As his hands begin to smoke, and with only 10ft of rope left, Morak stops his slide, and finds himself dangling 30 ft below the terribly listing bridge, with nothing below him but the darkness of the gaping chasm.
As the non'Held' bolder pushing Tasloi rushes to join his companion in attacking Shendar, Bertha races up the stairs. Bursting from the top of the stairs, Bertha launches herself between Shendar and the two attacking Tasloi. Shendar takes this opportunity to pitch the Tasloi he is holding off the ledge. Bertha makes short work of the two remaining Tasloi. Shendar ties up the Tasloi that is 'Held' while Bertha heads back down the stairs. The problem of recovering Morak is now the party's chief concern. Darius offers to shimmy out on the remains of the rope bridge and lower a rope to Morak to tie on to. As Darius begins moving out on the bridge, he spots a light on a ledge far below him. In the light he sees Mackame sitting on a ledge on the side of the chasm 60ft below. Yelling down to her, he learns that she is all right, and that The Kid is lying unconscious on a ledge about 20ft above Mackame.
Darius drops his rope to Mackame who grabs on and is then easily lifted with the aid of he 'Feather Fall' staff up to the ledge on which The Kid is laying. Here she casts some healing spells, which revive The Kid. The Kid is told to wait on the ledge since Morak grip seems to be in danger of slipping. Mackame stays on the ledge with The Kid, but ties her staff to the rope that Darius carries with him as he climbs out to Morak. Once Darius reaches Morak he pulls the staff that was dangling below Morak, up to Morak. Morak grasps the staff, says the command word and is affected by the 'Feather Fall' spell. Thus much lightened, he is dragged back across the bridge by Darius and hauled up the cliff by Bertha and Roam.
A rope is dropped to The Kid, and Mackame, and they are likewise pulled from their ledge to the safety of the Lizard innards splattered cavern.
Morak once again casts 'Nap' and the party settles down for a brief rest. Once spells are replenished, Shendar moves to scout the tunnel ahead. Bertha seeing some Tasloi, probably the ones that were 'Entangled' in the vine room, beginning to try to cross the listing rope bridge. She uses her axe to cut the remaining rope supporting the bridge and watches as her end of the bridge falls away into the chasm.
Shendar finds that the tunnel exits the mountain about 200ft ahead. The tunnel opens at the rear of a natural amphitheater that has been carved with benches that descend from the cave mouth to a stage below. Beyond the stage is a path that runs through the light forest through a narrow valley that appears to open into the larger valley that contains the city the party saw from above. At one side of the stage, in a position that overlooks both the forest path and the tunnel mouth is a large throne made
of bones and skulls. On it rests a creature with the torso of a man and the tail of a snake (Yaun Ti Half-breed), which is coiled around the throne. Near him stands a man with a snake's tail growing from his backside (Yaun Ti Half-breed) playing a lyre. A staircase leads from the cave mouth to the stage area. Standing at the bottom of this staircase is a man in scale armor (Yaun Ti Pureblood). Lounging at the base of the stairs is a creature with a female human head, snake body, and human arms (Yaun Ti Abomination). They all seem to be having a discussion in an archaic form of common which Shendar is barely able to make out.
It seems that these snake folk are troubled with the recent arrival of a wizard of some power to their city. This wizard is evidently accompanied by a force of "Brute hairy creatures" that he uses as mussel. This wizard has evidently slain the leader of the snake people, and taken some thing the snake people value hostage. He has threatened to slay more of the snake people should they attack his minions. Because these snake people are similar to the one that attacked the party in the vine room, Shendar regards them as enemies. Shendar returns to the party and informs them of his observations. Roam is particularly vocal about his desire to slay these "Abominations of Nature" (Abominations of Nature being his species
enemy).
An attack plan is formulated, with Bertha, Moral, The Kid, Darius and Roam charging the Yaun Ti, while Shendar and Tevroc will provide spell support from the cave mouth. Mackame is given the task of guarding the captured Tasloi, which the party has been unable to communicate with, but is unwilling to abandon.
Positions are taken, and the party bursts into action. Seeing the party approach, the Yaun Ti move around the throne and begin casting spells. Tevroc tries to get off a 'Magic Missile', but fires it to late to stop the Yaun Ti's spells. The Yaun Ti cast 'Polymorph Other', three of them target Darius and one targets Bertha. Bertha saves, as does Darius against one of the spells. The second spell turns Darius into a small, black snake, while the third spell turns him from a small black snake into a small green tree snake. The party fully engages the Yaun Ti, but the Yaun Ti's scales prevent them from being seriously injured. Once again the Yaun Ti begin casting. This time Tevroc is ready, and he blasts the two Half-breeds with a "Magic Missile' each, ruining their spells. The area at the cave mouth suddenly goes dark ('Darkness 15ft radius'), and Morak is hit with the 'Suggestion' "Be gone, leave the way you came." Morak turns and begins walking back to the cave.
Meanwhile, Roam cast 'Entangle on the trees behind the stage to prevent the Yaun Ti from escaping. Shendar casts 'Levitate' on himself and goes to enter the fray, just as the Yaun Ti begin to cast again. The M, caught in the 'Darkness' is unable to see his targets, so begins to feel his way toward the front of the cave. Shendar is able to halt the casting of the two Half-breeds this time with his own 'Magic Missiles'. The spells cast by the other Yaun Ti go off, and Bertha is sent running from the fray in 'Fear' while Roam resists the spell cast at him. With Darius, Bertha and Morak out of the fight, the battle begins to turn in the Yaun Ti's favor. Roam and The Kid are both double teemed, while Shendar moves to 'Levitate' above the combat and make use of his Daggers of the Seasons. Both The Kid and Roam suffer some horrible wounds before Tevroc is able to exit the 'Darkness' and continue his 'Magic Missile' barrage.
Bertha charges into the 'Darkness' in her attempt to flee, but misjudges the location of the cave mouth and runs smack in to the cliff wall, knocking herself down. Morak better judges the entrance and proceeds all the way back to the chasm where he begins to contemplate the manner in which he will cross the chasm.
Back at the fray, Shendar casts 'Grease' beneath the Yaun Ti Pureblood, but the Yaun Ti makes his save and exits on the far side of the spell area. The Pureblood then charges Roam who stops, and sets his spear to receive the charge. Roam critically hits the Yaun Ti Pureblood causing horrible overkill and leaving the Yaun Ti thoroughly impaled on the spear. Shaking off the 'Fear', Bertha rushes back to the battle just as The Kid is wrapped in the tail of the Yaun Ti Aberration. While Roam turns to face the Half-breed with the snake tail growing from his backside, the other Yaun Ti Half-breed coils around Bertha who was trying to save The Kid. With both The Kid and Bertha thus entangled, it falls on Shendar and Roam to free their companions before they are crushed in the constriction snake beast's coils. Shendar draws his short sword and levitates down to attack the Yaun Ti coiled about Bertha.
The Kid proves able to take care of himself. Using his Rapid Strike Gauntlets, he beats the Yaun Ti holding him into an unrecognizable bloody mass, scoring three critical hits in 4 attacks, snapping the beast's spine, breaking it's arm, and then caving in it's head. Tevroc helps out Shendar with some well-placed 'Magic Missiles'. Roam finished off the Yaun Ti he was fighting with a savage spear thrust to the head, then moves to help free Bertha. Under attack from Shendar, Roam, The Kid, and the struggling Bertha the Yaun Ti Half-breed is quickly slain.
Roam casts healing spells on the wounded party members, and after some time Morak returns, having abandoned his attempt to leave the area.
The problem of the Darius' transformation is the next issue the party addresses. Bertha pulls out a potion that the party believes is 'Polymorph', but is actually a potion of 'True Form' and pours it down the little green
tree snake's throat. The snake then reverts back into Darius. The bodies of the Yaun Ti are searched and found to contain nothing of value. However, Shendar takes interest in a lyre carried by one of the Half-breeds. He has decided that since the party has been unable to recruit a bard, he will take the job of composing songs praising his valor and courage, (he may even mention the rest of the party).
The party moves from the cave and amphitheater into the woods, where the follow the trail to a Romanesque temple. While the doors to the temple are closed, some of the interior columns have fallen and knocked a hole in the western wall. Through this hole, the party sees a Bugbear tied spread-eagle
between two pillars at the front of the temple. An extremely large snake is coiling about the struggling Bugbear. The party takes some time to further scout the area, they then decide to re-examine the temple.
Back at the temple, the Snake has killed the Bugbear. The party easily dispatches the Snake with missile fire from a safe distance. The Kid, Darius and Shendar then enter the temple through the hole in the wall. The Kid and Darius are immediately set upon by two large Snakes that drop from the rafters. Bertha and Roam scramble through the hole to aid their friends. The Kid and Darius are eventually freed, but not before suffering some friendly fire. At the foot of the pillars just beneath the dead Bugbear are two sacks, one is found to contain 5o silver coins on a strange ancient design, the other sack contains three gold disks, and a coil of very fine rope (of Climbing). These items are gathered, and the party then exits the temple and proceeds down the trail that eventually leads to the ruins of the city the party had seen from the top of the crater.
The party investigates the nearest building and determines that it was once a center of learning as well as a center for study of martial arts. This building is long since abandoned and in very poor condition. The party decides to stop here and formulate a plan for their exploration of this lost city.
---NIGHT 16---
The party who is now:
Darius Male elf Ranger level 3
Morak, Son of DaK Male dwarf Fighter/Priest level 3/4
Shendar (Blue Arm) Male elf Mage/Thief level 3/4
Bertha Bumblebee Female human Fighter level 4
Tevroc Male human Mage level 4
Roam D'Le Rold Male human Ranger/Druid 3/3
“The Kid” Male human Fighter/Thief 3/4
Mackame Appears to be an 8-year-old human Female (Necro M/Necro P 4/4) NPC
"Brunur" Mackame's Zombie dog NPC
A page from the
Memoirs of Shendar Blue Arm
- - - - - - - - - - - -
After taking care of the snakes in the ruined temple and grabbing the magical rope, we made our way into the forbidden city. The place was more of a dump than I expected. I guess I pictured gleaming buildings with mother-of-pearl and gold everywhere. Instead, many of the buildings were collapsed and those that were not tended to be in poor condition. We briefly scouted out the first building we came to, and, finding it empty, rested there for the night.
After a time, we noticed what appeared to be a bugbear war party approaching our position. Not thinking it wise to provoke a fight without knowing more about the area, we let them pass. They started looting the building directly across the street from us, so I decided that I would take the Kid out and see how much he remembered from our training sessions. Using these glass beads that the bugbears were collecting as bait, we managed to lure one bugbear out, which I promptly killed with a well-placed shot to the spine (I love it when you can end a fight without making a mess – it’s a lost art). We then lured a second one out and captured it. We took the smelly creature back to our hideout, where I began to interrogate him. We had to kill our Tasloi prisoner in order to convince the bugbear that we meant business. Or at least it seemed like a good idea to me. I thought we would get more of a protest out of the wench, but I think even the goody-two-shoes of the party was getting sick of dragging its sorry carcass around. We managed to find out that there are 50 or so bugbears stationed a few buildings down from us, and that they serve a wizard, who is probably the one the snake-men spoke of. He also mentioned that the wizard kept more bugbears in his compound, apparently the “elite guards”. As if bugbears could be “elite” at anything. Of course, I let the ranger brain the bugbear when I had gotten all the information I could out of it.
After a brief conference, it was decided that I should do a little scouting. After using my invisibility spell, I wandered out into the streets. While I was circling a nearby building that was boarded up, some small flying snakes came out and started following me. It seemed like they could sense my presence despite my invisibility. Coming around behind this building, I ran into what I assumed was the wizard’s compound. With bugbear guards patrolling the walls of the pagoda and a crucified snake-man in front, combined with the information we got out of our short-lived bugbear prisoner, I was certain this was the wizard’s base of operations. Our prisoner’s clan of bugbears lived in a ruined building across from the wizard’s compound, and when I passed it, the bugbears on guard started throwing rocks at the flying snakes that were following me. So nice of them to help me seal their doom by confirming their lack of an alliance with the Yaun-ti.
After telling the party what I saw on my recon trip, the mage and I were able to convince the party to assault the wizard’s compound. Of course, our main motivation behind the assault is to get at what is likely a very large and valuable spell book. However, I also have a feeling that this might be the wizard that screwed us for those fake dimension door scrolls. If that’s the case, then I really have a score to settle with this guy. Nobody makes a fool out of me, especially not in front of a bunch of people who looked at me like a hero. Still, the damage to my reputation is not irreparable. If I torture the man until he begs me to kill him, and then kill him and send his head back to the rift with a note explaining who he is, who he crossed, and why his head made it back without the rest of him, it might actually be beneficial. Maybe that charlatan who ripped me off for that remove curse spell will think twice before getting all snobby with me. But I digress. The plan was as follows: The dwarf would cast a silence spell, so that those members of the party wearing armor wouldn’t give away our position from a mile away. When we got to the back of the wizard’s compound, I would cast my levitation spell on the Kid, who would take the climbing rope up the compound and let the rest of us climb up. From there, we would split into two groups: The Kid, the ranger, and myself would leave the silence spell and travel quietly down one side, while the rest would use the silence spell to travel down the other side. From there, we would break into the main building and slaughter everything that moved.
Needless to say, the plan did not go according to plan. While running down the road parallel to the compound, we were attacked by these emaciated, white zombie-like creatures. These monsters just threw themselves at us, many times impaling themselves on our swords. We were unable to communicate with each other due to the silence spell. They just came at us in waves, new ones stepping over the bodies of their comrades, unaware or uncaring that they were being slaughtered. Eventually, their sheer numbers forced us to retreat into an alley, where our Mage cast a flaming sphere to prevent them from pursuing. After this, we made it without incident to the compound, where we started our infiltration. We penetrated the compound with ease, and I investigated the roof with the quiet ones, while the silenced group made their way around the compound on the ground. We figured that the wizard would be in the top room of the compound, so we climbed up to hopefully find a window to let ourselves in.
A brief search of the roof didn’t turn up any windows or rooftop entrances, so we decided to climb near the top of the building and use my acid spitting ability to make our own window. Everything was proceeding according to plan until The Kid dislodged a tile, which clattered down the roof and alerted the guards on the towers. After a few tense moments pressing ourselves against the roof while bullseye lanterns crisscrossed the roof, the bugbears went back to doing whatever it is that they do and left us in peace. A few minutes later, we had our window. Looking in, we were disappointed to learn that the inside of this pagoda was hollow, and we could have just gone through the door with the others instead of wasting the effort it took to go through the ceiling. Meanwhile, the rest of our party had managed to break down a door without attracting any attention to themselves, and after my group rappelled down to the ground floor, we took stock of our surroundings. The whole inside of the building was foggy, so visibility was very limited. Not wanting to subject myself to any potential traps in the hallway, I sent the dwarf down to investigate. When he reached the end of the hallway, he set off a magic mouth, which began screaming. Before we could find some way to shut it up, we were attacked by some spectral hound which we couldn’t seem to damage no matter what we did. Desperate to find some way to escape, we frantically searched for secret doors in our immediate area. Finding one, we quickly made our way to a door from which we heard chanting. We rushed in, hoping to take the wizard by surprise.
The wizard was in fact the bastard that sold us those fake dimension door scrolls, and we was ready for a fight. He had a globe of invulnerability, as well as a mirror image spell active. As we rushed to attack, the mage unleashed a cone of cold, freezing the ranger and the dwarf completely and severely injuring the rest of us. Still, as everyone knows, mages aren’t good in hand-to-hand combat, and our sheer numbers began to take their toll. With his images disappearing and bleeding profusely from a wound that Bertha gave him, he flew out a trap door in the ceiling. I tried to give chase using my rope of climbing, but fell victim to a magic missile spell. As the energy bolts tore through my body, everything went black…
When I came to, the healers in the party had patched everyone up pretty good, and we set about searching the compound for the wizard’s spell book and any other trinkets he may have left lying around. Underneath a stone in the floor, we found a sack with 3 gems in it, and a notebook that explained how to use the gems to locate a hidden temple of a cult of Demon summoners, or something like that.
As I arose, I noticed that some time had passed and that others in my party had been busy while I slept. Evidently the hallways beyond the magic mouth proved to be filled with stinking clouds. In an attempt to bypass the clouds, the dwarf had stone shaped a hole in a nearby wall thus providing access to the room beyond. Being the amateurs that they are, the fools managed to set off several fire traps which had been placed on the doors, chest and wardrobe in the room they had gained access to.
However, before I was able to show them the proper procedures to take while searching a room, we were interrupted by a commotion in the courtyard. As I peered out a crack in a window which was hidden from the outside I was dismayed to find that the entire bugbear tribe had stopped by for a visit.
ASEO out
ASEO,
Thanks for posting this. I came to the Paizo site today to see if they had any downloads for the new Age of Worms campaign and one of the links on the right says "Last Updated Post: The Other Side by ASEO". I read it and think 'this can't be the same OtherSide that I read back in 2000 can it?
Oh but it is! Of all the random things in life this is one of the good one. I really enjoyed the campaign logs back then and was sad to see them go. I even have the a Word file that you sent me containing the 'Days' to date, which incidentally is Day 15.
So not only do I find the log but it contains new material as well. Thanks for making my day and keep up the posts.
-D
Small world. Well there are about 16 more sessions to post. Then I'll lead into my current campaign which is at session 42 or so currently and still ongoing.
ASEO out
--NIGHT 17 part I---
The party who is now:
Darius Male elf Ranger level 4
Morak, Son of DaK Male dwarf Fighter/Priest level 4/5
Shendar (Blue Arm) Male elf Mage/Thief level 4/5
Bertha Bumblebee Female human Fighter level 5
Tevroc Male human Mage level 5
Roam D'Le Rold Male human Ranger/Druid 4/4
“The Kid” Male human Fighter/Thief 4/5
Mackame Appears to be an 8-year-old human Female (Necro M/Necro P4 /4) NPC
"Brunur" Mackame's Zombie dog NPC
The party finds themselves trapped in the mages compound, surrounded by nearly 100 Bugbears. Peering out through their barricades, they spot one figure in robes standing among the Bugbears. At the feet of this figure is a chest, which has presumably been dragged from the mage’s apprentice’s room. The Mage who was chased from the compound by the party is nowhere to bee seen. The party does spot a group of Bugbears who are holding the chains of three large Tigers.
The party hears the wizard demand their surrender, and the return of the stones and his journal, which he knows the party must have. (These lead to “The Pit” from DUNGEON #17) The Mage gives the party 10 minuets to surrender. If they do this he promises to spare their lives.
I gave the players 10 minutes to formulate the plan for their course of action.
The party formulates the following plan:
Shendar, “who is not leaving here without a new spell book” will cast ‘Invisibility’ and ‘Levitate’ on himself. He’ll then exit through the hole he made in the roof and move into position behind the apprentice and the chest.
Darius will take up position at a window and pepper the Bugbears with arrow fire.
Roam will read the ‘Change Staff’ scroll, and then throw it out of the doorway onto the ground at the foot of the stairs that lead to the porch that runs around the front of the structure.
Morak will read the ‘Gate’ scroll, which he has determines will summon an Agathinon Aasimon.
Upon seeing the Trent form from the ‘Change Staff’, Shendar will backstab the apprentice.
The Kid and Roam will fire arrows from the doorway.
Bertha, Mackame and Brunur will watch the secret door on the far side of the building and prevent any Bugbears from entering there.
Tevroc will stand by ready to cast any spells necessary.
Well, this is the plan.
Shendar successfully exits and gets into position. The Bugbears release the Tigers who then charge the front door and leap over the barricade. As the first two leap, Tevroc cast ‘Flaming Sphere’ and places it between the third Tiger and the doorway. The first two Tigers, however, are able to enter the building. One goes straight for Tevroc and bites him severely on the hand. The Kid and Roam are able to dispatch the other Tiger without much damage to themselves.
Morak reads the ‘Gate’ scroll and the Agathinon is summoned, armed with a silver mace and a pair of glowing silver manacles. Roam reads the ‘Change Staff’ scroll and prepares to throw the staff out into the yard while the Kid and Darius attack the remaining Tiger. Tevroc cradles his wounded hand and flees from the great cat.
The Agathinon reads Morak thoughts and gets caught up on the situation.
Meanwhile, Bugbears break through the secret door and Bertha and Brunur engage them in combat. Darius and the Kid finish off the Tiger, and then Morak moves to heal Tevroc’s hand so that he can cast spells again. Roam chucks the staff, which erupts into a very POed Trent. The Bugbears in the vicinity attack the Trent and Shendar makes a magnificent backstab on the apprentice, just as she is basting a spell, killing her with one strike.
Shendar activates his ‘Blur’ belt grabs the chest with the apprentice’s body slumped over it and pushes off in the direction of the roof hole using his ‘Levitate’.
The Agathinon casts ‘Aid’ on the party inside the building while Darius, Roam and the Kid fire out of the building at the Bugbears in the compound. Brunur and Bertha are able to keep the Bugbears log-jammed in the secret doorway.
Shendar realized he has misjudged the direction of the hole in the roof and as he drifts off course he comes under fire from several Bugbears armed with bows. Thanks to his ‘Blur’ belt and some horrible dice rolls, he is only hit once despite his necklace of missile attraction. Just as he reaches the lower portion of the roof, a ‘Lighting Bolt’ zaps out of one of the guard towers guarding the west gate to the compound. The ‘Lightning Bolt’ zips toward the window where Darius is shooting. Darius slams the shutters, but the ‘Lighting Bolt’ blasts through them slamming into Darius and sending him flying across the room where he lies for a while twitching as the electrical charges exit his body. Slowly he begins to regain his feet just as a wave of Bugbears climb to the porch and make for the shattered window frame.
The Trent is cutting swathes through the Bugbear ranks, but is taking a substantial amount of damage itself. Shendar sprints across the roof to the trap door on the far side only to be hit in the head with an arrow from a Bugbear sniper. Fortunately for Shendar the damage is slight and he is able to drop the chest and body through the trapdoor before he descends himself. As Shendar reaches the floor he begins looting the apprentice’s body, he finds a ring (True Form-prevents you from assuming any other form), a dagger made from a giant snakes fang (Dagger of Venom) and a notebook made up of several metal plates held together by metal loops (Traveling spell book). Morak casts ‘Darkness 15 ft’ on the Trent to protect it from the Bugbear archers.
As Darius moves back to defend his window, he fires two arrows at the Bugbears attempting to enter through it catching one in the throat and the other in the heart. The Kid and Roam suddenly see several of the Bugbears in the compound turn into snakes. A wave of pure evil washes over the entire compound. The party members are dropped to their knees. The Agathinon yells “Malynanith we meet again” and begins to transform into a Bronze Dragon inside the building. The party members all dive for cover. Outside, one of the guard towers explored in a cloud of smoke. The Mage who was leading the assault on the compound flees ‘Flying’ ‘Hastily’ to the northeast. As the smoke clears, there standing on the platform of the tower is a being of the darkest evil. Her snake body and her six arms strike true fear into the Bugbears who scatter in all directions. The Marilith wields five fearsome swords, one of which is a two handed weapon with a blade of pure blackness that seems to swirl in patterns which sometimes almost look human (soul sucking sword). A cloud of poison ness vapor (‘Cloud Kill’) flows from around her slaying the Bugbears unfortunate enough to come into contact with it.
Suddenly a Bronze Dragon bursts from the roof of the building showering all within with rubble. The Dragon dives for the Marilith transforming back in to an Agathinon as it goes. The Marilith raises its weapons to attack as the Agathinon throws the manacles and swings downward with his mace. The Marilith brings the dark bladed sword up to block, and when the two weapons collide there is a huge explosive release of power, and the party saw no more.
ASEO out
Part II
Shendar awoke to find himself ling amidst the ruins of the mage’s compound. Around him lay the scattered forms of dead Bugbears. In the light of the setting sun, he was able to make out the glowing form of the Agathinon leaning over the body of Morak. The Agathinon right arm was missing and a stream of glowing vapor spilled from the stump. To Shendar’s left Tevroc rose from the rubble. Also amidst the rubble lay the forms of several people neither Tevroc nor Shendar recognized. An unfamiliar gnome here, a strange dwarf there, a young man, or perhaps an elf lay at the foot of the stairs. And there were others. Mackame and Brunur franticly dug at a pile of stone until the badly bent arm of Bertha came in to view. Mackame cradled her face in her hands and cried as Brunur let out a mournful howl. Seeing Tevroc and Shendar the Agathinon turned to address them. Cradled in his arm Morak stirred and opened his eyes.
“You are all in great peril, The Marilith was summoned by the high priest of the Yaun Ti. I was able to bind her back to the temple just north of here, where she was summoned, but she is strong and will be able to break free soon. When she does, you will become her prey. To the northeast of here is a pyramid. Within it dwells a beast older than some of the gods themselves. This beast is Zargon. He may be your only hope for survival. Zargon is a beast of evil and chaos, you must slay him. When you have you must take his horn and grind it up. Weapons sprinkled with the horn of Zargon will allow you to strike at the Marilith. She may still slay you, but with out the horn of Zargon you will surely die. There are many here that require my assistance I will gather them and return them to you as I am able.”
At this the Agathinon cast a spell and the world glowed brightly to the point that the party members were forced to look away. As darkness returned, the party heard some movement under some rubble and rapidly moved to clear it away. From beneath the broken timbers crawled Roam and the Kid. Some more movement alerted the party to the presence of Darius who was also pulled free from the rubble. Looking back to where Bertha had been buried the party found only an indentation in the rubble.
Seeing some movement by the west gate of the compound, the party decided that it would be best if they vacated the area rapidly. As the survivors moved out Shendar remembered the chest and insisted that it be taken with them. With some help from Darius the chest was dragged with the party to some ruins just south of the compound where the party settled down for the night.
Tevroc and Shendar spent the night opening the chest and then haggling over the spells found in the spell book that they found inside. [Read Magic, Friends, Magic Missile, Stinking Cloud, Web, Lightning Bolt]. Additionally the metal notebook was identified as a traveling spell book. [Detect Magic, Erase, Blindness, Ventriloquism, Dancing Lights, Summon Swarm, Fire Burst, Unseen Servant, Feather Fall, Protection from Normal Missiles, Dispel Magic, Monster Summoning I] Tevroc and Shendar then settled down to study their new spells. Shendar left one of the guiding stones, captured from the Mage in the compound, hidden in this building.
Roam, Mackame and Morak cast healing spells upon injured party members while Darius and The Kid kept watch. The next day was spent in rest and recovery. The following night the party moved off in search of the pyramid mentioned by the Agathinon.
The party moved toward the northeast traveling on back allies and avoiding the main roads when possible. In their travels they were ambushed by several groups of Tasloi who would fire a volley of arrows then retreat into the ruins.
As the party was forced to travel on one of the main streets, they found themselves moving by buildings, carved with snake motifs, that were clearly inhabited and barricaded from the inside. It was along this main street that the party was waylaid by two Yaun Ti Pure Bloods (2more are hiding around the corner) Shendar who was traveling ‘Invisibly’ spotted the ambush and moved to backstab one of the Yaun Ti in the street. The Yaun Ti called out for the party to surrender at which point one of them began to chant, cast “Polymorph Other’ and turned Darius into a snake. As the second Yaun Ti began to chant, Shendar struck mortally wounding the creature. Shendar then cast ‘Web’ on the two Yaun Ti in the alley and fled from their field of vision. The remaining Yaun Ti in the street charged the party. At the insistence of the screaming M/T, Morak cast ‘Silence 15ft’ on the corner of the building and caught the two be-webbed Yaun Ti in the spell area. Shendar using his Dagger of Web Movement then entered the ‘Webbed’ area and killed the two trapped Yaun Ti. The charging Yaun Ti was brought down by a combination of attacks from the rest of the party.
The party then grabbed Darius [snake] and sprinted around the corner and down the road until they found themselves standing at the edge of a block of ruins. In the center of this block stood a large step pyramid (modified Module B4, The Lost City) toped with four statues. The entrances to all the buildings that ringed this blocked were fortified with sharpened wooden stakes pointed as if to keep something in.
The party quickly cleared a path through these and after passing through a ruined otter building, found them selves standing in the plaza that surrounded the pyramid.
The side of the pyramid facing the party was carved with all sorts of flame images and had at one time been painted in reds, oranges and yellows. The party climbed the stairs on this side of the pyramid until they reached a platform at the top that circled the central temple at the pyramid’s summit. Here they noticed that each side of the pyramid as well as the statues on top was dedicated to one of the four elements. So this then was the shrine of elemental power that was marked on their map. Looking down the “water” side of the pyramid the party noticed the dead corpse of a Bugbear leaning out of a secret door, the head of a large crossbow bolt jutting out of his back. Shendar left another of the guiding stones on top of the pyramid and the party moved to investigate the secret door.
ASEO out
---NIGHT 18---
The party who is now:
Darius Male elf Ranger level 5 (currently a snake)
Morak, Son of DaK Male dwarf Fighter/Priest level 4/5
Shendar (Blue Arm) Male elf Mage/Thief level 4/5
Bertha Bumblebee Female human Fighter level 5 (taken by Agathinon)
Tevroc Male human Mage level 5
Roam D'Le Rold Male human Ranger/Druid 4/4
“The Kid” Male human Fighter/Thief 4/5
Mackame Appears to be an 8-year-old human Female (Necro M/Necro P4 /4) NPC
"Brunur" Mackame's Zombie dog NPC
To start things off, Morak casts ‘Dispel Magic’ on Darius and returns him to his natural elf form. Shendar moves to investigate the secret door. It seems that the Bugbear had triggered a trap and that the party should now be able to enter the pyramid safely. The party enters and turns the corner in the hallway in front of them to find that it ends in a stone door. Shendar checks for traps then picks the lock on the door. The door is very heavy and it takes the combined effort of The Kid and Darius to push it open. Once they do, a 40x40 room is revealed by the light of Mackame’s staff. Within this room are four stone pillars with doors in them. Each pillar is located below one of the statues on the pyramid roof.
The party enters the room at which time the spring loaded door closes behind them. Shendar and Darius detect a hissing coming from the corners of the room, and when they move to those areas to investigate they begin to feel dizzy. Shendar moves to open the door in the pillar beneath the Earth Deity statue. As he pulls the handle, a large stone block falls from the ceiling. Shendar was able to jump back out of the way, but the block now blocked the door from being opened. Darius and The Kid try to push the block out of the way but are unable to until Shendar casts ‘Levitate’ on the block reducing its weight. Shendar then tries the door again . As he opens the door, a fresh breeze enters the room and sunlight can bee seen streaming down from the holes where the statue’ head and arms are missing. This creates a draft that allows the gas that was filling the room to dissipate harmlessly.
Hanging within the statue, which is hollow, are various chains, and levers. In the floor of the pillar is a wooden trap door. Shendar guesses (correctly) that the chains and levers allowed a priest to move the statue on the roof much like a giant puppet. No one in the party touches these chains, however.
The trap door is opened and a laded descending down through a shaft that opens into a room below is found. The room below is lit by a reddish glow. Shendar ties a rope about his ankles and then has Darius lower him down the shaft so that he can see into the room without exposing his body. In the room he sees three large beetles with glowing red glands behind their eyes (Fire Beetles). Additionally, he sees three more ladders descending from shafts located beneath the other three pillars. He calls to be drawn back up and describes this to the party. Morak remembers seeing beetles like these in the Minotaur’s cave (Session 3) back by the rift, but he avoided them at that time.
Darius slowly climbs down into the room followed by Shendar, Roam, Morak and The Kid. The Beetles move to investigate the new arrivals to their abode. Roam places the butt of his spear in front of one of the approaching Fire Beetles only to have it lock its mandibles around the spear shaft and yank the spear out of his grasp. This spurs the party into their favorite course of action, and they attack the Fire Beetles killing them quickly.
Further examination of the room shows there to be a door on the south wall and two more on the north wall. While Shendar examines the doors, the rest of the party descends the ladder into the room.
Shendar opens the southern door. Beyond is a 40 ft hallway that ends in a ‘T’ intersection. There is a door in the east side of the hallway, and another on the west side of the hallway. The party moves to investigate the western door. Shendar opens the western door. The room beyond appears to have once served as living quarters. The furniture is now horribly decayed. In a ruined chest beneath some rotting cloth is found a serviceable red robe. A brass medallion in the shape of a flame is also found on the remains of a desk.
The party moves to the door on across the hall. Shendar opens the door and is shocked to see the body of a man bounce off the ruined bed that lies on the far wall. He is even more surprised as a large sticky tongue wraps around him, nearly jerking him off his feet. Shendar finds himself in the grasp of a Giant Gecko. Acting quickly, Shendar uses the power of his magic tooth and spits acid on the beast’s tongue. This leaves Shendar feeling dizzy (-1 to all stats), but causes the Gecko to think twice about pulling Shendar into its mouth. By this time, Roam moves into the room and stabs the Giant Gecko with his spear. The Kid throws a volley of daggers at the Gecko. The acid eats through the Gecko’s tongue, and Darius and Shendar finish it off while it is writhing in pain. Shendar takes some time to eat some gold coins to return his stats to normal and finds that he must eat 10 coins instead of the 5 he had eaten before. (Every time the tooth’s power is used all 3 times a day, an additional 5 GP must be eaten to restore the stats). Investigating the man’s body, Roam finds that his skin is pale to the point of almost being translucent, and that his eyes are huge. (The man is a Cynidicean, one of the few humans who managed to retreat underground and avoid the curse/plague that was unleashed on this kingdom. The Cynidiceans have lived underground that they have adapted into beings that are barely still human.)
The party then moved to investigate the ‘T’ intersection. To the left the hallway went 50ft and dead-ended. To the right, the hallway was 60ft long with two doors far down on the right side. A large statue dominated the end of the hallway. This statue matched the statue of the Fire personality that was on top of the pyramid.
Shendar listens to the nearest door and detects the sound of voices from beyond. Morak kicks the door open to find five men (Cynidiceans), wearing red robes and golden masks that match the face of the statue in the hall, sitting on bunk beads around a very dimly glowing brazier. As the party enters, the Men seem blinded by the party’s light sources. In their blinded state the fumble for their weapons and cry out in alarm. (These Cynidiceans belong to a religion based upon worship of the element fire). Since the Men don’t attack, the party hold their actions. Finally Shendar speaks up asking the Men where they can find Zargon. The Cynidiceans only understand the word Zargon, the name of a being they hate and fear. They take the Strange looking (to the Cynidiceans) party members to be servants of Zargon and attack.
Morak casts ‘Hold Person’ and two of the Men freeze. Darius and Shendar each attack one of the Cynidiceans while the remaining Cynidicean makes a break for a door in the corner of the room. Just as the fleeing Cynidicean passes through the door, The Kid nails him with three throne daggers sending his lifeless body sprawling into the room beyond.
From the adjoining room comes quite a commotion. The door further down the hall opens and more similarly dressed men emerge and rush the party. As they approach, Roam casts ‘Heat Metal’ on two of them, one of which is wearing plate mail. Roam and Morak then make a defensive line blocking the hallway. Tevroc casts ‘Summon Swarm’ and a bunch of rats appear and attack the Cynidiceans in the hallway.
Shendar and R dispatch their opponents and move through the door in the back of the room to find themselves facing several more Cynidiceans who are coming to the aid of their fellows.
Meanwhile, in the hallway, Roam and Morak are holding off the Cynidiceans who are suffering the effects of the spells cast upon them. To add insult to injury, Tevroc casts ‘Monster Summoning’ and two people appear behind the Cynidiceans in the hall. One of these new arrivals is a female dressed in white robes over chain mail, armed with a spear and, wearing a silver mask carved in the image of the face of the Air personality statue on top of the pyramid. The other arrival is wearing blue robes, a bronze mask with the face of the Water personality, and armed with a blue and white marbled staff. These two figures eagerly attack the red-robed Cynidiceans. As the battle progresses, the red-robed Cynidiceans are killed off by the ‘Heat Metal’, ‘Summoned Rat Swarm’ and the vicious attacks of the party. The blue-robed figure falls to a sword thrust from one of the red-robed Cynidiceans.
When all is said and done, only the two ‘Held’ Cynidiceans remain. As the ‘Monster Summoning’ spell expires, the white-robed woman bows to the party and vanishes.
The Kid ties up the two ‘Held’ Cynidiceans. Morak then cancels his ‘Hold Person’ spell. Shendar asks Morak to try to communicate with them. Morak succeeds using his Ancient Language knowledge and translates questions asked by Shendar.
Shendar: “Where is Zargon?”
(Cynidicean spits in M/T’s face.)
(Shendar smacks the offending Cynidicean.)
Shendar: “Let us know where we can find Zargon, so we can deal with him.”
(Cynidicean understands as “Let us know where we can find Zargon, so we can make a deal with him.”)
[Cynidicean spits in Shendar ’s face.)
(Shendar smacks the offending Cynidicean.]
Shendar: “Damn it! I’ll kill you just like I’m going to kill Zargon!”
Cynidicean: “You want to KILL The Unmentionable One (Zargon)?”
Shendar: “Duahhh!, Yes I we want to KILL Zargon.”
Cynidicean: “Why didn’t you say that before you attacked us?”
Shendar: “You attacked US!”
Cynidicean: “You called out the name of The Unmentionable One. No one does that except servants of The Unmentionable One.”
Shendar: “So, will you help us?”
Cynidicean: “Yes, but you must prove your selves to us first. You have hurt our order. Our foes, those of the water are now stronger than we. Defeat them and return her with their most holy possession and we of the glorious fire will help you.”
Shendar: “Where do we find these water people?’
Cynidicean: “Below you must go. We will show you the way down, but must remain here to keep guard”.
As the Cynidiceans prepare to lead the party to the stairs, The Kid investigates a door in the rear of the adjoining room from which a loud buzzing can be heard. Opening the door he finds a large doom dominated by a huge beehive. Across the room is another door, but between The Kid and the far door are several Giant Bees who are buzzing loudly around the hive. The Kid closes the door.
The Cynidiceans lead the party to the stairs and then return to their chambers. As the party is traveling Shendar notices a secret door in one of the walls. As soon as the Cynidiceans are out of sight, the party doubles back to the secret door which Shendar opens with a little difficulty.
The door is opened to reveal darkness and a stench of bat droppings, or perhaps bird droppings…
No, Roam recognizes the droppings as that of Stirges, an abomination of nature and one that he must destroy! (Abominations of Nature being his hated enemy) As Roam yells out “Die Stirges!” the party is assaulted by nearly a dozen of the creatures, more of which seem to be roosting in the rafters.
Shendar and The Kid pull Roam out of the room and slam the door. They all then turn to face the Stirges that have managed to get into the hallway. The battle is furious with party members watching each other’s backs and carefully removing Stirge after Stirge from their compatriots. Eventually the Stirges in the hallway are slain, but not before the have taken their toll on several members of the party. As Mackame and Morak cast healing spells, Roam and Shendar argue over slaying the rest of the foul beasts, something that Roam demands.
A deal is finally made. Shendar will cast ‘Web’ into the room and Roam will ignite it, thus burning all the Stirges caught in the spell. In return, Roam will take Shendar’s watched for the next 4 days. One…Two…Three…The door is once again opened, the ‘Web’ goes off filling the room and probably spurting out of the holes at the top of the pyramid. Roam ignites the ‘Web’ and nearly two score of the vile creatures are incinerated.
Turning around and closing the door behind them, Shendar and Roam find The Kid munching on one of the roast Stirges.
The Kid: “Hey, these things are pretty good. They taste like chicken.”
(Roam cuffs him up aside the head)
ASEO out
---NIGHT 19---
The party who is now:
Darius Male elf Ranger level 5
Morak, Son of DaK Male dwarf Fighter/Priest level 4/5
Shendar (Blue Arm) Male elf Mage/Thief level 4/5
Tevroc Male human Mage level 5
Roam D'Le Rold Male human Ranger/Druid 4/4
“The Kid” Male human Fighter/Thief 4/5
Mackame Appears to be an 8-year-old human Female (Necro M/Necro P5 /5) NPC
"Brunur" Mackame's Zombie dog NPC
The party decides to investigate the stairs that were pointed out to them by the Cynidiceans. They cautiously descend the stairs and follow the hallway beyond as it makes a couple of turns before ending in a door.
Shendar checks for traps, finds none and opens the door. Beyond the door is a 40ft hallway ending in a metal door. On the wall on each side of the hallway are 4 runes each with a lever beneath it in the up position. None of the party recognize any of the runes so they decide to go back upstairs and ask the Cynidiceans what the runes mean.
When they get back to the rooms where they had encountered the Cynidiceans, they find the Cynidiceans, along with the bodies of the Cynidiceans that the party had killed, gone. Following blood stains across the floor, the party locates a secret trap door in the corner of one of the rooms, but is unable to open it. It then occurs to the party that there is another door on this level that they haven’t opened. Perhaps there are more Cynidiceans there.
Heading back through the first room they had entered on this level, the party passes through the door they had not yet investigated. They follow the hallway beyond until they came to a door on the right wall. The Kid kicked in the door, which was badly rotted. The room beyond had once been used for storage, but was now full of only rat-infested garbage.
Continuing down the hallway, a door on the left side was investigated. Shendar opened the door to find a 20ft x 20ft room with several crates scattered on the floor. Some of these crates were broken open spilling sawdust and strange colored paper cylinders out onto the floor. As Shendar moved to investigate further, one of the crates formed a pseudopod and hit him with it. Shendar now stuck to a Mimic called franticly for assistance from his companions, some of whom were scouting around the corned investigating some stoneware jars at the end of the hallway as well as a door further down on the right.
Fortunately for Shendar, Darius and Roam came to his aid and were able to defeat the Mimic before any further damage was done to the party. The rest of the party was called back into the room and the crates were searched. Most of the paper tubes crumbled when touched releasing different colored powders. A few were found intact. These came in several colors and each one had an oiled rope or wick extending from one end. The party found 2 red tubes (explosive d20, 15ft radius), 4 yellow tubes (Roman candles d8 shots for d8 damage, +1 to hit for each consecutive shot), 1 blue tube with conical ends (Sky Rocket travel d10+1 x 10ft, d10 damage 10ft radius, 3 Green short fat tubes (Smoke bombs, cloud 10ft radius) as well as 3 strings of small red tubes linked by the same wick (Fire Crackers d4 lots of smoke and noise). Additionally, 3 glass spheres were found. These spheres were made so that each hemisphere contained a different color powder separated by a glass wall (Flash/Smoke globes). These spheres were quickly claimed by Shendar.
The Kid took one of the yellow tubes out into the hall, lit the wick and tossed it back down the hallway toward the storage room door. The tube belched forth a cloud of smoke then several colored flaming balls were seen to shoot from the smoke in seemingly random directions.
The Kid places the remaining tubes of the various colors in his backpack. The party moves to investigate the stoneware jars. Two are found to me empty while the third contains sand. The party then moves to open the remaining door on the right side of the hall. Morak opens the door and is forced to dive out of the way as a mass of Green Slime, which had been growing on a board leaning against the door, falls toward him. Morak makes it out of the way, but he and Darius find themselves trapped at the end of the hallway, separated from the party by a large patch of Green Slime. The party, having dealt with Green Slime on several previous occasions, breaks out their torches. The Kid, quick thinking as ever, reaches into his pack and pulls out one of the cylinders, a red one… They look like the yellow ones except they are a different color…and lights the wick pointing the cylinder’s wicked end at the patch of slime. Expecting a stream of flaming spheres, The Kid and the rest of the party are surprised when the tube blows up in The Kid’s hand. The Kid makes a save and his hand retains intact, however he and all the rest of the party except Morak and R take d20 damage. Brunur takes the full force of the blast (20 points) and is blasted to pieces much to Mackame’s horror. As the dust settles, the party count their body parts and having assured themselves that they are all still attached, all take turns smacking The Kid before they divert their attention back to the Green Slime. The Green Slime in the hall is destroyed, but the room seems full of it. The party closes the door and heads back to the stairs, Mackame carrying Brunur’s gooey remains in her arms.
It is decided that the party needs to rest, so the party decides to take shelter in the secret room where they fried the Stirges. Upon reopening the door, the party finds that some Stirges that had been out during their first assault have returned and are currently roosting in the upper rafters of the room. Roam calls for their immediate destruction, but the party is out of spells and has no way to get to the roosting Stirges. The party promises to get the Stirges later, and them move to rest in one of the abandoned living quarters just off the main entry room. As the party rests, Mackame reconstructs Brunur (Using ‘Animate Dead’ and ‘Skeleton’ {from the great net spellbook}) only having to disturb The Kid once to help her retrieve one of Brunur’s legs off the ceiling in the hallway.
Once again the party decides to head down the stairs and back to the hallway with the levers. Shendar and Darius enter the hallway while the rest of the party stays back at down the hall 30ft. As Darius flips one of the levers, a metal door near the end of the hallway closest to the party drops from the ceiling. Shendar is able to dive through the door, but now finds himself in a 5ft x 5ft room facing a closed wooden door in front of him, and the metal door that descended from the ceiling at his back. He immediately attempted to open the door, but found it locked. Trying to pick the lock, he managed to break off one of his lock picks.
Darius found the metal door at the far end of the hallway opening to reveal a wooden door 5ft beyond. As he turns around to address Shendar, he finds Shendar gone. Additionally, he sees that there is a metal door separating him from the party.
The Party sees the wooden door close in front of them. The Kid moves to investigate, but finds the door locked and is unable to open the lock. The party decides to give Darius and Shendar 1 hour to return before they place the remaining red cylinder next to the door and light it.
Darius moves back down the hallway and flips the lever opposite of the one he had flipped before. The metal door on his end of the hallway closes while the metal door on the far end of the hallway opens to reveal Shendar who had evidently been examining the metal door from the other side. Shendar and Darius move to the wooden door by Shendar and begin to pound on it. Then Shendar notices that his broken lock pick is gone. Further investigation shows this door to bee different from the one Shendar had tried to pick before. Darius tries the door and finds it unlocked. Opening the door they find a short hallway ending in a wooden door. Since this is not the way they had come from they decide that the best course for them to take is the random flipping of levers until they find the one which causes the doors to open and reveal the party.
After an hour of experimentation, the door opens to reveal the party all hunkered against the wall with their hands over their ears. As Darius and Shendar move to greet their friends they notice a red cylinder with a burning fuse lying in the now open doorway. Darius and Shendar are barely able to dive for cover before a blast sends pieces of the wooden door showering all over the hallway.
As the smoke clears, the party is reunited.
ASEO out
---Night 20---- Wherein the game was converted to 3rd Edition
The party who is now:
Darius Male elf Ranger level 5 Becomes Ranger level 5
Morak, Son of DaK Male dwarf Fighter/Priest level 4/5 Becomes Fighter 2/Cleric (Good & Protection) 4
Shendar (Blue Arm) Male elf Mage/Thief level 5/6 Becomes ½ Elf Cleric(Travel & Luck) 1/Rogue 2/Bard 4
Tevroc Male human Mage level 5 Becomes Sorcerer 5
Roam D'Le Rold Male human Ranger/Druid 4/5 Becomes Female (mainly because my wife was playing the character, and we kept referring to the male Roam as “she” Fighter 1/Cleric (Plant & Animal) 5
“The Kid” Male human Fighter/Thief 4/5 Becomes Fighter 2/Rogue 4
Mackame Appears to be an 8-year-old human Female (Necro M/Necro P5 /5) NPC
Becomes Sorcerer 4/Cleric (Death & Healing) 4
"Brunur" Mackame's Zombie dog NPC stays Dead
A page from the
Memoirs of Shendar Blue Arm (the Bard)
After blowing up the door to get out of the traveling hallway, we emerged looking out at a long corridor curving to the right. We started up the hallway when I noticed some thin cracks in the wall. Closer inspection revealed a secret door! Going in, we found several bamboo baskets. I was sure that there must be something nasty in them, so I threw my Summer dagger at one of them to light it on fire. Of course, it went up like Alchemist’s fire on a red dragon’s tongue. Then, before I could light the next one on fire, Morak went and opened another basket like an idiot. Of course, there were vipers in this basket, which promptly bit him . After a brief flurry of unpleasantness, we dispatched the vipers and headed to the door at the back of the room. Opening the door, we noticed the room beyond was covered in yellow mold, the spores of which started wafting up at us. All of us have heard the horror stories of what that stuff does if it is inhaled, so we shut the door and moved farther up the main corridor. The yellow mold spores chased us up the hallway for about 20 feet before petering out. This was fortunate, as there was a door a scant 15 feet down the hall from the spores. There was nothing but silence from the other side of the door, so we opened it and piled into the room. Fortunately for us, we saw all the hyper-realistic statues before seeing the large lizard in the corner, thus saving us from becoming part of the décor, although having a life-sized statue of Roam to spit on at home would look great in my parlor… but I digress. The Kid, Darius, and Roam waded into battle with their eyes shut and slaughtered the basilisk while the rest of us did our best not to watch. We were still catching our breath from the fight when the whole pyramid started to shake. Just before the tons of rubble came crashing down on us, a bright light appeared and our friend the Angel showed up.
Just an aside here, and I don’t want to sound like I’m not grateful for being rescued, but why do these angels always dress in white? I mean, that is so passé. You would think that an all-powerful tank of goodness would be omniscient enough to develop some sense of fashion. Bathhouse towels and shining white light doesn’t impress anyone worth impressing. Anyway, the Angel informed us that our friend the Maralith managed to get free from its bonds, and its main goal in life was our destruction. However, our angel friend could transport us to an alternate reality, where we would have more time to get the horn of Zargon, thus defeating the Maralith when we came back to our dimension. When I asked if we had to go back, given that our new dimension had no Maralith, the Angel got quite rude with me. I thought it best at that point not to press the issue. Since the choices were to go to this alternate dimension or die, we all chose the former, except Brunur, who didn’t seem to care either way.
The Angel made some wild gestures and a great wind arose from an opening shimmering gate that formed in mid air. This gate expanded to encompass the entire room. As the gate engulfed us we realized that the ceiling was no longer collapsing and that our Angelic visitor had vanished leaving only a small gem behind. As I began to investigate our new surroundings, my head started to spin. The colors didn’t seem quite right, and there was an awful screaming in my head. Evidently at this point I passed out.
I was rudely and most disgustingly awakened by Brunur, who was lapping at my face. My head was still swimming and I felt quite a bit different. I had been studying from a bardic book that I borrowed from a bard back at the rift, but although I could easily comprehend the lessons, the history, the lore, and the songs, something was missing. I had even taught myself to play the lyre and sing a bit, but I wasn’t very good, despite following the book’s advice on everything from posture to finger exercises. I had been trying to write an epic detailing my heroic, er I mean our heroic exploits since joining together, but frankly, my effort sucked. Now I could see the melody and the harmony much more clearly, and I knew exactly how to phrase the lyrics to convey the result I desired, which was basically to make me look good. I also realized that all this time, there was a god to worship that smiled on the wanderer and didn’t judge good and evil by some arbitrary standard. I found that I had a special connection to this god, and felt like he had been watching out for me all along. My connection isn’t strong, but it’s tangible.
After patting myself down to make sure I hadn’t misplaced anything, we set out to further explore this new pyramid. We used the levers in the traveling hallway to take us to a new area, where we found ourselves face to face with a statue done up in a water motif. One arm held a handful of coins, the other a staff. Upon inspection, I noticed that you could move the arms of the statue. Not wanting to appear greedy, I pulled the one with the staff. The statue then proceeded to expunge this vile choking gas that I didn’t notice earlier because Morak’s pestering. We quickly left the area, but the choking gas had its effect nonetheless.
Next we went to explore the door that was at the end of the hallway with the above-mentioned statue. Listening at the door, it sounded like the room inside was being ransacked. Eager to get in on the action and not lose out to some other treasure-seekers, we burst into the room to discover 4 beetles tearing up crates and spilling green liquid everywhere. Of course, I was in the back directing traffic, so I didn’t see much of what happened in the battle, but it looked like Roam, Morak, and The Kid made quick work of the beetles. Now, before I relay this next part, I want to make sure everyone understands that I have neither the training nor the interest to be an alchemist. Being the curious sort, I sent my Unseen Servant into the room with a torch to see if the green liquid would burn. Boy, did it ever. After killing the bugs, we ran for our lives and hid around the corner as the whole room exploded like the gods themselves were playing stickball with Meteor Swarms. When the fire died down, around 20 minutes later, we figured we may as well try the other arm on the statue. So, pulling the coin arm, we were transported through a secret door to a passage with a door on the right hand side that we could hear chanting from.
Of course, we drew weapons and prepared for the worst, but hoped we’d have better luck with these water priests than we had with their fire counterparts. Not to rehash old news, but those fire warriors were rude, jumped to conclusions, and were quite bloodthirsty. I mean, who else would just fight without any provocation against people they knew nothing about. Geez, some people. I’ll have to remember to emphasize their villainy in my epic. So anyway, we opened the door and interrupted some worship service or something. I recounted what happened with the fire temple, as close as I could remember it anyway, telling the head priest how untrustworthy and vicious the fire warriors were, and asking for their help in killing Zargon. He seemed sympathetic to the cause, but then the bastard made us go back to the fire temple and retrieve their “item of power” to prove we had actually wiped them out. Not having much choice, and not relishing fighting Zargon on our own, we agreed. I found myself much more comfortable talking with this alien culture than I used to be. I guess those lessons on “Tact” and “Understanding and respecting others” in that book I borrowed were helpful after all. At least the part about tact and understanding others made sense anyway. I’m still not sure I understand the “respecting others” parts. Maybe it just takes time.
Manipulating the levers back in the traveling hallway, we made it to another fire area. It was basically a long hallway with a door at the end of it. We made our way to the door and I bent down to listen and promptly burned half my face off. This is the kind of risk that I am always exposing myself to that the party just takes for granted. They think it’s funny when I burn my face off. I think it’s funny, too. Except what I think is funny is that this episode won’t appear in the songs of glory I write and spread throughout the world about our exploits, but all the embarrassing stuff that anyone else has done will be laughed about for generations across the realms. Now that is funny.
After getting healed and having my unseen servant open the door, we entered a room that was incredibly hot, with twin lava pits on either side of a statue holding a flaming sword, which looks like the item we were supposed to bring back to the water priest. The Kid and Darius went forward to get the sword. When they got beside the fire pits, these Fire Salamanders appeared and the fight was on. I mostly sat and watched as The Kid, Darius, and Roam fought off the salamanders in a fight that was as short as it was vicious. The Kid and Darius were grievously wounded in the battle, however, and it took all of the skill of our healers to get them back on their feet. Darius found a scabbard for the flaming sword in a secret compartment underneath the statue, which he sheathed the flaming sword in. Then we made our way back to the water priests.
I figured that since we had the flaming sword, the water priests would help us in our fight against Zargon, but they said we had to eliminate the air temple as well. I find it hard to trust someone who is continually adding more conditions onto a deal like this, but we went off in search of the air temple anyway. We found it fairly easily, but when we opened the door full of the righteous fury of the adventurer, we found that it was full of beautiful women holding onto long spears. After picking my tongue up off the floor, I offered greetings. All thoughts of wantonly slaughtering them left my mind as I imagined meeting the tall one under different circumstances. I finally had the inspiration for the ballad I was going to write. I came to my senses still nodding my head like a fool with the entire tribe of Amazon hotties looking at me. I cleared my throat and suggested the only thing I could think of that would deflect their attention from my blatant staring at their breatplates – I suggested they form an alliance with the water temple. Of course, this touched off a furious debate. Unbelievably, the story of the seaside village that did not pay homage to the god of the sea came to mind effortlessly. After recounting the story, which ended with the village being destroyed when the vengeful goddess raised the powers of wind and water to create a massive tidal wave, the Air priestess agreed to try to form an alliance with the purpose of defeating Zargon. They made Roam, as the only adult female member of our party (something is not quite right about this, but I can’t seem to put my finger on it) participate in some ritual to cement our alliance. She was then presented with a magical bow.
We then took the head priestess back into the traveling hallway, where she waited for the water priest to come parley with her. After going through the same old song and dance for the water priests, they agreed to the parley, provided that Tevroc would agree to participate in some water ritual, which he did. He was then presented with a magical staff. When the two sides met, there was some awkwardness, but once again, I seemed to know just what to say and when to say it, and with me as facilitator, an agreement was quickly reached. While both temples said they could not come with us to battle Zargon, they did say they would skirmish with the forces of Zargon, to hopefully clear the way for us. Then both sects invited us to a feast to celebrate the start of their alliance. Since we were exhausted from a long day, we agreed to delay our quest for an evening to relax. We ate fine food and I entertained everyone with funny tales, songs of noble sacrifice, and epics of heroes who lived long before my time. I was getting tired, but every time I went to put my lyre away, the people asked for one more song. Eventually, I turned them down and went to bed, but it sure felt good to be good at something besides stealing and stabbing someone in the back.
---
Here are some of my rough notes on the elemental weapons:
The Fire Sword has a blade made of pure fie and can become any type of sword or dagger that the wielder chooses. It does damage as the weapon it becomes as well as provides light as a ‘Continual Flame’. All damage is fire damage and the sword does double damage against water based beings.
The Air Bow is a long bow that fires invisible air arrows with the ‘Gust’ ability.
The Water Staff is a quarterstaff made of solid water. On command it can be poured into any vessel that can contain a liquid. The staff does double damage against fire based creatures and can extinguish 5ft of normal fire as a standard action.
ASEO out
---Night 21----
The party who is now:
Darius Male elf Ranger level 5
Morak, Son of DaK Male dwarf Fighter 2/Cleric (Good & Protection) 4
Shendar (Blue Arm) Male ½ Elf Cleric (Travel & Luck) 1/Rogue 2/Bard 4
Tevroc Male human Sorcerer 5
Roam D'Le Rold Female human Fighter 1/Cleric (Plant & Animal) 5
“The Kid” Male human Fighter 2/Rogue 4
Mackame Appears to be an 8-year-old human Female Sorcerer 4/Cleric (Death & Healing) 4
"Brunur" Mackame's Zombie dog NPC
After a period of rest the party awoke and prepared to enter the next level of the pyramid. Escorted by members of the Air and Water sect, the party enters a room that has a portion of the floor that descends to form a ramp down. As the party moves down the ramp they enter a room that is filled with a light mist. The party moves to a door in the north side of the room and the ramp slowly rises into the ceiling.
Upon opening the door the party finds a long hallway before them. They proceeded down the hall until they came to an intersection. Evidently the mist had some sort of confusion effect, because it took several minutes to get the party all down the same hall off the intersection. They moved down the hall to a “T” intersection with a door directly across from them. Shendar listened to the door, but heard nothing. The Kid then checked the area for traps, and finding none opened the door that was unlocked. In the room beyond stood nine skeletal forms standing at attention in front of a stone sarcophagus on the far wall.
The Kid and Morak dashed into the room to set up for combat and set off several arrow traps linked to pressure plates in the floor. These arrows quickly stopped these two in their tracks. Roam attempted to turn the skeletons, but got no reaction. Upon closer examination, The Kid discovered that the skeletons are held in place by metal poles set in the floor.
Exiting the room the party headed off to the left, and traveled down the hall until they came to a door on their right, just before the hall turned to the right. As they were investigating this door a glowing spectral, form of a large cat was seen stalking the party. This caused nearly the entire party save for Mackame and Tevroc to flee in panic. Tevroc readied ‘Magic Missile’, but as the cat pounced it seemed to vanish. A few minutes were spent in tense anticipation of an attack, but when nothing materialized, the party re grouped and retried the door. This door too they found to be unlocked. Inside this room they found several empty coffins and a large pile of debris from what appeared to be a funerary lab. The sight of several large Dire Rats discouraged the party from further investigating the pile.
The party backed out of this room and turned around the corner to face a very long hall before them. The hall extended well beyond the range of the light from Mackame’s staff. Carefully the party moved down this hall until they came to a door on the left side of the hall. Finding this door locked, Shendar attempted to pick the lock. Suddenly there was a loud sound of stone grating on stone coming from the darkened hallway the party had just come down. The party paused momentarily. The Kid and Darius drew their weapons and waited. The sound started to get closer, and then out of the darkness rolled a huge stone ball that took up nearly the whole hall.
Shendar doubled his lock picking efforts and the rest of the party ‘encouraged’ him on. The ball picked up speed as it moved toward the party and it became apparent that if the party was in dire danger of getting squashed. Shendar was still working on the lock as the ball rolled closer and closer. Darius turned to flee down the hall away from the ball. Mackame and Burnur, both being small, crouched in the corner of the floor and wall and hoped that the ball would clear them. Just as the ball was about to crash into the party, Shendar picks the lock and dives into the room, followed by Morak, Roam, and Tevroc. It is to late for Darius to get to the door in time so he continued to run down the hall away from the ball, which is back-lit by Mackame’s staff. The ball harmlessly passes over Brunur and Mackame and bears down on the fleeing ranger. Darius is able to duck down a side hallway and stops to catch his breath. Suddenly it occurs to him that the ball may turn down this hallway. Franticly he pours his water skin on the ground and tries to determine which way the hall slopes. In the darkness he can’t really be sure so he moved down the side hall just incase the ball rolls his way. Fortunately, the ball rolls past and then the sound of the rolling ball suddenly stops.
Roam looks back out of the room searching for the jellyfied remains of Darius. Instead she sees Darius trotting up the hallway seemingly unhurt. Mackame and Brunur are shaking the dust from themselves and also seem unhurt.
Back in the room Shendar takes stock of his new surroundings. There is a Dwarf on top of him…he pushes Morak to the side…There is an old bronze brazier in each corner of this room. In the center of the room is a large stone sarcophagus. As the party rejoins in the room, Shendar suggests that the lid be removed from the sarcophagus. Roam and The Kid lift the lid off while the rest of the party stands by weapons and spells ready. As the lid is lifted out of the way a Mummy lurches up to attack Roam…and stumbles falling out of the sarcophagus and landing flat on its face on the floor. Roam and The Kid drop the lid while Darius hacks at the fell (no pun intended) creature with his new flaming sword and his long sword. Only Shendar seemed cowered by the Mummy’s sudden appearance, but he quickly recovers his cool and readjusts his apparel to hide the wetness that has ‘mysteriously’ appeared on his pants leg. Roam plunges her Duom deep into the Mummy. As the Mummy rises, The Kid hacks at it with his Bastard sword, severing its head from its body and leaving it lying limply on the floor.
Searching the sarcophagus the party finds some grave accoutrements, but little else.
Leaving by a door in the far wall of the room, the party wanders through the misty hallways until they realize that they are back in front of the room with the pressure plates. The party passes by this room and continues to wander until they finally find a door at the end of the hall.
Opening this door they find a large sarcophagus standing up on the far wall. Flanking the sarcophagus are two large four-armed white gorilla like beasts (Girallons). As the party enters one of the beasts punches a button on the wall and the sarcophagus opens releasing a Wight. At the same time a secret door in the hallway behind the party opens and several more Wights emerge and move toward the party. Morak and Darius move to engage the Girallon that punched the button. The second Girallon goes berserk at the sight of the Wight emerging from the sarcophagus and attacks it hitting it with all four claws and tearing it to shreds. The party moves out of the way as this berserk Girallon charges the Wights in the hallway. Meanwhile, Tevroc casts ‘Web’ on the hallway, and slams the door behind the Girallon. Finding its progress into the hallway blocked by ‘Webs’ the Girallon turns around and smashes through the door.
The fight against the first Girallon hasn’t gone well, Morak is down and Darius is badly injured. The Kid Tumbles in and out of combat coordinating attacks with Roam. Finally Roam stabs the killing blow, just as the second Girallon re-enters the room.
Shendar moves to help Morak while Darius, The Kid and Roam fight the second Girallon that has charged to the center of the room. Mackame and Tevroc fire several barrages of ‘Magic Missiles’ at the Wights caught in the ‘Web’ (Mackame’s ‘Magic Missiles’ appear as dimly glowing skulls instead of the normal glowing arrow). The battle with the Girallon was quick and vicious. The beast was slain, but Roam and Darius had both suffered some grievous wounds.
In the hallway, several of the Wights were down and as the remaining ones slowly advanced through the ‘Web’ they were too cut down with spells and attacks from Roam’s Magical Duom and Shendar’s Daggers of the Seasons. At last the web was ignited and the remaining Wight cut down by The Kid.
In the sarcophagus the party found some coins (which they have long since quit picking up), and a Short Sword with a faintly glowing gem in its hilt. Investigating further, the runes “Spell Leach” are deciphered on the blade. The Sword communicates to Darius who picks it up via Telepathy (It is +1, +2 vs. Spell Casters). It can drain a random spell from any spell caster damaged by the blade. This spell can then be released by the blade wielder as if it were a ring of spell storing. The blade currently holds a “Cure Serious Wounds’ (unknown to the party is that for every day that the blade goes without a spell stored in it, it gains a point of EGO until it can possess the wielder to attack the nearest spell caster. The Sword has a base EGO of 10)
After some expenditure of healing spells, the party once again attempts to navigate the mist filled halls.
The party arrived at another crypt door and opening it they found black cloaked Cynidiceans removing sarcophagus lids and freeing the undead therein. Bursting into action, Tevroc covers the room with a ‘Web’ spell while The Kid and Morak engage the Ghasts and Cynidiceans (priests of Zargon) by the door. Tevroc then follows up with a ‘Flaming Sphere’ igniting the ‘Web’. Then casts another ‘Web’, which ignites. In the blazing of the ‘Webs’ a small greenish fire begins to burn on the alter at the far end of the room (several Lesser Restoration scrolls and a Resurrection scroll go up in smoke). A silence spell cast by Roam prevents the priests from casing their spells and seals the fate of the party’s foes.
One priest is captured and revived from his unconscious state.
ASEO out
---Night 22---- 3rd Edition
The party who is now:
Darius Male elf Ranger level 5
Morak, Son of DaK Male dwarf Fighter 2/Cleric (Good & Protection) 4
Shendar (Blue Arm) Male ½ elf Cleric (Travel & Luck) 1/Rogue 2/Bard 5
Tevroc Male human Sorcerer 5
Roam D'Le Rold Female human Fighter 1/Cleric (Plant & Animal) 5
“The Kid” Male human Fighter 2/Rogue 5
Mackame Appears to be an 8-year-old human Female Sorcerer 4/Cleric (Death & Healing) 4 NPC
"Brunur" Mackame's Zombie dog NPC
The unconscious priest is revived and questioned by Shendar. He learns that the man worships Zargon and is “doing Zargon’s bidding”. The captive is tied up and forced to lead the party to Zargon. The priest proceeds to lead the party apparently at random through the mist (he is affected by the mist as well, but is looking for a particular door). Finally the priest leads the party around a corner to a large iron door set in the wall at the end of the hall.
The priest informs the Party that the way to Zargon is beyond the door. The party casts all manner of pre-combat spells and then has the priest open the door. As the priest opens the door he yells “ZARGON TAKE ME!”
A bolt of lightning discharges down the hallway severely frying several members of the party. The priest, who only had 1 Hp and took 32 points of damage is completely incinerated.
Beyond the door is only a wall covered with a large copper plate. As the party investigates this copper plate their hair begins to stand on end. They quickly close the door and flee back down the hallway in the direction the came.
The party continued to wander the mist-filled hallways and often found them selves backtracking and covering ground they had explored previously. On several occasions they were forced to flee from the giant rolling ball that seems to reset at each end of the hallway.
Several new rooms were investigated and all showed the signs (black wax, chalk runes, open coffins, and missing bodies) of the priests of Zargon’s work. In one long narrow crypt the party was attacked by a force of Zombies, 3 Mummies and a Wight. Darius was struck by the Wight, and suffered under the being’s undead touch. Fortunately these effects eventually wore off and Darius seemed no worse for the wear.
The party then came upon a room that seemed to be a embalming preparation room. This room was free of coffins or sarcophagi and the party thought this might be a good place to rest. Much to their dismay, upon entering the room they were attacked by five Shadows, the spirit of the embalmer who made sacrifices of the hearts of those he embalmed in this room and 4 Shadows he had created from unfortunate wanderers over the centuries.
The party suffered greatly under the assault of these incorporeal spirits and Shendar, Darius, The Kid and Morak all were weakened by the Shadow’s touch. After the Shadows were defeated, the party barricaded the door and sat down for some much needed rest.
ASEO out
---Night 23--- 3rd Edition
The party who is now:
Darius Male elf Ranger level 6
Morak, Son of DaK Male dwarf Fighter 2/Cleric (Good & Protection) 4
Shendar (Blue Arm) Male ½ Elf Cleric (Travel & Luck) 1/Rogue 2/Bard 5
Tevroc Male human Sorcerer 6
Roam D'Le Rold Female human Fighter 1/Cleric (Plant & Animal) 5
“The Kid” Male human Fighter 2/Rogue 5
Mackame Appears to be an 8-year-old human Female Sorcerer 4/Cleric (Death & Healing) 4 NPC
"Brunur" Mackame's Zombie dog NPC
While they rest the various guards on duty reported hearing movement in the hallway beyond the door to the room. Several heavy pieces of furniture are moved into place to block the door. While The Kid is on Watch he hears a scratching at the door and sees a large paw bat under the door. When he passes the watch off to Darius he mentions this and Darius investigates further. Darius realizes that the scratching and paw belong to a Dire Weasel that is apparently searching for food. Darius gets some jerky from Morak’s pack and feeds several pieces to the Dire Weasel. When the party finishes resting and opens the door, they indeed find a Dire Weasel sitting outside the door. Darius casts ‘Animal Friendship’ to which the Dire Weasel is responsive, and the Dire Weasel “Fluffy” begins to travel with Darius, but tends to avoid Brunur.
The party travels down the hall and enters a portion of the pyramid that seems to have suffered some structural problems. Large cracks run through the masonry and the door to a room in the vacenity has a large hole gnawed in the bottom of it. While investigating the door, the party is set upon by a pack of Dire Weasels. The Party fights off the beasts with Fluffy coming to aid Darius who was savagely attacked by a pair of particularly vicious Dire Weasels.
After resting and recovering from the ordeal with the Dire Weasels, the party moves back into the hallway. As the party rounds a corner they see the gently glowing spectral form of a Cynidicean. The spectral form (Haunt) seems to be fleeing from something and runs around the corner. The party follows and witnesses the last moments of this Cynidicean’s life being played out. The Haunt flees down the hallway and tries to lift a manhole set in the floor. Something causes the Haunt to abandon the manhole and try to flee toward the end of the hallway where it claws futilely at a secret door. Then, as the party watches, the Haunt turns to face it’s unseen pursuer and tries to defend itself as it is set upon by the unseen attacker. In the end the Haunt is torn to shreds, and the image fades.
The party moves to investigate the secret door deciding to check the manhole later. Opening the secret door they find what looks like the entryway to a tomb. Apparently at the far end of the hall they have entered are stone blocks which were rigged to fall and block the hall. However, several of these blocks seem to have fallen wrong and have become jammed in place leaving an opening which the party surmises leads to the tomb beyond. The hall is beautifully decorated with carvings of a king and his elven queen participating in all manner of court activities. As the party begins to move down the hallway toward the rubble, several scythe blades swing out of the wall nearly slicing The Kid in two.
The Kid manages to dive to safety, but several of the other party members find themselves separated from The Kid by four scythe blades which are swing back and forth across the hall very rapidly. Morak and Roam find themselves in the midst of the blades with two blades behind them and two in front.
Nobody dares move for several tense moments. The Kid then recognizes a pattern in the swing of the blades, and with his help, the rest of the party are able to join him on his end of the hall. The crossing through the blades is not without incident, however, Morak, Shendar, and Darius are all cut severely.
Passing under the block that had jammed in the ceiling, the party finds that beyond there is another set of blocks which have fallen, but broken into rubble. Beyond these is yet another set of blocks intended to seal the passageway. Fortunately for the party, a small narrow tunnel seems to lead through the final series of blocks. The tunnel is quite cramped and Roam finds that she must leave her +2 Doum behind.
---At this point several pages of the transcript are burned and only scraps of the story may be discerned.---
False tomb… set off a trap…
King’s Tomb…2 specters drain The Kid (2 levels)…find “Lightning & Thunder”
(“Lightning” War Hammer, +1/+2 vs. Evil Humanoids
&
“Thunder” Medium Steel Shield +1
When “Lightning” is struck against “Thunder” (partial action) a loud thunder clap sounds (-20 to move silently, unless in the middle of a thunder storm). This effectively blinds any creature within 60ft with Tremor Sense, or any creature that relies on sound as sight for 1 round.
Additionally, when “Lightning” strikes “Thunder”, both the war hammer and the shield obtain an electrical charge. This charge lasts for 3d4 rounds. The charge on “Lightning” will be released with a successful hit with the weapon. This does an additional d10 points of electrical damage to the target.
The charge on “Thunder” will be released if a foe strikes at “Thunder's” wielder and misses by 3 or less. This charge does d10 damage to the attacking foe. The wielder of “Thunder” if fighting defensively or using Expertise may add the +AC bonus to the 3 miss range as it is supposed that they are actively defending with “Thunder”. (example: A fighter taking a +2 AC bonus through the Expertise Feat would dissipate the charge on “Thunder” if he is missed by 5 or less).
These items may only hold one charge at a time. Should the charge on one of these items be dissipated, the charge may be transferred from the other item by touching the two items (this does not generate the thunder clap, and counts as a partial action).
Should the charge on one or both of these items not be discharged before the 3d4 rounds, the wielded of these items takes d10 damage from the electrical charge as it dissipates on its own. The charge may only be discharged on living matter and does not affect undead.
The wielder of “Lightning” and “Thunder” receives Resist Elements Electricity 12 against lightning bolts as long as both items are in hand.)
Shendar, using his bardic lore ability is able to discern the following information about Thunder and Lightning:
Created for the "Thunder Warden", the Master of the Watch of the Dwarves living in the Thunder Spire Mountains, This Shield and War Hammer pair were not only a powerful force on the battle field, but also marked the status of their wielder. Often referred to in slang as 'Flash' and 'Crash', “Lightning” and “Thunder” were crafted from an iron deposit that was repeatedly struck by lightning. “Thunder” bears the image of dark and ominous thunderclouds from which a bolt of lightning juts. “Lightning” is finely engraved with lightning bolts and thunderclouds. When either of these items is charged, all the wielder's hair will stand on end.
Queen’s Tomb…Lots of traps… …nearly lost her arm… Roam’s enchanted (+1) halfspear destroyed
---Night 24--- 3rd Edition
The party who is now:
Darius Male elf Ranger level 6
“Fluffy” Dire Weasel
Morak, Son of DaK Male dwarf Fighter 2/Cleric (Good & Protection) 4
Shendar (Blue Arm) Male ½ Elf Cleric (Travel & Luck) 1/Rogue 2/Bard 5
Tevroc Male human Sorcerer 6
Roam D'Le Rold Female human Fighter 1/Cleric (Plant & Animal) 6
“The Kid” Male human Fighter 2/Rogue 3
Mackame Appears to be an 8-year-old human Female Sorcerer 4/Cleric (Death & Healing) 4 NPC
"Brunur" Mackame's Zombie dog NPC
Back through Blades…Tevroc gets possessed…“Must Kill Darius”…Giant Snakes…Cynadid Columns… break Kid’s magical (+2) bastard sword… …Tevroc claims to be Demetrius…water priest… …Tevroc knows the way…
---Night 25--- 3rd Edition
The party who is now:
Darius Male elf Ranger level 6
“Fluffy” Dire Weasel
Morak, Son of DaK Male dwarf Fighter 2/Cleric (Good & Protection) 4
Lady Bertha Bumblebee Female human Fighter level 5 (returned by Agathinon) as a Paladin1/Monk 4/Psi Warrior2
Shendar (Blue Arm) Male ½ Elf Cleric (Travel & Luck) 1/Rogue 2/Bard 5
Tevroc/Demetrius Male human Sorcerer 6 Possessed Cleric (Water & Protection) 6
Roam D'Le Rold Female human Fighter 1/Cleric (Plant & Animal) 6
“The Kid” Male human Fighter 2/Rogue 3
Mackame Appears to be an 8-year-old human Female Sorcerer 4/Cleric (Death & Healing) 4 NPC
"Brunur" Mackame's Zombie dog NPC
Bertha returns…Truly touched by some greater power…Darius, The Kid and Mackame decide to guard the Party’s escape route from undead incursion from the level above. They remain in this room to do so…Gargoyles…Pit trap…Slamming walls…Blue lotus smokers…Gamblers…Darius Priests of Zargon…killed…Tevroc returns to normal
---Night 26---- 3rd Edition
The party who is now:
Darius Male elf Ranger level 6
“Fluffy” Dire Weasel
Morak, Son of DaK Male dwarf Fighter 2/Cleric (Good & Protection) 5
Lady Bertha Bumblebee Female human Paladin 1/Monk 4/Psi Warrior 2
Shendar (Blue Arm) Male ½ Elf Cleric (Travel & Luck) 1/Rogue 2/Bard 5
Tevroc Male human Sorcerer 6
Roam D'Le Rold Female human Fighter 1/Cleric (Plant & Animal) 6
“The Kid” Male human Fighter 2/Rogue 3
Mackame Appears to be an 8-year-old human Female Sorcerer 4/Cleric (Death & Healing) 4 NPC
"Brunur" Mackame's Zombie dog NPC
…Yaun-ti hunting party… …hit by flame strike… …Rogue got away… …found a secret door…leads to outside… we could see nothing but endless sand dunes under a sky capped by a ruthless baking sun. …some sort of temple… …floor of earth, ceiling of the sky possible a window into the plane of air… Wall of fire must be window into plane of fire. On either side of the shattered statue were waterfalls coming out of the stone of the wall. The water flowed… Wererats… They got Tevroc! …Roam cast raise dead…Statue’s head broken off lying in a well… …diverted water… …four faces… …apparently once worshiped one being composed of or the master of all four elements… The implications… Zargon priests on patrol… Damn four armed apes… …another secret door…stairs beyond… …great underground passage… …must lead to the undercity… reclaim our comrades… journey forth…
(what actually happened is that we played several sessions and I was behind on the write-ups, then I got deployed to the Middle East, and by the time I got back I couldn't remember all of what happened...sorry about that)
ASEO out
---Night 27--- 3rd Edition
The party who is now:
Darius Male elf Ranger level 6
“Fluffy” Dire Weasel
Morak, Son of DaK Male dwarf Fighter 2/Cleric (Good & Protection) 6
Lady Bertha Bumblebee Female human Paladin 1/Monk 5/Psi Warrior 2
Shendar (Blue Arm) Male ½ Elf Cleric (Travel & Luck) 1/Rogue 2/Bard 5
Tevroc Male human Sorcerer 6
Roam D'Le Rold Female human Fighter 1/Cleric (Plant & Animal) 7
“The Kid” Male human Fighter 2/Rogue 3
Mackame Appears to be an 8-year-old human Female Sorcerer 4/Cleric (Death & Healing) 4 NPC
"Brunur" Mackame's Zombie dog NPC
The party headed for the underground city only to find the gateway to the city heavily guarded by a large fortified wall and many Girallons. After being fired upon with a ballista by the people manning the wall, the party retreated to consider their options. While doing so they were approached by a group of underground gnomes who said they could get the party into the city if the party would help them out first. It seems that the gnomes have been spying on a near by city of "fish men".
A recent bizarre flood and strange corrupting fungus brought with it has apparently trapped a band of spying gnomes within the territory of the "fishman" city and perhaps even within the city itself. The problem the gnomes have is that if the gnomes get caught within the "fishman" territory it could mean war between the two societies. Because of this, the gnomes can't afford to send a gnomish search party into the area.
Enter the party. The party agrees to enter the area and look for the gnomes. They leave Roam and Mackame with the gnomes as a gesture of good faith and head down the tunnel that the gnomes indicated lead to the "fishman" territory. After passing through a large dark unnaturally cold chamber in which they found some carvings indicating that the area was dedicated to a dark god, the party entered an area that was contaminated by the fungus the gnomes spoke of.
Within this chamber the party was attacked by fungal infested drow and underdark beings. These beings spat fungus at the party and then attacked. The combat triggered several fungal spore clouds. Having been hit with a fungal lugie, The Kid began to cough and weaken (lose CON). He was quickly treated by Morak and the staff of healing which freed The Kid of the disease. "Fluffy" Darius' friendly Dire Weasel also suffered from the spores, but managed to stabilize before the staff was applied. Darius was struck hard on the head and the sickening sound of his head caving in reverberated through the cavern. Were it not for Lady Bertha's quick action and healing touch Darius would have been well on his way into the realm of the dead. Much to the party's dismay, the fungal infested beings regenerated and had to be hacked to a pulp to allow the party to investigate further.
It was determined that these beings were once part of some sort of traveling performing troupe that had fallen prey to the fungal infestation. A +1 Rapier and +1 leather armor was looted from the bodies.
Exiting the cave the party entered a ascending passageway and found themselves in an area free of the fungal contamination. This tunnel lead to a beach along an underground river. Several large mushrooms grew on the beach and of these several began to screech at the party's approach. Then several more shot tendrils at the party. Fortunately the party was able to hack through all of these mushrooms with out to much trouble. Here the party rested and cast Lesser Restoration spells to regain some CON. The Kid found a magical Katana, Washiski (sp) and Composite long bow in the river by the bank. During the rest period The kid thought he heard some yelling coming from down the river. Using levitation Darius and Shendar moved down the river to find a lone drow asleep on a small rocky beach, apparently washed there by the river's current. Upon waking the woman they learned that she was the leader of the traveling performers and that they had been attacked by fungal infested creatures themselves, and that most of her troop had fallen to the infestation. Darius and Shendar transported her back to the beach where the rest of the party waits. Once there the drow claimed the items The Kid had found as hers and as having been lost in her delirious state after she had been affected by the fungus.
She then parted ways with the party leaving her Washiski with them and after giving Shendar a kiss that left even him weak in the knees disappeared into the darkness.
The party left the beach by a second tunnel. After descending several hundred feet they were attacked by a fungal infested Umber Hulk that burst through a wall in the midst of the party. This foe was defeated, but not before The Kid and Morak turned on each other for some unknown reason. Shendar blinded them both with a Glitter Dust, and then they both wandered around blind for a few moments before snapping out of what ever had caused them to act strange.
The party once again entered a region infested with the fungus only to discover it was the same cave in which they had fought the infested performers who had seemed to still be regenerating. Tevroc launched a Fireball into their midst and that provided the party the time it needed to cross the chamber to another exit.
This tunnel lead through a chamber in which lay the fungal infested corpses of several giant scorpions and then back to the cold chamber so from there the party took the only remaining exit and once again descended into a fungal infested region. They came to another beach on another river. This time the water was so thick with the fungal infestation that the party believed that they could walk across it to reach an adjoining cavern on the far bank.
Lady Bertha led the way since she seemed to be impervious to the disease. Sure enough the fungal mat supported her wait but as she neared the far shore a fungal infested claw broke through the mat and grabbed her. Combat ensued and the party defeated the fungal infested Chuul. Several party members suffered the effects of the fungal infestation, but Morak was able to cleanse them with Remove Disease spells. The initial effects of the infestation (initial lost CON) still continue to wear on the party's health.
ASEO out
---Night 28---- 3rd Edition
Taken from DUNGEON "Lord of the Scarlet Tide"
The party who is now:
Darius Male elf Ranger level 6
“Fluffy” Dire Weasel
Morak, Son of DaK Male dwarf Fighter 2/Cleric (Good & Protection) 6
Lady Bertha Bumblebee Female human Paladin 1/Monk 5/Psi Warrior 2
Shendar (Blue Arm) Male ½ Elf Cleric (Travel & Luck) 1/Rogue 2/Bard 5/Mind Bender 1
Tevroc Male human Sorcerer 7
Roam D'Le Rold Female human Fighter 1/Cleric (Plant & Animal) 7
“The Kid” Male human Fighter 2/Rogue 3
Mackame Appears to be an 8-year-old human Female Sorcerer 4/Cleric (Death & Healing) 4 NPC
"Brunur" Mackame's Zombie dog NPC
A Passage from the Memoirs of Shendar the Bard (Which covers night 27 and 28)
So there we were, standing at the top of the stairs that descended down to the City of the Dead. I knew we had to go, had to get the horn of Zargon, but it still felt cold taking those first few steps. I’ve never liked caves and tunnels. I tolerated them as a child, even learned the language to better barter with the denizens of this lightless world, but I never got used to it. So, I did what any self-respecting bard would do: I assembled my minions in a protective shell around me and commanded them to advance into the unknown.
Down we went for what seemed like forever. A couple of times, the tunnel was interrupted by some sort of burrowing creature passing through, perhaps one of the feared Umber Hulks. Fortunately, Darius determined that the trail was cold. I couldn’t shake the feeling that we were being watched in our descent, but despite my quick glances behind us, I never saw anyone. I hope Zargon is not scrying us – our success lies in being able to catch his forces at least somewhat off-guard.
The tunnel eventually started to brighten up, and we stumbled out into a huge cavern that was reasonably well-lit. The huge gates on the other side of the cavern could only lead to the City of the Dead. Unfortunately, those gates were closed. Worse, the cavern was being patrolled by many of the 4-armed gorillas that we had run into in the past. Even worse than that, the stupid sorceror had a continual flame spell cast on his hat, making him a beacon for Zargon’s guards. We retreated to the wailing of alarms and a hail of ballista bolts.
As we approached the nearest burrowed cross-tunnel we slowed down, wary of potential ambushes. Much to my surprise, several deep gnomes revealed themselves to us. Since the rest of the party is ignorant of such things, I took command of the situation and made peaceful contact. I had only heard stories of the deep gnomes so I stumbled around my words a little bit and tried not to offend them. After getting them to take us out of the path of the onrushing Zargon scum, they told us they knew an alternate way into the city, and would take us there if we rescued a patrol of theirs that was missing in a Kuo-Toa city. As we had very little choice if we ever wanted to see the inside of the City of the Dead, I acted like we would be happy to rescue the gnomes. In reality, I have grave misgivings, which are apparently lost on the simpletons I am adventuring with. Kuo-Toa are fanatical, highly skilled warriors, and a city of them sounds like a lot of trouble. The deep gnomes were kind enough to show us to the edge of the Kuo-Toa territory, and then bid us a fond farewell. We left Roam with them to make sure our interests were represented in our absence, and left Mackame and her undead mutt because the mission was going to be dangerous. In actuality, I suspect that mackame could lay a whupping on Tevroc, but I really didn’t want to hang around the mutt any more than absolutely necessary.
After travelling a short ways through the tunnels, we came to a place of great evil. The unnaturally cold room had several frozen humanoids scattered throughout, as well as some writings dedicated to an ancient dark god. I strongly suggested moving on, as one of the first things you learn in Bard school is “Never thaw something out that you aren’t positive you could kill or eat” . Well, maybe that’s not the first thing you learn, but I remember it from somewhere. After passing through this area, we came upon a cavern filled with some strange infestation. The ranger had never seen it before, which made me a little leery of walking through it, but since I didn’t have to go first, I went along. As we were picking our way through this extremely uneven cavern, we were ambushed by some drow elves! We soon found out that these were not normal drow, however, when they spat concentrated globs of the same fungus we found on the cavern floor. The fighting was furious, so I stayed on high ground outside of it to catalogue all that was happening for my epic. It simply would not do to miss some particularly heroic deed! While I didn’t see a whole lot that was heroic, or even anything that my considerable talents could make seem heroic, I did see The Kid and the weasel get infected by the mucus blobs they were expelling. Morak got to The Kid before he succumbed and cured his affliction, and the damn weasel must have been hardier than it looked, because it shook off the effects by himself. At about this time I heard a sickening thud and turned just in time to see Darius get his skull crushed by some obviously inferior drow warrior. He must have been feeling a little sick or something – Darius at 100% would never have allowed that shot to get through. Fortunately, the Lady Bumblebee was able to rescue Darius before his brains leaked out the hole in his head. By this time the fight was well in hand, so we mopped up pretty quickly. We found that they would regenerate until we beat them into a bloody pulp, so we spent a few minutes hacking away just to be sure. We found a magic rapier and magic leather armor, and also uncovered a masterfully balanced drum. I immediately commenced learning how to play it.
Moving on, we came to an underground river that was free from the effects of the fungus. There were several large mushrooms around the shore that attacked us when we approached, but they were dispatched without too much trouble. Bertha actually tried to use her fire sword against one of them, and almost fell on her face. Ladies and gentlemen, it is hard to miss an inanimate object with a 6 foot long blade, but she managed to do it. I guess Aurora’s training didn’t include the use of weapons...
Speaking of weapons, The Kid happened to find two exotic swords and an exquisite bow just lying on the shore. While we rested and healed up from our first encounter, The Kid heard some yelling from down the river a ways. Darius and I used my levitation spell to check it out, where we found a drow woman lying in a small cave by the river. After helping her up and getting her back to the rest of the group, she told us that she was with a band of travelling performers that had fallen victim to the infestation – in fact, they were probably the ones we battled yesterday. She claimed the nice magic items The Kid found the previous evening, which we gave up. I am such a sucker for a pretty smile and shapely legs and while the Drow and my people have been warring for generations, I couldn’t help but feel aroused by the sight of her wet garments held so tightly to her ebony skin. The thought of tasting this forbidden fruit… I’ve been adventuring for too long, I guess. Anyway, as she started to leave, I could tell she wanted to kiss me but was a little shy about it. After all, the force of my personality and my stunning good looks make a lot of women hesitant about getting close, so I took the initiative and gave her a kiss that she will remember forever. Hey, it isn’t all music and poetry in that bard handbook I found...
After packing up, we headed down another previously unexplored tunnel. A short ways into it, a large insectoid creature, a Umber Hulk by Morak’s description of the beasts, burst through the wall and attacked us. It was apparent that this beast had also fallen under the effects of the infestation, and that made it a much more dangerous foe, but we managed to defeat it eventually, though not before Morak and Darius fell under some weird spell and started attacking each other. I simply blinded the two of them so they flailed around for a while and then came back to their senses.
The passage we were following led us back to the cold room, so we took the only other exit from this area and eventually made our way down to a river that had a large crust of the fungus covering it. It seemed like it would probably be safe to walk across, so we had Bertha go across first, since she is quick on her feet and immune to the infestation. When she was almost across the river, a fungal-infested lobster-looking thing broke through the surface and attacked. We defeated the monster eventually, though many of the party members suffered the debilitating effects of the disease before Morak could get to them to heal them. We sounded like a bunch of plague victims we were hacking so bad.(The phlegm does however make my voice more husky and seductive. I’ll have to remember this when I get back to civilization.)
After crossing the river, we came to another area with a few infested humanoids which we disposed of easily. We continued following the passage until we came to a huge cavern. Not wanting to get lost, we started around the outside edge. About 40 yards into the cavern I heard a low rumbling sound and saw a huge, many-legged dragon rushing out at us. Knowing that we had no chance to defeat this large a creature by force of arms, I used a charm spell. It took a few rounds of calming the beast down and imploring my companions not to attack before I was able to keep him from trying to eat the other party members. Fortunately, the other members of my band responded well to my leadership and we managed to convince the dragon – a “Behir” he called himself, that we were friends and would help him find food. He seemed to buy that, and we were able to leave the cavern without further incident.
Since we were pretty beat up from the long day of spelunking, we decided to rest at the top of an incline where the fungus hadn’t spread yet. Apparently, there was some commotion during the night and the members on watch were able to kill a couple of tentacled creatures. I really didn’t know much about it because I was sleeping, but from the accounts I got the next morning, it wasn’t that heroic so I guess it doesn’t matter that I slept through it. On a brighter note, the creatures they killed were not infested with the fungus, so we dragged the carcasses back and fed them to the Behir, who called them Grell. That made him happier, and one of the first things we learned in Bard college was to always keep a dragon happy.
We wandered around for a while, fighting another lobster-thingy and then came to a river which was to be the sight of a battle of heroic proportions. As I was ferrying members across the river using my levitate spells, a group of 4 fishmen ambushed us. Tevroc lit up several of the infested creatures, called Kuo-Toa in my creature catalogue, with a fireball. One of the fishmen dodged it, though. I could tell this was going to be a tough fight. As I was staring in disbelief at the way the fireball was dodged, I accidentally tripped a little bit and was surrounded by a cloud of spores. Although I am very hardy for my size, I succumbed to the disease and immediately started coughing. Of course, I levitated over to the other side of the river to get Morak to heal me. After he healed me up, I decided to lift the groups spirits with my Song of Heroes (Actually it is just about me, but they seem to like it) . It always seems to pump them up, though the effects wear off quickly after I stop singing. This is a pain, because this particular song is quite difficult to play and requires a great deal of concentration. So here I am soaring back in forth over the river, inspiring my allies, and I see Bertha and the fireball-dodging fishman in mortal combat. I don’t usually overstate things, but with those 2, the fists and feet were flying almost faster than the eye can see. Bertha seemed to be getting the better of the exchange, probably due to my morale-enhancing magic. This fishman was making these impossible leaps away from Bertha, forcing her to chase him all over the cavern. Meanwhile, the fishman was really laying a beating on Tevroc. He’s tougher than he looks, though and managed to soak up the beating fairly well. Finally Bertha knocked the bastard over with a roundhouse kick and we proceeded to beat him to a pulp. A Detect Magic revealed a magic ring on the fishman’s finger, which Bertha put on. After a little experimentation, we found that the ring was what was causing the fishman to be able to leap like that. Bertha could jump truly amazing distances wearing the ring. She seemed happy with her acquisition... Tevrock is still trying to get the smell out of his robes…
ASEO out
---Night 29---- 3rd Edition
The party who is now:
Darius Male elf Ranger level 7
“Fluffy” Dire Weasel
Morak, Son of DaK Male dwarf Fighter 2/Cleric (Good & Protection) 6
Lady Bertha Bumblebee Female human Paladin 1/Monk 6/Psi Warrior 2
Shendar (Blue Arm) Male ½ Elf Cleric (Travel & Luck) 1/Rogue 2/Bard 5/Mind Bender 1
Tevroc Male human Sorcerer 7
Roam D'Le Rold Female human Fighter 1/Cleric (Plant & Animal) 7
“The Kid” Male human Fighter 3/Rogue 3
Mackame Appears to be an 8-year-old human Female Sorcerer 4/Cleric (Death & Healing) 4 NPC
"Brunur" Mackame's Zombie dog NPC
(The following is a conversation I overheard at the Frothing Otter Tavern during a performance by a bard named Shendar. He was spinning a tale of his adventures and great heroics while investigating a lost city and an underground kingdom plagued by some sort of evil demonic force.
A lad not more than 20 leaned against the bar and seemed particularly irked by Shendar’s portrayal of his own heroics and only the mere mention that there were others traveling with him as “Henchmen”. To add to the insult, one of the serving girls, who I will admit was truly a beauty, was fawning and hanging on the bard’s every word. Finally the lad had had enough. He stepped over to where the barmaid was lounging against the bar and spoke to her.)
“Shendar isn’t all that great! In fact I was with him on that adventure he is singing about and I saved his life. If it weren’t for me, he wouldn’t be here.
You see, honey, we had been exploring these fungal infested caverns looking for these lost gnomes. We had had to fight our way past fungal Zombies, Chuul, evil floating tentacled brains and even a Dragon. While I led the charge against these fell terrors Shendar there would cower in the back of our group and occasionally start floating around or singing some stupid song that I’m sure drew monsters to us like rats to stinking cheese.
Look baby, We had just beat up these Fish men that had ambushed us and I was guarding the rest of the gang while they were recuperating. Shendar was over in a corner hacking up a lung because he had gone and gotten his big mouth filled with the fungal spores. He was crying like a baby trying to get Morak, he was the dwarf that ventures with us, to do something to clear the phlegm from his throat and save his precious voice.
Eventually Morak helped him out and we were once again able to continue our investigation with the sobbing baby in tow. Eventually we came to a place where our tunnel ended in a cliff that dropped 50ft or more to the floor of a vast chamber. We decided to climb down, and since I’m so strong, look at these biceps, (The lad flexed his arms to display his bulging muscles. This seemed to partially capture the Waif’s attention, but with all the warriors that pass through here I’m sure it will take more than that to impress her) I held the rope while my companions climbed down.
Then, once they were all down I suddenly noticed dozens of flying octopuses descending from the chamber’s ceiling to attack my fellows. With no regard for my own safety I shouted out a warning drew my dagger and ran toward the cliff. There I leapt onto the beast that was descending on Shendar since I knew he would need my help the most. As I sailed through the air I struck out and slue several of the creatures before landing on my target. I held on to its tentacles as I slashed at it and yelled for Shendar to get out of the way. With my added weight the beast descended much faster and I rode it down slashing at more of the beasts as we fell. The creatures seemed to have the ability to generate globes of darkness so black that you couldn’t see your hand touching your nose. (At this the lad reached out and tweaked the barmaid on the nose and a faint smile crossed her face.)
As I’m about to hit the ground with the beast that was about to devour Shendar’s brain, I see the bard running to cower behind one of the large boulders that littered the cavern floor. Then I entered the globe of darkness and with a sickening thuddy splat hit the ground. Good thing that I’m tough because the Darkmantle, turns out that was what the creatures were, splattered when it hit, but I landed on top of it and didn’t even get scratched.
But I wasn’t out of danger yet. No, in the darkness I felt more tentacles reaching out for me. I was ripping out tentacles left and right until all the beasts were dead. When I emerged from the darkness I find the rest of my party emerging from the darkness cleaning gore and blood off themselves, all but Shendar that is. He is standing clean as can be. Not only that, he has one of these tentacled creatures hanging out with him. He claimed he charmed it, but I think it just recognized him as one of its kind.
So Shendar finally moves down to join us and we leave the cavern. In the next cavern we notice can hear the splash of water and make out a waterfall on one of the side walls. Then suddenly, Lady Bertha, from the tale Shendar there is spinning she couldn’t keep her hands off of him but it wasn’t like that, well Lady Bertha steps into a fungal covered lake and disappears beneath the surface. Almost immediately she jumps out followed by this giant Fungal infested lobster beast called a Chuul. We all burst into action to battle the beast. All but Shendar. I look over and he is just standing there, staring at the way Lady Bertha’s white garments are clinging to her ample bussom and how the milky whiteness of her skin was visible through her transparently wet attire. (The lad then stood quiet for a moment staring off at nothing, then he snapped back to the present and continued) Not that she had anything on you mi’lady. (This drew a blush from the maid and she gently brushed a stray strand of hair out of her face)
Morak ran to attack the beast, dove on it’s back but slipped and fell in the water. I ran around to attack the beast from the other side of a stone out cropping only to come face to face with a second Chuul. I realized that if my friends were to survive I would have to take care of this creature on my own. I savagely slashed at the beast driving it back into the water. I then jumped onto a small island so that I could get a better view of the creature’s retreat path and keep it from aiding its mate. Darius my elf friend was able to kill the first Chuul. Seeing its mate killed and suffering heavily from my attacks the Chuul I was about to kill fled into the depths. Only then did I take count and realize that good Morak had not emerged from the water.
I told my friend Tevroc to throw one of his ‘Continual Flame’ stones into the water so that we could see better. In the underwater glow we saw Morak in the clutches of the Chuul. With no regard for my own safety I dove into the water to join my friend. Soon I was joined in the water by Lady Bertha. As I moved to get the Chuul’s attention Lady Bertha swam in to pull Morak from its clutches. Then suddenly this shocking blast hit the water and sent spasm through my body. Morak went limp in the Chuul’s claw and Lady Bertha began twitching in the water. As the effects wore off I went back to work and savagely hacked the claw of the monster. Then Lady Bertha pulled Morak free and drug him to the surface while I kept the creature at bay. As soon as Lady Bertha and Morak were safe I slew the beast and climbed out of the water. Only then did I learn that the electrical attack I had felt was a ‘Lightning Bolt’ cast by none other than Shendar. He nearly killed Lady Bertha and I and had it not been for the fact that the fact that Morak was not breathing, I would have shoved the bard’s lyre down his throat. Kneeling next to Morak, I found that the ‘Lightning Bolt’ had stopped his heart. I immediately began to pound on his chest and was eventually able to get his heart beating again and saved his life.
Then as I was about to reprimand Shendar I noticed a light from up on the cliff above the waterfall. It seems that the gnomes we were searching for had become trapped up there by the Chull and were in desperate need of rescuing. We escorted them down and back to their comrades.
We then…” (At this point the serving girl whispered a comment about the lad’s bravery, heroics and loyalty, leaned forward and gave the lad a long kiss and his tale stopped. The two spent the rest of the evening nestled in a dark booth furthest away from the singing bard)
ASEO out
---Night 30--- 3rd Edition
The party who is now:
Darius Male elf Ranger level 7
“Fluffy” Dire Weasel
Morak, Son of DaK Male dwarf Fighter 2/Cleric (Good & Protection) 7
Lady Bertha Bumblebee Female human Paladin 1/Monk 6/Psi Warrior 2
Shendar (Blue Arm) Male ½ Elf Cleric (Travel & Luck) 1/Rogue 2/Bard 5/Mind Bender 1
Tevroc Male human Sorcerer 7
Roam D'Le Rold Female human Fighter 1/Cleric (Plant & Animal) 7
“The Kid” Male human Fighter 4/Rogue 3
Mackame Appears to be an 8-year-old human Female Sorcerer 4/Cleric (Death & Healing) 4 NPC
"Brunur" Mackame's Zombie dog NPC
Dispatch to: Raylanna Cristi, Highest Priestess of her most Eminent, Honorable Aurora, Goddess of Light 
From: Her Devoted and Humble Warrior Servant, Lady Bertha Bumblebee 
Priestess Raylanna, I am pleased to report that the lost band of gnomes was successfully rescued and returned to a relieved and thankful gnome community. To complete this mission, my men endured subzero temperatures, disease-ridden fungal swamps, mushroom banshees that would sing us to our graves, and once-innocent men, women, and creatures transformed into horrifying, malicious plant-like carnivores. Goddess Aurora must be proud of the courage and stamina this elite force has shown. 
As they had promised, the leaders of the gnome tribe gave us directions to an alternative entrance to the Forbidden City. Here resides Zargon, an evil nemesis, who must be eradicated immediately lest his poisonous influence spread beyond the subterranean realm. Inside the circular tunnel spanning 10 ft in diameter, we advanced in the direction of the Forbidden City. The party noticed some disturbing and unusual holes in the walls that led to offshoots from the main passageway. My team and I decided to ignore these distractions and continue moving forward until Morak caught a glimpse of rippling purple scales!! Suddenly, we all pictured the same grotesque image in our heads and all instinctively picked up our speed, eventually finding the pile of rocks the gnomes told us would signal the entrance to the city. 
Morak, Darius, and the Kid quickly started heaving rocks and setting them aside while Tevroc, Shendar, Roam, and I prepared to encounter a monster any minute from the rear. Morak, Darius, and the Kid finally managed to let in a crack of man-made light into the cavernous tunnel when we all heard IT. “It’s a purple worm!!!” cried Shendar, his melodious but obviously distressed voice cracking like that of a pubescent boy. The sound of ear-wrenching granite upon granite accompanied the sight of a huge foaming, toothy maw coming straight at us at a rapid speed! I must admit that I felt a bit weak in the knees and had to implore her Eminence for help. Shendar, after failing to charm the gigantic purple beast, ran yipping for dear life with his tail between his legs out of the tunnel into the city through the crack made by Morak, Darius, and the Kid. Macame, the dead dog (which I highly disapprove of and wish this dear child would get rid of) Brunor, and The Kid followed.
At this moment, I decided my life was no longer important. I had died before. I would die again if it meant I could save the lives of my party. Heart throbbing, adrenaline pumping, brain awash in a thousand emotions and possibilities, I raced at the gaping mouth with my fire sword menacingly pointing forward to kill. The sword connected by the grace of Aurora! The purple worm let out a painful roar while rolling me toward the entryway with its momentum. I must have somehow inspired the rest of the party for soon I found Roam, Darius, and Morak fighting by my side. Unfortunately, the purple beast hungrily gobbled Darius, and soon I could hear my comrade’s agony as he was slowly digested. Roam and I kept hacking at the monster while Darius somehow mustered the sense and energy to carve the creature up from the inside. However, the poor dwarf was swallowed next as soon as Darius managed to cut himself free. I could tell the worm was badly hurt and didn’t expect chewing its meal to take so much effort. Out of desperation, it hurled itself, Morak and all, into the twinkling city atop the roof of a building annexing an open marketplace. Undercommon folk soon gathered to witness the gaping hole and the gigantic purple spectacle. Alas, so much for sneaking into the city UNNOTICED. With the special powers of my ring of jumping, I leaped about 70 feet from the tunnel and found footing on the worm’s warm, abused body. The menacing worm had coiled itself up and was threatening the crowd while it digested my good friend Morak! I hacked away at the worm, trying to stay calm and focused like Aurora’s trainers had taught me, what seems so long ago on that magnificent plane. If Morak were to die like this, I could never forgive myself. Finally, our assault forced the purple beast to cease its miserable existence. I luckily noticed, by the stars of her Greatness, a sizeable bulge in its gut that had to be Morak. Once I pulled Morak out, all slimy in the worm’s gastric juices, I laid my hands on him to stabilize his health. I checked to make sure his heart was still beating. What a relief, Morak needed drastic healing, but he was still alive! 
My relief did not last long, however, for soon I heard the commotion of a crowd scattering and yelping in a language I could not comprehend. I peered out over the top of the worm and saw some priests of Zargon and a Girallon. (This, Priestess Raylanna, happens to be a four-armed bi-pedal monkey capable of ripping any creature to shreds.) I also noticed a priest of Zargon with an arrow stuck in his butt. What was going on? That was it. I had to get off this worm and help my team. I made sure Morak was all right before flinging myself at a Zargon priest rapidly chanting. The Zargon priest with the arrow lodged in his butt hurled a glass vial at the Girallon the Kid was beating to death. Wait a minute. That priest looked like Shendar! Apparently he had doned his Zargon robes in an effort to blend in with the population in order to once again cower from the fight. As for me, I kicked the priest who was trying to cast a spell mercilessly until he croaked. (Just the sight of these diabolical priests who oppress peaceful, innocent folk, made my blood boil and me seethe with fury.) We successful killed the Girallon and remaining priest. But, then I saw some undercommon people dragging Morak away from the rooftop! These men beckoned the party, all of us, to follow them. Shendar followed wearing his Zargon robes, however, these curious folk insisted that we get rid of them. Soon, we found ourselves being whirled through a maze of tunnels, trapdoors, and finally into an underground room. This room was expansive and had an imposing stalactite dripping water into a well. Six masked figures filed out of a door and asked (upon Shendar’s translation) why we were here. Shendar gave an explanation, and it was then revealed that these people belonged to the Air Temple! Thank the Goddess for that quick rescue!! 
Again we were scurried through several chambers and were blindfolded at times. Eventually, the Air Temple servants brought us to a room full of women holding spears. (I noticed the men in the party beam these hypnotized smiles that I could not help grinning about. At times, I felt badly for these men who had left their homes, sweethearts, and wives to help save this world from destruction.) A woman who was sitting upon a throne asked what sounded like a question. Shendar began tuning his instruments and soon sang the sonorous epic tale of our party’s adventures. (Hopefully, he was telling the truth and not spinning our war stories into glorious montages about his own heroism and greatness. I have never met an elf who was so self-absorbed. Of course, who was I kidding? This pompous bard never told the truth unless he thought I was using my Goddess-granted power to detect them.) The Air Temple priests then turned to Tevroc, pointing at his water staff, and looked like they were going to take his life right there on the spot! Shendar quickly said some words that calmed them down. From his body language he spoke either of the combined power of a great storm, or was describing a most unholy sexual encounter with several halflings. Tevrock was then asked to demonstrate his ability to cast fire magics which he did much to the amazement of the Air Sisters. In the end they evidently decided to let him live. Close call. 
We were escorted to quarters to rest and later taken to the top of the Air tower where we could overlook the entire underground metropolis. The Air Temple agreed to help us sneak into the city unnoticed over the back wall by using its powers of wind and invisibility to disguise us. We decided that Shendar, Roam, Darius, Tevroc, and I should go while the rest of the party waited at the Air Temple. Once outside I could not see my comrades since we were all invisible thanks to spells cast upon us by the Air Sisters. We began skulking around only to find two severely abused individuals shackled to posts. (Once again, it took all my self-control to hold back the rage I felt for such unnecessary heartless suffering.) Tevroc and Roam split off to find an entrance to the Water Temple around the moat. The rest of us formulated a plan to free the prisoners. Once Shendar had picked the locks of the prisoners, Darius and I quickly carried them over our shoulders. We then noticed the Gorillans located behind the stakes soon sniffing and wondering at the sight of two prisoners floating away! Without a hitch, Shendar cast a confusion spell that turned the great apes against one another. The Kid could not resist attacking one of the monkeys. (I see great potential in this one. The light of Aurora shines bright within him. He will make a fine warrior for her Eminence someday. I have to work on his impetuous free spirit however. He tends to jump into danger without thinking ahead. There is still time.) As our invisibility started to wear off, we began fleeing in the direction of the Air Temple. Suddenly, someone yelled, “INTO THE WATER!!!” 
As alarms began sounding off and a commotion broke out, I thought the water was a great idea. My prisoner looked at me like I was crazy. I told him to hold tight and dived in anyway. What looked like a huge wall of water engulfed us. I tried to catch my breath when I began spinning in some kind of a vortex. Just when I was about to choke, I was hurled forcefully out of the water. Coughing and sputtering, my prisoner and I skided across a stone floor into the legs of Tevroc! How did that happen? When I looked up, Tevroc gave me a wink. I let out a sigh of relief and thanked Aurora for another fortunate save. It appeared as though Tevroc was surrounded by a crew of Water Temple servants. Soon, Darius, his rescued prisoner, the Kid, and Shendar, entered the Water Temple in the same fashion, only they were cursing like sailors. But where was Roam? Roam suddenly came sliding across, only she looked like she had suffered some severe bruises. The Water Temple priests, pointing at her Air bow, raised their weapons to kill her when Shendar once again said some words I could not understand that settled them down. For the second time in two days, I heard Shendar belt out his epic tale, on his lyre, and bongos. I must say that for a lying, conniving, womanizing, hedonistic, egotistical, shallow, cowardly, self-absorbed, bard, he is quite talented. It really is unfortunate that he is too much of a pagan. Or else, he would make a fine priest for Aurora. His voice could spread the wonders of her most enlightened glories. I shall work harder to bring him into the light. 
The Water Temple was quite hospitable, serving us a delightful meal of albacore, salmon, lobster, shrimp, crab, caviar, fish mousse, and seaweed wraps. We were even treated to an extravagant dessert—shark fin sundaes. Thank her Gloriousness for this phenomenal feast! Nothing could be more rewarding than a clean, invigorating bath and a gourmet meal. After dinner, we all took nightcaps in cozy seashells. Shendar actually suggested I share the evening with him. I declined. Honestly, what kind of a woman does he think I am??!! He is lucky he is so nimble less he would have several missing fingers. 
So there you have it, Priestess Raylanna. Herein lies a report of what has surpassed thus far. If Aurora be willing, soon all the remaining elemental temples will unite and support us in our mission to eradicate Zargon and his evil cohorts. I will send you another report as soon as we have finalized a plan to find the Tentacled One and destroy him. 
May light surround you.
May light protect you.
May you always walk in the light. 
Your humble servant illuminating,
Lady Bertha Bumblebee 
ASEO out
---Night 31--- 3rd Edition
The party who is now:
Darius Male elf Ranger level 7
“Fluffy” Dire Weasel
Morak, Son of DaK Male dwarf Fighter 2/Cleric (Good & Protection) 7
Lady Bertha Bumblebee Female human Paladin 1/Monk 6/Psi Warrior 2
Shendar (Blue Arm) Male ½ Elf Cleric (Travel & Luck) 1/Rogue 2/Bard 6/Mind Bender 1
Tevroc Male human Sorcerer 8
Roam D'Le Rold Female human Fighter 1/Cleric (Plant & Animal) 7
“The Kid” Male human Fighter 4/Rogue 3
Mackame Appears to be an 8-year-old human Female Sorcerer 4/Cleric (Death & Healing) 4 NPC
"Brunur" Mackame's Zombie dog NPC
While Morak and Mackame cool their heels as guests of the Air temple, the rest of the party find themselves in the main council chamber of the Water temple. While they are answering the Water priests’ questions they are interrupted by a young Water Initiate who enters the room and informs the head Water Priest that “It is happening”.
The Priest motions the party members to join him at a large pool that dominates the center of the room. The Priest speaks some words of magic and the pool’s surface becomes glassy and an image of events transpiring outside of the temple comes into view. The priests of Zargon have gathered several local city dwellers and are reading a verdict in the direction of the Water temple compound. “…for the kidnappings of two prisoners of Zargon, Zargon demands two lives. For the slaying of two of Zargon’s Faithful, Zargon demands four lives. For the slaying of one of the hands of Zargon, Zargon demands four lives. This Zargon commands!”
At this the Priests of Zargon release their Girallons who tear into the helpless citizens rending them limb from limb. As the blood bath concludes, the Priests of Zargon and their pet Girallons take up positions surrounding the Water temple.
After speaking further with the Water priests it is decided that the party along with one Water Initiate will be smuggled out of the temple and down to the city docks. After traveling through some winding underground catacombs the party emerges from a secret tunnel under one of the docks. The water in the underground lake is heated by volcanic activity in the area and in some areas the water actually boils. The people of the city have found a type of fish that thrives in the heated water and fish for them as a source of food and resources.
With the help of a local who is sympathetic to the water temple, the party sneaks out from under the dock and into the a fish smoking tent that is near by. As the party watches the area they see that the Priests of Zargon are set on regular patrols and monitor the goings on in the city. These Priests seem to take what they want from the citizens and are seen taking the choice fish from a local fisherman.
The party decides that it wants to make contact with the Fire Enclave and sets about developing a plan to get across the city without drawing the attention of the forces of Zargon. To this end they decide to commandeer an approaching Rothe drawn cart that some locals are using to transport mushroom crops to the nearby local market. As the locals are unloading the cart, Shendar (having decided himself as a local) and Tevroc (who has ‘Polymorphed’ himself into a local) approach. Shendar sings a tune as he approaches and ‘Fascinates’ the locals with his bardic ability. He then ‘Suggests’ that while the locals are setting up their stand he and his companion will take the cart back to the fields and help the man’s son ready the next load.
Having thus acquired the cart, Shendar and Tevroc bring it around and have the rest of the party hide in the cart, covering their companions with fish from the smoker’s stall. As they begin to head away from the dock area, they are stopped by a priest of Zargon who demands to know where they are headed with the load of fish. Shendar replies that they are taking them to the fields to be used as fertilizer. This seems to satisfy the priest who then beckons them to be on their way. The party heads toward the fields, which are in the same general direction as the Fire Enclave. As they approach the fields they are called to by a boy who asks them where they are going with his father’s cart. Shendar once again puts his bluff skills to the test and says that the priests of Zargon have hired them to take these fish and dump them out in front of the fire compound as part of the Zargoista’s new campaign to root out the Fire Priests. This, along with a few coins seems to satisfy the local kid and the party turns down a narrow alley toward the Fire Enclave.
As the party comes to the end of the alley across from the Fire Enclave they find that they must still cross a broad pillar lined avenue to get to the Fire Enclave. About 60 feet from where the party is are two Priests of Zargon and their Girallon, watching the entrance to a near by apartment building.
Roam decides to use ‘Dominate Animal’ and cause one of the two Rothe to wander down the far side of the street past the Priests to get their attention. As the Rothe moves down the street, the one of the Priests tries to get the Rothe to come closer so that he can catch it while the other restrained the Girallon from ripping the small cow to shreds. Roam then casts ‘Silence’ on a rock she picked up.
With the Priests so occupied, the party abandons the wagon and ‘Silently’ sprints across the street to a low wall that lies between the Apartment and the Fire Enclave. Once they are hunkered down behind the wall out of site of the Zargonistas Lady Bertha draws the Flame Sword and waves it around trying to get some reaction from the Fire Enclave. When no response comes She and Shendar decide to enter the only visible opening in the Enclaves wall, a dark tunnel that seems very open and unguarded.
As they enter the tunnel they set off several ‘Wards” which explode in fiery bursts around them. (Due to their evasion and high reflex saves they manage to pass through unharmed) They then enter an area of magical darkness and when they emerge they find themselves standing in a small courtyard surrounded by Bowmen. One of the Bowmen orders them to lie down. Shendar starts to protest, but as the Bowmen tense to fire he decides that he better do as they say. Both he and Bertha lie down and are roughly frisked, their visible weapons removed. The Fire Priests claim the Fire Sword and demand to know how these two came by it. Shendar gives his best diplomatic telling of the story of the encounter with the Fire Priests in the upper Pyramid and profusely apologizes for the deaths of those fire priests. They are then questioned about their fellow party members who are still waiting outside. Shendar tries to explain the party’s plan to unite the temples to defeat Zargon. At this Bertha is tied up with her hands behind her back and tied with a rope around her neck and sent back through the tunnel to get the rest of the party.
She returns with the Party who are shoved down in the courtyard frisked and tied up. The Party members are all then dragged into the main building of the Enclave and thrown into different crypt like cells. One by one they are each individually interrogated. Roam as an Air Maiden is roughed up as is The Kid who mocked his interrogator. Tevroc is likewise beat severally since he looks like a local (due to his ‘Polymorph’) but is unable to speak the language. The Water Fellow who was sent with the party as an emissary (and because he drew the short straw) is beaten senseless.
Eventually all the members of the party are brought or dragged in the case of the unconscious Kid, Roam, Tevroc and Water Priest, into a main throne room. Here Shendar implores the Fire Enclave to hear him out and he spins a tale of the destructive power of steam and a firestorm. To show the Party’s connection with fire Shendar revives Tevroc and has him cast a ‘Fireball’ out the window. This ability gives the Fire Priests pause and changes their decision to kill the party and dump their bodies on the street. They decide to let the party go and monitor the party’s actions, but at this time offer no aid or any inclination that they will help in the future. At this point the party members are once again bound and this time blindfolded. They are then dragged through several twisting turning tunnels and eventually find themselves unceremoniously dumped down a short shaft only to come to rest on a shifting pile of rubble.
Quickly they party members get their blindfolds off and The Kid who had escaped his bonds untied everybody else. Tevroc cast ‘Flame’ and the party gets a look at their surroundings. They are in a cylindrical chamber the floor of which is a pile of coal that seems to bee sinking in the middle like the sand in the upper portion of an hourglass. Their equipment is there in a sack. They quickly re-equip themselves and look for a means of escape.
Above them about 10 feet is a shoot through which they may have entered. Tevroc casts ‘Polymorph Self’ and turns into a bee. He then flies up the shaft and finds the other end of the shaft is blocked by a trap door. He is just able to squeeze through a crack on the side of the door. Outside, he finds himself on the edge of the ore smelting building up on scaffolding, and as he watches an ore cart rolls down the track toward him and comes to a stop next to the trap door. Then, a man below him on the ground under the scaffolding pulls a rope and the cart tilts to dump its cargo of coal down the shaft and onto the party below. The cart then tilts back upright and the man releases the rope and the cart speeds off down the track turning and then entering a mine entrance on the nearby cliff face.
Tevroc turns back into one of the locals, pushes the trapdoor open and Shendar sends his ‘rope of climbing’ up to tie on to the track at the top. The Party thus exits the coal bin and find them selves standing on the scaffolding. As the party is trying to decide what to do next, the man under the scaffolding yells up demanding to know what the party is doing up there. Shendar tries to spin a tale of a drunken blast and attempts to convince the man that he could really help out if he keeps quiet. The party climbs down from the scaffolding to address the man who seeing the strangers panics and is about to yell for assistance. Bertha is forces to render the man unconscious and Shendar dumps some booze all over the man to make it look like he passed out drunk.
The Party then hops into two passing ore cars and roll into the mines. Eventually the carts roll into a chamber where there is an elevator system being operated by four locals. The elevator lifts the carts up to a shaft higher in the mine. The party exits the carts, drops some coins into the local’s hands and ascends the elevator. At the top they pay off some more locals and enquire where the oldest and then the “Forbidden” parts of the mines are. They are given directions and head off in the direction they are told.
They come to a large cavern with several exits and a circular ramp that winds around the chamber. A priest of Zargon and his Girallon are standing in the center of this chamber monitoring the comings and goings of the miners. The party decides they need a diversion and they have Tevroc (who still has ‘Polymorph self’ in effect) take one of The Kid’s yellow cylinders up into one of the other tunnels and light it. Tevroc turns into a fly and goes about doing this. As he is returning to the party the cylinder goes off in a puff of colored smoke and a flash of yellow light.
This gets the Priest of Zargon’s attention and he heads toward the earthen ramp leading up to the tunnel in which the cylinder was placed. As he is on his way he sees the party hiding in the tunnel and turns to engage them. Darius goes toe-to-toe with the Girallon and gets the tar beaten out of himself. Roam moves in and joins the fight, but it takes a ‘Fireball’ from Tevroc to kill the beast. Shendar, The Kid and Bertha finish off the Priest in fairly quick order.
The party questions a fleeing miner about “The Forbidden Area” and he points them down a tunnel.
After traveling for some distance down this abandoned tunnel the party comes on two Priests of Zargon and their two Fiendish Girallons guarding a set of double doors. Upon spotting the party, the Priests order their Girallons to charge while the Priests themselves begin casting spells. Roam sets her Doum against the charge and barely misses the Fiendish Girallon that rushes her. Darius one again goes toe-to-toe with the second Fiendish Girallon and the fight is on. The priests summon Fiendish Wolves and a Dire Rat darts from cover and attacks Bertha (the result of a fumble on her part). “Fluffy” the Dire Weasel joins the fight aiding Darius, and Tevroc lobs a ‘Fireball’ at the Priests. Caught between a Fiendish Girallon and a Fiendish Wolf, Darius once again finds himself knocking on death door. The Kid kills the Dire Rat attacking Bertha, and Shendar helps out by singing ‘Song of Heroes’ to boost the party’s combat capabilities. Tevroc lobs another ‘Fireball’ and cooks one of the Priests just as the other one summons another Fiendish Wolf. The Kid battles a Fiendish Wolf while Roam and Bertha finish off one of the Fiendish Girallons. The Second Fiendish Girallon then beats Bertha to a bloody pulp. Tevroc finishes off the second Priest with a volley of ‘Magic Missiles’, but not before the Priest blows several loud bursts on a whistle around his neck. Tevroc then turns following volleys on the Fiendish Beasts attacking his allies. The kid gets in the midst of combat and whirlwind attacks the Fiendish Girallon and two of the Fiendish Wolves, killing the Fiendish Girallon and one of the Fiendish Wolves. Roam then finished off one of the remaining Fiendish Wolves while Tevroc’s ‘Magic Missiles’ take out the other one. Shendar then pumps a healing potion into Darius pulling him from death’s very doorstep. Roam heals Bertha back to the point where she regains consciousness. Additional healing is passed dealt out and soon everybody is at least able to regain their feet.
As the party is recuperating, the sound of beings approaching echoes through the tunnel. Shendar rapidly dons his Priest of Zargon outfit and Tevroc ‘Polymorphs’ into a Girallon. The rest of the party plays dead laying in the ample pools of blood and gore that dot the tunnel floor. The Approaching force soon comes into view. Three Girallons are being led by three Priests of Zargon, backed up by three Man-at-Arms.
Shendar speaks to the Priests and says that he and his companion were attacked but they managed to kill off the attackers. To this the Priests of Zargon, eyeing the weaponry lying on the “bodies” of the party, tell Shendar to get back to his post and that they will take of the bodies. Shendar tries to claim “Slayer’s Rights to the salvage”, but the new arrivals claim “Right by the factor of three of them and their 3 Girallons and 3 Men-at-Arms against the 1 ‘wounded Shendar and his 1 wounded “Girallon”’. Shendar panics, Shouts “What is that behind you!” and then in the split second the new arrivals turn around to look yells “Attack!” and casts ‘Improved Invisibility’ on himself. Tevroc retreats a couple of paces and resumes his true form. The rest of the party jump to their feet.
Shendar retreats and casts ‘Confusion’ on the new arrivals. This causes one Girallon to turn on another Girallon and rip its former pack-mate to pieces. One of the Priests quickly shoots the ‘Confused’ Girallon with a tranquilizer dart putting the beast to sleep. One of the Men-at-Arms begins to wander away back down the tunnel and one of the Priests just stands there with a blank look on his face. The remaining Girallon attacks Tevroc and rips him down to an inch of unconsciousness. Fortunately Tevroc is able to get off a ‘Fireball’ that incinerates one of the Men-at-Arms and one of the Priests. Roam, The Kid and Darius rapidly finish off the remaining Girallon while Bertha finishes off the ‘Confused’ Priest. Shendar pumps the ‘Daggers of the Seasons’ into the remaining priest who is then finished off by Darius. The two remaining Men-at-Arms Retreat at a sprint. Darius fires two arrows at one of the men-at-arms, but his path is blocked by Tevroc, who takes the first arrow in the back. This drops Tevroc and gives Darius a clear shot for his second arrow, which hits one of the fleeing Men-at-arms. Bertha then sprints off in pursuit followed by The Kid. At an ungodly speed Bertha passes the nearer of the two fleeing men and caves his head in with a sharp elbow to his face. The second man doesn’t fare any better and also ends up in a pool of his own blood. Bertha and The Kid drag the bodies back to where the party is recouping and nursing Tevroc back to health. Darius quickly removes his arrow from Tevroc’s back and tries to act inconspicuous.
ASEO out
---Night 32--- 3rd Edition
The party who is now:
Darius Male elf Ranger level 7
“Fluffy” Dire Weasel
Morak, Son of DaK Male dwarf Fighter 2/Cleric (Good & Protection) 7
Lady Bertha Bumblebee Female human Paladin 1/Monk 6/Psi Warrior 2
Shendar (Blue Arm) Male ½ Elf Cleric (Travel & Luck) 1/Rogue 2/Bard 6/Mind Bender 1
Tevroc Male human Sorcerer 8
Roam D'Le Rold Female human Fighter 1/Cleric (Plant & Animal) 7
“The Kid” Male human Fighter 4/Rogue 3
Mackame Appears to be an 8-year-old human Female Sorcerer 4/Cleric (Death & Healing) 4 NPC
"Brunur" Mackame's Zombie dog NPC
The party tries to hide the bodies of the Zargon forces, but eventually gives up and decides to go through the doors. Shendar finds some wards on the door and tries to disarm them but fails. He then picks the lock on the door and opens the doors. The glifs discharge but he is able to dodge or shrug off the effects.
Beyond the door is a roughly carved passageway that hasn’t been entered in decades. The party moves into the hallway and closes the door behind them. The tunnel ends in a dark hole in the far wall that apparently opens into a chamber.
Fights Helmed Horrors…
Reads legend from walls…
Information found on the walls of the chamber located above the spherical cavity that was the cell of Ashz Zhargaw.
Adapted from: http://www.geocities.com/iuliusscaevola/
The Legend of ZARGON, the Great Destroyer
“A lizard race came through dimensional portals from the Nightmare Dimension 10'000 years BCE, already a fully developed society that searched for shelter from unknown persecutions they suffered on their Home Plane.
They knew themselves as Ye'ench, and worshipped the Outer Beings, guided especially by the priesthood of Yur Gth Aahl (Yurrgh Thall), among whom was their leader and king, the High Priest
Ashz Zhargw. Ashz Zhargw led the Ye'ench to the conquest of most of the Old World: they occupied the regions that now are mainland Hyatist, Laruamy, Arameikos, Arokind, and sculpted their realms with fabulous climatic spells that they possessed in the Nightmare Dimension.
A long time ago, long before the city of Hyatist was built on the shores of the Sea of Longing, when human race was still young, a great kingdom was born in the regions now known as 'the Old World'. There, lizard like creatures built temples of a black metal that came from a place far from our Multiverse, in another Dimension where the physical laws are different from those we know, and celebrated dark rituals in the name of Beings whose names were Akh'All, Ub Eth, Yegh Shuta, and Yu Rgth Aahl. The High Priest of that race was a Blessed One, a being whose body and mind had been granted the blessing of the Beings, and that had risen to prominence to guide the Lizard Empire in the name of Yu Rgth Aahl above all others. He was rarely seen in public, but when he was, he appeared always to be the most beautiful and great specimen of those of his kind.
The High Priest, named Ashz Zhargaw, led his people to glory for more than 1'000 years. The lizards were long lived, but the Blessed One survived several of their generations, and eventually the lizards begun to notice a decline in the capacities of their High Priest, and heretical believes aroused among them when a mysterious plague spread through their population and no priest of the Beings was able to find a cure to it. Other beings known as 'the Immortals' had taught some of the younger and more rebellious lizards that the Beings didn't care anymore for their destiny, and thus the High Priest was losing its powers; but He was too old to notice, and if He had done He would never resign his millenary power for the benefit of his subjects.
And, as to confirm these heresies, Ashz Zhargaw ordered the building of an immense pyramid of black metal, where he begun to sacrifice the lizards themselves to obtain the attention of the Beings, pretending to propitiate them to himself to give him the power of cure his people.
But in the following decades, nothing seemed to happen, and the Lizard Empire begun to crumble into itself, while small communities of humans who shared the name of Neathar, invaded and ransacked the half-empty towns of the borderlands. Ashz Zhargaw retired inside the Pyramid, and left the Empire in the hands of the Priesthood of Yu Rgth Aahl, and told them that, to avoid the wrath of the Beings, they had to send, each year, ten lizards inside the Pyramid, as a sacrifice to them.
While most of the Empire was more and more harassed by the primitive humans, the Lizard isolated themselves deeply in the region where their magnificent capital, was built. The Priests of the Beings had turned their worship from them to Ashz Zhargaw, and increased the demand of sacrifices, while more and more lizards begun to follow the Immortal heresy.
One day, Aklar, a young lizard worshipper of one of the Immortals, known as Kha, accused the Priests of lying to the entire population. The Beings had forgotten them, and Ashz Zhargaw was not more than a declining monster that demanded their blood for his surviving through unnameable rites in the depths of the dark pyramid. The Immortal Kha had shown him the truth and given him a parchment with a powerful spell that would finally put an end to the unnatural life of the former High Priest. A long civil war exploded between the two factions, while Neathar tribes ransacked the country and the cities of the Empire, now reduced to a small area of what would, much time later, become The Steaming Hills, until a compromise was found: if Aklar managed to get into the Pyramid and slay Ashz Zhargaw, then the power would have passed to the priesthood of Kha and thus back to the Immortals.
The fury of the civil war was intense and the violence vicious and unyielding. Finally Aklar and some of his Priestly followers were able to enter the Pyramid and entrap Aklar Zhargaw. However, the infighting among the lizard race had decimated their ranks and depleted their armies and reduced their defences to rubble.
So on a cold morning as Aklar and his followers spun the spells of binding imprisoning Ashz Zhargaw, The Neathars stormed through the gates of the capital city. They ransacked and pillaged everything the found. The shear numbers of Neathers swept the remaining lizards in a bloody tide. Neither Aklar nor Ashz Zhargaw ever returned from the pyramid, and the declining lizard race fell into savagery and after several decades ultimately it extinguished itself, leaving no trace on the World’s surface."
Kid enters pit…gets possessed by ghost loses 2 levels temp…says “To find the truth you must leave the Path of Zargon”…Ghost was once an Earth Priest…
Party returns to Air Temple…
Morak has made a map…
Party learns that Path’s through haunted garden are the “Paths of Zargon”…witness civilians being herded to Zargonista compound… Zargon priests seem to fear the garden and avoid leaving the path… Party witnesses 3 Zargon Priests being killed by some unseen force and stone spikes bursting from the path… The Kid has been having dreams in which he sees glimpses of the life of the Earth Priest who possessed him. The fall of the Earth temple, The betrayal by those Earth Priests who were loyal to Zargon. Running through thick foliage…Attacking stray Zargon priests…entering the mines…falling…
This leads the party to enter the Garden. Shendar in disguise as a Zargon Priest and Tevroc ‘Polymorphed’ into a Gorillion act as a diversion and the party runs for it…Encounter some undead wearing earth temple symbol. The Kid has such a Symbol found in the cyst and the undead don’t attack…Earth priest makes contact and leads the party into an earthen den. There they speak with the priest fading in and out of sanity. The back of the Priest’s holy symbol is crudely decorated with the emblems of all four elements. The Priest evidently is the one remaining Earth Priest. The other priests evidently all died when they attempted to go to the island of souls to recover the Truth. The Earth priest believes that he was with his brothers when they all died and often says things like “the horror. We all died, my brothers. None of us returned. None gained the truth.” The party decides that they must go to the Island of Souls.
The party who is now:
Darius Male elf Ranger level 8
“Fluffy” Dire Weasel
Morak, Son of DaK Male dwarf Fighter 2/Cleric (Good & Protection) 7
Lady Bertha Bumblebee Female human Paladin 1/Monk 6/Psi Warrior 2
Shendar (Blue Arm) Male ½ Elf Cleric (Travel & Luck) 1/Rogue 2/Bard 6/Mind Bender 1
Tevroc Male human Sorcerer 8
Roam D'Le Rold Female human Fighter 1/Cleric (Plant & Animal) 7
“The Kid” Male human Fighter 4/Rogue 3
Mackame Appears to be an 8-year-old human Female Sorcerer 4/Cleric (Death & Healing) 4 NPC
"Brunur" Mackame's Zombie dog NPC
ASEO out
NOTES:
Information to be provided by an NPC within the city, perhaps the last surviving Earth priest, or perhaps an undead Vampire or Lich trapped on the island in the center of the lake.
Adapted from: http://www.geocities.com/iuliusscaevola/
The things then went like said: the Outer Beings forgot their worshippers, turning their attention more and more on the Carnifex race of Davania, to prepare them to the final war against the Selhomarrians, so the power of Ashz Zhargaw declined, and he became utterly mad while he searched for new ways to maintain his power and immortality.
In the end he found a way to preserve his body and soul, and had a pyramid built, in which he focused dark spells of unparalleled power, but he needed for it a small but constant amount of fresh blood, thus the sacrifices. With the departing of their former leader, and no attention given from the Outer Beings, the Ye'ench couldn't stand the Neathar invasion, and ultimately extinguished themselves, and the primitive humans, not kept at bay by the powerful spells of the lizard race, conquered and settled the region.
"Years, decades, centuries passed, and new civilizations rose to power on the surface of The World, but nothing was known about Ashz Zhargaw until a race of people known as the Cynidiceans built a new city on the long-dead site of what was once the capital of the mighty Lizard race. The city prospered and increased in power, devoted to the deity they worshiped called the Master of the Elements and under the leadership of their greatest king, Alexander.
When king Alexander died, the Cynidiceans decided to build a Mausoleum in honour of him and his wife Zenobia. The work for the basement of the temple were conducted in the city's park, that had been unsettled since the birth of Cynidicea. And there, not far below the surface, the workers found the top of a dark pyramid. The architect found he was unable to penetrate the metal surface decided to burrow around the structure. Eventually the diggers found a way around the lower edge of the metal pyramid and tunnelled into a large chamber just under but within the confines of the metal pyramid.
Here it was decided that a city of the dead would be built. In death King Alexander and his Queen, Zenobia would rule over this city that would be populated by the souls of the citizens also entombed there.
The work of the architect was long, and everything seemed to go well. Ashz Zhargaw had been imprisoned very deeply down the pyramid, in a slumbering state. All was well until another great war ravaged the land. The enemy unleashed the most evil and fiendish plague that killed all people indiscriminately. The plague spread rapidly and in the panic that led its approach the Cynidicean priests gathered those they could and fled down beneath their own temple to the city of the dead.
The bodies occupying the city were removed and irreverently dumped on an island that stood in the middle of a great boiling lake that stood in the middle of the cavern. The surviving Cynidiceans moved into the city and found that they could dwell therein. They began to cultivate mushroom crops. They found fish that lived in the boiling lake and began to harvest them as well. They set up markets, temples, workshops, and they began to mine.
Over the centuries, with the loss of the tools of their faith, which had been abandoned in the surface city, the priesthood became factionized and fragmented. The various individual elements became the center of worship and the one Elemental Deity was forgotten. Each faction procured a noble’s burial compound, which they fortified, and set about worshiping on their own. And all was fine…
Then one day something was found in the mines. The Earth priests were summoned to investigate since the discovery was wrapped in the womb of their element. The miners had tunnelled into a manmade room that was full of arcane and divine trappings of power. What was more interesting was that there were no exits from the room.
For millennia Ashz Zhargaw had festered in his prison consumed and transformed by his hate and desire for blood. Infused with the magics which imprisoned him Ashz Zhargaw grew in power yet was still imprisoned. Then one day he was freed. The door to his prison was torn asunder and he re-entered the world.
The Arrival of Ashz Zhargaw begun to spread panic among the Cynidiceans, and in only a few days he grew in power enough to build a following for him, and be again worshipped as a God. The Earth priests believed that Ashz Zhargaw was their deity’s avatar and were quick to flaunt the power of their god. But the domain of terror of Zargon, as the Great Destroyer was known among the Cynidiceans, brought lead to the enslavement of Cynidiceas. The Under City fell under his sway. The Earth Temple was the first to be enslaved. Those that didn’t worship Zargon were the first to be sacrificed. The Temple was razed and Zargon worship replaced it. The Forces of Zargon swelled and now hold the Under City firmly in their grasp.”
PLOT REMINDER
I'm running a modified B4 now. I changed the deities to Elemental
powers waging a war against Zargon. Each of the elements, baring Earth, which was destroyed by the forces of Zargon are at a stand off against each other, and Zargon.
There was at one time one deity that the people of the pyramid worshiped that represented all 4 elements. At some time the statue of this deity toppled, and in the 1,000 years since the people of the city in which the pyramid was have fled into the pyramid to avoid a plague/curse that was sweeping the country. They moved down into the "City of the Dead", a city that had been built under the pyramid where all the surface city residents were buried. All the dead bodies were removed and reburied on the island in the underground lake. Only the priest class remained in the upper pyramid. Over time they forgot that their broken statue represented one deity of all four elements and the priests separated into 4 sects each worshiping 1 element. While the people were expanding the underground city they unearthed Zargon. Zargon convinced the people he was a god. Because he was found in the earth, the Earth Temple believed him to be their god and thus were some of the first to convert and abandon their old ways.
I re-did a lot of the maps and encounters in B4 for. Currently the PCs are on the 4 the level of the pyramid and have encountered priests of Zargon pillaging the burial vaults of the nobility. These priests of Zargon have been animating and creating undead on this level to act as a barrier and perhaps shock troops between themselves and the elemental priests in the upper pyramid levels.
Levels 6-10 of the pyramid are mostly empty and home only to a few renegade people who were able to flee the city, and some burrowing monsters.
In the city below, the forces of the remaining elements Fire, Water, and Air each have a stronghold that they are able to maintain. these are highly defendable by a very limited number of people. Periodically they are attacked by the forces of Zargon, but because the all three elemental forces appose Zargon, as well as each other, it is hard for any one force to go on the offensive and not leave a flank open. There are maybe 5000 people living in the underground city, most as citizens who just want to be left alone. As such they try to avoid both the Zargonites and the Elementalists.
Enter the Party...Their goal is to kill Zargon, and use his horn to enchant their weapons so that they may slay a Marilyth that is after them. They entered the Pyramid and wiped out the Fire priests because of a misunderstanding (oops). They managed to unite the Air and Water temples.
As they explore, they will hopefully discover the 4 elements in one being nature of the ancient deity worshiped by the Pyramid people and use this to unite the remaining elemental groups in the city below. They will then have to recover the only remaining statue of this deity from the undead rich environment of the island in the lake, then seek out Zargon and defeat him. From there they may or may not let the people of the underground city know that the plague/curse has passed and lead them back to the surface and the ruins of their old city which is now full of Yaun-ti. (see module I1, The Forbidden City).
ASEO out
THE END OF THE STORY?
The party goes to the Isle of Soals and fights through the undead infested crypts that are carved into the island’s rocky core. The horrors that they experience are so terrible that they never speak of them again. The party finds “the Truth”, which happens to be a statue of the combined elemental diety. Each of its four arms extended and ending in a grasped fist in which a weapon can be placed. As the elemental weapons are placed in the hands, the statue becomes slightly more living/animated. The Earth weapon, the stone mace, is still missing (it lies in Zargon’s lair). The statue is 10-15 feet tall and weighs 5,000 lbs. The party must remove it from the island and get it back to the city inorder to prove their claims of the single combined elemental diety to each of the temples. (The fire temple has the fire sword, which was taken from the party). The temples unite and begin to openly fight the Zargon Priests. While the Zargonistas retreat to their stronghold, the party takes a boat across the lake and enters the caves which dot the cliff on the far side of the lake. The party travels through these caves in which live tribes of Spider-eye Goblins. They eventually emerge on the top of the plateau in the outlands only to find this rocky landscape to be the home of ferral Gorillans and packs of wandering undead. The party eventually makes its way to the volcanic crater known as the Eye of Zargon and finds an underground fortress there. They venture through this secluded pallace to finally confront Zargon (a great tenticled beast with a single eye and a gaping mouth filled with razor sharp teeth. Straight out of B4, The Lost City) after dealing with his guardians. With Zargon defeated and the Stone Mace recovered. The party is able to complete the statue rekindling the Avatar of the elemental diety. The forces of zargon are defeated, the party participates in the storming of the Zargonista fortress. The elemental Diety places individual blessings on the party and accompanies the party back to the surface leading the under dwellers back to their city above. As the party emerges they are transported back to their reality and battle the Marilith. The battle is tough, but the party prevails. With the aid of the avitar and the undercommoners the Yaun-ti are driven from the city. The undercommoners reinhabit the city, which eventually becomes a safe haven for travelers in this land of rediscovery. The party head back to the rift and the story ends.
AFTERWARD
Darius & “Fluffy” --- Disappear into the wilds of the new land and are never seen again. Rumors surface about a great elven warrior and his great ravaging beast companion wading through hoards of Bugbears in the far western lands, but the name of this elf remains unknown.
Morak Son of DaK --- Opens a tavern by the rift and becomes a very influential member in the Council of the Rift, an organization that monitors adventures, settlers and inter racial dealings among the people moving into the newly opened frontier.
Lady Bertha Bumblebee --- Becomes the leader of her order and founds a monastery where she teaches others of her faith the mental and martial arts. She lives many times over the normal human lifespan and is often visited by a cloaked women accompanied by a foul smelling dog.
Shendar (Blue Arm) --- Goes on to become one of the greatest traveling bards of his time. His appearance in town is usually followed by a high birth rate in the following months as well as the report of missing antiquities. No connection to Shendar has ever been proven.
Tevroc --- Became a great arch mage who along with his longtime traveling companion Roam D’Le Rold was known to travel to distant planes.
Roam D'Le Rold --- Traveled with Tevroc through many more adventures before settling down briefly to have twin sons who went on to become great adventurers in their own right.
“The Kid” --- Traveled with Lady Bertha and eventually became a Paladin Knight leading the armies of righteousness into the newly opened areas. Laws were enforced, evil foes vanquished and good upheld. He eventually dies a hero’s death defending a new settlement from a hoard of Demonic Orcs. He is buried with the highest honors in a great Barrow at the site where he fell. On the anniversary of his death locals claim they have seen a cloaked woman accompanied by a dog and a young man paying homage at the site.
Mackame & "Brunur" --- Mackame grows to be a beautiful young woman while traveling with Lady Bertha and “The Kid” for a time before vanishing one night prior to a battle with an Undead army. On the day of the battle the Undead are nowhere to be found. There is no recorded history as to the fate of Mackame or Brunor
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And thus the game ended when I was sent back to the Middle East, and several...almost all actually...of my fellow military players moved or as we say PCSed.
I hope you have enjoyed the write-up. Please feel free to leave comments if you would like. If there are enough, maybe I'll post my current campaign.
ASEO out